Fallout Equestria : New Roam

by Delvius

Chapter 21 - Bastions

Chapter 21
Bastion
"Homes can be rebuilt. Crops can be resown. Within these walls, we will outlast them."

One defining trait most Roamans had, especially in ancient times, was a kind of unified militaristic view on violence and conflicts. Sometimes they even viewed it with entertainment, such as with the gladiator games. The resulting people tended to be indifferent to violence and suffering, and if they didn't actually enjoy them, they at least had a staunch resistance to their negativity. War and its many horrors, therefore, grew familiar with the Roaman people, and they sought it wherever they could. Sometimes they basked in it, waging prolonged warfare for mere glory. It was the Roaman way of life.

But I appreciated the value of peace; more than that, I wanted the Roaman world to value it, too. I wanted them to value it over selfishness, greed, pride, hate, and prejudice. But most of all, to value it over war.

Now, for sure those who'd spent their lives fighting and clamoring would have grown accustomed to the evils of the world. It would be a daunting task to get them, a warlike people with little exposure to the benefits of a more positive way of thinking, to understand the way I saw things should have been. But there was hope; hope that, somehow, the original good and rational nature of the sentient creature would rise up above the hatred bred by the wasteland. I knew that nature could come up, I just knew it. All it needed to rise up was some inspiration, a kind of... image of a better world. And adding to that hope was the fact that that necessary inspiration was of great abundance. Roam, the city that embodied all the good of things natural and artificial, stood all around them after all. She was a tarnished image of the opulence to be regained, but she wasn't completely faded yet.

But of course, some images of the inspiration she could give were downright pristine and ready to be looked up to. Like the Forum, in which I was residing. Places like these -- centers of knowledge and learning, of peace and prosperity, and of more practical things such as economy and military facilities -- would house Roam's hope for a better future. They were the seeds of a new olive tree, waiting to be planted. And when she would be strong again, Roam would once more stand tall, with branches strong enough and wide enough to cover the world.

But until then, they were merely bastions of Roaman values, and were under siege from the wasteland. And me? I intended to break that siege. And I intended to break it forever.

* * * Magnus et Potens Roamanus * * *

In line with what Tom had suggested I do, I spent the entire day after my mental ordeal resting and distracting myself from the whole slew of questions that now plagued my head. In the morning, I'd read roughly a fourth of the book Myst had brought up, and grew to like it. When Skyfire and the others awoke, we retreated into the main room and talked. The disbelieving doctors, meanwhile, continued monitoring my life signs for the next hour before departing. My friends too didn't quite believe I was well already, but who could blame them? I could have died last night, if left to Tod's malicious intent.

Still, well I was. Soon our talks shifted from making plans for the future to staying for at least a week, however, and all because of one reason: Roaman hospitality, in the form of a surprise brunch. As it turns out, Vesperius had had the servants prepare for our prolonged stay; in fact, after a few questions, the mares admitted (to none but me) that there were already arrangements made to cater and serve us. Skyfire treated the announcement with glee, and went off to sleep in her room, snoring as loudly as ever. Doodle, too, showed great excitement, but went off and explored the entire Forum instead of resting.

Meanwhile Doomtune started setting up radio equipment to contact Home Base (equipment he obtained from his absolutely bloated backpack), as he didn't plan on leaving just yet. When I asked why, he responded with an easy chuckle and a shrug, saying, "Why not? How often can someone rest in a safe and decent place? Not often, and I intend to make the best of this place while I can. The wasteland can suck it." He had a smile on, but I looked past it and saw the hesitation in his eyes. The hesitation to go back out there. "Besides, Madran put me on this little trip with you to make sure you stay in one piece. I ain't leaving until I'm sure you're going to live. You're a Specter asset; get used to it."

I shrugged. "Well, I'm alive right now," I told him.

"You were alive last night too, but burning up like hell. I'll leave when I can safely say you'll be alive if she ever decides to meet you. Aside from that, there's been no real fighting since the dam, and I can count on operatives Databank and Marathon Runner to have the sense to get it to Madran that Roamana's not hostile, so I guess I needn't hurry. Equestrius is being recalled, too; have you seen the fields lately? Stuffed to the brim with incoming Legionnaires."

I nodded; I hadn't had much time on the balcony, but I had a little break when we were reading earlier, and I just managed to glance on an incoming troop column. "They're being transferred to Arx, if I remember. Flavianicus' previous garrison has to be filled by someone, right? As for when they leave, though, I can't say. At least Roam's new garrison will be better... I hope."

He snickered. "Bastards'll get their due for what they did. They'll freeze their nuts off there."

I cocked my head, curious. "How so?"

He plugged in a few wires into a speaker. "Well, Arx used to be the tourism spot of the Roaman Empire when they were allies with Equestria. Lots of fancy equipment, like a set of artificial winter turbines. Made snow and all that, and distributed the ice through networks of pipes. It was also the only city along the coast not razed by the invasion because it didn't have anything worth destroying; no major factories, no major ports or runways. Just a city that loved its winter festivals and tourist attractions."

He gave a little smirk as he continued working on his equipment. "Bombs never hit it too, but the place was one of the few still celebrating Saturnalia during the war. When the bombs did start burning everything in the empire to a crisp, the people of Arx turned tail and fled, quickly boarding the few ships in port and sailing to gods knows where. Those left behind either died or tried to find shelter from the incoming holocaust. And through all the chaos, no one bothered to turn off the turbines. For the past two-hundred years, they've been locked on the on switch, never running out of power thanks to an absurdly robust power network. It's impossible to break all the ice away now; atmosphere there's been permanently changed by the magics and tech used to make the snow."

A city, frozen in snow and ice... in the blistering heat of the wasteland, that was either a seductive paradise or a new hell on its own. "That's the most bizarre story for a city I've heard yet." I shook my head, contemplating how people could live in such a place. "Frozen, forever, in the twisted outcome of a festival celebration... damn."

"You make the place sound dead," he said as he started looking for an outlet, then corrected, "Well it ain't. Place has a practically indefinite quantity of ice. In a land where most functioning machines would kill you, a set of giant snow-makers is a nice change. The snow also made good camouflage, and made the city a good hiding place. More people caught up on that principle, and now the place is a refuge for runaway slaves and all other sorts. Hollowed-out and insulated interiors and subways make living there bearable, but food's a problem."

He paused, thinking for a moment and twirling a wire in his hooves. "Or at least it was until the Legion came in; I'll give them credit, they sure know how to restore a place. The people of Arx loved snow, you see, and had it almost year-round. Being far from the nearest major food-supplying city, they then adopted Roam's idea and started constructing bio-domes and underground farms. Legion restored those, so in a sense the place's is one of most well-off cities in the Empire's remains. Few raiders would make the effort to gear up for a winter environment, and even fewer take the time to scour every desolate building. When the Legion was there, it made their jobs even harder. So now the place has practically no raider activity, just the occasional bandit. Still, the locals kind of saw the Legion as a... call for unwanted attention. Hence why I said they weren't all that loved there."

I stood for a moment, thinking on all the new information. Then I smiled. "Well, good to hear of a city that doesn't have constant warfare. Could you tell me more about it?"

"Ah, there's the outlet..." He stooped down and plugged the wire in, and at once the radio gave a crackle of static. He got up and faced me. "Tell you more? Well... there's no major conflict there, just the occasional skirmish, but... yeah, I guess it's relatively peaceful there. Living conditions are still harsh, though, and travel can be... confusing, unless you know your way well. Constant build up of snow would have covered every rooftop by now if it weren't for the city's location next to the ocean. Snow just avalanches into the water."

I spent a moment imagining all that in my head. "That's quite the sight, I'd imagine." I hummed in thought, bringing a hoof up and rubbing my chin in thought. "It's... interesting, very interesting. Anything else you can tell me of the place? I find myself intrigue-..."

"Hold on there for a second," he interrupted, taking a seat on the floor and turning some dials on the radio. The static crackled until he reached one frequency where it was completely quiet. He took in a deep breath, then approached the microphone. "Operative Wavelength? You there? Or Broadcast? Any operative of the Roaman Specters at all? This is operative Doomtune, calling in from Forum Base, over."

For a moment no one answered, but then, "Doomtune?" a mare asked, sounding disbelieving. "You're in Forum Base? What... no, how did you get in there? Legion's still hostile!"

Doomtune smirked, shaking his head. "You really need to stay updated on active operations and recent events, operative Signal Boost. But since you aren't up-to-date, I guess it's my task to fill you in since you're too lazy to get off your flank and ask around." He turned and looked at me, then said, "Sorry, but questions later. This mare knows nothing besides what she hears on this frequency. If anything, she has more questions than you."

I gave a disappointed little sigh, but conceded. I turned and left, thinking of Arx the frozen city all the while.

"Who was that?" I heard Signal Boost ask. "A hostile?"

Doomtune groaned. "This is going to take a few hours..."

* * * Magnus et Potens Roamanus * * *

While Doomtune spent the entirety of the afternoon inside his own room, very audibly educating his colleague about all the things she was ignorant about, I spent many an hour lying down on my bed, thinking of life and all its strangeness. No, really. You'd think I'd have trotted around the wondrous Forum, enjoying with great glee every single Roaman object and sight I could find, but I didn't. Just being in this Forum, this bastion of Roaman ideals, was enough. At least for now. And besides, if there was one other thing I personally believed I was good at aside from fighting with a gladius, it was thinking. Maybe I never thought the best thoughts -- or for that matter the most sane, normal, positive or rational thoughts -- but I thought a lot.

For one thing, my head just absolutely could not leave the topic of the suddenly very mystical and grand nature of Tod and Tom, and of what they did and were capable of. For after all, who wouldn't find them beings to worry of? I feared Tom, and really both of them, but for some reason, at that one moment I really feared him, and I mean him. Tod was a tricky and convoluted bastard with a mind and heart of snakes, it was true, but what if Tom was just so good at deception that he could easily convince anyone of his good intent, then betray them? What if he was even more absurdly terrible than even Predator or Tod combined?

I shivered at the notion of such things being true, but then I shook my head and dismissed those unlikely thoughts. Most of it was probably just astonishment, residual disbelief, and shock at the revelation of his being and nature, and that I was just, as all natural beings should be, cautious of the unknown. It was that reason that I made sure to have a heightened sense of caution for the next time I'd meet him.

And then amidst all the conflicting emotions swimming in the soup of my mind, my consciousness dwelled on one that brought me an inner warmth of joy. I liked -- really liked -- thinking about her, and just seeing Myst's image in my head was pleasing. I smiled and I sat up, leaning my head lazily against a hoof and staring off as I continued thinking of her. She was one of the few truly good and pure things that came with the tremendous change my life was subject to, and for that I cherished her all the more. Her and all my friends; like torches in a night, they helped me stay on the correct path and to see what was good. I couldn't even imagine what life outside would have been like if I never came to know them. Especially her: a cute grey mare, met on a starry night, with blue eyes looking down at me from within the shadows of Luna's night... oh, what a blessing she was.

I started going off into fantasy, thinking of us together in all kinds of situations and circumstances, each ranging from silly to downright melodramatic. I laughed at myself quietly, finding my own thought patterns amusing. At times I hated my head, it was true -- and now I supposed I could say it may have hated me back -- but frankly, Goldwreath was who I am. I spoke like myself and acted like myself; even my indoctrinated half was me in many ways. All that said, there's really nothing we can do about our own beings aside from loving and improving ourselves. And that I believe is what I did at that moment; it was short lived moment, a single drop in an ocean of doubt, but it was there. And that mattered.

Suddenly my door creaked open and Myst shyly poked her head in. I smiled and straightened up. "Um, Goldwreath? There's a praetorian here. He's asking for you." And from the tone in her voice, I could already tell that 'he's asking for you' actually meant 'Goldwreath please talk to him, because I can't'.

I got up and stretched, giving a long yawn and glancing outside. "It's dark already," I mused to myself, then faced her and gave a smile. "Alright, I'll meet him. Probably Justinian or something, in which case I could use some questions answered..."

Sadly for me, though, the praetorian guard standing before me was not Justinian. In any case, though, he was still courteous, not like that damned praefect. Rendering the Roaman salute all the while, he declared, "Fellow Roaman of different race! I, Tintulius Quirius, have come to this domain to inform you of lord Vesperius' invitation to dinner. He awaits your presence."

If his bombastic tone didn't get my attention, then that last statement certainly did. "How's that?"

He lowered his raised hoof. "Dinner, fellow Roaman. Legate Vesperius had generously increased the quality of dinner services for your party, and has decided that every night for the length of your stay shall be one in which you are in his presence. Whether or not this offer is subject to rejection must be taken up with the Legatus himself."

I spent a moment in silence, then gave a small smile and nodded. "If that is the case, I shall gather my companions now. I'm sure they'll find this little surprise to be one they'll like." I gave a slow nod, saying, "Please do inform Vesperius, and tell him that I am grateful."

Tintulius nodded. "Ave, Praetorian. Worry not of the filly, for she has already been sent for." He stood still for a moment, and listened as Doomtune loudly repeated himself to get the point across to his fellow operative. Tintulius snickered, then turned around. "I shall depart and inform lord Vesperius of your attendance."

I glanced back at Myst, who sat silently on the couch. "Well, this is a pleasant surprise," I said with a smile, then requested, "Please go and wake Skyfire up. Let's start preparing."

Tentatively, she nodded and got up, before stopping dead. She turned around and bit her lower lip anxiously. "This is nice and all... but how many people will be there?"

I shook my head in quiet amusement, then trotted over and held her tightly. "Don't worry about that, okay?" I asked gently. "There's no reason to be worried around these people. They're a strange and diverse bunch if what we've seen is any indication, but then again so are we." I gave her a more reassuring smile as I asked, "Besides, didn't you like today?"

Some of the anxiety in her face melted away, and her lips curled into a tiny smile. "I loved it. Especially the morning."

"Well then, I'm glad. You see Myst, this place, this Forum, is one of the few places that I can safely say some aspects of life go on as normal. Here they talk and laugh and work as though they had no true worries. So while we're all here, I want us all to feel that way too, alright? Come on, let go of a little anxiety and relax; don't let your shyness get the better of you."

She let out a long, slow exhale. "Alright... alright. You're right, I should relax. This isn't out there... it's different. This place is different, okay..." She gulped and breathed in deep, then exhaled and gave me a sincere smile.

I turned my body, but my head as fixed on her her as she went for Skyfire's door. I watched with simple pleasure as she slowly, quietly opened the door and crept in. Yes, it was true that Myst was shy and that at times she needed a little encouragement to get things done, but honestly I wouldn't have her any other way.

I went for Doomtune's door, and knocked. "Doomtune!"

There was a loud verbal debate going on in there, I think, but he quieted it down quickly. "Yeah, what?" he asked, sounding irritated and tired. "Signal Boost is apparently having problems coping with some of the stuff I'm telling her, so she went to have a nice little dinner of tunnel sandwiches to calm down, and left me here to wait. It's fucking annoying because I still haven't told her the really important stuff because she has too many gods-damned questions." He gave a loud groan, and added, exasperated, "Also because I'm starving, and the thought of her gobbling down on food I can't have is making me insane. So what is it you want?"

"For you to relax is one thing," I told him simply, and added, "And for another, get yourself prepped and away from the radio for a bit." Then I smiled as I continued, "And you have good reason to do both."

"Yeah, and what's that?" he called back.

"Oh, just a good dose of Roaman hospitality," I said.

"I'll be honest with you: right now, I'm thinking of all kinds of nasty shit to say to that ignorant mare when she gets back. So right now, I couldn't give a flying fuck about Roaman hospitality," he shot back.

That made me frown, but I asked, "Not even for a good dinner and an hour or two to get away from her and the stresses of being an operative?"

That shut him up quite nicely, and all within his room was quiet. That is until he opened the door and walked past me, sweaty and ruffling his mane. He sighed tiredly as he reached the center of the room, then turned around and faced me. He closed his eyes and wiped the sweat from his face, but then he gave a relieved smile. "Alright," he said, much more relaxed, "I can make an exception."

* * * Magnus et Potens Roamanus * * *

When all was said and done we departed from our room and trotted to the throne chamber, and saw Vesperius waiting for us at the end of a long ovular table. He was busy, scribbling down notes on papers and filing them on one side. But the moment he saw us he sighed in relief and put the papers away. Then we sat, and had the luxury of dining with him in the Forum's main chamber. I was glad, and didn't question at all the benefits being handed over to us, though the others did wonder why Vesperius went so far as to have us dine with him personally.

"Pretty bold of you to just assume we'd want to stay for a while," Doomtune said. "It's almost like you knew we would." After a moment he added, "I mean no offense, of course. Your timing was perfect. I was in some... rather... stressful business."

"Oh, trust me when I say that you know nothing of stress in business," Vesperius replied good-naturedly. "And yes, I know it was bold, but I can safely say I took action upon a solid knowledge of your desire to be here," Vesperius said simply, looking at the operative. "I can imagine life out there is tough, and forms either people who either grow accustomed to the violence, or individuals who hold onto more... lively manners of thought. You all seemed to be of the latter group, so I knew that a little luxury thrown your way could show you all that the world isn't all pain and misery."

"And I believe I speak for all of us when I say, 'thank you'," I said sincerely, looking each of my friends in the eye. "Life has been hard out there. Not just for us, but for everyone. It's always war out there, and almost nothing else. Some of us have been... especially affected by it." I turned and glanced over at Doomtune, who caught my gaze and reflexively cast his eyes down. Then I took a look at everything around me, at all the goodness housed in that one place. "Now, would it be that we weren't the only ones who could enjoy this moment..."

An awkward silence crept over the table, stretching on into realms that would incite anyone to reflect on the brutality to outside life. And that's what I assumed we were all doing, sitting with blank eyes staring off into the air and with bowed heads staring at the dirt beneath our hooves.

Vesperius sighed, "Yes... were we not the only ones who could enjoy a life not so full of suffering." He clicked his tongue in thought, scraping a hoof over the chest of his muscle cuirass. "That's what we're fighting for, you know. All of us, the Legion -- the armed forces of the Roaman senate. I'm not lying. I know some of you may still have ill thoughts of us..." He glanced at Skyfire and Doomtune and at me, especially. "...and I'm certain our ill reputation may be justifiable with some of the things some of my soldiers did... but that's the truth. It's all we want, that Roam may be made whole and well again." He took in a deep breath, and took a look at the ceiling. "And I pray that the gods will let that goal come true before my days are done..." he said quietly.

Just then the heavy main doors of the throne chamber were pushed open, making way for the half-dozen mare servants to come trotting in, and upon their shoulders they bore silver platters and trays all arrayed with the most filling-looking food I'd seen since the Overmare's communal birthday celebration. They came over, cheery-faced and pleasant-looking, and laid at our reach what must have been the best-cooked food in the entire city. The scent and sight of the fresh vegetables and steaming soup was mouth-watering, and even the meat looked so good I may have stopped being a vegetarian if it weren't for the fact that the meat dishes were on the other side of the table, out of hoof's reach.

Vesperius gave then each smiles, then looked at us. "Well, enough of that. Grim thoughts and quiet words, as a rule, are not welcome at my table. Now, shall we?"

* * * Magnus et Potens Roamanus * * *

"So aside from welcoming us here and having the kindness to treat us to such luxuries, any other reason you're doing this?" I took up a sliced apple and dipped it into the sweet sauce it came with, then bit down on the absolutely divine fruit. The apples grown in my old home sucked ass compared to this stuff. "Not to sound ungrateful, because I'm far from that."

"Well, if you must know. The answer's simple," he replied, "It gets quite drab and boring in here at times, surrounded with nothing but senatorial paperwork and the solid silence of days gone by. I happen to need to stay sane, and for that I need social interaction." He rubbed his temples, taking in the smell of the food before him. "Your arrival is, thankfully, a beneficial event for us both. Now I can dine without needing to talk to G.L.A.D.I.U.S for company."

Skyfire snickered, picking her way through her salad to remove all the meat. "G.L.A.D.I.U.S? Who the hell's that? Sounds like some kind of bad mercenary company name or something."

Doomtune, who'd spent an hour earlier this morning roaming around the Forum, spoke, "Actually, you'll be surprised. He's quite different from that. He's actually-..."

It was then that the nearest praetorian mech stomped dangerously close; an event that surprised all of us but Vesperius and Doomtune (and any nearby praetorians). The mech looked us all over, then in a grating, harsh, and vaguely masculine voice announced aloud, "Mode -- ANSWERING QUERY. System name: G.L.A.D.I.U.S. Acronym for: Geo-centric Logistical, Armamental, and Defensive Initiation Utilities System. Given by: Emperor Augustinius. Purpose assigned: To defend Roam and all her holdings." The mech stooped down and looked us all over, especially me. "Mode -- INVESTIGATION. Personal query: Is your question answered?"

We all nodded hectically, which dismissed the mech and allowed us focus on enjoying the luxury at our disposal. Just then Doodle came in, accompanied by a single guard, and squealed in delight at the sight before her. We hadn't even said anything to her yet before she dashed towards the table and dug into her food, once more displaying the lack of the table manners she claimed to have. It was a good thing that Vesperius had quite the patience for her, and even enjoyed her antics, because she almost ruined the entire table.

Now Zury, who'd apparently volunteered to cook up some exotic dishes for reasons she said she'd discussed privately with Vesperius, was quite distraught at the mess made of the table. At once she tried to take Doodle back to our room to be cleaned up, to which the filly protested loudly until Vesperius requested her to keep a little silence. Doodle at least had the sense to comply with her host's request. Thankful for his assistance, Zury took her away, much to Doodle's chagrin. Vesperius tried to appear inconspicuous, but I saw him watch Zury's swaying backside as she trotted away.

'Must be interested in her glyph; or the tattoos...' I thought, trying to come up with a reason he'd be so intently watching her. I eventually gave up; people often did things just for the sake of it, who was to say that wasn't one of those instances?

Skyfire came out from under the table, where she'd taken cover from Doodle's barrage of food, then sighed in relief when she saw her salad was untouched. "At least my stuff's still good. Fillies, I swear..." Skyfire commented, before digging into her salad again. She lifted her head up from the bowl and took a sniff of the stew Zury'd made, then made a disgusted face. "Yuck."

"Oh, that's a bit much," Myst told her as she wiped some dressing from her fur. Then she took an untouched bowl of the stew and smiled, looking into the brown sauce. "You'd find it to be really tasty if you just tried it. I know I like it."

"Easy for you to say," Skyfire replied, "You grew up with people like her, out there in the wastes, if what I remember is right. Of course you'd be accustomed to their kinds of food." Then she took another glance at the stew and grimaced. "Besides, it's got meat. I don't eat meat."

"We're both vegetarians," I chimed in as I picked through a selection of fruits, mostly grapes. Then I lifted a goblet of wine and in one big gulp downed the whole volume. It was something that gave Myst a little pause, but she was quickly swept up into one of the many conversations that went around the dinner table.

The hour dragged on, more filled with conversation and questions than actual eating. Doodle eventually came back, but rather than joining us she sat instead in a corner, reading the book Predator had given her. Skyfire finished first and excused herself, expressing desire to use the bedroom, and was followed by Doomtune, who explained that he had a few 'words to trade with a fellow operative'. When they'd left it was just me, Myst, and Vesperius for a few more minutes, until at last we too finished.

"So goes that lovely hour of partying," Vesperius sighed, daring a glance back at his work table upon which was stacked a great many towers of paperwork, all waiting to be done. "And here comes dreaded labor..."

I smirked, finding his demeanor amusing. "That wasn't really a party, though it was messy as one. We have Doodle to thank for that." I nodded over my shoulder at her, then whispered, "She messed up yesterday's breakfast, too."

He shrugged, then got up arduously and stretched. "Well, after how boring some of my days have been, it's as close to a party as I've gotten here on the outside. Messy, yes, but fun, and that's what will make it memorable as I vanquish these hordes of papers."

I shook my head again, then got up as Myst finished the last of her food. "Well then, thank you for your hospitality. I guess, seeing as you will be working now, it is time for us to take our leave?"

He trotted over to his work table, cracking his neck. "Yes, it is. And seeing how much work there is to be done..." He looked over the stacks, then shuddered. "... I suppose I'll not be sleeping tonight."

We gave our farewells, then together with Myst I went for the doorway. I invited Doodle to come along with us, but she refused, expressing desire to go exploring some more. I couldn't blame her; the Forum was massive, and it sure as hell had lots of stuff worthy of being looked at for hours. Still, feeling responsible for her, I had to set her a curfew and said she had three hours. Strangely, she accepted that without a hint of hesitation, though she did frown -- something that, quite frankly, I barely ever saw on her face,

"You think maybe that's something those slavers she was with gave her often? Or maybe her parents?" Myst asked, finding her frown odd as well.

"Maybe..." I mused. "Who knows. Sometimes I'm worried about her, and sometimes I feel like if we left her in a room full of dead people, she'd be the last one to go insane. Still, sometimes I... wonder... about her."

Just then I saw the unmoving walker outside the doorway, and grew curious -- a feeling I knew all too well by now I wouldn't succeed in trying to suppress. Besides, what was the harm in indulging in the freedom to ask questions? Asking Myst to bear with me for a few minutes, I trotted over to the bot. She was left alone in the presence of the unspeaking praetorian guards; she'd grown a little more accustomed to them by then, and wasn't so anxious, but told me her secret was to distract herself by looking over the details of their armor.

As it turned out, asking any of the mechs (or for that matter, any technological device within his reach and influence) would suffice. Apparently, G.L.A.D.I.U.S was the most advanced defensive AI in the middle of the war, and used to great effect during the Equestrian invasion of mainland Roam. G.L.A.D.I.U.S had become outdated in the last few years, though, as he was an S2 system. Still, the Caesar had kept him around as the Forum's personal defense system while more advanced S3 AI's like Zaita took up the task of managing offensive cyber-warfare.

"So how come you couldn't help stop Equestria from defeating three Roaman legions in the northern Everfree... er, Teutoberg forest, and then from wiping out the garrison at Hadrian's wall before invading the Empire? It all seems... unbelievable, for such forces to be destroyed in quick succession."

"Mode -- ANSWERING QUERY. It is not my fault. Guerrilla tactics are unpredictable; even more so when the tactic was to gather the entire army at the last moment to destroy the three legions. Defection by the Roaman allied leader Arminius to the Equestrian army was also very much unforeseen. Aside from all that, my creators believed in deities, and so did our enemies. I don't, but if they exist then either our own gods turned their back on us, or some malevolent force outside of calculation and conceivable logic assisted in our destruction."

And to that I replied, "No, your gods didn't abandon you." Because if there was anyone or anything who may have helped in Roam' destruction somehow -- or maybe even the destruction of the world as a whole -- it was Tod. "Trust me when I say that. I'm no pontifex maximus, and I used to not have much faith in any deities at all... but your gods convinced me otherwise." I said all that, of course, because I finally knew what Tom was. Still, he was NOT actually a god, but rather... an alien? Some kind of life form that existed in realms of energy, incomprehensible to organics? Or perhaps another thing entirely?

The AI took in my answer with silence, then after a while said, "Mode -- REPLYING TO STATEMENT. It doesn't matter. Roam is all that matters. Not gods that don't help when their followers burn. As long as there is still a semblance of Roamanism in the world, I shall continue to defend it, no matter the situation." Then the mech turned and departed wordlessly, stomping past Myst and the guards. I sighed, then bade Myst come along.

Then it hit me. Of course it would be after having some exposure to an AI that I'd remember her! "Zaita!" I muttered under my breath, then rushed after the stomping walker and asked for her whereabouts.

"Mode -- ANSWERING QUERY. The S3-platformed Harpy APC is located within one of the few garages in the lower levels of the Forum that can integrate its advanced S3 operating system's data into synchronization with my databanks."

"Can you take me to her?" I asked G.L.A.D.I.U.S. "Oh, I can't believe I forgot her for so long..."

"Mode -- ANSWERING QUERY. Very well. I shall take you to her after a short system restart to compensate for the stress integrating with her systems is putting on my capacity." The bot deactivated momentarily, kneeling down like a bowing soldier.

I paced back and forth for a moment, distraught and worried for her wellbeing. Then Myst trotted up to me calmly, as if she didn't quite care about or even remembered that it was our AI transport and friend that had gotten us this far. "Something wrong?" she asked, giving me a genuinely worried frown. "Because after that fever you had, you really should be in bed and resting. It's a miracle you're as well as you are at all."

"It's Zaita, Myst," I said, eyes downcast. "We forgot about her. Left her disabled, just waiting to be hauled off like a piece of junk. What kind of friends are we?"

"The kind that doesn't forget," she said with a little chuckle and hugged me. "Oh, Goldwreath, always so worried ad concerned for others." She gave a soft giggle and kissed my cheek. "You're cute when you care. But really, we didn't forget about her. She was reactivated yesterday while you were out, and even hovered over the fields outside. We talked to her, told her what happened to you. She's fine, alright?" She pulled away from the embrace and smiled at me warmly. "It's nice that you finally remembered, but we took care of her. We didn't want you to go stress yourself over making sure she's fine."

I breathed a sigh of relief. "Oh, good. That's good, thank you," I replied sincerely. "I guess all I need to do now is go over to the garage and just check in with her, then."

Her head flinched back a little. "Garage?" she asked, eyes wide in curiosity. "She wasn't in a garage..."

"G.L.A.D.I.U.S placed her there, apparently. Something about system synchronization. You didn't know?"

She shook her head. "No. I only met G.L.A.D.I.U.S now, and I didn't even know this place had a garage. We should probably go make sure she's okay, then. She seemed perfectly fine just roaming around outside that I have to wonder how she's taking being cooped up in some dusty old garage."

"The garage is actually not dusty, Myst," the mech said, surprising us both with the voice it spoke with. We turned and saw its eyes glowing blue, looking at us. "On the contrary, lack of exposure to the outside has left it in quite a pristine state. The resulting environment makes a nice little place to let my music echo off the walls. Only a few other vehicles have even used any of these slots in the past few hundred years; preliminary estimates suggest I may be just the fourth to ever be stationed in here." The bot's eyes shifted in their metallic sockets to look at me. "Hello Goldwreath. Strands of code from G.L.A.D.I.U.S' recent online session tell me of your interaction with him. Don't worry about me, I am fine. I can understand how you may have forgotten of me; it is alright. Organic, troubled brains such as the one you possess are often subject to forgetfulness and sluggishness -- a flaw that I understand and hold no grudge over." Then she stopped speaking, and elevator music started playing through the bot's mouth.

"Er... well, thanks for the understanding, then," I said tentatively, glancing at Myst. She gave the bot a queer look, then looked at me and shrugged. "Well, this leaves me a bit... without thought. I tend to get confused when I try to do something but some event stops me from doing it."

"I know. I've scanned you all over the past month to come to know you beyond what mere social interaction gives me. The results have been muddled up by the drastic amount of brain activity going on in your heads, but I have gathered the basics. Goldwreath, I believe you have a certain case of OCD. You try to do many things and organize many things, and when you do them it is often with a fervor most others wouldn't possess. The results can range from an overly-emotional desire to get something done, no matter how big or small, to an outright impassioned crusade to achieving a goal of varying importance. As for why your head behaves like this, I don't know."

I gave the bot a flat look, then I gave it a false grin and said, "Okay! Enough about me because I'm still very much not in my element, and having all my plans interrupted and all this info shoved right into my head is really starting to annoy me and could make me ramble from how much it irritates me and speaking of rambling that's exactly what I'm doing right now so okay, yeah, I'll just shut up." I shut my mouth, waiting for a moment to let my head sort itself out. 'Rest,' Tom had said. I didn't know to what exact extent he expected me to relax, but if I was getting really stressed just by simply having my friend appear to save me the trouble of going to her -- something that should have been good -- then it definitely meant I needed to ease up a bit... no, a lot.

Myst gave me one long look, then smiled and trotted over to the Zaita-controlled bot. "Thank you, Zaita. Goldwreath really should be resting, and if the look on his face is any indication..." She got over to me and hugged me from the side. "... then he knows it now, too. He's probably overthinking on all this right now, but I know him. And I know somewhere in that head of his he's relieved that you're okay, even if he doesn't show it." I gave her an irritated look, but she just suppressed a giggle and continued, "So if you don't mind us, we'll be going now. That is if you're okay with that?"

"Please, do go. I do not want to interfere in any plans you may have. As it is, I am very much content exploring the cyberworld of the Forum's databanks. And playing music; music always makes everything better, especially elevator music. Wouldn't life be better with an official soundtrack? I think it would be."

Myst nodded and smiled, then started leading me off. Suddenly the bot's mechanical throat gave off a harsh whir of gears and it stood up straight, the glow in its eyes gone. "Mode -- RESUMING DIRECTIVE. Restart complete, follow me." The now G.L.A.D.I.U.S-controlled mech started stomping off.

I opened my mouth at last. "That won't be necessary," I called out, stopping the walker dead. It turned around and stared at me, and I instinctively knew I was to give an explanation. Somehow I had the distinct feeling that telling the Forum's personal defense AI that one of its mechs had been hacked was going to annoy him quite a bit. "My, er... friend, Zaita, already came to us and said she was fine. She kind of, well... hacked into that bot while you were out."

Strangely, the AI didn't react in the furious, hoof-pounding manner I thought he would. "Mode -- REPLYING TO STATEMENT. I... see," he said slowly, as if thinking. "If that is the case, my preliminary scans have been confirmed, and your APC is a threat. Therefore, the AI must now serve as a venue to adapt my cyberwarfare techniques. It has been a long while since I've had another entity to challenge me."

I gaped up at him, and Myst was likewise horrified. "What are you saying? You'll attack Zaita?"

"Mode -- ANSWERING QUERY. Yes, but I will not attempt to destroy the AI's core and programming. That would eliminate it as a challenge. No, what I need is a long, organized, non-lethal, and controlled challenge to re-configure my systems in the case this AI goes rogue. The mere fact that she accessed my walkers is indicative of her dangerous potential." The mech pointed a hoof down at me. "Mode -- DEMANDING CONCESSION. Make your AI participate in my challenge or suffer Roam's wrath."

We took a step back. "Look, I understand you want to protect this place and all that, but I'm not going to force my friend to willingly throw herself into harm's way-..."

"I accept your challenge," various speakers all over the Forum all announced at once in Zaita's voice. The sudden declaration must have been so out of the ordinary that even the all-silent, all-unmoving praetorian guards seemed surprised.

G.L.A.D.I.U.S whirled around and pointed at the nearest wall-mounted security camera. "MODE -- ACCEPTING CIRCUMSTANCE. Good. You know enough to bow to the wishes of the emperor's chosen artificial intelligence. Perhaps I am not the last sensible AI within the empire's hollowed bones."

Another mech activated, and from its previous position atop a massive marble pedestal slowly stomped over to stand right before G.L.A.D.I.U.S. Myst and I backed away, and for the first time ever so did the praetorians. Some even galloped off, shouting for the tribune and the praefect.

"Interesting," Zaita mused. "I do not detect a high aggression value within your code. It could mean that you aren't actually doing this put of programmed parameters, but rather-..."

"Mode -- DEFENDING ROAM#PRACTICE SESSION. DIIIIEEEE!" G.L.A.D.I.U.S bellowed, before charging Zaita's mech. Zaita dodged and rolled away, before galloping off in a ground-shaking cascade of heavy hoofstomps as she continued evading G.L.A.D.I.U.S' attacks. Soon both mechs were well around the Forum's circular curve, out of sight.

All of the praetorians in sight galloped after them, drawing swords and electrifying them at the nearby lightning-pillars. Worried, Myst and I started galloping as well, when Vesperius stormed out of the throne room.

"What manner of chaos has taken over this place?" he asked aloud in irritation. "Can't a stallion work in piece? It's bad enough I don't get any sleep tonight."

Cutting off each other's words many times over, Myst and I frantically explained the situation to him. When we were done the exasperation in his face melted away, and he sighed. "Listen," he said, "G.L.A.D.I.U.S is an old system, prone to odd behavior such as this. I know. I've spoken to him and gotten to know him over many quiet nights. I even got lucky enough to say the passphrase that gets me through all his programming and makes him just say what his directive really is. And you know what it is? It's to always look for opportunities to try to make up for what he perceives as his failure to protect Roam. That's why he's doing this, alright? Don't mind it anymore than you'd mind two bestial kittens playing around with each other."

"But... but what if he hurts Zaita?" Myst asked.

"Zaita is an S3 system; G.L.A.D.I.U.S is an S2 system -- the former is better than the latter in every way and in all aspects: work capacity, system overriding capability, personality projection, so on and so forth. To be honest, I'm more worried about G.L.A.D.I.U.S than I am for your friend."

I glanced down the hallway, hearing the echoing bellows. "So what do you suggest we do? They might tear this place apart!"

He raised his hoof and said in a correcting tone, "And that's where you're wrong, my friend. They're both Roaman AI's, and the one thing all Roaman AI's are all programmed with in equal measure is an undying loyalty to the Imperator et Populusque Roamanus. Next to scraping the floor with their metal hooves, those two wouldn't dare do anything to harm this place."

Myst looked on down the curved main hallway with worry, and I pulled her close and comforted her. "Fine, fine. You know this place and they who reside here better than anyone. We'll concede." I looked down at her to see if she as okay with it. After a moment's hesitation, she nodded. "Again, though: what do you suggest we do?"

By the time I turned my attention back to him, I found him scribbling notes on a piece of paper and checking the time on the nearest clock. "The senate will collectively have my hide if I don't get this done, gods damn it..." he muttered, then turned and faced me, saying in a rushed tone, "Like I said, bestial kittens. Now if you'll excuse me, I have work to do." He trotted away briskly, slamming the door shut. I gave a disgruntled groan and wiped a hoof over my face.

"Well... let's just hope he's right," Myst said softly, pulling me away again. "Come on, you need to rest."

As always, I wanted to protest. But really, fuck protesting. In the month I'd spent outside, always protesting when the situation turned sour for me, all that it ever got me was a headache and a heart full of worry, and often everything settled down anyway even without my intervention. So taking her insistence to heart, I accompanied her as we trotted back down to our room. Along the way, the evidence of their ongoing cyberwar was all too obvious -- not in in any damage done, but in the noise blasting over the speakers and in the flickering holograms popping up all over.

"Mode -- DEMANDING CONCESSION. Surrender or die!"

"This is fun, isn't it?" Zaita said. But what came next was what really surprised me. It was a mirthful laugh, purely equine in nature, with no mechanical tune to it whatsoever. And despite that I could tell: it was Zaita's laugh. "Because I find this very fun."

"Did... did Zaita just laugh?" Myst asked as we trotted in the much more calm lower levels. "I didn't know she could laugh. She never laughed before..."

I looked down at her and answered, "She's an AI, Myst. Artificial sentient creatures are still sentient creatures, and all sentient creatures can express emotions." That's what I told her, but after a short moment I quietly added to myself, "She may not even be artificial at all, the more I think on it..."

* * * Magnus et Potens Roamanus * * *

Vesperius was right, thankfully. Over the course of an hour, the noise over the speakers and from the walker's giant metallic hooves eventually died down. Good thing too, as the three of us were absolutely worried beyond all compare (Doomtune may have been worried, had he even heard of or known of what was going on; as it was, given how loudly he was talking to his compatriot, I don't think he would have heard a megaspell go off). The hectic activity of the praetorian guards died down too, and was our main indicator of the AIs ceasing their activity. One of the guards Skyfire called over, and from him we learned that everything was all well and normal again.

"Hell, they didn't even break a single vase," he said with a chuckle. "Which is pretty hard to believe considering what kinds of stunts they were doing up there, but it's true. Databanks and the networks were untouched for the most part, but they're cleaning up their own mess."

"So everything's peachy?" Skyfire inquired, squinting. "That is hard to believe."

The guard shrugged. "Well ma'm, it's the truth. Now if you'll all excuse me, the praefect will want all praetorians to be assembled. Good evening." He stiffened up and rendered the Roman salute before politely taking his leave and trotting off.

When he was well gone the three of us all sighed in unison and relaxed on the couches.

"Damned antics..." Skyfire murmured, wiping a hoof over her face. "Say, why do you think Zaita even agreed to G.L.A.D.I.U.S' challenge? She's an AI, so shouldn't she have, I don't know... calculated and come to the conclusion that it may have been a waste of time, even if she won?"

I shrugged. "Maybe. I don't know, though. She isn't exactly the stereotypical data-governs-all-action machine; she's as much of a person as you and I, with her own likes and dislikes. I guess you could say she may have just accepted simply because she wanted to."

Skyfire clicked her tongue as she thought for a moment, then she shrugged too. "Eh, I guess. I'll never know what goes on in that AI's head." She stretched her body along the couch, giving a loud yawn. "So anyway, since that matter's all cleared up, on to other stuff."

"Like what?" Myst asked as she sat (as always) in the corner of any available sitting-space.

"Well..." She straightened up, flexing her wings and stretching her neck. "It's still pretty early. It's, what, eight? I still got four hours of energy in me." She gave a beaming grin as she suggested, "Hey! Why don't we trot around or something? Maybe even go outside; lots of stuff going on out there, maybe we'll find something interesting, or talk to people who are. I heard that that Flav guy just came back from the city; apparently, something went a little awry with those slavers."

I would have accepted her proposal, really. I couldn't think of anything better than getting to explore and view the Forum's beauty when it was sprinkled all over with the mysticism and mystery night brought, as opposed to the regality and dazzling majesty it presented during the day. Aside from that, I was concerned of the events of occurring beyond the safety of the Forum's walls, and who better to ask than those who'd just come from the outside? But something kept me on that couch, stopping me from jumping up and eagerly trotting with her.

It was Myst, of all things. For one thing, the nervous and almost horrified look that popped onto her face the moment Skyfire said 'talk to people' immediately told me that if I was going, she wasn't. At least, not without a ton of encouragement. But I didn't want to try to force her to do anything, and I sure as hell didn't want to leave her alone to cringe under the loud screams of an overly-pissed Doomtune.

So, much as it pained me to do so, I was forced to decline. "Oh, gee Skyfire I'd love to, but..." I glanced over at Myst, and caught her staring straight back at me with wide, expectant eyes. I tried to sound genuinely tired as I continued, "Well, you know. Fever took its toll; my legs are a bit sore and all that, and I occasionally get a heartbeat that sends a throbbing pulse to my brain. So under these conditions, I think at least one more night of resting is in store for me before I go around and Roam-gasm all over the place."

My words caused my fellow pegasus to deflate like a balloon. "Oh... alright." She frowned, but got up and forced on an understanding smile. "Sure, I get that. No problem. I don't mind going out alone; did it a few times while you were out. So, if you don't mind me..." She started trotting, her backside faced towards the door as she continued looking at us with a forced grin. "... I guess I'll go outside then."

Myst let out a high-pitched whine when she tried to speak, but then she swallowed and continued as normal, "Sorry we can't go with you, Skyfire. I'd love to go too, but... well, I'm not entirely tolerant of crowds yet. Or groups of two or three, or even a single person..." She cleared her throat and added with an eager voice, "But I can go tomorrow, though. Just ask me if you want to go out and we can go out together, okay? Right now I also kind of have to take care of Goldwreath here, so there's another reason I can't go now."

Skyfire nodded in apparent understanding and started opening the door. "Sure, sure. Take your time." She trotted out and closed the door most of the way, before poking her muzzle through and saying quietly, "Yeah, you take care of your stallionfriend," before shutting the door close.

If there was any doubt about how I thought Myst felt about all that, it was all swept away when she said, "I feel horrible." I did, too. She cast her eyes down and continued, "I hate seeing her like that. Remember when she said she liked you? I can't imagine what seeing us together must be making her feel."

I sighed and scooted over to her and wrapping a hoof around her. "It makes me feel like utter shit, too." I looked over at her with pain in my eyes and said, "Sometimes I think that the talks I give her are enough, but they aren't. And it's wrong for me to think they'd ever be enough. The pain of losing the people she loved hasn't gone away... and sometimes I think it never will. And then here I am, a living image of the very same person she said she wanted to be with... how could she not feel torn in two?"

She placed a hoof on my cheek. "Don't blame yourself. This is her problem, and all we can do is try to help her get over it."

"But how?" I asked. "How do we help her get over something like this when she can't seem to even go a few days without looking at us wistfully? Now, I can't blame her for that. She's trying to be tough, not getting in our way and giving us time even if it hurts her; we can ask no more of her than that. But we're her friends, and we shouldn't be forcing that on her. So how can we stop her from feeling so dejected? I can't stand seeing her... miserable."

She kept quiet and leaned her head against my shoulder, thinking. It was for that moment alone that I was thankful for Doomtune's loud, unceasing rant. It broke some of the tension, at least. After a moment she said quietly, "What if we get her with someone?"

That got my ears swiveling more quickly than the first time I heard a gunshot. "Say what?"

"Well..." She tapped her hooves nervously. "Call me cheesy or a bad advice-giver or anything you could use to describe this, but I read a few books... romance books... and, well.. sometimes, when some kind of love triangle broke out, it wasn't so uncommon for the couple to feel bad for the third person, so sometimes they kind of searched for someone and arranged a kind of... date."

I gave her the most incredulous look I could muster, but then relaxed after a moment. For all her social anxiety, Myst was still much more socially intelligent than I was in almost all aspects (a fact that really was kind of sad). I considered her proposal for a moment. "Alright, say we do look for someone we could try to get with her that she'd actually like... who would it be?"

Just then Doomtune gave a loud, prolonged groan of pure irritation. "Damn it Signal Boost, that's the fifth sandwich break. How many caps does that mare get for sitting around..."

"Definitely not Doomtune," I said.

"And not Vesperius..." Myst mused, looking embarrassed that she even suggested it.

"Sure as hell not the praetorians."

"She's not into mares... oh, of course she isn't!" She blushed furiously. "Just forget I said that."

"And the last thing we're doing is pairing her up with a Legionnaire; that'd just bring up old wounds, I think."

"Delvius seemed nice," she said earnestly.

"Delvius is an author; people like that are pretty busy -- I know, some of the people in my stable were, and they barely had the time to sleep well."

"How about Venaius?"

"Okay, now we're just pushing our options too far."

She gave an exasperated little huff; despite everything, I couldn't help but smile at how immensely cute she was when she did that. "This isn't going to work," she said, then frowned. "We're never going to be able to help her..."

I pulled her close and hugged her from the side. "Hey. Hey don't fret, okay?" I cooed. "It's going to be alright, eventually. Skyfire's not the stupid, reckless mare I used to think she was. She's looking for a solution, too. And when people seek solutions... well, one's bound to come up at some point. I should know; when I was just a little colt, barely in the maintenance trade, I was absolutely desperate to try to find a way to identify the lightbulb's locations and all that. So you know what I did? I made a list and printed out codes for each socket. Made my job easier." I gave her a sheepish grin.

Despite everything, she too seemed to feel a bit better, as indicated by her giggle. She just sat there for a moment, letting me hug her, before caressing my cheek softly. "You sure about that, though?" she asked quietly.

I nodded. "Absolutely. Sentient creatures do not by nature ever want to suffer. Even selfless heroes would get themselves out of the fire if they knew their suffering was utterly pointless. Skyfire is no different, and she will try to find a way to get rid of her troubles. Better that she does; that way she'll get to know herself better, and strengthen the threshold with which she can withstand life's burdens. And if ever she can't hold up, we'll be there. We always will."

She smiled, relaxing substantially at my words. "You sound so certain when you talk like that. I like it," she said as she rubbed her cheek against mine before giving it a soft kiss. Much to my dismay, though, she frowned again the moment she pulled her head back. "Still, I just can't seem to find it in me to feel too much better..."

I huffed. "Well, we can't have that. I'll not have grief and ill feelings spread through my friends like wildfire when it could all be contained to one person whom we could help. It's one thing to be concerned for a person, and it's another to let that concern make you feel bad unnecessarily."

She looked at me with a half-confused, half-sad frown. "I know, I know. But what can I do about it? As long as I know she's miserable, I won't exactly be able to feel like she's truly okay."

"Well, then I must distract you," I said, and stopped dead for a moment as a little thought got in my head. I grinned, something that concerned her.

"Goldwreath... what are you thinking?" she asked with a drawl, leaning her head back.

I lunged my forehooves forward, tickling her sides and causing her to yelp in surprise, before beginning to giggle and cackle uncontrollably. That egged me on as I pressed forward, keeping her within hoof's reach as she reflexively backpedalled away, so short of breath that she couldn't even utter any sensible words. I enjoyed seeing hearing her laughs -- at least it wasn't a frown -- and so I pressed forward with even greater fervor.

Which may have been a mistake. As my tickling intensified she grew more desperate to get away, and in a fit of speed I hadn't quite expected from her she dashed over the edge of the couch we were on and onto another of the semicircular couches. My body reflexively tried to lunge after her, but my extra mass rendered my momentum insufficient to cross the gap. Therefore I fell in between the couches and landed face-first against the floor.

I groaned and rose my head up to look her way, only to see a blur as she quickly clambered onto my back, pinning me down against the ground. "W-what was that about?" she panted, sounding a bit irritated. "I was just wondering what the hell you were thinking of doing when suddenly I get tickled! It, you... just, what?"

I gave a nervous little laugh, grinning up at her. "Like I said, I like teasing. Tickling's a kind of teasing, right?" After a moment I added with a grunt, "Besides, I didn't want to see you frown, so..."

She huffed, rolling her eyes. "Oh, after what you said to me the first day we were together, I've come to know you're teasing well enough, but why did you do it?"

I squirmed a little, to no avail; it was then that I realized I'd neglected building up my back muscles. "Like I said... I didn't want to see you frowning. It's bad enough I have to see it on Skyfire... but... to see it on you too?" I breathed with each heave, unable to get out from under her. "I'm sorry, but no. I want to see you smile more than most anything else."

She paused then, her face blank for a moment. "You... want to see me smile?" Her timid nature took over as she blushed, looking away and biting her lower lip. "Smiling how? Like regular smile, or something... different?"

"Does... does it really matter?" I grunted a little as my back started to get sore. "I just thought it'd be nice to see you laugh and smile, okay? It seemed like a perfectly innocent objective, and a lighthearted one in the face of that issue we were discussing. Although now I kind of regret going about it..." I groaned.

She smiled down at me shyly for a moment, but then her expression turned a little more... sinister, mischievous even. "Oh, you'll regret it alright," she purred next to my ear, and for some reason my body started reacting. My heart rate soared; my breathing became warm, my muscles relaxed slightly despite the heightened sense of perception I was in. And most of all, my wings started flaring out... all of which embarrassed me greatly.

"Liking where you are?" she asked warmly, with no indication at all she wanted to make me regret my actions.

I gave a little grunt. "Well, I think so. My body finds the sensation desirable, despite my mounting anxiety and... embarrassment. It's strange."

She started stroking her hooves down the from the tip of one of my wings all the way to the base. Pleasure burst through my body, the likes of which I'd never felt since my last session months ago... okay, I shouldn't have been feeling like this. It was embarrassing and demeaning, and it shames me to say that I absolutely loved it.

"Oh..." I groaned, wincing from the mix of pleasure, pain, and embarrassment. "S-stop that... not funny..."

She gave a soft giggle. "Not funny," she said, "But fun, for you and me. You because I know you like it, and me because of... other reasons." She started massaging my stiff appendages harder, and I barely suppressed another vocalization of my shameful enjoyment.

"W-why are you doing this, anyway?" I asked slothfully, my higher brain functions all shutting down one by one as my body continued to relax and enjoy itself against my will. "What's the point of it?"

She let out another giggle, patting my head as she did. "Oh, Goldwreath..." she said softly, running a hoof over my back. "You just don't understand any of this, do you? Well, I'll just make it a bit clearer; this is the sort of thing people who are together do. They hug, they kiss, they talk with and understand each other. And sometimes... sometimes they do something a little bit more intimate than any single one of those..." She stooped down and placed her her against mine, nuzzling against my cheek. "Do you know what it is?"

"Dating?" I asked. "I've come to understand dating can be a very romantic thing."

"No..." she drawled, then gently laid me onto my back. After that she got onto me, her face inches from mine. "You really, really don't know anything about this, do you?" she asked with an amused little smile.

"That's the second time you've asked, and I still don't have the correct answer," I replied, then gulped nervously. I could feel my body twitching in all sorts of places, both relishing in and loathing the confusing pleasure I was getting from having her so... close.

She gave a disgruntled sigh. "Have you learned nothing from all the things I've been throwing your way?" She sighed, but then gave me a reassuring smile, pecking my cheeks and neck with small kisses that compounded my growing anxiety. Then she lifted her head up and looked down at me with half-lidded eyes. "Well. There's only way to fix that..."

And then just like that, she leaned down and kissed me more deeply than in any other instance I could remember. And by all that was good, I loved it. I absolutely loved it, and now that I'd reached that verdict every last shred of doubt and anxiety crumbled away, replaced instead by an... what's an appropriate term? An... an inborn confidence. Yes, I was confident, and I didn't know why. I knew nothing on how to do any of this, but it seemed like some natural fibre of my being knew that this was good, and was openly basking in it. And really, at that moment, I didn't complain as I kissed back to the best of my abilities, relishing in what was, at its core, the most non-familial love I'd gotten in my entire life. Damn me if I wasn't going to show how much I appreciated it.

Just then the door clicked and Doomtune trotted out, sighing aloud and saying, "That mare has absolutely no knowledge of such things whatsoever... it' almost like she's screwed up in the head or something. I mean, I know no one else who could be so ignorant, so confused and..." He paused, his words falling dead on the floor. "What... the..."

Myst tore herself from me quick as a bullet would pop out a barrel and immediately adopted an overly-done, overly-relaxed pose on the couch, leaving me confused on the floor. She gave a loud, fake yawn, then looked over at his wide-eyed expression with a look of indifference. "Oh, hey Doomtune," she said with a casual little smile. He rose an eyebrow at her skeptically, to which her ruse broke and she looked away shyly. "Oh, um, us? Oh, we were just... trying to... well..."

Doomtune gave us the strangest look, then slowly backtracked into his room, grinning at us all the while. Myst gulped. I was confused. "No need to explain. I thought I smelled something in the air," he teased, grinning like mad. "No need to explain at all. Just continue as you were, and imagine I was never here." He trotted past the doorway, before slowly creaking the door. "You and Goldwreath have fun now, you hear? Heh... hehe..."

We sat where we were, in total silence, as I struggled to keep up with the events that just transpired. "I'm no expert, but depending on the idealogical view on secrecy, that was either really good or really bad..."

"Bad," Myst said with a shaky breath. "Very bad..." She flushed and covered her face, groaning, "Oh, this is terrible. Terrible. Terrible, terrible!" She withdrew her hooves and looked at me with utter embarrassment and shame, then began climbing off the couch and backtracking slowly into her room. "Er, listen Goldwreath," she said in a rush, "I know you and you must very confused, but please, please just act like it didn't happen. At least for now. Okay? Good okay..."

She rushed into her room like a madpony and went for the door as soon as she was in, before proceeding to push the door closed.

"Wait!" I called out. The door ceased its acceleration, and from the barely opened crack in the doorway she peeked out at me, her face an epitome of humiliation. "You're right, I am confused. And I really have no idea about anything that just happened, but if it makes you feel any better... I liked it. A lot, actually." I gave her a small smile.

She blushed and smiled, some of her humiliation fading. She opened the door a bit more. "Really? You did?" she asked, the most relieved sort of smile on her face.

I nodded. "Absolutely. I loved it, very much in fact. Still don't know what it implies, though..."

Her fully exposed face blushed furiously, and she opened the door to the room we both shared. She looked around the main room, then when she saw it was all clear she stood aside and gestured at the bed. "Well then... would you like to... get in the bed?" she asked softly, her eyes darting between me and the floor, and she bit her lip in shy anticipation. "I'm sure it's something we'd both like..."

I thought for a moment, then nodded. "Alright, sure. I guess reading another chapter or two of that story you like so much is okay by me," I said, then got up and trotted past her, closing the door behind me as I did.

Her expression shifted from shy and meek to downright bewildered in a split second. "Wait, what?" she asked in confusion, eyes wide and ears plastered to the back of her skull. "What do you mean 'read'?"

I picked up the book from where we'd left it on the floor earlier that day, then turned on a nearby lamp and settled in under the sheets. "Well, what else did you want to do on this bed?" I asked with a confused little smile. "What, did you want to sleep or... or did you want me to just rest while you read the book on your own... or... or anything like that?"

"I... b-but... don't you want... bu..." She shut her eyes close and stood there for a moment, her face screwed up from how tightly she was clenching her sockets. Then, slowly, she opened them and relaxed, looking at me with a smile that looked as if she'd bitten something sour. "Okay, great..." she said with a drawl, then clambered onto the bed with me and settled in against my side. "Now, what chapter were we in?"

"Five," I answered for her and turned to the appropriate page. "'My First Triumph'. Heh, I can see the pun in that. See, a triumph in Roaman terms is-..."

"I know what it is," she interrupted softly and without any aggression, but there was a catch in her voice that made me pause. I looked down at her for a moment, looking for any signs of discomfort.

"Is... something wrong?"

She sighed, forcing on a little smile and shaking her head. "Nope. Everything's fine just the way they are." She sighed once more, saying softly, "Still, there are a few things I wish I could change about certain things and certain people..."

"Really? Well, mind telling me? I don't exactly want to live without context."

She giggled softly, looking at me with those deep blue eyes of hers. "Now now, a mare has her secrets," she replied. "Besides, I'm sure that those people will change soon enough... maybe learn a bit about things they should know about from certain books..." Her eyes darted between me and the book in my hooves.

"You're right. Doodle's a breeding ground of bad table manners," I replied with scoff. "She really should get on that. It's not good to go on with life without essential social skills."

She giggled again. "Oh, you're right. It isn't good to live without some social knowledge," she said in a tone suggesting she was trying to get something across to me. I thought on it, and my thinking face must have looked funny to her because she laughed again. "You're cute when you don't know things," she said, then nuzzled up against me.

"I'll have you know that I know many things. Some philosophy; a little military tactical maneuvering; Roaman history, art, culture, and society; and most practiced of all: how to replace lightbulbs." I shivered. "Although I'll admit, I hate knowing how to do the last thing."

She smiled, if a bit confusedly at my mentioning of lightbulbs. Yes, it was at that moment that I really remembered I hadn't quite told her what exactly life in that boring old hole was like. "Fine, you're right. You know lots of things; Goldwreath is very smart." She tapped the book with a hoof. "But Goldwreath can be smarter about certain things he doesn't know about if he reads his books."

I smiled too and rolled my eyes. "Alright, fine. I'll read, ma'am. Just quit with the third person, it's weird."

She gave me a prim nod and tapped the top of my skull. "Very good, student. Learning to read and learning to learn things from what one reads is very important."

I shook my head at her, to which she gave me an easy smile and crawled underneath my foreleg and settled in against my side, to both our comforts. And then I started reading, and got past the first few paragraphs quickly enough. Then I read the whole page, then the next, then the next... and suddenly I found myself feeling tired. And yet I pressed myself onward, determined to finish the chapter. And if she asked, the next one.

But soon enough my fatigue started making itself obvious in mispronunciation of simple words and the slur in my voice. She grabbed the book and took it from me, and I wasn't able to do much about it.

"Hey... give that back..." I murmured in a sleepy stupor. "The chapter... must be completed... I must know what befalls those two..."

"You'll know soon enough," she replied, taking my head into a warm embrace and laying me against her chest. "But for now, you need to rest. Don't you want to be fully awake when you find out? That'd make it more enjoyable."

I tried to speak, but all that came out of my mouth was gush of air. She was right, really. I was tired; not just from the aftereffects of my illness, but I knew quite simply that my body needed more time to recover from the month of strain it'd been put through. I guess even people fit as soldiers can't push themselves too much and expect sheer physical prowess to save them from fatigue. That's what I'd expected my body to do for me, anyway.

She took my speechlessness as a sign that I'd surrendered to her wishes, and the truth was I had. Like I said some time ago in that other chapter, I liked rest. I'd nurtured a bad case of... what did Zaita call it? OCD? Yes, I'd fed that mental defect when I was out there; always looking for a goal, not resting until all my objectives were done... well, you know what? Fuck OCD when I had an inviting bed and a warm mare both in contact with my skin.

I don't know how long it took. Probably just a few seconds, but even that feels so much longer when you constantly slip in and out of consciousness. But finally, when her touch just became so comforting and the bed became so inviting, all obstructions were shoved aside and I fell into a blissful sleep.

* * * Magnus et Potens Roamanus * * *

My eyelids tore themselves open and were met with wan daylight. My ears picked up the busy hustle and bustle of Legionnaire activity from the fields below, and the whir and hum of engines was constant. And through it all I knew for an absolute fact that it was six AM.

"So ends sleep," I grumbled softly as I lay in bed, against Myst's side, and let my senses wake up. "At least I didn't dream last night. No telling what could have happened..." I shivered, thinking on all the kinds of terror that could have transpired had my... other self came at me. I considered myself lucky that he hadn't, and even luckier that I managed to sleep so restfully without disturbance.

But I didn't dwell too long on worrying or thinking about him; even considering the possible impact on my sanity and the direness of the danger my 'indoctrinated half' posed to me, I quite simply could not bring myself to worry about him. Which was good, for it meant that perhaps I could get a break after all. How long the break would last I didn't know, but I'd make use of it to not feel tense or anxious while I could before all the universe came down on me again with all its strangeness. So I'd relax while I could, and now was a perfect time.

However, after clearing my head of all things, I found myself peeved when I came to the conclusion that my mind had a constant need to have at least one bad, uncomfortable, sickly, anxious, or tense emotion bouncing around inside it at all times. In this case, not worry. Rather, an old, irrelevant hatred that I'd largely ignored in my month in the city of war. And in this case, that hatred was my hatred of waking up; my head must have truly had something wrong with it if it stooped so low just to wreck the moment.

Still, I suppose the hatred had some foundation. I really did hate waking up -- it's kind of a feeling I developed when that alarm clock woke me up every day at exactly six AM. I'd be all groggy and just want to go back to sleep, but I had to get up lest I get shot with a taser. No other options were present unless the day was a special one; thankfully, due to the ridiculously large amount of holidays the Roaman zebras had, I could hope every one in three mornings that I could sleep for a few more hours. Those hopes weren't always fulfilled, which only made me hate waking up more.

Still, it was on this one occasion among few others that I can safely say I got up freely and of my own desire. It was tempting to stay in bed just to stay wrapped up in Myst's warm embrace, but I'd had enough of her touch the last day or two to know that there was more where that came from, so I needn't covet her contact like a scarce luxury; she'd be there the next time I came back, and the thought comforted me as I slowly pried my way out of her grip and got up before trotting to the washroom. Besides, staying in bed just fed the annoying hatred, so the sooner I occupied myself the sooner it'd go.

"Sweet Celestia, that's hot water," I muttered in ecstasy as I washed my face over the sink. "I can't remember the last time I'd had hot water..." And soap, too. The little bar of purple soap that I rinsed my face with was just as missed as the water; the smell, the feel, the knowledge that my flesh would be clean when I stepped out... cleanliness was something I'd honestly taken for granted back in the Stable, but now... well, now I wanted to stay as clean as possible while I could.

I was so engrossed in the smell of lavender and the feel of the bubbles that I didn't hear the hoofsteps behind me until they were only feet away. I smiled, rinsing my face clean. "Good morning," I greeted lightheartedly. My smile deepened as I washed the last of the soap away and prepared myself to turn and face her. "Listen, I have to tell you, for all the strangeness yesterday had, you made it so much better." I shut the faucet off and lifted my head from the sink, turning around with a smile. "Thank you. I don't know how I could have-..."

I stopped dead, petrified by a feeling I knew all too well. Red eyes and an armored body blacker than the night met my startled gaze.

"Hello, Goldwreath," Predator said in his newly acquired charismatic voice as he stood leaning against the doorway. The moment the glow in his eyes waned and I could move, the only action I could take was to let my jaw drop and let my legs step away from him. In my absent-mindedness, I tripped over myself and knocked away various bathroom utilities before falling flat on my haunches.

He snickered, "Oh, don't be so surprised. You must have known I'd come back. I never leave loose ends, and I've come to enjoy causing you pain too much to leave you so unceremoniously."

I spent a moment sitting where I fell, catching my breath. He'd given me quite the scare there; without my body on high alert like it was when I was outside, he could have killed me if he so desired. This was one of the ways normalcy made people weak -- they'd be unprepared for danger. I guess maybe being under constant strain had some merit to it.

"Fuck, Predator," I growled as I got up off my rump. "You scared the shit out of me."

He chuckled, turning away and trotting through my room's doorway and into the main room, then finally towards the balcony. I followed close behind him, and found everyone else still asleep behind their own doors. Finally we reached our destination, and he stood there and looked over the horizon at the rising sun.

He took in one deep breath and said as I got up right behind him, "You seem different, Goldwreath. Different mental landscape, new thought patterns... major subtle biological downgrades as a result of loss of Tod's influence -- a shame, you were so much better when you were under his influence. At least combat-wise."

I didn't even want to justify any of that with a direct reply. I already knew something was up with my body -- the biological healing I'd seen, just like what Boagrius had... and then my fits of strength, allowing me to easily overpower trained and fit Legionnaires in combat... of course it wasn't until now that I truly considered it all. Now that I did, I came to the irrefutable conclusion that I just didn't give a damn what the wasteland did to me; if it helped, I'd use it, and I did. Now that it was taken from me, I'd find another way to live up to what was expected of me. I always would.

"Why are you here?" I asked plainly, heeding as little of what he said as possible.

My response seemed to surprise him for a moment as he gave me a look with those orb-like eyes of his, but then he just shrugged. "Oh, for many reasons. I don't like leaving loose ends, and frankly you're the only person that I have even the slightest qualms of killing; that makes you interesting, because I really don't like letting suffering people live." He cleared his throat as he turned around to face me. "But to be more direct and to save us both time, I shall answer your question with the sentence: I came here to make sure you and your friends stay alive."

Okay, while I truly didn't care for much of what he said -- seeing as most of it was to cause me pain for his sadistic pleasure -- that really did make me pause. "Stay alive? Against what? We're in the Forum, surrounded by..." I looked over the swelling and busy camp below. "... at least ten thousand Legionnaires and accompanying tanks, walkers, and aircraft. And the Forum itself has a praetorian force of, what, several hundred praetorian guards and more walkers. If that doesn't spell safety, I don't know what does."

"It paints you as an obvious target more than shields you in safety, boy," he retorted, leaning close. "Do you think this place will protect you against an enemy like the chimeras? It makes you obvious to them. Now, against an army of raiders and slavers and common mutants and even against a tribe of angry minotaurs this place could win again and again and again, but the chimeras?" he spat. "No. They were created to be perfect -- hell, they aren't even perfect because of flawed mutation and radiated host genes, and they could still wipe out this garrison easier than a bombardment of artillery could. And this place's detection system? Barely functional from lack of software maintenance. If it were working well, I wouldn't have gotten in here just by using chameleon camouflage."

"But you're Predator," I replied curtly. "You are a perfect chimera, if what I saw in that underground complex meant anything. Of course you would make it in."

"But I'm not here alone," he replied sharply, pointing a hoof behind me. "Even those chimeras could get in."

"Wha--?" I turned around hurriedly and spotted four chimeras, each prowling silently across the room and over the furniture like predatory beasts made of sharp, glimmering obsidian carapace. My jaw dropped in utter horror as I stared, petrified. Then one of them snarled and pushed open the door to my room before entering. "No. No! My-..."

"Quiet down," he growled and covered my mouth from behind. "Don't wake your friends up unless you want trouble. Listen, if they wanted you dead you'd have died last night when I sent them here ahead. If these were Tod's chimeras, you'd have had your head cut off when you were just beginning to read the first paragraph of that chapter of that book." Cautiously, he released his hoof. I didn't scream or attack them, but I galloped hastily to my room and pushed the door open.

There it sat next to the bed, staring with curious eyes at my sleeping marefriend. It did nothing but that, and it only made me more tense as the seconds passed by. If these were chimeras, why didn't they attack?

And as if reading my thoughts, Predator entered the room, saying quietly, "Because like I said, these aren't Tod's. They are mine."

I gave him a long, blank stare. "They're... yours?" I hissed, shaking my head. "But... but how?"

He patted the creature on the head as he trotted by before sitting on the edge of the mattress, right next to Myst's legs. "It's simple. You see, when a subject is turned to a chimera, they retain sentience. But their minds are bent, twisted to serve Tod. However..." He looked at the creature, then at me and pointed at the side of his skull. "... that sentience can be destroyed. Utterly ad totally; wipe away their minds, their souls, their knowledge and what's left of the person they once were and you get husks. Husks with brains that can be influenced by any higher power. Like me."

I looked at him, horrified. "So... so you destroyed their minds..."

"And now I own them," he finished for me, sounding proud of himself. He looked at Myst sleeping soundly, then leaned over and brushed at her mane with sickening affection. "You should thank me, you know," he said, pushing the strands gently away from her face. "She could have died last night... all of you could have. If it weren't for me," he continued in a low, sinister tone.

"Would you stop that?" I snapped, swiping his limbs away. He didn't seem to take offense. "Why the hell would I be thankful for what you did? They were my enemies, but even enemies don't... they don't just destroy what makes a person a person! Those things may have had indoctrinated minds, but they were still people deep down."

"Oh, and that's your mistake," he laughed as he got up. "They weren't people anymore, boy. They were monsters of the highest echelon of cruelty and violence. And that makes them your true enemies, no matter how you try to think of them. And true enemies, Goldwreath, have no restraint. What you get in wars are soldiers pitted against each other by commanders, but few of them truly have anything personal against one another. That's why there's still compassion sometimes -- respect for corpses, mercy to the dying, restraint on slaughter... but true enemies, now they will do anything to each other out of pure hatred." He sighed and got up, trotting to the washroom and turning on the sink before wetting a cleaning cloth in the water.

"Anyway," he continued casually, "I didn't come here to wither down your morals with the truths of the world -- the wasteland will teach you those soon enough. As for your question of why you should be thankful: these very same chimeras were dispatched to kill you when you rejected Tod. You're lucky I intercepted them; I actually did ponder on letting them attack you just to watch you scream and writhe in pain in a futile struggle, but I frowned at the thought of others getting to cause you suffering instead of me."

"Oh, you fucking..." I stopped myself there, biting my lip to not blurt out profanities. I took in several deep breaths as he trotted out of the washroom and sat down on the bed again before pulling out a revolver and wiping it. "You know what? Just fuck you. I don't even want to get involved in your shit. You said you wanted to keep us alive? Fine, great. Now just focus on that topic and don't divert; every time I talk to you I feel like I'm going to explode, I swear."

He laughed. "Fine. I suppose I've had enough fun causing you irritation. For now, at least." He stopped cleaning his pistol for a moment to pull out several plastic sachets from one of his pockets. He tossed them over at me. "There, drink those. One for each of you. I made them into powder so you can mix them up into water or something. I even flavored them; as it turns out, two-hundred year old cocoa beans when preserved still taste like actual cocoa."

I flipped the sachets over. "What are these? If this is some kind of sick practical joke..."

"No, no!" he said quickly. "Those are sachets filled with the powdered version of the only permanent cure to Black Cloud spores. See, since most people die pretty much instantly when they inhale Black Cloud, most who go underground don't even bother to wonder if there is a cure. Of course there is, and the Specters sell them at the very affordable rate of ten caps per sachet. You're lucky, though; you and your friends are one of the few to survive because I actually bothered to bring the cure with me anyway. Of course, injecting you when you were still inhaling Black Cloud kind of negated the permanence of the cure, but at least the spores got slowed enough to not explode after even several days." He pointed at my chest. "They're still growing inside you, though, and at some point they will explode. Luckily just one dose of that stuff and you'll be as fixed as a junkie in a drug den."

Oh, right. I guess I kind of had forgotten about the Black Cloud in us... "Well, thanks. I guess," I muttered as I put them under a drawer for later consumption. "So anything else?"

He paused again, thinking. "Hmm... is there... oh, yes." He paused again and pulled from one of his vest's larger pockets one of the silvery boxes. He tipped it over, and in a series of wan flashes several bloody sacks thumped to the floor. "You know, Myst actually does have very good perception, even in her sleep. She would actually have woken up by now if I didn't make her dream a... a very desirable one," he said as he shook the silvery box, making more sacks fall.

"You made her dream what? Explain yourself!" I demanded.

"She desires you, so I made her a dream that would satisfy those desires when real life couldn't. Too bad for her, it's all just a dream," he said with a laugh. "Anyway, I think that's enough of a hint," he continued, still shaking the box. "How many sacks did I put in here..."

I thought on it for a moment. "Desires me... well, that's kind of expected. I am her special someone, after all. At least, I think I am. We've already spent like two nights and two mornings together, and everything has been good so far. I can't imagine you meaning anything else."

"You definitely don't understand. She desires you," he repeated.

"And again: I know."

"Do you not get what I mean?" he asked, irritated.

"Unless what you mean is that she wants to mount my hide on a wall, then I know perfectly well what you mean," I retorted.

He actually paused shaking the box just to look at me with the most flat eyes I'd ever seen on him. Then he shook his head. "I'd thought your stupidity was caused by lack of social interaction when you were in your old home, but now I see you're just that plain stupid." He shook his head again, then looked at the box and at the amount of sacks on the floor. "You know what, I think I only really needed one to prove my point." He placed the box on the bed and lifted up one of the sacks, showing it to me.

"I see it," I told him. "And judging from the blood, I'm guessing what's inside is no gift..."

"Depends on what you consider a gift," he said, "Now, you see Goldwreath, with what you did to Tod the other day, he is very much angry at you. For that reason he's sent an absolutely absurd number of chimeras after you to attempt to either capture or kill you and your friends. Now, THIS-..." He yanked out of the sack the severed head of a chimera and tossed it right at me. I held it for all of two seconds before dropping it to the floor in disgust. "... is what happened to those chimeras."

I gaped, staring at the severed head with both of it's eye sockets pierced with metal rebar. Then I look at all the other sacks in terror. "There's so many of them..."

He nodded. "And there's more of them, Goldwreath. So many more..." He shuddered, shifting uneasily. "I killed so many of them, but they are definitely not the last. I can't count how many he's sending after you."

I shook my head. "How can I defend against that?" I asked, bringing a hoof up to my brow. "Me and my friends... we barely escaped the underground, even with your help."

He sighed, picking up the chimera's head and putting it back into the sack. "That's exactly the problem. I can't stay to keep you all safe because the Legion views me as the worst terrorist possible and because I have duties to fulfill all over the remnants of the Roaman empire -- some of them are personal and some Specter business, but the fact is that I'm going to be away from you often." He sighed again, then pointed at the chimera sitting next to us. "Your only real option is to keep these four chimeras with you as sentinels at all times, wherever you go."

My eyes popped wide open. "I'll WHAT?!" I asked, askance, making Myst twist in the bed. I fought just to keep myself quiet as I continued in a softer voice, "You want me... to keep four chimeras with me, wherever I go, and let them protect me and my friends? That's my only choice?"

He nodded. "Yes, it is. The only effective choice, at least."

"Bullshit!" I hissed, then rambled hurriedly, "How could that be the only choice? Hell, why would I allow that -- how can I trust you or these things? What if Tod takes over them? What if a praetorian waltzes in, or a servant mare? What if someone finds them? Hell, would my friends even accept them? Having four monsters watching us day and night for who knows how long is NOT going to sit well with them or me."

"I knew you'd be opposed to the idea," he said solemnly, shaking his head. "But really, it's the only real way. I can't always be with you, and this is the next best defense. I can give them enough of a mind to evade sight -- camouflage into the walls, stay still all day away from sight when they're not needed, morph to look like people even -- and I can hard-wire their heads so that they can't be tampered with, not even by me. Therefore the only way they'll ever leave you if they get killed, and that's not quite likely. As for your friends, well... what they can't see they can't be uncomfortable about, and when they finally get exposed, just say you'll have done it for their safety."

I shook my head. "Absolutely not. Predator, I don't know if you know this, but I don't trust you. What little trust I had you destroyed that morning in the library. You're also one of them, and that puts your word in even greater discredit. Whenever I tried to help or understand you, you did something to us just because you took sick sadistic pleasure in doing it." I scowled and pointed at the chimera in the room with us. "That... thing, however you view it, is an abomination. A freak of everything that isn't nature. What's worse? You control it." I glared at him as I summarized my distaste, "So no. I'll not have these freaks controlled by you following me around. Not now, not ever."

He didn't respond. Didn't react. He just sat there, looking at the bed in silence. At Myst, then up at me. Then at last, "I see," he said flatly, getting up and cleaning away any trace of his presence. "If that's truly what you wish, then I will leave you to it. You'll see soon enough the necessity of putting aside these petty grudges in favor of efficiency and survival. The lesson will be painfully taught." He stopped, looking up at me with disappointed, concerned eyes. "I had hoped to spare you the pain, but I can see that you'll attempt to hold on to morality for as long as you can. Not the smart choice if you're concerned for the safety of your friends, I'm sure you know."

"What I know?" I spat, then pointed at the chimera. "There isn't much to know. If I accept your proposal, then I'm supporting the utter destruction of minds in favor of using chimeras as... tools. I can't accept that. When it comes to absolute necessity, it may be true that they're the only ones who can face off against their own kind with any manner of effectiveness. But there's such a thing as opposing what Tod does, and if I in any way accept any of it... then I'm not fighting him." I shook my head, scowling. "You don't fight a mountain with it's own boulders, Predator. That'd take too long and take too much effort to get anything done. To face monstrosities like this, we must look for other solutions. And we can only find them if we don't settle for the easy choice."

"Wise words, but foolish ones too," he replied, getting up and sending a quick signal through the air. The other three chimeras entered the room, prowling slowly and menacingly inside until they came to Predator. "True words as well, though. The problem is that this is the 'other solution' you seek. For two centuries, these chimeras have disguised as people, mutants, and animals. For two hundred years they've adapted to resist everything. Nothing else can suffice but using them against each other, and I will do what I can in that regard."

"And that's where we split ways," I retorted. "You have no standards. No morals. If it works, you do it. I still care for people, okay? I don't treat them like the wasteland says I should because I hate the wasteland. To that end, I'll say that against all common reasoning, I'm concerned for you as well. That may be my mistake, because now you seem to come to me every so often despite us having almost no common ground."

I breathed through clenched teeth, shaking my head. "But enough of all this. There's no point in this talk. No effect but a headache for me. I'll give you thanks for the treatment for Black Cloud, and for that alone. What lessons you seem to be trying to teach I'll never accept, and what morals I'm trying to get you to understand, you dismiss. So save us both time and just leave. Now."

Once more he didn't respond. He just got up, looked at me, then turned and trotted for the door, his chimeras right beside him. But then he stopped and glanced at the corner, at my things piled in a bundle around my saddlebags. Hesitating, he trotted over to it, and pulled out Vengeance.

"This is my revolver, you know. You never did give it back," he said as he turned it over in his hooves.

"Take it, then," I replied. "It served me well, but it is yours. No matter how much I hate you, that will stay the same."

He just looked it over for a moment, then kneeled and put it back. "No. You keep it. I have no use for it anymore, really. I'd hoped to use it to kill a certain someone, and now that I know he's alive I'm tempted to use it... but such weapons are to be of no effect." He growled menacingly and brought his hooves up, and his chimeras drew close and surrounded him as he seemed to glare at his own hooves. "These monster limbs, though... I can use these to tear his throat out. Much more appropriate than a bullet through the brain," he growled, then got up and glanced over at me. "But I digress. You don't want the troubles or strangeness I bring. And I do have other things to do, so... I'll take my leave."

"That would be very much appreciated," I scoffed. "Well, the balcony's wide open for you to leave. Feel free to at least give me the morning to feel like life isn't all fucked up."

He looked away, then after a moment's hesitation slowly trotted out. I followed him and his chimeras across the main room until he came to the balcony. There he hesitated again, his gaze darting between the rising sun and at me. "Are you certain you don't want to reconsider?" he asked in a rush. "Think on it carefully. I can't always just appear to save you if it ever comes down to it."

"Oh, for goodness sake, I'm sure!" I snapped, causing him to recoil from my tone. At the time I didn't care to think on the fact that I'd just either offended him or scared him. The former was more likely. "Don't you understand?" I asked as I approached, and he took a few steps back. "I don't want anything to do with you or them. You, I have to tolerate because you keep coming to me; frankly if I could make you never come back to me again I would. But to ask me to play host to a party of freaks? What madness is that?"

I scowled, shutting my eyes closed and taking several deep breaths. "No, just... fuck no. I half expected you to come here just for some flat-out sadistic plan; that at least would be more tolerable than what you ask of me. Now that you are here, though, I find that you're here to make sure we ‘stay safe'! That just doesn't add up. Why do you care, anyway?" I asked with a scowl of disbelief and disgust.

For the first time in a while, he seemed truly offended. Not angered or annoyed, not disgruntled or worried; just offended. I could see it in his eyes, in his hesitation to meet my gaze and in the furrow of his hidden brows. "Because... because somewhere, deep down in this form, amidst the raging storm of my mind, there's still a part of me that cares," he said in a soft, humble tone. "It's that simple."

"Oh, bull," I retorted. "That whole 'I have many minds and emotions and I'm indoctrinated' crap again. Honestly, even if you were that fucked up in the head, I still think you should have a bit more control. I just think you're an insane little fuck who's been made worse by Tod. No wonder why everybody hates you."

He recoiled back a bit, stopping himself with a jerk. He let out a shudder and nodded, looking away. "You know what?" he asked softly, so unlike how he normally spoke. "You're absolutely right. I should have more control. I wonder why I don't. Silly me." He choked, turning around and climbing up the railings of the balcony. "I guess I should spend some time reminiscing on it, then. Try to figure out how make it so that I have more control." He turned around and looked down at me, and the four chimeras came up from behind me and climbed up with him. He looked at each of them as they spread their wings, then at me again.

"Go on then," I said, shooing him away. "Go and do what you do, just as long as you think on and hopefully act on what I said." And actually changed; that would have been just wonderful.

He took a while to respond, but when he did his voice was unnaturally calm and without emotion. "I will." He spent a few more moments looking at me, then turned around and took a deep breath. He seemed to look at the sun for a moment. "You know... sometimes I wonder why I'm still allowed by whatever forces exist in the universe to keep living," he muttered under his breath, then sighed. Immediately two bony wings burst from his back, each formed to look like multi-bladed scythes. Under each bony protrusion came a scintillating aura of luminous green that formed to vaguely resemble wings. I gaped at the ghastly sight.

"Goodbye, Goldwreath. I'll think on what you told me," he said with utter lack of emotion before all five of them camouflaged into the clear air like chameleons, and moments later a strong gush of air blew across me. They were gone.

I should have felt good. Victorious even. I'd just gotten rid of him before he could ruin my day; before he could take the very essence of all that was strange and insane in the wasteland and inject it into my life. And yet I didn't -- rather, I felt... hollow. Not bad, just empty. Like in a Pyrrhic victory, I felt like I'd lost too much of something for my achievement to have been worth much. But what was it?

Well... nothing. I didn't lose anything, but I'd definitely missed out on something. No matter how I may have felt about him, he was right. Chimeras were the most ferocious and dangerous enemies I knew of, and in the short time I'd faced off against them they'd come terrifyingly close to utterly destroying us. Predator was the only physical entity I knew of to have proven strong enough to face off against them. And now, with him gone for an undetermined amount of time, I truly started to wonder whether I'd made the right choice or a terrible mistake.

"It's the right choice," I assured myself over and over. I didn't feel assured, though, and I continued to feel that way as I leaned against the railings and looked down at the hectic activity below. "Your friends are safe. This is the Forum; megaspells couldn't ruin this place, so a bunch of mutated freaks aren't going to have much better luck. You made the right choice, you made the right choice..." But there was really no denying it. Right choice morally: yes. Right choice logically... no. It was a horrible choice; these Legionnaires were fought hard against just by slavers and raiders, how much more for mutated, adapted monsters? Against a swarm of them, all with powers over mind and matter?

I huffed, placing my forehead against the railings and rubbing my temples. I needed a solution, one that didn't compromise my integrity and at the same time ensured my group's safety. So, like always, I thought. Now, we couldn't stay in one place all the time because the chimeras could get in. And we couldn't just keep moving around outside on our own without support; that would be just as dangerous. So the solution was simple: maneuver under capable protection.

The thought of that sent me straightening up. Yes, that was the solution. Survival was not about facing the elements directly, but about adapting. In maneuvering under capable guard, we could more effectively weather attacks. I clicked my tongue in thought, then looked down at and scrutinized everything I saw below -- every formation, every patrol, every low-flying VTOL and every hulking walker. And then I thought of the people who made up that marvelous modern army of Roaman soldiers: the Legionnaires.

The Legion's Legionnaires were the best, most well-equipped, most well-trained, and most well-organized troops in the Zebrican wasteland. One-for-one, a chimera could easily beat them. Maybe even group-for-group, for no matter how well-drilled Legionnaires were in formations, chimeras had the advantage of a psychic link. But Legionnaires were still the next best option aside from chimeras themselves. If I could get them into my group somehow, enlist their services... we'd be as safe as we could get. The problem now was how to get them to join us, even if temporarily. Perhaps I could talk to Vesperius about it; surely he'd understand the predicament. For if he knew of Tom, -- even if he simply knew him as 'the gods' -- then he might have known about Tod as well. He had spoken of a 'great destroyer'; could Tod be that?

Whatever the case, the path to the solution and the solution itself as clear. Talk to Vesperius, convince him to help. Then get a crew of Legionnaires and hope for the best. Easy enough.

Of course, if I was going to be trying to get some of them on my little band of misfits, I had to get to know them. It was unlikely Vesperius would let me choose who I'd bring along even if accepted my proposal, but there was no harm in making some friends.

* * * Magnus et Potens Roamanus * * *

There was really no denying it: talking to these soldiers was hard. If they weren't rushing around under orders of a centurion or performing special tasks so busily they couldn't entertain a conversation, they were either groaning in pain in a medical tent, worshiping in some makeshift marble temple to Jupiter Optimus Maximus, or manning a vehicle. Simply put, they either didn't want to talk or were too busy to. Socialization was only made more difficult by the fact that many of the soldiers present were recalled Equestrius troops, and they still didn't like me even when most of their fellow Legionnaires did.

I finally grew tired of trotting around and just sat down on the grass. "Well, this is going well," I grumbled, twisting one of the blades of grass around in my hooves. "I guess my title isn't so heavy as to make people drop their work just to talk to me. Kind of disappointing." Of course, they did recognize me. Delvius must have done a good job at describing me; in addition to being the only pony on the fields -- and therefore an eyecatcher of various looks ranging from curiosity to blank stares -- they took notice of me because they knew me from his little story. It still wasn't enough to get much out of them aside from a simple greeting, though. Not good news if I wanted to have friends instead of just allies. After all, even if Vesperius agreed to my request and sent some troops with me, my relationship with them was still all the difference between loyal followers willing to risk their lives and mere bodyguards who'd run when death was imminent.

After a few moments I got up again, this time adopting the strategy of letting them come to me; an interest to speak to me without real motivation was a sign that someone at least took notice of and was therefore concerned for me. I went along the same paths, trotting along the snaking cobblestone to the straighter, wider marble roads. I still took every opportunity to join in a talk or help out where I could, ranging from hammering in the last few wooden stakes of a newly-made trench to correcting a wrong piece of information. My efforts got me some thanks and appreciation, for the soldiers seemed to take it well that a guest of the Legate would get down in the dirt with them, and dirty a clean white toga just to assist.

The process of aimlessly trotting around, doing little chores where I could, finally yielded some real fruit when, as I turned and departed from a tent I'd been asked to bring some dulled gladii to, a voice called out from behind me, "Hey! Goldwreath!"

I stopped right under the tent's flaps. I knew that voice. Which was saying a lot, because in all honesty a great many zebra voices sounded very alike. I turned around and caught sight of him as he approached, and I smiled. "Delvius. Good to see you."

"And you as well, my friend!" He wrapped a hoof around my neck and dragged me forward and out of the tent's entrance. He seemed to be in quite a good mood. "Good to see you. We didn't exactly get to say proper goodbyes last time we met."

"True enough," I replied. "I apologize. In my haste to meet your Legate, I put aside thought of most everything else."

"Ah," he waved his hoof dismissively as he trotted forward, his hoof dragging me along. "No need to apologize. Business with the legatus legionis should always take priority; that's the stuff the determines the lives of us lowly Legionnaires, after all." He laughed a good-natured chuckle, withdrawing his hoof from around my neck. "And even after your business is concluded -- I presume -- you actually decide to mingle among us troops! For that, on behalf of the first cohort Roamana's auxilia, I thank you."

I cocked my head. "Er, your welcome. Really, though, I was just trying to help out."

"Oh, you've done more than that," he said, gesturing for me to follow him as he trotted off. I followed him, and the moment we turned the corner of the tent and went behind it I found myself facing a small circle of relaxed-looking auxiliaries sitting around a dancing flame. They had plates of cooked grain and salted meats laying about them. Delvius gestured at them. "You've met Mavius and Bailan. That one there's Kevanus. And of course you know Gravetanicus and Venaius."

I nodded. "Indeed I do. How could I forget Venaius and Gravetanicus' help in the Colosseum?" I asked with a friendly little smile, then muttered softly, "Or Bailan's heabutt..."

"You shouldn't forget our help," Venaius said, getting up off of a mattress and giving me a cocky little smile. "I saved your flank in that place, you know. You should be thanking me."

"Oh, do shut up," Delvius said, rolling his eyes. "If he needed to thank you, I'm sure he has. As of now, though, we owe him for making the rest of our morning free of work."

"I did?" I asked, giving him a quizzical look. "All I did was hammer in a few stakes and worked as an errand-pony for a few centurions. And then there was that little task for bringing the dulled gladii to the metalsmith, of course."

"Exactly," he replied, offering me a wooden stool to sit on. "Coincidences do occur, and it just so happened that the work you did was the work some lazy stallions were supposed to do." He glanced over at his fellow auxiliaries.

"I did my work," Mavius said blankly, shrugging. "Gravetanicus did, too. Kevanus and Bailan didn't have any work to begin with. Venaius over here was the one who overslept."

"I was tired yesterday, okay?" Venaius retorted. "Not exactly easy playing Marius mule for our officer's stuff."

"Actually, considering that you Legionnaires carry like fifty kilograms of weight all the time, I'd imagine you got used to it," I said, getting a snicker from Gravetanicus and Mavius but an unappreciative look from Venaius. "Correct me if I'm wrong, of course."

"Nope, you're not wrong," Delvius said, gently turning me so that I faced away from his fellows. Then he sat down on a stool next to me and offered me a bowl of... well, it looked like porridge. "Here, have some. I think you earned it, and even if you didn't you' still be my guest in our less than humble abode." He grumbled, glancing back at their meager living space. "Honestly, at least a decent tent..." he muttered.

I looked down at the steaming slop in the bowl. Well, it's not like I was going to be ungrateful, and I had been away for a good deal of the early morning, and so a ravenous hunger had brewed in my stomach. But, "There's no meat in this, right?" I asked.

"Nah," he replied. "Meat's precious. We only ever eat it if our docs say we need the protein. For the most part we just eat grain mixed with olive oil and olives, sometimes with vegetables." He gave me a questioning look. "Why?"

"Vegetarian," was all I said before slowly putting the bowl's tip to my mouth and taking in a sip of the steamy rice slop. I found myself liking the flavor; it was actually better than the oatmeal served in my Stable! "Huh. Pretty good. I can really taste the olives."

He snickered, looking proud. "Glad you like it. I guess the freshness of the stuff they grow in these fields isn't to be questioned. Still not as good as that fancy stuff they serve up there, though," he said, gesturing at the Forum. Then he looked at me and smiled for a moment as he saw me more fervently eating the food, but then he furrowed his brows and asked, "So, I hope you don't mind if I ask a few questions?"

"Go ahead," I replied, biting into a big olive chunk. "I ask people lots of questions; sometimes I wonder if they ever get annoyed. It'd be hypocritical if I denied others the right to inquire."

He snickered. "Alright. For starters, what's got you out of the luxury of the great Forum and here on the dirt with us grunts and plumes?"

I pulled my face away from the bowl and gave him an easy grin. I hesitated, though. It wasn't exactly okay to just go and tell him I wanted to find a Legionnaire -- or Legionnaires -- who'd be willing to come and follow me and possibly suffer a painful death at the claws of chimeras. "Just wondering what it was like down here. Wanted to know what all the noise was about. Generally, what was happening down here."

He nodded slowly, clearly not quite convinced. "Well, if that's what you want to know, right now Roamana's fortifying the Forum as a field of operations; we aren't going to be working out of ramshackle forts out in the city. Equestrius is being recalled, and when they're here they'll be sent to Arx. Further orders will come on a tiny piece of paper from Legate Vesperius' desk to Flavianicus' hooves, then to the primus pilus, to the centurions, the optios, and finally to us."

I took all that in, thinking on the implications. "So there'll be no garrison for the city until Roamana heads out?"

He seemed unsettled at the prospect of that, but nodded. "Afraid so. There's a little tactic to that, though. In Legion absence, gangs and cults and all kinds of nasty shit will spring up all over. Now that's not entirely bad. See, they remain in hiding when we're around, but Flavianicus is prepping us so that when we head out we'll be able to steamroll over their sorry flanks and not give them any time to hide." He grinned devilishly, then put on a more controlled smile. "At least, that's what he tells us. I just think Flav doesn't want to risk isolating garrisons. Still, would be a great bonus to pound exposed barbarians into the dirt..." He grinned again.

Well... it made some sense, but I really had to go with the latter possibility. Sending out garrison detachments all over the city would isolate them, making them easy to destroy with concentrated effort. Having the whole cohort out in the city all at once presented them as a much tougher opponent. "Well... I certainly hope it'll work out for you guys. And you better get out there soon; the innocent people can only survive the rise of chaos for so long before they either die out or join in to survive. Then you'd have to kill them too... I don't want to hear news of a slaughter."

With a grim face, he nodded. "Gotcha." Then he suppressed a yawn, leaning backwards and stretching his back. "Well, that's basically all that's going on that concerns Roam. The other cohorts are sweeping through the cities in what were once Roaman provinces -- Felinixia is stomping down swarms of bestial cats, Ursalanix is clearing the coast and jungles of wild, mutated ursas, so on and so forth. They're having it hard too, though. We'll see what happens."

By this point I felt like I was getting swept up into things I didn't truly care for, but I played along with it. "Yeah, we'll see what happens." I looked down at the food again, then with some hesitation continued eating.

He took notice of my hesitation again, but this time he acted on his suspicions. "Are you sure that you came down here for all this? You don't exactly bear a face of satisfaction."

For just a moment, I wanted to deflect the question. But then I realized that I had, after all, come down here to look for help. I was bound to explain my predicament to whoever would have wanted to come with me anyway. No point in lying. "Alright, I'm gonna be honest with you," I said, shifting to get a little closer to him.

"Just as I thought," he said with a satisfied smirk. "My hunches are always right. What's on your mind?"

I placed down the porridge and thought for a moment. "Okay. Listen, I'm looking for somebody to share in an... adventure." I looked at him, trying to spot a reaction. He had his brows up ad was looking at me with piqued interest, so I took it as my cue to continue, "It's... kind of hard to explain. I have some enemies... powerful enemies that want to kill me. They know I'm here, in the Forum. At some point, they'll get me. So I have to move, maneuver; keep myself as elusive a target as possible. But they're still powerful, and in the case that they find me we'll need help." I sighed and looked away. "I came here hoping to find someone who'd be willing to accompany us; I'd hoped for several volunteers, but that's not likely. So I'll settle for for one or two. Or any support at all. That's all I want."

There, I said it. He'd have questions, and I couldn't answer them all without making his day bad. But I'd just said it.

"These... 'enemies'..." he started slowly. "How powerful are they?" He started rummaging through one of his bags.

"Very powerful. Telekinesis, psychokinesis, extreme physical prowess... the worst of the worst, nightmarish to see and hell to fight."

He nodded, looking grim. "And... these enemies..." he continued, pulling out of his bag several pieces of paper. "Would they happen to be..." He took a piece of paper and held it in front of his face, then cleared his throat and read, "...'black as the night, with sickly light glistening off of an armored hide. They have eyes burning green like balefire or red like lava, and with these horrible organs posses a stare that could petrify a zebra of any stature or strength. Claws, too, they possess, and with these could tear through metal like paper and flesh like air. Upon their vaguely reptilian forms they bear markings of other beasts; most terrifying of all is the snout and wings of dragons, and second to that the tail of a manticore protruding from it's back, and upon the end it bears the barb of the beast we call mounts for nobles.'" He put the paper down, then looked at me with a questioning expression.

I was too shocked to immediately react. "You... you know of them? The Legion knows of them?" Perhaps I wasn't alone in my struggle. There was hope for a concentrated effort to destroy them!

"More or less," he replied, stuffing the papers away. "But not much," he said with a twinge of disappointment. "Remember that we've only been out here for roughly six months. Not a lot of time to catalogue all the creatures we encounter and circulate information about them." He sighed, taking out the paper again and tossing it over at me. "That right there is the only report on those creatures you speak of, copied and distributed to every Legionnaire as part of an attempt to create a creature guide. Compare that to the dozens upon dozens of reports on every other creature, and you have a Legion that knows almost nothing of these ones." He sighed, glancing over at his fellow auxiliaries. "I myself am one of the few to have taken the time to read all the reports and familiarize with the creatures referred to in them. Truth be told, I think the Legion as a whole has dismissed the existence of these monsters due to the lack of contact."

"Well, then you need to convince them otherwise," I insisted. "These things are terrible foes with mind-powers. Can a bestial mutate another creature with biokinesis? Can a manticore morph to look like a pony or zebra? Can a fucking giant cockroach possess the genes of various other animals? No!" I stomped for emphasis.

"And I agree with you; the Legion needs to know of this threat," he replied, nodding in understanding. "But the fact is that, unless we get a true sighting and preferably a corpse of one of these, most of these guys won't take the notion of their existence seriously. Hell, those guys over there think my occasional attempt to look for one of these creatures is a sign of madness."

"Then join me," I said, scooting closer. "I came here to seek help, but knowing that the Legion as a whole knows of them, even if barely, changes everything. I don't have to keep them a secret anymore, you realize how much of a relief that is?" I hissed.

He nodded. "I can see how much of a relief it is, yes," he said. "So you would have me join you? Assist you in your endeavors against these creatures?"

I nodded hectically. "Yes, exactly. Don't you see? Together with my friends, you and I can expose these creatures as the threat they truly are. We can make war on them and destroy them. I've seen and fought them, so trust me when I say that they are without a doubt the single greatest direct threat to Roam's continued existence."

My choice of words seemed to shock him. "Well, when you put it that way..." He glanced away, looking uncertain. He seemed to think for a moment as he sat there in silence. I just waited patiently, hoping for the best.

Then finally, "I have many duties, you know," he said, looking at me. "As an auxiliary, I must be with my cohort at all times to guard their flanks and rear when they are on the move. There's also much hassle to go through if I were to accompany you -- so many officers to inform, so many papers to sign, wavers and all..." He shuddered. "And I don't want to do something that could ruin my career as a Legionnaire. I still have a family down there, and I have to support them. And if I die..." He gulped, puckering his lips.

But just as I feared the dreaded rejection, he looked at my agape mouth and disbelieving eyes and gave me a small, determined smile, saying, "But I shall join you." His lips curled into a confident smirk. "My sacramentum demands that I protect Roam. If these creatures are as dangerous as you say, it would be foolish to not target them. And what's more, you're the only other person I've talked to that openly acknowledges their existence. For Roam and for her safety, you have services."

He got up and straightened his back, and I did the same. "I shall begin preparations. I have friends, and they'll need to know what I'm getting into. My family needn't; for them, all they need to know is that I'm fighting up here, specifics don't matter. But before I do anything else, my superiors are the first whom I shall approach."

I nodded, sighing in relief. "Alright. And Delvius... thank you. Thank you for being the help I was looking for, and thank you for so quickly deciding to join me. Even when it meant leaving things behind and even if it required great effort on your part." I meant what I said with every fibre of sincerity. Sometimes only the small strokes of good luck and good I came across made me realize that not all was bad or tainted.

He snickered, nodding. "Ah, don't think on it. Sacramentum or no, I realize the severity of the threat. And like hell am I going to pass off the opportunity of assisting the only other person who does, too. Roam demands initiative from her soldiers, and that's what I'll give her." He smirked, tapping my shoulder with a hoof.

Of course he did. I smiled. "Well then, you'll find no shortage of things to take the initiative on. That I guarantee you."

"I'm counting on it," he said with a determined little smile; the kind one gets when one knows he's getting himself into an adventure, and loves the very feeling of it. "Anyways, enough of this chit-chat. Like I said, I have various things to tie up. A few bridges to burn, a few to reconstruct... starting first with my superiors, then those louts over there." He glanced over at his fellows, then frowned a little. "I'll miss those idiots. I'll maintain contact, but I guess this is a goodbye for now. If only they knew the authenticity of the threat..." He sighed.

I could relate. I'd left lots of things behind in my involuntary exodus. Here he was joining me of his own will. For that, it was only fair that I show my appreciation with more than just words. I could be there with him when he explained it to them. That was the least I could do.

But before much else happened a warhorn blew across the fields. And it clearly wasn't Legion, because everyone stopped dead the moment they heard it. Everything was eerily quiet as the horn blew again, and soon the unmistakable synchronized marching of armored boots vibrated through the ground. A great many people were on the move, and they didn't seem to be stopping any time soon.

"What is going on..." Delvius murmured as he trotted around the corner of the tent, his fellow auxiliaries following close behind. "That's no horn of Equestrius or Roamana, and no other cohort is here..." We reached the front of the tent, where from down the wide marble road we saw black and purple figures approaching.

"Not any Legion cohorts, at least," Venaius said with quiet awe, then pointed a hoof at a dancing banner of purple. The symbol on it became clearer as it got closer. "Scorpion insignia. Praetorians."

"Praetorians?" I asked, getting up right to the edge of the road. More Legionnaires from both cohorts started crowding towards the main road, too. Centurions and their sub-officers found ther orders landing on deaf ears and decided to investigate. The immunes -- soldiers with special roles that exempted them from regular duty -- gradually abandoned their work in favor of seeing what the gathering crowd was watching.

Venaius was right. A full cohort of Praetorian guards, all armed and armored, were marching down the road towards the main gate. More synchronized than any Legionnaire, more intimidating than any tank -- that's what they were, for as they neared they seemed to radiate an aura of ferocity masked only by the metal on their faces. And there were so many of them; more than I'd seen in the Forum. I couldn't even imagine where the rest of them had come from, yet here they were. Several hundred or Roam's finest, marching down a road with mysterious intent.

The marching column came closer, letting all who stood by watch in silence as they neared the gate. The few sentries manning the activation mechanism for the walls' walk-through system were anxious, fidgeting as the nearly robotic praetorian guards came closer and closer. And who could blame them? A sight like that, showing off limbs swinging with unnatural order and with faces obscured by black, scowling metal... no one should ever have to be faced with that. Those who were on the sides scrutinized with their eyes the sight before them, as if trying to discern the meaning of the event with their gazes alone.

And I was one of them. Was. The moment I saw that golden mask and the helmet with plumes larger than the rest, my awe and curiosity died. I grew grudges very fast, and kept them for the most part. That one morning of idealogical sparring did not leave my head, nor did he who perpetrated it. The moment my eyes saw the praefect, I just knew in my gut this wasn't something normal or good.

Maybe I was wrong. Maybe the guards just decided to finally do something. But the fact that the praefect gave me a very long, very suspicious stare as he passed by did not indicate I was.

And Delvius noticed it. "What was that about? You two had an argument?"

Either he was good at making hunches or he was just perceptive enough to discern the truth. Either way, I was quietly impressed at the accuracy of his guess. "Yes, and not even a friendly debate. This one we had was bad."

"Of course it was. I could tell it from the way his eyes glimmered under that mask." He gave the praefect a hard look, and with his back turned Delvius didn't worry about possibly retaliation. But he was met with retaliation, much to his surprise; eight full lines of praetorian guards all immediately looked at him with such drone-like timing that it made him balk. Under such attention, and now under the questioning gazes of his fellow Legionnaires as well, it was understandable that his glare wavered and he looked down to the ground until the attention focused on him dissipated.

The column immediately stopped, the vibration of their final step reverberating through the ground. The praefect took one look at each of the sentries, trotted forward, and after less than a minute of conversation in which the sentries seemed to be trying to stick with their orders, they finally gave up and called for the walls to dematerialize. A moment later and the perimeter of the Forum was nothing more than a glowing translucent skeleton, and the column moved again and trotted out into the city. Everyone behind them watched with quiet inquiries and disbelieving faces until the walls rematerialized, locking the praetorian cohort outside in the wasteland.

Everything after that was all questions. 'Where are they going, and right on the eve of our assault?' 'Wo they leave now of all times?' 'Have the guards gone mad?' Such inquiries ran around the crowd like wildfire until gradually the centurions got their troops back to their posts. But even when they were all back to their spots, Delvius and I still stood on the edge of the road, thinking.

"I'm getting a gut-feeling that that was bad, somehow," he said. "Just... why would they? And what was with their staring? Creepy."

"You stole the words right from mind," I replied, shaking my head before looking at him questioningly. "The praetorians hold no oath to the Legion, yes? Only to the Forum and to a long-dead emperor, yes?"

"Yeah," he nodded. "Those crazy ghouls have been patrolling those halls and watching those statues and vases for the past two hundred years. Even the earliest reports from the first party we sent up the surface reports them as doing that, and that was two centuries before we even decided to make our exodus."

Well, I guess them being ghouls was common knowledge to everyone in the Legion, then. "So what exactly makes this so unprecedented, so surprising?" I knew the answer, of course. I knew, but I wanted to see if he saw it the same way.

"Because they've never stepped out of this place for the entirety of the apocalypse," he replied simply. "It's almost like they literally have no lives aside from the Forum."

And apparently he did view it the way I did. "Alright then. So, barring that rather... strange occurrence, and everything that happened with it, what will you do now? I don't mean to rush you, but I feel tense. Especially after some recent talks with some people that I don't like. So if you don't mind, I'd like to accompany you as soon as you're heading out so that we can conclude all this business. I feel... exposed out here."

Thankfully, he didn't seem offended in the slightest. He just smiled and nodded. "Well then, come. Flavianicus should be in his tent drinking coffee right now; we can't find a time when he'd be in a better mood. Hopefully tackling it with him will negate having to with my centurion. Then I'll just have to break it to my friends... and then after that, if all goes well and smooth, you can safely say you have a Roaman Legionnaire with you." Then he brought his hoof up to the back of his head and scratched it. "Besides, after that weird shit... I need a distraction."

I nodded, relieved. "Alright then. You lead the way. I don't exactly know my way around here."

He smiled and gestured for me to follow. "Alright then. Follow me, and we'll be at his tent in no time." I did as he said, and followed him right from the moment he excused himself from his friends' company all the way to the moment we got onto the main marble road and crossed it, making our way through the maze of tents until we found ourselves moving up an uphill slope. For the most part, I left him alone as he seemed to think away the last of his concerns. Just because he'd agreed didn't mean he couldn't have some second thoughts running around his head.

"You know, I just thought of something," he said at last, pulling out his notebook. "The story I was writing of you? I think I can safely say it'll be a hundred percent accurate from now on," he said with a smirk, waving the notebook around in his hooves.

I gave the notebook a good long look, then snickered. "You know, I think we'll be good friends, you and I." I took the notebook into my hooves, turning it around in my hooves. "And I also think things will be very different from now on."

"For the better, right?" he asked with a cocky little smirk as he took it back.

I smiled, looking him over. "Oh yeah. Definitely for the better."

Footnote: Level Up
New group unlock: Group Size, Tier 2 -- There he is, the guy that starts your ability to have a group within your group. Get ready to field a large party. You'll need it.

Comments

[_CheckMate_]

Ah, lovable, innocent, naive Goldie; when will you learn?
Predator's getting more character building? I'm thinking Goldwreath's soon going to realize he's the only one who can change him for the better and that bit of scorn and brush-off is going to make it all the more harder to do so
(Congrats! Predator has now tied Security as best FoE character despite being a side character)
Can't believe how fast you are able to write these things (stories with chapters a third as long update about 4 times slower than this piece of work)
Waiting in anticipation for the next bit
-Check Mate

[_CheckMate_]

I do hope Skyfire finds her special someone though; seriously, she needs to be cut a break (then again I had voted for her rather than Mist; but now like this pairing better).

[Delvius]

2544411 Oh, she'll get a... 'break' soon enough. You'll see...

[_CheckMate_]

2544447 I don't like the looks of those quotation marks...

[Luminous Lead]

It's really hard to get over Gold's blazing arrogance and implacable self-righteousness, especially when he's tearing Predator a new one. I know it's not MEANT to be a likeable trait, but it still bugs me.

Hmm, looks like Gold's still expanding his posse. He'll have an army of his own at this rate.

[Delvius]

2545237 Well, Roamans have always beem self-righteous in some ways, and that's how GW sees himself: as a Roaman. Besides, they all have to have SOME bad trait.

And an army... well, I wouldn't say a LEGION, but maybe something smaller...

[Delvius]

2547570 Oh well, haha, it's kind of almost forty degrees here, so I think we have it a bit harder.

And everything I put in this chapter I put in for a reason, ranging from Pred-GW's conversation (and Pred's subsequent backing down) all the way to Delvius' possible introduction into the group. And yes, GW does know of sex, BUT he knows only of the physical aspects of it. The social, well... let's just say that he quickly forgets what those movies taught him.

[IReadStoriesAboutHorses]

How dense can Goldwreath be?
Other than that im really confused by now at how predator acts and reacts..... he's an enigma to me

[Delvius]

2566192

A) Very dense! this is a stallion that has seen nothing of romance aside from in comics and movies, and even then he forgot whatever he learned quickly because he couldn't find a means of excercising his learnings.

B) Oh, he's an enigma to me, too. Just the way I like him/it.

[lonepony]

A bit of an issue, in one part of the story you say,

"It was then that the nearest praetorian mech stomped dangerously close; an event that surprised all of us but Doodle, Vesperius, and Doomtune (and any nearby praetorians). "

But in the next paragraph,

"Just then Doodle came in, accompanied by a single guard, and squealed in delight at the sight before her."

So I think she is a bit misplaced.

[Delvius]

2574245 Oh yes, that was a little mistake on my part. Thanks a bunch for spotting it.

[Doomande]

Half of what Rowling wrote with her Harry Potter series on only a year... Damn we Fo:E guys are productive must I say

[Delvius]

2583095 Because Goldwreath's awesome.

'Nuff said.

[Delvius]

2583188 Yes, we are indeed.

[Delvius]

2590118 Yes you are, but you should always over think. In any case, your hypothesis is interesting.

[Delvius]

2592431 Like I said, overthinking is fine as long you don't OVERDO overthinking. Besides, I like readers who speculate.

[thatguyvex]

Alright, finally caught up with the recent chapters. Its been good to have the party in a spot where they can just relax and absorb things for a bit without having to fight for their lives, though Goldwreath still manages to nearly die even then; poor guy just has to have a freaky psychic god-alien as an enemy.

Gah, the sexual tension between him and Myst is thick enough you could use it to deflect an artillery barrage. From orbit. At this point I think Myst's only option if she wants some lovin' from the GW is to just freakin' present herself, flick the tail aside, and straight up tell him to mount her. And even then he might not get it. I wonder if part of the reason he has such a hard time figuring out that she wants him is that his experiences with sex in the Wasteland have almost all been negative; witnessing rape and the like. His mind might just have such a negative association with such (possibly an unconscious one, since he doesn't ever seem to even think about it) with sex that he can't grasp that Myst might actually want to do that with him.

Huh, well Predator, if you weren't terrifying before, now that you can control chimera and mind-wipe them (also possibly being able to mind-wipe normal ponies and zebras too for all we know) you have been upgraded to ball shrinkingly terrifying. Honestly GW, you probably should've taken the psychopathic zebra up on the offer of some chimera guards, unless you plan on acquiring a balefire egg launcher in the near future.

Hm, not much screen time for Skyfire, but she remains my favorite. Its understandable she's not really over Goldwreath, and unfortunately there really isn't anything for that kind of thing except time. Sure getting her hooked up with someone else might help if there was a viable candidate around, but rebound relationships aren't exactly healthy either. Oh well, perhaps everything will turn out alrigh-
2544447
... Or I'll start getting very, very worried for my favorite Enclave pegasus.

[Delvius]

2613497 Well, much of what you speculate is true. Goldwreath does not get that kind of thing because of many factors, one of which is that the only sex he's ever witnessed/been witness to has been negative, hence, aside from faint biological cues that all ponies have, he knows nothing of how good, normal sex is supposed to go. Of course, it also doesn't help that the only 'norma' or 'good' romances he's seen were either things in movies or in books, and even then he may not have gotten much time to confirm their validity simply because he never got to practice his social skills. But he'll get over it all.

Skyfire... well, of course she isn't over him. It's been a month -- stuff like that, contrary to how any of the FoE stories depict it, doesn't pass away even in years. Of course that's not to say her situation will always be as it is now, but I'm trying to make it so that the problems they have, while significantly smaller in number than say... Blackjack's, each, on their own, possess a larger chunk of the attention and time of the character the problem pertains to. But don't worry, as Skyfire will get a 'break' soon enough.

Thanks for the input, pal.

[Hazard]

Once again a great chapter. Good to see that Zaita hasn't been forgotten.
And, yet again, Goldwreath is absolutely clueless...but he's (very slowly) making progress.

Predator returns and we get to see a different side of him! It will be interesting to see what the results of his thinking will be, for certain.

If you don't mind me saying, however, the chapter seems a bit rushed, especially early on. I don't mean that in terms of pacing, either. It's more due to the concentration of errors early on (the later sections didn't get away unscathed, but they were better) , which I'll now point out.

I shut my mouth close, waiting for a moment to let my head sort itself out.
"Yeah, you take care of your stallionfriend," before shutting the door close.
or a bad advise-giver
doorway, before slowly creaking the door close. "You and Goldwreath have fun now, you here? Heh... hehe..."

before proceeding to push the door close.
absolute fact that it as six AM.
we could more effectively whether attacks.
so many papers to sign, wavers and all..
say, it would be foolish not target them.

Get ready to field a very large part. You'll need it.

misspelled/wrong word
missing letter/word
unnecessary

Once again I apologize, but my nature doesn't let me ignore things like these.

[Delvius]

2619924 Well, thanks for pointing these out! All the things said have been duly noted, as well as the remark for it feeling rushed. It's actually true, as I had to write the lot of this in just a week or so. Eheh, I write in bursts like that.

[Hazard]

2621987 ...also it seems the chapter has again suffered the "thousands of words disappeared" problem. When I read it, it was around 26k, but now it's only showing about 19k. If it's because you're working on it, then please, ignore this.

[Delvius]

2623804 What the... thanks for pointing this out. I didn't know it. Damn it Knighty, why does this keep happening. I'll fix it when I can.

[Delvius]

2636180 Thank you very much for these series of comments, good man. Glad to see there are still some people who read and comment -- I wish all readers were like that.

In any case, do feel free to give me your feedback and any other thoughts floating around in your head regarding my story; I sure would love to hear them.

[Delvius]

2544282 Oh yes, Predator is going to get more development. They all will, really. And I suppose you're right, Goldwreath really will have to think on what he says...

And glad to have such anticipation, by the way.

EDIT: Please do forgive me for this extremely late bit, but Predator ain't no side character.

[_CheckMate_]

2636931 Yeah, you're right. I just wasn't sure how to classify him since he isn't a Mane (ignore shameless pun) character -i.e. part of the protagonist's main party like Sky and Mist; nor is he the antagonist (anymore)

[Delvius]

2650126 Recurring main is more like it. Besides, who do you think the blue-armored guy on the cover art is?