Fallout Equestria: Ashes to Ashes

by Tango

Chapter 10: Revelations

Ashes to Ashes – Chapter 10

Revelations

After convincing the sheriff to aid me in bribing Poly it was a piece of cake to get her to come along. Armed with my flamer, sugar bombs and the strongest pony in the wastes (or at least the most unintionally destructive) I went my way to see where in the name of Tartarus my friends had gone. Also on my to-do list was, besides quite probably breaking into the camp of the Timberwolves, finding out why exactly they had gone without me. Before we got to that point however, I had to solve a rather difficult issue: finding out where to go exactly. The always helpful sheriff had pointed me in a the general direction and told me that they'd holed up in a forest. Hmm, too bad that my friends were there as well, otherwise my new plaything would make smoking those thugs out ridiculously easy.

As I was contemplating the best ways to roast some raiders Poly suddenly spoke up. Well, it was more of a very loud “Squeeee!” followed by her bouncing around me and pointing forward.

Following the direction of her leg I saw what she was pointing at: a four-legged creature primarily made out of bark, long fangs, sharp claws and a lot of anger. What I assumed was a timberwolf was growling deeply at me and Poly from only a few meters away. It was a lot more threatening than I had expected it to be, due to using the Timberwolf gangmembers as comparison. The size played a big role in it as well, as the wolf was twice as large as I was, even in his (or her?) crouched down position, ready to strike.

The biggest thing in my advantage though was the quite obvious fact of the wolf being made out of logs and branches. I still had to be careful though, one wrong movement and the beast would leap at me and if I would burn it too late I would have a seriously pissed off, burning wild animal in my face. Not a good idea. I would have to play this careful, slowly circle around him, study his movements and...

“PUPPY!” The exclamation from Poly almost threw me off balance and the following charge by the giant finished the job of knocking me off my hooves. The timberwolf seemed just as flabbergasted as I was and stood there, petrified with its tail between its legs as Poly tackled him and quite literally hugged him to death. The sounds of snapping logs and branches combined with howls and yells of pain filled the air before slowly fading. The wolf struggled, but Poly hardly seemed to notice the deep scratches his claws left on her back.

As I watched the giant mare pet and hug the lifeless body I made frantical mental notes to never act cute while around her, not that I knew how to do that. My mental scribbling was interrupted however as a distant howl pierced the air, soon followed by another, and another, and another, and, well, you get the idea, I got the nagging feeling that we were going to be screwed very soon. The one good thing about the howls, except for warning me about an imminent attack, was that it focused my attention towards them, and made me notice our goal.

True, before the war this might have been called a forest, but as of now the collection of charred wood, bushes and a living tree here and there hardly qualified as one anymore. When I’d looked in that direction before I hadn’t realized it even was the forest we were looking for, some big park at best. Still though, the collection of dark wood, branches and the occasional leave-roof provided enough shade for me to not see a thing in there. Well, except for the pair of glowing yellow orbs. And its numerous companions. At least now I had an idea of why my friends hadn’t come back yet!

I wasn’t a fast runner, and I doubted I could outrun a dozen of the things, especially with them being not so happy about their friend and me being slowed down by the flamer. Besides, I still had to field-test said flamer. “Poly! More puppies coming!” I hoped that would convince her to abandon the boring, not-moving puppy and go hug the interesting jumpy ones. It would of course be nice as well if she survived, but with her walking through walls and not noticing I somehow figured she’d be okay.

Of course I had to take care of myself too, and the best way to do so was to face the general direction of the wolves and point at them with my flamer. Letting out a warning flame seemed like a good idea too, and the bright flame did elicit some yelps from my foes.... But then they came out. Now no longer in the cover of the shades I could clearly see them, all fourteen of them. All fourteen big, angry, wooden wolves. And they were way too clever too! Instead of just rushing at me one by one like good doggies they slowly crawled closer, staying right outside of the range of my flamer and beginning to circle us. Next to me Poly had dropped the dead wolf and was now curiously looking at the wolves. It didn’t take a genius to figure out that if we’d let them go ahead and execute their plan we’d be boned, so what we needed was something unexpected, something to throw them off guard.

So I jumped onto Poly’s back and took one the sweets. Once I made sure Poly had seen it I threw it right behind the wolves. In the second they were distracted by seeing the candy fly over their heads Poly took off, galloping right at them while I charged my horn and aimed my flamer while simultaneously attempting to hold on to the charging mare. My multitasking skills were tested pretty vigorously by all of this.

In reaction we got greeted by a flurry of fangs and claws as the closest wolves leapt at us. I had anticipated such a reaction though, and rewarded their effort by blasting one of them in the head with a fireball and incinerating another two with my awesome flamer, getting some loud cries from them. It was really too bad that a fourth wolf knocked me from my steed and sent me rolling over the floor. Even worse was that five more wolves all working together managed to get Poly down, indicated by a minor earthquake.

Poly’s condition though was the last thing on my mind as of now, considering I was currently in the middle of a pack of unhappy timberwolves. At least my brilliant tactical move had ensured some chaos amidst the canines. Setting several highly flammable creatures on fire tends to create mass panic among the group. That gave me some valuable seconds to get back onto my hooves and get my bearings again.

The first thing I saw was the gaping jaw of the one that had knocked me off. From up close those fangs looked even bigger, and sharper, and closer obviously. In short it was a rather frightening sight, made even scarier by the jaws snapping at me and pulling a part of my mane out. Judging by the blood and the sharp, burning pain he also included part of my skin along with the hair.

I screamed in terror and scrambled back, away from the snapping jaws. That move saved my face as his clawswipe only scratched my cheek, as opposed to tearing it apart. Still though, this fight wasn’t going in my favour, but hey! What was that on my battlesaddle, pointing directly at the wolf?

I fired and a stream of fire spewed out of the flamer, turning the timberwolf into a bonfire. A squeeking, trashing bonfire. It was pretty amusing actually, how such a frightening creature could suddenly become so... pathetic, helpless against the flames slowly burning up his body. I giggled softly and let out another jet of flames as I took a couple of steps towards it. The whimpering and howling mass of burning wood crawled away from me and my fire. Funny how the roles of hunter and prey could be reversed so incredibly easily.

As I stood there, contemplating philosophical questions, I got the nagging feeling I was forgetting something. Something important. My nagging feeling got quickly replaced by intense pain though another wolf helpfully reminded me that the fight wasn’t over by swiping me with its claw.

As I sailed through the air I caught a glimpse of Poly who was struggling to fight off four of the wolves simultaniously, while a two more leaped at her. I didn’t have time to think about it though as it was time for my unpleasant reuinion with the ground. My momentum sent me rolling for a couple of meters before I managed to stop and try and get up again. Note the word ‘try’. Before I could blink I was pinned by the weight of the wolf who had presumably swiped me. That wasn’t an observation, just a guess, my vision was way too blurry to be able to distinguish any of those wolves.

Not really feeling comfortable in my position, I decided to use my magic to blast the creature’s head away. The timberwolf however had other plans and clenched its jaws tightly around my neck, clamping my windpipe shut. On top of that he swiped my horn with one of his claws, now that he didn’t need that anymore to pin me. Upon impact my magic imploded and I realized I didn’t have enough time to charge up another one. Panicking, I attempted to flail and hit and push the wolf away. It didn’t helped me one bit though, the only thing I achieved was making the wolfs fangs dig deeper in my throat.

I started having trouble seeing, and my lungs seemed to be on fire with how desperate they were for air, I felt myself getting very tired. I stopped struggling against the timberwolfs grip since it didn’t make a difference anyway. Nothing I did seemed to do anything actually. Hiding under the bed? Nope, leave it to Ember to botch it up. Making a friend? Pointless because he gets killed. Save ponies from slavers? Get ponies killed. Take simple revenge? Not without... a price. Free a town? Doesn’t matter, they all kill each other anyway, with me taking the lead at that. Find somepony who actually like-likes me? She goes away and I die while going after her. I didn’t want to let go, but the only thing I could see by now were some blurry spots. It was just... frustrating how much better other ponies were at pretty much everything I did. So I did the most stupid thing I could do in my position, using the last air in my lungs to let out a deep groan. That was the last thing I remembered doing before I lost all track of my surroundings and myself.

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When I woke back up again I found myself suffering from the biggest headache I had ever experienced, including the morning after my first introduction to the wonders of alcoholic beverages. Speaking of which, I could use a drink right now, might smoothen my throat-ache. Oh dear Celestia since when did breathing hurt so much?! Of course, if I’d been thinking logically I could have figured out that a timberwolf bite to the throat wouldn’t make you feel very awesome. Ironically, the lack of oxygen caused by said bite and the thereon following fainting had made it a little difficult to actually get my wits together again. In fact, all I had done after regaining consciousness was attempting to not move and breathe as shallowly as possible. I hadn’t even bothered opening my eyes, which, when I thought about it, might be a smart move.

Of course it took me an eternity to actually find the strength to pull off such a feat, and when I finally did manage to open one eyelid I was once again blinded by way too much light and quickly shut it again. You’d think that the ever present clouds would diminish that somewhat, but alas, no such luck.

In order to share my discomfort with the world I let out a series of grunts and groans while wiggling my various limbs. I was just thanking my luck that at least all of my appendages where still there when I had the bright idea to scrape my throat. The result was a coughing fit of epic proportions. It felt like I had accidentally swallowed some of that flamer fuel and lit it on fire!

As I was wriggling on the floor like that I suddenly felt something pin me down. Immediately I had flashbacks to waking up with a certain asshole doing the same thing not too long ago. With that in mind, my first reaction was to fight back, or more specifically, lashing out with my hindlegs in the general direction of my attacker.

Imagine my surprise when the impact was followed by a high-pitched scream, obviously coming from a mare instead of a stallion, as I was expecting. Even more, I recognized that voice! “Lazuli?!” I shouted out in between coughs with a mixture of emotions. Did I hurt her? What the hell was she doing here, wherever we were? Why had she left in the first place? It dawned on me that opening my eyes for good and, well, asking those questions would be a pretty effective way of finding out. So, once more I found myself blinded by bright light, though this time I managed to fight my way through by blinking a lot.

I was met by the sight of Lazuli’s face. She did not look very amused which wasn’t very surprising, considering me hitting her. “What was that for?!” she snapped.

Between my sore throat and embarrassment for attacking her I managed to squeak some kind of answer out, “Ithoughtyouwereattackingme!”

Immediately her expression changed to one of concern. “Oh shit! No, I didn't... You were coughing, so I tried to help, sorry." I blinked and relaxed a bit while my breathing returned to normal. She wasn't trying to hurt me, nor was she angry, just concerned. That was much more preferable in my opinion. Now though I remembered my earlier curiosity and decided this was the time to fire my arsenal of questions.

"How did you get here? How did I get here? What exactly is 'here'?”

It only took a brief moment for Lazuli to respond, tapping on an iron bar with her hoof. Glancing around, it became obvious that we were in a large steel cage, around the size of a small bathroom. “If you hadn’t noticed, we’re captured by the Timberwolf gang, you were dumped in here by one of the actual wolves.” She frowned. “They should’ve picked a different name for their gang, it gets confusing.” Lazuli shook her head and frowned while pointing behind me. “How I ended up here... Well, I followed them. And they can explain why I went after them.” Looking over my shoulder I was surprised to see Eclipse, Swifty, Soft Touch, Boomer and Daisy divided up in two other cages similar to ours. None of them had any equipment left on them, obviously robbed by the Timberwolves. Eclipse and Swifty were cagemates, just as Softy, Boomer and Daisy, who didn’t look back at either of us. There a few more cages, one containing a sleeping Poly, but for the rest they were all empty. We were in the middle of a clearing in a forest. Bushes and trees around the clearing obstructed my view to further ahead, but I could

“Daisy?” It took her a couple of seconds before she glanced in my direction and made eye contact. I was pretty sure I knew the look on her face. It was almost identical to the face Coal Ore always made when he had to talk to his parents after a failed test flight. By that logic she must have done something bad and expected some kind of punishment. Oh joy, this ought to be good. “What happened? Why did you decide to leave without telling me? And how did all of you get captured?”

Daisy didn’t answer. Instead she decided that the floor of her cage was way more important. “Go on then, tell her!” Lazuli snapped after a while, causing Daisy to jerk her head back up. “That’s the least you can do.”

The mare that had seemed so confident when I met her gulped and took a deep breath. “I uh... The thing is... Well, you see...”

I groaned. “Get on with it already will you?” I was getting pretty curious to what this big reveal was going to be. Whatever it was though, Lazuli seemed to be not so happy with it, so I didn’t think I was going to be either.

However before Daisy could answer (which might have taken a day or so at the current rate), Softy spoke instead. “We’re changelings,” he stated, before turning to Daisy. “I don’t see why that was so hard to tell.”

My response was to blink, then blink again for good measures before asking my next question. “Wut?”

Daisy shot Softy a glare before turning to me. “So yeah, we’re changelings. Sorry.” She gave a nervous smile.

I shook my head. “No, I mean. What even is a changeling?” My best guess was something that, well, changed? Nope, not a clue.

Daisy facehoofed. “You don’t kno-... Right, okay, means we did our jobs well. Uh, changelings, that’s us, are a species who can take the form of other species. Oh, and we feed on love.” At my still very confused expression she groaned. “Urgh, okay Softy, you can explain if you’re so eager to.”

The medic buck shrugged. “Hey, if you can’t properly tell a story that’s your problem.” He turned to me. “Right, so, changelings. We’ve been around a long time, for as long as there were equines, there were changelings. The way I look now, a unicorn, that’s not who I really am. Rather I copied this appearance from the real Soft Touch.” He paused, probably to see if I understood, so I tilted my head a bit.

“How? How did you take over somepony’s appearance?” If it was some kind of illusion spell changelings would have to maintain it all the time, even when asleep. That would be incredibly draining I suspected.

Softy shrugged. “That’s our inherent magic. Do you ask a unicorn how she levitates a rock? She just does. We see a pony or zebra or mule or another equine and we change into their shape. On top of that we have wings and horns of our own,” he smirked. Great, a race of what were basically alicorns that could go unnoticed by ponies.

I sighed. “So, what’s your deal then? Why take over somepony’s form?”

He nodded. “Why indeed. The answer is that we feed on love.” On my blank stare he elaborated. “Yes, love. Well, we eat and drink, but they’re mostly to help in our disguise, we don’t need to do it to survive. Love however, that’s what keeps us going.”

I blinked. So changelings fed on love? Okay. I guess. So Daisy had been someone else than she pretended to be. Some weird alicorn creature that lived on love. I didn’t see why she was making such a huge deal though. I mean sure, it wasn’t nice of her that she pretended to be someone else, but it was still her that I... Wait a sec... I slowly turned to Daisy and stared at her while the gears in my head fell to place. “You... I... I was just some snack?!” If looks could kill, I would have balefirebombed the place. My horn flared up as I charged up a fireball. Instead of a fireball though, there was a bright flash and I felt a sharp pain pierce through my skull where my horn was attached, causing me to fall back.

Lazuli came over to help me up, I gladly accepted her help. “Magical horn inhibitors, you probably shouldn’t want to use magic.” Great. Just great. What did a mare have to do to burn a treacherous leech’s face off around here?!

I sighed in defeat and continued glaring at Daisy and the other changelings. Eclipse and Swifty didn’t seem to be interested. Boomer had a small grin on his face, probably due to me failing to cast my spell while Daisy looked away. Soft Touch was the only one who just looked back, seemingly waiting for me to talk some more. Sure, I could do that. “Fuck you. Why do you even think this is okay?”

He shrugged. “There are far worse things in the wasteland than one night stands. If anything, you should be thanking Daisy for a nice night and get over it. You didn’t get physically hurt, at least I don’t think either of you are really that into bondage, if anything you were shown that you need to watch out who you trust, big deal.”

When Softy speculated about my kinks, I felt my cheeks get rather hot, though I was pretty sure that I wouldn’t enjoy that specific one. The sound of Lazuli scraping her throat made me jump. “I...” she hesitantly started, “I don’t think Ember is into that no, bad experiences with chains and ropes.” I felt my ears droop when I thought about it again and leaned a little closer to Lazuli with mixed feelings as she continued, “Yes the wasteland is not the best environment, but that doesn’t excuse you from betraying ponies like that.”

The changeling that had been pretending to be a medical buck grew a small smirk. “Betraying? We don’t see it like that. I daresay we have improved the lives of a lot of ponies. In fact, Eclipse saved Ember’s life, so she actually owes us one.”

I squirmed a little. “I uh, okay yeah, I guess. Ugh, why do you even go around pretending to be heroes in the first place? Wouldn’t it be a ton easier to just find a pony you actually like and, I can’t believe I’m saying this, feed off of him or her? I mean, I guess it’s not that bad if you actually like the pony back.”

Softy softly chuckled. “That’s unfortunately not an option. If we feed off of one pony for too long, they’ll become... drained, by a lack of a better term. That’s why we go around and do good, to be liked and adored by whole communities. It’s a little less efficient than feeding on one pony, but a lot less noticable.” He paused and pondered a bit. “That’s actually how our hive survived the great famine.”

Well, I guess they were a little a less evil than I had thought, and what they did actually seemed to help. It didn’t mean I forgave Daisy, on the contrary actually, if I understood it all well, she had been actively ‘draining’ me. I shuddered a bit at the term. Ignoring her, I looked back at Softy. “Right, I suppose that now I’m expected to ask: What great famine?” I figured that if we were going to be in these cages I might as well try and not get bored.

The white-coated stallion smirked and nodded. “That’s an excellent question. Let me ask you one in return. When in the history of a species that feeds on love and positive feelings of other species will they come in trouble? I’ll spare you the effort of answering it, it was when the other species started killing one another. When every equine set their mind on the total obliteration of the other side. When nopony or zebra trusted one another anymore. I suppose the development of shields, preventing us from accessing several large cities near the end of the war helped too, plus the fact that many of our disguised hivemembers were sent to fight in the war. After only a few years of war, our hive was only a shadow of its former self, even after Chrysalis’ defeat at Canterlot.”

He grew a small grin. “So we adapted. We sought other examples to copy, most notably war heroes. At least, that’s what we made them. We looked up dead or dying ponies and zebras on the battlefield and copied their forms and pretended to have been seriously injured. Once found by our respective sides we would be brought back as heroes and welcomed as such. It also had a nice benefit of using wartime stress disorders as an excuse for shifts in personality. Oh, and before you go about telling me it was immoral, we had to survive. The whole war was immoral, and we turned the ponies and zebras we copied into heroes. If we found someone who was not quite dead, but definitely lost, we would honour their last wishes, most often being to take care of their families.”

Throughout the story I had been listening and I couldn’t help but sympathise with them. “Ah.” Was my response before some more gears clicked in my brain. “Wait, so did you do that too? I mean you must have those, uh, disguises from somepony I think. Where they already dead too?”

Softy’s somewhat triumphant smile turned to a more serious expression with a hint of sadness. “Yes, unfortunately. We came upon the real Softy, Daisy, Eclipse and Boomer when they were already dead. We found Swift Death later on, she was too far gone to save, hellhounds are nasty creatures.”

My lack of response probably triggered the changeling to go on and sigh. “Look, all I'm saying is that we're not evil. Yes we pretend to be other ponies, but that doesn't hurt anyone, well, not physically at least. It's the best way for our species to survive without leeching off of others like some filthy parasites.”

I tried to object to that, and even opened my mouth to do so, but I couldn't. Softy had some solid arguments, and any arguments of my own seemed rather silly compared to them. “Okay, you win. I'm still pissed at Daisy but at least I won't skewer her with my horn now.” I knew when to admit defeat and take the high road. Promising not to kill someone was taking the high road right?

It was at least a higher road than the one Softy walked, as he couldn't resist to snicker and make a remark, “You're not going to impale her on your horn? I thought you already did that...” At least everyone else had the common courtesy to flush as hard as me!

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After our extensive talk I'd decided to take a nap since I was still pretty exhausted. If Lazuli would claim that it was evasive behaviour then she'd be lying through her teeth. When I woke up after some rare, proper rest I noticed something was wrong though. It didn't take long for me to determine that this 'something' was half a dozen of the timberwolves, accompanied by three Timberwolves, (that is, six wolves and three gang members. I still need to find a way to keep them apart properly) standing next to our open cage. To my delight I saw that only one wolf was free of black burn marks. “Touch the fire and you'll get burned, bitches,” I muttered under my breath, immediately regretting it as it was just incredibly cheesy and didn't make much sense either way. At least I could blame the fact that my brain was still starting up.

Turning to more important issues than weird tangents, it appeared as the others were just waking up as well, with the exclusion of Poly, who was still in the same position as the day before. Looking between the open cage door and the group of captors guarding it, I halfheartedly hoped that we were being set free. It only took a few words from the stallion with the largest decoration on his helmet to break that illusion. “Get your ass up redhead, boss wants to see you!”

By second nature I obediently stood up before the command even sank into my still somewhat groggy mind. It just was a deja vu to pretty much every day of the past decade, complying to commands. Wow, I only knew the bright green stallion for less than a minute and I already hated his guts! “You know what?” I said, my voice starting a little hesitantly but getting more confident as I sat my plot down again. “Let 'boss' come to me.” Ha! It felt so good being able to say that right back to his face! His expression and the facehoof of Lazuli were completely worth being dragged over the rough forest ground by my tail. As it turned out, one did not simply say no to the 'boss', which wasn't an overly creative name might I add. Personally I'd let others call me Her Royal Majesty Of The Everburning Flame if I'd ever would lead a gang, just to hear others say that every time they wanted to address me.

Anyway, while I was busy figuring out how to run a gang and how I would make sure to pick a less confusing name than the Timberwolves, I was being dragged off by one of the wolves, probably towards this boss type. I wondered if they'd let the wolf with the biggest burn injuries drag me off on purpose. I did find out that he was a surprisingly malicious type as he seemed to pick the route with the most bumps and rocks.

Luckily for me the journey wasn't too far, and soon enough I was dropped in front of a rather large tent. The thing was painted in different shades of green, gray and brown, making it look pretty... well, boring. A sharp pain on my flank brought my attention back to more important matters, like who poked me. Snapping my head around, I saw that it was one of the wolves who had swiped me with a claw. There were even a couple droplets of blood trickling from the gashes. I stared at the responsible wolf, and by the large scorch marks over a good portion of its neck I supposed that I shouldn't really complain, and that we probably weren't even yet.

“Get a move on will ya?!” one of the gang members kindly asked as another practically shoved me though the tent flaps. So much for a dignified entry. Oh well, at least rolling through the door gave me an excuse to act like a grave crime was committed to me and get up as slowly as possible, accompanied by lots of groans. As I did that, I took the time to look at the tent's interior, which was surprisingly spacious. The first thing I noticed were the nice and soft carpets I had landed on and for which I was grateful. Then, next to me were what I supposed were elite guards or something, judging by how they had actually decent looking combat armour and didn't move a muscle upon my entrance. Moving along, on the far side of the tent was some sort of throne with on either side a very large and very intimidating timberwolf. At least they would be intimidating if the one on the left wasn't curled up and snoozing and the one on the right wasn't playing around with a large white ball. Oh wait, nevermind, not a ball, a skull. Okay, so they were indeed intimidating, moving on.

On top of the throne, which was made extra comfortable by lots of pillows and blankets, sat a creepily smiling pegasus mare. Her smile was made even creepier by her teeth, which had been sharpened to fangs. As I slowly got to my hooves the cyan mare wiped a strand of blood-red hair from her face. “Hello there, I'm Sharp Fang, the leader of this pack. You're probably expecting me to say something along the lines of 'I do hope you were treated well', don't you?” she asked me in a neutral tone. “Don't worry, I'll spare you that brahminshit. Let's cut to the case, shall we? You attacked us, why? We tried interviewing your oversized companion, but that was hopeless as you probably know. So, I'm asking you, why did you attack us?”

I was taken aback by the forwardness of the mare, and replied in one of the most vague ways possible. “It's complicated.”

“You'll see that I'm intelligent enough to understand, so explain,” she replied, her smile faltering a little.

I guessed that it couldn't hurt to try, so I shrugged and nodded. “Okay, sure. Let's see, I and a friend of mine helped to clear that mall from your gang members together with some other ponies and a zebra. Then they kinda disappeared, and according to the sheriff they went here, so I went after them.” I paused for a second before adding, “You know, that really wasn't all that complicated now that I think about it.” That was probably because I had left out the complicated changeling part, but if the gang leader didn't know about that yet I figured she didn't need to know either.

The mare on the throne nodded. “Ah, so you're part mercenary, part loyal friend.” She stared off, seemingly thinking about something. When she turned back to me, she wore a small grin. “You know, you're a pretty decent fighter if I have to believe my puppies. Would you consider joining us? Oh, and before you ask, if you say no, my puppies also said that they would very much like to see you grilled, so that'd be the alternative.”

In response I raised my hoof, something I was still used to from the couple of years of school I had enjoyed in Saltash. “Uh, sorry but what? Since when do wolves talk?” I deliberately avoided answering the question. I didn't want to answer that, at least not until I had learnt a bit more about this mare and her wolf-pack.

The wolf who was playing with the skull looked up to me and bared its teeth. Meeting his eyes I shrunk back. Somehow I got the feeling that he had just told me that I insulted his intelligence. The leader of the Timberwolves chuckled as she saw my reaction and shook her head. “The fact that they don't speak our language doesn't mean that they don't communicate. It takes years of living with them before you can understand them properly. It helps that I was raised by them of course.”

I looked back to her, grinning a little. “Is this the point where I ask you about your tragic life-story?”

She chuckled again and nodded. “I'll give you the short version. You see, I used to live up above the clouds. I don't remember much of it, except that it was brighter and more boring than down here. One day I, as a young filly, decided to go exploring beneath the clouds, no matter how explicitly my parents had told me not to. I ended up nearly dead after an encounter with a manticore. The alpha mare of this pack had other plans however, and she got the pack to chase that thing off. As it turned out, the alpha most likely had just lost her cub, and I think she still had her motherly instincts so she took me as her cub instead. The pack raised me to what I am now, and when my mother died, I became the new alpha.” She paused before nodding at the two wolves by her side. “My little brothers here have always helped me out, and I them. Under my charge we continued the tradition of taking in lost ones, hence why there are other ponies around here too. Of course new members start at the bottom of the ranks, and there aren't many ponies who manage to make their way up, and none who get the same respect as I do. Any questions?”

Truth to be told, I hadn't expected much at the beginning of the story but it certainly had intrigued me. There were a couple of things that didn't add up to me though, so when she asked me I voiced my biggest question. “Why did you send those ponies to the mall? Not why you sent them there specifically, but why them? If you'd have just attacked with your whole pack I'm sure things would've gone better, but you didn't. No, instead you just sent only ponies, idiots too. Sorry, but they were. You didn't seem to care much for them either. I nearly plain told you I had helped with killing them. Heck, I even got that flamer from one of your pack members, but you didn't seem to care!”

She shook her head. “I do care for my pack, but that's the thing, I care for my pack, my family. I want them to be strong, to be able to thrive. Recently we've been getting more and more ponies joining, too many mouths to feed basically. So I had to make a choice, kick out the new ones, maybe lose future talent, or make them prove themselves by making themselves useful. The mall had plenty of supplies to feed us for some time, all they had to do was raid that food and take with them as much as possible. It didn't matter whether they failed or succeeded, since the problem would solve itself either way, by getting more food or fewer mouths.” She shrugged as I stared at her. “You gotta make tough choices when it's about surviving, only the strong and smart have a place here. You were either stronger or smarter than the ponies and wolves you've killed, meaning you'd have more right at a place here. Speaking of which, what's your answer to my offer of joining us? We now have a couple of spots open...”

“Gotta make tough choices to survive,” I murmured. Sure I could just be a stubborn ass and probably die by not joining her, but really, the offer didn't sound that bad, especially when taking the alternative into account. There was one thing I wanted to know though. “What about the others in the cages?”

“What about them?” was her answer.

“Well, did you make the offer to them as well? And if not, what'll happen to them?”

“Ah right, that issue.” She let out a sigh and shook her head, though her faint smile showed that she was just acting the part. “Unfortunately they all refused after hearing the conditions. You see, I want to make sure that you're ruthless enough to be able to manage in our pack, and that your loyalty belongs to us. So while I'm not going to make you kill any of them, I will give you a choice. Pick one, and that one will be killed. The rest will be released. Pick none and... well, we'll give you a head start. My brothers do love toying with their food.”

As much as I hated to admit it, I was tempted, very much so, to pick Daisy and get it over with. I was fairly confident none of the changelings would ever forgive me, but hey, I didn't exactly like them either. Plus, Lazuli and Poly would be released and safe right? But still, I couldn't do that could I? That'd be just plain evil! But then again, so was killing, and I had done that before as well. Heck, I might have killed a foal even. Sure it'd been an accident, self defense or for the greater good, but was this so much different? Logically, picking one would be the good thing to do as everyone would come out alive! Except for the one I'd pick of course. At the moment I could really use a loophole or master plan to get out of this mess. A crazy pony might offer herself to be the one picked, but I was going one step further, hoping and praying that I could pull off the 'plan' that was forming in the back of my mind. Plan would be too big of a word though, wishful expectation would be better.

I took a deep breath and spoke up. “Why let me pick one? If you really want to test my loyalty you'd let me pull the trigger.” There, I put my bait on the table, now to see if she took it. If she did, whatever way my plan would go, I'd end up killing someone. Who I'd kill would make all the difference.

She stared at me for a moment, and I gave her my blankest stare in return. Honestly, being stared at was a laugh compared to the things some ponies would attempt to get the truth out of you, or at least the 'truth' they wanted. After a short moment of thought, Fang grinned and nodded. “Sure, why not? I figured letting someone else pull the trigger might make it a little easier for ponies to do. It's actually pretty refreshing to see someone wanting to do it themselves. We'll make sure to put you in a different cell for the night, you can do your thing tomorrow morning then.” She made a small, dismissive gesture with her hoof and the two stoic guards next to the entrance stepped next to me in unison. Clearly it was time for me to go. I wasn't finished though. If there was any way for my plan to have a failure chance lower than nine out of ten, there was one last step I had to put in motion.

“Wait!” I yelled, “Uh, I have another request.”

The pegasus raised an eyebrow, seemingly a little annoyed. “Oh really? Well, make it quick then.”

Taking a deep breath, I grinned, hoping to appeal to the more feral side of Fang. “I don't want to execute someone without a fight. I want a duel.”

After a moment of confusion, the cyan pegasus burst out in laughter, the wolf who'd been chewing the skull joining her with loud barks. When she was done she leaned forward, exposing her fangs with a wide smile. “I give you the chance at proving yourself with no risk at all and you insist on a duel to the death? And here I was thinking you were somewhat intelligent.”

“Perhaps I'm just confident of myself and enjoy a mild challenge,” I offered, “and hey, if I fail you know for sure that I was too weak or stupid anyway.”

She shrugged and nodded at the two guards, who directed me to the exit. “Very well then, you'll get your duel in the morning. We'll see if your confidence is justified. Be ready to fight tomorrow, and good luck Ember.”

I smirked as I trotted outside, escorted by the two guards. That was part one of the plan, getting in the position to have plenty of freedom of movement, hopefully getting rid of that horn inhibitor, and getting my hooves on a weapon. The second part... Well I had to work that out still, and it would highly depend on the situation, but the goal was to cut off the head of the beast to sow chaos, and then gallop as quickly as possible from a horde of frenzied wolves... I never said it was a good plan! Now I just had to find a way to inform my opponent of this plan and make sure he or she wouldn't kill me outright. I supposed I could just tell them when I got back and when there wasn't anyone around. Something bugged me though, something Fang had said to me. I couldn't quite figure out what it was though.

During my musings and planning, I had been hoofed over to my original escort group. This time I just followed them, not too fond of being dragged over the floor. When we returned to the cages I was put in a seperate one, just like Fang had told me. The others, and Lazuli in particular, looked at me in concern, but I turned my back on her. The last thing I wanted was to let one of the gang members hear me talk about my plan, so I decided to wait until it was night.

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When the light had faded and we were left alone in the pitch black darkness of the forest I turned to face the cages of the others. In my paranoia I had been listening for what seemed like an hour before daring to speak up, having made as sure as I could that there were no others listening in. “Laz?” I whispered, hoping that she was still up and awake.

“Ember? What did they do to you?”

I gave her a short briefing of where they'd brought me and what Sharp Fang's proposal was. She listened silently, until the moment where I said, “I accepted.”

“You did what?!” She forgot to keep her voice down and I cringed, doing my best to shush her.

“Wait, hear me out, I've got a plan to get out of here.” I begged while staring intently around. The complete darkness was only broken by a faint gloom from the direction of the main camp, but even that was near impossible to notice unless you knew where to look.

After a small pause, Lazuli agitatedly whispered back, “It'd better be a good one this time.” That was a bit of a low blow, but she did have a point. I didn't exactly have a good track record when it came to planning and Lazuli had first-hoof experience in that.

“I'm... I'm not completely sure it'll work, it's a gamble, but the alternative was becoming dog food. And not just me, but all of us.” Honestly I mostly cared for Lazuli and Poly, since they were the closest to me and because it was my fault they were into this mess respectively. I wouldn't let any changeling get killed on purpose, and seeing them get killed would probably have some impact on me, but I was still more than a tad bitter about the whole deceiving thing.

“Ember... you better have put together the best thought-out plan in the history of Equestria.” She sounded dead serious, and again I couldn't blame her for being as cautious as she was.

“Uhm,” I started, “I hope so. See, I managed to convince her to let me duel the pony I point out. So if the two of us do some kind of fake fight, hopefully we can get our hooves on some weapons and kill Fang. Then, without a leader, there will be a lot of confusion and chaos, I think. That should give me some time to distract them for a bit while you open the cages of the others and we can all get out of here.”

The sound of a hoof coming in contact with a certain somepony's forehead echoed through the forest. For some reason I had the idea that Lazuli was not too fond of my plan. “Ember... I... I don't know where to start. Do you realize how much of your so called plan relies on assumptions? Who knows if we'll be able to get weapons? Who knows whether we'll be able to kill Fang? Who knows how the wolves and ponies will react? Who says that the first thing they do won't be tearing us to tiny pieces? What made you think this was a good plan at all?!” Yes, my assumptions were confirmed, Lazuli did not like my ideas.

But then, what else could we do? “And the alternative? If you have a better idea, then please, tell me, cause I don't want to end up as dog food!” I growled back at her.

“We should have waited it out, see what their weak spots are, when and where the guards patrol, find a way to escape on our own, unseen, without putting our lives at risk by some gamble. In short, we should be patient. Tell her tomorrow that you don't want to fight, that you changed your mind, maybe that'll work.” Lazuli hissed back.

“Actually, we might have a shot at this,” a third voice chimed in. It took me a moment to recognize it as Boomer, the changeling who had previously disguised himself as a pegasus. “Pick me and I can turn back. I bet they won't expect a changeling flying around and blasting around with my magic.”

Before either me or Lazuli could respond, a fourth voice interrupted. I instantly recognized this one as Daisy's. “That's a stupid idea, and if we try that I should be picked. When was the last time you fed, Boomer?” She didn't wait for a response and continued, “I'm stocked up, thanks to Ember. And no offense Laz, but I think we have a slightly better shot with Ember's plan. This is a one time opportunity, and we don't know what they'll do to us if we keep waiting longer.”

I blushed quite a bit at Daisy's mention of me having 'supplied' her, and at the same time felt annoyed that she had to bring it up. In response I made a snide remark, “Picking you, Daisy? I suppose that'll make it a lot easier to 'pretend' to fight.”

“...I still think it's a very dangerous idea,” Lazuli remarked, “but if you want to attempt it go ahead. Just remember to be careful okay? The both of you. Oh and Daisy, you don't need to pick Ember's side to try and feel less guilty, if you feel guilty at all. Just so you know.”

“I'm not!” Daisy called out. “I just think it's our best shot, honestly.” It didn't sound entirely convincing to me though. I couldn't tell whether I wanted it to be the truth or not though. If she was telling the truth she was probably not feeling guilty which would make me hate her more, and if she was lying then I would feel guilty for making her put her life at risk. Great, this was one of those situations, one which was designed to make me feel suckish either way.

One way or another, we had a plan, now we just had to act on it. “Anyway,” I said, “let's just get some sleep. Tomorrow I'll pick Daisy and she'll distract the gang members while I get the rest of you out of there.” It seemed simple, but even I could see that there were still things unaccounted for. Like, how were we going to get Poly out of here? If I listened intently I could hear her calm breaths. If we couldn't get her awake there was probably no way we would ever be able to carry her out of there, even without being chased by wolves. I hoped that we could figure something out. For now I couldn't do anything but follow my own advice and get some rest, so I did, if staring up to the ceiling of a cage is considered resting at least.

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The next morning we were awoken early. One by one the others were taken out of our cages and led into the forest, until I was the only one left. They even gathered a small army to drag the snoring Poly off. I had hoped they would make the others watch, so it was a small relief knowing that part of the plan went well. For me, Fang herself came to bring me along. “Ready for your big moment?” she seemed in a peculiarly joyful mood. I guessed she quite liked the prospect of a duel and bloodshed.

In return to her question I gave a smirk. If all went well, there would be bloodshed, just not of a pony she expected. “Yeah! I'm pumped, let's do this!” No I wasn't. I was nervous, concerned and afraid. There was no backing off now though, it was way too late for that.

I was led to a clearing in the forest, surrounded by a small crowd of wolves and ponies. On the far end, each bound to a tree by thick ropes, were the others. Sharp Fangs led me around a small, fenced off arena to the ponies and changelings, stopping a couple of meters in front of them. I felt my heart pounding in my chest as I waited for the cyan pegasus to speak up.

She herself waited a couple of seconds, looking around until the forest went absolutely silent. The edges of her mouth curled up into a grin and she spoke up. “Welcome everyone! Today we will demonstrate what happens to anyone who dares to oppose our might! And who knows, perhaps we will welcome a new member by the end of it. Who wants to see bloooood?!” She burst out in laughter as her family howled and screamed for bloodshed, their combined roar echoing in all directions. I chuckled along, trying to stay in my role.

Once she was done, she waited a moment until everyone had gone silent again before turning to me. Sharp Fangs gestured to my friends, bound to the trees, and asked me sweetly, “So Ember, who did you pick?”

I felt everyone's attention on me as I took a deep breath and pointed at Daisy. “Her.” Daisy and the others looked absolutely shocked while Lazuli hung her head and Poly kept snoring.

Then, several things happened in short succession. Firstly, Fangs smirked at me and patted me on the head while she whispered, “None of them told me your name, Ember.” Then, while I attempted to process that piece of random information, she drew a revolver.

Gears spun in my head, my mind racing to figure out what was going on and what she meant. Nobody told her my name, so what? But how did she know my name then? Wait, she said none of us, so that would mean that someone else had, and couldn't she talk with those wolves? But that would mean they had been spying on us, and that would mean... Oh fuck, she knew what our plan was all alo-BANG!

Before I could do anything the revolver went off, and my first reaction was to be relieved it wasn't me who was shot. My second one was a mixture of disbelief, terror and anger as I saw who had been on the receiving end of the bullet. Against the tree were previously Daisy had been bound was now the lifeless body of a weird, black insectoid pony. Its horn, mane, ears and limbs already had numerous odd holes, but I doubted the one where one of its eyes should be was intended, especially considering the dark green blood gushing out of the hole.

I turned away from the dead changeling, hardly noticing the screams, howls and laughs coming from all around me, and I did the first thing that came in my mind: plunging my horn into Sharp Fangs' side. As I felt her muscles twitch and her warm blood spill across my forehead I yelled. It wasn't something coherent like, 'Don't touch my friends!' or anything resembling that. No, it was a roar, fueled by anger and pure, unbridled hatred. I noticed she attempted to beat me off of her with her wings and could feel her fangs scraping at my neck, but I was having none of that. An extra thrust of my neck, a twist of my head and my horn was buried into her from tip to base. It wasn't enough though, and right now I felt particularly sadistic.

Pulling out my horn halfway, I felt the inhibitor slide off and laughed. A moment later her scream pierced my ears and I took out my horn completely, done with Sharp Fangs. I was up to speed again, free and very willing to burn every last one of my enemies. Luckily for me and my friends I hadn't gone completely mad yet though, and as I glanced around I saw at least a dozen ponies and wolves closing in on me. Even if I could pull off something like in the slavercamp again I didn't want to with Lazuli, Poly and the other changelings so close. So instead of being stupid and engaging them all I picked one at random, charged him and tackled him to the ground while setting his head on fire. I rolled away, got up and started galloping, headed towards the tents. According to the plan I was now being a distraction, but the only thing on my mind was getting my hooves on a weapon, preferably my flamer. Oh how I'd love to burn this whole forest to the ground!

Somehow I managed to stay ahead of my pursuers. Apparently it helped that I blasted a bunch of fireballs at trees as I passed them, slowing them down and buying myself some extra time. When I reached the tents I also made sure to set fire on the biggest one, just because I could, before searching the other ones. I was lucky, and found the armoury on my second attempt. Thanking the weird donkey for teaching me, I equipped my flamer and stepped outside again. There I saw five wolves who had positioned themselves to make sure I couldn't escape. That was fine, I had no intention of running anymore. To my amusement I noticed the one who I charred heavily before was among them, along with the two 'little brothers' of Sharp Fangs. Good.

I was still standing at the entrance of the tent, the wolves in half a circle around me, just out of reach of my flamer. They were smart, and knew that I was slow and could only point at one of them at a time. Every time I pointed at one, he would back off a little while the others advanced. My mind seemed to work overtime, thinking of a way to break the impasse and turn it to my advantage. I could attempt to shoot a fireball or two at them, pick them off one by one, but that might give them an opening to attack while I charged up the second ball. Hmm, I wondered if... Yes, yes that might work. That might work perfectly and very lethally. Now to ensure they'd be taken by surprise.

Luckily for me, the stupidest thing to do is often the least expected, and I was good at doing stupid things. Hence why I charged forward, screaming and spewing flames from my flamer. The wolf I charged at easily jumped back from the flames, and the others circled around me, quickly closing in. I was trapped and about to be ripped to pieces by wolves, so I laughed like the maniac I was when I saw my improvised tactic work. I could actually control flames other than my own, magical ones, and I just created a fuel tank's worth of flames. Without even looking I turned the floating flame, controlled by my magical aura, in a ring around me. The wolves had been too greedy, too close to their prey and when they realized the flames were coming their way it was too late. Their howls of terror sounded like music to my ears, and when I glanced over to see them rolling across the ground in desperate attempts to extinguish the flames my laughing only got louder.

“BURN BITCHES!” I yelled while reloading my flamer like I'd been taught. The only wolf standing now was the one that I'd charged, coincidentally the 'brother' of Sharp Fangs, the one who'd been playing with the bones to be precise. He growled deeply at me, baring his teeth and ready to strike. I wasn't intimidated. I was angry, and burning things, and it felt great. I could take this puppy easily, especially with my new trick. “BOO!” I laughed as I let out a jet from my flamer, taking over the flames and directing them towards the wolf.

I wasn't the only one who liked to do unexpected things as it turned out. This was demonstrated by the wolf leaping at me, giving no fucks at being set on fire, and hitting me head on, sending the both of us tumbling over the ground. I did my best to keep the claws and fangs at bay, but the wolf was strong, stronger than me. He tried going for my neck again, and I somehow thought that if I'd wake up from being choked again it would be as chewing toy. Naturally I had no interest in such a fate so I did my absolute best to fight back, trying to stab him with my horn and burn him with my magic. Together we rolled into the armoury tent, which was currently on fire. I briefly wondered if the wolf even cared about surviving himself, or if all he cared about was getting me killed. It sure seemed to be the latter!

Politely disagreeing with his point of view, I desperately tried to end the fight before we would both get killed. Then I realized we were in a tent with more weapons than just a flamer. Once more I was extremely glad I was a unicorn and was able to simply grab the closest weapon and unload it at the wolf's face, a procedure which had to be repeated two times before I he stopped biting me. I supposed that was pretty difficult when your lower jaw was blown off by a point blank shotgun burst.

As quickly as I could I scrambled out of the tent and galloped out of there, trying to find my way back to the others. My search was made a lot more difficult by the fireballs I had shot when running away from the clearing. I apparently had forgotten about the fact that trees tended to burn, and now I found myself in the middle of a growing forest fire. How useful that I now knew how to magic those flames out of my way huh?

When I arrived on the clearing I saw, in short, chaos. Ponies and wolves were trying to fight two changelings in their natural forms while further ahead I saw two identical ponies fight one another. Lazuli had escaped as well and was taking out gang ponies one by one. The tree Poly had been attached to was fallen and then dragged for a couple of meters, the hulking pony herself being nowhere to be found. The fire I had started was spreading quickly, starting to surround the open spot. I jumped in, setting anything on fire that wasn't Lazuli or a changeling as I made my way towards the others.

“EMBER! WHAT THE HELL?!” Lazuli screamed over the screams and howls around us.

I looked around and laughed. “FIRE!” I yelled back. “EVERYTHING IS FIRE!” For some reason Lazuli did not seem amused in the slightest.

“We need to get out of here, now!” She turned to the changelings flying around and the pair of identical ponies. “Let's go!” That made me a little sad, I didn't want to go yet, not before I had burned the whole forest down. The reasoning that it would be a bad idea to burn something down you're still inside of went past me.

One of the two identical ponies took the head of the other and snapped her neck. I had a feeling this was Eclipse. She seemed to burn up in green flames as she turned back to a changeling, before taking to the air. From behind Lazuli an unknown stallion galloped up. I was about to incinerate him when he too turned into a changeling again. The final two joined us as well, occasionally blasting at the enemies. Damn, it looked like we were leaving anyway. With an exaggerated groan I turned to Lazuli. In my last attempt to stall I asked, “We can't go! I haven't burned everything yet! Oh, and Poly isn't here!”

I was rewarded with a hoofslap on my cheek. “Snap out of it! We're leaving, now! That Poly was scared of the fire and ran away. There's no way we're going to find her now anymore!”

I stared at her in surprise for a couple of seconds. “Wait what?” We were really going to leave like that? But then again, hadn't that been the plan, to escape? Before Daisy was killed? Oh fuck, Daisy. I looked over to the tree she'd been tied to, my chest feeling like it was squeezed together.

“EMBER!” Lazuli basically screaming in my ear brought my attention back to her. “We. Are. Leaving. Now.” She pointed towards the forest, the part that wasn't on fire yet. The four remaining changelings had already cleared the way, which wasn't that difficult with everyone running around in panic. I felt a faint pride in the chaos I'd created, thought it was dwarfed by the cocktail of emotions and adrenaline coursing through my veins.

Figuring that it would be a terrible idea to piss off Lazuli even more, I nodded and followed her in full gallop. As we ran, I felt the rush from before slowly dissipate. The more the adrenaline wore off, the sharper I felt the stings of pain with every step. It was nothing I couldn't endure, but it worried me to think of how it would be by the time this was all over.

We ran and ran until we finally left the trees behind us. The howls and screams of trapped ponies and wolves were slowly dying out, along with their sources. Nobody seemed to care about fighting us anymore and the couple of stragglers who managed to make it out either ignored us or fled away.

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Also it turned out I was right about my injuries stinging and itching like crazy. When inspecting myself, it turned out I had gathered quite a bunch of gashes, scratches and burns, the majority having stopped bleeding at least. So I turned to the changelings, unsure who was who, “Uh, Soft Touch? I could use some help.”

In return, I got an angry look from all four of them. “You do realize that your plan just lost me one of my closest friends? Cause it appears you don't. If I were you Ember, I would think very carefully about your next words.”

I felt my ears drop and glanced at Lazuli, hoping for some kind of support. She was ignoring all of us though by staring off, away from me. I turned back and shook my head. “I... I didn't want her to die. I didn't like her, but I didn't want her to die. It shouldn't have gone like this! Sharp Fangs, she didn't hold up to the deal... She heard us talk about the plan, or those wolves did!”

One of the insectoids bared its teeth and hissed at me. “If you hadn't wanted her to die, you shouldn't have gambled with her life!”

“But she volunteered for it!” I countered.

“She volunteered after you manipulating her into feeling guilty, like she owed you something! You said that she used you, but you used her as well and out of the two of you, only you survived!”

“But I didn't mean for her to die!” I cried out before looking over to Lazuli, hoping to get some support. “Laz?”

She turned around, looked back at me, and shook her head gently. “No. You didn't mean for her to die. Nor did you mean for Lapis to die, nor for Poly to go missing. But it happened, and I warned you. You didn't listen, and now we're here. I... I want to sympathize with you, but you're making that really hard on me. I don't want to be your babysitter, and you should make your own decisions, but you will not ever gamble with someone else's life again.” She paused for a moment, giving me the opportunity to let it all sink in. They were upset about what happened and I had set everything in motion, making me the one responsible. It didn't feel fair, but then again, my actions hadn't been very fair towards them either. Next time I would just let Lazuli save the day. At least she managed to do that without killing friendlies.

I nodded, closing my eyes, and Lazuli addressed the changelings. “It'd be for the best to just move on and leave one another.”

“Yes. That would be for the best. We need some time to get set up again. Oh, and Ember,” I looked up to them, “, thanks for getting us out of there. We still don't forgive you for what happened to Daisy, but at least you're not a complete failure.” And just like that, without waiting for a response, they turned and walked away. Great, that left me feeling even more conflicted, wanting to argue back that yes, I did save their asses. But I knew that they'd respond with reminding me I hadn't saved all asses. I supposed that it was for the best, to just walk away.

I looked back at Lazuli, who avoided returning my gaze and started walking in the opposite direction. “Let's go.” was all she said. So I followed, head hung low and legs itching.

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I do not own the rights for Fallout nor My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic

They are held by Bethesda and Hasbro respectively

Furthermore the Fallout Equestria universe has been created by Kkat who also deserves a lot of credit.

And also thank you very much Nyerguds and Bonshea for proofreading and pointing out some things to improve!

Comments

[Tango]

After half a year, It's finally here! Chapter 10! To make up, it's extra long too, hope you enjoy after waiting that long. Also wanted to say thanks for still being interested in the story, you are awesome. Yes you, who's reading this!

[Deathpony]

YES CHAOS! Ahh party pooper didnt let Ember burn it all really wanted that to happen anyways good chapter looking towards the next whenever you start it

[Tango]

1487370 Chaos is a very dangerous combat method, for both the one using it and the ones at the receiving end. Disregarding that and your own safety, it is the most amusing one as well!

[NeverKnown]

1489149 Finality ive been dying for another chapter also wouldn't haveing open wounds such on her rear then being burnt close the wound and leave a scar? ^_^ Also i got a lawyer

[Tango]

1489149 Yay glad you enjoyed. To answer your question, yes. Yes it would. Ember ain't in the best shape now, and it's mostly the adrenaline keeping her up for now.
Also wait what? Why need a lawyer?

[NeverKnown]

1492137 Eh i got hit wile i was walking my bike across a cross walk a few weeks back and their fighting Eh in other news have you given Fire ghost a read i think you would enjoy it.

[Tango]

1492447 ah right yeah, that sucked.
Just read the description of that story and I rofled. Great name for a lead character :P

[NeverKnown]

1492644 Eh so you didnt like it hmm its up their on my list of favorite ficts

[Tango]

1492660 Oh I'm not sure whether or not I like it, I will give it a read. It's just that I found the name Ashes to Ashes genuinly funny for a lead character

[NeverKnown]

1492664 As my 92 year old great grandfather told me after i got a heair cut "son you kno why you never judge a book by its cover?" me:"no i dont why?" "I could have swarn you were a hippy yesterday"

xD guys a riot

[Tango]

1492678 XD gotta love that kind of humour

[Reggie the Griffon]

ITS ALIVE .................... AND ON FIRE.
All hail Her Royal Majesty Of The Everburning Flame.
Great chapter mate.

~Reggie

[Tango]

1493797 Fire, fire everywhere :D And thanks!

1497965 Oh, drunk is the best state of mind imo, good job!

[ThunderBlitz]

I love elemental magic. I'm not surprised by Daisys death. Changeling threw me for a loop

[MorningStar9]

I'm just gonna guess this will never be updated :(