> Fallout Equestria: Rainbow Rises
>  by Starlit Skies
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

> Chapter One: Awake
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	"Nopony knows! And you know why? Because everypony that has ever gone in... has never... come... out!"

Beep. Beep. Beep. Beep. 

"Ugh, just gimme five more minutes," I moaned, vainly banging my hoof against my bed to shut off the alarm. I didn't open my eyes yet, too drowsy to bother. At least, I didn’t until an unknown clanging sound broke the constant beeping.

I cracked one eyelid open slowly, letting in as little light as possible. My head was facing the leg that had a strange metal device on it. I moved the leg again, only to once again hear the clanging. It had been coming from the device hitting something, most likely metal.

My still un-awake brain tried to process the fact. My bed didn't have metal anywhere near it. At least, I didn't think it did. Opening my eye slightly more, I saw that wherever I was was lit by a pale blue light. Beyond my leg was a white wall that curved sharply upwards over the rest of me. With a groan, I rolled over to see above me.

White greeted me barely six inches past the end of my nose.

"Ahh!" I yelled, flailing to try and get out from what looked like a coffin. A wave of claustrophobia hit me as terror that I could not escape set in. But luckily, one of my waving hooves hit a latch of some sort and the coffin opened with a soft pneumatic hiss. Upon opening, the beeping finally stopped as well.

Blackness greeted me. I lay back in the chamber, relaxing slightly now that I had room. My eyes tried to adjust to the light levels, causing me to squint to lessen the burn. Then I noticed how cold I was. It took a lot to make me feel cold, being a pegasus and all, but as I lay there I could see puffs of air coming from my mouth as I breathed in and out. Relaxing for a moment, I tried to make sense of my surroundings, but all I saw was a stone floor as a somewhat familiar feeling in my stomach caused me to lean over the side of my bed and vomit. Or at least pretend to vomit. All that came out of my mouth was a small trickle, but I heard it hit the floor below me. I wiped my mouth and sat up to try and place where I was.

The room I was in was fairly small and windowless. It was black, lit only by the soft blue glow coming from the casket I sat in. I saw the dim outline of a door across from me and, with nothing else to do, hopped out to go through it.

As I fell and hit the floor from a few feet up, my limbs crumbled beneath me, unused to holding weight. Likewise, my vision swam as the sudden change caused my blood pressure to fall.

"Dang, how long have I been out?" I wondered.  I shakily got to my hooves, using my wings to balance myself. I took a few staggering steps towards the door, pausing to look back and see if there was anything I missed. Only the coffin was in the room, the bed portion lifted several feet in the air.

I reached out a hoof and pushed open the door, causing it to creak on old, rusty hinges. I emerged in a large circular room, lit by dim emergency lights. Seven other doors ringed the room, six of them having vaguely familiar symbols on them. A crescent moon. A trio of butterflies. Three apples. Three balloons, two blue and one yellow. A six pointed star surrounded by five other stars. A trio of gems. The seventh door was blank. I turned and looked at the symbol of the room I just walked out of. A three-hued lightning bolt topped with a cloud. It looked disturbingly familiar, but I couldn’t figure out why. On a hunch, I looked back at my flank. The symbol on the door matched my cutie mark. It seemed important, but for the life of me I couldn’t figure out why.

Taking up the center of the room was a low circular table that called up wisps of memories of meetings. I walked over to it, reaching my hoof out to tap the edge to feel it. To my surprise, a hologram appeared with the six symbols I had seen as well as the one on my door. Not knowing what else to press, I reached out my hoof to hit the lightning bolt shaped one. The hologram went blank for a moment, then came to life again as a fuzzy image of a gorgeous white unicorn mare with a styled purple mane appeared. 

Rarity

The name floated out of the abyss of my mind. I didn’t know where it came from, but I knew that it was the name of the pony in front of me. I sat back down on my haunches and waited to hear what she had to say, clueless as to what else to do.

“Rainbow Dash, you’re probably wondering what is going on, not to mention having no idea how you got here. Your memory might be fuzzy depending upon how long it has been.” I snorted. Understatement of the century there.“Hopefully, I can explain a few things. You just woke up from a cryogenic sleep designed to protect you if the zebras ever launched a full scale megaspell attack on your location or if you almost died. It wasn’t perfect of course, but I had no other option when it came to protecting my friends." She paused and looked behind her, almost as if she was afraid of someone walking in on her. “The cryogenic sleep process is much more advanced and complicated than the few stasis chambers that have been developed, but I won’t go into all that ‘egghead nonsense.’” I cocked my head. I could recall some of what she was talking about, such as megaspells, but anything beyond the basics refused to make themselves known to me.

“This was one of my… secret… projects that I told very few people about. But you know plenty about being secret projects having run the MoA after all.” MoA? Once again, a name floated out to me from my mind. Ministry of Awesome. “This facility is located far in the north. I hoped that it would be largely spared from attacks, and if you’re seeing this, it means that another one of my hunches paid off.” She gave a smile to herself, somehow foreseeing that she would still be right. “As for how you got here, it was one of the enchantments I placed on the figurines I gave you.” Figurines?

“As for how long it has been, I don’t know. Sweetie Belle in Stable Two will be responsible for ending your cryogenic sleep remotely in the event that I am incapable of doing so. Failing that, I’ve installed another failsafe in Stable Two.” Stables? Rarity didn’t seem to be making any sense. Stables seemed like something important, but other than a vague impression of safety, my mind refused to give me anything. 

“You’ll find most of the supplies you’ll need in the hallway outside as well as anything you had when the spell activated. But be careful Dash. You may be remote and out of touch with most of Equestria, but it is not without its fair share of secrets.” She gave me a smile, the type of smile that seemed to be reserved for only a few. “Good luck Rainbow Dash. I hope I’ll be seeing you soon.” The hologram disappeared from the screen and six little drawers popped open from the table.

Curious, I peered into the one closest to me. It had a tiny figurine of me with the saying “Be Awesome” carved into the bottom of it. This must have been one of the “figurines” she was talking about. I picked it up, feeling some slight stirring as I did so, and set it on the table. I went and looked in the other drawers, but they were only filled with dust. Shrugging, I turned back to where I set the figure and rapidly used a set of hoofstrokes to pull up the terminal menu. Then I paused, looking at my hooves. I didn’t have the faintest idea what I had just done and I would be hard pressed to recall what I did. My muscles seemed to remember what my brain had forgotten. Yet another mystery. I stopped thinking about it and instead navigated to the basic menu screen. It was simple enough that I figured it out even with no knowledge of the device I was using. A little number in the corner said that is was October 15, 2211. The little pony in the back of my head screamed that it didn’t seem right. 

Again, not thinking, I swiftly navigated the menu and pulled up the log. I stopped, slightly confused at why I did so. The page was fully of technological gobbledygook, so my eyes skipped to the last entry. It was a simple line of text and a date, something even my empty mind could understand. 

>10.30.2011: Cryogenic capsule #5 (Rainbow Dash) activated. Occupant near death.

I looked at the date on the entry, then the date in the corner of the screen. My eyes flitted between the two of them before my mind did the easy math that still left my mind dumbfounded. 

Two centuries. I had been slumbering in that coffin for two centuries. I rocked back on my haunches. Even my fragmented brain could tell that ponies were not supposed to live two centuries. My muscles moved of their own accord and pulled up a short screen that I read over while my mind was still trying to make some cognizant thought of how long two centuries was.

>Cryogenic Capsule #1 (Luna): INACTIVE. Intended occupant deceased: Canterlot
Cryogenic Capsule #2 (Fluttershy): INACTIVE. Intended occupant’s status unknown
Cryogenic Capsule #3 (Applejack): INACTIVE. Intended occupant deceased: Stable 2
Cryogenic Capsule #4 (Pinkie Pie): INACTIVE. Intended occupant deceased: Manehattan
Cryogenic Capsule #5 (Rainbow Dash): OPEN. Intended occupant released. 
Cryogenic Capsule #6 (Twilight Sparkle): INACTIVE. Intended occupant deceased: Splendid Valley
Cryogenic Capsule #7 (Rarity): INACTIVE. Intended occupant deceased: Canterlot

Luna. Fluttershy. Applejack. Pinkie Pie. Twilight Sparkle. And Rarity, the mare I had seen in the hologram. I remembered nothing about them, but with each name and the deceased tag that followed it, I felt like a dagger had been plunged into my heart.

Luna: deceased. Applejack: deceased. Pinkie Pie: deceased. Twilight Sparkle: deceased. Rarity: deceased.

I did the only thing I could. I didn’t know why these names had brought up such emotion, but even with my memory failing me, I knew that they had been close to me. There was no one else there and I let emotion wash over me.

I wept.

I wept for the souls gone. I wept for my memory. I wept for Equestria. I wept for weeping. 

But most of all, I wept for the friendships that had been torn apart by the events of centuries past.



I sat there for who knows how long. My coat was streaked with the tears cried for those lost, the stone floor in front of me damp. Finally, I gathered myself together, mentally berating myself lying on the floor like that. 

“Deep breaths Rainbow Dash. You can do this. Rarity wouldn’t want you lying on the ground wallowing in self-pity now, would she?” I murmured, slowly rising from the cold stone floor. I picked up the statuette of me again, but instead of feeling a faint stirring, I wave of hope washed over me, carried by two words. Two simple words.

Be Awesome.

The fire inside rekindled, I got up. I looked down at the strange contraption on my hoof. I figured that if it had an alarm, it could tell me how long had passed. Instead of the screen with the clock on it like there had been, it said “Data Transfer Complete.” I looked at it confused, then a light bulb went on in my head. Turning back to the holo-table, I saw the same words. Granted, I had no idea how to access it, but it felt good to have the information when I later got my memory back.

I turned and headed out the unadorned door, leaving the room behind and not looking back. I emerged into a hallway made of the same stone and lit by strips of blue lights running across the floor, parallel to the wall. The hallway ended in another door marked ‘Exit,’ but there was another door next to it. I trotted forwards, noticing that the other door was marked ‘Supplies.’

I turned to the supply door and nudged it open with my nose. Inside were seven black trunks lined up against the walls, each one once again marked with one of the seven symbols. I went over to the one marked with a lightning bolt, but there wasn’t a seam or any way to open it from the outside that I could see. I frowned, then reached out with a hoof to push it. To my surprise, the contact caused the lid to swing open silently. A smile crossed my face, the first real one since I awoke. Without pausing to look inside, I went to touch each of the other trunks, but none of them opened. I went back to my trunk to sort through its contents.

The first thing I pulled out was a dark blue saddlebag which I proceeded to sling over my back. I heard a chime from the device on my right foreleg, but I continued to look through my trunk. Healing potions, bandages, some packets that read ‘Rad-Away,’ a generously heavy sack that clinked when I picked it up, some fresh fruits and vegetables kept safe through use of a preservation spell, and a good sized wooden box that, upon closer inspection, held a variety of dyes and makeup. I put all of them in my newly acquired bags, a small notification popping up in the corner of my vision to tell me it had been sorted. There were a few other things in there as well. A gold-ish crown type thing that had a black opal set in it as well as a wooden box that contained six glassy orbs. Two Daring Do books and a book on things called PipBucks. I put the Daring Do books in my bag, but I paused to flip through the PipBuck one. It was heavily notated in yellow-ish ink. I looked back at the cover, then down at the device on my leg. I could see a resemblance, but the one on my leg seemed to be more advanced. Shrugging, I put it in my bag to read later. When I had emptied the trunk, I looked at it and cocked my head, slightly perplexed.

“If I was to make a trunk for myself, I would have included a weapon of some sort. Besides, didn’t Rarity say that whatever I had when that spell activated would be here too?” I frowned, looked at the inside, then back at the outside. “Aha!” I reached a hoof into the now empty trunk and hit a small, hardly noticeable lever on one side. The bottom popped up, exposing the rest of the trunk’s contents. “A false bottom.” I declared triumphantly. 

The hidden items seemed to be of much more use in combat than what had been on top. I reached in and pulled out a several identical boxes. Each one had a different label including Stampede, Buck, Rad-X, and Med-X. I cracked open a lid to see what was inside. Several syringes lay next to each other, filled with a semi-clear liquid and ready for injection. “Humph, chems. As if I would ever need those.” Even so, I tossed them in my bags. There were also three or four small black boxes smaller than my hoof that I couldn’t figure out a purpose for. I tossed them in as well along with two more of those strange glass orbs I had found. 

Strangely, though I had put quite a lot in my bags, they still seemed as light as when I had first put them on. I was curious, but had no solution. “At least I won’t have to haul around the weight of all this. Probably magic of some kind.”

I reached into the trunk one last time to pull out the few remaining items. Each one I touched brought back flashes of memories.

Black and purple armored barding. It was well worn, tears and bloodstains present throughout. Where it would cover my legs, the armor ended just above where my joint would be. On the spot that would go over my cutie mark, there was a winged skull in white. “Shadowbolts” my mind whispered. It had a helmet as well, purple to match the suit with a transparent yellow visor, but I set that in my bags before slipping on the armor. It felt comfortable, built for my body, as well as being quite light. Magic at work again I suspected. It had definitely been broken in in the past. Several images passed through my mind of flying in formation with other pegasi wearing the same outfit. I shook my head and moved to the next item in the trunk.

A modified pistol. The handle had a lightning bolt embossed in it and the barrel had the gun’s name carved in it: Loyalty. The grip was designed to fit in my mouth comfortably and, picking it up, I found that it had been weathered to the point that I felt no discomfort holding it. The trigger was in the perfect spot to be used by my tongue. I tilted my head down and spotted a spot on my barding that seemed to be the perfect fit for the small gun. I slid it into its holster over my left leg joint, allowing easy access for me to grab it in my mouth. 

The next weapon I pulled out was a rifle, silenced for stealth missions. Lightning was carved into its barrel. Unlike my handgun, it was designed for use with hooves. It was well crafted and coated in a matte black finish as opposed to the dull white of my other gun. I slid it into its designated holster as well, on the opposite side of my body from Loyalty.

The last weapon and the second to last item I retrieved from the trunk was a set of hoofblades, four total. I slipped one on and tightened the straps holding it to my hoof. They felt right, like it was the weapon I had used the most. I tensed my hoof and extended the straight blade on one hoof, then scraped the concrete. To my surprise, they cut through it like butter and didn't even leave a mark on the blade. I looked at the weapons with new admiration and sheathed the blade. When sheathed, it extended up my hoof for both protection and support. I suspected that my armor had been specifically designed with these in mind much like my other weapons. All four hooves covered, I turned back to the trunk once again.

The last item stopped my heart. I carefully lifted out flight goggles. I turned them on their side on instinct to see ‘S.L.’ etched in the side. 

And once again, the Wasteland broke me as I fell down crying, though I knew not why. All I knew was that something dear to me had been torn away once again.



“Pull yourself together Rainbow Dash. The Wasteland will not beat you yet.”

I whipped my head up from my tears, “Wha? Who’s there?!”

“A friend. Now get up and sort yourself out.” The voice was masculine, but had a computerized edge. Wary, I got to my hooves and brushed myself off. “Good, you can follow a few simple instructions. Now, gather up your supplies and head outside.”
“Why should I listen to you?” I challenged. “I don’t even know who or what you are.”

The invisible speaker harrumphed. “I told you, I’m a friend.”

I sat back down, hooves crossed over my chest as I stared at nothing. “Nope. Not gonna do it.”

I could just picture some robot pony somewhere rolling his eyes at me. The thought made me smile. “And what will it take you to do it?” asked the voice, annoyed.

“Hmmm, how about a nice hot shower and a trip to the spa?” The voice remained silent, so I assumed my answer was a no. “Dang it.” I pretended to think things over, but we both knew what I was going to ask. “How about you tell me who you are?”

The voice sighed, then replied, “You can call me Core. I’m a friend.”

I pursed my lips, thinking for a moment. “Nope, still not gonna do it.”

The voice let out a groan of annoyance. Arguing always made me happier. I couldn’t see why it drove other ponies to frustration. “Fine! You win. I’m an artificial intelligence interface in your PipBuck.” I opened my mouth to ask a question, but I was interrupted. “That thing on your leg is a PipBuck. Yes it looks weird. I had been on that terminal until you downloaded everything, including me. I’ve been sitting there for two hundred years with nothing to do, so forgive if I’m a little eager to see how the world has changed. Now get your butt moving!”

“Someone’s got a short temper,” I smirked. Then before he could reply with what would most likely be another annoyed comment, I walked out of the supply room. “So Mr. Artificial Intelligence, what can you tell me about what’s through that door?” If he was going to be a mule about the whole thing, I might as well get what information I could before he decided to jump ship on me.

“You’re in the bottom of one of the Ministry of Awesome hubs. It’s been in lockdown for two centuries in order to protect you as well as any of the other Ministry Mares who had managed to get pulled by the spell. The lockdown hasn’t been lifted yet though. I think that the internal doors are unsealed, but no one on the outside can get in and you can’t get out.”

I appraised the boring door in front of me. “Ministry of Awesome. Why does that sound so familiar?”

“Maybe it's because you were the head of it you dolt!”

I frowned, disbelieving. “You sure? I don’t know why anyone would put in the government. I’d probably cause it to explode.”

“It would have done that without your help. You just managed to accelerate the process. And what do you mean you aren’t sure? It took up over twenty years of your life.”

“Well, I kind of lost my memory.” 

Core was silent for a minute, processing that. Finally, he spoke again. “Buck you Rarity.”

I snorted. I couldn’t help myself. The fact that a computer was cursing was too funny. Core was silent again and I could tell that if he had a body, he’d be glaring at me.

I lifted a hoof and pushed open the door. It swung open, revealing empty blackness beyond. “Well, here goes! An amnesic mare and a sarcastic AI off to save the world from whatever crap it’s buried in now!”

“We are so dead.”



“So what’s your story?” I asked the AI. We walked through the blasted ruins of the Ministry Hub, my PipBuck lighting the way.

“I was developed as part of a collaboration between the Ministry of Technology, Ministry of Arcane Sciences, and Ministry of Awesome. It was quite an impressive feat to get three Ministries to work together. I remember that the O.I.A. had a field day when Twilight came up with the idea.”

“O.I.A.?”

“Office of Interministry Affairs. Now try not to interrupt. The project was obviously successful to some degree. I was one of the earlier models. They found my personality faulty. Hmph, imagine that.” Oh I can imagine alright. “The AI’s that failed were supposed to be scrapped and destroyed, but upon seeing my personality, you decided to give me to Rarity as a prank.”

I laughed, the happy noise breaking the morose silence of the ruins. “I think I know how it went from there. So it’s my fault I’m stuck in the ruins of some ancient building with no way out and only a sarcastic robot to keep me company.”

“Yep. So how’d you lose your memory?” Core asked.

“Frankly I don’t know.” I turned a corner and made my way up another set of steps. We were still far below ground, but each level I passed was another level closer to finding some way out. “Woke up back there not knowing diddly squat. I’ve apparently retained my muscle memory, as I was able to use the terminal. Still have no idea how I did it though.” Another set of stairs. “I also remember some basic things, like how to fly and that egghead knowledge they make you learn in school. But other than that, nothing.”

“Nothing?”

“Weeeeelll, I guess nothing isn’t entirely true. I remember some names. Luna, Applejack, Rarity, Fluttershy, Pinkie Pie, and Twilight Sparkle.” I frowned, then continued. “I know that S.L. is a name too, but I can’t remember who it is. And I’ve gotten a few feelings from other things, like this armor and my weapons, but my brain is empty otherwise.”

“S.L. most likely stands for Scootaloo, vice president of Stable-Tec Inc.”

At the name Scootaloo, an orange pegasus popped into my mind, but the image was gone almost as soon as it appeared. “Speaking of Stable-Tec, I’m also going to assume that you have no idea how to use your PipBuck?”

“What, this thing?” I lifted me right foreleg. That turned out to be a bad idea, as it caused me to faceplant into the floor. “Oww.”

“Yes, that thing. Here, let me try something.” Core was silent for a moment, then a map popped up in front me in the corner of my vision. "That's your E.F.S., or Eyes Forward Sparkle. It'll tell you the positions of enemies and if they're hostile or neutral. Yours is a highly advanced model though. It looks like it'll tell you if they're hostile, neutral, or friendly. Red, yellow, and green, respectively. I wonder what else this has, you being a Ministry Mare and all."

“Cool!” I said, my voice louder than normal. It echoed throughout the abandoned Ministry Building. I paused, some latent instinct causing me to stop and wait. Then on the map that appeared, a small red bar appeared. It was moving towards me, albeit slowly. Crap. "Core? I’m going to assume red is bad.” My voice had a slight edge of nervousness. I didn’t know what kinds of creatures lived down here and I didn’t particularly want to find out.

“Shoot, I thought we would have longer. Your scream ruined things. Draw your pistol, we’re going to have to fight.”

“We?” I asked, but Core was silent. I glanced back at my E.F.S. only to see that the red bar had gotten even closer. “Buck,” I muttered, tilting my head back and drawing Loyalty. I took up a ready stance, legs braced in case I needed to fire quickly. I wore my hoofblades, but I hoped that it wouldn’t have to come to that.

I stood there for less than ten seconds when I heard a shuffling around the corner. I narrowed my eyes, focusing on the corner in front of me. I had about fifteen feet before whatever it was would be on me once it turned the corner.

I saw a dark shape come around and paused. It was pony-shaped, though it’s outside were damaged. I hesitated before pulling the trigger, but the pony-thing hissed and ran at me.

I pulled the trigger with my tongue, only to have the trigger not budge. My eyes widened in surprise as my brain tried to figure out what had happened, but the monster bowled me over onto the ground, knocking Loyalty from my mouth and sending it into the rubble. The thing was on top of me and holding me down, staring me in the eyes. It screamed, but I didn’t waver. I head-butted it, causing it to fall back enough for me to slip out of its grasp. I rolled backwards, coming up in a fighting position and my mouth drawn back in a snarl. My limbs hurt slightly from where claws dug into me, but my barding had saved me from most of the damage.
The beast screamed again and jumped, but I ducked under it, my head and wings snapping up to cause it to flip over and crash into the wall behind me. I turned and raced towards it. Now it was my turn to jump, as I planned on using the momentum to help my hoofblades decapitate the creature. It’s limbs stuck out and I twisted in time to avoid them, though I also missed my target. Unfortunately, my head hit the wall just fine. I staggered back, the flight goggles preventing me from any serious damage, and faced my opponent again. As it leaped, I heard Core yell something and time slowed, almost to a halt. I targeted its flying body with my hoofblades, jumped up, and eviscerated the creature, some gore catching me in the face. I landed behind the creature as time resumed and I heard a dull thump as it connected with the ground. 

I found a cloth on the ground, spat in it, and used it to wipe the blood off my face. I tossed it aside and warily went up to the creature. The red bar on my map had vanished, so I was reasonably sure that it was dead. I turned it over and shined my PipBuck light on its face, then recoiled at what I saw. Flesh hung off it and one eye was missing. Even so, I could tell that it had once been a pony, though that had been a long, long time ago. “Core,” I whispered, mystified and slightly scared by the sight, “What is that thing?”

“I- I don’t know,” he stammered. “I’ve never seen anything like it before.” He paused for a moment, then regathered himself. “Move your PipBuck over its body so I can scan it. It might reveal something.” I did as he asked, blanching at the site of where my hoofclaws tore open its stomach.

While I waited for Core to process the data, I went and found Loyalty in the rubble. Looking it over to see why it didn’t fire, I had to laugh. “Safety’s on. No wonder I couldn’t fire it.” I reholstered the gun, safety off, in case I needed to kill any more of the creatures.

“Alright Dash, the only thing my scans were able to tell me is that nearly all life systems in its body had failed, it was over two centuries old, and had once been exposed to a massive amount of radiation.” Almost as if he could sense the alarm on my face, he continued. “Don’t worry, that was in the past. If there was any radiation left around here, your PipBuck would start clicking.”
His comment made me recall of something that happened in the fight. “Core, what was it that you yelled before time slowed down?”
He chuckled and answered, “I said ‘Take this motherbucker.’ As for time slowing down, that was also me. Since you have made it clear that you don’t know how a PipBuck works, I activated S.A.T.S. It’s short for Stable-Tec Arcane Targeting Spell. What it does is complicated without using ‘egghead terms’ as you call them. But to you, it’ll appear as if time has slowed down, giving you a chance to target your enemy.”

“Well that’ll certainly be handy. How do I activate it without your help?”

“Since yours is a highly advanced PipBuck, just think to activate it.”

“Sweet. Now let’s go kill more zombie ponies.” I poked my head around the corner to see if there were any more drawn by the sounds of our not-so-quiet fight. Seeing nothing, I proceeded down the hall. Based on my map, I had only a few more levels to go before reaching the ground floor. But as I walked into the level right below the ground level, my E.F.S. exploded in red bars.

“Woah.” I looked around, but this level was just as desolate as the last. Noticing a hole in the ceiling, I crept over to it and peered up. In the dim light, I could see a lobby and a bunch of the zombie ponies walking around in it. My hunch had been correct. “Core,” I whispered, “the floor above is filled with those zombie ponies. Is there any other exit than punching my way through the main door?”

The AI thought for a moment and I could almost hear the whirring as it tried to find a way out. “Well, you should be able to lift the lockdown in the director’s office. You have the clearance after all. Once the lockdown is lifted, you can just bust out through any available window.”

“Great, where’s the director’s office?”

“Top floor, where else?” I groaned, but crept over to the stairs leading to the next level. 

“Please tell me this building isn’t as tall as it is deep.” I hoped that I would only have to fight my way through one or two levels to escape, but with my luck the next twenty levels could be filled with those creatures.

“You’re in luck. The director’s office is on the third floor.”

I sighed in relief, then reached back and grabbed my silenced rifle. If I had to start taking out the creatures, I’d prefer to not bring the entire building upon me. I inserted a fresh magazine, flicked off the safety, and crept up the stairs.

Seeing a red bar almost on top of me, I poked my head through the gap where the door to the stairwell used to be. A zombie pony met my gaze, but I shot it point blank in the head before it could react. Black blood splattered on my armor, but I ignored it. I suspected that my barding would go through quite a bit before the day was over. I turned to go up the next flight of stairs, but the way up was blocked by rubble. Looking out the door again, I saw a flight of stairs directly across the lobby. 

I holstered my rifle and snuck across the room, alternating between hugging the wall and dashing between the cover of the ruined lobby so as to remain hidden. While I wasn’t consciously aware of everything I was doing, my military training had luckily been so ingrained in my mind that instincts took over. I managed to avoid being spotted so far, but I doubted it would remain that way for much longer. I slid into the room and softly walked up the stairs. They terminated on the second level. I groaned and went back down a few steps to avoid being spotted.

“Alright Core,” I whispered, “How do I get to the third floor?”

“One moment.” There was a pause before he replied in his slightly mechanical voice. “Okay, the only way to the third floor is the main elevator. It’s in the middle of this hallway. It probably won’t be working, so you’ll have to open it manually, then fly up. I trust you can do that?”

I rolled my eyes. “I don’t have much choice in the matter now, do I?”

I drew my rifle again and advanced down the hall, looking out for any of the zombie ponies. Since my map picked up those below me as well, the E.F.S. was useless. Going done the hall, I was able to surprise and kill five of the creatures, leaving me half a magazine and a lot of their black blood on me. I reached the elevator door and set Lightning on the ground. I pushed the call button, but it didn’t even light up. To my luck, they had been cracked open enough that I could just barely fit a hoof in to force it open. The doors opened slowly, the thick layer of rust on their hinges preventing them from moving much. With a final grunt, I shoved them open far enough to slip through. I reholstered my rifle and slid my thin pegasus body through the gap.

I hovered in the shaft, my unarmored wings flapping silently. My PipBuck illuminated the shaft, cables disappearing downward until they fell out of sight. On a whim, I spat, waiting to hear how long it took for my saliva to hit the bottom. It took more than a few seconds, but my ears were able to hear a very faint plop.

“Dang. Good thing my wings still work. That’d be a long way to fall.” I hovered up, then stopped as my head bumped something. I flew down a few inches and glanced up. “Really world. You’re just going to through an elevator car in my way? You really hate me don’t you.” I rolled my eyes, though it wasn’t exactly having any use. “Hey Core, you got any idea how to cut through this.”
“If I had a face to facepalm right now, I would. Look up. There should be a lever that says something obvious like ‘MAINTENANCE ACCESS’ right about where you hit your head.”

Oh. I looked up and sure enough, there it was. I reached up and pulled the lever. I was at least out of the way enough so that the falling piece of floor missed me, but I winced with every single clatter and bang it made as it fell down the elevators shaft. Core didn’t even need to say anything; I knew I was an idiot. Even so, I floated up into the empty elevator carriage. I didn’t set down seeing as how there was a high possibility that it would collapse on me if I stepped on it. I tried pushing the button in the elevator, but it too was dead. Unable to get leverage without landing, I spun and bucked the doors in flight, similar to how I would go about busting a cloud. It took several tries, but eventually the doors couldn’t take my onslaughts and bent enough that they simply fell out of their hinges. I hovered out directly into the director’s office waiting room. It would have been a chance to relax, had the room been unoccupied.

I executed an aerial roll purely on instinct. The laser blast that would have exploded my head to bits burned the wall behind me right above the elevator door. The blast itself illuminated my enemy, standing only a bit in front of me. With no time to draw my guns, I flew forwards, tackling the zombie pony dressed in the tattered remains of a guard outfit. It moved aside at the last moment and caused me to faceplant in the ground. Before I could move, I felt claws streak down the side of my face. I should have worn that helmet. I rolled to the side and sprung back up, trying to get a clear look at my attacker. It gave me no time to recover, pressing the offense again. I triggered S.A.T.S. and aimed to decapitate him with my hoofblades, but blood was dripping in one of my eyes and screwing with my depth perception. As a result, when time resumed, my cut only sliced open part of his neck.

He growled and aimed his gun at me again. My eyes narrowed and I shot forward, scooping my head under him to cause his shot to go wild and hit the ceiling. Pressing my advantage, I scooted forward so that I was almost entirely under him and jumped, my powerful leg muscles causing his body to fly in the air. I hit the ground first and moved in time to buck him across the room. He flew into the elevator, hitting the wall and falling to the ground. He shook his head and stood up, but it was too late. I heard a groaning, then a snap as the rope holding elevator car broke, sending the monster to his doom. He let loose a bloodcurdling scream that sent chills down by spine as the falling carriage crashed into the bottom of the shaft. I had no idea how far exactly it was, but based on the way his scream cut off suddenly, it was enough to kill him.

I stood, breathing heavily from the short fight and my brush with death. “Can you try and get out of here without almost getting killed again?” asked Core, his voice the one of a rather ticked off pony.

“Can you try and not make a snarky comment?” I paused for a moment, giving him a chance to answer. When he was silent, it actually surprised me for a second. “I guess so. Let’s see what the director’s office holds for us.”

The door was, naturally, locked. A hoofscanner next to the door was the only way to get in, so I wiped off my hoof and placed it on the small device. A small chime let me know the door unlocked as a message appeared on the scanner.

>Welcome Rainbow Dash, Ministry Head of the Ministry of Awesome!

I pushed open the door, taking in the nearly pristine room. It was plain, but illuminated. It must have been part of the emergency power system. A fine layer of dust coated everything, but other than that and the skeleton in the director’s chair, it would have seemed like a normal day in the office. Curious, I went up to the skeleton. It had a neat hole in its skull and a layer of black dust lay around it, almost as if whoever it was had died wearing clothes. Sitting in front of the skeleton was an open briefcase that contained a stack of files and a note.

To Whosoever finds this,

I tried. I really tried. But, knowing what was in the lowest levels of this building, I had no choice but to throw it into lockdown. If one of the Ministry Mares is reading this, I wish you the best. The briefcase contains all the files pertaining to Project Icepony as well as some other information that may be of use concerning this facility.

Loyally yours,

Director Minuette

I set the note back down and placed it along with the other files into my bags. I’d look at them later. A thought struck me and I frowned. I ducked my head, looking under the desk. A small pistol lay there from when Colgate dropped it after committing suicide. I added it to my bags and stood back up.

“Core, what kind of thing am I looking for here?”

“There should be a terminal in there. Black looking thing in a corner.” I peered around, locating it and trotting over.

“Okay, now what?”

“Put your PipBuck near the terminal and let me work my magic. Oh, and make sure the terminal is on.” I tapped the screen and green light showed up underneath my hoof. I wiped away the dust and waited for Core to hack into it.

“Got it. The password was Brushie for whatever reason. You should be set from here. The lockdown should be the first thing that pops up.”

I tapped the terminal and a menu popped up. 

>Ministry of Awesome Lockdown
Lockdown active for: 73043 days

>Emergency Power Reserves: 17% remaining

>Terminate Lockdown: Y/N

I reached out and tapped the Y button. Another screen popped up.

>Voice authorization required

“Shoot. Do I need to say something special Core?”

>Voice authorization accepted: Rainbow Dash

“Oh, well that works.”

>Terminating lockdown…

All around me, the heavy metal pieces that had been obstructing the windows slid up with a grinding noise. Each one that came up let in light. My eyes burned, used to only the emergency lighting and the light of my PipBuck. I squinted, trying to make sense of my landscape. As I looked over the snowy landscape, a name echoed in my mind.

Stalliongrad.


Footnote: Level up
New Perk: Stealth - When sneaking, you are 50% less likely to be noticed.
> Chapter Two: Escape
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	“Ha! And you all made fun of me for packing so many scarves.”

I looked through the window at the frozen city. A storm seemed to be going on, as snow and sleet and ice pelted the now-exposed glass. It was tough enough to withstand the onslaught, but I still didn’t want to go flying out in it. I wouldn’t have any idea of where I was going, as the snow produced a screen thick enough that I only saw the city every minute or so. And even that was through a white haze. 

“Gah, I want to go out there so badly. I’ve been cooped up for far too long.” I frowned as I fell back on my haunches.

“Well I’ve got an idea if you want to go outside so badly,” said Core.

“What?” I asked, his comment slightly piquing my curiosity.

“A disguise would be in order for you. Dye your mane and coat and whatnot.” I opened my eyes wide, curious as to why he thought it was necessary.

“Elaborate. Now. I didn’t spend two hundred years trapped in a coffin to go and hide who I am.” My tone of voice left no room for argument.

He sighed and continued. “Like you said, it’s been two hundred years. Likely, most everyone you know is dead and you no longer have resources to protect you from someone who wants you dead.” I opened my mouth to interject, but he stopped me. “Close your mouth, I’m not done. Yes, you have your guns and wings and armor, but that wouldn’t be enough to stop the mass attack on you that your sudden appearance might bring. If you were to disguise yourself, you’d simply be another pegasus. Minus the armor of course. That might bring up some issues.”

“And how do you propose that I disguise myself?” I asked bitterly, still not wanting to go undercover, but realizing the necessity. “Wait, never mind. I have that box of makeup and dye from my trunk that was probably put there just for this.” 

“That certainly sounds like something Rarity would think to put in.” I sighed and pulled out the box, flipping it open to see the contents. 

Neatly lined up were ten different bottles of ‘permanent’ coat dye in all the hues that pegasi normally had, plus one of my regular coat color. Below them were another ten bottles, this time for my mane and tail. The only difference was that these ones were slightly smaller and in a different ten colors. The six that made up my mane were there along with grey, brown, a darker blue, and a light pink. 

I set them all out, leaving the makeup in the kit and setting that aside. I looked them over, trying to figure out which ones would be the best. I immediately put my original coat color back in the box. I took another glance outside. The swirling snow and the drab appearance behind it seemed rather depressing. I didn’t want to be just another monotone or dull color out in the landscape. I returned five more colors to the box, leaving me with pink, yellow, lavender, and a light green. 

“Any suggestions Core?”

“Well, the yellow and lavender look to be the same hue as Fluttershy and Twilight Sparkle, so I’d advise against those.”

I took his advice, returning the two colors to the box. Now it was just a choice between the green and the pink. Both of them would be fine, but the pink seemed more right to me for some reason. I set it to the side and turned my attention to the mane colors.

Looking them over, I realized that I was far too attached to my rainbow mane. Even though I’d have to dye it a single color, it could be one I already had. I returned the four colors to the box. Taking another look at the pink, I put aside the three warm colors and looked at the green, blue, and violet. I thought of the different color schemes, made a face at imagining the green and pink, thus leaving me with two colors again. I let my hoof decide, closing my eyes and randomly selecting one. Blue. My choices made, I stowed the kit.  

I turned to go and pace the room and put off my change longer, but something stopped me. I caught a glimpse of my reflection in the glass and the sight shocked me. I was still partially covered in black blood from my injuries earlier and it was smeared over my purple armor. My face had a scar running down over my left eye, three jagged lines. There were other numerous scars on my face as well as several new ones. My face had a look of weariness to it, as if it had seen too many deaths and too much violence, but was powerless to stop it. My mane, though still rainbow, had what looked to be streaks of grey running through it. Turning to one side, I saw that my tail had similar streaks. I knew I wasn’t old enough to be turning grey yet, so it only added to my look of one who was tired. Overall, my appearance was one of a soldier, a mare who had seen battle and lived to tell the tale time and time again. It was the appearance of a mare who had seen a land fall to war and violence. It was a mare who had loved and lost and so much more. It was a mare who I did not remember.

It was a mare who I did not want to be. 

I turned around and grabbed one of the bottles, unstopping it without hesitation. I moved to pour part of it on my head, but Core stopped me.

“You might not want to do that.”

If it hadn’t been for my irritation, I wouldn’t have stopped. “What is it now? You told me I should hide my appearance.”

“Yes, but you’re going to need water if you don’t want to make a mess of things and run out of dye.”

I paused and looked at the back of the bottle. Dang it, why was Core always right. “How did you know that?”

“You gave me to Rarity,” he said, almost as if it should be obvious.

“Hello, pony without a memory here.”

“Oh, right.” He let out something akin to a cough, but continued anyways. “Rarity was the head of the Ministry of Image. She was concerned about appearance and propaganda and whatnot. And she was a dressmaker. So she was always trying to maintain a perfect appearance even though she was certainly the most frayed out of the six of you.”

“In that case, where’s the nearest bathroom? I wouldn’t mind it for non-cosmetic purposes either.” I grinned, pulling out the rifle and moving towards the director’s door. 

“Should be off to the right once you leave the director’s office.”

“Excellent.” I opened the door, peering around in the now brighter room. I could make out details easier now, such as the coffeemaker area, the secretary’s desk, and the crushed furniture. A door led off to the right and left, but I was only paying attention to one. “So, what else can you tell me about my friends? Applejack and Fluttershy and the others?”

“I am less familiar with Fluttershy and Pinkie Pie, but I knew quite a bit of the others. Fluttershy was a pegasus like yourself and devoted herself to helping everyone she could, be it pony, zebra, or animal. She was in charge of the Ministry of Peace and all its hospitals and whatnot.” 

I opened the door and swept up my rifle, sighting one lone zombie pony part way down the hall. He wasn’t looking in my direction, but I wasn’t going to take any chances. I fired once, the silenced bullet hitting his head and sending a black spray on the already tarnished walls. “Peace huh? I bet she wasn’t a big fan of the war effort then. Good for her.”

“Yes, she was quite opposed. Pinkie was an entirely different kind of pony though. She was in charge of the Ministry of Morale. It started out sticking to its name and actually cheering up ponies. Then Pinkie went off the deep end and used it to very out spies and traitors. She was extremely good at it too, almost as if she could see the future.” I halted, feeling the faint tug of a memory. It had something to do with Pinkie, a task, and a box that I had to put somewhere. But the memory vanished almost as soon as it appeared. I shook my head and continued down the hall, stopping at a door with a blue sign posted on it. I actually thought for once and looked at my E.F.S. in the corner of my vision. The room ahead was free of any bars, red or otherwise. Still, I nudged it open and proceeded with caution. 

Luckily, my fears were not proved right. I went over to the sink, checking to see if it had water. It did, and I took the opportunity to wash off my face and armor. “So what about the other three?”

“Applejack was steadfast and strong, always honest and always loyal to her friends and family. She headed up the Ministry of Technology. If it hadn’t been for her and her sister Applebloom, who was a co-founder of Stable-Tec, you wouldn’t have your PipBuck, this building, or your life. She had to deal with hundreds of lying, manipulative businessponies every day. Still, she was ridiculously stubborn. She was convinced in doing things the earth pony way. In some cases she was right. In others, she made large mistakes.” Core sighed wistfully as I finished up washing my face. It felt good to not have my head clean, almost like I was a new mare. I took one last, but short, look at my fractured reflection in the shattered mirror above the sink. I set the dye bottles on the rim and took off my saddlebags and armor and set it to the side. With a look at the door and my map, I reluctantly removed my hoofblades as well, though I kept them closer to me than the armor. I started preparing the dye as Core started talking again.

“Twilight Sparkle was a genius. There hadn’t been anther unicorn like her in over a thousand years. Perhaps there was a reason why. The last time a unicorn that strong roamed the world, the three tribes ended up fighting for years, then uniting to form Equestria. Perhaps the arrival of such a unicorn is a warning. She certainly was the harbinger for all kinds of destruction. She headed up the Ministry of Arcane Sciences and she was the first to weaponize the megaspell, she was working on creating artificial alicorns, and contributed a whole slew of other things to the war effort. She supported the other five Ministry Mares, yourself included. And if it hadn’t been for her, the war would almost certainly not have ended the way it had. The day she weaponized the megaspell was the day Equestria was doomed.” I added the finishing touches of dye to my wings and stepped back. Since the dye was magic, all I had to do was mix it with water and then make sure every part of me was covered. 

I was about to go over it a second time to make sure that I got everything when the door suddenly exploded in to the bathroom. It caught my shoulder, spinning me around on the wet tile surface. If it hadn’t been for that, I would have most likely died as bursts of light came through and hit the wall behind where my head had been. I rolled underneath the sinks, trying to get some cover as shots continued to be blindly fired into the room. 

“Can’t a mare use the bathroom in peace?!” I yelled. My voice sunned them for a moment and the shots ceased firing. Taking advantage, I rolled out from under the row of sinks and grabbed the door. I used it like a shield and rammed it up against the doorframe, holding it in place with my body. It only bought me a few seconds, but it gave me time to think. From my E.F.S., I could see three red bars directly behind me, but more were heading towards them with every second. As I had no time to lose, I reached out a hoof and grabbed the nearest thing to me: an old pipe. Good enough.

In one motion, I vaulted over the door and activated S.A.T.S. with a thought. I aimed the pipe at the two closest to me, planning on taking them out with a single swipe to the head. When time resumed, I moved faster than they thought as I became a pink blur. The pipe knocked the head off of one of the zombie ponies while it shoved the other one into the wall. I registered that both hits went where I wanted them to and spun, releasing the pipe at the third enemy. The added momentum of my spin drove the pipe right through him, pinning him to the wall opposite. I was feeling merciful and used one of the guns they had one him. I fired a single shot and it hit him point blank, disintegrating him to ashes. I gasped and threw down the weapon in disgust. 

I turned around and ran back into the bathroom, kicking the door out of my way as I went. I put on my hoofblades first, their familiarity reining me in from the fact that I just utterly disintegrated something. “Who the heck would make a weapon that did that? A fight should be honorable, not one where a single underhand attack can kill you if it hits you anywhere,” I scowled, angrily getting suited up in my armor. 

“They’re called energy weapons. Invented initially by Twilight and further developed through the MoT. I always wondered why you and the rest of the Shadowbolts never used them.”

“They’re cowardly. If you’re going to kill your enemy, do it with weapons that they can heal from. I fight. That is not a weapon. It’s a murdering tool.” I drew Loyalty out of its holster and grasped it in my mouth. Based on the number of incoming red bars, it’d be a running fight. Besides, Loyalty packed slightly more punch than Lightning in close quarters. 

Knowing I couldn’t talk well with the gun in my mouth, Core traced a map that I followed. It was full of turns, but it was the path that would get me away from the zombie ponies as quickly as possible. As near as I could tell, it was trying to lead me to one of the floor exits to the place. Even so, I ran into a pair heading towards me as I turned a corner. Without hesitation, I queued S.A.T.S. and send two bullets out of Loyalty and into their skulls. The gun was by no means silent, but it was loud enough that the red bars in my E.F.S. paused, then turned to where I was.

“Buck,” I spat around Loyalty’s handle. I holstered it, knowing that it would be a waste of bullets to try and fight all the enemies heading my way. I grabbed my helmet out of my saddlebags and slipped it on, putting the flight goggles I had been wearing over it. It left my mouth exposed, presumably to make holding a gun easier. The yellow-tinted faceplate had a number of different readings, but I wasn’t busy paying attention to them. “Core, forget the escape route. Find me the closest window.”

The cyan line paused for a second before leading down the hall into an office. I ran into it, busting down the door and leaping over the desk while decapitating the occupant within. I stopped when I heard a crack, but realized that it was just a skeleton. I had ended back up in the director’s office through some cruel irony. “Oh. Sorry Minuette.” I glanced towards the window, trying to figure out the best way to break it. It was undoubtedly bulletproof, so it had to be something with a large mass. A red bar showed up behind me and I smiled.

Backflipping over the desk with my wings’ assistance, I stabbed the zombie pony with my hoofblades. I grabbed it and swung it at the window, once again spinning to gain momentum. When I released, its body hit the window with a meaty smack, but nothing else happened. 

“Gargh!” I cried in frustration. The red bars were getting even closer now. I didn’t have a choice of finding another window if they had more of those disintegrating beams. I shoved the desk in front of the now empty doorframe and thought. “Come on Dash, use your head. Think!” A smile broke across my features as I knew what I could do.

“Core, what’s the probability of my helmet breaking that window?” In less than a second, a number popped up on my display.

>99% possibility of success

“Excellent. Now what’s the probability of my head smashing like an eggshell when I do so?”

>64% of severe cranium damage

“Eh, one-third odds. I bet I’ve had worse.” I backed up and stood on top of the desk, wings flared out in preparation to charge the nigh-unbreakable window. I rocked back, about to take off when a force seized me from behind, dragging me into the reception area. I fell onto my back, off balance, though my armor crushed whatever had grabbed me. I took a quick glance at my E.F.S. and saw nothing but red. Buck.

I activated all four hoofblades, using my wings to spin me around while I became a whirling tornado of bladed death. The decaying flesh of the zombie ponies was no match for my eerily sharp weapons and as soon as I had a small circle around me, I flipped to my hooves and launched myself into the air, my shoulder hurting from where the door from earlier had hit it. Strangely, as I did so, all of the zombie ponies stopped as if a signal had gone out. A voice echoed from down the hall to my right.

“Please, land, and let us talk about this like civilized ponies.”

Curious as I was, I wasn’t about to stop and find out who had commanded all these creatures to attack me. “Not a chance, creepy mysterious voice.”

“I thought as much,” it sighed. “Ghouls, detain her.”

But I was already gone. As soon as I finished my sentence, I was flying full speed at the door, wings tucked in to miss the doorframe. I was hurtling as fast as I could reach at the window. If it didn’t break, I’d be a goner. 

The first thing to hit the window was the flight goggles. I heard a crack and was suddenly worried about the state of them, but it was too late to do anything about it. The window shattered under my force, the difference in air pressure sucking me outside even faster than I was flying. 

I was hurtled into the storm, the ice and sleet stinging my newly dyed wings and exposed legs. I tried to slide open my wings, but the second I had one the slightest bit open, the wind caught it and threw it fully extended despite my efforts to pull it back against my body. With my body no longer aerodynamic, the wind caught my wing and made it feel almost as if it was being ripped off as I was mercilessly sent into a spiral and headed towards the ground. I was going to crash face first into the stone ground below me and was powerless to stop it.

Then, inexplicably, time seemed to slow down around me and the roar of the storm died down slightly. With a start, I realized that Core had activated S.A.T.S. for me. The extra time let my brain try and recall what to do in the event of a crash like this. Except that my brain couldn’t remember almost anything. Instead, I let logic take over and aimed for a nearby snowdrift, extending my wing to force me over to it. The pain was similar to the other wing, making it feel as if it was being ripped off, but it lasted for only a few short seconds before I crashed into the snowdrift. I heard a crack and a shooting pain through one of my hooves. The snow, though soft, was still ground. It covered my wings and mostly hid them from the wind. I was only semi-conscious by this point from pain, but I managed to roll over to try and get my bearings. 

Directly in front of me about fifty feet away was the building I just escaped from. Looking up, I could see a large hole in a window overlooking my area. My pegasus eyes were able to pick out a dark shape standing in the hole, searching, but I couldn’t make out anything else with the storm raging like it was. Desperately, I looked around to see if there was any place that would provide more shelter than the snowdrift I was on now. My faceplate had numerous flashing red alerts on it, all telling me that I needed to get into shelter and was damaged pretty badly.

My keen eyes picked out a swinging light in the distance, its glow cutting through the blinding snow. I started to crawl towards it, my battered and bruised wings protesting with each tiny movement. My armor had protected all of my essential parts, but my exposed legs and wings took a severe beating. As I kept crawling, the light grew larger until I could make out a floating lantern, a unicorn’s glow around it. My eyes searched for the nearby unicorn, but he found me first.

“What in the blazes are you doing out here in a tempest? Come, get inside, now!” The voice belonged to a heavily cloaked pony who ran over to me, the wind and snow hitting him. He seemed to take no notice of it as he looked me over quickly. Then, apparently deeming me a non-threat, I was lifted in an aura of telekinesis. The feeling of weightlessness was different than how I felt when flying, but I was too weak and tired to do anything about it. I was almost completely at the mercy of this stranger.

My vision was darkening slightly, giving me a warning that I was about to pass out. I felt the driving wind and ice disappear and the sensation of a warm blanket wrapped around me. “Drink,” said the voice. I felt a pressure on my lips from a bottle of some kind and opened them, letting the liquid flow down my throat. The blackness receded and the pain in my leg and wings faded to a dull ache. A healing potion. Why hadn’t I thought of that?

Now that my eyes were no longer clouded with blackness and I could think straight, I looked around where I was. It was a small, windowless room, brick on all sides. Someone had hung several thick blankets over the walls, presumably for insulation. To my left was a door, but it was shut. The room itself was lit by a bunch of small jars, glowing insects within them. Other than the unicorn who still had me held in his magic, there were two other ponies in the room: a pegasus stallion and an earth pony mare. They looked at me warily, guns close to their hooves. 

“Drink,” came the voice again. I opened my mouth again and tasted another healing potion as it went down. I could almost feel my leg knitting itself back together as my wings finally stopped their pain. “You’re lucky that was only a fracture.”

He set me on the ground, the glow disappearing at the blanket unfurling. I blinked my eyes and looked up at the pony who saved me. I first saw his deep blue eyes, as he was still looking at me, seeing if I was alright. Looking beyond that, he had a dull grey coat and an equally monotone grey mane, though the latter was darker.

“Lost, did you even look to see if she was a raider before bringing her in here?” dryly asked the other pegasus, his voice a rather low baritone. 

“I figured that a great big pegasus like you would be able to take care of her if she was,” he replied. It seemed like friendly banter, but I wasn’t entirely sure. He turned back to me, a tiny smile still on his face. “Now, if you would be so kind, could you alleviate my companions’ fears and remove your armor and tell us who you are?”

It was the least I could do, so I took off my hoofblades and reached up to take off my helmet. The way Lost’s eyes narrowed, I could tell that he had missed my weapons at first glance. Pausing for a moment, I also took Loyalty and Lightning out of their holsters and set them next to the hoofblades. He gave a small satisfied nod as I took off my helmet, setting it next to the weapons. I picked up the flight goggles, fearing that they were cracked, but there wasn’t even a scratch on them. At seeing that, I inadvertently gave a small gasp of surprise.

“Problem?”

I held up the flight goggles and responded. “I hit a thick pane of reinforced glass with these and they’re intact.”

“How curious.” But he said nothing more as I took off my armor, the task made slightly easier as I recalled how to do it from earlier. Setting it aside, I shook my mane in relief from being bound underneath the armor. As I did so, the pegasus stallion brought up his rifle and leveled it at me. I froze at once, not sure what prompted him to do so.

“Your cutie mark. Dashite or Enclave?” Oh crap, I forgot about that. Let’s go with Dashite, it has my name. Anything with my name couldn’t be bad. I hoped.

“Dashite.” I hoped my voice kept the small question out of it. It must have, as he lowered his rifle. I breathed a sigh of relief, though he still looked wary. He turned his flank, letting me see his cutie mark. Or at least, what would have been his cutie mark. Where it would have been in his blue-ish coat, there was just a spot where a familiar symbol had been branded. On his flank was an exact image of my cutie mark, though it lacked the colors.

“Nice to meet another. Name’s Turbulent Storm. Most just call me Storm. And you are?” He asked it casually, but I somehow knew that if I failed to give a prompt answer it would not bode well for me. If I looked around the room, it would have also been a signal. I instead looked past him, my eyes seeing one of the jars that were lighting up the room. In a flash, I knew I had the answer.

“Some call me Firefly.” 

Footnote: Level up
New Perk: Natural Resistance 1 – +5% resistance against ice, wind, and cold. This effect does not stack with other perks of the same name.
> Chapter Three: Peace
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	"Biting off more than you can chew is just what I'm afraid of."

I sat on my back, mulling over all that had happened. After I had told them my improvised name, they seemed somewhat satisfied and sat back to a wary eye on me, weapons close by their sides. I did the same, content to just lean up against the wall, listening to the tempest continue to rage outside. It was a pleasant change from the intense action and fighting that I had woken up to. My mind thought about getting out the documents on Project Icepony, but I still didn’t fully trust these ponies yet; if they would mean me harm down the road, I didn’t want them knowing anything about my true identity. 

I had learned that the earth pony mare was called Star. Nothing else, just Star. She had a sandy brown coat and a burgundy mane; once again, not one who stood out much. Her cutie mark was simple, an outline of a five-pointed star that could mean anything and nothing. As I lay against the wall, I could see her looking over her weapons, checking to see if they were still in prime condition. She had quite a few, but the two she paid the most attention to was a fine quality shotgun and a pair of dueling pistols. The pistols were mounted together so that they could be fired at the same time or separately depending on the mouth movements she made. I let my gaze wander over to the pegasus, Turbulent Storm.

I could make him out better than I had initially had upon coming in. Along with the rifle at his hooves, he had a number of knives sheathed in a belt that criss-crossed his body in an x shape. It looked custom made out of a dark substance that I suspected was leather of some kind. There were numerous different shapes and sizes that I could see, ranging from interestingly shaped throwing knives such as stars and darts to a rather large meat cleaver. From what I could see from my relaxed position, they had nary a chip on their blade. Whoever had made the blades had brushed them over with a darker coat so that they didn’t reflect light and give the position away. While his arsenal brought on a few questions, they were miniscule and I pushed them aside and instead directed my attention at the last member of their little party.

Lost was doing the same thing I was, except for the fact that he actually seemed to be asleep. I could catch a glimpse of his cutie mark, a white heart that had an arrow slicing up through it vertically. It was a fairly specific mark, but the actual meaning of it escaped me. Likely something to do with healing, hence the heart, but I didn’t know what the significance of the arrow could be. I added it to the rapidly growing number of my questions that now resembled something close to the height of a tall mountain. Lying next to him were the heavy clothes he had worn to come out and search for me. Aside from that, I couldn’t see that he carried any weapons. While they could have been hidden in his saddlebags, also off to the side, I doubted it. He seemed like the kind of pony who wouldn’t carry a weapon. Or at least the kind of one who would rely upon the kind of weapon that was unseen.

Speaking of weapons, I gazed at mine longingly. I had made no effort to retrieve them and the trio had made no effort to return them, though they also left them where I dropped them. There was just something comforting about having the weight of the hoofblades and armor on, but I would ignore the feeling for now if I was able to make a few allies. Not to mention it kept me cozily warm and ready for most anything.

As the storm continued to rage outside, snow and ice pelting our shelter, I slowly drifted off to sleep, my body resting itself for the mayhem that would surely follow me.




“Firefly, time to return to the world of the living.” The voice that had rescued me from the snow now floated to me through sleep, cutting through my fragmented, but thankfully silent, dreams. I cracked open an eye to see Lost’s other two companions pulling on barding and readying weapons. It wasn’t anything special, but looked well taken care of and would protect them well in a fight.  As my brain finally woke up, my ears registered that the constant noise of the storm outside had finally ceased.
“What are we doing?” I rolled to my hooves, struggling to shake away the last vestiges of sleep.

“While you slept, my friends and I discussed you. If you had been a raider, you would have already tried to kill us and would now lie dead. If you were Enclave, the same would be true. If you were a trader, you would have stolen our goods and vanished, not to mention you would lack this quality armor. And you’re obviously not Brethren or a ghoul. So we have decided to let you accompany us for the time being, provided you don’t stab us in the back.” Brethren? I let the question slide off my brain to fall amongst the others, it being little concern for me now. 

“And you are going where?” I inquired, curious as to where this conversation was leading.

“Well,” he began,” we’re what you’d call salvagers. We had intended on entering the Ministry of Peace hub and seeing what we could find, but we’re reconsidering that since the Ministry of Awesome hub so unexpectedly opened.”

His mouth was still open, as if he was going to continue talking about their plan, but I held up a hoof to stop him. “If you value your life, don’t go into that building. It has an enormous amount of those ghouls. And worst of all,” I shivered, remembering the voice that had called out to me and the dark shape in the broken window, “I think that there is someone in there who is able to control them. I barely got out alive.”

Lost’s eyebrow shot up and I silently cursed. I hadn’t meant to reveal that I had come from the building, but it had just slipped out. “So that’s what you were doing out in the tempest. A fellow scavenger, eh?”

I let out a weak chuckle, grasping at the line he had unknowingly thrown to me. “Right. But you wouldn’t be able to fight through them.”

“If that’s the case, then whatever is in there should be safe from other scavengers as well. Most ponies work in small groups or solo, aside from the Brethren that is.” There was that name again. It rose slightly higher on my priority list, but still not high enough to ask about it. “Suit up Firefly, we’ve got a job to do.”

I smiled, happy to be able to get back into my armor and weapons. I pulled on the barding and slipped on the hoofblades, pausing to reholster Loyalty and Lightning in their snug places. I was about to put on my helmet as well when a familiar voice sounded from my PipBuck.

“Well aren’t you going to introduce me?” And up came the guns. Luckily for me, Storm and Star pointed their weapons at the door and not me. I sighed, rolling my eyes. Lost was the only who noticed though, as he had figured out where the voice had actually come from.

“Lost, Storm, Star. Meet Core, my residential sarcastic AI.”

“Being sarcastic is so much more fun than just being serious all the time. Pleased to meet you all.” Storm and Star hesitantly lowered their weapons, but something must have clicked as they realized that a computer would pose little to no threat to them, at least in their current state without technology.

“Stable-Tec technology, I take it?” asked Lost. Stable-Tec rang a dim bell, so I nodded. “Figured, since it came from your PipBuck and all. You Stable ponies do have that slight advantage.” PipBuck, right. I really needed to read that manual. 

I finished pulling on my helmet, the display lighting up all around me. As I was no longer being pursued by ghouls, I was actually able to take in all that was in my faceplate display. In the lower right corner was my E.F.S. which currently displayed only three green dots, while my ammo and compass direction were in the upper left and right corners of my helmet respectively. I was currently facing south with full ammo, it seemed. A little window popped up in the lower left side and a blue-ish circle with a simple smiling face appeared, his features drawn in darker blue lines. “So how are you finding things in the Wasteland so far Dash?” My eyes, widened, worried that the others had heard my real identity. The voice was Core’s and I didn’t think he was that stupid, but I wasn’t sure. He assuaged my fears quickly though. “Relax, with your helmet on, only you can hear me unless I decide to make use of your speaker system in your PipBuck or armor. Besides, it was a rhetorical question. You’ll look like an idiot talking to thin air anyways.” The face gave a grin, then vanished again. Core was full of surprises, as was my barding.  

I looked over to meet Star’s gaze and nodded, signaling that I was ready to go. She opened the door and we filed out, leaving her to lock and bar it behind us. We were in the remains of an office building coming out of what was most likely the employee break room. To our right were four mostly intact glass doors, beyond which was a field of white. The doors themselves were covered in what looked to be a permanent coating of frost, obscuring any more details beyond them. It was to these doors that Star headed, taking point while Lost and Storm trotted a few feet behind on the left and right sides. I took position a few feet behind them and centered behind Star, watching my radar for any targets that might appear. We crossed the short distance quickly, anything that would have once blocked our way years ago shoved to the side. Star pushed open the doors and I trotted through to get my first clear view of Stalliongrad.

White

White was everywhere, adorning the buildings, the ground, even the sky above. White dominated the landscape, anything that had once been color bleached from long exposure to the blasting wings and weather. What little color did remain was greatly faded, barely piercing the white. Though the vicious whipping winds had ceased, powdery snow still softly drifted down. It landed on my armor and bare legs, but, being a pegasus, I barely felt the cold. My hooves crunched in the several inches thick snow, my light weight causing me to sink in slightly but not quite reaching the pavement below. Lost sunk in even less, looking almost as if he was standing peacefully atop the snow. His horn glowed softly, suggesting a spell was the case. Star just kept walking, a furrow spawning behind her. 

Looking around, I saw a ring of buildings in front of me, making a shape slightly large than a semicircle. They were the only things that still retained their color, looking as bold and fresh as the day they were painted. Magic against the snow, no doubt. They were separated from each other and other office buildings by a few feet, allowing each to stand proud in their own right. The somewhat familiar black and blue of the Ministry of Awesome building was in the middle, flanked by the orangey Wartime Technology and lavender Arcane Science buildings. The yellow Ministry of Peace building, our target, was on the far left. The Ministry of Awesome was easily the biggest, though not quite the tallest. The last building, the Ministry of Morale’s hub, stood out the most, an island of happy pink in the landscape.

As we crept through the snow, everything was silent apart from the snow crunching under our hooves. Not another sound could be heard and everything was still as we trudged across the remains of a park. No birds tweeted, and no grass rustled, anything living long ago killed by frost and ice. I pictured what we would look like from a distance, a diamond of dark travelers emerging through the precipitation. I stuck out my tongue, catching a few snowflakes on it. I scrunched up my face at its slightly bitter taste, though the cold was soothing to my mouth. I glanced around again, seeing no shapes on my radar or in the snow. Even looking up at the MoA building and its shattered window, I could see no sign of the dark shape that had been there when I left, nor the shapes of any of the ghouls. We skirted around a mostly intact frozen fountain of stone that would have once depicted two massive alicorns and entered into the shadow of the Ministry of Peace. 

“Alright, Storm will do the usual and scout ahead for ghouls and other nasties as well as any locked boxes left behind. I’ll follow up a bit back with Lost behind me. We’ll do the majority of the salvage, but feel free to pick up anything you see that could be useful Firefly. You’ll be in charge of watching our rear in case anything slips by me. Keep an eye on your E.F.S., it’s an advantage that can mean the difference between life and death sometimes. We’ll be doing this as silently as possible, so use knives or silenced weapons. Clear?”

Storm huffed and rolled his eyes, his breath sending small visible puffs in the chilly air. “Of course we’re clear, it’s the same procedure every time.”

“I was saying it for Firefly, but it never hurts to review. Now be sure to maintain radio contact at all times and we’ll be set.” She paused to insert a small earbud attached to a microphone before turning some sort of dial on it. “Firefly, we’ll be on frequency 120, so be sure to turn to that. Other than that, we’re set.”

A little message popped up in the corner of my vision.

>Radio frequency set to 120

Thank you Core. Ahead of me, Storm slipped inside the building and vanished into the darkness beyond. I was surprised that he would be the one for stealth missions, but you learn something new every day. Pegasi had a tendency to be fairly quiet. Star waited a few more moments before opening the door herself and Lost and I followed her in. I saw movement out of the corner of my eye as a red bar popped up in my radar, but before I could do anything Star had drawn one of her silenced dueling pistols and shot it once, the bullet killing it instantly. The fact that Storm hadn’t set it on him was a testament to his ability. Looking back, I saw that the doors were tinted, probably to prevent snow blindness. In any case, it cast the inside atrium in shadow. I glanced around for any more threats as Lost moved to where Star had dispatched the enemy and checked its corpse for anything of use. He shook his head and the three of us moved on in silence.

“I’ve got a locked door to the second level up here, over.”

I gave a small jump at the sudden voice, but I could recognize it as Storm’s over the radio. Star’s voice responded a second or two after. “Copy that. I can’t see much salvageable down here. Headed your way, over.” Until she spoke, I hadn’t even been looking for anything salvageable. I didn’t even have the faintest idea of what might have been salvageable, so I just picked up a few things and added them to my ridiculously large bags. 

Star looked back at me and I realized she was asking me which way Storm was. I found his dot close by on my E.F.S. and pointed with my hoof. She nodded and we continued on in silence, Lost and I pausing occasionally to pick up bits and pieces of salvageable scrap.   

After a few minutes, and quite a few twists and turn through rubble and twisted metal, we came upon a staircase. Peering through the shadows, I saw the outline of a pony: Storm perched on the top step, nearly invisible due to his coloration in the low light. It was rather surprising that a stallion with little tact would be the best at stealth, but the Wasteland had already had so many surprises thrown at me that another almost didn’t matter. Lost made his way up, sliding past the pegasus, and looked at the door for a moment. His horn glowed slightly, revealing the two ponies on the step more clearly. There was a pause and I heard his voice over the radio. “It’s a complicated electronic lock, I can’t break it easily. Probably why it still is locked after all these years.”

“Allow me.” Core’s voice echoed across all our radios, causing Lost and Storm to jump; Star, on the other hand, remained steady as a rock, constantly vigilant by searching the area around us for threats. 

There was a whirring and the door clicked, opening a fraction. Star now made her way up and slipped through. “Alright, this is utterly unexplored territory. As there is a very high chance that ghouls still remain up here Storm, stay twice as close as you usually do.”

“Copy that.”

He once again disappeared, Star following mere seconds later. I walked carefully, watching every step I made. There were patches where the floor had obviously weakened, the carpet gone and exposing crumbling concrete and out right holes in some parts. Lost’s bags were close to bulging by now with all the salvage he had collected. Still, there hadn’t been any threats other than the one we saw downstairs.

I spoke too soon.

A flash of movement to my left caught my eye and I whipped my head towards it, the red bar on my E.F.S. showing up at the same time. Even as I looked at it, four more red dots appeared, surrounding us. “Storm, be warned. Five hostiles converging on us. Get back here, but stay in the wings in case we need you.” Star gave me a questioning voice as she glanced at me, but drew her pistols and took a closer look in the shadows. We paused, Lost sliding his saddlebags to the floor. “Make the eight hostiles. And counting.” Then all hell broke loose. 

A snarl to my right alerted me just in time for me to relax so that I rolled with the leaping figure as it bowled me over and separated me from Star and Lost. I looked up into the face of one of those zombie ponies, but that was all I saw before I rolled backwards and used my hind legs to flip it over my head and freeing my body from its weight. Core helped in his way as well, activating something in my PipBuck to make it look as bright as day in the room which also had the effect of momentarily blinded the ghouls.

Shooting a quick glance over, I saw Star engaged in hoof-to-hoof combat with no less than three of the ghouls, her pistols lying separated a few feet away. Lost fared better, dueling another of the beasts with a sword that seemed to be made of magical energy. It was obviously effective, as two of the creatures lay around him. More kept coming out of places where my light vanished, taking my attention away from my allies and on to my enemies. 

The one I had kicked came charging back at me, but I simply held up a hoof blade and let it run onto it, the sharp steel stabbing directly into its throat. Not pausing to see if it was entirely dead or not, I launched into the air and plowed into one of the creatures headed for Lost. The force of my attack knocked off course and into a weakened patch of floor. The floor let out a crack and disintegrated, dropping the unfortunate ghoul to the floor below. 

While my enemy was in front of me, I forgot the dangers of only focusing on a single enemy when many were attacking. I felt a sharp pain in my rear hoof as one of the ghouls leaped up and grabbed on to me. The sudden weight increase caught me unexpectedly and I fell back to the ground. The concrete below me gave an ominous creak and I rolled to the side as it too gave out. The ghoul still clung to my leg, but I took to the air again and knocked it against the side of the hole and sent it down to join its buddy below.

I landed carefully, seeing numerous other holes appearing in the unstable floor. My E.F.S. alerted me to an enemy directly behind me, so I bucked out my legs and aimed to send it flying into the wall. Unfortunately for me, it was mid jump and crashed onto my back. Once again, the sudden substantial weight of the ghouls send me to the ground. Before I could get out from under my enemy, I saw another unicorn ghoul in front of me charge with his horn lowered in what was no doubt an attempt to skewer me. I closed my eyes and lowered my head, hoping that the seemingly indestructible flight goggles would be able to take the blow.

Whumph!

The strange noise caused me to look up, only to see a familiar meat cleaver embedded in the concrete in front of me as the head of the formerly charging ghoul fell off to one side. I felt the creature on top of me tense, then relax and slide off my back. I twisted and looked back at where my companions were fighting to see a shadowy shape, flying this time, was assisting them. Storm and his barrage of knives had arrived. Blades were flying from him, all thrown with precise aim. I let out a soft whoop and dived back into the fight. There was nothing like fighting for your life to get your blood pumping; it was intensely scary but one of the most addicting things ever at the same time. 

My hoof blades got their use as I formed a back-to-back triangle with Star and Lost, Storm acting as our protector by flying above and taking out the biggest threats. We had to continually move, as the floor was growing more unstable by the second with the addition of new ghouls. The three of us, and Storm too I suspected, were splattered with black blood, but the onslaught showed no signs of stopping. It was almost as if they had no reason to fight other than to kill. 

I saw a hole and took a moment to dive through it, slicing as my wings kept me in a tight spin to hit numerous ghouls. I landed and looked back, only to see that the ghouls who had been attacking Storm, Star, and Lost were now coming at me. It seemed eerily similar to what I had faced in the Ministry of Awesome building. Too similar. 

“Core! Are any of these ghouls the same as the ones in the Ministry building?!” I shouted, becoming something akin to a whirlwind now as I struggled to keep the ghouls away from me. Little rectangles popped up over the ghouls' faces, including those already dead, red and green. They moved around rapidly, but were only there for a few seconds before a message popped up on my display.

>28% of enemies present were also present in the Ministry of Awesome

The message confirmed my suspicions and I spun even faster for a moment, clearing the area around me.

“Enough!” I roared. “Why in Equestria do you want to kill me?!”

While I have no doubt that my companions would be giving me strange looks if they could, my question worked. The ghouls stopped, almost as if they had all been put on pause. A voice echoed out of the darkness, a voice I had only heard once but would remember forever.

“Oh look, the pretty little pegasus thinks that I have a reason for killing her. Maybe she’s right. Maybe she’s wrong. Who knows?” The voice cackled, echoing off the empty building walls. 

“I want answers mysterious voice. Why do you keep trying to kill me?” I set all four hooves on the ground, sensing that the fight itself was at least paused, possibly over. While that could change at any time, I doubted it would now that the voice knew it had my attention. Storm hovered nervously, his wings buzzing twice as fast as normal, but I shoved it aside for the time being. I needed answers.

“I can’t have you running around the Wasteland, especially now that I’m free.” The voice seemed closer, but I still couldn’t make out any details such as if the voice belonged to a stallion or mare. 

“And just why is that?”

“Because you pose a threat.” The voice had a warning edge to it and I felt a small bit of nervousness worm itself into my gut. Before I could act on it, a new voice popped up that was filled with terror, still in the same direction as the other, “Run you fool! Escape now!”

I raised an eyebrow, but still shoved it into the pile of questions. Unlike others though, this one landed and stayed at the top of the mountain. The voice broke into indecipherable arguing and I hurriedly gestured for my companions to escape with me. We ran, Lost levitating his bags back onto his back while Star paused to scoop up her weapons. Storm became a blur as he collected his knives, but even as fast as he was going I wanted to escape faster. The voice that warned me to run had been filled with more fear than I had ever heard. The ghoul horde remained still and unblinking, looking off into blank space as we ran from the rapidly growing softer mysterious voice. We wasted no time escaping the building and its strange horrors. 

We remained silently running until we reached the front doors of the Ministry building. Even then, we hurried out faster than we had come in, scarcely pausing to survey the room. Our pace slowed down as we crossed the snow-covered plain, but the fear was still evident in everypony’s breaths and posture. Our hoofprints from earlier were visible, but to my relief, no others had joined them. As we reentered the office and its break room, I took off my helmet to let my mane and head breathe, panting slightly. And then Star exploded in my face.

“What the buck was THAT Firefly?! Those ghouls definitely seemed after you, but they spared no pity in trying to kill us as well. I expected trouble, but I did not go prepared for an ONSLAUGHT of feral ghouls! Just what exactly are you involved in?!” Star roared.

I flinched back under her onslaught of words. I glanced to the side, but Lost and Storm were smart enough to stay out of it. 

“Honestly, I haven’t the faintest idea why the ghoul wants to kill me,” I replied, my voice steady and even though I was saying what I knew to be a flat out lie.

“Well we’re not going to find out about it. Go. Now. I don’t care where, just leave. I just met you and I won’t have you endangering my friends, even if you just saved our lives in there.”

I opened my mouth to say something, but I saw Lost behind her draw a hoof across his throat. I got his message and shut my mouth again. Without a word, I turned on one hoof and walked out of the room. I jammed my helmet on my head, anger simmering inside, and walked out of the office building, kicking the doors open with a single hoof.

“So it looks like it’s just us now. Again. What should we do next?” Core’s voice was expressionless, sounding slightly different than his usual snarkiness.

“Well, we could try searching for civilization that won’t kill us. If they were salvagers, then there has to be someplace to trade somewhere. Let’s go this way.” I chuckled weakly at that. Looking ahead, I saw more of the snow covered town. Ruined buildings lined the street, but they were mostly collapsed and nowhere near the same state as the Ministry buildings. I kept walking until I felt I was a good distance away. I glanced back at the buildings from whence I came, but walking for several long minutes caused them to be just a speck in the distance. A solitary line through the snow showed where I had walked, too frustrated to bother flying. Now that it occurred to me, I started hovering and continued along my path. 

“I have no idea where we’re going, but we’re going somewhere.” I kept flying on. It must have been ten minutes since I left my short-term friends behind, but the landscape remained bleak and expressionless aside from a slow incline that gradually was becoming steeper. I could see the top stretching a couple hundred feet in front of me. I kept flying on lazily, any drive to reach the top quickly gone. Even Core was silent, probably thinking over what we should do next.

My problem was solved for me. Coming over the rise, I looked down and was shocked to see the high wall marking the end of the city, a gate visible in the distance. But that wasn’t the most surprising bit. Stretched out below me, in between the bottom of the hill and the wall that marked the edge of the city, there was a massive, ramshackle town. I could tell it was occupied, as there was several large fires at certain points throughout, though I could also make out small pinpricks of light that signified small, one-pony fires. In the center of the town was a giant gathering of wood arrayed in the shape for a bonfire, though it was mostly ringed by small fires and not yet alight. It was similar to a large teepee, stretching almost as high as the tents around it. 

Stretched in between these fires were tents of all shapes and sizes. On the outer parts of the miniature city where single tents, mostly a dull brown or grey. As they got closer and closer to the center the tents got bigger and more elaborate. Then, at the very center and ringed around the piled up bonfire, six massive and colorful tents dominated. They were in the same colors as the five Ministry buildings with the addition of a white tent.  

Though from this distance I was unable to make out exact details, I thought I saw ponies going from tent to tent. They were just little shapes, but I was also able to make out other non-pony creatures such as griffons and a minotaur.

“Well Core, it looks like we found the place to go.” 

Footnote: Level up
New Perk: Spinner: +50% dodge chance while spinning.

> Chapter Four: Stalliongrad
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	"They really do have everything at the Trader's Exchange!"

I had barely made it halfway down the long, white hill lined with broken structures before I was stopped by a quintet of ponies, armed and dressed like a patrol for the town below. They were heavily cloaked, presumable to ward off the cold, so I couldn’t tell if any of them were pegasi. The unicorns were obvious though, as I could see horns poking up over snow goggles on two of them.

“Halt there stranger!” One of them shouted in a voice that was unmistakably male. The patrol behind him stood at attention, not moving. Obviously well trained soldiers, I noted. But I did as he asked, as I had no desire to get into a fight and get off on the wrong hoof with the only real civilization I had seen. I drew to a halt, tilting my head to the side with an air of nonchalance, and the pony spoke again.

“State your affiliation and business in New Stalliongrad.”

I paused, not exactly sure what to say. Was Dashite an affiliation? Or would it be better to say unaffiliated? I decided to go with the latter, and my business was easy: trade and knowledge.

“I am unaffiliated and seek to trade my salvage.”

Though hidden behind goggles and cloth, I saw the expression of the pony in front of me change slightly, almost as if he was raising an eyebrow at my answer. He went back to his four companions and they discussed something, obviously what to do with me. It only took a minute, and I stood there waiting the entire time. There was a slight breeze blowing, cooling my already cold wings. Eventually, the one that I assumed was their leader turned back to me.

“You may pass on to New Stalliongrad. Pay the toll and turn over your weapons as normal.”

I walked on past them semi-awkwardly, snow crunching under my hooves. I thought I could feel their gazes on my back as I walked down the slope, but I turned around and saw no sight of them. Curious, I paused and searched the hill for where they could have gone to. Nestled up against one of the ruined buildings was a small fire that I assumed was where they waited until they saw a pony like me. Quite clever really. Though where they got the wood from was yet another question; it most likely came from forests growing around here.

I turned back around and trudged down the snowy slope, looking ahead to the gate that barred my path. It was a gate of immense size, stretching from one side of the road to the other and blocking entrance any other way. It was made of wood and steel and seemed quite sturdy. It must have stretched at least twenty-five feet high, the top lined with sharp steel. The only way in seemed to be a grey metal gate set dead in the middle, currently open and guarded by two ponies holding rifles. It seemed overkill on defenses to me, but I had no idea of what might seek to attack the city.

“That’s quite the impressive feat of engineering. It seems that earth ponies haven’t lost their knack for building to last.” I heard the robotic voice sound in my helmet, my attention still fixed on the gate ahead.

“Agreed Core,” I said under my breath, loud enough for him to hear me but not loud enough that the guards ahead thought me crazy.

I continued walking, the guards barely batting an eye as I walked past. The gate turned into a tunnel, slots in the walls and ceiling providing light. It only lasted a few feet before I reached the other side. There, the gate was guarded by a single pony.

“Please pay the toll of five caps to enter. If you can’t pay, go scrounge up some money until you can.” He sounded bored, as if this was all he ever did. Five bits wasn’t much compared to what I had, though I was slightly perplexed as to why he referred to them as caps. Slang changes with time I guess. I got my sack of bits out and counted out five. I held them out, not sure where to put them, and he levitated them in front of his face. He looked at the bits oddly, then shrugged and put them in a metal box he had slung over his back. “Please leave your weapons in the bin. You may ask the Quartermaster to send them to the gate you are exiting from when you’re ready to leave.” He paused, then looked me over again. “I don’t think I recognize you. First time here?”

“Yeah.”

He nodded, then levitated a small plastic card out of the bin I he put my money in. He scribbled a number down and gave it to me. “What’s your name?”

“Firefly.” I responded confidently. He wrote it down on the card, then looked up again.

“Don’t lose this, you’ll need it to get your weapons back. The card will be yours for as long as you don’t lose it. The Parliament Security Council would also like to inform you that a replacement card costs twenty-five caps, so do try to hold on to it.”  He sighed and looked at me with a facial expression that showed his boredom. I took it looked at it. It had the number on it—31409— and a circle that had an emblem in it. I assumed it was meant to be the symbol for the city Parliament. With some regret, I unholstered Loyalty and Lightning and placed them in a small bin next to the pony that had a sign of a gun, then an arrow pointing down. I started to take off my hoofblades when he stopped me. “One melee-only weapon is allowed in the city if you so desire for self-defense purposes. Ponies can get stupid sometimes.”  I gave him a nod and walked past as he telekinetically opened the gate. I couldn’t wait to get my first view of the city. 

My first view of the city was rather astounding.

It was a city of wood and metal and canvas. Close to me, almost as soon as I stepped out of the gate, there were tents arrayed. Most of them were small, only one or two pony tents, but others probably held as many as twelve. While almost all were made of canvas and there didn’t seem to be any permanent housing, I let my gaze travel further along the road that lead directly to the center of the city and its wood pile. 

The farther down I looked, the more complex the buildings got. Tents gave way to structures of wood, then structures made of steel, then made of all three materials I had seen. I even saw a plume of smoke rising up from a tall building that towered over the rest, probably some high-ranking official’s house or a tavern. I started walking down the road in front of me, heading straight for the heart of the city.

I could see a wall ringing the city, as massive and uniform as the gate that I arrived through. Now inside, I could see that it had a platform running all along it, slightly lower than the top of the wall. It had to stop every now and then to give way to a building, but it disappeared out of sight behind the buildings that rose up in front of me.

As I walked, I saw tents stir and shake, signs that their occupants were waking up and getting ready to do who knows what for the day. Every so often, I saw paths leading off to the left and right. They curved away from me, leading to other roads. As the side roads became more frequent and got shorter, I got closer to the middle. I ignored them, preferring to head straight into the center. As I got closer and closer, the buildings around me grew even more colorful as various merchants were setting up and trying to ply their wares to any living creatures that passed by. I thought I even saw a merchant trying to sell life insurance to a cockroach. 

“Quite the organized little town here. I sincerely hope that the parliament or council or whatever isn’t absolutely corrupt. A little corrupt is to be expected since it is politics, but totally corruption just gets messy. Stalliongrad has a bad history of that.” I saw Core’s blue AI face pop up in the corner of my faceplate and I silently agreed with him. A dictator never made things easy for anyone but himself and his friends. At least from what I could tell, trade was abundant and flourishing. That was always a good sign. I saw several griffons, more than I would have thought, selling their wares or acting as bodyguards. They weren’t the only non-pony creature, as I saw a minotaur and more than a few zebras advertising various potions. 

As I came upon the center of the wheel that was the city, I saw the six colored tents that were visible from high on the hill over the wall. They were massive, but they only served as the front of whoever they were representing. The tents stretched back until they reached a sturdy building. Why that was their design I had no clue, but I assumed that they were the six most powerful factions in New Stalliongrad. 

The two directly across the route I came out were the lavender one and the one that pretty closely matched my old coat color. A wooden sign hung from that one labeled “The Brethren,” though its tent flaps were drawn shut and tied to prevent anyone from peering in. I gave an involuntary shudder and tried to look at the other tent instead. Inside it, I could see a few ponies wearing what looked like lab coats. It too had a sign, but it was in some strange written language.

“It says ‘The Academy.’ What possessed them to write it in Ancient Equestrian is anyone’s guess.” I guess that worked. They were probably the scientists and researchers.

I turned to see the two tents to my left, the yellow and orange ones. The yellow one didn’t have a sign with writing; instead it just had a pink butterfly on a red cross. Simple enough for those who can’t read. The orange on too lacked a sign, instead manned by two ponies wearing heavy steel armor that masked their faces and all other parts of their bodies. Things kept getting weirder and weirder.

“Those ponies in armor are called the Steel Rangers. Applejack, Applesnack, and the Ministry of Technology worked together to help make them. They’re fully functional suits of armor that come equipped with weapons and whatnot. I’m surprised to see them still around to be honest.”

“Yay, two of six things have a known purpose,” I muttered.

I turned back to my right to see if the remaining two groups would make any more sense. The white tent, the one farther from me, had its tent flaps drawn shut as well and there was nothing that would give away what it had inside. The pink one on the other hand, finally gave me some answers. 

It was arranged as an office building almost and advertised itself as “Parliament.” It was obviously the place where the government of the place was stationed. I peered into the tent, catching the attention of one of the mares in there.

“Welcome! What can I do for you?” she asked, quite cheerful despite most ponies still sleeping or barely awake. 

My mind went blank for a second, not computing her words. I had someone not trying to kill me or ally with me for once and the sensation was weird. I recovered swiftly though, and knew what I wanted. “Do you have any brochures for new traders?”

“Of course! That’s what we’re here for after all.” She hoofed me a rather large pamphlet, then held up a rather sturdy book. “Do you need a copy of The Wasteland Survival Guide as well?”

“Does it cost me anything?” I had quite a few bits, but I didn’t want to go spending them frivolously. I’d never turn down free stuff on the other hoof.

“Nope, not for your first one. Ditzy’s really good at getting them everywhere. She’s the one who insists on giving them out for free and who’s to argue with the author?”

At the name Ditzy, an image of a grey pegasus in a mailmare’s uniform flashed through my mind, but was gone in less than an instant. It couldn’t have been the same mare, but my gut was telling me that, no matter how absurd the idea, no other pony would have named their child Ditzy. If I survived two centuries, why couldn’t she? “Tell her thanks for me then. Also, do you know of anywhere I could get a bed for tonight?”

“Of course! Let’s see, there’s The Rusty Bucket, The Cracked Flagon, The Green Dragon, The King’s Head, The Prancing Pony—quite an odd place that one—, and The Traveler’s Rest.”

“Are all of those pubs?” If they were, I wouldn’t be all that surprised.

“Inns, actually. But yes! I’d recommend The Traveler’s Rest. You can find it over in the fourth sextant.” She pulled out a map of the city (which was perfectly circular) and a pen, then circled a spot in the southern part of the map. “They’re mostly tame. Usually.” She gave me the map and smiled again.

“I’ll be sure to keep that in mind. Can I ask one more question?” My curiosity had been burning at me ever since I saw the subject of my question.

“That’s what I’m here for!”

“What’s with that giant bonfire outside?” 

She let out a large gasp, her mouth stretching to almost comic proportions. She recovered herself with a wave of her hoof and proceeded to give me an answer. “It’s for Winternights of course!” She must have seen the clueless expression on my face, as she continued. “You know, the big feast and celebration for the beginning of winter that happens in a fortnight? It’s been around forever. I think it goes all the way back to the Neighse Vikings that lived in these parts. You must be from faaaarrr out of town then.”

“Yeah, I come from way down south. I was hoping things were better here,” I said distantly, slightly lost in thought of what a celebration would entail in the Wasteland. “Thanks for your help. I’ll go find that inn you talked about.”

“See ya! If you ever need anything else, just come here and ask for Sunny.”

“Will do. Thanks!”

I turned around and walked out of the tent, rather satisfied with my encounter. “Now that wasn’t so hard; she was rather helpful for a pony living in a wasteland”

“Oh hush it Core, I’m in a good mood.” And I was. Ponies were beginning to come into the center of the city, either using it as a place to meet and chat or just as a way of getting to another area of the city. I saw several ponies stopping by the tents, talking to the occupants and engaging in friendly conversation. The white tent still had its flaps drawn shut, but ponies walked past it without giving it a second glance. Of the tents, it was the one that held my curiosity the most, closely followed by the mysterious Brethren. I shoved my curiosity aside—something I had become quite adept at—and walked on. 

“Regardless, you might as well explore the city. The inns probably aren’t open yet; they’re probably dealing with the drunks from last night.” 

“Yeah, might as well get rid of all this salvage scrap.” I picked a random direction and headed to it, confident that I would find somepony who wanted the random metal I managed to collect. I walked out north on the path in between the white and pink tents, wondering what I’d find.



It wasn’t too long after I began walking that I heard the distinctive sound of hammers against metal. Curious, I let my ears guide me and headed towards it. I weaved in between several tents and buildings all selling different wares to find a large pavilion-like structure. It had a wall on one side and the two shorter ends, but left the other side completely open save for a few support beams. Inside, I could see several tools and tables, though the most obvious thing present was a forge. In front of it, hard at work, was an earth pony wearing a heavy vest to protect himself from the heat. Even as I watched, the pony removed the item he was forging from the intensely hot flame and moved it to the anvil behind him. He then picked up a hammer and another tool and worked on flattening and shaping the glowing object until it cooled too much for him to work with. At that point, he returned it to the forge to heat up again. He repeated the process over and over again, continually pounding and shaping the object until he was satisfied. He must have started early that day, as he finished rather quickly after I arrived.

Brushing his hooves off on his vest, he looked up at me as the object cooled for the last time in the barrel of water. “Can I get you anything?”

I was shocked out of my dazed passive watching, almost forgetting that I stood in his workplace. “No. I was just wondering what you were making.”

“This?” He pulled the piece from the barrel. I could see that it was probably supposed to be a piece of armor, probably for the shoulder. “One of the Steel Rangers needed a repair for their armor. And they all know that I’m the best one for the job.” His voice was low and gruff, matching his strong appearance and steel grey coat. His mane was tied back to keep it out of the way, but it was an almost pure white color that suggested he was older than he looked. “It’s rather tricky to forge the metal they need to withstand the hell they put it through."

I nodded as if I knew what he was talking about. Then, a thought crossed my mind. I removed one of my hoofblades and held it out to him. “Do you think you could tell me what kind of quality this is?”

He took it, looking at it curiously. He removed an oddly shaped tool from his belt and struck it, then attempting to scratch it. Even from my position, I could tell that it didn’t leave a mark. His eyes shot up in surprise as he pulled a few other items out and tried the same thing. When none of them worked, he turned and set my weapon on the anvil behind him. Before I could do anything, he grabbed a hammer and swung it, hitting my hoofblade squarely and knocking it with enough force to have it hit the wall. He went over, picked it up, and inspected it again.

“Not a scratch. Not one bucking scratch. Where in Equestria did you find this?”

“I found it in one of the Ministry hubs.” Which, technically, was still the truth. 

“Which Ministry?” I was tempted to lie to him, but decided to tell the truth based on the dead serious expression on his face.

“The Ministry of Awesome.”

I heard him curse under his breath and hand me back my weapon. I slipped it back on as he spoke again. “I knew that when it opened again it’d be bad news. What you’ve got there is most likely some form of starmetal alloy that they were developing. Bloody expensive and almost as hard as diamond. It won’t break on you, but if it does you are royally screwed. Anything that can break that is not to be trifled with. If it was made into anything other than a weapon, I would have tossed it into the ocean.” He scowled again and turned back to his forge. “Zebras say it’s cursed and I tend to believe them. Get it away from my forge.”

I took a step back, his hostility surprising me somewhat. I briskly nodded, even though he couldn’t see me. “It may please you to know that no one else is going to be able to get in the Ministry where I found this.” He grunted, but still didn’t turn around. I turned and left without another word, going back the way I came.

“Core, what do you know about starmetal?”

“Not much. I know that the zebras believe it led to Nightmare Moon’s fall due to the fact that her armor was made of starmetal. And I know that it can only be found in meteorites and asteroids that fall to Equestria, so it is extremely durable. But other than that, I don’t know much more. Sorry.”

“It’s not your fault, it’s past me’s fault for not giving you the knowledge. Now let’s see about getting rid of this salvage.



After I left the blacksmith, I went around the city in a clockwise fashion, searching for various merchants and traders offering to buy and sell salvage. I was only able to sell a bit at every place, but all of my leftovers were bought by another blacksmith, this time a much nicer one. The strange thing was that in exchange for my salvage items, they didn’t give me any bits. Instead, I got bottle caps that said Sparkle-Cola on them. There was a little bit of variation amongst the brands, but that didn’t seem to have any effect on their value. After I sold my last bit of salvage, I stopped and leaned against a nearby building to talk to Core.

“Why do you think they use bottle caps as a currency?”

I saw his smiling blue face appear as he answered my question. “My guess is that when Equestria fell, there weren’t too many physical bits around here because of banking and all that. Soda was everywhere though and bottle caps seem hard to mass produce. They were similar enough to a bit that most ponies would have no problem switching over. But still, that’s just my guess.”

“That makes sense. It is rather interesting that life seems to be rather normal here despite Celestia knows what happening down south.”

“I wouldn’t be able to tell you what happened, but trade seems to still be going fairly well. I’ve seen quite a few things that were only manufactured in the south.”

“In any case, I’m sure this Wasteland Survival Guide will explain quite a bit once I finally get to read it and those documents from Icepony. Let’s go find us an inn.”

I pulled out the map Sunny had given me and looked over it. I peered up from it to glance at my surroundings to try and get a landmark, but I couldn’t find one. While I would normally have flown up, it was an earth pony map and, as such, only suitable for the ground. Trying to fly up would have gotten me disoriented and reduced the effectiveness of the map. Luckily, an older stallion walking by noticed my map and searching.

“Hey zere, searching for anyzing in spezific?” I noticed he had a rather noticeable accent that cause his words to sound different. Some of the other traders I encountered had an accent similar, but not nearly as thick. A definite native in that case.

“Yeah, can you tell me where the Traveler’s Rest is?”

He pointed west with his hoof and smiled. “Please, give me somezing hard.”

“That’s all I needed, thanks!” I went in the direction he pointed, weaving my way through the various buildings and tents. Many of the merchant buildings had tents attached to provide extra room or for their own sleep, but they were just more to go around for me. It wasn’t too long before I saw a plume of smoke twisting up over the buildings. With a fixed destination in mind, I flew over the buildings, finally feeling the cool air under my wings instead of freezing them. There was a gentle breeze blowing and I was tempted to just soar around the city, but I had no idea how their defenses would react. Besides, I really didn’t want to miss on getting a room at the inn.

I landed and sent up four small puffs of snow as my hooves connected with the ground. Stepping up to the entrance, I removed my helmet and stowed it in my saddlebags. I shook my mane out, getting air in it and freeing it from its long confinement in the space, not to mention exposing it to the brisk air of the north.

I pushed open the door to the wide two-story building and trotted in. The fireplace lay off to my right, a pleasantly large fire burning inside that had produced the plume of smoke I saw from outside. It warmed the room, making me feel better already. A thick and soft-looking rug lay in front of it, glowing dully from the bright firelight. Clustered around the area was a scattering of chairs, no two of them the exact same. To my left were about eleven or twelve tables, two roughly hewn benches at each one. The three on the far left wall were smaller, probably meant for only two ponies. They reflected the light of the fire, seats and backs worn smooth by years of use. The fire did a good job of lighting the room, but I could still see torches slotted in their holders used to light the dining area and bar. In addition to that, there was a chandelier that hung above the middlemost table, though it wasn’t lit yet. Against the back left corner I could see the spiraled stairs that led up to the second floor rooms.

There were only three ponies in the room at the moment, two of whom were dining on a late meal at the same table. They gave me a look as I entered, but quickly returned to eating their obviously hot food. The smell alone made my stomach growl, reminding me that I hadn’t eaten in a while. The third pony was a tan-ish unicorn behind the wooden counter that separated him from the rest of the room; instead of being in the corner, it was in the center of the wall and a bit to the left of where I came in. I half expected him to be idly polishing a glass with his magic, but he instead was seated upon a stool that seemed quite unsteady. Then again, all of the stools at the bar seemed to be unsteady.

I took in the view for another moment and headed up to the bar. The innkeeper, as that was what he presumably was, hopped off his stool.

“What can I do for you today?” He had a pleasant enough voice, lacking the slight Stalliongrad accent I had heard. I could see his cutie mark, a tankard of beer over the silhouette of a house, and was glad to see my assumption correct.

“I’d like a room for the night, preferably the cheapest one you have,” I replied, removing the bag of caps I had accumulated as I did so. 

“All of our rooms are the same price, twenty-five caps a night. That includes two meals mind you, and a mug of drink for both.”

I thought for a moment, considering my fairly good sized supply of caps, before I nodded and got out my supply of caps. I counted out twenty-five onto the counter and pushed them towards him. He nodded, satisfied, and levitated them into a machine behind him. In exchange, he levitated a key over and dropped it in my hoof.

“You’ll be in room 2, up the stairs and on your left. Not too many people have rooms here right now, but it can get a bit rowdy at night with Winternights coming up.”

I gave him a smile, amused that a drunken stallion was going to be the worst of my problems here. “I think I can handle myself.” 

He chuckled, then turned around and disappeared through a door behind the bar that led to the storeroom. 

Holding the key in my teeth, I turned and went up the stairs. The door to my room was made of sturdy wood and locked. I inserted and turned the key, pressing open the door when I heard a click. The door swung open, letting me see the inside of the place that would be my home for a few days. 

It was plain enough, a basic rectangular bed taking up half the space. It had a table next to the head of the bed where three candles sat in separate holders. Across the room, a sink lay next to the window, a pipe running through it into the wall. Pausing to slip off my saddlebags onto the floor, I looked at the sink. Turning on the sole nozzle and running my hoof through the water that resulted, I could tell it was fed by rainwater. Cold rainwater. Or snow water. So much for cleaning up with hot water then. The only other object in the room was a table with a single chair pushed under it, once again made of wood.

I gazed around the room again, looking over the simple furnishings. I shed my armor, carefully setting it off to the side next to my saddlebags, and locked the door. As a second cautionary measure, I took the chair and wedged it so that it would hopefully prevent a less determined individual from entering or warn me as it fell. Security set up, I flopped down on the bed and was asleep within minutes. 



I awoke to a knocking on the door, my body tensing up at the sudden noise. My eyes snapped open and I rolled over, two of my hoofblades on before my brain took prevalence over instincts I didn’t even know I had. I paused, waiting to see what the knocker wanted. 

“Miss, dinner is being served downstairs now.”

I heard the pony move to the room across from me, knock on that door, and repeat the sentence, then proceed to move down the hall. My room was much darker now, the sun having set already. The only light shining through the window was flickering torchlight from outside, though I could also see a strip of light coming from beneath the door; the area around me was also alit with the pale green glow of my PipBuck. Shaking my head to clear it, I went over to the sink and splashed some cold water in my face to make me wake up even more. I wiped off the remaining water droplets with my hoof and looked at the hoofblade on it, eyes traveling up to the PipBuck also attached to it.

“So Core, ready to go socialize with ponies that probably won’t want to kill us?”

“Seeing as I’ll just be sitting back and watching you most likely make a fool of yourself, sure.” I rolled my eyes and took off the two weapons that were only half-attached. I moved the chair and unlocked the door, stepping through it out into the hall. I squinted my eyes against the sudden change in light, the hallway being well lit by enclosed torches mounted on the wall. Unicorn magic was obviously at work to make sure they stayed constant instead of flickering.

I heard movement from behind the door across from me and almost paused to see who the occupant was, but my growling stomach prompted me to go downstairs instead. As hungry as I was now, I would most likely eat anything that was put in front of me.

I trotted downstairs into the warm and half-full room, the fire I had seen earlier blazing even brighter. A large pot hung over it, most likely containing the meal for the night. My assumption was correct, as I was able to make out the shape of a servingpony standing by it with a ladle and a stack of bowls once my eyes finished adjusting to the light. I made my way over, nodding to the mare serving the food. She was a unicorn, which was unsurprising. I hadn’t seen very many pegasi in the city, but there were a few. I only caught a few glimpses, but they all seemed to have my cutie mark on their flank. I guessed that they were more of these Dashites. The servingpony snapped me back to the present, handing me a bowl of stew on a tray. She had added a hunk of bread obviously torn from the loaf.

“Thank you very much.”

She smiled, a small smile that was most likely the result of never being thanked. “You can get your drink from Tap over at the bar.”

Tap? A rather suitable name for a barpony. As I crossed the room to the counter, I could tell that I was getting a few curious looks from the small crowd that was eating, but I ignored them. The pony serving the drinks was different than the innkeeper there earlier, but that wasn’t too surprising. He placed a mug down in front of another pony sitting atop a stool and turned to me.

“What can I get ya tonight?”

“Well, what do you have?” I responded. I decided not to trust the water all too much, but it really all depended on what was available.

“Well, tonight we have water, locally made vodka, various kinds of beer, apple cider from New Appleloosa down south—“

I held up a hoof to stop him, careful to keep my meal steady on my back. “I’ll take the apple cider if you please.” I didn’t know why I picked it, but it sounded like the right beverage for me.

He grabbed a mug that looked like it had seen much better days and turned around to fill it from a barrel close to end of the ones lined up on the wall. “We don’t get too many requests for it, so feel free to come back and grab another mug if you’d like, no charge.” 

I nodded my thanks and added the drink to my tray. I peered around the room, searching for an unoccupied table. I spotted an empty one of the small tables on the wall and headed for it, placing my tray down and sliding into the bench seat. I finally got a better look at the food that I’d be filling my stomach with.

The stew was a brownish color, still steaming. I could see small chunks of meat floating in the liquid, but I couldn’t tell what they were. Normally I might have been apprehensive about the meat, but I had no idea what life was like in the world now. Even so, I decided to just sip the broth and ignore the meat. Some part of me felt like eating the meat, though I was hungry, would be crossing some sort of line.

I brought the bowl up to my mouth with my hooves and sipped, always glancing around the room. It was highly flavorful, a fact that surprised me. Whoever the chef was was an excellent cook. While I wasn’t the greatest epicurean from what I thought, I could easily taste onion, kale, and the slight flavor of carrot, not to mention the other subtler flavors that I had no idea what they were. I closed my eyes, my tongue enjoying the satisfaction of my first excellent meal since awaking from a frozen sleep.

“Enjoying the stew, are you?” I somehow managed not to jump as an earth pony stallion slid into the bench across the table from me. “I know something that you’d enjoy more. Not from around here, are you?”

He waggled his eyes at me, an expression that immediately won my disgust and ire. “I recommend that you go ahead and leave before I upend this stew in your face.” Stallions like this would most likely be in every place that I visited, but that didn’t make them any less annoying and disgusting. I wasn’t going to toss the stew in his face it was way too delicious to waste it on him, but there was no need for him to know that. Regardless of the fact that I was bluffing, he got the message and left without another word, no doubt off to attempt to seduce another mare. I set my still nearly-full bowl down and glared around the room, almost challenging any stallion who thought they could seduce me. To my annoyance, I saw one or two drop their gaze from me. It did make me smile when I saw the stallion that attempted to seduce me thrown out—literally—by the innkeeper a few minutes later. It seemed that hitting on his wife was not a smart idea.

The encounter helped remind me that I wasn’t safe even in a city. I took a sip of the cider and froze, the taste bringing back memories from the past.

“Come on Fluttershy! Cider season’s about to start!”

“Won’t somepony please think of the cider?!”

“What’d ya say, one last drink between friends before the endgame begins?”

I slammed down the mug, shaking and staring blankly into space. The memories lasted longer than before and they left me stunned and weak. I stared at the mug of cider, wondering how such a small sip could have flashed me back to the past. The physical taste brought back more than a simple name, but what scared me the most was that a few of the memories stayed. I could dimly remember flying into a small cottage and shaking a yellow pegasus, Fluttershy, awake. Collapsing on the floor of a library in a tree for some strange reason and shouting. Meeting in that same library with five other ponies and cider. They were snippets of memory, but they were better than the empty void that my memory had been.

I felt a tap on my shoulder and glanced up, hoping that it wasn’t another stallion come to hit on me in my vulnerable state. To my surprise, it was the pony who had served me the stew.

“Miss, are you all right? I saw you drink the cider and start trembling. Did it taste bad?”

I shook my head, smiling slightly at her innocence. “No, the cider was excellent. It just brought back some memories that I wasn’t ready for.”

“Oh.” She seemed at a loss for words for a moment, then regained her composure. “Well if you wish to talk about, I’m always working here.” She gave an awkward bow and turned to dash back to the fire. I looked after her, wondering what her name was. I’m sure I’d find out eventually.

I set the cider off to the side and resumed sipping the stew. As I ate that, and then the bread, I studiously watched the room fill up with patrons as the night grew. Even though the amount of ponies grew, nopony tried to fill the bench across from me. It wasn’t long before I finished my meal and placed the dishes in the bin marked for them. I headed back up the steps to my room, not caring to socialize and not wanting to encounter the drunks and do something stupid that I probably wouldn’t regret. 

Once I reached the top, I heard the door across from mine unlock and saw it start to open. I paused, curious as to who the occupant was. When she stepped out, I froze, preparing for a fight. Standing in front of me was one of those ghoul ponies, though in somewhat better shape and well maintained. She was a pegasus as well. The only reason I hadn’t tried to fight her the moment she stepped out was the fact that she looked almost as surprised as I did. 

“Oh, hello.” Her voice sounded familiar for some reason, prompting me to take a closer look. Her hairstyle was similar to mine, though either greyed with age or natural I couldn’t tell. Her coat was a light brown color that again seemed familiar. I tilted my head and saw her cutie mark, only to have a rush of memories hit me again even harder than the cider. They came in such a flow that I couldn’t distinguish any of them, only picking out a single detail.

She saw my expression and groaned. “Don’t tell me it’s another fangirl. I tried to avoid those this trip. Hello?” She waved a hoof in front of my face, looking somewhat annoyed.

My brain wasn’t working straight, telling me that there was no way the pony in front of me was who I thought she was. But still I whispered her name, the only consistent thing amongst my memories.

“Daring Do.”

The pony froze, surprise, confusion, and curiosity all present on her face. “How do you know that name?” she whispered, almost as if she was scared of the answer. “I haven’t used it for two centuries. Who are you?”

The fact that I was right shut my brain down and I promptly fainted in front of her. The last thing I saw was her worried and shocked expression, eyes still filled with confusion. 

Footnote: Level up
New Perk: Trader - Whenever you engage in trade, you maximize your profits. +10% to bargaining