Chapter 1: Divine Intervention

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A pale grey mare awoke with a start, but as soon as her eyes opened, she had already started to forget what was so troubling about what she had seen. All was quiet around her. The stars glimmered overhead, and the moon shone its pale light over them. Looking around, she found herself amidst a herd of many ponies, blank-flanked and bare-hooved, without wings or horns, all sleeping together under the stars. She could not count them, for numbers had no meaning to her, but they were enough to make one feel safe among them.

I saw through her eyes as she scanned the area, then the horizon - the vast plain that stretched around the herd. These were their lands, where they had always roamed. Wild ponies, feral, untouched by the Princesses’ gifts of intelligence and speech, started to stir as the sun broke over the distant mountains of the east. The mare rose to her hooves and languidly stretched as the day began.

They kept time by the sun and the moon and the changing of seasons, the division of hours, minutes and seconds in the day meaningless to them. In the sunlight, they ran; they grazed; they fought - mostly with predators, sometimes with each other. They drank the sweet water from cool streams and ponds that ran through the grasslands. Under the moon they slept in the open air, with a few of the stallions patrolling the outskirts of the herd’s circular formation. As the seasons changed, they migrated. Spring melted into Summer, and Summer became Fall. And it was good. As the mares came into season, they rutted, and that was good as well. Time carried on, and soon my pale mare found her belly becoming heavier with the foals she carried. And that, too, was good.

Moved to the center of the herd with the other pregnant mares, who in their condition could not run or fight as well, the pale mare spent more of her time dreaming. And in her dreams, she sometimes saw me. My life that had been. My life that had ended too early. Our spirits passed in the darkness, brushing against one another in the night. She had been frightened by the contact, while I was equal parts confused and curious.

Did I dream of the pale mare? Or as she slept, was this mare dreaming she was me? Terrifying dreams of a bleak world she lacked the capacity to understand. Was I a creation of her mind, or she of mine?

I awoke, and found myself staring at an unfamiliar ceiling. From the sight of it - aged and splintered, and the excruciating pain that throbbed in my head, I deduced that this was not, in fact, the Everafter. In fact, where I lay had a look that was much more distinctly a hospital bed, though the room it occupied, for all its medical equipment, was clearly in someone’s home rather than a hospital. My head and right wing had been wrapped in bandages, my left eye covered, and an IV was feeding a red fluid into my right foreleg, probably a blood transfusion. To my dismay I found I could not see from that covered eye if I peeled back the bandages. On that side, I heard the voice of a zebra mare, speaking in that alluringly exotic accent I’d always had a soft spot for.

“Ah, you are awake,” she observed, standing from the chair she had been occupying. I turned to look at her, and probably spent a bit too much time eyeing her rump. She was an older mare, still fit and athletic, with a short, brushlike mane into which some grey had crept, diagonal striping and a glyph mark on her flank whose meaning eluded me (as they usually did). A thick loop of gold adorned the upper part of her right foreleg. I didn’t know if she caught me staring. She simply regarded me with a patient smile.

“Are you, my dear, in any pain?” she asked. I nodded and the action made my head throb even worse, making me grimace and hiss through my teeth. “It’s time we must discuss your brain,” she said, and quickly trotted out of the room. She returned a moment later as promised, with an old unicorn stallion in tow. He was just on the cusp of being elderly, clearly not moving as quickly as he once had in his youth. I guessed that his bluish green coat had probably once been brighter, and his mane and moustache something other than the salt-and-pepper grey they were now. His cutie mark was a simple green cross inside a circle of white. He looked at me with a gentle expression.

“You’re up, that’s good,” the doctor said in a deep, buttery-smooth country drawl. “I’m Doctor Greensleeves, and this is my assistant, Nurse Xinnia.” The zebra nodded politely. The doctor continued, asking, “How are we feeling today?”

“My head’s about to kill me, Doc,” I groaned painfully. “Also I can’t see out of my left eye.”

“Well, that’s to be expected,” replied Greensleeves. “We had to reassemble part of your skull like a jigsaw puzzle. There’s some swelling due to a postoperative infection, but we’ve loaded you up with antibiotics so that should go away within a day or two. You suffered some powder burns on that side of your face and eye, but what’s keeping you from seeing is the pressure on your optic nerve. You should get your full sight back once the infection’s cleared and the swelling goes down.” I looked at the screen of the Pip-Buck that had been strapped to my left foreleg. The cartoon pony on the health monitoring screen looked sad, his head a dotted outline shown in red, contrasting the monochromatic green that dominated the rest of the display

Xinnia quietly moved around to my other side, and pushed a syringe of Med-X into the injection port of my IV. Almost immediately I felt the pain in my head subsiding, and my body enveloped in a warm blanket of relaxing, blissful comfort. I couldn’t help but smile. I’d never had much experience with chems apart from alcohol, but I could totally see now why ponies would get addicted to this stuff. It was, in a word, heavenly. Still, I had questions. “So, ah,” I started, “I don’t know too many ponies who’ve survived a headshot from a 5.56 at point blank range. How exactly did that happen?”

Xinnia interjected before the doctor could reply to my question, a huge grin on her face. “For most, this wound would end it all. But lucky you, your brain’s so small!” She showed me an X-ray of a pony head, ostensibly mine - the skull cavity empty save for a tiny walnut-sized brain in the center. A line crossed the skull from front to back, barely touching the little brain inside. And was she actually rhyming? Seriously?!

She looked at me and her grin turned into peals of laughter that Greensleeves quickly joined in. I tried to look at them with a flat expression, but soon found the corners of my mouth turning upward against my will, a few snorts of air escaping my nose. I had to admit, it was pretty funny.

As his laughter subsided, Doctor Greensleeves shook his head. “Seriously, though, the bullet did manage only to graze the side of your brain, but from the looks of the wound I’d attribute that to an inexperienced shooter wielding more gun than they could handle,” he explained. “Recoil pretty much saved your life. That and Ol’ Hoss. He found you up there in the cemetery and brought you to us.” He took on a bit of a sheepish expression and rubbed the back of his head with a hoof as Xinnia added, “We might have left you in that grave, but Hoss insisted your life we save.” The doctor nodded and continued, “And so we did. Now, the damage to your brain, I‘m sad to say, was irreversible, but we don’t know how or even if it’ll affect you. I’d like to run some cognitive function tests once we get you back on your hooves.”

I nodded, starting to lose focus. I still had more questions, but the Med-X was commanding me to sleep, and I found as the minutes went on that resisting it was going to be a losing battle. The doc must have noticed my eyes glazing over, as I was vaguely aware of him nudging my shoulder. “Six? Six? You still with us?”

“That’s… not… my name,” I muttered weakly, and then the world faded to black once more.

The drug had lulled me into a dreamless sleep that was more akin to unconsciousness, and when I awoke I was barely aware than any time had passed at all. Obviously it had, however. The mid-morning sun filtered through a set of vertical blinds that covered the large window of the clinic room. My bandages had been removed, and the great throbbing pain in my head had subsided to a dull ache. As promised, I was once again able to see from my left eye. Not perfectly - things were still blurry and unfocused - but it was a vast improvement.

I watched the motes of dust filter through the beams of sunlight that came in between the blinds, and became aware of voices in an adjacent room. An argument, from the sound of it, in hushed tones. Something I was not meant to hear, should I unexpectedly wake. I could identify Xinnia’s accented speech as she spoke admonishingly to Dr. Greensleeves.

“Consuming resources for ten full days! Yet still in a coma there she lays! How long must we wait till she's dead? We've other patients who need the bed!”

“What would you have me do, Xinnia? Toss her into the trashbin? Put her back in that grave she was found in? And have all our hard work be for nothing?”

“Where I am from, it is our way, to die rather than in sickness, decay. They do not linger any longer, their sacrifice makes the whole herd stronger.”

“That’s barbaric!” Greensleeves’ voice became harsher but still whispered. “I simply cannot do such a thing. I won’t!”

Xinnia sacrificed her rhyming speech to clarify her point. “Her body recovers by the day, yes, but we know nothing of her mind. Her soul may have fled already. What if she never regains her consciousness? And aside from that, we know nothing of this mare. She could be a raider for all we know. Certainly she is a pony that somepony wants dead. And that invites danger, not only to us, but this whole village.”

Greensleeves sighed, loath to admit that she had a point. “Ol’ Hoss has promised us two thousand caps if she makes a full recovery. Two thousand caps. That money would go a long way toward helping the ponies around here. We could buy supplies, make some improvements to the clinic, even save something for our retirement.” His voice was even, though there was a faintly plaintive note to it at the end, as he tried to bring her around to his position. “Even disregarding her own needs, we owe it to this community to at least try.”

Xinnia sighed, and relented at that. “All right,” she said finally. “But I do not like this. There is something more to this story that remains hidden from us. And I fear it is something that could destroy all of us here.”

“I know,” the doctor replied simply. “And I don’t think you’re wrong about that, but…” he trailed off a moment, and then he proposed, “Let’s give her a week. If nothing’s roused her by then… Well, we’ll see.”

I couldn’t tell whether Xinnia had responded, or how. They were quiet as their hoofsteps on the creaking wooden floor drew nearer, the pair returning to the clinic room. As I heard them approach, I quickly lay down and threw the sheets over myself, pretending to be asleep. I felt the zebra’s hoof upon mine, gently turning it so that she could read my vital signs from the health status screen of my Pip-Buck. And then I heard a long-suffering sigh from the zebra.

“Open your eyes, child,” she said in a gently scolding tone. “It is not good to try to fool your doctor.”

I did, and sheepishly smiled as I looked up at Dr. Greensleeves and Xinnia, standing next to each other as they checked me over and made notes. I felt the doctor’s magic push my eyelids open as he shined a bright light into my eyes for a moment, the light bright enough to be mildly painful and leave a purple and green afterimage in my field of vision. “Pupil dilation’s good,” the doctor commented matter-of-factly, then looked at me and asked, “How do you feel now?”

“Better,” I answered with a little groan of effort as I tried to push myself out of bed and onto my hooves. The pair stepped back to let me move toward them onto the floor. I noticed the IV still sticking out of my foreleg, its saline bag almost empty, and had to be careful not to get tangled up in it. Xinnia interrupted my movement to quickly pull it out, and deftly wrapped a small pressure bandage around that leg before she stepped back again. “Lots better, actually. Thank you,” I said, finally putting my hooves on the floor. My legs briefly tried to wobble out from under me, and I took a moment to steady myself against the bed frame before trying to stand unassisted again. It worked better on the second try.

“Listen, I uh,” I began, considering my words a moment. “I heard you talking just now. I… I kinda understand where you’re coming from and why you’re worried, but… I’m pretty sure those bucks got what they wanted from me already. I doubt they’d care even if they did find out I was still kicking.”

“Yes, but you do not know that for certain, do you?” Xinnia said, still carefully watching me as I took a hesitant step, then another, like a foal learning to walk again.

“No, I guess not,” I admitted, looking at my hooves on the floor. My black coat looked shiny and clean, I noticed, and was thankful for that.

Dr. Greensleeves chimed in with a welcome change of subject, catching my attention as he looked at me, then my saddlebags. “You said your name wasn’t Six,” he said. I understood the confusion as I followed his gaze. My bags were worn and threadbare in a few spots along the edges, but still managed to look sturdy enough to last through another apocalypse. Underneath the grime and dirt, Stable-Tec’s primary blue and yellow color scheme was still visible. A large yellow number 6 stood out on the blue of the top flap, just above the brown leather clasp, inside the circle of a grey cogwheel.

“So, what should we call you?” the doctor asked.

That was when everything fell apart.

“What do we call you? Who are you? What’s your name?” The question rolled over in my head in all its various permutations. Such a simple question. A simple answer. I knew it. I could answer easily. So why wasn’t I? I stood there frozen a moment, moving my mouth as I tried to force the answer out. An answer I didn’t have.

The doctor and nurse both looked at me more closely, their heads tilted in confusion and concern. I looked to the doctor with my eyes wide in slowly growing terror, my hooves tingling and cold. “I… I don’t know,” I admitted, finally. My mind was like a desperate secretary scrambling and fumbling in an office that had been near a balefire bomb’s explosion, trying to find anything amid the chaotic ruin - my memories were papers and files that lay scattered everywhere in disorganized heaps, most damaged in some way, some burned beyond recognition. I asked myself other questions, my inner secretary doing her damndest to find answers and coming up empty-hooved each time. Where was I from? How old was I? What were my parents like? What had I been like as a filly?

In a daze, I stumbled toward a mirror that had been set up near the clinic’s desk. In it, I saw a lovely black pegasus mare, violet mane streaked with lavender, a grouping of purple flowers on her flank. But that wasn’t me. I didn’t know this mare at all. She looked at me with terror building behind her golden eyes. I raised my wing and so did she. I felt a sharp stab of pain as it moved, and it showed on her face. I moved closer and saw the scarring above her left eye. I raised a hoof and felt the same knots of scar tissue on my own face. But that wasn’t me. I was absolutely certain I had never seen this mare before.

I sank to the floor, covering my face with my wings. “I don’t know,” I sobbed as desperation overwhelmed me. “I don’t know anything!”

The doctor and Xinnia approached me carefully. “Try to calm down, Miss,” the doc said in his gentlest tone. “Take some deep breaths and center yourself.” I looked at them as the tears streamed down my face and my voice broke. “I don’t know who I am. I don’t know why I’m here.” The last part wasn’t true, though, I realized. I knew why I was here. I remembered in vivid detail everything about the night I’d died. The one part of my life I could remember was the thing I wished I could forget.

“Retrograde Amnesia is not at all unexpected with an injury such as yours,” the doctor explained. “I mean, you’ve been shot in the head, of course your brains are a bit scrambled,” he added with a light smile. But then he reached out and softly put his hoof on mine. The touch made me jump slightly, but then I started to relax. I looked up to them, sniffling. Xinnia held a syringe in her mouth as she watched me, her eyes compassionate but still wary. That needle held some kind of tranquilizer, I’d guessed.

“Now it’s true,” Doctor Greensleeves continued, “that some of your memories may be lost forever. But not all of them. You should regain some, in fact I’d even say most, of your memories over time. We just have to be patient now and see what happens.” Both his hooves held mine as the doc, with some difficulty, joined me on the floor. “In the meantime, between Ol’ Hoss and Apple Blossom, I’m sure we can fix you up with a place to stay and some kind of work to do here while you recover.”

But I was already starting to piece things together, using just the one thing I could remember. Aces. The name was etched into my mind along with that disgustingly smug face. He was the reason I was here, and in this sorry state. He’d taken everything from me. My pride, my most valued possessions, my job, even my identity. Now I was going to take everything from him. He’d lent me a bullet. I was going to pay him back, with interest. In that moment of clarity, all my confusion, anger, sorrow, and loss became condensed into a laser-focused hatred for that one pony.

Revenge drove me now, compelling me to stand. I scrubbed my eyes and wiped the snot from my muzzle, scowling as I felt myself galvanized. I knew it was barbaric; one of ponykind’s darkest and ugliest emotions. But it was mine. And it was all I had at the moment. Suddenly, I had a purpose. A reason to be. An epiphany that finally drove me to embrace this second life I’d been given. It wasn’t a particularly good or noble purpose, but it was mine all the same.

Still, I needed a name. One appropriately dark and foreboding, to match my new life goal. Xinnia took a step back, noticing the change in my expression. She looked confused, surprised, even a bit fearful. “Midnight Shadow,” I said finally. “That’s my name. And all I need’s a gun.”

The pair shared a look, and suddenly that mood was shattered. “Midnight Shadow?” the doc mouthed to Xinnia, as though it was the most ridiculous name they’d ever heard. It probably was. Thinking on it, perhaps it was a little too comic book villain-y. But I liked it! It was… cool! The doc tried to contain his snickering, but I could see the smirking amusement on Xinnia’s face. “Midnight Shadow, huh?” he said, stifling a laugh.

I looked between them and gave a defeated sigh, facehoofing. “Fiiiiine,” I said, “Just call me Six for now.”

The doctor nodded, and Xinnia relaxed, putting the syringe aside for now so she could speak. “What do you need the gun for, child?” she asked, her tone patient, but I sensed a note of disapproval in her voice.

Fortunately I had a ready-made excuse with which to mask my real purpose. “I need to get back to Pony Express HQ. Report in, tell them what’s happened.” Yeah, right. They’d probably shoot me once they found out I’d let my package be stolen. At the very least, I would be, like, so fired. “And, you know, it seems like it’s not quite safe to travel out there.”

“I think I’ve got something you can use,” the doc said. He struggled to rise to his hooves, and I quickly stuck my head in under his chest to give him a helpful push. He thanked me quietly and then trotted off to find what I’d asked for. “You can also keep that Pip-Buck,” he called out to me. “I’m sure you’ll find it handy. There’s an instruction manual for it on the Data screen.”

I started to fiddle with the device, exploring its functions while I waited. Xinnia gave me a suspicious look. Moving closer, the zebra spoke into my ear. “You are not really going to back Pony Express, are you?” I froze, and cursed internally. How did she know? I thought i’d hidden my hand fairly well. I grimaced, and finally responded with a shake of my head. No point in lying now.

“I see,” she said, moving around me. “You intend to find your attacker.” I nodded. “I will not stop you, child,” she said in a soft voice, giving my neck a nuzzle that took me by surprise and caused me to stiffen further. “But I would urge you to reconsider.” Xinnia came around to to face me, and brushed my mane with a hoof, her expression serious and somewhat pained as she looked me directly in the eye. “You have been given a second chance at life. That is a rare and precious thing in a world as unforgiving as ours. It would be tragic indeed to see you lose it pursuing something as meaningless as revenge.”

I opened my mouth, but before I could reply, Doc Greensleeves had returned, all smiles. “You girls, ah, ‘gettin’ acquainted’?” he asked as he noticed Xinnia’s close proximity to my face, waggling his eyebrows to emphasize his innuendo. I immediately turned away from the zebra with a cough, a hot blush on my face that I could only hope my dark coat would hide. I sat on my haunches, my legs feeling wobbly again. Xinnia simply rolled her eyes at the old stallion, huffed and trotted away into another part of the house.

The doctor led me over to the clinic’s desk, where he set down a leather holster and pulled from it a well-worn 10mm automatic pistol. “This old girl was my traveling companion for many a year of my adventuring days.” he said, a touch of wistful nostalgia coloring his voice. I lifted the pistol for a closer look. Sleeker and less boxy than its predecessors, this little beauty had been the top of the line when the megaspells hit. Since then, it looked like it had really taken a beating. There were scuff marks and scratches everywhere, even a few places where I could swear the pistol had been used to deflect blows from a sword or axe. Despite that, the action moved with ease as I slid it back, and it ejected an unused round from the chamber. It was clear that despite being well-used, this weapon was also well-loved. I also took note of the detachable suppressor and spare magazine held in specialized pouches built into the side of the holster, and I especially appreciated the comfortable rubberized mouth-grip. I was about to ask if this gun had a name, when I noticed the engraving on the slide - in florid script was the name, “Lily.”

“This,” I started, then corrected myself, “She… sounds like she’s got a lot of sentimental value,” I said, admiring the weapon for a moment, then looked back to the doctor. “Are you sure you want to just... give her to me?”

The doctor laughed softly. “‘Course I do. It’s not every day I successfully bring a patient back from the dead.” He looked at me, his smile genuine. “Consider this a birthday present,” he said, lighting a cigar I hadn’t noticed him pull out. “Welcome to the first day of the rest of your life.”

I was honestly stunned by his generosity. First the Pip-Buck, and now this. “I don’t know what to say,” I stammered.

He looked at me with a wry sort of grin, turning the unlit end of the cigar toward me. “Well, you could say, “Thank you.”

“Thank you,” I replied with a smile, and helped myself to a draw on the cigar. I quickly found myself coughing again, in large part because that was decidedly not tobacco smoke I’d just inhaled. The old doctor smiled, his eyes full of mirth as he watched my reactions.

Half an hour later, my tears, panic and anger from earlier were all but forgotten. I was lounging in the hospital bed with a hoof in the air, watching it leave little trails in my vision as I smoothly waved it back and forth. Somehow the colors of the room looked so much more vivid to me now, and even the worst of Dr. Greensleeves’ jokes was hilariously funny to me. Relaxed and happy, I listened as the old doc regaled me with the most amusing stories he could think of from his own adventures in the Territory. This was nice. If I had anything to complain about at all it would be that my mouth felt like it’d had all the moisture sucked out of it, but thankfully Xinnia was there at my bedside, keeping me supplied with cold, delicious Sparkle Colas to alleviate that little problem. Funnily enough, I vaguely remembered not even liking the soda before - now I couldn’t get enough of that sweet, carroty flavor.

We passed the afternoon and into the evening like this, and I found their company therapeutic. Maybe that was part of the point, I wasn’t sure. As evening settled solidly into night, the doc and his nurse bid me goodnight, and at long last I was left alone with my thoughts. I considered what Xinnia had said earlier. Maybe she was right. Maybe I should consider the doc’s offer. Settle down, find me a nice stallion I could raise a dozen foals with, and let Aces and that chip be somepony else’s problem. If not here, then… somewhere. It was fairly tempting just now, with all the pleasant feelings that lingered in the air. I knew it would be the smart thing to do. The safe thing. But, as you will soon see, I am not a smart pony. And really, if I had done that… well this would be a damn boring story I’m telling, now wouldn’t it?

My thoughts drifted to that chip again, and I started to piece things together as well as I could with what few pieces of the puzzle I had. I remembered the sparkle and shine of that chip, like no metal I had ever seen before. Star metal? I’d never seen any in person before, so I had no idea. All I knew was that it called to me, as though it had its own soul, reaching out to me, yearning to be possessed. I could already hear the chip’s song in the faint background mists of my mind, and I knew that the longer I was separated from it, the more desperate I’d become. The more risks I’d be willing to take; the more lines I’d be willing to cross.

I wondered if it had touched Aces in the same way. He had taken the time to intercept me personally, after all. He knew exactly where I’d be and when, which meant that he’d gone as far as breaching Pony Express’ security. But how I was I going to catch him now? I had no idea where he was going and by now he had at least a four-day head start on me. Sure, I could fly much farther and faster than he could walk, but that was still a daunting handicap to overcome.

I grunted in frustration, too tired to think anymore. Rolling over onto my side, I pulled the thin blanket over me, and in short order, I was asleep.

Chapter 2: Stain of Mind

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As my vision focused, I became aware of the silent twinkling of the stars overhead. Once again I saw through the eyes of the pale grey mare. She could not sleep, and so was gazing up at the stars again. Even without understanding anything about them, she could appreciate the beauty of those sparkling jewels that dotted the night sky. A pair of newborn fillies nestled up against her belly, fast asleep as she lay on her side in the grass.

There was a general unease about the herd tonight. Ponies slept closer together, shifting restlessly. Some, like herself, were unable to sleep at all, and simply sat, looking around for whatever it was. The watch-stallions stood close, their ears flicking, and the fillies’ sire was keeping extra close to her. They, too, seemed on edge, and twitched at every movement, inside or outside the circle of the herd. And even in the sky, the stars didn’t look right. One in particular seemed distorted, bigger than it ought to be.

The fact that the mare seemed aware of me again didn’t help her unease, but she had larger problems than a mote of some unknown pony’s consciousness inadvertently spying on her at the moment. She was scanning the horizon when suddenly the stallion was tugging her mane, as others were starting to bolt. A flash of panic struck us both, hard enough to wake me.

And then there I was, in the clinic, panting, my heart racing. The room was still dark, dawn had barely started to creep over the horizon.

After breakfast and one last examination, which had included both a mental acuity test and flight check, Dr Greensleeves had given me a clean bill of health - aside from my amnesia. He’d explained once more, very apologetically, that there was no treatment he could give me for that. My memories might come back slowly over time, in bursts as I saw familiar ponies or places, or not at all. Still, I was happy, both for myself and the doctor - I was honestly feeling better, and I knew he would put the caps he’d earned taking care of me to good use.

I sat on the clinic floor, taking both physical and mental inventory as I prepared to go on my way. I found that I could recall abstract academic details without much trouble, much like I had known what Lily’s model was and how to care for her immediately upon seeing her, without knowing how or where I’d picked up that knowledge. Anything personal, anything that involved me directly, had me drawing blanks.

I knew, for example, that it had been roughly thirty years since the Day of Sunshine and Rainbows, when the skies had finally been opened after over two centuries to let ponies that had never seen them before come to appreciate the beauty of the sun, the moon and the stars. Most Equestrian settlements had adopted the anniversary of that event to put on huge festivals and celebrations - which around here also included the strange practice of making an earthenware container, filling it with candy and decorating it in the likeness of Littlepip, then hanging it up and having blindfolded ponies hit it with sticks until it burst open and everypony scrambled to get at the candy as it fell out on the ground. The practice had always struck me as odd. It seemed like a barbaric thing to do to somepony you claimed to like.

I also knew that shortly after that had come the fall of the Grand Pegasus Enclave, and the reintegration of the pegasi into pony society at large. I felt a sliver of hope as I recalled that Mom had always seemed just a touch bitter when she mentioned that event. Finally, something personal! It wasn’t much, but it was something.

Gardens of Equestria had been fired a short while after that. The megaspell had purged all but the most concentrated pockets of radiation and taint from the land, even way out here on the other side of the continent from where Spike’s Mountain was. Life and color were slowly returning to the land as plants gradually began to grow again. Food - fresh food, not just two-centuries-old canned stuff - was very slowly becoming easier to grow and even to find growing wild. On the other hoof, the lack of radiation was making life harder for the ghoul ponies and alicorns who needed it to survive, forcing them to roam and seek out those remaining bits they could find. Anything that had used Flux in its construction - which was surprisingly a lot of things - stopped working altogether. Healing potions had to be delivered by injection now, though they did heal better as they were forced to replace Hydra, which no longer worked at all. The Pip-Buck’s famous SATS system didn’t completely stop time anymore, just slowed it down to a crawl. Less importantly, Sugar Apple Bombs no longer sparked and popped when you bit into them, and Sparkle Cola Quantum lost its ethereal blue glow and became just another soda. In fact, none of the varieties of Sparkle Cola tasted right anymore - or so I’d been told, being too young (and brain-damaged) myself to remember what they’d actually been like before. I’d never liked the stuff, personally (Hey, another flash!), and maybe that was why. At least Sunset Sarsaparilla was still tasty.

I’d emptied the contents of my saddlebags onto the floor in front of me, not quite sure I’d trusted the Pip-Buck’s automatic sorting and inventory system. I sighed softly, looking at the meager pile that comprised all my possessions in the entire world, for all I knew. I’d expected Aces and his boys to not leave me with much, but to actually see in front of me just how little I had was fairly depressing. Aside from Lily and the Pip-Buck, I had five healing potion auto-injectors and two antivenoms which I suspected had been put there by either the Doc or Xinnia. A box of 10mm ammo for Lily, a box of .45 ammo which was useless to me now that Sentinel had been stolen, a pouch of Rad-Away, a syringe of Med-X that set me on edge as I looked at it, tempting me to use it right now even though I didn’t need it. Just remembering how good it felt… I quickly put that away out of sight and continued taking stock. A box of bobby pins and a screwdriver - essential tools for scavenging the wasteland. A strange vacuum-sealed silver packet marked “Vault 6 Emergency Barding - One Size Fits All” - I tore that open and slipped into the bright blue and yellow garment, feeling the thin fabric stretch over me, then strapped Lily’s shoulder holster on over top of it. I knew it wouldn’t be much protection in a fight, but it was better than nothing. And finally, three books: Littlepip’s autobiographical work, The Lightbringer, a well-worn and dogeared copy of Ditzy Doo’s Improved Wasteland Survival Guide, and Blackjack!, a thick tome whose cover promised it to be “A Complete and Unbiased Account of the Life and Times of the Hoofington Security Mare - by Scotch Tape” The subtitle made me slightly dubious. Something that had to make the claim of being unbiased so boldly upfront probably wasn’t. It certainly looked complete, though.

As I gathered up these meager possessions and put them back into the bags, a thick piece of folded paper fell out of one of the books. I picked it up and unfolded it, curious, and my eyes widened. It was a photo of Security herself. The white unicorn with her red and black striped mane was pretty recognizable - dressed in Stable 99 Security barding, her faintly glowing yellow eyes looking over the rims of a pair of mirrored sunglasses. She wore a cocky grin as she levitated a bottle of Wild Pegasus in front of her, about to take a drink. There was a simple autograph in the corner, black ink reading, “DO BETTER! - B.J.”

I sat motionless as a memory surfaced from the confused jumble of my mind. I remembered being a little filly, so obsessed with tales of Security that I’d even tried to dye my mane black and red instead of its normal purple hues. I remembered my cute-ceañera party, and how disappointed I had been that my cutie mark had turned out to be a bunch of dumb girly flowers instead of the ace and queen I’d hoped for. Or some other winning card hand. I’d have even settled for a row of three 7’s, anything but this! But I remembered how my mother had given me this special present, and how I was so happy that I forgot all about that disappointment. Even now I felt my eyes misting up as I relived that moment, and felt my mother’s love through this little treasure. Sure, I’d found out later that even if the photo was authentic, the signature almost certainly wasn’t, but that didn’t make it any less special to me. I was a bit sad that I couldn’t remember mom’s face, but even with that disappointment I was so happy to have remembered something, anything personal.

After a moment, I stilled myself with a deep breath and brushed the tears from my eyes. I carefully tucked my treasure back into the book it’d come from and put the book away in my bags. Strapping the saddlebags on, I walked toward the door of the doc’s ranch house.

Both the Doc and Xinnia had hugged me before sending me on my way, and Xinnia had given me two gifts of her own - a brown leather cowpony hat to keep the sun out of my eyes, and a hoof-woven saddle blanket that I draped around my shoulders like a sarape. I thanked them once again, and they sent me off with a reminder to go talk to Ol’ Hoss before I left town, and to see Apple Blossom at the saloon if I wanted to make some extra traveling money. I decided I would do both. I was a mare on a mission, yes, but I was not about to screw up my revenge by rushing to meet Aces unprepared. I was in no hurry to try dying again and seeing if it’d stick this time. Also, there was the slight problem that I still didn’t even know which way he was headed.

Ol’ Hoss lived in a ranch house that stood on a small hill, and from there I could really get a sense of the town. Just a stop along the road - no more than ten or twelve family homes, a gas station, a schoolhouse and… some kind of unfamiliar-looking facility with large cylindrical metal tanks lined up in a row on the edge of town. Most of the homes looked like they’d had repairs done on them, and each one was using its yard space for gardening which lent a touch of green to contrast the tans and browns of the Moojave. There weren’t many ponies outside, but I did see a few tending their gardens and livestock or generally milling about, exchanging smiles and friendly greetings as they passed each other. It was, in a word, nice. Pleasant, serene, even.

Ol’ Hoss was not what I expected. But that was like saying the surface of the sun was a little warm. He was a completely mechanical pony - no organic parts visible anywhere. He was covered - mostly - in a translucent white silicone rubber hide that gave him a somewhat ghostly appearance. His hide obscured but didn’t completely cover the movements of his robotic insides, but unlike typical robo-pony, he was built to closely resemble a living, breathing pony. Instead of motors and gears, I could see synthetic muscles contracting and releasing under his hide as he walked toward me, and I thought I even saw his chest expand and contract with breath. He had a silky black mane and tail that made him look even more like a real pony, and wore only a tan cowpony hat and matching vest with a silver sheriff’s star on the breast. He was also built like a Clydesdale. I was tall for a mare by most accounts, but my nose barely reached chest height on him.

He looked down at me with the strangest eyes I ever did see. They were completely dark, save for softly glowing yellow rings that formed what would have been the pupils of normal eyes. I took a step back, fearful, but he simply smiled at me. And then he spoke. Now, most ponies around these parts, myself included, had a bit of a drawl to their speech, but his was exaggerated to the point of being cartoonish, making me wonder if he was meant to be part of some kind of tourist attraction. Still, his tone was cheerful, and set me at ease even though his voice was tinny and mechanical.

“Well howdy there, little missy,” he said, all smiles. “Good to see you’re on the mend.”

“Yep,” I replied, finding his smile a bit infectious. “The doc patched me up real good. My brain’s a little scrambled, though. I can’t seem to remember much about myself.” I smiled a bit more, adding, “I’m told I have you to thank for getting me to the doc in time.”

“Aw shucks, t’weren’t nuthin,” he replied with a blush. I swear to Celestia, this robo-pony actually blushed. My eyes widened in shock at that, but Hoss seemed to pay it no mind. He stepped aside from the door and nodded toward it. “Anyways, come inside, we need to talk more private-like.”

I did, and as my eyes adjusted I saw a traditional-looking living room, with a rocking chair and a sofa and small tables for drinks and the like, just like any normal pony would have.

“Make yourself to home,” he said, following me inside and closing the door. He trotted to the kitchen, asking, “Can I get you somethin’ to drink?”

“Sarsaparilla?” I asked, hopefully, helping myself to a seat on the couch.

“You got it,” he said, returning momentarily from the kitchen with a cold Sunset in his mouth. He set it on the table and I popped its top, pocketing the cap. He sat in the rocking chair, chewing on a piece of scrap metal as though it was jerky. I took a long pull on the bottle and smiled, closing my eyes as the icy cold sweetness bubbled and fizzed over my tongue. Delicious. Though it did make me wonder just how many ponies in this town had working refrigerators.

Hoss looked at me a moment, and said in all seriousness, “Mr. Horse would like to speak with you.”

My smile faded and a chill crept up my spine. Now, on the scale of You’re In Trouble, “The client would like to speak with you” was not as bad as, say, “The boss wants you in his office, NOW!” but it was up there. I knew I was in trouble. I knew I’d screwed up. Suddenly I was a filly again, my mother speaking those dreaded words, “Wait till your father gets home.” I didn’t even have it in me to be happy that I’d managed to recall that vague sliver of my past..

The robo-pony must have noticed my discomfort, as he spoke with a soothing note to his voice. “Now he doesn’t blame you for what happened. You were ambushed because of a security breach, ‘twasn’t your fault. But he does want to discuss what happens next. Where we go from here, yeah?”

I nodded quietly, and he added with a sigh, “Honestly, at least part of this is my fault. Y’see, in addition to my sheriffin’ duties around Sweetsprings, I’ve also been acting as Mr. Horse’s agent in this area. I was tailin’ you from the dig site, but y’all was flyin’ too fast fer me t’keep up. By the time I caught up to you in the cemetery,” he sighed again, “Well, it was too late fer me t’be any help to ye.” Hoss had his hat off, holding it to his chest with a hoof, those strange eyes showing sincere regret, just like a real pony would. “I do apologize for everything that’s happened, ma’am. I’m right sorry.”

I shook my head to him, and took another drink of my soda. “It’s okay, I won’t hold it against you. You did save my life, after all.”

Hoss smiled at that. I looked to him again and asked, “So… what is this thing, anyway? I mean, sure it’s pretty and shiny, but nopony’d go that far just for a regular old casino chip.”

He grimaced. “Ergh, you weren’t supposed to see it. Nopony was…” He shifted uncomfortably in his seat. “Look, I… there are things I can’t talk about, right? All I can say is that chip may be the key to ending this war.”

I was confused. “War? What war?”

Suddenly Hoss was looking confused as well. “The war between NLR and the Legion?”

“The what and the what, now?” I asked, furrowing my brow. I tapped my temple with a hoof, and reminded him, “Amnesia. Don’t know nuthin no more, yea?” I mentally kicked myself. I was starting to pick up his speech patterns.

“Oh, right,” Ol’ Hoss replied. “Well, I guess I should start with the Starswirl Dam. It’s more than just a dam in the river, y’see? It’s a hydroelectric power plant that supplies the whole Moojave Territory with electricity and clean water from Silver Lake. It was found mostly intact when Mr. Horse was in the process of waking up Las Pegasus, or New Pegas as he’s calling it now.”

I nodded, listening. “Is this the same Mr. Horse who was president and founder of Robronco and through various political maneuverings landed himself in charge of the Office of Inter-ministry Affairs shortly before the bombs dropped?”

“The very same,” he replied, and smiled, “See, you do know some things. Robronco had a major presence in the Far West. Working with the Ministry of Morale, Mr. Horse practically built Las Pegasus from the ground up. There are Robronco R&D and production facilities all over Coltifornia and the Territory, and even though the east held what was ostensibly Robronco’s HQ, Mr. Horse did, and does, his real work out of the Casino Royale. That’s where you’ll be meeting with him.” Hoss rose to his hooves and looked up, beaming with pride. “I myself am a Robronco model, produced in association with the Equestrian National Research Laboratory at Los Palominos. Folks call me Ol’ Hoss, but my official designation is RBX-0083-2a MkIV.”

I stared at him, not knowing what to say. He made a throat-clearing noise into the uncomfortable silence, and sat himself down again. “Anyway, The New Lunar Republic started off out on the west coast of Coltifornia, and has been slowly expanding eastward. They’re a democracy that claims, at least, that they want to restore the Equestrian values of liberty, equality and justice to the Far West. They struck an agreement with Mr. Horse to annex the Territory and restore the Dam to full capacity, giving them access to its electricity and water, as long as they’d let New Pegas operate as a free state.”

Hoss’ face darkened as he continued, “But, then there’s the Legion of the True Way. Or just the Legion. They’re… basically a gang of slavers aping ancient Zebra culture. More than just a gang, though. They’ve grown super powerful in the territories east of here over the last decade or so, either absorbing or destroying the tribes that used to live out that way. Buffalo, gryphons, every tribe or gang with a grudge has been happily joining up with them, and the rest either follow along or die. They’ve been trying to expand westward, and about four years ago, tried to take the Dam. The NLR army pushed them back across the river, but it was a damn bloody fight.” Hoss shook his head sadly. “But now the Legion’s been building up their forces again, and it’s starting to look like they’re going to be ready for Round Two any day now.”

“And, so, what,” I fumbled, “This chip has some kind of magic that’ll make the Legion go away?”

“Something like that,” Hoss answered with a nod.

It was mid-afternoon by the time I left Ol’ Hoss’s abode. We’d agreed that he’d go ahead to the Royale and let Mr. Horse know I was on my way, and I could take a little time getting there. I finished off my second or third Sarsaparilla as I was walking, and tucked the empty bottle in my saddlebag, certain that it’d be useful for something later.

The Sweetsprings Saloon looked like it had stood there since the old cowpony days when the Far West was first being discovered by civilized ponies, hundreds of years ago. The style of its construction looked completely anachronistic in contrast with the more modern-looking ranch houses that surrounded it. A pack brahmin stood outside near the hitching post, one head greeting me with a moo as the other drank thirstily from the water trough. There were also a couple of motorcycles parked outside, but they looked like they’d been there forever - almost certainly they didn’t run, but no one had bothered to either move or scrap them. The Saloon’s dark wood groaned and creaked underhoof as I stepped onto its deck, pausing to greet an elderly yellow buck with a beard that grew down to his belly, sitting in a rocking chair near the door.

It took my eyes a good minute or two to adjust to the comparative darkness inside the Saloon. I was going to need to invest in a pair of sunglasses, ASAP. An older, matronly pink earth pony mare in a practical yet still attractive dress was tending bar, and she waved a friendly hoof to me as I entered.

“Welcome to the Sweetsprings Saloon!” she said cheerfully, “C’mon up to the bar and have a sit, don’t be shy.”

I slowly approached the bar, noticing that there were barely five patrons, including myself. Three sat huddled together at a table, busy having a hushed conversation, while the lone one barely took notice of me, simply nursing their drink as I passed by. I took a seat at the bar, and the bar matron came up to me with a smile. “It’s a pleasure to meet you, I’m Apple Blossom,” she said, offering a hoofshake, “Bartender and part-time mayor of Sweetsprings.”

I accepted the gesture, and before I could speak, she went on. “You must be Six, Doc Greensleeves has told me all about you, hon.”

“Midnight Shadow,” I tried to correct her, but she seemed not to hear me as she continued. “I was so sorry to hear about what happened to you, and that it happened here in our little town. Please do accept my apologies.”

“Oh, there’s nothing for you to apologize for, ma’am,” I said gently. “Really, I’m fine now.”

Apple Blossom nodded pleasantly. “Well, then, is there anything I can get you?”

I spent a moment looking over the list of drinks on offer, and finally said, “I’d just like a beer. More importantly, though, I’m headed into New Pegas and the doc said you’d be the one to talk to about making some extra caps for travel expenses.” I counted out five bottlecaps from my little purse and set them on the bar in front of me.

My eyes were finally beginning to adjust to the dim light of the bar, and I was starting to make out some details of the ponies around. Apple Blossom was an older mare who had a motherly quality about her, that look enhanced by the apron she wore over a simple floral print dress. Her teal eyes full of kindness as they looked at me. Her greying blonde mane was done up in a prim bun with just a few stray curls hanging stylishly about her face. She set the open bottle on the bar and pushed it, and my small stack of caps back toward me with a wink. “On the house, sweetheart,” she said. “As for jobs, you may just be in luck. See those three over there?” she said, nodding to the trio who were conversing rather intensely at their table. “They're caravaners heading up to Sand Junction, which is about a third of the way to where you’re headed. They happen to be looking for some extra security, so if you wouldn’t mind being a guard pony, you may be able to help each other out. Also I’ve got this busted radio. I’d be willing to pay you if you could fix it. How’s fifty caps sound?”

I looked to her with a grin. “Make it seventy-five and I’ll make it sing for you.”

I was decently skilled with a screwdriver and soldering iron, and the radio was an easy fix. Just a blown capacitor, and I was able to cannibalize one from an alarm clock that Apple Blossom said hadn’t worked in ages. A few more tweaks here and there and the radio crackled to life. The sweetly gravelly voice of an elder stallion emitted clearly from the speaker.

“This is Mister New Pegas and I love each and every one of you! Just a quick follow-up on a news story from a few days ago. The mare who was found head-shot but alive in the Sweetsprings Cemetery last week is back on her hooves, and expected to make a full recovery. Now if that ain’t a miracle, I surely don’t know what is. This next song is for you, Six, with all our good wishes. It’s Silver Starlight with, “Ain’t That a Kick in the Head”

As the music played, even though it was a song dedicated to me personally, I just couldn’t find it in me to be happy. I sighed, holding my head in my wings and feeling utterly defeated. I grumbled, even as Apple Blossom set the radio back in its place behind the bar, and counted out seventy-five caps for me, as promised. “Midnight Shadow,” I grumbled to myself. “Midnight. Motherfucking. Shadow.” Why couldn’t anyone get my name right?

After another song or two, I finally grew tired of sulking. I asked for a second beer, and insisted on paying this time. The conversation at the table seemed to have died down a bit, and so I took the opportunity to saunter over. “Howdy folks,” I said, “Name’s Midnight Shadow. Miss Apple Blossom tells me you’re in need of an extra gun.”

“Oh, hey, you’re the mare they were talking about on the radio!” one caravaner in a leather jacket spoke up, noticing the scar on my forehead. “I’m Cherry Bomb, nice to meet you, Six!”

My head hit the table with a thump heard ‘round the Territory.

Chapter 3: Expendable Youth

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The Moojave Territory had been a hard place to live even before the bombs. Gardens of Equestria had helped, but even a megaspell could only do so much. The Territory was still a dry, arid land, with rocky terrain and sandy soil that many plants and crops refused to take root in. The hated sand was coarse and rough, and got everywhere. Water was a precious commodity. Most of the native plants were thorny and difficult to eat, and some were poisonous. Venomous insects had mutated into larger, more dangerous versions of themselves. Violent winds sometimes buffeted the landscape, becoming storms of whirling, blinding sand. Even just being out in the midday sun could kill a pony in a few hours if they were unprepared, and there were vast stretches of open desert to be crossed between pockets of civilization. And then there were the buffalo tribes. Most were ok, but few were anything resembling ‘friendly’, and some still openly bore the old grudges and saw ponies as nothing but invaders in their lands. Sometimes ‘not hostile’ was the best you were going to get.

Considering all this, you may well be asking why, why in Celestia’s name would any sane pony want to live out here? Well, I’d always suspected (hey!) that we were all just a little crazy from the heat. The truth was that the Far West had always been a land of dreams for ponies looking to make their fortune. Between gold rushes, coal rushes, and rare ores for the megaspells, mining had been big business in the Far West for hundreds of years before the war, and ponies of the old world had been coming here looking to extract a fortune from the ground for centuries. And then with the war came the great military-industrial complex. The open desert provided safe testbeds for megaspells, bombs and other wartime technologies, which brought scientists, engineers, military personnel, and all the infrastructure needed to support them.

And in the midst of all of this were the great casinos of Las Pegasus - monuments to the force that had driven those prospectors out here: dreams. Oh, and greed. The idea of risking everything on games that mixed luck and skill, and coming out ahead. For the poor and working class, it was the idea of ‘striking rich’ and being able to live without working like the nobility did. For the rich, it was something exciting to do with all their wealth. It was an idea that blinded them all to the reality that the odds were always against them. In a larger sense, what Las Pegasus offered that was so attractive was the sense of freedom. Anything went there. Every vice; every pleasure that was illegal, immoral or just frowned upon in the rest of Equestria was freely available there, encouraged, even. Gambling, chems, prostitution - you name it, it was on offer.

Beyond all that, though, there simply was a serene beauty to the desert that couldn’t be found anyplace else, especially in the overdeveloped East, where there were places you couldn’t tell where one city ended and another began. At any time you could just walk off the road and enjoy the tranquility of just being nowhere, with nothing around you for miles. It was quite the paradise for those who treasured their solitude.

There was plenty of that for me currently. Since I was the only flier among the caravan’s guard, my job was to both watch them from the air and scout the area around them for potential trouble along the road. Well, I say ‘guard’ but in reality it was just Cherry Bomb and me. The caravan wasn’t much of one either - apart from a pair of overworked pack brahmin and the cart they pulled, there was a trader who’s name slipped into one of my ears and directly out the other, and what looked to be his pregnant wife, neither of whom seemed too keen on speaking to me despite Cherry Bomb’s coaxing, and my allowing them to charge me fifty caps for a pair of mirrored sunglasses I was certain weren’t worth more than ten. I wasn’t particularly bothered by that even though Cherry was, and I was at least grateful to her for being so concerned on my behalf. I remembered enough to know that there were just some ponies who wanted nothing to do with a black-coated mare, and there was just nothing you could say or do about that. If they wanted to cling to old superstitions and prejudices it was no skin off my nose, as long as they paid me.

It was a job I felt like I’d done at least a hundred times before, though I couldn’t recall any specific time I had. The pack brahmin and wagon were loaded to capacity with the traders’ wares, and so they were forced to keep to an agonizingly slow pace along the road. Even gliding as slowly as I could around them, it was a difficult pace to keep to, and several times I found myself getting too far ahead and having to hover and wait for them to catch up. Honestly, though the work was boring as hell I was grateful, both to have the extra caps in my purse and to not have to make at least this leg of the trip completely alone.

Having gotten tired of ruminating over the few things I knew about what was going on in the world around me, I decided to take a closer look at my Pip-Buck. I hadn’t really felt like I’d had the time (or patience) to explore its functions back in Sweetsprings. Activating the screen, I took a look over the first main section. First, there was the health monitor screen I’d seen Xinnia use when I was laid up. Overall health, heart rate, blood pressure and rad count I understood, even poison and toxin sensors, but how in Equestria did it know when I was hungry, thirsty or needed to sleep?

Things became even more surreal as I tabbed through the other sub-headings under Status. I’d thought it was amusingly clever at first, when I’d looked at the Stats screen and noticed the names of the statistics it tracked spelled out “SPECIAL.” And then I noticed the individual stat names. Strength, Perception, Endurance, Charisma, Intelligence, Agility and Luck. Where was it getting this info from? I agreed with its assessments of low scores for Strength and Endurance, average Perception and high Agility, but I’d never felt like I’d earned the high marks it gave me for Charisma and Intelligence. And Luck? Pfft. If my Luck was that high I’d have never have gotten into this situation in the first place. And what was all this about, anyway? Had my life become some kind of role-playing game?!

The RPG theme continued on the next tab, called “Perks.” It was a fairly short list, but I didn’t understand most of them. Black Widow, Cherchez La Femme… And then I ran across a strange one called Magic Fingers. On its description, the cartoon pony mascot grinned as he held out a hoof and mysteriously extended fingers from it, accompanied by a tiny rubbery squeaking sound as he flexed them. “You’ve discovered the secret Earth Pony magic that allows you to manipulate small objects with your hooves almost, but not quite, as dexterously as if you had human hands! What’s a human? That’s a story for another time...” Had I? When had I learned that?

“Bullshit,” I said quietly to myself, scowling in disbelief at the screen. But then, what was the harm in trying? I folded a foreleg across my chest as I glided along, and to my surprise I found that I could pull Lily from her holster and put her back, and even hold her out without dropping her. I was even able to draw out and connect her suppressor without too much difficulty. Oh, this was going to make shooting so much easier!

I was aiming down Lily’s top sight, about to squeeze off a test round, when the thought occurred to me to look back, and I noticed with a sigh that I had gotten too far out ahead of the caravan again. I was about to put Lily away and circle back when I caught sight of a pair of bucks below me. They were dressed in strange, ill-fitting denim jackets with strings of numbers crudely etched on the back, and were suspiciously pressed up against a pair of boulders that flanked the cracked and damaged highway. They kept peeking out, looking at the approaching caravan. Ambushers. Had I been paying attention to my Eyes-Forward Sparkle, I might’ve noticed their red bars sooner. Fortunately for me, nopony ever looks up. Not unless they see your shadow cross over them. And sometimes, not even then.

I landed silently behind them, holding Lily out and folding my wings. They didn’t even notice me until I cleared my throat at them. “You know,” I said, smirking, “if a mare didn’t know any better, she might think y’all were up to no good.”

They both whirled around to face me, obviously startled by my sudden appearance, though their pride wouldn’t let them admit to it. The Earth Pony on the right growled at me around a brown paper tube that had a piece of thick cord hanging from one end, while the unicorn on the right levitated a similar brown stick threateningly at me. “What’s it to you?” he demanded.

My smirk widened as I watched them, and simultaneously discovered that with this new ability I could dangerously cock Lily’s hammer back, to emphasize what I said next. My eyes bore holes into them over the rims of my sunglasses, but I continued in my flippant tone hoping that I actually sounded as both playful and dangerous as I imagined. “Oh, nuthin’,” I said, “Just was passin’ by and figured in the spirit of Generosity I might give you boys to the count of, say, three, to rethink whatever it is you’re doing here. Maybe reconsider some of your life choices.”

The idiots didn’t even wait for me to start counting. I saw the sparking at the end of the cords on those sticks they held and recognized what they were. Dynamite. I activated SATS and watched the color drain from the world momentarily as the flow of time turned from water to molasses, making everything seem hazy and dreamlike. I watched the two ponies slowly rearing back to throw as I lined up a pair of headshots for each of them. At 95% hit chance there was no particular need to double up, but, better safe than sorry.

Those shots made bloody work of them as expected, leaving a pair of corpses to slump against their respective boulders as time and life returned to normal. A flash of panic came over me shortly as I realized those dynamite sticks were still rolling along the mostly smooth patch of road, heading right toward me. I jumped back as quickly as I could, with a hard flap of my wings to push me further as I turned my face away. The double explosion knocked me hard onto my rump, but fortunately that was all it did. I took a moment to dust myself off, and let myself just breathe as the tension of the moment passed.

Now, if this is the moment you’re expecting me to get all maudlin and remorseful over my first murder, I’m afraid I’m about to deeply disappoint you. Unlike some of my heroes, I was not some sweet, innocent Stable pony, nor some sheltered Enclave ingenue. This, as the saying goes, was not my first rodeo. Amnesia or no, I was born into this world, and I had no illusions about how cheap life was here. Ponies killed each other constantly, for the pettiest of reasons, sometimes for no reason at all. Those who weren’t able to accept that, who weren’t willing to bloody their hooves to ensure their own survival and to safeguard what mattered to them… well, the wasteland had a name for them: Victims.

I was no victim. I refused to be. But I knew there were plenty of folk more evil than I out here who would enjoy making me one, just as Aces had. So whatever I had to do to prevent that, I knew was justified, and there was simply no point in crying over it. Even though I couldn’t remember the things I’d done previous to today, there was a feeling inside me that if I had taken the time to weep over every one of those sins of my past, my tears would’ve flooded the Territory.

Besides, I’d given them a chance to walk away from this. That was more than they’d have got from most ponies. Hell, that practically made me a saint ‘round these parts. That they hadn’t taken it was their own fault, not mine.

At least, I needed to believe that.

Seeing that the caravan was finally catching up to me, I lit one of the cigarettes I’d pulled from the corpses and decided to take a break and wait for them in the cool shade of one of those boulders. The pair hadn’t had much on them besides those, a few more sticks of dynamite which I had no idea how to use and didn’t feel safe experimenting with, and their clothes, which my Pip-Buck had identified as Prison Garb. The 250-year old tobacco tasted every bit as shitty as you’d expect, but its nicotine had a pleasantly gentle calming effect that soothed my nerves and helped me relax. Cherry Bomb had the twin carbines on her battle saddle ready for action - there was no way she could have missed the explosion and smoke. But as she cautiously passed between the boulders and saw me there, finishing a smoke next to the pair of ruined corpses, she relaxed visibly and chuckled to me. “Trouble?” she asked in a slightly playful tone.

“No trouble,” I replied with a grin and shake of my head. I tossed the spent butt of my cigarette aside and took to the air once more, resuming my patrol.

The rest of the day passed without incident, leaving me with more time to explore my Pip-Buck, and more time to be disturbed by just how much it knew about me, down to a measure of my karma. And yet, even though this machine strapped to my leg could tell me whether I was a good pony or not, it couldn’t tell me anything I really wanted to know about myself. It couldn’t tell me who I was.

As the sun faded over the horizon, painting the sky in its gorgeous palette of reds, oranges and purples, we pulled off the road to make camp in a safe-looking clearing surrounded by rocks. We built a fire together and the four of us ate around it, and even though it stuck in my craw slightly that I was being charged for the food I ate, I felt it’d be rude to ask if Cherry Bomb had similar arrangements. I found myself eating alone - the traders had said as little as possible to me during our brief transactions and were keeping to the direct opposite side of the firepit from me. I smiled, though, as Cherry Bomb came to rescue me from that lonely position. She sat herself down right next to me in a huff, and together we shared a dinner of fresh carrots, an ancient pre-made dish called “Salisbury Steak”, and Sunset Sarsaparillas - warm but still refreshing.

“I really don’t understand what their problem is with you, Six,” Cherry had said between muzzlefulls of food. “I mean, we’ve only known each other a day or two now, but you seem like a good pony to me.”

I stiffened slightly as she used that name I was growing to loathe, but I didn’t bother to correct her. “It’s because I’m black,” I replied, giving a gentle shake of my head.

Cherry looked at me pointedly, sky blue eyes narrowed in disbelief. She was a rather cute earth pony around the same age as myself I’d guess - if I knew how old I was - with a pink coat and darker red mane, wearing a black leather jacket over a white undershirt. On her flank was the mark of a pair of exploding cherries connected by their stem. “Wha? That’s… that’s just stupid,” she said finally.

I nodded, not denying that. But I tried to explain, “You’ve been places, you’ve seen lots of ponies, right? Now think of all the ponies you know, have met or have even just seen. How many of them have been all black?”

She looked to the sky, thinking a moment, rubbing her chin with a hoof. “Um… well… none of them, actually,” she replied, then after a moment more pondering, added, “I’ve seen ones with black manes, but… not their body color, no.”

I nodded again, and continued, “Right. Ponies come in all different colors, any color you can imagine, sometimes even very dark colors, but never pure black. It’s by far and away the rarest pony color. Black was Nightmare Moon’s color, and Queen Chrysalis’ color. And because of that, there are still ponies out there who believe that we’re touched by them; marked by them. That we are their children somehow. That we’re cursed, bringers of misfortune, or at the very least not to be trusted.”

“But you’re not all black,” Cherry protested. “Your mane-”

“Doesn’t count,” I interrupted, shaking my head.

Cherry’s look turned pensive, and she hesitantly asked, “So… well… are you? The… cursed child of Nightmare Moon or whatever?”

I laughed, snorting derisively. “Pfft, no. Come on, you just said yourself that’s all crap.” I sighed heavily as my mood turned more somber, and I gazed into the orange flames of the campfire. “There’s enough real monsters out here. Enough real dangers. We don’t need to dredge up dead ones from the past as well.” But even as I said those words, I wondered. Could it have been true after all?

I needed a quick change of subject. “Anyway,” I said, “that’s enough about me, let’s talk about you. What’s your story?”

She chuckled, and I smiled along. Joining me in watching the dance of the campfire’s flames, she said, “Not much of a story to tell, honestly. I grew up in Angel City on the coast, served my required two years in the NLR military and found that shooting stuff was about the only thing I was good at. But, like a lot of NLR ponies I guess, I wanted to head east and see what was out here. See what I could find.” She shrugged a bit, “What I found was mostly work like this, guarding these little mom and pop caravans. But it’s not bad work, and I have a nice little home in Sweetsprings to come back to.” She looked at me with an impish grin and added, “And now I’m traveling with an amnesiac heroine who doesn’t know it yet but is destined to save the world as she discovers her tragic past!”

I couldn’t help but roll my eyes at the last part, and we shared a good, long laugh.

As the fire died down to embers, I was alone once again. The traders had turned in early, and Cherry Bomb had collapsed herself after splitting a small flask of whiskey with me. She’d done her best to try to massage my sore wings, and though the touch of her hooves had felt good, she ultimately did little to relieve their pain. I tucked them in against myself, rolled myself up in Xinnia’s saddleblanket and tried to will myself to sleep, to no avail. The spot where my wing had been shot ached and throbbed as if the wound were still fresh, and my head was starting to join it. And so, I finally broke down and reached into my saddlebag for that shot of Med-X.

A sharp stab of pain, a hiss of the auto-injector, and seconds later I was blissfully floating between here and the Everafter. Nothing hurt anymore, and nothing could hurt me - I felt only the soothing, comforting warmth of the chem embracing my very soul. My invisible lover held me close, and whispered to me that everything would be all right. He helped quiet my racing thoughts; he shielded me from the memory of that night in the rain, of two ponies’ heads exploding in slow-motion, and even from the trivial hurt of two ponies I didn’t know and cared nothing for shunning me because of my coat. And finally sleep came. Peaceful, restful, dreamless sleep.

Chapter 4: War Ensemble

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Dawn broke, and our little camp slowly came to life again. I awoke, groaning, feeling sore and hungover which I attributed to the whiskey. I stumbled to my hooves, thankful that Cherry was awake and there to steady me and nudge a cup of coffee into my view.

“Rough night, eh?” Cherry asked, her eyes spotting the empty syringe that stuck out from under my blankets. She picked it up in her teeth and tossed it into the cookfire with a deft motion. She continued to prop me up as she whispered in my ear. “You really need to be careful with that stuff.” She opened a small tin of what looked like mints and dropped a pair into my coffee, before tucking the tin into my bags.

I felt entirely too uncomfortable about this. I started to say something, fishing for some excuse. She touched a hoof to my lips, silencing me with a shake of her head, and trotted off to help finish the cooking. I took at look at the inventory screen of my Pip-Buck to see what she’d given me. The only new item I could find was “Fixer - Temporarily cures all addictions.”

“Addictions?” I scoffed. “I’m not addicted.” I sat with a huff and grumbled as I sipped my coffee, accompanying it with another one of those ancient cigarettes. The sun continued its inexorable rise, painting the landscape with its light. The mask of monochromatic blue that accompanied the waning night was pulled away to reveal the tans, browns and reds of the desert landscape, dotted by the muted greens of sagebrush and the occasional cactus. I could even spot little dottings of pretty little purple and orange flowers among some of those bushes, and that made me smile a bit.

By the time I finished my coffee I was feeling a lot more like myself. Cherry Bomb had returned to me with some unidentified but still tasty soup with bits of grain and vegetable in it, along with some cubes of something soft and white that I didn’t recognize but enjoyed all the same. Once again, she and I sat together to eat - our placement around the fire about the same as it had been at dinner. Cherry was making me giggle as she tried to guess who I had been before my brains had been scrambled, and kept coming up with more and more ridiculous propositions. I was happy that she hadn’t said anything more about the state she’d found me in earlier.

She was in the middle of weaving an intricate story about my being an exiled star princess who would one day save all of planet Equus with the power of love, when I heard a rumbling approaching from down the road. I didn’t need a magical sixth sense to tell me that this was bad news.

I peeked around the grouping of boulders that hid our camp from the road and saw an angry-looking stampede of ponies. It was hard to tell with all the dust their hooves were kicking up, but I counted twenty, maybe thirty bucks, all wearing the same prison clothes as the two I had encountered the previous day. In the center of their herd was a pony being carried on some kind of litter. Not looking sick or infirm, quite the opposite.

He was a giant of a white unicorn, ashen blonde mane and tail streaming in the wind, outfitted in some kind of cobbled-together body armor on his upper half, his prison jacket tied around his waist to form a kind of skirt that covered his flank. Stripes of crimson and black paint underlined his eyes, highlighting the intense glare of their blood red pupils. Over his muzzle he wore a portion of a power armor helmet that had been cut away to leave just the respirator mask and the two hoses that connected from either side to the rebreather apparatus that was attached to the back of his body armor. In an amplified, augmented growl of a voice, he was making some sort of speech that was keeping the other stallions whipped into a fighting frenzy, but from this vantage point, I couldn’t make out any of the words.

Any except, “Sweetsprings.” I felt my hooves go cold as the implications ran through my head.

I flitted back down and quickly kicked sand into the fire, dousing it. Both the traders and Cherry were moving in close around me, wanting to know what was going on.

“Sweetsprings may be in trouble,” i said, putting on one of the sets of prison garb I’d acquired yesterday over my Stable barding and holster. “Y’all should be okay here, this spot’s pretty well hidden from the road. I want y’all to hunker down here ‘till I get back.” The trader couple looked at me, shocked and incredulous. It was clear they didn’t like this plan one bit. But, I had to wonder whether at least part of that was because it came from me. I nudged Cherry Bomb with my nose. “You take care of them, all right?” The leather-jacketed pony answered with a salute that made me chuckle, and I took off.

As expected, this herd was so focused on the road ahead that they didn’t see me approach from aside, and I was able to join up at the back end of the group without any of them taking much notice of me. Now, I could hear.

“The town of Sweetsprings has hidden this traitor; this apostate from Us!” the unicorn roared over the thunder of their hooves. “They have sheltered and aided him in defiance of Our will! All its citizens are guilty; all shall burn in the fires of judgement!” A few ponies with flamers fired demonstrative bursts into the air as the whole herd sounded off their agreement in unison.

There was a feeling in the air, like these ponies were in some kind of state of religious ecstasy. I was beginning to feel it too. As I ran with them, listening to the unicorn speak, I started to lose track of what he was actually saying, only vaguely aware that he was speaking about the joys of killing, of how being soaked in blood was the purest and most righteous state.

It took me a moment to shake it off and regain my senses, and realize what I needed to do. I lit up every piece of dynamite I had taken from the two gangers yesterday, pushed off with my wings and jetted out ahead of the crowd. I passed by the unicorn mere centimeters from his face, and in that moment when our eyes met, time itself seemed to crawl as though I had activated SATS. He glared at me over that mask he wore, his gaze boring deep into me with pure malice as in that silent moment he tried to underline and highlight how weak I was compared to him, and how utterly pointless it would be to oppose him. I merely looked away, focusing on the road ahead and snapping my wings to fly out faster. Time returned to normal as I shot out ahead and heard his audio-enhanced growl shouting, “KILL HER!”

I started dropping dynamite along the road, and heard the screams of a few bucks as they started to go off, one after another. Not looking back I pushed my wings, demanding every bit of speed my body could muster as I headed toward Sweetsprings. After the explosions I heard some gunfire behind me, but by that time I was well out of their range. I felt the wind pushing me back harder and harder the faster I flew, but within minutes I saw the town ahead of me. I’d managed to cover in just a few minutes what had taken us a day and a half to walk, and I considered that a small triumph. I just hoped that meant I had bought them enough time.

I nearly knocked the door of the Sweetsprings Saloon off its hinges as I stumbled in, panting. “There’s trouble, Miss Blossom!” I exclaimed breathlessly. The Saloon looked empty, which made sense with it being mid-morning still, and my dramatic entrance had easily grabbed the barmaid/part-time mayor’s attention. “Twenty or thirty gangers in prison clothes like this,” I said, tugging the jacket off myself. “Led by some real nasty unicorn buck. Got him some power that whips them into some kinda blood frenzy. I dropped some dynamite on ‘em on the way here but I dunno how many I got.”

Apple Blossom gave a soft sigh, nodding. “War Bucks,” she said, knowingly. When I looked at her with a curious headtilt, she explained, “They’re halfway between a gang and a death cult. Buncha convicts out of that NLR prison up north. They revolted, killed off the guards and took over the place. Unicorn you mentioned is Frostwraith, though I hear they just been callin’ him Immortal, and you’re right, he controls them all with his magic. Not like directly, but he controls their moods and feelings. And they worship him like some kinda god.”

She uncapped a beer and set it in front of me without my even having asked for one and continued, “Round about a month ago we had a young buck come into town scared out of his wits. Said he’d escaped from the War Bucks and they were after him. Wanted us to help hide him for a while.” She sighed again. “Sweet Treasure, who runs the general store, was against it but I insisted.” She looked at me with a smile as I took a drink and continued, “I mean, if we can coldly refuse a pony who comes to us in desperate need, just what does that say about us? And how can we say with straight faces that we’re making the Territory a better place, even if it’s just here in this little area?”

Apple Blossom came around to the other side of the bar with a beer of her own and sat on the stool next to mine. “Anyways, that buck moved on about two weeks ago far as I know, but them War Bucks still think he’s here and have been sending little raiding parties to try and get him back every so often, sending us threatening messages, whatever.” She shrugged, then caught my gaze with her own and looked at me pointedly. “Now, I got somethin’ to ask you.”

“Yeah?” I said, curious.

“With Ol’ Hoss out of town and Cherry Bomb guarding that caravan with you, that puts us down our two main security ponies. Most of us at least know our way around a gun, but we’re not fighters. If they’re as many and as fired up as you say,” she paused, sighed and shook her head sadly, “I just don’t see how we’s gonna survive this without some kinda help in that area. So I gotta ask… would you mind fillin’ in for them?” I drew back and started to reply, but Apple Blossom cut me off. “Just till the battle’s over, I know you need to get back to the caravan.”

“I’ll pay you whatever I can out of the treasury. Just… please, please help us,” Apple Blossom said, looking at me with such desperation in her eyes, the tears that were forming in them threatening to betray her calm composure. And with that, I knew I couldn’t say no. Doc Greensleeves, Xinnia, Hoss, herself, Cherry… I hadn’t met all the ponies who lived in Sweetsprings, but every pony I had met had done their damndest to help me when I needed them. How could I do any less? “Okay,” I said. “I’ll do it.”

Apple Blossom hugged me so tight I thought my ribs would crack. “Thank you,” she whispered in a shaky voice, hiding her tears against my shoulder. I knew she didn’t want me to know, but I could tell from the ragged way she was breathing and the way she shook against me that she was crying. I held her for that moment while she needed me, soothingly brushing my wings over her back.

She drew back after a few minutes, turning away from me to dab her eyes with a handkerchief and re-compose herself with a few deep breaths. She flashed me a look that implied, “If you tell anypony about that, I’ll kill you.” And then returned to business. “How long do you think we have?”

“Well, they’re travelling top speed on hoof. Normal ponies would need to stop every so often and rest or else they’d be in no condition to fight once they got here. But with that kind of control they’re under I don’t know if that would still apply. Or how long they’ll need to reorganize after my little bombing run.” I grinned as I added that bit, and then took a look at the time on my Pip-Buck. “So not counting that I’d say we have around two hours to prepare.”

“Okay, so I’m going to go roust the townsfolk. I want you to head up to the gas station. I’ve been using it as a storage closet for the town.” She hoofed me a key attached to a key fob in the shape of a Sparkle Cola Quantum bottle - the liquid inside had lost its glow but was still bright blue. “See if there’s any weapons or anything else useful in there and meet me back here in about half an hour and we’ll start readying our defenses.”

I nodded and trotted out the door. Not wanting to waste time, I let my wings carry me up to the gas station faster than my hooves could. Unlike the rest of the town, the gas station itself hadn’t been used or maintained at all and was showing its age. The tiled facade had lost at least half its paint, revealing oxidized metal underneath and there were many places where it had rusted through altogether to show the concrete walls underneath. The support beam that held the awning that covered the area with the fuel pumps had bent and looked dangerously close to collapse. Despite this, the building underneath still looked reasonably sturdy.

I unlocked the door to the garage and slipped inside. It was dark, and the lights were off, but the flashlight function of my Pip-Buck provided enough light to work by. Inside the garage, the mechanic’s tools had been moved aside to provide space for shelving. Among those shelves, I found just about everything one needed to survive. Apple Blossom had a respectable store of extra food and water here, enough to keep the town fed for a good few weeks. There were spare medical supplies, I guessed that they were kept here so that there would be a stock in case the doc’s house was robbed. Other shelves held a few battle saddles, automatic rifles in varying states of repair, a few pistols, metal crates loaded with various ammunition some random pieces of body armor - a couple of which I tacked on to my stable barding - and a few grenades and mines. And one minigun, with about 500 rounds of ammo. I was tempted to take it for myself, but I didn’t have much skill with heavy weaponry, nor the strength to properly carry it - somepony else would be able to use it better than I. All in all, the armory supplies were nothing fancy, but they would be enough, I hoped, to arm the townsponies well enough to defend themselves. I helped myself to a modest bit of the food and water and a couple of the healing potions, then started gathering the rest of the weaponry and supplies into duffle bags to transport them back to the Saloon with me.

As I worked, I happened upon a surprise. In a dark corner of the garage, I spotted an elongated black case that looked strangely out of place here - it looked new and untouched, as though it alone had escaped the ravages of time. As I leaned in closer I immediately knew why. It was nimbusite, a plastic-like material made from compressed stormbutts. That explained why it looked untouched - because it was. Non-pegasi couldn’t touch it. The “Property of G.P.E.” logo embossed into the side of the case sealed it - there was no question that whatever was inside this case was Enclave tech.

I reached to take the handle of the case in my teeth when I got another surprise - a pair of sullen grey eyes staring at me from the darkest corner of the garage. I turned my Pip-Buck so that its light shone directly on this pony, and saw a slight, cobalt blue unicorn, somewhere between big for a colt and small for a mare, with a shaggy yet lustrous silver-white mane and tail that’d be lovely if they weren’t so unkempt. In fact, I almost mistook him for a mare due to his build and facial features. He was trying to level a pistol at me but between his own panicked trembling and the bright light shining in his eyes, he was having difficulty doing so.

“I wouldn’t do that if I were you,” I said in an even tone around the handle of the case before pulling it toward me.

“W-who are you?” he demanded in a quavering voice, trying and failing to sound tough. “H-how did you get in here?”

“Midnight Shadow,” I replied, smirking slightly, jingling the keyring that Apple Blossom had given me. “And I have a key.”

The buck hesitantly crept around the shelving to face me, still levitating the pistol with his blue magic. He looked half-starved, despite the abundance of food in this little hideout. “D-did Miss Apple Blossom send you?” he asked, and I noticed him looking me over while I nosed along the edges of the case, trying to find its latches. Eventually I’d found two, both with independent locks that I’d need to pick. What a pain.

I looked at his revolver and frowned, annoyed. “Put that thing away before you hurt somepony,” I said curtly. Seeing that I was not armed or moving to threaten him, he eventually did as I asked, and in return for his consideration I grabbed a box of Fancy Buck Snack Cakes from a nearby shelf and slid it over to him. “Anyway, yes, she did send me, but not for you. I expect you’re the pony that these War Bucks are making such a big fuss over? Y’got a name?”

“Sapphire Sparkle,” he answered while carefully opening the box and taking one of the cakes, as though they might explode on him. “No relation. Yes, I know it’s a filly name,” he said with a sigh, preemptively answering a pair of questions he probably was asked entirely too often. “And… yes, I’m the one. I… Oh sweet Celestia those guys are, like, so scary! When he took over the prison Frostwraith killed off everypony who didn’t agree to follow him, like really messily! So, I agreed. And then, the first chance I got, I ran. And then when I got here, Miss Apple Blossom stood up to those two ponies who’d chased me all this way like it was nothing, she even made ‘em leave just by talking to ‘em! And then she said I could hole up here for a while...”

“Yeah, she seems to think you’d left some time ago, though,” I said, slightly distracted as I tried to pick the first lock while listening to him.

“I was gonna,” he said, now munching hungrily on the cakes I’d given him. Despite being here among these stores of food, it seemed like he had not eaten for some time. “But it seemed like every time I’d try to leave the War Bucks would have some team out here looking for me, trying to harass the town. I… I got scared. I hid here, didn’t know what else to do.”

Curiosity got the better of me as the first lock popped open, and I looked at him. “So ah… you don’t really seem like you fit in with a crowd of violent jailbirds. What’d you do to get locked up with them?”

Sapphire looked intently at the floor and shakily admitted, “P...prostitution.” He looked up at me, abashed. “I… there’s a lot of ponies who want to… do stuff… with a girly-buck like me, you know? It’s good money. But it’s illegal in the NLR.” He sighed, “I got busted in a high-profile case involving a senator and his wife, and the judge decided I needed to be made an example of.”

I tilted my head, surprised by the admission. “Hey, I ain’t judgin’,” I said with a light shrug that seemed to reassure him. Looking at him again, beyond the disheveled appearance and malnutrition I could definitely start to see how ponies of both sexes would find him attractive. I started in on the second lock while I spoke again. “But, ah, speaking of example-making, it looks like Ol’ What’s-His-Name’s on his way up here to personally make an example of this town for defying him and helping you. And, you know, scary as that is, there’s a town fulla ponyfolk here who’re willing to fight him. Risk their necks both for each other’s sakes, and for yours. So… Y’know, if you’re askin’ me, I figure it’d be a little rude of you to not show up to the party. Seein’ as you’re the guest of honor and all.”

The second lock popped open and I lifted the lid of the case to reveal its contents. Oh, sweet Luna, be still my beating heart. Inside were what looked like a pair of pegasus wings, but made of a light substance I couldn’t identify with a matte black finish. Also inside were a brand new model of laser rifle and matched pistols, and a good supply of rubies to power them. “Is it my birthday?” I asked aloud, grinning at this little treasure trove.

I hadn’t noticed him move, but Sapphire Sparkle was suddenly standing next to me, looking into the case. I suppose curiosity had overcome his fear. “What is that?” he asked, pointing to the wings.

“Wingblades,” I answered as I pulled them from the case and fit them over my wings. As I spread and flexed them and gave a few test flaps I found them a perfect fit, so natural I might forget I had them on.

“Blades?” the buck asked, looking confused. “Where’s the knife part? They just look like armor to me.”

I grinned. “Oh? Check this out.” I trotted over to an empty safe that had been stored in the garage. I activated the blade parts, and the outer edges of my wings began to glow a soft blue. A single swipe at the safe divided it cleanly into two pieces, drawing a gasp from my audience.

I was never much for melee combat. I could shoot things from afar, move quickly and dodge reasonably well, but if things ever came to a direct hoof-to-hoof confrontation, I had already lost the fight. These blades were made for somepony like me, with a cutting surface that could compensate for their user’s lack of physical strength. More importantly, however, these served as armor to reinforce a pegasus’ most valuable and vulnerable asset - their wings.

I trotted back over to the case and picked up the rifle. Lighter, thinner and longer than the boxy design of most laser weapons, it had hoofgrips so that it could be fired while standing on one’s hindlegs the way zebras did - which made it perfect for firing from the air. It too was made of materials I was unfamiliar with, in a design that integrated a white shell with black machine parts underneath. Oh, but the features it had! A fire selector that switched between full auto, burst fire and concentrated single shot, and a recon scope that, while it’s view was only in greyscale, used infrared to highlight and mark targets. I bit my lip, thoughtfully. These weapons were special enough to need names. Sapphire reached out with a curious hoof to touch the rifle and gave another shocked gasp as it passed right through. I boggled. Butt material? Was that even possible? Still, it gave me the perfect name for the rifle.

I loaded a ruby into the rifle and kissed its side. “Phantasm,” I dubbed it, then slung its strap diagonally over my body, so that it could rest on my back. I kissed its two smaller brothers and said their names aloud. “Ghost and Specter.”

Sapphire was giving me a strange look as he watched. “Umm… what are you doing?” he asked, puzzled and seeming a bit concerned that I had spit my bit.

“Well, weapons this special need to be named, right?” I grinned, and winked at him as I added, “And a kiss from a pretty mare is supposed to be good luck.”

He smirked. “And not having one to hoof, you thought you’d do?” Ouch.

“So you do have some venom in you,” I said, with a wry chuckle.

“Here,” I offered, nudging my head toward the pistols. “See if your magic can pick those up.” He could and I smiled as he found he could wield both at the same time. I cleared my throat at him. “Now these are mine,” I said, overly clear and emphatic, “But I’m going to let you borrow them so that you can participate in the fight. Those should be nice and light for you, with no recoil to worry about.”

Sapphire Sparkle’s smile faded, and he slowly lowered the laser pistols back to the case. “I can’t,” he said, hanging his head. “I know I’m a buck, and even a con, but I… I just can’t.” He looked up at me with a pleading expression. “Please don’t make me do this,” he said, his eyes turning liquid. “I’m not a fighter. I never have been. I’m not strong like you or Cherry Bomb or Miss Apple.”

I laughed softly, trying to put him at ease. “Like me? Shit, you could probably take me in a hoof-fight.” He looked surprised. I sat on the floor and spoke more seriously. “I ain’t a fighter either. When all’s said and done, I’m just a mailpony. Thing is, none of these ponies are fighters. Well, except for Cherry, but she’s not here. But anyway, they’re farmers and doctors and bartenders and whatnot. But they’re all willing to fight. Not because they like it or because they’re good at it, but because… because they have to. They have to to protect this town and everything in it that they hold dear. To protect each other and the things that matter to them. Home. Family.” I felt my eyes misting, stinging slightly at those last two words. I wondered if I had ever had those things. Would I ever find them again if I had?

But this was not about me. The small blue unicorn was trembling as he sat there, silent. I reached out with a hoof and pulled him closer. “It’s not that we’re not scared. We all are. Honestly, there’s a good chance that some or even all of us might not walk away from this.” I looked him in the eye again. “But that chance increases the fewer ponies there are out there, backing each other up.” A saying came to me from nowhere, and I couldn’t recall where I’d heard it before. “The difference between a hero and a coward isn’t that the hero isn’t afraid; it’s that the hero doesn’t let his fear stop him from doing what’s right.”

Sapphire nodded slowly, and it seemed like he was beginning to understand. “These ponies are good folk,” I added. “They helped me when I needed them, even though they had no reason to and nothing to gain from it. Didn’t they do the same for you?”

“Y-yeah,” he admitted, looking down at the twin laser pistols resting there in their case.

I nodded. “So, they need us now. It’s our turn to help them.”

He looked up at me for a long moment and I watched him, hopeful. I watched the fear in his eyes slowly turning into resolve. Finally, he nodded, and picked up those guns again. “Okay,” he said in a whisper, then took a deep breath and said a little louder. “Okay. Let’s do this.”

With Sapphire’s help, I was able to carry all the supplies down in one trip. Apple Blossom had what I’d guessed was the entire population of the town in front of the saloon. It didn’t look good. I counted no more than a dozen adult stallions and mares apart from herself, Dr. Greensleeves and Xinnia, all looking nervous and skittish. There were maybe five colts and fillies running around underhoof that I didn’t want involved in the fighting if it could be helped.

“You’re late,” Apple Blossom said flatly as I joined the group. And then she noticed the pony helping me carry things and gasped. “Wha? You’re still here? I thought you said you were leaving. A couple of weeks ago, in fact.”

“I was,” Sapphire said sheepishly, “but... stuff happened. So now I’m here to help.”

Apple Blossom nodded to him. “Well, don’t you go thinkin’ we don’t appreciate it.” One or two ponies among the crowd were glaring at the unicorn though in silent recrimination. Apple Blossom looked to me and asked, “So what’s the plan?”

Plan? Me? I was suddenly caught with nothing to offer. Why were these ponies looking to me for guidance? “Um, shoot them until they either leave or don’t get up anymore?” I said dumbly.

Fortunately, Sapphire was there to provide a distraction and give me time to formulate something. He’d moved to the head of the crowd with Apple Blossom and got everyone’s attention by clearing his throat. “E-excuse me, everypony, I’d just like to say something.” The random chatter died down as the small crowd turned to face him.

He took a deep breath, and started. “I just wanted to tell you all how much I appreciate your helping me try to get away from the War Bucks, and protecting me from them as you have. I truly didn’t mean for any of this to happen or to bring you so much trouble. I’m gonna do what I can to make this right with you all. And… I hope that whatever happens here today, you don’t stop helping ponies who come to this town in desperate situations…” He trailed off, becoming much more self-conscious suddenly. “Um, that… that’s all I’ve got. T-thank you.”

He slipped back over to me, seeming relieved as the townsponies were no longer giving him such hard stares. “All right, everypony, I’ve got a plan,” I spoke up.

Half an hour later, things were as ready as they were going to be. We’d established a defensive line on the highway about 30m out from the Saloon’s porch and mines were laid out along the road and surrounding area in a U shape. That line I’d chosen based on a stallion’s average throwing distance, angle and trajectory, to keep us out of range of the War Bucks’ most powerful weapon - their dynamite. I felt confident in that estimate, even though I had no idea how I knew that or where I’d learned about such things.

I stood on the roof of the Saloon, amid a line of townsponies with longrifles that were gathered along the roofs of the General Store, the Saloon, and the other buildings that lined this part of the road. Inside the Saloon, the Doc had set up an emergency hospital, having recruited the younger ponies into being his assistants - they’d wanted to help too, and this both gave them something to do and, I hoped, kept them out of harm’s way. Xinnia stood by, wearing a zebra stealth cloak, ready to nab anypony who fell in the street and pull them to the Saloon for treatment. Finally, the ponies who felt more confident with smaller arms and shotguns were lurking between the buildings, ready to harass any of the Bucks who tried to use the alleyways for cover and push them back into the main street. I didn’t know where Blossom or Sapphire had gotten to, but I felt sure they were probably among those ponies on the ground.

A large lime green pegasus stallion I knew as Little Maverick - an odd name for a pony as big as he was - stood next to me wearing the battle saddle where we’d mounted the minigun. His hooves were shifting nervously as he watched the line. “I dunno about this, Miss Six,” he said without turning his head away from the spot he was watching. “If I’m flyin’ high and fast enough to keep from getting shot, I dunno if I’m gonna be able to hit much of anything.”

I screamed internally. Midnight Shadow. Why was it so hard? But I kept that to myself and just patted his shoulder reassuringly. “Don’t worry about it,” I said. “It doesn’t matter if you actually hit anything. You just have to get close enough to scare ‘em; keep ‘em from crossing that line and maybe herd them back into the mines.”

He nodded, and I returned to watching the horizon through Phantasm’s scope. All there was to do now was wait. Wait to see if this gamble would pay off. Wait to see if my plan would win the day or if I had condemned everypony here to die.

Nopony spoke. The silence was like a dull roar in my ears, broken only by the occasional breeze or slight creak of wood. It contributed to a tension I felt building like a taut wire wrapped around my neck, pulling more as the seconds went on, threatening to strangle me. Doubt crept in from the shadows of my mind. I should have told them to run. Just abandon the town and run. These ponies were all going to die and it was going to be my fault. They’d trusted me and I was leading them to the slaughter. I was everything those traders believed I was. Child of darkness. Bringer of misfortune and sorrow.

I had to try to calm myself somehow. Immediately my mind went there, and I slapped it hard. No. No Med-X. I needed my clarity and focus undiluted by chems. I popped an extra Fixer just to counter those thoughts, and closed my eyes for a moment, trying to center myself and focus just on my breathing. Slow, deep breaths.

Soon, that moment of anxiety passed and I opened my eyes again. I still wasn’t exactly relaxed, but I was at least better enough to be functional. I sighted down the scope one more time and saw the growing clout of dust raised by the stampeding herd. Immediately the recon scope’s functions kicked in and started tagging the incoming Bucks with a little red diamond above each of their heads. I couldn’t tell how many they were yet, as they were still distant enough that the markers looked like a single red blob.

“Incoming!” I called out, and heard the shout echoed several times through the gathered ponies, followed by random shufflings of hooves as those who’d gotten bored with waiting quickly dashed back to their designated positions. Little Maverick flapped his wings, ready to take off. “Wait for it,” i said to him, still watching through Phantasm’s scope.

The herd of War Bucks had drawn close enough that I could start to count the individual tags that the recon scope showed me. I was disappointed to find that my dynamite attack had not thinned them out as much as I’d hoped - I was still counting between 25 and 30 attackers closing in. Frostwraith still stood on his chariot in the center of the herd, the big albino unicorn being pulled along by his two subordinates. I did notice that many of the Bucks in the rear guard were hastily bandaged and limping along, driven on, I guessed, by the religious fervor that Wraith’s control spell instilled.

The herd drove right into our minefield, exactly as planned. War Bucks were collapsing into each other as they couldn’t stop themselves in time, tripping and rolling over the corpses of their comrades and into more explosives. Some reared up to bolt as they watched their comrades torn apart. Some tried to divert to the sides, only to meet their end amid more mines. The trap was sprung.

“Now!” I called out to Maverick, and zoomed the scope in as far as I could on the gang leader. Using SATS, I lined up a pair of Phantasm’s power shots on his head - which was all the actions the spell could handle.

I fired. The first shot went wide, but struck one of the Bucks to Wraith’s side, the flash of red engulfing his body and turning him to ash to be scattered by the breeze. The second deflected off his horn. It wasn’t what I’d hoped for, but it was enough to break his concentration as he flinched back. The War Bucks scattered in all directions as panic overtook them in the absence of Frostwraith’s control. A cacophony of gunfire sounded from around me and below. Maverick was cutting graceful loops through the air and strafing the ground with his minigun. Shouts, yelling, screams, explosions. The symphony of war played in all its horrifying glory.

Everything slowed to a crawl as Frostwraith’s glare met my eyes once more. I let go of Phantasm and stumbled back, gasping for breath as I felt his presence like the grip of an icy hand around my heart, threatening to crush it in my chest. I scrambled, flapping my wings and trying to take off, but the death-white unicorn teleported in behind me. He was reaching out for me with his magic and I only barely managed to slip away and drop onto the alleyway between the Saloon and the General Store.

I had another little moment of panic as he flashed into existence at the end of that alleyway, firing a pair of ornately gilded revolvers at me. There was no room to dodge in this narrow space, but I managed to shield myself with a wing as those large caliber bullets thumped and ricocheted off the little armor plates.

I laughed as those bullets bounced uselessly off my shielded wing. “Enclave tech, bitch!” I called out to him, taunting. But I had a problem. In this narrow space, there was practically nowhere to dodge to. I couldn’t ascend while using my wing as a shield, and he could easily overwhelm me with either his magic or simple brute force.

But, he seemed intent on emptying those revolvers first. The moment I counted 12 shots, I turned and dashed down the alley as fast as my legs would move. He tried to teleport himself in front of me but I was airborne before he had a chance to do anything. Once again his magic reached out, but in the air, I was far too fast for him.

I needed to keep his attention focused on me, though. I shuddered to think of the damage a unicorn with his abilities could do here. I spun around with Phantasm in auto-fire mode and sprayed him with fiery red bolts. All of them glanced off his shield, though the barrage succeeded in keeping his focus where it needed to be.

I took a moment to watch the fighting below but couldn’t properly tell what was going on. It looked promising, though. Maverick swooshed by, grinning at me. He paused for a quick hoofbump before getting back to his job of harassing the War Bucks as they tried to advance.

And then I felt the hot sting of a magical beam grazing my rump. Quickly I wheeled around to find its source and saw my own mirror image, grinning malevolently at me. She was oppositely colored, with a white coat, yellow mane and violet eyes, but she had my face, my mane-style, even the scar on her forehead was the same. To make matters worse, she had an exact replica of Phantasm.

She had my speed too. I had barely enough space to dodge another volley of green bolts from her and tried to dive away. I rolled and tried to return fire but where my version of Phantasm had to have its heatsink ‘clip’ changed out every 8 shots or so, hers didn’t seem to have that problem and I couldn’t do more than fire wildly while dodging the constant barrage.

Shit. I’d underestimated him. I’d never thought the brute was capable of such complex magic. Hell, I’d never imagined that a spell like this was even possible. But then, I was not a unicorn. I dove, trying to take cover between the ruined and abandoned buildings of what had once been Sweetsprings’ industrial sector. I ducked and rolled through some of the wrecked and fallen girders. My copy had no trouble pursuing, but the break in her barrage offered me the chance to line up a pair of SATS-assisted headshots.

The first shot struck right between her eyes, and I got to watch in slow-motion as the white pegasus’ body took on a bright red glow as it burned away completely, leaving only ashes to be scattered on the wind.

And then my satisfaction turned to horror as I watched those ashes swirl and gather themselves together again, once again forming the image of my smirking replica. I had to dive through one of the factory windows to avoid the spray of green beams that lanced out from her copy of my rifle.

She flew out after me and the chase was on again. I weaved low along the ground, taking what cover I could behind houses and between the scant buildings of the small town, but every time I thought I might catch a break there was another shower of green beams making me have to dodge and turn again. I was starting to get winded, needing some kind of break, when I realized in horror that I was back in that narrow alley between the saloon and general store. My double had been herding me, guiding me back here.

I flew directly up, and came to a sudden halt as the grasp of Frostwraith’s magic finally caught me, taking a tight hold around my neck. I pumped my wings, flailed my legs, even desperately wiggled my tail - anything to try and break out of that ethereal grip, but no matter what I did his hold grew stronger on me, crushing my throat, making me gasp for breath that wouldn’t come.

This was bad. Even if I dared to pull anypony away from their battle positions to help me, there was no way I could call for them now. His magic lifted me up and slammed me down hard against the edge of the roof. And then a few more times for good measure.

The first hit simply dazed me. The subsequent ones each brought their own unique forms of agony as I felt things snap and break inside me. Various alerts flashed in the corner of my EFS, warning me of injuries I was already keenly aware I had. He put me down again on the roof and I rolled over, still trying to push myself away with hooves that no longer moved as I wanted them to. Frostwraith approached me, his telekinetic hand still squeezing around my throat, threatening to crush my windpipe completely. I tried to raise Phantasm again and found that I couldn’t. I tried to pull Lily out and she dropped to the roof beneath me, my magic fingers’ grasp too weak to hold her. I saw the hatred in his eyes, as he drew inexorably nearer, and I felt my body weaken further with every moment of restricted air flow.

Well shit. I hadn’t even lasted a week and I’d already been handed off from one would-be murderer to another who was going to surely finish the job this time.

His face neared mine, his growl of a voice low and calm as he spoke, which made it even more frightening. “You think that you, a mere mare, can defy Us without consequence?” His hoof stroked my face and I tried to pull my head away from it, even though his magic was holding my head firmly. “It seems We must teach you your place. You look like you’d make a good breeder.”

Oh shit. Somehow this proposition frightened me more than just dying at the moment. He was already trying to position himself between my hindlegs. Goddesses, couldn’t he even wait until the battle was over? I squirmed and tried to buck him but he barely seemed to notice my kicks. I couldn’t even raise my wingblades with the way he had me pinned. Oh sweet Celestia why did it always come to this? Why couldn’t he just kill me and be done with it?

And then I heard a voice that sounded like the sweetest of angels. “Get away from her, you bastard!” Sapphire Sparkle called out with more venom in his voice than I’d ever thought the little buck had in him. A mouse had suddenly roared.

Ghost needed fire only once. Instantly I felt the relief of Wraith’s grip on my neck slackening, as those red eyes went wide in shock, then start to glow along with the rest of him. Time slowed once more as though I’d activated SATS, and I watched the giant white stallion’s body burn into a trail of ash that was carried away along with the wind. For a moment his voice was inside my head, and I heard his unfiltered low tone, warning me.

“I’ll be back.”

I collapsed against the raised lip of the roof, panting, just happy I could breathe again. It hurt to do so, and I could feel the grinding of at least one broken rib in there as I did, but I pulled in all the air I could. The air smelled like war. That peculiar mixture of gun smoke and blood, with dashes of ozone for good measure. Somehow the smell seemed familiar, and I hesitated to think of where I might have known it from.

Sapphire rushed to me, concern showing on his cute face. “Did he hurt you?” he asked, and I thought that was a peculiar way of putting things.

“Yeah,” I answered, pulling Sapphire to me with my wings since I couldn’t move my forelegs properly. I hugged him for a long moment, and whispered my voice quavering. “He did. But I’m okay now.” I gazed into those soft steel grey eyes, my own butting up as I said simply, “Thank you. I owe you one.”

The cobalt blue unicorn didn’t move, just letting himself relax with me, his cheek pressed against my chest. “You’re totally not okay,” he grumbled. “I can hear at least one broken rib in here, plus you’ve probably got-” I cut him off by touching a wingtip to his lips. “It’ll be okay,” I murmured. “Just give me a couple of healing potions.” As the adrenaline started to wear off, things were beginning to actually hurt. Like, a lot. “And a Med-X.” Hey, I deserved that much of a treat, I thought.

As Sapphire fished around in my saddlebags for the healing items, I sat up a little more. The concerto of gunfire was beginning to die down to sporadic shots. “So, how’s it going down there,” I asked.

He looked to me with a smile, and injected me with a healing potion. Immediately I could feel its tingle inside me, knitting bones, restoring flesh. Working even better as he jabbed me with the second. “Pretty damn good, all things considered,” Sapphire answered. “Lot of the Bucks were taken out by the mines, either killed or incapacitated. We lost Old Withers, had a few wounded but they’ll recover.”

He took a moment to peek over the edge of the roof, then returned with a quite pleased look on his face. “Looks like a lot of whoever was left are starting to run now that Wraith’s gone. The ones who’re still insistent on fighting aren’t doing a very good job without his mental guidance.”

I gave a giddy little smile as the Med-X started to affect my brain’s processing power while at the same time replacing my pain with incredible pleasure. “So, we won?”

Sapphire looked at me. His smile had a genuine warmth to it that I had not seen on the buck before. “Yeah, It’s starting to look that way.”

I heaved a huge, relieved sigh, and let myself pass out.

Chapter 5: Here Comes the Pain

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I awoke to the sound of cheers and celebration in the Sweetsprings Saloon. I looked around and saw that there were a few of the townsponies resting in cots like mine, bandaged, but looking happy. Further on in the room, I noticed that some of the resting ponies had been hoofcuffed to their cots. I tried to sit up and get a better look, but felt the gentle hoof of Dr. Greensleeves on my chest, nudging me back down. “Whoah there,” he said, “Just take it easy now. You’ve got some internal injuries I’m not quite done treating. I was hoping you’d be out a little longer.”

I saw the familiar blue-green glow of his magic at my side, and felt poking and nudging in places I really had never felt before, inside, and decided I really didn’t need to know more than that. I could only wonder why it didn’t hurt. I shrugged, laid back again and waited for him to finish like a good little patient.

It wasn’t long before he patted my side and I had a look and saw the stitched area scabbing over and turning into a thin scar. “All done,” the doc said. “Don’t go getting yourself slammed around by any more overpowered unicorns and you should be fine.”

I smirked. “I’ll see what I can do about that, Doc. No promises.”

Dr. Greensleeves looked as though he wanted to say something more serious, but he was interrupted by Apple Blossom calling out as she saw me sitting up. “Our General awakens!” This brought about another round of hoofstomping and cheers of “General Six!” I grumbled, even though I felt like I was being ungrateful for their adulation. I hadn’t even really done anything in the battle except get my flank handed to me by some magical monstrosity. Frostwraith. Some disturbed part of me was thinking about those words. He said he’d be back. How? There was nothing left of him now… generally ponies don’t recover from being dusted by magical beam weapons.

Blossom danced through the crowd toward me with a large frothy mug of apple cider that she thrust into my hooves. I took a sip, and smiled as the taste, astringent from the alcohol but still sweet and deliciously appley, tickled my tongue.

I got to my hooves, feeling the incision the Doc had made in my side stitching itself back together under the influence of the last healing shot he’s given me, leaving nothing behind, no evidence that any trauma had happened except the memory. Wondering where Sapphire had gotten off to, I started to look around, past the revelers, most of whom had joined in a sing-along of “Keep A’ Knockin’ (But You Can’t Come In)” that I couldn’t help but giggle at. Beyond them, though, I noticed a few bandaged ponies who’d been hoofcuffed and bound to their cots. “What’s their deal?” I asked, nodding toward them.

“P.O.W.s, basically,” Blossom replied. Greensleeves nodded along. “Survivors who surrendered to us. We’ve treated their wounds, but we aren’t really sure what to do with them.”

Apple Blossom chimed in again, “I say we give them a few days’ worth of food and water and send them on their way. But some of these folk believe that if we do that, they’ll just turn around and attack us again. Or go join up with their gang and bring another war party this way.”

The doctor nodded. “But, if we just kill them, I expect that’d just make us murderers too. I mean, killing a pony in a fight where he’s threatening your life is one thing, but to just kill them now when they’re down and defenseless… Just don’t seem right.”

I nodded a little, and then Blossom chimed in, “That’s why we want you to cast the deciding vote. I mean, being war prisoners, what’s done with them is your call anyway, right, General?”

I hadn’t liked being called Six, but having this title of General put on my head, even jokingly, really wasn’t sitting right. I balked. “You can’t be serious. Me? I don’t even live here…”

Apple Blossom grinned even wider. “About that,” she said, hoofing me a parchment scroll, as well as a small purse that my Pip-Buck registered as containing 200 caps. “Technically, ya do.” I unrolled it, temporarily ignoring the set of keys that slid from it and onto the floor with a quiet jingle, and read in a low voice, “Title deed and property…what?!”

The bar matron and mayor (part-time) of Sweetsprings patted my shoulder. “We don’t have enough in the treasury to pay you anything near what I’d call making this worth your time, so I was hoping you’d accept this instead. It’s a nice old house on the hill below the gas station, there’s a beautiful view of the town from there, sits on a good half-acre of land with a nice big garden area, most of the fundamental repairs have already been done but you’ll probably want to redecorate.”

Flabbergasted, I fumbled for words. “Ah… you’re… what? You’re… giving me a house?”

Apple Blossom continued with a nod. “Now I know you’ll be out of town for a while, what with your business in New Pegas and all, so I’ve arranged for somepony to clean and take care of the grounds for you, no cost to you of course. But I want you to know that whatever else may happen to you down the road, you’ll always have a home here in Sweetsprings.”

Home. There was that word again. One of those words that immediately stung deep in my chest and made the tears well in my eyes. I wanted to go home. I wanted it so much it hurt, even though I didn’t know where it was. My real home, with my parents and my family and my fillyhood friends. I wanted my mother to hug me and hold me and tell me everything would be okay. Had I even had such ponies in my life? I must have, everypony did… But I couldn’t remember any of them. I tried to remember, tried with all my might just to recall one single face.

But there was nothing.

Emptiness.

Loneliness.

In the midst of this celebration, I felt more alone than I ever had in the entire week of my new life.

The feeling of Apple Blossom’s forelegs around me drew me back toward reality. Doctor Greensleeves had moved in closer too, and I saw the concerned looks on their faces. I hadn’t even realized I’d been crying, but now I felt the wetness on my cheeks and the stuffiness in my nose.

“Are you okay, sugarcube?” Blossom gently asked.

“Y-yeah, sure,” I lied. I wasn’t okay. If okay was a spot on a map somewhere I was at the point it was furthest from. “I just… need some air,” I added, and Apple Blossom backed off a little, glancing toward the doctor. For his part, Greensleeves was just watching me. I knew that for as much as he cared, and as much as he wanted to, he couldn’t understand. Nopony could. I paused to pick up the scroll and keys and put them in my bag. “Thanks for this,” I said, “And… my vote’s with Apple Blossom.” I then trotted out the door, quickly closing it behind me.

I sat on the porch and just sighed. Next to me was Old Withers’ rocking chair, now looking so forlorn without him in it. Left alone with my thoughts, I reflected on those stats I saw in my Pip-Buck. I was lucky, I’d realized. These ponies had healed me, helped me, accepted me, and now they were treating me like one of their own, even though we’d met only half a week before. So why did the thought of it make me feel so miserably lonely?

In the middle of the sandy dirt road, some ponies had built a large bonfire, and its flames were now roaring and licking up to the sky. It added a touch of light and warmth to the cool moonless night. I would have even called it festive, if not for the bucks standing around it. They were watching the fire, tending it, and then every so often, they’d heft the corpse of one of the War Bucks between two of them, and heave it into the flames which crackled as the fire hungrily consumed it. The breeze was blowing most of the smoke away, but still the heavy scents of burning hair and roasting meat clung to the air, making me slightly nauseous.

Among the ponies working, I spotted both Little Maverick and Sapphire Sparkle, as between the pair of them they tossed another body from the pile onto the fire. Sapphire had stuck Ghost and Specter to his flanks with packing tape in lieu of holsters, and I winced a little, imagining how much it was going to hurt to take them off later. But I realized I needed this distraction. So, ignoring the scent, I made my way over to them.

“Hey, Midnight,” Sapphire said as he saw me approach, which drew a confused look from the green pegasus.

“Hey,” I said gently, my voice still a bit shaky. “How come y’all aren’t, y’know… partyin’? I mean, this victory’s as much yours as it is mine.”

Sapphire wrinkled his little nose, which seemed so adorable. “Eh, it smells like a hospital in there.” That reasoning seemed just a little odd given what I would assess as a much worse smell out here. “Also, I never was much of a drinker,” he added.

Maverick nodded, chiming in, “Myself neither. And… well, somepony’s gotta clean this up.”

I nodded, then looked to the little blue unicorn, waiting for him and Maverick to finish tossing another bundle on the fire. I tipped my head, curious, “So, any thoughts on where you’ll be headed now that this business is all settled?”

He gave a little shake of his head and sighed. “I spent too much time in that garage being too scared to know what to do. Now… now I feel like I can breathe enough to think about that. But I need some time… and I can’t exactly go back to living in Apple Blossom’s storage closet now.”

I couldn’t help but smile, having just been handed the perfect solution. “Well, it just so happens that yours truly is now the proud owner of a home right here in Sweetsprings,” I said, tapping a hoof to my chest, “and might be generous enough to lend some living space to a new friend.”

Sapphire Sparkle’s jaw hung open for a moment. I couldn’t tell which part he was more surprised by. Finally, he asked, “You… you sure? I mean we just met this morning. And, you know, I am still a jailbird.”

“Eh,” I shrugged flippantly. “If the Marshals come by, just tell them you’re not home.” I was grinning now, enjoying the shocked look on Sapphire’s face. Maverick, too, was looking at me like I was crazy. I tossed a key to the little blue unicorn and turned, still looking at him over my shoulder. “You should grab yourself something more nutritious to eat from the garage too. And I think there’s some proper holsters for those in that case we left there. In fact, grab the case for me too, would ya?”

Talking to Sapphire had been a great boost for my mood. Walking back to the Saloon, I realized just how well things had gone today. I’d found a couple of great weapons, made some new friends, become a local hero, and found myself a home. It wasn’t the home I’d wanted; not the one I was looking for, but it was a home. A place to belong. A place to keep my stuff. And maybe even a friend or two. That was a pretty good start, I reckoned.

The only thing I hadn’t managed to accomplish today was making it back to the caravan before sundown. But there was nothing I could do about that now. Being a new moon night it was too dark to fly safely, and even if I could I’d never find the hidden caravan by starlight alone. And walking would take far longer than it’d be worth. Cherry Bomb would understand, I was sure, if I kept her waiting just a little longer. In the interest of safety, of course. It certainly had nothing at all to do with the half a mug of cider I had left waiting for me in the Saloon, with the promise of more to come. I walked into the Saloon again to the sound of more cheers and let myself be fully swept up in the revelry.

Morning came all too quickly with the uncomfortable feeling of sunlight streaming into my eyes. I shielded them with a hoof as I opened them and blinked. My mouth was dry, my body stiff and sore as I slowly rose from where I’d been sleeping and took a look at the surroundings. It seemed that I, as many of the partygoers from last night, had been allowed to pass out on the floor of the saloon. Or, in my case, half on the floor, and half on the cot I’d been treated on the previous evening.

Apple Blossom trotted over to me to help me up, and then hoofed me a glass full of something that looked just awful and smelled even worse. It was goopy and mostly grey but also had bits of things of all kinds of colors swirled into it. A raw egg floated on top as the frosting on this cupcake of antideliciousness.

“Ugh, what the hell is this? I asked, feeling the non-contents of my empty stomach threatening to come up anyway just from looking at this.

“Granny Gala’s World Famous Patented Hangover Cure!” Apple Blossom announced in a voice whose tone and timbre made my head throb. And she was smiling the most punchable smile I’d ever seen on a pony. Clearly she was enjoying tormenting me here. And how had she escaped this, anyway? I knew she’d had as much or more to drink as the rest of us! I winced, and then made the mistake of looking at the sludge in my glass again. I tasted bile as my stomach tried to preemptively reject the drink. Blossom looked at me pointedly. “Now I don’t wanna hear no fussin’. Don’t ask what’s in it, just slug it on back.” She grinned a touch, adding, “It’s better if you just swallow it all in one gulp, but if you’re looking for an experience you’ll never forget, try chewing it.” She winked and trotted off, leaving me alone with my punishment. I was certain that’s what it was. In my drunkenness I had clearly said or done something that offended her greatly and this was her method of exacting her vengeance. Well, no sense delaying it any longer. Bottoms up!

Oh, dear Luna. I now know the pain of your thousand-year exile, having experienced it all in a single drink. Despite my best efforts I could not avoid tasting it. And the taste was infinitely worse than the look and smell combined. It was like drinking a paste of ground glass, chili powder, battery acid and soap, with lighter fluid as a binder. And just so one didn’t forget this was a wasteland drink, it included the distinctly foul rancid orange taste of Rad-Away as well. The egg was just there to serve as a lubricant, I was sure. But even after I was done swallowing it didn’t go away, leaving me with its lingering aftertaste of bubblegum, bacon and camphor oil, with just a classy hint of lemon zest.

My body was absolutely certain that the idiot piloting it had just tried to poison herself, and reacted accordingly. Yet no matter how violently my esophagus tried to eject the offending material, it just sank right down into my stomach and sat there, leaving me feeling as though I’d just swallowed a brick. I sat there for a long moment just trying to lick what I could swear were grains of sand out from between my teeth, and then noticed Apple Blossom was going around to everyone and feeding them the same thing. And getting about the same reaction I’d had to it, which just made her grin even more and bounce along on her hooves. I just had to smile as well. It was pretty funny when it was happening to somepony else.

After ten minutes or so, once my stomach stopped trying to expel the nastiness I’d swallowed and just accepted its fate, I had to admit that I was feeling pretty good. Still, I vastly preferred Cherry Bomb’s much simpler formula. Slightly minty coffee was so much better than… whatever the hell that was. And I still felt like it’d be a long time before I could eat or drink anything.

Seeing no point in delaying any longer, I said my goodbyes to my new friends and neighbors, trading hugs with a few and hoofbumping others before I grabbed my bags, slung Phantasm over my shoulder, and headed out the door of the Saloon. Taking a deep breath of the still somewhat cool morning air, I spread my wings and took flight, following the path of the northern highway.

Something wasn’t feeling right, though. I felt heavy, like I was dragging something. I shifted and wiggled, trying to identify the source of the disturbance, and finally looked underneath myself to find a terrified cobalt blue form clinging desperately to my tail.

I landed gently on the pavement and turned, nosing at my little passenger. Sapphire Sparkle immediately jumped to his hooves, quickly smoothed his mane and took a deep breath, then cleared his throat as he looked to me, trying to pretend that that hadn’t just happened.

“What are you doing,” I asked, amused and just a touch puzzled by his actions.

“Coming with you,” he replied as though it was the most obvious thing in the world. I suppose that in a sense, it was. Sapphire then looked up at me with an admonishing frown “But I have to ask, were you really about to leave without saying goodbye? Talk about rude!”

I sheepishly rubbed the back of my head with a hoof, giving an uncomfortable smile. He had a point there. Lamely, I fumbled for some excuse. “I uh… figured I’d be back before you had a chance to miss me?”

Sapphire wasn’t buying it. He sat on his haunches and crossed his forelegs over his chest, pointedly looking away from me. “Well, if this is the kind of friend you are, maybe I shouldn’t come with you.”

Ugh. He was right, yes, but he was also laying on the guilt trip a little thick. But in my present state, I couldn’t fight it. I sank to the ground with a regretful moan, covering my face with my hooves. “I’m sorry, Sapphire, really.”

He strutted around me, his nose still in the air, and then suddenly I felt him hop onto my back. With his hooves snugged around my body, the little unicorn leaned forward, and touched my cheek with a little kiss that made me blush good and hot. “Apology accepted,” he said in a sweet little murr. “Now let’s go.”

Small and light as he was, I found I could carry Sapphire without much difficulty once he was properly positioned. We were in the air and and well underway again before I even realized how cleverly he’d dodged the question of whether I’d let him accompany me. Whether I’d even wanted him to. Pretty slick, I had to admit. But in truth, I was happy he’d wanted to come. Of all the things I presently was lacking in my life, a friend was the thing I’d needed most.

As the road wheeled way underneath us, I turned my head back and saw him there, all smiles as he surveyed the landscape from a perspective that was entirely new to him, even though I felt the nervous shivers in his legs as he clung tightly to me.

“So, just out of curiosity, what made you decide to come with me, anyway?” I asked, having to raise my voice a bit to be heard over the rushing wind. “I mean, you don’t even know where we’re headed, right?”

He replied with a casual little shrug, or as much of one as he could make in that position. “Dunno, honestly,” he replied. “Just... felt something. Something inside me that said, “Follow that pony. She needs you.” Can’t say that’s ever happened before, being needed.” He gave a chuckle, but I felt the sadness behind it as he added, “Usually ponies either just want a fuck or want me to fuck off.”

His pain stung me as though it were my own. I wanted to hug him just then, but I couldn’t. I sighed, and settled for words, speaking as gently as I could in the wind. “Well, I’m glad you’re here.”

Sapphire grinned slightly in response. “Me too,” he said with a touch of mischief. “This is the only way to travel.” Raising himself up just a little on my back, I saw him point a hoof out toward the horizon, attempting a heroic pose. “Now onward, my epic mount!”

I snorted. “I’ll show you an epic mount!!” I said in a mirthful tone, and then pushed my wings hard, giving us an extra burst of speed that made the little unicorn yelp and cling tight against my back once more.

Our laughter died quickly as we came close enough to see the grouping of rocks where I’d left the caravan. Black smoke was rising from the center of that grouping, more than any campfire should make. My eyes widened as I recognized the smell of burned flesh that came with the smoke. It was the same smell as last night, with the pyre. We circled over the camp once, Sapphire was silent and still as I whispered under my breath. “No… No, no, no…”

We landed in the center of a blasted landscape, the rocky sand stained black with soot. Everything had been torn apart, the entire campsite laid waste. The wagon had been overturned, its contents spilled randomly across the landscape, its pack brahmin messily slaughtered. Sapphire Sparkle leapt from my back as I began to desperately search the ruin of the camp for any sign of life. But it was all around me. The burned and skeletal remains of ponies. Of one with a tiny set of bones nestled to its belly. I looked away immediately but the image was already there, burned into my mind, indelible and unavoidable.

The cobalt blue unicorn stood there in the center of it all, silent and solemn, his face a tight mask of grief as he tried not to break down like I was beginning to. “I’ve seen this before,” he murmured. I looked at him questioningly, my eyes full of tears and stinging smoke. “This is Wraith’s work. Just like in the prison.” He shook his head sadly. “Just like then. Midnight, I’m so sorry.”

“How?!” I asked incredulously, desperately. “He’s dead! I saw him die!”

Sapphire just gave me the saddest look. “This is why those who follow him call him The Immortal.” He shook his head again. “You can’t kill him. And believe me lots have tried. I’ve seen ‘em try. The moment you think he’s gone; the moment you think you’re safe - there he is again, with a knife in your belly or his magic around your throat.”

I stumbled back in blind horror, and tripped over a mangled mound of flesh that had once been a pony named Cherry Bomb, now recognizable only by the tatters of a leather jacket and a pair of exploding cherries on her flank. A pony whom I’d thought of as a friend. The first one I’d had in this new life. And now she was gone. The realization of it weighed on me, pushing me to my knees, grinding me into the blackened dirt.

“I did this,” I whimpered, dazed, collapsing under the weight of my guilt. “I should have been here… I was supposed to protect them!” It was true. I had been hired as a caravan guard. Guard the caravan. That was my one job. And I’d abandoned it to go play hero in Sweetsprings. Left these ponies to die while I drank and sang stupid songs after the battle there.

Sapphire’s hooves were on my shoulders, his eyes trying to catch mine even as I shied away from his gaze. “No, no, no,” he admonished. “Do not go down this road, Midnight.” He pushed his nose right up to mine so that I couldn’t avoid those steel grey eyes of his. “This was Frostwraith. Him alone. Not you, not me, not anypony else.”

I protested weakly but he shook his head. “You know what he did to you during the battle in Sweetsprings. If you’d been here when he showed up, you’dve just been killed right along with them. Instead you were there where you were needed more. There’s a whole town full of ponies who still have their homes and their families and their lives because of you. So do not go drowning yourself in guilt over this. I won’t let you.”

I whimpered, too full of grief and pain to argue at this point. In my head, I knew he was right. I’d had no reason to think the War Bucks even knew about the caravan, or that Cherry couldn’t handle anything that happened while I was gone. But in my heart, what he said was just worthless platitudes intended to make me feel better. And I didn’t deserve to feel better. I’d had my victory, and Cherry and the trader couple and their unborn foal had borne the cost. They’d been right about me after all. I’d doomed them just as surely as they knew I would.

I wanted to fly just then. Leave Sapphire there, tell him he would be safer getting as far away from me as he could. But I couldn’t. Selfish as it might have been, the pain of being alone outweighed my fear for the little unicorn’s safety and well-being.

Sapphire nudged me again, seeing that my mind was starting to wander toward that dark place again. “You know why he did this, don’t you?” the unicorn asked, one of his hooves stroking my cheek. I shook my head. “To hurt you,” he explained. “Because he knows that you’re exactly the type to blame yourself, and beat yourself up over this until the cows come home. Because he knows you care. Because you’re a good pony.” He shook me gently as he said in a firmer tone, “Don’t. Let. Him. Win.”

The little unicorn hugged me then, and quietly slid up onto my back once more. “We should go,” he said. “It’ll be dark soon. We need to find a place to rest.” Looking around at the destruction, he added, “Away from here. This… isn’t good for either of us.”

That woke me up a bit. As concerned as I had been with the blood of these travelers staining my own hooves, I hadn’t even stopped to think how my friend must have been feeling. He had mentioned seeing this kind of thing before. I imagined probably quite a bit, likely up close and as it happened, given Frostwraith’s nature. In all likelihood, he’d been threatened with it himself on numerous occasions. I remembered a recurring line from the tales of my personal heroine. “It’s not always about you, Blackjack.”

With the sun already starting to sink past the horizon, I took to the air and flew in a randomly-chosen direction. One was as good as any just now. We flew in silence for a time, not paying attention to what was below us. In the air, everything below felt so small and insignificant. Sapphire was resting his head against the back of my neck, and I felt him shaking, twitching against me. Perhaps weeping in my place because I could not. Perhaps taking the moment to let down his brave facade when he thought I couldn’t see. Letting himself be the scared, meek pony I’d met in that gas station garage.

I had shed no tears for my friend, poor Cherry Bomb. I’d known her all of two days, but we’d spent nearly half my life together. The part of life I could remember, at least. Amnesia puts strange perspectives on things like time and relationships. But scene of the camp’s ruin had been more than my heart could bear. The pain, sadness, guilt and shame had piled up on me at once, overwhelming my ability to feel and leaving me in empty numbness. All I could feel now was the miserable ache in my body starting to grow. The shakiness in my limbs. The burning in my wing, and the white-hot lance through my head.

I needed a shot of Med-X, perhaps more than I was willing to admit. But I couldn’t let my friend see me. Surely he’d suspect I was addicted too, just as Cherry had, and I was already too emotionally exhausted to go through trying to explain that I wasn’t. I just needed it sometimes, why couldn’t ponies understand?

I landed us on a flat, circular clearing that lay on top of a mesa, overlooking what looked like a few rows of tract houses, likely decayed and damaged to the point of being uninhabitable. I nudged Sapphire off my back and he stood there, looking around. There was nothing much to see atop the plateau we stood on, just a few boulders and some scrub brush growing in the sand.

“Huh? Why’re we stopping here?” the cobalt blue pony asked, while rubbing at his eye with a foreleg.

“Pee break,” I answered simply, and trotted off behind a grouping of rocks.

Once I was out of sight and taking care of the official business, I dug one of my trembling hooves into my bag for one of the precious injectors I’d managed to nab from the collection of things taken from the War Bucks’ bodies after the battle, opened the cover, and jabbed its needle tip into my flank.

I tensed a moment from the sting, and then breathed a long, relieved sigh as the chem did its work. The pain in my body was gone, and the heaviness had been lifted from my heart along with it, leaving only sweet pleasure in its place. Suddenly the world was bright and beautiful, and so was I. Nothing could hurt me while my chemical lover held me safe in his embrace.

I took a deep breath, and trotted out from behind my rock, to be joined by Sapphire Sparkle a moment later. I nudged him and asked, “Everything come out all right?” He groaned, obviously not in the mood for jokes.

Just then, I heard a chime sound from my Pip-Buck, a tone I hadn’t heard it make before. I lifted my foreleg to look at it and saw that the usual status display on the screen had changed to a simple, flashing message on a blank background: “ACCESS GRANTED”. I scrunched my face in confusion. “Access to what?” I muttered, and then watched as yellow safety railings started to pop up in a circle all around us. A klaxon started to sound, and the rumble and whirr of heavy machinery shook the ground beneath us.

Sapphire backed himself into my side, pressing close as he nervously glanced around. “Midnight? What’s going on? What did you do?”

I shrugged lightly, my little grin never fading. “I didn’t touch nuthin’.”

More machinery clicked into place, and our flooring started to lower itself into the ground, bit by bit. Metal walls started to rise higher and higher around us; within seconds they were too high to jump or climb and kept growing higher as the plate beneath us continued to descend, deeper and deeper into the earth.

Sapphire whimpered in fear, once again becoming the timid little pony he’d been when I first met him. I furled a protective wing around him, and that seemed to calm him, if only a little. “I don’t like this,” he said in a low, trembling voice. “We should go.”

“It’s only an elevator,” I chuckled, my excitement creeping into my voice. “I want to see where this goes.” An idea came to me then, a kind of compromise. “Look, how about you get up on my back again and I’ll carry you, so at the first sign of trouble I can zap us outta here quicker’n a jackrabbit on Dash.”

He looked up at me strangely before climbing up. “Are you okay, Midnight?” he asked in concern. “You seem… different.”

There was a flash of panic there for a moment. He’d caught me. He knew something was up. But I played it off with a soft nod. “Yeah, I’m fine.” I lied. I was better than fine. I was feeling fucking phenomenal just now, and there was about nothing was going to change that.

“Little sleepy,” I added, “I just needed to process some things, ‘m good now.” But that was the biggest lie of all. There was no processing going on. The chem had simply taken all the hurt and sadness and any other negative thing I was feeling, and stuffed them all into a little closet where I didn’t have to look at them. And just then, I was fine with that. My past was gone. The future was an unknown that might not even exist for me. All there was was the present. And in the present, I was doing great. Sapphire still seemed dubious but he said nothing more.

The elevator finally reached its destination, descending into a platform blocked by safety grating. I looked up a moment, and saw only darkness apart from a small circle of sky that was rapidly darkening and filling with stars. The cyan-painted safety grating opened, and what we saw was a simple underground chamber lit by hanging fluorescent lights. The platform was metal grating with cyan edges and yellow safety rails all around. There was a simple console here for summoning the elevator, and a bridge that crossed over the sandy floor of the cavern, a bit unnecessarily in my opinion. One or two electrical cables had been left dangling from the ceiling, out of reach from the bridge.

The bridge led to a sight that made us both gasp in unison. A huge, heavy steel door in the shape of a giant cogwheel was set into the far wall. In its center a number had been carved, and filled in with primary yellow paint: 113.

I approached in awe. I’d never seen the inside of a Stable before, at least for all I knew, and this promised to be an exciting, interesting experience. From my reading I knew that Stables were sometimes treasure troves of old tech, and occasionally oases where ponies tried to keep Equestria of the past alive. Most often, though, Stables were deathtraps where sick social experiments had been carried out upon the residents who by this time had either fled or perished, leaving the empty fortresses to be used as nests for raiders or worse things.

Sapphire seemed to know this too, as he fidgeted nervously on my back. Still entranced by the possibilities, curiosity pushed me forward. I reached out and touched my hoof to that giant door. Once again the klaxons sounded, accompanied by yellow warning lights that began to rotate at the four corners of the plate into which the door had been set. Heavy machinery came to life with whirrs and clanks, and a hiss of pressurized air being released as the door pulled itself back from my hoof. It slid back nearly half the length of a pony’s body, then was rolled off to the left side, leaving the cogwheel shaped entryway open.

My friend tried to pull me back with his hooves. “Whoah, whoah, whoah, that’s a Stable. Do you know what’s in there?”

I held out my wings, drawing the shape of a rainbow in the air before me with their tips. “Riches beyond the dreams of avarice,” I said in a tone full of promise and hope. “Lost technologies that can be used to better the lives of not just ourselves but all of ponykind. Or a little pocket of pony civilization that’s lived out of contact with the outside world for nearly 250 years!”

Sapphire’s response was short and skeptical. “Um, ok. Number 1: No. Number 2: The Steel Rangers already picked most of the Stables clean a long time ago. And 3: If that’s the case then they certainly won’t want us here, bringing in our filthy outsider influences. It’s far more likely that we’re going to find something nasty in there that wants to kill us. Or keep us alive and lay its eggs in our stomachs so that its larvae can feed on our still writhing bodies…”

I cringed and shuddered, feeling my skin crawling for a moment. Okay, body horror, not cool when I’m high. “Ugh, where do you come up with that stuff,” I asked, trotting more cautiously into the reception chamber. Inside, the grating was replaced with rubber mats that squished comfortably underhoof delineating a path that went along the blue tiled floor past some crates and into a hallway to one side with what looked like decontamination equipment. Left of that hallway, however was a door. I drew a little closer, and just as I was about to touch the button to its side, the door slid on its own.

The door rose quickly with its hydraulic hiss, and suddenly I was looking into a pair of mismatched eyes that held such fury as would cow Frostwraith himself. I really needed to start paying more attention to EFS. Sapphire and I gasped in surprise. The owner of those eyes did not. Instead, they reacted instantly, taking advantage of my bewildered moment to whirl around in a lilac-colored blur and buck me into next week with a pair of metal hooves. Wait… metal?

Chapter 6: Mandatory Suicide

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Phantasia Star had awoken with a start, once again disturbed by her strange dreams. The primitive ponies in her dream had certainly been frightened of something, but she couldn’t place what it was now. Though the details of what was going on in the dream was rapidly fading as her mind shifted into full daytime consciousness, she still remembered how her heart had raced, and how her hooves had pounded on the ground as she’d run along with the primitive herd - details that stuck out to her now because they were things she could not feel in her waking life.

She leaned her back against the headboard of the bed, sitting up halfway, and took in a deep breath, exhaling it in a heavy sigh. Once, this would have worked to calm her racing thoughts and still the hammering in her chest. But now there was no hammering. Nor was there a rhythm of any kind. That steady beat that formed one of the basic signs of life across all the creatures that ponykind knew was absent in her. Certainly the mechanical fluid pump that stood for her in place of a heart could do its job more efficiently than flesh and muscle, but there were certain things, certain intangible qualities, that it removed from the basic experience of being alive; of being a pony.

The same could be said for her metal legs. Stronger than all but the most exceptional of earth ponies could hope to be, certainly, but they robbed her of the experience of feeling her hooves on the ground when she walked. Their ability to sense the different kind of surfaces she walked across, or how different they felt when she trotted, or cantered, or ran. Or even as simple a thing as brushing one over her husband’s mane. Even the eye that they’d replaced was numb to simple experiences such as being dry or blurring when she was tired or being blind in the darkness.

When she thought about these things, sometimes she wished that her squadmates had let her die. Let nature take its course as it had with so many other ponies with injuries of the kind she’d sustained. Left her body ruined, but whole. Instead of letting them rebuild her into the machine creature she was now. This abomination of flesh and steel. And then, of course, she’d felt supremely ungrateful and guilty for entertaining those feelings. Certainly these replacement parts she’d received had conveyed advantages to her in combat, proving invaluable both to herself and her squad as the battle to drive the zebras from the Crystal Empire had intensified. But the more of a literal war machine she’d become, the less she’d wanted to be one.

With the liberation of the Crystal Empire secured, Phantasia had felt she truly had no fights left in her. It’d taken some work to get her superiors to accept the resignation of her commission, as well as some argument and legal maneuvering over whether her cyber-pony parts were still Imperial Armed Forces property or her own, but finally they had relented and agreed to an honorable discharge. The thought had disturbed her deeply, that her body could be not wholly her own; that parts of her could be somepony else’s property, and potentially herself along with them. The entire affair had disgusted her so much that once the papers were all in order the only thing she’d wanted to do was get as far away from the Crystal Empire as possible. Fortunately that opportunity came when her husband, Stainless Shimmer - an up-and-coming young lawyer - was offered a position with a firm all the way out in Las Pegasus. The Moojave was half a world away from the Empire, and it seemed like the move was just what she’d needed. It wasn’t.

The move itself had been trivial, of course. As the Crystal Empire was a vassal state of Equestria, Imperial citizens were also Equestrian citizens, and in theory ponies could move freely wherever they wanted. They rarely did, however, and Crystal Ponies such as herself were an oddity in greater Equestria, especially as far south as Las Pegasus. Every time she ventured outside of her house, she felt the eyes of ponies upon her. Shimmer had insisted that it was because they were captivated by her rare beauty, but all it did was make her feel more self-conscious about her scars. The cyberlimbs attached to her body, and the eye whose color didn’t even match its counterpart. She didn’t feel beautiful. She felt ugly, and those stares felt like they pierced into the very void of her soul. As though with a glance they knew what she really was. Not the decorated war hero, but the vicious killer who’d survived simply by the combination of being randomly selected for some secret government project, and being too stupid to die when she was killed.

She had everything. A brand new home in a newly-constructed suburb of Las Pegasus with all the modern conveniences. A husband, a foal, a two-car garage. Even a robotic butler who did all the cooking, cleaning and other tedious household chores. White picket fences and carefully manicured lawns. The Equestrian Dream. But in the midst of it all, she felt absolutely wretched. She ventured outside their home less and less, with the ready-made excuse that her pregnancy made her tired. In truth it was because all she found outside was a world of forced pleasantries and fake smiles that she wanted no part of. A secret part of her even prayed for the zebras to just burn it all. They had missiles now that could deliver their giant city-killing balefire bombs within minutes...

The pregnancy itself had been a mixed blessing. On the one hoof, it served as a reminder that she was still part pony, and that those parts of her that made her a mare still worked as they should. On the other, the attempt had reminded her how little she enjoyed that act anymore. She still loved Stainless Shimmer as much as she always had, but now, as much as being looked at had hurt her, being touched was far worse, and coitus had become more of an endurance test than a consummation of love.

She couldn’t even count anymore how many times she’d sat awake in the early hours of the morning as he slept, with the barrel of the sidearm she’d been given as a souvenir from her army service pressed against the roof of her mouth, silently weeping as she desperately sought an end to her misery, any end at all, only to be held back at the eleventh hour by the thoughts of Stainless Shimmer broken-hearted and mourning, and of their foal growing up without ever knowing his mother.

But where could she go for help? Her husband would simply tell her to see a doctor. She’d gone to veteran’s support groups but their members felt too wrapped up in their own issues to care about hers. And she knew exactly what a doctor would do: a quick diagnosis of Wartime Stress Disorder would have her committed to the nearest asylum, to to be drugged out of her skull and then have her memories plucked out one by one until she was practically lobotomized. As placid and vacuous as every other housewife on the block. No thank you.

This was not one of those mornings, however. Instead, there was a more insidious sense of dread in the air. Her colt, Starlight Glimmer, seemed to feel the unease too, as he fussed and fidgeted all throughout his morning feeding, despite her holding him close the way he’d liked.

Dawn was breaking through their open-curtained window. The sky slowly turned from black to a deep blue, with tinges of green along the horizon. Phantasia sighed. This part of the day always messed with her sight, as her cyber-eye could never seem to make up its mind whether to be in night vision mode or not. She sighed, resolving to one day get that fixed properly, and settled for just keeping that eye closed for the time being. As she waited for Glimmer to finish nursing, she happened to glance at a small stack of letters from the previous day’s mail on the nightstand. Among the bills and advertisements was a letter that seemed more important, more prestigious than the rest.

She pulled the letter from among the others and looked it over. Its envelope was of a thicker paper than normal, in a cream color meant to be reminiscent of parchment. On its front, the stylized hoof-and-bars logo of Stable-Tec had been embossed in gold, serving as a background for the elegantly-written address. And, unlike most letters the couple had received since moving to Las Pegasus, the address used her full name and rank: “First Lieutenant Phantasia Star”

Inside the envelope was a letter, typed, but on the same ostentatious paper with the same gold embossed logo at the head of the stationery along with the slogan, “Better living - underground.” She mumbled the words aloud as she read.

“Congratulations! In gratitude for your valorous service to Equestria and the Crystal Empire in their time of need, a space has been reserved for you and your family in our newest facility, Stable 113! This reservation has been made at no cost to you. Please keep the enclosed token with you at all times, as you will need to present it to gain access to the Stable in the event of an emergency. If and when the order to seek shelter is given, please follow this map to the Stable entrance with all haste, and present your token at the gate...”

Phantasia frowned a moment, certain she had done nothing to deserve this, even if the array of medals that Stainless had insisted on having framed together and hung on their wall might have spoken otherwise. The letter and token certainly looked authentic, though, and the former had been signed in ink by Scootaloo herself. More likely a secretary, she thought to herself...

Still, not one to deeply question a gift, she opened the compartment in her foreleg where her Pip-Buck was hidden, checked its map to make sure that the location of Stable 113 was marked, and then tucked the token in there for safekeeping, just in case. If she could take advantage of a situation to ensure that her Stainless and Glimmer would be protected, then she would do it.

She felt the tender, sparkling brush of Stainless Shimmer’s silvery magic along her cheek - using his unicorn magic was a way they’d discovered he could touch her without causing her pain. “Hey, little star,” he said to her in a soft murmur.

She turned to face him with a soft smile, and touched his nose with her hoof. “Hey yourself.” Even if she couldn’t feel that gesture anymore, he could, and it made him smile just as it always had. His soft green eyes were filled with deep concern, though, as his magic reached over to scoop up their foal and bring him closer to them.

As a Steel Pony, Stainless Shimmer had had a far easier time than herself blending in with the herd here. There were no unfortunate associations with mad King Sombra here - most of these ponies didn’t even know who he was. His shiny grey coat drew no extra attention, in fact the only part of his appearance that stood out at all was his wavy black mane that streamed behind him as though it were weightless. That and his horn that curved back into a much sharper point than the simple blunted cones most Equestrian unicorns had.

“Can’t sleep again?”

Phantasia answered with a quick shake of her head. Stainless nodded, and gave a sad sigh. “I really wish you’d go to the doctor.”

It was Phantasia’s turn to sigh, more in quiet exasperation. “Stainless, we’ve been over that, I-”

His magic sparkled over her lips as he interrupted. “I know,” he said gently, “I know. It’s just that… I know you’re hurting, Fanta. And I don’t know any other way to help you.” He shrugged helplessly. “I’m a lawyer, not a psychiatrist.”

The oblique TV reference drew out a tiny chuckle from her. Glimmer leaned over to give his mother a gentle nuzzle as well - a gesture that warmed even her own cold steel and plastic heart.

Stainless gave his wife a tiny nudge and began again. “Listen, I’ve been doing some thinking. What would you say about… maybe, moving back home,” he asked. “Back to the Empire?”

Phantasia was caught completely off-guard by the suggestion. “Buh…? W-what about the firm? Your practice?”

Stainless waved a hoof dismissively. “If I can practice law here, then I ought to be able to do it anywhere.” He turned and looked deeply into her eyes. “What’s more important to me is you,” he said in complete sincerity. “I know you haven’t been happy here...”

Their conversation was interrupted by a familiarly unpleasant smell that made both parents wrinkle their noses at once. “Uff,” Phantasia said. “Somepony needs a change.”

Stainless’ magic scooped little Glimmer up again. “I’ve got this,” he said. “Why don’t you see how breakfast is coming along?”

Phantasia trotted down the hallway toward the kitchen, lost in her thoughts. Home. She could finally see it again. Watch the ethereal colors of the auroras dancing in the twilight sky, and bury herself in the deep snows of her homeland. Go ice skating and ice fishing and do all the other ice-related activities that were all but impossible in the hot, dry deserts of the Far West.

The thought of it filled her with joy and hope of the kind she’d not felt in a long, long time. It was almost enough to drown out the dread that clung to the air of the mid-autumn morning.

Almost.

“Good morning, Madam!” the prim mechanical voice of the HelpBot 3000 called out to Phantasia as she passed by the kitchen. The robot looked a bit like an octopus hovering in the air of the kitchen, each of its tentacles busy with one task or another of preparing their morning meal. Mixing, chopping, frying. Its camera-eyes followed Phantasia politely as it spoke. “Breakfast will be just a few more minutes, mum,” it said. “Will the young master and his father be joining you at table today?” Phantasia nodded in response. “Good, good,” it said. “I’ll put the television on for you while you wait, then.”

Phantasia took a comfortable seat on the couch, yawning lightly, as the rounded rectangular glass screen sparkled to life.

“-- 21 to 15.” An excitable young stallion in a smart-looking suit was in the middle of reading out the previous day’s sports scores. “In hoofball, the Las Pegasus Rebels defeated the Hoofington Raiders 38 to 14, on the strength of some very smart defensive plays…” Phantasia had started to zone out, not paying particular attention to the broadcast anymore when something unusual happened that caught her eye. A paper was thrust into the newsreader’s hooves, and he said, “All right, I’ve just been handed this report…”

The newsreader’s voice trailed off, and the look of glib zeal on his face transformed before Phantasia’s eyes into one of abject, wide-eyed horror as the stallion’s eyes darted over the words on the page he held. “Godesses, is this real?” she caught him whisper. He looked aside for confirmation and seemed to receive it momentarily.

In a trembling voice, the newsreader spoke anew.

“F-fillies and gentlecolts, I’ve... just been handed a… a very disturbing report. Apparently there has been a balefire missile strike on Buttsdale. C-circumstances of the attack are not... yet known, but according to eyewitnesses, the devastation is said to be... near... complete. Unconfirmed reports are also coming in of other detonations near Manehattan, Hoofington and…”

In a flash, Phantasia darted into the bathroom, where Stainless had just finished cleaning their foal and putting him in a fresh diaper. Immediately the Steel Pony’s head turned toward his wife, having caught onto her suddenly frantic mood.

“We’ve got to get out of here now!” she exclaimed, and before he could react she already had her teeth on his mane, pulling him toward the door.

“Fanta? What’s gotten into you?” Stainless Shimmer asked in confusion, his magic hugging the foal close against his chest. Starlight Glimmer also sensed something was wrong, and he’d started to cry almost immediately - as a practically newborn foal, he knew no other way to react.

As if in answer to his question, the Emergency Broadcast alert tone began to play through the television, much louder than the previous news broadcast, the sound filling the entire house. Everything seemed to be silenced by the tone, even Glimmer’s squalling was hushed by it, as the couple walked slowly as if entranced, toward the television. A low, throaty pre-recorded voice began to play through the speaker.

“This is an Emergency Action Notification directed by the Princess. Normal broadcasting will cease immediately, for an indefinite period. This is not a test.
It is necessary for all ponies within range of this broadcast to seek shelter immediately, regardless of where you may be. If you have been issued a Stable Pass, please proceed to your designated entry location now…”

That was all Phantasia needed to hear. Immediately she sprang into action, and was pushing her husband toward the house’s front door. Stainless balked, paralyzed by fear and confusion, repeatedly opening his muzzle to speak with no sound coming out.

Phantasia growled, pushing him harder as the loud rising and falling tone of the alert sirens started to sound outside. “I have a Stable Pass, come on!”

That seemed to wake him up. Stainless Shimmer flung the door open and dashed outside where a Spritebot was waiting for them. “Stable Ponies, please follow me to your designated shelter location,” it said in a flat, tinny voice.

They did, joining a line of ponies from other houses on the block, moving quickly up the hill to the top of the mesa. The sky had taken on a strange, angry yellow-orange color as butts rolled in to blanket the entire view from horizon to horizon. They were stopped by gate guards - army ponies in full combat gear - to check their token, even as other ponies to the side desperately begged to be let in along with them. “No token, no entry,” was the guard ponies’ response.

“Phantasia Star, two adults, one foal,” she announced once she reached the main gate guard, showing him her token. He saluted and waved them through. “Good luck in there, Lieutenant,” he’d said, which drew a slightly confused look from her, but she returned the gesture simply out of deeply ingrained habit. How had he known her rank?

Phantasia and her tiny family continued past the gate, to a large metal plate where their neighbors and others were being gathered, directed by ponies in blue and yellow Stable-Tec barding. Behind her the sound of indistinct voices in argument grew louder and louder, until they were finally silenced by the sound of gunfire, the sound rolling like an electric shock through Phantasia’s core. She trembled, wondering what the world was coming to. Was ponykind in the process of losing its sanity completely here?

A blindingly bright flash illuminated the sky behind her like a flashbang going off next to her head, and Phantasia turned to join her husband in gaping awe as a mushroom of angry green fire slowly rose into the air from the hills nearby. It was miles away, they knew, but it was still enormous enough to make them feel small and insignificant.

The platform beneath them started to lower itself into the ground as they watched the shockwave roll over the hills towards them, headed right for those shiny new homes these ponies had built. It was just in time for the wave to pass over them rather than into them, but still the ponies felt the ground rumble painfully beneath their hooves, as if Equus herself were crying out in agony. The earth ponies among them seemed especially disturbed by this, whimpering, trembling as they felt it. All except Phantasia Star, who had been severed from her special connection to the planet, with a quartet of metal limbs now standing between them.

But even she knew, as all the ponies did, that this was it. The day their world died. The day the war that seemed like it might never end, consumed the entirety of their civilization in a violent crescendo of fire and radiation. Things could never go back to the way they were after this. When they finally did emerge from the Stable, if they did, what would they find? Would there even be a world left at all?

Everypony here was shaken and silent, apart from the sound of a few coughs and quiet sobbing as they reached the elevator’s destination and were herded across the metal bridge and through the great cogwheel-shaped hole in the wall to the reception area. One of the Stable-Tec ponies in a white coat near the entryway called out to the back of the group, his voice echoing in the stony chamber. “Is this all of ‘em?”

“Might be all we’re likely to get, zebras’ve started hitting us hard up there,” came the reply.

“All right,” the first pony called out again. “Bring these ones in and let’s close up shop.”

Once the herd was moved safely past the door, the first Stable-Tec pony who had been speaking pressed a button on his console, making loud klaxons sound and yellow warning lights spin as the giant cog-shaped door was slowly rolled into place by whirring, groaning machinery, then pushed into place with a hydraulic hiss, sealing this tiny world off from the outside completely.

He then trotted toward the head of the group and announced himself with a clearing of his throat. He spoke with some hesitancy, mirroring the unease that the rest of the ponies felt. “Good morning,” he began. “I am Rocky Road, and I will be serving as your Overstallion during your stay in Stable 113.” He took a moment to look at the ponies who shifted nervously on their hooves as they waited. Another low rumble shook them, even as deep under the ground as they were, another detonation on the surface above them. “Now, I know you’re all a bit scared and confused. Goddesses know I am too…” He looked up as the ceiling rumbled yet again, then shook his head gently. “Certainly, none of us could have expected this. And certainly none of us could have wanted this to happen...” Rocky Road took a deep breath and lifted his head again. “But, here we are. We are safe here in the Stable. The Stable staff, and myself, are here to take care of you, and make sure that all your needs are met while you stay here.

Another pair of thunderous rumblings shook the earth above, interrupting his speech momentarily. After a moment more, he continued. “I know the future looks pretty uncertain from where we’re standing. But all of us together are going to do everything we can to make it the best future possible.” He nodded. Nopony applauded, or said a word. Rocky Road cleared his throat again, and finished up his speech. “Well, now if you’ll please follow the line of the rubber mats on the floor, our Staff members will issue you your Stable barding and Pip-Bucks, and then lead you through decontamination before we show you to your new home.”

The ponies lined up as instructed. One by one, the families turned in their tokens and were outfitted in the same tight blue and yellow suits, marked with the number “113” on the collar and the back. Colts and fillies were no exception, even if their forelegs were too small for Pip-Bucks yet, they still were outfitted in the same clothing. Even little Starlight Glimmer received his own tiny blue suit, and Phantasia had to smile at how cute it looked on him.

They were guided past rows of what looked like lamps with black hexagonal pads in place of light bulbs or fluorescent tubes that whined ever so slightly. Phantasia’s cyber-eye was able to identify them as UV emitters, and even show her the light that emitted from them. “Decontamination,” she thought.

The group was split among different sets of stairs that led into long, narrow chambers. Inside them was cold enough for a pony to see their own breath. Most shivered and complained slightly, but being a Crystal Pony, Phantasia herself was mostly unaffected by the cold.

“All right,” the staff member leading this group called out, “Everypony get into one of the pods here so that we can complete your decontamination. One per pod, no sharing except for foals under 18 months.”

Phantasia climbed herself into one pod at the far end of the chamber, and Stainless took the one opposite her, holding Starlight Glimmer in his forelegs as he sat on the chair built into the pod. The pod doors closed with a hiss, each one sealing itself. Phantasia sat herself down as well, and saw Stainless Shimmer waving to her, his magic nudging the confused-looking foal in his arms to wave as well. Phantasia touched the glass of the viewport with a hoof, and then suddenly her vision was butted by frost, the temperature suddenly dropping so far as to make even a Crystal Pony’s consciousness fade away.

What seemed like a moment later, some of her vision had been defrosted. Her cyber-eye was flooded wiith warnings and diagnostic messages, but she ignored them as she tried to lean toward the pod’s viewport, even though her limbs remained frozen in place. Something was happening outside.

A pony in a white coat, similar to the ones she’d seen the Stable-Tec staff wear except dingier, dirtier, stood in front of Stainless and Glimmer’s chamber. Next to him was a large white pony, a stallion bigger than a unicorn had any right to be, who’s long flowing ashen blonde mane and piercing red eyes made him look simply monstrous. Oddly, he seemed to have some kind of armored breathing mask, that looked like he’d chopped it right off of a T-45 power armor’s helmet. He wore a set of black spiked leather armor that complimented his demonic look.

“This is the one, right?” the giant had spoken, his voice a hoarse growl modulated into a fearful rumble by his mask.

“Yeah,” said the white-coated pony, and started working at the terminal console next to her husband’s chamber. “Let’s grab the package and get out of here,” he said with a shiver, “I fucking hate this place.

The pod’s hatch opened, revealing a dazed-looking Stainless Shimmer and equally-dazed foal. The giant unicorn’s ghostly white magic enveloped the foal and started to draw him out from his father’s forelegs.

“No,” Phantasia growled, finding speech difficult as her jaw, enhanced by cybernetics to allow her to eat the gems she needed to power her robotic parts, refused to move along with the rest of them. “No, what the hell are you doing, do not touch my baby!” she snarled as loudly as she could.

The white unicorn’s magic was countered by silvery sparkles as Stainless tried to pull the foal back to him, echoing Phantasia’s own words. Phantasia screamed in helpless terror as she saw a gilded revolver drawn by the giant’s own magic, pressed against Stainless Shimmer’s head and fired, instantly decorating the inside of the pod opposite him with a spray of red paint. The silvery magic instantly died away as the Steel Pony stallion’s head hung limply to the side.
Starlight Glimmer’s own terrified wailing joined his mother’s, even though hers could not be heard by them.

“What in the nine hells are you doing, Wraith?!” the lab coated pony demanded. “We were supposed to keep the other one as a backup!!”

The hot pistol’s barrel now pressed against that pony’s head as the giant growled, “Don’t ask me to participate in your stupid crap if you don’t like the way I do it. We have the package, now let’s go.”

The white monster left with the foal in tow, followed by his cohort who was still complaining. “I’m going to have to include this incident in my report.”

Phantasia was left alone with her grief for a moment, still screaming out in pain and helpless rage. And then the temperature dropped again, stealing her consciousness.

She awoke again later, not knowing how much time had passed. The pod’s door slowly opened, and she was regurgitated onto the floor, stiff and helpless as her limbs refused to move. Her eye was flashing her red warning texts about main spark power and aux batteries being depleted, life support systems being critical, and other things. The floor was covered in a sheet of ice, thick, hard and completely smooth.

Fortunately, no one had ever thought to question the tiny purse she’d carried with her, whose contents were now spilled out on the icy floor. Among them being her old sidearm with an extra magazine, and more importantly, the hooffull of rubies she carried for exactly this kind of emergency.

Slowly, and with great effort, she used her remaining organic muscles to pull herself around to where those gems were in her mouth’s reach. Eventually she was able to ensnare one with an curl of her tongue and pull it to her mouth. She sucked on it, feeling its sweet spiciness dissolve in her mouth, and feeling her systems come to life again as the energy flowed into them once more. She heaved a sigh of relief, and quickly masticated the rest of the gems, bringing her energy meter up to about half capacity.

Phantasia rose to her hooves once more and did not falter despite the slippery surface she stood upon. She found herself face to face with a frozen corpse that had once been her husband. Her head rested upon his chest and she wept anew, her tears freezing into tiny crystals of ice as they fell from her.

Finally, when she had exhausted herself, and her eyes were nearly iced over and frozen shut, she stood again. She took the gold marriage band from around his hoof and added it to her own, the two now nestled together upon her foreleg. Looking up at his proud, defiant face, she whispered, “Goodbye, my love. I will avenge you. And I will find our son.”

Finding strength in her anger, her outrage and pain, she scoured the tiny stable facilities for everything she could find of value, finding mostly skeletons in stable barding, a few extra pieces of food, drink and ammo and some proper Stable-Tec saddlebags to keep them in, but not much else. There were barely any gems to be found, which made her worry a touch. And lastly, she found an interesting looking weapon in a locked display case too reinforced for her to buck open. She’d have to come back for it later.

With that, she was finished and ready to leave the Stable, to head out into the unknown on her quest. And she was ready to buck anypony who stood in her way. She opened the door to the welcome chamber, and found a pony standing in her way. One with a black coat, purple mane and golden eyes, who stared at her in surprise. How convenient. That moment was all she needed to turn around and kick that pony with all the strength her steel legs could muster.

Chapter 7: Crypts of Eternity

View Online

This was the first time I could remember flying under somepony else’s power rather than my own, and I have to say, I didn’t much care for it. The kick had sent me back across the entire welcome area of the Stable to land in a crumpled heap next to that big round door. Med-X had spared me the actual pain of the impact and my decidedly ungraceful landing, but still left me to deal with the dazed feeling of head trauma. My vision was blurred, my ears rang to the point that I could hear nothing else, but worse I was lost in that panicked, suffocating feeling of having the wind knocked out of me. As a bonus I got the uniquely off-putting feeling of the ends of broken ribs rubbing together as I struggled for breath. Again. I was plagued by a feeling my ribcage might well be held together with duct tape by the end of the week. I lay writhing there helplessly on the floor for a moment, struggling just to force air into my lungs

I noticed then that Sapphire was no longer with me, and fearing for his safety I forced myself into action. I was not going to lose another friend today. I stretched my body out, hoping that this would help the bones knit back together the right way, and jabbed myself with a healing potion, feeling quite relieved when they did. I was about to add another Med-X too, but stopped myself short. I was still under the influence of the shot I’d taken earlier and knew I needed to be careful not to use too much. That was how ponies got addicted, after all.

I rolled to my hooves, needing a moment to steady myself as the movement had left me dizzy. As the ringing in my ears slowly faded, I heard the voice of one exceedingly angry female and an extremely frightened male, but I still couldn’t understand what was being said. Woozy, shaky, but determined, I drew Lily and dashed up the platform toward them, using my wings for a speed boost.

Sapphire Sparkle was on his back, pinned by the lilac-colored cyber-pony’s metal hooves, and I reached them just in time to see Ghost and Specter clattering to the floor as she bit his horn, making him yelp as his magic sparked, crackled and dissipated. I pushed Lily’s barrel into her cheek and tried to give a dangerous-sounding growl, even though I was still having trouble hearing myself.

“Let him go,” I said in what I hoped was a low, dangerous voice. “Right now.”

The stranger raised her head slowly and turned toward me, the shift in her attention allowing the panicked blue unicorn to skitter away into a corner. She glared at me with those mismatched eyes, and for the first time I got a clear look at who I was dealing with.

Of course the first thing I noticed were those eyes, so full of anger, hurt and loss. The natural one was a deep violet, almost indigo color, with irises that looked like facets of a jewel. Her face was classically beautiful, which made the scar that marred it all the more tragic - a line that ran diagonally straight through her right eye, making the need for her cybernetic one abundantly clear. That one was a deep red that reminded me of Wraith’s, and it didn’t suit her at all. Her mane was a lovely burgundy color, tied in the back. Her coat, though, was simply amazing. Its orchid purple color shimmered in a way that made her seem almost transparent, as though she herself were a precious rare gem - a gem marked by small scuffs and scars, but nonetheless lovely. On her flank was an arrangement of seven rhomboid jewels, one in each of the rainbow’s primary colors, arranged together to form a star. Her four cyber-limbs had been painted to match her coat, their armored outsides making them look almost natural, but their paint couldn’t hope to match the beauty of her natural body.

She was, in a word, stunning. And that she had that effect on me was absolutely no help in this situation. She took complete advantage of my stupefication - there was a flash of movement my brain couldn’t even register and suddenly I was on my back, with Lily pointed into my own face. Shit.

She growled dangerously at me, taking the time to slowly, clearly and angrily pronounce every word. “Where. Did. You. Take. Him?”

I was confused. “Where did I take who?” That was clearly the wrong response as it earned me a thump with Lily’s butt, and she managed to hid me right on my scar in such a way that the thunderous jab of pain registered even through the fog of Med-X, hard enough to instantly make my eyes water. I couldn’t help but cry out and writhe under her, even though her metal hooves held me pinned to the floor. I was thankful that she needed one to hold my gun because that left me a limb free to hold against the tender spot on my head. It didn’t help.

“I didn’t take anypony!” I protested in a wail as my head refused to stop its throbbing. That pain was becoming worrying, I started to fear she’d broken something important; that I’d need to run back to Sweetsprings and have the doc piece my skull back together again.

“Bullshit! You’re in here, you must be working with him!” she roared, and fired a shot with Lily into the rocky outer chamber before turning her on me again. “Now where did you take my son?” she demanded once more.

Sapphire Sparkle was slowly coming around the side, once again holding the paired laser pistols. He lowered them slightly as he heard that last sentence. He stilled himself, and tried to speak very calmly, though I could hear the nervousness in his voice. “Look, ma’am, I think… maybe you’ve got the wrong ponies. We didn’t take anypony from here. We were just looking for a safe place to sleep.” He circled around to face her, standing behind me. “I think… I think we really ought to put our weapons away and just talk.” Raising the pistols again, he added, “But you’re hurting my friend and I can’t let you do that. So, I’m asking you, please stop this.”

She smirked, and slowly laid Lily down next to me, then rose and sat back on her haunches. “All right,” she growled. “Let’s talk.”

Sapphire reciprocated by putting those pistols away. He then trotted over to me and jabbed me with another healing potion that immediately healed my head and left me sighing in sweet relief. I finally sat up again as Sapphire spoke again.

“Let’s start from the beginning,” he said. “I’m Sapphire Sparkle - no relation - and my friend here is Midnight Shadow.”

“Phantasia Star,” she replied curtly, still giving hard looks to both of us.

My friend spoke up again, “We were heading for New Pegas, but we needed a place to sleep for the night. We stumbled upon this Stable by accident but we were only looking for a couple of beds we could use for the night.”

“Yeah, there’s beds in this place,” she said with a shrug. “Don’t know if I’d want to sleep here, though. This place is a tomb.” We both nodded slowly, and then she asked, “What do you know about a pony named Wraith?”

Sapphire and I gasped in unison. “Wait, Wraith’s been here?” I asked. “How long ago?”

Phantasia shook her head. “I don’t know. I don’t even know how long I’ve been here.”

Sapphire interjected, “Wait, let’s make sure we’re talking about the same pony. Huge white unicorn, red eyes, wears a mask, completely evil asshole?”

The strangely shimmering lilac pony nodded. “That’s the one. He took my colt while I was trapped down there. And murdered my husband when he tried to stop him.”

“I… I’m so sorry,” I said gently, reaching out a hoof toward her, and then timidly pulling away. I was at least beginning to understand where all that anger came from, and was glad it was no longer directed at us. “We… have some unfinished business with him as well,” I continued. “He murdered some friends of mine because we stopped him from burning down a village near here just to find Sapphire here.”

Sapphire looked at me in shock, stepping back. “W-we do?! I would’ve settled for just getting as far away from him as possible!” He huffed, “I thought the plan was to get to New Pegas and forget that fucker even existed!”

Phantasia watched, and I noticed an ever-so-slight curl in her lips, showing her amusement with this dissention in the ranks. I stated firmly, “No, the plan was to get to New Pegas, complete my assignment and then use those caps to buy ourselves enough firepower to stand a chance of taking him out permanently. I know the Gun Runners operate out of there, probably others we can check too. But anyway,” I stamped my hoof against the floor for emphasis as I said, “Frostwraith is a menace to everypony in the Territory and he’s gonna continue causin’ folks grief until somepony dusts him for good.”

Phantasia looked at me with a slight smile. “Well, I’m glad we can agree on something.”

“But why does it have to be us?” Sapphire lamented.

“Because nopony else can,” I replied,

“How do you even know that?” Sapphire demanded, looking terrified.

“Because, I do,” I retorted, sounding a bit more angry than I had intended. “You know shit ain’t even that stable in the NLR outside of the major cities. Out here in the Territory there ain’t nopony. No princesses, no government, no police, no nothing! There ain’t nopony else but us!” I took a breath and sighed. “If we don’t do right out here, nopony will.”

Sapphire Sparkle had shrunk to the floor under the assault of my tirade, trembling hooves covering his head. Phantasia meanwhile, looked on with a raised eyebrow. The small blue unicorn slowly stood up again, sighing in resignation. “Even if it’s fucking suicidal,” he grumbled.

I replied with a smirk, “That’s why we ain’t goin’ at this unprepared. Which of course is why we’re headed to New Pegas first.” I nodded to him and then looked to Phantasia in all seriousness. “It looks to me like we have common cause here. Seems natural that we oughtta help each other.” I gently reached out a hoof to her. “If there’s anythin’ I can do to help you find your foal, I promise you I will.”

Phantasia considered this a moment. Her eyes were wary, but also curious. She nodded finally, and touched her hoof to mine. “It doesn’t seem like I’m in any position to be refusing help when it’s offered, so… thank you.”

I nodded, giving her a gentle smile, then turned to my blue friend. “Well, you know the most about him, Saph. You want to give her the details?

Sapphire nodded, and started to explain. “First thing you should know is that Frostwraith’s not just any mercenary. And not just your ordinary run-of-the-mill sadist either. He’s known as The Immortal for a reason. If the stories are to be believed he’s been popping up here and there, wherever there’s trouble, all the way from the Divide out to the Coltifornia coast, going back a hundred years, maybe more. He’s a powerful unicorn mage with the physical strength to back him up. But more than that, no one seems to be able to kill him. Shoot him, cut him apart, disintegrate him with magical beams, he always turns up again just when you least expect.”

Phantasia was listening, though I couldn’t tell if she believed all this or not.

Sapphire continued, “He just showed up in that prison about four months ago. I don’t even know if he was ever tried or charged with anything, but I saw them wheel him off to maximum security all bound up. Next thing I know he’s got an army of the worst and most violent prisoners behind him and he’s staging the biggest revolt I’ve ever seen.” Sapphire was becoming more visibly shaken, his voice quavering as he went on. “They tortured the guards… cut them apart piece by piece… violated their corpses.... And then they started in on the inmates… everyone who wouldn’t follow him got the same treatment...”

I came up and folded a wing around Sapphire. “Shh, it’s okay,” I whispered softly to him, nuzzling at his ears. “You don’t have to say any more.”

I finished the explanation while Sapphire calmed himself, leaning against me as he breathed “He’s got this thing he does… he gets inside your head. Not quite mind control, but more a... fundamental emotional manipulation… and once he’s in there, inside you, he can get you to do… pretty much anything. By doing that, he’s turned those prisoners into a half gang half death cult that worships him, calls themselves the War Bucks.”

With Sapphire resting against me, I finally let myself yawn. “Well, I think with that we’re all on the same page now. So, how about those beds?”

Phantasia turned toward the door, and gestured for us to follow with a nod of her head. “Well, there’s not many beds here, just in the staff dormitory,” she said.

“Where did y’all sleep, then?” I asked.

Phantasia give a little sigh, and beckoned again. “Here, I’ll show you. You… wouldn’t believe me if I just told you.” Sapphire and I shared a puzzled look, and trotted along.

Sapphire trotted along close to my side as we walked along the ugly ocean blue tiled floor, through the hallways of white painted steel, and offered his little snide piece of wisdom in a hissed whisper, “See? I told you. We’d find something down here that wanted to kill us.” I shushed him quickly.

She led us down a flight of stairs to a row of chambers, and as we descended I noticed the ambient temperature dropping sharply. At the bottom of the stairs, she turned back to us and warned, “Mind the icy floor.”

For me, it was almost too late, my hooves refused to stay under me and I nearly ended up planting my face into the floor. Finally I gave up and just used my wings to hover. Sapphire, little smartass that he was, had simply jumped onto my back to avoid the whole situation. Once we were sure of our footing, or lack there of, Phantasia led us down the hall into one of the chambers. I paused, looking around at the white pods that lined the wall, with myriad pipes, tubes and wires leading into and away from them. Cold steam flowed from some of the pipes and condensed on the floor, forming more ice, and all around was the quiet him of computer equipment.

I noticed that each of the pods had a clear window, and leaned in close to look at one. It was well frosted over, but I was able to brush enough of the ice away from the porthole to see inside - barely.

Sapphire stood on my back and craned his neck to see. Both our voices were muted by the shock of what we saw. “What the hell is that?” he asked. I followed by asking, “Is that a… frozen pony?”

Phantasia looked at us with a slight smirk, obviously finding something comical in our interactions with each other. She nodded in answer. “Yes.”

Incredulous, I gasped. “Why? Who would do this?”

“It’s cryogenics,” Phantasia Star explained. “The idea is that if you freeze a pony just right, you can preserve them for long periods of time without the need for food or water. Then later on, you can thaw them out and they’ll wake up in a state that’s almost identical to how they went in.”

I pressed my face to the glass. The form inside looked twisted and blackened, certainly not like any kind of healthy pony. “Uh… this one don’t look so good,” I commented.

Phantasia gave a sad little nod. “They’re all like that. All of them are dead.” She tapped a hoof on the green monitoring screen next to the pod. “I don’t know why only my family survived. At least… they did until he showed up.” With the way she spat that word, it was clear who she referred to. “But I can’t get any information at all out of these fucking things and the Overstallion’s terminal is locked up tight.” she added, shaking her head.

I could see that two of the pods at the end of this chamber were open. One was her own, I’d guessed, and the other… Well, she clearly didn’t want to take us back any further. “So wait, how long have you been down here?” Sapphire asked in an awed tone.

Phantasia shrugged. “I don’t know,” she replied. “My Pip-Buck’s showing some weird date that can’t be right.” She held up her left foreleg and the metal panels slid open, showing me the screen that popped out.

“Oh hey, that’s neat,” I commented, then took a closer look at the screen. “Hmm, nope, the date’s right,” I said, showing her mine.

The lilac-colored cyber-pony sat back as though the life had been drained from her. Her eyes closed, she spent a moment silently looking at the ceiling. Finally, she spoke in a faint whisper, “Two hundred thirty-nine years, four months and eleven days.”

We looked at her in shock. Neither of us knew what to say to that.

“Just… something else I’ll have to get used to, I guess,” she murmured, but I could hear the defeat in her voice, the tears threatening to overwhelm her control.

Suddenly my own grief over my lost memories seemed so petty and small. I’d had a life stolen from me, certainly, but I could get it back with enough time and effort. Maybe not in the same condition, and maybe never complete, but I could. The world I knew was still much the same as it had been before my death. This pony, on the other hoof, had lost an entire world. Everything she knew was gone; everypony she had ever known or cared for was dead long ago. All but one, and she had no idea where that one was.

She was well and truly alone.

And I knew I couldn’t leave her like that.

She stiffened as I hugged her, but didn’t refuse the embrace. Sapphire joined in as well. I wept for her even as she refused to, and nuzzled into her shoulder. There were no words. Words felt so clumsy and stupid. I tried anyway. “I can’t pretend to know even a fraction of what you’re going through, but… I want you to know you don’t have to face it alone.”

I felt those metal forelegs slowly, clumsily fold around me. Phantasia trembled, sniffed, then finally broke down. She hugged me tightly enough to crush me with those powerful limbs as she sobbed into my mane, leaving great icicles hanging from my hair but I endured it without complaint. We held each other in that dimly-lit, frozen chamber for what could have been hours, a trio of broken souls clinging to each other in the dark, bound together by loneliness and loss.

Finally, Sapphire spoke up. “We probably should get out of here, I doubt Fanta here wants to spend another couple of centuries on ice.”

Phantasia grimaced, and trembled as she squeezed me a little tighter, sobbing again. She looked up to Sapphire after another moment, sniffling and trying to rub at her eyes with metal fetlocks that lacked the absorbency of flesh and fur. I offered mine instead, gently brushing the crusts of ice away from her eyes.

“Thanks,” she said to me, and then looked up at Sapphire. “Sorry, I just… Fanta was… the special name my husband called me. I guess… I’m not quite ready to hear others using it just yet.”

Sapphire winced. “Ohh, wow, yeah. I’m sorry...”

Phantasia shook her head gently to him. “Don’t be. You didn’t know. But you’re right, we should go. I’m sure you two aren’t as resistant to the cold as I am.”

I nodded toward the exit. “You two go, I’m going to see what I can find out here.” I shook my head at their surprised looks. “I can’t leave here without knowing why all these ponies died.”

The pair stood there,incredulous as I started to work. I brushed the frost away from the nearest monitor and peered at it, mumbling the pertinent info as I skimmed the screen. “Subject: Jade Sorbet, age 32, status Deceased… Control transferred to central monitoring, please contact Overstallion...” I turned to another monitor, then another, finding that they all had the same message about the control transfer. I turned again, and found Phantasia still standing there watching me. Sapphire had jumped over to her back in anticipation of their departure.

“Where’s Central Monitoring?” I asked. Phantasia shrugged. I flitted out to check the other chambers attached to the hallway, still refusing to risk slipping on the icy flooring.

Phantasia trotted after me, her rubber-padded hooves seeming to have no trouble finding purchase on the ice. Sapphire seemed as content to ride on her back as my own, the small blue unicorn yawning as he rested his head on the back of her neck.

“Why do you even care?” she asked, following me into a larger chamber I‘d discovered that had a promising looking console bank in the center.

“Because nopony else would,” Sapphire said in mid-yawn, gently mocking my earlier diatribe. I smirked as I sat at the console desk and activated the service technician’s access on the locked terminal. “Something like that,” I said absently as I worked to manually decipher the passcode. It was just a matter of tripping the right logic gates, and… there. Access Granted.

I looked at the pair over the blue control console. “Besides, don’t you? I mean, these ponies were your friends and neighbors, weren’t they?”

Phantasia Star approached slowly, her head hug low, ears pinned. “N-not really,” she admitted with some difficulty. “We lived near each other, but… never really got along. I mean, you know, I never really felt… right about myself, you know, after I came back from Castle Hill looking like this, with all this.... hardware in me. And then we moved here and everypony kept staring at me and it just felt like, “Yes, I know what I look like, why do you have to keep reminding me?” The cyber-pony’s voice was tremulous, as though she might break down again at any moment. Fortunately my little unicorn friend was there, stroking her mane, helping calm her.

I wasn’t sure what had her so upset, in regard to her appearance, she looked fine to me. Mighty fine, in fact… I caught myself staring and quickly had that thought shot and buried in the desert, returning to my investigation. Could my libido have possibly picked a more inappropriate time to contribute its two caps?

Some nice, distracting music, would help, I thought, so I clicked on my Pip-Buck’s radio. A soft-voiced buck was singing about having heartaches by the numbers as I sorted through the data in front of me.

“Hey, I remember this song,” Phantasia softly commented. “They still play stuff like this?”

Sapphire answered, “Yeah. Wasn’t until like around twenty, twenty-five years ago that ponies even started trying to record any new music, and there’s still not much of that going on, so most radio stations are stuck just playing whatever pre-war records they can find or buy off scavengers that aren’t in too bad of shape to be played. Radio New Pegas’s got a better selection than most, though. Certainly bigger than Angel City’s.”

Meanwhile, I was furrowing my brow as I looked over the screens. All of these freezer units had been subject to the same cascade failure in the coolant regulation system, just after having their controls transferred to this console. All except 3-22, which also had been exempt from that control transfer - and 3-21 and 3-22 were the ones whose status read “OPEN” instead of giving a name, age and status of “Deceased.” Now this was looking a bit suspicious…

“So, what’s Castle Hill?” I heard Sapphire ask as I nudged my way further into the system, looking through its command logs.

“Castle Hill was one of the biggest engagements of Operation Diamond Dust, which was the effort to liberate the Crystal Empire from zebra control and push the stripes out of the North once and for all,” Phantasia explained. “That battle was our first clear victory in that campaign.”

Sapphire nodded. “What happened?”

“During that fight, I found myself trying to defend a squad of wounded ponies from an advancing tank battalion while we waited for our air support and medics. One of the stripes’ tanks had discovered our position and was coming to finish them off. My power armor had been in such bad shape by that point that I had to abandon it, and we’d spent everything we had but our sidearms. So, I ran out, got the tank’s attention, and let it chase me down into a minefield. Great plan, killed the tank and bought the squad time to get medevaced out, but I tripped one of the mines myself.”

I’d lost track of what I was doing at the terminal as I listened to her speak, enrapt. “Only… Instead of going to the Everafter,” she continued, “I woke up to find myself in a hospital bed with a bunch of new parts in me. Turned out I’d been ‘volunteered’ to be a test subject for some secret government project… Steelpony or some such nonsense. Still, it got me one of the few Equestrian Medals of Honor not to be awarded posthumously.“ Her expression soured as she muttered, “Not that that means much now.”

I noticed something among the logs, and beckoned my friends closer with a hoof to show them what I’d found. Before I could speak, though, I heard the kindly-sounding gravelly voice of the announcer come on the radio and turned up the volume to hear what he had to say.

“This is Mister New Pegas and I’ve got a special feeling about all of you tonight. And now, here’s some news. Legion raiding parties have been stepping up their assaults on the NLR outpost at Copper Point. The Republic’s forces have been holding their own out there so far, but sources tell us the base may fall if they aren’t reinforced soon.

Meanwhile, there’s much happier news from the little town of Sweetsprings, where the miracle pony Six is continuing to make waves. Latest reports from the area say that she organized the defense of the town against a War Bucks raiding party led by The Immortal himself. With her help, the ponies of Sweetsprings were able to hand the War Bucks their first major defeat since their campaign of terror in the southeast began three months ago, and did so with minimal losses to the town. The Immortal himself is said to have fled the battle when he found himself caught between Six and an unnamed former War Buck who’d turned his back on the gang and joined in the defense of the town. Now that’s a story I can get behind. I’m raising my glass to you tonight, Six. Keep fighting the good fight.

Speaking of numbers that pay off, here’s Little Chaser, to tell us about how he found out that his Grandma Plays the Numbers.”

Sapphire leaned over to nudge my shoulder, grinning broadly. “Getting pretty famous there, eh, Six?”

“W-wha? I… He mentioned you too!” I stammered, feeling caught and surprised both to be mentioned in the broadcast and that the news of Sweetsprings’ defense had reached the air so quickly.

Sapphire laughed and rolled his eyes. “Sure, “Unnamed.” Pfft.”

I scowled, adding, “Besides, I hate being called that. Six is a number, not a name.”

Phantasia’s eyes were wide and incredulous, glancing back and forth between the bright yellow sixes that were embroidered on both my saddlebags and stable barding, and my face. As she pointed a hoof at me. She kept opening her mouth as if she were trying to say something, finally forcing out a single word, “You?!”

I shrank a bit from the attention, my cheeks flushed and hot. “I uh… may have gotten involved a bit…”

Sapphire smirked. “A bit? Shit, what do you wanna bet that this day next year they’ll be smacking pinatas made up to look like your black ass instead of Littlepip’s?”

I groaned at the thought. “Goddesses, I hope not.”

The cobalt blue unicorn rolled over onto his back in laughter, nearly falling off of Phantasia and having to use his magic to catch himself at the last second. Obviously, he found the situation and my discomfort with it far more amusing than I did. The lilac-colored cyber-pony merely continued to stare at me, dumbfounded.

I tried to shift the discussion elsewhere and tapped the screen with my hooftip. “Anyway, take a look at this.” Once I had their attention, I explained, “This is the command log for when the freezer units failed. Up top you can see that this station wasn’t accessed the normal way, it was remotely overridden via the Overstallion’s terminal.” I scrolled down past the entries that showed the control transfers. “Now these show where the individual pod controls were transferred one by one to this station. All of them excluding 3-22, which I assume was either yours or more likely your husband’s.”

I paused a moment, Phantasia nodding to me. “That much we knew already, but this here’s where it gets interestin’. After all those transfers were completed, the safety protocols were overridden and the pods were put into testing mode. Then a simulation of a runaway cascade failure in the coolant system was run - only with the safeties off, it created the same effect as an actual failure. That’s what killed them.”

I looked to Phantasia, and saw the shocked understanding crossing her face. Sapphire still looked confused, so I explained, “This wasn’t no accident. These pods were sabotaged deliberately. These ponies were murdered in cold blood.” Sapphire winced at my unintentional pun. Pointing at the last few commands on the screen, I pointed out, “Here you can see whoever did it trying to cover their tracks. They tried to delete the logs entirely via a few different methods and when they found they couldn’t, they settled for scrubbing the timestamps from everything.”

“So we don’t know when this was done,” Phantasia murmured.

I nodded. “More importantly, though, we‘re still left with the question of who did it, and why. And why your pods were spared when nopony else’s was. Can you think of any reason?”

The cyber-pony thought a moment, then gave a bewildered shake of her head. “No idea,” she said gently. “But it sounds like if there’s any more clues to be found here, they’ll be in the Overstallion’s office. C’mon, I’ll show you where it is.”

Phantasia Star led us up the stairs again to the more mundane-looking metal hallways with tile flooring that we had seen before. As we walked, she spoke up. “All right, there’s something I don’t understand here, Midnight,” she said. “Half an hour ago, I came through that door, ready to kill anypony I saw on the other side of it. Which happened to be you. Might’ve done it too, if you hadn’t talked me down.” She shrugged, “Might still do, for all you really know.”

The lilac colored cyber-pony stopped and turned to face me. “But since then, you’ve been acting like we’re old friends and I don’t understand why. You were…” she trailed off uncomfortably for a moment, “there for me, down there with the pods. You’ve been helping me try and figure out what the hell went wrong down here which is something I’d given up on. You didn’t even try to restrain me after I’d attacked you… If I were in your place I’d have killed me the first chance I got.” She shook her head slowly and asked, “But what I don’t understand is why. What are you getting out of this?”

“A friend,” I answered with a smile, which seemed to confuse her even more.

Sapphire took a step toward her and explained, “That’s the kind of thing she does. See, she was shot in the head recently. Got some brain damage, it’s left her a little... funny.”

I scowled at him. “How do you even know about that?” I demanded, stomping a hoof on the floor.

He skittered away to hide behind Phantasia’s flank as I growled at him, but he explained, “Xinnia told me when I mentioned to her that I was thinking about going with you when you left town. She asked me to look out for you, help you if I could.”

I sighed helplessly and sat on my haunches, my eyes closed for a moment. “Luna give me strength,” I muttered with a shake of my head. I was thankful, though, that the zebra had cared enough to send someone to watch over me in her place, since she could not be here in person. I opened my eyes again and saw the unicorn peeking out from behind those metal mare legs to see if I was still mad at him. But Sapphire Sparkle was the kind of pony who was just too cute to stay angry with. I suspected he knew that, too, and took full advantage of that fact every chance he got.

Phantasia, for her part, was quiet, simply peering at the scar on the left side of my forehead. I hadn’t passed by any mirrors lately, but I suspected it must’ve still been fairly noticeable since it had seemed to give her a good target to aim for earlier.

“Yeah, it’s true,” I admitted. “And because of it I can’t remember anything about myself or my life before it happened. My entire life, as far as I can recall, amounts to about five days at this point.

She gave a skeptical scrunching of her face. “But you knew how to break into the computers. And how to read the logs and all…”

“That’s how amnesia works,” I explained. “You can recall facts you’ve learned or skills you know, but nothing personal.”

Phantasia’s look had gone from dubious to puzzled. “Let me give you an example,” I said, speaking in a quickened pace, “I know just by looking at it that the weapon you’re carrying right now is an EQP which uses .45 ACP ammunition and was the standard-issue sidearm for Equestrian Army officers for the last five years of the war right up until the bombs fell. I also know that the engraving of two bars on the side means that you were given it when you left the Army and at that time you held the rank of 1st Lieutenant - that is of course assuming that that is your weapon and not one you acquired from somepony else. Now I can tell you anything you want to know about the history of that gun, I can disassemble, clean and repair it for you, and even load new bullets for you if I had the equipment and materials but as for how I know any of this, why I know it, where I learned it or if and when I’d ever even seen a gun like this before I have absolutely no idea.”

Both ponies were staring at me now. Sapphire gave a look up to Phantasia and the cyber-pony nodded. “All of that’s correct, yeah,” she confirmed.

I nodded, seeing they were starting to understand. “I don’t know where I’m from, I can’t remember my parents… Hell, I don’t even know what my name is. Midnight Shadow is just something I made up.”

I paused a moment, then started again. “You should know that’s… part of why I’m heading to New Pegas, too. I need to find the pony who shot me. Not just for revenge, though I will admit that’s part of it, but also because he took something from me. A package I was supposed to deliver. I don’t rightly know just what it is or what it does, but I’ve come to understand it’s something that must absolutely not fall into the wrong hooves.”

The pair nodded again, but I wasn’t finished yet. “Absolutely none of that, though, really has anything to do with how I’ve acted toward, you, Phantasia.” I took a breath, gathering my thoughts. How many of my cards do I lay on the table here? All of them? Well I knew which one to discard at least. The one about, “I really want to get under your tail,” I knew was never going to go over well. I took that card and burned it.

“When you attacked me, I didn’t feel any of the malice that I got from Wraith., or the smug superiority I felt from Aces. There was no blind hatred, no desire to inflict suffering just for the twisted joy of doing it… I felt a pony who was desperate. Hurt and angry, yes, but one who more than anything needed answers. I could… just feel that you weren’t a bad pony, if that makes any sense.”

Phantasia slowly nodded. Sapphire stepped forward a bit, and asked, “Is that why you didn’t clobber me too, back in the garage?”

“Eyup,” I replied, then looked to the pretty lilac cyber-pony once more. “Losing your memory feels like having your whole world stolen out from under you. It’s hurts and it’s confusing and lonely and… it fucking sucks.” I was fighting back more tears as I tried to continue. “But then you took us down there and told us what happened to you and I realized, you really have had your whole world stolen from you. And knowing how bad as it’s been for me... I couldn’t just leave a good pony like you to face that alone.”

I looked to Phantasia Star though liquid eyes, and saw her own wet cheeks. She stared off at the space behind me for a long moment, then she strode toward me and pulled me into one of those crushing cyber-pony hugs. I still didn’t complain as I embraced her in kind, even as I felt her squeezing the breath out of me. I knew she needed this, and honestly, so did I. A third pair of limbs embraced us as well, and each of us drew the comfort we needed from what the others could give. It wasn’t enough; it could never be enough, but it was far, far better than nothing.

We stayed together like that again until this fresh batch of tears was spent, then the three of us helped each other clean ourselves up and regain our collective composure.

We continued down the claustrophobic steel hallway at last, and Phantasia and I both winced as we found some of the support beams and joining members hanging low enough to clip our ears as we passed. “Gah, Stable-Tec did not build these things with tall ponies in mind, did they?” I idly complained.

“No, no they did not,” Phantasia replied with a soft laugh. It was good to hear her laugh, her voice was sonorous and musical even as it echoed from the metallic walls, and it made me wonder what she sounded like when she- Dammit, Midnight, this was not the time! Sapphire smirked as he passed me in the hall. “I don’t know what you fillies are on about,” he said, “the ceiling height seems perfectly fine to me.”

We shared a laugh at that, and with great effort, I forced my eyes away from Phantasia’s glorious lilac-colored rump and found vigorous interest in reading the signage that was posted on the walls we passed.

We finally came to the end of this hallway where it forked off to the left and right. She nodded down the right first, and explained, “That’s the staff quarters, that way. I don’t know what happened to them, they didn’t leave much evidence that they’d stayed long. Or left much of value behind. There’s a couple of spare pieces of Stable barding, though, and an extra Pip-Buck or two if you want one, Sapphire.”

He grinned a little. “Well, I was beginning to feel a bit naked between the two of you, what with your fancy blue suits and wrist-thingies.” He trotted off down that hallway, and Phantasia called out after him, “They’re in the storage area, it’s the first door to the left of the restroom!”

Sapphire gasped. “There’s a bathroom here?! Sweet Celestia, I thought I was going to have to hold it till we left!” He sped down the hallway in a mad gallop.

I chuckled softly. Phantasia smirked and gently shook her head, then led me down the hallway to the left. The electrical cables that connected to the door’s control system sparked and popped as we passed through the doorframe - the door itself now lay in two pieces a meter into the room, too smashed and deformed to ever fit in the frame again. Among the dents, I saw clearly identifiable hoof-marks. I looked to Phantasia with a raised eyebrow upon spotting those, and she sheepishly looked away.

We were in a large office area that looked like the office of any important pony of the Old World. There were bookshelves, files and other paper materials that looked like they’d take days to sift through, some storage cabinets and a small area in one corner enclosed in a security cage that I earmarked to investigate later. There were even a few potted plants - or rather, pots that now contained the withered and dry husks of plants that had died of neglect long ago - and a liquor cabinet, which required my immediate investigation.

The real distinguishing feature here, though, was the circular platform desk in the exact center of the room. After tucking a few of the best-looking bottles from the liquor cabinet into my bags, I trotted back to the desk and set a pair of glasses down on an empty spot, filling them with an unlabeled but quite nice-smelling whiskey.

Phantasia had been watching me with another dubious expression, her brow furrowed. “What are you doing with all that?” she asked.

I nudged one of the glasses toward her, and took the other for myself. “A good, strong alcohol has many uses, “I explained. “Disinfectant, fire accelerant, analgesic, sedative, and sometimes… you can even drink it.” I smiled to her as I raised my glass. Tipping it toward her with a roguish wink, I added, “Cheers.” and quickly slugged back the whole drink, wincing as it burned all the way down into my stomach.

Phantasia watched me in slight confusion, but finally she accepted the gesture. I got to watch the metal fingers extend from her hoof as she took the glass and drained it. I had my turn to watch in confusion as after finishing it, she ate the glass as well.

“Silicate crystal,” she explained while she chewed, and tried to demurely cover her mouth with the hoof that was still holding the uneaten portion of the glass. “Still counts as enough of a gem to give me a little bit of power.” She looked at my still-uncomprehending face. “These… parts of mine run on gem power, just like magical energy weapons. So I need to eat some every often to keep myself running.”

I nodded, understanding but still bewildered by the concept. Phantasia added, “They’re also self-repairing but for that I need to eat scrap metal. So, if you ever see me chewing on a tin can, don’t worry, I haven’t turned into a goat.”

I nodded as we shared a little chuckle at that. Then, curious, I canted my head and asked, “What does it taste like?”

She was crunching and chewing on the last piece of glass now. “This? Doesn’t taste like much of anything. Touch of peppermint, maybe... Pretty bland, actually. Most gems, though, have distinctive candy flavors that match their color. Rubies taste like hot cinnamon, sapphires are blue raspberry, and so on. “Amethysts are this... weird perfumey lavender flavor that I don’t like at all,” she added, adorably scrunching her face in disgust at the thought. “Tastes like soap. And not just any soap but old granny soap.” I couldn’t help but laugh as she described it.

The desk was a nice, darkly-stained hardwood that didn’t match at all the steel and linoleum decor of the rest of this floor. Within its circle was a rather comfortable-looking chair that I might’ve appropriated for my new Sweetsprings home if I wasn’t preoccupied with other matters. Next to that was a pony skeleton in decayed 113 Stable barding. The Overstallion, I’d assumed. There was a terminal on the desk and after having another drink I got to work on breaching its security while Phantasia searched the papers and other items for anything of interest.

I scoured the terminal but there was little here we hadn’t already seen. The commands overriding central monitoring had originated from this terminal but they’d also had their timestamps scrubbed, and the access itself was done through the maintenance backdoor so there was no user stamp on them other than Overstallion. I browsed the Overstallion’s personal logs but still found nothing. Finally, I sat back in the really rather comfortable chair and sighed, shaking my head. “This is a bust. There’s practically nothing in here we haven’t already seen.”

“What about what happened to the staff?” Phantasia asked. “Did you find anything about them?”

“Yeah, I did find something on them at least,” I said, pushing myself back from the desk a bit. “According to the Overstallion’s logs there were about 20 scientists and maintenance techs here. They’d had enough food and supplies to last six months. At the end of six months they were supposed to get the all-clear signal from Stable-Tec, open up the Stable and start waking ponies up.

“Only the signal never came, did it,” she surmised.

“Nope,” I said. “After the food ran out, staff insisted the Overstallion let ‘em outside. Overstallion said they needed to sit tight on account of the radiation levels being too high. Somepony found themselves a gun, killed the Overstallion and they all walked out. Guess they figured somepony’d come back for y’all but… they never did. Probably the rads got ‘em.”

Phantasia nodded grimly. “Well that’s one piece of the story, but it still doesn’t tell us why somepony came back to sabotage the freezers.”

I nodded along. Then a thought came to me. “Unless…” I tapped a hoof to my chin as I put a few things together. “What if it was Wraith? You said he looked like he was here acting as a hired gun, right? And you mentioned the pony with him looked like a scientist, and said something about wanting to keep your husband as a backup?”

“Yeah, he did,” she confirmed with a nod. “That pony seemed pretty upset about Wraith killing him.”

“So what if they’d already sabotaged the pods by then?”

“That might explain why I was woken up during that time. Neither of them seemed to be aware that I was awake.”

I looked up at her gravely. “It sounds to me like they expected you to die along with the rest of them. But you said something before about being resistant to the cold, right?”

“Yeah, the Empire’s way up north where it gets cold a lot, so us Crystal Ponies have a natural resistance to it.”

“Ah, that makes sense. Well, my guess is that probably between that and being a cyber-pony, that’s how you survived when nopony else did.”

Phantasia Star sighed, just shaking her head. “But that doesn’t help us at all…” She slowly walked over to the caged area of the room and thumped her forehead against it. “Fucking hopeless,” I heard her whisper. Looking to me, she asked, “So what do we do now?”

“I think we can just keep going with the same plan,” I said, using my hindlegs to push the rolling office chair across the room to where Phantasia was standing. “Only difference is we need to somehow find out who Wraith was working for.”

She smirked at me. “Yes, because I’m sure he’ll just tell us if we ask him nicely,” she said with dripping sarcasm.

“Who says we have to talk to him at all?” I shrugged. “Listen. The ones who hired him were after a very specific foal. They killed off your neighbors to make extra sure that nopony would find out what happened. That would suggest that these aren’t just run of the mill slavers. They’re the kind of ponies who’re meticulous in their work. That means there’s got to be some kind of paper trail - ponies like that love to keep records. Even if Wraith himself doesn’t keep a journal, he’s got to have messages, payment receipts, all kinds of things that can identify them if we look for it.”

Phantasia was looking at me with a mixed expression. After a moment of silence, she asked, “What makes you so sure?”

“I don’t know,” I said in all seriousness. “But I am.” I reached out a hoof toward her. “I know the way my head works or… doesn’t work makes the things I say and do weird sometimes. Honestly, I’m just as confused by it as you are. I just have to ask you to trust me when things don’t make sense.”

Her mismatched eyes followed me for a long silent while as she made up her mind. Finally she sighed, and touched my hoof with hers. “Fine. I’ll trust you.”

I couldn’t help but smile. “Thank you,” I murmured as I touched her mane with the tip of a wing. “I promise I’ll do my best not to let you down.”

That moment of coming to terms felt good, and we spent a quiet moment just watching each other comfortably. Then I noticed the dented and hoof-kicked display case behind her. “More of your work?” I asked with a slight grin.

She stood aside from it to let me see, the prettiest blush coloring her shimmering cheeks. “Heh, yeah,” she admitted.

“Here, let me,” I offered and moved toward the case with my screwdriver and bobby pins.

The lock was fine, delicate work, and the fact that it was partially damaged from the beating Phantasia had given it wasn’t helping. “You really did a number on this,” I groaned as I worked, snapping yet another pin.

Just then, Sapphire Sparkle dashed into the room, catching our attention. His cobalt-blue coat and silvery white mane were shiny and clean. Bright blue and yellow Stable barding clung tightly to his body and he had a set of brand new matching saddlebags with “113” on the side. A shiny new Pip-Buck hugged his left foreleg.

“Looking good, Sapphire,” I commented, then returned to my attempt to pick the damaged lock.

“Midnight!” he said excitably, sliding a bit on the floor as he tried to change directions in mid-gallop on the smooth linoleum floor. “They have real toilets! And showers! With hot water! And soap! Sweet Celestia it’s a paradise in there!”

Phantasia was puzzled by his enthusiasm. “Um… yeah, of course they do. Why are you so excited about that?”

I winced at the realization. Acclimating to what life was like outside the Stable was going to be harder on her than I anticipated. “Oh, well… You’ll see when we get outside, but, the livin’ out there is kinda… rough.”

Finally the lock popped open, and I pulled the strange weapon from its case. It was like nothing I’d seen before, thicker and longer than any laser rifle, and it felt cold to the touch. Holding it up as I gave the strange rifle a thorough looking over from end to end. Then, I set the rifle in my hooves and fired a test shot at the wall. The three of us gasped in unison as a bright blue bolt shot out and left the wall both damaged and covered with a sheen of ice.

I kissed the weapon’s side, the body of it almost painfully cold to touch now. “Frostbite,” I named it.

Sapphire facehoofed. He looked to Phantasia with a soft, apologetic shaking of his head. “Sorry, she does this,” he groaned in embarrassment.

Phantasia was smiling at me, though, seeming to understand what I was doing. I stuck my tongue out at Sapphire and then presented Frostbite to the cyber-pony, grinning and giving a playful bow. “Madame.”

She returned the mock-bow gracefully and reciprocated. “Thank you, Madame.”

“And now, if you’ll excuse me, I’m about to go see this heavenly bathroom,” I said, taking another bow and trotting off. Sapphire followed along in an excited little trot, grinning. “I’ve got to show you some of the features in there…”

A thought then occurred to me. “Oh!” I dashed back to Phantasia and fished out my beaten copy of the Improved Wasteland Survival Guide. “You should read this,” I said, hoofing the book to her. “The world’s changed a lot while you’ve been asleep.”

Chapter 8: When the Stillness Comes

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Phantasia Star stood alone on the slowly rising platform of the great elevator that led into and out of Stable 113. She’d left her two new friends down there after seeing them safely tucked into a pair of standard-issue Stable-Tec beds in the staff quarters. She had wondered a bit why they insisted on separate beds, after some of the sounds she’d heard coming from the showers earlier, but that wasn’t any of her business.

They’d invited her to take a bed and rest with them as well, but she’d gently refused. “I’ve slept enough,” she’d said, but doubted either of them knew or could even fathom what that statement had really meant to her.

Well, the black one might. Strange as she was, she’d seemed unusually perceptive to emotions. And, Phantasia had noticed, also kept looking at her in strange ways. Almost like she’d wanted to touch her in the kind of ways her husband did. The thought confused her a bit. Homosexuality wasn’t a big deal in the Equestria of old, of course. She’d seen others, even had friends with lovers of the same sex. But she’d never been on the receiving end of that kind of attention from another mare. And aside from the unfamiliarity of that situation, it felt wrong; disloyal of her to even consider it, especially not even having had the time to properly mourn her late husband. Still, knowing what she knew of Midnight Shadow, she was sure that the mare was probably not even aware she was doing it, and would quickly put a stop to it if asked. That had helped her feel more comfortable with the situation overall.

Two hundred thirty-nine years had somehow passed her by in what seemed like an instant. It still didn’t feel real. In cryogenic sleep, there was no awareness of the passage of time. It was like having surgery - one minute you’re being wheeled into the operating room, and then the next thing you’re aware of is being in recovery, unaware of the hours you’d spent in there being worked on. One minute, your eyes were frosting over, the next you were on the floor, over two centuries older but none the wiser. It had felt to her like a matter of hours at most, since the bombs started to fall. She clearly remembered that green fireball, the poisonous mushroom rising into the sky. She remembered the feeling of panic, the overdose of adrenaline shooting through her, even though her heart refused to race or thump in her chest the way it ought to have.

Even in that moment of terror, of being fully conscious that she was bearing witness to the death of the world she knew, she still could never forget. Could never escape the keen awareness that she was only half a pony.

She’d needed a walk. She’d needed to see outside. To see some of this radically changed world for herself. To see that there still was a world outside to see.

Phantasia looked up and saw the circle of dim light growing ever larger as the platform inched closer and closer to the surface. The stars still looked the same as they always had. The moon as well - all the watchers of the night sky continued to keep their cold, indifferent vigil, just as they always had. For what and why, ponykind might never know. The immortal princesses who once ruled this land were up there somewhere as well, the book Midnight had given her said. Fully deified now that their physical forms were gone, they were still worshipped and prayed to, but whether they knew, whether they cared, whether they even could intervene any longer, nopony knew.

The elevator came to a stop at the surface, and the yellow safety railings dropped back into their places around it, leaving her to stand here alone on this metal plate on top of the mesa. The full moon gave enough light to see unaided, but her enhanced vision helped her see farther into the distance than another pony would. The view around her didn’t seem much different than it had before. Sand, jagged rocks, dry scrub brush, the same as always.

The differences between then and now became more apparent as she started to descend the path down the mesa, back toward her neighborhood. She saw the gate where she’d shown her pass, where the ponies who didn’t have Stable passes were violently denied entry to the Stable area. The decay of it struck her. The basic structures still stood for the most part, but much of the wood used in the checkpoint’s construction was rotted, the window glass had been shot out, and the paint had badly chipped, allowing the metals underneath to corrode.

That corrosion was so bad that even though the gate had been closed and secured with locks, those locks exploded into a fine dust of oxidized metal with a kick that was only a tiny fraction of what Phantasia could muster.

She paused at the bottom of the trail to survey the neighborhood. The layout of the streets remained the same, but the sidewalks and pavement were split with cracks through which sickly-looking weeds had grown. The grass had died out long ago, what wild weeds would still grow having replaced them, and the trees were nothing but skeletal branches arching out over broken and splintered trunks. Their bark looked ashen white in the moonlight, but the sides of them that faced where the bomb had gone off had been burned black.

Many of the houses she passed by as she slowly walked down the street were nothing more than rubble. Those that still stood were so badly damaged that they barely counted as shelters. Not a pane of unbroken glass remained anywhere. The outer siding and tiles had been blown or burned away from both the outer walls and roofs in many places, exposing the skeletal metal framework beneath, and leaving the rooms inside open to the air.

As Phantasia slowly walked down those streets, she found herself comparing the scenery that was to what had been before, and the contrast struck deep inside her, where her heart would be if she still had one. Dread built up within her as she approached #39, the house where her little nuclear family had once lived. She didn’t want to go in there; didn’t want to see the ruin that she knew her home had become, just like all the others. But at the same time, she felt she had to. Curiosity, and a need for some measure of closure, pushed those metal hooves forward and up the concrete steps to the front door.

The heavy wooden door had its paint scorched and cracked along with the rest of the house’s facade, but it still stood. Fishing the key from her purse, she unlocked the door and slowly opened it. The sight of the inside was much as she had expected, but heartbreaking nonetheless. The entire living room was peppered with pieces of broken glass. Shelves stood crooked and empty, the things they had once held having been taken long before. The furniture was still present, but had aged badly in the elements to which they were now exposed, leaving them stained and worn. The kitchen beyond had been entirely cleaned out. Every scrap of food had been taken along with every small appliance - the rest of the hardware had been gutted for parts.

It was then that she heard the sound of a pony snoring. But where the sound would have made most ponies go cold, Phantasia had felt enraged. She didn’t care how much time had passed, this was her home, and whoever was sleeping here had not asked her permission to do so. Lowering her body into a crouch, she stalked silently toward the bedrooms, while considering her options. She had left Frostbite behind, not having intended to get into a fight here, and was carrying only the sidearm. But guns were noisy, and she didn’t know if the nearby houses were occupied. This left her with a small survival knife she kept in her right foreleg’s compartment area - the same place occupied by her Pip-Buck on the left. It would do.

Drawing it, she crept first into the bedroom she and her husband had once shared. There wasn’t much sense in calling it a room anymore since between the destruction of the windows and wall paneling it was pretty much exposed to the street. The bed had collapsed but there were a pair of ponies still attempting to sleep in it. They slept in their dirty, dingy leathers with bits of improvised armor attached to their jackets. Both were armed. This was going to be tricky to take both with just a knife.

But, she noticed that she might have an advantage. Among the glass shards on the floor were littered around them many spent chem containers - mostly Dash inhalers. Which meant that they were likely sleeping it off here, and would be too out of it to notice if one or the other were attacked. At least, she hoped they would. It had been a while, but she had done this sort of thing before.

She fell on them, embracing the first one from behind and silencing him with one hoof while the other pulled the blade of the knife across his throat, cutting deeply into the large blood vessels on both sides. The pony immediately came to life, trying desperately to struggle, to scream, to wrench himself away from his attacker, but her cyber-limbs would allow none of it. Gradually the pony’s struggling weakened as his muscles were deprived of the oxygen they needed to continue fighting, and soon after he was completely limp in her arms.

His partner was already starting to stir. Quickly Phantasia pinned her to the bed with her own body, smothering her muzzle with her hoof while driving that knife into the meeting point of her neck and shoulder, twisting to make sure the artery was completely severed before she pulled it out. Again, she felt the spray of hot red liquid and reveled in its caress upon her face and chest. The mare under her was looking at her with eyes widened in desperate terror as she tried and failed to plead for her life past the hoof that silenced her. But Phantasia remained implacable, knowing it was already too late for her in any case.

She turned toward the smaller bedroom across the hall. Inside, a stallion was trying to make himself comfortable on a bed sized for a colt, and managing only fitful sleep. His night ended in her deadly embrace as well, her limbs holding onto him, silencing him as she had the others while driving the knife into his kidney. She twisted, and felt a rush of almost sexual pleasure from the wash of hot blood over her belly. In an extra spark of cruelty, she sang a tender, soft lullabye into writhing stallion’s ear as he passed into eternal slumber. “Hush now, quiet now…”

She lay there on the floor with him for a moment after he’d stopped kicking, listening to the silence. Even in a quiet, remote suburb like this, there had always been a background noise. The lives and activities of others around combined to form it - not just ponies, but other animals, birds, even insects contributed to it. It wasn’t something one could even really describe as a sound, and most of the time one wasn’t even aware of it at all, but in very quiet moments, if a pony listened for it, it was there. The only times one usually experienced its absence was when it snowed at night, or if one ventured into very remote places far from civilization. Even then, though, that silence would be broken every so often by something nearby.

Here, there was nothing. Lying on the floor of what had been meant to Starlight Glimmer’s bedroom when he’d grown enough to not need his parents’ attention so frequently in the night, Phantasia found that she could gaze up at the stars through the holes in the roof, the ceiling tiles having either been removed or burned away long ago. That unnerving silence was roaring in her ears.

She started to laugh as she lay there, as the blood started to dry, making her skin feel tight. She couldn’t even tell why she was laughing. It started softly at first, then built into a crescendo of mad, howling laughter that metamorphosed itself into hysterical sobbing that she couldn’t stop.

So many battles fought. She remembered them all. Blood on the snow. The buzz of bullets like angry bees; the whine of energy weapons. Explosions. So many friends; so many comrades dead, maimed, brutalized. So much pain. And in the end, it had all been in vain. Everypony and everything she knew was gone. Equestria couldn’t be saved. “A fixed point in time,” she heard the faint echo of a stallion’s gentle voice saying from somewhere, soft and full of regret. “I’m so sorry.”

This land, this place, this house… It wasn’t her home anymore.

Nowhere was her home anymore.

She’d just murdered three ponies for nothing, Phantasia realized. For simply for daring to seek what shelter they could in a place that had once meant something to her. A long time had passed since then. She’d lost her claim to it. She was the one who didn’t belong here. She didn’t belong in this place, in this time, in this world.

With that understanding dawning on her, she was starting to really feel that loneliness that Midnight Shadow had talked about earlier, the kind that could all too easily swallow a pony up completely. She found herself wishing that the black pegasus was here with her now. Maybe she’d have stopped her. Maybe she’d have helped. Either way, it would have definitely been better not to be alone.

It would have been so easy to just give in. To take that EQP and finally do what she’d been too cowardly to do before. Squeeze the trigger. End it all. But she couldn’t. Not now. She couldn’t let herself be broken by this. She had no time to wallow in whatever ponies were supposed to wallow in. Starlight Glimmer was still out there, somewhere. Lost, alone, needing her, needing his mother. The time for mourning the loss of creation itself would come later.

With that, she dragged herself to her hooves again. Her legs felt so heavy now. Using a piece of the stallion’s ragged clothing, she wiped the blood from her knife before putting it away. Practicality guided her to spend a moment taking what she could from the bodies. They hadn’t had much. Their weapons were so poorly maintained that they were practically junk - as likely to kill them in a misfire as they were to harm anypony else. They’d had some ammo in various sizes, most of it completely wrong for what they carried. A few bottlecaps - the Survival Guide had insisted these were money now though Phantasia remained dubious - and a random assortment of prepackaged foods and bottled water.

From what they had, she was able to piece together a decentish leather cuirass which she put on over her stable barding. It featured a shoulder holster, and she’d felt better about keeping her old sidearm there rather then in her now completely overstuffed purse. Not a gem to be found, though. Her energy level was down to about 35% which was making her worry.

With that, she headed out, not even noticing the single blue bar that rotated around her EFS compass as she trotted past the bathroom. Not wanting to see any more, she climbed up to the top of the mesa, and took that long elevator ride back down into the Stable.

After a long shower she’d managed to scrub all the blood from herself, and she didn’t bother to dress again as she walked into the Stable staff quarters where Sapphire Star and Midnight Shadow peacefully slept. She laid down on another of the beds and made herself comfortable, intending to read more of the Survival Guide. With a sigh, she muttered to herself, “I should have just done this from the beginning.” She rapidly found, though, that she had to keep her natural eye closed as it refused to focus on the page. But even with her cyber-pony stamina, she was only able to get a few more pages read before she was asleep.

Chapter 9: Scarstruck

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I awoke feeling miserable, which was a sharp contrast to the state I’d gone to sleep in. I felt that deep ache in my muscles, only so much worse now than the other day. My heart was racing, and I was sweating even though I felt so, so cold. I’d wrapped Xinnia’s blanket tighter around myself but it was no help. I was reminded of how little I’d eaten recently when my stomach suddenly and without warning chose to suddenly expel its meager contents onto the mattress - mostly bile and stomach acid flecked with blood. I felt too sick to even care that I was practically laying in a puddle of my own vomit.

And there, amidst the wretched agony, in the back of my mind, lay the thought. I knew what I needed. I knew what would make this all go away. Why should I fight it? It felt good, didn’t it? “Just admit that you need me,” I heard a smooth voice whisper to me, the voice of my invisible lover, who had comforted me when nopony else could; who made me feel so special and good when we were together.

It took so much effort just to raise my head and look through bleary eyes at Sapphire and Phantasia, to make sure that both ponies were still sleeping soundly. They couldn’t know. I could never let them find out, or I’d lose them for sure. They needed me, but only as long as I kept up that strong and confident facade. Phantasia needed to believe I could help her find her colt. Sapphire needed to believe that I could protect him. So I had no choice. I had to let him prop me up. Become the supporting bracers on my limbs. I couldn’t go back to being alone.

I could barely lift the injector; it took nearly everything I had to fish it out of my bags. Once I had it I quickly pulled the blanket over myself so no one could see me take the shot. The protective cap came off, and I felt the needle push into my flesh. And then I felt my racing heart skip a beat as I was certain that the incriminating hiss of the auto-injector was reverberating from the walls. I was sure they heard it.

And then, within moments, none of that mattered. My pulse slowed to normal, the ache in my body faded away, and I felt my lover embrace me once more, reassuring me that everything would be all right; that he’d protect me from all the bad and scary things inside so that I could be strong for them.

There was still a bitter note to the euphoria this time. Cherry Bomb had been right. I needed the Med-X just to function now. He and I could never be apart again. And above all else, I had to keep that secret. Still, it was hard to feel bad for long when enveloped in his influence. There was just one thing I had to do.

With great effort, I pulled the stained mattress from the bedframe and hauled it to the storage area, buried the used injector underneath it, then returned with a fresh one to replace it on the empty bedframe. I laid down again with a slight grin, feeling confident that I had completed the deception without waking either of the sleeping ponies.

Sapphire Sparkle was watching me with his big grey eyes. He smiled when I finally noticed him. “Hey, Midnight,” he said in a soft murmur.

I replied with a gentle smile of my own, and said in the same low voice. “Hey yourself.”

“What’re you moving the mattress for?” he asked.

Shit. He caught me.

Thinking quick, I replied, “Oh, I... just wasn’t feeling good this morning when I woke up. I threw up a little is all.”

His face turned concerned as he asked, “Oh. You alright?”

“Yeah. Yeah, I’m fine now.”

He nodded gently. “Are you… still ok with what happened last night?”

“Yeah, why wouldn’t I be?” I said, leaning over to brush his mane lightly with a hoof. “It was… good. Great, actually.” I chuckled softly, then looked at him with a more serious expression. “Are you?”

Sapphire scrunched his face a bit. “Yes… no… I’m not sure…” He sighed. “I mean, part of me wanted to… I do like you and stuff, you know. But then some of it was just acting on reflex. Programming, or something like that. And I feel like… I shouldn’t have subjected you to it. I mean, it’s kind of obvious that you like Phantasia, even though we just met her…”

I laughed softly, turning so that we could face each other while still lying on the beds, he on his stomach, myself on my back. “Oh don’t worry about that bit. I’m… just not a big believer in that idea that you only get one special somepony.”

He snorted. “Greedy much?”

“Guilty as charged,” I grinned, then took on a more somber expression. “As for that… yeah. I can’t help it, she’s an... amazingly attractive pony.” I gently shook my head, adding, “But I know this is a really hard time for her emotionally, and that’s only gonna get worse once we get outside and she really sees what’s out there. And I’m not going to try to take advantage of that just to get laid.”
Sapphire was looking at me with a playful smirk. “You’re a better pony than I,” he said.

I stuck my tongue out at him. “Oh, stop,” I said, then continued more seriously, “I mean...she’s just lost her special somepony. She needs to process that before she’s ready to think about having another…” I trailed off a moment, swirling a hoof in the air. “I guess what I’m saying is that if she and I end up being together - and that’s a big ‘if’ at this point - I want it to be more than just a fling, you know?”

Sapphire nodded, then gave me that smirk again. “Yeah? And what about me?”

I grinned at him. “It’s a little late for that now, don’t you think?”

He laughed softly and batted at one of my hooves. “Midnight,” he gently admonished, “I’m being serious here.”

Sapphire shook his head gently at me, his smile fading, and touched his hoof to mine as his tone became more serious. “I’ve… I mean, that’s been just work, for as long as I remember. It’s what I do. It’s about the only thing I’m actually good at.“ He looked so incredibly sad as he said those words. “But see… I never got to do it because I wanted to. Because it was someone I liked and wanted to do it with. It was always a customer, someone chosen for me, someone who picked me out; what I wanted never mattered. And then, when I went to prison...” he started, then just squeezed his eyes shut tight shaking his head. “Well, let’s... not talk about that.” He took a couple of deep breaths to still himself. It was easy to see that his time there had not been easy for him. No wonder he was so eager to escape.

After a moment, he continued. “I guess what I’m trying to say is that if… if that happens again, I want it to be because both of us want it. Not because I had some kind of automated response and you played along with it.”

“Well, you had gotten me pretty worked up by that point, so it wasn’t just playing along,” I admitted with a grin.

“You know what I mean, Midnight,” he said with a smirk.

I nodded. “I do. And I feel the same way. And just to set the record straight, no, I’m not going to just use you and toss you aside, either. I care about you a lot, you know?” That brought his smile back, and I ruffled his mane again.

Just then I noticed Phantasia sitting up in her bed, a placid look on her face as she watched us. “‘Mornin’ sunshine,” I called to her, waving a wing. I was deep in that relaxed, uninhibited state Med-X created in me and I had to remind myself not to get too silly.

Sapphire gasped as he looked over to Phantasia, his cheeks turning a bright red. “H-how long were you listening?” he asked nervously.

“Long enough,” she replied enigmatically, and began to quietly dress herself.

I noticed her stable barding was stiff, caked with what was obviously dried blood. She paused a moment to scowl at the stained garment, then tossed it aside before walking out of the room. I flitted after her, catching up in the hallway. I wasn’t quite sure what to say, so I started with a simple and obvious question. “So, how did your walk go?”

Phantasia’s reply was far more terse than usual. “Fine. I saw what I needed to see.”

I nodded. “Oh. You… run into some trouble?”

“No, no trouble,” she said with a simple shake of her head. She opened the door to the storage area and began to fish through the containers for another set of stable barding.

I didn’t understand. She was so closed off today, so unlike the previous night. Brushing a wing softly over her shoulder, I asked again. “Phantasia, talk to me… what did you see?”

She was trembling, fighting back her emotions. “I saw my house… what was left of it. That… that was a mistake.”

“That bad, huh,” I asked, my wing embracing the cyber-pony, holding her against my side. “I can’t blame you. I’d have wanted to see, too.”

She stilled herself with a deep breath, and nudged me away from her. “It doesn’t matter,” she said coldly. She unsealed the package and pulled on the tight blue and yellow garment, tearing off the sleeves to allow her access to her foreleg panels.

“Phantasia,” I said gently, trying to reach out to her again.

She wheeled on me with a glare. That same look I’d seen in her eyes when we first met. It was one of the most frightening things I’d ever seen. “Nothing matters to me but finding Starlight.” She spoke slowly, emphasizing the word. “No-thing. You understand?”

I nodded, shrinking back from that hateful look, wondering what I’d done to earn this vitriol from her.

“I don’t care what you two do in the off-hours, but leave me out of it. I am here only so long as our goals align. If you get distracted; if you forget, I’m gone. If you get in my way, I. Will. Fucking. End. You. And that is all you need to know about me, moonspawn.”

She shoved her way roughly past me and trotted off, leaving me alone in the storage room. Her words had cut me deeply, the slur in particular, and even Med-X couldn’t dull the way they’d hurt. I thought we’d reached an understanding. I’d thought we were friends, or at least had the potential to be. And the hope had glimmered in the back of my mind that maybe, someday, we could be more.

I sank to the floor in tears, trying and failing to understand. Why? What had changed her so much while I was asleep? Was it seeing what had become of her home that had turned her so cold? Or was it something else entirely? Was it me? It was probably me. I didn’t know why, but I started to feel like there was something fundamentally wrong with me, and had been even in my previous life. Something that inevitably drove ponies away when they figured it out. When they realized they couldn’t fix it.

It took me a good long while to gather myself up enough to leave the storage room. By that time, Phantasia and Sapphire were both fully dressed and outfitted and waiting for me. Phantasia had mounted Frostbite on a battle saddle and was wearing that with a leather breastplate. Sapphire had donned a few pieces of leather as well over his Stable barding. He’d taken a moment to trade me Ghost and Specter for Lily, telling me he had no skill with magical energy weapons and preferred more traditional guns. I didn’t care.

I would rather have gone back to bed, but we couldn’t spend any more time here. I’d thought about just taking another shot and pretending everything was normal and fine, but I only had two left and I had to make them last.

As we took the slow elevator ride up to the surface, finally leaving 113 behind for good, Sapphire had mentioned that we needed to return to Sweetsprings to pick up some more food and supplies which sparked an argument with Phantasia that I didn’t want to be involved in. I simply closed my eyes and tried not to listen to them bicker, hearing their voices but not understanding the words. But eventually, they had both turned to me, looking to me to make the final call.

I didn’t want this. Again, ponies were looking to me to be the decision-maker. The leader. They couldn’t have picked a worse pony for the job. I wanted to run; to just fly away and forget everything. I’d look for Aces on my own, when I got around to it. But my promise to Sapphire tethered me to the ground, where my miserable mood made taking that second jab quite tempting, and I was even starting to not care if they saw me do it. But then I saw another pony between them, sitting at the edge of the big metal plate that formed the Stable’s entrance.

Without a word, I pushed past the pair to slowly approach the filly, stopping at the edge of the plate. They eventually turned and followed me, and she cowered under the gaze of three grown ponies.

She was the saddest-looking filly I’d ever seen. Not that I could recall any to compare her to, but if I was asked to pick a photo for Saddest Filly Ever, she’d win. Properly cared-for, she’d have been a pretty little thing, with a warm gingerbread coat that turned creamy white at her fetlocks, and a mane that had chocolate and vanilla stripes to match. She was on the cusp of the age where fillies normally got their cutie marks, but she did not have hers.

She looked like she’d been through hell. She wore nothing but a metal collar with a thick chain dragging behind it, attacked to some kind of fixture that looked like it’d been ripped out of a wall or floor. All four legs were similarly bound, chained together in such a way that’d allow her to walk, but not to run. All of these had chafed and rubbed the skin raw beneath.

Her ribs and spine were clearly showing from malnutrition, and her lips were cracked from thirst. She trembled as though the act of holding herself up was getting to be too much for her. Her mane and tail were matted and caked with blood and I didn’t want to know what else. There was barely an inch of her that wasn’t cut, scarred or injured, and fresh ones that layered over the old still oozed blood. And from the trails of blood and… other things that caked the inner part of her hindlegs, it was all too obvious what she’d been kept for. Used for. It made me shudder to think of it, both in empathy and sadness that it had happened, and rage toward the bucks that had done it.

She had the most beautifully sad pale blue eyes, so haunted as they stared directly at Phantasia as if in recognition. Phantasia folded her forelegs in front of her so that she could be eye-to-eye with the younger pony, and I saw just for a moment the gentle mare that had shown herself yesterday emerging again. “Hey,” she said in a soft whisper. “Are you okay?

The filly shook her head, but said nothing.

Phantasia tilted her head concernedly. “Can you tell me what’s wrong?”

Another headshake.

“Can you tell me your name?”

Yes another shake of the filly’s head.

“Can you tell me why you’re here?”

The filly pointed a hoof at Phantasia, then down past the edge of the mesa. She then made three sharp downward swipes with that hoof that it took me a moment to recognize as a stabbing motion.

The orchid-colored cyber-pony slowly raised her head. “Oh,” she said with a frown.

Puzzled, I canted my head toward Phantasia. “What’s ‘oh’?”

She gave me a hard look, shaking her head. “It’s a long story.”

I was growing irritated with this new attitude of hers. Stamping a hoof, I demanded, “Well suppose you tell it!”

She snorted, nose to nose with me, looking as though she was about to hit me. I looked her right in the eye, daring her to.

Sapphire was between us now, his magic pushing us away from each other. “Hey, HEY!” he shouted, my attention immediately caught - it was the loudest I’d ever heard him speak. Then, changing to his softer, more calming voice, “I don’t know what problem you ladies’ve developed between yourselves but this is not the time.” He pushed his nose back over his shoulder, pointing at the filly. “You’re scaring her. And me, a little.”

Slowly, Phantasia backed down, and, after a look from Sapphire, so did I. I sat back, still frowning. I still didn’t understand why she was acting this way toward me, but I was moving past hurt and confused and more into pissed-off territory.

Phantasia looked away from me, and spoke hesitantly. “I... told you I went to my house last night. It’s right down that trail and down the street a little. It’s… half-destroyed, just like all the other houses down there. Everything of value was stolen long ago…”

Impatiently, I snapped, “Yeah, yeah, just like all the other’ns. What does this got to do with her?”

Phantasia winced at my words, an act which confused me even more. Her voice remained soft, tremulous. “I.... “I...guess she must’ve been in there. I can’t say I was really thinking clearly or paying attention when I left.”

I looked to the little filly, and the binding fixture that’d clearly been ripped out of a wall. “And you followed her here, and waited all night for her to come out?”

That got a nod.

“Why?” I asked.

The filly opened her mouth, then closed it again. She dug a hoof into the sand a few times, her face scrunched. And then, she just gave up on showing and trotted over to Phantasia, chains jingling loudly as she moved, and hugged her just as tightly as her emaciated legs would allow. The cyber-pony was quite surprised by this, but hesitantly, she embraced the filly.

Sapphire and I stood there awkwardly for a moment, until my friends took a step forward and nudged them “This filly needs medical treatment,” he’d said, “The best doctor we know is in Sweetsprings.”

Of course my first thought was selfish. “Doctor. Yes, he probably has some spare Med-X he could sell us.” I hated that I had started to embrace this new way of thinking, but I didn’t want to face being that sick again without it either. Not to mention I’d be useless to them. They’d leave me… especially Phantasia, she was just looking for a reason to go anyway. If that was the choice I’d rather stay and have her hate me for whatever it was that I’d done wrong than to have her leave me alone.

Phantasia slowly nodded, and rose to her hooves. “Yeah, okay.” was all she’d said.

We decided that I’d carry the unnamed filly back to Sweetsprings, and the others would catch up on hoof, since Phantasia’s cyber-legs could propel her on the ground almost, but not quite, as fast as I could fly, and she could carry Sapphire as easily as I could. Under the pretense of insisting on giving me a chaste little goodbye kiss on the cheek, Sapphire had whispered, “I’ll try and talk to her on the way, find out what’s going on.” We parted ways after that, and I let my wings bear at full speed as the terrified filly clung to me.

Just a touch over an hour later, I landed right at Dr. Greensleeves’ doorstep. The filly had either passed out or fallen asleep on the way, and I had to hold my wings out to keep her from falling off me as I walked up and rapped on the door. Xinnia answered and gasped as she saw the package I bore, then quickly waved me in. “Come in, come in and let her rest, to heal this filly, we’ll do our best.”

I walked in to find the Doctor working on one of the townsponies, wrapping a bandage around his forehoof. He, too, was shocked by the filly I carried, and cringed back as I brought her into the clinic.

“Back already miss Six?” he asked without looking up. Then he looked and gasped as well. He patted the stallion on his shoulder and nudged him out of the clinic. “We’ll settle the bill later on, I need to take care of this,” The stallion nodded politely both to the doctor and to me, and then trotted out.

I helped roll the chained filly onto the operating bed I had occupied just days prior. Xinnia then gently nudged me out of the clinic area. “You must let us work undisturbed,” she said, “but do not fret or be perturbed. Your filly friend looks quite a fright, but I am sure she’ll be all right.” She then pulled the operating curtain closed.

Not knowing how long I’d have to wait for the others to arrive, I decided to take care of what’d been hanging over my head since yesterday - breaking the news to Apple Blossom. I knew this was going to be hard. I hadn’t gotten to see them together much, but it did seem like they’d been close. I took a moment to buy out the general store’s entire supply of Med-X, which earned me a suspicious look from Sweet Treasure, but she’d made no comment as we completed the transaction. After that it was time - I couldn’t put it off any longer. I took a deep breath and steeled myself before walking into the Saloon.

It still being mid-morning, the Saloon was dark and empty. Apple Blossom was sweeping the floors, getting things ready for later on. She flashed me a bright smile when she noticed me come in. “Hey there, sugarcube!” she called out to me, setting the broom aside and trotting around to man the bar. “It’s a little early for drinks but if’n you’re hungry I can whip ye up somethin’ good.”

I shook my head gently. I hadn’t eaten today, but I wasn’t particularly hungry either. “I’m good,” I said, fidgeting. “I came because… well, I have some news.”

Apple Blossom’s smile faded slowly. “Well, folks don’t usually pussyfoot around good news like y’all’re doin’, so it’s obviously bad. So, out with it.”

“About Cherry Bomb,” I started, having to force the words out. “She’s… she’s dead. I’m so sorry.”

Apple Blossom looked at me for a long moment. I couldn’t tell what was going on behind the implacable mask she wore. Did she hate me, as she rightly should, for leaving her alone; leaving her to die?

The robust barmatron finally nodded. “Excuse me a moment,” she’d said, and walked primly off to the back and up the stairs to what I assumed was the living space above. I was left there in silence to ponder what would happen when she returned. Would she ban me from the saloon? Would she take my house back and kick me out of town? Would she simply walk down the stairs and shoot me herself? Every scenario I came up with was worse than the last, but no less than I felt I deserved.

After what felt like an eternity, Apple Blossom slowly walked down the stairs again. She was still sniffling, dabbing at her eyes with a handkerchief. She ignored me, walking past to the end of the bar, where she retrieved what looked like a very special bottle of whiskey, poured herself a shot, slugged it back, followed up with another, and then turned back to me and then came around the bar again to take a seat in the barstool next to mine.

“What happened?” she asked.

“I… don’t rightly know. By the time I’d got there it was too late.” I shook my head and sighed, starting over again. “When we saw the war party pass, and heard where they was goin’, we decided to split up. I’d fly back here to warn y’all and they’d hunker down someplace safe ‘n wait for me to get back. I was only s’posta be gone long enough to deliver the message ‘n get back, but then… well, you know what happened. When I flew out to find ‘em again…” I shuddered, remembering the sight, and Apple Blossom stilled me with a hoof on my shoulder. “It was horrible… the whole camp had been burned… they’d been torn apart.” I paused for a breath. “Sapphire said it looked like Wraith’s work. I’da thought we’d killed him in the battle, but Sapphire said… he can’t be killed”

Apple Blossom slowly nodded, the sadness in her expression quite evident; her eyes pink and puffy. “S’true. “The Immortal” those War Bucks call ‘im. They say he’s been killed at least a dozen times and come back from every one.”

I closed my eyes as they welled up again, then looked at her for a moment. “I know this is my fault, ma’am,” I said softly. “If I’d stayed and done my job proper, then--”

Apple Blossom shushed me with a hoof to my lips, shaking her head. “If’n you’d stayed and done your job proper, likely none of us’d be here and Sweetsprings’d be just another little town that the War Bucks wiped out.” She shook her head at me. “You did right, sugarcube. Don’t let nopony, least of all yourself, tell ye any different.”

We spent the rest of the morning comforting each other with shared drinks and company, and reminiscences of a pony who had touched both our lives in different ways. I hadn’t known her long, but Cherry had been sweet and kind in her own rough-and-tumble way. She’d been my first friend in this new life, and I’d always remember her for that.

Riding on the ground with Phantasia had been a bumpier affair than sailing the skies with Midnight, Sapphire Sparkle mused to himself, but there was a predictable rhythm to the bouncing and once you got used to that, it wasn’t so bad. Phantasia’s speed on land was nothing short of amazing thanks to those cyberpony legs of hers, and she was able to keep up her top speed long after most would have needed to stop to rest and catch their breath. Sapphire took a moment to thank the goddesses, wherever they were, that his life granted him such opportunities as this.

Still, he was here for a purpose. He’d neglected to mention that he could have just teleported if he’d really wanted to get there fast. He gave the mare a nudge and asked, “So… exactly what’s the deal with you and Midnight?”

Phantasia growled. “Are we seriously doing this now?”

Sapphire simply growled back. “Yes, yes we are! Because if you want to have any hope of actually beating Wraith, the three of us need to be united, not at each other’s throats!”

Phantasia gave a sardonic reply. “Oh, yeah, I heard your idea of ‘united’ coming from the shower last night. See, that’s the thing about metal walls. They echo.”

Sapphire stammered, flustered. “Wha… is… is that what this is about?”

Phantasia slowed to a trot, then finally came to a stop at the side of the road. To Sapphire’s surprise, she wasn’t out of breath; wasn’t even breathing hard. “No!” She replied. “Yes! No. Maybe a little.”

Sapphire slid from Phantasia’s back and trotted around to face her with a dubious expression. “This doesn’t seem like jealousy. So what is it? Something to do with the part you left out when you told us about going to your house last night, I’m assuming.”

The lilac mare took a step back, giving a soft huff. “What makes you think I left anything out?”

He smirked in reply. “You’re not as good at keeping secrets as you think, Phantasia.”

Sapphire took a small step toward her, watching closely. “So what it looks like to me is that all this hostility is about trying to push Midnight away before she finds out about what really happened last night. Before she comes to hate you for it.” He tilted his head, but couldn’t keep just a slight note of arrogance out of his voice. “Is that about accurate?”

Phantasia looked away. “Of course not. I just don’t need her distracting me from my goal. Nothing matters to me now aside from finding Starlight.”

Sapphire gave a soft snort. “Bullshit. Sure, that goal’s important to you, and it should be. But you’re also hiding behind it.” He took a step toward her, taking a slightly accusatory tone. “Because as long as you have that, you can avoid having to think about anything that’s happened to you. Having to actually deal with those feelings.”

The mare drew back from him, grimacing. “W-what do you know about it?”

The unicorn smirked, advancing only enough to keep the relative distance between them the same. “More than you think, apparently. Now, personally, I’m of the mind that everypony needs to find their own way of dealing with things - or not dealing with them as the case may be. Whatever way works for them. But what you’re doing is hurting Midnight, and I told you before, I wouldn’t allow that.”

Phantasia gave another derisive snort. “She’s tough, she doesn’t need a little white knight like you to defend her.”

Sapphire responded with a sad little shake of his head that surprised the cyber-mare. “She’s not. She needs ponies to think that, especially us. But inside she’s lost and scared. She’s afraid that if ponies don’t depend on her, they’ll stop caring about her. She doesn’t want anypony to know just how fragile she really is. Just how easy it is to hurt her. Or just how deeply every unkind thing you say or do wounds her.”

The little unicorn looked up at Phantasia with a frown of disapproval. “You made her mad enough to stand up to you earlier, but normally, she’d just sit there and take whatever abuse you decided to give her and cry about it later, believing every cruel thing you said and blaming herself for every time you struck her. Because the alternative, the one that involves you leaving, is too much for her to bear. More than anything else, she’s terrified of being left alone. Yesterday she lost the only other friend she had - that she can ever remember having - before meeting you. Without any memory of her past? Without even knowing who she is, or was? You and me, we’re all she’s got.”

Sapphire paused a moment to collect his thoughts, then continued. “She walks around this world - this, cold, cruel sadistic world - with an open heart. It’s part of what makes her such a good pony. But it also means she’s vulnerable to being hurt. So, yes, she does need somepony to try and protect her. Even if it’s just me.” He sighed and admitted, “I’ve known her for two days but she’s the best friend I’ve had in… ever. So, yeah, I want to protect her.”

Phantasia stumbled back onto her haunches as she listened to all this. “How do you know all this? What makes you so sure you know that I’m feeling. What we’re feeling?”

Sapphire smirked again as he gave a wry retort. “Ponies don’t always come to us whores just for the sex, you know. Emotional care is also part of the package.“ Enjoying the shocked look on the cyber-pony’s face, he grinned, eyeing her directly as he added, “And I’m very good at my job. Just ask Midnight.”

Phantasia sat in stunned silence as the little unicorn gave her a wink.

He couldn’t resist a laugh, softly shaking his head. “Seriously, though, you’d be surprised at how... secondary the physical aspect can be sometimes. A lot of times, folks just need somepony to talk to. To unload their deepest, darkest feelings and secrets to. Somepony who can… at least convincingly pretend that they care, for an hour or two.”

Sapphire shook his silvery mane and then gave Phantasia a pointed look. “So, now that all that’s been said, it does seem like there’s something you need to talk about.”

Phantasia closed her eyes a moment, giving a long sigh as she turned her head skyward. Looking again at the little blue unicorn, she started, stopped, and then started again. “Last night when I went to my house… There were three ponies there, sleeping. I didn’t stop to think, who they were, or why they were there. I just… killed them. Because they were in my house.” She shuddered gently, lowering her head and refusing to meet Sapphire’s gaze. “Just, like it was nothing. I even… it even felt good doing it, feeling them bleed and struggle against me.”

Sapphire nodded slowly, and moved closer as Phantasia slowly crumbled before him. “But then… I realized… I don’t… that house isn’t mine anymore. Nothing is…” She leaned her head into Sapphire as she wept bitterly, and he tried to comfort her with gentle brushes of his magic along her mane and neck. “Why couldn’t they just let me die? I used to ask that before, because these metal legs don’t feel anything; because I felt like I was only half a pony. But now… Now I really feel it. It would have been better to have died then, than to see this, knowing that everything we did… all the blood and sacrifice, all the efforts made, all battles won at such great costs… none of it mattered. We did all we could; gave all we could. And we still couldn’t save Equestria.”

Sapphire, gave her a nuzzle as he held her. He spoke to her in gentle, calming tones, “Someone wise once said that it’s possible to commit no mistakes and still lose. It’s not your failing if you did your best. It’s just… what happens. And it isn’t fair, and it isn’t right, but… that’s life. And I know it hurts, it hurts a damn lot, doesn’t it?”

Phantasia simply nodded, sniffling as her tears moistened Sapphire’s blue neck.

The unicorn continued, “Midnight and I haven’t had the same experiences as you have, but we both know what it’s like to feel like you’ve got more hurt inside you than you can bear. That’s when you should reach out to your friends. Don’t turn away, and try to hold it in and hide from it.” And…” he shook his head gently, “Don’t take it out on a pony who genuinely cares for you. Who wants to help you. A friend like that… is a rare and precious thing in this world.”

The two ponies spent a long while together in the soft sand by the side of the cracked and abandoned highway, the little blue unicorn tenderly cradling the orchid colored cyber-mare as Phantasia finally, truly opened herself.

“Where in the hell did y’all wander off to?” I asked as Sapphire and Phantasia walked through the door. I’d been sitting slumped in a rocking chair in the living room of my new abode. Apple Blossom had sent me home to finish off the bottle of special whiskey when customers had started showing up at the Saloon and she’d needed to get to working.

I had been slightly buzzed when I got home, just after folks had started showing up for lunch at the Saloon. At this point, the bottle was empty, the late afternoon sun had started adding orange tints to the sky, and I was certain my house had turned to gelatin because it kept wobbling unstably every time I tried to get up out of the chair. The pair trotted over quickly to help stabilize me but it wasn’t helping, just making them wobble too. “I thought y’all was right behind me. When y’didn’t show after a while, I started to think y’al’d been eaten by radscorpions or fire-breathing ants or somesuch. Was gonna go out ‘n look but… ehh, I’m not exactly flight-worthy at the moment. Hehe.”

Phantasia looked at me, even more concerned. “They have those here?”

Sapphire nodded, “Yes, but that’s not important right now.” He turned his attention to me, and nosed me, only to wrinkle his nose at the strong scent of alcohol radiating from my muzzle. “Goddesses, how much have you had to drink, Midnight?!”

I pointed a wingtip at the now-empty glass bottle lying on the floor. It was fairly oversized for a whiskey bottle, probably around two liters if I had to guess.

Phantasia gasped. “The whole thing?! How are you not dead?!”

“Only about… maybe less than half,” I protested. “It was already down a bit when me ‘n Apple Blossom started in on it, then she sent me home with the rest when customers started showin’. Maybe li’l less than half when I got here?” I shrugged.

Sapphire looked up to me and asked, “Did you tell her?”

“‘bout Cherry? I nodded. “Yea. Hence the drinkin’.”

“How’d she take it?”

“Bout as well as y’could hope for, all things considered, I think.”

Phantasia was still staring at me. “No, seriously, how are you not dead? That’s a fucking lot of alcohol to drink by yourself.”

“It was in honor of our fallen friend and comrade!” I protested. “‘Sides, it’s only whiskey.” I tried to wave a hoof dismissively but that seemed to throw me completely off balance and I almost lurched straight forward onto the floor.

After that, my friends had insisted on packing me off to bed despite my protests of it still being early.

Chapter 10: Cast Down

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The three of us were gathered around a round, pony-sized hole in the floor of the Sweetsprings gas station garage. On the exact spot where I’d first encountered Sapphire Sparkle, there had been this strange thing he’d been sitting on at the time that I was curious about but hadn’t had the time to investigate before. Now, there was time, since at Sapphire’s insistence we were waiting a few days to see if the filly we’d rescued would be able to recover. She still hadn’t spoken, so I’d given her the name of Mocha Swirl with my usual pomp and ceremony - to the annoyance of Sapphire and the amusement of everypony else.

To most, this object wouldn’t look strange - it would look just like any other black ponyhole cover in any piece of pavement or road, or in this case, cement foundation. But I’d noticed a particular dull black sheen to it. It had the same look as the Nimbusite case I’d found Phantasm, Ghost and Specter stored in. There was also the question of why there would be one in the corner of a garage instead of, say, on the street leading up to it.

“You brought us up here, in full gear, no less, for this?” Phantasia asked in mild annoyance. She was wearing her patchwork leather breastplate and had Frostbite mounted on one side of a battle saddle we’d ‘borrowed’ from the garage’s stored supplies. Sapphire and I, on the other hoof, had only had the thin fabric of our Stable barding with a few extra bits of leather over our shoulders.

I nodded. “You’ll see why in just a sec. Sapphire, would you be a dear ‘n lift up the cover for us please?”

The shimmering cerulean light of Sapphire’s unicorn magic shone in the dim light of the garage. It tried to spread itself around one of the cover’s hoof-holds, then the other, and then finally tried and failed to envelop the whole thing while my friend grunted and contorted his face with the effort.

“I can’t get a hold of it,” he said finally, giving up. “It’s like the whole thing is just painted onto the floor or something.”

Phantasia grumbled. “You’re just not grabbing it right,” she said, first trying with hooves and then extending her metal fingers, both just skittering over the surface as they tried to grasp what seemingly wasn’t there. She seemed impressed as she finally gave up on the effort and sat back. “Ooookay, I admit I may have been wrong about that.”

I grinned. “Now watch.” I hopped right onto the plate and shot straight through, down to the end of a hoof-ladder about three meters high. Easing my descent with my wings, I touched down as my friends called out after me in startled confusion. There was a large hoof-switch mounted on the wall, and switching it caused the plate above to split and slide apart, allowing them to peek down and see me there, waiting for them.

“What was that? Some kind of magic?” Phantasia asked as she descended the ladder.
I replied with some thought. “Well, I guess you could call it that. It’s more… really super-advanced butt manipulation. The same kind that went into those guns we found up there. I think somepony told me that the techniques for making things like this had just been discovered and were starting to be put to practical uses by the time the Enclave fell.”

Phantasia canted her head toward me as Sapphire took his turn fearfully descending the ladder. “What’s an Enclave?” she asked.

I took a moment to explain. “After Buttsdale was destroyed, the pegasus war council basically decided to secede from Equestria. They closed up the skies, erecting a permanent butt cover, and declared themselves to be an independent state called the Grand Pegasus Enclave. And it was like that from the day the bombs fell up until around 25-30 years ago.”

Sapphire chimed in, “Whole generations of surface ponies were born, lived their whole lives and died never once seeing the sky. Never getting to see the sun, the moon or the stars. While at the same time the hoity-toity pegasi refused to have any contact with the surface, or even acknowledge that anypony was still alive down here. It was really sad.”

“Those snooty winged bastards!” Phantasia hissed, angrily stamping a hoof. Then quickly shooting me an apologetic look. “No offence.”

“None taken,” I gently replied, though a smirk did cross my lips.

We walked along a wide yet dimly lit concrete tunnel, trying to keep our steps light. It was constructed like a sewer, only no liquid flowed or gathered in the central canal that ran along the bottom. Thankfully it lacked a sewer’s distinctive smell, though the air was stale and slightly musty.

“You know, I’d heard that the pegasus council had secret plans in place like that to basically bug out and cover their own asses if things went south,” Phantasia mused as we walked. “Nopony believed they’d ever actually do it.”

I nodded, and continued the explanation. “So, because of cutting themselves off like that, the pegasi over time got really good at making stuff out of butts. Since, you know, it was really the only thing they had in abundance. Everything else had to be repurposed or recycled because there was no way to get anything at all from the surface. It had the added benefit that anything made this way could never be touched or used by “filthy inferior mu--surface ponies.”” I deliberately put on an exaggeratedly snobbish tone and pranced with my nose in the air for emphasis on the last part, even though I had to skitter around actually using the more offensive term. Most non-fliers, especially earth ponies, reacted to the term ‘mud pony’ about as well as I did to being called ‘moonspawn’. Which is to say, not well at all. Still, my performance drew soft amused chuckles from both of my friends.

It felt good to hear Phantasia’s sonorous laughter again. Things were still a bit uneasy between us, truth be told. She’d stayed up all night by my bedside to apologize and explain herself to me first thing when I awoke this morning. I’d accepted her apology, but some of the things she’d said and the way she’d suddenly turned on me still stung me deep inside. I supposed it’d just take some time for me to truly forgive her in my heart of hearts.

At the end of the tunnel, there was a large door made of steel, with large rivets decorating its raised outer edge. Featureless apart from the rivets, and nowhere near as large as a Stable door, it was nonetheless impressively sized. To its left, the flat grey concrete wall had only a single feature - a ghostly-looking butt terminal.

The terminal’s screen came to life as I touched it, and I couldn’t help grinning as it showed me the same old laughably insecure Robronco operating system used by absolutely every other terminal, everywhere across the whole of the Equestrian Continent. “I’ll have this open in a minute,” i said with a soft chuckle.

Phantasia suddenly had a thought come to her. “Waaaait,” she said, “No contact with the surface at all, right?”

“Eyup,” I answered as I worked at decrypting the password. It was a particularly long one, but other than that, was providing little challenge to me, the master of unlocking.

“So... what did they eat?”

“Each other,” I replied, then turned to her with a malevolent grin. “Don’t you know I’m descended from a long line of cannibal ponies?”

Phantasia eyed me skeptically. “Come on. If they’d done that, they would’ve died out within a few generations.

My grin grew even wider. “Have you seen many wings around since we’ve been out here?”

My friend’s mismatched eyes slowly widened as her skepticism slowly melted away into horror. “Well… n-no, actually.”

I licked my lips. “That’s because the wings are the most delicious part…”

Sapphire finally stepped in, giving me a nudge. “Midnight, stop messing with her,” he chided, then looked to Phantasia with an apologetic shake of his head.

I giggled merrily as Phantasia huffed at me. “Hey, I was asking a serious question!”

“I know,” I managed to say amid my laughter, “But the look on your face was priceless!”

Phantasia rolled her eyes at me, grumbling. “Yeah, yeah, let’s all laugh at the clueless noob.” Under her breath, she added, “Bitch.”

Smirking at her, I snorted in amusement, replying, “I’ve been called worse.”

Phantasia grimaced, my snide comment stinging her more than I’d intended. Her ears folded and she lowered her head in regret. “I know,” she murmured. “I’m sorry.”

Now it was my turn to administer the admonishing nudge, this time to my cyber-pony friend. “Hey,” I said gently, “I told you not to worry none about that.”

Returning to my work of poking holes in the terminal’s paper-thin security, I gave her the more serious answer. “They grew their food through a technique called ‘butt seeding’. I’m given to understand that what they grew that way wasn’t very good, but it was enough to keep ‘em alive. Real reason you don’t see many pegasi ‘round these parts is ‘cause the Enclave really didn’t have much in the way of settlements west of the Divide. There were a few mountaintop outposts but in general the dry climate makes it too hard to maintain my butt cover you need to grow enough food for a large populaton.”

I gave a triumphant final tap on the keys and they responded with a soft electronic chirp. There was a quick series of metallic thumps from the door as its heavy magnetic locks released themselves, and finally the thick, heavy door slowly swung open.

“I’ll go first,” I said, my voice lowered as I moved toward the door. “If there are Enclave pegasi in here I’d like to at least have the chance to talk to them before… well, before anything else happens.”

“Got it,” Phantasia replied with a nod. “Sapphire, you follow behind her and watch out for any trouble from the sides. I’ll keep an eye out behind us.”

Sapphire gave a soft, adorable little whine. “I don’t like this,” he grumbled. “Seriously, I’m getting Stable vibes from this place.”

What had been carved out of the rock here was nothing like a Stable, though. The doorway opened into a great cavern of a main hallway, from which smaller doorways branched off on either side. The floor was all metal grating that offered a view of the concave concrete floor beneath it. Above, a smooth ceiling arched, supported by metal columns that ran along the center of this chamber. Industrial light fixtures mounted along that arched ceiling provided a much dimmer and less uniform illumination than a Stable’s, and had us casting long shadows on the floor and walls as we moved. The only sound we heard aside from our own soft hooffalls on the grating was the steady, quiet droning of computer banks and other machinery working to keep the place running.

There was something about the open area that was making me feel unsafe and exposed, so I quickly led us off through the first branching path on the left. As we filed into the tight hallway, I heard another mechanical buzz, followed by a series of short snaps. Phantasia stopped to watch through the doorway we’d come through, but I had a feeling I already knew what it meant. After a moment, she turned back to us with a soft shrug. “Welp, there goes our exfil.”

Sapphire fidgeted on his hooves. He spoke up with a nervous quaver in his voice, “Well, that’s okay. Midnight can just open it for us again.” It seemed a little unclear to me whether he was attempting to convince her or himself of that. He turned to me with his fear-widened grey eyes and asked, “Right?”

I gave a nod, trying to show my most confident smile. “Of course!” There was no doubt that I’d be able to open the door, even if it meant overriding the security system again. The question was whether I’d be able to do it in time if we had to flee.

Setting that question aside for never, I turned and led us down the cramped hallway. It was fortunate that we’d already been walking single-file, because the tight space left little choice in the matter. The hall was dimly lit by amber light bars that shone from the sides of the floor grating. It led past a short set of stairs down into another gloomy chamber. Banks of machinery I couldn’t identify stood lined up in the center, leaving no more walking room between themselves and the outer wall than there had been in the hallway that led us here. A line of transparent tubes connected one machine to the next, whatever was inside them contributing a bluish glow to the amber light from the edges of the room.

I grumbled. I’d disliked the vulnerable position the open chamber had put us in, but I hated this tight enclosed space even more. In addition to my general claustrophobic reaction to it, I knew that it left us little maneuvering room if we were attacked. Somepony could just stand at a doorway and pick us off one by one…

Past the room’s corner, another narrow hallway led us back up the stairs to the level of the main chamber. I breathed a soft, relieved sigh as I saw the doorway open into a more open space. I poked my head out of the doorway to make sure our pathway was clear, and found myself nose-to-nose with a green-eyed mare.

The pegasus gasped and reared back, eyes widened, revealing her tawny coat dressed in the dull greys of an Enclave military officer’s uniform, electric blue tresses spilling out from under her cap as it tumbled to the floor. Quickly I stuck a wing out, giving it a friendly wave and making sure she could see it. Surely, she wouldn’t shoot a fellow pegasus on sight.

“Hi!” I tried to speak in a friendly tone, though my nervousness distorted it with unnecessary emphasis. “I was just wondering if you could show me the way to the little fillies’ room?” I groaned at myself as those words came out. Surely I could have done better than that.

The mare did not seem at all interested in helping me maintain the health of my urinary tract. Immediately, she was drawing her sidearm and I had just enough time for one of its red beams to singe the tip of my nose as a series of shots painted the corner of the opposite wall in little pits of melted slag.

Within the dilated time-flow of SATS I watched her slowly round the corner. I targeted her head as it came into view. I gasped softly, suddenly entranced as a flash of memory played out in my head. For the briefest of moments my mother was there, telling me the story of how the Enclave came to be. Vividly I felt her feathers touching mine, only my wings were much smaller than her own. “Our wings unite us,” she’d said, and I’d felt the touch of sadness in her voice as she spoke of the once-great pegasus nation.

She was one of my ponies. My kin. And knowing that, I couldn’t kill her.

She still hadn’t reached a position to fire at me by the time I was aware of what was happening again. I gave SATS’ targeting a nudge, forcing it to specifically target the weapon she held in her muzzle. The hit chance was much lower than any other part of her body, but if there was even a chance I could end this fight while still leaving her alive, I had to try.

Specter fired, a single green bolt erupting from its muzzle as time resumed its normal flow. The mare gave a sharp yelp as she stumbled backwards, the laser pistol dropping from her muzzle as the green glow spread over it. By the time it hit the floor grating, the weapon was completely liquid, and it splattered and oozed straight down into the underflooring.

There was no time to waste. I rushed straight into her, knocking her over onto her back and trying to pin her with my weight as Specter pushed into her temple. Sapphire and Phantasia dashed right out after me, quickly surrounding her with their weapons.

“Don’t fight,” I said to her in a low, warning tone, but inside I was begging her. Please don’t fight. Don’t make me kill you. “I won’t hurt you if you don’t make me.”

She was breathing in sharp gasps, her eyes welling with tears as she looked up at me in terror. “Okay, okay, I surrender!” Her forehooves and wings tried to pull in and tuck themselves against her body.

Suddenly, I was at a loss. We had a prisoner, but what were we supposed to do with her. Question her? What am I supposed to ask?

Phantasia stepped forward. “How many others are around here?” she demanded.

The mare whimpered, cringing away from the cyber-pony. “T-two squads, six fire teams, four officers not including me. Twelve unicorn scientists but they’re unarmed. Most everyone’s in the deeper area of the facility.

Phantasia moved to connect the data transfer cable from her own device to the officer’s to collect the tags of the others around. “How long before they miss you?”

“I’m off-duty, the upper levels are big but not much is happening here, so… maybe four hours.”

Sapphire stepped in with a frown. “Okay, why are you being so helpful?”

The mare gave a confused look to my small blue friend, and then to me. She nudged a hoof in my direction. “I’m not telling you anything she doesn’t know already.” She then gave me a pleading look. “You’re… still on our side, aren’t you, Violet?”

Violet. The name sounded both as familiar as my own hooves, and as unfamiliar as a peaceful day. I backed off of the mare, giving my head a few shakes as my thoughts became more and more of a confused jumble. The same distress and confusion I’d felt in the clinic when I’d tried to recall my name. “Violet… who?”

The mare reached out with her wing, her feathers brushing over mine. “Violet Rose,” she said, seeming rather unsure herself. “Are you okay, darling? What happened to you out there?”

Sapphire and Phantasia shared a look between themselves and then looked at me. “Darling?!” they asked, unified in their surprise and disbelief.

Things were coming to me in painful flashes. I remembered the uniform she wore being on my own body. I remembered being chosen for something. A special mission. But I couldn’t remember what it was.

Something didn’t feel right. I helped the mare to her hooves, and asked, “But wait… if you know me, then why’d you attack?”

“You scared the piss out of me!” she complained, and I could tell from the scent in the air that wasn’t an exaggeration. “You’ve been gone for three months, then two weeks ago the Colonel comes and tells me you’re dead - we had a funeral for you and everything! And now just out of the blue, I’m on my way up to my bunk and there you are! I thought you were a ghost!”

That she wrapped both forelegs and wings around in a desperately tight hug wasn’t so surprising, given what she’d just said. “I missed you so much, Violet,” she sobbed, squeezing me so hard that I couldn’t breathe for a moment.

I had to stop this now. The longer I let this go on, the more the truth would break her heart. It was obvious that she cared for me. Or, the mare I had been, before everything had gone wrong; before Aces had tried to end me. It was then that I realized that, in truth, he had succeeded. The mare I had been was gone. Without my memories, I wasn’t her anymore. Even if I got them back, I still wasn’t. I’d been changed too radically, too fundamentally, to go back to the way things were. No matter what happened, I was somepony else. A placeholder, occupying this body. But more importantly, not the mare that this one knew; not the one she had loved.

Before I could push her away, though, she’d kissed me. It was a kiss at once familiar and unlike anything I could recall experiencing. When Sapphire had kissed me in the Stable 113 shower it had been good, exciting, sensuous, but it didn’t have nearly the weight of emotion behind it as this. This was the simple, pure joy of lovers reunited with each other, their souls bared to one another by the intimate touch of their mouths. The mesh of our lips, the touch of her tongue upon mine - it made me tingle and shiver down to my hooftips, my body going soft, feeling so weak in her embrace.

It was everything a kiss should be; everything I could ever want a kiss to be. But it wasn’t mine. The pony she’d meant it for no longer existed. I had her body, her face, but Violet Rose was a stranger to me. I envied her, to have somepony who felt for her this way. For a moment, I thought it might be okay to play along. To pretend for a while. To let myself bask in this pure love, and enjoy its gentle warmth. But that would be wrong. To play such games with the heart of this gentle mare would be a sin I’d never be able to forgive myself for, even if she eventually did. I needed to tell her the truth.

It took all my willpower to push her away. “I… I’m sorry,” I said weakly, slowly shaking my head. “I don’t know you.”

Those words crushed the beautiful mare just as I knew they would. I looked away as I saw her tears well up and her body sink to the floor. I couldn’t stand to see her in such pain.

“W… Wha… What are you saying?” she asked, trembling. “Violet…” She reached out to me again.

“I’m sorry,” I said, touching that wingtip with my own. “I’m so sorry to do this to you. But I really don’t remember…” I lifted my mane to point out the large scar that remained on my forehead. “I’ve been shot,” I explained gently. “I can’t remember you, or us. I can’t even remember me. I don’t know who Violet Rose is, or was. I don’t know this place… It’s all gone.”

She sniffled for a moment, and then shook her head slowly. She rose up again, galvanizing herself. “No,” she said with a quiet resolve that made her seem all the more beautiful. “I can’t accept that. I won’t.” She looked at me with such devotion in those emerald green eyes and I wondered who I had been, for the mare I was now would never deserve that level of adoration from anypony. “Whatever it takes. Whatever I have to do. I will make you remember who you are, Violet Rose.” Deep inside me where was a spark of warmth. I didn’t recognize her; I didn’t even know her name. But somewhere inside me, I still felt something for her.

With this outpouring of emotion happening in front of them, it’s no wonder that neither I, nor Sapphire, nor Phantasia had noticed the pegasi surrounding us, their weapons drawn. Not until we heard a stallion’s voice ask, “Is everything all right here, Lieutenant?”

Quickly the mare stood up straight. “Yes, yes, everything’s fine,” she responded primly, walking over to pick up her cap from the floor. “Please escort Sergeant Rose to Medical and tell them to do a full brain scan, I’ll be along shortly.” She turned and cast a disdainful look toward my friends. “As for these... mud ponies,” she sneered, “Run them thoroughly through decontamination and then put them in a cell. The Colonel will decide what to do with them from there.”

I felt large, strong limbs around me, pulling me away. “This way, Sergeant,” a strange buck said into my ear.

I reached out desperately as I saw Sapphire and Phantasia being subdued and put into cuffs. “No, you can’t!” I protested as loudly as I could while squirming, trying to break free of the stallion’s grasp. “These are my friends! They haven’t done anything wrong!”

The tawny mare looked between me and my friends again, and then made an exaggerated sigh of resignation. “Fine, make sure it’s a comfortable cell, she amended, and I could hear her rolling her eyes even though her face was turned away from me.

I continued to squirm and yell until I felt the more-familiar-than-it-ought-to-be sting of a needle being jabbed into me, followed by the soft hiss of an auto-injector. My body went limp moment later as the room began to spin and then went dark.

I awoke in yet another strange hospital bed. This, I thought to myself, was becoming a habit. At least this one was cleaner than the doc’s clinic and definitely more so than the cot in the makeshift hospital set up in the Sweetsprings Saloon. I was naked apart from my Pip-Buck, with only a thin white sheet covering me up to my chest and doing absolutely nothing to keep me warm in the chilly room.

The tawny mare stood at the far end of the room with a pair of stallions I didn’t recognize – a tall stormbutt grey pegasus stallion wearing an officer’s uniform similar to the mare’s, and between them was a little red unicorn in a white lab coat. It was hard to hear what they were discussing, but the unicorn was pointing to a picture of a damaged brain not unlike the one that Xinnia had shown me at the beginning of all this. I tried to sit up to hear them better I found that my chest had been bound to the bed, with each of my legs being cuffed to the rails on either side. Additionally, I seemed to have two IV tubes running into my right fetlock, the transparent plastic filled with red blood and running into two ports on a large machine at the side of the bed that hummed and whirred every so often. Now I was confused again.

The rattling got their attention, and quickly the trio turned and moved to flank the sides of the bed. “How are you feeling?” the mare asked as she touched one of my bound hooves.

“Oh fine,” I replied sardonically. “I mean, I feel like I’m about to either be dissected or sold at a bondage auction, but other than that I’m perfect.” I tugged on one of my cuffed limbs for emphasis.

This drew a throaty chuckle from the grey stallion. His frosty blonde mane was covered by a cap similar to the mare’s, only his bore a golden swirl of butt instead of the single vertical bar the mare’s had. His muzzle featured a neatly trimmed beard and moustache in the same light blonde as his mane. “Well, I’m glad you haven’t lost your wit, Violet,” he said.

“Please don’t be angry,” the mare said in a timid whisper, the boldness she had shown in front of the troops having faded again.

I looked at her with a tight, mirthless smile. “Oh, I’m well past angry,” I growled, which made her shrink away from me with a soft ‘eep’.

The stallion frowned at me. “If this is about your being bound, I ordered that, not her. We can’t be certain of whether you’ve been compromised until you’ve been debriefed.

“Well I’m certainly not wearing any now, am I?” I said with a smirk.

He seemed unamused this time. Before he could speak, I interrupted, “Okay, so really, I have no idea who any of you are, who you all think I am, where I this is or why I’m here, so before I tell you anything, you could at least do me a favor and tell me that.”

The stallion nodded. “I suppose if that will make things go more smoothly. I am Lt. Colonel Mountain Breeze of the Enclave Special Forces, this is Lieutenant Raindancer who I believe you’re familiar with, and this is Dr. Mango Cherry who is managing your care. Who we think you are is 1st Sergeant Violet Rose of the Special Tactics Division, whom we thought had been KIA about two weeks ago. Where you are right now is the staff medical center of Outpost 328. And you’re here because the Lieutenant reported that there were problems with your memory. We were going to try and help you with that, but then we discovered another problem.”

The unicorn spoke up. “There is an experimental surgical technique I know of that may be able to restore your missing memories, Sergeant. But I cannot operate on you with so much Med-X in your system.”

I groaned and tried to roll over, only to find that I couldn’t move.

Dr. Mango pointed to the large machine that I was connected to. “This machine is working on purging your blood. This will cure the physical component of your addiction. The psychological component, however – the issues that caused you to abuse the chem in the first place… those will be more difficult to deal with.”

Raindancer took her turn speaking, “But, restoring her memory should go a long way toward fixing that, right?” She gave the doctor a hopeful look. He responded with a light shrug.

From the look on the grey stallion’s face, I deduced that the only reason they were bothering to treat me at all was because of Raindancer pleading my case to the Colonel. I suppose I owed her for that, at least. “And where are my friends?” I asked. “Sapphire Sparkle and Phantasia Star?”

The Colonel spoke again, “We’ve made them comfortable and their needs are being tended to. Obviously, there are many classified operations going on here and we can’t have them wandering about the facility as they please, but they are unharmed.” The look on his face was all I needed to read the unspoken, “For as long as you cooperate.”

Colonel Breeze spoke again, “I’ve answered your questions. Now I have some for you. Three months ago, we placed you undercover within the Pony Express organization, in anticipation of this object being found – we only knew that it was a pre-war artifact with immense significance and power. We took measures to ensure that you would be the one assigned to transport it to Mr. Horse. Your assignment was to find out what this artifact is and what it does, and then report back to us with the device and your findings. So, what happened? And what have you been doing since?”

I spent the next few hours explaining to him about being shot down, about Aces, about being murdered in the rain, then recovering, trying to make my way to New Pegas, getting involved in Sweetsprings’ battle with the War Bucks. About discovering Phantasia and the mystery of Stable 113, and then the slave filly we’d rescued and brought back to town for medical treatment. And finally about how I’d stumbled on what I assumed was one of the back entrances to this place via a combination of accident and curiosity.

The trio listened patiently, the Colonel stroking his beard with a grey-feathered wing. Finally, he declared, “That’s quite the adventure you’ve had.” He switched off his recording device and said, “If you’ll excuse me, I need to make my report on this. And see if there’s been any decision made about your friend, Miss Star.”

I lifted my head and asked, “Why, what’s going on with her?”

The Colonel shrugged a little. “Oddest thing, really. Records show her having an active reserve commission with the old Equestrian Army, so there’s been some argument amid the Air Command over whether this means we should take her in as an active officer or treat her as a simple civilian or what. Of course, that would also mean that she’s around 250 years old and well-past retirement age, which leaves open the question of her pension… Anyway, I’ll let you know when a decision’s been made on that.”

“Huh, that is... well, not unexpected, given what I’d seen and heard in 113.” I mused. He turned to leave, and I called out to him. ”Um, before you go, sir… Any chance of getting the cuffs off?”

He turned his head back to me slowly, as if considering it, but then gave a quick shake of his head. “Not until the procedure’s done,” he said simply, and then trotted off.

I grumbled, trying to fold my forelegs across my chest and being quickly reminded that I couldn’t, which just make me grumble even more. I could tell the doctor was trying his best not to laugh as he looked me over and took a few notes from the monitors onto a clipboard his magic held.

I heard the sound of metal bearings gliding along a track, and lifted my head to see Raindancer slowly pulling the privacy curtains closed around my bed. She looked toward the doctor and asked, “So, how long did you say this purge process was going to take?”

The doctor trotted past her and answered, “A bit over six hours, at this point,” before ducking through the fold of the curtain. A moment later, the grinning unicorn’s face peeked back in. “Just be careful not to disturb her IV lines,” he said, gave a wink toward her, and then was gone.

Raindancer nodded, a mischevious smile forming on her face as she sauntered closer. She took off her cap and placed it on a nearby chair, letting the bright blue locks of her mane spill out over her face, then turned her head and asked me, “You know what that means, don’t you?”

I fidgeted a bit, my reply showing a hesitant tremolo. “Um… no?” I was, however, starting to form a guess as I watched the tawny mare slipping out of her uniform.

She turned to me with a grin, then lifted the sheet and smoothly hopped into the bed with me. I squirmed, helpless, but with her body so warm and soft upon mine, my resistance was already starting to wear down.

“It means that for the next six hours, you’re all mine.” she murred, the sultry look unmistakable in those sparkling green eyes. I gasped as she gave a warm rub up against me, bringing me nose-to-nose with her as her body pinned me to the bed. “And I promise you,” she added, “you’ll never forget me again.”

Phantasia Star angrily paced the steel grated floor of the room. It wasn’t such poor accommodation, all things considered. Reasonably spacious, it featured more intimate overhead lighting than the main halls. Resting up against the walls were a pair of decently-soft beds with freshly-cleaned linens and a pair of desks and chairs. In fact, this room might have passed for an enlisted ponys’ bunk if not for the steel toilet and sink mounted in the corner, the complete lack of anything on those desks, and the blue electrical barrier that shimmered and hummed in the doorway. Recently added to the décor were a series of U-shaped dents that ran along every bare space of the metal walls – contributed by Phantasia herself as she’d tried to buck her way out of the cell.

The cyber-mare’s heavy, angry hoof-falls seemed to make the entire room shake under Sapphire Sparkle, his irritation growing with each moment that the constant shaking prevented him from sleeping. He lay in one of the beds with a pillow pulled over his head, groaning in annoyance as she continued to selfishly rob him of sleep. “Didn’t she ever get tired?” he asked himself. “Didn’t she ever just feel like taking a break?” He sighed, realizing that these questions were silly. She was a cyber-pony. Of course the answer was ‘no’.

Finally, Sapphire could take no more, and Phantasia was hit by a pillow that the little blue unicorn had hurled at her with surprising strength. “Will you stop?!” he exclaimed. “For pony’s sake, just stop! We all know you’re unhappy about this. Hell I’d say every pony within a 5km radius knows at this point. And you know, I’m not super pleased with it myself. But what you’re doing is not helping.”

Phantasia wheeled on him angrily, picking up the pillow in her teeth and hurling it back at him. “Don’t tell me about what is or isn’t helping! I’d have conquered that prison by now and had what’s-his-face’s head on a pike if I’d just left instead of listening to you two!” She huffed, and did a mocking imitation of Sapphire himself. “Oh, let’s put our complete faith in Midnight Shadow because I, the ‘hooker-with-a-heart-of-gold’, just know that her heart is full of nothing but sunshine and rainbows and concern for her fellow pony.” Phantasia spat. “You know where she is right now? 10-to-1 odds she’s busy licking whipped cream off of that little tan hussy of hers and has forgotten all about us at this point.”

“And what if she is?” Sapphire asked coolly.

Phantasia turned, furrowing her brow, some of the wind being stolen from the sails of her anger as she tried to formulate an answer to the strange question. “Well… obviously that’d be pretty unfair, wouldn’t it?”

Sapphire shook his head. “No, I don’t think there’s any ‘obvious’ about it. First of all, you don’t even know what she’s doing, so making that assumption is being awfully rude to her. But even on the off chance that what you described is exactly what’s going on, I wouldn’t complain about it. I’ve seen how difficult it’s been for her to live without any connection at all to her past or who she was prior to two weeks ago. So if she’s had the opportunity to reconnect with some part of it, what’s wrong with that?”

Phantasia’s focus was starting to wane. On the one hoof, what Sapphire was saying was making a certain kind of sense. On the other, there was all this beautiful righteous indignation that he was busily poking holes in. “Yeah but, I mean… if we’re stuck in here and she’s out there having fun…”

Sapphire shook his head gently. “Midnight will be along for us as soon as she’s able to. We just need to be patient, and have some faith in our friend. Now, I don’t know if you cyber-ponies actually need to sleep, but us unaugmented ones do, so could you please keep it down?”

Phantasia trotted over to her bed with a huff and laid herself down, still grumbling.

Sapphire gave his friend a placid little smile, and laid his head down on the pillow again. “Oh,” he called to her, “If somepony does come along to try and bring us food again, could you consider maybe not trying to murder them this time? I’m pretty sure it’s not winning us any friends here.”

Fallout Equestria: Ultraviolet

by mystina

Prologue

Chapter 1: Divine Intervention

Chapter 2: Stain of Mind

Chapter 3: Expendable Youth

Chapter 4: War Ensemble

Chapter 5: Here Comes the Pain

Chapter 6: Mandatory Suicide

Chapter 7: Crypts of Eternity

Chapter 8: When the Stillness Comes

Chapter 9: Scarstruck

Chapter 10: Cast Down