Train Spotter walked through one of the gates at Forks and eyed the ponies with his head raised up high. The town contained an impressive amount of commotion. A wide variety of emotions were on their faces. Excitement, fear, worry, and hope consisted in most of them. The town was growing at an accelerated rate renovating old buildings or making new ones. As the rumors had said, the town was shifting from a casino town to a residential one turning this town of sin to one ponies lived in. The destruction of the Stones and their casino changed the town and many ponies refused to live in slums any longer. The Stones weren’t there to oppress the townsfolk anymore. Forks had the makings of a proper town now. Not that Train cared what the little ponies did being an evolved pony and all.

The general chaos made it impossible to find anypony and these lesser ponies got in the way. One would think the Stones destruction would lessen Forks’s population. Was everypony from the slums crammed in here? How could anypony find Vital Care in this mess?

None of the inns that Train checked gave him any results. Vital said to meet him at a Daisy Inn, but the innkeeper said his ally had never shown up. How irritating.

Train sighed and wandered the town. He checked the bars next decided that to be his next best bet. On his way, he saw a foal with an ice cream cone. A vendor was selling them from a stall. Licking his lips, he pulled some sand from a bag he had draped over his back with a hoof. As the filly passed him with her parents, he threw the sand under her hooves and used his power Fly. The filly yelped in surprise as she lost her hoofing and fell on her face. In the commotion and incoming fall, Train grabbed the ice cream cone from her hooves and walked in the opposite direction. The parent yelled in protest, but he was long gone before they could do anything. The filly looked around for her cone confused. He smiled as he enjoyed his new ice cream cone. Some might call him mean or even cruel, but he was a greater pony so why shouldn’t he take what he wanted from the sheep of the masses?

Each bar came up empty. He asked around, but nopony had seen Vital. He grunted in frustration as he finished his ice cream cone. Did Vital leave for Zinnia without him? Didn’t they have a job to do together? He hadn’t worked together with this pony personally, but he had hoped the stallion would be more professional.

It didn’t matter, from what he had heard the stallion had been a prick and narcissist. So much so he fancied himself an alicorn of all things and used his power to give himself wings. Some ponies. Well, everypony knows what comes before a fall. Hold on, could it be possible he somehow got himself killed in the process of coming here? Naw, crazy idea. The pony was too powerful for that possibility. Still, he supposed it wouldn’t hurt to check.

“A stallion with wings and a horn?” The older pony scratched his head and put down his shovel. “Yeah, some ponies brought him in a few days ago. Got himself shot in a nasty fight and left his body in a terrible state.”

Train held his breath. The idiot got himself killed. What was he doing getting himself into random gunfights?

“What happened?” Train asked.

The old stallion shrugged. “I just bury the bodies.”

Train let out a curse. Now he had to do the mission all by himself. There wasn't time to get a replacement and everypony else had their own job. Oh well, nothing he could do about it. He would have to hurry to Zinnia and work out a new plan since it was a one pony operation now. It would just take some creative thinking. Not too difficult to a higher super intelligent pony like himself. How would he explain this to the boss though?

The old stallion laughed. “Maybe the Black Cat had something to do with it. Craziness seems to follow wherever she goes. They found the body in a pretty odd state. Lost a leg even.”

“Who?”

“You know. The Hero of Foalsom Prison.”

Train waved a dismissive hoof. How could anypony in this day and age care about silly little-outdated things like heroes? They died in droves in the Wasteland. There was no place for ponies like them. Only superior beings like him mattered.

Well, whatever. Vital Care died in some freak murder case. No doubt he got careless and messed up. Who cared how he died or who killed him? It didn’t matter and the fake alicorn only had himself to blame. Turns out he wasn’t one of the great ones after all. With that, Train left without a word to one of Fork’s exits. He had better things to do than bother caring about Vital’s fate.

---

“Are you okay Scavenger?” Break asked eying her friend with worry. He had been trailing behind as they traveled.

"I-I’m fine.” Scavenger replied panting his head dripped with sweat.

"We are taking a rest.” Break gave no room for argument and they rested behind a large boulder.

Scavenger scowled as he laid against the rock. Break tried to ask him questions, but he said nothing in reply. She gave up and just enjoyed the cold stone on her back. Her friend had been through a lot in the last few days. Besides the bruises, he looked emotionally drained and hadn’t been sleeping well. She wanted to comfort him, but he closed himself off to her. Did he think himself too much of a stallion to talk about his feelings with her? How ridiculous.

Thinking about it though, it surprised her how well she took all the horrible things that had happened to her lately. She almost died in that vault and it didn’t even bother her. It didn’t even cause her to blink. She got the occasional bad dream, but she had taken everything that had happened in the last few months surprisingly well. Should she be more traumatized than this? It was crazy how adaptable she was.

She crossed her front legs and scowled. She felt like such a freak and having strange powers didn’t help. Break looked back at her friend who continued to brood and she put a leg around him. There was at least something she could do.

“If you ever need to talk, I’m here.” Break said.

Scavenger gave her a weak smile. “T-thanks. I-I just need time to t-think and be a-alone.”

“I understand.” Break didn’t want to push the issue. Scavenger would open to her in time. Still, she worried about him. Something bad happened to him and it damaged his very soul the poor thing. She didn’t deserve this one bit.

They took a twenty-minute break before moving on again with no time to waste. Break had a bad feeling and knew almost for certain they would soon have another terrible and terrifying confrontation with the Cosas. It was just her luck. She planned to win and wanted to protect Scavenger with everything she had.

Her eyes brightened as the old mill came into view and did a quick scan of the building and found no signs of any life and let out a breath of relief. She feared that it might be a hideout for some raiders, but it looked like no one had even stepped a hoof in it for some time.

“Come on.” Break said. “Let’s see if there is anything we can use.”

---

It turns out the place wasn’t as empty as Break first thought. The place was crawling with feral ghouls that attacked them on sight. Ghouls were ponies mutated by radiation into strange semi-immortal creatures that appeared like dried out husks. Unfortunately, something about them makes them eventually lose their minds and turn feral. Ponies insensitively referred to them as zombies. She used her power to throw Scavenger to a catwalk above them and reversed gravity to join him.

“C-C-Celestia cursed things!” Scavenger cursed and pulled out a sidearm, but Break put a hoof to stop him.

"No, just leave them alone." It was a terrible fate to have your mind regress like that and become a mindless monster, but she didn't have the heart to hurt the poor things. They didn't deserve to die.

“B-Break, they’ve feraled.” Scavenger tried to reason with her. “They better off d-dead.”

Break shook her head. “No, there might be a way to cure them one day.” It was a distant hope, but these ponies weren’t monsters. They were just sick and you don’t shoot somepony for getting a cold.

Scavenger stared at her like she was crazy, but soon sighed and nodded. “O-Okay, now w-what?”

That’s a large number of ghouls. Where did they all come from? She saw at least thirty of them lumbering around down there and more coming out doorways. They tried to climb up after them, but they didn’t have the mind to figure out how to get up here. This complicated things.

“H-hey, we could sick the g-ghouls on them.” Scavenger brightened. “W-we lure them in here and k-kill t-them while t-they are t-trying to f-fight off all the g-ghouls.”

“No way.” Break wanted none of these ghouls to be hurt, and she knew the Cosas would shoot at them given the chance even if they weren’t an immediate threat.

“T-they’re feral g-g-ghouls Break. T-They would k-kill us if g-given the c-chance. T-there’s likely n-no c-cure whatsoever.”

“That doesn’t make it right!”

“F-fine, but don’t h-hesitate to k-kill them if they get c-close.”

Break blinked at him. Why would she do that? Did he forget about her powers? She could just punch them away and that wouldn’t hurt them that much. These things had an amazing ability to heal. There’s no need for anypony to get hurt. Break knew this was a weakness of hers, but she couldn’t help it. She didn’t like seeing anyone hurt. The only reason she was fighting the Cosas in the first place was that they wanted to kill her first. Is it wrong to have compassion in the Wasteland?

After ten minutes of searching, they got a good idea of the condition of the mill. Age had rusted the equipment ruining it beyond repair. Break had hoped to find something they could use in their ambush, but nothing appeared to be all that useful. Something caught her eye, however. When they approached the basement, her PipBuck’s magical radiation detector buzzed like crazy. That ghouls liked the area was a big indicator of a large leak of radiation. The kind that would kill a pony in minutes.

“I wonder what might cause that?” Break asked as she used her power to push any ghouls that tried to attack them away.

“I-I have some a-anti-radiation p-pills if you want to c-check it out.” Scavenger pulled out a bottle from his tool bag.

“Might as well check it out.” Break sighed. “I will check it out. Watch out for ghouls while I’m down there okay?”

She winced at the taste of the bitter pills taking a strong dosage. Even then, these levels of radiation worried her and decided to see a doctor just in case later.

It soon became clear what the cause of the intense radiation was. Break kept her distance as she abandoned it and hid behind a box out of the side of the ghouls milling about. Not that she would dare get any closer even with the pills she'd taken. Her PipBuck’s radiation detector buzzed like crazy showing the reactor as the source of the high amount of radiation. The reactor was a long glass tube with a metal rod inside that spins at a dizzying speed. Finding the crack in the tubing wasn't difficult and the machine glowed ominous green light. Through age or damage, Break found it impossible to tell. The machine was pumping out an insane amount of energy far more than a mere mill would ever want or need. She found it a miracle the thing was even running at all.

The design puzzled Break and she’d never seen anything like it. An experimental new reactor maybe? The thing looked much newer than the rest of the factory. She checked a terminal she found to confirm her hypothesis. After some digging through logs, she found what she needed. They brought the new reactor in a month before the Megaspells hit Equestria. She had to go through at least ten pages of the head forepony complaining about the reactor’s needlessly complicated design and how stupid and pointless adding it to the mill was. They didn't need this much energy, but the higher-ups didn't care about its impracticality. Stable-tech had provided it to them and they wanted to kiss up to the company which in the last days of Equestria was becoming crazy powerful. He also expressed worry about the reactor’s stability and stated more than once the high possibility of it blowing sky high. Any damage to it could be catastrophic.

"Well, ponyfeathers.” They needed to get out of here right now. A surge of fear went through her as she looked at the reactor again. Forget the ambush. She didn’t want to be anywhere near this thing.

Scavenger jumped in surprise when Break tore the door open of the room in a rush.

“W-what’s w-wrong?” Scavenger asked already fearing the worst.

Break explained the reactor situation. She pointed at the door and gestured how they needed to get out of here now.

“W-wait, w-we can use t-this.” Scavenger said getting excited. “W-we can use the r-reactor to kill the C-Cosas. B-blow as soon as they g-get c-close and the r-radiation f-finishes t-them off.”

“I don’t know.” Break replied tensing. So much of this could go wrong. No, everything could go wrong and with her luck, it would.

They argued about this for about ten minutes. Break refused to let go of her running away from the dangerously unstable reactor plan. Her stubborn refusal frustrated Scavenger and refused to back down on his point too. They tensed when the sound of a can hitting a wall sounded through the empty mill. That was the alarm Scavenger had set up if anypony tried to enter one of the doors of the mill. Somepony was here.

---

"Oh, ponyfeathers!” Banana Twist flew down from the top of the building and landed next to Robin at impressive speed. She must’ve feared a booby trap. No explosion came, however, thank Celestia. He hoped they hadn’t the time to make any real traps besides warning alarms. Still, he had to give them that the warning system was an impressive trick.

"Relax." Nightingale made a smirk. "It was just a can."

Banana glared at him. “And now they know we are here. That can’t be a good thing.”

Robin ignored the two’s bickering and examined the building. He found it to be in poor shape and wondered how much it would take to bring it down. Robin had hoped for Banana to sneak in from the top and set an explosive at a few support beams collapsing the whole building and catch the two unaware when it went off.

He checked the windows expecting to see either the filly or Scavenger ready to pick off any intruders or at least scope out the situation, but not even a shadow showed up. He chided himself for being so jumpy. There were only two of them and were only amateurs. Though he knew from experience that amateurs could also be the most dangerous because you could never predict what they might do. On the other hoof, he didn’t think they really had anything set up, but he didn’t feel keen about running around in there to chase them down. The building was huge and finding them won’t be easy. The last thing he wanted was one of his ponies picked off during the search.

Ray was already of the game and peeking into a ground floor window scooping out the place with Spitzer joining in with him. With a shake of the head, Robin knew they weren’t visible at the moment. Ray froze and made a hoof gesture that Robin recognized and cursed. Feral ghosts how wonderful. He feared as much. These building almost always had some life in it. Pony, monster, giant killer insects or otherwise. Another annoying complication. He confirmed the ghouls’ presence when one passed through a nearby window.

Ray sneaked back to him. “The place is crawling with ghouls with some shining ones.”

“What, come on!” Nightingale said. “Can’t the Black Cat pick someplace easy?”

The mission had become more difficult. Now they had to dodge ghouls while worrying about their two boogies sneaking up on them. Robin's instincts told him rushing inside would be a terrible idea.

"Listen up," Robin said after a moment of thought, "we are sticking with the collapsing building plan. They know we are here, but not our plans."

"Right, sneak in stealth like and plant to the bombs with the filly and ghouls none the wiser," Spitzer said, "sounds fun. I should be able to pick the weakest places in the building no problem."

Yes, that strange power of his, but Robin couldn’t deny his usefulness and nodded. “Spitzer and I set the bombs. I want the rest of you to guard the perimeter with Banana Twist watching the sky so they don’t sneak out.” Their prey sneaking away unseen didn’t seem likely with such barren surroundings.

A quick peek through the window revealed that all the doors were booby-trapped, but he couldn’t think of a good way to get around them without tipping off their location. Scavenger knew his stuff Robin had to admit creating such a clever trap. Oh well, they would just have to find another way in. This proved to be trickier than Robin expected, but they made due. They found a broken window to an office with a gap large enough for Robin at least to fit through. Spitzer proved to be too big, but that was fine. Robin planned to open a door for him after disabling the trap. He looked in and found no ghouls and with Spitzer’s help, he got in without making a sound. After a quick peek behind the door to the mill, Robin found the coast clear. Any ghouls in sight were some distance off and not looking in this direction. So, he slipped back and got the door open for the hunter. They hid behind a crate as Spitzer accessed the mill with his power.

Spitzer grabbed a piece of rubble and rubbed it thoughtfully in his hoof. He raised his right leg and tapped in the air like he was trying on a keyboard reading something unseen to his right. After a few moments, his put his arm down and grinned.

“Well?” Robin asked.

"Found something mighty interesting," Spitzer replied, "this building is falling to pieces and never that well designed, to begin with. It's a wonder it hasn't already collapsed years ago."

“Good, where should we hit it to knock it down?”

Spitzer held up a hoof. “One moment, I’m not done. Not only is the building in bad shape, but the building has a serious case of radiation down in the basement.”

Robin furrowed his eyebrows. “Why?”

"Not sure," Spitzer replied. "my best guess it's a faulty reactor. The source is coming from the power room after all."

“You can’t tell? Can’t your power tell us everything about the building?”

“Yes, but only the building itself, not what’s actually in it or I would point you to Cat right away. Too many figures walking around to tell you her exact location.”

“I don’t understand. Wouldn’t the reactor be part of the building?”

"My power is a little complicated." Spitzer scratched his head in embarrassment. "You'd think that, but it only works with the basic construct of the building itself. With my power, I can't even tell how many tables or chairs are in here. It can be choosy about what it tells me."

That makes no sense. Why would it work like that?

“But that doesn’t matter.” Spitzer shook his head. “This faulty reactor worries me. The amount of radiation its spilling is crazy nothing like I’ve ever seen. I don’t think we should be anywhere near here when the bombs go off. Just in case.”

"Agreed. Set the bombs, and we are out and a mile away." Sure, the filly might escape in time to avoid the explosion and fallout, but then they had Banana Twist to look out for her. Worst case scenario, it would only waste some explosives and got rid of a dangerous reactor and some feral ghouls so it wouldn’t be a complete loss and better for everypony.

“I digress.” Spitzer pointed at two support beams on both ends of the mill. “Those two will take the building down easy enough.”

They moved to their objectives. Spitzer proved too skilled at avoiding any trouble and evaded the ghouls without them even seeing him. It was like he could tell where they were somehow. Was this some use of his power? How that worked he didn't know. Like he could sense their movement? Or maybe track them through body heat? Regardless, it impressed him. How might he get a power like this?

He didn't need to go far for his bomb and got there without trouble. He planted the bomb on the bottom of the pillar and used duct tape to secure it. He turned to leave and froze when he heard voices. It sounded like arguing and sure enough, the two fighting came into view when they entered the main part of the mill. They tried to be quiet about it, but Robin's sharp hearing got most of it.

“I don’t care.” The Black Cat said. “It’s a bad plan. What about the poor ghouls? It would kill them.”

“F-fine then.” Scavenger replied. “W-what is your p-plan then?”

“Scope out the place and the outside and see how many are after us. Stay here and wait for me.”

Scavenger didn’t look happy, but he went back through the door. The filly went into a crouch and scanned her surroundings and nodded to herself that the coast was clear. She couldn’t see him at this angle. Robin’s jaw dropped when she flew upside into the air and landed on the ceiling. What the hay is going on? The filly defied the laws of physics and all logic. This was literally impossible, but there it was. The Black Cat let out a small cry when she spotted him and the obvious bomb he was standing over. Robin let out a curse. How could he be so Celestia damned careless? He gave out another cry of surprise when she dove right at him at high speed like a heat-seeking missile.

It took everything he had, but Robin ran out of the way in time and stared when the filly landed on her hooves unharmed despite the height and the speed she fell. When he got a good look at her, he realized that the rumors were right. She had a new leg and its pale white fur stood out from her purple coat. He pushed out the hows and whys until later and used his magic to pull out his sidearm and shot at her as soon as he got a line of sight on her. He thought her dead at this range with no way to avoid the bullets, then pure insanity happened.

The bullets didn’t even touch her. They somehow changed direction and flew in different directions away safely from her. The filly’s face stayed calm and that this craziness just happened not surprising her at all.

No, I must have missed somehow. My aim must’ve been bad. It was the only thing that made sense.

This time Robin’s aimed right at her head his grip on his gun strong and true. The filly didn’t look scared or concerned by this and this gave him pause. But only for a moment, he fired sure he killed her this time. Again, the bullets flew away from her.

“What are you?” Robin stepped back terrified. She had to be some sort of monster. Ponies can’t do these sorts of things.

“This doesn’t have to end with blood. Promise to leave me and my friend alone, and I will let you go.” The Black Cat said her mouth firm.

Robin stepped back again. What should he do? Could he even kill her? He refused to abandon his mission.

“Well well, missy," Spitzer said walking into view and amused look on his face, "I never thought I would ever meet someone like me."

Wait, that's right. Spitzer had a power too, but nothing like the filly's. How could any of this be? Robin took in a breath to calm himself. He needed to calm down and think things through. Panic would help nopony. If Spitzer had a power like the filly’s than she was still a pony and ponies bleed and died. How she got this power didn’t matter. If the hunter had a power, then he could use it to kill her. At least, he hoped so. What he needed now was info on how her power worked. It had to have a weakness and he planned to exploit it.

“I see.” The Black Cat said. “I was right. You do have a ghost like me. It explains a lot.”

Ghost? For a reason that escaped Robin, Spitzer looked past her shoulder. Was there something he couldn’t see? The filly too saw something on the hunter’s right leg and she stared at it stunned.

“Nice.” He nodded in approval. “Your power is a pretty strong one. I liked the way it hit bullets out of the sky. It will be fun killing you."

The filly shook her head. “I guess ponies like us are the only ones that can see ghosts. It makes sense I suppose.”

Spitzer pointed his gun at the Black Cat. “Seems like it. Shame we can’t sit down and talk about it, but I have a job.”

He fired at her with his rifle as he ducked behind some old equipment. She blocked every shot, and the filly circled around to his hiding spot while keeping an eye out of Robin. Robin mentally slapped himself. Why wasn’t he helping? It was possible they could overwhelm her or at least he might get a shot in if he blindsided her. Robin used this as a perfect opportunity to also get some cover and the filly cursed as she lost sight of him in the maze of equipment, selves, and junk.

The filly yelped as a gunshot came from her right from behind a crate, but she blocked it in time. Robin for his part stayed in hiding only moving so she wouldn’t spot her. After some consideration, he waited it out for now. He would stay hidden while the other two played cat and mouse until the Black Cat had almost forgotten about him. Then he would strike when she least expected it. The filly couldn’t block something she wasn’t able to see, or at least he hoped her powers worked that way. Spitzer seemed to pick up on Robin’s plan and lured their opponent away from him. He keeping his distance and took pot shots at her. No matter how close the filly got to him, he somehow avoided her knowing where her approach was every single time. It must be Spitzer’s power at work.

The Black Cat looked around conflicted deciding what she should do. She muttered to herself then decided on her next action. Her whole body flipped into the air and she flew up. In a few seconds, she landed on top of the catwalk and flipped around landing on it. She ran into an office on the top floor and disappeared.

Wonderful, I forgot she could do that. Her plan must be for them to take the fight to her instead.

"Don't be so glum," Spitzer said appearing next to him, "this just changes our plan a bit."

Robin tried to say something, but Spitzer pushed his head down as a pipe rushed at them and almost impaled his head.

"Cheeky thing, " Spitzer said, "now she has us pinned."

Robin looked up and found the Black Cat walking on the ceiling looked right at them. A part of the steel railing bent and broke off and floated next to her like she had a unicorn’s telekinesis. There wasn’t any time to dwell on how downright surreal this was. Robin knew the speed of those projectiles and sweat glistened on his brow.

“Company is coming.” Spitzer pointed at a group of feral ghouls coming this way from an open doorway no doubt hearing the commotion. Worse, one was glowing bright green.

You gotta be kidding me. This was looking worse by the second. Much to Robin’s amazement, Spitzer still stayed calm. Did he have some plan?

"You better have something," Robin whispered. The filly noticed the ghouls too and weighing her options. No doubt she planned to feed them to the ghouls. They ran with hooves raised ready for their next meal. There were right out in the open with no inside cover they could get to without running at least a few dozen hooves.

"Sad to say I don’t think we can win this one with what we have.” Spitzer shook his head. “Her ghost is stronger than I thought. It’s annoying how she can use it fly like that. Do you think I should blow one of the bombs and take her with us?”

Robin snorted. "Yeah, right. And with my team outside? Not a chance. I'm getting out of this alive."

Much to his surprise, Spitzer grinned. “Good pony. I ain’t planning to die today either.” The hunter scanned the floor and shot a spot near a terminal. A chunk of the floor collapsed leaving a giant hole. In a moment, Robin got it. Spitzer must’ve used his power to find that weak spot.

It didn’t take much prompting to dive towards the hole. The filly threw her steel railing at them, but there was some hesitation after the shock of the sudden appearance of the hole. They disappeared in the hole long before she could throw it. Maybe they weren’t out of this yet.