“What?” Scavenger scrambled away from the creature, thing, whatever it was.

“We don’t have time for this you know.” The thing said. “Bandits remember. You can freak out later.”

“Uh, are you okay, Scavenger?” Starlight looked around confused. What was going on? Couldn’t he see this thing, or even hear it?

As if knowing his thoughts, the creature responded to this question. “Nope, looks like he can’t see me, or hear me.” The thing waved its claws in front of Starlight, but the stallion gave no response at all.

Am I going crazy? Scavenger forced himself to stay calm. He asked for this when he injected Break’s blood. Did Break have something like this thing hanging around her too? It explained why she could punch things without touching them or using magic. He always wondered about that one.

“W-who are you?” Scavenger whispered, so he didn’t appear totally crazy.

“I am you and you are me, obviously.” The thing said with a terrifying grin. Those teeth were not friendly looking. “I’ve been here, watching. I just couldn’t manifest myself until now. I’ve always been there deep inside your mind. Call me Free Bird.”

Scavenger blinked. “F-free Bird, b-but you aren’t a bird.”

Free Bird waved a dismissive claw. “It’s my name. Don’t worry about it. And remember raiders.”

“Scavenger! Get a hold of yourself!” Starlight grabbed him and shook him. “We can do this. Just don’t give up hope!”

“R-right.” Scavenger felt so stupid right now talking to himself like this.

Free Bird clapped his claws together. “Let’s go and kick some raider flank!”

Starlight hefted Break onto his back and took a quick glance outside. “Coast is clear. Let’s go!”

They crept through the empty hallway. So far, nopony had gotten in their way. Free Bird floated above them ready for any threat that might emerge. While Starlight watched for trouble too distracted to pay much attention to him, Scavenger asked Free Bird some questions his voice barely above a whisper.

“S-so, what can you d-do?” He asked. Could he control gravity like Break? That would be useful right now.

“My power?” Free Bird whispered although nopony but Scavenger had the ability to hear him. “Well, I have sharp claws that can cut almost anything and really sharp teeth too. That’s about it.”

“What?!” Scavenger’s eyes widened. “Y-you don’t have g-gravity powers or s-something?”

“Shh!” Starlight put a hoof over Scavenger’s mouth.

“S-sorry.” Scavenger blushed.

“Nope, sorry.” Free Bird looked a little embarrassed. “Well, you know we aren’t Break. I’m afraid we aren’t as strong as she is. But I have my own talents. I have stronger senses than a pony for example.”

“Great.” Scavenger deadpanned.

“And right now, I can both hear and smell something foal coming around the corner. Better hide, now.” Free Bird pointed to a nearby door.

“Starlight, somepony is coming this way.” Already he had the door open. “In here.” Though confused, Starlight didn’t argue.

A few seconds later five raiders passed the door they hid behind. They appeared to be on the lookout for any stragglers. Scavenger feared they would open their door, but they passed without issue.

“You have good hearing.” Starlight said.

“Darn right I do!” Free Bird said smugly. “I can hear a pin drop miles away.”

“Let’s go.” Scavenger pulled open the door when the coast cleared.

Free Bird hummed to itself as it scanned the corridors ahead of them. Its excellent scenes helping them pass unnoticed. Scavenger wanted it to go further and search the surrounding corridors, but Free Bird couldn’t travel far away from him without disappearing. After 10 hooves it became too weak to go any the further from his body a strange limitation of his ability. Starlight didn’t argue with their good fortune too tired and scared to question it. It took them a very roundabout way, but they made their way through the ship unnoticed. It helped the raiders were too drunk on their victory to care much about security. Some were actually getting drunk and causing a ruckus in the halls.

“Ha! Ha!” Free Bird said. “I see we are close to the entrance. Just stay quiet a moment longer. Ah shoot, two guards are there. Getting rid of them won't be too difficult, but it will make some noise. If you get one, I can get the other without a problem."

“O-okay, we need a d-distraction.” Scavenger whispered. “T-there are t-two guards and w-we need to d-draw at least one of the guards away.”

“Risky.” Starlight replied. “Only one of them needs to call the alarm, they will swarm us in seconds.”

“L-leave it to me.” Scavenger said with as much gusto as he could manage.

Starlight stared blankly at him before shrugging. “Okay. I will cause a distraction, somehow. Use this. It’s the only weapon I have. I left my gun in the room. I wasn’t expecting a raider attack.” He hooved over a small pocket knife.

Things just get better and better. How did I get into this? The knife appeared to be sharp and well maintained at least. He guessed it would do the job.

“H-how do you want to do this e-exactly?” Scavenger asked when Starlight snuck away to cause his distraction.

“No clue.” Free Bird replied.

“But!”

“I’m new to this alright.” Free Bird said. “Give me a break.”

Scavenger slumped down to the ground. “T-this is never g-going to work.”

Free Bird did something Scavenger hadn’t expected. It gave him a hug. It was solid and firm, but gentle and comforting as well.

“Hey, we will get out of this.” Free Bird said. “Believe that. For Break’s sake at least.”

Scavenger took a deep breath to calm himself. “Okay.”

Free Bird broke out into a toothy grin. “Let’s do this, partner!”

“Yes, l-let’s do this, partner.”

Scavenger snuck towards the end of the hall keeping to the floor. When he peeked over the edge of the hall, he saw the two guards Free Bird told him about. Like the other raiders, these two were more interesting in messing around than actually doing any work. They passed a bottle of a rum between the two of them laughing as one of them told terrible jokes. The front door was wide open and Scavenger almost cried out in alarm. Starlight hadn’t been exaggerating. An almost endless number of raiders milled about in town. Tents were set up around the outside of town no doubt to house this raider army. Some of them were tearing apart buildings looking for anything valuable. Others were partying or playing games. Zinnia was truly under their control.

How are we to get past that? Scavenger fought back a wave of panic. No, one thing at a time. First, we need to get outside.

“Let’s do this.” Free Bird smacked his claws together. “I’ll take the one the one the right, you left.”

Scavenger nodded. It was good of a plan as any. The distraction they need came soon enough and a clattering echoed down one of the hallways.

“What was that?” Guard 1 said.

“I don’t care.” Guard 2 replied and chugged the bottle of booze. “Let somepony else deal with it.”

“Hey! Share!” Guard 1 tried to steal the bottle before it was all gone, but his companion stayed out of reach.

“What? And share the rest of this good stuff, naw.”

“Why you!” The two wrestled each other and Scavenger was at a loss for words of a moment.

“Well, they are distracted.” Free Bird shrugged.

Scavenger crept towards them a knife in hoof and hid behind an overturned box. It wasn't large and barely hid somepony of even his size, but the two were too caught up in their fight to notice. Before he lost his nerve, Scavenger grabbed the knife in his aura and stabbed the first guard in the throat.

"What the…" Free Bird was on the other with astonishing speed and its claws took his head off with one clean swipe. It rolled away into a corner.

“Nice going partner!” Free Bird threw an arm over Scavenger’s shoulder.

Scavenger nodded and let go of a breath he hasn’t notice that he’d been holding. Starlight appeared with Break on his back relieved.

Starlight stared at the headless raider baffled, but shook it off it not being important at the moment. “Now all we need to do is get through that endless hoard and we are home free.”

“Y-yeah, only t-that.”

“But I do have an idea.” Starlight grinned. “It’s a gamble, but it should get through.”

---

Scavenger held himself up high with an aura of confidence. A confidence he didn’t feel, but he couldn’t show fear. That would get him killed. Free Bird hovered above him keeping watch for any trouble. They walked among the raiders trying to not draw any attention to them.

He had been skeptical when Starlight suggested they take the guards’ clothes and use them to get through Zinnia to safety. Surely somepony would realize they didn’t belong and Break on Starlight’s back would send red flags toward anypony watching them. So far nopony even glanced at them. There wasn't enough for the three of them, so they had to divide the two guards' clothes amongst them. Scavenger and Starlight wore the leather armor while Break had a bandana and an armband. With a little messing of her hair, and she passed well enough as a raider. It wasn’t like all of them wore armor. They still looked too clean for a raider, but no pony seemed to notice them at all.

Their cover story was that Break couldn’t hold her liquor, and they were looking for a tent or building with a bed so she could sleep it off. This proved unnecessary for the raiders were too busy partying to care about anything at the moment and they slipped through the giant crowds of the vagabonds without much difficulty. Once or twice a raider called out to them, but the drunk excuse worked like a charm every time. Scavenger didn’t allow for this amazing change in fortune to cause him to become sloppy and kept on high alert.

“No!” Starlight cried out causing Scavenger to jump.

“W-what is it?” Scavenger asked and saw what his friend was talking about.

A forest green earth pony mare with a brown mane screamed in pain as she was dragged behind a motorcycle by a chain by the hair while raiders laughed and cheered on the show. The mare was bloody and clearly in great pain and cried out when her head slammed against a large rock.

“We have to do something!” Starlight gritted his teeth.

“W-what can we do?” Scavenger wanted to help, but their options were nonexistent.

This wasn’t the only act of cruelty in the camp. They were obvious once you looked for them. He saw a stallion being crucified upside down in the distance and another pony was being beaten to death with a hammer just for fun with raiders each taking a turn with the instrument of death. Scavenger tried to drown out the screams, pain, and blood. It was too much. How could anypony change this? He felt so ashamed. Break would find a way and stop it. He wanted to focus on survival, but the argument sounded hollow in his head.

“I can slit that creeps throat in an instant.” Free Bird showed teeth. “You want to do something right?”

“We can’t!” Scavenger winced when another hit the rock hit the poor mare in the head knocking her out. “They would just kill her, anyway. They’re too many!”

Free Bird snorted. “So what? They can’t see me. Let’s cause some chaos!”

Scavenger wanted to argue, but a strong part of him agreed and wanted to do something anything to these monsters. He wanted them all to burn for what they did to Zinnia and with this power of his, he could do just that. He paused to think this through. True there were a lot of raiders around them, but they were unorganized, selfish, and chaotic not to mention many were drunk. He might be able to use that against them.

“Free Bird.” An amusing idea hit Scavenger and his mouth extended into a grin. “I-I think I m-might have an idea.”

---

“What?” The raider looked down at his victim as he slowed his motorcycle down. “Is she dead already?”

Another raider laughed. “Nah, just out cold.”

The motorcycle raider got off his bike and kicked the unconscious mare. “That’s no fun. Oh well, put her into a cage. If she wakes up, we can have more fun with her. No sport when they’re unconscious.” He kicked the mare again in the hope it would wake her up. It didn’t, and he turned away disappointed.

A drunk raider stumbled up to the unconscious mare to haul her to a cell, only to slip right into the motorcycle riding raider knocking him over so hard he gashed his head on his motorcycle.

The motorcycle raider held his head and winced when he touched the bloody spot. He turned on the one that hit him. “What do you think you are doing?!” He pushed the offender.

“Nutting.” The drunk raider replied. “I barely touched ya.”

“Really?” The other raider pointed to the blood on his head.

The drunk opened his mouth to reply, only to discover his hoof connecting with the other raiders face.

“Why you!”

The drunk raider waved his hooves helplessly. “I didn’t…” The other raider jumped him and put his hooves over other’s throat to choke him and strangled the life out of him. The raiders around them broke into cheers enjoying the show. The motorcycle raider drew his gun and pointed at his victim’s head. Nopony noticed Scavenger pulling the injured mare to safety behind some crates.

“Give me one good reason by I shouldn’t blow your brains out.” The first raider said.

“Please, I didn’t!” Tears of fear poured from the raider’s face. “Please don’t kill me!”

“Wrong answer.” A cruel smile formed on the first raider’s face.

The other raider pleaded for his life. “No please!”

The first raider ignored the plea and the gun when off, but everyone stared in surprise as the shot hit not the raider on the ground, but one in the crowd.

“You shot me!” The raider held his bleeding torso and pulled out his own gun.

“What, I didn’t.” The first raider stared at his weapon like it was an alien creature confused and scared. He shook it off and ran behind a nearby barrel barely dodging the returning gunfire.

Chaos broke out as a huge gunfight broke out with nopony knowing who was really shooting at who and shots missed their targets only to hit other raiders not involved with the fight and the chaos and fighting spread.

It didn’t take much to get these guys to fight each other. Scavenger thought amazed. He examined the injured mare. Despite having a small concussion, bruises, and some torn flesh, she would be alright, and he gave her a spare healing potion pouring it into her mouth. She sputtered and groaned.

He hushed her. “I-it will be alright. Y-you’re safe.”

“W-who are you?” The mare asked terrified. His garb frightened her thinking he was another raider.

“Scavenger. I-I’m not a raider. I-I’m trying to g-get out of here and t-this was the best way h-how.” He gestured to his outfit.

The mare relaxed when he said this. “Lucky Lily. Thank you for saving me.” She winced at the sound of gunfire. “What’s happening?”

A small smile formed on Scavenger’s mouth. “T-they’re having a little fight.”

“I don’t know how you did it.” Starlight said when he crawled towards them. “But half of the army is fighting each other now. We couldn’t ask for a better distraction.”

They stayed low to not only avoid detection but evade any stray shots. Bullets flew in every direction and the whole camp was complete madness. It didn't take much to encourage these creatures to fight and turn on each other. They did their best to help ponies escape their captivity and Free Bird’s claws made quick work of any lock. Scavenger hoped they could find safety and everypony agreed to leave in separate groups to not draw attention. They were almost to the outskirts of the camp when a loud booming voice froze everypony in their tracks.

“What do you think you are doing?” A large hulking pony stood on top of Zinna’s famed ship’s deck. Scavenger gapped at the size of him. How could anypony be that big? He almost towered over entire buildings.

Nopony did anything terrified out of their minds. Scavenger guessed this was the infamous Lion Heart. He was just as bad as the stories said.

“Killing you!” A mare yelled. One of the townsfolk by the look of her and jumped up behind him wielding a weapon almost twice her size.

She fired a minigun close range and Scavenger gapped when a red figure appeared in front of Lion Heart protecting him from the barrage of bullets. The thing was huge like this master with bulging muscles covered in armor like a hoofball player and a helmeted head with a crown of spikes.

Dear Celestia, this guy is a power user just like me and Break. Nopony else saw the thing and instead stared at their leader like he just performed an astonishing magic trick. Can only power users see these ghost things?

"That appears to be the case." Free Bird whispered and hid behind a building not wanting to risk being seen by the Raider leader.

“Foalish.” Lion Heart used his ghost to grab the poor mare that tried to attack him by the head and her weapon fell to the ground with a clang that echoed through the entire camp.

The mare struggled in vain against the invisible force holding her and screamed when her eyes exploded. Scavenger looked away and pushed Lucky and Starlight forward. He didn’t want to see any more of this and tried to drown out the poor mares anguished screams.

“What can we do against something like that?” Starlight said as they caught their breath after running at least three miles after that horror show. He laid Break down against a rock to rest his aching back.

“He isn’t a pony!” Lucky wailed in despair.

“No, he’s a pony.” Free Bird said even though nopony despite being inaudible to everypony else. “Just a big, ugly, and powerful one. We could take him.”

“H-he has a power just like Break.” Scavenger deciding it would be best for him to tell the truth to his new friends. They needed to know. “And me as well.”