“I wish to speak with you,” Zherana announced out of the blue.

It was the day after Crate City’s destruction, and we were sticking around in Sorceress Square as the refugees from the coastal settlement got settled. They were doing remarkably well at adapting to their new home; already many of them had settled into shops and office spaces and set to work cleaning them out. The Crimson Tide engineers who’d been working to fortify Sorceress Square as the meeting place of the North Equestrian Alliance redirected their efforts to fortify a larger area at the request and haranguing of Mayor Ginger Snap.

“Sure,” I said, gesturing to a chair at the table where Sage, Rare (with her armor stowed away in the Clinic), and I were sitting.

“It concerns my oath,” the zebra ghoul said as she sat down, appearing mildly out of sorts, which, for her, meant she was pretty agitated.

“Are you finally going to let me release you from it somehow?” I asked.

“No,” Zherana replied flatly, “It concerns how Hedge acquired it in the first place. I have told you already how I helped guide in the megaspells that struck Vanhoover.”

“Wait, what?” Sage asked.

“Yes,” I replied, surprised that she’d divulged what I’d thought she’d confided in me, since she wanted to keep it secret.

“There were four of us, and Hedge was our contact, a traitor to Equestria who put his own profit above the security of his nation. We were to guide in two megaspells, the ones that landed in Vanhoover East and Flitterton, today the Burnside and Rose Craters, but there was a third megaspell hidden in Vanhoover Northwest to wipe out the business district,” Zherana explained while Rare and Sage listened intently, Sage having produced a notepad and pencil at some point and writing everything down, “After providing the signals for the other two megaspells, we were to trigger the third and seek shelter, but Hedge did not believe there was time to trigger the third megaspell. He tried to get us all to come with him to the prepared shelter, but we refused. Eventually, he ordered me to come aside with him while the others went on, and tranquilized me. When I awoke, the two of us were in the shelter. It hadn’t been properly sealed, so we had become ghouls, but we were alive. He’d saved my life, so I pledged my oath of service to him. It wasn’t until later I realized that he was well-aware of our customs and had intended to get us all as servants if he could, for his own gain. He was a terrible pony, and for a long time I thought he was typical. I am glad to be in your service now instead of his.”

“Oh, well, thank you,” I said, not sure what else there was to be said.

“I have a request,” Zherana said bluntly, “Before we continue the fight with the NLC, there is something I must do. Two megaspells have devastated this city already. I have realized that I cannot allow a third to do the same. I ask that we find and destroy it.”

“There’s been a megaspell hidden in Vanhoover all this time?” Sage asked, “I can’t believe nopony’s found it.”

“Especially the Steel Rangers,” Rare Sparks added, “Unless, like the one in the Republic of Rose, they knew where it was but didn’t want to disturb it for other reasons.”

“It is well-hidden, and in a place nopony would venture,” Zherana said, “It’s in a subway tunnel beneath the city. I can still remember where.”

I looked over at the subway station next to the MAS Hub. I’d gone through there once before, while fleeing from the Steel Rangers and making my way to Burnside for the first time. It wasn’t an experience I cared to repeat. The Vanhoover subway system was crawling with feral ghouls. I’d barely made it out alive last time, though that had been quite some time ago, and I’d been alone. Now there were four of us, two with sets of power armor. It might just be doable. Besides, we couldn’t just leave a functioning megaspell beneath Vanhoover, could we?

“Of course we’ll help you find the megaspell,” I told Zherana, “I think all of us will sleep easier knowing it’s not under Vanhoover anymore.”

Her decomposing lips peeled back from her teeth in what was probably a grin, though I’d never seen such a thing on her before and it was a little bit terrifying. She may have just been following me because she’d sworn to, but I still wanted to help her out whenever I could. Maybe after this, she’d actually let me release her from her oath, but probably not. If she did, though, I hoped she’d stick around.

A zombie leapt at me out of the darkness, and I fired my combat shotgun at it. Another one tried to tackle me from the rear, and I bucked it, snapping its spine and throwing it against the wall. With Shining Armor’s power armor, I had considerably better chances in the subway tunnels than I had last time. At least now these ghoulified ponies couldn’t attempt to gnaw my ears or legs off without just getting a mouthful of metal.

We were arranged in a circle as we passed through the seemingly never-ending throng. Rare Sparks and I brought up the lead, since we were adequately protected. The lamps on our helmets illuminated the tunnel ahead of us as I cleared the way with my combat shotgun and Rare with the auto-shotgun built into her armor. Bringing up the rear was Zherana, who the ghouls saw as one of their own and had no interest in attacking. With that advantage and her advanced training as a zebra operative, she had no trouble using my ripper to chop up any zombies that Rare and I left behind. Sage was in the middle of our circle (really more of a triangle), since the only protection she had was her light combat armor and the shields she could conjure up. She also had a flamethrower battle saddle, which we’d thought would be a good idea, but had turned out to be ineffective with so many feral ghouls around us. All we ended up with were flaming feral ghouls attacking us, so now she stuck to just using her shotgun.

“Just a bit farther now,” Zherana promised us as we continued to press through the massive horde. promised us as we continued to press through the never-ending horde.

I had long stopped paying attention to my EFS, since all it showed was an endless field of red the way we were going. At least the megaspell explained why the feral ghouls were so prevalent in the subway system. They were all drawn to the radiation, just like those that dwelled around Tartarus. If the ghouls were getting thicker, which they certainly seemed to be, then we must’ve been getting close.

Zherana directed us down a side path, and I noticed warning signs crunching beneath my power armored hooves as I fired my shotgun almost continuously. Rare’s and my headlamps reflected off of a metal wall ahead of us with large doors over the track and a smaller one off to the side. Dents covered the wall from where feral ghouls had tried to force themselves in over the years. Some of them ahead of us were leaning against the wall but sprang toward us when we were spotted. I threw a metal apple toward the attackers and it cleared a space among the ghouls, enough for us to rush to the wall.

“Wait!” I said when Rare moved to knock the door in.

I produced a screwdriver and lockpick and set to work. Breaking the door down would let us enter, but it would also let the zombies surge through, and I didn’t want us to be disturbed while we were with the megaspell. The tumblers aligned with a satisfying click that could barely be heard over the howling ghouls. Through the door we went, and I slammed it shut and locked it after us as the ghouls continued to throw themselves against the metal barrier.

We were at the end of the tunnel, the tracks ending in a wall of solid rock. On the tracks sat a flatbed car with a round object covered in canvas atop it. I jumped up on the flatbed with Zherana while Rare Sparks inspected the small car behind the flatbed that had been used to transport it here. The cables tying the bundle down came undone easily, and I stripped the canvas off, revealing the megaspell. It was similar to the one I’d seen in the Republic of Rose, except that it was without the apparatus needed to let griffins carry it. Lights danced within the orb, destructive spells ready to be unleased if this bomb were ever detonated.

“I think I can get this thing working again,” Rare called up from the only nearby means of locomotion.

“Okay, so we have a megaspell and the means to transport it,” I said, “How do we destroy it?”

“We take it to the sea and sink it. These tunnels lead out to ocean,” Zherana said and we all looked at her, “It was how the megaspell was smuggled in. I was there. I checked the exit several years ago when Hedge sent me out, and it was not blocked then.”

“Okay, then. Sage, can you lend me a hoof? Let’s get this moving again,” Rare said, and she looked at the wall separating us from the feral ghouls, “The sooner the better.”

I tossed a metal zap apple I’d retrieved from the battlefield outside Crate City up and down absentmindedly as Rare put the finishing touches on the transport. Just getting the engine running again hadn’t been enough for her. She’d also put Zherana and me to work helping her to create plows on the front and back of it to push feral ghouls and their bodies off the tracks. We wouldn’t get very far if the flatbed derailed, and there was no good way to move a megaspell of this size.

“Ah, there we go!” Rare exclaimed as the engine purred to her satisfaction.

All of us turned in surprise as we heard the distinct sound of gunfire in the tunnels outside over the screams of feral ghouls. Explosions followed and grew closer as I checked EFS. There were still too many ghouls clogging it up to be sure someone hostile was approaching, but there was no indication that whoever was approaching us was friendly.

“Get ready,” I told the group.

An explosion blew the doors over the tracks open, and a few zombies darted through before being shot by minigun fire. Two lights shone in the darkness and resolved into the headlamps of Steel Rangers as they trotted through. Their pips on EFS had not changed from hostile.

“Well, well, if it isn’t the Wasteland Doctor, wearing the power armor he stole from us, no less,” one of them said as they trotted around the flatbed, “And the errant Rare Sparks here as well, also with Steel Ranger armor that doesn’t belong to you.”

“The council ruled in favor of me keeping my armor,” Rare said defiantly, “What are you doing here, Knight-Commander Golden Crescent?”

“Not that it’s any of your business anymore, but the Steel Rangers are retrieving this megaspell,” Golden Crescent said as he and his companion continued to trot along, “We should have done so as soon as we discovered it was down here, but Elder Fury was content to let it lie here, a danger to any Wastelander who might find it.”

“And what do you intend to do with it once it’s been ‘retrieved?’” Rare asked, “Turn it into a danger to any Wastelander who might oppose Sagebrush?”

“That’s Elder Sagebrush,” the other Steel Ranger said stiffly, “And like the knight-commander said, it’s none of your business.”

“So, that’s a yes, then,” Rare said.

Golden Crescent swiftly turned to point his armor’s weapons at the former Steel Ranger. I cast SATS as soon as I saw his intent and threw the metal zap apple between the two current Steel Rangers. Lightning shot out from it in all directions, and the lights on their Steel Ranger armor went dark. Muffled cursing came from the armor as the two ponies lost all systems.

“Let’s get out of here!” I called.

Rare jumped into the control box with Zherana as Sage joined me atop the flatbed. The transport started moving, slowly at first, but quickly gathering speed. Feral ghouls that the Steel Rangers hadn’t dealt with swarmed down the tunnel toward us as we sped back the way we’d come, and we shot any that wouldn’t be dealt with by the plow. Just before the split in the tunnels, the transport came to a halt, and Sage and I had to be on top of things while Zherana jumped out to change the tracks. Once they were switched, we continued back into the main tunnel, Zherana switched them again, and we sped off westward, the car with Rare and Zherana now leading and Sage and me covering our rear.

We continued on this way through the tunnel, Rare following all of Zherana’s directions. Occasionally, we had to stop or backtrack in order to change tracks and avoid the subway trains parked down here forever. Feral ghouls were still prevalent and a constant menace, but putting some distance between us and where they’d once congregated around the megaspell helped thin them out some. The Steel Rangers were surely still pursuing us, but unless we were significantly delayed, they wouldn’t catch us. Unless, of course, there were others in the area and they went aboveground, contacted them, and told them to cut us off. Then we might be in trouble. I’d only had the one metal zap apple.

Light appeared at the end of the tunnel, but according to my PipBuck’s map, we weren’t close enough to the sea for it to be the exit yet. Rare applied the brakes as we pulled out into a large cavern and nearly crashed into a subway train. Some of the light here was natural, coming in through a hole in the cavern ceiling, but much of it came from construction lights hanging from the walls or propped up atop abandoned equipment, including a boring machine for digging new subway tunnels. Shacks covered the floor of the cavern, and ponies stuck their heads out of the doors to look at us as we arrived. Others trotted along the streets of the settlement, and we capture their attention just as easily. There was no indication of hostility, but many of these ponies were wearing the coveralls I’d seen on some of the NLC forces at the battle for Crate City.

“What do we do now?” Sage asked me.

There was only one set of tracks here, so there was no opportunity to go back and switch to one that didn’t have a train on it. We still had a ways to go and no good way to carry the megaspell to the ocean. That was besides the fact that we were likely in the settlement of Boring, one that answered to the Northern Lights Coalition. I kept my rifle at the ready as a unicorn in coveralls rushed toward us.

“The Great Egg!” he proclaimed joyously, “The Great Egg has come, as prophesied!”

“Excuse me?” Rare Sparks asked, having climbed out of the car, and Zherana lowered her weapon.

“Behold, the coming of the Great Egg!” the strange pony addressed the crowd of whispering ponies gathering around, “Was this day not long foretold? The Great Egg has come, and with it brings a new world! All bonds will be broken and new ones will be forged! The Great Egg brings messengers of the future!”

“I know who they are,” one of the members of the crowd called out, “They were at Crate City, fighting on the other side.”

“Of course! Of course! The coming of the Great Egg means our time bound to Lord Lamplight is at an end! We will join with the messengers of the Great Egg!” the pony who I was starting to think was some kind of priest called out, and some of the settlers set to work destroying NLC cameras right away.

“I’d love to tell you all about the North Equestria Alliance, which stands against the Northern Lights Coalition, but you’ll have to go to Sorceress Square for the details,” I said, “We’re in a bit of a hurry.”

“Yes, of course, as prophesied,” the priest said, not missing a beat, “Come everyone! The Great Egg must reach the sea, so that it is allowed to complete its journey and hatch at the Appointed Time! Come everyone!”

The residents of Crate City rushed to follow his instructions, though without any idea what exactly to do. Somepony had the idea to fire up the construction equipment that had been used to build the settlement, and others scrambled out of the way as they drove up to the subway train and pushed it off the tracks. Despite the fact that the train had clearly been somepony’s home, nopony seemed to object. They cheered as we got moving again and drove off down the tunnel. It would have been nice if the cheers had actually been for us and not for the Great Egg, but it was good all the same that we were allowed to pass with the megaspell and had neutralized the last NLC settlement in Vanhoover at the same time.

We had no further trouble in reaching the sea. The megaspell intended to destroy Vanhoover’s downtown was now floating out into the ocean, sinking slowly beneath the waves. The four of us sat on the shore as the irradiated waves lapped against it. The Steel Rangers hadn’t shown up, so either they’d gotten caught up somewhere or had given up on finding us. In any case, they would never get their hooves on the megaspell now, and neither would anypony else.

“Thank you … for helping me with this,” Zherana said to me, “You and I both have pasts that cannot be undone, but we can still seek atonement. You seek it in your own way and have today helped me to seek it in mine. I know others have told you this, but you are a good pony, something I once thought could not exist. I want you to know, even without my oath, I think that I would still follow you.”

“Does that mean that you’ll let me release you from that oath?” I asked.

“Of course not,” Zherana said with that almost-smile again.

“Well, it was worth a shot,” I said, and returned to staring at the waves.

[Max Level Reached]
New Companion Perk: The Operative – Zherana has taught you a thing or two about the skills essential to a zebra agent. +5 to Unarmed.
New Quest: One Down, One to Go – All of Vanhoover’s settlements are ready to unite in the NEA. Stalliongrad must follow.
Unarmed +5 (81)