“I kill monsters, and I don’t do it for justice; I do it for everypony in The Wasteland.”
Every time, EVERY TIME! It’s either I pass out, get shot, or get captured. Although I haven’t been captured in quite some time, but this still sucks. I’m stuck in this stupid boring cell alone with nothing to do but be alone with my thoughts and my thoughts are something I don’t want to be alone with, because most of the time they’re dirty thoughts about my friends. Ugh I hate myself. Goddesses I’m gonna go more nuts than I already know I am.
The worst part about this whole situation is that even though the cell blocks have bars instead of solid walls, I still can’t talk to anyone because the whole cell block is empty. That stupid bitch thought it would be fun to put me in a separate cell block than my friends, but oh she is going to pay. Honestly, I still haven’t figured out how I’m gonna get out of this mess completely but I have planned some things that are still going accordingly.
As I lied there on the practically paper-thin mattress in my cell pondering what is and what I hope will be, I fiddled with the broadcaster on my Pip-Buck, “C’mon, work dammit. Fuckin’ Stable-Tec and their concrete walls.”
Since the broadcaster wasn’t working I switched to the radio and was able to get at least the stable broadcast channel, “Ahem, h-hello everypony. It’s uh, it’s me again I-I guess to um, bring you the news. It looks like uh Sh-shadow Star has returned to the stable and is um well uh awaiting trial for some pretty terrible crimes against the stable. M-madam Overmare couldn’t be reached for comment because she kept telling me to um go away so I uh don’t know exactly what she’s on trial for yet so p-please don’t be angry with me.”
I sighed and turned it off, “Really? They made HIM the new radio host? He sounds like he’s afraid the microphone is gonna jump on his face and eat him alive. Why am I talking to myself? There’s no one around to hear me. Dammit I’m still doing it!”
That’s it, I’m not just gonna kill The Overmare, I’m gonna torture her first like she’s doing to me but SO much worse. At least when Aquila was trying to play body snatcher I at least had somepony to talk to, even if said somepony was on the nuttier side of a sandwich. Well at least it wasn’t on the fruiter side, that could get weird, “AAAhhh! You can’t catch me dirty thoughts!”
Suddenly the door opened and a security pony came in, “What’s all the racket in here? Who are you talking to?”
I just stared at him for a few seconds with what I suspected was a stupid look on my face because of his own expression, “Uhhh, I’m talking to my dirty thoughts about ponies…”
The look he gave was priceless, “Um, kay then. Maybe try to be a little quieter, I’ll give you some privacy uh, I guess.”
I sat up quickly before he could turn to walk out, “No don’t! Stay in here!”
“Uh, no offense but I’m not really into that kind of thing. I grew out of watching after puberty.”
Good Goddesses, stallions are idiots, “That’s really disgusting and the complete opposite of what I meant by stay in here. Congratulations you’re now the biggest moron I’ve met in this stable so far and I lived her for most of my life. Anyway what I meant was is that it’s lonely and boring in here and it’d be nice to have SOMEPONY to talk to. So, will you stay?”
“I dunno, you DID just call me a moron. Maybe if I got an apology I’ll consider it. Plus, I’m pretty sure Madam Overmare said she wanted you in solitary confinement and since we don’t have any solitary cells we just put you here in cell block two since there usually isn’t anypony in here,” he said leaning against the bars and crossing his forelegs.
Wow, and I thought The Wasteland had weird ponies in it. This guy seriously just asked for an apology from a technical criminal for calling him a name. At least he was polite enough decline when he thought I wanted him to watch me do stuff to myself so he can’t be all bad. Wait, what am I talking about? He’s a security pony, he’s not supposed to be bad. First I’m a fish out of water in The Wasteland and now I’m a fish out of water in my own home that I haven’t been away from for that long. How long have I been out of my stable exactly? Eh doesn’t matter, “So what am I being charged with; do you know?”
“Invasion of an active stable, aggravated assault, intent to use a deadly weapon, and terroristic threats.”
My jaw dropped, “You’re kidding me, right? Invasion of an active stable? Are you kidding me? I used to fucking live here for Goddesses sake!”
He grinned, “Ppfftt, I know that and so does everypony else, but in the eyes of the law you’re an invader, you abandoned this place for the wasteland. According to the law, you are no longer a citizen of Stable 28. See I could care less what you do, it’s The Overmare whose got a thorn in her snatch. She REALLY must not like you for how many charges she piled on.”
“Haven’t you heard? I’m the biggest troublemaker in the stable. Always have been, always will be I guess. No offense, but I wish it was Balefire guarding my cell. Not that you’re boring or anything it’s just that he’s an old friend of mine. We’ve known each other since we were foals.”
That caught his attention, “You don’t say. Isn’t he The Overmare’s son?”
“Yeah, so what?” I replied.
He let out a little chuckle, “I can see why she doesn’t like you now. She’s always been a strange one with some attachment issues. Balefire’s told me she’s still tries to coddle him like he’s still her little buck, hates it too from the sound of it. If you ask me it sounds a bit weird for her to treat her grown son like that. Personally, I think she’s jealous of you in a way because she doesn’t want you taking her son away from her.”
I couldn’t help but smile, “Y’know, I’ve thought the same exact thing to myself for years. Does he even know I’m in here?”
He closed his eyes and shook his head, “Nope. Well not exactly. He knows you’re somewhere in the stable, but he doesn’t know that you’ve been arrested by security and that stupid talon company The Overmare hired,” he looked down and sighed, “I dunno why she hired them in the first place, all they’ve done is wreak havoc here. The Overmare’s been letting them execute ponies for outrageous crimes. In the back of my mind I think what if she’s just making excuses to get rid of ponies she doesn’t like and using them to do it because she knows we won’t do it for her? I shouldn’t be talking about this with you, you’re a latent criminal.”
I scoffed a bit at that, “Yeah in here maybe. Out there they make me out to be some kind of hero for some reason, even after I destroyed an ENTIRE town completely by accident.”
His eyes widened, “Oh, that’s not scary at all. Not in the slightest do I feel like pissing myself, so thank you for that comforting image.”
“Hey I said it was an accident, plus I killed a monster in the process who ended up being my super evil uncle.”
He gave me one of those looks, “You’re really fucked up, y’know that. You talk about a town that you destroyed almost like it’s no big deal and sort of brag about killing your uncle.”
“EVIL uncle mind you, and it wasn’t easy. He was barely a pony, he abused dark magic to the point where he didn’t even have a real body anymore.”
He put up his hooves, “Just stop right there, let’s change the subject. What’s your name? None of the others told me before I took my post here.”
That came as a surprise, “I’m Shadow Star or more well-known out there as The Courier or The Courier Mare. I used to live here, I thought you would’ve known who I was because of that. I’ve become accustom to being brought to security for one reason or another.”
“I’ve never seen you, let alone heard about you. There’s a lot of ponies in this stable and I see quite a few of them every day so if we have met I probably just don’t remember. I’m Cuff Key by the way, you can just call me Cuffs if you want.”
Something seems off. Why was he being so nice to a prisoner he’s supposed to be guarding, let alone one that’s supposed to be in solitary confinement? Maybe he’s just nice, or something else is going on? “So, Cuffs, what’s the deal with you? You seem like you’re having doubts about serving The Overmare, not to mention you’re technically disobeying orders talking to a prisoner that’s supposed to be left alone.”
He sighed, “You’re right. I am having doubts, but it’s not like I can act on anything without getting thrown in here or worse. Also, I know I’m disobeying orders by talking to you, but I’ve got nothing better to do right now and you asked if I’d stay. I’m not an asshole, I’m not gonna say no even though I’m supposed to. Rules are meant to be broken every once in a while.”
“Really, this is coming from a stable security pony? Y’know, you could bend the rules a bit more and let me out of here. Make an excuse like I escaped, got the better of you, and knocked you out.”
That made him chuckle, “Hahaha, I’m not THAT stupid. Don’t get me wrong, I would let you out of here if I could, but I know The Overmare isn’t that stupid.”
“Trust me, you’d be surprised,” I responded.
He laughed again, “Would I now, and how is that?”
“She tried to have Tinker remove this Pip-Buck with a Pip-Buck key when it clearly doesn’t have a key-slot and instead thought it would be a good idea to have the doctor in medical cut my leg off. There’s also the fact that he’s fucking psychotic and his idea of fun is cutting off my leg without putting me out first.”
He obviously didn’t laugh this time, “Good Goddesses, I can see why you left. She did all that for a Pip-Buck? What the hell could be so important on that thing?”
To be honest I had no idea, “I dunno, could be a recipe for magic cookies that grant eternal life for all I know.”
He didn’t speak for a moment as if he was lost in thought, “Listen, I can’t do much about your situation, but I’ll see what I can do about maybe having your friend be the one that comes to get you when you’re brought to The Overmare. It’s only right that he knows what’s going on.”
“Thanks, I know you’re risking a lot doing that, especially for somepony you just met. By the way, when am I going to be brought to The Overmare?”
He checked his Pip-Buck, “That depends, could be in a few minutes or an hour. She’s been doing things in her office with those griffons. Also, I’m sorry to say this, but I have to get back to my post. The boss will be checking up on me soon while he’s doing his rounds and I don’t want to get in trouble, it was nice talking to you Shadow.”
I sighed, “Alright, it was nice talking with you too. I hope we see one another again under different circumstances.”
***
After he left it was utter silence again, but at least I wasn’t talking to myself like some sort of freak. I hate being alone, not just because it’s boring, but because even though I’m alone; I still feel like I’m being watched. I’m sure everypony has those feelings every once in a while, if not, then I’m more messed up than I thought, “Great, now I’m paranoid. Ugh I’m talking to myself again.”
As I sat on the cell bed I thought about what my friends were dealing with right now. Wingnut had to be scared or thinking of a way to get out. Depends on the situation for him. Aura was probably angry because we got caught by her aunt and was most likely contemplating her demise. Most of all I was thinking about Vervain and the way I reacted when I remembered who she really was. I can’t even fathom how she feels. For all those years it had to be hard for her to keep that secret from me and the fact that my mother was still alive, even if she did end up telling me before I escaped the stable.
Shoot, how’s she gonna take it when I tell her what really happened to mom? If I know her like I think I do she’ll be furious and wanna help us in any way she can, no matter what the cost. Grimoire was Vervain’s best friend from what I know and for her to become what she has is one of the biggest acts of betrayal she could’ve done. Even worse is that they were both Steel Rangers and mom defected to The Enclave, one of their biggest enemies. I just hope that my friends are alright and that they’re working on their own plan to get out of there just in case my plan doesn’t work.
Another thing I was thinking about was what The Overmare wanted from my Pip-Buck. What could be on it that’s so important? Could it be things in R&D that the researchers there were working on? She might’ve discovered somehow that my mom was a Steel Ranger and that could be one of the reasons she left when she did. The only problem with that theory is what mom did when she left here. She wouldn’t have left the Pip-Buck behind for me to find, she would’ve brought me and it with her, and probably Vervain. Come to think of it, both her and Vervain were Steel Rangers. Couldn’t they have done something other than what happened? I’m sure if they worked together they could’ve defended themselves against whatever The Overmare threw at them, but they didn’t do that. Mom left me and the Mark II here for a reason; a reason that she’d never tell me now because her head’s been fucked with.
I guess that’s the big question. Why? Why did things end up the way they did? Why sacrifice the relationship with your daughter to escape a stable and become so evil? Why have your best friend lie to your child for years to hide the truth from her? I know there was a risk of Aquila getting out of her cage, but there’s no telling if that would’ve actually happened or not. This whole situation just doesn’t make sense at all. To be honest it really makes my head hurt, eh, thinking sucks.
Putting all that aside what’s worse is that my friend is out there, brainwashed to the point of hating me so badly that he wants to see me dead. I wonder how he’s doing, the struggle inside his head after what happened with Wingnut must be agonizing. Somewhere in the back of my mind I keep hoping that he overcame the brainwashing and escaped somehow and is on his way to save all of us. I know if I were in his situation I’d do the same for him, in fact I WAS pretty much doing the same for him by contracting The Red Talons to help find him. I know he really hasn’t overcome the brainwashing, but it’s nice to have hope that he might come. I just wish I could’ve helped him before all this, but I just don’t know how to.
Once I get out of this mess that’s the first thing I’ll do. I’ll save my friend no matter what it takes, whether it be a limb, an organ, or even my sanity. Sanity… the brain… that’s it, the brain. Doorstop said something about Stable 97 having the technology to overwrite memories of the stable inhabitants if they knew too much about that place. Since he’s hunting me, this plan just might work, I have to go there. Shit but I don’t know where the damn place IS. The only thing I know is that it’s in the Midwestern region of Equestria and I don’t even have a way to get there besides walking. I doubt Aura or Wind Thrasher want to lug Wingnut and I all that way with all our stuff. Ugh I can’t think about this right now, I need to focus on my situation.
I could use this valuable time to think of what I’ll say to The Overmare to save me and my friends. I don’t actually know for sure if this thing will delete all its data if I die, I kinda just winged it with The Overmare. The good thing is that there’s only one way to prove it and it’s too risky for her to do that. The only thing I can count on right now is her stupidity and obsession with the information on my Pip-Buck, whatever it may be. I wonder when I’m going to be brought to her, it’s been longer than an hour since Cuffs said that it could be anytime after an hour from then. The Overmare’s never really been one for efficiency when it comes to stuff like this, she’s incredibly lazy for someone in her position. She can’t even remember her terminal password to the point that she has it in an envelope taped under her desk. I shouldn’t be so hard on her with that though, it’s how I was able to get out of the stable after all. Like I said one of the things I can count on right now is her stupidity. I wonder if she ever changed that password, it’s not like anyone else would know it besides me and her. Well Balefire might know for how well he knows his mother.
Ugh… my thoughts just keep going from one subject to the other, there’s just so much to think about. Between all this with the stable and what’s going on with Stardust, I don’t know how I’m gonna deal with it all and fix everything.
The door opened and Balefire came in and to my cell door, “Sorry about my mom, she’s kind of a bitch,”
I smiled, “You’re funny y’know that. If I wasn’t so worried about my friends and pissed at her I might actually laugh. How are my friends doing?”
“They’re uh fine, I think, at least for Wastelanders. Are they like savages or something? The griffon threatened to um uh…”
I sighed, “Spit it out for Goddesses sake, I’ve probably heard worse OUT THERE.”
He squirmed a bit, “She threatened to uh…” he started to whisper, “Cut off my stallion parts.”
“Ppfftt, Aura’s not gonna do anything Wingnut won’t let her do. I wouldn’t worry too much about her, although she did actually do that once. Honestly it was actually pretty funny because she made a joke about hydra and…”
He started to wave his hooves back and forth in front of his face, “AAAHHH just stop! Please! Goddesses The Wasteland’s made you sick if you can laugh at something like that. Anyhow Madam Overbitch wants to see you. She said she just wants to talk so you shouldn’t have to worry about your safety.”
“Alright, but I’ll still worry about my safety no matter what, I don’t trust her as far as I can throw her, and I’m small so that’s not very far,” I said as he opened the cell door.
I thought he would’ve put me in hoofcuffs like when I was arrested, but I found myself put into a collar, a small cold metal collar, “I advise that you don’t try anything stupid while wearing this, it’ll shock you if you do. It’s something R&D just developed for security right after you left.”
We kept talking as we walked, “Can you tell me what’s been going on here with those griffons? Also, how’s Milkshake?”
He looked down at his hooves as he walked, “Milkshake’s fine, she’s been enjoying working in the kitchen. She’s been getting into mischief recently since The Overmare hired the griffons, but other ponies have too. I told her to stop acting out because I don’t want what happened to all of them to happen to her. After a while of ponies speaking out against her actions my mom’s been having some of them executed publically, I’m surprised security hasn’t put a stop to it. I think it’s because we just don’t have the means to combat the threat. If we had more guns and help from the outside we could overthrow her, but you didn’t hear that from me.”
“I know, I know. Conspiracy theory bullshit, but I think I might be able to help with the outside source part; I have some friends that are on their way here,” I whispered, “The Red Talons and The Steel Rangers are headed to this location and will most likely use lethal force if they need to. If you can rally enough of the security ponies together, you can join forces with them to overthrow The Overmare. I’m in no position to fight right now, so I won’t be able to help. If you can get security to follow you and somehow get ahold of a broadcaster there’s two broadcast channels you can use to talk to both groups. The broadcaster won’t work in here though.”
He looked at me puzzlingly and whispered, “How am I supposed to use it then if it doesn’t work in here?”
“You’ll have to go outside,” I replied.
He was taken aback by my reply, “Outside? I can’t go out there, my mom would know if the door was opened.”
I smiled at that mischievously, “She won’t know anything has changed in the slightest. The door is still unlocked and I made sure it can’t be locked again unless it’s with this Pip-Buck. All you have to do is get the ponies who are probably guarding the door on board with this plan.”
“Who are these ponies? What makes you think they can help us? Their weapons are probably more crude than ours, they’re Wastelanders. The only things I’ve seen the griffons with are spears and a few guns.”
I wanted to laugh so hard, but all that would do is draw attention to us, “You have a lot to learn about The Wasteland. The Red Talons are similar to the griffons here except they’re more organized and have more numbers. The Steel Rangers on the other hoof are a force to be reckoned with. If they really wanted to, they could take over the stable, but they won’t do that to an active stable because of their values. Don’t worry about weapons with them either, they’re armed to the teeth with the most technologically advanced weapons from the war that’ve been refurbished and/or made into something new.”
He was starting to look more nervous as we got closer to The Overmare’s office, “Honestly this scares the shit out of me, but I’ll try and see what I can do, her reign of dictatorship can’t last forever. It’s quickly approaching its end.”
The door opened and I saw her, Madam Overmare of Stable 28. She was glaring at me in such a way that would make any other pony in the stable feel inferior. She stared at me like she’d thought she’s won, and like the coward she is she’ll try to kick me when I’m down. Unfortunately for her I’ve dealt with worse idiots than her outside, she’s nothing compared to them, “You wanted to see me Madam Cootermouth?”
Her arrogant glare turned to hatred, “How dare you, you little brat. It seems you haven’t changed a bit since going off into that Wasteland, if anything you’ve become more crude. Balefire leave her to me, I’ll send for somepony from security to return her to her cell when I’m done.”
“Yes Madam Overmare,” he responded before leaving.
The door closed behind me and she started speaking again, “I knew you’d come back here eventually. All I needed to do was bait you with something like this, don’t think I don’t know that’s you the radio ponies talk about. You’re a monster, a disgrace to this land; you kill in the name of justice when it’s really only to suit your own wants and needs.”
I gave her the snarkiest smirk I could, “If that’s what you think then you’re a lot dumber than I initially thought. I kill monsters, and I don’t do it for justice; I do it for everypony in The Wasteland. Crackerjack was a raider boss who held an entire town captive so he could take the fruits of their labors and he dabbled in slavery as well. Dr. Cell was a madstallion who wanted to subject the outside world to the results of his disgusting experiments and turned an innocent filly into something most ponies would be afraid of upon looking at her. Gator was a drug fueled fiend with no remorse for his actions and had a lust for power. Pride, my uncle, Oricalcos. He led one of the most feared groups in The Wasteland and basked so much into dark magic that he didn’t even have a real body by the time I annihilated him with a range finder that controls a super weapon I bought from a colt for fifty caps. I killed them because they needed culling. Through half of that I was afraid that I was going to die, but after a while I no longer feared death, because fearing death is a weakness, one that will surely be your downfall. All I have to say now is that you don’t scare me anymore, compared to the others you’re just an insect waiting to be squashed under my hoof. No matter how many chains, shackles, or collars you put on me, you won’t control me EVER again.”
She no longer looked at me with hatred, but with fear, “Y-you, YOU… ABOMINATION! You think you’re some sort of savior, don’t you? You’re nothing but a reckless psychopath whose overcome with self-righteousness. If it wasn’t for that thing on your foreleg I would’ve executed you already. And you have the gull to say that you don’t fear me!?”
I ignored her outburst, “What is it that’s so important to you on this Pip-Buck anyway? What could be so important that you’d try to have my foreleg cut off to get it? You see from the time I’ve spent in The Wasteland I know an insane pony when I see one, you Madam Overmare are insane. If you were out there I’m sure you’d have some sort of cult or something like that, but in here you’re just a political figure who abuses her power. So tell me, what is so Goddesses damned important on my Pip-Buck?”
Her eyes narrowed, “I suppose I could tell you, it’s not like anyone would believe a criminal anyway. What I want is simple, the research notes Grimoire stole from me when she left. There’s a part of R&D that most don’t know about except for a trusted few that work there. You know what happens when ponies get too old in the stable right? They’re sent to the retirement area to live out the rest of their days in peace, well some of them do anyway to keep up appearances. The ones that don’t are brought to R&D section B and used as test subjects for various experiments. Those experiments in turn will change the course of life as we know it.”
Like I said before, if there’s anything I can count on, it’s her stupidity, “And to think you called ME the monster. Take a look at yourself and see with your own eyes what you are, your true self. My true self isn’t what was done to me by my mother, it’s not what’s inside of me. My true self lives on the outside as The Courier; where does yours live?”
It took a moment for her to respond, “I think you’ve said enough Shadow Star. It’s time for you go back to your cell,” she pressed a button on her desk, “Security, take our disgraced prisoner back to her cell.”
“The truth hurts doesn’t it? Maybe one of these days you’ll see that,” I said as the door opened and Balefire walked back in.
She looked at him sternly, “Bring her back to the holding cells, she’s smelling up my office with her Wasteland filth.”
I was escorted out of her office and we were heading back to the cells when Balefire asked, “How much of a chance is there that your plan will work? Cuff Key walked by when I was standing outside the corridor to my mother’s office and was asking about you. Why didn’t you tell me you’d already gotten somepony to help you?”
I smiled sheepishly, “I sorta forgot. If it’s any consolation the only thing I asked for help with was getting to see YOU. However, he mentioned quite a bit that he was questioning his own loyalty to The Overmare, maybe you should go talk to him and see about that thing we talked about earlier.”
He sighed, “It’s worth a shot I guess, I’ll see if I can get some of my other friends from security in on it too. It’ll probably be easier to convince friends to help me instead of just random security ponies.”
It seems like things are starting to look up for a change, and as long as everything goes accordingly I won’t die in front of all the ponies I grew up with in the stable, “Thank you Balefire, I knew I could count on you.”
“Don’t mention it. Really don’t, at all,” he said.
“Don’t mention what?” I replied.
He looked a little dumbfounded, “Really? You know what. Ooohhh…. I get it.”
A few minutes later we were back in the holding cells in security, but he didn’t take me to Block B where I was before, “What are you doing? My cell is in Block B.”
When he replied his demeanor changed from my friend to security pony, “My orders were to bring you back to the holding cells, The Overmare didn’t say which ones,” he turned to the other security pony standing outside the cell block entrance and said, “Put her with the others. Make sure you take her collar off too, Wastelanders aren’t as dumb as they seem, one of them might rig it to electrocute her to death and The Overmare wants her kept alive.”
The other pony just gave him a weird look like it was a strange request, “Okay then… we usually take them off anyway because they’re in the cell so I don’t think we have to worry about something like that happening, but thanks for the warning anyway.”
After that awkward exchange I was put into the cell with my friends who were all staring at me like they were surprised I was still alive. I mean The Overmare said she wanted me alive so the data doesn’t get erased, but for how long I was in Block B and The Overmare’s office I could see why they might’ve thought something happened, “Hi guys, I’m back… yaaayyy.”
Auntie err Vervain I guess was the first to finally say something, “What happened? She didn’t hurt you did she and what’s this plan you were talking about before we got captured?”
Great an explanation, how fun, “I was in Block B when we were first taken into custody and I just came back from talking with The Overmare. She didn’t hurt me at all except for maybe my pride because I had to wear that stupid shock collar like some sort of pet. If anything, I think I hurt her, her psyche anyway. I got some things out that I wish I had before I left here. I also have a plan in the works to save our hides that’s coming to fruition as we speak. Some of the less loyal ponies to The Overmare are gonna use a broadcaster outside and tell the Steel Rangers and The Red Talons that they want to help them retake this place and overthrow The Overmare.
Aura shook her head a little mockingly, “You just can’t help but try to help in any way you can. You’re more useful than half-pint laying down over there, he hasn’t even asked me to escape yet.”
Wingnuts head popped up, “Okay fine, escape from this and get us out of here.”
“Eh, don’t feel like it right now,” Aura said nonchalantly.
He glared at her, “Yeah sure, because I believe that one.”
Ignoring them I looked at Vervain, “Vervain, I need to know everything you know about this Stable, and not just the bullshit you tried to feed us down on level 10. That means what mom was working on here before she left, what you two were both trying to find here, and why we both stayed behind. I’m not gonna take the crap about mom wanting to keep me safe. I don’t have the time to dig through all of the shit you two have fed me since I was a filly.”
She frowned, “Shadow what does any of this have to do with us getting out of here?”
“It doesn’t, but right now I can’t do anything to stop the Overmare, not until I know I have the backup we need.”
She patted the floor next to her, when I went over and sat she sighed then said, “Ten years ago I was sent here on a mission to check out a tip we got about Stable 28. I won’t bore you with the details, but I was looking for new tech that was supposedly being made here. I found this stable with the help of a friend of mine that used to be a Steel Ranger. She followed a couple of the stable ponies back to this location a year or so before. I talked my way in and used some of my skills with terminals to get the former Overmare to let me stay for a while. They were having issues with some of the older tech in here and since I used to be a Scribe I knew how to fix them.”
“From what I remember, mom had to come here to help you get the other ponies here to trust you,” I said.
“Yeah, after a month the ponies here were getting a lot harder to work around, making my job into looking for what was really going on here even harder. So, I sent a transmission to my elder and told him I needed help. By this point the only thing they’d trust me with was getting supplies and handling some of the trade as long as a stable citizen went with me. I used one of those times to meet with your mother outside of Cartwheel.”
“What happened with the pony that was supposed to go with you?”
She gave me a sad smile, “I killed her Shadow, it was the only way I was going to be able to meet with your mother so I could help her get into the stable.”
“So you just killed an innocent pony so you could help mom get in?” I asked. I guess I shouldn’t be surprised, I’ve seen what ponies in The Wasteland would do, but hearing Vervain talk about it like it was no big deal was hard to take.
“She was the last pony who helped The Overmare with her duties around here. This was back before there was an administrator position in the stable. She was a bitch and didn’t trust me at all, I really didn’t feel bad at the time for doing it either. But I’m getting off track, you see, she was the pony I was going to take the place of when I went back. Your mother said it was easier for her to change the memories of others if there was already a history established to the pony they thought I was.”
“Was that why you started going by Auntie?”
She laughed, “No, I could’ve still used my old name and that was the original plan, but after your accident Grim was worried that your memory would come back too soon. We both decided to start using the name you called me a lot, you always called me Auntie Vervain so I just took out the Vervain part and became Auntie to all of the ponies in here. Honestly it felt weird with everypony calling me that at first, but I got used to it.”
“How did Mom change the memories of so many ponies?”
Her smile grew, “She used a mix of Zebra magic with her own Unicorn magic. When she first came here, right after The Overmare let her in because of you being hurt. She asked The Overmare if she could set up something in the atrium with all the ponies from the stable, so she could thank them all for letting her stay here while you healed. Your mother had a way with words and The Overmare relented and called for all the ponies to come to the atrium. The thing no pony knew was that Grim hid a magical rune in the atrium that amplified her own power. When all the ponies were there, she cast her spell and replaced the memories of the pony I killed with me and my new name.”
“There’s no way that she could’ve done a spell like that without something happening her.”
Vervain shrugged, “Something DID happen, she was out for a whole day and when she came to most of the silver in her mane turned grey. Before she cast that spell her mane was almost as shiny as your own. She also had a hard time casting spells for a few weeks after that. Every time she tried to use her magic she got sick, it wasn’t easy for her since she had to keep using her memory spell on you.”
“So with one spell she was able to do what she thought would take months to finish in here?” I asked.
“For the most part yes, she still had to go around and check that the spell was holding for a few weeks, but in the end it all worked. The reason she stayed here for so long was because she was hiding from Night Shade and Elder Wolfsbane.”
Things started to click in my head as she spoke, “Is that the reason she left me behind when she left? I remember Elder Wolfsbane telling her that she was to bring me to Los Alicorn when I was better.”
She nodded, “The Los Alicorn Steel Rangers are very strong and good at getting tech, but they don’t have many gifted unicorns like Grim or you Shadow. To this day I’m not sure what he did to help her, but she owed him and his price was information on the project she would use to save your life, and you, once you got better.”
Aura looked over at us asking, “That’s the real reason she left Shadow in here then?”
Vervain shrugged, “For the most part yes, but she also wanted Shadow to make friends and have a relatively normal life. From the stories I’ve heard about life in The Enclave for Grim, it wasn’t much easier growing up there than it is in The Wasteland. The area they are from is mostly isolated from the rest of the Enclave and unicorns are seen as mostly second-class citizens. Grim had it better than most did because of Shadows father. Before Shadow became ill, they didn’t worry about much. Grim was a medical pony before everything happened, she also worked with the main research area of The Enclave’s magical research core. When Shadow was born, she always worried that she’d have a hard time making friends since all the foals her age were Pegasi. She knew that one day Shadow would have to leave the stable, but she wanted her to at least have a good childhood, one that was better than her own or what she would’ve had if they’d gone back to The Enclave.”
I looked back at Vervain and asked, “She really trusted you with a lot of information, didn’t she?”
Vervain smiled sadly, “She did, took a while for her to reach that point, but in the end she did. Grim is a good mare.”
I sighed, “Was a good mare.”
Vervain looked confused, “What do you mean WAS good mare?”
I couldn’t meet her eyes as I said, “Something happened to her during the years she was gone. She’s lost all the memories of what happened to us, she thinks her daughter is dead. All she cares about now is power.”
Vervain looked shocked, “No, she couldn’t have forgotten everything that happened to her.”
“Well she did, she’s been trying to kill Shadow ever since we first ran into The Sins. It’s only gotten worse since Shadow killed Pride,” Wingnut said.
“No, what I mean is, it’s not possible for her to forget things like that. A few months before she left the stable, she put a ward on her mind. This ward was supposed to make it impossible for anypony to take away her memories. She was worried that once she went back to The Wasteland, somepony would try to do that to her. The only pony who could‘ve taken away Grim’s memories was herself.”
Arys stepped in then, “Wait a minute, you mean that if Grim forgot anything, she did it to herself?”
“That’s the only way she could’ve forgotten unless she’s not really Grim,” Vervain said.
“Why would she do that though?” I asked, “Why take away the memories of your daughter?”
Vervain shook her head, “I have no idea, but there has to be a reason for it. Grim wouldn’t do anything like that unless she had a good reason to do so. She always meant for you to find her when you got out of here to bring her the Mark II.”
I rested my head against the bars, “We’ll have to just add this to the list of things to figure out when we’re done here.”
“You’ve got a point shorty, right now we have to figure out how to get out of this,” she said waving her talons around at the large cell.
“Yeah Shadow, what’s this plan you were talking about before?” Wind Thrasher asked.
I grinned a little, “Don’t worry, you’ll all see soon.”
“Shadow we can’t help you if we don’t know what’s going on,” Aura said, “I’m not really a fan of being locked in a cage.”
“I can’t tell you everything just yet, but you’ll understand soon. For right now I’ll just tell you this much,” I said looking back at all my friends, “Do you know what the bad thing about stables is?”
They all shook their heads, even Vervain who said, “What are you getting at Shadow?”
I smiled wider, “No matter what’s going on in a stable, everything runs off a schedule. First you have the shifts of ponies who work in the stable, Shift one, two and three. No matter what’s going on short of an attack, the same shifts start and end their days at the same time, day in and day out. It makes life in a place like this very predictable. When I was younger, I learned the times when the shifts changed and used that time to sneak around, during those shift changes things like security are weak.”
“Okay, and how does that help us?” Arys asked.
“It helps because of another flaw in the way a stable runs its day to day life, or at least Stable 28. We have a very lazy Overmare, every Overmare in fact has been lazy and doesn’t like do a lot of their major duties. They’ve always had another pony to take care of those kinds of things, like what Vervain has done for as long as we’ve been in here.”
“Yeah, so what?” Aura asked.
“So, what happens when you disrupt the schedule for a place that lives its life off of the same rules all the time?”
Wind Thrasher smiled, “When ponies like that are used to doing the same thing all the time and then you mess with the schedule, they’ll try and act like it didn’t happen.”
Vervain looked confused, “I don’t think I’m following.”
I grinned wider, “It means that our lazy Overmare even with you locked up, will still try to stick to the same schedule she always has. If anypony knows that it’s you.”
Her eyes lit up, “I understand.”
“What would The Overmare be doing right about now?” I asked.
She looked down at her Pip-Buck, “This is about the time she would go off to take one of her two-hour naps, leaving me to go check up on how things are going in the stable.”
“That’s right, she’ll shut down her radio, lock her doors and won’t let anypony bother her while she’s napping. She also does this at the same time third shift is switching with first shift. The other thing is with Vervain not running things while The Overmare’s not available, the ponies around here will start to slack off, leaving us with a small window to do what we need to,” I said getting to my hooves.
“True, but how do you plan on getting out of here?” Vervain asked watching me.
I looked down at my Pip-Buck to check the time, “I’ll show you, but I need all of you to stay in here until things are ready.”
Aura got up, “Like hell!”
“Aura, I need to do this on my own. I know this stable better than any of you apart from Vervain. I have to get things ready and I can’t do that if all of you get out too. One pony can sneak around this place without many issues, two makes it hard and more is just impossible.”
“But how can we help you if were stuck in here?” Wingnut asked.
“When the doors open you’ll know it’s time to act,” I said, my eyes still watching the clock on my Pip-Buck. The time finally hit what I was waiting for and a small ding went off signaling the shift change. I smiled then looked up at one of the small ventilation shafts that lead into the cell itself. Using my magic I unscrewed the vent cover on the celling and pulled it away, “I need one of you to lift me up to that vent.”
“Are you sure you can fit in there Shadow? I know you’re small, but I don’t think you’re THAT small,” Aura said.
“It’ll be tight, but I can make it. Now hurry, security will be checking the cells soon and I need to be gone before they do.”
“Won’t they notice you’re gone though?
“I don’t know what you’re talking about, I’m supposed to be in the other cell block, the one they never check because it’s the closest thing they have to solitary. Now get me up there.”
Aura picked me up and lifted me to the vent, I pushed my way into the tight space then started to cover the vent when Aura stopped me, “You make sure you’re careful out there.”
“I will,” I said with a smile pulling the vent back over the hole, using my magic to screw it back into place. Once I was done I started to push my way through the vent. At first it was tight, but that only lasted a few feet. Soon the vent got wider and connected with another air vent that went up slightly in the direction of the atrium.
I smiled, “Stable-Tec, the company that made wonders of the world with their tech and stables. They made these places to save ponies from the hell of megaspells, set up every stable with everything they’d need to survive. They would like to say they thought of everything when it came to their stables, but they overlooked a small pony who can just make it through their ventilation system.”
Normally trying to get though the ventilation system wouldn’t be a good idea in a place as massive as this. It was like trying to make your way through a maze of multiple twists and turns, with sudden pitfalls, and it was like trying to crawl through a sweat lodge. Luckily for me, this wasn’t the first time I’ve been in here. Back when I was younger I found it a great place to hide from some of the bullies in my class, and the security ponies when I did something I wasn’t supposed to. The Cells were connected to the same ventilation shaft as the living quarters and security.
For my plan to work I needed to get to the living quarters and find Vervain’s room. Being a Steel Ranger, even one that everypony thought was dead she’d still have a way to communicate with the outside. If not, I knew Mom did, and Vervain had everything that used to belong to her before she left. So when I got to a split in the vents I took the one on my left and followed it until I was over the main hallway of the family living quarters. Looking down from one of the openings I saw that no pony was walking around just yet. Using my magic I undid the screws like before, moved the vent cover away and dropped down. Once I replaced the cover I double checked to make sure no pony was coming then made my way toward the room I used to share with Vervain.
Right when I reached the door I heard voices coming from just down the hall, looking back I saw a security pony just coming around the corner. I opened the door quickly then stepped in shutting it behind me as quick as I could. I waited for a minute as the two security ponies passed by the door. Neither of them seemed to have noticed me because they walked right past, one saying, “How much longer is The Overmare gonna keep us watching Milkshake anyway? You know how hard it is for me to keep up a professional demeanor when she keeps wanting us to taste test every new thing she makes?”
“I don’t mind keeping an eye on her, she’s freakin’ hot,” the other stallion responded.
The other pony’s voice sounded a little scared, “Careful what you say, you know she’s off limits.”
“There’s nothing wrong with looking, The Overmare wouldn’t do anything to me for just checking out Milkshake.”
“I don’t know what she’d do at this point, but The Overmare doesn’t even want us talking to Milkshake.”
I lost the rest of what they were saying as they walked away. I wonder what the big deal was with having security ponies talking to Milkshake. She was always a nice pony to the rest of the Stable dwellers, they all loved her and her cooking. Maybe she was still spreading stories around about my escape. I guess I’d just have to ask when I found her, that would have to wait till after I was done with this. I turned and looked at the place I used to call home.
From what I could tell, Vervain was still living here before she went into hiding. The two rooms that split off from the small living room were still the same, though my own looked like nopony had been in it for a while. She must’ve had a hard time cleaning it up after I left. My bed was still unmade, a couple of my stable bardings were still laying on the floor, a couple of books I used to read were on the small shelf next to my bed, and my mirror was still where I’d left it. I walked into the room and took it all in. I almost felt like I was thrown back to that morning when Milkshake woke me up, trying to make sure we wouldn’t be late for our meeting with Vervain. I walked over to my bed and the shelf next to it and pick up a small book that was laying on its side.
It was titled, ‘Twilight Time Spell Book for young unicorns: Beginners Edition’ I remembered Mom giving it to me a few weeks before she left. She told me that Twilight Sparkle herself wrote it to help unicorns like myself learn easier spells. It was full of strength exercises, minor spells and techniques for bringing up magical endurance. It wasn’t much help for me in the past because I didn’t see the point of learning much magic when I was the only unicorn in the stable, but I did learn how to better control my telekinesis with it. Thanks to that, I was able to learn how to pick locks. That skill alone was a big help in The Wasteland.
Slowly I set it back on to the shelf then walked back out of the room and went to Vervain’s room. As always, her room was pristine, she’s always been a well-organized mare. Everything was always in its place, I was a little shocked that no pony had gone through her things while she was hiding. Maybe The Overmare thought it wasn’t worth it. I started to look through her things as quickly as I could, trying to find anything that would help me get access to the outside. I mean it couldn’t be as simple as using the terminal she had on the desk. I stopped and looked at the terminal, “No, it can’t be that simple.”
I moved over to it and tried to log in, but there wasn’t any kind of log in screen. The terminal was on, it was giving off the soft green glow I was used to seeing, but the screen only had the words ‘Stable-Tec’ on it. I lifted the Mark II and tried to find a way to hook it up, but there wasn’t an access port. That was even stranger, every terminal I’ve run into had an access port on it. How the hell did anypony use this thing?
Then it hit me, the Mark II could access terminals that had a broadcaster on them. I brought up the broadcast menu and saw one show up, I clicked on it and miracle of miracles, something happened.
Terminal access granted…Mark II SB has found an extension broadcast in the host terminal you are now accessing. Making connection to external broadcast now.
I looked in amazement as the message vanished, and the broadcast menu came back up. This time I could see the same broadcast channels that went to The Red Talons and The Steel Rangers. There was also three more that showed up as well. Ones I’ve never seen before when I was scanning them in The wasteland. The first thing I did was connect to The Red Talons’ channel.
“This is Shadow Star, can anyone hear me?”
A moment later I heard Gigi’s voice, “Shadow? How’d you get a broadcast to make it through the walls of a stable?”
“Long story, how are things going out there?”
I heard the older griffon sigh, “Not good, this new talon company has at least twenty or so griffons surrounding the area right now. Gina has four of my griffons held hostage at the moment, one of them is Fletch. So far, they haven’t tried to attack us, and we’re staying back for the moment. I was only able to get twenty of my best fighters to come with me. What’s the situation inside?”
“Not good, we were captured, but I was able to escape for now. Aura and Arys are both okay, at least for now, but I’m not sure how long that’ll last. Listen, The Overmare is working with a pony on the outside, Vervain believes it’s an Elder of another branch of The Steel Rangers, his name is Wolfsbane.”
“Funny you should bring him up. Only a few minutes ago, one of my griffons reported seeing a large airship that was flying the The Steel Ranger’s flag heading toward Cartwheel. I’ve only heard about this airship once and it was owned by the Los Alicorn branch. Only Apollo has ever dealt with them in the past. Why would he be all the way out here working with your former Overmare?”
“I’m going to find that out as soon as I can reach The Overmare. Do you think Apollo would be able to go see what he could learn from Elder Wolfsbane?”
“I wish I could ask him, but I haven’t seen him for a couple of days.”
I stopped for a moment then asked, “Is he okay?”
“I hope so, he went out to talk with Elder Appleslice and hasn’t returned yet.”
“Well, we’ll have to deal with that after the stable is taken care of, do you think you can take on the other talon company?”
She took a minute to answer, “Maybe, but it’ll be hard with them holding Fletch and the others.”
“If you can, I need your griffons in here as soon as possible. I’m working on a plan right now to get as much of security on my side as I can. If I can take down The Overmare then maybe the griffons will just leave since their contractor is dead.”
“That could work, I’ll see what I can do from my side, just make sure you all get out of there alive.”
“Thank you, I’ll try my best to keep everyone safe. Currently they’re in the holding cells waiting for me to get them out,” I said.
She sighed, “I see, so you’re all alone right now then. You should get going, like I said I’ll see what I can do.”
“Yeah, I’m alone. Before I keep going with my plan I need to contact The Steel Rangers so don’t be surprised if they show up. I’ll let them know you guys are out there so they don’t mistake you for the enemy.”
“Alright, I’ll inform the others. Gigi out,” she said before cutting the transmission.
I switched to the other broadcast channel, “Shadow Star to Steel Rangers, come in.”
The response was pretty quick, “Shadow? It’s Sapphire, how did you get a broadcaster to transmit through stable walls?”
I smiled and scratched the back of my head like she could see me or something, “It’s kind of a complicated story but…”
“Yeah, I just talked to one of the security ponies in there,” she interrupted, “He said something about us having their support in taking the stable and that you’d been captured and put into a cell with the others.”
Damn Balefire works fast. I guess with The Overmare acting nuttier and more psycho than ever, it didn’t take too much convincing for the other security ponies to join Balefire, “I told him that you guys and The Red Talons are on their way to the stable and that he should rally together the others in security to help you guys out. His name is Balefire, he’s one of my oldest friends in here. I left the stable unlocked and used the Mark II to keep it unlocked so it can’t be sealed again. That’s how he was able to contact you with a broadcaster in case you were wondering. Also one question, how am I talking to you right now and not Sandstorm or someone else back at the bunker?”
“I took the receiver with me so you could contact us directly for time sensitive information. Have The Red Talons arrived yet and what should we expect when we get there?” she replied.
“Yeah they’re here already, they’ve confronted the enemy outside. The enemy we’re facing are another talon company who’ve been contracted by The Overmare. They have about twenty outside according to Gigi and are also holding hostages, one of them is Gigi’s daughter. If you can find a way to get in here and meet with security without any of the hostages getting hurt I’ll see if there’s any way I can help you guys out. Unfortunately I don’t have my weapons right now though.”
She sighed, “That’s gonna be hard to do without any of the hostages being harmed, but I’ll see what I can do. Ugh why do things have to be so complicated all the time? Can’t things ever just be easy and straightforward? Okay then we’re almost to the stable, I guess I’ll see ya when I see ya.”
“Yeah, see ya later then. Stay safe,” I said, ending the transmission.
I agree, why the hell does everything have to be so fucking complicated all the time? “Whelp I guess I should go get my weapons back, or at least find some I can use.”
I walked over to the door and as I opened it I thought I saw my shadow move, but when I looked it was fine. Another strange thing was that the hallway was completely deserted, although it DID smell faintly like blood. As I continued down the hallway the smell grew stronger. I rounded the corner and couldn’t believe what I saw, it was everywhere. On the floor, walls, and ceiling was blood and little bits of gore. There were only bits and pieces of bodies on the floor, some of them had enough remaining to know if they were security ponies or not, a few of them were, but the rest weren’t. The feeling of being watched was returning again like when I was locked in Block B. I looked around on my E.F.S. and didn’t see any red bars, not yet at least.
I reluctantly continued on and wondered how I didn’t hear anything that happened out in the hallway when I was using the terminal. Did The Overmare have one of the griffons take an experimental weapon from R&D and go on a rampage? No, that doesn’t make sense, she’s crazy, but I don’t think she’s that crazy or stupid for that matter. If she did something like that she’d have no pony to rule over, unless the ponies here started to revolt against her finally. Still though, why didn’t I hear anything?
As I walked I didn’t see any other ponies around at all which disturbed me. Something isn’t right here, there can’t be no one around at all, “Okay, just calm down. I can’t get paranoid about shit right now, I have more important things to worry about,” I said to myself quietly.
Level ten, all I have to do is get to the elevator and go to level ten. I can get some weapons down there from the emergency cache. Distracting myself with my own thoughts I didn’t look where I was going and accidentally stepped on an eyeball, “AAAHHH! Oh shit,” I quickly looked for a place to hide in case someone heard me scream, but there was nowhere close that I’d be able to get fast enough. I calmed myself down a bit and noticed I didn’t hear any hoofsteps, “Okay this is really starting to freak me out,” I said quietly to myself while slowly continuing on to the elevator which was just a bit further.
Upon arriving at the door to the elevator I started to hear faint sounds coming from the other side. I approached slowly as if the door was going to blow off and have enemies jump out of it guns blazing. I put my ear against the door, what I heard was complete carnage. Screams, gunshots, and explosions from what sounded like grenades filled the elevator shaft. It wasn’t supposed to go like this, innocents weren’t supposed to die. What happened to the plan I had for The Rangers of not letting anyone but the enemy get hurt? That’s if they’re the ones causing this, it could be The Overmare fighting with the citizens who could’ve done as I thought and revolted. Once again, I put my thoughts aside and pushed the call button and waited for the elevator. I heard the sound of the car moving followed by more screaming and gunfire, “Goddesses this whole mission is fucked. It’s just fucking fucked!” I yelled as the elevator doors opened revealing a beheaded security pony inside. Actually, beheaded is an understatement, the whole right side of his body was blown off by something.
I stepped into the elevator and pressed the button for my destination, standing next to a site that weeks ago would’ve made me cry and vomit. The sounds grew louder and softer as the car descended down the shaft, and I ignored them as best I could. If I didn’t succeed in getting some weapons because I stopped to cry about it, I wouldn’t be able to try and help them. I looked down at the dead body in the elevator and saw he had a pistol in his holster. I took it and the extra mag and waited. The door opened and I stepped out of the elevator leaving a trail of bloody hoofprints behind me as I walked, something I think I’m going to see a lot more of over time. Something felt different down in the depths of level ten, I noticed it seemed darker than I remembered. I was getting paranoid again so I took a second to check my E.F.S., then I realized that any red bars I see could be anywhere above me too. Instead I looked around the old-fashioned way and still didn’t see anypony, but I thought I heard something, like a whisper directly in my ear. It wasn’t Aquila, I would’ve felt her presence and something like this I don’t think is her style.
Stress, this had to be stress getting the better of me, everyone IS relying on me and my plans after all. There was a corner coming up and I saw a red bar on my E.F.S. that was getting closer and not moving; there could be an enemy waiting to ambush me. I got up on my hind legs and started to move along the wall with my back to it. What was I going to do like this? It’s not like sneaking along the wall like this is gonna help any. I can’t just pop around the corner, say ‘boo’ and expect an enemy to tremble in fear. Can I do that? Now that I think about it stable ponies are terrified of things from the outside most of the time. No, that plan is stupid, I’ll definitely get killed for sure unless the pony or griffon is a really rotten shot.
I stopped about a meter away from the corner, listening closely I could hear breathing. I took the extra clip for the pistol and threw it ahead of the corner. As soon as it went into sight of where another pony would see it, there was an eruption of gunfire from an automatic submachine gun. The sentry around the corner kept firing until the gun started to click indicating that they were out of ammo. I jumped out from behind the wall and put the pistol right in his face against his forehead. He looked at me with wide eyes and yelled, “Please don’t shoot! I don’t wanna die!”
“Why? You didn’t hesitate to shoot me when you thought I was coming around the corner,” I replied.
“I thought you might be one of those outsiders from upstairs, but I can see it’s just you Shadow,” he said starting to calm down. His voice sounded familiar but I couldn’t make out who he was in the dark.
“Do we know each other or something?” I asked.
“Yeah, it’s me, Cuff Key. Shit started to go south upstairs and I thought one of the griffons figured out I came down here and came after me. You can put the gun down, I’m on your side,” he replied.
“Oh, what exactly IS going on up there?”
He took a second to catch his breath from the rush of adrenaline, “The Overmare found out that you escaped through the vents and started freaking out. She ordered the griffons to start taking hostages and to tell the other ponies in the stable that if they didn’t start searching the stable for you then they’d kill a hostage every five minutes until they complied. Then out of nowhere Balefire shot one of the griffons holding a hostage in the back of the head which isn’t how we agreed to proceed with the plan. Only one or two of the hostages died after he shot the griffon and then all hell broke loose. A different group of griffons and some ponies in armor came in and started lighting up the griffons The Overmare hired. Now they’re having a firefight upstairs and even some of the stable citizens have joined in too. There’s a few citizens fighting alongside The Overmare’s hired group, but there’s a lot more fighting alongside the others group. Fortunately the other griffons and the armored ponies haven’t killed any of the citizens.”
I sighed (Damn I thought I my daring escape would have bought me more time), “Looks like Gigi was successful in saving Fletch and the others from being killed, or maybe not, I don’t know. For now I have to keep going and get to the emergency weapon cache so I can help. By the way, why did you come down here? You’re not a coward or anything right?”
He shook his head, “I’m no coward. I came down here to get a weapon, same as you. The standard pistols are freakin’ garbage compared to the guns that the outsiders are using. I felt like I needed to up my game a little so I could be a better help.”
“Alright then, I suggest you get back up there then and do your best to help… actually maybe there’s something you could do. If you know where they’re keeping my friends’ weapons you could bring them to their cell and let them out. If they join the fight, the odds will stack in our favor without a doubt,” I said, trying to do as much as I could to put an end to the bloodshed upstairs.
He nodded, “Yeah I can do that for you, I’ll just have to be careful so I don’t get shot in the process.”
“Alright, best of luck to you then,” I said as he started walking in the direction of the elevator.
After he left I continued on to the weapons cache, the paranoia of somepony watching me still lingering. Doing my best to ignore the feeling, I went down one of the hallways that led to where the weapons were kept. The door to the weapons cache was still open and I found myself looking at rows and rows of practically new rifles, pistols, and energy weapons. I moved over to the rack that held a few of the energy weapons and took a plasma rifle down. It didn’t look as nice as mine, but I was used to using this kind of weapon versus a laser rifle. I grabbed a few energy cartages and a set of saddle bags off the wall. I also grabbed a couple of pistols and ammo just in case I needed a backup weapon. Then I moved over to a literal bucket of grenades. I took a few and placed them into my new saddle bags with my newly acquired weapons.
“You need to hide,” A voice said in my ear, I jumped and looked around for the voice, it wasn’t Aquila’s voice though.
That feeling of being watched came back again and I wanted to ask who was there, but then I heard voices outside in the hall. I looked around frantically for a place to hide, there was a dark place in the far corner where the light didn’t reach. I ran for it and just made it there just as four security ponies walked in, “Fuck, it looks like another pony’s already been in here.”
“That would explain why some of those traitors are so heavily armed,” another said as they started to grab what they could from the racks.
“What’s our orders?” one asked.
“Overmare said to get more hostages, the one she wants us to get first is Milkshake. She thinks that’d be the best way to get her son to back down.”
Milkshake? Why would taking her hostage matter to Balefire? Well they are friends, but how would that make a difference compared to the other ponies in the Stable? Whatever it is I’m not gonna let them do anything to her. I readied the plasma rifle, jumped out from the shadows and entered S.A.T.S. I targeted the two in the rear and opened fire. The first one took a shot to the torso, his body glowed green and melted into a pile of goo. The other one I got right in his head, it exploded showering the other two ponies with gore.
The last two didn’t hesitate, they both twisted around as their comrades fell and returned fire. I rolled behind one of the shelves and started to sneak around to the other side as they riddled the shelf with bullets. Stable ponies, they aren’t used to combat at all. They see an enemy, shoot, and hope they kill them quickly. I reached the other side and jumped back into the aisle, S.A.T.S. was recharging, so I aimed down the sights and fired. One of the stallions jumped out of the way just in time, but his comrade wasn’t so lucky. The plasma rifle blasted a hole in his security barding and he went down screaming and dropping his rifle.
I ducked behind the shelf on the other side right as the last guard pony returned fire. I felt a bullet bite into my ass right when I rounded the corner. (always the same damn spot) I winced and did my best not to cry out. This time the security pony didn’t keep firing like before. I could hear him slowly walking down the aisle. As he did he said around the bit of his rifle, “You’ve got nowhere to hide in here.”
I slowly moved down the aisle as I said, “That’s true, but the same goes for you. I’ve already killed two of your comrades and I’m sure the other stallion is close to death too.”
“You caught us by surprise, that won’t happen again. What makes you think you can come into our stable and kill our citizens?”
I reached the end of the aisle and moved around to another giving myself some distance as I replied, “Don’t you know who I am? I grew up here.”
“I thought you looked familiar, you’re that unicorn that ran away a few weeks ago.”
“That would be me, let me ask you something. Why would you still serve an Overmare who has clearly lost it? You can’t seriously think she’s not funny in the head.”
He laughed, “She’s just clearing this place out of scum like you. So what if a few ponies die, as long as the stable as a whole survives.”
It sounded like he reached the other side of the aisle I was just in, “You have a point, though I’d have to say you’re the ponies that need to be taken care of.”
I could see his shadow just under the shelf, he was moving the other way from where I was. As he walked he asked, “What I don’t understand is how you think you can take us? You’re all just a bunch of outsiders living in a barren wasteland.”
I smiled and kept an eye on his shadow as it slowly walked away from me, “You think the security ponies in here stand a chance against ponies and griffons like us? You have no idea what we have to deal with out there, you’ve got nothing on us. We have giant suits of metal power armor and energy spears that never run out of ammunition, you have paper-thin body armor and guns that can barely pierce tinfoil not counting the ones here.”
He started to laugh as I turned my head so I could go around the other end of the aisle, “That’s cute, you think you’re strong enough to…what the fuck is that?”
I stopped then asked, “What?”
“GET AWAY FROM ME!!!” he yelled and he started to fire at something, I jumped behind a crate that was at the end of the aisle as the pony started to scream, “WHAT THE FUCK ARE YOU….AHHHHHHHHH,” his voice stopped with a gurgle and the sound of a body hitting the ground.
The room was suddenly silent, I peeked around the edge of the crate, at the end of the aisle I saw the last pony laying in a growing pool of blood. I moved out from my hiding spot and moved closer, the plasma rifle aimed at the body. When I got closer I saw he was already dead, his throat had been slit so deeply it almost decapitated him. His head was laying at a weird angle leaving most of his throat exposed, pooling blood flowing from it.
I lifted my rifle and started looking around for whoever had done this. I looked down toward the rest of the ponies I killed, but no pony was in the room. I started to move toward the door wondering who could’ve killed the last one so quickly and without me hearing them. But nopony was here. Who could’ve made a wound like that? It looked like the kind of wound that I could see Aura’s spear make, but it would’ve cauterized the wound.
I noticed something move at the edge of my vision, I swung around aiming my rifle, but still, nothing, “Who’s there?”
Nopony answered as I aimed down my sights. I was sure of it now, somepony was following me. Whoever it is, they aren’t showing up on my E.F.S. and they don’t seem to want me dead. If they did, I’m sure I wouldn’t have made it this far. I lowered the plasma rifle then walked closer to the last pony who was still alive. He was moaning on the ground holding his side where I’d shot him. He looked up as soon as I walked up to him, “Why?”
I pulled out one of pistols from my saddle bags and pointed it at his shocked face, “Because you’re a disgrace,” I pulled the trigger, putting him out of his misery. I put the pistol back into my saddle bags and walked out of the armory.
I kept the Plasma rifle held tight in my magic as I walked back to the elevator. It wasn’t right that those ponies had to die just to fulfill the sick fantasies of The Overmare. I’m not gonna do this shit anymore, so I pushed the call button on the elevator panel. I hit the button for level eight, first things first, I have to save Milkshake. The Overmare wanted her for something and I wasn’t gonna let her use my friend for anything.
A moment later, the door opened and I walked into the main dining hall. Two security ponies were sitting next to the counter, their rifles sitting next to them. At the sound of the elevator door closing, they both turned to see who was out there. At the sight of me, they both tried to go for their rifles, but I lifted my own, “Try it and you’re both dead.”
One didn’t seem to want to listen, he kept reaching for his gun. I fired and blew him away with three quick shots. By the time he hit the ground, his body was just a pile of green goo. The mare who hadn’t gone for her rifle started to shake as she watched her partner melt away, “Oh goddesses…please don’t kill me too.”
I walked over to her and used my magic to pick up both rifles, “If you do what I ask then I won’t. Where is Strawberry Milkshake and why are you two down here instead of joining in on the fight going on in the atrium?”
“She’s in the back, she’s doing prep for breakfast, or at least she was before the shooting started. The Overmare said to stay down here and keep an eye on her until she could send more ponies down here to get her,” she replied.
“Why didn’t you try to kill me like your friend did when I came in?”
She looked at me for a minute then something seemed to click, “That IS you Shadow. I can’t believe what a badass you’ve become,”
I rolled my eyes, “Who are you again?”
The mare continued to look at me, “I’m Symmetry remember?”
“Right” I said nonchalantly “Symmetry I don’t have a lot of time to reminisce right now. Please answer my question.”
“Sorry, well I don’t like what The Overmare is doing right now. I mean she wants us to take Auntie in and you, both of you haven’t ever been bad ponies. She let outsiders in our home and is letting them kill ponies. When I saw you coming in I figured why attack you when I was most likely going to die if I did?” she said her eyes wandering over to the goo, “I mean look what happened to him, I’m not brave enough to fight ponies from the outside on my own.”
I lowered my rifle, “If you don’t like what The Overmare is doing then you should go join the other security ponies who’re trying to save this place.”
“You’re gonna let me go?”
“As long as you’re not gonna try to kill me or my friends then yes. You’re a security pony, your job is to protect the stable, that goes for protecting it from ponies like The Overmare as well as outside invaders,” I tossed one of the rifles back to her, “Go do your job and if you try attacking me, you’ll end up like him, maybe. It doesn’t always turn the bodies into slime.”
She looked at the rifle laying on the ground by her hooves, “I’m not sure I can fight, I’m scared. That’s why I was okay with keeping an eye on Milkshake.”
I glared at her, “Either you help us save the stable, or you die like the rest of the ponies who are trying to kill it. Now get out of here before I decide you’re the latter.”
She took hold of her rifle and ran for the elevator, when she was gone I walked around the counter and toward the doors that lead into the kitchen, “Milkshake are you in here?”
The door opened and Milkshake’s face was looking at me in wonder, “Shadow is that really you?”
I could feel tears in my eyes as I looked at my best friend, she hadn’t changed at all since I last saw her on the night I had to run away. I gave her the biggest smile I could muster, “Yeah it’s me, are you okay?”
She ran forward and hugged me tight as she started to cry, “Where have you been, do you know how worried we’ve been?”
I let my hooves wrap around her, “Uh, The Wasteland. I figured you guys would worry about me as much as I worried about you.”
She took a moment still hugging me tight before she finally pulled away and looked into my eyes, “Auntie told us what happened and why you had to leave. I understand, but I always thought you would’ve found a way to come back here. How could you just leave your home like that Shadow, did you hate it here so much that you never even thought of trying to return?”
I sighed, “I couldn’t come back, not back then. All I knew at the time was that The Overmare wanted this Pip-Buck and I had to make sure she never got her hooves on it. When I was out, I tried to go find my mother and figure out why she left. A lot has happened since I last saw you and Balefire, honestly I wouldn’t have come back at all if it wasn’t for Auntie telling me she needed my help.”
She pouted a little then wiped her eyes, “You only came back for Auntie?”
“No, I came back to help my home. I didn’t know what was going on here until I got her transmission. I was afraid that if I came back before that The Overmare would do something to you or Balefire so she could get me to do what she wanted. I wasn’t going to put either of you in danger.”
She smiled a little, “I guess that makes sense, but still I wish you could’ve at least said goodbye. It hasn’t been the same here without you around,” her eyes got wide all of a sudden, “Where’s Balefire?”
“I’m not sure, but from what I’ve been hearing, I’m sure he’s up in the atrium helping fight the rest of security. Don’t worry, he’s strong, he’ll be fine,” I said.
“We have to get to him, I don’t know what I’d do if something happened to him.”
“I was planning on heading there after I got you to a safe place. Why are you so worried? His mother wouldn’t let anything bad happen to him, she dotes on him like he’s still her little colt.”
She blushed a little, “Things have changed since I last saw you Shadow.”
“Like what, and why does The Overmare want security ponies to keep you away from him? They also said something about bringing you to her, why does she care so much about that?”
She blushed more, “When you left, Balefire and I started to get a lot closer than we were before. I know he’ll never feel the same way about me that he does about you.”
“What are you trying to tell me Milkshake?” I didn’t like where she was going with this.
“Balefire and I are expecting. In other words I’m pregnant,” she blurted out.
That hit me like a rampaging hellhound, “Wait WHAT!? When the hell did this happen?”
“A week or so after you left, before The Overmare started taking action against us. I don’t know if he kissed me or I kissed him, but one thing led to another and you know how things like that go. We started sneaking off as much as we could and it just happened. Doc told me a couple weeks ago that I was pregnant. It was right after that when The Overmare threw me into the holding cells until she could get a confirmation from the Doc that it was Balefire’s. She’s been doing what she can to make sure I stayed away from her son. She said that once I had the foal, she would be raising it.”
At first when I heard the news I thought I was going to be upset, or jealous that my two best friends ended up together. But I wasn’t, I felt happy for them. I realized a while ago that my feelings for Milkshake weren’t what I thought they were. I admired her for her beauty and her kind nature. I would’ve been happy if she wanted to be with me too, but it wouldn’t have been love. Sooner or later one of us would get tired of the other and we would’ve grown apart. I wasn’t ever interested in Balefire even if I did love him like a big brother. They both deserved to have a pony that loved them, it was nice that it was with one-another.
“I’m…happy to hear that you two ended up together,” I said doing my best to smile.
She hugged me again and said, “I hope you’re not angry Shadow, I know how you feel about me, but I’m not like you. I like stallions only and you know I’ve had a thing for Balefire for a long time.”
I pulled away saying, “I’m not angry…wait you knew that I liked you like that?” way to kill the mood. Ppfftt, not like me. At least I have more variety than her, I like both, it’s way more fun that way.
She laughed a little, “Shadow, I’ve caught you looking at my rear hundreds of times. The first time I noticed it was a couple years ago in class. You’re not that good at hiding it y’know.”
“And you didn’t say anything to me!”
“Why would I, it was fun to tease you now and then,” she said, then her face fell, “Now that I think about it, it wasn’t that nice of a joke was it?”
I just shrugged, “Eh, probably not, but if you can’t laugh at the jokes your friends pull on you then what’s the point of having friends.”
Her face fell more, “I’m still sorry I didn’t talk to you about it sooner. Maybe if I did, you would’ve found someone else that wasn’t your best friend. I’m sure you’re not the only mare in here that like mares.”
“Probably not, but it’s fine. I realized when I was out of the Stable for a bit, that my feelings for you weren’t what I thought they were. I did find a mare who I fell in love with, and she helped me see the difference between love and infatuation. Also I don’t exactly only like mares, I just prefer them. Come to think of it, my first time was a one-night stand with a stallion who also happened to be a rock star.”
She smiled again, “I’m so happy for you! If we make it out of this alive you can introduce me to her.”
As she said that, my heart felt like she just stomped on it. I looked away, “I wish you could’ve met her, but she died a little over a week ago.”
Milkshake put a hoof to her muzzle then said, “Shadow I’m so sorry.”
I did my best to smile again, “It’s okay, that’s just the kind of thing you have to worry about in The Wasteland.”
“Can I ask what happened?”
I shook my head, “I’ll tell you the whole story one day Milkshake, but right now we have to finish this. I need to find my friends and help them finish what I started. Do you think you can handle a fight?”
Before she could answer, the elevator door dinged and opened, my plasma rifle was up and ready for action when I saw Aura and Wingnut getting off the elevator. Her energy spear was up and ready for a fight, same for Wingnut with his revolver. When she saw me she lowered her weapon, “About time we found you Shrimp, what’s taking you so long? Vervain was afraid you’d gotten yourself killed down here.”
I let out a sigh of relief, “I had to find some weaponry so I went down to level ten to get something I could use, then I came looking for Milkshake.”
Wingnut looked over at my other friend who was trying to hide behind me.
“Is that her?” Wingnut asked
“Yeah,” I said looking back at Milkshake, “It’s okay this is Aura and Wingnut, they’re my traveling companions.”
She got back to her hooves, “Nice to meet you,” then she whispered in my ear, “No offense, but they look like they’ve been put in a dryer full of razor blades.”
“Yeah Hi,” Aura said looking back at me, “Are you finished down here? Because in case you’ve forgotten, there are ponies and griffons fighting and dying up there that need your help. I got your stuff by the way.”
She tossed over my saddle bags along with my barding and duster. I took them and started to dress myself, when I was done with that I put the plasma rifle I’d gotten from level ten into my saddle bags then pulled out my own much better plasma rifle. I tossed the set of saddle bags I’d gotten down and pulled out the grenades and pistols and put them into my own saddle bags too, “That’s a lot better, now I feel like myself again. I haven’t forgotten, now tell me what’s going on up there?”
Wingnut’s the one who answered, “The Steel Rangers showed up at the same time as the griffons. Only a few of The Red Talons made it in, I think there’s still fighting going on outside the stable. Most of the security team here seem to have switched sides, they’re helping The Talons fight back against what’s left of the security ponies that are still loyal to The Overmare.”
“How are they holding out with that many against them?”
“More Griffons from that new Unchained group showed up and got past the fight outside. Our side has been able to fend off most of them and they took over the Atrium, but they blocked off level one and they have hostages,” Aura replied.
“I need to get to The Overmare somehow and put a stop to all this, that’s the only way this’ll come to an end. Of course we could kill them all, but I’d like to avoid that if I can. However the only way I can get to The Overmares office is through the atrium so I’ll have to fight my way through. Wingnut should stay here and keep Milkshake safe while we go to the atrium,” I said.
Wingnut looked angry as he blurted out, “HEY! Why do I gotta stay here? I can fight just as good as you guys.”
Dammit, I gotta think of something, fast, “Uh well you see, I know you’re just as good as us. That’s why I’m having you protect Milkshake, because you’re strong and stuff.”
His eyes lit up, “You really think I’m strong and that I can protect a pretty mare like her?”
Wow, he’s actually buying it, “Yeah totally, but please be a gentlecolt.”
He sat on his hind legs and crossed his forelegs turning his head, “I’m not ALWAYS a perve y’know, I just get carried away around pretty mares.”
I sighed, “Alright then, Aura and I are gonna get going so stay safe down here. Oh and before I forget, she’s pregnant so remember you’re protecting TWO lives.”
“Wait wha… she’s…” he stuttered.
“Yup see ya later Squirt,” Aura blurted out while pushing me toward the way up to the atrium.
As we started to go up I looked at the Assault Rifle Aura had on her back asking, “Where did you get that?”
She looked back at it, “What this? I got it off one of the griffons before I headed down here. My spear may be awesome, but sometimes a gun is better.”
“Huh, I didn’t even know you knew how to use a gun.” I said with a smile. She just smirked and ignored me.
***
As the elevator ascended to the atrium level, I heard all the gunshots getting closer. The car stopped and the door opened to gunfire coming in our general direction, “Take cover!” Aura shouted. We both jumped out into the corridor and behind the walls on each side of the atrium entrance. I peeked around the corner and looked at the window to that bitch’s office, and there she is just looking upon the ill-fated ones below her. If it weren’t bullet proof glass I would’ve shot that smug look on her ugly face. I took out Dreamwalker and slipped into S.A.T.S. There were so many red and white lines on my E.F.S. that I couldn’t tell if who I was aiming at was an enemy.
I dropped out of the spell, “Who am I supposed to be shooting at?” I asked as Aura took shots at some of the security ponies.
“The bad guys, duh,” it’s funny, her reply reminded me of something Stardust would say in the same situation.
“Yeah I get that part but I can’t tell who’s on our side. I know the ones who aren’t shooting at us are our allies but further ahead they’re more scattered,” I retorted.
She pinched the top of her beak between her eyes, “Just shoot at the ones trying to kill us! Does that help!?”
How do I manage to piss off everyone around me with my own stupidity all the time? I looked around the corner again and saw some security ponies shooting at some ponies I knew were stable citizens, “Yeah, I got it,” I slipped into S.A.T.S. once more and targeted two or three shots on each of them until the spell didn’t have enough power. Only two of them got hit and not fatally, I guess Dreamwalker wasn’t as effective at a distance.
A couple of Steel Rangers came in through a side entrance and took cover with some security ponies who were on our side behind a table. One of them came out from cover to advance and ran straight at one of the enemy security ponies. As he slowed down I saw him raise his hoof and strike the security pony in center mass with his hoof, sending the enemy security pony flying across the room and smacking against the back wall with a spray of blood upon impact. The body stayed suspended by the impact for a split second and then fell to the floor, he was obviously dead. Damn, I gotta get something like that. S.A.T.S. was still charging so I aimed down my sights and shot at one of the ponies I shot at before. I managed to shoot him in the leg right as one of The Talons threw an energy spear that stabbed cleanly into his neck.
“Hey, we need to advance onward toward that door across the room. I’ll cover you so you can go first,” Aura said as she reloaded.
“Where should I go?” I asked.
“Wherever you don’t get shot. Now go!” she replied.
She started shooting and I broke out from behind cover and ran toward a table that was turned on its side. After taking cover once more I started shooting at the same group of security ponies as before. Aura followed after me and managed to take out one of the griffons on the upper area on the way. I remembered that I grabbed some grenades down on level ten and took a couple out of my saddle bags. I looked over the table and held both of them in my magic. I was looking for the enemy griffons with the most armor, “I’ve got a plan, do you think you can cover me while I move closer to those griffons over there?”
She didn’t duck back behind cover to reply, “Yeah I gotcha. What’s the plan?”
“You’ll see,” I said as I moved to the other end of the table then moved forward to one of the large metal beams on the right side of the room. I was close enough to my targets now and they were distracted by the two Steel Rangers on the left side of the room. Very carefully I floated the grenades toward them just above the ground. I pulled the pins right before I dropped them into their bags and yelled, “Grenades!”
Everyone took cover, including the griffons I rigged. The best part is that they got closer to some of the other enemy sentries. They both exploded with a tremendous bang and some were thrown back while others screamed in agony at a lost limb or bone shrapnel that blew into them in the explosions. The gunfire ceased and was replaced by the screams and torment of the fallen enemies. Aura looked up from her hiding spot, “Nice one Shadow!”
Some of the security ponies and griffons who were still able to fight opened fire again and managed to hit a couple of the less experienced stable citizens fighting with us. I could see Vervain on the other side of the room shooting at the enemy with what looked like a laser pistol she must’ve gotten from one of The Rangers. She looked so composed as she fired her weapon, as if battle was like second nature to her. It was weird seeing her do battle like this, I always saw her as the gentle pony who raised me like her own. I looked for an opening and changed cover to get closer to her, maybe I can devise a plan to take care of the rest of the enemy with her.
It took a minute for her to notice that I was there, “Shadow? It’s good to see that you made it here alive. Looks like The Overmare has locked herself in her office with some of the hostages. Do you have anything planned to get in there?”
“No, that’s why I came over here. I was hoping you could help me out with the whole plan thing,” at that moment more griffons came from the door I needed to get to and took cover, “Well things just got a bit more difficult.”
“Yeah I can see that. I don’t think there’s anything we can do besides keep shooting and hope for them to either run out of ammo and stand down or kill them all,” she replied as she reloaded.
Out of the corner of my eye I saw somepony else coming in the side entrance to the atrium. It looked like another Steel Ranger with more of The Red Talons from outside. However the power armor looked a little different from normal Steel Ranger armor. It looked a bit bulkier like the metal was thicker, there was a cape with The Steel Ranger’s emblem on it going over the right shoulder and it had two miniguns on each side, “Who the hell is that?”
Vervain took a second to look in the direction I was looking, “Really!? Why is HE here? I thought he was gonna stay outside of the stable.”
“Who is he!?” I asked again.
She sighed, “That would be The Sentinel who also happens to be my father if you didn’t already know that.”
I kept watching as he walked through the gunfire as bullets bounced off his armor. This guy was a fuckin’ badass to just walk in front of bullets like that, one lucky shot and he’s done for. He stopped directly in the center of the room in front of us and turned toward the enemy. As he turned I could hear the barrels of his miniguns start to turn and something came out of the back of his armor, “What’s he doing?”
Before Vervain could answer bullets erupted from the barrels of his miniguns and missiles fired from the things that came out of his back. In mere seconds the far wall of the atrium went from cold dull gray to dark maroon as it was pasted with blood, brain matter, and whatever other organ meats followed the bullets out of the bodies.
The gunfire stopped abruptly from his armor and there was nothing but silence. The small missile launchers returned to his back as he turned around to look at Vervain and I. I wasn’t expecting the voice that came out of the helmet speaker, “Holy hot damn! I might be a simple old fart now, but I still got it, hehe.”
Vervain facehoofed, “Dad, why must you be such a showoff? You’re getting too old to be doing things like that.”
He laughed, “HA! Too old? Bah, there ain’t such thing as too old for this old postmaster!”
Oh my Goddesses, it can’t be him. He can barely walk half the time, “Uh Vervain, is that…?”
“Yeah that’s my father, Box Tape. I believe you’ve met. I hope he wasn’t too much of a dirty old perve when you met him,” she replied before I could finish my question.
“Vervain, I haven’t seen ya in years and ya have to go and say things like that to my best and only employee?” Box Tape said.
She looked irritated, very irritated, “I thought you were gonna stay outside and fend off any reinforcements, not come in here and showboat. We could’ve managed in here on our own.”
He laughed again, “If I didn’t step in ya’ll would’ve been more holy than a priest and deader than a bloatsprite on a raptor windshield. There ain’t no one else comin’ here anyway, we already took care of whatever reinforcements they sent for.”
Okay this is just too unreal, Box Tape is Vervain’s freakin’ father. He really does know everyone I do, “So what’s the plan now Vervain?” I asked still keeping somewhat in cover in case more enemies came from other parts of the stable, “I think we can consider the atrium captured for right now.”
She sighed, “I guess we should keep moving forward and hope there’s not many of them left. If The Sentinel stays here we won’t have to worry as much about the enemy somehow getting past everyone out here and following us. If we can manage to get to The Overmare’s office without too much trouble we might be able to save the hostages she has up there. The biggest thing we have to worry about besides The Overmare and the hostages is the griffon that leads all of them, Gina. She’s a skilled fighter with long and short-range weapons from what I know which makes her extremely dangerous.”
“I can handle her, I’ve got a little score to settle,” Aura said walking up next to us, “I can at least distract her long enough so you guys can take care of The Overmare. Once The Overmare is off the table Gina shouldn’t be a problem anymore. From what I understand, her contract was just to help The Overmare with her plan to lure Shadow back here and keep order in the stable if anything happened. If The Overmare is killed or incapacitated to the point where she can be considered our hostage, Gina will stand down.”
I looked up at the window again and saw that The Overmare was gone. She must be freaking out now that the tables are turning in our favor. However victory wasn’t in our grasp just yet, this needs to end, and it needs to happen now, “Okay, Me, Aura, Vervain, and whoever else wants to come will continue on while you guys hold down the fort here. I’m gonna show her how powerless she really is,” I said confidently as I started walking toward the blood and gore caked wall, “I’ll see to it that her death is slow and painful or die trying.”
“Gee Shadow, that’s a little morbid don’t you think?” Aura asked from behind me as she followed with Vervain, Arys, and a few of the security ponies. I wondered where Balefire and Wind Thrasher could be, I didn’t see them during the firefight.
I looked back at the others, “Where are Wind Thrasher and Balefire?”
“Wind Thrasher went with a group of security ponies to R&D where Vervain said they’re doing some fucked up stuff. I don’t know where Balefire went,” Aura Replied.
Vervain looked down at her hooves as she walked, “I think I know where he went, I saw him sneak off earlier and go upstairs. He probably went to go confront his mother. He said something about it earlier, but I told him it was a bad idea, there’s no telling what she would do in the state of mind she’s in.”
I started up the stairs to the upper level of the atrium, “Great, let’s just hope we find him before he does something stupid. Unfortunately, he inherited some of his brains from his mother, which means he won’t listen to anyone until he does what he thinks he needs to do.”
As we passed the threshold to the upper level, I saw that there were more stable citizens looking at us from different rooms down the hallway just off of the upper walkway. One of them looked like they were going to say something when half of their head disappeared as a bullet passed through it. I looked down the sights of Dreamwalker toward the end of the hallway and fired at the security pony diving for cover behind the wall. I fired and the bullet hit center mass with a small explosion from the special ability of my weapon.
Aura looked shocked, “Damn, you didn’t even use S.A.T.S. did you?”
“No, I didn’t, just lucky I guess. Let’s keep going, don’t let your guard down,” I looked at the ponies in the hallway, “Get down to the lower level of the atrium. We can’t afford any more casualties right now, especially stable citizens. If you don’t get to safety you’ll end up like that one.”
They all pushed and shoved by us as we continued on down the hallway, they were panicking and I could see why. They went from living a peaceful life in a stable to having The Wasteland and all its horror brought in by their leader.
We moved slowly down the hallway, checking any rooms on the way by to make sure we weren’t taken by surprise. Some of the security ponies stayed behind to post guards, so now it was just me, Aura, Vervain, Arys and two security ponies. I looked around the corner signaling the others behind me to wait, as soon as my head went around the wall a bullet ricocheted off the wall by my face. I blindly returned fire with Dreamwalker in my magic, “Is that the best shot you could get motherfuckers? Looks like you’ve been slacking off in the shooting range, I’ve been in The Wasteland where targets aren’t just sheets of paper that don’t shoot back. I kill monsters practically for a living, I’m the freakin’ Courier bitches!”
I heard one of them say, “Alright, we’ll stand down. Just don’t kill us.”
“Drop your weapons and slide them to me, and don’t even think of throwing grenades because that’ll backfire on you,” I said back to them.
They complied, sliding their pistols to me. I picked them up and then Vervain said behind me, “Come out and turn around, then slowly walk backwards to the sound of my voice. Make any sudden movements and it’ll be the last move you make in this world, I WILL put you down.”
They did as she said and the security ponies with us put them in hoofcuffs, as Arys said, “We’ll take them downstairs with the others, you all keep going.”
“Okay, don’t let them try anything. If they do, don’t kill them, just knock them out or something,” I said to her.
I thought the paranoia of being watched by something that ripped ponies to shreds was bad, but having the thought that somepony could jump out from anywhere and attack was more nerve-wracking for some reason. The suspense wasn’t just getting to me, I could see it was getting to Aura and Vervain too just by their expressions. I saw two red bars with about eight white ones as we got closer to where Gina and The Overmare were, those red bars had to be them. Box Tape probably annihilated the rest of the forces they had in this part of the stable that were protecting them.
“Ugh, this is intense. I haven’t been on a mission that involved this kind of thing in years,” Vervain said.
“Don’t worry about it too much, there’s not too many of them left. I only have two red bars on my E.F.S., Gina and The Overmare are probably the only two left in this area.
“That’s right!” Gina yelled as she swung a pole around the corner almost hitting me in the face. Thank the Goddesses I’m short.
Within seconds Aura jumped into action, “You traitorous bitch! Shadow, Vervain, get out of here while you can!”
“They aren’t going any…” Aura struck her in the face before she could finish.
Vervain and I rounded the corner and climbed the final staircase that would bring us to the last corridor that lead to The Overmare’s office. When we got to the top I noticed a small trail of blood starting from a few spots on the floor leading toward the office area, “There’s blood here, think it’s from one of the hostages? She might’ve had Gina beat one of them to death to alleviate her anger.”
“Let’s just see where it leads, somepony might need help. Any injured hostages take precedence over The Overmare,” Vervain replied.
We followed the trail and it didn’t take long to find out where it led. At the end of the trail I saw Balefire slumped against the wall, beaten so badly that I almost didn’t recognize him, “Bale!” I yelled as I ran over to him.
He coughed up some blood and said, “Sh-shadow, you made it.”
“What happened!? Why did she do this to you?” I asked desperately as I dug around in my saddle bags for a healing potion, “Shit! Where the fuck are my fucking potions!?”
He coughed again, “It was that bird bitch. I asked to speak to my mother and she said she had orders from her to keep anypony out,” he coughed up some more blood, “I-I tried pushing past her and she-she just…it doesn’t…matter, glad…you’re…sa…” his eyes closed as he let out a breath.
“NO! Fuck fuck fuck!” I went to grab his legs so I could pull him flat on the floor to administer CPR, but when I looked down I saw that his right foreleg had been mangled beyond recognition, “Vervain, help me!”
She came over as fast as she could and helped me get him where we needed to, “Shadow, I know he’s your friend and you’re worried about him but you need to keep going. I can handle this on my own,” Vervain said as she started chest compressions.
“I can’t just leave him here. I could swear I have healing potions somewhere in my bags,” I said as I kept digging.
“Shadow, a healing potion won’t help his condition. He needs real medical attention. From my experience as a Scribe I have some medical training, I’ll see what I can do for him considering the circumstances.”
I didn’t want to go, not until I knew he was going to be okay, but deep down I knew I had to. Also deep down I knew that I wouldn’t be able to face Milkshake again if he died here, “Fine, I’ll go. Don’t let him die, do whatever you can or need to,” before she could say anything I entered the corridor to The Overmare’s office to end this once and for all. Now wasn’t the time to cry, it was time to show The Overmare why you don’t mess with The Courier!
[FOOTNOTE: LEVEL UP!]
NEW PERK ADDED!
Finesse: You gain an extra 5% chance to land a critical hit upon an opponent regardless of the pony’s luck attribute. Although an extra 5% critical chance is undoubtedly helpful to anypony, combining Finesse with other critical-enhancing effects ensures you get the most bang for your buck.