“Mistakes? You did more than make mistakes Shadow!”
I pulled out my plasma rifle and watched as Stardust tried to land a hoof strike on Doorstop. He dodged under the blow, took hold of his foreleg and flipped the pegasus around throwing him into the air right at Solstice yelling, “Bam! Zoom! Straight to the BITCH!”
Solstice ignored his dickish statement and did a somersault in the air, bringing her rear hooves down to strike Stardust right in the face. Stardust was slammed into the ground. He jumped back to his hooves and yelled, “You motherfuckers really think you can win!?”
Laser fired her rifle at Stardust. It slammed into his combat armor throwing him back again, “Seems to be working, little bird.”
Stardust flew into the air with a demonic look on his face. The place where Laser’s shot hit was scorched but undamaged, “OH you think so do you?” he dove for Laser, she tried to hit him again with her rifle, but he dodged each shot. She jumped out of the way at the last moment but in that moment she round house hooved Stardust in his side sending him flying against the ground, barely avoiding a hoof strike to the head.
Stardust got up “You bitch you’re gonna pay for that.”
Laser readied her fighting stance and beckoned Stardust over to her “Come on little bird.”
Stardust flew straight towards her at full speed Laser side stepped avoiding Stardust’s rush round house hoofing him again kicking him backwards. Stardust face looked like it was going red and rushed at her one more time, however as he got closer he broke left and flew behind Laser slamming a hoof into her back, the force threw her forward rolling along the ground. She wiped her face and smiled “Nice hit, my turn” Laser threw her black flight jacket in the air and Solstice caught it. I looked back at Laser but she wasn’t there. I heard a loud crashing sound and look towards it, there was a lot of dust in the air. In the dust I saw silhouettes of the two pegasi fighting hoof to hoof back and forth. Eventually one of them got a nice kick sending the other out of the dust cloud. It was Laser Light who was kicked out of the cloud.
“The dust settled and Stardust was standing there a little beat up. Laser Light did a number on him. He wiped his face and laughed at Laser “Hah you thought you could take me on by yourself, how pathetic.”
Laser struggled to get up but once she did she laughed as well “Hah hah hah, you must be joking I’m having too much fun, ready for round two, little bird?”
“Stop calling me that!” Stardust yelled flying towards Laser once more. Only this time Stardust didn’t try to attack her, he twisted and went for his fallen rifle.
I know all too well how quickly he could kill us if he got ahold of it. I tried to teleport so I could reach the weapon before he did…and forgot about the fucking magic canceling ring on my horn. For a moment pain shot down my horn like a pick being hammered into thick ice. Shaking my head, I activated S.A.T.S. and targeted two shots at Stardust’s torso. The first one he dodged, still flying toward his rifle. The second he wasn’t as lucky with, the blast slammed right into his side. Unlike when Laser shot him with her own rifle, this time he screamed as the green goo stuck to his armor and started to sizzle.
He slammed into the ground again and started to roll around trying to get the goo off his armor. While he was momentarily preoccupied I looked toward Wind Thrasher, “Keep him down, I have to get his rifle.”
“I’ll do my best,” she replied as she dashed toward him.
I ran toward the fallen rifle as Wind Thrasher flew off to intercept Stardust who was just getting back to his hooves. A piece of his combat armor had been burned away revealing a small burn spot under it. He saw where I was going and tried to go after me, but Wind Thrasher didn’t let him. She cut him off and screamed, he dove to the side avoiding the blast, but it slowed him down. I smiled thinking to myself, ‘Some perfect solider.’
I reached his rifle and took hold of it with my magic, “Let’s see how well you do against us without this.”
Somepony slammed me into the ground a moment later making me lose the hold I had on his rifle. Then a hoof slammed my face down into the ground and I heard Stardust say, “That’s mine BITCH!”
He got off and picked up the rifle aiming it right at me with a grin on his face. Then Cutter came in kicking the rifle right as it fired. He twisted around and tried to kick Stardust in the face, but he jumped back, dodged a counter attack, then slammed the stock of his rifle into Cutter’s face.
I was back on my hooves with my plasma rifle ready to fire again, “Stardust stop this, don’t make me hurt you again.”
He glared at me, then lifted his rifle again and fired. I felt Laser’s hooves take hold of me and pull me to one side as the rifle fired. The bullet still hit me, but it slammed into the well armored part on my chest instead of hitting me in the head. It still hurt, but not as bad as you’d think. I’ll have to thank Wingnut when I see him again for upgrading this armor as well as he did.
“You okay Shadow?” Laser said examining my body her black flight jacket back on her. I can see how badly damaged Laser was from the scuffle with Stardust, yet she was more concerned about me than herself.
“Yes I’m fine Laser I’m more concerned about you.”
She scoffed “You think he can take down a tough old mare like myself that easily?”
“No, I guess not.”
“Did you forget about me ladies?” Stardust pushed the bolt back in place as he reloaded his rifle and aimed at me again. Once again he had to dodge an attack from Doorstop who came flying down at him from above. He twisted his rifle around and tried to slam the stock into Doorstop’s face.
The old pony was tougher than he looked, he let the blow hit him. He took the hit which barely phased him then let his wing came around and strike Stardust in the throat. Stardust gagged falling back again trying to land another strike on Doorstop, but he jumped out of the way laughing, “I haven’t shown you all my tricks yet Cadet!”
Stardust coughed, “And I haven’t shown you all of mine, TRAITOR!”
He dropped something metallic and jumped back right as the flash bomb went off. Doorstop cursed and looked away from the bright explosion of light. The flash was so bright that it even blinded me through my eyelids as I closed my eyes and turned away from the flash.
Once I was able to see again, I saw that Stardust was now on Doorstop’s back holding him in a headlock and choking him, and Laser was no longer next to me. I still couldn’t see all that well but I had to do something, “Hold on, I got this,” I took aim with my plasma rifle and was about to fire when Solstice came diving toward him. As she got closer in her dive, she turned her body so her hind hooves were aimed toward the ground, then with an almighty stomp she came down on Stardust’s wings so hard that I heard the snaps from where I was standing.
He screamed and let go of Doorstop immediately before grabbing at his now broken wings with his forehooves. He lost his balance on Doorstop’s back as he leaned forward to brace himself to breathe and dropped his rifle. He reacted quickly and went to grab for it before being kicked in the face by Solstice, “Not so tough without your gun are ya?” she said as she picked it up and tossed it to Laser.
He held his face and spat out a mouthful of blood, “I’ll never get a pretty marefriend if you guys keep going after my face like that. I’ll end up being a total fugo like you,” with that he bucked upward and hit her in the chest, throwing her back. As he got back to his hooves he pulled out a beat-up pistol and fired in her direction.
Luckily the bullet only went through her ear instead of her head, and as blood started to run down the left half of her face she said, “Nice one crack shot. What are you like eight, no nine feet away?” he fired again and just grazed her shoulder, “Oh, I forgot about this. Doorstop said you aren’t so good at shooting pistols, especially when pumped with adrenaline like you are right now. Just give up already bro. You’re outnumbered, your wings are broken, and the only gun you have on you looks like it’s lived through three wars, not just the one.”
Right as she was done talking, Stardust took his right forehoof and kicked sand in her eyes then fired again as he ran toward a giant rock. I got a good look of his gun, well… as well as I can see it, when he took cover behind the rock and saw that it was the one I gave him when we went to Stable 9. He started shooting at the others but for some reason completely forgot about me. Wind Thrasher tried flying over to get behind him but as she was just getting airborne he managed to shoot her in the wing. She dropped back down behind cover in a collapsed brick house and tried screaming again to no avail.
Meanwhile, Solstice, Laser, Cutter, and the two pegasi he brought with him returned fire. That was when I noticed Doorstop was nowhere to be found. I looked around, but couldn’t find him anywhere, it was like he suddenly disappeared. Then a bullet whizzed by my head as I was lost in thought and I realized that I wasn’t behind cover by any means. Thinking fast I ran behind a concrete barrier and went to grab Stardust’s old rifle off my back, but I didn’t feel anything there, “Oh, fuck,” shit there goes any plans of possibly getting a crippling shot. Wait a sec, Laser has his other rifle, “Hey Laser! Toss me his other rifle, I have an idea.”
Laser quickly examined it’s chamber and stock “Looks like it’s out of ammo and you don’t have the kind of ammunition it needs, but don’t worry, we’ve got a plan,” she replied.
Dammit, plans never pan out the way they’re logically supposed to when it comes to me and my friends so whatever happens next can’t be good. It was then that I finally saw Doorstop, he was directly behind Stardust. Shit, I have to do something, grabbing him from behind won’t work, he’ll find a way to fight back and get free. Then before I could think of something to do Doorstop grabbed Stardust under his shoulders with both his forehooves and stood him upright on his hind legs. After getting him up, Doorstop put his hind hooves around Stardust’s to hold him where they stood, “You forgot rule number one Cadet, always keep an eye on your enemy and pay attention to your surroundings. C’mon now, drop the gun.”
Stardust didn’t listen, instead he pointed the gun as best he could toward Doorstop’s face and fired. Doorstop barely flinched as the gun went off three times, all he did was blink and wince in pain at the damage the sound must’ve been causing his ears.
I decided to come out from cover and approach him which was probably the stupid choice considering he still had a gun readily available and wanted to kill me and I still very much wanted to end him, but I have to try not to for my friends. As I walked toward him he fired one shot that hit me in the forehoof, I didn’t even flinch, “Where did you get that gun you just shot me with?”
“Why should I tell you?” he asked around the bit of the pistol.
“Because I’m curious as to why all the other weapons I’ve seen you use are in pristine condition while that one is a pathetic excuse for scrap metal,” I replied as I stopped about five feet in front of him.
He went to fire again and the gun clicked, he dropped it and smirked, “Lucky as ever Courier, just one thing after another you get lucky with. Do you have a collection of lucky charms in those saddle bags or is it just you? All this time I’ve wondered how no one has managed to kill a simple stable dweller like you. It’d be easy if you weren’t so damn lucky, like setting a ghoul on fire, or drowning a foal in a radioactive river.”
“You still haven’t answered my question you sick son of a bitch. Where did you get the pistol?” I asked, pressing him and ignoring his attempts to make me angry.
“How do you know if my mother is a bitch or not, have you met her? I sure as hell haven’t because she’s dead, just like your feathered friend in The Kingdom,” he replied arrogantly.
Great, not only does he keep going around my question, he’s trying to fuck with me by asking ME questions that piss me off, “She…”
Doorstop interrupted, “You ain’t as good of a shot as you think, the griffon isn’t dead.”
“Ppfftt… of course she’s dead, I hit her in the heart,” he retorted.
Wait, did Doorstop just say that Aura’s okay? No, I heard them call the time of death. He’s probably just trying to antagonize Stardust; yeah that’s it. That’s it right? “Doorstop, if you’re trying to fuck with his mind, please don’t use the ‘Aura’s alive’ scenario. It’s not helping my sense of reason when it comes to my urge to behead him.”
“You leveled an almost eight hundred foot tower because you thought he killed her and wanted revenge. Do you really think I’d risk pissing you off right now with something like that?” he asked as Stardust began to struggle a bit, “If you wanna know more, talk to Laser or Wind Thrasher. Also, would you help me restrain him already and stop playing twenty questions?”
If he really is lying about Aura, I’m gonna cut him in half with my sword, “Fine, whatever. I need him to answer the question,” I focused my attention to Stardust and got closer speaking slower, “Where…did…you…get…that…gun?”
“I took it from an orphaned colt I killed in White Tail Wood,” he replied.
Finally, I walked up to him and grabbed the front of his armor to pull him close to my face, “Tell me, the truth. You know damn well that’s not where you got it.”
“I can’t,” he replied a bit quietly.
I raised an eyebrow, “Oh really now, and why’s that?”
“I just can’t answer.”
“Why can’t you answer such a simple question Stardust!” I asked again, taunting him a bit.
“BECAUSE I DON’T KNOW OKAY!? I… don’t know. All I know is that thinking about it gives me a fucking headache,” he finally answered.
I smirked like a smug little bitch, “Now was that so hard? If you want I could kill you and put you out of your misery, or I can tell you where you got that particular pistol.”
He didn’t answer for a minute as he sat there still, lost in thought with a blank expression, “Tell me…”
I so badly wanted him to tell me to kill him and for the first time in a while I felt the presence of Aquila deep down, “Stable 9, do you recall what happened to it?”
“Yeah, how could I forget? You blasted the side of a mountain into oblivion by setting off the stable’s emergency self-destruct. That’s how we ended up finding you at F&F Tools,” he replied.
They really went to extremes with his memory manipulation, “There’s one detail you don’t quite have correct with that. You were there with me right before I did it, you were beaten half to death by a psycho fiend by the name of Gator. Aura was flying you to safety at The Steel Rangers Bunker when I set off the bomb. Before I blew it up though, you were inside the stable with me and eventually Aura. I was the one who gave you that pistol because The Steel Rangers confiscated your rifle and left you with nothing because they didn’t think they could trust you. They gave me that shitty pistol when we left and I gave it to you so you had something when we went in. You told me that you hated pistols and you asked why you couldn’t use the shotgun I had and I told you I wanted it, because I really like it.”
He thought about it for a second, “What a load. I’ve never been in Stable 9.”
I smirked again, “Really? Is that why when everything started going to shit inside the stable you told me that I should’ve knocked on wood?”
“What the fuck are you getting at here?” he asked.
“I’m trying to get you to realize that your head’s been messed with by The Enclave you seem to love so much. The funny thing is that to them you’re just a lab rat. I actually have proof, wanna hear?” I said as I pulled up the recording of Dr. Stormy on my Pip-Buck.
“Nothing’s gonna change the fact that you killed Hailstorm, but fine, show me your proof.”
I played the recording and watched his face as he listened to it. His expression went from arrogant and condescending to lost and confused, “All you ever were to them was an experiment, a tool to make them stronger, and a catalyst for the eventual Enclave takeover of the entire Equestrian Wasteland like they’ve already done here in Saint’s Parish. After you got powerful enough for them to clone, you probably would’ve lived out the rest of your life in a laboratory.”
“Maybe I was nothing to them but that, but you still killed my best friend, I’m still going to make you pay for that,” he retorted.
Before I could speak Doorstop did, “They really popped your kernels didn’t they Cadet? Don’t you remember? Hailstorm got crushed by the stable door when you escaped from the stable. Had his insides squeezed out of him like he was a tube of toothpaste gettin’ stepped on. Damn near tore me to shreds knowin’ what happened to him, he wasn’t just a good cadet, he was also a good buck with a lot of ambition.”
“NO! It was her that killed him! I remember it, it’s so… it’s so… fuzzy…”
I sighed, “Stardust, you out of anypony should know that I only kill the ponies that deserve it like Dr. Cell. Do you remember him? Do you remember what he made Wind Thrasher do to those poor stable residents that were trying to escape?”
He started shaking his head back and forth, “Aaahhh, just stop, all these questions are all over the place. It’s making my head hurt. I know what you’re trying to do. You’re trying to confuse me so that I’ll join you in your murder and mayhem, I won’t fall for your tricks.”
“Fine, have it your way then. What’s gonna happen now is that we’re going to restrain you, bring you back to Stable 97, and MAKE you remember. It would be a lot easier if you trusted us enough to show you the truth but you’re too Goddesses damned stubborn. That’s the thing about us stable ponies though isn’t it, we’re stubborn. I guess that’s why we used to be such good friends, we knew what it was like to be forced into a different way of life that we didn’t much like but had to deal with anyway because neither of us could go back to the safety of our homes. Think about it Stardust…”
“My name is Pride!” he interrupted.
“Yeah sure whatever, Pride then. Think about it, when was the last time you were in Stable 97? When did you run away from your home?” I asked as Laser came and helped Doorstop restrain him.
“A few weeks ago if you want to know so badly,” he answered quickly.
I actually wanted to laugh in his face after he said that, “Try more like seven months ago. One more question, why did you leave?”
He stammered at that, “I don’t know…”
“Alright, I’m done with him. Let’s get him to the stable before he decides he doesn’t care that his brain is a jumble of bad play scripts and that he wants to kill all his friends.”
Laser snapped the same kind of collar I was wearing earlier around his neck and put him in hoofcuffs, “Vin-A, do your thing.”
Vin-A beeped excitedly and floated in front of Stardust and did this weird flash thing in his face. Suddenly Stardust looked like he was stoned and said, “Whoa, do you guys see that floating testicle monster? It totally just warped here from the fifth dimension and put a hex on me, everything feels all woozy. Where’s my pet caterpillar Steve? Is he a butterfly yet? If I missed it…” he proceeded to cry about some non-existent pet of his as we started to regroup around him, “*sniff* I miss Steve.”
I sighed and leaned back looking over at the others, “I can’t believe that worked.”
Doorstop chuckled, “Of course it worked, we made a plan and followed through with it. I knew we could do it as long as we worked together, The Enclave think’s Stardust is a perfect solider, but as long as you know how he fights he’s not that tough.
“So what now? Are we taking him back to the Kingdom until we can figure out how to get into Stable 97?”
Wind Thrasher walked over to me, “No, we are heading straight to Stable 97.”
I frowned, “I thought The Stranger said I had to go back to the Kingdom?”
Solstice laughed, “He said that because you were acting like a crazy bitch, but he figured that if you calmed down because of your friends, there was no need.”
I frowned, “I’m really starting to hate that ass hole, fine let’s get going.”
***
So, it turns out that using a robot to scramble the signals going through somepony’s brain to make them easier to transport isn’t such a good idea. The past hour we’ve been traveling, all Stardust has been doing is whining about his stupid fake pet. It got so annoying that I was about to hit him, but before I could make contact with my hoof, Laser stopped me, “I know him acting like an idiot is annoying, but if you send any kind of shock to his brain he could come to his senses. He might not seem like a threat all chained up and loopy like that, but you need to remember that he’s highly trained and could probably get out of that stuff pretty easily and kill us.”
“Oh come on! Can’t we duct tape his mouth or something? I just can’t stand his constant whining about something that doesn’t even exist.”
Stardust turned his head toward me with a bit of a drunken like sway, “He is to real! Okay? So shut up and keep helping me look. You’re very nice to be helping me by the way.”
Holy fucking Celestia, this is so stupid. Why couldn’t they just let me kill him instead of letting me get tortured like this? “Solstice, is there anything you could do to shut him up, you seem to have a wild imagination?”
“Ppfftt, if that’s a crack about the time you duct taped me to that moron in Halo One I swear to The Goddesses I’m going to make sure he does something ten times worse than talk too much,” Solstice replied snarkily. It’s kinda odd but also uncanny, she reminds me a lot of what Stardust was like around the time I met him. He used to be so quick with sarcasm and snappy comebacks and then after a while got a lot more serious. Maybe it was the situations I kept putting all of them in?
I sighed, “It wasn’t a crack about anything but now that you mention it, you DID have it coming for how you’ve treated me and my friends. I know you’re helping us right now, or at least somewhat are, but I still don’t trust you. If I could go back to that moment I’d do the same thing. It was funny”
Things went back and forth like this during the time we continued our journey. After a little while though, we all stopped talking. It was just Laser and her robot, Solstice, Doorstop, Wind Thrasher, and myself transporting Stardust to Stable 97, Cutter and the other two pegasi with him went back to The Kingdom when we left. I wish he would’ve come with us, we need the help, and he might actually be in a talking mood. All this silence apart from Stardust’s constant yammering is getting really boring, not to mention depressing.
Suddenly Laser grabbed Stardust’s mouth to shut him up and said, “Everyone be quiet.”
“What?” Doorstop asked.
“Can’t you hear it? Something’s close, a lot of somethings too,” Laser whispered.
Wind Thrasher perked up her ears, “I can hear it, sounds like a hoard of ghouls. It also sounds like they’re attacking something, wait no, getting attacked. It sounds like it’s happening on the other side of that hill.”
When she said that I broke away from the group and climbed the short distance to the top of the hill and peered over the top to see if she was right. What I saw wasn’t what I expected, it was actually pretty badass. I saw a unicorn stallion with a white coat and a black mane wearing a white t-shirt and a leather jacket swinging a bat wrapped in barbed wire. Each time he swung he bashed in or completely knocked off the heads of the ghouls coming at him. His yellow eyes moved around quickly as he kept swinging as if he was keeping a constant eye on his surroundings.
I looked down the hill at the others and said quietly, “You guys gotta see this, it’s fucking awesome.”
Laser gave me a confused look as she continued to hold Stardust’s mouth, “If it’s somepony getting mauled by those ghouls, then you really need some serious help.”
“No, I promise it’s not something demented like that,” I retorted, waving them to come see.
Laser stayed at the bottom of the hill with Stardust as the others came up to look at the one stallion army kill every ghoul that came at him. Immediately Wind Thrasher looked concerned, “Shouldn’t we help him? He could get exhausted and overwhelmed by them.”
“C’mon Wind Thrasher, he’s practically got a wall of dead ghouls surrounding him. If anything it’ll get high enough to keep them away from him for longer periods of time.”
“Yeah, it’s not like he’s screaming help or anything,” Solstice said in agreement.
I looked over to say something to Doorstop about the situation but he was gone. It seemed that he didn’t want to miss out on the fun and went to go help the stallion. Of course he went to go help him, the only entertaining thing I’ve seen in the past twenty-four hours and somepony had to go ruin it.
“I’m gonna go help too,” Wind Thrasher said as she got up and took to the air.
“Yeah, you go do that,” I sighed, “I guess I’ll help too even though I really don’t want to.
I pulled out the revolver I found in Mill City Tower and crossed the apex of the hill and ran down toward the large mass of rotting irradiated flesh and started unloading the cylinder. When I stopped to reload some of them broke away from the group and came in my direction. Right as one was about to jump on me Solstice blew it’s head off and covered me as I finished reloading. Soon we were all in the thick of it and practically covered in ghoul ichor and pieces of shattered bone that flew off of the strange stallion’s bat.
For some reason all this slaughter was making me sort of feel better. I think it’s because I’m able to senselessly kill living things without having the guilt of killing somepony. Soon I got so into it that I was dual-wielding Dream Walker and the revolver, shooting almost anything that moved. I actually almost shot Solstice out of reflex once or twice and for some reason Wind Thrasher too for that matter.
I was just about to shoot the last ghoul running toward me when the stallion we came to help hit a home run on the back of its head, spraying ichor, bone, and brain meat right in my face making my Pip-Buck click quite a bit. I took my hoof and wiped the mess off my face and spit out the bit that got in my mouth. The stallion held the bat over his right shoulder and gave me a fascinated wide-eyed look of astonishment, “Holy shit, now THAT is just GROSS!”
“I’ve had worse,” I said nonchalantly. Technically I was telling the truth, there was a certain dumpster memory lingering in the back of my mind that I still gag at.
“You’re pretty fucked up then, I like it. My sons used to hate this kind of thing when they were young but after years of telling them ‘Buck up buttercup’ they turned out like you seem to be,” he said through the creepiest yet charming smile I’d ever seen, “The name’s Hex. What brings you to these parts?”
“Uh, my name’s Shadow Star, I’m just passing through this…um…field to help one of my friends. Why are you here?” I replied feeling a bit uneasy about the creepy mix of Crackerjack and Gator vibes I was getting from this guy.
He smiled again and closed his eyes, “Mmmmmmm Ssshadow…such a nice name. I’m here to kill these ghouls and other various monsters, along with things of legend that go bump in the night. I’ve also heard the mysterious stranger has been seen around here, I want his gun.”
“What the fuck would you need his gun for?” Solstice asked before I could say anything, “Couldn’t you just find your own revolver to kill things with?
Hex began to laugh like she’d said something hysterical and hit his bat on the ground a couple times, “Ha-ha-ha, you band of moronic shitbags don’t have any idea what that particular revolver can do, do ya?”
I heard Doorstop grumble beside me, “If we knew what the fuckin’ thing did, we wouldn’t be asking would we. Now answer the question for her before I do something you’ll regret.”
Hex just laughed again, “I’ll regret!? So big, scary, and threatening. The fuck are you her daddy err somethin’? Cuz I gotta say you jumpin’ in like that really grinds my gears a bit. I can tell she can stick up for herself just by the way she coped an attitude with me.”
Doorstop came within inches of his face and said, “What the fuck is so damn funny!? Do I look like a clown to you!? Did I crack a joke!? I used to be a drill instructor and you remind me of a little shitstain that used to like laughing in my face, I called him private joker. He laughed himself into the ground eventually, and it was no accident. So laugh again, I dare you. She’s nothin’ but an unbranded dashite that’s traveling with us and I don’t appreciate greaseballs like you disrespecting mares like it’s no big deal. Now either you answer her question or I’ll stick that bat so far up your ass you’ll taste wood and remnants of your own shit!”
Solstice actually looked a bit flustered and embarrassed after the small…uh…I wouldn’t call it fight, more like emotional debate, “You okay Solstice?” I asked.
She nodded, “Yeah, just never had anyone but my dad ever jump into something like that.”
Hex sighed and breathed, “The Stranger’s gun is special in a way, it’s got a gift. Whatever it shoots, it kills, no matter what the fuck it is. If I had that magnificently crafted piece of iron on my belt, I’d be the greatest hunter to walk The Wastes.”
Huh? He must hunt the paranormal and supernatural like Squirrel and Moose. That would explain why he wants a gun that can kill anything. The question is though, is he sane enough to handle a weapon like that? We need to ditch this guy fast, he’s making me all kinds of nervous, “We should get going, gotta be somewhere soon.”
“Oh no ya don’t, something about you seems a bit fishy,” he said as he pulled out a large knife with his magic and rubbed the side of it across my cheek, “Interesting…very interesting. Sit down and hold your forehooves out in front of you.”
In the corner of my eye I could see that Solstice and Doorstop had their guns trained on him while Wind Thrasher was nowhere to be found, “Put that knife away and I’ll do as you say.”
He smiled his creepy smile, “No no no, this is for my own protection. Don’t worry I won’t do anything that results in you losing your hooves unless I’m provoked.”
I did as he said and watched as he closely examined my hooves as I held them out, “What are you doing?”
“Just checkin’ somethin’ is all,” he replied as he took out a small container and splashed water on my face, “Hmm…you’re a whole heap of strange aren’t you?”
“Believe it or not, this isn’t the first time I’ve experienced this,” I replied.
He smiled again, “Is that so? I guess you’ll have to tell me about it some other time, and there WILL be another time. You still have to leave dontcha?”
I stammered a bit inside my head, “Uh, yeah. I just gotta grab my other friends from over the hill.”
“Ah, I see, alright then. I guess I’ll be seein’ ya Sshhadow…” he said as he turned and started to walk away. When he turned I saw his cutie mark, it was an oddly shaped knife with strange symbols on it in front of a magic circle.
Solstice, Doorstop, and I returned to Laser who was with Wind Thrasher talking as Stardust got hit with another wavelength blast from Vin-A, “What’s going on Laser,” I asked.
She sighed, “I was actually going to say this earlier but I’m afraid I can’t go all the way to Stable 97 with you. This is as far as I go, Vin-A’s treatment should last long enough to get Stardust there without causing any problems.”
Solstice gave her an accusing look, “What? Too scared to go into the thick of it or something? I couldn’t help but notice you stayed back here where it was safe with the robot and the tweaked-out freak.”
“The only thing that scares me is The Enclave you stuck up bitch, if they discover I’m alive it’ll put my family at risk, besides I wasn’t going to risk leaving an impaired pony alone, who knows what would have happened. If you haven’t been paying attention to the situation, we have one of the Enclave’s strongest soldiers in our custody and they haven’t made a single move. Doesn’t that raise a slight suspicion?” Laser retorted.
Solstice scoffed, “Shadow’s going and she’s probably more of a risk than you, so I don’t see what the problem is.”
Before Laser could say anything else Doorstop stepped in, “Just let it go, she has her priorities and we have ours. Don’t cause any bad blood between allies, it only leads to your own demise in the long run.”
She just glared at him as he stood there, “Psch, whatever. Let the bitch go, it’ll be easier to infiltrate the place with fewer ponies. That robot might become a problem anyway,” she said as she turned and walked a few feet away with her back turned to Laser.
I looked at Laser and asked, “How long should that thing that your robot did to Stardust last?”
“It won’t last for any more than twenty-three to twenty-four hours,” she replied, “However it should be long enough for you to fix him.”
Stardust stepped in front of her, “No ocifer it’s okay I’m fine, I can still fly unimpared.”
I pushed him away, “Shut up, she wasn’t talking to you.”
“Hey, that’s mean,” he replied before going over to bug Solstice who continued to tell him to stop touching her.
I looked up to the sky and was surprised that none of the other Sins or any Enclave showed up in the time we’ve had Stardust captured. Laser is right it’s very suspicious. Something was also rubbing me the wrong way, I was sure at least Envy would’ve tried to kill me again, even without having Stardust with me. It’s all too quiet, too calm, and too easy.
“So are you going back to The Kingdom?” Wind Thrasher asked.
“I’ll be there yes, but it won’t be for much longer, I need to return to Nexus after I’ve finished up a few things there. This area is covered with Enclave and I’m becoming a risk to all of you the longer I stay in the area. I can’t stay here any longer,” Laser replied sincerely.
Wind Thrasher was going to say something else but I interrupted, “If we don’t make it through this and you haven’t left yet, tell Wingnut I’m sorry we couldn’t save Stardust.”
She frowned, “I will tell him no such thing. You’ll make it through this in one piece and come back to those waiting for you.”
“Those waiting for me?” I asked curiously, “The only one there is Wingnut right now, and cutter I guess but he’s more of an acquaintance than anything.”
She sighed in annoyance, “Don’t you remember earlier? Aura is waiting for you too.”
“Don’t fuck with me, I saw her die and so did Wind thrasher!” I snapped.
“Yes, you did, but you ran off before Sheena did what she did.”
“What exactly did she do? Aura was dead,” I asked.
She took a deep breath, “When you ran off, Sheena got into an argument with one of the physicians while performing CPR on Aura. What ended up happening was that Sheena used her position as Empress to make the doctors put Aura on bypass which is a machine that acts as the heart for the patient for a short amount of time to keep them alive. After some exploratory surgery, they found out that when she was shot, one of the bullets chipped a bone and the piece that chipped off pierced her heart and lodged itself in there. When you were talking to her in her room while she slept, it moved and she crashed. They ended up removing the piece of bone and took her off of bypass to restart her heart after surgery. She should be just fine but will have a bit of recovering to do. There’s only so much that healing potions do after all.”
“All that, and a toilet,” Stardust said after she finished.
“So, she’s not dead? I would’ve murdered Stardust for nothing but empty vengeance?” I asked still a little dumbfounded by the whole thing.
She nodded, “That’s exactly what I said.”
Great, so I destroyed a historic regional monument for nothing. Now I’m at least ten to twenty percent more ashamed of myself than usual and hate myself just a bit for trying to kill my best friend, “Okay, I guess some of my enemies are right; I AM a monster. Anyway, we’re wasting time standing here talking, tell both Aura and Wingnut we’ll be back as soon as we can.”
“I’ll tell them for you and stay safe. You don’t know what to expect in there and honestly Doorstop doesn’t either even though he’s been in there more recently than anypony here,” she said.
“He said he’s got a contact inside the stable that can get us in and possibly help us get to the memory manipulation machine,” I retorted.
She turned and started to walk away unfolding her wings from her flight jacket, “That may be true, but as you know The Enclave has played similar tricks before. Be careful. So, if I don’t see you back at the kingdom I’ll see you again soon I know it” she winked and gave me a toothy smile similar to Wind Thrasher’s smile, Vin-A following close behind her as she flew off.
As she started to fly away the reality of what she said hit me and I almost started to cry…again, “She’s alive? I didn’t lose her!”
Wind Thrasher came over to me and wrapped a wing around me, “Yes she is, she’s waiting for you back at The Kingdom. She would’ve come with, but she needs her rest right now. She gave me a message in case we found you though.”
I sniffed then said, “What?”
“She said ‘You better make it back here in one peace or you’ll regret it Shrimp.’ Her words not mine.”
I laughed weakly, “That sounds like her. Is she mad at me?”
Wind Thrasher winced a little, “I’m not sure, I couldn’t tell when we left.”
I gave her a look, “Come on really?”
She sighed, “Fine, yes she’s mad, but not at what you did or anything like that. She’s mad that you ran off again, she said it’s becoming a bad habit.”
“That’s very true,” I said then something came to mind, “Why did it seem like you were ready for Stardust?”
“Like I said before it was a trap, The Stranger came to The Kingdom after he found you. He said he couldn’t get you out of the city in time, and he knew Stardust would come looking for you. He helped us come up with a way to take him down and capture him. He said Stardust would come after you as soon as you were out of the city and he did.”
“But he told me he was going to take care of Stardust,” I said confused.
“Well he did in a way, he was setting up this trap. He couldn’t tell you because we had no idea where your mind was at. At first, he didn’t want to let you go, he said you couldn’t be trusted, but thanks to Wingnut he relented in the end.”
I frowned, “So he used me as bait to capture Stardust?”
She nodded, “Yeah, that’s about right.”
I smiled and got back to my hooves, “Not a bad plan, even if it pisses me off to no end. Come one let’s fix our friend, the sooner we do, the sooner I can see Aura.”
Together we started to walk and head toward Stable 97, I couldn’t keep the smile off my face as we walked. Aura was alive, hurt, but still alive. When we get back to The Kingdom I’m going to make sure she knows how I feel. Nothing was going to get between her and I ever again. Not The Enclave, not my mother, hell death itself won’t stop me from seeing her again…maybe.
***
With Laser and Vin-A gone it was just me, Solstice, Doorstop, Wind Thrasher and Stardust on our way to Stable 97. I checked my Pip-Buck map and it looked like we still had quite a way to go and what’s worse is that we’d have to go through Whinnieapolis and across the river where it goes through the city just passed the Saint’s Parish wall. We were at the Whinnieapolis city limit close to where I’d been not that long ago, this sign also said Murderapolis on it like the other one did. There was something else painted on the sign that looked like a crudely painted zebra head wearing a purple bandanna. There was writing under the zebra head that read ‘No Trespassing, this is territory of the Tribal Lords. Violators will be shot, survivors will be shot again. If you’re still alive after that then we’ll gladly torture you.’
I facehoofed, “At least it’s more descriptive than the last city limit sign I read.”
“What do you mean?” Wind Thrasher asked.
“When I was here before I saw a similar sign but it didn’t have a gang warning on it. I think this is a sign to be more careful than usual in this area of the city considering there’s a literal warning that mentions the gang by name. The only weird thing is that it looks like the gang itself are the ones who wrote this warning. If they’re into murder and mayhem, then why are they warning ponies away?” I replied.
Solstice scoffed again which is becoming or already is a bad habit of hers, “You guys are such dumbasses. They put the warning there to pretty much challenge anyone who sees the sign to come through their territory to either attack them directly or try to sneak through undetected which is possible but probably hard because street gangs aren’t like most factions. You see that purple bandanna there on the zebra’s head?”
“Yeah,” Wind Thrasher and I said in unison.
“Kay, think of that like a color code. There’s other gangs around here but I’m ninety percent sure that the Tribal Lords are the biggest one and their color is purple. There will be zebras around the city but it doesn’t necessarily mean that they’re affiliated with a gang, they could just be raiders, or ordinary citizens I guess. If you see zebras wearing purple of any kind then they’re most likely members of The Tribal Lords and from what I hear, gangs in Whinnieapolis don’t take well to ponies,” she explained.
I scratched my head, “Yeah that’s interesting and all but I’m literally the only non-flier here. Couldn’t one of you carry me over the city so we can avoid all that bullshit and get there faster?”
She grabbed the spot in between her eyes just above her nose with her hoof, “I knew you were dense but not this dense. We have a prisoner with us who is chained and can’t fly and if we get spotted by Enclave sky patrol carrying him or just get spotted by them in general, we’re in for more shit than just a few gangsters.”
“She’s right,” Doorstop agreed, “It would be much easier to go through the city even if it’s slower and has the potential for gang violence.”
“Fuck my life…” I said drooping my head in dramatic despair.
Entering the city didn’t present any immediate problems but I did see some movement behind some collapsed buildings that concerned me. It reminded me of that short firefight Khalid had when I was with him. Wind Thrasher was keeping alert above us a few feet in the air but I don’t think she could hear them even with her advanced hearing.
“It’s quiet, I don’t like it,” Doorstop stated, “Keep your guard up no matter what and make sure you don’t lose the Cadet Solstice. Remember, right now he’s like a child with an overactive imagination and sticky hooves, so make sure he doesn’t try to play with a somewhat inactive landmine like it’s a flying saucer.”
“Ppfftt, it’s not like he’s that hard to keep an eye on. At least he’s gone quiet for now, all he’s doing is blankly staring at random stuff like he’s never seen it before,” she said snarkily.
Doorstop huffed, “Exactly my point, right now he’s overly curious about everything. Curiosity will get anypony killed eventually.”
She turned her head away from him and stuck her tongue out in mockery, “Why do I have to be the one to watch him though? Batty or our guilded hero could do it just as well as I can.”
“We need Wind Thrasher to stay up there and listen for approaching dangers and Shadow has been through the city at least part way before and she has a map. You on the other hoof don’t have good hearing because it’s selective and also don’t have a map. You also have a certain obligation to keep an eye on him while we travel,” Doorstop explained, “I can’t do it because I don’t want to and am technically your superior at the moment so can order you around whenever I feel like it for fun.”
She gave him one of her patented snotty looks, “You know we’re not in The Enclave anymore and I would be YOUR superior if we were right?”
He smiled, “I meant with the group, I have seniority over you because I’ve been with them longer than you have and I’ve been a lot nicer than you have besides some degrading names here and there.”
“That’s the stupidest reason I’ve ever heard, besides, I don’t think I can be nice to them, at least not The Courier,” she said arrogantly.
“Why’s that?” he asked.
“I’m still pissed at her about the times she’s made me look like an idiot in front of my superiors when I was still with The Enclave,” she replied.
He sighed, “Get over it, you’re not a teenager anymore.”
“Uh, yes I am! I’m just a fucking prodigy and went up through the ranks quickly after graduating early!” she retorted.
He kinda gave her an awkward smirk as he should’ve known that, “Right, right, how old are you anyway?”
“It’s pretty rude to ask a mare her age y’know,” she replied, “but if you have to know, probably a year or two younger than Stardust is.”
I turned and looked at her, “You’re older than me?”
“I don’t even know how old you are, so I don’t know if I’m older than you,” she said with a bitchy tone.
“Eh, whatever, not like I care anyway,” I said just as bitchily.
I don’t hate her or anything, but I do really dislike her. I hope she gets easier to be around in the future, I can’t deal with somepony who’s always on edge or has some stupid personal vendetta against me for one of my stupid tactical pranks. Yes that’s right, I gave what I did to her a name because it was very much a tactical prank. Like I’ve said before, she had it coming to her after how she’s treated me and the others each time we’ve met her. Now that I think about it, we didn’t really see her any other time than at Frosty Summit and it was only me at Halo One when I decided to tape her to that stallion mid-coitus.
I kinda wanted to turn on the radio but I knew that’d definitely draw attention to us and cause more trouble than I want to deal with. I feel like all we do is walk and kill and walk and kill. There was that one time we had fun but it didn’t last long when Oricalcos showed up outside of The Applewood and started making threats, the weird part is now he’s living in my shadow like some sort of parasite. I just wish all this bullshit could be over and I could settle down somewhere to live a normal Wastelander’s life with my friends.
“What are you thinking so hard about? You’re a bit quiet and it’s making me paranoid, especially after what happened last time you were in this city,” Solstice asked from behind me.
“I’m not thinking about anything, just how much I hate this place. Why do you care anyway? It’s not like we’re friends or anything. I don’t even know why you’re helping us,” I replied.
She scoffed, “I really don’t care, I’m trying to make conversation to pass the time faster. In case you haven’t noticed, this place is fucking boring and is killing what remains of my happiness. Also, maybe if you weren’t such a crazed lunatic, you’d make friends easier. The only friends you have right now are just as fucked in the head as you are, except Doorstop, he’s cool. And I’m helping you because I hate The Enclave for what they did to me and my family. They need to learn that everything has a chain reaction, even threats.”
“She’s lying,” Doorstop said, “She’s socially awkward and wants real friends.”
Her eyes went wide, “Ssshhh, that is not what it want! Don’t go blurting things like that out loud.”
“Aaawww isn’t that precious? She’s embarrassed that…(BANG)” a random gunshot rang out from in front of us. I looked forward again and saw a small group of about five or six zebras, “Wind Thrasher! You were supposed to tell us if you heard anything.”
“I couldn’t hear them, I swear,” she retorted.
One of the zebras stepped forward with another zebra who had his gun aimed at one of us, I couldn’t tell exactly who though, “The fuck are y’all doin’ round here, didn’t you see the sign? Normally I’d just cap you right here and be done with it but I’m curious as to why y’all got some whacked out Pegasus in chains.”
Oh great, now I gotta think of lies to tell these shitheads so they don’t kill us, or at least try to kill us. Wait, do I have to lie to them? They most likely hate The Enclave too because they’re trying to take their city from them, “He’s our prisoner. We’re taking him somewhere to fix his head after what The Enclave did to him. Right now he’s the current Pride in The Seven Sins of Equinity. The only reason we’re here right now is because we’re on a sort of time limit and it’s quicker to go through the city rather than around.”
“You fuckin’ with me bitch? There’s no way that’s Pride, he’s too skilled to be caught by a tiny lil’bitch like you,” he said as the other zebra twitched the gun a bit trying to intimidate me.
“It wasn’t just me that caught him, I had help from others including the ones you see with me. There were more but they stayed back. The reason he’s so messed up right now is because another one of my friends has a robot that can use this confusion ray thingy to do this to ponies for a certain amount of time,” I guess if I can’t reason with the lowlife gang banger, I could always just shoot him. There may be quite a few of them but I’m pretty sure we’re more skilled than all of them combined times maybe about five or ten. Gang bangers are just raiders who dress better and aren’t completely insane.
“That story sound believable and shit, but I still gotta kill y’all,” he said, then the other zebra cocked his gun.
“Wait!” I said quickly, “The Enclave is trying to run you out of your turf right?”
He raised an eyebrow, “Yeah, so what?”
“Well if you let me pass then I will deal a lot more damage to The Enclave than you will if you kill us. Think about it, if I’m allowed passage, you’ll most likely be able to stay here in the city and do whatever the fuck you want without having to worry about being killed or driven out,” I replied trying to not waste as much bullets as possible on pricks like him.
He frowned and glared at me, “Ya’ll think I give a shit about those fuckin’ feather brained morons? Na’ I care about the mutherfuckas who think they own this city. I’m takin bout the other gangs and raiders that pollute this city.”
I rolled my eyes, “That’s not my problem, I can take care of your Enclave problem. What the rest of you fucked up zebra’s do to each other is none of my business,” I turned back to my friends, “Let’s go, we don’t have time to deal with these idiots.”
“Um’ Shadow I don’t think you should call the zebras with the guns idiots,” Wind Thrasher said.
“Ya’ should listen to the…whoa, the fuck is that thing?”
I really didn’t want to do this right now. Honestly, I wanted to get this whole thing with Stardust over with. Pulling out my Plasma rifle I pointed it right at the leader. The other zebras around him all pointed their guns at me, but no one fired. I smiled, “That’s my friend, her name is Wind Thrasher. She’s a sweet mare, but she could also fuck you up. If I were you I’d apologize and be a little nicer, just because she looks different doesn’t mean you have to be so FUCKING rude!”
Wind Thrasher landed next to me, “Um’ Shadow it’s no big deal please don’t get us shot just because I look different.”
My grin widened, “We’re in a hurry, they’re in my way, I kill things that get in my WAY!”
The Zebra turned and walked away, “Cap these fools.”
Before they could get a shot off I said, “Are you sure you really want to do that?”
The lead zebra turned back toward me, “Why you askin’?”
I pointed a hoof toward where Mill City Tower used to dominate the sky, “I’m sure you saw the blast that took down the tower right?”
“Yeah, so what?” he asked.
“That was me! Now let me pass before I do the same shit to you!”
He glared at me for a long moment then turned again, “Cap ‘em.”
“Well I tried,” I said, before they could open fire I entered S.A.T.S. and targeted two of the zebra’s and opened fire. As my shots went off, Solstice and Doorstop tried to jump in too, but Wind Thrasher jump in front of us all. My two shots took out the two I fired at, but Wind Thrasher took care of the rest. She opened her mouth and screamed.
The rest of the zebras were blasted off their hooves, their bodies rolling across the ground. The leader slammed into the wall of a building with a satisfying crunch. She stopped her scream then looked back at me, disappointment written on her face, “We don’t have to kill everyone who gets in our way.”
“Talk about a buzzkill,” Solstice said.
She glared over at Solstice then back at me, “I mean it, you didn’t have to do that.”
“They were going to kill us,” I responded.
“Maybe, but you know that we could’ve handled this without killing them.”
I pushed past her and started walking toward the leader, “Unlike you Wind Thrasher, I don’t live in a fantasy world where we can just talk our way out of situations like that.”
The leader zebra looked up at me as I swapped my plasma rifle out for Dream Walker, “The fuck are ya’ll?”
I ignored his question, “What’s the safest way to get through your turf?”
He winced a little as if something was hurting him, “I ain’t telling you shit!”
I pressed Dream Walker up to his head, “Tell me or die.”
“I ain’t scared of you!”
“You should be,” I said then Solstice walked over to me and pushed Dream Walker away.
“Shadow you don’t need to do that, we can get through here without his help.”
I pulled Dream Walker away from her and pointed it back at the zebra leader, “If we don’t need him then he can die, we don’t need him telling his crew about us.”
His eyes went wide and he started to shake, “Ya’ll are crazy!”
I was about to pull the trigger then Wind Thrasher walked over and gave me a sad look, “Aura would be so disappointed in you right now Shadow.”
“You don’t know what you’re talking about.”
She sighed, “If you really want her to love you then you have to pull yourself away from this dark path you’re on.”
“She would understand!”
“If you don’t believe me then go ahead and shoot him. But if you’re wrong, then you’ll have to explain to her why you did what you did, just like you’re going to have to explain to her why you destroyed Mill City Tower.”
I looked back at the zebra then lowered Dream Walker, “Fine, but if we get attacked because of this dipshit, then that’s on you.”
After I pulled Dream Walker away and stepped away from the zebra his bravery came back, “Yeah that’s what I thought bitch!”
Wind Thrasher turned on him and bared her fangs, her eyes starting to glow, “I just saved your ass, if you provoke her again, I’m not stopping her! Now tell us the safest way to get though the city.”
He shrank away from her, “Kay, fine whatever, I’m sick of dealing with your punk ass. Head down main street go eight blocks turn down fifth and follow it out of town.”
She backed away and said sweetly, “Thank you, now get your friends out of here before I decide to sample zebra blood!”
He got up and limped toward what was left of his companions. Once they were all up, they took off down the way we came. Once they were gone I looked over at her, “I’m sorry.”
“Save it,” Wind Thrasher said walking back to Solstice, “Get Stardust and let’s keep moving, the sooner we’re out of this city the better.”
I looked down at Dream Walker as my friends walked past me, heading down the road the zebra told us about, “Am I really that bad?”
A voice echoed in my head…it was Aquila, “You’re turning into a monster just like me Shadow! I’m so proud.”
I sighed, “I was wondering how long it would take you to start talking again.”
“Your mother knew what she was doing with this cage, it’s taken me a while to get through some of it just so I could talk to you again. Though if it wasn’t for you it would have taken me a lot longer, so thank you!”
I looked up at my friends who were starting to get a little far from me. I started to trot toward them as I said back to Aquila, “Why is it thanks to me?”
She laughed, “Easy, I feed off of your hatred and anger. You’ve been giving me plenty over the past few days. Such a generous gift.”
I stopped in my tracks my eyes looking back toward where Mill City Tower should be, “You mean when I…”
“Yes, killing those pegasi like you did, then the unicorn Doctor and the other one who figured out who you were. That was a great help, all that hatred and rage over a griffon you thought was dead. Then you went and killed two of the council ponies then blew up the tower. It was like a feast, so much power in such a sort amount of time, though I wish you hadn’t gotten caught. Who knows how much stronger I could have gotten if you were allowed to keep going,” she said with an evil snicker, “I wonder what you’d do if that brat was killed. You always treat him like a little brother, it’s so sweet. I wonder who you’d kill if you thought he died, or maybe that mare from the stable you liked?”
“You make it seem like I’m some kind of monster.”
“Shadow, sweet crazy Shadow, haven’t you realized by now? You are a monster, just like me. We are one in the same, I am you and you are me. We’re just different sides to the same coin, a little different on each, but in the end still one thing.”
“NO, I’m nothing like you! You’re just something created in a lab.”
She started to laugh, as she did I could feel her presence slowly fading away, “Shadow, stop lying to yourself, you know where this is all leading. You’ve known since the day you first let me into your body.”
Wind Thrasher stopped looking back at me, “Shadow is everything okay?”
Ignoring her I asked Aquila, “What do you mean when I let you in?”
“Think hard on it Shadow, maybe if you let some of your old memories in you’ll understand. I never possessed you or took over your body, we made a deal and soon it will be time to pay up. Stay alive until then Shadow, oh and enjoy what little time you have left with your friends and the ones you love. When I’m powerful enough to take control and send you deep into the same cage your mother trapped me in, I’m killing them all,” she said right before her presence faded away.
I felt a hoof start to shake me, I looked up into Wind Thrashers slightly glowing eyes as she said, “Shadow are you okay?”
I shook myself and took in a deep breath, “No I don’t think I am Wind Thrasher. I’m losing it, I don’t know how to stop her anymore.”
She looked at me concerned, “You mean Aquila?”
I nodded and started to shake, “All this time when I thought Aura was dead, she was feeding off my anger, my hate, she’s getting stronger and now I don’t know how much longer my mother’s magic can hold her back. She just spoke to me for the first time in a week. She said soon she’d take me over and then she’d kill all of you.”
To my shock, she slapped me, “Get control of yourself Shadow.”
I rubbed my face, “What…was that for!?”
She growled at me, “I know your scared because you think that, that thing inside of you is going to take over one day. I understand that better than anypony. You can’t let fear control you like that, if you do all you’re really doing is giving in to the despair she wants you to have. It makes you weak, Shadow and that’s what she wants. Now step up and stop letting her get to you.”
“But…what if…”
She interrupted me, “What if she takes over? Then we’ll find a way to save you, just like we’re doing with Stardust. Instead of worrying about what may happen in the future start looking for a way to rid yourself of her for good. She says she’s stronger and wants to take over then fine let her try. But the Shadow I know is too fucking stubborn to let that happen. Now get off your ass and let’s get to Stable 97, save our friend, and get back to the Kingdom.”
She helped me get back to my hooves, looking back at her I said, “How can I face Wingnut or Aura after what I’ve done?”
She sighed, “You have to find a way. First of all, you need to stop acting out when you think something bad happened to you. That’s what gets you into these messes in the first place. Aura and Wingnut will understand what you were going through. Why else do you think I’m here with the rest of these ponies? It’s because we all care about you, well I’m not sure about Solstice, but you know the rest of us do. Your part of our family and family looks out for each other.”
I couldn’t help laughing, “I guess you are kind of like a big sister, a shy one most of the time, but still full of fire when the times calls for it. I’m sorry for how I’ve been acting, I’ll try to do better.”
She smiled and hugged me, “That’s all I ask, trust me I know what it’s like to be a monster. You may think because of what you did that you’re becoming one, but you’re not. You’re just a filly who has to deal with more than a pony her age should have to.”
“I just wish I knew what to do, I mean when I get worked up like that I can’t stop myself sometimes. I react without thinking, I’ve always been like that.”
“How about this, if something bad like this ever happens again or if you’re feeling like you’re going to lose control, you come find me. I’ll always be here for you Shadow, I understand you better than even you do. Can you promise me that?” she asked.
I nodded, “I think I can.”
“Good, let’s get going to Stable 97. We have a pegasus to fix, when that’s done I think it’s time you finally talked to Aura about how you feel.”
We started to make our way back to our friends who were waiting for us just down the road. As we walked I blushed a little and asked Wind Thrasher, “What if Aura doesn’t like me how I think she does, what if she turns me down?”
The Bat Pony laughed lightly, “I don’t think you need to worry about that Shadow.”
“Why’s that?”
She winked at me, “Because, I can tell that she likes you, why do you think I said so back when we were heading to Trotston.”
“Because you’re a hopeless romantic mare?”
She just laughed again, “Maybe so, but I still know what I’m talking about.”
We both laughed as we caught up to the rest and all followed the directions we were given through Whinnieapolis. What I didn’t notice was, thanks to Wind Thrasher, I’d forgotten all about Aquila and her threats. Because that’s what true friends do, they help you forget about your worries. They are always there for you, no matter what.
***
The edge of Whinnieapolis was finally in sight and our destination not far past that. Sadly, it might as well be miles away because this side of Whinnieapolis was blocked by raiders. Not as many as the ones who used to block the road that went into Cartwheel, but they still had enough to keep my friends and me from passing though.
“We could always just go around them,” I said as we looked down the main road that lead out of town.
“In this City? You’d be lucky to find another way that isn’t blocked by rubble or gangs,” Doorstop said, “Raiders ain’t that tough we can take them.”
“Maybe, but what if the gunfire brings more raiders or the gangs?”
“Make peace not war!” Stardust said with a dreamy smile on his face.
“Yeah, no,” I said checking my ammo for the Plasma rifle, “We can’t sneak around them so I say we just go through them.”
“We should’ve just gone around the damned city, I swear we wasted more time going through it then we would have walking around,” Solstice said then jumped and glared over at Stardust, “Stop touching me!”
“But your tail is so pretty!” he said reaching to touch her tail again.
“Do that again and I’ll rip your fucking nads off and feed them to you along with your stupid imaginary BUG!”
He got a pouty face, “What did Steve ever do to you!? He’s my best friend!”
She rolled her eyes, “I think I liked him better when he was trying to kill us!”
Stardust Gasped, “I would never try to hurt anypony, Steve would be mad! You’re nothing but a big FAT MEANIE!”
She rounded on him, “DID you just call me fat!? I’ll have you know that I work out every day to make sure I keep my figure asshole!”
Stardust looked over at me still with his pouty face, “She called me a mean name!”
I sighed then looked at Doorstop, “Can you do something please?”
“I don’t know, I think it’s kinda funny,” he said with a chuckle.
“It’s also distracting and they might give away our position!” I said then looked over at Wind Thrasher, “Can you do something?”
She rolled her eyes, “I guess,” she flew down getting between the two, then she snarled at both of them and spoke with her voice sounding evil like it had when she was still Sharp, “If you two don’t stop I’m going to make you! Trust me you don’t want to make me angry!”
They both looked at the bat pony and her very, very sharp fangs. Solstice finally looked away and walked off, “Whatever, I have better things to do.”
Stardust just started to pout, “She started it.”
Wind Thrasher smiled and giggled, “That was kinda fun.”
“Well done Wind Thrasher, let’s get back to figuring out how to get past those raiders. We aren’t far from the edge of the city and Stable 97 isn’t far either. We don’t know how much longer that brain thing will last on Stardust.” I said going back to look at the raiders.
“Let’s just shoot them and get it over with!” Solstice said, “Why are we discussing this?”
“Just because they’re raiders doesn’t mean we have to kill them, we can just scare them away,” Wind Thrasher retorted.
“That’s why,” I said with a sigh.
“We’re taking the advice of a mutated pegasus? Aren’t you the leader?” Solstice asked.
“I have no idea anymore,” I replied, “Wind Thrasher has a better head on her shoulders than I do. I’m not gonna just dismiss her because killing them is the easy way.”
“That’s stupid! They’re raiders! They kill, rampage, steal, and EAT other ponies.”
Wind Thrasher glared at her, “I used to drink pony blood and I got better!”
“Yeah, but from what you said, you were being controlled. That’s different from Raiders!”
Sighing again I looked over at Stardust who was still pouting next to Solstice, “What do you think Doorstop?” it was then that I noticed that he wasn’t with us anymore, “Where’s Doorstop?”
“He flew off,” Stardust said.
(BOOM!)
“Ah fuck,” I said as something exploded down the road. We all looked toward the raider camp and saw Doorstop shooting at the ponies.
“I guess the big guy made our choice for us,” Solstice said with a smile, “I guess we should go help him, unless the bat thinks we should stay back and watch him die.”
Wind Thrasher sighed and facehoofed, “Fine whatever, I’ll stay here and watch Stardust.”
“Sounds good to me,” I said, “Let’s go help the Sarge!”
Solstice and I both ran down the road toward the other pegasus who was laughing and firing at the raiders who were trying to find cover. Before we could reach the camp itself, three raiders jump out from an alleyway, two holding onto rusty machetes the third with a brush gun. One tried to take my head off as we passed by, the rusty blade missing me by inches. The one with the brush gun fired toward Solstice, who ducked behind an overturned dumpster.
I pulled the sword out of my saddle bags and twisted it around blocking an attack from the second pony’s blade. I jumped back as the first tried to impale me and stabbed him when he missed. Again, the blade sank deep into the pony without resistance. Either this sword was extremely sharp, or there was something magical about it. I smiled as the first pony died and the first raider took a step back.
“Goin’ to show you what happens when ponies like you step hoof on our land!” he said lifting the blade up in his muzzle, ready to block an attack.
“Oh really?” I said as I charged him, I swung the sword hard toward his neck. He tried to block it, but it didn’t matter. My sword sliced through his blade with only a slight bit of resistance. As it did I noticed a slight blue glow around the edge of the blade as it passed through the machete. Then it passed through the rusty metal, then his coat, his throat, then his spine. When the sword came out on the other side, the ponies head flew up into the air spraying blood all over as his head plopped down to the ground.
I looked at the blade in my magical grasp, “Huh, there’s not even any blood left on it,” I didn’t notice it before, but I hadn’t needed to clean this blade even once since I found it.
I heard the brush gun go off and I jumped. I forgot about Solstice, turning around sword at the ready I saw that I was worrying over nothing. Solstice had somehow disarmed the raider and shot him with his own weapon. She was chuckling to herself as the body fell to the ground twitching, “Raiders are too damn easy.”
I just shook my head saying, “Maybe for you, try being fresh from a stable, they aren’t as easy then. Now let’s go help Doorstop.”
“Yeah, I don’t wanna let him have all the fun,” she said as we continued on toward the fight.
As we came closer to where Doorstop was firing down at the raiders I noticed that there wasn’t may left to fight. Doorstop pulled a grenade from a pocket and threw it down into the middle of the ponies laughing his head off, “Hahahaha, take that you poor excuses for ponies! You see why you don’t mess with The Sarge!”
The explosion blasted four ponies into chunks of meat and knocked down a makeshift tower. The tower fell and killed two more ponies that were trying to run away from Doorstop. By the time we arrived, there were only two more left. Solstice took aim with the Brush gun she took and blew his head off with a single shot. I ran in and buried my sword in the other raiders back pinning him to the ground. He screamed from the pain, I watched him scream for a moment then ripped the sword out and sliced open his neck to put him out of his misery.
Doorstop landed next to me a moment later, “You didn’t need to come down to help Small Fry, I had it handled.”
“And let you have all the fun?” Solstice said walking up to him with a grin.
I just sighed, “I thought there were more ponies when I first saw them, guess I was wrong.”
“There were, a few of them ran off as soon as I started shootin’,” he said with a laugh, “Ponies like them are smart enough to know when to run like the little bitches they are.”
Solstice blew a raspberry, “Bunch of cowards if you ask me. Well since they are taken care of let’s get going.”
“Not so fast!” A gruff yet feminine voice said from up the road.
We all turned to see ten raiders slowly walking toward us, one who was a mare in spiked metal armor was holding a rifle in her magic, the barrel pointed at Wind Thrasher who was just in front of her. Stardust was walking next to Wind Thrasher with that same dreamy look on his face. I drew Dream Walker and the Plasma rifle and pointed it at them, “Let them go!”
“Or What?” she said, “Ya’ gonna shoot me? Sister let me tell you something, if you even try and take a shot at me or my companions, I’ll blow their heads off.”
I lowered my rifle and signaled for Solstice and Doorstop to do the same, “If you shoot them, you’ll regret it bitch.”
She grinned at me, “I see three of you and ten of us, I don’t think I need to worry much. Now tell me why you’re on my land and killing my ponies.”
“Your raiders and we needed to get through, figured killing you was the fastest way,” I said with a grin.
“Oh really? Raiders huh, you must be from out of town then. We ain’t raiders, were The Survivors bitch!”
Doorstop took a step back, “Oh Shit!”
I looked at him quickly asking, “What are the Survivors?”
“The Ponies from Stable 97 who were able to escape when The Enclave went in and killed most of the population. They settled not far from the stable and started killing anypony that came onto their land. They took out three major gangs when they first came into the wasteland. I should have known that was them,” he explained.
“I see at least one of you understand who we are,” she said, “Now we’re gonna make you pay for killing some of our ponies.”
“Wait so you’re all Stable Ponies?” I asked trying to find a way out of this.
“Use to be, now we are slowly taking over Whinnieapolis. We’re going to take away as much as we can from The Enclave just like they did to us. That’s another reason we can’t let ponies like you live, we hate The Enclave and you have to be Enclave,” she replied.
I started to laugh, “Enclave? Fuck you’re way off there. I’m The Courier from New Pegasus, I want The Enclave destroyed as much as you or any other pony. I’m the one who destroyed Mill City Tower.”
She gave me a funny look, “You’re the one who did that? Really, a tiny thing like you?”
“Yes, it was me,” I said as I lifted both my guns again, “Now enough talk, how about you let my friends go and we’ll be on our way.”
She took a moment looking at Wind Thrasher, then Stardust, and then back at me, “Nah, I’d rather kill all of you and be done with it.”
“You’re going to need more than ten ponies if you wanna kill us,” Solstice said coming to stand next to me, “And if you hurt either of them you’ll have nopony to protect you.”
The smile on the mare’s face grew, “More than ten ponies huh? How about a hundred?” she whistled and as she did ponies started to step out of the alleys next to us, more showed up in the windows of the buildings on each side. Each one was holding some kind of rusted weaponry, some I could see even had beaten up stable barding.
Doorstop was looking around at all the ponies who were now surrounding us, “Dammit Solstice, you’ve done it now.”
Solstice’s eyes widened, “ME! You’re the one who flew down here and started attacking them!”
“Only because you were talking about doing it anyway!” he yelled back.
The leader mare spoke up, “All of you shut up!”
Stardust chuckled to himself, “Look at all the ponies. Yay new friends!?”
The leader mare looked over at him confused, “Is something wrong with you?”
He looked over at her with his dreamy stare, “I feel like a million caps, is something wrong with you? Oh, sorry I guess it’s your face,” he started to chuckle to himself.
She walked over to him and slammed the butt of her rifle into his face. Stardust flew to the ground, blood flying from his nose, “You got a problem with my face!?”
I wanted to run over to help, but Solstice held me back, “Don’t, you’ll get us all killed.”
Stardust laughed a little, “No, it’s not your fault you were born so ugly.”
“Beat him until he stops breathing!” she said.
Four of the ponies behind her ran up and started to kick Stardust, in his face, his sides, his broken wings. Stardust started to scream as the ponies wailed on him. I brought the plasma rifle up and yelled, “Leave him alone!”
Without even looking at me she said, “If the unicorn moves or tries to shoot, kill everypony.”
Doorstop was shaking with rage as we watched Stardust’s screams fade as he rolled into a ball as the blows hit. I was about to attack her, but Wind Thrasher was quicker. She moved out of the way of the rifle that was pointed at her, kicked it aside and she dove for Stardust. Two of the ponies who were beating Stardust turned to stop her, but she opened her muzzle and Screamed. Both ponies fell to the ground holding their ears as blood leaked from their eyes.
The other two looked away from Stardust and turned to face the oncoming bat pony. She jumped over them and stood over Stardust who was shaking in pain under her, blood covering his face. Something was wrong, I could see it in Wind Thrashers eyes. Her normal kind nature was gone, her eyes were glowing red and she was baring her fangs. Her eyes fell on the mare, and when Wind Thrasher spoke her voice was cold, the hissing she had when she was still Sharp came back, “Don’t you dare touch him!”
The mare turned her rifle toward Wind Thrasher again, “Step away freak before you end up in the same place as him.”
I spoke up, “If I were you I’d stop, I haven’t seen her this angry before and she’s a dangerous pony.”
The mare looked over at me, “You aren’t in a place to tell me what to do!” she turned back to Wind Thrasher, “Give her the same treatment!”
I turned to Solstice and Doorstop, “We have to do something.”
“Way ahead of you kid,” Doorstop said, the rest of the ponies around us were watching Wind Thrasher as she started to hiss and growl at the ponies who were walking closer to her. A couple of them were holding bats, another had a heavy chain. Doorstop pulled a flash bomb out, “Be ready to fight.”
Before any of us could do anything, one of the ponies attacked. It was the last thing he ever did again. Wind Thrasher jumped in the air twisted around and landed on the stallions back. She opened her muzzle and screamed into his ear, as soon as she did fluid started to drip from the pony’s nose, eyes and ears, another moment later he fell dead to the ground. The other pony with a bat tried to hit her from behind, but she twisted around the blow and grabbed onto his neck with her fangs.
He started to scream, but it didn’t last long. Wind Thrashers eyes glowed brighter and the pony she was latched onto shriveled into a dried out husk in seconds. She dropped the body, blood dripping from her jaw and fangs. She looked around at the rest of the ponies around us a sick smile on her face, “Blood, I want more!”
“KILL THAT THING!” the mare yelled as she pushed past two of her companions trying to get away from Wind Thrasher.
Doorstop threw the flash bang, as he did Solstice and I turned away as the bright flash went off, blinding most of the ponies around us. When the light dimmed we opened fire. Plasma and bullets flew at the ponies who were closest to us. I ran toward Wind Thrasher who had turned toward the other ponies who were running toward her. They started to open fire, but she flew into the air letting the hard dragon scales on her belly protect her from the blows. She arched her head down and screamed again, knocking half the ponies over, the rest stopping to cover their ears as her scream echoed off the concrete walls around us.
She dove for the fallen ones taking hold of a young mare by the neck and as quick as before, she drained her as well. Wind Thrasher ran for a third victim, but I made it to her in time, blocking her path, “Wind Thrasher you need to stop this!”
She slammed into me instead her fangs bared, “If you don’t want to die Shadow then stay out of my way!”
I kicked her off me and rounded on her readying my explosion spell, then I remembered I couldn’t do that. (Fuck this stupid horn ring) Instead I took one of the fallen pony’s hoof ball bats in my magic and slammed it into her face, “Snap out of it!”
The look she gave me after I hit her was scary, I didn’t see any warmth in her eyes. She looked ready to kill me, “I need to feed, these ponies need to die! They hurt him, they want to kill him, I won’t let them!”
A stallion tackled her, but it didn’t do him any good. When they rolled she twisted in the air and slammed him to the ground her fangs sinking deep into his throat. His scream came out as a wet gargling sound as Wind Thrasher ripped his throat out with her fangs. Chunks of flesh hanging from her muzzle. She smiled over at me and licked her bloody lips. I pulled out Dream Walker, “Don’t make me hurt you Wind Thrasher. This isn’t’ you, it’s the hunger you told me about, don’t let it turn you back into a monster!”
She started to laugh as she stepped over the body of the stallion, “Did you just call me a monster! That’s what Dr. Cell liked to call me, his precious little MONSTER! He made me this way, he gave me this hunger and need to feed on ponies. I’m not the monster, he is.”
“You’re right, and he’s dead now thanks to you and me. Don’t go back to the way he made you act. You’re the sweet loving shy pegasus who we love. I’m the monster here Wind Thrasher, not you. Don’t be like me!”
She was an inch away from me now, she looked down at me breathing hard, her hot breath rolling over me. It smelled like the copper and meat, it brought tears to my eyes. As she looked down at me I saw that the rest of the ponies who were surrounding us were running from Solstice and Doorstop who were keeping up a stream of gun fire to any who tried to fight. They must have saw what Wind Thrasher could do and ran away. Either that or Solstice and Doorstop together were a force to be reckoned with.
“I’m so tired of you thinking you can tell everypony when they’re in the wrong, but you just think you can get away with ANYTHING!,” she took a step closer, forcing me to back up, “Blow up a town with a weapon you don’t understand no big deal right,” she took another step forward, “Kill ponies in your stable and the Overmare, who cares,” another step, “Run off and get your friends hurt, no problem,” another, “Run away when you think the griffon you love died and destroy an entire building with innocent ponies inside, it was a mistake. You think you can do whatever you want to whoever you want Shadow, but I get a little mad and kill bad ponies and you try and tell me who I am? Fuck you!”
I tried to stand tall, but it wouldn’t matter, “Just because I made mistakes doesn’t mean you should too.”
“Mistakes? You did more than make mistakes Shadow! We keep trying to make excuses for you, we try to help you, but you just keep going back to the same thing. When you lose your temper, you kill anypony you see as a bad pony. You even wanted to kill Stardust who’s your best friend, just because he shot Aura. I don’t like bad ponies Shadow, I hate them as much as I hate killing. I will kill bad ponies even if I hate it, even if I’m afraid it will turn me into the Monster Dr. Cell tried to make. You Shadow aren’t a good pony anymore, you’re just as bad if not worse than any of the ponies I’ve seen in the wasteland so far, that includes the Sins and your mother. So, let me ask you, do you want to be a bad pony? Do I have to kill you too to keep the Wasteland safe from you?” she said, an inch away from my face.
I didn’t back down, “Maybe you should, because yes I know I’m a bad pony I never said I wasn’t. I don’t like what I’m turning into, but I don’t know what else to do, but I’m trying Wind Thrasher. Do you know why? It’s because of ponies like you, Wingnut, Silver and Laser. You all see something good in me and I want to be that mare. But if you really think I’m a lost cause then go head and kill me. Just remember that once you do, you’ll be just as bad as me.”
She cocked her head to the side, “What do you mean?”
“You’re acting out of anger because you wanted to protect Stardust, I did the same because I wanted to keep you all safe. If you kill me like I wanted to do to Stardust, then you’re no better than I am, you fucking hypocrite.”
She took a step back and the red glow in her eyes went away. She sat down then started to look around at the ponies she killed. The one who died because of her scream was still oozing fluids from his ears and nose, the other three she drained of blood looked like mummies laying in the street. Then she wiped the blood from her muzzle and looked at her hoof in horror, “What have I done!?” she spat on the ground trying to get the blood out of her muzzle, “No, not again please Celestia not again!”
I ran up to her and pulled her into a tight hug, “It’s okay Wind Thrasher, you didn’t mean to.”
She sobbed into my shoulder, “Yes I did, I saw them killing Stardust and I let my anger take hold. I knew what I was doing, but I just didn’t care, if it wasn’t for you, I would have kept going!”
I rubbed her back, “It will be okay,”
She pulled away and walked over to the side of the street, “I didn’t want to do this again. It was like Stable 9 all over again,” then she retched and vomited a stream of blood, it pooled under her making a big puddle when she was finished.
I gagged a little but walked over and put a hoof on her shaking shoulders as Solstice and Doorstop landed a few feet away, they were checking on Stardust, “Feel better?”
She shook her head, “Sorry, I may thirst for blood, but I hate the taste of it. It makes me sick once I have it down and I come to my senses. Do you have anything I can drink to get the taste out of my mouth?”
I thought for a moment the remembered the bottle of Wild Pegasus, “I have Wild Pegasus that’s about it.”
I pulled the bottle out of my saddle bags, she took it and drank a few gulps. She winced as it went down, but her shivering stopped and she looked calmer, “I don’t like this stuff, but it’s better than nothing.”
She gave the bottle back to me, “Personally I love it, but I have a bad habit of doing stupid things when I drink too much.”
She sighed then got back to her hooves, stepping away from the puddle of blood, “Thanks, I’m sorry for what I said, I was speaking out of anger.”
I shrugged, “It wasn’t a lie, I needed to hear it. I only care if you’re going to be okay.”
She nodded, “I will be, just don’t let me do that again, you have no idea how hard it is to keep the thirst down. It’s going to take some time for me to fight it off now.”
“Maybe when we get back we can see if Dr. Gauze found a way to stop it.”
She smiled a little, “I’d like that.”
I hugged her one more time, “Let’s go check on Stardust then let’s get to the stable.”
We both made our way over to Doorstop and Solstice. To my surprise they were just finishing tying restraints around his legs, making sure he couldn’t move at all. When Wind Thrasher saw this she asked, “Why are you tying him up, he’s hurt?”
“He was only beat up a little, he’s had worse, gave him a couple healing potions already, he’ll be fine apart from his still broken wings,” Doorstop said as he finished the last tie.
“Okay, then why tie him up?” I asked.
“He took a few blows to the head, Laser said that kind of hit could knock him out of his loopiness. I’m taking precautions in case it did.”
As Doorstop spoke Stardust’s eyes snapped open and he started to pull on his restraints, “What the fuck is all this!? Let me go now Doorstop before I find a clever way to rip you into a million pieces!”
Doorstop chuckled, “Yep I think I made the right choice.”
Stardust pulled on the restraints again, “Let me go! Do you know who you’re messing with?” his eyes fell on me next, “Oh great it’s you, when I get free Shadow, I’m going to kill that griffon friend of yours. This time I’ll makes sure she’s dead, then I’ll roast her and force you to eat her remains. Then I’ll go after that fucking kid, I’ll force him to watch as I do even more horrible things to you and the rest of your friend. I’ll scare him for the rest of his life, so badly he’ll beg me to kill him. I’ll…”
Solstice interrupted him, “Enough of this,” she pulled out a syringe of something and jammed the needle into his neck. She squeezed the plunger forcing whatever was in it into his body.
“Ow, the fuck did you just give me bitch…I’ll…kill…you…ne…xt,” Stardust passed out before he could finish his threat.
“Much better,” she said dropping the needle.
“What was that?” I asked.
“Knock out serum,” she said simply.
“If you had that then why did we have to deal with him acting like a fool?” I asked.
Doorstop chuckled, “First of all, that stuff is fucking expensive and we only wanted it for a last resort. Also, it only lasts for a small amount of time, for how close we are to the Stable it should last long enough for us to hook him up to the memory thingy.”
“Fine whatever, can we go before those ponies come back? How’d you two fight them off so quickly?” I asked.
Solstice shrugged, “They were freaked out with Bats going nuts, and the two of us are fucking badasses.”
“Damn right we are!” Doorstop said, giving Solstice a hoofbump.
“I swear you two are so much alike it’s scary,” I said as I walked over to Stardust and tried to lift him with my magic, but he was too heavy with the Magical ring around my horn, “Damn, this fucking ring is making my life hell.”
Wind Thrasher came over to me and took the ring off, “The Stranger said that Laser or myself could take it off if we thought you were ready. I’m taking a big leap here Shadow, don’t let me down.”
I smiled, “I won’t,” I turned back to Stardust and this time I was able to lift him in my magic. With that done we walked down the road and exited Whinnieapolis. I was happy to leave the evil city behind me for good, if I ever had to go back to it, it would be too soon.
***
It didn’t take us long once we were out of Whinnieapolis to reach the place marked on my map. It was an old run down outdoor theater; a huge metallic screen was at one end of a paved over strip of land. It was rusted and falling apart, the paved area was cracked and a few run-down sky carriages and normal carriages were scattered around it. As we got closer we started to see posters and advertisements for the movie that was showing at the time.
Come See Daring Doo: The Movie. Now playing every two and a half hours.
Daring Doo: The Movie, Everyponies Favorite hero comes to the big screen in a new epic adventure.
“So, where’s the stable?” I asked Doorstop as we walked across the broken pavement.
“Other side of the big screen. Just follow me and keep an eye out for Enclave. They don’t normally go near this place to keep the location hidden, but with what you did and with Stardust missing, they may be guarding the area,” he said as we reached the screen and he started for one end of it.
Solstice was watching the sky as she said, “How are we going to get in anyway? I’m sure they changed the passcode when you left Doorstop.”
“My friend Dr. Limbis is a good mare. She’s the one who runs the memory modification program in the Stable. She’s not fond of what they do to the trainees, and said she’d be more than happy to help me with Stardust,” he said.
“How will she know we’re at the Stable?” I asked as we rounded the screen and went to the side where a metal door was set into the screen itself.
Doorstop tried to open the door then swore, “Figured it’d be locked. She said she’d do something to notify her when we were coming. This door is never locked, I’m guessing she had something to do with it. Shadow would you mind?”
I set Stardust down and walked over to the door, “Sure no problem, but if this door is trapped I’m going to be pissed.”
The lock was a joke, it only took me three seconds to pick it. When that was done Doorstop opened it and a high-pitched beep went off. It only lasted for a few second, but that was enough for all of us to draw our weapons, ready for an attack. But nopony was there, “Damn that scared the piss out of me!” Doorstop said.
“Yeah same here,” Solstice said.
“Enough talk, let’s get down to the Stable Door, I’m sure Dr. Limbis is waiting,” Doorstop said walking into the door and down a dark stair case beyond.
Lifting Stardust, I followed, same for the other two. We went down one of the stairs that lead us into a large storage area. It was dark and damp, rusty empty shelves were lining the wall. On the far end a Stable Door was illuminated in a dim yellow light, the number 97 on it. Keeping our weapons drawn we slowly walked up to the Stable door.
“Be ready for anything, it’s possible that somepony found out what Dr. Limbis was planning,” Doorstop said.
When we reached the door I asked, “How long do we have to wait…”
My words were cut off as the door hissed and squealed as it pulled out of its setting. We all raised our weapons as it rolled away steam rolling out into the open room. A single pony stepped out, she was a middle-aged mare with a pale grey mane, a very light pink coat, and blue eyes. She looked at us all and took a step back. Her cutie mark I saw was literally a diagram of a brain.
When she spoke she had an accent I couldn’t place, “Doorstop, I didn’t know you were bringing so many ponies with you.”
Doorstop smiled, “Sorry Limbis, I needed all the help I could get. You know how stubborn The Cadet is.”
She looked over at Stardust who was still knocked out and hovering in my magic’s grip, “That I do. We need to hurry, most of the Stable is asleep, but if the Overmare finds out I opened the door, she’ll send one of her guards to check it out. We need to get them to my office.”
“How do we know we can trust her,” Solstice said.
“Yeah, I’d like to know that too, I don’t trust Stable Ponies,” Wind Thrasher said.
The mare said something under her breath then said, “I mean it, we don’t have time. I’m risking my life to help you all, now be quiet and follow me.”
“She’s right, let’s get this over with,” I said following the mare into the Stable. Solstice and Wind Thrasher both sighed and followed, Doorstop chuckling a little as he came up the rear. As we crossed the threshold I noticed a dark stain where the door met the frame. As I looked at it I asked, “Is that where?”
Doorstop lightly pushed me on saying, “Yeah, that’s where we lost Hailstorm, now come on, let’s get Stardust back to his annoying old self.”
I smiled and nodded, “Okay, let’s finish this.”
With that said, we continued on, the door to Stable 97 closing behind us…
[FOOTNOTE: LEVEL UP!]
NEW PERK ADDED!
Slayer: You have a knack for using bladed weapons. When you are using a bladed weapon of any kind, you deal +5 more damage and ignore an opponent’s damage threshold, and have a greater chance to sever limbs.