Fallout Equestria: Falling Shadows

by Drako Moon

Chapter 38: Sleepwalking

As always, the inside of the stable was different than most, the entrance looked like no other stable that I’ve seen before. Why couldn’t Stable-Tec make all these places the same? In all reality it would’ve made things easier because they wouldn’t have had to spend so much time on design having one blueprint to go off of for all the stables. Also, if anything it would’ve saved them a lot of money in the long run. Stable-Tec was stupid…

Solstice hit Doorstop in the shoulder, “So, where the fuck are we supposed to go from here? You’re the expert on this place right now.”

“Quit yappin’ so loud, you’ll alert somepony,” he snapped.

“I thought your friend here was supposed to get us in here easily?” she retorted nodding her head toward Dr. Limbis.

She gave Solstice a look, “I was able to get you in here, but that doesn’t mean that it’s safe. I’ve done my best to keep security away from this area, but in this stable it’s never a guarantee that somepony won’t find us.”

Doorstop grinned, “Yeah, what she said.”

I took in my surroundings and asked, “Where do we go from here?”

“Well, from here we should be entering into security. It used to be something else before the stable was invaded, but The Enclave thought it’d be safer to have it next to the entrance. The original security location is also still active in the restricted upper level, but the subjected inhabitants are unaware of its existence. Through there is the only way into the stable from here unless the emergency escape tunnel is open, so it looks like we have no choice but to go through,” Doorstop paused, “Listen, the stable inhabitants here are my problem to deal with, not yours. If anything happens through those doors, and I know something will, let me handle it.”

“What do you mean by let you handle it?” I asked.

“I’d rather have something happen to me rather than the rest of ya. I’m getting old and all of you have your whole lives ahead of you, I can’t let you sacrifice yourself when I can do something instead,” he answered.

Solstice scoffed, “You’re not gonna go get yourself killed as some kind of bs penance are you gramps? Cause if you are that’s extremely stupid; you’re the only one who knows how to get around this damned place.”

“I said I was GETTING old, I ain’t no gramps yet,” Doorstop snapped, “And no, I’m not gonna get myself killed on purpose. I’m just sayin’ if it comes down to it that I’d rather be the one that goes down. Plus, that talk about penance is nonsense, I have very few regrets.”

Wind Thrasher cocked her head, “What do you regret?”

“Nothin’,” he replied.

She looked confused, “But you said…”

“Nothin’, I said nothin’,” he interrupted.

For how long we’ve been standing here, we could’ve been at least a quarter way to where we need to be by now, “Can we just go? I don’t feel like fighting anypony right now. We have to go through that door if we want to get Stardust into that machine before he wakes up and causes a ruckus.”

“Fine,” they all said in unison.

I set Stardust down next to the door and pulled out my sword as I activated the panel to open the door. As the door slid into the pocket I prepared for ponies with guns to freak out on the other side, but there was no one. I put away my sword and was about to pick up Stardust again when I noticed he was gone and on Wind Thrasher’s back, “Why are you carrying him?”

She smiled and blushed a little, “Your magic could use a rest, and I have no problem carrying him. He’s not as heavy as he looks when he’s standing next to you.”

“Alright, just let one of us know if it becomes too much for you to handle,” I said as I started to proceed through the door.

The silence was so disturbing that it was making me paranoid. Out in The Wasteland there’s always some sort of noise to be heard both near you and off in the distance. Whether it be gunfire or just the wind blowing pebbles across the dry cracked ground, there’s always noise, but here it was so quiet that my ears were ringing. I was tempted to ask Doorstop if we should be worried about the silence but instead I chose to ignore my paranoia and just follow him through the stable.

As we went, I started noticing posters on the walls depicting pegasi either in fighting with Zebra’s or other ponies. A couple even had griffons on them, with words like, ‘Just because they have wings doesn’t make them allies.’ written on them. As we walked and I saw more posters I realized that every one of them was meant to give the impression that Pegasi were the one race that could protect and bring back Equestria.

“Yeah, I know what you’re thinking shrimp,” Doorstop said, “It’s all kinds of wrong.”

“Do they really teach the ponies here this kind of shit?” I whispered.

Dr. Limbis answered, “That and more.”

Looking over at her I asked, “If you think it’s so bad here then why do you work here?”

She sighed, “I had no idea what I would be doing when I signed up for this program. Back then I was brought in to help with the mental stability of the trainees. I thought that meant I would be helping ponies going through stress or mental break downs. I was sent here and forced to repurpose the memory modification machine with my team.”

“If you didn’t want to do it then why did you stay?”

She laughed, “I didn’t have a choice. Once I was part of this program I couldn’t back out. If I did I would’ve risked death or banishment.”

“With how much she knows about the memory manipulation and how the entire system works she would’ve been killed,” Doorstop said quietly, “I was lucky, because I’m just a normal solider to them who didn’t know more than what we did for training.”

“It seems like you know more about what’s going on here than that,” I remarked.

He grinned a little, “I do, but they didn’t need to know that.”

“I just wish you could’ve gotten away with your cutie mark intact,” Dr. Limbis said sadly.

“Ah, it was just a picture on my flanks. It doesn’t change who I am, but damn it hurt like a bitch.”

I saw Solstice shiver a little, “I’ve never seen it done, but I’ve heard stories from older officers. It sounds horrendous.”

“It ain’t no picnic that’s for sure,” Doorstop said.

We’ve been walking down a long hall that sloped downward for the past ten minutes now. I was starting to wonder when we were going to reach our destination when we finally rounded a bend in the hall and came to a door. Instead of it saying ‘Atrium’ over the door it read ‘Living Quarters’ and when Dr. Limbis opened the door all I saw was a wall in front of me just past the door. When we walked through the door I saw that two hallways split off, one to our right with a sign over it that read ‘Female Living Quarters’, and the one on the left that read ‘Male Living Quarters.’

“Where’s the Atrium?” Wind Thrasher and I asked at the same time.

“Just on the other side of that wall. The living quarters wrap around it. This is the level where the cadets sleep, train and eat. The seven…well six instructors sleep on the upper level, along with eleven scientists, ten guards, and the General who the cadets think is the Overmare,” Doorstop said as he headed down the left hallway along with Dr. Limbis.

We followed, as we did Dr. Limbis whispered, “Keep quiet as we head down the halls. The cadets here will notice any strange sounds.”

I noticed Wind Thrasher had her ears perked as we quietly walked down the hall, “As far as I can tell most of the ponies in here are sleeping, I think I hear one talking though.”

Dr. Limbis looked amazed as she looked back at Wind Thrasher, “That is an amazing gift, can you tell which room it’s coming from?”

Wind Thrasher took a moment, concentrating on the sounds around her before she finally said, “The last room or the one before it, the walls here are thick so I may be off by a little.”

As they talked I looked to our right and noticed the hall had windows that overlooked the Atrium. It was huge, at least twice the size of the one in my stable, both in height and width. The pegasi had a lot of room to fly from the look of it. It wasn’t set up like my own stable either, it looked more like a game room and obstacle course.

“We’ll have to be careful when we go by that room then,” Doorstop said.

“I’m surprised anypony is up right now, it’s past lights out,” Dr. Limbis said.

I looked over at them and did my best not to laugh, “You said most of the cadets here are my age or a bit older, young ponies aren’t much for rules.”

“They are here runt,” Doorstop said, “When it’s lights out everypony goes to bed, they follow the rules because if they don’t they have to deal with The General, and she’s not a fun pony to piss off.”

Solstice rolled her eyes, “How about we just sneak on by and get this over with, who cares who’s awake?”

“I do, because if somepony’s still up right now, that means one of the instructors may be down here talking with one of the cadets,” Doorstop replied.

“I do hear two voices,” Wind Thrasher said.

“Fuck,” Doorstop said starting to sneak down the hall toward the last door. When he reached it he started to listen.

I moved close too, pulling out my sword in case something happened. Then Dr. Limbis moved pasted us waving a hoof for us to back up. We both did as she knocked on the door. It opened a moment later and I heard a young stallion say, “What…oh sorry Dr. Limbis what can I help you with ma’am?”

“I would like to know why you are still up Falling Leaf, I was walking past your room and I heard voices. Who do you have in your room?” she asked sternly.

An older stallion’s voice replied, “It’s my fault Doctor, I was going over his test results that’s all.”

“Instructor Swift, I had no idea you were still down here. I’m surprised you are bothering one of the Cadets so late just for test results.”

“I didn’t have time earlier, but we were just finishing up, I should be heading back up to my room,” the older stallion said, “Falling Leaf you get back to bed and remember to work on your timing.”

“Yes SIR!” the younger stallion said.

I saw a tall buck walk out of the room, he walked right in front of Dr. Limbis saying, “Why are you walking the halls of the living quarters? Shouldn’t you be in medical?”

“I had to check on one of the Cadets, he was injured today.”

Before the stallion could say anything back I heard Doorstop say, “Bastard is still pulling the same bullshit.”

The instructor heard Doorstop and turned toward the big stallion, “Doorstop?”

Doorstop moved, he wrapped his forelegs around the other stallion putting him in a headlock and cutting off his air way. Doorstop twisted the ponies head in a hard jerk, snapping his neck. Once that was done he let the body fall to the ground. The door to the Cadet’s room opened again and a colt around my age looked at the dead instructor, then at all of us.

“What the fuck!? Sergeant Doorstop, I thought you died,” he said.

“Sorry kid,” he replied.

“Huh!?” The cadet started to say, then Doorstop knocked him out with a quick hit to his head.

“Damn I didn’t want to hurt any of the kids,” Doorstop said looking down sadly at the young stallion.

“Why did you kill him?” Dr. Limbis asked quietly, but I could hear her anger.

“I’ve caught that sick fuck twice trying to do things with the Cadets, once with a filly a couple years back, and another time with one of the colts. I reported him a few times, but he had connections and they didn’t listen to me.”

“Even so, what are we going to do now if one of the guards comes down to do their rounds and finds him?” she asked.

Solstice sighed and walked over to the dead stallion, “We’ll hide him in the room and take the kid with us, or tie him up and gag him so he doesn’t call for help when he wakes up.”

“Not a bad idea, we have a few hours until everypony gets up. They won’t be checking the rooms. Shadow put the dead piece of shit in the room and close the door then grab Falling Leaf and bring him with us. We can’t waste any more time,” Doorstop said.

I did as he asked, when that was done I took hold of the young stallion and we started on our way again. When we reached the end of the hallway where it met up with the one from the female living quarters and became one hallway again, “How much farther are we?”

Doorstop whispered, “Down there is one set of stairs that only lead down to the lower level, past that is the room where the flight simulator is, past them is the locker rooms, then we’ll reach the stairs that go up to the upper level. We need to get to that set of stairs next.”

“He’s right, we’ll have to be extra careful once we reach it as well. The upper level is the restricted area. At this time of night, we shouldn’t run into anypony but a security pony or two may be wondering the halls,” Dr. Limbis said.

“I hate sneaking around like this,” Solstice said.

“Feel free to alert the ponies here, but you can deal with them on your own,” Dr. Limbis said.

I walked past them and up to Doorstop, “We can’t waste any more time, we don’t know how much longer Stardust is gonna stay unconscious.”

“Yeah, I know Runt,” he said walking down the hall.

The rest of the way down the hall to the second set of stairs was uneventful. Dr. Limbis led us up the stairs to a door, she pulled out a card with a small ruby set into it. She pressed it to a pad near the door where it flashed then the door opened. We all slowly moved into the hall on the upper level, all of us trying to our best to stay as quiet as we could. As we walked down the halls I saw that like the main level, the living quarters for the males and females were separated. The Stallions on the left, the Mares on the right. Just down from them was the staff mess hall and the bathrooms. Finally, we turned a corner and reached Medical.

“This is where we need to be, the memory machine is on the other end of Medical. I’m the only doctor on staff at the moment, we should have plenty of time,” Dr. Limbis said as she used her card again to open the door to medical.

She ushered us in quickly shutting the door behind us, Doorstop moved over to me and took the young cadet out of my magic and brought him over to a medical table where he strapped him in so he wouldn’t run off, “Let’s get Stardust into that damned machine now.”

We walked over to another smaller door at the other end of the room. When Dr. Limbis opened it, I saw the room with the memory machine was very small. The machine itself was two pods connected back to back, wires came out from where they met and ran over to a terminal sitting on a small desk in the far corner of the room. There were also a few thick cords wrapped together going into the ceiling; must be for power or something.

“Wait that’s all it is?” I asked.

“It doesn’t look like much, but it’s powerful, look what we did to Stardust,” Dr. Limbis said walking over to the terminal and starting to type something into it, “Wind Thrasher would you please put Stardust into the pod on the right side?”

“No problem,” she said walking over to it. The glass covering the pod opened and she set Stardust into it.

“Good, now take the helmet and place it on his head.” Dr. Limbis said.

She did then took a step back as the glass over the pod closed, “Now what do we do?”

“We should be good now, as long as he doesn’t fight the machine I’ll be able to bring back his own memories by removing the fake ones we placed.”

I walked over to the pod looking down at Stardust’s face, “What if he does fight the machine?”

“Then one of us will have to go into the other pod and enter his subconscious mind to help guide the memory replacement and reordering process. I could force the process with just the machine, but it’s extremely dangerous. It requires a lot of energy and could also end up resetting his brain to the point where he’ll need to relearn everything from walking and talking to shooting a gun and eating,” she said hitting one more button, “Though it shouldn’t come to that, nopony has ever been able to fight the machine.”

Solstice laughed, “Maybe not, but he’s stubborn, I wouldn’t be surprised if he broke it.”

“So far it’s working, I don’t think it will be a problem,” she said watching the terminal as a loading screen started to fill up, “When we did the first memory wipe he tried everything he could to stop it, but we were able to finish.”

As she said that the bar stopped filling then it started to go down. I sighed as I watched, “Should’ve knocked on wood.”

“What the hell? I’ve never seen this before!” she said going back to typing on the machine. As she did I saw that Stardust was starting to wake up inside the pod.

“Doc, I think you should hurry, he’s waking up!” I said.

“Dammit!” she clicked a button on one side of the terminal. Stardust’s eyes snapped open and he opened his mouth in a silent scream, before passing out again, “Shit, the program stopped at thirty two percent.”

“Let me guess, now one of us has to go in there?” Solstice said sarcastically.

“Yes, but it can’t just be anypony, it needs to be a pony the real Stardust trusts.”

“Well that means I’m out,” Solstice said.

“Same for me, he hasn’t seen me since the stable. He was nice to me but I’m not sure if he trusts me,” Wind Thrasher said.

“I’d go, but the cadet still holds a small bit of resentment toward me for what happened here,” Doorstop added.

They all turned to look at me. I took a step back, “No way! First of all, Stardust wants me dead more than any of you, it won’t work. Also, I don’t wanna get anywhere near that thing, I have enough problems with mom blocking my earlier memories, I don’t need to make it worse.”

“The machine is set to restore memories Shadow,” Dr. Limbis said, “I won’t be able to do anything to remove any memories from you unless I reset the machine with both you and Stardust out of the pods. If Stardust trusted you before his memories were wiped away then you might be the only pony here who can help him.”

“What do you mean?”

“When you go into Stardust’s mind and memories, you’ll have to find Stardust in them. His mind will try to stop you in any way it can, the pony he thinks he is right now won’t want you to find his true self. You’ll have to go through the world his mind created, find the pony his mind sees him as and help him remember who he is. When you do, I’ll be able to finish from this end.”

I looked over at the other pod, “What if I can’t? What can happen to me in there if his mind tries to stop me?”

She looked worried, “A few things can happen, first of all you risk death. If you die while you’re in there, your own body will think whatever injury you took is real.”

Doorstop interrupted, “Basically if you die in his head, you die for real.”

Dr. Limbis nodded, “Precisely, also you said something about your mother blocking your early memories. If you’re not careful, his mind can throw you into one of your own memories. This can also happen if you wander too far away from the world his mind has created. To put it simply, it’s possible for you to wander into your own head and memories.”

“Wait a minute, you mean it’s possible that this thing can help me remember?”

She nodded again, “It can, though it depends on how strong or damaged the spell your mother put on you is. You may remember everything or just a few things, it’s hard to say.”

I looked back at Stardust then the others and sighed, “If it’s the only way I can fix my friend, then let’s do it.”

“Okay, get into the other pod and secure the helmet to your head,” she said going back to the terminal.

I did then I watched as the glass encase me in the pod like Stardust, “Okay, I think I’m ready.”

“Okay, everything is ready on my end, are you sure you’re ready for this Shadow?” Dr. Limbis asked.

I took in a deep breath then slowly let it out, “Let’s do this.”

She pressed a few buttons on the terminal and flipped a switch on the wall next to it, and the world didn’t really melt away so much as it just flashed out of sight…

Suddenly everything went from darkness to me standing in the same room of the stable the machine was in, but there was one key difference, the machine wasn’t there, “Well I guess it worked, now all I gotta do is figure out how to fix him from in here. There’s gotta be a something around here that can point me in the right direction.”

I started to walk out of the room, past medical and into the vast empty hallways of Stable 97. It was quiet like earlier, but for some reason it didn’t make me feel as paranoid as before. Probably because I knew it was only me and Stardust in here, at least I hope it’s just us in here. For all I know there could be something in his head to keep him from getting messed with by this machine again, unless the same pony who did this to him made adjustments or corrupted him even further.

Everything about the stable was the same except that there were some areas where the walls had cracks and chips in them like there’d been a fight here at one time or another. As I wandered I kept hearing a slight sound of wingbeats, but not the kind that come from pegasus wings. I tried following the sound but no matter which way I went it kept fading. Something wasn’t right in this place, that’s for sure.

Right now, I couldn’t worry about anything but finding Stardust, the real Stardust. Dr. Limbis said his mind would make him look different, however he saw himself or however he thought he saw himself. I wonder what she meant when she said that. Was Stardust going to look like another pony, or would his colors be swapped? Whatever it was, I have to find him and get him to trust me, then to remember me and the rest of us. Right then I walked by a room with an open door, inside there was a mirror. When I passed by I stopped and looked at myself in it.

What I saw in the mirror wasn’t me, I was taller, my coat was white, my mane jet black. My mane was flowing behind me like it was caught in a slight wind, my eyes were still red, but they were a deeper red that seemed to glow just a little, and the whites of my eyes weren’t white at all, they were jet black, giving me a ghoulish look. Worst of all, my cutie mark had been replaced by the constellation of Aquila, just how I saw it back in the Star Tower with Sheena. Is this how I saw myself? I looked just like her, just like the monster trapped in my head, the cutie mark was different, but it implied that I was her. I almost panicked right then, a tightness in my chest almost made me scream as pain ran up my chest. I turned away from the mirror took a few breaths and let my heart rate slow.

“I’m not her and she’s not me, I’m Shadow Star the courier, nothing more and nothing less,” I said to myself.

When my panic faded away I looked back into the mirror, I looked like myself again…mostly. My eyes looked the same as they had and my coat wasn’t as dark as it normally was, but I could deal with that. I just had to remember that I’m not Aquila. I sighed and took in another deep breath then continued down the hall. The lack of anypony being around made the place feel dead, more lifeless than a stable normally did. Most ponies from the wasteland didn’t like going into old abandoned stables because they said they felt like going into a haunted house, it was like the souls of the ponies who lived in them were haunting them. I never understood that feeling considering I grew up in a stable.

Yeah, they were boring and you didn’t have many places to go, but the ponies there made the best of it. We always found a way to entertain ourselves and at times the stable could be a lot of fun. I remember one of the better memories from Stable 28. Strawberry Milkshake and I both got our cutie marks around the same time. Auntie threw us both a big Cute-ceañera in the Atrium where most of the Stable came to celebrate. Foals were the future of the stable and no matter what you thought of the filly or colt who got their cutie mark, you still celebrated with them. It was a step toward adulthood and who you’d become in the stable. It was one of the days where the adults were nice to me, even The Overmare. I could’ve enjoyed it more than I did though, most of the time all I could think about was how much I wish mom was there to see it. My two friends pulled me out of my funk later that night however. They always know how to do that. It was a fun night all in all, until one of the older colts started to pick on Milkshake and I made him swallow his teeth. The Overmare wasn’t very happy with me after that and I spent the next week helping sanitation clean the entire stable.

Now as I’m walking around this dream version of Stable 97 I could understand a little of what Wastelanders saw when they went into a place like this. With nopony around, the life of the place was gone. It was creepy, a little scary and lonely. The sooner I found Stardust the better, with all that I did over the past few days, I just wanted my friend back. I wanted to get back to The Kingdom and see Aura, I want to go home. As I thought about that I realized that I didn’t have a real home to go back to anymore. I was a traveling postal mare, my stable kicked me out, I didn’t have a place with the Steel Rangers, Box Tape didn’t have room for me in his shop or apartment over it. Where could I go that I could call my home. Maybe I could move into Silver’s old house, with her dead nopony was living there now and it was right down the road from Box Tape. Cartwheel’s a nice town, the ponies were friendly and they seemed to like me. Maybe when this was all done I could go back there. Maybe Aura and I could start a life in the small trading town and I could become a real courier, not the hero everypony wanted me to be, just a normal package delivery pony. Aura could keep being a bodyguard or maybe if she could get over the whole contract thing, she could do something less dangerous. Wingnut could move in with us too and put that brain of his to good use building up Cartwheel. Wind Thrasher would be able to settle down too and make a quiet happy life for herself. Stardust could help me with my work for Box Tape, hell he could take over for the old buck so he could retire and spend his last few years with his daughter. Come to think of it, a Pegasus would be way more efficient as a courier than a pony stuck on the ground like Box Tape.

It was a dream, a nice dream, but one I was sure wouldn’t ever come to pass. I’d be lucky to last another month in The Wasteland, I’d be lucky to keep Aquila held back for another two weeks. That was all my life has been as of late, I’ve been skating by on sheer luck. How long would my luck hold out though? How much longer could I tempt fate before it came calling? I knew the answer and it wasn’t one I liked. If I wanted to make my dream come true, I had to get stronger, wiser, smarter. I’d have to find a way to rid myself of Aquila, take care of mom, and get The Enclave off my back. If I could do that, then maybe, just maybe I’d be able to have the happy life I wanted, with the griffon I loved, with the ponies I loved.

I was lost in my thoughts as I rounded another corner and almost missed a small noise coming from one of the rooms to my left. I froze and listened, the sound came again. It sounded like a hoof tapping on a metal bar. The room to my left said it was the male holding cells. Carefully I moved closer to it then opened the door ready for anything…or so I thought. What I saw when I walked in was three cells on the far wall, a desk with a terminal on it and a single colt sitting in the center cell slowly tapping his hoof against the bars.

He jumped and looked up at me when the door opened, he backed up against the wall, his bright pink eyes looking scared. Pink eyes, a sapphire blue mane and wing tips, a light grey coat, he was a colt version of Stardust. He pointed a hoof at me and asked in a shaky voice, “Who…who are you and why are you here?”

“Stardust is that you?” I asked walking over to the bars.

“That’s my name, but who are you and how do you know me? How did you get in here and why do you have a horn?” he asked still staying as far away from me as he could.

“Stardust it’s me Shadow Star,” I replied confused, “You know me, I’m your friend.”

“I don’t have any friends, I’m not allowed to.”

I sighed, I guess even here he still didn’t know me, at least he wasn’t trying to kill me like he was in the real world, “I’m Shadow Star and I’m a unicorn. Don’t you know what a unicorn is?”

He scowled, “I’m not stupid, I know what a unicorn is I just never met one before. My teachers said they all died in the war.”

“Well they lied to you, I came into this stable to help you.”

“Help me with what? I’m not in danger. As long as I do what Pride says he leaves me alone.”

Pride? What did Pride have to do with Stardust, or did he mean the other version of himself? Was there more than one version of Stardust in here? I smiled trying to put on a brave face for him, “You are in danger, something bad happened to you and I’m here to help you get better. Don’t you remember me at all?”

“No he doesn’t,” a deeper voice said from behind me.

Turning around quickly I saw another Stardust, only it didn’t look like the Stardust I knew. His coat was darker, his mane cropped short and mangy, his eyes looked like mine did right now, a glowing red and black where the white should be. His pupils were slits like Wind Thrasher, he had longer fangs than even she did, he was taller than normal and his wings were bigger than they should be and they were leathery like a bat or dragon’s wings. I took a step back pressing myself against the bars of the colt’s cell, “What are you?”

He laughed, “I’m the real Stardust, but you can call me Pride the name I took on as the leader of The Sins. The question I want answered Shadow, is why are you in my HEAD!?”

“I’m here to save you, the real you not this monster you’ve become!”

He looked past me at the colt version of Stardust, “You mean him? That little weakling is nothing, I only keep him around because I have to. He’s nothing but garbage, a pathetic excuse for a colt that doesn’t know what it means to be strong!”

I could hear the colt whimpering from behind me, “I’m sorry Pride, she just came in here, I don’t know who she is.”

“Shut up!” Pride yelled before looking back at me, “I’m giving you one chance Shadow, step away from the colt before I make you.”

“Never, I’m not going to let you hurt him or me. I’m not scared of you, now go away before I’m forced to destroy you!”

He took a step closer then stopped. When his hoof entered the room it started to vanish into smoke, he growled and jumped back into the hall, “Come out of that room now!”

I watched as his hoof reappeared when he jumped back out of the room and smiled, “What’s the matter Pride, I thought you were gonna come make me leave?”

I heard Stardust come closer to the bars saying quietly, “He can’t come into this room, that’s why I’m here. it’s one of the only safe places in the stable.”

“Really? So Pride can’t come in here huh?”

Pride glared at me, “You can’t stay in there forever Shadow, sooner or later you’ll have to come out of there if you ever want to leave. When you do, I’ll be waiting!”

He flew down the hall. When he was gone I looked back at Stardust, “Thanks kid.”

He shrugged, “You seem nicer than he is.”

“Why are you hiding in here anyway apart from trying to stay away from Pride. I don’t think he can kill you, at least not if he wants to stay alive himself.”

“He won’t kill me, but he likes to hurt me when he can. I do most of what he tells me to, but I try to stay in here when he’s angry like he is right now,” Stardust said.

It was so strange to hear him speak in such a young voice, it almost reminded me of Wingnut, “Why don’t you fight him or kill him? You’re a strong stallion and I know that if you try, you could kill him.”

He blushed, “I’m not brave or strong, he’s a lot more powerful than you know. He killed the entire stable and forced me to hide in here. I can’t win against a pony like him. He’s a monster.”

“He is a monster, but he’s also part of you. Don’t you realize that this entire place is a dream? We’re inside your head trying to stop that version of you from killing us all. That’s why I’m here, I came to help you remember who you are Stardust.”

“What do you mean this place is a dream? This is real.”

“No it’s not, we’re both hooked up to a machine in stable 97’s medical wing. I had to come in here to help you remember who you are.”

He looked me up and down with a frown, “Why you, you don’t look that tough?”

“Because our friends thought I was the one pony you could trust, we’ve been friends for a long time now, you saved my life on more than one occasion. You have to believe me Stardust, if you don’t you’ll be trapped in here forever and the Stardust we all know and love will be lost to us.”

“You gotta be totally whacked or something,” he said bluntly.

“I’m not…well not right now, I’m telling you the truth.”

“Prove it then, tell me something that only somepony I’m best friends with would know,” he said smugly.

“Like what?”

He thought for a moment then blushing he said, “If you know me as well as you think you do then tell me who my parents are, that’s information that I’d only tell my best friend.”

“That’s a trick question.”

“No it’s not!”

“Yes, it is, because you don’t know who your parents are. You were told that they died when you were still a newborn,” I replied.

He looked down at the floor, “Damn, you’re good. Fine then tell me who I have a crush on!”

I almost laughed, “Shortcake, you said she really liked to cook and she got her cutie mark on the day Hailstorm, her, and you wanted to make a treat for Sargent Doorstop.”

He looked like I just slapped him, “How’d you know…”

“I know because you told me,” I interrupted, “I’m not lying to you Stardust, somepony messed with your memories so they could turn you into Pride and send you after my friends and I.”

“Shit, I didn’t think you’d know that, but if you do then you’re right, something more is going on here,” he walked back over to the cell door and pushed it open, it hadn’t even been locked.

“You really weren’t locked in there?”

He rolled his eyes, “No, I just stay in there to hide from Pride, like I said before. Anyway, if your right and I forgot something about myself, then how are we going to get my memories back?”

“I’m not sure, we might have to kill Pride, or find your memories in your head.”

“Some help you are. You know that if we leave, Pride will come after us,” He said.

“He can try, but remember this is your mind not his. You control what goes on in here, if you want to keep him from getting to us, I’m sure you can.”

“I don’t know, but I guess we have no choice, though I don’t think I can kill Pride. Let’s go see if we can find my memories first,” he said walking to the door then checking down the hall before gesturing for me to follow, “Let’s check some of the rooms and see what we find.”

“Okay, but keep an eye out for Pride,” I said following him out into the hallway, only as soon as I joined him, the hallway vanished and the two of us were now standing in The Wasteland looking up at a tall white spire that went up into the clouds. It was one of the M.A.S.E.B.S. towers.

Stardust looked up at it, “What the hell is that thing? Wait, are we outside!?”

I started to answer, but then everything around us changed again and our view was pulled away from ourselves and into the body of another pony. No not another pony, into Stardust, one of his memories…

I was in the body of a young Stardust standing in a line of five other pegasi. Walking in front of us all was a younger Doorstop. He was wearing a prim looking black uniform and a soldier’s cap, “Alright maggots, ya’ll know what today is dontcha?”

All four stallions and one mare responded at the same time, “Sir, yes sir!”

“That’s right, today we find out who the best shot with long range weapons is! You five have been ranked as our top fighters from the last three tests. Whoever gets the best score today will be ranked top of the class and have major bragging rights!”

Not a single one of them moved, but I could feel Stardust’s muzzle curve into a smile. His eyes moved to look at the stallion on his right. He was almost as tall as Stardust, with a blond mane, yellow eyes and an icy grey coat. His cutie mark was storm cloud with hail falling from it. That must’ve been Hailstorm, he was a very handsome stallion.

“CADET!!! AM I BORING YOU!?” Doorstop yelled making my host jump, his eyes snapping back to the older stallion.

“No sir!”

He looked between Stardust and Hailstorm, “Good, then I’m sure you wouldn’t mind being the first one to show the rest of us your skills with a rifle?”

Stardust gulped then stood taller, “I can do it SIR!”

“That’s what I want to hear! Now step to it!”

Stardust started to walk toward a shooting range where five sniper rifles were waiting ready next to each stall. As he walked a couple of the stallions started to laugh with each other, “This’ll be good.”

“Yeah, maybe if he’s lucky he’ll hit one of the targets.”

Stardust cursed under his breath, “I’ll show you little bitches how good I am.”

He moved over to the rifles and looked them over, he picked up the third one on the right. He looked it over for a long moment, ignoring the others who were laughing lightly, all except for his friend Hailstorm. When Stardust glanced over at him he grinned at Stardust then mouthed, “You can do it bro.”

Stardust smiled and turned back toward the range. He lifted the rifle with his forehooves, balanced on his rear hooves, using his wings for balance and pointed the rifle down the range. He moved his eye up to the scope, his right cheek resting on the stock, his muzzle taking hold of the bit. As he did Doorstop came closer and said, “You’ll have twenty targets and one minute to hit as many as you can, as accurate as you can. The first test is stationary, the next will be moving targets, that one you’ll have to take down ten targets in the same amount of time.”

Stardust nodded but kept his eye on the targets that were far down the range. Each one was shaped like a pony standing sideways, small targets on the head, chest and rear. As he sighted the targets a quick bell went off somewhere behind him. As soon as the sound went off, Stardust opened fire. His first shot slammed right into the head of the farthest target down the range. He brought a hoof up and pulled back on the bolt reloading a fresh round and then he fired again. Each shot he took hit it’s mark, the bullet flying though the head of each target, almost in the center each time. Finally, he took the last target out, ejected the last round then set the rifle down, turned and stood at attention.

Three of the ponies that had been teasing Stardust were looking at him in awe, so was Doorstop. Hailstorm was beaming happily for his friend. Doorstop shook his head then asked, “The hell’d you learn to shoot like that Cadet!?”

“Sir, Hailstorm and I have both been taking our free time to practice!” Stardust said in a loud voice.

“Really? I’ll have to say that was a lot better than I thought you’d do. But you only had to take out stationary targets. Let’s see how you do with a moving target!”

Stardust turned, picked up the rifle again, reloaded a new mag and took aim. Farther down the range the pony targets started moving back and forth. Again, he started to fire at each target and like before he took down each target. He turned again and stood at attention, “All targets are down SIR!”

“I can see that Cadet, now get back in line!” Doorstop boomed.

Stardust walked over to the line and stood next to Hailstorm as Doorstop went to go inspect how well Stardust did. As he did Hailstorm turned saying, “I knew you could do it Dusty, I told you all that practice would pay off in the end!”

Stardust closed his eyes and beamed arrogantly, “I wasn’t sure at first that I’d be able to get all the targets, but I just cleared my mind like you said and it worked! With skills like this, Shortcake won’t be able to resist me.”

As Stardust spoke there was a flash of light from behind him. Hailstorm’s eyes went wide as he pointed a hoof at Stardust’s flanks, “Dude, no way!”

Stardust looked back at his flanks, on his flanks was the cutie mark I recognized immediately. The crosshairs of a Sniper Scope. He jumped into the air cheering, “Yes! That’s right, muthafuckaaas. Finally, I got my Cutie Mark!”

The other three cadets crowded around him all looking at his new mark. It looked like they’d forgotten their teasing from before. I could feel how much joy Stardust felt as the other pegasi congratulated him, patted him on the back, and the mare who was with them kissed his cheek. It was like it was the best day of his life. He was a lot happier than I was when I got mine. His cutie mark made sense, he knew what it meant and it changed the way the others saw him.

The memory started to fade away as he hoofbumped Hailstorm…

I tripped and fell as the memory ended and I was suddenly back in my own body. The Colt Stardust looked just as dazed as I did, he looked over at me asking, “Did you see that too?”

Getting back to my hooves I shook my head for a moment responding, “Yeah, what the hell happened?”

“I’m not sure, but I didn’t remember that day until I saw the memory,” he replied.

“Something must’ve triggered the memory, like I said we’re in your head right now. Nothing around us is real, I’m not surprised it just started up like that.”

“I don’t know, that was really strange. It was like a whole bunch of things slammed into my head at once.”

“Did you remember anything else? Like me or when you left the stable?”

He shook his head, “No, but I remembered things from before that.”

“I was wondering, why were the others teasing you about being able to hit your targets? As long as I’ve known you, you’ve always been an excellent shot.”

He blushed a little, “I didn’t used to be, my friend Hailstorm was better than I was. I told him I wanted to be the best sniper in the stable, so he started training me in our free time. He realized my problem, I kept aiming right at my target and not taking into account how the bullet was going to fall, or where it would land if my target was moving. Once I realized that, using a sniper rifle became as easy as breathing.”

“So that’s how you got your cutie mark then? With how good you are with a sniper rifle I’m surprised you aren’t as good with weapons like pistols.”

He sighed, “The problem I have with them isn’t that I have a problem using them, it’s that I prefer to shoot ponies at a distance. I’m fine with hoof to hoof combat, an expert at it honestly. I don’t like using automatic rifles, but I I’m fine with them. It’s just pistols require a pony like me to get in too close. When that happens my adrenalin goes up and my aim gets really bad.”

We started slowly moving down the hall of the stable listening for the other Stardust as I continued saying, “I’m surprised you’d be afraid of something like that. I mean you’re a kick ass fighter, you shouldn’t let things like close range weapons freak you out so much.”

“Yeah I know, but for some reason it always does. Drill Sargent Doorstop said he was going to start working with me to help fix it, but he never got around to it,” he said as we rounded a corner, as we did a large butterfly flew in front of us. It had a black body, silvery wings, and red markings on the wings. As it flew by us Colt Stardust yelled, “Steve! Shadow you have to help me catch it!”

“Wait a minute Steve’s not even real,” I said as the colt took off down the hall.

“Yes he is, can’t you see him? We need to catch him!” he said.

Running after him I cursed to myself, “Yes I can see it, but it’s still not real. It’s probably Pride fucking with us!”

“He is real! Please we have to catch him, it’s important trust me!” he said as we came to a large door at the end of a hall.

The butterfly was looping around near the door. Stardust slowly walked toward it trying to make sure it didn’t fly by us. I moved closer to Stardust, putting a hoof on his shoulder, “Fine if catching him will help, then I’ll take care of it,” I wrapped the fucking butterfly in my magic ready to pull it closer to myself, but as soon as my magic touched the butterfly everything around us changed and instead of standing in Stable 97, we were in Stable 28’s atrium.

Stardust looked around saying, “Where the fuck are we!?”

I started to respond when I noticed Steve start to glow a bright white, as it did the stable melted away and now we were standing in a dark space, looking at a shimmering wall of light. There were cracks all along the wall shimmering brighter than the wall itself was, “The better question is what that is?”

“I’m starting to believe you about this all not being real,” he said as he looked up at the wall of light.

I walked up to the shimmering wall and slowly put a hoof on it. As soon as I did, I knew what this was. It was the block mom put on my memories, we weren’t inside Stardust’s mind anymore, somehow when I took hold of that butterfly we were transported to mine. It was just like Dr. Limbis said, the question was what would happen if I took down the block, “Stardust I think somehow we got transported into my mind.”

“You’re mind? I thought you said we were in mine.”

“We were, but somehow we ended up getting sent over to mine. This wall you see is a block that my mother put on my memories. Like you I don’t remember a lot about myself, the first few years of my life are blank.”

He looked up at the wall, “It looks damaged.”

“It is, I think that if we break it, I may be able to remember my past.”

He looked at me confused, “Aren’t you here to help me not yourself?”

“I am, but right now I don’t know how to get us back to your mind. Maybe if we destroy this, we can get back to where we were before.”

He shrugged, “As long as Pride isn’t here then I don’t care what we do.”

I sighed, “He might be, if we got pulled into my mind, then he might’ve been too.”

“Great, now I’ll be worried that he’ll be trying to attack us.”

I grinned, “Then I guess we should try to destroy this thing as quick as we can!”

“I don’t know how you’re going to take this thing down when you have no weapons.”

My horn started to glow, “Who needs weapons when you’ve got magic!?” I shot a blast at the wall, where the cracks seemed to be the weakest. As I did Stardust flew up to the place right next to where I blasted the wall and kicked it as hard as he could. For a moment nothing seemed to happen, then the cracks spread and a part of the wall burst into bright light and vanished, “Let’s hit it again, this time you kick it first then I’ll blast the same spot. We’ll keep that up until the wall shatters!”

He gave me his signature goofy grin, it looked kind of cute on his young face. He turned and flew to another spot on the wall where the cracks were weak again. He slammed his hooves into it then flew out of the way as I shot another blast of magic at the spot he kicked. Again, the wall shimmered into light as it vanished making an even bigger gap than before. I whooped and we kept at it, a few minutes later the wall was filled with holes.

“I think one more good shot of your magic will take it all down,” Stardust said as he landed next to me.

“I agree,” I concentrated, then blasted the wall one more time with a blast even bigger than I had before. I ran the beam across the entire length of the wall. When the blast ended, the wall shone brightly then shattered with the sound of breaking glass before it vanished. I jumped for joy yelling, “Yes! We did it!”

“Awesome, now what?” Stardust started to say, he stopped talking though when a deep rumbling sound filled the space around us. It got louder then another bright white light filled the darkness around us and everything melted away…

I was sitting in an old shack reading one of the books that mom gave me. She said it was to help keep me distracted while mom worked. I really didn’t care for the book though, it was mostly about how magic worked in a pony and how a unicorn uses their own strength to fuel their spells. Why couldn’t I read something like an adventure book like dad used to read to me when I was still at home. Thinking of dad made me sad, it’d been a long time since I saw him last. Mom said that when I was better we’d be able to go back home and I’d be able to see him all I wanted. At first that wasn’t so bad, but now it felt like I’d never get to see him again.

As I sat there thinking about my dad and home, I heard mom talking to Vervain just outside the shack. She wouldn’t like me listening in on her conversation, but I was bored. So, I moved closer to the door, trying to stay as quiet as I could, pressing my ear to the door.

“Grim, you have got to be kidding me! You really want to go into an old prewar project that you don’t know anything about!? WHY!?” Vervain yelled.

“Keep your voice down! I don’t want Morning Star to hear us,” Mom said, “I never said I don’t know anything about this project, I said I don’t know everything about it.”

“How is that any better? You don’t know what this thing can even do, if you use it to fix Morning, it might kill her.”

“It won’t, from all the notes and memory orbs I’ve found from Minuette and the other Children this was the project that led to Falling Shadows. It’s where the original idea came from and with all the tech they needed to make this project work, it can be used to fix her,” Mom said.

“From what you told me about Falling Shadows, it’s a super weapon. How can something that was used to start a project that became a super weapon be used to fix what happened to Morning?”

“Because they were trying to take power from a star. According to zebra lore, stars are light magic, even if they think that most of the stars are evil. shadow magic was used to hurt Morning, the spell I use to keep her alive is the same kind of magic. It’s enough to keep the darkness back and stop it from killing her, but I can’t make it powerful enough to stop it. If I used the power that was stored in that lab, I can banish the shadow magic for good.”

“But how do you know it‘ll work!?”

Mom finally lost it, “I DON’T, but it’s all I have left. Everything else I’ve looked into won’t work! The Darkness is eating away at her life little by little even with my spell, from what I can tell I won’t be able to keep her alive for another week. I’m losing this battle and I’m desperate OKAY! I don’t want to risk my daughter’s life, but I’m doing that either way. If I have to gamble with her life, then I’m going to do it with the best odds I can. I’m not going to lose her because I was too scared to do something about it.”

There was silence for a little while then finally Vervain said, “You know I care about her too, I don’t want to see that little filly die. If you know that this will work and you know you can do it, then I’m with you. But if you even think for a moment that it won’t work then call it off. If she’s going to die, then it would be better if she was with you and not hooked up to some old machines.”

I heard mom sniff, “I know this will work, I just know it.”

“Grim what if something goes wrong?”

It took a long moment for mom to answer back when she did her voice came out hollow, “I don’t know. I can’t go back home not after how long I’ve been gone, not after joining the Steel Rangers and the ponies I’ve made enemies with. No matter what happens, there’s no going back.”

“What about Morning? You told her that once you were done and she was cured, you’d bring her back to see her father. He’s been hunting you I know, but what will you do if you fix everything and you still don’t bring her back to The Crystal Empire? You know he won’t give up on finding her no matter what. I mean look at what he’s doing now even though he knows you’re trying to help her.”

Mom sniffed again, it sounded like she was keeping back tears, “He wants her to know peace, he wants her to have as normal of a life as she can before she dies. He doesn’t believe I can cure her, so he wants to take her home so she can enjoy what time she has left.”

“Is that so bad?”

“It isn’t, I almost agree with him. I want nothing more than for Morning Star to know what it’s like to be normal. I wish I could give her that right now, but I can’t. She’s a sweet child with too much power and an evil magic eating away at her body. Even if she could have a small amount of time to be a normal filly, I wouldn’t want her to die the horrible death she would if I let the curse on her finish its job,” Mom said.

“I understand, but still no matter what happens what are you going to do?”

“When this is finished we’ll go to Stable 28 like Elder Apple Jam told us, I’ll help you as much as I can. Maybe if I can stay for a while, Morning Star will get to have that normal life I’ve always wanted her to have. As for what to do about her father, well I’ll have to tell her that he died. It’s the only way I can be sure she never sees him again.”

Vervain gasped, “You’d take her away from a father that loves her so much?”

“I have no other choice, she can’t return home no matter what he thinks. I wish he would just leave The Enclave like I have and join me out here in The Wasteland. I love him so much and I miss him every day, but he won’t do that. He won’t leave The Enclave behind, not after what happened to his brother. When Striker killed their parents and fled becoming a dashite, he left their family name in ruin and he’s worked his ass off over the years to fix what his father and brother ruined,” Mom said.

I wanted to run out there and say something to her, to beg her to change her mind about dad. He’s a great pony, a strong pony, he was full of honor and loyalty to our home. But I didn’t I just kept on listening to Vervain and Mom talk. Vervain sighed again then asked, “You know I never heard the story about how you two met. All I know is that you used to be with Striker.”

“I used to yes, Striker and I were very close and he trusted me more than any other pony. I loved him so much, but I was also young and naive, it was because of me that he fought with his father over the secrets of their family. That fight led to Striker killing both his mom and dad. He came to me afterwards and broke it off with me, told me he was leaving but he didn’t tell me why. I didn’t find out what happened for a couple more days, when two officers came to ask me questions about Striker and if I knew where he would have run off to.”

“What does this have to do with how you ended up with his younger brother?” Vervain asked.

Mom laughed a little, “I was getting to that. When I didn’t give the officers the information on where Striker could have gone, they sent in his brother to question me. He was supposed to force me to talk, but he didn’t. He knew where Striker went and why he had to leave, he knew everything.”

“Then why did he come talk to you if he already knew?”

“Because he knew how close I was to Striker, he also knew, I knew their family’s secret. He wanted to make sure I wasn’t going to share the information with the rest of The Enclave. After that he started coming by to check up on me every day, making sure I was doing okay and to see if I needed help with anything. As time passed I saw something in him, it was different from the colt I used to know him as when we were both in school. Deep down he was a kind and caring pony that hid behind a mask. He came off as hard and mean but that wasn’t who he really was.”

“So, you two fell in love?” Vervain asked.

“We did, but it wasn’t until I was invited up to Nimbus for a festival that I said anything. He took me to an open area in the clouds where we watched some of the pegasi show off their aerial acrobatics. As the show went on and the stars shined brightly in the beautiful night sky, he looked toward me, wrapped a wing around my shoulders and pulled me close. He kissed me for the first time that night, under the blanket of stars and the moon. It was the most romantic thing anypony has ever done for me, even more than Striker ever did.”

“And you want to leave that all behind, even though you love him so much?”

I could hear that mom was holding back tears again, “I don’t want to, but I have to. I don’t want Morning to forget her father, far from it, but it has to be done.”

Vervain sighed, “Are you going to use one of your memory spells on her again?”

“No, I’m going to try to give her the news gently, maybe before we go into the lab.”

“She’s not going to react well to that news, you know that. What if she has another episode?”

“Then I’ll use my spell on her one last time, then I’ll fix her and we can start our new life.”

“I hope you’re right Grim, but I still think you should rethink this.”

“Vervain, you’re the best friend a pony could ask for, loyal to a tee. I know you’re worried about Morning and myself, but can you please put those worries aside and trust me?”

There was another long pause then Vervain said, “I always have my friend and I always will.”

“Thank you, we should go check on Morning Star so I can give her the bad news.”

I jumped back onto the couch I’d been reading on and acted like I was sleeping. A moment later mom walked in with Vervain not far behind. Mom walked up to me and said, “Morning Star, I need to talk to you.”

I put on a fake yawn and smiled up at her, “Yes?”

“I need to talk to you about your father.”

I knew what she was going to say, it was going to be a lie. She didn’t know I was listening to her talking with Vervain. I didn’t want her to know I was listening in so I put on a cute frown and asked, “What about him?”

“I just got a report from a friend of mine, he…” she stopped for a moment letting a few tears come to her eyes, “He died last week, he was with a raiding party and they got attacked by some faction. His entire unit was wiped out. I’m so sorry sweetie.”

At first, I was going to go along with it, but something inside my small frame stopped me. I looked away from her saying, “Liar!”

“What did you just call me?” she asked, sounding confused and a little angry.

“You’re a liar! I’m not a stupid little filly anymore, I know what you said to Auntie Vervain. You said we can’t go home anymore and Daddy can’t join us because of his work. You can tell me the truth you know!” I yelled, I could feel the tell tail signs of my heart acting up, but I didn’t care, “You can’t keep the spell working for much longer, but you think you can fix me. If you can you want us never to go home again, never to see Daddy again. Just tell me the truth, don’t try to lie to me, you said you never would!”

“Morning Star calm down please, you’re too young to understand this kind of thing.”

“I might be young, but I’m not stupid!” I yelled louder.

Vervain stepped in, “Morning, you need to calm down before you bring on another attack.”

I looked over at her, “No! I want her to tell me the truth for once, I want to see my Daddy, I want to get better and go HOME!”

Mom sighed and I saw her horn glow and magical runes appear in the air in front of her. I knew the spell she was getting ready, I’d seen her do it a lot over the years, “I’m sorry Morning Star, but we can’t go home, you can’t see your father anymore. This is our life now, but don’t worry you won’t remember what I said to Vervain and everything will be okay.”

I took a step back, “Mommy please don’t do that.”

Vervain was watching her too, “Grim, that’s a little far, you said you weren’t going to do that.”

“I know what I said, and I’m sorry, but neither of you can remember this,” she said, before either of us could say anything else, mom cast her spell. The world went white, then black…

The memory ended just as suddenly as it had when we went into Stardust’s memory. The two of us fell to the ground again a little dazed. When I opened my eyes, I saw we were back in Stable 97, next to the door where Steve had flown to. The butterfly flew over me and back down the hall, vanishing around the corner. As it flew off Stardust got back to his hooves, “Damn, that was trippy. Was that a memory of yours?”

I tried to answer, but images started to rush into my head. Thousands of memories I’d forgotten over the years, no longer blocked by mom’s spell, they came rushing back like a flood. I couldn’t sort them all, not right now. Most of them were just blurry images and sounds. Faces and places I’d long forgotten, my home, the journey with mom to New Pegasus, our meeting with the Steel Rangers, The pain I had to deal with every day because of my illness. All of it came rushing back, finally I knew who I was, where I came from, but still it wasn’t all clear, not yet.

When the pain passed I finally looked back at the small version of my friend and smiled, “It was.”

He frowned, “Your own mother took away your memories, just to keep you away from your dad?”

I nodded, “I guess so.”

“Now that you remember can’t you go find him? Once you’re out of here I mean.”

It just dawned on me then, he was still alive, or at least he was before I went into the stable. If he was still alive now then I only knew one pony who would know, Nightshade, he was dad’s best friend according to Vervain. Or I could just ask The Stranger about him, I’d just have to tell him who he was. Then I realized something, it was true that the memories came back, most of them. But when I tried to remember who my father was, I couldn’t. I thought back on a memory I just got of him, he was rocking me in a rocking chair that used to belong to his grandmother signing me a song to help me sleep. The memory itself was fuzzy and his figure was just a dark outline. It was just like that first time I remembered him back at The Bramble. His name, his face everything apart from his voice I couldn’t remember and even that was hard to make out.

I almost felt like crying as I realized that, “I’m not sure if I can, it’s been ten years since that memory took place and so much has happened. I may have remembered things, but for some reason I can’t remember what he looks like or even his name.”

He walked over to me and put a hoof on my shoulder, “I’m sorry.”

I smiled and hugged him, “It’s not your fault, but thank you all the same. Let’s see about helping you get the rest of your memories back.”

He smiled up at me, “Great idea.”

“I disagree,” Pride said walking around the corner and grinning at us. He looked even more sinister than he had when I first found the colt, “Kid, come with me now, before that bitch messes with your head any more than she already has!”

We both looked at him and backed away, Stardust saying, “I’m not going anywhere with you Pride! You’re not the real Stardust, I am!”

“And how do you know that huh? Is it because Shadow told you? Don’t you know who she is kid? She’s a fucking liar, this is how she gets others to follow her. She goes around messing with the minds of ponies so they trust her. That’s how she killed Hailstorm, she made him think she was trying to help ponies then she killed him!” he yelled.

The Colt Stardust looked back at me, “Is that true?”

“No, it’s not, he died trying to help you escape Stable 97. You told me he was shot as he tried to get through the closing stable door and he was crushed by it,” I said glaring over at The Pride Stardust.

“LIES!” Pride yelled pulling out a long rifle and taking aim, “I’ll fucking kill you and put an end to this once and for ALL!”

I didn’t even hesitate, I took hold of Stardust with my magic and teleported us out of the hall and to the Atrium. I wasn’t sure at first if it would work, but luckily it did. This world may’ve been in Stardust’s head, but it still worked like the real one. The only difference was that the spell didn’t drain me like it would in reality. That was good to know, if I could keep teleporting to get away from Pride, this would be a lot easier.

Stardust threw up a little then said, “Don’t do that again!”

“Sorry, I know it’s not easy to go through that the first time.”

He spat on the ground then sighed, “He’s going to find us again, the only place in here he can’t get to is in the cells.”

“I know, but this may buy us a little more time.”

He frowned, “Time for what?”

“To trigger another memory, you need to remember who I am and how you left your stable, that’s the only way to stop Pride.”

“Are you sure?” he asked.

“I’m as sure as I’m going to get, it’s the only thing that makes sense. He was created when your memories were manipulated. He’s the Stardust who has fake memories in place of the real ones, you’re the Stardust who has the real memories, but can’t remember them. It has to work if we get you to remember.”

As we spoke Pride’s voice echoed out of the PA system, “You can run but you can’t hide Courier BITCH. You think you can win against me by making that runt remember false memories? Well you’re wrong, I’m stronger than you think and that piece of shit is just a tiny part of me, he’s my weakness nothing more. If you want to win against me you’ll have to fight me and kill me, something I know you can’t do without help from your friends who aren’t here this time to save you. I’m coming for you and I’m going to rip you to shreds, I’m going to watch you drift in and out of consciousness as you’re slowly disemboweled. I’m going to make you suffer for what you did and make you wish you were never born. I’m going to show you pain like you never imagined.”

I ignored him and said to Stardust, “Try hard to remember what happened on the night you left Stable 97.”

“How though?”

“Just try, think of Hailstorm, maybe that will help,” I said as I put a hoof on his shoulder.

He closed his eyes, “I think I understand…wait, I have something. I was where I am now, he came to me after flight practice right here in the Atrium. He said the stable was planning on doing something to us…”

My eyes went wide at the same time Stardust opened his own and once again we were dragged into a memory…

“Hailstorm I thought you were meeting with Sargent Doorstop, going over your scores?” Stardust asked his friend who had just flown in panting hard.

“Dude, there isn’t much time you need to come with me right now!” he said as he took hold of Stardust’s hoof pulling him toward the door.

“Are you nuts? I have to head to the range! Shortcake wanted me to help her work on her target practice. I’m not going to pass this up, you know how I feel about her. This’ll inch me out of the friendzone bro.”

“Dusty, she doesn’t matter right now. Our lives are in danger! This entire stable is one big LIE!”

“Are you high? Shortcake told you not to suck the aerosol out of the whipped cream containers.”

He cursed and looked around then took hold of Stardust’s uniform pulling him closer, “I’m serious, you know I wouldn’t lie about this, and I’m not high! You know that last time was an accident.”

Stardust rolled his eyes, “Fine, but if this is one big prank I’m gonna do something WAY worse! So be careful what you touch in your room the next day.”

“I’ll explain as we go, let’s head to my room, we need to pack.”

They flew down the ground and started heading up the stairs that lead back to the living quarters as they walked Stardust said, “Pack? Why do we need to pack? The stable can’t be opened, the world outside is death, you know that.”

They walked into Hailstorm’s room, he shut the door behind them before saying, “No it’s not. I was just up in the upper levels. I found something that we weren’t supposed to ever know.”

“You can’t go up there! That area is off-limits until we pass our tests,” Stardust protested, “That’s where everypony’s parents live.”

“No it’s not, all they have up there are the Trainers, The General, a few guards and some scientists. I found some old stable records while I was up there and I found that we aren’t even the first residents of this stable, none of us are.”

“You lost it, where did we come from if not from the stable?”

“I found records for all of us, we were all foals that were taken away from our parents at birth. I’m from a cloud city called Nimbus, you’re from one called Stratus, Shortcake is from a ground city called Saint’s Parish. All of us were taken here as foals to be part of something called The Devil’s Children Program. They’re making us into some kind of super soldiers to use against some war they want to start. Everything here’s a lie!” he said walking over and starting to pack some stuff into saddle bags.

Stardust pointed a hoof at his friend, as he did I noticed he had a Pip-Buck on. I forgot he used to have one, I wonder who he got to take it off for him. As he pointed he said, “That sounds crazy, you know that right?”

“It’s not crazy, I saw what I saw and it all makes sense once you put everything together. You’ll see I’m right when we get out of here.”

“And where are we going to go once we’re out of the stable huh?” Stardust sounded scared.

Hailstorm looked back at his friend, “From what I read in the files I found, most of us came from Stratus, the city is in the clouds over a place called New Pegasus. We’ll head to New Pegasus first and see what we can learn from the ponies there. Maybe we can find a way to let the rest of the Pegasi know what’s going on. There’s The Enclave, if they know what’s going on here they might put an end to it.”

“What if they’re the ones who started this so called program?” Stardust asked.

“If so then we find some other pony who can put an end to this place. We can’t do it alone we need help, but first we need to escape…” Hailstorm was cut off by the door to his room opening and ten power armored soldiers stepping in along with a fierce looking mare.

The mare looked at both of them then said, “Cadet Hailstorm, Cadet Stardust, I’m glad I found you together.”

Hailstorm backed away but Stardust looked over at the mare and saluted, “General, what’s going on?”

She ignored him and looked over at Hailstorm, “Cadet Hailstorm, we have reason to believe that you broke into the Restricted Area of Stable 97 and stole documents.”

“I did, and I know what you’re doing here you fucking ugly cow!” he said looking over at Stardust, “We have to run!”

“You’re not going anywhere, you found things you weren’t allowed to see and put our stable at risk, even worse you are filling a good Cadet like Stardust who is the top of your class with information that isn’t real,” the mare said.

“Wait a minute, Hailstorm is a good cadet too and he’ll never lie to me!” Stardust said glaring over at the mare then her guards.

She rolled her eyes, “Take them both to the holding cells and have Dr. Limbis get the memory pods ready. They both need reeducation!”

Stardust and Hailstorm both tried to fight back, but the other pegasi were in power armor. They didn’t stand a chance when they didn’t have their own power armor or weapons to fight them with. Soon they were both put in hoofcuffs and led away by the guards.

The memory shifted and time flew by as Stardust and Hailstorm were put into their cell, questioned by The General who I guess was this stable’s version of an Overmare, and left there to wait for the next morning where they were going to be reeducated. Time went back to normal as Stardust paced back and forth, “You have to be fucking kidding me Hailstorm, thanks to you both of us are going to have our minds fucked with just because you had to sneak up here. Why couldn’t you just leave well enough alone?”

“It’s not like I was trying to get us caught, I wanted to save us.”

“Save us from what!?” Stardust shot back at him.

“From what they’re turning us into! I’ve known something else was going on for years now, but I didn’t know what until last week when I overheard the General talking about the program. In two more weeks, they were planning on doing another test like when we were younger. You remember that day, don’t you?” Hailstorm said.

Stardust looked away from his friend, “Yeah, only five of us passed, the rest of our class disappeared after they failed.”

“That’s right, do you know what happened to the others who failed during the first major exam? They had their memories wiped with the same machine The General is going to use on us. They were sent to go work as guards or soldiers with no idea who they are or where they came from. The exam they were going use to sort out who’s the best two or three cadets then use us to start what they call phase two. When I saw that I knew I couldn’t just let them do that to us.”

“What made you even start looking into this? Apart from overhearing The General?”

“I had help okay, one of the instructors let it slip that something was going to happen. He also let it slip that I could find out the information I needed by going up to the upper level.”

Stardust frowned at him, “Who told you that?”

“I can’t tell you.”

“I’m your best friend, you tell me everything!”

Hailstorm frowned, “I gave my word that I wouldn’t say anything. When we’re out of the Stable I can, but not now, if I do while we’re still here The General will find out. Dusty you need to trust me.”

“I do trust you and look where it got us!”

Hailstorm grinned, “Don’t worry we’ll get out of here, remember they trained us to get out of situations just like this.”

“Yeah, but I don’t think it will be as simple as you think. We’re stuck in a holding cell on the upper level. We’re just two pegasi, what can we do against the guards and other ponies who run this place?” Stardust asked.

“Remember the first rule of espionage, always have an inside pony.”

Stardust looked at him curiously, “You have another pony helping you?”

His smug grin got bigger, “I knew they’d come for us, so I had a plan in case I was right.”

As he said that, a light that was on the cell door changed from red to green. Then it slid open all on its own. Stardust looked over at it his mouth open wide, “How the fuck?”

Hailstorm didn’t hesitate, he pushed Stardust out of the cell saying, “We only have a few minutes. Once we’re out of here head right and go to the end of the hall. We’ll need to get power armor from the staff’s power armor storage before we leave.”

They both made their way down the hall checking for guards as they went. Stardust asked, “Why do we need power armor and why can’t we get it from our own storage?”

Hailstorm waited for a moment, checking the window that looked into an armory where two guard ponies were changing out weapons on their battle saddles. He waited for them to turn away from the window before sneaking past it, only then did he respond, “It’ll help us survive in The Wasteland and we can’t go get our own for two reasons. One, it’s on the bottom level and too far for us to go if we want to make it out of here alive. Two, cadet power armor suits have trackers on them, we’ll have a hard-enough time with our Pip-Bucks we don’t need to make it worse.”

“This is all kinds of fucked up Hailstorm, what if your wrong about everything? What if the land outside is deadly like they told us? Also, what the fuck is The Wasteland?”

They reached the end of the hall, they both checked around the corner but no pony was there, “The wasteland is what the ponies outside call Equestria now, or at least that’s what I read in the notes. I downloaded a few files on my Pip-Buck to help us learn how the economy works and where we can go once we’re out.”

They went up to the door and pushed a button to open it, “It’s going to be locked you know that right?” Stardust said then the door opened, “Or not.”

“Like I said I had help, now hurry up, we don’t have much time.”

When they walked in I saw rows of the black pegasus power armor that I’d seen some Enclave soldiers had. They walked up to a set that was set aside, both pushed the gem on the back that opened the armor. Once it was done they both stepped in and the armor closed around them. Just like when I saw the memory of Night Stalker when he met with his sister in the Everfree Forest, the armor was snug but not uncomfortable.

Stardust tested how the power armor moved then said, “I hate power armor, it’s not as easy to move and it slows me down.”

“Bitch later, we’ve got maybe five minutes before they realized we escaped.”

As they headed back out of the room Stardust asked, “How do you know?”

“I don’t have time to explain, but before we go on come here,” he said. Stardust did, Hailstorm pulled a panel away that covered his left foreleg giving him access to his Pip-Buck. He had Stardust do the same, then he connected the two and transferred a few files. When he was finished he continued, “Those are the files I found that will help us when we get out.”

“Why are you giving them to me?” Stardust asked as they continued on down the hall and to a staircase that led down to the main level.

“In case we get separated, you need to know what to expect out there and the information on the Pip-Buck will help. Just make sure you learn as much as you can from those files, once you do you’ll need to get rid of your Pip-Buck.”

“Why?”

“Because they’ll be able to track you with it, damn you’re not this stupid. Think for once in your life and stop asking me questions.”

Stardust shut his muzzle and followed Hailstorm as they went to the end of the staircase. Hailstorm typed a few numbers into the door control pad. When it opened and they walked into the hall they almost tripped over two guard ponies. Both were dead, somepony had slashed open their throats and left them to bleed out by the door.

“Fuck, I didn’t think he was going to kill anypony, oh well it can’t be helped now,” Hailstorm said stepping over the bodies and continuing to sneak down the hall, his armor covered hooves making small ticks with each step.

When they both came to where the hall split, one leading to the female living quarters the other to the male, Stardust put a hoof up, “We should get Shortcake.”

“No time, plus she’ll just slow us down.”

“Hailstorm she’s our friend, if things are as bad as you say in here, then we can’t just leave her behind.”

Hailstorm looked over at Stardust, his visor reflecting Stardust’s image back at him, “I know what I said, but she’s from the younger group of ponies. She’s still years away from having to worry about having her mind messed with like us. I want to get her too, but we don’t have the time to wake her up, explain what’s going on, get her to believe us and make it out of here.”

“Maybe we can just knock her out and take her with us then, we’ll explain everything to her later, once we’re free. Sure it’ll freak her out but I’ll be her hero.”

“Oh yeah because that’ll work out perfectly. She’s a good fighter and fast, she won’t go down easy, even if she did how do you think she’ll react to being ponynapped by us? She thinks everything she’s been told her entire life is true, she’ll think we’re cracked. I know how you feel, but we can’t take her with us. If we can find somepony to help us take this place down once we’re out, then we can free her, but for now she has to stay behind.”

Stardust took one long look down the left hallway then sighed, “You’re right, but I still don’t like it.”

“I know bro, but it has to be this way, at least for now. Now let’s hurry…” Hailstorm started to say, but right then an alarm went off, “Shit, time’s up, we have to fly!”

One thing about being raised in a stable like this, Stardust didn’t hesitate. He took to the air flying as quickly as he could down the hallway, zooming past the living quarters, then up the long sloping hall that led to the stable door. It didn’t take them long to reach the top and they both stopped in the entryway that held the large gear shaped door. Hailstorm took off his armor and moved over to the terminal and switch to open the door and started working on the terminal.

Stardust watched down the hall they just came down, his ears perked listening for guards. It didn’t take long for seven of them to show up. They were flying fast up the hall two at a time, their battle saddles charged and ready to fire, “Hailstorm we have company, hurry it up!”

“Got it!” he said as he pulled on the lever, the stable door started to pull away, “Dusty use the battle saddle on the power armor and shoot them!”

Stardust didn’t need to be told twice, he opened fire, the two energy rifles at his sides fired crimson death down at the guards who were flying up to try to stop the two from making it out of the stable. The ones in the front screamed as they both started to glow and turned to ash. The hot ash flew back into the next two ponies faces, blinding them and forcing them to slam into the walls and crash into the ponies behind them.

It wouldn’t stop them for long, but it gave Stardust and Hailstrom the time they needed to make their escape. Hailstorm yelled, “Get through the door now!”

Stardust turned and flew through the door, but Hailstorm didn’t follow. Stardust stopped just past the threshold looking back at his friend, “What the fuck are you doing!?”

Hailstorm was still at the panel, “I have to keep them from following us, I changed the passcodes I just need to shut the door from in here and get out there before the door closes! I’ll forget about the armor.”

“Fuck Hailstorm, just hurry! We can’t get caught, remember we’re in this together.”

Hailstorm typed a few more things into the terminal then threw the switch again. The large gear started to move and he flew for the door. As he did the mare from before came blasting through the door with an energy rifle in her muzzle, she saw Hailstorm flying for the closing door and yelled, “You’re not getting away that easy!”

“Hailstorm look out!” Stardust yelled as he opened fire on The General. He wasn’t fast enough, Hailstorm took a nasty hit to his wing and he slammed to the ground rolling until he sat just inside the stable door. Stardust ran up to him, “Hailstorm come on get up!”

The General looked down at him grinning, “I said you two aren’t getting away!”

Stardust blasted her with three quick shots. She went flying back down the hallway with a scream. The door was still rolling shut, as it did Stardust tried to pull his injured friend out of its way, but he couldn’t move him. Hailstorm moaned then said, “Leave me.”

“No way, if you don’t move now, you’ll die!”

“I know, I never expected to get out of here alive Dusty. I did this for you my friend.”

“That’s horseshit and you know it, now move Soldier!” Stardust screamed at Hailstorm.

The door was almost in place, Hailstorm looked up at his friend and smiled. Then he slammed a hoof into Stardust’s face, throwing him back and away from the closing door. Then he laughed and said, “You’re the only pony they needed from our class Dusty, the rest of us would’ve been killed once you passed the tests and came out as the best. I did this for you, to get you out before they could turn you into a monster. Be free Dusty, find a new life for yourself, and maybe one day you can save the rest of the poor souls who are trapped in here.”

The door finally reached its final resting place, one of the gears slowly pushing down on Hailstorm’s body. He screamed as more and more pressure compressed his body, shattered his spine and crushed his organs. Hailstorm looked at his friend one last time, and even though he was feeling the worst pain a pony could, he smiled one last time. Then the door pushed forward and Hailstorm’s scream turned into a gargle, then a wet sounding cry as what was left of his insides were forced up and out of his mouth. Blood exploded out of his muzzle, his eyes and his ears as the door was pushed into place. Like Doorstop said, it was similar to somepony stomping down on a tube of toothpaste. Everything squished out of the pony for a long moment until gore piled itself just in front of his body. When the door finally finished pushing itself into place, Hailstorms head exploded like a zit, brains and blood flew all over almost like somepony had planted a bomb into his skull. Nothing was left of Stardust’s best friend, but a bloody pile of goo and meat.

Stardust screamed, “Hailstorm noooooo!”

There was nothing he could do, he was gone. Stardust looked at the mess in horror for a long moment, then he started to shake as he said, “I’ll make them pay for this, I promise that your death won’t be in vain my friend. Thank you for everything you did for me.”

He turned away from the stable that he used to call home and looked up at the long staircase that would lead him to freedom. Unlike when I left my stable, Stardust wasn’t scared anymore of what the outside world held. He was just angry, he wasn’t going to let anypony ever get away with this kind of shit again. Before he left, he checked his Pip-Buck looking at the notes left for him by his friend. One of them said something about somepony in a place called New Pegasus that would be able to help. An old contact of The Enclave that was working on some research in that area. The notes said they were from The General’s terminal. It said that The Enclave were the ones who started this program he was a part of and that this mare was trying to shut it down. They wanted to kill her to keep the secrets of Stable 97 out of enemy hooves.

Stardust realized then that Hailstorm had been wrong about The Enclave helping stop the program, it was another faction he needed to find. One that The Enclave hated and who hated them in turn. “New Pegasus huh? Looks like I have a long way to go according to the map on this thing. Maybe this mare will know how to get this off when I find her, maybe she can help me put an end to what’s been going on here.”

He shut down the files, covered his Pip-buck and started up the stairs, “First thing’s first, I need to find myself a good rifle…”

This time when the memory ended I didn’t feel disorientated like before, it was like with every memory the smaller Stardust remembered, the easier it was for us to come out of the memories. I looked over to where I figured Stardust should be, but what I saw I wasn’t expecting. He wasn’t a colt anymore, he looked like the same Stardust I knew, the one I loved and missed. He saw me looking at him with shock. He sighed and said, “I remember that night, I wish I could’ve done something to save him.”

“It looked like all he wanted to do was get you out.”

Stardust smiled a little, “He was a good friend, he was always looking out for me, almost like a brother.”

“You look different,” I said trying to change the subject.

He looked himself over then chuckled, “I guess remembering things is helping me grow up a little. Though I still can’t seem to remember you.”

“You will, it was only a few months after that when you met me.”

He closed his eyes again, “I remember something, it had something to do with a…Raider Camp?”

“Yes! You killed the boss there and saved my life.”

His scrunched his eyes, “It’s so close I can almost feel it, but somethings stopping me from pulling the memory closer. The only thing I can remember about it is somepony blowing chunks.”

Ugh, of all the things about that time, THAT’S what he remembers? The door behind us blasted open and Pride came flying in. He changed too, he barely looked like the other Stardust anymore. He was like a flying demon of darkness, “THAT’S THE LAST THING I’LL LET YOU REMEMBER!”

He slammed into me then took hold of my head and started to twist my head around, he was trying to break my neck. Luckily for me, my Stardust wasn’t going to let that happen. He flew in and kicked the monster version of himself hard. Throwing the dark version of himself off me and into a far wall. Pride screamed in pain and when I looked over I saw why. Where Stardust’s hooves had hit him, it was like his body was vanishing in the one spot.

“Stay away from her Pride, I’m not letting you hurt her or me ever again!”

The part of Pride that had been fading away came back and he laughed, “Oh look who finally grew a spine! What happened to the scared little colt that I had locked up in a cell?”

“I’m not scared of you anymore, you’re not real. And I wasn’t locked anywhere dumbass, I just had the door shut! You’re just a nightmare version of me, nothing but a black stain on my mind and soul. I remember what happened to Hailstorm now, you lied to me. Shadow had nothing to do with it!”

I got back to my hooves and readied myself to cast a teleportation spell, “You should give up now Pride, soon he’ll remember who he is and you’ll be banished from this world for good.”

“Over my dead body, this is my mind, my world, my memories. He’s the fake one here, you’re the one who’s filling his head with false memories,” he snapped.

“She’s my friend, she’s trying to help me!”

“She’s a liar!”

“YOU’RE A LIAR!” Stardust yelled back taking a step toward Pride.

As they argued I saw it again, the black and white butterfly, it was flying in small circles just behind Stardust. Something was drawing it closer to him, but at the same time something was keeping it back, “Stardust you have to grab Steve!”

He looked back at me then up at the butterfly, “Right now!?”

“Yes, I think it’s important, trust me!” I yelled.

Pride pulled out a rifle yelling, “I’ll kill that fucking thing before either of you can grab it!”

Not knowing what else to do, I took hold of the butterfly Steve with my magic, as soon as I touched it I could feel another memory coming on. Before it could start, I took hold of Stardust with my magic and teleported us back to the level of the living quarters. We just reappeared in the hallway and Stardust reached out and touched Steve right before the world around us melted away…

I knew something was strange about Steve, I knew ever since I first touched it. Before we were stopped by a barrier in my own mind, and we had to break that down to see the memory I had to remember. This time, nothing was there to stop us from going into the memory that my own mind knew I needed to see. I knew what memory it was and knowing that I didn’t want to see it, but I had to. This memory would help me understand why I was the way I am now. It would show me what happened ten years ago, the day my life changed forever.

Mom, Vervain, and I just entered a small door in the side of the M.A.S.E.B.S. tower a little outside of Cartwheel. The pain in my chest was worse than ever, but I didn’t tell mom. She was already stressed for some reason and I didn’t want to make it worse for her. I did however ride on Auntie Vervain’s back as we made our way passed the terminals that were set in the middle of the inner tower.

“How do we find the entrance to the lab?” Vervain asked.

“It’s not that hard to find. They hid it behind a fake wall and put a metal shelf in front of it,” Mom said as she made her way to one and pulled on it hard with her magic. With a loud squeal it pulled open a hidden door revealing a staircase that led down into darkness.

“Remind me to thank you again for looking through so many memory orbs Grim,” Vervain said.

“It looks scary down there,” I said pressing my face into Vervain’s mane.

Mom walked over and rubbed my back, “Don’t worry My Little Star, you have Vervain and I here to protect you, you’ll be just fine.”

“Okay, but can I stay on Vervain’s back?”

She nodded, “That would be a good idea, now let’s get going.”

We all started down the dark staircase following it as it went deep into the ground. The farther we went, the colder it seemed to get, it was almost like walking outside on a cool autumn night back in The Crystal Empire. I would enjoy it if it wasn’t for the darkness pressing down on me from all sides. I wanted to run away, but I took in a deep breath and reminded myself that Vervain and Mom wouldn’t let anything harm me.

The staircase was long and it took us a little while to reach a door with a terminal to one side. Mom walked up to it and hooked her silver Pip-Buck to the terminal, “This should lead us to the lab.”

“Didn’t you say the lab was sealed? I know the Mark II can do a lot of amazing things, but can it get you passed the protections Minuette placed on this place?”

“No, it can’t. All I’ll be able to do is unlock the security system. The next lock is the one I’m taking more of a gamble on.”

Vervain looked at mom perplexed, “What do you mean?”

Mom grinned back at us, “The seal on the door is a biometric scanner, they work a lot like a bypass shield. The genetic codes of certain ponies are entered into it, only those ponies and their decedents are allowed to open the door.”

The terminal beeped then mom did something with the terminal as Vervain asked, “You said in the memory you saw that Minuette set it up so that only Night Stalker, herself, Princess Luna and a couple others could enter the lab, if that’s true then how do you think you can get in?”

Mom finished doing what she was doing on the terminal then stepped back as a metal arm popped out of a panel over the terminal with a blue sapphire on the end. As it did mom said, “I’ll explain in a minute, first let’s see if this works.”

The gem lit up, then a small beam ran over mom’s body going down then back up, when it finished a cheery mares voice came out of the terminal, “Genetic marker confirmed, security systems are shut down. Welcome to Stargazer Lab, be warned this lab is on lockdown by order of Captain Night Stalker and Princess Luna. Taking down the lockdown is prohibited unless the order was given by either the Captain or Princess. Were you given permission from either to shut down the lockdown?”

“I was,” Mom said.

The terminal answered back, “Good, please present the pass phrase to enter.”

“Into the shadows of night, we serve and obey,” Mom replied.

“Pass phrase accepted, welcome to Project Aquila A.K.A. Stargazer,” The Terminal said then the screen went blank. The door made a small hiss and slid open revealing a dark room illuminated by a single light.

Vervain looked in awe at mom as she slowly walked closer, “How the hell did you get that thing to think you were related to one of the Children of the Night?”

Mom sighed, “I didn’t, I didn’t have to.”

“Wait a second, you mean you’re a descendent of theirs, I didn’t think anypony from the children had foals?” Vervain said.

I just kept quiet, my body was weak right now and I didn’t feel like talking, but my ears perked up as Auntie Vervain and Mom talked. Mom smiled a little as if she was embarrassed, “There’s not much information as it is about that group or the ponies who were part of it. A few of the members did have children of their own. Night Stalker for one, he married one of his underlings Lightning Dust, they had four Foals, three were colts the last was a filly. Cloudy Nights married after The Enclave was established and had two fillies. I heard rumors that Babs Seed had a colt, but most of her history after the Megaspells is hard to find. All I know about her is that she was killed by Greta. Thunder Lane had three colts, and then you have Minuette and Amethyst Star. Records show that one of them had a colt, but most weren’t sure which one. There was some speculation that they were a couple, but I’ve never found proof. They did live together though for a year or so before the end of the war. When Amethyst Star died and Minuette vanished the colt was given over to a family friend of Minuette’s in The Crystal Empire. Also Greta had children as well albeit one son who she gave control of The Red Talons to when she was too old to lead anymore.”

Vervain shook her head after that, “You really did your research, so you’re descended from one of them?”

Mom shrugged, “My parents always speculated that we were descended from Amethyst Star, my brother thought it was Minuette, but we do know that we can trace our family line back to Dwarf Star, the colt who was sent to live in The Crystal Empire. Now I have my answer, Minuette only set this place up to let in Night Stalker, Luna, herself, Lightning Dust, and a zebra named Noire.”

I finally spoke up, “Mommy you said that The Children of the Night did bad things during the war. Did we come from bad ponies?”

Mom looked at me with a sad smile, “They did do some bad things, but they also did a lot of good too. If there’s anypony in The Children I’d like to be descended from it would be Minuette, she was a powerful spellcaster.”

“Just like you mommy!” I said happily.

She smiled again, this time with real joy, “Yes, just like me.”

Vervain walked past mom saying, “We should get this started, who knows how long it’ll take.”

“You’re right, we shouldn’t waste any more time,” Mom said following Vervain as she walked deeper into the dark lab with me on her back looking around.

Vervain found a switch on the wall, when she flipped it a few more lights came on revealing an old laboratory. The walls around us were pitted with small holes, like somepony had been using them for target practice, Tables and desks were upturned and destroyed along with some old terminals. Papers were everywhere, lab coats and star charts were scattered on the ground. In the center, a large rod with wires wrapped around it came down from the ceiling and into the ground. A round desk with half a dozen terminals on it was wrapped around it. A large tube lead from it to a big glass dome that was resting in a metal platform. The glass was shattered and in the center was a small silver rock that gave off a slight blue glow.

“Isn’t much to look at is it?” Vervain said, “This place looks like it wasn’t even meant to run ever again. Are you sure this is the right place?”

Mom slowly walked closer to the broken glass dome, “This is the place, Minuette did a lot of this to make sure nopony could start up Stargazer again, but we don’t need to turn it back on, what they did in the past is all we need.”

Vervain followed close to mom as they came closer to the glowing rock, “Is that Star Metal? I thought all the Star Metal in Equestria was in Hoofington?”

“Correction, most of it is in Hoofington and no that’s not Star Metal, it just looks like it. That is the essence of Aquila or at least I hope it is. This chamber was meant to contain it until it either burned itself out or until they could control it. From the look of it, the creature they created and later Minuette named Aquila died.”

“Is that a good thing?”

“Yes, because that stone you see is pure light magic. It will be more than enough to save Morning Star.”

I looked up with a smile, “You mean that glowing rock can fix me?”

Mom had tears in her eyes as she nodded, “Yes sweetie, yes it can.”

Mom was about to step over the broken glass and into the dome to grab the glowing rock when out of nowhere a voice filled the chamber, “Who are you?”

Vervain jumped and pulled a pistol from the holster at her side, Mom jumped back and looked around, readying a spell, “I’m Grimoire Spell, who are you?”

“Grim, what’s going on?” Vervain asked looking around for the speaker.

The voice echoed throughout the laboratory again, “I do not know you, where is the blue unicorn who named me, she said she’d be back one day. Did the blue unicorn send you to set me free?”

Mom looked toward the glowing rock and took another step back, every time the voice spoke the rock pulsed, “Do you mean Minuette? She died two hundred years ago!”

“She’s not dead, if she was I would’ve known. She was the first pony to treat me kindly, I could feel her life force from the first day I saw her. The day I was trapped in this place. I feel a part of her inside of you and the little one, but I can also still feel a speck of the blue unicorn somewhere in this land. Now tell me, if the blue unicorn you called Minuette didn’t send you, then why have you come here?”

“Are you the creature they created here, the one Minuette named Aquila?” Mom asked.

“Aquila? I am not sure. I’ve spent centuries trapped in this place without a body to call my own, no means to leave or cast my power across the world. Aquila is the name I think the blue unicorn called me, though I’m not sure if that is who I really am, or if it’s just a name,” the voice said, as it spoke the glowing rock started to float into the air.

“Grim we should get out of here!” Vervain said, her eyes never leaving the rock.

Ignoring Vervain, mom said, “I’m here to save my daughter, she had a darkness cast over her heart. She’s dying and your power is the only thing that can save her.”

“Why should I help you? Why should I help any of the ponies in the land when all they do is kill each other and spread chaos across the land? What does this child mean to me, when one day she will most likely do the same as everypony else?” the voice asked.

“Because she’s a child and she means everything to me.”

As she spoke Vervain moved over to a small closet and forced me to get off her back. I was petrified at what was going on. She pushed me in saying quickly, “Stay in here until we’re finished, don’t come out until I say so okay?”

I nodded quickly, “Yes, Auntie Vervain.”

She closed the door, but the bottom of the door had small slits that I could look through. As I did the voice said, “I won’t help you unless you help me. I want a body so that I can finally escape this prison. Offer me a body that I can live in and control and I will grant you your request. What is more important, your mind and body or your daughter!”

I noticed that mom’s horn was glowing still as she spoke, “I can’t do that, I did all of this over the past few years to save my daughter, not to let myself be taken over by some creature created two hundred years ago. All I need is your power, and I’m taking it for myself! Vervain destroy the rock!”

Vervain didn’t hesitate, she opened fire and a moment later mom cast a spell. Light flashed and almost blinded me as both hit the floating glowing rock. For a moment a scream filled the air around us, then everything went dark. Vervain was the first one to speak, “Did we destroy it.”

I looked through the slits again and saw mom was holding a small white ball of light in her magic, “Yes, but I got its power before you destroyed the container. Good job, that was easier than I thought.”

Vervain was about to say something when the ball of light exploded in mom’s magic throwing both ponies back. Mom slammed into the wall next to the closet, Vervain slammed into an overturned desk. Where the ball of light had been now there was a shimmering bird made out of pure light. The same voice as before echoed around the lab, “You are both fools, you think my power can be controlled by a weak unicorn like you!”

I saw mom get back to her hooves, her horn glowing and glyphs appearing in the air around her, “I’m not out of this yet monster, I’m taking your power!”

She was slammed down again as the small bird pulsed with power, then it’s appearance changed, it took the shape of a pony, a pony made of light, “You have no idea what you’re messing with, my power isn’t even close to what it should be and you still don’t have what it takes to win. Not even your weak Princess could control me and she once held the power of the stars.”

Mom was choking, so was Vervain on the other side of the room. I couldn’t watch this happen, I jumped out from the closet and yelled, “Leave my mommy alone!”

The light pony looked at me, “What are you going to do if I don’t?”

Mom told me not to use too much of my magic, she said it could kill me because of my bad heart. I knew this wasn’t a good idea, but I was tired of mom always trying to protect me, I wanted to show her that I was just as powerful as she was. I built up a spell I’d seen mom use a few times before, it was a blast of energy that could hurt or destroy a pony if you put enough energy into it. As I let the power build my heart started to race but I ignored it and kept going. When I couldn’t take the pain anymore I yelled, “Leave my mommy ALONE!”

I shot everything I had at the creature of light. It laughed and shot a beam of its light to meet my own magic. As my magic connected with the light, I heard mom yell, “Morning Star DON’T!”

It was too late, my magic connected to the light pony and the two of us screamed as pain racked our bodies…well my body. Time seemed to stop and the pony of light changed again, now it took the form of a small filly with a white coat and black mane, it looked just like me. I noticed then that the pain was gone and the other pony looked at me confused, “What are you?”

“My names Morning Star, I’m not going to let you hurt my mom or Auntie Vervain.”

She walked closer to me, “You’re not a normal pony I can feel it, deep down you have power, a lot of power, but it’s being blocked by darkness.”

I looked away, “I had an accident when I was a foal, mommy said my heart is bad and I’m dying.”

“You are, I can see it inside you. It’s a sickness that should’ve killed you a long time ago, but somepony has kept the sickness back. I find that interesting.”

I was a little confused, “What do you mean? What does that have to do with you hurting my mommy?”

“I was hurting her because she wants to take away who I am so she can have my power. She says she wants to use it to cure you and I’m sure she does, but I can see what is in pony’s hearts, she wants my power for more than just saving you. I won’t let anypony take away who or what I am just so they can gain power.”

“So what? She’s not bad.”

The pony laughed, “She’s not good either, trust me, but you are. I can see it deep down inside of you. You want to be powerful too, but not for selfish reasons, you want to help ponies.”

I puffed out my little chest, “I’m going to help ponies like The Steel Rangers do, once I’m better.”

The other pony smiled wickedly, “Do you want to live Morning Star?”

I nodded, “Yes.”

“Why?”

“To make mommy happy and so I can be normal for once and play with the other colts and fillies my own age.”

“I’ll make you a deal then, that is if you think you’re mature enough.”

“I’m a big girl, mommy said so, even if I am small. I’ve had to suffer with more pain than any pony she knows.”

“Good, then here’s my deal. I’ll fix you and let you and your family live so you can do the things you want. In exchange I want you to give me something, something only a pony like you can.”

I looked around the frozen room feeling a little scared, “What do you want?”

It moved closer, putting its nose an inch away from my own, “One day when your grown and mature, I want you to give me your body.”

“My body? Why do you want my body?”

“I’ve been trapped down here for more years than you can imagine, I want out, I want freedom. Think about it, if you take my deal you’ll get a good five to ten years to enjoy with your Mother and Aunt. If you don’t that sickness inside of you will kill you within a week or less, even if your mother keeps trying to heal you. Would you rather die a horrible death from a curse in a week, or get five to ten more years of life, and when your time is finally up, you’ll just feel like you fell into a deep sleep. It’ll be peaceful,” she said, her voice sweet as honey.

I looked back at mom then over at Vervain, then I thought about my dad who died not that long ago trying to protect me like mom said. Even if I said no and mom was able to get us out of here, she’d be sad if I died just after losing dad. She lived for her family and she gave up so much to fix me. It was better to live a few more years than die and leave mom alone and sad. I looked back at the pony and said, “It’s a deal, but you have to promise that you won’t do anything that will hurt mommy and you’ll fix me.”

Her grin grew wider, “It’s a deal.”

“Before you fix me, can I ask what you’re called?”

“The blue unicorn named me Aquila, now Morning Star prepare yourself because once I merge with you and start to fix you, it will hurt a lot more than anything that weak black sickness has ever done to you!

Her body turned back into light, it moved toward me and wrapped around my horn. Then the light went into me and I felt my mind break, pain ran through my body, my heart rate increased and I screamed. I tried to run away from the pain, but I couldn’t even move. It was like every nerve in my body was on fire, my horn felt as if somepony had ripped it off, and my belly was full of hot lead. My heart stopped for a good five seconds. Then my body flew up into the air and I screamed as dark light blasted out of me, my heart started to beat again, the pain vanished and I fell to the ground as time resumed.

I looked up at the ceiling of the lab as mom came running over yelling, “MORNING STAR!”

Vervain wasn’t far behind, when they both made it over to me they both stopped as Vervain said, “What happened to her? She looks different?”

Mom ignored her pulling me into her arms, “Morning Star speak to me please!”

“Mommy it’s okay don’t cry, I’m better now,” I said weakly, it wasn’t a lie, for the first time in my life I couldn’t feel the pain in my chest, it was easy to breathe, I felt…normal. Apart from the small tingling in my hooves and horn from the darkness being blasted out of me.

As mom set me down and started to use her magic to look me over I noticed something, a small presence in the back of my mind. It had to be Aquila, she felt weak and as I noticed her presence I heard her say to herself, “What kind of curse was that? My power is almost gone…how could anything do this to me?” then she was gone.

As she vanished from my mind I felt myself losing my hold on consciousness, before I passed out I looked at my hoof. My eyes went wide for a moment as I saw it. My coat was no longer a beautiful shinning silver, it was black…

As I came out of the memory I knew something was different about me. I could remember every detail of that fateful night, the night when I first met Aquila. I was still very young but mature for my age, I thought I was clever and smart compared to the other colts and fillies from The Steel Rangers. Not surprising since Mom spent most of her free time teaching me everything she could about magic, history, reading, writing, control on magic, and so much more. She always told me how smart and mature I was for a young filly. That ignorance she planted in my head was the reason I thought I could make a deal with a monster. The deal was five to ten years before she could take over my body. I was a young fool that day, I wanted mom not to be lonely. I wanted her to stop crying at night, I wanted us to be happy. So, I made a deal with a demon, a deal that instead of making mom and me happy, it destroyed our lives.

“Shadow are you okay?” Stardust asked, he was standing over me looking down with concern.

I groaned and got up, “I think so, damn those memories jumping into my head fucking hurt.”

“Yeah tell me about it,” he said.

“Did you see that memory too?”

He nodded, “Yeah, I don’t think I understood everything that happened, but something about the older unicorn seemed familiar. She looks like the mare who’s been giving me orders.”

“Yes, that’s my mom, you call her Cloak, at least while you’ve been Pride. Wait a sec how did you remember that? I thought Pride had all the memories from the past few weeks?”

“I don’t know. When I touched him, it was like I just remembered some of the things I did recently, though there’s a big blank in the middle,” he replied.

I looked around as he talked keeping an eye out for Pride in case he tried to attack us again, “Wait, where did Steve go?”

Stardust lifted a hoof showing me the black and white butterfly who was standing there, it’s wings slowly moving up and down, “When I touched him it was strange, it’s like he’s trying to tell me something but can’t.”

I looked closer at the butterfly, there was something strange about its wings. Each side had a pattern that looked familiar, but I couldn’t place it, “Stardust why did you name the butterfly Steve?”

He shrugged, “Honestly I don’t even remember where I got him. One day he just showed up.”

“When was that?”

“Around the time I started hiding in the cells. One day a caterpillar showed up, it always stayed around the edge of the room not doing much of anything. I was trapped and had nopony to talk to so I started talking to him. I called him Steve just so I had a name for him. I also had a feeling I had him for a while, like he was a long-lost friend.”

“And when did Steve turn into a butterfly?”

“A few hours ago right around the time you tried asking me where I got the Pistol!” Pride’s voice rang out from down the hall.

I looked back and moved to block Stardust from the demon looking pony. He looked even worse now, the new memories Stardust got back seemed to be changing Pride. Something foul was dripping off his body, his face looked gaunt, his shape was twisted and demonic. He had long horns curling back from his head and around his ears, and as he spoke, hot steam blew out of his muzzle.

“Stay away from us Pride!”

He ignored me, still moving slowly toward Stardust and myself, “Shadow Star The Courier, the mare who always finds a way out. The mare who can’t protect her friends from ponies like me, but always escapes harm. The mare who kills whoever she feels like because she can. The mare who…”

I blasted him back with a spell, throwing him sliding a few feet away, “I said stay away from us!”

He just started to chuckle, he sounded insane, “Why are you so scared of me Shadow? You should know by now that you’ll be fine, you always are. What can a pegasus like me do to hurt you? Oh, wait I know, Kill your LOVE!”

“You can’t even do that, you missed your chance when you missed that shot to Aura’s heart,” I said.

Stardust came to stand next to me saying, “He didn’t miss because he’s not good enough to make a shot like that, he missed because I made him miss.”

My jaw fell open as I looked back at Stardust, “Wait, how’d you do that, I thought you were trapped in that cell in your own mind? You don’t even know who Aura is.”

He smiled a little, “Even in that cell I could see some of what Pride was. It got hard to tell the difference most of the time. When I saw the griffon, you’re right I didn’t know her, but I knew she was a friend. I don’t know how I did it, but I wanted to stop myself from killing her. Whatever happened, it made Pride miss the kill shot.”

Pride chuckled and laughed again, “Had a feeling something felt wrong with that last shot.”

My eyes once again fell on the butterfly, then something hit me, the pattern on its wings were shaped like the two keys in the star on my cutie mark. The black body, the silver wings, the red markings and eyes, it all made sense. Steve wasn’t a him, it was a her. Steve is an echo of me in Stardust’s mind. Something always there but never physically. Why it made me look like a butterfly I have no idea, but I know I’m right. The problem is though, if I’m right then why can’t Stardust remember me yet?

As I thought that, the tiny head and antenna of Steve…me…whatever, looked toward me and I heard my own voice echo in my head, “Because he’s not complete. This Stardust is the light, the good that lies in Stardust’s mind. Pride is his darkness and corruption, it’s the part of Stardust that pulled away so The Enclave could make him Pride. In everypony there is good and bad, one cannot exist without the other. That is why Pride never killed Stardust in here, instead he made him feel like a child, scared and alone, until he hid away in those cells. I’ve been trying to call out to him, but he couldn’t hear my voice. They both need to believe that you aren’t who Pride thinks you are, only then can they become one and their minds can be whole again.”

The butterfly looked away, as it did I found myself looking at Pride who was still laying there chuckling to himself, “Stardust I need you to listen to me.”

Stardust looked over asking, “What do you mean?”

“I don’t mean you, I’m talking to him,” I said pointing at the demonic looking version of my friend.

He spat a black slime at me giggling like a mad pony as he did, “I’m Pride not Stardust, Stardust’s dead! Dead, Dead, Dead!”

Even like this I know that he could kill me, easily, but I ignored what I knew about my friend’s abilities and walked closer, “No it’s not, you’re Stardust and I need you to listen to me for a moment. I want to try and prove to you that you’re wrong about me, if you do that and you still think I’m the monster who killed your friend then I’ll let you kill me.”

The good Stardust tried to say something but the demonic one stopped his giggling and looked over at me, “How can I trust you?”

“I’ll make you a Pinkie Pie Promise, in case you forgot what that is, it’s a promise that can’t be broken no matter what.”

The demonic Stardust got to his hooves, his eyes a little unfocused as if something was coming back to him, “I know I’ve heard that somewhere,” then his gaze fell on me again, “Fine, I’ll give you one chance but that’s it.”

“Do you remember the colt Wingnut?” I asked.

Demonic Stardust nodded saying, “The kid who kept making my head hurt when he tried to talk to me.”

Stardust nodded as well, “He’s the kid I saved from bugs.”

Of course, he remembers that but not me. I put it out of my mind for now saying, “He showed us how to do a Pinkie Pie Promise, he said if we did it he’d show us where his home was, it went like this,” I started to do the silly dance as I continued, “Cross my heart and hope to fly…”

Demonic Stardust’s eyes went wide as he finished the rest, “Stick a cupcake in my eye…” his eyes went hazy again and I saw a single tear run down his disgusting face, “Wingnut showed us that stupid dance and Aura almost wet herself laughing on the ground. When he took us back to his town for colts and fillies, I felt so bad for him when I realized he was just as alone as I was when I had to leave my home. I took him under my wing so he had a role model, somepony to look up to. He’s a good kid, smart as hell, and a great little brother figure. Oh Celestia, what did I do to him!”

“You remember him?” I asked quickly before I lost him again to rage.

He nodded, “Yeah, you were there that night too, we all saved him,” his eyes snapped back to looking at me, “Somethings wrong with me, right?”

I saw that the other Stardust was watching us together waiting to see what would happen, “Yes, I’m here to fix it.”

Demonic Stardust’s eyes started to harden and I could tell I was losing him again. His face became strained almost like he was doing all he could to keep hold on that memory of Wingnut, “What do I have to do! Tell me quickly before I lose hold on myself!”

I had no idea if what I was about to say was right or not, but I was out of ideas, “Both of you need to touch the butterfly at the same time, do it quickly!”

Stardust put his hoof close to the other Stardust who was still trying to hold back losing himself. Then demonic Stardust reached out a hoof and touched the wings of the butterfly. Light exploded from where Steve was resting on his hoof, it engulfed us all and everything vanished…

What ever happened I knew I did something right, what that something was I have no idea. I thought at first a new memory was going to play like before, but instead loads of memories passed in front of me from Stardust’s past ever since he left the stable. I watched as he flew away from the Twin Cities, following the instructions from Hailstorm. Over the next couple weeks, he fought off Raiders, Steel Rangers, crazed ponies, Ghouls, and more. He started looking for a rifle that would work for him as a flyer and a sniper. He ended up making his own out of parts from many different rifles.

His journey west eventually brought him to New Pegasus where he met The Queen and started doing odd jobs for her and helping out Freedom. He wasn’t there long when he had his first interaction with The Enclave. Two soldiers found him because of his Pip-Buck tag. He was able to kill them, but he needed to get rid of anything that would tie him to his old home. Even though Hailstorm thought the power armor wouldn’t be traceable because it wasn’t the Cadet’s set of armor, Stardust still stored it away in a place where he’d be able to find it again in case he ever needed it. I didn’t catch where though, the memory moved by too quickly. He then asked The Queen where he could get his Pip-Buck removed.

She told him about a mare who had a master key that lived in a small shack near Trotston. He went off to find her and it didn’t take him long. The shack looked ready to fall over with a strong breeze, but there she was. A mare I knew all too well, it was mom. At this point the memory slowed enough for me to catch some of what transpired between the two.

“The Queen said you could remove a Pip-Buck,” Stardust said.

Mom smiled up at him sweetly, “I can, though most ponies don’t normally want to have theirs taken. A Pip-Buck is a tool that can be very useful in a world like this.”

“It can also be a danger to a pony who’s being hunted.”

She laughed, “That it can, I take it you’re a runaway from The Enclave am I right?”

“In a way yes.”

“Well, I’m not a fan of theirs to be honest. So I can remove your Pip-Buck if you so wish it.”

“I do, thank you um…”

“Just call me Spell, everypony around here does,” Mom said as she used her magic to lift a Pip-Buck Master key from a bag next to her shack.

“Thank you Spell,” his eyes fell on her own Pip-Buck, the same one I now had in my saddle bags, “Are you from a Stable too?”

She stopped what she was doing looking down at her Stable 28 Issued Pip-Buck, “Sort of, I’m kind of a runaway like yourself you could say. My Stable wasn’t a good place for a mare like me, I had to run as fast as I could, leaving my daughter behind to be raised by my best friend.”

“I’m sorry to hear that. How long ago was that?”

Mom’s eyes went glassy with tears for a moment, “Almost eight years, she’s almost a grown mare now. Though if I know my daughter I’m sure one day she’ll find her way out of there too and come looking for me. She’s a stubborn filly, just like her mother.”

Stardust smiled a little, “Sometimes that’s the kind of thing that keeps us alive.”

Mom went back to what she was doing as she spoke, “I don’t disagree with you about that. I just hope that when she does get out that she’ll be safe.”

“You make it sound like you know for a fact that she’ll leave.”

“That’s because I am…” Mom finally finished what she was doing and the Pip-Buck fell off Stardust’s foreleg, “There you go, one Pip-Buck removed. If you want I can dispose of it for you, that way whoever’s out there looking for you will have a harder time looking in the wrong place.”

“That would be wonderful. How many caps do I owe you?”

Mom just waved a hoof, “I don’t need caps, I’ve got plenty. Don’t let my old shack fool you, it’s more than meets the eye.”

“I feel like I owe you for the help, I mean nothing’s really free in The Wasteland is it?”

There was a sparkle in mom’s eyes, “That’s true, then how about this? How good are you with that rifle you have on your back?”

“Best sharp shooter around,” Stardust said with pride.

“Then do me a favor and keep your eye out for a raider who goes by the name of Crackerjack. He runs a large group of raiders that roam up and down the road between Appleton and Cartwheel. They even have a camp outside Cartwheel. If you ever see a large pony with twin scars over his eyes out of his power armor, blow his head off.”

“You want me to assassinate a pony? I mean even if he is a raider, I’m not an assassin.”

“Your right, I shouldn’t have asked such a thing from a nice young pegasus like yourself, forgive me. Though just keep it in mind, he’s the worst of the worst, used to be a Steel Ranger until he turned Raider. At least promise me that if you see a pony like him and he’s hurting anypony don’t hesitate.”

Stardust sighed, “I guess I can at least do that, though I make no promises I’ll see this Crackerjack guy. I don’t head toward Cartwheel often, but I’ll keep it in mind and I’ll keep an eye out. I hate Raiders.”

“That’s all I can ever ask and thank you.”

Stardust flapped his wings and took off yelling back down to Mom as he flew away, “No Thank you Spell!”

The memories started to fly by again at dizzying speeds. I watched as Stardust traveled around the New Pegasus area still doing odd jobs for The Queen. Then he started getting hunted again this time by a griffon team from The Red Talons. He fought them off a couple of times, but he wasn’t able to kill the three who hunted him. Finally, he ended up paying them off to drop the contract with some help from The Queen.

He had a couple weeks of peace until The Sins started hunting him. The Queen told him he had to run away from Freedom until they lost interest in him. Stardust started to fly around the south east and south west regions of the Marejave, helping ponies who needed a Pegasus like him, protecting towns from Ghouls, training another town so they could keep themselves safe. He did everything he could to use his abilities to help ponies. He never picked up the popularity from the radio ponies like I did, but he also kept a low key. The locals knew who he was, but they never talked about the pegasus who helped them, only thanked him when he came by. He would stay in those towns now and then when he needed a place to sleep or a bite to eat. Sometimes he would stop by just to chat with whoever was up for it.

It was during one of those stays in a town just south of Cartwheel called Pins, that he heard a story about ponies from Cartwheel being taken by the raiders that lived just outside of town. There was a slaver sitting at the bar in the saloon in Pins bragging that his team got a call from The Boss as he was called, about seven foals and a mare they took. Stardust didn’t waste any time, he killed the slaver before he could finish his next drink, flew north of Pins and took out the rest of the slavers then flew to Cartwheel. It was there that I watched him start to attack the camp all on his own. He laughed as they all ran around trying to shoot at the fast flying pony, screaming their heads off like foals. He was about to finish off one of the last raiders who hadn’t run away yet when he saw the huge pony trying to strangle a filly near the edge of the camp.

When he saw the face and the twin scars he remembered what Spell told him about Crackerjack. He didn’t waste a second, his rifle came up, he trained the sights on his target and fired. The pony’s skull blew apart and the body fell on top of the filly. He flew down to help her out, as he did he saw another mare raider running off with a hey cart filled with prisoners. He’d have to deal with her second, first he needed to make sure the filly was alive. When he landed and pulled the body off he noticed it wasn’t a filly, just a small black and silver mare wearing an old duster and barding under it.

She threw up all over the place. He gagged, “Ew, Gross…”

The memories sped up as I saw Stardust while he helped me on my adventure to find my mom, never knowing I was the same daughter of the mare who took off his Pip-Buck for him. The creepy thing was even though I could tell in his memories that he didn’t like me in the way I liked Aura, he still stole glances at my ass now and then, (Perv! Well I guess I can’t blame him, I never noticed how cute my own flanks were…damn that sounds weird now that I think about it, but damn I’m hot.)

Everything flew by quickly until his abduction. This was the worst part for me to watch. When he woke not long after being taken by The Sins, he was soon chained up and beaten by an Enclave soldier who came to take him back to Stable 97. He tried to fight back and tried to escape. He managed to pull free of his bonds once and almost got away, but his wings had been chained too and he couldn’t just fly away. He ran for it but didn’t get far, by now he had five soldiers from The Enclave keeping an eye on him. Two recaptured him before he got more than a mile away. He never gave up on trying to escape, he fought back every time he could, until he finally was taken back to his old home.

He was placed in a cell on the upper level, there he waited for days being questioned by The General who was now missing an eye thanks to his escape seven months ago. Then she showed up, Cloak along with Dr. Stormy. Pride had been killed by Shadow they said. Stardust wanted to cheer for his friend for pulling off something that was said to be impossible, that was until he heard Dr. Stormy say those fateful words.

“No worries, I know Pride was your brother Cloak but even if he can’t be replaced in your heart he can be replaced in The Sins,” her goggle covered eyes fell on Stardust, “He’s the Perfect solder, he’ll make for a new, better, Pride I think.”

Cloak looked at him with her face hidden in shadow under her hood, “I thought you said he was too unpredictable?”

“He was, but no more. Thanks to Dr. Limbis, the machine we have can wipe away all of the memories he has of that brat you called The Courier,” Dr. Stormy said.

“That’s not a bad idea, though I don’t put much faith in tech over magic when it comes to the mind and memories. I know how good Dr. Limbis is at her work. Go ahead and make him my new Pride, but make sure everything is taken away from him, The Courier, that Griffon, his escape from this place. Take it all away and replace it with something that will make him hate The Courier with all his heart,” Cloak said.

Dr. Stormy beamed with pleasure, “Oh, that we can do!”

He was taken away strapped into the pods that we were in now. He wanted to fight, wanted to do anything that would stop him from losing the memory of his best friend. He knew it was no use, but as they turned on the machine he yelled, “No matter what you do, you can’t take away the ponies who made me who I am, the ponies I LOVE!”

I expected to come out of that memory and find the two Stardust’s still in the hallway in Stable 97, but no. I felt my body rising up slowly as if I was being pulled out of a deep dark hole. Light was shining over me and as I went to look up toward it I saw Stardust floating a few inches away from me. His pink eyes fell on me as my red ones fell on him. He gave me that signature Stardust cocky grin, “Sup Shadow, ‘bout time you came to find me, what took you so damn long?”

I could feel tears welling up in my eyes, “Is that really you?”

“It sure feels like me, hold on...yup pretty sure that’s mine, and that too; oh can’t forget that. Thank you for risking yourself in my twisted mind to help me. I knew you’d find a way, even after all the things I did as Pride, you still saved me.”

Yeah his mind is twisted alright. My face fell for a moment, “I almost killed you after…”

He reached over and pulled me into a tight hug, “I know and I understand. We both did some horrible things over the past few days, I’m sorry that my stupid mistake in getting captured hurt you so badly. I don’t know how I can make it up to you but I’ll do my best.”

I sank my face into his chest letting my tears fall freely, “Having you back to normal is all I want. I just want to go back to The Kingdom and see Aura, I want to see Wingnut, I want us all to go home!”

He started to rub my mane slowly doing his best to comfort me, even though we were still in his or my mind, it was just as good as the real thing. As he did he said, “So it’s true that Aura survived?”

“As far as I know. Wind Thrasher told me as much and she’s not the type of pony to lie to me.”

“That’s a relief, though I’m sure she’s going to castrate me for trying to kill her,” he said with a shiver.

I laughed a little, “Nah, but I’m sure she’ll act like she’s going to just to scare you as much as she can.”

He finally pulled away saying, “So you finally realized how you felt about her I take it?”

“I did, but how did you know?”

“When I was Pride I saw how you reacted when she was shot, you love her don’t you?”

I blushed and nodded, “I do and I think she loves me too, but I’m not sure. I’m afraid that when I tell her, she’ll reject me. I may just be misreading the signals, I’m no good at this kind of thing.”

“Shadow before we leave this machine I want you to see something,” he said turning a little so we were both looking toward a part of his mind where a small mote of light was shining.

“What is that?” I asked as the mote of light grew bigger and images started to form around it, almost like watching something on a terminal screen only in color.

“Something you need to see and hear,” he said

I noticed that the images were Aura, I was seeing her from Stardust’s point of view just like a memory orb only instead of reliving it, I was just watching it in front of me. She was standing in one of the pipelines in the lower area of The Bramble with tears in her eyes.

Stardust spoke to her quietly, “I know we don’t get along well, but you need to get this off your chest. Even if I think you’re a horribly mutated bird thing, I can’t stand seeing a girl cry. I already think I know what’s bothering you.”

“Then you can keep your muzzle shut and leave me alone cloud breath, you make me sick,” Aura retorted angrily.

“Just because I think I know what’s bothering you doesn’t mean anything, you still need to say it.”

She took a long moment to answer, when she did I could hear pain in her voice, “It’s just so stupid that’s all, Shadow doesn’t even know Silver Snip that well. Yeah I get it, Silver saved her when she first got to Cartwheel and all, but so what. Silver wasn’t there when we saved Wingnut, she didn’t help her with Stable 9, she wasn’t the one who had to make an anti-venom before Shadow died. Silver didn’t have to fly away leaving her behind in that town because you were near to death. Shadow is kind and confused about where she stands in the world. She so badly wants to find her mom and get answers. The problem is she also wants to be loved so badly that she latched on to the first ponies to lay down and give her what she THINKS love is.”

“You think Shadow doesn’t understand love? I find that hard to believe.”

“No she doesn’t, not when it comes to what she’s trying to get from Silver. Silver might’ve known her before she lost her memories, but Shadow’s not that same filly anymore. She’s strong, beautiful, and caring. She deserves better than some nice piece of ass who wiggles itself in front of her nose! She needs someone who understands her, who cares about her for who she is now, someone who wants Shadow to understand her as much as she understands Shadow!” Aura yelled.

Stardust chuckled a little and put a hoof on Aura’s shoulder, “So you love her huh?”

“Shut up, and take it off or I’ll break it off,” Aura said trying to push his hoof away.

Stardust tensed up a little but didn’t move his hoof either, “No way, you need to tell somepony Aura. I promise I won’t tell her, not until you’re ready for her to know.”

Aura sighed deeply then looked at him, “Why would you do that for me?”

He shrugged, “Let’s just say that after you defended me back there with your crazy aunt, I realized you’re not that bad.”

She smiled a little, “Fine, I don’t know if I love her, not yet. I’m still trying to get over losing…”

“Let me guess, that friend of yours Trip Wire.”

Her eyes went wide, “You know about that!?”

“Duh, I’m friends with Tariff, I knew his little sister too. I also knew she was in a relationship with a Red Talon Griffon. I just put two and two together and it equaled feather pony pie. Wait that doesn’t sound right…”

“You’re an ass.”

“Yep, now continue.”

“Fine, I still haven’t fully gotten over losing Trip Wire, but Shadow’s making me feel the same as I did when I first started to like her, and maybe more. I’m not sure if it’s love yet, but I know I like her more than I would with most ponies or griffons.”

Stardust patted her shoulder, “Don’t worry, I’ll keep it to myself.”

She frowned and looked away then said in a soft voice, “Thanks…Cloud Breath.”

“Tch I have a name you know? Try to use it”

Aura punched Stardust in the jaw, he just turned his head and laughed “Fuck you Stardust.” But she smiled.

Stardust laughed again “Now was that so hard?”

They both shared a laugh as the memory turned back into light and flew off into the darkness of Stardust’s mind. As it did I looked over at him again, “So you knew all this time?”

“Yep, but I said I’d keep it to myself until the time was right. So how about we get out of my head and yours so we can go home? It smells like brain matter in here.”

“That’s the best thing you’ve said all day,”

I slowly came back to myself as the glass lid opened up and somepony pulled the helmet off my head slowly. As they did my vision was blurry at first but went back to normal and I found myself looking up into Dr. Limbis’s smiling face, “What took you so long in there?”

As she said that I noticed that Doorstop was standing next to the door shouting orders at Solstice, “They’re going to break that door down any second now, be ready for anything. We don’t know if The General called in reinforcements from The Enclave or not.”

“I’m not a child Doorstop I know what I’m doing,” Solstice yelled then she looked over at me, “Fuck Shadow get off your ass we have enough shit to deal with and we don’t have time for you to be laying around!”

I jumped out of the pod feeling a little woozy after the strange experience. I went over to Stardust’s pod and shook him, “Wake up dammit!”

He opened his eyes with a weird look on his face and threw his hooves to the side, “The clown has NO penis!” trying not to roll on the floor laughing I slapped him in the face as hard as I could, “Ow, my head feels like it was stepped on and you had to go and do that? What about you, how do you feel? Also, what’ the fuck’s going on and why do my wings hurt?”

“I’m fine apart from waking up to this carnage. As for what’s going on, I’ll let Doorstop explain.”

Doorstop looked over at Stardust for a second then over at Limbis who was trying to hide behind one of the pods, “When she turned on the machine The General knew right away. She sent her guards into medical to try and find out what was going on. Solstice shot them and now we’ve been locked in here waiting for them to break down the door so they can try to kill us. We’ve got a fight on our hooves and not with just the guards and maybe Enclave Soldiers that might be helping them. The whole damned stable is awake by now and that means the other Cadets are going to try to kill us too.”

“Well…fuck,” It’s all I could say, “What do we do now?”

Stardust grinned, “I say we take this place down once and for all!”

Hive Mind: You’ve gotten pretty close to your companions, haven’t you? So close that they practically know what you’re thinking in the midst of battle. Now while fighting with a companion in your party, you will have an easier time coordinating a combination attack with them.

Sharpshooter’s Apprentice: You’ve achieved full affinity with Stardust and he’s shared some of his secret skills with you. While using a sniper rifle or sighted semi-automatic rifle, you will experience decreased weapon spread, increased range, and have a better time keeping a steady aim on your target.