Fallout Equestria: Falling Shadows

by Drako Moon

Chapter 44: Hear Me Now

It took a couple of hours for Aura to look over my father’s wounds. Luckily his combat armor had taken most of the force out of the shots. During that time Striker didn’t say much, he only sat next to the small fire glaring over at myself then my father. Wingnut told me what happened when he was able to escape during the fight. He ran back to camp and started to yell about us being attack and that Yaksha was keeping them distracted while Striker did what he needed too.

Aura was ready to kill the Zebra as soon as she found out, but Wingnut ordered her not too. Instead she took Yaksha with her as they all flew toward where the fight was going on. Yaksha had gone with them willingly, that was the only reason she wasn’t tied up right now. Meanwhile, my friends and myself included have been waiting for Aura to finish up with my father.

“Shadow I am sorry about everything that happened,” Yaksha finally said looking up at me from over the fire.

“Sure you are Yaksha, because lying to me about why you wanted to travel with me then, trying to get me killed is easy to forgive,” I said.

“I never lied to you Shadow, I told you everything, and answered every question you asked truthfully.”

“Hah,” I scoffed, “How am I supposed to believe that?”

“Prove me wrong Shadow. If you can find a time I lied to you, then I will admit it.”

“I still think you should let me slit her throat,” Aura said from where she was finishing up with Nightshade.

Striker looked over at Aura saying in a low growl, “You hurt her and I’ll hurt you griffon.”

“Yeah, Yeah, I’m sure you will you creepy looking buck,” Aura said, ignoring him.

“Striker there is no need to defend me,” Yaksha said looking back at me, “As I said, I did not lie to you about why I wanted to travel here. I knew that what was in you, was the same thing Striker was looking for. I told him I would confirm my suspicions and see if I could get it out of you. When Aquila blasted me out of your mind, I saw how powerful she really was and I panicked.”

“So, you decided to let Striker kill her?” Wingnut asked.

“I did not do it just because of Shadow, Striker was also after The Stranger. When I reported he was with Shadow and was staying a while, we decided it was the perfect time to strike. I did not know he was your father,” she said.

I sighed, “Right now Yaksha I really don’t care, I have enough going on right now to even bother with your crap. I understand you were scared of what you saw, but still you should have talked to me about this.”

“Very well Shadow.”

“Who is this friend you are looking for anyway, or was that a lie?” Stardust asked.

“That was not a lie, the name she used last when I saw her was Laser Light. I am not sure if she is still using it, but I know she was last seen near Las Pegasus.”

That took me by surprise, “Wait Laser? You’re the zebra friend she thought died years ago?” I asked.

“Wait a moment you know Laser?” Yaksha asked, “How did you meet her? I need to know. Is she well, is she safe, is she still alive? I would not be able to forgive myself if I was not there for her on her deathbed.”

I started to laugh, “I met her when I was looking for a ghoul named Nexus. She’s his bodyguard…at least I think she is. She is very much alive.”

Yaksha looked as if she was holding her breath until I said something about Laser Light being okay and said, “What a relief, wait…Laser is working for that strange ghoul? I would never have thought she would ever work for him. He is… very strange.”

Before I could ask more, Nightshade limped over to us Aura right behind him, “I think we need to take a few minutes now that I’m doing better so we can talk.”

“I’d rather put another bullet in you Nightshade, but I said I’d give you a chance to explain things.” Striker said.

“No one is shooting anyone unless I say otherwise. I’m not in the mood to keep patching anyone else up,” Aura said walking past us, “Let’s leave them all to talk. From the sound of things, it seems this is a family affair and we don’t need to get in the middle of it.”

“But I want to hear!” Wingnut said.

Wind Thrasher put a hoof on his shoulder, “Not now Wingnut, let’s leave them alone for a while okay.”

They all got up and started to head toward a cliff side, Stardust was the last to leave, “If you need us Shadow just yell we won’t be far.”

I nodded, “Thanks Stardust.”

Once they were gone, Nightshade sighed saying, “So where should we start?”

“So, you’ve been The Stranger all this time and you didn’t even once try to tell me?” I asked Nightshade as we sat in front of a fire.

“Shadow, it’s not as simple as telling a secret to a close friend. There are groups, organizations, and other factions out there that have the technology to rip that information from your head.”

“And you didn’t have faith that I could take care of myself!? I’m The Courier dammit, I’m not easy to kill! I thought I made it obvious when I vaporized a small city and a regional landmark!” I exclaimed.

Striker cleared his throat, “If you could please stop and lis…”

I quickly turned on him, “Shut up! Can’t you see I’m trying to have my first teenage daughter moment with my Dad!?”

He stammered a bit, but quickly regained his composure, “I understand that you’ve pretty much lived like an orphan for the last some odd years, but there are more important matters at hoof. He betrayed our family’s trust and values for his own gain, no offense to your past health issues.”

“Are you fucking stupid!? This is my dad for Goddesses sake and I deserve an explanation, your petty sibling rivalry will have to wait, besides that was a long time ago and nothing bad has happened yet,” I said with a roll of my eyes.

Striker glared at me and his eyebrow started to twitch, “Nothing bad!? It seems to me that you’ve chosen to ignore that beast in your flesh as well as your head. If you really think getting infected with a parasite such as Aquila is no big deal, then you’ve either not been completely educated on the true nature of Project Stargazer, or you just inherited your father’s brains and don’t rightly care what happens to the world if Aquila is let loose in a vessel she can control. Either way you’re a naive little foal with no grasp on the true reality this world lives every day.”

Damn what a dick! The fuck does he know about what I know about the world? “I know the tragedies this Goddesses forsaken Wasteland throws at a pony, sure it hasn’t really been that long since I left my stable, but out here two months seems more like two years. I’ve lost friends, killed countless enemies, experienced the odds stacked against me, and helped countless more. If you haven’t noticed, I’ve become more of a symbol than The Stranger. To everypony else in The Wasteland I’m some sort of postmare hero with no fear, all you and my father made ‘The Stranger’ is an urban legend who’s being followed by a robot detective. I even gained fame up north in the Twin Cities, I’m national bitch!”

He just gave me a blank stare and raised an eyebrow, “Are you done?”

“Yes, she’s done. She’s done rants like this since she was little, once she stops talking she feels better,” Nightshade said.

“But I…you can’t just…ugh…” I stammered.

Striker turned his head and spat on the ground, “It seems you’ve grown quite a big head young lady.”

“Thank you, I was pretty sure you were gonna call me an idiot like everypony else,” I interrupted.

Nightshade sighed, “Shadow, what he means by big head is that you’ve grown a big ego when it comes to your misadventures with your friends.”

I crossed my forelegs and looked away from them, “No one ever thinks I’m smart.”

Stardust walked over with an annoyed look on his face groaning, “Look, I know we said we’d give you privacy and all but there’s a lot of yelling and we all know what you’re talking about. We agreed it was a stupid argument and put it to a vote of who should come mediate and I was the lucky buck who pulled the short straw,” Stardust pulled out three wooden sticks from his saddle bags giving them to us, “Listen, these are your silence sticks, not my idea by the way, it was Wind Thrasher’s. Anyway, no matter how dumb her idea might be, you’re each going to take a stick and when I take it back from you, mind you it’s only temporary, you can speak. As the name implies, when you’re holding your silence stick, you can’t talk. I’ll go in alphabetical order of who gets to talk. You’ll get until I shove a silence stick down your throat to get your point across and then I’ll let whomever is next speak.”

I cocked my head, “We could quiet down a bit if we’re bothering you guys.”

“Oh yeah, there’s also no yelling. If you yell I’ll let Wingnut shoot you with those blowdarts Tonto gave him,” Stardust added.

“We agree to your terms,” Nightshade said, looking amused.

“I didn’t agree,” I argued.

“We’re supposed to be talking things out, not bickering like angsty teenagers with chips on our shoulders. You obviously feel like there’s something you need to explain to me about things with your father and yourself to I don’t know, keep the peace so to speak,” Striker retorted snootily.

“I wouldn’t say kee…” I started to say before I was interrupted by Stardust.

“It’s not your turn to speak.”

“I’m gonna kill you, I swear to the Goddesses,” I said through my teeth.

He smirked, “Okay fine, new rule. If anyone speaks out of order, I’ll shoot them in the leg of their choice after one warning.”

I just sighed and waved my hoof to tell him to continue.

“Nightshade, since your name starts with an ‘n’ let’s start with you,” Stardust said.

“In a way I betrayed our family by letting Grimoire, Shadow’s mother, use Project Stargazer to save her life. Although technically I didn’t actually let her, she ended up pretty much taking Shadow and disappearing. I followed her as best I could when I found clues or got information on her whereabouts. She didn’t know the true location of Project Stargazer so it took a while for her to track down its location. When I was able to finally confront her, she ended up getting the better of me after a long argument about how dangerous Stargazer is. I told her that nothing good can come from that laboratory; she’d either get our daughter killed or poison her with something worse. We all know what happened of course because Shadow isn’t dead, but in all reality, what ended up happening was probably the best and worst thing that could’ve happened. Shadow was infected with that star demon Aquila, but her will was stronger and was able to hold her off.”

Stardust smirked again, “I didn’t tell you that you could stop talking, so keep going. I don’t care if it’s something stupid or if it’s gonna scar me for life, just say it.”

“No.”

Stardust’s smirk quickly disappeared, “Bummer, you’re no fun at all. Okay Shadow, your next.”

“You two clearly have some drama that needs to be resolved, but I just wanna say that I didn’t survive because I have a strong will or anything. I might, but I’m pretty sure I’m only alive today because of the deal I made with Aquila when I was little and the spell mom put on her to keep her trapped… or… sealed in that magic cage doohickey in my subconscious. Yaksha has been trying to help me with controlling Aquila and I know it’s working because I was able to use her magic when I stopped you two from going at it. I think if I work enough with Yaksha, I can completely drain her of all her magic. However, I think I might understand why you two aren’t getting along. It’s not over a betrayal of family trust, it’s because my dad stole Striker’s marefriend.”

“That’s a lie,” Striker interrupted.

Stardust cocked a pistol, “Ah-ah-ah, no talky or you get bang-bang. Do you wanna pick a leg ahead of time just in case?”

Striker just shook his head and looked away as if ashamed that he’d forgotten the rules already. Goddesses, he seems so uptight. I guess him and my father are alike in that way. I noticed The Stranger’s uptightness a few different times before, most notably when we were in the Twin Cities.

“Anyway,” I continued, “I think that since that was obviously years ago, and my mother is clearly insane with or without her memories of the past, Striker got off lucky. Just sit and think about it, the same scenario would’ve happened no matter who ended up with her. She’s proven to be manipulative in every relationship she’s had that also including Vervain and Oricalcos. She got Vervain to help her with finding and using Project Stargazer and she got Oricalcos to help her get better at using magic in the wrong way.”

Stardust tossed my stick back to me, “Okay, I’m starting to get bored, I’ve heard way too much about this subject and have grown to hate hearing about it. Sorry Shadow but the whole mommy issue thing is starting to get old. I’m not trying to be a dick, but hearing you explain your problems to every new pony, zebra, griffon, robot, hooker, alien, or whatever else you meet just kinda grinds my gears a bit y’know. Anyway, that’s my part, Striker it’s your turn.”

“I’m not angry that Nightshade ended up with Grimoire, I’m angry because he shared our family secrets with her when he wasn’t supposed to. Sure, I might’ve volunteered some information before, but I was young and stupid. Fortunately, I wasn’t too stupid to give her too much information; all I gave her was a glimpse of what the project was and that was it. If Nightshade would’ve just pretended he was going to some other job during the day like our father did we wouldn’t be in this mess. Our mother went to her grave thinking our father was a respected officer in The Enclave, not a guardian of a superweapon. All in all Shadow, you could still be right. I did notice now and again that Grimoire would push a bit when it came to certain questions like she was just prying for more information. The whole relationship could’ve been a lie and I could’ve been used by her and not know it. I was young and naive with no sense of self-control when it came to mares with bad intentions. I don’t know what she would’ve used Project Stargazer for if Shadow didn’t take ill, but I know it wouldn’t have been good.”

“Back to you Nightshade,” Stardust said then laughed, “I sound like a pre-war radio newscaster.”

“You’re acting a bit strange Stardust, are you okay?” Nightshade asked.

“Yeah, I’m fine. Apparently, there’s some side effects from the memory machine that last a little while. I get a little screwy sometimes,” he replied.

“Indeed,” Nightshade coughed a bit being reminded that he is still heavily injured, “Let’s try and focus on the matter at hoof here if you can manage that. Striker’s right about something, I shouldn’t have shared any information about Stargazer with Grimoire. I think the thing that really made me do it was that when we married we promised to keep no secrets and I didn’t want to sabotage our bond with each other with poisonous secrets. I suppose that sounds foolish, but I was also young and naive with no self-control. There’s nothing we can really do about it now, so why fight each other over this? What’s done is done and at the end of the day we’re still brothers, and we stick together through thick and thin. No mare, job, duty, or loyalty to something should come between us. There was a story I read a long time ago about two brothers who were on opposing sides in a war that happened in ancient times. Every time they’d meet on the battlefield they’d put down their swords and start talking instead of fighting to the death. Eventually one day some of the other soldiers saw them while fighting and also decided to sit down and talk with their enemy until the issue that caused the war was resolved. Because of their loyalty to each other as brothers, they accidentally brought peace to their respective lands. Sure, it might sound a bit soft and pacifistic to have a story about a war ending with them talking it out, but I like that story. It used to make me feel like having a brother was one of the most special bonds in the world until I discovered mares and started tail chasing. Oh, I’m sorry Shadow. I don’t think you want to hear about my various conquests from before I met your mother.”

Stardust smiled and took my stick from me, “C’mon, let’s hear it. Do you wanna hear about all the nitty gritty things your dad did with other mares before your mom?”

“Fuck you, Stardust get your mind out of the gutter. No, of course I don’t wanna hear about that; what I want to hear about is what we can do to resolve this bitterness between my father and my uncle. Oh Goddesses I’ve met two uncles so far, my father and my mother; when is this fucking family reunion going to end. Next thing I know I’m going to run into a long-lost sibling with some vendetta against me for being the favorite that mom and dad kept instead of trying to feed to a hell hound. Is it too much to ask for some Goddesses damned normalcy in my life? Why does my family lineage have to be so complex and come with responsibilities? It’s like the wasteland is trying to fucking mess with me by playing some kind of cruel joke. If my life gets any more fucked up I might just say fuck it and go on a killing spree, at least hell is a normal place to end up when you’ve done bad things in your life. Ugh, I’m going off track with this. Can someone else just have their turn already?”

“Y’know what? I think we’re done here,” Stardust said abruptly, “I’m just gonna…ahem…go back over here now and uh…do things with the others while you all hash it out.”

“Some help you are,” I said trying to get my head back on track with the whole conversation that seemed to be just going in a circle of similar stories, “Look, I know you two have your problems with each other and all, but can we just please put all that aside and focus?”

Striker let out a deep breath, “I suppose you’re right, it was a long time ago and there’s nothing we can do to change what’s happened already. Why waste any more energy in being angry. What do you say brother, truce?”

Nightshade looked at me then back at Striker with a slightly surprised look on his face, “Of course. I wouldn’t have it any other way.”

“So, now that, that’s settled, where should we start to figure things out,” I finally asked, trying to break the silence.

Dad was the first one to speak, “I think we should talk about what happened all those years ago, without fighting. It’s the only true fire way we’re going to be able to fully clear the air.”

Striker looked like he had just bitten into a lemon, “I know enough Nightshade.”

“I don’t think you do Striker, you only know what you’ve been able to learn through other ponies or bits of information without getting the full puzzle pieces. You told me before that you left me the information I needed at your hideout, right?”

“Yeah, I left dad’s notes, my one finding and even the location of where some memory orbs were. I left it for you so you could know what you needed to do when you took over for me,” Striker said.

“You mean the hideout in Nimbus?” Dad asked.

Striker nodded, “Yeah, I gave you its location when I left you the outfit and armor.”

“That’s the thing, I did go there because I figured you had a good reason for it. When I arrived, all I found was a few notes about Night Stalker and the Children of the Night, some of dad’s old recordings and The Demon Slayer, that was it.”

Striker looked confused, “That can’t be all you found; I left instructions on what you needed to do, everything about Stargazer and Falling Shadows, even the locations of another tower!”

I cut in, “Falling Shadows? I’ve heard of that before in some of the scattered notes written by Minuette. She mentioned something about it being in process never reaching its final stages, becoming a myth.”

“Because it is, there’s been whispers about the project for over a century in Stratus and Nimbus. A long-lost project of Night Stalker and his team before the Enclave was formed. If a weapon like that was ever created, Night Stalker would have used it before the Megaspells,” Dad said.

Striker started to laugh, it was a chilling sound to hear from that raw burnt throat, “Hahaha, oh brother you really do have no idea, do you? Falling Shadows is real and yes, Night Stalker did try to use it on the same day the megaspells went off. The problem is somepony locked down the program a few days before and he couldn’t use it. Because of that, Equestria died and Night Stalker spent almost four decades searching for a way to unlock his project.”

“It’s not like Night Stalker to fail at getting what he wants,” I said, thinking back on some of the memory orbs I’ve seen.

Striker looked over at me, “It’s not, I’m sure he would have kept looking for what he needed too, but something happened to him about forty years after The Enclave was formed.”

“What happened?” I asked.

Dad answered, “He was branded by two of his sons. He became a dashite and had to flee the clouds.”

“What does that have to do with what you’re protecting?” I asked.

Striker answered this time, “Everything. Back before he was kicked out of Stratus, Night Stalker put a Zebra he trusted in charge of watching over the Project and his power source along with Stargazer, to make sure no pony ever tried to get it either. This zebra was the first guardian, but by the time he left the Enclave the Zebra was getting old and had a tribe of his own. He didn’t trust his own children to take over for him so he asked Night Stalker to put a new pony in charge of protecting the projects and to help hide what The Children did back then. That’s where our Family comes in, our ancestors were the second guardians and from then on we have been tasked with keeping it out of the hooves of both The Enclave and the ponies of The Wasteland.”

“Wait a moment back up, Night Stalker first wanted to use this project then later changed his mind and wanted it kept hidden? I don’t understand,” I asked.

Striker sighed, “Night Stalker wasn’t the same pony toward the end. Something changed him and his look on life. Before he vanished from Equis, he started to try and fix the wrongs he committed over his life. He didn’t want the project to ever be found or used. He would have destroyed it, but the only pony who knew how to do that was Minuette and she vanished a couple of days before the Megaspells fell. So, he hoped by setting up the Guardian’s he could make sure that nopony ever used Falling Shadows or Stargazer.”

“What is Falling Shadows?” I asked.

Strikers face fell, “Honestly that’s one thing that’s been lost over the years. Most think it’s a super weapon, others have said it was something to fix Equestria if it was destroyed by Balefire and magic like it was, I’ve even heard a rumor that it was meant to make Nightmare Moon again, but I’m sure that’s not true. The only thing I do know about the project is where one of its power sources are, the location of two of its towers, and that Stargazer is needed to make it work.”

Dad spoke again, “I’m guessing the power source is the one under Spitfires Flight Academy.”

“Correct, though I’m not sure where the power source goes too. I have my suspicions but I haven’t been able to see if I’m right.”

“What did you mean by its Towers?” I asked.

“Falling Shadows is a massive project and whatever it’s meant to do, it needs to be activated from four points in Equestria. The first tower was easy, because it’s the spire in the middle of The Crystal Empire. The other one I’ve found is in Baltimare, in the middle of a large building controlled by Steel Rangers. I’m guessing there is one near the badlands, but it’s almost impossible nowadays to get near there unless you’re a zebra. The last I’m thinking is here in New Pegasus,” Striker said.

Dad’s eyes went wide, “You don’t think it’s The Lucky Horseshoe?”

“I do, but I’ve never been able to get close to it to find out. The locations of each tower were supposed to be in the Lucky Horseshoe that much I know. I’m sure that all the information I need is in The Lucky Horseshoe,” Striker said.

“And since nopony can get into the Lucky Horseshoe because of Mr. Tops, it’s impossible for you to find the information you need,” I said.

“That about sums it up,” Striker said with a sigh.

“Why do you want to find the other towers anyway?” I asked.

Dad chuckled, “Striker’s been wanting to destroy Night Stalker’s work for years.”

“He’s right, ever since I was branded I dedicated my life to taking down Falling Shadows and Stargazer. I’ve hit a dead end with Falling Shadows multiple times, that’s why I started hunting you Shadow. When I saw Grim years ago she told me about Aquila getting free from Stargazer labs, but she never told me who she bonded with. When I started hearing about the strange things going on with this mysterious Courier Mare I knew she had to be the mare that had Aquila. When Yaksha told me about what she saw in you I had to act,” Striker said.

“So, you decided that killing me and dad was the best thing to do?” I asked.

“I didn’t plan on running into Nightshade when I found you, but I took the opportunity when I was told about him being with you.”

I sighed, “Have you two always been like this?”

Dad looked over at me, “What? Us two fighting and trying to kill each other?”

To my surprise, Striker laughed, “We’re brothers, that’s what brothers do, we fight. But no, we didn’t always try to kill each other. Our father was very good at pitting us against one another though. Dad wanted me to be more like Nightshade when I was growing up. He was always the better fighter and I was more into my terminals and books.”

“Dad wanted his oldest son to be the fighter so he could take on the job as guardian, but Striker always preferred his research. That’s how he met your mother honestly, they both worked in the same lab in the Crystal Empire then later Nimbus.”

“From what I’ve seen so far with both of you, you two didn’t get along,” I said, remembering the talk Striker had with mom in her memory orb.

“I wouldn’t say we didn’t get along, we were just competitive. As much as I dislike Nightshade now, I have to admit if it wasn’t for him I wouldn’t have survived after dad died,” Striker said.

“What do you mean?” I asked.

“When Striker killed our father, I was put in charge of finding him once he ran away. The council wanted him killed for what he did to our father, so I tracked him down and branded him instead. It was the only way he could live and escape The Enclave.”

“But weren’t you mad that he killed your father?” I asked utterly confused.

The two brothers looked at each other, then dad said, “No, we both hated our father. I knew why he did it and I’m still happy he’s dead. Captain Evernight was a ruthless bastard who only cared about his job as the guardian and helping The Enclave grow and take over.”

“Which funny enough is the opposite of what a guardian stands for,” Striker said.

“What do you mean by that?”

Striker answered, “The other part about being a Guardian is to make sure The Enclave doesn’t get more powerful. When Night Stalker was betrayed by the very system he helped build, he wanted it taken down. Every Guardian has done their part in making this happen, I dedicated my life to breaking down their power through destruction and espionage.”

“And I’ve done that by getting into the Council and changing the way The Enclave does things,” Dad said.

Striker laughed, “You did that for your own power brother.”

“I’m not our father Striker. No, I did it so I could make the Enclave better and change it from the inside!”

Seeing a fight about to start up again I interrupted, “So what did your dad do then? You said he did the opposite of what a guardian would normally do.”

Striker looked back at me, a look of anger in his green eyes, “He thought that the Enclave was fine the way it was and he figured The Enclave should rule all of the wasteland, not just the clouds. He was power hungry.”

“Is that why you killed him Striker?”

Both of them looked saddened, finally dad said, “Striker killed our father because of a fight they had over Grim.”

“Wait you killed him because of mom?” I asked.

Striker sighed again, “Not just because of her, but that did start the fight. Grim had been learning a lot about our family secret and dad found out. He confronted me about it and tried to force me to kill her. I refused and the fight got worse until he finally pulled a gun on me. Our mother got between us trying to break us up. Dad was so angry that he warned her that if she didn’t move he’d kill her too. She refused to back down and he shot her. He killed his wife without a second thought then started to threaten me again. I was so angry that I attacked him. Took a bad shot to the shoulder for that, but I was able to get the gun away from him. Then once I had him pinned to the ground I put two bullets in the back of his head. Once he was dead I came to my senses and I ran, I went to find Grim, told her what I did and told her I had to run. I didn’t want her to leave everything behind for me, so I broke up with her, broke her heart and got as far as I could from Nimbus.”

“I’m guessing that’s when you two started seeing each other?” I asked dad.

He nodded, “I’m sure Striker doesn’t see it this way, but when I went to find Grim, it was only to make sure she wouldn’t say anything about what she knew about our family. I never intended to fall in love with her, I mean I used to have a crush on her when we were young, but it wasn’t my intention when I started checking up on her. Back then she didn’t have anypony but her brother and Striker. I felt bad for her and thought she might hurt herself or do something stupid if she was left alone, so I visited her every other day when I had free time.”

“And one thing led to another,” I asked, a small smile on my face.

Striker looked like he’d just bitten into another lemon as dad spoke, “Nightshade you still took her away from me.”

“No Striker, you left her behind when you did what you did. You weren’t going to come back for her, you need to get over it,” Dad snapped.

“Honestly you’re lucky Striker. Mom turned out to be a nightmare,” I said.

Dad looked back at me, “She wasn’t always so bad Star, she was a lot like you when she was younger. She didn’t start lying and manipulating until you got sick. She would’ve done anything to save you and she did. She gave up her life to cure you.”

“Your wrong dad…yes she wanted to cure me, but she also wanted power. That’s why she kept trying to find information on Falling Shadows,” I said getting to my hooves.

They both looked at me dad asking, “Where are you going?”

“I’m going to go sit with my friends, lay down with Aura and try to sleep. I’m tired of this crap with who did what and why from back in the day. I’m going to finish what I started first and right now that’s getting to this meeting in time. I’m sick of this family drama. Dad I love you and I’m glad I found you again, but I think you should get back to Stratus before something happens because of how long you’ve been gone. Maybe you can find something up there about Wolfsbane and how we can take him down. Uncle Striker, if you want to stop me by killing me then you can try, but I warn you. If you kill me, my friends will kill you.”

“I’m not interested in that anymore, not if you think you can hold Aquila off at least for now.”

I looked back at him, “I’ll hold her off as long as I can, maybe it will be enough for me to find a way to rid myself of her. Since you aren’t going to kill me then I want you to leave and take Yaksha with you. Help her get to Frosty Summit so she can find Laser.”

“Are you sure?” dad asked, “I mean we have so much to catch up on.”

I was doing my best to hide the tears in my eyes, “Just leave dad, both of you just go. I’m done with this shit. I don’t even care anymore about what happened to any of you.”

“Star…” Dad said again reaching a hoof out for me.

I rounded on him, “I’m not Star anymore dad, I’m Shadow. I’m not that sick little foal who used to ride on your back as we flew around The Crystal Empire, I’m not the weak filly who you told stories too, and I’m not the scared filly who used to need her uncle to protect her in the middle of the night when I was scared of everything around me. I’m Shadow Star, the mare who has a job to do and too much on her plate to deal with my fucked-up family. Until you understand that, I don’t want anything to do with either of you, or Falling Shadows, or Stargazer, or The Fucking Enclave. All I want to do is what I have too to keep the Wasteland safe and to hopefully find a place where Aura and I can settle down and grow old together. I don’t need you, or the Stranger or ANYTHING, I’m done.”

They both looked shocked at my sudden mood change, then dad sighed saying, “Fine Shadow…I’ll be going.”

He opened his wings to get ready to fly off, as he did Striker said, “Nightshade, what do you plan on doing about me? We still haven’t settled things.”

“As far as I’m concerned brother, I never saw you. Let’s keep it that way. I have my own mission to take care of and so do you,” Dad said, putting his mask and desperado hat on before flying toward the clouds.

Striker chuckled to himself then looked back at me, “Shadow, if I see any hint of that monster poking through you, I’m going to finish what I started.”

“I’d like to see you try,” I replied.

That made him laugh harder, “Just like your dad…I’ll see you again Shadow. Until then, don’t get yourself killed. It would be a shame if somepony got to you before me.”

He walked over to where Yaksha was, still sitting with my friends. He said a few things to her then flew off. Yaksha looked at me once then yelled, “I hope that one day you can forgive me Shadow. Just remember what I taught you and remember that I never once lied to you.”

She pulled up the hood of her cloak and vanished. Once she was gone I walked over to my friends, and sat down next to Aura, “We all need to get some sleep we have a long day tomorrow and I want all of us to be ready for it.”

They all were looking at me like I was nuts. Wind Thrasher saying, “Um…Shadow what happened?”

Rolling my eyes, “Nothing, I’m just sick of dealing with my family’s drama. I’d love to sit here and talk with my dad about a whole lot of stuff, but he’s been away from Stratus for too long and I’m really sick of talking about stuff that doesn’t matter right now.”

“Why did you let Yaksha go?” Wingnut asked, “She was the one who told that pegasus where you were.”

“Because I don’t think she meant us harm that’s why,” I said.

“Secrets notwithstanding, I was starting to enjoy Yaksha’s company, she’s a better cook than any of us and it seemed everything she made gave us benefits mentally and physically,” Wingnut continued, “If you think about it she really didn’t lie about anything. I hope we see her again.”

I sighed again, “Maybe, kiddo, but she does have her own agenda. Though part of me would like to see Laser’s reaction to seeing her believed-to-be-dead friend, alive and well.”

“Shadow do you need to get something off your chest, you look really upset,” Wind Thrasher said.

“I don’t need to talk about it,” I said getting to my hooves again and heading toward a spot Aura set up for us.

“Come on Shadow…” Stardust started to say.

“NO!” rounding on them I yelled, “I’m not in the mood to talk about this. It’s just too much shit all at once. We have enough to deal with right now.”

Aura got up as my friends looked at me with scared expressions, “Shadow, you don’t need to get mad. How about we go lay down and get some sleep.”

She led us to the small sleeping spot, “I just don’t want to deal with these burdens anymore Aura. Why can’t my long-lost family just stay away from me.”

“I thought you wanted to find your dad?”

“I did, but that was mostly because I didn’t know what happened to him. Now I find out The Stranger is Nightshade the fucking High Council pony of Stratus and Nimbus and he’s been following me around talking about my dad when he was my dad. It’s too much Aura!”

“I understand, I really do, but right now we need you to calm down and rest…I need you to calm down and rest”

“I don’t want to calm down, I want to be pissed!” I said fuming as I sat down on some blankets.

She sighed and took one of my hooves in her talons lifting it up for me to see, “Don’t kid yourself Shadow look at this,” I almost gasped when I saw that my coat had turned white again, “You need to calm down because right now you’re scaring your friends. You’re not acting like yourself and now your coat is changing. The others are worried that Aquila is going to take over again.”

Now I could feel that I was holding onto her magic. I let it go and watched as my coat went back to its normal hue, “I…didn’t even know I was doing that.”

“Yeah, figured as much. Now how about you go to sleep and we can continue on in the morning. Maybe you’ll feel better,” she gave me a gentle kiss.

I did feel tired, it had been a long day and an even longer night, “Okay…I’ll try.”

“I’ll stay with you while you fall asleep,” she said starting to hum to me a little as my eyes slowly closed.

“Again, class why do we stay in the Stable?” Ms. Bind said, the old mare who taught us.

One of the fillies who sat in front of me put up a hoof, “Oh Ms. Bind I know!”

Of course, she did, Facet was Tinkers daughter and a know-it-all. Ms. Bind pointed a hoof at her, “Yes Facet, do tell.”

“The reason we never leave Stable 28 is because the outside world is too dangerous. The Balefire and Megaspell’s destroyed most of the land outside of our Stable, leaving the land poisonous and inhabitable. There for, it would be deadly for us to step hoof outside the Stable door,” she said with a smug sounding voice.

“Very good Facet,” Ms. Bind said, “Stable Tec built the stable to save us from the destruction of the war. They knew that in the event Equestria was ever to be destroyed our race could continue to live on.”

Milkshake put up a hoof, not waiting to be called on she said, “Ms. Bind, that can’t be true. If the land outside our Stable was destroyed then where did Shadow and Grim come from?”

“Strawberry Milkshake, today’s class isn’t about what may or may not be outside the Stable, that is for a more advanced class.”

“But it does, you said that the world was destroyed and if that was true then they shouldn’t be here,” Milkshake said.

I was doing my best not to get noticed as the rest of the class looked back at me. Ms. Bind rolled her eyes saying, “Shadow Star’s appearance in Stable 28 with her mother isn’t that surprising. It’s more than possible that they both came from a Stable that isn’t far from here. Something most likely happened there resulting in Shadow’s lost memories. They are both unicorns and unlike us earth ponies they both most likely have magic that can protect them from the deadly world outside, at least long enough for them to make it here.”

“That doesn’t make any sense,” Milkshake said.

Looking over at my friend I said quietly, “Milkshake just drop it please.”

Ms. Bind looked angry as she replied, “Strawberry Milkshake I am the teacher here not you. If you want answers of how they got here then ask Grimoire yourself, though I don’t think you’ll get an answer. She is a very private mare who doesn’t like to discuss her life before she came here. Or maybe you can get Shadow Star to tell you…oh right, she can’t because she has no memory…or so she says. Now sit down and be quiet or I’ll call the Overmare.”

Milkshake sat down in a huff and didn’t say another word as Ms. Bind went on telling us about Stable Tec and all they did to protect the earth ponies of Stable 28. When the lesson was over I followed Milkshake out of class, “Why did you have to keep going Milkshake, you knew she wasn’t going to say anything about the outside.”

“Well I don’t think she should be teaching us about stuff she doesn’t know anything about. It’s been almost two hundred years since the war, how does she know the world is still poisoned. Come on Shadow, your mom and you didn’t just pop out of thin air,” Milkshake said.

“I agree with Milkshake,” Facet said as she ran over to join us, “I mean you had to come from somewhere right?”

“Oh come on Facet, you hang off every word she says like its hard fact,” Milkshake said as we headed toward the Atrium.

“I do not, I just make sure to know what I need to. I want to make sure I get good grades so I can get into a good job here when I’m older. That doesn’t mean I believe everything she tells us.”

“Why do you care about that right now Facet, we don’t have to worry about what jobs we’ll end up doing for another eight years,” I said.

“It’s never too early to start thinking about how you can help the Stable Shadow,” Facet said.

Rolling my eyes, I replied, “Like I care about what I’ll do when I’m older, I’m a unicorn, the only place I’ll be of use here is in Research and Development like mom.”

“It’s better than being in sanitation like Tumble Weed’s dad or Foal Care like my mom,” Milkshake said, “So Facet what do you want to do when you get older?”

Facet smiled wide, “I want to be a Pip-Buck Technician like dad.”

I laughed, “Why would you want to do that? It’s like the most boring job in the Stable. The Pip-Bucks rarely ever have problems so there’s never anything to do.”

Facet’s eyes went wide, “It’s the most important job in the Stable Shadow, under the Overmare that is. Without our Technicians, the Pip-Bucks would have stopped working ages ago. Also, apart from keeping the Pip-Bucks working, dad’s job also involves resetting Pip-Bucks for new users and he has to keep the Terminals in the Stable running as well.”

“Still sounds boring to me,” I said.

“Oh fine, then what do you want to do when you’re older Shadow?” Facet said in an annoyed voice.

“I don’t know…maybe Security, or Administrator like Auntie does. At least those jobs a mare can get some respect in this dump,” I said.

The other two both started to laugh at that Milkshake saying, “I don’t think you could ever be in a job like that Shadow.”

“Why?”

“You’re too small for one,” Milkshake said, “You also need to be brave and strong to be in security, same for Administrator. That job requires you to deal with every pony in this place and make them listen to you as if ever word you say is from the Overmare herself.”

I puffed out my chest and tried to look tough, “I can be a brave mare if I want to.”

Facet grinned at Milkshake then back at me, “Brave enough to sneak into level 10?”

Milkshake looked shocked at that, “Facet, we can’t go down to level 10. We’ll get in trouble, that’s where everything that runs this place is.”

“Yeah it is and it’s always being patrolled by security. If Shadow really thinks she can be brave then she should prove it. Daddy told me that there’s a room close to the catacombs that holds a whole lot of sweets. It’s rations in case something happens on level 9 and we can’t grow stuff for a while. We should all go down there and steal something,” she said.

I really didn’t want to go down there, mom always said to stay away from Level 10, but I didn’t want either of them to think I was scared. Milkshake was one of my only friends, I hadn’t gotten to know Facet very well in the year and a half I’ve been in Stable 28, but she was warming up to me and I really wanted her to be my friend. Even if she was a know-it-all, she was one of the most popular fillies in our age group and if she was my friend maybe the rest of my class would be nicer to me.

“So, all you want us to do is sneak down there and steal some sweet’s? I guess we can do that, but what if we get caught?” I asked.

“We’ll be fine, the worst that will happen is we’ll have to work with sanitation for a week. Even if we do get caught it will still be a blast!” Facet said happily.

“I don’t know Facet, my mom said it’s really dangerous down there, we could get hurt,” Milkshake said.

“Come on Milkshake don’t be such a drag!” Facet said as she walked toward the elevator, “I thought you were cooler than this.”

“I thought you were the good little filly who knows everything,” Milkshake snapped.

Facet beamed, “I am, but that doesn’t mean I don’t like to have fun too,” she pushed the call button of the elevator, “You coming Shadow?”

I looked over at Milkshake then back at Facet then back to Milkshake saying, “Come on Milkshake we’ll be fine.”

She took a step back, “No, I’m not going. You two can get into trouble if you want, but I’m not doing it.”

The door to the Elevator opened and Facet stepped in, “Fine be that way, Shadow and I are going to go have a little fun. Come on Shadow let’s go.”

I started to walk toward Facet when I felt Milkshake’s hoof on my shoulder, when I looked back at her she said, “Shadow don’t go, you don’t need to prove yourself to her.”

“Milkshake I’ll be fine, don’t worry. I’ll see you later tonight.”

“If you go down there I’ll tell your mom,” Milkshake said.

I pulled my hoof away, “Fine tell her if you want, but good luck getting her away from her work long enough to tell her anything. By the time you tell her anything we’ll be finished.”

I saw a few tears in my friend’s eyes and she stomped a hoof and ran off toward the living quarters. I walked over and got in the Elevator with Facet. She smiled as she pressed the button for Level 10, “I’m guessing she’s running off to go tell somepony?”

“Yeah she said she was going to go tell my mom,” I said as the elevator moved downward.

“Figured as much, she’s too scared to do anything fun. Not like you, you seem like a cool filly Shadow even if you are small,” she said as the door opened up to the large open cavern of Level 10.

We both poked our heads out from the door, not seeing anypony, both of us snuck into the large opening. Facet took the lead heading toward the deeper parts of the cavern. As we got closer to where the catacombs met the main area of level 10 we heard voices. One was a mare, “I hate this crap, just because I made one stupid little mistake I have to guard level 10 for a month. It’s so boring down here.”

Another mare answered, “Yeah I agree, but it’s better than guarding the Overmare’s brat of a daughter Wildfire. She’s such a bitch! Do you know what she had me do yesterday?”

“No idea,” the first mare said.

“She had me following around that Unicorn Grimoire Spell. Seems to think she’s hiding something.”

The first mare giggled, “That had to suck.”

“It did, she kept teleporting away every time I got closer to her. If she’s hiding anything there’s no way any of us are going to find it. Wildfire has no idea what’s she’s doing,” the second mare said.

I peeked around the corner of the hall we were in and saw two security mares walking toward us, “Their coming this way.”

Facet moved over to one of the doors that lined the hallway saying quickly, “Hurry, let’s hide in here.”

She opened the store room and we both ran inside. The door closed behind us right as the two mares came around the corner one saying, “To think that one day that bitch is going to be our Overmare.”

“Yeah, but at least that won’t be for a long time,” One of the mares said then she stopped right outside the door, “Shit!”

The other mare stopped as well asking, “What?”

“Something’s happened upstairs, the Overmare’s being rushed to Medical the boss is calling back all Security.”

The sound of their hoof steps echoed down the hall as they both ran off. When they were gone Facet and I both stepped out of the room. I looked over at her saying, “Wonder what’s going on with the Overmare.”

“Probably tripped over something again or drank something she shouldn’t have, who cares. Now’s our chance to get to the room, if we do I’ll believe that you’re brave and cool,” Facet said as she started back toward the catacombs again.

“Yeah, I’m right behind you,” I said as we both headed toward the room.

With nopony around, it was a lot easier than it should have been. Soon we were standing in front of the door. Facet grinned wide, “Now all we have to do is get in and were good!”

She pushed the button to open the door, but it didn’t open. I looked over at her saying, “It’s probably locked.”

She looked over at me, “Then open it, you’re a unicorn don’t you have a spell that can unlock doors?”

“The only spell I know is Telekinesis,” I said with a shrug.

“Darn, I thought you’d be able to get us in,” Facet said sounding disappointed.

“Mom hasn’t had time to teach me many spells, the Overmare always has her working late into the night.”

“Can’t be helped, and I was hoping to see what they had stashed in there. Daddy said it’s really good stuff too,” she said then she looked past the door way that led into the rocky Catacombs, “Hey maybe there’s something interesting in there.”

“Facet I thought we were only going this far?”

“I thought you were brave?” she said with a wink, “Come on, we got this far just fine, it’s not like anything’s going to happen in there. Don’t be such a foal.”

She trotted off past the doorway and toward a reactor just on the other side of the door. I walked past the door myself saying, “I’m not a foal Facet, but this area is dangerous, mom said so herself.

She trotted back toward me, “Shadow come on, if you back out now I’m going to tell the whole class.”

“No, Milkshake was right, we shouldn’t even be down here.”

She reached out with a hoof pulling me toward her, “I’m going to make you come with me Shadow. I’m not going in there alone.”

I tried to pull away, “Facet you’re hurting me, stop.”

She kept pulling, “Stop your whining, and grow up a little.”

I was scared of going any farther, I could feel something building in my horn, “Facet please let me go, you’re scaring me.”

She rounded on me and poked my chest with her free hoof, “I said to grow up, it’s not that scary down here, now come on!”

A change came over me, it felt as if all my fear drained away only to be replaced by pure rage. I ripped my hoof away from her and yelled, “She said to LET HER GO!”

Facet looked back at me with fear in her eyes, “The hell happened to you…?”

A blast of magical energy exploded from my horn throwing both of us back. Facet was slammed into the wall, I went flying through the door. As quickly as the rage had filled me, it was gone. I looked up from where I was laying on the floor and saw Facet lying next to the wall. She moved her head looking over at me her eyes unfocused. I shook my head then said in a weak voice, “You okay Facet?”

She shook her head too, “The hell you do that for?”

Before I could say anything, a loud crack echoed through the chamber. Looking up over Facet I saw a rock in the rock cavern was poking out from a ceiling. A ton of cracks ran up the wall to it, “Facet RUN!”

I was too late, before I could do anything, the stone fell and crushed the lower half of the filly under its immense weight. She screamed, the upper half of her body flaying until she stopped moving, her eyes were open wide as she died. Blood leaking out of her mouth slowly.

I did my best to get back to my hooves so I could run over to her yelling, “Help me, Help me, Somepony HELP.”

I barely made it two steps before there was a flash of blue light and mom was standing in front of me, “Shadow what happened? Why are you all the way down here!?”

“Mom, I didn’t mean to do it, I’m sorry,” I said crying as I ran to her.

She hugged me tight saying, “Did what? What happened?” Then she looked back and saw the body of Facet half crushed under the large rock, “Oh no Shadow, what did you do?”

“She scared me and I blasted her with a spell. I didn’t mean to, I don’t even know how I cast that spell!”

She looked back at me and something she saw in my eyes seemed to scare her, “Not again…no…”

“What do you mean not again?” I asked growing scared.

She sighed and her horn glowed, “I’m sorry I have to do this Shadow, but it’s for your own good.”

There was a flash of bright blue light, and the world seemed to vanish. My head got all fuzzy and cold as if I was in some kind of strange dream. At some point I heard mom talking to Auntie, “It happened again Vervain, I thought I suppressed Aquila, but she managed to get through again.”

“Are you sure it was her and not Shadow’s natural ability? You told me yourself that she was born with more power than any filly you’ve ever seen.”

“I’m not sure really, but when I checked the cage I have Aquila locked up in, I found small cracks in it. I’ll have put more power into it and maybe block some of Shadows power as well. I mean she blasted a chunk out of the ceiling and crushed that poor filly,” Mom said sounding stressed and tired.

“What did you tell Tinker?”

“I used a memory spell on Milkshake and Shadow so they both won’t remember that Shadow went down there with Facet. I told Tinker that I was going down to level 10 to check on a reactor, and I heard something falling in the Catacombs. He thinks that his daughter was exploring where she shouldn’t have and did something to cause the rock to shift and fall. Security is ruling it as an accident,” Mom said.

“This isn’t good, I guess we are just lucky nopony else saw them down there. Also, do you know what happened to the Overmare? I heard she was in Medical and she’s not doing well.”

“Vervain, I lost control and did something bad. The Overmare isn’t going to make it through the night. By tomorrow Wildfire is going to be the new Overmare and once she is, she’ll start doing whatever she can to get Shadow and myself thrown out of here,” Mom said.

Auntie gasped, “Grim, what did you do?”

“I’ll tell you about it later, right now I need to do what I can to help my daughter. Once I’m done with that, I’m going to have to start preparing to leave.”

“Leave? Why?” Auntie asked.

“Vervain! Listen, right now I need you to go get the Mark II and start setting it up for a new user. Hide the files on it just like we talked about, we may only have a few days to do this, a week if I’m lucky.”

“Grim it could take me months to do that.”

“Try to do what you can, I’ll contact The Elder once I’m done with Shadow and let her know what’s going on.”

“Fine, but try your best to stay out of Wildfire’s radar, you know she hates you,” Auntie said.

As they talked, I started to pass out again. The last thing I felt was mom casting another spell over me saying quietly, “I hope that one day you’ll forgive me for this Shadow…it’s for your own good.”

I woke blinking slowly as I looked up at the bright yet cloudy sky. That dream was no dream at all. It was another memory that I’d forgotten because of mom. Facet had been a fun filly in my class, popular and very smart, she had always been a little bitchy when I first came to the stable, but she had started to like me as time went on. Before I’d gotten that memory back, I had thought she died in an accident just like every pony else in Stable 28. It happened on the same night the Overmare died. Tinker had been so sad, a month before his wife had died in an explosion that happened on the second level of R&D. He’d lost his wife and child within one month, yet he had always stayed a kind stallion.

The loss of Facet had almost driven him mad, he was out of his workshop for a whole month during this time, leaving his young apprentice to run the Pip-Buck repair stall while he grieved. When he came back to work, he was a lot quieter, but he always took time for the fillies and colts when we came to talk to him about Pip-Buck’s. I felt sad because now I knew that Facet hadn’t died because of something she’d done, she’d died because of me. I lost control of my magic for only a moment and a young filly who hadn’t yet turned eight, died because of it. I always thought the first pony I ever killed was that raider mare and her two friends under the bridge the first day out of Stable 28, but it wasn’t. Facet had been the first pony to die because of me.

Slowly I got up and looked back at Aura who was laying behind me, softly snoring. Her beak was slightly open and she kept twitching, almost like she was in the middle of some kind of fight or maybe something else. I moved my head down and kissed her cheek then walked over to the now dead fire and sat next to it. No pony else was up yet so I took the time to pull out mom’s spell book and started reading about memory spells again. So far, I’d been able to get through about ten of the spells, I couldn’t preform them, but I didn’t need to. I was mostly looking for something that matched the kind of memory loss mom was suffering from.

I was just starting to read about memory extraction when I heard the tired voice of Oricalcos coming from my saddle bags, “Why are you up so early Star? You really should get as much rest as you can.”

Reaching into my saddle bags I pulled out the gem that he was still trapped in, “I’m not tried and I really need to see if I can find what’s wrong with mom in this book.”

The gem started to pulse with black light as he spoke, “I don’t think you’ll find what’s wrong with Grim in there.”

Looking back up from the book I asked, “Why?”

“Because I don’t think the report about what happened is true. None of her symptoms match any memory spell I know.”

“Maybe she knew more than you did,” I said going back to reading.

He laughed, “Star, I know more memory spells than Grim does, she was just better at casting them than me. All of the spells in that book she got from me when I was teaching her. The reason I said that is because she shows signs of random memory loss. You see if she had lost her memory because she was hit with a spell that took away the memories of the one you loved most, then she should have forgotten everything about you. She wouldn’t have remembered that she even had a daughter.”

“She did forget about me, for all I know you filled her in on most of what she knows.”

“I filled her in on the fact that you died, because that’s what she told me when she left Stable 28. When I first found her after she lost her memories she remembered everything up until the day she went to Stargazer. That however wasn’t the strange part, after that point her memories were scattered and strange, she never remembered going into Stable 28, but she remembered a mare she knew did and that she took the Mark II with her. She had some memories of traveling the wasteland as she did, but as if she was a different pony. She had memories of going to Manehattan and Baltimare, but she never remembered seeing her old Lover Striker there. It was like anything that had to do with you or her mission was cut into pieces and some of her memories replaced with false ones,” he said.

“Wait a moment…how would a memory spell like that work?” I asked.

“It wouldn’t, at least not with a spell that back fired on her like is reported. I honestly think that some kind of artifact was used on her, something with enough power to get past her protection spells.”

“So, there isn’t any way to fix what’s wrong with here in this,” I said setting the book down.”

“I didn’t say that, it can’t hurt for you to still try and learn what you can. Your mother’s spell book has a lot of useful things, not just memory spells, that may help you in the future, it may even have a spell that can help you put her mind right,” he said with a sigh, “I could even teach you some if I wasn’t stuck in this blasted crystal.”

“Wait a second, when Sherbert trapped you in there she said something about Grim’s notes about you being right? What if the spell she used to trap you in that is one of mom’s spells?”

He was quiet for a moment then he said, “Grim was the only pony who knew almost as much about shadow magic as myself. She would have had knowledge on what to do if she ever needed to trap me.”

I started looking through the spell book, so far, I had only been looking at the spells that had to do with memory magic. As I flipped through the pages I finally came to one that looked like it was the one I needed. It was titled ‘Dark Soul Trap’ so I started to read.

In light of what I’ve seen of my brother’s power and how dark his soul is becoming due to his transformations, I’ve started to look into the same kind of dark magic he’s using. Ignoring the stuff about how to control the magic and the steps he had to take to get the body he has now, I found old zebra magic that can be used to trap a pony like him in a crystal. The crystal has to be as clear as possible, imbued with a small amount of light magic and last you need to put an ancient zebra glyph for Entrapment, into the crystal. Once this is done you cast a spell of entrapment and pull the shadow into the crystal itself. Once that’s is done he will not be able to get out on his own, at least for a long time. The light magic inside the crystal will keep him weak.

In case I need to trap him in this way but don’t want him stuck in there for too long then I have also made sure that there is a way to release a shadow once it’s been captured. I’m recording the spell for both in here just in case I ever need to use them in the future…

I read the next two lines, the spell for both trapping and releasing were both simple. I could do it with no problem, “Uncle Ori, I think I can get you out of there.”

“Are you sure?” he asked, his voice sounding hopeful.

“The spell to pull you out doesn’t look hard at all. It’s a simple spell of release,” I said.

“Then I think you should try to get me out of here. I will be a lot more useful to you if I’m freed rather than trapped in this thing.”

Placing the crystal down next to the dead fire I started to concentrate my magic on the crystal itself. According to her notes, I had to try and feel for Oricalcos’s power. Since his body was nothing but living dark magic all I had to do was find it in the depths of the crystal and pull it out, using the spell in her notes to open the lock on the crystal itself to let darkness pass through. Closing my eyes, I started to sift through his power. At first all I could feel with my magic was a warm pulsing light. The light seemed to fill my mind’s eye giving off a pleasant sense of peace. At first, I wanted to just let my mind enjoy the feeling then I remembered that I had to look for my uncle’s power.

So, I dug further and pushed my magic through the crystal’s depths, at first the sense of peace and warmth grew stronger. But as I went deeper a sudden chill seemed to appear around me, like a slight cold breeze hitting you in the face right after you got out of a nice hot shower. I focused on that feeling, delving even deeper into that dark cold space within the crystal. It started get colder, I could feel the darkness starting to surround me taking away all feeling leaving nothing but hopelessness. The further I went the worse the feeling grew, I started to think to myself, ‘You can’t do this,’ ‘It’s hopeless,’ ‘I’m too weak.’ I had to ignore the feelings if I wanted this spell to work.

Finally, once I reached a place within the darkness that was so cold I could barely stand it, I felt a spark of life. To my mind’s eye it was like looking at a small ember barely visible in the darkest of nights. A small red and white light in a sea of black. I reached out and took hold of the small speck of light, as soon as I did I could feel emotions pouring out of it like a flood. The speck of light was feeling fear, pain, anger, and sadness all at the same time. This light in a sea of black despair could only be one thing. It has to be the small speck of light that was left of my uncle’s soul. As I held on to it, something I read once came back to me. Darkness cannot exist without light and light no matter how bright will always cast a shadow, giving a place for darkness to thrive. In all darkness there is light and, in all light, there is darkness.

I couldn’t help but smile as I thought about that. Even a monster like my uncle had a speck of good within his sea of dark. Maybe there was hope for him. He just needs to find his way back to the light. If I could help this small amount of light grow, maybe he’d be a lot happier. It’s funny that even as I thought that, I remembered what he did to Silver. Could he ever be forgiven for that sin, for that disgusting act of hatred? Maybe not, but I’d have to try. Wrapping the speck of light and the surrounding darkness within my magic’s hold, I started to pull it out of the crystal. As I did I cast the spell to unlock the seal keeping him trapped within.

As I finished I opened my eyes and saw the crystal shaking on the ground, the blackness within growing stronger. Then with a loud crack and a flash of light, the crystal broke and the shadow inside poured out. A moment later the shadow formed itself into a pony shape with dark purple eyes and a violet horn. He looked at me and said, “Thank you for helping me get out of there Shadow.”

“It’s the least I could do.”

The eyes fell as he said, “You could have left me in there for a long time if you wanted. I would’ve deserved it too.”

“Maybe so, but I have a feeling that you’re trying to do something good for a change uncle Ori. You may not know it, but deep down there is still a little bit of good left.”

He chuckled a little, “Your mother used to say the same thing, though I’m not sure there is. Every year I seem to fall further into the hatred and despair this body puts on my mind. It’s another price of taking on this form.”

“I…is there any way to get your body back?”

He looked at me again, this time his eyes looked curious, “There is only one way for me to get my body back. I would have to break the deal I made with the darkness.”

“Deal with the darkness? What does that even mean? What deal?” I asked, utterly confused.

“When you were hurt and almost dead I knew the Enclave would come after me. Nightshade was going to make sure I was executed for my crimes, he never liked me and when you were hurt he wasn’t going to risk it happening again. So, I did the only thing I could think of to make sure I could live long enough to find a cure for you.”

I looked at him confused, “What do you mean Uncle Ori?”

“I opened a gate to a place called Tartarus where Celestia and Luna imprisoned many dark creatures that tried to take over Equestria. One of them is known as the lord of darkness, his name is Mezzanotte. He is the one who first made dark magic and controls it. I offered him my body as payment for this power I have now. If I was to break our deal I would be returned to my old body and my old power…and I’d die.”

“Why would getting your old body back kill you?”

“I gave my body up almost sixteen years ago Shadow, I doubt it’s in any condition to survive if I got it back.”

“I guess I can understand that, so what was this deal you made?” I asked.

“There were two parts to this deal. Part one was that I would give my body up for power, but you already knew that part. The other part of the deal was that I would help Grim find and activate an old project of The Children of the Night. So far, I haven’t said I will not help my sister with this goal, so the deal is still valid. As soon as I turn my back fully on her, my deal will be broken and I will most likely die.”

“So sooner or later you’ll have to decide between helping me or helping mom?”

He nodded, “Indeed, an impossible choice. It’s truly a matter of life or death.”

“What do you think you’ll do when that time comes.”

I saw a crease appear in the shadow’s head almost like a cocky smile, “I think you know which I’ll chose Star,” he said turning back into a smear of darkness and merged with my shadow.

I sighed and went back to looking at my mother’s spell book trying not to think about the fate that awaited my uncle in the future. Right now, I’d just do my best to figure out the memory spells. Maybe there wasn’t something in here that could help her, but even if there wasn’t I’d still have to try. If I couldn’t fix her memory, then maybe I’d be able to take everything away from her. With no memory at all, maybe there’d be a small chance I could at least explain to her who she is.

I flipped through the pages more, moving past the memory spells and trying to see what else I could learn from her spell book. I know I should be doing my research, but my mind wasn’t in the mood right now. Some chapters revolved around war magic, others had to do with healing, a few had to do with Transfiguration, there was one spell that made it so a unicorn could walk on clouds. That could be quite useful if I ever had to go up to Stratus, I’ll have to remember to try and learn that spell.

Finally, I reached the end of the book, I was just about to close it until I saw something written there, ‘Property of Minuette’, “So, this is how mom learned so much about magic. Most of the spells in here are Minuette’s I bet mom just added a few of her own notes and spells when she had it.”

I would have gone back to reading and working on the memory spells more, but just then my friends started to wake up. So, I closed the book and placed it back into my saddle bags. There would be time later to learn what I needed too, as I said before, mom wasn’t at the top of my list of crap I had to deal with. For now, I’d do my best to be happy with my friends. We’ll have breakfast, talk a little as we eat, then continue on toward Crossroad’s Trading Post.

“Look I can see it!” Wingnut said jumping up and down as he walked in front of me, “About time, I’m sick of walking!”

“Calm down kid, we’re still a little way from it,” Aura said as she lazily flew in over us. She was the look out now, giving both Stardust and Wind Thrasher a break.

“Yeah, I know, but at least I can see it now.”

“At least you won’t have to keep a look out anymore Aura, we should be safe now that we are close to Crossroads Trading Post,” I said.

“I don’t care if we are a few feet away from it, you never know when somepony is going to attack you,” Aura said flying a little higher.

“Or some monster,” Stardust said yawning, “Though I doubt we’ll see much trouble around here. The NLR keeps this area safe for the Caravans.”

“But with what’s been going on around here since we left for The Twin Cities that may not be true anymore,” Wind Thrasher said her ears perked up listening for something, “I swear I keep hearing something, in the distance, but I can’t be sure.”

Aura looked down at Wind Thrasher saying, “You’re probably hearing the Fire Ants that live around here. They don’t come out much during the day, but I know they have tunnels throughout this area. You’re probably hearing them moving around under us.”

“I don’t know Aura, it sounds kind of like hooves,” she said, “What if there are raiders around here?”

I laughed, “I haven’t seen a raider since Cartwheel, I don’t think we have to worry about them this close to NLR territory, we are right at the boarder of NLR, Steel Ranger and Roman lands. Raiders wouldn’t be stupid enough to come near this area, bugs I’d believe, but not raiders.”

We were just walking past a billboard that had fallen down but was still facing us with a big picture of Pinkie Pie on it saying ‘Pinkie Pie is ALWAYS Watching’ when the Wasteland had to show me just how wrong I was. Eight dirty ponies ran out from behind the billboard, all in patched metal armor and carrying guns that looked ready to fall apart. They blocked the road all aiming their weapons at us.

Aura landed in front of us holding her spear ready for a fight. My friends and I weren’t far behind in drawing our own weapons. As we did a big mean looking mare with a matted mane giggled to herself as she said, “Look what we have here, a few ponies and a griffon traveling our roads all alone.”

“Move it before I slice you into tiny chunks,” Aura said.

She looked over at Aura still giggling, her eyes were bloodshot and a bit of foam seemed to be at the edges of her muzzle, “Move? Why would I ever do that. You see griffon, this is my road, if you want to pass you’ll have to pay a toll.”

“It’s only eight nut jobs, let’s just kill them and move on,” Stardust said.

“Um…Stardust…” Wind Thrasher started to say.

“What Wind Thrasher?”

“There’s more than eight,” she said twitching an ear back toward the way we came.

Looking back, I saw ten more blocking the road. Where the hell did they come from? And how the hell did Wind Thrasher not hear them before? I sighed then asked Wind Thrasher, “Is that all of them?”

She shrugged, “I don’t know why, but I couldn’t hear them. I only knew they were there because I can just make out their heart beats, but only because they are so close now.”

The mare who spoke before giggled louder, she pulled back her dirty matted mane and I saw a horn, “Little spell of mine, keeps my underlings quiet so that way nopony can hear them while we sneak up on them. Useful spell don’t you think?”

“Very,” I said sarcastically, “Fine you said it’s a toll road so how many caps?” I asked, not in the mood to deal with this nut job or her friends.

She giggled louder still, her friends joining, “Who said anything about Caps? We don’t need caps when we can take what we want. No, you see if you want to pass we want three things. All of your weapons, your armor, and that colt traveling with you.”

“No way you're getting any of that from us, especially Wingnut. Why would you want him anyway?” I asked.

She licked her lips slowly her eyes getting bigger, “Foals are so ever so much fun to play with. I love to use them as my fun little toys before killing them, they are ever so tasty when they are so young.”

“You’re sick,” Wingnut spoke out.

She cackled crazily, “What can I say?” she smirked, “I get bored easily and I need to eat after such a work out.”

“So, you’re not just raiders or bandits, you’re cannibals too,” I said.

“Oooooooh, I do so hate the word…Cannibal…I prefer to be called a mare with exotic taste. I am of course speaking for myself, my buddies around me could care less about what they’re called,” she said licking her lips again.

“Oh Yeah? You’re still a sick freak and being a FUCKING CANNIBAL proves it,” Wingnut said.

The smile on her face fell making her looked ever worse, “Nopony calls me a freak, you know what fuck it,” she cackled again, “I was going to let the rest of you go if you gave me what I wanted, instead…everypony, kill them all,” she cackled one more time

I didn’t give them the chance to get a shot off. Trusting my friends, I fired my Plasma rifle at one of the ponies in front of us. He was blasted back into another one of his comrades as the crazed mare jumped out of the way firing her own weapon at Aura who was trying to attack her. I heard Wind Thrasher’s ear-splitting scream from behind me, she must have gone for the ponies to our rear. One of the stallions came at me with a spiked hoofball bat. I ducked under the blow twisted around and pressed the barrel of my plasma rifle under his chin. His head exploded as I pulled the trigger, showering the ground in bits of blood and bone.

Another pony slammed into me, spiked horseshoes dug into my barding. The blows hurt, but my barding was too strong for his rusty spikes to do any damage. I kicked backwards and felt my hoof connect with something soft. I heard an intake of breath and a small squeak from the stallion and a moment later he rolled off me. Looking back, I saw him holding onto his stallion hood, ow. I pulled out my sword and sank it deep into his chest, piercing his heart. Pulling the sword free I looked around and saw a mare aiming a shot gun at me. I teleported before she got a shot off, when I reappeared I swapped out my plasma rifle for the shot gun I found in Stable 97. The mare twisted around and found the barrel pressed against her chest.

I smiled and pulled the trigger, the shot gun was so powerful, I almost lost hold of it with my magic. The damage it did was amazing, it tore right through her rusty metal armor and blew a hole in her torso. She fell, blood pooling under her as she gasped out her last breath, a look of utter agony on her face. A bullet slammed into by barding, causing another bruise to my ribs. I winced and turned to see another mare firing a varmint rifle toward me. I dodged her next shot and ran closer to fire. She was blasted off her hooves by the shot, the buck shot chewing through her armor like paper. I left her to scream and squirm as she bled out.

Looking back toward Aura I saw that she was still trying to fight the unicorn mare. I was kind of surprised that the mare was still alive, not many ponies could stand up to Aura for this long, especially a raider. Then I saw why Aura hadn’t taken her down yet, when Aura got close and tried to behead the mare, she would teleport out of the way. She maybe a crazy cannibal, but she knew some good spells. From what I knew of the wasteland, not many unicorns could teleport at all and even fewer could do it multiple times. I was just about to go help Aura when a pool cue slammed into my face.

I fell back and took another blow to the face as a stallion that was almost as big as Night Stalker stood over me, “Hehehe why aren’t you a pretty little thing.”

“Damn right I am,” I yelled aiming the shot gun up at him.

He slammed his pool cue into the shot gun a moment before I fired it. The blast missed by a hair. He moved to slam the pool cue into my face again, when a bullet passed through the side of his head. For a moment his body just stood there then it slowly toppled to the side. I looked toward where the bullet had come from and saw Wingnut standing there reloading Ol’ Festus. He winked at me and I saw another raider rushing behind Wingnut, I was about to say something but Wingnut ducked underneath the raider causing them to fly over the colt. I heard Ol’Festus go off again hitting the flying raider in the chest their lifeless body hitting ground next to me. He smiled and ran to go help Aura.

I got back to my hooves and looked around for more raiders, but the only two left were writhing in agony as Wind Thrasher screamed at them. Stardust aimed his rifle and fired twice, killing both. That’s when I heard a yell from Wingnut, “Let me go you ugly cow!”

Looking back to where Aura had been fighting the mare. She had pinned Wingnut to the ground and was pressing a chipped and rusty knife to his throat. Aura was a few feet away saying, “You better let him go bitch!”

“Hehehehe I’m going to bleed this yummy looking colt dry and there’s nothing you can do about it Griffon,” she started to laughed her horn glowing brighter as she readied herself to slit the colts throat.

I was just starting to ready my teleportation spell when a blast of air flew over the mare throwing her off Wingnut. Her body rolled then stopped right in front of Aura. Aura didn’t hesitate, she lifted her spear and sank the tip into the mare’s head. Once she pulled it out she looked over at Wingnut yelling, “You okay kid?”

He got back to his hooves, “Yeah, who the hell blew her off me?”

A filly with a bright white coat and an electric blue mane done up in twin pony tails came walking down the road, an odd-looking gun in her muzzle. She holstered it yelling down at Wingnut, “Now we’re even stupid Bug.”

Wingnut’s ears fell as he said, “Dammit not her. I’m gonna go kill myself now.”

With the rest of the raiders down I walked over to Cookie Byte, “Hey Byte, thanks for the quick save. What are you doing out here?”

She looked over at me with that expression of boredom I’d forgotten she always seemed to have on her face, “Oh look you’re still alive, I’m surprised. Well if you must know, Rusty got to Crossroads Trading post early and it’s boring there so I thought I’d go check out what’s around this dump.”

“Little far from Crossroads to be just wandering around kid,” Aura said as she put her spear back on her back.

“Looks like you got your gravity gun fixed,” I said.

She rolled her eyes, “It wasn’t broken before, it was just too powerful and used a lot of power. I’m still tweaking it, but I still have to replace the power gem on it after four or five shots. I did however figure out a way to bring down the power of each shot, so that’s good at least.”

“Hey who’s this little filly?” Stardust asked, kneeling down and getting face to face with her, “Where’s your parents? Don’t you know it’s dangerous out here for a little thing like you?”

Her eyes flared and a moment later she twisted around and bucked Stardust right in the face, “Bite me ass hole. I can take care of myself.”

Stardust backed up rubbing his bruised nose with a hoof, “Damn she’s feisty.”

Wind Thrasher was doing her best to keep out of sight behind Stardust. I just rolled my eyes, “Stardust this is Cookie Byte, she’s the niece of Rusty Shackles who runs Trotston,” I looked back at Byte, “Why are you out here, I didn’t think Rusty would let you join him for this meeting.”

She laughed, “He wouldn’t leave me behind, he thinks that if he’s gone for a day or two and doesn’t take me with him, he’ll come home to find half the town destroyed or his house on fire. Pfft, I blow up my room one time just because I crossed the two wires when I was making a new type of laser rifle and he loses all trust in me.”

“O…kay, so why are you out here again?” I asked.

“Like I said I was bored so I went exploring, didn’t think I’d run into you and a bunch of stupid raiders,” Byte said, “So I’m guessing you’re on your way to meet Rusty for his meeting with The Annihilator’s.”

“Yep, he asked me to help with the meeting, so here I am.”

“Well at least this day won’t be as boring as I thought it would be. Come on, Crossroads Trading Post isn’t far, oh and if I were you I’d grab as much crap from those raiders before somepony else does,” Byte said starting to walk back toward Crossroads.

Wingnut was already doing that, I guess he’d rather do some work than spend more than a few seconds with Byte. She hadn’t even gone a few feet before she turned back and yelled, “Hey Wingnut you coming or not!?”

Aura, Wind Thrasher and myself started to giggle as a bright blush appeared on his face, “I’m BUSY!”

“No you’re not, let’ the adults grab the crap, I want to show you something so hurry up.”

“Yeah Wingnut you better hurry before your mare friend gets mad,” Aura teased.

“She’s not my MAREFRIEND!” he said glaring at Aura.

“Awwww, come on Wingnut, she’s so cute,” I teased as well.

“I hate you all,” he said trotting past us muttering under his breath. I noticed that when he looked back at us and thought we weren’t watching, his ears perked up and he trotted a little faster, a small spring in his step.

Aura, Wind Thrasher, Stardust and myself started to go through the bodies. As we did Aura said, “He really likes her.”

“You think so?” Stardust asked looking back at Aura.

“Of course he does, he is just too embarrassed to say it,” I said as I pulled a bag of caps from the unicorn mares saddle bags, “Damn for a mare who didn’t care about caps she sure had a shit ton.”

Wind Thrasher looked over at me, “How much?”

“My Pip-Buck said two thousand,” I said looking down at the Mark II’s notification.

“Damn that will help a lot, we were running low,” Aura said as she collected some ammo and put it in her own bags, “We can restock our medical supplies and ammo when we got to Crossroads.”

“Good idea.” I said as I finished with the last body, “I think that’s it, should we go catch up to the two foals?”

“Yeah, I don’t like having Wingnut out of my sight for too long. That kid has knack for getting into trouble almost as bad as you do Shadow,” Aura said with a quick giggle.

We all started back down the road, the two forms of Byte and Wingnut just visible in the distance. It only took us another ten minutes to reach Crossroad’s Trading Post. It was nothing more than an overpass with shops set up all over the place, a few tents and the flag of the NLR flying over it. There were a few caravans to one side being guarded by a few ponies and a couple of griffons. I could see what looked like shacks set up under the overpass and there were NLR tents set up on the other side of the overpass. Even though it didn’t look like much, it was busy with ponies moving from shop to shop and goods were being traded like crazy.

“Damn, not really what I expected,” I said as we got closer, I saw an NLR solider standing guard next to the road that lead up to the Overpass.

“What did you expect? A huge settlement with walls and ponies everywhere?” Aura asked.

“Um…I don’t know, but I mean this is just an overpass.”

“Why do you think it’s called Crossroads?” she said with a chuckle as the NLR Guard came walking toward us.

“Welcome to the NLR Crossroad’s Trading Post, what is your business here?” he said sounding bored.

“I have business here, I’m meeting the leader of Trotston and the Red Talons,” I said.

He yawned, “Rusty’s sitting over at the Cantina right now, no Red Talons have shown up yet. You can go join him if you wish, but remember that no weapons are allowed to be drawn while you are within the Trading Post.”

“No problem,” I said trotting past him with my friends.

I’d just made it past when he seemed to wake up a little, “Wait are you The Courier?”

Without stopping I said, “Yep.”

“I can’t believe it took him that long to realize who you were,” Stardust said trotting next to me.

I just shrugged, “Not like I care if he knows who I am or not. I’m here to do a job not chat about the things I’ve done around here.”

I walked over to where I saw a few tables set up next to an outdoor bar. A cute older unicorn mare with a blue coat and a curly black mane was serving a couple of stallions drinks. She looked over at me as I came closer and winked at me. Not knowing why, she did this I couldn’t help but blush a little and smiled shyly before making my way over to where Rusty was sitting with Byte and Wingnut.

“Ah there you are Shadow, it’s nice to see you again,” Rusty said with a small smile, “And who is this Stallion you have with you?”

“This is my friend Stardust, the one who was taken by the Enclave when I met you before,” I said taking a seat across from him as my friends took the rest of the seats.

“Ah yes, I’m happy to see that you were able to save him from the clutches of The Enclave,” Rusty said.

“I’d be happy to tell you all about it later, right now I’m here for a job. You asked me to come help with the negotiations. Why was that?” I asked.

He frowned a little, “Well for one, you are the only pony around who has been able to meet with both the leaders of Trotston and The Annihilators. I have quite a lot of Trust in you after you helped keep me alive when I was attacked a couple weeks back, and I’m guessing Javelin has some trust in you as well if she was willing to ask you to help her set this up. I also needed to speak with you about a small matter regarding the Mark II, but we can deal with that after this meeting.”

Aura rolled her eyes, “Why not talk to her about it now? The meeting doesn’t start for a few hours.”

“Well…I guess you are right, but what I have to say isn’t good news. Honestly I’m risking a lot speaking of it here.”

“Just spit it out Rusty,” I said.

He sighed, “Fine, you see Trotston is having a problem with the Steel Rangers as of late. Normally we wouldn’t worry so much because our defenses have been able to keep them away from our town for fifteen years now.”

“Yeah, and I still say you shouldn’t have to worry about those bucket heads, they can’t get into Trotston,” Byte said in a huff.

“Yeah, I was under the same impression, or did something happen?” I asked Rusty.

“You could say that, you see I got a message from an Elder Sapphire a few days ago. It came from the other Mark II, the one I thought was still in Stable 9. Here I’ll show you what she sent,” he said bringing up his Pip-Buck and playing an audio file.

It started out with a mechanical voice “Message from Pip-Buck Mark II SL, directly sent to Pip-Buck Mark II AB. Please stand by…”

Then I heard the Voice of Sapphire come out of his Pip-Buck, “Rusty Shackles leader of Trotston. I am Elder Sapphire Stone of the Hidden Sands Steel Rangers. I am sending you this message to give you a chance to give us the Mark II you have in your possession. Our branch of the Steel Rangers has let your city thrive with the Tech you have stolen from Stable 34 for twenty years now. We haven’t tried very hard in the past to take what is rightfully ours, not because of the defenses your city has, but because our former Elder’s didn’t want to risk the lives of our rangers to deal with you. This is no longer the case, you have a Pip-Buck that shouldn’t be in the hooves of ponies who have no idea how dangerous it can be. Right now, there are only Three that we know of, one is with us, the other with the Courier, and the last is with you. You have five days to remove your Mark II, leaving all of its data intact and given it to my Knights. If you fail to do this I will send every Knight and Paladin to Trotston to show you how little your walls mean to us. Trust me when I say we have enough fire power to take down your entire city. Now I am not an unfair mare, if you do as I ask we will leave Trotston alone and never both you again. We will let Trotston keep on trading the tech you have now without taking anything for ourselves if we get that Mark II. Think long and hard about this offer Rusty Shackles, remember there is more than one way for us to get what we want and we will get what we want. I’m sure you don’t want your little niece to suffer the same fate that your sister did. I do hope you make the right choice.”

The recording cut out, I looked up at him a little chilled from what I heard, still not able to believe I was hearing that right, “There’s no way Sapphire would ever hurt fillies or colts. She’s not that kind of mare.”

“I don’t know this mare, but I have to take this threat as if it was true. Normally I wouldn’t worry so much, but from what I’ve been hearing about the movements of the Steel Rangers as of late, I’m not so sure we can stand up to them like I thought before,” Rusty said.

“How much longer do you have to give them your Mark II?” Wind Thrasher asked.

He sighed, “Tomorrow’s the deadline and I don’t know what I can do to stop them.”

“I wonder why Sapphire wants the Mark II, she already has the one you gave them from Stable 9,” Stardust said.

“No idea, but if she wants it that bad, then there has to be a reason for it. There’s more going on here and I don’t like it,” I said thinking hard on what to do.

“Neither do I,” Rusty said, “I’ve been trying to think of anything I can do to stop her from taking down my city.”

“I may have an idea or two, but let me think on it. We have a day to figure this out, in the meantime I think we should take care of this meeting. Maybe one of the Red Talons will have an idea. I’ll ask them when they get here,” I said.

“I guess it’s the best we can do, at least for now,” Rusty said leaning back in his seat.

We all sat there for a long time, none of us talking as time slowly slipped by. Finally, I said, “While we wait, why don’t you tell me what really happened between Trotston and The Annihilators.”

The look on his face was one of a Stallion who’s been caught in a lie, “What do you mean? I told you before that it all started over a lover’s quall.”

Byte slammed her hoof on the table and yelled, “Damn it Rusty, she came all this way here to help you and you’re going to just sit here and lie to her about how this whole thing started?”

“Yeah Rusty if you really want our help you better spill,” Stardust said with his signature grin.

“Fine…” Rusty said with a sigh, “You remember when I told you about my sister right?”

“Yeah, she was the one who had my Mark II before my mom stole it,” I said.

“That’s right. Well this whole thing started because of my sister, the Stallion she loved, and Cookie Byte…”

Bookworm:It seems you read a lot of books but only get average benefit, let’s change that. From now on when you read books you gain +2 to your S.P.E.C.I.A.L. attribute and gain an extra 10% to skills when reading a skill magazine.