“Soon Shadow…Soon! Hahahahahahaha!”
Aura reached down and pulled the dart out, “What do you mean The Sins? I thought they were disbanded and the ones that were left ran off to Los Alicorn.”
“Envy was the bar pony. He never went rogue like we thought. He set up a trap, he was with Lust, a new Wrath and my mom. Aura…they took Oricalcos! My mom, she has some kind of new spell that was able to trap him. I tried to save him, but he told me to let him go. I didn’t know what to do Aura!” if I could move my body I would have curled into a ball.
Aura was looking at the dart she’d pulled out of me, “Hmmm, this looks like Rad Scorpion venom. So, they wanted to paralyze you instead of kill you? That’s weird because normally they’d try to kill you.”
“Aura didn’t you hear me? They took my Uncle.”
She reached into her saddle bags digging for something, “I heard you and I’m sorry that happened, but Oricalcos can take care of himself. If he told you to let them take him, then I’m sure he has a plan. Honestly, I’m not that upset that he’s gone. Just his presence alone gave me chills.”
“Aura, he’s been trying to protect me. How could you say that?”
She pulled out a syringe, “Easy, because family is too much work, you of anyone should know that. All I care about at the moment is helping you. Also having him around worried me, he was a Sin after all,” she injected me with whatever was in the syringe, probably some anti-venom “There, you should be able to start moving in a minute. Just don’t start swinging. I have a right to an opinion.”
She was right, I could already feel tingles running up my body, “I need to go after him.”
“Whoa-whoa-whoa hell the fuck no, we aren’t doing that again. Trust that he’ll be able to deal with your mom and her pet idiots. He told you to let him go right? So then let him deal with this, you have your own things to worry about right now. Stop obsessing over your mom and her bullshit. Didn’t you say you were not gonna deal with your family issues anymore!” Aura yelled.
“But…”
“Didn’t you?!”
I looked away not speaking a word. I knew she was right. I did say that after all, but my emotions are really hard to control right now, I don’t know maybe some of whatever Lust did to me had a part in it.
“Fuck’s sake Shadow, for once you need to let it go. You can’t do anything about it. The world is full of shit you can’t help. Rapes, kidnappings, enslavement, murder, and death are just five of the hundreds or possibly thousands of horrible things that happen in The Wasteland every day and there’s no one there to stop it. Just because you think you’re some kind of superhero to a lot of folks in The Wasteland doesn’t mean you can save everybody. Instead of being depressed because you lost your Uncle, how about you fill me in on what happened here? Why didn’t they take you with them if they were able to drug you? How the hell did all of those NLR ponies die?” she asked looking over at the piles of mutilated bodies lying limp as if dying mid-fight.
“I…really don’t understand why they left me, they said something about needing me to do something first. Mom also said that she knew I’d go to Los Alicorn to find her and Oricalcos. As for what happened to the NLR, it was Lust. I have no idea what she did, but somehow, she forced them all to kill each other, until only one was left. Then she just told him to prove his love to her by killing himself…and…he did it,” I said the memory still fresh in my mind. The sight of those ponies slaughtering each other for no reason was terrifying.
Aura looked sick at the very thought of it, “Damn, I had no idea anypony could do something like that.
“Yeah it was like she hypnotized them into doing her bidding. I guess it’s like you said, I can’t save everyone,” I said.
“I got it from a comic book somewhere, even comic books have good advice. Anyhow, we should go tell the Captain back at their camp, she should know about this. C’mon, you can tell me everything while we walk back.”
“Okay, let’s go.”
When she got a better look at my face she winced and took a step back, “Shadow what happened to you?”
“Huh, what do you mean!? Is my face gone!!?? I swear to Celestia if I’m in another one of my fucked-up dreams I’m gonna scream. I promise I feel fine!!!” I said feeling my face with a hoof, but everything felt normal.
She dug in her saddle bags again and pulled out a small mirror, “Look.”
Taking it with my magic I looked at my face, my eyes going wide. As before when I stopped using Aquila’s power my coat and main went back to their normal hue. This time though something must’ve gone wrong. There was a streak of black running through my silver mane, over my right eye there was a patch of my coat that remained white. It was like a bit of her was showing itself. Showing the world that she was part of me and taking over. Was this what she meant when she said I’d regret going into my own mind and taking her power for myself?
I gave the mirror back feeling a little freaked, “It must have something to do with using Aquila’s power. She’s taking over and I look like a lopsided spotted freak.”
“Then I want you to stop using it, I don’t care how powerful it makes you. If you’re going lose yourself to her because of that power, then I don’t want you risking it. Oh, and one more thing, worry more about her than how you look. I won’t put up with another OCD explosion like that time in New Pegasus.”
“I’ll do my best, but if I need it, I’m not going to let any of you get hurt because I’m too scared to use the power I have.”
“You’ve done fine without it for two months, I think you’ll be fine. Just please don’t let her get more of a hold on you. Evil and insane don’t mix with that kind of power, if she gets out it’s fuckin’ game over,” Aura said.
“It may not even be about her at all Aura. I used to look different when I was younger, this could just be me going back to the way I used to look.”
“I’d rather not risk it,” Aura said walking back over to me and putting a talon on my shoulder, “Come on let’s go.”
“Fine,” I followed her back toward Crossroads Trading Post. As we started walking back I saw something shining a few feet away. With a small smile I picked up my sword that had gone flying away when I was fighting Envy. It may have been a fucked-up day, but at least I didn’t lose this. Silver linings I guess.
***
It took most of the walk back to explain to Aura what happened after I left Crossroads Trading Post and the fight that broke out. She was shocked when I told her what Envy was. I personally didn’t know much about Changelings because our school in Stable 28 didn’t talk about them at all. When I was still with mom she told me a little about them, mostly saying that most of them died during the war. The ones who didn’t were hiding somewhere in southern Equestria. I always thought they were a story that mom told to scare me away from wandering The Wasteland. In the long run it didn’t do much good, I wander The Wasteland all the time. It’s also probably why I never thought about Envy’s powers being that of a Changeling.
Aura was even more worried about the strange abilities of Lust. The only thing she could think of that would make ponies do what she said was mind control, but a pegasus shouldn’t be able to do that. It was almost impossible for even a gifted unicorn to be able to control another’s mind. There was more to her power, there had to be. Either way, we’d have to be careful if we ever fought Lust. I should’ve known that anyway, you don’t become a Sin because they liked you, Oricalcos made sure all of his underlings had some kind of gift that made them deadly. Gluttony could eat just about anything he wanted to, and he was stronger than a fat pony should be. Wrath was a gifted unicorn when it came to his telekinesis and his teleportation, he was also a very good sniper. Sloth is a pony that was experimented on by The Enclave making him faster and stronger than anypony alive, though he used up his energy quickly. Now we had Lust who could somehow get ponies to do what she wanted. Greed is an expert hoof to hoof fighter and has an armor that was almost impossible to penetrate. Pride was a living shadow that knew darker magic than anypony in history. Last, Envy is a Changeling that could take on the form and some abilities of whatever he wanted, and is an excellent fighter. Every one of the original team of The Seven Sins of Equinity were special. I wonder what’s so special about that new Wrath. He can’t just be a good sniper, that’s too unoriginal for my mother. Something else is at play with him, something strange.
I wanted to go talk to my friends first about what happened with The Sins, but Aura suggested we talk to The Captain who was in command of the camp next to Crossroads Trading Post. So that’s what we did, she was already heading into Crossroads when we arrived, luckily, she was nice and didn’t blame me for the deaths of her soldiers. She did however ask that I visit Jet Blue Skyport to talk to the pony who led the NLR in the New Pegasus area.
“The New Luna Republic has heard a lot about you Courier and I’m sure we could work together to help bring Equestria back to its glory,” she said reassuringly, “I do hope you’ll take this offer and accept the hoof of friendship we are willing to offer.”
“As long as you don’t expect me to join the NLR then I’ll see what I can do. I still don’t want to join any faction around here. Even with Equestrian Express destroyed, I’m still a courier and have to make sure that I’m not hated outright by anypony,” I replied.
“Does that go for the Steel Rangers too? I’ve heard that you’ve worked with them in the past.”
“I have, but I’m not part of their group and after what I’ve been hearing about their recent activities I’m never going to join.”
“I hope not, we’ve also been worried about their recent activities. They used to run The Crossroads before we did. We’ve worried as of late that they might try to take it back. That’s why we’ve had so many soldiers posted here and why I sent so many out when we saw what looked like a dragon. I’ll have to send for reinforcements now, if The Romans see that so many of our ponies died or The Steel Rangers. I don’t know how long I’ll be able to keep Crossroad’s Trading Post out of their hooves,” she said.
“I hope you’re able to do that.”
“Me too, thanks again for letting me know what happened. I hope that you’ll take the time to visit Jet Blue Skyport. I’m not expecting you to join us, but listening to what my commander has to say can’t hurt. You can go rejoin your friends,” she said before heading back toward her camp.
Before she could get too far I said, “Wait! What’s with you guys and The Romans anyway?”
She turned back around, “It’s war, war never changes, nothing but fighting between two opposing forces over land and natural resources. Except we go about obtaining those two things in a very different way.”
“A different way? I’ve met some Romans and they didn’t seem that bad,” I asked.
“That’s probably because they wanted something out of you. If I was a murderous slave driver I’d try to polish myself as much as I could to get outside help from a mare-do-well like yourself. Listen, sure you’re a rough n’ tough hero, but you’re still a kid, and no offense but honestly most kids are naïve. The Romans don’t make agreements and negotiate to obtain things like we do, they take with brute force in the bloodiest ways,” she replied.
Kid? This bitch… “Look I’m not stupid, I know when I’m being fucked with most of the time.”
She cracked a smile, “I didn’t say stupid, I said naïve. You’ll learn if you ever end up in one of their claimed territories or Goddesses forbid their giant camp across the river. There was an entire town taken over by those maniacs that I helped the NLR reclaim, that’s if you can call that mess a reclamation. What I saw there was something straight out of the scariest of horror novels. Y’know how raiders hang body parts everywhere and let them rot? That’s ten times less demented than what The Romans do. There was an NLR ranger who was taken with his wife and kid into this camp as hostages when the town was taken in the middle of the night. They starved him and his family for two weeks until they were so hungry they almost went mad. After that two weeks they stopped giving his wife and kid water, soon after the kid died and they took away the body. The next day they finally gave them some food as a reward for surviving, for irony it was a pie. They were so hungry that they’d already gotten half way through it before they realized the filling wasn’t fruit, it was meat. Sure, some ponies eat meat in The Wasteland, it’s no big deal, but most of the time that meat isn’t the flesh of their own child. When they both started freaking out one of those bastards grabbed The Ranger’s wife and held her to the floor as another used a nail gun to nail all four of her legs to the ground. The last memory he’ll ever have of his wife before they caved in her chest cavity with their bare hooves is her being raped bloody by those monsters. The Romans take everything they want for themselves and have fun while they do it, not only to have fun but to inspire fear.”
I felt like vomiting the more I visualized her story in my head, “I don’t even know how to even start explaining how horrible that is.”
“I apologize, I should’ve toned it down, but now you know the truth. If I were you I’d forget about anything they asked you to do and watch your back. Anyway, I should get going now, I gotta get those reinforcements out here,” she retorted before turning around again.
“At least she wasn’t being all veg about it like most ponies when they want my help, but damn,” I said as she walked away.
“The NLR tend to get straight to the point when it comes to things they need help with, unlike The Steel Rangers. It makes them a lot easier to work with, although you have to deal with them always talking about bringing back Equestria. Though they think that running things the way it was ran during the war is the right way. It tends to get annoying after hearing about it fifty or so times,” Aura said.
“Let’s go find the others, I need to talk to them about what’s happening next.”
“I thought we were going to New Pegasus and then Crimson Canyon? Why would we need to talk about that?” Aura asked.
“That’s not what I need to talk to them about, don’t worry you’ll understand in a minute,” I said as I started heading to where I could see my friends talking with Rusty and Cookie Byte.
Wind Thrasher noticed us first, no big surprise there, “Shadow! Where the hell have you been!? We heard something about a dragon and a fight.”
“Wasn’t a dragon, Envy attacked me, it’s a long story and I can tell you about it when we leave. Right now, we have other business to take care of,” I said.
“Whoa, hold up a sec Shadow,” Stardust said, “You can’t just say that Envy attacked you and just leave it at ‘We’ll talk about it later’ that’s not cool. And what the hell happened to your face!”
“I know and I promise to tell you everything soon, but first we need to take care of business with Rusty here. Also don’t worry about my face, that’s all part of the ‘We’ll talk about it later’ stuff.”
“You promised me you wouldn’t go off wandering on your own again, you promised—” Wingnut started to say.
Aura cut the colt off, “Let it be kid, Shadow will tell us soon okay. Let’s hear what she has to say first before you all start interrogating her.”
“Okay, but you better tell us everything,” Stardust said.
“Yeah, I will,” I said before looking over at Rusty who was patiently waiting for us to finish, “Have you talked to Byte about the plan yet?”
“Yeah, she knows what’s going on, though she isn’t happy about it,” Rusty said.
“Damn right I’m not happy about it!” Byte said, “You can’t just send me away like this!”
“I don’t want to Cookie, but I have to. It’s the only way to keep you and the Mark II safe,” Rusty said.
“Wait a sec, what’s going on?” Wingnut asked.
“Byte is going to be coming with us and she’s taking Rusty’s Mark II with her. It’s the only way we can think of to hide it from Sapphire,” I said.
“No way, I don’t want her following us around!” Wingnut protested.
“Too bad, she’s coming with us, I already promised Rusty,” I said, not in any mood to deal him right now.
Byte looked at me with a promise of death in her eyes, “What if I don’t want to go with you?”
My head was starting to hurt from all the activities from today, rubbing one temple with a hoof I said, “Byte, Rusty needs your help keeping his Mark II safe. You’re coming with us because I’m the last pony Sapphire would think you’d be with or the other Mark II. She isn’t going to come after mine until she has Rusty’s if she even does try. You’ll be safest from the Steel Rangers while you’re with us. Even if you don’t like me or my friends it doesn’t matter, you’re not doing this for yourself or for us, you’re doing it to help your Uncle who’s doing everything he can to keep Trotston and you safe.”
“She’s right Cookie,” Rusty said, “I only trust my Mark II with you, you know how to use it, you know how special it is and I can trust you to keep it safe. I wouldn’t be asking you to do this if I didn’t have to.”
She looked a little ashamed at herself for a moment, “I’m…sorry Rusty, I didn’t know it was so bad.”
“I have been trying to keep you away from the troubles I’m dealing with at Trotston. You’re so young and you shouldn’t have to be worrying about these kinds of things yet, but now I have no choice. Trotston can’t hold off The Steel Rangers forever and I couldn’t live with myself if I let something happen to you or the town just because I was too stubborn not to let this stupid Pip-Buck out of my sight. So, can you please do this for me?”
“But I can help Trotston too, there has to be something I can do to keep them out of town,” she said, sounding desperate.
He walked over to her and put both hooves on her shoulders at eye level with Byte, “Help Trotston by leaving it for a while. You’ve always wanted to go explore The Wasteland, this is your chance.”
She sniffed, “Not like this I didn’t. I just feel like I’m leaving home when Trotston needs me the most.”
I did my best to smile to help her feel better as I said, “You are helping your home Byte, sometimes the best thing you can do is lead the enemy away. This mission could be even more dangerous than staying home.”
Wingnut crossed his hooves looking away and muttering to himself, “It’s a stupid idea if you ask me.”
Rolling her eyes Wind Thrasher slapped the back of his head with one of her wings, “You’re such a child.”
“Ow, what was that for!” he yelled rubbing the back of his head.
Byte did her best to hold back a giggle, “Okay, if this will help keep Trotston safe then I’ll do what I can to help.”
“Good,” Rusty said lifting his Pip-Buck up and doing something with it, whatever it was he was doing it took a few minutes. Once he was finished pulling out what had to be a Pip-Buck master key, he touched it to his Mark II, quietly saying, “Never Forget,” there was a small flash of light from the bottom of his Mark II, then the latch that held it closed appeared. He opened it then gave it to Byte, “Once you put it on, it will activate as a new user but still have the old files on it. It will set you up with a password that means something to you, once that is done no pony will ever be able to remove it unless your killed or take it off on your own. You won’t even be able to do that without this key.”
Byte took his Mark II then put it onto her left foreleg, once she closed it the Mark II did the same thing as mine had when I first put it on in Stable 28. Once it was finished the latch vanished, “Damn, this is trippy.”
“Yeah, it’s a little strange at first getting use to the E.F.S., it’s like having a terminal screen stuck in your vision at all times,” I said with a chuckle.
“It’s awesome!” she said looking around then back at her Pip-Buck, “I always wondered what it was like to have this on.”
Rusty looked a little disorientated for a moment, “Haven’t had that off since I was a young buck.”
“Well if that’s all taken care of we really should get going, we have a lot more walking to do and not much time,” I said.
“Can this day get any worse? First, I find out we have to travel with Byte, now more Walking!?” Wingnut complained.
Byte grinned, “Awww what’s wrong Wingnut, don’t you like fun and adventure?”
“Adventure is great, and I’m always up for having fun, but Traveling…not so much,” he pouted.
“Don’t worry kid, I think we can risk it and fly to New Pegasus. It’ll be a lot faster and the quicker we get there the more time we’ll have to rest up before we have to head to Crimson Canyon. Trust me, we’ll need as much rest as we can get before we arrive for that party.” Aura said.
“Hey, I didn’t volunteer to carry anypony anywhere,” Stardust said.
“But…Stardust, it’s not like we have to go that far, I’m sure you can help our friends for a little while. You’re strong and will do anything to help a friend won’t you?” Wind Thrasher asked, her eyes getting big and pitiful looking.
He looked at her then rolled his own eyes, “Fine, I guess I can help, but don’t expect me to be a free ride all the time.”
“Good, well I’ll carry the evil genius,” Aura said, “Stardust you take Shadow, and Wingnut can ride with Wind Thrasher.”
Stardust frowned, “Why do I always get stuck carrying Shadow!?”
“If you make another crack about my weight, I’m going to poke one of your eyes out with my horn!” I retorted.
“Fine, let’s just get going, I’m sick of being here and we could use a night or two in New Pegasus…speaking of which why are we going to New Pegasus?” he asked.
“Need to get a letter to somepony there for Doorstop and I want to see if I can talk to Mr. Top’s again.”
“Awesome! Maybe he’ll let us go into the Lucky Horseshoe this time.” Wingnut said.
“Doubt it,” Aura said with a laugh.
Rusty moved closer to Byte and hugged her, “You stay safe okay, and don’t give Shadow too much trouble.”
She smiled shyly, “I’ll try.”
He looked over at me, “Keep her safe…please.”
“I’ll do what I can, I can’t promise any more than that,” I said.
“I know, may the Goddesses look after you all,” Rusty said.
“You too,” I responded before walking over to Stardust.
With a final goodbye, we were off. Stardust taking hold of me much like he had when we first flew toward Hidden Sands, Aura letting Byte ride on her back, and Wind Thrasher holding onto Wingnut. We watched as Rusty and Crossroads Trading Post shrank below us then vanish as we sped off toward the bright lights of New Pegasus in the distance.
***
“Shadow are we gonna get a room at The Applewood again!?” Wingnut asked excitedly as he jumped up and down. We were all standing just outside of Match and Tariff’s waiting for Stardust to get a passport into The Strip for Cookie Byte and Wind Thrasher. I was able to explain what happened during the flight here and what happened to my face. Wind Thrasher and Stardust both agreed with Aura about me using Akela’s powers. I wasn’t even going to try arguing the point, it wasn’t going to change their minds.
“I’m not sure yet kiddo, but it’s a good possibility. We have enough caps now to stay anywhere on the strip if we want. Thanks to that raider bitch who attacked us outside of Crossroads Trading Post,” I said.
“I hope Dusty doesn’t take too long in there, I don’t like being in Freedom this late in the day,” Aura said eyeing a couple of dirty looking stallions who were walking by on the other side of the cracked-up street.
Wind Thrasher had her ears plastered back, “This place is so noisy, I can’t tell what noises are coming from where.”
“This is nothing compared to The Strip,” I said as I kept my eyes on some younger bucks who looked like they were eyeing me from down the road.
“I just need to block it out better, I’ve gotten so used to listening for danger while we’ve been traveling. It’s not as easy to ignore all the noise when I’ve been trying to listen for everything,” Wind Thrasher said wincing a little.
“As long as it doesn’t cause you to lose your head again, then we should be fine,” I said.
“This place is a dump,” Byte said as she walked out of the shop with Stardust, “That Tariff buck is a dick, did you hear what he said to me?”
Stardust was chuckling to himself as he followed her out, “Well you did tell him that he was using the wrong parts for that Sprite-bot he has behind the counter.”
“He said he hasn’t been able to get it to work yet, so all I did was point out that he wasn’t using the correct gems to power it and the wings were from an older model. It’s not my fault he can’t take criticism,” Byte said with a huff.
“You also told him he was a stuck-up cock wad,” Stardust said.
“That’s because he is,” Aura said winking at Byte.
“I’m glad the two of you were able to give Tariff another reason to hate us and never want to do business with us again. Did you at least get the Passports?” I asked.
“Yeah, though I had to pay a bigger price for them this time. Cost six hundred for the two of them. He wouldn’t back down this time, said something about him not owing me one anymore. Some friend he is,” Stardust said with a laugh, “And don’t worry I used some of the caps I got while I was with The Sins. Had a few hundred in my saddle bags still.”
“You got caps while being a Sin? How did you get those and why are we just hearing about it now?” I asked.
“Because I forgot and yes when I was Pride I had to have Wasteland currency just in case,” he said giving Wind Thrasher her Passport, “There you go Wind Thrasher, with this you shouldn’t have any trouble getting into The Strip.”
She took it then said shyly, “But won’t ponies stare at me because of what I am?”
“I doubt it, most of the ponies in there are too drunk to care what you look like and even if they did notice you, I’m sure they’ve seen stranger,” Aura said, “Now can we please get going, oh and Wingnut don’t forget to tell the guards I’m your bodyguard.”
“Yeah, I know, I remember what to do when Shadow had to get you in,” he said with a hint of arrogance and disrespect.
“Actually, there was another reason the price was higher Aura,” Stardust said pulling out a third passport, “I talked it over with Tariff and even though he didn’t want to do this, I was able to talk him into it.”
She took it with a look of surprise on her face, “You were able to talk Tariff into making me a Passport?”
“All I said was that I’d make sure that you’d stay out of his shop forever. He seemed to think that was the best deal ever.”
“Thank you,” Aura said, “That…was really nice of you.”
He waved a hoof, “Ah, it was no big deal. Figured you deserved to be able to go wherever you want. Wouldn’t want to keep a bird in a cage, all they do is sing and, in your case, complain that they can’t go anywhere.”
“Yeah, like you complained about how bad your hangover was after a night at the bar? Whatever It’ll be nice to have freedom anyway. Oh, and by the way, thanks for making it feel like old times Stardust. It brings back a sense of normalcy. Okay, so do we have to go anywhere else before we head into The Strip?” Aura asked looking over at me.
“Nope, I’d like to avoid getting drawn into somepony’s drama while I can,” I said as we all started heading toward the gate into The Strip.
“That’s impossible, trouble is drawn to you like Fiends to a Chem factory.” Aura teased.
“You’re real funny Aura.”
“Damn right” she said giving me a wink.
We were just passing by The Queen’s School of Interpretation when a very familiar voice boomed out from the doorway, “Do my eyes deceive me, or are the Goddesses above playing tricks on them!? Is that beautiful strong stallion really the buck of my dreams!”
“Oh, dear Goddesses no, we were almost there! WHY!?” Stardust said as he did his best to hide from Sugar Buck who was already rushing toward us.
Stepping in front of the fabulous and muscular stallion I said, “Hey Sugar Buck it’s nice to see you again.”
He stopped in front of me doing his best look past me, “Thank the Goddesses above, we were all worried sick about you.”
“I know, but we’re all okay and yes we were able to get Stardust back,” I said laughing a little as I watched Stardust trying to hide.
“Stardust, why are you trying to hide!? I just want to make sure you’re okay. Now come closer and let Ol’ Sugar Buck get a better look at ya. Don’t worry I ain’t gonna look at too much, that would be ungentlecolt like as we haven’t gone on a single date yet. Only sluts go for the affection and sexin’ right away.”
“Nope, I’m fine! No need to worry about me. At all! And what’s this about dates? I’ve told you before that my barn door doesn’t swing that way,” he said.
From that point Sugar Buck gushed into emotional bliss, “He said DATES! That means there’s gonna be more than ONE!”
“Who’s this creep? He looks like an old fashioned country music star with all the sparkle and I mean ALL the sparkle and no musical talent. Is he some kind of themed rapist?” Byte asked as she looked at Sugar Buck.
That seemed to pull Sugar Buck’s attention away from Stardust for a moment, “What are you starting a traveling orphanage Shadow? Who’s the kid and why is she sayin’ such cruel and heartless things? I wouldn’t touch somepony with my ten-hoof pole if they didn’t want me to,” then he looked back at Stardust, “That’s right, ten.”
Stardust gaged, “Gross.”
“Names Byte, I’m from Trotston. What’s with the stupid mane style?” she said.
“STUPID MANE STYLE!? You walk around with twin pony tails making your head look like a pony’s ass and you have the audacity to say my mane style is stupid!?” he said in what had to be the most offended voice I’ve ever heard come from his mouth.
“I thought you liked pony asses?” Wingnut asked looking confused.
“My head doesn’t look like an ass!” Byte said glaring over at Wingnut.
“I didn’t say it did!” he said putting up his hooves as if he was protecting his face, “I just meant that Sugar Buck likes stallions.”
“That’s beside the point Wingnut, I ain’t going to let this little girl tell me what looks good and what doesn’t! And only certain asses suit me, her head looks like a saggy old one,” Sugar Buck said.
“Just drop it both of you please, we don’t have time to do this,” I said pulling Byte away because she looked ready to pull her gravity gun out, “Sugar Buck we’re heading into The Strip, I have something to take care of. It was nice to see you again, tell your sister I said hi okay.”
“But Shadow, I hadn’t had time to catch up. We haven’t seen each other in ages and It’s been even longer since I’ve seen that sexy piece of stallion pie standin’ there ready to be eaten,” Sugar Buck complained.
“Then come with us if you want, we can catch up that way. That is if you can leave Stardust alone,” I said turning to head toward the gate.
“Sorry I can’t, The Queen needs me to help with some matter with the NLR hoarding food. If you have time when you leave though, come stop by, I can touch up that mane of yours,” he said.
“We’ll try,” I said as he walked back into Freedom.
“He creeps me out!” Stardust said as he showed his passport to the Securiponies at the gate, “Why can’t he get it through his thick skull that I don’t like stallions? That’s it I’m buying a rape whistle.”
“I think he knows Stardust, he just likes playing with you because of how you react. Maybe if you didn’t freak out every time he saw you, he’d stop. It’s not as fun that way. Plus, a whistle isn’t going to do you any good, all ponies are gonna think is that somepony is blowing a whistle but not for that reason,” Wingnut said as he showed his passport.
“I think it’s funny. He gets all flustered and freaked out, it makes for an entertaining show,” Aura said as she showed hers.
“It’s not funny, I think Sugar Buck should leave him alone! He likes mares not creepy stallions who don’t know how to take no for an answer!” Wind Thrasher said angrily as she showed her passport and walked past us all, “I mean come on, Stardust is too good for an asshole like him.”
That caught me by surprise, “What do you mean Wind Thrasher?”
“You heard me, now hurry up I thought we were in a hurry,” she said trotting away with a bit of a blush.
We all watched her walk away Stardust saying, “Well she’s right, come on we don’t have as long to spend here as we did before, let’s go find a place to stay.”
He followed Wind Thrasher as she walked off. Byte started to snicker, “Damn, either she likes him or she’s got major mood swings.”
I laughed a little, “Both, they’re right though, let’s go find a place to stay then I can go take care of getting Doorstop’s letter sent off.”
“Good idea,” Aura said as her, Wingnut, and Byte followed me in.
“Is there any good place to eat here?” Byte asked as we started walking past The Lucky Horseshoe.
“They have good food at The Applewood, though I’ve heard there’s always good food at The Grand Royale,” Wingnut said.
“Fuck The Grand Royale, those ponies are a bunch of snooty assholes with caviar for brains,” I said.
“You just hate them because they treated you like you were stupid and because they kicked you out,” Wingnut said, trying to hide his laughter.
“Well she did threaten to shove a cane up his ass,” Aura said laughing along with him at my expense, “That was Fucking Hilarious. Still I wouldn’t want to eat there, I’ve heard rumors that they’re cannibals.”
Byte made a weird face, “That’s gross, who would want to go to a place like that?”
“They can’t be cannibals, Mr. Tops wouldn’t let them run that casino if they were,” I retorted.
“I don’t know Shadow, I know that the Tribe that they started as, were cannibals. Who’s to say they really changed their ways?” Aura asked.
“The pony who runs this town,” I said pointing up at The Lucky Horseshoe.
“Hmmm, I guess you’re right, maybe you just have to be a part of the high-ranking members of The White Hoof Society for that kind of thing,” Aura said to herself.
“Hey where did Wind Thrasher and Stardust go?” I asked noticing they weren’t walking ahead of us anymore.
Aura pointed toward The Applewood, “Looks like they decided to go to The Applewood without us.”
“Ah, let’s leave them be, I’m sure Stardust will get a room for us like before. This will give me time to take care of the Letter,” I said as I started heading toward the gate that led to the other part of The Strip where the NLR Embassy and other buildings were to keep them away from the casinos.
I didn’t get far when two Securiponies blocked my path, “Courier Shadow Star?”
“Um…yes, what do you want? I didn’t do anything wrong, did I? I’m not really clear on all the laws here,” I said taking a step back.
The Securipony who spoke before said, “Mr. Tops has requested that you meet him in his office, please come with me.”
“I don’t have time to talk to him right now.”
Their guns pointed at all of us, “He does not care what you need or have time for. You will come with us now or be in violation of the law.”
“Hey projector-face she said she doesn’t wanna go,” Byte said, “Now back off before I take you apart and see what makes you tick.”
“Don’t bother Byte, no matter what you say it won’t change what they’re programed to do,” I said with a heavy sigh, “Can my friends at least come with me this time?”
“Only The Courier is allowed inside The Lucky Horseshoe,” the other one said.
“I’m not leaving them behind while I go up there, either they come with me or I’m leaving. Tell Mr. Tops if he really wants me to do the job he asked me to do, and if he wants to talk, then I’m not leaving them behind.”
For a long moment both robots stood there making odd beeping and wiring sounds then one said, “Mr. Tops says they may enter, but only you can go up to his office. Your friends must wait for you in the Royalty Suite.”
Wingnut’s eyes grew big, “We get to go in!”
“That is correct, be warned if any of you wander away from the suite, you will be executed upon sight,” the other one said.
“I’d rather go gamble then wait in a room,” Aura said.
“Oh come on Aura, nopony ever gets to go into The Lucky Horseshoe,” Wingnut said.
“Big deal, it’s just an old casino. Probably smells like dust, old booze, and dead cigarettes,” she said yawning.
“Well we’re going,” Wingnut said with a self-satisfied smile.
“Damn,” Aura said.
Chuckling I started to follow the Securiponies, “See if you were still MY bodyguard Aura, I’d let you go gamble.”
“Wouldn’t matter, I’d have to stay with you because it’s my job to keep my contract holder safe. And if you still had my contract I couldn’t have as much fun with you,” she said walking past me and winking, Byte and Wingnut following her trying to hide their laughter.
Frowning I muttered to myself, “Always so mean to me.”
We walked past the blast shutter that normally blocked the door to the casino. Again, I was led into The Lucky Horseshoe by one of the Securiponies into the dead casino, the walls, tables, terminals and floors covered in two centuries of dust. Only this time, I had company. Wingnut and Byte, were looking around in awe at the large open room, Aura seemed a little impressed even if she kept shaking her talons to get clumps of dust off them.
The elevator door shook as it opened and a dim light buzzed from the ceiling. We all walked in with the Securipony as it pushed a button to bring us up to one of the floors. When the door opened again, I expected to be in a dusty hall that led to old dusty rooms, but it wasn’t. The elevator stopped right in a room, a huge suite with a large open sitting area, and a huge floor-to-ceiling window overlooking New Pegasus. From the elevator it looked like four other rooms branched off this main one. Even more the room itself was clean, I was about to ask why this area was clean when the rest of the areas weren’t when a robot floated in from one of the other rooms. It looked like Watts only it was white and had different appendages.
It floated toward the elevator and spoke in a mares voice, “Hello and welcome to the Royalty suite. Mr. Tops says that you three will stay here while The Courier goes up to see him. I am Lilybot and I am here to help you in any way I can.”
“Damn, okay I take it back, I like it up here,” Aura said walking out into the room, “Take as much time as you want up there Shadow, I’m gonna relax. You think this place has one of those massage chairs?”
Wingnut however looked at what had to be a workbench in one corner, “Dibs on the workbench!”
“Hey, fillies first, where are your manners!? Don’t you know that mares are the ones with the toolboxes?” Byte yelled running after the colt.
Did she just make a sex pun? Eh, no she’s just a kid, “I guess I’ll see you all in a little while,” I said as Aura winked at me.
“We’ll be fine here, see you soon Shadow,” she said blowing me a kiss before the door closed.
The ride up to the top was quick. The Royalty suite must be close to the top floor. When the door opened, like last time, I felt like I was being thrown back into the past. This floor didn’t look any different than it had when Night Stalker and The Children occupied this place. I almost felt like the large pegasus was going to walk in any second and demand to know who I was and why I was in his base of operations. As I walked toward the steps that led down to the lower level I noticed a room that before had been covered by a curtain, but now I could see into it. There was a bed and a few shelves, a terminal on a desk, and a few photos around it. I just caught a glimpse of a young pegasus stallion standing next to a young griffon both smiling wide next to an old warn down hut next to a grey cliff. That was the only one I got a good look at before I was ushered down the stairs by the Securipony.
Once I was on the main level I walked toward the huge monitor with the face of Flapjack on it, “Welcome back Courier.”
“Uh huh, so what did you need?” I asked annoyed.
The face changed, looking curious, “Right to the point this time? I’m assuming I’m interrupting something by your bored and annoyed tone. Honestly that look on your face doesn’t suit you.”
“Right on the mark with that one Mr. Tops, or Flapjack err whoever you are.”
“I’ve told you before that I’m only using the face of Flapjack.”
“I really don’t believe you Mr. Tops, I mean who else could have gained access to this room apart from The Children of the Night or the brothers?”
“This place was accessible to a few ponies from The M.A.S. and The M.O.A.”
I yawned, “A couple of floors below yes, not the living areas of The Children and this floor. Really, I don’t care who you are, you run this town and the ponies who live here. That’s all that really matters, if you want to keep saying you’re not the pony I’m sure you are then fine with me. So, why did you pull me away from what I was doing?”
A sigh came out of the terminal then he responded, “I wanted to ask if you’ve put anymore thought into what I asked you to do.”
“When would I have had the time to do that? I had to chase my half mad friend halfway across Equestria if you haven’t noticed. Not to mention that I’ve had to deal with The Sins, my crazed mother, almost losing someone I love, blowing up a tower, fighting The Enclave AGAIN, and dealing with The Steel Rangers destroying my home,” I replied.
“I know you’ve had a lot going on, all I wanted to know is if you’ve been able to think about what I asked? I’m running out of time and even though I know you have a lot on your plate I really need you to do this for me,” he said sounding almost like he was begging, but being polite about it.
“Honestly, I haven’t really thought much about it, even if I had, what am I getting for helping you? You didn’t live up to your end on helping me find Stardust,” I argued.
“I didn’t have the time to, you left the area a few days after we met. If you really need something for it, then I can offer you a nice number of caps for the job. We could call it a job for the Equestrian Express. You get me what I want and I’ll pay you.”
“Caps I can get in various ways,” I said looking around the room I was in, “I have a better idea, I want access to The Lucky Horseshoe for myself and my friends.”
The face of Mr. Tops changed to a look of confusion, “Why would I let you do that, also why would you want to be here? This tower works for me to keep me alive, but apart from that it’s just a useless dead casino. There aren’t even any bits left in the slot machines.”
I smiled, “It was also the home of Night Stalker and The Children for a long time. There are secrets here I’d like to look into, but apart from that, I need a place that I know is safe from The Sins or anypony else that comes after us. A place we can rest when we need to without fear of being attacked.”
Mr. Tops was quiet for a long time, “There are places in The Lucky Horseshoe I couldn’t let you or your friends go, if I did it could be deadly for me. I’m not even sure I want your friends in my tower.”
“That’s my price take it or leave it.”
“You won’t back down from this? I could just throw you out of my tower and The Strip you know,” he retorted.
“You could, but who else would you trust enough to come up here and do this job for you?” I shot back.
He went quiet again, while he thought about what I said I took the time to look around more. Letting my eyes wander over the bright room, the large windows, the steps that led up to the private room, even another set of terminals next to a blank wall. I wondered to myself what that was for, did it lead to a secret room The Children used to use, or was that where Mr. Tops lived in his so-called clean room. Maybe I should show Wingnut the blueprints I found and see if he could figure it out.
“Fine, but only if you don’t go to a few places here. If you break the rules I set up, I’ll kick all of you out and you’ll still have to do this job for me,” Mr. Tops finally said.
“I can do that, the same goes for the rest of my friends, but I want access to this floor, The Children of the Night’s floors, and the M.O.A.’s too.”
“Fine, though you won’t be able to get into The Children’s floors, the doors are blocked by a spell. Only they could get in and out, those floors haven’t had anypony on them since the war. Also, I’ll let you all stay in the suite I’ve already provided for your friends. If you want to get into The Lucky Horseshoe my Securiponies will let you up. So, do we have a new deal? If so I want you to head to Los Alicorn soon.”
“Deal, I planned on heading there as soon as I was finished with a few things here. So, was that all or did you need something else Mr. Tops?”
A smile came to the face on the screen, “Now that you mention it yes there is. I wanted to know something, about that Pip-Buck of yours.”
I sighed knowing what was going to be asked, or so I thought, “What about it?”
“I’ve seen it once before on one of the security tapes here in The Lucky Horseshoe, or at least I think I have. Did that once belong to Sweetie Belle, the famous singer?” he asked.
Looking down at my Pip-Buck for a long moment I thought to myself why would he want to know that? Was he working with mom or one of The Sins? Or maybe he knows more about what happened with The Mark II back in the day. I don’t know much about him, well nopony really did. I’d have to play it safe and find out what he knows first, “I’m not sure who it used to belong to, I found it in my old stable. Even if it did belong to Sweetie Belle at one point why would you care?”
The face on the screen changed again to curiosity, “So, you really don’t know what that is or why your mother’s hunting it do you? I thought a smart mare like yourself would’ve done everything she could to figure it out.”
“I have, trust me. Even if I do know more, why would I tell you?” I asked.
The face changed again to look amused, “Sooner or later Shadow, you’re going to have to start trusting others.”
“Well since you’re on a terminal screen I don’t think you count.”
He laughed, “Screen or not, I’m still a pony as you know.”
“Do I? It’s not like I’ve seen you before, only this terminal screen and the face on it. For all I know you could just be some kind of AI,” I said, as I started to pace in front of him.
“You have a point, but I can’t bring you to where I am, if I did I’d risk dying. But I understand your reluctance. The reason I asked was because I do know what that Pip-Buck is. There are a few files in this tower about them, the Pip-Buck 3000 Mark II,” he said.
“How could you know about them? I’m not even sure The Children of the Night or even the M.O.A. knew about them before the war ended. I’m sure Night Stalker looked into them after the war, but then he was up in the clouds,” I said.
“That’s where you’re wrong courier, you see around the same time I came to take this tower for myself, Night Stalker came back here. I’m not sure how much about him you know, but he was branded a dashite and banished from The Enclave by his own sons. This tower was one of the first places he came to so he could hide all the information he had on The Mark II. That’s how I found out so much about them, I was able to read those files,” Mr. Tops said.
“Wait, so after he left The Enclave the first place he runs to is this old Tower? Why would he do that?” I asked.
“It was the only place he could hide things from his children I think. They didn’t know the passcodes to get in, also I’m not sure his children ever knew The Lucky Horseshoe was part of The Children’s base. Either way, they never came here to find his notes.”
“I don’t believe you. You just want me to tell you what I know. For your information, I’m not as easy to manipulate as I used to be. If anything, I’m the one who would be doing the manipulating,” I retorted.
He laughed again, “Don’t believe me? Believe this,” the screen changed and a moment later a video came up on the screen, it was an overlook of the same room we were in now, only there wasn’t any Securiponies in it. It was also dusty, like nopony had been up here for many years. As I watched Mr. Tops’ voice echoed around me, “This is security footage from one hundred and sixty years ago.”
I watched and for a moment I was wondering what he was trying to show me. I mean what the hell does an old security video have to do with…then Night Stalker walked into the video through the door that led out to the top of the Lucky Horseshoe. At least I’m sure it’s Night Stalker, he was a lot older than he was in any of the memory orbs I’ve seen of him. His mane had gone mostly white, but a few flecks of grey and black were mixed into it. He’d grown a goatee and mustache, his mane was longer, and he had a few more scars around his face, though the one over his eye was still the most noticeable. He was still a big pony but in his old age some of his muscle had gone away and he had a faraway look in his eyes now. The look of a warrior who’d seen too much violence and death in his lifetime.
He looked around the room and let out a long deep sigh, “This place hasn’t held up well over the years,” he moved closer to the terminal that Mr. Tops used now to talk with, “Hope this thing still works.”
He started to type something onto the keyboard, as he did the screen turned on then flickered out, “Piece of shit, come on,” he kicked the terminal and this time the screen stayed on. Words popped onto the screen saying ‘Welcome to the C.O.T.N. network terminal site 1. He typed in a few more things then a voice echoed out of the terminal.
‘Welcome General Night Stalker, it’s been quite some time since you last logged in. How may I help you today?”
Night Stalker backed away from the terminal then spoke to it, “I need to know what state the tower is in?”
‘All systems are running normally on this level and the next four floors. The hotel is in need of repair. The casino’s power is running at five percent…’
He interrupted her, “I don’t care about the civilian floors I only care about the status of The Project and the top floors.”
“No Problem General, The Project is still locked down, the basement levels are still locked down. Nopony has been inside the living area of The Children either,” the terminal answered.
“Is my power armor still here?”
“Yes General, it is still in your room.”
Night Stalker seemed to relax a little, “I’m glad to hear that, I need to upload some files.”
“My systems are still mostly locked down General, I will need authorization first.”
He sighed, “Unlock all systems in the tower, authorization General Night Stalker, passcode Aurora’s Twin Peaks.”
“Passcode accepted,” the terminal said, the lights in the room came on and shutters lifted from the windows revealing a dark cloudy sky outside. “All systems active, how can I help you General?”
He walked back to the terminal and plugged something into it. When the files started to upload to the terminal he said, “Keep those in my own files and give nopony access to them unless it’s me or my children. Now I need to find out if you know anything about the location of any of The Children of the Night. Are any still left alive?”
“I can find the location on a few of them General.”
“Where is Babs Seed? I’ve checked the school in town but it’s been abandoned,” he asked.
“Sargent Babs Seed is no longer alive. I show her tracker going offline twenty-seven years ago. last location was at The Queen’s School of Interpretation.”
“Fuck…who could’ve killed her?” Night Stalker asked himself, “She was a strong fighter even with that limb missing.”
“I show Captain Greta’s marker being in that location at the time that Babs Seed’s tracker went offline.”
“Fuck! I’ll need to talk to her about that…fine, what about Minuette, last time I saw her was right before the bombs fell.”
“Lieutenant Minuette’s Tracker stopped working three days after the bombs fell.”
“So even Minuette’s gone…”
“No General, her tracker just stopped working, it showed no sign of her life ending. Something interfered with the tracker and it went offline and has never come back on.”
His eyes went wide, “Where was her location before it went offline?”
“Her location was around the area of Splendid Valley near Maripony. That is where her tracker went offline.”
“I’ve been hearing rumors about that place, if they’re true she may as well be dead. What about the rest?”
“Greta is in the area…”
“I know about that, what about the rest?” he said cutting the terminal off.
“Lieutenant Thunderlane is in Stratus, Sargent Cloudy Nights is currently in Stratus as well, Major Lightning Dust is currently in The Crystal Empire.”
“What about Zaphan?” he asked.
“I have no records of a member named Zaphan.”
“Damn I forgot, I meant Noire.”
“Noire is currently at The Spitfire Flight Academy.”
“Good,” Night Stalker pulled out a radio, “Greta, Noire is still alive, he’s at The Spitfire Flight Academy. I’m going to finish up here then we can head out.”
I heard Greta’s voice echo back through the radio, “I know his tribe uses it as a base, but I haven’t heard much about him in the past few years Moony. Are you sure that thing still works?”
“It knew where the others were and who was still alive so yeah I’m sure. Speaking of which, you need to explain to me what happened with Babs,” Night Stalker said, his voice going dark.
“I know, I’ll explain on our way. Hurry up, I don’t like being up here so close to the clouds. Stratus is still on high alert from what you did yesterday.”
“I’ll try to hurry, I’m still uploading the files for the information I got on those Pip-Buck’s. Once they’re in the database here I’m going to destroy the files I have. I can’t risk anypony else getting them,” he said.
“Yeah, from what you told me you found out about those Mark II’s I’m sure they could cause a lot of problems in the wrong hooves,” she said over the radio.
“I agree, let me know if something comes up,” he said before putting his radio away and going toward the steps that led up to the bedroom and elevator. The view changed so now I could see inside the room. It was a nice place with a big bed in the middle, a couple of nightstands, a dresser, and a set of power armor in one corner. It was the set that I first saw him use during the attack on Las Pegasus.
At first, I thought he was going to go over to the power armor but instead he walked over to the dresser where a few pictures were standing. From the view I had I couldn’t make out what it was, but Night Stalker picked one up saying so quietly I could barely hear him, “If I do this, destroy everything I built, will you finally see me? Will you finally see me for who I am and not the pony I’ve made myself into? When I take my last breath will you see how much I care for you? I hope so…because what I have to do…I’m doing it for you. Not for Equestria, not for some dead Princesses, not for anypony. Only you…so you can have a future.”
He set the picture back down then turned toward the power armor, “Let’s see if this old thing still has some power in it,” he pushed a gem on the back and it opened, “So far so good,” he entered the power armor, letting it close around his body. The eyes on the helmet lit up, the glowing blades on his wings grew brighter, and the gems along the breast plate came to life. Night Stalker moved his wings a little, testing to see how they worked, then laughed.
He tapped a gem on his helmet saying, “Greta, are you able to read me?”
I couldn’t hear if she said anything back, but something must’ve worked because Night Stalker said, “Good, I’m on my way out…yes the armor still works, I shouldn’t be surprised, Minuette and Amethyst Star always did do a great job.”
The video cut out as Night Stalker started to head back toward the main room. Mr. Top’s face coming back to the screen, “As you can see he came and uploaded the files that had all he knew about the Mark II. At the same time, he also unlocked the systems here which is how I gained access to the tower’s network.”
“Fine, so what do I not know about the Mark II?” I asked even though I knew what he would say.
“It can be used to unlock this so-called project The Children were building here. This tower is the first location The Children of the Night used, your mother wants in here with that Pip-Buck to unlock that project,” he said.
“Uh-huh, and you want me to what? Unlock it for you instead?”
“Oh no, I’d like you to stay far away from the terminal for that project. I just wanted to make sure you knew what that thing can do and why you should keep it away from anypony. If they got in here with that and unlocked this project, then I’m sure it would be very bad for The Wasteland and possibly the entire world. I may not seem like it, but I do care about the ponies that live on The Strip and in Freedom,” he said.
“Yeah, any projects of The Children of the Night are something I want to stay far away from, trust me. All I want here is to have a safe place to rest when I’m in town, maybe learn more about The Children themselves, but that’s it,” I said trying to butter him up a little so he won’t guess that I actually want to snoop a little.
“Good, well I’ll let you get back to your friends. Take a day or two to rest and enjoy The Strip. I saw that two of your friends headed toward The Applewood, I’ll send a couple of my Securiponies there to fetch them and let them know where you are all staying. As I promised you can use the Royalty Suite as your own base, and you can go to any of the top floors even though I’m sure you won’t be able to enter The Children’s floors, but feel free to try. Watching ponies fail to get through locks like that is always entertaining. Remember our agreements courier and remember I have eyes all around this casino. I’ll know if you go somewhere we didn’t agree on.”
“Thank you, Mr. Tops.”
“No Shadow Star, thank you,” and with that, the screen went blank and changed to another screen that said ‘Please Stand By’
I waited a moment then headed back up the steps, instead of going toward the elevator I turned toward the room behind the curtain. For a moment I thought the Securipony was going to stop me, but it just waited by the elevator. When I walked in I saw that it was still just the same as it was in the security video I’d just saw. Or so I thought, when I walked over to the dresser where the photos were. I saw at least six still standing there, but the one right in the middle that Night Stalker had picked up was missing. I hadn’t noticed him take it before, so either I missed it in the video or somepony else had taken it after he left the tower.
“Damn I wanted to know who he was looking at,” I said to myself as I looked over the other photos. One was a picture of Night Stalker and Lightning Dust from the day they got married, another was all The Children, one was of his sister, another was Lightning Dust and Rainbow Dash looking a lot younger and dressed in blue and yellow outfits. It was then that I saw something else behind one of the pictures. It looked like an old recording.
Pulling it closer I moved to put it into my Pip-Buck to listen to it, but then thought better. I had a feeling that Mr. Tops could hear things in this room, I mean he did have access to the security cameras up here so I wasn’t going to risk it. He didn’t need to know what was on this, it could be something stupid, or something important to this whole Falling Shadows Project. I’ll just have to wait until later.
Going back to the elevator I followed the Securipony. It looked at me saying, “Do you wish to return to your room? Or head down to The Strip?”
I was thinking about heading to the Royalty Suite then remembered Mr. Tops saying I could try to get into the rooms The Children of the Night used, “Take me to the Children’s level.”
“I can do that, but as Mr. Tops said you will not be able to get in. Those floors are blocked by a magic barrier.”
“Just take me down,” I said annoyed.
The robot didn’t say anything, it just pushed the button to the floor below this one. When the doors opened again I found myself looking at a small hallway, at the end of that hall was a transparent barrier. I walked closer and smiled as I remembered who I was descended from. I had no problem walking right through the barrier and into the room beyond. It was strange walking into a place I’ve never been to before, yet in a small way I had, through the memories of both Noire and Greta.
The room hadn’t changed at all, it was like the Children of the Night had only just stepped out a few minutes ago and would be back at any moment. Mr. Tops was an idiot to allow me access to this place without thinking that I could be descended from one of The Children. Slowly I walked over to the same window that Night Stalker would look out at the city below. It was still quite a site, you could see the entire strip from here. Sure, it was all kinda rusty and broken but it was still pretty to look at with all the lights brightening it up. Ponies, griffons, and more walking down the street. Either heading toward one of the casinos or toward the other attractions on The Strip.
“I can see why he liked to look out this window, it’s a beautiful sight,” I said to nopony.
A mare’s voice echoed behind me, “It’s a beautiful view indeed, though it’s also a lonely one.”
I jumped and looked around pulling Dream Walker out, “Who’s there!?”
From a dark corner of the room, what looked like around twenty or more pink gems flew into the air. Each one had a small shell around it with cables connecting each gem to the housing. They flew toward me and started to separate. Three formed a line three more just in front of and above those made a small circle, six made a bent line on each side of the first, eight formed lines on each side going down two for each, the final line curled up behind it. A bright light flashed and when it faded a pony was standing in front of me. Not just anypony, it was a perfect likeness of Lightning Dust.
“The fuck?” I asked backing away from her.
She cocked her head to one side then asked, “How did you get in here? This area is locked down and off limits to anypony but The Children of the Night or the Princesses.”
“What are you?” I asked.
“I’m this building’s security system, now answer my question. How did you get in here?” she asked taking a few steps closer to me, I noticed with each step that a small flare of light came off her hooves.
“I’m descended from one of The Children. Minuette I believe, at least that’s what my mother said.”
She stopped, “Minuette? I see, so her son survived the death of Equestria, we were wondering if he made it to her cousins or not.”
“Who’s we? Why do you look like Lightning Dust?”
She gave me a cocky smirk, “This is how Minuette wanted me to look, I have no idea what her reasons were. My main function is to keep the two floors that house The Children of the Night safe and the penthouse that belongs to our Captain. As to who we are, I meant me Lightning Dust, and Captain Night Stalker. Did the Captain send you?”
I couldn’t help laughing a little, “I don’t think that’s even possible unless he’s a ghoul. It’s been two hundred years since the war ended, he’s dead by now I’m sure.”
Her body flickered for a moment, “I guess you’re right, though I haven’t found any information that shows that The Captain has passed away. I’d say that it was stupid for me to ask you that, but I’m a computer program and didn’t have all the correct information to assume that he might be deceased. The fact that it’s been two-hundred years wouldn’t have played a factor in him possibly being deceased because of the existence of ghouls like you mentioned before.”
I looked at her confused, “How would you know that?”
“Every member of the Children of the Night had a tracker implanted into them. It shows their location as well as their health, it’s possible that The Captain had his removed or the tracker is malfunctioning. I cannot find his location but the last report that came from it said his heart was still beating,” she said.
“From what I’ve heard about him, he disappeared over a hundred and sixty years ago. Nopony knows what happened to him.”
“That would coincide with the information I last had on him. My last location shown for The Captain was around The Twin Cities. His tracker went dead after that, but it never gave off a signal that his heart stopped.”
Something came to mind when she said that. The note I found in the Absent ruins and the sword I found with it and the memory orb. I pulled up my Pip-Buck and used it to find the letter. Pulling it from my saddle bags with the Sword I also remembered what Aura called it ‘Misery’. The letter was written out to somepony named G, what did that mean? Looking back at the glowing something that looked like Lightning Dust I asked, “Would you be able to tell who wrote this letter or do you know who this sword belonged to.”
She walked closer to me, looking at both the letter held in my magic and the black sword, “The sword is easy, it’s from a set made for Greta, The captain’s best friend. The swords are made from the hardest and strongest metal found in Equestria and the edges are made from a rare material called Star Metal. Joy and Misery are their names, The Captain had them commissioned for her after the invasion of Las Pegasus. They’re very hard to break and can cut though almost anything. The letter however looks like it was written by The Captain, it matches his writing.”
“So, the G in this letter is for Greta? If it was written by him why did he sign it A.M.?” I asked.
“It’s very possible that Captain Night Stalker signed it with is real name, possibly to make sure no one knew it was from him. Greta was one of the only ones who knew his real name. I was another…or the real Lightning Dust was I should say,” she replied.
“What was his name before he was Night Stalker?” I asked, hoping to get some information on the mysterious pegasus.
“That information is classified,” she said.
“Why does it matter now? It’s not like I’m gonna blab government secrets to the enemy,” I asked.
“I cannot say, my programing just has that and a few other things listed as classified. The only ponies I can tell about it are The Captain, Greta, Lightning Dust, or The Captain’s descendants,” she said.
“Fuck, wait do you have an access terminal?”
“Of course I do, it’s right over here,” she said turning and heading down one of the halls.
I followed her toward the same room where I saw Minuette and Amethyst Star working on Night Stalker’s new Suit. The room was filled with tech of all kinds. If Nexus was able to get in here he’d pass out from all the junk, Byte might do the same. In one corner was a small terminal, the not Lightning Dust led me over to it.
“This is the terminal that Minuette set up to update my programing,” she said.
I smiled, “Good,” walking over to it I hooked up the Mark II and let it get to work. I wasn’t surprised when I had to manually hack into the terminal after the Mark II got past some of the security. Minuette was smart and probably just as good with tech as Applebloom was. It took me about five minutes and multiple tries to find the right password, it was Obfuscate. What the hell is up with smart ponies and their fucking smart words!
Once I was logged in the mare said, “What is it that you are doing?”
I started to go through the files looking for something I could use to change her programing, “I’m going to change your programing so you’ll tell me what I wanna know.”
“That action is not authorized by Minuette or The Captain, if you don’t stop messing with my terminal I’ll have to terminate you,” she said.
“Pfft, I’d like to see you try, you’re nothing more than a light show that talks. Many have tried and failed to kill me and I was pretty much surviving by accident,” I said as I found the file I was looking for, “Now how do I get this to work for me?”
As I looked through the settings, I saw one that set the security program to work for anypony that was able to get onto the Children’s floor while the lock down was on. Before I could click on that option a gun turret popped out from the ceiling and pointed at me. The mare who looked like Lightning Dust said in a deeper voice, “Step away from the terminal.”
Turning to look at her I grinned, “Sorry can’t do that,” and before she could do anything about it, I changed her settings.
A spark of light ran down her body, then the anger on her face vanished, the gun turret popped back in to the ceiling and she was pleasant once again, “My apologies Miss, since you’re able to enter this floor you can do what you need to here.”
That was a little too easy, whoever designed this place was either not as smart as everyone thought they were, or VERY trusting, “My name’s Shadow Star, now tell me, what’s Night Stalkers real name, and whatever else you can tell me about him.”
“Shadow Star, even I don’t have a lot of information on Night Stalker. What I can tell you is this. When he was a colt he was with his parents in the mountains a few miles away from the griffon’s homeland Griffonstone. From what the records show, his parents were historians and they were studying the old Griffon Empire. A storm hit and they got stuck in the snow, both of his parents didn’t make it through the storm. Greta was the one who found him almost frozen in a cave. She brought him back to Griffonstone and with the help of her grandmother they were able to nurse him back to health. They tried to help him get back to Equestria, but he didn’t want to leave. It turned out that he had no family left with his parent’s dead. They took him in and he was raised by the griffon they both called Gran. Very little is known about his time with the griffons, but I know that he was injured by an older griffon who was picking on Greta when they were still young. That’s how he got the scar over his eye.”
“I see, but how did he end up having Prickly Petal for a sister then?” I asked.
“Oh, well Petal’s parents were in Griffonstone on a diplomatic mission for Princess Celestia. That’s how they met Night Stalker, they happened to know his parents and they convinced him that he should go home so he can get to know his own race. He didn’t want to go at first, so Gran sent Greta to go with him,” she answered.
“I remember him saying something about that in a memory orb, so why did they call him Moony?”
She chuckled, “That was a nickname given to him by Greta when they were young.”
“Because of his cutie mark?” I asked.
“Oh no, this story was told to the real Lightning Dust after Night Stalker married her. He had that name since before he had his cutie mark. It’s a reference to his real name Absent Moon A.K.A. Moony.”
My eyes went wide as I looked back at the letter, “A.M. he started going by his old name when he left The Enclave so nopony could find him. Because very few ponies knew who he was before he was Night Stalker.”
“That would make sense, he hated his old name because he thought it was a weak name. He never wanted to be seen as weak so he changed it as soon as he could. When he came back to Equestria he only went by Moony, the only ones that knew him as Absent Moon were the griffons, his adopted family, and later Lightning Dust,” she said with another smile, “Personally I think his old name still fits.”
I cocked my head to the side, “Why’s that?”
“He was named Night Stalker because his best ability was being able to fly silently and use the cover of night to his advantage. He was the stalker of the night, the shadow in the darkness, the blade that kills from the dark. He had a lot of titles when he was a solider but Night Stalker stuck. The reason I still think his old name fits is because Absent Moon is another name for a New Moon. The one night a new moon is in the sky, the night is at its darkest,” she replied.
I thought about that for a long time. I remember somepony saying that the Absent Ruins were named after a pony, it must’ve been named after Night Stalker, only after he left The Enclave because he started going by his old name. If he died in those ruins, would somepony have named them after him? Did I pass by his bones while I was running away from Wrath while I was there? What else was left in those old ruins that used to belong to the old stallion? Then something else came to mind, Night Stalkers Memory orbs I couldn’t get into. One of them said a password was his name! When I’m done here I’m going to finally see what’s inside that thing.
“One more question, do you know anything about a Project called Falling Shadows?”
“I do not, the files are here in the building, but Mr. Tops has blocked my access to the top floor.”
“Damn, I should’ve known that’d be too easy. Oh well, I guess I should go see what my friends are doing. Is it okay if I visit another time if I have more questions about Night Stalker?” I asked curiously.
“My job is to help anypony on this floor and the next and to protect the secrets that lie here from intruders. I would be delighted if you came to visit again, as long as you can get inside. All I ask is that you keep any of the Securiponies out of here. Mr. Tops would love to get access to this room and I know that The Captain wouldn’t like that,” she said.
“Thank you,” I said turning to leave. As I turned I saw something on one of the shelves. It looked like a black and blue crystal that was slightly bigger than a memory orb and had a similar silvery glow around it, “What is that thing?”
She looked over at it, “Oh, that is one of Miss Minuette’s favorite possessions. It’s a Memory Crystal.”
“A…Memory Crystal? Was that something new she was working on during the war?” I asked.
“No, it’s much older than the war. She said it used to belong to one of the first members of the original Children of the Night from back in the day when both Sisters ruled Equestria before the rise of Nightmare Moon. From what I have in my database, those crystals were very hard to make and more of a true experience than a memory orb. They’re supposed to be dangerous. Minuette said that you need to have a lot of magical prowess to enter one,” she said with a smile.
“Can I take it with me?” I asked.
“I see no problem with it, it’s been a long time since anypony has viewed it and I don’t think Ms. Minuette is coming back. Just be careful taking it down, it’s a lot easier to get pulled into a memory crystal if you’re using your magic. If you don’t have enough you can still get pulled in but you might never come out again either.”
I reached up with my hoof and pulled the crystal off the stand and placed it into my saddle bags. I wasn’t gonna risk getting stuck in a memory from over twelve-hundred years ago. I’m sure I have enough power to handle it, but there was no telling how long it would be. Once I was done with that, I headed back toward the elevator, “Thanks for your help…ummmm what do I call you?”
“You may call me Harvenger, I look forward to your next visit Shadow Star,” she said, and with that the form of Lightning Dust faded away and the gems that formed her body flew back to a corner of the room.
“Well I wasn’t expecting that…I’ll admit she was very helpful though,” I said to myself as I walked back into the elevator, “I wonder what Aura will think when I tell her about this place?”
The Securipony brought me back to The Royal Suite. As soon as the door opened I was almost knocked over by Stardust, “Shadow! Can you believe this!? We’re in The Lucky fuckin’ Horseshoe, in the Royalty Suite! I was about to get us a room over at The Applewood when one of those Securiponies came to tell us to head over here! I thought it was some kind of sick prank. Well I also thought it was a trap to use us as leverage to get you to do something for Mr. Tops, but I guess all is well so there’s no need to panic,” he took in a deep breath and let it out as he closed his eyes, “Goodbye paranoia.”
I pushed him off me so I could get out of the Elevator, “Stardust calm down, and don’t tackle me again. Like you always tell me, you’re heavier than you think you are.”
“Sorry Shadow, I’m just so excited that we get to stay here!” Stardust said following me out, “How long do we get this place for?”
“As long as we want, I made a deal with Mr. Tops. He said we can use this as our new home,” I said looking around. I saw Wind Thrasher stretched out on a large sofa next to the window. Her wings were spread out and her eyes were closed. Geeze she really spreads out when she’s comfortable, I feel bad for whoever she ends up with, she’s probably a freakin’ bed hog. Wingnut was sitting with Byte fiddling with her Mark II, “Where’s Aura?”
“She said something about taking a bath. We all decided while you were gone that you two should get the master bedroom since it’s the biggest…wait did you say as long as we WANT!?”
“Yeah, I did, so have fun. I’m gonna go check on Aura,” I said heading toward a large set of double doors.
Byte grinned over at me, “Going to cop a feel Shadow? You’re such a perv, I mean the least you can do is wait till she’s out of the bath, or is that your thing? You should try to have a little self-control.”
As I walked by Wingnut and her I got my muzzle an inch away from her ear, “If you really want to join us Byte, you don’t have to make snarky comments, just ask.”
“Ewwwwwww, AS IF!” she said gagging as I giggled evilly walking past her.
Walking in the room I was amazed at the large bed and the décor of the room. I saw that the door to the bathroom was slightly open so I made my way over to it poking my head in, “Aura you in here?”
I saw her laying in the bath, she opened an eye and smiled at the sight of me, “Hey, it’s about time you got back. Can you believe how nice this place is? There’s these fizzy ball things that make the water smell like stale candles.”
“Yeah and even better we get to keep using this room as long as we want,” I said as I walked over to her giving her a kiss, “You look like you’re really enjoying yourself.”
“We need a little R n’ R after what we’ve been through. Now how about you come join me? The bath isn’t as big as the one in the Kingdom was, but there’s still room, and jets. Sorry, I already tried them out,” she said, with a wink.
“Sounds like a good idea,” I said setting my saddle bags down and pulling off my barding and duster. Once they were off I slid into the warm water, “Ah, now this feels fuckin’ great.”
I rested against her and closed my eyes just letting the warm water flow over me. Aura wrapped one of her talons around me holding me close as she said, “Do you think there will ever be a time when we won’t have to fight?”
“I hope so, though with our luck I doubt either of us will be lucky enough to live long enough to make it to a time like that.”
She sighed and started to rub my chest slowly, “There’s more truth in that than you know Shadow. Every day I worry that something’s going to happen to you, or to Wingnut, Wind Thrasher, even Stardust. We’ve made a lot of enemies over the past two months, I’m afraid that one day we’re gonna run out of luck.”
Opening my eyes, I looked up at her, “What brought this on? I know that our lives are dangerous and all, but normally you’re the first one to run into danger with a smile on your face.”
“I think it’s a mix of nearly dying and the attacks as of late. Putting it into perspective, we should’ve died on The Palisade or during the attack on Cartwheel. Hell, you were attacked with Nightshade just yesterday, raiders earlier today, and The Sins. It’s like the more we look into your past the worse it gets. I just started thinking that one day I’m going to be alone again,” she said with a small hitch to her voice.
I moved a hoof up and touched the side of her head, “I can’t promise that nothing bad will happen, but I will promise you that no matter what, we’ll always be together. If something happens to me, then I’ll always be in your heart.”
She chuckled a little, “You know that griffons don’t believe in that right?”
“I think it’s more of the thought that counts.”
“Fine, then I’ll make you this promise. If something happens to me, I’ll find you again in my next life.”
Something about the way she said that made me feel strange. I lowered my hoof and looked down at the water, “I thought that every life is a new life for griffons. If you died and moved on to a new life, you wouldn’t remember me.”
I felt her talon move up to my chin slowly making me look back up into her icy blue eyes, “Yes, every time we reincarnate it’s a new life and I wouldn’t remember you from my passed life. But, I know that there are some souls that love each other so much that they always find each other in every new life. We have a few stories of griffons who were like that.”
“You love me that much?” I asked.
She moved down and kissed me before saying, “Shadow, I think I fell for you on the first day I met you.”
I couldn’t help laughing a little, “When you first met me you were trying to turn me in for a bounty.”
She cocked a smile, “True, but even then, there was something about you that I found captivating. At first, I thought it was just my fancy for mares, you reminded me a little of Trip Wire and I tried to throw off the feeling. In the end I couldn’t so I followed you, part of that was to pay back my debt but I also wanted to get to know you more, and I did.”
“So, if something happens to you I shouldn’t freak out like I did in the Kingdom?” I asked.
She laughed, “Yeah that was a stupid thing to do I’ll admit, but it was also kind of sweet of you too. I don’t think you should go blowing up buildings and trying to take on a group like The Enclave again over it.”
Trying to change the subject to something a bit happier I asked, “So, you never told me, what happened with Gigi and you the other day?”
Her face fell a little as she said, “She told me a few things that I never knew. I was kind of angry at her for it too, but in the end I’m glad I finally talked to her. I always thought my mom disapproved of me because of the way I am. Turns out you were right and I didn’t know her as well as I thought. We haven’t talked that much since I was young.”
“So you two just talked about the past?” I asked.
“That and a few other things, she told me she wanted me to go to the celebration, but she doesn’t want me to rejoin the talons. She said she wants me to be happy and not held down by rules like I was before.”
“She said something like that when I confronted her about it when we were at Crimson Canyon.”
“Yeah she told me about that too, I’m still a little upset you didn’t say anything sooner, but I also understand what it’s like to deal with my mom,” she said with a sigh then she perked up a little, “Oh, I was gonna ask, what took you so long to get back from talking with Mr. Tops?”
“Oh shit I almost forgot,” I said, then I told her about what I talked about with Mr. Tops and about my trip to the floor below. I told her about the thing that took the form of Lightning Dust and about what I learned. I told her that she told me that the sword I found was in fact Misery the blade that belonged to Greta. Then I told her about the Crystal I found.
“I knew I was right about that sword, strange that you found it in The Kingdom.”
“Not really, from the look of the note I found, it looked like Greta gave it to Night Stalker and he left it behind for her later,” I said.
“How did you know it was left by Night Stalker? There’s no way she would’ve given him Misery, they hated each other after she started the Red Talons,” she retorted.
“I think they must’ve made up years later when he was made a Dashite. The note left with the sword was from him but he used his real initials to sign it,” I said.
“Wait, his real initials? No pony or griffon knows his real name.”
“Oh yeah, well I do now. The computer thing knew it and told me.”
“What is it?” she asked, I could hear the anticipation in her voice.
“Sorry, can’t tell ya, it’s a closely guarded government secret. If I told you I’d have to KILL you,” I teased.
She started to nervously fidget, “C’mon Shadow, please? I’d tell you if I could.”
Good Goddesses, she thinks I’m serious, “Loose lips, sink ships says The Captain.”
“No, loose lips mean bad sex, and you’re not gonna get any unless you tell me.”
Oh she’s playing hardball, “Ha, you think that’s gonna get me to break? I’m a stable and this secret is my precious inhabitant.”
She huffed, “Fine, then I just won’t talk to you.”
“How’s that gonna work if you wanna keep asking me what the secret is?” I cleverly asked.
She stammered a bit, “Uh, um, I don’t know. I figured me not talking would irritate you enough to get me to tell you.”
“My point exactly, you just talked to me. It would be agony for us not to talk to each other and I think you’d break first before me.”
“Would not! I can just as easily drown you y’know,” she argued.
I snickered, “But then I wouldn’t be able to tell you what Absent Moon’s name is.”
She sighed, “I guess you got a point…WAIT A MINUTE!!! You were fucking with me.”
“Yup.”
She turned her head away from me and crossed her talons, “Ppfftt, bitch.”
I also turned my head away from her, “Jerk.”
She started to lightly laugh like she was holding back hysterical laughter, “See, I can do it too…HAHAHAHAHA.”
“Yeah, ha-ha, very funny.”
I thought the name wouldn’t mean anything to her but Aura looked like I’d just hit her in the face, “Absent Moon huh? He’s the stallion that spent a few months in Crimson Canyon right before Greta ran off. The rumors were that she broke Rule 7 herself and ran off with the Stallion leaving her son in charge of The Red Talons. She was never heard from again. You mean that stallion was Night Stalker!?”
“Yeah, I’m even more convinced of it now. Night Stalker just vanished one day a little while after he became a Dashite. If Greta vanished around the same time, then they must’ve gone off together and either died or made a life for themselves away from Equestria,” I said resting my head against her chest again, “Is that why you don’t like being compared to her?”
“Yeah, it’s bad enough that I was kicked out for breaking the same rule, it’s even worse that she’s my distant grandmother. But yeah, I can see how her disappearing matches with Night Stalker. One thing for sure, you have to talk to Tonto when we get to Crimson Canyon.”
“I know, I wish I could’ve talked to him more in Cartwheel, but my head wasn’t in a good place at the time. I’ll make sure to set some time aside when we get there,” I said.
“Good idea, well I think we’ve talked enough, how about we get cleaned up and get out of the tub. If you want we can see how much fun that bed in the room is,” she said with an evil grin.
“I’ll never get anything done if you keep distracting me,” I said with a laugh.
“I don’t know…I’m sure there’s one thing you can get done…maybe two or three. Plus, there’s a coin slot on the bed that makes it vibrate like a massage. Mmmmaybe it can massage OTHER things,” she said.
“Aura, you’re not…” I started to say, but she found a way to make me go quiet.
“Oh look, I found the off button, cool I wonder what else this does…” she said laughing as her talons wondered.
“So….evil….”
***
A couple hours later, feeling refreshed and a little wobbly from Aura showing me a new trick or ten, I was heading down The Strip toward where The Enclave’s little Skyport was supposed to be. Aura was still up in the room with Wingnut and Byte. Stardust offered to go with me, but I thought it would be a bad idea seeing how he was technically a runaway. Wind Thrasher was walking next to me looking around at all the sights as we worked our way past drunk soldiers, whores, and robots.
“This place is amazing Shadow, though it’s really loud. How do ponies sleep in this city?” Wind Thrasher asked as we passed one of the gates that led to the back area of The Strip.
“I’m not sure this town ever really sleeps, and if it does I think a lot of alcohol helps,” I replied.
“When Stardust and I went into The Applewood I couldn’t believe how many ponies were there. He said you guys stayed in there when you were here before. I bet it was a lot of fun!” she said, her wings fluttering as she jumped up and down.
“I’m not sure about it being A LOT of fun, most of what I remember was being caught with my tail up after a bath by Wingnut, dancing like a drunk fool in front of a lot of ponies, sleeping with a singer, vomiting on stage while a nice ghoul was trying to sing, oh yeah and I ran into The Sins. Yeah loads of fun,” I said rolling my eyes.
“It couldn’t be all that bad.”
“Sadly, it was, BUT I did have fun while I was doing some of those things. Just looking back now it doesn’t seem as fun as I thought it was,” I said then looking over at her I added, “You’re looking a lot better Wind Thrasher, it’s almost like your back to your old self again.”
She beamed at me, again showing off those very sharp fangs of hers, “I’ve been feeling like my old self too. I think talking with Stardust has been helping a lot. He told me that whenever I’m feeling like I’m about to lose control to just talk with him and he’ll help me get through it.”
I gave her a quizzical look, “When did you two have time to talk? We’ve been traveling most of the time.”
“We started talking a lot when you were learning how to fight with Yaksha. He’s really nice, so brave and strong. He’s a great listener, he asked me what life was like in Stable 9 for all those years I was trapped in there. It was nice to be able to tell somepony about those times for once,” she said blushing a little.
“Stardust a good listener? Are you sure you’re talking about the same Pegasus that I know or an imposter?” I teased.
She gave me an angry face, “Hey, he IS a good listener. He really cares about his friends you know, that goes for Aura and you too.”
I gave her a sidewise glance, “You like him don’t you?”
“Of course I do, he’s my friend, don’t you like him?” she asked me looking confused.
I couldn’t help laughing, “No I mean you REALLY like him, like how I like Aura. Y’know, as in you wanna take a trip to the love shack.”
Her face turned bright red, “I DO NOT…Shadow…no!” she covered her face.
“You DO! It’s written all over your face, and you chastised me for not telling Aura how I felt.”
Her blush deepened as she held one hoof over her face, shaking her other hoof up and down violently, her head shaking similarly to her hoof, “Don’t tell him please! He’s the first nice stallion I’ve met in a long time Shadow. I don’t want him to think I’m a weirdo or something.”
“Well you ARE a weirdo, but no more than myself or the rest of us. What are you so worried about?”
“Shadow, look at me. I’m a freak of nature, well actually science, but a twisted creature that can barely control herself nonetheless.”
“Wind Thrasher you’re not a freak, you’re just unique, and honestly quite adorable when you’re all cleanish and not trying to kill us. I say cleanish because The Wasteland makes us gross.”
She frowned at me, “I have scales and fangs, what’s cute about that?”
“You haven’t seen yourself when you’re in a bubbly mood have you? I know you can’t see it because I’m sure you still remember what you used to look like. We’ve only known you as a bat pony not a pegasus. You used to be the mare we knew as Sharp, even then you weren’t bad, just scared and alone. At the end of the day, whether you’re Sharp or Wind Thrasher, you’re still you and we like the way you are. Stardust doesn’t see you as a pony who was changed into what you are now by a mad doctor, he just sees Wind Thrasher. Plus, there’s some ponies out there who are into a little strange now and then if you know what I mean. Look at me, I’m with a griffon, it doesn’t get much stranger than that,” I said trying to cheer her up.
She smiled a little, “I guess I shouldn’t judge myself too harshly. Though I still don’t want to tell him until I know how he feels. He’s been through a lot in the past few weeks and he needs time to heal in his own way. No matter what happens, I’m happier being with all of you over being alone.”
“That’s more like it,” I couldn’t help but smile, “I’m supposed to be the gloomy one around here not you,” I said bumping her flanks with my own sharing a laugh with her.
She laughed, “So you think I’m adorable huh?”
“Oh, don’t start reading into it, I don’t see you in that way. I meant like a stuffed animal or another thing that’s cute.”
She laughed, “Even if you did, I’m too old for you.”
“Pfft, like that’s stopped me before, I slept with Laser and Silver at the same time. She’s way older than me and she was a lot of fun,” I teased.
“Wait Laser Light’s into mares too? I had no idea!”
“She’s not really, it was just her being drunk, her judgement was way off. Interesting still, she didn’t seem to care after that night, I wonder if it’s happened before. Plus, who says somepony can’t go both ways? The singer I slept with was a stallion.”
“Huh, you really get around don’t you.”
I scoffed, “Now you’re making me sound like a whore.”
She laughed again, “Loose maybe, but not a whore. Just don’t go messing around on Aura. She’s scary when she’s mad and I don’t think my bloodlust can take the amount of your blood she’d spill if you did something like that and she found out.”
“So are you.”
“I’m not scary when I’m mad, I’m terrifying, there’s a difference. Scary is quick, terrifying leaves a scar for life sometimes.”
We both laughed as we finally made it to the small building that was set against the back wall of The Strip. It looked mostly like a worn-down warehouse, with the words ‘Enclave Skyport’ over the door, and just below that written on a smaller sign ‘Robot Repair and Tune Up’ and an even smaller sign under it that said ‘basic first aid clinic, class listings inside’. It was quite an odd sight to see for a place like this.
“I thought the Skyport was for ponies to send letters and stuff or to report,” I said.
“Maybe the pony who runs it has a side business or something?” Wind Thrasher said looking at the sign, “You sure this is okay?”
“I don’t think Doorstop would’ve sent me here if it wasn’t,” I said.
“Well we won’t know until we go inside I guess.”
She was right, so we went in. I was expecting to find a couple of pegasi in power armor guarding some official at a desk with a load of other pegasi working in the back. Instead it was a run-down looking warehouse with a desk set up in one corner with a sign over it reading, ‘Skyport Head Stallion’. Nopony was there, “Maybe we came at a bad time or he’s on break.”
Wind Thrasher was about to say something when she stopped, her ears turning toward a door that led deeper into the warehouse, “I think I hear somepony in the back.”
BOOM!
A small explosion rang out from the place Wind Thrasher indicated, “What the hell was that!?”
We both ran toward the door only to have it flung open and a plume of smoke pour out of the doorway, followed by a pegasus stallion. He was wearing a dark grey Enclave uniform with a patch on one shoulder that said ‘Skyport Head Stallion’. When the smoke started to clear I could see what he looked like. He looked to be around Wind Thrasher’s age, he had a light grey coat slightly covered in soot, his mane was a pale pink and dark grey mix that swept over one side of his head, and he was wearing a pair of light red glasses over cyan colored eyes.
He coughed a little saying, “Note to self, mixing various chemicals found in The Wasteland to serve as an alternate power source can have a violent reaction if heated improperly.”
“Um…excuse me, are you okay?” I asked.
He looked up as if he had no idea we were even there until I said something, “Oh I didn’t know I had guests, or did I forget that I had an appointment today?” he gasped, “Crap did I miss some class attendants again? Arrgh where is that blasted Sprite Bot when I need him?” he spoke so fast it was almost hard to keep up with what he said.
“Um…do you work here or are you just covering for somepony?” I asked a little confused by his strange behavior.
He shook his head then pulled a handkerchief out of a pocket, using it to clean the soot off his face then smiled as me with blackened teeth, which was probably caused by the explosion, “My apologies, yes I work here, actually I’m the only pony who works here. I’m Kittersfly, I run the Skyport for Stratus and Nimbus how can I help you today, or are you in need of repair for a robot? Maybe even some first aid basics, I have classes once every two weeks two times a day?”
I couldn’t help but giggle a little at his fast speech. I took a quick minute to calm down and let out a cough, “I have a letter that needs to be delivered to a mare in Stratus, can you help me with that?” I asked.
“Shouldn’t be a problem as long as she’s in the area we cover. Who’s the letter for?” he asked heading toward his desk, “This is so exciting, I never get to do anything here! I get bored easily and I start to tinker you see, and then things go boom and I gotta clean up and start alleviating my boredom all over again,” he said smiling invitingly.
We followed him both a little confused. As we walked back to his desk I pulled out the letter Doorstop gave me. Quickly reading over the name on it I said, “It’s for a mare named Fairy Glitter, the letter says she lives in the high rise…”
He sat down at his desk looking up at us both, his smile only getting bigger, “Oh I know Fairy Glitter, she runs our intel department. Sometimes she also helps out in our hospital. She’s friends with my dad, I should have no problem getting this to her. Who’s the one sending the letter? I need to know for our records.”
“It’s from a family friend of hers I think, I didn’t get the pony’s name. I’m a courier and he couldn’t get this to her himself so he paid me to get it here,” I said.
“Ah, I know a dodge when I see one. I’m guessing the one sending this is a Dashite,” he said starting to write down some information on a small book he had laid out in front of him.
“Does…it matter if he is or not?” I asked.
“Not at all, we get this kind of thing now and then. Dashites are always afraid to let The Enclave know they’re still alive or in contact with family. I’ll just write down that it was dropped off by a courier and that should be fine. The fee for sending the letter is fifty caps.”
Of course there was a fee. Not only did Doorstop not pay me for this, it was costing me my own hard-earned caps. Grumbling a little I pulled out the caps and gave them to Kittersfly, “Here you go I guess, just make sure that letter makes it to Fairy Glitter.”
“You can count on me ma’am, I’m heading up to Stratus soon anyway so you came at the right time. I spend a week down here and a week up there helping my dad. I’ll make this delivery my second stop when I get up there,” he said taking the letter from me and placing it in a satchel.
Wind Thrasher asked, “Why can’t it be your first stop? The pony who sent that really needs it to get to her. We can pay extra if it helps.”
I glared at Wind Thrasher, why did everypony volunteer to spend MORE of our caps? Kittersfly didn’t seem to notice my look he just chuckled, “Because my first delivery is for our High Council Pony Nightshade from Mr. Tops. His stuff always gets delivered first, that’s part of our deal with The Strip. Hey are you a bat pony?”
Wind Thrasher took a step back trying to hide behind me a little, “Maybe? Why do you care?”
“Oh you don’t need to worry, I just think it’s fascinating. Part of me finds them cute. I don’t know why, I just always have. Anyways, I’ve heard there were bat ponies down here, but never met one. I thought most of your kind were out near Hoofington at least that’s the rumors I’ve heard,” he said still smiling.
I could see Wind Thrasher blushing again “T-T-Thanks I guess,” her voice quieting
“She wasn’t born that way and the story behind it is long and brings up a lot of bad memories,” I said.
“I didn’t mean to pry, I just wanted to know that’s all.”
“It’s fine…hey I was wondering what were you doing in the other room?” I asked.
He laughed, “Oh just messing around with new ideas that’s all. I tried something new and the experiment went oh so very wrong. Normally I run a small robot repair business out of here when I’m in The Wasteland. I don’t get much business for the Skyport so it keeps me occupied and it pays nice too. Then of course my basic first aid classes that no one seems to want to be a part of. Oh well, I’ll remain optimistic about it. It’s not like I pay anything for that. Maybe a bigger sign, I dunno,” he talked to himself looking thoughtful.
“O….k then, well we should be going, please get that delivered as soon as you can,” I said turning to leave.
“Can do,” he said still smiling, “Come back in a week just in case I have a return letter for your dashite friend.”
When Wind Thrasher and I were back outside I looked over at her, “That definitely wasn’t what I was expecting from an Enclave Stallion.”
“He was nice,” she said.
“Yeah and strange too, but he did think you were cute.”
She blushed, “Oh my gosh Shadow stop,” she laughed a little.
“You were the one who kept saying ‘how could a pony like me’ and blah, blah, blah,” I teased
She just shook her head “Anyway, back to what you said. You gotta admit, it’s better than most Enclave ponies you’ve met right?”
“Yeah I guess, oh well. At least I got that letter delivered for Doorstop. We should get back, it’s late and I’d rather be relaxing,” I said.
“Sounds good to me.”
As we started to head back I got a strange feeling while we walked. Looking back, I swore I could see somepony run between two of the buildings, but I couldn’t be sure. Deciding it was just my imagination I turned back following Wind Thrasher. Deciding I needed to get my mind off of what’s been happening today I turned on the radio. It’s been a long time since I’ve listened to the news around New Pegasus.
Right away I heard the smooth voice of Mr. New Pegasus floating out of my Pip-Buck…
Hello Everypony and thank you for joining me on this late-night broadcast. The last song was a local favorite of Sweetie Belle, recorded the day she did her big concert here on The Strip a few days after the attack on this great city by Zebras. I have a lot of things to update you on since the last broadcast. So, sit back and relax while I put on my news pony fedora.
You may all know by now that the trading town of Cartwheel was destroyed a few days ago by The Steel Rangers, not just any Steel Rangers mind you, oh no, this was the branch from out west. It seems like a small war has broken out between our own Hidden Sands Rangers and the ones from Los Alicorn. Neither Elders could be reached for comment on the matter, but this old pony got some inside information from a griffon that was there right after the attack. Sadly, it’s all true, Cartwheel is no more, nothing more than a pile of rubble and one last building standing alone next to the remains of Equestrian Express.
Yes, I know what you all are thinking ‘Mr. New Pegasus, isn’t the Equestrian Express the same place The Courier worked for?’ well yes it was. But don’t worry too much, after a short capture by The Steel Rangers, The Courier and her friends managed to escape. She has declared that even though the Equestrian Express building is gone and the old buck who started it died during the attack, she would still keep working as a courier. In her own words quote, ‘Equestrian Express won’t die while I’m still around.’
In other news, The NLR have lost another platoon while fighting The Romans who are still slowly working their way west and toward New Pegasus. Even worse I have reports that at least one Sin was spotted near Crossroads Trading Post earlier today. She was able to somehow kill forty highly trained members of the NLR Rangers. I’m not sure what’s been going on but if the NLR don’t start gaining ground, The Romans will be able to push right to the city.
Also, I’ve heard another rumor that our own Courier was spotted at Crossroads Trading Post before the attack. From what I’ve been able to gather, she was helping The Red Talons work out a peace treaty between The Annihilators and Trotston. It looks like she was able to do it, bringing an end to a fifteen-year feud. Normally I’d say if your listening Courier then good job, but from where I sit broadcasting in the heart of The Strip I can see her out my window. So, Good job Courier and if you’re ever free, do stop in and say hello.
Well this has been New Pegasus’ favorite broadcaster Mr. New Pegasus with the news everypony and remember I have a soundtrack coming out soon, Titled ‘Mr. New Pegasus’ Nuclear Winter Wonderland.’ Have a good night everypony.
More music started to play, ignoring it I sighed and looked up at one of the buildings where the radio tower was sitting on top. I could just make out the shape of a pony in a high window, but not much else, “Figures he’d broadcast my location. Idiot.”
“You shouldn’t be surprised, you know that they always like to have ponies thinking they know more than they do. At least he didn’t say you’re staying in The Lucky Horseshoe,” Wind Thrasher said chuckling a little.
“Yeah, yeah laugh it up. Let’s just get back.”
We didn’t get much further when a pony in a blood red cloak stepped in front of us, no not a pony, a zebra. He was tall and had scars all over his face. He walked close to me and said quietly, “Courier Shadow Star, The Caesar wants to know if you have learned anything about Mr. Tops.”
I’d almost forgotten about the request made by The Caesar a couple weeks back, “I haven’t put much thought into it and it’s not like I can just wander around inside that tower.”
Wind Thrasher hissed a little, “What do you want!?”
Ignoring her the zebra said, “Courier, tell your slave to keep quiet.”
I felt anger building up inside me, “Wind Thrasher isn’t a slave, you moron. She’s my friend, what do you want?”
He looked angry for a moment then said, “I do not care what you call her Courier, mares like you and her are only good for one thing and that is being our slaves. If The Caesar did not need you then you would be no better than the rest of your kind. So, do not tell me what that disgusting thing is, tell me what I want to know.”
I was about to say something, but Wind Thrasher beat me to it. She moved closer to the zebra, “You think that mares are only good as slaves, do you?”
“I suggest you back away, before I am forced to kill you.”
“I’d like to see you try dickhead. I’m not scared of you and neither is Shadow, now answer my question!” Wind Thrasher said again showing her fangs.
The zebra stallion grinned a little, “I am not scared of you either monster. If you want an answer to your question then yes, zebra mares should only be good for breeding, keeping the home clean, and to help raise our young. Pony mares are only good for selling to other ponies for them to use in whatever way they want or target practice. Now get out of my face, your breath smells like a whore’s taint.”
“No, I’m not letting you speak to my friend that way. If that’s how The Romans see pony kind and mares, then I’m not going to help him with anything. Tell your Caesar to fuck off and find another pony to make their way into The Lucky Horseshoe. Oh wait, you can’t because nopony can get in,” I said condescendingly, “Come on Wind Thrasher let’s go.”
“Insensitive waste of breath,” she said to The Zebra as she turned to follow me.
“Wait,” he said sounding annoyed, “As much as I hate to say this, we do need your help Courier. Yes, if I was the one who ran our great tribe then I would do things differently than our Caesar, but I am not. I am just one of his soldiers. At least go and see him so he can explain his reasons himself.”
Wind Thrasher turned back toward him, “You should’ve thought about that before you insulted us. I see no reason to keep talking to you. In fact, I hope you get shot on your way back home.”
He looked even angrier as he said, “I was ordered by The Caesar to give The Courier this message.”
Wind Thrasher laughed, “So if we just say no and leave then you’ll be in trouble?”
“I will be yes, and it will not stop him from coming to find you,” he replied.
Wind Thrasher hissed again, “Then why should we care what happens to you, the first thing you did was insult us.”
“Wind Thrasher that’s enough,” I said trying to calm her down
“But Shadow—“
I cut her off, “Wind Thrasher, like you said he’s just a waste of breath. I’ll think about it, what’s your name?” I asked.
“Kijin, why?” he replied.
“I’ll go to see The Caesar, but if I see you there when I’m meeting with him,” I said pulling out Misery, “I’ll jam this through your skull after I’ve cut off your balls and fed them to you. I’ll do the same to any sons you have. Males are so very precious to you after all.”
For the first time he looked a little scared, “I will be elsewhere doing the Caesar’s bidding. You will not see me, but before I go you’ll need this,” he pulled out a gold medallion that had a symbol on it.
I took it asking, “What’s this for?”
“Show it to one of our guards in Driftwood Cove, they will bring you to our camp. It’s the mark of our Caesar, it shows that you are trusted,” he said then his cloak flashed and he vanished.
Wind Thrasher seemingly calmed down, “I couldn’t even hear him move, those cloaks of theirs are scary.”
“Yeah they are.”
She looked back at me, “Are you really gonna go?”
“I’m not sure yet, I really don’t trust The Romans. At the very least I’ll give The Caesar a chance to explain to me why he needs my help, but if he’s just as fucked up as Kijin is, well my sword will have more work to do.”
“I’d rather never see any of them again. I’ve heard stories from some of the NLR solders I’ve worked with about them, none of them are good,” she said as we started heading back to The Lucky Horseshoe again.
“Yeah I agree, but we can’t let one zebra’s attitude make us see the rest of their race the same.”
“I guess, but still I don’t like this.”
I smiled, “I know and that’s why when we go see him, we’ll have a plan. I’m not gonna let some zebra dictator tell me what to do. Now let’s go get some rest and start planning for what we’re gonna do at Crimson Canyon in a couple days.”
“Sounds good. Oh, and Shadow...”
I looked back at her as I pushed the door open to The Lucky Horseshoe, “Yeah?”
“Can we keep the conversation we had earlier between the two of us?”
“Sure, let’s go see our friends.”
***
When we finally made it back to the Royal Suite we both walked in to find Byte and Wingnut in the middle of some kind of argument. Wingnut was just saying, “That’s a bunch of bullshit, you can’t tell me that you really think something like that will work.”
“If you do it the right way then yes I do. You’re the one who’s too thick headed to see things the way I do. Stupid bug.”
I walked over to where Aura was watching them chuckling to herself a little, “What are they arguing about?”
“It started with Byte trying to explain how her gravity gun works, I lost track of what the real argument was about somewhere between why mares are smarter then stallions and what gems work better in a laser rifle. I’m just enjoying the show.”
“Okay, so we should just leave them alone?” I asked.
Stardust walked in from one of the other rooms smirking, “I don’t think you could get a word in edgewise, just let them go at it. I’d say only step in if they start kissing to make up.”
I grinned, “Nah if that happens then I say just leave them be.”
Aura looked back at me, “So how did it go at the Skyport?”
“It was…different, but good. I think I’m going to go try getting a nap in. Later I’d like to talk about what we’ll be doing at this celebration.”
“Sounds good, I’ll be in later,” she said going back to watching the two fight.
Yawning I walked back into the room, set my saddle bags down, removed my barding and laid down on the soft bed. I closed my eyes and let myself relax, it didn’t take long for sleep to come. As it did right before I was swept off to the world of dreams. I heard something inside my head, “Soon Shadow…Soon! Hahahahahahaha!”
[FOOTNOTE: LEVEL UP!]
NEW PERK ADDED!
Negotiator: You’ve made a lot of deals throughout your journey and a lot more of them have been in your favor rather than not. It is now easier to convince someone to agree to any terms you have during dialogue and your barter skill is permanently raised by 15 allowing you to get better prices at all shops, bazars, and markets.
QUEST ITEM ADDED!
Mark of The Caesar: You now posses The Mark of The Caesar. Any crimes committed against The Romans up to this point have been forgiven and you have been allowed a meeting with The Caesar himself. Be careful however, if you commit any wrongdoings against The Romans from this point on, you’ll be hunted and quite possibly killed by Roman assassins.