“Well, well, I was wondering how long it was going to take you to find this place Shadow Star”
When I asked Sun Spot and Captain Gunny to bring me to Canterlot so I could find what was hidden in the old base of The Children of the Night. They both told me the place was deadly, Elliot confirmed that not long after. Still I didn’t know what I was getting into, but I didn’t care, at least that’s what I thought until I saw the mythical place…
We flew closer to the tall mountain where a once beautiful castle sat on the edge of the mountain. I could tell even from here, that the city of Canterlot and the castle itself had once been a wonder to behold. I’d seen pictures of the location in my history books. What was once captured as a true beauty, a staple of high society and ruling over all Equestria, Canterlot, was a shell of its former glory. I saw a small chunk of Canterlot fall into the foggy abyss underneath it. The castle was crumbling and dead looking, the city below had buildings falling down and I could see creatures, probably ghouls roaming around. The air around the place looked sickly and dead in the dim light that poked through the cloud cover. But nothing was as strange as the eerie pink mist that seemed to poor out of the buildings themselves. It washed out of the city like a slow-moving flood, working its way down the mountain side and slowly dissipating as it fell. From where we were now hovering close to the city, but not close enough to the pink mist. I saw bones of ponies fused with the street, carts, other ponies and objects too.
“Quite a nasty sight huh?” Elliot said as he looked down at the former capital of Equestria.
“I had no idea it was this bad. What kind of spell did the zebras use to do that?” I asked.
“No idea,” Elliot replied. “But I do know that whatever it was, it’s still active within the city.”
I looked at him in shock. “How can a spell still be active after two hundred years?”
He shrugged. “Still no idea. Sun Spot and I haven’t been able to look into it yet. You gotta remember that we’re also new to The Wasteland and haven’t had the time to dig into the past as much as we’d like.”
“There be nothin’ in the past that needs bringin’ up and all that,” Gunny said, coming to look down at the city. “Gunny and you all should keep the ship up here and fly down to where all be needn’ to be.”
“Why do you say that?” I asked. “I know there’s a large enough platform for The Bitter Cob to land down there.”
“Aye, but that not be the problem, no it be them,” he said, pointing a hoof way down at the streets of Canterlot.
I squinted, but could only make out small black dots. “I don’t see anything.”
“Ya need yer eyes’ checked,” Gunny said, reaching into his overcoat with a hoof and pulling out a spyglass. “Here, be lookin’ through that.”
I took the spyglass with my magic and looked down at the place he’d pointed to before. It took me a moment, but then I saw them. A small grey unicorn with a Pip-Buck on her right foreleg with another unicorn who looked a little older and had similar coloring to my own apart from the gold and red stripe on her mane and tail. There was also a copper colored pegasus who had to be a Dashite from the look of him. They were just making their way past a building, the smaller one seemed to be leading the way into the city.
“Who are they?” I asked.
Elliot answered, “No idea, but it’s a good thing we aren’t heading into the city ourselves or they could be a problem.”
“It be best to have the twins fly you and Gunny to the location,” Gunny said.
“It’s not a bad idea,” Sun Spot said, coming to look down at Canterlot with us. “The Bitter Cob should be fine up here for a little while.”
“I still don’t see why we need to worry about a few ponies in the city,” I said.
“It ain’t about them only, Gunny also sees a couple of Aliwatsits near the castle too,” Gunny said, pointing to a balcony that overlooked Canterlot.
I turned the spyglass toward it and saw he was right. I could just make out a couple of Alicorn’s just inside the broken doors to the castle. I lowered the spyglass, saying, “Okay fine, we’ll do it your way.”
“Good on ya Shadow,” Gunny said with a smile. “Okay then, let’s be headin’ off. No time like the now.”
A few minutes later Sun Spot and Elliot were flying Gunny and myself over the dilapidated city, toward the tallest cliff in the side of the mountain. The Bitter Cob was hovering in the distance, barely noticeable against the gloomy sky. I was riding on Sun Spot’s back, Gunny was being held by Elliot as we made our way closer to our destination. When we were almost there, when a few shots rang out in the city below, but no bullets flew up at us. It must’ve been from the ponies we saw before.
“Sound’s like one mighty powerful revolver to Gunny’s ears,” Gunny said, looking down at the city. “Gunny’d like to get his hooves on a gun like that.”
“You can tell that just by the sound of it?” I asked.
“Sure Gunny can. He be an expert with things that go boom,” the mad captain said with a chuckle.
“We’re almost there,” Sun Spot said as she flapped her wings harder and flew closer to the mountain.
Only a minute later, we were landing on the large platform that overlooked the city. The cliff was about twenty-five meters higher than the tallest tower of the castle. The pink cloud was just rolling off the top of said tower, but it seemed not to be able to reach this high. I was grateful for that, I may not understand what that cloud did, but it had to be bad from the looks of Canterlot. Ignoring the sight of the city, I turned toward the large doors that led into The Children’s old base.
In Lightning Dust’s Memory when she first came to this place, the doors had been gold and beautiful. Over two hundred years later however, the doors were diminished and sad looking. They were still gold, but tarnished over time, with heaven knows how many storms that must’ve raged across here since the last time somepony polished or cleaned them.
Gunny walked over to the door and looked it over. “How’s Gunny to get in, ain’t no knober or anytin’.”
“Just let me show you,” I said as I walked past him. I put a hoof on the door, took in a deep breath and recited the words I heard Night Stalker say in Lightning Dust’s memory. “By the night’s glory, I request passage into the home of these children who look to the night sky for protection.”
“Night’s glory? Children looking for Protection?” Elliot asked, but before I could answer the doors glowed with a bright golden light then slowly opened.
“Gunny needs to get himself sometin’ like that,” Gunny said as he looked at the now beautiful golden doors.
The Spell to open them must’ve cleaned them up again, because now they shined just as bright as they had in Lightning Dust’s memory. I stepped forward and into the old base. I wasn’t sure what I’d find here, all I saw in Lightning’s memory was the main chamber when she first joined The Children. All the other memory orbs of The Children of the Night I found were always in New Pegasus. Well except for the fight against the Pegasus traitor and the Grand Galloping Galla, but those hadn’t been at this base. I’d always assumed they moved to New Pegasus not long after Lightning joined.
From the looks of the main chamber, I was wrong. The furniture had been changed since that last memory I saw, there were more odds and ends lying around and a couple of new terminals were sitting in one corner of the room. If it wasn’t for the dust and the shabby look of the place, I would’ve thought that somepony had been here after Night Stalker last visited. Maybe they used the base whenever a Child of the Night was in Canterlot. I wasn’t sure, it honestly didn’t matter.
“Any of you good with terminals?” I asked, looking back at Sun Spot, Elliot, and Gunny who were looking around the place in awe.
Elliot looked back at me, saying, “I am, what do you need?”
“See if you can get the lights on and check to see if there’s any security footage. I’d like to see when the last time a pony was here was,” I said, turning toward a hallway that led to another room.
“I’m on it,” Elliot said, walking over the terminals in the corner.
“Gunny’s goin’ ta look around this room fer a bit. Sunny, go with Shadow,” Gunny said.
“Aye, aye,” she said, following me down the hallway.
As we walked, I said, “You don’t have to follow me, nopony apart from The Children of the Night know how to get into this place.”
“Maybe, but you should still be on your guard,” she said, looking at the doors on each side of the hallway. “This place is kinda creepy.”
“I don’t think any ponies have been here for at least a hundred and sixty years or so,” I said as I walked up to a door on one side of the hallway and checked it. It was locked. Sighing, I pulled out a bobby pin and the screwdriver I got from Charity and started on the lock.
“What’re you doing?” Sun Spot asked.
“Picking the lock,” I said as I worked the bobby pin around, I felt the pins press into place then twisted the lock with the screwdriver. “There we go, not too bad.”
As I pushed the door open with a hoof, Sun Spot asked, “Where’d you learn to do that?”
I shrugged as I looked around the room. It was only a bedroom with only a single bed and a desk in one corner. No personal effects to be found at all so I turned back into the hall, saying, “Found a book in my old stable that showed the inner workings of most kinds of locks. I used to be a bit of a trouble maker, so I started teaching myself how to pick them. My Overmare used to have security confiscate things from me when I was a filly, so I used to sneak into their area of the stable using the air ducts and steal whatever they took, back.”
“I’m surprised you got away with that,” she said as I moved to another door and picked the next lock.
“She never caught me doing it. I knew where a blind spot was in a hallway on the floor above Security. There was a duct I could use in that blind spot so I used to use that. Security only has cameras where the cells are, so I was able to get away with most things.” The lock clicked and I pushed open the door, finding the same sight as the last room. “Damn, I hope not all the rooms in this place are like this one.”
“What is it you’re hoping to find anyway?” Sun Spot asked.
“Not sure yet, I know that Night Stalker left something here and I need to find it,” I said as I continued down the hall.
“It’d help if you knew what to look for,” she said.
“I know at least one thing is a weapon of some kind, or notes on how to stop something called Project Star Gazer,” I said as we came to the end of the hall where a single large door was set. There wasn’t any kind of doorknob or even a keyhole for me to pick.
“A weapon huh? Also, what is Project Star Gazer?” she asked.
“Project Star Gazer is the name of a project that was meant to pull power from the stars. It’s part of a bigger project, one that I’m trying to stop anypony from using,” I said as I looked around the edge of the door.
“Noble of you then,” she said with a shiver. “If it’s anything like Project Chimera, then I’d want to put a stop to it too.”
“It’s worse than what was done to you, at least I believe it is,” I said as I found what I was looking for finally. “Ah here we go.”
“How do you open doors like that anyway, there’s no keyhole,” she asked.
“Like this,” I said, as I pushed a small button next to the door. A small sapphire popped out of the wall. “It has a genetic scanner on it.”
The gem flashed with a blue light. The light ran over my body quickly then the gem popped back into the wall, a small voice, saying, “Welcome Child of the Night.”
Sun Spot looked confused as the door vanished into the wall as it slid open. “How’d you get that thing to think you were a Child of the Night?”
“I didn’t, I just happened to be related to like Three of the Children of the Night,” I said as I walked into the room. The room wasn’t huge, but it was a lot bigger than the chamber when you first came into this place. It looked like a mix of a library, an armory, a sitting room, a laboratory, and a museum. The library part was harder to make out since there weren’t any books, but large book selves were set into the back wall. In the middle of the room stood at least twenty stands with glass boxes of varying sizes, some with items inside. In the far corner, a small lab was set up with all kinds of stuff I knew nothing about. It just reminded me of mom’s small lab in the bunker when we lived with The Steel Rangers. In the other corner and taking up half of each wall were rows of old prewar weapons. And on the side closest to the door was a huge terminal and a few bean bags set up around it like a sitting area with a couple of tables next to each one.
As soon as I walked into the room, the lights overhead came on, taking away the gloomy look from the emergency security lights that had been the only illumination before. Sun Spot smiled a little, saying, “I guess Elliot got the power back on.”
The terminal booted up with a soft humming and the speakers came to life in the ceiling, playing a soft jazz number. I smiled along with her. “Makes it feel a lot nicer in here, now if the dust was gone and some of the grime cleaned up, it’d be almost homey.”
Sun Spot looked toward the weapons rack, saying, “You think the weapon you’re looking for is over there?”
“No idea, I’m gonna see if I can hack into the terminal and check to see if there’s anything in there that can help,” I said, walking toward the terminal. “You can take whatever you want from the rack though, I don’t think I’ll need any of those.”
“Sounds good to me,” Sun Spot said, heading over to the rack of weapons as I went to the larger terminal.
The terminal reminded me a lot of the one in The Lucky Horseshoe, the same one Mr. Tops used to communicate with ponies…well me at least. It just looked like an older model. I tapped a couple of keys, booting up the terminal. It took a little while for it to switch on and be ready to use. Once it was up it asked for a username and password. Looking around, I found the place I could hook up the Mark II and did so. Like always, the Mark II did it’s work and got me past the normal log in and right into the security bypass logs. As I worked on finding the correct password, I heard Gunny come into the room.
“Ah Gunny likes this room he does. Look at all the gizzmos and whatcha’ macalles it’s,” I heard Gunny say as he walked by me.
Just as he came in, I was able to finally get the right password, it was ‘Advantageous’. The terminal came to a screen with a huge list of items. I smiled, saying, “Awesome, I was hoping I could get in quickly. I think I’m getting better at this hacking stuff.”
Gunny poked his head around me, saying, “Wat’s all this stuff by the by?”
I rolled my eyes. “I thought you were gonna check out the main room while Sun Spot and I checked this one.”
“Gunny did check the other room, didn’t find nothin’, just a bunch of dust and all that. Gunny wanted to be seein’ what was in this room, lots better stuff in here,” he said with a chuckle.
“Can you at least give me a little space?” I asked as I started to look through the list of items and whatever else was on this.
“Gunny be da Captin’ here not you,” he said in a huff.
“We aren’t on your ship anymore Captain Gunny, we’re in the base of The Children of the Night who happen to be my ancestors. So, technically you’re in my place now, so I make the rules,” I said as I brought up the list of items that were inventoried there.
“So that how it be then? Fine, if ya wanna push ol’ Captin’ Gunny away so be it,” he said, moving away muttering to himself. “Not like Gunny cared what was on that anyhow, crazy tiny unicorn.”
I ignored him as I started going through the list again. If I had time to go through everything that was on this terminal I would. Sadly, there was so much here that I’d have to spend a week if not longer reading through every file stored here. What I needed to find was the weapon that could kill Aquila, if that’s what Night Stalker meant when he said destroying Star Gazer. After an undetermined amount of time something caught my eye. It was the second to last item on the list, it said ‘Memory Crystal: Fall of The Queen of the Night’ I clicked on it and watched as another message came up.
Item in box 2-D do you wish to unlock?
Interested even more now, I clicked yes and watched as another message followed that one.
Blue, Violet, Red, Blue, Red, Yellow, Orange, Green,
I was able to read it twice before the message vanished. I was about to see if I could look it over again when a soft light caught my eye where a glass box was. Looking over I saw one of the boxes were lit up and the case’s top was now opened up. Moving over to it I saw what was inside, it was another Memory Crystal, about the same size as the one I found in Minuette’s lab. I was about to pick it up with my magic when I remembered the warning about what could happen with them.
Looking over at Sun Spot who was looking over a large rifle, I asked, “Sun Spot, can you help me out?”
She looked over at me, putting the rifle down. “Sure what do you need?”
I pointed at the crystal. “Need you to grab this for me, I can’t reach it because of my height, and I can’t grab it with my magic because it’s too dangerous.”
She walked over and looked at the crystal. “What is it and how dangerous are we talking?”
“It’s only dangerous for a unicorn to grab with their magic, you’ll be fine. As for what it is, it’s a memory crystal. Think of it as a very old version of a memory orb,” I said.
She shrugged. “Okay, as long as it won’t do anything to me.” She reached into the glass box with her paw and carefully picked it up, saying, “Damn, this thing is heavier than it looks.”
“I know, now put it in my saddle bags,” I said, turning so she could reach.
“Sure thing,” she said, doing as I asked. “Is this the weapon you were looking for?”
“No, but I think it’s the other thing I needed to find, I’m still looking for the weapon,” I said once she was done and heading back to the terminal.
“Sunny, come look at what Captin’ Gunny found,” Gunny said next to the weapons rack.
“Good luck,” Sun Spot said with a small chuckle.
I continued to look through the items, there was a lot of interesting stuff here. Like, Princess Luna’s first crown, a spear that belonged to an original member of The Children from over a thousand year ago. There was a spell book that once was owned by the first leader of The Children of the Night, Starswirl the Bearded’s favorite hat. Stuff like that mostly, but nothing about a weapon that could kill a star creature. Most of the stuff wasn’t anything I needed, but I did open the case for the spell book. I went back to the glass boxes and took the very old book out and placed it in my saddle bags.
Once I was done with that, I went back to the terminal and started checking a list named ‘Specialty Weapons’ and that’s where I saw the other thing that almost made me gasp. There were only two items here, one was listed as ‘The Night’s Slayer’ and the other ‘Demon Slayer’. Demon Slayer was the name of my father’s revolver. I clicked on it and saw a message come up.
Revolver .44 Caliber, black, embedded with four gems and enchanted by Princess Luna herself. When used with Ammunition that has been engraved with her Cutie Mark, it can kill almost any kind of creature with a single shot. If normal ammunition is used, this revolver still has more kick and power than a normal gun of its make. Item can be found on weapons rack, Space L-01.
I looked over at the weapons rack and saw a part of it lit up like the boxes had been. I ran over to it excited to finally get my hooves on what I came here for, only to feel my heart sink as I saw the empty space where the revolver should be. It was gone, which means that either someone stole it a long time ago, or The Guardian came for it. Dad’s gun was also called The Demon Slayer, but that didn’t mean it was the same revolver. It could be a replica, but still I’d have to ask him. It was then that I noticed the other item hanging next to where Demon Slayer should be.
A set of long slender blades that shined like a star was hanging there. They were a lot longer than any sword I’d ever seen, and they had a bend to them that reminded me of the curve of a wing. They also had a few hinges in them so they could fold and move, almost like they were meant for the wings of a pegasus.
Not taking my eyes off the blades, I asked, “Sun Spot, do you know what these are?”
She was only a couple meters away from me, pushing Gunny back from a set of pistols that looked like they were made of gold. She looked over at the blades, saying, “Yeah, those are wing blades, some pegasi used them during the war. They’re hard to learn how to use, but once you do, they’re very effective.”
I couldn’t help but smile as I took them down with my magic. They folded easily enough. “Do you know how to use them?”
“Gunny likes the look of ‘em. Sunny or Elliot would be doing good work for Captin’ Gunny with a set of those,” Gunny said, coming to look at the blades too.
“I’m okay with them, but I could never get some of the flight patterns down that you need to make them work right. You need to be an expert flyer to use them properly,” she said. “Even then, with how I am now, I can’t use them. My wings are too big.”
As she said this, I looked down and saw a box sitting on a small shelf just under where the blades were set, that looked perfect for them to be placed in. Sun Spot may not be able to use the blades, but I knew a Pegasus who most likely could. Stardust likes to style himself as an excellent sniper, but I’ve seen him fight hoof to hoof and he was a great flyer too. So, I opened the box saw that it had a lining in it that was made for the wing blades to go into with a small plaque that read ‘The Night’s Slayer’. I placed the blades into it, then put them in my saddle bags.
“Sorry Shadow, no luck with the terminal in the other room,” Elliot said, coming to join us from the hall. “The hard drive’s fried.”
“It’s fine, I think we found what we needed, you can take anything else here though, but I think we should hurry,” I said, walking back to the larger terminal so I could either lock it down again or open the rest of the boxes.
“There be horde a loot to be findin’,” Gunny said, starting to take down any rifle he could get his hooves on. “Elliot, take as many as ya can carry.”
I went back to the terminal when the screen on it switched from the list of items and other crap to a video feed. I jumped then took a step back as the monitor showed a darkened room with a pony sitting in a huge chair, almost a throne. I couldn’t make out the pony’s face or any details about him apart from slightly yellow eyes that caught the little bit of light in the dark room. A chuckle emanated from the screen followed by a voice that was harsh and sounded almost like a ghoul.
“Well, well, I was wondering how long it was going to take you to find this place Shadow Star,” The figure said. “I’ll say, with how much you like to stick your nose into Enclave business and into the past I thought you’d have come to this old base a long time ago.”
It took me a moment to find my voice, something about this pony scared me, but I couldn’t say what it was. He gave off a powerful presence almost like Night Stalker. When I did find my voice, I asked, “Who are you?”
An almost evil chuckle came from the screen. “You don’t need to know who I am Shadow, you just need to know that I know who you are. I’ve been wanting to talk with you for weeks, ever since I found out that you had that Mark II and Aquila.”
Sun Spot, Elliot, and Captain Gunny came walking over, all looking up at the shadowed pony. Captain Gunny saying, “Gunny be wantin’ to know who this is and why he’s interruptin’ Gunny’s lootin’”
The Stallion on the screen laughed. “Funny seeing an earth pony all the way on the top of Canterlot Mountain. I thought only pegasi could get up there or unicorns, I’m even more surprised that any of you managed to get in.”
“Gunny goes where Gunny feels like,” Gunny said frowning. “What you be wantin’?”
“Nothing from you, dirt pony. I don’t speak to filth like you. Same goes for those two escaped experiments behind you,” the stallion said. “I’m only communicating through this terminal because I saw that Shadow Star was there.”
“I’m guessing you’re part of The Enclave then,” I said.
He laughed again. “More like the pony who runs things behind the scenes. I’m the one who’s kept The Enclave strong for a long time. I’ll admit, you’ve kept my pegasi busy for a while now trying to track you down. You’ve even been able to somehow get a high council pony on your side. Though I shouldn’t be surprised, Nightshade would do anything for his daughter wouldn’t he?”
I felt a shiver run down my spine. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
He slammed a hoof on his chair’s arm, pointing at me, his voice sounding sinister even with that ghoulish tone. “Don’t play that game with me Shadow, I know who you are!” he held a hoof up to where I assumed his muzzle was and coughed into it. “I know who your mother is, I know where she was hiding you for ten years. I know what you’ve been doing, I know that you have my Pip-Buck and I know that you’re keeping Aquila hidden inside your head! I’m not a fool! I know everything that’s going on in The Enclave and in The Wasteland.” He coughed again only more intensely. “I’ve had my pegasi hunting you ever since Nightshade pardoned you. Normally I let the cities run themselves, but when I saw that you’d managed to worm your way out of more trouble, I figured it was time for me to step in.
“Fine, so you know who I am and who my parents are, big deal. What do you want?” I asked.
“Oh, I’m sure you know what I want. I want the project that your distant grandfather tried to keep from me. I want the power of Star Gazer and Falling Shadows. I also want the range finder since that technology rightfully belongs to The Enclave,” he said.
“And what’re, ya gonna do about it?” Gunny asked.
“Yeah, what he said?” Sun Spot added.
“I was talking to Shadow Star, if any of you interrupt our conversation again, I’ll send my pegasi in to get you all,” the stallion said.
I looked at the others. “Just keep quiet for now okay, I’ll deal with him.” Then while my head was turning, I mouthed, “Go get the ship.”
Sun Spot nodded at that and slowly started to back out of the view of the terminal, Elliot with her, but Gunny stayed, though he took a few steps back muttering under his breath, “Lousy stinkin’ peg, don’t like his like none, Gunny don’t one bit.”
Turning back to the stallion, I said, “So that’s all you want huh? Well too bad, because I’m not giving The Enclave anything. And what makes you think the range finder belongs to The Enclave?”
“The project was started by The Children of the Night, that fool Night Stalker was the one who made The Enclave into what it is now. Any project that belonged to The Children belongs to us. It’s simple, you give us what we want, and we’ll let your friends and your parents live. If you don’t, we’ll start with your father, then your mother, followed by that pegasus from 97, and so on,” he said in a low growl. “You should know that we have the power to follow through with our threats.”
“Honestly no I don’t, I haven’t seen much threat from The Enclave since I’ve been out of my stable. The Sins were a problem yes, but by now there’s… what…three left?” I said, rolling my eyes then smiling.
“Four,” he answered. “Envy, Lust, Sloth, and Wrath.”
“Hard for them to come after me since they listen to my mother,” I taunted.
Gunny whispered behind me, “Shadow, Gunny don’t think you should be sayin’ things like that. Gunny’s a good cannoneer and fighter, but he can’t take on The Sinner ponies.”
I ignored him. “So, since you can’t use The Sins, who else do you have? Your military? From what I know about that, it’s weak compared to the east. You don’t have anypony to threaten me with.”
To my amazement, the stallion laughed. “First of all, The Sins now answer to me, they know your part of a family of traitors. As for what I can use against you, that’s easy. I control the ENTIRE Enclave from the shadows. I can send any of my military after you whenever I want. Now stop with the small talk and do as you’re told.”
I rolled my eyes again. “Yeah…no. I don’t think so. I’m not scared of you or The Enclave, I’m not letting any of you get Falling Shadows, Aquila, The Mark II, or the ranger finder. Keep threatening me all you want, come after me if you want, but I’m warning you now. If you try anything, I’ll let Aquila out of her cage again and you just try seeing what’ll happen when she’s at the helm of my body. She’ll find you and rip you to shreds just for threatening her.”
He chuckled again, as if everything I said was funny. “How do you know what she’ll do? What if I’ve already spoken to her while she was using that tiny body of yours? You really should think before you threaten a pony like me Shadow. Aquila isn’t your ally, she wants her own body and yours is a perfect fit. I’ve known about her for a very long time, remember that. Now if you’re not going to do what I tell you to do then I think it’s time for me to turn up the heat and bring you to me.”
“Gunny’s thinkin’ it be time to be leavin’ this place like mold on hooves,” Gunny said, taking a few steps back. “Gunny knows when to be gettin’ gone.”
The ghoul laughed. “Run, run as fast as you can. I’ll catch you no matter how far you’ve run. Hahahaha!”
I felt my heart slide somewhere into my stomach. As he laughed, the lights went out and an alarm started to blare. I turned to Gunny. “We need to get out of here…NOW!”
Gunny seemed to agree, he booked it for the entrance. As we ran down the hall, slots in the ceiling opened and gun turrets dropped. I barely noticed them in the dim lights from the emergency lighting, until one of them turned toward me and opened fire. The first bullet slammed into my combat armor throwing me back as pain ran up my chest. It felt like my chest was ripped open, but I couldn’t just lay there. I rolled back onto my hooves and followed Gunny down the hall. As I ran dodging the shots from the gun turrets, I pulled out the shotgun I got from Bottlecap and entered S.A.T.S., I aimed at the first turret and took two shots at the hinge between the gun and the control arm. There was a flash of light and the shot just bounced off what had to be some kind of shield. The turret opened fire slamming into my barding again, throwing me back into another wall.
“Shadow, they be shielded , there be no use boomin’ at ‘em,” Gunny yelled.
“I figured that out!” I said as I got back to my hooves again, running for it before the turret could hit me again.
We just made it to the end of the hallway that led into the main room when another alarm started going off. My eyes went wide as I looked toward the hallway that led out of the base. A blast door was starting to shut. I picked up the pace, taking hold of Gunny with my telekinesis, throwing him forward and just under the blast door. He went sliding along the stone floor as I followed behind right before the door slammed into the ground.
“Damn dat ghouly pony don’t like visiters does he?” Gunny said as he got back to his hooves, looking back at the closed blast door.
Getting back to my own hooves, I slowly walked past him, my body hurting from all of the bullets that hit my barding. “Yeah, I find that happens a lot.”
He followed me as I made my way to the golden doors, opening them to find the twins standing just on the other side. As soon as Elliot saw us, he came running. “We heard gunshots. Are you two okay?”
“We need to get out of here, I’m sure that asshole is gonna send somepony soon and I want to get as far away from here as we can,” I said, wincing with every step.
“Short one’s be gottin’ a point, Captin’ Gunny’s sayin’ it’s time to cast off!” Gunny said, taking charge.
“I agree, plus this place give me the creeps,” Sun Spot said, looking down at the pink mist covered city far below.
Sun Spot picked me up as Elliot took hold of Gunny. In a few minutes we were back on The Bitter Cob which had been moved closer to the mountain. Sun Spot set me down near the front of the ship, then headed back to get the air ship moving again. Elliot made his way over to the main canon and started watching for Enclave ships or ponies who might be heading our way. Captain Gunny started shouting orders, which really wasn’t needed since Sun Spot and Elliot knew what to do already. It seemed to make the mad pony feel better though. They all left me alone to lay on the deck and think about what I learned in the short time I spent in the old Children of the Night’s base.
I only went there to find a weapon that could destroy Aquila and what did I find? Crap information, a few weapons I didn’t need, and a fucking memory crystal. The Demon Slayer, it sounded like the perfect weapon to kill that bitch in my head. I should’ve known better. Why would the Goddesses let anything be that easy? It dawned on me then, Demon Slayer, Dad’s revolver is called Demon Slayer…no…could it really be that simple? Lifting my left hoof, I brought up the broadcaster on the Mark II. It took me a few minutes to figure out how to find the correct network to connect to Byte. Once I did, I opened-up a line to her.
“Byte are you there?” I said into the Mark II.
A moment later the filly answered, “Yeah, what’s up Shadow? Have you found Aura yet?”
“Not yet, I had to make a small stop, but we should be getting to where she’s waiting for us soon. I’m calling because I want to know if my dad’s still with you all, or did he go back to The Enclave?” I asked.
“He left days ago, he said he can’t be away for too long or ponies will notice. Why?” she asked.
“I figured as much, I wanted to ask him something, but I can’t contact him from way out here,” I said as I got into a sitting position.
“What did you wanna ask? He left us with a communicator that connects directly to him. I can get a message to him now if you need me to,” Byte said.
I took a moment to think about what I heard from that ghoul and what I need to know about the Demon Slayer. If his revolver was the one I needed, then it wouldn’t do me any good until I was back in New Pegasus, but he did need to know that somepony was going after him and that they knew he was my father. So I said, “What I need to ask can wait, but I need you to warn him about something that I overheard.”
I told her about the encounter we had in the base. Once I was finished Byte said, “That doesn’t sound good at all, I’ll get a message to him right away. Also, how long do you think it’s gonna take for you to get home?”
“I’m not sure at this point, maybe a couple days depending on what happens. Once we’re past the town where I’m meeting Aura, The Wasteland will be extremely dangerous to travel through even in an air ship,” I replied.
“Where are you right now? I figured you’d have met up with Aura by now at least,” Byte asked.
“We…kind of just left Canterlot, I needed to make a stop there…” I started to say, but Byte cut me off.
“You went WHERE!?” she yelled, “Canterlot, the city of the pink death? Why would you go anywhere near that place!?”
“I needed to get something that could stop Aquila…” I tried saying again, but again she cut me off.
“Dammit Shadow, I told you we have a plan, you didn’t need to go there for anything! You had one job to do and you failed! That job is to get home as fast as you can so we can take care of that bitch once and for all. But no, once again you think you have to go off on your own and try to deal with her yourself,” Byte scolded.
“Byte would you just listen…” but she didn’t let me finish.
“NO! You have no control over her as much as you want to think you do. Every second you spend wandering around trying to take care of things yourself, is another second that Aquila has to take over again, and we don’t know if you’ll be able to get hold of yourself again after that. For fuck sake Shadow, stop acting like a damned foal and grow up. You like to say how you’re all grown up and know better than ponies like Wingnut and I, but you don’t. You’re being a spoiled brat that wants things to go the way she wants them to,” Byte argued.
That was it, I’ve had enough of her attitude to last me a lifetime, “Shut the fuck up Byte and listen! Goddesses, don’t fucking assume I’m trying to sabotage your well thought out plans! I’m merely trying to give us any advantage we’ll need and it won’t fuck anything up, if anything, it can help I’m sure. Yeah, I’ll admit it was dangerous and I know I probably shortened the time I have control of myself. However, if I didn’t go there you wouldn’t have known to warn my dad. Maybe you should think about what you say before you say it.”
Byte was silent for a moment, maybe thinking about what I said, afterwards she spoke again. “Fine Shadow, we’re just worried about you but, NO MORE DETOURS!” Byte said, then sighing she asked, “Where are you right now?”
“I think we are just going over The Everfree Forest I believe it’s called, not too far from Canterlot still. Why?” I replied.
“Hold on a moment,” she said.
That took me by surprise as her mic went dead and a soft music came out of my Pip-Buck. My eyes went wide as I said, “She put me on HOLD!?”
Elliot who was only a few meters away stopped what he was doing to look over at me, and say, “I didn’t know you could do that on a Pip-Buck.”
“I didn’t either! What a bitch!” I said angrily.
Elliot chuckled. “Comes with age, and to be fair she had a good point, that entire trip was pointless.”
“Says you,” I snapped.
“Don’t get me wrong, you also made a good point, but thinking about it, I mean we didn’t get much loot. The Enclave knows where we are again, and you didn’t find what you were looking for,” he said.
Before I could retort Byte came back on, “I got your location figured out thanks to this Mark II and with Wingnut’s help we know where you’ll be in a couple hours. Aura and Solstice aren’t far away, they’ll meet up with you, she’s going to keep an eye on you for us to make sure you don’t do anything stupid.”
“Wait what? That’s not the plan! How did you even get in contact with her this far out? You said to meet you in…” I started to say but she cut me off again.
“Your father had a way for us to communicate this far away. Just keep flying the way you are, and you’ll run into her in a couple hours. Now I have to go, I have a lot to do. See you later,” Byte said before she cut off the communication.
I wanted to reach through the Pip-Buck and slap the shit out of that little brat. She was like a female Wingnut, but I couldn’t do anything about it and as for Aura and Solstice go there’s no way either of them would change the plan again now that they knew how to find me. Whatever happened next, I was just gonna have to go with it, because as much as I hated to admit it, Byte was right. It was stupid of me to go to Canterlot and I knew it. So, with another sigh I got to my hooves and walked toward the upper deck.
“Trouble with the mare friend?” Elliot asked with a chuckle.
“Huh? Mare friend? She’s a filly,” I said confused.
“You’re a filly too, so what?” he asked.
“I’m not a…” I started to say, but cut myself off. “Where I’m from, I’m not a filly. I guess Byte is almost the same age as me though, so I see your point, but no she’s not my mare friend. She likes my friend Wingnut.”
He looked at me with his head tilted to one side, “I thought you had a…what do you ponies call it? Oh yes a special somepony, that’s what Sunny said at least.”
“I do, but it’s a special somegriff. You’ll meet her soon,” I said.
“A griffon huh? Interesting, and what do you mean we’ll be meeting her soon? I thought the griffon picking you up was on the other side of the forest?” Elliot asked.
“From the sound of it, plans changed,” I said, heading up to speak with Captain Gunny.
Elliot followed as I made my way to the back of the airship where Gunny was looking out into the distance. Sun Spot who was at the wheel watched me as I walked closer to the Captain. He was muttering something under his breath, “Dat be right, Gunny’ll show ya Enclave’s who’s boss in da skies. Took away my Sown Seed dey did, will make dem pay for dat, now dey want to be takin’ away Gunny’s passenger, not again Gunny says, not again.”
I cleared my throat, saying, “Captain, do you have a minute?”
He blinked then looked back at me. “A minute is all most ponies have, den the world could end like the booming flash of da plasma canons.”
“Does that mean yes?” I asked.
He shrugged then sighed, saying, “Aye it does, what can Captin’ Gunny do fer ya?”
“I just got word from my friends, looks like Aura and another friend of mine will be meeting us in a couple hours. They know where we’ll be by then, so they want to meet with us early,” I said.
He took a moment to look back into the distance, after about five minutes passed and I was just about to ask if everything was okay he responded, “Dat may be a good idea, Gunny has a feels that dem pegasi will be findin’ us again and more fighters will be a good idea.”
“They said we just need to stay on the course we’re on and they’ll find us,” I said.
“I’ll keep us on track,” Sun Spot said.
I looked back at her, Elliot was standing next to her. Even after spending a little time with them, I still couldn’t tell them apart. The eyes were the only give away and I had to remember which one of them had what eye color on which side. I gave Sun Spot a smile, and said, “Thank you.”
“It’s no problem,” she said looking back toward the front then said to Elliot, “Keep an eye on the air around us, I agree with the Captain, I think we haven’t seen the last of The Enclave.”
“Aye, aye, I’ll take to the air and watch from up there, our scanners are looking for anything within a mile of us. We should have plenty of warning,” he said as he took to the air.
Turning back to Captain Gunny I saw he was still looking into the distance like he could see The Enclave following us. “Everything okay Captain?”
He shrugged, “Gunny be worried that be all.”
“I thought you weren’t scared of anything?” I asked.
He chuckled a little. “Gunny be scared of a lot of tings miss Shadow. Like so, Gunny hates spiders, not the big ones no they be easy to shoot. The little ones, be walkin’ into yer bed and creeping up yer nose as ya sleep. Den there be Butter, never trust butter. Den der be, losin’ somepony ya love. Nothin’ be scarier dan dat.”
“From what I’ve seen, you don’t ever show a bit of fear,” I said.
“It be all about da way you let other ponies see ya. If ya show dem that you be scared of ‘em, then they have power of ya. So, Gunny never lets ‘em see his fetlocks be wobblin’ or dat he be ready to run like a colt. Nah, Gunny makes sure they be scared of him,” he said, taking a moment from his gazing into the horizon to look at me.
“I guess I can see how that would work,” I said as he went back to looking at the depressing sight of trees and death below. After a few minutes passed I asked, “Who was Sown Seed?”
He snapped his head around to look at me. “Who be tellin’ ya about her?”
“Nopony, I just overheard you a moment ago say something about her. Who was she?” I asked.
“Oh right, Gunny let’s his mouth run away at times, apologies,” Gunny said, “Sown Seed was Gunny’s wife she was. She was da most beautiful mare in da Wasteland, and Gunny were lucky to be meetin’ her let alone being her special somepony. Gunny had four good years wit her, but as it always goes, da Wasteland took her away from Gunny.”
“What happened if I may ask?” I said.
Gunny turned away and took a few steps toward the deck then looked back at me, anger in his eyes. “Da Enclave, that be what happened,” with that he left for his room.
“Did I say something wrong?” I asked Sun Spot.
“Nah, he just doesn’t like talking about her that’s all,” Sun Spot said as she kept her eyes forward. “Hey, if you’re not doing anything, I could use some help. Think you can take over on the navigation display and make sure we stay on course?”
I took a moment to watch Captain Gunny as he went to his room then looked back at Sun Spot. “Yeah, I can do that, just don’t hate me if I still suck at it.”
She laughed. “Don’t worry, if you need to ask me something to make sure you’re doing alright, then that’s fine.”
I smiled and went to stand next to her, taking over the small terminal that sat a few feet away from the wheel. I felt myself relax as I fell into the simple task. In all honesty, it was one of the easier things to do on this ship and now that I was getting used to it, I kinda liked it.
***
Almost two hours passed as we were getting closer to the other side of the Everfree Forest. While I navigated for Sun Spot I asked her a few things. One was why the ship had a big balloon on it if they used anti-gravity systems to fly the ship. Her answer was simple. She told me that the balloon itself didn’t do much normally, its main purpose was to make sure the ship didn’t fall from the sky if something went wrong with the flight equipment. Made sense I guess, then I asked her about why it was taking so long to get over Everfree. Again, she gave me the simple answer.
“Everfree is a dangerous place to be, everything’s wild around here and to top it off, Red Eye’s ponies have been seen around here too. Going faster might get us through the airspace over the forest faster, but it would also make us more noticeable. The engines on this this thing are powerful and loud when we’re at high speed. When we’re traveling slower like now, most ponies wouldn’t make out the sound from the ground,” Sun Spot explained.
She also went over more about her past and the battles she was in. She told me stories about ponies I’d only ever heard about in my old textbooks. My favorite was one about a mare named Daring Doo, though I couldn’t tell if the mare was real or from some old books. The name sparked something in my mind, like a forgotten memory or something, but I couldn’t place it. Something about Stardust and an old refrigerator. I heard things about the Ministry Mares too, stories that weren’t covered in my books. She even told me about when Nightmare Moon attacked Ponyville when she was a filly. Her family was visiting when that happened and how Twilight Sparkle and her friends saved Princess Luna from herself.
I was starting to really enjoy the stories when Eliot yelled from the bow of the ship, “Sun Spot we’ve got movement ahead, looks like two fliers, can’t tell if they’re Enclave or not.”
Elliot came back from his flight to check the surrounding areas an hour ago and was now watching the systems that looked for ponies getting too close. Sun Spot looked at him, yelling, “Get into the air again and find out!”
“No time ma’am, they’ll be on us in a few seconds!” he said, moving away from the terminals he was on and pulling out a rifle he had holstered on his back.
He turned to aim toward where he must’ve seen the ponies on the radar, as Sun Spot yelled, “How the hell did anypony get this close without us knowing?”
He didn’t have time to answer, somepony in black power armor dove out from the clouds right over us and slammed down on the deck. He turned to aim his rifle at her, yelling, “Identify yourself!”
I saw the wings of the Pegasus whose face was covered by the visor of her helmet, but I knew those wings. Grey with pink tips, a style I’d only seen on two ponies. Stardust’s were grey with blue tips, Solstice’s were grey with Pink, just like this mare. I started to yell down at him, “No don’t shoot…she’s…”
The rest of what I was going to say was cut off as another figure, much bigger, came falling from the sky as well. A green glowing energy spear in her white talons. As she landed next to Elliot, her spear flew down and sliced his rifle in two. She twisted around and kicked him back with her paws, jumping into the air again to land on him as he slammed down on the deck right on his back. Her Energy Spear a few centimeters away from his throat.
Sun Spot was already reaching for her own rifle, but I took hold of it with my magic, saying, “Don’t, she’s a friend,” then yelled down at her, “Hey Aura, thanks a lot for attacking my friends,” she didn’t budge, I guess she didn’t hear me
I noticed then that Solstice had activated her battle saddle and was pointing it at somepony below us. Must be Gunny, coming to find out who was making all the noise. I got my answer a second later. “Ye best be puttin’ down that glowin’ toothpick lass, before Gunny blows off that ugly mug uh yers. There be two things Gunny enjoys most in the world and that be sleepin’ and drinkin’, yer interruptin’ both.”
Aura looked up at me then back at where I could now see Gunny standing on the deck, his odd battle saddle aimed at Solstice, his gaze on Aura. Solstice just chuckled a little. “Two against one, I don’t think we have much to worry about.”
“Good point Solstice, I think he’s bluffing,” Aura said, letting the glowing end of her spear just touch Elliot’s neck. I saw a little smoke puff up from where it connected.
“Ye’d be wrong there lass, Gunny never misses his mark. Now let my pony bird go,” Gunny said.
I was already moving, I dashed down the steps that led to the deck and ran over to Aura using my magic to pull her spear away a little. “Aura, these are the ponies…well pony and whatever the other two are, who are transporting me.”
To my utter shock, Aura pulled her spear from my magical grip and put it back to Elliot’s throat. She didn’t even look at me, she kept her eyes locked on Gunny. It was Solstice who said something next, “I’m sure that’s what they told you Shadow, but I picked up on Enclave communication an hour ago. They said they were going to be meeting with somepony who’s transporting The Courier to make an exchange. They’ve been lying to you.”
My eyes went wide as I turned to look back at Captain Gunny, “You were going to do what!?”
His gaze met mine as he said, “Aye, she be right in a small sense she be, but Gunny never meant to be turning ya into The Enclave. They said they’d be givin’ back Gunny’s wife. Was goin’ to be trickin’ dem Gunny was. Gunny never would break a deal he made with ya.”
Aura’s glare grew worse as she said in a harsh angry voice, “You fucking pile of Wasteland scum. Do you have any idea how many pegasus troops were sent this way? Do you even know who’s hunting her and what they’ll do to get her back? It’s blithering idiots like you that The Enclave preys upon to meet their goals, whatever the means.”
“Gunny can take anypony on he can, ya don’t know nothin’ bout what’s goin’ on birdie,” Gunny replied.
“That’s why you were looking out in the distance, you were waiting for The Enclave to catch up to us,” I said, looking up at Sun Spot. “Did you know about this?”
She shook her head. “Had no idea, The Captain has his own communication equipment in his room. If I would’ve known, I would’ve stoped him.”
Gunny started to laugh. “Ya couldn’t have done nothin’ to Gunny, none of ya can. Like Gunny said, he didn’t mean to be giving ya up to ‘em, only trickin’ them to get Sown Seed back. The Enclave’s had her fer twenty years now. They said they’d give ‘er back if Gunny did this. That icy one said as much a couple hours ago.”
“Sown Seed? That sounds like an Earth Pony name,” Solstice said.
He glared at her, “Don’t be talkin’ to Gunny ya feathered sky cunt.”
“Don’t speak to her that way!” I said as I pulled out my shotgun and pointed it at The Captain. “Looks like your days as Captain are done Gunny. That is if Sun Spot and Elliot agree.”
“I know I do,” Elliot said from under Aura. “We made a deal and we keep our deals that’s why we joined up. We never meant Shadow harm.”
Solstice ignored us as she said to Gunny, “I don’t care if you hate my race or not you old, drunken, dirty, sky pirate. Listen here, I was a Lieutenant in The Grand Pegasus Enclave. In all the time I spent there I’ve never heard of us having any Earth Pony mares.”
Gunny Spat on the deck. “She wasn’t no Earth Pony, Sown Seed was a Pegasus, grew up in Thunderhead, parents were farmers. She was branded she was, when she be a young mare. Found ol’ Captain Gunny she did and feel in taters of love with him. She helped Gunny with his piratin’ for a long time, then one day she gets up to take a leak ya see, and she never comes back. Gunny was attacked not long after by pegasi from Stratus he was. They took Sown Seed and never let ‘er go again.”
Solstice’s eyes went wide. “I heard that story before, you’re talking about the raid in San Flankcisco, right?”
“Aye, yer Enclave killed all Gunny’s ponies and da fiends he was working with. Only one who got away were Gunny and two others,” he said, still glaring at Solstice.
“My father was the one who led that raid, they didn’t kill a single Pegasus, only a few earth ponies. They didn’t take any prisoners either, they meant it as a warning to other ponies not to mess in the skies that belonged to The Enclave. If they found a Dashite, they wouldn’t have bothered with taking her in, they would’ve killed her. I don’t know what happened to your wife, but whatever you were told by The Enclave was a lie to get Shadow,” Solstice said.
“Ye be lyin’ ye be,” Gunny said turning to point his rifle at her.
“Dude, I could kill you right here and now if I wanted to. I don’t care how good you think you are, but trust me, I’m way better. Even if I wasn’t, Aura’s ten times the fighter I am. If we wanted to kill you, we would’ve by now,” Solstice said.
“I still want to cut his head off,” Aura said.
“Captain Gunny, she’s telling you the truth. Why wouldn’t you believe us over The Enclave?” I asked.
“She’s got a point Captain, you’ve always told me that they can’t be trusted, that they’d lie to you more often than not,” Sun Spot said from behind him. She’d flown down to the deck too, leaving the wheel with nopony to steer the ship.
For a long moment, nopony moved or said anything, finally Gunny let out a long sigh, then looked over at Solstice. “Ye be tellin’ Gunny the truth then?”
“As far as I know yeah. I remember the stories about that mission well. My dad retired not long after that mission,” Solstice said.
A change came over Gunny’s face, his anger seemed to melt away to be replaced by his normal mad expression. “Well then, Captin’ Gunny made a mistake he did. Course if The Enclavers didn’t take Gunny’s wife, somepony else must’ve. Don’t be mattering at the moment, now we has to be flyin’ quick like. They’ll be here any minute now,” as he talked he let the rifle on his battle saddle go back and away, then he looked over at Aura. “What are ya doin’ holdin’ down me tech, let ‘em up birdie, or I’ll boil ya like a rabbit.”
Solstice and Aura both looked confused as Gunny laughed like a mad pony and headed up to the wheel. Aura let Elliot up, looking at me, asking, “What the hell just happened?”
I just rolled my eyes, and said, “Enclave doing Enclave things I guess, I don’t really know or care, as long as he’s on my side again and we can get out of here.”
Elliot got to his paws and looked over at Aura too. “Damn that was some quick work there. It’s been years since I’ve met another griffon who’s as fast as you, or as talented. I didn’t even know you were coming until my gun was cut in half.”
Aura looked so confused. “Another Griffon?” she looked him up and down then over at Sun Spot then back to Elliot, “What the hell are you? I don’t know if you’re aware but you and her look the same and she’s no griffon. Did you bathe in some puddles of taint or something…together?”
Elliot brought his right paw up, made a fist with it and touched it to his heart then his head saying, “Elliot Ghostclaw at your service!”
Sun Spot came over as Solstice deactivated her battle saddle, saying, “Sun Spot, former leader of the Dashers at your service. Nice to meet ya. Shadow’s told me a lot about you.”
When I first met Elliot and Sun Spot, all I could think about was what they looked like. Their names didn’t mean much to me, I wasn’t good with history and keeping up with ponies or griffons who died during the war, it wasn’t something I cared about. Aura however seemed to know their names, because her eyes went wide as she said, “No way, Elliot Ghostclaw, one of the top fighters from Griffonstone! The same one who almost won against my distant grandmother in the test of strength, the griffon who helped Equestria bring down not one but two dragons in the war!? And Sun Spot The Flash Wing!? I thought you two died before the war ended! Wait, why do you two look like a weird mix between a griffon and a pony? And if you are who you say you are, then how are you two still alive?”
“I was going to ask the same thing,” Solstice said.
Elliot laughed. “It’s a long story, we can tell you about it later, right now I think Shadow’s been waiting to see you. By the way, who’s your grandmother, you said I almost beat her in the test of strength, but I lost against two griffons during that fight.”
“Oh right, I’m descended From Greta Bloodtalon, though she wasn’t going by that at the time, just Greta. She was banished from Griffonstone a few years before the war ended,” Aura said, then looked at me, her expression changing a little. “Hey Shadow, I got your stuff on my back. If I were you, I’d get back into your barding and duster. I also brought all your weapons.”
“Um…hello to you too?” I said, very confused by her reaction. “Something wrong?”
Aura ignored me to look back at Sun Spot. “I’ll have to hear the rest of your story when we get to a safe place. I’ve heard stories about both of you from our story teller Tonto for years!”
I was about to say something when Solstice came over and put a hoof on my shoulder. “Give it time Shadow, she’s very angry at you right now. She’s here to get you and she’s glad your safe, but don’t expect her to just forget about what you did.”
I pulled my shoulder away from her hoof and looked at Aura who was still ignoring me. “Aura.”
She didn’t even look at me, she just kept on talking to the twins. “The battle of Hey Creek was amazing, at least in our history…”
“Aura!” I said a little louder.
She looked at me for a second. “Shadow, I’m busy, we’ll talk later. Go make sure that weird Captain is getting us to a safe place.” She said before returning to her conversation with the twins.
It was like she just punched me. She was ignoring me because she was angry. I could understand where her anger was coming from, but she needed to realize why I did what I did. She didn’t get to decide that I was the only one who did something wrong, I owned up to that already when I spoke to them a few days ago. I was fucking done with this bullshit. I felt my magic building up for the first time in a week and I took hold of the griffon, lifted her into the air, and slammed her onto the deck.
Her spear flew out of her grip and a look of shock was on her face. With magic still coursing though me I held her down as I yelled, “Don’t you dare give me the cold shoulder just because you’re fucking pissed off! I’m talking to you, you can talk to the twins later! I haven’t seen you in ages and this is how you act when we’re finally together again!?”
I saw a flash of anger in her face as she yelled right back at me, “Let me go Shadow…NOW!”
“Make me!” I said right back, pushing her harder onto the deck.
“Oh, the balls on you. When I get up…” she started to say, but I cut her off.
“You‘ll what!? Hurt me? I’d love to see you try,” I put even more force on her body as I yelled louder, “If your mad about what I did, fine, but I owned up to that already! I told you over the com what I did and why. I told you I was sorry for it and that I’d never try it again even if I COULD. But no, you come all the way out here to finally get me, to save me as you like to put it. When we finally see each other again, you treat me like some random piece of gutter trash who you don’t give two shits about, like I’m nothing to you. Do you really hate me so much for what I HAD to do!?”
“I don’t hate you, but I’m so sick of you doing stuff like this without telling ANYONE!” she yelled.
“I did tell somepony what I might have to do, I would’ve told you too, but I didn’t. Do you want to know why?” I asked. She didn’t answer so I continued. “Because I know you, I know our friends, I know that you all would’ve done whatever you could to stop me. Trust me, I understand that what I did pissed you all off, but I had no other choice. I could feel her taking over, I knew that she was only a day or so away from doing so. I couldn’t wait for all of you to make up your fucking minds on how to save me, or how to fix me. I’m so sick of having to rely on others to help me. I don’t need help, I don’t need to be fixed by anypony. I know Aquila is a danger to me and to The Wasteland, but none of you can fix it. Mom is probably the only one who can and she failed at the time. So yeah, I tried to kill myself because it was the only way I could think of to keep you all safe! I love all of you and I didn’t want her to kill you! I failed, I hated myself for what I tried to do to you okay, but I had to at least try. It was the only thing left at the time. So, if you really want to sit there with your fucking poor me attitude and tell me how much I FUCKED UP, then fine go right ahead, but I’m not going to sit back and let you treat me that way. I know what I did, I know I fucked up, so please don’t rub it in my fucking face. Poor me…pour me a fucking drink bartender, and make it stronger this time.”
“Shadow, we didn’t mean anything by it, we were just scared,” Solstice said.
I ignored her and looked down into those icy blue eyes I loved so much. “Before you start passing judgment on my actions think about this. What would you have done if I told you what I was planning? Think about that and what would’ve happened if you acted on those actions. Then you can tell me I’m a fuck up if you want, I don’t care anymore. I was looking forward to seeing you so badly because I missed you, you have no idea what I had to go through while I was trapped in my own head, you don’t know the pain I felt when I had to kill ponies I loved in that world she made for me,” I said as I could feel tears starting to fall. “You have no idea how bad it’s been for me, you don’t know the nightmares I’ve had, or the sleepless nights, or how much I’ve worried that I’m going to get trapped in that place again. No, all you care about is treating me like a naughty little filly. Well fuck you, because I’ve had to pay for my mistakes already and I don’t need to hear it from the one I need most right now. So, when you’re ready to talk to me, griffon to pony. You can find me in my room.”
I let my magic go and I pushed past Solstice and went into the room I was sharing with Sun Spot. When I reached it and started to walk in I heard Aura say, “Shadow…I…”
I didn’t let her finish, I slammed the door as hard as I could…
***
An hour passed while I was in Sun Spot’s room, laying on her bed looking up at the boards that made up the ceiling. Forehooves behind my head hindhooves crossed over each other, leaving me alone with my thoughts. During that time, I felt the ship come to life and start moving again. I had no idea if Gunny was still captain or if Sun Spot took over since he couldn’t be trusted at the moment. If it wasn’t for Aura pissing me off like she had, I would’ve been more worried about the fact that Gunny betrayed me. As it was, right now I didn’t care much. If The Enclave showed up to attack, then fine, I really didn’t care anymore. That thought led to more negative ones however. Over the past couple of weeks, I’d mostly forgotten about The Enclave with everything else going on. Dad was the leader of Stratus and Nimbus right now, so I chose to believe that meant I didn’t have to worry about them much. I guess it was a foalish thought, because Winter Frost and his bitch sister had it out for me and for what? I still had no idea, though I’m sure I’d find out sooner or later.
That also made me realize something, it always led back to The Grand Pegasus Enclave. My distant grandfather helped build them, my family was part of them, they’d been hunting us for years now, they were the reason Silver was dead, they took my best friend away from me, and they were the ones who kept the rest of The Wasteland hidden under a blanket of clouds. My whole life was fucked because of that one entity. Why couldn’t my father do something about them? Why did they care so much about my fucking family? Why, why, why? That was the problem, I was left with more questions than answers, and the sad part was, The Enclave wasn’t even my biggest problem, just the biggest pain in my ass right now. I still had to deal with Aquila, who still hadn’t spoken a single word to me since I came out of her little funhouse of pain. I still needed to find Wolfsbane and deal with him before he had time to act on whatever plans he had, and to pay him back for killing Box Tap and Cartwheel. I needed to fix mom’s memories… that was going to be hard, but I knew there had to be a way. Now I had to deal with what I saw in that orb.
I had no idea what I was going to do with all that information. How the hell did Night Stalker know about me, two hundred years in the past….well a hundred and sixty or so years, but still. He said I was the one who would break this curse on the family. Right now, I don’t have the means to deal with that, I have way too much to deal with that doesn’t include listening to a stallion who died a long time ago. A stallion who started so much of the pain I was now in. As I sat there thinking to myself I realized there was something more I wanted to do, something that I wished I knew how to fix, but knew I never would be able to. I wanted to find a way to fix my uncle. Out of all the ponies in my family and in my past, he’d always been there for me. He gave up his body to help me and now, he was stuck deep in darkness. He’d done a lot of bad things over the years, but I could see it in his eyes when I talked to him about it. He truly felt remorseful for all the pain he caused. He deserved a normal life, one where he could experiment again, where he could love again, maybe find a mare that made him happy. He’d paid his debt to me a long time ago. Even if he did kill Silver, I didn’t blame him for his moment of weakness against the darkness. Before I went into that crystal to free him, I wouldn’t have had it in me to forgive him for what he did to her. Now, I knew what that darkness was like, and I’d only spent a few seconds in there.
Either way, I wanted to help my uncle, and I vowed that one day I would. I had a mental list and I needed to start checking things off. First order of business, free myself from Aquila. Second, kill Wolfsbane. Third, destroy the Pegasi in Stratus or wherever they were so they’d stop hunting me. Forth, destroy the rest of The Sins. Five, stop or destroy Falling Shadows for good. Easy right?...Yeah I thought so, I’m fucked.
A knock came at the door followed by Aura’s voice, saying, “Shadow…can I come in?”
Her voice sounded light, almost like she was scared of me blowing up again. “I don’t know can you?” Even though most of my anger was gone there was still a little detest in my voice. I turned my back towards the door.
The door opened and Aura walked in closing it behind her. Her eyes were downcast as she said, “I owe you an apology for how I acted before and for attacking your friends like I did.”
I shrugged, back still turned. “I can understand what you were doing when you attacked. You heard something about Captain Gunny betraying us and acted on that. I would’ve done the same thing,” I said, waving my hoof in the air as I spoke
“Still, I’m sorry for what I did,” she said still standing by the door.
I looked over at her and sighed not fully turned around. “Let’s just drop it okay? Yeah you did something stupid and so did I, let’s just move past that. Come over here and lay with me, please?” I said, finally turning over laying on my back again.
She let herself smile then came over to the bed. I scooted over so she could lay next to me. Finally, after what felt like ages, I pressed my face into Aura’s chest and felt her talons wrap around me in a tight embrace. For a little while we just stayed like that, just enjoying the feeling of being with one another again. Finally I heard Aura say, “I…fought Aquila.”
As she said that a flash of memory kicked in. I saw myself, or maybe Aquila facing off against Aura. A flash of green as Aura attacked her, a laugh, shouting, and for a moment, I saw Aura’s face change into that of an older male griffon in armor that I’d never seen before. Then I was back in the small room, the memories slipping away slowly, but the face of that griffon never left. I shook my head, then said, “What happened? How did you survive?”
She let me go and sat up a little as she spoke. “I went off a hunch, I don’t know if I was right or not, but I had a feeling that you were still inside her and that she wouldn’t be able to hurt me because you wouldn’t let her.”
“That was stupid of you. You could’ve been killed,” I said, a little shocked she’d gone against a being like Aquila.
“Maybe, but I was right. I mean she was able to fight me to a point, but she never put as much power into her attacks as I knew she could, and she couldn’t kill me. So, I was right that somewhere deep down you were still keeping her in a little bit of control,” she said.
I shook my head. “That wasn’t me at all, I had no idea what was going on outside of the cage she had me locked up in. It must’ve been something else. Maybe it had something to do with that vision she saw?”
I mostly said the last part as an after thought, the memory was almost gone now, but that griffon’s face was still there, and I know that stopped her from using a powerful spell on Aura. Aura looked at me, asking, “What griffon?”
“I just had a small flash of memories while she was in control, it’s slipping away though, but I do still remember that while she fought you, she saw you change into another griffon. He was older and battle scarred, oh and he said something…but all I got was a name, but even that’s slipping away,” I said.
“That’s kinda fucked up honestly,” she said. “Though she’s probably just crazy. Still, at least you were able to get control again. If it wasn’t for that, she probably would’ve killed your parents and a few more of your friends.”
My eyes went wide. “What happened? Is my mom okay, my dad, no one’s told me anything about what’s going on, or what happened.”
“Everypony’s fine…no casualties of our small group. Can’t say the same about Stable 28 though. She did a lot of damage while she had control over you. You heard about Stable 28 right?” Aura said, looking sad.
“Not a lot, Byte didn’t go into detail,” I said.
“Well we got the story from Milkshake, I ran into her when I was leaving New Pegasus. Apparently, she didn’t come into the stable to kill anypony right away. She attacked two guards that wouldn’t let her pass, then went into the atrium. She talked with Milkshake and told her to let her pass so she could find something she was looking for. Milkshake decided to attack her and that was all it took for Aquila to go postal,” Aura said quietly.
I felt my heart skip a beat as I let that information process, finally I asked, “What else happened?”
Aura sighed again. “We only found out a few things before we had to leave, but for most of the time she was using your body, she kept to herself. At least she did after Stable 28. But we heard that she was sighted meeting with The Romans the next day, she was also spotted talking to a few other ponies and zebras throughout the area. Your mother said that one pony she was spotted with is a Synth from The Ministry, though she’s not sure if it’s one of The Director’s or a rouge. All we know is that she was planning something or setting something up. The last thing she did before she vanished for good, I assume because you were getting control, was to find your mother in Frosty Summit. We still don’t know what she wanted there, but she did attack the place, though thanks to Violet and a few others, she didn’t kill anypony.”
“When was this?” I asked.
“The day before you contacted us, it was around sunset. Not long after I attacked her myself,” she replied.
“So then, right before I got control,” I said. “I think she left because of me, I came to not long after that.”
Aura shrugged. “Doesn’t matter now, all we need to worry about is getting you home,” she paused for a moment then asked, “What’s she doing now? Inside your head I mean.”
“No idea, I know she’s still there because I can feel her, but only if I try really hard. But she hasn’t spoken to me since I woke up again, but my magic’s also been very weak. I can’t even get my teleportation to work right now and normally that’s easier for me to do. I think she was getting really weak while she had control of me, or teleporting all the way across The Wasteland might’ve done it. I’m not sure though, anyway she’s keeping to herself for now,” I said.
“Well that’s a relief, I wasn’t sure if she was going to try and take over again sometime soon,” Aura said, laying back and covering her eyes with a talon. “Listen, next time you feel like you need to do something like shooting yourself to kill Aquila, can you at least give me a heads up.”
I laughed a little. “I’ll do my best, but only if you promise that you won’t freak out. Though I’m sure I won’t be trying that again, the good Aquila told me that it wouldn’t work. Something to do with her being able to sense it and being able to stop me. That’s why she took over in the first place, was to stop me from killing us.”
She looked over at me, her beak open. “The Good Aquila!?”
I waved a hoof. “I’ll explain another time, it’s too much right now.”
I felt Aura pull me closer as she said, “What happened to you, you said something back on the deck about…killing friends. Were you able to see what was going on while Aquila had control?”
As she spoke I had a quick flashback of Mom’s head rolling from her body, blood from Wingnut, Misery slicing though Solstice’s neck like it was paper. I shook myself, saying, “No, I didn’t…what I saw was a lot worse.”
“Oricalcos said something about you being trapped in a dream state, but he didn’t say what happened in there,” Aura said.
“He was pulled out by Aquila before he had to see me do what was required for me to get free.” Again, I saw more of what happened in that cage, Vervain, dead on the cave floor just outside of Stable 28, my colt suffocating under a pillow, my filly’s screams of terror as Wind Thrasher killed her. “I…I don’t want to talk about it right now.” My body shivered intensely, pulling myself tighter against Aura
“That’s fine, but sooner or later you’re gonna have to, it’s the only way you’re going to get past what happened,” she said.
“I know, but right now, I can’t…I just can’t,” I said, doing my best to forget what I saw in that place. “Anyway, what’s the plan now? What happened with Gunny?”
Aura sighed, “That…Sun Spot I think her name was, is going to take over for right now, but the pirate is still the Captain. Solstice is keeping an eye on him. The other whatever they are, Elliot I think, is watching for Enclave ships.”
“That’s one thing I don’t understand, why is The Enclave after me anyway? I thought my dad put a stop to that a couple weeks back?” I asked.
“He did, but he can only control the two cities. Word is that there are other Pegasi who want you dead, they’ve been trying to get help from other cloud cities from the sound of it. All we know is that Winter Frost is the one who’s leading these other Pegasi. From what I can tell, your father’s family isn’t liked much by a couple of factions in the clouds,” Aura said.
“I’m not surprised, from what I’ve learned about my family on my dad’s side. They weren’t well loved after Night Stalker left. I think my dad’s the first one in the family since Night Stalker’s sons to have a role of leadership like he does. Also, he did set it up to kill the other three High Council ponies and let me take the blame for it,” I said with a sigh. “Good parenting there.”
Aura chuckled a little. “Yeah, at least your parents didn’t kill each other.”
“That’s not funny,” I said.
She looked down. “Yeah, I know…I wasn’t even thinking about what happened at Crimson Canyon. Honestly I’ve been doing my best to forget about it.”
“Speaking of The Red Talons and your old home, have you heard anything about what’s being going on with them?” I asked.
She nodded slowly. “Yeah, my dad’s the new leader, he only goes by Archer now and he’s been trying his best to rally any griffons he can to hunt down somepony. Not you though. He’s not after you at all, honestly he’s ignoring most of New Pegasus and letting The Shadow Talons take over a lot of The Red Talon’s old territory.”
“That’s strange, why would he take over The Red Talons and let the territory be taken away by a new talon group?” I asked.
She shrugged. “No idea, could be that a good amount of The Red Talons either died, fled, or joined up with my group. A few joined The Unchained Talons after my mom died, but for the most part they’re all just doing their own contracts and not caring much about where they go. Gina and my dad are after a pony though, Fletch heard about it from a spy we have in The Unchained.”
“You have a spy in their ranks already?” I asked, a little shocked.
“Yeah, Gouger,” she said.
“Gouger? I thought he escaped with us when The Unchained attacked?” I asked, utterly confused.
“He did, but when he heard that I wanted a spy working with them, he volunteered,” she said.
“How the hell did you get that to work? Wouldn’t your father know Gouger was up to something? He has to know that you’d try something like that and to use Gouger,” I said, still shocked.
“It wasn’t that hard to be honest, all he had to do was go to Crimson Canyon and give my dad information on The Shadow Talons. He told him where we were staying and using as a base, told them about me being gone and information that The Unchained think they would need,” Aura said. “They believed him and that he wanted to be with The Unchained. I think he also said something about how Pluck tried to join The Unchained and that Fletch killed him for his betrayal and he wanted revenge for his friends death.”
“You let The Unchained have information on The Shadow Talons? That sounds like a stupid plan,” I said.
She laughed. “You’d think so, but truly it didn’t matter. Sooner or later he would’ve found out all the information we let Gouger give to him. So far, he’s been doing well spying for us. Though it’s only been a week or so but I’m sure he has nothing to worry about, Gina and my dad are too busy to pay Gouger much attention.”
“Still, I’d hate if something happened to him because of this. I thought he wanted to prove himself to Fletch or something. Why would he do something this dangerous?” I asked.
Aura laughed again. “I keep forgetting how much you missed. Fletch and Gouger are together now. He saved my sisters life during the attack and she’s always had a soft spot for him, even if she’d never admit it.”
“She called him Fuck most of the time, Pluck and Fuck, that’s what I always heard from her. How is that having a soft spot for him?” I asked, utterly confused again.
“You’ve seen how my sister treats me and I’m her favorite. Fletch has never been good at emotional stuff.” She paused for a moment. “Well neither have I, but Fletch takes it to a whole new level. When she doesn’t know what to do when she’s feeling a strong emotion, she calls the other names or attacks them, or duels them. It’s how she shows her love.”
Griffons are fucking weird, that’s all I could think as I asked, “Okay, so they’re together now. Are they getting married then?”
Aura laughed again. “Shadow, I’ve told you before we don’t have marriage. Griffons enter a life bond, it’s like marriage, but once you’re in a life bond, you can’t just break it because you’re not getting along or you found something else you like. Griffons take a lot longer to enter one most of the time, because to us, it’s a commitment for life.”
I felt myself blush as she said that, then I asked, “What about us? Is that what we have?”
Aura blushed too as she leaned back in the bed and looked up at the ceiling again. “Well…no not yet at least. I know that there’s something about you Shadow, something deep inside that tells me that you’re the one I’m meant to be with. But you’re a pony, and life bonds with a different species that isn’t a griffon has never happened before…not that I know of at least.”
“Oh…so because I’m a pony…we could never have something like that huh?” I asked.
She punched my foreleg. “I didn’t say that, I said it’s never happened before, not that it can’t happen. The only reason I haven’t asked you to make a life bond with me is simple. Normally griffons have known each other for years before they make the bond, I’ve only known you for almost three months. Now don’t get me wrong, I love you, more than I have compared to others. I want to make the life bond with you, but at the same time, you’re still young. I’m five years older than you are and I’ve had time to grow and mature. I want you to be a little older and know your ready to make this choice. Once I know you are, then I will most likely ask you to become my life partner, but until then, I want to get to know you better and if I was to ask, I want it to be when we aren’t fighting for our lives.”
“What…if something happens to us before then?” I asked, echoing the same thing she asked me back in The Kingdom.
“Then we’ll have had a great time together and our love will never change no matter what we decide to do in the future,” Aura said, leaning down and kissing me.
Her kiss’ effect on me was wonderful. For the first time since I’d taken control of my body again, I finally felt like myself. There was something special about Aura, something I’d known was there for a long time, even before the dance in The Kingdom. I loved her more than I could put into words and if she’d asked me right now, I would make the choice to spend my life with her, no matter how long that might be. I also understood what she meant when she said she wanted to wait. I was a young mare, I hate admitting it due to the circumstances of my life, but she wasn’t wrong. I knew that in a few years I could decide that I didn’t want to spend my life with Aura, it was possible that something would push us apart, or that she found a griffon that she could fall for or in my case, another pony. If in the coming years; if I lived that long; I found that Aura was the one I was meant to be with, then we would take the next step in our relationship. For now, I’d respect her choice and just love her as much as I could.
I pulled away and smiled. “Thank you for coming to get me.”
She laughed. “What else was I going to do? I’m just glad you’re not angry anymore.”
I shrugged. “Well I had my reasons for it, and you know why. I know I messed up and all, but still, next time just yell at me or something, don’t ignore me.”
“Duly noted,” Aura said with a grin. “Next time you decided to lie to me and leave me another note like that, I’m just going to punch you. Maybe with some brass knuckles, make it interesting.”
“I think that’s domestic abuse,” I teased.
She shrugged. “Maybe to a pony, but to a griffon that’s a sign of how much we care about each other. Also, it can’t be domestic if we don’t technically have a home.”
“Oh, is that what it is, then Fletch must REALLY love Gouger and you,” I said with a hearty laugh.
“Yep,” was all Aura said to that then, laid back down. “Y’know sometimes I wish I wasn’t a griffon.”
That caught me off guard. “What do you mean?”
“Being a griffon is awesome and all don’t get me wrong, but there are so many rules and expectations in my race. Ponies have an easier time with most things in life. I mean look at you, you can choose who you want to love and who you want to be with no matter what. I was kicked out of my home for loving a pony, just because it was against a stupid old rule.”
“I wouldn’t say that us ponies have it easy, but I see what you mean. Though not everypony has it as easy as I do. Look at Stardust and Wind Thrasher,” I said with a laugh.
Aura looked back over at me. “What about them?”
“Oh come on, you can’t tell me that you haven’t noticed how they look at each other,” I said, surprised.
“I’ve seen Wind Thrasher flirt with him a lot, I mean she’s not really subtle about it. But Stardust? I don’t know, either he’s playing hard to get, he’s a moron, or he just doesn’t see her the same way she sees him,” Aura said. “There’s also just the random off chance that he’s really shy and has a good way of hiding it when she gets all flirty. This requires extensive study, I should send him Dr. Cottages way. He’s got ways of getting into someone’s head.”
“You may not see it, but I do,” I said. “Stardust’s does look at her, when she’s not paying attention. He steps up to defend her too, even if it’s from herself. I don’t know how deep his feelings go, but I can tell that there’s something there. He’s just really good at hiding it I think. Also, don’t send him to Cottage, you guys pretty much just started getting along. I don’t want him fighting with you again because Cottage got into his head and wanted to be entertained by conflict.”
Aura took a moment to think about it then shrugged. “I guess your right. Could you imagine what their foals would look like!? That is if Wind Thrasher could even have foals.”
“I don’t know, I mean they could be cute. I could see it now, a bunch of little Stardust’s with bat wings and goofy grins flying around,” I said laughing.
The two of us spent the next ten minutes talking about a union between our two friends and the foals they would have. As we talked, I did think about Wind Thrasher and if she really could have foals. Her body had been altered by Dr. Cell, her DNA was mutated and spliced with not one but two creatures. I’d have to ask her sometime; once she was finished biting my head off that is; about if she could bear children or not. Apart from her transformation, I knew she was an older mare too. I didn’t know much about how old you could be and still have foals, but Wind Thrasher was a young filly when her stable was abandoned, she spent twenty years in there before I found her. So, she would have to be in her late twenties maybe early thirty’s now. I’d have to ask her someday about that too. Maybe that was why Stardust hadn’t said anything about how he might feel about Wind Thrasher. He was around Aura’s age, maybe he just thought Wind Thrasher was too old for him. If that’s the case then Stardust really is an idiot, or shallow. Okay it’s settled, I’m going to confront him about it when I get back.
“Thinking hard over there huh?” Aura asked.
I blinked then shook my head, not wanting to bring up my thoughts to Aura, at least not yet. So, I smiled, saying, “A little, so anyway, you were saying something about not wanting to be a griffon.”
Aura waited a moment, just glaring at me, she shrugged. “Yeah, like I said I like being a griffon, but sometimes I do wish I was a pony. Would make life easier I think.”
“If you say so, and I wish I could shoot rainbows from my horn, but it’s not gonna happen,” I said with a laugh.
“Yeah, that’d be funny to see. Oh well, wishing aside, I’m just glad you’re safe and that everything is gonna be okay now,” she said as she got off the bed and went over to the door where she’d dropped some saddle bags. “Oh yeah, I got your stuff and brought it along like I said before, I figured you’d like to have your own armor and weapons.”
Just when things were looking better The Wasteland throws another curveball. I was just getting off the bed to put on my barding when something exploded on deck. I fell to the ground as The Bitter Cob lurched to one side. A moment later, I heard gunfire.
Aura picked herself back up, saying, “What the hell was that?”
“I have a feeling The Enclave found us again and this time they mean business,” I said as I too got back to my hooves and ran over to my saddle bags. I quickly removed the combat armor I’d been wearing since I arrived in Hoofington and replaced it with the barding and duster that Wingnut modified for me. Once that was finished, I pulled out my weapons and started to arm myself. It felt wonderful to pull out Mom’s plasma rifle again, followed by Dream Walker and finally the sword I’d been entrusted with by Gigi and Tonto before their deaths. I slipped Misery into a back holster next to Mom’s plasma rifle and smiled, The Courier’s back bitches.
Slipping on my saddle bags as Aura pulled out her energy spear she said, “You ready for this?”
I popped my neck and grinned. “Hell yeah.”
I opened the door and ran out toward the deck, Aura following as we ran into chaos. Smaller pegasus-pulled armored carriages were flying around The Bitter Cob, firing down at the ship. Power armored pegasi were also attacking the ship. Sun Spot was on one of the bigger guns firing up at the smaller moving carriages, Elliot was doing the same, Gunny was nowhere to be seen…oh wait never mind, he was on the biggest gun laughing his ass off.
“Gunny be showin’ ya how it being done! Take dat, and dat, haha!” he yelled as the huge plasma canon fired. I watched as the huge ball of plasma flew into one of the carriages. The entire thing vanished in a flash of green light and goo.
I didn’t have any more time to watch Gunny blow up pegasi, I had my own trouble. Solstice was on the deck fighting with a few pegasi who managed to land on the deck. Three more were a few feet away from us, their laser rifles ready to fire. I drew Dream Walker, aimed, and opened fire. The bark of the Desert Eagle sounded like music to my ears. The bullet tore through the armor of the first pegasus who was only a few feet away. He went down in a spray of blood, Dream Walker barked again as I shot him twice more. Aura flew past me, her energy spear glowing as she attacked the second pegasus. I took aim at the third, squeezing the trigger and smiling as I heard Dream Walker sing.
The third Pegasus however was quick and dodged the shot by jumping into the air, her energy rifles glowing as she fired down at me. I tried to dodge, but was a little too slow. The laser grazed across my flanks, heating up the armor some as it flew past. Clenching my teeth, I took aim again and fired, she dodged again and returned fire. Luckily the shot went wide and only burned a hole on the deck just behind me. I could tell that this pegasus had more skill than the others, I had to be smarter and more cautious with my actions.
I ducked under another shot, took one to my duster then rolled to avoid another. As I rolled, I swapped Dream Walker out for Mom’s plasma rifle, and came out of the roll. I took aim and fired twice. The pegasus wasn’t stupid however, she dodged the first shot then fired her laser rifle at the second, yelling, “Gonna have to do something better than that!”
Her taunt died a moment later however as Misery came flying through the air, spinning end over end. The blast of plasma had only been a distraction, when I’d grabbed hold of the rifle with my magic, I’d also pulled out Misery. The Sword had no problem slicing through her armor and burying itself in her chest. She fell to the ground a second later.
Pulling Misery out of the dead mare I turned to see if any more enemies were coming. At the moment, the rest were locked in battle with Gunny and his crew or Solstice, who still had two of her own enemies to face. Two more pegasi were watching the fight from above, looking utterly confused however. At first, I wondered why they were just watching the three fight then it hit me. Solstice was in the same power armor she’d been wearing when she attacked Frosty Summit. Violet took that armor away from her before she kicked her out of the town. She must’ve taken it back and now she was dressed in Enclave power armor and even more with marks of a lieutenant on her armor, the others had no idea which pegasi were friend or foe.
“Aura take out the two in the air,” I said as I ran passed her. Aura took off as I returned the rifle to my back and let Misery slice through the air. The first pegasus had no idea he was even under attack, not until his wing was cut clean off by my strike. He screamed and fell to the deck, blood pooling under his thrashing body. I twisted Misery around and thrust it into the pegasus’ throat.
Solstice took the advantage of my interruption and managed to duck a shot from her other opponent, backflip using her rear hooves to kick the other under the jaw then while he was falling back, she blasted him with five quick shots from both of her energy rifles. His body glowed crimson for a moment then he was nothing more than ash. Right as the last opponent vaporized, two dead pegasi fell to the ground, holes in their visors. Aura falling to the deck to land on her talons a second later.
I looked up at the sky, watching as more of those smaller armored carriages came down from the clouds. Cursing to myself, I swapped Misery for the plasma rifle. “We’ve got more of them coming!”
Gunny came running toward us right as I spoke. “Gunny be seein’ that, he be thinkin’ it be about time for ye all to be takin’ a dive.”
“Doing a what now?” Solstice asked.
Sun Spot landed a moment later followed by Elliot. “Captain we can’t take them all out, we need to run.”
“Gunny be knowin’ it, but first the extras be needin’ to be hidden down in yonder forest. Gives Gunny and his crew time to be leadin’ ‘em away,” he said with a mad grin.
“How do we know that isn’t some plan to help them capture Shadow?” Aura asked.
“Ya don’t, just goin’ to have to be trustin’ ol’ Gunny on this one. If ya be goin’ now, it be givin’ the crew and Gunny time to get away,” he said, looking back at the twins. “Ya know the drills and plans, get ‘em off Gunny’s ship, then get The Bitter Cob to a safe place, quick like. The sooner ya be loosin’ the pegasi, the sooner ya can come back and get the others.”
“It’s a good idea,” I said as I watched the pegasi coming closer.
“I don’t agree…” Aura started, but I cut her off.
“We need to get away from them, they’re after ME anyway, so splitting up will help. Solstice and Aura, you both can get me down to the surface, and once we’re there, we can hide until they can come back for us,” I said.
“And how do we know they’ll come back?” Solstice asked.
Sun Spot answered, “We WILL come back, even if Captain Gunny was being an idiot before, he’s still a pony that keeps his word. Just get down to the forest, then head for the edge of it. It’s only a mile or two away from where we are. Once you get out of the forest, head west and you’ll find that same town that we were gonna meet you two in before. Wait for us there, should only take a day or so for us to lose The Enclave.”
I’d learned to trust Sun Spot over the past couple days, even if her captain was less trustworthy. “Time for us to be heading out, don’t argue anymore, we don’t have the time.”
The other two looked at me like I was crazy, Aura saying, “Shadow, this isn’t a good plan.”
“They never are, now I’m jumping off this flying boat and if you two don’t want me to go splat, then I guess one of you will just have to catch me,” I said with a laugh then let my gaze fall on Gunny. “Remember Captain Gunny, you made a deal with me to get me back to New Pegasus. If you don’t come back, you’d better hope you died during the fight, if not, I’ll make sure nopony ever works with you again.”
And before any of them could stop me, I climbed onto the rail and jumped off the ship. As I fell, I felt a rush of adrenaline flow through me as I watched the tall trees fast approaching. I started to draw on my magic, hoping that I could stop my fall if my friends didn’t come help me. As the seconds flew by and the trees got closer, I heard massive guns going off from over me and saw flashes of green light. I could also hear the engines coming to life as The Bitter Cob started to fly away. I was starting to feel panic now, as the trees grew closer, then talons took hold of me and brought me to a halt, only a few inches from the tallest tree.
Aura was gasping for air as she said, “Don’t ever do that to me again!”
Solstice was laughing next to her, “That was great, I can’t believe you just jumped off a ship from that height!”
“Yeah, I’m a stupid daredevil, now can you get us down before The Enclave see us?” I said.
“Too late for that, they’re already coming,” Aura said as she dove into the trees and toward the moss-covered forest floor. “We’ll see if we can lose them in the trees though.”
“Not a bad plan, most are scared of this forest,” Solstice said as she followed Aura, winding though the trees.
“That’s for sure, even before the war. The Everfree is named that for a reason. This place has always been dangerous and even I’m not happy with having to go near it. It might be more dangerous than fighting The Enclave,” Aura said.
“I don’t see how that could be possible,” I started to say, then somepony came down on Aura’s back and she was knocked right into one of the trees. When she was hit, she was forced to let go of me and I screamed as I fell toward the ground.
Lucky for me, the ground was soft enough that my fall didn’t do much more than bruise a few places on my body. It still hurt. A second later Solstice was thrown to the ground, a bloody hole in her right wing. Aura hit the ground a moment later, a nasty cut on her head and she was knocked out. Before I could take in what just happened, the frost colored pegasus, Captain Strife loomed over me. She was alone and was only wearing combat armor instead of the power armor I’d seen her in before.
She was grinning at me, like she’d just won some kind of prize. “Well, look at this. We have a runaway pegasus and a traitor of The Grand Pegasus Enclave, a vile griffon, and the little cunt herself, The Courier. I’m so very glad to have finally found you Shadow.”
I spat a little blood at her, saying, “Oh look, the frost queen finally found me, took ya long enough. So, what can I do for you Strife? Want a stick of gum? Oh wait, that’s your brother’s department.”
I wasn’t happy to see her, both of my friends were hurt, Gunny and his crew were flying off to lead The Enclave away, and I wasn’t sure I could fight her. I knew I wouldn’t have much of a choice though, so I put on my best bravado and watched the icy bitch as she aimed her battel saddle at me.
“I’ve been trying to track you down for a while now Courier. You’ve been a pain in my family’s side for a while and it’s time for you to pay the price,” she said, in her icy voice.
“If you say so, but I don’t see how I’ve been a pain for your family. I did kill your dad and all, though to be fair I didn’t know who he was, or even care much,” I said, putting on an attitude that screamed I didn’t give two shits. “I mean his friends and him were plotting against my family and sending The Sins after me just to steal something that was mine, so he kinda got what he deserved.”
“Keep your mouth shut about my father…” Strife started to say, but I kept on going.
“Then there’s Winter Frost,” I said, looking back at her as I paced back and forth a little. “He did attack me twice, both times failing miserably. It’s pathetic if you ask me, you’d think a little package delivery pony like me would be easy to take in. Now he has to rely on his sister for help, just to capture little old me. By the way I have a post card addressed to him from me, it says, and I quote ‘Fuck you, you dickless little pansy. At least TRY to seem like you’re actually trying to capture me rather than waste the valuable lives of your troops’.”
Her icy smile returned as she said, “You can try to antagonize me all you want, but it won’t work.”
I rolled my eyes. “Then there’s you. Really? C’mon, you’re a Captain in The Grand Pegasus Enclave. It’s sad that the only thing you’ve been able to do is put up wanted posters and try to attack a few sky pirates. When I heard you were looking for me, I figured that maybe, just maybe somepony like you would at least be able to seem like a threat, but I guess I shouldn’t have expected so much. I mean you did leave Stratus to join up with Thunderhead. I guess you just couldn’t cut it with better ponies, so you had to resort to working with weaker ones just to get higher up in the ranks, rather than fizzle out on your own turf.”
I saw one of her eyes twitch as I spoke, but still she didn’t let her anger show. “Oh, Shadow Star, you have no idea what I’ve done to earn my place in The Enclave. Do you want to know the reason I went to Thunderhead?”
“Does it really matter what I want? I’m sure you’re going to tell me anyway. You’re the bad guy, it’s what you do,” I said with a smile.
She ignored my jab and…told me, “My grandfather needed a spy back east, so he sent me. I think you know my grandfather. Uou did speak to him a little while ago I believe. He has a message for you.”
“Oh, you mean that shadowy pony was your grandfather?” I said with a small chuckle. “You should really tell him to get his throat checked, the poor old stallion sounds like a ghoul. Anyway, what’s this message?”
Her smile got wider as she said, “His message is mostly for Aquila, and it’s this. Long-live The Children, the deal is off.”
My eyes went wide for a split second then I dodged to one side as she fired her battle saddle at me. I was ready for an attack however, my magic was already wrapped around the plasma rifle. I rolled, then took aim and went into S.A.T.S., firing three shots back at the pegasus. She too dodged and returned fire, my barding took the two blasts of magical energy from her rifles, luckily my barding was enough to keep them from doing much more than making my coat hot. I switched the plasma rifle out for Dream Walker, took aim and fired, again using S.A.T.S. but she managed to dodge the shots once more.
She started to laugh. “You’re S.A.T.S. won’t work on me.” She pointed at a small gem on her combat armor. “Little gift from my grandfather. If you want to win, you’re going to have to do it the old fashioned way!”
As she was talking, I did as she said and took aim, firing twice. She tried to dodge those two shots too, but I wasn’t aiming for her. I was aiming for the tree branch over her. The first bullet split the bark of the tree, the second glowed with black light and it exploded on impact. The branch snapped and fell right where Strife dodged. She looked up at the last second and tried dodging the large branch too, but wasn’t quite fast enough. It slammed into her wing and one half of her body. She screamed as she was thrown to the ground and the branch nearly pinned her.
Just then, Aura started to get back up, rubbing her bleeding head. “What the hell happened?”
“Can’t talk right no, check on Solstice, she looked hurt,” I said as I aimed Dream Walker at Strife who was pulling herself away from the fallen branch. I noticed that the branch had broken the ground open, almost like there was a cavern under it.
Aura moved over to check on Solstice who was moaning a few meters away. Strife glared at me as I pointed Dream Walker at her, she spat on the ground. “Going to kill me then? I bet you don’t have the…”
I fired a bullet an inch from her head. “It’s my turn to talk Strife.”
“Fuck you…” she said, but I fired again, this time getting closer to her.
“I don’t want to hear another word out of you until you explain who that pony on the monitor was and what you meant with that message earlier,” I said. “And I want to know how you knew about Aquila…”
Something under me seemed to move cutting my speech off. I looked down and saw something was starting to poke out of the forest floor. I took a step back as I watched a vine poke out of the ground. It was an odd plant with green and blue on the vines and small flowers at the ends. The sight of them moving like they were, filled me with fear, though I wasn’t sure why.
Strife saw them too and her cocky demeanor changed to fear. “Fuck…no…I don’t care what you want from me anymore Courier! I’m not sticking around to let those things get near me. Shoot me if you want, but I’m leaving!”
Before I could comprehend what she was saying, she finished freeing herself and took to the air. I pointed Dream Walker up at her, yelling, “Where the hell do you think you’re going!?”
Before I could fire a shot at her, Aura pulled Dream Walker back, saying, “No time for her Shadow, we have to run!”
I looked over at her, seeing that she had a bleeding and moaning Solstice on her back. “What’s going on?”
Aura pushed me back as one of the vines shot toward me just missing my face. She jumped over it, then took my hoof and started to run away from the vines, yelling, “Don’t let those hit you, it’s Killing Joke!”
Killing Joke was something that I did remember hearing about and reading about in The Wasteland Survival Gide. I knew they could do horrible things to you that were almost always permanent or deadly, most of the time both. So, I did what any sane pony would do. I screamed and ran along with Aura. The vines started to pop out of the ground as we ran, each one trying to take hold of us. Aura pulled out her spear as a wall of them tried to block our path. The tip glowed bright green and she slashed at the air cutting them down quickly.
I’d already pulled out Misery and used it to slash at the large vines as we went. It was hard to keep them from touching us though, each time one would fall, another would be right there to attempt to grab hold. Luckily for me, I was quicker than the vines. Aura however was barely able to keep hold of Solstice and fight the vines. At least six times I thought she was going to fall to the killing joke, but she managed to avoid them at the last second. Finally, I could see light ahead as the edge of the forest came into view.
“Aura we’re almost out!” I yelled as I ran for the light.
“I can’t keep holding Solstice!” Aura yelled as she started to fall behind.
“I’ll take her! I can get her that far!” I said as I took hold of the moaning pegasus with my magic and pulled her off Aura’s back. The killing joke seemed to be getting worse and I wasn’t sure how they were following us. They’re plants, how could they be keeping up with us? I saw why a second later as more broke through the ground to my right, a few came out of the trees and one even split through a rock. We were in a large area of the things from what I could tell.
I was almost out of The Everfree Forest when I heard something that made my blood go cold, Aura screamed, “NO!!!”
I threw Solstice just past the edge of the forest then twisted around readying my explosion spell. I stopped as I saw what happened to Aura. She’d been caught by a few of the killing joke and they were wrapping themselves around her. Her beak was open in a scream of pain as they tightened around her torso, her paws, her talons, and her neck. I let my anger fill me as I blasted the vines with every ounce of my power that I could. Most of the vines broke away but the one holding onto her neck held on tighter.
A glow started to show around Aura as she gasped for air, I started to draw on my power again, ready to blast the last vine before it could do anything more to her. But right as I was about to cast the spell, two things happened at the same time. The glow around Aura was almost blinding now and the last killing joke threw her over my head and out of the forest. As Aura was flying over me, another plant came out of nowhere and slapped me so hard in the face that I lost my spell and was thrown out after her.
I felt something hot around my face from where the vine hit me and heard something snap, followed by agony from my horn, almost like something just snapped it off. I rolled across the ground a few times before coming to a halt next to Solstice and a still glowing Aura. My mind went blank from the pain and I slipped into a dreamless sleep. You know how some ponies say, you should watch what you say. Or that the universe has a way of messing with you? Well…
I don’t know how long I was out, but when I came to, I found myself looking up at Sun Spot who was shaking me. “Shadow, you need to wake up.”
“What…happened?” I asked as the hybrid helped me sit up.
“I was going to ask you the same thing. Solstice looks like she’s been shot at least twice in the right wing and I can’t find Aura anywhere. Did that pegasus do something to her?” Sun Spot asked.
“Huh?” I asked rubbing my eyes and wondering why I felt so strange. “She flew away, I didn’t see any others once the killing joke attacked.” Then what she said hit me. “What do you mean Aura’s missing? She was with me when we got out of the forest.”
“What do you mean she ran away? A pegasus mare’s with you right now and she’s knocked out cold,” Sun Spot said, pointing a paw at where Elliot was putting restraints on a black mare.
“Wait a second, who’s that?” I asked. “I didn’t see her when we got hit by the killing joke. Oh no, the killing joke got Aura, she was glowing but she was thrown out of the forest! Did it kill her!?”
“We just found the pegasus, apart from her, it’s just Solstice and you,” Sun Spot said. “Don’t worry though, we’ll find her. Once we wake that bitch over there up and find out what she did to Aura.” She paused, then asked, “Wait, did you say the killing joke got you too?”
I nodded. “Yeah, but I don’t think the one that hit me had enough time to do anything to me. I feel fine apart from a headache and a few tingles.”
She looked me over. “We should still check you out once we get you back to The Bitter Cob. We managed to lose The Enclave, but Gunny wants to get us out of here before they start checking near the forest again.”
I got to my hooves and groaned. “We need to find Aura first.”
Elliot looked over at me. “We will, this mare’s waking up now. Let’s see what she knows before we go back.”
I looked over and took in the mare who I didn’t see before the killing joke attacked. She was tall for a mare, with a pure black coat even darker than my own, with a blood red mane and tail, her wings had a red hue to them and her front and back hooves had white ends on them, there was even a white spot on her nose. Her cutie mark was odd too, it was a heart with a griffon’s talon in the center of it. When the mare started to open her eyes, I saw they were icy blue.
She saw me looking at her and in a lighter voice than I’d expected she said, “Shadow, what happened?”
My jaw dropped as I realized the impossible sight in front of me. “Aura? Is that you?”
[FOOTNOTE: LEVEL UP!]
NEW PERK ADDED!
Last Action Hero: Oh gosh! Are you okay? Never mind, it’s just a flesh wound. You’ve become pretty skilled in the midst of battle and now have the chance to randomly perform unique finishers on whatever foe you encounter. NOTE: The percentage of this chance fluctuates constantly and is not measured by your luck attribute.