//------------------------------// // Chapter 29: Enemy Within // Story: Fallout Equestria: Heroes // by No One //------------------------------// Enemy Within “Show me a hero and I will write you a tragedy.” “Just follow the road,” Red Sky called down from the deck of his boat. It had been a tortuously long boat ride, and now that we had gotten as far as we could by river I was eager to get going. “It’ll merge into one of them ancient highways, and that’ll lead you right to the base.” “Thanks.” I looked behind me to where my comrades waited patiently to get going. Except for Flare, who seemed to be in the middle of falling asleep. It wasn't my fault we were landing so early in the morning. “Anything I should know?” Red Sky looked off into the distance as if contemplating my question. “Can’t rightly say. It’s too far away from the river for me to have ever gone, so all I've got are stories. There was that there balefire explosion a while back, so be prepared for radiation an’ all-that-goes with it.” I looked back at Platinum Haze and decided that wouldn't be a problem. Whatever monsters radiation could create, it’d also give her the energy to help. Even if she wouldn’t fight, that shield of hers was powerful from what I’d seen. “Alright.” I took a deep breath to calm my nerves. “We'll wait here for you,” Red Sky said, which surprised me. “For three days. That’s as long as we can… just get your filly and bring her back. She don’t deserve what happened, and neither do you.” “Thanks,” I replied softly before turning back to the road before us. I know they sailed the boat as fast as they could, but it still felt too long. All I could do on the ship was wait and pray (though I still wasn't sure who I’d been praying to), and that was infuriating. With ground under me I was finally able to take the matters into my hooves; even if I was only walking, I knew I was walking towards Serenity, and that was enough to keep my spirits high. Though in reality I knew it was just as likely I was walking into a trap. Dragonslayer was no fool (as I’d learned to my horror), and he was going to be prepared to take me down. But he’d made a fatal mistake I was going to capitalize on. He thought Serenity was my weakness. Serenity was my strength. She kept me moving when I was sore and tired. She made me smile when I wanted to cry. So long as she was taken from me, I would fight to find her, and if she were ever to be taken from the world I would destroy everything in my path until I got vengeance. Dragonslayer may not have realized it, but when he took my daughter, he had signed his own death warrant. The only thing left was to decide when and how. To that end I took another step, my hoof kicking up dirt. The wasteland that stretched out before me was brown and rocky and plain; but it was comforting in a way, familiar. I breathed in the the stale air and kept walking, my hooves moving faster. I was coming for my daughter, and woe to anypony who dared get between me and her. --- The walk was quiet for a long time. I was sure my companions were watching me, judging me. Throughout the boat ride they had fussed over me (well, except Wallkirk, but he hardly counted.), worried about what losing Serenity had done to me. For a while it was infuriating. I understood their worries, but I had just wanted to be left alone. As we walked though, I was glad for their worry. It was nice to have ponies care for me, to worry about my health and safety. It was not an experience I was used to, even back in Marefort. While Wildfire loved me, I don't think she ever worried about me (at least before Foundation) because it had always been my job to worry about her. To be the stable one, to hold up our… relationship. So I welcomed the worry, even though it was unneeded. I was still… upset to say the least, but I was motivated. For so long I’d been bounced around from one moral conflict to the next. Every pony I met seemed good and evil in parts (though some more evil than good) but it became harder and harder to see past the murk. But as I got closer to Serenity things didn’t become murkier, they became clearer. Serenity was my daughter, and any who took her from me against our mutual will was evil, and if they stood in my way when I went to get her back the only moral thing would be to remove them. I want to say it was refreshing to have a black and white goal, but I don't think the word was appropriate. “Hey, Hired, you sure you’re okay?” Flare asked flying beside me. “I mean, you’ve been really quiet, even for you. It’s kind of eerie, and you look like you’re trying to set things on fire with your glare.” “I have a flamethrower for that,” I replied dryly, remembering I still carried the flamethrower from the time in the tunnels that cost me my hind leg. “Was, was that a joke?” He looked at me strangely. “Maybe.” I kept walking. It was true the greater sense of clarity was helping me focus, but that didn't mean I was in a good mood. “How much further is the canyon?” “We do not believe it is much further,” Platinum Haze said as she squinted into the distance. “It appears we are about to reach the merge with the wartime highway, and from there we were led to believe it would not be much further.” Sure enough, in the distance I could see our dirt road merged into a cracked and crumbling concrete road. “I can access the radio if you want,” Walkirk chirped in his usual robotic tune. His suggestion was actually surprisingly good too, which was a nice change of pace. “I believe the funeral for that friend of yours is going on…” He paused for a few seconds before confirming. “Ah, it is. The Watchers leader… Clean Cutt, I think. He's doing the eulogy, it's rather touching.” I take back calling it a good idea. That was the last thing I wanted to listen to. Before I had the chance to protest he was already playing it. “…fought tirelessly for the good of all ponies. Like a loyal dog defending it's master she protected us and ours from the harshness of the waste from Wendin to Dise. When she died, she didn't in vain, instead she gave her life for ours, defending us, the citizens, from the machinations and political instability that sought to destroy us. She did not stand down when she saw injustice, and if she were still with us, she would not want us to stand down—.” “That's enough,” I growled, “I don't need someone else telling me how to feel. I knew her. Better than him. That's not her. It's a lie to make ponies feel good. I've had enough of lies.” “Some would say a well placed lie is better than a mishandled truth,” Wallkirk replied. Still, he turned it off, and for that at least I was thankful. “And besides,” Flare felt the need to add, “she’d take exception to being called a dog. Pinprick would no doubt prefer ‘bitch’.” I gave a half-hearted smile. That was much more like Pinprick, but she’d probably go a step further and call herself a ‘fucking bitch.’ “We are sad to say we did not have the pleasure to ever be properly acquainted with her, but we are certain she was a remarkable mare,” Platinum Haze said as we finally reached the highway and turned to follow it.  That was one word for it. If nothing else she was straightforward. She never hid her intentions or feelings. Everything you needed to know about her, she’d let you know. “Still, as much fun as she was, you’d think they’d give the Batmare a fancy funeral too,” Flare added. “I mean, she was a bit odd, but when she kicked folk, it hurt! You remember, don’t you, Hired? At the water plant, when she just slipped in and knocked out three ponies before they had a chance to think? Fucking awesome, that.” How could I forget? It was the second I realized that The Batmare was possibly the most dangerous singular pony in Dise. “The Batmare? She was a lunatic who caused more trouble than she was worth.” I stared at Wallkirk for a long time before dignifying that with a response. “Without The Batmare, half of Dise would be rubble.” I spoke slowly so as not to be misunderstood. “She gave her life to teleport the balefire bomb. So that nopony died. Er. Directly.” “One good act does not forgive the rest of her life.” I was beginning to doubt how much of a grasp Wallkirk really had on Dise. He claimed near omnipotence, and yet he would say such things. “For all her talk of ‘doing good’ she got in the way more than she helped.” I was starting to understand his grievances. The Batmare fought what she saw as evil, regardless of where it came from (though she did seem focused on The Laughing Stallion) so to that end I wouldn’t have been surprised if she threw a wrench into one of Wallkirk's plans. I was sure most of the Dise gang leaders were cheering when they found out she died. “Whatever,” I replied looking at away from his smug robot face. There were more important things to do than to argue with an AI about a superhero. Still he kept talking. “What gives her the right to show up one day and sta—.” His voice cut out to a series of static-y buzzing sounds. “S-s-s-sorry.” I couldn't tell if he was saying that, or his platform was. “There is an incident in Dise that requires most of my processing power, I can no longer afford to control this platform for the moment. It has been given orders to follow you, I will regain control of it once the situation in Dise is settled.” With that Wallkirk’s face faded off the Ponitrons screen. “Alright then?” Flare said. “Can’t say I’m that upset, he’s an annoying twat.” “Although we cannot profess to disagree with your assessment, given as he is slated to become Hired’s boss, it would be in our mutual interest if you keep such thoughts to yourself for the time being,” Platinum Haze replied. I wasn’t sure if she was joking around or being serious, with her it could be hard to tell. --- “Fort Spitfire,” the plaque read. “May those who died to defend peace never be forgotten.” We had found the entrance the army base (Fort Spitfire, apparently) an hour down the highway. The entrance to the facility was a one story building with a large pitched roof surrounded by metal fencing on every side. On the other side of the far fencing we could see the beginning of the canyon, but it was hard to tell much about it except that the other side of the canyon looked to be really far away. I stepped away from the plaque that was hanging beside the open fence gate and looked at my companions. They tended to have a greater knowledge of history than me, but they both shrugged their confusion. Whatever the plaque meant, it was a mystery to us. I stepped through the threshold into the south canyon base; a cold shiver ran down my back. Serenity was nearby, I could feel it. I wasn’t sure how big an army base was, but it didn’t matter to me. If I could find her in the tunnels of Dise and the maze of the mountain facility, this place would be nothing. Still, it took me a minute before I could take that second step, to keep moving. The more excited I got to find her, the more worried I became that it would all be for nothing. “Hired?” Platinum Haze asked when she noticed my hesitation. “Are you—.” “I’m fine,” I said sharply, taking another step towards the building. “Fine,” I repeated, more to convince myself than her. The inside of the building (the ‘Fort Spitfire Welcome Centre’ according to the door) was dark, musty, and full of boxes. I mean absolutely full, from floor to ceiling and covering most of the floor. I nosed through a few nearby ones, but found most of them contained uniforms, clothing, and flags, oddly enough. I could only guess that this stuff was in the middle of being shipped up north when the megaspell went off, only to be forgotten about and left to rot. It was sad, in a way. As I looked around the building I realized that it was just one huge room. It looked there had been walls in there once, but they’d been knocked down; no doubt to make room for more boxes. Which worked out, as the boxes made the entire place a sort of maze. “This is a home decorator’s nightmare,” Flare announced when he walked in behind me. “It’s just so very tacky.” It was an attempt to lighten the mood, and I was grateful for that so I played along. “The NCA should hire you,” I said as I attempted to navigate the maze to find the exit. “You’d fix this place right up.” “You’re such a flatterer. Alas, my loyalties are strained enough already, what with the civil war and you pulling me every which way. There’s not enough dash in the wasteland to make me add a fourth party to the pinata that is my metaphorical life.” I chuckled nervously and glanced over at Platinum Haze. We hadn’t really gotten around to explaining our mutual drug… affiliation with her, and I was worried about what she’d think. It wasn’t like I was some junkie… well, so long as I had my Med-X. And I recognize that wording it like that was certainly not helping my case. I suppose I’d been lucky on the boat. With everyone worried about me, they often gave me space enough I could take some Med-X without drawing attention to myself (thank Celestia I was still well-supplied), and I had even managed to take a shot that morning. But it had been a long walk, and I could feel the cravings starting. It would be some time before I had to take one… but you know, I’d like to. It’d help calm my worries about Serenity at least. “Hired, we believe you that should see this,” Platinum Haze called out to me from somewhere in the building. She had apparently ran off on me while I was thinking about drugs. Which also didn’t help my case. I eventually found her standing in front of a giant window frame (the window must have broken) staring out into the canyon. I walked up to her. “What are you do—.” Then I saw it. Stretched out before me was the south canyon base. When I heard “canyon,” I’d expected it to be similar to the canyon with the land sharks, with high walls but narrow and short. This canyon managed to be taller, with giant sloping walls awash with colour standing nearly a kilometre apart from each other, and it seemed to expand in into the horizon indefinitely, completely dwarfing the base that lay in the valley.. That’s not the say the base was small, it was anything but. It was a mess of buildings and facilities connected by roads and bridges that engulfed much of the nearby canyon. The first thing I noticed was a giant staircase that led from the welcome centre into a square of many large, thick buildings at the base. It seemed to be the hub of the base and stretched off from there. A road to the east from there eventually led into a giant crater that was half-filled-in with rubble. It was no doubt where the megaspell had gone off, and it seemed the blast was so powerful it cut into the canyon wall making a cylindrical gap in the otherwise mostly straight wall. I hoped Serenity wasn’t there, but if she were, I’d find her. To the west, however, I saw something quite the opposite. There was a giant domed structure that looked like a stadium I’d seen in pictures, but larger. It was still dwarfed by the canyon itself, but it did a good job at compensating. It was altogether unlike anything I’d seen before. “There is a lot to search,” Flare said as he walked up beside me. He was wrong, of course. The canyon was large, but not when compared to the entirety of the wasteland, so it was a marked improvement compared to how it could have been. “Yeah.” It was easier to just agree though, and I didn’t feel like talking so much. “Let’s go.” Since I could see the steps from the window, I knew approximately where the exit was so I started to head in that direction. Not that I got very far. A few steps in that direction and I was face-to-face with a rather larger monitor. A large monitor that was inexplicably on, and playing a video. --- “Hello, yes, is this thing on?” The pony on the video wore a white lab coat and a medical mask, so I took a stab in the dark and figured he was a doctor. He also looked vaguely familiar, but with most of his face covered with the mask, it might have been my imagination. “Good, okay. Boss, here’s the monthly status update as you wanted. I don’t understand why you want a video, but, ah. Yes.” The pony coughed into his hoof and continued. “I’ll get the bad news out of the way first. The cutie-mark ascension project is simply unsuccessful. I know that’s not what you want to hear, but it's simply not possible. All tests have been complete failures, all research has produced the same negative result. Simply put, no amount of resources or pony-power will fix the project. It’s dead in the water. Consider this a formal request to get rid of the project and move the assets involved into other areas. This leads me into my second point.” “Consultation with the north has resulted in a viable test subject for The Broken Arrow Project.” His voice started to raise in excitement. “After preliminary testing, the subject remains stable, and we should be able to move onto completion within the next few days.” The stallion took a breath, but still looked exhilarated. “Sir, this is a breakthrough, and you shouldn’t need me to tell you how important this is. I think it’s important you come and see this for yourself. If this is a success, and I am positive it will be, then… well, you know. This is a momentous occasion, and it would mean a lot for everyone if you were there. Either way, we won’t start the final test until we receive a reply. We hope to hear from you soon.” He made a cutting motion across his neck and the feed dropped. --- “That was… unusual,” Platinum Haze said. “We are unsure of the time frame of this message. It could be a message from before the war, but we can’t imagine why it would play here. Additionally, we can’t imagine why it would play here if it were made after the war.” “Maybe Dragonslayer is fucking with us,” Flare offered a reasonable suggestion to my immense surprise. “We are easy to fuck with, and it would fit his MO.” “We suppose that is an alternative option. Though, we are curious as to how he knew when and how to play this. As it is not playing again, it cannot be on a loop.” As soon as she said that I thought I heard a sound behind me, but when I turned to look I saw nothing. It could have been my mind playing tricks on me, but still… “It doesn’t matter.” I walked past the monitor to the door. “It’s old and irrelevant. Or an attempt to confuse us. Either way. Ignoring it’s the best option.” “Good point,” Flare said flying after me. “Because, really, fuck Dragonslayer.” That was not what I wanted to do to him, unless ‘-ing kill’ was added. I walked up to the door, but paused when I saw what I was walking out into. My fear of heights hadn’t gone away, and looking down at the endless steps curving down the cliff face did nothing to help it. Part of me really wanted a Med-X (well, that part being most of me), but I’d yet to mention that to Platinum Haze, so I couldn’t. Still… it would be easier if I had it. I gulped and took a step. And just as I did Flare flew out behind me so fast I nearly lost my step. I managed to catch myself at the last second, but my heart went into my throat either way. When I looked up I saw Flare grinning at me like the doofus he was. “Race you to the bottom!” Before I could reply to him he was already halfway down the canyon. Ass. Eventually I did make it down the steps, but at my own pace. The only pony I managed to beat down was Haze, but I think she just did it to make me feel better. Either that or because carrying that stupid robot was difficult. I was leaning towards the first option though, because Haze had a way of making the most difficult things seem easy. “What took you so long?” Flare asked, leaning against a nearby building. “I almost fell asleep. Or maybe I did. What day is it?” “Bite me.” I growled at Flare before looking around the complex. There were a series of large buildings in a box like formation around the centre square. The largest of the buildings was a seven story monstrosity with a single closed green door. It also looked to be one of the few buildings that was still liveable, as the others were in various stages of disrepair. It may have been my imagination, but it seemed like a few of the buildings had a new coat of paint. I opened my mouth to say something, but before I could get a word out Wallkirk-bot made a buzzing sound and chirped back to life. “There we are!” it said. “Sorry about that.” If only he’d been gone longer than just a few hours. “That’s it?” Flare asked impatiently, “Just ‘sorry’? Aren’t you going to to tell us what’s happening in Dise.” “It’s not important.” For better or for worse, that city was our home, and considering everything that had happened recently, I was on Flare’s side here. We deserved to know. Flare’s eyes narrowed and I could see a scowl forming on his face. It was rare he ever got angry, but considering the Enclave coup and his relation to it, it was a perfectly understandable. “Just tell us; we don't have time to play word games with you.” “Fine, fine,” the robot tsked. “There was a bit of a… I don’t want to say ‘riot,’ but outpouring of frustration after the funeral. Nothing too difficult; it just took some time to properly… contain.” That did not sound good. “As I said, ‘not important’; certainly not worth derailing the mission. So if we could be on our way….” “Oh, lovely.” Flare rolled his eyes. “You know, for a secret dictator who apparently controls Dise, you sure don’t seem to do much.” When Wallkirk spoke again, his electronic voice seemed to have an annoyed edge. “Dise is not a simple place, and it gets more complex with the day. It takes work to maintain balance, and it must be done carefully. Canterlot wasn’t built in a day.” “I’d like to see how you maintain balance.” Flare seemed to take exception to Wallkirk’s assurances, and once again I was on his side. “Unless this is what you consider maintaining balance. A balefire bomb goes off over your city, and you don’t have a clue who did it or why. There is a Enclave coup, and once again you’re helpless to predict, stop, or even delay it! Now there’s rioting in the streets, by your own admission, and still you can’t do anything.” “Give it time,” Wallkirk assured. Or tried to, anyway. “I am just one pony, but with time, I can fix the issues, bring back the status quo.” Flare sneered and, uh, flared out his wings. “Dise doesn’t have time; we don’t have time! The city is dying; it’s people are dying! You’ve lost control, and as soon as everyone else realizes how weak the gangs are, there will be change, but it won’t be you, it’ll be Skyfall, or Dragonslayer, or Molly, or someone else ambitious enough to capitalize and then everything you’ve worked to maintain will come crumbling down. You’re either in control, or you aren’t. And as far as I can see, you aren’t.” Wallkirk did not say anything, but on his monitor his face contorted into a scowl. “Not now. Argue later.” I said walking between the two. “We need to find Serenity. Then we can worry about Dise.” I looked around the various buildings in the plaza. Huh… the large building with the green door, I had sworn that door was closed before… “We need to look for clues. Flare, can you do a flyby… just. Not too far away. Look for anything that could be a clue. Wallkirk and Platinum Haze. Look through these buildings. I’ll look through the large one.” There, we had a plan. It wasn’t a good one, or an encompassing one, but it got us working and not arguing. The three of them turned to me when I gave my proposal. They must have agreed because at once they all turned to the tasks I asked of them. Which left me to investigate the large building with its magically opening door. I trotted off in silence. When I entered through the green door, I found myself in what must have been a waiting area of sorts. It was rather spacious, with the remains of benches against one wall and a service counter in the other. Luckily for me the lights (at least in that part of the building) were still working. I carefully looked around to see if there were signs that anypony had been in there recently (as I suspected) but I found nothing in that room. So I moved on to hallways just outside the entrance area. It split off in two directions running the length of the building, though only the right side still had light. I never did explore either side though because I noticed that one of the doors in the hallway was still open, the one that led to the stairs. As I entered the stairwell cautiously I thought I heard a faint buzzing sound from somewhere above. I’m still not sure if I heard that buzzing sound, but I did hear the loud zap that followed it. At that point I was positive something was fishy, so I raced up the stairs. As much as I hated heights, I didn’t really mind stairs. I made it up the seven floors without breaking much of a sweat, but by the time I got there whatever made the sound was gone. The only evidence that anything was there was a black mark on the wall that was still smoking. “Oh fuck this.” I growled. Now that I knew something was there, I was determined to find it and destroy it. I didn’t like being stalked, and I knew it was just one of Dragonslayer’s games (that bastard). It wasn’t hard to figure out where to go next, because once again there was only one open door in the hallway. I was starting to wonder if I wasn’t being lead by the nose here. Not that it would stop me, if I’d proven anything I’d proven that I was adept at stumbling into traps. This time the conveniently open door led to what I guessed was supposed to be the barracks of the building, though why they put the beds on the top floor I couldn’t figure out. It was also terribly cramped, with little room between the row of tiny cubical-like bedding areas and the wall. For regular ponies you might have been able to fit two beside each other down the hallway, but I was large enough I filled it up easily. It just seemed really cramped, but then again maybe that was on purpose. As I walked bed after bed I realized that there were actual beds there. They weren’t new, but they were well maintained. I could only guess that the NCA used this building a lot before the place had to be evacuated… Before I had the chance to ponder the building’s evacuation, I saw something. Someone. He was crouched down on the floor slowly rocking back and forth wearing what looked like tattered NCA armour. I was positive that I’d found my stalker. Until he looked at me, and I saw he was missing half his face. The ghoul screamed and charged. I barely had the presence of mind to get my leg up in time. The ghoul chomped hard down at my cybernetics, but all it got was broken teeth. Behind me I heard another scream. When I turned to look all I saw through the flickering lights were sharp teeth. I was starting to think the breadcrumbs (the metaphorical kind) that led me here were just a part of a trap. Or maybe I had shitty luck. Or, as a third possible option, the ghouls were the ones with the bad luck. After all, there were only three ghouls behind me, and the one biting me. Compared to what I’ve killed, four ghouls was a walk in the park. The first one charging at me got a shotgun in the chest, courtesy of my new cybernetic attachment. It flew back, tangling up its fellows, which gave me time to heft up the ghoul biting onto me, and toss him over my shoulder into the crowd. That gave me more than enough time to turn around (The cramped hallway made it difficult, but I was nothing if not resourceful) and unleash a torrent of flames from the flamethrower I “borrowed” from the minotaurs. Did you know burnt ghouls smell like bacon? It’s shameful, but I would be lying if I said it didn’t make me a little bit hungry. It also made me want to puke, so I think it evens out. I didn’t leave right away, not because I wanted to watch ghouls burn, but because I was worried they’d get back up and I’d have flaming ghouls chasing me. It also gave me plenty of time to take a Med-X without Haze noticing. It was hard enough to take some on the ship, but travelling made it worse and it wasn’t like the cravings were going anywhere. I wasn’t sure how Flare was doing with his dash… thing, but I made it my business not to pry. So long as he was still doing what we needed from him… Once I was positive the ghouls weren’t going to get back up I turned around and continued down the cramped hallway. It occurred to me as I was walking away that the fire might spread, but it didn’t look like it was spreading so I didn't worry. Because I’m a genius. At the end of the rooms with all the beds was yet another hallway, because this building didn’t have nearly enough of those. Beyond that though I found yet another open door. At that point I was clearly being led, but I was curious. And I couldn’t really go back the way I came, not with all the smoke. I’m pretty sure the room I entered was a classroom, at least judging from the rows of desks that surrounded a giant monitor on the far wall. There was only one exit though, so I wasn’t entirely sure where else I was going to be led. The monitor flickered to life, and I realized I’d been led there. --- “Are you certain she is stable?” The video I was watching seemed to have been taken from a security camera. It was a grainy black and white recording of a hallway, with only one pony in view (I think it was the same doctor from the previous video) with the voice coming from just off screen. That voice though, I swear it sounded familiar. “All previous attempts looked promising too until—.” “I’m positive.” The doctor interrupted. She then immediately realized what she had done and turned almost white, “I mean, sorry.” “No, speak.” The voice was male, probably a young-to-middle-aged pony stallion. “I am intrigued to see what about subject six makes you so confident.” “Oh, um. Ahm.” She coughed lightly into her hoof before continuing. “I don’t need to repeat to you the failures of subject one and two.” She grimaced, “but subjects three through five were different. We had thought previously that they showed no signs of rejection before their… demise. But upon reviewing the records I saw something startling.” She dug through her saddlebags with her magic and floated a clipboard off screen. “See here, look at their heart rates and MRI scans, what do you notice.” “They’re consistent with a pony undergoing burnout.” The pony off screen said without a hesitation. “So?” “I think that is what killed them, the burnout.” She took a deep breath, I guessed to gather her thoughts. “My theory is that by combining the megaspell directly with them—.” Wait wait wait. My heart nearly stopped in my chest when I realized what these recordings were. The importance of them. But why was Dragonslayer showing them to me? “—that it overloaded them. Their bodies weren’t used to the influx of magic going through them. It worked like a magical burnout. When a unicorn goes through burnout they use their bodies’ natural energy as a replacement for magical energy when they’re depleted, severely weakening them, and since these ponies were not used to the magic their bodies kept using energy to try and stabilize the megaspell until they expired. Look, you can see, the one unicorn, subject four, she lasted three days longer than the others, because she used her own magic in combination with her natural energy.” “Well done.” The mare beamed with pride, and it just made me want to puke more. The off-screen stallion continued, “But that explains the problem, not the solution.” “Yes, yes, sorry, I just had to. Sorry.” She dug through her bag again, producing a stack of what looked like mouthwritten notes. “My recommendations for the new procedure we attempted with subject six. I know we should have waited for you, sir, but—.” “I understand.” Magic wrapped around the papers, but it wasn’t coming from the doctor. I guess the mysterious voice was a stallion. “Time waits for nopony.” There was a brief sound of paper flipping. “S-so. The solution was to create the megaspell first.” She stood up straighter, seemingly impressed with her monstrous science. “We were following the plans laid down for Simple Heart.” Whoever these ponies were, they had access to the data about Simple Heart. This seemed important. “But we forgot: Simple Heart was a failure. If it wasn’t for the nature of the megaspell he would have died too, I’m sure. But, if we create the megaspell first, then bind it with the subject, the megaspell will already be stable and not require the pony’s energy to stabilize.” “But there could still be rejection?” The voice asked. “Yes, maybe. It’s been a week longer than all the rest. I think we got it. Sir, this will work.” “Good, good. Is the subject safe to visit?” “What, oh yes! Certainly. I can explain more once you see the subject. Be warned, she is heavily sedated… heavily. She is more resistant than I would have expected.” The mare turned and started walking down a side hallway. When she did I saw something in the corner of the screen. The voice off the screen had turned, and I could just barely see his flanks. I was hoping to see if it was a cutie-mark I remembered, but instead it was all scar tissue. --- I coughed loudly as the video stopped. Huh, when did the room get so smokey. It must have been the old video machine struggling to work. “So what did you think?” A voice echoed through the room. Without thinking I crouched down into a fighting position ready to stab the next thing I saw. Only I saw nothing, because the voice was coming through an old speaker system. “Dragonslayer.” I growled, recognizing the voice. “Not much of a critique.” Have I mentioned how many ways I was going to kill him? “I see you found your way here, and faster than I expected… which was to be expected. See, this is the reason I choose to undertake the task of removing you from the equation. You are too unpredictable and too dangerous. It’s a terrible combination for such a delicate operation.” “Don’t talk in riddles.” I spat, though I don’t think he could see it. “Come and fight me if you’re so secure.” “I would rather you come to me.” He sighed audibly. “I wish it didn’t have to come to this. My benefactor wanted to try and convince you to join him, but I knew it wouldn’t work. Still, if we must fight you need to come to me. I’m sure you saw the stadium when you entered the canyon, I’m waiting there for you. With Serenity.” The voice clicked and I screamed a wordless curse. That bastard. So much death. My rage was cut off by a hacking cough. What was going on. I looked back towards the door I came through and saw thick black smoke pouring into the room. Oh yeah, the flamethrower. Before I could think of a plan of escape something charged through the door. A ghoul. On fire. Just my luck. I'm not sure why it decided it was feeding time but it charged at me as soon as it saw me. The heat was intense when it came close to me, but I was fortunate to still be wearing the fireproof barding the minotaurs made for me. I caught the ghoul with my hooves, and used it's momentum to toss it across the room, and through a window. Oh look an escape route. I took two steps towards the shattered glass when I felt an odd heat on my head… on my… MY MANE! Instinct took over when I realized my mane was not fireproof. I stopped, dropped, and rolled like my life depended on it. After I was certain it was out, and a few more rolls after that, I stopped. I felt my mane with my hoof and to my relief it wasn't completely gone, just much shorter and a bit crispy. Taking a deep breath I looked back towards the window… To see Flare staring at me with a bewildered expression. “When we saw the flaming ghoul fall six stories we knew it had to be you. Need help?” “Help.” I coughed out as I made a beeline for the window. “S-silver!” Platinum Haze was flying beside Flare, she must have seen the flaming ghoul too. “What are you doing? We, we desire to know that you are well!” “I will be if you get me out of here.” I said through the window. Thankfully she complied, lifting me through the window with her magic (My shoulder burned at the magic, but that was better than the rest of me burning). I was so happy to be out of the burning building that I barely noticed the height. Barely. I would have freaked out at how high we were if we didn’t immediately descend before I had the chance. “Now,” Haze said when she put me back on solid ground, “are you injured anywhere, do you require any healing you… your mane…” She frowned. “It’s shorter… we should cut it, to make it even.” I waved a dismissive hoof, “Well, we did not mean to intend to suggest would would perform that action at this present juncture.” “No, I mean.” I stood up to my shaky hooves and looked back at the building I just escape. Flames were bursting out of the top floor, and seemed to be spreading quickly… I didn’t mean to do that, but when I heard the screams of the ghouls inside I wondered if maybe it was for the best. “I know where Serenity is.” I said sternly, and started to walk. The others didn’t need to hear anything more and started to follow. --- “Are you sure we can trust him?” Wallkirk said as we walked down a long concrete road half carved into the side of the cliff. We were moving towards the giant stadium, but it didn't seem fast enough. “Of course not.” I answered without a second thought. “He’s clearly planning a trap. But for the trap to work. We need to be there. Where he wants.” “So how do you plan to avoid said trap.” Wallkirk kept talking, even though I had thought I was being completely clear. “I don’t have so many of these ponitrons I can have one wrecked so far away that I wouldn’t be able to repair it.” “Avoid?” I shook my head. “No, we spring the trap. We endure it, then kill him.” “Uh… why is it you are the leader of your little group anyway?” The robot turned it’s head to look at Haze and Flare, to see if they were going to back him up. “We have endured far more pain and hardship than a single pony could possibly hope to inflict, even one as insidious as Dragonslayer. We are certain that he overestimates his plan, and Silver will prevail against any attempts to harm her or our persons.” “I’ve got power armour and fifty pounds of explosives on me at all times. I’d like to see his trap: I’m sure it’ll be cute.” They obviously did not agree. “And when in doubt, we just throw Silver at the problem. She usually comes back with fewer body parts, but she’s still got plenty of those left. Personally, I think she was supposed to die a long time ago, but scared Death into giving her a few more years.” Flare chuckled. It was probably true. I tried to count all the times I’d nearly died, but I lost track pretty quick. Suffice it to say, my continued existence was more due to luck than any skill. And judging from the speed at which I lost body parts, if I continued at the pace I was going I wouldn’t last another month. Still, I couldn’t give up, not until Serenity had a place where she could live that was free of assholes like Dragonslayer. “You are a wonder,” Wallkirk said. “Where are you even from? All reports I have mention you coming from the north, but you don’t look like you’re from one of the hill tribes.” “She’s a mystery wrapped in an enigma, our Hired Gun,” Flare commented. “Near the border of Equestria. Town called Marefort.” “The border?” Wallkirk pressed; it was aggravating. “My spies indicated that that area is under raider control.” “It is.” Maybe the ponitron has a mute button. I resolved to look for it as soon as possible. “Town was under raider control. Why do you care.” “Well… I was just prodding for information before… but given where you are from… have you seen any stables?” That was an odd question. “Near Marefort?” It was more of a rhetorical question, as I knew what he meant. “Yeah stable… 42.” I did my best not to think too hard about the stable. “You've been inside the stable?” Wallkirk sounded almost breathless… for a robot. “How does it look?” “Why do you care.” I didn’t want to remember how it looked. “That..” He smiled. “Memories. Stable 42 is technically in Caledonia lands, and… I’m not sure how well you know history…” The robot looked at me. “Not a lot. Well, many Caledonian stables went… incomplete after a controversy. Turns out Stable Tec was building them smaller than Equestrian stables, something about a smaller population needing fewer. Either way there was an uproar and the remaining projects were sold, I bought that one. I had intended to move the Crusader Maneframe there and use it as my base of operations… well things didn’t go to plan.” “Shocking!” Flare interrupted. “A plan of yours going wrong? Will wonders never cease.” “This, this was not of my doing. You can thank The Zebras and Equestria for it, I surely cannot be blamed for ending the world, can I?” “Give me five minutes, I’ll think of a way.” Flare was probably smirking under his helmet. “Enough.” I said as the road reached an end. We weren’t at the Stadium, instead we were at another cluster of buildings, and I was worried we’d find more ghouls there. “We need to be on guard.” I walked towards the square of buildings to get a sense of where we were. The Stadium was still a ways off, but we were at an impasse. The bottom of the canyon had its own little crests and valleys. The road we were on had been sloping upwards, but in one spot it dipped down to form a little mini canyon. This new obstacle had another road across it that we could not reach without an annoying amount of rock climbing. I suppose it was possible to just fly across, but I didn’t want to wear Platinum Haze out anymore than possible. I was counting on her to take Serenity to safety while I dealt with Dragonslayer. As I looked for an alternate option I thought I noticed a bridge spanning the gap. It would make sense, considering this was supposedly a military base, but I wasn’t sure. Too many buildings were lined up right against the crevasse, blocking my view. So I had to go take a closer look by squeezing in between two buildings. Sure enough there was a bridge, or rather there had been a bridge. Most had collapsed into the ravine. On the bright side there was an alternate path. One of the buildings built a causeway between it and a building across the way, acting as a covered bridge. “What are we looking for?” Apparently Platinum Haze had followed me, possibly worried I was going to get into another tussle with flaming ghouls. That was really unlikely though. A horrifying screech echoed as soon as I thought that. I turned as quickly as I could. The sound wasn’t coming from there, I realized too late. It was coming from above. I looked up just in time to see a ghoul crawl out of a window from one of the buildings we were beside, and drop straight down. It landed on Haze before I could warn her. “Haze!” I tried to get a shoot off with Subtlety, but Haze panicked, rearing up in surprise. “WHAT IS THE MEANING OF THIS!” Haze tried to buck the ghoul off, but all it did was make it more tenacious. The creature bit down hard on her wing eliciting a sudden screech. “WE DEMAND YOU LEAVE!” Magic wrapped around the ghouls, and before it could get another bite the creature was flung across the canyon, “BEGONE VILE BEAST!” With a flash of purple the ‘beast’ was thrown far across the canyon. I didn’t see exactly where it went, because I had looked to inspect Haze’s wing. “Are you okay?” I asked quickly. Turns out me inspecting the wing didn’t mean much as I knew nothing about medicine. There was blood though, and that was never good. “F-fine. We will be fine.” She wrapped her wing close to her body. “We shall not slow you down.” I didn't really care about that. “Hey!” Flare was galloping over, “What happened, is everyone okay?” He looked at Haze's bloody wing and grimaced, “Oh. Well, can’t you do that radiation thing? Heal it right up.” “There is no radiation here; we…,” Platinum Haze trailed off and looked around, immensely puzzled. “There is no radiation here. Why is there no radiation here?” “What do you mean?” I asked, but then I realized. This place was megaspelled only a few months ago. It was huge news, and there were ghouls everywhere, but… no radiation. Nothing. Wasn’t that stuff supposed to last forever? And yet…. “You’re right….” Platinum Haze lifted her head into the air and started to sniff. “Yes… we had thought something had seemed odd since we got here. There should be radiation. Megaspells always leave an after effect; this is implicit in their design.” “I bet if we ask Dragonslayer he’d know,” Flare suggested, which just made me scowl even though it was probably true. “If you can’t use radiation, do you have a healing potion?” Platinum Haze shook her head. “I am afraid I do not….” “I always let Serenity carry the healing potions.” I added. “I have some med-x though, if that’d help?” Not that I really wanted to part with my med-x… but giving away wouldn’t be that bad, right? Platinum Haze gave me a confused look. “It is a small wound; we could use healing, but a painkiller won’t be effective. Don’t worry about us…” She tried to spread her wings out to show how fine she was, but she winced before they were even half unfurled and brought them back to her sides. “We are fine.” “There’s plenty of buildings around.” Like the one the ghoul jumped out of. “We’ll check them for a healing potion.” “No, we would hate to slow down your search. We do not require healing at this juncture; let us just move forward.” “That’ll be difficult, considering the whole gap thing, and you not being able to fly. I doubt I could carry Silver that far, she’s been putting on weight.” I glared at Flare, as usual. “There’s a bridge.” I pointed to it, because apparently everyone else was blind. “Goes through a building. We can do both things.” Before anypony could argue I turned away, intending to walk away, Instead I was face to, er, monitor with Wallkirk, “What was that you were saying about radiation?” I pushed passed the robot mumbling, “Don’t fucking eavesdrop.” I probably should have shown more deference considering he was going to be my boss, but I couldn’t muster up the will to care. He must not have cared either because he still followed me, though it was only after the others had passed him. The building with the bridge connected wasn’t that hard to find, given it was the largest building in the area. I looked up to see if it had a sign or anything (I was curious) but if it did it was long gone, so I was left to guess what the building was used for. Curiously, when I walked towards the door to open it, I saw that it was ajar. I furrowed my brow and wondered if I was being led again. Though if I were it was a lot less conspicuous than it was before. We didn’t have time to waste though so I cracked open the door and peered inside, only to find it depressingly dark and dusty. Unlike the other buildings in the area, I wasn’t certain this one had been refurbished and used by the NCA. I tapped on my pipbuck light, and just to be safe this time, I took off my eye-patch and let my cybernetic eye whirr into activity. Once I walked into the building it took just a second for the night vision to turn on, letting me see clearer. My pipbuck’s EFS didn’t show anything, but I really never trusted that thing. Besides the fact that it picked up things like radroaches as enemies, it also couldn’t tell what floor things were on, making it useless most of the time, especially in large, old buildings. “Looks clear,” I said cautiously. The others entered at my word and took their own look around, each providing a little extra light to help. “The building is big. How are we going to find the bridge?” It was one of those sorts of buildings where the developer got too hallway-happy and you could get turned around easily. “Well,” Flare walked over to a wall while talking, “we could search the building for hours in the vain hope of finding what we’re looking for… or we could use this map.” Map? I walked over to see what he was looking at and sure enough it was a building plan that happened to give the exact location of the bridge (and every other room in the building). “We could use that,” I conceded. “Through that door.” I pointed to a nearby door. “Two stories up and…” That same door opened. “Oh fuck that.” I turned and started galloping towards it. Flare said something, and Haze cried after me. I didn’t listen. Something was playing with me, I was sure of it, and I intended to figure out who, or what! I bust through the door into a hallway. My EFS showed an amber dot in front of me, and something moved in the range of my night-vision, but I couldn’t see what because it fled through another door before I had the chance. “Get back here!” I screamed as I chased after the… thing. It was possible the others thought I was having (another) mental breakdown, but I didn’t care. Dragonslayer’s little game was pissing me off. I reached the door the thing darted through. More stairs. That was no problem though, because I knew where it was going. A door opened above me, and a few seconds later I was at that door and going through it. The dot was heading for the bridge and it was two steps ahead of me, but I wasn't sure why. As I sped into the bridge I still wasn't sure why, but I was close. It was a ball, a floating metal ball with wings. As soon as I saw it the ball turned in mid-air to, uh, look at me I think. It didn’t have eyes, but the face of it was clearly seeing me. “Get back here!” I lunged at it, but it slipped away before I could get a grip The metal ball buzzed at me before floating off, “Oh no you don’t!” I scrambled to my hooves and chased after it. “Get back here!” Dammit. It ducked through a window before I could get close to it, and short of diving through the window it was out of reach. Safely out of my reach the robot flying thing turned in mid air. “Hello, Silver.” Fucking Dragonslayer spoke through the device. “I did not expect you to actually find this device.” “What the hell are you playing at?!” “Context,” the robotic voice chirped. “Giving you context, so that later, you will understand.” By that he meant playing mind games with me. “Have you ever seen one of these?” He answered himself before I could. “I didn’t think so, they are quite rare this far south.” “Shut up.” If I couldn’t catch the thing, I’d just kill it. I aimed down my sights and- “Bad Silver.” A hot bolt of plasma impacted my forehead sending my head snapping back. By the time I had regained my sense the robot was flying away too fast, but still talking. “You better hurry up.” Before I had the chance to scream another obscenity Flare Haze and Wallkirk came running down the bridge. “What the hell Hired?” I shot Flare a glare when he spoke, but since when has that ever stopped him? “Just going off an adventure, or what?” “Dragonslayer was spying on us with a robot. Chased it up here.” I frowned and looked off in the direction the robot flew… towards the stadium. “We must ask you, was it round?” I turned to Haze and just blinked. “Was the robot round, and flying? We are wondering, that is.” I nodded slowly, not sure what she was getting at. “We see, it must have been a Sprite-bot then… we were simply confused because to my knowledge they were only common in Equestria.” “So what.” I turned towards the other end of the bridge. “We have things to do. Can’t worry about robot.” More mind games, maybe hinting that his benefactor was someone who lived in the north… or maybe it was nothing. Either way it was irrelevant to our task, and I wouldn't let myself get distracted by it. --- “Ah.” Wallkirk said as we reached the door to the stadium, only to find it cut off by a glowing purple force field. “Did you know I invented this type of spell, well not me personally, but I was the brains behind the project. It’s called a ma—.” “Magical resonance force field.” Wallkirk turned, a confused face on his monitor. “It’s a spell, that reacts to a certain magic… something. I forget the word. But only spells from certain ponies. Otherwise it won’t go down.” I looked over at Haze, “Like if Platinum were to use a spell—.” Her horn started glowing to show off, though I hadn’t expected her to. Just like the last time I saw one, a normal spell made a part of the barrier closest to her horn glow and warm up, but that's all. “Yeah, that. You need a special key. Magic key.” I was impressed at my own recollection. “I take it you’ve seen one before?” “A few.” Well, many in the facility, but I tried not to think of that. “One in your old office.” I smiled coyly at him. “I don’t have the key for this though.” “We would like to add that we too lack the prowess to open this door as well….” It was good she said that, as I was about to ask. It was a long shot, but when it came to magic Platinum Haze used to be psychically connected to a demigoddess of pure magic, so it was always worth asking. “So we’re stuck?” Wallkirk didn’t seem that upset. “I doubt it,” Flare scoffed. “Dragonface wouldn’t know how to create a barrier like this; there’s probably another entrance, or a hole or something.” Wallkirk looked up at Flare, a smirk placed electronically on his monitor. “This barrier has lasted two hundred years, due to one of my projects. I suppose not everything I touch is a disaster after all, pegasus.” Here we go again. “Except, it’s, you know, blocking our way. So if you want to take credit for it, be my guest,” Flare said smugly. It seemed he really enjoyed taking the piss out of Wallkirk, not that I could blame him. I did hope it didn’t hurt my future job prospects though. However, I was not in the mood to listen to bickering, so I started to walk around the perimeter of the building. Dragonslayer had entered the building somehow, and if that door was closed there had to be another one. When the others saw I was not putting up with their silly games, they shut their mouths and followed me. It didn’t take long for me to find the entrance I was looking for, though… it was not what I was expecting. There was a five metre wide hole in through the outer-wall of the building that was completely black with soot and smelled like smoke. It was like someone burned through it with a really large flamethrower, but when I walked through the hole it was cool to the touch. It must have happened a while before. I paused when I got into the building proper, and took a deep breath. Serenity was in the building, I knew it. She was just a few minutes away, and after so long, I was scared. Dragonslayer wouldn’t just let me have her back… No, he’d use her, try to break me… like what happened with—. I cut off the thoughts with a stamp of my hoof. Not again. I wouldn’t lose Serenity. This time, I’d win. “This building looks to be large,” Platinum Haze said beside me. “Perhaps we should split up and search the building; it would be faster.” “No.” I pointed to the lights on the ceiling, and motioned down the hall where there was a split. “Only one path has light. There must be limited power. Follow the lights, find Serenity.” And Dragonslayer. It was as good a plan as any, and knowing Dragonslayer he was going to lead me right there. So I followed the light and ran. The hallways passed by without me noticing, stairs and rooms and windows, all became a blur. Nothing but my single-minded determination to find Serenity mattered. Just the run and the lights, and what would come when I followed them. There was a rising sense of urgency in my gut as I ran. The feeling that I might be too late, that it was a fools errand that… I closed my eyes only for a second to collect myself, but I never stopped running. I couldn’t think of the possibilities, I couldn’t imagine the horrible outcomes. I had to have faith. Serenity would survive. She had to. I turned a corner and stopped running, though the lights didn't go out. There was a pony standing there, next to a window. I recognized her, from the videos Dragonslayer had been playing. “Number six.” She said when she saw me. “It took you long enough. Don’t worry, I won’t hurt you.” She tried to make herself sound soothing, though I wasn’t sure why. “Come, see this. Dragonslayer wants you to see.” “See what.” I croaked, inching my way closer. Whatever she wanted me to see was beyond the window she was standing next to. “Your daughter.” I sped up until I was standing beside the doctor looking out through the window. It lead to a small room with a projection screen on one end, and a single desk. What mattered to me, the only thing that mattered to me was that Serenity was there. Sitting at the desk, her head down. I slammed my hoof into the glass. Anything that was between me and her was going to break, yet the glass didn't and my hoof bounced off it. “You won’t break it.” The doctor said. “It’s designed to take up to a fifty-calibre rifle without breaking, not even you can get through. The only way you’ll get to her is through the door, and I have the key.” “Let me in.” I realized then that I was alone. The others must have fallen back, to get Wallkirk up the stairs perhaps. It didn’t matter, they would be with me soon enough, and Serenity was right there. “Dragonslayer wants you to listen.” She seemed nervous, perhaps it was because of the look in my eyes. She brought up a remote control and pressed a button that let me hear into the room, and it was the last mistake she would ever make. Inside, a pony I didn’t recognize spoke. I hadn’t even realized they were there, but they spoke. “Your mother didn’t care about you.” My heart stopped in my chest. “If she did do you think she would let you get captured? I’ve been trying to tell you.” The voice paused, and I saw the pony walk over to Serenity to get closer. “She sold you.” “N-no…” Serenity was crying. Her head on the desk, sobs wracking her body. “N-no. She c-cares. She w-wouldn’t.” “She sold you,” the pony inside repeated, his voice deathly serious. “She doesn’t care about you.” “S-she d-doesn’t care.” My vision went red. --- “I don’t care.” My voice was hard, I had to suppress everything I felt. I had to tell her that, I had to or she'd die. I looked down at Foundation, caught in a cage, all alone, blood matting her mane and told her I didn’t care if she lived or died. Star Belle and I tried to counter attack the raiders, to save those who had been captured… but we failed. Star Belle broke a leg, I was disarmed. We killed a few, but there were too many, we were overrun. Marefort had fallen, and I was taken capture with the rest. But I had made them angry, I had killed some of them, fought back, so they said they were going to make an example of me. When they found out Foundation was my daughter they took me too her, told me… told me either I break her heart or they’d kill her. “B-b-but Momma.” Tears sparkled in her ruby eyes. “No.” My voice was harsh, it had to be. I had to be believable. “Don’t call me that.” I saw all hope leave her. She fell down, weeping in a ball, crying. I had abandoned her. I could never forget what I did, but I did it for her. I had to break her, make her cry or else… the choice was easy. Let her die, or let her think I didn't care when she needed me the most. She had to live. I couldn’t let her die because of my mistake… But she would. My mistakes ruined her. --- The doctor was right when she said the glass wouldn’t break. Despite my best efforts, the safety glass stood strong. However, the walls around it keeping it in place did not hold up nearly as well, and the whole thing came crashing down. I stood up, on shaky feet, and looked back to the doctor. To show her. The doctor was already dead. I'd killed her. With a gun or a sword or a kick, it didn't matter. She was dead and her blood pooled on the ground, but I didn't care. She came between me and my Serenity. “Momma!” My eyes fell to Serenity, he grey eyes glistening with tears. “Serenity…,” I whispered, my voice hard and hoarse, and almost too quiet to hear. But I did hear. So did Serenity. She smiled, a small frightened smile, but one filled with hope. Hope that the other pony was trying to take from her. I walked past Serenity. I wasn't done. More blood needed spilling. --- “You said she would live!” I screeched at my captors who had me chained down. “You promised!” I pulled at the chains, tried to break them. Had to break them. In the room across from me was Foundation, crying, screaming. They dragged her in there, and I could hear her but she couldn’t hear me. “Ya should’a listened better,” a raider said, cracking me on the back of the head. It should have hurt, there should have been pain. Instead I just pulled harder at the chains. “We said we wouldn’t kill her… but we ain’t.” Screams from the other room. Foundation. I had to stop this madness. I had to… “We’re gunna leave that up to her.” The chains bound me in place. Constrained my strength, made me helpless. Screams came from the other room. Foundation. She was hurting, they were hurting her, more than I could have imagined. I made her hopeless, I took away her momma. And they were hurting her. Because I fought back, because I tried to take on too much, I failed her. My stupidity would kill my Foundation. --- There was so much blood. Who knew a pony could have so much blood. It was all over the floor, and covered my legs. Some was even in my mouth. It tasted like iron and justice. The pony was dead, beaten to a pulp. He might have screamed for help. Good, let him scream like Foundation screamed. The corpse didn’t look like a corpse, it looked like an overripe tomato that had been dropped. And it was missing a leg… No, not missing, there it was across the room. Good, it was better there, he didn’t deserve it. He deserved death. And he was dead. That could only be a good thing. I killed him, made him suffer, I know he suffered because he screamed, oh how he screamed. It was music to my ears. If only I could have made the raiders scream too. What a day of retribution. Yes, that’s what it was. He may have cried for mercy, but he didn’t deserve it. It was bloody retribution, blood for blood. And he had so much of it to give. It made me laugh, though I knew it wasn’t funny. I couldn't stop laughing. What a joke I was. Full of blood and rage, taking revenge on a pony for an even he wasn’t there for. He deserved it though…. --- Eventually Smooth Tongue’s forces took the town back. It was a lesson for the whole town. We thought we could be independent, apart from Smooth Tongue. But we learned, and what good timing it was for Smooth Tongue that we were taught a lesson and he was able to show how much we needed him to defend us. How fortuitous. They found me hugging Foundation’s corpse, though I couldn’t remember how I got there. Her face was blue, and the rope was still tied around her neck, and she was red with blood, her blood. Maybe my blood too. There was so much of it. They had to pry me off of her, but I didn’t want to let go. It was my fault. I made her lose hope. I tried to protect her, and I failed. Without hope she was lost, and when the raiders started… they gave her the rope, they made it her choice, but it was my choice in the end. I gave up on her, and that made her give up. Foundation died because I failed. Her ruby eyes were closed when I found her, and I would never see joy in them again. How do you get up and keep going when you destroyed everything that mattered to you? I tried to forget. Tried to pretend to forget. I ran across the wastes. Got Wildfire killed… got more ponies killed. Their names would be etched onto my soul, and they would always hold me back. Foundation. Wildfire. My past. No matter how far I ran they would follow. Maybe I had to stop running, to accept. To move forward. When they finally pried me off Foundation I cried out. Told her that I still loved her. That I was sorry. It wasn't good enough, she would never know how much I really cared for her… and that hurt worst of all. --- “Momma?” I was hugging Serenity, liked I’d hugged Foundation. There were tears like before too, and blood. But Serenity was alive… “Momma…” She sounded worried, about me. I should have been the one worried about her. “I'm okay…” It was hard to speak. “You’re o-okay… never again… I’ll never leave you again… never.” I sniffled. “I p-promise.” I would tell her, I decided then, and Platinum Haze, and even Flare. Let them know what happened before… and if they thought I deserved it maybe they could help me through… “I know….” She nuzzled into my chest. “I never thought… I know he was a liar. You’re not like…” Her voice drifted away and I just held her. Behind me I could hear the others. They must have caught up. They were talking, but I didn’t hear. It didn’t matter. Nothing else mattered. “I… I have something for you.” I reached into my bag and produced Scootaborg. “I-i found her. I know she means a lot….” Serenity’s eyes went wide and she took the toy gently from my with her magic, holding it in front of her. “Thank you…. I missed her… and you….” She gulped. “I knew you’d come….” “Always.” I had to stand. I wanted to stay there hugging Serenity forever until the memories faded, but I had to get up. There was still one thing left to do. “W-we need to get up.” Serenity nodded quietly, disentangling herself from me. All the while her grey eyes stayed on me, as if she were afraid if she looked away... “What happened here?” Flare asked. I reluctantly took my eyes away from Serenity. Behind the window where the glass was Flare Haze and Wallkirk stood, staring at all the blood. “I killed them,” I said of the two bodies. “Silver, you know we cannot ap—,” Haze started to speak, but I had to cut her off. “It doesn’t matter. They're dead..” She stared at me sternly for a few seconds before slowly nodding. “We understand.” “Serenity.” I looked back to my daughter. “Do you still have your gun?” I smiled when I saw that she had balanced Scootaborg on her back. “Y-yea.” She was smiling, I saw. It was weak, and strained, but it was a smile, and that meant a lot. She pulled the gun from her backpack, my shoulder burning as she used her magic. “There’s no ammo… they took it.” “I have some…” I’d always kept most of the extra supplies. “In my pack, take it.” There still might be ghouls around, or other ponies that needed to die…. She took the ammo from my pack and slammed it into her gun. She hovered the gun in front of her, ready… I think it made her feel better. Having something to defend herself with. “T-thanks, momma.” “We need to go,” I said to everyone. “Find Dragonslayer and….” Before I could keep talking the projector screen at the far side of the room turned on, and started to play. --- It was another security camera, this time inside of an operating room. There was a table, and on it there was the figure of a large pony under a sheet. Beside it was the doctor pony that I had killed. There was also the back of somepony’s head, probably the same pony from before. It was almost as if he knew where to stand to avoid being seen. “Subject Six.” The doctor said with a grin on her face. “With this, we have done it. I told you we could, sir.” “And you are positive she will live?” The other pony spoke. “Yes, of course!” The doctor just beamed. “And how will we set off the megaspell?” “It’s a bit complicated, but.” She took out a remote-like device I swore I’d seen before. “We used a similar magical code, like the terminals in this facility use.” My stomach sank, because I realized where they were. The white hallways, the pony megaspells, everything. They were in the mountain facility. But how. “It’s been set up that when a chip in their brain receives the signal, it’ll start the detonation process.” “And the detonation itself?” “Well, for this subject we used a full sized megaspell, however we are confident with time our next subject will be able to be fused with a miniature one. Enough to cause a large explosion, but small enough the spread of radiation will be minimal and fade after a few months, just like you asked.” “Excellent.” The pony sounded mildly pleased. “Are there any known side effects? It would be preferable that they never know of the change.” “As far as we can tell subject six has no anomalies. The only thing is.” She lifted part of the sheet to show a metal leg, “We had to amputate the leg, and use the connection port in her shoulder to house the magical receiver. When magic is used around the subject they may feel a slight burning sensation around there. They most likely will think it is just a side effect to the cybernetics, but anypony without cybernetics…” “I see.” The pony reached out a hoof to raise the pony's metal leg then let it drop. “Then we shall have to only perform the operation on ponies with cybernetics… a slight annoyance, but it’ll be more than adequate.” “Thank you, sir!” “You have done very well… now, I need you to find a way for the subject to return to the wasteland.” “What…” The doctor went wide eyed at the very thought. “B-but the subject—.” “We need to test them under normal conditions. Make up an excuse for how she got where she is, I don’t care how you do it. We can study her from a distance to make sure she can withstand the rigours of the wasteland without cracking or the project may yet fail.” “But sir… I… I don’t mean to contradict you. But we purchased her from the tribe north of Caledonia, under the understanding she was never to return, how will we—.” “I don’t care,” he said sharply. “Think of something.” The pony in charge walked off screen leaving the doctor alone. … Me. --- Nopony spoke. Nopony breathed. What could be said? What could be thought? Serenity held up her gun in magic still, and I felt something in my shoulder. It burned, and I finally understood. Level Up! Skill Note: Survival 90 New Perk: Unstoppable Force: Your martial might is truly legendary. You do a large amount of additional damage through enemy blocks with all Melee Weapons and Unarmed attacks. It’s also useful for breaking down walls! ((A/N: Wow, so, that took a while. I apologize for the wait I had a few… issues with it. Firstly I had to scrap half a chapter when it wasn’t working, then when I rewrote it it got accidentally deleted… fun stuff. But it’s here now, Merry Christmas! Thanks to Kkat for creating this world that I abuse, and thanks to my editors for making this shit readable: theBSDude, Julep, and Menti! Also thanks to my lovely boyfriend RainbowYoshi for helping me out with some plot details. Oh, and if you like your stories dictated not read, check out Equestrian Narrator’s audio book version of Heroes! It’s really good: http://www.youtube.com/user/EquestriaNarrator/videos ))