Fallout: Equestria - Across the Divide

by Rainium

Chapter Six: Ensnared

Chapter Six: Ensnared

"Someone needs helping, we help 'em; someone needs hurting, we hurt 'em. It's not hard."

Pain.

Not even unconsciousness could save her from the ever-present, overwhelming pain. It enveloped her like a cocoon, surrounding her and filling her every moment with agony and regret. It was both a physical pain and a mental pain; the pain of injury and the pain of regret, and while one tore away at her body, the other ate away at her soul.

Luckily for her, she’d gotten used to the pain by that point.

Eden sputtered back awake after what felt like mere moments, coughing up Mist droplets with body-shaking force. Each breath and movement caused more daggers of pain to shoot through her injured shoulder, and agony quickly yanked her out of the fogginess of sleep and into the waking world. Her eyes shot open, but they were blinded by the bright lights above her.

However, before she could start screaming, a pair of comforting hooves placed themselves on her chest, and Ridgeline’s far-away voice reached her ears. “Easy, outsider. Breathe.”

Her glazed-over eyes began to adjust to the light, and the room slowly came into view. She was laying in the middle of an office room, with the large table slid up against the door to barricade it. However, it wasn't the same room they had leaped into from the S.P.P. tower, as the window was still intact, giving her an unobstructed view of the Smokey Mountains to the east. She had bandages wrapped around her shoulder that looped across her chest and underneath the armpit on her other side, as well as tightly bound around her hind hoof, concealing the hole that had been punched through her leg.

The hostages sat silently around the edges, staring blankly at the ground, lost in their own minds. Ridgeline sat next to her, looking her over as she regained consciousness. The blood leaking from the gash in his cheek had dried into his fur, turning orange to red. He gently pressed the opening of his canteen to her lips, and Eden greedily gulped the water down as she became painfully aware of the dryness of her throat.

The first thing on Eden’s mind was the last thing she thought before going under. “You pulled the quill out early.”

“I did,” Ridgeline replied nonchalantly as he corked his canteen.

“Why?”

“It would’ve hurt a lot more once you tensed up in anticipation. Doing it early made the whole thing easier.”

Eden winced and rubbed her hindleg just above the bandages. “Still hurt a whole lot anyway.”

“That was bound to happen regardless. You got yourself in a lot of trouble, outsider. Your shoulder looks like it’s gonna be worse off than your leg. Whatever that trapper stabbed you with made your flesh bubble and warp. It was all I could do just to stop the blood flow.”

“Ethereal daggers,” Eden grimaced. “Magic corruption. It’ll stop the wound from healing naturally.”

Ridgeline raised an eyebrow. “You knew this, and you still gave away both your health potions?”

“Getting down the tower was more important. If we had to carry ponies down, we never would’ve made the jump over here.”

“But that still leaves you in a sticky situation. Any sudden movements, it’ll reopen, and if you pass out from blood loss, that’ll leave me carrying you all the way back to Oasis while babysitting everyone else.”

“I can handle myself. Don’t worry.”

“You keep saying that, and I keep believing you for some reason,” Ridgeline said as he rummaged through his saddlebags. “Luckily for you, I do have some painkillers left to help take the edge off—”

The sight of the white pills made Eden look away immediately with a sharp hiss of air. “No. No painkillers.”

Ridgeline shrugged and pocketed the drugs. “Suit yourself.”

Only once the painkillers were away did Eden risk looking back at the stallion. “How long was I out?”

“15 minutes or so. We dragged you in here and barricaded the door in case any of those creatures decided to follow us. The plan is to wait out the night and allow the pack that was following us to disperse before making our way back once the sun’s out.”

“You really think these ponies can wait that long? They’re wounded and starving.”

“What choice do we have? Do you really think they’ll fare any better walking down into the claws of that horde? Besides…” Ridgeline leaned forward menacingly. “You don’t want to be out and about during nighttime around here. That’s a death sentence.”

“Okay,” Eden nodded reluctantly. “Then we wait.”

“Glad to hear we’re on the same page,” Ridgeline said, patting Eden on her good shoulder before sliding back against the other wall. “Get some rest, you’ll need it.”

Eden dragged herself up to the near wall, sliding between two ponies to prop herself up. It was as quiet as a funeral here now that Eden and Ridge were no longer talking. Each of the rescued townsponies had chosen a different part of the room to stare at, and they were lost in thousand-hooflength stares; there wasn’t much appetite for sleep among these tortured minds.

Eden joined in, and her eyes found themselves fixed on Ridgeline across from her. He was sitting against the wall with his forelegs crossed over his chest, head tilted down and eyes closed. Every once in a while, his leg would twitch, or his ear, or his tail, but otherwise he was as still as a statue.

That made a thought flash across her mind. “Hey, Ridge.”

“Mmhm?” Ridgeline responded, not moving his body or opening his eyes.

"Do you think there are any healing supplies on this floor?"

“Doubtful. The whole city was nearly picked clean by scavengers years ago. Not much left of anything worth finding, unless it’s somewhere isolated, or guarded by Mist creatures.”

“Can’t you use your… twitchy thing to find some?”

Ridgeline looked up. “My what?”

“Y’know. Your…” Eden crudely wiggled both ears to demonstrate, followed by a full-body tremor.

Ridgeline pursed his lips. “Ah. No. That only works with locations, not items.”

“What is it, anyway?”

“My special talent,” Ridgeline said while briefly showing his cutie mark: a well-marked trail with a sign pointing the right way. “Pathfinding. I can calculate the best route to any location I can think of. All the twitching is just my body doing the calculations.”

“Weird.”

“It’s not voluntary. I barely notice it anymore. But it allows me to find my way through the Mist, so it’s pretty damn useful. Made me the most important pony in the city for a long time.”

“Until you retired,” Eden added. “You know, you never did tell me why.”

“And I never will,” Ridgeline replied bluntly. “Now, what part of ‘get some rest’ did you not understand?”

Eden took the hint and shut up. Sleeping would take a lot more work though, especially with her body still aching with relentless pain. She closed her eyes and tried anyway.

---

Eden limped down the hallway, passing generic office after generic office. There was no chance any of these meeting rooms had anything worth scavenging besides pencils and clipboards; she’d need to find a bathroom or medical station to find the potions she needed.

She gripped her revolver in her teeth as she carefully pushed a closed door open, scouring the room through the small opening in the doorframe. It looked like a personal office space, with a small desk and a terminal perched on top of it. The name tag displayed on the front of the desk denoted the room as the CEO's office.

Eden slid inside and rummaged through the drawers of the desk, but the search was in vain; there was nothing but wrinkled papers and envelopes in them now. This floor had already been picked clean. The terminal atop the desk was deactivated, and the subjects of the photos hanging on the wall were faceless.

With a sigh, she pushed her way back out of the room, but something in front of her caught her eye. The hallway had opened up on this end, and a second path in front of her led to a single, solitary door. A lit-up sign hung above it; the text and covering had long since shattered and fallen off, but the bulb still shone, coating the otherwise-dark hallway with a red glow.

How is there still electricity in the building?

Eden tensed her tongue against the trigger and moved closer, the red light casting a long shadow across the ground as she approached. Her hoof found the door handle and pushed down, sliding the door open slowly. The first thing she saw was… water. Water and muck. The entire room was full of murky water and brown mud, with the occasional tuft of grass growing atop the dry patches. It was as if a piece of the mire on the outskirts of town had been picked up and deposited into the room, burying the contents in peat.

“Woah…”

Eden stepped into the room while making sure to keep her injured hind leg out of the muddy water. The underwater portions were only fetlock deep, so she was easily able to traverse the room while exploring its contents. All the tables, desks, and chairs of this section of the office were partially submerged by the mire, leaving nothing to find or salvage. The only thing of note was a second door with a red light shining overtop it, exactly the same as the first.

She pushed on the door, expecting the mud caking the hinges to give resistance, but it swung open easily once again. This time, she had to flinch away from the uncomfortable brightness of light that sprung out of the opening, and she shielded her face with a forehoof as she looked inside.

Inside this doorway was a long, barren hallway the color of bleached white. Only the occasional black accent along the corners of the walls and floor broke up the ubiquitous white, and the fluorescent lighting embedded in the ceiling reflected off the shiny material and made the hallway almost unbearable to look at. Eden squinted her eyes and entered anyway. Her hooves left mud stains on the pristine floor as she limped inside.

Every few hooflengths, a window was set in the wall, though the glass was tinted so black that Eden could only see her own reflection in them. But there were no doorways, no ventilation grates, no branching intersections to other hallways; just lights, blank windows, and a straight and narrow path. Eventually, the hallway came to an end, and she was greeted with the same door with the red light overtop it.

The next room was pitch black. The light from the white hallway spilled in through the doorway to illuminate the first few hooflengths inside, but Eden still had to blink several times to adjust her eyes to the light change. The interior was so dark that she couldn't see where the walls or ceiling were; the room could either be as small as a custodian's closet or as large as an auditorium. There was no way of knowing.

The dark room appeared totally bare, except for one item: a small wooden bureau, only as tall as her chest. Eden stepped forward and placed a hoof on the handle of the topmost drawer, gently pulling it open. Inside were clusters of brown pods sticking to the bottom of the drawer, each as big as her hoof. They were stuck together with a wispy white substance, and each pod was covered in small holes the size of a needle tip.

They looked like… Eggs? If so, who did they belong to?

A rustling noise from above answered that question.

Eden spun around and turned her gun up to the ceiling. Above her shone eight red eyes and two large fangs, along with a mass of legs that kept the creature attached to the ceiling. When she caught sight of it, it hissed and reared up. She pulled the trigger, and the bullet nicked off the green-colored exoskeleton. A long, slender leg sliced across her face, knocking her revolver out of her muzzle, and taking some of her jaw along with it.

She collapsed to the ground with a cry of pain as her blood and teeth scattered across the floor. The side of her face quickly went numb, but she could feel her tongue hanging out of the hole in her muzzle. She dragged herself towards her lost revolver and reached for it with a hoof, but the arachnid leg stabbed right through her PipBuck and into the limb beneath. With a twist, it ripped her foreleg right off her body.

The blood filling her throat gagged Eden's scream. She watched her severed leg thump against the wall and paint it red. She tried to turn, but fangs sank into her back before she could, and her body immediately went limp. The last thing she felt was silk wrapping around her, enveloping her in a cocoon.

---

“Are you okay?”

Eden looked up to see the Kirin filly she had rescued atop the tower staring down at her with worry in her eyes.

“I’m fine. Don’t worry about me,” Eden said as she carefully shifted to a sitting position.

“You were talking in your sleep. You looked scared,” the filly said.

“It’s just something I do sometimes. I’m sorry if I woke you up.”

“It’s okay. I don’t sleep much anyway.”

Eden frowned as she looked the Kirin over. She looked a bit older than the age a pony filly would get their cutie mark, but like the other Kirin in the room, she didn’t have one. Her haunted eyes were accented by dark circles underneath; she looked like she had seen a lifetime of pain already.

“What’s your name, dear?” Eden asked.

“Vestige,” the filly whispered.

“Vestige… Big name for such a small filly. I’m Eden.”

Eden put on her most reassuring smile, but it didn’t seem to have any effect on Vestige. She just frowned and looked away, causing Eden to tilt her head.

“What’s wrong?” Eden asked.

“This is wrong,” Vestige stammered. “You’re a pony. I’m a Kirin. We’re not supposed to be talking to each other.”

“What? Why not?”

“Well… The townsponies hate us, so we’re supposed to keep to ourselves when we can.”

“Well, I’m not a townspony, so can we make an exception? You seem like a cool filly.”

“Why?”

“What do you mean, why?”

“Why don’t you hate me? My mom told me all ponies hate Kirin. Ever since before the war, they’ve hated us and blamed us.”

“Well, maybe around here they do. But there aren’t any Kirin where I’m from.”

“Where in Equestria are you from? There are never any outsiders in town anymore. Only grumpy old ponies.”

Eden glanced over at Ridgeline, but he either didn't hear or didn't take the statement as an insult. "Well… I'm not even from Equestria."

That got Vestige’s attention. “Whaaaaat? There are places that aren’t Equestria?” she asked, placing her hooves atop Eden’s chest to look up into her eyes.

“Of course! There’s the Zebra Kingdom to the west, the Crystal Empire in the north, the Griffonstone Isles to the east… but I’m from the south. Beyond the Macintosh Hills is a large expanse of desert and rocks that we all call the Badlands. There are actually more non-ponies than ponies there, so you get used to living alongside them! That’s why I’m not angry at you.”

“What kind of non-ponies?”

"The main city, Klugetown, is a giant melting pot of species. There're hellhounds, abyssinians, griffons, batponies, zebras, hippogriffs, buffalo, robots… storm creatures… slime creatures… walking fish… all sorts of crazy things. The Ironworks outside the town doused the whole city in smoke and chemicals, and sometimes it's so thick you can barely see anything in the mornings. It's built on top of a rock spire, and houses are stacked on top of each other, up and up and up… if you have enough caps, you can afford to live on the highest parts and avoid the worst of the smog…" Eden blinked. "Sorry, I got off topic, but—"

“Tell me more about it, please…” Vestige pleaded, even though her eyes were beginning to visibly grow heavy.

Eden chuckled. “Okay… There’s New Haven, home of the Sentinels. Best group of ponies I’ve ever met. There’s… Salt Lick City. My home. Nothing there now but ghosts and echoes… There’s Canter Creek, Irwind, Mount Aris, Applewood… But the shining jewel is New Pegas.”

The more Eden spoke in her comforting, soothing tone, the more relaxed Vestige became. The filly rested her head on Eden’s chest as she listened, closing her eyes and immersing herself in the unicorn’s story.

“It’s built high up in the clouds where no one can touch it,” Eden continued. “It’s full of bright, flashing lights and tall buildings that take you up into outer space… at least, that’s what it feels like. Mares wear dresses that glitter and gleam like magic in the light. Stallions wear pre-war suits and white shirts that are miraculously still white after all these years. No two outfits look the same. No two buildings look the same. It’s all a unique blur of commotion and color that you get lost in.”

“It sounds so much better than all this gray…” Vestige whimpered sleepily.

“It is. It’s like a time capsule of the old world, perfectly preserved. A moment of sanity in an age of chaos. And when you find those moments of peace among the horrors of the wasteland, you need to protect them with everything you have, because you never know when they’ll come around again once they’re gone.”

By now, Vestige was too comfortable to respond. Eden leaned down to whisper into the filly’s ear as a hoof gently stroked her mane.

“That’s what I’m here for. That’s what I do. Protecting the glimmers of hope still left in this world. Because if I can’t be the one to save it, then maybe I can nurture the spark that does.”

---

“Clear.”

Ridgeline pushed his way out of the room, with Eden behind him. The group of townsponies filed out as well, though they kept their distance from the two, letting them clear the way forward. The floor was still quiet and abandoned, and it seemed that none of the Mist creatures had tried to follow them after seeing the radamount plummet to its death.

The floor was similarly abandoned of anything noteworthy or useful, save for a single terminal that was still running. Given that all the other terminals were broken, this immediately perked Eden’s interest. She quickly seated herself in front of the screen while her magic fished her PipBuck interface tools out of her pocket.

“Don’t we have more urgent things to be doing, outsider?” Ridgeline asked, tapping a hoof as he glanced around.

“This’ll only take a second, hold on,” Eden said as she plugged her PipBuck into the terminal’s interface port. “And I do have a name, you know.”

“Aye, you do. But I’ve decided not to call you by it… Until you prove yourself.”

This made Eden look at him around the terminal screen with a frown. “Why not?”

“Up here, it’s best not to get emotionally connected to something that can be ripped away from you at any time. I’d suggest you do the same.”

Eden’s frown deepened, and she shrugged her shoulders. “Seems disrespectful to me.”

“You’re an outsider. You don’t understand what we townsponies have been through.”

“You think I haven’t lost friends? Loved ones? And yet I still have the common courtesy of referring to you by name.”

“This is different. Tall Tale is hell. You haven’t seen even a fraction of what it can do.”

“The wasteland is hell for everyone, Ridge. Your mistake is thinking that you ponies are the only ones with problems.”

“And yet here you are, desperately trying to fix ours. Our knight in shining armor!” Ridgeline said with a flourish and a bow. “What would we ever do without your gracious presence, outsider?”

“Sit around and drink?” Eden offered.

Ridgeline just snorted and rolled his eyes.

Once her PipBuck connected to the terminal, the scrolling lines of code that flashed across her PipBuck screen made her raise an eyebrow. This wasn’t a standard security protocol; someone had manually enhanced the encryption to make it resistant to a simple hack. Was this standard operating procedure for Starbucked? Or was the owner of this terminal particularly obsessed with security? With all the other terminals destroyed, there was no way of finding out for certain.

With the possibility of brute forcing her way in out of the question, she wormed her way deeper into the code of the terminal, bringing up lines and lines of gibberish words and symbols. One of these words was the password, and it took her a few minutes to suss it out using trial and error.

It ended up being “corporeality.” That was a new one.

The terminal contained internal communications for the entirety of the Starbucked office. Eden quickly downloaded the messages onto her PipBuck for later reading before disconnecting.

“Alright, I got it. Let’s go.”

---

> Internal Communications

>> [STICKIED] R&I Department Mission Statement
Tall Tale is Starbucked turf, and we need to make sure everyone knows about it. If Java’s Cup tries to make a move in this city, I want to know about it. If the Ministries try anything funny, I want to know about it. If someone does as much as sneeze in our direction, I WANT TO KNOW ABOUT IT.

I created the Research and Information Department for a reason, and if I’m going to be bankrolling you, then I expect results. I want prompt weekly reports on your findings, no matter how seemingly small and inconsequential you think it is. I’ll be the one deciding whether something is important, not you.

This is all considered Top Secret information. Do not discuss any of this with your coworkers, your neighbors, or even your families. You never know when, where, or how they’ll listen in on you. Discretion is paramount. Consider internal communications the only safe form of conversation.

>> Kirin Internment
The situation regarding the Kirin is an… unfortunate circumstance. Not only are their internment camps an eyesore, but locking them all away has taken away a not-insignificant portion of our consumer base. The Crown is, unsurprisingly, not empathetic of our complaints, and equally as dismissive of our suggestions.

We suggested that they disband the camps and focus on increased surveillance of the Kirin instead, but they said they do that anyway! Our next idea was moving the Kirin out of town so that they won't be so… visible… but that was rebuffed as well. Apparently, they want them close by to keep an eye on. Moving them back to the Peaks of Peril puts them even closer to the zebra kingdom; they don’t want to give them any more opportunities to become sympathizers or spies.

However, I still feel there is an opportunity to turn this situation in our favor. The Kirin may no longer be able to visit our stores, but they’re locked up with nowhere to go. Which means they don’t have a choice as to what or where they can eat and drink.

Perhaps we can secure a deal with the crown to be the “caterers” for the internment camps, for the lack of a better word. We’ll be paid to feed them strictly Starbucked products, and by the time they’re released, they’ll all be completely hooked on us. Plus, we’ll have their gratitude for looking after them in their time of need.

Is this worth looking into? Let me know.

---

They were forced to take frequent breaks on the way down the main stairwell to allow the more injured ponies to catch their breaths, which—to Eden’s disdain—included her. Her injured hind hoof hobbled her more than she feared; she couldn’t put any weight on it at all, forcing her to work her way around on three legs. At least the breaks gave her time to skim through the terminal entries she had downloaded.

The standard corporate meddling was of little interest to Eden—Klugetown was full of it, so she was used to it—but the passage about the Kirin quickly caught her eye. Vestige had told her that ponies hated and blamed Kirin even before the war, and this entry backed that story up. Spies and saboteurs for the Zebra Kingdom? Was this a classic case of unsubstantiated war paranoia, or did they really choose the side of the zebras?

None of that mattered though. The Kirin she was escorting were not involved with what their ancestors may or may not have done, so they definitely didn’t deserve to be mistreated because of it.

Ridgeline offered her another sip from his canteen, which she gratefully accepted. He may have insisted on calling her outsider, but at least he was helpful and understanding otherwise, which was more than she could say about most of the ponies living in Oasis. A lot of ponies had strange quirks, and she was willing to let his slide for now.

“How are you holding up?” Ridgeline asked.

“Doing well so far,” Eden replied as she gave the canteen back. “Bit slower than I’d like to be, but there’s not much I can do about that. You know the way out of here?”

“It’s been years since I’ve been in this building, but getting out is easy enough. We just need to make it down to the lobby. Stairwell should be intact the entire way down, then a little jaunt through the offices will take us to the main entrance.”

“And the way back to Oasis?”

Ridgeline’s mouth became a thin line. “It’ll be trickier than the way here. We’ll have to move at a slower pace due to all the injuries, which means we’ll have prolonged exposure to the Mist. That could spell disaster if we aren’t careful. You got any RadAway left?”

Eden quickly checked her PipBuck’s inventory screen. “One more pack, yeah.”

“Good. Hold on to it. If someone goes down, it’ll be vital for bringing them back.”

“Bringing them back?”

“Remember how I said that the Mist melts your mind if you aren’t careful? I wasn’t exaggerating. You spend too much time out there breathing it, walking through it, rolling in it… You start to lose your sense of reality. That’s how those damn trappers turned into what they are…” Ridgeline’s voice dropped to a whisper. “And it’ll happen to all of us if we aren’t careful. Consuming RadAway is the only way we know of to diminish the symptoms and stave off the onset.”

Eden’s mind immediately wandered to her trip through the Divide. The terminal she found in the raider-infested fort had mentioned something similar: the first pony to start breaking down into coughing and nonsense rambling had been sated by the application of RadAway. The same thing happened to her after her… excursion into the Ponget Sound.

It made sense. The clacking of her PipBuck told her that the Mist’s power undoubtedly came from its excess radiation. Taking RadAway would be the most obvious way to counter its effects.

“But we’ll only be able to bring back one of us if it comes to it,” Eden frowned.

“I’d rather not have to use it at all,” Ridgeline replied. “Which is why we need to hurry when we get out there. No more pointless side quests for you, outsider.”

“Fine,” Eden shrugged her shoulders. “Apparently, all the good loot is already taken anyway.”

---

>> Manehattan
Heads up, boss. We've got a status update from one of our franchise stores in Manehattan. Not Tall Tale related, per se, but still important enough for you to take a look at.

Jamocha Joe is our Franchisee in the lower Manehattan area, and unfortunately for us, a Java’s Cup opened in the same strip mall at the same time. This has obviously taken a cut into our profits from the store, but there is some good we can take from the situation: it can function as an interesting case study for our advertising techniques. See what works and what doesn’t. We fed Jamocha Joe a few ideas, but we’ve mainly just sat back and seen what he could come up with. Then we compared the sales totals to figure out which ones the customers connected with.

The Java’s Cup, as expected, leaned heavily into their “patriotic” ad campaign, doing just about everything but calling us zebra-affiliated. Even got a picture of Luna plastered up on their billboard, which we’ve obviously already reported for misappropriation. Jamocha Joe has decided on something a little more… arousing.

Now, I don’t know if the Ministry of Morale will be crawling over our backs over this within the next few weeks, but I think it’s genius. Attractive lesbian twins? Steamy coffee? The two go together like buffalo and mud. And apparently, the citizens of Manehattan agree with us.

The rollout is limited, obviously, but results are promising already. We’re now outperforming Java’s Cup handily in Manehattan, despite their best efforts at sabotage. If this goes well, we could adapt this into our nationwide advertising strategy. We’ll keep you updated.

---

Eden was suddenly hit with a strong sense of déjà vu.

At the bottom of the staircase was a single door. A shattered sign above the doorway still shone with a defiant light, bathing the group in blood red. The underside of the door was splattered with mud, and muck was leaking through the gap in a slow ooze.

The townsponies were gathered around the small landing area, and Ridgeline stood with his hoof on the door handle.

“Alright, we made it to the ground floor. This is the most likely spot for any Mist creatures to still be lingering if they waited around, so we need to be extra careful. No talking unless absolutely necessary,” Ridgeline said.

That didn’t need to be an order. Eden hadn’t heard any of the shell-shocked hostages say a word since they were rescued.

Well, none except for Vestige. The Kirin filly had stuck closer to her since their conversation up in the office, and now she was hiding behind Eden’s hind legs and using the unicorn’s tail as cover.

Eden levitated her revolver out of her saddlebag and nodded to Ridgeline. She could feel her magic returning after a night of rest, but she hoped she didn’t have to use too much of it.

Ridgeline nodded back. “Stick close to me. Let’s move.”

He pushed the handle down, but the mud had caked the door shut in its frame. Ridgeline pressed his shoulder into it with a grunt of exertion, and it slowly swung open to reveal the ground floor.

The stairway had led them to what looked like a cafeteria, but it was hard to tell under the sheer excess of mud that had been deposited into the place. The ground and walls were plastered with it, and pools of murky water dotted the open area like splatters of ink on a muddy manuscript. The sheer amount of brown was offset by the occasional sprinkling of green from the small plants that had managed to find root here. Any furniture or furnishings had been completely submerged, leaving only a small slice of the swamp.

She had seen this place before. In her dream.

“Weird…” Ridgeline whispered. “It wasn’t like this before. Something must have flooded the place.”

“Is it still traversable?” Eden asked.

Ridgeline closed his eyes briefly before nodding. “Seems to be. Lobby’s this way. Come on.”

He stepped into the mud slowly and carefully, and Eden followed behind on her three good legs. Immediately, her hooves splashed through the water, and her PipBuck’s radiation detector chirped angrily at her. The air was filled with a slight vapor that tickled the back of her throat whenever she took a breath. The room smelled… burnt, and bittersweet, with a hint of fruity aroma. Not like the normally earthen scent of the mire.

The soft, slippery mud made finding her footing difficult, especially with only three hooves to work with. The injured townsponies were having similar problems, and progress through the cafeteria was slow going. Ridgeline, however, did not stop to help; his eyes were fixed on the doorway out of the room, and his teeth snugly gripped the trigger of his battle saddle.

A splash and a little yelp caught Eden’s attention. She glanced down to see that Vestige had fallen into one of the many puddles of water, and it was so deep that it went all the way up to the small Kirin’s belly fur. The filly floundered for a second as she fought the deep mud and tried to find her footing, soaking herself even more.

“Here. Want a lift?” Eden asked, offering a hoof.

Vestige gratefully took it, and Eden lifted her out of the puddle and onto her back. The mud-covered filly wrapped her hooves around Eden’s neck to hold on, and the two slowly made their way after Ridgeline.

“Thanks…” Vestige whispered.

“No problem,” Eden said. “Just stick close, I’ll keep you safe.”

The doorway out of the cafeteria was caked in the same gunk that covered the rest of the room. But joining it were strangely shaped red barnacles, like the ones that infested the sunken supply ship. However, the shape of these ones appeared similar to nozzles, and as Eden approached, she noticed that the Mist surrounding them was noticeably thicker than the rest of the cafeteria.

She heard Vestige take a deep breath behind her before they got too close, but she thought nothing of it… until one of the barnacles unleashed a plume of thick Mist that buffeted across her face. The vaporous air filled her mouth, nose, and eyes, assaulting her taste buds and gagging at the back of her throat. She broke down into a loud, wheezing coughing fit that nearly shook Vestige off her! Each sharp inhale during the moment’s respite between bouts of coughing only succeeded in drawing more of the poisonous air into her lungs.

Eden covered her muzzle with her hoof and hobbled out of the way of the barnacles, making her way to clean air before attempting to draw another breath. Her PipBuck continued to staccato like a broken metronome.

“Try not to breathe it in, outsider,” Ridgeline said with a roll of his eyes. “I thought that was obvious.”

Eden wiped her muzzle off before glaring at him. “I didn’t know they’d be blasting it into my face. A little warning would have been nice.”

“Again, I thought it was obvious.”

Then, Ridgeline was gone once again, heading deeper into the floor without a moment more to pause.

“Sorry,” Vestige whispered into her ear as she perched on her back. “I should’ve told you. But I was too busy… y’know...”

“Holding your own breath?” Eden finished with a small chuckle. “Don’t worry. I'll be fine.”

Her PipBuck clicked away.

---

>> Excess Coffee Beans Storage
Hey boss. Remember that massive order for coffee beans you had us put in the other month? Well, it’s finally here, and now we have nowhere to store the damn things. We fit all we could in our storage warehouses, and even sent extra to all our stores in the city, but there’s still too much. I know the whole point was to block Java’s Cup from ordering enough for their own stores, but do you think we might’ve gone a little overkill?

We’ve decided to store the leftover vats in the basement of the headquarters for the time being, until we can figure out something more permanent. They shouldn’t spoil for a long while unless something drastic happens, so we’ve got time to think about it. Just let us know if you want to do anything different.

---

The hallways leading to the lobby were filled with more mud and more strange barnacles. In some places, the hardened clay was built up so thick that it clung to the walls and reached the ceiling, and navigating through it was like squeezing through a maze.

This wasn’t something that occurred naturally. But what could’ve possibly shaped the mud like this?

Whatever had done it wasn’t here anymore; there were no other signs of life as the group of ponies climbed through the hallways. Her E.F.S. was likewise quiet in the few times she brought it up. However, the quiet didn’t bring her calm, instead more unease. Oasis was the only place left in the city where one could feel truly safe. Everywhere else, the quiet was more like a calm before the inevitable storm.

The air was filled with the smell of decomposing plants, along with the dripping of water and the splashing of hooves as the group progressed. Eden often found herself breathing into the sleeve of her Stable Suit to avoid the worst of the Mist that clouded the interior like a haze.

At the end of the hallway was a glowing red light that beckoned them closer as they trudged through the disgusting terrain. It was shining from the exit sign hanging above the door on the wall side of an L-shaped intersection. It was the same kind of sign as the one above the doorway in the stairwell, but this one was hanging slightly crooked. The wires powering it dangled loosely from the torn-up ceiling.

“Weird…” Ridgeline muttered as Eden limped up beside him. “The exit sign is here, but my talent is telling me the exit is still in that direction.”

He pointed down the turn of the hallway to the right, leading further into the building.

“Maybe this is the emergency exit? A back way out?” Eden asked.

“Could be. But this still isn’t the fastest way back to Oasis,” Ridgeline said.

“Fastest? Or most direct?” Eden objected. “I think getting outside and moving on pavement would be a lot quicker than slogging through more of this crud.”

“Maybe. But I don’t like taking detours. Straying off the safe path has never ended well. Remember rule three?”

Eden nodded. “But you don’t think it’s at least worth a look? If it saves us time, that’ll mean less time spent in the Mist.”

Ridgeline pursed his lips at that. “Fine. Just a look.”

As Ridgeline crept forward towards the exit, Eden brought up her PipBuck’s mapping feature. It was useful for finding the route from one place in the wasteland to the next, but the local interior map left a lot to be desired, especially considering the amount of decay and destruction that affected the original floor plans of the buildings. A lot of the time, the map would show you a route that no longer existed.

However, the map told her that the door Ridgeline was walking towards was a dead end. In fact, they weren’t even near the outside wall at all. How was this an emergency exit if they were still in the middle of the building?

Eden looked up at the sign once again. It was hanging crooked and uncentered, sloppy work for such a well-off business. The dangling electric wires were much too long for its current position, as if it were supposed to be… farther away.

Eden’s stomach dropped. “Wait…!”

Ridgeline swung the door open.

The interior was indeed a dead end. It was a large custodian’s closet, lined with concrete and completely stripped bare. The only thing that remained was a small wooden bureau, only as tall as her chest.

A long, slender leg sliced across her face, knocking her revolver out of her muzzle, and taking some of her jaw along with it.

She had seen this place before. In her dream.

“Ridge!” Eden called out as her horn flashed to life.

Before Ridgeline could react, Eden's blue aura wrapped around his tail and yanked him backward, pulling him out of the room so hard he fell and splashed through the muck below. And as soon as she did, an arachnid leg sliced down from the ceiling to where Ridgeline had been just moments before, nearly impaling him straight through.

Rather than slicing through the stallion, the leg instead sliced right through the bureau on the follow-through, rattling it and knocking it over onto its side with a wooden thud. The impact continued to make it shudder and tremble for several seconds as something inside it shook. Then, little green specks began to flood out of the drawers and cracks of the bureau, scurrying across the wood and down to the ground.

Each of the little specks had eight tiny legs, eight blood-red eyes, two fangs dripping with venom, and buzzing wings that could barely support their weight. And they were flooding towards the doorway like a green wave.

They looked like… Eggs? If so, who did they belong to?

Spiders. Thousands upon thousands of tiny spiders. With wings.

The last magefire canister was out of her saddlebag before she could think, and she hurled it while keeping the pin behind. The metal apple bounced twice before erupting inside the custodian’s closet, engulfing the toppled bureau and the wave of spiders in cleansing blue flame.

A primal scream of fear and grief filled the air. The giant spider leaped down from the ceiling and into the flames, scooping the bureau up in its legs to save it from the flames. Protecting its babies.

Then, the fire flashed green, and the magefire exploded again.

Eden didn’t stay to watch the aftermath. She was already shoving a mud-covered Ridgeline away from the flames and urging ponies down the hallway as fast as their injured legs could carry them.

“Go! Go! Go! Follow Ridgeline! Don’t look back! Just MOVE!”

“Outsider!” Ridgeline called back from the front. “You okay?”

“I’ll make sure no one gets left behind. Just get us out of here!”

The slow, careful pace had turned into a mad scramble through the maze-like muck. All the rescued townsponies were nearly climbing over the top of each other to make it around the tall stalks of mud, and Eden was forced to limp along in the rear, helping fallen ponies regain their footing. Their panicked shouts and grunts of exertion echoed down the previously silent hallway. The barnacles continued to puff out exhales of Mist, and each plume blinded the unlucky recipient, making navigation even more difficult.

Eden ignited her horn to bring up her E.F.S. as she ran. All the commotion had woken up the rest of the building, and life signatures were popping up everywhere around them. Hundreds of dots filled her vision; every single one was red, and they were scuttering around in a hurry.

This wasn’t something that occurred naturally. But what could’ve possibly shaped the mud like this?

The spiders had turned this place into a breeding ground… and a trap. This was their elaborate version of a web, and they had been ensnared in it.

“Miss Eden!” Vestige cried out from atop her back. “Behind us!”

Eden didn’t dare look. She couldn’t look anywhere but the uneven mud underneath her hooves, desperately trying to find the right footing to move as fast as possible. Her injured leg erupted in pain each time she placed it down, but she couldn’t afford to only use three at the moment. She needed every last scrap of energy and speed to make it out of here, or an injured leg would be the least of her worries.

Suddenly, a fresh burst of pain shot through one of her hind legs, drawing Eden’s breath away in a shocked gasp. It was enough to throw her stride off just enough for her to lose her footing, and her hooves slid away on the slippery mud, sending her tumbling to the ground snout first. Mud and water coated her underside and soaked her Stable barding, and she felt Vestige tumble off her and roll further up the hallway.

“Keep going!” Eden groaned out to the Kirin filly before rolling over onto her back.

There, attached to her hindleg, was one of the baby spiders. Its disproportionately large, yet still relatively small fangs were embedded into her skin, and its wings buzzed in an attempt to keep itself attached. Eden yelped and instinctively brought a forehoof down, crushing the arachnid under her hoof and splattering its guts across her fur.

The momentary delay was all it took for the swarm to descend on her: a green cloud of tiny flying spiders with buzzing wings that filled the air with an ominous, haunting hum. They were on her in seconds, covering what felt like every inch of her body with their buzzing, crawling presence. Their fangs couldn't penetrate through her barding, but Eden felt them bite into her arms, legs, neck, and ears; they were everywhere all at once. No amount of writhing or rolling could dislodge them or free her from the torturous sensations battering her battle-torn body.

“Get OFF!” Eden screamed as her magic erupted.

Her body briefly flashed blue as a shield formed along her skin before distending outward. The rapid outward expansion launched all the spiders off her body and sent them tumbling back down the hallway, splashing in the mud as they made impact. Her horn flashed as her magic temporarily overloaded from the strain, and her body trembled as venom coursed through it, but it was only enough to make her achy and weak, not paralyzed.

She felt cloven hooves grab her good shoulder and attempt to pull her away while Vestige’s worried voice filled her ear. “Are you okay, Miss Eden?”

“I’m fine,” Eden replied as she pulled herself back upright. “Why aren’t you with the others?”

“I couldn’t just leave you! You helped me, so I need to help you.”

Eden opened her mouth to respond, but a loud screech interrupted her. Both ponies turned toward the source of the sound, but they quickly took a step back when they saw what was coming.

Back down the hallway, the giant spider had pulled itself out from the custodian's closet and was scuttling its way toward them. It was so large that the hallway was barely large enough to accommodate it, and its long, slender legs merely smashed apart the mud stalks in its way as it gained on them. In a way, it looked like a boulder rumbling down the narrow passageway toward them, destroying everything in its path.

It had a green body with brown legs and red eyes, along with red markings that coursed along its body, and two insectoid wings that were too large to use in such a small space. Its exoskeleton was covered in scorch marks, and in some places, it had even burned away to reveal its insides. But it was still rushing towards them unabated, and its eight red eyes glowed with hatred.

“Dear Faust above…” Eden stammered as she stared, transfixed.

There was no way they’d be able to outrun that thing. Not in her current state.

In an instant, Eden’s magic levitated her last metal apple out of her bag and shoved it into one of the mud stalks next to her. She then yanked the pin out and scooped Vestige up onto her back before galloping off after the group.

“Don’t look back!” Eden told Vestige as she braced herself.

Behind them, she heard the metal apple erupt, washing her hindquarters with heat and shaking the ground under her hooves. Then, she heard the clattering of metal as the ceiling and walls collapsed, followed by the frustrated screech of the spider as it was trapped behind the rubble. A creature that big would plow its way through eventually, but she planned on being long gone by that point.

"Miss Eden! You did it!" Vestige cried out as she hugged Eden's neck for support.

Eden brought up her E.F.S. and grimaced at the sea of red that greeted her. “One down… hundreds to go.”

The whole building was filled with a distant buzzing as Eden burst into the lobby at last. It was a large, spacious room, and the ceiling was three stories tall, which was a relief coming from the claustrophobic feeling of the rest of the floor. The entire wall containing the main entrance was made of glass and windows, some of them cracked, some of them shattered, all of them dirtied by time. They still allowed what precious light managed to penetrate the Mist to beam through and illuminate the place in a light blue glow.

The floor was still covered in muck, but it lacked the built-up stalks that restricted their movement in the hallways. What the lobby did have, however, was large, stainless-steel vats, about a dozen of them, almost all turned over onto their sides. The contents spilled out of them, revealing it to be the same brown sludge that covered the rest of the floor. The sides of the containers were labeled: “Starbucked Coffee Beans: Product of the Starbucked Organization.”

We’ve decided to store the leftover vats in the basement of the headquarters for the time being, until we can figure out something more permanent.

This stuff wasn’t mud. It was the rotting dregs of coffee beans. The spiders had dragged the vats up to create their trap.

Ridgeline and the group of townsponies were waiting for her near the front entrance, but Eden could hear the spider begin to tear through the rubble that had separated them. It wouldn’t hold it for long.

“Help me!” Eden yelled to the group as she galloped over to the nearest upright vat and began to push.

The vat was heavy on its own, and the contents added to its weight considerably, so she wasn’t able to make much progress on her own. But as more and more of the group galloped over to help, the container slowly began to slide across the ground towards the hallway, where it completely covered the doorway to block the spider from following them.

However, the sound of scuttling legs above her grew louder and louder, and Eden released the vat to look up at the high ceiling. Crawling out of every window, crevice, and doorway were waves upon waves of spiders, from the size of a dog to the size of a bugbear. They scurried across the walls and ceilings as more and more emerged, soon totaling in the hundreds. And they quickly began to home in on the source of the commotion: the group of ponies standing on the floor of the lobby.

There were so many. Too many to fight. If her combat rifle were still functional, she could do some damage, but neither of her pistols had the stopping power to punch through the spiders’ exoskeletons. That left only one option.

“RUN!”

At the sound of Eden’s voice, the room exploded into movement. The group of townsponies bolted for the entrance with Eden limping behind as best she could. The buzzing of wings and the clicking of spider legs on concrete filled the lobby as the spiders began to chase, some through the air, others on the ground.

“Duck!” Vestige called out atop her back.

Eden quickly complied, and something wet and sticky flew over her head to land with a splat on the mud—... No, coffee-covered floor. It was a bundle of white spider silk. They were shooting webbing at them. Eden grimaced and continued to keep pace with the group as the horde of spiders continued to gain on them.

Beside her, a Kirin townspony gasped as he was hit with one of the flying wads of silk. It tangled around his hind legs and brought him down to the ground with a thud, despite his best efforts to shake free. And before Eden could veer over to help, the spiders descended on him. Fangs sank into his back, stopping his scream in his throat as the paralyzing venom took hold; his face was fixed in an expression of absolute terror.

Eden felt her own body go numb, but it wasn’t from venom. No.

She was here to save them. To make up for her failure at Oasis’s main gate. But her carelessness had only caused more death. More blood on her hooves.

Her magic lifted her revolver out of her saddlebags and unloaded all six shots into the spiders as quickly as possible. Each bullet thumped into their chitinous exoskeletons but didn’t penetrate; instead, the spiders quickly dragged the Kirin’s inert body back into the lobby while dozens more arachnids took their place, descending on Eden in an instant. The stallion was gone.

Vestige screamed as the spiders bared their chelicerae, but Eden’s horn flashed. Her trademark shield appeared between her and the spiders just as they pounced, causing them to bounce off and collapse on top of one another in a tangled pile of legs. More and more continued to take their place in an unstoppable swarm, but the delay gave Eden the time she needed to turn and bolt after the group of townsponies that had already made it out of the building and into the street beyond.

Her shield followed her a few hooflengths behind, and as soon as she passed through the main doorway, her horn flashed once again. The shield instantly expanded in size to fill the entire frame of the entrance, preventing the spiders from following as the ponies galloped deeper into the Mist. Each thump of bodies against the barrier caused her magic to grow weaker and weaker, but by the time the shield finally collapsed and the spiders began to spill out into the city, the townsponies had disappeared into the maze of fog-covered buildings.

---

>> Ministry Movement
The trains into town have unfamiliar faces on them. Several of them, new ones, every single day. Canterlot, Las Pegasus, Splendid Valley, Manehattan are their origins. Crown locations. And they’re bringing in cargo cars full of Luna-knows-what with them.

If they were in uniform, I’d just write them off as being new recruits for the Equestrian Army base in town, but they’re in street clothes. They stand at corners whispering to each other in dark cloaks. They have to be ministry affiliated. Have to be.

There’s a lot of zebra attention at the Lunar Monument, and they may be here to keep a closer eye on it, but would they really need that many ponies if that were the case? My gut tells me something else is going on. I think the Ministries are setting up shop here for something bigger. And the fact that they’ve already had the military round up all the Kirin means they’re emboldened.

This is definitely something we need to keep a closer eye on. Where are they operating from? Where are their operations focused? What is their goal? I think the department needs more resources to explore the answers to these questions more fully.

---

“Damn fly-ders. We walked right into their web.”

Ridgeline lowered the corner of the moldy blinds he had lifted to look out the window and sat himself down with an angry huff. The group of ponies was huddled in the break room of an abandoned office building; outside, the skittering legs and hissing noises of hunting fly-ders had haunted them for the better part of an hour.

Eden had joined the hostages in total silence. Her body was wracked with shivers and aches from the venom still coursing its way through her system, and the fly-der bites had swollen into red bumps all over her body. Her shoulder wound had reopened, with fresh blood spilling down her foreleg once again. However, she paid her own condition no mind; the only thing she could think of was the Kirin stallion’s paralyzed face as he was dragged off into the cluster of arachnids.

What could I have done better? What could I have done better?

“I guess that’s what I deserve for listening to an outsider,” Ridgeline mused angrily to himself, but loud enough for everyone else to hear.

“It’s my fault. I should have known better. I’m sorry,” Eden responded bluntly and without hesitation.

“No, it’s my fault for letting you talk me into it. I should know better by this point. Nearly got all of us killed.”

The room once again dropped into silence. Each ragged breath Eden took in was full of Mist particles that tickled her tonsils.

What could I have done better? What could I have done better?

“But you did save my life,” Ridgeline said softly. “How did you know?”

Drip. Drip. Drip. Her blood soaked into her fur and slid down her leg to coat her hoof. Blood on her hooves. Their blood.

“Outsider?”

She had failed at Salt Lick City. She had failed at Somnambula. And she was failing here. She would never be good enough to escape from the ghosts still haunting her.

What could I have done better? What could I have done—

An orange hoof pressed underneath Eden’s chin and tilted her head up so she was forced to stare into Ridgeline’s green eyes.

“Hey. Deep breaths, okay?” Ridgeline cooed. “Come back to me.”

Her own reflection in his pupils shocked her back into reality. She was disheveled and wild, covered in muck, grime, and blood. Her mane was stringy and dirty as it fell across the scar on her forehead and horn; just a few days ago, it was luscious and glowing in the New Pegas lights. Now, she felt like she was worlds away from her city.

Eden nodded and took in more shaky inhales. “S-Sorry.”

“It’s okay. Relax. We’re safe for now.”

Ridgeline pulled his canteen back out and offered it to her. Eden took a small sip, but it quickly turned to greedy gulps as she realized how thirsty she was. The blood pouring from her shoulder made her lightheaded and dizzy.

“Did you hear my question?” Ridgeline asked.

“No, sorry,” Eden replied as she corked the canteen.

“How did you know the fly-der was going to be in that room? I would be dead right now if you hadn’t yanked me out of there.”

Where do I even start? Eden thought with a sigh. “I saw it happen already.”

Ridgeline blinked. “Excuse me?”

“The exact same thing happened to me last night. In a dream. Except I didn’t survive.”

“How does that work?”

Eden looked down at her hooves. “It’s a long story.”

“We’ve got time.”

“Well… I’ve died once already,” Eden started, pointing to her scarred forehead. “They were able to bring me back, but my mind has never really recovered from it. Every night, I dream of my own death. Sometimes I relive the moment I died. Sometimes I see previous near-death experiences I’ve had, except things turn out differently and I perish. But lately, something’s different about these dreams. I’m seeing my death before the situation happens. Events that have not yet come to pass.”

Ridgeline frowned. “You’re saying you have... visions of the future?”

"It sure seems like it to me. Faust is the Princess of Realities; she made and shaped this reality, and birthed Celestia and Luna to maintain it. So, maybe she’s still shaping this reality from up above, altering the future to the best possible outcome. And she’s doing it through her servant, me, by showing me glimpses of my failures so I can avoid them.”

“Listen, I don’t know about all that,” Ridgeline said with an awkward chuckle. “If there’s some all-knowing Goddess up there controlling and shaping our reality… she must be a fucking sadist to subject us to a world like this. I don’t see a Goddess’s hoof at work in any of this. Just the fucked-up horrors of our own making.”

"Well, we're not puppets to her. We all still have free will. And that free will is what led our ancestors to turn this reality into a wasteland," Eden explained. "But Faust is able to guide our actions and intentions onto the good path if we really make an effort to listen. Not many ponies do anymore, unfortunately."

“Well, the next time you talk with your Goddess, can you ask her to hit the reset button? This world of hers is clearly beyond salvaging from my point of view,” Ridgeline paused. “Oh, and tell her thanks, from me. I owe her one.”

Eden smiled. “Will do.”

---

>> Daring Do
The next big media hubbub is about A.K. Yearling. Ever heard of the Daring Do series? Was never my cup of tea, but apparently, it’s got a fanatic nationwide fanbase. A.K. Yearling was born and raised in Tall Tale, and now that she’s retired, she’s decided to move back, and she’s what everyone is talking about around here.

Now, I don’t care about some foals-book author, but a lot of ponies do, and that means we need to at least do our due diligence here and look at how we can use this to our advantage. She’s already done a full press tour of all the city’s landmarks, including that Lunar Monument eyesore. Do we need to invite her to tour the Starbucked brewing center? Do a photo op at one of our stores? Maybe even use her on billboards and other advertisements?

I’m sure every business in this city is brainstorming how to use this mare to their advantage right now. We can’t fall behind.

---

The group of townsponies made their way through the streets, sticking close together to weave between inert carriages littering the road. The swarm of fly-ders was still loose and searching for them throughout the city; Ridgeline said they’d retreat to the Starbucked building by nightfall, but they didn’t have the luxury of waiting any longer. Not with the townsponies beginning to starve and Eden on the verge of bleeding out.

Besides, the things that came out at night were so much worse than fly-ders. Ridgeline made sure to stress that fact. They needed to make it back to Oasis before the sun went down, and they were already behind schedule.

However, progress was slow-going as they crept slowly and quietly to avoid drawing detection. They paused often to allow Ridgeline to check his talent to make sure they were headed in the right direction. And any noise, any possibility that fly-ders or other Mist creatures may be nearby, forced them to quickly duck down and hide for several minutes before moving on.

Eden could barely keep herself upright as she limped along. Her vision was blurry, her legs trembled from blood loss, and she left a trail of red droplets behind wherever she went. Vestige walked next to her and occasionally glanced over with a worried expression, but there was nothing the Kirin filly could do. She needed proper medical attention, and the only place to find that was Oasis.

As Eden kept up with the group, a voice in the wind made her pause. Her ears perked up, then swiveled around to find the source of the noise. To her left was a wide, open street, lined with stores and shrouded in Mist. She couldn’t see very far down the road, but she swore she could see a pony-shaped silhouette inside, waving a hoof at her desperately.

“Help! I need your help, please!”

Then, the shape darted off down the road and into the fog, out of view.

“Hello?” Eden asked, almost to herself.

Her entire perception of the world faded. She barely noticed the townsponies coming to a stop around her; all she could focus on was the pony that had called for her. She needed to help them. She began to limp away, following where the silhouette had disappeared to.

“Outsider? What’s going on?” Ridgeline said, piercing through her stupor.

Eden blinked. “I heard something… Someone. They need help.”

“Ignore it and move on. Remember rule two?”

Eden no longer heard him. There was a pony that needed helping, and she wasn't going to abandon them like she had abandoned the Kirin stallion. She limped forward down the street after the voice, and soon she was swallowed up by the Mist.

“Hello? Where’d you go?” Eden called out, louder this time.

“Over here!” was the response, followed by the brief reappearance of the silhouette. “Come quickly, there’s not much time!”

Eden quickened her pace. “I’m coming! What’s going on, what’s wrong?”

The pony didn’t respond, just dashing back into the thickness of the Mist to disappear. Eden followed as best she could, but she was interrupted by a coughing fit that splattered blood and saliva across the concrete street below.

“I’m trying to help you, but I can’t help if I don’t know what’s going on! Tell me what’s wrong!” Eden cried out.

“Almost there! Keep coming!” the pony’s disembodied voice answered.

Eden continued blindly, obediently. She was almost there. Just a few more steps—

“BACK!”

Her forward progress was halted by teeth sinking into her tail and yanking her backward. Eden fell back onto her rump with a yelp, and the Mist immediately began to clear as the hypnotizing trance lost its hold. As soon as it did, she was overcome with violent, body-shaking coughs, like she was hacking up a lung. The hoof covering her muzzle was soon covered in splatters of blood as she curled up into a fetal position until the fit passed.

“...W-What are you doing?” Eden finally managed to squeak out.

“Where’s your RadAway?” Ridgeline demanded.

“Left saddlebag…”

She felt Ridgeline dig through her bag to pull out the pouch of orange liquid, and he tore the corner open with his teeth before pressing it to her lips. “Drink, now.”

Eden quickly gulped down the citrus medicine, though she nearly coughed half of it back up as another fit surged through her body. But as the RadAway began to work its cleansing magic through her body, her foggy head began to clear, and the Mist pulled back to reveal the full length of the street to her.

“What the hell were you thinking?” Ridgeline barked.

“I-I heard someone,” Eden said, though now she cringed at how stupid she sounded.

“No, you didn’t. You heard the Mist. We’ve been out here too long, and it sank its claws right into you.”

“Why would the Mist want to bring me out here?”

Ridgeline gestured in the direction Eden had been walking. “Look for yourself.”

Now that the Mist had cleared, Eden could clearly see what Ridgeline was referring to. Directly in front of her was a yawning crevice, like an open wound torn into the earth's crust. It was so wide that it couldn't be crossed safely, and it was so deep that Eden couldn't see the bottom. If she really peered down into it, she could maybe catch a glimpse of something white and glowing along the bottom, but she couldn't tell for sure.

She had seen these cracks when she was atop the Lunar Monument. They spread across the city like veins, and they seemed to all connect to the collapsed S.P.P. tower’s base. Fault lines from an earthquake, perhaps.

Another step, and she would have stumbled off the edge to her death.

The brick-covered street grew cracks before splitting open into a yawning, cavernous crevice… All she could do was stare at the mysterious unicorn’s blank face before plummeting down into the depths, where a nest of writhing tentacles was waiting to tear her into pieces.

“The Mist doesn’t have to send creatures to kill you,” Ridgeline’s voice interrupted her thoughts. “It’ll just sweet talk you into walking yourself to your death anyway. That’s why we have rules, outsider. Rules that need to be followed without exception.”

The Mist had used the image of a pony in need to draw her in. The thing she was most susceptible to obeying and answering, given her current mindset and the events of the last few days. Had the Mist read her thoughts to find the most effective way of drawing her attention? Or had it simply taken over her mind and inhibited her sense of reason, and her consciousness simply filled in the gaps?

Either way, the thought was terrifying. How could she fight something like that?

“I’m sorry. I haven’t been thinking straight,” Eden whispered.

“Understatement of the year,” Ridgeline scoffed. “Let’s just get you back to Oasis before you turn into a trapper on me.”

“Fair enough. Thank you for saving me.”

“A life for a life. Consider us even now.”

Ridgeline offered a hoof, and Eden accepted it to pull herself back upright. However, as the two of them made their way back to the group, another noise began to penetrate through the wind: a faint buzzing sound, drawing louder and closer as she stopped to listen.

“Can you hear that?” Eden asked. “Or is that the Mist again?”

“No, I can hear it too…” Ridgeline replied as his ears swiveled. “Whatever it is, it’s probably not good. Let’s get back to the others.”

The two quickened their pace as the noise got louder and louder, and once they reached the rest of the townsponies, Eden had a moment of realization. “Is it… wings?”

Ridgeline’s face went pale. “It’s the fly-ders. They must’ve heard your screams.”

Murmurs of confusion and fear quickly swept through the group of townsponies, but they were quickly hushed back down to silence.

“What do we do?” Eden asked as she glanced around for any sign of the incoming creatures.

“We’ll never be able to outrun them in the open. Oasis is too far away,” Ridgeline concluded. “We have to try to hide.”

Immediately, Eden knew that was a flawed strategy, and she could see it in Ridgeline’s eyes. They didn’t have the time to spare hiding for another few hours; she would expire from blood loss if they waited that long, and the wounded, starving ponies would be too weak to move. And they had been able to stay undetected before because the fly-ders didn’t know which direction they had gone, but now they knew exactly where they were. They would find them eventually. Ridgeline was just trying to give the townsponies some hope, but it wouldn’t fool her.

“No, if they know where we are now, that’ll never work,” Eden said, stomping a hoof in determination as she did. “You take the group and lead them to Oasis. I’ll stay behind and divert the fly-ders away from you.”

Ridgeline’s eyes widened in shock. “What?”

“You heard me. Take these ponies to safety!” Eden insisted.

“That’s suicide. You won’t be able to outrun them either, especially not in your current state.”

“I can handle myself, Ridge. I’m not going to let anyone else die because of my mistakes. Now go before they get here and we all die!”

Ridgeline stood there, torn, before solemnly nodding in agreement. “Everybody, follow me! Don’t make a sound and don’t fall behind. Let’s go.”

Ridgeline galloped off south down the road, with the rest of the townsponies right behind him. Vestige lingered behind momentarily, as if she were going to try to stay behind with Eden, but a stern glare made sure the filly went with the group. Keeping herself alive would be hard enough without a filly to look after as well.

Not that she expected to make it out alive. She just needed to buy enough time for the other ponies to make it to safety.

The buzzing of insectoid wings grew louder and louder as Eden waited in the intersection, and soon the large shapes of flying spiders began to emerge from the Mist into view. It was only a small group of them, consisting of whoever had been in earshot of her, not the hundreds and hundreds of fly-ders that had rushed out of the Starbucked building. That gave her slightly better odds.

“Hey!” Eden called out. “Remember me? Come and get me!”

The fly-ders immediately locked onto her voice, and she turned and galloped off away from the direction the other ponies had gone with the fly-ders in hot pursuit. Her injured hoof was growing stiff from exertion, and her shoulder flared with constant pain with each movement, but she pushed her battered body for every bit of speed she could. It was that or death.

The fly-ders were right on her heels at once, and with room in the open air to fly, they were significantly quicker than they were indoors. She had to weave around carriages and potholes that they could fly over easily; each detour allowed them to gain another hooflength on her. She felt a wad of silk fly past her ear to stick to the pavement, and she barely avoided stepping in it as she went by.

Come on Eden, come on! She internally screamed at herself, digging deep for every reserve of energy she could.

Suddenly, a fly-der jumped out from one of the alleyways lining the road, landing right in front of her! Eden yelped and dug her hooves into the road to stop herself from crashing right into it; her injured hoof exploded in pain that nearly made her collapse. However, she found just enough purchase to leap off to the side to avoid its bared chelicerae, fangs swiping at thin air. It swung its spinneret around next as she tried to round it and keep moving, and she was forced to quickly cast a shield to block the wad of silk that tried to entangle her. She then threw the webbing back into the spider’s red eyes, causing it to back off with an alarmed hiss.

But she had lost her momentum, and the rest of the group was closing in fast. Eden dashed through the front door of the closest store and slammed the door behind her. As soon as she did, a long, slender spider leg smashed through the window, making her squeal in panic! Glass shards rained down on her as she scrambled further back into the store, and more legs began to tear their way through the front wall, forcing their way through to get her.

Her magic fumbled with her saddlebags to pull out the strange 10mm pistol before she activated S.A.T.S. With time slowed to a snail's crawl, she watched as pieces of glass slowly fell to the floor, sunlight glinting along the jagged edges to create rainbows of color. One of the fly-ders had created a wide enough hole in the window frame to begin squeezing its way through; she quickly honed three shots directly into its eyes and activated the spell. It squealed in pain as the bullets punched into its hyper-sensitive eyes, and it withdrew from the opening to avoid more damage. However, three more took its place.

With S.A.T.S. recharging, she manually took aim and fired on each fly-der trying to enter, but they began to cover their eyes with one of their eight legs while continuing to force their way through. Soon, one of them had completely made its way into the store proper, forcing Eden to retreat behind the counter and back into the storage rooms. She needed to get out before the rest of them surrounded the store and left her trapped.

She tried every single door in the back, finding closet, after closet, after closet… but as the fly-der began to gain on her, she finally found the back door, unlocking it and throwing it open.

There, on the other side, was a cloaked pony, their face hidden behind the shadow of a deep hood.

“Get out.”

Before she could even blink, Eden was wrapped up in levitation magic and yanked out of the doorway, ending up on the other side of the cloaked pony in an instant. She moved so fast that her head spun when she was released. Who in Faust's name had magic that strong?

As the fly-der tried to follow through the doorway, the door was slammed in its face by more telekinesis. Then, the cloaked pony's horn began to glow, and fire leaped from the tip, striking the wall of the store and immediately setting it ablaze.

Eden stood stunned, speechless, as the screams of the fly-ders joined the roar of the inferno. The orange flames clawed at the blue, mist-filled air like a dragon’s claws tearing the heavens open. Two of the fly-ders managed to pull themselves back out of the front window and scurry back north towards the Starbucked building; none of the others emerged, and soon their cries died off to leave nothing but the crackling of burning wood.

She was so transfixed by the flames that she didn’t notice the cloaked pony was walking away until they were nearly out of sight. Eden did a double take and quickly galloped off after them.

“Wait! Where are you going? Who are you?” Eden called out.

The cloaked pony didn’t stop or acknowledge her as they continued to walk into the Mist. The air swirled and churned around them as if it reacted to their presence.

This had to be the Mare in the Mist. Right?

“Are you the pony who brought me here?” Eden tried again as she came to a stop a respectful distance away.

That made the cloaked pony pause. Their head turned slightly, but not fully around to face her, keeping their face and muzzle hidden.

Eden took that as a yes. “And you saved me from the Mirelurk Queen, didn’t you? At the river?”

More silence.

“Why did you help me then? Why did you help me now? And why do you always disappear after?”

The cloaked pony slowly turned to face her once again. They were a bit taller than she was, but that’s all she could ascertain about them; the cloak obscured every other feature.

“I couldn’t let you die before you accomplish what I brought you here for,” the cloaked pony said with a mare’s voice. “But duty requires me to stay distant.”

“Why did you bring me here then? What do I need to do?” Eden pleaded. “Please, just give me something to work with so I know I’m not on a wild goose chase!”

The mare tilted her hood-covered head. “Don’t give up hope. Keep gaining the town’s trust. The plan won’t work without them.”

Then, the cloaked mare’s horn ignited, and her magic pulled the Mist around her like a curtain to disappear from view. Eden was left alone with the burning storefront, and its ash and smoke joined the Mist in polluting the air.

The Mare in the Mist was real. She was the one sending her the letters that brought her to Tall Tale. She had saved her twice already, so she was clearly watching her every move from afar. But what was her end goal? What was she looking for in Eden? The meeting left her with more questions than answers, and she still had no idea of what she was supposed to be doing here.

Eden probably swore, but the swirling Mist swallowed up her voice.

---

>> Equestria Games Advertising
As I’m sure you’ve heard, the next installment of the Equestria Games will be held in Tall Tale. This is both a blessing and a curse. The Equestria Games brings visitors and athletes from across the country, and this provides us with a golden opportunity to market and expose our products to all these potential new customers. However, the downside is that the Games are an advertising boon, and they could allow competitors to potentially gain inroads into the city.

That’s why it’s imperative that we secure a high-profile advertising deal with the organizers. Imagine if Java’s Cup beats us to the punch. They’d be plastering their logo everywhere in our own city! We’d be a nationwide laughingstock.

I suggest we look into this as soon as possible. I don’t care if it’s a legitimate deal, or if we have to go under the table to get it done. We need to seize this opportunity.

Comments

[Madmadmad123]

Iiiit liiiives...... love the new chapter cant wait for more

[LChurch]

Amazing story, im really liked it. Looking forward to new chapters!