Fallout Equestria: Treasure Hunting

by Hnetu

Chapter 13: Necessary Actions

Chapter Thirteen: Necessary Actions
“Sometimes you need to just act.”

Intruder.

An intruder in our home. For years we’d lived here, coming and going as safely as possible. Any time we felt it wasn’t safe to come back, that we might lead dangers home, we stayed elsewhere until it felt safe again. Mom taught us not to trust groups, and she instilled a deep paranoia within us, a paranoia that kept us safe for the longest time. In just one day, a day following a week of torture, but still... we had to deal with a trader who wandered by, a pack of migrating manticores, a group of raiders, and now...

This... thing.

Of course it found us. We’d been careless when returning home. I’d seen the signs and ignored them. We could have... I should have... I couldn’t do a Goddesses-damned thing. The only thing my mind could do was go over the fact that the horrible creature had followed us here, and wore a slave collar identical to mine and Lost’s.

It had to be one of Mistress Amble’s. There wasn’t any other explanation. The slavers had said that the collars were rare and cost extra, so a random... thing, having one made no sense to me!

The thing and I both lay on the floor, facing one another. We looked so similar, both on the ground cowering and crying, almost as if we were mimicking one another.

Why was it crying?

I wiped the tears from my face with my hoof. Slowly, I turned and looked at Xeno and Lost, without moving my steel hoof. If it was here to take me back... My collar shifted against my neck as I moved. I flinched, thinking of all the things Mistress Amble would have planned for when we got back. I opened my mouth to yell to L.A., but never got a word out.

“Kill-” The song ended. “-it!” Lost ordered.

BANG!

Xeno fired the instant the music died, just as a flash of green flame overtook the room. The bullet went wide and put a huge hole in the fridge. The fire died, and the creature was gone. Instead of a bug-thing, or the blue stallion, stood-

Me.

Static blasted over the broadcaster, and the emptiness between songs became the soundtrack to chaos. The other Hidden lept forward, tackling me to the ground. It jumped up, kicking me and leaping toward Xeno.

The zebra chambered another round and fired. She missed. The bullet smashed into the roof and shredded one of the lines we’d jury-rigged for lights.

Half the room went dark.

I heard Lost behind me running for the kitchen. I rolled to my hooves, thoughts of Mistress’ tortures and punishments pushed from my mind. We had to fight. We could beat it. Find out what it knew.

I jumped at it.

The other Hidden sprang away, much faster than me. Could it use those wings even as an earth pony? It really didn’t matter. I just had to catch it. I spun on my hooves, looking for a flash of green or a pony that looked like me.

Xeno reloaded again, her deep blue eyes scanning the room the whole time. She backed away to the far corner, getting the distance she’d need for the sniper rifle to actually be effective. We needed to get her a close-range weapon, I belatedly realized. Xeno pulled the zebra-striped knife out from her bag and held it in one fetlock against the barrel of the gun.

Perfect.

“Where’d it go?” Lost demanded, finally holding her gun in her magic. Her horn sparked and she looked exhausted already, but she still managed to keep the gun in the air.

I looked around frantically. Why hadn’t the radio played another song? Did I mess the frequency up by accident? Would music make it hesitate again? I couldn’t see the thing, so instead I tried to tune the radio back to the music. Now that I’d collected my thoughts, I could tackle it the moment it let its guard down!

The broadcaster crackled with static as I adjusted the radio’s frequency. I didn’t know which one was right, so just kept adjusting until I got something. A stallion’s voice came across the radio, different from DJ Pon3’s. He lectured, “...past, we do not have to live in the shadow of their greed and wickedness. Together, we can raise Equestria back to its former beauty! Together, we can build a new kingdom where all live together in perfect unity!”

Unity? Like the alicorn? I shook my head, I didn’t have time for that! I flicked the dial away again.

Static. More static. THUD!

Xeno hollered something as her sniper rifle clattered to the floor. I looked up from the PipBuck in time to see her stab the other me in the shoulder. She did it so easily, without any hesitation. Venting frustration over her brothers’ deaths? Well, she’d picked the right effigy to stab...

The zebra pulled her knife back out, splattering green blood all over our floor. The other Hidden, not missing a beat, bucked her in the face and knocked her back into the support beam for the second floor. Xeno toppled, groaning and reaching for her back.

The other Hidden didn’t stop at that. She ran across the room, and I ran to intercept her. We smashed together headlong in the middle of the room, forehead to forehead. I pushed back, and kept on pushing, my hooves scraping against the floor. No bug-thing was going to beat me. Pulling back only an inch, I headbutted- nothing! and toppled head over hooves, onto the floor.

Lost fired as I hit the ground, out of the way of her line of fire. Several pink beams lanced across the room, striking close to me but never quite hitting.

I rolled to my side and watched.

She kept firing. A half dozen shots hit the other Hidden, but none slowed her down. Her coat singed black and pink, but whatever natural armor that thing had took the brunt of the magical bolts.

The other me serpentined as she ran, and I ran after, the two of us looking identical as we darted back and forth. She jumped past L.A., who stopped firing only long enough to reload. The other Hidden skidded to the side, pushed off the half-wall that separated the kitchen from the mane room, and spun around behind Lost.

“Stop!” she yelled, grabbing my sister from behind and smashing her to the ground. “Come closer and I kill her.”

Did I really sound like that?

“With what?” I yelled back, grinning. Bug-thing armor or not, it wouldn’t survive a hit from me again.

The other me flashed green fire once more. Lost didn’t seem hurt by it, but struggled to get back up. The flames died once more, leaving the bug-creature with its hollow eyes and the strange holes in its legs. It leaned forward, pressing one hoof against the back of my sister’s neck, while the other slid around the front and pressed against her neck. One of the holes lined up just right, and the edge of it dug into Lost’s throat, deep enough to draw blood.

I didn’t stop. “Kriki!” the bug chirped shrilly at me, but I didn’t understand. Not that I’d have listened anyway.

It didn’t matter if this thing was here to take me back or not. I didn’t care if I was wrong. This thing showed up in my home and thought it could attack my family? I hit it with my steel hoof, right in the face. It cried out in that same shrill chirping and fell back. I followed through, and stomped it once in the chest as it fell. I left my hoof there, holding it down.

It struggled. Fire flashed and it transformed several times. First me. Then Lost Art. Then the stallion again. I pushed harder.

“We need to know why it’s here!” yelled Lost. “Hold it so I can ask, nicely...” Her voice dripped venom. She rose to her hooves, sweating and panting. “I’ll make sure Xeno’s okay, then we’ll handle this.”

The stallion looked up at me with hollow eyes. “If, you’re going to kill me... Can you play one more song before you do?” he asked.

I turned the radio back on, and found the right frequency again.

I could grant a final request. I might be a murderer, but I wasn’t heartless.

* * *

“This is going to hurt, a lot,” I told Xeno. With her nod, I pushed her nose back where it belonged. It snapped into place, and she stifled a scream. “You okay?” I asked.

She nodded. “I will...” she started. With a snort, she blew chunks of blood from her nose through the hole in the counter once occupied by a sink. “...be fine. Time, and a brew, they will fix this.” She snorted a few more bits of blood from her nose and patted me on the back. Trotting away, she grabbed her bag and sat on the couch, presumably to deal with her zebra potions.

I trotted over to Lost, who had the thing tied to the table. “I thought you were going to help Xeno,” I said to her, my lips curled in the smallest of smiles.

“You’re better at setting broken bones,” she answered, and pointed a hoof at the chip in her horn. “I could heal it, if I wasn’t already so exhausted.” Her breathing sounded normal now, so she must not have been too exhausted. “Plus, I get to deal with this,” she added, pointing at the bound bug-pony.

She’d tied it up with some rope from the piles of rubble we pushed into the corner. The rope was as old as the Wasteland, but still held tight. It looped around his legs several times, over his back to hold his wings down, and then wrapped under the table a few times. She’d tied the rope back up around the table legs, through the bugpony’s collar, and around its muzzle. It tried to say something, but only with strange chirping noises, which we couldn’t understand even when its muzzle hadn’t been tied shut. It struggled, but couldn’t get free. I checked the position of the ropes, and smiled at the fact that L.A. hadn’t looped any near the sharp hole along its foreleg.

My smile turned to shudder as I touched my own collar. All too well I remembered being bound by Slipstock and Vice Brand. At least our bindings hadn’t stabbed the bug with anything. I really needed to get all this steel off me.

Lost grabbed her gun in her fetlock and tapped it against the thing’s face. “Turn into something we can understand,” she ordered.

The bright spots in its blue eyes flickered a few times, looking at Lost, then me, then away, before cycling back around again. Green fire flashed and in place of the bug-looking pony lay the unicorn stallion from before. Since he was strapped down, I took the time to give him a good once over. Even as a pony, his eyes looked hollow and dead, with only glowing blue centers to give away exactly where he looked. His coat was a different shade of blue, darker than his eyes, and a strange black cutie mark of two curled lines marked his flanks. In sharp contrast to his blue coat, he sported a red mane, flared back in little spikes, and a tail to match. This form lost the leg-holes, replacing them with well-trimmed fetlocks.

“What’s the cutie mark of?” I asked, tilting my head. I squinted, trying to figure out exactly what they were.

“Dunno, let’s ask,” my sister answered. She undid the ropes around his mouth, while still holding the gun to his head. “So, what’s the cutie mark?” she asked.

“They’re called f-holes,” he answered, then shook his head. “Sound holes,” he added quickly.

Despite the stress, the freakout, and Lost’s attempt to look like a hardened mare who would kill a pony if he didn’t answer right, we both giggled like fillies at the dirty-sounding cutie mark.

“Fine, time for a real question. Are you alone, or are there more?” Lost asked, pushing the gun against his head. She pushed hard enough that he had to rest his face against the table.

“Just me! Only me, I’m the only one,” he answered in a shrill voice. His tail, which wasn’t tied down, snapped back and forth. He struggled against the table bonds.

“How did you find us?” she asked.

“Doesn’t matter. I just did,” he answered, defying the gun pressed against his head. Lost twisted it. “If you shoot me! You’ll never know!” he yelled, struggling more.

“I can hurt him without killing him, sis,” I said. I raised my steel hoof and set it on the table in front of his eyes. She ordered me not to kill if it wasn’t absolutely necessary, so I wouldn’t kill him no matter what. But I could make him talk. Somewhere deep in my hooves I felt a mild ache...

He looked at my steel hoof, and at my PipBuck. He didn’t struggle.

“Trade! Let’s make a trade,” he yelled. He tilted his head up, pushing Lost’s gun further and further. With her magic so far gone and holding the gun in her fetlock, he didn’t have much trouble pushing it back up. “I tell you something, I get something in return!”

“Tell me how you found us. Then we might work something out,” she snapped at him. She pulled the gun back and aimed it as his leg. “I don’t have to go for the head first.”

I stared in awe. I knew Lost could be kind of crazy sometimes, especially when she went into the berserk spree like with those raiders, but this? She wasn’t ever this cold. On the other hoof, this was an intruder in our home, right after we’d escaped slavery. It made me think... what had Sunbright done to her? I’d talk to her about it later, but right now, we needed the answers.

“Fine, fine! Okay. I followed you. The Queen gave me an order and I took it, everything was on fire, so it’s not like I wanted to be there!” he answered. With another flash, he disappeared. In his place lay Mistress Amble.

I collapsed backward, feeling tears running down my cheeks before my brain registered that I was crying. I pushed myself backward to the counter and slammed into it hard. She’s here. Right there. On the table. Mistress Amble, ready to punish me. Maybe it had been her all along. She’d tricked us. Any second now she’d order me to do something, and-

Lost slammed the gun into the mare’s head hard, enough to crack her skull against the table.

“Nonono! No. Fuck, no,” I muttered to myself. I covered my ears with my hooves, clanking the steel hoof against my head painfully. I wouldn’t listen. I got away. Lost Art was here, she’d protect me. Everything would be okay. My mind wouldn’t stop making up terrible punishments that Mistress was certain to inflict on me. My breath caught in my throat, as if the collar tightened to suffocate me.

The Mistress who lay on the table groaned, but said nothing to me. She didn’t even look my way. I slowly uncovered my ears. “...find ‘em! Brin’ ‘em back. I’m not losin’ my new pet, not this soon,” she said in the voice I’d come to dread. “Do it now, she’s got my crown. Get it back, or ya all die. Don’t fuckin’ tempt me.”

With a green flash, the stallion returned. “That’s what she said. Exactly what she said,” he finished.

Lost ran over to me as he finished talking, the gun tossed to the floor and her hooves wrapping around me. She squeezed tight, the terrible mare who strapped down the intruder and interrogated him with threats of bodily harm completely gone.

I grabbed and squeezed back, trying to shut my brain out. He wasn’t Mistress. She wasn’t here. We had him strapped to a table and he couldn’t get free. Everything would be okay, it had to be. My sister would take care of me. I buried my face into the remains of her mane, and just cried.

L.A. stayed with me until I calmed down. I hated being like this. I missed the days when I didn’t fear my own thoughts. I missed being able to run down a threat and find exactly what I needed to kill it. I missed thinking that it was a good idea to jump off a third floor onto a monster and fight it on its back. Still holding Lost, I shook and cried. Somehow, someway, I needed to fix the damage the slavers had done to me.

“Are you alright?” Lost asked. She pulled back a bit and looked me in the eyes. When I nodded, she pressed her nose against mine and hugged me. “I won’t let him hurt you,” she whispered.

“I know that,” I answered. “But my brain doesn’t know that...” I let her go and forced myself back up onto my hooves. Everything ached from that little outburst, but with Mistress gone again, I felt I could continue to take part in the interrogation. “Let’s just finish.” I ignored the extra weight of my shackles and collar. I was past that point. I could do this.

My sister nodded and got up with me. Slowly, she walked back over to the stallion and picked the gun up. “Alright, so, that bitch sent you then. What did she mean crown?” Lost demanded. She pressed the gun against his leg again, further up this time, past where the holes would be in his other form.

“Queen. She’s my queen. Lots of us,” he answered, chittering away nervously. “She gives orders, we take them. Simple, really. Keeps us together.” He pulled against the ropes again, twisting his hooves back and forth to try and break or cut through them.

“Queen?” I asked Lost. “Like the one Rough talked about?” I shuffled my hooves at the memory. It felt like a lifetime ago that I met that rage-filled stallion. “You know a stallion named Rough Night? Or a mare called Spade?” I asked, motioning for Lost to press the gun closer.

“What! No. Why would, no,” he said, looking back and forth between the two of us. “He... Wait.” Green fire flashed and another stallion appeared. This one was green with orange eyes and no mane. He didn’t look anything like Rough Night. “This one?”

“No. How do you do that?” I asked him, more curious than angry. Certainly not as angry as Lost was. Not that I didn’t understand why. I just couldn’t muster the energy to be upset about anything, not after everything I’d dealt with.

Sleep couldn’t come soon enough.

“I... Well, I mean,” he stuttered before flashing with green fire and returning to the shape of the stallion with the f-holes on his flanks. “Nothing, forget it!”

“Do you want more holes in your leg?” Lost demanded. “Tell us now.”

“Changeling! I’m a changeling. We transform, it’s easy. Easy! See?” he chattered, shifting through green fire again and again. First he looked like a bug, then he looked like me, then Lost, then Hard Sell, then back to the f-holes stallion. “Easy! I could do it all day.” He looked back and forth a few times between the two of us, the bright spots flicking about.

“What in the Goddesses’ names is a changeling?” L.A. asked. She looked away from the pony on the table and called to Xeno. “Are you okay over there?” A positive sounding grunt answered her. “Do you know what a ‘changeling’ is?” she asked.

“Is bugpony, changes to look like others,” Xeno yelled back.

“Well, we knew that already,” I said, rolling my eyes. I stepped forward and looked at the stallion. I raised my hoof and showed him the PipBuck. “Answer faster and I’ll play a song. Nothing mean, just some good music. I like it just as much as you. Do this for both of us.”

“Last question, then I figure out what to do with you,” Lost said. She lowered the gun. “Did anypony else come with you? Do any others know where we are?”

“Song, song first!” he chattered again. He waited for the music to start, his eyes focused directly on the PipBuck. When neither of us touched it, he looked back and forth between us and sighed. “Fine! Okay. No. I’m alone. The Queen sent me alone. She sai-”

Lost cut him off by pressing the gun to his face, the barrel against his eye. “Transform into her again, and I transform you into a corpse.”

“EEP!” he squeaked. “No stories, got it. I... I can’t!” He struggled against the bonds frantically. “Story, gotta be in character!”

I hit him with my steel hoof, hard. His head snapped to the side and back up exactly where it had been before. “No. Turning. Into. Her!” I screamed, more at myself than at him. I couldn’t take seeing her again.

“Owowowow, okay!” he yelled. He tried to pull one forehoof up, and tilted his head close to it as if to protect himself. They didn’t meet though, and he gave up. “I... I came back, after the auction. Same as always. How she makes a profit. Smart Queen! Best Queen. She grabbed me. New collar. Yelled. I went off, followed the trail. You led me here. No others. I bring you back. Return the crown. Where’s the crown? Can I see it?” As he spoke, his voice got higher and higher pitched, and he talked faster and faster. It reminded me of a Steel Ranger mare I knew...

The only thing we had with us that wasn’t already ours...

“The detonator,” both Lost and I said at the same time.

“Detonator?” he asked, sounding genuinely curious.

Lost set the gun down and trotted off. She ducked around a corner and came back a second later with the detonator. I didn’t even know she’d hidden it! She held it in front of his face in her magic, through the sparking of her horn. She didn’t look worn out by the small show of telekinesis this time, so I had hopes that she might just be getting better.

“The crown!” he shouted. He lunged forward, but the table only scraped across the floor an inch or so. It hung well out of his reach.

“So, I have the crown... Know what that makes me?” L.A. asked him. She waved the detonator back and forth a few times.

The pony’s eyes followed it as she moved it back and forth. “Crown is Queen,” he answered.

“Yes, I am your new Queen. You do as I say. Do you understand?” she asked him.

“New Queen?” he said with a flinch. His eyes closed and he flinched several more times. “New... Others. What about them?”

“We can get them. Music for all,” she told him, motioning her hoof to me and the PipBuck.

I held it up and and waved it a few times in front of his face.

He looked at the PipBuck and the broadcaster, then back at the detonator. His eyes dimmed a bit, before going so bright that I couldn’t see the spots where his view was focused. “New Queen gives music!”

“Hidden, go ahead and turn it on,” Lost said with a smile.

I flicked the radio on, and a beautifully soulful song sounded out of the broadcaster’s speaker and into the air. Collectively, the three of us smiled and listened, each of our ears flicking slightly to pick up every last note.

Lost put the detonator away, leaving us with a new... companion? No, not companion until we could trust him; for now he’d be an acquaintance. At least we had a wonderful song to end this whole fiasco with.

* * *

“No, I don’t want a slave. If he’s not going to try anything, we can have him as a friend, eventually, but I’m not going to become a slaver and hold it over him. I’m already treading too close to that with what I did earlier to you...” Lost said with a sigh. She twiddled her forehooves together a few times, something obviously on her mind. “You two have something in common, you both like music, right?” L.A. asked me. The two of us sat on the second floor, our hooves hanging off the edge as we talked.

Xeno took over the kitchen once we untied the bugpony, and threw us out so she could make some zebra potion or concoction or something. She placed all manner of bits and pieces for cooking up her brews all over the counters. I had no idea where she’d gotten them from. I looked over at her, catching the zebra move between several different vials, a lit cigarette hanging from her lips.

“Friend? Are you sure?” I asked Lost. I yawned. I just wanted to sleep.

“No, I’m not. I can’t trust him yet. If he ordered you to do something as- as Amble,” she said, making me flinch. “Then that could have gone a lot differently. He could be helpful though. Once we get the collars off and I can be sure he won’t go back to U Cig, I'll let him either go on his way or stay with us.”

“So what do we call him?” I asked. “First step toward friendship is knowing names and not calling each other ‘Hay you’ all the time.” I looked back at my bed. It looked more and more comfortable every time I looked at it.

“Mmm, yeah,” she muttered. She tapped her chin with a hoof a few times. “Hay, changeling? Where are you?” she asked, leaning forward to look down at the first floor.

A shrill chirping filled the air, and the changeling ran from the kitchen to sit on the couch below us. He looked up at us from the slashed fabric and switched forms to the blue stallion with a flash of fire. “I’m here my Queen? What do you need?”

“Don’t call me that. What’s your name?” L.A. asked him, sounding much more like my sister than the hate-filled interrogator she’d been only a short while ago.

“The old Queen, she called us all ‘things’ when we were together, but the name the other ponies knew me as was ‘Fine Tune,’” he answered her, chirping happily.

“Alright, Fine Tune it is,” Lost said. “Thank you.”

“Of course!” he shouted.

“Think he fetches, too?” L.A. whispered to me, stifling a laugh. She looked down at him, “You can go back to... Whatever you were doing. No leaving the house, though. You can eat something if you need.”

“I don’t eat food,” he said.

“Then what do you eat?” I asked him, raising an eyebrow.

“I feed on emotions, preferably love. It’s the most pure and delicious! Your love of music tastes better than any I’ve ever had,” he explained with a smile. That actually explained a lot. It freaked me out that there were creatures that ate emotions, but... at least he knew what he liked? For that matter, when had he tasted my ‘love of music?’

I flicked the radio back on, only to find it replaying one of the songs I’d heard earlier. Still, the music was good, I liked it, and he would enjoy the taste of me enjoying the music so, why not? I closed my eyes and listened.

* * *

I snorted. First time in a week where I could sleep when I wanted to, without any interruptions or slavers keeping me up, and I couldn’t sleep. My hooves felt heavy, even as I lay on the bed. The weight of the collar hung more heavily in my mind than on my neck. I looked down at my steel hoof and shackles.

So much had happened since Stable Twelve and Twenty One, I could hardly believe it. Dealing with old world secrets, getting shot and burnt, losing a hoof, making friends with power armor wearing Steel Rangers, finding an alicorn, becoming a slave. Honestly, it was too much. I added another item to my list of favorite things to never do again. Right under having my hoof bitten off, I mentally added ‘get caught by slavers.’ Slavery ranked below losing a hoof only because, well, even with the shackles from Slipstock, I could still at least walk as a slave.

“Bleh...” I muttered, snorting again.

“Everything alright, sis?” L.A. asked from behind the remains of the wall that separated our rooms. She sounded groggy.

“Just, can’t sleep. Are you sure about our plan for the next few days?” I asked her. I wanted to go to sleep, I didn’t want to talk. Why wouldn’t my body let me just relax and sleep?

“No. I’m really not. We need to stay low for, probably forever to be honest,” she answered. Sounds of shuffling about echoed across the wall and she peeked her head out past the rotten wood. “But, we can get some sleep while Xeno and Fine Tune watch-”

“You mean while Xeno watches Fine Tune?” I asked, cutting her off.

“Yes. Even if he does think I’m his queen, he can’t be alone yet. Plus, I don’t even want him to view me as a queen... I don’t like it,” she said with a sigh. “I don’t want to use everypony around me like they’re slaves.” She looked over at me, or past me and stifled a yawn. “We should’ve never taken the PipBuck, and just skipped this whole adventure...”

“I know. But, we’re already here. We get sleep tonight, and we move forward fighting.”

That’s all we could do, now. That or give up...

“Good night,” I said to her, and rolled over.

“Night,” she said, yawning again. I heard shuffling, and then quiet snoring as she drifted off almost right away.

Staring at the wall, I took the chance to really appreciate the fact that nighttime in the Wasteland, at home, with nothing to do, was really, really, fucking, boring. I gnawed on my lower lip a bit, thinking... It’d been a long week, and I could always use Lost’s method of getting to exhaustion.

I rolled over and thought up something fun...

~ ~ ~

Mom crouched down, hiding behind the collapsed wall of a building. She peeked her head up over the ruins, just far enough that her eyes, ears, and horn were past the edge so she could see. “Alright fillies, what do we do when we see a group of ponies?” she asked us.

“Hide,” Lost answered.

“Good, and what else?” Mom asked, looking at me.

“If they find you, don’t tell them you’re from a Stable,” I answered.

“Excellent, you’re both right,” she said, smiling. “I know I tell you this all the time, but ponies can’t be trusted. They look out for their own and prey on outsiders. If they see you as a Stable filly, they’ll think you’re easy prey.” She repeated the same story to us every time. At least this time she wasn’t telling us how she learned that fact.

I scooted closer to the edge of the fallen wall, slowly working my way over the rubble until I could see past. I watched half a dozen ponies walk past, two of them in armored barding and the rest without anything aside from huge metal rings around their necks. I lifted my hoof to my own neck, wondering why I knew exactly what it felt like to have something hang there. One of the armored ponies had a strange rifle that looked incredibly sinister, and both looked rather unhappy. Their cutie marks didn’t give me any comfort to what they were either, one sporting a skull with a hoof-mark on it, and the other a fiery brand.

“Mom, what are those ponies?” Lost asked, peeking up and over the rubble like mom was.

“Those are slavers. They take ponies against their will and sell them,” she answered.

“Why don’t we save them then?” my sister asked. She crouched back and and leaned against the wall.

“Because I’m not putting my foals in harm’s way,” Mom said with a stern voice. The teacher was gone, replaced with a mare who only cared about her family. I had the best mom. “They’re just as likely to turn on us as soon as they’re free. Ponies, especially desperate ones, cannot be trusted. Always watch out for slavers. Raiders might be bad, but at least they’ll eventually kill you. Slavers keep you alive and suffering.”

“Okay, mom,” I said. I moved back to stand with them, to hide until the bad ponies got far enough away that we could make our retreat. I stumbled on a hunk of stone and fell. I hit the rubble hard, and cut my face against the sharp edge of what looked like it might have been a chimney once. “Ow!” I screamed.

Mom looked down at me, a mixture of rage and fear in her face. I shrank back, knowing full well how much I’d just messed up. She looked back at Lost and said, “Go. Take your sister and run. We’ll meet at the usual spot.” Before she finished her sentence, her horn lit and her guns started sliding from her saddlebags.

Lost helped me up, and the two of us ran. We had to get away. If those ponies caught us, I couldn’t even imagine how upset mom would be with me. Or what they might do to me. Three of my hooves started to hurt. I pushed through it. Tears mixed with the blood on my face. Something deep in the back of my mind dug at me, something I couldn’t quite place. Even the Goddesses couldn’t protect me from it.

Every time we stopped somewhere, we set up a hiding spot, a safe place in case things went wrong. Lost and I ran toward it. Every time this happened, Mom promised to teach us to fight, for emergencies, but no matter what happened, that always became ‘next time.’

We ran as fast as our little hooves could take us. I ran out in front, ignoring the blood that slowly coated the side of my face. It wasn’t a deep cut, I’d be fine. I just needed to keep running. I looked back at my sister.

Where was my sister?

I stopped running and turned around. “L-Lost?” I asked the emptiness, in a voice that was probably too loud for safety. I didn’t see her anywhere. Had she gotten ahead of me? I turned around. Why’d everything look so different? Where was I? A different part of the Wasteland?

I backed away, confused as to what was happening. I wanted to collapse and cry. But I had to be strong for Lost and Mom. If they found me.

The ground crumbled beneath my hooves. I tumbled down, sliding along rocks and rubble, bouncing off the loose dirt and over the deep roots of dead trees. My hoof caught on a bit of the ruins that stuck out, and suddenly it disappeared.

I tried to scream, but nothing came.

I hit the ground hard. Groaning, I twisted about on the floor and managed to get a look around. I lay in a cage, bars and darkness surrounding me. Scrambling to my hooves, I looked around. Where was I? Why was I this... I looked down at myself. Was I just a filly a moment ago? Furrowing my brows, I saw the shackles.

No...

I charged the bars and hit them hard. My steel hoof dented one, but I couldn’t get through. I slammed my forehooves into them again and again. Giving up, I turned and bucked them as hard as I could. They wouldn’t budge. Mangled and twisted, they held fast.

Heavy hooffalls echoed through the bars and into my little cage. I got up and turned around, only to see the ornate, etched armor of Star Paladin Lamington trotting toward me. Even with his armor on, I could see the glow of his cybernetic eye through the visor. He stopped a few inches from the bars, just out of reach of where I’d nearly broken them.

“Lamington! I’m so glad to see you, you have to get me out!” I begged. The slavers could show up at any moment. And then. Then they’d...

I collapsed onto the ground, my hooves twisting in unnatural ways to cover my ears. I curled up, the claws in the back of my mind returning with a vengeance to remind me of the punishments and terrible things I’d get.

“I offered once,” he said without a hint of static. “I wanted you to come with, so I could protect you. If you’d said you weren’t interested, I would have understood. You can obviously handle yourself.” The glow of his eye through the visor looked down at me for a moment. He tilted his head up, and walked away.

I curled back up, only the heavy thuds of his armored hooves breaking up the screaming in my own mind.

~ ~ ~

Waking from the nightmare, I looked at the clock on the PipBuck. Nightmares or not, I at least got a full night’s sleep. “I miss when I couldn’t sleep,” I whispered to nothing, only half-serious. My ear twitched, I could hear snoring. Great... More time to kill doing nothing...

* * *

“I thought you said we had to wait until I was better before we’d go anywhere?” I asked my sister. Together we’d spent the morning collecting everything we might need for our trip.

“Fine Tune turning up ruined that idea. Him following us here was sloppy enough, but we have no idea what might have followed him,” she said with a smile. Same song as every other time, something a thinky pony would have memorized by now. She lifted the jacket that I’d found yesterday from the table and floated it over to me with her magic. Straining just a little, she said, “Put this on over your armor. They won’t expect you to be covered hoof to head in steel if you’re wearing this.”

I looked at the jacket and smiled. It really was a good looking jacket, and with her giving it to me, I didn’t need to agonize over who should have it. Setting it off to the side, I started getting the armor on. I pulled each piece on, strapping them into place where I could, with my sister helping to get the things I couldn’t reach. Afterward, I pulled the jacket on overtop, rolled the sleeve up over the PipBuck, and strapped myself into my battle saddle.

“Go look in the mirror, Hidden,” she said, and pointed me toward the bathroom.

I trotted off and squeezed myself through the door. Inside, I looked at the reflection in the mirror. The pony that stared back at me looked a lot closer to the mare I recognized, compared to the night before. Sleep, even restless, nightmare-filled sleep, had done me a world of good. I adjusted the jacket’s collar with my hooves, hiding the slave collar as best I could, and backed myself awkwardly away from the cracked mirror and out into the mane room.

“It fits you,” L.A. said. She walked over and gave me a hug. “Now, let’s see about getting my horn fixed and we can leave,” she said, tapping the chip in it with her hoof. “Xeno, did you manage to get anything brewed up last night?”

“Yes, itis finally cooled enough that we may use it. Come, the bugpony and I are finishing now,” Xeno answered from the kitchen. Between rounds outside, she’d set up a nice little brewing area in the corner of the kitchen, from the collapsed sink to the half-wall that separated it from the mane room.

As we walked in, Fine Tune chittered something at us in his weird changeling language before flashing with green fire to appear as the stallion he usually used as his pony form. “Morning, did you sleep well?” he asked, somewhat slower and less skittish than he’d talked during the interrogation last night. Hopefully this meant he could hold a normal conversation...

“No, not really.” I answered him. “Mistress has managed to work her way into every possible joy I might find, even now that I’ve gotten away from her.” I looked down at my hoof. “A bit sore, too... Anyway! How are you?”

He looked at me for a moment, then to Lost and Xeno, then back again. “Good! Excited for travel and music. Happy to serve the new Queen. I... I want to make her happy,” he said, smiling.

“Do you think you can make your eyes not dead and hollow while we’re out?” I asked him. “It’s a bit of a giveaway that there’s something different about you.” With Xeno in slaver barding, collars on the three of us, and a pony with dead eyes, we’d stand out quite a bit. Anything that we could do to limit our visibility would help.

He nodded. His eyes flashed green and the hollow spots were gone, replaced with pupils like a normal pony. “Like this?” he asked.

“Yes, thanks,” I said, and raised an eyebrow. “How’d you do that, anyway?”

“Well, I can take the form of any pony I’ve seen, but I can mix and match traits!” he explained. “More possibilities when escaping.”

“Oh, well I guess that makes sense... Let’s... go see what Lost and Xeno are talking about,” I said, patting him on the head a few times. First my sister and her cheater magic, then a zebra who could ignore the dangers of the wasteland and make potions for us, and now a shapeshifting magical pony. Goddesses-damned cheater magic. Cheaters, all of them!

“...leave it all here?” Lost asked Xeno. She shuffled on her hooves a few times, looking quite uncomfortable.

“Yes. Itis better here, where it will be safe. Every time I take my tools with me, thereis a chance it will be damaged,” Xeno answered, looking over to me. “With the fights Hiddenpony gets into, Iam worried that Iwill lose something I cannot replace.” She pointed to several of the glass bits and pieces on the counter as she talked, indicating which ones she couldn’t get again if they got broken.

“Alright, if you say so,” L.A. said, shrugging and giving up. She turned and left the kitchen. “Let’s head out now, we’ll discuss plans on the way.”

“Ihave made enough to last for...” Xeno said, trailing off and looking at me. “Iwill... make them last. Lostpony, take this one before we go.” She hooked a vial in her fetlock and tossed it across the room to my sister.

A blue haze wrapped around it in mid-air. Lost hovered it down closer to her face and looked at it. She tilted her head down and looked over the rims of her glasses. “It’s the wrong color,” she said.

Xeno shot Lost a look that even made me shake in my shackles. “I have made this special to help, watch what you say, Lostpony,” she said. “Donot be-” She stopped herself mid-sentence and said something in her native tongue.

L.A. popped the top off the vial and downed the liquid in a single gulp. Retching, she tossed the now-empty vial back with a flick of her magic, and spent the next few seconds coughing.

Fine Tune ran over and stood next to his new Queen, chattering something to her as she coughed.

“Flavor isnot what is important, Lostpony. Itis made to work, not to be pleasant,” Xeno said with a bit of a snap. “Still, it should be able to help. The changeling was very useful in finding the ingredients.” Catching the flying vial, she smiled at the the stallion. “My mother would be proud to learn that I am professing with the skills she taught me.”

“What is it?” I asked her, trotting over to the table to load my saddlebags up with the remainder of our supplies.

“Itis an elixir made by merging several potions and other ingredients, it...” she said, stopping to talk in her zebra language for a few seconds. “It should work much better.” With a sigh, she trotted forward and clopped a hoof over Fine Tune’s back. “We couldnot find a balefire phoenix, or I might have been able to make something far more useful. There is still time, wewill look as we travel.” She nudged my sister. “Come, we must go. My brothers await our success.”

As Xeno and Fine Tune trotted away, I sidled up next to my sister. “What’s the plan?”

She crossed her eyes and her horn began to glow. Sweating and grimacing, she slowly healed her own horn, just a small amount. With a few deep breaths, she looked at me. “We go out there, we hunt along the way to get anything that might be useful, and we hurt Amble’s operation as best we can,” she explained. “If we get into serious trouble, we call in the Steel Rangers from Stable Sixty as our backup plan.”

“Is that why you don’t want to go to them first?” I asked her. We trotted up and out the secret trapdoor on the roof, which ended up being a bit of a squeeze with my armor and the battle saddle on.

“We’re strong enough to do this on our own, especially with a fourth now. We can do it ourselves, and not endanger their lives. If worst happens, we run and call for help,” she said as we trotted away from the house.

* * *

Dirt, ruins, radiation, more dirt, more ruins, and, surprise! More radiation. I hung my head in boredom. I’d given Lost the PipBuck as we left so she could lead our little group without needing to consult me every few steps, but without the little markers in the corner of my vision to keep me busy, everything just started to blend together in one mass of rotten, rusted, wasted pointlessness.

The only bright side to the trip? We took a way that I’d never been before. Every building I could find that wasn’t totally collapsed, I dug through. Over the few hours we walked, I collected a ton of useless trash, broke half-a-dozen bobby pins without managing to open anything, and found a replacement Equestrian Army Today! All in all, it wasn’t a bad haul, and it helped shake the horrible boredom that made every bit of the Wasteland look exactly the same. Were it not for the PipBuck leading us with a map marker, I’d have thought we were walking in circles.

“Hay, sis?” I called to Lost. I pulled my hoof from the trash can I’d dug it into, finding nothing. Oh well, not every spot was a winner. “Do you have a plan for when we get there?”

“I’m thinking up one now,” she answered, not looking back at me.

“Iwas able to find ponies not under the control of your false Goddess,” Xeno chimed in. She wore her slaver barding, the only armor she’d managed across since. Too bad she didn’t want to join the ‘family’ back at Stable Sixty, or she might have something better and less... slaver.

Fine Tune trailed along behind Lost, smiling and watching everything we passed with rapt attention. Whether he wanted to memorize the path to make it back to U Cig like he was conditioned, or just liked the sights, I didn’t know. I just hoped the chitin under his pony form would be enough to protect him in a fight, since he wore no armor. Not that we had any to give him.

“In the tunnels?” I asked. I trotted up close so I could be a part of the conversation. The four of us walked off the mane road, behind the ruined buildings and hopefully where any wandering raiders or other troubled ponies wouldn’t find us.

“Yes, theywere... Helpful. They told me that if Iwere to stay, the Goddesspony would kill me,” the zebra explained. She looked over at me, her deep blue eyes squinting. “Itis the way of your kind.”

“It’s the way of most kinds,” I said. “Even us.”

“She’s not one of our kind, Xeno. She’s a fake, and we’re going to stop her. Whatever reason she might have to kill you, we won’t let it happen,” L.A. said firmly. “And we’re not wandering murderers, we do what we have to to survive, nothing more.” She pointed a hoof off to the side. “Something’s over that way. We’ll come up with a real plan in a sec.” She looked at me and smiled. “Let’s go clear a path.”

Xeno stayed behind to set up with her sniper rifle, while the three of us went down to find out whatever was going on on the PipBuck’s little compass. A short distance away stood a squat steel building that looked particularly well-taken-care-of compared to the rest of the ruins around us.

“Fine Tune, can you check what’s inside?” Lost asked as we approached the back of the building.

The changeling bowed his head. “Of course, Queen,” he chittered, green fire flashing and replacing the unicorn stallion with a pegasus mare dressed in raider scraps. She flitted away, wings flapping at impossible speeds, and disappeared around the corner.

“Think this’ll work?” I asked. Planning for the worst, I checked that Persistence was loaded and rested my mouth on the bit.

“He managed to sneak into the house without either of us knowing, even with the PipBuck. I’m pretty sure he can check out a building and come back to tell us if anything’s inside,” Lost answered, her eyes looking at the ground next to her. Or she might be looking at the PipBuck’s markers, I wasn’t quite sure.

I groaned, not trusting the PipBuck as much as I once had. First Wirepony didn’t have a marker, and then none for Fine Tune. Maybe Praline could fix it? My ear flicked, and I heard the sound of something clanking coming through the wall.

“Here we go,” Lost muttered, pulling out a gun I hadn’t seen before from her saddlebags. She slid it down into the mesh holster attached to her armor’s leg. The grip of the gun read “VB - LS - BS,” with each set of initials carved quite deep, as if somepony had repeated the process several times.

“What’s that?” I asked. I poked the gun with my hoof, more for myself than for her.

“Loyalty.”

“That’s the name you gave the gun?” I asked her. Both my ears skewed forward, listening for anything else past her inside the building.

“That’s the name the PipBuck gave it,” she answered, matter-of-factly.

“I thought you didn’t believe me,” I said, deadpanning. My ear twitched, still listening at the silence behind her.

“Well, no. I don’t really. But it doesn’t matter. Xeno brought it back from U Cig. It looks like a modified plasma pistol. I’m guessing it belonged to Vice Brand? He’s the only pony I can think of that might be trusted with a gun with the initials ‘VB.’ I figured I’d try it out,” she explained, hoisting it up with her magic and pointing to the bits on the front that definitely looked like they didn’t belong.

Before I could get a good look, Fine Tune zipped back out around the side of the building and landed by transforming back into the unicorn stallion. “Emotionless. They’re fighting with a giant radscorpion,” he said, his tail curling up behind him like a radscorpion’s stinger.

“Emotionless?” Lost and I both asked.

“Walking dead ponies. They have no emotions to feed on, we call them Emotionless,” he answered, tilting his head. “What do you call them?”

“They’re called ghouls, or zombies. But, if they’re killing one another, there’s no real need to go in and get hurt,” Lost said, holstering the gun again.

“There’s also a safe in the corner. I didn’t have a chance to unlock it. I’m sorry,” he said. His tail sank back down and hung limply, while his ears pinned back. He looked almost pathetic.

“Wait-a-sec, you can unlock things? Like safes, or our collars?” Lost asked, stomping her forehooves. “Why didn’t you say anything before?”

“Safe? Safes mean treasure,” I said, not listening to my sister’s rant. Suddenly, I thought a radscorpion might be worth it!

Lost looked back and forth between the two of us, then shook her head. Placing a forehoof on her forehead, she sighed. “Alright, alright, we need the supplies and caps. Let’s go,” she said.

We trotted down along the wall of the building, neither my sister nor I letting off our triggers. Lost seemed to do far better levitating the gun than she’d had doing anything with her magic the day before. Xeno’s little potion must have done wonders.

“Go ahead, Hidden, I’ll follow,” Lost said.

I didn’t need any more encouragement. I turned the corner and charged in through the broken doorframe, past the counter, and into the mane floor of what looked like a shop. The front windows were smashed out, which explained how the massive radscorpion got in. Shelves littered the floor of the building, knocked over from the fighting between the zombies and the giant bug-thing. I saw the safe in the corner, but ignored it. I could try and break into it once everything was dead.

At the far end of the room, four zombies swarmed around a giant radscorpion, their rotten hooves scrambling over the shelves as they tried to overwhelm the huge beast. Brainless husks, they couldn’t eat a radscorpion, especially not one that big. The radscorpion stabbed repeatedly at them, the huge bulky stinger on the end of its tail twitching as it chose a target. Eight legs skittered as its sharp claws snapped forward, working the zombies back. Four on one usually meant the one losing, but with a radscorpion bigger than me and my sister combined... Eugh.

None of the zombies paid any attention to me, all uselessly flailing their hooves and trying to bite at the radscorpion. It’d been a long time since I’d seen one last, and... “Oh Goddesses, you are ugly,” I hollered as soon as I got a look at it.

The zombies turned and looked at me, their attention taken from the radscorpion. One didn’t turn fast enough, and got a stinger through the face, but the other three made a beeline over the fallen shelves toward me. I didn’t give them the chance.

Three shots and five bullets later, one stopped moving. The others kept coming, and I backed toward the door. “Sis!” I screamed, not turning away from the approaching mindless zombies. I really needed to learn how to not fire repeatedly from the same shot!

Lost stepped in next to me and leveled the slaver’s pistol up between us. A horribly loud B-KEW floored me. Both zombies in front practically exploded as a cone of plasma erupted from the front of Lost’s gun and turned both into little puddles of goo.

“Goddesses, this thing is amazing!” Lost yelled. Her tail flicked a few times and she smiled wider than I’d ever seen her smile before. “He’s a bastard, but at least he had a nice gun.”

“Just, don’t use it on the radscorpion... It’ll melt anything we can sell off it,” I said, trying not to chide her. I tapped my ear with my hoof a few times, making sure I wasn’t deaf. Satisfied with my hearing, I pushed myself up and turned on the hideous radscorpion, just in time to see it dislodge the zombie’s corpse and charge us.

I didn’t want to look, but I knew I needed to. Focusing on my sister to my side instead, I bit down and unloaded the remaining bullets with a much quieter BANG! The two shots hit, but it didn’t stop.

Wonderful. We split up and ran in different directions.

The scorpion ran after me. I winced. Worst. Bug. Ever! Radroaches were fine, they’d spook me if they caught me by surprise, but weren’t scary. Radioactive ants were somewhat fascinating as long as they didn’t touch me. Radscorpions though, even regular sized ones? They were ugly and freaky and had way too many little legs and stingers and eyes and eww!

I kicked the reload lever as I ran, sticking to the wall. I kept moving, waiting the agonizing few seconds as another magazine slid into place. Hitting a wall, I turned. I’d faced worse, one radscorpion, even a giant one? Easy! I galloped hard, jumping over an overturned shelf and landing with a crash. Cans and bottle scattered everywhere, tripping me up.

My hooves went out from under me, and I spun a few times. Finally, I came to a stop, facing the skittering, ugly bastard. I didn’t know whether to count myself as lucky or not! I chomped the bit, shifting as best I could on the moving surface to aim.

Seven shots ripped through its face, tearing through the black chitin armor that protected it from the worst the Wasteland threw at it.

Nine bullets to the head did the job. It collapsed in stride, and skidded across the cans and bottles.

“No, no. Stop, please!” I yelled, pushing myself back as fast as I could.

It came to a stop half an inch from my face. I clenched my eyes closed. I hated how these things looked. We already had manticores to fill the ‘giant monster with a stinger and stabby bits on its front whatevers,’ did we really need gigantic radioactive scorpions too?

“Nice job,” Lost said from across the room.

With my eyes still screwed shut, I pushed myself up off the floor and carefully felt my way back over to the entrance. I walked over the shelves back to my sister, only to find Fine Tune already digging through the contents of the safe. He tossed out some bullets, a bag of bits, and a memory orb.

“Hay, how’d you do that?” I asked. If I’d tried picking the lock it might have taken me hours, depending on how tough it was, if I even succeeded in the end at all. “Is there a trick or something?”

“Practice. The old Queen sold me off, I’d break free, return. Good racket. Lots of caps,” he answered, shrugging. “Learned a thing or two!” He smiled wide and passed the bullets to me. “I’m good at sneaking and hiding and breaking into places, can’t do much else.”

“Well, none of us are any good at opening locks, thank you, Fine Tune,” Lost said, patting him on the head with her hoof. She snatched the memory orb up and slid it into her saddlebags. “I’ll check this later, when we’re safe. Let’s get everything we can and go back to Xeno. We’ve been making good time today, we’ll be in Skirt soon enough.”

We broke up and dug through the building, taking every can of food, every bottle of Sparkle~Cola. I even found something I hadn’t come across in a long time, a sealed bottle of Sunrise Sarsaparilla! Happy with our haul of treasure, we ran back to Xeno.

“You didnot need me for the fight?” the zebra asked, sounding almost hurt.

“Sorry, we didn’t know what we were up against until we were down there. Next time?” I offered, trying to make her feel better. She was a part of the team, and since she’d gotten involved in as a friend, rather than a traveling companion, I didn’t want to leave her out.

“Alright, Hiddenpony,” she said, all traces of sadness gone.

We started off toward Skirt again, the boredom and monotony finally gone.

* * *

The music over the PipBuck died down, much to the collective groan of our little group. For the past few hours that’d been the only thing keeping us occupied as we walked. The Wasteland proved to be fairly dull once we resupplied at the store with the giant radscorpion, and Lost felt safe enough to play some music for us all. The DJ’d been quiet, leaving several songs to loop over and over through the afternoon.

Fine Tune enjoyed the trip more than the rest of us, spending the entire time hopping on his hooves. Whether because he fed off our enjoyment of the music, or because he enjoyed it just that much, I didn’t know.

Still, having my mind full of music kept any lingering claws or whispers from the slavers from slipping in. All in all, I’d had worse trips. Whenever we got back to Pommel Falls, I’d be giving Praline a big hug for the gift of the broadcaster.

“Sapphire Shores, everypony, singing songs to soothe our souls for the...” yelled the DJ’s voice across the broadcaster. “Well, I’ve lost count of how many times. Now, I hope all you wastelanders are stayin’ safe out there! I’ve got some news for you all. It seems I’ve messed up some of my facts in the past few weeks. Now, I know what you’re thinking, ‘But DJ Pon3, you always tell the truth, even when it hurts.’ That’s true, and that’s why I report everything I find, even if I have to eat my words and issue a retraction.”

I trotted closer to my sister, hoping to hear something about the hero pony he’d told us all about before. Since I’d been without the radio for a week, I really wanted to catch up on whatever I’d missed. We all stopped and listened, Fine Tune still quietly grumbling about the lack of music.

“A little-known slaver settlement on the eastern edge of the city of Blackhoof went up in flames, and you’ll never guess who's reportedly responsible. Well, not unless you tend to guess headless heroes! That's right my little ponies, the local hero Gunbuck has somehow made an encore performance, back from the grave. Now information is sparse at best here, so we have no idea if this really is the resurrected hero, or his vengeful spirit, a case of mistaken identity, or those Ashen colts just killed the wrong stallion! Whatever the case, somepony is still fighting the good fight out there, and in honor of the occasion, let’s throw on an old favorite: ‘The Dark Days are Over,’ a classic by a mare you all know well by now. Sweetie Belle, take us away!”

I stared at the PipBuck on my sister’s leg, my jaw nearly on the ground. I looked up at Lost, who shared my expression. Both of us, at the same time, turned and stared at Xeno.

The zebra blinked several times and shrugged. “I donot know. This is a pony radio, not zebra. We donot know how he gathers information. Itis what I had to do to save the two ponies I know,” she stammered.

“Well, if the Wasteland thinks there’s a hero alive down here, we should use that to our advantage,” I said, looking back at the PipBuck as it blared out another song from a dead world. “Putting the fear of the Goddesses into slavers might help us. Hopefully they heard the broadcast too. I know he’s dead and buried. But...” I let out a long slow breath, thinking. “That doesn’t mean everypony knew, or heard the initial broadcast.”

“I remember hearing the DJ while we were in Skirt last time,” said L.A. “This could be a mixed blessing. If they heard, they’ll either be preparing for an attack by a ‘hero,’ or they’ll be scrambling and scared.” She said the word ‘hero’ with such disdain, I was taken aback. I thought she wanted to be heroic? Lost looked down at the PipBuck and clicked the radio off. “Whatever rumor went around saying he did it, let them keep the illusion.”

Fine Tune practically deflated, sinking to the floor and staring at the PipBuck. “Can’t we just keep the music playing?” he asked, ignoring the talk we all had about the dead stallion.

“We’re almost there as it is. Let’s get our plan situated, I don’t want anything to happen and get us captured or killed,” Lost said, and hugged me with one foreleg. “Tell me about the tunnels?”

“Thereare many ponies who do not trust the one you called a goddess,” Xeno explained.

“They called her an alicorn,” I added.

“Goddess, alicorn. It doesnot matter. The ponies told me that I would be killed. They tried to protect me, something few ponies have done,” Xeno said with a grimace. She pulled the helmet she’d taken from the slavers down over her eyes, matting her mane down further. “Iam... surprised. Iam not the most hated thing they have seen.”

“I’m more worried about alicorns than zebras, too. You can’t cast a shield that protects you from heavy weapons fire, or regenerate in radiation,” I said, giving her a look. Xeno couldn’t heal in radiation, right? She practically ignored the stuff, but it didn’t heal her, did it?

“The tunnels cross between many buildings. The ponies who donot trust the alicorn live below. Several ponies move between the surface and the tunnels, they bring food, water, news. Itis like a small...” the zebra said, with a pause. She said something in zebra, squinting one eye. “Society? Is this the correct word?”

“Sounds about right,” Lost answered. She sat down and stared at her PipBuck, tapping away at the screen. Her ears twitched back and forth, listening to everything Xeno said.

“I met them too, a stallion named Button and a mare named Willow,” I said. I sat myself down as well, giving my hooves a rest after the day of walking. I slid my saddlebags off and pulled them around, then dug through for some food. If we were going to be going in for an assault, or even sneaking in, then it was best to go in fed and fully prepared. I passed my sister and Xeno each some old-world food and a bottle of Sparkle~Cola. Hideous giant radscorpion or not, that building held a manticore’s share of loot.

Actually, if the radscorpion made its home in that building, that might explain why it hadn’t been looted already. I bit into my snack cake.

“Thank you, Hiddenpony,” Xeno said, taking the snacks. She passed the second one to my sister, who snagged it in her telekinesis. “I met both of those ponies, they told me of a stranger. Iwould like to talk with them again. They should be able to help.”

“Okay, so. We sneak in, find a way underground, and go for ponies we can trust?” Lost asked. She levitated her snack up and took a bite, still tinkering with the PipBuck. “We make a plan from there, then find a way to kill the alicorn, or at least make it so they can’t work as slavers anymore.”

We all nodded. Lost looked up from the PipBuck at us and smiled. “That’s a plan then. We wait until darkness, and then head in.”

Together we all looked at the city in the distance, just close enough that we could see the path through the hills that lead in. I took a deep breath. Sneaking wasn’t my speciality, especially with a clanking metal hoof. But if Lost thought we could do it, I trusted her.

We waited.

* * *

Most residential areas didn’t stand up as well as the reinforced industrial buildings. Nothing I’d seen so far looked as nice as that little ring of buildings when being taken to U Cig, but the spot we’d decided to wait in was the worst so far. We hunkered down behind the single remaining wall of what once was a home. All around us, I saw rusted steel supports and destruction, the remains of houses worn down to nothing but the four corner posts and the occasional cross support. A few chimneys still stood, but for the most part, I found myself surrounded by a forest of twisted steel and broken stucco in nice little squares all around.

“I’m going to go check some closer ruins. Get what I can while we wait,” I said. I kicked a small chunk of concrete with my steel hoof, already bored. Even with the music playing, I couldn’t stand waiting. I needed to get out and do something.

“Don’t go too far Hidden, stay where I can see you, at least on the E.F.S.,” Lost said. She lay on a flat section of a fallen wall, checking over Loyalty. “We’re not going anywhere until sundown, so make sure you’re back before that.”

“Okay. Either of you want to... come...” I asked Xeno and Fine Tune, trailing off. Both lay napping across from my sister. “Well, I suppose that’s what happens when you stay up all night brewing potions and elixirs.” I shrugged. “I’ll be close by.”

“Be safe, sis.”

I nodded to her and trotted off. Stay close and stay safe. I could do both those things. I picked a square of wall supports at random, as I crossed the street, and walked over to it. I sidestepped the still-standing door and walked through the doorway. Whistling at the carnage, I started digging. Unfortunately, nothing was worth keeping. I left through one of the missing walls and tried the next house.

For what felt like hours, I moved from house to house, rifling through everything inside, before moving to the next. The trip ended up being a big circle around where Lost waited with Xeno and Fine Tune. I couldn’t go too far away or else the collar might still go off. With so few houses to look through, there wasn’t much to find, but I made it worth it. Several usable scraps found their way into my bags. The occasional stockpile of ammo for home defense went in too, plus the two pistols I’d found that somepony who died ages ago once kept for emergencies like the end of the world.

Too bad they’d never served their purpose.

I bucked one of the rusted supports a few times to give it a nice recognizable shape. The house had a safe in it, but I figured I’d save my own bobby pins since Lost could ask Fine Tune to crack it much faster than I could. I looked up just in time to get covered in dust. Flinching and coughing, I ducked back behind the safe. So much for staying sa... I looked at the safe in front of me and kicked it with my steel hoof. “Not funny,” I said to it.

“Why am I talking to a safe?” I asked nopony in particular. The dust cloud came from somewhere though. Wiping my face with a hoof, I peeked up and past the safe to see what was going on.

A gigantic blue-coated pony landed a few blocks down in another section of the ruins. She stood still for a moment, her mane waving as she looked back and forth. Wings folding, she sat on her haunches. Next to her horn, at a strange angle, stuck a steel rod. The far end of it stuck out the back of her head, parting her mane.

The alicorn from Skirt.

“Shit!” I swore under my breath. Crouching down, I crawled through the ruins of the building until I got behind the remains of the chimney. If she caught me, I’d be back in Mistress’ clutches. I couldn’t let that happen. I’d rather have the collar go off than go back to her! Swallowing my fear, I curled up on the ground, and pulled my hooves up close. I had to be as small as possible. I needed to hear her, we needed a weakness to exploit. I could do this.

A voice in my head, one I didn’t recognize, began screaming. “Why do they hide from Us-!” it yelled, so loud it would have been deafening if it weren’t in my own mind.

I clamped my hooves over my ears, dropping to the ground.

Ahh! The screaming stopped, and my own voice took over in my mind. Did she know about the ponies in the tunnels? I looked back where my sister and the others waited. I could go back and get her, but the alicorn might leave before that. Maybe she heard that horrible voice? I looked down at my jacket. I blended in now, I wouldn’t stand out like, well, a white pony on a brown Wasteland. Persistence could easily look like a piece of steel or rotten wood if I didn’t move.

I took a deep breath and moved closer, as slow as I could. A sneaky pony I was not, but walking on three hooves, I managed to get within two houses’ distance, and stay low enough that I was out of sight.

“She has not come! We- are in need of guidance!” shouted the alicorn’s voice in my mind. “Why has Our- messenger abandoned Us-” She screamed for help, the stutter whenever she referred to herself jarring my thoughts. At least I was starting to get used to the volume.

I looked at Persistence. Could I just take her out now, without waiting until we got there? Killing her now would save us a ton of trouble.

I shifted and placed my mouth on the bit. One shot through her head. That should kill her. She might be able to survive getting shot through the side and having her wing ruined. Right now though, we were free of any radiation and she couldn’t heal. One shot.

She didn’t see me though. I could get away without killing her. I snapped my tail back and forth a few times, weighing my options. She hurt ponies, enslaved ponies. I didn’t absolutely have to kill her though. I didn’t feel like I was in any immediate danger, aside from some pain in my hooves. Orders...

“We need to know how We can save them,” she said out loud, in a quiet voice. “Our daughters no longer believe in Unity. Rumors taint their thoughts. We cannot find the ones responsible. We need help.” She sounded sad, and almost remorseful.

Save them? She sold me into slavery! I leveled Persistence at her. This was necessary!

“We have been lied to, We know this now,” she said, the stutter completely gone. “But why...”

“We- don’t doubt her! She does the work We- are unable to! We- cannot get this across!” shouted the voice, so loud I thought it would tear through my head. The alicorn stood, her eyes opening wide. She screamed out loud. Her horn glowed, and lightning lanced from it, smashing the ancient support beams of a building across the road. “Why can Our- thoughts no longer reach?” she yelled directly into my brain, thrashing and destroying the remains of a home.

She’d said that before, where she couldn’t contact her Goddess. I crouched lower, worried I might get caught by one of her attacks. She thrashed a few more times, casting her shield and firing off lightning at the ruins, flapping her wings before giving up. Spent, she sat down and hung her head.

“We need guidance. Something’s very wrong. We cannot place it,” she said, her voice barely a whisper. I thanked the Goddesses she’d stopped talking into my head. She scratched at the back of her own head, just below the steel rod.

Persistence shook at my side. No matter what, she was evil and needed to be put down. Protection, slavery, I... I lowered my gun, feeling sick.

“We merely want to protect Our daughters. We do not understand why this is becoming so difficult,” she said, her voice wavering. Tears rolled down her cheeks. She looked at the damage she’d wrought, then opened her wings and flew away. The sound of sobbing faded to silence.

I closed my eyes, shying away from the cloud of centuries-old dust and dirt. What in the Goddesses’ name was that about? I waited until she disappeared in the distance, then scrambled back to my sister.

“I sha da aricun,” I said breathlessly. Still covered in dust, I hadn’t taken my mouth off my battle saddle’s bit since I saw the pony I’d once seen as a goddess.

“You what?” Lost asked. She set Loyalty aside and looked up at me, her brows furrowed.

I released the bit. “I saw the alicorn,” I answered. “She flew over, said she needed guidance, destroyed some things, and flew away.”

“I didn’t hear anything,” she said. Tilting her head down, she looked over the rims of her glasses. “Did you go past the E.F.S. range?”

I blanched and said nothing. The fact that she sounded worried and not upset stung. I knew I wasn’t the best at being a thinky pony, but... “I... I just lost track of it!” I said, backpedaling. I slumped down and curled up, trying to make myself as small as possible.

With a sigh, Lost stood and walked over to me. “Did she see you?” she asked, placing a hoof on my shoulder. When I shook my head, she hugged me. “Good, then we stick to the plan. We’ll get her.”

I nodded, staying curled up. Before we ‘got her’ I wanted to know exactly how she and Mistress met and worked together. If I wanted my revenge, I needed as much information as I could get. And if she really was an avatar of the Goddess, could we even ‘get her?’ Was she even the villain anymore?

* * *

The sun sank past the clouds, casting long shadows from the forest of steel that surrounded us. Xeno and Fine Tune still lay asleep next to me. Lost had her head against the memory orb taken from the shop. I sat on watch, unable to sleep again. A real rest would be nice, but we needed to act fast, before Mistress could recuperate and start looking for us again.

I picked at my steel hoof, digging out an errant twig from the hinge. The first thing I’d have Praline do when we saw her again was look at it. After Vice Brand almost ripped it off, I knew it needed a going-over. At least it still worked and didn’t hurt. Who knew, maybe she could set me up with some other steel armor to match the hoof. I looked at my shackles...

Maybe not.

Lost groaned and sat up. She turned and looked at me, smiled, and put the memory orb in her saddlebags. “Shorter one, that time. Not bad though,” she said, cracking her neck.

“What’d you see inside?” I asked.

“First day on the job at that store, husband and wife wanted to keep the memory. Some pony named Trust Fund interrupted them,” she answered with a shrug. “Nothing too interesting.” She looked up at the sky, her eyes trailing down toward the sunset. “Almost time.”

“Yeah, do you think we can sneak in the same way as before? By sneaking up into one of the buildings and break down a false wall,” I said. I didn’t know if we could make that trek without being detected.

“Depends on which way’s easiest. Let’s wake up Xeno and ask her how she got in.”

“Right.”

L.A. stood up and walked over to the two of them, both still nicely asleep and looking quite peaceful. It seemed Fine Tune knew how to keep his little disguise up even while unconscious. My sister prodded Xeno with a hoof until she started to rouse. “C’mon, wake up,” she said, barely above a whisper.

Xeno answered with something in her native tongue, swatting the offending hoof away and rolled back over.

“Well, I never thought of her as wanting five more minutes,” Lost mused. She clicked the PipBuck and placed it between the two of them, letting music play quietly. Her horn glowed, and I heard a click. The music got a bit louder. She turned the volume up a few more times, before Xeno finally woke up.

The zebra flailed her forehoof a bit, trying to find the source of the noise. After a moment, she gave up and sat up on her haunches. “What do you want?” she asked.

“Time to get ready,” my sister answered. She nudged Fine Tune, causing him to make a few quiet chirps in his sleep. He woke up after a few more nudges, and we all sat in a circle.

“So, plan?” I asked. I folded my forehooves in front of me and rested my chin on them.

“Well, I need to know exactly how to get to these tunnels you two saw, so we can get in without alerting the alicorn,” L.A. said. She sat back and stared at the PipBuck. “I’ve got a map, but it only zooms in so close.”

“I only know about the way I found in. Through the wall in the apartment building,” I said. All I could do was shrug, I didn’t really know anything else. “I couldn’t even tell where I was, there weren’t any lights inside.”

“Thatis on purpose, they donot want others to find it,” Xeno said. She grabbed the slaver helmet and put it over her mohawk, flattening it over one side of her face. “Thereare several openings. I donot know if we can get into them, the ponies had a week. They might have closed them after what happened.” She shrugged.

“Well, that’s still our best bet,” Lost said. She stood and collected he r things with her magic. She didn’t start to breathe heavily or break out in sweats. Maybe she finally got over whatever Sunbright did to her... Even the chip in her horn looked almost completely gone.

I looked over at the setting sun as it began slipping behind the mountains. The first step to toppling Mistress’ empire of slaves started now. I placed my hoof against the collar. She’d pay, oh how she’d pay. “Lead the way, sis.”

We fell into line behind Lost. Xeno stood next to her, giving little hints on where to go to stay out of sight. We followed silently, not wanting the alicorn to spot us. I didn’t know if she even needed to sleep, but we couldn’t take any chances.

The trip took us around the actual entrance, past it and over one of the smaller ridges. Hiking up it proved difficult, but with the help of Fine Tune and his wings, we managed to get over and down the other side. Once in town, Xeno took lead. She snuck us through the outskirts, far beyond the mane road and the radiation, tucked nice and close to the ridges that shot up to the mountains. If we got caught, we’d have nowhere to go.

“Itis here, follow quietly,” Xeno said, crouching down and moving from our hiding spot to the nearest building.

When I finally died and met the Goddesses, I’d have to find whoever thought it was a good idea to build this close to the mountains, and thank them personally. I’d have to thank them for not making those little claws in my mind come back so much, either. I worried, somewhere deep down, that they’d rear their ugly... claws? Then again, knowing this town's secrets probably kept them at bay.

I looked up, only to see the same building I’d found the entrance in before. That made sense, at least. I followed Xeno, staying as low as I could while still balancing the battle saddle on my back. With the sun so far down below the mountains behind us, I had trouble following her. Idly, I wondered if Lamington’s new eye had a night-vision mode.

Xeno stopped at the back entrance and looked around. The rest of us did the same, getting close and watching all around for anypony who might wander back and get us killed.

“Not seeing anything on the E.F.S.,” Lost said. “Are you sure this is the right place?” She looked down, back and forth, at the corners of her eyes. Facehoofing herself, she lit her horn up and gave us just the smallest amount of light to see by. “Sorry, forgot I could do that.”

We all laughed, just a little. It didn’t last long, as anypony could walk by at any second. Even with the E.F.S., that’d only be a warning. Xeno slammed her hoof on the wall a few times.

We waited.

“Where are they?” I asked after what seemed like an hour. I shuffled my hooves, feeling particularly antsy. What if Mistress decided that tonight would be her night to show up to collect more? If she or Slipstock found me...

“As I said, they have moved. The door is known, they are secretive ponies. We must find another way in,” Xeno answered. She stood and looked away. This wouldn’t be good.

“Any ideas?” I asked.

“Well, I have one...” Lost offered. “We’ll try the innkeeper. He was ‘busy’ last time, and that might have been from dealing with the tunnel ponies. Best place to start Plan B.”

We darted across the alleyways and to the inn. The process actually seemed kind of funny, since everypony in town was asleep, or at least not out and about. We’d snuck in for no reason. I wanted to laugh, but safety first...

Fine Tune entered the apartment building first, and I followed him. The counter sat exactly where it’d been before, with the stool behind it set right in place for the tiny unicorn stallion. With nopony inside, I kicked the door once and let Xeno and my sister in. “What now?”

“Now we break in.”

“Sounds good to me,” I said. I hopped over the counter, knocking the stool down, and started digging through the keys just like last time. “Xeno, did they get you in our room at all, or did they take you elsewhere?” I asked her, still digging about for the same room key. Which room was it?

“I awoke in their care,” she answered.

“Wonderful, okay,” I said, pulling a set of keys out with my teeth. I set them on the counter. “Second floor, right?”

“Yeah.”

“I heard a stallion after they got you. I checked, I... Hold, hold on,” I said, wracking my brain. I knew this. Far too much had happened to me in the past week. It was all jumbled in my head, and I needed a minute to think. Something to jar my memory of exactly what happened while I searched for Lost.

Right... Second floor. Okay. I grabbed all the keys that I could, and laid them out. We could search all of them if we had to. Two sets of each. There were three before. There might be guests. “Okay, I checked back first just in case, after you both went missing. Figured you might have run back in case you forgot something. While I was up there, I heard a stallion walking around, and he disappeared.” I nodded a few times, looking back and forth between each of them. I moved one set of keys to each of them.

“Do you have a plan, Hidden?” my sister asked. She snatched up the sets of keys before I could answer.

“No, just an idea. You make the plans, mine are... Never good. Just,” I said, my words falling flat. My decisions got ponies killed. I could let L.A. plan this. She knew me well enough and could finish my thoughts.

“Check each room?” Lost finished for me.

“If that’s what you think is best,” I answered with a smile.

She motioned for me to jump over the counter again, and we started upstairs.

The second floor looked exactly like I remembered it. Down the hallway were four doors, two on each side. I let my hooves take me where they’d been before. Even with the shackles digging in, everything felt exactly the same, and I stepped right in front of the door to the room we’d stayed in.

“Can’t be this one,” I said, more of myself thinking out loud.

“Let’s check this one first then,” Lost said, motioning to the door across the hall. She tossed a key to Fine Tune. “Will you open it?” she asked.

Fine Tune caught the key in his teeth, and did as his queen asked. He pushed the door open and stepped inside. No screams or accusations of an intruder came from inside the door. We all trotted in and looked around, except for me. I didn’t have time for it. I wanted to know how to get down there, now. I reared up and smashed my forehooves into the wall.

“So much for being quiet,” Lost muttered.

Nothing. I moved over and did it again, and again, while my sister, Xeno, and Fine Tune watched.

Sometimes, the best way to get what I wanted was to be rough.

Slamming the wall again, my steel hoof pushed through the wall and got stuck. Close enough. I twisted my leg and pulled the panel away. Just as I expected, there was a hallway behind the fake wall. I looked at the edge, lined up with the stripes in the wall. “Found it.”

* * *

Xeno took point and led us down the twisting path through the buildings walls and down into the ground underneath. With Lost to keep the hallway lit with her cheater magic, the tunnels weren’t anywhere near as unsettling as before. The thudding of our hooves on the rock floor masked the quiet murmur and distant chatter of voices I now knew were friendly ponies.

“Are we close?” I asked, dodging to keep from scraping Persistence against the walls. They really needed to widen these.

“Compared to where we started, very,” the zebra answered. Without looking back, she took a turn and disappeared completely.

Lost trotted forward and turned the corner as well, leaving Fine Tune and me to follow the dim glow of her light spell as it slowly faded down the other hallway.

I took a deep breath. Everything down here felt colder, but I liked it. The fear I’d had last time, hearing the sound of chains as I wandered the darkness, didn’t get to me. My sister and friends were here, and Xeno seemed to trust whoever might be down here.

“Itis this way,” Xeno called back to us, her voice echoing around the walls.

Minutes seemed to stretch to hours as we walked, before Xeno finally held up short and yelled back, “Stop.” She pushed a small door open and crouched down. “Itis here,” she said, and disappeared through it.

L.A. followed her, dropping down and squeezing through. Fine Tune went through next, then I crawled myself, having to shift back and forth a few times to get Persistence to fit.

“Okay so, now wha-” I said, the words getting caught in my throat.

A dim light flickered in the corner, illuminating three ponies standing across from us. One mare with silver eyes that looked so very familiar, and two stallions. Both stallions held small caliber guns in their mouths.

Fuck.

“H-how’d you find us, Slaver?” asked the mare. Her voice cracked, barely able to keep up. I knew this mare: Willowwisp. She and... I looked at the two stallions. To the left, a gaudy blue and green earth pony who looked far too tired to be on guard duty. To the right, a shorter earth pony with a coat the same color as the red wine I’d seen Lost drinking once. I couldn’t see anything else about them, or their cutie marks.

“We aren’t slavers,” L.A. said. She tapped the collar around her neck a few times for emphasis.

The short stallion spit the gun from his mouth into his hoof and took an awkward step forward. “You look like it, especially the one with the white mane,” he said, pointing the gun-holding hoof at Xeno.

She blinked a few times, then laughed. “You do not recognize me,” she said, still laughing. “Itis just barding.” She took the slaver helmet from her head, letting her white and off-white mane stand up in a mohawk again. “Iam Xeno, do you not remember, Willowpony?”

The mare seemed to relax, but didn’t motion for the other pony to put his weapon down. “Why are you dressed like that? You’ll lead her here!” she yelled, her voice hoarse as she tried to keep the volume down. Her eyes passed over the group of us, before finally falling on me. “You! B-Button told you if you led Rebar here he’d kill you! Sour Punch!” she yelled, pointing at me.

The big blue stallion didn’t hesitate. He canted his head and fired a shot at me.

I didn’t even hear the gun go off, but I felt it. The bullet slammed into my steel hoof and ricocheted off, sending a horrible rattle up my leg. “Fuck!” I yelled, pulling my leg up and stepping back a few times.

Willowwisp gasped, taken aback. “That was supposed to be-”

“-a warning shot?” Lost’s horn lit up beside me, and one of the plasma pistols taken from the slavers slid from her saddlebag, though not the modified one from Vice Brand. She squinted her eyes and fired. Three loud B-KEWs echoed as the shots went off one after another. With the targeting assistance of S.A.T.S., all three hit their mark, splashing the stallion’s coat with green and black explosions.

The pony’s forelegs melted past the knees, turning into a sickening green goop. Blood poured from the open wounds, mixing with the mush beneath. He collapsed to the side, screaming.

“There’s mine,” Lost said over the screams. She turned the gun on the other stallion. “Now that I have your attention, I repeat: We’re not slavers. We came here to kill the alicorn, not sell you out to her! You’ve no idea what we’ve been through thanks to that bitch and her mob.” She rapped her collar again. “Now, put your fucking guns down so we can talk. Or I’ll kill every last one of you for hurting my sister.”

But I wasn’t hurt. I looked down at my steel hoof, and marveled at Praline’s work. There wasn’t even a dent. Just what happened to Lost to make her jump to violence so quickly? It wasn’t how we operated. It wasn’t how Lost operated.

“Fine!” Willowwisp screamed, waving frantically to the other stallion to lower his gun. “Just...” She dropped down next to Sour. “How do I fix this?!”

“Xeno, toss him a potion. Sign of goodwill,” Lost ordered.

“What happened to you, sis?” I asked her, taking a few steps back.

“A week with Sunbright taught me how to deal with ponies threatening somepony you love. Sometimes you need to just act,” she answered.

* * *

“Didn’t I tell you we’d kill you if you came back?” Button yelled. The unicorn stallion kicked a nightstand over with his forehoof, and glared at me. The dim light made his dark coat almost blend into the background. If it weren’t for the piercing red eyes or the brown tangled mop of his mane, I’d be hard-pressed to think there was actually a pony there. “You’ve made quite the argument against survival already, nearly killing one of my friends.”

Lost, Xeno, Fine and I all stood against the wall of another room in their little tunnel system, with the stallion standing in front of a bed, carefully pushed against the far wall. Willowwisp and the unharmed stallion we’d seen when we first came in surrounded him, acting as a guard. The toppled nightstand lay against the opposite wall.

“If you had plans to kill us, they’re laughably inefficient,” Lost said, her voice venomous. “And besides, have you seen the alicorn since we’ve been down here? Obviously not. We were careful.”

“Mmm,” Button said, scowling at us. He looked at Xeno. “These two have collars. As does that one.” The buck indicated Fine Tune. “In fact, you’ve brought quite a few slaves back. If you’re planning on taking us too...”

My sister glared right back. “If I wanted to fuck you over, she’d be here already,” she said, pulling the stallion’s attention from Xeno back to her. “Now shut the fuck up. We’re here to give you all a shot at killing the alicorn-”

“Rebar?” Button asked, cutting her off. “You came back... To kill the giant pony that looks like a goddess. Who has somehow managed to persuade and secret away dozens of our mares over the past few months.” He placed his hoof to his face, and laughed. “The pony who can create a shield that stops bullets, shoots lightning from her horn, and not only survives radiation, but regenerates in it?!” he yelled, causing the other ponies in the room to cower.

“Yes,” my sister answered, matter-of-factly.

Xeno and Fine Tune kept silent, not doing anything to get between the angry stallion and my sister. Button’s stallion didn’t make a move either, though he still held his gun. Without provocation, they simply stood there and watched apprehensively.

“This town and the fake goddess who leads it sold us to the slavers. Doesn’t matter if it wasn’t you who personally made the sale. You didn’t do shit to stop it,” Lost’s eyes narrowed. “I came here to give you a chance, a chance to be free from hiding in your little holes and tunnels. You call this living? We escaped from the place this bastard town sold us to, and burned U Cig to the ground in the process. We came here to work together. If you won’t help us, then you’re no better than the alicorn for not standing up to her,” she said. Her hoof clanked against the collar again. She slid the detonator away. “If you’re so terrified of the alicorn, Rebar? That her name?”

“That’s what we call her,” Willowwisp answered.

“Rebar, then. Why don’t you just kill her? Shield and healing notwithstanding, she can’t be immortal,” Lost continued. “Or are you just too comfortable, hiding in cellars, safe and sound, while others get sold off?” She pointed at the unicorn mare across from us. “Your cutie mark, a gilded cage. Same as a collar. It might as well be a gilded hole in the ground, full of sniveling, backstabbing cowards.”

The tunnel ponies turned to look at Willowwisps’ cutie mark, realization slowly dawning. She looked at it herself, then turned back to us. The scared, almost sad look in her eye disappeared. Instead I saw resolve. “I got it hiding from that monster,” snapped the mare. She stomped, hard enough to make herself wince. “Surviving!”

Lost looked down at the PipBuck, then over to me and smiled. “Surviving by hiding and lettings others be sold off! You’re just as bad as she is,” she yelled, pointing an accusing hoof at the tunnel ponies. “Ever hear the name Gunbuck mentioned on the radio? The now ‘legendary’ hero who took down a slaver city the other day? Are you going to stand in the way of that, or help make this town a better place?”

“This is how we survive,” snapped Button. “It’s better here, with our freedom, than it is joining whatever unity she offers or being killed by her or the slavers for non-compliance!”

“If you’re not interested in being free, fine! When we burn this shithole of a town to the ground, you can burn with her!” Lost snapped. “Either you help us, or you’re not worth saving.” She grabbed her collar with her magic and shook it a few times. “We already broke free once. Would you rather rot down here, or fight for freedom?”

“Freedom?” Button asked, his voice dripping acid. “I see a zebra we took pity on and tried to save, wearing the barding of the slavers, and you want me to accept that you broke free? I’m not a foal!”

Obviously not; even foals had more common sense than he did.

Button turned, flicking his tail at us. “We stay down here for a reason. And we don’t like slavers anywhere near our home.”

“Iam no slaver,” said Xeno, before Lost could start again. She tossed the slaver helmet down in protest.

“What if they’re telling the truth, Button?” asked Willowwisp. The small mare looked back and forth between us, particularly at Xeno. “She seemed nice when we saved her from Rebar. We should give them a chance. If we can kill Rebar, we could go back to living up top.”

I sighed. This could end horribly. Unless we got them to trust us, on just our word, we’d have to fight our way out. I couldn’t let them kill me, or L.A., or any of my friends. If they came at us again... My ears folded down, and I took a deep breath.

No killing unless I had to. That was the rule. Lost had this under control.

“We survive by staying away from them, by only interacting when we need to. I’ve told you this, time and time again Willow,” Button said to her. That message sounded awfully familiar, even down to the tone of his voice...

“Just like mom,” I whispered. I looked over at Lost, catching her with a dazed look on her face. I nudged her with a hoof.

“Yeah,” she whispered back. She closed her eyes and sighed. “Okay, so are we going to work together, or are you going to cower down here while we handle this?” she asked, stepping forward.

The guard stallion seemed to wake up, his eyes opening wide, gun rising and trailing on my sister. I raised Persistence at him. He took a step back, looked to Button and Willowwisp, and waited.

For several long moments nopony said a word.

I looked at my sister, hoping she had a plan. With Xeno and Fine Tune defaulting to whatever her decision was, we didn’t have a lot going for us. It was all up to Lost, now.

“What do we do now?” I asked in a whisper.

She looked back and me, and shrugged. “Pray that Celestia and Luna watch over us,” she answered.

Finally, Button turned to us. He ran his hoof over his mane, pushing the erratic tangles back. “Coming back here was either brilliant, or completely idiotic. Willow thinks we shouldn’t off you right away, and the firefight would probably kill us all.” He stared right at me. “She’s the one that made me spare you in the first place, and I’m inclined to trust her on this.”

“Come now, ponies,” Xeno said. “I have come to repay the debt for saving me. It has taken time because I needed to save the sisters, here.” Xeno waved her hoof at the two of us. The armor fell to the floor, and she stepped forward. “You see, ponies, the way I look, coat or barding, itis not what makes me who I am. To work together would help us all.”

“This is all a farce,” said my sister. Her horn lit up, now fully healed and glowing a bright blue. Her glasses lifted from her nose and she moved them away to inspect the lenses. “You call us slaves? How many slaves do you know who hold their own key?” Setting her glasses back on her nose, she lifted the detonator from her saddlebags.

Fine Tune stared at it, unblinking. “The crown,” he whispered.

Lost tucked the detonator back into her bags. “I’m done waiting around. What’s your choice?”

Willowwisp opened her mouth to say something, but Button cut her off.

“Look, you can go take on Rebar, but none of us can risk it,” he answered. “She doesn’t know how many of us live down here, and we risk exposing ourselves if we fail.” He looked back at the shorter mare and forced a thin smile. “Even a life in hiding is better than death.”

“But...” Willowwisp said.

“Go,” the stallion said. “Do what you have to, but I have too many lives depending on me. I can’t risk just throwing everything away because you think you have a chance.” Button sighed and sat down, not looking Lost in the eye. “We won’t stand in the way, and if you kill her, we’ll do what we can to make this place better, and keep the slavers away. Willow, lead them out.” He looked us over, his red eyes catching the light in an almost frightening way. “The back way.”

L.A. picked up Xeno’s helmet in her magic, and passed it back to the zebra. “One last thing. Are there any big magnets in the area?” she asked.

Almost in unison, all of us raised eyebrows at my sister, a general look of confusion washing over everypony in the room’s face.

“I... have no idea,” answered Willowwisp.

“Hmm. Have to make a new plan then. Let’s go,” Lost said. She started toward the door that lead to the common room we’d entered through. “They can hide. We have slavers to kill.”

* * *

“What in the Goddesses’ names was that, Lost Art?” I asked, barely able to keep my voice to a whisper.

We stood outside the entrance we’d tried to go through first. Once again, Xeno and Fine Tune stayed out of our argument, both standing off to the sides and watching for any ponies that might pass by and overhear us.

“They tried to hurt you, I’m not going to let ponies who stood by and allowed us to be captured and put through that torture get away with it,” she answered, not quite looking at me. She pointed to the shackle on my foreleg.

I looked down at it, my anger somewhat sated.

“Besides, what matters is that we get this done, not who we have help us.”

“Help us? You mean like how we could have gone and asked Lamington and Praline and Crème Brûlée? You said we could do it ourselves!” I whispered to her, seething. “We’re big ponies and this is for us to do and we only call for help in an emergency!” I reared up, flailing my forehooves. When gravity decided to take me back down, I stomped as hard as I could. She had to see my point in this!

“Hidden, this isn’t about that,” she argued.

“Yes it is! You said you were worried that they’d be captured along with us if we failed,” I lectured her. “But you don’t care about those ponies, even before you knew how terrible they were? They saved Xeno from death, and you go at them like that?” I snorted and stepped forward. I knew what this was about. I just needed her to admit it.

I already knew the real reason she stopped. If she knew I’d eavesdropped and learned exactly what happened...

“Hidden they shot you!” she cried. “I did what I needed to to protect you!”

I lifted my leg, looking at the spot where the bullet hit. I wasn’t hurt, there wasn’t any damage. Even the polish looked perfect still.

“No, I mean why’d we go ask them for help if you’re afraid of other ponies getting sold out if we fail?” I asked her. I snapped my tail back and forth behind me in frustration.

Lost stared at me, and blinked. “Because I-”

“Stop,” I cut her off. “Give me the real reason you’re so bent on keeping the Steel Rangers, who have power armor and better weapons than even Persistence here,” I motioned to the gun at my side, “safe from attack.” I took another step closer and pressed my nose against my older sister’s. Better than me at nearly everything or not, I needed to get her to break on this one.

Lost stared at me for a long time, looking me over. “Heh...” she laughed. “And here I thought you were done playing the hero.”

My jaw nearly fell to the ground. That had nothing to do with anything! I threw my hooves in the air, balancing on my hind legs. “What!” I demanded.

“Look at you,” she said, raising her hoof up and down at me a few times. “You care about them, even though they’ve shot you, tossed you back to the alicorn, and watched in the shadows as we were taken and tortured. And yet, you still give a shit about them.”

“They’re ponies, Lost! Not slavers or raiders. They’re like us,” I yelled, my voice cracking. “They were just like us. The kind of ponies mom made us. Paranoid and afraid of outsiders, on our own against the entire Equestrian Wasteland.” I rubbed the side of my head. This took too much energy, and I hadn’t gotten nearly enough sleep last night. “They just want to survive. And stop changing the subject!”

“Surviving in a hole like that isn’t the right thing. Mom was right to teach us to be cautious, always aware of what’s going on,” Lost said, glaring up at me. Sometimes it paid to be the taller sister. “That doesn’t mean standing by and letting others suffer!”

“Then why didn’t we just get help in the first place and do this right?”

“Because I will not let your recklessness endanger the only family we have left! They took us in, after we ruined their lives, and I am not going to throw that away!” she yelled at me. “I will not lose her!”

I stepped back and took a good look at my sister, her eyes full of rage held back only by her glasses, her cheeks flushed and her breathing ragged.

“Her?” I asked. “Crème Br-”

“This discussion is over, Hidden Fortune,” Lost snapped. She turned tail, flicking it in my face, and stomped off. “Let’s just fucking kill Rebar and get the fuck away from this shithole of a town.”

* * *

I stared at my sister’s flanks as she walked away, the little gear and paintbrush taunting me. I wanted to hit her. She deserved it. Pulling this stunt over a mare! I wanted to scream and tackle her and beat it into her head just how important stopping Rebar was, and that we needed all the help we could get. If Lamington could take the bitch alicorn out from across town with a missile, then that was exactly what we needed!

But no, because Lost went and got herself fucked one time, she got to dictate who and what we could use to our advantage? That wasn’t fair! They would have helped, and we’d all work together. And just like last time, we’d come out on top.

Only, this time... We wouldn’t lose anypony.

I looked over at Xeno, and then to Fine Tune. Friends, allies, acquaintances... Family?

I hated being wrong. After what happened with Zahi and Zaki, after what happened with Éclair, and who knows how many other changelings were hurt in the fire. Could we really risk bringing down more? I didn’t feel bad about it, I couldn’t. I wanted to feel bad, to hurt, but the bottom of my heart just felt dull and heavy.

I laughed to myself, as quietly as I could. After the outburst earlier, we couldn’t risk being too loud and waking up ponies. Still, it made sense now. A week with slavers, a week of torture. Mistress and Slipstock taught me what it meant to kill without remorse. Sunbright taught Lost to do whatever she needed to do to win.

Lessons we probably needed, to keep us from making the same mistakes over and over again, to keep from getting bogged down by our minds. We needed to work together again.

I trotted up and hugged my sister, as tightly as I could. “I’m sorry,” I whispered.

She looked back at me, past the rims of her glasses, and half-smiled at me. “It’s fine. Just... Let’s see if we can’t save Rebar’s ‘daughters’ before they can get sold off, and worry about how to kill her,” she said. Shrugging me off, she looked over, through the alleyway, to the Town Hall on the hill. “Think we can find a giant magnet anywhere?”

“Lostpony, that is the second time you have mentioned a magnet,” Xeno said. She adjusted her helmet and looked past her pushed-down mohawk at the building we both stared at. “Whatis this plan you have?”

“Well, she has a steel rod through her brain. The easy way to kill her would be to rip it straight out,” she answered with a shrug. “That’d tear her brain up pretty bad.”

“What’s a Rebar anyway?” asked Fine Tune.

“Do you know what an alicorn is?” L.A. asked him.

He shook his head, chirping a little.

“They’re... Big ponies, horns and wings,” I explained.

Fine Tune tilted his head. He flared up a bit of green fire and returned to the natural changeling shape. His wings fluttered and he took to the air, hovering a few hooves above us. The bright spots of his eyes crossed and he looked up at the chitinous horn on top of his head. With a little nod, he turned and looked at the insect-like wings on his back. “Krii?” he chirped, his noise sounding like a question. He landed and spread his wings out, showing them off.

“No, not... You’ll figure it out,” Lost said. She started walking again.

We wound around the back alleys of the safe side of town, ducking between streets. I stopped mid-way, right at the spot where Slipstock and I fought. The hoofprints and mess we’d made were long gone. It must have rained here since the fight.

“Should’ve killed her,” I muttered. No time to look at the past. We had ponies to save.

Trotting from the safety of the alleyways, we moved to the Town Hall, one at a time. Fine Tune ran across first, in the form of a pony again. Xeno followed, muttering something about her luck as she went. My sister and I ran across one after the other, sprinting so we wouldn’t be split up and caught off our hooves.

As I ran, I looked back at the store where Sale Price worked. It’d been a long, long time since I’d had any Buck... If we had to fight the alicorn, maybe that could help. “Only if it comes to that,” I whispered to myself.

“What was that, Hiddenpony?” Xeno asked.

“Nothing. It’s this way,” I said, taking point. So far we’d been lucky, and knowing Xeno, that luck would run out the minute we got into the Town Hall. I led everypony... Everypony? We had more than just ponies now. I led them to the door to the tunnels underneath the building.

“Okay, Hidden and I will go down and take a look, see if we can’t convince the ponies down there to come with us and escape. We have plenty of examples of what’ll happen to them,” Lost ordered. She pointed to my shackles for emphasis. “Xeno, same place you were when you fired that shot that tore apart Rebar’s wing. Fine Tune, can you wait here, on watch? Let us know if anypony comes up so we can get out in time.” She smiled at the two. Giving orders or not, her voice didn’t have the same edge it did when yelling at the ponies down below or yelling at me.

We broke and each member of our little party went their own way, guns and hooves clattering as they moved. I looked at Lost and pushed the door open.

“There’s two doors, a pen for slaves, and a luxury room for her ‘daughters,’” I explained as I went down the stone stairs. My steel hoof clanked loudly. “Shit...” I lifted it up and continued down on three legs. I really needed to get a cover or something to keep it from being so noisy.

We stopped at the base of the stairs and looked down the hallway. At the far end was the deceptively innocent-looking closed door that the ‘daughters’ had stayed behind. Beside us I could hear the muffled voices of ponies and the quiet rattle of cages.

“Okay, I’ll talk to the caged ponies and see what I can do about a key or something. I’ll get Fine Tune if I can’t get them open any other way. Go check the other door,” L.A. ordered. She nudged me, smiled, and pulled the door open with her magic. The instant the doors open, the rattle and voices rose to a fever pitch, as ponies saw it open and got louder in response. At least the noise they made meant nopony was watching them this time.

I ran off down the hall, hobbling along as fast as I could on three legs. I prayed to the Goddesses, please Luna, please Celestia, don’t let them do that ‘talk in unison’ thing again. Standing next to the door, I braced myself for the worst. I placed my hoof on it, and gently pushed on the door. My ears skewed forward, listening to the subtle sounds echoing around me.

The door didn’t so much as creak as it opened. I stopped at an inch, wanting to see exactly what hid inside before I barged in. I was not repeating my mistake from last time. Instead of the laughter, I heard a single voice.

Rebar’s voice.

“No, only to protect you. That is why We do what We must,” said the alicorn.

I did as I had when eavesdropping on Lost back at Stable Sixty, and pressed myself as close as I could without actually touching the door. A tiny crack she might not notice, but pushing it any further open could alert her to my presence. After last time, I didn’t think myself prepared.

But, would she attack if it meant potentially harming the ponies she thought of as her daughters?

I backed up a step and turned to face Lost. She looked down the hall at me from the door with the captive ponies. I waved her away, hoping she’d understand what I meant without the need for words. I turned back to the door and scooted close enough to listen through the small crack.

“We are unable to reach The Goddess, for reasons We cannot discern. A mare has shown herself. She will be taking you, all of you, to meet with The Goddess in my place,” she explained to the mares.

“Why can’t you take us, Mother?” asked a voice.

“Because, We are needed here. There is something... We cannot place Our hoof on it, but We must protect you. That is all that We desire,” Rebar said, her soft voice reminding me of my mother. “Unity will protect you, Unity will make you stronger. Strong enough to survive without Us watching over you.”

“How long until we leave?” asked another voice.

“We do not know. The ponies of this town speak in hushed voices, they tell of a slaver town that burnt down,” said Rebar, her voice wavering. “We worry the dangers of the Wasteland will hold Our contact up.”

“S-slaver? You’re not sending us with a s-s-slaver are you?” asked the first voice. She sounded terrified, and with reason. Given how she stuttered at slaver, I couldn’t help but wonder if she’d escaped being a slave once before...

“No, Our daughter. We would never do that, We view you as precious. We wish only for your safety. The safety of Unity will save you in this world.”

Rebar didn’t know that Mistress Amble was the slaver?!

“O-okay...” answered the same voice, practically whimpering.

“We- We- wish to introduce you, but We- cannot...” she said, her stutter suddenly returning. It dawned on me she hadn’t stuttered the entire time.

I wondered about the steel rod in her head. Could she be reasoned with? If she saw the error of her ways, maybe she’d start to handle it herself. Whatever this Unity was, maybe she could just take the ponies she thought of as her daughters herself, and skip the slaver part. Then it wouldn’t be absolutely necessary to kill her.

My hooves began to ache, memories of the pain from the shackles returning. I remembered the order given. I was a murderer, but I wasn’t allowed to kill unless it was absolutely necessary. Ache or not, I’d rather follow orders given by my sister, to protect her, than Mistress.

“We- will try and contact her soon, you must go to Unity as quickly as possible. The Goddess will explain more, We- don’t have time,” she said, her tone now frantic and rushed. “Sleep, daughters, We- will seek better ways to send you all to Unity soon, should Our- … Our- friend, not arrive.”

“Alright,” said several voices. “Love you, mother...” They sounded dejected, as if she were abandoning them.

For what seemed like forever, Rebar didn’t respond. I moved away and looked at the door. Were there two personalities in there, or was she just that messed up from the steel rod. I needed to talk to my sister.

My ear flicked.

“And...” said Rebar, her voice cautious and low. “And We you."
_________________________________________________________________________________________
Footnote: Level Up!

Hidden Fortune:
New Perk: Piercing Hoof – Armor? Against the steel you can throw around? It doesn't stand a chance! With this perk, you gain the ability to hit where it hurts, ignoring 10 points of your opponent's armor.

Lost Art:
New Perk: Expert Spells – You are now able to learn far more powerful spells and spell types of the schools you know. In addition to this, you are now capable of casting the most powerful version of spells you already know. You are also able to learn a wider variety of spells, though the majority of new ones must remain in schools you already know.

“Okay, so... This has been a weird chapter.”
“Yeah, new companion, character revelations.”
“And a Goddesses damned gigantic scorpion!”
“It’s just a bug...”
“Not when it’s half an inch from your face!”
“Well, we have a bugpony in our group now, does he bother you?”
“I... No, he’s kinda cute, actually.”

Author's Note:

(A massive thank you to Kkat for creating, and everypony else who has helped to flesh out the universe of Fallout Equestria. And to everypony who has/will help with with editing and making this more palatable... Big hearts to Dimestream, Sabsy, SugarCube, Moth, and everypony else who helped with ideas, editing, and brushies. And of course everything is copyright their respective owners. ~Hnetu)

Comments

[Y1]

I'm seriously getting into this story. Anticipating the updates and everything. It's been a while since I've really been able to sink my teeth into a good dark fic. And by that I mean the dark genre, not the dark descriptor.

[Dawn Darkling]

Another interesting development. I'm eager to see how they will resolve this situation with the alicorn.

[Deathpony]

I hope those slavers get what they deserve

[reader238]

soo if they some how reform rebar would that mean that they have an Alicorn on their side? at least until she can reconnect with "unity".... WAIT is the rebar the reason she can not connect to unity and until now she was actually communicating a slaver on some sort of frequency broadband thingy and now that the base was burned down she cant connect to it anymore

[Hnetu]

2983268

Yeah, I do wish I could have had more time to develop her character, but unfortunately her fate was decided the minute I made her. Really, chapters 10 and 11 were meant to be a lot longer, and together as one chapter, but it really started to wear on me, writing something like that. Plus, a lot of readers felt it was an exhausting read, emotionally. I'm glad I managed to get it down to about 50,000 words...

But yes, any time we see a legitimately happy Xeno giggling, itis a good thing.

[Hnetu]

2988045

No worries, I understood what you meant. I was talking about the fact that it's hard to give a character really really good in depth character development when they only exist within the story for a few chapters. There was SO MUCH content in those two that I needed to cover, certain things got lost in the mix. That's true of more than JUST her, too.

[Rust]

Now that's a spicy meatball!

[Poets Dream]

That was the best naming of a changeling I've encountered.
The normal names like 'Black Shadow' and 'Last Breath' start to get on my nerves.

Do you edit Project Horizons under the name Hidden Fortune? It seems like that's where I've seen it.

[S3rb4n]

Fine Tune is a magnificent addition to the party. I love it when he speaks quickly... I can imagine him almost stuttering. Also, what a change for Lost! I'll keep up reading, now that I'm done writing.

[Doctor Ham]

Man but this was a hell of a chapter. First off, the changeling. I was wondering what the hell would happen there, though based on his first impression on me from the end of Chapter 12, I'm not too surprised that it turned out okay. But I am surprised at how he ended up with the trio-turned-quartet. Lost. Lost... please stop doing things that scare me. You're starting to scare me. A lot. I get that the detonator was a quick and easy way out of the tense situation, to get Fine Tune to stay with them, but the interrogation... And then fucking blowing Sour Punch's forelegs off! Holy goddamn shit, that was one of two moments this chapter that seriously freaked me out. Hidden, your sister needs a hug. A lot of them. Maybe a punching bag too. I'm just getting more and more worried about what the actual hell Sunbright did to her.

But hey, Fine Tune! Chipper little bugpony, isn't he? I actually think it's clever that you have him feeding off of Hidden's love for the music on the radio. I dunno, it seems obvious in hindsight, but I never considered the idea of a changeling feeding off the love someone has for something inanimate or intangible. And while on the subject of Fine... the bit where he turns into Amble was the other terrifying moment of this chapter for me. Hell, I even got vivid flashbacks to chapter 10-11 there, just through the way you showed Hidden's fear and horror. Excellent moment, that. Though I have to wonder about what Lost said to Fine, about him possibly being able to unlock their collars. Seems a bit strange she wouldn't press him further on that, but maybe Hidden just wasn't paying attention. Yay first person!

Got some more detail on Rebar, too, and a name, if only a nickname. The heck is up with that alicorn anyway? She doesn't seem to have a good connection to Unity, if at all. And I really do wonder about the damn rebar in her head. How'd it get there, and such. And also... who was she talking to at the end of the chapter? Her "daughters?" Or Hidden? Did Hidden get caught again? And what the hell is Lost's plan! I would trust her more to make the plans, but she continues to prove her instability. I wonder if her refusal to involve the Stable 60 rangers comes from losing their mother. Maybe that's how Sunbright got to her?

Oh well, another great chapter nonetheless. Still absolutely loving the story.