Chapter 1: Black

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The darkness pressed in, trying to crush the life out of me. If it weren’t for the stream I was running through, I would have had no direction at all. The water splashing on my legs and belly was ice-cold, but the blood flowing from my face and chest was unpleasantly warm.

I could hear skittering behind me; the monsters still hot on my hooves. I was leaving them a trail of blood to follow, and I knew they were seconds away from catching me.

My shoulder clipped what had to be a low hanging pipe, and I bounced into the wall. Smacking my head into something hard, I landed face first in the flow.

I was going to die.

Scrambling to my hooves, I looked around frantically. Further down the tunnel, I could see a dim light. Lights meant I could get out of the dark, and that would help, even if just by the smallest amount. Dying alone and in the pitch black was the worst thing I could think of.

As I started running again, I heard a hissing sound roll through the tunnel. It was close. Too close.

“AAAaaaaah!” I screamed as razor-sharp claws tore into my flank, cutting deep. I stumbled, trying desperately to get away. The talons ripped out of me, and the creature slammed its bulk into me hard enough to pick me off my hooves. I hit the wall, feeling ribs crack and blood spray.

Laying there, helpless, hurt and dazed, I could only stare up at the darkness. I couldn’t see the stinking monster sniffing at my throat. I could only feel its teeth as it bit into me.

-----

“Echo! Wake up. Ow! You’re kicking me.” A hoof pushed into my chest, shaking me awake. My ribs weren’t broken, my flesh wasn’t shredded, and my neck was lacking any ripping teeth. I coughed, and groaned as I pushed the zony away from me.

The nightmares had been getting worse, all leading up to this day. I assumed that’s why my cousin had pulled me out of the hell I’d been in. It was the day. The big day.

My first time in the tunnels.

Ziel had been getting me up earlier and earlier every day that week, just so I would be bright and chipper for my big day. That’s how she put it at least. I think she was delighting in waking me up and seeing my mane all messy and my eyes blurry. The smile on her face, even around the nearly healed black eye she’d received the first morning she’d woken my by screaming in my face, told me that she was still having a great time.

“Time to get up, sleepy head.” She yanked the tattered, threadbare sheet off of my body, and I shriveled up for warmth. It was always chilly in the mornings, even when it wasn’t pouring rain outside. A quick glance through the protective shield I was forming with my front legs confirmed that yes, it was yet another rainy and miserable morning. I should have known. It always rained in Hornsmith.

“I don’t have to be there for a few hours... let me sleep.” I reached with one hoof, trying to find the edge of the blanket. I felt her bite onto my leg, and found myself dragged off of my mattress. It was old and stained, but it was much more comfortable than the cold, hard floor that I landed on.

“No can do. Fluster wants to see you off, and then you gotta see Uncle Ash.” I groaned up at her as she spoke triumphantly. She knew I couldn’t say no to that. If Fluster wanted to see me, I was going to see Fluster.

“Fine.” I pushed myself up, the zony giving me a small bit of space.

Looking into the dirty mirror I had propped in a corner, I sighed at my mane. It was sticking in every direction, and I looked like I’d been dragged through the street for a good hour. I was not a morning pony.

“Give me a minute...” I started straightening my mane. I knew it didn’t really matter, but I always felt better if I didn’t look like a raider.

“Then you should say hi to your mom.” I stopped with a hoof tangled in my hair and shot a glare at my cousin. She waved off the glare, and left me alone in my room. I grumbled to myself as I finished, my mane less messy but not great.

I found her next to the front door, staring out into the rain. Now that I saw how hard it was raining, I realized my mane didn’t matter. It’d get all wet and messy anyways.

The zony, with a flick of her head, shrugged the hood of her white jacket up over her ears. I grumbled at her and her fancy jacket as I pulled a ratty cloak off of a hook on the wall. I noticed that Shade’s cloak was gone as I did so.

Good.

As I followed her out into the street, I was immediately soaked through . The cloak did nothing against the pouring rain. The street was a river, and I couldn’t help but wonder what it was like underground. If it was bad enough, maybe I didn’t have to go. Maybe.

Probably not.

Life in the wasteland wasn’t in the habit of giving rainchecks.

-----

Fluster was exactly where I knew she would be. Her house was on the edge of town, nearest to the mountain. Her favorite place was on the roof, under an awning someone had built for her to keep her out of the rain.

Fern knew I was there before Fluster. His ears perked up as I came onto the roof, and he turned his head towards me. His eyes were narrowed until he saw it was me, then his face lightened and he started wagging his leafy tail. He was big, even for a timber wolf, and his pale woody form towered over the dark pegasus next to him.

Fluster was covered with old scars, criss-crossing her body and wings. They made the pegasus look tough, if you didn’t know how kind she was. I’d asked her about the scars once when I was a filly, and Ash had chewed me out for it. If she wanted to tell me, she would.

“Fluster, how’s the view this morning?”

She sighed, staring at the mountain for a short while, before looking at me. A kind smile replaced the sad look, and the rain lessened just a little for me. Even with the eyepatch, she was amazingly expressive with her one eye. Those looks always cheered me up, no matter how bad a day it was.

“Good morning, Echo.” She sighed, the smile dropping slightly. “Today’s the day, isn’t it?”

“It is. Ziel said you wanted to see me?”

“I just wanted to wish you luck.” Using a wing, she pulled me in next to her. Resting her head on top of mine, she hummed a little tune. She used to rock us to sleep doing that.

She held me like that for a few minutes, and I felt a happiness that overrode the rain, warming my whole body.

“You be careful down there.” Her voice made me jump when she finally broke the silence. “I’ve lost too many ponies I care about to this city... just make it back safe.”

I laughed a little. “I will, don’t worry. I’ll have Ziel there for me, and the rest of the scav team. We’re not going near Maremack or the Ruins, we’ll be fine.”

“Even so. Be careful. I spent years in those tunnels... and just be careful. Keep your guard up, don’t be hasty, and never be alone.” She locked eyes with me, and I could tell she was deadly serious. She was always so shy around most ponies, but not with Ziel and I. We saw her hard side on occasion. We knew not to mess around when she let us see it.

“I’ll do my best.” I gave her my best smile. She drew back from me, a look I couldn’t quite place on her face. A tear slipped from her eye, and I frowned. “What’s wrong?”

She wiped the tear away with her free wing. “Oh... nothing. You just reminded me of someone.”

As she held me even closer, I had to wonder who.

-----

As I left Fluster’s house, I noticed that the rain had lessened substantially. It was still puddled in the street, but most of it had run off into the underground. With a light drizzle all I had to contend with, I didn’t even bother with the hood on my cloak. My mane was already plastered to my head anyways.

“Hey kid.” I jumped at the voice right next to me.

“Ash! Don’t sneak up on me like that!” I yelled at the griffin for surprising me. He loved doing that, and it always got me.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about. I was just leaning here, and you came along.” He grinned, his black feathers and fur matted down from the rain. There was a white scarf wrapped around his neck, something that I knew he wore begrudgingly. On one of his wrists, rather like an oversized bracelet, was a bulky machine he’d told me was a PipBuck.

Those two items were representative of the power he held. He’d told me once, when I was younger, that he wasn’t really a Whitecoat. He was just hanging around to watch me and Shade. The position he held in the guardians of our little slice of the world was one of convenience.

He’d added that the coat made him look stupid and didn’t work with his wings.

“Anyways, Ziel said you’d be here. I wanted to catch you before you went down. Big day and all, what sort of uncle would I be if I didn’t see you off?” He pulled away from the wall, towering over me on his hind legs. He was the weirdest creature I’d ever met, walking around like that, but then he was the only non-pony or zebra I’d ever met. Maybe all griffins walked like that. It looked weird to me.

“Then come down here and see me off.” I smirked up at him, and with a huff he dropped down to all fours.

He was still bigger than me, but at least now I didn’t have to crane my neck back to see him. He reached one claw up and ruffled my mane affectionately. “Look at my girl, all big and off on her first scav trip.”

“Ash, why do you really want to see me off?” I knew him. He wasn’t just here to tell me how proud he was of me.

“Fine... you got me, kid.” He slicked the feathers on his head back with one hand. I started walking, and he kept pace.

“Did you talk to your mom?”

I let out a huff. Of course.

“Why is everyone so interested in me talking to Shade?” I was starting to get mad.

“You know she loves you, right? She’s just not great at showing it.” Ash’s voice was low, like he was afraid someone might overhear. “She’s just had a real rough time since... well, since your dad died.”

“I know. I figured that out. Every time she looks at me, she cries. I’d rather not have that today,” I growled at him. I wanted everyone to lay off about Shade. “She didn’t raise me. You and Fluster did. All she ever does is work. I can go weeks without seeing her! Fluster was more of a mother to me than SHE ever was!” I didn’t realize until then that I was yelling at the griffin in the middle of the street.

“I’m sorry...” I backed up, bowing my head. I didn’t mean to yell at Ash. He was holding up a claw, asking me to tone it down a bit.

“It’s okay, kid... I know that’s a touchy subject... all I’m saying is to think on it. She loves you, she just doesn’t know how to show it.” He lifted my chin, making me look into those golden eyes of his. “Trust me.”

“.....I’ll think about it.”

“That’s my girl.” I winced as he patted me on the head a little harder than he meant to. He checked the loose hanging PipBuck on his arm, and smiled. “Anyways, it's about time you get to the armory. Stay safe, and bring me back something good.”

“I will.” As an apology for yelling at him, I gave him a quick kiss on the cheek. “I’ll see you when I get back.”

“I’ll hold you to that.” He stepped away from me and unfurled his wings. With a powerful flap, he lifted off, and disappeared over a nearby building, leaving me alone in the middle of the street. I looked around briefly, to figure out where I was, and then turned towards the quickest route to the send off point for scavengers.

-----

More ponies were out in the streets by now, going about whatever business they had to do. Whitecoats patrolled, a few colts and fillies splashed about in puddles, and residents going about their daily lives. On one street corner, a raggedy old crone nopony ever paid much attention to was shouting praise of the Light Bringer.

The Followers of the Apocalypse had tried to get a foothold in Hoof years before, and still occasionally sent an Alicorn to try and impress us, but Ash and the leaders of Hoof always sent them packing. Instead, we got this old pony who rambled on about how great the Light Bringer was.

As a Whitecoat came by and started his daily ritual of throwing her out of town, I wondered why she even bothered. LittlePip, the Light Bringer, had used the SPP towers to help the wasteland. Ours was unfinished, sitting at the edge of town like a giant chopped down tree. The clouds were still everywhere, and it was always raining.

Our local issues had been handled by local ponies. By Ripple and his friends. Not some pony that had never even been to Hornsmith.

I wasn’t very fond of the old preacher mare. I never even bothered learning her name.

-----

Once, the entrance to Underhoof must have been very bland. It could still be made out inside the building that had been built around it. The facade looked like it had been patched together from at least six different structures. The old entrance had been torn out, revealing a gaping hole that led underground, lit by strings of lights bolted into the walls. Somepony, probably Shade, had built a system of pulleys to get heavy items up the stairs to get wherever they were going. Scrap and salvage was the lifeblood of Hoof, our fair town.

Hoof was named after Underhoof, when the Whitecoats and survivors of an old town called Blank set up above the existing ghoul town. That was where I grew up, and I always knew that one day I’d go down into Underhoof to be a scavenger. I was no fighter, and my skills didn’t allow me to help the town in other ways.

“Hey, odd eyes, you gonna come in or just sit there with a stupid look on your face?” A harsh voice pulled me back to the present. The main entryway to Underhoof had two side rooms, and one of them had a rather cross looking unicorn glaring at me standing in the door.

“Get in here. We’ve been waiting.”

I hurried, ducking my head so that he wouldn’t mock my eyes anymore. Green and violet were uncommon, and I was insecure about them. I blame Ash, for calling me goofy when I was a filly.

The armory, as it was better known, was really just a few shelves with assorted weapons and armor scattered around. These were separate from where the town and the Whitecoats kept their supplies, specifically set aside for trips into the underground.

I smiled when I saw that Ziel was already there, putting her coat on over some armored barding.

“Hey Echo, I was wondering when you’d show up.” The zebra smiled at me as she stood on her rear hooves to get at a higher shelf. She was already armored up, the edges of her barding visible under her long white coat.

“Hey Ziel. Find anything good?” She looked back at me with a spare clip clenched in her teeth, and she nodded happily. I shook my head sighing... that zony loved her guns.

For me, though, I didn’t plan on getting into an extended gunfight in a tunnel. I plopped my bag down on the table, and went to a shelf. As my cousin kept loading up on ammunition, I settled for some light barding and a long knife. I’d grown up around guns. Ash’s huge rifle, Fluster’s minigun, and the shiny shotgun that Shade kept in her room, but I’d never been a good shot. I’d take a knife anytime. Less of a chance of shooting myself.

“That’s it?” I looked up at the pony questioning me, and realized I hadn’t even noticed her in the room. A ghoul in a cloak and hood, sitting in the corner, was eyeing me through thick goggles that barely dulled the yellow glow from within. I only knew a few ghouls by name, since most of them stayed underground and weren’t terribly receptive of fillies bouncing around them.

“You’re not gonna take a gun? Plenty of things down there in the deep dark that wanna take a bite outta a plump little filly like you.” She grinned, a wicked look that unnerved me. I still took offense.

“I’m not plump.” With a glare, I sucked in my gut just a bit. I really wasn’t, but I couldn’t help the reaction.

“Easel, take it down a notch. We’re not going anywhere near those areas.” The pony that had made fun of my eyes, a gruff looking unicorn stallion with a deep burn marring his jaw and neck, I knew by the name of Nail. I didn’t even have to identify him from the long white coat he wore to know what role he was playing in this. “Despite that, she is right. You need more than a knife. Take a pistol, or we’ll shove one into your bag anyways.”

I sighed, eyeing the pistol that Easel pushed across the roughly hewn table in the middle of the room. A glance at Ziel, who shrugged, convinced me to take the weapon in my mouth. It tasted of gun, bitter oil and acrid smoke. I gagged, and shoved it into my bag as quickly as I could.

Running my tongue against my teeth to get the taste off, I went back to putting the armor on. It was light, and it protected in the right places, but it itched. Next I pulled on my saddlebag, and dug a holster out of a pile. If I had to carry the pistol, once I thought about it, I didn’t want it smelling up my things.

With my mouth refilled with gun taste, and the weapon nestled in its holster, I passed the silent judgment that was being thrown at me. With a smirk and a nod, Nail opened the door and walked out. Easel followed behind him, leaving just Ziel and myself in the room.

“They’re nice, really. They’re just being tough cause it's our first time down. Besides, Nail isn’t going to let his boss’ two favorite girls come to any harm.” She nudged me with her shoulder, laughing a little bit. “Don’t worry your pretty little head. I got your back.”

I shoved her playfully, feeling better. “Psh, you know I’m the real brains here. Little Miss Every-Gun-In-Equestria.”

“You coming, or are we just going down without you?!” Nail’s voice sounded through the door, and the two of us hurried after the pair of veterans.

-----

I don’t know what Underhoof looked like before Hoof was settled above, but I doubt it had changed much in the years. Most of the residents certainly hadn’t. Ghouls don't age like everypony else. Aunt Xiera had told me and Ziel that when we’d first met Viola.

I spotted Viola up ahead, talking to the local doctor, a non-ghouled unicorn. I waved to the ghoul in the gasmask, whose eyes shone at me through the faded glass. I smiled wide at her, and indicated where I was heading. Towards the Gate. She nodded knowingly, her eyes creasing with a smile, and she turned her attention back to the red unicorn.

The Gate was a big metal door set into the wall in a side room. The room was filled with lights, and a crudely installed machine gun with a bored looking ghoul manning it. I’d never seen it before, but I’d heard that Ripple had first entered Underhoof through it years before.

It didn’t look any different from any other door down there. I was a little let down.

Nail approached the door and used a hoof to work the locking bolts. With a loud crunch, and the squeal of hastily oiled rust, the Gate swung open. Nail and Easel clicked on their flashlights as one. Ziel followed suit, and I was last as I managed to get the light on my chest to finally turn on.

Stepping into the tunnel was like stepping into a different world. Back in Underhoof everything was dry and at least partially lit. Even when it was soaked in rain and freezing cold it felt warm and homey. The tunnel was dark, damp, and dismal.

“This way.” Easel took off to the left, her light cutting through the oppressive darkness. I jumped as Nail slammed the door shut behind us and sealed it, protecting Underhoof from any dangers.

It was fine. It was just a walk down some tunnels, grabbing some scrap, and heading back. Short walk. Ponies did this all the time and didn’t die.

Some never came back though.

No, I’d come back. I had Ziel with me. I was invulnerable.

“I can do it.” I muttered under my breath, which was much louder in the darkness than I had planned.

“I know you can, Echo.” Ziel was next to me, walking close for my comfort. She knew how terrified I was. How excited I was.

Today I would stop being “just” Ripple’s daughter.

-----

We walked in the dark for longer than I had thought we would. The tunnel went on for a long while, with doors on either side at seemingly random intervals. Most were too rusted to move, or had their handles missing. A few were open, deep dark holes that anything could be hiding in. I gave those a wide berth. I started noticing that each door had a mark next to it. Paint, chalk, scratched, it was the same mark. A slash.

I remembered what I’d heard from Fluster a few weeks before. They marked all the doors. Slash meant that the room was clear. There were other marks, but I couldn’t remember what they said.

I stumbled when my hoof caught on the metal lip of a doorframe, and managed to regain my balance before I fell. Pulled out of my spacey thought process, I gasped as I saw where I was.

The chamber I stood in was massive. I could barely make out the other side from the occasional light set into it, but I couldn’t see the top or bottom. Water fell from a dozen pipes in waterfalls from the rain, cascading into the depths.

I tripped on something, and I saw what it was just before it went over the edge. A pony skull, half of it broken away. It was gone, but the rest of the pony lay there. There were several bodies, all rotted away to skeletons. “What?”

“Gnashers. Long dead. We keep them here to remind rookies like you that death lurks down here.” Easel grinned, her warped face giving me the chills. Gnashers were just the next step for ghouls like her. A shudder ran down my spine.

“That’s why we made you take the gun. Now let’s keep moving, Easel, I have a cider with my name on it back topside.” Nail had levitated his shotgun, keeping it ready to use. He started trotting towards the edge of the platform, and I was just about to tell him he was going to fall when I spotted the stairs. They ran along the wall, and in the darkness I hadn’t even noticed them.

He took the first steps, and Easel followed close behind. Ziel pushed me ahead of her, wanting to keep an eye on me, but I had to pause before I stepped out. The stairs were more rust than metal, and didn’t look safe in any way. Several of them were missing entirely, and mouldering planks of wood had been haphazardly lashed down with thick rope.

Ziel pushed me a bit, and my heart rate jumped. My hoof impacted with the step, and I gave a little shout as I expected to plow through it and fall to my watery death.

It held fast though, and I turned my head to snarl a little at my cousin, who was grinning widely at me. I took the next step, which was a plank, and then another. Before I knew it, I was down and finished with that staircase.

Nail was already starting down another set of stairs, and I had no choice but to follow. They’d probably get mad if I started asking questions, especially if it was “Are we there yet?”

It was five more staircases we had to go down, each one as rickety and hazardous looking as the last. I kept going forward, staring intently at the back of Easel’s hooded head. I didn’t look down, into what I was sure must have been a giant whirlpool. The sound was deafening, but I could still feel the vibrations of Ziel’s hoofsteps right behind me. That calmed me enough to keep me going.

Finally.

The bottom level wasn’t metal and rust, like the ones above it, but solid concrete. For once since I’d stepped out of that tunnel, I didn’t feel like I was going to fall.

“This is it.” Easel was directing Nail to open a door, standing back and shining her light. “We’ve never opened this one, so there should be a decent haul down here.”

“Never?” Nail paused, then looked at us. Looked at me, to be more specific. “Girls. Guns out.”

I glanced at Ziel, who was gleefully working the sling on her rifle for easy access. Her dad had shown her how to use a zebra rifle, and she’d spent years practicing it. It always looked weird to me, standing on hind legs, but she had practiced and practiced and now could even walk and maintain her balance.

I sighed at seeing her not having to put anything in her mouth, and reached down to bite onto the pistol that had been tugging every time I took a step. Blech, I hate that taste.

The door swung open, and four beams of light punched into the darkness. It was just another tunnel, with doors at random intervals, and no horrible monsters in sight.

“Okay. We choose the nearest door.” Easel wasn’t holding a weapon, but floated a small tube next to her. “If it’s clear, I mark it as such. If it's got gnashers, it gets a different mark. So on. This level hasn’t had visitors in 200 years, so stay on your hooves.”

Nail took the first step, and we followed. I was just glad to be away from the swirling vortex of doom.

The tunnel was surprisingly dry. No free flowing water or drips from the ceiling. I’d been soaked since I’d left Underhoof. Now there was just darkness and the promise of salvage.

“Echo, you’re with me. Easel, don’t take Ziel too far out. We’ll meet back here in thirty minutes.” Nail was shining his light further down the tunnel, while Easel was opening a door on the side. The ghoul gave a grunt, which I took to mean “yes,” because Nail nodded and started walking away from me. I shot a glance at Ziel, who was already following the ghoul out of the tunnel. She gave me a quick smile, and then disappeared from sight.

“Come on, let’s look around.” Nail’s voice carried well through the tunnel, and I turned to catch up to him. Being left behind was not on my list of things to do that day. Especially not after that dream.

Nail was shining his light on each door that we passed. It was almost like he was looking for something. His shotgun was still at the ready, and he was starting to put me off with how tense he carried himself. I had to break the silence.

“So… are we gonna open any of these?” I tapped a door with a hoof as I passed it, to put emphasis on the subject. The gun was muffling my voice a bit, but I did my best to not think about the taste.

“Look at the doors. Notice anything different?” He held the light on the door I had just tapped.

I stared at the door briefly, but it was just any old door to me. It had an old faded picture on it, but I’d seen the same thing on scrap and old billboards up above. Not as frequent as the butterflies, but the apple was still a fairly common sight around Hornsmith.

“Ministry of Wartime Technology. Makers of the finest killing tools known to ponykind. Before everything burned, at least.” Nail turned his light from the door. “Changes what we’re looking for.”

“Huh?” I’d just thought I’d be looking for scrap or medicine. “So… we’re looking for guns?”

“We are now. Looking for the biggest, shiniest door. I think we’re in a maintenance level right now…” He trailed off as he spoke, shining his light around as he kept walking. I was intrigued now. Old technology was exactly the sort of thing that could make a difference. Scrap and medicine was pulled out of the ground all the time, but technology was different. Ponies got remembered for that.

It might just be my lucky day.

My fears of being eaten in the dark suddenly gone, I perked up and started actively helping him look for any door that looked different. It only took a minute to find one, a set of double doors chained shut from our side. A little odd, but I didn’t give it a second thought as Nail pulled at the chains.

The lock was sturdy, and he took a step back, lowering his shotgun.

“Wait!” I saw my chance to show I wasn’t useless. “Wait, I can get this.”

He raised an eyebrow at me. I holstered my pistol, then I craned my neck to dig through my pack. In no time, I found what I was looking for. An old screwdriver and a little bit of metal. Working them into the lock, I felt around for the sweet spot. Fluster had taught me how to do this, and it thrilled me to no end that I could show off a skill.

After a few seconds, I heard Nail let out a little sigh. “Any time.”

He would have kept at it, but the lock snapped open as soon as he’d finished talking. I withdrew, putting my tools back in my bag, triumphant. Without so much as a “Well done,” he moved past me and yanked on the chains with his magic. They slid free with a loud and long clatter, echoing down the hall. I briefly wondered if Ziel had heard it, but Nail opening the door drew my attention.

It was clean. Much cleaner than the hall we were in. A funny smell drifted through the door, but it was just another weird smell in the mixed aromas of the sewer. The light within was dazzling compared to the dull glow of our flashlights, which meant that the rooms beyond either ran on a separate power grid, or they had a talisman of their own. I hoped for the latter.

“Jackpot. Nopony’s been here in a long, long time.” Nail stepped through the open door, and started walking up the stairs that lay just beyond. I followed close behind.

-----

The facility hadn’t seen another pony in a long time, that much was true. I didn’t know what had happened in the last days before it had been abandoned and chained off, but I was seeing a few things that had me on edge. Blood. Ancient and long dried, but still the brown swathes tained the otherwise clean walls and floor of that place.

All of the rooms we encountered were offices or document storage, scattered with mouldering paper and office supplies.

List after list of names of long dead ponies filled one room. Where they lived, which ministry they worked for, who their family was... all of it may have been useful to somepony a long time before, but for the two of us it was a pointless skeleton of the past.

Once we got out of the personnel records, we found more important information. What we could read was numbers about shipments of supplies in and out of the region. Most of it went to the old MoWT Orchard, the facility outside of town. Going there was out of the question.

Much of the good stuff; weapons, ammo, food; had been shipped out before the bombs fell and everything burned. From what I could tell there were two things still here. Project Ordered Chaos and Project Lerna. The first didn’t sound promising, and I had no idea what the second could even be. There were no details, just shipment papers and supply manifests.

One paper caught my eye, and I slid it free from a stack of rotten fiber. It was still in decent shape. Decent enough that as far as I could see, there was a supply of weapons or something sitting a few floors above us. I was in room b4-12, and the supplies were in b1-1. It didn’t say what was in the boxes, just “Lerna Containment Munitions” and then a long list of serial numbers.

“Nail!” I yelled out. In seconds, he came running into the room, shotgun leveled. His eyes swept the room, but all he found was me standing next to a desk with my hoof on a piece of paper. “I found something good.”

He let out a sigh of relief. “Celestia… you should do that with less urgency unless you’re being attacked.”

“Sorry. But hey, I found something. Come see.” I tapped at the paper, and the Whitecoat crossed the room warily.

“What could possibly be worthwhile on a piece…” His eyes scanned the old and faded words, and a grin crossed his face. “Oh. That is good.”

“Should we go find Ziel and Easel?” I was thinking about how much there could be. The two of us wouldn’t be able to carry it all.

“Not yet. We need to confirm before we bring them in…” He was walking towards the door, the piece of paper floating magically next to him. I heard him mutter as he left the room, “Easel’d never let me live it down if we had nothing…”

“Coming?” I hurried after him as Nail's voice drifted from the hall.

“Yeah… just checking for any extra details.” I wasn’t really. I was making him think that I wasn’t just always going to lag behind. One of these times he’d follow me through a door.

“So this is a good find, right?” As I caught up to him, I thought I’d break the silence. We had a few floors to cover, and uncomfortable silence wouldn’t be any fun.

“It promises to be.” He glanced at me out of the corner of his eye, a look I’d grown up getting. “You’re really looking forward to making a name for yourself down here, aren’t you?” He said it with a chuckle. I blushed, wondering if I was really being that transparent.

I only nodded.

“I was on the wall, you know. At Blank. I know you know about that.” I did. My eyes went to the scars covering sections of his neck and face. There was probably more under his long white coat.

“A lot of ponies blame your father for that. All the deaths, the destruction of Blank, the crippling of the Whitecoats.” We’d reached a set of doors with some buttons next to it. Nail pressed one of them, and the doors hummed a little. I didn’t know what was happening, but he’d stopped moving so I just stood there next to him. I’d heard dozens of stories about that day, either portraying Ripple as a hero or a monster.

“Seems like they blame me for that half the time.” My voice was soft. It wasn’t really for him. I’d always felt that resentment growing up.

“No point in blaming a filly that wasn’t even born yet. They just need an outlet. Nopony’s gonna blame Ashred. They all feel sorry for Fluster. Your mom helps the town more than anyone.” He turned to me, and it almost looked like he felt sorry for me, rather than hating me like so many. “That leaves you.”

“I know…” I really wanted the doors to finish whatever it was they were doing. I didn’t like ponies talking about my family.

The doors dinged, and opened to an empty room. Nail stepped inside, that conversation now over as far as I was concerned. He turned, and looked at me expectantly. I looked oddly at the room, and stepped inside cautiously. I felt it bounce a little as I took a few more steps.

“What is this?”

He laughed a little. “It’s an elevator. What, you’ve never heard of an elevator?”

“Oh… I have, but I’ve never seen one.”

“Well hold on.” His horn glowed briefly, and a button in the wall was pushed in. The doors closed, and I knew that next we would go up to another floor.

I wasn’t expecting the sudden, sickening lurch as the whole room was yanked upwards. I let out a little shriek, and backed myself into the corner. It felt like the whole room could drop at any second; lurching and pulling upwards; relying on machines hundreds of years old. A single fault in the cable; rust in the wrong place, and we’d die in a horrible metal crush.

Then, all of my newfound fears coalesced as the box came to a jerking halt, and dropped just enough to slam the both of us into the floor. The lights, dim after all those years, flickered and died.

“Ow…” I groaned out loud as Nail’s light flicked on.

“You okay?” His light illuminated the whole elevator. I couldn’t feel anything other than bruises, and a quick visual check confirmed that I was fine.

“Yeah…” I was trapped in an elevator. I could definitely have been better.

“Glad I brought this.” Holstering the shotgun on his back, he reached into one of his saddlebags and floated out a crowbar. Jamming it into the crack between the doors, he really put his shoulder into it.

With muscle assisting magic, the door creaked and groaned. Nothing else happened, aside from the whole rooming rocking slightly with each push.

He glanced back at me, pushing myself as far into the corner as I could go, and sighed. “This’d go faster if you helped me.”

“Oh… uh, sure.” Prying myself from my warm, safe corner, I went to assist in throwing my weight behind the metal bar.

Between the two of us, the doors began inching open. Once they had started, the going was relatively easy. The two of us forced the doors apart wide enough for either of us to get out. The issue facing us now was that the doors to what I hoped was the right floor were above either of our heads.

“Well fuck.” Nail let slip with an uncharacteristic swear, and let out a deep sigh. “Can’t get your help on this one…”

I stared as he pushed out against the wall, dangling over the small gap that led down into certain death. Carefully, he worked the crowbar into the the lower part of the doors. It was much slower going with just him, stretched out like that, working in a place that he couldn’t put any muscle behind it.

I pushed myself back into the corner as the room swayed lightly, noise echoing through the elevator shaft as Nail worked. If we died here, no one would ever find us. Ziel would search until all hope was lost. Ash would drag an army down here looking for me. Fluster would be devastated. Everyone I knew and loved would just be without me.

Even Shade would miss me.

Tears sprang to my eyes as that final thought occured. I hadn’t said goodbye to her before I’d gone down. She must have known I was doing this. I couldn’t imagine that Ash, with all of his meddling, hadn’t told her where I was going. Was she worried?

With a crunch, something in the doors broke. They slid easily, and Nail backed into the elevator. He turned his side to me, crouching a little. “Well, ladies first.”

I realized that he wanted me to climb up him to get through the opening. That would get me out of the elevator, and he let out a grunt as my hoof planted itself in the middle of his back, just a little harder than I had planned as I scrambled towards freedom.

The hall past the doors was pitch black as I pulled myself up, but filled with a smell that made me gag. The beam of my light was only lighting up the wall directly across from me, and little else. I’d look around more when I got through. As I pulled myself off of his back, I scrabbled my back hooves against the wall for purchase. I felt a hoof on my rump, and I would have yelled at him if he’d done anything more than push me up and into the hall.

I only had a few seconds to look around before a grunt and flash of light told me that Nail was making his attempt to follow me. It was a lot more awkward from this end, but eventually we just hooked hooves and I slowly hauled him up. He was a lot heavier than he looked.

Once he had joined me up in the dark hallways, we took our time to look around. I immediately regretted it, and thought that the elevator wasn’t really that bad after all. The walls were covered with filth. Black and oozing, it was reflected the light back at us like thick dirty oil.

“Ugh, gross.” I tapped into the vast depths of my descriptive prowess to sum our surroundings up.

“I agree. Whatever they kept up here, it went bad long ago.” Then, thinking about what he’d just said, he frowned. “Let’s hope the supplies are… yeah, let’s go check.”

The ooze was everywhere. It made looking for B1-1 harder than it should have been, mainly because we had to start wiping the walls to read the numbers. It stank, and it didn’t come off. My legs were soaked black within minutes of searching, and it eventually got to where I was smearing more gunk onto any spot I tried wiping clean.

Nail was doing just as poorly, and his coat had long since ceased being white. He was hovering the shotgun over his head, keeping it in the center of the hall at all times. The black slime was probably not very good for anything with moving parts.

Luckily, we had found the stairs and checked to see if they were blocked. Clear and mostly ooze free. We had our way back, at least.

For lack of anything else other than walking and wiping trying to get clean, I did what I did best. I listened. The pair of stylized ears on my flank weren’t aimless decoration. Hearing is what I did. Right then, I could only hear our hoofsteps, our breathing, the rubbing of cloth against hair, the drip of slime, and some noises I couldn’t quite make out. It was probably just an echo. An Echo surrounded by echoes. I chuckled a little inwardly.

I knew B1-1 without having to wipe any goo away. We came to a halt before a huge door that reached all the way up to the ceiling. It was a segmented door that ran on tracks, but it had jumped them and was awkwardly half-open, a huge dent in the center of it. Something had been pretty rough in opening it, and I hoped I wouldn’t run into whatever it was.

I could already tell that the ever present goo was inside B1-1, and that there were no lights in there. The halls before had occasionally been lit, but most of the lights were burnt out, broken, or too caked with slime to shine. B1-1 was darker than I thought possible.

For once, I took the first steps through. I wasn’t counting being pushed out of the elevator. Leading the way in, I shone my flashlight around the room. It was hard to tell how big it was, the black ooze had a habit of absorbing any light. It was the biggest room I’d seen in the facility.

“We find what we’re looking for, then we head back. Our time’s nearly up… Easel’s gonna be looking for us.” Nail followed me in, shining his own light around to as much effect as my own.

I could make out old consoles and scientific equipment scattered about the room, but what caught my attention was the shattered window set into the far wall. It spanned the entire wall, and I only noticed it because the glass was catching my light. I couldn’t see anything past it other than blackness.

“...And there’s the prize.” His light rested on three large crates in one corner. They were smeared with the black mess, but the high quality metal of their construction was too slick for the filth to have much purpose. They were the only thing that wasn’t installed into the floor of the room, and the only crates in the room. They had to be our target.

Slogging our ways through the muck, we reached the boxes at the same time. Nail, floating out his trusty crowbar, immediately set about prying open one of the crates. It popped open with a hiss, and a light flicked on inside.

“Ooh. Shiny.” I couldn’t help admiring the weapons inside. They were bulky, made for easy pony use, and looked capable of taking on a rampaging Ursa Major. I grinned widely, and turned to Nail.

My grin dropped as I saw his face. He was looking past the box, up towards the corner above us. His eyes were wide, and his teeth were bared. My eyes followed his gaze, and it took me a few seconds to make out what I was looking at.

It was black and oily, like the layer covering the walls and floor. A pair of cold eyes were staring down at us from above three rows of wicked teeth glinting in its open maw. It had hooves; six of them, but the limbs holding it to the wall weren’t in that number.

It was like a nightmare had come to life. Like my nightmare had come to life.

With a hiss, it threw itself at us. A boom and flash of light threw it out of the air, slamming it back into the camouflaging slime on the wall. Blood splashed on my face, and immediately started stinging. The pain pulled me out of the shock of seeing the creature, and I let out a scream of shock.

“Echo. Stay next to me. We’re getting to the stairs, and going back down. Right now.” His gun was firmly trained on the thing, which had landed partially draped over one of the crates. The shot had torn its face in half, and the long clawed limbs it had held to the wall with were twitching spastically. Two more shots to its center of mass from Nail’s shotgun and it stopped moving.

“What is that?” I was asking as we moved, our eyes darting to every corner. We’d gotten close enough to the thing without seeing it that we could have easily passed others without noticing.

“Something that shouldn’t be this near Underhoof. Dweller.”

The word made my blood run cold. I’d heard stories about dwellers. Monsters that shouldn’t be, brought into being using wartime secrets. There were three things I always heard when it came to them: Run, stay in the light, and don’t ever get caught if you’re a mare.

I never got a straight answer when I asked why the third one. I couldn’t imagine any pony being caught by something like… that. I drew the pistol, ignoring the mixed tastes of metal, oil

We covered the space quickly, black filth flying with each hoofstep.

We were at a run as we went back into the hall, and my hooves failed me going underneath the door. All four flew out from underneath me as I hit a patch of unusually slick goo, and I slid bodily into the wall. Any part of me that wasn’t stained black was now soaked with the foul liquid.

I fought my way back up, gaining purchase after I’d scraped and scrambled at the slick ground. Nail had seen me fall, and was checking the walls for any sign of more creatures while waiting for me. I could see flashes of white as his wide eyes caught what little illumination we had.

I wanted to ask him a question, but I couldn’t find words for it. Instead, I stacked up behind him and followed as he continued leading back to the stairs.

The trip back through the hallways was completely different than before. Where before my major concern had been not being coated in stinking goo, now every shadow was a fanged monster, ever echoing drop of filth some nameless monster sneaking through the dark. My teeth started hurting, and I realized how hard I was biting down on the pistol. Still, I barely eased up after that, trying to see or hear anything before it got the drop on us.

“Echo.” His voice was hushed, but the urgency in it was like a gunshot. “If anything happens to me, you run. Don’t stop, don’t come back for me, you get away from here.”

In a whisper under his breath, not meant for me, he added one extra detail. I knew he didn’t want me to hear it, but I couldn’t help it with my adrenaline pumping and every sense on high alert.

“They’ll only kill me.”

“I keep hearing about that… what do they do to mares?” He flinched as I spoke, and his eyes shot back to me in surprise.

“I’ll tell you when we get back to Hoof.” His muttering was low, and wary. He set off again, having stopped just long enough to look back at me.

Neither of us saw the thing that took the swipe at him. A long, scythe-like limb flashed out at him from a doorway. It went through his coat and armor like butter, cutting into his back and down his side. The bright red spray glistened as it caught in my flashlight, the vivid liquid a stark difference from the black covering everything.

He roared in anger and pain, gripping the long limb with his magic. He hauled the creature through the doorway, its head catching on the edge with a sickening crack. He slammed it into the wall as hard as his magic let him, and rammed the barrel of his shotgun into its tooth-filled mouth as it screeched hungrily at us.

Its body jerked violently as he blasted the back of its skull into the wall, and I flinched as one of its limbs shot towards me. I bit harder than I thought, and the pistol in my mouth fired. The bullet tore through the limb, sending it spiralling away into the pooled filth. I fired twice more into its body, on purpose that time.

“Fucker…” Nail collapsed to his front knees as blood pumped from the wound on his back. I went to his aid immediately, trying to pull the jacket off to get to the wound. It needed to be cleaned. I could already see the blackness mixing into his blood.

He pushed me away with the side of his shotgun. “No… just gotta get me to my hooves… we make it to the stairs, and we’re in the clear.”

“Are you sure? You’re… you’re bleeding.” I had to be honest with myself then. I knew that the world was not a nice place. Ponies died all the time. I’d never been that close to a mortal injury before, but I knew that that’s what it was. I could see severed muscle and the blood was gushing in spurts. I could see vertebrae in one spot. He wouldn’t survive long at all, and it would take the best efforts of my aunt Xiera to fix him. She was at least an hour away. With all that running through my head, the obvious was all I could state.

“No kidding.” His voice was low, and wavered a bit, but I could tell he was doing his best to not let me see his weakness. “On my hooves, now.”

He was struggling to get upright, and I did all that I could to help. He was bigger than me by a good bit, but we managed to get setup that worked. He was partially draped over my back, one of his front legs across my withers. He could walk with his back legs, but I was supporting a good amount of his weight. I holstered my pistol, just so I wouldn’t fire it accidentally while supporting him.

“You comfortable?” I asked him, wondering why I said it as I did.

“Could be worse. Now walk. I’ll keep us covered.” The shotgun floated next to my head, and I saw several shells float into it from his bag. If it fired, I’d probably go deaf, but that beat dying.

The going was so much slower like that. I’d never had to support that much weight for long before, and my legs started burning and protesting almost immediately. I willed them to shut up, and pushed forward. Once I got to the stairs, we could bandage him up and make a plan.

Luckily, we weren’t far from the stairs at that point. It was just around the corner, past several closed doors. As I slogged through the muck, I eyed each door carefully. The attack had come from a partially open door, but I didn’t know how well those things could work a door. Ambush seemed to mean intelligence, and I didn’t want to die because I’d underestimated a nightmare.

“Oh come on!” Nail yelled out in anger, and for a split second I thought he was yelling at me. The hissing and clicking sounds echoing through the tunnel drew my attention though. We’d just rounded the corner, and my heart sank at the sight.

There were at least four of the beasts between us and the staircase. Between us and freedom. Their hateful, dead eyes glinted at us in the beams of our lights, drool dripping from their hungering maws. Each one was more warped and twisted than the last.

“Echo. Put me down. Run.” His shotgun was flicking nervously from one target to the next, but they were slowly creeping cautiously towards us. We both knew that as soon as he fired, they’d be all over us. We’d die, torn apart and eaten. Lost forever.

“What?” My voice squeaked out, afraid that any loud noise would set them off.

“Run. Hide. Find a way out. Do not get caught.” His breath was labored and I could see blood dripping from his mouth. “I’ll hold them.”

The things got tired of waiting, and made their move. As one, they broke into a mad dash to be the first to rip us apart.

“RUN!” The exclamation to his command was a shotgun blast.

I listened, turning on a hoof and running as hard as I could. I didn’t know where to go, but I had to make sure that he hadn’t just done what he’d in vain.

As I ran through the halls, I heard two more blasts and then nothing. There had been four… and that meant Nail was dead. I didn’t see it, I didn’t hear it, but I’d seen how easily one of them had cleaved through the armor that was supposed to protect him. Armor thicker than what I was wearing.

I ran harder. A scream bubbled up from inside me and I bit down on it. I couldn’t afford the breath. Needed it for running.

Doors flashed by. I passed the corpse of the dweller, still laying crumpled where Nail had put it down. My mind was racing, looking and thinking for any way out.

Air ducts? No, they were all too high up.. and open and dark. I didn’t want to run into one of them up there.

Before I knew it, I was back at B1-1. Maybe I could clear out one of those weapons crates, hide in there. I heard a noise in the hall behind me, and I rapidly shuffled my hooves as I looked for an out. I didn’t have time for the crates. I didn’t have time for anything but running, but I was out of places to go.

Ducking under the hanging door, I gave the room a closer look. In the corner were the boxes and the dweller corpse, and then there were the various slime covered… whatever machines. I stepped through the shattered window, the glass hidden by slime cracking and shattering under my hooves. I froze at the noise, listening for the dwellers I knew were after me.

It was strangely quiet… which did nothing at all to slow the frantic pounding of my heart. That meant they were nearby.

I like to think I’d managed to keep my cool up until that point, considering all that had happened, but I really started to sweat. I was about to die. I was really going to die.

My eye caught something I hadn’t noticed before, and I carefully approached the side wall. It was coated in slime, so it blended in, but the wall looked different somehow. I wiped away some of the mess.

The wall had a hole in it.

A manic smile broke across my face as I started frantically wiping away at the covering slime, trying to find out how much of a hole there was. There was just enough cleared for me to find what was different. There was a grate set into the wall, the rim crumbled and eaten away at by time and the goo.

I wrapped my hooves into it and pulled. It twisted, but stayed stubbornly set into the wall. Behind me, I heard a loud hiss. It wasn’t in B1-1, but it was definitely in the hall. I yanked again, straining what little strength I had against it.

I braced my rear hooves digging into the wall around it, my front legs straining as I was bent nearly in half yanking on it. “Come on! COME ON!” I screamed at the wall, not caring about noise. They were behind me. I knew if I turned around, I’d see at least two of them creeping up behind me.

The grate popped out of the wall, sending me flying into the slime. The grate bounced off of my midsection, then landed with a splash to disappear in the inky blackness. Pain shot through my chest as the wind was knocked out of me, but I couldn’t stop for that. I forced myself to my hooves and all but dove for the hole in the wall.

It was a tight fit, but even with my armor and bag I managed to squeeze my way into it. If I could fit, those things could definitely fit. With that thought in mind, I scrambled as quickly as I could through the pipe.

It was an old air vent, choked with centuries of cobwebs and dust. It kicked up in a thick cloud as I pushed my way through, blinding me and getting in my mouth. I coughed, spitting thick gobs of dust and black ooze out, but still I pushed on. I didn’t want to feel a tentacle or claw or whatever non-pony thing those monsters had grab me and yank me backwards.

My flashlight was either coated in ooze from the fall or broken, but it wasn’t giving me any light.

That made the next part more surprising than it should have been.

I propelled myself into a vertical shaft, probably one that ran all the way to the surface judging from the rain trickling its way down. I dropped like a slime covered rock.

I bounced and banged as I dropped, catching on other air ducts, and slamming into every turn and angle. I tasted blood over the dust and filth, and felt every impact. Every crushing blow.

My flashlight suddenly surged to life after a particularly jarring hit, but all it showed me was that I was about to hit the bottom. A flash of a metal grate, with a long rusted fan beyond. Beyond that, nothing. I hit it hard, smashing through in an explosion of rust and shower of grit and dust. I smacked my head again, and everything went silent.

-----

“Uhhh….” I slowly came to.

“Oww….” My body was wracked with pain. It felt like I’d just fallen down a… oh, right. I had.

I tried pulling myself to my hooves, but failed. I found that they were dangling beneath me.

Something had snagged my armor, and I was suspended in the air. I couldn’t tell how high I was, because there were no lights. There were all sorts of sounds though.

Dripping. Running water. The scurrying of rats.

I was back in the sewers. The smell confirmed it.

Where exactly I was, I had no idea. How long I’d been out, I didn’t know that either. All I knew was that I had to get down somehow.

My holster was empty when I tried reaching for the pistol I’d stashed. My flashlight was still strapped to me, but it did nothing when I tried clicking it off and on. I still had my bag though, so I pulled it forward with my legs.

Digging through, I found what I needed. I gripped the knife in my teeth and dropped the bag. It splashed down a second later, telling me that I wasn’t too high up. I could probably fall and not hurt myself too much.

The straps holding my armor to my body were too tight from my weight for me loosen them, so I did the next best thing. Straining my neck, I reached down and slipped the blade between my body and armor, very carefully.

I didn’t want to gut myself.

The strap cut easily. As the knife sliced through, I realized my great mistake. There were two straps, and one was back near my rear legs.

I let out a little shriek as I dropped, before the armor caught my weight again. I swung hard enough that I smacked into a wall before going back to dangling. I tried in vain to reach the knife to the back straps, but the angle I was at was all wrong.

The only option left was to wriggle. I sucked in my gut, trying to free up any room I could, and started trying to slip out of the constraining armor. If it hadn’t been for the coating of slick black goo, I think I would have died there, hanging like a helpless effigy.

It was slow going, but with the help of the stinking filth covering every hair, I managed to work the strap further down my body. It was hard getting it up onto my legs, but once I got that far my efforts paid off.

I dropped from the ceiling, limbs flailing in an attempt to right myself before I hit. The knife flew from my mouth as I hit something in midair. I felt something crack inside of me, and I screamed in pain. Then I hit the water, plunging deep.

The current was swift, and I was dragged along. It felt like I was getting kicked by a dozen ponies as the water dragged me through hundreds of years of debris. Something punched a hole in my leg, but that pain was almost immediately eclipsed by my head smacking into a wall. My vision flashed white briefly before giving back in to darkness.

Then, horribly, I was airborne. I still couldn’t see anything as I sailed through the air, and all I could hope for was to land in more water. I’d hit enough metal and stone already.

I tumbled farther into the deep underbelly of Hornsmith, unsure of if I’d ever see sunlight again.

Fluster went through my mind right before I hit something hard and my world turned off.

Chapter 2: Home

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As I came to, I had to wonder if being knocked out was a common thing in the wasteland. Before today, I could count the number of times I’d had a head injury on one hoof. I’d been knocked out twice in rapid succession since I’d fled the dwellers.

Well… maybe rapid succession. As the world swam back into being, I had no idea how long I’d been out. All I knew was that I was half submerged in cold, filthy water, and that I was face up. At least I hadn’t drowned.

I began shivering as I dragged myself from the shallow pool I’d ended up in. There was a tiny bit of light in the tunnel from an ancient globe set into the wall, but all it told me was that I was somewhere in the sewers. Somewhere deep, judging from scenery. The higher levels had all been concrete and wartime materials… but down here it was old brick.

I coughed violently as I tried taking a deep breath, my chest feeling like a bomb went off inside it. Tears sprang to my eyes, and I clutched at my ribs, curling into a ball. I gagged on a bitter mouthful of blood.

I hurt all over, inside and out. I could taste blood, and I could feel dozens of cuts all over my body. I was weak, and a sense of hopelessness washed over me.

I’d escaped the dwellers, but now I was going to die cold and alone, so far beneath the surface I felt I could walk for days and not see the clouds ever again.

I lay there until I could take shallow breaths and fill my lungs with air instead of pain. I let go, my limbs aching from the bruises that covered them. Forcing myself to my hooves, I counted my blessings that none of my legs were broken. At least I had them. I could still make an effort to get somewhere safe.

I had no idea where I was headed, but the only direction I really cared about was up. I had to get up, get out. If I could get to the topside, it wouldn’t be too hard to find Hoof again. There were always patrols around it, and they’d recognize me in a second. I’d be welcomed back with relieved faces, and then probably get to take a bath. I really wanted a bath.

It was dark that far down, but the occasional light in the wall still worked. It was a thin, tiny thing. Barely better than the absolute darkness I had been so badly hurt in, but I felt comforted by its presence. It would at least let me see whatever was going to kill me.

No. Gotta stay positive. Topside. Relief. Bath.

The tunnel I was in slowly sloped upwards, which made me smile just a little. I was already making progress. I had lucked out to end up in the pool at the bottom of it, instead of smashed against a grate somewhere underwater or impaled on random debris. Of course, I was wet and freezing, but that beat impaled any day.

As I walked, I did my best to move as much as I could. Extra hops in my step, shaking out my neck, and stretching whenever I had to take a breather. I needed to warm myself up, and the only way I could do that was to stay active. As much as my body just wanted to lay down and sleep, I had to stay active.

Survival 101. Keep moving, avoid conflict, stay warm. Ash had taught me these things after I’d gotten through a hole in the fence as a little filly. He’d grounded me too, but he’d started teaching me what I needed if I ever got lost again. Shade had been against it. She never wanted me to leave Hoof ever, but Ash had talked her down. That’s when I’d started learning from other ponies around town. Lockpicking was something I excelled at. A skill that I was currently unequipped for…

To the side I spied a fenced off staircase. It was going up. The fence was ancient, like everything else down here, and was composed almost entirely of rust. It had dozens of holes that I could fit through easily, and in no time I was headed upwards.

Ever upwards.

The tunnel above wasn’t drainage, but seemed to have been built for storage. I didn’t know why anypony would store something this far underground, but hundreds of crates stretched off into the darkness in either direction.

Curiosity led me to open one of them, which mostly involved finding one rotted enough for me to just pull planks off of it.

Empty.

The next one was empty too. I had somehow managed to find a tunnel completely devoted to box storage. Fantastic. At least storage meant that there would or should be some way to get to the surface faster.

I was really starting to hate how much of this city had been built underground. Ponies weren’t meant for underground. We would have bat parts if we were supposed to live down here.

Then, when I found how boxes were once transported down this far, I wished that I had bat parts. Then I could use my wings to fly up the dark shaft with the crushed elevator at the bottom. I could see light near the top… but it was too high for me to ever hope to get there.

“Shit.” Ash wouldn’t have approved of me cursing. Didn’t really matter now. Nopony was here; I was completely and utterly alone.

“Fuck… fuck this whole day.” I let my back legs give out and I sat with sigh of relief. My legs deserved a break. My whole body deserved a break.

I could only stare upwards at freedom. The stupid elevator must have dropped from a long way up… the cable was next to me, frayed from age. It must have snapped a long time ago, screwing me over before I was even born.

Gotta go up.

My eyes wandered, drifting over the shattered remains of the elevator. The twisted metal skeleton was reaching helplessly towards freedom, just like me. One part of it was even reaching up to the next floor…

There was a ramp.

I let out a laughing cry of victory. I loved this elevator. This stupid fucking elevator.

I could definitely get the hang of cursing. Ash wouldn’t like it, but I was finding that some words were just necessary for what was going through my head. I think I’d hit it harder than I thought, because my thoughts were just a bit more erratic than usual.

The elevator. Right, my path to freedom. Well, possible freedom.

Then I could get back home. Ash, Fluster, Ziel. The Whitecoats… I’d tell them how Nail died protecting me. Shade… well, that would probably be awkward.

The rusty, twisted frame of the elevator protested as I began my perilous ascent. With each delicate placement of a hoof, it creaked and groaned.

“A plump pony wouldn’t be able to do this, thank you very much.” I mumbled under my breath as I focused on the beam and me not falling. It wasn’t that hard. I had good balance.

I hopped up out of the shaft, into the light of the next level. No black goo, no dwellers, no rushing rivers. Immediately, I approved of my new surroundings.

“All right, next stop: surface.” I grinned to myself, the rush of endorphins from my recent feat washing a good bit of the pain away from me. I glanced around the room I was in, and found that there was a tunnel sloping upwards. That was my destination, and I trotted briskly towards it.

Heading upwards yet again, I did my best to ignore the burning that was returning to my legs. More concerning was the burning in my chest, which flared with each breath. My ribs were cracked, if not broken, and breathing was really starting to hurt. With a quick glance I confirmed that my sides were purple and black, and not just because of the black filth that had stained my fur.

I’d definitely be paying a visit to Aunt Xiera when I got back home. Depending on how bad it was, I might have to even go back to Underhoof. That’s where the surgeon lived. I’d seen her earlier, talking to Viola, but I’d never actually met her.

I reached the top of the tunnel, and found that I wasn’t actually in a sewer anymore. These were storage and transport tunnels that weaved around the sewers. That didn’t mean that water wasn’t flowing through them, it just meant that there was less of it. If I wasn’t already so cold I’d try cleaning up a bit. Thinking about it though, I’d spent who knows how long in the water and the filth hadn’t come off, so a little scrubbing probably wasn’t going to help.

Hissss….

I froze mid-step. That didn’t sound like a dweller, which made me both glad and afraid.

A deep bass growl began from my right, in a darkened tunnel that branched off from the main one I was walking through. I turned my head slowly, hoping to catch sight of whatever it was so I knew how fast to run.

A serpentine head, pale and filled with teeth, snaked out of the darkness. Its eyes looked sightless, but its nostrils flared as it smelled me. I was covered in filth, blood, and fear sweat. I must have been quite ripe. I’d never seen anything like the head before, but I instinctively knew that it was something I should run from.

When the next three heads followed it out of the darkness, I ran. Sprinting hard, despite the protest of my body, I got a good head start on the thing. I heard it tear out of the tunnel behind me, the thunder of its footsteps and the roars of four heads filling both me and the tunnel with terror.

As I galloped full out, I felt that I had to turn. Even as fast as I could run, it was going to catch me. I could tell from how close the sound was getting. I didn’t dare turn around.

The tunnel wound away through the underground, making it so that I couldn’t really see what was ahead. I was cutting each corner tight, using my smaller frame to my advantage. As I came into a straight-away, I lost that advantage. Luckily there were branching tunnels ahead.

I scraped against a corner as I turned down a tunnel, feeling the hot blush of blood spring up from my tortured hide. A shaking thud and the sound of cracking masonry came a split second later as one of the heads that was lunging after me didn’t make the turn gracefully.

The tunnel I turned into was littered with debris, and I vaulted over a section of collapsed wall. Deep cracks ran the length of the walls and ceiling, where chunks had fallen into the tunnel. I realized this was a hindrance to me just as much as it was to the hydra, which plowed through the first pile of wreckage with a crash and multiple roars.

The tunnel was more destroyed the farther I went, and I was quickly running out of room. My breathing was ragged and my chest felt like it was filled with fire. As I ran, I started noticing that there were drainage tubes leading away at regular intervals. Most were choked with debris, but I hoped that at least one was open.

I ducked a hanging bundle of wires, hoping it would catch up the increasingly beleaguered hydra. As the hydra hit where I thought the wires would be, my plan backfired. The wires tore out of the wall with a loud electrical pop, and the lights in the entire section of tunnel shorted out as one. My hoof caught on something and I tumbled in the darkness, the rampaging hydra right behind me.

I felt something pierce my side when I hit the ground and the extra pain forced a scream through me, ringing through the tunnel. I didn’t have time to check the wound in the dark, so I started scrambling towards where I felt the nearest drainage tunnel was. It should have been right around a pile of rubble on my right.

Scrambling through broken wall shredded my legs and sides, but the hole between ribs was where all my pain was centered. The hydra must have been having just as hard a time as me, because I hadn’t been snatched up and eaten yet. I knew it could smell me, so that had to be it.

Just a little bit more, and I knew I could find the tunnel.

Please don’t be clogged.

I ran face first into the wall, the sharp scent of blood filling my nostrils as I did. I pushed my hooves against the wall, looking for the drainage tunnel.

It had to be there. It just had to.

One hoof encountered no resistance and my face smacked into the wall again as my support was suddenly gone. I didn’t care, I’d found the drainage pipe, and I’d gotten at least a hoof inside. I dropped, and started scooting my way into the little side tunnel. If it was anything like the ones before, I’d fit easily.

I heard a hungry roar behind me as I pushed myself farther and farther into the pipe, trying to get away. I kept crawling, not having any idea how far I would have to go before I could slow down.

I crawled into something too quickly, and got tangled in a bundle of rags. It bunched up around my neck, and I swatted at it with a front leg trying to get free. I heard the sound of metal on the tunnel wall, and a light sprang to life.

I was face to face with a skull, jaw hanging open in a scream. Rotted skin and muscle still clung to it.

Screaming in surprise, I kicked the skull in the face, my hoof smashing through into the hollow cranium. I frantically tried pushing it off when I heard a loud snap and felt a push of wind.

Turning slightly, afraid of what was behind me, I let out a scared gurgle. One of the hydra’s heads had snapped at me, only a hooflength behind me. It snapped again, pushing even further towards me and I backed up frantically, dragging the pony skeleton with me.

I heard a metallic clatter, and looked around frantically. The skeleton had a long knife in a sheath, banging around as I pushed the two of us further down. I reached out and snatched the blade up in my mouth, unsheathing it in one swift motion. The glint in the light showed me that it was still sharp.

SNAP!

The teeth slammed shut close to me, and I reacted quickly. I slashed out with my head, dragging the blade through scales and meat. It roared in pain, spraying me with foul smelling drool. The blast of breath and pressure sent me tumbling in a pile of bones and cloth.

I gripped the knife in my mouth, determined not to lose another weapon. It would be the death of me if I did. Tangled as I was, I could only kick with my back legs as the hydra kept snapping at me, spraying me with stinking blood from the long gash in its face.

Then I was falling again, tumbling through darkness. The light was still working, and the flashes of wall before I hit a body of water showed that I was back in the sewers. The water was shallow, and when I hit I smacked my head hard. Light flashed through my head, followed by a rush of renewed pain.

Once again, I pulled myself up out of flowing sewer water, coughing and sputtering. Something sharp was jabbing me, and I pulled away from it. It followed, sticking me in the side.

“Ow!” I looked down, seeing what it was. The knife was jabbing me in the side, and would have probably gutted me if it wasn’t wedged between two ribs of the skeleton that was still tangled up with me.

“Phew… thanks for saving me.” The skeleton was missing half of his skull, but I like to think he gave a little nod as I looked at him. Using one of my hooves I pushed the knife away from my battered body. I didn’t want to get gutted as I untangled the two of us.

Once I finally got the last of the tattered cloth off away, I was able to get a good look at the skeleton. It was missing everything below the rib cage. The spine was severed and it had no legs. One rib had a deep cut in it.

“Did the hydra get you too?” I looked down at the skeleton. It gazed up at me in its silent scream, thankfully not answering me.

I untangled the sheath from the skeleton, sliding it on over my filthy, matted fur. The knife, more of a machete now that I actually looked at it, lay half submerged in the water. The light was a bit harder to get free; the strap was wedged between vertebrae. I turned it off before going about my work.

“Sorry about this.” I gripped the light in my teeth, braced a hoof against the neck, and pulled.

The thick strap went taut on the skeleton’s neck, pulling the whole body closer to me. I braced a second hoof to hold down the ribcage, and put what remaining strength I had into it.

The hole in my side reminded me of its presence suddenly and painfully, spraying blood against the cold surface of the sewer. A sharp squeak escaped me and I let go of the strap, collapsing into a ball of pain. I’d run out of adrenaline, and the pain numbing effects that came with it.

I lay there on my friend, grateful for the cloth it had been wearing when it died. The bones were uncomfortable, but the cloth felt nice against my tortured hide. Really, I needed the cloth more than my friend did.

It took a lot of willpower, but I forced myself back onto my hooves. The light I would get later, but right then I needed the cloth. I pulled it from the pile, shaking loose bones and dust. It tore easily into long strips, and I carefully worked them around my midsection. I needed to stop the bleeding, even if just a little. The cloth of a dead pony wasn’t the best option imaginable, but it was all I had.

Bundling wad, I pressed it into my side. Then, in an impressive display of flexibility, I wrapped it tightly around my sides. It hurt so bad. As tightly as I was going to get it. I worked the blade sheath’s strap into it, for extra stability, and then I cinched it tight.

-----

My eyes fluttered open, bringing me face to face with the skeleton pony again. I must have blacked out. My side hurt so badly…

I glanced down at my work. I must have done a passable job, or I’m pretty sure I would have bled out. Waking up meant I’d done a good enough job.

Good enough.

Fuck.

I gritted my teeth in pain, and went back to the last thing I had to do before I could start on my way again. The light.

I couldn’t pull or I’d just hurt myself again. I cut the light free, then tied the ends back together. Knots were tricky, having to use my mouth. Stupid unicorn could have done it in seconds.

When it was done, I hung it around my neck. Clicking it on, I smiled as it shone a light against the tunnel wall. It wasn’t broken, or cracked, or covered in slime, or anything.

Having light helped. I started back on my way. Up. Keep going up.

-----

The sewers looked different. The walls were built differently, and the tunnels looked completely foreign to what was underneath Hoof. At least up was still up.

Walking was an effort. Aside from however long I’d been unconscious, I hadn’t had any rest in a long time. I was exhausted, and my every muscle burned. My skin hurt, and my filthy hair was itching like crazy.

The tunnels in this part of the city were devoid of life. Completely. As I walked, I noticed that I wasn’t even seeing rats. It might have been the proximity to the hydra’s den, and I really hoped that that was it. I wasn’t really wanting to encounter a fresh horror.

I’d had a rough day.

After a few hours of wandering, always heading up, I had to take a break. I was starving and exhausted. I needed to rest.

I found a dry pipe, one that wasn’t likely to gush freezing water on me at random, and curled up into it. I just needed to rest my eyes for a while.

;;;;;

“Ash, tell us how you met Aunt Fluster!” The two of us crowded around the griffin’s paws, eager for one of his stories. He’d been out all day, leaving the two of us with Aunt Xiera, but the zebra had been busy tending to a sick foal. We were bored out of our minds, and one of Ash’s stories was just what we wanted.

“You sure you want that story? How about when I found the lost Sapphire Stone in the jungle primeval?” He ruffled my mane as he sat down in the middle of the room where we continued crowding him. The griffin was still wet, but we pressed into him. He was always so warm, and it was a cold day.

“You never did that! Tell us about Fluster!” Ziel was standing on one of his legs, her two front hooves pressing into the feathers on his neck.

He picked her up with both hands and moved her off of him, laughing as he did so. “Okay, okay, I’ll tell you.”

The two of us sat right in front of him, our rapt attention on the griffin. He grinned widely, his golden eyes glinting as he delayed just long enough to get us to start fidgeting.

“There we were, Kick and I. We’d just escaped the evil fire witch, by throwing ourselves down a huge water slide.” He gestured wide with his claws, adding emphasis where he needed it.

“We were weary from our mighty battle, and made our way to an underground kingdom.”

“Underhoof?” Ziel asked with a huge smile on her face.

“Yeah, Ziel, it was. No interrupting now, you know the rules.” He pushed her over with a claw, and she scrambled back up into a sitting position. This happened during every story.

“Kick had been wounded in battle, and the kingdom granted us access to their greatest healer. A powerful unicorn, she fixed us up good as new. In return, we agreed to help the kingdom with a local monster. An unkillable creature that dwelled in the tunnels nearby.”

He held up a finger before us, indicating a pause. “Before we set off on our quest, though, we were introduced to a pony. A mysterious pony in a hood and cloak, who knew the tunnels and could help us find our beast.”

“Who was the hooded pony?” Ziel chirped again, interrupting Ash. I was staring intently at him, taking in his every word.

“I’m getting there. Rules, Ziel, remember the rules.” He pushed the energetic zony over again.

“Right… sorry, keep going.”

“That is when we met Fluster, the pony in the cloak. She led us to where we encountered the beast. It was a mighty battle, but between Kick and I, we ended the monster’s reign of terror over the people of the underground kingdom. The creature was as we’d been told, unkillable. We made it sorry it had ever threatened innocent creatures, and swore it to live forever in the tunnels to never hurt anyone ever again.”

He leaned in close, a wicked smile on his face. “To this day, ponies can hear the monster in the tunnels, lamenting the day it ran into the two of us. It kept its promise though, and hasn’t been seen in years.”

“Fluster had led us true, and we returned to the kingdom triumphant. The villagers threw a parade when we returned. We couldn’t stay though, and had to continue on our quest. Fluster decided to join us, and we returned to the surface to continue battling the evil forces of Hate.”

He always told us stories from before we were born. They always focused on himself and a character named Kick. I had a suspicion that Kick was another name for Ripple, because a lot of what I’d heard about the two matched up, though Ash was the only one who ever mentioned Kick.

“Why did Fluster wear robes?” I asked, now that the story was over. That was the rule. I could talk when he was done.

He looked over his shoulder briefly, as though he was checking to make sure that the coast was clear. “Don’t tell anyone I said this, but she used to be real shy about being a pegasus. There aren’t a lot of them, and she was trying to hide. Don’t mention that though, especially not to her. She doesn’t like that I tell you about the past.”

“Why?” Ziel hopped back up, resting her hooves on the griffin.

“There are some parts of the past that belong there.” He spoke with a tone we knew. We weren’t to keep asking about that.

“So the tunnel monster is still alive?” I always asked the best questions after story time.

“We met others like the beast. I’ll tell you about… well, I’ll mention them in another story.” He did that sometimes. Some details he never gave us. He thought we were too young.

“Anyways, they couldn’t be killed. Just stopped. The beast of the tunnels, the beast of the trains, and the beast of the mountain.” He laughed as he said the names. “Spoilers.”

“Ash?” Mom’s voice called out from the front hallway.

“In here with the girls. Xiera had to leave.” He pushed us off of him gently and stood, towering over us. I couldn’t help but gape in awe whenever he stood tall. He was a giant.

My mom came around the corner, looking exhausted as always. She was covered in engine oil, her bag of tools hanging limply at her side. “One of the water pumps in Underhoof broke… took all day to get it up and running…” The bag dropped to the ground with a clatter, and she rubbed at her neck with a hoof.

“You want me to look after the girls tonight? I could take them to Fluster’s.” Ash always seemed a little awkward around mom. Mom looked at him with tired eyes, glancing down at me only once.

Tears sprang to my eyes as I looked up at my mom. It had been recent that she’d started drifting away from me. I wasn’t very old, but I could tell something was wrong. Ever since Ash had stopped going on his trips, she’d done nothing but work. We used to play and laugh together, but that hadn’t happened in months.

“Yeah… Echo should stay at Fluster’s tonight. I’ve got an early morning, and I won’t have time to drop her off.” Her eyes locked back onto me, and I saw her jerk a little, like she was trying to hold something back. She looked sad.

Then she was gone, headed up to her room.

“Okay girls, let’s give Shade some peace and quiet. Let’s go see Fluster and Fern.” He clapped his claws together, and then ushered us towards the door. Ziel bounced happily, always eager to play with the timberwolf. I followed along, my head hung low.

Once we were outside, Ziel shot off down the street towards Fluster’s house. Ash called once for her, but knew it was pointless. He walked along next to me.

“...Ash?”

“What’s up Echo? You seem down.” He was really holding back his stride to keep up with my short legs, and it gave me time to talk.

“Did… did I do something wrong?”

“Why would you… oh. Your mom?”

I sniffled once. “Yeah… I don’t think she loves me anymore.”

He stopped and crouched down in front of me, resting his claws on my shoulders. “Echo. She does love you. She really does… she’s just hurting.”

Looking down the street back towards my house, he sighed. “It’s me. I stopped looking for your dad. She’s heartbroken…”

“When will she get better?”

Using one of his claws, he messed up my mane in an effort to cheer me up. It didn’t work. “The heart’s a hard thing to fix. Ripple… your dad, he was everything to her. He saved her, and she loved him more than I could ever explain.”

Ash never really treated me like a filly. He’d give short explanations to Ziel, but he always seemed to talk to me like he would other adults. “So… why won’t she come near me?” I hadn’t hugged my mom in a long time.

He pulled me into a hug there in the street, practically picking me up. “You’re a lot like your dad. She sees him in you. Just… give it a little time. Things’ll get better, I promise.”

;;;;;

I awoke with a snort, then immediately clutched at my body in pain. I was cold, stiff, and hurting worse than I ever had before, but at least I was still alive.

The dream kept running through my head.

Why did I have that dream? It was a memory, but not one I thought about. That was the start of my giving up on Shade. I was better off for it… but why was that coming back now?

Things’ll get better, I promise.

I really wanted to believe Ash, especially in the situation I was in.

I froze as I heard something in the tunnel. I was safely tucked away, but what if it was the hydra? It could smell me.

Slowly, I peeked out of my hidey hole, scanning for whatever had come to eat me this time.

If I had had any day other than the one I was currently living, I would have been scared. It is amazing what running for your life from unspeakable horrors can do to a pony. There was a gnasher, shriveled and bony. He didn’t see me, so I took a few minutes to watch him as he sniffed at the ground and wandered aimlessly.

I’d seen ghouls. Underhoof had its fair share, and I’d spent my share of time around Viola. Though most of them weren’t terribly fond of me, mostly because Ziel had bothered them and I’d been along for the ride, they all had that gleam in their eyes that normal ponies had. That spark of intelligence. This gnasher didn’t have that.

I could just wait for him to leave, and then get on my way.

As I lay there in the tunnel, I began realizing that waiting wasn’t going to work. He’d probably already been there for hours while I slept, and didn’t look like he was in any hurry to leave.

I’d been cut, scraped, beaten, partially drowned, and knocked unconscious several times. Might as well add my first kill to the day. I drew the machete with my mouth and slipped out of the tunnel slowly.

Luna… my everything hurt.

I bit into the handle harder than I would have normally. It helped the pain a little. Keeping low, I stalked across the sewer towards the distracted gnasher.

I kicked a can, ancient and rusty, sending it clattering off the hard floor to bounce off the ghoul’s hoof.

“Fffck.” Yes, I was growing fond of cursing, even if it was muffled into oblivion by the long blade in my mouth.

The gnasher’s dead eyes locked onto me and it let out a strangled cry before charging me. Its teeth were visibly rotted, but jagged and numerous nonetheless. I braced, ready to meet the gnasher head on with my friend’s knife.

I had to call the skeleton something else.

I worked through what I’d been taught about using a blade. Sharp part pointed away from body. Check. Legs braced but bent to react quickly. Check. Eyes on the target. Check.

The gnasher ran at me with the grace of a train. He was trying to impale me with his horn, which was still whole and pointy. I stepped to the side quickly, letting the gnasher’s momentum run into the blade.

The long blade hit about halfway down the gnashers neck after slicing off a long strip of decaying flesh from under his jaw. Black ichor squirted out as the blade slashed through windpipe and arteries, dragging along his side and bouncing off his ribs. When it passed his ribs, the blade punched through into his stomach and lower digestive tract. I felt every impact in my neck as I gripped the blade, but my head snapped back when the edge hit the gnashers hip and popped out of the body.

The gnasher collapsed but slid, leaving a long streak of what passed for blood before ending up in the stream in the middle of the sewer. I stepped back, now keenly aware of just how covered with gnasher blood I was. It was like I’d just cut into a pressurized can of Sparkle Cola.

“Ugh…” Really, I shouldn’t have cared. I was already caked and filthy with untold amounts of… everything. The gnasher blood was just another topping on my sundae of horror.

I’d expected to feel more, killing it. Gnashers were ponies, living and breathing. It felt like I’d crushed an insect beneath my hoof. It wasn’t what I’d expected at all.

“Huh.” I stared at the pile of dead gnasher, its decrepit organs spilling out of its body and slipping away as the water built up around it.

I wondered if all killing was that easy.

-----

I had no idea how long I’d been in the tunnels. From the way my stomach was growling at me, I knew it had to be at least a day. It might have been more.

I was growing hungrier and hungrier. My stomach was growling non-stop. Water wasn’t an issue, but I needed to eat something.

I’d found some mushrooms, but I remembered a pointer I’d heard about these tunnels in the week running up to this trip. Fluster had told me everything she knew. Mushrooms were at best hallucinogenic, at worst poisonous.

I didn’t want to start seeing things. I couldn’t afford to.

I really didn’t want to die.

I’d been seeing rats scurrying around, but I wasn’t that hungry. I was holding out for something more palatable. Meat always seemed wrong… I didn’t have the teeth or taste for it.

I kept heading up. I had to be getting near the surface. I’d been heading up continuously, with some bits of straight. Only a few downs. Nothing like the drops I’d had earlier.

I still had no idea which direction I was heading in. For all I knew, I was on the other side of Hornsmith. I hoped I wasn’t near the Ruins or Maremack. I’d rather stay in the sewer than end up near either of those places.

I froze as I passed a door. I checked it again, just to make sure I’d seen what I thought I’d seen.

Butterflies.

I’d never been so happy to see Butterflies.

The door opened when I pulled, swinging easily on rust-free hinges.

I slammed the door shut. Black ooze. Coating the walls, dripping from the ceiling, pooling on the floor. A black form, standing low with eyes locked onto mine. Wicked teeth dripping between razor sharp pincers.

I was running, harder than my body wanted to let me. I heard the bang of the door coming back open as the nightmare barreled through it in pursuit.

I tried running harder, leaping the small river in the middle of the tunnel, draining out from the surface somewhere above.

I heard splashing as it crossed through, telling me it wasn’t too far behind me.

The dream came back to me.

Chased through a dark tunnel… splashing water… the monster behind me.

As I ran, I pulled the long blade from its worn sheath. I’d rather have it while I ran, just in case.

Another splash, too close, and it hit me. I felt razor sharp talons rake across my rump, not catching but slicing through my flesh. I screamed in pain, but kept my determination up. I didn’t know where I was going, but I was not stopping.

The swipe must have been part of a dive, because it was farther behind me afterwards. My rump was on fire, and I felt warm blood flowing down my legs.

“Fuuuuck.” I let it out as a long groan of pain.

“Fuck!” That one was disappointment and terror. I was going to die. I was getting so sick of thinking that.

I risked the look over my shoulder, and regretted it. It was bigger than it had looked in that hall. Twice my size, oily black, muscle and murderous intent. Its front legs were like a cats, with too many claws jutting at random angles.

I spent too long looking back, and ran headlong into a solid wall. It felt like my spine accordioned into my neck, and nerves fired all over my body as my whole world flashed bright white.

There was no wall in the dream.

I fought to get back to my hooves, but everything hurt. I couldn’t concentrate, and I couldn’t get my legs to do what I wanted them to. I was seeing quadruple, and the horrific black shadow now stalking up towards me had friends.

I wondered what would happen when it dragged me off. If it wasn’t to eat… I really couldn’t guess at it. I couldn’t guess at much of anything… my head wasn’t right.

There was a loud click, followed by a grating clatter. It must have been the dweller, almost on top of me. I’d only heard hissing from its kind, but they all seemed different. Maybe it was calling for assistance to drag me away.

The Dwellers let out a long, sharp screech. Something bright and orange lanced over me into all four of them. The Dweller reacted violently, glowing orange and thrashing around the tunnel. There wasn’t enough water here, and it dragged itself futilely through a small puddle. Letting out a scream of rage, it ran, leaving me with the orange stuff on the ground.

“Oh Princess! She’s still alive. Quick, get her inside.”

Huh? Orange stuff didn’t talk.

I felt something gentle lift me, and my head finally gave up on trying to stay awake.

-----

“Tell the Princess our guest is awake.” I heard a door close, and slowly opened my eyes.

“Hey there, traveler…” A unicorn mare with big blue eyes was smiling kindly at me, dabbing at my face with a wet cloth.

“Where…” I burst into a coughing fit. My throat was too dry to talk. A bowl levitated to my mouth, and cooling water flowed into my parched throat.

After I swallowed and felt just a little better, I tried again. “Where am I?”

“That’s not important. You just rest, you had a rough trip,” she cooed quietly to me.

I tried sitting up in bed, but the pain from doing so made me stop that foalishness with a squeak.

“Don’t try moving dear, you’re hurt. You need rest.”

No, I had to get back home. Ziel would be worried sick. Ash would be out looking for me. Fluster…

“I gotta get home…”

The mare stroked my face gently. Motherly. That’s the word for how she was acting. I raised a hoof to try and push her away. It stopped short, and I looked down.

Leather straps. I was strapped to the bed.

“What the...?” I forced my swimming head to focus. Straps couldn’t mean anything good.

“We had to dear, you kept fighting. You’ve been in and out of consciousness for two days, and this is the first time you didn’t wake up fighting,” she smiled, but it no longer made me feel warmth. I was getting a seriously creepy vibe from her.

“Well… thanks for the care… but I really need to be going.” I tested all four legs, and found that I was completely strapped down.

“You haven’t met the Princess yet.”

“Let me go!” I struggled against the straps. My body had been feeling the two days down, but I was getting control again.

I froze as I felt the cold steel pressed lovingly against my jugular. She smiled calmly down at me as she held the scalpel to my throat. “Not until you meet the Princess. Those are the rules in Neighwhere.”

Oh no.

“Now just lay back and rest. You’ll want to be your best when you meet the Princess.”

I pushed myself back into the bed, and the blade floated away from my throat. I figured I’d ask the Princess to let me go home. It beat getting my neck slit.

I lay there for an hour as she continued stroking my face and cooing gently. She changed the bandages wrapped around a good portion of my body, but I never took my eyes off of her. I didn’t trust the crazy mare. Not one bit.

The door opened, and the mare stopped stroking my face. I let out a small sigh of relief, even if the unicorn that walked through the door was a mean mass of scar tissue and bad intentions. A rusty blade made from scrap metal rested across his withers.

“Princess wants ta’ see tha’ fish.”

“Hack Job, it isn’t nice to call her names.” The mare tut-tutted, turning to face the grizzled unicorn.

“Fuck off, nutcase. Pony floppin’ in tha water, gaspin’ for breath and bleedin’ all about? That’s a fish ta me.” He roughly undid the straps from my legs, and hauled me off the bed. When my weight hit my legs, they protested greatly. I groaned, but Hack Job growled at me. “Do anything funny, and I’ll gut ya like tha fish ya are.”

I squeaked in agreement as my back left leg cramped up, but I kept up with him. Limping, heavily bandaged, unarmed. I didn’t have much of a choice… plus, it got me away from the creepy mare.

I didn’t recognize where I was. The walls and floors of the tunnels he led me through were unlike any I’d seen. There was fire damage everywhere, blackened walls and a lingering scent of burnt metal.

The mare had said Neighwhere. That meant the I was in the Ruins. One of the towns Ripple had a hoof in destroying. I’d never gotten a straight answer why, but I knew that we didn’t go to Neighwhere. I had no idea that ponies were living there. I’d thought it was just infested with monsters or something.

The ponies that occupied these tunnels were a varied bunch. There were other ponies like Hack Job, all scarred and well-worn. I knew their type. They were raiders. We passed one wearing thick, blackened armor. A welding mask on his face and bulky flamethrower slung along his side gave me a hint as to how I’d been “saved” from the tunnel and the dweller.

Then there were the others. Glassy eyed ponies wandering the halls, a few ponies wearing robes patched together from whatever cloth was available, and most disturbingly were several ponies that looked to have been set on fire. They were still walking, cracked skin and crisped hair filling the halls with an unsettling smell. Most of them were mumbling as they went, but I couldn’t hear what they were saying.

“Eyes ahead, fish!” He shoved me with his magic, sending me stumbling. I tripped, and went face first into a wall. I smacked my left eye hard when I hit, and pulled back holding a hoof to it.

“Ow… doesn’t your Princess want me intact?”

He glared at me. “You’re already plenty beat up, fish. She won’t notice another bump or two. Or a missin’ leg. Shut tha fuck up.”

I got the hint, and kept walking. We came to a door, and he shoved me roughly towards it. “In there, fish. Play nice, or ya won’t be floppin’ ‘round no more.”

I glared at him briefly before turning to the door. I nudged it open and slipped through.

My jaw dropped open. I’d never seen an alicorn like that. Her wings were made of fire, her orange mane and white hair flickering softly in the light given off by the fire drifting next to her. Her horn was rimmed with a crown made of scrap and bone, with torches built into it. Then I realized that she wasn’t an alicorn at all, but a unicorn. The next thing that caught my attention was the PipBuck on her leg. It was just like the one that Ash had.

She had been lost in thought, but came to the realization that I was in the room. Our eyes met, and the cocky smile she wore dropped straight off her face.

“Two Kick?” Her face was filled with a mix of emotions. Shock, heartbreak, fear, love. All at once.

“Huh?” My voice bounced around the room, much higher than I had planned.

She stared for a few more seconds, a tear dropping from one of her eyes and sizzling when it hit the ground at her hooves. Then her eyes narrowed, and she looked closer at me.

“No… no you’re not.” She took a step forward, staring at me. “You… you look just like him…”

“Uh… who?” I risked a question.

“You do not speak until your Princess allows it!” she screamed in my face, her wings beating at the air in swirls of fire.

I sealed my lips shut as I felt the heat on my face. The Princess was getting too close, and I could really feel the heat radiating around her.

“I’m sorry. This is a friendly meeting.” She was inspecting me, using a hoof to pull at some of the bandages around my side. It hurt, but I wasn’t going to stop her. I’d seen the burnt ponies, and I had a strong suspicion that they hadn’t done that to themselves.

“You look so much like… no, that is the past. He’s gone. You couldn’t be. You’re a mare...” It was like I wasn’t even in the room, even as she stared at me. Took in my every detail. With all the bandages, I couldn’t have been the best looking I’d ever been.

“Ripple…” She ran a hoof down my side as she said it, making my healing wounds flare in pain at the scorching heat.

The name took me by surprise. I looked at her more directly, and she stared straight into my eyes. “You know that name? Answer.”

“I…” She knew I knew the name. She didn’t seem terribly stable, so I didn’t want to say anything to upset her. Lying probably wouldn’t do very well… she was staring me in the eyes.

“He was my father.”

She recoiled from me. Tears sprang to her eyes again, as she looked at me. “Of course… his whore! That cheating, lying son of a bitch!” As she yelled, the temperature in the room began rising. “He tears my world apart! He builds it up again! Then he leaves…”

She went seemingly calm in the middle of her tirade, still staring straight at me. “I’ll teach him to abandon me…”

As she moved towards me, I moved away from her. As I pressed up against the wall, we were practically muzzle to muzzle. “...and I think you will do nicely.”

Her horn fizzled out, and the flaming wings blinked out of existence. The only light in the room was coming from the fires of her crown, which were right in my face. “The things I want to do to Ripple…” She blushed, then immediately went to a snarl. “I can’t do some, but I can do others.”

Her horn flared, and she smiled. “Like this.”

I felt a prickling on my left flank that quickly spread into an intense burning.

“Ah…” Looking down, I saw the fire that had lit on my flank. “Aahhhh!” I screamed, dropping away from the softly giggling unicorn and trying to smother the fire. I rolled, but nothing I did worked. I smelled burnt hair, and the sweeter sickening smell from the hall. Burnt pony.

I kept screaming, frantically trying to put myself out. Rubbing it against the floor did nothing, and flailing my hooves at it was just singing my legs from the heat.

The flames went out in an instant, leaving behind raw, burnt skin. My cutie mark was gone, obliterated by the flames. I was crying. I had been crying during the burn, but now it took over from the screaming and I curled up trying to shield myself from the mare standing over me.

“Did you like that?” She pressed a hoof to the burn, pulling another scream from me. I kicked her hoof away and pushed myself into the corner, hiding the injury. The wound pressed against the metal of the wall, which was cool and soothing.

“I burnt him. He always liked it in our more intimate moments if I turned up the heat.” She smiled dreamily. I could only barely see her through the tears, but I didn’t want to lose sight of her. I needed to know if she was going to touch me again.

I just wanted to go home.

“That isn’t for young ears like yours though.” She stepped forward, her horn glowing subtly. I braced for more fire, flinching bodily as I did so. Her wings flared back to life, and no more fire came my way.

“So… whore daughter, what is your name?”

“Go away…” I managed through grinding teeth, the pain still unbearable.

“I’m Cinder Trails. Princess of Fire.” I glared at her through the tears. Her hoof got close to my face, and a small torch of flame appeared on the end of it, angled at my eye. “You know my name. It’s only fair.”

I shut my eyes under the intensity of the flame, trying to back even farther away from Cinder. I felt the fur around my eye begin to wilt, and gave in.

“Echo… my name’s Echo.”

The heat was gone, and I heard her trot away from me. “See, that wasn’t so hard. It’s fitting… you do look just like him.”

She returned to where she was standing when I’d come in, leaving me on the floor in a singed pile.

“We’ll play more later. Guard!”

The door opened almost immediately. Hack Job had been right outside, probably listening to me scream and cry. Asshole.

“Yes Princess?” The grin on his face was disgusting. As I squinted through what felt like sunburnt eyelids, my loathing for this place and everyone in it increased. The burning on my flank hadn’t decreased in pain, and any movement felt like I was tearing flesh.

“Take young Echo to a cell. Have Cinnamon bandage her, then leave her. She is to receive no other visitors.” When she’d been talking to me, her tone had ranged from playful to hostile, often at random. When she stood there with her fire wings, she sounded regal. She was acting the role of a Princess.

Why didn’t Ripple shoot her? She was exactly the kind of pony I had heard he killed.

“Get up, fish!” His hoof slammed into my bandaged side, painfully reminding my body of my stressed ribs and tortured hide. I cried out, curling up even more.

His leg moved to kick me again. “Wait… wait, I will,” I stammered, trying my best to get up. My legs were sore, my side was killing me, and the burn was still throbbing with an intense pain. Tears flowed freely from my eyes as I managed to weakly get up.

“Now move, fish.” He jabbed at me with the blade that had been at his shoulder. It sunk into the burn, the tip cutting easily into the raw flesh. I screamed again, my throat getting raw. I tasted blood.

I hurried away from him, and out into the hallway. Slamming the door behind us, he turned to me and growled slowly. “Now ya stick near me. Ya run off and I’ll find ya.”

He pressed the flat of the knife against my face, and got nose to nose with me. Wide eyed, I stood frozen. “Won’t be tha knife I put in ya then.”

I wanted to slit his throat. I wanted to tear out his horn and gut him with it. I wanted him to suffer like no pony ever had.

I could only nod.

He started walking down the hall, and I kept pace. I was limping badly, leaving a trail of blood from where it was seeping through cracks in my cooked flesh. I understood the looks I saw on ponies faces in the halls now. The defeated look. The look of constant suffering.

I wanted to go home.

Hack Job kept walking, grunting to any of the ponies like him in greeting. The looks that they gave me, filled with amusement or a hunger that made my skin crawl, forced me to never look directly at them. When we passed some of the defeated ponies, he would make a sudden movement towards them. They would shriek and fall away from him, covering themselves with their hooves. He would laugh, and keep walking.

As we passed a doorway, something caught my eye. Standing there was a pony who looked to be just a little older than me. She wasn’t scarred or burned, and she didn’t have the look of a raider about her. Her eyes, bright green, locked onto mine. I stared right back until I passed out of sight.

I looked back, wondering if she would appear again.

A hoof smacked into my neck, driving my face roughly into the wall. With a cry of pain, I felt the blade press into my neck. “Eyes front, fish. I’ll take one next time ya go sightseeing.”

He let go and let me get slowly to my hooves. Then he started walking again. I followed, keeping my eyes firmly glued on the knife he was again resting on his back.

He turned into a hole roughly cut into a metal wall, and into a stone tunnel past it. Lights had been drilled into holes in the ceiling, cables running haphazardly along the walls. It was a short tunnel, and let out into more tunnels.

These looked more like what I was used to, without the metal construction. Deep cracks ran through the floors and walls, and I could see a few places where holes went up through thick debris to the outside world. It was daytime out, and dull light filtered down into the tunnels.

He stopped at the first door he came to, a thick metal monster with a single crude grate cut into it. Pulling on the heavy latch, he hauled the door open and gestured that I should go in. I took a few steps and stopped.

The room beyond had seen a lot of ponies through the years. The floor and walls were covered with stains. A concrete slab in a corner must have served as a bed, and a filthy can lay on its side against a wall. A single bulb hung from the ceiling, casting a dim yellow light onto the cell.

“In ya go. If ya need anything, go fuck yerself.” I hesitated for a brief second, which brought more pain. A hoof slammed into right where my tail met my rump. I flew forward, biting my tongue as my chin hit the cold floor.

The door slammed, and I was alone.

I crawled my way towards the slab, and curled up on top of it.

I cried until the door swung open, some time later. I didn’t look, but when I heard the soft cooing and felt soothing ointment and bandages being pressed onto my scorched cutie mark, I knew it was the creepy mare. The ointment brought immediate relief, but I knew I would never get my mark back on that leg. The burn had been too deep. The ointment was just to fight off infection, so I wouldn’t die.

So they could keep torturing me.

Turn me into one of the dead eyed ponies walking the tunnels.

The cooing and stroking went on for a while, I didn’t know how long. I was staring at the wall. I couldn’t do much else. I didn’t want to.

I just wanted to go home.

The door slammed.

The light went out.

I cried.

Chapter 3: Visit

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I snapped awake as the door was unlocked. My eyes were raw from crying myself to sleep, and I hurt all over. Remaining curled up in a ball, I hoped that they would think I was still asleep and just leave me alone.

The door swung open, just slightly, but it still let out a creaking groan from the rusty hinges.

“Hey…” I didn’t know the voice. It was young, and feminine. “Hey newbie.”

I peeked over the leg that had been hiding my face and saw the pair of eyes from earlier. The young mare, a unicorn, was standing in the barely open door.

“You okay?” She stepped into the room, carefully. “Hack Job didn’t do anything too bad, did he?”

That depended entirely on one’s standards for ‘too bad’, really.

“He wasn’t supposed to hurt you.” She pushed the door closed slightly, not enough for it to latch again. “Cinnamon said you were okay, but I wanted to check for myself.”

“Why?” My throat hurt from all the screaming. I hadn’t spoken in hours.

“Is it true what Hack said? That you’re Two Kick’s?” She was halfway across the room now, slowly walking forward.

“...Even here…” I whispered, dropping my head back behind my leg, the only way of speaking that didn’t make my throat burn. All I wanted was to get out from under his shadow.

“I am too!” I gasped at that, and my eyes went wide. When I looked up, it was straight into her eyes. She was in my face, smiling widely. Before I could react, she pulled me into a hug.

“Aaaugh!” I yelled as she squeezed my bruised body. She let go immediately, apologizing profusely and waving her hooves.

“Oh sorry, I’m sorry.” Quickly rummaging through a bag I hadn’t noticed, she pulled out a bottle of potion. “Here, thought you might need this, so I smuggled it out.”

Using her magic, she popped the cork and pressed the bottle to my lips. It could have been anything, but something about her face made me want to trust her. I’d never had a potion before, they were generally saved for major injuries. Until… however long before then, I’d never been hurt badly enough to need one.

I drank greedily at the potion, finding the taste indescribably purple. As the liquid sparked and danced its way down my throat, I started feeling better immediately. The bruises felt less intense, and several cuts healed up and left only bloody hints at their existence. The burning on my flank was still there, but I hadn’t expected a wound of that severity to be a quick fix.

“Thank you…” My throat was feeling a little better, but I was realizing just how thirsty I was.

“So what’s your name?” Her eyes were still wide with excitement, and the grin slathered across her face was like a filly’s on Hearthswarming Eve.

“Echo.”

“Love it. I’m Rose. Rose Laurel, but I go by Rose.” I was glad that she hadn’t tried touching me again. Touching wasn’t something I was in the mood for.

“So… you’re my sister? Do they… does Cinder know?”

“The Princess? Nah, she doesn’t know. Before mom kicked the bucket she told me; wanted to keep me safe. Princess isn’t too friendly to Two Kick’s kids.” She tapped a hoof to her chin, looking lost in thought. “It’s been a long time since I’ve met another one.”

I tilted my head to the side. “There are others?” I had more brothers and sisters? What sort of pony was Ripple before he met Shade?

“Were. Were others. The Princess killed ‘em all.” A grin slowly crept across her face, replacing the look of concentration. “Which leads me to why I’m here. I’m gonna save at least one. Get you out. That’s what sisters are for.”

My jaw dropped open in surprise, which also hurt, but I didn’t care. Salvation? Just when I had thought my luck had failed me, I got another shred of hope. It was entirely too convenient, but I had to play along.

“Really?”

Giggling a little, she sat down next to me on the cold slab. I inched away from her just a bit, the lingering thought that I was being played making me cautious. “Yeah. It sounds like it’ll be fun, but I can’t spring you until at least tonight. I mean, tomorrow night.”

“We can’t just go?” If she could at least get me out of the cell, I knew I could get back. I was still small, I could hide easily. The Ruins weren’t too far from Hoof, and I could use the mountain as a landmark.

She flopped over, her red mane brushing against my side. “Nah. It’s easier to get into Neighwhere than to get out. Guards, traps, walls, and then there’s the Princess herself. Bit unstable. We’re basically all prisoners here.”

“Have you never been outside of Neighwhere?” I moved just a little closer to her, feeling a growing connection. I had a sister, she wasn’t trying to kill or molest me, and she treating me like an equal. All three of those things were definitely playing in her favor.

“Nah, never past the walls. I’ve heard stories from outsiders, but that’s about it. The Princess isn’t one to let us leave.”

My mouth caught as I went to reply. If she came with me, it’d be as much me saving her as her saving me. I could get another pony out of this hell.

“You could always-”

She cut me off with a hoof pressed to my mouth. Her horn was blinking, a soft blue light. “Damn, someone tripped my alarm. I gotta go.” She dropped off of the slab and quickly trotted across my cell towards the ajar door.

“Wait… you’re coming back, right?” Tears sprang to my eyes. I didn’t want her to go yet. I needed more of somepony not torturing me or me running for my life.

“Yeah, I’ll be by tonight. Hang in there, sis.” She smiled widely, and then closed the door behind her.

I stared at the door until I fell asleep.

-----

“Fish, wake yer nice little ass up!” I jerked awake as something gripped my mane painfully and dragged me off of the slab. I hit the solid ground hard, shrieking in surprise. I groaned in pain until another jerk dragged me to my hooves by my mane.

“Eat, then yer gettin’ ta work.” My eyes focused as I worked my way into consciousness to see Hack Job in my face. When I had recognized his leering face, he grabbed my mane again and threw me towards the door. I curled up in pain, until my nose detected food.

I was famished. I hadn’t eaten in days as far as I knew, and I quickly located the bowl. It was filled with a grey slop, some of which had splashed out onto the floor. He must have dropped it when he came in, before he woke me up.

I pulled the bowl closer and practically dropped my muzzle into it. The slop tasted incredibly bland, but it was still food. I polished it off quickly, but then I felt magic grip my mane once again.

I sprang to my hooves as he yanked, which hurt but not as much as being lifted by my mane again would have.

“Ah, yer learnin’. Good on ya, fish.” He smacked the flat end of his blade against my rump, aiming me towards the door. I wanted so badly to hurt him.

He pushed me into the hall and closed the cell behind us. As he drew up close, I felt his breath on my ear. I shuddered with revulsion. “Yer a lucky fish. Princess doesn’t want ya killed, or even left alone with me an’ me friends. I’d like ta see the latter happen, yer a pretty thing, but the Princess’s word is law.”

He licked my ear, and I recoiled. I rounded on him, my teeth bared in what I so desperately hoped was an intimidating look. The look he met me with was one of amusement. He let out a short bark of a laugh. “Hah! I like ya, fish. A feisty one ya are. I do so hope you got some of that fight left when I get ta take a run at ya.”

A pair of shackles drew my attention, jingling on his withers as he laughed. He grinned a little wider when he noticed where I was looking.. “Only if yer a bad little fish, don’t ya worry. Nowhere ta run, so don’t even try.”

I went back to glaring at him, and he starting trotting away from me. “Keep up, or I’ll say ya tried runnin’.”

He headed straight back to the hole in the wall; into the crude tunnel leading back to the realm of burnt metal. We took a different route than the one than the one I’d been taken through before, this time heading down a staircase.

We went deeper underground, taking several staircases in our journey. There wasn’t much to see as we walked other than the occasional burnt pony or messy raider. My captor kicked lazily at some of the passersby, but there was no rhyme or reason to his brutality. Just Hack Job, being one of the worst ponies I’d ever encountered. With every action he took, either against other ponies or promising violations to myself, I hated him more.

When I got back to Hoof, I was going to do everything I could to get the ruins cleared out. I knew Ash would gladly lead some Whitecoats into the tunnels to kill the bad ponies and save the good ones. That is what Ash did best. If not I could try calling down some NCR. They didn’t deal with us much, but were always looking for raiders to clear out.

“Here we are, fish. Get in, do what Noisemaker tells ya. Ya fuck up… andl I already told ya what would happen.” He swung a door open and shoved me roughly through it. The door slammed shut behind me, and I was finally away from Hack Job.

The hoe smacked me in the nose as I turned to take in the room I was in.

“Stop looking around and get to work!” A runty mare with hair falling out in patches was levitating the hoe next to her as she screamed in my face. I felt blood dripping from my nose from the blow, but was figuring out how these ponies worked. If I asked questions or looked confused, I’d just get hit again.

“Strap into the pump and start walking, or we’re gonna have issue!” She gestured wildly as spittle landed on my face. The hoe indicated a big wheel where an emaciated pony was walking in a circle.

I hurried over to the wheel, where an armed unicorn lazily watched the skin and bones pony currently shackled to the wheel. At his side was a large knife, and a whip floated in the air in front of him though he didn’t look like he’d used it in a while. He glanced at me dismissively. “Revelry, your time’s up.”

The pony collapsed mid-step, but was shackled to the wheel high enough up that he just hung there, his hooves dragging as the wheel kept turning. He was unconscious as he made another circuit and I could see his worn, battered face. It took another revolution for the wheel to finally stop moving, and the guard stepped forward to unshackle Revelry. He was bleeding from long slashes put into his flanks, and remained unconscious as he dropped to the ground. The guard gave him a swift but brutal kick, and then pulled him out of the way and threw him to one side, where he lay in a pile of broken pony.

“Okay, in you go.” I stepped forward warily, keeping my eyes on the whip. As I got into position where Revelry had been, the guard put a yoke around my neck and shackles on both of my front legs. The metal stank of blood and rust, and rubbed horribly on my legs. “Simple enough. Keep moving ‘til I say stop. You trip, I whip. You stop, I whip. You talk, I whip. Simple.”

The whip moved faster than I had thought it could, and lashed a long cut across my remaining cutie mark. I cried out in pain, and started pushing forward. “Simple. Keep pushing, and I don’t whip. We understand each other. Simple.”

He took a few steps back, standing next to Revelry. I couldn’t see the gaunt pony breathing, and blood was seeping from his slack mouth. The guard must have killed him with that kick. Eventually, another beaten pony came by and dragged Revelry’s body away.

The assembly wasn’t built for a pony of my size. With the yoke and shackles on, my hooves only barely touched the ground. I could get traction with my rear hooves, but if I tried using my front too much it became hard to breathe. Holding myself up was exhausting and cut my legs on the rough metal.

I slipped in a divot in the worn floor and stumbled, gagging as the rough yoke crushed my windpipe. A yelp tore itself through my closed throat as the whip slashed across my flank, cutting through hair and hide. I scrambled forward, getting my hooves back under me. Tears were streaming down my face as I fought to catch my breath and keep moving at the same time.

To distract myself, I kept running Rose’s name over in my head. I just had to make it through one day, and then I’d be free. One day without getting killed. I could do that. I had to. Then I could go home.

To pass the time as I walked in a circle, pulling the weight of the wheel with me, I took in the room. It was bigger than any I’d seen in this place, and it was made of the same metal that everything else was. There was a mixture of old tech and cobbled together equipment all over the place, but what dominated the room was the plants.

It was an underground farm. A wide assortment of plants were being tended to by ponies in shackles, each with that beaten down look. There were a few guards scattered about with various blades, guns, and whips. Noisemaker swung her hoe about, her screech echoing around the room constantly as she set into various ponies for what seemed to be cruelty for the sake of cruelty.

Overhead were bright lights. It felt like I was outside on those rare occasions that the sun shone through the clouds. They must have helped the plants grow underground. I could only assume that the “pump” I was shackled to was pulling water from farther down.

After what I was sure was hours of pushing, my legs were failing me. I could have easily walked for hours, but the extra weight and awkward posture was really taking its toll. Whatever healing I’d had since the sewers wasn’t enough. The day’s wear and tear was starting to weigh on me, a tight ache plastered across my body. The best I could do was space out and ignore the world; just keep pushing forward.

I yelled with pain as the whip slashed across my flank again. I glared at the unnamed pony with the whip, but found the grinning face of Hack Job standing next to him. He was grinning, and I scowled before I yiped as the wheel dragged me along. I shakily clambered to my hooves as the wheel stopped after digging grooves in the dirt with my hooves.

He approached me, to remove me from the shackles. I was raw and bleeding through my fur where the metal had bit into my flesh, and I was just happy to be free of it. I could hear Noisemaker screeching at a pony in the field to replace me, but the pony with the whip didn’t say a word.

“Come on, fish. Princess wants ta see ya again.” He grinned at me, teeth missing from his wicked smile. He nodded to the guard that had been staring at me for hours, and led me away. We passed Noisemaker who had found a pony to replace me, a scarred and burned mare missing her eyes. That helped a little. I didn’t have to see her look at me as she took my place under the whip.

“I see ya were a good fish. Not many whip marks. Ol’ Plowshare doesn’t do much but whip. He musta liked ya.” He rubbed his muzzle across my flank; across my remaining cutie mark. I cringed, but knew what he was playing at. If I moved away from him, he’d hurt me. If I yelled at him, he’d hurt me. I just had to make it until night, and I’d be free.

We left the farm, making our way back into the tunnels. As we moved up the stairs, he drifted back slowly. Eventually I was leading, and I knew he was watching my every movement. I didn’t care to know exactly where his eyes were.

“Yer no fun, fish.” He reared back and slammed a hoof into me, throwing me hard into the wall. He was on me in an instant, the blade at my throat. “Come on, fish. One word. One movement.”

I froze, not daring to move or speak. If he hurt me without reason, somehow I knew that Cinder would find out. He knew it too, from the look in his eyes. The barely constrained violence.

He stared into my eyes, and I met his gaze defiantly.

“Feh.” He pulled the blade back and lifted himself up off of me. “No fun.”

He pulled me up by my mane. I let out a grunt of pain, not letting him hear me scream. He wasn’t going to get that from me again. He threw me down the hall, but I managed to stay on my hooves. My legs were killing me from working the pump, but it was all about appearances with Hack. I had to keep up mine.

We reached Cinder’s door without further incident, and I slipped through before he threw me through it. The door slammed behind me, and I let myself sag. I was filled with pain, and fear, and hope, and it was all clashing in my head. I hurt.

“Ah, the whore’s daughter. I see that Plowshare hasn’t lost his touch with the whip.” Her eyes gleamed at me from under her burning crown. The wings weren’t on, but the relative darkness of the room gave me an uneasy vibe. She stepped down off of the stage towards me, her smile catching the flickering light. I tried standing up straighter, but my beaten body wouldn’t allow it.

“I have some exciting news for you.” Her voice was chipper and happy as she circled me, running a hoof across my shredded flank. It stung and burned, and I flinched bodily away from her. I cringed as she walked around and rested her face on the bandages covering my ruined cutie mark.

She completed her circle around me, and sat down in front of me. She smiled as she searched my face. “Ripple is still alive, did you know?”

I blurted out before I could stop myself. “He’s not! Ash would have found him!”

I felt my chest start to burn deep within. My mouth and nose dried out immediately, and I smelled burnt hair. I coughed violently, backing away from the pony as she raised the temperature around me.

“It’s not nice to interrupt!” The wings sprang into being on her back, licking the ceiling with their flames. The temperature around me dropped as I groveled on the floor before her smoking. I kept coughing, tasting blood with each breath.

Survive until night.

As I pulled myself back up, I forced myself to sit stock still before the flame wreathed unicorn. I kept my mouth shut as best I could, though the coughing was still shaking my body as I tried to keep it under control or at least silent.

“A raider up north, making waves. Two hoof shotguns, heavily scarred…” Her gaze went unfocused and she stared past me with a grin on her face. “Oh, he was beautiful…”

She looked back at me, and the grin disappeared. “...but he never saw that in me. So many other mares, but never me. Why didn’t he give me a beautiful daughter of my own? Why!? ANSWER ME!?” She jumped from muttering to screaming in seconds, and as I braced for another burn I realized she actually wanted me to speak.

“I don’t know… I thought he killed ponies like you.” It was the first thing to come to my mind, and I cringed, regretting it immediately. I didn’t know how to talk to crazy ponies.

“Not always… after Hate shot him he did, but before that he was the finest stallion I knew. He could kill an entire convoy on his own. He took any mare he wanted…” Tears sprang to her eyes. She wiped at them with one of her fetlocks as she kept rambling about Ripple’s sex life to me.

“I’ve killed all I can find, from before he changed. You, though… you’re the only one I’ve met from after. He wasn’t right after that day. He killed all of our friends, left me here, and disappeared.” She shook her head, sobbing out loud. “He left so little behind. Shattered pieces of the life we once had! Reminders like you; that he killed everyone I loved.”

She changed like a door slamming, her voice snapping to a full roar along with the flames. “I should roast you alive, right now!” Tears flew from her eyes and landed on my muzzle as she screamed at me. A figure was forming above her, a massive winged lizard made of flame and smoke. It was roaring down at me, its burning gaze promising a painful death. It belched flame and roared, filling the room with heat as it reared above her. “Burn your skin off layer by layer! Burst your eyeballs in your skull! Sear off your legs, and steam cook your fucking brain!”

“But I won’t.” The form flickered out, and the room went dark again. I couldn’t help it, and tears were flowing down my cheeks freely. I’d faced a dweller, a gnasher, and a hydra, but the fire beast trumped them all. I was quaking all over, doing my best to keep from running to the door. I knew if I even made it, I’d die trying to break my way through, melted to the metal by the intense heat she would throw at me.

“I think we’ll keep you around. Send word back up north that Two Kick’s daughter is alive and well.” She smiled dreamily. “He’ll come galloping in to save the day, and make the mares swoon. I’ll be waiting. He will suffer like no pony before him, and then I’ll take my child from him, and kill him.”

Still smiling, the tears rapidly drying from her face, she ran a hoof down my cheek. “Then I’ll let you go. Guard!” She practically screamed in my face.

“Yes Princess?” I couldn’t take my eyes off of Cinder, who was still smiling widely at me. Normally I wouldn’t let Hack Job out of my sight, but the image of the fire beast was still burnt into my vision and memory. I saw it whenever I blinked, hovering over her back.

“Echo is done here. She needs some time in her cell to think.” She turned, in imitation of the previous day. Her wings flared back into life, and I was no longer her problem.

“Come on fish.” I was still staring at Cinder. The question was still ringing in my head. How hadn’t Ripple killed her? He killed all the other bad ponies, but why not her? If he came back, looking for me, like she was planning… would he be able to do it? Why hadn’t he killed her before?

“Fish! Now!” His hoof smacking me in the back of my head disrupted my thoughts. I went from wide eyes staring at the incendiary nightmare, the fire witch of Ash’s tales, to glaring at her heavy hoofed goon.

I followed him, gasping as I went into the hall. The drop in temperature came as a shock, and I began shivering violently as I walked behind Hack Job.

As we passed a familiar door, I saw Rose inside. She was hoof deep in a saddlebag, and didn’t notice me passing. She was packing, and the sight lifted my spirit. I could get away from this hell, and tell Ash about Cinder’s plan.

Then, something different happened. Hack stopped at the intersection of two halls, and whistled sharply. A unicorn stallion’s head popped out from an open door, looking down at us. “Yeah, boss?”

“Walk with me and da fish.” The stallion hurried down the hall towards us. He was lanky, with a dirty brown mane worked into filthy dreadlocks.

“‘Sup with her, boss?” He was eyeing me, getting entirely too close for my comfort.

“Ya know how it is with the newbies. They always try ta run after workin’ that first day.” He smirked at me. “Princess don’t want this one runnin’. Yer gonna guard her. No touching though.”

The dirty unicorn pouted. “Ah boss, not even a little? Guard duty gets so boring, and it's not even dark out yet.”

“Tell ya what. After my first run at her, I’ll throw her yer way. Fer now, no touching. Princess’s orders.”

“Thank boss!” He had a stupid grin on his face, and I wanted to cut it off with jagged metal.

I made it back to the cell safely, and pulled the door shut behind me as I went in. I was wondering what Rose would do with a guard at the door. If she would see the filthy pony standing outside the door and turn around. Go back to her room. Leave me to be tortured, broken, and wait to see if my father was still alive long enough to watch him die.

The lights clicked off, leaving me to stare at the outline of the door in the dark.

-----

I guess I spaced out, staring at the barely-lit frame. There was a loud thump at the door, followed by a long squeaking sound and a smaller thump. The light at the bottom of the door went out, and silence followed.

“Hello?” I croaked, my throat dry and crackly.

Slowly, with jerking motions, what was blocking the light at the bottom of the door slid away.

The sound of the lock being drawn rang through the room, and the door opened. Light spilled into the room, and Rose’s head popped into view. “Hey, ready to go?”

It was really that easy?

“Shouldn’t we worry about the guard?” I trotted carefully towards her and freedom, expecting us to get caught any second. If we were caught, I knew that horrible things would happen to me. To us. She wouldn’t be safe, and then Cinder would find out who she was. Then she’d be dead, and I’d live with that.

“Nah, he was easy enough. Hay Bale never could say no to a mare.” As I followed her out into the hall, I saw the dirty pony laying on the floor in a puddle of blood. His head was flopped back, revealing the meat and bone of his neck all the way across his throat. He’d been cut from ear to ear. There was a streak running to where he was from a bright red puddle in front of the door, and I knew what had blocked the light. The door had a fan of blood dripping down it from where his blood pressure had relieved itself.

“Here. I had to improvise, and I only had yours.” The knife I’d gotten off of my friend in the sewers was floating between us, dripping with Hay Bale’s blood. I cringed away from it, and she laughed a little.

“Sorry.” She wiped the blade on his corpse, then put it in the scant sheath I’d been wearing when they’d brought me into the Ruins. When she handed me that, I took it gladly and put it on. It felt good having a knife again. Then she tossed me the bag I’d come into Neighwhere with.

“It’s okay.” I smiled at her, doing my best to ignore the bloody scene we were standing in. I knew blood was a common thing, but seeing most of a ponies blood outside of their body was really getting to me.

“Right. No time to waste, follow me.” Grinning widely, Rose practically skipped past me, splashing my legs with blood without a care in the world. With a single glance back into my cell, I closed it, then wondered why I did. The dead pony would have been a huge tip-off that something had happened.

She began leading me in a direction I hadn’t been, towards the more damaged section of the hall. The happy cadence she was trotting in wasn’t what I would have chosen for fleeing from a life of slavery and torture. I would have been running.

“Uh… Rose, shouldn’t we be running?”

Glancing back at me, she giggled. “That’s suspicious. Suspicious and noisy. This’ll do just fine.” We rounded a corner, and came into a half-collapsed hallway with rain pooling in deep cracks that ran along the floor. Embedded in a wall was what looked like a rocket that hadn’t exploded. It was covered with rust, but it gave me an idea of what had happened to this section of old Neighwhere.

“The fuck!?” A yell echoed down the hall to us from towards the cell, and her smile faded.

“Okay, now we run.”

She took off, and I strained to match pace. Injuries flared up across my body, and I felt blood running down my leg from my shredded flank. I let out a shriek of pain, and Rose slowed from her sprint. I could hear the pounding of hooves behind me, and it sounded like only one pony. I didn’t slow down, because I had recognized the voice. All the promises were ringing through my head from what would happen if Hack Job caught me, and now I knew that if he did there would be nothing to stop him from doing whatever he wanted.

I passed Rose, limping heavily but still moving as fast as I could. “Lead the way, I’ll keep up!” I hissed loudly and with great urgency through gritted teeth, and she took her place in the lead again.

The hall hadn’t seen traffic in some time, and debris filled it. I was worrying about having to navigate it with my injuries, but she took a quick left and disappeared through a rough hole in the wall. I went in behind her, and found her rump filling the hole as she crawled quickly up it. I crammed myself in behind her, doing my best to block out the pain that shot through me from the rough, broken stone rubbing against my cuts and tearing the bandages off of my burn. It was much worse than the hallway would have been, and I winced as something sharp caught on one of my ribs and tore a fresh wound.

Then, we were out. However long I’d been staring at the door and waiting for Rose to begin my escape had been long enough for the sun to go down. The sky was cloudy, and the rumble of thunder promised more rain.

It felt so good to be topside. I sucked hungrily at the air, even as I ran after Rose, ignoring the pain. I missed the taste of the rain on the breeze.

“Fuckin’ cunt!” Hack’s roar followed me through the tunnel, but not even that was enough to ruin the sweet feeling that was filling my body and overriding the pain.

Then, I took in what Neighwhere looked like aboveground. Shattered buildings surrounded me, blackened by fires hot enough to melt metal. Bones lay scattered around, each marking where a pony had died. There were even a few melted hulks that looked like the armored ponies from Ash’s stories about the Orchard. She led me under a four legged behemoth, half collapsed into a building which had itself collapsed under the weight.

As I ran through a field of spent casings, I had to marvel at what Ash and his friends had gone through. They’d been there when Neighwhere had fallen. Ash’s stories had made it seem romantic and daring, but the sight of a half-melted skull four feet from its body made me think that it wasn’t quite the walk in the park I’d been told.

Rose wasn’t giving me much of a chance to look around more, and I was having a hard enough time keeping up with her without my sightseeing. Ducking through demolished buildings and through remnants of the battle that had once rocked the town, I kept catching glimpses of her tail as she led the way.

Then I practically ran into her. We were up against a big wall, built from scrap and chunks of buildings. It looked a lot like sections of the wall that kept Hoof safe.

“What’s wrong?” I glanced around, worried that she’d been caught and I’d just stumbled headlong into a trap.

“I’ve never been past the wall.” She looked at me, and where I had expected a look of fear or hesitation, it was still that grin. “I’ve been waiting for a reason to do this since I was a filly.”

“Where the fuck are ya, fish? I’m gonna find ya, and we’re gonna have some fun!” Hack’s voice echoed through the Ruins, and I couldn’t tell where he was, but I knew he was above ground. I couldn’t tell if he’d brought ponies with him… but I had to to assume that he had.

“Rose, now’s the time to go.” I pressed in close to her, hoping that the sense of urgency would dawn on her. “If Hack Job finds us…”

“I know, I know. All his promises.” She rolled her eyes, letting out a sigh. “Okay.” Reaching down, she pushed on a piece of the wall. Sliding it to the side, she revealed a hole in the wall. I’d seen a dozen places where the wall had collapsed on our way here, but she must have had a reason to choose the hidden exit.

I went through first, out into Hornsmith beyond the wall. Rose followed, closing the hole behind us with little noise. I could hear Hack’s voice over the wall, but he’d never know where we’d gone.

“It’s so… boring? Yeah, boring.” Rose was looking around with a disappointed look. I guess I had to agree that the whole city was less than colorful, grey buildings that all seemed to look exactly the same. They were beautiful to me, though. They meant freedom, which I was fully looking forward to capitalizing on.

“I’ll give you a tour of Hoof, now let’s please get a move on.” I was getting antsy as we stood next to the wall, my half-sister staring at our surroundings. She wasn’t making any effort to move, so I had to start pushing.

“Okay. You know the way back?”

“Uh…” I’d never been anywhere near the Ruins. “South.”

She tilted her head at me, a look of disbelief that I didn’t know how to get home.

“Away from the mountain. We’ll find it.”

I hoped.

-----

The city of Hornsmith was bigger than I’d ever considered. Every road led to either a dead end, a t-intersection, or stretched to the horizon. It was a maze, and I had no idea where I was going. As long as I kept the mountain and Neighwhere to our backs, we’d run into Hoof. Or we’d run into some Whitecoats…

Or we’d run south out of Hornsmith, and have to turn back around.

“So… do they talk much about dad in Hoof?” Rose was trotting along next to me, just as lost as I was. I could tell that she was limiting her speed so that I could keep up with my limp.

I shook my head. “Not really. Everyone’s got different stories, and none of them like to talk about him. Except for my uncle Ash.”

“An uncle?” Her smile hinted at her want of a family.

“Nah, he’s a griffin. He helped raise me. Him and my aunt Fluster.” Before she could ask, I cut in with, “...not related.”

“...What about your mom?” She was being cautious. I hadn’t mentioned Shade, and she was probably guessing I was an orphan like her. A probable orphan. I wondered if Ripple really was still alive?

“That... she doesn’t talk about him”. Touchy subject, and I’d just met my sister.

“So what have you heard?” The look on her face as she asked me wasn’t one I could easily place. That grin was still there, but there was something in her eyes. Something just a little unnerving.

“He saved ponies. Killed those that needed it. He sacrificed himself to stop a monster.” A summary, if what Ash had told me in all those stories was true. It was hard to tell when he was embellishing.

She nodded at that, staring at me for a while as we walked. I took to looking around, just so at least one of us was watching where we were going. “Those that needed it… heh. That’s a good one.” She laughed a little, but it wasn’t the assured laugh she’d used before. It sounded sad.

“Why?”

“You know how legends are. Depends on who you ask.” She spun around, and began walking backwards so that she could face me as we moved. I started scanning the ground for anything she would trip over, but her confidence in moving gave the impression that she had everything under control.

“I hear about how Neighwhere was before Ripple. Sure, it was the Rangers that leveled the city, but he was the trigger on it all. That’s what he did. He brought change. Everywhere he went, things changed.” She had a dreamy look as she spoke, disturbingly similar to the one that Cinder had while she spoke of Ripple. “He killed so many… and then he died...”

“Cinder thinks he’s still alive.”

A creepy grin spread ear to ear, and she stopped walking. “Really now?”

I slid to a halt, my wounded flank howling with pain. My whole leg chose just then to cramp up, and I yowled in pain, wiping the grin from Rose’s face. With a look of deep concern, she darted to my side.

“What? What is it?” She was looking for some way to help me,

“Nothing… leg cramp,” I spoke through grinding teeth, my eyes clenched in pain. Of all that I’d been through the last few days, for some reason the leg cramp seemed to hurt most of all. Standing there in the middle of the road, immobile, wracked with pain

Rose started rubbing my leg, and I had to admit that it helped through all the pain. As my leg began to relax, the pain in the rest of my body came back. I preferred having it spread all over than concentrated in one spot.

“Thanks…” I could speak without gritting my teeth, and I opened my eyes.

I didn’t even have time to shout a warning before Hack Job slammed the butt of his blade into my head, and everything went black.

-----

“...Thought that ya could help tha fish escape, did ya? Traitor whore. I’ll show ya what I do to yer kind.” My eyes shot open at the voice. I was ready to defend myself against Hack, but as I looked around, trying to blink the blood out of my left eye, I couldn’t see him.

I heard sobbing, and the sound of an impact on meat. Rose’s voice yelped in pain, and I got up as fast as my leg would let me. It had cramped up again while I was out, and wasn’t working right, but I had to get to her. I couldn’t leave her alone with Hack…

I pulled the knife from its sheath, and my ribs suddenly felt like they were made of fire. The knife clattered to the ground as I gasped for breath, each one bringing new pain. Glancing back without moving my neck any farther, I saw the deep, dark bruises that were corrupting my side.

Hack must have given me a few kicks while I was down before dragging Rose to a little privacy.

“When tha fish wakes up, I’m gonna do things ta her that’d make yer stomach turn. Ya won’t be alive for that. I gotta kill ya, to make up for the escape. Ya know what Princess does ter ponies that fail her, and there can’t be witnesses ta this little fiasco.”

I picked up my friend’s knife while he was talking to her, doing my best to not pass out from the blinding pain in my side. At least it was letting me ignore my leg. Always look at the positives, as Ash had once told me.

Rounding the corner, the scene before me was both horrifying and relieving. Rose lay between his front legs, covering her head with her hooves. She was bleeding from a dozen deep cuts where he’d been slashing aimlessly at her, almost playfully opening her muscles to the air. Her face was swollen from the beating he’d given her while I was out, and he was practically laughing at the sight before him.

Quietly as I could, I moved up behind him, the blade gripped between my teeth. This would be easy. It would be just like killing that gnasher. He wasn’t a real pony, he was a monster. He deserved this. I was doing the right thing.

I was saving my sister.

“Heh?” He noticed movement out of the corner of his eye, but I was already close enough to swing. I slammed the blade into his neck sideways, piercing through his windpipe.

His eyes went wide and he stumbled away from me, dropping his bloody blade next to the curled form of Rose. Blood was draining from both sides of his neck around my friend’s knife, and he was choking as the cold metal sat comfortably in his throat.

“Get off of my sister, you filthy fuck!” I yelled, tasting blood in my mouth from the damage in my chest. I didn’t care, because the bewildered look on Hack Job’s face was the best thing I’d seen in days. He tried talking, but only blood flowed from his mouth instead of his promises to rape me.

I screamed wordlessly at him, then gripped his fallen blade in my mouth. The rusty metal dripped with Rose’s blood, and it gagged me with its horrible taste, but I knew exactly what I wanted to do.

He was having a hard time keeping on his hooves, trying but failing to pull the blade out with his magic. His horn was glowing and sputtering weakly, getting weaker by the moment as more blood pumped out of the sides of his neck.

I slashed him across his chest, drawing a deep wound. I wanted his pain to keep going until he ran out of blood to give for the offense of hurting my sister. He was going to die looking into my eyes, with his blade in my mouth and covered with his blood. I was going to rip, and tear, and slash, and cut, until he was dead.

I chopped at him, the blade sticking into his shoulder. I yanked it out with a crunch and a spray of blood. The crimson drops splattered across my face, but I was already going back in for another hit. I started hacking at him, enacting his namesake.

He dropped to his knees, then fell onto his side. I was still slashing at him, even as the tip of my friend’s knife dug into the cold stone we were standing on. His eyes were losing focus, but still looking directly at me.

I slammed the blade down into his chest, aiming at where I felt his heart should be. The flow from his neck had slowed to a trickle, and I wanted to make sure he wasn’t hiding any precious blood from me. I felt the rusty metal bounce off of his ribs, then drag as it pierced through fleshy organs. When the edge of the mouthgrip was firmly pressed into his side, I finally let go.

“Filthy fucking animal…” I dropped back, sitting on the ground to rest. My whole body was screaming at me, even through the adrenaline high of handing out judgement. I could feel his blood still hot on my face and neck.

“Echo?” Her voice was weak, but just hearing it made me smile.

“It’s okay… he’s gone.”

Her eyes opened from beneath the shield of her legs, and locked onto mine. One of them was so swollen and discolored it barely opened, but as soon as she saw me the scared little filly disappeared and the grinning mare I was getting to know arrived.

She pulled me into a hug, covering both of us in the mixed blood of three ponies. I hugged her back, doing my best to ignore the pain wracking my body. I was with my sister. I was going to be fine, and so was she.

Then, the skies opened up again and the rain soaked us in seconds, washing off most of the blood and all of the tears.

After a few minutes, when we were both good and drenched, Rose suggested that we get moving again. Between the two of us, we both managed to our hooves. She was bleeding heavily from her legs, but didn’t seem too concerned.

“It’s fine… just need my bag.” Limping past Hack’s corpse, she didn’t even give him a second glance. Her bag was laying in a pile of rubble, where it must have been thrown in a struggle. It floated up to her and she opened the top flap.

“Uh oh…” Her frown as she looked down into it made me limp towards her. Before I reached her, she floated out the top of a shattered bottle. “No more potion…”

She shrugged, and then winced. “Guess we’re both doing the mummy thing.”

I tilted my head. That wasn’t a word I knew. “Huh?”

“I read it in a book.”

-----

Luckily, she’d brought plenty of bandages for my wounds. With both of her front legs wrapped top to bottom, and her swollen eye covered from the beating rain, she could help me with my injuries.

“Yep, that’s a broken rib. Maybe two.” She poked delicately at my side, sending more pain shooting through my surrounding area. “Sorry.”

“Anything in the bag for it?” With the potions shattered, I couldn’t think of much that would be of use. I couldn’t imagine that she’d smuggled too much out for such a short trip.

“Uhhh… ah, there it is.” She held out a little plastic tube with a needle on the end. Without even asking me, she jabbed it into my front leg.

“Ow!” I was surprised, but then I felt the cooling wash of the drug as it pushed away the pain. “Oooh…”

“Yeah, I thought you’d like that.” Picking up the bag, she winced as it brushed against a bruise on her side. “You needed it more.”

I nodded, enjoying the feeling of nothing. It was so much better than crippling pain. A pony could lose themselves to the feeling easily. I let out a low, content sigh.

Then I saw Hack Job again. In the rain, his blood was washing away into the tunnels beneath my hooves. His eyes, however, were open and staring. They weren’t focused on anything, with him being dead and all. They were still staring right at me. Accusing me of killing him.

“You deserved it.” I grumbled, and walked over to his prone corpse. I kicked him hard in the head, getting his eyes off of me. Then, I bit into the handle of my friend's blade and yanked it out. It came out dripping with his blood, so I wiped it on his wet fur. I placed the weapon back in its sheath, and began turning around.

“You should take it.” Rose’s voice came from right behind me. I glanced at her, and twitched slightly as the movement cut through the numbness with a swift stab of pain.

“His blade. A trophy.” She was grinning at me, her eye twinkling in the rain. “You wouldn’t want to forget your first kill, would you?”

“A trophy? I dunno, that sounds…” Like a raider. “...really morbid.”

Then, defensively I added, “How do you know that was my first kill?”

She laughed a little, planting a hoof on Hack’s side. As she pressed down, blood oozed around the blade. “Please, it's all over your face. I could tell from how you looked at Hay Bale; you’re new to this whole killing thing.”

I frowned down at the corpse. He had deserved everything I’d given him, and more. Rose was right. I bit the mouthgrip and yanked the long, jagged blade out of his side. Bits of meat still clung to it, and it stank of blood and metal.

She was right though. I wiped the blade off on another patch of his fur, doing my best to get rid of the chunks, and then I slipped the blade into my own bag. I’d do something about a sheath later, when we got back home. When I brought Rose home.

“Come on… let’s get going.” I turned away from my first real kill, and started hobbling through the pouring rain. The splashing of hooves in a puddle of water and blood told me that Rose was following right behind me. We set out into the night, continuing our search for Hoof.

-----

This time, I was certain we weren’t being followed. Hack had come after us alone, and even if the rest of Neighwhere knew I was missing, they’d have no idea where I was. With the rain and the pervasive darkness, I could barely see across the street.

The going was slow. We couldn’t see, we were both stumbling along through our injuries, and we were worn out. The smile had dropped from Rose’s face, and I was having trouble keeping my eyes open. She had neglected to bring a light, and I couldn’t find mine in my bag of supplies, so we were left with the dim glow grudgingly provided by the occasional functioning street light.

As I watched Rose out of the corner of my eye, I saw that she was starting to stumble. Her bandages were soaked through with blood, and try as she might she couldn’t hide how much she had lost.

I really wished that I had spent more time outside of the wall. Gotten to know the area around Hoof, so that if we were close I would have been able to find my way back. I’d been far too sheltered, and the last… wow, it had been close to a week hadn’t it. I like to think that I’d toughened up since I’d walked into the sewers on my first day as a scavenger.

“How… how long do you think til’ we find it?” Her voice was hollow, barely making it over the noise of the rain.

“Soon.” I could only hope. As I looked down the road we were walking, I saw nothing that even resembled the walls of Hoof. I had no idea where I was, and I doubted that I’d have any better luck in the daylight.

At another intersection we stopped to catch our breath. It hurt to breathe… unfortunately the Med-X had worn off. I was feeling my ribs rub together where they’d broken, pinching and tearing the muscle around them. It was all I could do to not cry out and collapse, but I was putting up a strong front for Rose. She was weak and beaten, and I was the one leading her around town. If I fell, we’d be even more screwed.

A splash from my side caught me by surprise. Rose had collapsed, and her eyes were closed. She was barely breathing.

“No!” I screamed, ignoring how it made me feel like I’d been stabbed. I scrambled to her side, sliding in the puddle she was laying in.

“Come on, wake up! Wake up! We can rest, we just gotta get out of the rain!” She wasn’t responding. She was still breathing, I just had to wake her up. That’s all I had to do, and we’d be fine.

“Come on…” I whispered at her, getting no reaction. Her breathing was getting shallower by the second, as she bled out through her legs.

A blinding white light lit us up there in the intersection. I turned to it, squinting my eyes as it bore down on us. The light at the end of the tunnel was only for dying ponies… I wasn’t dying, was I?

“Hey out there! State your intentions!”

And now the afterlife was asking what I wanted.

“Stay there, we’ll come to you!”

The light stayed on, but I heard a door open and close somewhere past the blinding intensity. I was starting to suspect that I wasn’t dealing with the supernatural.

A figure came through the light, approaching carefully. I could see the pony’s head looking to either side of us, and then focusing.

“If you’re looking for shelter, you’ve come to the right… oh shit. Get Ash! It’s Echo!”

Wow. I’d found Hoof. I grinned at the Whitecoat as he came into focus. As I clung to Rose’s shivering body, I whispered up at him. I’d lost my voice, and I felt my exhaustion finally taking over. “Her first. I can wait.”

Then the light snapped off.

-----

I awoke with a start as a loud snapping sound went off next to my head. Looking over, I saw the red unicorn from Underhoof whose name I couldn’t recall.

“Patient remains unconscious… wait, scratch that, patient has regained consciousness.” She hovered over me, talking to someone in the room. I didn’t see anyone else though… was she talking to me?

“Huh?”

“Patient is responsive.” She pulled the thin sheet off of me, checking my bandage covered body. “Lacerations are healing nicely. Scars on flank… negative response to healing potions. Ribs have responded to potion treatment, still some bruising from extensive muscle damage.” She pressed a hoof gently on my side, and it only hurt a little. I looked down to see what she had been talking about with the scars, and found the patch where my cutie mark had been was still a mass of burnt flesh. That struck a nerve, and tears sprang to my eyes again.

Eyes.

“Rose…” I spoke, but I felt like I hadn’t talked in days.

Her hoof pressed gently against my lips, hushing me. “Diagnosis: Patient will be fine given rest and nourishment.”

She smiled down at me. She was whispering now, instead of the commanding voice she’d been listing my injuries in. “You know where you are?”

I nodded.

“Tell me.”

I cleared my throat, trying to get my voice back. “I’m… I’m in Underhoof. You’re the doctor… uh...”

“We’ve never been introduced. I’m Crimson Knife. I’m your attending physician.”

“Why are we whispering?” I was curious, especially with how hushed she was speaking.

“I don’t want to wake your guest.” She indicated down towards the end of my bed, and then turned to leave me be. I was expecting to see Ash, or Ziel, or Fluster…

It was Shade.

She was asleep, her head resting on my bed next to my rear hooves. I could tell she’d been crying. I’d seen it before, her falling asleep with tears on her face, but for some reason this was different. Even with the wet streaks of tears, she wore a small smile. It had been years since I’d seen her smile. The sight hurt. It cut through all the defenses I’d put up around her, and I was suddenly the little filly she used to hug and play with.

“Mom?”

She twitched where she lay, and then her eyes slowly opened. Her eyes met mine, and then they started watering. Mine did too.

She rushed forward onto the table, pulling me into a tight hug. It hurt, but I didn’t care. I was being held by my mom, and that meant I was finally safe. “My Echo… I thought I’d lost you…”

“I’m sorry... mom.” The word was strange on my tongue, but it felt right.

“No… I’m sorry… I’m sorry…” She pulled herself fully onto the bed and was cradling me, her tears falling on my neck. Her sobbing was shaking me, and I could do little else but cry myself.

After a few minutes, when we’d both calmed down, she spoke to me. We’d barely spoken since I was much younger, and her tone was full of warmth. “Did… did I ever tell you how your father and I met?”

That one I hadn’t heard. Ash hadn’t told me, but Shade had met Ripple before Ash had. I shook my head, mouthing “No”.

“I shot at him. I tried killing him, and he saved me. He cared for me… he almost died for me. He was asleep for days… and I didn’t know if he’d ever wake up.” She sniffled, fresh tears appearing. “When he did… I knew. I knew then and there, he was the one.”

“When… when they found you outside the wall, you were just like him. Barely alive, asking help for another pony.” She hugged me a little tighter, if it was possible. “I’m sorry… you’re his daughter. You look like him, you act like him… but you’re not him. You’re my baby… and I’m sorry.”

I closed my eyes. I didn’t know how long I’d been out, but I didn’t care about anything in the world except for right then. Right there.

Chapter 4: Sorry

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I fell asleep in her embrace.

It was the best sleep I’d had in months… maybe years.

It ended all too quickly, with Crimson Knife nudging us awake. “I apologize for waking you, Shade, but Ash needs to talk to Echo. Then she’s free to go, provided she takes it easy.”

Her eyes locked onto me, even as she kept speaking to Mom. “I know her family history… you make sure she takes it easy. Take it easy means take it easy.”

I moved to protest, but Mom shushed me softly. I wasn’t going to run out and get hurt. Well… I didn’t plan to.

“Will she be able to sleep at home tonight?” Mom’s voice was weird. It had been so long since I’d heard her talk about me at all, it barely sounded like her. Not the her I knew.

Crimson Knife nodded, smiling. “Yes, I’m discharging her from my care.”

Shade got out of the bed, her hooves clipping softly on the metal floor. I followed, dragging myself roughly after her. Where she moved gracefully, I felt like a sack filled with bricks. The bed was just a little too high for me, and I stumbled as I got out, catching a look at myself a mirror as I recovered.

Parts of me were just covered with bandages. Both flanks and my midsection. I’d taken a beating out there, but one thing I marveled at was how my coat shone. “I’m so clean.”

“Yes, I had to sterilize you before I could admit you.” Crimson’s voice was coming from somewhere outside the room, and I spotted her through the open door putting away an array of gleaming surgical tools. I hadn’t noticed her leave the room. I heard the slightest noise as Shade shuffled uncomfortably behind me, giving me her own motherly check. When I looked again, the surgeon unicorn was gone.

“Are you okay?” Mom’s voice from behind me snapped me away from the mystery that was Crimson Knife.

“Huh… yeah, just thinking about the… how long was I out?”

She smiled, tears in her eyes. “Only a night.” She pulled me back into a soft hug.

It had really only been a night since I’d been in that street with Rose?

I’d forgotten about my newfound sister! “Oh fuck!”

Shade frowned, and I knew she was about to chastise me for swearing, her motherly duties freshly placed back on her.

“Hey, Kid.” Ash’s voice from behind me cut anything that would have come from my swearing short, and I spotted the griffin in the next room. His feathers were a mess, and his golden eyes were bloodshot.

“We need to have a talk.” Rose would have to wait just a little longer.

I glanced once at Mom, who just smiled at me, and then followed the griffin as he led me out of Crimson’s Underhoof clinic. It was always hard to tell what time it was outside when I was underground, but from the number of ponies around, ghoul or otherwise, it was very early morning. He led me into the tunnel leading aboveground, and I was beginning to get uncomfortable with how he hadn’t said a word. He should have yelled at me, or told me he was glad I was back, or something.

I squeaked as I was yanked into a tight embrace by the griffin, his claws digging into my sides. “Don’t scare me like that, kid.”

“I’m sorry.” There were a lot of sorrys going around.

“It’s okay… but I need to know what happened. Let’s get up out of these tunnels, then you can tell me all about it.” He put me down gingerly, then nervously slicked the feathers on his head back. He was never much for tunnels. To help him out, I started walking first, headed towards the stairs up and back out into Hoof.

The entryway was exactly as I had left it all that time ago. It seemed like a lifetime had passed since I’d come here to meet up with Ziel…

Fuck!

“Ash, is Ziel okay?!” I hated myself right then. My beloved cousin, who I’d grown up and laughed and lived with. I’d forgotten that she’d gone down into those tunnels just like I had. I didn’t know if she was alive or dead, eaten by some horror or trapped in some tunnel with no way to get back.

He looked surprised, and my hopes dropped. “No one told you?”

With a calm laugh, he waved it off. “She’s fine. She’s working the wall right now. She took your disappearance like a champ, but I’m sure you’ll see her as soon as her shift is over.”

“Did she get away okay? What about Easel?”

“They are both fine. They looked for you when you went missing, but couldn’t find you or Nail.” He opened the door leading to a room opposite of where I’d gotten my equipment, which I remembered with a cringe I had left hanging from a busted grate deep in the sewers. Inside was a low table, and a dirty blackboard hung on one wall.

“Which is what I want to talk to you about.” He ushered me into the room, and closed the door behind me. I sat in front of the table, and he took a seat across from me on a crudely made chair. “What happened? Where did you go?”

I looked at him, sighing. I wasn’t going to hide anything from him, but I would have prefered a longer break from the memories.

Without further ado, I set into it. Nail and I finding the locked facility, and the dwellers. His sacrifice to buy me enough time to get away. Scrambling into the air duct, and falling into the tunnels.

The griffin listened, a look of deep concern hiding itself behind his steepled talons. I could see his two sides conflicting. The loving uncle, always caring for me, and the dedicated protector of the town’s residents. He had to be a Whitecoat right then, and I could tell it was eating at him.

Fleeing the hydra. Sleeping when I could, shivering in the dark. Killing the ghoul. I left out no details. Running from that last dweller drew a response from the silent griffin. The flamethrower pony and the big metal door. He leaned forward, claws digging slightly into the table between us.

“You went into Neighwhere?”

“Ash, why didn’t Cinder die with the rest of the Paragons?” Ripple and his friends had killed everyone but her. It had never been clear from the stories what had happened to her, but they hadn’t involved her dying, which is the end I would have chosen.

Ash sighed, trailing a talon down the side of his face. “We never got the chance. She was powerful, and after Neighwhere she just holed herself up with a few survivors. Haven’t seen so much as a flicker from her since… and I was hoping she’d gone and choked on her own blood by now.”

I nodded slowly, frowning as thoughts of Cinder and her domain shone fresh in my mind. He sounded defeated when he spoke of Cinder, and I understood why. “I was taken in. They kept me in a cell. They tortured me, and used me for labor. Then Rose helped me escape.”

Best to focus on the positive. My sister, the smiling savior. The sister part… I kept that out. I felt that that was just for us. One thing of great importance did spring to mind as soon as I thought about family though.

“Cinder said Ripple was alive up north.”

He frowned. “I’ve heard the rumors. It’s a dead end, trust me. I don’t need that one spreading around town, either.”

Tapping absently on his beak, he stared off at the wall for a few seconds before his eyes locked back onto me. “So. The pony you brought here, she’s one of them? Cinder’s lot?”

I shook my head, annoyed that he’d dodged the subject of Ripple, but Rose was still an important subject to me. “No. She’s not. She grew up there, but she saved me. She got me away.”

He narrowed his eyes. “Are you sure she did it freely? Didn’t it cross your mind she could be spying on us, trying to find a way in for her raider buddies?”

It hadn’t occurred to me, but it was ridiculous. She’d saved me, and risked herself doing it. She was not spying.

My face flushed with sudden anger, and I growled at him. “She’s not. She helped me.”

He sighed, slumping his shoulders. “Okay. That’s all I needed to know…”

“Ash, even if she was a spy, she can’t go back. We… I killed the pony that chased us. I think he was Cinder’s second in command or something… he was…” I drifted off as I spoke. I had started off so strong, thinking I could tell the griffin I’d made my first kill with at least bravery in my voice, but it died, until I was speaking in a whisper.

Standing stiffly, he walked around the table towards me. He ran a claw through my mane, looking me in the eyes. “Fluster and Ziel will want to see you, and you should probably stop by your aunt’s place...”

“Should I talk to them about…”

He shook his head. “No, just let them enjoy you being back. You can share that burden later.”

I looked up at him, searching his eyes for any sign of anger or pride that I’d made my first kill. I only saw regret clouding his golden eyes. He let out a heavy sigh, and I knew he was finished with my debriefing. His eyes glanced towards the door, but he stood there with his claws in my mane.

“Where’s Rose?” I cut him off when I realized he wasn’t going to mention where she was.

“She’s safe. We gave her a comfy bed at Doc Care’s.” I was standing even as he spoke, but I felt him push me back down. “I don’t want you doing anything hasty. She’s under guard, until we know why she’s here.”

“I already told-”

“I know, kid, I know.” He patted my back, and removed his talons from my fur. “We just gotta make sure.”

He turned, opening the door behind me. “White double door, broken chains?”

I looked at him, puzzled.

“Cleanup.”

Oh. The facility. The dwellers. I nodded.

Whitecoat business.

He disappeared into the hall, and I followed shortly. Fluster, Ziel, or Rose? I weighed which one I went to visit first.

The door outside was ajar. Ash must have not closed it behind him in his haste and I stood there staring into the rain. It was coming down in sheets, and I could barely see across the street in the pale light. Whenever it rained this hard, Fluster would be under her awning, trying to see the mountain.

I owed it to her to see her first. I think seeing anyone else would have hurt her feelings.

-----

Fluster’s house was dark and empty as I walked through it. She had never had many possessions, even when Ziel and I would spend our days with her as fillies. Her living room contained a table with a minigun on it, and nothing else.

The gun always seemed out of place. Fluster was very opposed to me using violence, and had thrown a fit when Ziel had joined the Whitecoats. It was another of those things I never asked about. She always looked sadly at it, but left it in the living room.

The stairs up were devoid of any of the posters or decorations that other ponies favored, and her bedroom was just as sparse. A single mattress, and a wad of blankets in the corner for Fern.

The stairs up were in her room, and I passed through quickly. I wanted to see her, get the hugging out of the way, tell her everything was alright, and then move on.

When I pushed open the door to the roof, I spotted Fern’s tail sticking from beneath the rain cover. I trotted quickly through the rain, and slipped under the awning.

Fern was there, his woody form curled protectively around Fluster. I didn’t recognize her at first, wearing a tattered and filthy robe. Her wings were visible through the shredded cloth, but most of her scars were hidden.

“Fluster?” I couldn’t see her face, and she showed no sign of being aware of my presence.

She turned, and the look on her face forced me to sit down.

It was like the world had ended. Grief beyond what I could imagine was etched into her face. She knew I was back… she must have known. Why was she so sad?

Faster than I could react, she pulled me into a deep hug. Her wings wrapped around me, practically cocooning me in with her and her sorrow. Tears were streaming from her eye, but she made no sounds.

Fern was whining as he looked up at us, the only sound other than the pouring rain.

“Never again.” It was so quiet, I barely heard her. Her voice was scratchy and hoarse, a whisper made of gravel.

“Don’t scare me like that ever again.”

I nuzzled into her scarred chest, relishing the feathery embrace. If Ziel and Rose weren’t at the front of my mind, I could have stayed there for hours. For Fluster, though, I stayed. I stayed until her tears stopped, and I felt her hug slacken lightly.

As her wings unwrapped, the wasteland came back into bleak focus. Her eye was bloodshot, and had developed wrinkles that hadn’t been there the last time I’d seen her, but I could see the happiness trying to break through the despair.

“I’m sorry.” I said it again. I imagined I’d be apologizing a lot. I hadn’t done anything wrong, but what I’d put my loved ones through… they deserved an apology.

She nodded at me, a tear-stained smile on her face. I smiled, so glad to see her happy. Ash had been right. Telling her about my kill would have been a bad move.

Quickly, she went to fretting over my scratches and bruises. I told her about my time underground, leaving out all the details she didn’t need to hear. The killings, and exactly what happened in Neighwhere. Her expression was mixed when she finally let me go.

I apologized again, and left Fluster and her leafy guardian on the roof, feeling a weight lift from my withers as I trotted back through her nearly empty house.

-----

It had stopped raining while I’d been on the roof with Fluster. The streets were hoof deep in water, but it was draining into the underground as quickly as it could. I splashed my way through the shallower puddles, avoiding the deeper spots I’d memorized over the years.

My next stop was to find Ziel. Ash had said she was doing wall duty, so that’s where I was headed. The wall ran around the entire town, bridging the gaps between buildings and securing our safe little haven from the horror of Hornsmith.

I shuddered now that I knew what the wall actually kept out.

I scanned the usual guarding Whitecoats. The ones on the wall tended to wear hoods to keep the rain off, but it also made them look like clones from my lower angle. I knew that if Ziel was up there, she’d be the smallest one. Also, her striped legs would help set her apart, but I couldn’t see any legs past the platform they were standing on.

The best way to find her would be to just keep walking. I’d enjoy the open air and lack of rain, and hope she saw me from wherever she was on the wall. I’d felt a sense of urgency about today, but that had been until I’d seen Fluster. She’d calmed me down. I wasn’t in a real hurry. I could just take my time, relishing my freedom.

I couldn’t keep Rose waiting too long though.

-----

After I’d made a complete circuit of Hoof, scanning every Whitecoat with increasing exasperation, I’d had enough.

“Ziel!” I shouted, hoping that she was at least near enough to hear me.

I only heard a splash before I was tackled by a laughing zony. We fell into a deep, muddy puddle, soaking me with dirty water. I was snatched up into a deep, shaking hug. She was laughing too hard to do much else, so I settled into the hug, chuckling myself. I wasn’t sure what we were laughing about.

Eventually, she got a hold of herself, and held me out in front of her, checking me out. “I knew you weren’t dead! I just knew it!”

She was a lot stronger than her size let on, and all I could do was squirm in her grasp. I spat out a mouthful of gutter water, and nodded at the zealous zony. “Yeah… yeah, I’m fine.”

She let go, flicking mud from her hooves as she took a step back. “Ya know, I’ve been following you for a while. Did you hear me?”

I smiled widely at her, jumping over an annoyance I should have felt at her delaying my search. She’d been using me to get better at sneaking for years. “No! You’re getting better!” She really was if I hadn’t heard her.

“So, what are you up to now that you’re back from the dead?” She nudged me, then pressed in tight against my side.

“I gotta go see somepony.”

“Oh yeah, your stray! Who is she? She seems… I dunno, ragged around the edges. Not that I’ve talked to her, but I heard talk.” She was practically vibrating with giddiness. At moments like that, no amount of armament or uniform would make her anything but the excited filly I’d grown up with.

“Yeah, its my fault she’s being held captive, and I have to talk to her… before she tries something.” I remembered the bleeding corpse slumped in front of my cell door. I didn’t want that to happen to anypony in Hoof. It would be entirely on me if it did.

“Can I come?”

“Uh…” I paused, not entirely sure how well Ziel and Rose would get along.

“I’m coming anyways. A Whitecoat has to protect the good ponies of Hoof, and I suppose even you count.”

I let out an exasperated sigh. I knew that if she went off on the “I’m a Whitecoat and it’s my duty” spiel, I wouldn’t be able to talk her down. Rolling my eyes, I gave in before she really started extolling her various duties and roles. “Fine...”

She grinned widely at me from beneath her hood.

Ugh, she was always so hard to dissuade.

-----

The Whitecoat standing outside Doc Care’s appeared to be in a foul mood. He glowered at the two of us as we walked towards him across the street. I recognized him as belonging to the camp that blamed Ripple for the evils of the world, and guessed that he was none too pleased to be on guard duty because of me.

“What do you want?” He growled, his eyes locked on me. Ziel warranted not even a glance from him, with all of his dislike focused onto me.

“We’re here to see Care’s patient.” Ziel piped up happily, either oblivious or just indifferent to the glare I was receiving.

“Help yourself.” He grunted and stepped aside.

Ziel thanked him happily and led the way into the clinic. His eyes followed me, and I was quite glad to leave him outside in the damp. Doc Care’s clinic I was much more familiar with than Knife’s. Whenever I’d been sick, or twisted a hoof, or got a cut playing too hard with Ziel, I’d go there and he’d make me better.

The three legged pegasus was hovering in the waiting room, scribbling in a dog-eared notebook. He looked up at us and nodded lightly, the pencil gripped in his mouth seeming to be of more importance to him than talking to us. He gestured with his head towards a side door, and then he went right back to scribbling.

The hall past the waiting room was lined with hanging curtains. Behind each was a room for whatever sick or injured ponies needed them. I wouldn’t have to check each one, because at the end of the hall was the only room with a door. Lazing in front of it was a dozing Whitecoat, a long shotgun resting at his side.

His eyes followed us as we approached down the long hall. We were moving like ponies on a mission. Without a word, he let out a long sigh and moved aside. As I passed, I saw that his eyes were bloodshot and he smelled strongly of hard cider. I heard a sound of derision from Ziel, but neither of us said anything to the drunk Whitecoat.

The door wasn’t even locked. I pushed it open, leading the way for my cousin. All of these rooms were furnished for recovering ponies, and I spotted Rose lounging on a raised bed in the corner. She was bouncing a ball against wall with her magic absently, though her face brightened noticeably when she saw me coming through the door. Even with the smile, I couldn’t help but notice that she was still carrying a lot more injuries than I was.

Her front legs were completely wrapped with bandages, a few of which still showed patches of blood. Her face wasn’t as bruised as it had been, but there was still noticeable discoloration and one of her eyes was only half open. A single potion would have fixed most of that, which meant that she’d been left to heal naturally.

“Was wondering if they’d let you come see me. I can’t exactly walk about on my own.” She lifted one of her rear legs and I let out a slight gasp. She was shackled to the bed.

“Pretty sure the griffin wants to make sure I’m not gonna slit any throats while I’m here.” Her eyes went from me to Ziel, and narrowed cautiously. “Who’s the stripe?”

“Hey!” Ziel stepped forward angrily. They’d just met, and Rose had already started pushing our cousin’s buttons.

I quickly stepped between them, hoping to end any hostilities quickly. I knew just the way too.

“Rose, this is Ziel. My cousin.”

Her eyes went as wide as they could with comprehension, and she smiled broadly. I couldn’t help but notice that she was missing a tooth when she did so. “Well that changes things a bit, doesn’t it?”

I glanced at Ziel, who lacked the excitement she’d had just seconds before. She was frowning, glaring at the grinning pony.

“Ziel, she saved me from Neighwhere. Cut her a little slack.” She looked at me, and stepped back just a little. The glare eased, but the frown remained.

“Rose.” I looked back at the smirking pony chained to the bed. Enough damage control. “Are you doing okay? I would have come earlier, but I had obligations.”

All she did was shake her chained leg at me, really emphasizing the length of the metal links. She was stuck there.

I sighed. “Right…”

The white coat that the zony at my side was wearing reminded me of what Ash had said. Don’t do anything stupid. Breaking my sister out counted as that.

“I’m sorry… but I can’t let you out right now. The best I can do is convince Ash you’re not a threat.” I scuffed my hoof at the ground, avoiding her gaze. I felt bad, having to leave my sister in chains.

“So I just wait here? Do you have anything to read, or am I stuck with this ball?”

“I could take the ball.”

“Ziel!” I growled at the zony once again, and knew that I should probably separate the two until a later time. I needed to find Ash again, and get my sister out of here and into Hoof. She needed a regular life, like the one I had.

“Listen, Rose, I’m gonna go talk to Ash. I’ll get this sorted out, and then I’ll show you around town. Just… hang tight, okay?”

Rose grunted, and threw the ball again. She settled back into her rhythm, dismissing us. I couldn't blame her if she was a little mad at me. I’d get her free.

I just hoped I could catch Ash. Maybe if I bugged him, I could push my sister’s release to the forefront of his mind.

I gave a glance to my sister, and then went out into the hall. Ziel pushed the door shut behind us, and made a derisive snort. “Real prize you brought back, that one.”

That was the final straw.

“Ziel, shut up.”

Stopped hard in her tracks, and her voice was quiet in response. “What?”

“Go back to guarding your wall, Ziel. I’m gonna go find Uncle Ash.” I didn’t want to raise my voice, because it felt wrong to yell at her. I'd never told her to shut up before. I just couldn't hear her badmouth my sister anymore. Once I had Rose free… everything would work out.

I gave her a look, hoping that she knew I was sorry, and turned away. I ran off, out of Doc Care’s, and into the streets. It was raining again.

-----

Hopefully, I wasn’t too late to catch Ash before he left. I knew he’d be at the armory, getting a team ready to go take out the dwellers I’d found. I’d seen cleanup teams before, but until recently I had never understood what the big deal was.

The streets hadn’t had much time to recover from the rain, and with the sudden deluge that had kicked in I could now barely see where I was going. Luckily I knew the streets like the curves of my cutie mark. That didn’t stop me from tripping through some of the puddles that hid potholes, though.

Finally, I got to the entrance to Underhoof, soaked through and partially caked in mud. I stumbled through the door, and for lack of anything better I shook myself like a dog. The entryway was already soaked from recent use, which meant I couldn’t be far behind Ash and the cleanup crew.

I let out a little shriek as I looked into the armory.

“Whoa there, girl, it’s just me.” Viola, the ghoul in the gasmask, was cleaning a rifle on the table. I hadn’t been expecting a ghoul, and even though she was the friendliest ghoul I knew of, her appearance frightened me. The memory of the ghoul I’d killed was slamming into my thoughts.

Trying to hide the fact that my heart was hammering in my chest, I swallowed back some fear and stammered a little as I started talking. “Uh… h-h-hey Viola. Have… have you seen Ash?”

“You okay?” Those soft eyes stared at me through the glass of her mask, and that helped a little.

I nodded.

“Sorry, Ash just took a team down for cleanup. Flamethrowers and everything.” She put down the cloth that she’d been working into the stripped open weapon. “They should be in the tunnels by now. You just missed ‘em.”

“Oh.” I sat down right there, the wind gone from my sails. I guess I was lucky, because I really had no idea what I was going to say to Ash to get my sister the freedom she deserved.

It just didn't feel like a “please” would have cut it.

I realized a few minutes into waiting for Ash that I really had better things to do. I’d get Rose out, I would, but I needed to spend some more time with my mom. She was somewhere in town, doing some odd job or another… and I needed to spend more time with her.

Staring out into the rain, I paused. Being back felt weird. I had free time. I could go to all my favorite places, see all the ponies I wanted to, spend time with my family. After the tunnels though… I doubt I’d ever feel the same. All the things I did for fun just felt so pointless.

Letting out a deep sigh, I pulled a cloak from a rack on the wall and headed out into the rain to find my mom.

-----

I found mom in the main warehouse, tinkering with a broken crane. She was happier to see me then than I could remember from a majority of my life. Her eyes had a new light in them. After she finished hugging me, she went back to work. I watched her for a while, covered in grease and neck deep in the guts of a conglomerate of gears and wires, before I got bored.

I stayed near her, in the vicinity of the big robot head that lurked at the back of the warehouse. When I had played around it as a filly, it had been the coolest thing. Now, it was just the remains of another thing out in the wasteland that killed ponies.

Ripple had survived against one of these. So had Fluster. Ash had told me as part of his stories of adventure. I could survive too, if it came to it.

I gave the head a little kick, and went back to helping mom.

-----

I was asleep when Ash and the cleaners finally got back. After work, mom and I had just gone home and fallen asleep watching the rain. When I woke up in the morning, warm and safe, I felt strangely conflicted. I’d missed Ash, but mom and I were definitely making up for lost time.

I wanted Rose free of her little cell, and I wanted to spend more time with my mom, and I wanted to find out more about Ripple, and I wanted to learn to defend myself better, and… there were just too many ands.

When I went out looking for Ash after breakfast, I made a beeline for the first Whitecoat I saw. An older mare with a smoking habit stood on the corner, idly taking in the day. She didn’t look particularly busy, and I’d learned long before that the best way to find any particular Whitecoat was to ask a Whitecoat. “Do you know where Ash is?”

The cigarette floated from her mouth, and she leisurely blew a smoke ring into the air over my head. She looked around a bit, and after what felt like an eternity she finally gave me an answer.

“He left Hoof for a couple days. Had to flap out to Penance for something.”

My jaw dropped. I couldn’t help but feel that he’d run away from me… he knew I’d be asking him to let Rose free every chance I got, so he’d left. That bird-brained meany. Fucker. I couldn’t even decide how mad I was at him.

I let out a huff and stamped a hoof. “Fine. Thanks for your time.” With that, I stormed off. I could go over his head on this, if he wanted to run away from me.

I’d go see my Aunt and Uncle.

-----

Xiera and Raw Deal were the closest thing to official leaders that the Whitecoats had. Deal had taught most of the older generation Whitecoats how to fight, and Xiera had saved more lives than anyone cared to count. It was convenient as such that Raw Deal was Ripple’s blood related uncle. My great uncle. That just confused everything, so he was just uncle to me.

Their house was on the other side of Hoof from mine, but I made it in good time. The sun was even shining through the clouds a bit, so I didn’t have to fight through the rain to get there.

Out front, several Whitecoats were sparring in the mud. Zebra fighting, something my Aunt Xiera had brought to the group, was taught widely to the Whitecoats. Hooves were flying, and each blow was parried before it could be deadly. I really wanted to learn more after my ordeal had shown me just how unprepared I was for the wasteland, but that would come later, after I had dealt with some of my ands.

The front door was wide open, and I wiped my hooves on the ratty rug inside the threshold.

“Aunt Xiera? Uncle Deal?” I called into the house, knowing that at least one of them was around. Probably my uncle… he didn’t leave the house very often.

“It’s been a while since you came this way.” The gravelly voice rasped at me from another room, and I trotted after it with a little smile. The pony sitting in the room was one of the founding members of the Whitecoats, a patriarch of Hoof, and more importantly, my uncle.

He’d seen better days, even before he’d been lit on fire. The burn scars covered half of his body, and he sometimes gave me the creeps, but I still loved him. He defended ponies, like Ash did.

“Heard about your trip. Glad you’re safe.” Deal always kept me at a distance, but he did that to everypony except Xiera and Ziel. He wasn’t even looking at me as he spoke, which was something I’d gotten used to years ago. Always working, always at the task at hand, but he would always talk to you if you needed to talk to him.

“Thanks, Uncle. Listen… I need something from you.”

He glanced at me, then looked back at what he was doing. “What?”

“I need you to let the pony that came back with me free. I can vouch for her, she’s not a spy like Ash thinks.” I kept calm, knowing that if I got too excited, I’d probably lose any chance with him.

“I agree with Ash on this one. We don’t know her, we don’t know why she came here with you.” He had stopped working, and I now had his full attention.

“I trust her. She helped me escape.”

“I heard as much. Don’t you think it could be a setup? Some attempt to get our gates open so they can just walk in and take everything we have? We don’t know how many ponies are in Neighwhere still… could be a dozen, could be hundreds.” He stood, keeping the even tone that I had heard him use before while chewing out Whitecoat recruits.

“I didn’t see too many. Their numbers aren’t that big, if you don’t count the slaves.” My voice cracked as I mentioned the slaves, of whom I had been for a day. There were still ponies being treated like that every day…

“Have you ever seen a pony use a slave as a shield? I have.”

I started breathing heavily. I hadn’t thought about that. To use another pony like that… I definitely wouldn’t put it past them, not after what I’d seen them do.

“No… I…”

“Do you want that to happen to me? To your aunt? Your cousin? Your mom?” He stepped closer to me, the even tone scaring me more than it should have. My breathing was growing rapidly, and I felt tears begin to well in my eyes. The thought of anyone I knew going through that… I…I couldn’t live with that.

I knew Rose wouldn’t do that. Not to me.

Not to her sister.

“She’s my sister, okay!?” I snapped at him. That meant that she was just as related to him as he was to me, and I was really hoping that it would buy me some leverage in my argument.

He stopped, his eyes narrowing as he searched mine. “You really believe that?”

Not even pause to think about it. “I do. She helped me escape, saved my life, and as a reward we chained her up in a room.” I tried to look imposing in front of the scarred and battle-worn pony.

“I don’t know about you, but that’s not how I treat family.” I blushed as soon as I said it, remembering how I’d treated my Mom for years. That wasn’t gonna happen to my family anymore.

Deal looked at me in silence for a long time. He was always hard to read, with half of his face melted like that, but his eyes showed intense concentration. Eventually, he let out a sigh. “You know if she tries anything, I’m going to kill her.”

I smiled at him. That was a yes.

“Ash won’t be happy about this.” He said it with a sigh.

“I know, but he’ll see I was right, and then he’ll have to deal with it.” I was overjoyed that I’d won. That’d teach Ash to run away instead of dealing with me. I gave him a kiss on the cheek. "Thank you, uncle!"

-----

“Not exactly the nicest digs, are they?” Rose was looking up at me from the ratty mattress tucked into a corner of the room. I was so happy she’d been let out. I hadn’t even listened as the Whitecoat that had been assigned to escort her to her new home had rattled off the town laws to its newest member. I’d just watched my sister gazing around the town, free of the cell she’d been so unjustly kept in.

I shrugged at her in response. This little apartment belonged to a pony that no one had seen in four years. It was a safe assumption that they weren’t coming back. I knew why Deal had chosen it though: it was far from the armory and anything he didn’t want her near, and close to lots of ponies with weapons that wouldn’t hesitate to kill her if she tried anything. I could see one of the Whitecoat houses through the cracked window.

Honestly, it was pretty nice as far as Hoof homes went.

She didn’t have any possessions, so I guessed she was going to have to start from scratch. If I was her, I’d start working on personalizing my living space. That required a job…

“Have you given any thought to what you want to do around here? There’s scavving, repairs, farming, becoming a Whitecoat-”

“How about finding dad?” She cut me off with an excited grin.

My mouth hung open as I lost track of my list. Dad? Ripple?

“Y-you want to find Ripple? We just got back to town… do you remember what happened out there?” Now that I’d gotten back, staying home just sounded appealing.

“Hack Job came from a bunch of ponies that need the exact treatment you gave him. We both grew up with the stories, and you know as much as I do that if anypony is going to be able to clear out Neighwhere, it’s him. We just need to find our dad.” She had that weird smile that she got every time she mentioned Ripple. It was kind of off-putting, but it was just one of her quirks. I would get used to it.

“Where would we even start? Ash said the rumors weren’t true. There’s a good chance he isn’t alive, and its just some other pony in the north.”

“Cinder never lies about Ripple. It’s the one subject I know she’s truthful about… I could tell from the way she looked whenever she talked about him. That’s a look you can’t fake.” She looked completely convinced of that.

“Well…” She was making sense. If half of what Ash had told me about Ripple was true, he would be able to finally make Hornsmith safe. If, and that was a big if, he was actually still alive somewhere. For all these years. Without making any effort to come home, or write, or send any sign at all.

“The way I see it, we need maybe one or two others to come with. Maybe the stri… Ziel. We could use a trained gun. We’ll need supplies, preferably stuff no one will miss. Then, we’ll need something to prove who we are when we find him.”

That last part made me think of one thing, cutting through everything else that had been jumbling inside my head. Ash still had Ripples pipbuck around his wrist, so that was just right out as an option. There was one thing that was still in Hoof though. “I… I do know of one thing we still have.”

Her eyes swiveled back to me, away from the imaginary checklist she was building. “Eh?”

“Mom still has his gun.”

Her eyes got wide. “Show me.”

-----

It always amazed me how clean the gun was. Every other weapon I’d ever seen, even the ones used and cared for by the Whitecoats, had rust on it. Maybe not a lot, just a little patch near a receiver or barrel, but that shotgun was still the only one I’d ever seen completely rust-free.

Rose was wide-eyed and staring. She’d done little else since we’d gotten into my house. A few snide comments at my living situation, but then she saw the gun. I’d grown up around it, so it had lost most of its allure to me.

“This is what he used…” Her voice was low, meant more for herself than me.

I nodded anyways. “Yeah. From how Ash tells it, this was almost like an extension of him.”

“Cinder tells it the same.”

We stood there in silence for a few minutes, viewing the weapon from two very different upbringings. The gun, to its credit, gleamed in the dull light filtering in from outside.

“So, when should we go?” The mischief in her voice shattered the somber moment we’d been having. I glanced over at her, and the grin was back. Only when Ripple was involved. It was still a little creepy.

“I… I haven’t even agreed to go yet…” I glanced down at my front legs, healing wounds still visible through the fur. “But… I think it shouldn’t be for a few days. We need to secure supplies, and get Ziel on board.”

“And then it’s just a quick trot out to where the caravans meet up, and we hitch a ride north. Simple.” Her plan sure sounded good… and I knew that the caravans had a meeting place outside of Neighwhere, with fairly regular traffic. The plan was sound.

I couldn’t stay in Hoof my entire life, hiding from the monsters I knew were out there. If we did this, and against the odds managed to find Ripple…We’d be getting a father back. Ash would have his friend back. Mom… well, I imagined she’d liven up a bit.

The wasteland would have a hero back from the dead, and the monsters that had hurt so many would pay.

Well... if it all worked the way we wanted.

-----

Ash had apparently gone for a long trip, because it was two days later and he still hadn’t come back.

I’d started pilfering what I could for our trip, and stashing it in my room. Rose was just laying low. I figured it would be counterproductive for her to be caught taking supplies… but no one would really look twice at me. I spent enough time in the warehouses as it was. They never noticed when I would slip something into my bag.

The hard part, I found, was asking Ziel to come with us. If I worded it wrong, she would turn us in. I’d been buttering her up towards Rose every time I saw her, but she still frowned at the mere mention of the crude pony.

As the days wore on, I felt that we were really missing our window.

I finally worked up the nerve to just straight out ask my cousin, and damn the consequences. The sun was going down somewhere past the clouds when I found her, as the lights were beginning to flicker on throughout Hoof. She was the lone sentry on a stretch of the western wall, so at least I didn’t have to worry about anyone eavesdropping.

“Hey Ziel!” I called up to her as I climbed the stairs leading to the wall top.

She looked at me past the rifle she had propped against herself. The look was an exasperated one, but from how she was sitting down I knew she was so bored she wasn’t going to ask me to leave.

“What new and wonderful thing do you have to tell me about Rose Laurel now?” Her voice was dripping with how little she wanted to hear it.

“No, nothing on that. I have to ask you a question.”

She smiled at that, immensely pleased that I’d moved on to another subject. I knew the question itself would wipe the smile away.

“So…” I thought quickly of how to word it. Nothing seemed to really hit the magic note I needed, so I decided to just force my way through it. “Will you come with me and Rose to find Ripple?”

The smile did just as I had predicted.

“Find… Ripple?” The frown was more confused than angry, so at least I had that going for me.

“When I was in Neighwhere, there was a strong belief that Ripple was still alive, to the north. Past Canterlot somewhere.”

She stared at me, frowning. The silence was growing uncomfortable.

“Well?” I had to ask, just to see if I could nudge her into an answer.

“You’re going whether I say yes or no, aren’t you.”

“We’ve already got supplies, and a plan. We just need a zony with a gun and the skills to help us get there.”

I heard her grumbling to herself, but I didn’t make out what it was. She must have been working it through in her head, because she let out a deep sigh and looked at me. “Why? You I understand, but what does the brat get out of it?”

“She… I…” It’d come out eventually, so I just let her in on my secret. “We get a father back if he’s still alive. Rose is my sister.”

“Shit. Really?” She let out a long sigh. With that, I knew I had her.

-----

Rose had been in charge of the planning, as I had been busy with my pilfering and stockpiling. Her room was still spartan except for the bed, which she’d pushed into the corner. On the floor, around which she was pacing, was an assortment of crude maps.

She glanced up as I walked in, and shook her head once. “These are just awful. I know that it’s drawn by caravans… but could they draw more than just a line? Look, look at this.”

I trotted up, intrigued at what she was ranting about.

“Right here. That’s us. That’s Neighwhere and the mountain… and then just north…” She jabbed her hoof at the map before us, at an expanse of nothing with a single line drawn through it. There was a single dot a short way in, but other than that there was nothing until the Canterlot region. “There’s nothing but radiation, mutants, death, raiders, and whatever else I assume is out there.”

“What about Penance?” I pointed to the single labeled dot between Hornsmith and the rest of Equestria. “I hear it talked about, supposedly all the caravans go through there.”

“And we will too, but it would really help to know what else was out there. Rivers, towns, mountains… anything. I don’t even know if this is to scale.” She was closely scrutinizing the hoof-drawn map, and I smiled at how much thought she was giving this. We needed thought. My experiences outside of town had pretty much been entirely luck. A plan would be good.

“Isn’t that why we are heading to where the caravans meet? To find this sort of thing out?” I pointed at the spot outside of town with a big red circle and “caravan” written next to it.

She nodded. “Yeah… I just wish we had a better idea what was out there before we left. Speaking of which, how are we doing on the final piece of our little puzzle?”

It had skipped my mind, due to the distraction of the map. “Oh, yeah. Ziel is in.”

Rose nudged me hard with her flank, letting out a little laugh. “Ha. I knew you could do it. So we’re all set to go. When do we leave?”

I glanced out the window, into the rain. Ash was still gone, and the storm looked like it was going to last for a few days. “Tomorrow morning, first thing. Under the cover of the storm, that’d be our best bet.”

“So you better do your goodbyes, but don’t tip anyone off that we’re leaving. Send the stripe this way when you see her. I’ll catch her up on the plan… and I’ll be nice. Don’t worry.” She waved me off with a playful grin, and I headed back out into the rain. If it was really my last night in Hoof for a while, I wanted to spend it with mom. She was going to be pretty torn up by what I was about to do.

-----

I’d gone to find Ziel, who was glaring at me a little but still consented to going with us. Hugging her, I told her to find Rose. She needed to be brought up to speed, and I needed to go find mom. I hurried off, leaving the zebra to find her way.

The streets were muddy, but I splashed my way through them hastily. I had only a little bit before I had to get some rest. The next day was going to be busy.

I knew something was up as I rounded the corner to see my house. I spotted Fern, the large white timber wolf standing out brightly against the dingy surroundings of the front of my house. It meant that Fluster had stopped by, but she normally took her companion in with her.

His ears perked up when he saw me, and he wagged his leafy tail. I stopped just long enough to rub his chest with a hoof, and headed past him inside. A whine followed me up the stairs, and I knew he wasn’t liking staying away from Fluster. She must have asked him to wait for a good reason.

Voices were coming from mom’s room and I crept my way up, trying to be as quiet as possible. I wanted to be able to tell if my intrusion was at a good time or not.

“You aren’t worried about it? What that girl went through could ruin a pony.” Fluster’s voice was raised, almost in anger. I couldn’t think of ever hearing her angry before. Her voice was somehow still soft.

“So she stays in Hoof. Learns a trade. She grows up here, has a family, stays safe. That doesn’t seem so bad to me.” Mom. It was still weird to hear her talk about me, not to mention to me.

“What if she’s like him though? Do you think Ripple would have hid from the world once he knew there was a problem? Did he run away and hide from Hate?” I heard the flap of wings to emphasize the statement. “You know that Ash has been filling the girls’ heads with stories for their entire lives. What if they wanted to experience that life? You know what that life costs. We both do, too well.”

There was a long silence after that, and I pictured my mom and Fluster staring at each other. One of them was crying slightly, I could hear the soft sobbing, but I wasn’t sure who.

I shifted slightly, and the floor let out a loud creak. With a flinch, I tensed up and hoped that they hadn’t heard it, but a voice called out. “Echo? Are you home?”

Sighing, I responded and started walking forward. I’d been caught, and that conversation was over. “Yeah Mom, I’m home.”

To my surprise, I saw tears running from Fluster’s eye before she hastily wiped them away with a wing. I’d been betting on it being mom that was crying. There was an uncomfortable silence as the three of us stood there.

The pegasus was the first to break the moment. “So how is Rose fitting into her new home? I imagine she’s glad to be out of the tunnels.”

I shrugged, thinking back to the room. “She’s liking it, but she doesn’t have many comforts there.”

“You can take her through the warehouse sometime.” Mom suggest helpfully, apparently not aware of how much time I’d been spending there anyways. Aside from the supplies I’d been pilfering, there was a stockpile of furniture. It was probably what the building had been used for before the bombs.

“Yeah, I think she’d like that.” I’d take her when we got back.

The feeling in the room was uncomfortable. It felt like how it did before, when we were distant. Did they know what I was planning? Is that why they’d been talking about my eventually wanting to leave? Had they figured it out?

I realized that I was breathing fast now, with my mom and aunt staring at me.

“Mom… Fluster… you know I love both of you, right?”

They exchange a glance before looking back at me with smiles. The smile still looked weird on Mom’s face. I kept expecting the pained expression I’d gotten used to over the years. I was thinking way too much.

“Of course honey…I mean Echo…” Mom stumbled as she spoke, and I realized she was trying out pet names for me. I saw her mouth to herself “Sweetie?” before she just smiled.

Fluster snickered at the now blushing blue pony. “You should talk to Ash about that. He could give you some pointers.” Her eye met mine and she smiled softly. “And of course I know that. What brings it up?” I didn’t miss the quick glance they shared after that.

“I just…” I had to make it not suspicious. I’d just heard them talking, and I wasn’t leaving in the morning. Just going about my business. “Didn’t want you to worry about me.” I tried giving Mom my softest look; one that would tell her I would never hurt her.

I’m not sure how convincing I was.

“Well, Fern won’t like me leaving him for too long…” She glanced between Mom and me once more and smiled. “So I’ll say good night and be on my way.”

“Night, Fluster.” Mom and I spoke in unison. The pegasus chuckled, turned, and left the room. We heard the door close shortly after, and it was just the two of us. A month before, I would have dreaded this, but now everything was different.

I was really feeling the guilt about my decision to leave the next morning, especially as Mom smiled at me. I just wanted to stay in Hoof with her and my family…

That was the thing. If Ripple was really alive… my family would be whole. I’d have a mom, a dad, and a sister. Full, functional families were not something you saw frequently out in the wasteland.

“So… are you hungry?” Mom, trying to get back into the habit of doing mom things. That made me smile wide, the guilt buried just a little.

In my peppiest voice, I said yes. I hadn't eaten much in the last few days, and I’d probably not get a chance to eat well in the near future. “Let’s have a big dinner.”

Smiling softly, Mom nodded, and led the way into the kitchen. Between the two of us, I knew we could cook up something memorable. I really wanted Mom to have a happy memory to cover me until I came back with Ripple.

We’d be gone before she woke up. I had prepared a short letter to leave behind, which hopefully wouldn't be found until we’d put some distance between us and Hoof. It would be on my pillow.

Dear Mom.

I know that this isn't what you wanted, but I have to leave. I’ll be right back, once I’ve found dad. Rose and Ziel are with me. We’ll stay safe, stick together, and find him. Trust me.

I love you,
Sorry.
Echo.

I just hoped that the letter would ease her panic. It probably wouldn't.

Fallout Equestria: Echoes of Chaos

by Fallingsnow

Chapter 1: Black

Chapter 2: Home

Chapter 3: Visit

Chapter 4: Sorry