> From the Ashes
>  by Keeper of time RD
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

> Chapter 1: The Wanderer
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Rust colored hooves plodded along the narrow mountain pass. A wall lay on one side, a shear cliff to the other. Ten years of neglect had almost erased the rail line, but every now and then bits of the steal track poked out from the dirt and ash that had covered them.

As for the young mare with the rusty brown fur, she wore a yellow cape that covered her back and sides. Every so often one of the few not so dirt stained patches would catch the light and glimmer, proving that once apon a time the cape had been gold. An old set of goggles hid the mare’s eyes behind dusty lenses. A messy purple mane sat atop her head. Finally, she wore a set of saddlebags on top of her cape, thus pinning it down. At the moment the bags drooped low, hinting that coming this far had already depleted most of the mare’s supplies.

If one bothered to look out over the cliff they’d have seen a withered land, dominated by browns and grays, maybe a few sickly trees or bushes clinging to life down by the river adding a few sparse spots of green to the otherwise burnt out valley below. Although the lone wanderer’s gaze remained fixed on the path before her.

Rounding the corner quickly challenged the mare’s status as lone wanderer, as another pony stood not far from a battered, but intact, old rail bridge. This pony was a turquoise mare, the horn on her head marking her as a unicorn. The hoofprints of burning purple flames she left in dirt as she walked marked her as somepony who’d spent way too much time in someplace tainted by the demon war.

Yes the demon war, the gift that kept on giving.

Sure the demon army had been defeated, but by the time the remnants of the guard had won, the damage to Equestria had been done. Within the first week of the war the princesses were dead, within the month all of the royal families had been wiped out. Needless to say, a land that had been ruled by an immortal monarch for generations had given little thought as to who would rule AFTER Celestia.

And by the time what was left of the army had vanquished the last of the demons, anarchy had already consumed most places. And as is always the case with anarchy the thugs and the brutes who believed in the folly of ‘might makes right’ restored ‘order,’ crowning themselves as kings and warlords. Whatever the title they chose for themselves, those who clung to the ideas of civilized behavior only called them what they really were, thieves, murderers, raiders or slavers. But mostly those last two.

But raiders and slavers were just ponies, so they could be dealt with like ponies. The Tainted on the other hoof… They were the gift of the places where the demon’s dark magic lingered, twisting and corrupting those who lingered there into creatures of evil.

“Anypony home?” the rusty mare called out, although there was little hope in her voice. Those who hadn’t been fully corrupted by the taint yet could potentially be saved if they could be brought to a unicorn who knew how or if they could be brought to one of the few places of strong light magic. Anything to purge the dark magic from the afflicted’s system.

But in the mare’s experience, by the time a tainted was leaving hoofprints of flaming dark magic, they had usually succumbed to the corruption so fully that their soul had left the mortal realm and their body was nothing more than a soulless creature of pure darkness. Such creatures sought only to create more of the suffering and death that darkness seemed so fond of.

Unfortunately for the mare in the yellow cape, she wasn’t a unicorn so she couldn’t just read the magic of a tainted pony to see if there was still a soul in there or not. Although, from what she’d learned, if they could still string a sentence together than there was still a mind in there somewhere.

As for the pony who was a unicorn, she gave an incoherent, gurgling war cry and charged at the earth pony before her.

“Guess not,” Rusty sighed.

The bad news was the unicorn was certainly dead. The good news was that those who’d been killed by the corruption where basically mindless zombies. Ironically enough, when it came to ponies at least, it was the mostly corrupted that where the most dangerous, not the fully corrupted. Those were the ones that still had mind enough to use magic and/or weapons.

With a shift of her weight, a silver barrel appeared from one of the caped mare’s saddlebags, revealing that one of the few things left among her supplies was a battle harness built into her saddlebags. While most such harnesses where usually attached to a saddle and thus worn out in the open, it wasn’t unheard of for such a weapon to be built into a set of saddlebags. Uncommon, for sure, but not unheard of.

The tainted unicorn continued to charge like a feral beast, with her head lowered and aiming her horn like it was a spear.

Proving her agility, Rusty leapt to the side, bounding off of the wall to sail over the top of her foe. She landed several feet behind the tainted pony. Both mares spun around to face one another once more. That was when a shot rang out through the mountain pass.

The tainted one looked down quizzically to examine the feeling in her chest. What she found was flames of purple and mixed with flames of bright blue spouting from a hole. The blue flames were because of the light magic infused into the bullet now lodged in her chest. For a moment the tainted one’s eyes registered pain before the dark magic giving them life left them.

The rust colored pony was already galloping across the bridge before the tainted one fell. And the unicorn’s body had hardly enough time to hit the ground before exploding in a wave of dark purple flames, scaring the ground with both fire and dark magic. Although the dark flames would reside in time, the magic would linger on, poisoning any who lingered in the now tainted patch of ground.

The blast wave of dark magic hadn’t even made it a full third of the way across the bridge before petering out, but the mare continued to cross the entire bridge in haste before she felt safe enough to stop running.

Pausing for a moment she reached up and used her hoof to scrape the words ‘Taint on other side of bridge’ into the stone wall near by.  With the warning left, she continued up the path at a walk.

She continued on for a short while. Luckily it turned out she didn’t have too much farther to go before reaching her destination. Not that she knew it was her destination right away as all she saw was a cave entrance.

But when a stallion called out, “Halt! Who goes there?” it was a safe bet that the rumors of an outpost in these mountains were in fact true.

As for the stallion perched on a watch post above the cave entrance, he had a white coat and blue tail. He also wore guard armor of the E.U.P. Guard. Although a recent addition to his armor were a set of rifles mounted to the sides, just under the wings enough to stay out of the way of flying. Yet despite the combat helmet, current attire, and the new scar on his right cheek, he was still easily recognizable as the Wonderbolt named Soarin.

“A friend of Rainbow Dash!” She answered him. “Is Spitfire here?”

That proved enough for Wonderbolt to bring the wondered in.

After a few bends in the path, the cave opened up into its first major chamber. Positioned near the back a deck made of clouds was manned by a mare with a yellow coat. Much like Soarin, this mare’s Wonderbolt jumpsuit was long gone and she wore the gray and blue armor of the guard. Although in this mare’s case her helmet was sitting on the desk and she wore an officer’s cap atop her orange mane.

“Who’s this?” Spitfire questioned of her subordinate.

“She say’s she’d a friend of Crash.”

“If that’s so then you should be able to tell me what Crash really thought of the Wonderbolts.” With her implied question, Spitfire eyed the mare before her with a feeling that she did know this caped pony but couldn’t quite place where from.

The mare gave a bit of a smirk and confidently answered, “That you jerks spent too much time trying to be the best that you frequently forgot to keep your moral compass clear.”

The cold fire that one might have expected in the eyes of a pony who’d just been insulted never appeared in Spitfire’s eyes. Instead she raised an eyebrow. This mare’s voice clawed at her memory but again she couldn’t place a name on who it belonged to.

Nodding she said, “Yeah that does sound like something she’d have said.”

With that Spitfire got up and approached the rust-colored mare.

That was when the light from the nearby field lanterns caught the mare’s yellow cape at just the right angle for her to notice that it would have been gold if it were clean. Than she noticed another detail, the edge of the cape was burgundy in color, and wrapped around enough to give away the fact that the cape was being worn inside out, the gold lining of the cape was what was showing.

“Wait a second. The pony who wore a golden cape with a hidden shield…” Spitfire muttered the rumors that had reached her ears.

Now beside the mystery mare, Spitfire suddenly whipped out her wing and lifted the stranger’s cape. On the underside of cape was a blue shield with a yellow silhouette of a caped pony. On the mare’s flank was the cutie mare of a tri-colored shield of red, white, and purple, with two more shades of purple forming a lightning bolt inside of a wing. And if that wasn’t enough, now that the cape was lifted the tips of the wings tucked under the saddlebags revealed that this pony wasn’t an earth pony at all but a fellow pegasus.

“Scootaloo!” Spitfire gasped. “You’re the hero who whipped out the slavers of Las Pegasus?! You’re the hero of Las Pegasus?!”

Scootaloo lifted her goggles, allowing her purple eyes to finally be seen. “Everypony keeps saying that like I set out to free the city. They got in my way. I got them out of my way. That’s all there was to it.”

A hint of fear entered into Spitfire’s eyes, then she asked, “What are you even doing out here? You’re supposed to be safe on Storm Breaker Island! If Rainbow Dash knew I’d let you fight an entire army of slavers by yourself she’d skin me alive!”

This time it was Scootaloo who raised an eyebrow. “Then I guess you’re lucky she’s dead. Or where you lying when told me that during the evacuation of Ponyville?”

Spitfire hung her head and sighed. “I with I were.” A haunted look entered the older mare’s eyes. “But even if she somehow survived the fall, and somehow didn’t get trampled to death under the ground battle… Surely you know what happens when a demon dies by now…”

“Demon fire.”

Spitfire nodded somberly. “Exactly. No there were no ‘injured’ at the battle of the demon gate. Even if it did take us months to get back there, and I may not be able to tell you which set of blue hooves we pulled out of the ashes were hers, I can promise you that hers were among them.”

For a moment the two mares stood in silence, paying their respect to the fallen with their thoughts and prayers.

Then Spitfire continued, “But seriously, what are you doing way out here? Islands like Storm Breaker and Trotingham are the only places we’ve been able to restore real order. It’s just not safe around here on the mainland, especially not this far inland.”

“In case you’ve forgotten how you yanked me out of my home and dragged me off, yelling for everypony to evacuate Ponyville, I still haven’t ever heard what happened to my friends. So does it really surprise you that I came looking for them as soon as my wings were strong enough to get me off of the island?”

Spitfire shook her head. “I won’t apologize for that, Rainbow Dash made me promise to keep you safe if something went wrong at the demon gate. What choice did I have but to grab you and bolt for the safest fallback location?”

“I know, you did what you had to. But I’m not a little filly anymore.”

To that the elder mare gave a laugh. “No kidding. If the rumors about you from Las Pegasus are true then you can defiantly take care of yourself now. So other than getting you a bath, what can we do for the hero of Las Pegasus?”

“I was hopping I could buy some supplies from you, and maybe get some information.”

“Sure thing, I’ll make sure the quartermaster gives you the Wonderbolt rate. So what did you want to know?”

“What can you tell me about Ponyville? Or my friends, their names are Sweetie Belle and Apple Bloom. Have you heard anything about them?”

A frown appeared on Spitfire’s face. “Ponyville is run by slavers these days. I’d help you out with that but we’re still trying to get Canterlot back from the raiders held up there. I can’t say the name Apple Bloom has ever crossed my ears… and I’m not sure you’re going to like where I heard the name Sweetie Belle.”

“Please I have to know.”

Spitfire took one look into the pleading purple eyes of the younger mare and sighed.

“Alright…”
> Chapter 2: The Ghost of Sweetie Belle
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Scootaloo looked herself over and a part of her wanted to smile. Apparently Spitfire had been serious about the bath, and Scoots had to admit that it was nice to be clean enough for her fur to actually be orange and her mane violet again. The other part of her kept a vigilant watch of the endless gray around her campsite. Although she’d gone the long way around the ruins of her hometown, she was still relatively near Ponyville. Not to mention that the quarry part of the eastern pass had never really been considered a safe place to stop and rest, as always, just to the south was the Everfree Forest, and even before the demon war there was the fact that the quarry had always been Diamond Dog territory.

A shiver ran down her spine as ponder what twisted creatures the Everfree was churning out now that demonic magic had been added to the already wild and dangerous forest. Another dark thought entered her mind and made her wonder what ever became of Zecora, the zebra who’d lived there before everything went wrong.

As for the Diamond Dogs, it had sounded like they’d survived the war at least.  Weather they’d been twisted by the taint or not was anypony’s guess. But according to what Spitfire had told her trade caravans that dared to camp along the quarry part of the eastern pass were frequently attacked by ‘demonic dogs.’ The strange part of the story was that everypony who’d been chanced off reported that the ghostly singing of a filly had been heard for a few minutes before the attack, almost as if it had been a warning. And stranger still, some of the traders had been survivors of Ponyville and clamed that the singing ghost had been the voice of Sweetie Belle. And that’s how it became known to the cravens that Ponyville’s eastern pass was hunted by the ghost of Sweetie Belle.

Ghost or not, Scootaloo was going to find the truth behind the stories that bore her friend’s name. To that end she contemplated starting a campfire to see if she could attract the attention of the dogs of the quarry, be they diamond or demon.

Of course being a quarry there weren’t any trees around. Go figure.

And then there was the fact that she wasn’t that far from Ponyville, and she only wanted to attract the attention of the dogs of the quarry, not the of slavers if she could help it. A scout wouldn’t have to wander far from the town ruins to see an open flame out in the middle of the quarry. And if they had good eyes they might even see the smoke in the moonlight without leaving the ruins at all.

Instead she settled for knocking her hoof on the stone ground in a series of three strikes then a pause then repeating the pattern three more times. It had been just loud enough to echo off of the quarry walls, but not loud enough to carry back to the town. Hopefully her pattern had been artificial enough to draw the attention of the dogs or more precisely the ghost who warned of their approach.

She shuffled her wings and used them to pull her cape tight to help take the bite out of the night air’s chill. As the seconds passed she groaned, wishing she could use her saddlebags as a makeshift pillow, like she usually would.

Of course usually she didn’t lay down to sleep out in the open, all of two feet off of a road. Not to mention there was the fact that the rumors Spitfire had shared called the dogs of the quarry ‘demon dogs.’ Although Scootaloo couldn’t help but notice that the stories from the traders who walked this road seemed to have an awfully high number of survivors for dogs twisted into demonic versions of their former selves. So she had her suspicions that the diamond dogs weren’t as corrupted as the rumors gave them credit for.

But still if they it did turn out she needed to bolt on a moment’s notice she didn’t want to leave all of her gear behind, so her saddlebags were still strapped on.

Her idol pondering was broken when she finally heard it. A sequence of ‘ah’s’ of differing pitches and tones.

A wave of nostalgia washed over Scootaloo as she listened. If that wasn’t Sweetie Belle’s singing voice it was a dang good imitation.

She quickly got to her hooves ready to track down the source of the singing, but immediately she frowned. The same terrain of the quarry that made her knocks echo were now causing the singing to echo all over too, making it impossible to tell what direction it was coming from.

Then she noticed the pattern of the notes being sung. Closing her eyes she waited for the right moment to join in.

“We are the Cutie Mark Crusaders…”

“And we’ll never stop the journey…”

“Not until we have our cutie marks!”

She sang on until the theme song she wrote for a talent show had come to an end. Although to be fair most of the words in the final version had been Sweetie Belle’s revisions, or the suggestion that she used because they were without question better than her first dozen ideas for the lines.

With the end of the song, she listened as the last of the sung notes faded. The serene feel that had surrounded Scootaloo while she had sung faded with them, mostly because the return of silence had allowed her to notice the rumbling noise coming from the ground around her.

The moon was but a slim crescent tonight. While it might have been enough to get around the quarry with, it was woefully inadequate for seeing the details of the figures that emerged from the ground all around her. What she could tell was that there were now ten forms that surrounded her, and they were definitely canine. The also all had spears, and from the metallic click-clack sounds, she guessed at least five of them had guns too, probably shotguns from the sound of it. But their forms were also wrong. One shoulder being notably larger than another, some of the black silhouettes had horns but none of them matched the forms of the others.

And yet, the biggest tell Scootaloo could see was the way the shadows stood. They held a defensive ring around her. She had yet to cross paths with a tainted one this reserved.

The smallest of the figures pointed its spear skyward and slammed its shaft on the ground to command attention. Then he gave a command, “Pony come! Diamond Dog Queen summons you!”

“And if I say no?” Scootaloo asked in response.

The others pushed their spears closer to her, ensuring she could only stand still or walk straight ahead without getting stabbed.

“No one says ‘no’ to the Queen.”

Under any other circumstance, Scootaloo would have taken an answer like that as her cue to start fighting, but she’d come here to investigate the source of the singing and this seemed her best bet to do so. As little as she liked the idea of getting doublecrossed underground, as fighting her way out of that would likely be a lot harder than just starting the fight now and going in on her own terms, this also allowed for the possibility that she might not get ambushed down below at all.

“Lead the way then.”


* * * * * * *


At first the dog in the lead had to give Scootaloo a rope to hold on to as the tunnels were too dark for her to see anything at all. Then they came to a part of the cave system that had glowstone lanterns and she was finally able to see the source of the dogs’ oddities.

It turned out they wore armor and masks made of stone and painted black with red and purple gemstones. The armor had been crafted with a clear intent to mimic the dark magic influences of the taint.

As they removed their masks the smaller gray diamond dog in the lead seemed to notice how Scootaloo was examining their gear. And even though no question had been asked, he seemed to read it off of her face, so he spoke anyway.

“Ponies once feared diamond dogs, and most stayed away from our land. Then ponies feared demons more, so diamond dogs became demon dogs. Now most ponies leave us be again.”

A satisfied smile hung on his face as he explained.

Scootaloo simply nodded, then she added, “Good to know the taint hasn’t bothered you here, despite being so close to the Everfree.”

The smile left the dog, and a more hunted look entered his eyes, but he only responded with the words, “Queen keeps taint away.”

By now they had entered the living spaces of the cavern complex. The floor and walls here were smooth, all of the connecting pathways were through carved archways, like doorways that lacked actual doors. Although Scootaloo’s eyes were drawn to the double sized doorway at the end of the chamber, this one had a curtain blocking it off.

Once they neared it, the escort of larger more brawny dogs stopped allowing only the smaller lead dog and pegasus to enter.

Inside the floor was craved to have a tile-like appearance and at the back of the chamber was a throne made entirely out of gemstones. Before the throne were two more diamond dogs who wore robes that made them look like attendants rather than warriors. They also held large feathered fans, crossed together, currently obscuring the view of the Queen.

The dog beside Scootaloo, bowed low to the throne and said, “Queen! Spot has brought pony with screechy voice, just as you asked.”

Then the two attendants bowed to the unseen queen, before they turned, pulled away the fans and retreated out of sight, behind the throne.

Sitting on the throne was a white unicorn mare with a curly pink and purple mane. Tears filled her green eyes.

Doing her best to keep her composure she managed to speak in an almost clear voice, “Thank you Spot. This is exactly who I was hoping it was. You may go now, leave me with my friend.”

Spot bowed once more and turned to leave.

He hadn’t even made it halfway to the curtain when his queen broke down, running forward she began to cry out loud as she managed to get out the words, “Scootaloo! You’re alive! Thank Celestia you’re alive!”

“Sweetie Belle,” was all Scootaloo got out before her old friend pounced and wrapped her in a crushing hug.

And yet Scootaloo stood still, blinked and weakly held up a hoof and pushed in against the unicorn’s side as if to test if she were really real.

After a moment Sweetie noticed her friend’s lack of response and pulled back enough to look her in the face.

“Scootaloo? Are you okay?”

The pegasus shook her head.  Then she leaned forward and let herself fall into Sweetie Belle, her leg shot out and grabbed hold of the unicorn more out of reflex to catch herself than anything else, but it got the job of embracing her fillyhood friend done.

Then closing her eyes, Scootaloo said, “I’m not sure I’m capable of ‘okay’ any more… Ever since I excepted that Rainbow Dash is dead… After all these years, I guess I never actually expected to find either of you alive. Forgive me, but I guess I need more time to let it sink in before I can give you the greeting you deserve.”

At that Sweetie returned the hug all the tighter and in the kindest voice she could muster she responded, “Oh Scootaloo, I’m sorry. As bad as things were for me, clearly I had it easy compared to the nightmare you must have lived through these past ten year.”


* * * * * * *


Sweetie Belle asked the Diamond Dogs to prepare a feast to celebrate the arrival of her friend. Although to call the result a feast seemed to be an exaggeration, as the result was more like a picnic in the main hall. Everyone had sparse portions to their meal. Even Sweetie Belle and her guest were presented with little more than a small bowl of salad and glass of water each. More of a communal dinner than a feast in Scootaloo’s eyes, although there was a bit of music provided by a drum and a piano. So it was a little festive.

“Sorry it’s not much, the garden usually only has to feed me,” Sweetie said, motioning to the roasted pork that the dogs were eating.

“It’s fine. Fresh, untainted food is always hard to come by these days. Well if you aren’t farming it yourself anyway.”

The unicorn mare nodded. “Given how scarce food got that first year, I’d imagine that anyone who survived the collapse was either a farmer, hunter, or one of their friends.”

“Or raider or slaver,” Scootaloo added mater of fact like.

“Or raider or slaver,” Sweetie agreed with a sigh.

There was a short silence, then Scootaloo spoke up.

“So, you’re Queen of the Diamond Dogs. How’d that happen?”

“Long story,” Sweetie started with a sad look in her eyes. “But I guess the short version is, Mom and Dad didn’t survive evacuating Ponyville. I would have died too, but the diamond dogs found my hiding place first, and they took me in.”

“Why’d they do that?”

The unicorn shrugged. “They said it was out of respect for Rarity, but I think they’re just a lot nicer than most ponies given them credit for. I think they’re just a bunch of big softies at heart and they just act tough to try and hide it.”

“Anyway, at first I just helped out however I could. As I grew older, my magic got stronger. And as that happened I started seeking out any spells I could that would be useful in this world. Especially healing spells. The Diamond Dog aren’t very good at medicine. Anyway I sought out old scrolls and books and stuff. But about five years ago I got a new scroll from a trader, it was a copy of the spell that can cleanse the taint. And when it turned out that my magic was strong enough to use it, well that’s when the Diamond Dogs decided I was too good at protecting them to be anything less than the leader.”

Another span of silence followed Sweetie Belle’s explanation, but once Scoots had finished and set down her empty glass, Sweetie asked, “Feeling better?”

The pegasus mare wanted to say ‘yes’ if only because she knew that’s what her friend wanted to hear. “I’m fine,” was what she said instead. Yet she knew that fine, was the same forced contentment she’d felt to deal with years of misery.

Now that she finally had a logical reason to feel happy for the first time in years she wanted to lift the fortress she’d built around her heart. She really wanted to FEEL again, but apparently a few hours wasn’t enough time to find a way to let real feelings out of her heart yet. And so she did the only thing she could do, the only thing she’d ever done since she’d left Storm Breaker Island, focus on the mission she’d appointed to herself.

“Sweetie Belle? Have you heard anything about Apple Bloom?”

The unicorn lowered her head solemnly. “I wish I hadn’t,” she answered.

“Dead?”

“Worse, she came back.”

Scootaloo tilted her head slightly. “She came back from the dead?”

“No, about three years ago she came back to Ponyville. Apparently she’d found some patches of ground around town that weren’t tainted and set up camp there. Started mapping out what parts of town were safe or something. Some of the other survivors of Ponyville even started joining her camp… then…” Sweetie paused to wipe a tear from her eye. “Then the slavers came.”

“Is she still there?”

Sweetie Belle bowed her head again, this time in shame. “Yes,” she whimpered. “As far as I know they’ve held her as a slave this whole time.”

Somewhere in the darkness, a little filly pounded on the walls of her fortress and shouted angrily, “And you just sat here and did nothing?!” On the outside all Scootaloo said was, “I see.”
> Chapter 3: The Crusader’s Return
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Sweetie Belle had explained many things before Scootaloo had left the Diamond Dog caves the next morning. Mainly that she felt responsible for the dogs now, so when she’d asked if they’d be willing to fight to free her friend they’d made it clear they didn’t want to. So she never ordered them to, and she knew she couldn’t take on a slaver encampment by herself, so she stayed hidden and kept the dogs safe.

In her youth, Scootaloo would have chewed Sweetie Belle out for leaving Apple Bloom to rot in a slaver’s cage for three years. But after her adventures in Las Pegasus, she understood the power of fear. How easily it could cripple ponies into inaction. The slaves of Las Pegasus had outnumbered the slavers ten to one, the trader camp a neighborhood over, that was actually well armed had outnumbered the slavers three to one. Yet fear of the slavers’ cruelty had kept both from acting against the overt evil around them.

Though she understood it, Scootaloo did not respect it. After all, she had seen for herself the fatal flaw in ruling by fear. It only works as long as everypony else bows to fear. It had only taken one brave pony to start a snowball rolling that brought them down.

Or one overly reckless pony who was too depressed to care if she lived or died in this case, but Scoots hadn’t bothered to correct the ponies of Las Pegasus when they called her a courageous hero.

So she understood fear, but would never respect it.

Even now, as she walked toward the Ponyville hospital, she may have felt a touch of fear in her heart, but she would not respect it. Especially since this time she had something better than apathy for her own safety to push her forward. This time she had knowledge, her friend was in there, and she was going to get her out.

Before she’d left, Sweetie Belle had told her that the hospital had become the slavers’ base of operations. Clearly they taken to using it because it was both the largest building in town still standing and because it had somehow escaped the war still taint free. Or somepony had cleansed the taint from it since then, either way it was one of the few places in Ponyville one could stay without suffering from the dark magic poisoning called taint.

The only thing that had changed about Scootaloo since she’d left the quarry was the fact that she’d ditched her saddlebags just before approaching the hospital. Now she wore only her cape, her goggles and a utility belt with a dozen small pouches as she walked into this new den of evil.

The lone mare had actually made it halfway from the last cover to the front door before the dark brown stallion with the red mane sitting by the front door noticed somepony was causally walking right up the path. She clearly wasn’t one of their supply runners, and she wasn’t bringing any slaves in, so that left only two possibilities. And given that she was already looking at him it wouldn’t be hard to figure out witch of options it was. 

Standing up he twisted to the side slightly, openly presenting the hunting rifle on his battle saddle.

The mare seemed unfazed by the weapon displayed. Between that and the fact that her goggles were on her forehead, so he could see that the mare’s eyes were calm, focused, serious, there was no way this mare was just some random wanderer and soon to be slave. Whoever this mare was she seemed to know exactly what she was walking toward. So that left the last possibility, new customer.

Then she got close enough for him to realize that her yellow cape wasn’t yellow, it was gold.

That got him to jump up. “State your business!” he demanded.

“I’m looking for somepony!” the orange mare called back, continuing to walk up.

“Well we got plenty of those,” he said as she finally came to a stop now that she was right up next to him. “But you really shouldn’t dress like that lady.” After she glared at him like he was an idiot, he added, “Bad rumors floating around about a pony in a gold cape, you’re lucky I didn’t shoot as soon as I saw it.”

“I’m looking for somepony specific, Apple Bloom.”

“Uh, lady you don’t want her. She’s too feisty, We haven’t broken her yet, so she wouldn’t make a vary good slave.”

She just glared at him and answered, “I want Apple Bloom.”

A shiver ran down the stallion’s spine. Something about this mare’s gaze scared him. A part of him wanted to say she had the same fearless gaze as the boss, but that wasn’t it. There was something more to this mare, she had something he couldn’t understand, something… greater in her eyes, and yet whatever it was it felt both pure and dangerous.

Turning around he pushed the button on the intercom box behind him and said, “Hey boss! I got some lady here, says she wants to buy Apple Bloom.”

“Did you warn her about that one?” a female voice crackled back over the intercom.

“Sure did boss.”

“As long as they know what they’re buying I don’t care. Oh and no discounts, if she wants an unruly slave that’s on her.”

With that he sighed and motioned for the mare to follow him in.

Inside there were three more ponies who wore combat equipment in the lobby.  Two were unicorns and the last was another earth pony. Of the unicorns the mare of the two got up from behind the reception desk and headed out to take the door guard post. A shotgun wrapped in the unicorn mare’s magic quickly floated to her side on her way out.

While the two remaining slavers at the desk watched her a lot more closely as soon as they noticed her cape, the intercom sitting on the desk made it clear that they’d heard the exchange from a moment ago.

Red Mane, continued to led Scootaloo to the hallways on the left side of the lobby.

In her mind Scoots added up what she knew so far. Four slavers on the ground floor, plus she had spotted the glint of six more guns watching her approach, four on the roof and two from windows on the third floor. So that made at least eleven armed slavers about, as it was a safe bet that the boss wasn’t on guard duty.

Looking around the hallways didn’t reveal much of tactical use. For the most part they were the same old hospital hallways, just with ten years worth of dust and pealing paint, clearly the slavers hadn’t kept this place up to speed in the cleanliness department. The only real change the slavers had made was replacing the normal doors on the patent rooms with iron cage doors that looked like they’d come straight out of a prison.

The slaver hadn’t been lying about having plenty of ‘someponies’ as there was a pony in almost every room turned cage. Most were strangers to her but every now and then they’d pass a cage with a pony Scootaloo was almost sure she recognized. Like the double gray pegasus stallion that she was fairly sure was Rumble all grown up. Or another former classmate, a gray unicorn mare with a blond mane, Dinky Do if she remembered the name correctly.

As they neared the end of the hall, the sound of their approaching hoofsteps was enough to set off the mare in the second to last cell in the row.

“Ah’ll rip ya apart! Ya worthless, son of a-” The rant of the yellow mare with a red mane came to sudden halt when she saw who had walked in front of her cell. “-You!” she breathed in a voice hardly worthy of being called a whisper.

Then she scampered back away from the bars of her door, her amber eyes suddenly filled with fear. Although the fear in her eyes quickly gave way to confusion as she realized that her old friend wasn’t in chains.

“What have we here?” the slaver said with a smirk. “The terror of the pens finally lost her fire?”

Scootaloo simply looked at her old friend and nodded. Although her friend’s signature pink bow was no where to be found and she had countless whipping scars faintly visible through her fur, but there was no doubt about it.

Then she looked back to the slaver stallion and said, “That’s Apple Bloom alright. Open it.”

“Before we get ahead of ourselves, the boss said no discounts. So let’s see, a healthy earth pony, and a young mare in her prime. A Pony like that’s gonna cost you five hundred.”

Something flickered in Apple Bloom’s eyes as she finally grasped what was going on. A part of her wanted to yell out in anger, enraged by the idea that a slaver was going to get rewarded for taking her captive. Yet the part of that wanted to be free again silenced her. If keeping her head down for a few minutes and letting the only friend she had in the world buy her was the only way she was walking out of this hell, so be it.

Scootaloo reached back and opened the snaps on one of her belt pouches. When she pulled her hoof back out she said, “You seem to misunderstand. I’m not here to buy her.”

The mare’s words were the first clue the slaver got that this deal was going wrong, the second was when he realized that the mare had pulled out a puff of cloud. If this mare could hold cloud then that meant… that he’d never noticed that the cape was hiding wings, this mare was a pegasus!

“Oh shi-” was all he managed to say before the mare slammed her hoof into the puff of cloud.

Lightning flashed, thunder filled the halls and the stallion fell to the floor crackling with electricity.

Given that Bloom was already away from the cage door, Scootaloo wasted no time punching a second lightning bolt out of the small cloud. The lock exploded like the magnets of the same polarity repelling each other that the parts had temporarily become.

Then Scoots grabbed the key ring off of the dead slaver’s belt, pulled the cell door open and tossed her shackled friend the keys. While Apple Bloom worked to unlock her bindings, Scootaloo undid the straps of the slaver’s battle saddle. And as soon as she had the fallen slaver’s weapon, she kicked her puff of cloud again, just in time to blast the first slaver to come running.

Two shots rang out and stuck the floor and wall near the pegasus crusader, causing her to jump into the open cell for cover.

First she tossed the rifle and its attached saddle to her friend. Then Scootaloo flared her wings kicking her cape up enough to reveal a small bundle on her back. With a shake she sent the cloth bundle falling to the floor along with the weapon. Then with a flap of her wings, she darted out into the hallway in the blink of an eye. 

Three shots of gunfire quickly came Scootaloo’s way. Although with her shear speed and elusive path, all of them missed. She returned the favor with three blasts of lightning. The first lightning bolt blew the door the unicorn slaver was using as cover off its hinges. The second scorched the floor with electrical burn marks. The third stuck home and sent the slaver to the ground.

With the reprieve she’d just won, Scootaloo took a moment to remove her cape, and flip it over, so that it’s proper purplish-red side was showing and the gold was just the lining, as it had always been meant to be.

A loud bang from behind made her spin to face the unexpected sound.

When her eyes found only Apple Bloom standing back there, Scoots had to give a quick search of the scene. She figured it out when she noticed the new hole the dead slaver had acquired.

She breathed a disappointed sigh and said, “Apple Bloom, you really shouldn’t waste ammo like that.”

The former farmer spat on the corpse and answered, “You have no idea what he did to me.”

“And yet I know he already paid for his crimes with a death sentence. What you did was waste a perfectly good bullet. A bullet I suspect we’ll need to deal with the jerks still trying to kill us.”

Bloom gave a single dark laugh. “Jerks.” Then she added, “Those monsters made the lives of every honest pony here a living hell for years! And all you can think to call them is jerks?” She added a lighter laugh. “Damn, With the way the world is, I’d have never thought you’d be the one to survive it and still be a saint, Scootaloo.”

The pegasus raised an eyebrow, although she’d already turned back to face where she expected the enemy to come from.

“Besides,” Bloom continued. “With you shooing lightning it’s not like you have an ammo limit.”

“Actually I can usually get about seven shots out of a cloud this small before the strain makes it evaporate.” With a wing she tapped her belt, bringing attention to the six still-filled pockets and one empty one that had supplied her current cloud.

Taking notice of how long it had been Scoots added, “If they aren’t going to rush this hall anymore we should probably get these cells open.”

Apple Bloom nodded in agreement and used the keys she’d been given to unlock every cell with a pony in it.

Well in the lead, Scootaloo built up speed and her walk became a run, her run a full on gallop, her wings buzzing to life added even more speed on top of that. Then she ducked low as she shoot through the doorway into the lobby.

Three shots rang out, a flower vase to her left exploded, and thus informed her of the attacker just to the right of the doorway she’d entered through. Two more blasts sung through the air over her head, and where it would have been if she hadn’t ducked into a slide.

In the blink of and eye, Scootaloo twisted and punched the last two shots out of her first cloud into the slaver who’d blown up the vase. Then she slammed her hooves down, catapulting herself into a jump just in time for a shotgun blast to demolish the tile below her.

Lighting flashed again and the earth pony with the shotgun didn’t get the chance to fire again.

A heartbeat later Scoots gave her wings a powerful flap, altering the course of her jump just in time for a revolver’s bullet to intercept her first trajectory. Two more flashes of lightning brought down the slaver by the reception desk.

The pegasus crusader let herself spin once as she slid to a halt. Then she groaned. The shotgun had been on an earth pony. And that meant that the unicorn with the shotgun she’d seen on the way in was still around. 

By now Apple Bloom and her fellow freed slaves joined their rescuer in the lobby and were quick to arm themselves with the guns that had just been relieved of their owners.

With a flick of her tail toward the front door, Scootaloo commanded, “Somepony cover the door, perimeter is still out there.” With a nod toward the other wing of the hospital she added, “I got the stairs. Bloom? Mind clearing out the rest of this floor?”

“With pleasure.”

And with that Dinky, now armed with the revolver, jumped behind the reception desk and used her magic to hold her gun aimed at the front door. Apple Bloom, Rumble as a few more ponies that Scoots didn’t know headed into the other wing of the ground floor.

Scootaloo hadn’t even been in position at the base of the stairs to the second floor for a second before she heard several sets of hoofsteps coming down.

A second later a muzzle poked around the corner and the slaver it belonged to was greeted with a lightning bolt to the face. As he felt lifelessly down the stairs, several profanities were uttered and the sounds of his fellow slavers backing away from the corner could be heard with them.

“Let’s see how she likes this!” one of the voices added. And then a grenade came bouncing into view.

Scootaloo’s wings buzzed to life, but she didn’t move at all. Instead the explosive gift was caught in a powerful gust that sent it back up and around the corner.

More profane shouts came from upstairs, followed by the bang of the grenade going off. And judging from the heavy thud sound, there was one less slaver waiting up there. But she’d made out at least four different voices still waiting for her upstairs.

Then a simple click made her heart freeze.

The sound had come from her left side and had been the sound of the door to the utility stairs. With all her concern about the perimeter and the main stairwell, it had never even crossed her mind that somepony might have been in the basement.

On instinct she looked to the left and found herself staring down the barrel of a rifle. On instinct she gave her wings a hard flap. A bang sounded through her ears and she shut her eyes tight.

A second later Scootaloo was surprised to find herself hovering several feet above her previous location. The hovering wasn’t what surprised her though. The fact that she was still alive enough to hover was, as she could have sworn she’d heard the gunshot at the same instant she’d flapped her wings, so she hadn’t been out of the way yet. But a quick check proved that she hadn’t picked up any holes in vital spots, or at all for that matter.

A heavy thud drew her attention to the utility stairs. The green-coated unicorn slaver had collapsed. And behind the dead slaver was a very familiar white unicorn with an equally familiar cape on her back, holding a small pistol in the glow of her magic.

“Wait! You can fly now!?” Sweetie Belle asked of the friend she’d just saved.

“Of course I can fly. How do you think I got off of Storm Breaker Island? The Wonderbolts would have been perfectly happy to keep me ‘safe’ there for the rest of my life.”

“Oh,” was all Sweetie Belle could think to say. And yet, with that she finished coming up out of the stairs to the basement.

Before Scootaloo could even ask how she got in the basement to begin with, Spot and a larger, brown diamond dog, both clad in their ‘demon dog’ armor, fell in behind the white unicorn. So instead she asked, “I thought you weren’t going to order them to help?”

To that Sweetie smiled. “I didn’t, I stepped down as their leader and left. These two followed me on their own.” Then she added, “Oh and I brought gifts!” With that her magic brought up a dozen firearms from the basement and she started handing them out to any freed slave who didn’t already have a weapon.

Once Apple Bloom had returned with the news that the ground floor was secure, Scootaloo assigned three more ponies to guarding the front door and then she led the charge up the stairs. The second floor went much like the first. They freed the slaves, killed slavers, and every gun from a fallen slaver soon found its way into the hooves of freed slaves. To Scoots it was Las Pegasus all over again.

One thing snowballed into another and before she knew it she was hunkered down behind a metal table that they’d set up as cover just outside the main administrator’s office. Sweetie Belle crawling to join them signaled that her team had taken the roof, and so these were the last of the slavers.

“Anypony got spare rifle ammo?” Apple Bloom asked, as several more shots bounced off their cover.

Rumble just blushed and said, “I’m just here to offer moral support. I ran out of ammo two rooms ago.”

Bloom growled, as she noticed no pony else on this side of the firefight had a rifle. “We need to get in there and end this!” she added in more meaningful growl just before pulling out a combat dagger she’d picked up on the second floor.

“Working on it,” Scootaloo said as she pulled out her last two clouds. One cloud puff she left floating, ready be grabbed and used like a lightning gun. The other she took between her front hooves and started shaping into a tight ball. The one she was working got darker by the second and began to crackle with electricity.

Even her fellow pegasus, Rumble had to ask, “What are you doing?”

“There’s a reason I like clouds this size,” Scoots answered. “Any smaller and you can’t get enough electricity into them to make them dangerous. Any bigger and they’re too stable to do this!”

As she finished speaking, she stood up suddenly and flung the orb of storm cloud into the administrator’s office. “You might want to cover your ears,” she added as she ducked back under cover and did just that.

A horrendous noise filled the place, most might have thought it to be a train crash if they hadn’t seen what had happened. Lightning arced out of the office for a full second, tearing up floorboards and even blowing up part of the wall beside the doorway. The sent of ionized air filled the hall as the ruble of the sundered wall showered down.

While everypony else was still awestruck by the display of destruction, Scootaloo grabbed her last piece of cloud and rushed in. Three more cracks of thunder sounded, seeming woefully tame compared to what preceded them. 

Finally recovering from the light show, Apple Bloom charged in after her friend, inspiring the others to follow soon after.

Inside a half dozen slavers lay dead. The only Scootaloo and a pink mare with a yellow mane were still standing when Apple Bloom and the others entered. ‘Sammy the slaver’ was the name Bloom and the other freed slaves knew this mare by. Although Sammy was a unicorn, her magic wasn’t particularly combat worthy. Or at least Sammy didn’t seem to think so as she was sitting in a chair behind the desk, holding her front hooves up in a show of surrender.

“Please, I surrender! I’ll give you anything! I’ll never bother any of you ever again! I promise! Just let me go!”

With the slaver leader’s gaze fixed on Scootaloo, the orange pegasus responded.

“If I believed you would keep that promise, I would forgive you. But there are two problems with that. I don’t believe you. And more importantly, I don’t think she’s going to forgive you regardless what I think.”

With those words, Sammy’s eyes turned to they yellow mare beside Scootaloo, who’s amber eyes were burning with hatred.

Apple Bloom was more then willing use that moment as an invitation to satisfy her thrust for vengeance. And so she leapt over the desk, giving the best primal yell she could despite the handle in her mouth.

Scootaloo closed her eyes and waited for the sound of stabbing to stop. The mare’s screams stopped after only a second or two, but Scoots lost count of the seconds before she heard Bloom’s hoofsteps finally back away from her quarrel.

When she opened her eyes again, physically she gave only a slight sigh, but the blood splatters on the desk and wall convinced Scoots that she really didn’t want to see what her friend had done to the slaver leader’s corpse.

As for Apple Bloom she staggered over to Sweetie Belle and, exhausted from her needlessly brutal assault, collapsed into her friend’s waiting lap. And although visibly disgusted by the show her earth pony friend had put on, Sweetie received her with gentle understanding, even stroking Bloom’s mane to try and comfort her.

Many of the other freed slaves took that moment to cheer. Cries of  ‘It’s over!’ ‘We Won!’ and ‘Freedom!’ abounded.

When the celebrating started to die down, Dinky looked to the caped ponies who and set all of this in motion and asked, “What do we do now?”

Apple Bloom looked up and said, “I don’t know. But we can’t say here.”

Although she didn’t explain why the look not only on Bloom’s face but shared by most of the other recently freed said enough. There were too many bad memories tied to the hospital building now.

Sweetie Belle looked to the Spot and asked, “Too many?”

He nodded and said, “Too many.” And that was enough for her to understand that the quarry wasn’t an option.

At first Scootaloo didn’t feel the need to say anything. But when she turned around she couldn’t help but notice that the eyes of everypony behind her were on her. Looking back she found her friends were also looking expectantly at her.

A raised eyebrow and an uneasy look in Scootaloo’s eye became the first true show of emotion to cross her face that day as she finally asked, “Why is everypony looking at me?”

Apple Bloom gave a scoffing laugh. “Because you’re the hero who saved the day, silly! Why wouldn’t we look to you?”

Even Sweetie Belle looked up to her pegasus friend and said, “They’re right you know, you are the hero of Ponyville now! Rainbow Dash would be proud of you!”

Somewhere in the darkness, a stone fell from a fortress wall and the little filly who’d kicked it free agreed. These ponies needed a hero, so it might as well be her.

For the first time in years a genuine smile appeared on Scootaloo’s face. “If the Cutie Mark Crusaders are going to reclaim Ponyville, Then Sweet Apple Acres is the place to start!”

Apple Bloom shook her head. “Ah hate to break it ya, but ya can’t go ten feet without feeling the creepy feeling that means taint’s around.”

Scootaloo gave a confident grin and said, “Sweetie Belle, didn’t you say you could purge dark magic?”

Sweetie grinned and a look of hope filled the eyes of Bloom and the others.
> Chapter 4: Apple Bloom’s Tale
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

By nightfall Sweetie Belle had removed the dark magic taint from the main farmhouse, central barn and even a few apple trees of Sweet Apple Acres. Although at the moment she was passed out on the bed in Apple Bloom’s old room.

The house was fairly packed with ponies, even considering how many had agreed to stay in the barn for now. As a result Scootaloo hovered over head as she made her way to the stairs to join her friends up stairs.

Once upstairs she found Apple Bloom fitting small a pink bow onto a cowboy hat. Basically having borrowed a spare of each from the old hats and bows closet she’d cut the pink ribbon down to size and wrapped it around the hat, just above brim. In a way it reminded Scootaloo of a sheriff hat, only with a bow instead of a badge.

“Look’s good on you. More fitting for a mare.”

Bloom nodded, and looked out the window, partly to see her reflection in the glass, partly see the actual apple orchard beyond it. “Good,” she said. “That’s what Ah was going for. The old bow just didn’t feel right any more.”

Landing beside her friend, Scootaloo flicked her tail toward the room Sweetie was in and said, “Sweetie Belle’s already told me her story. You ready to tell me what happened to you all these years?”

The yellow mare looked to her pegasus friend only to find that she was also just staring out the window. No demanding eyes, no puppy eyes, nothing to hint that she even cared if she got an answer any year soon. And that was all the pressure Bloom needed, eternal patience that might not ever give her the excuse to answer again.

First she sighed, then she said, “Ah suppose it might do me some good to vent a little.

“Ah guess Ah should start at the beginning huh? Well after Spitfire grabbed ya off the balcony of the clubhouse and started shouting for everypony to get the hell out of dodge, Sweetie ran home to warn her folks, but Ah suppose ya already know that part. Anyhow, Ah ran back to the house, and Big Mac didn’t waist any time tossing me and Granny in to the nearest cart he could find and hauling us out of town.

“Don’t know if he ever stopped to rest or not, but next thing Ah know he’d brought us all the way to Appleloosa. Probably the best thing to happen to me. As Ah’m guessing you already know, after the demons finished killing everypony who didn’t flee Ponyville they headed north and sacked Canterlot then on to the Crystal Empire. Turn’s out a small frontier town of no significance ain’t significant enough to get noticed.

“Technically the war was over by the time we got our first demon wandering by.  Probably because the demon army had scattered and demons were wandering about alone, looking for places to hide from the Wonderbolts and such.

“Big Mac helped the sheriff and such fight the demon. They won. Only problem was that between the mail having stopped in the first week of the war and being a frontier town of no significance also meant nopony had bothered to send word that demons explode when ya kill em. Big Mac was still standing over the corpse when it blew up.”

Bloom paused to bow her head for a moment.

“Granny died a few weeks later. The doc said she just got too old, but personally Ah think it was the heartache of watching Mac die in those black flames. After that Ah just stayed on with cousin Braburn, farming the years away.

“Until one day, about three years ago, I got up and noticed a mare looking back at me in the mirror. That was when Ah decided to come back to Ponyville, see if I could put back the pieces and such. Bought some of that enchanted holy water to cleanse taint with and headed out. Ah knew Ah didn’t have enough to clean up the town, but it was enough to use on myself whenever Ah felt the taint messing with my mind. And that’s how Ah mapped out what parts of Ponyville were safe and what parts were still tainted.

“Ah wound up setting up camp in the old city park, Apparently the demon’s didn’t think to spread their poison magic in an open field. Anyway it was enough to set up a nice little garden. Started selling food to travelers and traders who came by, warning them what parts of the ruins to avoid and what paths were safe. Word spread that a member of the Apple Family had returned and was looking for help putting Ponyville back together.

“Some of the old town folk came back, like Rumble and Dinky. Heck, I even managed to talk a unicorn who’d learned how to cleanse the taint into joining.” Apple Bloom gave a cynical laugh, then continued. “That lasted all of a day before the slavers showed up.”

Pausing again, the earth pony let her gaze grow unfocused before she finally said, “Can’t say there’s anything Ah want think about between then and when you showed up.”

Scootaloo let silence fill the hall for a second after her friend had finished, but then she asked, “You said they had another unicorn who could cleanse taint? What happened to them?”

Bloom just looked at her friend as one might look at any naive friend. “Really a slave who can cleanse taint, and ya have to ask? They sold her inside of a weak. Made a fortune from sound of it.”

“Right. Sorry, business was never my strong suit. Guess I shouldn’t be surprised that when everypony wants the taint cleansed somepony would be willing to buy that ability by any means. I was just hoping that Sweetie Belle might have some help.”

“Ah know. After everything Ah’ve seen today, Ah figured you were only thinking of others when you asked.”

With that Bloom put a hoof across her pegasus friend’s back and the two just sat, watching the sun set.

Once it started getting dark, Scootaloo finally got up. On instinct she tried to flip the nearest light switch and was caught off guard when nothing happened. She blinked at for a moment before voicing her confusion. “The power’s out?”

“Well duh!” Apple Bloom answered. “Ah bet no pony has been in the old dam in years! Let a lone some pony who was there to fix the equipment.”

“But the lights were on at the hospital.”

Apple Bloom shrugged, “Yeah, Ah guess we should go get the backup magic-powered generator. But… Well… Ah really don’t want to ask Dinky to keep fueling like the slavers had her doing.”

“I see. Guess I know what I’m doing tomorrow.”
> Chapter 5: The Power of Power
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

“You know, you didn’t have to come with me,” Scootaloo said to her traveling companion.

The yellow cowpony only shook her head. “And what else would Ah do? Sweetie’s still cleansing the fields, so it’s not like Ah have enough trees to tend to eat up my time or nothing.”

The duo had made it most of the way up the western pass. Rounding a corner the old hydroelectric dam finally came into view. The old gray wall stood like a forgotten keeper of the narrow river valley below it. Yet water flowed over the spillways on the top with full force, proving that the water wasn’t flowing though the power plant anymore.

The two slowed their pace to a near stand still. Before they had set out, Apple Bloom had shared a warning that the slavers had attempted to restart the dam power plant twice, both times they sent teams out there, no pony came back.

The roar of the water flowing over the spillways and the gentle hush of the breeze were the only sounds. Other than the water, nothing seemed to be moving. No bones, or abandon equipment to signal the sight of an ambush either. Whatever danger lurked about, it didn’t seem to be this far from the dam.

Slowly and quietly they continued up the path. When they reached the actual dam, they didn’t bother with slow anymore. With the roar of the spillways just below them it wasn’t like their hoofsteps could be heard, so they walked normally as they crossed over the top of the dam.

It wasn’t until they were descending the stairs on the other side, which led down to the power station, that they returned to moving cautiously.

The first thing to give Scootaloo pause was the entrance to the power plant. The door had been left wide open. The ground nearby was scuffed as if something heavy had been dragged, and bloodstains on the concrete frame and heavy steel door made it clear that somepony had died here long ago. And whoever it was had been dragged into the power plant.

That was enough of a reason for Scootaloo to pull a small cloud out of her belt pouches. Continuing forward on three legs while she used one to push the small cloud with her, ready to strike at a moment’s notice. Apple Bloom double-checked her harness, other than the fact that she now had a rifle on one side and shotgun on the other not much had changed. Actually, other than the second gun, the only thing that had changed was the fact that she’d retrieved the sheath for the combat dagger and now wore that on her front left leg.

Unlike her attack on the slaver compound yesterday, Scootaloo had kept her saddlebags with her and wore them just bellow the belt filled with clouds. Stopping for a moment she took out a headlamp and replaced the goggles on her forehead with it. With that she stepped into the doorway.

“Ah wonder if my old headlamp is still around?” Apple Bloom thought out loud. “Probably left back in the clubhouse if it is.”

Despite her lament she knew her oversight was her own fault and followed her pegasus friend inside the concrete building.

Inside they found a small room. Off to the side was a lone desk and char. A clipboard sat on the desk, but any paper that may have been on it had long since rotted away, so the purpose of the clipboard was lost to time. A small set of lockers sat opposite the desk, although most of the doors were long gone and the few slots that still had a door, they were clearly damaged from being forced open.

Aside from the exit to a long hallway, the only other detail to catch Scootaloo’s eye was a large green feather on the floor.

“Think it’s a pegasus?” Bloom asked of the feather at the center of her friend’s spotlight.

“Maybe a stallion’s, seems a bit big though.”

Moving on they went down the hall. The first doorway they came across was marked ‘control room’ and that seemed just as good a place as any to figure out what they’d need to do to get things up and running again, so they carefully approached the open door.

The far wall was lined with consoles covered in dials, switches and lights. Although all of the indicator lights were blank as the consoles were also without power at the moment. On the left side of the room was a small window, not to the outside, but one that allowed observation of another, larger cement room.

The thing that made both mares freeze in their tracks however, was large green form draped along the consoles. Its body had a circumference on par with a pony’s, but easily had four times the length. The serpent’s head clearly made it one heck of a big snake. But it also possessed a set of feathered wings. Most of the feathers were as green as the rest of the winged snake, but it also had rows of yellow and red feathers.

As the creature opened its yellow eyes and took notice of the new arrivals, Apple Bloom’s first instinct was to line up her rifle. She was just about to curl her hoof to pull the firing string she’d rigged up to her combat harness, when Scootaloo put her leg out in front of her, holding her back.

“Not yet,” the pegasus mare whispered. “It hasn’t proven it’s evil yet.”

Bloom just blinked at her friend in disbelief. The blood, the fact that no pony else had ever come back alive from this place, what more did she need to see in order to guess that this thing probably had something to do with the low survival rate of this place?

The snake began to flap its wings and started to hover in the middle of the room.

That was when Scootaloo looked the creature in the eyes and spoke up, saying, “I know I’m no Fluttershy. But if you can understand any of what I’m saying, we don’t want to fight you. We just want to repair the generator. And as long as you don’t stop it from running, we don’t really care if you keep using this place as your den or not. We just want the generator back on, that’s all.”

At first, the flying snake gave a curious look to the pony that had spoken to it. Then its eyes narrowed and it gave a crackling hiss.

Scootaloo saw the electricity arching in the snake’s mouth as it hissed, and that was more than enough to guess what was about to happen. She quickly pushed Bloom to one side and leapt to dodge to the other side while grabbing her little cloud with a wing and dragging it with her.

No sooner had she done so, lightning blasted the floor where they had been just before. As soon as she hit the floor she whipped her cloud back out and kicked off two carefully aimed shots. As she didn’t want to risk hitting the equipment in the room.

Both lightning blasts struck the winged serpent. And while it hissed in pain from the hits, no pony was really that surprised to see that the snake that had lightning breath was clearly resistant to lightning.

Apple Bloom was less guarded in her response to the attack. She fired off three shots from her rifle, two stuck their target, making the winged serpent recoil and howl in real agony.

Blinded by it’s rage and pain, the snake shot back wildly, forcing the two ponies to scramble to avoid the arcing stream of lightning coming from the serpent’s maw.

As the beam chased after her friend, Scootaloo had made it to the side, and with nothing important behind her target kicked lightning from her cloud as quickly as she could. The strikes got the snake to stop shooting for a moment and look back in the direction of the pegasus who’d just attacked it. Bloom made use of the reprieve to stop scampering and aim. Her shot rang out and struck home in the back of serpent’s head, dropping it lifelessly to the floor.

The two friends relieved the stress of the last few moments with a laugh or offhand comment bout still being alive. But then a distant hiss made them snap their attention back to the serpent. Then Scootaloo’s eyes became pin pricks when she realized the sound was coming from somewhere else. She rushed to the corner of the room and looked through the window.

On the other side of the glass was a large room. The most prominent objects in that room were the four generators. But what caught her attention were the nests of large eggs scattered about the generator room. Those and the half dozen flying snakes now making their way to the exit to come investigate the noise from the control room.

“Apple Bloom, we need to get outside, now!”

“We’re just giving up?” the former farmer asked as she followed her friend at a full gallop down the hallway.

“No, but if we’re going to fight that many, I’m going to need a bigger cloud!”


* * * * * * *


The sun was low on the horizon at Sweet Apple Acres when the door swung open. The fact that the lights and refrigerator had come on about a half-hour earlier was instantly forgotten. The two ponies in the doorway were sopping wet, covered from head to hoof in electrical burns, and the pegasus of the duo was draped over Apple Bloom’s back like an extra set of saddlebags.

“What happened to you two?!” Sweetie asked of her still conscious friend.

“There were a bunch of flying snakes, at the dam. They also shoot lightning from their mouths.”

“Is Scoots…?”

“She’s still breathing. But if we still have any of those healing potions we scavenged from the hospital laying around, she could probably use one.”

“She would need to be awake for that,” Sweetie Belle responded. “But no matter I know some healing magic. I can take it from here.”

“But Sweetie Belle! You’re still spent from earlier!” Dinky objected.

“Friends are worth a little magic fatigue,” Sweetie answered, as she took her pegasus friend in her magic and set her on the sofa. “So,” she continued. “How did you get soaked?”

“It turned out the intakes were clogged so we had to go diving in the lake to get all the junk out’a the way.”

“The snakes attacked you while you were swimming?”

“No that was after we cleared out the snakes. Took her a while poking around the machines but eventually Scoots realized there was no flow, that’s when we realized we needed to clean off the intake grates.”

“So Scoots almost drown?”

“What? No! Nothing like that. She almost electrocuted herself jumpstarting the generator we restored the water pressure to.” Looking up and seeing the living room light on she added, “That would have been when the power came back on.”
> Chapter 6: The Waterworks
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Scootaloo took a full day to awaken from her adventure at the power plant, and Sweetie Belle had insisted she remain on bed rest for a second day before letting her out of her room at Sweet Apple Acres. And apparently a lot had happened while she was out of the loop.

Upwards of half the ponies they’d freed from the slavers had left. Many returning to wherever they’d called home before the slavers had ruined things for them, some heading west for safer lands near Vanhoover.

Also shortly after the adventure at the dam, Dinky and two other unicorns had asked Sweetie Belle to teach them the spell to purge dark magic, so they could help cleanse the taint around town. While they couldn’t quite do it yet, they now followed Sweetie everywhere when she was out cleaning up what she could.

Speaking of cleaning up the dark magic, more of the apple farm had become usable in the past two days. Not to mention that complaints of eating nothing but apples had inspired Sweetie to cleanse some of the other crop’s growing areas.

Even now Apple Bloom was out replanting some seeds in the carrot garden portion of her family farm. With any luck they’d be one growing cycle away from adding fresh carrots to the food supply here.

“I hate feeling useless,” Scootaloo lamented from her lonely vigil at the window at one end of the second floor hallway.

“Then I’ve got good news,” Rumble said sarcastically as he flew up the stairs, clearly having overheard the mare. Scootaloo only raised an eyebrow at him to ask what he was talking about, so he continued, “Between the new farmland and the need to purify the drinking water we aren’t going to have any free time at all soon.”

She blinked at him, clearly not understanding his logic.

“In case you hadn’t noticed, it’s you, me, and North Wind. We’re the only three pegasi left in town! And I don’t know about you, but I’m not sure how I’m going keep leading scavenging runs on the hospital with everypony bugging me for clean rainwater all the time!”

At that Scootaloo bowed her head and closed her eyes for a moment. When she opened them again she said, “Ah yes. So we need to get the old water pumps and purifiers up and running again.”

“Wait, first you know how to repair generators, now you’re telling me you know how water pumps and stuff work too?”

Scootaloo shrugged. “Machines are machines. They all work off the same basic ideas. And I’ve seen a few instruction manuals along the way. Those are always nice and they’re usually around if they weren’t burned in the war, or rotted over the years.”

A blush formed on Rumble’s cheeks that practically screamed ‘why didn’t I think of that?!’ Although the only thing he actually said was, “I’m coming with you!”

“Fine, I’m heading out after lunch.”


* * * * * * *


In her head, Scootaloo had envisioned herself and Rumble being the only two ponies coming out to investigate the old building. Some how, Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle’s students had also come along. And at this point if Sweetie wasn’t passed out on the sofa from magic fatigue, Scoots suspected she’d have come along too.

Apple Bloom had traded the hunting rifle on her combat saddle for a shotgun. Mainly because they were out of rifle bullets but still had shotgun ammo. Although between herself and one of the unicorns, who had a white coat and blue mane, they might run out of that after today if they weren’t careful. Dinky and the unicorn with tan coat and brown mane had pistols wrapped in their magic.

Rumble still had a rifle on one side of his combat saddle, but he’d given up the ammo for it to Apple Bloom before the adventure at the dam. So right now, only the revolver strapped to his front right leg had any bullets. While that set up would require both of his front legs to use, aiming his right at the target and pushing the button trigger he’d rigged up on the side with his left hoof, using both hooves to fight wasn’t nearly the problem for a strong flyer like him as it would’ve been for an earth pony.

Somehow five guns and a pegasus with a belt full of clouds seemed like overkill to Scootaloo. As far as she could tell no pony else claimed to have any skill as a mechanic. So what did the rest of them plan on doing while she was figuring out the pumps and filters?

She’d already led the team past the old sign that read, ‘Ponyville Waterworks’ when a possible answer crossed her mind.

“Any local stories about how evil this place has become I should know about?”

The ponies wielding guns all exchanged looks. Then Apple Bloom spoke up, “Ah don’t think they ever tried to fix this place. Seeing as they never got the town’s power back on, there wouldn’t have been much point.”

Scootaloo took another look around. The waterworks was an out-of-sight-out-of-mind type of building in the forested hills west of town, about halfway between the dam and city limits. The building itself was just about two stories tall, and several times as wide and long as the average barn back on the acres. The cement construction and water main pipes coming out and heading off made it an island of industrial design in the middle of the woods.

With that, she pulled a cloud out of her belt and kept it at the ready, tucked under her wing as she stepped onto the cement ground that marked the clear line between the facility and the forest. Apple Bloom joined her friend on point as they moved forward as quietly as they could. Rumble, Dinky and the others moved as groups of two on either side and slightly behind, watching for trouble from the sides.

Old metal doors, once painted bright blue, were now peeled mostly to the steal core. Hints of rust could be seen along the edges. And when Scootaloo tried to look in, a decade’s worth of dust and window fog had made the window all but opaque.

The slow, and as stealthy approach as a team of six could manage, continued as they pushed a door open and entered.

The first room to greet them was a reception area. A few chairs and a coffee table off in one corner and a reception desk furnished the room, all covered in a thick layer of dust. On the left side of the room was a short hallway with doors clearly marked as the restrooms. On the right side, another door had a faded label, but the brass design gave the impression of being somepony’s office. Behind the reception desk was another door and a large set of windows showing that the main water processing plan was behind the back wall. Although from in the reception room all that could be seen was several large vats.

Only the ponies exploring disturbed the eternal silence the place. Content that nothing was going to jump out at them, Scootaloo flipped the light switch. Between the two fluorescent lamps on the ceiling three of their four bulbs slowly flickered to life, while one gave a noble effort for a few seconds before going out for good.

With her wings, Scootaloo pointed to those following her and then to the sides. They took the hint. Rumble and one other moved to examine the office, while Dinky and one of her fellow magic students moved to clear the restrooms. Apple Bloom followed her winged friend to the room with the vats.

“What are you smiling about?” Bloom asked when she noticed the look that had appeared on the orange pegasus’ face.

First Scoots blinked, then she chided herself in her mind for slipping back into her solo adventurer mode. Pointing a hoof she answered, “There, that looks like the head technician’s office to me.”

Looking to where her friend was pointing, Apple Bloom saw a small metal room built in the back, in the upper right corner. Several catwalks connected the suspected room to the catwalks that went over and between the vats. A set of stairs in the back also went down to the ground level right by some other machines. In short anypony in that office had easy access to everything of value in the water treatment plant.

The earth pony nodded. After their shared adventure at the power plant she’d already seen the usefulness of instruction manuals and the like that Scootaloo had found and used to get the hydroelectric dam back into operation.

Scootaloo’s eyes were drawn to another set of stairs nearby that also went up to the catwalks. While her pegasus instincts perceived altitude as safety, her experience in Las Pegasus looked to the vats and saw cover. Moving forward she sided with cover and chose to cross the room on the ground.

She’d only gotten halfway across the room before she’d become annoyed. You see, unlike the dam, there was no constant rush of water from outside to drown out lesser sounds. This place was quiet as a tomb, and as such she could head just how loud Apple Bloom’s steps were compared to her own carefully placed and near soundless ones. Throw in the fact that the ground was cement and every time the earth pony took a step a clop loud enough to echo throughout the room rang out.

When they reached the far end of the room without incident, Apple Bloom abandon even her sorry attempt at stealth. “Looks like no pony’s here,” she said. Then she banged a hoof on one of the vats and the water tank rang out like a gong. “Not even the water’s here.”

Scoots was only half faking a heart attack when she grabbed her chest, as she genuinely had been surprised by the at the thunderous sound her friend had made. If there had been any creature around unaware of their presence, they knew somepony was in the building now.

By the time she’d reached the sky box office, Rumble and the others had joined them in the main water treatment, holding tank room. Once he’d flown over, Scootaloo asked, “Learn anything useful?”

“Not really,” he answered. “I found an old journal. From the dates in the journal, the poor gal held out here for three year before something got her.” Scootaloo raising an eyebrow prompted him to continue, so he added, “The last entry mentioned feral sounds. But she didn’t seem too sure if it was really an animal or a demon making the noise. Given that she left the journal behind I’m guessing ‘tracking down the source’ didn’t go so well for her.”

“I see,” Scoots answered before returning her attention to the diagrams in the manual she’d found.

After a few minutes of reading intact paper and labeling on control panels on the various machines and having the main breakers reset in order to restore the power, Apple Bloom’s patience reached its end and she asked, “So, Scootaloo, what’s the verdict? Can we fix this place?”

“Well if somepony knows how, recharging the magic crystals in the purifier unit would make this warning light happy. But the main problem seems to be this one. And it’s saying something’s wrong with the underground pump.”

“Underground pump?”

“Yes, according to the manuals, this place draws its water from an underground lake directly bellow us. There should be an access tunnel around here somewhere.”

“You mean the submarine-like hatch over by the pipe feeding into the purifier?” Dinky asked.

“That sounds like it, yeah. Let’s go see where that goes.”

They didn’t have to go far. The hatch held a ladder beside the main pipe that went down a few floors worth of distance. At the base of the ladder the pipe turned and went down a short, narrow passage before it opened up into a large cavern where the underground lake was. In the shallows near where they emerged into the cavern was a large water pump.

With the power on, the area was lit by strings of lights that seemed oddly like white Hearth’s Warming lights that had been used when the passage was dug but then never replaced by anything more professional. However the lights only lit the tunnel and near side of the cavern, so about halfway across the lake it became too dark to see much of anything, save the glisten of the water as it rippled.

As for the water pump itself, a small red light was flashing on its control board. No doubt indicating what emergency override had been tripped to put the pump on lock down and stop it from destroying itself.

Everypony felt it. Something was wrong here. Perhaps that’s why everypony had lined up along the wall, just beside the entrance, as if to stay in the light as best they could. It probably didn’t help that the team also understood that Scootaloo was the mechanic here, so only she needed to set hoof in the waters around the pump.

Yet even the lone mechanic understood this feeling, maybe she did so even better than anypony else here. The feeling wasn’t quite the same as standing in a tainted place. It was more like standing in the presence of a tainted creature. There was no doubt in her mind. Something twisted to evil lurked down here.

But that didn’t change the fact that she still had a job to do. So pulling her cloud close, she moved slowly to the edge of the water. The ground between the shore and pump had clearly been shaped by magic, it was flat but rough, like the cement of a swimming pool it gave good traction even when wet.

Halfway between the water and the pump Scoots froze. She’d felt something else make the water ripple, something big. Taking her cloud in her mouth she tensed her legs, primed her wings and scanned the water with her eyes, looking for any clue as to where she was about to be attacked from. Then she spotted it, a ring of disturbed water to the left.

With that her wings became a blur, buzzing like a humming bird’s, as she flapped them for pure thrust. In an instant the water exploded. Twice actually. Where, she’d been standing as she burst into a run, kicking up the water around her hooves. And at the edge of the shallows where a large reptilian form breached the surface, lunging at the spot Scootaloo had been only a moment before.

Between the creature’s long snout, short legs, and massive jaws, it only took a moment before everypony’s instincts named the predator.

“Alligator!” somepony declared of the beast that was about twice as tall as the average pony and about four times as long.

Yet the cry fell short of a proper description, for that Dinky’s cry pointed out the obvious. “Taint-gator! It’s teeth are coated in dark magic!”

Yet as the glowing purple spikes slammed shut just short of Scootaloo’s tail, the pegasus mare couldn’t help but make an observation she kept to herself. ‘Actually I think its teeth ARE shadow magic.’ Out loud she only shouted a question through the cloud in her mouth, “Is that thing alive?!”

“How would it be chasing you if it weren’t alive!?” Apple Bloom demanded sarcastically.

“A spirit, dang it! Can any of you unicorns see if it still has a spirit in there or is it only shadow magic?” Scootaloo clarified, as she ran down the edge of the underground lake’s shore.

All of the unicorns’ horns glowed a little brighter, yet Dinky was the only one to answer.

“All I’m getting is dark magic!”

That was about when Scootaloo ran out of shoreline to run down. Yet rather than exit the shallows to dry ground and head back toward her friends, she leapt and twisted herself to hit the cave wall hooves first and ran along the wall out over the deeper part of the lake.

The tainted alligator took the opportunity to dive back into the depths, clearly at an intercept angle for the orange pegasus out over the water.

As she ran, Scoots changed how she was flapping her wings. Slowing them and beating them more fully, she added lift to the equation and kicked away from the wall, taking true flight. And with her front legs now free she reached up and took the cloud between her front hooves.

The water again exploded and the gator soared at Scootaloo, jaws open and ready to claim their prize.

Yet, even as the water was breached, she was already giving her little cloud a jab. The flash and crack of thunder filled the chamber. The lightning bolt flashed onto its target. The electricity arced through the gator, forcing its jaws to slam shut sooner then intended. Its closed snout was met with hooves, as Scoots bounded off of it, soaring away and leaving the taint-gator to fall back into the shallows.

The lightning blast also seemed to shake her friends from their panicked daze. Or at least Apple Bloom and Rumble as they opened fire as soon as it splashed down. Dinky and the others joined in on the attack a few seconds later.

The bullets that stuck home drew only black and purple flames rather than blood. Yet another sign that the poor thing had already been fully corrupted by the taint.

Abandoning the pursuit of the elusive pegasus, the beast turned its gaze to the easiest target it could find, the lone earth pony of the bunch.

Bloom cursed under her breath when she saw the gator charge at her. And again when she heard the click from her shotgun that meant she’d depleted her current clip. And a third time when she realized that by backing up and firing for the last few seconds, she’d put herself along the shore and let the gator get between her and entrance tunnel.

A fact that was further evidenced by the splash in the water just to her left, the result of a missed shot by one of the unicorns and proving that she was almost directly behind the target from their point of view. On the upside, Rumble had flown out over the water and was still firing at the gator from an angle that didn’t put Bloom in the potential line of fire.

Apple Bloom swallowed hard as she beheld the open jaws of the dark magic infused alligator.

Suddenly a splash of white and blue light flashed on back of the gator’s head. Immediately it stumbled, its jaws falling shut at most a foot away from Bloom’s muzzle.

All eyes fell on the source of the strange attack, Scootaloo. She had landed, pulled her saddlebags forward and slipped her wings in underneath them. Or rather she’d slipped her wing into the sleeve hidden on the back of the right side bag that contained the firing mechanism for the silver pistol held within. As the gator tried to stand, she fired again, leaving no doubt as that the silver barrel poking out of her bag was a gun that, until now, none of her friends even knew she had.

With the reprieve bought her, Apple Bloom hit a switch next to the shotgun on her combat saddle, the one that released the empty clip and pulled the next one out of the connected ammo bag. By now Dinky and the other unicorns had levitated their guns out to a better angle and opened fire again.

‘Three, four…’ Scootaloo thought, counting out each use of her most precious type of ammo. In her travels, she’s come to understand that light magic was the best possible counter to demons and their tainted gifts to the world.

Every time the alligator tried to stand, Scoots fired another light-magic infused silver bullet. All the while everypony else was dumping their ammo into the beast as fast as they could.

When Scootaloo fired shot number six, the strike differed from the first five rounds. Rather than a splash of light magic at the impact point, the light seemed to stay in the hole punched by the bullet and began to spread out like cracks in the gator’s skin.

“Dive!” Scoots’ shouted as soon as she saw the new reaction.

Taking the lead in her advice, she leapt in the deeper waters of the lake. Apple Bloom followed suit a second later, Rumble took a moment to shrug in confusion before folding his wings and letting himself fall into the lake. Judging that they were too far from the water, Dinky and the other two bolted down the entrance tunnel for cover instead.

And not a moment too soon either. The instant the cracks of light magic had completely enveloped the tainted alligator it exploded in a blast of dark magic fire.


* * * * * *


Six ponies staggered out of the waterworks building. Three of them soaking wet, three of them covered in burns. As soon as they reached the edge of the cement, they collapsed into the forest grass, half of them vomiting as soon as they went down.

“I don’t feel so good…” Rumble groaned.

Scootaloo gave a weak laugh. “Yeah, I think Sweetie Belle’s next taint cleansing project is us.”

“Ah don’t miss this feeling one bit,” Apple Bloom moaned. “But Ah may be able to save Sweetie the trouble.”

With that Bloom pulled a canteen with a light blue, four-pointed star painted on the side.

“Is that, holy water?” Scootaloo asked.

The earth pony took a gulp from the canteen, then answered, “Yep. Ah had a stash of the stuff from when Ah was mapping Ponyville’s taint. The slavers took it when they caught me. Turned out some of it was still left once we got rid of them. Not enough to cleanse a building, but Ah got enough for a few ponies.”
> Chapter 7: Connections
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

From her perch atop the farmhouse, Scootaloo gazed out. A little over a week had passed since the adventure at the waterworks and things were changing much quicker now. Once Sweetie Belle had cleansed the waterworks and underground lake, Scoots had been able to fix the pump. And that had resulted in the abundance of water needed for farming to truly begin.

By now the entire east orchard looked more like it had before the war. Apple Bloom had nursed the trees she could back to health, and cut down the dead ones. So only healthy apple trees could be seen along the main path of Sweet Apple Acres. It was even Apple Bloom who’d stopped Sweetie from cleansing the north orchard by pointing out they already had enough healthy trees to feed everypony in their small community and telling her to worry about cleansing other places first.

Even the trees that had been cut down hadn’t gone to waste. Several of Bloom’s ‘farmhands’ had used the lumber to rebuild some of the houses near the acres, effectively beginning the rebuilding of Ponyville proper. Which in turn mean fewer ponies living in the barn.

Although most of the new buildings were just homes, the most important building restored in Scootaloo’s mind was the old flower shop that had once been next to the ponyville spa. Not for the building so much, as because of the herbs that they’d been able to recover and replant. Herbs that Apple Bloom could use to mix up some basic healing potions.

Food, water, and a limited form of medicine. They’d restored all of the basics. All but one.

And restoring that was going to be hard. Thankfully Rumble seemed to understand that last need too. Or maybe he was just being silly and pursuing it without realizing it. Either way the stallion who once dreamed of being a Wonderbolt was out there flying patrol, pretending he offered the small community some semblance of security.

Although in truth he was more of a scout than a guard, as anything that looked like it might need to be fought usually made him come flying right to Scootaloo. Granted, being that she was the only pegasus in town that had the raw skill to aim her lightning that also made her the only pony in town capable of making her own ammo.

A part of her wondered how hard it would be to teach him to use storm clouds as weapons too, although she quickly dismissed that idea for a much more practical and immediate one. With it in mind she left her spot on the roof of the apple family home. The day was young, but her plan would likely take most of it to fulfill if she wanted to be back by sundown.

It didn’t take long before Apple Bloom found the pegasus crusader bucking apple trees while wearing her full adventuring gear plus extra saddlebags laden with the apples she was gathering.

“Good news, Scoots! We should have our first crop of carrots any day now! And the corn has sprouted nicely too! Now if only Ah could get my hooves on some usable wheat or oat seeds. Ah could kill for some beard about now…” her final words trailed off as she beheld the orange pegasus and her current pack-mule-esk get up. “Uhh… why ya got so many apples? Even with the fridge up and running there’s no way you’d eat all of those before they spoil.”

“Let’s just say I know some ponies who’d probably be willing to trade for them.”

Bloom’s amber eyes blinked. “Wait, so you’re skipping town?”

“Should be back tonight, or tomorrow. We’ll see how it goes,” she answered right before stuffing the last apple she’d harvest in her mouth and trotting off. 

Apple Bloom only stood there and watched quietly as her friend left. A part of her pondered what the pegasus was planing on trading for. But another part of her smiled at the opportunity that Scootaloo’s absence presented.


* * * * * * *


Sweetie Belle stood before what remained of her sister’s shop, the Carrousel Boutique. Several windows were broken and the paint was peeling, but for the most part it had weathered the years well. At least it looked that way. The dark magic was thick enough here that one could see purple sparkles in the dirt if they’d looked hard enough.

Her horn lit up with the soft green glow of her magic. As did the golden glow of Dinky’s horn. The green and gold magic wrapped over the ground, making the purple sparkles become much more visible. Then the unicorn magic began to pulse and the dark magic began to evaporate in wispy like black flows, like steam coming off of a teapot.

With one last pulse, the twin lights shattered and the eerie feeling that had once surrounded the place vanished.

Both unicorns were now breathing heavily, like a pony who’s just run a race.

“Thanks… for the help…” Sweetie Belle managed between breaths.

“It’s the least I could do… after you taught us… But… if you really want to repay the favor… I wouldn’t mind some help cleaning out my old house tomorrow.”

“Consider it a deal.”

When Sweetie opened the door, the quiet creak drew her attention to the fact the chime was missing. The lights came on when she flipped the switch. Although that only further revealed that everything was covered in dust, dirt and even a fair number of leaves had found their way through the broken windows and to the floor over the years.

Yet despite being only a shell of it’s former glory, Sweetie Belle couldn’t help look on the small curricular stand flanked by three mirrors and hear the voice of her younger self and friends chanting ‘We’re going to the gala!’

As quickly as the memory of happier times came, it faded and she was once again looking at a wooden stand covered in cracks, dirt and backed by broken mirrors.

As Dinky looked around, she couldn’t help but notice that half the curtains were on the floor now. In fact, despite the abundance of cloth in the place, she was finding it impossible to spot a piece of cloth that hadn’t been ravaged by the years. Be it frayed and weathered edges or holes, everything seemed to have succumbed to the years of neglect.

“So, you really plan on fixing this place up?” Dinky asked.

“Maybe later, once more of the town is back to normal. I really wouldn’t want to be the only pony out here on the east side of town. Right now I was just hoping to get a few things… If they survived all this time that is.”

To the gray unicorn with the blond mane, the search found only one rundown room after another, each just another reminder of the sad fate that had befallen the town ten years ago.

But to the white mare, each room held a memory of the past. Her attempt to cook for her big sister, punctuated by the words ‘Its not that burnt!’ The time she guilt tripped Rarity into agreeing to go camping. Even the laundry room brought back the memory of her youthful attempt to help that turned out to not be that helpful after all.

Then they reacted the inspiration room. Although Dinky had never spent much time here before the war, she could read the mare with her well enough to see that this place was sacred ground to the white unicorn. So she stayed in the hall, allowing Sweetie Belle enter the room alone.

Several bolts of rotted fabric filled the racks, a line of mannequins stood above the remnants of what had been her elder sister’s final works. Works too far gone to even guess what their intention had been now that they were little more than shreds of cloth and maybe a buckle or button on the pile of scraps on the floor below each.

And yet, as she approached the work desk, where the sowing machine sat covered in rust, a glimmer of hope flashed in Sweetie’s eyes. The first intact picture frame she’d seen as she’d searched sat beside the sowing machine.

Taking the picture in her hoof, she gently wiped the dust from the glass. She smiled and put it in her saddlebags.

When she came out of the inspiration room she said, “That’s what we’re looking for up here. Now let’s go see if the basement is still intact.”

“What’s in the basement?”

“If we’re lucky Rarity’s old fabric making stuff. I don’t know about you, but I’d love to have bed sheets that haven’t been half eaten by moths for once. Or curtains without holes over those drafty windows.”


* * * * * * *


A fiery light danced on Apple Bloom’s face as she sat, contently watching the source of the glow. And she wasn’t alone as she watched the flames spread and grow. In fact with the exception of two unicorns everypony in town was gathered around the old hospital, watching it go up in flames.

Rain began to fall, but only in a thin ring around the burning building, not a drop fell on the burning building. Rumble had only bothered to start up the rain clouds because some of the flames had spread to the grass around the building. Now with the rain falling, it made a fence to keep the flames contained to the only thing that they wanted to see burn.

That was about when the two latecomers finally showed up, although Sweetie Belle was the only one with a perplexed look on her face.

“What’s going on? How did this happen?” she asked, with a hint of panic in her voice. Then she noticed everypony else watching the fire. “Why is everypony so calm?”

“We needed this,” Apple Bloom answered, never taking her eyes off of the blaze.

“What?” was the first response that came from Sweetie. Then it was quickly followed by, “Oh!” And shortly after that she walked calmly over to Bloom’s side and sat down beside her.

They watched in silence for a while, the roar of the flames drowning out any petty noise that might have dared to interrupt its flaming symphony.

“You know Scootaloo is going to be mad when she finds out about this, right?”

“Ah know,” Apple Bloom said. Then she gave a scoff and added, “She’ll probably say it was a waste of a perfectly good building. But there are too many painful memories tied to this place. We had to destroy the last link to them.”

“What about the part where we don’t have a hospital anymore?”

The earth pony smiled. “Why do you think Rumble has been so keen on scavenging from there? We’ve already got all the medical stuff out. And why do you think Ah had you cleanse the north barn but not bother with the rest of the north orchard? That’s were we got all the gear stashed. If Scoots really wants a broken X-ray machine, it’s there. Everything from before the slavers is.”

“Good to know. But you’re right, she probably will be mad at you for wasting of a good building.”


It had taken about an hour, but the old hospital building eventual gave way and collapsed into a burning pile of rubble. That was when most left the gathering, content that the only reminder of what they had suffered was gone. Or in Sweetie Belle’s case that she’d stayed long enough to honor the feelings of the other others.

Apple Bloom lingered longer though. As did Rumble, but in his case he’d agreed to keep manning the rain clouds until the fire had burned itself completely out.

With the sun low on the horizon and evening fast approaching, Bloom finally felt the time was right to walk away from the smoldering rubble and return home.


* * * * * * *


Back at the farmhouse, Apple Bloom was surprised to find a pile of ammunition boxes sitting on the dinning room table. It didn’t take long for her to guess where they had come from. And her suspicions were confirmed as soon as she went upstairs.

There, at the end of the hall, was Scootaloo, just sitting there as she stared out the window. The pegasus’ gaze stayed fixed out the window, her ears turning to face the earth pony was the only acknowledgment that her presence had been noticed.

Apple Bloom steeled her heart, bracing to defend her actions to the friend she’d knowingly earned the ire of. Feeling as ready as ever to face the music, she finally spoke up.

“Scootaloo?”

The pegasus finally turned her head. Yet when their eyes met there was no anger to be found in those purple eyes, only the unmistakable gaze of disappointment.

“Please don’t make me talk to you right now. I see no good coming from it,” Scootaloo answered with a voice that sounded as flat as possible, like a bored pony reading off of a fact sheet or something. Then she turned her head and resumed looking out the window.

Despite her plea, the pegasus just sat there, leaving every opportunity for Apple Bloom to force a conversation. But her words failed her. She’d been prepared to defend herself from her friend’s anger for going too far. But disappointment? No, she had not been prepared to defend herself for falling short. And so it was with that single gaze Scootaloo had destroyed the argument brewing in Bloom’s mind.

Not knowing what else to do, Apple Bloom bowed her head in defeat and made her way to the master bedroom without another word.

Once ponies had started moving out of Sweet Apple Acres, it had been agreed that Apple Bloom should take the master bedroom. It was her farm after all. And truth be told she’d found her granny’s old room to be quite soothing. Granny Smith had the walls adorned with countless photos of the Apple Family, including ones of her elder sister and brother.

And yet the only thing Apple Bloom could see at that moment was the small pouch sitting on her bed. Drawn onto the front of it was a simple depiction of a wheat plant. Nudging the bag open confirmed that it was indeed filled with wheat seed.

Scootaloo had gone out of her way to make her happy. And she’d gone out of her way to do the one thing she knew Scoots would disapprove of.

The yellow mare may had been too stubborn to cry out loud, but that didn’t stop her from collapsing onto her bed, stuffing her face into the old musty pillows, and letting the tears flow.
> Chapter 8: A Diamond in the Dark
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Several days had passed since the hospital had burned down and Scootaloo never mentioned the topic. Technically neither did Apple Bloom, however there was no doubt what she meant the next time she found Scoots alone, walked up and said only, “I’m sorry.”

There also wasn’t much doubt as to why Apple Bloom suddenly seemed interested in restoring the old town hall. It wasn’t hard to guess that, although it wasn’t the hospital, it was another large building that could serve just about any utilitarian purpose the hospital could have.

While Bloom had been content to rebuild the town hall just as it had been in her youth, no pony dared to oppose Scootaloo when she insisted on adding covered firing positions to the second floor balcony. The result being that the balcony railing that ringed the building came out looking like the top of a castle with alternating high and low sections.

And right now, hiding behind that cover, as bullets struck nearby, she was thanking her lucky stars for Scootaloo’s decision. Speaking on her pegasus friend, she noticed that she’d lost track of her amid the fighting with the raiders who where currently besieging the half built town hall building.

“Where’s Scoots?” she shouted.

Sweetie Belle and Rumble both glanced around for a moment and then each shrugged, as the mare in question couldn’t be seen from their vantage points either.

That was when an ionic blast made the ruble of the old toy store smaller, along with silencing the raider guns that had been firing from amidst said ruined building. Almost immediately after that another blast went off behind that ruined shop and the alleyway just to the left side of it was filled with flashes of lightning and thunder echoed over the town hall plaza.

“Never mind, Ah found her,” Apple Bloom said sarcastically.

With a few more flashes of lightning, the reaming raiders broke cover and fled from the alleyways, apparently completely forgetting about the three ponies on the balcony of the town hall, who quickly took advantage of fact that their enemies were openly running down the main street in full view. The defenders on the balcony returned fire at those who’d had them pinned down only a moment ago, ending the fight.

As the dust settled and silence returned to the ruins of the small town’s center, a pegasus clad in light E.U.P. armor came to the edge of the alleyway and leaned against what was left of the toy store’s outer wall as she slumped into a sitting position. And empty flask still held in her mouth and a crimson stain could be seen on the sleeve of the otherwise blue and gray armor she wore. Her wings and muzzle were the only exposed orange of the mare underneath, although her violet tail was also visible.

“Scootaloo!” Sweetie gasped once she realized what must have happened. And she then bolted from her place to rush inside, down stairs, and out to her friend’s side.

Yet when she arrived only patches of fur and healthy skin could be seen through the bullet holes in the armor Scootaloo wore.

“Heaven I’ve missed these things,” she said as she finally put the flask down beside her and tried flexing the leg in the stained sleeve.

“Scootaloo,” the unicorn said in a much sterner tone of voice. “That’s the fifth healing potion in three days. It’s not healthy to drink potions that often!” Now that she was close, she could see Scoots raise an eyebrow through the visor of her helmet. “You know the magic gets used up way faster than the reagents used to make the potion, and once that happens the reagents are still junk in your system that your body has no use for. You really should give it more time to burn that stuff out of your system!”

“When good ponies stop needing help with dangerous things that get me hurt, I’ll stop using health potions to fix the damage.”

Sweetie only glared all the harsher at her friend. “That’s it! I’m putting you on bed rest, doctor’s orders!” she declared as she swept the pegasus up in her magic.

“You’re a doctor now?” Scootaloo asked as she was levitated into the air and hulled off toward the apple farm.

“I’m the only unicorn in town who knows healing magic, which you should have let me use by the way. So yes I’m the closest thing Ponyville has to a doctor, so you bet your flank I’m going to give the doctor’s order around here!”

By now Apple Bloom had arrived. She took the empty flask Scoots had left on the ground, put it in her saddlebag and watched as her friend was dragged off like a filly being forced to come in for curfew. A part of her was tempted to comment on how her friend was using the healing potions almost as fast as she could make them. But after the hospital, she wasn’t about to withhold anything she could offer her adventurous friend, especially not something so well suited to helping ‘the town hero’ survive the role she seemed to have found herself in.


* * * * * * *


In a way Scootaloo didn’t mind the excuse to just stay in her room for the day. Technically it was the room that had belonged to Apple Bloom when they were just kids, but now that the Apple had moved into the master bedroom, this room had been left to her.

Besides, it wasn’t like being here would stop anypony from coming by and asking for her help with the next wild animal or monster or raider attack to wonder into town.

No. Thanks to her heroic return to Ponyville, everypony in town seemed to think any problem that probably needed to be solved by an adventurer/warrior was to be brought to her. Although in all fairness it probably didn’t help that she didn’t even wait to be asked for help half the time, and just went off to solve such problems just by virtue of overhearing about them.

Still an excuse to rest was an excuse to rest. And now that she’d washed and patched her armor she’d run out of petty things to do in the confines of the house, so she was perfectly happy to use this one as long as the world would allow her the reprieve.

Thinking of her armor, it was the only thing she’d actually gotten for herself when trading with the Wonderbolts. Technically she’d tried to get armor for Bloom and Sweetie too, but being that the Wonderbolts was an all pegasus unit, it wasn’t that surprising that they only had one set of old scout armor they could spare on hoof. The poor thing had been rebuild so many times it had lost all of the usual enchantments normally present on E.U.P. armor. But it was still armor even if the protective magics were long gone.

Maybe next time she could get another set for Rumble seeing as he seemed keen on playing the part of town guard.

While she noticed it, the slam on the door down stairs didn’t being her out of her thoughts. Although Apple Bloom’s voice shouting shortly afterwards did.

“Hey! Scootaloo! Get down here! You’ll never guess who just showed up!”


When she arrived in the living room, she had to concede her friend had been right. She’d have never guessed that purple earth pony with a two-toned pink mane was who she was talking about. Although the purple bandana and combat saddle sporting a simple rifle was a stark contrast for the mental image she’d had of the mare from the past, although the mare was still recognizable.

“Miss Cheerilee.”

“Scootaloo,” the earth pony mare greeted the pegasus. “I’m glade to see you found your friends. And I’m sorry I couldn’t be more helpful when I got your letter asking about them.”

With a shrug, Scootaloo answered, “You saved me the trouble of searching Vanhoover for them. I’d say that was helpful.”

“Wait! You knew Miss Cheerilee was alive?” Sweetie Belle interrupted.

“Yes.”

“And you didn’t tell us?”

“You didn’t ask.”

Interjecting herself on Scootaloo’s behalf, Cheerilee said, “In all fairness I only sent her the one letter about seven years ago. That’s a long time to assume somepony’s still okay, even if Vanhoover is the safest city on the mainland, it IS on the mainland.”

Their old teacher’s response was enough to buy agreeing nods from the Bloom and Sweetie.

Then it was Apple Boom who spoke up.

“So, What are you doing all the way out here, Miss Cheerilee?”

“Easy. I’d heard that somepony had run the slavers out of the ruins of Ponyville and restored order. But the kicker of the rumors was that it wasn’t the Wonderbolts who’d done it but somepony called ‘the crusaders.’ I don’t think I need to explain why that phrase would ring a bell with me,” she answered, giving the trio a wink.

A blush graced Sweetie’s face when she responded, “Heh. No, I can imagine we might have left an impression when we were kids.”

After a round of laughs, Cheerilee finished by saying, “Needless to say, I felt the need to see if the rumor was true. And from the looks of it, I was right to guess you mean to rebuild.”

“You’re welcome to rebuild if you want. I don’t think anypony has claimed the rubble where you used to live, or the old schoolhouse,” Scootaloo responded. Then she placed a hoof under her chin and added, “Do we even have any school age ponies in town?”

Sweetie Belle let her gaze drop as she pondered the question.

But Apple Bloom answered, “There are two. They’re too young to have lived here before the war, but Ah think the slavers killed their folks when they captured them. So Ah don’t think they have anywhere else to go. Ah’ve been inventing chores for them to do whenever they want to earn some apples.”

“That’s all right, I didn’t expect to be a teacher again when I got here. But still I would like to rebuild the Schoolhouse if I could. Better to have it in place for when things do get back to normal.”

Sweetie Belle nodded. “I don’t think anypony has cleansed the old school grounds yet, but there are four of us around that can remove the taint. So let me know when you’re ready and I’ll make sure one of us gets out there to do that for you.”

“Thank you,” Cheerilee said to the white unicorn. Then turning to look at the pegasus in the room she added, “Oh, Scootaloo, I know you were only casual friends at best growing up, but I did heard a name you might remember from the caravan I traveled with part of the way here.”

Scoots raised a curious eyebrow, but said nothing.

“They’d heard that some crazed cult had captured a caravan out by Baltimare. Diamond Tiara’s caravan. From what I heard, it sounded like they had her locked up in the old steelworks on the edge of the city.”

Without a word, the orange mare got up and started to walk away.

“Scoots! Where do you think you’re going?” Sweetie demanded.

With hardly more than a glance, Scootaloo answered, “You heard her. An old friend needs help. If she’s still alive by the time I get there, I’m going to help.”

“Not without me you’re not!” Sweetie Belle insisted.

Apple Bloom gave a quick laugh. Then she turned to her old teacher and said, “We got plenty of apples, help yourself. For anything else, ask Rumble or Dinky. They’re basically in charge when we ain’t around.” And with that she hurried after the other two crusaders.


* * * * * * *


Three mares lay hidden in a bush, atop a hill. Although it might have been more accurate to describe the withered thing as a bunch of dead branches that just hadn’t bothered to fall over yet. If it had ever had leaves before, there was no evidence of it left in the world today.

Beyond the hill was the old foundry, and the ruined skyline of the sundered city of Baltimare. The bottom half of skyscrapers and a statehouse who’s dome had long since crumbled provided the shapes of that skyline now. Every now that then there might be a two or three story building that still had the square-like shape of being mostly intact, but the taller ones had all suffered some form of serious damage.

Even the fairly intact foundry building before them had a few wooden patches over what should have been concrete walls. Or more commonly over blown out windows. And judging from the insignificant about of smoke coming out of one of the chimneys, the main forge had never been re-lit, although the lights made it a good guess that the small amount of smoke coming from it meant that the backup generator was up and running.

The yard was littered with large stacks of ingots. Ten years worth of rust proved that they were the same ones that had been there when the steelworks had been abandoned during the war. A chain link fence marked the parameter, although it had several gaps thanks to the ware and tare of time and nonexistent maintenance. Although somepony had built two small wooden towers on either side of the main gate to the yard.

Not to mention that both of those hastily constructed guard posts had a pony sitting atop, surveying the old road leading up to the steelworks. They both wore a dark purple robe and a combat saddle.

Scootaloo breathed an annoyed sigh. She would never understand demon-worshipping cultists. Apparently fighting an entire war of survival against them wasn’t enough to convince everypony that making a deal with a demon never ended well.

Although the understanding of what they were facing did bring a new concern to her mind.

“Sweetie Belle How’s your stealth?” she asked of her unicorn friend in a whisper.

Sweetie just blinked and wore a confused look on her face.

With a flick of her tail toward a bush behind them, the pegasus whispered, “Try sneaking over to that bush and back.”

The white mare moved to honor the request, but she didn’t get more than three steps before Scootaloo spoke up again.

“That’s enough,” she said when she couldn’t take the crinkling of dried grass under her friend’s hooves any more. Clearly her friends had always relayed on the simple fact that they were smaller as kids to sneak around, and not any actual skill in the matter.

“What’s up? Why the odd questions?” Sweetie finally asked.


“Don’t worry about it. The plan is, you two wait here, I sneak in, find Diamond Tiara, and cause a distraction. When the guards turn to face the problem inside, that’s your cue charge in and hit them from behind.”

“Scootaloo, Ah know you’re the only one here with real body armor, but you don’t have to put yourself in danger like that.”

The pegasus of the trio shook her head.

“This has nothing to do with armor.”

With that she began to flap her wings slowly and methodically. Not fast enough to fly, but when she took off faster than anypony had the right to run the sound made the meaning of her words clear. Or rather the absence of sound, as she moved balancing the use of all of her limbs to thread the line between running and flying in such a way that only the faintest whoosh of moving air could be heard as she left.

As Sweetie Belle crouched back down behind the bush she couldn’t help but smile and whisper, “It’s kind of funny isn’t it? The stealthiest pony we know is also the one who uses the loudest, flashiest weapon I can think of.”

Apple Bloom giggled before whispering back, “Yeah, but seeing as she survived the wastes alone for a year, apparently ‘sneak in and blow stuff up’ works.”

It was Sweetie turn to breath a whispered laugh at that comment, as the two of them lay there and watched an orange blur dart from on hiding place to another before running up the side of the building completely unnoticed. Even the guards on the roof didn’t seem to notice the roof access stairwell door open and close.

After a few minutes, Sweetie Belle couldn’t help but think out loud, “So what do you think the distraction will be?”

“Probably something blowing up.”


* * * * * * *


Inside Scootaloo stood in the rafters, between the highest beam and the ceiling, well out of sight of any of the robed ponies below. 

A part of her wondered why no pony ever bothered to look up. Sure she’d heard that pegasi had taken the worse in the war, but living on a remote island Wonderbolt base she hadn’t lived it. Being one she obviously couldn’t even look in the mirror without seeing a pegasus, but even when she finally got back to the mainland she still figured she ran into one pegasus for every twenty non-pegasi.

The more focused part of her pondered how to execute her plan. Finding Diamond Tiara and the makeshift cages in the far corner of the foundry area wasn’t hard at all. But the best place to cause a distraction for the guards outside would clearly be from the offices in the front half of the building.

Causing a distraction and being in a good position to get at Diamond before anypony realized what was going on seemed to be exclusive ideas.

And then there was the fact that Tiara was shouting incoherently at… well pretty much everything near her cell. It seemed clear to Scootaloo that the pink mare in the cage was suffering form taint poisoning, yet the fact that she was still using words meant she wasn’t completely corrupted yet. Although the more she thought about it, the worse her first plan of grabbing DT and pincer attacking the cultists on the way out seemed.

With Tiara in her current state she was likely going to fight her rescuers. That thought sealed the deal. Bringing Tiara to Sweetie just wasn’t practical, she would need to bring Sweetie Belle to DT if she was going to get the captive earth pony out of the cage without seriously injuring her.

Swiftly and silently she moved along the support beam, toward the offices.


* * * * * * *


“How long do you think we should wait? Do you think something went wrong?” Sweetie Belle asked.

Truthfully Apple Bloom’s patience was running thin too. But she was going to see Scootaloo’s plan through. At least she wasn’t going to brake cover as long as everything continued to seem normal at the steelworks, and so far nothing had happened. The ponies on the roof continued to patrol and the ones manning the posts by the gate just kept sitting there looking board. No signs of commotion what so ever.

Bloom was about to respond, but that idea fell by the wayside when a blast of lightning tore open two of the windows on the second floor. The blast was unmistakably one of Scoots’ storm cloud grenades. So instead, the yellow earth pony grinned and said, “Show time!”

As one would expect, the two guards at the gate spun around to see what had just happened behind them, neither of them noticed the pistols wrapped in green magic float up behind their heads. As soon as the pistols rang out, Apple Bloom took a shot with her hunting rifle and one of the robbed ponies on the roof also fell.

Just as the two crusaders charged past the gate, the front door swung open and two more cultists came flying out. Not because they were pegasi, because they weren’t, but because they were crackling with lightning fired by the orange pegasus now in the doorway.

As soon as she saw Bloom’s eyes were still locked on the roof, Scootaloo darted off to the side and flipped to face the sky. But before she could find the target, two shots rang out. One from the roof, that grazed Bloom’s leg, and one from the farm mare, that sent the pony in the robe falling from his perch.

With a quick look around Scoots confirmed that her friends had dealt with all of the targets outside. So she spun back around and dove into the first office on the right for cover. Firing off two shots at the first ponies to come from deeper inside the building. The sound of a heavy thud told her that the covering fire had scored one hit and one miss. A rifle shot from the entrance sounded out and another thud told her that Apple Bloom was becoming quire the marksmen.

“So, what’s the plan?” Bloom asked as she and Sweetie joined their pegasus friend.

“Cages are in the back right corner of the foundry. We’re going to need Sweetie to purge her of taint before we can get her out of there.”

The locals had scrounged together a few huts and such that added to the clutter of the foundry’s smelting equipment, conveyer belts and such of the work area. Having already scouted the area, Scootaloo indicated to the right wall. Not only was it the most direct route, but it had plenty of cover to fight from.

It also meant that when the fighting intensified, several cultists took cover behind a heavy metal tank on the left side of the room. A reasonable thing to do if you were looking for cover from bullets. Although Scoots couldn’t help but wonder if the flammable sign on the side of the smallest of the fuel tanks was still valid after all these years. With a punch of her cloud she sent a lightning bolt through the small tank hooked up to one of the welding machines.

KABOOM!

It definitely still had fuel it in. Of course now half the room was on fire, and the flames were spreading toward the larger fuel tanks. While the thicker metal of the larger tanks should hold, it was still an unintended risk she’d placed herself and her friends in. Given how big the blast from the small fuel tank had been if any of the big ones went off it’d demolish the entire building.

On the upside, the confusion also provided enough cover for Sweetie Belle to find some cover close enough to the cages to start her cleansing spell on Diamond Tiara.

The other two crusaders took up positions on either side of the cage and laid down suppressing fire in the general direction of the robed ponies. Well as suppressing as lightning can be given its tendency to arc around near the target point and the shots from a riflepony who seemed determined to hit an enemy with every shot could be anyway.

For her part, Tara was swearing up a storm as the light green magic wrapped around her. But as soon as the spell completed, the pink earth pony collapsed and passed out on the spot.

Apple Bloom wasted no time blowing the lock off with a shot from her rifle and kicking the cage open. As soon as she’d thrown the former school bully turned friend onto her back, Apple Bloom called out, “Ah got her! Let’s get out of here!”

With that the crusaders made a brake back toward the front of the building. But they didn’t get more than a few feet from the cages before something emerged from one of the huts.

If she didn’t know better Scootaloo’s first guess as to what the newcomer was would have been a minotaur. But this standing creature also had large bat-like wings on its back and dark purple runes coving its body like tattoos but they were glowing with dark magic.

“A demon!” Apple Bloom gasped. “They have an actual demon!?”

The obvious guess would have been a survivor from the war. The demon war had been declared ‘won’ years ago, but that didn’t mean there weren’t any demons left. It only meant that the demons had realized they’d lost too many numbers to win fighting as an army out in the open. The last remnants of the demon army had simply disbanded and slipped into the shadows, hiding spreading taint… and apparently starting cults for some reason.

In a way Scootaloo could understand her friend’s confusion. So far every demon worshiping cult she’d run across was either still trying to summon a demon, or had already been slaughtered by the demon they had summoned. Hence her guess that this wasn’t some freshly summoned demon, but one that was trying to regain some semblance of power and had learned better than to attract the attention of the Wonderbolts and E.U.P.

And judging from the black orbs now hovering just above its hands, such pondering could wait.

“Run!” Scootaloo commanded. Yet she moved toward the demon. At the same time she used her left wing to pull her saddlebags forward, folded her right wing and slipped it into the sleeve on the back of the saddlebag where she’d rigged up the firing mechanism for her silver pistol.

Her friends got a few steps before they noticed the pegasus of their group hadn’t bolted for the front door.

“Scoots! What about you?”

“Go! I’ll be right behind you!”

The demon pitched the balls of dark magic at the orange pony. She darted between the shots, letting them explode on the floor behind her and returned fire with the pistol.

The first three hits where freebies, but once the demon recovered from the surprise he leaped for cover and fired a few wildly aimed shadow-bolt spells.

“Light infused bullets. I didn’t expect a random wanderer to be armed with such a thing. But no matter, once I’m done with you I’ll be feasting on your soul just the same!”

The demon attacked, forcing the mare to abandon her hiding spot. Scootaloo was just as content to dart between the dark spells and shoot back with her best anti-demon weapon.

The exchange was quick, yet she raised an eyebrow when she’d counted out her seventh hit. Seven had always been the magic number when she’d fought demons in the past. But this one was still alive. And worse, she missed three times in the fight too. Although technically her silver pistol could hold fourteen bullets, if she remembered correctly…

Click.

Yep, she’d only had ten bullets left the last time she’d reloaded it.

A wicked grin appeared on the demon’s face. “How ironic,” he gloated. “You came to save one sacrifice, but instead you only brought me three more!”

Her friends were clear of the building by now, but Scootaloo only needed a glance at the demon’s wings to know what he meant. His wings weren’t badly injured and that meant nothing could outrun him on hoof.

A shiver ran down Scootaloo’s spine. For the first time in a long time she felt the edges of panic clawing at her mind. Then her eyes fell on something else and she sighed. It was a lousy idea, but she knew the only way her friends survived the day was if the demon was defeated right here and now.

She pushed her saddlebags back, unfurled her wings, and pulled out two cloud puffs from her belt.

“You think I can’t take a little lightning! Ha! Go ahead! Show me what you’ve- What are you-?” the demon cut off his own boast when the pegasus mare squeezed the clouds tightly into to sparking orbs.

Before he could finish, Scootaloo pitched the storm grenades, one at the demon directly, one at the large fuel tanks right behind him.


* * * * * * *


“That’s an awfully long ‘right behind you’,” Apple Bloom muttered when she’d counted off ten full seconds since they’d made it out the front door and her friend still hadn’t emerged.

Before Sweetie could say anything back, light and sound filled the space behind them. In horror they watched their shadows dance on the ground in front of them and a roar that put every train ever made to shame drowned out all other sound. Heat washed over their backs and blow past them with enough force to make them take a staggered step to keep from falling.

Slowly the two friends turned look at pyre behind them. The top half of the building was gone. Anything that wasn’t derbies flying though the air was on fire. They even managed to catch sight of a secondary blast of black flames, heralding the demon’s death.

“SCOOTALOO!” Sweetie Belle cried out.

Tears also flowed from Apple Bloom’s eyes as she beheld the destruction.

Sweetie cried out again and tried to run back toward the burning ruins, but she could only get within a few feet of the door before the heat made her back off again.

“Scootaloo!” she cried out again.

Apple Bloom placed a hoof on her friend’s shoulder. “Sweetie Belle, Ah don’t think anypony could survive a blast like that…”

“Scootaloo…” Sweetie whimpered as she collapsed to the ground.

The fires crackled for a moment, then a jet of flames shot out of the burning doorway. The flames parted and a figured appeared among the flames inside the ruins. Wings buzzing like a hummingbird were kicking up the winds that had parted the flames, and a scorched orange hoof came into view.

Scootaloo walked out of the flames, and spit a glass flask from her mouth to the side. As she fully emerged from the flames she shifted the angle of her wings, sucking back the cold air from in front of her to wash over herself and snuff out the flames still clinging to her. Even as she walked forward, her skin could be seen closing sealing away the muscles that had been exposed from where the burns had stripped away the skin. The newly forged skin quickly sprouted new fur among the singed spots.

“Sweetie Belle, I’m sorry, but I seem to have used all of the healing potions again,” the pegasus said.

Dragging her winged friend further from the burning ruins with her magic, Sweetie pulled her into a hug and between her sobs managed to respond, “Oh… Scootaloo… I don’t care about that!… I thought we’d lost you!…”
> Chapter 9: Ponyville’s New Mayor
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

The pink pony opened her eyes. She brushed her purple and gray mane aside and with bewildered eyes gazed at wooden room around her. Her first thought was to wonder if this was another delusion as she recalled being in a steel cage before the taint clouded her mind too much to trust her eyes. Her second thought was to wonder why her first thought was so clear.

Yet it truly felt like she was laying on an old mattress rather than a cement floor. Reaching out she waved her hoof in the air beside her. Her hoof didn’t bump into anything, and the cage wasn’t big enough to do that. At that point, Diamond Tiara wondered if she was dead or if she’d somehow been freed from the taint. Although the fact that her thoughts were no longer wrapped in endless hatred seemed to work with both theories.

Diamond Tiara.

She lingered on that thought. It had been far too long since she could think clearly enough to remember her own name. Between that and figuring that if she were dead she’d have woken up someplace more comforting than some old, rustic house, she figured somepony must have saved her from the taint poisoning after all.

Sitting up, she finally noticed that the door to this bedroom was open. As was the door to the room across the hall, and while the four-post bed with it’s ratty old canopy didn’t do anything to help her figure out where she was, the orange mare with the violet mane tied to it certainly did bring back memories.

“Scootaloo? Is that you?” she asked, torpidly getting out of bed and making her way to the room across the hall.

With a nod the pegasus answered, “I was beginning to wonder if you were going to wake up.”

“Then it really was you,” Tiara muttered. “The taint was clouding my mind, mostly there was only hatred and delusions, but then I remember the angel of justice descending in fire and lightning. And the more I think about it, the more I realize that the angel of justice looked an awful lot like you.” By the time she finished speaking a smile had come to the earth pony’s face.

“Well I’m no angel and I had help. But other than that, yeah, us crusaders got you out of there.”

“Then it seems I owe you my thanks once more, it’s so good to see an old friend again,” Tiara said. Then she shifted her eyes to the ropes keeping Scootaloo’s legs bound to the nearest bedpost. “But why are you tied to the bed like a um… slave?”

Scootaloo casually shrugged. “I think I made Sweetie Belle mad. That and I suspect this was the only thing she could come up with to keep me from ‘getting myself hurt again,’ helping other ponies.”

Diamond raised an eyebrow at the pegasus’ oddly mater-of-fact tone. “So… should I untie you?”

“I suppose three days was long enough.”

The new voice drew Tiara’s attention to the white unicorn standing in the doorway behind her.

“Sweetie Belle! You’re not a ghost!”

With her greeting, Diamond Tiara bound forward and hugged the unicorn from her past.

Returning the hug, Sweetie answered, “No, I’m vary much alive.”

“I’m sorry! But after I’d heard the stories from the other traders, of your ghost haunting the quarry road I just assumed you didn’t make it! Oh Celestia it’s good to see you again!”

“Good to see you too!” a voice with a country accent said.

“Apple Bloom!” Tiara said, looking over Sweetie’s shoulder to the yellow mare who’d appeared in the hallway. “I like the hat,” she added, taking note of the cowboy hat with the ribbon on it.

“Thanks! But what happened to your namesake?” Apple Bloom asked, motioning to tiaraless head of Diamond Tiara.

“Do I look stupid to you? I left that ‘rob me’ sign back in Seasaddle, safe and sound with dad!”

“Makes sense,” Bloom said finally adding a hug of her own to the one Sweetie was giving the pink pony.

Between the ponies around her and the sight of apple trees outside the windows she’d finally managed to guess where she was. Pulling her head back form between two of her old friends, Tiara asked, “Is this Ponyville?”

“Sure is!”

“So when the rumors said somepony had defeated the slavers here, they were talking about you three, weren’t they?”

“Most likely.”

“Okay, so who’s in charge now?”

“Apple Bloom.”

“Scootaloo!”

The pegasus blinked when she realized hers was the minority opinion. “But Apple Bloom was always the leader of the crusaders,” she voiced her logic. “Not to mention the clubhouse is here on Apple Family land. And you were always the one acting like the leader, calling meetings to order and standing at the podium and stuff. And even now this is your house we’re living in, your farm feeding most everypony in town.”

“That may be so, but you’re the hero who freed us from the slavers. Without you Ah’s still be in a cage, Sweetie would still be hiding behind a ghost story, and Diamond Tiara here would be getting sacrificed to a demon! You are the hero of Ponyville, not me, not Sweetie! And if Ah had to wager, if the townsponies had to choose between following me or you, I’d bet they’d choose you!” Bloom responded.

Scootaloo raised an eyebrow. In the back of her mind she thought to herself, ‘Didn’t they already choose you when they burned down the hospital?’ Out loud the only thing she said was, “If I’m in charge, why am I the one that’s tied up?”

“Because doctor’s orders trump leader’s orders,” Sweetie Answered.

“Speaking of that, didn’t you just say three days was long enough?”

Sweetie Belle gave a laugh. “I said that in the context that I wouldn’t stop Diamond Tiara from untying you. I’d be perfectly happy to make sure you gave your body a full week to burn those healing potions out of your system.”

With a sigh, Scoots laid her head back on her pillow. Although with a practical thought running through her mind she had to give it voice. “Diamond Tiara is right about one thing. We’ve been an unorganized group of survivors too long. We have food, water and power. Ponyville is rapidly becoming a proper town again. We really should have an election to choose a formal mayor.”


* * * * * * *


“Sorry, but I’m not giving you the easy way out,” Scootaloo said.

Everypony in town had gathered into the town hall. And apparently Apple Bloom hadn’t been far off. As soon as she had announced the election, somepony had shouted, “All in favor of electing Scootaloo as mayor say aye!” and the crowd responded with a unanimous ‘aye!’ immediately.

“I’m not running for the position,” Scoots clarified. “I’m a problem solver, I go wherever I need to, whenever I need to. A mayor needs to be somepony who won’t just skip town at the drop of a hat. So you’re going to have to find somepony who is actually willing to take the job to be your mayor.”

A murmur went through the crowd. And although less unified, the eyes of most ponies went to the other two cutie mark crusaders standing on the stage beside Scootaloo.

Then somepony called out, “So who would you vote for?”

At first she looked at Apple Bloom as an old memory flashed in her mind, reminding her that she’d once said Bloom could be mayor of Ponyville someday. “Did you want the job?” she asked the farm pony.

Apple Bloom only shook her head. “Naw, Ah’m with you on this one. Ah ain’t the administrative type either.”

With her friend’s words still echoing in her mind, the Hero of Ponyville turned her eyes to the front row of the crowd, and more precisely to the newest pony in town. “Hey Diamond Tiara, you still any good at organizing ponies?”

“Of course I am! I’ve been running a trade caravan for years! Well I was before that catastrophe out by Baltimare anyway.”

“So, would you be willing to be mayor?”

Tiara froze as it only just then hit her that this was where this line of questioning was going. In the back of her mind her greatest failing played out. Years of being a schoolyard bully and general stuck up brat. That is until the mares on the stage, then fillies, had intervened and set her down a better path. Yet looking around, she found only a few faces who would even remember her crimes, Cheerilee, Rumble, Dinky and the like. There were others she remembered from the old days, but they had been adults back then too, so were unlikely to have noticed her bully phase as a filly.

Looking back to the three mares by the mayor’s announcement podium, Diamond Tiara gave her answer.


* * * * * * *


In a way Scootaloo had regretted answering the question as honestly as she did. Not because she thought there was a better pony for the job than Diamond Tiara, because she didn’t, but because she realized that by making her choice known she’d single-hoofedly chosen the outcome of the election. The fact that the vote had been unanimous was proof that no pony else was actually thinking their choice through, they had just followed the lead of the town hero.

They’d even insisted that she be the one to appoint the new mayor. It wasn’t much of a ceremony, but they did manage to find top hat in good shape that they tied a white ribbon to the base of to make it look somewhat mayor-like and Scoots’ put that on Tiara in front of everypony.

The first thing Diamond Tiara did as mayor was to appoint town officers. She chose Apple Bloom as vice mayor for anytime she wasn’t available. After confirming that Scootaloo didn’t want the position, she appointed Rumble as the security chief. Given that she’d taken it on herself to look after the waterworks, no pony objected to Dinky being appointed as the utility manager. Sweetie Belle was even appointed as head of the town council. She even chose Cheerilee as the head of the (realistically nonexistent) education department. And reading the will of the ponies of Ponyville she even appointed Scootaloo to the special position of town hero. And so it was Ponyville gained a mayor and a six-pony town council.

And once the formalities of it all were over, nothing really changed. Sure, now there were seven ponies at the town meetings instead of four, but for the most part whenever Diamond Tiara asked for the input of the town council, whatever the three cutie mark crusaders agreed on was what ended up being Tiara’s decision on the matter. Just like when the crusaders had unofficially run the town.

In a way it wasn’t really that surprising. It had always been clear that it was the cutie mark crusaders who had the trust of the townsponies. So of course the new mayor wanted their council frequently and deferred to their judgment whenever possible when they took a stance on something. The one good thing in Scootaloo’s mind was that now she had somepony she could defer to when she felt that she didn’t have a good answer of her own.

The biggest change in town was trade. Ironically enough once the appointments were done, Mayor Diamond Tiara was quick to make Apple Bloom fill in for her while she skipped town to organize a couple of trade routs. Within the span of two weeks she’d set up two caravans. The one to the west was where they sold as many apples and apple leather as they could, usually in exchange for luxury items like sugar or paint. When she came back from Appleloosa it had turned out that not only had she made a trade agreement, but she’d helped them build a glass forge to put all that nearby desert sand to use making what she wanted to trade for, glass. Although having it’s own source of apples, Tiara had arranged to sell a few of Apple Bloom’s healing potions instead, as healing potions were always in demand in the wastelands.

And that change was easy to see. Every week the caravans came, trades where made, and color and fresh glass returned. For the first time since she’d returned, the farmhouse at Sweet Apple Acres could be called fully repaired. The townsponies had insisted that the town hall be next to get the glass for the windows, but after that other homes had been getting the luxury of real windows instead of just wooden shutters or curtains covering the window frames.

More than the appearance of the buildings, thanks to the caravans, word was spreading much more rapidly that ‘the good guys’ ran Ponyville again. And that meant more ponies like Cheerilee, the prewar residences, returning and doing what they could to rebuild their old lives. The most noticeable to catch Scootaloo’s eye was Mr. Cake and his school-aged twins, Pound Cake and Pumpkin Cake. And although no pony asked, between the noticeable absence of Mrs. Cake and the fact that Mr. Cake had brought the twins this far out into the wastelands made it a safe bet that the twins’ mother was no longer among the living.

And yet the return of what was left of the Cake family also meant he’d set about restoring one of the more iconic buildings of the market distract, the bakery made to look like a giant gingerbread house, Sugar Cube Corner. Although at the moment it looked nothing like that, but the frame that had been set up was enough to bring back memories of what it had been like when Scootaloo had been a filly.

From her perch of the third floor windows of the town hall, such thoughts made Scoots look to the southwest. That part of town looked almost normal now. True there were a lot more empty lots than there had been in the past, but the ruins had been cleaned up and the buildings there were in some state of repair, even if intact windows were still scarce for most of them. In fact the only building still in ruins between the town hall and Sweet Apple Acres was Fluttershy’s cottage, as no pony dared to claim the home of a fallen spirit of harmony so it had been left untouched as sacred ground. Other than Sweetie removing the taint from the place, but as far as the physical mound of rubble once worthy of the title ‘cottage’ no pony had dared touch it.

Much like the way no pony had used Applejack’s room out of respect for the fallen spirit of honesty. Even when it had been crowded, AJ’s room had been vacant of anypony other than Apple Bloom. And even she only visited the room, dusted off the pictures or such.

And then there was Sugar Cube Corner and Carousel Boutique, two iconic buildings from the old days that were semi repaired at best and still surrounded by the ruins of the three fourths of the town still worthy of the title ‘wastelands.’ Heck, even Cheerilee’s Schoolhouse was a little farther north than what most ponies would currently call ‘safe.’

Conveniently enough and weather he meant to or not, Mr. Cake’s choice to rebuild the old bakery where it stood made Scootaloo’s decision for her. Up to now she’d been torn on the idea of building a defensive wall only around the fourth of town they’d need in the near further, or trying to build a wall around the entire old Ponyville borders despite the likely need to grow the town more in order to have enough ponies to man the larger wall length. If Mr. Cake was going to live in front of the town hall that currently acted as the fortress against the raiders from Canterlot then building the full wall up front was certainly the plan. She and Rumble would just have to make due with trying to hold it with thin numbers until Rumble’s/the town’s security force was big enough to handle it.

Speaking of Rumble, just then he flew in front of the window she was looking out of and taped on the glass, then motioned to the ground.

Scootaloo raised an eyebrow to the casual gesture. Unless she was mistaken the only thing worthy of note was that a trade caravan had pulled into town, but she didn’t have anything she wanted to trade with at the moment, so what could possibly be worth directing her attention to down below? Regardless of her ponderings, she stood up and headed for the door, it wasn’t like she had anything better to do than go see whatever he wanted her to see down there.


At first she found exactly what she expected. Ponies gathered loosely in the main hall with Diamond Tiara and other townsponies bartering with the caravan ponies who’d come into town. Then her eyes wound their way to one of the mercenaries that had clearly come as hired protection.

The reason this pony stood out to her was because their armor was like nothing she’d seen before. Being a full body suit with a helmet that protected the entire head, she couldn’t even tell if the pony was a stallion or mare. The core of the suit was some sort of treated, white fabric, but it was clear that metal had been added to the body and parts of the legs at some point to add rigid protection to it.

While it wasn’t unheard of for raiders or adventurers alike to make armor out whatever metal they could get their hooves on, this armor was nothing like the hodgepodge of welded scraps that made up all of the non-military armor she’d seen in the wastelands before. The leg plates were uniform, matching the other legs in a way that proved whoever made this was accustom to working with metal, likely well before the war had started. Not to mention they had taken the time to color the metal with white and sky blue that further added to the style of the armor.

It had wing sleeves also made of the same odd fabric that separated the armored plates. So at the very least she could tell that the pony in the armor was a pegasus. However, the biggest standout of the suit was the tail sleeve. As far as she knew only beekeeper and hazmat suits had tail sleeves. She’d certainly never seen one on armor before, yet there it was, more of the odd, white fabric completely concealing the pony’s tail.

As for the helmet, It was white with some sky blue detailing depicting a lightning bolt on the side. It also had fins that looked like they were to accommodate a pony’s ears in a folded back position. It also had a blue crystal imbedded into the forehead area. And the more she looked at it the more she could have sworn she’d seen such a helmet before, but she couldn’t place it.

Finally she spotted the mini-cape on the pony’s back. Light blue and a darker blue shield that had a yellow silhouette of a pony with a cape… the same insignia that could be found on the flag now waving on the town hall’s flagpole. That was when she realized that it wasn’t a mini-cape, it was a full sized cape, full sized for a school-aged colt. And seeing as the crusaders had only made one light blue cape before deciding that honorary crusaders could just ware the same burgundy capes as regular crusaders, she had a really good idea who the stallion in the armor was.

By now he’d noticed the orange mare with the violet mane standing on the balcony, overlooking the trading floor. He opened his wings to fly up to the balcony, but she’d beat him to the punch and glided down the ground floor.

“Light Seeker.”

Pushing the visor of his helmet up, he finally revealed his face. His fur was the same off-white with a tint of blue that was easily mistaken for pure white, as it had been when he was a colt. The lick of his mane that could be seen was still the same shade of sky-blue that Rainbow Dash’s coat had been, too.

His greenish hazel eyes locked onto the mare as she landed beside him and said, “Scootaloo. It is so good to see you again!”

“You modified the space suit, didn’t you?”

“Guilty,” he answered with a smile. “But I think it’s taken a few too many hits to ever be airtight again.”

At that, Scootaloo nodded. “I thought it seemed familiar. But what are you doing out here anyway?”

“Looking for you actually. I’d heard that the good guys had taken control of Ponyville again. And not only that but that the good guys were called crusaders, I couldn’t help but think to myself, ‘now there’s a term I’ve only heard once before.’ And so I came to see if it really was the friends who helped me earn my cutie mark.”

“Okay. You’ve seen that it’s us. So what are you going to do now?”

The stallion let his gaze drift to the floor. “Ponyville was always like a second home to me, and after Cloudsdale was destroyed… If this is where you, Sweetie Belle and Apple Bloom want to rebuild, then this is the only place I can justly call home as well.”

For a moment there was silence. In a way Light thought Scootaloo would respond. When she didn’t he added, “On the way in, I noticed your security seemed to be stretched a bit thin. I may have an idea that could help with that.”

That finally got the orange mare to raise an eyebrow. “What did you have in mind?”

“If it’s still standing I can think of something I might have left behind the last time I was at my old workshop.”


* * * * * * *


In the hills north of Ponyville two pegasi crept through the withered tall grass. As they crested a hill like any other, the stallion held out his hoof and the two laid down, poking their heads up just enough to see what was beyond the hill.

In the space that separated this hill from the next, a metal hanger sat. It had a large set of hanger doors in the middle, and a smaller door off to the side of the larger ones. A few feet from the doors was a device about that size of a pony that sat atop a tripod. The device itself was basically a large, metal box with nine curricular holes in one end and a few extra doodads attached to the top of the box.

And then there was the half circle of signs, the closest of which being only a few feet from there the duo was crouched, which read, ‘Danger! Experimental defense system, proceed beyond this point and you will be fired on.’

“So, how accurate are the signs?” Scootaloo asked, nodding toward the nearest warning sign.

“Depends on if the range finder is still working or not.”

Scoots’ eyes shifted to the six small, scorched craters in the field in front of the defense device. Or more precisely to the five pony skeletons located near each of them. Not that the skeletons were even remotely intact, but there was enough to say ‘that used to be a ribcage’ or ‘that’s part of a skull.’ Even if the bones had been scattered by the blasts that dug the craters.

“It’s a rocket launcher, isn’t it?”

“Of course it is. Fireworks are what I know, and a rocket is basically a firework with an over-packed warhead. Although I’m actually surprised no pony had bothered to over run it,” He answered. Offering a set of binoculars to her, he explained, “It only had nine shots to begin with, and I can only see rocket tips in three of the tubes now. If we can make it miss three more times it won’t be able to fight anyone anymore.”

With a raised eyebrow, Scootaloo pointed at the blast marks and skeletons around it and said, “Uh…”

“Yes, I can see it’s only missed once out of six shots up till now.” With a shrug he added, “If we’re lucky it won’t fire at us at all. Although I’m not holding out much hope of that.”

“Why is that?”

“The control system has pictures of us to mark us as friendly, but… as you might guess those pictures are from when we were kids. That, and I’m not sure that our cutie marks alone will be enough for the system to say we’re the same ponies as the ones in it’s files.”

Silence fell for a moment. Then the mare of the two asked a simple question. “Can’t we just blow it up?”

Light lifted a hoof and opened his mouth but then froze before any words of protest could escape. After a moment longer he shifted his raised hoof to his chin and said, “Actually the important stuff is the control system inside. Losing a few motors would be annoying but those aren’t irreplaceable, plenty of salvage vendors back west willing to sell electric motors.”

With one last glance at the dusty skeletons scattered around the craters, Scootaloo said, “Then you’ll have to forgive me if I skip the risky method.”

With that she pulled out the puffs of cloud from six of her seven belt pouches and mashed them together to make a cloud a little bigger than her head. Then she stuck her hoof into the cloud and started rubbing it the wrong way, making it turn especially dark gray. As the cloud crackled with electricity Scootaloo stood up, moved the cloud to put it right between herself and the turret and punched it with all the might and focus she could muster.

A bolt of lightning as wide as the cloud flashed, striking the rocket turret. As lightning arched through the machine it managed to ignite one of the rockets properly, firing it right before the two remaining rockets blow up in the launcher, completely obliterating it.

As the machine had started to aim at her the moment she’d stood up, the rocket was fired in Scootaloo’s direction. She quickly ducked back down just in time for it to strike the warning sign just a few feet away. The resulting blast removed the sign from existence and showered them with the dirt and splinters.

Once the smoke had cleared, Scoots peeked her head back out and confirmed the sight of the rocket launcher’s destruction. Once she was satisfied that it was safe to do so, she stood back up and said, “It occurs to me that between the traders and school ponies, we can’t really afford to have friendly fire accidents with defenses like these.”

Light Seeker gave a chuckle as he brushed dirt off the top of his head and answered, “Yeah… I’m definitely thinking we should maybe only arm the town versions with tranquilizer darts or something.”

With a thoughtful look on her face Scootaloo brought her hoof back to her chin and pondered aloud, “I wonder if Apple Bloom knows any sleeping potion recipes we could use to make tranquilizer darts with?”

Regardless, with the threat out of the way, the two made their way down into the hanger to get what they came for and salvage anything else of use they could find.


* * * * * * *


They had hadn’t even set hoof back in town, and were still in the ruins of the north part of Ponyville, when they noticed three pegasi approaching them from above. Scootaloo’s first instinct was to pull out her last piece of cloud, but she refrained from doing so because she’d also noticed the formation flying and E.U.P. armor of the pegasi in question.

A second longer and she didn’t need any help identifying two of the three. A mare with yellow wings and a flaming yellow and orange tail and a stallion with white wings and a dark blue tail could only be Spitfire and Soarin. No doubt leaving the third as a Wonderbolt Scoots didn’t know. But knowing that the pegasi approaching them were Wonderbolts was enough to disarm her combat instincts.

Soarin and the mare with the seafoam-green coat landed facing to the side, insuring that the weapons mounted on their armor weren’t pointed and Scootaloo and her friend. As soon as Spitfire landed she removed her helmet and gave a slight nod to orange mare before her.

“Scootaloo! I’ve been looking for you!”

“Oh?” Scoots asked with a raised eyebrow. “What for?”

“Walk with me,” the captain of the Wonderbolts said, trotting off toward the restored part of town.

Light Seeker and the other two Wonderbolts took the hint and followed the two mares at a distance, letting them speak among themselves.

“So the short version is this,” Spitfire began. “We’re looking for another source of supplies for our forward base. Needless to say, you’re town is the closest community that we know will be friendly to us. I was hoping we could strike a deal. And I’m talking more than just a one-time trade, I’m talking routine supplies.”

Scootaloo nodded and said, “In that case you’ll have to talk with Diamond Tiara, she’s the mayor, she handles trade agreements for the town.”

“I’d heard as much,” Spitfire said as she gave a nod. “But it’s also plain to see that the town follows you. So I’d rather negotiate with the pony I know.”

“I’m sure you would. But I’d probably let you take advantage of me because I’m an adventurer, not a business pony. I’ll tell Diamond Tiara to give you as favorable of a deal as we can without it being a burden to Ponyville, but that’s the most I can do.”

“That’s all I’m asking. We don’t want to be a burden to anypony either.”
> Chapter 10: The Calm Before
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

It turned out the deal struck between Diamond Tiara and the Wonderbolts involved allowing them to join the town as a secondary defense force. Between that and the addition of Light Seeker’s automated tranquilizer turrets to the wall they were building, Ponyville quickly became a well-fortified walled town.

In related news Rumble was promoted from Security Chief, to Police Chief to remove any confusion as who was the town’s law enforcement now that the Wonderbolts were providing a military presence. And since they both used the same E.U.P. armor, Rumble and his team pained police colors and badges on theirs.

Spitfire especially welcomed the fact that for the first time since the war the Wonderbolts were protecting a town without being expected to run it. Although Diamond did make sure that the Wonderbolts were invited to town meeting, if for no other reason than to be kept in the loop and coordinate with Rumble and Scootaloo on security maters.

Yet such thoughts evaporated when Sweetie Belle approached her winged friend and said, “Scootaloo, it’s time.”

For her part, all Scoots could do was raise and eyebrow and ponder whatever the missing context was that Sweetie thought applied to those words. Whatever it was, it was lost on her.

“Time for what?” she finally asked when it became clear the unicorn wasn’t going to volunteer the information on her own.

“We just finished the Flutterhy memorial yesterday. There’s only one left, and we’ve all noticed that you avoid that place.” Sweetie’s words were met with silence, even if she could see some form of recognition in her friend’s eyes. “We’ve all stayed off of that property up till now. And we all agree that she’d have wanted you to be the first, but we can’t keep leaving it for you to be the first to return forever… and, well it’s the only debris field left in town.”

The orange pegasus blinked a couple of times as if to say ‘Is that all, why didn’t you say so?’ Yet those words didn’t escape her mind, instead the only words to come from her lips as she got up to follow her friend were, “I see.”



Soon Scootaloo found herself standing on an old dirt road. Beside her, was a weathered mailbox that wore the name, “Rainbow Dash.” Before her a grassy field and the scattered remnants of the fallen pegasus’ belongings. The cloud house that had once hovered overhead was long gone, completely destroyed ten years ago when the demons had overrun the town. Behind her, two life-long friends waiting patently and silently.

It didn’t take long before the gaze of her friends was felt on the back of her head, and so the orange pegasus stood and walked into the field. Unfortunately, Sweetie Belle was wrong. She hadn’t been avoiding this place to avoid facing any lingering scars, she hadn’t come here because she already knew there was nothing worth caring about here. Scootaloo’s eyes passed over the scattered derbies, searching for something that her friends might think had meaning, something that would satisfy the show they expected to see even if it really didn’t mean anything to herself, but what?

The glass of the picture frames had all shattered when they’d fallen into the field, and as fate would have it ten years in the wind, rain and sun was enough to destroy every last one of them.

In a way she was surprised to see gold medals and cups still among the shattered remains of the cabinets that used to house them. Ten years was a long time for no one to have taken them, but that only spoke to the power of the taint that must have been around before Sweetie cleared it if no pony had survived the attempt to take the gold just sitting in plain sight. 

But no, they wouldn’t do, even when her hero had been alive she’d gotten the impression that Rainbow Dash didn’t really care about the trophies, she was enthralled by the achievements they served as reminders of, not the trinkets themselves. If her friend had made a similar observation back then they’d see through gathering them up now as just the act that it would be.

Then her eyes found something that made something in her heart stir, although too dulled by the distance of time to be called an actual emotion, more like the memory of one.

Apple Bloom raised an eyebrow when she saw her pegasus friend pick up an old trophy, then she tilted her head when her friend started thrusting it into the ground. A moment of confusion passed as Bloom and Belle looked to one another trying to figure out what Scoots was up to. At a loss they finally abandon their posts on the road and ventured out into the field.

As they neared they realized that Scootaloo was using the old trophy cup as a makeshift shovel, a moment more and they noticed the tortoise shell completed with skull, bones, and broken propeller artifact beside the hole she was digging.

On instinct, Apple Bloom started to move forward to offer help, but a white hoof barred her path.

“Let her do this,” Sweetie whispered.

Nothing more was said, while the lone pegasus dug the hole. Even once the remains were buried Scootaloo didn’t need to say a word. She snapped off the trophy cup and presented the base to Sweetie Belle. And that was all that was needed to get her to use her magic to unscrew the base plate proclaiming Rainbow Dash as the winner of some Cloudsdale circuit race, flip the plate over and re attach it while adding a new inscription.


R.I.P.
Tank the tortoise.


With that, Scootaloo pounded the trophy base turned headstone into the mound until she was sure it was secure.

After a moment of silence, the pegasus mare rose and gave the field one last look. Then she gave her honest answer, “I see nothing else that needs my attention. See you at the town hall meeting.” And with that she left.


* * * * * * *


Diamond Tiara frowned as she looked down at the table. On the table was an old pre-war map of Equestria, with hoof drawn additions to update it. Oddly enough the mayor had been in good spirits of late. Although when her poker-face faltered, she’d glance to the right side of the table, and that was enough to guess what had her concerned. Unsurprisingly that was where the security team composed of Scootaloo, Rumble, and Spitfire sat.

“As you know,” the Mayor said. “Between the completion of the wall, the automated defenses and the arrival of the Wonderbolts offering their services for safe haven and supplies, the raiders haven’t attacked in over a month. Not only that, but there’s been some good news from the west. It seems that Las Pegasus has finally followed our example and restored order enough to elect a mayor. And with the Wonderbolts effectively controlling the coastline, they’ve managed to restore the train line from Las Pegasus all the way up to Vanhoover.”

A round of smiles greeted the news, although Scootaloo remained quiet, as she could feel there was more to what Diamond wanted to say. Apparently Spitfire felt the same, as she also remained quiet.

Once the smiles and ‘good for thems!’ died down, Tiara continued.

“As you might guess, a merchant at heart like me looked into the possibility of restoring the train line between Ponyville and the coast. And while Vanhoover was certainly interested in the idea, there’s a rather obvious problem that needs to be dealt with first. Ponyville and the towns of the coast may be safe enough for normalcy to return, but a thousand miles of train lines between here and there are impossible for any of us to secure and… well…”

The mayor let her words trail off. But she didn’t need to finish for everypony in the room to understand. Spitfire remained stoic, although the keen of eye would have noticed an increased effort to show no response.

“Canterlot,” Apple Bloom said, breaking the silence.

“Exactly,” Diamond Tiara said with a nod. “Even now, we’ve had an increase in attacks on our trade caravans away from town. Needless to say if we tried to get the trains up and running again, there’s no way the raiders wouldn’t notice. And unlike dirt roads, railway tracks can’t afford to be tampered with. Hence why no pony is willing to even try getting the line to Ponyville back up while we’re sitting on the doorstep of the most notorious raider stronghold in Equestria. Spitfire? I know the Wonderbolts have been trying to retake Canterlot this whole time we’ve been rebuilding Ponyville. Is there anything we can do to achieve that?”

The captain of the Wonderbolts finally let a smirk appear on her face. “So the goals of Ponyville are finally the same as the goals of the Wonderbolts. I was wondering how long you’d tolerate living next to such a den of evil. Well if you’ve bothered to observe any of our failed attacks, you’ve probably noticed that the raiders have found the city shield.”

“City shield?” Diamond Tiara asked.

“Yes, once Captain Shining Armor married, some time after he moved to the Crystal Empire he and Twilight Sparkle built a magic array to duplicate his city wide shield spell. While it requires a group of ten average unicorns to activate it, clearly the raiders have that many and figured out how to activate it. Every time we try to attack the shield goes up and we can’t even enter the city. On top of that, we’ve tried sneaking agents in to disable the shield array but they never report back and our attack is met with the shield so they clearly failed to reach it.”

Spitfire gave a sigh before adding, “So unless you know of someway to disable the shield, we’re still stuck in the same place as without Ponyville’s help.” As she finished speaking her, and everypony else’s for that matter, gaze shifted to Scootaloo.

The orange pegasus set her own gaze on the table in front of her.

After a moment Scoots raised an eyebrow. “Why is everypony looking at me,” she finally asked.

“You’re the hero who freed Las Pegasus AND Ponyville from slavers,” Apple Bloom pointed out.

“So… DO we know a way to deal with the bad guys held up in Canterlot?” Sweetie added.

Scootaloo got up and started to walk away, pausing at the door she said, “I may know of something.” And with that she left.


* * * * * * *


Sweetie Belle may have been wrong about the place, but she hadn’t been wrong about Scootaloo avoiding someplace in Ponyville on purpose.

The once white columns had long since stained to gray continued to stand vigil on either side of the front door, holding up the extended second floor of the seemingly average two story house. The blue paint on the walls and door had held up reactively well over the years, with only a few spots pealing to reveal the wood beneath. The windows on the ground floor had all cracked or outright broken.

The one recent addition to the sight was a small sign hanging from the door’s handle that read, ‘Scootaloo’s Home.’ Judging from the elegant style of the writing, it was a safe bet that Sweetie Belle had left the sign, probably when she cleansed this part of town from the taint.

For her part Scootaloo couldn’t help but give a single scoff at the sign. As nice as her friend’s sentiment was, ‘home’ was the wrong word. This place had never been more than just a ‘house’ to her. The clubhouse, Rainbow Dash’s place at sleepovers, or just anywhere she was hanging out with her friends, those where the places that felt more like ‘home’ than this place had ever been. No, this place was just where her bed was, the place she had to come back to at the end of the day, but it had never felt like ‘home.’

Pushing the door open, she found that thanks to the broken windows the living room had acquired a decade’s worth of dust. But aside from the think layer of dust, it seemed to be just as she’d remembered it the last day she’d been here before being dragged out of town by Spitfire. Coffee table, sofa, even the note pad sitting on the dinner table was still where it always was…

Out of habit she looked at the notepad. So many years she’d communicated with her father more through that thing than actually talking to him on account of the fact that most days the only time the both of them where in the house at the same time was when she was asleep. With a heavy breath she cleared the dust off of the notepad. Unsurprisingly it was blank. It may have taken her over a year to accept that Rainbow Dash was dead, but when she’d been told her father hadn’t survived the day Canterlot fell to the demons she’d believed it inside of a week.

For a moment she glanced at the stairs to the second floor. But she made her way into the hallway on the ground floor. Part of the way down the hall, she opened the door to a closet.

Inside there was the usual suspects for a closet a mop, broom, duster and that sort of thing. But Scootaloo only reached for the back shelf, not anything on it. She gave it a rattle, but nothing happened. In a way she wasn’t surprised that the lock was still intact, the secret door built into the back of the closet was probably the sturdiest part of the entire house. Although if it was still locked that meant the rest of the locking mechanism was still intact too, so she turned away from the closet.

She’d made her way upstairs but then stopped. Her gaze had fallen on the door to her room. Her mind reminded her that the only thing she needed was in the attic, and that nothing of use was in her old bedroom.

The faces if her two best friends appeared in her mind’s eye. A part of her longed to truly feel again, to be okay again, if for no other reason than for their sake. Apart of her wished that Ponyville was on fire right now. But it wasn’t, so she wasn’t pressed for time. Taking the first meaningless, emotional urge she’d remembered feeling in years, she pushed the bedroom door open.

Ten years had meant nothing to this place. A shiver ran down Scootaloo’s spine when she noticed that her window was apparently the only window in the house that hadn’t been punched out by vines over the years. And as a result there wasn’t even much dust in here.

A filly’s saddlebags sat beside her desk, her old schoolbook still waiting inside, a decade’s old set of homework still sat on the desk, patiently awaiting the moment their owner to finish playing and came back to finish them so they could be turned in the next morning. A moment that never came, thanks to said owner being dragged out of town in an evacuation.

In the back of her mind, she wondered if Cheerilee could make use of the books.

A shelf hung on the wall with a few old toys. The one toy that might have meant something to her was notably absent. Not that that was surprising, her scooter had been with her when Spitfire had dove down and grabber her. In all likelihood it was still laying in the north orchard, not far from the clubhouse. Or even more likely it was a pile of metal parts surrounded a wood dust that had succumbed to erosion over the last ten years.

She hadn’t really had a reason to check the last known location of her scooter. Although Apple Bloom should have stumbled across it by now, seeing as the north orchard had been restored.

A bed with green blankets still sat undisturbed, and the dresser just beyond the end of the bed filled the rest of the side cubby part of the somewhat L-shaped room.

Her eyes fell on a picture sitting atop the dresser. A picture of an orange filly with a violet mane sitting by a campfire alongside a sky-blue mare with a rainbow mane, both grinning with joy. And she froze.

Oddly enough it wasn’t the sight of Rainbow Dash the stopped the mare in her tracks. Thanks to living on Storm Breaker Island, she’d had plenty of Wonderbolt posters around before she’d left the Wonderbolt’s stronghold, including the one they’d made just before the war that had the rainbow maned Wonderbolt on them.

It was the echo of her past self that had the mare transfixed. Finally moving from her spot she placed a hoof gently against the glass of photo. She knew why she’d been smiling in the photo, that was the first evening after gaining her hero as an honorary big sister, at the campsite on their way back down the mountains. But staring into the photo couldn’t make her remember what joy felt like.

And for the second time since she’d left Storm Breaker Island, she truly wished she knew how to destroy the emotional wall she’d build around her heart the day she’d accepted Rainbow Dash’s death. For the second time since she’d grown tiered of the pain in her heart, she wished she could feel that pain again if it meant she feel the good times too.

With a sigh she conceded that that wishing it didn’t make it happen. Her mind reminded her that she still had a practical task to complete in this house. She turned and left. And with the flick of a wing she closed the door behind her as she returned to the hallway.


* * * * * * *


After about five minutes, Diamond Tiara and the others concluded that Scootaloo wasn’t coming back, so they resumed the meeting without her. Apple Bloom took the occasion to suggest it was time they build a hospital, if for no other reason but to get the surplus medical equipment out of her barn and the town hall’s storage rooms.

Although she wasn’t sure why, Tiara did pick up on the hints that something more important was going on, given Bloom and Rumble’s insistence on a new site and new floor plan for the hospital. Ultimately it was decided that they would build the new hospital just a block or so to the west of the town hall, to have it more centrally located in town instead of the previous one’s place on a hill on the outskirts of town.

Once the meeting was adjourned the mayor pulled Sweetie Belle aside and asked a whispered question as to what she wasn’t understanding about the hospital.

Sweetie leaned in and whispered back, “Destroying the hospital was the mark of betrayal against Scootaloo. I think Apple Bloom thinks building a new one will undo that.” With a slow nod of her head, she added, “Apple Bloom and the others all want to make up for that.”

“I see,” was all Diamond said in response. In her mind however she added, ‘No wonder all the long time townsponies are so loyal to her. They know they were wrong and want to make it up to her. But does Scootaloo even know they want her forgiveness?’

More allowed the mayor asked, “So… does anypony have any idea if or when Scootaloo will share her plan about Canterlot?”

“I’m curious to know that myself,” Spitfire seconded.

“Hate to break it to you, but there was no plan when I liberated Las Pegasus,” Scootaloo said, startling the rest of the town council before they could exit the town hall. “Liberating the city wasn’t even my goal. So I’ll leave the battle plans to Spitfire. I can, however, say leave the shield to me.”
> Chapter 11: The Storm
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Four ponies lay hidden in the bushes, looking over the ridge before them. The once white walls of Canterlot were now covered in graffiti, and most of that was varying shades of red, often depicting skulls or flames or other less than welcoming things. Two ponies could be seen manning the watch posts overlooking the city’s southern gate. Once gold, the gate was still scorched black from when the city had fallen to the demons all those years ago.

“So, ready to tell us how you’re going to deal with the city shield?” Spitfire whispered.

Scootaloo nodded and then said, “First have a wing of Wonderbolts show themselves so they’ll raise the shield. Then duck back behind this ridge and I’ll deal with it. When the shield brakes the feedback shock should keep them from recasting the spell anytime soon, so we’ll be free to storm the city and you can use your battle plans to your heart’s content.”

“Okay…” the captain of the Wonderbolts said, while pounding how one deals with a city shield after it’s been cast. Although the silver device strapped to Scoots’ front right leg seemed a decent guess.

Either unfazed or unconcerned by Spitfire’s clear doubts, Scootaloo turned to her fellow Crusaders and said, “Are you two sure I can’t talk you into sitting this one out?”

“And why would we do that?” Apple Bloom asked back rhetorically.

Scoots answered anyway. “Because as far as I can tell this is the last time anypony will have to fight to fix Ponyville. And I’d rather you two weren’t putting yourself at risk now that an end is in sight.”

Sweetie Belle just patted her pegasus friend on the shoulder and said, “Aww, are you actually starting to feel things again? That’s so sweet!” After a quick laugh from herself and Bloom, Sweetie added, “But Crusaders stick together! Right?”

“Right!” Bloom answered.

Scootaloo just sighed. Then she looked to Spitfire and nodded. And with that the four ponies crawled back down the hill and out of sight of Canterlot.

Once they were back with the main force, Spitfire went over to the Wonderbolts. Diamond Tiara stood at the front of the Ponyville forces and stepped forward to speak with Spitfire. After a moment of whispered conversations, Tiara relayed orders to the Ponyville ponies.

From among the Ponyville ranks, Light Seeker stepped forward. Not only was he wearing his spacesuit turned combat armor, but he also had on a set of metal wings strapped to his back that had gaps at the base just big enough for his natural wings to flap. In addition to that, the wing pack also had several cylinders attached to the underside of the metal wings. Cylinders that were easily identifiable as rocket launchers.

He walked over to Scootaloo and gave her a nod. She raised an eyebrow. Clearly he didn’t realize she was out of the loop as to any plans beyond ‘brake the barrier, improvise’ but she didn’t see any need to voice that observation. Regardless, Light then gave a nod in Diamond Tiara’s direction as well. With that Diamond gave a nod to Spitfire and she signaled three other Wonderbolts, who took to the sky in response.

With that, Scootaloo motioned for everypony else to stay back and made her way back up the hill to overlook Canterlot.

It didn’t take long before the raiders posted above the gate saw the Wonderbolts and started shouting warning calls. Once that happened it only took a few seconds before a pink glow shimmered from the ground and grew upward to become a shell of protective magic around the city.

Scootaloo continued to watch the Wonderbolt pegasi until they’d circled around and rejoined those gathered behind the hill. With one last look to confirm all friendly ponies where behind her, Scoots turned back to Canterlot.

Sitting up she pointed her front right leg at Canterlot. The device wrapped around her leg had silver rings, frames and shoe that made it looked halfway between a boot and a knee-high leg brace. And a fancy one at that, given the metal it appeared to be made of. On the bottom of the boot part of the device was a clear crystal lens. The supports that went up the sides of her leg also had a long thin crystal embedded in the silver that revealed a chamber with liquid rainbow was housed in the supports. Near the top of the inside support was a white button. The device ended in a silver ring that fit around the leg just below the knee.

Adjusting her aim, she pointed her leg slightly high and off center of the city, but still well through the sphere-like shield protecting it. Then, with her other front leg, she pushed the white button.

A beam came from the silver device and was easily twenty feet across. The beam itself was made up of seven colors of light, pure white plus the six colors of the rainbow. They were weaving through each other like ethereal streamers blowing in the wind, yet contained in a clearly defined cylinder of their own light.

The city shield spell shattered the instant it was struck by the prismatic beam, giving no apparent resistance to the shot. The beam continued through the sky, sailing ever straight into the heavens as the curve of the world pulled the ground away below it.

The brief moment that Scootaloo held down the button came to an end and the moment she released it, the beam of magic stopped flowing out of the lens just beyond her hoof.

Silence followed. In her mind she counted off three solid seconds of absolute silence in the wake of the beam that tore through the city shield like it was tissue paper in the way of a firehouse. Crickets, birds, raiders, even those behind her who’d only really felt the release of magic at the ridge of the hill stood silent.

Then Scootaloo ducked back down behind the ridge and the sudden movement seemed to wake the raiders stationed on the city wall and remind them that maybe they should shoot at where the unknown magic beam had come from.

The sound of gunfire was quick to wake the Wonderbolts from their awestruck pondering and they leapt into the air en mass. Once the Wonderbolt had engaged, Diamond Tiara and Light Seeker ran to the top of the hill. From there Light fired several of his rockets. It took five shots, but the city gates where quickly thrown from their hinges and fell to the ground.

And with the way open, Tiara shouted, “Charge!”

By then Scootaloo and the crusaders had joined the mayor of Ponyville and charged forward. And that lead the Ponyville forces to follow in kind.

With the Wonderbolts and E.U.P. attacking from the air and the Ponyville forces taking the ground level fighting, the raiders quickly fell back form the city walls to secondary lines of defense. Just as Scootaloo and her friends found themselves pinned down by a raider machinegun nest, the ground rumbled and screams came from the raiders. Diamond Dogs emerged, tore the raiders apart, flipped the guns around and turned them on other raiders.

While it was news to Scootaloo that the Diamond Dogs had agreed to help, it wasn’t hard to guess that they wanted to remove the raider capital of Equestria from their doorstep just as much as Ponyville did.

With that barricade dealt with, Scoots and friends move onward. Although it didn’t take long before Spot found his way to the side of his former queen and started coordinating the Dogs’ efforts with Ponyville’s through Sweetie Belle.

It didn’t take long for Diamond Tiara to fall behind as she directed ponies to search every building they came across for any captives that the raiders might have had. All the while the Wonderbolts had rushed forward, not really bothering to take ground that they didn’t see as relevant to taking the castle.

And so three ponies and a diamond dog soon found themselves on point in the ground battle pushing down the main street. Granted Rumble did his best to fill the wake and keep Scootaloo and friends from being attacked from behind. But with the mayor splitting the ponyville forces, he couldn’t really keep up.

Although given that Sweetie continued to advance with Scootaloo, they soon found the Diamond Dogs to be their most common support as they made their way through the south district and toward the central distract.

They had made it about two thirds of the way through the south district when a raider jumped out of an alleyway with a missile launcher and fired it at them. In a heartbeat Scootaloo flapped her wings closed with one, powerful motion in front of her. Not to stop or slow her self, as she didn’t even lose a stride, but to create an airburst that knocked the missile up and to the side and sending it into a nearby tower.

A shot rang out from Apple Bloom’s rifle at the same instant that a lightning bolt shot from Scootaloo’s cloud puff and the raider pony fell.

But unlike her feathered friend, Apple Bloom had been startled into halting her gallop when she first saw the missile launcher. And a sudden cry of, “Look out!” came from Sweetie Belle, who was even further behind.

It only took and instant to find the sight that had alarmed Sweetie. The top half of the tower that had been struck by the deflected missile was crumbling down, and falling right toward Apple Bloom. Then a green glow wrapped itself around the yellow mare and she was pulled back by Sweetie’s magic.

The tower had once been six stories tall, and so when the top half fell into the main street, three floors worth of rubble slammed down right behind Scootaloo. She stumbled and fell, coughing in the cloud of dust that had been kicked up by the falling rubble.

“Apple Bloom! Sweetie Belle! Are you alright?” she managed to call out between coughing bouts.

The dreadful second afterwards felt like an eternity. But then Sweetie’s voice called back, “We’re alive! Just give us a minute to heal up and climb over this mountain of rubble and we’ll be right with you!”

Somewhere in the darkness, a fortress crumbled, leaving a little orange filly down on her knees. “That was way too close! I have to save them! I have to end this fighting before they get themselves killed!” the filly begged.

For the first time in years, Scootaloo’s body trembled with fear.

“No,” she whispered and she turned her back to the rubble pile and back toward the gate to the central district.

Jumping into the air, Scootaloo flew low and fast. And with her legs freed up, she pressed the broadcast button for her helmet’s radio and said, “New plan! Everyone who wants to live to see tomorrow, get as far south of Canterlot Castle as you can!”

“Dang it, Scootaloo! This is the best chance we’ve had to take out the raider queen! We’re not going to fall back now!” Spitfire’s voice argued back over the radio.

“Then you’d better do exactly what I say when I get there! Don’t hesitate! Because I won’t!”


When she entered Canterlot’s central district she laid eyes on the castle… and about a dozen raider defensive positions along the main road between her and it.

Then rockets began to rain down on the raiders en mass. Looking over her shoulder Scoots spotted Light Seeker as the source of the bombardment. The entire road in front of Scootaloo was bathed in explosions. With the way clear, and the last of his rockets spent, Light gave a quick salute to Scoots and turned to fly back south as fast as he could.

As Scootaloo entered the castle grounds, several Wonderbolts grabbed their wounded and retreated back down the path she’d just come from.

The courtyard had acquired several craters and corpses in the recent fighting. Inside the main keep the gunfire, lightning and explosions could still be heard and only got louder the closer Scootaloo got to the throne room. In the halls along the way, the raiders had added spikes and skulls to many of the ornaments. But other than that and minor details like the banners had been changed and the stain glass windows having been replaced with normal ones, it was still the same castle she’d remembered from years ago. Granted it had been blasted and scorched by guns and lightning in the last few minutes.

In the throne room Spitfire and a few Wonderbolts were hunkered down behind some pillars near the entrance to the room. They took shots when they could but return fire never gave them more then a second before forcing them to duck back down. Over by the throne, raiders were doing much the same from behind the throne.

But there was one exception. A pink unicorn mare with a red mane who stood in front of the throne, wearing what looked like royal guard armor that had some extra gemstones added to each piece. Every shot she took only made the gems in her armor shimmer and a pink shield spell would briefly revealing itself around the raider queen. No one was quite sure how a raider got a hold of a set of fully enchanted demon war armor. Although the obvious guess was that the demons didn’t destroy all the armor in the Canterlot when it fell as previously believed. However it had happened, the rumors that the raider queen had top-of-the-line enchanted armor were clearly true.

And then there was the mini-gun attached to her armor. With it she sprayed down any movement she saw from the Wonderbolt with a hail of bullets. Which usually made the blue shield spells of the Bolt’s armor shimmer before they could duck back behind cover.

As Scootaloo galloped toward the throne room, the sounds of battle told her more or less what was going on inside it. She also found the throne room doors had been blown off of their hinges and were laying in the hallway just outside. And there were two Wonderbolts fighting from outside the throne room and just peaking in from the doorway to return fire.

Reaching up, she pushing the radio button on the side of her helmet and said, “I’m coming in. Get behind me! Nowhere else will be safe!”

The Wonderbolts stopped firing, and several of them even darted out of the room. The raider queen was more than happy to take that reprieve to swap out the ammo drum of her mini-gun with her magic. She even smiled when she spotted the orange pegasus in repainted E.U.P. armor and a crusader cape entered the room.

With a sinister grin the queen began, “Ah the legendary hero of Ponyville! I was wondering when I’d finally get to face a worthy op-”

She never got to finish, because as soon as Spitfire and the other Wonderbolts had lined up behind her, Scootaloo fired the silver weapon strapped to her leg.

A massive explosion of pure light consumed Canterlot. Although had there been a distant observer they’d have noticed that it was actualy three explosions, the first centered on Canterlot Castle. The next from a tower in Canterlot’s north district and happened to be directly behind the castle’s throne room. And the last blast coming from the mountain ridge north of that. And finally, a beam of prismatic light punched through the chain of three explosions and sailed northward into the sky.

Canterlot’s western balcony distract began to crumble and fall away as the magic that once held it faltered under the force of the nearby blast. And even so the spheres of light seemed to consume the whole of the city.

When the light faded a massive gorge had been cut in the mountain ridge north of Canterlot, the most of the city was in ruins, and the castle was gone. However the circle of destruction that had enveloped the city had a large wedge cut from it. A wedge that had left the south district largely untouched. And although it grew narrower the further north it went, that had also spared the main street of the central district. Although even in the ‘safe space’ any towers with more than three floors had lost any floors above that. Finally the wedge of safe space came to a point only a few feet in front of where Scootaloo was standing.

Quite followed the light. Wonderbolt, E.U.P., raider, Ponyville, Diamond Dog, it didn’t matter, all who had survived the blast were held in awed silence. And even when it was broken it was only from the clatter of the remaining raiders dropping their weapons and holding up their hooves in surrender.
> Chapter 12: Rebirth of a Nation
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Spitfire looked up from the meeting room table and said, “Scootaloo, it has to be you.”

The mare in question was staring out the window, and with her back still turned to the rest of the room she answered, “No.”

“It’s been three weeks, the raiders and slavers of eastern Equestria are gone. And most of the time the known encampments were abandoned by the time we got there. It doesn’t matter how hush hush we are about your secret weapon, word has spread that Scootaloo is the one who defeated the raiders of Canterlot. And all those ‘new’ settlements we keep finding are all asking us the same thing. How to be on friendly terms with Ponyville. Heck, some of them don’t even beat around the bush and asked how to be on friendly terms with Scootaloo! You have become a symbol, Scoots, and everypony in Equestria is willing to rally behind that symbol, behind YOU!”

“And that’s precisely why I’m the only pony in all of Equestria who can’t be the leader. I have become a symbol. A symbol of destructive power.”

“It’s like that. Not to most ponies,” Sweetie Belle offered.

“What? You think I haven’t heard what they’re saying about me? I know full well that the good ponies call me ‘the angel of justice’ and all those retired raiders and salvers call me ‘the angel of death’! It doesn’t even matter which one it is. Both see me as a symbol of power! And that’s why everypony needs to see ME bow to the rightful ruler! All those retired slavers and raiders out there, they NEED to see that destructive might doesn’t give you the right to rule!” Scootaloo answered finally turning to face the others.

Spitfire set down her coffee cup and said, “In case you hadn’t noticed, all of the royal families were wiped out in the war. That’s kind of why Equestria fell into anarchy in the first place. So where exactly do you expect us to get a ‘rightful ruler’ as you say?”

“If we can elect mayors to run a town, can’t we just hold an election to choose a new princess of Equestria?”

“Technically if a national leader is chosen by election they’re called a president,” Cheerilee interjected. “That aside, it can be done.”

“Fine,” Spitfire said with a smirk. “But you know they’ll all just vote for you.”

“Not if we make it a rule that you can only vote for somepony who’s running, and I don’t run.”

“That’s nice and all, but if we don’t let ponies vote for you, Scoots, how can we be sure that the pony who wins is actually worth following? What if we just end up with a former raider or something?”

Scootaloo raised an eyebrow to Apple Bloom’s question. Then she said, “Apple Bloom, look around you. We have Spitfire and the Wonderbolts who can influence the guard, us Crusaders with Ponyville, and mayor Diamond Tiara has a lot of influence with the trade caravans. As long as everypony in this room agrees who we want to elect we can basically choose who the first president will be.”

“We may have influence,” Spitfire said. “But it’s not unlimited. I could probably talk the Bolts and guard into voting for half the ponies in this room. I but I can’t say that for just anypony. So that begs the question, who would it be?”

Scoots put a hoof to her chin and pondered for a moment. When she finally looked up her eyes were focused on the white unicorn in the room.

Sweetie Belle’s eyes became dots when she realized the intent of her friend’s gaze. “You want me to run?”

“Why not?” the pegasus crusader said with a shrug. “You’ve already been the Queen of the Diamond Dogs. Would President of Equestria really be that different?”

“Uhh, yeah! The Diamond Dogs build what they want from rocks! Rocks! Not exactly a hard resource to come by! Ponies tend to need more complicated things than just rocks!” Sweetie blurted out the first thing that came to mind.

“Things that they need to provide for themselves. That’s not what you’ll be there to do. Like Spitfire and I have been talking about, the leader needs to be a symbol. And everypony who knows you from the battle of Canterlot, knows you as a symbol of healing and as a Cutie Mark Crusader.”

With that Scootaloo looked around the table. Spitfire and Diamond Tiara returned nods as if to say ‘I can work with that.’ The gestures didn’t go unseen by Sweetie Belle either.

“Fine,” she conceded. “But if I win, I’m appointing you as general.”

Scootaloo shrugged. “Less then ideal. But I said they needed to see me bow to the president, so if that’s what you ask of me, that’s what I’ll do.”

The meeting continued as other things where discussed, but Scoots returned to staring out the window. What was left of Canterlot couldn’t really be seen from Ponyville anymore, so that was a glaring difference in the view compared to a few weeks ago. but among the subtle differences, like the green returning to the hills well beyond Ponyville’s walls, the biggest one was the sky. Once they’d returned from the east, the Wonderbolts had started rebuilding Cloudsdale. And while it was only a fraction of the size of the old one, having a cloud town parked in the northern distance from Ponyville felt like the biggest neon sign in the world that things where finally ‘normal’ again. Or at least as normal as they could be.


* * * * * * *


It took two weeks to get the other towns and cities to agree to an election, and a month had been allotted for campaigning before the actual vote. A few other ponies even ran. Although, when the trade caravans stated spreading the rumor that Scootaloo wanted Sweetie Belle to win, it didn’t matter if Scoots had stayed quiet on the topic. And with Las Pegasus, Ponyville and the Wonderbolts solidly backing her, Sweetie won by a landslide.

A big ceremony was arranged. Although given the new title, it was agreed that a crowning didn’t fit, so an oath of office for the new president was arranged instead. Regardless, once it was done, Scootaloo bowed, and the crowd followed suit.

After the ceremony was a party. And it was there that Scootaloo smiled, laughed, and danced. And she danced just like the little orange filly dancing somewhere in a field of starlight.