New seeds for Stable two

by AppletreeIStardust

First published 7th of February, 2022

Two sisters from stable 2 are sent to rescue the food of their home.

The two sisters Stardust and Appletree from Stable 2 are sent on an important mission to the wasteland. The stable's apples will no longer be nutritious and barren in a year. So the two move to Philidelphia to the stable-tech seed safe. To get fresh seeds.

Prologue

New seeds for stable two

(A Fallout Equestria fan fiction by StardustIAppletree)

0. Prologue

I was sitting bored in my laboratory. Well, not exactly. I had to share it with my little sister. I had to, because in stables is a lack of space and we had the choice between an own accommodation or an own laboratory. I totally like my little sister but I need my privacy. I was further tapping on my terminal to enter the data of my last tests, which I received for my latest inventory spell. Appletree, my little sister, was the tallest mare, no, she was even the tallest pony in the entire stable 2.
Calling her my little sister is actually a little weird for me sometimes. She in her turn was currently busy writing down something to her labour with the apple seeds. It just looked a little strange seeing her using her “claws” for this. Don´t get me wrong, she is an earthpony. But due to an accident with an exploding gas pipe, she has lost her fore and back legs. She has jumped in front of that pipe to protect our stables voice, Velvet Remedy. She almost died, but the clinic staff and the maintenance compartment were performing their best. She had received four cyborg legs and Little Pip equipped her with some special gadgets. For example some claws with soft tips for writing and some sharp for work in our apple orchard.

“Ya Dusty?”, the green earthpony with the blonde mane lifted her head which was crowned by a red ribbon. A relict from our great, great, great, and so on grandmother Apple Bloom.

“Yes, little sister? What´s going on?”. She pointed to her notes. Finally she retracted those claws.

“It´s gettin´any worse. Any generation of apple get smaller and smaller. The artificial sunlight doesn´t reach in that form.” She said and I let levitate her clipboard with our findings to me. Yes, I was a speciality. An unicorn in an earthpony family. My mother and my sister were earthponies, but not me. I was looking at the clipboard. I only understood the half of what was written on it.

“Appletree, you´re the botanist, not me. You have to explain me that more detailed. I´m a magician, this is not my area of expertise.” I interrupted and looked Appletree in her eyes. I knew that view. Something depressed my little sister. I stepped to her and hugged her, for what I had to get on my hooftips, because she was so tall. And I am average tall. My light blue fur touched her green fur and my pink Mane closed to her blonde mane. “What´s the matter?” I saw her worried and I managed to levitate a handkerchief fast enough.

“I´d like to become friend with Little Pip! I extra baked a cake for her, the day before yesterday, as gratitude for her help with my legs” She sobbed and sit on her back legs and cried a half waterfall. Little Pip and Velvet were leaving the stable yesterday. Something that nopony has ever done before. Appletree was shy and tried to become friends with Little Pip since she was a little foal. But she always had been to reserved for. That´s why she only had us, her family and no actual friends in our stable.

“Sh, sh, sh. Everything gets right, little one.” I stroked her mane soothingly. After 10 minutes being sad she get back to her hooves with red eyes.

“I´ve gotta get to the overmare.” She said. She scratched on her head nervously. “Dusty, can ya get with me?” She asked with her usual uncertainty. I smiled. That giant mare with the power of two fully grown up timberwolfes, was shy as a little filly.

“Sure my little one.” I said smilingly. I could take that chance to report the overmare about our latest progress. And because it was common that I had to go with her to the overmare we only had to get one appointment.

We walked through the hallways of the research and plant compartments to the office of the overmare. I quickly booked the appointment via my terminal. Today it was pretty quiet around her, everypony was still absorbing the shock that Velvet was gone. We were called in and the overmare was sitting exhausted behind her desk. “Ah our keen research duo. What can I do for you?” Said the overmare with a slightly forced seemed smile. As usual Appletree tried to “hide” behind me.

I smiled and said: “Appletree is worried about the apples.” I just said. She stepped forward and looked to the floor, before she cautiously looked to the overmare.

“ou...our apples gettin´smaller and less nutrient. No later than a year our orchards become infertile.” Said Appletree and closed her eyes in fear of the reaction.

The overmare smiled smoothly to her. “Do you know any solution, Appletree?” She nodded quiet cautiously. “Yeah. But overmare you wont like the answer” she said and quickly closed her eyes again. The overmare just said calmly: “Everything is fine. Just tell freely what you think is the best solution.” Appletree extracted her smooth tip claws and clanged to my leg.

"We need to go to the Stabletech seed vault in Philadelphia." The Overmare and I looked at my little sister as if she really had just turned into a timber wolf.

After a few moments she said in a slightly tense voice, "I have to think about it first, parts of an important generation are running away from me here," she said, massaging her temples with her hooves. "Appletree, be so kind as to go home I still have to talk to Stardust about her results." Appletree trotted out of the room. After the door closed I was about to start to recite it.

But the Overmare choked me with a question "Do you think she'd be fine out there on her own?" She looked at me seriously and I hesitantly asked,

"She's as strong as two fully grown Timberwolves, even stronger with her new legs. But you're not really considering sending her out there alone. I don't think she can cope because of her shyness.” I saw the rattling in Overmare's head.

“Would you accompany her?” she now asked seriously. I thought for a moment. I wasn't strong but I was bright and can work with terminals. "If we save future generations with this, I'll be there."

It was evening. Our family had met in the atrium for dinner. It was easier since our parents split up and Appletree and I moved into our own quarters. Honey Drop, the youngest of us three siblings, with her white fur and her white purple striped mane, looked sadly at us through her veil. She actually adored a pre-war pop star named Countess Coloratura, of whom she had an old recording. She would soon be stepping into Velvet's hoofsteps as she was a gifted singer and actress, as evidenced by her cutiemark's smiling theater masks. "But you'll come back, kindly!" said Honeydrop and stamped her hoof on the table.

"Yeah, we will," Appletree reassured her, gently stroking her mane. "Overmare said we should report once every 2 days via Pib Buck transmission," I said calmly, although I was a bit nervous.

"But your Pip Buck signal doesn't reach that far." Our father said, a brown earthpony stallion with a mustache and brown mane." I giggled.

"Appletree, show us what a nice new toy you have," I said happily. Appletree got up from next to the table. The seats were too small for her anyway, so she mostly sat on the floor at the head of the table. A long antenna came out from her front leg. "We'll try to activate old pre-war relay stations along the way to strengthen the signal," I remarked happily. "We can be located from here to Phillydelphia and communicate with you via the relays!" Our mother, a white earth pony mare with silver mane and glasses like mine, hugged us both and said:

"Please be careful. I want a message every evening that you´re OK. And how's the equipment going?” I looked up at the security office,

“Overmare will take care of that.” The next morning we were given a matching Stable 2 Security Overall which was slightly better armored than ours. Saddlebags with provisions and two first-aid kits which Appletree took care of right away. For armament, I wanted a plasma pistol, which I knew was available from securety, Appletree just smiled shyly and spread her claws when the subject came up. I also took my lab coat. It was weird, but I needed it, just like Appletree didn't want to leave the stable without her favorite pillow. Now we stood ready in front of the door after saying goodbye to everypony for a while.

Only the Overmare was at the desk and opened the door, which was opened horribly squeaking by a crane arm. "Good luck! We rely on you.” Said the Overmare worried.

Author's Notes:

A special thank goes to my Sweet Rose https://www.fimfiction.net/user/370702/Sandy+Rose for the Translation from German to Englisch!
And a Big thank you at https://www.fimfiction.net/user/10369/Kkat that i can use the characters from Fallout Equestria
Do you like the coverart?^^here do you finde more for example pictures of Appletree and other characters from my Fanfiction^^ https://www.deviantart.com/keikoyamada

Chapter 1 - Outside

There must have been 20 or more pony skeletons outside the gate, which had try to get in. Weird and creepy. But well I didn't want to question the overmares of previous generations? Or should I? I thought hard, was it because the stable had limited space? Appletree had already gone ahead and called out happily while looking at her PipBuck, "Dusty, our stable is directly under great, great grandmas home, but unfortunately it's broken to much". I trotted to her, my plasma gun hovering in front of me. There was nobody to be seen far and wide. I looked at my PipBuck's map. Our position was marked with our cutiemarks. A star dusted star for me and an apple tree for my sister. I could see the cutiemark in the shape of a PipBuck quite far away. I giggled "Look Appletree, a PipBuck on a PipBuck" she also giggled. It was about 10 a.m. and the sun was shining through a few cracks in the overcast sky. The REAL sun I thought to myself, Celestia's Grace. Appletree ran around happily, finally she could really let off steam. I looked at the trees. The apples looked sick. I was a little sad. Apple Blooms or even great great aunt Apple Jacks apple trees wouldn't be able to help us. Suddenly I heard a squeak and Appletree ran past me. Behind her flew what looked like a flying ball with bumps. I aimed my plasma pistol and pulled the trigger. After 3 shots, the thing dissolved into a green cloud of plasma. Appletree pressed her head against mine

"Thank ya Dusty, I was just scared otherwise I´d made it too" she said and extended her digging claws from which I only thought I already feel sorry for the victims of these claws. We made our way after Pip's signal. That´s what we two had agreed. Because I thought Pip would survive, such a gut feeling.

"Even if the apples are sick I want a seed sample" said Appletree kicking a tree as usual from the orchard. It was big and looked solid and just gave way under the kick of the mechanical hooves and hit the ground with full weight and force Appletrees backbone. I expected a scream, but there was none. Instead, she just looked up in confusion for a moment through the treetop. She plucked an apple, removing the core in a highly professional manner, which she placed in a small plastic vial in her saddlebag. I was still a bit shocked by the lack of reaction and it took her strength and mine to get the tree off her. "Didn't that hurt?" I asked my sister, still a bit dumbfounded.

"It fell right on your spine!" She smiled shyly and said very quietly, "My backbone is armoured because it's the interface between my legs and my nervous system." She nudged my nose with her hoof. I shook my head. Yeah right, in the shock I had once again forgotten the black line on her back. The scars around it didn't look pretty, but that had never bothered her.

We trotted on towards Pony Ville. Our mother had told us stories she had from her mother and so on, what a beautiful place that must have been, full of happiness and laughter. We reached the ruins after a short time. When we promptly encountered strange orange discs on the ground, Appletree reached out her left claw to touch it. As she approached it suddenly made beep beep beep. Startled she threw the disc away like a frisbee, which exploded in mid-air. I noted that the orange discs had a proximity detector fitted with a timer. Pony Ville itself was pretty calm and soon we knew why. A hollowed tree, which must have been the library, in which there were many dead ponies. Appletree looked in horror and began to tremble. "Is...is Pip in there?" she said in a sad voice.

I looked at my PipBuck and saw their signal moving slowly. I swallowed the disgust and horror that rose in me at the smell of the corpses. I stroked Appletree gently on the back. "All right little one, Pip's signal is moving, I'll try to write her a message later."

I nudged her backbone out of curiosity "You really don't notice that, do you?" I looked at her questioningly. She tapped her PipBuck around " Now I do. Mostly I´ve set off the sensory sensors for the backbone because I carry a lot on my back," she said with a somewhat calmer expression on her face. Feeling sensors I thought and shook my head "Do you also have them in your legs and hooves?" I looked questioningly and I realized that her legs were still so new to me, even though the accident was two years ago. She stroked my cheek, "Yes I can feel my fur like before and I notice every touch like before. Just that it feels like my legs are bare." I looked into the building. "I'm just going to look around in there, do you keep an eye on the entrance here?" She nodded relieved, I knew that she didn't want to go in there.

It stank of death and filth. I looked around, everything was pretty much empty. Whoever it was, they had already taken everything but at least I didn’t see a dead pip either. But I spotted another locked door behind a stack of boxes. Feeling sorry for the dead pony in the half-crushed cage hanging from the ceiling I said a prayer to Luna before opening the door downstairs.
The room was as big as the one above it, only here was a yellow earth pony, bald and tailless, apparently harassing a unicorn foal and having a saw in its mouth, he was just starting to saw at the horns of the poor green-maned red-coated unicorn. I had the plasma pistol hovering in front of me and cleared my throat loudly, "What's this?" I aimed at the stallion in a tattered lab coat. He looked at me slightly insane "The ground horn of immaculate unicorn mares makes hair grow back and that's how I'll get rich! And they're hard to come by, those little squirrels” He grinned madly and I saw 3 colt skeletons with their horns sawed off in a corner. I breathed in then out and wordlessly pulled the trigger with an icy stare. I hit him in the side and he jumped back, taking the little girl hostage. He had pulled out a combat knife and held it to her neck.

"GET OUT THEN I LET HER GO" he exclaimed. He didn't even notice the metal rod behind him with which I smashed his skull. Blood and brain spurted to the ground. I became nauseous as he dropped dead, I was shaking and throwing up. I had just killed another pony I felt like something broke inside me. I prayed to Luna that his soul would find its way to her despite the atrocities. Luna would judge his soul.

The foal ran to me and snuggled up to me. "Thank you." She just whimpered. Her eyes widening in panic "We have to get out of here, the other one who caught me will come back soon!" We hurried back to the entrance and next to me a bullet hit the tree, shot by a big unicorn stallion, who had probably hunted unsuccessfully. As Appletree saw the hole next to my head I could almost hear the clicking in her head, her protector mode was active. Usually she couldn't harm a fly unless someone threatened her family. It had been like that at school. She ran furiously with a deep growl at the unicorn, claws out. The stallion fired but the bullet only hit a corner of the ribbon on her head. Second big mistake I thought. The second thing she loved most after us was the ribbon in Memory of Applebloom. She accelerated. Another shot ricocheted off her cyber back leg. The unicorn backed away as Appletree reared up and tried to tear him from top to bottom with her claws. Her gaze was filled with anger, the unicorn backed up against a tree. Appletree dug her claws deep into the ground and kicked out with both hind legs, but it wouldn't quite be enough to hit him. Then it hissed on their hind hooves and they suddenly lengthened and threw the stallion against the tree with such force that it broke. The stallion, badly wounded, got to his hooves and ran.

"All the ones coming out of Stable 2 are crazy maniacs," he yelled after us as my shot just missed him before he was gone. I joined Appletree, the little unicorn next to me. I looked at Appletree, I didn't know that trick either.

I gently stroked her cheek "Have you calmed down?" I asked as softly as I could, noticing that she was shaking and her eyes were just white and a roaring of her hind legs. "APPLETREE ARE YOU OK?!" I yelled in concern.

She nodded trembling and with just such a voice she said "The compressors for the hydraulics are operated by a spark generator, it needs my body electricity to start," she said and lowered herself onto her hind legs. After about a minute, the rattling hiss ended. She looked at me normally again and then fell to the ground in embarrassment. "Is intended for stubborn trees"

The unicorn looked at Appletree's hind legs in fascination and a little startled "Are you a robot pony?" she asked innocently. Appletree froze, blushed and hid behind her hooves.

I said: “No, she lost her legs in an accident.” The little one nodded and stroked on the legs. "Feels weird," she said, looking at us questioningly. Appletree gently shook her head. "I can only turn it off if I want to," she said, smiling.

"Who are you actually? And thank you for the rescue. So if you guys take me home to New Applelosa I'm sure my mom can pay you.” I looked at her and at my map. New Applelosa was on our route anyway. I smiled at the unicorn "Let's do it then you'll be safe at home. We both are siblings on an important mission for our stable. I'm Stardust and this is my little sister Appletree." The unicorn looked at me in disbelief.

"But she's taller than you," she remarked. "Yes, but I'm two years older than her," I said, grinning and pushing my sisters hooves away from her face.

I looked around a bit thoughtfully. "We should bury the bodies that are still lying here, it seems wrong to me to leave them here." I said. Appletree nodded. Only the little unicorn looked at us confused. "Why do you want to do this? Isn't that kind of a waste of time?” I smiled softly, “It's one of the traditions that the goddesses taught us.” I said, floating out my little talisman showing Luna's and Celestia's cutiemark. Yes, I was so believing that I wished to be a Stable Caplan. But unfortunately my cutiemark and test results decided otherwise. I searched through the library in the basement. On the shelf behind the skeletons I found a book that was in a too good condition. I saw the small emerald on the side and smiled, a preservation spell that had served for over two hundred years. The book had an exotic symbol on the cover of an expanding spiral surrounded by triangles with the short ends pointing outwards. It looked like a sun. The book was a gift from a certain Zecora to Twilight Sparkle. It contained a lot of magical knowledge of zebra magic. I took that, I'd always been into Zebra magic. Enchantment and alchemy was exciting.

After I had left the tree again, we trotted on through the ruins of the city. Almost all the houses had burned down to the foundation or had collapsed. Well, I wasn't surprised since most of them were made of wood. The ground was burned and raiders were still nesting in other houses. We sneaked past them as the foal sneezed loudly, "Aaaatcho, sorry."

She said quickly, quietly. It was too late three raiders ran towards us. Two stallions one gray with red mane the other orange with violet mane. The first's cutiemark was a pony skull, the other's was a cage. The unicorn mare with yellow fur and black mane stood in the ruins of buildings, levitating a long rifle in front of her. The first shot of the sniper rifle was fired and we ducked for cover as the two stallions came running. One carried a baseball bat studded with nails, the other a pistol. The second shot of the rifle unleashed an explosion of pain and panic in my left front leg. I gasped and heard my sister's deep growl of anger. Her claws extended and dug into the ground. The first raider with the pistol flew three times as far away as he had run, into a ruined house and didn't move anymore. I pushed the filly behind me, still panting from the searing pain. The other stallion with the baseball bat felt even more anger, as a half and tattered raider was seen sinking to the right and left. The unicorn's next shot ricocheted off Appletree's leg. She rushed at the mare as she threw a metal ball. Did she want to play ball with us now, or what? I thought to myself confused as the ball exploded right under Appletree. She was thrown against a house wall that was still standing and blood ran from the back of her head and she didn't move anymore. Panic, fear and freezing anger welled up in me. My stomach clenched. "She's dead." I said more to myself, my eyes full of tears. The next shot, but it missed. I looked at my PipBuck and found the perfect punishment for that bitch. I slowly walked towards the unicorn. Her shots ricocheted off my shield spell. First one then two the third smashed through it causing a small bleeding wound on my right cheek. I went on step by step. As I stood in front of the unicorn, she pulled out a knife. I dropped the shield and said calmly with a cold stare: "This is for my little sister you bloody pile of trash" she looked confused.

"Little fifter?" She looked at Appletree's still body, then at me. "That waf probably the other way around...." She couldn't say more. Blue lightning came out of my horn and she started to twitch, just for a moment I let her catch her breath then I did it again and again. My cold rage didn't want to kill her, no she should suffer. The game lasted about 5 minutes until I felt a hoof on my shoulder. It was Appletree she wasn't dead. The unicorn was still looking at me in fear and still twitching a bit epileptically. "You're a bloody witch!" I looked at her and said completely calm and composed "Go while you still can!" She got her hooves and ran still twitching.

Appletree grabbed me in her front legs and I sobbed, the calm mask of my cold rage was falling off. The little unicorn also tried to calm me down. "All right Dusty sh sh sh, everything will be alright. I'm fine." Her deep voice was soothing. I looked around for the first time ever with the aiming spell. Ponyville was clean. It was getting late before we recovered all the bodies. Appletree was so fond of digging a grave for everyone on the road leading out of town. The sun went down and my eyes got bigger than the Stable gate. The moon. The mark of Luna, what she was responsible for and her former prison. And the stars I always wanted to see. I had took off my Stable jumpsuit and the PipBuck and took a tattered black cloth for a cloak. Standing in front of the graves in the glow of Luna's grace-giving moonlight. I began intoning the funeral prayer in oldponic and fervently.

"Luna et ego invocabo Hae ducant animabus vestris tibi et soror divina. Dominus iudicat populos iudica illos detulimus. Da illis gratia.” With the last words, I began to burn the signs of the sun and moon with my magic into the wooden planks behind the graves. When the work was done, I took off the cloth and got dressed.

The foal looked at me "You're not a witch" she recognised and then said with a smile "Something like you used to be called a priestess" I got a little embarrassed and just said

"I'd like to be one, but no. For that I would have to be initiated and there is very little religious worship down there. Out here hardly anypony would believe in the Divine Sisters. Oh yeah, tell me what's your name?” I tried to change the subject, embarrassed. The interesting thing about the little unicorn with a pink mane and white fur was that her cutiemark was a box of chewing gum.

"My name is Bubbles and do you know how I know that you are a priestess?" I looked at her questioningly "Your cutiemark is a star like the stars in the night sky. That's what my grandma always talked about you the Children of the Night! Your cutiemarks are always stars or moons or something!” I pondered, liking the idea. But without being initiated I wouldn't dare call myself Luna's priesthood. "Besides, you can speak that old pony language, nopony out here can do that. And what you did there at the graves doesn't make a normal pony either. You're a Children of the Night, I've decided that now.” Bubbles said, crossing her front legs in front of her chest and grinning. "Tell me, Bubbles, what does ya cutiemark stand for?" Appletree asked curiously. “I make new fresh chewing gum out of rock-hard pre-war chewing gum in many different flavors. Unfortunately I don't have any with me right now to let you try. We'll catch up on that in New Applelosa."

We set up our camp for the night in the old school, which was one of the best preserved. Two walls and they were still standing. We walked around the tower with the bell surrounding it and were getting comfortable. Appletree turned on the PipBuck radio and we could hear the stable radio. "And now, freshly for our heroes in the Wasteland, Honeydrop with a pre-war song by Countess Coloratura! Clear the stage for Razzel Dazzel!” I heard the crowd roar. It was live, Honeydrop performed in the atrium. So Appletree and I were touched. I received a message from my mother asking if everything was ok. I answered truthfully and she became concerned. But I could assure her that everything was fine. I had a band-aid on my graze and Appletree had a bandage around the neck. "Who was singing there? That's not DjPon3's transmitter” Bubbles asked curiously. "That´s coming from down there” I pointed roughly in the direction of Sweet Apple Acres.
"You just heard our little sister". Bubbles arched an eyebrow. "How many sisters do you guys have anyway?" she asked skeptically.

"There are three of us", Appletree replied. "She is the artist of our family."

Bubbels thought: "Well you are a priestess, your one sister is a singer and you?" She looked at Appletree "I would even say you are her bodyguard. But for that you're way too cute even at your height."

Appletree blushed a little. "I a...a...am a botanist and a farmer," she stuttered out, "I take care of the well-being and the care of the apple trees in our Stable." Bubbles was still looking thoughtful.

I said meanwhile: "I'm a spell caster, I wasn't allowed to be a caplan," I said a little sullenly. "But why not?" Bubbles looked questioning again.

"The Cutiemark Aptitude Test hasn't identified a new Caplan in over 75 years and that's why we don't have one anymore. My test results sent me straight to improving and inventing spells."

She looked up: “That´s total bullshit. Out here everypony can do what he´s up to no matter what his butt shows.” We lay down to sleep. I woke up to a scream from Bubbles. She stood screaming in a corner and pointed to the floor. Appletree slowly opened her eyes. I jumped up, wondering why she wasn't doing the same, until I saw through the light of my horn why she was screaming. In front of her lay one of Appletree's legs, no, even two. I was confused and shone at my sister. She was lying there with her legs off her body, all 4! She looked at us with tired eyes,

"What's going on? More raiders? Oh,…” Appletree looked at us both a little sheepishly and started to crawl to her legs on her stomach and docked them all back together. Bubbles and I both looked at her disturbed. She hid behind the freshly coupled legs. "What on Luna's grace did you do?" I asked, still stunned. "I usually always sleep without legs, it's more comfortable." We both looked at her more calmly now. "Please say something like that before Bubbles was scared to death."

Author's Notes:

Big thanks at my proofreader Chrash Overide, Onkel Scharfohr and my Secial Sompony Sandy Rose she was also the translator

Chapter 2 - Towards New Appleloosa

Chapter 2 - Towards New Appleloosa

Our way now led south. The vegetation seemed to sadden Appletree, as the trees looked sickened and the wreckages of broken vehicles were laying all around. I kept my eyes open for enemies, but apart from a few Bloatsprites that I striked down telekinetically with a box, there wasn’t much to see. Bubbles explained a lot about the wastelands and I even received a message from Pip. At first she was worried that we had vanished because of her, but I was able to reassure her otherwise. She said, if we needed help with Appletree’s legs, we should get in touch with her. If we were close enough then, she’d come over to help. Sadly she still hadn’t found Velvet yet, instead she had met a new friend called Calamity and had been to New Appleloosa herself. When we were taking a short rest I took a look at the book of these Zecora. The first chapter was about potions - magical and non magical in nature. I felt like the ointment of healing could be useful and turned to Appletree. “Hey dear, do you know any of the plants described here?”

I pointed at the book and she looked at it pondering. “Yea”, she said finally. “I’d been seein’ them ‘round out here. Should I pick ‘em up on the way?”

I nodded. If we were to be injured, this would help us get better healing. We walked along the edge of a forest; I Pipbuck called it the Everfree Forest. Appletree kept collecting various herbs and plants and stowed them away in small bags or plastic tubes to examine them later. I looked at Bubbles. “What do you know about this place?”, I asked nicely. “It’s full of monsters, better not to go in there. At least that’s what my mother always says, even though it’s this far away from home.”

As dusk came and we had to look for a place to camp we were still on the edge of that forest. An old bus station worked perfectly, when suddenly a huge, wooden monster jumped at us out of a patch of trees. I flinched and recognised the animal; I got cold, an adult, seemingly mutated Timberwolf was standing right in front of us. Why mutated? It was about 50 percent bigger than anything that was written in books and glowed bright green. The beast sprinted towards Bubble, panting. She screamed and ran behind the station. The wolf followed as my sister rammed into it with full force. She reared up and rammed her claws into the wood, ripping off bark and wood. Resin dripped out of the wounds of the animal. I sent a lightning bolt after the animal, but it just shook it off. As Appletree got ready for the next strike the wolf threw her through the air and rushed after Bubbles once more. I tried to help Bubbles by creating a magical sphere right in front of the wolf’s eyes to blind it. Unfortunately Timberwolfs rely on their noses; I realized then. Appletree rammed into it again, this time against a tree. She continued to tear up its side and even caught its snout. Which only caused it to rampage. It bit into Appletree’s shoulder. Blood splattered as the monster ripped out a good chunk out of my poor little sister. Nausea hit me when I saw all of that blood. She cried out in pain. I was scared and everything started to spin around me. The shock sent me down, whimpering. I thought about the times I always told he she was as strong as two timberwolves. I never thought we’d ever be confronting one.I was scared to lose her and that I’d be next. Then I thought about how I would explain all this to my family and the Overmare. But then she got up once more and jumped beneath the head of the beast and kicked with her hind legs. I heard the hiss and the head flew under hydraulic pressure about 10 meters further. The monster fell to the ground - dead. I could hear the rumble from her compressor and ran towards her. A good chunk of flesh and skin was missing from her shoulder. “By the goddesses, is everything all right?”
I had tears in my eyes. “I won’t call it ‘all right’.”, the deep voice of my sister answered.
“It hurts like hell, I thought that’d be it and I wasn’t gon’ be able to protect ya no more.” She tried to put on a brave smile, but I could see the guilt in her eyes.

We rested at the bus station. I bandaged the wound of my sister, prepared a soft pace for her and disconnected her legs, putting them next to her so she could reach them easily. “Rest a bit. I found everything I need for the zebra healing salve and will make some for you. The wound will heal faster then.” She nodded thankfully.
“Better not write to Mama, she’ll worry otherwise.” She seemed sad and serious. I caressed her mane softly and reset her bow tie telekinetically. After sending a message back home, simply describing the day as uneventful, I started with the cooking. The most disgusting part of the recipe were the bloatsprite wings. I shook myself a little and then threw away the rest. But Bubbles actually came back with it.
“But you can still eat some of that in a soup or something”, she said bewildered and I immediately had to gag. “We’re ponies, we’re vegetarians, well apart from medicine.” Ich contemplated; I had just put the wings of animals into this salve, was that actually true? Well, you’re not eating, but applying it. Bubbles spoke once more.
“You don’t eat meat?” She looked at me confused.
“You Stableponies are weird.”, she said while shaking her head and rolling those disgusting things away again.
“I wouldn’t even know how to prepare something like that. The thought alone grosses me out.” Bubbles looked at the book.
“Don’t you have a cookbook right there, there’s got to be a recipe in there.” I was careful not to laugh out loud so that I wouldn’t wake up Appletree.
“This is the magic book of a zebra. It tells you how to make potions and elixirs, not how to cook bloatsprites.”, I said smiling. Bubbles lay down as well. I applied the salve onto Appletree’s wound carefully with levitation. Then I also lay down to sleep, exhausted.

I was woken up by what sounded like gunfire. I hid instinctively in a corner and looked around. I saw two ponies in raider armor fighting against something about 200 meters away. It sounded like a Timberwolf. I looked around the camp, everything was right there, still. Bubbles lay curled up in a corner of the bus station and slept. She must be a heavy sleeper if not even gun fire can wake her up. I looked over to Appletree’s camp, her legs lay neatly arranged in the corner and her… I suddenly got cold. She was gone. I started to creep around the camp, but couldn’t find her. It was dark and few of Luna’s gracious moon beams broke through the cloud cover from time to time. I sneaked further towards the fighting Raiders. They had to have her, maybe gagged so that she couldn’t scream. One of the Raiders already lay dead on the ground as I came closer and a second just fell to the Timberwolf’s claws. I hid and hoped that the monster wouldn’t notice me, but I still couldn’t see her. I got nauseous as I heard how the beast started to feed on one of the Raiders, probably. I got ready to sneak back to the camp. But just as the light of the moon hit the Timberwolf, I could hardly believe my own eyes. I couldn’t move. What I was seeing was too disturbing, too wrong. I had to throw up loudly and I got dizzy. That couldn’t be. The Timberwolf howled deeply and ripped out another chunk of flesh out of the side of the Raider; just that that was not a Timberwolf. It was Appletree. Where her cyberlegs used to be now were legs made of tree bark that glowed green. I could through the gaps of that bark and the interior was empty. I looked at her, her otherwise orange eyes now flashed green and long fangs protruded from her snout. Her ears were a mixture of leaves and bark. She looked at me. With the big, red bow on her head it all seemed even more grotesque and surreal. She raised her nostrils and started to sniff, licked the blood from her teeth and came towards me. I retreated carefully and wanted to run as I heard a squeak coming from her - like that of a dog. I stopped. Hesitant, nearly shy, she came closer. I felt like she recognized me. As she stood next to me she sniffed at me and then rubbed her head against mine carefully. “Little sister… is that.. is that really you?”
She nodded slowly. I pet her mane cautiously. The bark that had grown over her ears felt weird. “Can you understand me?” She nodded again.
“But not speak?” She nodded again, but looked sad. I was still looking at her a bit dismayed. “Why did you start to eat them?” I tried to sound calm, but from her flinching I knew that I sounded more terrified than I wanted.
“And you won’t try to eat me?” I looked at her seriously, she shook her head violently.
“Then let’s head back to the camp.” I said, a little calmer now. She gave me a sign to wait a minute as she turned back around and walked back to the corpse and looked at me, guilty like in the afternoon before. I looked away and covered my ears as she continued to feed. When she was done her snout was covered in so much blood that she wasn’t even able to lick it all off. A little disgusted I let tissues levitate out from my overall and cleaned off her face. She smiled shyly, which looked a bit weird with the fangs, but also kind of cute. When we were back at the camp she lay back down in her place, licked across my cheek once and fell asleep. I was perplexed, confused and overwhelmed as I fell asleep. Has this all just been a dream? I woke up in the morning the the sound of Appletree throwing up multiple times. She was herself again. “You’re you again!”, I said happily, as I held up both braids telekinetically so that they wouldn’t get puked on. At least she had managed to reattach her legs before she spread her bloody nighttime meal behind the bus station. She looked at me guiltily.
“I…I didn’t want that. I had the urge to stop ‘em when they came close to the camp.” I rubbed her back softly. I was shocked to see her wound had closed up when I changed her bandage - with tree bark. I scratched the back of my neck skeptically - What had happened to her?

“You protected us from the Raiders, don’t be sorry about that. But-” I didn’t really know how to ask that question - and luckily I didn’t have to, she answered as she wasn’t stupid just because she was strong and knew where I wanted to go with that.
“It was an inner urge. I was so hungry, they looked so tasty, so juicy and muscular…” Another gush of stomach acid and bloody Raider remains left Appletree loudly. She was slowly catching her breath, panting.
"It was like being an animal, at least I think so." She was breathing heavily, trying to calm her stomach somehow.
"I had no control and it tasted so good..." Another choke and splash.
"Everything out now?" We had sat back down and Bubbles telekinetically pinched her nose in disgust. I looked at Appletree worried.
"How many of those did you actually, well, eat?" In my head I held my hoof in front of my head, I could have said that in a nicer way. She looked to the ground sadly,
"Both completely. You will only find gnawed bones.”
“You ate other ponies?” Bubbles looked shocked and confused. I calmed her down and explained what had happened last night. Then I looked at Appletree "Are you going to pose a threat to us?" I asked sheepishly. I didn't want to hurt her, but I needed reassurance.

"No! I could smell you all the time, you smell like family and the little one like friend.” I looked skeptical. “How does that smell?” I looked at Appletree, she was thinking. Bubbles was still a bit confused and scared but also disgusted and just said: "Both definitely smell better than this. Can we go on please?” We trotted on towards New Appleloosa.

My Pipbuck showed me that we had probably taken a slightly different route than Littlepip. Our way led us through the town of New Hoofington tomorrow. "I'm curious to see what a post-apocalyptic city looks like," I said happily.
"New Hoofington is the breadbasket for New Appleloosa,
" Bubbles said casually as two ponies with a two-headed cow passed a road crossing. Bubbles greeted them,
"Hello Mr. and Mrs. Carrot." She waved politely. The two looked at her, then us, puzzled. "Bubbles, you're fine, thank the goddesses. We were all terribly worried. Your mom is worried sick.” Bubbles smiled.
“I'm fine thanks to my two rescuers. The Priestess and Children of the Night, Stardust!” She pointed at me and I let out a surrendering sigh. I myself was happy to see that the belief in goddesses still existed. Her eyes widened, then they both got on their knees and bowed.

"Your Eminence, it is a pleasure to meet you." I blushed more than Appletree ever could.
"I'm not initiated, I'm an amateur if anything, please get up again!" I was very embarrassed about the whole thing, but I enjoyed it a little bit inside. "And this is Appletree, she's..." I saw her thinking. I didn't like the other thing that I saw. I heard Appletree sniffing, her gaze fixed on the two-headed cow carrying the crates and I could see Appletree approaching it. The cow seemed nervous and mooed as well. Mr. and Mrs. Carrot watched this spectacle skeptically and I could already see them hesitantly drawing a revolver. I could see the saliva running down my little sister's chin as she circled the cow; her eyes fixed onto it. I knew what was going on and did the only thing I could think of before the situation escalated. I rolled up some paper, surrounded it with a telekinetic field and levitated it towards her. First Mrs. Carrot fired the warning shot in the air just as Appletree prepared to jump. She jumped.
I slammed the paper roll onto her butt with full force and cried out in a firm voice: "STOP IT APPLETREE, BAD GIRL!"
She gave a short squeak and then trotted back to us. The Carrots now looked at us skeptically. Appletree hid behind me again. Bubbles had now found the right word. "That's Appletree, botanist and since yesterday, well, timber werewolf?" It sounded more questioning than stated. Mrs.Carrot put her gun away again and they both looked a little more relaxed.

It turned out that both were traveling salesmen. Mrs. Carrot was actually a doctor so I asked her to take a look at Appletree's shoulder. She was amazed when she saw the bark over the wound. "Have you been bitten by an oversized Timberwolf?", she asked Appletree calmly and gently. We had set up a small camp and ate a little something. Mr. Carrot had even prepared some tea. The two-headed cow always kept a wide distance from Appletree. At Mrs. Carrot's question, she nodded hesitantly.
"You are a medical miracle. In fact, everyone dies from the stigma and radiation in the bite. But your body absorbed them completely, it's amazing.” She had reopened a small part of the wound with a pry bar. She seemed content and bandaged the opening.
"It hasn't become infected and I think," she said, looking thoughtful, "that this bark will fall off like common scab when you're healed."
Appletree rested her head back on my side. "I'm sorry I scared your cow. It was like I was a different person.”, she said in a shy voice. Mrs. Carrot scratched the back of her head.
"Let’s try something out", she said and smiled.
"Close your eyes, big one." Appletree closed her eyes. Mrs Carrot got a larger piece of meat from her stores and held it up to Appletree's nostrils, which immediately began to sniff and I could see her drooling again. Then Mrs. Carrot threw the piece of meat away in a high arc. "Get it, big one!", she said smiling. Appletree shot after the meat like an arrow and came back looking happy with the piece of meat she was chewing on.
"I thought so," said Mrs. Carrot.
"Through this, let’s call it ‘infection’ with stigma, a kind of Timberwolf personality has mixed into her. She behaves exactly like a young timber wolf. But you'll have to learn to control that.”, she said, smiling softly while Appletree tried to tear the flesh with her teeth. She also held it with her claws so that she could eat it better. I had to giggle, it was so absurd but also so cute.
"Wait little one, I'll help you." I levitated a knife from my luggage and cut the meat into bite-sized chunks. She chewed on it with relish. When she was done, she blushed and hid under her hooves again.
"Your sister is really interesting.", Mrs. Carrot said, smiling. I was still a bit disgusted that she was eating meat now, but she was still my little sister - timber werewolf or not. "This will never go away," Mrs. Carrot now said darkly. “Stigma stays in the body forever. Until you die.” I looked at her, worried. She said a little nicer again:
"You can help your sister by practicing with her to tame her inner Timberwolf." She looked at me questioningly.
"What has she eaten up to now?" My gaze became sad and shaken.
"Two raiders who attacked us. But don't worry, she can tell friend from foe by smell." I added the latter quickly when Mrs. Carrot started to seem nervous.
"Oh yes, actually, what do you want to have for the meat, the treatment and the tea?" I said, while the warm zebra tea that I loved filled me with comforting warmth.
"Oh, you know, give me five bottle caps for the piece of meat and that'll be fine. I mean you’re escorting Bubbles home safely, I appreciate that.” I levitated 5 caps out of my saddlebag and handed them over to her. Appletree had actually managed to close a small deal with Mr. Carrot. For a bottle of Sparkle-Coke she got seeds from eight different plants, which went straight into her collection. Then we parted ways again.
"I've got a nickname for you!" Bubbles told Appletree.
She blushed again "Wh..which one?" She sounded as embarrassed as ever. "Little wolfy!" she said, giggling. Appletree nodded, "I kind of like that," she said, smiling.

Night fell and we found a good camp under a tree. I confessed to my mother what happened last night and she was worried until Appletree said she was fine. We built the camp and Appletree undocked her legs. I didn't go to sleep yet, wanting to see what would happen. When the first rays of the moon broke through the cloud cover, I could hear my little sister whimpering in pain. I heard her bones crack and shift. The sound made me nauseous again, but I was able to keep the food inside. Bubbles watched the whole thing very fascinated. A green glow spread over her from her wound. Creaking, her wooden legs began to appear, beginning over the docking points. Bark also grew around her ears, and each had a large leaf. I saw her teeth grow. When the transformation was complete, she howled loudly once; she was about to jump up and run when I carefully stopped her. "Sister, do you hear me?" I looked at her cautiously. She smiled cutely again and nodded eagerly.
"You're hungry and want to go hunting, right?" She nodded again, a bit shy and hesitant. "Well, rule number one: don't eat ponies, you don't do that and you don't tolerate pony meat!" She nodded.
"Rule number two: you'll be back in two hours at the latest."
She nodded eagerly. I stroked her mane again. "Good hunt, my little wolf."
I said softly and she chased off into the night. "That's really scary, but also kind of cool." Bubbles said only as she curled up under her covers.
"Sleep well and have a good hunt", was all she said and as she was already dozing off. I also curled up under my covers after sorting Appletree's legs. I was woken up by something trying to crawl under my covers. I quickly realized it was Appletree. I looked at her, lifted the covers and she took me in between her wooden front legs and licked my cheek. I patted her head.
"Fed?" I asked, smiling, and when I saw that her snout was full of blood again, I cleaned it again.
"You're a little piglet," I said with mock seriousness. Her bloodied snout didn't startle me as much now, but it was gross nonetheless.
"You didn't eat ponies, did you?" She shook her head, showing the size of one of those two-headed cows with her claw. My eyes narrowed.
"You didn't eat the Carrots' pack animal, did you?" My tone sounded more cutting than I wanted it to, she twitched and shook her head. Then we fell asleep again.

Chapter 3 - Timber Consequences

I awoke as I felt Appletree's arms disappear, the green glow retreating into the wound. I looked around wearily; The first thing I saw was some yellow things lying next to me with a little note that said Look I hunted for you too - that's corn, Mr. Carrot said it was very tasty and vegetarian. I nibbled on one of these cobs and the sweet taste was amazing. Then near the camp I saw the skeleton of one of those two-headed cows. Someone must have been very hungry, I thought to myself just as I noticed that a group of about 6 ponies was approaching. The mare at the head seemed to see that I was awake and waved me over. I blushed briefly. By the goddesses, she's cute, I thought. She had light pink fur and a black mane. She also wore a brown cowboy hat with a gold star on it and incredibly sexy boots. She was accompanied by 4 other ponies wearing hats with silver stars. They didn't look too bad, otherwise Appletree would probably have been awake by now. I trotted over a little sleepily. "Howdy, I'm Sheriff Sugar Crush," she introduced herself kindly. "Do you happen to know who brought this skeleton here?" Somehow I didn't like the question and I answered cautiously "Yes, I think I know who that was, why?" A gray unicorn in the group answered "Yes exactly, that was my poor Molly!" said the stallion angrily. I gave myself a facehoof. Rule number three - don't eat farm animals of other ponies, I thought to myself. Sugar Crush sat down and pulled out a notepad. "Then tell me, I need your name and..." She looked at my jumpsuit "Ah, you're from the same stable as Littlepip, am I right?" she said smiling. I nodded. "My name is Stardust and I'm from Stable 2, that's right." She nodded and took notes. "You know who killed and gutted poor Molly?" she asked kindly. I nodded cautiously, "Yes, but what happens to the person if I tell you that?" I looked at her questioningly. “Well, damages have to be paid and they might have to go to jail for two or three days or do community work in the fields. That person only killed one bramin, although I have to say I still don't believe farmer Cracker's story.” She looked at him and giggled, “Too much apple whiskey again, huh?” Cracker just looked annoyed. I looked at her questioningly. "He said something about a being that was half timberwolf and half pony. With a big red bow on her head and blond mane; ridiculous, right?” I shook my head. "How much does the farmer get?" I looked questioningly at the sheriff. "200 bottle caps or two days' work in my fields!" said the gray unicorn. I looked at my pipbuck's inventory charm; I had exactly 70 caps and knew Appletree didn't have any. I sighed and looked at the farmer. "Then the guilty one will probably work in your fields for two days. And no, you weren't crazy.” Everyone widened their eyes except for Cracker, who just said, “I told you I wasn't drunk!” Sugar Crush looked at me again, “What kind of being was that?” I sighed . "My little sister has been turning into a, let's call it, a timber-werewolf at night the last few days." Sugar Crush's mouth almost touched the floor, she was so shocked by the response. "Oh, Nelly, every night? Does she always attack farm animals?” I thought about it; she actually hunted like a timber wolf, they probably couldn't tell game from farm animals. I passed that on to Sugar Crush and she thought, "I'm going to tell Mister Hoovs, the mayor of New Hoofington. He will decide whether you are allowed to continue traveling through our territory or not. Until then, your sister will be paying her debt to Cracker.” She said kindly. "Where is the monster anyway, I want to see it..." Appletree just trotted up behind me tiredly on her cyber legs and towered over everyone by about a head. Sugar Crush looked horrified. "Oh, Nelly, what happened to your legs, big one?" Appletree yawned and noticed that everyone was looking at her - and she disappeared behind me. "Cracker, didn't you say something about wooden legs?" Sugar Crush then said, "These are clearly mechanical parts, not wood. I think you need glasses.” I gently stroked Appletree's mane to calm her. "She lost her legs in an accident, so she has cyber legs. By the way, Littlepip also worked on them.” I said kindly. Appletree hesitantly lifted her head and looked at the farmer, "Was that your animal?" He only nodded with a narrow look, "I'm sorry, I was so hungry." She admitted sheepishly. “About the wooden legs” I said to Sugar Crush again. "She really has them at night, Cracker’s not crazy." She nodded and we split up the group. The law enforcement officers reported back and we went to Crackers Farm.

He had calmed down a bit in the meantime and said: "You, big one, Appletree, right? How good are you at farm work?” Appletree smiled confidently for the first time, it was adorable, and in her pleasantly deep voice she replied, “I’m a trained botanist and farmer. My specialties are fertilizer production and management, field plannin’, mappin’ and establishment as well as studyin’ the genetics of plants and their manipulation.” Cracker looked like a pipbuck monitor. "Then I’d say, as compensation, you create a new field of corn for me and plant it, alright? When you're done with it, no matter how long it takes, you're free to go.”, he said smiling now. "But at night you’ll be in the big cage at the barn," he said seriously. Appletree nodded in agreement, then Cracker said, "You ate Molly all by yourself?", sounding a bit disbelieving. She nodded, blushing, "You probably don't want to hear that, but it tasted great." Cracker laughed out loud. "I'm glad to hear that, I breed them for food." His laughter was honest and warm. "Then tonight you'll have a big bowl of meat, and for the two of you - how about a delicious carrot stew?" Me and Bubbles nodded. I offered to do something useful, too. When Bubbles told him I was a Children of the Night, he asked if I could restore the wayshrine at his farm. Appletree spoke up again, "Can I have some apples with the meat too? And well,” she blushed a bit again “the meat raw with a lot of blood, if that's possible.” I noticed how nauseous I was again. My sister turned into a real monster, which was really picky as well. Cracker thought about it. “How about some kind of goulash; I'll cut the meat into small pieces, cut up pieces of apple and add fresh blood?” Appletree beamed with joy from head to toe. I was a bit shocked but also kind of glad that she wanted plant-based food as well.

Bubbles was just playing around in the yard, exploring and fooling around. I smiled; at least kids could have fun, still, out here in the wasteland. I saw Appletree go to work. She measured out the new field, dug irrigation channels and plowed the ground. I myself went to the small shrine a little ways down the path. It was mainly dirty, but not ruined. I started cleaning it. It was a small cottage with an altar that was half white and half dark blue. There were also some holders for candles, only the offertory box had been broken open. That was blasphemy! I shook a little and then started cleaning. It took quite a while and Celestia's statue in particular was very uncooperative. Then it was Luna's statue’s turn. I looked at her and imagined that I really was a Children of the Night. Giving ponies the grace of Luna, ridding them of nightmares and helping them get a good night's sleep. I snapped out of my daydreams and started cleaning the Luna statue. She was more cooperative until I touched the horn - and suddenly I was standing in a meadow.

The sky was clear and I could see the moon and stars. I heard a melody; that I knew and heard singing along with it. The Song of the Children of the Night. I looked around, I was in a walled garden on top of a mountain. When I found a staircase I went down. I stood on a balcony and looked at a small square where about twenty ponies were standing and singing the song. What particularly struck me were their bat wings and larger ears. Then my eyes got as big as the moon and I trembled in awe. They all stood and sang in a semi-circular square at the straight end of which was a throne in the center on which my goddess was seated. She looked straight at me and waved me over. I started moving slowly and with uncertainty, thinking feverishly. Had the razor grain been bad? Or was Appletree's stigma causing me harm? Then I stood in front of her. I looked at her; she was beautiful, like the ancient hieroglyphic images from Somnambula. She gently stroked my fur while the bat ponies continued to sing; it was wonderful. Then she said, "It is about time, after more than a hundred years, that another Children of the Night is born." She smiled, I had fallen to my knees and remained silent in awe. "Get up, Stardust. You will be my first child in a long time." She walked ahead and we looked over the edge of the square. I saw Luna's horn flash. A shooting star broke out of the sky and hit near a larger city. "There you will find everything you need to become my child." She said with a soft and kind smile. I felt stupid asking a question. "P...Princess Luna, where are we, why me? And is it all just a dream?” I blushed, trembled again, and I was spinning. Then I felt her wrap one of her wings around me "Shhhhhh, that's fine my little Stardust." I sat down and she answered my questions "This is the garden of shadows. The place where my soul lives on after physically leaving Equestria. You are very religious and wish to spread my message. I want to make that possible for you." Now she giggled. "And yes, of course this is a dream. You're still lying in front of the wayshrine at farmer Cracker's farm.” She rubbed my back again soothingly. "Those bat-winged ponies, who are they?" Luna looked at them happily; they had stopped singing and played together or talked. "My chosen people, The Batponies. Unfortunately, there are almost no more of them in Equestria, only here. You will soon meet one of their descendants. She will be an advisor to you on your travels.” I nodded in understanding. "You'll wake up in a moment. If you need my advice, dream of our song and I'll be with you. Now wake up, my little Stardust, wake up!"
I felt something lick my face and recognized Bubbles' voice. It was already dark and I looked up into Appletree's green glowing eyes and her cute little fanged snout. The shrine was sparkling clean and I felt refreshed. "C'mon, Cracker's got dinner ready." I trotted along with the others when I noticed with amusement that Bubbles was leading Appletree on a leash. We all met in the barn. A large cage had been lined with blankets and Appletree's legs lay neatly arranged within. "Appletree, we still have to send a message to Mom," I said, remembering that it was already dark. Bubbles replied, "She's already done that because she knew she couldn't do it after dark." Appletree jumped back into the cage and snuggled up to her favorite pillow. Cracker put her portion of dinner in the cage and locked it and we all ate together in the barn. Appletree's stomach wasn't as bad as the last few days either. She seemed to be enjoying her meal, our meal was excellent as well. "Crackers, my respect, you cook almost as well as our mother." He bowed, "I try my best, but we all know that mothers make the best food." We all laughed, even Appletree, and that was interesting. Her laughter had a reverberation, or rather a small echo that was even deeper than her own voice. As we cleaned up after dinner my thoughts returned to what had happened this afternoon and the vision. We all went to bed after telling little scary stories. I asked Cracker to lock me in together with Appletree as I didn't want her to be alone. Cracker was really nice, I honestly didn't expect that when we first met him. I snuggled into Appletree's side, she hugged me with her timber wolf legs and we fell asleep. When I woke up it was still the middle of the night. I also noticed that by the wooden legs that were around me, still. I thought about everything that had happened up until now. I had tormented and killed others; for good reason, I believed, but it still made me sad, shocked and disturbed me. I felt like a hole was slowly opening up in my soul. I trembled slightly again and my stomach reported back again. The fear of Ponyvillel came up again, I felt sick. Then I thought about the last few days and my thoughts got stuck on Sugar Crush, that damn sexy looking sheriff earth pony. I could still hear Appletree snoring. I took the opportunity to be as quiet as possible when I found myself getting very warm at certain points just thinking about Sugar Crush and her leather boots. My right front hoof disappeared under the covers. Two happy cramps later, I turned around completely relaxed to snuggle back into Appletree's fur when I heard a sniff and turned bright red... Damn, she hadn't heard it, she smelled it. She opened her eyes and gave me a tired but fierce are you kidding me look. I was just about to start explaining when she grinned wickedly and did the meanest thing you could do to a horny unicorn mare: she ran her warm tongue twice over my horn. I tensed up a third time, she seemed to giggle, hugged me again and was asleep. The lovemaking dream between me and Suger Crush got weirder when my Timberwolf sister joined in. Thanks Appletree, it's going to take a while to get the thought out of my head!

The next morning came and Appletree woke me up by tickling me. "Hey, stop that!" I said tiredly. "Now wake up, you little drip cave mare." I blushed again. "Not a word - to nobody!", I hissed. "I needed to calm down from everything that had happened!" She gave me a kiss on the cheek and before jogging off to work she said, "Of course I'm not tellin’ anyone, why should I?" She smiled and continued digging. I went for a walk myself and then asked Cracker for a map of the area. He got up from his old, already somewhat rotten rocking chair and shortly afterwards came back with a few maps of the area. "What do you need these for? I thought you wanted to continue to New Appleloosa?” I nodded, “That's the goal. I just had a dream of a place I'd like to see.” I didn't dare use the word vision. After about an hour and with the help of Bubbles and Cracker, I found my destination. I marked it in my pipbuck as Appletree galloped over to us. "Guys, I found somethin’ weird and my pipbuck is clickin’ like crazy." Cracker rose from the rocking chair again. “Probably just an old ammo box or something; happens ‘round here sometimes.” I asked Bubbles to wait at the farm - high radioactivity is not for little colts. It was angular, but not a box. Small tubes were attached to the surface; a bubble in a tube rolled through green liquid and caused a reading on the thing to change. I was thinking hard about what that could be when Cracker slowly began to withdraw. "Girls, run away, far, far away! This is a Hellfire Bomb - a Zebraian Megaspell and it seems to be active again. RUN!” Appletree and Cracker ran, but Appletree stopped dead. "Dusty, come on, we have to go!" I shook my head. I had seen the part with the bubble before. I levitated out the zebra spellbook and found what I was looking for. That was an alchemical timer. It also said how to remove it. "Run, I'll try to disarm that thing! Appletree, throw the other two over your back and go!” Appletree nodded briefly, then threw Cracker over her back. I saw her grab Bubbles on her back as well and gallop away at top speed. I took a deep breath. Meat from a cow, wings from a parasprite, seven different herbs. I had everything that was needed. I had to process it into a viscous mass until I realized that I didn't have anything with me. I frantically turned the pages when I found a hoofwritten comment from Zecora "If you don't have anything to stomp on, don't be discouraged, chew it up yourself, have courage". Terrible rhyming and I looked in disgust at the cuts of meat I wrapped for Appletree. I got over myself and chewed the meat; it actually didn't taste that bad. Then the wings, I almost had to throw up doing it. The texture of these things was disgusting. The spices made it worse. I saw that the time display now had a number. Unfortunately, I didn't know any zebra numbers, so I chewed faster. I felt bile seep into my esophagus, then felt the mass warm up. That was the sign it was done. I let it float out of my mouth onto the tube where the bubble was dancing. It slowed and stopped, suspiciously close to what looked like a one. The device spoke in an exotic dialect, "Warning: timer defective. Warning: internal navigation defective. Device is switched off due to an emergency. For reactivation please contact a technician.” The numbers disappeared and I threw up in the new field. Not even because of the meat or the wings, but with relief. After about an hour the others came back and Cracker was amazed. "Girl, you did an excellent job. I'll sow the field myself tomorrow." He turned to Appletree, "Big one, can you climb out of holes with those claws too?" She nodded, "Then dig one over there." He pointed to a spot about 200 meters away. “Dig a hole 10 meters deep and 5 meters wide?” she nodded and immediately started to work. It lasted until the afternoon. In between, the sheriff mare returned and looked at the object, then at me. "You saved our butts, sweetheart!" she said in astonishment. "This calls for a party, Cracker." He nodded, "I'll set everything up, you get the rest." Sugar Crush looked at me gratefully. "A heroine deserves a reward." she said with a smile and gave me a kiss on the cheek. I felt myself blush and fainted. The last thing I saw was the sheriff mare's puzzled face and I heard Appletrees giggle.

When I woke up I was back in the barn, but not just me. About 20 other ponies. Including Bubbles, Appletree, Cracker, Sugar Crush and even Mister Hoovs a... I looked at him like a Pipbuck, a gray pegasus with an orange mane. I thought all Pegasi lived above the clouds. Appletree was transformed again by this time, as usual, and was lying comfortably on a few blankets next to the large wooden table. Cracker said, "First I hated you guys, you know, because our little wolf ate Molly before she was supposed to be eaten; but now you are our heroes! To the wolf and to our Children of the Night” everyone raised their glasses. I was given one too. It was apple schnapps, it burned my throat a bit, but felt good. Next, Cracker turned on an old radio while everyone at the table began to unwind to eat. There was plenty, with and without meat. Appletree had another big bowl of blood goulash, now with carrots and razor corn in it too. The radio came alive and I caught the end of a song that I actually understood. It was a song by Sweetie Belle, our stable's first overmare. Then a male voice began to speak. "Good evening my little ponies out there in the wasteland of Equestria. Remember when I told you about the little mare from Stable 2 that saved lovely Dizzy Doo? She seems to be getting reinforcements. I just got word from the mayor of New Hoofington that a unicorn mare and an earth pony mare have defused a dud megaspell and buried it safely. Thanks ladies! Unfortunately no real name was given. Wait a minute, I'll read what my lovely assistant Homage just gave me. The earth pony is called the she-wolf or little wolf because she seems to be a timber-werewolf." He paused briefly. "Oh, I imagine that to be really powerful and really scary, so you raiders, watch out, otherwise she'll shred you or just eat you up.”, he said with a mocking creepy undertone. He fell silent again and sounded even more awestruck now. "The unicorn is one they call The Priestess. I also know of a few raiders who call her a witch, but the other name-”, he interrupted himself and called out, “Homage, are you sure you got that right?” The radio went silent for a moment. “The other name touches me personally and I hope she lives up to it. Children of the Night!" There was a brief silence again, "You heard me right, my little ponies, the old church of Luna seems to have sent a new moonlight into the wasteland after more than a hundred years. May Luna and Celestin's blessings be upon us all.” He revealed a few other things, concluding with the words “A really exciting day today, it seems Stable 2 is a real hero forge. Thank you, my three ladies. And now back to music, Sweetie Belle is now singing about the truth of the wasteland.”

I wanted to sink into the ground again. I may become a Children of the Night, but I'm not yet. I shook my head and enjoyed the carrot and razor corn salad as Mr. Hoovs sat down next to me. He wore an elegant pre-war suit. His cutiemark looked like a cloud with lightning, but the square around it looked weird... Like a brand. "So you want to continue to New Appleloosa?", said the Pegasus stallion with that much charisma in his voice that I would have bought a used carriage from him. I nodded while levitating a carrot over to Appletree which she happily ate. The funny thing was that she was a magnet for the kids, who found her kind of creepy but also thought she was a smart dog. Mr. Hoovs spoke again and pulled out a sack. "I have a few small conditions that must be met before you move on. These terms apply to both the New Hoofington and New Appleloosa Territories. When your sister transforms, you're responsible for everything she does!” He looked at me seriously. "Here you have a good leash and a muzzle. With that she can eat normally, but not hunt.” I looked at the things and nodded slowly. I didn't feel comfortable restricting my little sister like that, but I guess it was necessary. The collar and muzzle were well padded though, I saw, which gave me some peace of mind at least. "We are all very grateful to you for saving us, but how did you actually do it?" He looked at me questioningly. "I have a book on zebra alchemy that told me how to disarm the timer. And since the thing didn't know where it was, it shut itself off.” He nodded slowly. "But I don't want to be unfriendly either, and I brought a small reward for the little wolf.", he said, smiling as he pulled out a plastic bag. There were a lot of small pieces of meat that were still bloody. He tossed one over to Appletree. She caught it in the air with a big leap. Two foals perched on their backs screeched enthusiastically. I shook my head in amusement. So tomorrow night we might finally see Littlepip again and Appletree might be able to overcome her shyness to befriend her.

Chapter 4 - New Appleloosa

Chapter 4 - New Appleloosa
The next morning was dawning. Appletree, Bubbles and I were up early and getting ready. We would arrive late afternoon or early evening. Cracker also gave us a few supplies and said goodbye. "You're welcome to come back, I could really use your help again, little wolf." He said, waving. I stopped briefly at the wayshrine and said a few prayers in Old Ponic and one in the contemporary language for guidance from the goddesses and a safe journey. Appletree joined in the prayer, I looked at her in astonishment. That was a bit out of character for her. She had done this to me a few times before, but rarely. I looked at her a little surprised, but pleased. "Since when do you pray with me again, my little one?" I said, slightly skeptical, but also touched. "I want Luna and Celestia to be with us. Besides, you're the priestess for the wasteland now, so I want to support you in that, even if it's just by praying with my big sister.” She smiled, I smiled, and Bubbles rolled her eyes a little.

"Are you starting to preach every night now?" she said, mockingly skeptical. "If I'm initiated, maybe," I just replied with a grin. We trotted on towards New Appleloosa. "Initi- what?" Bubbles asked. I giggled; I thought it was funny that I was apparently the only one far and wide who could speak Old Ponic. "When I have received Luna's blessing. But for that I have to visit a temple first, according to the traditions it is only possible there. Luckily there is one around New Appleloosa.” I said with content. After the horrors of the past few days, I finally felt a little more relaxed.

After a somewhat surprisingly uneventful journey, we arrived at the city of containers and railcars. At the gate we were stopped by the sheriff, who was also the mayor. He looked at us in turn. Then he pointed to Appletree, "You're the wolf, right?" Appletree nodded, a little uncertain, and started to hide behind me again. "If you cause trouble, you're kicked out." He said seriously. Appletree nodded and said sheepishly, "I'm not doing this on purpose." The sheriff looked at her for a moment, then looked a little more gracious when he noticed how insecure and shy the wolf was. "I just wanted to officially point this out to you. Security measures have already been taken by Mr. Hooves. Well then, welcome to New Appleloosa, big wolf.” He grinned. Then he turned to me. "So you are the priestess - or witch." He scowled at me. "If it doesn't bother you, kill properly and don't do more harm than necessary."

I looked uncertain. "All I can say is that I'll try." He nodded and grinned again. "Then you are also welcome, Children of the Night." He paused briefly, something seemed to bother him. "What's going on?" I cocked my head; he actually got a little nervous at the question and… a little red. "Are you going to preach too? There's a couple here who would like that, but I don't know if that's such a good idea. There's been a few weird preachers who've passed through here.” I put my front hoof gently on his shoulder. "When I'm initiated, I will preach - not before." The sheriff looked relieved, nodded, but then raised an eyebrow again. "Initi- what?" Bubbles chimed in, "If she dedicated herself to Luna. All she needs is a temple.” The sheriff thought about it. "Good luck little one, I wouldn't even begin to know where to find one." We said goodbye to the gate.

Our first stop was Bubbles' home. We walked through a few alleys of containers and found ourselves in front of the same, slightly rusted example. I knocked and a slightly older, yellow unicorn mare with a green mane opened the door for us. Her cutie mark was a piece of cloth that curled with magic. I smiled at her. "You're Bubbles' mother, right?" I tried to put on my friendliest smile. She looked dejected and nodded. "I'm the one they call Children of the Night," I said softly. Her eyes widened more in fear than awe. "She's not dead!!" she started to sniffle. I gently wrapped my hoof around her to comfort her. "No, she isn't." Her eyes widened again. "Where is she, do you know?" She looked at me almost pleadingly; I looked around the corner.

There Bubbles slowly trotted up. Her problem was that Appletree didn't like being pulled on her new leash. It had gotten dark and Appletree had transformed before we reached Bubbles' house, and Bubbles liked to have her on a leash. Her mother burst into a torrent of tears when she saw her and rushed towards her. She hugged her like there was no tomorrow; then she stopped and looked up and was startled again to see Appletree's fangs.

My little sister always tended to smile shyly. The thing that scared the mare though were the long fangs of our wolf, which were still a little bloody. Luckily, Bubbles switched gears quickly enough when she noticed the anxiety building up in her mother. She took her mother's hoof and placed it on Appletree's fur. "You can pet her, she won't do anything." She said soothingly. Then she quickly added, "Unless you hurt her friends or family, then she'll get angry." Enjoying the hesitant petting, Appletree sat on her hind legs and wagged her tail slightly. Then she sniffed at Bubble's mother and licked her cheek. Bubble's mother was startled for a moment, but giggled and now said in a friendly and relaxed manner, "So you're the little wolf, okay." She smiled, let a handkerchief float over to free Appletree from the remains of the blood. "Your wolf is a little piglet, is that possible?" She smiled. "Yes, my little sister still has to work on her wolf manners." She looked at me, then at her again, then at me - and I sighed and said "I'm two years older than her - so I'm the big sister!"

We said our goodbyes for now and Bubbles gave us some of her chewing gum. Blueberry for me and apple for Appletree. Bubbles’ mother was still so grateful to us that she offered us to sleep at her place for the next few days until we had to move on. But for now we had an appointment that I was looking forward to. We entered the tavern just as the laughter had died down. Apparently someone had asked something incredibly stupid. And I could also see exactly who that had been. The rumors that were being shared around the stable were actually true. Littlepip looked really cute when she blushed and I found myself gasping at the sight as we both looked at each other a little blushed. Then she looked at Appletree and the blush immediately disappeared. Her eyes widened and she shook herself briefly. Was she disgusted, or did the sight of Appletree frighten her? I was approaching the table where Pip was sitting next to a rust colored Pegasus when the bar pony trotted up with a note and a funny box.

"Ok you three, I want a photo of the three angels from the stable." He said with a grin. We posed a bit at his request and he took some pictures with his old pre-war polaroid camera. Appletree was shy in the first picture, but she was actually starting to like it. I smiled as we returned to the table, Appletree with her huge frame placed herself next to me. He gave out a round of Sparkle Cola for the pictures. The one for Appletree even had a colorfully ringed straw. "It's nice to see that you're doing well," I said to Littlepip, who looked at us happily, "Well, you seem to be doing well, but your sister has apparently caught something bad." She turned her gaze from me to my sister. "Or Appletree?" Pip still looked a bit skeptical, but didn't seem to be really scared anymore. Her companion in the Black Desperado hat kept a close eye on Appletree the whole time. She grabbed a piece of wood from the ground and tried to carve something into it with her claws. When the serving pony trotted past again and saw this, she stopped and gave us a small slate and a piece of chalk. "That'll make a bottle cap later," he said with a smile and I nodded. Appletree started writing.

"Yes, it hurt a lot when the Timberwolf bit me and I was very scared. I thought I was going to die and abandon my sister and Bubbles. But I managed to kill the monster.” Pip nodded and hesitantly stroked her mane. Appletree wiped the slate clean. I saw that she searched for the right phrase for a long time, about ten minutes. Then she just shoved on the board, "Want to be friends, Littlepip?" My heart skipped a beat; she had finally dared to ask her after all these years and a few small tears rolled down my cheeks. Pip looked at me confused but no longer skeptical and then said with a smile, "Sure. Having friends out here is important.” She hugged, well, Appletree's front. Her arms were too short to fully grasp her. Then Pip looked at me "You, Stardust, why are you crying?" She looked a little skeptical again and her companion, who had been leaning against the wall near the table, looked just as skeptical.

I thought to myself that this must be her new buddy, I just didn't know his name. I sniffled again and wiped the tears from my eyes "Appletree, may I tell her?" Now she blushed but nodded shyly. I took a deep breath. "She's been trying to make friends with you since you were both little fillies - but well, you know as well as I do how shy she is. And now that we've left the stable, she dared to ask. That just moved me to tears.” Pip also got big eyes and seemed touched. "Then you both must report to each other more often. You can meet in the wasteland to help each other or just to chat. The wasteland is big, as you may have already noticed. And together you're not lonely.” The evening grew later, we talked to Pip and her buddy, whom she introduced to us as Calamity. Then I noticed how Appletree slowly started to pull on the leash. "Do you want to go for a walk?" I looked at her questioningly. She nodded eagerly. "Well, we can take a little walk around town BUT no hunting, got it?" She nodded, whimpering a little.

When we got to the gate, the guard greeted us, "Hey you two, listen. I'll close the gate in two hours, then you have to pay 50 caps to get in. Also, there's been a weird crazy pony with magical energy weapons hanging around here for the last three weeks, be careful. It hasn't attacked anyone yet, but please pay attention anyway.” I nodded. "We just want to walk around the city," I said and also looked longingly into the darkness. I enjoyed this walk. Ever since my vision of Luna, I've had the constant feeling that I was blinded more often than before, but could see better in the dark. I wandered absentmindedly with Appletree on a leash through the little patch of wasteland along the wall. Only my little sister donated a little light, which was pleasantly natural. Then I heard her sniff and growl. Over there under a tree sat a black being, with blue eyes, a horn, insect-like wings, and... A Magical Energy Gatling attached to a battle saddle. He jumped when he noticed us. I raised a hoof in salute and reminded Appletree that it was only a pony; only then did I hear the buzzing. Then the pain flooded my body, brief but violent.

Some of the shots hit my front legs, some hit my side and I collapsed screaming in agony. Appletree leaped at the creature. It opened fire again, hitting Appletree's front legs. I couldn't believe my eyes and cold rage washed over me as her Timberwolf legs dissolved into pink dust and Appletree fell to the ground. He was too far away for my lightning whip and my pain was too great to bridge the distance. I chose a different spell, or rather combined two spells. The bullet stun spell, a very simple entry-level combat spell, and my lightning whip. I was skilled as a spell caster at combining these, even under such stress. A light blue ball appeared over my horn, filled with a bolt of lightning centered on the inside, from which it kept shooting at the outer shell of the spell. I sent the bullet at the creature - it tried to dodge, but was too slow. First his body went limp. I had woven the spell in such a way that he was no longer able to move at will. Then that little beetle danced with violent convulsions. He did that for about a minute, during which time I dragged myself to Appletree. The pain clouded my senses, but I heard a familiar sound through the veil of pain and was relieved. Appletree's timber legs were just growing back. I prayed to Luna that the pain should lessen. Then I felt something cool on the wound on my side. I looked down at it and was perplexed and confused to find that this black something had shed its smoking combat saddle and was now bandaging me.

I stared at him with wide eyes. He giggled and said, almost embarrassed, "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to, I was scared. I'm Ferrax, and who are you?” It took me a full minute to come to terms with the situation. Then I looked at him blankly, "Why did you just shoot us - and are you going to help us now?" He applied a second bandage, this time to my front hooves. "Your tame Timberwolf startled me. It's big and scary." Appletree, who had calmed down now, glared at him. "That's not a tame Timberwolf, that's my little sister." It took a moment, then the black pony flashed its horn and took a closer look at Appletree. I had to hold the leash very tight because she would have probably smashed him against the container wall behind us otherwise. "In fact, no timber wolf!" he said, seeming intrigued. I saw his fangs, they were in no way inferior to Appletrees.

Then he said to me "Oh yes, I'm Ferrax by the way, nice to meet you." I looked at him confused "You introduced yourself earlier" I said surprised. He just laughed and said "I'm a bit forgetful." Then he scratched the back of his head in embarrassment. "Your sister is beautiful, the spirit that has entered her makes her shine and seems to harmonize well with her." He said, giggling when he had finished bandaging me. He pulled a few small pieces of meat out of his pocket and let Appletree sniff them. She looked at me questioningly and I could already see the flow of saliva running out of her snout. I nodded smiling softly and Ferrax fed her. "Spirits?" I now asked Ferrax. He turned around, startled. "Spirits, where?" I gave myself a facehoof and giggled. He was really forgetful. "You said the spirit goes well with my sister, what do you mean?" It seemed to click in his head. "The zebras believe in spirits of nature, as far as I know, and your sister has the spirit of the timber wolf." He said eagerly. "She seems to be in good control, I've seen others who carried such a spirit that wiped out and devoured entire villages." He said a little more seriously now. Then he looked at me "You're touched by Luna, aren't you?" I nodded slowly "How did you know that?" He giggled slightly madly again. "The glitter in your eyes is like the starry sky, that's what Luna's children are supposed to have - at least that's what I heard. Oh yes, I'm by the way...." I had to laugh "Yes, Ferrax, I now understand who you are."

Then I looked at him deep in thoughts. "But what are you? A mutated unicorn?” He stared at me and then fell to the ground, laughing. "No, dumbass, I'm a changeling." He promptly transformed into a potted plant, his horn flashing green. I was amazed. As he turned back, I heard hooves approaching. It was the mayor and Sugar Crush. He had a revolver in his muzzle, she had a combat saddle with two shotguns and both were aimed at me. She gave me a very angry look, which unfortunately somehow made her even more attractive and drove the warmth back into my abdomen. "What did I tell you about an hour ago?" the sheriff asked me, looking more disappointed than angry. I winced when I realized what I had done. I said nothing and looked down guiltily.

"Last warning, otherwise you are not allowed to enter our area anymore." He was serious. Then he and Sugar Crush saw my bandaged legs and their gaze wandered first to the changeling, then to his battle saddle, which lay smoking under the tree. "Ok, what exactly happened here?" The three of us reported it as best we could. Appletree was handed a piece of chalk and she simply wrote it on one of the wagon walls. Everyone relaxed a bit. "So," the mayor began. "As I said, warning for the Children of the Night, oh yes, what's your real name?" He looked at me questioningly.

I had calmed down a bit now and only a few tears of terror fell down my face. "My name is Stardust" The mayor nodded. "That even suits someone who is close to Luna." He struck a calmer tone again. "You really need to learn to control this cold fury! If you torment other ponies, people might really think badly of you and want to kill you or put bounties on you out of revenge.” I nodded and continued to look down guiltily. Sugar Crush came up to me and gave me a hug. I looked at her for a moment "Did you really want to kill me with that?" She looked at me confused "No, more like that one over there." She pointed to Ferrax, who was taking care of his Gatling. "I just glared at you for going against the mayor's orders. However, it was self-defense, I actually understand that to a certain extent.” The end of the story was that Ferax was not allowed to enter the city and had to give his gun to the mayor. In fact, he did, and then said to my sister and I, "Can we talk again tomorrow?" I nodded and we trotted back to Bubbles' house. Bubbles was already in bed and Appletree and I curled up on some blankets. I hummed the Children of the Night song. I wanted to ask Luna something else.

I woke up again in the Garden of Shadows. I felt that this time I was a bat pony. I gently spread my wings and flapped a couple of times; a strange but nice feeling. I saw Luna lying at the edge of the garden looking at the wasteland. I fluttered over to her, cautiously and awkwardly, and settled down next to her. "Hello, my little Stardust. Isn't it a nice evening?” I smiled happily at her. I just had to be careful not to cut myself with my dream fangs. I was lucky they were so small considering the ones from Appletree or Ferax. "Yes, at least it is here. In the wasteland one can hardly see the splendor of your sky, unfortunatly, because of the dense cloud cover.” I said a little sadly. "Why am I in this shape?" I asked, a little confused. Luna smiled. "Because I sense that our bond will soon grow stronger. So you should have the form you deserve in my kingdom.” She smiled and stroked my mane. "You have something on your mind, don't you? What is it?” I looked down “I tormented another pony again today. It's against your principles, against your love for all the ponies of Equestria. Can you help me stop this?” She looked at me thoughtfully. "Why do you enjoy torturing other ponies?" I collected my thoughts and then began carefully, "Bad ponies need to be punished so that they can learn from their mistakes. And it seems pain is the only language raiders in the wasteland understand, but I'm afraid it'll tear my soul apart and lead me to something…” I stopped abruptly as a new voice spoke from my left. "As I will?"

I winced when I saw another mare on my other side. Her fur black as the deepest moonless night, her teeth were jagged; a helmet lay in front of her on the grass and her eyes were slit like a Batpony's - completed with wings and horn. I panicked and started shaking like crazy and my eyes widened as I realized Nightmare Moon was lying next to me. I looked in panic to see if Luna was still there and turned around once - when my eyes felt even bigger than the moon. Luna was still lying there and looking at me softly. Her tail and Nightmare Moon's were intertwined like a couple. "Take it easy, my little one." Luna said softly. Somewhat roughly, Nightmare Moon's wing pushed me back to the ground. "How... how can that be? You have been defeated and destroyed." She gave a short, mocking laugh. "I can't be destroyed. I am the dark side of the moon, there will always be me. And if you go on like this to torment ponies, you'll use my power more than my counterpart's.” She said in a bored tone now. She didn't even look at me, just rolled her helmet from one hoof to the other, bored. Luna began to speak again. "I wanted to show you what kind of power you have to face. My power and hers are intertwined. I am the gentle healing of the soul.” Luna said calmly, “I am the evil that will tempt you to make others suffer.” Nightmare Moon said now, still rolling her helmet in boredom and not seeming to notice us at all. I realized that I had to face a difficult task.

I turned to Luna and whispered, "Does Celestia have a side like that too?" Luna looked at me in amusement, "Yes, of course she does. And compared to that, Nightmare Moon is a kitten. Do you want to see her?” Luna asked, actually grinning. I looked surprised. "That works?" This time both nodded. Luna continued, "At the same time you and I first met, Celestia also chose a new priestess." Nightmare Moon snorted, "You only ever come in pairs." Luna made a kind of glowing field appear, then a picture formed. A pavilion made of white marble in front of a forest could be seen as if through a window. On some pillows and blankets lay a snow-white unicorn mare with golden-blond mane that had red streaks and chestnut-brown eyes. Where Nightmare Moon was on my side lay a white mare whose mane and tail were made of flame. Her eyes were like a furnace and she too was playing around with a small fireball, bored. On her other side, however, wasn't quite what I expected. It was Celestia, but she was translucent like a ghost. Her mane was also pink and not like the rainbow. I heard Luna gasp, "Sister, what happened?" The translucent Celestia just looked sad, but didn't answer. But the mare in the middle did though. "Hello sister, nice to meet you." She was talking way too loud and waving her hoof very energetically. Then she looked worriedly at Luna. "Princess Luna, Your Highness. I can report that there is something wrong with your sister's soul. A part seems to be missing. This is the part of the soul that is tied to the sun. But the rest seems to be missing.” Luna and Nightmare Moon now both gasped in unison. The white unicorn mare hoofed reassuringly, "My quest is to find her. And I will!” She radiated confidence like Celestia's sun. Then she turned back to me. "By the way, my name is Sunny Day, and what's your name, sis?" she grinned happily.

"My name is Stardust," I replied with a friendly smile. I was just afraid of cutting my fangs again. "We should meet at Chance, outside of a dream." I nodded. "Where are you at the moment? And are you traveling alone? It's dangerous!” She laughed out loud. "I'm a scholar of the Steel Rangers, I can take care of myself. Also, I have the best zebra sniper beyond the zebra empire with me, believe me - Lucky Shot hits everything.” I nodded. "We're just north of the ruins of Canterlot, on our way to Manehattan to the Tenpony Tower. I'll just get in touch when I'm there and just wait there for you, what do you think of that?” I thought about it. "How, only Luna can open such channels." I had guessed in the blue, but Luna nodded. "I've got a pipbuck like you, I'm a stable mare like you too. So don't worry, we'll manage. See you soon, little sister, and if there's something wrong with Celestia, let's keep this to ourselves within the church for now.” The image blurred. I sat down on the floor and first had to digest what I had just seen, when suddenly Nightmare Moon sat in front of me and looked at me with incredibly sad eyes. She cried black tears and grabbed my hooves whimpering "Dusty wake up please wake up" I blinked and was back in New Appleloosa. In fact, there was someone hugging me and whimpering begging me to wake up. It was bubbles. "Are you okay?" I asked sleepily. It was the middle of the night. "I had a bad nightmare," she whimpered on. "The Children of the Night help you with that, don't they?" She looked at me with big eyes full of tears. I smiled softly. Luna's child or not, I've had experience calming children down when they're having nightmares. With two little sisters, there’s no art to that.

I took her out into the fresh air and wrapped my wing around her just to realize I was a unicorn again. I took her in my hooves and wiped away her tears. "What bad dream did you have, my little Bubbles?" She was sniffing. “Of the mad that wanted my horn! But this time you weren't fast enough. I could still see you coming through the door when my horn fell off bleeding and I died.” I gently stroked her green mane. "Everything will be fine. The guy is dead and can no longer be dangerous to you." She calmed down a bit, she snuggled up to Appletree when we were back inside and whispered "I want to be as strong as you. So that no one kidnaps children here anymore.” She fell silent. I could tell she was up to something, just not what. Suddenly her arm jerked into Appletree's mouth, which was slightly open due to her snoring. My eyes widened and my heart started racing. No, she didn't really intend to. I thought about what she just said strong like her. The seconds passed like minutes. I wrapped her in my magic field and wanted to pull her away, but it was too late. She had placed her levitating field on Appletree's mouth and snapped it shut. She screamed in pain. I got tinnitus from this situation. Appletree opened her eyes and saw what had been done to her. She immediately spat out Bubbles’ leg, but it was too late. I saw her standing motionless. She looked at her bleeding leg as her wound began to glow green. Then she looked at Appletree and said, "Strong as a timber wolf." I could already see the wound closing under a tree bark and the familiar creaking sound. Its bark, however, was that of a birch, white with black speckles. She howled when her transformation was complete. Her mother startled awake, staring at her, then at us, then at her again. I thought she was going to faint and got even more confused when I saw what was happening. Her mother had an incredibly relaxed expression on her face. I could still remember her fear of Appletree, but now. She levitated out a tape measure and measured Bubble's neck. Then she got up and just looked at us, shaking her head. "If I had known you were serious Bubbles, I would have locked you in the sewing room." How could she be so calm?

I was so confused, perplexed and actually scared of her. Then I found my language again. "It was a, well, accident? I couldn't pull her away fast enough.” Her mother turned to me. I had tears in my eyes and she just grabbed my hooves. Then she said very calmly "Bubbles wanted to become as strong as you to protect all the children. She was nagging at me the whole time when you were out walking. I thought she wanted to be an apprentice at Sugar Crush, but I didn't see that coming either." I stared at her, aghast. "Your daughter self-harmed to become a timber werewolf and you're just taking it ?” She just nodded. But now I saw that she was biting the inside of her cheek hard the whole time; I could see the blood and tears rolled down her face. She was trying to be strong so we could be strong and not totally freak out. She gently stroked her daughter's mane. Then she got a piece of white leather from a box and quickly made a makeshift collar. "So, my little wolf," she said, trembling. "You are now leashed for your own..." She paused, her chest heaving with suppressed emotion. Then burst into tears howling and sobbing like a waterfall. Her whole body trembled. She held Bubbles with her front hooves and stroked her mane "My little one, why did you do that?" Bubbles snuggled up to her mother. I started cautiously with a comment, "She won't be able to tell you until tomorrow. She can't speak in that form.” Bubble's mother nodded. Appletree still sat there, rooted to the ground. She raised her nostrils and sniffed, then walked over to Bubbles. Her nose sniffed at her just like Bubbles'. Appletree licked Bubbles once and then gave her a violent angry headbutt. Bubbles staggered back and whimpered. Appletree's look almost said, "You just screwed up."

When the rooster woke us up, all the ponies in the wagon were back to normal. Bubble's wound was covered in bark and she looked guiltily into her bowl at the breakfast table. Appletree shook her head. "Do you actually know what you've done?!" She was a mixture of angry, outraged and sad. "I saw how strong you are. I'm just a weak little unicorn. And when someone kidnaps children here, the adults sometimes look the other way on purpose. I want to avoid that, but if I had to apprentice at Sugar Crush first, it would take far too long.” Appletree was still shaking her head. I cast a questioning look over my bowl of oats. "Stupid inappropriate question, but what did you guys actually smell about each other?" I braced myself to either take a verbal slap or notes. Appletree blushed and didn't want to come out, Bubbles hesitantly answered. She pointed to her mother. "She smells like Mama" then she hesitated briefly and then pointed carefully to Appletree "You too." Then she pointed to me "You smell like pack" Appletree now hesitantly opened her mouth, pointed to Bubbles and only said with a sigh "Bubbles smells like daughter, just how you smell like sister, Dusty.” Bubble's mother was calm. I also knew why. I had seen that she had given herself an injection. "Then, sweetheart, you have me as your real mom and Appletree as your wolf mom." Appletree and Bubbles nodded slowly. Then she magically lifted Bubbles' collar onto the table which was now complete. It was made of white leather and decorated with colorful balls that looked like chewing gum. She sighed, "I'll tell the mayor later what happened tonight and that it wasn't your fault. Bubbles my darling." She seemed hesitant. "I'll leash you overnight. Right by my bed. Just please don't bite me in my sleep too, okay?” she smiled. And it was a real sincere smile. For my part, I had planned to carry out a precise magical analysis on both of them the next night.

It had been a tiring day. Sugar Crush and the mayor had been arguing with us and Bubble's mom for three hours. We had agreed that Bubbles should already start her training at Sugar Crush, but with a special extension - namely as a nose for missing people. Everyone was happy with that. She was imposed the same rules as Appletree and we were allowed to stay too. When I told our family what crazy things we had experienced in those days and that our parents were now theoretically grandparents, there was a confused mood. But when Appletree and Bubbles showed up in their timber form in front of the monitor, my family's eyes widened. That evening, Bubbles' mom and I went for a walk with Bubbles and Appletree. It was cute to see the two play. And Bubble's timber legs were cute too. I slowly realized that I had a disturbed relationship to the term ‘cute’. The next morning, after I finished my notes, we left. I had completed the magical analysis. This was a magical being that formed a symbiotic relationship with its host and triggered the transformation from the point of entry. I still hadn't figured out why this only happened at night. But I had figured out why Bubbles had transformed so quickly - the spirit had taken root in Appletree long enough to understand ponies and transfer a small part of itself into a willing new host. Bubbles' ghost was a puppy. There was no danger that she would turn other ponies she bit into timber werewolves. Appletree's spirit had expended much effort in the birth of a new spirit. It would probably take a while before that could happen again. We said goodbye to everyone. Unfortunately, Littlepip had already left, so we couldn't say goodbye to her. I got a kiss on the cheek from Sugar Crush with the statement "Feel free to come back, I'm still available." She said and I blushed. And so Appletree, Ferrax and I headed west.

Author's Notes:

Yay Chapter 4 is out, i hape you have fun, sorry for the cracy paragraphs

Chapter 5 - Children of the Night

Chapter 5 - Children of the Night
We had decided to follow the rails in a northwestern direction. Using them as a guide was a pretty safe bet. Ferrax had some fun with a few ghouls just a few miles further. He turned them all into funny mounds of pink dust with his magical Energy Gatling Gun. He stuck sticks and stones into the piles in the shape of a smiley face and called them dust ponies. It was a desolate road. Many stations that once belonged to small villages had collapsed - just like the villages that were near the tracks. Appletree continued to diligently collect all sorts of plants and catalog them professionally. It was a night and day difference when I thought about the animal that came out at night to hunt. I was a little worried about Bubbles. I hoped her mother could keep her under control, but she was just a kid.

As evening fell we arrived at a forlorn complex of buildings. The sign said: Hoofburgh Military Training Center. Ferrax's eyes widened "there must be so many weapons in there to tinker around with" he squeaked almost ecstatically. So we went to the site. It was quiet... too quiet. My E.F.S. piped up just before pain filled my hind legs. Someone had hidden an old turret under an old box. Out of fright, I teleported myself behind a box for cover, more bullets flew as Appletree ran towards the thing, fuming. Two more towers came alive and fired on Appletree and Ferrax, who was just closing in on the first tower. At first, only a few bullets hit Appletree's legs, which she didn't mind. But then she got a whole load neatly lined up like our mother's chain into her side. She staggered just before reaching the first tower and hydraulically propelled it against the nearest wall, where it exploded and shattered. Ferrax got off much better. He blazed his horn and wrapped himself in a green shield before his Gatling whirred to life. He punctured the other gun's cover first, turning it into a smoking piece of junk while laughing insanely. I shattered the last gun with a blast of energy from my horn; well, okay, there were seven. I can do a lot of spells, but only a few really well. I removed the bullets from my leg, screaming in pain.

The tears didn't make it any easier to attempt a healing spell afterwards, but it worked. Ferrax was busy plundering the turrets. I levitated a healing potion to Appletree, she had already cleared the bullets from her side with a deep growl. Then she pulled weird purple berries out of her saddlebag with her grasping claws, crushed them and rubbed them on her wound and sighed with relief. She lay down on the rubble and rested. Smiling softly, she shoved the healing potion back in my direction. I still padded over to her, cursing a little in pain. "Are you alright sis?" I was worried; not greatly, but a little. Those berries looked unhealthy, but she knew plants. She nodded and looked deeply relaxed.

"Yes everything alright. Spikeberries are one of the basic ingredients of health potions. And I found a few earlier.” She smiled dreamily. "The problem is, left untreated, they make you way too relaxed and tired." She said, yawning. Shortly thereafter, Ferrax came back and grinned happily, "Well, now we have more ammunition and components. Are you two ok?” I nodded and Appletree smiled tiredly. I looked at my pipbuck map. We would be leaving the New Appleloosa area tomorrow. And my path marker was no more than 500 meters away. I wondered what the temple might be like. "Rejoice, little wolf, tomorrow night you can hunt again" I said with a smile and stroked her mane. Then I undid her braids and brushed her mane. I gently floated the large bow over into her hooves.

Now Ferrax actually spoke up curiously. "Tell me, how is it with your funny timberness? Does the transformation hurt you? It doesn't do that for me. And what do you grasp? How do you experience the world?” Appletree looked up at the sky thoughtfully. "Well, it does hurt a bit, especially when the jaw deforms. Worse than any dentist visit. Well, the world is more intense. I see in the dark like during the day but hear and smell more intensly.” Ferrax lifted his hoof “How do I smell and how does your sister smell and how does Bubbles smell?” At the word Bubbles she looked down melancholy. "You smell like friend and like pack. Dusty smells like family, sister and pack and well…" She was silent for a moment and looked down a bit dejectedly again "Bubbles smelled like friend and pack until last night. She just smells like family now and like she's my daughter. With her, it's more than just the smell. I feel that we have a connection to each other. I want to protect and teach her. I want to see her grow up." A few tears welled up in her eyes. "I'm totally overwhelmed with it. I don't know about maternal feelings. It overwhelms me, but it's also beautiful at the same time.” Ferrax nodded thoughtfully. I finished brushing her and braided her mane and tail again. Then I started a question, "How does it feel to hunt?" I asked curiously. Now she blushed again and whispered "Beautiful, at least from what I can really tell." I looked at her confused when Ferrax spoke up again "Are you brushing me too?" I looked at the Changeling in confusion. “Just the fur? You don't really have a mane.” He nodded eagerly and I just continued with him.

Then I turned back to Appletree with my questions, "You're not experiencing all of it?" I was curious. Whether that was a magical side effect or her inner timber wolf. She thought for a moment. "When you're around, I remember everything. I really only have impressions from hunting. The adrenaline from scenting the prey, the endorphins from catching it, and the wonderfully delicious taste of flesh and fresh blood.” The last part made me feel a bit nauseous. Especially since she said that with such a dreamy bliss that I had to shake.

We ventured further into the building. There were many old terminals and office facilities. I found a few intact books which I pocketed. And as we walked through the reception area that was in front of the office I saw guns on the ceiling again. They started firing as soon as we entered the room. I teleported myself behind the desk, panting. The old still functional terminal caught my attention. I connected my Pipbuck to it and went into the data streams to hack it. It didn't take long, about a minute, until I had worked my way through the jumble of data far enough to find the individual parts of the password. It was ‘cheesecake’. I had to imagine a cake made entirely of cheese and giggle. I got into the control subroutine for all of the building's turrets and disabled them. With another subroutine I deactivated something that was marked as a guard bot in the system. Then I did some digging through the terminal's data while Ferrax flapped around the guns.

He had turned his one front hoof into a screwdriver and was unscrewing from the ceiling, humming happily. I found a map and more importantly, the location of the Two Sisters' Chapel. It was behind the garage and was unlocked. Unfortunately there was nothing further to the building. So I left the terminal again after downloading the terrain map. The rest of the building we were in was nothing more than a bunch of broken offices, as well as a partially filled Sparkle-Cola machine. In the garage, which was located next to the main building, there were more problems. Cockroaches, and not too few. It took 20 minutes and most of my magical reserves to solve the problem. Thanks to my Shield spells, Appletree’s claws, and Ferrax’ Gatling, we managed to do it without really hurting each other. I was just disgusted when Appletree sat lost in thought and started eating the things. It took 2 minutes to bring her out of her trance. There was a faint green glow in her eyes and her fangs were slightly extended. Now I was really worried. Also in the back of the garage there was a Guardian Bot. Ferrax danced like a colt to Hearth's Warming eve. When he was done dismantling it, it got dark. I heard the familiar creaking. I tethered Appletree next to the cockroach massacre and she started eating disgustingly happily. The sight and the noise made me sick and I needed fresh air. I stood behind the garage and that's when I saw him.

One door at the side of a hill showed Luna's Cutiemark, the other Celestia’s. It was time, I felt it. I didn't know what to wear for such an occasion as I didn't have anything appropriate. So I got rid of everything except my necklace which was a crystal with Luna's and Celestia's Cutiemark and my Pipbuck. I wished Appletree and Ferrax good night. My sister rubbed her head against mine one more time before I started.

I was nervous. I could see the last rays of Celestia's sun going down. I knew in my heart it was time. The chapel had survived the time perfectly and undamaged, there was not even dust in the room, which was about fifteen meters long. The eastern half was in white marble and the bright colors of Celestia's mane, the western in black obsidian and lapis lazuli. I walked towards the altar and began to sing. I didn't know exactly why, but it felt was right. Luna illuminans noctem IIT lucis Et ego dabo vobis devotionis offerimus: et sanguis meus, vita mea. Ut astra tuus confidebat, me duce quondam fuerunt”. I walked towards the altar, behind which rose a round stained-glass window.

Luna and Celestia circled the center showing Equestria. Then a ray of moonlight shot through the window at me. I then heard a second voice, also singing something "Sol et custos flamma, ruptor est hodie Et donec putabam vos gladio, et fides cordis." I remembered Nightmare Moon's words: "You only ever come in pairs". Sunny was also in the process of initiating. I walked measured steps to the altar as I sang. The moonlight enveloped me as I knelt in front of the altar. In the center of the window I saw Sunny doing the same in a large room lined with huge pillars. She smiled at me. Now, out of the moonlight, Luna and Nightmare Moon appeared in front of me, just like Celestia and Daybraker turned to Sunny in the window. "Are you ready to be my little Stardust, my first priestess in over 100 years?" Luna smiled kindly and gently. "But consider that you also have to live with my burden. And I will always try to seduce you into the darkness.” Nightmare Moon said. I bowed my head and said, “So be it; in your name I will help heal the wasteland of Equestria and ease the pain in the souls of its inhabitants.” I felt myself lift into the air and spread out my front hooves. Carried by the magic of Luna, Nightmare Moon and the moonlight. A small silver crescent formed under my horn, a small crown appeared on my head: it was Luna's crown. Slippers made of silver like moonlight appeared on my hooves, and a necklace like Luna's appeared around my neck, expanding into a cloak that looked like pure stardust. I could also see what happened to Sunny at the time. Armor stood in the background, now turning to gold, clothing her. The great tiara of Celestia manifested itself on her head, her horn was surrounded by a ring of golden triangles. We both sank back to the ground. Before me, on the altar, a book had appeared. It bore Luna's cutiemark and underneath it read: Luna's Vademecum. I looked at Luna questioningly and she smiled. “Each of my priestesses gets a book like this. There the liturgies and ceremonies will appear within when you are ready for them. It's also a song book. It's yours and you can't lose it. You can summon it with your magic or send it away.” Luna smiled, looking happy. "I'll do my best to keep my promise." I said, smiling at them both. Luna's smile was beautiful. But now my blood froze in my veins when I saw that Nightmare Moon smiled so beautifully and kindly. Both vanished like the picture in the window when clouds again hid the moonlight. Luna's last words I heard were, "The one I send you as a descendant of my chosen people is waiting for you outside."

I stood there, alone again, still shaking slightly. Did that just really happen, was it a dream? I grabbed my forehead. My new shoe touched the little crescent under my horn. It had grown into my skin, I could tell. Then I heard the door creaking; I turned around abruptly. There was a Pegasus with fangs and the ears of a bat pony and... My eyes widened. She was wearing a Pipbuck and a number 111 Stable jumpsuit. She gave me a shy look; it could have competed with Appletree. She began to speak timidly, "You must be the one Luna showed me. I am to assist you in your quest and be your guide in the wasteland.” I trotted over to her and looked at her. She was cute, especially because of her ears. Her dark gray fur was well groomed, her light gray and white mane too and her purple eyes were just beautiful. I just grabbed her hooves on some impulse. She squeaked and tensed until she realized it was a loving, kind, and friendly gesture. "My name is Stardust and we are on our way to Manehattan to get to Fillydelphia from there. Who are you?” She answered somewhat hesitantly, “…My name is Lili, you are also a stable mare.” She said and pointed to my Pipbuck. "Which stable are you from?" she asked now more curiously. "Number two, and nice to meet you, Lili."

We trotted back to the others. Appletree and Ferrax froze in awe as I entered the room. Appletree knelt and bowed her head respectfully. Ferrax just said, giggling, "You look snazzy, Dusty." I smiled when I realized Lili had stopped in the doorway. She stared at Appletree in panic. She had her weapons - two sniper rifles on a special combat saddle - attached and loaded. I spoke my first liturgy. "Et cessabit meus puer nihil ventura sunt vobis in nomine luna" I felt the moonlight from the small crescent moon on my forehead dancing around my horn and enveloping Lili in a silvery glow. She calmed down a bit. Then she pointed to Appletree, "You...you're the wolf, aren't you?" Appletree nodded in agreement. Then she looked at me "Well, I know you're definitely the priestess, but who is that?" She pointed to Ferrax. He just waved and said "Hello, I'm Ferrax."

After we finished with the pleasantries of introductions, Lili began looking curiously at Appletree's legs. "Did you build that yourself?" Now she seemed extremely curious and no longer shy. Appletree shook her head and started to talk. It made a strange, tormented, throaty sound that, with a lot of imagination, could be compared to the word Littlepip. Appletree blushed and sank back onto her bed, hiding behind her apple pillow. I let her levitate a particularly bloody piece of brahmin meat in front of her snout, which she ate with relish. “The maintenance department at Stable 2 was trying to get my little sister out of a wheelchair. So, poking around began as the operation went on. Someone had found a comic where something similar had happened and the pony had been given implants. It was pure luck that everything had worked properly. They had raided the entire robot parts store, used parts of experimental power armor, and then worked closely with the clinic ponies - and me as an expert on various spells. The hardest part was actually connecting the nerves to the legs.” I stroked Appletree's metal spine. "May I show her your cables for a moment, little one?" I asked, smiling. Appletree tapped her Pipbuck on her leg slightly and part of the anchorage broke loose from the armor as she lay still on her stomach. Lili's eyes widened. Where the armor disappeared into the fur, you could still see a remnant of the backbone that merged into a massive cable harness that disappeared inwards at the level of the butt. You could also see the small motor Appletree needed to move her tail. Only then did I see that Lili had pulled out a camera that was connected to her Pipbuck. She took pictures and then pulled out a small screwdriver.

Appletree jumped and frantically tapped her Pipbuck and the armor hissed closed again. Then she pointed to a text file. "Lili please don't show these photos to anyone, I'm embarrassed!" was written there. "And screwdriver away from my nervous system!" Lili let the screwdriver sink back to the ground disappointed. "But you are so gifted. I want to know how this works exactly. I'm an electronics technician after all.” She pointed to her thunder cloud Cutiemark. Appletree mused, then wrote, "You may look at my legs as long as you put them back together working." Lili's eyes widened, as did Ferrax's. He lifted his hoof "May I have a closer look at that?" He giggled again a little madly and rubbed his hooves happily. Appletree hesitated, then wrote, "Only if you bring me fresh, bloody meat now. The pre-packaged is delicious too, but fresh is better and the cockroaches don't taste so good.”

Ferrax nodded eagerly and disappeared into the night while Lili got to work. "Tell me, how long have you two been out of your stable?" Lili asked us while she was working, taking notes and drawing schematics in her Pipbuck. "A few days, and you?" Lili sighed, "About five years. But well, my stable wasn't designed for real life either, so that's fitting.” I looked at her confused and she smiled “How old do you think I am?” she asked slightly shy. I took a closer look at her and had to force my abdomen to rest. She was fluffy and cute but didn't look much older than me. "Well, I'd say you're like me, early twenties." I said, smiling. She smiled shyly. "220, but two hundred years of that I've spent in cryosleep. I'm from Equestria before the war.” I couldn't believe my ears and just stared at her. She blushed and hid her face behind one of her wings. When Ferrax came back with a dead wheel mole. Appletree munched happily and Ferrax too looked at the schematics and photos on Lili's Pipbuck. I smiled sheepishly as everyone got ready to sleep. "Sister, may I try one of my new liturgies on you?" Appletree raised a skeptical brow and looked at me questioningly through her green eyes. "I want to visit your dream." She thought for a long time, blushed briefly, but then nodded. And I began to let the moonlight dance around my horn.

I was in the atrium of our stable. There were many here that I knew. Our family, Littlepip and Velvet were also there. There was a catwalk in the middle and I couldn't believe my eyes. My sister stepped over it in a gorgeous dress and styled mane. Something else made my eyes wide like Luna's butt. She had her biological legs. It was a little pang in my heart when I saw that she was missing her legs. I remembered the time before the accident. We always met there on Wednesdays for a mini spa day. Mud mask, delicious apple juice and mutual hooficure. We hadn't done that since the accident, because with the metal hooves it's of no use. I smiled sadly as our eyes met. She smiled at me and the room blurred. We sat in my room and I was just taking care of Appletree’s hooves. She smiled with her timber wolf face. I smiled back and continued with her hooves, taking a sip of apple juice. Her voice was a little resonant as she spoke, "So that's what it's like to have visitors in your dreams. That's funny.” She smiled. I nodded and smiled back. But I had little time to enjoy it.

A few moments later we were sitting in a moonlit clearing. In front of a small lake. Appletree was completely transformed. When I looked into the small pond in front of us, I was startled; I was, too. My legs were covered with birch like Bubbles'. Appletree spoke again. "Now I want to show you what the spirit offered me. Just go with it. You know it's just a dream and you won't hurt anyone.” She smiled and licked her teeth. I hesitantly replied, "G... well, let's hunt, sis." I flinched a little. My voice also had this reverberation. We howled at the moon together when a lighter howl joined our chant - it was Bubbles. I smiled as she padded over to Appletree and snuggled into her. I could now use a timber wolf's sense of smell and smelled them both, they both smelled like family. Like sister and niece. So this strange change of smell affected the whole family.

After we had finished howling and Bubbles had come over to cuddle with me, the wild hunt for some Brahmins in the forest began. I began to understand what Appletree appreciated about this activity. The feeling of freedom and the knowledge that hunger would soon be satisfied. The wind in your mane and the adrenaline from the race. But also another feeling - the thirst for blood and death arose in me; I cautiously accepted the desire for blood. I wanted to understand my sister better. I also had to get to know the unpleasant sides. Appletree and Bubbles had the Bramin backed into a corner. I jumped down on it from a raised rock and killed it with two quick bites into its throat. I looked questioningly at Appletree, my muzzle covered in blood, and smiled proudly. I guess I wasn't the worst hunter. “Eat, Dusty, it feels good. You deserve the first bite.” I started tearing pieces out of the side of the Bramin and was overwhelmed by the taste of the delicious meat and the intoxicating feeling of the blood in my snout. My new instincts knew exactly where to find the best pieces. Then I enjoyed it, I didn't feel sick like the first time I saw and heard this. I smacked my lips, chewed and just enjoyed it. Endorphins washed over me like a waterfall. Being part of my sister's pack, hunting with her and sharing the prey just made me happy. Then I briefly caught myself thinking about letting her bite me when her spirit had the strength to give birth to a new one. But I gently let the thought pass. If I wanted, I could always visit Appletree's dreams and hunt with her. I smiled at the others covered in blood, whereupon Appletree pulled out a tissue and Bubbles used her magic to clean my muzzle. "You're a little piglet too," Appletree giggled, put her head on mine and just said, "It's time to get up." She gently licked my cheek once. I looked at her sadly, but then I asked her a question. “Can I hunt with you in your dreams again?” I felt myself blush slightly at the question. I was kind of embarrassed. She grabbed my claw with hers and hugged me. “I was hoping you would ask that. Yes, of course - it's much more fun together in a pack. Besides, for once I am the actual big sister here.” She smiled happily and I woke up.

It was morning, at least the cloudy sky let the light shine overhead in all its glory. And at least the air was fine. Today's goal was to explore the rest of the area. "If we can find a bigger wagon that still works, I can get us to Manehatten and Fillydelphia much quicker" Appletree said while we ate breakfast - All, Except Ferrax; for some reason he usually didn't want to eat anything. He just kept getting suspiciously close between my sister and me at dinner. The next interesting thing was that Lili also had a plush pillow. Only hers was orange. "Hey, Lili, I was wondering - is your pillow an orange?" I smiled. Fruit maniacs were always a little funny. Then she shook her head. "That's a mango," she said seriously, adding shyly, "I love mangoes, but there haven't been any since the war." She snuggled sadly into her pillow. Appletree smiled softly and wrapped her hoof around her. "In Fillydelphia there is a large seed vault in the Stabletec headquarters, there are probably mango seeds in there too. Then I'll help you grow your own mangoes. The Lili mangoes.” Appletree grinned and Lili's eyes almost popped out of her head, then she stammered, “Tha… tha…tha…that works? You can do something like that?” Appletree smiled again in embarrassment, blushed a little and said timidly, “I am a trained botanist and farmer, of course I know how it works. One of my specialties is observing and preserving the genetic purity of plants." Lili cocked her head. "Oh, I actually thought you were more like Stardust's bodyguard, although you're way too cute for that." Now Appletree hid behind her apple pillow.

After we finished breakfast, and the fruit discussions, we continued. Our goal was a bunker. The interesting thing was the antenna system on the roof. I looked questioningly at Lili and Ferrax, "Is that a relay station?" They both nodded and I began to smile happily. Lili tapped her pipbuck, was lost in thought, and then started to grin. "It’s not active. If we get these working again, Dj Pon3 owes me a drink at Strawberry Sunrises Bar.” She rubbed her hooves in anticipation. "Then let's turn it on," I said happily. "Would you like a drink from Dj too?" asked Lili, grinning. But I shook my head. "We report back to Stable 2 every night so our family and the Overmare don't worry too much. But soon we're too far away for Appletree’s mini-relay station to transmit the signal.” It was fascinating how good Lili was at making her eyes pop out of her head. Then Lili looked at Appletree expectantly. "Ok, show me, I want to see that!" I giggled. They had dissected Appletree's "most boring" leg last night and not the rest. Appletree tapped her Pipbuck; the antenna with the small satellite dish extended and turned in circles, beeping happily. "I hope you are encrypting and masking your signal?" Lili asked skeptically now, while Ferrax examined the small circling bowl very closely. I shook my head, "I'm good with terminals, but I don't know anything about that." Lili just nodded before taking her Pipbuck cable and plugging it into Appletree's Pipbuck. Appletree looked skeptical. "Whatcha doing, little Mango?" Lili started tapping on her Pipbuck, which took about ten minutes. "I encrypted your signal, little Apple," she said, somewhat embarrassed. I had to bite back a giggle - fruit ponies amongst themselves.

We entered the bunker, in the reception room itself there were some boxes and shelves, a desk and a terminal that glowed green. Nothing really mattered on the shelves or boxes, only within the desk I found a small tin box labeled Mint-Als / Mentats with a zebra on it. I plugged it in and used my magic to levitate my Pipbuck's cable to connect it to the terminal when it clicked. I bumped into Lili's cable, who was about to do the same. She let me go first and I took a look at what the terminal had to offer. It was just a list of who had visited this facility and when. Lots of names I didn't recognize except two - Ministry mare Applejack from the Ministry of War Technologies and Apple Bloom, co-founder of Stabletec. I made a little happy hop. "Appletree, great-great-... Grandma Applebloom has been here and so has Applejack." Lili looked at us confused. "You're descendants of Applebloom and A.J.?" she asked, slightly uncertain. Appletree and I nodded. Then Lili smiled again in embarrassment, "I knew that your ribbon looked familiar to me, little Apple. I knew both. When we're in Tenpony Tower, I can tell you all about them in Strawberry's Bar.” She smiled sheepishly and now Appletree’s and my eyes nearly fell out of our heads. After five minutes of calming down, we got into the elevator, which was the only other exit from the room. Lili had gotten it running again. The relay system control should be located on the fourth basement level.

We made our way slowly, weapons drawn and claws out, down the first hallway and then down a flight of stairs. We paid particular attention to the ceiling and viewing height. The only thing we didn't pay attention to at the beginning was the floor - and that was the mistake. I felt myself pinch a cord to the ground and a searing pain immediately shot through my front leg. I heard sizzling in the air. Over the small passage in the ceiling in a blind spot was a kind of mine that shot lightning. It had badly burned my right front leg. I teleported backwards, startled. Lili calmly flew around the lightning bolts and gave the mine a powerful kick out of the air. The thing fell to the ground with a clatter. Ferrax pocketed it and grinned, "We'll get something useful out of this." The hallway ahead led us into a rectangular room. In front of us and on the right was a single door, on the left we could see a double door. Behind the right door I saw the light of a terminal. The door was locked but had no lock. Above the door it said: Relay Control Unit. The problem was also that the terminal used to open the door had been removed. I looked at the door and thought. Are the circuits trying to connect to the top terminal? Lili would definitely manage that. Then Appletree just walked up to the door and I listened to the hydraulic battering ram at work. The door flew inward with a crash, just missing the terminal. This time I left the terminal to Lili, who stared spellbound at Appletree at first, as Appletree’s eyes were rolling white and twitching as her spark generator began to work. The room was full of systems and monitors that I didn't understand. “This will take a few minutes, folks; you can have a look around.”

I still had pain in my hoof and was sad about my singed fur, but it was bearable. I just treated myself to a pack of pre-war sugar bombs. Sweet and yummy, now I had to think about Sugar again and then very quickly thought of something else when I felt myself warming up. I started levitating the Zebra Alchemy book out of my bag and started reading. Ah, a potion that improves your healing, not a direct healing like that of a healing potion, but overnight. Or one that sped up your regeneration if you were a unicorn. Then my eyes widened again and I beamed with joy, the talisman of bloodwings. I had a chance to be a little closer to Luna's chosen people, if only for about an hour. Because this talisman gave you wings that looked like those of a bat pony. I marked the ingredients for all three recipes in my pipbuck. Lili's grumbling snapped me out of my thoughts. "We have to go through the double doors over there. I unlocked it, the generator on the lower level isn’t working. We have to get it running again first.” I nodded and we marched towards the door.

We were greeted by two turrets in the ceiling. The familiar hum sounded as Ferrax, laughing madly, turned the first one into a smoking heap of scrap metal. I shot the second one with my plasma pistol. I still remembered the bloat sprite I had barely hit, so I activated my S.A.T.S. and targeted the turret. I fired two shots in slow motion and the turret caught fire; but his bullet charge hit Appletree, Lili and me. I squeaked. Exactly the same place on the front hoof... damn it. Lili gave the thing the final blow with a soft, almost a "plop" sound. I knew it was getting more dangerous in here than outside, so I also activated the E.F.S. of my PipBuck. I knew the function, but I had never actually used it and had therefore simply forgotten about it - except for that one time in Ponyville. Then I saw Appletree's eyes briefly flash green again. She sniffed and then looked with a mixture of confusion and disgust. "Did you smell something?" I asked cautiously. She nodded slowly and shuddered in disgust. "I smell pony brains, and I would almost say some kind of gel. It's really gross. Be glad you can't smell it! But it's only brains and the gel, no other parts of ponies except us."

We moved cautiously along the wall. The room was high enough to give Ferrax and Lilly room to fly. We tried to be as quiet as possible. Piles of debris were scattered everywhere on the floor, and it was dark. I let my horn glow slightly so that we could see anything at all. We followed a few thick blue pipes protruding from the dirty wall. Two hundred years without maintenance had taken their toll on even military-grade materials. We sneaked around a corner, and I stopped dead in my tracks. There was a pony, but at the same time, not quite. It was a robot, but I could see a pony brain in its head - and the tips of magical energy weapons at its side. I was about to retreat around the corner when there were two quiet "plops," the robot's head exploded, and it slumped to the ground. We approached the spot where it had stood, and Ferrax was already salvaging. "Brainbots, a really creepy invention. Knock out the brain, and they shut down. I don't think there was much pony left in that brain anyway," said Lili seriously and sadly.

I levitated the brain out of the casing and found an empty first aid kit on the wall. I telekinetically placed the brain inside. Beneath the three butterflies, I drew Luna's crescent moon with some dirt and placed the kit in a corner that seemed fitting for the soul of this poor pony. Lili gave me a look I couldn't interpret. We continued to make our way into the land of brainbots. Ferrax was having a field day; he shot down at least five more of them and several turrets. Appletree stayed out of the fights this time, as she didn't see any danger. At first, I thought it was due to pain, but the bullets had only grazed her back fur. She was mainly our battering ram for stubborn doors or piles of debris. Her strength was definitely more practical here than her claws. I had a different problem myself. I was running out of makeshift coffins for the brains. One had ended up in a tin can, and another in an empty chip bag. I just wanted to lay them to rest somehow.

Lili was our guide. She compared the layout of the corridors with the ones she had from previous "bunker clearing tours." After an hour of dead brainbots, we reached the generator room. There was one of those robots constantly plugging a cable into the generator and removing it. And it kept repeating, "Error. Error." One shot from Lili, and the ordeal was over. She reconnected the generator to the power grid for good this time, then checked the generator's condition. "Alright, it should run now." She smiled. "Means drinks for everyone at Strawberry's." I was relieved to find a whole stack of unfilled first aid kits here. There were enough for all the brains. On the way back, I collected all the brains, cradled them gently, and stacked them where we had found the first one against the wall, like in a necropolis. I had painted Luna's moon on the wall and left an inscription: Cemetery of the victims of brainbots, May you find your way to Luna.

We returned to the control station. Lili was typing diligently, and the facility came to life. Appletree immediately adjusted her station to the main system. Then Lili typed a bit more, grinned, and turned on the radio in the facility. "Hello, my little wasteland ponies. It's your DJ Pon3 with the news again. It seems we have an extended broadcast range - the old relay station in the Hoofburgh military outpost seems to be working again. So, hello to all ponies east of New Appleloosa. I'm DJ Pon3, your voice of the wasteland. I bring to you music and news. But now, let's talk about the group that made this all possible. No, it's not the little one from Stable 2. It's the other two girls from Stable 2 - and our Mangoqueen. Our dear tech support pony from Tenpony Tower, Lili. And she's written me some interesting things. She'll continue traveling with them, so keep your devices in good condition until she's back. And now, we can truly call the Children of the Night that name, as she's received her big moon-kiss under Luna's horn. So, dear wastelanders, if something's on your mind or you can't sleep, keep an eye out for a unicorn mare with a cloak that shines like the stars and a crescent moon under her horn. Also, the Church of Celestia has spoken up. A golden-armored unicorn mare has liberated two villages near Manehattan from raiders. It seems she's an ex-Steel Ranger and is accompanied by a zebra sniper. Do you believe that, folks? A Keeper of Day and a Children of the Night - all in the same week? I'm curious to see how they'll change the wasteland in the name of the goddesses. May Luna and Celestia bless you all, the priestess and the little wolf, the paladin and the zebra, as well as the Stable dweller with her Pegasus companion. And now, the weather." Lili turned off the radio and giggled. I couldn't stop laughing. "If he only knew that we ALL come from a Stable, he'd probably look at us all silly."

Relieved from laughter, we headed back to the elevator when I heard a strange noise from the shaft. It almost sounded like a string instrument with one of its strings about to snap. Then there was a loud scraping, a crash, a hiss, and a clang. Lili looked uncertainly at the elevator door. "I have a really bad feeling about this..." She pressed the button for the elevator door, but nothing happened. She resignedly rested her head against the button. "I think the elevator crashed." She sighed. "Appletree, can you open the door? But please push, don't kick it." Appletree flexed her mechanical muscles and pushed the door open. We looked into a dark elevator shaft. Right above us, a mitral valve blocked the ascent. I floated a small light sphere into the shaft, and we saw a dead Rad Mole about 20 meters below on the elevator, which seemed to have gnawed through the cable. Lili sat down next to the elevator and thought. "Okay, no panic, we'll get out of here." She began softly. "These hatches are made of solid steel, they're supposed to prevent this kind of thing." She pointed down the shaft. "So, we need to check if there's an emergency release on this level." We all nodded and set off. I started in one of the generator corridors, and after about half an hour, I had worked my way to the control center. Naturally, I hadn't found anything, but the itching in my bandaged forehoof was making it hard to think. I envied Appletree for being able to simply turn such sensations off. Somewhat irritated, I rested my head on one of the control panels when I noticed something. A draft of air. It was faint, but it was there. I examined the computer cabinet and realized that it was the only device not functioning here. I tried to lift it with my telekinesis - and indeed, it was hollow. Behind it was a passage in the rock. "Hey, guys, I found something!" I called out to the others. Everyone trotted over, and we examined the interior.

Chapter 6 - Catacombs

Chapter 6: Catacombs
The passage was short and led to a staircase, behind which was a wall. But I still felt a draft. I nodded to Appletree and then towards the wall. She began scratching the concrete floor with her claws, and the battering ram worked. The wall was made up of stacked bricks, which flew into the passage behind it. Here, you could see those thick pipes again. I heard water droplets and provided light once more. The small light orb cost me more energy than just using my horn to illuminate, but it was maneuverable.

The passages were old and abandoned; it seemed like this used to be the sewer system of the training ground. We passed by water basins with old metal bridges spanning them. After half an hour, I had already lost track of where we were, but Lili was meticulously mapping everything. Eventually, we reached a point where we had to cross through the water. I approached the water, and the Geiger counter started clicking rapidly. I looked at Lili with a questioning glance. "Can you carry me across?" She nodded cautiously.

Once I was on the other side, I looked into the passage behind and saw that it had collapsed. What was interesting was that there was the body of a sewer worker here. I took the time to bury him, covering the body with debris and rubble, offering a silent prayer, and drawing Luna's symbol on the pile. Next to him was a crate. Its contents were helpful – a map of this section of the facility and something wonderful, a bottle of apple whiskey. I stashed it away and studied the map. The only way into the next section was underwater.

I grumbled and stepped back to the railing of the collapsed bridge. "We can't go any further here. We have to dive." Ferrax simply jumped into the water and transformed into a wheeling shark. Somehow, I had expected that. We did our best to waterproof everything we had and began to dive. I must admit I cheated a little when my Geiger counter started to sing. I had cast a waterproof bubble around my head, but I could only do the spell well enough for myself. Then I paddled through the passage and resurfaced on the other side with my light orb. It was another long corridor. It took some time for all of us to cross, as Appletree's legs were malfunctioning in the water. And now came the most embarrassing part for me: I shook off the water, and it went "pluff." I turned into a light blue fluffy ball. I hated my fur for that; it happened every time after I bathed or showered. Appletree's fur remained as it was. Maybe it was my unicorn genes? All three of them burst into laughter. "Priestess Fluff!" Lili howled with laughter.

I blushed and summoned my brush. "Yes, yes, be glad you don't have this problem. It's embarrassing enough for me, even without your laughter," I said snappily and straightened myself up. We reached a crossroads. "Oh, the old game," Lili said calmly. She took a piece of glowing chalk from her bag and marked the first corridor with a 1. The corridor led to two more corridors that quickly became 1.1 and 1.2. As we trotted down Corridor 1.1, my E.F.S. alerted me, and I told the others to stop. Then I whispered, "There's something around the corner." Ferrax looked cautiously around the corner, barely visible in the dark but apparently visible enough. I heard an AAAAHHHH, and a ghoul pony that looked rotten, probably once an unicorn, leaped toward Ferrax and bit his right hind leg. Green blood sprayed as the ghoul pony tore into his flesh. Ferrax screamed before two quiet pops ended the ordeal. I stood ready and cast a healing spell. I could at least stop the bleeding and ease the pain a bit. But from then on, Ferrax only fluttered. I cast a small fire spell to give the poor creature's body a proper farewell. "I hate ghouls; they always want just one thing from you." Ferrax grumbled, crossing his front legs in frustration. Then he asked, "Where are we actually? Weren't we just in the surface world?" I just shook my head. In Corridor 1.2, Lili managed to take out the first ghoul without the poor earth pony mare noticing. The second ghoul pony, probably once a pegasus, had hidden well enough that I didn't notice it until it was too late. It lunged out of the shadows and bit me right where? Right on the healing bandage. The pain was still bearable, but when the ghoul pegasus ripped the bandage off my hoof and reopened the wound, I began to cry out loudly. The ghoul pony now met Appletree's hooves, which turned it into ghoulgoulash with a growl. The room behind was probably once a workshop. Lili and Ferrax immediately began searching around. I hobbled over to the first aid kit on the wall. Healing bandages and Med-X, excellent. I applied the new bandage and gave myself the injection. It was a relief as the burning sensation disappeared, and I groaned in relief.

We left Corridor 1.2 and entered Corridor 2, which led to a five-minute corridor ending in a larger room. I quickly raised my magical shield to escape the hail of bullets from the gun in the right wall. I had already heard the buzzing, but the problem was that I couldn't lower my shield quickly enough. A quarter of the charge stuck to my shield before hitting the gun turret, which fired a second salvo that hit Ferrax in the side, causing only minor injuries. He groaned briefly before Appletree turned the turret into a smoldering heap of scrap metal. Next to the smoking remains of the gun turret, which Ferrax was now scavenging, there was a small break room. We briefly sat down on the musty sofas to rest. To my delight, I saw a fully stocked and still functioning Sparkle-Cola vending machine in the corner. I levitated one of the chilled bottles to each of us and eagerly opened mine. It hissed for a moment before I could taste the uplifting flavor of carrot. I sank into the sofa a bit and sighed. "This is almost like being at home right now, don't you think, little sister? All that's missing is a hooficure." I closed my eyes briefly to rest and relax. I heard Appletree getting up and approaching me as she rummaged in her saddlebag. I opened my eyes in amazement when I felt a long-forgotten sensation – Appletree had taken a hoof file from her saddlebag and was actually giving me a pedicure. There was a small vial of hoof polish on the table. "Oh, oh, I want one too!" Ferrax said, and Lili looked somewhat more reserved and then said, "Would you do my hooves too, Appletree?" She nodded, and we actually had a relaxing time in the bunker's sewer spa. When we all had beautiful hooves again, we continued into Corridor No. 2

The room that opened up now was a square of over fifteen meters. This time, my E.F.S. had warned me about the ghouls. Lili initiated the fight somewhat unconventionally: she took a grenade, pulled the pin, threw it twice into the air, and on the third throw, as it fell, she kicked the grenade, sending it into the middle of the ghouls. It exploded, and two ghouls were torn apart. "I guess the buckball training back then had to be good for something," she said with a shy smile. I decided to try a new spell this time – I sent a fire lance at one of the ghouls. It turned out to be a pretty lousy idea. I teleported myself a bit away while targeting the ghoul with my S.A.T.S. and fired. Consequently, a burning ghoul pursued me, seemingly not very sensitive to my plasma shots, and the others couldn't really help me either. Appletree was fighting with two of them. The first one got a buck in the torso and flew halfway across the room, while the second one tried to bite Appletree's head. Big mistake: he caught the bow. I counted mentally, "Twenty-one, twenty-two." Then something unexpected happened – her eyes lit up green, and her left front hoof transformed into wood for a strike, seemingly greatly enhancing her strength. She pounded the ghoul right into the opposite wall, where he simply burst. She carefully put the bow back on with her claw, and the wood disappeared. Lili and Ferrax were playing with one of the ghouls. Lili would drop down just before the ghoul could catch her, then she would rise again before the ghoul reached her, at which point it would run to Ferrax, who did the same thing. I watched this a few times, activated my S.A.T.S. again, and fired two plasma charges at the ghoul. The first one went relatively ineffectively into the torso, while the second one made his head disappear in a green puddle on the floor. After eliminating the bewildered ghoul, we had taken care of almost all of them. One lone ghoul tried to bite Appletree's side. She leaped to the side and simply hacked off its head with a swing of her claw. "These things are really disgustin’," she said, her claws covered in ghoul muck. I smiled, pulled out a tissue, and wiped her claws clean.

Then I began to stack all the bodies in the middle and lit a fire. Lili shook her head with a smile. "I think you're the only pony who buries all her enemies. Well, have fun when you get into a big battle." She was still shaking her head. Corridor two split again. 2.1 went down a staircase, and 2.2 went up a staircase. I tried to feel the draft, and there it was. It was leading upward. We quietly ascended the stairs and found ourselves in front of a locked door. This time, Ferrax was the first at the door, casually starting to pick the lock. That gave me more time to eat some Sugar Bombs. I was famished, and it must have been noon or later by now. The door had a very lengthy rendezvous with Ferrax, then it clicked and swung open. At the same time, I heard Ferrax say, "Ouch." He came over to me, holding his bleeding hoof. I looked at him, puzzled, and asked, "How, by Luna's grace, did you manage that?" He turned green, yes, he didn't turn red but green. "Happens when you twist the wrench, and at the same time, it's your own hoof." He scratched his head awkwardly. I examined his hoof and began to work my healing magic. My horn gently glowed green, and the wound on Ferrax's hoof closed. Ferrax thanked me with a hug, and we walked through the door.

This time, it was another hall. I thought we were on level three. We might be able to escape through the elevator shaft here, but we heard the familiar shuffling sound. There were three of them this time. The first one promptly attempted a clumsy attack on me, trying to bite. I couldn't dodge it in time, and he sank his teeth into my side. Blood flowed, but it was only a superficial wound. The retribution he received was quite something when he was hydraulically slammed against the nearest wall. The other two ghouls were going after Lili, who put two shots into the torso of one of them, while the other snapped at her – but only managed to bite off a small piece of her mane. Ferrax dissolved the ghoul into pink dust. Slowly, it was getting annoying – I somehow preferred living enemies to these flesh-hungry monsters. While I piled up the unfortunate ghouls in a heap, I reloaded my pistol. It wasn't particularly effective against the ghouls, but well, better to be prepared. A large corridor and several small rooms were connected to this room. I found some terminals and, to my surprise, a few intact books. This had to be the infirmary, at least for this floor, judging by the room's size. There was a rotting bed in one corner, and on the table next to the door, there was a terminal. I glanced at the book – "Helpinghoof's Healing Spells for Beginners and Advanced Users." I immediately stashed it away, knowing I would need it. Hacking the terminal was child's play; I mean, the password was "Helpinghoofs." The terminal was full of medical records. It seemed that on this level, there had always been mysterious accidents involving something that sliced ponies open. However, the cuts were so fine that no one knew what material the object inflicting them was made of. I wondered what kind of creature it was, a mutated ghoul, or a monster mantis? I gathered all the healing potions, bandages, and other useful items and left the room.

Lili had taken charge of the other terminals and found some more information. The time was particularly relevant; the incidents usually occurred shortly after sunset. I checked my Pipbuck for the time. My sense of time had become somewhat disoriented in this place, but the creaking soon revealed the actual time. This time, Appletree had her legs attached. The metal claws complemented the wooden ones perfectly. She looked at me pleadingly and whimpered. I smiled and asked, "Is the little wolf hungry?" She nodded, and I levitated a particularly large piece of meat with plenty of blood into her mouth. Lili shook herself; I knew the feeling, the rush that the blood caused, and I wanted to spoil my sister a little. Then we proceeded into the large corridor. The first door we came across lay sliced into pieces on the floor. It seemed to be some kind of laboratory. On the walls hung equipment like saws, spreaders, and pliers. In front of a black screen, strange transparent images were suspended. I had my light orb illuminate the glass and realized that they were X-ray images. They were pictures of a stallion – to be precise, a pegasus. What was strange were the ends of his wings. They extended out more than usual, and I believed there were more bones there than should be. "Lili, how many bones do your wings have?" I asked. She touched her wings. "Six. It's like an extra leg, with muscles and feathers attached." Okay, there was the problem – the wings had 12 bones. Three additional pairs of bones extended backward from the main bone structure. Lili came over and looked at it. "How can you fly like that? And what is that at the end? It tapers flat, what did they do to this poor soul?" I shrugged. "Maybe it didn't survive the war?" I examined the terminal and hacked into it.

Entry 17: The test subject K38, male, displays enhanced regenerative abilities since the implantation of various animal components. Furthermore, the bony wing extensions seem to be functioning well as weapon mounts. We are still experimenting to determine the best material for these concealed weapons. The Ministry of War Technology wanted us to discontinue the project, but interestingly, the Ministry of Morality insisted on further research. We also achieved a breakthrough with subject K38. With the use of enchanted gemstones, he can now become invisible for a few minutes. A complete success for an assassin.

Entry 22: Okay, we have a problem. K38 is gone. He cannot be found. He simply hacked his cell door into shreds. We don't know how or why, but he managed to escape. He must not leave this department. The project is highly confidential. Why is it even taking place in a training center and not a proper laboratory? If we don't find him within 48 hours, I will have to inform both the Ministry of Morality and the Ministry of War Technology.

Entry 24: He's slaughtering the other ponies on level three; I'm convinced it's him. But I can't tell anyone. I've already informed the Ministry of Morality that the experiment was a failure. This morning, I found the torn-apart body of my assistant, Leaf Chatscher. I'm taking matters into my own hooves now.

I stepped back from the terminal. "I now know what was responsible for the deaths here." The others looked curious. "A physically altered pegasus with camouflage abilities, enhanced wound regeneration, and incredibly sharp wing extensions capable of cutting through steel." I thought feverishly; how do you stop something like that? It was invisible, and I feared it might still be down here. Two hundred years alone and disfigured into a grotesque version of a pony. Lili reloaded her weapons. "Then I hope we can kill that thing because I'm afraid our way out is at the other end of this level." I thought hard again. This creature had been locked up and mistreated; was it seeking revenge, or had they also incorporated the mind of an animal into it? Perhaps even the spirit of an animal, like with Appletree? But it might be open to negotiation. I didn't really believe in it, but I wanted to keep some hope. I had been dreading a super ghoul when a rather obvious idea occurred to me. I had my E.F.S. search for it, but darn it, it detected nothing. Either there was really nothing here, or this camouflage even worked against Pipbucks.

The brilliant idea of how we could locate this being came from Lili. "Appletree, you have a good sense of smell, right? Does that apply to feathers too?" Appletree scratched her head thoughtfully and then nodded. "Smell my feathers," Lili said with a shy voice. "Remember the scent and look for feathers that aren't mine." Appletree held her nose up in the air and sniffed and sniffed. Then she slowly trotted down the corridor, and we followed her, trying to be as alert as possible. Holes from gun turrets gaped in the ceiling and in some side niches, with everything showing signs of craters. At the end, the corridor turned to the left, and on the wall, we found another office door. Lili was now hacking this local terminal again. She was really good at it, far better than me, but she had started teaching me some tricks. For example, paying attention to bracketed letter combinations or even the use of greater-than and less-than symbols. It really made this job much easier. These entries were different from those in the lab. On our way out, I had noticed that above the door, it simply said "Storage Room 27." This terminal seemed to have been used by one of the regular workers here.

Entry #14: Yay, punishment duty - watching over Snore-Level Three, woop woop. I shouldn't have stared at the boss's mare, but hey, she had an amazing flank, especially for a unicorn. Slim and elegant, not as skinny as the pegasi or too big like the earth ponies. I still don't understand why this damn storage level needs a guard. There's nothing valuable stored here. Just standard practice ammo and training power armor. Nothing worth stealing. But well, there always has to be someone to take the job of guarding here at night to prevent the overenthusiastic recruits from having illegal races in the facility's power armor.

Entry #18: I've finally found those strange claw marks everyone's been talking about in recent days. They seem to originate somewhere between storage room twenty and forty. I'll keep an extra eye open tonight.

Entry #19: Damn, I just found recruit Orange Tree in completely shredded training power armor. Whatever it was, from now on, I'll be on guard duty with reinforced and fully armed power armor!

Entry #20: Shit, I saw the thing. A pegasus with strange wings. It tore everything apart and disappeared as fast as it appeared. But it can't be teleportation because he's a pegasus. However, the homing missiles from my combat saddle also went astray. I will report this to the base command as soon as possible and suggest an evacuation.

I stepped back from the terminal once more. This being can cut through armor with its wings. I dropped to my haunches and gazed into the void, bewildered and horrified. Ferrax and Lili asked me in unison if everything was okay. "The creature can use temporary invisibility and has wings sharp enough to cut through power armor," I replied. Both of them went pale; Ferrax, in particular, looked somewhat comical as he turned slightly gray. We continued moving forward. As we tried to turn the corner, Appletree held her hoof out and sniffed the air. "Danger," she said, and sniffed again. My heart skipped a beat - Appletree had just spoken with her double-tone voice, the one I knew from the dream. The others also looked stunned. She turned bright red. "Since... yesterday," between the two words, she had to pause for about two minutes to find the right position of her vocal cords.

Before us was a room piled with all sorts of things – crates, old power armors, many small holes in the wall with Luna's crescent moon symbols above them. And there he stood – a red Pegasus with a white mane, trembling. When I tried to approach him, he swung around. I was startled – his eyes were those of an eagle. "Run, run, while I still have control; I don't want to kill you, but IT does," he shouted. I tried to calm him using my liturgy. "Et cessabit meus puer nihil ventura sunt vobis in nomine Luna." As the gentle glow of moonlight surrounded him, it burst through the red aura emanating from his chest. His body contorted, his front hooves turned into raptor claws, and his snout morphed into a beak. He screamed at us. I managed to dodge his wing's strike, which slid off my Starmetal cloak. At the impact site, I saw something new – the sparkling specks in the cloak had condensed and a few turned black, crumbling to ashes and falling to the ground. I teleported to the others and drew my plasma pistol. Appletree charged forward with a deep growl. She was about to pounce on the creature, but it countered with an elegant mid-air pirouette and sent Appletree crashing to the ground with a kick from its hind hooves.

I activated my S.A.T.S. and fired two shots. Both struck the Pegasus's side, causing severe burns. He came toward me, and I saw his wings up close. Embedded in the extended bones were gemstone claws, or more precisely, enchanted gemstone claws. Ferrax and I tried to create a shield. The left wing pierced my side, tearing it open, and I screamed in agony. The other wing was mostly deflected by the shield, except... the darned wing pierced through my left front hoof. I felt myself getting closer to unconsciousness due to the excruciating pain. Lili made some daring aerial maneuvers, circling the monster. She was faster and more agile than him. She fired two bullets into the creature's side, causing it to crash into a wall, causing debris to rain down. Ferrax's Gatling and two additional laser pistols came to life with a buzzing sound. He covered the entire front of the stallion. He had numerous burn wounds, but it didn't seem to faze him. Appletree had found a new jumping position, and at the right moment, she leaped onto the Pegasus from behind. He sent her sprawling with a hard buck after amputating both her front legs. Then he hurled her against the nearest wall, spraying hydraulic fluid and oil on the floor. She lay growling on the ground, waiting for her forelegs to regenerate. Now, we had a slow advantage. Lili had been intentionally targeting the wing joints the whole time. When she started doing that, the Pegasus kept flickering in and out of invisibility and reappeared in different spots. None of us had a clear shot. Appletree was slowly recovering, and I allowed the cold anger to resurface. "Lili, get down!" I calmly ordered.

She landed in astonishment. I enveloped everything at a height of more than one and a half meters in green lightning, making the creature dance in the air until I blacked out. I had exhausted my magical energy for the moment. When I woke up, I found myself on an improvised cot. My side throbbed with pain, and it had been bandaged. Appletree somehow managed to detach her forelimbs from the transformation, and I saw Lili working at a workbench. She was wearing a welding mask, and I noticed that her right wing was seriously injured. Ferrax's left front hoof was also bandaged. The monster lay there with amputated wings. I couldn't see if it was still alive. Appletree came up, licked my cheek, and said, "Dusty... wake up!" This time, she only needed half a minute between the words. They all turned to me. "How did you do that?" I asked, weakly smiling. "Well, when he was in shock on the ground, Appletree ripped his wings out. I managed to stop her from eating him." I gave Appletree a reproachful look. "What's Rule 1?" Appletree nodded, "No... ponies... eat." I looked at Lili with a questioning gaze. "How did you do that?" She took out an old pre-war newspaper from her pocket, rolled it up, and glared at Appletree. Appletree whined and hid behind me. "Exactly how it worked with cheeky dogs before the war, so why not after the war?" She smiled again and patted Appletree on the head with her wing. Ferrax was busy searching through the crates. He looked up and asked, "What are we looking for here?" I shrugged, "Ammunition, scrap, medical supplies?" I fell silent suddenly. "How many healing potions and bandages do we have left?" I looked at Lili. She replied, "We have four bandages left, and we used the last healing potion on you. I mean, we could see your intestines through the gash on your side, but you fell in such a way that everything stayed inside." I gazed at the stallion and asked, "Is he dead?" Lili nodded. "When his wings were torn off, he was briefly clear-headed. We talked to him, and in the end, he asked us to kill him because he couldn't stand it anymore. The spirit of the eagle was planted in him, but they couldn't get along.“

Author's Notes:

i hope you enjoy the Puff dusty^^ my reference to this chapter was a little shelterrun in fallout 4^^ and a big thankyou to my translator Silver Wing

Chapter 7- Drivingtime

It was already late, so we decided to spend the night here. I had emptied one of the large crates and respectfully prepared the body of Pegasus K38 inside. The wings covered its upper body. With silent prayers, I closed the lid. I had looked around and noticed that all the deceased here were buried just as meticulously as I was doing. He had been a victim, but with a strong faith. I opened the lid once more briefly and asked Luna to give this poor soul one last gift on his journey to her. My horn glowed in the moonlight on my forehead and enveloped his forehead. There appeared the same crescent moon as mine. "Sleep well, brother, may you find your way to Luna."

I closed the lid for good this time. In another crate were fabric pieces that were probably used for practice with fabric over the head. I took a long dark blue piece of fabric and draped it over the crate. There was enough dirt there to paint Luna's crescent moon on it. I asked Appletree to push the coffin with the others; I could hardly stand, let alone push the heavy crate. I added the inscriptions that already adorned the room: Here lies the Children of the Night Eagle Eye, a victim of the Equestrian Ministries. May Luna guide you to your path in the eternal dream and the Garden of Shadows. I muttered some more prayers, and my heart leaped as Appletree tried to join in, but it only half worked. We had prepared our camp for the night, and I had decided to cuddle up to my sister. She wrapped her forelegs around me as I did, and after a minute, we engaged in a snoring duel. The next morning, at least, I felt somewhat better.

Lili had scouted ahead after repairing Appletree's legs. We now knew a few things: 1. This plain would lead us to the base's vehicle depot. There, 2. was the exit, and 3. there were still functional carriages that would help us move faster, as Appletree could use her full running speed with them. The only downside was a small gang of Raiders who had chosen the vehicle depot as their new home. One of them even had an old suit of power armor he must have found there. But we were not defenseless; there were plenty of weapons in the crates here. Not so much ammunition, but I grabbed a laser rifle - I liked energy weapons, they weren't so horribly loud. But for now, I focused on breakfast; we had warm Sugar Bomb porridge. That way, we all got something from the two packages we had left. Appletree was the cook. She added Mutfruit and BlamCo Mac & Cheese to it. I had started the fire; magic is a handy thing for situations like this. It tasted surprisingly good, and the Geiger counter clicked only softly. After eating, we set off through the winding corridors of level three. When we came to double doors labeled "Vehicle Depot," we cautiously peered through the door. Many transporters were parked here, some destroyed, others still intact. The Raiders had built a small fortress out of three of the remaining intact vehicles and a wall. It was surrounded by barbed wire, and I saw a sickly-looking earth pony mare with a yellow mohawk and dirty armor placing a turret. She was cheerfully whistling one of the radio songs and seemed perfectly at ease.

We knew that we would only make it through this situation by either talking to these lunatics or eliminating them. As the sickly red mare began to leisurely decorate the wagons with body parts, the decision had already been made - Pop, pop, pop, pop. First, the mare fell dead backward, then the turret exploded. Appletree rushed forward as the Raider stallion in power armor charged at me with a Gatling gun. He opened fire, perforating Appletree's right hind leg. There was a clunk as she simply discarded it; the other landed in the helmeted face of the Raider. I aimed with my new laser rifle. The rifle was much better suited for aiming, and it had much better range. I shot several holes in the armor of a stallion with disgusting yellow fur. Ferrax pelted the last one in the group with his Gatling gun and played with her; then it was over. The yellow stallion had drawn a revolver, and the shot landed...right in my left front hoof. I felt the bone break. It was over - I didn't want to kill him; he should suffer! It seemed like it was the Shoot-Little-Dusty-in-the-Hoof Day. My cold anger took over, but there was more; I felt a shadow, and my eyes felt strange. I made the yellow pony dance, and not just him. The stallion in power armor who was near us and the mare, too. I hadn't even realized that Ferrax had unintentionally put himself in the range of my lightning. After one or two minutes, I don't remember exactly, my vision turned blue. Yes, blue, not black. I had lost one or two minutes. I came to when I looked down at the floor - from above. I was hanging in the air and being gently shaken. The two Raider stallions lay dead on the ground, but I could see the mare crawling through a window. My eyes widened. "No, don't, stop her!" I cried out, exhausted. It was too late; Lili's shots were now only hitting the wall. I looked around to see where I was and what was shaking me.

It was Appletree - she had grabbed my tail with her talons and was shaking me gently. She looked at me with concern. "Dusty, are you yourself again?" I nodded cautiously, and she set me back on the ground. My hoof hurt like hell, and I gasped. "What happened?" Ferrax, Lili, and Appletree looked at me with more than concern. "Your eyes looked like Nightmare Moon's, only in black and pink. Your lightning turned pink, and you started screaming at the Raiders in Old Ponish. Then I grabbed your tail and shook you until you became normal again." I pointed at the dead Raiders. "Did I do that?" Appletree gently shook her head. She went to the corpses and pointed to deep cuts in their carotid arteries. "I finished them off. Your lightning did shake Ferrax quite a bit, but it left me alone." I nodded slowly as my eyes widened. "No, now the whole wasteland will know that I'm an evil witch." This idea made me infinitely sad; I wanted to be something good for the wasteland. A healer, a strong shoulder to cry on - not a witch possessed by Nightmare Moon. I just sank to the ground and curled up under silent prayers. I had felt the shadow but realized too late what it was. Nightmare Moon had seized my weakness to take control. So that was our burden; the burden of the Children of the Night. I already knew why I was currently trying to focus more on healing spells; can you heal someone to death? Well, for now, I rested in my fetal position. Appletree took me by the hoof after her leg started working again and said softly, "You're not a witch. You did what was necessary to protect us."

I watched as Appletree walked the row of wagons and received advice from Lili. She tried out some of the wagons, harnessed herself, and pulled them testingly. After about an hour, she had chosen a military truck with a seating section for herself. It was well armored but unarmed. She laboriously pulled it over to us. "So, we still need to find some spare parts from the other vehicles, and then we can start the wild ride," Lili said excitedly. She and Ferrax cheerfully looted other wagons while I sat on one of the seats. I was glad to have some Med-X left. The injection felt so good, and I didn't feel my broken leg anymore. I asked Lili to gather some scrap for me to build a splint. I had found a spell in Helpinghoof's book that could also do the same, but it was far beyond my healing magic skills. So I tried to learn physical healing on myself - from myself. I had also found a recipe in the Zebra magic book. It increased regeneration and bone growth. I didn't like that it required Brahmin meat, but there was no other choice. I sat down in front of our cooking pot and levitated the ingredients inside. I noticed how Appletree stared at the meat, and I tossed a piece to her, extra bloody, of course. Fortunately, the soup didn't require blood. She chewed happily, and I raised an eyebrow. "It's not even nighttime yet, and you're behaving like a little monster." I wiped her mouth. "Little pig," I said, smiling and shaking my head lightly. "I can't help it if it tastes good. I don't even have to be one with the spirit to notice that." She lay down next to me, and we watched the others work. Then the soup was ready. I levitated it into my mouth by spoonfuls; it was spicy and warmed me up. To my surprise, the pieces of meat were wonderfully tender and juicy. I could see Appletree grinning. "Well, it doesn't seem to taste that bad," she said with a giggle. I levitated a spoonful to her as well. Her eyes filled with happiness. "Zebras are really good cooks," she said, sighing. I had to agree; they certainly were.

It was afternoon when everyone was ready. Appletree maneuvered the carriage onto an elevator, and we ascended with a rumble to the surface. Ferrax, Lili, and I had made ourselves comfortable in the seats. Together with Lili and Ferrax, I gazed at my silver horseshoes. They were made of a metal unlike any we knew. Lili began to tell us about the eerie stories of the Evil Stars of the Zebras. However, she fell silent when she realized I had turned away, feeling offended. "Dusty, everything okay?" she asked, puzzled. "Zebras lump Nightmare Moon and Luna together - and that's wrong!" Lili gave herself a facehoof. "I'm sorry, Dusty, I didn't think that would hurt you as a devout priestess. I'm sorry," she said, red-faced and sheepish. "I know they're two different ponies; I mean, I've talked to both of them and seen them in the same place. They're connected, yes, but they're not the same person!"

I felt the shadow creep into my soul again as I grew angry, and my voice alternated with that of Nightmare Moon. Ferrax put his hoof on my shoulder. "Dusty, calm down, your eyes are pink again." I blinked and looked at the reflection in the window. Ferrax was right; the whites of my eyes were as black as nothingness, with a bright pink glow in the irises. I trembled; it looked wrong but also beautiful. The image changed; I was taller and wore a helmet. It resembled that of... I gasped - Nightmare Moon. But this one had long points on the sides. My mane billowed like light, and stars sparkled within it. Wings of pure void extended just above my back, and I wore a star-shaped breastplate. I collapsed onto the seat, trembling, and closed my eyes with a soft whimper. Ferrax and Lili embraced me. Nightmare Moon's voice in my soul sounded bored, saying, "That's you when you let my power flow completely into you. You will be the void that consumes everything. You will be Void Nova." The shadow retreated from my soul. I looked at the others. "Did you see that in the reflection too?" Both shook their heads, saying, "Only you with strange eyes. What did you see?" Lili asked, now concerned. I was silent for a moment. "What happens when Nightmare Moon has complete control over me. Then I become Void Nova, the one who tears everything into the void." Lili and Ferrax's jaws dropped when we suddenly came to a halt. I opened the front hatch and stuck my slightly teary head out.

"Is everything okay, Appletree? Why are we stopping?" Appletree pointed at a floating metal object in front of her. "That thing wants something from Lili." Lili joyfully rushed out and cuddled the metal thing. It looked like a Bloatsprite. "Hello, Watcher, it's been ages since we've seen each other," Lili said cheerfully. Ferrax and I had also gotten out to examine the object more closely. I hobbled over. "Ah, the witch, the madman, Queen Mango, and the little wolf. Nice to meet those of you I didn't know." My gaze dropped to the ground, and I became sad, feeling frustration gnawing at me. So, it's finally happened, no more priestess - just a witch. You can get a bad reputation quickly in the wasteland. A tear rolled down my cheek, and I tried to put on a normal face. The metal thing seemed to have noticed that the term hurt me. "Oh, I'm sorry, is witch not right for you? I mean, the raiders are really afraid of you; you can tell, almost as much as they are of Security in Hoofington." I looked sadly at the robot. "I don't want to be an evil witch. I can't help it when I lose control sometimes. I don't want to kill them, I want to punish them for what they do and help them learn from it - but it seems like they don't know anything other than violence." It fell silent for a moment. "You think like Security. Alright, how about Night?" I nodded. We chatted about what was happening in this area. Watcher could now enter this region because we had reactivated the relay station. He also asked us to check on a place called Hope. A Raider gang had apparently taken up residence there, threatening caravans and collaborating with the slavers of New Appleloosa. Now, my jaw was on the floor. "But the ones in New Appleloosa aren't slavers, are they?" I gasped.

I started worrying about Bubbles again, and I saw that Appletree was just as concerned. She growled in two voices, her eyes briefly flashing green when the slavers were mentioned. The bot turned to Lili. "You didn't tell them, did you?" Lili shook her head. "Why would I? I only met them in New Appleloosa and thought they would figure it out themselves. Everyone knows it's one of Redeye's favorite trade partners." Then the bot stared at Ferrax for a long, at least a minute, and then its mechanical voice began, "I haven't seen someone like you in ages; I thought you were all extinct - with so little love in the wasteland." Ferrax looked sadly to the ground. "What love are you talking about here?" I looked confused, as Ferrax pointed to Appletree and me. "Sibling love. It's not as strong as the love between two bonded hearts, but strong enough to keep me alive." I turned pale, and Appletree just looked puzzled. "You feed on our love for each other?!" I gasped, and Ferrax turned slightly green. "Well, yeah. Your love and care for each other release an energy. That energy is what my people feed on - but don't worry, it doesn't disappear or weaken as a result." He raised his hooves reassuringly. I did calm down, saying only, "So, to make you feel really good, you need a romantic or sexual relationship between two ponies?" He nodded. "So, if a mare ever likes me that much, I'll let you know." I said with a smile. "You're a lesbian?" Lili asked shyly, and I just nodded shyly. "And you, Lili?" She scratched her head in embarrassment. "I don't know; I've never been in love." Now we both looked at Appletree, who hid behind her hooves. I smiled and teased her a bit. "Come on, little sister, spill the beans - what do you like? Strong stallions or elegant mares?" She blushed and whispered, "Both." Now, I was taken aback; I had always thought she was heterosexual. Then we all looked at Ferrax, who was already scratching his head thoughtfully. "Hmm, well, I don't know either. I don't even know if we can because we feed on it. I know I love my mom, even though I've never seen her except in my dreams. My two dads who raised me." That was an interesting response. It raised the possibility of interponic research.

Now, we all looked at Watcher, and Lili grinned. She flew to him and, for some reason, plugged her PipBuck cable into the bot. "So, to keep you from just hopping out of the channel and annoying us with tuba music, my little mechapony." There was a mechanical grumble. "Am I that predictable?" Lili simply nodded, and the bot sighed mechanically. "Alright, I guess it's both, satisfied?" Lili nodded. After exchanging information and sending greetings to Pip, Sunny - whom he had already met, and, which was somehow important to me, to that Security with a request for a conversation, the bot left us with patriotic tuba music. We continued to drive until evening and made a stop. The wagon was spacious, and we reported back home. Our parents were moved to tears that I had fulfilled my wish. The Overmare was also there and showed me her terminal screen. There was my record - and she did something very rare and smiled while filling in the "second profession" field with the word "Stable Caplan." The system asked if she was sure because there had been no corresponding test result in the last 100 years, and she confirmed it. I couldn't hold back the tears and snuggled into Appletree's forelegs. It became even more emotional when Appletree spoke an almost coherent sentence. "I miss you." Mom, Dad, and Honeydrop had tears in their eyes. "We miss you both too," my mother said. "And Dusty, please take care of your hoof until you're better. Your friends will surely protect you. Oh, by the way, show them to us; you always talk about them but haven't shown them to us yet." I blushed at my mother's statement - she was right. Ferrax happily hopped in front of the camera and waved. Everyone was briefly startled, but it faded as Ferrax said, "Hello, I'm Ferrax. So, you're the family of the two, and you're this strange Stable Queen. Your children are great! And you," he pointed at Honeydrop, "You sing beautifully." I could see a slight blush under her veil. Then Lili timidly appeared in the frame. "Hello, I'm Lili. I'm the guide for your children out here, and I take care of the mechanics of Appletree." Now, the Overmare chimed in. "You're a Stable mare too; which Stable are you from? Are they all okay there? What's your Overmare's name?" Lili smiled. "Stable 111 near Manehatten. We were a cryo-stable, our Overmare is named Blue Spark, but our Stable has been empty for five years. It wasn't designed for long-term living. We were all in cryosleep for two hundred years and now live in Tenpony Tower. If you'd like, I can give Blue Spark your PipBuck ID, and you can communicate with her." The Overmare nodded happily, and we ended the transmission with a big "See you tomorrow."

Now, I looked at Appletree. "What are the rules?" Appletree sat on her hind legs. "Rule 1... Don't eat... ponies... Rule 2... be back in... two hours... Rule 3... Don't eat livestock." I smiled and stroked her mane. "Good hunt, little one, and if you find any ammo or medical supplies, will you bring them back?" She grinned happily, showing her fangs, and licked my cheek. "Of course." Then she looked thoughtfully at the ground. "Would you like some of the loot?" I thought about it; it seemed to mean a lot to her, and I had to take what I could get out here. "Sure, as long as there's some vegetables too." Appletree nodded and howled into the night as she went off to hunt. Now, I turned to Lili. "So, the two of us have a very special date now." I emphasized it slightly seductively to tease her, as she now knew that I preferred mares. Her eyes widened, and she held her tail pressed to her front hooves. I had to laugh. "Lili, calm down, I don't want to sleep with you, even though you're quite cute." We both blushed, and I did look at her in a more romantic way. Plushy, smaller than me, and those ears... When we had calmed down, I said, "I want to introduce you to the Goddess and Nightmare Moon." Lili looked skeptical. "Is it that easy? You're a consecrated priestess, I'm only partly related to a batpony." I smiled gently. "I'm inviting you into my dream." So, we rolled together, I recited the liturgy, and we were there - in the Garden of Shadows.

She was a batpony, and so was I. I didn't quite understand why we were wearing armor, but it was still a dream, and dreams can be weird sometimes. I started to flap my wings and took off clumsily. Lili began to giggle and asked me to land. "Dusty, could it be that you've only had these wings recently?" I nodded shyly. "Then come, I'll show you how it's done." She showed me some basics, like how to push off with enough force and how to angle the wings correctly. She had learned this from her dad, as she had feathered wings, and he was a batpony. Then we flew to Luna, who was already waiting for us. She lay on the edge of the clearing, tail entwined with her counterpart. This time, she was playing with a different helmet, and I suddenly felt nauseous. She was playing with my helmet. I immediately recognized the pink orb with fins on the sides. When she saw me, she just grinned self-assuredly. Lili nudged me in flight and whispered, "Is that her? Is that Nightmare Moon?" I was about to answer, but Nightmare Moon was faster. "Yes, little Lili, that's me. You can speak directly to me as well; you have my permission." Lili turned bright red, and we landed between the two of them. Following Lili's instructions, I managed to land gracefully. "Good evening, my little ones. What can I do for you?" Luna smiled gently. I looked at her a bit skeptically, confused and smiling when she took us under her wings. "Hello, Princess. I wanted to prove to Lili that you and Nightmare Moon are not the same pony, but that you are only connected to each other. And why are we wearing these armors?" Luna giggled and whispered in my ear, "I know your dreams, my little Stardust. I thought you'd like it, well; you do have a thing for mares in uniform. As for your question, it's more complicated. The answer is a clear 'yes and no.' I was Nightmare Moon, but six brave ponies separated us. She is a part of me - she was once me, but that was a long time ago." I nodded. That was a complicated answer. Then I looked at her with uncertainty. "Today, I saw a monster in the mirror - a monster that I become when I let her," I pointed to Nightmare Moon, "take control. How can I best prepare against that?"

Luna now looked angrily at Nightmare Moon. "Moony, at least give her some time to learn how to fight you. That's unfair; she's the first in over 100 years, and you have to seduce her right away. Give her some time." Then she paused for a moment. "Has her form already manifested?" Moony as a nickname for Nightmare Moon, I had to giggle like Lili. Then I felt the helmet being put on me. I grew, my body and skull changed shape, and my legs and back spread apart. I was now eye to eye with both of them, and Luna looked at me with horror. "Oh no, that's why she did it." Luna put her wings around me. "Be careful, my little Stardust, or rather, my Little Void Nova. Moony did the same to me when I was seriously injured by my sister. It's a power that you can only use in the direst emergencies!" She now stared at Moony with a stern look.

"What abilities have you given her, Moony?" Moony just grinned arrogantly. "The power over the Void, black holes, and such. It seemed fitting for someone in whose soul such power is slowly awakening, Lulu." I started to cry; my tears were black and sparkled. Lili and Luna both took me in their hooves. I looked back at Moony, but she had flown away. Somewhere further up the mountain. Lili now looked at Luna, "You really are not her and at the same time you are, please explain that to me. The zebras are so afraid of you." Luna looked sad, "She is sort of my big sister, born out of pure manifested sorrow, depression, and emotional injury - long before Tia and I, as unicorns, came into the world." I was puzzled. "You used to be unicorns? I always thought you created the universe." Luna laughed again. "I am thirteen hundred and thirty years old, not ten thousand." I blushed. "Yes, Tia and I grew up as ordinary unicorns. Until, with the help of the great Starswirl the bearded, we managed to control the sun and moon, which had previously only been accomplished by the greatest magicians. After that, we became Alicorns, our souls connected with the sun and moon. However, at that time, they had already absorbed all the negative emotions that the peoples of this planet had sent to them. The decisive factor, though, was the star metal. It created Nightmare Moon in her current form. Everything attached to the moon also joined in, and you know the rest of the story."

I looked sadly at my silver-shod hooves. "Am I a monster now?" Luna just smiled and summoned a mirror. I saw myself as Void Nova; Luna smiled and turned into Nightmare Moon. "As much as I sometimes become it when our big sister can't stand loneliness and wants to be free." Suddenly, I heard a click. Lili had taken a photo of us. She looked at it on her Pipbuck. "Come on, smile." I had to smile at the absurdity of it all. Luna in the form of our sister did the same. "Fly a bit more, you two, I'll check on Moony." I looked at her confused, "Why?" She smiled gently, "Because she's hurt. She's a lonely, broken construct made of so many negative emotions and extraplanetary material that probably lives. She needs me not to do something truly evil. What she gave you, she sees it as a gift - and you didn't like it and are afraid of it. Well, that's understandable; she always does something like that. Every Children of the Night has such a form. So, fly nicely." She flew toward the mountain. I spread my wings of pure emptiness and tried to take off, as Lili had taught me. It worked wonderfully, and I enjoyed being a disturbingly powerful Alicorn for a while. Lili and I decided to test the powers so that I could use them correctly if necessary. She threw an apple at me; my horn glowed pink, a small black hole appeared in front of me - I directed the apple through the void and through a small black hole behind Lili; the apple hit her on the back of the head. I giggled at the wonderful expression; I felt that I had my own voice, just deeper and echoing. I halved the second apple with a black hole. Now I tried to imagine which weapon I should use in this form. I could use all my spells, only stronger - even the healing spells. As I thought, a weapon appeared next to me from a black hole, which I took in my telekinetic grip. Somehow, it didn't surprise me that it was a scythe. The blade was a crescent moon, and the handle was dark. I swung the scythe a few times, then we landed again. I saw that Luna and Moony were trotting back to us and sitting down. Moony actually had a sad expression. "Lulu and I are playing chess now; you're welcome to watch," she said in the tone of a little child insisting. We did until our awakening. It ended in a draw.

The next morning arrived, greeting us with an Appletree snoring diagonally above us, two dead raiders in front of the entry hatch, some dead radmoles, a couple of boxes of ammunition, and a basket of vegetables. I turned on the radio while stretching and rubbing the sleep from my eyes. Unfortunately, the pleasant feeling of stretched wings was absent. The news was for once not about us, but a fiery speech by DJ Pon3 against slavery and how bounties paid on raiders were seen at Tenpony Tower, much like the raiders themselves. The trigger was that someone had apparently placed a very high bounty on Security. Then there was music by Sweetie Belle. I really would have liked to meet her, but I only knew her grave. Like all other graves in our stable, it was an urn grave. Every deceased pony was cremated and placed in an urn in a very long corridor, laid to rest behind a picture frame with a beautiful image of the respective pony and its cutie mark at the bottom center of the frame. This brought me back to the question of what must have happened to Apple Bloom during the war. We knew pretty well that we were her descendants, but she didn't belong to Stable Two. I would have liked to tell stories to her ashes; I always did that with the ashes of our great-grandparents. Then my thoughts drifted back to the radio while the others had breakfast. I wanted to make the wasteland better. I had even thought about leaving the stable regularly after the mission to be there for the other believers and those in need outside. But well, I wasn't a big hero, I thought. Security took out tons of raiders and freed slaves - and Pip, she did similar things; me? I was present when a relay station was brought back into operation, and well, the hellfire bomb was a heroic deed, I could agree on that. I wanted to be a heroine, even if I wasn't Pip or Security or - I had almost let them slip from my thoughts - Paladin or Sunny. I wondered what Security's real name was. I would just ask Sunny, she was there, I believe. Then I saw my sister take out a pack of Sugar Bombs she had found, pour them into an old bowl, and fill it with Nuka-Cola. I grimaced; I hated the taste of oranges. "Appletree, what are you doing?" She looked up with the spoon still in her mouth. "Breakfast?" she simply said. "You're having Sugar Bombs with Nuka-Cola? That's gross and wasteful." She shook her head. "Firstly, it's super delicious, and secondly, I hunted near radioactive junk, and I don't want a fifth leg growing or something." Just the thought made me laugh.

The next morning arrived, welcoming us with Appletree snoring diagonally above us, two dead raiders in front of the entry hatch, some dead radmoles, a couple of boxes of ammunition, and a basket of vegetables. I turned on the radio while stretching and rubbing the sleep from my eyes. Unfortunately, the pleasant feeling of stretched wings was absent. The news was for once not about us, but a fiery speech by DJ Pon3 against slavery and how bounties paid on raiders were seen at Tenpony Tower, much like the raiders themselves. The trigger was that someone had apparently placed a very high bounty on Security. Then there was music by Sweetie Belle. I really would have liked to meet her, but I only knew her grave. Like all other graves in our stable, it was an urn grave. Every deceased pony was cremated and placed in an urn in a very long corridor, laid to rest behind a picture frame with a beautiful image of the respective pony and its cutie mark at the bottom center of the frame. This brought me back to the question of what must have happened to Apple Bloom during the war. We knew pretty well that we were her descendants, but she didn't belong to Stable Two. I would have liked to tell stories to her ashes; I always did that with the ashes of our great-grandparents. Then my thoughts drifted back to the radio while the others had breakfast. I wanted to make the wasteland better.

I had even thought about leaving the stable regularly after the mission to be there for the other believers and those in need outside. But well, I wasn't a big hero, I thought. Security took out tons of raiders and freed slaves - and Pip, she did similar things; me? I was present when a relay station was brought back into operation, and well, the hellfire bomb was a heroic deed, I could agree on that. I wanted to be a heroine, even if I wasn't Pip or Security or - I had almost let them slip from my thoughts - Paladin or Sunny. I wondered what Security's real name was. I would just ask Sunny, she was there, I believe. Then I saw my sister take out a pack of Sugar Bombs she had found, pour them into an old bowl, and fill it with Nuka-Cola. I grimaced; I hated the taste of oranges. "Appletree, what are you doing?" She looked up with the spoon still in her mouth. "Breakfast?" she simply said. "You're having Sugar Bombs with Nuka-Cola? That's gross and wasteful." She shook her head. "Firstly, it's super delicious, and secondly, I hunted near radioactive junk, and I don't want a fifth leg growing or something." Just the thought made me laugh. After breakfast, we discovered a few more features of our vehicle. It had a built-in E.F.S. and an intercom between the driver and passengers. I went back to studying the Healing Spells collection by Helping Hooves. I actually tried to mend my bones, even though it was risky, and my healing magic was not that great in knowledge and application. However, I used a few tricks; I employed some reinforcement spells that I bound to a few practice gemstones I found in my coat. If there was one thing I could do, it was metamagic. It was complicated, and the curious and skeptical looks from the others didn't make it any better. I focused my magic on the amplifiers and directed them, following a predetermined pattern, through the magical matrix of my horn into my forehoof.

There was a nasty crack, and I screamed in pain. A bone spike now protruded from the exit hole. My hoof was whole again, but too whole - the bone spike was bloodied and firmly fused with my skeleton. I stared at it as if I had just grown a fifth leg. The skin and fur around the leg had closed around the protrusion. I stared at it and tapped it gently; it didn't hurt, but it looked very strange. "Um, yeah, okay, that should be looked at by a doctor," I said, scratching my head awkwardly. The others nodded, still somewhat disturbed. The journey was uneventful until evening, but on my Pipbuck, I saw that we were slowly approaching Hope. I turned on the radio again. I had spent the whole day trying to improve my expertise in magical and physical healing. I improvised splints and asked Lili and Ferrax to play patients for me. Ferrax, in particular, had enjoyed simulating wounds. Then I heard DJ Pon3 again. Pip had apparently found Velvet and razed Old Appleloosa to the ground - that's what I call a heroine, tearing apart a whole city of slave traders. Then came a message from New Appleloosa that I found very interesting. "And now something from New Appleloosa. The Mayor's Sheriff Department now has a new bloodhound. Tracks missing ponies even after a week within a twenty-mile radius. And it's a pony - well, half at least. Dear Bubbles stole her Timberwolfliness from the little wolf. So if you're missing someone, come to New Appleloosa; they can help. And I think her Timbermom, as she calls the little wolf, would probably like to help too."

Then the wagon suddenly stopped. It was already dark, and I could hear Appletree sniffing strenuously. The intercom chimed in. "Dusty, please help me out of the harness; it's important!" She could now speak normally, which made communication much easier. I got out and saw that she was already undoing things. "Can't you wait to hunt?" I grinned. She shook her head. "Bubbles is here!" She was totally excited. I helped her out of the harness as quickly as possible when I saw the two green dots on my E.F.S.; one was approaching like a rocket, the other was trotting behind at a leisurely pace. Appletree also started running, and halfway, the strange "mother-daughter duo" met. Then I felt warmth in my groin again as I saw who was coming after them - Sugar Crush. Bubbles had cuddled up to Appletree, and they chatted. Bubbles had also learned to speak as a wolf and wore her collar; now with a pendant with a bronze sheriff's star. Appletree fumbled in her pocket for a moment and produced one of her ribbon bows, making a big one for Bubbles too. She squealed with joy. I only had eyes for Sugar Crush. She gave me a gift from Pip, the Wasteland Survival Guide, written by Dizzi Doo. I thanked her and let the book float into the wagon. In all our haste in New Appleloosa, I hadn't thought about shopping anymore. "It's very nice of you to bring us this. But why?" She blushed a little and smiled shyly, but her look already told me that there was more behind it. "Well, Bubbles wanted to see her Timbermom again before you're too far away, and well, I think you're not currently looking for a relationship, but well, I wanted..." She fell silent and tapped her front hooves together. I grinned; I knew exactly what she wanted. I didn't have the Timber scent, but I smelled it anyway.

"Guys, Sugar and I have something important to discuss, we'll be back soon." We moved away about half an hour from the others. When we were alone, she pounced on me, and I just enjoyed it. She was definitely more dominant than I was, and I liked that. She liked me, I could tell, especially when we had completely swapped clothes in the midst of it all. When we returned after two and a half hours, we were both as relaxed as ever. We had silently agreed that, if our potential future partners didn't mind, we would repeat it when we were near the others. She just giggled and said, still blushing, "You really have a thing for mares in uniform. I have a pre-war officer's uniform for next time, Dusty," she said gently and kissed me on the cheek.

Both would stay until breakfast and then head back home. When we lay down, Sugar cuddled under my blanket and fell asleep in my hooves; Appletree just whispered giggling, "You're a howler." I turned fox red. "How did you hear that?! We were easily two or three kilometers away!" She giggled and pointed to the leaf in her ear. "I can sometimes hear things even farther away, and I know what your voice sounds like. And you clearly enjoyed it." She licked my cheek and just said, "Sleep well, my little dripping mare cave," giggling. In the morning, Bubbles enthusiastically told us about how her Timbermom had started teaching her how to hunt. She had even killed a radmole but could only eat half of it; Appletree had finished the rest. She blushed and hid behind her hooves - it was visibly embarrassing for her, but behind the hooves and the deep red face, I also saw a happy smile. Sugar and Bubbles soon set off, but not before Sugar dragged me behind the wagon for five minutes to kiss a bit more before saying goodbye. They headed south, while we continued north. The road was in a miserable state, and we bounced up and down in the wagon. I was glad not to hit my head. Hope should soon be in sight. "Lili, what do you know about Hope?" She thought for a moment. "It's right next to the Everfree Forest, a small collection of buildings. There's an Ironshod Firearms factory and a solar panel for power generation, but well, for logical reasons, it doesn't work anymore." She said, pointing to the sky, which was as always covered in clouds. "Why are there always clouds? Was it like this before the war?" I asked, tilting my head in question. Lili shook her head. "The Enclave tries to protect all Pegasi from radiation." My gaze became skeptical. "Then the Enclave is a heretic, as it deprives the ponies under the cloud cover of Celestia's warming sun, Luna's soothing moon, and the stars! I crossed my front hooves over my chest. This bone growth had a single advantage; it was good for scratching my nose. Another task in the wasteland revealed itself to me, a gesture to Luna and Celestia themselves: to disperse the clouds and let all beings in Equestria experience the grace of the goddesses."

Chapter 8 - Hope? New Hope? Lost Hope? Broken hope? Hope!

We arrived at the grounds of Hope and were welcomed by a small gun turret hidden in a bush by the roadside. Perched atop the turret was the detached head of a green unicorn mare, grinning at us. I activated my S.A.T.S. as the turret sprang to life - two shots from my laser rifle and the turret exploded. Yay, managed without S.A.T.S. this time, I thought as I collected the head. Then, gently closing the poor thing's eyes, I levitated the crate I found in our wagon. I couldn't keep asking Appletree to dig graves for me each time. I spoke the words to send the poor soul to Luna; then Lili looked at me thoughtfully.

"Hey, Dusty, there's something I don't quite understand. Well, actually, two things." I looked at her curiously as we continued walking. "There haven't been any Children of the Night for about two hundred years. But, well, you're Luna's priests, her church, right? I've seen preachers and priests acting in her name too. How does that fit together? Isn't that another kind of church, or does Luna not care about those ponies? Because they can't do impressive stuff like you." I pondered. Naturally, I knew the history of the church, and answering this question was simple. "We, the Children of the Night, and the Keepers of Day are the will of Luna and Celestia.

Through us, they act in Equestria where they cannot be themselves. The preachers and priests are their voice. I am both. There were times when the Children hid and times when we openly operated. The reason for these two groups is that, firstly, due to our deep connection, we were infinitely loyal to them, and secondly, their power could only extend to a limited number of ponies. Like the Keepers of Day, we are also bound to only one of them. That's another reason why there are preachers and priests. They mostly act in the name of both goddesses. Each of us acts for only one. At its peak, there were up to 50 Children of the Night and 50 Keepers of Day, and now I'm the only one, alongside Sunny. And before you ask: I don't know why Luna hasn't chosen priests for so long. Perhaps because a time of hope has come, and she wants to help." Lili nodded and then asked another question, looking a bit more embarrassed.

"How does Luna communicate with her other priests then? And, well, can they somehow do what you can do?" I recalled legends I had read about, tales of miraculous healings by lay priests. "Luna is the Mistress of Dreams. That's how she speaks to each of us, whether priest, Children of the Night, or just a regular farmer pony. As for your second question, there are legends of miracles performed by lay priests - not Children or Keepers. There, Luna briefly lent them her power."

After our nice little chat about the church, which I effectively got to rebuild, we had hidden behind a couple of old trash cans. I peered over them to see what was happening on the other side. The barricades made of wood, scrap steel, and barbed wire had been recently erected, completely shielding the entrance to the factory. The access for deliveries had a ring wall with a double gate for transport carriages. The walls were manned with gun turrets and patrolling raider ponies. Additionally, I noticed searchlights sweeping around, setting off an alarm at the slightest wheel-rustle. They had also mined the area. I counted about ten raiders on this side of the building, then I saw a carriage approaching - pulled by a gray earth pony and escorted by six raiders. The carriage was full of slaves; especially noticeable were the six zebra foals.

The stallion looked at the raider mare sitting in a small booth embedded in the sidewall of the gate. "One bottle cap per head for entry," said the pink mare at the entrance, seemingly bored as she fiddled with her hooves. It was the first pony I'd seen since us who cared about hoof care. "Ugh, fine, here's your forty-seven," the stallion tossed her a bag. She counted and pulled a lever. The gate opened, revealing a sign on a wall that read "Welcome to Broken Hope." The stallion grinned. "It's really great that there's finally a stopover here, going from Zebratown to New Appleloosa without a decent break is really crappy." The mare nodded, no longer entirely disinterested. "We've got a bar and a brothel here now, even though we've only been here a short while," she said, grinning. "Once you've parked the wagon, inform the administration. If you pay accordingly, we can arrange transport to New Appleloosa."

I scratched my head thoughtfully. What should we do now? Keep moving? Leave the slaves to their fate? Or clear out this nest? I looked at the others questioningly. "What now? There are easily 30 raiders in there." We ventured into the ruins of a remote residential complex; a few apartments were still intact enough to give us four closed walls. "Let's just clear them out!" Ferrax said firmly, utterly convinced. "Maybe we can negotiate with them? They're afraid of you, Dusty." I gave Appletree a grumpy look. "We'll play a bit of psychological terror tonight and tomorrow. I bet they patrol around here at night too. We'll disable them, and you'll bury them properly, with gravestones and all, and then we'll leave traces leading there. Then they'll realize you're here without doing anything bad. And you, Appletree," Lili grinned, "You hunt the patrols. Tear up a few of them so that it looks like you've half-devoured them, and we'll place them in front of their gate. And you have to howl a lot at different places here at night."

Lili's plan seemed to be the most sensible to me. They only understand two things: violence or money. "It's a bit against the principle, Celestia protects and Luna defends, but well, these people are just monsters. We can ask them to surrender first and then fight if needed." We planned to strike after sunset. I found some lightweight rectangular panels in the walls that I used to make gravestones. I hoped the bodies could be identified so I could write the names on the tombstones. It got dark, and Appletree stretched. We had briefly informed home, and Appletree transformed again. "Do you still have the plan in mind, little wolf?" Lili asked. She nodded and said in a dual tone, "A couple of raiders will pose, wait until they shoot at me, then best to kill and shred them. I can do it." She grinned a bit more confidently than usual. Lili stroked her mane. "Happy hunting, little wolf." I called after her, "Remember Rule One!" She leaped into the night, her deep howling filling the area around Broken Hope. I was genuinely uncomfortable with the plan; it felt wrong to ambush these people somehow. They were monsters, but something bothered me tremendously—I just couldn't quite put my hoof on what it was. I sighed and prepared. I let three of the prepared panels float beside me while I checked my laser rifle again. I found the scientific enthusiasm poured into this device wonderful. This technology must have been so versatile before and during the war; for welding and medical treatments, for instance. The area here was more filled with houses than I initially thought.

There were several alleys full of destroyed houses downhill. That's where we set our first ambush. I had hidden behind a fallen refrigerator, Ferrax had disguised himself as a trash can, and Lili sat behind a half-collapsed chimney. The raider group consisted of two earth pony stallions and one unicorn mare. When they halted at the planned spot, I teleported in front of them. Ferrax simply aimed the Gatling at them, just like I aimed my laser rifle. I tried to put as much grace and elegance into each of my steps as I could. I had conjured a small ball of moonlight that enveloped me in sparkling, silvery light. The two stallions readied their weapons until they noticed the floating energy Gatling hanging at their head level. I smiled kindly, "Good evening, my little ponies. I'm here to offer you something." One stallion still looked skeptical, the other lowered his revolver. The mare sat on her hind legs, her eyes widened in shock, seemingly praying. I noticed the Luna and Celestia pendants around her neck, which she clutched desperately. "In the name of our Goddess Princess Luna, I want to give you the chance to leave your old life behind. Stop being raiders. Go out into the world and be good ponies - farmers, caravan guards, or something; but stop being marauding monsters." Now, my gentle smile faded, replaced by a serious look over my glasses.

The one stallion muttered, "Let's just kill the witch!" He kicked the Gatling before it could come to life. "Die, witch, your head's worth money!" I sighed. I had given them a chance. I teleported back a bit as a revolver bullet pierced my side. I cursed in Old Ponish, then activated S.A.T.S. I targeted the stallion who spoke and fired at his flank. Three shots later, he dissolved into a cloud of dust. I asked Luna for forgiveness. Meanwhile, Ferrax had simply beaten the other one to a bloody pulp, laughing hysterically with the Gatling. I shook my head. My E.F.S. marked the mare as yellow. I cautiously approached. She was still praying, looking at me with wide eyes; she murmured, "Luna, forgive me, for I have sinned. Celestia, forgive me, for I have sinned." Her weapon was still in its holster. It was the mare from the entrance of the raider outpost. I hugged her gently, tears streaming down her cheeks. Then she said with a trembling voice, a mixture of fear and reverence, "I...I want to accept your offer, Children of the Night." I nodded gently, "What's your name, and do you know the names of the other two?" I asked softly, "Butcher and Bloodface, I'm Moonbeam." I inscribed the names on the signs. "Alright, then you can go. Don't come back and live an honest life." She hesitated, "I want to become a Keeper of Day." She said firmly. I looked at her surprised.

She looked ashamed, "You want to follow Celestia, but you were—" I quickly corrected myself, "You were a raider. Why do you now wish to follow Celestia's path, which is the exact opposite?" She looked down, "To survive. I only did what I was ordered to survive. I never violated, and only rarely assaulted anyone." She looked up at me again, now anxious. "Then seek out the one the DJ calls the Paladin. She's the current Keeper of Day. She'll decide if you're worthy. She should be near Manehatten." The mare nodded, then let me float a few small vials towards her. "As a little thank you." It was hoof polish in many different colors. I squealed happily and hugged her. Then I gave her a blessing for better sleep on her way. May Luna guide you to Celestia, that you'll become a good pony, I thought, smiling.

Burying the bodies quickly and properly was not easy due to the searchlights, but I managed to create three graves about twenty meters from the main gate. "Once this is over, I'll create a proper cemetery, with flowers and everything!" I thought, somewhat annoyed. I had never shoveled so quickly before. I could see shredded bodies in front of the gate, but only two. Appletree must have shown mercy to at least one pony. By midnight, we had encountered two more stubborn raider groups. Each of the two other exits received its small cemetery. After finishing our work, we retreated to rest. I just lay there in our quarters, lost in thought. I had separated myself somewhat and gazed out of a broken window at the stars. This forest was the only place in Equestria where the cloud cover was not completely closed. And that made it beautiful here. But my thoughts weighed heavily. Am I doing the right thing? I've killed, repeatedly. For a good reason, but could I have handled it differently? I had killed less than a dozen - yet each of them left a little hole in my soul. And I felt the gaze from that hole. "Luna forgive me, for I have sinned; Celestia forgive me, for I have sinned," I murmured toward the moon.

My gaze was fixed on my reflection in the window panes - only, it wasn't me I saw. Void Nova smiled as my reflection, and Moony's voice whispered in my soul, "You can use this power anytime; force it to obey you. You don't have to kill. You can simply rule. You'd be nearly as powerful as I once was. And not even Celestia could stop me alone." I looked back outside and slowly, tremblingly said, as a cold shiver ran down my spine, "I am better than you!" She just grinned mockingly as Void Nova, "I took over in a situation when you were slightly irritated. Now, think about how easy it'll be when you're really angry." I could already feel the anger rising within me, and the dark blue crept into my field of vision. I screamed and released a beam of pink energy from my horn. The scream was loud; louder than expected. It was the Royal Canterlot voice, or at least it sounded like the descriptions. I stamped on the ground and struggled to clear every non-dark blue inch of my field of vision. My mane slowly started to blur at the ends. I continued to scream, and sobs mingled in. I saw pink sparkling tears rolling down my cheeks. "I want to be a hero, not a MONSTER LIKE YOU!"

I pressed myself whimpering to the ground as I felt my wings slowly forming. I wanted to be the priestess, not the calamity Void Nova. LEAVE ME ALONE! I screamed in my mind. "Come, you're almost through the transformation. Then I take over, and the raiders are gone. You'll be the hero you want to be. Like the Stable Dweller, Security, or the Paladin. A princess like Luna or Celestia. They'll worship you." I realized Moony's voice was not just in my head anymore. She was speaking through me, to me. "Enough have died tonight, alone! This must stop!" I closed my eyes and curled up on the ground. I felt that my eyes and my mane had completely transformed already. I curled into my wings, but they offered no warmth as I had hoped. They were ice-cold. My whimpering was interrupted by something warm. I opened my eyes and saw Luna's concerned face.

"Why are you here? Did you lock her away again, Luna? Or are you here to take your power back because I'm not ready yet?" Then Luna licked away my tears. I chuckled, Luna's face blurred, and Appletree's face replaced it. Lili and Ferrax looked worried through the door. All three looked at me with concern. "Are you turning into Nightmare Moon?" Lili asked from behind. My sister wrapped her forelegs around me and spoke soothingly. "Shh, everything will be okay, Dusty - shh, shh." Lili came up with an idea, which was both good and bad; she fetched a brown bottle from her bag and retrieved a few shot glasses from the remains of the kitchen. Then she poured one for each of us, and we sat in a circle around it. I raised the glass with the brown liquid to my nostrils. It smelled good, definitely alcohol. I took a sip and let the alcohol find its way into my cold insides.

I relaxed as the warmth filled my belly but recoiled when Appletree and Ferrax warned, "Watch out with your weird wings." I folded them carefully. Now, Lili and I examined them more closely. They were batpony wings, but in absolute darkness with stardust in between. To my relief, however, they slowly shrank back. I looked embarrassed and sad at the others. My cheeks were red with embarrassment. "I'm sorry. I'm afraid you'll see this more often in the near future. Nightmare Moon wants to rise again and will take advantage of any situation that arises." I sighed heavily, then looked serious again. "Before this transformation, which you witnessed the beginning of, takes place, she'll have complete control over me. Before that happens, you must stop me..."

I paused, looked down, and swallowed. My blood was pounding in my ears. I was afraid of the next sentence. "If necessary, you must kill me." Silence. I didn't dare look up. Then Lili started giggling and put a hoof around my trembling shoulders. "Don't worry, before we turn you into pony cheese or dust, we still have these." She pulled out a weird weapon from her bag; it looked like a pistol, but the ammunition were small syringes. "With this stuff, you can even get a dragon to sleep. So if you lose it, we'll just send you to count Luna's sheep." She said gently, and the trembling slowly stopped. I gratefully released myself from Appletree's embrace, and we had two more shots. I had never had alcohol before, and to calm down a bit, the stuff worked really well, I had to admit. The night passed, and the next morning arrived.

Ferrax had transformed into a fly and had spied on Broken Hope. There was stress in the base; the leader of the prostitutes, a certain Rita, had fled to New Appleloosa with her three girls. When the raiders tried to stop them, she simply shot the three girls. Of the original thirty raiders and slave guards, there were only ten left - and six were now leaving the gate with a slave transporter. We waited in ambush. I walked elegantly and smiled gently towards them, "A Celestia-blessed good morning." I indicated a polite bow.

The stallion in front of the cart eyed me suspiciously. "What do you want? Are you responsible for the massacre?" He pointed to the gravestones lining the road. "I shot a raider in self-defense and prayed to Luna for forgiveness and a safe journey to Luna for him. The graves, of course, are mine; it's my task given by the goddess." He nodded slowly and looked at me skeptically again. "And what exactly do you want from us now? Do you want to buy slaves or what?" I shook my head as the two rear guards began to murmur. "I offer you, in the name of Luna's infinite grace, to reconsider your lives. Don't be slave drivers and raiders anymore. You could achieve so much positivity." I smiled gently, and now three of them were already talking behind the cart. "You could be traders and caravan guards or protect a defenseless village." The stallion pulling the cart just laughed mockingly. "I won't take advice from you, not from a mare with two eye colors who thinks she can divert others from their path." I paused for a moment. Two eye colors? What's going on with my body now? Is my sister's condition contagious after all? I looked at a metal plate on the roadside that was clean enough to reflect. My right eye was perfectly normal green. My right... a cold shiver ran down my spine. I managed to suppress the trembling. The iris was brightly pink. Great, thanks, Moony, you just won't let up. Then one of the raiders approached the draft horse.

He nodded and put the cart in reverse with a load of groaning and stinking slaves in distress. He just grinned and said, "Wow, priestess, your pretty two-colored head is worth 5000 bottle caps." I looked confused as hell broke loose. The first raider opened fire, and I could barely duck away. The second threw a grenade at me before aiming his assault rifle at me. A beautiful line of stars faded as the bullets bounced off my cloak. The next volley... destroyed the small bone spur on my hoof. I screamed and retreated into the ruined building behind me. This pain was strange, and the smell of blood and bone marrow didn't help me concentrate. My laser rifle was already there, and I entered S.A.T.S. The first raider received two laser beams directly into his chest. He stumbled back and, amidst loud cursing and the smell of ozone, threw a grenade into the room. I managed to stop it just in time with my shield spell; it exploded right in front of one surprised raider, shredding his two front legs. The remaining four raiders had a nasty surprise. They were pounced on by Appletree, and on both sides, half a raider could be seen sinking. From another building, a tentacle shot out, and the sounds were like a terrible slurping with screams of desperation as a raider disappeared inside. Meanwhile, Lili had simply blown the head off her raider. My second raider now jumped into the building as my shield fell. He had drawn a knife and immediately struck. And blood was seeping from my right leg; I fell back, and the metallic smell of my blood filled the room. I hated that smell! I continued to back away, only to realize that I had been cornered. The green stallion grinned victoriously over his knife; - and I did the only thing that came to mind in the panic that overwhelmed me: I grabbed the laser rifle and began wildly hitting his head with the butt. He easily avoided the first few swings. The second one cut right above his shoulder.

Trembling with total overwhelm, I stuttered lightly, "Luna, show me the way, be my light in the darkness," my Pipbuck briefly flashed in the moonlight, and I sensed what to do. I entered S.A.T.S. again, and my strikes hammered his head until he lay motionless. "Thank you, Luna." Then Appletree's concerned face appeared in the window. "Dusty, all okay?" Well, I've just almost met my end because I didn't think properly, was all that raced through my mind. "Is everyone alright?" I asked as I stepped out. The air now smelled of death and ashes again. I took out my shovel and got to work. After Lili and Ferrax had taken them out of the cart, the liberated ones talked among themselves. And I actually got help with digging. Two earth pony stallions were so kind. They said they would gladly help me in my service to Luna, as I had given them hope last night. One of them told me that the raiders and slave traders had become increasingly nervous after each new grave. And then there were Appletree's little "gifts" in front of the gate. She actually cared for the zebra foals, giving them water, taking them in her hoof, and playing with them. After I had fulfilled my dutiful duty to Luna, I approached the foals with a gentle smile. They all shied away from me, and I could see pure fear in their eyes. Are they afraid of me, the situation, or is my coat again covered in dead pony? I smiled gently after checking my fur.

"Is everything alright, little ones? Do you need something? Are you hurt?" I noticed two empty healing potion bottles on the ground. A young zebra stallion stood protectively in front of the rest of the group, while I was still somewhat confused. "You're evil! You've been touched by the evil stars! And you almost look like Nightmare Moon! Leave us alone! We want nothing to do with you!" The boy's voice was assertive. But I understood where this was coming from. I was still somewhat crestfallen and lay down briefly to rest by the side of the road. Then I hummed the melody of my initiation song, while I noticed someone sitting down next to me and gently placing their wing over my back. Lili smiled gently at me, "Please don't take it personally; in the beliefs of the zebras, Nightmare Moon and Luna are the same, a living image of the evil stars. I've told you that before." I nodded resignedly. "Can you tell them that I'm not evil and just want to help?" I stretched out as Lili's wing stroked my back, and I realized, feeling embarrassed, that I had started purring like a cat. Lili chuckled amusedly. "So, someone likes being petted with a wing." She grinned, gave me another minute of strokes on the back, and then flew back to the foals.

With the adult ponies, I had more luck. I could use Luna's gift more often to calm the other ponies. After a while, they also began to make their way back to their homes. Only the foals remained. I approached the others and looked at the foals questioningly. The little colt looked at me with mixed feelings. Lili gave him a small nudge with her wing, and he managed to speak up. "Lili says you're not evil, even though you were touched by the stars. She knows our legends, so we'll give you a chance. You're now Nightmare Star." Great, just 'Dusty' would have been enough... He fell silent for a moment. "Can you take us to Glyphmark? Or rather, to the tunnels under Canterlot? From there, we can find our way home." I simply nodded. "Of course, we'd be happy to. But I warn you - you're afraid of Nightmare Moon and still of me, I see that in your eyes. If you see both of my eyes turn pink," I pointed to my pink eye, "run for your lives and don't come back until it stops. Because then Nightmare Moon is here in my body - and I don't want anything to happen to you." The colt's eyes widened, and he swallowed hard, nodding hesitantly and starting to discuss with his friends. Appletree was still at their center. Why didn't you become a kindergarten teacher? I thought, smiling.

After a while, we were back in the house ruins, observing Broken Hope. There were still ten Raiders there, plus their boss; I recognized him immediately. I was already familiar with power armors from home, after all, Appletree's legs were the legs of a prototype of such armor. The Earth pony stallion had a minigun and a flamethrower attached to his armor. This was going to be a heated dance, I realized, and the others were concerned too. I asked the others about the plan. The kids had settled comfortably in the cart and could easily call us via comms if there were any problems. Lili scratched her head thoughtfully. "Does anyone have Spark grenades? Then we can disable the power armor. That's the only challenge, along with getting the gate open. They've pushed a bus behind it; I don't think we can get through there. And we'll have a hard time attacking from above because of the gun turrets." Appletree just smiled. "I'll take care of the gate," she said, with a shy smile. "And how? There's a bus behind it, how will you manage that?" Now she grinned. "My legs are running at minimal capacity. I'll push them to the maximum." Lili's eyes widened. "What, you can go faster with those parts?" Appletree nodded. "It works, but not for long - and a lot can go wrong because defective Spark generators were installed back then. But since I never had any issues, we left them in."

We found the right position, and the Spark generators in Appletree's legs began to rev up. I cast my shield spell around her, and under heavy fire from machine guns, pistols, and even a rocket launcher, she dashed toward the gate and bucked it. With a loud hydraulic thunder, the gate shattered into a thousand pieces, and Appletree's legs were already glowing red. Then the wrecked bus crashed against the building. Appletree ran through the cloud of debris, out of sight. Ferrax and Lili had, in the end, warmed up to the idea of playing with the gun turrets. Ferrax flew past them, attracting the attention of all the turrets with a beep and opening fire. Lili didn't need much with her sniper rifles, but... She popped a pill, started giggling hysterically, flapped her wings against her combat saddle once, and it clicked. Waves of bullets poured over the turrets and Raiders, resulting in a dark hum as the turrets either shut down or exploded. The spectacle ended only when Lili stopped laughing hysterically and sadly lay down in her position. Ferrax turned the remaining wall Raiders into small piles of ash and chuckled even more hysterically than Lili had before.

I crept through the piles of rubble. Appletree's shield was still there, but I noticed it taking damage. I tried a female raider via S.A.T.S. shot in the head, but she dodged like she did it every day. Now I tried a weak stunning spell. The small, glowing green bullet hit its surprised target and the mare with the combat shotgun was just able to pull the trigger again, causing pain in my chest, before she slowed down and I was able to simply keep her at bay with my laser rifle. I also tried to convince her to be better, her answer was just "Die, cunt." I turned her into a pile of ashes with apologies to Luna, which I immediately put in an empty Sparkle Cola bottle. Then I saw Appletree having a tough fight with the raider leader. The power armor was rusted and reeked of blood and death. His sand-colored fur was also covered in dried blood and his red mane stood out like a zebra's. His battle saddle included a minigun and a flamethrower. He also had strange devices on his hind hooves that were integrated into the armor. I aimed and aimed. The S.A.T.S. warned me that I had a good chance of meeting my sister.

I fired a shot. The raider grabbed Appletree and threw her into my beam before she could react. She howled as the beam hit her side. Tears welled up in her eyes when she saw who the beam was coming from. She looked at me in disbelief before shaking her head briefly and smiling painfully. You know I would never willingly hurt you. I thought to myself as chaos broke out. The raider's minigun charge turned Appletree's flank into a grotesque sight of red and green as he jumped back again, his flamethrower coming to life. Appletree jumped into the air and used the momentum to throw himself at the raider boss. He gasped as the air was forced from his lungs. The armor might protect him from some things, but not from the sheer force of an approaching farmer. Appletree reared up and brought his claws down, right over the armored man's flank. There was a disgusting squeak, but apart from a few thin scratches nothing had happened.

Appletree used the momentum to turn to buck, but the raider was faster - and now kicked her with both hind legs. With a bang, the attachments to his armor activated, Appletree flew through the air in a high arc and landed on a strut of the bus door, which pierced her entire stomach. I screamed in fear and panic for my beloved little sister, and then everything went blue. This time I willingly gave myself to Nightmare Moon; All the images of our past passed before my mental eyes and my glittering tears covered the floor. I felt my body grow and my wings grew. The smell of blood and death was masked by the smell of incense; Moony's voice in my head didn't feel wrong. “You saw what he did. With luck she's still alive. We can save her when this monster is dead. Have fun destroying him, little Nova.” I started laughing and the raider looked at me in panic. my voice was deep and melodic “Now you crazy have done it. You killed the only thing that stopped me from giving myself to Nightmare Moon - you will die and your soul will go straight to the eternal nightmare!" I rose playfully into the air; I drew my scythe from a black hole that I manifested next to me. He fired his minigun at me in a panic.

I simply made a black hole appear in the line of flight and redirected the bullet current straight back into his face. Unfortunately, only a few bullets hit, but enough to make him even more panicked before he could dodge. Lili was floating behind me and I felt her aiming the needle at me. “Lili, everything’s fine, I’m still in control. I need Nightmare Moon's strength to help Appletree right away. Please stabilize her.” Lili nodded hesitantly while Ferrax shot at me. The laser beams burned my fur and I cursed. “FERRAX, ARE YOU NOT LISTENING?!” I only now realized that I was using the Royal Canterlot Voice. Ferrax started and flew to Lili, whining. The raider now threw a grenade at me and shouted “DIE YOU CRAZY”. I let the grenade split in the air through a black hole and it fell ineffectively to the ground, then I began to chant a prayer: “Luna, forgive me, because I have sinned - and will now kill someone with the power of your dark side. Please forgive me, my beloved goddess.” I let it happen, my armor blocking most of it. He then detonated several grenades underneath himself as I easily decapitated him with my scythe. The blast from the explosion threw me against a wall. When I got up in a daze, I was lying next to Appletree. It was still there. Lili had given her painkillers and, like Ferrax, looked very worried. "She won't last much longer, Stard...Void Nova"

I nodded; My horn glowed pink and silver as I began to envelop Appletree in my magic. She floated off the spike and her wounds closed. While she was still in flight, her breathing returned to normal and when I saw that she was okay again, I heard in my head, "This is my thanks for letting me play again, little Nova." I heard something like happiness for the first time from Moony's otherwise bored monotone voice. Then I collapsed, unconscious, in indescribable pain.