Chapter 1: Waking Up

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I wasn't cold. And I was off my hooves. My eyes were adjusting, slowly, to the limited light. From the faint breeze and the sight of the stone and plaster walls around me, I was inside a poorly insulated dwelling.

The noise of hoof-falls behind me took my full attention. Swiveling my head around, I couldn't help but take notice of the pair of candles on the wall, shielded on all sides but the top by glass. There was a open doorway to another room, and after shifting my sore body to look behind, the owner of the hooves could be seen. Off brown fur with an unkempt black mane, heavyset body type but the muscles on his body were a bit off, his skin and fur seemingly stretched and wrinkled over him from what was likely a long and hard life. Looking at his back it wasn't possible to see his face or what he was doing with his front hooves, but he was manipulating something on a small desk against the far wall. A dingy coat with some stains on it draped over his shoulders, and as he shifted just a bit I could see a few pockets that might hold any number of contents. The angle of the lighting kept me from seeing his cutie mark, leaving me with even less to work with.

Trying to balance speed, silence, and the ache in my muscles, I slipped off the table that I had been sprawled stomach-down on. Quickly I looked down into the doorway, the hall was darker but I could see a window to the outside and a door beside it. The way out. But out to where? Where was I?

A clink of metal turned me attention back to the other pony, and I could see what looked like a small surgical knife having been placed on the desk off to the side. If he had sat that aside while I was in his dwelling, he probably had something worse. Quietly I moved my left fore hoof to head towards the doorway, feeling winded just by that movement alone.

I had no idea what was out there. I was exhausted. And I didn't know where I was. Or who. Another small noise as the earth pony set a cap down, turning slightly towards a desk lamp and holding a needle and bag up to it with his hooves. Either I tried to fumble out the door into a great unknown, or I could subdue the house's owner and try to get some information on the current situation.

Pushing through the ache and fatigue, my whole body lunged forward at him. Without giving him a chance to react from the louder impact of my hooves hitting the wood-covered floor, I carried my momentum into him, my slightly smaller bulk pushing him forward into the desk, the edge of it pushing the wind out of his stomach. With my left fore hoof I wrapped my leg around his neck, my right pushing the lamp to try and obscure some of the light to maintain some surprise.

“whe-” My voice felt weak as well, and I needed noise to back up my show of force. I coughed quickly, and “WHERE AM I?” Now my voice was carrying right into his ear. “WHERE IS THIS? WHO ARE YOU!?”

He sputtered something, so I loosened my grip around his neck a bit. “Doctor!” Now it was his turn to wheeze out, this from him trying to get his breath back. “I'm a doctor! We found you in the mountains! You're in our town!”

“WHAT Is the name of-” The world was starting to fade out around the edges now. “-of-”

“We think you've been in a coma.” He pushed back a bit and shrugged me off, the combination of his larger bulk and my fading consciousness giving him an easy advantage. As my forelegs once more made contact with the ground I stumbled once, then twice, and found stability. But focusing on him was difficult. “You need to lay down. You need to rest.” I stumbled back, holding my left hoof out to try and keep distance between us, even the illusion of force might make him hold back while I tried to focus again.

“We're a friend.” He said once more, stepping forward and putting one of his hoofs on the joint of my left foreleg, putting the smallest amount of pressure on it as I dropped it to the ground. “You need to lay down.” He reiterated. The world was still fading out into black, even the candles on the wall becoming hard to make out from the encroaching darkness. “We're friends, see?”

“Needle...” I hoarsely forced out as he gave me a push back onto the metal table I had just been on mere moments ago.

“An IV drip. Some saltwater and electrolytes to get you moving again.” Gradually he laid me back down, bringing a stop to the encroaching darkness of unconsciousness. “Do you know how you got here?”

I tried thinking for a moment, the world stabilizing into small circles of light and blurry vision. “Mountain?”

“Yes, yes, we found you in the Mountains.” His voice faded just a bit as did his hoof falls, “This might hurt a bit.” The earth pony said upon returning to me. “But you've been in and out of consciousness for the last two days and you've not eaten anything for Celestia knows how long.” The prick into the side of my upper neck made my front hooves raise from the pain, but only slightly due to my lack of energy. “Just rest a bit, let it circle through a bit, and try not to move too much.” My world had stabilized away from unconsciousness, but just barely. “If you feel like your going to fall asleep again that's ok. We're right here, and we won't let you die on us after all you've been through.”

With that the tension drained from my body, and my eyes closed as I let the world fall away.

- - - -

“He's coming along bit by bit.” I could hear the doctor's voice on the edges of my subconscious.

“So what's he like?” This chipper voice belonged to a mare. I forced myself to open my eyes a bit, looking at the doorway but due to my angle on the table it wasn't possible to see either of the two.

“Thus far, nothing. I think he's probably a hired guard.” Now the doctor came around the corner of the door frame. “He woke up last night and immediately tried to attack me.”

“And?” The mare came around the corner now, a lemon yellow pony with a faded pink mane, part of it falling over the back of her neck and towards her shoulders, part of it hanging like bangs over her face, and the more central part curled back on itself like a roll at the top of her head behind her horn.

“And that's about it. He's not shared a name. He has a few scars but nothing excessive, and most of the scarring is well healed.” The doctor now trotted behind her through the doorway.

“Welcome!” She seemed more excited at me being awake then shocked. “Our name is Glowing Ether! And this is our doctor Soothing Constant!”

“The pleasure is ours.” The stallion remarked, lowering his head a bit and curving his front left leg inward a bit.

“Indeed it is!” Ether cut in. “We can't believe our Good Doctor didn't ask for your own name!”

I was silent for a moment. “I...I don't know.”

“I've never heard of a name like that before.”

“Actually Mare Ether, we think he means he still doesn't remember.” I gave a small nod in response.

“Well, in that case-” She beamed a massive smile at me. “-what can you tell us about yourself?”

Nothing. I took a moment to think, or...try to think. There was nothing. It was like trying to peer into a rush of white, gray, and black. Like static.

They must have noticed my struggle to give an answer, both of them peering at each other for a second before looking at me once more.

“Maybe your Cutie Mark will shake your memories?” The doctor asked, ending his sentence just before biting the top of the thin blanket that had been placed over me, and pulling it down my body and the metal table.

“Of course! It's the ultimate summation of who we are as a pony and is one of the most important moments of our entire life!”

With the sheet off I pushed off of one of my hooves to turn and gaze at my flank. Emblazoned on it was a knife pointing straight upwards, it's mouth guard at the base of the blade made of four golden sticks matching the color of the blade, the end of each stick resulting in a different letter.

“It's a Weather-vane!” The yellow mare remarked with a beaming smile. “Maybe they checked the weather for some other fortunate ponies!” She pointed to my flank with confidence. “N for North, E for East, then South and West.”

Her smiling face changed focus from my flank to my face, as if they were expecting a great revelation. I could only shrug.

“We think our book knows what their problem might be!” The Doctor trotted back over to the desk that he had and bit down on the spine of a thick and weathered looking book. With a toss of his head it landed on top of the desk he had been hunched over the previous night, and he began flipping through it page by page. While he began shifting through his tome I decided to try once more to get off the table and onto my hooves.

The light from the windows both in my room and in the adjacent rooms let me see a lot more then the last time I was awake. My hooves stepped on slightly splintered wooden floors, the walls themselves a mixture of wood, large stones, and some form of plaster. The ceiling was similarly wooden and flat, maybe suggesting a second floor?

“I'm sure once Constant has our new guests all fixed up they'll come to love it here!” She remarked once more, a bright smile over her face. “And their name will come about soon enough. We'll find a great way to integrate you into Our Town!”

“Where am I?” I asked, cutting off her train of thought.

“I just said it silly. This is Our Town!” Her leg was thrust into the air as if using it to point to the entire room and what laid beyond. “Our ancestors found a nice hidden valley in the mountains to keep us safe from selfish ponies before us, and they taught us true friendship to keep us safe from the bad ponies out there. She threw the outstretched leg around my neck. “You might still be too weak to actively partake in Our Town, but there's plenty you should catch up on for your new life.” She led me out of the room that had been my entire remembered life and into the more open room beyond. A staircase was adorned opposite of the front door, confirming my earlier guess that there was a second floor to the building. Two windows were split by the front door, and another room similar to the one I had come out of was opposite of it, making the entire building feel like a mirror image of itself, the only non-mirrored bit being the staircase running lengthwise at an angle against the wall.

“This here-” Glowing Ether pointed to the large image frame which would have faced a pony the moment they stepped into the door. “-Is Our Town's founder, Starlight Glimmer! Before the bombs dropped, she found a way to live without war or fighting, the true magic of friendship!” It was a fully body portrait, slightly faded but not so much to take away from her lilac body hair, purple and teal mane, or the wide strange smile that adorned her face, making it look as if she was staring down at us.

“And we give all of our thanks to her for our lives, and we thank all the ponies that came with her to resist the unequal world beyond.” And with that, she bowed toward the picture with eyes closed. Right afterward she cracked one open, and raised a leg to the back of my neck and pushed me down, implying I should bow similarly.

“You said something about bombs?” I asked once the two of us went back to standing normally.

“Oh Yes. Ponies had been fighting each other and other creatures for years, maybe even centuries before. And about 200 years ago they made a bunch of really big bombs that killed nearly every pony.” Once again she held a long, uncomfortable stare with me, obviously expecting this to trigger a memory. “You really don't remember anything, do you?” I shook my head to the negative. With a sigh, she continued with her simplified history lesson. “Under Starlight's guidance our ancestors hid in the caves in the mountains around here, only to come out a few days later and realize that the mountains protected us from their effects. And so we lived on, following Starlight's magnificent guidance until this very day.”

Nearly every pony? So we're in a valley surrounded by lots of mountains, and everything outside is poisoned. But it surely isn't too bad, after-all, she did say that nearly every pony, not every pony, had died, and if the mountains protected them that well then they wouldn't have known about these giant bombs unless ponies from beyond talked about it.

“We implore that all of our new friends take and study one of these.” She levitated a small lilac-colored book in front of my face. “Only then can new friends understand how true our friendship is.” It was pushed a bit aggressively towards my face, so I merely leaned forward and grabbed it in my mouth, my teeth leaving faint imprints into it's plastic.

“Retrograde Amnesia.” The other male in the building cut into the conversation. “The medical book suggests our guests saw a bad event or got hit on the head real badly, and because of that they can't remember anything before waking up.”

“Oh dear.” Ether looked between Constant and myself. “Is there any cure to it?”

“The best it recommends is to have them spend some time with support and stay active and healthy. It should come back to him as time goes on.”

“Well our new friends won't have to worry too much about that!” Again she wrapped her leg around the back of my neck, this time aggressively pulling me into her and making me stumble on my still weak legs. “You can't find any better friends then here!”

“Yes, but we recommend that he spend another day or two inside until they're properly rested and able to do work.”

“Well if that's the case, we should be going now!” The yellow and pink mare remarked. “We'll all look forward to you coming outside and experiencing Our Town and the great chance it offers!” And with that she let go of me, and opened the front door and went back outside.

“Why?” I turned and looked at the doctor after the two of us were left alone. “Why did you not tell her that I attacked you last night?”

“Starlight Glimmer wrote in her Friendship Guide that we should always give ponies a second chance.” He closed his eyes and titled his head upward, as if trying to recall something. “It's not the first impression that's important, it's about what guests and friends are willing to give to each other.”

Realizing it was a quote, I looked to the book and back to him. “You liked it that much?”

“Every pony has a quote they have to like that much. After all, Starlight's words has kept peace in this town for a long time.” He looked down at my legs for a moment, a puzzled look coming over his face. “So, what did you think of our ministry mare?”

“She...” I trialed off and looked through the window, spying a pair of drab looking houses on the other side of a rock-and-dirt road. “She's very enthusiastic.”

He chuckled for a moment. “Yes, that's one way to put it. But that's how all the Ministry Mares have been since Starlight Glimmer. After all, it's friendship that keeps us together.” He motioned to the lilac book I had set on the floor. “It's would be good for you to get familiar with that. You didn't grow up here, so it will be a good chance to test how well you can remember new things. Until then.” He turned around and walked back to the room I had been sleeping in. “You can keep using the operating room as a bed for now. In a few days we're sure one you'll get moved into a real house with other ponies.”

I nodded, then turned to look out the window. Stepping up towards it I could see a lot more of the town. It looked like a row of about six houses from, all side by side, and a bit more focusing showcased that there was a second row of double-storied houses directly behind that one. In fact, it seemed like they all were constructed exactly the same. Maybe this house was the same?

My eyes were caught by a small group of young fillies and colts walking by, led by an adult mare with her dull yellow mare pulled back into a pair of pigtails. There was also a lone stallion on the opposite side of the road walking the other way, the two adults smiling and nodding at each other wordlessly. But something seemed off about them. Looking at their flanks, they had the exact same branding on them.

A pair of gray parallel lines, like an equal sign. While I couldn't remember anything beyond waking up the prior night, that struck me as being...wrong. Quickly I turned my head back to the operating room where the doctor still was. I could only see his flank, but that was all I needed to see to notice that he too carried the same equal sign mark. Spinning opposite of the window, I looked at the full bodied portrait of the mare that founded the town. Sure enough, even if the angle wasn't perfect, she bore the same equal sign.

- - - -

I stared a bit longer out the window, the light from the cloud-obscured sun slowly fading out. Over the last two days I had regained most of my strength, being able to walk and trot around the house without issue, even the stairs to the second floor weren't that much of an issue. 'You seem to be in top condition, it's just a matter of getting some food in you and restoring some muscles.' Doctor Constant had remarked about my physical condition.

But that was only my physical condition.

“Hey, come on in if you want to eat.” Soothing Constant called out, poking his head around the corner of the door frame into the operating room-turned-bedroom.

“It's not coming back.”

The stallion let out a small grunt as if mulling the statement over in his head. “I'm sure it will come back at some point.”

I shook my head and turned around. “Nothing. There's so much that I can tell you. I can tell you where to smash my hoof in that window.” I merely flipped my tail to reference the one my gaze had just been staring out of. “And do it without cutting myself on the glass. I can read this.” with my right hoof I palmed the plastic book I had been given. “And can tell you that in about 6 hours we'll get another long sprinkling of rain as the clouds overhead cool down.”

“Good! That means it's all coming back then!”

“No, No!” My voice raised, reflecting the aggravation I was already having. “You don't get it. I don't remember THINGS, I just remember HOWS.” Taking a deep breath, I composed myself, raising a hoof to my chest. “I still don't know my name. Every now and then there might be a word, or a concept. Like the name of something called Canterlot, but I don't know if that's a house, a pond, somepony's dog...” I trailed off, my frustration having already faded as I drooped my head and stared at a distant wall. “I still don't know my name, or even what my cutie mark means.”

“An old city.” The older stallion responded flatly, getting my attention back. “Canterlot was the old capital city of Equestria until the bombs fell.” He merely stared at me with locked eyes as a moment of silence passed. “Well, you should come and eat anyway before it gets too cold.” Realizing that the information he shared with me wasn't unlocking anything new in my head, my host turned around and began trotting to the other end of the house where the kitchen was. Without putting too much thought into it I bit down on the plastic book's binding and the pen that I had been given, trotting after the doctor for the final meal of the day.

“Well, how is your new memory working?” He asked before taking the lid of the pot sitting atop the indoor wood stove.

“In the same way that the masses of ponykind can only obtain friendship is by sacrificing that which is core to them, they can only respect friendship by being reminded of what they sacrificed. Page 17, Chapter 2.”

The stew from the doctor's ladle pooled into the bowl, and with some simple balancing he three-legged walked it over to the table I had already taken a seat at. “Well, physically you are ok. Before you woke up I made sure to massage and move your limbs every so often so muscular atrophy wouldn't set in.” He took I already told Mare Ether that you were in good enough condition to start working tomorrow. She'll be even happier to know that your studying isn't being hampered by your memory either.”

I looked aimlessly down at the mystery stew that I and my host was sharing. He tossed a piece of rock-hard bread at me, and instinctively I stopped it with my hooves, it's trajectory instantly altered straight down into the stew, the liquid inside hopefully making it a bit easier to bite into, even if it meant that the under cooked beans and lentils would be harder to make go down.

“Maybe some hard work will shake the cobwebs loose in your mind.” His hoof pushed his black mane back, probably trying to ensure he wouldn't end up with hair in his stew. “But the best thing for some pony with Amnesia like yourself-” A hoof point towards me as I picked up the bowl to try and slurp the evening meal. “-is friends. Doesn't matter where in the wasteland you are, finding some friends and getting their support helps the brain relax and settle down. And I don't mean friendships like this whole town.”

I sat the bowl down, the slightly soggy bread caught between my jaws. “What do you mean then?”

“This town offers friendship aplenty, yes. But there's a difference between every pony sharing cutie marks, housing, and a work schedule, and some pony being willing to confide their honest thoughts and feelings with another without having to lie.” Now it was his turn to start eating his dinner.

“I don't have anything to lie about. I don't even know my own name.”

Now his bowl was set down, empty contents matching mine, though he had eschewed the rocky bread for the moment. “You're thinking of it wrong. What if they want to be honest with you? Well, can you be loyal to their truths and help them keep it? How about if they've sprained their leg but are concerned about their job. Can they trust you to be kind and not rat them for their inability to work? Would you even be generous enough to help them out?”

“I...I don't know.”

“Those are the kind of questions where the answer comes naturally for true friends. And that.” The doctor stood up, smacking his hoof on the table hard enough to make his rocky bread jump up and toward his mouth. “That is where the fun and laughter begins. And with some fun, the real magic happens.”

“How does that go with the book?” He had already stepped away from me, his tail swishing while he hummed some tune while trotting out of the kitchen. It was plain that he had no interest in trying to relate his short ramble to the long winded ramblings in the Friendship Guide. Maybe this was just another mental exercise to try and get my memories back? I looked once more at the plastic book, leaning over to stuff the last of the bread into my mouth while flipping it back open to pick up where I left off from the long gone mare's ramblings about friendship and sacrifice.

- - - - -

Twice a day.

I stared up at the ceiling, slightly annoyed. There was some type of rhythm and singing going on outside of the walls, awaking me from my sleep. This was the second time in a day this had played, the other times being once early in the morning, and now again in what was probably sunset, based off the lack of even faint light through the window.

The frustration of being awoken just after going to sleep for the second night in a row overpowered the urge to block the noise and try to go back to sleep, though that wasn't helped by the dry mouth I had. I rolled over, my hooves landing on the floor with a silent thud. A dry mouth and the noise from outside was enough to ensure I wouldn't fall back asleep easily.

A short trot to the kitchen meant that I could at least satiate the dry mouth. By the time I had made it into the kitchen the noise had stopped, and my glances out the window showed a variety of ponies all mulling in the main street, a few heading inside the varying houses lining the street. I had yet to see a single pony not wearing the parallel lines on their flank, as if the entire town shared the same special talent.

Leaning into the kitchen's water barrel to quench my thirst, I couldn't help but look at my faint reflection in the water. It had been two days, and it felt like I could tell more about myself from looking at the nearly invisible reflection then from any memories. Two days inside of Doctor Constant's house, never having left. There had been a few other ponies that had briefly stopped by in those two days, one of them needing a splint made for one of her front legs, while two others were basically given the recommendation to be careful with a concussion. They didn't engage in conversation with me, almost ignoring my presence outside of the barest of courtesies, a mere 'Welcome' before going back on their way. No pony had shown any familiarity towards me, and I didn't recognize any of them either.

I stepped back into the living room, thirst quenched. The silence of the early night had settled across the entire town, matching the silence inside the house-

Except it didn't. Faintly I could hear a clicking from upstairs what sounded like a short series of clicks. I looked up towards the stairwell, not able to see anything. The clicks came to a stop as I cautiously and quietly walked to the foot of the staircase, still looking up towards the top. NO more clicks, but a soft thud did sound. Driven by curiosity, I swiftly began hoofing it up the steps, staying on the side of the staircase by the wall, keeping the wooden stairs from flexing much under my weight.

Upon reaching the top the sound had changed once more. It sounded like dragging. Carefully I walked towards one of the two doors at the summit of the stairs, light faintly shining out from underneath it. My hoof touched the center of the door, before pushing on the handle. The latch was silent as it pulled back from the socket in the doorframe, and it swung inward a small amount, giving me about two inches of space to look in with.

“Stupid thing.” Soothing Constant muttered to himself, his voice very silent and muffled by the bed he was half-under. Carefully he began pulling himself out from under the frame of the bed, his front legs and head still underneath. Upon finally getting out the doctor stood up on all fours, shaking some dust from his head while holding what looked like a satchel in his mouth. My eyes stayed focused on that as he spat it onto his bed, unhooking it's buckle with his teeth. A bit of manipulating and he pushed out a small metal canteen with a sheen that was heavily dulled in the room's candlelight.

I took a halfstep back from the doorframe. Something didn't match up. Doctor Constant had been getting something out from underneath his bed, and was obviously making too much noise to have been the source of the clicking. I turned to the other door, stepping towards it and gently trying the handle. Unlike the one for Constant's bedroom, this one was held shut, and with my eyes having long adjusted to the darkness after having been up for so long, I could make out a simple keyhole beneath the handle. I leaned near towards the door, placing my right ear against the wood.

“What are you doing up here?” The doctor's voice broke my concentration on the dead silence in the locked room. “I thought you were supposed to be asleep.”

I snapped my head away from the door, turning to face him. “The noises outside woke me up. And then I thought I heard something being dragged upstairs.”

He gave a rough sigh. “That would be me.” He bent his neck behind him, grabbing and untying the satchel I had seen him with off of his body. “Since tomorrow will be your first day working in Our Town, I figured I might as well give you a bit of a gift.” He tossed it over towards me, and instinctively I deflected the satchel itself with my right hoof, the strap that had kept it around his barrel wrapping around my outstretched leg.

“What is this for?” I asked, giving the worn leather a look in the faint candlelight emanating from his room.

“It's a Satchel, so you can keep your copy of Glimmers of Truth near you at all times and keep studying it whenever you wish.” I gave the satchel a small shake, hearing the metal canteen inside jiggling against the worn leather as well. “Also a canteen. You're still new here, it would be no good for you to dehydrate in the middle of working. Most of us are used to being dehydrated while working, but if anypony gives you any grief over a minute break to get some water, tell them it's a prescription from me so you don't faint on the job.”

My gaze turned back to him. “Thanks.”

“Ah, don't thank me. If you weren't up and trying to sneak into old locked rooms, I would have probably forgotten to give it to you in the morning before you left.” Now the Earth Pony took a few strides toward me, giving me a light smack on the side of my body. “Now you should go downstairs and get some rest. You might not be from here, but they aren't going to work you any lighter because of that, so you better get some good sleep in now while you can. After all, sleep is the best medicine!” Another pair of taps on my side sent the message across, and I turned around, satchel still wrapped around my leg and made my way towards the stairs.

Just before laying back down on the operating table I sat the satchel and it's content beside my makeshift bed, laying atop of the plastic-covered book. Tomorrow I'd get a view of the world beyond these four walls, and hopefully start finding answers to the mystery of who I was. But now on top of that there was a new mystery. What was that noise I had initially heard? After pulling the sheet up over my body I blindly stared up towards the ceiling, listening intently for any similar noise. The sound of Doctor Constant shifting around could be faintly heard, but even that faded after a bit, as he was likely trying to go to sleep as well. No other dragging or faint clicking could be heard as silence completely overtook the house once more. Enough silence that sleep eventually became inevitable.

- - - - -

Achievement Unlocked – Awakening – Receive your satchel. It's a gift to hold more gifts with, what could be better then that?

Chapter 2: Tree of Woe

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I filled my lungs with the early morning air. The eternal cloud cover and surrounding mountains made it hard to discern the exact time of day, but it was undoubtedly early morning.

The main street was lined lengthwise on both sides with the ponies of 'Our Town'. When the 'Ministry Mare', who I was told was the leader of the town, had told me that was the village's name I had thought she was joking. In one of my brief talks I had with the doctor yesterday I learned that the town's name really was just that. A name that didn't really fit with what little bits and pieces of the world I could remember.

The names of other places, 'Canterlot', 'Manehattan', 'Baltimare' passed through my mind when thinking a bit more about such locations, but they were just that. Names and the passing realization that they were places that ponies lived in.

“Heads high Everypony!” Glowing Ether shouted down the road, breaking the focus on my fuzzy internal thoughts. “We have a new pony looking to join our ranks, so let's give them the best reasons to partake in friendship with us!” It was only the second time I had seen Ether since when I woke up two days ago. She was able to maintain that same energetic drive that let her command the direction of our conversation the other day but turned it up to 11, carrying her voice down the main road of Our Town so everypony could hear her with almost no issue. While Soothing Constant had told me that Ether would get me pointed in the right direction for the first day of work, nothing had been said about how loud or commanding she was in the early morning.

At the far end of the street was a solitary house that stood out from the others that lined the road, differentiated by two important factors. For starters, it was not parallel with the main road, sitting at a right angle to said houses while its' face looked down the road, and secondly, in front of the face was a large platform of wood and metal, probably the same grainy metal that roofed the houses.

My gaze at the village surrounding me was interrupted, this time by the same noise that had awoken me the last two nights. Though maybe 'noise' was a too harsh of a term to use. After reverberating through the grainy iron and wood that made up the houses the music that was now playing might be terribly distorted, but outside it was considerably smoother to the ears.

Now down in the mountains

And high above the land

Lay Our Town free from envy

For those who understand

All at once, everypony in the streets joined in with medley, everypony holding steady in the orderly line and reciting the words in tune with each other

Great Starlight, now we thank thee!

For now we understand

In true friendship we became

A truly in-tune band!

The entire song seemed very simple to stay in tune with. Maybe it was out of necessity? There wasn't any instruments or other ques to take, so perhaps the incredible simplicity was due to the lack of tools available?

The great Starlight Glimmer

Forsook laws of the land

Shook off her prison markings

And found friendship truly grand!

Great Starlight, now we thank thee!

For now we understand

In true friendship we became

A truly in-tune band!

So we bear her message

That last line was different. Only one voice, Glowing Ether's, was singing out now.

She overcame the land

Nature's marking hold us no more

In Friendship we shall stand!

Her voice rang out way differently from everypony else's. It was as if she had reached down into her lungs to chime out this stanza, coming out incredibly rough and almost grating to the ears without the other ponies to hide her voice.

“Ok everypony all knows their roles! We'll be coming out to see how everything is going today!” The once-organized lines of ponies soon lost their organized rows, dissolving into a large throng of equines.

“As for you.” Mare Ether had made a beeline straight to me, and now she was . “Since it's your first day, let us point you in the direction for today's work.”

- - - - -

The branches of a long dead tree stretched towards the sky, it's warped visage casting a faint shadow atop the lines that had been dug in the ground behind me. The bark had peeled off of the majority of it, leaving the sickly yellow exposed except for a small few pieces of brown bark still wrapped around the base.

“The Tree of Woe. It's old and leafless, and the only one of it's type here in the valley” With that she had pointed out in the direction one of the groups of ponies began heading towards, and sure enough, several minutes of walking lead me to this point.

Mare Ether had neglected though to elaborate on the Tree's decorations, if such a word could even describe the threatening tone it held. Hanging from one of the outstretched branches was a severed measure of rope, frayed at the end. Opposite of the branch with the severed rope was a board hanging from two ropes, an inscription carved into the wood. 'Woe to those who forsake their friendship.'

“Strange Flank!” A hoof smacked me on my thigh and broke me out of my focus. “Get to work. We don't have all year, and this land won't till itself.” The blue unicorn mare continued walking on, already her focus turned to somepony else.

I gave a nod, biting down on the handle of the shovel. This had been the first time I had been caught staring at the tree, and I didn't have much desire to bring extra attention on me by staring off a second time. I put my entire bodyweight behind the tool, and then jammed it into the earth, the muddy soil giving easily to the edges of the shovel's head, not all that much different to how it was slowly squeezing out from my hooves in a very slow sink downwards. Twisting my neck and upper body, I flung the large clump of mud off to the side. Thankfully some other ponies had already started work on these large trenches, at least a good hundred hooves worth had already been dug out, with a few breaks every 20 hooves or so. It did a simple job at giving a point of reference for the trenches.

The next several shovelfuls of mud went by without too much issue, seeing the hole infront of me gradually growing longer and deeper. The biggest problem was keeping any sort of good footing on the mud, which frequently liked to slide out from under me and into the widening holes.

“Ah!” A mare's panicked voice beside me broke my attention from the trench digging, and I looked beside me in time to see the pile of mud sliding into my neighbor's trench. But no mare. Instantly realizing the circumstance at hoof, I leapt out of my forming trench and quickly tried to shovel the mud off the collapsing trench.

That wasn't fast enough. Not only did I not know where she was buried in the shallow mud, every shovelful I tried to spoon off only seemed to slide back in gradually a bit later. Tossing my shovel aside, I just let instinct take over, digging my forehooves into the slippery mud and just pushing it side to side faster then the shovel, and in turn faster then it was sliding back in.

Finally a kick from below. I stepped back a bit and jammed my right hoof into the mud, feeling the solid chest of a pony. Now that I knew where my neighbor was, it was just a mater of freeing their head so they could breath air rather then mud. Kicking and pushing at the mud more, two hooves pushed out of the grime and stretched to the sky. Immediately wrapping my left leg around one of the outstretched ones, I gave a mighty pull and yanked the mare out of the ground.

A small torrent of mud and saliva poured out of her mouth as she broke back into the air, gradually reducing into a bout of spitting and coughing once she took to her own hooves again. “Are you alright?”

The mare gave a short nod, trying to wipe some of the mud away from her eyes and nose with a hoof. “Thanks for that.” She finally spoke once the coughing cleared a bit. “We thought we were a goner.” She began trying to fan her wings out, flapping them aggressively to try and throw mud off the feathers and onto the ground. Once satisfied with the majority of it being removed she turned towards me, a smile coming through her mud-covered face. “Our name's Fair Smiles, what's yours?”

“Well...I don' t know.”

“That's terrible! How else can we discern ourselves without our name?”

That seemed like a silly question. Sure, there were plenty of earth pony males besides myself, but we all had different mane and coat colors, some of us walked differently, and I was the only one who didn't have a equal sign for a cutie mark.

“Strange Flank, what's with the slacking off?” Before I could even respond to Fair Smiles question, I turned to the harsh faced unicorn mare standing a bit away. “We have a quota to hit! This is no time to be trying to get a fling!”

“She fell in-” The crack of a whip sounded above us, the noisemaker held well above both of us in his magic.

“We don't care! If they got themselves in their they can get themselves out! Now get back to work!” Obviously this wasn't going to be a winning argument, and while I could probably take her in a fight just off of my heavier body, it would be unbecoming to start brawling with a member of the town that took me in while I still didn't know who I was.

And with that I hopped out of the half-collapsed trench that nearly became a tomb, and turned my focus once more to my own trench. So I bit back down on my shovel and went back to work to the trench.

“Hey. We do appreciate the help. We don't know if we could have crawled out of that.” Keeping the handle of the tool in my mouth I gave a quick glimpse at the mare beside me, as she fanned her wings out and was trying to shrug off the mud that was caught between her feathers. Now it was her turn to bite her own shovel and remove a bit more mud, so after giving a passing grunt I did the same. “It is possible to talk a bit if we're just willing to do it between shovels.”

Obviously she wanted to hold a conversation, but there wasn't much to talk about for someone who didn't remember anything...except.

I spat my shovel out. “Why the trenches? I thought we were preparing to plant?”

While I grabbed my next shovelful of dirt she brought an answer. “It was something that Starlight thought of. Plant your potatoes deeper in the ground so they can be stronger.”

I stared at for a few seconds, expecting her to laugh at the joke. When she instead began another shovel, I had to ask a simple “What?”

She nodded. “We can make stronger crops if you planted them deeper into the ground, like how we are stronger when surrounded by more friends.”

It sounded ridiculous to me, planting potatoes or anything else a full pony's depth into the ground, especially in such grimy mud. “How did she find that out?”

A groan was muffled from around the shovel handle coupled with a small shrug. “Who knows? It's something in the Glimmers of Truth, but Starlight didn't elaborate on when she found it out.”

Ah yes, the lilac book. While it wasn't terribly large, it was dense with enough repetitive and grand sounding claims and statements that it made it hard to really memorize anything of value. I guess I had just forgotten the bit about the planting thus far.

“I think that it's because we bury this deep also.” She remarked after the two of us got two more shovelfuls moved. “Anytime one of us die, we bury them roughly this deep. Something like-” The pegasus made a motion with her wing as if spinning her outer most feather around a stray thought. “-like the food the potatoes gave you, you give back to them.”

It sounded more like it was just compiling more heartache into planting. “You ever come across corpses then?”

“Mm-hm.” Another shovelful of dirt off to the side. “When that happens, just stick them back in.”

It sort of made sense? In this low plateau, more like a flattened valley in the mountains, there was a limit in space. But it wasn't anywhere close to being that cramped, especially for the maybe 250 ponies living in the valley.

“HEY!” The same mare called out again. “Unless that flank mark is just for yammering on, get back to work! Nopony here wants to starve!” Well, if my cutie-mark stood for talking, it sure wasn't representing quiet and inconspicuous talking.

The earth beneath me then started giving way, but unlike the mare beside me I was able to anticipate the sliding earth before it sucked me in. The mudslide wasn't as dramatically bad as hers either, but that was a significant amount of work undone.

Obviously, trench digging and deep planting wasn't the purpose behind my cutie mark either.

- - - - -

The line of ponies for the end of day meal moved quite quickly, considering that there was about five dozen of them in line. I had lined up about midway in the formation, a few ponies between myself and Fair Smile. After spending the entire morning and afternoon without break on the trenches for the planting I had picked up a lot from conversations, both between myself and Fair Smile, and also from listening into the bits and pieces I could catch from the other ponies.

Wordlessly I stepped closer to the blue mare who stood ontop of the counter, a large drum of lightly steaming stew sitting beside her as she coldly looked down at the line, her horn and the handle of her ladle alight with her signature faint glow as she distributed the food. And unlike while we were all digging trenches, no one in the line was talking, order talking hold while awaiting the daily stew while talks slightly above whisper level began forming amongst the ponies who had already sat at the long table with their food served.

The unicorn mare didn't even blink or move her eyes as I stepped to the head of the shrinking line. She merely dipped her ladle into the iron barrel and served.

“Strange Flank!” Fair Smile's familiar voice broke over the crowd, her wings waving into the air to focus my attention.

'The best thing for somepony with amnesia like yourself is friends.' The doctor's words echoes in my mind. While I don't know if I could call the pegasus a friend yet, she was willing to talk and sit next to me at meal time, which was more then anyone else who just ignored my existence.

“So this is the newbie with no name and no past.” A lanky unicorn remarked beside me as I took a seat opposite of Fair Smiles. “What did you think of the first day in paradise?”

“Fine.” I remarked.

“We're sure they'll be looking forward to the Remarking more then anypony else. You see how slow they were out there?” Sitting opposite of the lanky unicorn and alongside the pegasus mare was a average sized earth pony stallion. “Shit, we bet when they're one of us, it would actually be an improvement for him.” On second look at him, while he was averaged sized, compared to everypony else in the communal kitchen he actually seemed to be relatively large, most of them mimicking the unicorn or pegasus with the thinner body.

“What's the Remarking?”

“You've been reading the Glimmers of Truth, right?” The unicorn smacked the small satchel tied around my midsection. “If you want to really be friends, you've got to be willing to give up and share whats most important to you.”

“What he's talking about is the-” The pegasus leaned forward a bit towards me, but was cut off right afterwards.

“Hey, hey hey. If he's not been told yet, let's not spoil all the fun for him.” The unicorn looked at both of us. “Besides, you better get to eating. While I wouldn't mind having a double ration off of you, Smiles here thinks that you'd be a good addition to the group, and you won't be a very good addition if you start wasting away from hunger after the first day.” I looked back down at the runny soup, a few diced pieces of potatoes floating in a watery broth, not the most appealing meal but way better then nothing.

“You should thank your lucky stars.” The earth pony remarked. “Slight over there would take anything he could normally. And the first few days rations are always the best.”

“Shut up Margarine.” The Unicorn, Slight, and Smiles remarked at the same time. “No need to tell him everything yet.”

“I'm just saying. They'll want to see if your talents are better matched with this, working in the factory, or as a guardspony.”

Factory? They had a factory in this village? I hadn't seen anything of the sort. Every second in conversation seemed to lead to more questions.

“I bet Woe wouldn't bother with cutting your rations down to size off the first day alone though.” Smiles mentioned, setting her now empty bowl down.

“Woe?”

“That mare serving up the food.” She motioned with her head back towards the line, or where it had been, considering that the last pony had just taken their piece. “Woe Tree. They're the one that delegates everything regarding planting, harvesting, and burial.” I also couldn't help but think about how strange it was that the name of the mare was basically the same as the name of the dead tree that stood at the edge of the planting fields.

“Not Mare Ether?”

A chuckle from the two males. “You think Glowing Ether is clever enough to dictate harvests? They just dictate how to keep everything running in paradise.” Slight leaned back in the bench as Margarine took over the train of thought.

“Besides, they've only taken over in the last year. Ministry Mare or not, if Ether made a silly enough mistake, the three of them would change the Ministry Mare position in a hoofbeat.”

“Three of them?”

“You're full of questions aren't you?” He moved his gaze to the mare. “They're your new friend Smiles, why don't you stimulate their mind a bit.”

“There are three...” She trailed off for a moment. “Ok, really five if you count the Town Doctor and Town Educator, but there are three ponies that direct all the work that we do. Woe Tree directs the harvests and public punishment, Tempered Iron runs the factory and prison, and Water Margin runs the guards and water supply. Our Town is split into thirds, with each third working under one of the three for a day before rotating to another one the next day, and the end of each three day week we start the cycle all over again.”

I set the now empty bowl back down onto the table. At the very least this explained what my next few days would look like, but there were still lots of questions. Factory? What would you need to guard out in the mountains with nothing around? And that was just on top of all the other questions regarding me. How did I get here? Who am I? Why did I not remember anything but could recall incredibly niche and bizarre things?

“Well, we'll see you in the factory tomorrow. But I can't wait to see how you'll deal with the hardest day on the fourth.” The earth pony stood up and began trotting away from the table.

“What does he mean the fourth day is the hardest?” At that point surely I'd understand what was expected of me anyways.

“Oh, you think that today was your hardest day?” Not exactly, but the unicorn beside me stood up anyways at that point and flipped his tail in my face. “Nah, this first week will be your best one. Today there was all the excitement and newness. By day four, all the fun wears off. After all-” He walked slowly behind me, hooves clopping off the packed dirt floor. “-Every Earth Pony in the world dreams of digging a fifty thousand foot hole to the Zebra lands.”

“Where do Zebras want to dig to?”

He gave the pegasus mare a brief frown of annoyance before looking at me. “No, the fourth day will be the hardest. Sore from the digging and planting, not to mention eventually the moving of the fertilizer every day. Your lungs full of smoke from the factory. And every joint crying out from the beating that the guards-ponies will give you. Wake up sore, move sore, go to sleep sore. And like all of us, you'll be toiling for paradise each and every day. Digging, smelting, fighting. And each week afterwards gets easier and easier, until you find the day you dislike the least and don't care for anything else.”

And with that, he was done, standing up and trotting away from the table. The communal dining hall was slowly emptying out already, so I took the que and stood up to leave as well.

“Don't let Slight or Margarine get on your nerves too much. They both have their...oddities.” The mare took a brief flight over the table to land beside me. “But Margarine is pretty good at getting enough food for us to share, and Slight...” She turned her head and gazed away from us for a moment. “They're fine enough.”

“Everypony's got to have friends, right?” I half-asked, half-replied.

“Yeah.” She briefly looked down at the ground as we stepped out into the cloud-covered late evening. “Tomorrow we'll be working in the factories under Tempered Iron. He probably won't care that much, but if you'd like we can put in a request to have you moved in with us for the nights. Doctor Constant probably won't want you crashing on his operating room forever”

While I was still very interested, almost incessantly so, about the mysterious conversation that the Doctor was having with seemingly nobody last night, the mare was right. A more long-term place to sleep was a better idea anyways. Though...did I really want to stay here forever?

- - - -

I stared down at the blank pages. Glimmers of Truth laid open on the table I had been sleeping on for the last few days, the last dozen of pages at the back being empty and yellowed on the edges from the passage of time.

“Try writing down anything that comes to mind.” The doctor recommended to me, having left a chunk of graphite on the table after welcoming me back into his home. “Even if it's just the dreams you have overnight.” There had been no dreams while I was sleeping, though I hadn't told him that. And while there was lots of oddities in the village that had taken me in, I doubt that is what he was referring to.

My gaze went out to the window, the clouds taking on their darkest hues as the sun behind them had set for the day. I recalled what I had been told about the sky, sealed up in clouds by the Pegasi after the bombs fell. The sun and moon eternally closed off to us, only the faintest hint of warmth and light from the sun cut through the sky and the darkening of the clouds signaling the night.

I rolled the chunk of graphite between my lips once more, pondering about the strange inclination I had, driven to write about the passing of the clouds above, as if there would be some record of their change. While I had only spent one day outside of Soothing Constant's abode, I had taken keen note of the subtle changes of the clouds as the day passed, and if asked I could compare the subtle differences in the thickness of the clouds and the rain that had fallen yesterday morning.

My eyes closed and I bent down toward the empty pages, graphite coasting across the old pages. Thinking about the desire to record the weather wasn't going to help me any, but maybe writing itself would. Ignoring the taste of the rock in my teeth, I completed a short list of sentences.

Day 1: Thickest cloud cover. Sun light declined sharply after midday, sunset hard to determine.

Day 2: Rain in the early morning, cloud-cover lightened a bit before midday. Sunlight at it's strongest point shortly before sunset.

Day 3: Clouds at their thinnest in the early morning, light gray, gradually darkened as the day went past. Sunlight peaked shortly before midday, sunset hard to determine.

I bit the graphite a bit tighter, pulling back from the book. It was only three days, would that be enough to make a reasonable prediction of tomorrow's weather forecast?

Day 4 prediction: Light Rain in the morning, potential break midday, likely will rain harder in the afternoon or evening.

For 200 years it had just been alternating between cloud cover and rain. It's not like anyone besides me would look inside the book anyway. Though there was still something else that I felt compelled to record, turning a single page back to write on the backside.

Our Town

Cutie marks: Two lines, akin to an equal sign.

Population: 200-250, split into three shifts. No significant interaction between these shifts outside of morning singing and evening meal.

-Glowing Ether (Unicorn, female)

-Woe Tree (Unicorn, female)

-Tempered Iron (Unknown, assumed male)

-Water Margin (Unknown, unknown)

It was both automatic and short, an easy summary of what little I understood about the oddities of the town. But all it really did was just reinforce my lack of knowledge regarding anything, even the village I was currently residing in. Other then Doctor Constant, I had only seen everyone for a single day and while Fair Smiles and her friends were nice, a single day was hardly enough to make any assumptions off of.

I leaned back on the bed, staring up to the ceiling. Silence overtook the building once more. There was no clicking like yesterday. In the business of the day, I had totally forgotten anything regarding the late night noises. Quickly I slung myself off the makeshift bed almost right after having settled onto it, my hooves making just the slightest of noises along the way. Just before stepping out I bit down on the strap of my satchel, tying it around my midsection as I silently trotted toward the stairs.

It wasn't until I had silently made my way back up to the top of the stairs that I had a second thought about what I was doing. Unlike yesterday night, where it was out of active confusion, now I was just snooping around, careless of my hosts' goodwill toward me. Despite this hesitation I pushed on, turning my focus once more toward the locked door. Placing my ear next to the door, I listened carefully for any sound coming within.

There was nothing but dead silence. Once more I turned my focus to the handle and the lock it was matched with, my brow slightly furrowing as I looked at it. Keeping my ear to the door I reached a hoof out and touched the handle, gradually applying pressure. It was a bit sticky, but the real resistance was that the lock was engaged.

At this point I pulled my head back away from the door, looking around in the hallway, using the extremely dim lighting from the cloud-obscured setting sun to try and figure out some way through the door. I couldn't see much, and it was depressingly obvious that the key wasn't exactly laying about on the floor.

Curiosity burned through my mind, as I stood against the wall while climbing back down the stairs, keeping my noise low. I hadn't seen Constant carrying keys, or even heard the shaking or jingling of keys around him either. If he wasn't carrying the keys on him, they were probably somewhere else in the house. Briefly I thought of waiting until a more opportune time and checking in his room whenever he wasn't in it, but considering that Fair Smile had mentioned something about moving in to a different house, it was a bit smarter to assumes that I could snoop in the rest of the house and find something instead of trying to sneak into the house at a later time.

Upon reaching the bottom of the stairs I again cast my glance across the entire house. Like above, there was nothing on the floor beyond the legs of furniture. Frankly, there wasn't much of anything beyond that. I looked at the large painting of the first Ministry Mare on the wall, the encroaching darkness not doing much to offset the faint eeriness of her downward stare. I stepped up towards it and pushed it a bit with my hoof, the entire frame shifting in response around the point it was attached to the wall. Gently I pulled my hoof back as it swung back into place.

A new idea came to mind, leading me to bite down on the frame and gently pull it off the wall. Sure enough, it had been hanging on the wall by use of a single small nail. After sitting the frame down I went ahead and put my underside right against the wall to grab the object. The nail might have been out of reach of my mouth, but I could stretch my hooves out to try and reach it. It was the faintest of touches, but I could wedge the edge of my hoof underneath the head of the nail, gradually exerting pressure to ease it out.

The object of my desire flew out of the wall after several seconds, upsetting my balance and forcing me to brace against the wall. Turning my head I could see the nail bouncing against the floor from the corner of my eye. Quickly I jumped back onto all fours, watching the nail come to a rest a few paces away. I gave a short trot over to the piece of metal and grabbed it in my teeth. The width was perfect for what I had in mind.

Silently trotting back up to the top of the stairs I turned my focus to the lock once more. There was no sound from Soothing Constant's room, so it was reasonable to assume he would still be asleep. Hoping that the trick I was going to pull wouldn't wake him, I slunk up to the door, holding the head of the nail right behind my teeth with the point sticking straight out. It was easy lining the nail up, pressing my tongue against the nail's head while feeling the very edge of it drag against the metal of the lock, pushing the very tip of the nail to the lock.

I gave a slight exhale in preparation, and slammed my entire face forward, hearing the pins inside the lock jump from the force. I matched the jump with a twist from my teeth and a hard pull down with my hoof, the door unlocking and unlatching. It was a risky maneuver, there wasn't any real guarantee that the pins would jump into place from the first push, but it paid off.

The door gave a slight creak as it opened, and I took a look into the darkened room. Right off the bat I could see a few differences compared to Doctor Constant's personal room. For one, on the nightstand besides the bed lacked a candle, though there was the small plate that would hold a candle if one was used. Something that stood out more notably was a short bookshelf to the left of the room, though it was devoid of books except for a copy of Glimmers of Truth sitting beside a smaller book, and the rest of the two shelves were filled with various nothings. A rock here, a canteen not unlike the one I had been gifted, a small bag tied shut with a drawstring.

I threw a hoof to my mouth, deadening a sneeze that rang out. That was the other big difference from this room to any others in this house. The dust that was blowing around just from me stepping in was ridiculous, strongly suggesting that nopony had stepped into this room for months, if not years. It was pretty obvious that the clicking I had heard probably hadn't come from in here, unless it was automatic like from a machine. There was still the possibility that the source of the sound was something that Doctor Constant had been keeping in his room beneath his bed, but I didn't feel confident enough to try sneaking in and looking right underneath the mattress he was sleeping on right now. It would be better to look over what was available then idly ponder on what wasn't available.

Instead I contented myself with looking at the oddities in the room. The shelf itself didn't have much special about it, I found myself tapping the sides lightly, half expecting to find something suspicious. So my focus went to the wall behind it, which appeared to be just the same as the surrounding walls, not suggesting anything unique.

I brought my gaze to the actual contents. This copy of Glimmers of Truth seemed a bit thicker then my own copy, and I disturbed the dust to look inside, flipping it open and going straight to the back. This confirmed my suspicions. There were more pages near the back compared to my own copy, most of these pages having been written in. While it was only the second copy I had been able to get a hooves-on look at, the other one being my own, it seemed like these initially were printed with lots of blank pages in the rear, but they would get pulled out and removed as they were scribbled in. Curiosity naturally overtook me as I looked at the personal scribbles.

We did deep plowing yesterday. Had to be careful not to disturb our plant, so I was a lot slower getting to the fields and back. Whispering to our plant might seem like a silly trick, but we're sure it will be helpful for them longterm.

The iron factory was a mess yesterday.

Wait, what? I raised an eyebrow in confusion. While it had been made abundantly clear to me that guard duty, planting, and working in a factory was something done by all ponies here, it seemed ridiculous to be visiting both the factory and the fields in the same day. Even Woe Tree hadn't done so today, and I didn't see anypony who struck me as potentially being Tempered Iron or Water Margin. Speaking of the former.

That stupid colt, Tempered Iron, thinks that just pouring the waste from the smelting process wherever is fine. They may be right that Glimmer's old book encourages us to overpower nature, but they take it to an extreme and applies to everything beyond cutie marks, and they also think that overpowering nature is the same as destroying it. Hopefully somepony wisens them up with a swift buck to the face. Their remarking was neigh four days ago so they should still be young enough to whip into shape. If we didn't go to the field today there would have been no telling how close we would have been to snapping.

I narrowed my brow a bit more. There was a distinct break to the next bit of written text, which also talked about working in the fields. The entire recounting of doing deep planting and whispering to plants probably took place on the same day that this pony had their experience with a young Tempered Iron. I flipped forward and backwards a few pages, each entry specifying about the plant along with an entry about the job beyond that.

We just worked on close planting today, it was a bit difficult with the size of our plant.

Our day was filled with whispering, we can't wait for the harvest, and we'll continue whispering afterwards as well.

Well, Slight Pique had mentioned that everypony had a preferred job of the three. But it seemed wildly inconsistent what job this pony did alongside the fieldwork. That didn't explain the few days where they put down two different tasks in the field, as if whispering after harvesting made any sense. While I couldn't remember doing anything with plants before, that seemed even more ludicrous then close planting.

Harvesting took place today. Their time was up. We'll have to take special care of our plant now.

What? That was the next-to-last entry, and by far the shortest.

My hoof turned to the last scribbled page. The owner of the book hadn't filled a large amount up, of the 20 or so blank pages about 7 were filled, each with varying accounts. The original owner hadn't spent that much time filling the entries in, though without any proper dating it was hard to tell if these were daily, once every three day, or even less random recordings. Out of curiosity I flipped to the last entry, on a page all by itself.

To our young one

your father and I will always love you, no matter what they tell you. Him and I know that you will grow up and be strong just like him. And I'll never judge you for anything you wish to do. The cave overlooking Our Town will hold the knowledge for you to make your final choice.

Love, Rooted Soil, Roaming Gaze

I blinked before shaking my head to try and ward off another dust-induced sneeze. The writing was in the same style as far as I could tell, so it seemed that all the entries were by the same pony, likely a mare, a mother to be at that. It was a small love letter to her child. More interestingly enough was the crude drawing beside it. A tube that was tapered from back to front, the larger end bowing out like a bubble was sticking out of it. It was like a crude spyglass, or some other short telescope.

Gently I sat the book back down on the dusty shelf, turning my focus to the more unique and smaller second book. Age had yellowed out the pages significantly, and as I pushed it to the ledge with my hoof it felt like the edges of the paperback would crumble from even slight handling. Deciding against trying to actively flip through it, I decided instead to squint hard at the cover in the darkness. Your New Foal and You. While it was tempting to flip through it and try and find some other written notes, my main goal was finding the source of last night's clicking, and it plainly wasn't going to be in the thin old booklet.

Stepping away from the bookshelf I looked around the room again. There might have been a possibility that the clicking was automated, either mechanically, magically, or through a natural system like water dripping from the edge of a roof. There was nothing standing out in the open, so I tapped against the walls faintly with my hooves. The thought of false walls and hidden compartments came to mind, but the sounds were pretty consistent with the house's layout and deterred those thoughts.

I sighed. “Clicking?” I silently spoke out loud to myself. “What would make clicking at night?” I took a look underneath the bed, dusty but devoid of objects. Undeterred I reached out with my right forehoof and tapping against the ground for the possibility of a false floor.

Bingo. It was faint, but I could feel two wooden boards sliding about independent from the rest of the floor. After giving the half-open door and the darkened hallway to verify that none of the wall-checking had awoken Constant and brought him into the hall, I pushed my upper body beneath the narrow bed. The edges of my hooves struggled to get proper traction against the loose wood, and the cramped space didn't make it any easier. But my patience outlasted the challenge and soon the boards were angled up. I fished my other hoof inside, feeling around for anything.

A large rock and what felt like a metal sphere were all that greeted me. The rock was the easiest to move out, but as I rolled it out I could faintly feel something wrapped around it. I bit down and pulled it into the slightly-less-dark room itself, fighting to hold back another series of sneezes after disturbing so much dust. It was a band, some sort of rubber that was showing a significant amount of wear, keeping a piece of paper attached. Biting down on the slip, I pulled it out, only to be smacked in the nose as the band snapped.

I'll always be looking down on you.

This writing wasn't the same as what was in the personalized Glimmers of Truth. It was a bit more stylized with larger loops, not to mention the two dots and curved line meant to represent a smiley face at the end. Cute, but it was sure a strange to place this in a hidden floor compartment. I went ahead and pushed the stone, snapped rubber band, and the paper back into the hole, now attempting to fish the metal sphere out.

It rolled out, the item not quite sphere shaped, but more apple. At the top of the metallic apple was a metal pin slotted sideways into a very short and stout metal cylinder, the angle of the pin keeping the cylinder from sliding into the apple.

Grenade. The name and use for the object easily shifted into my mind, and I gently balanced it in my hoof before sliding it into my pack. While I hadn't encountered anything that might be a threat thus far, having the weapon available instinctively seemed better then being unarmed in an area I didn't know.

Satisfied with the looting, I pushed the wooden boards back over the hold, pushing myself out from under the bed afterwards and looking around once more. There wasn't anything else that beckoned my interest in the room, so I slunk back towards the door, hooking my hoof on the handle and closing it shut behind me.

The nail was still sitting inside the door's lock. While it was tempting to take it with me and try using it if I came across any other doorlocks that could take a rough shove to force open, the nail was originally holding up the painting downstairs, and I had no real interest in leaving any evidence of my snooping around. I bit down on the head, gradually pulling it out and ignoring the faint sounds of metal grinding on metal inside. Once it was fully out, I spat it out onto my right hoof, looking down on the small implement I had used.

It was bent. I put it back in my mouth once more as I silently crept back down the stairs, now starting to hold a bit of concern. It was going to be hard enough to get the nail back into the hole, requiring a level of hoof dexterity that would be a bit extreme.

Once back on the ground floor, I took a look at both the picture frame leaning against the wall of the staircase, and the wall that it had came off of. In the black of night it was almost impossible to see where the nail had originally came from, and now I'd have to struggle just to get it back in to hide the evidence of my snooping.

Like earlier, I got up on my rear legs, leaning my body against the wall, using the edge of my hooves to try and feel out where the original hole for the nail was. All I could feel was old wood, and I could feel the edges of splinters against the frog of my hooves. The original nail hole, while obviously somewhere on the wall, was out of my ability to find.

Coming back onto all fours, I looked at the frame once more, barely standing out from the darkness the room was engulfed in. Flailing against the wall looking for a hole that might be out of reach wasn't ideal or practical, but returning the picture frame with it's night-shrouded gaze was pretty important.

Keeping the metal nail between my teeth, I jumped back up against the wall, settling on a different idea. It would be risky, but it would be significantly easier to just make a new hole for the nail, ideally in a way that wouldn't make much noise, such as wedging it between two of the planks. This took no time at all, and at the upper limits of my reach I could feel just enough of a gap that it could fit in, but not so much that the nail would slide out easily of it's own accord.

Carefully I took the nail between my hooves, and forced my upper body weight against it, forcing it into the desired space. After that it was just a matter of hooking the picture back up, and stepping back to ensure it wasn't going to fall off on it's own. It seemed to be slightly off-angle due to the bent nail, but the shift surely wouldn't be noticeable for Soothing Constant.

Right?

- - - - -

Achievement Unlocked – The Bonds that Break Us – Have your first interaction with either Slight Pique or Fair Smiles. This could be the start of a great friendship, or even more!

Achievement Unlocked – Binding on Three – Learn how to Kamikaze unlock. To prove it's not a fluke, maybe you should do it again?

Chapter 3: Circles within Circles

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Slight Pique had not been joking when talking about lungs being full of smoke in the factory. It was cloying and hard to breath just for me, not to mention for the

Holding the hot pipe in my mouth, I gradually stepped back, trying to maintain balance so the near-molten metal wouldn't spill out of the edge of the large cylinder. The smoke made it hard to see the giant cylinder, and in response I tightened my bite on the metal.

“Don't let that spill Strange Flank, or it will be YOUR body stoking the fires!”

Unlike Woe Tree, Tempered Iron was quite active and talkative while running the Iron factory. I don't think a single second went by without him shouting something at somepony. Of course, talking back in anyway beyond a basic confirmation was tantamount to a revolt, and I had already seen him personally come down and brutally assault several ponies that weren't pulling chains or moving carts fast enough.

A loud smack sounded off to the side and behind me, followed by the distinct sound of a pony falling to the ground. “We know that you eat like your first name is your entire purpose, Margaraine Oil, but if that cart of scrap doesn't get moved faster, we will make your last name your entire purpose!” The large pony that I had shared a meal with yesterday evening might have had a good size advantage on me and most of the other ponies in Our Town. But he, along with Slight Pique and Fair Smile, weren't getting the cart moving very well, and despite all the other noise around, I could hear the rusted-shut wheels on the car behind me grinding on the old rails, giving them even more resistance trying to move it.

“Coming down!” I turned my gaze back up, looking at the platform that was erected just above the giant vat of molten metal. One of the other carts with the scrap metal had made their way to the top of the zig-zagging ramps, the bottom of the cart centered at a whole in the middle of the platform. While it was too distant for me to hear the door open, I could see the scrap now start to fall down the hole, and into the large vat. Each splat of metal impacting the molten slop was accompanied with a stronger tug. Before long my hooves started sliding over the scuffed floor, the toe on each one grinding over the faint ridges.

“Foals, help the strange flank before he kills us all with molten slop!” That was the voice of Tempered Iron, standing right behind me. 'why don't you lend a hoof yourself?' I briefly wondered, his stature easily bellied my own and would have been much appreciated.

My clinched eyes opened as a shadow passed over it. An grey equal sign surrounded by off-white fur filled my vision, and looking forward I could see Fair Smiles folding her wings as she took to the ground right infront of me, mouth biting down on the pipe as well. Faintly I could hear the sound of magic behind me, a slight tug behind helping with the grip. My hooves stopped gliding over the floor, the three of us together getting control of the vat of melted and melting metal, countering the offset balance the new addition had given it.

“Never before have we seen such a waste of a body. Taking three ponies to do a two pony job.” Tempered Iron shuffled infront of us, his grey coat and saddle covered with the ash and dust that cloyed at the air throughout the factory. “We're sure that Water Margin will love you. They always seems to favor the useless ones.” As he walked by me my gaze caught on the bizarre spear that he carried with him. On the right side of his saddle a pair of hooks held a massive spear, nearly as long as his entire body, with the mouthgrip stationed squarely in the center as the ends of the spear twisted around the mouthgrip.

He turned away from us. “Shining Hoof, get that ass down here and pick up their slack with moving the carts. If we're to finish by next week we will not afford any more delays!”

“But sir, if we step aside who's going to keep the fire circle running?”

“We didn't ask for lip.” The large grey stallion loudly and quickly moved right up toward the vat, sticking hid head mere inches from the edge of the base of the large container and all it's liquid metal contents inside. “You think that because there's a newcomer that mouthing off is acceptable?”

“No sir, w-we.” With a quick motion the factory's overseer pulled the strange spear off of the hooks on the side of his saddle, and while his back may have been to us we could loudly hear the smack of metal on flesh and the bone beneath, twice over.

“Now, get on that cart before Margarine decides to let it roll back down the ramp!” The clopping of hooves on the scuffed metal could be heard as one of the ponies beneath the large vat who was fanning the large furnace beneath it took off, eager to obey the commands after the smarting.

Finally Slight Pique showed up behind us, audible from the magical hum from his horn matching the same grabbing the rope behind me. “You'd better thank your lucky stars that it's your first day.” He whispered behind my ear before chomping his own teeth on the rope, trying to further help us.

- - - - -

“Any excuse he can get to beat on us, he'll do it. I think he gets off to pain or something like that.” The unicorn remarked, wiping his brow. It had been Slight Pique's idea to sneak out of the factory and it's toxic air, and we all agreed.

Our conversation had naturally turned to the topic of Tempered Iron, the pony that ran the smelting factory. At roughly midday a pegasus armed with a old rifle flew into the factory and insisted that his presence was requested urgently by Glowing Ether, and without hesitation he left. The reaction from those of us working in the factory was to ignore it and keep on going...for a few moments.

The four of us, Pique, Margarine, Smile, and I, stood outside the factory on a pile of long-settled rocks and debris from a old landslide, its' wreckage having come to rest between the village and the factory, though much, much closer to the factory then the village. Everything was damp from a midmorning rain, “You know that the only reason they didn't decide to start smacking you with that baton was probably because either the doc or Mare Ether specifically asked to spare you until they figured out what your talent is.” The mare took a small sip of water from her flask. “It might not be a problem for some-pony like Magarine or you, but the bruises don't fade very fast.”

“By the way, Margarine, why didn't you lend us a hoof back there?” Pique directed his question with a bit of ire in his mouth.

“Somepony had to make sure the cart didn't roll back down.”

“Whorse-shit.” The unicorn spat on the ground. “Rusty as they may be, all of those carts have breaks on them.”

The earth pony took offense to this for whatever reason, raising to all four hooves and looking straight down at Pique. “Just because you have the magic, doesn't mean that you make my choices. Don't forget who makes sure you get fed.”

I tuned the duo's little verbal spat out, my gaze turning to the mountains around us. Movement out of the corner of my eyes showcased Fair Smile shrugging with her wings, using the momentum to pick her into the air and closing the gap between us.

“Do you think there's any truth to the old rumors?” I looked at the pegasus as she took a seat next to me and raised an eyebrow, not familiar with the rumors and hoping she would elaborate. “That there is a hidden building with gold and riches underneath this pile?” The pegasus asked, reaching down and tapping one of her forehooves on the stones beneath us, the rock sliding a bit from the touch.

I gave a long and hard look down at the pile of rubble. “Would have to be a small building.” I smacked my hoof against one of the loose rocks. “But no, why would anypony bother leaving a building with riches buried here?”

She shrugged again. “It's a fun little rumor though. Imagine, moving a few stones and finding enough goodies to make everypony's lives better.” The smile on her face matched her namesake, deeply taken by the idea of riches. “Do you think they could melt gold down in the factory and mix it with iron, something to give it a nice shiny sheen?”

I knew that I wasn't an iron worker, my struggles this morning alone proved that. “Doesn't gold have a different melting point then iron?”

She gave a bit of a frown. “Does it? How would that hurt it?”

“I think if you tried mixing two melted metals together, but they hardened at different temperatures, then they wouldn't stay mixed as they would cool off.” Fair Smile gave a nod, pondering what I said for a moment.

“Maybe there would be something else good in here?”

She closed her wings and landed rear first on the stone she had earlier tapped, only for it to shift even more under her weight. I turned to look right at her as the entire stone beneath her continued to shift out from under her weight. She threw her front legs up and opened her wings to catch the fall, and instinctively I reached out and grabbed her hooves with my own.

Yanking her away from the hole she had formed, the sound of old mountain debris falling down a hole caught the attention of the other two. Pulling Fair Smile away from the hole she took back to the air, turning around and looking down at the mess she made.

The entire debris pile didn't collapse, it was just a hole, one that tunneled into the mound of debris at a steep angle. It had been expertly covered up by several loose stones and smaller boulders, ones that the pegasus had just happened to upset. Most notably though, it had plainly been used before. Dirt and small pebbles littered the whole path downwards, and hoofprints could be seen faintly imprinted near the entry, making it clear that somepony had been using this before.

All four of us exchanged looks. On one hoof, there was no knowing how soon it would be until Tempered Iron would return. On the other hoof, none of us had any clue what might lie beneath.

“I'm not going to fit in there.” Margarine cut in, siting back down and shaking his head. He made a good point. He was the largest of us by a small margin compared to me, but while I was sure I could slide through the tight fit, it wasn't exactly going to be easy.

“How about you stay out here and keep watch. If we find anything, we'll try and bring it out.” Slight Pique remarked, tapping the large earth pony on the shoulder. Fair Smile floated over to him and tapped him on the other shoulder. Fair Smile wrapped her forelegs around his other shoulder and gave him similar thanks.

I leaned down and looked into the hole, before turning and facing Pique. “I'll go down first. If I get caught, try and yank me back out.” The unicorn nodded, and I stepped forward to the hole, placing my hooves on the loose dirt, before sliding onto my stomach and beginning to crawl forwards. The tunnel narrowed and widened almost as random, the hole having been dug in for quick access rather then being well constructed for use.

The light faded out quickly with my body obscuring the entry behind me. After crawling on my belly for what only seemed like a minute, the texture of the rocks beneath me sharply changed, feeling much less natural and more manufactured, similar to the iron sheets that made up parts of the houses in the village. The roof of the tunnel began to open up as well, and suddenly I found myself able to stand on all fours on a sheet of iron, looking up to a similar iron sheet about twice my height above my head.

“Strange Flank, what did you find down there?”

I spun around and looked back at the rocky tunnel which bored right through a corner between two walls and the floor of this room. “It's open, like a large room!” Right afterwards I broke into a loud sneeze, the dust in the room being upset by my presence.

A few seconds later both Strange Pique and Fair Smile popped out the hole similarly, Pique lighting up his horn to illuminate the way through and the room around us. Smile flapped her wings nervously after crawling the rest of the way through the hole, the gusts from it kicking up more the enough dust to send all three of us into a sneezing fit.

“Sorry-ACHOO-sorry about that.” The pegasus buried her muzzle in one of her wings, trying to deal with some of the excess dust she had kicked up.

“Just...just don't do it again!” The unicorn remarked, trying to keep a sneeze held back. He kept the light from his horn on, giving us a few feet radius of illumination. “What is this place?”

I could make out a table, two chairs with one knocked over, and what looked like a wooden monstrosity next to the table, just outside of perfect lighting. Pique took a few steps toward the table as the three of us looked at the contents spread out on it. A small plate with a mouth handle held a pile of wax that had been melted and reformed multiple times over, obviously used as a candle for when other ponies had been down here. Papers were spread out on the table, likely having been in a stack at some point before being spread out among the floor of the room. There was also a pair of lilac plastic bindings matching the ones that covered the 'Glimmers of Truth' that we each had.

“This must be where the Glimmers books are printed.” Fair Smiles remarked, tapping the plastic bindings. “We guess that when a new book is needed, they send one of Our Town's leaders down here to get another one done.”

The light dimmed a small amount as Pique levitated up a book that was on the far edge of the table. “I don't think so, or at least, not recently.” He levitated the book a bit closer towards us, and instantly I noticed something off. The size, thickness from cover to cover in particular, didn't seem right. Quickly I reached into my Satchel and bit down on my own copy of 'Glimmers', yanking it out for comparison.

My copy was about a solid inch thinner, cover to cover. The copy in the room with us was stuffed full to the point that the binding almost looked like it was going to burst from the amount of paper stuffed in the binding.

“It's bigger!?” Fair smile quickly flipped the thicker book open after Pique set it down, nosing her way through the pages as quickly as she could and scanning through the pages, the pegasus obviously much more familiar with the book's writing then my own. “It's the same...” She trailed off though, quickly giving up even scanning just to get to the final quarter of the book where the extra pages would probably be stored. Indeed, just like our own books, the entire back quarter was just crammed with empty pages.

Or well, what should have been empty pages. There was a distinct difference between ink that had been pressed into the pages mechanically, and pages filled with hoofwritten ink, later followed by graphite writing similar to what I had been filing the back of my book with.

“Pique?” He gave me a look, and I motioned my head toward the candle-plate. He quickly picked up on it, and with a bit of effort ignited a small fire on the wax, giving us a second source of illumination.

“We want to read it!” Smile remarked, putting her forehooves down on the table to open it up to the start of the hoof-written ink.

I bit down on the handle of the relit candle plate, the wax-fed flame infront of my eyes blinding me a bit, but I wasn't trying to use it to guide my way, being more interested in finding other things in the room we were in. I stepped over toward the large wooden machine, the light giving me a better sense for it's purpose.

A large wooden frame nearly as tall as the room held a metallic plate just above head height, a foot of open air between the metal plate and a wooden tray beneath, still holding a few sheets of paper on it. I sat the wax flame on the floor next to the machine, angling my head to get a look at the plate. Confirming my suspicions, I could see the bottom of the plate lined with square holes, each one holding a metal block with raised letters and symbols on it. This was the printing press that the books were surely made with, a bit rudimentary but it would explain how everypony would have one.

“Apparently Glimmers of Truth never even got finished!” Fair Smile spoke up loud enough for me to hear. “Ministry Mare Starlight died before it even got finished, and her three closest advisers weren't willing to finish it.”

I picked the wax candle up again and began walking around, trying to find anything else in the room. Piece of shattered glass from broken windows reflected the light from both my candle and Pique's horn, and I could see another hole in one of the other corners of the room, much too small for a pony but good enough to have let old debris through. Across the way, on a more distant wall was a pair of doors, which instantly caught my attention as I moved toward them.

“With Starlight's passing, most everypony in the village has been in a state of mourning for the last two days.” Slight Pique had raised his voice several octaves while reading from the book. “Cruel or not, she did lead Our Town for 80 years, and compared to that our arrival in the last two years is but a drop in the bucket. If Double Diamond hadn't passed last winter and Sugar Belle wasn't brought up to his place, I don't think we would have been allowed to replicate her spell.”

One of the doors lacked a handle, merely holding a keyhole, while the other door held just the outstretched handle. I raised up with my hoof and tried to turn the old handle to open it, but it refused to do more then slightly jiggle, the lock still engaged. The keyhole glared back at me, mocking me. For a brief moment I regretted hanging Starlight Glimmer's portrait back up and not keeping the nail for a circumstance like this.

“We're not even sure if we want to stay here. The ponies of this village are kind, but except for Sugar Belle and a few other older ponies, nopony has shown any interest in moving beyond Starlight's teachings. If I'm going to become a leader, it would be better to do it over ponies more receptive to us, rather then looking for a replacement.” He stopped for a moment. “It's signed 'SS'. We guess SS took over after Mare Glimmer passed, but we were never taught about any of the ministry mares after her, just that it's a long unbroken line.”

Fair Smile had evidently lost some interest in the book and fluttered over next to me, looking at the door that the candle illuminated. I turned to her with a raised eyebrow. “Do you know where this goes?”

“If we had to guess, it might be a back entrance to Our Town, maybe to the Ministry Mare's house. Or maybe it's a backway to the factory, since we're so close to it?” The pegasus landed beside me, reaching out with a hoof and touching the door about a foot away from the handle. “Maybe it's got the treasures we talked about in there?”

I merely nodded, not willing or able to upset her dreams of vague and grand treasures being hidden. I went ahead and walked closer to the center of the room to meet back up with Slight Pique as he was putting the book back down.

“This explains a lot.” The unicorn commented. “There's only a set number of books that have been around, and they were made with that printing press.” He pointed a hoof at the wooden contraption. “But either they ran out of ink, paper, or even binding. So they just keep reusing the same book as ponies die and new ones are born. The most interesting part though, is how apparently Glimmers of Truth was made under duress. Whoever SS was, they didn't support printing of Starlight Glimmer's personal project, SS was more interested in shifting the direction of the town, but the printing was done behind the back of the new town leaders.”

He stopped abruptly, looking down at the floor at his feet. “Well, hello there beautiful...” He brightened the glow from his horn, the extra illumination letting us also see what caught his eye. A large arc of dust-covered faded red wax covered the floor infront of his hooves, and our gazes all traced the arc around into a complete circle, at least the width of three ponies lined nose to dock. Within it were a series of other red wax that had been formed into smaller circles, lines, and strange shapes.

“What?” I asked, the intricate pattern on the floor not looking like anything I had seen in the last few weeks. Fair Smiles beside me flapped a bit higher above the ground, giving herself a better look at the entire pattern.

“It's a spell matrix!” Slight Pique remarked with glee, tapdancing with exciting on the edges of his hooves as he deftly avoided the wax lines and curves. “They told us a bit about this in school. Unicorns would sometimes make giant glyphs like this based off of the old language in Unicornia before the tribes reunified and-” His joy abruptly died off, his entire expression turning dour as he settled on all four and hung his head. “-and, and it was really old and stuff.”

I stepped alongside him, putting my left hoof on his shoulder. “No, you can go on. What else was there?”

He looked back at me and sighed. “If...if we remember right, all the lines and old letters perform different magics when arranged by degrees in the first number in semiprime groups. 33, 85, 93...” His brow furrowed as if trying to fight through something. “121? Or 119?” He sat down on his hunches, looking more defeated and depressed then even before, the light from his horn dimming out a bit. “It doesn't matter. Unicorns don't even mess with the stuff nowdays. The only ones that would care would be old dead canterlot unicorns from before the war.” He gave a deep sigh. “It's just easier to use levitation for everything anyway. The only one we use here keeps the fire in the factory running.”

Before I could reply with anything, Margarine made his presence known again from above. “Iron's coming back, he's just stepped out from the village!” Was the shout from the tunnel. The three of us all exchanged glances, and quickly settled on getting Fair Smiles out first, while I went ahead and blew out the wax candle and Pique put the large book back on the corner of the table. While the amount of dust made it hard to discern how long it had been since somepony else had been down here, it was better to err on the side of caution afterall.

- - - - -

“If you don't work, you won't be eating!” The large stallion shouted at the mare, laying on the floor and trying to nurse her injured hoof. The small yellow mare nodded, trying to bring herself back onto all fours, only to yip in pain when placing her right hoof on the ground, obviously favoring that leg from the burn she had just taken.

I turned my focus back to the large sheet of still hot metal. We had poured the giant pot of molten metal into a giant rectangular mold that was four by eight feet. Fair Smile flew up next to me, holding a large chunk of graphite, and she begin trying to put down a line on the metal. It was way harder then it looks, because while the metal had solidified it was still hot enough to harm any pony that might end up touching it. I could see Smile wincing, the graphite not leaving very visible markings without major

“Stand aside Strange Flank!” Pique shouted next to me, his horn lighting up. “Time to see how it's really done!” He brought his horn down within mere inches of the massive chunk of metal, right above the line that our pegasus friend had put down. It lit up, and instinctively I looked away, averting my eyes from the extreme brightness that emanated from it.

It only lasted for a few seconds though. Carefully, I turned my gaze back to Slight Pique, who took a few steps back, looking woozy as a small puff of smoke rose from his horn. Noticing my gaze, he flashed a grin at me, but it was impossible to mask how exhausted he looked. The metal itself had a small six inch cut in it, the cut red hot and slighting smoking while red as well, and the cut also included a straight line cut through the rectangular mold.

“Are you ok?” I asked, as Pique stumbled a few feet away. I nearly bumped into another unicorn as he walked up to take Pique's place, leaning down and firing up another blast of magic.

“Of course.” He choked out, carefully massaging the base of his horn. “Magical Burnout, nothing too terrible as long as we don't try to lift anything for the next day.”

I looked behind at the unicorn mare as she also stepped back, looking just as woozy as the cut now extended nearly a foot into the metal. “Why?” The question was more to myself then at Pique, but he answered anyway.

“If we don't rush to cut into the metal now, it will take way more magic to separate it when it's properly cooled off.” He took a seat, still massaging his skull with a hoof.

“But you damaged the mold already!”

He chuckled, watching another pony begin to exhaust their magic in a burst of energy to separate a smaller piece of metal from the larger piece of metal. “The mold is easy enough to remake. Tomorrow's shift will come in, and they'll pour into a mold that will replace the bit that gets cut off.”

I stared at him blankly for several moments. “Why not use a smaller mold?”

He shrugged. “Try suggesting that to Iron without getting smacked.”

A hoof tapped me on the shoulder, and I turned to see Margarine standing next to me. “Grab it.” He remarked, pointing to the chunk of rectangular metal that was nearly cut out. Leaving the unicorn on the side to recover from his burnout, I trotted up to the large piece just as it clanged on the floor. Another pegasus was trying to leave another pair of cutout line on what remained of the large slab of metal, constantly going back over it as the graphite marks weren't showing up well on the already dark metal.

It was still incredibly hot to the touch as myself, and two other earth ponies began to bite down and pick up the massive hunk of metal. Thankfully, it wasn't so hot as to immediately burn my mouth upon touch, and I carefully but quickly heaved it onto Margarine's back. Once on, Fair Smile and flew over to one side of the metal rectangle as another pegasus did the same, keeping it balanced on his back. Carefully, the trio walked off to the side, before setting the metal sheet against a wall.

“A door?” I asked myself, watching as one more unicorn came up and blasted a hole near the center of one of the longer sides. The shape made so much sense now. “We spent all day working on a metal door?” I looked at Pique, who gave a nod and a smile.

“Strange Flank!” Iron's shout caught my attention. “You carry this one.” The head pony of the factory let half of a smile cover his face. Maybe Pique was right and I wasn't allowed to be beaten yet...but Iron was sure going to try and make me hurt in some way. The first heavy door needed help from two other ponies to move, and Margarine was significantly larger then I was.

Still, there wasn't anyway around it. The two earth ponies, and now even Pique, all came over and began raising the second heavy door onto my back. Taking a deep breath, I spread my stance out as much as I could without hurting myself. The weight dropped on me, and I could feel my legs spreading out beyond my control, too afraid to try and move my legs to stop the slide, for fear of collapsing.

The weight abated...slightly. I could faintly hear a hum of magic, and I took the risk and adjusted my hooves on the ground, turning my head to look at the wall the first door had been placed against.

“Maybe you're stronger then you look.” Iron called out in the distance. If he was dissapointed, he did a good job hiding it. Though that didn't compare to Pique. I could barely see him standing beside the door, his horn alight with a faint glow. 'So much for magical burnout.' I thought to myself, but I gave him a small smile, appreciating the helping hoof as two pegasi came over and helped me move the chunk of iron across the room, prepping it to have a door knob and hinges added.

- - - - -

Brave ponies, they came

To stay away from war

And here they followed Starlight,

She told them don't abhor

The evening song and dance was similar to what it had been yesterday. That, and the lyrics of the song was a bit different from what it had been on the mornings. But the cadance and beat were the same, incredibly easy to pick up and follow.

Great Starlight, now we thank thee!

For now we understand

In true friendship we became

A truly in-tune band!

It would inevitably take time to learn the words though. It maintained the same chorus as the song we had sang yesterday morning and last night, but everything else was just swapped around in the very repetitive beat. But with that final shout of the chorus, this morning's group song had come to a close.

“Strange Flank.” Tempered Iron's voice bellowed out at me, as the large earth pony looked down at me with an extremely neutral face. “Consider this your lucky day.” He pointed a hoof to a house facing the main road, about halfway down the line on the right side. “The ponies in there specifically requested for you to move in with them.”

“Aren't we the special pony, making friends fast!” Glowing Ether walked up just behind him with a big smile of her own. “We can't remember the last time some ponies asked so enthusiastically about having new ones move in with them!” She leaned her head toward my own, closing the gap between us a bit more then I felt comfortable with. “Don't be shy now! Like Starlight Glimmer wrote, 'The Bonds of Friendship cannot but remove the differences between friends'.”

I blinked blindly, not sure how to take the quote. I tried to recall something else I remembered from the book as to respond. “ 'Don't be Contrarian or Barbarian, with friends be synonium.' “

The two ponies looked at eachother with a hint of confusion, then back at me. “Well, it's good to see that you're coming along well with your studies.” The unicorn hooked her left foreleg around the back of my neck and gently turned me toward the direction of what would be my new residence. “But maybe speaking just in quotes from Mare Glimmer isn't for you.” She gave me a little shove, signifying the end of our conversation and blatantly trying to get me to move in with my two-day long acquaintances.

Upon entering, I could see that the house of my new acquaintances wasn't laid out much differently then that of the Doctor's adobe. A peek up the stairs showcased that there wasn't any difference with the positioning of the upstairs bedrooms, but on the bottom floor there was a pair of bedrooms taking up the space that operating room and about a third of the living room had initially been. Even the large picture of the first Ministry Mare glared down at me here the same way it had in the other home I had been in thus far.

“Good to see you join us Strange Flank!” Slight Pique remarked from atop the staircase, casually walking down towards me. “So Smile's request to have you move in with us must have been accepted.”

I merely gave a nod in response. “Mare Ether was pretty enthusiastic about me moving in with you three.”

“You'll have to take the second bedroom down here beside Margarine's.” The unicorn stated, pointing to one of the two lower bedroom doors. I shrugged, not caring much. Though there was something on my mind.

“Earlier, in the factory. You said that cutting the doors out would give you magical burnout? But afterwards-”

“We saved your soft flank from getting crushed?” He grinned with confidence, puffing out his chest. “Yep, that was us. Did you really think we'd burn ourselves out for a door?” He shakes his head. “They give us the best metalwork in Equestria, and we give them all of our magic. Fair trade!”

“If you get caught?”

“Caught what, using magic?” He smirks, letting a faint light coat the end of his horn before extinguishing it. “Tell a lie long enough and everypony'll think it's the truth. We've had over a hundred years to be called out on it.”

So not only was the process for making metal materials incredibly obtuse, nopony involved actually cared enough to make sure it was done efficiently. And tomorrow the next shift of ponies would come in and repeat the unbelievably slow process. And so on. For years and years.

“You better get well rested. Tomorrow is the day of fun, half a day of physical training and another half hoofing around the mountaintops. If you aren't sore after that, we don't know what will make you so.” He remarked, giving me a smile while raising an eyebrow.

I walked over and pushed open the referred door, looking in at the simple contents. A thin sheet covered a mattress that had been slapped ontop of a small array of wood. Beside it was a simple single-drawer nightstand, one that I quickly took advantage of by untying the strap that held my satchel on it, setting it ontop of the wooden piece. The only other thing of note was the window.

“Sleep well.” Pique remarked, having followed me to the doorway. But rather then leaving, the blue unicorn took a step closer to me, standing right to my right side, mouth next to my ear. “I'm in the upstairs room at the end of the hall. You might want to consider joining me for studying tonight, instead of tomorrow when you can't feel your hips.”

As he turned around I whipped my head to look at him. He had all but invited me for a night of intimacy. For a pony I had barely even known for two days, that was an extremely bold offer. The unicorn hiked his tail high as he magically shut the door behind him.

Left alone in my new room for a moment, I sighed aloud. I didn't have any interest in pursuing any physical intimacy today, though it was worth maybe going upstairs and asking him about his excitement and breakdown earlier in the buried room.

Setting aside any thoughts about the earlier discoveries, I turned around and looked at my bed, crouching down and looking beneath it as I remembered the upstairs bedrooms in the doctor's house, I was curious to see if there were any similar hidden compartments with items inside. Dragging my hoof along the old wooden floor, I could faintly trace the edge of two boards that would slide with just a bit of pressure. Mimicking what I had done the prior night, I lifted the wood up to reveal the hidden compartment. However, unlike last night's discoveries, this was completely empty except for dust that stuck to my hoof.

With a disappointed sigh I placed the boards back over the hole. Still, it was nice to know that I had my own hiding hole, in case there was some contraband I came across. After coming back to all fours I gave thought to placing the grenade I had grabbed last night in the hole, but something inside me didn't like the idea of being left without some sort of weapon to protect myself. Likely some thought leftover from before I lost my memory.

I turned and looked at my cutie-mark once more. Random thoughts and ideas came to mind every now and again, personal ideas to live by rather then any names or places. It wasn't really enough to add to the writings I had been putting down in the book's blank pages. However, there was something worth writing down...

I sat down on the bed, setting the book one the nightstand beside me. After having spent two days in the village, I had a much better idea for out the village was laid out, including the newly found hidden room beneath the rockslide. After it was opened to a blank page near the back, I bit down out the graphite from my satchel, using it to form lines and angles that outlined the village and it's layout in entirety.

It took several minutes, but the relative simplicity made it easy to complete. I couldn't help but give a slight chuckle at noticing how the rows of houses formed an equal sign reminiscent of the same cutie-marks everyone in the town shared. With the map completed, I went ahead and flipped back a page to the other project I had started up yesterday, only to be interrupted by a knock at my bedroom door.

Coming back onto all fours, I trotted over to the door, cracking it open to see Fair Smiles standing there, with a faint smile and awkwardly rubbing her left foreleg with her right hoof. “Hi-” She hesitantly choked out. “We were curious if you wanted to talk a bit, you know, away from everypony else at the communal dinner.”

For a moment I gave thought to Slight Pique who had not-so-subtly invited me to his room as well, weighing the option to spend a night with him or spend it talking with the pegasus now infront of my door. Eventually, I settled on the mare in front of me, opening the door the rest of the way and letting her step in.

“Whatcha writing?” She asked, motioning toward the open book still sitting on the nightstand.

I sat the pen down, pulling back from the blank pages in the back of the plastic-bound book. “The Doctor suggested writing down anything that came to mind. There's not been much, but I've wanted to write down the changes in the weather.”

She gave a snort, enough to turn my attention from the book to her. “What weather changes? It's always cloudy or rainy out here.”

“Yeah, but look.” I pointed to the first log I put down, on the night before I went to till the fields. “There was a brief hole in the clouds in the evening on this day, and no rain.” My hoof slid down to the next day. “When we were out in the fields it was still cloudy but the clouds were a lot darker, and you really couldn't tell when sunset happened because of how dark it got.” Now a bit further down. “There was a bit of rain overnight, you could tell because it was muddy. The ground around the factory today was particularly muddy and didn't soak up the rain very quickly.

“That's probably because of all the trash around it.” She made a fair point, there had been lots of ash and soot that we swept up at the end of the work day and dumped right on the already ash-laden dirt around the factory.

“Maybe. But the rain did pick up through midday and continued until now.” I looked out the window again. “Though it sounds like it's letting up.”

“We still don't see the importance.” She remarked.

“It means...” I stood up, thinking was a bit easier on my hooves anyway. “It means that the weather out here isn't stagnant. I doubt the pegasi are actively changing it, there's nothing here worth caring about.”

“What?” Now it was her turn to jump off of the bed, standing beside me. “We've got the factory, and all of our food.”

“I don't think that's enough. If this place is really that great, there would be more ponies coming by here.”

“Not if they don't know! All the Ministry Mares back to Starlight have taken great care to make sure nopony would know of us.”

“True, but what would stop a Pegasus from camping out on the mountains after seeing the smoke from the factory's smokestack? It might only be one, but there's no way a Pegasus wouldn't notice all that smoke floating into their cloud cities. Unless...” I circled around to face her. “Unless there's other things going on beyond the mountains that have their attention.”

“They sealed up the sky.” She gave a slight jump, the mare outstretching her wings and giving some light flaps as if to prove a point. “They obviously don't care about anypony down here, why would they bother if they're closed off from the world and living the good life?”

I shook my head. “No, that doesn't make sense. If you have a hole in the ceiling, you patch it, right?”

“Actually, we have to put a request in to Tempered Iron so they can schedule a time to get it patched.”

“But for what reasons would you not patch a hole in your ceiling?”

She raised her hoof to her chin, obviously trying to think. “We guess, if we know there's not going to be any iron available?”

“What about if there was a bigger leak?”

The pegasus frowned at me. “Ok, that's not a fair answer. Of course I'd fix the bigger leak first!”

“Exactly. So the way I see it, either the Pegasi can't deal with the factory's smoke, they don't know about it, or they don't care because they have bigger issues somewhere else.”

“So they can't deal with us? Or maybe we're too strong for them?”

I could only blindly stare at Fair Smile. “Everypony in this village has to take training for defense, like what we are supposed to do tomorrow, right?” She nodded. “Do you have anything for fighting off Pegasi from above?”

“We have guns.”

“Oh I'm sure. Probably from the war, and that's assuming they still function and the ammo can still fire. This place would be easy pickings for any Pegasi force. Think about it Smile.” I pointed to her wings. “You can fly! Imagine what 70 of you could do if you all wanted to take over the village!”

“Why would we want to take over Our Town?”

I hit my face with my hoof. Leading her from one thought to another would be cute if it wasn't also annoying. “That's not the point. If you had 70 Pegasi, you could all just hover above the rooftops and swoop down to attack an Earth Pony or Unicorn. If they have guns they could do even more. No-” I shook my head. “-there's nothing here of significance warranting them to attack this village. Not to mention if they control the clouds they could just make it rain so much that no crops ever grew. So unless they're all dead or starving up there, they are probably watching and dealing with other things in the wasteland, beyond the mountains. And these-” I smacked my hoof on the book still laying on the bed. “Proves it.”

Fair Smiles landed, giving a sort of blank stare. “But...we...”

“Yes, I'm sure it's hard dealing with the idea that there's a world out there. Beyond here.” I looked once more out the window in the room. “And I want to go out there. I want to figure out who I am. Why I came here.”

“What if Mare Ether is right though. What if...everypony out there are just savages and killers?” She leaned in a bit. "What if the stories are right as well?"

"Stories?" I asked, raising an eyebrow. I hadn't heard of any stories.

She grabbed the worn out pillow on my bed, holding it between her forelegs. "After the war ended, a few giant ponies tried to take our land from us. They all came alone, one at a time."

"They?"

She ignored my question, clutching the pillow tightly. "The bombs had stripped them of their cutie marks and purpose, so they couldn't have friendship. Starlight Glimmer drove them out, but they still watch Our Town, waiting to steal a mare or a foal and rip friendship from them as well."

I did my best to hold a non-judgmental face as I looked at her. "Really? Giant Ponies without cutie marks?" She nodded, her eyes and tight grasp on the pillow betraying her real fear from a silly tale. "Besides. I'm not giant. Margarine is bigger then me. I had to come from somewhere and if not from here, then from out there." I raised a foreleg and pointed to the window to punctuate the final word.

"Well...the stories don't say anything about that. But the Ministry Mares have always said that ponies beyond the mountains are savage killers that are controlled by their marks."

“Then maybe I was just a savage killer also, until I lost my memories." I was quiet for a moment, the thought of being a horrible pony trying to worm it's way permanently in my mind. Instead, I decided to ignore it, as there was no reason to assume the worst when I knew nothing about my past. "But its obvious that I don't belong here. Look at your cutie mark.” She turned her head to do so. “It's the same as everypony else's here, not like mine. No one recognizes me, no one acts like they've even heard of anypony beyond the mountains for years.”

“About that.” She twister her neck back to look at me. “We should tell you about our Cutie Marks. We all don't start out with these ones.”

“What?”

She nodded. “That's how we all stay friends here. When we find out special talent, what makes us who we are, the next day we go into the mountains, and give it up to stay in Our Town.”

“What do you mean, give it up?”

“A bunch of the town comes up, and while you focus on the Cutie Mark the Ministry Mare will use the Staffs of Sameness to exchange it for the town's mark.”

I merely blinked. This was brand new information, and while I had been curious what the other two stallions in the building had been wanting to keep from me while talking at the communal dining hall yesterday, this was simply a cruel revelation to hide from anypony.

“When were they going to tell me?” I threw my hoof towards the wall, motioning loosely toward the entire village outside. “When I got my memory back? 'Oh congratulations, you got your memories back and know who you are. Now here's something to chain you down here.'”

“We thought you'd rather be here then anywhere else.” She looked down at the ground, her voice way quieter and acting like she was just scolded. “There's no other way though!” She put her hoof on my copy of Glimmers of Truth. “Ignore the outside, the oppression by individuals! Only here, as friends, can we survive to the next day!”

Quoting from the lilac book wasn't exactly a response to my question. “Have I oppressed you?”

The pegasus squirmed in her seat for a moment, caught off guard by the question. “Well...you're different.”

“If I'm different, maybe that means that others out there are different also.” I stood back up on all fours, looking back at the window to the dark outside. “And besides, I'm not going to find out who I am, or why I got here, from the ponies here.”

“We don't want to lose a new friend though.” She softly replied, turning her head away from me with a pout.

This caught my attention, encouraging me to look over my shoulder at her. I was reminded of what Soothing Constant had said about friends. “We're friends?” I asked aloud, more to myself then at her. We both had been wiling to help the other in moments of weakness and had been more honest about what we knew then what we should have been comfortable with.

“We-we want to be friends with you?” She half questioned, half responded, not realizing that the question was more directed toward me as she was still looking away from me.

I turned my entire body to face her, taking two steps forward. “Lets be friends then.” She looked up towards me as I held a hoof out towards her. “At least while I'm still in this village.” A smile gradually overtook her face as she reached out and touched the underside of the hoof with my own.

“Yes. Let's.”

- - - - -

WARNING – With this choice, you close will lock away certain endings. Are you sure you wish to continue?

Continue: Y / N

- - - - - -

Achievement Unlocked – Honesty is the Best Policy – Ignore a study invitation to instead learn a key element of Our Town. Maybe you should set your sights beyond the mountains.

Chapter 4: Attack

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“The enemy!” The light blue pegasus shouted boldly. “Is too divided to attack us! The Great Starlight Glimmer, in her unlimited wisdom, has bought us more time then we could ever thank her for!”

Water Margin took nothing but measured and disciplined steps as he walked infront of us. As the pony that commanded the defense of Our Town, his strict rigidity was something I had expected. His mannerisms were opposite of the outgoing Gleaming Ether who wanted to lead through conversation and personal engagement, or Tempered Iron's barely restrained sadism which demanded with fear, his style was much closer to Woe Tree's reserved stance, but with his energy focused outward rather then inward.

The discipline that he held while walking matched what he was expecting from us, and all 75 of us on our shift were standing in five orderly lines, unmoving as we listened to his day-opening speech. It took a bit of fumbling as I looked back and forth between myself and the ponies around me, but eventually even I had mimicked the rigid stance of those around me: All four legs locked, neck straight with head tilted back by the smallest of margins.

“The enemy beyond our mountains are all divided, pony against pony. But make no mistake of it, when they find us, they will rush us! So we must stay ready to defend ourselves from them!” Three other stallions stood at a distance behind him, one of each race and holding themselves in a similar fashion to the large group I was standing in.

“Today, the pegasi will return to the village and prepare the nests. The unicorns will organize a defense of the factory's exterior. And the earth ponies.” Water Margin turned his gaze right at me. “will stay here and go through physical training today.” He took a deep breath, turning his body directly toward us. “DISMISSED!”

The organized rows of ponies I had been standing in instantly lost all of their order, all of the groups mixing into a large congregation while slowly dividing into the races. “Good luck Strange Flank.” Slight Pique remarked as he briefly walked by me in the throng on ponies.

In a few moments I could see the group of pegasi and unicorns having already separated out, each being led by one of the trio that had just before been standing behind Water Margin. With a quick look around I could deduce there was about 20 of us left, not counting the commanding Pegasus or the earth pony that had been standing behind him.

“Pair up!” The dirty yellow earth pony remarked, finally stepping away from what had been his position behind Water Margin. He had a more shrill voice compared to the firm boldness the Pegasus had. I took a quick look around those of us who were left, only for Margarine Spread to come up to me first.

“Don't worry. I won't go too hard on you.” The bulky earth pony looked down on me with a smile on his face. “But I do expect half of your food tonight.” Of course. Fair Smiles had made it pretty clear last night that he was always willing to do a bit extra for some food. I merely gave a half smile and a faint nod. This situation made it feel like my mane was standing on edge.

“Purge your thoughts of any silly ideas. Do what comes naturally.” The earth pony remarked, stepping toward both of us. His voice was annoying and distracting me from the circumstance that had developed. I could faintly see other ponies in my peripherals, several of them raising up onto their back legs and striking with their forelegs. But my focus wasn't on that, or even the words that were still being spoken to me. Margarine was rearing up infront of me, looking down with hooves already beginning to approach me.

He was on the ground. My right rear leg had dug into his stomach, and I could feel the bottom of his ribcage against the side of my fetlock as I spun to face the other pony, just outside of my hoof's reach. His mouth hung open as he took a startled step back. Beside me. Behind me. No one else was approaching as I took a deep inhale, finally starting to paying attention to the sounds around me. The wheezing beneath me, shouts beside me-

“-off! Get off of them Strange Flank!” While I'm positive that isn't my name, the term had been directed at me so frequently in the last few days I still instinctively responded. I removed my leg from my opponent while turning to face the pony that had been directing our sparring session. His concern was toward the larger pony beneath me, who began to roll over onto his side, still wheezing, asking if they could continue to spar.

Calm and collected, I let a breath escape my mouth before sucking another deep one. It was instant. I had moved in, wrapped my right foreleg around his left one, and directed his momentum into the ground, with just the slightest of twists on the way down. He landed on his back, kept there by me stomping into his stomach. And it all happened so easily. So automatically.

“I-” Margarine took another deep breath. “I can go again.” He remarked, turning to face me once more.

I took another controlled breath, in a way that was so routine it was terrifying.

“Go again. Don't hold back.”

There was no rearing up this time. The large earth pony charged right at me, insistent on pressing in with his size advantage. I jumped to my right, my body alongside the left of the earth pony organizing this battle. My opponent turned his head at me, already following it up with a gradual shift of his acceleration towards me. I twisted my neck, still continuing my own momentum from the initial sidestep, and biting into the neck of the stallion beside me. He was caught completely off guard as I twisted his body in front of me, putting him at a right angle as Margarine smashed into his side the instant after I opened my mouth to let him go. The smaller pony found himself bowled over, the larger one reacting to the impact by jumping upward to avoid getting his legs tangle around the collapsing stallion. Darting forward, I stiffened my right foreleg and bounced myself off of it, slamming the side of my body into the flank of the larger stallion as he passed me by. The impact caused him to stumble sideways, his attempts to avoid trampling the smaller pony causing him to land awkwardly and fall onto his right side.

Back to all fours, my gaze fell on the grounded duo. Instinctively I brought my breathing back under control, the adrenaline still pumping through my veins. I found myself looking side to side for further threats, but all I could see were the other pairs of earth ponies, nearly all of which had stopped their own sparring to look at me.

The urge to flee was unbearable, as I took two steps back. Escape. Vanish. The urge to follow the two orders coursed through my skull like an automatic impulse. I turned around, only to come face to face to the pegasus orchestrating the entire thing.

Water Margin said nothing, his gaze coolly bypassing me to the two grounded ponies. After a few seconds of staring he shifted his head and locked eyes with me, never changing his facial expression the entire time. “Petunia. Scar. You two are up.” Two mares that had been sparring just a few yards from us trotting up. “Hold nothing back.” The pegasus spread his wings and opened the distance between us as I turned my focus toward the mares. Before either took charge of the situation a metal pipe was tossed from just out of my sight to the rightmost one, who grabbed it in her maw.

The two mares began walking away from each other, opening an angle between them with me at the center. They were trying to spread wider and flank me on both sides. I closed in towards the green mare armed with a metal pipe, keeping her in my periphery while staring the pink mare to my left down as I tried opening the gap against her. I had a very slight size advantage over both of the mares, and the armed one seemed more focused on looking intimidating with the pipe while closing on me rather then preparing an attack, but the other mare had stopped the circling motion to face right at me.

The farther mare leaned forward just slightly, preparing a charge. Confident that she wasn't going to abort, I took my focus off of her, headbutting the throat of the mare with the pipe, as she had crept so close to me that her pipe was too close to be useful. She gagged loudly over my ears, and I reached my right hoof up to seize control of the iron pipe. It made contact with the edge of my hoof, and I shifted my body around to face the now charging mare. Firmly ground my left foreleg into the ground, I threw my rear legs into the air to quickly shift my momentum, the pipe starting to roll down my angled right hoof. Just as the pipe was even with the center of my hoof I thrust my right leg forward, relying on instinct to send the weapon flying through the air.

It impacted my charging opponent in the nose, causing her to flinch and close her eyes just before it hit. The smack into her fleshy nostril stopped her charging, as she reared up to bring her forehooves up to protect her face. With all my legs back on the ground I pounced forward, dropping myself low and using my weight advantage to bowl into her exposed underside, aiming just a bit to her right lower rib cage with my top of my head, the impact forcing her body to roll away from me, and that roll becoming even more pronounced as my left shoulder hit her in the same spot my head had. With that, both were just as incapacitated as the stallions.

“Midnight, Arrow!”

This time a mare and stallion couple began walking towards me, every other earth pony on my shift had dropped any pretense of sparring, only caring to watch me now. Once again, the internal call to flee echoed powerfully in my head, but before I could even start consciously fighting with that internal call the fight mindset took control again.

The two began charging, and I could faintly hear the pegasus make another shout. I stomped my hindleg onto the edge of the metal bar that had been dropped earlier, flinging it into the air and catching it in my mouth. Before they could get to me I hopped to my left side, twisting my neck with as much speed as possible to hit the charging mare's neck with the pipe's edge. As she gagged and tumbled from the impact I could see movement from my left, and I quickly spun to focus on another rushing mare. Rearing up to get my forelegs into the air, I wrapped my right foreleg around the back of her neck just before her planned impact. With a single swift motion I brought my body back down onto all fours, in turn directing her momentum into the ground face-first, leaving her to crash right beside the first mare.

This allowed me enough time to re-focus on the stallion that I had sidestepped without striking. He was circling back towards me, preserving his momentum all the while as he barreled down toward me. This time I crouched down just a bit to solidify my stance. Just as he came within range I twisted my neck and raised my head, this bringing the edge of my pipe smashing into his head from beneath, the sound of his teeth clattering together as jaws slammed into each other confirming that my hit rang true.

The first pink mare I had struck was beginning to rise back up right beside me. Not letting her regain full awareness, I rushed back at her. Twisting my neck and head once more, the edge of the pipe drilled into the bridge of her nose right between her eyes with all the twisting force I could muster. She went stumbling backwards over her hooves, but stayed upright. Quickly, I finished her off with my right hoof, smashing into her face with enough force to send her straight back to the ground, knocked unconscious on impact.

No other ponies made any motion to come at me. My heart thudded incredibly loud in my chest, and if I didn't know better I'd swear every other pony in the valley could hear it. A half dozen ponies all either lay unconscious or slowly were recovering from a winded state, being very slower to get back onto all fours. The few dozen spectators began whispering silently among each other, all too far away from me for me to hear anything said.

“ORDER!” Water Margin called out loudly, and the gossiping I had sparked off abruptly stopped. “Everypony back to your partners.” Reluctantly the pairs began to form once more, while two of the mares I had subdued earlier began trying to wake another mare and the last stallion. Margarine was pulling the other stallion I had brought down back to all fours as well

Water Margin coldly swept his eyes over the fights in the valley, before locking eyes with mine and holding the same emotionless look, as if coldly calculating every move. Finally, he looked at the same Earth Pony that had initially tried guiding the session between myself and Margarine Spread. “Hoofstrong, Give me your rifle.” The response was a quick scurry to the discarded rifle a few meters off, speedy despite the beating I had given him earlier.

Water Margin turned his focus back towards me. While the adrenaline from the prolonged fights was finally wearing off, there was still that internal fear, screaming to shrink into the nearest shadows and wait until all awareness of me had passed. The last of the ponies I had assaulted were finally brought back to their hooves, obviously suffering bruises and maybe even a few concussions, but nothing that should be unbearable.

Upon getting the specified rifle, Water Margin took it and gave it a quick look. It was well worn from age but the metal was still rust free, the stock and barrel only showing slight nicks and scratches. Overall, it was preserved far better then what I expected from a gun that was probably 200 years old.

“Strip it.” He said, tossing it at me. I raised my right hoof and let the strap wrap around my leg, taking a closer look at it. “Now.”

It was instinctual. I didn't even have to think about a single move. In mere seconds it was laid out in about a dozen pieces on the ground, each piece still looking functional and sound enough to suggest that the rifle could be lethally used.

“Reassemble it.”

This took a bit longer, the smaller pieces around the bolt requiring a bit of kneeling so I could stabilize them between my mouth and hooves. Just like disassembly though, the process was automatic, instinctively knowing where and how every piece went back together, as if the information was buried in my hidden mess of long-lost memories and could only be retrieved by not consciously thinking about it.

Once reassembled, including reloading the single bullet that had been chambered back into the small magazine, I slung it over my shoulder, looking once more into the gaze of the pegasus. Margin held his hoof out and it became my turn to toss him the rifle, which he subsequently returned to the one who donated it.

“Hoofstrong, you keep the drills going.” He remarked to the stallion that had donated his rifle, never breaking his gaze from me. “We're heading back to the village with Strange Flank.”

- - - - -

“And then he brought the two of us back here.” I concluded my brief recap of what happened to Fair Smile, the pegasus holding a rifle similar to the one that was so easily disassembled and reassembled earlier.

“So did you find your special talent again? Maybe you were always meant to be a guardspony?”

“FIRE!” The shrill voice from the pegasus leading the town session called out. Smile sprung to all fours and leaned over the peak of the house we were ontop of, angling her weapon down into the main street on the village. She pulled the trigger several times in a row, the silence of internals hitting nothing easily overcome by my companion counting every trigger pull of her hoof.

“15” She called out, moving her shooting hoof off of the trigger and hitting the small button to eject an already empty magazine, sliding back behind the angle of the roof once more. Quickly I leaned over and caught it with one hoof, the other empty magazine I had been holding in my mouth replacing it. Satisfied with the replacement, she popped back over the top and began counting off imaginary shots again.

After going through a third magazine she settled in back behind the angle of the roof once more, rolling onto her back while spread her wings all the way open. “If not a guardspony, maybe an escort? Being forced to learn to fight with your hooves and guns interchangeably to protect rich and important ponies?” She turned her head to look at me, hoping to ease my concern.

“No. No I don't think so. That doesn't explain the desire to record the weather. And who would want to record that anyway?”

“Just a hobby maybe?”

I stretched my right hoof out to the cloud-covered sky above us. “I can look at the sky, tell you that the wind has shifted a bit over the last two days and that there will probably be some rain in the next two days. And nopony would care. From what you guys said, it's only ever been rainy or cloudy for 200 years. If it really is pure anarchy beyond the mountains, any pony that wanted to live would know how to care for their weapons, right?”

She gave a slight shrug. “What did Water Margin say about it?”

“Nothing.” A thought. “Unless...” I shifted my weight a bit, letting gravity pull me slowly down the roof to the edge.

Fair Smile leaned forward before rolling over and looking at me with confusion. “What?”

“This is Doctor Constant's house. I spent my first few nights here, and if they're sitting upstairs...I might be able to hear them talking.”

Fair smile gave a few gentle flaps and hovered next to me as I perilously stood on the edge of the roof, my head just leaning over the edge. “Guess it's a good thing we don't practice Our Town's defense with live ammunition.” I gave her a shush and motioned back to the top of the roof, hoping she would get the point to cover us by being ready to resume the faux-firing if called upon.

“-there were cuts near the base of his ears and we think we could follow the scaring from stitches down to his nose. Aside from that, most of the scars on their body and face are consistent with fighting wounds received from fighting, similar to what the Raider Mare and Stallion from yesterday had.” A brief pause from the doctor. “Well, ignoring the mare's extreme taste for piercings.”

“Are they connected?” That was Mare Ether. “After all, the two of them showed the first day he started working in the fields. They could have been sent an automatic warning when he was awoken.”

“Not likely.” And that was Water Margin. “The mountains take days to traverse to the nearest wartime city. There's no way that all three are related. And his skills are nothing like the raiders. The mare especially thought that she could swing a weapon at everything, no tact, just force and talent. His hoof-to-hoof combat skills were something different, as if they were well practiced, almost as good as our best.”

“Mare Ether, if we may?” That was the doctor again. “We may have exaggerated with saying he had the same scars on his body. They shared the same defensive and fighting wounds, sure. But the new stallion had a distinct difference, like you'll see in the book.” I could only assume he was referring to the large medical book he kept in the operating room I had slept in the first few days. “All of the newcomers' scars are like the ones pictured here. Nice. Clean. No signs of even a passing infection.”

“We are not a doctor, Constant. Please get to the point.”

“The pictures in the book are from the war, but most of them were taken in hospitals and colleges in the big cities, away from the frontlines. And hospitals are clean, everything is precise, which isn't something anypony could accomplish in the chaos of the wasteland beyond the mountains now. They rely on old healing potions or really poor sewing, and the risk of infection for any open wound is incredible, small infections would be incredibly common. The mare had signs of a bad infection that had long since passed, and the stallion had evidence of small infections as well. But our amnesiac stallion friend had none. Everything was clean. When you couple that with where he was being kept, it's reasonable to assume your original assumption is correct.” A prolonged moment of silence followed.

I leaned back, taking some of the stress off my forelegs. So I wasn't the first newcomer to the village, but considering how the entire population seemed to be split into rotating shifts of three it wasn't that surprising that the ponies on my shift wasn't made aware of it. But more importantly was the wording. Kept? There didn't seem to be anywhere nearby that I would have been kept like a prisoner, and this village sounded like it is a long distance from any civilization? Did this mean every-pony in the village was wrong, and that there was civilization beyond the mountains? Or perhaps in the mountains itself, kept close and as a silent secret. Could that be the origin of the stories of mysterious giant ponies wandering the surrounding mountains?

I looked back up to the sky. If the pegasi still lived in the clouds and were hostile, maybe other ponies survived by hiding in underground caves in the mountains. Maybe ponies did the same even in lands beyond the mountains?

And if the entire sky was locked up behind the clouds and maintained by the pegasi, how would those pegasi stay fed? It took the collective effort of the entire village to produce enough food to feed about 200 to 250 ponies in this valley, and while it was enough to survive for the two centuries, it was stretched to it's very limits. Clouds didn't have nutrients, they were water vapor that gathered around small particles of dust, a piece of information I knew to be true almost from the moment I woke up. You can't grow plants on dust!

I gave a small groan, which pulled Fair Smile's attention back toward me. The idea of food in the sky and ponies beyond the village was too taunting to just idly think of, and wasn't helping my dilemma. “I need to get out of this valley.” She raised an eyebrow and began to open her mouth to ask. “They don't know who I am either. But they're probably going to assume I'm from the outside with nothing good.”

“But you've been good to us.”

I shook my head. “I don't want to do the Remarking.” I leaned back down again.

“How would you get out of here?” She asked, briefly looking around at the mountains around us.

“They mentioned two raiders. Meaning that ponies from the outside can get here.” The mare's eyes widened with surprise at this. “Maybe I can get in contact with them and they'll tell me out to get out of the mountains here.” While she may have said something else in response, I leaned back down again.

“-settled then. We already know what their talent is, and it already worked with the Raiders. Either they accept and join us, or they waste away in the underground camp before going on the Tree of Woe.”

Time to go. I didn't have any idea how to get out of the mountains, but right now it would be a better choice then to be here a moment longer. I gave a long stare toward the mountains, immediately planning an escape. There was a moderate hill in the distance, just getting over that would get me out of sight from all but the pegasi quickest to react. The only problem was that the hill was nearly half a mile out, and I was surrounded by pegasi right now.

“What's wrong?” My concentration was shattered, and I gave Fair Smile a look. Whatever look I had on my face obviously stunned her, as she slid down the roof closer to me. “What did they say?”

“What's the underground camp?”

“The camp? Tempered Iron runs it. Back in Starlight's time some ponies didn't like her idea of friendship, so they were sent to the camps where they learned better through work.”

“I'm not going to the camp.” Again I looked out toward the hill. “And I need to leave now.”

“Why? You haven't done anything wrong!” She reached her hooves out toward me, putting them on my shoulders. “Is it because you pulled us out of the mud the other day? We know that Woe Tree is big on the weak dying, but we thought no one saw it!”

“No, no. It's not that.” I looked right at her. “What's the quickest way out of the valley?”

She gave a pensive look to the left toward the clouds above, crossing her forelegs while trying to remember. “W-we've never known anyone to leave. Except for guard patrols, but they just circle the mountains immediately around the valley and don't go too far away. And the path to where the Remarking is done is straight back and forth”

Now it was my turn to put my hooves on her shoulders. “Please, anything would work at this point.”

“O-ok. We think-”

“ALL CEASE!” That was Water Margin, having stepped back outside the house we were ontop of.

“Strange Flank, please come on down. This is a glorious day!” Mare Ether's voice rang clear at it's direction toward me.

My time to escape was up before it had even begun.

“Do you want some help down?” Fair Smile asked, a saddened smile on her face. It was a saccharine scene, the almost frail looking mare wanting to offer help me even when she knew my fears were likely to be realized.

My pegasus friend sat me on the ground infront of Mare Ether and Water Margin. Ether had a big smile on her face, no hint of the tension that she had in her voice while inside talking. Water Margin also was back to his emotionless face as well, as if the two of them slipped right back into their public roles, not wanting the other ponies to deduce what they had been talking about.

“Strange Flank, after hearing about how great the sparring went down, it seems pretty clear to us that you've discovered your special talent like all of us! And now, we offer you our hooves-” and with that she reached one out towards me. “-and welcome you in the greatest exchange of friendship there can ever be.”

“And if I say no?” I asked, my eyes locked with her but using my periphery to notice that the other pegasi that had been partaking in the open-castle defense practice had all been coming to the ground, inadvertently forming a semi-circle trapping me between the house to my back and their masses. My mere suggestion at rejecting the concept brought murmuring through the entire crowd.

“You won't want to.” The unicorn lowered her hoof and took two steps toward me, nearly right in my face. “Trust me.” She whispered.

It was a strange thing to notice, but this was the first time I had ever heard her, or anyone else, refer to themselves as one pony, and not as a group. IN fact, with the exception of referring to the long-dead Starlight Glimmer, every single time somepony in the town spoke there was no distinction made unless the talk was in private. It was a strange perversion of language, much like the perversion of body with everyone carrying the exact same cutie mark.

Glowing Ether turned around before looking over her shoulder, plainly expecting me to follow. I took a step forward, having no other reasonable options.

- - - - -

“Life's not so bad here.” Fair Smiles remarked, leaning next to me. “It's painful at first, the remarking. But the emptiness fades for the friendship.” Her words were unconvincing, to both myself and her.

Or do you just learn to ignore it? I thought in response, not willing to bring myself to answering aloud. Surrounded by the throng of Earth Ponies, Pegasi, and Unicorns I had worked alongside the last two and a half days, all led by Mare Ether and Water Margin. We had all gone down a path into the mountains, already walking for a few miles and well out of sight of the village.

“There's a moment where you can...can feel...the others flow into you.” Her hesitation was a bit more bold now. “And you can tell that you won't hurt them.” And with that Smiles voice trailed off for good, as she continued to walk beside me, doing the best to keep her actual feelings hidden. When we had talked about it last night she was a bit somber about it, but now it seemed more like fear, fear and anxiety she was trying to talk herself through.

“Everypony in Our Town has this moment!” The head unicorn shouted with glee, leading us straight down the path into the entrance of a cave. “Inside here, we all make the choice to embody the elements of friendship!” The inside was utterly dark, and the unicorns in the group all lit their horns one after another, bring illumination to the interior.

For a moment I was reminded of what I had read in the forgotten copy of 'Glimmers of Truth' that had been in the Doctor's locked room. “The cave overlooking Our Town will hold the knowledge for you to make your final choice.” I took a look behind us, but we were deep enough in the mountain range that there was no view of the town. Maybe the passage was referring to a metaphorical looking down?

“Through our generosity, we give of ourselves all that we are.” She stepped around a large square box, chest high and reflecting light as if from a box. “ And through this choice, we find loyalty toward the ponies like us.” She turned to face me now, glass behind her similar reflecting the light from her horn. “We can then be truly honest with ourselves and those around us, and can share in the joys of laughter and the sorrow requiring kindness without any cruelty.” With this, the light from her horn flared brighter, illuminating the immediate area around and behind her.

Nothing that Fair Smile could have said would have made what I saw seem normal. A massive glass panel stood behind her, cracks splintering the edges. Behind the glass panel was rows upon rows of paper, all pressed behind the glass like photos in an album, a small number of the slots behind cracked glass empty. And on all but one of the sheets of paper were distinctly different images, each of them enshrined almost perfectly painted. Bread. Seeds. A rifle. Flowers. A giftwrapped box. Each one had been drawn impeccably perfect on the pieces of paper, each one unique and perfect. On the side of the giant box Ether's magic grabbed a object and brought it up next to her.

“And through this choice, we all share in the magic of true friendship!” She looked straight at me, still beaming a bold smile while using her telekinesis to raise up a long metallic rod, tipped with a large arrowhead shape that didn't hold a straight edge throughout, curving about midway down before tapering back to it's point. In the center of the arrowhead a faint light could be seen, a purple four-cornered star with two green wisps above it giving off a strong light after reacting to Mare Ether holding it in her telekinesis, a light that was distinctly different to Ether's own telekinesis.

Two similar lights appeared to both sides of me. I swung my head to the left, beholding Water Margin as he hovered in the air, holding in his hooves a much longer metal spear, twisted in the middle multiple times over until the twists straightened out into two parallel rods ending in tight tips. At the center of the wraps the same purple star and green wisps could be seen, overlaid and seared into the spear. Looking to the right, I beheld Tempered Iron, who I hadn't even seen join us in the march here. His spear was the same one he had used to assault one of the factory workers yesterday, two primary rods twisted around eachother from tip to tip except for the mouthgrip in the center.

“Here in Starlight's Shrine of Sacrifice, we ask of you to reject all that you are, and all that you can be.” The three spear wielders all took a simultaneous bow in the direction of the large box positioned just in front of Mare Ether and the giant glass album. I hesitantly took two steps forward, drawn by morbid curiosity of the glass topped box, the same turquoise tinted light now shining through the box as well.

Inside was a unicorn mare. Her mane and tail long faded to grey, eyes and mouth clinched shut as if hostage in a horrifying nightmare. Her forehooves were tightly drawn to her sides, and her body and rear legs were wrapped in a large white cloth, two large and faded grey parallel stripes running perpendicular to her body. The light came from the unicorn's horn, bright enough that it illuminated the corpse with a ghastly glow. Still dealing with the unease from seeing a corpse using magic, I then recognized the face. The same face that was on the large painting in the Doctor's house and my friend's own house, the village's first Ministry Mare.

I looked up at the village's current Minsitry Mare standing on the other side of the box, looking at me while bearing a grin of malice and depraved joy. “No.” I shook my head, taking a step back from the interred mare. “I don't know what you're holding, I don't know how you've kept a pony two hundred years dead from decaying, I don't know how you're using her magic, and I don't know how you forced everypony here to give up their cutie marks. But this is wrong. And I will not give my mark up.” I took two more steps back, shaking my head at the absurdity of the situation. “It's the only thing I have connecting me to my past!” I remarked, voice pitching higher.

I wanted to run. I wanted to run so badly. But the large throng of ponies that had come surrounded me were still all at the cave's enterance, blocking the way out, and there wasn't anywhere deeper to run anyway. Even knowing this, my eyes constantly scanned side to side for any way out of the predicament I found myself in, my heartbeat pounding in my ears loud enough to make it harder to hear the unicorn as she responded.

“Think about your Cutie Mark.” Mare Ether remarked, pointing the end of her spear directly at me as she trotted around the glass-topped coffin. “You don't have a choice in the matter.”

The glow emanated from inside the coffin grew stronger while maintaining it's turquoise coloring. The three spears joined it as their own illumination took on the same turquoise hue. I spun around, seeing the hordes of ponies that had accompanied us on our trip to this unnatural sight...and decided to run. Breaking into a gallop, I lowered my head and prepared to bowl over anypony in my way.

No sooner had I taken two steps then I felt the grip of magic wrapping around my body, heaving me off of the ground. The source of the magic was from the three spears, each drawing it's own perfect line from it's wielder to me. I could feel knives prying into my flanks, but as I looked down there were no such objects. The phantom stabbing made my entire body seized up, a cold chill deeper then my bone tearing through my body from nose to tail. As if it was echoing from the deepest parts of my body, a cacophony of pained wails echoed in my head, the nightmarish symphony full of pain not even coming from my ears, but the center of my head.

Finally, after what felt like innumerable minutes, the screams began to fade, as did the chilling pain. I felt exhausted, still cold from the touch that went beyond skin deep. The magic entrapping me began to fade, and I was dropped, falling nose-first into the packed dirt below me, heaving rapidly into the dust. Even while I automatically started routing my breathing through my nose and out my mouth to calm myself, it did nothing to stave off the terror of the experience. My stomach turned, and I fought hard not to vomit.

“WHAT!?” Tempered Iron shouted.

“Why didn't it work!?” Mare Ether shouted hoarsely at me, jabbing me in the flank with the sharp end of her spear. “Did you LIE!?”

“Wha-What do you mean?” I asked, rolling to my side while taking a look at my right flank. The same symbol, the upward knife with the half-spheres of a weather-vane as it's mouth guard still sat, defiantly imprinted on my body.

“LIAR!” She jabbed me again with the spear, this time cutting into the flesh just to the side of my tail. After the horrifying experience earlier, the cut almost didn't register with me, not even remotely as terrifying as the screaming and chill. “YOU! You lied to us about your Cutie Mark!”

I stumbled back onto all fours, turning my wounded flank away from her and walking backwards once more. “I never told you anything! I don't know what it represents either!”

“SEIZE THEM! We'll MAKE him give his mark up, or else make them DIE like the individualist SWINE you are!” She swung her spear at me once more, and I leapt back to avoid it. Hoof-falls sounded behind me, and I swung around to see one of the earth ponies I had been sparring with earlier rushing toward me. With no time to sidestep I ground my legs into the ground, lowering my body just enough to thrust it into the side of the charging pony, forcing him to roll off to the side. A unicorn's magic wrapped around my rear legs, and I twisted to look at the offending unicorn, my ears swiveling to the sound of wingbeats behind. Using my forelegs I leapt at the pony grabbing me with his magic, intentionally landing short as the pegasus collided into the unicorn. The impact broke the mare's concentration and I moved back on all fours, once more bringing my gaze to the throng of ponies standing between myself and the way out.

Just like before, I charged at the mass, eyes closed, head low, and prepared to bowl into any pony in the way. Running on pure fear-driven adrenaline and instinct, the head-first impact I had with the crowd resulted in a pair of loud 'oofs' as a mare-stallion duo collapsed to the ground. My hooves dug into their bodies and I leapt forward, trying to clear as many ponies as possible. Once more I felt my rear legs grabbed in a telekinetic grip, stalling my forward momentum. Momentum that was sent straight to the ground as a pegasus smashed herself into me, forcing me to the ground and pounding his hooves into my skull. The wind was summarily knocked out of me as a heavy earth pony tossed his entire weight onto the center of my back. The impact forced my eyes open, and I stretched out my right foreleg toward the outside light, only for the light to be cut off as another pony slammed their entire weight into my outstretched leg.

The pegasus continued tap-dancing on my skull as more and more weight was piled on me, my legs kept in a firm magical grip leaving me unable to even attempt to fight back. I could hear my ribs cracking from the force, forcing air out of my lungs, air I couldn't replenish in time. The magical illumination of the cave gradually faded away, blackness encroaching my entire vision. The last thing I heard was Fair Smile, though what she said I couldn't decipher from the ensuing unconsciousness.

- - - - -

Achievement Unlocked: Ah Sweet, Mare-Made Horrors Beyond My Comprehension – Visit the Mausoleum of Our Town's Original Ministry Mare, Starlight Glimmer. You know, you used to have to get directions from magical maps to see this kind of stuff, but thanks to the Wasteland now you just have to, it's everywhere...huh.

Chapter 5: The Power of Empathy

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“I wish I had my hammer and spikes.”

My eyes slowly opened up, consciousness finally coming back to me.

“Hey, calm down buddy.” A stallion with a unkempt blue-grey coat remarked, sitting a few inches away from my neck. “You took one hell of a beating back there. Must have really pissed the town off.”

I tried raising my neck to look at him, only for a hoof to be pressed solidly on my right temple and force it back on the ground.

“Hey, no moving. Be thankful that I don't have any spikes to keep you down.” I couldn't see this pony, but her gruff voice alone made it pretty obvious that she was way more interested in adding to my injuries rather then avoiding them.

“Amber, I told you. No.” The stallion firmly and curtly spoke at her.

She groaned a bit, taking her hoof back off my skull. “Danm it Spice. I came out here because there is no fun in Manehattan. But you know how many skulls I've bashed since leaving? Two. Two whole raiders, and they both were so far gone that they barely even reacted.”

“Ignore her.” He looked out of the corner of his eye for a moment while the sound of his magic hummed in the background.

I could hear her sit down behind me in a pout. “If I knew that we wouldn't be allowed to cut loose out here, I would have stayed back and found a way to smash some featherbrains.” She huffed.

The unicorn tending to me gave a defeated sigh. “They would have disintegrated you into dust the moment you stepped outside.”

“That would be better then taking my marks and my hammer!” She shouted, loud enough for her voice to reverberate off the cave's walls.

I looked at the stallion's flank. Just like the citizens of the village, he also had the same pair of grey lines in place of a normal cutie-mark.

“Why you? And-” I gave a slight wheeze, my ribs causing me pain from the mass beating earlier. “And not me?”

I winced a bit from a prick. Taking a look at the source in my side, it was obvious he was trying to use a safety pin to hold the bandages in place. Thankfully, it wasn't rusty looking, so I shouldn't have to worry about infection. “Sorry about that.” His face carried a sad smile, likely trying to minimize the pricking mistakes. “Oh, The marks? I was going to ask you the same thing. How do you still have your Cutie Mark?” He gave a pat on my side before standing up. “You should be good to move around, but don't put too much strain on your left foreleg or breathe too heavily. I'm no doctor, but when you've been in the Wastes for long enough, you pick up these things.”

I slowly rolled over to get my legs back under me, slight pain in both of my forelegs. Only for the entire room to start spinning just as I started standing up. Instinctively, I panicked and tried putting my hooves out to the sides, but a bit too much pressure and I went right back down onto the ground.

“He's good as dead. Can't I just have a little fun with him before he expires?”

“No. He probably has a concussion, he's not bleeding out from his brain.” The stallion leaned a forehoof out towards me, and using my good front leg I wrapped it around his as he helped pull me back onto all fours.

“The name's Spice Chaser. She's Amber Swing, my marefriend. What's your name?”

“I don't know.”

“Shitty name if I ever heard of one.” She called out, I gingerly turned my head toward her to get my first view of the mare. She had just bent down to grab a pick-axe off the ground, slowly walking to one of the earthen walls surrounding us. Her soft-colored pink coat was covered with scars, not to mention her tail had been hastily cut down to just a few inches off of her dock, which was pierced while sticking high up, and with every swing she took with the pick-axe on the wall it exposed her femininity.

I turned aside, ignoring her audacity out of...nervousness? “Where are we?” I asked, trying to shove her blatant display from my mind.

“Wow, hit so hard that you forgot your name? And you first question is where we are?” The unicorn walked infront of me, shaking his head.

“No, I already didn't know my name.” I gingerly took a step forward, favoring my left foreleg in a way that really wasn't comfortable. “I don't remember anything beyond a few days ago.”

“Really? Then count yourself lucky that you're hiding out in these mountains, rather then the rest of the wasteland.”

“So there are ponies out there. I knew it.”

“Not for long.” Once again his horn was set alight with magic as he picked up a pickaxe of his own, heading over to one of the other walls. In fact, the entire 'room' we were in just looked like a massive hollowed out cavern of rock and stone. “The Enclave decided to start coming down and wreak havoc just the other day, it's all out war in the wastes right now! We came here looking to secure some food, only a party of two because we figured they wouldn't waste airships with just a pair of us in the mountains.”

That was a lot of information to take in. Gingerly I took several more steps to follow him. “How bad is it out there?”

“Let me think here.” The light blue unicorn raise a hoof to his mouth in mock thought. “How does horrible sound? They came down to Friendship City and were barely fought off after trying to level the place, they took out Canterlot, good riddance to that hellhole though. They might have killed Red Eye's goons, but it's still a de-facto embargo on anything going in-or-out of Tenpony Tower.” He smacked the pick-axe into the side of the cave wall. “Meet the new boss, same as the old boss.” His concluding statement had more anger put into it then the swings of the pick-axe.

“So if that's going on back home, what are you doing here?” He was easy enough to talk and get needed information from. While setting him up to give me my next info-dump, I twisted my body only to be met with the disappointing realization that my satchel and all of it's contents were gone, likely stripped from me by the villagers.

“He let the old ponies in the Tower convince him that there was some food out here.” The mare called out from the other side of the room. I turned to look at her once more, and now that she was facing me I could see the mare from the front, an Earth Pony with five large pieces of metal clamped onto her left ear and four more on her right, along with a thin stick of metal that glinted in the light that went through her nose. All of that, along with the completely careless dirty gold mane that was similar to her tail in the tight cut, made me confident that she was the craziest pony I had seen since waking up in Sooth Constant's home a few days ago. “Hornheads always believe any old written crap.”

“They aren't just some 'written crap' Amber. It was old Census data from before Luna took over. It's one of several towns that went totally off the map in the transition of power. I don't know how they got into Twilight's old library, but it's more potential food then anything else they'd get.”

Twilight? Records? Transition?

“Yeah, and you wanted to just stroll up and offer a trade with the crazy locals with the creepy smiles and the same cutie-marks.”

The unicorn stiffened up. “It's better then running in and smashing 250 ponies heads in with a hammer.” With how irrate he was, I could only guess that this oncoming argument had been retread several times over between the two.

She blew air out of her mouth at that. “Maybe for one pony, but you've got a horn and had more guns and ammo then one could throw a bloatfly at! We could have taken them, if you weren't such a pansy about getting kicked out!”

“Danm it Amber, we've had this talk before!” I instinctively winced from the sound of his pick-axe smashing deep into the side of the wall as he faced his crazy marefriend. The wooden handle continued to vibrate even after he dropped his telekenetic grasp on it. “You can't go in and smash everything to get what you want! I especially can't! If I go out there and start gunning down random ponies, that's a one-way-trip to the execution chair. And we had just spent so long getting into Tenpony Tower, I'm not going to throw it all away just a few days after moving in!”

“But you'll still have no problem letting me do all the smashing for you.”

“Nopony would recognize you outside of Tenpony Tower with those piercings or your armor.” He sighed and shook his head. “Look, if we get out of here, and you get your hammer back, feel free to smash and torment anypony you want.”

The grin on her face was pure glee, like the dark side of the glee that Fair Smile had shown at the thought of treasure. “The big grey one.” Excitement was woven all through her voice. “Between him and that bitch of a mare that runs this circus, I'm going to make them pray to Luna like nopony has in a 'undred years!”

“I'd like to see you try.” The familiar booming voice from above turned our collective attention simultaneously to a small wooden platform near the roof, the familiar sight of Shattered Iron looking down with a sneer.

“You soft fuckers wouldn't last 10 seconds in the wasteland, just like your filthy Swine Metal!” Amber shouted at him, full of impassioned malice.

“And you think that you could best our Iron factory? The pride and joy of Our Town? You fail to realize that the factory-” He narrowed his gaze directly at her as a smile enveloped his face. “-is me. Just like this prison. And just like every ache and pain you'll feel while hewing for us.”

“Your Iron is so weak that-that...” She trailed off, her enthusiasm abrutply falling off into an almost confused murmur. “that it's bad!”

“Strange Flank!” Obviously done taunting the mare, his attention was turned towards me as his face returned to a stoic one. “Consider this your lucky day. We have reasoned to mare Ether to give you one last chance. Either choose to spend the rest of your life hewing away down here for the glory of Our Town, or come clean and honest over what your Cutie-mark really is all about. And we recommend choosing fast.” He was a good 20 feet above us, but I could make out through the faint candlelight of the cave a smirk forming on his features.

“What if I don't want to stay here? Would you let me leave?”

“Starlight Glimmer made it plain many years ago that nopony would ever leave Our Town. Her vision was so perfect that to defect from it is laughable.”

“Iron!” Now it was the unicorn's turn to speak up. “I still wish for an audience with Woe Tree and Ministry Mare Ether! I'm sure that we could come to a reasonable compromise on trade!”

“Mare Ether has no interest in talking with you.” He turned his back to us, raising his hoof to the door right behind him. “And Strange Flank, we strongly recommend choosing fast.” With that he stepped out, the iron door slamming shut behind him, the clang quickly echoing down into the quiet ambiance of the cave.

“I'll fuck him in half. I'll fuck him in half. I'll fuck him in half.” The mare mumbled to herself almost psychotically, before biting down on the pick-axe once more before wailing at the wall.

“So that's all it took? Lying about your cutie-mark?” The blue unicorn turned his back to me and once more turned towards the wall. “Man, I wish I had thought of that.”

“I didn't lie. I don't know anything before waking up the other day.”

A rough electronic sqwuak sounded from above, and I turned up to look at a speaker hanging from the ceiling of the cave as it began broadcasting static and a message.

“In sameness, there is peace. Exceptionalism is a lie. Free yourself from your Cutie-mark and choose Equality over your special talent.” And then it began repeating the exact same thing, barely audible over the fluctuating static.

“How many loops until it cuts out this time? I'm betting 12.” The unicorn asked aloud.

“FifTmph!” Her answer was incredibly muffled by her mouth's grip on the pick-axe.

“Does that play often?” I asked, looking at an unused shovel laying on the ground.

“Every now and again, not super often. It does get a little annoying when it goes off in the middle of the night though.” Gingerly I sat my bandaged leg on the blade of the shovel, bringing the handle up nearer to my mouth so I wouldn't upset my horrible sense of balance too much. As long as I was down here, I might as well spend some time trying to help my new compatriots earn their food.

- - - -

“Hey Strange Flank.” I turned my head from the Candlelit walls and wooden platform toward Spice Chaser, the Unicorn levitating an item beside his head. “Do you play?”

“My name's not Strange Flank.” Coming onto all fours, I took a few steps toward him. “At least I don't think so. And what do you mean by pla-” Cutting myself off, the question metamorphized into something more obvious. “Where did you get playing cards down here!?”

The Unicorn smirked, motioning his head to the side next to where Amber Swing was sitting, giving the two of us a careless gaze. Obviously he wanted me to join them. “Don't ask questions you don't want to know the answers to.” Without further elaboration he tossed the plastic covering off the deck and dropped it on the ground beside him, sitting down adjacent to his marefriend. “Wanna try spades?”

“Spades?”

“It's an old card game from before the bombs.” The mare remarked while the unicorn shuffled the cards in midair.

“You split the cards evenly between all the players. Everypony then places down a card in counter-clockwise order, and whoever put down the highest-valued card takes that trick. Once all the cards and tricks are played the set is called. The Aces are above Celestia, Celestia is above Luna. Luna is above Cadence. And then it's all numbers down 10 through 2. A spade always trumps the other cards.”

“Don't forget the best part.” The mare raised and dropped her hoof ontop of each card. “Before you start the first round of trick taking, everypony needs to look at their cards and bet on how many tricks that they can take in that hoof, but only to the right of the dealer, then to the right of him, and so on.” She raised her gaze and locked her eyes with me. “You can either match the last pony's bet, or go as high as you want. But never any lower.” She narrowed her eyes as if trying to intimidate me. “At all.”

“If you pull your exact number of specified tricks, you get to take ten times the number you bet for your score. Any extras ontop of it are just a single digit bonus. So if I bet seven tricks and take eight, I'd take 71 points for that set.” Spice kept his visual focus on passing the last of the cards out. “But if you don't get the number you're going for, you lose that many points times ten. So if I bet eight and only took seven...”

“It's eight-tens in the hole.” Amber cut him off, leaning back into her more normal stance and going through her cards.

I looked down at the small pile of cards that had been pushed my way, putting one hoof on the back of the small pile while using the other hoof to push the edge closest to me up.

18 different cards looked back at me. Three of Hearts. Five of Hearts. Ace of Clovers, Four of Diamonds, five of Diamonds, Ten of Hearts, Nine of Diamonds, Queen of Diamonds, Ace of Diamonds, Three of Spades, Three of Clovers, Five of Spades, Eight of Spades, Seven of Clovers, Eight of Clovers, Nine of clovers, A very strange looking card, and a white alicorn with Spades.

“What is this furred snake with...” I trailed off for a bit. “Paws? A claw?”

“Discord?” She asked raising an eyebrow. “A joker. If you have three players instead of two or four, or you have even more, you get to add two jokers so everypony's has the same number of cards.” I nodded, looking back down at the design, with the character holding strings over ponies as if controlling marionettes. “Discord is the lesser joker, and he can trump even an Ace of Spades.” The unicorn gave her a quick disapproving glare, but she continued, ignorant of her partner's short and crude look. “There's also the Elements of Harmony. They're the biggest joker and will automatically take the entire trick, even over Discord.”

“Are you going to bet honey?”

She raised the edge of her stack up towards her, looking at the entire stack as each card flipped down from her hoof's edge. “Three tricks.”

The duo's gaze went toward me as I looked at my set again. “Three tricks?” My unfamiliarity with the game keeping me from being confident with any pull.

Spice Chaser held his stack spread out in his magical grip, pondering his stack for a moment. “Five Tricks.”

Rear leg thumping aggressively, Amber bit down on her tonuge, a wicked grin spread on her face. It seems like it didn't matter the circumstance, this mare always was holding back some type of deranged joy, even with just considering a higher bid. “Six tricks.” Now she began spreading the cards out in an array formation before her, all still facing down.

I looked at my stack once more. Remembering the rule that underbidding was impossible, I put my hope in Amber's hooves. “Six tricks.”

“Ten Tricks.” The unicorn looked at his partner, meeting her own psychotic gaze with a much more calm and restrained smile.

“You're going to be so sorry-” She pushed one of the cards forward, and it caught the air and flipped over face up in the middle of the stack. “-When you're down in the first round by ten tens.” And with that, our game was on.

He kept a neutral smile despite the Dark Blue Alicorn with hearts in the corners looking face up at us all.s It was my turn to put a card down, but there was no way that anything I had would take this round from her...unless?

The smile on her face faded as I placed the three of spades down.

“Usually we don't break Spades until the second hand.” He lay down a six of hearts while looking at me.

“Yeah, but that's never stopped us before back home! You're just angry that you couldn't cull first blood Spice!”

This was the second time he had not shared a rule. Was this some underhoofed trick to stack the game in his favor, try to catch me off guard and invalidate any strategies as we went along? If that was the case. “Do you want to reshuffle and start the game over?” I offered, placing my hoof on the trio of cards while locking my gaze with the unicorn.

“Ugh. Too long, and we've never cared before now.” Amber groaned out. “Spice forgets this shit all the time.” With the mare's confirmation, I slid the cards across the uneven ground and next to me, not breaking my gaze with the unicorn and what appeared to be guilt from being caught in his eyes.

“It's your turn. The pony that takes the last trick starts the next one.” He remarked, breaking our stare with a blink before looking at his mare-friend. Despite the guilt in his eyes, his tone suggested to me that forgetting to share the order of play was more of a personal mistake rather then something to intentionally undermine me.

Or at least that's what he wanted me to think. I put my Ace of Clubs went down, hoping that neither of the duo would commit to a spade yet. The card dealer played a five of clovers, while the mare among us played a two of clovers, apparently not even trying to take it from me. So the second trick went to me as well.

“I guess you two play this with others often?” While probing for anything else of value, either admission of guilt or omission of other rules, I began focusing on a new strategy that I was starting to piece together in my head. 18 tricks in total, and I had already taken the first two. But you add what we all predicted together and it was 21 total. At least one of my partners were overconfident...or intentionally hiding their actual ability. It depended on who it was that was pushing too hard. I sat down an Ace of Diamonds to kick off the next trick.

“From time to time. Sometimes if one of my orders take a long time to cook I'll play a few rounds with some customers.” While speaking with my Spice reacted to my play, taking it from me with a Six of Spades.

“It can be fun sometimes to watch those ponies squirm when they try to barter a better price if they win. Shame they stopped doing that so quickly.” Amber Swing waited until she finished speaking to finish the trio of cards, and she didn't deviate from the initial suit that had been played, playing a three of diamonds, in turn giving the unicorn his first trick.

A bright white Alicorn graced our faces next, her body and the edges of the cards emblazoned with diamonds. This was responded with a six of diamonds, and I wrapped up the trick with a five of spades.

“Orders?” I may have had some diamonds to use, but if I could burn all of my spades and his spades up as quickly as possible, then I should be able to pull off my required number of tricks while he would run out of spades before claiming his ten. Already I was halfway to my goal.

“Oh yeah, you haven't seen our cutie marks. Working out trades with hidden settlements isn't my full time job.” I had the dark blue alicorn, surrounded by diamonds, grace our presence. My rival's response was to stop midsentence and stare at his cards with a moment of contemplation, ending his stall with the play of a two of diamonds. “I work as a confectioner. Tenpony Tower is pretty much the only place that can afford my services.” The mare merely played an eight of the same suit. With that, I just needed two more tricks.

But as the game progressed, I noticed a potential problem. I had already burned through all but one of my Princess cards, and while Discord still stared at me, as did an eight of spades, neither of the cards were anything I'd feel comfortable playing. While all three of them gave me a high chance to get my two tricks, they all could be equally overcame with a better card.

“He doesn't only bake cupcakes.” Amber Swing picked up on his explanation. “Rather then let us be, we have to go out all the time to prove our worth. Tenpony Tower isn't content to just let us trade and work in peace. Some stallion or another always wants Spice to go and put his life on the line for some manebrained scheme. Not like I'm complaining though.”

Three of Clovers. If I couldn't take the hand by leading it, maybe I could circle around and take it from someone else a bit later. The response was the blue alicorn, now surrounded by the same set of clovers with several adorning her own regalia as well. Six of clovers was followed up, and the trick, and control of the following one, went to the Unicorn once more.

“Why don't you go out by yourself then?” I posited to the mare. She bit her tongue for a moment, and rubbed her left shoulder with the opposite hoof.

“The Wasteland is no place to be rummaging solo, unless you're some big named hero, like that Stable Dweller or that security-mercenary in the Hoof.” Spice chaser remarked, leading the next round with a Four of Clovers. “I'd rather be out here with Amber then by myself again.” His marefriend responded with the Pink Alicorn surrounded by clovers, turning and looking at him with a much more peaceful gaze then the scowl she had been wearing near-permanently the whole day.

I took my fifth needed trick with the eight of clubs I had. The two lovers were briefly distracted with each other, giving me a chance to better examine my stance in the game. Still with two of the highest four cards in my stack, the white Alicorn of Spades and the mishmashed creature known as 'Discord', it seemed to me a 50-50 chance that I could wrap it up early.

Perhaps if I went fishing a bit more for their personal lives, I could wrap up the game while they were distracted. “You don't seem like much of a baker though.” It was a bit of a risky thing to say to the mare who so often came off as unhinged and irate, but with the softer she had just showed to her unicorn partner, now seemed like the best chance to strike.

“I'm a Smithy.” The unicorn responded to my play with a ten of clovers, and Amber went silent, staring at the pair of played cards before looking back at her dwindling personal stack. She finally settled on a two of spades, the first time that she had played out of suit, and in turn, the first trick she would take.

“Like a blacksmith?” I asked.

She nodded, revealing to us the pink alicorn, her face gracing us for the second time, surrounded by diamonds this time. At this point I was pretty sure all the high-value diamonds had been played, and while it was tempting to use the remaining princess spade or the wildcard to steal it, that in turn would reduce my control over later tricks. “Lots of ponies trade in old pipe rifles and scrap metal for caps. I'm the one that turns it into something useful for the Tower, or for the scavenging ponies that want something more.”

It would be a gamble, foregoing immediate security for greater control, but I was significantly closer to my bet then either of them, and if I could turn both of them against each other in a late-game frenzy it might be possible to guarantee neither would hit their bets. So, I played the suit with a non-threatening four. “What do you mean by more?”

The other stallion, still behind on his goal, went for the throat, putting down a nine of spades, gaining the trick and resuming control. He kicked off the next round with another pink alicorn, this one surrounded by hearts that matched the ones adorning her regalia.

“Weapons.” She remarked with a wicked smile, one that didn't quite match the impact her mere two of hearts commanded.

“You do blacksmithing for guns?” I answered with a low three of hearts on my own.

Spice Chaser chuckled, though I was sure if it was at taking the hand or what I asked. “She couldn't shoot the broadside of a fillyfooler's door with a shotgun at 10 feet.” He was closing on his lofty goal of ten tricks.

I didn't have a Queen, King, or Ace, and was caught off guard by underestimating the lack of spades played by Amber without realizing that she didn't even try to confront him for the card. “Can't stand guns. Give me a spike through the knee or a smash to the skull anyday.” For whatever reason, Amber had always played to the suit with just a single exception thus far. Was she just holding a bunch of spades and the other wildcard, trying to rush to her number in the closing hands? I took a look at her face, studying her eyes as she still kept a loose bite on her tongue while the Ace of Hearts was now played. As if to change focus from the stress of the game she looked at me once more. “Thankfully there are plenty of ponies and griffons out there who respect the feel of rending flesh and shattering bone. And the Tower ponies can't care because everything can be marketed different then what it is.” Now she placed a four of hearts, still not trying to confront her collapsing place in the game. And no one had played the White Alicorn, Celestia, of the suit yet. There was no reason for her to be holding back, and I didn't have it either.

Something she said about 'marketed' difference caught my attention. “Different then what it is? So you don't sell them as weapons?” I did still have Celestia surrounded by Spades, and so I took this trick, simultaneously hitting my required number while also pushing to deny both of them the chance at hitting their marks at this point. I ran a short count in my head. She was still short five tricks, him six. While the exact number of spades that she had left was still up in the air, she had been consistent at playing the suit thus far.

“Hammers are tools for building, maces are for demolition. Even had a few metalheads from Bucklyn Cross have me make swords for awards back when I first moved to Friendship City.” At this point it seemed like she wasn't really focused on the game, a hint of smile grazing her face once more as she spent more time looking up as if reminiscing rather then playing the game.

“What do you sell the most weapons with?” I asked, playing a Five of Diamonds. It was a bit of a risk to try and bait her into seeing if she would fully focus back on the game, or if she even had any good cards left. If she played a spade like I anticipated, then it was reasonable leap to assume that she had no more Clovers or Diamonds.

“Spikes.”

“Spikes?'

“Railroad Spikes.” He muttered through gritted teeth, placing down the White alicorn surrounded by spades, trumping her own four and stealing the trick. But with that frustrated look, he must not have been planing to use it yet. If he was losing confidence, it would just be a question of how many spades she had...and spades that he wouldn't take. And I still had one more potentially useful card to upset one more round, useful if either of them got too close to their target. The White Alicorn graced our presence once more, Celestia surrounded by hearts.

“Some out of town ponies want to redo the entire Equestrian rail network. They pay well and there's more then enough scrap brought in to cover what they want.” A seven was brought out, apparently her stack's heart reserve was larger then the clovers or diamonds. “So I've been making a lot of cuts of rail and railroad spikes. And those...” She sighed and her entire conscious went dour. “I-I think they're easier then the spike knives? Or they're not fun, or something.” Her abrupt deflation mirrored that of when she was spatting with the Tempered Iron earlier.

“You ok?” Spice Chaser remarked, putting his cards on the ground and reaching his hoof out towards her.

“I'll be fine. I just want my mark and hammer back.” She responded with a muted tone and gritted teeth.

“We will. We will. We can find a way out of here soon, I promise.” While he was still distracted from the game by her moody downturn, I noticed he was still five tricks short, and there were only five more tricks after this one. I placed my final high card, the bizarre snake-shaped joker card coming down and stealing an extra trick for myself. Neither of the two reacted, sitting for a moment in silence as the unicorn gently rubbed his marefriend's upper back with a hoof as if to try and soothe her.

I took the moment to look at my remaining cards were numbered, none of them spades. It didn't matter now though, I had plundered so much from the pot early that unless one of them took all five of the remaining tricks, neither would get their totals and both would plunge into the hole.

Ready to end the game, I played a ten of hearts, and Spice responded with a card containing six large gemstones, each with distinctly different shapes. This must have been the strongest wildcard, the Elements of Harmony card. He took this hand by default, and the nine of hearts that his marefriend carelessly put down had no real bearing on the trick anyways.

The depressed silence killed the ongoing conversation for the remaining tricks. For the final time the White Alicorn graced the center of our makeshift circle, instantly trumped by a seven of spades, and my own five of hearts didn't contribute anything. But it was over, the mare taking this trick meant that neither of them would hit their numbers, and now it was just a matter of running the tricks down.

Ten of spades. My Nine of Diamonds. Nine of hearts. Hers.

Ace of Spades. Eight of Clubs. Seven of Diamonds. Also Hers. Too little too late.

Simultaneously we all tossed our final cards down, her final one locking this trick up as well, just one short. The dark blue Alicorn didn't grace our presence this time.

She was black, a cruel and sinister sneer adorning it's face with jagged teeth, looking less like a pony and more like a monstrosity, the spades surrounding the card also filling the mane behind her head admits smaller white dots. All of it was offset by a face shield covering her forehead and protecting the base of her horn as well. The very image left me feeling unsettled to my core, a chill creeping down my spine.

A chuckle. “You let a total newbie beat you on your first try? Must be going soft from all of your cookies Spice.” Amber Swing shot a cruel leer at the unicorn.

“If I thought he was going to take seven tricks I would have bet accordingly.” He sighed as the Amber gathered all the cards up with her hooves, preparing to do some earth pony shuffling. “I'm just too used to playing with you who's honest to a fault, and the few customers in Manehattan who don't have a ounce for thought in planning.”

“You know, sixty-one points aint' bad.” The earth pony leaned toward me and poked me in the ribs with the edge of her hoof. “But imagine how much better seventy could be.”

My focus wasn't on the game or any strategy blunders, I just barely processed her words. The image on that final card still haunted me, even now when she was lost in the deck.

“What was that final card?”

“Ten of Diamonds?”

“The Alicorn. That didn't look like the Blue one, Luna.”

The two of them looked at eachother, Amber taking a moment to stop shuffling. “You mean Nightmare Moon? Luna's alter-ego?”

The name seemed vaguely familiar, maybe having overheard it in some other pony's conversation in the communal dinners. I shook my head, a name alone not holding much meaning.

“Have you really never heard of the tale of Nightmare Moon and the Elements of Harmony?” I shook my head no. “I'm no good with stories. You tell him Spice.” The mare now began passing out the cards, having completed her shuffling process.

The unicorn sighed, picking the cards up one at a time as they came to him. “A long time ago, some twelve hundred years ago by now, there were two pony sisters who became immortal beings of great power, one able to raise the sun and bring it across the heavens, and one able to do the same with the moon. After performing amazing feats in time of chaos and war, the three pony tribes made them their leaders, Princess Celestia, the Regal Keeper of the Sun, and Princess Luna, the Illustrious Guardian of the Night.” He stretched a hoof upwards as it reaching towards the sky, though in this dug out prison pit he was really only stretching in a direction vaguely pointing at the guard that was doodling in his plastic book.

“And that's when everything went wrong.”

“Amber-”

“What? You know it's true. Ponies are better on their own, just a few of them working together. None of them leading others, and none of this whole big bad nation crap.” The mare spat on the ground beside her, compiling her stack of cards together.

“You didn't have a problem moving in with me to Manehattan.”

“Well...” She scowled, only for the scrunched face to gradually fade. “I guess...” She trailed off and turned her head away from both us.

“Now do you want me to finish the story or not?” Even though the question was directed at her and not me, I still nodded with interest. I didn't know anything of the outside world beyond this town until meeting these two, anything that might give me a bit of insight into myself would be great.

“A few years after becoming the rulers of Equestria, the younger of the two, Princess Luna, felt that she wasn't being appreciated. She put all her effort into rearranging the stars in the night sky after they were torn asunder by Discord before they came to power, and frequently visited the dreams of the sleeping ponies. But she found that hardly any were awake to see her night sky, and she was never thanked or even recognized for guarding the dreams of the ponies of Equestria.”

“What do you need to protect dreams from?”

The unicorn shrugged, rearranging the cards in his magic. “I don't know. I'm just repeating it from what my parents told me, and what I heard from a few other tellings. It's been so long that there's inevitably been things lost between what actually happened and what we know now.”

“I'd rather fight off my own dream monsters myself. Ain't nothing that won't go down with some hardened steel to the face, in reality or my dreams.” Now both of us gave the mare a look, the silence setting in just enough to grab her attention, as she looked up at both of us. “What?”

Another sigh from the unicorn. “As the years passed Princess Luna fell deep into despair, and eventually rebelled against her sister and all of Equestria, saying that if the ponies were only going to love one Princess alone, it should be her, as she was angered at how the ponies were even beginning to treat her sister like a goddess rather then royalty, offering daily prayers to her for their crops and dealings. And so, Luna put on her royal armor, magically changed her body into that of Nightmare Moon, and raised a army to wage war against Celestia, fighting her directly on several occasions, their final battle taking place in the skies over Canterlot.”

“I heard it happened in a old castle where the location was long forgotten.”

He sighed again. “Can I please finish this without comment from the peanut gallery?” A nod and moment of silence. “Thank you. In the final battle Celestia took the Elements of Harmony that the two of them had used together to seal Discord, and she hoped that using them would free Luna from the madness that had seized her. But Celestia was not in harmony herself, stricken with grief over fighting with her sister like that, and instead of freeing her from the madness, it crippled her, nearly killing Nightmare Moon. And as Nightmare Moon cursed Celestia with her dying breaths, Celestia took pity on her sister and reached deep into her Alicorn magic, and sealed her mad sister in the Moon, locking her away for a thousand years, while Celestia took total control of the kingdom.”

He turned his head to look down at his cards. I took a brief look at my small pile, bending the side closest to me upwards a bit to start looking through my list. “Is that the whole tale?”

“No, I was just looking at my cards to prepare my bets. Anyways, about two hundred and twenty years ago, maybe more now that I think of it, Nightmare Moon broke out from her imprisonment from the moon, fully healed. And she in turn did the same back, banishing Celestia to the Moon. But lucky for all of Equestria, the Princess had taken on a student who had prepared for the return of Nightmare Moon, and this student along with her friends used the Elements of Harmony against Nightmare Moon, forcefully purging her of her madness, in turn freeing Celestia as well.”

“The elements worked for the friends but not an Alicorn?”

“Unlike Celestia, who didn't have the heart to fight against her sister, the six friends did. Generosity, Loyalty, Kindess, Honesty, Joy, all tied together with Magic, all in balance with eachother.”

The quick listing of elements struck a memory in me, before I had even left the Doctor's home. He had went through the entire list of elements, key elements to making friends in the Town. His advice hadn't done me much good though, left in the belly of this prison-cave.

“You left out the part where it didn't really fix Nighmare Moon, and she only took back the form of Princess Luna to try a different way to take over Equestria.” The mare circled a hoof beside her face, elaborating with her limbs. “Or how she led Equestria to war and enslaved everypony to a death under bombs. Or how she deceived those same six friends and turned them all against each other to become the Ministry Mares, all of them fighting one another to become her second in command. Actually-” She whipped her head back at her partner. “You didn't even say anything about how she was going to plunge all of Equestria into darkness while burning the Zebra-lands alive under eternal sunlight, which is why the Zebras tried to kill all of the ponies in the first place!”

“I'm not going to mix fiction with reality. It's well documented that yes, Nightmare Moon wanted to be the sole ruler, but there's no way that she was mad enough that she would condemn Equestria to a cold death under starvation without the sun.”

“Like how we all struggle to feed ourselves without the Sun now?”

“There's a difference. That's just the Pegasi hiding out on mountaintops and in cloud cities to stay away from the radiation. Princess Luna might have led us in the war, but she didn't cause the cloud cover.”

“Yeah, or maybe she worked with one of the pegasus friends and settled on that rainbow one, and worked together with her to blanket Equestria in darkness, and now she's enslaved the Pegasi while leaving us down here to rot.”

The two of them continued to go back and forth on the topic, swinging between crazy theories and what Spice Chaser called out as historical inaccuracies. I picked up one card in the pile, the face of Luna's dark alter-ego self staring back at me, equally royal and terrifying.

- - - - -

Achievement Unlocked: Connections – Encounter the Wastelanders kept in the Camp. Now if only there was a way out of this dump!

Rare Achievement Unlocked: Servià i Imbers – Win your first game of Spades. With his pokerface ready, this gambler is ready to win big!

Chapter 6: Stallions like Mares

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“Remember this day little ponies, for it was your last.”

Running. All I was doing was running across a vast and empty flatland. I could see the faintest hint of a sunrise in the far distance, but the sky was thickly blanketed with stars of various brightness, leaving enough illumination for me to continue my frantic running.

“Tonight, the Night, will Last, FOREVER!” For the briefest of moments I looked up and over my shoulder, at the massive black Alicorn, hovering in the air. She threw her head back and let out a loud laughter. A laughter that wouldn't stop.

My heartbeat pounded in my head, keeping pace with my hoofbeats. Focusing back on the ground I was running on, I set my gaze to what looked like a pony in the distance, just a bit off from the straight line I had been running towards the sunrise on the horizon. Without thought my direction shifted toward them, ignoring the neverending laughter from above.

- - - - -

I shot up with a startle. Instantly my hooves were under me, stumbling on my injured right leg. My eyes swept the cave that made our prison, all but one of the faint magical lights having gone dark, the exception being from the small balcony overlooking the entire cave. My eyes caught the forms of Spice Chaser and Amber Swing. Laying on his side, the unicorn had his forlegs wrapped around the chest of his marefriend, snout nuzzled into the back of her neck. She gave a few kicks idly, giving a faint murmur before settling back down.

As my eyes continued to adjust to the darkness I sat down on my haunches, giving a faint sigh. My last few nights had been utterly devoid of anything but sleep itself, my brain had not given me either fantasy or memory to ponder. But a dream? This was new.

Still recalling Doctor Constant's recommendation to write anything that came to mind, I reached back to my midsection to flip open my satchel, only feeling the old bandages wrapped around my midsection. Of course, I had forgotten that what few belongings I had been given, or pilfered in the case of the apple-grenade, from others had been taken from me in the capture after the failed re-marking.

I gave a slight sigh, the sound fading into the silent ether. The only other things that met my ears were the rapidly calming beat of my heart and my own breathing. It was as close to pure silence as had ever been. While idly staring at the lone light on the small balcony I stood back up, my eyes finally adjusting to the limited light by force.

The dream was beginning to fade already. Faces I had surely seen before fading and blurring in their definition and location. And while I was pretty sure that there was no way I had once been chased by a giant black Alicorn, it was depressing to lose something else from my mind in such a short period of time.

Taking my mind off the bleak experience of loosing something else, I instead began walking around the cave. Not that it did very much. The various stones and chunks of graphite mixed in with the other pieces of rock and with the reduced light, the only way to tell them apart would be by the feel of my hooves. Whatever my past life had been, I doubted geologist was any part of it. But when it came to getting out of this cave prison, anypony could tell that it wasn't likely to happen. The entire cave face, while not smooth, was solid, as if we had just been continuing the hewing into stone that had been started years, if not centuries, before us. The only non-solid part was against the far wall, nearly invisible in the dark at this distance, where the remains of leftover rocks were pushed, rocks that didn't hold any coal or graphite and were stuffed into a corner to not bother the prisoner's job of hewing at the stone.

Which left just the wooden outcropping, several ponies above us. We had seen a rope ladder tossed down during a changing of the guard, a new guard coming down and bringing a bucket of soup for the three of us to consume, delivered to us by the old prison guard before he left. Abandoning the wall that I had been walking alongside, a full turn brought the wooden outcropping into my focus, lit better then the rest of the cave simply by it's candle placement.

Walking toward it, I squinted my eyes for a better look at the surrounding wall. The faint rays of the light above significantly altered the way the walls of the cave looked compared to the more spread-out appearance of the candles near the ceiling during the day. Now positioned right underneath the wooden overhang, where I could very faintly hear a faint snoring in his sleep, I stretched a hoof out onto the walls.

It was slanted at a very steep angle, but maybe...just maybe, you could climb up it. It would take effort, having us all chipping away holes to get our hooves some grip. But potentially, we could chip a climbing pathway up the side of the rock wall and climb up to be alongside the wooden construction, pull ourselves onto it, and maybe get the guard to let us out by force.

The only problem was that this steep angling only started nearly halfway up the wall. Directly beneath the outcropping was a sharp near-ninety degree angle. If there was some way to climb past this, like the clump of useless rocks stacked against the far wall...

I spun around quickly, scampering on my three good legs towards the sleeping duo. I gave the unicorn a nudge first, not wanting to piss off the rough mare. Repeated poking finally got him to wake up, and he shook his head aggressively to try and focus.

“We're getting out of here.”

Spice Chaser gave me a tired stare for a moment, before widening his eyes. “What? How?”

- - - - -

“Welcome!” Fair Smile beamed at me with the familiar empty smile, giving me a blank stare.

“Run! She's here!” Despite the seemingly never ending run I had just performed, the words spilled from my mouth without the slightest hint of exhaustion.

“Welcome!” She continued smiling at me, as if totally ignorant of the laughter above.

“We've got to get out of here!” I lunged forward to grab her by the leg and take her away, but she didn't budge, not even flinching to the grasp.

The sound of unicorn magic faintly rose beyond the continuous laughter, and I looked skyward once more to see the tormentor lighting her horn, still laughing while staring right at me with her inequine eyes. My gaze went higher toward the firmament, to the full moon above. It was surrounded by her black magick aura, seized from it's spot in the sky and moving by her whim.

Moving Down. Down towards me.

Again I reached out to grab Fair Smile, but it was as useless as trying to pull a tree from the ground. Another look towards the laughing alicorn merely confirmed her focus was still on me, still sending the moon hurling in my direction. Before I even knew it, I had abandoned Fair Smile, fleeing to the everdistant sunrise again.

Only the sun wasn't rising. The orb of light wasn't even starting to rise above the edge of the horizon, merely giving rays to illuminate that far corner of the world. That wasn't a sunrise, it was a sunset, the only escape from the Nightmare slowly vanishing from me.

- - - - -

“I see you've been making friends.” Doctor Constant remarked, biting down on the edge of the bandages that had been wrapped around my leg.

“Why are you down here?” The earth pony stallion stopped for just a moment, gazing up at me before going back to pulling the bandages off my leg. He didn't know that I had been eavesdropping on him the other day from the rooftop, but I figured it wouldn't hurt to ask anyways. It had already been a long time since I had been tossed down here anyways, who knew what had transpired since I left.

“You've caused quite a headache out there.” He finally remarked, spitting the used bandages out. “And Iron still has an interest in you.”

“What?”

“I'm guessing nopony has told you yet.” He cautiously held the wooden board against my foreleg, trying to keep it straight with my leg.

“I don't know why they didn't get my mark.” I bluntly stated, assuming this is what they were talking about. “And I'm not giving up my only link to my past.”

“You don't have to lie. Everypony knows about your Zebra hex.”

I stared blankly at him. “Zebra...hex?”

“You should be thankful for Mare Ether. In her wisdom she figured that we could undo the Zebra Hex so you can join us.” Once again he bit down on the gauze, beginning to tie it up and keeping the wood in place.

“What hex?” I asked, gently setting the splinted leg onto the ground. While I wasn't sure if anything was broken, it at least gave the sore leg a bit more support.

“We're sure you're memory will come back once we've past it.” He stepped behind me and gave a look at my right side cutie mark. “We're a doctor, not a zebra magician specialist. But you know what would help you remember how to get the Hex off?” I turned to look over my shoulder at him, as he gently tapped my flank. I didn't have an answer for him, and he turned his head to look at me. “Good job making friends. And in the mines, no less. After all, bandages aren't something ponies just commonly share out in the wastes.”

I thought about asking about Fair Smiles, only to bite my tongue. Last thing I wanted to do was potentially jeopardize her. She was innocent in the whole thing, and the fact she wasn't down here with us suggested that for now at least she was safe. So I changed the subject. “How many days has it been?”

“Your little Zebra Hex stunt? That was two days ago.” He took a look at the bandages that were on my midsection, slowly loosening them to look at the damage beneath. “Let me know if you feel any pain.” He remarked after pulling them off except for a single wrap. His hoof began pushing into my side just below my ribcage, and gradually he moved it up.

I clenched my teeth, trying to internalize what he had said without internalizing the soreness. Not having the brightening and darkening through the clouds to mark the passing of the days made it a bit harder to mark the passage of time for sure. But this meant that yes, there was one meal a day. If Tempered Iron and his selected guard wasn't leaving his factory to mess with us in the middle of the workday, he was either coming down in the very early morning, before the sky began to brighten, or in the evening while everypony else was eating in the communal canteen or doing the day-closing songs. The middle of the night might also be possible, but that wouldn't be a very reasonable time to be coming down here. When matched with the darkening of the candles, I assumed that it was in the evening.

“Acting tough isn't going to help.” He remarked, breaking my train of thought. “Don't think we can't see you clinching your teeth.” Slowly I relaxed my jaws. Seeing my relaxation, he gave a tougher push between two of my lower ribs, and I couldn't help but hiss through my lips. “Does that hurt?”

“Fine. Yes. It stabs like a motherbucker.” I snapped back.

“You've got to be honest. Or at least lie way better then that.” He now began moving his hoof up my side a bit farther before reaching down and pushing just beneath my sternum, earning another wheeze. “The best thing you could do is not wear these bandages anymore, and just wear something loose around your midsection.”

I turned to look at him, curious what he was suggesting. At which point he opened up the bag he had brought down with him and pulled out the same satchel he had gifted me a few days prior. “You know that pegasus, Smiles, trust you. Everypony else was so focused on you not joining the friendship that no one noticed that this came off in the struggle, except for her.”

That didn't make any sense. I had checked my satchel and it still had the book, graphite chunk, canteen, and even the apple shaped explosive. “Nopony even went through it?”

“She trusts you and she asked us to bring it to you.” He smiled, facing me once more, now putting a hoof on it and looking away from me. I followed his gaze up to the wooden outcropping where a guard pony stood, his focus more on Amber Swing, and her exposed backside, rather then us. “Don't wear it too tight, your ribs should heal naturally in another day or two if you don't push yourself too hard, but you should take slow and deep breaths anytime you can.”

I whipped my head backwards, draping the straps of the gift back over my midsection, positioned for me to start tightening it up with my mouth. Now things made a bit more sense. Soothing Constant was here for my health, at least, officially. Someone with impact still thought I had some importance and value in the village. Fair Smiles cared about me enough to grab my satchel, and worked with the Doctor to arrange for me to get my things back.

Just read between the lines and I could still get a real idea of what was going on outside this cave, and who cared about me as a pony.

“Now for some real talk.” The Doctor's voice dropped to a mere whisper as he stood alongside me. “Would you care to explain why you were messing with our portrait of Starlight?”

My heart thudded in my chest, similar to what had happened in the sparring grounds two days prior. “What do you mean?” I whispered back, feigning ignorance.

“Come on, we have a reputation to maintain here. Do you know how bad it looks when the Town Doctor is the only pony in town with a picture of the original Ministry Mare that won't stay up? Mare Ether gave me a real chewing out over that the other day.” I couldn't help but feel a bit guilty, though the doctor seemed to take it in stride, considering the half-smile still on his face. “Did you think that I had some contraband in the frame?” He chuckled, taking a half step toward the rope ladder that was hanging off the wooden platform, but turned his body sideways, giving me a dead look. It was obviously he wasn't going to let silence get me out of this one.

Briefly I weighed my options. Sure, I could continue to feign ignorance. It wouldn't be hard to do, but it was also pretty obvious that the doctor either wasn't too miffed about it, or judging off the conversation and his fake inspection of my things, wasn't going to sound the alarm on me over it. Lying outright wasn't exactly the best thing to do. But I also didn't exactly want to let him know I had been rummaging through a long-locked room, likely a room leftover for someone close to him considering how thick the dust had been inside of it.

There wasn't anything wrong with letting him believe what he thought already though. “Yeah...you got me. I just needed to get behind that picture” I sheepishly smiled, trying to lean into his current suspicions and put on a guilty face. Just to sell it I gave a stare off of to the side, rubbing the back of my neck with the splinted foreleg.

“I'm impressed though with how you were able to reassemble the frame without damaging it, only to damage the nail it hung on.” With a smile, he trotted off toward the rope ladder, his closing presence catching the attention of the guard.

“Wait!” I called out. He turned around to face me once more, and I pointed to my ribs. “Can you double check this, just in case?” The guard above us didn't seem to care much, he still had the rope ladder rolled up above. But there was one more question I needed to ask.

The doctor walked back up, taking a look at my ribs, only briefly meeting my gaze from the corner of his own. “Make it quick.”

“Why does Iron care about me? He didn't show any-ACK!” I dropped my whispering instantly as he pressed on the most sensitive spot in my ribs, killing my train of thought with the pain that shot through me.

“You weren't just found in the mountains. Our Town keeps stashes of left over materials from the war, all hidden in caves all across these mountains. He found you in one of those.” The doctor raised a hoof and made a spinning motion, encouraging me to turn around and face my less sensitive side toward him. He kept whispering to me all the while.

“How did I get there?”

“I'm not privy to that. But Ether owed him a debt, so she agreed to give you a chance to join us. Considering how close the two are, your stunt really drove a wedge between them.”

“Why?” I asked aloud. It was a multilayered question. Why was I there? Why did the factory controller, who had shown me no particular favor thus far, think I had something of value. And why hadn't he at least tried to approach me straight up to try and get whatever he wanted from me?

Putting my inner confusion aside for the moment, I watched the doctor as he stood back underneath the wooden balcony. The guard threw the rope ladder down, and I watched Soothing Constant awkwardly fumble up the rope ladder as it dangerously sagged until all of his limbs and mouth were hooked on the rusted iron bars tied by the rope. Once secure, the earth pony guard above pulled up on the ladder to deny the three of us the same exit. As strange as the entire conversation had been, now it was just a matter of piecing everything together.

Trotting up to Amber Swing and Spice Chaser, I bent down and grabbed the remaining pick-axe in my mouth, turning my focus to what would be a daily meal, lean as it would inevitably be.

“I didn't know they let visitors down here. You must be a pretty special pony.” Spice remarked between swings. “Who was that supposed to be anyway?”

“Town doctor. Apparently they still want to take my mark and make me part of the town. They think it's some part of a Zebra Hex.” I could hear Amber growl through the mouthful of handle, but she didn't make an effort to add to the conversation beyond that. I bit down again and took another swing at the wall.

“Huh. Well, is it?” The unicorn asked, giving me a sideways glanced. All he received in response was a shrug. He didn't stop giving me the side eye until I tapped my skull with my now splinted-leg, reminding him of my memory problems. With that he turned his focus back to the wall, jamming the shovel into the hole I had chipped in and wedging his magic to move the earth.

“So are we still on?” He whispered, barely audible over the sound of our tools smashing into the wall. I gave a nod.

It wasn't even necessary to look behind us, I could envision the pile of rock and debris we had started pushing up beneath the platform as they formed a small incline. Off to the side, wrapping to the side of the overhang, was a series of knicks taken out of the wall, in theory just big enough to put the majority of your hoof on. We had made good progress in the last two nights, and assuming the guard tonight fell asleep like the last two, it would be an easy way out. The Doctor hadn't noticed it, and the guards never looked around while looking for food anyway.

- - - -

My flight across the desert plain continued, only the beating in my chest and hooves on the ground answering the constant laughter. Once more I saw ponies, a pair of them, in the distance, only the slightest of deviations from my path to the sun.

“Hello! Would you like to buy food?”

“I'm going to be a mother!”

Spice Chaser and Amber Swing regarded me with the same large and barren grins that Fair Smile wore.

“You've got to get out! She's come for us all!” I pointed blindly above me, motioning toward the ever closing moon slowly crushing downwards toward us.

“Would you like to buy some food?”

I didn't even bother grabbing the two of them, fleeing once again towards the fading light, the edge of the horizon now just faintly lighter then the rest of the black star-cloaked sky.

The moon bore ever closer. I didn't even have to see it to know. Frantically I continued looking side to side, a few other faceless ponies spread across the empty space. All of them equally happy and not caring of the impending doom or the laughter. I didn't even bother to grab their attention, knowing the the same hollow responses would result.

- - - -

“In sameness, there is peace. Exceptionalism is a lie”

That was the shift change. It came in shifts of eight hours, and this was the last one of the day, which that saw the exchange of mined materials for food.

The new guard, this time a scrawny-looking pegasi, was the one to watch us. I continued to stare at him as his focus was on the small tray with the bucket of stew. I was familiar with Woe Tree, and the rumors that she gave more or less food depending on how well you were at the village tasks. It was like watching gears slowly click in his head, weighing the benefit of eating our daily keep of food to try and regain a bit more strength, or avoid the risk of being caught starving out the prisoners.

The three of us weren't doing super well either. It was tiring and exhausting to chip away and mine small bits of coal, or more frequently, pieces of iron ore, from the walls, and Tempered Iron' choice of food size was not working in our favor. Our inevitable escape was the only thing we were working towards. Though the planning beyond that point had been rough, and continued to show roughness.

“They aren't going to care to trade food. I say we get our marks, and get the hell out of here while the getting is good.” Amber Swing half-whispered, half-spoke at Spice Chaser, feeling free to talk at a higher volume about the escape due to the tape and it's static playing. That had been the main sticking point.

“We can't go back to Tennpony Tower empty-hoofed.” Was his response, and that had been his response every time the topic came up. And this meant it would be a bit of back and forth for the next several moments until the recording finally cut out.

I didn't bother giving them any focus, continuing to gaze at the hungry and indecisive Pegasus looking at what was supposed to be our daily meal. Irregardless if there was going to be any chance at getting some miraculous trade deal out of it, I wasn't looking forward to the idea of trapsing through the mountains on an empty stomach after only have two thin meals before it.

“Hey friend!” I shouted up to the Pegasus, breaking his longing stare at the stew. “Tempered Iron will surely want to get the coal and iron soon, but we can't share the fruits of our labor with our friends without you bringing the tray down!” Leaning both into the friendship gimmick and directly naming Iron hopefully would motivate him, either through the constant drilling about friendship, or through fear.

The light green pegasus gave me a longing look, taking one more short gaze at the rations before settling on a choice. The persuasion must have been enough, as I could see him positioning the bucket on the tray, spreading his wings and flying down to us. He spent only enough time on the ground floor to drop it off, before quickly flying back up. Even saying 'thanks' to the guards as an act of general kindness hadn't brought any response back to us, and I couldn't help but wonder if maybe there was a requirement that the guards were not allowed to converse with us.

Still, now that we had some food, I bit down on the tray and brought it over to my two newest friends. The two of them were sitting with backs to eachother. Amber had her everpresent scowl on her face, her nose sticking up to the roof. Spice bore a much more neutral look on his face.

“Still undecided?” I asked, sitting the bucket of stew on the ground next to them. “We don't even know how to get your Cutie Marks back right now.” They both reacted to that, a frown coming over both of their faces.

“I've just been so concerned about going back empty-hoofed that I didn't really think about that step.” Spice Chaser remarked, batting a small piece of stone rubble with his right hoof. “I've never failed anything like this before.” I turned to look at the mare, who was still looking up, but with a more somber look then her common scowl. She obviously had no interest in responding.

“Look. We all know that we're getting out of here tonight.” I said, balancing the ladle in my hooves and bringing the watery potato broth to my mouth for a sip. “We'll get to the vault, and get your marks out. If worst comes to worst, we can figure out some way to smash the glass and get them out.” Another sip from the ladle, and then I passed it to Spice Chaser. “Let's run through the other things you want done.”

“I want my Maul back.” That was the first thing Amber contributed to the conversation since I joined in. “And I want to take it to that pig-breeder's face.” It wasn't hard to tell that she was referring to Tempered Iron.

“I want to talk with Woe Tree about trade.” He took a sip of the broth. “If I have to go back empty-hoofed, it would be easier for me to do so if there was something to come back with, just a paper with a 'no' written on it would be better then nothing.” Spice levitated the ladle to his marefriend, both of them looking over their shoulders at eachother, both getting a slight smile before she grasped it in her hooves.

I reached for my satchel, unclipping the latch and pulling out the plastic binded book and piece of graphite. “Let's formulate the plan then. Without fighting like yesterday.” I didn't bother looking up from the book, instead rolling my eyes upward to glare at both of them.

“I can't help it if he wants to be ridiculous!”

“I can't help it if she wants to be stupid!”

The two frowned at eachother, Amber Swing dropping back into a scowl as she sipped from the ladle.

I shook my head, planting my hoof on my splinted-leg on the book, holding it open at the entry I had first put in.

Our Town

Cutie marks: Two lines, akin to an equal sign.

Population: 200-250, split into three shifts. No significant interaction between these shifts outside of morning singing and evening meal.

-Glowing Ether (Unicorn, female)

-Woe Tree (Unicorn, female)

-Tempered Iron (Unknown, assumed male) (Earth Pony, Male)

-Water Margin (Unknown, unknown) (Pegasus, Male)

Contacts:

~Fair Smiles (Pegasus, Female)

~Soothing Constant (Earth Pony, Male)

And I began adding to it.

Goals:

Primary: Get Cutie-marks back

Secondary: Let Amber talk with Tempered Iron

Let Spice talk with Woe Tree about Trade

Recover Weapons

The thought crossed my mind to talk with Iron about his interest in me. However, I decided to shake that off. For starters, if the book was found by any of the town residents, an entry dedicated to killing a town leader probably wouldn't go over well, so just registering it as 'talk' would get the message across for the three of us, but wouldn't be a warning to anypony else. But saying 'talk' with Iron would get the message across. After all, I doubted that if we met with Iron or Woe Tree, it would be with all three of us together.

I looked back up at the duo. The three of us agreed not to eat the last of the daily ration until shortly before making the escape, as food was going to be an issue regardless how you cut it, so it would be better to save as much of it as possible for last. While I had suggested carrying some of the broth in my canteen, we all quickly agreed that such an idea wasn't the most practical thing, and it would be better to try and cram snow from a mountaintop into it for water, rather then the broth.

“Maybe I'm wrong.” I spat the graphite back onto the book to gaze at my fellow prisoners. “You want to stay, but you don't have a pressing need to stay.” I pointed at Amber. “If what you told me is true, you could probably forge yourself a new hammer.”

“There's not going to be another one like that. It's what I got my cutie-mark off of.” She glumly replied.

“You've changed the head and handle on it each at least six times” Spice remarked.

“A new hammer wouldn't be the same.”

I focused on the unicorn now. “And you want to leave but feel you can't?”

He gave a deep sigh. “I spent all my life trying to get into Tenpony.” He stood up and took a few steps away, looking toward the guard on the wooden outpost behind us. “While we could live somewhere else again, I don't want to throw all the work that got us there away.”

I thought about the town leaders for a bit. Of the four ponies with any power in the village, Woe Tree seemed to spend the least amount of time with the other three. Tempered Iron and Water Margin had been in the cave and helped with trying to secure my mark, and having talked about my new friends' experiences it was the same for them. But how? While my experiences in Water Margin's training field made it plain that I could handle myself in a controlled fight, the pegasus had an advantage in height with flight, not to mention the various guns which would probably have ammunition as well. I didn't have any ideas on how to get around that. There was also the possibility that even talking with Woe Tree wouldn't help my friends get their cutie marks back.

“We could always kill Ether.” The two of them stopped dead and gave me a blank stare. “If she's out of the picture and we keep Water Margin and Tempered Iron occupied or killed, there's nothing stopping you from talking to Woe Tree.” I pointed a hoof to my unicorn companion. “In fact, that could put you in a better bargaining position because she couldn't talk from a position of local power.”

There was a long moment of silence.

“When did an empty-head like you start thinking?” Amber Swing remarked, a smirk crossing her face.

“...Strange Flank...” He leaned in closer to me. It was a bit insulting for him to use the same term for me that everypony in the village had used, but I didn't exactly have a normal 'name' to use. “You know why we can't do that.”

I merely nodded. “You can't do that.” Things were starting to fall in place in my head. “But you two don't know me. No pony here knows me.”

“There's one problem with that.” Spice Chaser flatly remarked. “You've been in here with us for three days. We're all going to escape together. There is no way that they wouldn't associate Glowing Ether's death with us.” He turned his focus back to the wall, half-heartedly swinging so as to preserve energy for tonight.

It was a good point. I hadn't spent much time with Woe Tree, not even holding a conversation with her. For all we knew, such chaos might see her dig her hooves in and continue focusing on the isolation that had kept the village hidden for so long.

“What about you?” I stopped mid-thought, looking towards the earth pony mare who had also stood up, looking straight at me. She put a hoof down on the pick laying beside her and gripped the handle as it flipped up toward her mouth, never breaking eye contact. “And I'm not talking about your 'woe is me I can't remember anything' shit.” She muttered around the handle.

I continued starring at the page. While I felt a bit of fellowship with my new friends regarding the marks on our bodies, our circumstances were polar opposite. They knew what their purpose in life was, and had been forced to give it up. Unlike the two of them, I still had my cutie-mark. Whatever my purpose was in life, it was still part of me, just forgotten.

“Do you even have anywhere you want to go once your out?” Spice Chaser asked, digging into the side of the cave wall once more, freeing graphite and fragments of coal from it.

The question was multilayered in it's own right, and only heightened the gulf between me and the two of them. No 'where are you going'. The only place I had known, for about a week, was this village I was a prisoner in admist the mountains. Oh sure, I could extrapolate from what others told me about the world beyond and the conflict within it. But whatever place I had in it, if I ever had one, was lost to the black void in my mind. And I didn't even have a name to hint at my prior place in the world.

“Once the Enclave have finished leveling the Wastes, there's not going to be much left.” The mare cut in. “Actually, maybe things could get fun again. Everypony out to bash some pegasus skulls in, up to Nightmare Moon herself!” I could hear her ramming the pickaxe into the cave wall with hints of excited vigor. “Everypony out for themselves, no more factions beyond friends!”

I could hear Spice Chaser sigh to the side, abandoning a point I had already heard him make before. “If Manehattan and everything else isn't completely leveled, maybe we can see about getting you put up in Friendship City.”

The small city that was on the outskirts of the Manehattan ruins, located in the bay to be exact. He had mentioned it a few times before in passing and how he had lived there before moving to Tenpony Tower itself.

“I-” I bit my tongue. It was so tempting to ask about what would happen if that wasn't the case, if the outside was in total war like had been discussed. “I'd appreciate that.”

He looked over his shoulder, giving me a warm smile. “I thought you would. After all, what else are friends for?”

It wasn't my past or my purpose. It wasn't even a guarntee. But it was a kind possibility for a future beyond this. And for now, it was one of the best things anypony had offered me. I met his smile with one of my own, standing up and joining them in picking at the walls.

- - - - -

The final rays of the sun were snuffed out in the distance, salvation gone forever. I gave one more look over my shoulder at the Alicorn and her moon. Her gaze at me was finally broken by her moon, the massive sphere inexorably barreling closer and closer to my head.

Still I ran towards the everdistant horizon, hoping in vain that I could outrun the moon, outrun her wrath. I put my head down and continued the run, only seeing the shadow from the moon gradually overtaking me, slowly covering the entire empty expanse in darkness.

Time was out.

- - - - -

I passed the ladle back to Amber, my hooves going back to the lilac-colored book open on the cave floor in front of me. The dreams I had over the last three nights was just the same nightmare repeated time and time again, only bits and pieces more of it coming back to me night by night. Still, a pulse pounding nightmare was more then anything I had dreamt prior to this point. But it had never gone past the crashing moon point, a fitful awakening following each time.

Spitting out the chunk of graphite, I removed my hooves and let the book shut itself. “Remember.” I whispered to my friends. “It might be the middle of the night, but darkness won't hide everything. We only sprint to the mountains when there aren't anymore shadows to use.”

The two of them had relayed to me early on that our earthen prison was underneath a house at the end of the two rows that made up the village, closer to the Ministry Mare's personal residence then the mountain path leading out. We still didn't have an agreement on what to do after getting their marks back, we had all agreed that the choice would be better made at the vault rather when the two of them were back to normal.

Once more I looked at the the guard on the wooden outpost. He had fallen asleep sometime ago, discipline plainly not his strong suit. The candle light projected just enough illumination to make our pile of loose rock visible. The nicks we had made in the wall above it were harder to see, but at close range they were visible enough.

“Let's blow this cave.” Amber remarked, finishing the last bit of the soup. Unlike me, the two of them had no items of their own to take, the mare opting to nick a pick-axe while the unicorn stallion took a shovel.

Once underneath, I gingerly stepped my splinted-leg on the rocks, checking to ensure it wouldn't start sliding out from under me when I put my weight back on it. It gave no fightback, only slightly shifting as I put my full body on it. Now an extra few feet taller I gingerly reached forward and touched the wall, dragging my hoof against the wall until...

There. I could feel the first indent that would be for one of my rear legs. With a quit 'psst' I signaled Spice Chaser to give me a push, nothing straining but enough for my own weight to lead me falling off the wallside. I reached higher to where I could faintly see the shift in shadow and magic-light to hide another notch, reaching my unbound front leg to that and heaving my entire body up, the telekinesis shoving me against the wall.

Another notch, a continual push, and another stretch. My hooves barely fit in the notches we had made, and the higher ones were a lot harder for me to trust. It wasn't that I doubted Spice's ability to cut in, but a hole gradually chipped out with telekinesis wielding a shovel and pick wasn't as soothing as something I could have cut in the wall with a tool in my own mouth. Even my fellow earth pony friend's hoofwork would have been easier to hold confidence in, as that would also have been in easy reaching level and I could brace my weight off of it without injuring myself it the rock gave way.

Confident or not though, the unicorn's work was good enough to get me up. At the highest point notch, I reached out and to the left, trying to get a grip, however slight, on the side railing. I could feel the telekinetic shove starting to fade, but before it faded altogether I was able to hook my left leg around one of the rail's vertical beam, tossing my body sideways toward it and wrapping my right around a separate beam.

Crack

The time for silence was over.

Cra-SNAP

I yanked myself upwards, feeling the right most beam splintering apart near the base from my weight alone. My chest thudded onto the wooden platform as I exhaled, my bodyweight balanced firmly on the platform. A bit of shuffling from my front hooves and I was fully on the platform, right behind the guard who had fallen asleep in a half standing-half slouching position on the opposite side wooden railing. Despite so loudly breaking one of the beams into a near-break, he had not awoken.

With a kick I knocked the rope ladder off the side as I took a look at the guard. Leaning against the rail behind him was a rifle, just like the ones that Water Margin and Fair Smile had been wielding earlier. Immediately I bit down on the strap and tossed it over my shoulder, right afterwards ejecting the magazine. TO my surprise, it was completely empty. While I hadn't seen these guards ever point the rifle at us, only knowing to expect them form watching them change position, this was an..unsettling development. How would the guards have defended themselves against violent prisoners? Quickly I smacked the magazine back into place, my focus going back to the rope ladder, giving it a rough yank between my teeth.

Amber nearly matched me when it came to weight, if not being heavier due to extra muscle. The only thing that let me pull her up as quickly was the telekentic glow on her hindquarters, as Spice pushed her up with magic while I yanked with my strength. “You...find a key?” My fellow earth pony escapee whisper-asked upon reaching the top.

“He has nothing except an empty gun.” I walked over toward the door, looking right at the handle and the keyhole beneath it. The key hadn't been left in the lock either. It was as if the guards just walked in without a way out.

Of course! That made a lot more sense. The guards didn't need to be so strict with watching us if they knew that we wouldn't be able to get out. They guard wouldn't have any ammunition, just the threat. That way, if he was overwhelmed, the prisoners wouldn't be able to shoot back. Same with the lack of a key, in the even of an attempted escape, nopony would be able to just steal the key and evacuate. Granted, the three of us could just storm through when the morning guard came and opened the door, but that wouldn't be for several more hours and would undoubtedly put us under a much tighter timetable whenever the nightguard didn't leave. And depending on how late in the morning the shifts changed, we might be outside in the morning light, or worse, just as the entire town began their morning song.

“Give me a hoof, Strange Flank!”

I looked around on the planks, hoping to find something to force a break in the lock. For a moment I thought of grabbing one of the screws that was attached to piece of rail I had damaged with my weight, but a quick look at those nails showed that they were too wide to use for a kamikaze unlock. Instead, I bit down on the rope ladder along with Amber, giving it another rough yank.

Once Spice Chaser climbed up to the platform as well it was easy to tell he was winded from helping push me and Amber up. I pointed to the door, and he gave me a few seconds of blank staring before shrugging.

Our gaze uniformly swept across the platform, then back to eachother's eyes, uniformly and silently asking the same question: 'now what?' I winced just a bit as the metal in the mare's ears reflected the nearby magical candlelight into my eye-

That was it. “Amber. Your nose piercing.” I whispered harshly. She raised an eyebrow, cocking her head to the side as if I was crazy. Again I motioned to the lock. She obviously didn't get it. “Nose piercing. To pick the lock!” I whispered a bit louder with a bit of anger. For another second she stared at me blankly, and I could have blown a fuse in frustration if not for Spice leaning next to her ear and whispering something that helped her understand.

A few seconds later I had the piece of curved metal in my mouth, struggling to angle it with the lock. Spice stood beside me with Amber behind, both anxious for me to pick the lock. “When I say to-” I whispered toward my unicorn friend “-you need to magic-grab the bottom of the lock and push like you're using a prybar.” He nodded. Twisting the decorative metal between my lips, I carefully lined it up to the top of the hole, feeling it grind against the metal of the door's lock.

A click. The first pin pushed right to the top, with almost no resistance whatsoever. The second went into place just as easily, only for it to drop out the moment I moved the end of the piercing deeper into the lock. A sigh escaped my lips as I had to go back and reset the same pin. And then do it again even after the third pin went in place. Third time was the charm, and the final pin slotted into place without issue.

I gave a nod, and I could faintly feel the buzz of telekinetic grip tickling my chin before it pushed up and to the side. The lock disengaged, and I tossed my splinted hoof to the handle, gripping it and yanking it open.

We were out.

- - - - -

Achievement Unlocked: The Great Escape: Sneak out of the cave prison non-violently, and in less time then it would take to dig an underground tunnel that would still be twenty feet short.

Chapter 7: Acceptance Speech

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“It's all right here!”

It had been a quick sprint up a short flight of stairs into the main room of the Village's prison. Stone walls with iron sheets nailed in made up a one-room building. The dimensions where the same as any of the other houses in Our Town, but being in one large room with a high ceiling rather then being divided in a few rooms and floors was bit bewildering.

Spice Chaser was using his telekinesis to manipulate items inside a splintered wooden chest, a chest so old and splintered that the top for it had broken off and been left alongside it. “Everything's here. Guns, ammo...” He trailed off as a frown overtook the grin he had been speaking through. “...they took our food.”

His marefriend jumped toward the chest, her upper body leaning right into the chest with her backhalf sticking in the air. The wood made several splintering sounds before smashing itself apart under her weight, the mare dropping onto her stomach as the box folded apart. Instinctively I looked back toward the staircase, doing my best to focus my ears and see if this had awoken the guard.

“Danm it Amber.” We could hear the cringing in Spice's voice from the heavy earth pony tossing her weight around carelessly.

She didn't seem to care, squeeing with excitment before chomping her mouth down on a well polished piece of wood. With a flick from her neck the rest of a long hammer was revealed. The handle itself was as long as she was from nose to dock, nice and thin the entire way except for the wider mouth grip near the base that she had wrapped in her teeth. The head was unlike any other hammerhead I could imagine, looking like steel with a pair of asymmetrical cylindrical heads, one slightly shorter and thicker while the other was a few inches longer but thinner. With joy she sprung back onto all fours and began swinging her neck and head, sending her beloved weapon spinning through the air back and forth without a hint of precision. The joy in her face quickly faded though, and she dropped it on it's head with a grumpy frown, turning to her flank and smacking the equal sign adorning her. “I'll fuck him in half.” She muttered to herself.

Our unicorn compatriot levitated a pair of saddlebags onto his back, tightening those straps before reaching inside one of them and pulling out a rifle that looked like it had never seen a good day in it's life.

“Maybe you could use this.” He tossed the rifle to me, and I fumbled with it in my hooves for a moment before bringing it up to my mouth. “Fresh Raider Pipe Rifle. Never fired, dropped only once.” He gave a smile. Now with it in my hooves and mouth I gave it a more thorough look. A long pipe tightly bound to a wooden stock with a tiny hammer near the rear of the pipe that looked like it wouldn't last more then two shots. The only part that looked like it wouldn't fall apart in a few shots was the mouthgrip sticking from the side.

“What about you?” I asked back after removing it from my mouth, opening my satchel and sticking it nose-end into the satchel, the wooden stock sticking out toward me at an angle just enough for me to quickly bite down on if necessary.

“I like the buddy system we've got going here.” A pair of revolvers floated out of his saddlebags, one with a white barrel and black handle while the other had a black barrel and white handle. “12 shots between these, more then enough to put down anything moving.” He gave me a confident smirk, sliding the two of them back into his bags. In the faint glow of his telekinesis I could see writing carved in both of the barrels, though they were stowed before I could read either.

“You named your guns?”

He shook his head, passing a small box to me out from his bags, insinuating that it would go with my new pipe rifle. “Nah, I was got these while doing tasks for the Tower.” While I opened the box to inspect the 10mm ammunition inside, he continued his own equipment check with a small story. “Apparently the last mare who had these named them after her lovers.” He stopped for a moment while counting through other items in his bags. “Beautiful mare too. Swing found her as she expired from a stab wound in her throat.”

“At least that Colt Cuddler didn't take my spikes or Dash.” Amber interrupted. We both turned to look at her, and now I could understand what Spice meant by saying she couldn't be identified with her armor. Leather barding covered the front and sides of her body with her own pair of saddlebags draped over them. Separate from the barding, a gigantic metal plate covered her back with spikes arrayed on it in no particular order. Her head, forehead, and the back of her neck was likewise shielded by a steel helmet. The most striking part was the stains of blood throughout the leather pieces. Her unique hammer rested on a small pair of hooks on the right side of her armor, the mouthgrip positioned for quick access. She had gone from looking like a mare with a few problems, to a psychopath ready to adorn herself with the entrails of anypony close enough. There was the sound of steel clanging against itself as she dropped her said spikes into her own saddlebags.

“We don't exactly have any armor to spare.” Spice Chaser remarked, finally done with the checking of his equipment as he began wrapping a set of moderately tattered leather barding around his own body.

“It's fine.” The thought of trying to sneak out with all the metal plating that the earth pony mare had made me anxious. Anypony would hear that before you could get to them.

I came up to the door, noticing the same style of lock on it as what had been on the door to the mine itself. Fishing the nose-piecing back out of my saddlebags, I crouched down and motioned for Spice to come a bit closer to give me a hoof with his magic. Rather then assist though, he pulled a pair of bobby pins and a screwdriver out of his packs, offering them to me. The first bobby pin snapped almost instantly in the lock, the lock's keypins slipping out of place and causing me to put too much pressure on the small tool and not enough on the screwdriver. Being a bit more cautious with the second one, I was able to keep the locking pins loosely held up and unlocked the door, opening it just a crack. I turned to offer the screwdriver back to my unicorn friend, but he shook his head, leaning near to me. “Compared to me, you're a master of unlocking.”

Stashing the screwdriver and slightly bent bobbypin into my satchel, I turned to face the two of them. “No talking. Stick to the shadows.” I reminded them. Hooking my non-splinted hoof around the edge of the door, it slowly creaked open, just far enough for me to look out and take stock of the situation.

The village was silent. There were no lights in any of the windows of the houses, nopony outside, and almost no noise. I stepped back, biting down on the handle to swing the door inward. Silently I waved my right foreleg, my compatriots getting the message and sneaking alongside me. The two of them stayed right alongside the wall of the prison, as I pulled the door shut behind me, the sound of the latching lock sounding like a deafening thunderclap in the nighttime silence.

With our last chance to turn back now shuddered, I quickly led the way, creeping between the prison and it's neighboring house to hide into the shadows. As the already limited natural nightlight faded into nearly pure darkness, I couldn't help but breath a sigh of relief, feeling tension drain out of my body. There weren't dozens of ponies looking at your every move, no requirements to fit into a crowd. Just oneself and the darkness.

The clinking of Amber's armor and Spice's hoofalls unsettled my concentration. Neither of them were very quiet, and we were going to have to navigate in the small alley between these two rows of houses. I stopped, and turned to give both of them a glare, raising my hoof to my mouth to infer that neither were being quiet enough. Our guard had been a deep sleeper, but there was no reason to believe the other two hundred plus ponies here would be similarly deep sleepers.

It quickly turned out that my two friends had no idea how to actually move swiftly and quietly, particularly the one that insisted on wearing loud metal armor. Finding myself incredibly annoyed by the noise, I came to another dead stop after only moving ten more paces, spinning directly towards both of them.

“We're walking.” I whispered harshly at the duo. Spice Chaser gave a nod, but Amber Swing let out a long sigh in exasperation. At least she wasn't trying to argue back which would surely wake up anypony who wasn't already aware of our presence. At our now reduced pace the volume of clanging metal dropped significantly in volume and pitch.

Just as we stepped to the edge of the row of houses, something in the surrounding mountains caught my eye. I raised my splinted leg into the air, signaling back to my friends to hold up. For the briefest of moments I wondered if they would even know what I meant, but my they assuaged my fears by coming to a stop right behind me. My eyes scanned over the darkened mountain ranges, once again seeing the small light in the far distance. It was in the mountain range opposite of the cutie mark vault, a faint little thing blinking out of existence akin to being blocked.

Perhaps a guard on the mountains, or even an entire small group roaming the borders of the village at night to stay strong against any threats coming in or going out. Like us. It would be several dozen meters before the three of us would even come close to reaching the first hill that would lead us to the Cutie Vault, and if they were looking at us, we'd be visible for the entire trek up as well. While darkness did cover the entire valley, hills, and mountains, they had lights, and if there was any way for them to point it at us, we'd be exposed easily.

“Stay aware.” I whispered after turning my head to my fellow escapees. “I think they have guards in the mountains. They shouldn't be watching for us, but we'll need to make sure they aren't going to circle back around toward us.”

Both of them nodded, and I took a step forward, out of the shadow of the building and into the lighter shadow of the cloud-covered night. As the gap between ourselves and the village gradually increased, I couldn't help but pick up my pace, my heart starting to thud faster in my chest as I broke into a canter, an eye turned to the distant light that once again flickered in the distance, still a bit apprehensive about it. It was an apprehension that lasted even after I reached the base of the hill and had to turn away, focusing my eyes on my hooffalls as I ascended.

Reaching the peak of the first hill, I turned around once more to check on my friends again. By virtue of them carrying more items they were a bit slower coming up the hill, abut 12 paces behind. My eyes rose above them and to the village, and my mind drifted just a bit.

It was likely I'd never see Fair Smile again. While our first meeting had been mostly poor luck on her part, she had reached out time and time again toward me. In the several days I had been awake, she had been the first pony to reach out repeatedly toward me, even going as far as informing me of the village's dark open secret, and later retrieving my satchel when it had been lost. It seemed cruel to just leave, with no thanks or well wishes.

But that was entirely too dangerous at this point. When the next changing of the guard came about, alarms would quickly go up about our escape. It was imperative that we get my new friend's cutie marks back and put as much distance between ourselves and this village. As much as the two of them didn't like it, leaving was the only practical option. And staying back for even a few extra moments for well wishes would only put us in further jeopardy. Not to mention if they found out that we had made contact with her before leaving-

“Hey. You ok?” My fellow escapees had crested the hilltop, the unicorn also looking out to the dark village after breaking my focus.

“Yes.” I turned my back to the village, shoving down a twinge of guilt. “The cutie mark vault will be a bit farther down the path.”

Amber Swing, with all the armor still on, was taking a moment to catch her breath from the trek uphill. While I had no doubt under normal circumstances the exertion wouldn't be that difficult for her, it was hard to ignore the fact that our lean rations over the last few days weren't doing her any favors. IN fact, it probably wasn't doing any of us any favors. I had been passively worried about food before, but now my confidence in staying healthy during this escape was starting to wane a bit.

The three of us all now ready to go again, I began leading the way through the darkness. The absence of light made me slow my pace compared to the steady pace that I had been forced to take the prior day, my confidence in the path coming more from the way the earth was packed beneath my hooves by hundreds of ponies over two centuries before.

“It's so nice to be free again!” Swing shouted aloud, taking in a deep breath and shattering the nightly tranquility.

“Sshh!” I raised my right forehoof to my mouth and shushed her. “There's at least one pony out in the mountains looking for something, let's not be loud enough to alert the others!”

In the dim light I could see her turn to look at me, the sight of her frowning just faintly being seen. “Party Pooper.” She harshly whispered. However, she didn't talk anymore as I continued to stare at the ground, paranoid about losing the way forward.

“Is that it?” Spice said in a voice between a whisper and normal talking. Raising my head, it took a bit for my eyes to adjust to the slightest difference in brightness. The mouth of the cave gave off a very faint glow, almost imperceptible in the cloud covered darkness. My two friends quickly broke into a gallop to rush into it, leaving me behind as they rushed ahead. Still a bit concerned about the risk of being surprised by somepony else catching us off guard. Putting my back to the cave, I once again began looking at the darkened mountains around us, searching for any hint of light.

“WHERE DID THAT COLT CUDDLER PUT IT!” Amber Swing's shout carried out of the vault. I looked behind me, the sound of something slamming into the rocky earth, probably her spike maul, echoing out. Spice Chaser trotted up through the faint glow and looked at me with a very defeated stare.

- - - -

The large vault was faintly illuminated from the glow from the unicorn corpse in her glass coffin. Now that I had a closer view of the gigantic vault, it was easier to discern the various cutie marks on each piece of paper which was stuffed behind the glass. If I hadn't been here a few days earlier and been subjected to a complex spell connected to it, it would have been easy to think they had all just been painted on paper and laminated in glass for artistic preservation.

“Ignoring the fact that we don't know how to get them off the paper-” My unicorn friend remarked. “-Our marks aren't here. Despite the fact that we both had them pulled off here, saw them get burned onto paper, and watched them get placed in these slots.” He tapped a pair of empty glass-covered slots. “I've already looked over the rest of them and they've not been moved.” I cast my gaze over the rest of the marks on display while Spice Chaser gave a sigh.

“I'm going to sneak back down there, and I'm going to drop my hammer right on that bastard's neck!” The former raider mare remarked, sitting on her haunches with her back turned toward us and forehooves crossed.

“You two didn't even know how to get your marks back?”

“I have some contacts in Tenpony Tower that are good with spells. I figured that if we couldn't stick them on, we could bring them back and hope they could undo it.” For a brief moment I thought of the large glyph that was on the floor of the room buried in the rockslide. “I'm not really sure what the plan is going to be now.”

I thought about our situation for a bit. Two of us were armed with plenty of ammunition, but we were all depressingly low on food, and we didn't have the one thing my friends needed the most. While it was still late at night and potentially possible to get many miles away from the village, what would be the point if we would have to come back here later? Doubly so if there was still fighting between the Enclave and wasteland ponies beyond the mountains.

“We're not leaving.” Both of them gave me a blank stare. “There's no point. Not if we have to come back here anyway to get your marks back.”

Amber Swing gave a dark smile as she looked at me, wrapping the end of her forelegs tighter around her spike maul. “About time you started coming to your senses!” She began picking herself up. “Let's show those starbuckers what it means to take your life from a pony!” She bit down on the edge of the hammer.

“Amber!” The unicorn shouted at her. “You know we can't do that!” He was obviously referring to her constantly expressed desire to go back and try to solve the situation with violence.

“Why not? We go in there and smash each and every manipulative bastard and bitch in the head. If we were able to sneak out without problem, we should be able to do the same coming in!”

I shook my head to the negative. “No, Spice is right.” I turned to face both of them, sitting on my haunches. “Lets say we go down there and kill every leading pony in the dark, which you couldn't do with all that noisy armor you're wearing.” She gave me a wicked glare. “Then how will we find out where they took your marks? Do you really think that we can go door to door to every building to find two pieces of paper with cutie marks on them, and nopony would put up a fight?” I shook my head to the negative. “No, we'll need to have them tell us where they are, or find a way to spy on them checking the marks...” I trailed off, a plan starting to form in my head.

“After they see that we're gone?” Spice Chaser picked up on the train of thought that had started to form. “Of course! But I don't know if all of us can sneak back or not.”

“I'll do it.” I stood back up. “I'm the most comfortable out of the three of us sneaking around. I can get back down their before the night, and using your-” I pointed to Amber Swing “-piercing that you lent me earlier along with your-” Now I pointed to Spice Chaser “-screwdriver, I should be able to brute force my way into Ether's house. When the changing of the guard shift finally happens, she'll be informed and either check for the marks herself, or get one of the ponies under her to check.”

The two of them looked at eachother, seemingly holding a conversation just between each other with only their eyes, then back at me. “What if you get caught?” Spice Chaser asked.

“I won't.” I remarked back, putting on a bold smile. In all reality, the plan that I had formed on the fly made me a bit nervous. It wasn't the idea of sneaking in and out that got me, but what to do with my two newest friends. “We'll just have to find somewhere for you two to hide in these mountains that they won't find you, while you wait for me.”

Both ponies shook their head.

“We don't have the food!”

“Now's not the time to act weak!”

The duo shouted over eachother, before exchanging another glance back and forth, carrying another wordless conversation between the duo. It might be cute if we were in a more relaxed position, but with tensions high being left out of these conversations built from years of familiarity irked me a bit.

“If I may.” Spice Chaser poised to his marefriend, who merely rolled her eyes. Still, she did concede talking to him, and he took the opportunity. “We simply don't have the food. All we have is what we ate before leaving, and that's it. It's going to be iffy enough trying to get out of these barren mountains with just that, but asking us to wait another day would be suicidal. And you want us to hide here in the mountains, close to their village, where they could still find us?”

I gave a nod. “I can try to steal food down there while we're at it.”

“You two colts!” Amber Swing stepped right in between both of us. “This is a Mare's world, and out here the meanest mother buckers survive!” She pointed to her coltfriend first. “I can always expect you to want to talk and reason your way out of things, but you!” Now the mare spun around and accusingly pointed her right hoof at me. “You're no better! I thought you were a pony of action with how quickly you got us out of there, but you're just as scared of action as he is!” Her hoof slammed onto the ground in exclamation. “For all they know right now, we are still sleeping in the bottom of a cave. So we should do this the Raider way!”

“We can't go in there and just kill whoever we want Am-”

“I didn't say kill them!” She cut the unicorn off mid sentence. “What we're going to do is knock down the head mare's front door, wake her up in the middle of the night, and at gunpoint force her to tell us where our cutie marks are and how to put them back on our assess!”

“And then what?” I asked, disbelieving her crazy idea but curious as to what her end point was.

“We force them to let us leave, after I bash the metal worker in the head!” She held a hoof up to her lover once more. “I don't care, We're not leaving until I feel his blood on my hooves for all the problems he's given us!”

“We've already talked about why we can't do that.”

Amber got right into Spice's face. The Unicorn took a nervous step back, and she responded by raising her right hoof and planting the edge of her hoof right on his nose. “This entire time we've followed your plans. It was your idea to come down here and try talking first. It was your idea to just go along when they wanted to show us their grand cutie vault, and because of your ideas we're now without food, without our marks, and you don't even have your special trading agreement out of it!” She sat her hoof down, spinning around to face the mouth of the cave. “We're doing this my way now. And Sneaky Flank over here is coming with us.”

- - - -

“Danm it.” I whispered aloud, letting the now snapped piercing drop to the ground. “Do either of you have any more of those piercings?”

This was the first speedbump in the mare's plan, which basically amounted to storming down and holding Glowing Ether at the end of a weapon until she gave us what my friends wanted. Sneaking back down to the village went well enough, but I had just snapped the last bobbypin I had been given, along with her piercing trying to unlock the door.

“Get out of my way.” Amber Swing abruptly shoved me aside, not even caring about how loud her voice was or even how close I was. She grabbed a railroad spike from her bag and forced it into the wooden door just above the handle, wood splintering from the force. Next up she grabbed her spike maul in her mouth, and I had to scramble back to all fours to stand a distance away as she whipped her head sideways, slamming the thicker end of the hammer against the door, missing her spike by an inch, but still creating a deep indent in the door. Her stance stumbled just a bit, the spell from her remarking trying to depress her again, but she tightened her grip on the mouthguard and swung again. This one made an angled contact on the edge of the spike, driving it through and dropping the chunk of formed iron through the door and into the house with a loud clang, followed right afterwards by the handle and locking mechanism of the door. The earth pony mare slammed her body against the door, throwing it open with her own body. As it swung open she stopped just long enough to put her hammer back on the hooks of her barding and grab the iron spike back in her mouth, breaking into a gallop right afterwards.

Spice Chaser and I stepped in behind her, taking a look at the dark interior of the first floor living room. A table could be seen in the middle of the living room, which was the only major difference between the first floor of this house and Soothing Constant's. I made a brief glance toward what would have been the operating room in Constant's place, only to see what looked like a writing desk. The sound of the angry mare galloping up the stairs kept me from spending any more time looking around, and I quickly followed behind my two friends up the staircase.

The door to Glowing Ether's bedroom was already shoved open by the time I got there, and I could just see over Spice Chaser's shoulders as Amber Swing leaped across the bedroom. The house's resident had just leaned up, likely awoken from our commotion. Out earth pony compatriot landed on the bed, using her bulk to shove the unicorn onto her back and pressing the edge of the railroad spike against Glowing Ether's throat. “Where are our Cutie Marks!? And where is that danmed iron ruiner!?”

I could see Ether's eyes grow wide, the yellow and pink pony utterly surprised and overwhelmed by the force that had been brought down upon her in her own bed. As us two males stepped into the room behind the former raider mare, I watched as Ether took a deep breath, gathering herself together before giving a small smile. “Why should we tell you?” I had to credit her, with how explosive Amber's entrance had been, Ether did an amazing job regaining her wits and speaking in a controlled manner, only the faintest of trembles coming across her voice.

“Because if you don't, I'll drive this spike so far through your throat your pillow will become a second head!” Swing spat out, holding the spike between her two forehooves.

“And what if we don't tell you, and you kill us anyway?”

“Then we'll go door to door until either everypony is dead, or someone tells us.”

The unicorn threw her head back, or at least shifted in a backwards motion considering how she was pinned, and let out a laugh. “You think the three of you can take on all of Our Town?” She laughed again, forcing a much haughtier tone towards it. “Even if we died here, the moment any of you stepped outside you'd all be hanged on the Tree of Woe, and Starlight's dream would live on.”

“There's more of us.” I stepped forward, butting into the talk. “Do you think I really came here alone?” It was a big risk, trying out a lie like this. But in the days I had spent here it was made very plain to me what the village's inhabitants were afraid of more then anything else, the outside world. Amber Swing had taken a massive gambit with her idea to charge in, and it wasn't going to pay off without some smooth talking to accompany it.

Immediately it started paying off. Ether turned her head to get a better look at me from the corner of my eye, her irises slowing shrinking into pupils. “If I hadn't fallen off a cliff, I would have left earlier and we would have eradicated all of you, even these two raiders, without a second thought.”

She stared at me, and I could swear she was staring to anxiously sweat a frothy white foam across her forehead. “You...how are they staying fed?”

Mentally I bit my tongue. She was scared of the lie, but she didn't fully trust it either, already trying to find holes within. “We're a professional raider group, descendants of the old Equestrian army before the war. We go from town to town and take whatever they've got. You're next.” I raised my splinted hoof to point at her in the bed.

“Mare Ether!” The shout came from downstairs from a familiar voice. I looked over my shoulder and watched the newcomer fly up the staircase, Water Margin locking eyes with me and dropping from the air onto all fours, eyes narrowing as he shifted from concern to combat. However, he had been carrying a lot of momentum, and as his wings folded back to his sides he slid on the wood through the doorway, coming to a stop just as Spice Chaser levitated one of his two revolvers up to his head, the end of the ivory barrel making contact just behind his ear. The unicorn didn't even bother saying anything, just shaking his head faintly to discourage any fightback.

“Good morning Water Margin! As you can see, our guests have decided to pay us an early morning visit.” Ether remarked, still keeping her gaze on me. “They're the welcoming party for more friends.”

The pegasus' eyes widened in shock. “How? We made our rounds and didn't come across anypony! They couldn't have found us!”

“Our methods-” I took control of the situation again, looking straight at the unicorn mare once more “-don't concern you. I came down here to see how much food you ponies have, and I must say, it's fantastic. We could be convinced to leave, but only if you give us your best rations now and swear to pay our clan tribute, along with giving our two new members their cuties marks back...” I paused for a moment. “And let Swing there have the duel she so badly wants with Tempered Iron.” It was worth throwing her a bone, her willingness to forsake stealth had gotten us closer to our goals then anything I or Spice Chaser had come up with thus far. If I played my cards right I could also have Spice have his food conversation with Woe Tree under the guise of tribute to a large raiding band, and the three of us could all be done with this place. A dark smile crossed Swing's face, gleeful at the thought of her long desired fight.

The ball was back in Mare Ether's court, and I could see her weighing the options in her head. “Will you let me get on my hooves and out of bed?” I gave a nod to Amber Swing, angling my head just a bit to try and communicate to her that it was time to move. She picked up on it and crawled backwards and off the bed, letting the Unicorn stand up on the wooden floor. “And would you let Water Margin fetch Tempered Iron and Woe Tree, so we can better discuss the details of your duel and...” She grimaced. “...and your tribute.”

This was pushing it. Inside this house we had a three-to-two advantage. If the pegasus stepped outside though, he could quickly call in reinforcements and overwhelm us through sheer numbers if he just shouted loud enough.

“Spice.” I called out to the unicorn, who turned his focus to me as well. “follow Water Margin outside but don't let him say or try anything fancy.” He stood still like a statue, and just from the way he looked at me it was plain that unlike his marefriend, he was not nearly as comfortable in this situation that had been orchestrated beyond his control. “And make it quick.”

Margin shot a sideways glance to the unicorn that held him at gunpoint. “Before your new friend lets their nervousness put a hole in our head...” The pegasus shifted his gaze back to me. “How about you just let us call out the front door to our team, and let them send Iron and Woe Tree in on their own?”

There was so much information dripping from his suggestion. While he was obviously not excited about being held at gunpoint, he was outright insinuating that my unicorn friend lacked the discipline necessary to keep the current situation stable in my favor, and he was showing at least part of his hoof on how he wasn't truly alone.

“Don't let him say anything to his team, except that those two are to be sent in here.” Spice Chaser nodded, jerking the gun away from the pegasus' head, allowing him to turn around and trot toward the staircase, the unicorn following behind.

“Let us move this conversation downstairs.” Mare Ether commented, as she used her magic to adjust her hair into the same style that I had always seen her wear. “We can all sit at a table and discuss things like civilized ponies.” She didn't even wait for me to give a response, boldly strutting across the room with Amber Swing following behind, gripping her railroad spike in her mouth, leaving me to be the last one to step out of the room.

“You ready to join a new raider gang honey!?” Amber Swing remarked once downstairs, walking up behind her lover. “Now you can live all the same stories I've gotten to tell you, yourself!”

“Didn't you leave a raider gang already?”

“Yeah, well...” She stuttered for a short moment. “I'm un-retiring, and I'm bringing you back with me!” For all her seemingly mindless desire to just smash ponies head in, the earth pony I had spent the last few days showed a fantastic ability to ad-lib ontop of my own massive story. Granted, it had been her idea to begin with to go in loud and lie even louder, but this was a depth that I hadn't expected from her.

I watched as Ether opened a drawer near the bottom of the desk and levitated out a book, this one bound by lilac plastic similar to that of Starlight's Glimmer's of Truth, but the inside of the binding was replaced with a pair of large metal rings with glass pages attached to that, the thickness of the book being determined by the rings rather then the small number of glass-laminated pages inside. Shutting the drawer, she turned around and strutted toward the table, the binder in her telekinetic grasp making the clinking sound of glass on glass. Upon reaching the table she sat it down, opening it wide and displaying the contents. Inside each pane of the binder's glass pages were what appeared to be cutie marks. She gently flipped the glass from one pane to another, taking care with it. I could see a megaphone, an ingot of what appeared to be iron, a bucket of water, and two stalks of wheat pass by, before she came to the two marks we had a personal interest in. First was Spice Chaser's, a darkbrown cupcake topped with white swirls and sprinkles of other colors mixed in the swirl. Ether turned this glace pane as well and revealed Amber Swing's, showcasing the head of a hammer similar to her own, it's head just a small gap over a miniaturized railroad spike.

“Mare Ether?” That was Woe Tree, the lanky female unicorn stepping into the room with wide eyes as she took in the sight.

“Woe Tree, please take a seat.” She motioned to the table. The unicorn complied, never taking her anxious gaze off of us. She was followed shortly afterwards by Tempered Iron, his height and bulk letting him barely squeeze through the damaged frontdoorway. His response to the situation was much more neutral, just letting a disappointed frown overtake his muzzle.

With all seven of us now assembled, we each took a seat around the circular table. I kept a gaze through the front windows and door, while Amber Swing sat to my right and Spice Chaser took a spot to my left. Directly opposite of me was Mare Ether, with Tempered Iron to her left and Water Margin to her right, while Woe Tree sat between Iron and Amber. My earth pony companion still held a railroad spike in her mouth, while my unicorn companion kept both revolvers in the air, one aimed at Water Margin, and the other at Glowing Ether.

“Let us start with what you want.” Glowing Ether began, placing the elbow joints of her forelegs on the table and leaning forward, resting her lower jaw in the V made between her hooves. “Strange Flank here has a roaming army of raiders out in the mountains, and wants us to let them go with these two raiders he met in your mine Iron.” The large earth pony snorted. “They also want us to give their cutie-marks back as well. And most importantly, they want us to pay their massive raider army with our food...” She shifted her head a bit toward Woe Tree, who mouth had taken a pronounced 'O' shape. “...and wants to let their mare fight our own Tempered Iron to the death.” His grey horsehair obscured it a bit, but I could see color drain from his face.

“In exchange...” She pointed her hoof towards me. “...they will convince their evil raider army that we're not worth the effort of invading.” She gave a smirk. “Am I missing anything else?”

“Rations.” Spice Chaser cut in. “We want food upon our departure, so we can prove to his army that the rest of the payment will come later.” He angled his head toward my own.

“Mare Ether!” Water Margin was the first to protest. “This is absurdism! If they had an army in the mountains, my night crews would have seen the fires they set at night! It's a bluff!” He raised a hoof at us. “Let us give the word, and our best guards can have them subdued and ready to go on the Tree!”

“Mare Ether, If I may?” Tempered Iron spoke up next. “I want proof that they actually have a roaming group out in the mountains. Talk is cheap.”

I bit the inside of my cheek. Proof would be difficult provide for such a massive lie. Somepony had already gone through my friend's personal belongings when they were initially kidnapped, evidenced by the fact that the food they had brought with them had since been taken.

“We are also interested in proof.” Glowing Ether remarked back, a bold smile on her lips. “We see sticking out of your satchel is some sort of rifle, but it looks like crap compared to any of our own weapons. For all we know, you could have tied together some wood and pipes before charging in here.”

“That rifle was originally in the Unicorn's personal belongings.” Iron pointed out. It was a simple assumption, and was the only belonging I had been given that didn't come from somewhere in the town. Even among those items, I only had the satchel, a water canteen, Glimmers of Truth and the graphite I had been writing in it, and...

I nosed into my satchel and bit down on the metallic apple, pulling the explosive out and dropping it on the table. “This is a grenade.” I remarked, planting my hoof on the top of it. “If I pull this pin because you give us too much trouble, we all will bleed out from the shrapnel, and in three days the town gets overrun by my gang.”

The heads of Our Town all gave the explosive a long stare. Glowing Ether was the first to break focus, raising an eyebrow as she looked at the pegasus sitting beside her. “It is a grenade. But we don't have any of those.” He shook his head. “We don't know where they got it from, but it hasn't been pilfered from our armory.”

“Mare Ether?” Woe Tree spoke up for the first time since first stepping inside. “Regardless if their army exists or not, we can't afford to let them leave with any food. We're stretched to the limit as it is, and the only reason we can hold steady at 227 ponies in town is because we don't have a winter here, and we're allowed to use our corpses as fertilizer to restore nutrition to the soil.” She sighed. “But if we lose anything more then a bowl of potato soup we would start dealing with sicknesses just from starvation alone, if not a population collapse.” The two female unicorns stared at each other for a moment, before Woe Tree took another deep breath. “Perhaps if you let some of us receive our marks back, those of us with a gift for growing food cou-”

“Denied!” The head unicorn slammed her hoof down on the table. “Woe Tree, since I have become Ministry Mare, we have had four harvesting cycles, and each time we go through this. You know what Glimmers of Truth say about Cutie Marks.”

The blue unicorn gave a dejected sigh. “Cutie Marks are nature's way of forcing ponies to manipulate and abuse other ponies, we know.”

“Not only would you be fine with letting these outsiders go ahead and abuse us, you'd encourage our own friends to turn against eachother! If you weren't needed for the harvesting, we'd have a mind to throw you into the mines ourself!”

Thoroughly humbled, the older unicorn stiffened up as she sat her forehooves back on her chair.

“What we don't get.” The younger of the two unicorns turned her focus back to me. “Is why out of us four ponies, you'd want to target Tempered Iron.”

“His factory is an affront to Metal Working!” Amber dropped her spike onto the table, pointing a hoof at her rival. “If there was ever a place to get the worst pig iron in the wastes, it's his! And he personally went through my stuff, and removed my cutie mark.”

“They all removed our marks together.” Spice Chaser murmured to himself, barely loud enough for me to hear.

“How very convincing.” The village leader remarked. “But we didn't ask the filly.” Strange remark, considering that the two of them looked to be the same age. “I want to hear his reasoning.” She pointed a hoof at me, marking only the second time she had ever used a direct singular pronoun toward me.

“It's Amber's payment for being so willing to join us.” There wasn't really any strong incentive to lie at this point. “She's been raging against him for so long, and leaving your village without one of it's core pillars would keep you from trying to buck the system later.”

“How about that, Iron? The outsider pony you so desparately wanted to keep around so you could mold them in your image.” The young unicorn mare leaned back in her chair, smirking maliciously at the factory head. “And they want you to lay down your life in favor of another outsider.”

“Ether, we didn't know-”

Glowing Ether pushed her chair back, jumping onto all fours. “Shut up! We think you're lying.” Her gaze scanned across not just the three of us, but her three subordinates also. “All of you are lying.” She walked behind the lone pegasus at the table, looking out the side of her eyes at the three of us. “We think that you've worked out a deal with our dear security pony, our own Water Margin, so when you sent your raider army in, his team would stand aside and let you try to force me out for someone else to take power here as a puppet.” She turned her head and shot a dirty glare at Woe Tree.

“What?” The three of us shouted out at once.

“Mare Ether!” Margin protested aloud. “Our family have always been loyal to the Ministry Mare of Our Town, all the way back to Double Diamond and Ministry Mare Starlight Glimmer!”

Woe Tree and Tempered Iron were the only two that didn't say anything in response. “If they remove Tempered Iron, they remove one of the two pillars of Our Town that worked under the last Ministry Mare, and more importantly, the only one that clashes with the other two pillars.” With her magic she grabbed the binder and held it in the air next to her face. “Raider army or not, we won't stand idly by and let outsiders try to corrupt how we run Our Town and our friendship. So we must enthusiastically say...no deal!” The glass clinked loudly as a punctuation to her denial, and She turned her back to us, beginning to walk toward her ruined front door.

“Hey! We're not leaving here without our Cutie Marks!” Amber Swing leapt from her seat and proceeded to give chase. Mare Ether looked over shoulder and smirked, before sprinting outside.

“Amber, NO!”

“It's a trap!” Spice Chaser and I shouted at the same time, but our words fell on deaf ears. The moment the earth pony stepped outside, she was tackled from the side by a pegasus swooping down from above.

I jumped up, knowing that while there would be more guards lying in wait outside, it would be better to try and help my friend rather then idly stand by inside. Water Margin flared his wings open and lunged toward me, so I sidestepped away from him, trying to extend the distance between us. The pegasus used the air beneath his wings to crash into my rear legs, wrapping his legs around my left hindleg and sending me crashing to the ground. Before he could stand up and take advantage, I rolled onto my back and pounded my right-rear hoof into his face, forcing him to dislodge his grip on my leg and letting me roll back onto my front and get back on all fours.

Through the reflection of the window I saw Spice hook his forelegs under the table and throwing it into the air, using his magic as an aid. Before it landed the reflection shattered, glass blowing inward as two earth ponies jumped into the building. Both of them held a semi-automatic rifle like the one Fair Smile practiced with on the roof several days before.

I didn't give the two any attention, instead running out into the cloud-covered early morning sunrise. Looking to my right to see Amber Swing being overwhelmed by a Pegasus-Unicorn duo wrapping a rope around her legs as if to hog tie her. I jumped off the small porch at the front of the house, only to get bodied by an Earth Pony who had been crouching in wait beside the porch. The wind was knocked out of me as I was smashed between his bulk and the wood of Ether's house. Somehow, I kept on all fours, but before I could even catch my breath the business end of a semi-automatic was pressed to the side of my head.

“Good Morning Ponies of Our Town!” Glowing Ether boldly stepped forward to the growing throng of village inhabitants that were stepping out to begin the morning song. “Today we have a special feature.” She looked over her shoulder, lining her gaze straight with mine. “These outsiders came here and threatened our peaceful town, even breaking into our home while we were sleeping!” I could hear a unicorn's magic activating and saw an old rope in a telekinetic grip be held up beside me, though the sound of the telekinesis didn't overpower the collective gasp from Ether's recounting of events. “But fret not! Through friendship and trust we've overcome their attack, and there's only one thing left.” If I wasn't still winded from the bodyslam, I would have probably chuckled at the irony of 'friendship and trust' when the same mare had just accused one of her closest workers of orchestrating a coup with us.

Speaking of which, I could hear the clopping of hooves behind me as the ponies that had still been inside began filing out. Tempered Iron led the trio, with Woe Tree and Water Margin following closely behind. Between the three of them were three distinctly different reactions to the entirety of what had gone down. Iron stood proud, his chest pushed forward with pride and head leaned back similarly as if nothing had happened. The pegasus had returned back to the expression he normally seemed to wear, a neutral glare with a confident but not haughty trot, taking his place behind the town's leader. The only thing that hinted at a break in his bearing was the bloodied snout that my hoof had given him. Woe Tree was the opposite of Iron. Despite nearly matching his height under normal circumstances, she held her head low, nearly shuffling her hooves and obviously smarting from the curt reprimand Glowing Ether had given her.

Behind the trio came the two guardsponies that had busted through the front windows, each of them holding a length of rope in their mouths and dragging Spice Chaser through the door behind him, his face and neck bloodied and bruised while his legs were hogtied together with the two lengths of rope held by his captors. With one eye he looked at both myself and Amber Swing, mouthing a simple 'sorry' to both of us.

Glowing Ether began talking to the village ponies again, by this point just about everypony was out and gathered in a large disorganized throng, gawking at the three of us. Scanning the crowd a familiar face caught my eye. Fair Smile had caught my gaze, our eyes locking as a frown overtook her muzzle, the knowledge of my fate depressing the first friend I had made in the village.

THWACK

Everypony's attention was immediately brought to the second stallion that was dragging Spice Chaser, my ears reflexively folding back against my head from the sound. The loud impact was followed by the deadening thud of said stallion landing back-first on the ground, the impact having twisted him into the air. His corpse crumpled upon impact, and as my ears began to perk up I could heard the fading reverberations of a boom from the mountains surrounding us.

THWACK

The second impact rang out in tandem with the other stallion that had secured my unicorn friend. Rather then centering on the chest like the first one, the earth pony's head simply ceased to exist, his headless body dropping to the floor as blood and gore fell from the chasm at the end of his neck like a deflated party canon. The shot which struck him had continued on it's trajectory into the Ministry Mare's house after deleting the pony's skull from existence, the sound of wood splintering fighting against the shot's fading echo.

“ATTACK!” Water Margin shouted out, spreading his wings as several other ponies sprinkled among the crowd reacted by slinging weapons to their mouths while others leapt to try and take defensive positions against the walls of the houses.

THWACK

This one plowed through the pony that had just finished securing Amber Swing, His head didn't vanish, but merely dropped to the ground as his neck disintegrated from the projectile, the corpse tossing back against the base of the house we had all came out of and splattering gore across it like a bowl of soup had been thrown at it.

THWACK

The pony that had just about finished binding my own hooves was one of the first to react to the assault against the other guardsponies, already separating himself from me and attempting to leap to the side of the house. The newest shot caused his entire backside slid out from behind him, collapsing from the force of the bullet and dragging the rest of him down alongside.

Time slowed. The sound of ponies screaming and hurriedly trying to retreat into their houses were coupled with orders that could just faintly be heard by the head of the village's guardsponies. Tempered Iron had leapt towards Glowing Ether and attempted to shield the unicorn with his bulk, escorting her to an alley between two of the closer homes, while Woe Tree scrambled back into the house she had departed from mere moments ago.

I bit down on the ropes on my forelegs, noting that the splint had made the knot very loose and easy to bite off. With a yank it came loose, allowing me to contort my body and do the same, with a bit more effort, to my rear legs. Coming back to my hooves, I first went to Amber Swing, who had already twisted her body to wrap the ropes she was bound with around one of her barding's spike, yanking on it and fraying the ropes. They snapped as I got to her, and she took my outstretched hoof and got right back onto all fours. Our gazes simultaneously moved to Spice Chaser, who released a burst of red energy from his horn which cut the ropes around his own hooves, allowing him to stumble back onto all fours just a few paces from us.

The guards-ponies began returning fire. The thwacks of a powerful rifle and its ensuing gore had stopped, but our eyes followed the aim of the few remaining guards-ponies as they pointed toward the eastern mountains. From between two of the peaks came a black dot, trailing smoke with bolts of lighting embedded within, zig-zagging back and forth. Even though the ominous figure was approaching, it's sheer distance from the town meant the semi-automatic rifles here had a snowball's chance in tartarus to strike the target.

“Go! Now!” I shouted at my two friends, who both looked at me with a nod, turning toward the mountains. Once more my eyes scanned the near totally dissipated crowd of ponies, hoping to see Fair Smile, even if it was one last time before our departure. But my pegasus friend had already left, likely holing up in her home along with many of the other ponies in the town.

My eyes did lock briefly with Ether though. Cowering between two houses with her forehooves collapsed over her ears, she shot by a cruel gaze, but the look before had been of fear. Fear that my lie might have been true all along.

Staring at her wasn't going to help me. I turned tail and broke into a gallop behind my escaping friends, quickly catching up to them as we began to put distance between us and the village once more, now heading to the mountains in the daylight, but in a direction we weren't familiar with.

I twisted my head back one last time, wanting to verify that whatever was assaulting the town wasn't targeting us. The smokey thundercloud had came to a stop near the far edge of the town, the 'thwack' now being replaced by a combination of a loud air-splitting whip and a faint boom. The sound was accompanied a burst of fire near one of the houses, while a pegasus covered in silver and purple was launched backwards and up into the air from the shot's recoil, pushing him out of the way of the spotty and disorganized fire from below.

“Where to!?” Spice Chaser shouted at me through ragged breaths.

“Anywhere but here!” Was my response as we widened the gap between us and the new warzone.

- - - -

Our hasty gallop had reduced to a swift trot, navigating the rocky valleys between two of the mountains, the path we had randomly picked showed no evidence of being used before our entrance. All three of us were panting heavily from the hurried evacuation, marking just the second time in less then a day that we had escaped from the town, and did so without getting my two friends what they needed.

Slowing now to a even walk, I looked behind me one more time. A plume of smoke could be seen over one of the taller hills we had already ran around, inferring that something large had caught fire, likely one of the houses in the village-turned-warzone. We weren't able to hear the sound of gunfire anymore, but it was hard to tell if that was because of our distance and the dampening of sound between the hills and mountains surrounding us, or if the firefight had stopped.

“That-” Amber Swing came to a stop, heaving with exhaustion between words. “That, was, WICKED!” She shouted out the final word, a warped grin overtaking her face. “I've not had a rush like that for years!” The mare sucked in another deep breath, turning to face me as I came to a standstill as well. “Your raider buddies are awesome, and if they have your back like that I totally want to join up!”

I choked on my breath. MY Raider Buddies? I didn't know the pony that brought the chaos down! Unless this was somepony that I had met before loosing my memories.

“Yeah...next time can you tell your friends to use something that's not so harsh on the ears?” Spice Chaser remarked, twisting his own ears in obvious discomfort from the sound of two loud booms that had gone off right infront of him without giving even the slightest forewarning to lay his own ears back in preparation.

“I don't know who that was! But he isn't my friend!”

The duo stopped their heaving, both looking at eachother. Like before, it seemed like an entire conversation passed between the two of them before they turned back to face me once more.

“But the raider clan and demanding tribute?”

“We thought that the stress of the situation made you remember who you were and how you got here!”

They both seemed to be spilling over eachother with questions driven by confusion.

“I made it up! Ok! I made it all up in the heat of the moment!” I shook my head in annoyance. “It didn't look like Ether was going to crack under your sheer force-” I looked directly at Amber “-so I made up a story about a large force in the mountains to try and pressure her!”

Spice Chaser gave a smirk. His marefriend, though, was having none of it, kicking the ground beneath her with a hoof. “Danm it! I don't like guns that much, but I'd love to meet somepony that can deliver that much punch to a fight myself!” I could help but stare blankly at the mare, her priorities seemingly completely mismatched considering that our entire endeavor while following her plan had not gotten us anything.

Spice's smirk though faded into a terrified frown as he looked to the sky behind me. “You won't have to wait long...” He trailed off, and our gaze swung to meet his own.

The same pegasus, now without the smokey thunderclouds, shot down from the sky just behind us. Wings that were folded to the side snapped into an outstretched position, slowing their descent. A small dustcloud was kicked up as they landed mere yards from us, and I instinctively grabbed the pipe rifle hanging from my satchel as Amber and Spice readied their weapons of choice once more.

“You...” The pegasus choked out with a raspy voice. “...do not make recovery missions easy.” Nearly his entire body was covered in a jumpsuit, silver covering his body while the suit's legs, neck, and head were colored purple, a jagged yellow band reminiscent of lightning bolts serving as a border between the two colors. His weapon of choice dragged attention by sheer size, a massive rifle longer from barrel to stock then the pony from snout to dock, connected by a pair of mechanical arms to a saddle that wrapped around his midsection over the top of the suit, it's weight counter-balanced by a large sack on his left side under his left wing. Those wings were the only part of his body not covered by the suit, the left wing filled with grayish-silver feathers similar to that of his suit. This was in contrast to the right wing, devoid of feathers, merely an assortment of wing bones that were eerily folded alongside the suit just beneath the massive rifle.

“Ghoul...” My two friends whispered to eachother simultaneously.

“Stone Vane, my name is Silver Sight, and I am here on behalf of Baltimare's heavy operations and reconnaissance to escort you to Baltimare.”

- - - -

Achievement Unlocked: Loud and Proud: With boldness, adrenaline, and some wit, you cranked up the heat on the leaders of Our Town without taking a hit.

Chapter 8: Into the Ether

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Stone Vane

After being called so many terms in the days since waking up, more often then not 'Strange Flank', it was oddly refreshing to be addressed by my name. Even if the voice behind it was raspy and a bit muffled through the fabric of the jumpsuit, for the briefest of moments things seemed normal, like returning to a familiar house. It wasn't quite like the subtly terrifying familiarity from looking at the Nightmare Moon card, no emotions followed the realization beyond confident familiarity in my identity. I waited for just a second, hoping against hope that something else would fall in place. Remembering my name might help with me remembering somepony else talking to me, or recalling a purpose, or even my destiny behind the cutie-mark I bore.

But nothing came. Just a single piece of the puzzle that was me falling into place, but revealing nothing else.

“How do you know my name?” I asked the mysterious stranger, not willing to show even the slightest hint of the realization.

“You don't remember anything?” The ghoul pegasus turned to the side, kicking the ground in frustration. “Sweet Merciful Luna!” He gave a long drawn out sigh mixed with a bit of a growl, cursing a bit more under his breath.

“You said you were to take me to Baltimare. Where is it, where is Baltimare, why should I care about that city?” I took a few steps toward the side, looking him right in the cloth covered face.

“The situation is different now.” He brought his head back up, meeting my gaze once more. “Since you don't actually remember anything, this makes things a lot harder for both of us.”

“What do you mean? Who sent you?”

“I'm not allowed to disclose that. My orders said that if you were suffering from amnesia, I am to assist you in whatever endeavor you were performing here in this valley as supply and support.”

Wonderful. I let out a grunt in annoyance, turning on my hooves to face my two friends. Their response was initially wordless, though Spice Chaser broke that with a wave of his hoof, motioning for me to come closer to the duo.

“Stone Vane? What kind of name is that?” Amber asked aloud as I dipped my head next to theirs in a triangular huddle. “If you're one of those ponies that picked up a new name after getting their cutie mark, I'd expect something like Knife Spin or something like that!”

“The base of the knife on his cutie-mark resembles an old weather-vane Amber.” The unicorn replied in my stead. “They're still used today by a few crazy ponies to track the 'ever changing weather'.” My unicorn friend punctuated his sarcasm with a roll of his eyes before focusing them on me. “Does this bring back anything, your family, job, where you were born?”

I shook my head. “No, no. I just know that's my name, it's just...that's all.” Frustration filled my brain from not recalling anything else. “Do you two know anything about Baltimare?”

“Half of it's radiated to tartarus, the other half I heard is part of some cult. I also hear that lots of Zonies come out from there every few years, even had one of them join us back when I was with the gang at the Marshalling yard. Shit shot though, didn't last two weeks.” The ex-raider mare trailed off with that.

“I don't know about any cults, but ghouls...” Spice Chaser grimaced a bit. “Some of them don't work right in the head. They typically got caught in the bombs at the end of the War and the Zebra's necromantic spells keep them in a state between alive and dead. Most of them are hyper obsessed on a certain desire or something from before the war. They confuse living ponies for dead ones all the time.”

“What about the ones that came after the war?” The mare cut in. “Think he could be one of them?”

“No way. Look at him.” All three of us raised our head from the huddle, giving him a shot as the mysterious ghoul had detached his massive rifle from his saddle, giving it a deep inspection as it lay on the ground. “That's old Equestrian wartime tech. And more importantly, that suit. It's a dead-ringer of the old Shadowbolts outfits they used back in the war, just like on the old Ministry posters. Probably an old wartime grunt that was a fanboy.”

I didn't know quite what he meant in his last sentence. “Shadowbolts?”

“Remember how we told you about the six friends that stopped Nightmare Moon, and were later appointed to help run Equestria in the war?” I nodded, encouraging my Unicorn friend to continue. “So one of them, the pegasus Rainbow Dash, didn't really care about running anything. She was big on a old stunt team that got wiped out early in the war, and used her new political power to bring that team back under the name 'Shadowbolts', with her as their leader. They'd go out and perform stunts and tricks on the battlefields but were more of a morale boost then anything else.”

“He probably worships Nightmare Moon.”

“Amber!”

“What?” The mare exclaimed, pointing toward the pegasus once more. “I say we drive the cooked chicken off before he sells us off to his Enclave buddies.”

“No Amber, if it wasn't for him, we would be dead right now.” The mare lowered her eyebrows and gave a harsh glare to her partner, grasping the handle of her spike maul in her mouth again. “As I was saying, this is probably some old pre-war military pegasus that was obsessed with the Shadowbolts and found one of their suits and guns, and now flies around pretending to defend Equestria. And he wants you to go to Baltimare! That city took a Balefire bomb point-blank, spending any prolonged period of time there would be a death sentence!”

My friends had two separate reasons with the same conclusion. Don't trust the ghoul. Either because he was some cultist, or he was a two hundred year old zombie with a barely functioning mind. But he knew my name, and that implied that he had some greater knowledge about me, rather from personally knowing me or just knowing of me. And he had said that there were 'orders', which inferred that there were other ponies beyond him that knew me, that knew who I was and how I ended up here.

Or he could just have gotten lucky with my name and his brain was as fried as his skeletonized wing.

“Well for now he says that he'll help us. I'd rather have a ghoul with that much firepower on our side rather then against us.” I stood up and turned to face the pegasus once again, not interested in hearing any further arguments from my friends. “Silver, that's what you said your name was?” The ghoul looked up from his partially-disassembled rifle, holding a screwdriver in his mouth, giving a nod before spitting the tool out. “You said that because I don't remember anything, you're just here to help me with whatever I'm doing?” The ghoul gave a simple nod in affirmation.

“Do you want him to charge in and blow apart everypony's brains back in the village, if he hasn't already?” Amber suggested. “He better not have touched the big one, he's going to be my kill.”

“I can be your support and supply, but you're crazy if you think I'm going to charge in and try to take on two hundred ponies myself.” The pegasus shouted at us. “That shock and awe approach will only work once. They'll be expecting me to do such a thing again.”

Speaking of 'they', my thoughts turned to the village once more. The attack had let us escape, but there was no way that Glowing Ether would let us just hang out in the mountains. She still had my friends' cutie marks, and once order was restored to her village, it would only be a matter of time before she would have Water Margin send scouts out to bring us back.

“Can you find us a good vantage spot to look down at the village from?”

- - - -

Our flight from the shootout had taken place in the morning as the clouds began to brighten up. The cloud-cover was light today, the lightest I had seen since waking up. Between the daylight coming through brighter then usual and the vantage point on a plateau halfway up a mountain, Silver Sight had found us a perfect vantage point of the town, it's factory, and it's cropfields with the Tree of Woe.

“There are two guards, looks like a Unicorn and an Earth pony, and they're both infront of the middle house on the right side of the main road.” Spice Chaser remarked, holding the scope to his eye in his magical grip.

“That would be Doctor Soothing Constant's house.” I responded, familiar with that building's location within the village after spending my first few days awake in it. My focus never left the ghoul, who had unzipped the suit around his head and exposing a face that was horribly burnt and splotched with tufts of silver hair, similar to his mane which was also mostly gone except for several splotches suggesting a once full mane of red hair. He was taking the graphite I had lent him and was sketching in Glimmers of Truth, promising that he could mark three locations in the surrounding mountains that should be both accessible to earth-bound ponies like us while also being out of the way enough that no search parties would be able to find it.

“I never thought dried apples would taste so good!” Swing cut in, scarfing down the contents of a recently unsealed bag of food. Silver Sight had brought rations for just a few days, initially under the idea that it would just be enough to keep me fed while escorting. But those rations had now been re-purposed and were giving the three of us our first proper meal in days.

“Here, here, and here.” The pegasus spat out the graphite and pointed to the three 'X's that he had drawn on the map of Our Town and the surrounding mountains. “This one will have the best view from the west, this one is where we are right now, and this one is a cave that overlooks the entire valley, but it's only a few yards below the cloud-cover. If you're going to go there, pace yourself going uphill and downhill, let your body adjust to the changes in pressure.”

I nodded with loose understanding, trying to crunch numbers on how long it would take to go from hideout to hideout.

“There is one other thing though.” The ghoul said in a tone closer to a whisper. “Supporting you while you were still here was only half of the mission.”

I looked at his milky dead eyes, nearly impossible to read. “Of course.” I sighed. “If things are really as bad as they seem out there, you're not going to come out here from the goodness of your heart.”

“After the bombs fell some of our old benefactors came through here. Most of those old ties have been severed, but a large book had been left here. 'Health and Recovery in Equestrian War and Beyond'. It's a medical tome that had some spells cast on it to keep it from falling apart under heavy use.”

I scoffed. “Sounds like the kind of book that would be everywhere in a post war hellhole. Why would you care about a copy here?”

“Because every year it was updated, but the final run had an extremely limited distribution because of the bombs. Unless we find a special undamaged Ministry of Image library, this is one of the few known locations of a copy.”

“Ah! Movement! Somepony's coming out.” Our brief conversation was broken as all three of us turned our focus back to the unicorn among us, waiting for word on who it was. We had already confirmed the presence of Glowing Ether, Woe Tree, and Tempered Iron, and just wanted to verify the presence of the last pillar of the village's leadership. “It's him, the pegasus. He's talking to an old looking pony just outside the door.”

“That would be the doctor.” I remarked, looking at the map that had been sketched in.

“And they've separated now. The pegasus is going back to the head mare's house now, and he's accompanied by those two guards.”

“That confirms all of Our Town's leaders are still alive, and probably working together at least on the surface.” I took another bite of the dried pastry that made up the meal that had been given to me.

“Why couldn't you have popped that bitch earlier? Or hell, why not even now?” The long female among us asked the ghoul.

“I was told to get Stone Vane out of here. When I saw you two tied up with him, the best choice of action seemed to be get him free of his captors, and I assumed you two were with him.” He contorted his mouth into a devious grin, milky eyes giving a dead stare towards the mare. “Next time I'll spend a week figuring out who's the leader before saving my target's friends.”

“We don't want him taking anypony out right now.” I cut in. “Our best choice of action is to let things settle down, and then turn the four of them against each other.”

“That's a great plan. I like that plan.” The unicorn garbled through a mouth full of food. “But there's one problem.” His tone darkened as he wiped away crumbs from his mouth. “How are we going to turn anypony against anypony if we'll get strung up the moment we go down there?”

I flipped a page back to the list I had started making before I even met Amber or Spice. Grabbing the graphite between my teeth, I once more began adding to it.

Our Town

Cutie marks: Two lines, akin to an equal sign.

Population: ~~200-250~~ 227, split into three shifts. No significant interaction between these shifts outside of morning singing and evening meal.

-Glowing Ether (Unicorn, female), ??

-Woe Tree (Unicorn, female), Wants more food and-or cutie mark, determine reason why

-Tempered Iron (~~Unknown~~, assumed male), Earth Pony) ??

-Water Margin ~~(Unknown, unknown)~~ (Pegasus, Male) ??

Contacts:

~Fair Smiles (Pegasus, Female)

~Soothing Constant (Earth Pony, Male)

Goals:

Primary: Get Cutie-marks back, Find each leader's desires

Secondary: Kill Tempered Iron

Talk with Woe Tree about Trade

~~Recover Weapons~~

With the list having been added to, I sat the book on the rock that next to us and spun it around, showing my friends and the newcomer pegasus what was inside. “We all saw that those four ponies don't work in tandem. Ether gave Woe Tree and Water Margin a harsh tongue lashing in there, and Woe Tree was the first pony down there I've heard raising any suggestion of getting their cutie marks back.” I pulled my hoof back as Spice Chaser magicked the book up into the air.

“Do those lines means that the words sound different?” Amber asked, turning toward her mate.

“No, it means that those things don't matter anymore.” Spice Chaser replied.

“What are those curvy lines that have a dot?”

“That's a question mark. Remember? If it's at the end of a sentence, it means the sentence is a question.”

The earth pony mare stared at the book blankly for a few more moments. “Glowing Ether...” Her brow furrowed and she looked right at me. “I know she lets her tail cover up the bits, but how do you not know that whorse is a mare?”

“You know what, maybe this is too advanced for you to read right now.” He brought the book more in line with his own eyesight. “This doesn't answer my question though. If you want to know what they want, us being up here won't help with that. Do you plan on just waltzing down there a third time and ask kindly?”

I gave a deep exhale. This plan was forming in my head only slightly quicker then I was thinking of it. “I won't. You two will.”

That statement made even the ghoul pegasus turn his head to look at me, the section of his head where an eyebrow should be shifting as if raising it in confusion. That was nothing compared to my friend's reactions.

“WHAT!?” They shouted at me, in perfect sync.

“They already think that I'm the ringleader here. After Amber lost control of the talk down there...” The mare wanted to say something, but the unicorn stallion raised his hoof and shook his head, keeping her from blowing her top. “...I made it seem like I was going to force you to join my raider clan, which they still think exists.”

Spice Chaser picked up on it. “So Swing and I go on down there, tell them a tall tale on how we escaped, and suddenly want to shack up with them?” His eyes starred off, following the same steps in his mind that I was making up in the moment. “We use that to get close to the leaders of the village, and find out what they personally want?”

I nodded. “I'll sneak down there as well at night. If Water Margin has search parties searching for the raider band at night, they won't be thinking of checking their own village for me.” I stood back up and tapped the book through the unicorn's magical grasp. “If you turn one page forward, you'll see the map Silver and I had been working on. That circle about halfway between the factory and the village has a big rock pile, and hidden inside that pile of rocks is a tunnel into an old forgotten room. We can meet up there at a set time any night you two have any new information.”

I could visibly see the mare going wall-eyed, not even remotely keeping up with what the two of us were talking about. Spice though had no such issue. “Then we get close and convince them that letting your raiding clan outside can help them achieve their personal desires?”

Shaking my head, I pointed to the Unicorn. “No. That's where your Manehattan contacts come in. I don't care if you have to promise the moon and then walk it back later. Anyway that you two can prove that there's something to give from the outside should help with winning them over. When I'm down there at night as well, I could also start sabotaging things to make each of their tasks for running the village difficult, which should further strain tensions.”

With a thud, Amber Swing fell on her back, hooves pointing toward the sky. “Too...much... brain...hurt...”

“I can help with providing goods, if need be.” Silver Sight spoke up, using his feathered wing and mouth to close the jumpsuit around his neck and head. “Anything in particular?” He asked before cloth covered his face once again.

“Food. The best food you can get!” Spice Chaser spoke up with a hint of excitement, before immediately his stance declined into a more depressed one, legs barely holding him up. “Maybe Sugar Apple Bombs, or something?”

“Ew.” His marefriend remarked, still back down legs up on the ground. “You always were bitching about Apple Bombs, something about being large when produced, and that you wouldn't wish a diet of them on your worst enemies. What changed?” The unicorn merely turned and looked at her without shifting his face from that depressed gaze. “Oh. Right.” She raised a forehoof and made a zipping motion across her lips.

“I have this.” The pegasus opened up the sack on the left side of his battle saddle with his still feathered wing, using those feathers as set of large fingers, pulling out a half-dozen cylindrical tins. “Imhoof has enough foal's breath to replenish magic reserves and leave you flying high for hours, and it's the best tasting chocolate on the market before or after the bombs.” All six tins bore the same striped pattern radiating from the center, the stripes only stopping far enough from the edge to define the brand and chocolate types, Milch Schokola, Koffein Schokola, and Einhorn Schokola. The fist of the three was distinct by being blue and white in pattern, while the other two were black and red. The 'Einhorn' variant had a eye-catching graphic in the dead center, a black triangle with a black unicorn's head and red pegasus wings stretching from the longest side with a large red diamond sat in the triangle's center. “Don't use this one unless you're in a pinch.” The ghoul tapped the two Einhorn tins with a hoof. “Two piece of normal Imhoof can fuel a heavy recon-and-smash mission itself. But the Alicorn one has enough Dash to leave you fighting imaginary timberwolves the next day.”

“Why would you put Dash in a chocolate?” Swing asked, swiping one of the Einhorn tins, balancing it on the frog of her hoof while giving it a sniff. “Half the fun of taking Dash is feeling your lungs burn with that first inhale.”

“Rainbow would kill me if she wasn't already dead.” The ghoul grumbled, before turning back to face me. “If you're planning on doing snooping down there at night, maybe you could appreciate this more then me.” Out of his sack he pulled out a small box with his wing, and I reached out to receive it. When he dropped it onto my hoof I was caught off guard by the weight, the box of bobbypins feeling way heavier then I had expected. It dropped onto the ground with a clang.

“What in the?” I pushed the box with my hoof, revealing a piece of paper taped on the top of the box with the words 'Weigh these' penciled on it.

“They're made of Equestrinium. Some scavenging ghouls had the idea of making bobby pins that were denser and wouldn't snap so easily.” Using his still-feathered wing, the pegasus began zipping the top of his jumpsuit over his head once more. “Turns out they're no less fragile then normal pins, and they weigh a good ten times more then regular pins. But at this point you guys would have more use for them then me.”

“Thanks.” I deadpanned, biting down on the box and dropping it into my satchel. “Does your commanding unit have any talented spell-casters?”

The ghoul gave me a short stare through the opaque eyeholes of his jumpsuit, as if weighing possible responses. “Why?”

“A friend and I, not these friends-” I briefly motioned towards the duo that were splitting up the chocolate tins. “-found a large and elaborate spell-casting circle forgotten and tucked away down there. It's the only hint of large scale magic use down here except for the spell that they use to strip ponies of their cutie marks. Something tells me that the two are probably connected in some way.”

The ghoul gave a nod. “I'll see what they can do.” He turned around and extended his wings, preparing to depart.

“One last thing.” I questioned, taking a few steps forward and positioning myself beside him. “You said your name is Silver Sight? S.S.?”

He looked at me blankly again. “My initials?”

“Would you happen to be the S.S. that was here a long time ago?”

“I've never been in these mountains before.” He gave a single flap of his wings, gaining a bit of altitude. “I'll return four days from now, in the morning. Meet me outside the Vault in the morning. If it gets to noon and you're not there, I'll assume you've been captured and killed.” And with that, he departed.

“SS? Really?” Amber Swing asked, clopping up next to me. “Those initials could mean literally anypony. Signed Sheets. Singing Summer. Shiny Surf, Sunset Screamer. Sudden Soon.” The last name was so bizarre I couldn't help but look at the mare with a raised eyebrow of my own. “What? You think just because you met a pony with familiar initials that he's the one? If I had a cap for every pony that had my initials I'd have four more caps!”

“I know...” It seemed a bit convenient that I had met some pony that was more then two hundred years old that had the same initials as somepony who had a big impact on the town, and I couldn't help but ask. But Amber wasn't there, she wouldn't understand.

I turned back to my unicorn friend, who was sitting on the ground, staring at the pair of blue and white tins sitting on the ground in front of him. Amber rushed over to his side, plopping down to his left side.

“It hurts.” The unicorn squeaked out to his marefriend, levitating one of the tins up to his face. “Knowing you've spent your entire life looking for anything of your family history, and when it's staring you in the face...” He trailed off, cutting his telekinesis and letting it drop back on the ground. The mare leaned into him, placing her still-helmeted head on his shoulder.

“May I ask?” The duo both looked at me for a moment.

“No, no. It's not your concern.” The unicorn shook his head, inadvertently shrugging the mare off his shoulder as well. I was reminded of what Soothing Constant had said my first night awake. “You're already trying to do so much to get us our cutie marks back, and the meeting for food. Heck, you even are trying to satisfy Amber's bloodlust.” He shook his head again. “It's not fair to burden you with a personal struggle.”

My response was a simple question “What if it's not a burden?” It was so easy to remember the village's doctor briefly waxing poetic about friendship beyond what the lilac book spoke on. That memory encouraged me to push a bit harder. “You can trust me. That's what friends are for.”

The Unicorn tilted his head up to look at me, his eyes conveying an emotion somewhere between exhaustion and depression with only the smallest hint of hope.

“Oh Celestia, you males are going to get all sappy and cry over eachother, aren't you?” Amber stood up. “I don't do that shit. Spice, if you need some mare to hold you close while you whine about your cutie mark I'm your girl.” She stopped for a moment with her mouth open, then smirked. “IN fact, why don't you two get to know each other better. He can whine about not having his memories and you can whine about not having your cutie mark.” The mare walked up next to me, before placing one of her hooves solidly on the base of my neck and pushed me toward the unicorn. “Then after you males have a ugly cry you can flip the smart stuff back on and figure out how we're going to get our cutie marks back.”

And with that, she trotted off and down the edge of mountain's plateau. The unicorn and I stared at each other for a moment, before he gave a few blinks and wiped the edges of his eyes with his foreleg. “Don't worry about her. She's just tired of me angsting over loosing my cutie-mark.”

“You can angst to me if you'd like.” I smiled, taking a seat to his right side. “We have plenty of time.”

“You have enough on your plate as it is.”

“I can take some more.” It was an instinctive response, out of my mouth before I even put any thought in it. Accurate, but a bit more sudden then it probably should have been. “Remember, I've only got a few days worth of memories up here.” I tapped the top of my skull with my right hoof. “More then enough room to hear somepony else's problems, especially a friends'.”

Again he leveled a stare at me, his eyes making very small darting movements within the locked gaze, arguing with himself on if he should elaborate or not.

“Ok then.” He sighed, and I smiled to keep the encouragement up. “Only because Amber insisted.” Another moment of silence passed, Spice Chaser obviously struggling with it.

Understanding that we weren't going to get anywhere with trying to let him open up, I decided to start prying a bit “I saw what it looked like in Ether's book. A baker, or something like that? How'd you get it?”

“Just like anypony does. It was my father's birthday and I wanted to surprise him with something nice. My entire family line has been bakers, and I always wanted to follow in dad's hoofsteps.” He smirked. “So while he was out gathering food, I made a horrible mess trying to surprise him with a birthday cake, because he told me that's what they did while he was growing up in his stable. He came back earlier then I wanted, and was so close to loosing it because of how much food I had wasted. But when he smelled it he held back.” Spice raised his head up, reminiscing with a nostalgic smile. “And when he tasted it, a small cake about the size of this tin.” One of his hooves rapped against the tin of chocolate. “I'll never forget that smile. It wasn't like the smile when he tucks you in, or the smile you give to a customer buying some food. He really liked it. I don't know when it happened exactly, but while he helped me clean up he pointed it out.”

I merely stayed silent, shifting my gaze to the flank that merely had the cruel double-line instead.

“Ever since then, I always wanted to make better food. We had a bit of a falling out later on. He wanted to make cheap food for anypony to enjoy, but didn't have the resources, let alone the desire, to do anything greater. I just wanted everypony to have that same great food experience, expenses be danmed. IN hindsight, he was right, there was no way we could both support our small village with our different ways of looking at it. So I left, and started looking for anyway to make the greatest confections in the Wastelands. And that's how, eventually, I came to Manehattan, and Tenpony Tower. After all, if the most civilized and richest ponies can't afford and appreciate the greatest confectioneries made, well, then nopony could!”

“Sounds like you made it.”

“Oh yeah. I got lucky, an entire shop opened up inside Tenpony Tower a few weeks back. Owner was caught raiding and his kids were shipped out of the tower, and the one that did the reporting apparently had no interest in owning the shop. So it went up for auction, and I had done enough favors for big ponies inside that they were willing to help balance the books in my favor.”

“So why did this give you such a reaction then?” I asked, nudging one of the tins with a hoof.

“Like I said, I come from a long line of Bakers. Only we're not just Bakers. We're confectioners, Konditors. Our family history can be traced way back. Before the Princesses, even before Discord. Our family was one of the last Earth Pony clans to leave the old lands and migrate to Equestria, apparently we didn't even stop using the old language for our names until the bombs fell. It's a proud legacy, my father always said. But I think he cared more about using that legacy as a talking and selling point back home. When he left his stable he didn't bother taking any of the old family recipe books except a basic one, and when I found that old stable it had already been turned into a town of it's own, and those books had been traded off years prior, with the trail long cold.”

My unicorn friend snorted. “I've spent years since, looking at Equestrian history like a madstallion. Maybe I'll find a journal entry talking about a Imhoof cake inbetween ramblings of politics, or a package of doughnuts with the Imhoof name in the background of an old picture. The worst one was a memory orb, where I could taste the individual ingredients of a pancake stack, so loaded with fruits and sugar that I replayed it over and over, inadvertently memorizing the details for an ammunition production line's single month of profit and losses from the conversation, just so I could try and figure out what went into those pancakes and try to make them myself.”

Telekentically he raised the two tins once again. “The biggest name in our family, so my father said, was Imhoof. Supposedly he had a bit more of a taste for chocolates then confections, but during the entirety of the war his chocolates and confectioneries were one of the few things that could help make ponies happy. And now, for the first time in my life, I've got some of it.” The tin twitched in his grasp. “And I can't do anything with it. My sense of taste? Gone. Those dried apples tasted just as bland as that watery potato slush they called food in that village. I can't even remember that old ammunition profit because the memory is so tightly tied to those pancakes in my mind.” From the corner of my eye I could see the equal sign virtually pulse with energy, actively suppressing his memories. “It is a special kind of hell to be taunted with something you've wanted your hooves on for so long, and when you get it, you're made too dumb to even appreciate it.”

The two of us sat in silence for a moment, the unicorn looking up at the mid-afternoon clouds as they floated above us. I followed his gaze and took note, briefly thinking about this was the first time I could see discernible movement above our heads rather then just a shifting of the density of the same piece of cloud-cover.

“I'm just terrified that I'll never go back to normal. That I'll never be able to see another pony enjoy a cake or anything like that again. I'm not worried about Amber. Her calling is to be an angry bulldozer of a mare. She could totally ignore the smithy and be perfectly content with just killing ponies with blunt force from her thick skull, roll in the hay, sleep, and then waking up to do it all again. That's something no spell can overcome.”

I stood up, shaking some of the stiffness out of my joints. “Here's what we're going to do Spice.” I nudged him in the shoulder. “In the middle of the night, you're going to go down there with Amber. You two are going to get in close with some ponies, and I guarantee you.” I nudged him harder. “That we'll find those marks, that ghoul will come back with information on how to restore your marks. And then you'll be able to make the best pastries in all of Equestria all over again.” Spice Chaser looked at me, his eyes asking the question his mouth wouldn't.

“Yes. Really.” I leant a hoof out, offering to pull him onto all fours. A fragment of a smile came over his muzzle, and he reached out, wrapping the edge of his right foreleg around my non-splinted one. “But if we're going to do all of that, you better convince me on your family name. And I'm not talking about those chocolates either.” I yanked him all the way up. “I'm coming with you two back to Manehattan, and you're going to make us the best cake in the Wastelands. Deal?”

The smile totally overtook his face, mirroring my own confidence. “It's a deal.”

- - - -

We were sleeping in shifts. I had just woken Amber up, having the mare join her partner while I went ahead and caught a few hours of sleep. Anxiety mixed with nervous excitement was keeping me from catching any sleep despite having been running and hoofing it across the mountains and the village's valley for nearly a full day.

Rain had completely overtaken the mountains shortly after Amber had rejoined the two of us, and that had forced us to a small recession in the rockface, one that was too shallow to be a cave and would be offering us no protection if not for the breeze from the west that was keeping it from raining onto us.

“Fuck, it's still raining?”

I merely nodded toward the mare, standing on the vague border between rain-soaked rock and dry rock, giving my body a shake from head to tail to try and remove some of the excess rain from my coat. IN hindsight, I probably should have asked the mysterious ghoul for a poncho, but time had long passed for that. “It'll probably be raining for the next several hours. Hopefully the temperature drops enough and the wind picks up enough to push the worst of it away by midnight.”

She uttered a wordless grumble, stepping out into the rain to take a stand next to her partner. I had insisted on the two of them taking the first two shifts for sleeping roughly four hours each, a pair of us watching the village to determine the best time to send the duo down to the village below and to reduce the chance of them getting caught on the way down.

I opened Glimmers of Truth once more, taking a look down at the plan that had been sketched out. It didn't take much convincing the duo that the plan was the best one going forward, though for different reasons. Amber was still satisfied by the suggestion of inflicting a brutal end on Tempered Iron, though any deeper inquiry on why was firmly rebutted by her outside of a general insistence that everything he did was wrong. Spice Chaser was the hardest to convince for good, his insistence on working out trading between this village countered by a lack of confidence at this point after two attempts at talking, one with and one without me, had gone sideways. The only thing that won him over was the simple fact that while we now had a few rations, they were not enough to last three of us four days, and counting on me sneaking back and forth each night to try and find Ether's book myself was a high risk.

The plan itself was simple enough. Once it was midnight and we had determined the location of Water Margin's mountain-searching group, my two friends would depart back into the village. It was a big guess that the town's pegasus would be going out and searching the mountains for my mystical raider gang, or at least to find us if that wasn't possible, and doing it all at a similar timeframe that we had likely seen them the prior night.

“Why should we do it then?” Amber had voiced a question both of them obviously shared after exchanging another one of their knowing looks at eachother.

“You said you were part of a raider gang, right?” She had nodded in response. “Imagine if it was the middle of the night and a random pony snuck right into the heart of wherever it was you all were sleeping.”

“Wouldn't happen. There's always some colt or filly hyped up on Buck, Dash, or Mentats overnight that would see them.”

“Yes, but imagine if it did happen. Wouldn't you all be pretty angry at those ponies who were supposed to be awake to keep watch?”

“I'd run a spike right through each of their knee and keep hammering it until I was bored.”

“You would do that to anyone who would piss you off.” The Unicorn remarked with an exasperated tone.

“Well, yeah...but so would everypony else in the Gang!”

“And that's what everypony down there will want to do as well when you two show up unannounced.” I pushed another piece of dried apple into my mouth. “But unlike a Raider Gang, they can't bring on new raiders, if they weren't already scared of outsiders they definitely will be now.”

“Imagine if you just walked into Tenpony Tower, fully armored up and blood-stained, and walked right into the hidden rooms that DJ Pon3 stayed in, chilled with him for a good hour, and then just lounged around the tower for a solid hour afterwards, acting nice but still bloodied. Wouldn't everypony be really angry that they just let a violent Raider in?”

She blinked in shock, the implications finally hitting home for her. “Oh!” Whether or not she understood the anticipated reactions didn't really matter in performing this complicated and drawn out plan, but it would be easier to manage her if she understood the reasoning and was onboard with it. That was one piece of crucial information that Spice had shared with me after our earlier talk.

I was a bit surprised that neither of them asked about them being imprisoned. But it wasn't hard to understand that throwing them back into the mines wouldn't be pointless after we had already broken out because the two of them could escape again if they wanted, but dragging them off to be killed in the middle of the night wouldn't be possible either because the two of them were going to intentionally make enough noise to wake up the residents of the houses on the opposite side of the town to Ether's, meaning that their presence couldn't just be written off as a capture. Most importantly though, showing friendliness to the common pony would hopefully make any choice to just kill them unpopular.

Rolling onto my side, my back turned to my friends and the town below, I stared at the book once more, rolling the graphite in my mouth once more as I turned the page with my hoof. In the dwindling light I could just make out the weather recordings I had made before being tossed into the prison mine. Sighing around the black rock between my lips, I went ahead and left a large chunk of open space from the last entry I had made, signifying the skip in the days before I began writing down today's weather.

Slightly muggy, light cloud-cover with visible movement in the morning gave way to thicker rolling clouds from the west in the afternoon, rain in the mid afternoon coupled with a West-to-East wind. I had enough confidence in my mouthwriting that even in the dark my scribbling would be legible for me to go over later. I didn't bother to turn the page again and see the repeated recordings of my dreams while I had been in the prison, instead shutting the plastic-binded lilac book and placing it and the graphite back in the satchel, placing it under my head afterwards for a makeshift pillow.

A silent sigh slipped from my lips. I didn't want to sleep. It wasn't due to being full of energy, the constant trekking with interspersed with a bit of running and the stress of the conflict in the village left me physically and mentally tapped of energy. My concern was of what would visit be while I was sleeping. I had only started dreaming when I was in the caves, the recurring dream honestly just a nightmare, an extension of the namesake that haunted it. A dark alicorn hurling the moon down at me, the few ponies I did know all mindless and ignorant of the doom targeted straight at me.

One odd part stood out. In all the days I had been awake, I had not seen the moon. Briefly I spoke with the two ponies that had become good friends with me in the last few days, and both of them knew exactly what it looked like, apparently because small holes in the cloud-cover would appear and disappear from time to time, enough that ponies knew what the sun, moon, and stars still looked like.

That moon had been crystal clear in my mind, maybe the remnant of an old memory peeking through and imprinting on me. It's right side had been almost entirely devoid of marks, a whitish silver looking smooth and round, while a few sparse craters that were just slightly off colored marked the left half, the faintest hint of shadow holding onto the leftmost sliver of it regardless of its' position in the night sky.

“Why is the moon wrong?”

“It's the millennial anniversary of Princess Celestia sending her evil sister to the moon.” The blanket was tucked right underneath my chin by the yellow stallion. “The Princess made it up to look different tonight and is performing a special play to commemorate it, which is also why she's waiting to raise the sun.”

“There wasn't anything in the program about a play.” Mom remarked, only for Daddy to give her a harsh look, the same he always did when she said something he didn't want me hearing. She bit her lip and looked up at the ceiling. “Maybe we were told the wrong information?”

“Comm-comm-comemoate? What does that word mean?” The word made me yawn, it was so big.

“It's like remembering. And right now, you need to commemorate going to sleep.” Daddy leaned down and gave me a goodnight kiss on my forehead. “We'll wake you up when it's time for the second part of the act.”

“Don't worry if you wake up before it happens though.” Mom said, running her hoof through my mane shakily. The two of them turned and began walking to the door.

“Goodnight Mom. Goodnight Daddy.”

“Goodnight Son.” He smiled, mommy put on one of her fake smiles as well as they stepped through the doorway, shutting it behind them. Rolling over, I looked at the moon again, feeling weird about it.

The bed didn't feel right, it wasn't like back home. The pillow was too hard. But mom and daddy started fighting again, something about being cursed and the dark not-princess we saw earlier today. That was still the same, even if now mom was shouting about our trip rather then bits.

My eyes were getting harder to keep open, the moon without it's mare just as bright as it was before. It was wrong, more wrong then the pillow and bed.

I opened my eyes, not remembering going to sleep. Not now, and not then either. The argument that had been going on was instead replaced by silent whispers, Amber and Spice both audible but not discernible through the rain. The dark of night had totally enclosed everything around me, but the two of them hadn't woken me up yet. Maybe if I fell asleep again I'd dream of something else, something other then that danm moon.

- - - - - -

Achievement Unlocked: Contact – Make Contact with a mysterious ghoul.

Chapter 9: In The Shadows

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The thick fog was new. In all the days and nights I had been awake, the only weather I had been familiar with was the constant cloud cover and variants of it.

But after separating from my friends in the middle of the night, the cloud cover around the peaks of the tallest mountains began gradually lowering. At first I hadn't even noticed it, but when the cloud cover descended to just several yards over my head, threatening to completely remove my visibility of the village below, I had a rough decision to make. With no visibility, while I would have perfect invisibility to stay hidden from the search party that had gone out, they would be similarly invisible to me.

Taking a giant gamble, I opened up the map in the back of the lilac plastic binded book, and did my best to remember which mountain it was that would put me where the barrier normally would have been to the clouds above. Surely there was no way that the cloud cover had increased in volume and was covering the entirety of the atmosphere, the colder air was probably just pulling it down.

And my assumptions were right. I was sitting at the designated location, completely awestruck by the sight. The sky above was completely free of clouds, the entire cloud cover had indeed descended right into the valley that held Our Town. A look to the west though, confirmed that it would be very short lived and new clouds, more white in color then sickly grey, were beginning to roll in.

I was hurriedly scribbling in my book, feeling excitement as witnessing this. It was very possible I was the first pony in hundreds of years to see the sky, barren and exposed admist the mountaintops. First I eagerly wrote down my assumption on the cause, cold air in the mountains encouraging the water-filled clouds to settle lower then normal. After all, cold air was dense, and water-filled clouds would surely be dense as well. Then I had to describe the sights.

In the east I could see the dark blue sky giving way to the faintest hint of purple, and the longer I stared the more it looked like a hint of orange was peeking through the visible gaps between the mountains. Ignoring the east, my neck craned back as far as it could, looking at the countless stars in the sky. They hung in the sky, some of the adjusting their brightness with the smallest of twinkles, like a far distant traveler waving a greeting hoof at anypony that would see them. With enough staring my mind started assigning shapes such as triangles, circles, and arrows to the various stars, somehow seeing a new shape with every blink of my eyes.

I fell onto my side, the sight overwhelming me and making me lose my balance. The thought of this sight only being visible to pegasi for the last two centuries felt incredibly selfish. White dots interspersed with the occasional duller red star absolutely put to shame anything I had seen in the last few days, taunting my mind with welcoming stories that blossomed in the sky before vanishing and taking new ones without even shifting above me.

All of these tales above were coupled with a half-moon in the distance, looking generally as I remembered it in my haunting dreams. But now, with my own eyes, I could stare at it and make out distant ridges and craters both remembered and new. The sheer distance that the celestial body kept from the mountain I was standing on made the long and slow climb I had near-blindly taken seem silly. It was simply impossible for pony hooves to touch it, never touch the massive circular valleys and the mountains that surrounded them.

“Could you see these mountains from there?” I mused aloud to myself. Surely if us ponies on Equus could see the mountains on our moon, anypony on the moon could see the same back. Relaxing my neck I rolled onto my back, legs sticking up and bent at the knees as the thoughts of how these mountains would look collided with the stars above, now imagining each red and white dot as a snow-covered or snow-absent peak covering Equus to taunt our circular neighbor. What would Equus look like from the Moon? The ground wasn't totally covered with snowy peaks. Would it appear as a giant dark-grey ball from all the cloud cover, crudely antagonizing the brighter moon with it's muted water-filled color? Or would the colors from beneath the clouds barely shine through, in the same way the sun's light barely shone through the cloudy ceiling?

Speaking of which, the east was now filling up with red, orange now taking its' place as the color seeping from between the mountains. The light of the sun was like a signal to the stars to dim down, each of the ones in the east fading out of existence bit by bit. I could see in the distant east other clouds that were also still high in the sky, signifying that the break in the clouds that had fallen onto the village below was a much more isolated occurrence and was not the norm across the mountains.

Once more I let my gaze trace across the entirety of the dawn sky from east to west, watching the sky slowly lose it's deep purple tint, the dark shade seemingly being pushed behind the advancing westward clouds, the stars. With an exception. I blinked, staring at a piece of sky that should have been no different then anything else above, what looked like a single star popping out of existence, a star that was near the edge of the incoming westwardly clouds.

The unexpectedness of it snapped me out of the stupor the fading night sky had left to me. While getting onto my hooves my gaze stayed focus on that one spot in the distant sky where a light seemingly winked out. The stare only last a few moments before my view toward that westward direction was obscured by the incoming clouds. My thoughts began racing at the possibilities, or more accurately, the one possibility I could think of.

The Pegasi. Spice had told me how the Pegasi had left their isolation in the clouds and descended onto their home in Manehattan and various other spots across the wasteland beyond the mountains. Was it some massive airship like my unicorn friend had told me, making itself invisible in an imperfect way? I grabbed my book and graphite and set my sights on the small cave that the pegasus ghoul had told me about. If it was a Pegasus airship, the last thing I wanted was to be visible and give them reason to descend upon the village.

By the time I had sat down inside the clouds had began to retake the sky over this slice of the mountains. But pegai could walk on clouds, and would probably have ways to climb through them as well. Staying out of sight was the most important thing that could be done, because if they saw me, they would surely scour it up and down.

At least that's how I reasoned my fear to myself, my heart pounding in my chest in concern. Finding a small cave, the mouth of it barely my own heigth, I scurried inside, the darkness surrounding me and giving me enough comfort to start relaxing my heart.

There was just enough room to turn around inside the tiny cave, and my hindquarters kept bumping and rubbing against the rock wall of the cave as I did so. But what really broke my attention was the sliding of my left rear hoof on something that was not rock or ice. It didn't happen until I was almost perfectly facing the entrance of the cave, ready for a head-on confrontation if searching pegasi saw me. I flicked my ear, trying desperately to hear the sound of hooves, wings, or anything else besides the constant white noise of wind flowing around the sides of the mountain.

Comfortable enough to finally check what my hoof slipped on, I quickly looked behind me. It was a book, with pages bound together by a rusted spiral, the rust having compromised the rigidity and making the entire notebook bend significantly upon picking it up.

I took another look out the cave, watching the cloud-cover roll overhead. Still no sounds greeted my ears except for the wind, and any break in that consistency would be impossible to not hear. So I kicked the notebook across the cave floor, letting it stop by my forehooves so I could read it while listening to the outside.

“Day 1 of crossing.

Manehattan was a trade hub before the war, and I've been a bit surprised that few prior cartographers ever tried to use the railways to go back towards the Crystal Empire. I talked with the retired cartographer living in Friendship City outside of Tenpony Tower and while he never attempted to search for the Crystal Empire, he said he met with friends who said that the railways in Northeastern Equestria were generally unreliable if they went into the mountains, no maintenance in 175 years allowing weather to collapse bridges and buying railways.

It's the best way I can think of to search it out though. Railroad bridges would leave pretty distinct trails of wear even if they've totally collapsed, and as long as none of the tunnels cut right into the mountains it should be traceable.

I've followed one of the railways that left Manhattan that was supposed to go straight to the Crystal Empire. The rails are exposed for now.

~Roaming Gaze

I carefully turned the page of the notebook, taking care to not rip the paper from the rusted spiral binder.

Day 3

Came across the first major complication. The railroad went to a bridge that had completely collapsed into a river. It would have been no problem to cross if not for how radioactive it is, the water had a bright green glow to it. My guess is that any latent balefire radiation in these mountains have gradually accumulated in this river. I decided to head north to try and find a way around.

Day 5

I found a crossing point, but that burnt through most of my RadX and Radaway reserves. I'm going to have to hope that I can come across a different way back after I find the railroad again.

Day 7

Yesterday I came across a railroad track again. I didn't think it was the one I was using, but I've decided to follow it anyway. Among cartographers the rumors about secret railways from Canterlot stretching to hidden military sites and living weapons are old as the pegasus cloud cover. If I'm going to restore my water and rad-x reserves I'll need to come across something, even if it's an old military site.

The problem is that today that railroad came to an abrupt end. The rotten wooden wall made it pretty clear that the rail was supposed to stop at that point, rather then an abandoned railway project. But there was no unloading point, not even a small hut to designate a stop, or even a loop so a train could be turned around and facing forward when leaving.

If I can't find any old bases or settlements around here in the next day, I'll have to follow this railroad back to it's origin point, and leave it once I start getting closer to Canterlot. It seems like any shot at finding the Crystal Kingdom is basically over now.

Taking a sip from the canteen I had been given, I couldn't help but frown a bit at how little water was actually left in it. I'd be fine for the day, but at night I'd have to sneak in and find where the water for the Village was stored and get some for myself.

Day 15

I've not written anything in here for a week, and I think I might be trapped in these mountains with no safe way out.

The day after my last entry I came across a small isolated village in these mountains. It seems like they've not had any contact with Equestria since before the war. 'Out Town' is thoroughly filled with crazies that are super welcoming but super pushy in me joining them.

I got to talk with their head mare, who they call Ministry Mare, as if they're not aware of how the Ministry Mares turned Equestria into what it is. When I offered to help connect them to Equestria as a whole their leader freaked out and probably would have ousted me if I didn't suggest trading to make things better. And they need it. They have one of the few operational factories left in Equestria, but all they do is make iron to board up holes in their buildings with it, and their food production barely keeps them malnourished.

The common ponies here are nice though. Made friends with a mare that seemed really interested in hearing what the outside is like.

The worst part is the other ponies, if you could even call them that. They look just like one of us, but are mad. I came across one of them the day before I came across the village, and they didn't even try to talk, just lunged for my throat with his mouth. I encountered another one last night, she snuck up on my camp here and also tried to gnaw me apart. These aren't like feral ghouls. They might be what us cartographers whisper about, wild ponies, descendants of those who fled to the mountains after the war and gradually lost the ability to talk, kidnapping foals from isolated villages and lone travelers.

I turned the page again, revealing not another entry but instead a map. It was similar to the one that the ghoul pegasus had made, but significantly larger in scope and detail. Quickly I pulled my lilac book back out and flipped open to the map, only to be let down by the realization that due to the difference in scope, it wouldn't be practical to transcribe the details of the most noteworthy additions. Locations like the striped line that designated the rail he had come across was beyond the scribbled map's boundaries. Deciding that the information was still valuable, I gripped the piece of graphite in my mouth and pointed an arrow to the southwest. Railroad to Canterlot (?) was all I put down. It was still worth talking with Spice and Amber at a later time about how they got here, and if there was a route other then that old railroad in and out of here.

And how I got here.

Sitting that thought to the side, I turned to the next page in the book. My eyebrow raised at the notice that there was no more 'days' listed in the heading.

Rooted Soil refuses to leave Our Town. In the three months I've been here she insists that it's not safe for her or the child to leave the valley. I don't think she understands that we can't keep our weekly rendezvous up forever, especially when she does give birth to our foal.

It clicked. This was the stallion that I had read about in the dusty room in Soothing Constant's house.

I want to scream at the top of this mountain, scream with sheer joy. Never before had I thought that I would find love, let alone help to bring a child into the world. Every day I find myself leaking tears of joy. I'm sure that they'll be a great child, as her father and mother is.

But the joy doesn't counter the fact that this is a dangerous place to live. The worst part is the noises and the eyes. I've moved to a location high in the mountains in the last week. But I can still hear and see the wild ponies. They all seem to be earth ponies, just blindly staring at my encampments with hollow eyes and chattering teeth. I don't want to tell Rooted Soil about it because it would only convince her that she's right to stay in Our Town, but I fear if they gang up to attack us. At least they don't seem to climb high in the mountains.

The good news is that I've been able to steal enough potatoes and beets from the village below that I now have my own garden up here. It's not remotely big enough to support more then me. But being able to walk above the cloud cover means that it gets way more sunlight then anything grown in Our Town, and most importantly, the soil hasn't been reused so much that it offers no nutrition.

We talked again about leaving. Rooted Soil finally is willing to leave, but she wants to wait until our foal is old enough to walk on their own. That could be the better part of a year. I think the worst part is that it's not anything that I said which made her change her mind, but instead its because ponies in Our Town are spreading rumors about the weird long-dead outsider, that is me, being the father.

I don't know if we'll have that much time though. For whatever reason there's been a change in the guards' shifts and they've spread out into the mountains themselves rather then just hanging on the edges of the town at night.

I turned the next page. Empty. Blank. Nothing else was written down. I began hoofing through the pages a bit faster, accidentally tearing one of the later ones in my haste. Nothing. Just as much nothing as the complete lack of the sound any pegasi search party should have made. With my breath steady, my heart calm, and my ears and eyes primed, I looked outside the cave entrance. It was worth stepping out, first to see if there was any invisible cloud ship on the mountaintop, but also to chase the allure of much needed food, even it it was likely years ago.

I stuffed the rusty and yellow notebook into my satchel. It's abrupt end notebook shouldn't have been a surprise. I already knew what the end result was from rooting in the back of the old notes from the village below.

Hesitantly I stepped outside the cave mouth, noting the return to the depressingly familiar scenery. The clouds had once again seized the sky and there was no evidence of the star-filled night sky that had once taken hold. My eyes scanned the clouds and mountaintops, looking for any sort of abnormalities like a rippling or shifting peak or bulge in the clouds. When my naked eyes couldn't find anything out of the ordinary, I swapped to the scope that had been left by the ghoul, balancing it on my right hoof as I looked in all directions.

Still there was nothing, but I could see the entire village from this height, the ponies of our town appearing like tiny ants at this distance. While the original pony that lived on the top of this mountain likely was content with wistfully staring from a distance at the town his pregnant lover had once been in, it just wasn't practical enough for me, especially if I wanted a vantage point that I could make out specific ponies from with the use of the scope.

I took a look at the rocky ledge I had used to get to this point. There was an option to continue following it upward as it passed the cave's entrance. If there really was a potato and beet farm, even just big enough for one pony, hidden above the clouds it would be a bit risky. There was a distinct chance that the pegasi could see me from above the clouds, but also a chance that the farm could have already been stripped of food. But food was the one thing that I would need to survive. Regardless of what would happen when Silver Sight returned, food massively hampered my ability to do anything.

The clouds hung mere inches from my head, wispy tendrils extending nearly a foot downward from the thicker mass. In curiosity, I reached a forehoof out, attempting to press against the cloud-cover. To my surprise, my hoof just phased right through it, as if I was touching air, the cloud barely reacting to my presence. I took a few more steps forward, poking my head into the white mass. The visibility dropped rapidly, going from being able to see miles to only a few feet from my head. But it didn't move or shift from my presence, even as I continued the uphill trek and my body was surrounded by cold.

Cold, and wet. It didn't take long to notice that along with being extremely dense visibly, it was like being gradually soaked, and I could feel cold drops of water mixing with my already sweat-dampened fur. While it was nice to know that I wouldn't have to worry about the clouds acting like an impenetrable barrier, the knowledge that I would be trudging back down the mountain both wet and cold would put a dampener on my speed as well as body temperature, already needing to pace myself on the ascent and descent so as not to cause undue pressure pain in my joints.

Now how did I know that? I thought to myself. I couldn't remember hiking on mountains anytime recently, because obviously I couldn't exactly remember hiking at all before coming to Our Town. But I had to come from somewhere outside the village. For a moment I thought about the Enclave. Pegasi held up in the clouds. While there were a few pegasi in the village, a new pegasus appearing out of nowhere would definitely arouse suspicion. But maybe an earth pony or unicorn being sent down would catch the inhabitants off guard? If that was my past, I would have ever reason to be familiar with hiking up and down a mountain. Somepony to study the inhabitants and figure out the best way to conquer them?

Warm sunlight broke through my thoughts, my head now sticking out of the top of the clouds. I was caught a bit off guard by the drastic change, raising a hoof and shielding my eyes from the blinding light from the giant yellow orb above me, and the light bouncing off the clouds around. Hesitant to expose myself fully, I scanned this new scenery. Clouds as far as the eye could see, and a few lone black peaks broke through the clouds at various different intervals.

I didn't see any airships, or at least, nothing that I imagined an airship would be. In fact, besides the sun, the rolling expanse of clouds, and the black peaks, I honestly saw nothing. Cautiously, I took a few more steps up, hoping to find the old potatoes.

The ground gave out from under me the moment I cleared the clouds. I hit the ground chin first, and it shifted again beneath my head, my body sliding down without stopping. Instinctively I threw my forelegs out to grab onto the clouds, only to slip through them, and stop only when I was subsumed into wet white moisture again. Carefully, I came back onto all fours, shaking my body and noticing specs of black dust and debris falling from my coat and mane.

Once more, I climbed back through the cloud cover, and looked a bit closer at the mountaintop I was walking on. It was thick and black, and upon closer examination it was made up of nothing but dirt and debris, vaguely reminiscent of the spoil that was left behind from the mining that I had done in the cave prison. Carefully, I planted my forehooves on the sliding surface, feeling the ground made of loose dirt shift beneath me and causing me to sink nearly an inch. A few more labored steps, and more sinking followed.

“Well, at least there's no way an Enclave ship could have landed on this.” I mumbled to myself, looking at the giant mountaintop full of spoil. “How did anypony grow potatoes on this? Or anything, for that matter?” Was the other thing I asked aloud, answered by nothing but the very faint echo of my own voice. Just ascending five feet from the top of the clouds took more energy then most of the hike beforehand. For a moment, I thought of calorie intake. Even if I found potatoes or any other kind of food in this mess, I would likely be running at an energy deficit. With a deep sigh, my breath leaving a small imprint on the massive cone of spoil I was knee-high in, I began to turn around, prepared to start my descent.

Red.

A red pair of dots hung on the edge of the cloud-cover, submerged just enough to hide what it was connected to, but visible enough for me to see. My body instinctively froze, the loose spoil around me shifting and rolling down in small amounts.

The mountaintop became deathly silent as I stared into the small red dots, not much bigger then pony eyes. I shifted my body just a bit, feeling the weight of my satchel and the but-end of the pipe rifle tap against the side of my body, confirming that I was still armed.

The two of us just stood in our locations, staring at eachother wordlessly. Eventually the natural urge to blink and clear my eyes overtook me, and the red eyes vanished. But faintly, through the thick clouds, I could see the pony it was connected to.

“Hey!” I shouted, the pony turning it's back toward me and vanishing back into the cloud cover as it began descending. Shocked at seeing another equine that had followed me for so long, I shouted out again. “Wait!” The spoil shifted around me, but I didn't care, quickly landing my hooves back on the firm mountainside again and descending into the clouds down the small naturally formed path I had taken, desperate to see and talk to the other pony that probably knew of a way to stay fed in these mountains.

Pony wasn't the right word. It was massive, twice my height and size. That was a beast. I stopped abruptly after seeing it's full size, covered with a massive shaggy coat the dragged on the ground behind it as the creature continued it's trek downward.

It's sheer size caused me to stop in my tracks. I dropped onto my stomach, turning my head and biting down on the back of my pipe rifle. By the time I brought it around and had it level, the massive equine beast had turned around a bend, and was vanishing out of my site.

I laid there for several minutes, the chill of the water that had condensed on my fur being the only thing I could notice while I slowly breathed, not carefully watching the edge of the rocky wall that the gigantic equine had vanished around. What did break my stare was the sound of wind swirling around me and the side of the mountain, further chilling me. Carefully I raised back onto all fours and crept toward the bend, staying as silent as I could on the jagged rocks.

Coming to the rock wall, I leaned my body against it and slowly stuck my head out, looking farther down the trail I had just came up mere minutes earlier. Nothing but empty air and the trail. I stepped out of cover and listened as closely as I could for any sound beyond the wind and my hooves on the rock, only to be met with a similar emptiness.

I continued to slowly and cautiously descend back down to the cave that had held the cartographer's notebook, the entire time my ears were primed not for pegasi wingbeats, but the sound of what should have been heavy hoof-falls from a large pony. And just like the pegasi wingbeats, the sound never reached my ears. It was as if the large pony evaporated into the air like the fog from earlier, leaving me doubting my eyes from both the hint of an invisible airship and the sight of the large red-eyed pony on the ground level.

- - - -

Sneaking into the factory was a unique experience. There was only one large doorway into it, big enough for two stallions the size of Iron to walk in and out of while standing shoulder-to-shoulder. Beyond that, however, the only other way in and out was through a large chimney sticking out of the top of the building, where smoke lazily drifted out and was fed into the cloud cover above. Not having a grappling hook or wings to fly with, the door was my only way in.

Looking back over toward the entrance behind me, I couldn't help but smile at how easy it was. Staying crouched low and hiding in the shadows made the entire thing incredibly easy. And now that I was inside, the darkness of the entire factory opened up to me, like a comforting embrace to pull me away from the eyes of other ponies.

The only downside of the encroaching early evening darkness was the lack of light to see anything of value. During the day, the open doorway would provide some cloud-obscured sunlight, but the majority of light that we used to work came from the fires from the glyph and the red hot melting metal. But now?

I could see a faint hint of light deeper into the factory. I could only assume it was candlelight, or some other small and flammable source. Carefully, I crept toward the side of the walls, and falling back on my memory from the one day I did work inside of here, I took great effort to not trip on any chains or walk into any support beams.

Heavy breathing was the only thing that came to my ears, and it became incredibly difficult to successfully sneak toward it's source. As heavy as it was, the sound of my hooves on the metal floor was a bit louder, and it was with great pain that I timed each landing of a hoof onto the metal floor.

The source of the breathing which covered by careful creeping toward the back of the room was Tempered Iron himself. He was standing behind a stack of metal slabs, a familiar lilac book laying open while he scribbled something into it using graphite.

“Iron!” A familiar mare's voice shouted out. “We need to talk!”

Instinctively I crouched down, Mare Ether's voice echoing through the nearly empty facotry. Slowly, carefully, I crawled away from her voice, hoping to loop around and sit at an angle that wouldn't expose me to the two.

“Mare Ether. To who do we owe this-”

“Drop the pretentious act. You know why I'm here.” Her usually bubbly tone had been replaced with a curt one. “Now that everything has finally settled down a bit, it's time that you explain why you let a traitorous outsider into Our Town.”

My ear flicked. Talking about me?

“We have been nothing but honest with you, Mare Ether. We wanted the outsider to be my replacement. Somepony who's not afflicted with-” I stopped my crawling for a moment, concerned that he had gone quiet from hearing me. “The vice of laziness between unequal friends.”

“Laziness isn't our enemy, the outsiders are.” The clacking of the unicorn's hoofs on the floor had subsided, but Iron's had not as he walked closer to her, the distance and the volume of their conversation giving me the confidence to start crawling again.

“Laziness is how we keep Our Town in order, Mare Ether.” A short moment of silence. “Our Factory could run much quicker, and make much more material without burning through so much wax for the flame glyphs. We made an agreement with the last Minsitry Mare that-”

“Beatings and slowness to keep ponies busy and unable to think. We know. You're avoiding the question. I granted you a favor as long as you would back me for succession as Ministry Mare. Why was this your favor?”

A prolonged moment of silence settled over the factory as Tempered Iron didn't answer. At this point I had crawled all the way to the candle-lit table, and the edge of Iron's copy of Glimmers of Truth enticingly caught my eyes. The duo were not moving, and were out of my range of sight...so I knocked the book onto the floor infront of me, hoping that he would have recorded some valuable information.

“We don't want a pony who thinks that laziness and beatings is the only way our factory works. We want a pony that understands why we do it that way, and how to motivate ponies to work harder in the event of a friendship problem. But everypony under us thinks that they are cleverly saving energy and taking beatings while reducing their workload without us knowing. And we let them think it, because it makes for good workers. It does not, however, make for good leaders.”

Rapidly flipping through Iron's book, I came across the last entry, which he had been writing before his current conversation started.

The Ministry Mare has charged us with the duty of hiding the outsider's cutie marks, along with our own. Per her wishes, we have put them in the material storage cave that we retrieved the buck from. Nopony except for the Ministry Mare, myself, and the four ponies we had help move the materials know where the cave is, and those four ponies will not know that her glass book is kept in there.

Somehow, despite our massive misjudgment of character of the sleeping outsider, the Ministry Mare still trusts me, and still is letting us run the factory as we see fit. But we expect that may change if she demands to talk with us.

“Iron, while I appreciate your forethought, you have forgotten something incredibly important. There won't be an Our Town to manage if your actions destroy it. I already have to worry about Woe Tree bucking my authority as Ministry Mare, not to mention trying to thin out Water Margin's guard so he can't move against me.”

I flipped back a few pages, but everything before was merely writings about the output. A door one day, a door-frame another day. He did have a few other more detailed writings, but the only other one regarding myself merely stated that he found me in the storage cave and personally brought me to the doctor at night so nopony would start rumors. While he knew where our marks had been stored, there wasn't even a hint recorded of where to look.

“The only reason I wouldn't have you killed right now-” The sound of telekinetic magic lighting up could barely be heard through the gaps in her words. “-is because I need somepony to help when I finally get new pillars. Don't cause any more problems for me, and I won't cause any for you. Got it?”

“Yes, Mare Ether.”

Unsatisfied with my shuffling through the diary, I slowly made my way out of the candlelight, and into the shadows. Now it was just a matter of waiting on Mare Ether to leave, and I could sneak back into the hidden room to tell my friends the good, and bad, news.

- - - -

The abnormally heavy pin snapped between my teeth. I had already gone through 7 of the pins, not getting even the smallest amount of play with the lock in the back of the underground room with any of them. Carefully I shifted my hoof, changing the angle of the screwdriver by the smallest amounts once more, as I bent my head down and used my tongue to fish out another heavy pin from the box. The most frustrating part of this lock, I decided as I slipped the pin in once more, rubbing it against the lock's internal pins, was that even with all the shifting that they did, the cylinders acted as if they never fell into place.

I took a step back again, looking at the edges of the double doors. I couldn't just smash or remove the hinges, they were on the other side. Dropping the screwdriver and busted pin on the ground, I raised my right hoof to the single door handle again, pressing my ear against the handle-less door that held the lock and jiggling the handle. It didn't sound like the slight shifting was making any change inside the lock, crushing my hope that maybe just holding the handle at a particular angle would change something.

One more idea came to my mind. “Maybe there's another lock on the other side?” Reaching into my satchel I pulled out the cartographer's notebook and tore one of the yellowed pages off of the rusted binding. Clamping the paper between my teeth, I turned my head sideways and slipped it in, gradually moving the sheet from the bottom to the top.

Even with the lock and handle was the latch, evident by the folding of the paper in my mouth. I pulled my head back a slight amount and kept dragging the paper upwards, and sure enough, my worst possible suspicion were proven true. About an inch and a half above the main latch I could feel another one.

With anger I stepped back and spat out the paper. Unless I had a large battering ram or a lot of explosive force, there was no way that I, or anypony else for that matter, would be able to get through those doors unless it was unlocked on the other side. IN frustration I kicked my rear legs into the air.

My anger was broken by the sounds of rock and dirt moving underhoof. Deciding to ignore the lock for tonight, I put the screwdriver and box of heavy bobbypins back in my satchel, using the moment to check and make sure my pipe rifle was positioned to be quickly drawn if it wasn't my friends coming down. I took a few steps toward the hole, watching a few stray pebbles meet the floor first before the hoof and blue-grey coat of a familiar unicorn broke into the candle-lit view. He gave a rough exhale before planting his fore-hooves once more and dragging himself into the room.

“How hard was it?” I asked, watching as Spice collapsed into the pile of dust at the end of the debris tunnel.

“Getting in here?” The unicorn stopped with a sneeze as the dust floated about from his disturbance. “Or getting the crazies that run this joint to let us live?”

“Both?”

“I hate this town.” Amber remarked, rolling onto her back in the middle of all the dust and starring blankly to the ceiling. “All of the ponies here are crazy.”

“They made sure to take our weapons and armor again and she's still bitching about not having her hammer. But you were right, waking up nearly half of the town by trying to kick down doors in a panic did wonders.” Spice Chaser opened his mouth as if to continue, only to turn his head to the side and aggressively sneeze again from the dust.

“Spice gave the bitch running this dump a big apology about how he was so scared and sorry about being used and manipulated.” The mare turned her head and gave me a dead-eyed look. “Why are you stallions so good at lying all the time anyway?”

“And they gave you enough leeway to sneak out tonight?” I asked as my unicorn friend lit the wax with his horn, letting him dim his magical light source.

“I don't think they had much of a choice.” He responded back, sitting on his haunches. “The little stunt your ghoul friend pulled really had everypony in a tither with no idea what to do.”

“Did anypony hint on weaknesses that we could trap them with?”

“The factory fucker doesn't care about anything beyond those walls.” Swing remarked, still laying on her back and looking at me dully. “Well, I think he has a thing for causing grief as well. I saw that bastard taking his spear to no fewer then three ponies today.” She rolled onto her side, and though her fur I could see a slight blue discoloration on her back. “But I've dealt with worse.”

“Water Margin and Woe Tree only seem to be concerned with security and food itself. Neither of them talked about anything else.” Spice remarked. “Woe in particular took interest in that chocolate, going as far as to discuss distributing it among the villagers until Ether shut her down.”

“What for?” I asked. Even a bit of potential leverage on the Ministry Mare that ran the town would be better then nothing.

“She just said it wasn't a good idea to be distributing outsider's goods like that, because it could upset the ponies. And then she locked it up in her cabinet.” He dropped his eyebrows, automatically assuming what my next question would be. “No, her book with our cutie-marks weren't in there either, I'm positive she's had somepony close to her move them.”

A sigh escaped my lips. “Walk me through your whole interaction with them, surely there's something else that we can take note of beyond their commitment to their roles.”

“That pegasus was half dead when he finally saw us. Probably hasn't slept in three days and he did nothing but run around after we left.” The mare rolled onto her stomach, “Wired, tired buck. He had some of his lackeys escort us to the bitch's house” Amber climbed back onto all fours, referring to Glowing Ether with the 'bitch' comment. “And the four of them all reassembled to ask about whatever had happened. So we gave them the sob story about a horde of raiders advancing and that we just barely escaped in the cover of night.”

The sound of hoofsteps on rock caught my attention, and I held up my hoof, silencing the mare. She opened her mouth to protest, but Spice shook his head, getting his marefriend's attention by tapping his right ear. Quickly I motioned toward the puddle of wax, and followed it up with the motion of dragging my hoof across my neck. Amber was the one closest to it, and in turn was the one to extinguish its' light with a quick breath.

Now surrounded by darkness, I focused a bit more on the sounds outside of the room. It changed from hoofsteps to a dragging sound, one coming from the hole. Whoever it was, they were crawling down to into the room we were in. Faintly a magic light could be seen through the entry hole, light consistent with a unicorn's horn. Carefully I reached to my satchel, biting down on the cool mouthgrip of the pipe rifle as I brought the end of it level with the lone entrance. For a moment I hoped it was my unicorn friend that had come down with me and Fair Smile.

Those hopes were dashed quickly. This was a lanky unicorn, coming down rear first. Just after she extracted herself from the hole she craned her neck, her telekinesis yanking a few large objects down the hole behind her. With her back still turned toward us I took the opportunity to creep forward, stopping once I was just behind her. I pressed the end of the barrel against the top of her spinal cord, making my presence very well known.

The unicorn gave a dejected sigh. “We should have known that you would have snuck back to the village as well.” Woe Tree boldly turned to face me, brightening her horn to illuminate both of us plainly as we looked eye-to-eye. “We guess the story of the raider clan was also fake?”

The gun in my mouth didn't make it that easy to talk. “You're going to tell us everything we want to know.” I muffled around the trigger.

“And if we refuse?” I could see her levitation pulling one of Spice's revolver's through the hole, the black one named Sporus, silently implying the threat of mutually assured destruction.

“Then we'll be the only ones who saw anything, and can tell Mare Ether anything we want.” Spice remarked, stepping just into the edge of the faint light her horn provided. Woe Tree's eyes bounced between Spice and I several times, weighing her options.

“She's got all of our stuff!” Amber shouted, breaking the tense atmosphere. She had her head stuck in the entrance, slowly stepping back and pulling out her hammer in her mouth once more.

Understanding how outnumbered she was, the unicorn sighed in defeat. “Very well. What are you three wanting?” She cut her telekinesis, the revolver dropping into Spice's own magical grip.

Spice and I exchanged a look. We had just been talking about trying to find a weakness or desire to exploit one of the ponies running Our Town, and this opportunity had just dropped in our lap. If Spice knew how to perform with tact, it would be possible to get the information without making the goal too obvious. It was incredibly likely though that she would lie to try and throw us off of any usable information, or even worse, lay out a trap to ensnare us all later.

“Why are you here?” My unicorn friend started.

“We had to store your weapons and armor somewhere.” She coolly remarked, her eyes still level with my own as I kept the end of the gun on her chin. “Only the four of us know of this place.”

“Wait. I came down here earlier, and there were no hoofprints or evidence anypony was in this room before, not with all this dust. There were only a few stray hoofprints in the entering tunnel.” The unicorn rolled her eyes, and charged up her horn, then discharged it, releasing her small buildup of magic into the air and causing a breeze, upsetting the thick dust on the floor and redistributing it on the floor, and in our noses. Spice and Amber found themselves sneezing, I merely held my breath to ensure the unicorn wasn't going to use this as a moment to catch the three of us off guard, only for her to sneeze as well. For all my concern, she was just as vulnerable to the dust as we were.

“Where-” The earth pony mare's question was cut off by an errant sneeze. “Where are our cutie marks!?”

“We don't know.”

“I know that she doesn't know.” I remarked, pulling the gun back from her chin. “I read Tempered Iron's diary early, he was the one charged with hiding them again. But it didn't specify where.”

For the first time since turning around, Woe Tree broke eye contact with me, not moving her head but looking to the side to respond to the other mare in the room who started chanting Iron's name with her same vulgar promise.

I ignored Amber's angry chanting to herself at the mention of his name, choosing instead to press on. “Why do you guys not grow more food?” The unicorn's gaze locked right back with me, one of her eyebrows raising in confusion.

“What?”

“You heard me. Your planting is all messy. Everything is too deep and too close to make decent yields.”

She continued to stare at me for a minute. “You're lying.”

“You have one of the few fertile plots of land in all of the Wastelands.” Spice cut in. “The entire reason we came here was to find places to grow food. And all of the land here is completely wasted.” He lowered his revolver. “Is it for population control, you keep the yields intentionally low to better manage the ponies here?”

“This is how we've done it for years. Why would we change what works?” The unicorn was getting extremely defensive, her face steeling the glare and shooting it at him.

“Because it could be better. Instead of keeping everypony half-starved and barely able to work, you could have everypony here well fed.”

“I...I didn't know.” Her gaze abruptly fell, looking toward the ground as her entire form slumped, as if sapped of energy. I quickly looked at her flanks, seeing the grey equal sign pulse.

“Your mark.” Her head glumly turned toward me as I stashed the pipe rifle back in my pack. “The remarking removes your cutie mark and brands you the same as everypony else. But it also locks any knowledge with your special talent. Why would they lock away the talents of anypony leading the town, especially if it has such a negative impact?”

“To lead, one must learn to follow your friends. This lesson will take all your life to learn.” She gave another depressed sigh. “From Glimmers of Truth. Page 67.”

“So everypony has their marks stripped except for Ether then?”

“No. When we say everypony, we mean everypony. We watched Ether be remarked with our own eyes.” A moment of silence. “Who else's marks did you think was in the book with yours?”

“Why?” Amber remarked as she stepped up next to us. “Why were our marks with yours?”

The unicorn mare gave another sigh, walking over toward the table and lighting the candle wax once more. “Starlight Glimmer was a great mare, truly deserving of the title of Ministry Mare. But she wasn't perfect. She lied to the ponies in her care and kept her own destiny and talents to herself, refusing to mingle with us. When she finally died, it was revealed to those closest to her that rather then the staff of sameness, it was her own magic that let her remove cutiemarks. A fight broke out between those who wanted to restore everyone's cutie-marks, and those who believed in what Glimmer wrote and wanted the spell recreated. In the end the former was ousted, and when the spell was recreated a requirement was that everypony watches everypony's remarking, which was to take place the immediately after they earned their cutie-mark. And in case of emergency, the ponies who help run Our Town will be given their marks back.”

“Why do you not let anypony go then? Let those who want to keep their marks leave and be free?” I interjected.

“The ponies that wanted everyone's marks restored were kicked into the mountains. But would you rather be here where everyone is the same and safe, or out there, where individuality drives ponies mad?” Spice guffawed, the older unicorn's attention turned back to him. “We aren't lying. While it would appear that there is some sense of unity beyond our village, the attacks never stop.”

“Attacks?”

“Individualist Ponies. They look like anypony else, but they lurk on the edges of the mountains, hungry for flesh and stealing the young to make more of themselves. Water Margin's nightly shifts are done to drive them away from here and make sure the citizens of Our Town never know of them.”

“Raiders? We came across a few of them before getting here, only fun in this trip.” Amber idly kicked a forehoof against the floor. “Would have been more fun if they actually screamed profanity or tried using a gun like normal ones though.”

I shook my head. “No. I think I know what she's talking about.” I reached into my satchel and pulled out the dead cartographer's notebook, placing it on the table and gingerly opening it to the entry made before. “For a village that's totally off the map and with no contact with the outside world, these wild ponies are a walking propaganda machine to keep those closest to the Ministry Mare in line.” But this raised one more question, a more personal one. “So why didn't Tempered Iron shoot me?”

“You were the first pony we had come across in years. You still had your cutie mark, unlike the individualists, and Iron was insistent on keeping you alive.” Woe Tree let out a small dry laugh. “Alot of good that did.” The older unicorn then narrowed her eyes, her gaze darting between us two males. “You said you came for food? Why would we let you grow food here to be exported to your village of Manehattan?”

I wasn't sure why she was so aggressively pivoting the conversation, but Spice didn't have any hesitation. “Trade. If your village establishes a connection with Manehattan, there would be things outside of the mountains you would be willing to exchange for food.”

“We grow our own food, live in our own houses, and get our water from a hidden well. What would we possibly need from you?”

“Metal.” Amber and I shouted simultaneously. I look at my fellow earth pony, making a motion with my hoof to encourage her to continue. “Metal. All of your houses have patchworks of pig iron on them.” Her countenance fell a bit and I could see the dark pulsing on her flank. “You...you'll need new metal eventually. I don't think you can just reuse the same bits forever.”

“Amber?” She slowly turned her head toward me, her eyes and face covered with the gaze of death. “If I may?” The normally angry mare just nodded, sitting on her rear once more. “Beyond metal, there are more pressing issues. The pegasi are beginning to leave the clouds, and they've been targeting every town and village they can find. How much longer do you think it will be until they come here?” Woe Tree started to open her mouth in rebuttal, and I cut her off. “The fog this morning is all the proof you should need. In the week I was here there was never any fog or mist, just a constant cloud cover.” Her jaw shut in shock from being reminded. “How much longer will it be until they come here? You saw how much damage one pegasus did the other day, imagine fifty of them.”

“Woe Tree.” Spice picked up from me. “Tenpony Tower and Manehattan has friends in high places. If you want this village to survive, you're going to need help from the outside. But we need land to grow more food.”

The mare took a deep inhale, rolling her eyes and cocking her head back, giving the ceiling a stare. “And what would you have us do?”

That was an in. Spice and I looked at each other, exchanging a smile of confidence. “Prod around with the other ponies. Water Margin, Tempered Iron, even Glowing Ether. Drop hints, refer to the fog and the threat of the pegasi.”

She brought her head level once again, shaking in denial. “They won't care. Ether is young, younger then she should have been when she became Ministry Mare. She only cares about consolidating the village around herself.” The old unicorn gave half a chuckle. “She fancies herself as a new Starlight Glimmer, but wouldn't dare go into the caves to preserve herself, let alone Our Town.” Her eyes opened once more, giving me a disappointed gaze. “If only this happened a year or two ago. Gleaming Beam might have been old, but she would have understood.”

“What about Iron or Margin?” Spice quipped.

“Tempered Iron doesn't care about anything beyond the walls of his factory and the iron hoof he rules with. They are close with Ether, and they will always work with her if she gives him free reign. As for Margin...” She gave a sigh. “The pegasi that secure our village from threats are a strange one. Margin is younger then ourselves and Iron, but older then Ether. His job is the only one that is strictly inherited, aside from the doctor's.”

“That should mean that he would be easier to manipulate, right?” I poised with hope. “If he has always been guaranteed a job, wouldn't he be scared of the threat of losing it to a pegasus invasion?”

She perused her lips for a moment. “Maybe.” A moment of silence. “So you want to see Glowing Ether removed or killed, by us?”

I nodded my head, but it was Spice that got her attention. “Only if you think that you and others can lead this village better.” We both looked at my unicorn friend. “There's no point in trading if it leaves everypony here worse off.”

Woe Tree nodded her head slowly. “We can't believe we're doing this. Ever since birth we've had to dedicate my life to Our Town and the Ministry Mare. Now we have to work against her.”

“Hey!” Amber broke in. “If your conversation is winding down, I want in on this!” She shouted, pointing a hoof at her partner. “You got your talk with the food mare, now I want to get my deal!” Her extended forehoof moved to to older lanky unicorn. “Iron. When You finally move with that pegasus to overthrow the bitch, and I get my cutie mark back, he's mine!”

Woe tilted her head in slight confusion. “As a slave?”

“NO!” She stomped her hoof. “I want to take my maul and spikes, and ruin him so badly not even the ground will take him back!”

Woe Tree sighed. “We take it you don't even want to try and convince him to work with you?”

“I don't care what you have to say or do! Bastard makes shit iron, attacked my coltfriend, and took my cutie-mark! If you have to promise that I'll suck his dick that's fine! I'm not leaving this valley until his blood is on my hooves!”

There was a prolonged moment of silence, the former raider mare had worked herself into quite a tizzy as she heaved, eyes shifting slightly but wildly as if trying fighting to control an ocean of rage. Finally the unicorn mare broke the silence. “We don't know when all of this will happen. Or even how it will be done.” She turned her gaze to the raider armor still laying on the floor. “How about this. We'll keep your weapons here. If we can get Water Margin to work with us on this plan, you two can run back here and grab your stuff for the confrontation.” She faced us stallions once more. “We trust you three are smart enough not to mess with them until it's time?” All three of us nodded, Amber's rage apparently pacified for the moment by the promise. She then turned her head toward me once more. “We'll talk with Water Margin tomorrow.”

“How can I trust you?” I poised, still mulling over the short talk I just had with Spice. “How do we know you're not going to leave here and tell Ether or Margin about us?”

She furrowed her brow in thought. “Tomorrow evening. We typically don't eat with the normal ponies here. We'll invite Water Margin to the communal dining hall after the end of day song. You can listen in yourself.” The lanky unicorn turned her back toward us, finished with the talk and ducking back into the lone entrance.

The three of us all stood in silence, listening to the unicorn as she crawled out of the room and listening as her hoofs clopped against the rock while fading into the distance. Once the sounds were gone I turned toward Spice. “Pretending to care for the wellbeing of the ponies? That was a bold lie.”

Spice recoiled his head back. “Lying? No! I mean it.”

Now it was my turn to tilt my head. “Seriously? You made it sound like if you fail this mission you'd lose your home.”

“I don't want to lose my home that we've worked to for so long.” He slightly shook his head. “But I'd rather be kicked out of Manehattan then live high and mighty off the backs of starving and hurting ponies.” He brought his left forehoof to his chest. “Ponies don't have to live their lives surrounded by lies and manipulation. Besides. My cooking skills and Amber are all I really need to be happy. I'd like to make great confections because that's what I've always wanted, and Tenpony Tower is the best place to do that. But I'd rather live with a clean conscious then a rough one.”

I had no answer. It seemed like a lot of extra hassle for no gain. It's not like he'd have a reason to come back to this village later, why even let it bother him? The ponies here wouldn't have to trust him for anything beyond setting up the details for trading once Ether was out of the picture.

- - - -

Eight campfires, like the directions of a compass, all surrounding the valley.

I carefully crawled forward, stomach brushing the ground, thinking about the sight after I stepped out of the partially forgotten printing press room. The guards had finally reacted to the promise of a large force, surrounding the entire valley that held Our Town with light, as an early warning beacon. With their pattern changing, I decided to take a risk, and snuck toward one of the flames, curious to see how they had changed so I could properly adapt.

Voices could be heard over the rock I was clambering up. Flattening my body as much as I could against the ground, my pace slowed to a snail's crawl, unwilling to make any noise to reveal myself and skittish about the idea of being illuminated by the flames. But to actually see what was going on, I'd have to compromise some of my visibility to establish an unobstructed line of sight while also hearing what was being said. Reluctantly, I heaved my body forward, the rock I was perched on obscuring the bottom third of my vision but letting me see the fire and the ponies who had lit it.

“-go to the south to light another one. If you mess up this glyph the fire will not ignite.”

Water Margin was lightly flapping his wings, directing two ponies, a earth pony and unicorn duo, to the north. Two other ponies stood to the side, awaiting further instruction.

“Understood!” The duo raise their right legs and saluted, before turning and beginning a trek to the south, a direction that would take then both within a few meters of me. I watched the duo as they trotted past, noting how only one of them had a rifle and neither of them had any other equipment to speak of. Not even a hint of armor or weapons. One of them had a small bag wrapped around their neck with the end of rolled up paper sticking out, but that was as far as it went.

“Dark Meadow and us will head to the north and light the last fire.” The Pegasus pointed to the dark blue unicorn, who stood up and beat his left forehoof on the ground. “Remember. If you see anypony, break the glyph and immediately head back to Our Town.” The remaining unicorn saluted after being given his instruction, and then Water Margin began his move northward, the unicorn armed with their rifle and a similar roll of paper trotting behind as they went into the darkness.

It was just me perched ontop of the boulder looking down on the remaining unicorn now. He didn't have a firearm with him. In fact, he had nothing at all beside the light of the fire. Said fire lacked any source of fuel, reminding me of the glyph-created fire inside of the factory, a magical symbol that would keep fire running for a set period of time after having been ignited.

My eyes stayed locked on the unicorn while I mulled over the reasoning for the plan. Assuming that Woe Tree was correct and that Glowing Ether still assumed there was a large raider army in the mountains, lighting eight beacons would have no practical use. I would have told them where the village was, and such a horde would have just charged straight into the valley, careless of any fires. The unicorn lay down and turned his back to the fire, apparently wanting to get a bit of sleep.

That was the counterpoint. Leaving just one or two ponies at each location just begged for one of them to be attacked by any 'individualist' ponies, or an individual such as myself. It would be extremely easy to sneak down and choke him out, or even put a bullet in his head from my current perch. They wouldn't even get a chance to put out the fire. And this unicorn didn't even have a weapon to fight back with.

I narrowed my eyes in the darkness, crawling backwards from my vantage point and surrounding myself deeper in the shadows, completely hiding from the illumination of the fire. Something else about this didn't seem right. The other two pairs of ponies had been armed, and they were in a pair. Why would they have left this single pony alone?

The sound of shifting rocks broke me out of my thought. Maybe they didn't. I sprung to all four hooves, looking around to find the origin of the sound. It was hard to make out, but I could hear hooves on rock, the noise coming to my left and the source hidden from the light by the hillside. I sprung forward instinctively, prepared for a brief tackle to the ground. Don't let them find you. Was the only thought in my mind.

The moment the pegasus came into sight, I sprung forward for the neck. They opened their wings to bring the rifle level with my head, but before they could line the shot I jumped into them, slamming a forehoof into their neck and tackling them into the ground, trapping them beneath my body with my other forehoof planted on their wing.

- - - -

Achievement Unlocked – I scratch your back – Work with your new friends and a leading pony in Our Town on a deal

Chapter 10: Stay Scared

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Fair Smile gasped in pain upon being smashed onto the ground, and I stopped, horrified at what I had just done. My first friend, choking under my hoof, had already lost the grip on the rifle and was thrashing her forelegs against me. I recoiled back, freeing her as she rolled to her side, deeply inhaling and following that up with coughing.

Gradually the mare began calming down, wrapping her left wing around and feeling her throat with the feathers. Watching the pegasus struggle on the ground, after I came so close to beating her to injury or worse, filled me with guilt. I took a step back toward her, offering my right hoof out to my friend. Having recovered from my brief assault, she gave me a unreadable look out the side of her left eye, before reaching out with her own left hoof, wrapping it around my fetlock and letting me give a tug to pull her back onto all fours.

“Sorry.” I mumbled out, about the only thing I could get out. She had no words to say, instead lunging forward and throwing her forlegs around the back of my neck, her face leaning next to the right side of mine.

“We were so worried about you.” She mumbled into my neck.

“Me...me too.” I raised my forelegs as well, wrapping them around her neck and stroking the lower part of her mane. The shifting of my weight led us to both rear a bit higher, bringing us even closer together. The two of us just stood there, leaning against eachother for several moments and sharing joy in the knowledge of the other's safety.

“We didn't mean for any of that to happen.” She remarked as we came back onto all fours. She wiped away tears with her wingtips but still did her best to keep her eyes locked with mine.

“You didn't do anything Fair.” I remarked, sitting on my haunches.

“If we didn't have Soothing Constant give you your satchel back, you wouldn't have been assaulted by that outsider.”

I shook my head vigorously. “No. No.” I patted the satchel still slung on my side. “This meant more then anything else you could have done.” A large smile overtook her face, so bright that even in the dark of the night it was impossible to not see how much she was cheered up by it.

Another moment of silence passed, both of us awkwardly looking at each other. There was so much that had happened since my failed remarking. I wanted so badly to tell her about Amber and Spice, about the hidden cave I had found near the cloud cover, about the star-filled pre-dawn sky I had seen last night. But it all seemed so jumbled up in my throat and it left me wordless. “You first.” I finally managed to choke out.

She blinked, giving a small head shake. “Are you sure?” I gave her a silent nod. “Ok. Um” She raised a hoof to her chin. “After you were thrown into the prison, Mare Ether came out and personally talked with all three of us that night.” I assumed she was also referring to Pique and Margarine in addition to herself. “And she wanted to know if you had said anything strange or unusual.”

“What did you tell her?”

“Nothing. Except that you weren't sure if you wanted to become one of us.” She shook her head again, now sitting down herself. “It didn't seem fair to tell her anything else. It's not like she would understand about that room.”

I nodded, thankful for that. Woe Tree obviously knew about the room buried in a rockslide and so would the rest of Our Town's leaders. However, it would be for the best if they weren't aware that Fair Smile knew of it.

“Everything continued as normal afterwards. Then the other morning, when we saw you and those other ponies being attacked, we were so scared.” She raised her hoof once more, to her chest this time. “You were our first friend in forever, and the thought of having to work in the fields, where you had first saved us, and then seeing you hanging from the Tree.” She trailed off, a deep frown overtaking her face.

“What about Pique or Margarine? Aren't they your friends?”

Her frown moved to a more neutral position. “Well...yes. But it's different. We're friends because we all live together. It's hard not to be friends with them. But they just don't...” Her frown twisted a bit. “It's just not the same.” Once more I nodded. “Anyway, when that pegasus came and attacked we were scared that you were going to be killed in the fighting. Then yesterday we got woken up by a commotion and saw those other two ponies you were with, apparently wanting to come back to the town. By the way, who are they? Your friends?”

I nodded. “They were the ponies who were in the prison cave with me.”

Satisfied with my answer she started up again. “Not long after that, those of us who were going to be on the guarding shift today were given new tasks. Normally Water Margin only does nightly guarding with his best. But now he's been bringing in as many ponies as he can and wants them guarding the town 24/7. We think he wants to catch more outsiders after you and all the others have shown up.”

“What were you doing there?” I pointed to the rock she had just been behind. “And not by the fire. You're the one with the gun.”

She looked down at the wartime rifle slung around her body. “Margin wants us to split up. One of us are supposed to be by the fire and act like bait. If an outsider comes to attack, we're supposed to shoot them and put out the fire by damaging the runes beneath it.”

I looked over my shoulder at the faint glow of fire. “Then what?”

Fair Smiles gave a shrug. “They didn't tell us anything else. We guess that we'd just stay here until they came to help us. But they want the fire going all night and all day. Apparently ponies would be sent to relieve us in the morning.”

A moment of silence as I thought for a moment. This sort of plan didn't make much sense if the goal was to stand against an invading army like what I and my friends had been pushing since we had first broken into Ether's home. But I remembered something that Ether had said to Iron while I was going through his diary. She wanted to thin out his guards. Maybe she was hoping that like this, outsiders, rather they be me or others, would thin their ranks out?

“What about you?” My pegasus friend broke my train of thought. “And your new friends?”

“Their names are Amber Swing and Spice Chaser. They come from a town called Manehattan, and wanted to try and establish trade.”

“Trade?” Her excitement led to her bouncing onto all fours and rapidly tapping her hooves on the ground. “Every since we talked about ponies beyond the mountains we've kept daydreaming about it. Maybe they have new books, or different kinds of food? Maybe even gold!”

“I'll have to ask Spice about that later then.” I smiled from her excitement. It was only one pony, but at the least, somepony sure showed willingness to trade with the outside world, which would bode well for the chance at my unicorn friend completing his established task. “But before they can do that, they're not leaving without getting their cutie marks back.”

Smile's excitement stopped there. “Oh no. No no no! You can't do that!” She shook her head. “Once you've been remarked you can't get your cutie mark back. In fact, it's forbidden to even look at it after your remarking!”

“I don't think so.” Now it was my turn to get up onto all fours. “We know some ponies outside the mountains, they might be able to help get them back.” Smile was silent for a bit, staring out after hearing that. “We might be able to get yours back as well.”

“We don't know.” She trailed off.

“Think about it.” I pushed a bit. “Your cutie mark is supposed to be your special talent. What you are good at.” The pegasus continued to awkwardly stare, as if battling herself about the offer. “Surely you remember what you got your cutie mark for?”

She frowned, sitting back down on all fours. “Yes. W-We don't want to think about it though. It hurts.”

I took a step toward her, offering a hoof once more. “It doesn't have to. If we find a way to get your cutie mark back, it won't have to hurt anymore.” I knew from my time with my friends and even Woe Tree how the remarking was actively depressing the pegasus mare before me. Smile slowly tilted her head to look at me, and put out her hoof once more, touching for another long moment.

But there was one other thing I wanted to share with her. “I remember my name. It's Stone Vane.”

She mouthed it to herself a few times. “Do you remember anything else?”

“A little. I think I remember my parents fighting. And at somepoint I saw the moon and stars beyond the clouds.”

“What was it like?”

“It was amazing. And not only did I see it in my memory. I saw them last night.” Her eyes widened again. “This morning the clouds came down really low, and I was hiding in the mountains. They went right below me, and I could see the stars. It was like a thousand dots of light with the moon as the bright centerpiece.”

“We wish we could have seen it with you.”

A moment of silence. It would be hard to get any of the members of Our Town up to the mountains with me, though it could be done. I recalled the cartographer's inscriptions sitting in my satchel and the writings of his marefriend in the village years ago. “You could leave with me.” I offered.

“What?” The pegasus recoiled back in shock. “How!? Why!?” She shook her head. “No. No! We have everything we need in Our Town. And outside is bad.”

“I'm not that bad. And I can promise you, neither is Amber or Spice.” Well, the earth pony mare still made me a bit nervous with her constant desire for violence, but she showed at least enough restraint to make friends with me and get romantically involved with the unicorn. “There's a whole world out there. And after I get my friends' cutie marks back, I intend to go out there and see it with them.” At this point I looked out toward the mountains on the other side of the valley, my eyes meeting the place where the very peaks were obscured by cloud cover. “And I'd like to have you come with me.”

“We have everything we need here. Food. Water. A place to sleep. And friends.” She spoke softly, almost whispering it to herself to convince herself.

“But what about what you want?” I turned my head back toward her as she looked up at me once more, the two of us staring into eachother's eyes. “I remember how excited you got at the concept of finding a room of treasure. What about a whole world of it?”

“We...” She trailed off, looking to the side as a blush could barely be seen on her cheeks. “We'll think about it.”

I leaned in toward her, this time taking the incentive to wrap my forelegs around the back of her neck and holding her close. “Whatever you choose, you'll still be my friend. And even if you want to stay here, I'll come back and visit you.”

“You promise?”

“I promise.”

- - - - -

“It's so creepy. Like the sky is rolling down the mountain at us.”

Crunched in a corner behind several old barrels that held potatoes, I couldn't help but listen into the remaining conversations from the last few townsponies finishing their communal dinner.

“Mare Ether hasn't said anything about it yet.”

“Mare Ether hasn't said anything about the cursed outsider. Or the pegasus.” The first stallion retorted against his higher-pitched conversation partner. “Of course she wouldn't say anything about those clouds rolling into Our Town.”

“Then it's not our place to know.” The clopping of hooves landing on the ground punctuated his statement.

“We live next to the house that burned down!” The first stallion now also jumped onto all fours, accompanying his partner toward the dining hall's exit, his fear-induced frustration and concern fading away until being punctuated by the shutting of the door.

The only other noise in the dining hall was that of Woe Tree, moving around in the dining hall and picking up the deposited bowls and utensils left over. Her hoofalls gradually came closer to me, before she peaked over the top of the barrels. “If you need to stretch, we suggest doing so now.”

I had been in this corner since before the pre-sunrise fog, having spent all of Fair Smile's shift talking with her and recounting memories, all of them hers, of growing up in Our Town. But after her and her partner were relieved from their shift, the incoming fog provided the perfect cover for me to sneak into the communal dining hall, curling up and sleeping most of the morning away, hidden in a one-room building that was only used once a day.

Crawling out from my hiding place, I stretched back and forth several times, my knees and hips popping from their first use in hours. “Water Margin will be coming shortly.” The unicorn remarked as she turned her back to me, returning to her job of taking care of the scattered dishes on the long wooden tables.

I looked around and out the windows, taking note of the sprinkling rain outside, just enough to make the ground damp without soaking it or creating puddles in any earthly depression like in my first few days awake. Sitting down under one of the long tables, I pulled Glimmers out of my satchel and began recording the afternoon weather.

This had been the first day of rain since I and my friends had snuck out of the prison caves. My records of what my first days awake seemed to be a cyclical pattern of light cloud cover rolling into heavier clouds, followed by rain, and then circling right back to light clouds. Fair Smile had been kind enough to try and record information as well during her short time of having my satchel, her records far less detailed then mine, but backing mine as well on the same cycle with rain falling nearly every day and a half. But now that cycle seemed to be coming undone. This burst of rain was way later then normal, and was in much smaller amounts then normal rain as well.

The sound of the door to the communal kitchen opening broke my train of thought. Quickly I folded my book shut and flattened myself on the ground beneath the table I was beside, ensure that I was completely out of line of sight of the entering pony.

“You look bad. Have you been sleeping?”

“It doesn't matter. You wanted to talk to me, so let's make it quick before I have to start up the next guards shift.” Water Margin had arrived, as the older unicorn had promised.

“Very well then.” Woe Tree responded. “We don't think that Glowing Ether should be the Ministry Mare.”

The pegasus sighed. “And we guess you want us to go ahead and hang her on the tree overnight, so you can take her place?”

“Stop being so assumptive.” The older unicorn remarked, slamming her hoof down on the table. Despite her outbreak I could hear Water Margin sipping the watery broth of his evening meal, apparently unfazed by her small outburst. “I've been helping lead Our Town nearly as long as you and Ether have been alive, young buck.”

“Funny.” The clang of the bowl sitting back on the old wooden table sounded. “When Gleaming Beam was on her death bed, she asked you if you had any qualms with Ether becoming the next Ministry Mare. And now here we are, just a year out, and now you have issues with her.”

“Things are changing Margin. Maybe you're too young to realize it. Aside from the individualist ponies, there hasn't been an outsider who has made contact with Our Town for years. And now in the span of two weeks, there have been four of them, one of them heavily armed and burning down a house while killing several of your best security ponies.”

“We have changed our security rounds as Ether has directed for that.” Once more the sound of him slurping broth could be heard.

“There is more to it then that. For two days in a row now, the clouds have come low. We fear the pegasi might attack us in the early morning through the haze of fog.”

A prolonged moment of silence followed. The sound of a utensil dropping into a now-empty bowl broke it.

“Your point?”

“Our Town cannot stay isolated forever. We were wrong to assume that the outside world was dead. And they're going come past the mountains eventually. Do you think Mare Ether has the fortitude to lead us in that circumstance? Do you think she would lead the ponies into the caves like Starlight before her?”

“It is not our place to judge the Ministry Mare.” Water Margin coolly responded. “How about you think for a moment what would happen if we wanted to overthrow her.” A moment of silence. “The ponies love her. Unlike Beam, who spent most of her days locked up in the tunnels beneath her house recording the happenings of Our Town, Ether is out with the ponies every day in the morning and evening.”

“What are you getting at?”

“Woe...” I could hear the pegasus stand up, the sound of all four of his hooves hitting the ground near simultaneously clearing it up. “...you are right that it is not like the days of old. Do you know of the tunnel beneath the home of the Ministry Mare?” My ears perked up. Could this be where my friend's cutie marks were?

“The lock to those doors are older then me.” I thought for a moment. Locked doors? The ones in the buried room that Woe had met with us at last night could be it. I hadn't thought to ask her about them, though it seems like even if I did ask her she couldn't have helped much.

“Pity. In the tunnel between are records written by every Ministry mare before Ether, all the way back to Starlight herself. Ether has taken me down there and showed me the records after Starlight died. Do you know what that was like? Chaos. IN the span of four harvests there were four different ponies that became Ministry Mare, one of them was driven out of the valley and the other three died from old age. The only reason Our Town didn't devolve into anarchy was because the guards ponies that Double Diamond has instituted refused to intervene, and so the younger ponies were able to bring Starlight's ideals back.” His voice swapped from cool to venomous. “You may be older, but age does not inherintely breed wisdom. We in the guard are not a toy to be tossed around by anyflank that fancies themselves a thinker. We answer only to ourselves, and the Ministry Mare herself.”

“Know your place and who keeps those of you in the guard fed.” Now it was Woe Tree's turn to get onto all fours, stomping with anger. “It would be good for you to remember that you were the one that Mare Ether accused of working with outsiders. She cares not for any loyalty you hold to her, and would throw you away in a heartbeat.”

“Then so be it.” Hoofsteps were now interspersed with him as he walked on. “The most important thing in Our Town is keeping everypony equal for friendship beneath the Ministry Mare.” The steps stopped and I could hear the door opening up. “And if this is some ploy for you to get your mark back, we strongly suggest that you focus on your actual job instead of falling to the temptation of oppressing others for more food,”

The sound of the door closing brought silence into the dining hall, the setting sun reducing the little light that was coming through the windows. I heard Woe Tree make a deep sigh, before turning around and sitting back at the bench.

“We assume you hear all that?” She spoke aloud after several moments in silence.

I crawled out from under the table but stayed at the far side, hidden in the shadows. “You said something about a tunnel?”

“It goes back to the days of Starlight Glimmer. When the bombs started falling she led the ponies of Our Town through her personal escape tunnel into the mountains, where they stayed hidden for over a year, protected from the fallout of the bombs. A few years later she built a printing press atop of the exit, and that's where we were last night. Most ponies have forgotten about it due to a rockslide before any of us were born, but those that lead Our Town know how to access it without the tunnel. But Water Margin has never been down there, and Iron is too large to fit through the hole that's been dug into the rockslide. Mare Ether's never been down there” Now it was her turn to walk toward the door. “So what's your plan now?”

“The tunnel is locked from our side.” It wasn't a direct response, but I was trying to form a new plan with what little new information I had just overheard.

“Figures. That would explain why you three broke down Mare Ether's door.”

“Would you be able to open that door from inside the tunnel?”

The vanishing sunlight made it hard to see any physical response beyond a slight tilt of her head. “Why? You want to charge in and hold her at gunpoint again?”

I shook my head, then remembering that I was hidden in the shadows I did it more vigorously to get the point across. “Not again. The only reason the three of us survived was because of an outside actor stress-testing the town.”

“Enclave...” She gritted through her teeth. I wasn't in any mood to change her assumption of the ghoul's loyalties.

“Water Margin said there were documents down there. History of this village. Maybe there's something there we can use?”

“To undo the remarking?” Woe Tree asked back.

I bit my tongue in silence. That would be an easy way out. Silver Sight should return in two days with a bit more food and the three of us would be able to leave based off of that alone. But that would leave Our Town unchanged with the same leader and same processes. That wasn't of upmost importance, but it would feel wrong to leave without changing this town. “No. Well, not all of it.” While I wouldn't complain about an easy 'undo spell here' method, I had more to do. “Maybe one of us can find something else in there that would get us what we want.”

“What we want, huh?” The older unicorn took another deep sigh. “We want our fellow ponies to be safe and fed. How did it get to working against the Ministry Mare?”

“Would you be able to do it?”

“No.” Her tone returned to that of cold neutrality. “We have never been down in the tunnels. Before this evening, we didn't even know that Mare Ether had let anypony else down there.”

I bit my tongue to hold back a curse. “It's locked from the inside of the tunnel. There's some sort of interior lock that's not accessible from our side.” Now it was my turn to sigh. Explaining the problem wasn't going to magically fix anything unless... “Do you think that you could use your magic to undo the lock from the outside?”

She shook her head. “Manipulating something with our magic is hard. I would have to see what the lock looked like from the backside, understand it on the inside and outside. Until you can do that, you're out of luck.” The older unicorn began slowly walking to the door. “Any other ideas?”

“'I'll think of something. When I have an idea, I'll talk to you.” I promised with a smile.

Woe Tree seemed convinced enough, and with a silent shrug she headed to the door, leaving me alone inside the communal dining hall. Alone with the series of dead ends preventing my friends and I from moving on.

- - - - -

The fog had returned. The cloud cover had began to drop in the last hour or so. I had pointed it out to my pegasus friend, who remarked about how chilly it was the prior mornings. Now with the descending cloud cover, there was a chance for me to attempt to resolve one other outstanding deed. The fog had not yet fallen to ground level, but I could see how it seemed to roll down the surrounding mountains, as if the edges of the clouds when pushed below the more central bulk, the lowered cloud cover creeping closer and closer to the village but not there yet.

Quietly I stepped around Doctor Constant's house, into the open main road. For the briefest of moments, I considered tossing a rock through a window and sneaking in through that, only to discard that option nearly as quickly as I thought of it. Not only might that wake up the doctor in his own house, it would leave visible evidence that someone had gone in and out. Crouching on my rear legs, I reached into my satchel and removed the screwdriver and box of ultra heavy bobby pins once more.

For the briefest of moments I looked down the road, my gaze lingering on Mare Ether's house. Her front door had been replaced with a large slab of metal, but internally I groaned at the memory of being unable to sneak through the door with Amber's piercing. Besides, Silver Sight would return soon, and in exchange for his help with food, I promised him that I would get him his medical book. And I had a strong hunch that the book was the same one that the town Doctor frequently referred back to. Carefully I bit into the open box, holding a trio of pins between my teeth and bringing them inline with the lock beneath the door handle, the screwdriver balanced between my forehooves. I used my tongue to push two of the pins to the side while one stuck straight out, and slowly I pushed it's tip in.

It took no time at all to find the first of several pins within. Carefully I pressed it upwards, adjusting the angle of my head to move toward the second pin in the row. This one slipped into position instantly, not even remotely fighting back. Bringing my muzzle even closer I found the third pin, only for it to give me significantly more fightback. Just as it began to slide upwards into place my pin bent, and my muzzle slammed into the door. “Phck.” I whispered to myself, pulling the pin out and spitting it aside, swapping to the second one in my mouth.

The first two pins had thankfully stayed in place, allowing me to immediately attack the third pin and alter my angle enough to force it into place. A single pin was left, and it complied much like the first two, giving no fightback. Smirking around the pin, I began turning the screwdriver with my hooves. Sure enough, the sound of the lock disengaging greeted my ears, allowing me to pull back and drop a hoof on the door handle, the door giving way and letting me have access once more to the house I had first woke up in several days ago.

Carefully I walked in, giving a slight kick with my left rear leg to shut the door behind me. Silence permeated the air inside the house as I looked back and forth. Taking a single solitary step at a time, I crept toward the familiar operating room, my eyes falling on the operating table.

Laying on it was a pony. Covered across nearly his entire face and upper body in bandages, he seemed to be asleep, judging by the slow breathing he was giving off. My head swung to the smaller table that I had once pinned the Doctor to in a fit of confusion, not seeing the prize.

I faintly cursed under my breath, turning around. The lone unbandaged eye of the Earth Pony on the table was open now, staring right at me. I could see him trembling, his legs and body shaking in fear. Once more I cursed, taking two steps toward him.

It would be so simple to kill him. He knew that I was down here, and I drew the screwdriver once more from my satchel. But much like the idea of breaking a window earlier, killing the observer would be a big red flag for 'someone broke in and did something horrendous.'. I weighed the possibility of leaving the entire village in a panic if I snuck in and out without any evidence beyond a corpse. The edge of the tool drew level, an inch away from the bandaged earth pony, as I brought one of my other hooves up and planted it on his sternum.

“Don't move.” I spoke around the tool. He was still shaking, but his light thrashing stopped, likely giving up the fight. “I don't want to kill you. Where's the Doctor?” The stallion carefully and gingerly raised a leg and pointed to the door, instead of the second floor I was expecting. “Good. I was never here.” I moved back onto all fours, turning around and walking toward the staircase, relying on memory to get me around the house in the thick darkness.

For the second time I crept up the stairs, doing my best to balance my weight on the edge right next to the wall. Just in case the patient below had lied to me I wanted to maintain the advantage of silence and surprise. Once ontop of the second floor I set my sights on the closed door to the Doctor's sleeping quarters. Thankfully this door, while it did have a lock, wasn't properly latched, allowing me to step push it open and step into the dark bedroom.

I sighed in annoyance. While my eyes had already adapted to the darkness, it was impossible to navigate around this room without even the slightest of light. Carefully I stepped forward, trying to make out the bed. If this room would be like the other second floor bedroom or even my room for the single night I had been living with Fair Smile, then there would be a hidden compartment beneath the bed, which would be the best place to keep a book of vast medical knowledge for a doctor.

With an annoying thud my right foreleg impacted the bed, just above the ankle. My brow furrowed in anger as I hissed in annoyance. I cautiously squatted on all fours and extended the now bruised leg underneath the bed, trying to feel for the telltale sign of a recession in the boards that would indicate a secret compartment.

My concentration was broken from a sound down below. The front door to the house opening and closing. I sprang back onto all fours, looking around for a place to hide. Two options seemed readily available, either climbing under the bed, or more riskily, sneaking back into the locked and dusty spare bedroom I had moved into before.

“We didn't expect you to be awake at this time of night.” Soothing Constant remarked from below. “Are the bandages chaffing your burns?” Settling on the riskier option, I quickly made several silent steps toward the door, biting on the handle and bringing it back to it's slightly-ajar state it had been in earlier, before creeping back to the lock I had busted through with a bent nail earlier.

“Don't you worry. I'll try to be quiet so you can go back to sleep.” I heard the doctor say from downstairs. Apparently the wounded pony hadn't blown my cover, or at least, hadn't blown it yet. Crouching to the lock, I once again fished out the screwdriver and a pair of bobby pins. Sliding one in, I realized to my horror that all of the pins were pushed into position.

Was it unlocked? Had I left it unlocked the night I went through here? Or had he opened the door himself for his own reasons? Quickly I reached my hoof up to the handle, jiggling it and feeling my blood go cold as the door swung open. I couldn't remember if this was because of me, or if the Doctor had gone through himself.

The sound of water splashing broke me from my concern. Not even looking inside the old room, I took a short pace to the top of the staircase, hoping the darkness would keep me invisible. The light of a candle could be seen in the kitchen, and I could see the edge of the barrel of water that the Doctor had kept in the kitchen, one of his off-blue hooves hanging over the edge. He must have been bathing after spending the night outside of his home. Once more I looked to the semi-open door, considering stepping back into his bedroom to search beneath his bed for the book.

In the end, I decided to wait the Doctor out. I crept back to the abandoned bedroom, or at least I thought it was abandoned. The bed was stripped of it's sheets, but a lone pony, this one a female unicorn with bandages wrapped around her eyes and horn, lay on her back, still sleeping. Two more ponies lay on the ground on the sides of the room, the sheets covering their bodies in full, leaving me to only assume that they were dead.

Silently I closed the door behind me, carefully latching it into place. My next step was to lean up to the door, putting my ear against the door and listening for the telltale sounds of the stallion leaving his barrel-bath and coming back upstairs. It would be tricky, but if he wasn't carrying his book with him, I might be able to sneak downstairs and check to see if he dropped his book off with the bandaged pony downstairs. There was just one more potential problem. What would I do if he decided to check on the sleeping patient in this room?

It was hard to tell just how much time passed, but it wasn't long until I heard the creaking of floorboards and telltale hoofsteps moving up the staircase. Preparing for him to step inside and check on the eye-bandaged mare I moved to side of the doorway, positioning myself to be hidden if he opened the door in. In addition I put all my weight on my rear legs, bracing the side of my body against the wall and using my forehooves to pull the pipe rifle out of my satchel. Hopefully it wouldn't come down to shooting and fleeing. Briefly I looked down to the firearm and frowned. It hadn't even been fired yet, for all I knew it would wake up everypony in the surrounding houses and leave me in a race to find the tome and vanish into the rolling fog.

The hoofsteps didn't stop at my door, and instead the doctor walked right by the occupied room, into his personal bedroom. I could hear the faint sound of the door squeaking open on it's hinges. Confused, I moved the pipe-rifle into my mouth, balancing it by the mouthguard trigger in my jaw as I silently crept toward the mare on the bed. She continued to sleep, but I could plainly see her breathing in and out calmly. Furrowing my brow, I turned back toward the closed door. Why would he not check on his second patient?

Clicking. For the briefest of moments I was transported to my second night in this house, hearing clicking above me but the sound ending before anything else. It was a risk, but now I had a personal interest in throwing the door open to see the cause. And even if the doctor's bedroom door was shut to me, it would give me at least a chance to sneak downstairs to see if he had set his medical book downstairs.

With a rough exhale, I pressed my hoof on the door handle and pulled it inward, stepping forward into the short second floor hallway. Candlelight illuminated the area, and I quickly turned my head to the right, looking at the host that had so kindly opened his adobe to me my first few nights in the village. He was hunched over a open box that was maybe four inches tall with a base of a roughly a square foot. I squinted just a bit, noticing what seemed like a series of dials sticking out and an antennae sticking straight upward.

A radio? It was the first piece of developed technology I had seen in this valley, and was the first evidence of contact that might be made with the outside world beyond these mountains. But who was he communicating with the outside world?

I broke my internal line of questioning with a look on the top of the bed and the floor around him. A very small pamphlet could be seen open by the radio-box. But no evidence of his important book. Silently I turned and placed myself against the wall as I descended the staircase once more. Surely his medical tome would be in the operating room.

Once more I poked my head inside the room, making eye contact with the still awake stallion. Not bothering with acknowledging him, I gave a quick sprint to the desk, a large book sitting on the desk nice and folded. In the darkness that was becoming even worse from incoming fog it was impossible to read it. But the tome was way bigger then any of the copies of Glimmers of Truth I had seen thus far. This had to be it.

THUMP THUMP THUMP

Hoofsteps. From above. Without a moment of hesitation I bit into the book and spun around.

THUMP THUMP CRRNNN CRNNN

Already the hoofsteps were at the top of the staircase and descending. There was no way I could avoid being seen. I dropped the book and yanked the pipe-rifle out of my satchel once more. I took three steps toward the open doorway, watching the first floor as it became illuminated with candle-light. Quickly I wrapped my mouth around the mouthguard-trigger, twisting my neck to nestle the buttstock into my right shoulder and raising the same leg to balance it, aimed at the base of the staircase.

Soothing Constant leapt past the last two stairs, landing with the heaviest THUD yet, turning a harsh gaze to me, holding a small pan with burning wax in his mouth. His gaze didn't remotely linger on me or the weapon in my mouth, instead swinging to the bandaged patient behind me. The two of us stood their for a moment, both of our mouths occupied and unable to communicate.

His gaze met with mine once more, and he slowly bent forward, setting the wax-burning tray on the ground while never breaking eye contact with me. “If you harm even a hair on my patients...” He growled out. I shook my head, still keeping the weapon aimed at him. He took a few steps forward, still stomping as if to showcase his bulk against my own, though the size discrepancy between us wasn't anything close to what it was between Tempered Iron and myself.

He stopped alongside me, his focus once more on the bandaged patient behind me. “We guess this is why you woke up earlier. Sorry about that Pastel Oats.” The town doctor sighed. “We'll head upstairs so you can get a bit of rest.”

“Doctor!?” The female above us was awake, likely because of Soothing Constant's heavy hoof falls going right by the door and down the stairs. “Doctor? Is everything ok?” I could hear another set of hooves landing on the wooden floor above us.

“Coming Bounce!” The doctor shouted upstairs. “Just stay there!” He lowered his gaze back to me, still not caring about the rifle I had in my mouth, the end of the barrel just inches from his face. “Don't stand down here like a mute dolt. Come upstairs with us.” And with that, he turned around and approached the staircase.

Did the rifle I was holding not even remotely threaten him? I exchanged another gaze with the bandaged stallion laying on the bed, his lone eye betraying his sense of fear and confusion. I shrugged, sticking the rifle once more into my satchel, before biting down on the book and beginning to follow the doctor upstairs.

“You took off with such speed, and the shouting. Is the Enclave back?” The female Unicorn was on all fours, about her back turned toward the door as Soothing Constant was trying to guide her back to the bed she had been on. While I couldn't see the face of the blind mare, it was plain from the way she was walking not-quite-straight toward the bed that she didn't have a hint of vision.

“No, no. Don't worry about it. We mistook a friend for an enemy.”

“Ok. Will they be long?”

“We'll be talking up here for a while. Don't worry. We'll keep the doors shut and talk quietly so you can get some sleep.”

“We don't want to sleep Doctor.” She replied, though she did climb back into bed. “They still keep haunting me.”

“You know that Fetch wouldn't hold anything against you.”

“He still asks why we didn't stop them. We're supposed to be the best.” The mare lay onto her back once more, giving a slight sniffle.

“You two were the best for Our Town. And we can't get you to be the best again if you don't stay well rested.” The older stallion ran a hoof down her mane.

“We're scared doctor.”

“Try laying there and imagine something else. Dwelling on what happened will only stress you out.” The mare took another deep inhale, but didn't respond. “We'll check on the healing in the morning. Ok? But for now, try to sleep.”

The unicorn rolled on her side, turning her back to us. Content with that answer, the doctor turned around and picked up the candletray once more in his mouth. Getting the message I took several steps back into the hallway as the doctor followed me out, closing the door once more.

Both of us proceeded to sit down on the floor in his bedroom, my eyes bouncing between my host and the radio that he had open beside me. As he sat the small tray of burning wax on his small nightstand I used the illumination to gaze at the small pamphlet he had open. It was a codebook, letters being matched with a series of dots and dashes. “I know you have several questions. And frankly, so do we.” He remarked, sitting on his haunches and leveling his gaze with me. “And for starters, I want to know why you're here.”

I dropped his medical tome on the floor beside me. “You didn't say 'we'?” I asked, puzzled. “Only Ether says 'I' like that.”

The stallion sighed. “We grew up in this town. But we've had communication with the outside.” He motioned to the radio with a hoof. “Every now and then we let a bit of the outside lingo slip in. But you didn't answer our question.”

I placed my hoof on the book. “I came here for this.” Was the simplest answer.

“Your outside raider army struggling with injuries?” He frowned. “And still traveling the mountains in such a state.”

“There is no raider army.” I cut him off. “There never was. I still don't know who I am.” A moment of silence settled “Except for my name.” I cut in before the doctor opened his mouth. “Somepony from the outside seemed to know my name.”

The doctor raised an eyebrow, before leaning forward and outstretching a hoof toward me. “Constant. Soothing Constant.”

The action seemed vaguely familiar, and I stretched my right forehoof forward as well, touching the undersides together. “Stone Vane.”

“What a peculiar name.” He remarked, leaning back. “We should have figured that when they said there was a favor that would be called in, it would either be that book, or the radio.”

“You knew?”

“Not exactly.” The stallion shook his head. “I send out radio messages only whenever something changes in the town. The old Ministry Mare dies, or one of her assistants die and get replaced. A disease sweeps through that Health and Recovery doesn't cover. Or a strange non-fearl pony shows up in one of the caves around here.” His eyes narrowed to meet mine. “There's always been somepony on the other end of that.” He motioned a hoof toward the radio. “That's been listening. For three generations of doctors. Over a hundred years. But my father never said that he or his father had to do a favor.”

“You don't look that old?” I remarked aloud. “Maybe older then some of the other ponies here. But only three generations in a hundred years?”

“We think it's more then that now. Closer to 130 or 140. But those contacts.” He pointed to the radio again. “Give us a small leg up over the rest of Our Town with living longer. I'm only 60 years old.” A frown overtook his face. “But with no foals of my own, I'll have to look to one of the upcoming youth in the next few years to replace us and keep our secret.”

“A leg up? But you're a doctor. Shouldn't you be able to live longer thanks to this book?” I tapped my hoof on the old wartime medical book again.

“Ha. No. That's a book for medical emergencies. Burns, cuts, amputations, skin grafts, internal bleeding? All in there, with information on how to counter it all.” Now he tapped his head. “And a perfect copy of it all in here. That book is my perfect cover.” I titled my head in confusion, only for him to slowly come up onto all fours, turning his body sideways. I gave the old stallion a quick glance before noticing the major difference from himself and everypony else in the village.

“You still have your cutie mark!?” I exclaimed. “But how!? I saw you!”

The stallion turned and gave his hip a slight tap. The image of a single white drop positioned over a roll of bandages was the first natural cutie mark I had seen on a pony, excluding myself “They did it for my father and I. I assume my grandfather as well.” He smiled contently. “When I grew up, a unicorn outsider met my father and I four nights after my remarking. In the middle of the night in the vault, she was able to undo it and restore my natural talent to me, but we were sworn to secrecy. In exchange, we were to continue keeping updates on the town via the radio. Anything out of the ordinary would be reported. My father showed me the way to cover it up.” He pointed to the pamphlet beside me. “Inside of that I keep a stencil, and there's more then enough graphite that we can turn into dust and sprinkle over our flank.”

“So you know how to undo the remarking? My friends-”

He held his hoof up, shaking his head. “Sorry. I'm not a unicorn. I'm a doctor, an earth pony doctor at that. Cutting, sowing, suturing, and foal delivery are my specialties.” He gave a sigh. “We've not seen anypony in this village reverse the remarking, except for one time when the last Ministry Mare let the last security pony get his back for a single night so he could hunt down an outsider suspected of living here. And we didn't even get to see that happen.” Once more the doctor took a seat.

“Curses.”

“You are a special pony, Stone Vane. We can't pretend to know why. You resisted the remarking. And your awakening was the first time that they-” Once more his eyes went to the radio and back. “-took an interest in you. They told me that they would send somepony to retrieve you, and said that they would be requiring something important from me.” My eyes went to the wartime book once more. “So now it's your turn. Obviously, you made contact with some pegasus outside. Your ponies gave Our Town more injuries in a day then what Iron and Margin do in a month, not to mention the deaths. And now they're messing with the weather.” His brow narrowed as his voice went cold. “Have I just been selling out my hometown, my fellow ponies, to the Enclave?”

I shook my head. “I don't think they're Enclave. Whoever they are.” I weighed my options. Did I really want to share what little information I knew? Constant was a complete outsider, and while he was possibly deeper into this hidden conspiracy then me, it seemed pretty obvious that he had no interest in leaving the village. “Do you know what a ghoul is?” The stallion frowned with confusion, giving me a starting point to control the narrative as much as I wanted. “Apparently in the rest of Equestria there were ponies that got changed by the bombs. They aren't quite dead, but not really alive. That pegasus that showed up had some old specialist wartime weapons. He said he was from Baltimare.” I bit the end of my tongue, expecting the good doctor to lash out and call my story a pile of trash. But when he didn't, I just went on. “At first he was insistent on bringing me back there. My friends told me that was a bad idea because of the radiation from the bombs. Then he shifted gears and told me to get this book.” Again I tapped the tome. “And he said he'd be back in roughly four days.”

Constant seemed content with that. “A not living and not dead pony. Our book never said anything about that.” He brought a hoof up and tapped it on the underside of his chin. “You know what we think?” I grunted in response. “We think that Equestria is still out there. That they rebuilt after the war. And somepony knew about this village before and after the war.” He smiled. “Is that why your stallion friend was hollering about trade? He and his mare being the trade organizers and you were to be the muscle?”

“They never saw me before I was thrown into that cave prison.”

“Well maybe they sent you here before hand? We've been privy to a few talks with the town leaders before. Did you know that these mountains are filled with caves?” I nodded. “Well the last Ministry Mare and Tempered Iron's predecessor were convinced that the old Equestrian military let this town exist as a social experiment, but it was with the explicit knowledge that some of the caves around here wouldn't be touched. Every-time that Our Town encounters a shortage of metal, it only lasts a week or two. And then suddenly overnight I get an increase of injures from exhaustion, and the metal deficiency is resolved.” He gave me a smile of pride, akin to that of unwrapping a massive mystery. “Those ponies wanted to keep tabs on us and see if we knew where that old wartime metal was! That's why they sent you and your friends.”

“I guess that makes sense.” It seemed like the doctor had conveniently forgotten that my friends were the ones who convinced me to not go to Baltimare, which would mean that they were trading with any ponies there.

“It makes perfect sense.” He leaned in towards me a bit. “So you know how we all talk about how Mare Glimmer led the ponies of Our Town into the caves to escape the bombs? Nopony ever asks how she knew about the bombs, or how she would keep an entire town fed in those caves for years. It's just chocked up to her great wisdom and resourcefulness. But if she had somepony from the old Equestrian military keeping her in the loop, that would explain everything. And now it's time to collect.” He leaned back into his old sitting position. “It's the book today, to test us. But tomorrow it will be the remaining caves with leftover metal.”

“Yeah.” It wasn't the craziest idea, except that the pegasus ghoul had never mentioned anything about metal, his focus was on me and this book. Neither did Spice Chaser, who only talked about the land's fertility and ability to grow food. Even if there was some elaborate communication between Spice's ponies in Manehattan and the ghoul's ponies in Baltimare, surely one of them would have mentioned the metal?

“Well, I don't know where that metal would be hidden.” He chuckled, standing up on all fours. “But I bet Mare Ether knows. And if she doesn't know, then some of those old books in the old escape tunnel would have the information!”

I was fine with leaving him with his hidden metal assumption. “How can we get in there?” I raised an eyebrow. “If the metal really is their reason for reaching out, they're probably going to want me to verify it's still safe.” The reasoning was actually still the same as before, find a way to upend the town's leaders and get information on how to get my friend's cutie marks back.

The doctor took the bait though. “There's a hidden passage in the floor of the Ministry Mare's home. But it's been so many years, I don't even remember how to get into it.” I did the best to steel off the crushing realization in my heart from hearing nothing more. “But I do know that it exited into a small building at the base of one of the mountains. We think it got covered up in a rockslide, and nopony's ever had any need to go back there.” He chuckled. “I'm probably the last pony who knows of it. But we guess if you were willing to spend enough time rooting around at the base of the mountains with enough unicorns to help move the rocks, you could find it and sneak in the backway.”

I rolled my eyes, hiding my disappointment from the stallion by shutting my eyelids all the while. Still back at square one. The doors inside were locked both by a handle and a deadbolt on the other end that I had no access to. The only option was to sneak right back into the mouth of the lion and the blindly search around for who knows how long. Doctor Constant made a bit of noise standing up and walking over toward the bed behind me, causing me to crack my eyelids and give him a sideeye stare as he crouched onto all fours, reaching out underneath the bed.

“When I was still a young stallion, we fantasized about going out at night and tunneling back into that building, sneaking in and reading anything besides Glimmers and Health and Recovery. Even if it was just going to be some dead mares bitching about not having enough food or something.” He pulled his hoof out, a piece of U-bent metal looped around his fetlock. “Thought maybe if we stuck this between the doors, and grabbed the handle and bolt on the other side we could open it.” The u-shaped piece of metal held more of a 'J' shape in all reality. The longer part of the loop held a mouthgrip, the teeth of a gear sticking out in the center of it. On the shorter end of the hook was a pair of thin metal prongs. But the most significant part of the entire tool was how thin it was. With the exception of the mouthgrip and gear, the entire tool was a fraction of an inch thick.

“Wha-” I squeaked out on my own as the earth pony pushed the J-Hook alongside me.

“If you're still hanging around now, you probably have more time to get into that old room then we do. But if you get in there, be sure to come back and tell us all about what was in there.”

“Where did you get this?” I gasped out, picking the tool up in my forehooves.

“A bunch of years back a wandering pony came out here, yammer on about wanting to do some map making. He left that thingy behind in a panicked rush out of here. We guess it's used to unlock doors.” He narrowed his eyes and looked at me. “That's how I was able to get back into that old bedroom after you broke the lock.”

I could feel a chill down the back of my neck, coursing down my spine and to the base of my tail. “That bad, huh?” Was all I could squeak out.

“Not only did you get me in trouble for disturbing that old Ministry Mare portrait, you decided to break into our house and damage it.” He sighed with frustration.

“The room didn't look like it had been touched for years.” Was my half-hearted defense.

“And it hadn't. Under Woe Tree's desire.”

The familiar name caught my attention. “Woe Tree?”

“Yep. It was a few days after her remarking. She didn't want anypony else to know that her mother had been a traitor, and demanded that the door stay shut forever.” The doctor gave a sad chuckle. “She was so convinced that once she lost her Cutie-mark that she would be accepted and everypony would forget about her mother's crimes.” Still staring errantly toward the long window, his eyebrows dropped into a more serious placement. “It was about ten years later that she came back. At that point she was in consideration for being appointed over food growth and the communal mess hall. With that type of influence it was only reasonable to answer her demands, though it helped that she reduced the demands to 'only in case of emergencies.”

“But why would she not-”

“Her mother committed a heinous crime, one that had never happened before in Our Town.” Soothing Constant's tone had dropped into straight grimness. “She fraternized with an outsider. Not just some wandering feral. An outsider that refused to join Our Town and give up his Cutie-mark. And it was an affair that lasted nearly a full year.” He turned to look at me. “That was the only time we ever heard of a town leader letting a pony get their cutie mark back, after a year of suspicion and strange behavior. And then mere days after he was captured and hung on the Tree of Woe, they came for her mother. In the middle of labor.”

The pall of the revelation hung over the candlelit room. “So that's where she got her name?”

He nodded. “There's a copy of Glimmers in there, you and your destructive nose probably already rifled through it. But in it there was her mother's personal writings. And despite all the doting she gave on her filly in the womb, that filly was the exact opposite of her mother in every way.” I could only stare, unable to give a response. “I'm sure if she was given even the smallest bit of love growing up from her mother, or even that selfish father, she would have been a much more rounded mare. Not so focused on culling the weak through starvation.” The doctor gave a huff. “And now in the very bed that she was born in, is a mare that for all intents and purposes, is perfectly healthy in every way except for permanent blindness. And when she's finally allowed to return to work, she will be starved day by day in the food court, for injuries beyond her control.”

I rose to all four hooves. “I should leave.”

The doctor nodded. “Sun will be rising soon, though with these clouds falling right over the town, you might have a bit more time to sneak out then usual.” I bent over and bit down on the spine of the medical tome once more. “Go ahead, take it. Like I said, every bit of what's in there...” He didn't finish the sentence verbally, simply relying on tapping on his forehead. “Besides, I bet things are going to change in this town real soon.”

- - - -

Once more I stared at the pair of metal doors. After having spent the morning rushing back into the mountains so I could catch up on sleep in one of the marked hiding spots, the evening brought with it a quick recording of the weather once more, some of the thinnest cloud cover I had seen yet, and a silence return to the old rockslide and it's hidden storage room just as the sun set once more.

Once more, I flipped open the top of my satchel and began nosing through it. I ignored the screwdriver and set of pins this time, biting down on the J-hook instead. Finally, it was time to open this door, and take my first serious step in overturning this town and helping my friends. Deftly I slipped the J-hook, bend first, into the crack between the two doors. The short end of the hook caught on the edge of the crack, so I turned the gear in the mouthgrip, spinning it slowly until it aligned with the door, which was when it got slipped the rest of the way in.

Abruptly the j-hook spun freely in my mouth, the doors no longer keeping the hook in place. At this point I began bringing my head up, going until I could feel the part of the hook still between the doors tap against the bolt. Cranking my head I dragged the short prongs on the end back and forth across the bolt, eventually catching both of them around something, hopefully the bolt's handle. Once again I twisted my tongue on the gear, listening intently for a positive sound.

Click!

I raised my forehoof to the already unlocked door handle, slamming down on it. It gave, and with the slightest of tugs the door opposite of me swung open, the j-hook falling down and hanging out of my mouth. Spitting the unlocking tool to the side, I grabbed the other door with my hooves and yanked it open as rough as I could, despite the screech of metal hinges and the sound of grinding against the old concrete floor.

A gust of old wind billowed out of the chasm, the burning wax in the candle holder the only thing providing any light into the massive tunnel. Cobwebs and dust fell from the ceiling and walls of the large tunnel, some of it being picked by the exchange of old and fresh air, the wax flame flickering but not quite going out.

I couldn't help but smile in satisfaction after beating the door that had cursed me for so long. Stepping over to the table and biting down on the edge of the tray of burning wax, my eyes never leaving the dark abyss. It looked like it would be a straight shot to the village through here. A straight shot into Mare Ether's basement, and hopefully, some information regarding where my friend's cutie-marks would be, and how to upend the entirety of Our Town.

- - - - -

Achievement Unlocked –Ślepy – Behold the physical damage of conflict

Achievement Unlocked – Pony Express – Recover the medical tome

Fallout Equestria: The Ajax Directive

by Falling Pictures Prod

Prologue: Wake

Chapter 1: Waking Up

Chapter 2: Tree of Woe

Chapter 3: Circles within Circles

Chapter 4: Attack

Chapter 5: The Power of Empathy

Chapter 6: Stallions like Mares

Chapter 7: Acceptance Speech

Chapter 8: Into the Ether

Chapter 9: In The Shadows

Chapter 10: Stay Scared