Chapter 1: New Beginnings

“Do you know what it’s like to wake up, and not be sure if everything is a lie?”

“Midnight Note wake up! You’re going to be late for school again!”

My eyes pop open to see the familiar white cloud ceiling. I give a quick glance over at my alarm. Today’s estimated total time of me being late today is… I’m not sure. A blinking twelve o’clock stares back at me. I grab it in my hooves and follow the cord to the wall. It’s still plugged in. Must have been another power outage. Great, another beautiful day of waking up late. I toss it back down on my end table. I should probably ask Dad to get one that takes spark batteries.

Nearly falling face first from getting tangled in my blankets, I quickly hop out of my bed. A quick run into the bathroom to check how my mane looks ensures that it’s the normal mess of pure white with a smudge of blue like the usual. I brush it out of my face with one of my hooves. Probably going to have my dad make me a hair appointment after school. I hate it when it gets this long. I quickly leave the bathroom and head down the stairs.

Dad is waiting at the bottom. He stands out so much from the rest of the house that I couldn’t even try and ignore him. His mane is a bright green and his fur dark like mine. You can really see where I get my coat from.

You would think that, as one of the most important ponies in Cloudsdale, he wouldn’t allow his daughter to be so late all the time. But at least I do get up in the mornings. “Good morning Midnight. Sorry that I couldn’t get you up earlier. Power must have gone out again. I’m not really sure why they’ve been happening so much lately. Maybe they’re doing maintenance on the surface or something.” These outages are really beginning to become a routine around here.

“Knowing how much it does go out, I wouldn’t doubt it.” I say, while rolling my eyes. I’ve never actually been down to the surface before. Only ever peeked through the clouds to see the green, almost alien, world below. Ever since I was a filly, Dad and everyone else says not to go down there. Never really been sure why though. Some sort of ancient rule of Cloudsdale. “Alright I gotta go. Don’t wanna be late to class for the eightieth time this year.”

Dad’s calm attitude disperses when he begins to speak, “Being late isn’t as important as actually passing your classes Midnight.” I swear to Luna I get this talk almost every other day. “If you don’t pass your classes you won’t be able to graduate. And you’ll be stuck here living with me for another year, or however long it takes you to pass. How would it feel to be one of the few ponies to not graduate.”

“I know. I know. I have it all taken care of Novasurge,” I say confidentially, knowing Dad hates it when I use his real name. He gently shakes his head back and forth. He doesn’t understand that I really do actually have it all under control. I just turn in all the stuff at the last second with all C’s. Boom, passing all my classes and I get to finally move out and be on my own. “And I’m pretty sure that I’m passing all but two so you should be glad I’m passing any at all. Anyways, gotta go. Love you Dad.”

“Love you too. See you after school!” Before he can even say anything else I’m already out the door. Almost falling off our porch because of the blinding sun in my eyes. That’s pretty much the reason I prefer the night.

I take off flying into the air. A deep breath fills my lungs with fresh air. I couldn’t imagine being a unicorn or earth pony like the ones on the surface. It would be pretty boring. I mean sure if you’re a Unicorn you get to have magic and all that fancy stuff like teleportation and telekinesis. But you still can’t fly. And being an Earth Pony is basically pointless. No wings, no horn, What’s the fun in that?

Flying to school only takes a couple minutes. If I were to walk on the streets then I’d get there at least a half hour later than usual. I probably should, seeing as I’m already late, an extra ten minutes couldn’t hurt.

I trot up to the main door and push on it to no avail. Just in case I grab one of the handles in my hooves and wiggle it back and forth vigorously. Once again they locked the doors. Not really sure why they would. Cloudsdale is one of the most peaceful places in Equestria. No murders. No robberies, muggings and break ins. You name it and we don't have it. Almost too perfect of a city if you ask me though. Not to mention almost all of the buildings here are made of clouds. Anypony could just walk right through the wall and grab whatever they damn well please. The only buildings that are truly solid are the official buildings like the Town Hall and of course the School.

I back up down the stairs and look at the wall of the building. Not really sure what class I have right now but I’m going to guess History. I fly up to a small window on the northwest side and slide open it. Locking the doors and not the windows, ponies these days. As I jump through and I feel my wing catch on something and pull me straight to the hard ground, right below my history teacher. He looks down at me and shakes his head. “Late again I see Ms. Note,” he says in a normal boring monotone voice.

“Beautiful morning to you Mr.M.” M is short for Marmalade. But he always insists on being called M. He is a tall, lanky stallion with glasses thicker than the bottom of a Sky Cola bottle. “What’s on the agenda for today?” I stand up and walk over to my assigned desk, everypony has stopped what they were doing to stare at me. I reach back to take off my saddlebags and realize that they aren’t there. “I really hope it’s nothing because guess who doesn’t have her stuff again.” I mumble to myself. It’s probably for reasons like this that I struggle to get anything done. Always forgetting everything.

He just shakes his head and points a hoof to the chalkboard. “We are doing page three hundred and eight. Numbers two through thirty six, odd,” He says in his monotone voice. Well I guess I really am doing absolutely nothing today. It’s always the same exact stuff anyways. This recent section has been about Celestia. And no, not the awesome power of our giant white, beautiful goddess, but the multitude of different members of her council and what they do. I couldn’t even tell you a quarter of them.

“Alright I guess I’ll do it when I get home. Don’t really have a book to use right now.” From behind me something touches my back. I turn around to see Flying Pan giving me his stupid smile. Listen, I try to be a nice pony when I can, but some ponies drive me so insane that it’s almost hard not to scream when you see them. I cover up the screaming pony in me and throw on the fakest smile I can,“Yes Flying Pan? What do you want.”

He holds up his history book. “You can have my book Midnight! I already got my homework done!” I look down to see his paper is just a mess of incomprehensible scribbles. I can’t even make out his name at the top.

“Uhhh no thanks Pan. Looks like you did evens instead of odds anyways.” I say as I point a hoof at his paper. Hopefully he’ll think he did. I’m not even sure he can read his own writing anyways.

He looks down at his paper for a second then back up at me. “Guess I did do evens instead of odds. Thanks Midnight!” He reopens his book again and begins to work. I notice that it isn’t even on the right page either. Sweet Celestia, how do you not realize what you’re doing? I turn back around and face the front board. Above it rests the clock. Twelve thirty four. Damn I really did sleep in late didn’t I? I sigh and lean back in my chair. Another day of doing nothing. My favorite.

In the corner of my eye I notice a grey smudge shoot past the hallway door. I look around to see if anypony else saw that. Nopony has even moved. Okay that’s pretty weird. I look back up at the clock to see the it’s still on twelve thirty four. Not even the second hoof has moved. I turn around to say something to Mr.M and he is just standing there, blankly staring at the wall. “Umm. Mr.M. What are you doing?”My voice gets a little panicky as I ask. I stand up and walk over to him. I wave a hoof in his face and get nothing in response. Not even a blink. What the hell is going on? I look back over at the door. It has to be something to do with that thing. I quickly start to run out of the classroom. Making sure to check the clock again before I do. It’s still stuck at twelve thirty four. I look both ways in the hallway to try to find the ball. I notice it quickly turn the corner.

“Hey! Get back here and unfreeze everything, you weird ball, uh thing!” I yell as loudly as I can down the hall at whatever the fuck it is. I quickly take off after it as fast as I can. Stopping to see somepony frozen who had dropped a large stack of papers. I touch one of the floating papers and It doesn’t move. “What the hell is going on here?” I continue racing down the hallway.

Turning the corner I see the ball go into the stallion's restroom. I hesitate for a moment and head in, taking a deep breath as I walk into the main room of the bathroom. Each stall is closed. I take a glance under each of them to make sure nopony is in here. If I were to get caught in here I would definitely be the next prime candidate for the jocks and bullies. I slowly open each stall. And damn these things are filthy. Is that what I think it is? Yep. Don’t try and touch it, me. Why would you even think about touching it?

Okay. Final stall. “If anypo… thing is in there you need to come out right now.” I pause a second to wait for a response but get nothing. With a quick push I open the door. And miraculously there is nothing. I turn around and look at myself in the mirror. “I’m not going crazy am I? There was actually something here.”I say to myself. I sigh and turn on the water and splash some on my face. I need to cool down a little bit.

Wait a second...running water. Time isn’t frozen anymore. I quickly turn off the water. Whatever is going on it’s over now. Just forget about it and never tell anypony. Ever. You got that Midnight. “N. E. V. E. R. Never,” I look myself in the eyes and say.

A familiar voice echoes just outside of the bathroom, “The principle can shove it if he thinks I’m going to sit in there and play with dolls all day. I mean who does he think I am. A mare. Horse shit is what that is I tell ya.” Oh shit, somepony’s coming. And if I recognise that voice then I need to either get out of here as quick as I can or flush myself down one of these toilets. Both of them seem kinda impossible at the moment. There’s only one thing to do. I quickly open a stall and jump inside, latching the door with a wing. I put my back hooves on the rim of the toilet and balance myself with my hooves atop the stall.

A different voice says, “What do you think he’ll do if you're caught in here Buckshot? He’ll probably suspend you for the amount of times you’ve skipped classes as is.” Buckshot was the most notorious bully and professional asshole of basically all of Cloudsdale. But if he were to actually get suspended that would be nice. Even a week without Buckshot patrolling the school looking for prey would be a blessing from Luna herself. I go to take a deep breath and a nasty stench burns my nostrils. Buckshot and his assholes must need his daily smoke break.

“Alright. I gotta take a whiz.” Buckshot says. Hoofsteps begin to approach to the stall door. Fucking hell. I look around to try to find someplace to escape. The door begins to move back and forth quickly. “Haha someponies in here! If you open up the stall now, maybe I won’t break your wings later!” Yea real classy Buckshot, random threats to somepony trying to hide from you.

This is going to suck but it’s the only chance I get if I wanna keep my wings intact. I put on my meanest sounding voice,“Alright Buckshot, I’ll tell you what. If you leave right now I won’t be forced to beat the snot out of you and your friends.” This is going to end terribly for me, or by some miracle, them.

“Is that a mare? In the stallion’s restroom? Looks like we are going to have to teach her a couple of lessons. Show her what the Sky Pythons do to ponies like her,” one of his lackeys says. Oh yea. Their stupid “gang” is called the Sky Pythons. Buckshot started it up a couple years ago when we learned about the early gangs in Manehattan. Apparently he went to Mrs.Canvy and was trying to convince her to make twenty leather jackets that say Sky Python with a tiny snake embroidered into them.

“Wait a second boys. I recognise that voice.” Oh Luna please don’t say that he knows me. “Is that Midnight Note? That mare who always gets away right? Looks like we’re going to have to give her the special treatment.” Oh yea. Last time I actually talked with Buckshot he got pissed at me for beating him as the fastest flier.

“You’re going to have to catch me first, Buckshot!” I’m not even going to ask what the hell the special treatment is. I gotta stall him until somepony comes in here. Some kind of distraction. Wait a second, I can ‘stall’ him! Midnight Note you are a genius. “Alright Buckshot. I’ll come out. Just let me unlock the door.”

I hear his hoofsteps slowly approach the door. “See boys. If only all the others would be so genero..” *WHAM* I buck the stall door into his face as hard as I can.

“Ha! Right in your stupid fucking face Buckshot!” I yell as I quickly jump over him and sprint out of the bathroom. Behind me I hear him yell something about breaking his nose. Maybe that will teach him a lesson not to mess with me. I look behind me to see a couple of his friends watching me run, not even putting any effort in the chase.

I ran and hid in one of the janitor's closets until the next bell rang. The janitor awkwardly came in to me checking out his stack of magazines. I mean how could I resist looking at the newest release of Wingboner Magazine. I may or may not have snuck one under my wing as I walked out.

My next class is gym. I look up and let out an audible groan. Buckshot is in that class. Hopefully it’s just a wing stretching or else I’m in big trouble. I walk down the hallway and into the locker room. I don’t really see the point in changing because we’re normally naked anyways. From the entrance I hear somepony say my name. I look over to see the closest thing I have to a friend. Aera.

“I heard what you did to Buckshot. You better watch your back for the rest of the day. You know what? Make that the rest of your life.” Aera has been my best and only friend I’ve had my whole life. We met when she moved here from Manehattan when we were younger. To be honest I’ve always thought she was pretty cute. Her short blue green mane and her tiny freckles. Her very light purple coat all leading to her nice smooth fla- “Midnight Note! Are you even paying attention to me?”

I feel my cheeks set on fire. “Uhh… Sorry, I was distracted with something.” Luna please help me not have this conversation again. We do this almost once a week. “Is it getting hot in here? Whew. I guess we should get to class.” I attempt walk away when I feel something hit my rump. I turn around to see Aera’s wing outstretched. And I thought that there was no way my cheeks could feel hotter.

“C’mon Midnight you know I’m not into mares. We’ve had this talk before.” Several times this month actually. “Now I know I can’t make you not like mares, but just please try not to look at me like that anymore.” I just nod. I mean what can I say to that. “Good, now let's get to class. I hear we’re playing dodgeball today.”

“Dodgeball with Buckshot. Just what I’ve always wanted at a time like this.” I sigh and start walking towards the gymnasium. Aera tells me that what I did to Buckshot is going around the school fast. Seeing as Buckshot “rules” the school I could understand why. Ugh, another thing I’m going to have to avoid in this place.

We get into the gymnasium to see everypony running laps. Our gym teacher, Bulk Biceps, runs over to us. “Get ready to plug your ears.” I whisper over to Aera. She plugs them with her wings. I do the same.

“YOU TWO ARE LATE AGAIN! THAT IS VERY UNAWESOME OF YOU!” He flexes the whole time he is screaming. “NOW GIVE ME TWENTY WING UPS NOW! OR DO YOU WANT TO MAKE THE CLASS DO TEN MORE LAPS!” I sigh and drop to the ground. So does Aera. He starts counting as we both do them. Once I get around the fifteenth one I start slowing down but still manage. Aera gets hers done perfectly fine. “ALRIGHT EVERYPONY, IT’S TIME TO START PLAYING SOME DODGEBALL! OH YEAH!” Bulk begins flexing as he yells. Everypony gathers up in the center of the gym. Buckshot watching me the whole time. I notice the bandage on his nose. I stick my tongue out at him and blow a raspberry. He mouths something but I wave a hoof at him and ignore it. Probably along the lines of “I’m going to make your life a living hell” or the classic “you’re dead meat” saying. Either way, I don’t care.

“OKAY EVERYPONY YOU KNOW THE DRILL! WE PICK TWO TEAM CAPTAINS AND THEY GET TO CHOOSE THE TEAMS!” That means another day of being picked last. Not that I really care or anything. I don’t really know anyone’s name in this class anyways. “NOW WHO AM I GOING TO PICK FOR THE TEAM CAPTAINS!?” Buckshot of course raises his hoof instantly. “BUCKSHOT YOU CAN BE RED TEAM CAPTAIN!” He puts his hoof to his chin and scans the class. “MIDNIGHT NOTE YOUR TEAM CAPTAIN BLUE! YOU’VE NEVER BEEN CAPTAIN BEFORE SO THAT MEANS IT’S YOUR TURN AND IT’S GOING TO BE TOTALLY FREAKIN AWESOME!” He starts flexing again. I notice muscles moving in places I didn’t even know could move.

I whisper over to Aera,“You’ve got to be kidding me. I don’t even want to play this stupid game.”

Aera stifles a laugh and says,” You’ll be fine. We’ll just do what we normally do.”

“OKAY MIDNIGHT YOU GET TO PICK FIRST SINCE YOU’VE NEVER BEEN CAPTAIN BEFORE!” Oh what an honor! Getting to pick first! I walk over and stand in front of the small crowd.

“Alright I pick Aera.” Of course I have to pick her. Buckshot goes instantly to his stupid friends. We go back and forth picking different ponies till we have full teams.

“ALRIGHT EVERYPONY YOU KNOW THE RULES! HOOVES ON THE GROUND AT ALL TIMES! HEADSHOTS DON'T COUNT AND YOU CAN USE THE BALLS TO REFLECT OTHER BALLS!” He walks down the center line of the gym, putting the balls evenly spaced from another. “NOW ON THE COUNT OF THREE THE GAME WILL START! ONE…..TWO…..THREE!” The sound of his whistle fills the entire gymnasium.

Everypony begins to charge at the set of dodgeballs in the center of the gym screaming. I’m pretty sure Bulk Biceps is most of it though. Aera and I stay back at the wall. Our strategy is to just wait till everyone gets each other out and then we charge in to finish the rest of them. “So why do you think Buckshot isn’t trying to get you out yet?” Aera says and she looks over at the other team.

I duck underneath a ball, then buck it over to another teammate. “Well I noticed that he’s been staring at me this whole time. Pretty sure that he’s been planning something. Watch out!” I quickly push Aera to the side. A ball whizzes right by her head. She picks up the ball and tosses it to somepony. “Anyways, what are the chances that we both end up team captains? Knowing Buckshot he probably talked Biceps into making us on opposite teams.”

“Duck!” Aera quickly dives over me catching a ball. “And you’re out motherbucker!” She yells and points a hoof at the other team. She tosses the ball to the side towards a group of our team.

“You know when you do stuff like that it makes it hard not to think you’re attractive.” She just rolls her eyes at me. That was the reaction I was expecting.

We continue dodging balls down to the final six. Aera and I on our team. Buckshot and his goonsquad on the other. “Alright Midnight Note! I’m taking out your little marefriend there, then I’m coming for your ass.” Buckshot gestures to Aera and his goons throw everything they have at once. Aera just moves a couple steps to the side effortlessly. Dodging them all perfectly.

She looks over at me and says, “Can you believe these guys Midnight! Think they can get me out so easi-” Time seemed to slow down at that second. Watching a ball connect perfectly with the side of her face. As she begins to fall, I stretch my wing out and catch her at the last second.

“AND AERA IS OUT OF THE MATCH! THAT LEAVES MIDNIGHT NOTE VERSUS BUCKSHOT’S TEAM,” Bulk yells at the top of his lungs.

I look over at him with a shooty look. “Uh, Biceps that was a fucking headshot! Aera is still in the game!”

Steam seems to shoot out of his nostrils, “WELL I SAY THAT SHE IS OUT, THAT’S THE RULES AND THEY AREN’T CHANGING ANYTIME SOON. ALSO DON’T DROP THE F BOMB IN MY FREAKIN CLASS!” Oh how I just wanted to smack him with my hoof right then and there. Too bad he could crush my entire body with ease.

Aera gets up and rubs her head. She looks over at Buckshot and then back at me. “Kick his ass Midnight!” She smiles and walks off the court, rubbing her face with her wing.

I look over at Buckshot and his stupid friends. “Alright, you fuckers want to go? Well? Give me all you got!” I could see a fire start in Buckshot’s eyes. All at once balls start to fly at me. I curse to myself and flinch as several dodgeballs fly towards my face. I think of how much this is going to hurt.

Nothing. Not even a sound. I look up to see at least half a dozen red dodgeballs floating inches from my face. “No. No no no. No no no no no not this again.” I say quietly. I back up and stand to my hooves. What the hell is going on!? I begin to walk around and something hard collides with my head. I fall back on my haunches and rub my head.

Out of nowhere a metallic voice rings above me,”Sorry about that. Didn’t think you would turn around so fast!” I let out a scream and crawl backwards. “Wait no, don’t run. I’m here to help you!” I look blankly at the floating grey metallic ball. Various metal antennas stick out from the top of it.

“What and who the hell are you! And what did you do to everything!” I stand up and end up backing into the wall of floating dodgeballs.

“I’m a sprite-bot. Well, I’m not a sprite-bot, but it’s just what I’m using to contact you. Sorta.” I don’t break my stare with it. Is he talking about a parasprite? We’ve read about them in science before. But none of them are grey, metal and can speak.

“What the hell is a sprite-bot! And that doesn’t answer who you are either.” Whatever it is, I'm not trusting it until I get answers!

I hear it clear its throat somehow. “Okay, fine. You can call me Watcher. And what you’re seeing is the most common robot in the wasteland. They were created by the Ministry of Morale before the war based on old world parasprites. But most of them still somehow float around today.” Okay that didn’t answer anything. That only gave more questions.

“War? Wasteland? What are you talking about? There is neither a war or a wasteland anywhere here, or anywhere near here. Equestria is as peaceful as it’s been in the last couple of millenia! Now you tell me what is going on or I’m going to figure it out myself!” I point a hoof at it and say.

“Calm down Midnight Note. I don’t have much time until the system kicks me out again. You’re in a simulation and I’m trying to get you out. There is some kind of failsafe somewhere here in Cloudsdale and you’re going to have to be the one to activate it so we can get you out of here. I’m going to figure out its location and then I’ll contact you when I can. For now be careful and don’t mention anything about this to anypony else. Just let tomorrow be another day, okay?” The sprite-bot floats there for a second longer, “I promise everything will make sense soon.”

I couldn’t say anything. I did the only thing I could think of doing in a time like this. Run. Run as fast and far as I can. By the time I got out of the school building time was back to normal. Somepony yelled out at me as I left, but I couldn’t care less. I wasn’t going to stay there. Not with whatever the hell that was. I flew all the way home. Ignoring ponies when they said anything about me not being in school. Luckily dad works late so I was alone. I went into my room and laid down on my bed.

So if what that Watcher thing said was true then none of this is real. Not Dad, Aera, Buckshot, Mr.M, Bulk Biceps or anypony else. They just don’t exist. But the only thing that makes it sound fake is the fact that I’m seventeen years old. I remember my first birthday. I remember the day that Dad came home with a big box of cupcakes. Me and him sat downstairs to see who could eat the most. Or all the times Aera and I walked around town at night. The long walks and the deep talks we had. There is no way that it’s all fake…

“Aagh why does my life have to be so complicated?” I pick up my pillow and throw it at the wall. It goes right through it. “Oh yea. Cloud walls.” I leave it and stay laying down. I mean, what else can I do? My whole world is rapidly getting more and more confusing by the minute. I close my eyes. My only friend, my only family member left, and now that it’s all apparently been a lie.

I let out a long breath. “Just going to take a little nap. When I wake up maybe I can make some sense of all this.”

…

The familiar sound of my alarm clock wakes me up. I look up to see that it’s eight. I sit up in my bed and stretch. Wait… I pause mid-stretch and look over at the alarm clock. How in the hell did I sleep for almost twenty hours? Great. Now there’s further evidence that everything isn’t real. I stand up out of my bed and walk out of the door and begin my daily routine. Checking my mane to make sure it isn’t too crazy and then heading downstairs to grab a bite to eat. Actually being awake on time has its perks.

On our kitchen table is a box with a couple doughnuts in it and a small blue note sticking out from the top. I read the note aloud to myself, “Heard you had a bad day at school yesterday Midnight so I got half a dozen from Pony Joe’s. Hopefully today is gonna be better for you. Love, Dad” Thanks fake dad that means so much to me that you would even consider such a kind gesture like that. I grab a pink donut with rainbow sprinkles and take a big bite out of it. This whole place could be fake but I’m at least glad the food is decent. I finish that one and grab another before leaving the kitchen.

Out of nowhere dad seems to appear next to me. “Ready for school today Midnight? I packed your lunch for me. I even used your favorite bread!” He says in a glee voice that I’ve never heard him use before. I give him a confused look. Did he just say what I think he said?

“Did you mean that you packed lunch for me, not you?” He nods and holds it in front of him. “You normally don’t pack lunch for me. Why did you decide to do it today?” I say slowly. His head twitches to the right slightly. The center of his chest seems to disappear for a moment. Okay I need to get out of here. Now.

He pushes the lunch to my chest and insists that I take it. All of a sudden Aera’s voice is behind me. I turn around to see her there. “How the hell did you get here, Aera?” Out of nowhere she gets really close to me. “Aera why aren’t you talking to me? What are you doing?” She leans in and kisses me on the lips. For a couple seconds all my fears went away. A moment of bliss in whatever fucked up shit is happening to me. But that moment was shortly gone when I realized this wasn’t her. Not the mare I would say I’m in love with.

I push away from her. “Oh come on Midnight, Isn’t this what you’ve always wanted? Me. You. Our bodies tangled together in a hot mess!” I slowly start backing down the stairs.

“This isn’t you, Aera. And you aren’t my Dad. None of you are even real!” I quickly turn around and start running for the front door.

“C’mon Midnight! You know me. I’m your best friend, your lover! We’ve known each other since we were fillies.” She bites her lower lip and says to me, “We can be together forever and ever.”

“Midnight don’t leave. You know that it’s just me and you. Your mother is gone and all we have is each other.” I look over to see my Dad still has my lunch in his hooves. He slowly starts walking towards me.

“No. None of you are real. None of this is really happening! Not you two! Not this house! Not this whole entire fucking city in the clouds! All of it is a fake and I’m getting the hell out of here!” I quickly turn around and run out of the door.

“I gotta leave. I have to get out of Cloudsdale. I have to be anywhere but here.” I start flying east toward the edge of the city. “As far as I can go. That’s all I have to do. Get somewhere where I can meet Watcher and he can help me” I keep flying without looking back until I reach the city limits. I look down to see the sea of green rolling hills below. Grass, trees, lakes, waterfalls. All things I've only seen in picture books when I was a foal. I’ve always been told to never leave Cloudsdale. So I did. I tuck my wings in and start falling down as fast as I can, the wind begins tunneling around me. Hopefully Watcher can meet me down here.

Seemingly out of nowhere, I hit something completely solid. A blue wave ripples from where I hit it. “What the hell is this?” I yell. I lean against it and hit it with my hoof. The blue wave moves along the strange barrier again. “Nononono. This isn’t real. This isn’t happening now.” I turn around and start flying up. “Watcher! I don’t know where you are! I don’t know who you are! But please get me out of here!”

Out of nowhere a voice appears around me,”Midnight, I saw what happened. I’ve managed to find the failsafe switch. It’s in your father’s room at his terminal. It's disguised- normal file. Just activate- you c- leave. My connection is-” His voice is cut off mid sentence.

Alright. Get to Dad’s terminal and find the failsafe. Then I can get out of here. Then Watcher is going to tell me everything.

I fly back up to Cloudsdale. I look across the city and just sigh. My whole life has been here. And who knows what kind of person am I outside of this place? I look down at my hooves. Am I actually me? Or is this just some fake body that I was placed into. Oh my… What if I’m a stallion? I gag a little bit at the thought then shake my head. Just gotta get to my house and turn on the failsafe. That’s it.

I slowly open my door and stick my head in. Nopony appears to be here. Or whatever those things are. I quickly run down the hallway into Dad’s office. I’m normally not supposed to be in here. But I don’t think that really matters right now. I quickly sit down in front of his terminal. I take a deep breath and start pushing the keys.

“Midnight Note, you know you’re not supposed to be in here.” Dad’s voice echoes around me, but I just ignore it.

The terminal doesn’t seem to have anything on it. Every tab I go through seems to be corrupted or just nonsense. Out of nowhere the terminal is ripped from the desk and thrown through the cloud wall. “There is no escape from this place,” Several voices around me scream, “Stay and live. You are safe. You are HOME!” The voice sounds like a mix of everypony I know. From the hallway walks in a flickering mass shaped like a pony. It’s glowing bright green and looks like a computer glitch.

“What the fuck…” I mumble to myself. I get up quickly and back up as the glitch continues to walk towards me. As it gets closer I begin to feel the heat radiating from it.

The glitch begins to speak again,“This is your home Midnight. You are safe. You are free.”

I panic even more looking for a way out, still backing up and nearly against the wall. “We are the world. There is no escape. We will always find you.” My flank touches the cloud wall behind me and starts to go through it.

Oh yeah. Clouds. I quickly push through the cloud wall and begin to run completely through my house. I quickly make it outside. The glitch pony doesn’t seem to follow. “Watcher you’re plan didn’t fucking work! And things are getting worse very fast!” I scream into the air around me.

Watchers voice cuts through the silence. “Go to- Old house- school!”

Old house by the school? I fly straight up into the air to try and figure out where it is. I see the school across town. But most buildings around it are new.

“Fly closer- You’ll see it whe- get closer.”

“Where do you think you are going Midnight!?” The glitch voice screams below me as it’s rapidly approaching. Before I can move out of the way the glitched pony slams into me and sends me flying. The pure heat radiating from it burns my side. I barely stabilize myself mid air. Everything around me seems to flicker. Some of the houses flicker and wave, similar to the glitched pony. I look over to see the glitch rapidly approaching again. It has giant bright green wings that seem to tear and distort the simulation around it.

At the last second I kick off the side of the glitch. My hooves burn as they touch the skin of whatever this thing is. It spirals down into the distance, falling through the cloud cover below me. I need to get out of here. Now.

I fly as fast as I can towards the school. The town around me flickers and glitches. The simulation doesn’t seem to be able to handle me knowing what it is. I don’t know how much time I have left here.

Watchers voice cuts in again, “ Almost the- Next to scho- Code in- living room.”

From the corner of my eye I notice a house not made of clouds. It’s a faded yellow and the roof is partly caved in. I land and quickly open the front door.

“STAY OUT OF THERE MIDNIGHT” The glitched voice screams from all around me, making my ears ring horribly. I slam the door before anything can come in.

The inside of the house is surprisingly nice compared to the dilapidated outside. But there seems to be weird objects everywhere. A full bottle of Sky Cola, A garden gnome pony, a jukebox, cinder blocks, and various kitchen utensils.

“Midnight use- Jukebox- Activate th- Failsafe.” Watchers voice barely comes through anymore. I run over to the jukebox and turn it on. There's only one song loaded into it called ‘I don’t wanna set the world on fire’.

“What the hell am I supposed to do with this!? Have a dance party with the killer glitch pony?” I yell, hoping Watcher will answer back.

“Just pla- Song- Failsa- ,'' His voice is cutting out more and more.

I click load on the only song. Music begins to echo from everywhere. At the same time something slams onto the front door repeatedly. I spin around to see a gigantic terminal fade into existence.

“I don’t want to set the world on fire.”

The terminal hums as I power it on. The first and only option is “Zebra invasion”

“I just want to start”

After clicking it I’m teleported to the highest point in Cloudsdale. It takes me a second to regain my balance. I’m on top of the school. From here I can see the entire town. From my house to Aera’s. I walk to the edge and sit down, dangling my back hooves.

“A flame in your heart.~”

Music continues to echo as a siren rings out. Warmth seems to approach from behind. It’s the glitched pony. It sits next to me. I feel my whole right side burning.

“In my heart, I have but one desire~”

“I guess you win Midnight. Good luck on the outside.” The glitched pony morphs between everypony I know and stops on my Dad. “I hope you enjoyed this world I made you.” In a blink of an eye my father is gone. The sirens seem to get louder around me.

“And that one is you~”

In the very far distance. What has to be a hundred miles away. I see a blinding green flash that makes me have to cover my eyes with a hoof. A gigantic green cloud shaped like a mushroom forms on the horizon. A shock wave washes over the world. Rapidly destroying everything in Cloudsdale.

“No other will do~”

The music cuts off abruptly. I really liked that song.

-Please Stand By-

_____________________________________________________________________
Footnote: Level up! Sanity:99%

Perk Added: Cherches La Filly - In combat you do 10% damage against female opponents! Outside of combat you’ll sometimes have access to unique dialog options with other mares!

Chapter 2: Watching

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Chapter 2: Watching

“So, do you come here often?”

Silence and Darkness.

The first two things I had ever experienced upon leaving the simulation. My home, my Dad, and Aera. Everything from that life was gone. When I open my eyes who knows what, or who I could see, but what I do know, is that it will be real. Whatever is out there could either be the most beautiful thing in the world or my worst nightmare and such a simple task took all the strength I had in me to complete.

…

Grey. The first thing I saw was grey. Well, it’s what I could see through a thick glass dome. Looking around, I find myself in some kind of glass pod. Wires with little suction cups are sticking all over my head and neck. In a rush of panic I yank them all off as fast as I can. I place my back hooves on the glass dome above me and begin pushing, but I realize it won't budge.

Anxiety and panic start rising, causing pitch fluctuations within my voice, “Watcher! Anyone! Help me get out of here!” As soon as I finish the last word the dome starts moving up, hissing as a sign of a tight seal. Now sitting up fully, taking a good look around the room. I count fourteen individual strange looking pods that are evenly spaced around a center column made up of wires and metal. From what I can see the other pods were all empty. At the bottom of the pillar of wires are fourteen terminals, lining up perfectly with each of the strange devices.

Hesitating for a second, I stepped out of the machine, nearly collapsing to the floor. Why do I feel so weak? Looking down at my hooves to see I’m wearing a blue shirt with a yellow stripe going down the center. A yellow eight decorates the collar and back with convenient open slits for my wings to fit through. In the process of hopping out of the pod my mane fell straight down across my face. Almost triple the length it was in the simulation. I guess I really need that haircut now. I push it to the side while slowly trying to stand up. My legs feel like they’re about to turn into goop!

I hobble over to the terminal in front of my pod and activate it. The screen lights up with a faint green glow. A thick layer of dust rests on the keyboard. Within seconds of looking at the screen I notice my name. Midnight Note.

Days in Stasis: 364

Species: Pegasus

Known diseases or sicknesses: None

Injuries: Third degree burn on left flank

Splines: Reticulated

Eye Color: Green

Mane/Tail: #FFFFFF, #00B8EA

I quickly glance back at my flank just to see bandages stained red with dried blood. How did I not notice this before? I gently pull them off to see a lightning cloud branded where a moon and a music note should have been. I check the other side and notice that my usual mark is still there. I slowly stumble away from the terminal.

There must be some kind of exit to whatever this place is. I start to walk past the pod I was in when I trip over something, nearly falling on my face. I look back to see a burlap sack tied shut. I grab it in my hooves and try to untie it with my mouth. (Has anypony ever mentioned how difficult it is untying something without magic?) Add that to the unicorn perk list.

After a couple of minutes of trying I got frustrated and tore it open. The contents spill out onto the floor in front of me. Moldy brown food (Apples, maybe?), some packaged snack bars, a couple water bottles, and a piece of paper. I put the snack bars and water bottles off to the side and grab the paper. The writing on it is clearly rushed.

Midnight Note, I know you’re going to be too stubborn to listen to anypony else about this so I packed you some supplies. I’ve heard how hard it can be to survive down there so it should get you by for a couple days. I need you to promise me you’ll stay safe down there. I’ll be rootin’ for ya.

Your Friend,
Buckshot

“Whoa, whoa, whoa.. Wait, Buckshot is real?! AND, he’s apparently my friend! But he was an asshole!” Looking up I let out a groan. “What the hell is going on!”

A familiar voice seems to come from everywhere at once,”Hey Midnight are you awake in there? I’ve managed to hack into the intercom system.”

Oh thank Celestia, a familiar voice. “Yea Watcher, I made it out. What is this place, and more importantly...,” Taking a glance around the room, searching for an exit, “How the hell do I get out of here?”

“You’re in what is called a Stable. Basically, it’s a really fancy bomb shelter. I know that that makes little to no sense to you right now, but I can explain it better once I get you out of there. You need to find a giant door that looks like a giant gear. Finding that is your only way out.” The voice cuts out with a static click.

“Alrighty then. Find the giant door means finding my way out of here,” I mumble to myself while glancing around the room only to see a metal door on the other side. I grab the water bottles and snack bars and tuck them under my wing. I’m going to need to find some kind of bag to carry this crap in. Too bad stupid me tore open the only one I had. I start walking over to the doorway, making sure there’s nothing else past me left for present me in the room.

I walk up to the metal door and push on it with one of my hooves. It doesn’t budge. I scan the entire door for a handle of some kind, but nothing. Who the hell designs doors without handles? I begin to push on it again and notice something off to the side. “Is that what I think it is?” Still leaning on the door I stretch out one of my hooves to push it. The door quickly slides up causing me to fall on my side through the doorway, crushing a water bottle under my wing.

Ouch. I stand up and look at the now broken open bottle, the spilled water runs back into the simulation room. Guess I’m not drinking that after all. Hopefully Watcher didn’t hack into the camera system too. If there even is one in here.

The other side of the door is a long straight hallway which leads to another metal sliding door at the end. Yellow arrows point me forward. The first step into the room triggers the proud voice of a mare, “We here at Stable-Tec have hoped you enjoyed your stay in our state of the art Visualization pods. Take this hallway to get your very own personal terminal or Pipbuck, complimentary from one of our honored scientists. Then once you’ve gotten your Stable-Tec issued Pipbuck, enjoy your stay in the new, and safe, world!” The robotic voice cuts off, followed by pure silence.

Okay then, a creepy announcer voice comes out of nowhere and welcomes me. Just going to ignore all of that and maybe get one of these PipBuck things. Hopefully I can meet the scientists who are supposed to be welcoming me to a “new world”.

The door at the end of the hallway opens into a wide room with multiple tables, stacked with boxes, lining the walls. The yellow arrows lead to each table. I walk up and open one. Of course it’s empty. I toss it to the side and go through the rest, which are not surprisingly empty also. Guess I’m not getting one of those PipBuck things. I give up on the welcoming committee room and follow the yellow arrows until I find the door Watcher was talking about.

Watcher wasn’t lying. The giant door does really look like a giant gear. The Stable door has eight giant teeth that keep it in place, in the center is another yellow eight like the one on my clothes. “Watcher expects me to open the giant door and I couldn’t even open the small sliding door with an obvious button,” I say under my breath. In front of the door is something that could be a control panel though. I walk over and look at the array of lights embedded into it. In the center is a switch surrounded by a small glass case. Lifting up on said case does absolutely nothing. “Great! Now how the hell am I supposed to get out now?” I look around the room to see one final door. Next to it is a small glass window. On the other side of the window is the shape of a pony sitting down at a desk.

I squint my eyes and look closer. Is that another pony sitting in front of a terminal? Watcher said he’s outside of the Stable so it can’t possibly be him. “Hey! Who’s in there?” I yell while waving a hoof. I quickly run over, open the sliding door and peek my head in, ”Are you going to answer me or…. Oh.” A unicorn skeleton of a mare wearing a lab coat sits at the desk. Another mystery that’s left up to me to solve. I trot over to give it a thorough look over. In her coat I find three bobby pins and a name card. “Dr. Simulacra, head scientist and technician of Stable Eight.” I read aloud, putting the bobby pins in a pocket of my barding.

“Well Dr. Simulacra I’m going to need this terminal if you don’t mind.” As gently as I can I pick her skeleton up in my forelegs. As I do something falls with a heavy clunk to the metal floor. I really hope that wasn't one of her legs. I set her skeleton down on the ground and look behind me. On the floor is a tiny, black, hoof sized… well, thing. I pick it up in my hooves. Half of it dangles down on tiny hinges. One side, of what appears to be a strange terminal, is decorated with a small screen, three tiny buttons, a switch, and some kind of counter in the top left. On the left side, just below the counter, ‘PipBuck 3000’ is etched into it in silver.

So this is a PipBuck, eh? How does it work? I push a couple of buttons and nothing happens. Huh. You must have to wear it maybe? I drape it over my right hoof and latch it closed. It fits almost like it was made for me.

In my vision, a big wall of jumbled blue text flies past. At this point I’m not even going to question what’s happening anymore. It finally stops with what I could only guess is the Stable-Tec logo and a tiny bar moving right slowly. The message above says ‘Calibrating Eyes Forward Sparkle.’ Once the bar finishes moving right, at the top of my vision appears a tiny little compass with all the cardinal directions. A small marker points east toward something on the desk. A small rusty key. Okay now if that’s the key
for the giant door i’m going to be kinda freaked out.

I hold the Pipbuck in front of my face and look at the small screen. It has a very light blue tint to it compared to the green glow of the terminals that I’ve seen. To my surprise, my name is at the bottom of the screen, above it is a tiny simplified picture of a pegasus mare, of who I could only guess was supposed to be me. I hit the two other buttons at the bottom and go through all the options. This thing has a map, an inventory manager, apparently can help repair weapons, a radio, and even a section to read through notes. I click on the notes section only to see that there is a single audio file in the list. It must be from Dr. Simulacra. Guess I should probably listen to that. Maybe it can help me get out of here.

As soon as I click I hear the voice of a mare fill the small room, “This thing is on, right?” The mare let out a long sigh, “Well, I really hope that it is. My name is Doctor Simulacra and this whole Stable business is a complete failure. All these years of preparation and studying have been all for not. I am leaving this message for anypony who somehow survives. This is NOT a place of shelter from the bombs. There is no food, water, or any other basic necessities. This place is just another one of Stable-Tecs so called “experiments”. I left everything behind for this fucking Stable and I regret all of it.” Simulacra goes quiet all except for a small sniffle. “If you’re somehow hearing this my love… I’m sorry. I should have been so much better to you… Cut the recording J” The audio file cuts off right after.

“What the fuck…” I look back up at the skeleton, “I’m so sorry Simulacra… I wish I could’ve helped…”

Too distracted with my thoughts to mess with my PipBuck anymore, I take the key in my mouth only to find a taste of rust coating my tongue. Trotting over to the Stable doors control, I insert the key in the slot and turn it, the glass case around the lever pops open with a satisfying click. I take a deep breath while resting my hoof on the lever. This one switch unlocks a whole new world, a new life. I slowly pull it down towards me. Watcher better be waiting for me.

*Click*

All around me yellow lights start to shine and an annoyingly loud siren begins to wail. Machines in the walls around start whirring and klanking until a giant drill arm of some kind stretches out of the ceiling and places itself slowly into the massive gear door. With loud grinding noises, louder than Bulk Biceps yelling, the door slides back into a set of grooves on the floor. The drill then pulls the massive door out of the way to the right to reveal the exit.

Behind the door is more of the world I’ve learned to dread. Pure darkness. I step out of Stable Eight’s grey interior and into a pitch black cave. My PipBuck lets off a faint blue glow. The only other light is at the bottom crack of a door at the end of the cave. I slowly walk to the end and take a deep breath. Readying myself mentally and physically for what could be behind the door.

“Midnight Note are you in there? I heard the Stable door open,” Watcher! I never thought I would be so happy to hear somepony else’s voice. I quickly open the door and run out of it, straight into the metal frame of a Spritebot. “Oh my gosh, Midnight! I’m so sorry. Are you okay?” I sit back up and rub my forehead. “You really are as clumsy in real life as the simulation.”

I open my eyes to see Watcher floating in front of me. But I couldn’t help but pay all of my attention to what was behind him. Only lit up with the faint glow of the moon is the remnants of Equestria. A brown nothingness seeming to go on for miles in every direction I could see. I stand up and walk around him. “Where’s all the green at...” I ask, getting down on my stomach to look at a brown, dead patch of grass.

“I knew this would be a problem... Welcome to the Equestrian Wasteland, Midnight...” The metal voice says grimly behind me.

“Watcher, what’s going on? I know you have answers.” I look up at the rising moon. Is this even real at this point?

“Alright, Midnight, it’s the least I can do for you.... Two centuries ago a war was waged between Zebras and Ponykind. For a while Celestia was still the Princess of Equestria. Then due to one of the biggest tragedies during the war, Celestia resigned from the throne, thinking it was all her fault. Luna took over and from there she created the Ministries, each with their own purpose. The Ministry of Arcane Sciences, Peace, Technology, Morale, Image, and Awesome. Each Ministry was assigned to the old heroes of Equestria. Those ministries and the war were the true downfall of the world, bringing the once prosperous Equestria to a savage wasteland...” I stood there staring up at the Spritebot. “That’s the short version at least,” he says flatly.

“That’s a lot to take in, Watcher. A lot more than I thought it was going to be...” I still had more questions though, “What destroyed the world and made it into this place?”

“That would be the Megaspells. Originally meant to help ponies, they were converted by Ponies and Zebrakind to cause mass destruction to whatever they pleased. Leading to what you see now.” The metallic voice goes silent.

“Alright, Watcher. I have one final question... Who are you?” He obviously isn’t a robot. There’s no way this could actually be him. He knows too much.

“My name is Watcher. That’s all you need to know about me for now.” Alright, that’s one way to be blunt about it. “There are a couple things I want you to know before you go out and get yourself killed though. Now this is the third time I’ve explained this to Stable Ponies today so you better listen. I don’t want to have to do this again.” Third time to Stable Ponies? I’m not the only one?

“Wait there’s more than one Stable pony here?” I asked while raising an eyebrow. If there’s more than me, maybe they can help me.

I swear my ears heard him laugh, “Not here no. They’re both pretty far from you.” Great, the only other ponies I know of and they’re both in different parts of Equestria. “Which reminds me… I have to go check on Blackjack and Littlepip once I’m done here,” I hear him say quietly to himself. “Anyways, you need three things out here in the wasteland. Number one: Get yourself a weapon. Any weapon will do. In the wasteland there’s always other nasty, crazy ponies that will try to kill you in a numerous amount of ways. Number two: Any kind of protective armor. Your Stable outfit isn’t going to do much against a hellhound claw or a bullet from a raider’s rifle. Gonna add in a two point five just for you, also. I noticed you don’t have any saddlebags. Trust me. You’ll need a pair. And finally, the most important one of them all, get yourself some friends.” Alright, that's a lot of stuff. Gonna have to write this down someplace.

“Okay so a weapon, armor, saddlebags, and some friends. Where the hell am I supposed to find those things? In the simulation I only ever had a single friend my whole life. I’m not good at this whole ’friend’ thing.“ I give him a little shrug.

“Trust me, Midnight, you’ll find friends where you’d never expect them to be. Just gotta look hard enough.” I look down at my PipBuck to check the time. Still an hour till midnight, but I’m not tired yet. I guess taking a nap for a year probably didn’t help.

“Alright since you seem to know everything about this place.. Where do I start? I have a whole world to find these things.” I turn around with my legs wide. As soon as I say that another marker appears northeast. “Okay so I guess I’ll head to…” Trumpet filled music begins to play behind me, ”Watcher?” I turn around to see the Spritebot flying away into the darkness, trumpet music slowly fading away along with it.

“Okay then…?” I look down at my PipBuck. “A weapon, armor, saddlebags, and friends. You can do this, Midnight.”

…

About an hour of walking my legs felt like they were going to collapse under me. Being in the simulation for so long had made whatever muscles I had turn into mush. It probably also didn’t help that I walked a couple miles to add on top of that. And thanks to my newly acquired E.F.S. from my PipBuck, I could ignore anything that would try to kill me, whatever kind of beast is lurking in the darkness that is.

In front of me now is a lonely little pre-war house with a rotted, leafless tree sitting out in front. I checked in the mailbox to find a variety of letters and an issue of some kind of magazine called Guns and Bullets issued to somepony named Fleetfoot. I tucked the magazine under my wing along with my other stuff. I approach the front door and almost on instinct I go to knock until I realize that nopony would obviously be home. I quietly open the door. A very strong smell of rot hits my nose immediately. I cover it with my free wing.

To my right is a small hallway too dark to see down. A small couch and chair sit in the center of the room, next to it a shelf. I walk over to the small shelf and hold up my PipBuck to a picture frame. (This thing has everything but a flashlight.) A light blue pegasus with an icy mane sits with another mare posing for a picture. The other mare has an awesome pair of shades and a yellow and orange mane. Both of them looked happy to be together. I move my PipBuck over to the next picture to see the same icy blue mare wearing some kind of combat armor with a black, scoped rifle on her back. In the bottom right corner ‘First Day!’ is written. I’m going to guess that it's Fleetfoot. I walk away from the pictures down a small hallway. Knowing that she’s probably dead is just going to make me just as depressed as seeing Simulacra.

I slowly open the door at the end and almost throw up. Whatever the smell is, it’s coming from here. I peek my head in, still coving my nose with my free wing. Yea, that would definitely explain the smell. Resting her head on the window sill is the rotting form of a pegasus. “Oh Fleetfoot, what happened to you…” I slowly walk over to the corpse. Fleetfoot’s flesh appears almost cooked. This must be what the Megaspells do to ponies... I look around the room for something to move her with so I don’t have to get all gross. I grab a blanket off of her old bed and wrap her in it. Being careful not to drop her, I move her out in the living room on the old couch. Maybe I can bury her outside or something. It’s the least I could do for her.

In the corner next to Fleetfoot’s bed is a desk with a terminal on top. I hit the power switch. The terminal fills the corner of the room with a bright green glow. A file is already open.

I got news on the radio that Cloudsdale was hit by the Megaspells. Apparently nopony has reportedly survived so far. The damn Zebras actually did it, I didn’t think they had it in them. This is probably going to be the final entry in this stupid thing. The therapist said that I should try and write more, but it hasn’t helped. I’m just going to clear out the rest of these stupid entries anyways. Nopony is going to be interested in what I ate yesterday morning. So if anypony else is reading this for some reason. Just know that this whole war was a giant waste of everything. And being in it was one of the worst things to ever happen to me. It was all my fault anyways.

Fleetfoot, out.

That last sentence echoed in my head. What did she mean it was all her fault? Watcher never fully said what caused the war but there’s no way it could possibly be hers. I wonder how long she was a soldier before she quit. Based on the picture in the living room she actually used to be happy. I bet it couldn’t be the easiest thing you could do though. Losing family, friends, hell even losing somepony you barely knew would destroy you.

I sit up and walk over to Fleetfoot’s bed. Hopefully she won’t mind if I rest in her bed for the rest of the night. I pull out the Guns and Bullets magazine and skim through it before I pass out.

…

I wake up to a crashing noise coming from the living room. I quickly run over to the hallway door and peek under it. All I can make out is the faint outline of hooves stumbling around. I look around the room for some kind of weapon. Desk chair? No, too heavy. Can’t use a shelf. If there was a war going on how could she not have a single weapon?! Even a knife at least. I look over at the bed and get and idea. “Sorry about this Fleetfoot.” I whisper to myself. I wrapped my hooves around a wooden piece of the bed frame and start pulling as hard as I can. With a loud, splintery crack, the wood frame piece breaks free. It’s not ideal but it will have to do.

I walk over to the door, wood frame in mouth, and open it. I slowly walk down the hallway. Listening closely to the hoofsteps in the living room. I check my E.F.S to see that they are just around the corner. I brace myself against the wall, ready to attack.

*CRACK*

The wooden piece shatters against the head of… Fleetfoot? “No no no no you were dead! That’s not how any of this works,” I scream at the living corpse. I look down at the bleeding body of Fleetfoot. “How in the fuck are you alive!? I moved your dead body?!” Fleetfoot lets out a low growl. I slowly start to back up. “There’s no way… That’s not possible.”

With unimaginable speed from a moving corpse, Fleetfoot lunges at me. I quickly try to fly in the air, but in the process hit my head on the ceiling and fall behind her. I quickly scramble to my hooves as fast as I can and run into a different room with her right behind. Luckily for me the other room is a kitchen. I scramble over to open the drawers of a cabinet. “Spoon, fork, whisk. This is all fucking useless!” I yell. I open the final drawer. Oh thank Celestia. Inside is a very rusty kitchen knife. I grab in in my mouth and turn around. As I do Fleetfoot slams into me, sending me flying through a kitchen table and landing with a crack against a wall that doesn’t sound too good. I hobble to my hooves, still clutching the knife in my mouth. She begins to charge again. But this time I’m ready. I quickly step to the side and stab the knife straight into the side of her head. Dark ichor splatters all over me and the knife.

I fall back against the floor cabinets and let out a sigh. First day actually in the wasteland and I kill somepony, sorta. Well I’m not sure she can be considered a pony at this point. A strange coppery taste begins to fill my mouth. I spit out a decently big glob of blood to the side. As I slowly stand up I can’t help but notice a couple little cuts now on my body.

I turn around and look outside a window. This is the first time I’m seeing real sunlight. All I can do is sigh though. I never expected the real world to be like this. But of course it couldn’t be all sunshine and ladybugs. I turn back around to Fleetfoot’s body. As angrily confused as I am at her, I still feel like I should bury her.

It’s just the right thing to do.

…

According to my PipBuck it took me about two hours to bury Fleetfoot with a tiny shovel I found out back. I buried her right out front and made her a makeshift gravestone out of a cabinet door. Guiltily, I also searched the rest of the house, but other than empty bottles for something called Sparkle Cola there wasn’t anything noteworthy of taking other than the kitchen knife.

I guess it’s time to actually continue walking to the marker. I start walking northeast, Fleetfoot’s old home behind me. My PipBuck map lets me know that it’s a couple miles till I get to Watcher’s marker. What a wonderful first morning of being real.

…

Okay I didn’t think it could get any worse. But hot damn did it. What I thought could only be a nice, safe, town. Is actually home to a giant group of murderers. (Thanks Watcher.) From the outskirts on top of a ruined shack I can see most of what the small group of murderers calls home. A large church with everything but the giant windows sits in the middle with small makeshift sheet metal shacks littering the base of it. Surrounding it is a makeshift wall of rubble and random assortments of scrap metal.

And now, why do I call them all murderers? Well, scattered around the camp is the miscellaneous gore of ponies and random creatures. Unicorns wearing scrap armor are cutting into the carcasses of other ponies and putting the meat into organized piles away from the bones and organs. Heads of random creatures and ponies on rebar spikes. Graffiti made in blood and what I can only guess is other bodily fluids. Random fights breaking out between each other that end in a bloody massacre. No others pay attention though. It’s like it’s just a normal thing for them.

“Somepony help! They’re going to kill us!” Somepony yells from the town. Just outside the church runs a skinny earth pony mare. None of the savages bother chasing her though.

*BAM*

In an instant her head is blown into small, meaty chunks that scatter across the ground. I cover my eyes with my hooves, trying not to throw up my snack bars. Okay Midnight, you gotta help these ponies. You can’t leave them here alone to die. I take a couple deep breaths and hop down from the roof. I’m not sure how well a rusty kitchen knife is going to do but it’s the best I got. I quietly fly over the makeshift wall and duck behind even the rubble.

“So how about those two new mare’s huh? Bet we can have a hell of a time with them later.” I hear one of them say.

“Can’t wait to rut the living shit out of that unicorn tonight. Our last batch was only fillies. And my dick don’t touch that shit.” That’s the last thing I wanted to hear today. But that gives me all the more reason to save those ponies.

“Gotta go take a piss. Be right back,” One of the ponies says. Hoofsteps begin to approach near my hiding spot.

“Okay Spleen.” A pony with more of a dopey voice says. What the fuck kind of name is Spleen? “Gonna go grab a bite. Ah hear Sawtooth got a radstag today. Don’t wanna miss out on that.” I hear one make a weird grunting noise and the other trot off. Less than ten feet away from me the savage turns his back to me and starts doing his business. I duck down and start slowly going behind him with my knife ready.

“Hey Spleen! Heard you like mares,” I say right behind him.

“Who the hell just fucking said that,” as he turns around I thrust the pointy end of the knife into his throat. It stabs clean through his neck and blood starts pouring from his mouth and wound. He collapses onto the ground into a puddle of his own piss and blood.

I begin trying to reassure myself, “Alright Midnight, you just killed your first pony. Not a dead zombie pony. Real flesh and blood pony. But he was bad so you had a reason.” I quickly look over his body and find a makeshift pistol with only a couple rounds and a dull combat knife. I decide to leave his makeshift armor behind.

Now that I have an actual weapon I can cross that off of my list. I look down at the pistol in my hooves, not really sure how it works.The magazine said that the bullet comes out of the hole so that must mean aim that end at the target. Not the real question is how I *BAM*. A bullet whizzes right by my head.

Celestia damn it what’s wrong with me. “Hey Spleen you okay back there? I got you a piece of radstag from Cook Cook and I heard a gunshot.”

I put on my deepest most asshole sounding voice,”Yea I’m fine cock dick.” Cock dick? “Just thought I fuckin saw something back here.”

“Oh… alright Spleen. Well you better come get your food before it gets cold. You know how good it is fresh off Cook Cook’s grill.” Seriously! Who names these ponies?

This voice is killing my throat,”Uhh yea. Be right out in a minute. Gotta fucking flush and all that shit.” Wait.

“Spleen, how are you going to flush if there isn’t a working toilet in all of Equestria?” Luna, why would I say that.

You know what? Fuck it. Not gonna continue this stupid ass conversation. Back to my normal voice,”Hey random murder pony! I’m getting tired of doing this stupid voice so why don’t you just come back here so I can kill you already!”

“Who the fuck are you! Hey everypony! Intruder in the camp!” Okay that may have been a terrible idea! “What did you do to Spleen!” I put the gun bit in my mouth and aim around the corner. I line the sight up with the chest of the pony and pull the trigger with my tongue. In a couple of shots he was dead.

“Okay shooting a gun isn’t that hard actually. Just aim and pull the trigger.” I quickly walk over and grab whatever I can off of his body. Another pistol of the same kind and a couple more rounds. And a... metal apple?

“She’s over here! Get Her!” Fucking hell they’re quick. Down the path I can see a group of at least six fully armed unicorns and earth ponies. Shots from various different guns start whizzing by me. I start running along the side of the wall. Luckily none of them hit me. I hear another yell,”Go around the other way assholes! We can surround her!”

Oh yeah! I have wings! “Can’t surround a pegasus motherfuckers! Haha,” I yell and take off straight up into the air. From below me more shots ring out but most aren’t anywhere near hitting me. Then, out of nowhere, a shot louder than every other gun rings out from the top of the church’s tower.

Now in the simulation I broke my leg once and it was the worst pain I’ve ever felt. But getting shot in the hind leg, surprisingly didn’t hurt that bad. But don’t get me wrong, it still hurt like bitch. I let out a scream and started to fall to the ground. I take back control and began to fly towards the sniper in the church. The sniper’s shots standing out among the bullet fire from below me as I fly straight at them. I quickly dive into the window of the church tower. Somehow slamming into the sniper in the process, sending him to the tower floor.

I put my knife into my teeth and quickly jumped on top of her and thrust the knife into her chest and side at least five times. I leave the knife in her chest and stand up. Then remember the bullet in my back leg. I sit down on my haunches and look back at it. There’s no exit wound. That means it’s still inside. Oh fuck me this is going to suck. I pull out the combat knife from the sniper’s chest and begin digging into the wound for the bullet. Trying not to scream is literally impossible. A moment later I gave up. I’ll have to dig it out later.

From below me I start to hear the others charge into the church. A quick glance at my E.F.S confirms that. I grab the sniper rifle and sling it around my neck and search the mare's body. A couple rounds for the sniper and that’s it. All of a sudden one of those metal apples flings through the windows and clinks next to me.

“Whoever you are up there you need to move! Now!” I hear somepony yell below. As fast as I can I fall through a trapdoor and end up falling at least twenty feet to the floor below me. Above me something explodes and sends wooden shrapnel and the sniper mares body down next to me.

“Alright that should have got her boys. Good job with that grenade Ratstick. One of you, go see if she has anything on her then bring her body to Cook Cook’s if she’s actually dead. Gut Rot will pay handsomely if we bring him a live pegasus,'' One of the ponies below me says. If they think I’m dead then now’s my chance to get them all. I reach down and pull out the metal apple I got from Spleen. I think this is the thing that almost blew me to chunks. I look it over and decide I should pull the little pin when ready. I walk over to the railing above the main room. The huge group of them are still below celebrating their false victory.

Okay motherfuckers, I’ve had enough of this. I pull the pin with my mouth and toss it down in between all of them. “Oh shit, grenade!” one of them yells before being blown to meaty chunks along with the rest.

“She’s still fucking alive?! You stupid fucks outnumber her eight to one!,” I hear somepony yell outside. “Guess I’ll have to go do it myself.” Loud, clanking hoofsteps approach from the entrance of the church below me. I look down to see a fully metal unicorn pony with a variety of bloody spikes sticking off of him and two metal tanks on his side. Levitating next to him is a strange nozzle looking thing connected to said tanks with a long hose.

“Got you now shithead!” I turn around only to be bucked in the face through the wooden railing onto the ground below. “She’s all yours now Cook Cook!” The pony yells above me. I stand up to see Cook Cook slowly turning around.

“I’ve never had pegasus before, I hear that it's a delicacy,” Really? Your going to fucking eat me!? I grab the sniper rifle and aim at his head. One move and he’s gone.

“What the fuck is wrong with you ponies!? Why all of this innocent slaughtering and kidnapping!?” I’m giving him five seconds before I just say fuck it and blow his head off.

Cook Cook just lets out a crazy sounding laugh, ”Survival you dumb broad. If you ain’t on the top then you are nothing in this world.”

“You tell her Cook Cook,” The pony above me yells.

“There’s different ways to be on the top then murdering and kidnapping! How fucking stupid are all of you!” My sights stay trained on Cook Cook’s head.

“I don’t even know why I’m trying to talk to you. Prepare to be cooked bitch!” From the strange weapon on his side shoots out a long stream of flame.

“A fucking flamethrower! Are you kidding me right now!” I spread my wings. jump into the air and aim my rifle at him and fire. The bullet barely dent’s his armor. “How strong is your armor!?”

“You can’t get through Cook Cook’s armor with just normal guns. He made that armor himself for stupid ponies like you,” The stallion behind me yells above the roaring fires below. This stallion better keep his Luna damn mouth shut.

Well if weapons aren’t going to cut it then I’m going to need something else. Below me all the pews are starting to catch fire. That’s it! If I can’t shoot him, I’ll just cook him. I fly over to a giant wooden cross in the front of the church and land, ”Hey Cook Cook! Come get me asshat!” Cook Cook instantly turns around, the giant stream of flame doesn’t turn off and blankets the rest of the pews. That’s exactly what I wanted.

The temperature in the church began to rise to levels I can barely handle. My lungs are burning from all the black fumes of the burning wood. With the cross on fire and most of the pews I’m not sure how Cook Cook isn’t suffocating to death in that armor. I look over to the pony on the wooden ledge. He’s back up to the window, almost to the point of falling out. If all this fire isn’t going to be enough to kill him then I’m going to need something else. I fly around scanning the floor of the church. Mostly
everything is covered in flames, but in the fire I can make out the remains of one of the ponies I blew up with the metal apple. From where I am I can see a whole belt of the things on what I can only guess is Ratstick’s body. As fast as I can I swoop in and pull the belt off of his corpse. I hear Cook Cook yell something but I can’t hear him over the roaring flames.

I quickly fly above Cook Cook and start pulling the pins on the grenade belt, dropping them down on top of him. I notice one of them lands in between his fuel tanks and his armor. It sends him into a panic and he sprints straight forward as fast as he can, but it does nothing. In a giant mess of fire, metal shrapnel, and flesh, he explodes in front of the giant cross. The cross falls at incredible speeds to the ground and shakes the whole church. I turn around and start flying towards the exit, rubble begins to fall from the ceiling. The pony on the wooden ledge screams out for me but I ignore him. He can burn with the rest of the church.

I land in the dirt outside of the church, sliding at least ten feet in the dirt. I look back to see pieces of the church falling down into it. I barely stand to my hooves, burns and cuts covering my whole body. My back leg aching from the gunshot. I let out a sigh and lie back down in the dirt. “Thank Luna and Celestia both that it’s over.”

“Hey maybe you should help us before you go and take a dirt nap!” I look to my left to see a cage of ponies. A thinner brown mare is standing by the cage door.

“Oh yea. Sorry about that. I kinda forgot about all of you.” I say as I stand back up.

“I mean good job killing Cook Cook and all kid but it’s kinda cramped in here.” The mare says. I walk over and pull on the door.

“Well I could get you out of here, but I kinda don’t have a key... Any idea where it is?” The mare lets out a sigh.

“Damn Stable ponies. Cook Cook had the key you idiot!” She hits her face with a hoof. There’s no need to yell, lady.

“Well I’m not getting that key anytime soon,” I look back at the church. Half of it has collapsed now. “So how am I gonna get you guys out?”

“Well you're gonna have to lockpick it then kid.” Alright, how the hell am I supposed to do that! I don’t even know where I am. She must have seen the confused look on my face, “Alright kid, I’ll walk you through this. You're going to want a screwdriver, preferably flathead, and some bobby pins. Get those and I’ll walk you through the rest.”

Behind her a dirty stallion stands up,”Here, I have a screwdriver.” He pulls a screwdriver out of his mane. Not gonna question how he kept that there without anypony noticing.

The brown mare passes it to me through the cage. I grab it in my hooves and a bobby pin from my stable clothes. I kneel down in front of the key hole and stick them both in. The brown mare begins to start explaining it. Something about rotating it till the tumblers align but I just ignored her. In the middle of her long explanation the cage door opens with a satisfying click.

“Wha… How did you do that? I thought you didn’t know how!” I look up to see her wide eyed.

“I really can’t tell you, but I feel like it just came naturally, like I already knew how.” I’m actually not lying. Everything just seemed to line up perfectly.

“You Stable ponies are weird. Not to mention you killed a whole town of raiders by yourself. Unarmored even. The ponies back at Haytham are never going to believe this.” She holds out a hoof, “The names Turnpike. I live over at Haytham.”

I hold out my hoof and shake hers, ”My name is Midnight Note, and I guess I don’t live anywhere.” She just gives me a weird look. “What? I really don’t. I woke up in that Stable a couple miles that way yesterday and here I am.” She just keeps staring blankly.

“So you're telling me you don’t know where you are,” I nod, “ Do you even know who you are?” I shake my head. “Alright kid, we got some talking to do.”

…

An hour later and one mummification of at least half of my body with bandages and I learned I’m in the outskirts of a city named Alpony, in Cook Cook’s territory. Apparently she got kidnapped a couple of days ago from a settlement to the east called Haytham. She and a couple of the others were going to be sold as slaves by the raider leader named Gut Rot. (Another glorious name I must add.) I also explained to her what happened with the simulation and how I escaped with Watcher’s help. She’s never heard of the name before. (Of course.) So that adds to the list of never ending things I have to figure out.

Turnpike passes me a bottle of red liquid. “What’s this?,” I ask

“It’s a healing potion. Drink it and that gunshot wound will heal almost instantly. If you're going to run around and get as many cuts, burns, and gunshots as you have today then I would recommend keeping a good amount of them with you,” I pop the tab off of the top and slurp it down. Doesn’t taste bad. Kind of a fruity taste to it. Most of the pain in my back leg begins to go down to a dull tingling sensation. I toss the bottle to the side. “So hero,” I don’t like how she said that, “What’s your next move? Gonna go off on your own? Come back to Haytham with me and the rest?”

I lean back in my chair. I never really thought of that honestly. I just followed the marker until I got here. I mean I have a weapon now, and can find some armor on the dead raiders I killed if I need to, but I didn’t really find real friends here. I doubt Turnpike would want to travel with me to figure out who I am. But Watcher did say this was only a good place to start. “I never really had a plan honestly. Just kinda came here and ended up in this mess.” Maybe I could find friends at Haytham.

“Well whatever you do I owe you one. Hell, we all do kid. Killing that many raiders and one of Gut Rot’s top dogs is really impressive, especially for somepony who’s never held a gun before.” My eyes go wide, ”Uh, kid, you alright?”

“I know what I’m going to do next.” I stand up and start gathering all my stuff together.

“Wait, where do you think you’re going?”

“I’m going to go kill Gut Rot.”

_____________________________________________________________________
Footnote: Level up! Sanity:97%

Rapid Reload- Reloading is 25% faster! 20% while flying!

Chapter 3: Fallen Star

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Chapter 3: Fallen Star

“I saw a shooting star yesterday. It was the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen.”

“Are you insane kid! You can’t go after Gut Rot, Midnight! He’s the most protected slaver in this side of Alpony! Not to mention you about died just coming here!” I can feel how angrily confused Turnpike is. But she can’t stop me at this point.
“If I want to go kill a slave leader, then I’m going to go kill a slave leader. Now, can you pass me those saddlebags please.” I say as I point a hoof at a pair of saddlebags. She doesn’t break her stare from me.

“Kid, I’ll admit it, you did a pretty good job with these raiders. But, Gut Rot’s personal stronghold has triple the amount of guards and triple the amount of firepower. Now how do you expect to get through that? All you have is a rigged together pistol and a shoddy sniper rifle!” Alright that’s true but I haven’t even searched the rest of the town for more supplies like I wanted to.

I look back over at her, ”Well I’m gonna check the rest of the town and bodies for more ammo and whatever weapons. Probably need a couple healing potions too while I’m at it. Maybe a bite to eat. Now can you please hoof me those saddlebags?”

“ARE YOU EVEN LISTENING TO ME KID,” Her face is rapidly turning an angry bright red. “I’m trying to help you here and you're making it kinda hard to do that!”

“Yea I’m listening, but I’ve set my mind to stopping Gut Rot. Then I’ll see you over at Haytham.” I reach over and grab the saddlebags myself.

“You don’t even know where he is! How the hell are you gonna kill him if you can’t find him!?” I continue packing my stuff into the saddlebags. These things can hold way more than I thought they could.

“Well, I thought you would at least tell me where it is,” I start looking around the room for more supplies. I’ll need some potions, ammo, and probably some kind of armor. Of course I could always go and grab some off of the dead raiders outside. But why would I want to wear anything so rigged together? Not to mention none of it seems that strong anyways, this pistol shot right through theirs.

“HEY KID,” Turnpike yells and waves her hoof in front of my face. “Are you even listening to me?”

I must have spaced out there for a second, “Sorry, what did you say? Also do you know where Cook Cook’s shack is? He probably has some pretty good stuff stashed away in there.”

She just sighs, “Well kid, since you’re clearly not listening to me, or going to for that matter, Cook Cook’s shack is just two shacks over. It’s the one with the giant grill in the front. Now promise me something Midnight,” A grim look appears on her face, “You’re a good kid, and you’ve proved that. Just please, be careful if you actually manage to get to Gut Rot. I know Cook Cook’s shack probably has the location of Gut Rot’s stronghold, but I don’t have the heart to send you to your own death. So be careful kid.”

I didn’t know what to say. One moment she’s mad at me, and the next she’s all serious. “Of course I can promise that. I wouldn’t go to Gut Rot’s just to get myself killed! If I were to die there, then it would be my own fault. Not yours. And I have no plans on dying anytime soon.”

She gets a slight smirk on her face, “You better not. The wasteland can use more ponies like you.” She holds out her hoof, “I better see you back at Haytham kid.”

I grab her hoof in mine and shake it, “See you there Turnpike.”

…

Turnpike gathered all of the others who were captured and started making her way back to Haythem. A couple of them tried to offer me some food and water they scavenged around the town but I couldn’t take it. Most of them are just skin and bones as it is.

The last thing I would ever expect from this place is the condition of Cook Cook’s shack, well the inside anyway. The outside is covered in blood and random profanity. Not to mention the gigantic grill in the front to cook who knows what. But the inside is the real miracle. It’s weirdly clean. Everything is placed neatly onto shelves, the bed is clean, and everything seems like it was dusted just a couple hours ago. Does Cook Cook actually live here or is it somepony who isn’t a murderer?

In the corner I notice is a terminal, I sit down in front of it and turn it on. In the whole terminal there are only two files. One labeled slaves and the other secret recipe. I click on the slaves entry.

This is just my records of the slaves coming into town from the old water park. Gut Rot is making me keep track after I forgot how many fucking slaves came in last time. Why the hell am I supposed to remember who they are if we are just going to be selling them anyways.

Below that is a long list of ponies and descriptions of each. Even has the description of Turnpike near the bottom. I exit that log and move down to the other. A recipe for some kind of stew.

Meat of any kind (preferably pony)
Four Potatoes
Six Carrots
Jalapeño peppers
Mutfruit
Sparkle-Cola (2x)

If you're reading this and you’re not me, then fuck off.

Not a secret anymore. I download the files onto my PipBuck and shut down the terminal. Maybe if I have time I could make the recipe. It doesn’t seem that bad other than the option of eating pony. I stand up and look around the shack. The only other notable thing is the fridge. Who knows what goodies Cook Cook has stored away in there. I begin walking over when I trip over something and slam face first into the bottom of the fridge. An extremely loud bang goes off above me and small pieces of metal rain down around me. I look up at the very top of the fridge to see a smoking black hole.

Holy shit, that could have been my head! Cook Cook really did care about his food. I open up the fridge to see that it’s also neatly organized. Strange meats in clear jars, vegetables and fruits that I’ve never even seen before, and a bunch of pre-war canned food and some soda bottles labeled Sparkle-Cola. I grab one of the Sparkle-Cola bottles and pop the cap off. (With much difficulty I may add) It pops off with a very satisfying fizz. I take a sip of it, letting the taste of it settle in my mouth. Realizing how good it is I take a greedy gulp of the carroty gold liquid. “I have no idea who decided to make carrot flavored soda, but I love you.” I say to the bottle in my hooves. I drink the remains of the bottle and toss it to the side. I grab the few remaining Sparkle-Colas and tuck them in my saddlebags. Also I grabbed a couple cans of something called “Cram”. I’m not sure what it is but food is food.

I slowly open the top freezer section from below, trying not to trigger any other traps. And… nothing. I look up to see a rifle shattered to pieces. The mouth bit locked in with duct tape and wooden toy blocks. Behind it is a small safe. I pull out the broken rifle and toss the pieces to the side. I reach in and the safe is luckily unlocked. Cook Cook must have thought that whoever could get into the fridge would get their brains blown out before they opened it. In the safe is a note, a strange glass ball, and a bag of bottle caps. I grab everything out and put it on the floor in front of me. Why would Cook Cook hide a ball and a bag of bottle caps? There has to be at least a couple hundred here. I grab the note. It’s written in very poor hoofwriting.

Great fucking job. You killed me. And you survived my trap. That means you’ve survived me twice. I guess you can have whatever I put in here. It’s not like I’m going to fucking stop you. And if I just died for some other reason and you get this note then I guess you can still take everything. But that’s not the point of any of this. If you managed to kill me then I want you to do something. Since obviously you're capable of killing a badass like me then I want you to take out that son of a bitch Gut Rot. He shorted me out on caps several times over the year I’ve worked for him. And he put me in this run down, so called “Town” and thought that was okay. And don’t worry, there’s a reward in it for you. Gut Rot keeps his key around his neck. That key unlocks everything he owns. The slave cages, every single door in his compound, but the most important thing is his stash. There are all the weapons, chems, armor and food you can dream of. But he’s the only one allowed in there so that could all be rumors. Anyways asshole. Go kill Gut Rot and his stockpile is all yours. I’ll just be happy to see that bitch dead.

I guess not everypony is a fan of their boss. I pick up the bag of caps. Is this what ponies use for currency now? Cook Cook mentioned something about getting shorted caps. I put them in my saddlebags. I’ll have to ask Turnpike when I get to Haytham. Now about Gut Rot’s treasure. If I could get this I could have a serious advantage against anything or anypony else in the wasteland.

I pick up the glass ball in my hooves. It’s a perfectly smooth sphere of glass. I put it up to my eye to try and see if there’s anything inside. It doesn't seem to be anything but an old antique. I shrug and put it along with the assortment of other crap I’ve picked up. After giving the room another once over I walk over to Cook Cook’s sink. Which is just a large bowl stained red with blood. Leaning on the wall above it is a broken off piece of a mirror. When I look into it I instantly notice my mane and how long it actually is. While sitting down it goes almost to my cutie mark. I reach back and pull out my knife. I’ve never actually given myself a haircut before, especially with a knife. I grab my mane in my hooves and start cutting it with the knife in my mouth. And because the knife is so dull I pretty much saw my way through it.

Giant clumps of white cover the floor in front of my hooves. I sit there staring at myself for a moment. Blood is already beginning to stain my clothes, dirt covering my face along with small cuts and burns scattered on the rest of my body. I’ve only been out here a day and I’m a completely different pony. I sigh to myself. Hopefully it’s for the best.

…

After walking for about a half hour north I find myself only about another half hour away from Gut Rot’s stronghold. The only thing that’s kept me entertained is the occasional giant cockroach or mutated animal to practice my aim with. I had just taken down a small hairless giant rat of some kind when to the west of me I heard somepony yell something and multiple gunshots fire off behind a small hill. I quickly fly over the hill to see a group of at least six ponies getting attacked by zombie ponies similar to Fleetfoot. But this time it’s a whole herd of them.

“Hold on, I'm coming to help,” I yell and start flying straight at them. I draw my combat knife and land directly on top of one. I quickly stab the knife into the ponies temple and twist. The zombie pony makes a low growl and falls to the ground.

“Watch your right!” I hear a mare say behind me. I quickly jump backwards and draw my pistol. Two of the zombies trip over the one I just killed. I quickly fire off a whole clip into the two. Both stay on the ground in a bleeding pile. I run over and retrieve my knife. A unicorn and an earth pony finish off the remaining two behind me.

The unicorn and earth pony both trot up to me. The unicorn mare pats my shoulder and begins to thank me, “I don’t know who you are, but you just saved us some caps.” How did I save them caps? I look around at the other ponies. Each one is wearing a pair of shackles. One of them is lying perfectly still with a chunk missing from her side and her entrails are strewn out on the ground. Behind me a light purple unicorn with snow white hair similar to mine has some kind of ring around her horn. I believe she is the one who alerted me to the duo of zombies.

“Are you guys slavers?” I raise an eyebrow and ask.

“Yes ma’am. We’re Gut Rot’s men,” Oh boy here we go, ”We were delivering these when this herd o’ ghouls came out’a nowhere.”

The other slaver starts talking, ”Thanks to you we only had one casualty. Is there anything we can do for ya? It’s the least we could do.”

“There is one thing you could do actually,” I glance back at the purple mare. She has a worried look on her face. I give her a little nod of assurance, but her look doesn’t change.

“Well we’d be happy ta help ya. What is it?”

I quickly draw my gun, ”You can release each one of these ponies. And if you resist then you're both taking hot lead in your skulls.” The heavily accented one drops to the ground. The other tries to draw his gun.

“I knew we shouldn’t have trusted her! It was too good to be true!” I quickly fire off three shots into his chest. They easily pierce through his thin, makeshift armor. He falls to the ground with a hard thump. My right side is in a sudden pain. I look over to see a makeshift knife spear sticking out of me. The unicorn slaver levitates the spear out of me and presses it against my neck, it begins to cut into me.

“Now listen here missy. You're goin ta come back to Gut Rot’s with me after we drop off these slaves ta Cook Cook.” I let out a low laugh. “What are ya laughing at?”

“I killed everypony in that whole fucking town. Dropped the whole church on top of Cook Cook without a problem.” Where the spear had stabbed into me I could barely feel any pain. Almost like I was on pain medication.

“How the hell did ya kill Cook Co..” The purple mare slams into him, cutting him off and knocking him to the ground. She grabs the spear in her mouth and stabs it into his throat.

She drops the spear and gives me a crazy look and points to where the spear stabbed into me, “Doesn’t that hurt?”
“Uhh not really, nothing a healing potion couldn’t fix. Are you okay?” She gives me a crazy look, “ What?”
“You just got stabbed in the ribs with a spear and you're asking me if I’m okay.” I give her a nod. “I don’t know who you are, but you’re insane.” She holds out her chained hoof, “I’m Stardust, and you?”
“Midnight Note.” I walk over and search the slaver’s bodies for a key.
“Did you really kill Cook Cook? All on your own?” The key to the shackles isn’t on the unicorn’s body. But he did have some ammo for my pistol.
“Yea, I did. It wasn’t that hard actually. Just had to drop grenades on him. Then his church fell to the ground on top of him.” I walk over and search the other slaver. This one has to have a key.
“That’s impressive, especially for a Stable pony.” What is that supposed to mean? Everypony I’ve met so far that hasn’t tried to kill me has called me a Stable pony. “But you’re not a Stable pony though. You have a Dashite symbol on your flank. So, which one are you exactly?” I finally found the key on the slaver.
“Here, let me unlock your shackles.” She sits down and holds out her front hooves. I insert the key and turn it. The shackles clank to the ground. I go to say something but she stops me with a hoof. She tilts her horn down to my face to show me the strange ring. I insert the key and turn it. It gives a soft click and falls next to the shackles.
“Thanks. I can’t stand not being able to use my magic. Now what were you saying?” She levitates the ring in front of her and examines it.
“What’s a Dashite? You’re the first pony to mention anything about the strange scar.” I had nearly forgotten I was missing one one of my cutie marks. Stardust levitates the key from me and begins to unlock the rest of the slave’s shackles.
Stardust gives me a weird look, “You’re a pegasus who doesn’t know what the Dashites are, but you have their brand on your flank?” I nod my head to her question, “So if you don’t know how you got that symbol branded into you then what’s the story behind the Stable clothes and pipbuck?”
“Well, you’re probably not gonna believe this but I just woke up yesterday in Stable 8 and I know literally nothing about who I am. All I had was a note written by somepony named Buckshot and the help of a robot named Watcher.”
“You don’t know anything about who you are? Nothing about the wasteland? Anything about Alpony or any other city in Equestria?” I shake my head to all of these, ”Do you know anything at all about yourself?”
I shake my head and sigh, “All I know is my name really.”
Stardust finishes unchaining the slavers. Most of them are too weak to talk but can at least walk on their own.
I notice that Stardust isn’t like any of these slaves. She isn’t starving and she definitely has enough strength to fight. I couldn’t help but ask, “You look a lot healthier than the others here. I’m guessing you’re one of the newer slaves?”
Stardust nods, “Yea. I was looking for books at the Alpony Library when they came and got me. I managed to hide my stuff from them though, but I’ll have to head back and get it.”
The slaves had all began to gather around us. A smaller mare walks up to me, “Do you have anywhere safe to go...?” The words barely make it out of her mouth.

I reach into my saddlebags and give her a bottle of water and a can of cram. “Here, take this first.” I check my PipBuck’s map to make sure it’s the right way and point the group towards Haythem. “Tell a mare named Turnpike I sent you and she should help you. It’s not far so you should be safe.” I look over at Stardust, “If you want to you can go with them. I have somewhere else to be.”

Stardust raises an eyebrow, “Oh, and where do you think you’re going?”
“Uhhh... I’m going to go kill Gut Rot. Cook Cook’s terminal told me he was this way.” Her eyes go wide. “What?”
“You’re doing what! You really are insane aren’t you?” Great, another pony thinking I’m insane.
“You know, that’s what Turnpike said but she never changed my mind.” I give her a smirk and loot the rest of the slaver’s weapons.
“Well I’m coming with you then.” She begins to search through the raiders for something.
“You don’t have to do that. I’m go-” She interrupts me.
“Nonsense Midnight, I’m coming with you to keep you from getting killed. You’ll need all the help you can get. His stronghold is full of raiders and you wouldn’t last a second alone.” She levitates up a pistol and checks the clip. “Let’s go kill Gut Rot.”

…

So Stardust was my first real friend out here in the Equestria Wasteland. For the whole walk we talked about a little bit of everything. I told her about my life in the simulation and what it was like not having to live in a wasteland. She thought it was hilarious that Aera rejected me every time I tried to ask her out. Mostly for the fact I got rejected by something that wasn’t even real. She also shared some of her time in the wasteland. Apparently she left a farm she was born on to go search Alpony for old pre-war books and various other things she can learn about the past from. She’s been wandering alone ever since. Now, we both have each other. And let me tell you something, I’m glad I met her.
“Wait, you weren’t even sure if you were a mare or not in the real world? I couldn’t imagine that. Having one of those just, hanging there,” I see her shudder.
“It would ruin the whole thing of me being a lesbian. I’d just be the straightest lesbian in the whole wasteland.” I snicker to myself.
“Well you’re actually one of the few pegasi in the wasteland actually. Most live above the cloud cover.” I look up at the sky. Grey clouds seem to go on for miles with small beams of sunlight breaking through at random intervals. I realized that I’ve never actually looked up this whole time. “Why did you stop?” Stardust says. I look down to see her a few steps ahead of me. I couldn’t help but look at her cutie mark. Three blue shooting stars. “Midnight Note! Are you staring at my flank?”
“N-n-no…Y-es. But I was looking at your cutie mark. Not your…” I cover my face with my wings.
“It’s fine Midnight. You’re into mares, and I can’t change that.” She gives a little shrug. Alright, that's not what I was expecting. “Let’s change the subject from my flank though.” I give her a nod. ”So how long have you been into mares? Or I guess when did you figure out you prefer them over stallions in the simulation.”
To be honest I’ve never really thought about it before. Just ever since I was little I’ve just been more attached to mares. Or in the simulation I was anyways,” My eyes go wide, ”What if I was straight here in the wasteland.” I quickly hit my head with a hoof to get those thoughts out. I nearly gag when I realized I may have done stuff with Buckshot.
“Well if I were to guess, your personality wasn’t fully erased. You probably were still into mares here in the wasteland, but we can’t be sure just yet. Remind me when I get my stuff back and I may know a spell that could get your memory back.” There's spells that can do that? Add another point to unicorns.
“I’ll be sure to remind you, it would be amazing to get some answers.” If Stardust could get my memory back then I would owe her everything. But what if I didn’t like being the old me? I could’ve been the evilest pony in the wasteland. Just running around killing innocent ponies for fun. Who knows what I was before Stable 8. That’s going into the things I don’t want to think about along with me and Buckshot being a thing.

“So what's our plan with Gut Rot? Are we just charging in guns blazing or are we going to try to sneak in?” I’m glad she changed the subject. All these thoughts about who I was are going to drive me crazy.
“We should scope out the place from a distance then decide on a plan. If we can easily get to the slave cages without being caught then we should sneak. But since I kinda want Gut Rot dead, we’re probably going to end up in a giant firefight.” Hopefully we’ll make it out alive. Or at least Stardust. I would feel terrible if she got hurt, or even killed, because of me.
“I’m fine with whatever you choose. I’m making you the honorary leader.” Leader? I’ve never led anything in my life! “I’ve been in Gut Rot’s though and the slaves are in a heavily guarded area. And to open the cages we’ll need the key he keeps around his neck. And that involves a lot more than sneaking in and getting the slaves out.”
“Okay then. Well I have this sniper rifle. One of us could stay back while the other goes in. But I feel like sticking together would be a better plan.” Ugh, why couldn’t Stardust be the one to make up a plan.
“Well all I have is this pistol I got off of those slavers. If I had my rifle this would be a different situation. But we can make do with what we got. What do you have for ammo?” Oh gosh I don’t even know.
I pull up my PipBuck’s inventory spell, ”About two clips in my pistol, and twelve rounds for my rifle. And my knife, but that won’t help against a group of them.” Don’t bring a knife to a gun fight fillies.
“Here,” She levitates up a rock and begins drawing in the dirt, “There's three buildings in total above ground. Gut Rot’s is of course the biggest one. Snipers are positioned in the water slide tower here.” Snipers on the water slides. Sounds fun. “And this whole area in the center is the old pool. Gut Rot put a cage over the top of the thing to keep slaves in. Kind of an ingenious idea if you ask me. There’s a locked trap door there. But once again we will need Gut Rot’s key. Otherwise the only other way into the slave pit is to go down a waterslide. But I doubt none of the slaves could jump eight feet high and climb up a whole water slide.” Okay that helps a lot.
“How many slavers do you think there are in total?” I ask.
Stardust raises her hoof to her chin, “Probably around thirty. And if they’ve got in a new shipment then there’s at least forty.” Well fuck me.
“Okay that’s a lot more than I was expecting.” I stare at the map for a second until I get hit by an idea. I pull out Cook Cook’s note left in the safe. “Cook Cook says that Gut Rot kept a supply room full of weapons and food. If we can get in there, we could set up some kind of defense.”
“That's a good idea, but once again we need that key.” I keep forgetting about this stupid key. I notice her eyes go wide, “Wait... what if we just walk in?”
“Stardust, I thought you were supposed to be smarter than me.” Please say she’s going somewhere with this. Walking in would instantly be a death sentence,
“No, we walk in as slavers.” She must see the confusion in my face, “We go back and take the slaver’s armor we killed back there, then we wear it into the water park and act like we’re supposed to be there.” That’s… actually an amazing idea.

…

The water park was just as Stardust described it. Three buildings. Two around the same size and a bigger one which would be Gut Rot’s. On one edge is the giant water slide tower. Which is at least two stories high. Blue, yellow, and red slides curve down into the caged slave pool below. And that’s not talking about their glorious decorating. Just like Cook Cook’s town there is random mutilation scattered everywhere you look. Pony heads on spikes decorating the entrance, split open pony carcasses hanging from chains attached to the lights, and finally the random blood splattering the walls and ground. And to think this was once a place of joy for little fillies and colts.

“How do they wear this stuff? Makeshift armor is not a good idea. I’d rather get shot.” Seriously. A metal piece keeps poking at my nethers no matter how I walk.

“Well you’ll be glad we aren’t getting shot at by the snipers yet, we’d already be missing our heads if we walked this close without it.” I think I feel worse for Stardust. Her beautifully long white mane is tucked up into her helmet. Only a little bit is sticking out. We decided to do nothing with my mane, but we did cover up my wings. They would be able to recognise me as a stranger if we didn’t. Hopefully they still won’t.

We both walk up to the main entrance. Two unicorn guards stand watch wearing almost the same exact armor. One of the guards approaches us. “What do you two think you two are doing here? We’re on high alert after what happened to Cook Cook.” How the hell do they already know about that? It was only a couple of hours ago right?

Stardust walks in front of me. “We heard about what happened to Cook Cook. It’s a real shame. He was one of our best.” I’m glad she’s doing the talking. The guard seems to be buying it. “We came from out west after we heard the news. Is there any way we can help out?”

“Well you’d have to talk to Gut Rot about that.” He points a hoof at the bigger building, “He should be there now. Just don’t interrupt him if he’s talking to anypony.” The guard walks over and opens the gate. The other doesn’t even glance over at us.

Walking into the actual waterpark gave me chills. Being around this many different psychotic ponies, who want to put your corpse up on display for enjoyment, is not the nicest thing. “This place is making me uncomfortable,” Stardust whispers next to me.

“I’m glad I’m not the only one,” I whisper back.

We start to walk across a catwalk stretching across the slave pool. A rotten stench pierces my nose instantly. I glance down over the railing to see dozens of thin, sickly ponies, even foals and colts. Most are lying down on rotten hay mattresses and scrapped beds. In one of the corners I’m pretty sure is the dead, rotting body of a mare.

We keep walking across the bridge until we reach the main building. Another, more heavily armed than before, guard walks up to us. “We were told to come talk to Gut Rot about ways we can help around here,” Stardust says casually.

“Who the hell told you that you two could be in here?” He says in a surprisingly deep voice, “Nopony is supposed to be allowed in here.”

“We were told to come see Gut Rot. Just following orders here guy,” I say to him. He just gives me a dirty look.

Stardust sighs and leviates my bag of bottle caps out of my saddlebags. The bag floats neatly into the armor of the guard. “Maybe now you’ll let us in?” The guard grunts and gestures for the door.

We walk in to instantly hear somepony yelling, “So you’re telling me a pegasus, fresh from a fucking Stable, came into Cook Cook’s town and killed all of you! Including Cook Cook, one of my best men! And how the hell did she end up burning down and collapsing the whole church! And another thing. How in the fucking shit did you survive it and nopony else out of that whole group did!”

I lean over to Stardust, “Is it just me or does Gut Rot sound a little… young?”

“He does. I’ve only ever heard his voice though. He never leaves this building enough for most of the slaves to get a glimpse of.” Wait. She doesn’t even know what Gut Rot looks like?

“W-w-well sir. We’ve never fought a pegasus before. B-because, you know, they are so r-rare and she kinda came out of nowhere and she was so fast an…” That voice sounds really familiar…
“I don’t fucking care how fast she was, or how rare pegasi are. SHE. WAS. ONE. PONY. You know what. Get out of my damn sight. I’ve had enough of you and this mother fucking pegasus!” The doors in front of us slam open to reveal the stallion that pushed me off of the church railing. His coat is now covered in burns.
He pauses when he sees us, “Do I know you from somewhere?”
“Nope. You definitely don’t know me in the slightest. Now get on out of here, I got business with the boss” He just stares at me for a second before running out the door. “Alright, we gotta watch out for him. I think he knows who I am.” I whisper over to Stardust.
“Yea I see you two out there. What the fuck do you want.” Stardust walks in first. I trail right behind her.
“Hello, we are…” I see a tiny figure sitting on a throne made of old water toys. Then the realization hits me. Gut Rot’s a colt. A small grey and black earth pony colt wearing a tiny paper crown. “W-we are here to see if you guys need an...” I shake my head in disbelief.
“Sorry about her, she's new to this. We came because we heard about what happened to Cook Cook. We want to help in any way we can.” Oh am I glad Stardust took over.
“You two seem like you can handle yourselves.” He hops up to his hooves and walks over to Stardust, “And you’re kinda cute. I could use another cock sleeve around here.” Oh how I wanted to shoot him in his head right then and there… until I remembered he is a colt. I can’t kill a colt! That’s just too fucked up! “No… That won’t do… you two are going to be our new cooks!” What! I can’t cook anything! “Mares are perfect for cooking! So that must mean you two must be great cooks!” Celestia please give me a single reason not to kill this stupid fucking kid.
“Can do boss. Where’s the kitchen at?” Stardust says without breaking a sweat. I don’t know how she’s keeping her cool right now. I had no problem talking to every other murderer here.
“Glad you’re up for it. It’s the smaller building to the left of the water slides. Just head on in and tell Porkchop I sent you.” We both nod simultaneously and begin walking out but Gut Rot stops us. “What’s your names before I forget?”
Stardust goes to say something but I interrupt her, “I’m Littlepip and she’s Blackjack.” I hear Stardust let out a small sigh of relief.
“Well it’s nice to have you both here Blackjack and Littlepip.” I’m glad he bought that. “I expect great things from that kitchen!” He says as we walk out.
“Really? Littlepip and Blackjack? Where did you get those names from?” Stardust gives me a confused look.
“Watcher said them when I first got out of Stable 8. Apparently they got out of Stables at the same time I did. But they’re far from here so they shouldn’t mind us using their names.” I wonder how they are doing also. Probably a lot better than me.
We begin walking towards the kitchen, “So, Littlepip, do you even know how to cook.” She made sure to add a little bit of sass to Littlepip when she said that. I’m not a fan.
“Literally no idea. But I do have a recipe of Cook Cook’s I could make if they have the stuff.” If it’s a kitchen they should hopefully have the ingredients. “So what are we going to do about Gut Rot? I wasn’t expecting him to be a colt... I don’t know if I can kill a colt Stardust.”

She lets out a sigh, “I’m not sure. But we’re going to have to do something about him. Letting somepony like that live, even if they’re a foal, in Equestria is just a crime against everything sane.” As we walk most of the slavers stare at us. A couple whistle and shout out some very not safe for work slurs about what they would do to us both. “Any idea where the only survivor of Cook Cook’s gang is? Or even how he survived, because from what you described he shouldn’t even be able to stand.”

“Luck is the only thing I can think of. I bet the church is still on fire right now actually.” He’s lucky I didn’t see him escape. “I really have no idea honestly, but hopefully he won’t recognise me.”

The raider kitchen is exactly like Cook Cook’s shack, completely not what I expected. Everything is decently clean. The dishes are clean and not falling apart. The stove actually works and so does the fridge. It was apparently some sort of food stand before the war that called itself the Seaponies’ Seafood. Judging by the two hundred year old menus no actual fish was sold, or ate, here. Mostly just ice cream and various other frozen treats and drinks.

Porkchop wasn’t even here when we walked in, not a single pony was. So we did the only thing we could do. We made some soup. I read off the recipe for Cook Cook’s fiend stew off of my PipBuck while Stardust gathered the ingredients out of the fridge. And to both of our surprises all the ingredients were there. (Don’t worry. We found meat that wasn't a pony.) Even some extra Sparkle-Cola, which me and Stardust drank of course.

“How much longer till it’s done,” I ask Stardust while she stirs the pot with her magic. Telekinesis is overpowered.

“I’d say a couple minutes. Here, try some.” She levitates over a spoonful into my mouth. It’s the warmest, most carroty goodness that I’ve ever had. I don’t know how Cook Cook makes Sparkle-Cola work in a stew, but damn he lives up to his name.

“You need to try that. Holy Luna, that's amazing!” I begin to glance around the room. I need to find a jar or some kind of container. I want to keep some for later.

“Okay you weren’t wrong. I expected it to be weirdly carbonated.” I finally find an empty pickle jar in the fridge. I hold the jar in my hooves in front of Stardust. “Are you really taking some?” I just nod. “What are you going to do with that?”

“I’m going to eat it later. Duh.” She lets out a giggle. And begins to pour some with her magic.

“Well be careful with it. You don’t want it breaking in your bags.” I wrap it in my Stable clothes just in case. “Ready to serve some hungry raiders?”

“It’ll be a lie if I say yes.” I walk over to a set of sliding metal windows and lift it above my head with a hoof. “Soup is on, motherfuckers!” I yell as loud as I can out into the courtyard.

Almost all at once slavers come and sit at the benches in front of the kitchen. I even noticed Gut Rot came out of his building. On one of the benches sits the pony from Cook Cook’s camp. Stardust levitates a giant stack of bowls over along with a bunch of rusty spoons. “Everypony come line up and get some grub!” She yells next to me. In a rush everypony runs up, pushing, shoving and cutting in the line. I begin to count how many heads are in line and I lose count around twenty five. Stardust just calmly passes them their bowls filled with the stew. I still don’t know how she does it.

Burned pony is next to get served, “Damn that smells good. Hope it tastes as good as it smells.” He happily takes his bowl back to his seat.

“I’m impressed by you two. I haven’t seen these assholes this happy since Cook Cook was the old cook here!” I’m glad everypony is buying into the whole ‘we are raider’s thing. “I think I’ll keep you two around for more than my own personal fuck slaves. Stop by later and I’ll give you two your first days pay,” He gives us a little wink and walks off.

“I hate him so fucking much Stardust.” I whisper over to her.

“Well you can kill him here soon. We just have to blend in for a little while longer.” I let out a groan and look out into the crowd of hungry slavers. Each of them is as happy as can be, except one. The burned pony (damn I really need to learn his name) is just staring at his bowl in awe for some reason. He slowly looks up and stares straight into my eyes. Oh no. He looks down at his bowl then back at me again. He points a hoof at me and mouths the word “You”.

“Alright everypony thanks for enjoying the food. Bye bye.” I quickly slam the metal window shut.

Stardust looks over at me in shock, “What the hell was that all about?”

“Stardust we need to leave right now! Burned survivor pony knows it’s me!” I push on Stardust’s flank towards the back door. “He recognized the soup! He knows it’s me!” Stardust levitates open the door. “Let’s go to Gut Rot’s before everypony turns on us.” I look behind us and notice a single red tick in a sea of blue on my E.F.S.

We get into Gut Rot’s without a problem. Everypony is too busy enjoying the stew. We open the doors to Gut Rot’s throne room. Instead of donning his paper crown he has the stew bowl on his head, it nearly covers his eyes. He’s making weird fake gunshot sounding noises with his mouth and aiming with his spoon. I sigh, even though he’s a slave lord he’s still a colt.

He looks up from his imaginary gun fight. “Oh hey you two, didn’t expect to see you here this fast. Nice job with the stew by the way!” He tosses the bowl to the side and puts on his crown. “I’m guessing you came for your pay.” He walks over to a small cabinet and pulls out a key. “Here, you earned the right to call yourself official members of my home.”Stardust levitates the key from him. “Your room is in the other smaller building opposite of the kitchen. I made sure to give you two a room to yourselves so you won’t be bothered by the others.” Okay that’s the nicest thing he’s done so far.

“Thank’s Gut Rot. If you need us we’ll be over there sleeping. Sleeping, yes. Sleeping,” I really need to let Stardust do the talking.

Gut Rot raises his eyebrow then laughs. “If you two need some help ‘sleeping’, I could send over one of the stallion slaves in the pool. Consider it a bonus.” Alright back to completely hating him.

I go to say something but Stardust stops me, “Thanks boss but we don’t need help ‘sleeping’.” She grabs my tail with her telekinesis and pulls me out of the room. “We really need to make you less panicky when you talk. It’s gonna get us killed sooner or later.”

“You know, I’ve never really had this kind of problem before. I think it’s the fact that he’s a colt is what’s really messes with me. And that’s messing with the fact I don’t want to get caught and probably get us shot. If I were to get you killed I would feel terrible. It’s all my fault you’re here anyways,” We walk into the smaller building.

Almost instantly as the door closes behind us, Stardust grabs my face in her hooves and looks me right in my eyes, “You don’t need to worry about me Midnight. I’ve been in the wasteland literally thousands of times longer than you have. I should be the one worrying about you.” It’s at that moment I realized how pretty her eyes are. They’re a light purple that matches her coat perfectly. She gives me a soft smile, “We’ll both be fine as long as we stick together, alright?”

“Alright. Stick together and we can get through anything.” I say and she lets go of my head, “Let's go get some rest. Or at least hide out from that pony for a while.”

We walk past the main room of the small building which is filled with lockers and old dirty mattresses. A couple of the raiders are passed out with empty alcohol bottles and what appears to be various different kinds of needles next to them. Not to mention the room is giving off a weird smell that I can’t be sure what it’s from.

Stardust unlocks our room with the key. A small plaque is on the door that reads ‘Pool Administration’. The room appears to be a smaller office, or used to be one. From the doorway I can see multiple rotted posters advertising their pool. In the corner is a large bed in a decent condition. A window is letting in little of the sunset outside, other than that there’s no light. Across from there is a desk with a smashed terminal. Stardust walks in first ahead of me. I take a step in and everything around me gets enveloped in a bright white light. Something in my head begins pounding against my skull and I drop to the ground in pain.

“Midnight! What’s happening to you!” Stardust runs over to my side.

“I… don’t… k-k-know,” I barely say through my teeth.

Then, out of nowhere, the pain stops. Stardust starts to help me to my hooves. “Hey sweetie, how was the pool?”

“Stardust... now isn’t the time for jokes,” I barely utter under my breath.

“Midnight… I never said anything,” I look up to see the room is completely different. The desk with the smashed terminal is now in the center. Sitting on it is a different modeled terminal than the smashed one. Stacks of papers are lining the rest of the desk. The posters on the wall are different also. No tears or damage and don’t even have the same pictures as the current ones. Shockingly two, surprisingly clean, other ponies are sitting in the same room. A stallion behind the desk typing at the terminal, and a unicorn mare sitting in front of the desk. She’s looking right at me.

“Sweetie, you’re soaking wet.” She reaches into a bag next to her and pulls out a towel. Out of nowhere a filly runs clear through me and up to the unicorn mare. I let out a scream and jump to the side.

“Midnight what the hell is wrong with you?” Stardust yells next to me. I give her a confused look.

“Do you not see any of this?! There are three ponies sitting right in front of us!” She just stares at me blankly. “Ugh, gimme a second to figure out what the hell this is.”

I look back over at the new ponies in the room. They don’t seem to be acknowledging me at all. What the hell is going on?

“There, you’re all dry now.” She levitates the towel back into her bag and pulls out a small purple stuffed owl. The filly lets out a little squeal and grabs it in her hooves.

“Mr.Hoots! Ahhh.” The small filly yells, giving him a bear hug and runs out of the room.

The unicorn’s eyes go wide and then she relaxes with a small smile. Behind her the stallion starts talking, “Now that that interruption is over, we can continue our business. Mrs.Simulacra, you owe us five thousand bits for the parts you wanted. We happily agreed to sell them to you because of our latest renovations, yet you haven’t paid a single bit of it.”

“It’s Dr.Simulacra, not mrs. I’m not married you… I told you I would pay you back when I get the bits from my experiment. I just need a little bit more time to finish it and get it to the M.o.A.S. Then once they accept it, which I know they will, I will pay you back the amount of bits you requested. Just give me time, please.” I can hear the panic in her voice.
The stallion’s expression doesn’t change, “What is this project you’re making Dr.Simulacra. If it’s this great of a thing you would think you would already have the full support of the Ministry Mares.” My eyes go wide when I realize I recognise that name. The mare’s skeleton from Stable 8, somehow she’s standing right in front of me.
“I must apologize, I can’t reveal that information. My research is to hopefully help with the war effort. With all of this going on about Luna taking the throne, they should be glad to have anypony helping them.” The stallion keeps his blank demeanor on his face.
“I’ll tell you what. You have two weeks to finish this ‘project’ then after that we will call the proper authorities and have you arrested for theft.” Dr.Simulacra’s eyes go wide and she gives him a quick nod.
“You won’t regret this sir. I assure you I’ll get you the money.” From behind her runs in her daughter. Holding a now soaked Mr.Hoots.
“Mommy! Mr.Hoots jumped off the diving board!” Dr.Simulacra turns around and says something but words don’t come out. The room slowly fades back into the dirty old room it was before. The ponies fading away into another world. Another time.
“Midnight! What is going on with you!?” I look over to see Stardust staring very worryingly at me. “Finally! I’ve been yelling at you for five minutes now!” She shakes her head and points at me. “Your nose is bleeding.”
I put my hoof up to my nose and draw it back to check. I wipe my hoof on the floor and look back up to Stardust, “So you’re telling me you saw none of that?”
“There was nothing there Midnight! You were staring at the wall the whole time!” She closes the door and locks it with her magic. “What happened?”
“There were three ponies in this room. A stallion, a mare, and a filly. The room was also arranged completely different. And most of it clean. I think it was before the war. Apparently the mare owed the stallion some money for some project she was building, but she couldn’t afford it.” This has to sound insane. “The mare was named Dr.Simulacra,” I hold up my PipBuck, “This is her PipBuck Stardust!”
“How was that hers if she didn't exist! Midnight you’re making no sense,” I need some way to prove this.
“Her skeleton was in Stable 8 and I found this PipBuck on her. She was wearing a name tag that said Dr.Simulacra.” I can’t think of any other way to explain it, “I can understand if you don’t believe me. But I saw it happen in front of me.”
She lets out a sigh, “I can’t explain what you saw Midnight, but I’ll trust you. I think we should take a look at those memory pod things you were trapped in. Maybe I can figure out something if I take a look at their tech”

“Thank you Stardust...”
“Just promise me that if this happens again that you’ll tell me exactly what goes on in them, okay?” She begins to strip herself of the raider armor. I do the same. “You’re a strange pony Midnight.”
“Hey, it’s not my fault that any of this is happening to me.” I throw my hooves in the air above my head, “So far my first day out of the simulation has been one giant mess after the other. Not to mention I haven’t really thought about how I’ve killed multiple ponies like it was nothing. I just glanced it off because they’re murderers. And I casually planned to come here and kill Gut Rot on my own. I probably would have died if I never met you.”
“You’ve only done what you need to do to survive and help others. I try to go day by day without killing anypony, but you only kill if you have reason.” She looks over at me, “And you are doing it to save ponies. So you have a good reason for it. You’re a good pony Midnight. And I think you’re going to do great things… You’ve had a long day, get some rest.” She climbs onto the bed and begins to get comfortable. Arranging the old pillows and blankets around to her liking. I notice her divide the pillows on half of the same side of the bed.
“What are you doing?” I ask her.
She looks up and gives me a confused look, “Making our bed. Have you ever seen somepony make a bed before?” I feel my face start to heat up. She wants me to sleep with her? In the same bed? “Midnight your coat may be black but I can still tell you're blushing by the way you're staring.”
“Uh...I’ve never slept in the same bed as anypony else before.” My voice comes out quiet and even more embarrassed.
“You don’t know that Midnight. You know nothing of your life before the simulation so anything's possible.” I guess she’s right… I could have had a marefriend or coltfriend here in the real world. Stardust finishes fluffing the pillow up with her magic and pats the empty side of the bed with a hoof. “I don’t bite, and you’ve had a long day. Come get some rest.” I climb into the bed under the old blanket, careful to not mess up the work she put into making the bed. Stardust does the same. She rolls over and looks into my eyes. “See, this isn’t so bad.”
“It’s nice actually, knowing that I’m not alone.” Sleeping in Fleetfoot’s house wasn’t the easiest thing to do. This must be why Watcher said to find some friends. Being out here alone, knowing every day, that no matter where you go or what you do, there won’t be anyone there for you to keep you company, to watch your back, or to help you get up when you fall.
Thank you Stardust.

…

“Midnight! Wake up. I hear somepony outside.” I feel somepony pushing on my side with their hooves.
I groan and yell, “Five more minutes dad!” The pushing continues.
“Dad? Midnight it’s Stardust,” I open my eyes to see Stardust above me, “There’s somepony moving outside the door. Get your gun.” I look over and check my E.F.S only to see a single red dot outside of the room.
“It has to be the burned pony. There’s a red tick outside the room.” I whisper over to Stardust. I quietly hop off the bed onto the ground and grab my knife. “On my mark, open the door.” Stardust gives me a little nod.
I stand in front of the door. The red mark doesn’t move on my E.F.S. “Three… Two… One… NOW!” The handle glows a light purple and swings open. The burn pony stands on the other side. I quickly tackle him to the ground and hold the knife to his throat.
“I knew it was you! Somepony help, Cook Cook’s killer is here!” I push the knife a little harder against his throat, he just laughs, “Do it! I don’t have any reason to live anyways! You already did that yourself asshole!”
You’re not a murderer Midnight. No need to kill him. But this is what I have to do to survive, to keep my new and only friend safe. In one fluid motion I slit his throat. His blood splatters to the left of me onto the ground, a low gurgling sound comes from his mouth and his body goes limp.
“We need to go, now!” I run over and grab my saddlebags, quickly taking the time to put on the raider armor. I’ll need any armor I can get for a fight like this. All over my E.F.S red dots are blipping up out of nowhere. I look over at Stardust. She’s just staring at me in awe. “What?”
“It’s nothing.” She shakes her head and slips on her saddlebags. “Let’s get going.”
In the doorway appears the head of a raider. Stardust quickly draws her pistol with her magic and shoots him in the head. She levitates his weapon into my saddlebags. Unicorns are overpowered.
I glance down the hallway and spot at least five more raiders sprinting towards us. I duck my head back in. “That’s a lot of them! Get ready!” I yell back to Stardust.
“I have something better than fighting,” I look back to her sliding the window open, “We run out and over to Gut Rot’s.”
I quickly slam the door and lock it. “That’s a better idea than fighting them all.” I quickly help Stardust out then jump out myself. We go right, around the small building. The whole camp seems to be on high alert. The snipers have their sights trained on the small building along with a couple spotlights. I look over at Stardust, “What now?”
She points a hoof at Gut Rot’s, “We run as fast as we can over there and hope we don’t get shot.” I must have given her a ‘what the hell kind of plan is that look’. “What?”
“Alright how about this. I’ll fly up and distract the snipers while you run across. They shouldn't be able to hit me if I keep moving.” She gives me the same look. “Hey, that's my look first of all. And second, mine doesn’t involve us both being wide open targets for the snipers.”
“Yeah you’re right, it only makes you the main target,” She says sarcastically. I just give her a little smile. “Why are you looking at me like that.”
I spread my wings and take off into the air, “Precisely my plan Stardust!” Almost instantly shots whizz by my head. Maybe this wasn’t such a good idea. I look down to see Stardust sprinting across the camp towards Gut Rot’s. “As long as she’s safe I’m fine.” I say under my breath to myself. After dodging at least a whole clips worth of sniper rounds I notice less shots coming my way. I look over at the water slide tower to see two of the snipers aiming in Stardust’s direction. I quickly changed course for the tower. The two undistracted snipers yell something. The two trained on Stardust quickly look over to see me flying straight at him. With all the force I can manage I slam into one of them, throwing him in the way of the other two. In one motion I pull out my pistol and aim it at one of the standing snipers. I go to fire off a couple rounds and my whole magazine falls out of my gun.

“Magic, motherfucker,” The sniper on the ground yells and levitates up the clip above him. Luna damn it! Add that to the list of unicorn pros. I throw my pistol as fast as I can at the one lying on the ground. It hits him square in his snout with a loud clunk. “Fucking cunt! Shoot her already!” I look over to see the two taking aim at me. I take a quick glance over to see where Stardust is. From where I am I can’t tell.

“Okay, well I’ll see you guys in a little bit, I… uhh, thanks for having me.” As fast as I can move, I dive head first down one of the water slides. You know, if there was actual water (and if I wasn’t getting shot at constantly) this may have been decently fun. I end up landing in the slave pool underneath the cage. A slave quickly runs over and helps me up.

“What the hell are you doing? You’re going to get yourself killed,” She says to me.

“Most likely, but first I’m going to help you guys out of here.” Now how do I get out?

“Now you’re trapped down here yourself you idiot. Gah, dumbass ponies.” I ignore her and look up above me. There’s gotta be a way out of here.

I hear multiple gunshots ring out above me. Then I hear the familiar voice of Stardust. She pokes her head over the edge of the pool, “Midnight! I think I know how I can get you out of there. I’ve never tried it before so hopefully it’ll work!” She closes her eyes and her horn starts glowing. In a bright purple flash she disappears and reappears right in front of me!

“Holy shit Stardust! You know how to teleport!” She lets out a long breath.

“That kind of drained me, but I think I can do another.” The slave who helped me up just stares at us. “Come close to me. I don’t want this to mess up.” I walk over and wrap my wing around her side. Her horn begins glowing again and in a flash we are gone.

I’ve never teleported before, hell I’ve never even actually seen a unicorn until I left the simulation. But teleporting feels extremely weird and I don’t think I ever want to do it again.

We appear just on the edge of the pool. Stardust collapses to the ground. “Stardust! Are you okay!?” She lets out a small groan and her eyes close shut.

“You like that!” I hear behind us. I quickly turn around to see a group of slavers begin to run at us. I quickly duck down in front of Stardust. The loud shot of the sniper rifle rings out all around me. A small amount of pain appears in my flank. I hobble to my hooves and barely lift Stardust up onto my back. More gunshots ring out behind us, and the amount of pain in my flank rises. But I keep moving until I get us to Gut Rot’s building.

The door slams behind me and I collapse onto the ground. My body is beginning to not like getting shot. I reach in my bag and grab out a couple of healing potions. I chug down one of them and give the other to Stardust. She took two hits from the snipers, right in her side. I feel my wounds slowly close up. Stardust’s begin heal quickly also. I barely stand up to my hooves and lock the doors behind us, making sure to push a table in front of it. I take another glance around for someplace safe to put Stardust. I’m going to finish this once and for all but I need to get her to safety. Just down the hallway I find a closet full of old deflated floaties. I gently lay down Stardust in the closet and close it.

I let out a long breath and pull out one of the random guns I’ve accumulated. Making sure to check the clip. Enough rounds to kill a couple ponies. That’s good enough for me. I start walking towards Gut Rot’s throne room. Mentally preparing myself to kill him.

I walk in and he’s the only one in the room, sitting on his makeshift throne. “So you kill Cook Cook and now you’re here to kill me huh? Well may as well get it over with. I figured you’d be here sooner or later.” He gets up and starts walking towards me. “You know that I never wanted to be a slaver,” A really solemn look appears on his face, “I was born into it, what else was I going to do.”
“That’s your reason why I shouldn’t kill you, ‘I was born into it’. Kid, you didn’t have to do any of this. With this amount of power you could have been helping these ponies, not raping, kidnapping, starving, and selling them to others like material possessions. No, you don’t give a horse's ass about any of this. Nice try Gut Rot, but I’m not believing any of your twisted lies.” I could see him give me a tiny smile.
He casually holds up his hooves in a shrug and says, “Welp, I tried. But I mean, can you blame me. I control this part of Alpony all to myself. So why wouldn’t I lie to keep MY power safe!” He begins to go into a giant laughing fit. Rolling in circles on the ground. “You’re just a useless welp out there struggling to survive. In the meantime I’m here living like a king.”
“Sorry Gut Rot, but I’m getting real tired of you, and I’m getting tired of getting shot at.” I take aim at the rolling colt. He stops upside down and gives me a worried look. The kinda look that says ‘She’s actually going to do it’. “Hope you enjoyed your time as a king Gut Rot. Because today I’m ending your reign.”

A single gunshot echoed all through the room.

_____________________________________________________________________
Footnote: Level up! Sanity:95%

Comprehension- +1 skill point when you read magazines!

Chapter 4: The Midnight Marauder

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Chapter 4: The Midnight Marauder

“So you’re the Marauder huh? I expected something… better.”

I had done what I thought I could never do. I killed Gut Rot. The colt who thought he was the king of all Alpony. I did it without any hesitation. And I didn’t feel bad about it either. He was a bad pony. A raping, killing, waste of a pony life. It was only a matter of time till somepony ended his tyranny as the slave king. Who ever thought it would be me of all ponies though…

…

It was in Gut Rot’s throne room that I held my ground against the waves of raiders. Hundreds of rounds fired off until the sun started peeking over the horizon. I lost count of how many of them I killed, and how many of them managed to actually hit me. But when the final one went down I laid on the ground for at least ten minutes, chugging my last healing potions, letting its magic do wonders on my aching body.
My first line of business was making sure Stardust was okay. She is still lying down fast asleep in the closet. I made sure to cover her up with my Stable barding, she seemed a little cold. My second line of business was getting into Gut Rot’s supply room. The slaves could wait until I got some more healing potions or at least something to dull the pain. I casually pull the key from Gut Rot’s still corpse, he won’t be needing it anymore. I try to make my mind focus away from the dozens of corpses littering the room.
A quick walk down a hallway and I end up at the storeroom. It’s a lot bigger than I was expecting for a storeroom, nearly twice the size of Gut Rot’s throne room. Not to mention I think it was his bedroom. On one side is a giant king sized bed with colorful blankets and pillows. Above it is crudely drawn pictures of him standing above slaves, one of him sitting on top of a pile of dead ponies, and one of him doing some pretty terrible stuff to a unicorn mare. Below all of them is a picture of me and Stardust cooking a giant pot of stew. Of all the things to draw and hang up, you draw us. Across the bed on the other side of the room is all the supplies I could ever need. Ammo crates, medicine crates, gun cabinets, basically enough supplies to fully stock a small army. I walk over and start stacking everything inside them into organized piles.
In total I got about twenty healing potions (Twenty-four but I drank four) and a couple boxes of unopened bandages. Along with various types of drugs that I don’t recognise. My PipBuck labeled them as Med-X, Buck, and Dash. I injected a dose of Med-X which worked wonders for the pain. My PipBuck said it’s a painkiller, which I could use a hundred more doses of right now. Also plenty of rounds for my sniper rifle, pistol, and some calibers I don’t even recognise. I put them in my bags regardless. A large cabinet held a brand new sniper rifle and a pistol that wasn’t made of scrapped junk. It even takes a slightly larger round than the one I’ve seen almost all the slavers use. I put them in my bags along with my other weapons. There’s even a couple of holsters for everything. I buckle one on my front left leg for my pistol and toss the rifle sling across my back. Each is a perfect fit for my new guns.
I walk out of Gut Rot’s room with saddlebags full of stuff. And I haven’t even searched the rest of the bodies yet. I walk back into the throne room to see a pleasant surprise. Stardust, awake and perfectly fine. She’s slowly walking around the room staring at the bodies with a worried expression. She looks up to see me looking at her. I give her a soft smile. I’m glad she’s alright.
She quickly sprints at me and gives me a tight hug, “Midnight… I’m so sorry…” Wait, sorry?
“Stardust you have nothing to be sorry about.” She holds me tighter.
“I left you here all alone. And you did this by yourself. Midnight… you just killed at least thirty ponies.” She lets go of me and looks down at my bloodstained body, “You got shot to hell and it’s all because I overdid myself. And you killed Gut Rot…”
“Stardust, I’m fine. I promise. A little tired, but fine.” I look around to see the bodies of the snipers and the bodies of the others we fed yesterday.
“No Midnight you’re not fine. This is your second day in the wasteland and you’ve managed to kill a whole raider base by yourself. No help. Just persevering through the pain. And it’s all my fault you did any of this.” She takes a glance at Gut Rot’s body. “I never tried to stop you when you wanted to come here. I just agreed because why not. You seemed capable of stopping him. But I didn’t think you could take literally all of them by yourself.” She hugs me again.
“Stardust…”
“I can understand if you don’t want to travel with me anymore. All I’m going to do is get you into more trouble... I can make it to the library by myself and get my stuff. And you’ll be perfectly fine without me. You’re clearly capable…” I’m not sure what to say so I just hug her tighter while thinking. She’s the first and only friend I’ve made out here so far. And now she feels like this is all her fault.
“I’m not your responsibility Stardust, none of this was because of you. I had my mind set to coming here and doing this. Sure I didn’t think there would be this many… but I still managed.” She lets go and looks into my eyes. “You’re my first real friend Stardust, and I plan on traveling with you as long as I can. So yes, I want to travel with you. And with the state of this world, this may or may not be a recurring thing. But as long as I know you’ll still be my friend in the end of it all, I’ll be happy.”
“Thank you Midnight…” She wipes tears off of her face, then points at mine, “You have some blood on your cheek.” I wipe my left cheek with my hoof. “No, no I got it.” She licks her hoof and wipes it. “There, all good.” She gives me a smile and stands up to her hooves. “Let’s stop being all sappy and go help those slaves. I bet they’re extremely tired of waiting at this point.” She holds out her hoof and helps me up.
We walk out of Gut Rot’s building to see the slaves all gathering at one side of the pool. “Bout time ya’ll finish up in there. It’s been hours.”
“Sorry about that. Killing that many ponies by yourself takes a while.” The mare's eyes go wide. “Yes I killed them all by myself.” She points a hoof at Stardust.
“Teleportation is hard, okay!” Stardust looks away as she yells. I give a small laugh and she pushes me to the side. “Here give me the key.” I hold it out in my hooves and she levitates it down into the keyhole. She pulls the cage door open with a rusty scratching noise easily with her magic. All the slaves slowly walk out all at once. A couple of them are carried by their friends. I count at least fifteen total, eighteen if we’re counting the dead ponies still in the pool.
“So where are you going to go? I mean you could stay here… but I couldn’t imagine doing that.” I ask them.
One of them looks at me and then back at the rest, “We really don’t know. Our homes were destroyed by the slavers…”
A great idea pops in my head, “You guys could come to Haythem with us! Turnpike wanted to talk to me anyways. You could at least get some help there while you figure out what you’re going to do next.” Hopefully Turnpike won’t mind me bringing them all along.
“That sounds great! How can I… we, ever repay you.” A stallion says in the back of the group. I kinda have all the supplies I’ll need for a while.
I just shake my head, “There’s no need to give me anything. All of you are the reason I’m here anyways.”
“Well, could we at least know your name?” A mare says.
My name? “Uhhh sure. I’m Midnight Note, and this is Stardust.” I see Stardust wave a hoof.
“Well, thank you Midnight Note. We’ll be sure to tell everypony what you’ve done.” I open my mouth to give Stardust credit but she silences me with a hoof.
She leans over and whispers, “You did all of this, I don’t deserve anything.” I go to say something but she silences me again.
I move her hoof from my mouth and check my PipBuck’s map, “Well my Pipbuck says that Haytham is about two miles southwest. A lot shorter than I thought it would be.” Stardust pokes my side.
“Before we leave you should put on your Stable clothes.Your coat is matted with blood and that raider armor is falling apart. I’ve heard of ponies being shot by being mistaken for raiders. You don’t want that happening.” I look down to see just how caked in blood my coat really is. Even the darker color doesn’t hide it very well. She levitates my barding out of her saddlebags and passes them to me. “And uh… thank you for covering me up with them.” She gives me a faint smile.
I give her a smile. I nearly forgot I did that. I slip into the blue clothing and realize how comfortable it is compared to what the raiders wear. Not to mention it isn’t caked in blood and other gore.
“There, now you look less of a savage and back to your normal innocent self… other than the blood still left on your coat, and your mane is nearly red at this point.” Is it bad that I keep forgetting about all the blood? “We just need to get you a bath actually.”
“Well we can do it at Haytham. Right now we gotta get these ponies somewhere safe. And away from this hellhole.”

…

Traveling to Haytham went surprisingly well. Other than the random mutant wildlife we made it in peace. Who knew there were so many giant cockroaches and nonmetal spritebots around the wasteland. Stardust told me they're called Radroaches and Bloatsprites. And other than the mutants the only other problem was from one of the slaves collapsing. Another volunteered to carry them the rest of the way. I tried to offer but they said I had done enough for them.

Finally at the gate to Haythem and we can’t get in. The town appears to be an old military checkpoint. Small half circle buildings lining the town in rows. In the center is a bigger stone building but I can’t tell what exactly it is.

There are two unicorn stallions aiming rifles straight at our heads. “C’mon guys, I just got done killing at least thirty ponies to free these ponies, and now you aren’t even going to let us in? Are you fucking kidding me.” I just want to sleep. That’s all.
The stallion on the left side of the wall begins to talk, “How am I supposed to believe that you two killed Gut Rot all on your own.” Fucking. Celestia. Please.
“I was there when she did it. We all were. Sure we didn't actually see it, but we sure as hell saw all the bodies.” A stallion says behind me. I don’t know if I should be proud or if I should be ashamed of myself.
“Who the hell is out there Beans? I’m tired of all this Celestia damned yelling!” A familiar voice says from behind the gate.
“W-well these two mares walked up with a giant group and they say that they killed Gut Rot and cleared out his camp. But tha-” Beans instantly gets interrupted by the mare.
“Wait, is it a pegasus mare with em?” Beans just nods. “Well what the hell have you been doin. This is the kid that saved me.” Beans steps down and the gate slowly opens. Turnpike’s eyes go wide when she sees me. “Well hot damn it is you kid! And I see you actually did it!”
“It’s good to see you too Turnpike.” I point over at Stardust, “This is my friend Stardust. She helped me clear them out.”
Turnpike walks over and shakes Stardust’s hoof, “It’s nice ta meet ya. I’m Turnpike, mayor of this fine settlement.” Whoa what!?
My eyes go wide, “You’re the mayor here!? I thought you just lived here!?” Maybe she can get me a bed or something. I’m so tired.
She gives me a nod. “Yes ma’am, been the mayor here for a couple years now. Been gone for a couple days because of Cook Cook. But thanks to you kid, I’m back and hopefully here for good,” She looks over at Beans, “Could ya bring the ex slaves to the guest building and get them some food and water? Midnight and Stardust come with me. I got ya somethin.”
Got us something? I really hope it’s a bed! Sweet, sweet sleep, that’s all I want. Stardust breaks me out of my sleepy daydream by waving a hoof in my face, “You okay Midnight?”
Nope, “Yea, just a little tired. That’s all.” We follow Turnpike down the street to the bigger building in the center of all the metal buildings, “What are those called Stardust?” I point over to the metal half circle buildings.
“Those are called Nissen huts. Mostly used for old military checkpoints like this one.” I wonder if they have comfy beds in them. “And the stone building in the center is a command center of some kind. Each one uses about the same floor plan as the others. They are easy to build and were commonly used later in the war. For how quickly they can be built they are some of the sturdiest buildings still left in the wastes. So, if we ever come across another that’s why it’ll look almost the exact same.”

Turnpike walks up to a terminal next to the door of the building. She hits a couple keys and the door unlocks with a loud clunking noise. Turnpike gestures for us to walk in first. I let Stardust go ahead of me. The main room is nothing like the outside. There’s a desk with a terminal, a very regal blue rug in the center, and everything else is fully furnished. Turnpike walks over to a picture of the military checkpoint, clearly pre-war, and lifts it off of the wall.

Resting neatly in the wall behind the picture frame is a safe. Turnpike grabs a key from her desk and opens it. Inside is a stack of papers and a bag full of something. Turnpike reaches in and grabs the bag. As she does, I catch a glimpse of something light blue sitting behind it.

She tosses the bag onto her desk, “Here’s your reward kid, a thousand caps for Cook Cook, and five thousand for clearing out Gut Rot’s, I threw in an extra five hundred for bringing back the slaves.”

“Sixty five hundred caps!” Stardust’s eyes are extremely wide, “Midnight do you know how much that is?”

“I don’t know if I can accept that Turnpike. I killed those to help the ponies. And taking that many caps from you guys would put a serious hole in your financing. Right?” Maybe I could get a really nice bed with those caps though.

Turnpike facehoofs, “Kid, I don’t know how dumb you must be to not take these caps. You killed two of the most dangerous ponies out here in the wasteland all by yourself. No matter what you say, I’m making you take these caps.” I go to say something but she interrupts me, “Kid! I’m giving you money, take it and go get yourself some food, a drink maybe, anything you want! Just take the Luna damned caps!”

Stardust levitates them into my saddlebags, “I’ll make sure she keeps them,“ She looks over at me, “You need to get yourself some kind of armor anyways. And probably some more ammo if you’re going to be killing a whole town of slavers again.”

“Guess I don’t have a choice do I?” Simultaneously they both shake their heads no. “I do have a question though Turnpike,” Her ears perk up, “What is that blue thing in your safe?”

“That old thing?” She reaches in her safe and pulls out a small statuette of a rainbow maned pony, “It was in this safe originally, not really sure what it is though… You want it?”

“Uhh, sure.” She passes it over to me. Almost instantly I feel a burst of energy pulse through me. For a moment I no longer felt tired. I just have the urge to fly as far and fast as I possibly can. I look down at the (very cute) rainbow maned pony in my hooves. At the bottom it says ‘Be Awesome’.

Stardust levitates the statue of the pony and says,“That’s a figure of one of the Ministry Mares. Rainbow Dash I believe her name was.” I’m glad Stardust knows this stuff. She levitates it back into my hooves.

“Watcher told me a little about the Ministries. Which one was Rainbow Dash in charge of?” I don’t even remember all the names of the Ministries. All I know is that there’s six of them.

“She was in charge of the Ministry of Awesome. They really didn’t do much during the war in all honesty. Or at least from what I’ve been able to find.” Ministry of Awesome? That sounds pretty… well awesome honestly. I slip the tiny Rainbow Dash into my bag.

“Okay one final question for you Turnpike,” She raises an eyebrow, “Do you have a bed?”

…

I wake up to something hitting my chest, “Goood afternooon Midnight Note, time to wake up and smell the afternoon dust!” Stardust yells next to me.
I open my eyes to see a neatly folded set of clothes sitting on my stomach, “What is this?” I hold my PipBuck up to my face, twelve in the afternoon, great.
“It’s armor. You know, the stuff that helps you when you get shot. And I know how much you like that Stable barding, so that should at least fit over it. Kind of like an armored jacket.” I look over to see Stardust counting the bag of caps.
“That’s going to take you forever you know that right?” I stand (more like fall) off of the bed. “Here give them to me,” She gives me a look before sighing and levitating them into my hooves. I look down at my PipBuck, “Five thousand, seven hundred and eight.”

Her eyes went wide, “How did you do that?”

“My PipBuck can automatically count them, not sure how but it did it with the hundred I got from Cook Cooks.” I pass them back to her.
“I heard that PipBucks were great, but I didn’t know they could do that.” We should find her one. She’d probably find more use in it than I would.
“It’s great and all, but the only thing it doesn’t have is a flashlight. The thing’s harder than a rock though,” I hit it on the bed frame next to me twice and the screen turns an insanely bright blue and lights up our whole side of the hut. I hit one of the buttons twice and it turns off. Stardust lets out a snicker.
“Are you fucking kidding me right now!? You’ve been a flashlight this whole time!?” I keep hitting it against the bed frame. The frame begins to slowly dent from the impacts.
“Midnight stop before you break something,” Stardust barely yells through her laughing.
I let out a deep breath and stopped hitting the now dented bed, “So what else did you buy with the caps?” Stardust proceeds to lift out clips of ammo for my new pistol and rifle, Sparkle-Colas, some boxes of pre war food, and a book. I grab a box of food at random, “Flim Flam Mac and Cheese, is it any good?” I ask. Stardust just gives me a little shrug. A closer look at the ruined box reveals two very similar red and yellow colored ponies wearing similar hats, the only difference being their hairstyle and one has a nice moustache. I tear open the box and look at the tiny plastic dish of the Mac and Cheese. On the top is a thin layer of film. I try to pick it off with my mouth to no avail. Luckily I have Stardust. (Unicorns: 5000, Pegasi: Two)
“So how is it?” Stardust asks.
I lift my face up from the plastic bowl, “This. Is. Amazing.” I quickly gulp down the rest of it. “Why wasn’t there anything like this in the simulation? Almost all that we ate was stupid apples from the surface. I mean don’t get me wrong, apples aren’t bad, but after a while they get kinda boring.” Stardust gets a thinky look on her face, “What?”
“I’ve never had a fresh apple before.” She holds up a box of preserved apples, “Only ever had these.” Is fresh fruit really that hard to get? I mean I could understand, literally everything was destroyed and all but damn.
“I bet we can find you one somewhere. I mean somepony has to know a way to get fresh fruit.” Right? “We can probably find you one some day.”
“Midnight the chance of us actually finding a fresh apple is like us somehow discovering Celestia and Luna are still alive.” Well that’s a depressing way to put it. I pull out a Sparkle-Cola from my bag and pop off the cap. Stardust levitates it into our cap sack.
I take a long swig off the bottle. Warm, flat, and delicious. I stand off of the bed and begin to change into my armor. “The merchant called it ‘mercenary troublemaker armor’ or something.” Doesn’t really seem all that troublesome. “I thought it would suit you perfectly since it appears trouble follows you around wherever you go.” I stick my tongue out at her.
Surprisingly the armor fits almost perfectly. My saddlebags fit comfortably over it also. Stardust was right about it fitting over my Stable Barding. “So how do I look?” I do a quick turn around.
“Well I can definitely see the troublemaker in you now.” I stick my tongue out even longer at her. “But seriously, I think it fits you perfectly. If you want to look at yourself, I believe there’s a mirror in the bathroom over there. Also wash all that blood off of you. You’re still caked in it.” She points to the end of the bunkhouse. “Once you're done there, Turnpike wants to talk to us about something. Sounds like she needs a favor.”
“Alright, shouldn’t be that much of a problem. After we help her we can go to the library and get your stuff.” She packs up the rest of our stuff and walks out of the hut.
The rest of the bunkhouse is completely empty of course. I imagine that nobody has time to be sleeping at twelve in the afternoon. Not to mention I’m glad nopony saw me beat my PipBuck against the bed.
That reminds me of something. I look down at my PipBuck and turn on the radio. Why not listen to music while I freshen myself up. The first channel that comes in is one titled ‘Dj-Pon3’. I click on it and the end to a very jazzy song finishes playing. Then a stallion with a very smooth, but deep voice comes on, “Goood afternooon children! It’s your friendly neighborhood disk jockey here and you know what time it is. It’s time, for the news! And this time it’s from up north just outside of Alpony. Now I know you’ve heard all about these two little Stable dwellers in completely different sides of Equestria, but get this, we got another one. And hot damn she is just as good as the others (maybe even better).” Wait… is he talking about me? “This time we got ourselves a pegasus mare fresh from one of them Stables. And this one seems like she’s on the hunt for blood! Straight away she just walked into the notorious Cook Cook’s camp and put an end to him and his lackeys, also freeing all of his slaves in the process. Good job kid! But get this though, she decided that she wasn’t done there yet! She took the armor off the slavers and snuck her way into the Alpony slave king’s stronghold! She waited until the clock struck midnight. And she finished all of them off herself. She saw to Gut Rot personally, making sure that he could never harm anypony else in the wasteland. Our very own Midnight Marauder seems to be taking down all the slavers, and raiders, in that side of Alpony. You guys may want to pick a different career at this point because I guarantee that she will not hesitate to come and put a stop to whatever you plan on doing next. Thank you Stable Dwellers! And and an even bigger thanks to the Midnight Marauder! Now we can get back to our regularly scheduled program. This is Sweetie Belle singing on how the sun don’t shine how it used to.”
I don’t know what to say… once I noticed that it was really me I couldn’t move. I don’t deserve any of that praise, I was just doing the right thing… It’s what anypony would do right? Also Littlepip and Blackjack must be doing good as well if he’s mentioning other Stable Dwellers. Good for them. Maybe we can team up and clear the wasteland of everything bad… Actually, it’s probably better if we stayed apart, we each get a section of Equestria to ourselves and we could probably have it cleared out in a couple months. I can imagine the posters now, ‘Stable Dwellers: Clearing the wasteland, one raider camp, at a time!’
I let the music play while I wash myself. Sadly no running water of course so I just dampened a rag with some water in my bag and washed off what I could. Some of my white mane stained with the red tint of the blood which made it very hard to get off. I’ll need an actual bath for the tiny bit of red tint to go away. Once I’m done scrubbing I step back and take a look at the new armor. It’s a dark grey leather jacket with ammo belts crossing over the chest. It’s obviously been worn before, but not enough to be falling apart. I put my guns in their holsters and head on out to Turnpikes.

…

“There’s the Midnight Marauder now,” Stardust says as I walk into Turnpikes.
I give her a glare, ”So you heard Dj-Pon3. Great, now I’m going to be hearing that all day.” At least it has a catchy ring to it I guess. “And why didn’t he mention you? You played as big of a part as I did.”
“Kid, from what Stardust told me, you somehow went and killed every single one by yourself. No offense to Stardust but you did all of it.” Ugh. Why do I even try?
“So what is it that you wanted Turnpike?” I had to change the subject. I’m definitely not going to win two to one. She walks over and pulls out a piece of paper from her desk. She puts it on the table and gestures for me to look at it. It’s a list of names of other settlements, to the right of each one is lists of supplies. “Is this some kind of trade list? I’m guessing it’s with other settlements.”
“Good job kid, that’s exactly what it is. Now find something weird about it.” I quickly skim through it again. She must have seen the confused look on my face, “There isn’t a single trade made with Green Blossom in the last week. They’re normally our best trade for fresh food, but they haven’t sent a caravan in the last week. I would have checked on it sooner, but we can blame Cook Cook for that.”
“And that’s where we come in, right?” Stardust says next to me. “Go and see if everything is alright.”
Turnpike gives her a nod, “I would normally send someone else to do it, but almost everyone is helping the ex-slaves, and that leaves you two. I can understand if you don’t want to, it’s not the direction you were planning on heading.”
“Of course we’ll help, it shouldn’t be that much of a detour.” I look over to Stardust, “You up for it.” She gives me a nod. “So where is Green Blossom at?”

“If you head north about five miles you should run into it. It has a large glass building so you shouldn’t miss it.” A marker appears on my E.F.S. I still don’t understand how it knows. “And I don’t have much to offer ya this time, I’ll look around to see if there’s anything I can pay ya with.”

I wave a hoof at her, “No need, you already gave us enough caps as it is. Just consider this a favor.”

“Kid if you keep not taking my money you’re going to be the pony losing in the situation.” She just facehoofs. “Luna damn it kid.”

…

“So how does it feel to be back on the road again?” I ask Stardust. “Must be a thousand times better than traveling with slavers.” We had been walking for about an hour on the destroyed road heading towards Green Blossom. Stardust ended up selling all of the extra weapons we had to the merchant back in Haytham. I couldn’t imagine lugging that many guns around constantly.
“Walking with you is about as good as walking with Slavers, except I can actually have a conversation with somepony.” I push her with one of my wings and she lets out a chuckle, “Really though, it’s nice having somepony to travel with. My time in the wasteland has been pretty lonely honestly. I also never expected to be traveling with the one and only Midnight Marauder.”
Oh Celestia please not this again, “I’m going to have to talk to Dj-Pon3 about that. And how does he know what happened anyways? It literally happened today.”
“Dj-Pon3 just kinda knows everything. He’s always reporting the latest news, sometimes almost within an hour of it happening. Nopony has actually seen him before, so good luck talking to him. He just sits at the top of Tenpony tower all day reporting the news. And I hear that not even the ponies who live at Tenpony know who he is.” I’m going to add that to my list of things I need to do. I’m sure my PipBuck already did.
“Where’s Tenpony Tower anyways?” Maybe we can go after we get Stardust’s stuff back.
Stardust just gives me a surprised look, “You’re not planning to try and meet him are you?” How did she know!? “Well good luck if you do because he’s all the way in Manehattan.” Manehattan! Wait, how far is Manehattan? I stop and check my PipBuck. I don’t zoom out far enough to actually see Manehattan and I give up. Cross off meeting Dj-Pon3 I guess. Or at least add it to the very bottom of said list.
“Well there goes that dream. Maybe someday we can head out there” Midnight’s journey to Manehattan, watch as she gets shot even more than she does now.
“We?” Stardust gives me a surprised look.
“Well yea. I was just thinki-”
Stardust interrupts me, “I think it would be fun to travel to Manehattan. And why not have my best friend there too,” She gave me a small smile.
Those two words echo in my head over and over. Stardust is my best friend. “I-I don’t kn-”
Something metal presses against the back of my head. “Alright you two, you’re going to give me everything in your saddlebags right now, or I’m blowing your pretty head off,” a stallion’s voice says behind me.
I sigh and slowly turn around, “Are you fucking kidding me right now?” Four more come out from behind wrecked skywagons.
I look at the shotgun pointed directly in my face. A unicorn stallion stands levitating it in front of me. “No I’m not fucking kidding you, drop your saddlebags on the ground, now!” I just sigh again.
“Midnight c’mon, don’t do anything stupid!” Stardust slowly starts taking off her saddlebags.
“Okay, first of all Mr.Shotgun, I’m not afraid of getting shot. In the… twoish days I’ve been in the wasteland I’ve probably gotten shot more than you have in your whole life.” He puts the gun against my forehead, “And secondly, I am the pony who killed every single one of Gut Rot’s men. You’re probably thinking, ‘no way she is the one who killed him’ well that sucks because I am.” I spread out my wings. I see him wince a little bit but not move, “Now third, and finally…” My voice goes down to a small whisper, “Your safety is on.”
I quickly grab the barrel of the shotgun out of his telekinetic grasp with my mouth and smack it against his head. He falls to the ground with a loud thump. Stardust begins firing rounds from her pistol and runs over behind a skywagon. I draw my pistol and fly into the air. Most of them look up and start firing after me. Stardust takes them out with ease. Now there’s only one left.
“Fuck this shit, y'all are fucking insane.” I pause mid flight and draw out my sniper rifle. I line the sights perfectly with his head and pull the trigger with my tongue. The recoil pushes me back a little bit but the shot flies true. The bandit’s brains and skull splatter on the cracked pavement.
I fly back to the ground next to Stardust. “How the hell did you know the safety was on?” She asks surprised.
“I checked it while I was distracting him.” I walk over and pick up his shotgun. He lets out a little groan. I open the barrel, with some difficulty, and notice a crucial part of the gun is missing. Ammo. “Are you serious dude? First you try to rob me with the safety still on, and there’s not even any ammo. Luna damn you’re stupid!” I toss the gun to the side, it’s not going to be useful if there’s no ammo. “Now sir, since I feel like I’ve done way too much killing in the last two days. I’m going to let you go. But, you have to promise that you’ll make an honest living for yourself, no more robbing ponies on the side of the road, no more killing unless necessary. Okay?” He lets out an accepting groan. “Good! Now I’m going to continue walking with my Best Friend here, and hopefully I never see you again. Have a nice day.”
I turn around to see Stardust’s eyes wide, “Are you sure Midnight? I mean, he did try to rob us.”
“Hey I got a second chance at my life, so why can’t he?” I look back at the still lying down bandit, he is holding his head in his hooves. “And he should know that if I learn he’s out there banditing around I’ll find him. Ain’t that right sir!” He lets out another pained groan.

…

“You know, I probably hit him too hard with that shotgun.” We’re approaching Green Blossom now. The bandits were surprisingly our only problem getting here. Other than that slight interruption to our walk, it was good to be on the road again.
Green Blossom consisted of two big glass structures and a couple shacks on the edge of the small settlement. But I don’t even know if you could consider the whole thing a settlement though. It’s tiny compared to everywhere else I’ve seen.

“Well I do think you cracked the stock of the shotgun. You’re kinda scary when you get into a fight Midnight. Not going to lie.” Hey, gotta do what you gotta do. That’s the first real thing I’ve learned here in the wasteland.

“Well maybe they shouldn’t be trying to kill us now should they.” We walk into the center of the whole settlement and not a single sound is heard. “Anypony home!?” I yell as loud as I can but the silence continues. “Check that shack and I’ll check this one.” Stardust gives me a nod.

I walk over and slowly open the metal shack door. Not a single pony inside. But the whole thing seems trashed. Crushed food boxes, once fresh food crushed into a fine mush on the floor. What the hell happened here? I leave the building and start walking over to the greenhouse. Stardust is still in the other shack.

I open the door and walk in. Almost instantly every part of my body inside and out begins to burn. A thick pink cloud covers the whole room to the point where I can’t see a hoof in front of my face. Every breath I take starts a fire in my lungs. I quickly jump back out of the greenhouse. The pink slowly trails out of the doorway behind me. I start coughing and hacking violently to the point where I spit up blood.

Stardust comes sprinting out of the shack, “Midnight are you okay!?” She pauses and looks over at the pink seeping out of the greenhouse, “No way… How? Midnight drink a healing potion! Now!”

I reach in my bag and pull one out. “What the hell is that stuff Stardust?” I greedily chug the healing potion.

“How could it be here, we’re miles away from Canterlot!” She looks over at me, “It’s called the Pink Cloud. It’s what destroyed Canterlot…”

“Whoa whoa whoa, what!? That’s what destroyed Canterlot? How?” Stardust walks over and helps me to my hooves.

“I’ll tell you while the cloud clears out of there. I want to see what’s causing it.” We walk over to an old bench and take a seat. I coughed a little bit more, but the healing potion put an end to the pain. “So when the bombs dropped they weren’t all like the ones that caused most of the Equestria Wasteland to be what it is now. Those are called Balefire Bombs, they were the most common type of megaspell utilized by the Zebras. But when it came to destroying the princesses, who they saw were the strongest beings in Equestria, they needed something better, something that could kill literal goddesses. They started the attack by shooting hundreds of smaller missiles at Canterlot. The whole city was protected from the missiles by a shield the princesses put around the whole city. But little did they know a megaspell of the worst kind was being planted inside by the Zebras.”

“It was the pink cloud wasn’t it?” How could they have gotten it into the city at a time like that?

Stardust nods her head, “Yes, and since the shield was up it kept the pink cloud trapped in the city, but if they were to release the shield the city would be completely destroyed by the incoming missiles. They had no choice.”

“The princesses sacrificed their lives to try and save their city, but it was useless in the end because of the Pink Cloud. It would kill anything it touched.” Stardust nods.

“Now thanks to the Pink Cloud, Canterlot is one of, or maybe the most dangerous place in the whole Equestrian wasteland. You’ve seen what a ghoul is, the pink cloud made ghouls of a different variety. They are completely immune to guns and whatever other things you do to them. They will keep attacking you relentlessly, healing whatever damage you do to them almost instantly. The only possible way to kill them is to cut off their head.” And I was beginning to think it couldn’t get worse.

“What doesn’t make sense about the Canterlot is the fact that the Pink Cloud is still there. Shouldn’t it have moved up into the atmosphere at this point?”

“That would be my guess. But from what I’ve been told, the cloud seeps into the stone and pools in certain spots all over Canterlot. Few ponies come out of the city alive and almost all who do live come out with permanent damage to themselves”

I don’t think I ever want to go to Canterlot. And I couldn’t imagine anyone doing something as terrible as that. Especially to a city that big… Poor Celestia and Luna. I let out a long sigh, “This whole story is making me depressed, is the pink settled down enough?” We stand up and walk over to the greenhouse (Pinkhouse?).
“Looks like most of it is gone, but we can’t be in there for too long.” Stardust leads us in. I feel a slight burning in my chest, but nothing like the concentrated pool did before.
What I see next is the most haunting thing I’ve seen yet. In the corner are the bodies of several different ponies all hugging each other, but one. Their skin has completely melted off and began dripping onto the ground into thick puddles of fleshy pink liquid. The only pony not in the group is lying on the ground in front of the others, completely melted to the ground. Stardust instantly gags and runs out of the greenhouse. I stayed there, unable to move from shock. How could anypony do something like this, especially to innocent ponies like them? They were just farmers trying to make it in this hellhole of a world! I hear Stardust throwing up outside, but I try my best to ignore it. I turn around and looked at all the crops they were growing. Some of the vegetables were ripe for picking, but now they have a light pink hue to them. I need to leave. I begin to walk out of the greenhouse, but not before looking back one more time, “I’m sorry this happened to you… I’d bury you like I did Fleetfoot if I could…”
“Midnight?” Stardust yells from outside.
“I-I’m coming…” I walk out of the greenhouse and close the door behind me. Who- Whatever did this I’m going to kill, make it so that they can never do anything like this again. The wasteland is just getting worse and worse…

…

“So they were melted to the ground! What the hell did I send you into kid!” Turnpike said that she expected the worst, but for it to physically be the worst thing was unexpected. “How the hell did the pink cloud even get here! Its source is in Canterlot!”
“I have no clue Turnpike, but all I know is that’s my next goal. Find the pink cloud source.” I don’t think I could deal with another group of innocent ponies dying like that. I look over at Stardust, “We’ll go and get your stuff, then we need to find ponies who would know anything about the killer. Somepony has to know something.”
Stardust gives me a nod, “Since we’re going into the city we should stop at Riverdale. They may know something about the killers. Hopefully anyways…”
“Any help we can get is useful.” I let out a sigh, “But the fact that we don’t have any leads is the thing that’s going to be holding us down.”
“The wasteland seems to be changing rapidly. Red Eye is coming in full force, kidnapping ponies all around the Manehattan area, not to mention he’s already took over Fillydelphia. And you come out of nowhere and kill Hooflyn’s biggest slaver and his best lackey by yourself. Not to mention the other Stable Dwellers. Something big is happening kid, and it seems you’re slowly wrapping yourself in the center of it.” Wait there’s an even bigger slave lord than Gut Rot? Ugh, why does this fucking place hate me.
“I feel like I just have a lot of stuff I need to look in… to…” I just realized something.
“Are you okay Midnight?” Stardust must have seen my blank expression.
“It’s just, I’ve been so busy dealing with these problems that I forgot about learning who I was… It never even crossed my mind.” I forgot that I forgot who I was
“Oh, Midnight.” Stardust puts a hoof around my neck, “You’ve been worrying about everypony else, but you haven’t thought about yourself.” She pauses for a moment, “You know what Midnight, I’m going to make you a promise. No matter what happens to me, or what happens to you, I’m going to find out who you were. Even if you somehow die, which is always a possibility out here and I don’t even want to think about it, I will find out who you are.”
I don’t know what to say, “Thank you Stardust… I’m glad you’re here for me.” She gives me a smile. I don’t deserve to be with her out here. She’s too good to me..
“Kids there’s one more thing I wanted to talk to you ‘bout before you two head out. Gut Rot’s lackeys are pissed at you two, specifically Midnight of course. I got word they tried to raid a couple towns in Alpony for anything about the white maned pegasus. They fortunately weren’t able to do much but there were still casualties. So watch yourself out there.” Turnpike turns around and opens a drawer on her desk and begins digging in it. “Also before you kids go I got one more thing for ya. Just gotta find it.” She continues digging, papers and other various nick knacks fly out, “Ah ha! Found the sucker!” She pulls out a long square wooden box and holds it out for me, “I noticed you still have that knife from Cook Cook’s camp still. And since you kids broke me of my caps. All I got is this.”
I grab the box and open the top. A long curved knife sits perfectly on red velvet lining the box. The blade is completely free of rust and is etched with strange runes. The blade is perfectly set into a carved bone handle.
“It’s called a kukri I think. It was here in this safe when we first moved in here.” I pull the knife out of the box. The balance between the blade and handle feels perfect. “Apparently it’s made by the Zebras or something.” I go to grab it with my hooves and I nick the end of my hoof with the blade. The cut instantly starts to bleed. “Yea, be careful kid, It’s crazy sharp for just being a steel knife. Wait, I may have something to help with that.” Turnpike starts digging in her mess of a desk again. After throwing out even more stuff she finally finds what she was looking for. “I knew that thing had a sheath somewhere.”
Stardust levitates the knife from my hooves and into the sheath. I take off my knife sheath around my leg and replace it with the Zebra kukri. “Thanks Turnpike, but once again you didn’t have to give me anything. I told you I’d do it for free.”
“Celestia damn it kid! Just get out of here before I decide I want to keep the cool knife.” She gets a smirk on her face and walks into a different room
“She’s a strange pony.” Stardust says next to me.
“Yeah, but she’s a good pony though.”

…

As we head farther east towards Alpony, I realize how big the city actually is. Giant stone and glass pillars rise up from the ground nearly reaching into the sky, on the outskirts smaller buildings rest. In the very center of the whole city is a giant, pure white, spiraling tower reaching straight up to the cloud cover above. I wonder what it’s like being at the very top. Probably no different than being in Cloudsdale and looking straight down.

…

“Good idea playing music, it makes the walk a lot more entertaining. Not to mention we can hear what’s going on in other parts of the wastes.” Stardust had suggested turning on the radio. A low sad song rings out from my Pipbuck.
“I’m still trying to get over the fact that three Stable ponies come out of nowhere in the wasteland, all in the same day, and become heroes almost instantly.” This has been on her mind since we started listening to Dj-Pon3.
“Well technically I wasn’t always in the Stable, I have the Dashite brand still on me.” Unless somehow someone branded me while I was asleep, the meanest joke ever.
“That’s a good point, but unless we figure out who you were, you’re technically still a Stable pony.” I guess that’s true too.
A fast paced swing song begins coming out of my PipBuck. A saxophone and trumpet leading a deep bass and fast piano. I couldn’t help myself. I started singing to the beat.

This mare is here to stay!
So you best not be running!
Because she’s flying into the fray!
And she’s coming gunning!

The Midnight Marauder
Oh she will never falter!
You’ll hear her wings a beatin!
So you better be retreatin!

She ain’t got no home!
And she ain’t got nothing!
But she’ll make you match!
So you better watch your back!

The song begins to slowly fade. The saxophone trailing off into the distance in a groovy trance. I look over to see Stardust isn’t next to me. I turned around to see her mouth wide open, her eyes mimicking her mouth. “Uhh Stardust? You okay there?”

“T-t-hat was amazing Midnight! I-I didn’t know you could sing!” She thought that was good? I just made that up as the song was going…

“I didn’t think it was anything special. I just got the urge to sing along so I did.” The swingy beat just got to me and all that just came out.

“I’m just blown away right now. Your voice was amazing, the lyrics were a perfect match with the song. How did you do that?” Her eyes are still wide from amazement.

I don’t really have a good explanation, “It just felt right, like everything just went together perfectly in my head so I just sang it out loud…” I don’t really understand how it was that good.

“Maybe… just maybe I know how you did that… But in the meantime you should sing some more! Your voice is actually very nice.” What!? I’ve never been told by anyone my voice is nice, granted I never sung around anypony in Cloudsdale… I always kept to myself. But out here I just feel free to do what I want without any judgement.

“Now that you point it out it makes me not want to sing aloud. It’s embarrassing…” Nopony needs to know that I’m a singing killing machine, just a killing machine will do. You know actually I don’t know if I want to be known as a killing machine, ”Maybe just for you… but you can’t tell anypony... Okay?”

“I won’t tell anypony, but sooner or later you should tell someone else.” But… “Ooh, what if we brought you to Dj-Pon3? I bet he would love to hear you sing!” Stardust is slowly and slowly getting more excited about it.

“Stardust I don’t even want you to hear me sing! I can’t handle the whole entire wasteland hearing my voice!” I’m already getting too much attention on the radio. I only used my new nickname in my song because it fit well…

“I’ll convince you one of these days…” She lets out a laugh and gives me a little shove with her hoof. “The Midnight Marauder, a hero of the wastes, and singer. I can see it now.” I just let out a loud groan.

…

About three songs later and we finally made it into the actual city. It’s even more intimidating actually being in the city, from the outskirts I could at least not feel like everything was going to fall on me. All around us gunshots echo from random buildings, alleyways and every other possible place around us. Normally after the gunshots loud yelling is heard, or other times it’s just silence. Stardust told me not to worry about any of it unless it’s super close to us. That’s just the sounds of a big city in the wasteland.

We’re walking down a ruined street with buildings surrounding us in every direction, random skeletons litter the streets from when the megaspells hit. Some seem to be heading to work, even a couple are the size of fillies or colts. Probably heading to or from school, or just trying to have fun on a nice day. But then the megaspells hit and ruined everything…

“So what were you doing at the library here anyways?” Stardust pointed out the library as we approached it. It’s a fairly large building that was probably more impressive before the megaspells dropped. Columns of stone surround the edges of the building. In the front is a very large set of stairs leading straight up to the main door.

“Information! That was my main goal in life ever since I was a filly. I just wanted to learn about pre-war Equestria, or just learn anything in general. I had heard rumors there were still books in good condition so I came here to see if I could find them, but due to Gut Rot’s slavers I got kidnapped and met you.” From the way she said that it’s almost like she is done learning.

“I mean we can multitask, you learn about anything you want, and I’ll find out who this monster of a killer is.” Also find out who I am, but that’s slowly going to the bottom of my list of things to do.

“And sing, don’t forget about your singing.” I give her an annoyed look, “What? Why would you not practice your special talent?” Stardust points down to my cutie mark, “A crescent moon with a music note in it. If that doesn’t add to the ‘you’re a singer’ thing then I don’t know what your cutie mark means”

“Wait, you think my special talent was singing?” Was I a singer before? There’s no way!

“That’s all that I can think of, you’re too good to just be an amateur.” She gives me a smirk. She knows she’s right.

“I guess we’ll figure it out sooner or later… For now let's just go get your stuff back.” We start walking up the giant set of stairs. As we get to the top I notice giant tapestries dangling from the ceiling behind some of the pillars. On the left is one of Celestia raising the sun, on the other Luna raising the moon. But due to years of being open to the elements, they are fading and torn all over. I could barely make out what they were.

Stardust levitates one of the double doors open and gestures for me to walk in. “Holy shit… This place is huge.” A large, half circle desk with multiple terminals greets us. A skeleton of a unicorn sits at one of them. Behind the desk are towering shelves of old ruined books. Most of them seem to not be in readable or scavengeable condition, or they’re just scattered on the ground. And on the outer edge of the giant room sits a wooden walkway with even more bookshelves fitted into the walls.

“It’s amazing isn’t it. Too bad everything is destroyed… But I believe that somewhere in here there’s at least a couple books still in great condition.” This place could have been amazing before the war. Full of ponies sitting around reading to get away from any troubles they had. Stardust points over to one of the corners, “I hid my stuff over there, you can take a look around if you want. I should only be a second.”

I decided to check out the unicorn skeleton. It’s sitting on a torn up leather swivel chair. Its head is lying down at the desk, a pair of reading glasses rests next to it. The terminal the pony was working at is smashed to pieces. I glance over at the other. It’s been dealt the same fate. I look down at the shelves underneath to see a key holder. At least twenty keys were supposed to fit on here at one point, but now all of them are gone. I turn around and feel something jab into my hoof. I let out a little ‘ow’ and looked down. A tiny rusty key is on the ground. “I guess not all of them aren’t gone.” I say to myself. I pick it up in my mouth and slip it into a pocket of my troublemaker armor. (Pockets are nice by the way) I also regret picking it up in my mouth. Two hundred year old keys don’t taste that good.

I take a quick glance around, above each section is a sign labeling what type of book goes where. Science, history, fiction, nonfiction. This place seemed to have it all. I start heading through the maze of shelves to where Stardust’s blue tick is on my E.F.S.

I walk over to see her checking through her bags. “Is everything still there?” I ask her.

She turns around and nods, “I think so, you never realize how much stuff you have until you leave it for a week.” She levitates the bags onto her back and buckles them. I notice that her cutie mark decorates the front of each side. “Just let me grab my gun real quick…” She kneels down in front of a bottom shelf and her horn starts glowing. From the shelf comes the most beautifully decorated rifle I’ve ever seen. The stock is a darker color and carved into it is a picture of Stardust’s cutie mark. Attached to it are three feathers dangling off the back for decoration.The barrel is painted pure white, the same as Stardust’s mane.

“Stardust… that gun is beautiful! Where did you get it?” I look the gun over once again and realize that I don’t know how you would shoot it unless you're a unicorn. There’s no mouthpiece.

“...This is the only thing I have left of my dad… He had it specially made for me.” I notice the grim look she gets on her face, “I was hoping it was still here… I don’t know what I would do if I lost this…”

“Oh Stardust… I’m so sorry…” I wish I could help her in some way.

I can tell by her look that she is holding back tears, ”I-I try to forget what happened, but… I just can’t…”
“There isn’t much I can do for you Stardust… But I’m here for you…” Maybe... I could sing for her? She likes my singing a lot for some reason. Lyrics begin going through my head but I can’t catch a good rhythm. I’m never going to be able to do this…
She lets out a little sniffle and wipes her face with her hooves, “I’ll be fine Midnight… It just gets to me sometimes…” She levites up her gun. “It’s actually made for griffons. With their claws they can crank this lever after every shot to load the next round, but since I’m a unicorn I can use my levitation to fire it. I believe they called it a lever-action rifle.” She sniffles again and puts her gun across her back.
“Want to finish exploring? I found a key up by the front desk. Not sure what it opens though.” Maybe it leads to some secret treasure hidden deep underground. That’d be awesome.
“Here let me see the key.” I grab it out of my pocket and she levitates it out of my mouth. (Still tastes like rust) “I think I know where this goes… Here, follow me.” She leads me to the farthest edge of the giant room to a single door labeled ‘custodian office’ She puts the key in and begins to turn it. In an instant the key snaps in half and falls to the floor. “Great, now how are we go-”
“Spread out and find it! The goddess put us in charge of finding it and we will not disappoint!” The loud, booming voice of a mare echoes throughout the library.
Me and Stardust quickly duck behind an overturned bookshelf. “Son of a bitch, who the hell is here!” I whisper to Stardust. And why do they come now?
I hear crashing from across the room, “I don’t know, but we need to get that door open now!” Stardust whispers next to me.
“I got it! I’ll just lockpick it.” Well I think I do anyway. I quickly walk over to the door and pull out my screwdriver and bobby pins. I take a glance behind me to see who’s here.
Straight down the aisle sits the one pony I never thought I would see in my lifetime, one who just earlier I was told died in Canterlot. Luna herself. Her tall, majestic form staring straight at me. At that moment time seemed to freeze. It was Luna, I know it is… But she seems, different. Not in the way I’ve seen her before. Her flowy, star filled mane is instead long and black with blue stripes. This can’t be her. When I blink she seemed to disappear into thin air. I shake my head and start working on lockpicking the door again.
Rotate the screwdriver a little to the left and… done! The door opens with a satisfying click. “Stardust lets go!” She looks over and follows me into the room. Stardust quickly closes it and locks it behind us.
“How do you know how to lockpick? Not even I can and I’m a unicorn!” Stardust says next to me.
“Honestly I have no idea, but the real question is. Why in the fuck is Luna out there!? You said she’s dead!” If that’s the real Luna than this we stand no fucking chance.
Stardust lets out a little sigh, “No Midnight that’s not Luna… I don’t know what they are but I’ve been hearing more and more rumors about them coming into Alpony. This is the first time I’ve seen them.”
“Fucking great! Now we have alicorns that are probably going to kill us. How much shit is the wasteland going to throw at us!” Aagh. This fucking place I swear!
“I was ho-” I see something above Stardust begin to glow.
“Stardust get down!” Above her appears the blue alicorn. As fast as I can move, I leap at the alicorn with my knife drawn. The alicorn’s horn glows and it disappears in front of my eyes. I land flat on the ground with my knife still in my mouth. “Where did it go!” I stand up and look around the room. It’s a small office with even more bookshelves lining the walls. Surprisingly there isn’t a single ruined or good book in sight.
Stardust stares directly in front of her with her rifle levitated next to her. “Midnight, I have an idea. Get ready.” I ready my knife and look straight ahead. I have no idea what she’s planning. Stardust’s horn begins to glow and so do the bookshelves lining the walls. “Now!’ Stardust yells and all the shelves in the room slam into the center of the room. The alicorn lets out a scream and appears in between two of the bookshelves. I quickly jump over and sink my knife into the side of her head.

The alicorn’s head thrashes violently for a second before it goes completely still and stares blankly at me. “Okay that was unsurprisingly difficult.” I step down from the bookshelves, “That was a good idea though.” I guess add another point to the unicorns.

“Midnight why didn’t this bookshelf move?” I look over to see Stardust staring at the only bookshelf she didn’t tear from the wall. I walk over and pull on it with my hooves. It doesn’t move an inch. “Here, let me try.” The bookshelf gets a purple glow around it and wiggles slightly. “Hmm, try pushing the side of it maybe?” I walk over to the side of it and push. With a loud grinding noise the bookshelf slides over on a rail.

“So it’s a secret room huh, smart. But also, why?” Behind it is a staircase leading down into pitch darkness.

“I don’t know, but it’s either a creepy staircase or more alicorns.” Stardust says behind me. I definitely don’t want more of whatever the fuck those things are.

I turn on my PipBuck’s flashlight and we begin to walk down the dark staircase. With her magic Stardust closes the bookshelf behind us. Hopefully the alicorns can’t follow us. We walk down the dark stairs until we reach a flat wooden wall. A thin line of light peeks through underneath. “Is this another bookshelf?” I look over at Stardust. She shrugs and her horn starts glowing. With a loud screeching noise the bookshelf slides to the left.

Sliding the bookshelf reveals a room almost double the size of the tiny office we were in before. This time a terminal rests on a desk. And most of the books here seem to be in good condition. I look over to see Stardust’s eyes go wide. She quickly runs over to the shelves and starts looking through them.

“Advanced Spells and Alchemy, Equestrian Economics, Pony Sut-, I mean Pony Anatomy! Midnight, this place has everything.” I slide the bookshelf back into place behind us.
I look back over to see Stardust filling her bags with books. I let out a giggle, “You’re a huge nerd, you know that right?” She gives me a death glare and sticks her tongue out at me. Then goes back to collecting books.
I walk over to the desk and power on the terminal. Amazingly it still has power, It was left open on a journal entry.

Entry #3
I successfully did what Ministry Mare Rarity wanted. I got as many books as I possibly could hidden away for transport to Tenpony Tower in Manehattan. Currently there’s only a total of three ponies who know this tunnel exists. Me, Rarity, and the newspress pony across the street. He knows only because he’s the transport to Manehattan. But once we get this shipment sent Mistress Rarity will probably ask if we can do more. But unfortunately I don’t think we can. The employees are getting very angry at the fact that half of our books have disappeared to ponies who don’t even exist on any of the records. But if that means the books will survive then we must do what we have to do.

Why were these books being sent all the way to Manehattan? Specifically to Tenpony Tower… I look over at Stardust, “Hey Stardust?” She looks over from her book hoarding and gives me a little hmm. “Why would these books be sent over to Tenpony? Apparently they were going to get destroyed or something.”
“Well I believe that during the war ponies were destroying books, but Twilight Sparkle was completely against anything harming any kind of knowledge. And Tenpony was Twilight’s main hub, so she probably was going to put these in her personal collection to stop them from being destroyed.” So Twilight is also a big nerd. Understandable.
“Okay you may now continue your book searching. I’m gonna finish reading the other entries.” I leave that entry and go into the very first one. It’s dated almost a year before the others.

Entry #1
Today we were visited by the head of the Ministry of Image, Rarity. She brought in a strange black book and was asking if we knew anything about it. It was filled with strange zebra runes that nopony around here can actually read. She also said that she tried multiple ways of completely destroying it but couldn’t. I told her that there’s nothing that can’t be destroyed, but I instantly changed my mind when she set it on fire right in front of my eyes. But before I could talk to her about anything else she left. I’ll have to check around for more info on this ‘Black Book’

Entry #2
It’s been about a year since I’ve met with Mistress Rarity, or even seen her for that fact. But yesterday she showed up asking if we can talk privately. I agreed and we stepped into my public office. She told me that ponies have been going around destroying books and that she thinks they are going to come here soon so she would like them out of here. But this isn’t a Ministry problem, she said. It’s just a favor from one mare to the other. I agreed because watching a place as wonderful as this get destroyed would be terrible. She then says that if I need it she can get me a job working for her Ministry. I told her I would think about it. Sure the pay would be a million times better but I just love this place too much to ever leave it.

So it was really that bad huh. I knew that the war affected literally everything, but actually destroying books for no apparent reason is terrible. I know that Stardust wouldn’t have let anypony touch her books, or the library’s books.
I look back at the terminal to see a final entry “Unlock desk”. I click on it and the desk pops open with a soft click. I look down at the now open drawer. Inside is another one of those glass balls. It’s the exact same as the one I found in Cook Cook’s. I slip it in my bag. Maybe Stardust will know what these things are.
“Hey Stardust, are you ready to go?” She lets out a groan and turns around.
“But, books…”
“You have how many now?” She looks into her saddlebags.
“Thirteen…”
“Yea, you have enough. And we can always come back when it’s safer. We need to get going, I don’t really trust those alicorns.”
Stardust lets out a sad sigh, “Fine…”
Behind the desk is another tunnel. This time not hidden behind a bookshelf. We follow the tunnel up to a hatch in the ceiling. Like before, a small beam of light comes through the cracks. I push up on it and it opens up into a small broom closet. A couple of cleaning products falI to the floor. I boost Stardust with my back and hop up. Before we leave the closet I check my E.F.S for any red or blue ticks.
“It seems clear. Open the door.” Stardust’s horn fills the closet with its purple light and the door slowly opens up to reveal a large printing room. The floor is littered with molding newspapers and spilled jars of printing ink. Lining the walls are around five or six different printing presses. One of them still has a half printed newspaper sticking out of it. No others in the room seem to match it. Not to mention it’s only a single article taking up the paper. Not even any kind of picture to match it either.

This is Featherweight bringing you the latest, and seemingly final, print of The Alpony Times. Today I only bring a single news story, and that is to say goodbye. Just minutes ago I got news of Megaspell strikes in Western Alpony, Central Manehattan, Hoofington, Las Pegasus and more than I can even count. Cloudsdale has been completely wiped off of the map and the pegasi have completely closed off the sky. And now it turns out a stray megaspell has collided with the Alpony Dam. I don’t know much else but I do know that I don’t have much time left. The radiation is sweeping across the whole city more rapidly than any of us expcted. I can feel it weakenigns mybody.. If you readin ths I just waant everrryone tto be saaf

The paper ends there. I look to the right of the paper to see a small skeleton of a stallion wearing an ink stained visor. “I’m sorry you had to die like this Featherweight. Hopefully the goddesses have somewhere nice for you in the afterlife.” I walk over to next to Stardust. She’s looking at some of the more legible newspapers on the ground. “We better head out. Those alicorns have to be looking for us by now.” She gives me a little nod and we head out the entrance of the small news building. I glance behind me at the building. A sign that says ‘Alpony Times’ still hangs above the entrance proudly, as it should.

…

Riverdale seemed like a pretty decent little town from a distance. The most notable feature of the town is the tall building on the northern edge. The walls of the town surround almost a whole city block near the side of a small river. Leading to the main gate of the town is a bridge that stretches across the water. On top of it are multiple barriers made up of old wagons and stone rubble.

The alicorns must not have cared about us because we made it to the Riverdale Bridge without seeing any sight of them. But once again more trouble seems to be brewing because the wasteland hates me and will take every chance it gets to try and kill me.
A group of maybe ten or twelve slavers is grouping up on our side of the bridge leading to Riverdale. Me and Stardust took cover behind an old skywagon before they could see us. A pair of guards from Riverdale are slowly making their way across the bridge to see what the commotion is all about.
“What do you think the guards plan to do? They stand no chance two to twelve.” I grab my sniper rifle and rest it in one of the broken windows of the skywagon we had taken refuge in.
“I have no clue but we may have to intervene in a second. Get ready just in case.” I double check to see if I have a full clip and aim at the group of slavers. They seem to be yelling something to the guards but from this distance I can’t hear anything. The guards finally reach this side of the bridge and one of them begins to talk. One of the slavers looks back and gestures to one of the slavers. A smaller unicorn walks up to the front levitating a piece of paper in its magic. I notice that the unicorn’s cutie mark is a pencil with an eyeball sticking off of it. What kind of fucked up thing is that?
Stardust nudges my side, “Let me see real quick.” I let go of the rifle and let her levitate it to her eye. “Midnight… There’s a picture of you on the paper.”
“No way… “ I grab the rifle and look at the piece of paper. It’s a decently well drawn picture of my face. They even got the number of my Stable Barding right. I move the scope to aim at the guards. They both shake their heads and say something. The slaver who appears to be their leader gets a grim look on his face and nods. Then waves a hoof at the guard and yells something to his slavers. All at once the slavers draw their guns and aim straight at the guards. Both of them instantly run back and try to find cover.
“I gotta help them! Cover me!” Stardust says something but I’m already flying over the skywagon with my sniper rifle in my mouth. I hold the rifle in my hooves and yell towards the slavers. “Leave them alone! I’m the one you want!” All at once they all face me and stop firing.
The leader walks out in front of them, “You’re a lot smaller than I thought you’d be!” He looks behind him at his raiders. “Remember! Boiling Point wants her alive!” I aim down the scope of my rifle at the leader and fire. Too bad for him I don’t need him alive.
The shot strikes true and he collapses onto the ground. One of the guards on the bridge peeks out and begins firing an automatic gun out into the crowd. I quickly fly over to the bridge next to the guard. “Where’s your friend? Did he make it?” I look back at where I left Stardust. She’s aiming down the sight of her rifle. Picking off a couple all by herself.
The guard drops to his back and leans against our cover to reload. “I’m not sure. I was barely able to make it myself.” He shoves a clip into his gun and begins firing again. I join him and take aim with my sniper rifle at the farthest target. It’s the small unicorn with the picture of me. He’s cowering behind everypony else trying to stay out of the gunfire.

“Sorry kid, but you picked the wrong crowd.” I whisper to myself and pull the trigger. The shot blows half of his face off and he falls to the ground in a pile of his own blood and gore. I aim at another and fire twice. Both of them connect in the Earth Ponies chest and he collapses. That leaves one more panicked slaver mare. She tries running to cover behind a pile of rubble but fails when one of my rifle shots blast through the side of her flank and she falls to the ground screaming in pain. I take one final shot to put her out of her misery.
“Six for six. You’re a pretty damn good shot girl. No wonder they were looking for you.” I stand up and gesture for Stardust to come over. “But why were they looking for you anyways?” Before I can answer, a group of at least five guards come running from Riverdale’s gate. The guard next to me turns and begins to yell, “You lazy fucks are too late! This mare had to come and save the day.” He points a hoof at me and the guards get a nervous look on their face. “Get back to your shifts before I tell the mayor you were sleeping on the job!” He looks over at me and shakes his head. “Fucking assholes... Now where were my manors.” He holds out a green colored hoof. “Names Stalk. I run the guard around here.”
I grab his hoof in mine, “Midnight Note.” Stardust comes walking up and stands next to me, “And this is Stardust.”
Stalk grabs her hoof and introduces himself, “Well Midnight and Stardust. I owe ya my life.” He takes a look around and pauses. He points to a skywagon and sighs, “Looks like Callow didn’t make it.” I look over to see the dead body of the other guard pony. It looks like a shot pierced his side and he bled out.
“Sorry about that. I tried to get over here before anything happened to either of you.” I guess you can’t save everypony in the wasteland.
“We heard that they’ve attacked a couple other towns nearby. Is this the first time they’ve been here?” Stardust asks him.
“I’ve heard of them attacking the smaller towns nearby as well but I never thought they would come here. We’re quite a bit bigger than the others. But if it wasn’t for you two there would have been way more casualties. Half the guards here never get off their asses.” He walks over to Callow’s body and lifts him onto his back, “We better head into town before it gets dark. All that gunfire could have brought some unwanted attention.”

We walk over to the entrance of Riverdale and push open the scrap gates. We are instantly greeted by one of the guards who came out earlier. Stalk walks up to him before she can even say anything. “I need you to bury Callow's body. Then get word to his mother that he’s dead.” The guard goes to say something but Stalk just raises a hoof, “Don’t fucking argue. He wouldn’t have died if you assholes were actually doing your job.” The mare nods her head quickly and takes Callow’s body onto her back.

“How old was he?” Stardust asks.

“Sixteen… He’s wanted to work for the town guard ever since he got his cutie mark. I figured it was about time for him to learn a couple things so I took him under my wing.” Stalk lets out a sigh and gestures for us to follow. “The mayor will probably want to talk to you two.”

…

“So this is the Midnight Marauder I’ve heard so much about huh?” The Mayor of Riverdale was not who, mostly what, I expected. A ghoul. And he must be a newer one too. His dark silver mane isn’t almost completely gone like Fleetfoots. And he’s not a rabid, cannibalistic pony either. “The names Silver Thread. And I doubt your name is actually Midnight Marauder I’m guessing?”

“It’s Midnight Note actually.” This whole Midnight Marauder thing is going to be really annoying sooner or later.

Silver Thread gives a little nod of his head, ”And you are?” He looks over at Stardust.
“Stardust. Midnight’s friend.” Silver thread just nods and looks back over at me.
“So what do I owe the pleasure of having you here Midnight? We’ve never had a celebrity here in Riverdale” Out of the corner of my eye I catch Stardust giving him a dirty look.
“We came looking for information about a killer out east. Figured somepony here would have heard something about it.” Behind me I hear a door latch shut. I glance behind me to see Stalk standing there.
“Sorry, ah don’t want anyone getting worried about some crazy killer on the loose. We have enough problems as it is.” Stalk walks up and stands next to Silver Thread. “So what kind of killer are we dealing with here?”
“Well all we know right now is that they used Pink Cloud. The whole population of Green Blossom fell victim to it.” Stardust lets out a sigh, “Who knows who’s next...”
Silver Thread gives me a smirk, “I’ll tell you what Marauder. If you help with this little problem our town has been having.” Bribery, are you fucking kidding me! I’ve been in the wasteland for three whole fucking days and now I’m getting bribed to help people. I’m beginning to think I would've been happier back in the simulation.
Luckily Stalk decided to speak up before I could do something I wouldn’t regret, “Thread are fucking kidding me, bribery. They saved the whole town from a slaver attack and now you’re acting like this. You're lucky she’s a good pony or I’m pretty sure she would take you down here and now.” Stalk I’m gonna say that you're officially the nicest stallion I’ve met in the wasteland.
Thread walks behind his desk and sits down, “Yes I realize that. She did single hoofedly take down Gut Rot on her own. But you see it’s her fault that the slavers were here in the first place. If she would have just left things be then the slaver attack wouldn’t have happened. Because if what you told me is correct then they were looking for you. Correct.” He leans back and puts his hooves behind his head.
I look over at Stardust and back at Thread. “Fine. What… What do you want.”
His stupid smirk appears back onto his face, “About two days ago I sent a stallion to the old Robronco building east of here. It's only a ten minute trot from here, and he hasn’t returned. I want you to do his job because I know that you won’t fail like he did.”

Stardust speaks up first, “So what exactly do you need us to do? Grab some scrap electronics? It’s probably all cleaned out by now from scavengers.” I can hear the annoyance in Stardust’s voice. But I really can’t blame her at this point.
“No I need you two to get what we are lacking. Defense. Robronco was a robotics factory. They have to have some sort of robot that’s still in some sort of working condition we can reprogram for protection.” He tosses a small bag onto the table that jingles slightly when it lands. “Do this and I’ll tell you what you want to know, and you’ll get the previous reward that was forfeited.”
I grab the bag of caps in my hooves and check my PipBuck, two-thousand caps and a stick of bubblegum. I toss it back down on the table, “Fine, We’ll take care of it tomorrow. For now we need somewhere we can rest. It’s getting too dark to travel.”
Thread's stupid smirk returns, “Glad we can come to an agreement.” He looks over at Stalk and gestures to the door, “Show them to the inn. Tell Pin they can stay for free.”
Me and Stardust follow Stalk out of the room. All three of us don’t say a single word until we are out of the building. But right as the door outside closed behind us you bet we let everything out.
“How in the fuck do you work for that guy Stalk!” I try not to yell but fail miserably.
“One more moment and I would’ve used all my magic to teleport him to the fucking moon!” Stardust couldn’t help from yelling either.
“Seriously, who the hell bribes somepony when they're only trying to help. I would have helped out either way!” I let out a sigh and rub my face with a hoof.
Stalk lets out a long sigh, “The only reason I stay is because nopony else can protect themselves around here. And the people who do call themselves guards are worthless pieces who can’t even shoot a target a foot away from them. Callow was the only other pony to actually try and make a difference, now he’s gone…”
“I’m sorry about Callow and I’ll help in any way I can. But if I’m going to do that then you're gonna have to deal with the problem of your mayor. Nopony like that should be leading anypony. Especially the whole town.” I’d probably kill him myself if he gave me a good enough reason to. But I don’t think I could just murder him in cold blood.
Stalk begins walking down the street, I’m guessing towards the motel. The streets are surprisingly devoid of ponies despite the decent size of the town. Me and Stardust quickly follow behind. “He may be trying to help the town’s defenses but with the amount he’s offering for a couple robots he could just hire a dozen mercs and be done with it.” Stardust says next to me.
“You two don’t worry about it. I don’t want you two getting in any kind of trouble.” Stalk then gestures in front of him, “Inns right over here. I’ll pop in for a second and talk to Pin then I gotta get back to work. I gotta pick up those slaver bodies.”
The RIverdale’s inn from the outside isn’t that impressive. It’s a tall, four story building that I believe used to be an apartment building before the war. Above the door is a neon red sign that says ‘River Heights’. It is one of the biggest buildings in this small sectioned off part of Alpony though. Almost towering three stories above the mayor's office.
Stalk opens one of the double doors leading into the building, “Pin wake up, we got two mares who need a room.” A small blue and green unicorn mare sitting behind a counter shakes awake, the book she was reading falls to the floor.

Pin looks at both me and Stardust with tired eyes, “Welcome to…” She begins yawning mid sentence, “...River Heights.”

Stalk walks up and throws a sac of caps onto the table, “Give them your nicest room, I’m paying.” I look over at Stardust and raise an eyebrow.

Pin grabs the bag of caps in her hooves and shakes it, “This is only half for our nicest room.” She lets out another yawn and places the bag of caps back on the table.

“I know, Thread said they could stay here for free tonight. I figured you’d let them sleep in the nicest room you got for a little extra.”

Pin picks back up the caps and puts them behind her desk. A small key enveloped in magic levitates onto the table, “Whatever. As long as I get to go back to sleep. Room is on the top floor. Farthest to the right.” She levitates her book from the ground and places it back on her face. I guess it’s not for reading.

Stalk looks back over at us and gives us a nod. “Goodnight you two. And thanks again.”

At the same time me and Stardust both thank him. We look at each other then back at Stalk. He gives us a little chuckle and walks out of the hotel. I look over at Stardust, “I don’t know about you, but this ‘best room’ thing sounds pretty great right about now.”

_____________________________________________________________________
Footnote: Level up! Sanity:90%

Fly ‘n Gun- Halves spread with ranged weapons when flying!

Statuette - +1 AGL

Chapter 5: Restless Colors

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Chapter 5: Restless Colors

“A little bit of color goes a long way in this world of dull tones”

Our room at River Heights was amazing. It had two giant comfy beds with clean pillows and blankets. It’s own kitchen with a working stove, of course no running water in the sink though, same with the bathroom. Stardust took one bed and I took the other. I was almost sad when I saw that there were only two beds. Sleeping in the same bed made me feel safe. But apparently sleeping in a bed by myself again made me restless.

…

Three in the fucking morning and I’m wide awake. The soft blue glow of my PipBuck lights up my whole side of the bedroom. I put my hoof down and let out a sigh. Maybe if I take a walk around town for a little I can clear my head. I slowly roll off the bed, making sure I don’t make a lot of noise. I would feel terrible if I woke Stardust up this late.

Walking by Stardust’s bed I tilt my PipBuck to gently light everything up. She’s curled up in a ball outside her blanket, shivering slightly. I slowly walk over and cover her up. She grabs the blanket into her hooves and smiles a little bit. Get some rest Stardust. I know you’ll be waking me up in the morning. Before I leave I make sure to grab my pistol and its holster. We may be in town but that doesn’t mean I’ll be safe.

As soon as I step outside I begin to hear the strange noises of the city at night. Ponies and strange creatures scream and howl in the distance, mostly accompanied by gunshots right after. Alpony and the rest of Equestria used to be a peaceful place. Where ponies weren’t getting shot down for little to no reason, if they needed something they could just nicely ask their neighbor, their friend, or hell nearly anypony. But here we are now in a time where at any moment you could be killed, raped, or stolen from without anypony batting an eye in your direction. It’s your problem to deal with it when it happens. Because that’s the kind of place the wasteland is. And that’s what I’ve learned in the few days I’ve been out here.

My thoughts were interrupted by a pair of hushed voices in a nearby alleyway. I quickly duck behind a dumpster and peek over to see who it is. It’s the mayor and a... bird pony? What? I shake my head back and forth. It’s definitely real. It’s a half pony, half other creature. Maybe a cat... But cats are small. Aren’t they? Whatever this hybrid bird, cat thing is, it’s wearing a set of black armor with a white painted bird claw on the outside. They and the mayor are arguing about something, but I can’t hear a word they’re saying. But that all changes when I see the bird grab a knife and stick it to Silver’s throat.

I quickly duck back behind the dumpster. Okay I have two choices. Let Silver die and hopefully Stalk will take his place. Or save him from the bird thing and deal with him later. I rub my face with my hooves. He may not be the best pony I’ve ever met but I can’t just sit by and watch somepony get murdered. I let out a deep breath. Sometimes I hate the good pony in my head.

I stand up from behind the dumpster and yell, “Listen bird... thing, I’m gonna need you to put the knife down, and walk away from Thread!” I brace myself to grab my pistol.

The bird sheaths his knife and looks over at me. “And who the fuck do you think you are.” Based on its voice I’m guessing it’s a male bird thing.

“Why, she’s the Midnight Marauder.” Silver Thread gets his stupid smirk on his face. “I wouldn’t mess with her. She took down Gut Rot all by herself.”

The bird glances back at Silver then back at me, “Listen I don’t give a single fuck about who you are, Thread here is part of my contract not you. But if you get in my way then you’re officially my problem.” He slowly puts his claw onto a pistol holster. “Get out of here kid.”

“Sorry bird, thing, but I’m not a kid. And I’m going to do the right thing.” Simultaneously we both draw our pistols and fire. A quick jolt of pain shoots into my left hoof and my PipBuck flashes a quick warning. Luckily though, my shot was better. The bird collapses to the ground with a hole going through his eye and out the back of his skull. Red ichor begins to pool on the ground around his corpse.

“Kid that was amazing!” Silver Thread gets an appalled face as he steps over the body of the bird. “Looks like he won’t be bothering me again any time soon.”

I sit down on my flank and hold up my hoof. The bullet went nearly all the way through my hoof, but it didn’t hit bone. I’ll just sip on a healing potion and it’ll be fine. “What did he want anyways?” I say to distract myself away from the wound.

“Let’s just say I owe some money to certain ponies and they aren’t the happiest right now. But thanks to you I’m off scot free!” He looks at my bloody hoof and winces, “Uhh… are you gonna be alright?”

“Yea, I’ll be fine. I have healing potions and bandages back in my saddlebags.” I look back down at my hoof. Nearly my whole hoof is soaked in my blood. If my coat wasn’t black It definitely would be red by now.

“Well I don’t know how to thank you once again, but I do owe you one.” He starts to trot past me. “Now go and get some rest, hero!” His laugh trails off into the night behind me.

Since I didn’t feel like getting in any more trouble tonight I flew back to the hotel. On my way up to our room I may have left a single bloody line of hoofprints. As quietly as I could I opened and closed the door. I can’t wait to lay back down. Getting shot in the leg really makes some- *CRACK*

“SWEET CELESTIA FUCK ME WITH YOUR TEN FOOT FUCKING HORN!!!”

“Midnight!?” The light clicks on and Stardust’s head appears above me from her bed. “What are you doing?!”

I let out a low, pained groan, “Wishing... I was... dead...”

…

Two healing potions and one mummification of my hoof later I could actually talk straight. “The bullet actually hitting me may not have hurt a whole lot but kicking the bed it was the absolute worse. And that’s saying something.”

Stardust wasn’t the happiest pony once she learned of my three in the morning adventure. “What I don’t get is why you went out in the middle of the night without even telling me! You got yourself shot, then didn’t think to wake me up to help you! You could have gotten killed out there Midnight!” This is the angriest I’ve seen Stardust since I’ve met her.

“I’m fine Stardust. It’s just a small wound to the leg, nothing bad.” I begin to put away the leftover bandages and potion bottles. “I should be the least of your worries anyways. I can take care of myself.”

“Midnight you don’t even know who you are! You lost your memory to some machine, then woke up literally three days ago without a single sense of what's going on. The only thing you really know about the wasteland is how to shoot a gun, surprisingly well, and getting yourself shot at over and over again without any care for yourself. You worry more about the ponies around you then you do yourself…” Stardust walks over to her bed and lies down, “And I seem to be more worried about you then you are yourself…”

“I’m sorry Stardust… ” Those are the only words my mouth could make. And they’re the only words my brain could agree with… “I.. uh…” C’mon brain! Say something and stop blabbering to yourself like a fucking brainded ghoul!

Stardust slowly sits up and looks over at me, her pure white mane draping over her face, “It’s fine Midnight… I have no right to yell at you…” I hear her sniffle a little bit, “I know you're just trying to help others. And that’s something I love about you that I wished I could love about myself. Just... promise me you’ll take care of yourself a little bit more.” She looks up and brushes her mane out of her face. I notice a couple tears dripping down her face.

I walk over and slowly sit on the bed next to her. I wipe the tears from her face with my wingtip and she lets out a soft giggle. “It’s going to be hard for me to change because that’s just who I am, but I can try for you Stardust. And I know you’ll be there when I fail to keep this promise.”

“We may have only known each other for a couple of days Midnight but over this time you’ve become the best pony I’ve ever known, and I can say that I’m happy to have been your friend.” She gives me a soft smile and wipes her face with her hoof.

At that moment, time seemed to freeze, not like when I was in the simulation, but my heart seemed to slow down along with the whole world around me. Like Stardust said, we’ve only known each other for less than a week but I couldn’t help but feel this strange feeling I’ve only felt once before. It’s not a bad feeling, but a good one. A great one actually.

I was thrown out of my thoughts by something rapidly shooting past my vision. “Midnight? Are you there?”

I shake my head and give Stardust a confused look, “Huh? Sorry I zoned out there for a second…”

“I asked what time it was, you still need to get some rest for tomorrow. We have a lot to do.”

I hold my pipbuck up to my face, “It’s almost five in the morning.” I let out a sigh. I barely feel tired yet. “ I really need to get some sleep or else I’m gonna die of sleep exhaustion before anything else.” I start to slide off of Stardust’s bed when I hear her make a strange noise behind me. “Uhh, you okay?”

I turn around to hear Stardust clear her throat. Her white mane is covering her eyes, “Um, you could sleep in my bed tonight if you want… It could maybe help you sleep… “

The feeling in my chest returned as she said that. But wow was I happy she asked, “Yea, just lemme grab my pillows and blank-” Before I could finish my sentence my whole body is wrapped in a soft purple glow and I’m picked up into the air and put down on my side onto the bed.

“Lift up your head.” Stardust says gently. As I do this a pair of pillows slide underneath. Stardust’s face then appears in front of mine on a different set of pillows. Her horn glows one last time as a blanket covers both of us up. A wave of warmth fills my whole body.
“Thank you Midnight…”
“For what?”
“For being my friend.”

…

Last night was THE single best five hours of sleep I’ve ever had! No stupid fucking raider attacks, no two hundred year old pony trying to eat me, the only thing here to ruin it was Stardust accidentally dropping a book on my face.

…

THUMP
“Oh my gosh Midnight! I’m so so sorry!”
“Mmph, what the hell was that…” I feel around the blanket and my hoof touches something hard. I scoop it up in my hooves and struggle to open my eyes. A purple book with the title Mastery of the Arcane Sciences, By :Starlight Glimmer. This isn’t one of the books she took from the library. It looks completely undamaged compared to those.
The book is enveloped in Stardust’s purple glow and levitates from my hooves. “Sorry, I figured I’d read a little while you were asleep.”
“You were reading about the Arcane Sciences. What are those?” Stardust raises an eyebrow. “What?”
“Midnight. It’s magic. You know. The stuff I can do with my horn. And the stuff that powers your pipbuck, and every other piece of technology in Equestria.”

“Okay I figured that as much but why isn’t it just called magic instead of Arcane Sciences.” If it were up to me I would just call it magic like a normal, not smart pony.

“During the war with the new advance in technology ponies coined the term Arcane Sciences to refer to the combination of machine and magic and the study of them. But if you want to call it magic then just call it magic because that’s exactly what it is.” Stardust opens up the book again with her levitation and begins skimming through the pages.

From the small glances of the various charts, graphs, and pictures of complex machinery I wouldn’t be able to understand any of what the book was about without several other books to help me. Stardust stops flipping through the pages on a section labeled Neuromancy. I look up at Stardust, “What the hell is Neuromancy.”

Stardust lets out a little giggle, “It’s the type of spell I need to hopefully get your memory back. I think I have all the info we would need to try it. But I don’t know how risky it is though…” Stardust must have seen my eyes go wide because she gives me a big smile.

My eyes shoot open wide, “Is this something we can try? Like, right now try?”

Stardust gives me a small nod, “I think I can do it… But no guarantees...” I practically fly into the ceiling in excitement. I get to know who I really am! Stardust stands up and sits on the opposite side of the bed. “I need you to lay down in front of me and so we can start.” I grab a pillow and lay down on my stomach in front of her. “Are you ready?” I nod my head anxiously.

Stardust’s horn begins to glow with its light purple glow. I notice her face begins to scrunch up from the strain. “Are you okay?” She nods slightly and puts her horn to my head. Instantly the room around me begins to wash away into pure white and I begin to feel a tingle fill my body. Then it all fades away to normal and the tingling dissipates along with it. Stardust drops to the bed beside me. “I can’t do it Midnight… I’m sorry...”

A deep voice appears from the entrance to our room, “I don’t know what kind of weird sex thing you two are doing, but I’m going to leave now.” I look over to see Stalk’s head poking around the corner.

“Oh no we aren’t like that! We’ve only known each other for a couple days! I couldn’t imagine doing that! Especially with Stardust!” I begin to panic as my cheeks heat up.

“Calm down kid, I'm just messing with ya. Just came to make sure you two are awake. Ya got quite a bit to do today..” He gives a little wave of his hoof and walks away. I look back over at Stardust. She still hasn’t moved from where she was. Her hooves are covering her face.

I nudge her side with her hoof and a giggle comes from under her hooves. “Are you ready to get back on our wondrous journey?”

She uncovers her face and gives me a confused look, “You’re not mad at me?”

“Why would I be mad at you? You tried to help me Stardust. The fact that you even tried means more than anything to me. So I should be thanking you if anything. So, thank you Stardust. For everything.”

…

The Robroco building from a distance looks just like a normal factory. The area around it is decently empty other than a couple of broken down wagons, but in front of the main entrance is, from what I can tell, two big piles of scrap metal. I tell Stardust it’s clear and sheath my sniper rifle on my back. As we approach the metal piles they slowly look more and more like metal ponies. Almost like Cook Cook with his metal armor.

“Uhh Stardust. What are these things?” I poke one with a hoof. They are about the size of a stallion and also have the shape of a stallion but they’re metal. On its head is a glass dome of some kind. Underneath it is a mess of wires and random circuitry.

“They’re called protectponies.” I give Stardust a blank look. “It’s a robot.”

“Whoa whoa whoa, wait. There’s different kinds of robots! That's freaking awesome!” I look back down at the protectpony corpse and poke it again. If somepony told me a week ago I could see robots, I would have never believed them.

“I sometimes forget you don’t know anything about the wasteland.” Stardust flips one of the protectponies over with her telekinesis. On this side of the robot are various scorch marks and holes that look like they melted their way into the robot. “Seems a laser weapon took them out. It was probably the pony that was originally hired to do this.”

“LASERS! There are lasers!”

Stardust facehoofs. “Okay I’m going to have to find some way to tell you about all the differences between the real world and the simulation.”

I want a laser gun. “So how does one acquire one of these laser weapons?” Stardust shakes her head and begins to walk towards the entrance of the factory. “What? It’s not everyday your science fiction dreams become a reality.”

Stardust opens the door to the factory. The smell of rust pierces my nose and nearly makes me sneeze. The first thing I notice is another metal carcass in the center of the room. This one is a lot different then the pony-shaped protectponies. This on is a large metal ball with a bunch of metal appendages sticking out from it with various tools attached to each. Three of them appear to be where it views from and three others I couldn’t even begin to know what they are. A saw. A claw. And a water gun? Why would they need a water gun?

“Those ones are called Mr.Handy’s. I believe Griffons had some inspiration for their design.” Stardust walks past me and begins to search the room. I stare at the weird shaped cleaning robots for a little longer before walking away into a different room labeled ‘Factory floor’.

The factory floor is about as big as I thought it would be for a robot factory. Various pieces of the unfinished robots cover conveyor belts. Some half finished ones dangle from magnets on the ceiling along with other shapes of robots I don’t even recognise.

“PLEASE SHOW SOME IDENTIFICATION”

I scream and duck behind a fallen catwalk.

“PLEASE SHOW SOME IDENTIFICATION”

I peek my head over to see one of the Mr.Handy robots. Except this one hasn’t been blown down with a laser gun.

“I REQUIRE IDENTIFICATION FOR THIS AREA” Its robotic voice doesn’t sound like Watcher’s voice at all. “IF IDENTIFICATION ISN’T DISPENSED, SECURITY MEASURES WILL BE TAKEN.”

Oh shit, “Uhhh… My name is-”

Stardust quickly jumps in front of me, “My name is Millet and this is my newest intern Midnight Note!”

“Welcome back Ms.Millet. And please get an identification card for Ms.Note as soon as possible. Oh and I am loving the new mane color Millet.” The robot silently floats away towards the main entrance door.

I look at Stardust with amazement, “How do you know who Millet is? That was amazing.”

“It was the nametag on the front desk. Honestly I’m surprised it worked.” She lets out a long sigh. “That could have ended badly.”

The floor above us begins to rumble violently and dust begins to gently sprinkle from the ceiling. “Okay what kind of crazy robot is making that noise.” I look over at Stardust and she returns the look with a worried one. “Not a good one.” Above us the rumbling continues until we hear a loud thump and it slowly fades to the other side of the factory.

I quickly look around the room to try and find the nearest staircase to the higher floor. “Midnight what are you doing?”
“A-ha! Found it.” I open a door labeled ‘upper floor’ and begin to run up the stairs. I hear Stardust scramble up the stairs behind me. Once I reach the top I pause and check my EFS.
Stardust stops next to me, breathing heavily. “What the hell are you doing?”

I stop spinning in a circle when I find both a red and blue tick. “I’m scanning for threats. There’s a red tick and a blue tick that way.” I point my hoof east.

“I have no idea what you’re talking about.”

I let out a groan, “It’s a feature on my pipbuck. I can see the location of enemies and friendlies. Red is bad. Blue is good.”

Stardust sticks her head out of the doorway and quickly brings it back in. Red beams of light begin to shoot past her. Down the hallway the red tick begins to quickly get closer to us. “Okay we need to run past it!”

“What!?”

“Just trust me!” I quickly run into the hallway and take off into the air as close to the ceiling as I can get. The robot was nothing like I was expecting. It has a giant metal chest and appears to move on four giant metal legs with a threaded ball at the end. On its side is a giant gun spewing what seems to be hundreds of lasers in our direction. I quickly fly past it until I reach the door the blue tick is hiding behind. Stardust appears in a flash of light next to me. I quickly open the door and jump in, slamming into a bright colored mass. I hear Stardust close the door behind me.

I hear a muffled voice of a stallion below me, “Could you please get off of me?”

“Shit, sorry.” I flap my wings until I’m up on my hooves. Below me is the brightest earth pony I’ve ever seen. He has a short blue, pink and green mane with a matching tail and his coat is an extremely bright yellow.

“Who the hell are you two?” He doesn’t really sound too happy to see us. Doesn’t look that happy either

“Well I’m Midnight. And this is Stardust.” I wave a hoof in her direction. “We came to find a robot for the mayor. I’m guessing you're the pony who was hired before us?”

“Wait a second… I think I know you…” The bright stallion puts a hoof to his chin. “You’re that Midnight Marauder aren’t you?”

“Luna damn it, Why can’t I go a single day without getting recognised by somepony.” I let out a sigh. “Who are you anyways?”

“Neon. I’ve been trapped in the building for the last couple days now. I can’t escape with that sentinel out there though.”

You’ve been here for a couple days? How do you know about Midnight then?” Stardust says next to me. “You don’t have a pipbuck and there’s no radio in here.” Speaking of here, I haven’t even noticed we’re in a supply closet. A shelf of random prewar cleaning supplies and a mop bucket are really the only thing in the room.

“I’ve not been in the supply closet this whole time. Down the other way is another room. I managed to fix an old radio while I was here.” He lets out a sigh. On the shelf I notice a couple magazines labeled Playpony and Wingboner Magazine. I quickly grab them in with a wing and put them into my saddlebags.

Neon gives me a weird look, “I’m going to ignore that.” He looks back over at Stardust. “You seem to be the smarter one here. Do you have any ideas on how to stop that thing?”

“Hey!” I mean it’s true, but c’mon dude.

“Well sentinels have a thick armor plating and I doubt anything we have can get through it.” Stardust sits down and begins to look through her saddle bags. Neon does the same.

You two and your rummaging. I pull up my pipbuck’s inventory sorter and begin going through all of my belongings. It’s mostly food, Nuka-Cola, bottlecaps, and ammo.

Neon closes his bags and straps them back on extremely well for an earth pony. “All I have is my laser pistol, some ammo for it and a couple plasma grenades.”

“Wait, what are plasma grenades?” I really wish the wasteland wouldn’t stop harassing me with all this new stuff.

Neon gives me another weird look, “Grenades that explode with supercharged and heated hydrogen that’ll melt nearly anything around them. But I’ve already tried throwing one at it and it barely left a scratch.”

Well what does it take to kill these things then! I look back at the shelf of cleaning supplies. Wonderglue, abraxo cleaner and random detergents. None of these are going to he- Wait! “I got it! Neon give me those genades!”

He shrugs and tosses three of them over to me, “I don’t know what you plan to do with them, but okay.”

“Okay how do I activate them?” Neon points to the button at the top of one. “Okay cool. Stardust I need you to pour some of that glue on these.”

“Midnight what are you planning?” I figured neither of them would understand. Hell, it even took me a little bit of convincing.

“If our weapons can’t do anything to it why don’t we just bury it. Make it so it can’t do anything.” Almost simultaneously they both give me a weird look. “Just… Trust me on this.” Stardust shrugs and begins to help me glue the grenades together. “No promises how well this is going to work. And if it does you can thank me later.” I check my pipbuck’s mapping tool for a good place to lead the sentinel. Down the opposite way we came in is a more open room, perfect for smashing the sentinel. “Okay I’ll be back. Well, hopefully I’ll be back.”

“Wait, you're going alone!?” Stardust puts her hoof on my shoulder, “Are you sure.”

“Well it’s my plan and if I fail then hopefully it’s a good enough distraction for you two to get out safely. Like I said earlier Stardust, you don’t have to worry about me.” I grab the glue in my mouth and prepare myself to open the closet door.

Lead the sentinel to the end of the hallway, glue the grenades to the ceiling and fly like hell. Let's go! I open the door to the closet and quickly close it behind me. The sentinel turns and his laser weapon begins to rotate. I quickly take off into the air down the hallway. The sentinel begins to fire off his ridiculous laser gun towards me. I feel multiple shots hit my flank and begin to burn through my armor but I ignore the pain as much as I can.

Once at the end of the hallway I dive to the left into cover but the lasers don’t stop. As soon as the sentinel turns the corner I fly to the center of the room and begin to pour the glue onto the trio of grenades. I shove them into place and turn around. The sentinel begins to roll towards me as fast as it’s wheels can spin. I look back up at the grenades and hit all three buttons on each of the grenades. I wait a second to lure the sentinel towards me a little more and jolt off back towards the hallway.

The blast from the plasma grenades was a lot bigger than I was expecting and I’m glad I only got hit with the very edge of the explosion. It threw me at least ten feet down the hallway and sent the whole room the sentinel was in into the factory floor below.

I throw my hooves into the air while on my back, “Hell yea! Fuck you robot!” Other than the burning in my flank, and the slight headache, that went perfectly! I grab a potion out of my saddlebags and quickly down it. The headache and burns die down quickly. I toss the empty potion bottle to the side. I don’t know what they make them out of but, I love them.

“There’s no way you actually pulled it off…” I hear Neon’s voice behind me. “Dj Pon3 was right about you. You really are something else.”

I hear a different set of hooves quickly come towards me, “Midnight you’re okay! I was so worried about you!” Stardust’s head appears above mine. Her long mane falls into my face. “Oops, sorry.” Stardust laughs and pushes her mane to the side. “You never cease to amaze me, you know that?”

“Maybe if we figure out who I am that would explain how I’m so good at this kind of stuff.” I stand back up to my hooves and stretch. I look down the hallway at Neon. He looks like he’s just seen a ghost. I trot over to him and wave a hoof in his face.

“I think you broke him Midnight.” Stardust says behind me.

I poke Neon on the nose, “Hey Mr.Neon you gonna be okay.”

“H-how?” How? How did I what? “Was everything Pon3 said about you actually true?”
I give him a slow nod, “Uhh, yeah… Why?”
“I didn’t believe any of it. I figured you were just a rumor somebody made up for a cheap thrill. And once I met you it seemed like you were barely capable of shooting a pistol. Clearly you are a force to be reckoned with.” Not sure if I should be thankful or hurt by any of this. Neon lets out a sigh. “What I’m trying to say is, thank you Midnight.”
“You're welcome Neon, but this is just kinda what I do.”
“She’s not lying actually, charging in to help ponies she doesn’t even know. Even if it costs her everything. It’s her thing.” Stardust puts a hoof around my neck. “She saved me from slavers a couple days ago. And thanks to her I’m still breathing.”
“I’m just doing what’s right, and what I need to do. That’s it.” I start to walk down the hallway towards where I’m guessing Neon held up for a couple days. I hear Neon whisper something to Stardust but I just ignore it. I don’t deserve all the praise for something I’m going to do anyways.

Surrounding the door are plenty of scorch marks from the sentinel. Even more cover the actual door. Clearly this robot was determined to stop anypony who it saw as a threat. As soon as I open the door I’m greeted with the sound of music. Must be the radio Neon fixed. The room is a bigger room than I expected. On one side are multiple tall pod looking things. In the center of the room is a long workbench with various pieces of robots, scrap metal and electronics covering most of it.

“In case you were looking for them, the robots the mayor wanted are in the pods. I already hacked the terminal. Just need to actually activate them.” Neon walks up beside me along with Stardust. “I’ve had plenty of time to tinker and mess with all the terminals and various other things in the room.”

“Are the robots even functional?” Stardust walks over to the pods.

“Well from what the terminal says only one of them actually works correctly. Sadly, over half of them are missing.” He walks over to the terminal and begins typing quickly. One of the pods lets out a low hissing noise and slides open.

“Hoofto is primed and ready for your pleasure. Please assume the position”

“WHAT THE FUCK DID THAT ROBOT JUST SAY”

…

After several minutes of arguing about keeping my very own sex robot because it would be funny and an hour long walk back to Riverdale because protectponies are super fucking slow we finally completed our mini mission. Neon used his apparent magical powers to reprogram Hoofto into a fully functioning protectpony that could protect and serve Riverdale. And surprisingly the mayor was okay with our single robot.

“Here’s your promised pay of two thousand caps. You can split it between you two as you see fit.” I grab the caps and toss them over to Neon. He scrambles to catch them in his hooves. “Now about this info you wanted. I heard a group of ponies is around the Ministry of Magic building an hour's trot southeast. Apparently they're searching every nearby building for something.” A marker pops up on my EFS. I don’t know what kind of magic this pipbuck has but I love it.

“Thanks Silver. We’re gonna head out while we still have daylight.” I start to walk out the door when Silver begins to speak about something else.

“By the way Midnight. I heard the Talons aren’t too happy about you killing one of their own. If I were you I’d watch your back and the skies.” I give him a nod and walk out of his office. Both Neon and Stardust follow.

“So how do you wanna split the caps? I’m fine with seventy five twenty five. You did most of the work and saved my ass,” Neon asks. I shake my head and he gives me a confused look.

“Keep em. In the three days I’ve been in the wasteland I have about fifteen thousand caps without even trying.” He raises an eyebrow in shock but I just shrug. “I keep getting paid for stuff I’d do for free. You seem like a good pony. So keep 'em.”

“Trust me there’s no way you’ll convince her to take even five percent. She tried to decline more than seven thousand the other day.” Stardust just shakes her head.

“Whatever, you got your money and I got the info we needed.” We start to walk down the hallway.

“So what's your plan Neon?” Stardust says next to me.

“Yeah, I’m also curious.” I open the door to outside and we all stop moving.

“You know I’ve never really thought about it. I took the job for the caps but never really knew where I was going with them.” He sits down on his flank, “Once I learned the mayor here was offering decent money for something I’m decent at doing I figured I could make a quick cap and leave. Probably go back to my useless wandering.”

I look over at Stardust and give her a shrug. She smiles in return and nods her head, “So Neon.” His ears perk up. “Wanna wander aimlessly with an amnesiac pegasus and a smart purple unicorn?”

He sits down for a moment on his flank and thinks for a second. Then lets out a sigh, “You know what? Fuck it.”

…

Our walk to the M.o.M hub was interrupted by our curiosity. About halfway to the building we passed a gun store named Royal Armaments and decided to give it a quick search.

Even from the outside we could tell the whole place was trashed and looted. But once we went inside we realized truly just how bad it was. Each of the gun cases had been smashed. Locked ammo crates were hit and thrown repeatedly until they broke open.

“So why did you want us to come in here Midnight. There’s literally nothing left to scavenge.” Neon hadn’t even bothered to try searching anything. He just found a chair and sat down on it.

“Everywhere has to have something Neon. You just have to look hard enough.” I walk into the back room and accidentally smash my face against the door.

“Yea and most places have doors. You just have to know how to use them.” I turn around and blow a raspberry at him. Despite all of the smart ass jokes, I don’t think I’ve seen Neon actually smile yet.

For the door being over two-hundred years old it held up pretty well. Apparently nopony managed to break through it either. I kneel down in front of the door and begin to try and pick the lock. I break several bobby pins before I actually manage to open it with a click that will never not be satisfying.

I hear a sarcastic whistle behind me, “Not only is she good at fighting but she can do what most unicorns fail to do with even their horns. Impressive.”

“Midnight’s full of strange talents she can’t explain. Like did you know she can even sing?” Oh no Stardust please don’t bring that up.

“No way. I’ll believe it the day a Molerat flies!” I quickly walk into the locked room. There’s no way I want to be in that conversation.

Then I see the most disappointing thing I’ve seen in awhile. Something to make my seven broken bobby pins a waste. Somepony had gone and blown a hole into the back of the store and looted everything but a black brick. I begin to rub my face with my hooves. All that work for nothing. I stop rubbing my face when it hits me, why the hell is there a black brick?

I look down at the brick to notice that it’s a gun case! I stick my head out of the hole and see the unfortunate skeleton of a unicorn. I’m not sure how they died but it sucks for them. I got myself a new gun!. I sit down in front of it and begin to unlatch it. Whatever is inside can’t be that big. I could probably fit about half of my rifle into it, but that’s about it. It is decently taller than any gun would be though, which is pretty intriguing.As I go to lift the lid I realize that it’s locked. But nothing can withstand the power of bobby pins and a screwdriver!

Yes it can. It really, really can. I had used at least three quarters of my bobby pins before I gave up. And by the time I broke my twelveth one I about threw it against the wall in anger. I made enough room in my saddlebags for it and decided that I’d have to unlock it once I get a little bit more practice in.

I get up and walk out of the room. From across the room Stardust speaks up, “What took you so long Midnight? Anything good?” Stardust must have gotten bored too because she pulled up a chair next to Neon and sat.

“A gun case with something inside. Too bad the lock’s too tough to open. I put it in my saddlebags for later. Did you find anything?” I sit on the floor in front of both of them.

“I found three rounds for your pistol, and two rounds for my gun.” This whole thing was a bust.

“Told you it was useless to come in here. We’ll find better stuff to scavenge at the M.o.M building anyways.”

“Listen here Mr. Pessimist I’ll have… Why is there a group of ponies outside?” Both Neon and Stardust turn around at the same time. I sigh and stand up, “Guess we better go see what they want.” I walk out of the gun store, Neon and Stardust follow.

From what I can tell the ponies aren’t raiders, but they also don’t have the best intentions either. Most are armed with shoddy guns and makeshift melee weapons. Barely a threat to a bloat sprite honestly.

A dark blue and black unicorn stallion walks in front of the others. “That case and whatever else you three stole is the property of us. And we’d like our property back, peacefully.”

“You gotta be fucking kidding me right now, right?” I look over at Stardust and Neon, both look just as unimpressed as I am. “Listen, there’s one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, of you, and three of us.”

The unicorn keeps his serious attitude, “Your point is?”

I couldn’t help but let out a laugh.“Yea, I don’t really have a point actually.” I look over at Neon and Stardust, “I’ve had enough killing for a while. So let's just hurt them. A lot.”

The poor bastards never saw it coming.

…

“Is this really the M.o.M building? For something so official I thought it would be a lot bigger... And more put together.” I could hear it in Stardust’s voice how disappointed she was with the size of the building. The main entrance to the building had completely collapsed and the whole building itself was only the size of a small apartment building. I don’t understand how such an important building could be so miniscule compared to everything else.

“My pipbuck says this is the building, and so far this thing hasn’t lied.” Except for the fact that it somehow has a fucking flashlight. “Wait, where’s Neon?” I spin around in a circle to check my EFS but only Stardust appears.

“I think he went around the back of the building, not sure why though.” As I walk around the building his blue tick comes into view on my EFS. I call down the alleyway for him, careful not to be too loud.

His colorful head pops around the corner, “I found a back entrance.”

“Nice. Stardust! Neon found the entrance!” I yell behind me. She comes trotting around the corner.

“We’ll need your expertise to get in but it’s nothing you can’t handle.” Neon gestures towards the door with a hoof.

Too bad he was wrong. This lock is just as tough as the black case. Except this time I decided not to waste more than half my bobby pins on it. “Okay new plan.” I look over at Neon. “I would back up if I were you.”

I back up and brace myself for the impact. “Midnight NO!” Too late. I had used my wings for an extra burst of speed, and wow did it work great! The door easily caved in without any problem and tore off of all of its hinges. As well as it worked it does have its flaws. Red flashing lights begin to fill the hallway and a pair of turrets fold out of the walls.

A couple shots fire off into my chest before a light purple shield covers my whole body. I quickly draw my pistol and fire rounds into both of them. Each of them explode into little pieces of metal shrapnel. Luckily I have armor or I would definitely be in a lot of pain.

“Are you okay Midnight?” I hear Neon say from the entrance.

I look down at where the bullets hit. Multiple spots of blood begin to seep through the cloth. “Little bit of stinging but nothing bad.” That’s when it hits me that neither Neon or Stardust has armor. “Why don’t either of you have armor?” I look at Stardust, “You’re the one who made me wear this in the first place.”

Neon just shrugs, “I could never afford it.”

“It’s because you’ve gotten yourself shot more than I have seen anypony else in the wasteland. You need it or else stupid decisions like this one will get you killed.” The flashing alarm surrounding me is a good reminder of my good decisions.

“I’m not gonna say you’re wrong but you two should definitely get some kind of protection. Especially if you're traveling with me.” It’s not like I don’t have the caps to buy them both armor. Hell I could probably buy out the whole River Heights building if I wanted to.

Neon just shrugs it off and walks past me into the building. Stardust holds out a hoof to help me up. “Where did you learn that shield spell?”

“From one of the books I got back at the library. Your strange sleeping habits gave me time to read in the morning.” I pull a healing potion out of my bag and drink it down. Tossing the bottle to the side.

I turn around and start to follow where Neon went down the hallway. I begin to run when I start to hear shots fire off ahead. Two red ticks appear on my EFS along with Neon. One of the red ticks disappears. Right after, the second red tic goes down.

I quickly ran into where the main entrance would have been. Two piles of red hot metal sit under smoking holes in the ceiling. I look over to see Neon sitting at a terminal typing casually. “Nice job with the turrets Neon.”

He doesn’t look away from the terminal, “Turrets aren’t that bad. At least these ones don’t have armor piercing rounds.” Armor piercing rounds? What’s the point in even wearing armor if the bullet’s just ignore it!

“What’s all on the terminal? Anything good?” Stardust says as she walks past me.

“I was hoping for something to turn off the alarm. Nothing here but the ramblings of a secretary. Most are corrupted anyways.” He hops off of the chair and starts to walk up a set of stairs off to the side, “I’m gonna go check up here.”

I hop over the desk and sit down in front of the terminal. Neon was right. Most are just a mess of corrupted symbols. Luckily there are a couple of legible ones. I decided to start with the oldest one on the list.

Entry #5

Today Twilight actually came to this branch of the Ministry buildings. Every time she’s in Alpony she never makes it a point to come to her own Ministry. I never question it. It’s not like this is the most impressive building ever made. The cause for her recent visit is because somepony had an interview for a job or something. I wasn’t really paying attention but from what I heard this new unicorn has some real talent! Nearly as good as Twilight herself is what everypony around the office has been saying.

A couple of the eggheads upstairs said that as soon as they went into Twilight’s Office they heard a bunch of loud bangings and magical noises. I don’t blame them for not looking though. Who knows what that mare is doing.

Entry # 32

It’s been a while since I’ve made one of these hasn’t it? Figured it was about time I made another. Today they’re remodeling the main entrance to make it look more “flashy” because people kept saying this place didn’t look like a Ministry building. But what am I complaining about? I get a whole two weeks off! I was thinking about taking a train over to Manehattan and doing some well deserved dress shopping and getting the girls back together!

In the middle of reading the last one Stardust decided to try and take the magazines I found back in the Robronco building. I didn’t catch much of the last entry. But it was talking about how the secretary was quitting because somepony died. But I cared way more about getting my magazines back.

“Can pegasi really do that with their wings? I guess that’s a perk to having them isn’t it?” I try to grab the magazine out of her telekinetic grasp but I nearly fall on my face. “Calm down, I’ll give em back. I just saw you snag them and I didn’t want you to have all the fun.” She turns the magazine around to show me the picture of the pegasus doing some lewd things with her flank and wings. “Just calm down and look with me.”

I feel my face set on fire. If my coat was any other color than black It would have turned completely red. “Stardust put that away! I’ll let you look at it later...”

She sighs and turns it back around to her. “Fine, but I’ll keep you to that.” She closes the magazine and levitates it back into my saddlebags. All around us the flashing red lights stop. Neon yells something from up the stairs but I can’t make any of it out. “We better check on Neon.” Stardust says and begins to walk ahead of me.

“Stardust why were you even wanting to look at the magazines in the first place. You could have just asked. And there's only mares in them anyway!”

Stardust glances back and giggles, “Who said I wasn’t into mares?”

I slow down a little bit as a little pony in my head begins to cheer. What are the chances that my best friend is also into mares! My brain begins to think of all the possibilities but I shut it down before it gets too wrapped up in thoughts that it doesn’t even know if they are real or not. I put it as one of the things I need to figure out, but this one is a little bit higher on the list.

As I break out of my lesbian thoughts I realize that Stardust is already in the other room. I briskly fly up the rest of the stairs into the hallway. At the end of the short hallway is a giant pile of rubble from the ceiling collapsing. Stardust calls me over from a room off to the right. A small sign on the wall says that this room was once the Ministry’s lab. I walk in the room and nearly trip on another piece of rubble. I’m really not sure how this place is still together.

Neon is typing at a terminal once again and Stardust is looking at a bunch of old lab equipment. Occasionally putting weird looking tools into her saddlebags. “Anything on the terminal Neon?” I call over to him.

“Mostly just old formulas. I was able to use it to hack into the Ministry building’s security though. This one has a lot more access to the mainframe of the building than the secretary’s terminal.” I understand literally half of that. I’m useless when it comes to terminals. I decided to take a look around the room myself.

Most of it is old lab equipment that I have no clue what it could be used for. But I did find some healing potions and a couple bags of something my pipbuck labeled as Rad-Away. I made sure to put them in my bag for later. The only other interesting thing I could find was an old lab coat with the Ministry’s logo on it. Other than a weird colored stain on one of the legs it looks practically brand new.

“Stardust you want this?” Her head pokes up from behind one of the lab tables.

Her magic envelopes the lab coat from my hoof and she begins to fumble it on. She hooks back on her saddlebags and does a little spin, “How do I look?”

“Like an Egghead.” I hear Neon say from the other side of the room. Stardust sticks her tongue out and looks back over at me.

“It fits you actually. Makes you look even smarter than you already are.” She gives me a little smile and goes back to what she was doing.
“Hey Midnight can I ask you something?” Neon stands up from the terminal and walks over to me. “Have you noticed that there is a big lack of skeletons around the whole building? And not to mention we are the first ponies to trip the security in this place?”
“You know now that you mention it, I haven’t found a single one.” And we were told this is where we can find the strange ponies we were looking for. “Let’s search the rest of the building and check the area. If the mayor was lying then we’re going to have to have a talk with him once this is over.”
“Too bad this is the only other room that we can get to in the whole building. All the others have collapsed.” He lets out a sigh. “Looks like the mayor’s idea was a big bust.”
“What about the hole in the ceiling in the hallway? From the outside it looked like this place had more than two floors.” Stardust asks. If I were to guess the third floor is probably where Twilight’s office was. That would probably be the best place to look in this whole place.
“I mean if you know a way to get up there then sure.” I give him a blank look. “What?”
“I can fly. She can teleport.” I say and continue to give Neon a blank look.
‘Oh yea.” He facehoofs, “I’m not used to being around others.” I know that feeling.
“Stardust are you done in here? We got one more floor to check out before we bail.” Stardust stands up from a different table that I didn’t even know she was behind.
“Yeah. I think I got everything that I want from here.” As she walks around the table I notice how one of her bags is nearly filled with stuff.
I walk out into the hallway and under the hole in the ceiling. Stardust walks up next to me and disappears in a flash, reappearing again above me. “Okay now how am I supposed to get up there.” I look at Neon and up at the hole, then back at Neon.
I bet I can lift him up there. “Here I’ll carry you. I’m pretty sure I can.”
“Yea, no. I’m not getting on your back.” He starts to walk backwards.
“Nah I’ll wrap my hooves around your back and fly up. C’mon, it won’t be that bad.”
He walks up next to me and lets out a sigh, “I can't believe I’m agreeing to this. Just get it over with.”
I fly into the air above him and wrap my hooves around his chest just behind his forehooves. I start flapping my wings as fast and hard as I can and we begin to slowly float into the air. About a foot into the air I already begin to feel strain on both my wings and hooves.
“Please hurry!” Neon yells.
“Maybe if you weren’t so heavy!” I flap my wings faster until we are above the next floor. At that point I lose control of my wings and hooves and drop myself and Neon onto the floor. I roll onto my back, panting heavily. “That's definitely the hardest thing I’ve ever done.” Whew!
“And it’s something we are never ever doing again!” Neon stands up and dusts himself off. He looks over at Stardust. “Why couldn’t you just teleport me up?”
“Uhh, because not every unicorn can do that. When I first teleported Midnight and me at the same time I passed out from burnout. Not to mention just teleporting myself is decently challenging on its own.”
“Fair enough.” He looks back at me, “We are never going to do that again!”
“You know what. I’m fine with that.” I stand back up to my hooves and look around the room, stretching in the progress. It’s significantly larger than every other room in this building. But at the same time it feels so… empty. The only furniture is a couple couches on one of the walls and a desk at one end of the room. But other than that the room is just an open room with a couple of smashed out windows and a giant hole in the floor.
“Uhh Midnight, Neon… come look at this” Stardust is looking through a doorway. Me and Neon glance at each other and walk over. Just past the doorway is a stairway leading down into pure darkness. At the bottom I can make out the shape of multiple pony figures.
“Is that what I think it is?” Neon says next to me.
I turn on my pipbuck’s flashlight and point it down the staircase. A pile of at least twenty skeletons of ponies covers the entire floor. Many of them are still wearing their lab coats, a few of them wearing old suits. They had nowhere to go when the bombs fell. It was either stay together and die or leave the building to die on your own. Poor souls. I need to walk away. It’s beginning to be too much for me.
I walk over behind the desk and sit down. On top of the desk is multiple rotted stacks of papers and a flipped over picture frame. I grab the frame with my hooves and almost stab myself with a shard of glass. It’s a picture of six ponies and a small purple dragon who look like they’re having the time of their lives. I instantly recognise the blue pegasus from my figurine. And only know Twilight because of Stardust. The pink and orange earth ponies, white unicorn, and yellow pegasus are all mysteries to me.
I’m not sure why I did this but I took the picture out of the frame and put it into my saddlebags. Something inside me told me I’ll need it. But not what for. I search the desk and find more rotted papers. In one final hope I glance under the desk and find a *sqwee* safe!
About five bobby pins later and it opens up nicely. Inside is a small bag of pre war coins that I don’t see why we would have any use for. And along with some more papers is a strange crown and another one of those glass balls.

I peek my head over the desk. “Hey Stardust! What is this thing?” I put the crown thingy on top of my head.

Stardust squeaks really loud and runs over to me, “A recollector! I can’t believe you found one!” She grabs it off of my head with her hooves, “I never thought I would get the chance to hold one in my hooves.”

“Sooo what does it do exactly?” It looks like a normal crown of some kind.

She sets it back up onto my head, “It allows non unicorns to view memory orbs!” She must have sensed how that meant nothing to me. “If a pony wants to keep a recording of a memory they can extract it and put it into an orb.”

I hold up the orb I found in the safe, “I think I have two others in my saddlebags too. I’ll have to view them when I get back.”

Stardust lets out a happy squee. “We’ll have to look through them when we get back to the room! I’m so excited!” I take the crown off of my head and put it and the memory orb away into my saddlebags.

I get up and walk to the big windows at the end of the room. Neon is already there looking out. From where we are I can almost see River Heights. But it doesn’t compare to the giant white tower looming over the center of the city. Its height put's skyscrapers to shame.

Suddenly, all around the building explosions begin to rock the floors and wall around us. Neon nearly falls to the ground next to me. Behind me I hear Stardust yell, “What is happening!”

I look out the window towards the ground. Large clouds of smoke are slowly floating up outside. “I think somepony is blowing up the building!” I yell as loud as I can. A large piece of rubble falls from the ceiling and blocks our only way out. Along with a different chunk on the other side.

Neon yells next to me, “How the hell are we going to get out now!?”

I look around the room before stopping at the giant set of windows. I pull out my pistol and fire a couple of rounds into it. “We need to jump!” Stardust grabs a larger piece of the rubble in her magic and throws it through, shattering a giant chunk of the window and spilling glass onto the ground below.

Neon backs up shaking his head, “What do you expect me to do! I can’t jump!”

“Teleport out of here Stardust!” She nods and teleports away in a flash. “I’m so sorry Neon!” I quickly say. I quickly scoop him up onto my back. Almost instantly he begins squirming and screaming. I brace myself and jump out of the window, beating my wings as fast as I can to slow our fall. Behind us the building makes an extremely loud crash and begins its final stages of collapsing. About ten feet from the ground my wings give out and we crash to the ground below.

Stardust helps us to our hooves and yells at us to back up. We get about a half a block away before we stop to catch our breaths. The Ministry building finally gives out and fully collapses to the ground. A large cloud of dust begins to rise from the ground into the sky.

Next to me Neon finally catches his breath, “Don’t you DARE, jump out a window with me on your back again! What did we just talk about!”

“If it wasn’t for me you’d have been in that mess!” I point a hoof over at the now gone Ministry building, “ You should be thanking me!”

Stardust cuts between both of us, “Okay you two! We have more important things to be yelling about than jumping out of the building. Somepony purposefully blew up that building! You know, the one we were just in!” She sits down and puts a hoof up to her chin, “Now the only ponies who knew we were coming here are Stalk and Silver Thread. We know Stalk wouldn’t do anything so Thread is our main culprit.”

I rub my hooves on my face, ”I guess we’ll go talk to Thread then!”

…

Stalk met us at the main gate as we approached, “Are you three okay? Everypony here heard the explosion. Hell I’m pretty sure I could almost see it fall!”

“Where’s Thread at Stalk. I need to have a few words with him.” I sigh and continue talking, “I think he’s the one that tried to kill us Stalk…”

Stalk lets out a groan. “Of fucking course he would!” My eyes go wide when Stalk says that. I didn’t think he would believe me that fast. “I knew he had to be up to something! I think he’s in his office. Let's go talk to him.”

Stalk turns around and begins to head down the street towards the mayor’s office. We follow right behind. As we walk, I notice that there are ponies actually walking around town now that it isn’t being attacked or isn’t three in the morning. As we walk most ignore us but some give us strange looks.

Neon walks up beside me and lowers his voice to a whisper, “What are you gonna do?”

I sigh. I honestly have no idea, “We’ll see when I get there. I’m really not in the mood for his bullshit right now.”

We walked into the main hallway of the building. The mayor is talking with an earth pony stallion about something. Clearly the stallion isn’t happy about something. “Listen, all I'm saying is have your caravans bring it out and I’ll pay you the caps. I don’t understand what’s so hard about that!”

I ignore the stallion and walk straight up to Thread, “Hey Thread! We need to talk!”

He turns his head with a nervous look on his face, “One mome-”

“Now Thread!” Stalk yells next to me.

The ghoul looks back over at the stallion and apologizes, “We can continue this talk in a minute.”

We all walk up a set of stairs to Thread’s office. Thread walks behind his desk and has a seat. He leans forward onto his desk and rests his chin on a hoof, “Now what was it you wanted. You four have interrupted business that I would love to get back too quickly.”

Stalk speaks of first, “That explosion that happened a little bit ago, what did you have to do with it?”

I say something next, “In case you somehow don’t know. The Ministry of Arcane Sciences is now reduced to rubble. And it had nearly taken us down with it!”

Thread leans back in his chair and puts a hoof on his chest, “Are you saying you think I tried to kill you? What kind of pompous buffoon put that idea in your head!”

Stalk takes a step closer to Thread’s desk, “You did you moron!” His voice is slowly getting louder and louder, “You’re the one who told them to go out there! Nopony else but me knew they were leaving!”
Thread slams his hoof on his desk. A couple of the papers he had flew onto the floor, “Yes, I told them everything I knew, AND sent them out there. But why, of all ponies, would I send them to their deaths!” He points a hoof at me. “I know she would come back and kill me in an instant. They’ve been nothing but helpful ever since coming here!” He pauses for a second to catch his breath, “Why would I get rid of my greatests assets?”
I guess he does have a point… And I guess I do have plenty of other ponies who want me dead anyways… I let out a sigh, “Sorry Thread, we don’t have enough evidence to prove it’s you… “ I pause for a moment and notice everypony else looking at me, “What I do know is that you need to stop being such a shady asshole about everything. You’re a mayor. Not the leader of a gang. Now I’m going to go back to our hotel room. And you’re going to go continue whatever business you were doing and we’re going to forget any of this conversation ever happened. Okay?”
All at once everypony nods their heads and agrees. I walk out of the room. Only Neon and Stardust follow.
Stalk stops at the doorway, “I’m gonna stay and talk to Silver Thread here for a moment, I’ll talk to you three later.” He closes the door and all three of us are left alone in the hallway.
By the time we’re almost outside, Stardust is the first to say anything, “So what changed your mind Midnight?”
“I think that he knows he can’t kill me, he tries to play it cool but I’m sure of it that he’s terrified of me.” I shrug, “ I guess that’s a perk to being good at what I do.”
Neon laughs as we walk outside, “And what is it you’re good at?
“Killing… I guess. It sounds worse now that I’m saying it out loud…” I mean it’s true though. My first couple days out here and I’ve killed more ponies than most could in a couple days.
I see Stardust nudge Neon with a hoof and raise her eyebrows. Neon just shrugs. “You’re also good at singing Midnight. And you’re an extremely talented flier!” Stardust tries to reassure me.
“Yea I guess… “ I’ll have to think more about it later. For now I need something to keep my mind off of things. Hopefully one of those memory orbs could do the trick for now.

…

After a brief explanation from Stardust on how to view the memory orb. I had to make the decision of which one I should look at first. Stardust explained that the memory could take quite a while depending on what it’s about.
With all three out in front of me, I couldn’t remember where I got them from. I should’ve labeled them as something beforehoof. “Go with the middle one.” Neon yells from the kitchen. Eh. Why not?
I touch the crown to the orb and everything around me rapidly fades away.

oooOOOooo

The feeling of being in a body that wasn’t my own really messed with me for a second. I can feel the fact that I’m in a unicorn's body and that it is indeed a mare. We… Wait. We? I guess that works. We are outside of what I believe was the Ministry building that just fell to the ground an hour ago in the real world. Except this time the entrance is actually accessible and not covered in rubble.

The foyer is a lot cleaner with no rubble, the floor is spotless of any dust and this time the turrets aren’t firing at anypony. The secretary's desk looks about the same, except this time there is a living pony typing at the terminal. A peachy pink earth pony mare with her blonde mane tied up in a bun looks up from our work to greet us.

“Oh! Good morning Twilight Sparkle! It’s great to see you again.” Wait a Luna damned second! I’m in Twilight Sparkle’s memory! Stardust is going to love this one! The secretary continues, “What brings you all the way to Alpony!?” The mare sounds extremely excited to see Twilight. And to be honest I would probably be the same way!

Feeling another pony talk is one of the weirder things that I’ve ever felt. “I was told an extremely talented unicorn was wanting a position in the Ministry and I had a little bit of time so I figured I would come meet her here myself.” Twilight continues walking toward the staircase up to her office.

“I hope everything goes well. I’ll be sure to send her up when she gets here!” The secretary goes back to typing on her terminal. I’m guessing she’s typing the entry that I had read earlier today.

“Thank you Peach Tart!” The cute secretary looks over and gives us a sweet smile before continuing typing at her terminal.

Twilight walks up the stairs past the lab and barely glances over. Multiple ponies in lab coats are concentrating on their work hard enough that they don’t even notice Twilight walk by. She continues down the hallway to the set of stairs that was blocked off before.

Twilight’s office looks a million times better than it did when we visited it. It’s actually well lit and has more furniture than before. I wonder what happened to all of it? Twilight walks over to her desk and has a seat. A light purple glow emanates from her horn above us and a small picture frame levitates from what I’m guessing is her saddlebags. I feel Twilight smile for a second before putting her focus onto various papers on the desk. I can’t understand what any of them mean.

“Uhh Twilight Sparkle?” Twilight looks up from her work towards a mare’s voice. A lilac mare with a purple and teal striped mane walks up to us. “I’m here about the interview. Your secretary told me to come right up.” The mare seems surprisingly calm to be talking with Twilight.

Twilight sits up quickly and walks around her desk. She holds out a hoof to the mare, “I’m so glad you could make it! I’m Twilight Sparkle!”

The mare grabs Twilight’s hoof and shakes it, “I’m Starlight Glimmer! It’s so great to finally meet you! I’ve heard so many great things!” Starlight’s name sounds familiar to me but I can’t seem to recall from what though.

“And I’ve heard great things about you as well. The couple recommendations I got spoke very highly of you. It’s gonna be great to finally see what you can do!” Twilight’s horn glows and a book levitates from her desk, “Now I have a couple spells I want you to try before we continue with the interview.” She opens the book and begins to quickly flip through it with her telekinesis.

Starlight Glimmer giggles a little bit, “Twilight I can assure you that I can perform most of the spells in Starswirl's beginner book.”

“It’s not about the difficulty of the spell but how well you can cast it.” Twilight stops flipping through and stops on a page about summoning a door. Why anypony would need a random door summoned out of nowhere is beyond me. “Here, could you do this one?” Twilight looks over and in a small flash of light a tall purple wooden door appears.

Starlight scoffs, “I can do way better than that!” Her horn begins to glow and summoned from thin air is a large metal set of double doors right in between us. Starlight opens the door and peeks her head through, “Any other filly spells you want me to try Twilight?”

“Alright then, how about a more advanced spell? Most unicorns don’t have the ability to do this!” She closes the books and levitates it behind us. Almost instantly she teleports to the other side of the room. “Teleportation, not the easiest thing to do but the hardest thing to master!”

“Oh come on Twilight! You can do a million times better than that!” Starlight proclaims before vanishing in a blue flash.

Twilight looks around the room for a second, but Starlight is nowhere in sight. A couple seconds later Starlight reappears, but this time she is soaking wet, “Did you know it’s downpouring in Hoofington right now?” Twilight’s eyes open wide in surprise. To be fair, I would probably do the same thing

Twilight’s horn begins to glow again, “Fine! Let's go straight to the advanced spells!”

Starlight get’s down in a ready stance, “Let’s do this!”

oooOOOooo

The memory orb ended so abruptly I was almost sad that it did. I was wanting to watch more crazy unicorn magic. And it was crazy cool to be seeing everything before the balefire bombs dropped. Not everything is falling apart or home to the worst ponies or creatures imaginable.
A purple hoof waves in front of my face, “Uhh, Midnight! You okay there? We have company.” Stardust says above me on her bed.

I shake my head and look around the room. The earth pony stallion from Silver Thread’s office is here. I look around to check if anypony else decided to pay us a visit but it appears it’s only him. I stand up and sit down on our bed, “What is it you want?”

“Not even going to introduce yourself. Where are your manners?” I roll my eyes, and before I can say anything else he continues talking, “I am Ambrit. I am a proud member of a group called the Historians.” About midway through his sentence he stood up and bowed.

“Fine. I’m Midnight Note. I figured my friends already said something about my name. Now what is it you wanted?” Being in the memory had fixed my mood a little bit but now I’m dealing with more annoying ponies.

From the kitchen Neon walks in and gives me a box of the Flim Flam Mac and Cheese. Then he goes and sits down across from Ambrit. “He needs us to go deliver some package all the way to the east. It would probably take us a couple da-”

Ambris begins talking over Neon, “Due to the mayor not accepting my caps, I need you three to deliver this package to my colleague all the way at the Bluewater Crystal Mine to the east.” He grabs a small box wrapped in linen and tied with straw out in front of him. “You will receive part of your payment now and the rest when you deliver the parcel.”

Neon looks at me and shrugs, clearly he must feel the same way I do about him. I look over at Stardust, “What do you think? For now we don’t have any next goal we need. The M.O.A hub was a bust and we’ve learned no leads to who I am.”

“I mean we might as well right? Maybe we can get some more answers on the outer parts of the city.” She shrugs, “It will be a lot of walking but also a bunch of places we can stop and ask around at.”

I look back over to Ambrite, “I guess we’ll do it. Just leave the caps and the package on the table and we’ll leave in the morning.”

Ambrite stands up and places his package and a small bag onto the table. He turns around and bows again, “Thank you for agreeing I shall make my leave now and I hope to get word of your delivery. And I hope to see you once again as well. I bid you adieu!.” He quickly walks out of our room before we can say anything else.

I put my face into my hooves. I’m glad he’s gone. I fall backwards onto my side of the bed. Maybe a good night's sleep could keep my mind off of all of this.

“So where do I sleep?” I hear Neon ask.

I sit up and look at him then at the other bed, “Right there.” I point at the bed with a hoof.

Neon raises an eyebrow, “You two sleep in the same bed? Weird.” He walks over and lies down on his bed.

I’m too annoyed with everything to say something clever to him. I just wave a hoof and cover myself up with the blanket. “I’m going to sleep now. Goodnight you two.”

Stardust is the only one to say goodnight back.
_____________________________________________________________________
Footnote: Level up! Sanity:86%

Experienced Gunner - You are more familiar with guns than you realize! +10 points to all Guns skills!

Chapter 6: Reunion

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Chapter 6: Reunion

“I’m just glad you’re safe… It’s good to see you again…”

Falling asleep a little bit earlier than normal seemed to help with my stress a little bit. I was able to wake up at the same time as Stardust and have breakfast and take stock of everything in my inventory. Neon was still asleep and we still had about an hour or two until we had to start heading out to the Bluewater mine. I had suggested that we sit around for an hour but Stardust had a different idea.

…

“C’mon Midnight! If we can get this to work this time you’ll be able to learn about yourself!” Stardust wanted to try out her memory spell again but I wasn’t sure if I wanted to do it. All the stuff that’s been happening lately had me questioning if I really wanted to learn about my past. A part of me wasn’t sure if I could tell Stardust no though.
“I guess we can try it. I don’t know if I’ll like what I see but I guess it’s what I need to do.” I finish the rest of a Sparkle Cola bottle I was drinking and walk over to the bed and sit how I did when we first tried to do this. Stardust does the same. “I bet Neon is going to be confused if he wakes up in the middle of this.”
Stardust touches her horn to my head, “I’m sure it’s not going to be the weirdest thing he’ll ever see.” Stardust’s horn begins to glow its lavender shade, “Ready?” I nod my head.
All around me a bright white veil of white covers the entire room along with Stardust. I’m in what appears to be an endless room of white. I stand up to my hooves and walk around. My body feels as if there’s no weight to it as I take each step. I look down at my hooves and notice my PipBuck isn’t there anymore. My hoof looks so naked without it.
“Where are you Midnight? I can’t seem to pinpoint you in here!,” I jump a little when Stardust’s voice fills the white void around me.
I’m not sure how to answer her question, “Uhh, here… I guess?” I wave a hoof into the air, hoping it can somehow get her attention.”
In her usual flash of purple Stardust appears in front of me, “There we go! This place is kinda confusing actually!”
“Okay but uhh… Where are we exactly?” I wave a hoof at the endless nothingness surrounding us, “There’s nothing here!”
“Well first of all, there's a lot of stuff here. It’s just that neither of us can see it until we want to,” Stardust’s horn begins to glow and large oblong shapes start appearing all around us on the floor. I trot up to one cautiously and look to see what it is. The one I walk up to is about the size of one of our beds at the hotel. Its surface ripples like water and I can see the faint picture of ponies moving around on the other side. I go to touch it with a hoof when Stardust smacks it away. “You can’t just go touching random things Midnight! Especially if you don’t know what they are!”
I rub my hoof where she hit me, “Fine, can you at least explain to me what these are?” I look back down to watch the faint pictures move around.
“That’s how we’re going to get into your memories. Notice how they aren’t crystal clear. You can only make out shapes but nothing more. That’s how you know you truly didn’t forget everything. It’s just been covered up.” I look over at Stardust in surprise, “What? I’ve spent the last couple nights and days reading about it!”
“Alright, alright, calm down. You are the smart one in our group. So how do we view them then?” I look back down at the memory puddle, resisting the urge to touch it.
“I believe we just, jump in… “ She puts a hoof to her chin, “But I could be wro-”
“THREE TWO ONE GO!” I yell and jump headfirst into the puddle.

oooOMOooo

I find myself standing in the middle of a room made of clouds. Similar to almost every house in simulated Cloudsdale. There are various pictures scattered around me, of me with a blue bob of some kind. I sit there for a moment before giving up and take a look at the rest of the room. In the center of the room is a hanging banner that says “Welcome Home Daddy” scribbled on with colorful paints. A small heart painted with a light green is at the very end. And standing underneath the banner is something I’ve only seen in pictures. A small little foal with a charcoal coat and a pure white mane with just a smidge of blue on the side. Myself.
“Oh my gosh Midnight! Look at you! You’re so cute!” Stardust’s voice startles me once again. I look over and she has both of her hooves squished against her cheeks.
I shake my head, “Can you not scare me everytime you speak?”
“I’m sorry! But I mean c’mon! Look how cute you are!” Okay I guess she has a point. I do look pretty cute. Filly me is covered in splotches of colorful paint all over her fur. Clearly I had worked extremely hard at making this.
I walk up and reach out a hoof to smaller me. It feels like it should be impossible to be this close to myself. When I put my hoof on top of my head it fazes right through. Small me ignores me entirely, she is too focused on a painting of me and that blue stallion. I look back at Stardust, “I mean I’m cute and all but isn’t stuff supposed to be happening?” I look back over at Filly Me,other than blinking she’s staring intently at the door in front of her.
“I guess we’ll wait with you I guess?” Stardust says behind me.
We waited for what I could only guess was about ten minutes before something happened. Even little me quickly ran to the bathroom at one point.
After all that waiting something big happened. The door that I guess is the one Filly Midnight was waiting to open finally opens and the familiar colors of somepony I thought was family walked through. Novasurge, my dad. Nopony else walks in with him.
Next to me Stardust whispers, “Who’s that?”
“Well, In the simulation that was my dad, but who knows anymore honestly…” I look over at myself. Her smile and happy attitude melts away into a frown and squinty eyes.
Filly me runs over to Novasurge, “You’re not Daddy! Where is my Daddy!” She begins hitting his chest with her hoof, “Tell me where Daddy is!”

Novasurge’s attitude doesn’t change, “Quit yelling child, I have something to tell you.” He pushes me away and kneels down, “You’re daddy won’t be making it home any time soon. I’m here to bring you to your new home.”

My eyes shoot open. So much seemed to come back to me at once. My dad had left to do… well something. I don’t know. But Novasurge had made me move away from my home without any explanation why and at a moment's notice. He never even let me grab my things. Who he really was is still extremely fuzzy to me and why he moved me is also a mystery.

Tears begin to fall from myself. Both me and past me. I don’t know who my father is but a heavy feeling of sadness pours over me for him… Young me begins to quickly back up screaming that she won’t go. Novasurge instantly snatches her in his hooves and drags her away into the hallway. All around us the room begins to melt away, back into the white void we were in before.

oooOMOooo

I sat in that white void for a couple minutes before saying anything. All that emotion that waved through me was so unexpected, and powerful. I sat in Stardust’s lap crying to myself for what seemed like an eternity. And I felt even worse for making Stardust see me like that. But she was there for me the whole time, letting me drain out every ounce of sadness that I had gotten from that memory.
I stand back up to my hooves and wipe my face, “Please don’t tell Neon about any of this,” I let out a half hearted giggle, “And thank you… I’m sorry we’ve been here for so long…”
Stardust’s voice is quiet, “Midnight… You just relieved one of the worst events of your life. Take all the time you need.” She hugged me one more time, “I’m sorry Midnight…”
I embrace the hug happily. We may be in my head but it feels too good to be together like this. I don’t know where I would be without her… What would have happened to me in the six days I’ve been in the wasteland if I hadn’t met her.
“Stardust I have to tell you something… I think I-”
In one erratic movement both me and Stardust are flung back into reality. Neon stands on the bed next to me. He begins to yell, “What the hell are you two doing! We have a problem!”
“Wait! What the hell is happening?” I yell back. I feel my cheeks to make sure that I wasn’t crying in the real world.
Over by the entrance to our room I hear Stalk’s voice, “I don’t have any words to describe it, I need you to come look at this!”

I hop up onto my hooves, Stardust is still trying to collect herself. Clearly the spell had taken a lot out of her. I help her stand up to her hooves. “Are you going to be okay?” She looks at me and nods. “Okay let's go!”

I hop off of the bed and follow Stalk and Neon down the hallway. Neon slows down so he’s next to me, “What were you two doing? It took us forever to snap you two out of it.”

I sigh, “We were trying to get back some of my memories…”

“Well, did you learn anything?” I look over at Neon, his voice sounds sincere compared to his usual monotone attitude. This is the first time he’s genuinely seemed to care about something.

“Uhhh, yea. But I’ll explain it later. I don’t really want to talk or think about it anymore.” He gives me an understanding nod.

We walk all the way outside and down the street, at least half the town is surrounding something like vultures. Stalk pushes through them, yelling at them to get out of the way. In the center of the crowd is something I never would have guessed Stalk would be bringing me to.

A small yellow and blue corpse of a pegasus colt. His skull is caved in on one side and the ground is covered in fresh blood. I notice that one of his wings is small enough that it probably wouldn’t allow him to fly.

I looked over at Stalk, “He fell, didn’t he?”

Stalk gives me a grim nod, “Happened a couple of minutes ago… You’re the only other pegasus I know of so I figured you would know who he was…”

Behind me I hear Stardust gasp. I look back down at the corpse, “I have no idea, but we should give him a proper burial. Nopony deserves death like that, especially so young.”

As I go to pick up the small colt, bolts of green hit the ground all around me. Each of them melts into the ground. The crowd of ponies around me begins to disperse in screams of fright. I quickly throw myself over the colt’s body to block the green bolts until they stop. I back up and look at the source of the shots.

Almost instantly my eyes go wide, a pegasus covered in a bright red set of armor that covers every inch of their body in metal. Even their tail is armored to look like the end of a scorpion’s tail. Two special kinds of weapons are mounted onto the side, each of them have a faint green glow on them.

The pegasus begins to say something, “No, no no no!” From their voice I can tell it’s a mare, “You need to get out of here! Now!” Her voice begins to sound more and more panicked under her helmet.

“Wait? Why? Who are you?!” I yell back.

“You don’t-? Oh no.” The mare looks up and two more of the armored pegasi fly down. Except these two are wearing a purple set of the same armor. I can’t help but notice that these two are red on my E.F.S, but the mare is blue. The mare begins to talk, “It’s okay you two. I have it all covered from here.”

The two land in front of me, their energy guns begin to glow bright green, “Back away fro-”

One of them interrupts the other, “It’s that Dashite! We are so getting promoted today!”

“Wait a second… “The other pauses for a second, “I think it’s that Midnight Note Dashite that the commander always tells us to look out for!”

The red suited mare drops down in front of them both, “I said have it covered soldiers! You are to return back to Cirrus and your posts! NOW!”

The one on the left snickers, “Not without her we aren’t! It’s payday fillies!”

I look at all my friends. All of them seem to be as confused as I am. I guess I better speak up and figure out what the hell is going on, “Listen! I’m not going with you! I don’t have time to deal with whatever kind of bullshit you think you’re going to try and pull, I am not in the mood for it!”

All except the red mare laugh. One of them decides to speak up, “Listen, I’ve heard about what you can do but do you really think you can take all three of us! If you don’t cooperate we’ll kill everypony here in this run down shithole of a town!”

I glance down and realize that I forgot to bring my guns, not even a knife.I could probably take them but I don’t know if I would want to risk everyone's lives over something so stupid.

“Fucking Luna damn it fine! I’ll go!” I throw up my hooves. “You better leave each one of these ponies alone or I swear.”

One of them laughs, “Oh wow, you sure are threatening aren’t ya? Cuff her.”

I look over at Stardust and Neon, both appear to be in shock, “I’ll be back. I’m not sure how long it will take me... but I’ll be back.” The expressions on their faces lighten up a little bit but stay wary.

“You better come back soon Midnight…” Neon says calmly, “We do have a package to deliver.”

The red pegasi sighs and walks in front of me. She grabs what looks like a set of hoofcuffs out of a compartment in her armor and puts them around my front hooves. They don’t seem to affect me that much, but whatever. “What are you doing Midnight?!” She whispers.

I give her a weird look before she turns back around to her soldiers, “Grab the colt and follow back up to Cirrus. Lets go”

I give one final wave to my friends. I really hope I make it back…

Our flight straight up to the cloud cover was awkward. The red armored mare and I were quiet the entire time and the other two were talking about how they were going to live the lifestyle of the rich and the famous after this. I quickly learned I never need to listen to them.

Going through the cloud cover to see the real sun was one of the most beautiful things I’ve ever seen. A sea of pure white stretching as far as the eye can see. I couldn’t help but notice a small bit of that giant white tower poking its head through the clouds miles away from us.

In the other direction was something I wasn’t expecting. This “Cirrus” they were talking about wasn’t this small little settlement but a full blown city! From where we were I could see various pegasi flying across the skyline. Tons of buildings ranging from simple cloud houses to actual stone structures everywhere. I never expected anything like this to be above the wasteland…

We flew around the very edge of the city until we got to a very large blue stone building. We land at the back of it and I nearly fall face first because of the hoofcuffs. The two snarky asshole soldiers led first into the building. We walked down a couple hallways, occasionally walking past a pegasi who would ignore us like we weren't even there. One did look very surprised to see me though. But I have no idea who they were.

We finally get to the jail cell. The red mare was kind enough to unlock my hoofcuffs before one of the others very aggressively pushed me into the cell. I look around and see no other ponies in the jail. Cirrus must be a peaceful city.

“Alright, I’m gonna wait here with the Dashite while you two go inform the commander of her capture.” Both of them nod eagerly and trot out of the room. The mare lets out a sigh and unlocks my cell and walks in, not bothering to close the door behind her.

She slowly gets closer and closer. “Uhh, what are you doing?” I ask.

The mare stops a few inches from my face, “I’ve missed you so much.” She quickly takes off her helmet and I instantly notice her blue green mane and her purple coat. Before I can say anything I’m embraced in a kiss by somepony who I thought didn’t exist.

She backs up and I don’t know what to say, “Aera… It’s you… “

Aera raises her eyebrow, “Yea? And? Did you not realize it was me?” My mind was already going insane thinking all these crazy thoughts about everything and now the world is throwing Aera into the mix! What the fuck is happening!

I fall back to my flank and put a hoof to my chest. My heart is beginning to beat way harder than it should be. “Y- you just kissed me. You’re... real.”

“That’s because I love you, duh? ...Midnight, are you okay?” She takes a step closer to me.

“No… I’m not. I don’t know you Aera… I mean I know you but not the real you…” Oh Luna, help me now! “I lost my memory, Aera. I was trapped in some simulation and it corrupted my mind…“

Aera falls down to her haunches in surprise, “You don’t remember anything? Nothing of who you are? What have you been doing down there Midnight! You attack the commander one day and they brand you with the Dashite symbol but you somehow escape without even saying goodbye! Then here you are a year later with a group of ponies with no memory of your life!” Aera takes a deep breath and pauses for a moment. “I loved you Midnight… And I still do… And you used to love me… Do you still love me…?”

That question really destroyed me. Something in that moment broke me again for the second time that day. Tears began streaming down my face and as much as my body wanted to tell her that I did, my mind knew who I really loved….

“I’m so sorry Aera… I can’t say that I love you. At one point in my life I may have but I don’t know the real you… I’m so sorry…” I want to go home. I want to run as far and as fast as I can away from here… I want to be with Stardust…

It takes Aera a moment to comprehend everything before she just answers back with a small nod. I notice tears going down her face but before I can say anything else she quickly puts her helmet back on and storms out of the cell, locking it behind her. I try to call out to her but my throat closes up.

She’s gone. A big piece of my past and I shatter her heart and mine to pieces in a matter of seconds. I lie down on the ground and cry until my brain decides that I need to sleep…

…

I woke up to somepony kicking my back with an armored hoof. My tears and snot are matted to my face. I tried to wipe it with a hoof to no avail.

“Wake up Dashite! Commander wants to talk to you!” I sit up and turn around, “Let’s go prisoner!”

“Calm down dude… I’m going.” I check my pipbuck to see that I’ve only slept for about a half hour. I stand up and the stallion cuffs me again. I don’t see why it’s necessary but whatever. “Let’s go…”

I follow the stallion down to a different room right across the hallway. Nothing but a mirror and a table are in the room. “Wait here Dashite.” The door closes behind me. I walk to the other side of the table and face the door. The obvious two way mirror is behind me. I wait a couple minutes until yet another pony of my past comes in. Novasurge. He’s wearing a suit and a captain's hat with the letter E embroidered into them.

He walks in alone and from what I can tell unarmed. A little pony in my head is screaming at him for what he did to me when I was a foal. “So what the hell do you want Nova? I am really not in the mood right now.”

Nova calmly sits down in front of me and crosses his front hooves on the table. “You haven’t seen any of us in a year and that’s the first thing you say to me. Last time we saw each other you had just got done bashing my head in with my own helmet and broke the leg and wing of two other soldiers.”

I shake my head, “You know, I wouldn’t doubt that’s something I would do but I don’t remember any of that. Hell, I barely even know who you are! So lets just get whatever the hell this is over with. I want to go home.”

“I don’t want anything from you, I just wanted to see what you’ve been doing since you left. Clearly you’ve been busy these last couple days because of the reports we’ve heard from the DjPon3 fellow. All I want is information.” Information? Really? I don’t think the amnesiac mare is gonna have all the information you would want.

“What kind of information?” I ask.

“I just want to know more about those ponies living down on the surface. What they’ve been up to and if they could be a possible ally.” Well I mean that’s an easy question.

“Well if you’ve spent any time on the surface you would already know that it depends on who you talk to. Most settlements are filled with ponies just trying to survive and make a living. But there are other groups that thrive on kil-”

Nova interrupts me, “That’s not what I mean. None of us give a rat's ass about those ponies. I want to know about the group that’s running around looking for something. We’ve noticed some of the groups we’ve kept an eye on have been slaughtered.”

Does he mean the ponies I’m trying to find? “Well that’s what I’ve been trying to find out. What little lead I had went cold when somepony blew up the building they were supposedly at.”

Novasurge pauses for a second to think about it, “Okay then. One more thing, We’ve gotten word of pegasus activity in the M.O.A hub. You’re our only pegasi on record in the Alpony sector. What are you planning?”

“I haven’t been to this M.O.A hub you’re talking about. I’ve only been out of that damn stable for less than a week Nova. I have no idea what’s happening in Equestria anymore.” He just leans back and nods his head slightly.

“Alright then.” He looks behind me at the two way mirror, “Alright, we can go ahead with the execution. Get her out of here.”

“Whoa what the fuck Nova! I gave you assholes what you wanted, now let me go!” I stand up and ready myself for a fight. Behind the glass right behind me I hear muffled yelling between a couple ponies. “Move out of my way Nova! We can end this peacefully or with you and a whole bunch of others getting seriously hurt!”

“Too bad I have another option.” He pulls a button from his jacket pocket and hits it. All at once my whole body is shot with a burst of electricity coming from the hoofcuffs around. I fall to the ground writhing in pain. “Move her back to her cell while we prepare.” I try to stand on my hooves but my body won’t let me. “See, I told you I would be prepared next time.”

Two guards walk in and drag me back across the hall to my cell. Apparently this time they thought they might as well be as rough as they could. They slam the cell shut quickly and lock it. I barely stand to my hooves and scream at them to come back, but they don’t acknowledge me. I fall back against the cold brick wall.

“Why does today have to be the worst fucking day ever…” I say to myself.

“I know how you feel Midnight…” Aera’s voice comes from across the room. This time she isn’t in her set of strange armor.

“Aera… I-” She stops me.

“You don’t have to say anything Midnight… It’s not your fault.” She walks up to the cell’s bars, and I notice her eyes are puffy from crying again, “I was behind the mirror when Novasurge gave the command for your execution… I tried to talk them out of it but I couldn’t.” She walks in front of the door and unlocks it, “Go Midnight, please.”

“Aera I can’t! What if you get caught! Who knows what they’ll do to you!” I pause for a moment, “I don’t want anypony getting killed over something that’s my fault. Especially you Aera. I may not really know you anymore, or who I am for that matter… But I know you’re a good pony... And I don’t want to see you die.“

“I love you Midnight, and I always will. Maybe someday you’ll remember who I am, and who you are. But for now I need you alive to figure that out.” She walks into the cell and stops in front of me, “I know you’ll get your memory back. Nothing has ever stopped you before. And nothing will stop you now…”

I embraced Aera in a hug. At one point in my life she was my only friend, somepony I wanted to spend my whole life with, to grow old together and start a family with… Up until today I wasn’t even sure she was real. As much as I still want that. I don’t want it with her. I want that with Stardust.

I let go of Aera and look into her eyes, their beautiful light purple color stares back longingly. “Somewhere inside me I know I still love you Aera… But there’s another pony that I love…” A small tear goes down her face, “But always know I’ll be there for you. Okay?” I gently kissed her forehead, “Goodbye Aera.”

She gives me a faint smile. I stand up and begin to run out of the room, stopping to look back, “If you ever need to find me, talk to a stallion in Riverdale named Stalk. He’ll know where I am.” I turn around and begin to follow my steps that I got when I first.

“Stay safe Midnight! I better see you alive next time!” I hear Aera call after me.

I run down the winding hallways, occasionally quickly dashing in and out of rooms to hide from the occasional pegasus. But I safely made it out. It took a lot of bravery to do what Aera did, and if anything were to happen to her I would make sure that whoever did it would suffer for the rest of their life.

I quickly dive through the cloud cover and begin my decent back down to Riverdale. I have a lot to explain to my friends.

…

The first thing I did when I got back to Riverdale was find Stardust and hug her. My heart has been torn out multiple times today in a tidal wave of emotions that doesn’t seem to care to stop. I explained who the red armored mare was and what the rest of them wanted from me. Neon was there too but was listening off to the side. He may not have acted like it but I can tell that he cared. And for the third time today I cried, not because of everything else before, but what I couldn’t say to the pony I was in love with.

…

It had taken me a while but I finally explained to my friends what happened. The whole time we were talking I stayed lying down in Stardust’s lap, which helped keep me calm. I had forced myself to stop crying when Stalk came in to check on me. Stalk never fully knew that I didn’t have my memories so I had to explain that to him just like everypony else.

“So the love of your simulated life is actually real and is crazy in love with you but you didn’t try and convince her to come with you?” Neon was surprised that I never brought Aera back with me, or that I even tried for that matter.

“I know that a part of me is still in love with her Neon, but I didn’t know the real her. It wouldn’t seem fair to her to be with somepony who doesn’t even know who they are.” I had been contemplating my decisions since I made it back to the hotel room. I know it was a bad thing to leave Aera with a broken heart, but I also knew that if we were together it wouldn’t be right. I don’t think anypony can stay with someone who they don’t actually love.

Stardust had stayed quiet for a while, occasionally wiping my tears away, “I think you did the right thing Midnight. It takes a strong heart to do what you did. But I also don’t think this will be the last time you two will cross paths.”

I nod slightly, “I know. I hope I get to see her again. Maybe we can start over from the beginning, become friends again.” I look over at Stalk, “I did tell her to find you if she ever needs me. You’re the only pony here I can really trust.”

“I mean if you three are leaving soon I’m not sure I can direct her to where you are, but I can promise ya I’ll look after her ‘till I can get a hold of ya.” He pauses for a moment, “When were ya planning on leaving anyways?”

As much as I love lying down on Stardust’s lap, we really should get going if we want to make any progress tonight. “Right now actually,” I check my PipBuck’s clock, it’s already almost one in the afternoon. I slowly sit up from Stardust’s lap, “We should leave if we want to make any progress before nightfall.” I roll off the bed onto my hooves and begin to put my saddlebags and holsters on. It will be nice to be back on the road, the more I stay in one place the more it seems bad things are destined to happen.

After putting everything in its right spot I turn around and notice that everypony is staring at me. “What?” All at once they all look at each other then back at me.

Stalk shakes his head and giggles, “I’m not sure how you can go from crying in your friend's lap to wanting to walk all the way across the Alpony outskirts at a moment's notice but that’s not my business.” He walks in front of me and holds out a hoof, “It was a pleasure meeting you Midnight Note, and I do hope that we’ll meet again soon. Try and stay out of trouble.”

“I hope things get better around here, Stalk. If you ever need anything, don’t hesitate to look us up. Thank you for everything.”
_____________________________________________________________________
Footnote: Level up! Sanity:74%

Tough Heart - You suffer no negative effects to Charisma when your Sanity is low!

Chapter 7: Fury of The Night

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Chapter 7: Fury of The Night

“It takes a lot to be a hero. I’ve been around to see them rise and fall, but it’s been a hell of a long time since I’ve seen one crack.”

The events that occurred this morning were still on my mind for almost the whole day’s trot. As much as I expected getting some of my memories back was going to be a good thing, everything I learn is slowly destroying me mentally. Aera is a real pony and we used to be in love, Nova wasn’t my real dad and was one of my biggest enemies. Who only knows who Buck was or anypony else I knew. Now I only have more questions than before…

…

The sun was setting in the small suburb we’ve taken shelter in. It’s a couple miles outside Alpony. We began walking the streets looking for a decent place to camp out for the night.

Something small and wet taps the tip of my nose, then more trickle all over my body. “Is this rain?” I look up into the sky, the cloud cover is noticeably darker than usual. Neon gives me a weird look, “What?” I ask blankly.
“You’ve been quiet for a while, it just surprised me that’s all.” I shrug it off and continue looking at the sky. Cool rain drops trickle onto my face.
“I’m guessing you never had rain in the simulation Midnight?” Stardust asks next to me.
“Well I was above the clouds, we didn’t have to have different seasons like the surface.” I look back down at the ground, “The rain feels good though…”
We walk another block before we find a house where the roof isn’t fully collapsed like most of the others. I check the mailbox like I did back at Fleetfoot’s house and only find a bunch of junk mail addressed to somepony named Yuma Spurs. Neon and Stardust head inside to check to see if it’s safe. I told them I’m staying outside to enjoy the rain for a couple more minutes, and explore around the house a little bit.
In the backyard of the house are a couple lawn chairs, that are still decently put together, and a flower patterned umbrella with a couple holes torn in it, but still functional. I look up at the sky once more. Somewhere up there in Cirrus is Aera, I really hope she’s okay… For all I know Nova could have already put her into a cell like he did me. Who knows what other ponies from my past could be up there too. Buckshot, Bulk Biceps, Flying Pan, any of them could be real ponies wondering where I am.
My thoughts are interrupted by, once again, getting hit in the head by something heavy and metal. I fall to the ground, covering my head with my hooves. Above me a familiar metal voice begins to apologize repeatedly.
“Midnight! I’m so sorry! These things have a mind of their own sometimes!” I stood up, rubbing my head where Watcher had slammed into me. “If it means anything, you’re the only pony that I’ve hit in a while.”
“Isn’t this like the third time you’ve hit my head with one of your Spritebots? At this rate I should start wearing a helmet just so I don’t get a concussion from you.”
I swear that I heard the bastard giggle! “Okay well I have a question for you Midnight, “ He pauses for a second, “Why are you standing out in the rain?”
“Because it feels nice.” I answer bluntly.
“I guess I can agree with you there. I see that you followed almost all of my advice.” I cock my head to the side, confused. “Well, you have armor, a weapon. Quite a few by the looks of it, and a set of saddlebags.”
“In case you're wondering, Watcher. I have friends, they’re just inside is all.” I pause for a second, “And before you ask, yes they’re good ponies.” I quiet my voice down to a whisper, “I… I think I’m in love with one of them Watcher…”
“Really? That was fast, what’s his name?” I can’t tell if he’s mocking me or not.
“Well, her name is Stardust, you two would probably get along great honestly. She’s super smart and really loves learning about the world before it was blown to hell. The other pony I’m traveling with is named Neon, he’s a bit quiet but I can tell he means well. I should get to know him a little better honestly.” I walk over and sit on the least ruined lawn chair, “What about you Watcher, do you have a special somepony of your own?”
Watcher goes quiet for a second. Surprisingly he doesn’t randomly disconnect like he did last time, “A long time ago I did. We weren’t, you know, together or anything but I was still madly in love with her.”
“What happened between you two? If you don’t mind me asking.”
“She was the most beautiful, and generous pony in the world. But as time went on our little group slowly split apart and I saw her less and less. She’s gone forever now… I just wished that I could have said goodbye, you know? To tell her how important she was to me…” He goes silent for another moment, “Don’t ever let your somepony go Midnight. Hold onto them for the rest of your life...” Cheery Instrumental music plays from the sprite bot as it slowly flies away into the distance.
The wasteland really does take everything from ponies doesn’t it?

…

***Author's Note: This part of the chapter has unsettling themes, This is your one warning!***

…

I would have stayed outside but Stardust persuaded me easily with food and Sparkle Colas. Luckily she did because shortly after it began to downpour outside. (Which honestly tempted me more than before to stay outside on my lawn chair.) But I made myself stay inside to talk with my friends, who seemed to be glad I was doing a little bit better after a warm meal and some quiet time to myself. Afterwards everypony decided to lie down to try and get some sleep.
But of course I can’t fucking sleep. Probably all of the caffeine and sugar from the sodas.
Both Neon and Stardust fell asleep on some torn up old blankets and couch cushions. I tried to fall asleep using my armor and Stable clothes as a pillow but that wasn’t helpful. Even the bed in the other room was torn to hell and rotting.
I put on my armor and weapons and go outside to watch for anypony or anything. The rain had calmed down to a drizzle about an hour ago, so it was back down to its comforting plip plops all around me.
“Let go of me you fucking monster!” In the distance a mare's scream interrupts my thoughts. I quickly take off in full sprint down the street until I come up to a source of light coming from a large hole in a nearby house. On my E.F.S is two red ticks and one blue tick rocking back and forth slightly. I take cover on the left side.
Inside the ruined house I hear random grunts and moans of two stallions, and the slight squeals of a mare. My eyes shoot open. No. No fucking way. I turn the corner quickly. In the middle of the abandoned living room are two stallions thrusting into a mare at both ends, her body is covered in small cuts and bruises and her hooves are bound together tightly with rusty shackles.
At that point my whole body seemed to seeth in anger, “ARE YOU FUCKING SERIOUS!” I yell as loud as I can. Both the stallions stop their movements and focus towards me.
“Looks like we have some more fresh fucktoy’s don’t we.” I scream and tackle the raider into a barrel they had lit for light. Hot coals spill out onto the ground. Behind me the other stallion fires a couple rounds into my side. But I’m not done with this one. I grab some of the hot coals in my hooves and shove them into the Stallions mouth and kick his jaw closed around them. He begins to writhe in pain on the floor. More shots from the stallion's revolver slam into my side.
I turn around to face the other rapist, he unloads the last two rounds of his revolver into my chest. “IT’S GOING TO TAKE A LOT MORE THAN THAT TO TAKE ME DOWN YOU FILTHY PIECE OF SHIT!” I scream at him and begin to charge. He begins to back up in panic and trips over a collapsed support beam. I walk over and stomp on his back leg,I feel his bone shatter under my hoof. He begins to scream but before he can continue, I draw my zebra knife and stab it into his front shoulder. With the knife lodged into him I pull him along with the knife in my mouth and toss him into the burning barrel. He squirms and screams for a minute before finally falling still. I grab my now hot knife and sheath it again.
I glance around the room for the mare, but she doesn’t come out. “It’s over! They’re both dead!”
The small shackle grey coated mare walks out from behind a destroyed shelf, her once green mane is now stained brown from all the dirt. “T-t-hank you…”
“Are there more of them?” I’ve calmed my voice as much as I possibly can, even though I’m still breathing heavily.
She nods her head timidly and points east, “Their camp is that way… “
I give her a nod, “I’m going to go take care of them. My friends are down the block that way at one of the old houses,“ I point towards where I came from,”Tell them I helped you and that I’ll be right back.”
It was at this point I completely blacked out.
…
“Stardust! She just slaughtered the entire fucking slaver town! She is not okay! Did you see what she did to them! She did more than kill each one! It was a fucking massacre!”
My eyes shoot open. What the hell happened? Where am I? I slowly glance around to see I’m in a room all to myself. Tucked away into a decently put together bed.

Just outside the room I hear Neon yelling, “I told you she wasn’t okay yesterday, but you didn’t listen! Now here we are in the same building where she casually gutted somepony with a gun to her fucking head! She could be dead or worse right now!”

“Neon you need to stop fucking yelling before you wake her! We don’t know what kind of mental state she’ll be in when she gets up!” Stardust’s voice is just loud enough for me to hear her, “Somepony shouldn’t be able to take that many bullets and still be alive… We need to get her to a doctor soon. Those healing potions aren’t going to do much after this.”

I hear Neon sigh, “Listen, I know that she’s a good pony but who’s to say that she won’t do something like this to a settlement like Riverdale. I don’t think anypony would be able to stop her.” I go to sit up and the bed makes a loud creaking noise. My entire body aches as I do so. My friends go silent for a moment before Neon continues, “I’m going to go have a talk with Clover. Go talk to her. Please.” I hear hoofsteps trail away down the hallway.

The door to the room slowly creeks open and Stardust peeks her head in, “Midnight? Are you awake?” I nod my head up and down. She walks in and closes the door behind her with her magic. She slowly walks over to the side of the bed and sits down,“Uhm, how do you feel?”

I pause a moment before I say anything. Almost my whole body is wrapped in bandages. I’m guessing most of our supply. “Sore. I guess… What happened Stardust…?”

She crosses her hooves and rests her head on the bed, ‘From what we’ve heard from the captives, you lost it… Slaughtered every pony in the whole town.”

“...Slaughter?”

“You burned a couple alive, dropped a chandelier on another and gutted their leader. I’ve never seen anything like it Midnight… And you were just lying there in a giant puddle of mud and blood when we found you. We moved you up here to give you some rest. Neither of us were sure what to expect when you woke up. I’m still not sure how you’re even alive honestly.” I notice how she has dark rings under her eyes. She must have been up for most of the night.

“It feels like that was all a dream. What I did to those ponies… I mean they deserved it but what inside me made me want to do those things.” I pause for a second to think. I can take multiple gunshots without flinching. That isn’t something normal ponies can do. And I don’t think killing yet another group of raiders by myself is normal either.

The room is quiet for a moment before Stardust says something, “We’ll need to find you a doctor soon. Potions and bandages won’t fully heal that much damage to your body. For now though you should get some rest. Me and Neon are gonna go check on the ex-slaves.”
“I’ll try and get some rest. My brain probably won’t let me though.”
“Well at least try it, for me. Your body won’t be able to function right if you don’t get some rest.” She smiles and walks out of the room.
I don’t deserve a friend like her.

…

I lay there for maybe a half hour tossing and turning in bed to the point where my bandages are untying themselves. I finally gave up on sleeping and started going through my saddlebags until I found one of the memory orbs. I mean as long as I don’t leave the bedroom for a while I should be fine right?
As I touch the crown to the gem immense pain begins to shoot through my body to the point where I’m writhing and screaming in pain, foam pouring out of my mouth. From the other side of the room I hear the door slam open and see Stardust sprint to me and tear the crown off my head. The pain stops and I can finally catch my breath. But that doesn’t stop my body from shaking. Through my teeth chattering I barely ask, “What the hell was that?”
Stardust levitates the memory orb up in front of her and begins looking it over. She lets out a sigh and shows me the orb. On one side of it a chunk of lead is lodged into it. “Midnight you have to be careful… Using a damaged or corrupted orb could kill you.” She quickly embraced me, “That was almost too close Midnight. I don’t wanna lose you to something like that.”
“I’ll be more careful next time Stardust… Thanks for saving me.” I let go of her and grab the broken glass ball in my hooves. This little guy saved me from a little bullet only to nearly kill me.
Stardust grabs it in her telekinesis and throws it into a little trash can. “You’re lucky I was coming up here to get you. Next time make sure you know the orb is fine, okay?” I give her a little nod. Knowing that they can do something like that to somepony really makes me not want to try and use another. “Now c’mon, somepony wants to talk to you.”

Stardust stands up and helps me off the bed. My body aches from last night and the trauma that just unfolded. I follow Stardust downstairs past a group of ponies finishing with cleaning up the giant mess I made last night. There’s still so much blood. They all smile and wave a hoof. I think that they’re just happy to be free from the slavers. I give them the best smile my heart can give to them.

As we step out of the front door where we are greeted by Neon and the pony with the green mane. She perks up when she sees me. “Oh thank Celestia your fine. I was hoping nothing bad happened to you.”

I give her a little smile, “That’s the second time I’ve heard that today. But I’m fine though, just a little sore.”

Stardust gently taps the top of my head, clearly not wanting to hit me hard, “You’re not okay Midnight, you have bits of lead everywhere inside of you and you just about killed yourself in that broken memory orb!” She stops to let out a breath, “Sorry to interrupt.”

I notice Neon smiling along with the green pony. I notice that I haven’t actually introduced myself yet, I need to change the subject anyways, “Sorry, uhm I’m Midnight Note. You obviously already know my friends.”

Clover smiles and holds out her hoof, “I’m Clover! And don’t worry about introducing yourself. I’ve known who you are since before you came here. The slavers have been on high alert for you the last couple days. It’s pretty much all they talk about!”

“Glad to know I’m making a big enough difference. Not that big of a fan of the popularity though. Kinda weird and is getting slightly annoying.” I scratch an itch on the back of my neck.

“You seem like you're doing good out there. I mean look how happy everypony here is!” I quickly glance around at the half dozen ponies cleaning up the place. Even though each one of them has been in this horrid place for who knows how long each one of them seems happy. They finally got something good in the neverending sea of bad. A spark of joy in this miserable wasteland. A part of me seems to warm up knowing that I was the one to bring them to this point.

“So are you all cleaning up the town to stay here?” Stardust asks.

“I think that's the plan for now. None of us have a place to go since we got taken.” Clover says before stopping to think for a second, “I don’t know what we’re gonna do for supplies though. We can’t live on what the raiders had for long. Maybe see if we can set up a trade route to a nearby settlement. I know Haythem is about an hour's trot east from here.”

My ears perk up at the thought, “Hey, I'm in a really good standing with the people at Haythem. And we’re heading east so we can deliver some package. We could stop for you and talk to Turnpike. I’m sure she would be glad to set up some sort of trade with you guys.”

“I could never ask you to do something like that. You’ve done so much for us already!” I notice both Neon and Stardust smirk. Clover notices it as well. “What? Did I say something wrong?”

“You don’t know determination until Midnight puts her mind to something. Hell I’m sure she’ll get herself killed just to do what she sets her mind to.” Neon snarkily says.

I ignore Neon, “Listen Clover I’ll be happy to help. Just write something up and we’ll take it over. I’m sure Turnpike will be happy to help.”

Clover quickly hugs me. I’m pleasantly surprised, but glad. Hugs are nice.

“Thank you, thank you, thank you.” She lets go of me, backing up and covering a cough up with a hoof. “Sorry. It’s just nice to know somepony cares.”

“I’m just trying to bring a little good to this world. Knowing it makes you happy is a good enough reason for me.”

I notice Clover blushing a bit, “Well here let me go write a note for you to give to Turnpike.” She quickly trots away to the building behind us.

Clover’s gonna lead this town to something great. I just know she is.

…

Clover had spent several minutes writing a very formal and thorough letter to Turnpike about starting a trade route between them and Haytem. Making sure it was correctly punctuated and everything, and on the nicest piece of paper she could find.

With Haythem in sight we notice that a decently sized crowd of ponies is surrounding a caravan. Most seem to be the ex slaves that I had freed just the other day. I notice Turnpike discussing something with what I can only guess is the Caravans leader.

Turnpike yells something that I can barely make out and begins to trot away back into town. She turns around to yell something before her face lights up from noticing us walking up.

As we finally get into talking distance Turnpike yells, “Oh thank fucking Celestia you’re here kid! These Caravaners are gonna drive me to pull out all my mane! They can’t follow simple instructions and demand that I give them more guards even though I already offered to give them an extra guard.”

“Sounds like you’re extremely busy, Turnpike. Sorry if we came at the wrong time.” Stardust says next to me.

Turnpike shakes her head, “It’s all good. You two are welcome here anytime.” She points a hoof at Neon, “Along with any friends you make along the way.”

“The name’s Neon, these two told me about you on the walk here.” Neon gives a little nod.
“Nice to meetcha Neon. Any friend of the Marauder is a friend of mine.” There’s that name again. “So what brings y’all back here anyways, I thought y’all were looking for that killer over in Riverdale?”

“Sadly it led to more trouble and a dead end. We got hired to deliver a package farther east. But ran into more trouble on the way there. Which then led to us coming to ask a favor from you.” I rattle off everything in one breath.

Before I can continue Stardust interrupts me, “First though Midnight needs to see a doctor, bad. Her body is in no condition to finish the trip east.”

“Well you're in luck because a doc came in with the caravans. I think she just finished helping a bunch of those ponies you brought here the other day. I think she’s in the hut you slept in. Head on over and I’ll talk to these two about this business y’all kids have.” Turnpike looks me up and down, “You do look in pretty bad shape kid. Take better care of yourself. None of us wanna see you dead.”

I smile and begin to trot away. “Thanks Turnpike.” I feel the note from Clover levitate out of my saddlebags.

“You be good, kid” I hear Neon say behind me

I shake my head and hear Stardust whisper something that I can’t make out. Probably something about me not watching out for my health.

As I begin to pass the caravan I nearly fall on my face from what I see. A two headed cow is eating out of a makeshift wooden trough. I sit there staring at it for a moment in disbelief.

“Why don’t you find something better to look at pegasus!” The head of the left yells.

I blurt out a bunch of syllables and take off into town. I shouldn’t be as surprised as I was to see that. The wasteland is a wild place. Maybe I should apologize for staring? Nope. Sorry mutant cow thing but I can’t bring myself to do it.

I grab a Sparkle Cola from my bag and pop the cap off, making sure to store it away. As I approach the hut I had slept in just a couple of days ago, I see a large amount of ponies sitting outside. Most of them seem to be bandaged somewhere on their body.

With my wing I open the door to the hut. A smaller mare with a striped yellow and blue mane, with a coat of a light pink, tends to a stallion sitting down on a bed. Without looking away from her work she yells back to me, “I’ll be with you in a moment!” She then mumbles something to herself that I can’t really make out.

“Take your time! I’m in no rush!” I holler back to her.

She grabs a Med-X needle in her mouth and gently pokes it into the stallion. “That should alleviate the pain for a while. But we’re running low on Med-X so that’ll be the only dose you get.”

“Thanks for the patch job Doc. I’ll be sure to bring the caps by tomorrow.” The stallion says in a deep voice.

“Don’t worry about the cost. I don’t get to keep any of the pay from my patients. Only what the caravan gives me.” She smiles and looks over at me, “You’re next mis-” Her eyes go wide, “What have you done yourself!” She runs over and begins to inspect all the scarred gunshot wounds along with all the cuts and bruises. “I don’t think I have enough training to deal with this…” She looks up at me nervously.

“Thanks again Stratus!” The stallion says as he walks out the door.

“So Doc Stratus, think you can fix me?” She begins to rub her temples with her hooves.

“I don’t know… Maybe if I was a unicorn. All that lead in your body is really going to mess you up if we leave that in there.” She pauses for a moment, “How long are you going to be in town?”

“Uhh well I’d like to be back on the road as soon as possible. Got a lot we need to do today and we’re already falling behind quite a bit.” Stratus groans and quickly runs back to where she was treating the stallion, gesturing for me to come over.

In one fluid motion she pulls out a Med-X needle and stabs it into my front right hoof. I mouth the word “Ow” before the pain in my whole body subsides.

“Sorry for not warning you. Just trying to get this done as quickly as possible.” She bends down and begins shuffling in a bag of doctor's supplies. She returns back to eye level with a scalpel in her mouth, “Ready?”

For the next twenty minutes Stratus was focusing the hardest I’ve ever seen somepony focus as she cut into me to retrieve the tiny bits of lead. By the end of her mission she had a tiny pile of lead pieces on the table next to her along with her pink coat stained blood red. I’ll have to make sure that she’s paid double for this.

Over the course of the surgery she had asked all about my time in the wasteland and seemed surprised when I told her I was the Midnight Marauder. She had heard of me but apparently other than that hadn’t paid too much attention to my escapades. Like everyone else she told me to be careful because my body was getting close to giving out on me. I didn’t even bother to tell her about the memory orb from this morning.

“So Stratus, you’ve been listening to me ramble on myself for a while, tell me a bit about yourself.” She hoofs me a healing potion along with another needle of Med-X. I gave back the Med-X, she said they were in short supply so I’ll be fine.

“Well my real name is actually Cyto Stratus, but I introduce myself as Stratus to most ponies. I was born farther south near Manehattan in a smaller settlement, don’t bother trying to find it though. Raiders took it over ages ago. After that, I found myself with the Crimson Caravan. And they brought me here to Alpony and I’ve been traveling with them as their doctor ever since.” From the way she said that last sentence she doesn’t seem too happy with her current position.

“Do you like constantly wandering around with them?”

She sighs, “I don’t know anymore. It’s nice to be helping ponies but I wanna settle down someplace, start a family of some kind, maybe. I’m not sure… What about you Note? Plan on settling down anywhere?”

I pause to think for a second, “Well I, uh… I guess I haven’t really thought about it at all.” Maybe settling down someday with Stardust is going to have to be on my list of things to do. That’ll be a big one though.

From the main door of the hut barges in Turnpike, “Midnight I hate to do this to you at a moment's notice but we have a big big problem out here!”

Aw fuck here we go again! I quickly hop off the bed and toss on my weapons. Making sure each of them are loaded. I look over at Stratus and she’s loading a weird type of rifle with syringes. “Don’t worry about coming out Stratus, I’ll take care of everything.”

“Nuh uh, I’m not letting any of my patients die on my watch!” I guess there’s no stopping determination.

I quickly ran outside to see Turnpike gathering everypony inside of her building. She yells out to me, “South gate kid!” As she yells I hear a very loud gunshot and somepony cry out.

Both Stardust and Neon run up to me. “I think we got everypony to safety.” Neon says

“What the hell is happening?” I start walking south towards the gate. With every step I take I can feel how much Stratus’ work helped me.

“We have no idea! Just that Turnpike told us to gather everypony into her building.” Stardust says behind me.

As we approach the gate I notice a guard on the gate’s catwalk is missing his whole head! I curse to myself and tell everypony to get ready. I quickly fly up to the catwalk to see what all the commotion is. On the other side of the gate are the bodies of two other guards, who look like they barely had a chance.

“Are you fucking kidding me…”

Just beyond the dead guards is a pond sized blur of red and black. In two different spots are long poles with banners held high. On each banner is the silhouette of a vulture, with blood dripping off of its beak. Each pony in the crowd begins chanting an unknown language and the two banner ponies are slamming their poles to the ground in rhythm.

From the middle of the crowd trots a very tall, slender stallion. In one motion of his hoof he stops the chanting group behind him.

I quickly turn around to my friends, “You three need to get out of here, now!” Before they protest I continue to yell, “If I tell you to run you better fucking listen because this is something even I can’t handle!” They all get worried looks on their faces. “I’m going to try to talk to them and see if I can’t get them out of here. You three go stay with the others and keep them safe!”

“Don’t get yourself killed, Note!” Stratus says before running off along with Neon.

“Midnight please don’t do something stupid… I better see you back here soon.“ Stardust says before joining the other two.
I mentally psych myself up before hopping down onto the other side of the gate. As I approach the tall stallion he does another gesture with his hoof and the ponies behind him bow down.
“Ah, the Marauder, it’s a pleasure to finally meet you pony to pony. I’ve heard so much about you.” His voice is very silky smooth for somepony like him. ”I guess I should introduce myself. I am Dead Sea, leader of the Vultures.” He gives a small bow with his head. I don’t return the gesture.
“Alright Dead Sea, what the hell do you want with Haythem?” I look at the ponies behind him and notice that if things go south I wouldn’t stand a chance. Most of them have guns that I recognise from the Guns and Bullets magazine. All the nicest models. Giant sniper rifles, automatic rifles and shotguns that look like they’re all in near perfect condition. “More importantly, who are you?”
“Oh you don’t already know? We’re here to lead the wasteland to salvation. Starting with the grand city of Alpony! Seeing as you’ve saved us quite a bit of work by getting rid of the bigger raider towns, we figured it was about time to start our collection off right here in the town of Haythem.” He looks past me at the town, “But where’s everypony at I wonder?”
“What the hell do you mean collection? Are you saying you’re collecting live ponies?” I gesture towards the three dead guards, “What about them? Are you taking their dead bodies as part of your so-called collection?”
Dead Sea chuckles, “They rejected our message and had to pay the price. We ask only for such a small price for life. I don’t see why they were so against it.”
“Probably because you’re just like the slavers half of these ponies escaped from. If you have any plans to hurt the ponies in this town you’ll have to go through me first.” I brace myself for any gun shot that’s about to fire into me.
“Hmm well that will create a problem in our plans now won’t it… I’ll tell you what Marauder, we’ll leave this little hamlet alone since you seem so adamant on sacrificing yourself for it.” He turns around and says something in the strange gibberish language again and the group of heavily armed ponies begin to walk away. “Next time Marauder I won’t be so gracious!” He chuckles as he bows his head before following his soldiers.
I stand there for a minute, thinking of how much of a pain these ponies are going to be to deal with when the time comes down to it. I’ll have to listen to Dj Pon3 to make sure they don’t harm anypony else

I turn around and walk back into town, I see Stardust watching eagerly at Turnpike’s building, waiting for me to come back. When she sees me her face lights up and she disappears in a flash, reappearing in front of me to embrace me in a hug.

“I’m so glad you’re safe.” She lets go of me and asks, “What did they want from us?”

“Well apparently they need ponies for their ‘collection’, but from what I can tell they’re just organized slavers with big guns.” I begin to walk to Turnpike’s building with Stardust next to me.

As we approach I notice Turnpike peek her head out, “Ah’m guessing that you dealt with that army Midnight?” I nod my head, “Well it was a lot quieter than I was expecting. Alright everypony! The kid cleared em out! Y'all are good to continue your business!”

All at once everypony clears out of the building, Neon and Turnpike last, along with Stratus. Stratus quickly begins to look over my entire body to make sure I’m not injured in any way. I assure her I’m fine.

“So Midnight, who are they and how did you make them leave?” Neon says to my left.

“They called themselves the Vultures, and their leader is named Dead Sea. As for how I got rid of them I really didn’t do anything. They said if they were to kill me it would ruin their so-called ‘plan’. But if it wasn’t for that I’d be dead right now honestly. They’re the most heavily armed and organized group I’ve seen in the wasteland. And most of them seemed to be clean as well, almost like they weren't from the wasteland.” Great, another big mystery that I’m going to have to figure out and it’s barely past noon!
“Do you think they’re responsible for the murders at Green Blossom?” Stardust asks.
I think about it for a moment. “I don’t think so, while they do seem the type, they don’t seem to have access to the pink cloud.” I rub my face with my hooves, “This is all just something I’m gonna have to deal with one way or another.”
“Don’t stress yourself kid, it’s not your job to solve every problem in the wasteland.” Turnpike nudges my shoulder with a hoof, “Hell you’ve already made the wasteland a better place as it is. Look around!”
I glance around at the small town around us. Even though they were each moments away from getting kidnapped or killed, each of them seemed to be genuinely happy. And I gave that to them. I couldn’t help but smile.
“Also while Stratus was fixin’ you up I signed those papers for ya.” She pats Stardust’s saddlebags, “But I got a small favor to ask before you go running off and getting in trouble again.”
“Yea whatever you need Turnpike.” I nod to her
“Well I was going to send some guards to bring that caravan over to your friends but seeing as well…” Turnpike lets out a deep breath
“Don’t worry about it Turnpike, we’ll handle it. You didn’t have to ask really. I was thinking about heading back over there anyway to make sure they know about the Vultures.” I glance over at Stardust and Neon, “I realize that I don’t ask your guy’s opinion on anything I do. So does that all sound good?”
“I’m going wherever you go Midnight,” Stardust smiles beautifully.
“I did say I would travel with you didn’t I?” Neon says in his usual monotone voice.
“Glad you two put up with me then,” I chuckle slightly.

Turnpike turns over to Stratus, “Looks like you better go pack your stuff up doc. I don’t wanna keep those three here for any longer than they have to.”

“Gotcha, be back in a sec!” She briskly trots over to where she was working and heads into the hut. In a moment she’s back with her doctors bag packed full with all of her supplies, and on her back is my armor. I guess I didn’t put it on before heading out to deal with the Vultures.

I notice Stardust glare at me, she must have not realized it either. I’ll be getting a stern talking to after this.

After slipping on my armor we all walk to the caravan and help everypony get ready. As we stood there, I notice all the ex slaves I freed from both Gut Rot and Cook Cook, all of them were in a decently large group walking towards the caravan.

“Hey, where are they going?” I ask everyone.

Stratus turns around, “Oh we’re bringing them to the Crimson Caravan headquarters or at least somewhere they can stay. Haythem is quickly running out of room.”

“How about we bring them to Clover. I’m sure that they’ll be able to help them get settled in. Most of Clover’s ponies are too weak to do anything anyways.” Stardust says.

“Wait, what do you mean by too weak?” Stratus breaks away from a conversation with the Caravan leader to ask.

Neon begins to explain, “Well they just got out of slavery thanks to Midnight here. Most of them are too injured or weak to do anything really.”

Stratus’ eyes go wide then she begins to jump up and down rapidly while exclaiming excitedly, “That’s perfect!” She squeals quite loud and continues, “I’ll stay with your friend and help all the ponies and get away from this stupid caravan! Finally settle down in a place where I can help ponies and find a purpose in my life!” I notice the caravan leader shake his head and continue with his work. Stratus pauses her excitement and looks at me, “You are a blessing to this Wasteland, Note. You’ve brought happiness to so many ponies including me. I’m sure you’ve heard this a lot before but, thank you.”

…

Our fairly large caravan got to Clover in about an hour in a half. As we traveled I noticed a raider run away at the sight of me leading the Caravan. Hopefully the raiders will learn to keep to themselves now. It only takes a little bit of killing to stop killers, ironic I know. But it’s what I gotta do to keep these poor ponies safe in this dreaded place.

Entering the ex-raider camp I notice how much the place has cleaned up. They had moved the dead raiders to a pile a block away. And used some of the rainwater from that night to scrub off all the profanity, blood, and other various viscera off of the walls. The small group seemed to be doing quite well for themselves, and now they would have a lot more ponies to help them.

…

The Caravan leader was kind enough to let us bargain and give us a big discount for a barrel of water and two boxes of food that could last them until they get a shipment from the Crimson Caravan. It wasn’t cheap but I had enough caps to pay for most of the cost. Even though I’ve only been in the wasteland I’ve begun to save up a decently large fortune for myself, it’s only fair that I share it with the ponies who actually need it.

With all the new ponies, Clover was frantically giving them jobs and finding space for them to call their own in the still standing houses around the suburbs. By the way she was keeping her cool in the chaos, I could tell that Clover would be the perfect pony to lead all of the ex-slaves.

The longer we stood there waiting for Clover to finish the more I realized we we’re running out of time to deliver the package and would have to leave right now to make sure we deliver it on time. I made sure to have a pony deliver a message of our leave to Clover and that if she ever needs anything at all to come contact us. The pony was happy to do it and ran to go do so as we walked down the crumbling road east.

From behind us a set of hooves quickly chased us down. I turn around to see Clover tackle me with one of the biggest hugs I’ve ever gotten.

“How dare you leave without coming to say goodbye!” Clover yells into my ear as she hugs me.

I attempt to let her go but she doesn’t loosen up, “Uhh sorry Clover, you were super busy and we had to get going.” I say to the small gray and green mare.

Clover releases me and I can finally breathe normally again. Neon chuckles to the side of me. Clover clears her throat, “Well I wanted to at least say thank you! You went out of your way to help us and now we can all live better lives. You did that Midnight! You’ve given all those ponies, including me, a home and a purpose in life!” She pauses for a moment and continues, “Alright, that's all I got to say. Now get out of her Midnight, go do some more good for the wasteland.”

Before she turns around the Caravan Leader seems to appear behind her out of nowhere holding a piece of paper attached to a clipboard and a pencil. “Before you run off again Miss. I’m going to need a town name for our records.”

“Wait, why do I get to pick it?” Clover asks.

Stardust steps in, “Clover is it not obvious?” She holds out a hoof to the ponies cleaning, building, and talking happily to one another. “You’re their leader! In less than ten minutes everypony had a place of their own and some sort of job they could do to help out.”

Clover was speechless for a moment before shaking herself out of it, “Well I don’t know what I’ll call it… Freedom? No that won’t do... “ She rattles off several other names that could work perfectly before glancing at me and jumping up into the air happily. “I got it!” She takes the clipboard and pencil and quickly writes four letters onto the paper.

“What did you decide on?” I ask.

“Well I decided to name it after you Midnight. Or at least what you’ve given everypony here.” She says happily

“And that would be?” Neon asks.

Before she says anything, Clover quickly runs over and kisses me on the cheek and whispers it into my ear before running back into her home. Instantly a smile goes across my face and my cheeks blush slightly.
“Hope.”
_____________________________________________________________________
Footnote: Level up! Sanity:79%

Sneering Pegasus - Your hatred for raiders has grown immensely! You now do an additional 10% damage to them!

Fallout Equestria: Finding Hope

by Midnight_Note

Prologue

Chapter 1: New Beginnings

Chapter 2: Watching

Chapter 3: Fallen Star

Chapter 4: The Midnight Marauder

Chapter 5: Restless Colors

Chapter 6: Reunion

Chapter 7: Fury of The Night