cram as many posts here in 30 mins as possible (LYAT finale)

[Perpetual]

[Helix]

can lazy post the entirety of fallout equestria before lyat closes forever

we've replaced his posting station with folders crystals. let's watch.

[Perpetual]

[Perpetual]

[CorvusCaw]

<Berrybot>pineapple did i enter into leegally-binding contracts?

[Lazy]

I sat in the apartment common room, trying to float small objects. I had made it up to levitating a pack of bubblegum. (Which, honestly, was the only thing I imagined the package was good for anymore. Who would even try to eat two-hundred-year-old bubblegum?)

Over breakfast, a meal which in content was indistinguishable from dinner, the conversation had turned towards more open introductions and an attempt by the others to get to know Xenith a little better in return for regaling her with stories of our adventures over the past five weeks.

"I have never seen a bloodwing," Xenith admitted, "But I have seen the dessicated husks their preying leaves behind. Still... wouldn't a missile be a little excessive for killing one?"

"SteelHooves ain't never been one fer underkill."

The ghoul snorted. "You should talk. Tell her about your solution to the alicorns chasing us through Manehattan."

"Actually," Velvet Remedy interrupted, "I think it is Xenith's turn to share." She gave the zebra an encouraging look and suggested, "Why don't you tell us a little about where you learned those brewing skills of yours?" Velvet was purposefully suggesting tales of a time that must have been before Fillydelphia, steering the zebra's memories and our conversation away from more dangerous and hurtful paths.

Xenith hesitated, but relented as the silence stretched out. "I learned the brewing of potions and remedies both mundane and magical from my grandparents. In their youth, they had been adventurers of sorts, prying into all the forbidden places -- even delving into the Everfree Forest in search of the Hut of Zecora and braving Lookout Plateau that rises above the dark fumes of Froggy Bottom Bog along the vilest stretch of the Ponytomic -- searching out old recipes and lore of zebra-kind that had been over a century lost. It is from them that I learned the ways and tales of the zebra people... or as much as I know of them."

I looked up from my task of stacking bubblegum and bullets into a tiny fort. Somehow, the idea of the zebras as Equestrian scavengers not unlike myself was surprising. I don't know what I had expected. Something more military and uniquely zebra, I guessed.

"My great grandparents were amongst the survivors of Stable Three, as were most zebras in the Equestrian Wasteland. As is typical for youth, my grandparents rebelled against their parent's ways and sought to learn more about the zebras beyond the tales passed down through oral tradition since The Sealing. "

I didn't need clarification on what The Sealing was. Nopony who lived in a Stable would. But I did wish to know more about the Stable whose floor plan I had in my PipBuck. "Stable Three?"

SteelHooves grunted. "The Let's-Get-Along Stable," he snorted derisively. I saw Velvet's ears perk at that.

"It was clearly an experimental Stable," SteelHooves rumbled. "Virtually all of the zebra citizens of Equestria were 'randomly assigned' to Stable Three. They would have made up half of the Stable's population."

Xenith frowned at the unpleasantness of the interruption but nodded at SteelHooves' assessment. "It was long before even my grandparent's time, but the stories passed down say that the Overmares told all in the Stable why they had been chosen. And why the Stable had no texts of history or posters of current events."

Ah. Instead of altering things, Scootaloo and her friends had simply filtered out as much of the Ministry of Image's influence as possible.

Velvet Remedy questioned, "Overmares? Plural?"

Xenith nodded. "One pony and one zebra."

My experience with Stables was clawing at the back of my mind. Still, if there were survivors... "What went wrong?"

"Why would you assume something went wrong?" Xenith gave me a questioning look. "Zebras and ponies can live together quite harmoniously if each gives the other the opportunity."

SteelHooves again provided the answer I was looking for. "Stable Three was built within the limits of the one city in Equestria with more than a hoof-full of zebras," he informed us. "Canterlot."

Oh no.

Xenith saw my expression and nodded glumly. "Not even the Stables could hold back the Pink Cloud forever. Stable Three lasted over a century before the Cloud ate its way inside. Within a generation more, those who still could were forced to unseal the door and flee. Many did not survive the exposure; my great grandparents were amongst those who did."

• • •

"You... killed a dragon?!" Xenith stared between Calamity and me, her eyes wide. They narrowed as she asked me, "Is this true? Or is this revenge for Doombunny?"

"Doombunny?" Velvet Remedy asked curiously.

Calamity pulled a book from his saddlebags. "Ah'm guessin' somethin' t' do wi' this."

I focused, trying to wrap the book in a field of magic. I broke a sweat, but the book dutifully floated over to me on a cushion of levitating energy. Martial Arts of the Zebra announced the title.

"Where did you find this?" I asked as I flipped the book open to the contents page.

"Filin' cabinet at the station," Calamity said matter-of-factly. "Strangely, it was under 'P'."

I shrugged that off. The prologue spoke of the zebra's rich history of martial artistry, from the many fighting styles that had been perfected over centuries (such as Fallen Caesar Style) to newer ones. The newest of which had been only been in existence for a couple years at the time this pre-apocalyptic book had been written, and focused on drug-enhanced martial prowess: Doombunny Style. The book's author spoke ill of it for having undefined "influences" from the lands of the ponies.

I closed the book, intending to read it later.

Xenith tapped a hoof in thought. "Littlepip, with your permission, there is someplace I would like us to go. I understand that there are other matters pressing, but this is important to me."

"Of course we... wait, how come this is my decision?" I looked to the others. "Why do you ponies keep acting like I'm the leader?'

"Littlepip's right," Calamity neighed. "Anyway, we do have more pressin' matters, so Ah think we should first hear that plan. What's next?"

I nodded thankfully and laid out the plan. "We need to go to Stable-Tec Headquarters first. I have something that Elder Blueberry Sabre wants, and I plan to use it to barter for access to the Stable-Tec maneframe."

SteelHooves whinnied questioningly.

"Red Eye is building a fortress called the Cathedral where Stable 101 used to be. I figure the Stable-Tec maneframe has record of the location of all the Stables, so that's the fastest way to find out where Red Eye's main base is located."

I looked to Calamity, "After that, I say we fly as fast as we can to Tenpony Tower and begin an evacuation."

Calamity smirked and turned to Xenith. "Ah'm sorry fer interruptin'. Jus' provin' a point. Now go on wi' what ya were askin'?"

I blinked, lost. "Huh? What point?"

Xenith gave her own smirk back, answering kindly. "I believe you just demonstrated to everyone but yourself why you are the leader."

I stared. What did she...? Oh fuck. I shot Calamity a dark look, but the buck just grinned. Luna clop me with Her wings.

"You could go yourself," SteelHooves suggested to Xenith as non-nastily as he could.

Xenith nodded. "Yes, but the journey would be long and dangerous alone. I would prefer to arrive later than not at all." She looked to me, "Although should you refuse, then I will take my leave as soon as your travels bring us within a few days of my destination."

I nodded. I wanted to immediately agree, but it seemed wise to ask, "Where do you need to go?"

"I... need to return to my tribal home. The village that had been mine and my family's until Stern's slavers descended upon it."

"Your family?"

"My parents and husband were slain in the fight. My daughter..." the zebra choked before plowing on. "My daughter was too young for Stern's slave pits, and not a pony so she had no place in Red Eye's schools. So Stern left her there, along with the other children."

Velvet Remedy whimpered, shedding the tears that the zebra seemed unable or unwilling to. My own thoughts traveled back to the words of one of the raiders in Shattered Hoof, speaking about how her own town had been treated to the same, with the children left behind to fend for themselves. She had fled into the life of a raider to escape the horror her town had descended into under the rule of slaughter-scarred bullies and traumatized children.

"It was long ago. Years. I doubt my daughter would know me should she still survive." Xenith's face was sorrowful but her voice was steady. "Any claim I had as her guide and guardian I lost in the years since. I only wish to know."

• • •

"You really shouldn't be going anywhere," Velvet Remedy chided as we made our way towards the Stable-Tec building, itself walled off from the rest of Fillydelphia like Stern's city in miniature. "Except to a medical clinic for a week or two of recovery."

She was probably right, but we couldn't afford a week. I felt guilty for having selfishly stolen most of a day for resting. But once my magic had grown strong enough to lift Little Macintosh, I knew it was time to move.

A small family of scavengers spotted us on the street and scurried for cover. It hurt to think that ponies once greeted each other as they passed on the street. That cheer and open neighborliness had once been the social norm. In the Equestrian Wasteland, a stranger pony was met with guarded suspicion, assessed first for threat potential. I gave the scavengers a smile and a friendly hoofwave as we passed. It wasn't returned as they cringed, the adults hiding the younger ponies behind them, weapons ready should we attack like a band of raiders.

I hated the Equestrian Wasteland. Especially Fillydelphia.

"Oh my!" Velvet Remedy burst out, eyes wide with wonder. "Aren't you just magnificent!" She trotted quickly ahead of us.

Pyrelight was perched on the fountain statue of Sweetie Belle, glowing brilliantly. She had bled off most of the endowment from the Fillydelphia Crater, but her aura was still five times her size, lighting up the Steel Rangers' outer courtyard with golden radiance.

My heart went out to the balefire phoenix, immensely grateful for her companionship when I was behind The Wall. I too began to trot towards her, a tear in my eye.

My PipBuck started clicking, informing me that being in Pyrelight's vicinity was even less healthy than bathing in Fillydelphia water. I drew up short and watched as Velvet Remedy floated a bottle of RadSafe from a saddlebox. She downed more than the recommended dose before trotting right up to the radioactive bird and nuzzling her gently. Pyrelight cooed.

Well, at least Velvet Remedy wasn't spending nearly as much time inside the Fluttershy orb since Pyrelight joined us. I had mixed feelings about the trade.

"All the ponies in this crowd are crazy," Xenith muttered as she walked past me.

I moved up to Xenith. "Um... this building belongs to the Steel Rangers. I think maybe it's not so safe for you to come in with us. Would you mind waiting outside? It won't be alone, and I hope it won't be for long."

Xenith considered me. "And whom did you intend to keep me company?"

I knew I needed Calamity's combat prowess backing me up, just in case my meeting with Blueberry Sabre went south. And not only did I want a Steel Ranger at my side for diplomatic reasons, I didn't trust him alone with Xenith quite yet. Velvet Remedy, on the other hoof, would enjoy having some time with Pyrelight... and I certainly wasn't taking the glowing ball of regal radiation in with me. I told Xenith my decision.

The zebra nodded. "As you wish. I will remain here with unicorn Fluttershy and her balefire Doombunny."

Okie dokey lokey.

"Perhaps... you could work on that brew you offered me?" I suggested, taking a plunge. I wanted to show the zebra my trust, and give her something to do while we were gone that she would find productive. I didn't really want to be altered. I had a hard enough time entering the memories of folk whose bodies were significantly different than my own. I didn't know how well I could handle living in one.

But...

Xenith was right. Red Eye had his own advantages. I had to at least seriously consider putting my squeamishness aside and taking those offered to me.

Xenith smiled. "As you wish."

• • •

"...those fires I reported yesterday appear to be the work of Red Eye's private army. Griffins sporting the slaver king's colors were spotted flying over the far side of the Everfree Forest carrying incinerators. But where any other woods would be consumed in flame by now, these fires are spreading extremely slowly. Looks to me like the Everfree Forest is fighting back. "

DJ Pon3's voice came out of the wall speakers in the Stable-Tec visitor's lounge. We listened as I waited impatiently.

"And one last bit o' news for all you faithful listeners. Looks like Red Eye's set his sights on Tenpony Tower. Fortunately for the folks in that place, it's built like a fortress. And the only entrance is both well-defended and tricky to access. The ponies of Tenpony Tower are barricaded inside, safe and sound for now. There's plenty of stockpiled food and water, and the new constable chief is doing her best to organize rationing, so they should be able to hold out until help arrives."

I jumped to my hooves at that. "No!" I shouted at the speaker. "They're not trying to invade. They're trying to seal you in!"

"And now for something a bit unusual. I don't normally read mail on the air, but I have a personal message here from my assistant Homage to the Stable Dweller. Ahem. Dearest Littlepip... aww, now ain't that sweet? I think somepony has a crush. Dearest Littlepip, I know things sound bad here, and I know it's your nature to try to rush to our rescue; but we're okay for now, and you have other more pressing matters closer to home. Do what you need to do, take care of them first. Then, later, we can meet where we met before, and I promise to give you so many orgas...Oh! Well now that's not something I'm comfortable readin' on the air. I think I'll be having a little talk with my assistant.

"Meanwhile, here are the silky-smooth tones of Velvet Remedy singing about what gets her through life in this post-apocalyptic wasteland!"

I stared at the speaker, my body locked up, my jaw on the floor, heat rushing to my face and other places. Velvet Remedy's beautiful voice poured through the speaker, replacing the voice of DJ Pon3, but I barely heard it.

What I meant to say was "I can't believe she just did that!" What I actually said was closer to "squeak!"

Calamity snickered, tears in his eyes, then collapsed onto his back in laughter.

• • •

"What do you mean the Elder isn't here?!"

"The Elder has been called away on an urgent crusade and is not available," Knight Poppyseed claimed. "However, she said that in the case you should return, I may receive what you have recovered."

I stomped. "I was under the impression that these things were important to you ponies! Or at least to her, considering I risked my life for them and all!"

"She wasn't actually expecting you to survive," SteelHooves deciphered. From his tone, he wanted a few words with the Elder himself.

I glowered at the mare in magically-powered armor. "Fine. I can report that Red Eye's research into Bypass Spells has been destroyed." I hadn't scavenged any of it, and would have not given it to these ponies even if I had. But I did know that at least part of the research had been successfully completed. I could tell her that. But really, fuck these ponies.

"I have recovered the schematics to the Radiation-Powered Engine. And I'm ready to turn them over to you..." after having made copies, but I didn't feel the need to tell her that. I had no problem giving the Steel Rangers this technology. I intended to give it out to any pony with a chance of implementing it. This was the sort of step forward that all Equestria could potentially benefit from, but not if it was being jealously guarded by only a few.

That said, I'd be damned if I wasn't going to get something in return this time. "...in exchange for access to the Stable-Tec maneframe."

Knight Poppyseed sputtered at that. "I'm sorry? No, there is no way..."

Calamity stepped up next to me, fixing her with a dangerous stare. "Ah reckon we ain't exactly askin'. Y'all owe Li'lpip, an' we're takin' payment. Now why don't we do it all friendly-like?"

The knight mare looked to SteelHooves for support.

"I'm a Star Paladin," my armor-encased companion reminded her smoothly. "In the absence of the Elder, I am the ranking Ranger on this base. And I order you to take us to the Stable-Tec maneframe." He turned his stare to me. "I will personally make sure Littlepip doesn't access any information vital to the security of the Steel Rangers or the Ministry of Wartime Technology."

Knight Poppyseed nickered, but turned obediently and began to lead. "Permission to speak freely, sir?"

"No."

• • •

The room was cold and dark save for the blinking lights of the maneframe. From the locks on the door, the turrets outside and the hoofprints in the dust, I could tell this room was not only restricted but rarely entered.

I hoofed the light switch, but the room remained dark. I turned on my PipBuck lamp and looked around. The spotlight on SteelHooves' helmet hummed softly to life, cutting a beam of light through the darkness. He followed me in.

Instead of moving directly for the maneframe, I allowed my curiosity to drag me around the huge basement room. At the far end was the huge, gear-shaped door of a Stable. It rested against the open doorway, not attached. By removing my saddlebags, I was barely able shimmy through the entrance. According to the number, this was Stable 0.

Beyond stretched the rooms and hallways of a Stable maintenance wing. But the hallways dead-ended in shallow caverns of dirt. The rooms were unfinished. Toolboxes and construction equipment lay scattered everywhere. Several sections of the walls and ceilings had collapsed.

In one corner, I found the curled-up skeleton of an earth pony. The floor around the pony was littered with empty bottles. I shook my head as I noticed the liquor had been applejack. There was a black opal laying on the floor next to the tattered remains of a recollector. The lower bone of the earth pony's left foreleg wore an early-model PipBuck.

I plugged my PipBuck into it and found a single audio recording. Sitting down, I let it begin to play. The voice on the recording was soft, almost overwhelmed the background noise of sirens and bombardment.

"Ah don't really know what ta say. Or, for that matter, whom Ah'm sayin' it to. The good news is that Sweetie Belle's got muh family safe an' sound in Stable Two. Ah dunno where Scootaloo's at, but Ah'm glad she's not..."

A particularly loud roar drowned out everything else, followed by the sounds of metal and concrete collapsing within the unfinished Stable as a maelstrom devoured the city above.

"...Fillydelphia was just hit. That's it then... it's all over. Everypony's dead... except for the ones we could save. Celestia dammit, Applejack, couldn't ya have stopped this from happening? Couldn't anypony have stopped this?"

I heard a furious clicking. I checked my PipBuck, but the radiation meter was safely in the green.

"No, no, no! Ah didn't mean that! Ain't Applejack's fault. Hay, it's more muh fault than hers. An' Ah know Ah ain't s'posed ta feel that way, but Ah do sometimes. An' Ah guess it don't really matter anymore. Everypony's dead now. Ah'm dead now. Ah didn't survive the megaspell just cuz Ah lived through the blast. We never even got the door on. Radiation will kill me."

The clicking was coming from the recording.

"Ah just wanted t' tell anypony listenin' that Ah'm sorry. Even if it's not muh fault all those kids are dead. Ah'm still sorry. Ah tried t' make up for it. Ah really did."

• • •

SteelHooves was calling for me.

"I'm fine!" I called back, wiping tears from my eyes. "I'll be out in just a minute."

Before worming my way back out, I knelt down and picked up the memory orb in my teeth. Once back in the basement proper, I put the orb in my saddlebags and proceeded to the Stable-Tec maneframe.

The maneframe was a tricky hack, but either I had grown more skilled or Pinkie Pie's had been easier. I downloaded all the information I could on the various Stables and began sifting through it for the one piece of information that interested me most. The location of Stable 101.

I found it and the answer surprised me.

Once I was reunited with all my friends outside of the Steel Ranger's citadel, having given Knight Poppyseed the schematics I had promised in return, I told everyone what I had learned.

"Stable 101 was built within the Everfree Forest itself." The looks and gasps were exactly what I expected. "Apparently, there used to be an old castle on a safe patch of land in the middle of the place. That's where Stable-Tec built their last completed Stable."

Xenith was the first to make a particular connection. "So Red Eye is building his fortress in the middle of the Everfree Forest... and is burning down the forest around it? Why?"

"Hard t' maintain a growin' army in a space where the wildlife wants t' disembowel ya an' suck the juices, Ah imagine," Calamity theorized.

"Agriculture," I answered with my own guess. "You said it yourself, Calamity. The Everfree Forest was never hit by a megaspell. As far as cropland goes, the Everfree Forest is one of the few places that isn't poisoned with radiation or taint."

Xenith agreed with my line of thought. "And after the burning, the soil will be rich with nutrients from the ashes." She looked grim, slipping unconsciously into the sort of rhyming speech I was used to hearing from Zecora. "I worked for months recycling flamer fuel for Stern. Clearly he was stockpiling plenty for this burn."

"And when he's done, he'll put up a wall around the whole place and have complete control over the food," SteelHooves agreed, glancing back towards The Wall that Red Eye had erected around two-thirds of the city. "It's what he does."

• • •

<-=======ooO Ooo=======->

"Do ya think She'll like it?" Apple Bloom asked, fretting over an exquisite model of an almost monastic walled village. The design looked familiar; I had seen the remains of this model on display outside of Elder Blueberry Sabre's chambers.

"She'll love it," I felt and heard myself say. The voice was not immediately familiar, and completely lacked the country drawl of the younger mare. This Apple Bloom, dressed in the manner of formal attire that she had not yet grown comfortable with, was no older than me.

"Do you think She'll like the crenulations?"

"She'll love the crenulations," my host assured her gently. "The crenulations are fine."

"How about the moon in the center courtyard? Maybe I should have gone with a full moon rather than a crescent moon..."

"She'll love the moon. The moon is fine."

Apple Bloom trotted nervously around the table, eyeing the model from every angle. The room we stood in was a glowing white marble with flowing curtains and golden filigree in all the accents. If we weren't in a palace, then somepony had gone to great lengths to give the impression of one.

"How about the tower? Is it too short? Or maybe it's too tall?" Apple Bloom hoofed her ears in frustration. "Arrrugh! I don't even know if Princess Luna likes towers! Why didn't I ask that earlier?"

My host let out a long-suffering whinny. "She'll love the towers. The towers are very nice."

Apple Bloom reacted like she'd been struck. "Nice? But they need to be perfect!" Apple Bloom's agitation was strong enough that she nearly hovered. I thought the young mare could spontaneously combust from stress.

"Calm down, child. I'm sure Princess Luna will love all of it." I felt myself smile as soothing words came from my muzzle. "Princess Celestia wanted the greatest architect in all of Equestria for this project, and She made sure She got it."

Apple Bloom quaked a moment, then calmed with a breath. "Thank ya again, Uncle Orange, fer accompanying me t' meet with the Princess. Ah don't think Ah coulda done this on my own."

"You're doing a far sight better than your sister ever managed. But try to watch the country drawl. Remember, sound sophisticated and you show everypony that you are sophisticated."

"Yes, Uncle Orange. Ah'll... I'll remember." Apple Bloom returned to fretting, but a more subdued fretting.

"You should be proud," Uncle Orange said encouragingly. "This is the sort of project that will make you renowned across all of Equestria."

Apple Bloom simply nodded. The fame didn't seem to interest her. However, "With the bits I get from this, Ah'll... sorry, I'll be able to expand muh... my business. Hire more help. Maybe start looking into other sorts of designs." She looked up with a smile. "Scootaloo says she'd like to invest now that Red Racer is doin' so well. Maybe build a company together..."

Apple Bloom's voice fell away. Another presence entered the room. An exalted one. My host dropped gracefully into a bow. Apple Bloom swiftly followed his example.

I was in the company of a Goddess!

Not one of those blasphemous pseudo-goddess alicorn monsters. I found myself kneeling before the Goddess of the Sun whom I had prayed to since I was a little filly: Celestia Herself!

She was majestic beyond description: a tall, white, proper alicorn whose mane and tail flowed with color, Her flank emblazoned with the symbol of the sun itself. She was graceful, kind and altogether sovereign.

"Please," She addressed us graciously, "Rise, my little ponies. It is a joy to see you."

As my host stood, Princess Celestia (squee! squee! squee!) moved around the table, eyeing the model favorably. "So, this is to be Luna's new academy?"

Apple Bloom nodded nervously, unable to speak.

"It looks lovely."

Apple Bloom squeaked, "Thank you, Your Majesty!"

Celestia's ears perked. "Ah, and here she comes. If you would be so kind as to let me speak first?"

"Of course, Your Majesty," my host said quickly. Celestia turned and both Apple Bloom and her uncle followed the glorious Princess's gaze.

Princess Luna walked in between two curtains. Her dark blue colors looked striking yet starkly out-of-place in the rest of the palace. She was much smaller than Her regal older sister (or, for that matter, than the pseudo-goddesses)... almost the size of a normal pony. While Princess Celestia was resplendent, Princess Luna struck me as... cute.

The sort of cute that I would have impure thoughts about if the pony in my head wasn't already too busy bouncing around Pinkie Pie Style and letting off a barrage of squee-ing noises.

"Sister? You called for me?"

"Yes, Luna dear. I'd been thinking about that school of magic you have been proposing. And I've decided to send all your students to the moon."

Luna froze. Her mouth hung open. Then closed slowly. "You wouldn't..." I could see the gears in Her head start spinning again. "And you couldn't. Without the Elements of Harmony, you don't have anywhere near that kind of power, dear sister."

What was going on here?

Apple Bloom, apparently either not quite in on the joke, or simply unable to see Luna made uncomfortable, quickly spoke up. "She means Crescent Moon Canyon."

Princess Celestia smiled but tilted Her head towards Apple Bloom with a look that suggested the regal Princess hadn't wanted the young architect to spill that quite yet.

Princess Luna shot her sister a Look then moved to the table, Her eyes going wide. "This...?" She looked up with tears in Her eyes. "This is going to be the Luna Academy for Young Unicorns? A magical school of my very own? Just like yours?"

Princess Celestia smiled and nuzzled Her younger sister. "Happy birthday, little sister."

Apple Bloom's mouth hung open until my host tapped his own with a hoof. Blushing, she waved a hoof over the model. "Princess Celestia has given..." She paused, looking up at the Princess to make sure it was okay to speak. Princess Celestia smiled with a nod and softness in her eyes. "...us Littlehorn Valley in the Crescent Moon Canyon t' build on. It's isolated, far away from any dangers..."

"Or any villages," Princess Luna noted, giving Her sister a gentler look, but a look nonetheless. "And far away from Canterlot and your own school."

Princess Celestia nodded. "I want you to have this fairly, without ponies making the comparisons they would if the schools were side-by-side, and without the students being distracted by rivalry." The Princess flicked Her gaze to Apple Bloom as she added, "And I know you were considering Ponyville, but I didn't want young colts and fillies wandering off into the Everfree Forest."

Luna rolled her eyes. "Come on, big sister. No filly is foalish enough to go wandering around that place. Have faith in my students..."

Apple Bloom was making the sort of face that suggested she really wanted to be someplace else.

"...the only thing within a day's wagon ride of Littlehorn are some zebra jungles."

"Yes," Princess Celestia nodded. "There will be friendly zebras not far away if they need assistance. And soon several of your students will have baby dragons of their own; so if anypony needs to contact you, you will only be a sneeze away."

<-=======ooO Ooo=======->

• • •

We were airborne between Fillydelphia and Manehattan. As much as I wanted to go straight to Tenpony Tower, the warning that DJ Pon3 had sent me was at the front of my thoughts, so I had directed Calamity to take us to Junction R-7 first. If something nasty was brewing in Shattered Hoof, something that Homage thought I needed to take care of first, then I wasn't going to waste any time.

That still left me a lot of time to think. And most of that time was spent thinking about the memory orb I had found beside poor Apple Bloom's skeleton. My inner pony had taken over a day to stop dancing at having seen the Goddesses, and it was almost harder to prevent myself from reliving the memory over and over than it was fight the urge for Party-Time Mint-als. And at least with the latter I had the help of simply not carrying any to take. The cravings came without an easy way to sate them. But this... I couldn't throw away a memory orb of the Goddesses! It deserved to be enshrined.

I momentarily played with the idea of taking the Cathedral for myself, wanting to transform it into a temple to Celestia and Luna with the memory orb as a sacred relic. It was a silly daydream, and it passed. I also caught myself revisiting the notion of Luna clopping me with Her wings, only this time as a fantasy rather than a swear. I caught myself before my imagination could get too far and punished myself by banging my head repeatedly against the side of the Sky Bandit until Calamity threatened to land.

It took a while before other implications of what I had seen started to sink in.

Littlehorn. It was a name I had heard before in several contexts. But Watcher's words stood out:

The Massacre at Littlehorn broke Princess Celestia's heart. After that, nearly midway through the war, Princess Celestia decided She wasn't the right pony to lead Equestria anymore. So She stepped down, abdicated Her position to Her sister, Princess Luna.

I looked around. Velvet Remedy was lost inside the Fluttershy memory orb once more. Pyrelight, her aura merely twice her size, had cradled herself against Velvet's left shoulder and was snoring loftily. I shared the Sky Bandit with SteelHooves and Xenith. Calamity was ahead, pulling us.

Well, if there was any pony who would know, it was SteelHooves.

"What happened at Littlehorn?"

SteelHooves and Xenith both started at the question. They looked at each other before SteelHooves answered me simply, "Disaster."

I shivered, knowing I didn't really want to hear this. But part of me needed to. "Tell me."

"Littlehorn was a school. Unicorn fillies and colts, many of whom were too young to even have their cutie marks, lived there, being trained by some of the best of Equestria's magicians," SteelHooves started slowly. "One evening, around twilight, a little over nine years into the war, a zebra convoy rolled into Littlehorn Valley. Two dozen Zebra legionnaires and three large covered wagons. When they didn't respond to peaceful overtures, the matron of the school activated the school's defenses..."

"They didn't know your language," Xenith abruptly interrupted. "They weren't front-line soldiers. It was a refugee convoy. Mares and small zebra children just trying to get out of the killing zone!"

"I know that!" SteelHooves shot back harshly. "They realized that when the first wagon was struck and they saw the dead! But by then it was too late." He turned to me. "It was too late. The zebra convoy had assassins wearing zebra stealth cloaks..."

"They had one." Xenith corrected. "A father whose family was killed in your school's surprise attack."

"They only needed one," SteelHooves growled. "The school was full of children. And the zebras set off a gas bomb inside. It was Canterlot in miniature. The striped bastards killed... every... pony in Littlehorn!"

I felt myself crying. "Okay... please... I don't want to hear anymore."

• • •

They weren't paying attention to me.

But then, I wasn't being very assertive. I was still numb with heartache. Littlehorn had been the turning point of the war, and the pony in my mind was realizing with tearful slowness how Littlehorn had rippled out to destroy everypony it touched. I began to understand. The architect Apple Bloom's sense of guilt and how it steered her choices. And that would have been nothing compared to the guilt and sorrow of then-Princess Celestia who had Herself chosen the location. Or the effects on Princess Luna, whose beloved students were the ones slaughtered to the last.

"It was after Littlehorn that the damn zebras went totally manticore-shit. Every fight became one to annihilation of one side or the other. We struck one wagon, and yes it was a mistake. They massacred hundreds of small children and then went completely insane over it!"

"That had nothing to do with Littlehorn," Xenith said solemnly. "The war had changed. It wasn't about coal or gemstones anymore..."

Coal and gemstones? But then that made a lot of sense. Zebras weren't like unicorns. They couldn't cast spells or use magic directly. They had to brew it into potions, infuse into fetishes or otherwise bind it into objects to get their magic to work. And with the possible exception of Soul Jars, gemstones were the ultimate receptacle for magical enchantment. Any society advancing through arcane sciences would require trains full of gems. That was easy for ponies. We had lands rich with them. Rock farms for growing them. But if the zebra lands didn't have gems... but they did have coal...

I was pulled out of my mental distraction when SteelHooves advanced on Xenith. "Then you admit your whole damn species had a fucking mental break!"

"Not mine," Xenith insisted. "We saw that you ponies had fallen under the influence of the stars. No quarter could be given and no mercy expected from a nation under the sway of cosmic evil."

"What?!?" I mouthed what SteelHooves screamed.

"Did you or did you not choose to follow the champion of the evil stars, Nightmare Moon?"

"What? Are you... what!?" SteelHooves turned stomping and pacing until Calamity once again threatened to land the Sky Bandit and give us all a talking to.

"Wait..." I said slowly. "Are you saying... that the reason the war got so bad... is because zebras couldn't tell the difference between Princess Luna and Nightmare Moon?"

From a struggle over resources to holy war in ten seconds flat.

"They're not the same fucking pony!" SteelHooves screamed at Xenith, although more now because he couldn't scream at the zebras of the past. "We... we weren't following Nightmare Moon any more than Princess Celestia imprisoned Luna on the fucking moon for a thousand years." The Steel Ranger was shaking. "They. Are. Not. The. Same!"

Velvet Remedy had come out of the Fluttershy orb and was looking on in confusion. SteelHooves turned to the two of us and barked, "Tell her."

"They are not the same," I said firmly. Then took note of the silence beside me. I turned a look towards Velvet Remedy.

"Honestly," she whispered, "I was never really clear on that myself. I always figured it was some kind of psychotic break."

"Arrugh!" SteelHooves sounded murderous. Which, considering this was SteelHooves, actually scared me. "Psychotic breaks don't come with physical transformations!"

I nodded in firm agreement. ...Unless you were Pinkie Pie's hair, I thought, remembering that weird change at the end of her argument with Twilight Sparkle.

SteelHooves visibly shook. His voice changed from an angered yell to a low, even blade. "Then there was never any real chance of diplomacy after that, was there?" I could tell that behind his visor, his eyes were locked on Xenith's. "The invitation to Shattered Hoof Ridge for peace talks... there were never going to be any peace talks, were there?"

Xenith's ears flattened. She tried to be reasonable, apparently realizing that this was no longer even an unfriendly argument. "I wasn't there. Please remember that these were other people, zebras and ponies alike. Not us."

"Answer the question."

Xenith looked away. "From the tales I have been told," she sighed sadly, "Peace was what was hoped, but there could only be peace if Nightmare Moon was removed. Unfortunately, the ponies sent the wrong Princess to Shattered Hoof Ridge."

The night turned infinitely colder. I waited, my nerves on edge, for what SteelHooves would do.

With a final growl, SteelHooves removed himself to the farthest end of the Sky Bandit and crouched down, pretending to sleep. Which I knew he didn't, but I thankfully played along.

"Y'all okay back there now?" Calamity called back.

My answer echoed SteelHooves' answer to Knight Poppyseed.

"No."

• • •

We picked up the signal near within an hour of setting down at Junction R-7. It wasn't from Shattered Hoof.

"...mated distress call from Stable-Tec Stable Two. Message begins:"

The mechanized voice gave way to one I had written off ever hearing again. The voice of our Overmare.

"Littlepip, Velvet Remedy, if either of you can hear this... I pray you're still alive, still out there to hear this. Please, if you... or if any friendly pony can hear this... Stable Two is under attack. We don't know who they are or where they came from. But they have somehow opened the front door and they are killing everypony inside! I've evacuated all the survivors into the Security and Overmare's wing. But now that we are cut off from the orchard, we are running out of food. The invaders seem content to wait us out. If you can hear this, please save us."

My blood turned to ice. I analyzed the signal. The broadcast was being piped through the same transmitter that the father of a dying colt had once tapped into from the cistern under the Big Macintosh Memorial. The mechanical voice returned.

Home!

"Message repeats. This is an automated distress call from Stable-Tec Stable Two. Message begins..."

Oh Goddesses...

"C-Calamity, turn now! We have to get to Stable Two! Fast!"

"Uh... Li'lpip? Ah'm 'bout t' collapse here. What's the..."

I pulled out my earbloom and played the message aloud. Within ten words, Calamity was already banking and pulling us onto our new heading.

"No..." SteelHooves whispered. "Damn them, no!"

I swiveled towards my Steel Ranger friend. "No what?" And then I realized what crusade Elder Blueberry Sabre had rushed off to the moment I was out of the way.

"I'm sorry, Littlepip. I did everything I could to make them believe taking Stable Two was a mistake. I have been for decades. But after you two showed up, and they realized there was still a functional Stable down there..."

"This. Was. Your. Mission!?" I strode forward, my glare alone almost strong enough to disintegrate the earth pony ghoul. "Assess if Stable Two could be safely taken?!"

He cringed back from me. "I even tried giving them Stable Twenty-Nine instead."

I rocked on my hooves, my mind teetering on the edge of a dark chasm as I struggled to remember if, in my own hack of Stable Twenty-Nine's entrance, I might have left clues that the tech-savvy agents of the Ministry of Wartime Technology could have used to figure their way through my own Stable's door.

Velvet Remedy wrapped a hoof about me, holding me back. "If the Steel Rangers are assaulting our home," she said with steel in her voice, "We might need him."

"Or maybe it's best we just drop ya off here," Calamity called back, fixing SteelHooves with an even stare. "Cuz Ah'm headin' t' Stable Two, an' when Ah get there, Ah'm plannin' t' kill me a whole lot of Steel Rangers!"

Footnote: Level Up.
New Perk: Bone-Strengthening Brew – With this perk, your limbs only receive 50% of the damage they normally would. (Note: Bone-Strengthening Brew and the cybernetic implant perk Adamantium Bone Lacing are mutually exclusive.)

[Perpetual]

[BartonFink]

I love my dead gay horse

[Helix]

we've replaced his posting station with foldgers crystals. let's watch.

[Vivianinatoga]

poopbutt

[BartonFink]

Already spent 20 minutes doing this, felt like 2 minutes

[Dodger]

ASS AND TITTIES

ASS ASS TITTIES TITTIES ASS AND TITTIES

[Vivianinatoga]

I contributed. Praise me.

[stuff]

10 min

[BartonFink]

i think we're going to need an LYAT debrief thread after this

[Lazy]

The Hour of the Wolf by Kkat

"This... is Steel Rangers level murder here."

Rage.

Burning, explosive rage. In the moment I realized that the Steel Rangers had invaded my home, were killing the ponies inside, I saw red like I never had before. My nerves were hot, electric. I wanted to strike out. To slaughter the fuckers. To rip them apart from the inside out, and keep stomping until they were nothing but paste under my hooves.

But my enemies, the murderers who were defiling my home, were not here. It would be hours, even at Calamity's best speed, before we would make it to Stable Two. I wanted to hurt somepony now. My whole body and mind and soul screamed for justice and retribution... and if I couldn't have that, at least somepony to buck. But the only ponies around were my friends.

So I stood there and raged in silence.

And they were wise enough not to interfere.

• • •

"Do you think I wanted this?" SteelHooves snapped, pacing through the interior of the Sky Bandit. "Stable Two was home to Applejack's family. If anyone in the Apple family still lives, they live in there..."

"Ah ain't sayin' ya wanted this," Calamity shot back. "An' Ah ain't sayin' ya didn't do yer darned best t' stop it. Ah'm jus' sayin' yer best weren't good enough." The rust-colored pegasus was pouring on the speed despite being at the point of exhaustion. "An' now it's muh turn."

Xenith watched the argument, for once not being the focus of the shouting. She turned to Velvet Remedy, eyes large. "This... is your home? You and the little one? Why do the Steel Rangers attack it?"

Velvet Remedy shook her head. Each blink sent fresh tears down her charcoal cheeks. The wind whipped at her color-streaked white mane. "Resources. Nothing more. All they see is a functional Stable. In the very least, the water talisman is priceless. The apple orchard nearly so." She closed her eyes, shuddering with a soft sob. "At most, they want it as a base."

My rage was beginning to ebb, the fire and fury unable to maintain itself without a direction to strike. I could feel numbness, sorrow and horror lurking behind it, ready to overwhelm me once the inferno of anger burnt itself out.

"You can't just prance in and start killing Rangers," SteelHooves stomped.

"Ah don't see why not. Far as Ah can see, they're nothin' more'n a gang o' high-tech raiders preyin' on the innocent." Calamity kicked at his battle saddle, changing the ammo. "Ponies like that need t' die, an' Ah aim t' kill 'em. It's muh policy."

SteelHooves turned to Velvet Remedy. "You talk to him."

"And say what?" Velvet's voice was hard as steel.

SteelHooves grunted. "That it's suicide, for a start." He looked at us. "Do you ponies really think you can take on a few squads' worth of Knights and Paladins in magical armor?"

The ghoul's words hit home. The size of this was too much. Who knew how many Steel Rangers were down there, each with weapons and armor and combat experience far in excess of our own. How was I going to save Stable Two? How could I fight that?

I began to remember each and every pony I had grown up with. My teachers, my peers, each pony at my first and only slumber party... I felt myself being crushed under the weight of this responsibility. I couldn't breathe.

"Y'all gonna be surprised jus' what we c'n do."

The armor-encased ghoul rounded on the pegasus. "I'm on your side here."

"Are you?" I asked, finally breaking my silence.

The others all turned a collective gaze on SteelHooves. The Steel Ranger, the eternally obedient soldier buck, had been backed into a corner. Forced to choose between his loyalty to us and his Oath to them.

If that was all it was, then I knew we would lose. But I had seen into his head, into his memories. SteelHooves' Oath wasn't to the Ministry of Wartime Technology. It was to her. Applejack. And when it had come to defending her, there had never been a moral he considered sacred enough to let it stand in his way. If that still held true, then we stood a chance.

SteelHooves didn't answer. That was not a good sign. But such a decision was hard enough without being further forced. I didn't dare push him. I needed him. I needed all of them.

"Well, that's jus' perfect," Calamity groused. "C'n ya 'least promise not t' shoot us in the back when ya do make up yer mind?"

I wanted to tell the pegasus to shut up. I knew Calamity had a right to say that. And right now, he was the one going beyond the pale just to get us there. But if I had any chance of not letting Stable Two down... not letting every pony I had ever known die... I needed my friends to pull together. We needed to be strong. Instead, I was drowning. And all about me, they were splintering apart under the tension.

Velvet Remedy nickered deprecatingly, "Well, if we're making promises, maybe Littlepip can promise that, if we win, she won't adopt any of them?"

I stumbled, feeling sucker-punched even as I was fighting to breathe.

"Oh come on, Littlepip," Velvet said, rolling her eyes. "It has not passed my notice that you have a habit of collecting ponies (and now zebras) who have nearly killed you." She shook her mane. "I'll admit, I sometimes wonder if there isn't a part of you that is doing it to get back at me."

"What?!" What the hell?

"Well, aside from just being the one who patches you up every time you get yourself hurt, I'm also the one who is at least a little responsible for you getting trapped out here to begin with," Velvet pointed out. Her normally beautiful voice sounded frayed.

I could tell this was the return of nasty, bitchy Remedy who dealt with the horrors around her by thinking poorly of her friends. I had really hoped we'd left this Remedy behind. But there she was, buried under the surface, just waiting for enough stress on the fault-lines of Velvet's personality to set her free.

"Are you sure there isn't a part of you that isn't trying to punish me by surrounding us with reminders of all the times you've nearly died out here?"

"Whoa nelly!" Calamity looked back. "Is that how ya think o' me?"

Oh Goddesses. Please, I don't know if I can do this even with you. I can't do this without you.

"Stop it! All of you!" I stomped with all hooves, shaking. "We can't tear apart now. Our home... my home... they need us! What good are we to them if we're already bleeding to death when we get there?"

"Bits and shrews," Calamity exclaimed. "Yer right, Li'lpip. Ah'm sorry."

"As am I," Velvet Remedy said. The good Velvet was, at least for now, back again. "I... don't know what came over me. I guess I'm just not dealing with this well."

"So," SteelHooves inquired, his voice calm as if the arguments had never happened, "Do you have a plan?"

I felt the wind blow through my coat and mane, ruffling my utility barding under saddlepacks and armor plating. I looked at each of them, suddenly feeling very small. My eyes fell to Velvet. "This... can't be just my decision. Velvet, this was your home too." My eyes pleaded with her. Silently, I begged her to help me.

Please, Velvet, please don't let this be all on me. This is home. These are our ponies. I can't have whether they live or die be all on me. I just can't.

Velvet returned my gaze. In her teary eyes, I saw a kindness that told me she understood, and that she would take as much of this burden from me as she could.

Velvet turned to the others. "SteelHooves is right. I doubt we have the firepower to take on the Steel Rangers. And even if we do, we couldn't hope to without losses. So we look for an avenue of diplomacy first."

I nodded, weeping thankfully. Suddenly, I could breathe again.

• • •

There was an odd orange glow on the horizon, like an angry dawn was approaching. But the glow was from the wrong direction, and there were many hours before the first hints of daylight. The sun and the moon had gone wild, raising and setting by their own whims, but even those whims seemed to have a clockwork precision.

"What are we looking at?"

"Fires," Calamity answered. "That out there's the Everfree Forest. Looks like Red Eye's got the whole backside ablaze."

Xenith queried, "Do you think Red Eye's troops might be near Stable Two?"

"Naw, not a chance," Calamity answered. "Those fires are over a day away. Wouldn't make no sense for 'em t' be anywhere near Ponyville."

I leaned against Velvet Remedy, using her soft body for physical support, drinking in the scent of her to calm myself. I was still trembling, trying to steady myself, fighting off waves of alternating rage and bleak sorrow. The stress was winding me up until I felt I would explode. Or shatter.

Velvet Remedy was allowing herself the distraction of staring at the fire-lit cloud cover in the distance. "I remember when I first left Stable Two. The cloud cover had breaks in it. I could see real sunlight. It was the most beautiful, warming thing. More beautiful than anything I had ever experienced in my life. I thought... if there is something as wonderful as this out here, then the Outside can't be bad." She chuckled sadly. "Haven't seen the sun like that again. Sometimes I wonder if that isn't why this world feels so dark and hopeless."

I remembered a similar break in the clouds, pouring the soft light of Luna's moon down upon Monterey Jack and me as we faced off on the Ponyville bridge. It seemed like a lifetime ago.

"Ayep," Calamity replied, missing the art and soul of Velvet's comment, "The Everfree Forest don't work properly. Pegasi have always had a tough time keeping the cloud cover over that place. It's like the clouds want to move. All on their own. Cloud curtain in the areas right up against it c'n get mighty patchwork-y sometimes."

SteelHooves was staring in the other direction, his visor gazing out into the darkness. Finally, he admitted with a low rumble, "I don't understand why Elder Blueberry Sabre is doing this."

I felt Velvet Remedy had covered that question fairly well earlier.

SteelHooves let out a breath. "This is far outside her territory. Elder Blueberry Sabre is the Elder for the Fillydelphia contingent of the Steel Rangers. Stable Two technically falls under the purview of my Elder and the Manehattan contingent."

Oh. "They can't keep Fillydelphia," I offered, feeling a fresh surge of fury as my thoughts touched on what must be happening every minute now. "Red Eye keeps growing stronger. The Steel Rangers' position there is stagnant, if not weakening. I think Velvet's right about them needing a new base."

The ghoul nodded inside his armor. "Still, it should fall to Elder Cottage Cheese to take Stable Two. For him not to be there would be... a considerable divergence from protocol. And to have two Elders in the same place would be strategically unwise."

In front, Calamity whinnied, letting all legs hang in the air and sticking out his tongue with an expression of disgust. "Seriously now? Yer commandin' officer's name is Cottage Cheese? Did his folks hate 'im or sumthin'?"

SteelHooves chuckled despite our dark situation. "He does prefer to simply be called Cottage."

"I like cottage cheese," I said in a very small voice.

"Hey, maybe yer Cottage Cheese Elder is pullin' the same thing on Blueberry Sabre that she pulled on Li'lpip," Calamity suggested. "Sendin' her inta a situation that he feels is a giant deathtrap. After all, don't he believe a buncha rubbish 'bout the Ministry o' Awesome havin' black ops Stables and nonsense like that?"

"Well, maybe not complete nonsense," I muttered under my breath.

"Whatcha mean by that, Li'lpip?" Crap. Calamity heard me.

"Well, I mean that I saw Rainbow Dash and Pinkie Pie setting up Zecora to be a double agent for Equestria. Rainbow Dash said Zecora trained under the Ministry of Awesome's best trainers... which made it sound like MAw did that sort of thing a lot."

I was met by stunned silence. From everyone. Except Pyrelight, who cooed curiously at Velvet.

I had been slightly worried that mentioning I had a memory orb of Rainbow Dash might lead to Calamity demanding a recollector. I didn't want my Dashite friend losing himself in the orb the way Velvet often did with the Fluttershy orb.

"Zecora" Xenith asked, her exotic voice slow and cautious. "Do you mean Zecora of Zecora's Hut in the Everfree Forest?"

Whoops. "Um.... Yes. Turns out she was a friend of the Ministry Mares. And chose to..." Was it really a good idea to tell Xenith that Zecora had gone undercover to betray the zebras?

"Zecora was a traitor!" SteelHooves growled dangerously. "She was selling weapons technology to the zebras." He took a step towards me. "She tried to give them the damn gun that would punch through Steel Ranger armor!"

oh boy... "Uh, no. Not really. That was part of her... cover?"

"No. That is not true," SteelHooves insisted adamantly.

"Fluttershy knew a zebra?" Velvet Remedy's voice asked. At least that revelation, thank the Goddesses, probably didn't lead down dangerous paths.

"Uh, Li'lpip... maybe ya oughta be explainin' some o' these memory orbs y'all been lookin' at?"

I groaned. Even staying away from personal memories, like SteelHooves' memory orbs, or dangerous ones like anything involving Fluttershy and the damn megaspells, this would take a while. But part of me was thankful for the distraction. We still had a few hours to go.

• • •

"Burnin' hoof means what!?"

"That's what she said!" I was still as overwhelmed by that as when I lived it.

"I'm still wrapping my mind around Fluttershy hitting on Applejack," Velvet chuckled with amusement. "Even if it was for a good cause." Her eyes twinkled as she looked at me. I hung my head. I had some torment coming my way after the barn door slip-up, and I suddenly felt sure Velvet Remedy was drawing a whole new level of inspiration from the yellow pegasus.

As if to confirm my suspicion, Xenith leaned close and intoned, "You're doomed."

SteelHooves had remained abnormally silent, even for the taciturn ghoul, ever since I explained that first memory. At first, I thought that the revelation about Zecora had affected him, or perhaps the confirmation of his theories about the Ministry of Awesome. With time, I grew to suspect that neither was the case. Rather, I suspected that while we were distracting ourselves from the conflict that awaited us at Stable Two, SteelHooves was plunged deep into his own internal turmoil, and was working through it as best he could before the moment of choice arrived. In a way, he was stronger than we were. Or, at least, than I was.

The sound of rapid-fire pops floated up to us on the wind.

We were approaching Ponyville. Sweet Apple Acres was still a good bit away; but in the stillness of the wasteland, the night air carried the sounds of battle great distances.

Velvet Remedy whimpered. "That's a lot of gunfire."

"Grenade machine guns," SteelHooves noted. "Like mine. Several of them."

I felt myself trembling as my imagination insisted on conjuring images of what might be happening. They wouldn't be using that sort of weaponry inside the Stable, would they? And, if not, what were they doing? Suddenly, I pictured all the ponies of Stable Two marched out into the nearest field of poisoned apple trees, lined up... and fired upon with grenades just for the cruel pleasure of seeing their bodies torn violently apart.

I let out a low moan, tears in my eyes. I tried to banish the image. Surely, even these monsters wouldn't be so vicious, so cruel. These were SteelHooves' brethren, not raiders, right?

"Monsters!" Velvet Remedy hissed next to me.

"Ah think yer right," Calamity agreed, making me cringe. Please no. This can't be what I'm thinking. It just can't!

"Red Eye's fires are drivin' a whole mess o' things towards Ponyville. Sounds t' me like a few 'ave wandered their way up t' Sweet Apple Acres."

• • •

It was the deepest part of the night. There was a name for it that I couldn't remember -- that mystical black hour where all is darkest and you can't sleep, when the weight of all your sorrows and bad decisions come weighing on you most heavily, and when the monsters scratch just outside your door.

Velvet Remedy got up and started rummaging through the supplies we had stored in the back of the Sky Bandit -- all those things we were keeping for trade, or had intended to stash back at Junction R-7, but didn't want to burden our saddlebags with. Including every weapon Calamity had been able to strip from the ponies Stern had brought with her to attack my friends at the Fillydelphia Tower.

I began to reload my weapons. My choices were limited. Little Macintosh was powerful enough to possibly punch through a Steel Ranger's armor if I could hit a weak spot, and I had a single clip of armor-piercing bullets for my sniper rifle. Only my zebra rifle had sufficient armor-piercing rounds, thanks both to the convoy Calamity and I had looted outside of Fillydelphia and some additional ammo he had liberated from Stern's slavers.

I floated the zebra rifle in front of me, looking at it. My rage was beginning to boil again, pushing away the numbing pain. For once tonight, I put up a wall against it, trying to remain at least partially rational, not let this overwhelm me. Did I really want to use the zebra rifle against the Steel Rangers? On one hoof, these were my enemies and they deserved what they were going to get. And the rifle was the best weapon I had for putting a mess of them down. But the zebra rifle's enchantment... the bullets would do more than just punch through the armor. I'd seen what happens to a pony who is set on fire inside a suit of armor, and the memory still horrified me. Was I really ready to go Spike on these ponies?

"What is that you are wearing?" Xenith gasped.

Velvet Remedy responded gracefully, "We are going into battle against truly dangerous opponents. How foolish would I be to not go in wearing armor? And this is the best armor I possess."

Velvet Remedy was wearing the zebra legionnaire armor.

"Unless, of course, you wished to wear it," Velvet said kindly. "I think you have more claim to it than I do."

Xenith considered that a moment, glancing towards SteelHooves. "No. Equestria is my home."

"Oh horseapples," Calamity muttered to himself, wincing. Then, speaking up, "uh... Velvet? Li'lpip? Ah've got a request. An' feel free t' say no. Ah know it's askin' a lot Ah have no right t' ask." He paused a moment, then pushed forward. "But if we're gearin' up for a big fight, then Ah've got some stuff stashed not far from here that might help. Only add 'bout fifteen minutes t' our flight, Ah promise. But that's fifteen minutes them Rangers could be killin' yer kin."

I was already feeling each second drop away with blood. Fifteen minutes more, when we'd already taken so long... I couldn't bear the thought. "No," I said firmly. "We can't give them a minute more, much less fifteen." I took a deep breath, "But if you think it will help, then drop us off at the Stable door and go. You can meet us back..."

"No," Velvet interrupted. "Splitting up is a bad idea. I don't want Calamity wandering the Stable alone trying to find us. We all go in together." She was right. My suggestion was a bad one.

"Calamity, go ahead," she continued. "We've taken hours to get here. If fifteen minutes more is going to make that much difference, we've already lost. I know you wouldn't even bring this up if you didn't really think it would help. And anything that helps us get through this alive is worth fifteen minutes."

Calamity extended his wings, changing course.

Sweet Apple Acres was now looming into view -- the rolling hills of feeble trees bearing poisoned fruit, the old barn still standing, surprisingly intact.

You won't be able to use the barn until next spring.

I suddenly imagined that Apple Bloom had torn the original barn down while they excavated for Stable Two. Then rebuilt it afterwards. When Stable-Tec builds something, they build it to last.

I could see sparkling lights in the air, like part of the night sky had descended through the clouds and landed in the middle of the farm. A swarm of evil stars. The pin-point lights of muzzle flashes danced across the ground all around it.

Xenith drew a sharp breath. "No!"

"What is it?"

The zebra's eyes were wide with horror. "Star-spawn!"

What the Steel Rangers fought was a horror out of zebra legends -- a creature from beyond the moon, unleashed upon the world eons ago as a 'gift' from the stars.

The creature was massive and completely invisible save for the surging, living constellations of light that seemed to float around and inside of it. I brought up my Eyes-Forward Sparkle, but while the compass burst with lights for the ponies on the ground, most of which were a hostile red, my PipBuck couldn't lock onto the entity they were fighting at all. As far as it was concerned, nothing was there.

Gunfire from the embattled Steel Rangers poured into thin air, and the starry air attacked back, crushing them or sending them flying. Rockets exploded, bathing parts of the creature in fire long enough to get glimpses of its shape – I felt only mildly reassured that its structure seemed at least vaguely pony-like, with a head, body and four legs. An eldritch roar blasted across the cloud-shrouded heavens. It sounded like the cosmos screaming in rage.

My first instinct was to try to help. I wanted to run to their aid. It actually took a moment for me to remember that the ponies down there were our enemies. But not all of them, at least according to my E.F.S., and wasn't that enough?

"We've got to help them," SteelHooves insisted, voicing my own thoughts. "You wanted diplomacy? This would be the first step."

"You cannot hope to fight a Star-spawn!" Xenith gasped. "What manner of fool are you? All you can hope do is run and hide."

"Have you met us?" SteelHooves asked. And with those words, I knew he had made his choice.

Detour abandoned, Calamity winged towards the barn and flew us into the storm.

• • •

BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!

SteelHooves stood on top of the Sky Bandit, his grenade machine-gun tearing at the virtually invisible monster as Calamity circled us around again. The pegasus buck was doing his best to get us as close as possible while keeping us outside the Star-spawn's striking range -- not an easy trick being unable to properly see the creature.

The Steel Rangers on the ground had been nearly decimated. There were at least a dozen corpses in crushed and mangled armor. Nowhere near the forces that SteelHooves estimated had been sent to take the Stable. I could make out three remaining from the dim light of their E.F.S. visors and the brilliant flashes from their weapons. One fired off a pair of missiles. They exploded against the transparent hide of the monster.

The Star-spawn retaliated, an unseen appendage connecting with the armored knight with a sickening crunch.

The pony flew through the air towards us. "Yeeeow!" Calamity cried, dodging. I could see the pony was dead as it arced past us, internal organs pulverized inside gruesomely dented armor.

Pyrelight shot out past us, strafing the creature with balefire, washing part of its back with flames that quickly died away.

I focused, trying to wrap the entire entity in a magical field. I had no intention of moving it, but as the magical aura spread around it, the creature became clearly outlined. It was far bigger than I thought. But at least now we could properly dodge the alien behemoth.

Velvet Remedy cast her anesthetic spell at the cosmic beast. Her magic hit it square in the head. The creature stumbled, fazed for only a few seconds, then let out another unearthy roar.

"Dang it, she's just too big! We ain't doin' more'n bee stings t' her!"

"I told you," Xenith warned, cringing. "You can't slay a Star-spawn. You best be thankful this one is but a baby. A full-grown one would have devoured all of Ponyville without even noticing."

"That's just a baby?" I asked in shock as the monster stepped backward, colliding through the barn. The last building standing on Sweet Apple Acres, the barn which had weathered apocalypse and two-hundred years of the wasteland, came crashing down. I felt a pang as I watched the barn I'd witness Applejack and her friends together in during sunnier, happier times be obliterated by the uncaring misstep of the Star-spawn.

"Littlepip, keep that glow up!" SteelHooves ordered as my telekinetic field began to slip. "Calamity, bring us around in front of the thing and hover. Velvet, have that spell ready again when I say."

"Ah sure hope ya know what yer doin'," Calamity said as he brought the Sky Bandit directly in front of the monster's snout.

"Now, Velvet."

Velvet Remedy focused, unleashing a small bolt of magic that splashed against the head of the creature. Again, for just a moment, it was stunned by the same magic that would completely paralyze a hellhound for nearly an hour.

A streak of smoke shot out from the top of the Sky Bandit above me as SteelHooves fired off a single rocket. I watched as the missile shot through the glow of my magic and beyond where the hide of the creature should be, lodging inside the monster's transparent, star-moted head.

The Star-spawn let out a howl that tore us from the sky. Calamity fought to regain control before we smashed into the poisoned orchard below. A moment later, the missile detonated, it's explosion accompanied by a gut-wrenching, wet, splorchy sound.

We hit the ground seconds before the Star-spawn's body did. I bounced around inside, banging heavily against the benches and metal walls, bursts of pain blossoming throughout my body. The Sky Bandit rolled, crashing through several trees before coming to a stop. Calamity hung limp from the harness. Velvet Remedy lay amongst the scattered supplies, moaning. I could not see where SteelHooves had been thrown to. Or Xenith.

My PipBuck was clicking madly. I felt the warm stickiness matting my mane. I reached up with a hoof. My lightest touch brought dizzying pain and shooting lights. And then darkness.

• • •

The bright spotlight from SteelHooves' helmet found me.

Xenith trotted beside him, looking annoyingly unhurt. She had, I would learn, jumped out a window as we crashed, landing in a controlled roll that left her unmangled save for her mane.

"Is... everypony okay?" I asked weakly.

"Never better," SteelHooves said. The way my PipBuck was clicking, he may have been telling the truth.

"You flew through a tree," Xenith countered. "Your back should be broken."

"Hard to keep down a Canterlot ghoul," SteelHooves replied. I got the feeling he enjoyed the way she gasped in near horror, stepping quickly away from him.

"That's us," I smiled weakly. "Full of surprises." I looked to SteelHooves, "How did you kill the Star-spawn? That was amazing!"

"I'd seen an Ursa once before, back in the war," SteelHooves replied. "From your outline, looked like the monsters they turned into weren't too physically different. Just a bit nastier and a lot harder to see. So I fired where an Ursa's eye socket ought to have been and hoped for the best."

Calamity had come to with a weary groan. Finding himself hanging upside down in the Sky Bandit's harness, he waved his forelegs, as if hoping to flip the entire passenger wagon back over. It wasn't going to work.

"Here, let me help," I called out and magically unhooked the harness. Calamity fell onto his back with a thump.

"Oof!"

Velvet Remedy hobbled out of the passenger wagon, dragging our medical supplies with her. I realized that we had probably scattered our belongings across a hundred yards of irradiated cropland. But that would be a task for morning. First we had to get through the night. At least I hadn't lost my weapons.

"Everypony (and zebra) gather around," Velvet said politely, dropping her saddleboxes to the ground. "Your medical pony is going to patch you all up before we proceed further, while simultaneously managing to not take it as a bad omen that she's having to heal your wounds before you even get inside the Stable door."

"Hold up right there, ponies!" a voice ordered from the darkness. Two helmet spotlights pinned the group of us.

The two Steel Rangers who had survived the Star-spawn battle were moving towards us, weapons pointed, the light from their E.F.S. visors letting me know they had their targeting spells locked onto us.

"Oh wow," came a sweet mare's voice from the second suit. "Look, it's Elder SteelHooves."

"Star Paladin SteelHooves," the other corrected swiftly. "And keep your weapon locked on him, Knight Strawberry Lemonade." That one turned to face our ghoul companion. "We have specific orders to send you on your way. You will not interfere with this operation."

"That was awesome, SteelHooves, sir!" the younger knight gushed, turning off her E.F.S. "How'd you kill that thing?"

"Knight Lemonade!" The older Steel Ranger turned with a growl. "You will bring your E.F.S. back up and lock it onto your targets."

"Do you even realize which Stable you are attacking?" SteelHooves asked evenly. "This is Stable Two, the Stable built to preserve the Apple family and the ponies of Ponyville. This is the Apple family's farm. That barn had been the barn that the Mare of the Ministry of Wartime Technology, Applejack herself, had grown up in. That Stable holds her kin. You are attacking the family of the Ministry Mare of Wartime Technology. It is you who should leave. In utter shame."

"We have our orders. As do you."

"You are not my commanding officer, Paladin. Nor is Elder Blueberry Sabre." SteelHooves stood his ground. "And even if you were, these orders are wrong. This operation is a disgrace. And any pony involved in it does not deserve the title of Steel Ranger."

"The orders I'm giving you come from Elder Cottage Cheese himself. You are to leave at once, and take your tribal friends with you." The paladin turned to the knight once. "And you, bring up your Eyes-Forward Sparkle and lock on target. That is an order."

"Sir?" Knight Strawberry Lemonade faltered, "Eld... Star Paladin SteelHooves is right. This operation is wrong."

The paladin turned to face the knight, a back-mounted light machine gun swiveling to lock on her now. "You will bring up your Sparkle and lock on target or you will be facing a court marshal for disloyalty before the sun next sets!" the paladin growled. "Do I make my-"

Blam!

The paladin fell, twin bullet holes forming black zeroes on his armored helmet.

Knight Strawberry Lemonade backed up in shock. The rest of us turned to Calamity.

"What? Ah gave diplomacy a chance. He obviously wasn't 'bout t' join the good guys."

• • •

Velvet Remedy's horn glowed softly as she did her best to heal the gash on the back of my head without binding my whole face with bandages. Fortunately, she said it looked and felt far worse than it actually was.

"Elder Cottage Cheese is dying," Knight Strawberry Lemonade said, filling SteelHooves in as best she could. "I mean, I know he's been dying forever. But just this last month, not even the medical bed seems to be helping anymore. He's focused on taking Stable Twenty-Nine before he dies. That's where he is, with Star Paladin Crossroads. He invited Elder Blueberry Sabre to lead the acquisition of Stable Two, along with Star Paladin Nova Rage."

"Of course he did," SteelHooves commented. "Star Paladin Crossroads had pushed for me to become an Elder. She has the same sentiments that I do. Cottage must have known there was no way Cross would agree to the taking of Stable Two." He stomped. "Star Paladin Nova Rage, on the other hoof, is a M.W.T. traditionalist just like Elder Blueberry Sabre."

Calamity wiggled his left wing. It had suffered injury in the crash and now Velvet had it mummified in bandages. "Reckon this Cottage feller wants the Crusader in Stable Twenty-Nine? Live forever inside a machine?"

"But that's insane," I asserted. "The Crusader can take an imprint, a copy of a pony's mind, but it's not like the pony actually becomes part of the machine. Cottage Cheese would still be just as dead when he died."

"Unless," Velvet Remedy suggested, "He thought he could really put himself into it, mind and soul." It took me a moment to realize what she was thinking: a soul jar. Blackwing's Talon group had been hunting for information on The Black Book for somepony. Now I suspected I knew who. If a soul jar could be made out of anything, why not a Crusader? I suddenly imagined the Elder who ordered the attack on my home living forever in an indestructible computer. There was no way I could let that happen! He didn't get eternal life as a reward for this murder.

SteelHooves continued to speak to Knight Strawberry Lemonade. In the end, she told him, "Look, I believe you're right. And I'm willing to stand aside. But I can't follow you in. I can't attack other Rangers." Her visor turned towards Calamity, "Or cooperate with tribals who do."

SteelHooves nodded, putting an armored hoof on her shoulder. "I respect your decision. You are doing the right thing."

He turned to us. "Are we ready?"

I stood, floating the zebra rifle to my right and Little Macintosh to my left. From what the knight had told us, Elder Blueberry Sabre had left a fifth of their force guarding the way in, a precaution against us as much as the horrors slowly emptying into Ponyville from the Everfree Forest. Truth was, I was not ready. But every moment we spent talking and healing was one more for the four dozen Steel Rangers inside to tear their way into the Security and Overmare's wing and slaughter everypony they hadn't killed in their initial strike. They couldn't wait for me to be ready.

"We go."

• • •

Calamity brought up the rear. His sharpshooting would be critical should we be flanked. I kept glancing back at him, watching his reactions as we passed through the tunnel beyond the apple cellar. It was not like the sanitized little tour he had seen in Stable-Tec Headquarters.

"This is Velvet Remedy's home," he muttered. "Li'lpip's home." I'm pretty sure he didn't know I could hear him. Before the Pinkie Pie statuette, I probably wouldn't have been able to.

"Ah gotta be strong fer them. Not go crazy. Ah can't jus' charge in an' kill every armored bitch Ah see. Ah need t' be strong. Need t' watch fer them. Need t' protect 'em. Ah c'n do this."

The skeletons which littered the floor had been crushed and broken, trampled by an army of metal hooves. I felt a twisted sickness welling up within the reservoir of rage that was filling my head. Nopony knew who they were, but they deserved better than this. I felt part of my anger turn in on myself. Why had I not returned to bury them? They died at the door to my Stable.

But then, the Equestrian Wasteland was filled with skeletons. I hadn't treated any of the others any better. Not even the skeletons of Apple Bloom or Pinkie Pie. But at least I hadn't defiled them. I hadn't smashed them under hoof without even caring.

The door to Stable Two was wide open.

Velvet Remedy and SteelHooves were our diplomats, so they were in the lead. I wanted our Steel Ranger to have a shot at wooing any other Rangers before we had to shoot. So Velvet was the first to step back into the place that had once been our home. She stopped with a painful gasp. I galloped up to meet her.

The entrance room was as grey as the maintenance areas of Stable Two had always been, but now there was a cacophony of color splashed all over it. The pretty colors of pastel-coated ponies lay in pools and sprays of darkening crimson.

The Overmare had sent half a dozen ponies to greet whomever was coming in. Only two of them, Stable security guards, were armed. The others had come bearing only hopes of friendship. Scattered near the open muzzle of a magenta-coated young mare was a bouquet of flowers, a welcoming gift. The white flower petals were stained red. And the Steel Rangers had gunned them down.

The pony in my head stood teetering on the edge of a great, dark spiral. A bath covered with bones that lead forever downward into blackness. The currents of my rage pulled her towards it, a tidal force of crimson pouring into the abyss.

I pulled her back, and my rage shattered. The horror and sorrow and hurt that had been building just behind flooded in. I collapsed to my knees, sobbing openly.

"That's it," I heard Calamity say. He sounded so very far away. "Fuck diplomacy. Any pony who was part o' this, who even stood by an' watched, is a dead pony."

I realized I recognized the yellow-coated mare who lay disembowled in the corner... but I couldn't' remember when I had met her. Or what her name was. And that made it so much worse. Why couldn't I remember her name? She deserved to have her name remembered. She deserved to be alive!

Velvet Remedy, her own face wet with tears, trotted up and wrapped her forelegs about me, pulling me into an embrace as I heaved and sputtered and wept wretchedly against her armor and coat.

"Littlepip has been strong long enough," I heard her say. "This is my home too. I'll take it from here."

• • •

Calamity, Xenith and I formed our stealth team. As soon as I could quiet myself and move again, Velvet Remedy sent the three of us ahead. We were no longer looking to negotiate unless they offered the white flag first. Instead, we would strike first, fast, and with finality.

The first Steel Ranger whom I pumped full of bullets from the zebra rifle died in agony, screaming as his internal organs burst into flame, cooking him from the inside out. I didn't feel any remorse. No sympathy. Nor did I feel glee or even a grim satisfaction. My emotional deluge had left me fiercely numb and focused. The act was necessary and right, and beyond that had no more emotional impact than brushing my teeth.

I no longer felt even a twinge of revulsion for what Spike had done defending his own home.

We passed more dead ponies in every hallway. The Steel Ranger's attack had been brutal. But there were not nearly the number of dead that I would have expected. The friendship committee had been a well-calculated play on the Overmare's part. And when the Steel Rangers showed their true intentions right there in the entrance, they gave her enough forewarning for a rushed evacuation into the Security and Overmare's wing.

I both loved and hated her for that.

So far, the Maintenance wing had been hit the worst. The Steel Rangers had moved to secure it first, probably to prevent anypony from sabotaging the technology they were most interested in. The ponies down there had no time to get out before the Rangers had cut them off.

I turned the familiar corner and found myself face-to-face with the PipBuck Technician's stall. A fresh surge of emotion hit me as I saw the black scorchmarks on the walls I had once cleaned. A red trail of blood ran along one wall, dipping at the end until it met the corpse of my mentor. If I ignored the missing leg, I could almost pretend that he was asleep on the job again.

This was not the mural I had once hoped for.

I was crying once more, my vision blurring, making the lights of my E.F.S. swim.

The door into my mentor's office lay open. There was movement inside. A red splotch on my compass. I waved the others back and started to creep forward.

The Steel Ranger never saw me coming. I floated Little Macintosh up right behind her head, just to the left of the fins.

BLAM! BLAM! BLAM! BLAM! BLAM! BLAM!

I unloaded the full cylinder into her brain. She was probably dead after the first, but I didn't care.

I turned to walk out and froze as I spotted my mentor's hammock. There was an empty Sparkle~Cola bottle and a maintenance book (TLC Squared: "Tender Loving Care for Totally Lost Causes") laying on the floor beneath it. I remembered how my mentor would skim that book while talking in a direction vaguely connected to where I was sitting in rapt attention. Shedding tears of painful nostalgia, I floated the book into one of my saddlebags.

I heard the distinct sound of Calamity's battle saddle. A moment later, Xenith and Calamity dove into the PipBuck Technician's stall. The hallway outside erupted in flame.

"Little Macintosh ain't stealthy, Li'lpip!"

Xenith pulled a jar out of the small saddlebag she'd been using to carry her herbs and mixtures. She tossed it to the floor, where it shattered, spreading a licorice-scented goop. The zebra clopped her forehooves in the goop, then her hindhooves.

The rush of flames down the hallway stopped. A moment later, a grenade bounced into the room. I grabbed it with a telekinetic shroud and floated it back out the way it came. I heard a shout of alarm just before the explosion.

"Dammit. I hate unicorns!" the Steel Ranger said, letting us know he had survived largely unscathed.

I turned to Calamity and... where was Xenith? I looked around. Then up. She was crawling along the ceiling, the goop on her hooves providing a magical adhesion similar to the spell that the slavers on the train had used against us weeks ago.

She crept up to the doorway of the stall and peeked out, looking both ways before slipping back and mouthing "two". With small nods of her head, she indicated where, giving Calamity the same information my E.F.S. was giving me. I reloaded Little Macintosh.

Then she snuck out, keeping flat to the ceiling, silent as a ghost. Calamity waited until the moment she dropped onto one of the Steel Rangers, then rolled out, facing the other and fired a single double-shot.

I charged out, swinging Little Macintosh around as I kicked on my targeting spell. But Xenith had already crippled the other pony, her hoofstrikes resonating through armor to pulverize internal organs. I let my jaw drop a little as she finished him off.

Fallen Caesar Style scared the crap out of me.

• • •

As we swept further into Maintenance, we started seeing glowing piles of green residue or pink ash -- all that remained of ponies killed with magical energy weapons – scattered amongst the massacred ponies of Stable Two. Calamity found that disturbing.

My E.F.S. told me there were four Steel Rangers around the next corner, near the door to the generator room. I relayed this to the others.

"Ah'll take 'em," Calamity said, starting to move forward, but I put a hoof on his shoulder and shook my head. Calamity frowned. He didn't want to back off, but he did so anyway. The pegasus and the zebra held position as I galloped silently back to where Velvet Remedy and SteelHooves were waiting.

A moment later, SteelHooves trotted past Xenith and Calamity, and rounded the corner. His missile rack was open, his weapons primed.

"I am Star Paladin SteelHooves. I am declaring an end to this travesty of an operation. We do not assault the Stable of the Mare of our own Ministry. And we do not slaughter innocents when She was dedicated to protecting ponies." His voice rumbled with command. "You have two options. Side with me and stand by your Oath to the principles of our Ministry's Mare, or side with Elder Blueberry Sabre and Star Paladin Nova Rage and be gunned down."

"Then you admit you're a traitor!" one of them called back. "You stand down, and submit to arrest."

Wrong answer. SteelHooves fired everything he had into the hallway, which was torn apart in a blaze of light, heat and shrapnel.

"I don't think I'm going to be able to wear this armor anymore," he said, stepping back around to where we were waiting, his armor smoking and peppered with red-hot shrapnel. "Which is a problem, since I cannot take it off."

"Honestly," Calamity said with a grin, "Ya ain't never looked finer."

• • •

Xenith slipped through the back door of the Stable Two Saloon. I followed close behind, getting a surprisingly pleasant eyeful of the zebra mare's hindquarters. I found myself cursing the slavers who had scarred it so.

The back of the Saloon was a darkened kitchen. Well, darkened until Pyrelight flew in and landed on one of the pots sitting on a stove. The balefire phoenix had almost returned to normal, but was still shedding off enough energy to glow like a torch.

Mr. and Mrs. Sparkle Cider were dumped in a far corner, their bodies bleeding into each other. Mr. Sparkle Cider had always given me free ice cream when I was younger. (Well, until he caught me lockpicking his wine cabinet.) His wife had been one of my mother's friends.

Mrs. Sparkle Cider's hindhoof was caught on the door of the walk-in freezer, propping it open. All the ice cream inside was slowly melting, swirling in pools with the sherbet on the floor.

I felt an uncontrollable rage sweep over the numbness. My heart was pounding in my breast.

"It's clear," Xenith whispered, looking out into the Saloon itself. I passed the message back.

A minute later, I crouched in position at the door, loading the last of my bullets for Little Macintosh. The magical bullets. Calamity and Xenith remained in the kitchen, taking their turn as rear guard.

SteelHooves stood in the Saloon, looking out-of-place amongst the rich pseudo-wood décor. Velvet Remedy however moved with purpose, almost gliding up to the raised stage, the magic of her horn playing against the terminal and soundboards. Velvet Remedy had a plan. A moment later, she strode to the edge of the stage, looking down at SteelHooves.

My mind flashed back to sneaking into the Saloon, an underaged blankflank, hiding in the back of the crowd and watching as nearly adult Velvet Remedy performed. Her music moved my soul, and often it was agony not to dance.

"Ready," she said and her horn flared.

"Attention, Steel Rangers," SteelHooves began. His voice boomed throughout all of Stable Two. Velvet Remedy had commandeered the public address system.

"This is SteelHooves, founding member and eldest living of the Steel Rangers. Star Paladin of the Manehattan Contingent. I call on you to stop and consider your Oath. Consider where you are and what you are doing. Do your loyalties lie with Applejack, the Mare of the Ministry of Wartime Technology, the creator of the Steel Ranger armor and the mare who by Her own hooves, the sweat of Her brow and the honesty of Her heart forged the Steel Rangers? Or is your oath to the fearful, greedy ponies who abandon all that She stood for, turning us into little more than technology raiders, hoarding toys from the past because they have forgotten that it is virtue, not trinkets, that make a pony great? Ponies who now turn their eyes on Applejack's own home, commanding that you slaughter Her family for their greed? These orders, this operation, would be an abomination in the eyes of our Ministry's Mare!

"Applejack was put in charge of the Ministry of Wartime Technology because She was the Bearer of one of the Elements of Harmony, and the ruler of Equestria recognized the caliber of that. Do you think it was the Virtue in Her soul or the jewelry on Her neck that made Applejack a Bearer?

"Today, you must choose with whom your Oath lies. Surrender this ignominious goal and join by my side, reaffirming your Oath to the protection of the citizens of Equestria, just as Applejack dedicated Her life to. Or continue in this disgraceful act and face the wrath of those of us who choose to stand true!"

• • •

The glow around Velvet Remedy's horn faded. SteelHooves looked up at her. "Well... how was that?" She smiled brightly in response.

Three Steel Rangers charged into the Saloon, battle saddles filling the room with flames and machinegun fire. SteelHooves fell in the first volley.

I stared at the Steel Ranger, collapsed in spreading pool of the ichor that ghouls called blood.

I slid into S.A.T.S. and fired the last of Little Macintosh's rounds into them, felling one and crippling the second. I dropped Applejack's gun and swung about the zebra rifle as three more poured in. Behind me, I could hear the explosive blast of Spitfire's Thunder as Calamity decapitated the first Steel Ranger to try to get in through the back.

One of the five remaining Steel Rangers fired a pair of missiles up at Velvet Remedy. The unicorn singer threw up her shield as the rockets detonated against the underside of the stage, spraying the air with jagged chunks of pseudo-wood.

Another turned towards me, leveling what looked like an anti-material rifle at my head.

"No!" bellowed Velvet Remedy, her horn glowing and her voice magnified. "This is my stage!"

The room blazed with light conjured from Velvet Remedy's horn as she made herself the center of attention. The Steel Ranger in front of me sidestepped as Velvet Remedy's lightshow blinded her. The distraction gave me enough time to fire a burst from the zebra rifle, one bullet tearing through the visor of my opponent.

One of the Steel Rangers responded to Velvet with a roar from her twin miniguns. Velvet's shield held. I fired three more armor-piercing shots from the zebra rifle into the minigunner's head, seeing the flash of fire through the bullet holes. I could smell the pony's brain roasting.

Velvet whipped out her combat shotgun, firing it at the invaders, but their armor proved more than sufficient. It did not, however, protect them from her anesthetic spell. The Steel Ranger I had crippled went down.

Another Steel Ranger fired up at her with a back-mounted sniper rifle. The bullet tore through her shield and armor. I saw the look of shock and hurt in her eyes.

Pyrelight swooped in for the kill, blasting the downed ranger and the two still standing with radioactive flame. Their suits protected them against that as well, but the flames obscured their vision. I slid in and out of S.A.T.S., spraying each Steel Ranger until I was out of armor-piercing ammo.

Spitfire's Thunder sounded again. A moment later, Calamity and Xenith galloped into the room, knocking me over.

I realized I could smell gas.

Somewhere deep in the Stable, I heard a deep explosion that didn't sound like firearm or grenade. Alarm shot up my spine as I wondered if the Steel Rangers had managed to blow the security doors that the bulk of my home's population was hiding behind.

Xenith turned, grabbed me in her mouth and pulled me from the doorway.

WRRRRRRRRHHHHHHOSSSSH!!

[BartonFink]

i hope the forum doesnt start going down at like 11:59 PM, it'll fuck up my thread

[Dodger]

[Dead Pony]

[Lazy]

The kitchen erupted, an inferno pouring out into the Saloon and setting fire to many of the pseudo-wood tables and chairs.

"Not one word 'bout muh name," Calamity panted, looking at Xenith. Then he saw SteelHooves and froze. A moment later, "Where's Velvet?"

I pointed upwards at the stage. I could see her fallen form. In the eerie silence that followed the battle, I could make out the sound of drops of blood falling from the stage to the floor below.

Blop. Blop. Blop.

"No." he whispered. His wings propelled him up to the stage far faster than either Xenith or I could have made it by hoof. The orange-maned pegasus landed and pulled Velvet Remedy into an embrace with a gasp.

"ow" whispered Velvet.

"Shush now, ya silly pony," Calamity said, holding her. "Ya dun got yerself shot. But ya gonna be right as rain, soon 'nuff. We got ourselves the best medical pony in alla the Equestrian Wasteland."

I started up the stage stairs towards them. Xenith was right behind me.

"ow!" Velvet said again. Then added, "Who's a silly pony?"

"Ya is, Velvet Remedy," Calamity insisted gently, "Ya beautiful, wonderful mare. Now shush it."

I reached the stage just in time.

I don't know what Velvet had started to say, but this time Calamity cut her off with a kiss.

"Aww," Xenith whispered in my ear. "I've been waiting to see those two do that since I first met them."

I was stunned at first. But then I realized that the little pony in my head wasn't feeling the slightest bit envious or jealous. She wasn't happy exactly, but that had more to do with the situation we were in and the fact that Velvet Remedy was bleeding all over Calamity from a bullet wound.

The air filled with an odd, unholy sound from down below. A chill filled the air.

SteelHooves stood back up.

My jaw hit the floor. I had sorely underestimated what it meant to be a Canterlot ghoul.

I didn't have time to marvel. "Oh fuck!" I moaned as two Steel Rangers took up positions outside, aiming grenade machineguns at the front windows of the Saloon. "Everypony, we've got to go!"

• • •

The Steel Ranger mare stepped through the door on the far end of the bathroom and opened up with a grenade machinegun of her own, blowing up the stalls and toilets between me an her. Heat washed over me, searing my lungs. Shrapnel cut at my armor and flesh, leaving me bleeding from dozens of small wounds. Outside, Calamity and Xenith crouched behind a row of lockers which I had floated into a barricade. We were getting close to the school where I had once taken my Cutie Aptitude Test, and the place was swarming with Steel Rangers.

I was out of ammo for Little Macintosh, and was actually beginning to fear for the zebra rifle.

We had been lucky taking them on one or two at a time, the element of surprise on our side. But now they were alert and moving against us in force. Only the narrow hallways prevented us from being surrounded or utterly overwhelmed.

A missile flew over the lockers, exploding against the wall behind Xenith and Calamity, the explosion blew them both hard into the barricade. Calamity rose up, dazed and bleeding. Xenith didn't get up at all.

"SteelHooves, Velvet!" I cried out. "We need your help!" The two of them were guarding our rear, Velvet considerably worse for wear even after downing both of our remaining extra-strength restoration potions. She needed to stay out of the heavy fighting, but we couldn't spare her entirely. The farther in we got into the Stable, the more ways to flank us opened up.

Another thunderous explosion sounded from somewhere deep in the Stable. Followed by more.

Water sprayed from all the destroyed toilets. The Steel Ranger's hoofsteps splashed as she approached closer. "Give it up, Littlepip." Crap. "Surrender now, and Elder Blueberry Sabre might just spare you and most of your friends. You won't get that offer from Nova Rage."

Yeah. That was going to happen.

"I don't suppose I can talk you into surrendering to us?" I called back. "Is mass murder really the Earth Pony Way?"

"Fuck you!" she retorted and opened up with another barrage of grenades. I wrapped all the debris around me in telekinetics and pulled them together, creating a shield. It didn't work very well. The first explosion blew the debris out of my magic's grasp, pummeling me with it. I felt bones break as pain surged throughout my body.

More grenades detonated around me. My PipBuck screamed as every limb registered as crippled. My PipBuck politely told me I was dying from internal injuries. I couldn't feel them. My body was in shock. All I could feel was cold.

Two missiles streaked through the air overhead, entering the room from behind me. They hit the Steel Ranger, blowing her off her hooves. She slid across the wet floor and collapsed in the corner, unmoving.

"Littlepip!" Velvet Remedy cried from forever away. I lost consciousness.

• • •

My eyes blinked open. I couldn't feel my body, but somehow I was still alive. My E.F.S. was reading my condition as bad, but stable. I was looking up. I could see lights of Stable Two overhead. Heard their ever-present buzz.

"Where am I?"

"Really, Littlepip," Velvet Remedy chided kindly. "With your habits of gross injury, you can't tell me you don't recognize Stable Two's clinic?"

"Calamity? Xenith?"

Velvet Remedy's face leaned into view. "The good news is that all three of you are going to survive reclaiming this floor. The bad news is that I've used up all our medical supplies and an unhealthy portion of the Stable's to save you." She glanced away. "A few of Xenith's brews too."

"Elder Blueberry Sabre had pulled most of her ponies back into the apple orchard," SteelHooves said. "She's worried now, and with good cause."

She's worried? They nearly killed us, and we were nowhere near the Security and Overmare's wing yet. I didn't understand why they weren't just swarming us and wiping us out. I said as much.

"Because there are less of them and possibly more of us," SteelHooves said bluntly. "About a fifth of the Rangers she was leading didn't take too well to what was going on down here. Star Paladin Nova Rage killed one of them for disloyalty and Elder Blueberry Sabre locked away the rest of the dissenters behind a welded door..."

Explained why diplomacy hadn't been working. All the ponies that diplomacy might have worked with the Elder had locked up.

"They're trapped in the school," Velvet interrupted. "SteelHooves has been speaking with them. If we can get them out, we'll have nearly a dozen Steel Rangers on our side."

"Unfortunately, we're having a bit of trouble with that. But Elder Blueberry Sabre doesn't know that. As far as she knows, the moment we took this section, we got a whole lot stronger."

I tried to get up only to realize that not only could I not feel pain, I couldn't feel anything.

Velvet Remedy had used her anesthetic spell on me. I tried to get up again, fervently sending the signals from my brain to a body I couldn't sense that ought to make it move. My body heaved and I fell to the floor with a thud, bloodying my nose. I couldn't feel that either.

"Now look who's a silly pony," Velvet Remedy giggled. "Stop that, or I'll tell Homage that you're into bondage and spankings." I couldn't feel myself blushing, but I'm sure I was.

As extra punishment, Velvet let me lay there on the floor as she turned her attention to Xenith. The zebra was still unconscious.

Calamity trotted in a short time later. "Ah'm afraid there ain't an easy way t' get that door open. Best bet its t' cut through it with a blowtorch, and that'll take hours." He whinnied. "On the plus side, seems like that's what the enemy is tryin' t' do with the S an' O wing. Only those doors are a helluva lot thicker, an' there's more than one o' them. Best bet, we've still got a couple hours b'fore they're through."

I forced my body to roll over, feeling an uneasy sense of accomplishment when I managed it on the third try. I found myself staring up at the ceiling rather than at my friends, which significantly diminished the victory.

"Y'know, magical energy weapons would melt through these doors a whole heap ova lot quicker."

"Steel Rangers' battle saddles aren't equipped with magical energy weapons," SteelHooves replied. "That is an Enclave design."

"Yeah," said Calamity in an odd tone. "Tha's what Ah figured."

My gaze fell on the grate to the air ducts. Unfortunately, while I was small, I was no chimera. I couldn't fit through them. But...

"Pyrelight!"

"Wha's that, Li'lpip?" Calamity asked.

"Pyrelight can get through the air ducts. She can carry a blowtorch to the good guy Steel Rangers trapped inside the classroom. Let them cut their way out," I suggested. "Plus, she can carry in food and water to them while they work."

"Ah like it," Calamity said, the grin I couldn't see evident in his voice. "Frees us up t' continue the mission, while we're still providin' diplomatic relief."

We had a plan.

• • •

So did Elder Blueberry Sabre. While we were busy, the bitch had welded shut every entrance into the Atrium except for the passage through the apple orchard.

The orchard was a huge, open space with only thin trees for nearly useless cover. She could amass her forces inside, creating a kill zone while a few of her soldiers worked on cutting through the security doors.

The best plan I could come up with was to float more lockers in front of us, forming a wedge two lockers deep and two lockers high. SteelHooves and Calamity were going to join me. Velvet had clearly taken far better care of us than of herself, unwilling to use up more than the minimal medical supplies on herself that we might have (and did) need later. She was still partially crippled from the gunshot wound, and I insisted that she stay behind as a "liaison" with Pyrelight. Xenith promised Calamity that she would stand guard over our wounded medical pony.

To claim that I was in good shape would have been an outright lie. But the pain I was in when the spell wore off was not the worst I had felt (definitely better than being set on fire by a dragon or bucked between the thighs by a scarily strong raider); I could work through it. My legs, fore and hind, all seemed to work, if stiffly. And could breathe without too much effort and feel my heart beat. Plus, I had my magic and my PipBuck. I was not in optimal fighting shape, but I really didn't need more. And there were ponies counting on me.

I'd already seen too many ponies whom I recognized lying dead on the Stable floor. I wouldn't allow Elder Blueberry Sabre or Star Paladin Nova Rage to add to that number.

SteelHooves trotted up behind me as I floated the lockers into formation. A moment later, another Steel Ranger trotted up... only it wasn't a Steel Ranger. It was Calamity, wearing a Steel Ranger's armor from the neck back. His black desperado hat was still firmly on his orange mane and he held Spitfire's Thunder in his mouth.

"What are you doing wearing that armor?" SteelHooves demanded. Calamity just gave him a look. "Okay, then how do you expect to fight in that? Magically-powered armor requires months of training to perform even adequately in."

"Whaf mef," Calamity mouthed through his grip on the unique anti-machine rifle.

I shook my head, sending up a prayer to Luna for our coming battle and a prayer to Celestia to keep Xenith and Velvet Remedy safe.

I telekinetically triggered the door.

• • •

My brilliant battle strategy lasted about two minutes. Like with the debris before, my magic couldn't hold the lockers against the explosive force of their missiles and grenades. I was forced to plant our barricade in the ground, creating a makeshift pillbox about twenty yards into the orchard. The Steel Rangers quickly surrounded us, firing into the lockers, slowly tearing away at our shielding.

Our line of sight was limited to small cracks between the lockers, purposefully not large enough to allow a grenade. Even so, I had focused my magic on flinging all grenades back at our attackers until they stopped trying that.

The gaps were too small for SteelHooves to fire through. Calamity was using Spitfire's Thunder to great effect, downing a Steel Ranger every time one was foolish enough to make herself or himself visible. The noise was deafening in our metal cage. My ears were ringing so badly I felt I would vomit, but I stayed on task.

But the pegasus was down to less than half a dozen rounds of the rare ammo (even after having pilfered some from the battle saddle of the anti-machine rifle Ranger in the Saloon). And the twin-minigun battle saddle integrated into his armor couldn't be aimed through the tiny cracks.

The zebra rifle was out of armor-piercing bullets, and the normal sort didn't have the penetrating power to take down a Steel Ranger. I was using my sniper rifle now. It too was out of armor-piercing ammo, but a well-placed shot to a weaker part of their armor would still go through. Part of me felt chagrin that I was becoming so practiced at defeating Applejack's creation.

Calamity and I kept firing.

"Sonuva..." Calamity mouthed as he fired a final shot. He motioned to me that he was out of ammo.

My hope had been that we could take out enough of them to make moving again an option. From all the red lights on my Eyes-Forward Sparkle, we had done admirably... but we were still doomed. I had walked us into a trap with yet another stupid plan. And this time I had probably gotten all of us killed.

I wasn't ready to give up just yet. It was about time to try a rush and gallop. SteelHooves and Calamity still had their battle saddles; and for the first time, the one pony not in any danger of running out of ammo was our ghoul. Finally being willing to scavenge ammo helped immensely.

I focused, floating the lockers, and hurled them in all directions, aiming at the red marks on my E.F.S. compass. There wasn't a lot of force behind the throw, but I released them just before they hit and suddenly they went from flying weightless lockers to flying damn heavy lockers. A chorus of THUDs rang out as several Steel Rangers were clobbered and trapped underneath.

Unfortunately, Steel Ranger armor made them strong. They began to buck the metal weights off faster than I expected. We took off at a gallop, running across the orchard for the opposite door.

Gunfire and explosions erupted all around us. Dirt and wood filled the air. A missile roared past me, disappearing into the foliage of an apple tree before exploding. I felt applesauce splatter my face.

SteelHooves fired forward clearing a way ahead. Calamity, bemoaning the magically-powered armor's lack of wings, spun and poured out suppressive fire behind us. Several Steel Rangers fired back with light machineguns and miniguns, but their shots glanced off the power armor he was wearing.

Calamity swiftly turned, racing to catch up before one of them returned his fire with a missile or sniper round. He was doing far better in the suit than SteelHooves had anticipated, but nowhere near as well as Calamity himself had expected.

Still, it looked like we would make it. I pushed as far as my battle-weakened and overstrained body would take me... and I was the first to reach the door.

It was locked. And trapped.

Of course.

But this was not a problem for me. Well, not one of skill or tools. It was a problem of time.

Calamity and SteelHooves reached me as I attempted to disarm the explosive. SteelHooves began to guide me through it, his skills far surpassing my own, while Calamity turned to face the approaching Rangers.

"Give it up," called out Elder Blueberry Sabre as the Steel Rangers advanced, encircling us. I heard a click as the bomb disarmed. Now for the door.

I heard more clicks as every enemy Steel Ranger in the apple orchard reloaded. Elder Blueberry Sabre called out again, "Last chance. Give it up."

I sighed. Dammit. This was the damn Ministry of Morale rooftop all over again. "Why don't you just kill us?"

"Because now she needs to make an example of me," SteelHooves guessed. "And she knows that will go a lot smoother if she has hostages I care about."

"Or maybe I just need a good lockpicker," Blueberry Sabre answered. "Somepony who can get me past a security door."

Oh hell no.

A deep explosion rang out. One of the Steel Rangers fell, her midsection torn through. Several friendly lights suddenly danced across my E.F.S. compass.

But that was impossible, I thought. The Steel Rangers upstairs were still hours away from being freed. We wouldn't be getting reinforcements for...

A magical energy pistol appeared pointed at Elder Blueberry Sabre's head. It was held by a familiar-looking griffin, the hood of her cloak falling back to reveal her head.

Blackwing?

Elder Blueberry Sabre's eyes went wide as she realized the situation had dramatically changed. "Wh-where did you come from?"

Blackwing smirked as she pulled the trigger, the green beam from her pistol striking the pony between her eyes, turning her into a pony-shaped glow of luminescent green.

"Gawd sent me."

Elder Blueberry Sabre collapsed into a luminescent puddle.

• • •

The battle had changed. Arcs of magical energy from the small group of griffins were exchanged with the artillery fire of the Steel Rangers. Calamity and SteelHooves waded into the fight while I struggled to unlock the door with my telekinesis.

The door unlocked with a satisfying click and slid open. Beyond I could see the Atrium. But even before I could see it, I could smell it. The cloying stench of burnt pony hair and the reek of spilled blood, pooling and drying by the gallons, smashed into me like a speeding wall. This room had become a slaughterhouse.

Colorful, innocent ponies lay dead everywhere. In many cases, the same ponies could be seen in multiple places -- one of the Steel Rangers had unleashed a grenade machinegun in the room. I stepped into the Atrium over a pink leg blown off at the knee.

I saw a yellowish clump of matter sliding down a wall, mixed with blood. It took me a moment to realize it wasn't part of a pony's brains.

It was cake.

I looked up and saw the colorful banner. The Steel Rangers had interrupted a Cutie Mark Party.

I felt rage. Pure, unadulterated rage.

I met three Steel Rangers on the Atrium balcony at the top of the stairs. Two of them were wielding auto-axes and were working their way through the third and final security door. They had about half an hour's work left to go.

I wrapped each of them in magic, floating them up and turning them towards each other before they could react and turn the auto-axes off. The magically-enhanced blades did exactly what they were designed to do -- cut through metal. The flesh beneath offered no resistance at all. It was gruesomely messy.

I dropped them, but kept the auto-axes, turning to face the last of the Steel Rangers. "Star Paladin Nova Rage, I presume?" I noted her battle saddle had a grenade machinegun.

The Star Paladin stared at me. "Yes, and you are?"

"Run."

• • •

The adrenaline had once again left my body, and I hurt. Physically and emotionally. It was literally all I could do to stand up.

I had exorcised my rage, but that left only despair and a deep sadness.

The hour was long over -- that blackest hour whose name I couldn't remember where the darkness of the world is echoed most heavily by the darkness in the soul. But I was still trapped there.

Blackwing joined me as I waited for Velvet Remedy and Xenith. The Overmare had surely been watching everything through the Stable's "Friendly Pie" observation system. But she had not yet opened the door.

"Gawd knows you've flown to our aid without contract, content to negotiate compensation after the fact," the griffin explained. "When we heard the distress signal, she decided to give you the benefit of the doubt and asked if my Talons would be willing to help."

"I'm thankful you said yes," I replied with a grim smile. My gaze kept drifting up to the gaily-colored Happy Cute-ceañera banner.

Calamity trotted about, flexing his wings, thankful to be out of the Steel Ranger armor. "Ah do not envy SteelHooves!" He looked up, "How the hell didja appear right next t' the Elder like that? StealthBuck?"

Xenith trotted up the steps to the Atrium balcony. She stopped abruptly upon seeing Blackwing. Velvet Remedy collided with her backside and stumbled with a moan. She was crying again. Calamity flew to her, wrapping her in one of his wings as she moved onto the balcony

"My girls had to make do with StealthBucks, yes. But I..."

"Where did you get that cloak?" Xenith interrupted.

Blackwing gave the zebra a tolerant smirk. "Yes, as I was saying, zebra stealth cloak." She fixed me with a serious look. "You have more friends than I thought, kid. We'd barely made it past New Appleloosa when this pegasus ghoul and her kid flagged us down. Turns out, they'd heard the distress signal too and wanted to pitch in. Practically gave us enough SteathBucks to get in while all you ponies were busy with the Star-spawn and wage a war of our own. Not to mention the cloak. Which, I would note, I insisted on paying her for."

I looked over the railing at the other griffins in Blackwing's Talons. The deep explosions I had heard before were now obviously from Butcher's Little Gilda.

"I think she wanted to come in herself, but... well, she has a kid." A frown passed across Blackwing's beak. "Whom I'm really hoping she adopted. Because if not... ew."

"Sorry we didn't get to you sooner," Butcher called up to us. "Managed to get ourselves trapped in the generator room for the longest time. But then you ponies come along and not only take out the guards sealing us in, but most of the door too."

I was standing in an abattoir that had once been my home, and yet I found myself laughing. It was not a good laugh. It was a hurting, horrified, emotionally wrung out laugh. The laugh of a pony that can't scream or cry.

I forced myself to stop as the security door slid open. The Overmare stood there, gazing at us. Behind her was a throng of terrified ponies.

"Is it safe?" one of them asked. I found that I couldn't find my voice. I was petrified.

"Ayep," Calamity answered for us. "Rooted out the last of 'em. The ones in the school are good ponies who just got wrapped up in something really horribly bad. They'll be leaving soon with us." The auto-axes were making cutting through the welded door a much quicker task.

"Thank you," the Overmare said to all of us. Then she shooed the other ponies back inside. They did not need to see any more of what had become of the Atrium.

"Littlepip, Velvet Remedy, would you please come in?"

The Overmare motioned for us to enter the formerly sealed wing. Calamity slid his wing from Velvet and poked her towards the Overmare with his nose. She moved slowly, but with lady-like grace. I followed, feeling clumsy and small and horrible.

• • •

"...and then there was blood everywhere! Sparkling Cider did a wave of his hoof like this, and fell down..."

As the Overmare slowly guided us through the crowd towards her office, a familiar voice froze me in place.

"Mother?"

I looked up, and there she was. Standing in a small clique of friends (notably absent Mrs. Sparkle Cider). She turned and looked at me with a vaguely scandalized expression. "Is that Littlepip?" she asked one of her friends.

The other mare answered in the affirmative.

"I don't even recognize her," mother said. Not with awe or maliciousness, but as a casual statement of truth.

I felt all the life drain from me as she looked me over. My blood had turned to ice water. My stomach knotted up, then sank to the lowest part of my body it could find. The world seemed to stretch away from me.

She turned away from me, delving back into her conversation, my presence barely augmenting her tale. "I was traumatized. I mean, I'm going to have nightmares of this forever. I'm going to need therapy. And as horrible as this sounds, my first thought was 'that will never come out of his apron!' (Because he was wearing that lovely yellow one with the..."

I spotted the glow from her horn, so very soft. And the bottle floating nearby, surrounded in the same light. She was drunk. Of course she was drunk... that's how she had always protected herself from whatever crisis she thought she was going through, and this had been a real one.

Still... She was alive. Alive and exactly the same. I was right here. Again.

"Mom?"

Suddenly, Velvet Remedy was between us, and her hoof was striking my mother across the face so hard it knocked her down.

I stared. Velvet Remedy had just hit my mother.

Velvet's voice sounded like she was throwing all the hurt and rage in her behind it. It wasn't a scream, but it was somehow much louder than that.

"You. Have suffered. Nothing."

She turned from my wide-eyed mother and lowered her head, pushing me away.

• • •

"There are no thanks which are enough for your bravery and heroism," the Overmare told us, thanking us yet again for coming to Stable Two's rescue.

"And Littlepip, I owe you such an apology. You are always welcome here. This is your home."

I looked up at the Overmare. Then down at my body. I was caked in blood. Maybe half of it mine. "No."

"No?" the Overmare asked.

"I have no place here. Not anymore." I looked up at Velvet Remedy who was laying on a couch in the Overmare's office across from me. "I've been outside for five weeks, and look at me. As much as I try, I'm not the same pony I was when I left, and I never can be. The wasteland has changed me, bloodied me... maybe even poisoned me like it has everything else outside. I can't come back. I can't bring that poison in here."

"I think it's already gotten in," the Overmare said sadly.

I nodded. "I know. But these ponies are good ponies. Innocent ponies. They need to treasure that, and hold it as long as they can. You need to wash away the blood, clean away the bodies. Try to make Stable Two right again. Tonight will be enough of a nightmare already."

The Overmare nodded. "Then... is there anything I can do for you in return for all you've done for us?"

I thought about it. Then looked into her eyes. "Yes. First, we need to arrange for some sort of payment for the griffins."

"Payment?" the Overmare blinked. "Ah. I see. They are mercenaries."

"Mercenaries who came to Stable Two's aid without contract or promise of payment," Velvet Remedy swiftly added. "Because they trust us to do right by them in return."

"Then I will not sully your reputation, Velvet darling." The Overmare turned to me. "And there was something else?"

"Yes. I want access to the Overmare records." That she did balk at. "I want to look at the population records, nothing more." Somehow, she liked that even less.

"I do as well," Velvet Remedy said, getting up and moving to my side. I was still conflicted, wanting to simultaneously hug her and buck her for striking my mother.

"You know," the Overmare said slowly, addressing Velvet, "When I gave you Sweetie Belle's possessions to look through, it was with the hopes that her rich history as a musician would persuade you to accept your career. I hadn't expected you to use the opportunity to find a way to escape." She frowned. "CMC3BFF. Clearly, I needed to give the recordings of a previous Overmare a much closer inspection before allowing them into anypony else's hooves."

Velvet Remedy shook her head. "You had to have known."

"I... may have suspected. But I thought you would make the better choice."

"I did make the better choice," Velvet Remedy said firmly.

• • •

I found what I was looking for in the population records within the first few minutes.

She made it!

Applejack made it into Stable Two. She was here when the Stable door sealed. According to the records, she lived peacefully for another twenty-five years. Happy... or at least as happy as somepony could be, living in a Stable and knowing the world above had been obliterated.

Still, she had survived. According to the records, she spent ten years down here bucking the Stable's apple orchard until a hip injury forced her to retire. (The doctor's addendum suggested that weakening hips might have been a genetic ailment common to her family.) Even after that, she spent another ten cooking for the Stable's inhabitants from the kitchen of what was now the Stable Two Saloon.

She passed away peacefully, and unlike other Stable residents who were incinerated, the Overmare insisted that she be buried in the apple orchard. She was...

I paused in my reading.

• • •

I walked into Palette's stall. The always messy, paint-splotched artist of Stable Two had survived the slaughter and already was diving into a new project.

The Steel Ranger stood very still in front of her, obediently at attention, as she painted over the symbol of magical sparks and gears with three candy-red apples.

SteelHooves plodded up to me. "I'm no longer fit to wear Steel Rangers' armor, but I can't take it off," he said as I took in his new look. Like the Ranger being painted, he too had the Steel Rangers' symbol painted over with the likeness of Applejack's cutie mark. The red paint continued from there, accenting the ridges and edges all over the rest of his armor. "So I thought this would be appropriate."

I was a little surprised he didn't go with orange, but I could see sticking with the cutie mark's color. "They're all doing it?" I asked, looking at the Steel Ranger being painted and then at the line down the hall.

"Everypony who has decided to return to the true meaning of The Oath. That is, the Oath as Applejack would have wanted it." He whinnied. "We won't be able to call ourselves Steel Rangers anymore. I won't be able to." He grumped, "That's going to take some getting used to."

"What will you call yourselves then?" I suggested, "Applejack's Rangers?"

"Hmph. I am hardly worthy of that. But... maybe. We will see. For now, we're simply outcasts." He looked away, his metal-sheathed tail swinging. "I have to go for just a little bit. I'm taking the others up to Stable Twenty-Nine. I've been in contact with Star Paladin Crossroads, and she immediately joined the cause. She's already planning to make Stable Twenty-Nine into someplace we can operate out of. All it needs is a functioning water talisman. But there's another problem..."

"Elder Cottage Cheese?"

"As Calamity would say: ayep," SteelHooves nickered. "Looks like you were right about him. Cross says he's sent a squad of Steel Rangers to the Canterlot Ruins to retrieve that 'Black Book' for him. But they haven't returned yet. If we can get to Stable Twenty-Nine before they do..."

"You have a ride."

"Do you really think Calamity can haul ten more Steel Rang... er Outcasts all the way to Fetlock?"

"It is a passenger wagon," I commented. "Besides, have you met us?"

SteelHooves laughed. "All right. But after you drop us off, you need to head on to Tenpony Tower. No more delays. I'll catch up to you later. I promise."

I nodded solemnly. I was going to hold him to that.

I started to walk away, and then remembered what had caused me to seek him out. "SteelHooves? We need to talk somewhere private."

• • •

"Applejack didn't leave you."

SteelHooves shook his head. "Yes she did. She chose to be with her family. And I don't blame her for that. I never have." He paced a little. "We... weren't exactly... our relationship was in a bad place. We were trying to put it back together, but... it really wasn't going to work, and we both knew it. I loved her, and I let her go."

I whimpered inside, but stood firm. "No, Applesnack," I said, using his real name. "She loved you. She tried to come back to you. But the Overmare wouldn't let her."

He stopped pacing and looked at me. "Wouldn't let her?"

"She helped her family into the Stable, and the Overmare closed the door. Applejack didn't know that the Stable Two Overmare was under strict orders not to open the door for anyone. Under any circumstances. Not until the atmospheric and soil monitors read that the world above was clean and safe again."

"It's been two hundred years..."

"I know. Stable-Tec grossly miscalculated how long it would take. But that didn't matter because there was no way Sweetie Belle was going to let Applejack out. Applejack wanted to leave. She wanted to find you. The record for Applejack is full of annotations about her arguments with Sweetie Belle over this. But of course, with her condition, and with the readings outside, there was no way Sweetie Belle was going to let her back out."

SteelHooves stomped. "Wait, her condition? Was she hurt? If those zebras..."

I could feel my heart sink. Oh Goddesses, he didn't know.

"SteelHooves," I said, my voice sounding tender and small in my own ears. "Applejack was pregnant."

• • •

"I swear," the Overmare huffed. "This is why I didn't want you becoming a medical pony."

Velvet Remedy glared at her crossly.

"You just can't help yourself. You dig and pry. You and Littlepip are a match, you know."

Velvet took a deep breath. "You have a serious problem here. Have you even looked at the population reports? Do you have any idea how many of the original inhabitants of this Stable were extended members of the Apple family? By Celestia, even Littlepip and I have a common Apple ancestor six generations back!"

I had stopped just inside the Overmare's office, watching the two mares argue. Neither had noticed me.

"That's not a big deal. Six generations is a lot..."

"This entire Stable is in danger of a becoming completely inbred," Velvet Remedy shot back. "I'd say that's a big deal. Littlepip was wrong. You can't stay locked up in here for much longer."

"Hello?" I finally said. The two mares turned to look at me with matching shocked expressions.

"Maybe there's another way?"

• • •

One last detour. It was a small one. Fast. Fifteen minutes tops. We'd be back to pick up the Steel Ranger "outcasts" and ferry them to Fetlock before they knew it. And then, it was on to Tenpony Tower.

I needed Homage. I needed to just fall to pieces in her embrace.

"I found one." Velvet Remedy read the words scrawled in foal-like letters on the side of the metal monster rusting in front of us.

It was a cannon. And it had probably been rusting here for years even before the war. The Goddesses only knew what it had been doing this secluded portion of Sweet Apple Acres. The trees here grew close. The cannon would only have been visible to a pegasus flying almost directly overhead. And it certainly didn't seem pointed anyplace strategic.

Small patches of the old metal muzzle were still polished enough to reflect the orange light of the rising sun. The base was partially sunken into the ground amongst several large rocks, making the weapon cant strangely. Nearby was a crumbling picnic table. There were a few planks of wood nailed to a dead tree behind me.

"How would this have helped?" Xenith asked Calamity. I had to admit I was asking the same question. This old metal monster couldn't possibly fire.

Calamity chuckled. "Not the cannon." He trotted around the pile of large stones that the base was partially leaning against. He tapped his hoof on one, then another. "This one."

"A rock?" I asked.

"The Rock of Destiny," our pegasus friend says, grinning cryptically.

I was tired, physically and mentally exhausted. I couldn't keep up. "Destiny is a rock?" Even Velvet Remedy was looking confused.

Calamity sighed. "Hollowed out rock," he explained. "This rock has been used by every Dashite since the first pegasus was hunted down by the Enclave and branded fer leavin'. It's enchanted to open only fer somepony who done know the proper pass-phase." He looked down at the apparently special rock. "Every Dashite has put somethin' in here. Some token of the life they left behind."

"How did a pegasus enchant a rock?" Velvet Remedy asked.

Calamity shrugged. "Well, Ah assume she had somepony else do it fer her."

"Or perhaps a zebra helped her," Xenith offered.

Calamity took a deep breath, tapped at the rock again with his hoof, and said loudly and clearly:

"Cutie Marks don't matter."

Footnote: Level Up.
Skills Note: Firearms has reached 100%
New Perk: Zebra-Augmented Pony – You have allowed your body to be permanently enhanced through zebra alchemy. You gain +10% to your Poison, Fire and Radiation Resistances and +3 to your damage threshold. (Note: Zebra-Augmented Pony and the cybernetic implant perk Cyberpony are mutually exclusive.)

[BartonFink]

Airport Plaza Jewelers

[Dead Pony]

[republic]

I love my dead gay horse

[Fontra]

I gotta have the last post fuck you.

[BartonFink]

I'm running out of smart things to say. Guess I'll join this pony forum - Barton, May 2011

[Dead Pony]

[Helix]

someone quote that

[Dead Pony]

[Lazy]

Racing Apotheosis by Kkat

"Once upon a time, in the magical land of Equestria, there were two regal sisters who ruled together and created harmony for all the land. To do this, the eldest used her unicorn powers to raise the sun at dawn. The younger brought out the moon to begin the night..."

"Fuck.

"You know what irony is?"

I recognized the voice of Scootaloo. Even though it was raspy. Even through all her coughing, and the mad clicking, and the roar of the wind all around her.

"Irony is that it feels I spent my whole damned childhood trying to get my cutie mark, and I don't have it anymore.

"Irony is that I spent most of the last decade working to save Equestria from a megaspell end-of-the-world..." Scootaloo's voice cracked, followed by a barrage of wet, raspy coughs. "...and then it happened and I wasn't even fucking here. Broke my damn wing in a stupid damn accident while practicing a new routine for the damn GALLoPS. By the time I got out of the Hanovaerian pegasus clinic, it was all over.

"Irony is that I'm the one who made Sweetie Belle the Overmare of Stable Two. I was beginning to worry about her. Now, she's probably the only one of us who has survived. I..."

The recording was interrupted by another fit of coughing.

"...Apple Bloom was s'posed to be in Fillydelphia. Can't even get near that place. A pony would die from the radiation in minutes. I actually considered banging a hoof on Stable Two's door... but then I saw all the bodies. Sweetie Belle did right. Didn't open the door for anypony. Can't let this poison in. Contaminate that whole Stable. If I knocked, Sweetie Belle just might open the door for me. And I can't let that happen.

"Fuck.

"I'm giving up my PipBuck. Leaving it here with this message. I figure, if Apple Bloom survived, she'll come looking here. If not, somepony else will. Besides, I'm sick of it clicking. I don't need it yelling at me that the snow is radioactive and that I'm breathing poison. The air is fucking green..." More coughing. "'Cept for those weird pink swirls comin' off of Canterlot. When you can see the air, you know it's bad...

This time, the coughing fit lasted minutes.

"Fuck. That's blood. That's so not good.

"They kept telling us the cloud curtain was for our own protection. Keeping the radiation and megaspell pollution from getting into pegasi cities. Who knew that they were telling the truth? Fuckers said the brand is to mark me as somepony who's been below. Contaminated. Now I know that's horseapples. Told them... heh. Told them I was proud of what Rainbow Dash did. Called myself a Dash-ite. Boy, that got their feathers in a bunch.

"Irony is... I worked really hard to find a better way. Some kinda society or government or something that would be better. Wouldn't make the same damn mistakes that killed everypony. And I get trapped up there with a whole slew of ponies who seem dedicated to finding the worst way ever. Even I wouldn't have tried an experiment like the 'Enclave'... the Stables aren't set up to fail. Hell, I give the Enclave a few months at most."

Scootaloo's voice stopped. But no cough this time. Just harsh breathing. After a moment, she continued.

"If you find this... before I'm gone..."

She was cut off by an explosive cough, followed by several moments of silence. Then a groan.

"If you find this... there's a shack marked on it. I traced Rainbow Dash to there. I think she's living there... or was recently. Wasn't there when I looked. But I'm headed back. Going to wait there... hope she returns.

"I should be there for her. Like she's with me. Somepony should be there..."

Scootaloo coughed one final time.

"Just want Dash to know... we didn't all...

"She's not alone."

• • •

I reverently placed the battered old PipBuck back into the Rock of Destiny where it had rested for nearly two centuries. The PipBuck of the first Dashite lay once again with the discarded treasures of Dashites to follow. All except for Calamity, whose relinquished possession of his old life we had come to reclaim.

At Calamity's hooves lay the black carapace of Enclave armor. The tips of the built-in magical-energy rifles flickered with a wicked light.

"She don't rightly belong t' me, Ah reckon," Calamity said. "They belong t' Captain Deadshot Calamity o' the Grand Pegasus Enclave. An' he ain't 'round no more. But after seein' Velvet put on that zebra suit, Ah figure it's a might stubborn an' foalish o' me t' not at least drag 'er out an' carry 'er round with us. In case things get bad 'nuff t' call fer puttin' 'er back on."

Calamity looked up at us, face reddened under his rust-colored coat. "Y'know, since we 'ave t' repack everything anyway."

I nodded, remembering the overturned Sky Bandit and the swath of scattered possessions.

"So, my buck was a captain?" Velvet Remedy purred, wrapping the Enclave armor with her magic and floating it off the ground.

My buck? I felt the stirrings of a chuckle. I'd been sure that Calamity would end up being Velvet Remedy's Calamity, not the other way around. But the mare certainly wasted no time.

I smiled at the both of them. This was good.

The whole world was filled with so much bad. My friends needed some good, and I was glad they could find it in each other. I thought of Homage and was thankful to her. Without Homage, I'm not sure my heart could have been so generous.

Calamity stammered, blushing harder.

"Do you want to talk about it?" Velvet asked gently, rubbing her head soothingly yet coaxingly against Calamity's neck as she floated the creepy black carapace to their side.

"uh... well, she's got quad Novasurge rifles... muh own design..."

"That's not what I meant."

Calamity stared away. "Ah know." He turned back to her. "Really, there ain't much t' tell. They made me Captain. An' with the promotion came new duties. Ah was assigned t' lead a wing o' scouts down below the cloud curtain."

He saw my surprise and explained, "The Enclave ain't stupid. They been sendin' scouts down here jus' 'bout twice a year t' get the lay o' things fer ages. Then they put out reports tellin' the civilian ponies that the world down here ain't ready fer us yet, or the air ain't breathable. Keeps everypony happy t' just fritter away their lives above.

"Only that ain't how it actually is down here. Ain't been fer a long time. An' when Ah saw that... well, Ah kinda made waves. Then, on muh third patrol, Ah saw a buncha raiders hittin' a caravan..."

I knew what was coming. "Your policy?"

"Ayep. Ordered muh wing t' take the raiders out. They refused. So afterwards, Ah had 'em locked up fer een-subordination. Higher-ups took unkindly t' that. Told me they was givin' me one chance t' correct the path Ah was on, or there'd be hell t' pay."

Calamity snorted and dug at the ground with a hoof. "They put me in front o' an assembly t' address everypony an' tell 'em how there ain't nothin' down here t' save yet. Show 'em all just how much Ah was hitched t' the party wagon."

Velvet Remedy backed up and looked Calamity over. "Well, that was foalish of them."

"Ayep." Calamity's muzzle broke into a grin. "Ah reckon it had been so long since somepony had bucked the Enclave that they forgot it could happen. Ah stood right up there an' told everypony that we needed t' get down here now." He paused, "...Well, then. Y'know what Ah mean. Anyways, Ah told 'em I was leavin' and that they were free t' follow."

Calamity lifted a hoof to scratch his mane under his hat. "Didn't hear 'bout how Ah s'posedly killed muh own wing 'till 'bout six months later."

I remembered what Calamity had said back in Fillydelphia: Most dictatorships Ah know of tend t' go hell-an'-highwater t' either discredit or destroy opposin' voices like that.

I trotted over and wrapped a foreleg around Calamity in a hug. (Which, I note, was a little tricky since he was a fair bit taller than me.)

"Thanks, Li'lpip."

Something occurred to me. "So..." I asked Calamity as I dropped back to all four hooves, "Most of the pegasi don't realize what's going on down here?"

"They ain't bad ponies, Li'lpip," Calamity whinnied. "They're just bein' bamboozled by their leaders. Even in the best governments, the ponies at the top don't tell the rank-n-file what's actually goin' on." He trotted in place. "Y'think the better folk o' New Appleloosa 'ave any idea jus' how connected they are t' Red Eye?"

I remembered the way the ponies in Turnpike Tavern laughed at the notion of "that buck on the spritebots" being anypony's leader. On the other side of the bottle cap, I was willing to bet Sweetie Belle didn't tell anypony in Stable Two about the friends and relatives dying just outside the Stable door, breaking their hooves against it as they begged to be let in.

Hell, I was supposedly the leader of these ponies, and I was keeping secrets of my own. (The truth about the Ministry of Peace and the megaspells came swiftly to mind.) So I supposed that Calamity's assertion was true.

"Li'lpip, if most o' the ponies up there saw fer themselves what's goin' on down here, they'd buck the damn Enclave and pony up t' help." Calamity's confidence faltered. "Well, most being at least more'n half, Ah reckon."

I felt an odd tug at one of my saddlebags. I turned to see Velvet Remedy's PipBuck float out, enveloped by Velvet Remedy's magic. I watched the polished PipBuck (with its custom engraving of Velvet Remedy's singing nightingale) glide across the air and gently set itself down in the Rock of Destiny next to Scootaloo's.

"I hope it's not presumptuous," she said to Calamity, sounding slightly apprehensive. "I'm not a Dashite, but I am leaving an old life behind. And it feels wrong to be taking something out without putting something in its place."

"Thank ya kindly," Calamity responded, approving.

I brought up the inventory sorter on my PipBuck, scrolling through it until I realized with a pang that I didn't have anything from my life in the Stable to give up.

I stared forlornly at the Rock of Destiny, feeling like I was failing somehow. I'd already left everything in Stable Two behind. I probably would have sealed a picture of my mother up inside the rock, but I didn't even have that.

No... but I did have something.

Biting my lower lip, I pulled up the recipe for Party-Time Mint-als. I would give this up, but I didn't want anypony else to suffer from them as I had. The first night Outside, I had discovered a message from Apple Bloom to Sweetie Belle which used a very special encryption. I used that now as I sent the recipe to Velvet Remedy's PipBuck. No pony would be able to read the recipe without downloading it from both her PipBuck and mine.

I erased the recipe from my PipBuck.

Somehow, it was both liberating and frightening.

• • •

Stable Two. I was leaving it again. This time it hurt worse. Probably because I knew that I would never return even though I could.

I felt weary beyond simple exhaustion. The mental toll of the night before was compounding the physical expense of the battle, and of nearly dying once again. I stared at Calamity, who somehow managed to seem almost normal despite not only having gone through much the same, but having been up for a full day, much of which was spent dragging the Sky Bandit.

Almost normal. He had been ruthless, I was told, in hunting down the last of the Steel Rangers. I did not begrudge him that. But this had been more than his code, more than his "policy". We were his closest friends, and he'd take the assault on our former home personally.

Then again, with the exception of Xenith and Pyrelight, we all did. For our own reasons.

"Calamity?" I asked as I floated the Sky Bandit up off the ground. "When we first met, and you told me you didn't live in New Appleloosa, you said you had a little shack?" I had a suspicion.

Calamity landed on it and trotted in place. Now weightless, the passenger wagon rolled easily under his hooves until he had it upright.

"Ayep," he replied. "An' t' answer the next question, ayep t' that too. Got the marker off the first Dashite's PipBuck by linkin' t' it wi' muh amor. Jus' b'fore givin' it up."

"Did Rainbow Dash ever return to the shack? I mean, do you know?"

"Ah don't reckon she did," Calamity stated, his words sending a wave of bitter sadness through my heart. "When Ah got there, Ah found a pegasus skeleton curled up in a corner which Ah buried out back. Figure if Rainbow Dash had come back, there woulda' been two."

Another pang shot through my heart. Calamity had done better for Scootaloo than I had for... anypony who had passed on. I felt a steely resolve build within my sorrow.

"Before we go, we should bury the skeletons in the apple cellar tunnel," I said firmly. "I know we're on the clock, but dammit if I'm gonna leave here again without doing that."

Calamity nodded just like I knew he would. Velvet Remedy trotted closer, levitating another pile of scavenged goods. "This would be so much easier if I had a Find Our Stuff spell."

"Y'know, if we're takin' all these detours, maybe we oughta swing by muh ol' place," Calamity suggested. "Ah could gather up a few tools. An' Li'lpip could have a crack at the floor safe nopony's been able t' open." There was a twinkle in his eye when he said that. I heard Velvet stifle a snicker.

I facehoofed. Oh now that's just not playing fair.

The clean-up and the Rock of Destiny had already eaten the first hour of daylight, and the burials would take up more. We'd be lucky to make Fetlock by sundown. But then: floor safe! A floor safe in a shack that both Rainbow Dash and Scootaloo had once called home... if extremely briefly... no less. The curious little pony in my head was prancing around eagerly, suggesting all sorts of possibly important or interesting things that might be inside.

I shot Calamity a look. "You think you can use my weakness against me that easily?"

"Ayep."

I hoofstomped. "Okay, yes you can. But just this once."

"Ayep. Sure."

• • •

Ultimately, the burials added less than an hour to our departure time. SteelHooves' Outcasts weren't all painted and ready to leave until halfway through the effort.

"I'm glad you're finally with us," a paladin buck named Bitter Bright told SteelHooves as they finally began to march into the Sky Bandit.

"It should have been sooner," SteelHooves stated grimly. "I should have done this when there was a chance for a peaceful break. This will be a civil war. And a bloody one."

Paladin Bitter Bright nodded. "Star Paladin Crossroads has already locked Elder Cottage Cheese's communications down, and sent out warnings to those in the other contingents who would follow us. With any luck, they'll be able to slip away before word of what happened here reaches the other Elders."

I swallowed. "What happens then?"

Paladin Bitter Bright neighed. "If we had done this years ago, with an Elder taking the lead, then those who believe the Steel Rangers should be following the Ministry Mare and helping the ponies of Equestria could simply have transferred to the new Elder's contingent. We would have been... looked upon poorly, but the voice of an Elder is law. Now..."

The Steel Ranger Outcast took a moment of silence before continuing. "Now we are seceding. We are traitors and mutineers. Once the Elders learn of this, any within their ranks who empathize with us will be exterminated."

Oh. Celestia grant mercy.

"Hopefully," SteelHooves added, "Those who would join us can make it out before then. They will be galloping towards Stable Twenty-Nine. We will need to have it secured by then, or they will be galloping into a trap."

"Well, except for Trottingham," Knight Strawberry Lemonade piped up, joining the conversation as she moved to stand uncomfortably close to SteelHooves. My friend looked around as if searching for some trivial task to give her. "In Trottingham, there are more of us than there are of them. In Trottingham, I bet the Elder will be the one abandoning ship."

The pony in my head whimpered, watching my actions ripple out into war and bloodshed. "I'm so sorry..."

"For what?" Paladin Bitter Bright asked. "None of this is your fault or your doing. Except that because of you and your friends, this squad isn't dead at Nova Rage's hoof or still trapped in that Stable school waiting to die of thirst and starvation." He nickered, "This battle started the moment Nova Rage killed one of us and locked the others away. And that happened hours before any of you showed up. This is on her. And on us. Hell, we should be apologizing to you for not saying enough until after the others started slaughtering the poor ponyfolk in the Ministry Mare's Stable."

"It's on me," SteelHooves said with finality. "This has always been on me."

As he plodded past me, he lowered his helmet and whispered into my ear, "It's better that my child never knew me."

• • •

Blackwing and her Talons flew with us part of the way, delivering news of their victory back to Gawd, along with the details of a five-year plan that the Overmare and Blackwing had sketched out upon my suggestion

"Y'all sure we shouldn't stand there with ya at Stable Twenty-Nine?"

"No," SteelHooves told Calamity. "This is an internal matter now."

I listened to DJ Pon3's broadcast in my earbloom, but there had been no news yet of Stable Two. Nothing that could forewarn the Elders that their ranks were breaking. I prayed that the silence would last until I reached Homage.

It was another stroke of luck that Calamity's Shack was only a little bit out of our way towards Fetlock and Manehattan. It was, however, completely in the opposite direction of Splendid Valley. I began to worry what Red Eye might do if we delayed too long. I was hoping that his twisted generosity would extend to giving me time to rest after everything I had gone through.

"What will we do once we reach Tenpony Tower?" Xenith questioned.

"Will Red Eye even let you get there?" Knight Strawberry Lemonade asked, moving to a bench near me. SteelHooves had managed to successfully maneuver behind several other Steel Rangers, preventing her from reaching him. I found the little dance amusing, partially because her voice was so cute. (Even more so coming from inside that fearsome armor.) Partially because it was finally somepony else's turn to feel a little uncomfortable.

"Red Eye has the place surrounded," I said, frowning. "Shooting our way in would be a bad move. But we could try sneaking our way in..."

I recalled what Homage said in her fake letter to me: Then, later, we can meet where we met before, and I promise... Well, ahem, no need to dwell on what she promised. The important part was, "I know of a roof access that Red Eye's troops probably don't. And I believe Homage is watching for us to land there."

The others nodded. Xenith looked concerned. "Will they even allow a zebra inside?"

"Homage will," I assured her. Xenith may not get the run of the tower, but there was no way we were leaving her out in the cold.

As we approached the turning-point for Calamity's shack, Blackwing swooped close, flying alongside the Sky Bandit. The griffin signaled me.

"Do you think Gawdyna will be satisfied with the payment?" I called out over the rush of wind.

Blackwing barked a laugh. "I think she'll be surprised. Disturbed, maybe. She was hoping for rights to draw from Stable Two's water talisman. Instead, she's getting an offer to move the entire damn population of Stable Two, as well as its most valuable assets, to her domain."

As Velvet Remedy had determined, Stable Two could not afford to remain isolated for much longer. The population needed to genetically spread, to introduce new breeding stock from the Outside. But they couldn't just open the Stable door. Not with Stable Two near the edge of the Everfree Forest and an hour's trot from raider territory. They needed to move. Shattered Hoof provided additional population and safety.

With this plan, the water talisman would be moved to Junction R-7, and the entire subterranean apple orchard would be relocated to the mines underneath Shattered Hoof. The ponies of Stable Two would start building homes in the land between Junction R-7 and the old prison. It would be a massive undertaking, but then Old Appleloosa had been built by earth ponies in a single year.

It felt odd knowing that my new home was going to become my old home. Within five years, Junction R-7 was going to be the center of a town.

"I'm more worried about the delay," I called out. "It's going to be a few months, at best, before the ponies in Stable Two can actually start the move. Right now, the area outside the Stable is just too dangerous." The Everfree Forest exodus, however, was just a part of the problem. I was even more worried about retaliation from the Steel Rangers.

So for now, the Stable was sealing itself up again. The ponies of Stable Two needed time to process and cope with the trauma. They needed time to clean the Stable and rebuild their lives. They wouldn't be able to forget; and part of me thought that was good, as it would prevent them from losing sight of what they owed and the changes that needed to be made.

"Gawd's patient," Blackwing commented. "But you've got other problems. Only way to ferry the orchard to Shattered Hoof is by rail. And those tracks pass through New Appleloosa."

Crap. That's right.

"We'll work something out," I assured her. "But I've got to deal with Red Eye first."

I sounded more confident than I felt. But Calamity's words had reminded me that while there might be questionable or even downright villainous ponies in high places at New Appleloosa, the bulk of the townsfolk were good ponies. Hell, Ditzy Doo lived there.

The thought of the ghoul pegasus brought up another responsibility. I had to find a way to thank her. We all owed her our lives. Without those StealthBucks, which she had given freely to aid Blackwing in saving the ponies of my home...

I moved away from edge of the Sky Bandit as Blackwing veered off, the other griffins following closely. Butcher blew a kiss in our direction. I think it was for SteelHooves, but I had no idea why. Maybe just the camaraderie that comes with a mutual love of excessive firepower.

Calamity winged us in the other direction. "This won't take long," I assured SteelHooves and the Outcasts.

• • •

"That's one giant cloud o' scary black smoke," Calamity commented as we approached his shack.

The smoke from the Everfree Forest fires had tinted the air an angry salmon hue. Calamity's shack, nestled halfway up a rugged plateau, was slightly closer to New Appleloosa than it was to the closest border of the Everfree Forest. But while it was nowhere near the fires, the prevailing winds were blowing the smoke for miles.

I'd grown accustomed to the strange, sickly quality of the air Outside, but Scootaloo's PipBuck message brought back memories. That first morning in the Equestrian Wasteland -- how the sheer oddness of it struck me. This was altogether different. I could smell unnatural odors riding in the smoke. I could taste something pungently bittersweet with each breath.

"Should we be breathing this?" I asked Velvet Remedy. I was reminded of the dangers of working in the parasprite incinerator pits. Did anypony know what nastiness the smoke from the Everfree Forest might carry with it? I suddenly envied the Steel Rangers (Outcasts and otherwise) for the rebreathers built into their armored suits.

"Probably not," Velvet Remedy said, doing absolutely nothing to assuage my fears.

The cliffs around the shack were precarious with no safe path to ascend and no outcropping to land the passenger wagon. It was, after all, a home for a pegasus. Calamity was forced to land at the base of the cliffs. After brief discussion, it was suggested that Calamity and I would head up alone.

"Oh no," Velvet Remedy put her hoof down. "You did not bring us all the way here, Calamity, to your old home, only to not let me see it."

Calamity nickered, looking apprehensive and a bit embarrassed.

"Come on now," Velvet purred. "I showed you mine; now you show me yours."

I tried very hard to think of other things. "Tell you what: I'll levitate myself up there while you two fly up."

"Can ya do that, Li'lpip? Levitate yerself that far?"

To be honest, I wasn't sure. Self-levitation had always been the hardest trick. I wanted to give it a try. But I didn't want to suffer the fall if I failed.

"Be ready to catch me?" I asked meekly. Calamity nodded, stretching out his wings confidently.

(Somewhere behind me, I heard Xenith ask somepony, "Why do they not just make two trips?")

I looked up, pointing my horn towards the shack. And swallowed nervously. It was... very high.

My horn began to glow. Focusing, I enveloped my body with a magical envelope and pushed off from the ground. I had done this much before; but just as in the Pit, my ascent had begun to slow rapidly. I focused harder and tried to pull myself upwards.

I was still slowing.

I concentrated, sweat beading on my forehead and running down my neck. An overglow flared around my horn, casting reflections on the cliff rocks.

I stopped slowing. I was doing it! I was pulling myself through the air!

I was... pushing exhaustion. The effort was almost painful. But I was doing it.

I was flying!

• • •

I lay on the little strip of wood that amounted to Calamity's front porch, panting heavily. My legs didn't want to hold me up. Oh, they could if I asked, but they didn't want to.

It was worth it. For just a little bit, I was actually flying.

It had not been a graceful act of freedom; as I was neither a pegasus nor a bird. It had been work, like galloping uphill against the wind. But I had done it. And for a moment, all the horrors and pain of the last few days was forgotten in the rush and exertion.

I wondered how long it would take Calamity to fly up here with Velvet Remedy. Not long, my mind answered swiftly. In fact, I was surprised they weren't already here.

I remembered that I still had a memory orb from one of the safes in the Fillydelphia Ministry of Magic vault -- the orb from the safe which had also held a cloak. (Judging from Xenith's reaction and recent griffin-related experience, I deduced that it had been a zebra stealth cloak.) I decided abruptly that I didn't want to spend the wait laying sweaty and wiped on Calamity's porch. So I floated out the memory orb and focused on it.

And immediately knew it was a mistake, remembering that the orb had come from a ruined box and was likely damaged itself, but it was too late.

My body exploded, every nerve being flayed as I was burned over and over without dying. I knew my real body must be screaming and thrashing, but the pain was too intense to even fear for my safety. In fact, falling from the cliff side and being dashed on the ground below would be a mercy.

A thousand white-hot knives sliced through my brain.

An eyeblink or an eternity later, the pain stopped as abruptly as it started. And I was no longer myself...

<-=======ooO Ooo=======->

I wasn't even a pony. This was a familiar strangeness. And I could feel the cloak draped about me, the hood over my mane and ears (as well as a saddle-pouch and something strapped to my side). This too was familiar. I was invisible again. A fact all too easy to glean as I watched a stallion admiring himself in a mirror -- a mirror which should also reflect my host from this angle, but did not. My host was a zebra in a stealth cloak. Possibly the same one as before.

"If you won't accept my offer, then you should at least consider availing yourself of your good fortune that I am willing to pose for your new publication," the stallion suggested as he preened himself. He was a regal, haughty white unicorn, quite handsome in his elder years. "I am, after all, the best pony."

"Hardly," intoned an elegant voice which could only belong to Rarity. If the stallion had noticed the slightly disparaging tone, he showed no indication of comprehending it. "There is no place for grandstanding or glory-hounds in the Ministry of Image. Our purpose here is to help the client shine all across Equestria, not ourselves. And our client is all of Equestria itself. We should remain invisible."

With a politely sweet tone, she encouraged, "Perhaps you should try the Ministry of Awesome."

We were in an office. A rather nice one at that, with elegant curtains and golden trim on the wainscoting. It certainly lacked the humbleness I had come to expect from a Ministry of Image building, which told me this was no M.I. hub, but the Ministry's headquarters on Ministry Walk in Canterlot -- the one place where even the Ministry of Image would have to maintain an image.

"That's easy for you to say," the stallion frowned. "You're already in charge of one of the most important branches of Princess Luna's new government. You're already in a position far beyond your wildest peasant dreams."

Wow. I was quickly forming a rather strong dislike for this buck.

Rarity's riposte was controlled, calm, even charming. "Humility was a lesson hard learned, in fact. It's called maturing. Something which, sadly, you seem to have little acquaintance."

"This is some sort of revenge, isn't it?" Amazingly, the stallion still hadn't bothered to glance at the beautiful mare he was talking to. If he was the subject of my host's surveillance, then the magical cloak seemed superfluous.

"A lady is not vengeful," Rarity informed him with a refined tone.

"But you are not a lady," the stallion replied thoughtlessly. "You are a government official."

I wanted to deck him.

"You are quite fortunate that I am a lady," Rarity responded, her voice lowering. "And that I do not have a nearby cake."

I had no idea what cake had to do with the conversation. But at least my host finally turned her attention to the gorgeous white unicorn. Again, she looked younger than I would have expected, and there was no grey in her hair.

She really knows how to take good care of herself, I thought admiringly. I bet she dyes her mane.

"And I am a prince," the stallion informed her, finally deigning to turn his gaze away from himself and towards the mare he was addressing.

Proposal?

"Really?" Rarity rolled her eyes. "I have long operated under the assumption that your lineage was a joke perpetrated by Princess Celestia on..." She paused thoughtfully before concluding, "...anypony who ever met you."

Rarity's horn glowed.

"If you were to accept my proposal, then you would be a princess," the prince continued obliviously.

Oh Goddesses fuck me in a three-way, this jerk actually proposed to Rarity? That's what he meant by accepting his offer? A proposal isn't an offer, it's a request.

Rarity glanced around, then sighed. "Yes, and you would gain a hoof in one of the most powerful Ministries in Equestria. Or, at least, that would be what you seem to think." She looked askance. "I cannot imagine any world where that would be worth it."

The prince huffed. "You speak as if I am not sacrificing greatly myself in this arrangement. As your husband, I would almost certainly be expected to have relations with you."

Un. Be. Lievable!

I focused, trying to make my host run over and buck him through sheer force of will.

Rarity stared silently. Her eyes slowly narrowed. Her horn glowed briefly again. "This conversation is over. Prince Blueblood, it is time for you to leave. If you have any further business, please address it to anypony other than me. Your presence causes me physical pain."

"I am a prince, and a member in high standing in the courts of Canterlot. You would do well to..."

"But I don't want to," Rarity interrupted. "I don't like you. In fact, I find you quite horrid. I despise that my position requires me to acknowledge your existence, and much worse, give you the occasional time of day. But that time had come to a close. Goodbye."

Prince Blueblood huffed, standing tall. "You have no place to complain. It is I who should..."

"Oh, I'm not complaining," Rarity's eyes narrowed dangerously. "I'm whining. If I was complaining, it would suggest there is a higher authority to complain to. But there is not; I am the highest authority within this Ministry. Observe."

Rarity trotted to her desk and pushed a button with her hoof. "Oooh guards!"

She turned to smile at the unicorn stallion as the double doors at the end of the room swung open and two guard ponies appeared. Prince Blueblood backpedaled, startled. "Please escort the prince off the property. If he resists, arrest him."

I would have enjoyed the show had my host not backed away, heart beating slightly faster. She turned our head and I felt my teeth biting down on the object strapped to her side. It was the hilt of a sheathed blade, and the zebra silently drew it.

The guards did as the Ministry Mare requested. Prince Blueblood showed enough intelligence to not resist. I had hoped that once they were gone, my host would re-sheath her blade, but the zebra clearly had other plans.

We were alone with Rarity in her office. And she couldn't see us.

"Unbelievable!" she nickered, echoing my previous thought. The elder unicorn had her back to us, her head lowered as she focused on something on her desk as my host began to creep closer.

No! I tried to shout a warning.

The zebra turned her head, aiming the blade for the back of Rarity's neck, right in the lush of her mane. I could feel my host tense for the strike. Rarity shifted slightly, her horn glowing as one of the gems on the front of her desk slid aside, revealing a secret lock that demanded her attention.

Please no!

I felt something shift in the zebra's saddle-pouch. A new weight. Suddenly, frantically, my host backed up. I heard the detonation, felt a brutal pressure and a searing pain, then nothing. My host fell. Unmoving save for a twitching she could barely feel. It was as if her entire body had gone numb.

"Simply unbelievable," reiterated Rarity as she elegantly turned, staring at where we had collapsed invisibly on the floor.

I heard more than felt the cloak being pulled off of my host, glowing in a blue magical field that mirrored the soft light tracing the spirals around Rarity's horn. The moment it was removed, both the cloak and my host became visible. Rarity paid us no attention, floating the cloak to her and flipping the rough fabric about until she found the gemstone clasp.

"There you are, my pretty," she said, telekinetically ripping the gemstone free, breaking the clasp in the process. "Oh don't you have some interesting magic," she said as she appraised the gem, tossing the rest of the cloak aside. "Twi will love taking a closer look at you!"

I realized I was seeing the inception of StealthBucks.

I recalled a message I had found in a recruitment center: Intelligence suggested that the zebras had developed invisibility spell fetishes, but this looks like something designed by the Ministry of Magic. In the pervading paranoia of late wartime Equestria, somepony had feared the worst, not knowing what Twilight Sparkle knew. But the zebra's hadn't gotten this magic from us; we had gotten it from them.

The long, wicked blade lay on the carpet where it had fallen, close yet impossibly out of reach. My host tried to move towards it, but her body wouldn't respond.

"I slipped a stun grenade into your saddle-pouch," Rarity informed us, moving the gemstone out of sight. "I like to think I'm rather expert at manipulating cloth. Even if I can't see it."

The zebra shuffled closer to the blade.

"Really?" Rarity said with a lady-like scoff. She floated the blade away, turning a disdainful gaze on us. "A zebra assassin attempted to infiltrate my office and murder me concealed under a cloak with an enchanted gemstone?"

She leaned closer, "I'd explain how I got my cutie mark, but it wouldn't do you any good where you're going."

Another cocoon of blue light wrapped around a headset on her desk and floated it over her head, gently sliding it into place around her ears and muzzle.

"Although I do have to wonder, were you trying to assassinate one of 'Nightmare Moon's' cabinet?" she asked, turning her tail to us as she slid open the hidden compartment in her desk. "Or were you after this?"

Rarity cantered to face us. Floating in front of her was a powerful, dark tome bound in twisted black hide.

The moment I saw the book, I knew it held so many secrets. So many things just waiting for me to unlock if I could only look at the pages.

"Well, I suppose we'll find out, won't we?" Rarity promised.

She lifted a hoof to the headset, her expression instantly changing to one of barely-bridled joy. "Oooh Piiiinkie Pie! This is Rarity. I've got a present for you!" She smiled. "You'll love this one."

<-=======ooO Ooo=======->

[BartonFink]

<%Berrybot> pineapple did i enter into leegally-binding contracts?

[Dead Pony]

[BartonFink]

I'm going to show this thread to my future employers

[Dead Pony]

[Dodger]

that

[BartonFink]

Welcome to Earf - Nerf, "Independence Smith"

[Lazy]

I came to on a worn, musty cot in Calamity's shack. Velvet Remedy was laying on the floor, panting and soaked in sweat. Calamity himself stood towering over me, shadowed from the light coming through the window over the workbench behind him.

"What happened, Li'lpip?"

"Where?" I blinked, looking around. "What...?"

"Ya made it all the way up," Calamity asserted. "Ah saw ya do it. But we were most o' the way up when ya screamed, thrashin' like ya were on fire, and flung yerself from the porch!"

"I fell?" My eyes went wide. I turned, looking around. The door to the shack was open. I blinked as the image of The Black Book swam in front of me -- much like having turned away after staring at a bright light and seeing the shape of the light dance before your eyes. But nothing in a visited memory had ever left such an imprint outside of the experience.

I blinked, clearing my vision. I could see the porch were I had been laying. The memory orb was nowhere in sight.

"Darn tootin' ya fell!" Calamity retorted. "We had a helluva time getting' ya up here, even after ya went limp. Been worried sick. What the hell happened?"

"I..." I looked towards the empty porch again. My instinct was to lie. But there wasn't a lie that wouldn't end up worrying my friends needlessly. "I made a mistake. While I was waiting, I touched a memory orb. Only it was damaged..."

"Ya did what?" Calamity snapped. "On the porch? Li'lpip, Ah barely caught ya!"

I cringed back, staring up at my pegasus friend, my hooves pushing at the cloth on his cot as my back thumped softly against the wall.

"Y'know, it's hard 'nuff flyin' while carryin' one pony. Ah can't do it wi' two when the second one is buckin' an' screamin' like she's bein' eaten from the inside out!" Calamity lashed out. Unpleasant nightmares about parasprites washed through my mind. "Ya nearly brought us all down! Velvet Remedy had t' use her magic t' carry ya. And Ah'll remind ya that she ain't nearly as good at that spell as y'all are!"

I turned a nervous look to Velvet. She was so exhausted that she could barely return my gaze.

"An' don'tcha think after all she's been through last night, tha maybe she didn't deserve for ya to make us all scared t' death that yer dyin' from somethin' in the smoke?"

Oh Goddess. The weight of what I'd thoughtlessly done to them crushed down on me. I started to shake. The hurt from my shame and Calamity's righteous anger broke the floodgates, and suddenly the emotional deluge of the last half a week consumed me. The horrors of Fillydelphia slavery, The Pit, the threat to Homage, the slaughter at Stable Two, my mother...

"I'm sorry!" I yelled back, bursting into tears. "I fucked up! It was horrible! I'm sorry!"

"Galdangit, Li'lpip!" Calamity growled back angrily, "Yer curiosity is gonna get ya killed one o' these days. An' t'day ya nearly took alla us with ya!"

"I'm sorry!"

Calamity snorted, glowering, as I broke into sobs. Velvet Remedy, trembled, huffing as she got to her feet, and moved closer to me, pulling herself onto the cot with a painful effort.

"Okay," Calamity insisted. "Ground rules. From now on, ya don't play with one o' those things unless yer on the ground, out of combat, somewhere's safe. And ya have one o' us watchin' over ya."

Having laid the law, Calamity allowed his expression to soften. His own utter exhaustion finally showed through his eyes. He gently wrapped me with a wing.

The two of them stayed with me until the tempest passed.

"Now buck up, Li'lpip," Calamity finally said, prodding me with his wing. "Ya gonna have a look at that floor safe or not?"

I nodded, although for the first time I really didn't feel right allowing my curiosity to be sated. I slid slowly from the cot and looked at the floor beneath it.

It was, at most, an average lock. Even in my distress, I could open it easily, with or without tools. The safe clicked open.

Amongst the saddlebag's worth of decayed personal effects, one item sat gleaming and unblemished by time. A statuette of Rainbow Dash. Her pose was powerful, wings spread and a huge grin on her face...

"Go ahead," Calamity said softly. "Take it. Ah know ya collect those things."

"But... don't you want it?" I asked, surprised.

"Ah already got her cutie mark burned inta muh flanks. Ah figure she's already close 'nuff t' me."

I nodded, then carefully reached out with my magic, experiencing a sudden surge as my magic touched the statuette. I was... better. I felt like I could be better than I had been before. Do anything. Nimbler, more graceful... but much more than that. I was, in a word, cooler.

The inscription was what Rainbow Dash's inscription had to be:

"Be Awesome!"

• • •

Calamity stepped out of his shack and into the oddly reddish-orange air. He was encased in the terrifying black carapace of his old Enclave armor. The tips of his four Novasurge rifles glistened wickedly. He tested his wings and the scorpion tail.

Then he lowered his head and hoofed off the helmet. He looked back up, letting the smoky wind catch in his orange mane. He looked weird without his hat on.

"Forget it," he huffed with a stomp. "Ah'm not goin' 'round like this." He turned and trotted back into the shack. "Ah'd rather be shot."

It took him less that a minute to shuck the armor. Velvet Remedy wrapped it in her magic, making sure to also collect his helmet from the porch. "Well, at least take it with us. You may change your mind when you see whatever forces Red Eye has around Tenpony Tower."

"Fine," he grumped. "Ah've grabbed everythin' Ah want. Let's just go."

I paused. "Calamity? I know you are hoping to sell a bunch of those slavers' weapons up at Tenpony, but I really think we should give them to Ditzy Doo. You know, as a thank you for what she did for Stable Two."

Velvet Remedy neighed. "That would be a rather impersonal gift, Littlepip. And possibly a painful one, considering what slavers have done to her." I frowned, wincing. "Besides, do you really want to give New Appleloosa more weapons right now?" I had to admit that I did not.

Instead, Velvet Remedy looked to Calamity, "Do you know anything that Ditzy Doo likes? I agree with Littlepip: we do need to give her a gift, something to show our thanks for her help."

"Well," Calamity thought. "She likes muffins..."

Velvet looked shocked. "Can ghouls even eat?" Apparently, they didn't have to, but they could.

I smiled. Between Homage and Xenith, we had the best cooks in the Equestrian Wasteland.

• • •

I spent most of the ride trying not to think about anything that had happened recently. I knew that if I did, I'd start crying again.

Instead, I tried to focus on the discussions between the Outcasts, but they delved into internal Steel Ranger politics, and I felt my attention drifting. Knight Strawberry Lemonade sat next to me, chiming into the older members' conversations at every opportunity.

Strawberry Lemonade, I thought, sounds delicious.

I groaned, catching myself before my imagination went too far south. I needed Homage. I looked over the side of the passenger wagon. Twilight was spreading across the wasteland as we approached Fetlock. Below I spotted the mostly-collapsed ruins of that first cottage, but the wandering merchant and his mechanical owl had moved on.

As we approached Fetlock, I spotted the faint column of smoke raising up from the ponyhole that lead to Stable Twenty-Nine. More curled up from nearby drainage grates. There were no sounds of fighting.

"This is either very good," SteelHooves commented, "Or very bad."

As we drew closer, a Steel Ranger moved out of the shadows. There was a flash of light. I ducked, expecting impact.

But it hadn't been a weapon. It was a flare.

"Thank Applejack," I thought I heard SteelHooves mutter. It was good news.

I let out a breath. It was about time the Equestrian Wasteland threw us a break.

• • •

Our luck continued to hold as we glided through the night over the Manehattan ruins. As we approached the top of Tenpony Tower, I could see the firelights from Red Eye's camps below, ringing the tower on the ground and lighting up the Celestia Line. They had taken the exterior of the Four Stars station.

Griffins flew in patterns around the tower, but they flew low, looking for targets on the ground. I realized with a start that Red Eye didn't know about the Sky Bandit. He knew we had a pegasus, so he could suspect we had faster transport. But he had to allow for the possibility that we were walking. And if that were true, we'd barely be making Manehattan now if we traveled here straight from Fillydelphia.

We had time.

We had a problem. There was an alicorn perched on the roof of Tenpony Tower. Her shield was down, all the better to spot incoming Littlepips. I could shoot her. The silenced zebra rifle would more than do the trick. But the moment she went down, every alicorn in the area would know. And there was a good chance Red Eye would too.

The passenger wagon lurched hard. "Aww crap," Calamity grunted as we began to sink out of the sky. The spark batteries were drained. And our poor pegaus was too exhausted to handle the sudden change in weight. He nearly fainted from the strain. We began to plummet.

Frantically, I concentrated on wrapping the Sky Bandit with my magic. If I could pull myself through the air, maybe I could slow or even reverse our fall.

My horn flared brightly. The strain hit me like a shock, buckling my legs, reminding me that I hadn't slept in over a day.

We were still falling.

I pushed harder, gasping, my body trembling. A layer of overglow burst from my horn. Sparks started to shoot from its tip.

The glow around the Sky Bandit became brilliant. It attracted the attention of one of the griffins below as we plummeted towards their patrol line. The griffin turned towards us, lifting her sniper rifle, and fired.

Now everyone would know we are here. But I couldn't focus on that. I was pouring everything I had into trying to slow our descent. A second overglow wrapped my horn. Beams of light shot out of it.

We began to slow.

"Aw hell," Calamity moaned weakly, all but collapsed in the harness, as the alicorn took off from the roof, diving towards us as she put up her shield.

I screamed, somehow tapping into strength I didn't have (Be Strong! Be Unwavering! Be Awesome!). A third layer of overglow erupted from my horn. The Sky Bandit stopped abruptly, hovering in the air.

Then we began to ascend.

The alicorn's eyes widened and she stopped her descent. Her glowing horn began to crackle with electricity as she prepared to cast a bolt of lightning at us.

The griffin shot again. This time, the bullet hit the wagon, leaving a small hole in the roof. The griffin began to reload, and was engulfed in green flame. Pyrelight hooted happily and swooped back up after us.

Velvet Remedy tossed her shield around the Sky Bandit. The first bolt of lightning struck it and the shield imploded, but it kept us from being hit. Part of my mind realized that the shock from a strike would obliterate my concentration and we would fall to our deaths.

The alicorn was flying upwards, back towards the roof, keeping a distance between herself and us as her horn crackled again with electricity.

Pyrelight landed next to Velvet Remedy, looking proud.

Xenith had shattered another flask on the floor and was stomping in it. As the second bolt lashed out, the zebra grabbed my mane in her teeth and pulled me onto her back. The powerful electrical bolt hit the Sky Bandit, arcing all about the metal frame. Velvet let out a lady-like squeal and collapsed. Pyrelight squawked and tumbled to the floor of the passenger wagon.

Xenith and I remained unharmed, protected by her insulating potion. We continued to rise. There was nothing else we could do.

The alicorn landed back on the edge of the roof. Motes of magic began to form in a ring about her, forming into eldritch darts.

From somewhere on the rooftop, a lashing beam of cosmic energy struck the alicorn, rippling the shield where it pushed through to strike the monster directly. The shield imploded as the alicorn was reduced to luminescent, moon-colored ash.

I floated the Sky Bandit onto the rooftop. Homage was waiting there for us, the alien weapon floating by her side. As soon as she saw me, she galloped into the passenger wagon and wrapped me in a hug.

Homage!

I could smell her, feel her soft coat and the warmth of her body. My own relaxed in her embrace, and once more, I began to cry.

• • •

"A zebra!" Homage squealed happily. Xenith cringed back as Homage offered her hoof.

"She... doesn't like being touched," I told the sexy grey unicorn. Homage lowered her hoof and nodded.

"And who might you be?" Xenith asked, prompting introductions.

Inspiration hit me. "Homage, would you allow..." I paused. "Could you ask DJ Pon3 if Xenith could spend some time in the M.A.S.E.B.S.?"

Homage and Xenith both looked at me curiously. "Please?" I asked Homage.

"I-I'm sure it could be arranged," Homage said trustingly.

I turned to my zebra friend. "DJ Pon3 has cameras all over the Equestrian Wasteland. Maybe one of them has seen your daughter or her tribe?

The zebra's eyes widened. I saw a glimmer of hope.

Homage smiled. "Yes, please. And I'm sure I can get DJ Pon3 to let you peek at some of the archived footage. I'll show you how to do so, then leave you in private." She blushed a little, "Littlepip and I are going to be busy, but we won't be far away."

"She likes spankings and bondage," Velvet told Homage in a conspiratorial, overly-loud whisper.

I stared at her, wide-eyed, blushing hotly. "That's not true!"

Homage raised an eyebrow. "Did you two talk about liking bondage and spankings?" she asked innocently.

"No. I mean yes, but..."

"Oh," Homage feigned understanding, "So you talked about Velvet liking bondage?"

"No, me. But..." Aw crap.

"So you do like it!" Homage was grinning way too much. I gave up, hanging my head and accepting my doomed-ness.

I narrowed my eyes, whispering to the charcoal-coated mare, "All those times I fantasized about you? That was before I learned you were evil."

"Don't worry," Homage said, wrapping a foreleg about me as she smiled, her eyes twinkling as she glanced to Velvet. "Last time, I learned you were multi-orgasmic. Tonight I'm going to find out just how many you can have before you pass out." She nibbled one of my ears. "Then I'm going to find out if I can wake you up with one. So... some bondage might be required."

I felt myself flooding with heat and embarrassment. I simultaneously wanted to both let her tie me up and do whatever she desired... and to run away and hide under a rock forever. I swayed, feeling faint and nearly fell over. Delicately, Homage maneuvered me towards the rooftop door.

"Wow," Xenith said, standing with the others as we walked away, her exotic voice gaining a touch of melancholy. "With all your teasing, I was beginning to feel sorry for the little one. Now I just feel jealous."

"Yes," Velvet Remedy agreed, sounding a touch stunned. "So do I." She turned to Calamity. "No offense."

"Offense? Hell, Ah feel jealous."

Homage snickered. Then turned to the others. "Are you coming?"

I stopped, at first thinking that she was inviting them to watch. That... I couldn't possibly... no!

But Homage had less cruel plans. "I've arranged for the rest of you to have the same suite as before. It's all taken care of."

• • •

Velvet Remedy and Calamity had taken their leave, Velvet mentioning something about dragging the poor pegasus buck to the spa. Homage, Xenith and I were left alone in the room with the huge alicorn water fountain.

As physically exhausted, emotionally gutted, and achingly horny as I was, I could not seek attention for my needs until others had been met. First came getting Xenith set up in the Emergency Broadcast Station. Xenith's eyes went even wider as she took in the walls of monitor screens. Many still flickered and suffered distorted images, but I saw all of them were working.

"This is... amazing," the zebra breathed. "What is this place?"

Homage told her, adding, "The images you see are from the spire towers like the one in Fillydelphia. Until just over three days ago, the ones from Fillydelphia were dark. Red Eye is using that tower for something and it was keeping me from getting a signal. But thanks to Littlepip, DJ Pon3 now has eyes in the heart of slaver territory too." Homage gave Xenith a sympathetic and hopeful smile. "We'll finally be able to start doing some real good out there."

The zebra nodded. For the next hour, Homage instructed the zebra in the camera controls and accessing the archives. Xenith took to it with difficulty. In the meantime, I mostly just watched. In Homage's home, I finally felt safe. I was no longer on edge, no longer running or fighting, and my body kept trying to fall asleep.

I did however, manage to get a promise of muffins from both of them. Ditzy Doo would soon be getting the biggest and best muffin delivery in the history of the Equestrian Wasteland.

Then, finally, Homage and I were alone together in the foyer, standing next to the fountain.

"And what shall I do with you, my Wasteland Heroine?" Homage purred. "First, I mean."

"Homage," I said reluctantly. "We need to talk."

"Oh my. Sounds serious."

I nodded. Falling to my haunches, I began to talk. I started with the truth about SteelHooves and Chief Grim Star, apologizing profusely for having not told her sooner. Homage's expression was troubled but forgiving.

Then I told her of Red Eye and the megaspell.

"We have to evacuate the tower," I said finally. "Quickly, and stealthily."

"We can't leave Tenpony Tower," Homage said, shaking her head.

"I know they have you surrounded. But maybe with the Sky Bandit... or though the tunnels?" I fretted. "It can't be impossible."

Homage shook her head again. "No. Some of the population, maybe. But even then, I can't leave here. We can't let Red Eye take this place."

"I know DJ Pon3 is important, but he's not as important as your life." She couldn't understand that, of course. But I had seen the Gardens of Equestria. I knew.

"Then you seriously underestimate the need for a voice of truth and hope in this ruined world," Homage told me. "DJ Pon3 gives the ponies of the Equestrian Wasteland the warnings and advice they need to survive. But more than that, he gives them comfort and the hope they need to make surviving worthwhile."

I looked away and nodded, feeling ashamed. She was right.

"And while I would say DJ Pon3 is the most vital thing we need to preserve and protect here, he is not the only treasure in this tower."

I looked up in surprise. This was new.

Homage brushed my hair tenderly even as her own blue mane fell into her eyes. "Littlepip, love," she said, that word shooting thrills through me, igniting desires and dreams. "Tenpony Tower was a prominent hub for the Ministry of Arcane Sciences. It's not a hotel or a mall. There are secrets here."

"Secrets?" I asked, that damnably curious pony in my head perking at the mere idea. "What sort of secrets?" I could tell Homage was debating whether or not to tell me. But only for a moment.

"Littlepip, did you ever wonder how I could stay here, DJ Pon3's public assistant, when the stuffy lot in this place despise him so?" I had to admit the question had never occurred to me.

"There is a secret society within Tenpony Tower. They are the ones who, I dare say, are really in charge." She backed up and looked around. "There are places in this building that are sealed off from the general public. Places were the Ministry's secrets played out. All manner of magical research and development."

She looked at me, tossing her hair out of her eyes. "You know that annoying shield spell the alicorns all have? It was developed here."

I found myself looking up at the age-darkened bronze statue. The alicorn in the room.

"And you haven't seen how powerful that spell can get if you pump enough power into it," Homage told me. "The only reason the alicorn shields can be punched through with the right firepower is because they can't manifest it at anywhere near full power."

"Actually," I said, remembering the super-charged alicorn from the Fillydelphia Crater flying through the building, her shield tearing apart walls and supports, "I think I have."

Homage bade me to tell her about it. Once I was done, she nodded, visibly shaken. "I think you're right," she admitted.

Homage continued, "In the weeks before the end, one of the other hubs in the Ministry of Arcane Science cracked some sort of sub-spell that they used to enhance the shield spell," she continued. "Not make it more powerful, but make it so that specially designated ponies could pass through a shield as if it wasn't there. They started creating enchanted shield generators, placing them inside rooms or sections of buildings that they wanted secure."

With that, Homage hopped up onto the fountain's rim and tapped her right forehoof rhythmically on the alicorn statue. I gasped as the horn flared with magic and the glowing aura of a magical shield swept over the walls. "The M.A.S.E.B.S. and Twilight's Athenaeum are amongst Tenpony Tower's sealed areas," she said with a smile. "To the population below, DJ Pon3 has always been a strange hermit living in part of the tower that no pony can get to, always dealing with the outside world through intermediaries."

My jaw dropped.

"Once started, the only way to turn off the shield was from inside, and the only ponies who could get inside were those designated by the sub-spell..."

"Bypass Spells," I said, slowly re-closing my jaw. Homage gave me a quizzical look. "The sub-spell, it's called a Bypass. Twilight Sparkle reverse-engineered it from a zebra enchantment." Like the StealthBucks, I thought. Shield screens that let specific materials through my flank.

Dammit.

I was going to have to kill the Goddess for Red Eye after all. Not only was it the only way to protect Homage and the ponies of Tenpony Tower, it was the only way to keep him from taking too close a look at this place.

"Could we move all the ponies of the tower into the shielded areas?" I asked.

"Not for long," Homage answered. "And I don't think it would do much good. If that Balefire bomb goes off, it will take out the foundation and everything not protected. All the shielding in Equestria won't save us from the fall."

Glumly, she admitted, "The shields that were used to protect the whole building haven't worked since the first one."

"I know," I told her, recounting how a wrong turn in the basement had brought me to the room full of generators. I didn't mention the maintenance pony who had died from shrapnel when the megaspell overloaded them and they all exploded.

Another realization struck me. "Red Eye is researching a way to trick a Bypass," I warned her. If these shields were being used to house the most vital research of at least one of the Ministries... what could he be after? Was it here? "He hadn't had much success yet, but he's got ponies working on it."

Homage frowned. "Not good." She hopped down from the fountain. "Thank you for the warning, Littlepip." She approached me, "Problem is, there already is a way to trick a... Bypass, right?"

I nodded.

"The Bypass works on genetics. And it's not as accurate as the Ministry of Arcane Sciences thought. Close family members of the designated ponies, or even a direct descendant of them, can get through a Bypass. That's how I can get in here even if the shields are up." Homage looked back at the alicorn and then to me.

"The shields in Tenpony Tower were set to allow only Twilight Sparkle and the three highest ranking unicorns in the Manehattan M.A.S. hub to pass through. Turns out, I'm a direct descendant of one of those high-ranking unicorns," she revealed to me. "Just like the ponies who actually control Tenpony Tower. That's why they want me here." Homage added cautiously, "As long as I don't make too many waves."

Oh. Oh wow.

"I'll admit, I've been talking you up a lot. And I think I'm finally getting the others to come around. It won't be long before I can put the special resources of this tower at your hooves." Homage smiled sweetly. "Let me give you the extended tour."

• • •

Shield spells had only been the start. Homage guided me through one concealed hallway and shielded chamber after another, turning off the shields for me and restoring them in our wake.

We walked into a large, multi-cornered ritual chamber, bleached brightest white. The floor was an intricate mosaic of white-on-white tiles in exquisite and arcane patterns. There was a mirrored chimney leading up to a skylight, looking up into the darkness of the clouds above.

"What is this?"

"This," Homage revealed, "Is a megaspell chamber."

I stumbled. "Wait... you can cast megaspells here?"

Homage giggled. "Yes and no. You can cast a specific megaspell in here. If you had enough unicorns who all knew the spell. Each megaspell chamber is keyed to a specific spell, apparently."

I nodded, my mouth suddenly dry. "How many... megaspell chambers... does Tenpony Tower have?"

"Just this one," Homage admitted sadly. "And it's useless."

"Useless?'

Homage moved over to one of the chamber's thirty-two corners. She floated up an audio machine. "I found this in the recording studio. Apparently, it never got around to editing."

Homage started the machine, and hauntingly peaceful music flowed out, plucked and strummed from a deep-sounding harp. I closed my eyes and found myself swaying to the music. It was mysterious, unlike anything I had heard before.

"I try to pull this out once a year for a late night broadcast. I love it, but it's totally not DJ Pon3."

I nodded, wanting her to shut up. I was enjoying the music. It was speaking to me, touching on the sorrows of the last week, but without making me hurt.

The music ended in a rippling wave of sound that slowly reverberated away.

I heard a voice from the recording, sounding like somepony speaking through the recording studio's intercom. "That was beautiful, Lyra. Next, let's try..."

But an argument in the background, at first almost too quiet to hear, was quickly growing louder. From inside the recording chamber, the voice of a mare whom I assumed to by Lyra, spoke up. "What's going on?"

"um... You didn't hear this from me, but Twilight Sparkle's gone the last three days without sleep, trying to prepare for the Princess's inspection, and has been in supreme bitchy mode all day today. I suggest steering clear. Don't worry. I don't think she'll come in here."

The arguing voices outside the recording studio were getting loud enough and close enough to make out the words.

"...Well that's just great, Twilight. Now she's in the bathroom sobbing her eyes out."

"Well, I'm sorry. But those results are just unacceptable. I can't go to the Princess and tell her that we've put her name on a megaspell that's... that's useless!"

The ponies in the recording studio had fallen completely silent. The argument was just outside their door. Twilight Sparkle and a male voice that sounded vaguely familiar.

"There's better ways of handling it than grabbing a pony, pointing and saying 'Look, there are all the thousands and thousands of bodies of ponies who are dead because your spell sucks. Explain it to them.' Just how the hell was that supposed to help?"

"Don't you get it, Spike? The zebras have megaspell-tipped missiles. Hundreds of them. If they launch them, those missiles will reach Equestria from the zebra homeland within minutes. And this Celestia One, or Celestia Prime, or whatever they're calling it can't even be cast unless it's sunny. I can't tell the Princess that the only defense we have against those missiles can be defeated by a cloudy day. What if the zebras decide to attack us at night?"

"..."

"You know what? Forget it, Twilight. I'm going to take a nap. And frankly, you should too."

"You're always taking a nap. There's work to be done"

"Whatever. Wake me when the Twilight I know and love has decided to visit. Until then, I don't even want to speak to you."

"Urrgh. Fine."

• • •

"In here," Homage said, waving a hoof at a sprawling agricultural bay, "We discovered that the Ministry of Arcane Sciences had perfected spells that purified water, cleaned radiation, even purged taint." I boggled. If only that maddened ghoul doctor had known. What he killed so many to accomplish...

"Unfortunately," Homage informed me, "The spells only work on an extremely small scale. With a lot of effort, we could purge one tree, the fruit becoming ripe and succulent and perfect for consumption... but there's nothing to keep the poisons from just seeping back in, and the area affected is so small it would take an army of unicorns to clean enough of a field to grow a garden without having to worry about the soil going bad before harvest. But it makes for wonderful potted plants."

"But, if you could cast it everywhere, all at once. Purge everything..." I realized what I was seeing. These were components of the Gardens of Equestria.

"I'd say you were delusional, but I'm talking to my Littlepip. I know better."

It was time to tell her.

When I was done, Homage collapsed weakly. "Me?" She looked at me, as if pleading for me to renounce the truth. "The... salvation of all of Equestria... is on me?"

I nodded. "You. Ditzy Doo. Four others. We don't know who yet."

"This spell... it will fix everything?"

"Pretty much," I nodded. "But there's things that need to be done first. I'm not the Wasteland Savior, Homage. You are. You and them." I gave her a bittersweet smile. "I'm just the one who clears the way."

Homage stared at me for a long time. Then pushed herself up. "I need a drink..."

• • •

Screw my mother and screw my vulnerability to addictions. We were back in the Athenaeum, and Homage was drowning herself in apple whiskey and I was right there beside her, soused to the... whatever it is that ponies get soused to.

"...And then," Homage slurred, continuing a tale that had blurred into another tale which had jumped off from the original story about four stories back, "Jokeblue says, 'pfft, big deal. You've got one box that's bigger inside than outside. Well, Mister Whooves, I've got four little saddle bags, and I can carry about thirty rifles in them and more ammo than you can shake a hoof at. Hell, you should see how many rakes I can cram into my toolbox back home.'" Homage thumped down the apple whiskey bottle on the table for emphasis.

I paused, waving my hooves as I tried to measure my imagination. I was drunk and probably missing something, because there was no way a rake could fit in a toolbox. I finally gave up, deciding it must be a joke.

"Jokeblue's a funny name. How'd she get that?"

Homage became more somber, although no more sober. "Birth defect. Her mother was hit by killing joke while pregnant. Lucky either of them lived."

"Ah," I said, not really understanding, but reaching out a comforting hoof anyway. It seemed the right thing to do, even though I ended up knocking over several of the apple whiskey bottles. Fortunately, most of them were empty.

A memory struck me and I began to cry again.

"Lit... pip? What is it?"

With a shuddering breath, I recounted, "I shot one of the Steel Rangers. In the back of the head. I think it was the one who killed my old mentor, but... I'm not sure."

"Well, sounds like the bitch deserved it. Sounds like all of the Steel Rangers did."

"Yes, I know... but I just snuck up and shot her. And kept shooting. Even after she was dead. Until I'd emptied Little Macintosh into her corpse." My breast heaved with a shudder. "I... I don't like the pony I'm becoming. I think I'm losing myself." My voice hitched. "Monterey Jack was right. I'm running out of me left to save."

Homage was by my side. I didn't remember her leaving her chair. For the second time that night, she held me as I began to cry.

She gently led me towards her bed. "Come here, Littlepip. Rest now."

• • •

If Red Eye had any problem with me staying at Tenpony Tower, he did nothing to show it. Even the loss of the alicorn and griffin seemed to go unnoticed. I knew that should worry me. Instead, I ignored it. Instead, I relaxed. I even went to the spa with Homage. Twice.

I didn't want to think of myself as a selfish pony; but fuck Red Eye, I needed this. And hadn't I earned at least a little of it? Maybe not, considering my mistakes -- the damaged memory orb, the really stupid battle plans, going behind The Wall alone. But if I didn't then my companions certainly did.

I had hoped Xenith and Homage would get along. But while Homage seemed to like the zebra, Xenith maintained a thankful but remote demeanor, even a touch frosty. It made the muffin-baking sessions in the kitchen awkward enough that I spent that time in the library, sitting at the table, researching and reading.

I had just finished a comparative reading of the library's unabridged version of Applied Gemstones with my own and was staring up at the huge painting of Splendid Valley when Xenith trotted in.

"Any luck finding your daughter?" I asked, trying to sound casual as I reminded her what an exceptional and unique tool Homage had put at the zebra's disposal.

"Yes and no," Xenith replied. "I have seen signs of her tribe. They have been living in the foothills beneath the Canterlot Ruins." She quickly added, "Safely outside the Cloud. But I have seen no sign of my daughter. Still, I thank you for this..."

"You should be thanking Homage."

"I have."

"Then why do you act so... cold around her?"

The zebra contemplated me. Judged me. Then finally said, "Did you not see the weapon she used? Your lover had been touched by the stars. She is cursed. No good can come of her."

Xenith walked out.

Well fuck. It would seem that even now there was no reasoning with a zebra when it came to that nonsense. I was probably lucky I didn't step in any Star-spawn blood or she might think I was cursed too.

"There's no such thing as curses!" I called out after her in frustration.

With a deep sigh, I buried my head in the scattering of books.

A few minutes later, Homage strode in, a puff of muffin batter on her nose. "Now then," she whispered huskily as she wrapped her forelegs around me. I flushed, feeling a pleasant, uncontrolled fluttering wash over my body like I'd fallen into a bed of butterflies. "Where was I?" That fluttering coalesced in my nether regions, becoming very warm and joyfully difficult to bear. "Twenty... three, wasn't it?"

Oh my Goddesses! She was actually counting!

• • •

The Sky Bandit cut through the air as we approached Splendid Valley. The sky was crisp and slightly stained with smoke. The valley below was a rocky wasteland completely barren of life.

Scattered small holes were the only warnings that the caves beneath were home to dozens, if not hundreds, of the most dangerous monsters in all of Equestria. Hellhounds.

I floated out my binoculars and stared towards the horizon. A sinkhole several miles across indicated where the balefire bomb had been detonated. The bomb had been snuck in underground and detonated. The surface above had collapsed into the toxin-filled tunnels below.

Over the last two hundered years, the sinkhole had weathered and eroded into a wide crater. It glowed faintly, even in the daylight. It was marked with hundreds of holes.

On the cusp of the crater, I saw the crumbled walls of the Maripony. Once a station for gem mining, the building had more in common with Shattered Hoof than any of the Ministry Hubs that I had seen. It could have passed for a fortress, but a devastated one. The explosion and sinkhole had torn away part of the foundation, and crumbled the rest. About a third of the building had collapsed into the crater. The rest had suffered a mega-quake.

"Whoa nelly! If the Goddess done survived that, Ah reckon she prob'ly earned two-hundred years o' livin'."

"What is the plan, little one?" Xenith asked.

"Plan?" Velvet Remedy chuckled, "I think Littlepip's just planning to go in there and shoot her."

My friends had all spent the last couple days in much-needed recovery, as had I. Despite the mounting hopelessness of our mission, everyone was well rested and back in form. If I was going to fail and die, I was happy it would be like this. With these ponies.

No, wait. Zebras weren't ponies. With these people.

"Well, then it's a darn good thing Ah sold all those guns an' bought us plenty o' ammo. Even managed t' get some enchanted ones for Li'l Macintosh. Don't know if they're enchanted wi' Goddess-slayin', but we c'n hope."

I checked my PipBuck and brought up my Eyes-Forward Sparkle. I checked the date and time. "Ditzy Doo should be getting her muffins about now." I smiled to Xenith. "Thanks for your help with that. I'm sure she'll love them."

It struck me that when Xenith and I had walked across the moat and outside The Wall, I had been in the Equestrian Wasteland for just over five weeks. Now it was nearly six. Six weeks from apprentice PipBuck Technician to would-be deity-slayer.

"My life is surreal."

Velvet Remedy leaned close. "So, how high did you get to?"

I blushed hotly and buried my face in my forearms.

"Look sharp," Calamity called out. "Incoming at high eight!"

My head shot up. I pulled up the binoculars again. Five glowing orbs, alicorn shields, were heading towards us from Maripony.

"Dammit, Ah shoulda worn that damn Enclave gear after all," Calamity cursed. "Li'lpip, reassemble Spitfire's Thunder. We're in for a bumpy ride!"

I levitated the magically-augmented anti-machine rifle from Calamity's holster and began putting it together.

Four midnight-blue alicorns suddenly appeared, flanking us.

"The stars curse me to a thousand rapes by the horn of Nightmare Moon," Xenith whispered next to me, shocking me nearly as much as the alicorn's arrival.

"You've been around Littlepip too long," Velvet suggested, floating out her shotgun. The alicorns were already casting their shields.

{{WELCOME TO THE HOME OF THE GODDESS!}}

The voice boomed in my head, reverberating with is own echoes.

"Oh..." Velvet moaned, wavering. "This is not good."

{{PUT AWAY YOUR PUNY WEAPONS AND COME! YOU ARE MY GUESTS! FOR I, THE GODDESS, HAVE NOTHING TO FEAR FROM YOU!}}

Oh no. Nonononono!

"Iffin she ain't got nothin' t' fear from us, why the show? Hell, why not jus' send us packin'?"

Xenith looked between the three of us. "What are you speaking of?"

But I knew. Oh by the Goddesses -- the real ones -- I knew.

Heavily, I said, "Because she wants us to do something for her."

[BartonFink]

Jodie Foster held two pair, Bach held three of a kind

[Dead Pony]

[Dodger]

[BartonFink]

I didn't choose to be president of balloon doggies, the balloon doggies demanded it