Virtues.

My first real advice, out of the Stable, was to find my virtue. Well, no, it was to find a weapon, armor and friends. And as daunting a task as that seemed, I believed I had succeeded admirably. It was the advice that followed -- to find that defining positive characteristic that would get me through the darkest horrors that the Equestrian Wasteland could throw at me without losing myself -- that still eluded me. Instead, I substituted other goals, other quests. I was driven to make this blasted world a better place, a brighter place, for the ponies trapped within it.

I felt all my efforts had just hit a wall.

Red Eye was just too smart, too devious and too well-organized. I underestimated him at every turn, and he used it against me with skill approaching panache. Even his seemingly insane claim to approaching godhood was backed by a crafty and altogether horrifying plan. The sheer cruelty, the coldly calculated butchering of unicorns in an act that would surpass murder, struck a blow to my very soul. And yet, I could already envision his argument: what is the suffering death of a few dozen or possibly even hundred unicorns today for generations of safety and peace for millions in the future?

I tasted bile.

The Goddess was… insane. And yet, she was effectively untouchable. Immensely powerful. And her army of minions, while considerably smaller in number than Red Eye’s, were amongst the most formidable opponents in the entire wasteland. And they were completely devoted, if not directly controlled, by her whims. And her whims amounted to our extinction.

And she was such a potent telepath that even if I could come up with a plan, she would rip it from my mind before I could get close enough to her to implement it.

We were racing apotheosis. And we were losing.

I felt the darkness closing in oppressively. If ever I needed a virtue to hold to, it was now.

But even virtues could turn on you. They could go astray, become warped or perverted. Watcher had told me of the six greatest virtues of ponykind -- kindness, laughter, generosity, honesty, loyalty and magic -- although he made it clear that there were many others, and that my own was likely not on that sacred list. I had quipped that I could possibly collect broken, wrecked versions of each of these; I was doing far better at that, it seemed, than finding ponies of true virtue. Still, I had been joking.

Now I had met the Goddess, the thing that was Trixie, and I knew I had witnessed the epitome of the corrupted virtue of magic. All I needed to do was find corrupted kindness and I’d have a set.

{{OH, BUT YOU HAVE MET CORRUPTED KINDNESS, LITTLEPIP!}}

The cruel, sweet voice of the Goddess blasted through my head, swarmed with a chorus of whispers, mostly agreeing. The weight of her thoughts on my mind was heavy, almost suffocating.

{{IT’S YOU.}}

No! No that was not right. She couldn’t be right.

I was better than that. I had to be better than that.

But even as I fiercely denied the Goddess’ sadistic suggestion, my mind conjured up doubts and demons as if seeking to prove her right.

I had saved the slaves from Old Appleloosa only to abandon them to the care of a town that traded with slavers. I had slaughtered the raiders who raped and hunted that blue pony in Manehattan, only to walk away and leave her to her fate once the immediate threat had passed. How many more? How many other times had I inserted myself into a situation, tried to help, then left? Should I count all of Fillydelphia as a victim of my kindness? I remembered my image in the mirror, reflecting my soul. Was twisted kindness what I had seen there? Was it a monster?

No… no this was sick and poisoned thinking. It was the Goddess mercilessly tormenting me where I was weak. I had a virtue. A good and true one just waiting for me to discover it.

I had to.

We stepped out of Maripony’s most intact structure and into the angry daylight, four of the Goddess’ alicorns guiding us back to where the Sky Bandit had landed.

My PipBuck began click at me. The balefire bomb had been detonated underground here; the radiation bleeding off of the Splendid Valley sinkhole was nowhere close to the horror of the Fillydelphia Crater. At least, not above ground.

A nearby wall held what appeared to be a map of the building above a pair of water fountains. My PipBuck’s click-clicking sped up ominously as I brought it close to them, but I was more interested in scanning in the map for future reference. I suspected I might need it.

All around us, alicorns watched silently from behind crumbled walls or stood amongst broken pillars and collapsed rubble. Their silent presence was eerie and sinister.

“Thriving?” Velvet Remedy asked in a hushed voice, dipping her head. “It feels more like they haunt this place.”

I nodded, lowering my voice to reply almost instinctually, as if the alicorn’s silence demanded we speak softly. “And have you noticed that they haven’t said anything?” Not one of them had telepathically spoken a word since we encountered them in Splendid Valley. In previous encounters, they had been boastfully chatty. “I think the proximity to the Goddess is overwhelming them; their individual minds are being drowned out by hers. This close, they become little more than drones.”

“Not that Ah cared much fer their ‘individual’ personalities,” Calamity chimed in, whispering, “Seein’ as they were all variations o’ Goddess-is-great, rah-rah-us, y’all-are-insects. Silence ain’t entirely un-golden.”

After a moment of thought, he continued, “Ah reckon it’s the Taint. Splendid Valley’s ripe with it.” He pointed out, “She seems t’ be able t’ communicate with ‘er so-called children outside, but nothin’ like this, and not with normal folk ‘cept in very special cases like Red Eye. But here, she’s in our heads like it weren’t nothin’. Ah’m bettin’ this whole valley is a massive amplifier t’ her.”

Wonderful. “Well, then don’t anypony think anything about what we do now until we’re out of this Goddesses-forsaken place.”

Calamity barked a laugh at my choice of phrasing.

The alicorns, of course, said nothing. They wove us through the rubble to the flat of asphalt which had once been a landing zone for sky chariots. The Sky Bandit sat waiting for us. On the roof, Pyrelight danced and hooted at our return.

Velvet Remedy stopped.

Calamity hesitated, his ears perking as he watched the bird. “Hold up there,” he whispered, putting a foreleg out to block me. The four alicorns kept walking towards the Sky Bandit either unaware or unconcerned that their charges had stopped following. “That sounds like a warnin’.”

Another alicorn dropped out of the sky behind us and raised her shield.

“It is,” Velvet Remedy breathed.

The four alicorns trotted up to the Sky Bandit, the lead one beginning to turn towards us expectantly, when the asphalt around them erupted in blasts of magical energy. All four alicorns were killed, three instantly with two of them melting into goo, the fourth collapsing several yards away, missing multiple limbs and bleeding to death with a pitiful whinny. Velvet Remedy’s horn flared as her anesthetic spell allowed the creature to spend her last seconds without pain.

The alicorns in the ruins around us stumbled in unison. Two more fell as shafts of colored light sliced through the air.

Velvet Remedy muttered something, closing her eyes as her horn flared and five small, flickering orbs of energy shot from the tip. One of the orbs drifted swiftly over my head and floated there. One stayed above Velvet. The others sought out Calamity, Xenith and Pyrelight and hovered over them like tiny guardians.

“New spell?”

Velvet Remedy nodded, saying “I’ll explain later” as she looked for a way to run. The alicorns in the ruins were bringing up their shields.

The air was filling with magical energy blasts.

A pack of hellhounds was charging across the tops of the rubble, moving with terrifying speed to engage the alicorns under the covering fire of more hellhounds in the valley.

They’d mined the landing pad! My mind conjured images of hellhounds digging up from beneath until less than half an inch of asphalt separated their holes from the world above, then wondergluing the mines to that thin barrier and filling in the holes behind them.

“Back inside!” I shouted. Regroup first. Get out of the line of fire.

I turned, only to find we were blocked by the shielded alicorn standing behind us. Beyond her, the doorway back into Maripony stood dark and empty. The concrete steps leading up to it tore apart explosively as a hellhound burst out of the ground behind us. Massive claws ripped though the alicorn’s shield and tore huge chunks of meat from her side as she turned to fight it. The alicorn almost got a spell off before the hellhound ripped his claws through her face, felling her.

{{INSOLENT CURS!}}

A high-pitched whistle blasted through the air and through my head, the Goddess projecting both mentally and magically through the ruins of Maripony’s air raid sirens. I pressed my hooves to my ears, but it didn’t help. I was unable to think, unable to move under the assault. Calamity, Velvet Remedy and Xenith all did the same, only the zebra seeming to get any respite from the effort.

The hellhound immediately fell, clutching his ears, howling in pain.

The others cringed in pain then turned, fleeing blindly back into the valley. The one in front of us did not fare as well; three alicorns descended upon him, dropping their shields as they skewered the ambushing creature, driving glowing horns through his thick hide.

One of the three was hit by a lancing beam of light blue energy and dissolved. A hellhound sniper who was either far enough away not to be debilitated by the Goddess’ sonic/telepathic attack, or who had protection from it. Clearly, not all these creatures were poor shots.

An orange beam of light hit Calamity, striking him in the wing. For a brief moment, his whole body glowed orange, becoming a Calamity-shaped lamp. The little orb over his head popped, and the glow receded back to his wing before evaporating, leaving a hole in his wing that I could put my hoof through. Velvet Remedy’s spell had saved him from being turned to ash. My pegasus friend collapsed in shock, his scream drowned out by the Goddess’ attack.

The siren stopped.

The attack continued, but now the flurry of poorly-aimed beams of magical energy were replaced with a small number of expertly aimed ones. The attacks flashed uselessly against the alicorn’s shields. In the wake of the sonic attack, the hellhounds didn’t charge the base again.

“Really shoulda worn muh old armor,” Calamity grunted as Velvet Remedy knelt over him, her horn glowing as she tried not to cry. “Hey, ‘least Ah ain’t bleedin’ out, right?” The magical energy had warped the flesh of his wing around the wound and incinerated the feathers.

“Hush now,” she ordered. “Quiet now. Save your strength and let your medical pony do her work.” From her pained expression, I could tell it was bad.

Another bolt of energy struck the rubble we had taken refuge behind. The alicorns had flown out to strike down the snipers, but every time they got close, the hellhounds disappeared into the ground. All they were managing to do is get drawn further from the base and increasingly separated. The Goddess had begun recalling several, either suspecting or experiencing a trap.

“Did you see how all of the creatures reacted when the first four were killed?” Xenith asked as she hunted through her pouch of bottles and ingredients. “If the Trixie-monster experiences each alicorn’s death, perhaps the death of many at once is painful or disorienting to her.”

I nodded, filing that away for examination when we were safely outside the Goddess’s range. I looked to Velvet and asked, “Will he be okay? And will he be able to fly again?”

Velvet took longer to answer than I would have preferred. “I can repair the structural damage to his wing with my mending spell, but I can’t heal the wound. He’ll need at least one extra-strength restoration potion to begin to heal properly, more if he wants to fly again anytime this week. And right now, we do not even possess a healing potion.” She looked at me sadly, “If you’ll remember, I used up all of our medical supplies patching you lot up inside Stable Two.”

I felt a pang of guilt.

“Quite a spell ya got there,” Calamity praised, resolutely ignoring his doctor’s orders. “Ya saved muh life.”

Only the slightest smile touched Velvet Remedy’s frowning expression. “Yes, I had hoped to barter for more medical supplies from Doctor Helpinghoof. But with Tenpony Tower surrounded by Red Eye’s forces, he wasn’t willing to part with anything more than a few healing bandages. So I spent part of my time there learning a couple new spells. A disintegration ward seemed prudent.”

Xenith pulled out a vial and offered it to Velvet. She took it and wrapped it in a telekinetic sheath, keeping it floating nearby. She scowled as she added. “Unfortunately, this wing needs more than my spells and some bandages to heal.”

“I’m going to need to cut the warped flesh away before I can start rebuilding and mending the bones of your wing,” Velvet Remedy insisted remorsefully, addressing Calamity. “This is magical damage; if I don’t remove all the affected flesh, your wing will never heal properly. You’re going to bleed a lot when I do so, but Xenith has given me something that should reduce the blood loss.” She frowned, “This would be excruciating, so I’m going to have to use my anesthetic spell. You’re not going to be able to move for the better part of an hour.”

A beam of pink light struck above the doorway into Maripony. A cinderblock’s worth of the wall glowed and dissolved.

Xenith turned to me. “You made the wagon fly before. Can you fly us all away from here?”

I shook my head. I’d been asking myself the same thing. “I can, but floating myself is incredibly draining. I don’t think I’d be able to get us very far. And even if I could, I can’t move us very fast. And all those hellhound snipers would need is one good shot to blow us up.”

“Then we are trapped here until we find medical supplies for the winged one.”

“Dang, girl, have ya just not learned our names yet? Ah’m Calamity.”

“My apologies… Calamity. I am… not used to thinking in names or to being…” The ex-slave zebra was clearly having difficulty putting her feelings into words. “…on a level of familiarity where names are appropriate for me to utter.”

I could have sworn I’d heard her refer to at least one of us by name before, but now that I thought about it, I couldn’t place an instance. The closest I could come was her questioning how Calamity got his name. Only the largest figures in her life had been given names, Red Eye and Stern who ruled those who had enslaved her, or figures of legend like Doombunny and Nightmare Moon.

She’d kept her silence for how many years? I knew how impossible it had seemed to form friendships with my peers in Stable Two, having been the awkward blank-flank with the alcoholic mother. Being a zebra in the Fillydelphia slave pits would have been even worse. I wondered if she ever bothered to learn the names of most of her tormentors. Is this the way she had come to identify ponies in her mind?

“Do you believe there may be medical supplies inside here?” Xenith asked, looking towards Maripony.

I checked my PipBuck’s automapping feature as well as the scan of the wall map. To my chagrin, Maripony’s medical clinic was in the section that had collapsed into the crater. Anything that had been in there would be crushed, scattered and probably tainted. There were bathrooms that might have medical boxes, but would they be stocked with the sort of supplies Calamity needed? I felt it was doubtful, and I wasn’t eager to try. The horror of what lurked in there, and what she had done, curdled my blood. I knew the Goddess needed us, but what if she changed her mind? I didn’t want us to suffer the same fate as Twilight Sparkle.

“There’s a hospital a few miles from here,” Calamity announced, surprising all of us. “Part of the gem minin’ town that served this place. When they shut down the mines, the town was abandoned; but they opened parts o’ it back up to house the ponies who worked at Maripony an’ their families.”

I didn’t ask how he knew any of this. Calamity had been surviving in the Equestrian Wasteland for many years before we had met. Who knew what rumors and scraps of information he had learned? I was content just to be thankful for this change in our luck.

Another shot struck the wall I was hiding behind, causing it to glow and melt. I scooted my tail to another bit of cover. We weren’t going anywhere until they stopped taking so many potshots in our direction.

“And there should be plenty o’ rooftops t’ hide out on while Ah heal,” Calamity assured us. “Ain’t perfect, but probably the safest place from the hellhounds… if we c’n get there.” We all knew we were talking about several miles’ travel over hellhound-infested, irradiated and taint-soaked landscape.

“Just point the way, Calamity,” I said, sounding more sure than I felt. “I have a plan.”

“Ya always do,” Calamity grinned. “Jus’ get us t’ Old Olneigh, an’ we’ll be fine.”

The hellhounds seemed to lose interest after about an hour. It made me wonder if there was a larger purpose behind the attack or if this had just been sport.

I stood on the railing ringing Maripony’s short water tower, my binoculars floating in front of my face. From here, I could just make out the shapes of Old Olneigh in the distance, resting peacefully. An elevated highway passed nearby, going nowhere. The highway had collapsed less than half a mile beyond the off-ramp to the town, leaving a line of rubble and crushed wagons that time and the valley had mostly succeeded in erasing.

Turning my gaze towards the horizon, I glimpsed a shadow that may have been Ponyville. Beyond that, the sky turned hazy and thick from the smoke of the Everfree fires. Walking around the rim, I realized I could spot three of those needle-like towers rising into the cloudy heavens above. I was fairly sure that one of them was the same one I had spotted from the outskirts of Cloudsdayle, but I hadn’t seen the others before.

Coming full circle, I looked back again at Old Olneigh, then traced the path we would have to travel to get there: a set of train tracks that stretched from Old Olneigh to Maripony, crossing rocky flatland with only minor undulations save for a gulch filled with hints of scraggly vegetation and sick, stagnant water. I couldn’t make out any details, but the plants beneath the bridge moved as if there was a much stronger wind blowing down the gulch than the faint breeze that stirred my mane.

My view turned black as an alicorn flew across my narrow scope of vision, obscuring the landscape. I put away the binoculars, hurrying back down.

More alicorns were beginning to return. The ones already here had returned to their silent lurking, seeming to pay us no attention. I was expecting either the Goddess or her alicorns to attempt another escort, but it was almost as if they had forgotten we were here. Yet that was impossible; they kept looking right at us. Maybe the Goddess was gauging what we would do next? Or maybe she was recovering? She had lost quite a few of her children over the space of an hour.

I wasn’t the only one who found this behavior bizarre.

“Howdy!” Calamity said, trotting shakily up to one of the dark purple alicorns and waving a hoof in her face. “Remember us? The ponies y’all want t’ find yer stuff for ya? Got a hurt wing here. If one o’ y’all would care t’ hitch yerself up, we c’n all be outta yer mane that much faster.”

He turned to me, wobbling a little from the last fading effects of the anesthetic spell. “This is weird, right?”

“Maybe the Goddess is taking a great and powerful nap?” Xenith suggested. Calamity snorted a laugh that ended in a wince.

“Hey, Xenith,” Calamity suddenly announced, “Ah never said it, but Ah wanted y’all t’ know Ah’m glad yer free an’ all.”

Merciful Celestia, Calamity. Awkward much?

Xenith looked at him quietly. Then said simply, “Thank you.”

Calamity chewed on that, then tried again, “So… those potions ya brew? Any o’ them good for strengthenin’ armor or helpin’ w’ equipment maintenance?”

“No,” Xenith answered. Seeming to understand his intention, she offered politely, “I do know many poisonous brews should you be looking to make your bullets more lethal.”

I felt for him. He was trying to connect with the new member of our group. He had been the most welcoming of her, trusting my judgment. But since then, they hadn’t really bonded the quiet way Xenith and Velvet Remedy had, or even established the sort of relationship (would rivalry be the best word? grudging respect?) that Xenith and SteelHooves shared. They were friendly acquaintances; and I suspected Calamity was trying to find a way to turn that into true friendship.

Calamity trotted around the alicorn. She turned lethargically, keeping him in her sight. “Ah’m tempted to start shootin’ ‘em. Take out as many as we can.” Velvet shot him a look of alarm and he backed down with a grin. “Ah didn’t say I was gonna. Ah just said it was temptin’.”

Xenith shook her head. “We should make the most of this respite to implement the little one’s plan without interference.”

I floated Calamity’s Enclave armor out of the Sky Bandit, as well as Spitfire’s Thunder and our other vital equipment. I didn’t want anyone trotting up to it when the area around the passenger wagon could still be mined.

As I placed our equipment in the center of a large hunk of capsized wall, Velvet called us to gather close. Pyrelight landed on her back, puffing herself up and looking important.

As a precaution, Velvet was going to cast another ward against disintegration upon us. I had been watching Calamity when his orb burst, but I hadn’t realized the ones over the rest of us had disappeared simultaneously.

“I can cast this spell over multiple friends,” Velvet explained as she recast her spell, “But it collapses after any of you are hit. So please be dears and try not to get shot.”

She turned towards me. “Especially you. I really hate this idea. You’re too vulnerable. Why is it that you are always the one in the most danger, Littlepip?”

But she knew the answer. We’d been over this before.

All my friends gathered on the slab of concrete as I wrapped them and it in a field of levitation.

Velvet turned to help Calamity into the Enclave Armor, being extremely careful with his partially-mended wing. She was wearing the zebra-armor again, insisting we minimize the risks as much as possible. “Particularly since Littlepip seems insistent on taking more than her fair share.”

I floated the chunk of Maripony’s wall upward, not stopping until it was at least four stories above me. I was counting on the concrete to shield them from the hellhound’s magical energy weapons.

I understood Velvet Remedy’s concern, but this time it couldn’t be helped. My telekinetic magic had grown powerful enough that I could float this large section of wall and all of them on it easily, but adding myself to the mix would create such a strain that I would be lucky to make it halfway without suffering burnout. I agreed to lighten myself enough to prevent my hoofsteps from triggering mines or announcing my presence to any hellhounds who might be lurking just beneath the surface, but that was all. In the end Velvet Remedy had to accept it.

It had to be me.

I started forward, moving around the ruins of Maripony. The slab of wall with my friends on it floated along high above me.

While I would not say as much, I was grateful to be able to take the risk in their place.

Was this something Corrupted Kindness would do? As soon as I had that thought, I pushed it out of my mind. I couldn’t afford self-doubts right now.

As I reached the cracked edge of the Maripony base, I hesitated. My PipBuck was click-clicking, warning me of the radiation. But there was no sound, no special display on my E.F.S., designed to warn me of taint.

Old Olneigh suddenly felt a very long way away.

Splotches of red on my E.F.S. compass alerted me to more threats.

I floated the zebra rifle close and slipped into S.A.T.S. even as I trotted. I was pacing myself, advice from a book (The Egghead’s Guide to Running) that I perused in Twilight Sparkle’s Athenaeum during one of the hours where Homage was playing DJ Pon3 and giving me a chance to catch my breath. I had several miles to go, and I wanted to make the distance as quickly as possible -- which surprisingly meant not pushing myself as fast as I could.

A spiny dart hit my side, bouncing harmlessly off my armored utility barding. My targeting spell latched onto the first bloatsprite, then the second. I fired off a three-round burst at each, and the taint-swollen bugs erupted in flame as they fell to the ground.

I continued to trot along the tracks, quickening my pace just a little to make up for seconds lost while shooting. The wall holding my friends floating high above me, keeping pace. We were nearing the gulch.

My skin was beginning to itch in strange places. I fretted, wondering if it was nerves or an allergic reaction. Or, worse, the first symptoms of Taint.

My E.F.S. compass filled with red. Dozens of little lights appeared. Then more. The gulch was swarming with hostile life.

I trotted onto the tracks and prepared to break into a gallop, hoping that the rather rickety wooden bridge would offer me protection.

Something bobbed up over the edge of the gulch. I shuddered, staring at the taint-mutated thing. It looked like a plant, its huge head covered in gas sacs that allowed it to float, the stalk drooping down and dragging behind it. A sphincter in the center of its head tightened and then spit foul goop at me. The spore-laden effluent splattered the ground near my hooves, sending up a choking stink.

The Equestrian Wasteland never seemed to run out of new vileness. Several nearly identical floating spitter-plants were moving up out of the gorge towards me.

I slipped into S.A.T.S. again, locking targets on the closest two, sending two three-round bursts into the sphincter-heads of each monster as a third sprayed its filth at me. I felt the crud splash against my armor and coat, burning where it touched and causing me to drop my targeting spell as I gagged on the stench.

The two floaters I had hit ignited spectacularly, the gas pods that gave them mobility rupturing in flame like miniature versions of Pinkie Pie Balloons.

Three more of the floating spitter-plants rushed up from the gulch, one hitting the burning form of the first one and igniting explosively itself. The second spit its spore-sewage at me while the third charged towards me as if intending to latch on and devour. I cantered to the side, dodging the spit and bucked S.A.T.S. back up, targeting the charging one first and then the one which had successfully hit me.

Bullets burst from the silenced muzzle of the zebra rifle. The two targeted plants became flailing columns of fire. But the floaters kept coming. I dropped the targeting spell and brought it back up immediately, targeting two more.

One of the burning plants spit at me, its spore-sewage now on fire. Mercifully, the burning crud splashed across the tracks behind me, missing by a yard.

My skin was beginning to really hurt where I had been hit. I dropped out of S.A.T.S. again and shook, flinging the goop away from me. Then lifted the rifle and brought up the targeting spell, firing again at the advancing, half-burning herd of plants.

One of the burning floater plants tumbled back into the gulch. I could hear more gas-bladders catching fire and bursting as a rapid chain-reaction quickly set several hundred yards of the gulch ablaze.

I sprinted, galloping across the wooden bridge as flames from the gulch began to lick at it. Fierce heat and a choking reek buffeted me as I forced myself across, my eyes stinging. Several of the plants in the conflagration below spit burning spore-sewage at me. Most hit the bridge, setting it properly ablaze. Burning effluent struck my left flank, my hindleg and saddle bags catching fire!

I bit down, knowing that a scream could bring hellhounds. I pushed, running as hard as I could, my leg in searing pain. I was pouring concentration into levitating the wall now, the physical agony threatening to break my spell. The fire was spreading up my side. It hurt to breathe.

Flames licked at my hooves, burning them. I did scream.

I was almost across the burning bridge, the gulch below a writhing river of fire, when the hellhound tore out of the ground, alerted by my scream. But he was far enough ahead of me that Calamity could target him from the platform above. Four blasts of magical energy knifed down from above, melting the hellhound into colored sludge.

I began to lower the wall, choking on the smoke and the stench of my own burning coat, knowing I wouldn’t be able to hold it much longer. It was three yards above the ground when the pain overwhelmed me and I dropped it.

I made it to the end of the bridge in a stumbling gallop and collapsed, rolling on the ground, squirming as I put out the fire on my left side, screaming.

“Just get to Old Olneigh and everything will be fine,” Xenith chimed, her exotic voice taking a mocking tone as she peered at the town below through my binoculars.

We had made it to the top of the overpass and were looking down at Old Olneigh from above. From here, we could see dozens of hellhounds lurking about the town. A couple were even on rooftops.

“Galdangit, why do ya ponies ever listen t’ me?” Calamity asked. “Ah ain’t Li’lpip. Y’all know all my plans ain’t worth shit.”

I flopped over, telekinetically floating the binoculars to my eyes. I still couldn’t feel anything -- Velvet Remedy’s anesthetic spell doing its work -- but that didn’t prevent me from using my levitation spell. In fact, it almost made it easier. I had spent the second half making myself light enough for Pyrelight to carry while I floated the others and the wall behind us.

The older unicorn had wasted no time in wrapping me with the rest of our medical bandages as she scolded me on taking on yet another gruesome attack for the team. But with the pain gone, and out of the choking smoke, I felt assured that I had done the right thing. There was something wrong with me, I could feel it where the spit had hit me. Something crawling beneath my skin that even Velvet’s spell couldn’t cover. I had floated my own forehoof so I could check my PipBuck’s medical diagnostic spell. It confirmed that I was suffering from something, but it couldn’t determine what that something was. It wasn’t poison, and I checked clean for spore infestation. No, the spore-sewage of those floating plants had been laced with Taint.

I had never believed I could make the distance without exposure to Taint; I had never been that lucky. Rather, it would be a matter of how much exposure, and how quickly Taint took its toll. I knew that the society keeping Tenpony Tower’s secrets possessed a spell that could purge Taint itself, although I didn’t know if it could reverse the damage caused by it. That would be my hope.

The ruins of Old Olneigh included several nearly-intact buildings, one of which was the hospital. Sitting on the roof was a contraption I had never seen before, colored like a pink-and-yellow candy cane with periwinkle propeller blades affixed to the top.

“What’s that?” I asked, pointing it out.

“Ah believe… that’s an earth-pony sky wagon,” Calamity said. “Trust it t’ an earth pony t’ find a way t’ fly.”

I could use that! No more running on the ground as I levitated the others in safety. “Do you think it still works?” I asked hopefully.

“Nope,” Calamity said, deflating my daydream of floating everyone behind me while keeping safely off the ground in the earth pony contraption. But then he added, “But Ah’ll bet Ah c’n fix ‘er up so she will.”

Hope resurrected. “Perfect! Because that’s our Plan B.”

I looked over the rest of the town, noting a strange glowing antenna array amongst multiple crates and barricades on a roof across the street from the hospital, and a scattering of old military vehicles on the road. There was a capsized wagon with metal boxes scattered around it, and a heavy tank half-sunken into the ground. Instead of a normal earth tone or camouflage coloration, the tank had been painted in bright, multicolored stripes. The paint job was old and faded, but still added a surprising splash of color to the town.

I laughed. “That tank looks like a rainbow.” I could think of no logical reason for it to be colored that way.

“Really? Is that what they look like?” Xenith asked. At my questioning expression, she explained, “I have never seen a rainbow.”

I first found the zebra’s assertion impossible, then tragically sad, then curious. I looked up at the clouds that sealed off the sky. I’d seen it rain here. I’d seen it rain a lot, in fact. But I had never seen a rainbow Outside, except in posters and illustrations. In fact, the only real rainbows I had ever seen were in Stable Two, when the Apple Orchard sprayers were on. The Overmare’s artificial sunlight would stream through the mist, creating shimmering arcs of beautiful color. I used to beg my mother to let me play in them when I was younger. She even let me once.

“Ayep,” Calamity said in answer to my thoughts. “T’ get a real rainbow, ya need either magic or direct sunlight. Ain’t been a proper rainbow in the Equestrian Wastelands probably ever.”

He thought a moment, then added, “‘Cept maybe in the Everfree Forest, since the cloud cover gets mighty fragmented there.”

I exchanged looks with Velvet Remedy as a knife slipped into my heart. I had never thought to miss them until I realized we were living in a world without rainbows.

“Ah’m gonna shoot ‘em,” Calamity announced before picking up Spitfire’s Thunder in his teeth and aiming it over the concrete railing of the overpass, taking aim for one of the hellhounds in the town below.

“No!” hissed Xenith, pushing Spitfire’s Thunder with her hoof. “If you shoot them, then you will let them know we are here.”

“Wait,” Velvet Remedy started to suggest, but my focus was on Calamity and Xenith, and their focus was on each other.

Calamity started to say something through the gunbit, then put the weapon down to properly argue. “Ayep. Ah figure Ah c’n pick a couple off before they realize where the shots are comin’ from, then more as they come outta those buildin’s t’ investigate. Let ‘em come runnin’ towards us. We got plenty o’ space ‘tween here an’ there t’ snipe them off in.”

I was already pulling out my own sniper rifle, levitating my anesthetized body into an optimal sniping position.

“Littlepip, wait!” Velvet said, but her next words were cut off by our zebra companion.

“Are you fools?” Xenith trotted in place. “This is not how you behave in enemy territory. Our enemy outnumbers us. And these are not stupid raiders, but clever opponents. You do not engage them wantonly.”

Calamity cocked his head. “An’ what would ya have us do? Hide an’ sneak?”

“Yes,” Xenith nodded firmly. “Be alert, move fast, keep downwind and to the shadows. Avoid them whenever possible. Kill only those we cannot avoid, and do so swiftly and silently.”

Calamity looked to me, “Ah say we take out what we c’n while we c’n do so from a distance. Less o’ them means less t’ worry ‘bout fightin’ up close.”

Xenith sighed, stepping between Calamity and me, facing him. “Listen to me. I have watched you. You are a hunter. You know how to hunt. But do you know how to be prey?”

Calamity took a step back, lifting the bug-eyed visor of his Enclave armor to stare back at her directly. “Ah ain’t got no interest in bein’ prey.”

“Well, I have spent most of my life as prey. And I know how to survive when you are outnumbered and chased,” Xenith informed him. “Perhaps you should listen.”

Calamity again looked past her to me. “Li’lpip? Yer call.” Xenith turned towards me too.

I weighed the options. But ultimately, the tactics I knew won out. “I agree with Calamity. We pick off what we can now before heading in.”

I floated up the sniper rifle, loading armor-piercing rounds and taking aim. From this distance, I couldn’t use my targeting spell to help me. But I had no trouble lining up a headshot just through the scope.

Xenith nickered, shaking her head. Calamity picked Spitfire’s Thunder off the asphalt of the overpass and took position twenty yards away from me.

“Damn it, wait!” I heard Velvet Remedy shout, but I had already pulled the trigger.

BLAM!!
BLAM!!!

The air filled with the sound of ear-splitting thunder as we began to fire down on Old Olneigh. I watched as the head of the hellhound in my sights burst in a bloody spray. I moved to acquire my next target. The hellhounds were all looking up now, turning, beginning to move. I found a second and fired, but the creature moved too fast. I aimed ahead of him, firing a second shot and then a third. I was no longer able to aim for a specific part of the body; I was just hoping to hit him at all. My second shot did, but it only slowed him down. The third missed entirely.

I kept trying.

Several shot back, beams of magical energy cutting the air, but we were too far away and too well protected by the overpass to be in danger from anything other than a dedicated sniper.

Calamity was having far better luck. Every shot hit its target, crippling or killing. He started picking off the ones in the street as I turned my focus to those just coming out of doorways. That worked better. I felled a second. And a third.

“Aw crap,” Calamity hissed as the hellhound he had turned his aim on dove into the ground, digging through the street like it was wet toilet paper. Calamity fired, blowing the creature’s tail off as it disappeared.

They weren’t coming out of the doors anymore. And as I looked up, I saw the last of the hellhounds on the street disappear into a hole.

We had killed ten of them.

“Well brilliant,” Velvet Remedy facehoofed. “Both of you. Now they know we’re here and we’ve attacked them first.” She looked cross.

Calamity wiggled his wounded wing. “Muh wing disagrees.” Velvet Remedy’s ears drooped.

“Now,” Xenith told Calamity, “You are prey. We are all prey.”

They came for us on the overpass while I was still paralyzed by the anesthetic spell. The hellhounds weren’t foolish enough to come running up the on ramp like we had hoped. Instead, they dug their powerful claws into the pier beneath us and began to climb.

The first one clawed its way over the railing almost on top of us. Pyrelight was the fastest to react, filling it with a face-full of radioactive green flame. Calamity recovered quickly, firing two of the novasurge rifles in his Enclave armor directly into the hellhound’s torso as it lashed out with its claws, barely missing the balefire phoenix. The monster tilted back, dissolving.

“They’re coming up from beneath us,” Xenith warned before turning to dig in her satchel.

Velvet Remedy cooed to Pyrelight, “Would you be so kind as to burn them off the pier?” Pyrelight hooted happily and leapt over the edge. I could hear the roar of flames beneath.

Pyrelight was able to take out two of them before more on the ground abandoned climbing and started shooting at her. She appeared, dodging and weaving between shots as the magical energy attacks drove her away from the overpass and the ponies she was protecting.

Xenith produced a bottle and passed it to Velvet Remedy. “Dip your slugs in this before you load them,” she instructed. “The poison will cripple the creatures if your shot isn’t enough to kill them.”

Velvet Remedy opened her combat shotgun, floating out the slugs and dipping them as instructed, a grim look on her face.

Two more crawled over the railing. I was ready this time, floating up Little Macintosh as I slipped into S.A.T.S. and fired into their heads. The hellhound’s brains splashed out of the exit wounds.

Three more replaced the two I had just killed. And the sound of rending concrete warned me that more were digging directly up through the overpass from the top of the pier.

Velvet Remedy’s anesthetic spell hit one of the hellhounds, causing the creature to fall. She lifted her shotgun towards another. And hesitated.

The hellhound lashed out at her, his claws slashing shallow lines of red across her breast and throat as I telekinetically shoved her back.

“Surrender,” she offered to the creature. “Don’t make me hurt you.”

“Galdangit!” Calamity shouted, firing a bevy of magical energy bolts into the hellhound. The creature collapsed into a steaming puddle, leaving Velvet Remedy and Calamity staring at each other through the rising smoke. “Don’t reason wi’ ‘em! They ain’t interested!”

“They’re people!” She shouted back. “They have a right to live.”

“Y’all heard the zebra!” Calamity shouted, turning to fire at another hellhound as he dug up through the overpass asphalt. “They’re huntin’ us.”

“And whose fault is that?” she quipped back loudly, throwing a protective shield around Xenith. The hellhound’s claws tore through Velvet’s shield like it was made of colored air. The zebra stepped inside the attack, rising on her hindlegs and throwing up one hoof to stop the monster’s swinging arm while driving another hoof against the thick hide of his throat. The hellhound collapsed, choking.

“Has anypony even tried just talking to them?” Velvet cried out in exasperation.

I reloaded Little Macintosh as quickly as I could. They were coming faster now. It was getting harder to put them down as quickly as they surfaced. And one good swipe from their claws would kill any one of us.

There were bloody hellhound corpses and piles of sludge all around us. We’d managed to kill nearly ten more, miraculously without getting crippled or killed. Even if Velvet Remedy had a point, it was far too late now. I told her so as I fired point blank at a hellhound and somehow missed. The creature bore down on me with its claws.

Velvet Remedy sang. A single, high-pitched note. The hellhound immediately fell back, its clawed paws covering its ears. It turned and fled back down the hole it had come out of so fast that I didn’t have time to bring up my targeting spell and shoot it in the back.

Velvet continued to hold the note, clear and strong. I looked around, and the other hellhounds were disappearing, fleeing the overpass.

Once they were all gone, Velvet’s voice finally broke. Panting she fixed all of us with a glower. “Savage animals and monsters are one thing; but with people, there’s usually a way that doesn’t require killing each other!”

We moved cautiously into Old Olneigh. The sun was beginning to set, and I wanted to get into the hospital and out again before the coming darkness put us at an even greater disadvantage.

We were taking Xenith’s advice now. Not engaging. Moving swiftly and quietly. Of the group of us, only Velvet Remedy was unskilled at stealth, so I was floating her along with us. The faint glow coming from my horn and shining around her worried me. It was like I was painting her as a target. But from our experiences, it seemed the hellhounds hunted by sound more than sight (possibly by scent as well) so it felt more important to keep her hooves off the ground.

As we pushed through the remains of a building, I spotted several pony-shaped figures laying on a floor above us through a collapsed section of ceiling. I waved a hoof at the others. “Hold up. I want to take a look.”

I floated myself upwards, sweating with the effort, my horn glowing brighter. But there were no red marks on my E.F.S. compass, no sign of life on the floor above at all, so I felt momentarily safe in pushing myself.

As I levitated through the hole, I could see the bodies were of Steel Rangers, three of them clad in metal armor and a fourth who was not. The fourth sparked my curiosity: a yellow unicorn mare wearing thickly armored red robes with the sparks-and-gears symbol of the Steel Rangers embroidered into it. I had not seen a Ranger wearing anything other than Steel Ranger armor, save for Elder Blueberry Sabre. All four of them had died from terrible wounds inflicted by hellhound claws. The bodies were desiccated; they had been here quite some time.

The hellhounds had mined the floor around the bodies. One by one, I disarmed them.

I began scavenging the bodies, searching for any clues as to what brought these four to Old Olneigh as well as any supplies or ammo that might benefit us. I was in luck. The robed pony had two StealthBucks and a memory orb. One of the other rangers had magically-enchanted ammunition that was of the same caliber as Calamity’s normal battle saddle.

I brought my treasures back to the others.

“Ya ain’t plannin’ on lookin’ inta that there orb while we’re in Old Olneigh, right?” Calamity said with a gentle warning. “Y’all remember our little talk, don’tcha?”

I nodded solemnly. “I Pinkie Pie Swear.”

“Ya what now?”

“Nevermind. Tell you later. And yes, I promise.”

As we moved to the edge of the street, my E.F.S. warned me that there were at least four hellhounds around the corner. I halted everyone.

We might be able to take them. We had surprise. But it would only take one good swipe for them to behead one of us. And the fight would draw others. No. We would continue to follow Xenith’s advice. I motioned everyone back the other way.

“Ah hate this,” Calamity muttered in a whisper. “Ah want t’ hunt the hunters, not play these scurryin’ games. Ah ain’t a rabbit.”

Xenith gave a wry smile. “Humility does not come easy to you, does it?”

Calamity turned to her. “What’s that s’posed t’ mean? Are ya sayin’ Ah’m a show-off?”

“She wouldn’t be entirely wrong, would she?” Velvet Remedy purred with just the right tone to sooth and embarrass the pegasus.

The partially collapsed firehouse tilted at an insane angle, making the entire world seem alien and threatening. Calamity, Velvet Remedy and I scrambled across the maze of broken floors and leaning columns. Pyrelight swooped between floors, occasionally diving down to the bright red firehouse wagons that lay crushed and partially buried under swaths of flooring.

A hellhound lurched into the doorway behind us… only to find Xenith waiting for it. A swift blow beneath the ribs froze the creature in place, paralyzing it. As it fell, a bolt of magical energy shot through the doorway, striking the zebra in the throat. She glowed brightly and the orbs over our heads burst. Xenith fell, bleeding from a wound in her throat the size of a memory orb.

Velvet Remedy struck the monster with an anesthetic spell, then rushed to Xenith, floating out her dress and using it to apply pressure to the wound. The dress was quickly ruined as it soaked with blood.

“C’n Ah please kill ‘em?” Calamity huffed. Velvet frowned, not saying anything. Xenith rasped, “Yes… silently… and cut them open… the blood… smell…”

The hellhounds were hunting us, tracking us now clearly by scent. I understood what Xenith intended, as did Calamity. Velvet Remedy turned away, unwilling or unable to watch as we slew the two hellhounds. We made it quick, merciful. It was the least we could do, considering that we were about to defile their bodies.

“This ends any chance of diplomacy,” Velvet moaned.

I hesitated, floating a jagged piece of sheet metal out of the debris and positioning it over the hellhound’s body. I had to disembowel him. Spread his stink. Cover our path with the stench of his death. It was vile.

Slowly, I lowered the jagged metal, slashing at the hellhound’s armored hide. Slowly sawing into him. It was incredibly hard, and the reek was unbearable. I took what little comfort I could in knowing that at least he had died quickly and without pain.

Corrupted Kindness, the little pony in my head whispered in the voices of the Goddess.

Please no.

By the time I was done, I felt sick to my stomach. I’d killed plenty, but this made me feel like a raider. My mind conjured up the image of myself, bleeding, wearing raider armor -- the image from the magical mirror.

There were bathrooms on the floor above, and medical boxes in each of them. Cracked mirrors and shattered toilets leaned at crazy angles. The whole tilt of the building was making me nauseous. Even more than I already was from the grisly work before.

My PipBuck complained as I got close enough to the sink for it to scan the contents of what little plumbing remained functional. The levels of radiation in the water here rivaled and usually exceeded the levels in Fillydelphia.

I sat, braced against the wall and picked the lock on the medical box in the little mare’s room. The lock clicked open with ease. I opened it, emptying the box of its meager medical supplies and adding them to the supplies from the medical box in the little buck’s room. Nothing that would help Calamity’s wing, but the small healing poultice would close and heal Xenith’s wound. The wasteland sometimes gave small favors.

I pushed myself up, feeling unsteady on the canted floor, and hurried back to the others. They were gathered in what had been the firehouse kitchen.

Velvet Remedy took the poultice and applied it, then borrowed a needle and thread from Calamity’s clothing repair kit. A cabinet two buildings back had offered up an old bottle of apple whiskey, half empty. I whimpered inside as the drink went to sterilizing the needle. I could use a sip. I contented myself with a draught from my last canteen. It was nearly empty.

I itched in ways I shouldn’t itch.

The poultice had stopped the bleeding and partially closed the gaping wound in Xenith’s neck. Velvet began to sew the wound closed completely. Even with Velvet’s expert attentions, the wound was going to remain an ugly scar for the rest of her life. I realized not for the first time that the zebra would be dead if the magical bolt had stuck her just an inch differently.

“Now you wait here and rest,” Velvet ordered the zebra mare. “And Littlepip, you watch her. I’m taking Calamity to find something to use as rags to clean you butchers off.” Velvet stuck her nose in the air and trotted out.

Calamity scowled but followed, pausing next to me long enough to remind me, “No orbs.”

I watched him walk out after her. Rags? Sounded more like an excuse to talk to Calamity alone.

I let out a long sigh. “Worst. Day. Ever.” It wasn’t. But ever since we entered Splendid Valley, the day had been working very hard at becoming so, reaching a Luna-Tier rating of badness.

Xenith lay still for almost a full minute before getting up and moving about the kitchen. She had to brace herself on sloping counters as she rifled through the cabinets.

“Well, at least you’re as good at following doctor’s orders as the rest of us,” I chuckled as the zebra started pulling pots out and setting them on the table. One of them slid down the incline; I caught it magically before it hit the floor.

“Xenith,” I asked as a worry from the days before flooded back, “Do you trust me?”

Without turning from her task, she replied by asking, “Trust you about what?”

It was a dodge, but still a fair question. “Do you trust me as a… person?”

“No,” she said simply. “Should I?”

I was taken back by the cool, honest answer. “Why not?”

“You are impulsive and have difficulty controlling your urges,” she said as she opened the refrigerator door and pulled out a hunk of something covered in grotesquely mutated mold. She set it on the table and I caught it as it tried to slide away, recoiling from the sight of it.

“You are a very quick thinker and equally swift to act,” Xenith continued, crouching to check lower drawers. “This makes you adaptable, perhaps more than any pony or zebra I have ever known. It allows you to improvise where others would be paralyzed. But it also leads you to rash actions from hasty decisions and gets you into trouble as often as it gets you out of it.”

She finally pulled a knife from one of the drawers. She set it on the counter. I caught it too as she turned to look at me. “Although those are just my observations, and I have not known you very long.” She looked me over. “Why do you ask?”

I wasn’t sure what to feel. I wanted to argue with her, but a large part of me suspected she was right and cursed her for being so observant. “Do you think I’m evil?”

Xenith stopped, looking at me oddly. Then laughed. “No, little one. You are one of the most caring souls I have ever met, pony or otherwise.”

Again, the little pony in my head whispered Corrupted Kindness in the voices of the Goddess.

“Do you think I’m cursed then?” At her odd expression, I clarified, “I have been touched by Homage.”

The zebra turned back to scouring the kitchen, pulling pans out of a lower drawer to get at a spark battery-powered hot plate. “Of that I am quite aware.”

I felt myself flush nervously. “Wh-what do you mean by that?”

“There are lovers who are quiet and there are ones who are not,” Xenith stated. “You are not one of the quiet ones.”

Oh no, dear sweet Celestia.

“You are what my tribe called a ‘whinnier’.”

I felt myself blushing hotly. I wanted to throw myself in the Splendid Valley sinkhole out of sheer embarrassment. “You mean… all those… each…” I squeaked.

“Yes,” Xenith confirmed. “Each.”

It took me several minutes and an old sack that the zebra had given me before I stopped hyperventilating.

“Can you breathe now?” Xenith asked gently.

I nodded. “I think so.”

“The medical pony is right,” Xenith said with a soft smile. “You are cute when you are that color.”

I felt faint, my breathing threatening to quicken again.

I took a moment and composed myself as best I could. “So… am I cursed? Because I love Homage?”

She paused. Then turned away. I waited for her to answer. The answer I received was not what I had expected.

“The zebras may have been wrong about Nightmare Moon,” she admitted. “You ponies may have been right. The wielders of the Elements of Harmony may have broken whatever hold the stars had over Nightmare Moon. Luna may have been… different.”

She turned to me, “But that does not mean that the touch of the stars was still not upon her. That it did not influence her in more subtle ways.” She looked to me. “I am open to your beliefs, but I ask that you be open to mine. Perhaps there is truth in both.”

I frowned. I didn’t want there to be any truth in her beliefs. But I had seen things that suggested otherwise. Things that suggested maybe there was something dark and terrible up there in the vast emptiness that stretched behind the moon.

“But Homage is not evil, she is not twisted, she is no Nightmare Moon,” I insisted. “In fact, she saved our lives. She saved yours.”

Xenith nodded with a sad smile. “And would you not say it was quite an amazing shot?”

“Absolutely. It was an… what?”

“The weapon from the stars wants to kill,” Xenith said. “It yearns to kill.”

Okay, now that was just creepy.

“I will accept that Homage is a good, kind pony. And that she is not cursed. Because you ask me to,” Xenith conceded. “Even though I do not trust your judgment, I believe you speak truthfully in this. And I suspect you are better experienced at matters of the heart than I am”

I smiled, feeling a touch of relief. “Thank you, Xenith…”

The zebra shook her head. “But I ask in return that you keep an open mind to the things I believe, and a watchful eye for warning signs. The stars take the greatest delight in giving us the means to destroy ourselves and each other. Do you truly think that your relationship has not changed now that she has taken a life for you?”

I felt a chill. I had not considered that before. Or, if I had, I had seen the consequences as being entirely beneficial. She had saved my life. How would that not bring us closer? But had I not, that very night, wept in front of her for having killed a Steel Ranger?

Regardless of whether Xenith’s superstitious fears were justified, she had led me to re-examine what had happened in a less self-centered way.

I looked up into the zebra’s eyes. “Thank you.”

I floated the whole array of pots and pans. Xenith had quickly discovered that no surface in the room was flat enough to safely cook on after a mishap with the hot plate.

Not far outside, Calamity and Velvet Remedy had started arguing. We could hear it from inside the kitchen, but could not make out the words. Not that I wanted to. Xenith fretted, worried that their discussion would attract more hellhounds, but so far they were keeping their voices low enough. Still, it added an unpleasantness to the air.

I distracted myself by returning to an earlier part of my conversation with Xenith. “Do you trust me to tell you the truth?”

“Yes, little one. Unless you believe it is in my best interest to lie.”

Crap. I hated to think she might be right about that. I would have preferred to be more like Homage. But if it came to telling the truth or protecting my friends, I had a track record of choosing the latter. And while I regretted the necessity, it was rare for me to reconsider the choice. Did this mean that I was playing SteelHooves to Homage’s Applejack?

“Well, would you trust me with your life?” I asked as Xenith took the knife and started scraping chunks of mold into one of the pots. She finished then put the knife down. I caught it again.

“It is not a matter of trust. You saved my life. You are responsible for it.” Ugh. More insane zebra logic. All the worse since it was insane, understandable zebra logic. “I have not chosen to release you from that.”

Frustrated, I asked, “Why not? Look where following me has got you? You nearly died! I’ve taken you from one hellhole straight into another.”

The zebra looked at me, a touch of sadness in her eyes. Then turned away. She filled a pot with horribly irradiated water, then began to mix the mold into it, not answering me. I sat and watched. In the very least, maybe I would learn something.

One by one, she added more ingredients, none of which looked healthy. I hoped this wasn’t anything we were intended to consume.

“Don’t talk,” she said, although I wasn’t talking at all anymore. “Be quiet. Run. Hide.” Her voice was low, heavy. “Get your food and hide, or a pony will take it from you. Don’t talk. When they come for you, relax. Let them do what they will do. Don’t fight. Don’t scream. Don’t talk.”

She looked up at the canted ceiling. “When they hurt you, grunt. Whimper. Don’t talk. Always the same. Until they get bored. Then hide. Heal. Prepare for the next time.”

She looked to me. “If they move to kill you, kill them. Then hide the body. Hide it well. Find another place to be. Don’t let them suspect you. Be meek. Don’t talk. Hide.”

A cold shiver passed through me as I stared at the scarred zebra mare.

“It was only after a truly exceptional horror that I dared join the fights. I did not wish them to see that I could fight, but I could no longer bear it.” She lowered her head, looking to me with tears in her eyes. “Before you, the slavers. Before the slavers, my husband. Before him, my parents. I have never owned myself. I am not comfortable with the idea. I know this role. I can survive it.”

I shook my mane. “I may be responsible for you, as you say. But I am not a slaver. I do not own you.”

“And for that, you are better than all the others,” Xenith admitted. “But still the fact remains that I do not know how to live being responsible for myself.”

“I think,” I told her, “You’d do fine.”

The hallway tilted at such a nauseating angle that I was walking as much on the wall as the floor. I followed close to Calamity, keeping an eye on my Eyes-Forward Sparkle for hellhounds. We were hunters again at Xenith’s request.

“Another one on our six,” I whispered to him as the light appeared on my compass. “Supply room, I think.”

“Ah see it,” Calamity nodded, reminding me that the bug-eye styled visor in his armor had an E.F.S. of its own. Crouching low, the pegasus moved stealthily forward until he was in position directly in front of the door, his four magical energy rifles pulsing eagerly. I telekinetically pushed open the door, holding it so gravity wouldn’t swing it back shut.

A skewering dart shot out of the supply room, bouncing harmlessly off the forehead of Calamity’s black carapace armor. “Humph,” he chuckled, raising on his haunches and striking at the bloatsprite with the stinger of his armor’s segmented scorpion-tail. The impaled creature squealed as it died.

“Heh,” he said, still chuckling. “Ever wish these things could detect threat level instead o’ just threats? Ah almost wasted a lot o’ ammo on a bug.”

I smirked. “Often.” I turned back to our other friends, motioning them forward. Velvet nodded and nudged Xenith, who was crouched and facing the other way, guarding our flank.

My Eyes-Forward Sparkle tracked a friendly spot of light as Pyrelight swooped in and out of rooms, searching for enemies to burn… or rodents to eat. The balefire phoenix return to drop the charred corpse of a small animal at Velvet Remedy’s hooves.

“Oooh. Thank you,” Velvet sang lusciously, stroking the bird’s plumage with a gentle hoof. Pyrelight hooted happily and stretched her wings fluttering off again. It boggled my mind.

“Y’know, yer just encouragin’ her t’ keep doin’ that.”

“And why wouldn’t I?” Velvet said sweetly. “My little Pyrelight is a wonderful hunter. Just like she should be.”

Calamity gave a grumpy look in Xenith’s direction. At least, I assumed it was a grumpy look. With my friend hidden inside that armor, I really couldn’t tell. But his posture struck me as grumpy.

I decided I preferred my friend out of that armor. It made him look mysterious and rather evil, and it put up a barrier between us that I didn’t care for. I’d gotten used to it with SteelHooves, but not being able to see Calamity’s face just felt wrong.

“She is a bird of prey, after all,” Velvet reminded us. Xenith eyed the charred corpse and shook her head, then cantered towards us, moving with surprising ease down the off-kilter hallway.

Calamity flexed his injured wing, and I thought I heard him mutter, “So was Ah not s’long ago.”

“So Calamity,” I piped up, pulling his attention away. “I had a question that needs a pegasus’ expertise.”

“Shoot, Li’lpip,” he said, seeming to cheer up.

“If I wanted to clear away a large area of clouds, say the area over Manehattan…” Say, just as a totally random example, the area above a megaspell chamber which requires sunlight to function. “How could I do so without having the Enclave all over me?”

Calamity nickered, “Oh no. Whatcha plannin’ now, Li’lpip?”

“Just theoretical.”

“Ayep. Sure it is,” he said, clearly not buying a word of it.

Xenith moved up to the body of the bloatsprite. “Perfect,” she intoned, opening her satchel. Leaning down, she tore off its wings and spat them into the satchel. “Now I must find a room to complete the brew”

Xenith moved ahead, taking the lead again.

“Do Ah even want t’ know?” Calamity said.

“From what I’ve seen go into it, I prefer not to.”

Returning to my question, Calamity informed me, “Well, there’s only one way t’ clear an area that big that fast. An’ that’s with a sonic rainboom.”

The gears in my head started turning.

“O’ course, the Enclave’s response would be swift an’ deadly, but ya might have clear skies fer over an hour.” He chuckled ruefully. “Which, sad t’ say, requires a pegasus capable o’ performin’ one. O’ which the Equestrian Wasteland has exactly zero.”

The gears ground to a stop. Damn.

“Sorry, Li’lpip. Show-off or not, that’s one trick Ah ain’t never been able t’ do. Very, very few pegasi can, an’ the Enclave keeps ‘em real close.”

When the firehouse had started to topple, the building came to rest against the Maripony Mining Administration Building. A canted firehouse window hung open about five feet from the opening of a shattered window on the opposite building.

“Just a hop, a skip and a jump,” I told Calamity with a smile. I remembered wearing Enclave armor from riding Rainbow Dash’s memory -- it might look fearsomely heavy, but it was amazingly light. There was no reason Calamity couldn’t do this easily.

Calamity braced against the sloping floor. “Easy ‘t say fer y’all who ain’t never had t’ do somethin’ like this without yer wings.” He looked at me. “If Ah fall, y’all are ready t’ catch me, right?”

“Just float him across,” Xenith suggested from the opposite window where she and Velvet Remedy were waiting.

“Yeah,” Calamity agreed. “Ah like that plan better.”

I rolled my eyes then whispered to him, “But which do you think will impress Velvet more?”

Calamity straightened up, shook his fears off, galloped and leapt. He made it with five feet to spare. Show-off.

My turn. I looked down the sloping floor and across the gap to the opposite window sill. It wasn’t even with this window, maybe two feet higher. I swallowed. In Calamity’s defense, the tilted floor was throwing me too.

I galloped forward, lightening myself at the last moment, after I had all the momentum I needed. I sailed across, smacking into Calamity’s armored tail.

“See,” he joked. “Ah told ya. Nothin’ t’ it.”

I snickered and shook my head.

The room was an open office space filled with desks and terminals, none of which had survived well. I checked my E.F.S. and found red lights moving around us, probably on the floors below. I motioned the others to be quiet, and once again I levitated Velvet Remedy as we moved.

As we passed the last of the desks, I noticed an orange and yellow book laying in an open waste bin. I floated it out, looking the book over. The Big Book of Boom! announced the cover, adding beneath: The Dynamite Guide to Handling Explosives. Below that was a picture of the author Red “Three-Hooves” Runner with a cartoon balloon saying “Ya better handle ‘er right the first time, cuz she won’t explode twice!” The book was crammed full of notes and papers. I tucked it away to look over later.

Underneath it was an audio recording. I downloaded it into my PipBuck and slipped my earbloom into an ear. (Surely Calamity wouldn’t mind this; listening to the recording wouldn’t remove me from my surroundings.)

“Mining Officer Torchwood to all concerned personnel:

“First order of business: We will be having a surprise inspection in two days. Everypony needs to be well rested and at the top of their game. Maripony operations Overmare Sunny Days has authorized a half day tomorrow so that everypony can get plenty of rest and have their uniforms cleaned and starched. Anypony who uses this time to go to Ponyville and get drunk will not be allowed back into the Maripony facility or any operations building within Old Olneigh, and will be docked one week’s pay. Baskets, make sure you have proper headgear this time or you will find yourself no longer employed by Maripony Mining Co.

“Second order of business: Maripony Mining Co. has increased demand for productivity. This means you can expect an increase in work hours of twenty percent with a corresponding fifteen percent increase in your paychecks. Officers whose teams exceed the new quotas will receive a bonus. I cannot say what the bonus is, but I can let you know that the bonus will include ice cream. Likewise, we will be opening up several previously restricted tunnels to mining operations. The Maripony Mining Co. assures you that these tunnels meet and exceed our minimum safety standards.

“Third order of business: There have been increased reports of trespass by relocated Diamond Dogs. Now I don’t know if this is a territorial pack-mind thing or if they’re just stupid, but if you find a Diamond Dog on Maripony property, you are to instruct the Dog to leave. If the Diamond Dog refuses, use of sonic deterrents are permitted. Ask your team Officers for the newest line in D4 (Diamond Dog Deterrent Device) whistles, now with convenient neck-wrapping loops.

“Fourth order of business: Thanks to Brickbane, we have had to reset our Days Without Serious Injury board back to zero. Thankfully, Brickbane will recover the use of most of her limbs. Remember, D4 neck wrapping loops should be kept short so that your whistle cannot dangle into mining machinery.

“Keep up the good work, everypony.”

I turned off the earbloom. We had reached the stairwell and my E.F.S. had lit up with more hostiles. Two hellhounds lurked visibly at the bottom of the stairs down. They were wearing makeshift armor and one of them carried a magical-energy minigun. There were more around the corner.

One of them started sniffing.

I motioned the others back and looked to Xenith. In theory, the potion she had brewed was altering our scent, making us smell like mold and bloatsprites. Still, going down to street-level was out unless Xenith thought now was the time to go on the offensive.

The zebra shook her head. She slipped forward and started up the stairs towards the roof. If I remembered correctly this would put us across the street from the hospital. I didn’t think even Calamity could clear Old Olneigh’s Mane Street with just a hop, skip and jump.

“What am I looking at?” It was not the first time those words had come out of my mouth.

A late evening wind moaned through Old Olneigh, pulling at our manes and tails. A yard from my hooves was the lumpy puddle of sludge which had once been the hellhound sniper positioned on the rooftop of the Maripony Mining and Administration Building. Calamity had fired on him the moment we burst out onto the roof, liquefying the creature before it could attack or howl.

A strange antenna sat in the center of the sagging rooftop, humming softly, surrounded by magical gemstones that radiated a soft blue light. Around the antenna were several tables, one of which was still intact and held a glowing terminal that faced away from us. The others had been clawed to shreds. Strange silvery boxes sat nearby, all but one of them similarly shredded. Hellhound claw marks sliced into the barricades that ringed the roof.

There were several dead ponies up here. All of them pegasi. All wearing the same black carapace armor.

“Enclave scouting party?” I asked Calamity.

Our pegasus walked amongst the corpses. They were old, just dried and rotting flesh hanging on bone. “No,” he said, looking up. “This was a science team.”

Calamity trotted round to the other side of the terminal. “Ah ‘ave no idea what they would be doin’ in Old Olneigh. Or down here at all, fer that matter.” His voice was grim. “But Ah aim t’ find out.”

I recalled what Homage had told me about the night she found the weapon from the stars. Jokeblue had suspected it was part of a Grand Pegasus Enclave experiment. Perhaps she had not been so wrong after all?

“Maybe I should try hacking in?” I blurted out, wanting to see what secrets the terminal held.

Calamity’s armored head looked up, and he lifted the armor’s visor. He chuckled. “Be muh guest,” he said, stepping away and welcoming me to the terminal with a swing of his scorpion-like tail. “But Ah don’t think ya will be able t’ hack this one.”

“Come on, Calamity,” I laughed good-naturedly. “I haven’t met a terminal yet that I can’t hack.” I puffed myself up, taking that as a challenge.

“Y’all ain’t never met an Enclave terminal,” Calamity said knowingly.

I stuck out my tongue as I trotted over. “Technology’s all the same. This is me, remember? The little mare with the PipBuck on her flank? Let me at it.”

I stopped as I caught sight of the terminal interface. It was made of a strange white substance that I couldn’t identify. I reached out to touch it and my hoof went right through it like there was nothing there.

It was made of… clouds? What the fuck?

Calamity laughed. I looked around. The Enclave supply boxes all had locks that were made of the same material, either white or a light shade of pink. I looked to him, demanding an explanation as the pony in my head ranted that this was not how things should be.

“Well, what did y’all expect pegasi built stuff out of? There are whole cities up there built almost entirely out o’ clouds.” I could feel him grinning behind that damn helmet. “What, didja believe only unicorn ponies had any magic o’ their own?”

I stopped, frustrated. The very idea of terminals and locks that I couldn’t get into because they were made of clouds was just… just… wrong and unfair!

The words of the Goddess floated back to me: with controls which can only be operated by a pegasus.

Fuck. The Ministry of Awesome had built key control systems out of fucking clouds. Anypony other than a pegasus who attempted to operate the controls would find themselves clutching slightly damp air.

A thought occurred to me. “Is there anyone other than a pegasus who can operate a system with a cloud interface?”

“Nope,” Calamity said proudly. Then swiftly took it back. “Ayep. Griffins can.”

So that’s how Red Eye was planning to get past that obstacle. And I knew how he was trying to get past the second. We were on a clock again.

I sighed, tossing up my hooves in exasperation, and trotted back to the others, letting Calamity work on hacking the terminal. Instead, I moved to the edge of the building. I floated out my binoculars and looked across the street at the hospital. It looked shaken; there were massive cracks running up the walls and one corner had collapsed. A sign, a yellow cross with a pink butterfly in the center, had started to pull free from the wall two stories up; the upper bolts had torn from the wall and the whole sign hung precariously over the street below. Most of the windows were shattered and the winds of Old Olneigh whipped at stained hospital curtains.

Even still, it was one of the most intact buildings in Old Olneigh, and it was our best hope for the medical supplies we needed to fix Calamity’s wing.

I looked across to the rooftop. I could see the earth pony flying contraption clearly, with its candy-colored paint job lit up in the setting sun, the name Griffinchaser II emblazoned on the side. It looked in sore disrepair, but I trusted Calamity’s expertise.

I looked down into the main road of Old Olneigh, a Mane Street with a set of train tracks running down the center. Hellhounds scampered about, moving from one building to another in packs. Hunting us.

And night was falling.

I was staring at the spikes that adorned the top of a wrought-iron gate. They were ugly things, painful looking. I nodded my horn towards one of them, and the metal glowed with beautiful blue magic, reshaping itself instantly into a happily prancing mare.

I sent up a prayer of thanks to Celestia and Luna. I was in a unicorn mare. It felt good and right.

Even better, I was in sunlight. Perhaps the brightest, cleanest sunlight yet. The air was dusty but clean, reminding me yet again of how odd the air in the real world was.

I turned my eyes to the next one and wove the magical spell over it. This one became a prancing unicorn stallion. I was struck by how much it resembled Prince Blueblood. Almost a perfect likeness. The next spike glowed and transformed into a unicorn mare, head bent as if she was mid-charge, her horn aimed dangerously close to Prince Blueblood’s…

“Behave yourself, Rarity,” I heard myself whisper in Rarity’s lovely voice. The blue glow of magic surrounded the two figures again and they were transformed into entirely different, happy and generic pegasi.

I felt a strange thrill as I realized who I was. Followed by a flash of guilt.

“That old spell, huh?” came a voice from directly behind me.

I turned, the blue pegasus with the shockingly rainbow-colored mane moving into view. “It’s not polite to sneak up on ponies, Rainbow Dash.”

“I wasn’t sneaking,” the pegasus said defensively. “I was just flying. It’s not my fault flying is quiet.” Rainbow Dash was wearing the purple and black uniform I had seen her in before. “So, what have they got you all the way out in this dustbin for?”

Rarity looked around, and I was treated to the sight of Old Olneigh, intact and well maintained and bustling with ponies. I was able to see the shops and homes that I had only known as ruins.

And yet, as glorious as this look into the past was, I was clearly not seeing Old Olneigh in its heyday. Most of the shops were boarded up. There was a sense of disuse hanging over much of the town. And the bulk of the ponies were clearly either military or associated with the Ministry of Arcane Sciences.

“Apparently,” Rarity said ruefully, “They’re having trouble with the Diamond Dogs again. Fluttershy has tried to talk to them, but it didn’t work. So somepony thought they might pay more attention if I were to talk to them.”

“Gee,” Rainbow Dash snickered, “I wonder why.”

“Why indeed.”

“Did Fluttershy try to tell them that this wasn’t their home anymore?” Rainbow Dash asked, hovering in the air in front of me. “Or, you know, that it’s dangerous?”

“Of course she did,” Rarity said. “Fluttershy even tried to compromise…”

“Oh brother,” Rainbow dash facehoofed.

“But that was when they discovered that Twilight’s magical…” my host searched for the best word. “…byproducts, shall we say, have started eating through the barrels. Sunny lost a pony trying to move them when several tore open like they were made of nothing but the covering paint.” I watched us look Rainbow Dash up and down. “You know, I still can’t believe you are wearing that.”

“Hey, we’re Luna’s elite aerial force. What else were we going to call ourselves?”

“How about anything other than the Shadowbolts?” Rarity suggested primly.

“Way I see it, why not play into the zebra’s crazy Nightmare Moon phobia. The original Shadowbolts were all just Nightmare Moon, right?” Rainbow Dash grinned conspiratorially. “Why not use that to our advantage. Every zebra who sees us coming and flees the battlefield is one less zebra we’ll have to kill. Or who might kill one of us.”

“Still, I can never get used to seeing you look like that.”

“Actually,” Rainbow Dash put a hoof behind her head, brushing her mane. “I had an idea about that. Do you think your old dressmaking skills are up to working with armor?” the pegasus ribbed.

“Rainbow Dash! You wound me!”

“Oh!” came a shout from somewhere on my host’s left. A moment later a dusty pony in a military uniform galloped to a stop and offered a salute to Rainbow Dash. Rarity stepped back.

“At ease, uh…” Dash looked at the pony’s uniform. “…tank commander…?”

“Torchwood, Ma’am. Big fan. Followed your career since the Wonderbolts.”

Rainbow Dash’s face brightened. “Oh really? Did you see me at the GALLoPS last year?…”

My host shook her head. “I see you’re going to be busy for a while, Dash. I’ll catch up with you later,” she said graciously, even though it was the pegasus who had sought her out. “Do you think you’ll be free by dinner?”

Rainbow Dash turned back. “Oh, yeah, no problem. I want to throw some ideas past you.”

I could feel Rarity smiling.

“Also,” Rainbow Dash added, swooping close and whispering, “I heard rumor that you’re working on a new spell with the Ministry of Peace? Something about keeping a pony alive and awake indefinitely?”

“Suspended animation, yes, although that’s a very poor description of it” Rarity replied, nodding. “And I’m working on it for them, not with them. Part of a… private line of research that has finally born some fruit. But it still needs some fine tuning.”

Dash grinned. “Great. Cuz that sounds like just what I’ve been looking for.”

Rarity raised an eyebrow. “Dare I ask?”

“Oh, just part of the Single Pegasus Project.”

I could feel Rarity frown. “You mean that thing that has you putting those dreadful eyesores all over our lovely Equestria?” she snorted.

“They’ll look better once they’re done. I promise. Apple Bloom says they’ll be ‘elegant’. You like elegant, right?”

“Indeed I do. But I’ll wait until I’ve seen them.”

Rainbow Dash muzzle broke into a big grin. “Just wait until you see the main hub. Actually, you can glimpse its construction if you stand up on the roof of the hospital. Just face towards the water tower and look about a hundred miles up and out.” Rainbow Dash paused. “You, uh, might need binoculars.”

“Or a telescope,” Rarity retorted.

“Heh. Yeah. Anyway, it’s not named yet. They wouldn’t let me name it what I wanted to, even though it’s my damned project and my Ministry. So…”

“You wanted to name it Rainbow Dash’s Megacool Center of Awesomeness, didn’t you?” Rarity asked, ribbing back.

“Noooo!” Rainbow Dash hovered indignantly. Then admitted, “Not exactly.”

Rarity laughed a charming and happy laugh. “Go tend to your fan, Dash. I’ll meet with you later.”

Rainbow Dash grinned, waved and swooped back to Tank Commander Torchwood. In seconds, they were deep into gushing over the aerial acrobatics of Rainbow Dash. A pegasus who could apparently do sonic rainbooms in her sleep.

Rarity turned and trotted away, humming a joyful tune.

“What did you do?” Xenith was demanding of Calamity as I came out of the memory. The pegasus cantered nervously.

“Ah don’t know. It just started doin’ that.” My ears perked, picking up a high whine coming from the antenna array. I looked to Calamity who was staring at the terminal as if it had betrayed him.

With a sinking feeling, I asked, “Did you trigger a lockdown?”

Calamity shook his head. “Naw. Ah got in jus’ fine. Weren’t that hard.” He looked up at me, his eyes wide inside the bug-like nightmare helmet.

“And? What is this place? Was it what you thought?”

Calamity swallowed. “It’s an Enclave experiment all right. Under orders of Harbinger, one of the Enclave High Council. They were playin’ wi’ magic-laced sonics, hopin’ t’ control the hellhounds.”

“They were trying to make these creatures into slaves,” Xenith said in a low voice.

I looked around, drinking in the sight on the rooftop with new eyes. “I’m guessing it didn’t work.”

“What do you think the chances are that we’re really lucky and Calamity just triggered the Leave Us Alone signal?” Velvet Remedy quipped grimly, trotting to the roof’s edge and looking down into the street. She immediately backed up, eyes wide and frightened, her face going pale under her charcoal coat.

I dared a peek. Celestia’s solar-heated libido! The street was full of hellhounds. Scores of them. More were moving out of doorways or climbing over buildings. All moving towards us.

And they looked pissed.

Footnote: Maximum Level