“It is often when night looks darkest, it is often before the fever breaks that one senses the gathering momentum for change, when one feels that resurrection of hope in the midst of despair and apathy.”

I’d fallen asleep after I’d been shoved into a cart and dragged out of town. It was easier to sleep, than to think of what I’d just done. Part of me had screamed to take one last look at Pallet. I needed to remember what I’d caused. My eyes had refused, and instead I hid those thoughts away deep inside my head.

When I opened my eyes again, all I saw was darkness. In looking around, I found Harmony sitting by herself a ways from me. She shivered and whimpered, and the tears running down her muzzle glinted in an unseen light. I reached out to her, knowing that I couldn’t comfort her.

“Don’t touch me.” She snarled, not even bringing her eyes up to me. “You did all this. I never want to see you again.” She shook her head violently and stomped on the ground. “I wish you were dead!” Her voice resonated around me, the sheer volume of it knocked me back onto the ground.

I looked up, and found Skyline crying over me with clenched eyes.

“You killed my daughter.” She spoke through chattering teeth. “Why couldn’t it have been you? Why are you alive?” Her body quaked in anger as she shouted out what I knew I deserved.

“I… I can explain.” I looked over to Harmony, who simply cried out louder. Scrambling to my hooves, I tried to back away. “Look… I didn’t mean to!” I backed into somepony. Turning, I saw Ficha. He looked at me through soulless, cold eyes. The eyes of the dead.

“You’ve done nothing but tear everypony’s lives apart.” He snapped. “Why don’t you just do the world a favor and go find a hole to crawl in and die.” Raising his hooves, he shoved me away with all his strength.

“Please…” I whispered as I stumbled. “I didn’t… I couldn’t.”

“It’s okay Storm.” Predious spoke up from behind me. I spun around in hopes of finding my only friend there for me. Instead, I felt the cold barrel of my own rifle pointed back at me. “I can help you from destroying any more lives. Just give the word and I’ll give you the easy and painless death you don’t deserve.”

My legs shook, my heart pounded. All of them. I’d failed everypony, and I deserved to suffer their hatred. I was a monster, and it was only fair that I pay for what I’d done. Slowly, I leaned into the gun barrel and closed my eyes. Just one word to give and I could attone.

Before I could speak, a crackling sound filled the air. I opened my eyes again to see that my friends had all been turned to glass. Slowly, spider webs of cracks formed along their bodies, encompassing their bodies until they collapsed into shadows. around me, the colored lights from my dreams stretched down to meet the ground around me. Each of the six beams were accompanied by a small descending light. The closer they got, the more they flickered, until I realized that they were in fact flames. One by one as they reached ground level, they transformed into my aunts. Aunt Pinkie, Aunt Dashie, all of them. Each of them were a different brightness as well. The last to form, and the dimmest one I could see, was mama.

She smiled at me, and I tried to leap forward into a hug. I found that I couldn’t move my hooves, and the more I tried, the more it felt like I had been fastened to the floor. Looking back up, Mama shook her head and sat down.

“We are not those which you seek the comfort of.” Aunt Twilight spoke up. “We are only those who last personified us.”

“Then you are…” I spoke slowly.

“Correct.” Aunt Dashie spoke now. “We are what you know as the elements of harmony.” She gave a short nod. “You have rekindled the flame in which you watch over, why are you so eager to see it put out?”

“I don’t understand…” Blinking, I looked around to the others for some sort of explanation.

“It is you who watches over the flame of hope.” Mama talked at what only seemed a whisper. “With the way you are, it is in danger of being extinguished forever. You must not let this happen.”

“But I don’t know how.” None of this made any sense. “I can’t…”

“Yeah!” Aunt pinkie, the brightest of the group exclaimed and cut me off. “The necromancer, Fillius, must not reach what he seeks. You must prevent him from reaching what he seeks in the ruined metropolis. Only then will hope be safe.”

“Necromancer? But I can’t do anything now. I’m his prisoner.” Looked back to Mama. “How am I supposed to stop him if I can’t even free myself?”

She reached her hoof up and out to me. She cupped along my chin and I savored the warmth of her touch. I focused on trying to remember this feeling. If I could, then mama would always be with me.

“You are the carrier of hope.” She whispered to me. “You have to believe in the strength, wisdom, and courage of your friends if you are to make it.” Her hoof slowly slid away and she smiled softly. “But now, you must wake.”

An electric jolt went through me and I screamed. Arching my back, the laugh of the necromancer filled my ears, along with the sound of creaking wood and metal. The shocks stopped and I gasped for breath. My eyes shot open to the low, grey clouds and the sight of the blood stained cart.

“Oh good, you are still alive.” He wheezed. “Though, I do think that being that way is a bit of a dull sensation. Don’t you agree?” Before I could catch my breath, or even understand what he was talking about, he poked at me again with the shock prod. Screaming, I writhed again until he stopped. “Oh these devices are quite fun. I missed a lot while I was slumbering all those years. The way you make tools have come a long way, but their uses are just as crude as I remember them.” He laughed again and trotted on ahead of the cart.

This was going to be a long trip.

The back of the slaver’s cart was uncomfortable to say the least. Still sticky with the blood of it’s previous occupants, the cold made the gore gummy and it stuck to my coat. I’d like to wonder where the Steel Rangers got a slavers cart, but then again, Dodge and Chasm probably weren’t the first victims. Speaking of, most of the monsters that had taken chasm were nowhere to be seen. I knew that they left with us from the sound of hooves on the dirt alone. Now, they were nowhere to be seen. It was just My cart, the necromancer, and four armored Steel Rangers.

From what I’ve been able to tell, we’d been traveling east by northeast for about a day and a half. Though, the mountains here looked unfamiliar to me. Had we been chasing Short Staff and the other survivors? Did Pallet’s sacrifice do nothing but buy them a little more time before they too die?

Maze, the paladin from my other dreams trundled along, pulling my cart. He was the only pony around, as the rest of the… monsters were fairly spread out. None of them had said a single thing on the way here. Then again, I didn’t know what I expected. Even if they haven’t spoken up, I can’t stand the silence anymore.

“So. Where are we going?” I asked. To Maze’s credit, he didn’t even look like he’d heard me at all. In fact, I’m not sure he did. “Hello? Anypony in there?” Shifting over to the front of the cage, I pressed up against the old steel bars. “I asked you a question. Are you deaf?”

“You are to be silent.” He simply returned, not once moving his gaze from the road.

“Or else what? You’ll kill me?” I shot back. Maybe a little sass will get him going. “I doubt that. Dickbag needs me alive for some reason. He said I was important, didn’t he?” I scratched at my chin with a smile. “Maybe I’ll just kill myself and ruin his plans.”

“You will not.” He grunted back. Though, I’m unsure if the grunt was out of frustration, or just from the fact that he was pulling a heavy cart.

“Oh?” I chuckled. “And why are you so certain of that?”

“Because, then he will just raise your body from the dead.” His words were a cold promise that I knew scared me. A shiver ran through my spine at the thought of becoming one of these... things. “Now.” He continued. “Only silence.”

As I stood there, I stayed quiet. There was little else to do, but soon the thoughts of my dream echoed in my head. I protected hope? There was no element of hope, just the six I remember from my time with Mama. Did… did dad actually succeed? Am I an element?

“Child.” The necromancer appeared to the side of me and hung his head in disappointment. “How is it that you can not grasp what you are?” He was speaking to me like he’d read my mind or something. “There are no elements in this world, there haven’t been since the time of reckoning came.” He huffed and walked along. “You are nothing more than a magical anomaly, something I plan to fix here shortly.”

“What are you going to do? Cast your mind control spell on me?” I shot back to him. That got him to raise an eyebrow.

“No, nothing so simple.” He remarked Matter-o-factly. “In fact, I won’t be doing anything. My associate however is going to open you up and find out how you work.” A disgusting smile crept over his muzzle. “It will be a puzzle the both of you can figure out together! Won’t that be fun?”

“I’d rather find out how you work first.” I sighed and dropped back down onto the cart’s floor.

“The problem is I already know how I work. Why would I do something as wasteful as that?” He scoffed a few times and made a few other noises that I now regretted remembering that pretentious ponies made. “I could try to explain it all to you, but… not to sound a bit demeaning… you simply lack the assets required to understand.”

“I get it.” I shook my head. “You think you’re smarter than me.”

“No, I know I’m smarter than you.” He chuckled and let out a sigh. “I was more refering to your lack of a horn.” He bobbed his head and sounded annoyed. “I do so much hate sounding like your average unicorn supremacist.” Putting his forehoof to his chest, he straightened up and tilted his head up regaly. “We are all no different in my eyes. Pegasi, Unicorns, and Earth ponies. Even the griffons, changelings, and buffalo are equal, or... they will be when I’m done with them.”

This guy was the real deal. Powerful, smart, and worst of all, annoying. Closing my eyes, I tried to focus on the hope that my friends were coming for me. I wasn’t worth saving, not with what I’d done, but Mama said I needed to have this hope.

“Still wishing that your friends will come and rescue you? Typical.” He sighed again. “Well, you know what they say about wishing with two free hooves...”

“Fillius, was it? Can you please shut up?” I growled out. Surprisingly, I got a growl back before he slammed his head against the bars.

“Where did you hear that name.” He snorted and glared at me with his balefire eyes. I said nothing, and slowly his demeanor shifted back towards his wicked smirk. “It matters not I guess. Soon you’ll be too hollow to care.” He turned his gaze ahead on the trail and gasped. “Oh finally, we’ve arrived!”

Ahead of us was the remains of what looked to be an old prison. I knew of this place. The slavers that used to run this place called it ‘Summer Camp’, on account of the only words viewable on the side of the building as ‘Summer’ and ‘Tent’ for penitentiary. This answered where they’d gotten the slaver’s cart, and where the slavers went.

All along the old walls, and strewn about the razorwire fences, were the remains of the slavers. Their bodies were flayed open, and parts of them were displayed in intricate ways I couldn’t even believe could be done. In my travels, I’d seen a lot, but not even raiders were this extensive. This is what his ‘associate’ is going to do with me? Fuck this place. I needed to get out of here. I don’t care how, or what it costs, this is a fate I’d reserve for nopony.

The doors to the prison swung open as we reached the long fenced hallway leading in. The smell of wet, rotting flesh hit me like a club, nearly taking my breath away. This air was toxic, and I felt light headed from just being in it for these few seconds. Coughing and hacking, the stench was so thick that not even holding my jacket over my muzzle did anything to help. The fifty or so feet it took to get inside felt like it was the longest stretch of time in my entire life.

Once in, the doors shut behind me mercifully, but the stench clung to the air. In my sputters and gasps, I missed the sound of the cage opening behind me. Something wrapped around my legs, and before I could even yelp, I’d been dragged from the bloody cart. Magic held me in the air as I was slowly tipped back into a seated position. I tried to flight, to break free from their grip, but whoever this unicorn was, their magic was stronger than I was.

“Oh you must be that bounty hunter I’ve heard so much about!” The voice of a stallion behind me came across as too calm for what was going on. “You’ve had a very long trip, and you are probably quite tired. How about you just sit back and relax for a while, does that sound good?”

Slowly, I was lowered into an old, rusted wheelchair. Straps floated up from the foreleg rests and wrapped around my legs tightly. I turned my head toward the voice, and I was met with a horrifying sight. The unicorn doing all this to me didn’t have a hair on his body. His leathery looking skin was an amalgamation of patchworked scars and stitches, and his red eyes looked back at mine without the hollow look of the other monsters. The last of the straps secured my rear hooves as I kicked with them, putting an abrupt end to my struggles.

“You’re heavier than you look, a little cardio wouldn’t kill you.” He smiled to me and tugged at the straps with his magic. A damp smell met my nose, and before I could do anything, a wet rag tied itself around my muzzle. “Now, keep your hooves inside the straps at all times for the duration of your stay. And I do hope you’ll stay, I get so very bored of my other patients.”

“Now, Doctor!” Fillius called out from behind me. “Do try to keep her alive. Find out what you can about her… abilities. But this one…” He paused and glanced to me for a moment. “I may need this one intact.” Smiling, he turned back towards the deranged doctor. “But by all means, have some fun in the meantime.”

“You won’t be joining us?” The doctor spoke with a surprised tone. “I was hoping for some company.”

“Not this time, old friend.” Fillius gave a short sigh. “Ponies to raise, wasteland to convert. It’s a tough job, but somepony’s got to do it.” He raised his hoof and pat the doctor on the shoulder. “Don’t fret, I believe in your work, doctor. I know you’ll get results for me!” Turning, he walked past me and back towards the doors.

“Just leave it to me!” The Doctor returned. The old wheels to my chair squelched as they began to roll. “So! it looks like we’ll get to start right away then. We can become better acquainted this way, in time you’ll see it’s not so bad.” He started to ramble as he pushed me along. “I do have to ask, did you need anything before we get started? To use the bathroom? Something to eat perhaps?” Wheeling me around the corner, a set of open double doors lead into what I assumed was the cafeteria. I nearly threw up through my gag from what was in there.

Dead ponies had been laid out on the tables and were meticulously being cut up and thrown into pots. A pony stood next to the door, it was a rust colored stallion, but his legs… none of them were his. The… abominations doing the cutting though were unlike anything the wasteland had thrown at me before. They weren’t even fully ponies! Some of them had mismatched legs or tails. Some even had mismatching heads for the bodies they had!

“No, not in the mood to eat?” The doctor’s words broke me away from the horrifying sight, and slowly we made our way down a different hallway. “I guess you’re just eager to get to work. As am I! You have a strong work ethic, and I like that in you. I can tell we’ll be good friends.”

He continued pushing me down the hallway towards a small inset door. As we approached, it swung open to reveal a stairwell leading up. His magic enveloped the chair just before I was about to hit the first step. Slowly, I floated upwards as his slow and even hoofsteps fell on the old concrete stairs. He was silent as we climbed up, the chair leveling out as we reached the next floor.

A large red stain radiated from under the door leading to this floor, and when his magic opened it, I felt like I’d been thrown back into Pai’s home. Gore and red coated the walls of the second floor hallway, and ponies in various states of dismemberment and decay littered the hall. Only a path wide enough for the chair to fit was left open.

“So! Fillius wants me to figure out what makes you… you. Where do you suppose I should start?” He kept on talking. With each body I passed, each squeak from the rusty wheel, I knew I was getting closer to somewhere I never wanted to see. “You know, if I were in your place, I wouldn’t know either! I mean, that’s why I’m the surgeon here and not you, right? You know, I’ll ask somepony who may be better informed.” He chuckled and cleared his throat. “Oh, nurse? Can I speak with you for a moment?”

We rolled up to the entrance of a room about halfway down the hallway, and the inside was pitch black. With a quick flick, the lights in the room buzzed and that slowly rose from a dim. A flat metal sheet had been fastened upright to the floor, and four hoofstraps sat in the corners to keep ponies spread. I’d seen similar things at Raider dens, but this slab was coated in blood.

“Oh, there you are.” The Doctor sighed and stepped around to my left. “Have you any suggestions for where we should start?”

Of course, the corpse of a mare pinned to the wall didn’t answer.

“Yeah, the patient didn’t have any suggestions either. Guess we just have to go in blind!” He said as he rubbed his hooves giddily. His horn lit up and swung around something behind me. I saw stars and whined into my gag before he hit me again. Tipping forward, I spilled out onto the floor as a bloody wooden paddle came down on my head again. I was too focused on covering my head, and by the time I could have run, his magic enveloped and lifted me to the table.

In the time it took for my head to stop spinning, I’d been strapped down, and the doctor was sitting in front of me with a hoof under his now masked chin. Faintly, his horn glowed as he pulled a rusted knife over from around behind me. He brought it to my chest and held it there, stone still. He craned his neck a few times in silence before shrugging and pressing the knife forward into me.

I screamed through my gag as the rusted knife tore away at me.

“Oh, that’s right! I knew I’d forgotten something.” The Doctor slipped the knife out of me as I writhed and tore at the bondings. I didn’t want to be here, I needed to get free! This can’t be happening, I don’t want to die like this. “Here’s a little something I’ve made up for the pain.” He floated out what looked to be a syringe of yellow fluid. “My own mixture of radscorpion venom and pre-war pharmaceuticals. Should keep you impervious to the pain.” He jabbed it into my neck hard. I whined and whimpers as he pressed the liquid in. The tears filling my eyes at the very least hid the horrors of the sights around me.

“Now where were we?” He muttered to himself. My head started to sink, and a tingling sensation flowed throughout my body. It didn’t numb the pain from my chest at all, only making it worse as I started to hang limply in the bindings. Shortly, I’d begun to realize that I can only blink. It wasn’t a painkiller, it was a paralytic.

“Alrighty, let’s get started.” His magic brought the knife back over to my chest. With little hesitation, he presses it back into my body and started to cut through me. The pain was excruciating, and I wanted to scream out but I couldn’t. I couldn’t even look away, only stare through teary eyes as he sliced through me. Lower and lower the blade slid, and the more in my mind things started to fuzz from the wrenching pain. Then a gray rope slid from my stomach, and he gave a little chuckle. “Hello intestine, eager to meet me are you?”

And that’s when my mind decided to call it quits. My vision faded and slowly but surely I disappeared into darkness. At least here in my mind, he couldn’t hurt me anymore.

When I awoke again, it was screaming that filled my ears. However, it was not my own this time. My body still hurt where it had been cut, and a soft whine slipped through my muzzle as I lay on the cold concrete floor. In pain and alone, I was at the very least, alive. The question still remained of if any one of my friends would come and save me.

“Heh, looks like ya finally up.” The voice of a stallion spoke beside me. “Been layin on the floor smellin like death for hours. Was wonderin if ya were dead or not.” I opened my eyes to find a pair of silver ones looking back. “Just be thankful you're still alive.”

As he got to his hooves and walked past me, I watched him step up to a set of iron bars. We had been locked in one of the prison’s old cells. Outside our confined space, sat dozens of other cells against the far wall, only dimly illuminated by the softly humming lights. Slowly, one of the abominations made it’s way across my field of view. Not much of this pony had been changed, but his head was that of a heavily stitched up minotaur. Looking down at my own chest, I ran my hoof along the heavy stitching where I had been ‘toyed with’.

I clenched my eyes shut and curled myself up in shame. I was alone, and I don’t know if I’d be strong enough to last until a rescue. That is, if one was coming at all.

A scream from down the hallway made me shudder. Frantic shouting and cursing filled the air, slowly drawing closer. I opened my eyes and watched as an emaciated stallion thrashed and flailed against the magical levitation of the doctor. He floated the stallion ahead as he hummed to himself, ignoring the fact that he’d left me in here to rot. With a creak and a slam, the door at the end of the block shut, and silence filled the air once more.

“Before ya ask…” The stallion in my cell spoke up. “Don’t know where they’re takin him or why. Can guarantee dat he ain’t comin back though.”

“But…” I cringed at the thought. “Isn’t that the way to the infirmary though?” If he’s going to go through what I just did… goddesses save him.

“In dat case, hope for his sake dat his death is quick. They select ponies at random and haul them off. Ya get used ta the fact that ya might not make it another day in here.” The stallion sighed and sat down. “If they take ya ta the infirmary, ya don't come back. If they take ya ta the showers, ya don't come back. Get it yet? The only way ya come back, is from the other buildin, and ya come back as one of them.”

“How long has this been going on?” It was hard to form the words. Everything in the wasteland had always been simple. Yeah, things weren’t fair sometimes, but they always made sense. This… there was no reason for this to happen.

“Dunno. Been here a month I think an’ it’s been happenin’ everyday.” He turned and raised an eyebrow. “Never seen somepony lookin patched up like ya are. Where’d ya come from anyway?”

“I was in dodge when I was taken.” I groaned and sat up slowly. To my surprise, the stallion held his hoof out and helped me to a sitting position. “ I bet things like this are all over the news now.”

“Did ya say Dodge?” He looked at me quizzically. “If dat’s gone, then the fuckin southern wastes are done for. I mean, Dodge feeds southern trade!” He let out a disappointed sigh. “Guess I’ll just have ta move up north when I get outta here.”

“You gotta plan for that?” I gave out a hearty laugh that made my whole body ache. “What’s your name anyway?”

“The name’s Cheap Shot.” He eyed over me suspiciously. “Why ya wanna know? Think ya can help find a way?”

“Maybe, but if we’re going to be stuck together, we might as well help each other.” I held my hoof out. “I’m Storm, Storm Rider.” He reached out, but stopped as soon as I’d said my name. He cringed and pulled it away.

“Ya know, ya might not want ta go around flashin dat name of ya’s.” He looked around and dropped his voice to a whisper. “There are a lot of slavers in here dat would want ya hide as a coat. Bounty hunters ain’t exactly well received around here.”

“Well, ex bounty hunter now.” I let out in a grumble. “Can’t exactly collect bounties from in here, now can I?” I scuffed my hoof at the floor and shook my head. “I get what you’re saying though. Better safe then sorry.”

“Well, then what do I call ya?” He whispered back, scooting himself closer.

“Call me…” I began to say, letting the words slowly drift off. The idea that I needed to abandon who I was came as a slow realization. All the mistakes I’d ever made, every pony I’d hurt, or action I’d done had been under one name. Even if it was just to escape this place, it felt wrong to hide from the name that had let down so many, that had gotten her family killed. I deserved this pain, this suffering for what I’d done.

But staying here wasn’t going to fulfil the debt I now owed to those I’d failed.

More than just what I’d done had lead up to this, and I supposedly needed to be more. I could do something to help others, I could save them if only I could escape. Father was right to believe in what I was, and my friends won’t give up, so why should I quit now? The dreams, both of the elements and of Fillius, I had them for a reason. I was meant to do more for than just help stop this monster. It’s time that I embraced what every fiber of my being tells me to be.

“Call me Hope.”