Pain... it was growing, spreading it's tendrils from my legs to the rest of my body. Vaguely I heard shouting coming from somewhere around me in the darkness... There was a cloudy soggy sensation in my mind, and everything had ceased to be important to me. My mind wandered on things it never had time for, the various faces of random ponies I had seen in the Eternal Flame and Stable 103 flashing before my eyes. But eventually those voices as well as the yelling outside became quieter and slipped away. The darkness grew stronger and oddly I felt at peace when I should be screaming in agony. The pain shifted from my leg to my chest, and I opened my mouth to let out a gasp, only to find something shoved into it. I tried to gag and sputter but nothing happened as the liquid went down my throat and the pain seemed to slow

Hours seemed to have pass by and it stopped growing, the pain anyway. The shadowy darkness around me however didn't stop, darkness ever expanding and ever darkening. I dwelled there for a while, floating in an endless abyss of black. Minutes or hours could of passed before I began to have the feeling of being watched. As though something dark and cold was gazing upon my being and in silent judgement. Was I dead? No of course not, if anything I wouldn't still be feeling the agonizing pain in the leg that dang slime monster of an Aqualight had gotten me at. My limbs felt sluggish but I tried to move forward, anywhere, but I couldn't tell if I had gotten anywhere without so much as a visual cue to measure distance in this endless void. Behind me however something began to glow.

All too late the feeling of pain began to recede and I raised a hoof to my forehead, I could see it, but my eyes were closed weren't they? The glow grew stronger and I turned my head towards it, seeing that my wings were unfolded behind me without realizing it, but instead of it's usual hole filled appearance it was solid, well one of them anyway, the other was torn worse than I had ever seen before. A clean line divided my body in two and a voice reverberated throughout the otherwise featureless black room, ringing deep and with an echo suiting of a massive cave rather than the endless void that I was presented with, "Dooooooooommmmmm..."

I looked around for the source of the voice and turned around to be met face to face by a sight I would never be able to unsee. It was Cait, but he was bloody and mangled. A bullet hole was in the center of his head, but he was still standing, and his limbs were rotted and torn as though they had been set in the grave for a few months after being mauled by wild animals. He looked up at me, with the same purple intricately carved eyes of an Aqualight and I blinked in shock, the image wavered before me into the scene of a dark blue cave room with a single barely decorated throne that was only decorated by the platform it was on that framed it's image with spikes while it leaned against the back wall. "What's going on?" I asked towards the voice, "And who are you?"

"I come from eternity" The voice began, deeper than Mr.Hoofington but not nearly as smooth, "I was born from the darkness and from there I lived." he said ominously.

Okay, that was freaking me a bit out, nervously I asked while shifting my gaze left and right and lowered my head defensively and whispered, "So I can well believe, but that is hardly your usual name is it?"

The voice groaned, "I am the king of where light fails to reach, Queen maker, land conqueror, Warrior by name, mage by nature. I am he who was chosen for the unlucky number."

Alright, the last time I had ever heard about a Queen was when Watcher accused me from being under some Chrysalis's command, but I gave him a reply with as much wit and courage I could muster, "These don't sound credible..."

He continued on, the room growing darker and forcing me closer to the throne lest I get covered in complete darkness, "I am the friend of Boar's, creator of monsters and the guest of the enemy's heart. I am dead-raiser, dream-taker, Shadow-keeper."

"That's better..." I muttered, and added a request, "Though please don't let your imagination run away with you..."

The darkening voice chuckled wearily, "And who are you to question my naming methods?"

I thought for a moment and came up with my own version of his speech, "I am she who was made below the ground, she who escaped to travel the wastes beyond. I am the master of disguises and sni-"

The voice interrupted me with a deep condescending chuckle, "You're attempt at humor is adorable. But really, your name please."

"Aria Web," I muttered, a bit miffed I couldn't complete my own speech.

"You may call me King, or if that doesn't suit you, my lord, or perhaps if you're feeling particularly friendly, which is rare, you can call me Roggar."

I rolled my eyes, the action hidden behind my hair before I asked, directing my question to the throne, "And where exactly are we?"

I got the air of something bemused, as though tasting my curiosity like fine wine, "We are in one of many places that once were, but no longer are. This place is but one of many that used to exist before the war and were ended during the lunar banishment of your beloved goddess Luna almost 700 years ago."

I waited a few moments for him to continue but he didn't, "And it is called?" I drew out the last word for a few seconds but no response came from him.

"Fine..." I muttered, "What am I doing here then?"

"I didn't bring you here by choice." The voice relucantly emitted, "I'm just as surprised as you are, though I believe that might be the result of touching a corrupted Smooze..."

"Smooze?" I muttered, confused as ever.

"Purple monster that resembles a populations smog and corruption? Looks like someone took filly putty and molded it into a slime monster?"

"The thing I fought was bright blue." I muttered, not particularly enthusiastic.

"And what are they called then?" the voice asked.

"Aqualight's..." I kept the muttering quiet replies, since he seemed to be hearing me just fine.

"Interesting... You are also not the first to discover my kingdom by accident either."

This perked my interest, "There have been others?"

The voice replied in a harsh tone, "I just said that did I not?" I winced and he seemed to take a deep breath and resume his slower grait of chat, "Little Foal, you are not the first, nor do I believe the last to have come here. A offer I give freely to each and every one, a promise of power, to be greater than you are already, only at the cost of giving up something in return." The room flashed showing a bell momentarily, "For if you want something, you must lose something in return."

"Thanks but no thanks..." I muttered grimly thinking of all sorts of things he could 'take' in exchange.

"Have it your way." the omnipresent voice of Roggar took no anger, "But I can see that you will be back, they always come back." I opened my mouth to reply but he continued, "As a sign of good faith though, I'll do you a favor and stop the wound in your body from growing any bigger. I might not be able to do much outside of this realm, but with two thirds of you here, there is more than enough to influence your health."

There wasn't any logical sort of way to explain what happened next, one second my shadow was staying on the ground perfectly fine as it was, and the next second a shadowy tendril had erupted from it with four long apendages attached to its side like a claw and it had grabbed me. I recoiled in shock but the voice made an eerie laugh. as the gnarled claw went into my hoof and disapeared, my wings glow seemed to dim though they still shined brighter than they ever had before and a cold chill went down my spine. The feeling, it wasn't right but it wasn't wrong either. At the same time I felt better than before, but my gutt also wrenched itself in turmoil.

I fell to my knees as I felt as though bugs were worming their way under my chitin and the voice remarked, "Ah, a hive mind like species, that explains a lot." However before I could begin to ask him, the room swirled away and a bright light began to take it's place.

I awoke, my eyes darting open as my heart pounded inside it's chest. My prone form was locked in the confines of it's sleeping bag and my eyes darted around in search of the voice again before realizing I was back in the waking world. Was it all a dream? No, no, everypony knew that you couldn't feel pain in a dream. But they never said anything about nightmares... My left hoof was sore, so I rose my right hoof up and gave it a light bite. yep, I was awake. A sudden voice to my right drew my attention upon a familiar form, it was Grey, "Oh you're awake." he commented with a weary grimace, he had bags under his eyes making me wonder just how long I was out.

"Waz... goin' on..." I mumbled, smart brain, apparently it was still waking up, i was only beginning to take note to the concrete room we were in, so I assumed that we were in another wrecked building. Though it was cleaner than most, for one there wasn't very much soot or ash on the walls or ceiling.

"You've been out for a week." Grey sighed, "When you passed out we carried, or should I say, Scrapyard carried, you all the way to the Hole after we did what we could," he nodded to my other front leg, the one that was sore, "We tried some traditional cures, but with you being a changeling... There is only so much medicine can repair..."

I gave a low groan of annoyance, bringing out my other hoof, which was wrapped heavily in bandages and bringing it in front of me while I laid on my back, "What's the damage?"

"To be perfectly honest," another voice joined the conversation, Cait's, and as I turned to look at the unicorn, he looked a bit ragged with lack of sleep, but not nearly as much as Grey was, they must of taken shifts, "We don't know, I think you shouldn't put too much weight on it though."

Grey sighed, "Aqualight's tend to be an extremely corrosive creature, if your leg had been covered in it for any longer you might of lost it entirely. As is though, you're not going to be walking anywhere far for the next few days at least. As is though, the security was pretty slack around here to get you inside."

"Comes with being on the radio." Cait muttered, his expression going from being tired to as though someone had just fed him cafeteria gruel of stable 103 two months after it expired, "Mr.Hoofington does have some influence here, considering the tower this place is hanging off of is his studio." He scoffed, "Though I keep telling everypony that the Hole is just a giant deathtrap waiting to happen."

I sat up, stretching slowly, being careful not to mess something up in my bandaged leg, "How so?"

Cait gestured back the way he came, "Go take a look for yourself once you're strong enough. Not like were leaving this place anytime soon anyway with that busted leg of yours."

I sighed, and Grey stood up and changed the subject, "So how's the market?"

"Cramped. full of dozens of traders both permanent and traveling. Customers flooding the streets thick enough to step on the heads and backs of a pony who is also doing that. Why?"

"I need to do a little shopping," he yawned, "Needed to get Aria a proper battle-saddle anyway."

Cait gave him an specualtive look towards Grey and then me, then back to Grey, "How come?" Grey's glare made him add more, "Not that I'm objecting, but she seems perfectly fine as is."

Grey rolled his eyes like Cait was being a bit idiotic, "Ever see a Unicorn move a gun at the same speed she can fly?"

"When they swing them, yes." Cait nodded showing up his sword and giving it a slash through the air for emphasis.

Grey facehoofed, "Can you move the sword at that speed across a field?"

Cait shook his head, "No, magic tends to be slower when you're just moving it across someplace rather than manipulating the direction it's facing for an impact. There have been a few unicorns that have the ability to hurl objects in their magic over vast distances but nothing that extreme. Why?"

Grey deadpanned, the last time he had given this expression was back in the stable when we were first learning to use guns and a classmate looked directly down the barrel of his loaded gun to see if anything was clogged. He was lucky it didn't go off thanks to the safety being on and spent a month scrubbing out the caste showers. Grey began again this time giving Cait a message that even a foal could understand, "Aria flies a lot faster than she can move an object, and would have to stop to aim a weapon separate from her if she were to store it and move it out when she was done moving. The saddle is necessary so she can fly and shoot at the same time. A fact and tactic I'm surprised she hadn't brought up with you." he finished the look with a glare my direction and instinctively I turned my eyes downward and shrank back into my corner of the room.

Cait whistled, "Oh, I see now. She needs a saddle so she can be all Vertibuck like and give us aerial support instead of being ground bound or a big target in a shooting range if she did went airborne."

Grey sighed, "Yes Cait, While it will take time for a magic using pony like Aria here to adjust to side shooting, she'll have almost three times as many guns firing at once as a result also."

My eyes rolled as they began to discuss what to strap to me, Cait was in favor of dual shotguns while Grey said laser pistols, whatever those were, would fit better. Then they got into technical details like ammo consumption and weight when Cait suggested tying a minigun to me. Seriously, who would want to take that large hunk of metal on me? I could barely lift one of those things let alone two. That and all the ammo I would need? I've seen a minigun at work before and those things went through ammo faster than three submachine guns at the same amount of time.This was going to take a while, I looked around and managed to spot my bag. Levitating it over I pulled out the medical book and started reading through where I had left off. One chapter on all the bones in a pony later and Cait surrendered, apparently I was to chose for myself, yay me.

Giving me a choice meant that my shotgun on the left side side, and my trusty varmint rifle on the other once we had said saddle. Ambush would be far more useful in my magic and hooves, since the scope and trigger seemed to be custom made to be hoof fired from either a standing position that Zebras had often employed in the war, or a prone position that Equestrian Snipers back in the day were used to in order to make themselves less of a target. That and using a sniper rifle as a side arm tended to kill it's effectiveness in general. I mean, ammo was rare enough without having to run a merchant out of stock whenever we found some .308 rounds for it. We only had... I checked my pipbuck, 12 rounds left. Note to self, buy more bullets.

Grey looked down at me as I put the book back away, "Ready?" he asked, just as straight forward as he had ever been in the stable. I nodded and he gestured at my bandaged hoof, "The Aqualight did a number on your hoof. I don't think we need to tell you this, but I would suggest keeping your weight off of it."

I nodded, just trust the master veteran of the wastelands what to do Aria, he knows a lot more than you do about your body because he worked with the evil crazy scientist slaver ponies. Though another voice in my head wondered idly if that made him one as well though, a voice which I promptly told off with what he helped me to escape from. My voice argued that it might not of been because of me specifically but that unfinished sentence way back in the stable... 'There could only be one queen'. That was it. Just what did he mean by it though?

I made sure to make yet another note, this one to ask him about it when we were alone in privacy. A flash of green flames and extending my collection radius to take in all those lovely emotions nearby later and I trotted out of our current sanctuary's door after Grey, looking like his sister if she was a lanky unicorn who stood a head taller than him. My jaw dropped at what I saw.

Footnote: Level up: New Perk: Web Crawler: Your recent adaptations to combat have unlocked the inner Changeling ability to climb on and stick to any solid surface at the same pace you sneak at. This means that you are no longer stuck to flying in the air or just walking on the ground but have the ability to crawl around the walls and ceiling as well. This skill is not affected by perks or abilities that effect sneak speed.

Quest Perk added: Roggar's Watch: Requirement: Starting luck < 3, Your interactions with the wild wastelands have made you come to the attention of Roggar. Though if this is a good thing or a bad thing is yet to be decided. Who is this mysterious voice anyway? During some interactions you may be presented new dialog and combat options as well as the occasional visit from the mysterious being himself in your mind during sleep.

Next Chapter: Chapter 21: Holes in the Market Estimated time remaining: 11 Hours, 23 Minutes