Daughters, I am… was… an assassin. It only dawns on me as I write this that the two of you may not have the same appreciation for that occupation as most others do. After all, I never hid that fact from you. It was common knowledge amongst our family.

Assassins, dears, kill for a living. Just as your father worked tirelessly to save lives, I was often employed by one individual or another to end them. Of course, that all changed when I found my way to the Stable. But I never forgot the lessons revealed in a target’s final moments. And I never forgot the thrill of silently hunting my prey while cloaked in shadow.

How does a mare justify killing for profit? Oh, I could easily rationalize it with some easy answer: I needed to trade my services in order to gain vital and life-saving information. Or, my target was a savage fiend who preyed on the weaknesses of others. Or better yet, I simply had no other choice than to kill in order to survive. But, no. I will not lie to you, girls. Not any longer. Lies and deceit are part of any assassin’s toolkit, but I refuse to use them on you.

The truth is that I gravitated towards this profession simply because I was good at it. The caps it provided allowed your father and I to outfit ourselves well in our journeys, and the small reputation I had garnered within certain circles kept your father safe on more than one occasion. I killed because I felt it was the best course of action set before me. And I did it time and time again to the best of my ability. Truly I had the opportunity to become quite good at my craft, but the quality of my work left me with no shortage of sleepless nights.

I often found myself in the early hours of the morning, staring into a swirling concoction of greens and purples. I would take refuge in alchemy; in the meditative quality of stirring a simmering pot above the dim glow of my talisman. Yet for all those times I sought answers as to why I had done the things I had done, or what I would do next, the answers simply slipped into the liquid or floated away with the rising vapors.

Whenever potion-making could not soothe my mind in my later years, I sought solace within our home’s temple. Luna’s statue, illuminated by the hoof-full of candles at her hooves, heard many confessions in those later years. I often felt it odd that my people had despised her so, and hoped that she might understand that not all of us did. But despite my musings about your father’s deity, she could never provide the answers I sought either. The answers have only come recently.

I did not fully comprehend the truth until I was left alone upon this bed. It wasn’t by the playfully flickering light of midnight candles, or by the calming glow of my talisman, or even by the deadly still shadows through which I skulked towards my next victim that I found myself. I only came to fully understand the nature of my soul, both my strengths and my flaws, as I lay impotent upon this bed under the harshly sterile light within the clinic. There is, I believe, wisdom in that. Something worth passing on.

It is often the brightest lights that reveal the harshest truths. But accepting the truth is something that we all must do. Even if we wish to pull the comforting veil of darkness back over our eyes, we must learn to stand bravely in the light.

And sometimes we simply have to accept that others will see our faults for what they are. Allow your tears to fall where they may, daughters, there is no shame in that; a truth I have learned only far too recently.

The ‘Steel Rangers,’ as they called themselves, had come to the library for a book. I wasn’t sure if I should laugh at the obviousness of such a task, or lament the fact that even they with their large weapons and thick armor were leery of venturing into the depths of the building for their quarry. I was assured that the task set before my sister and I was no simple fetch quest, and that there were plenty of obstacles within our path.

As Star-Paladin Sandalwood and Senior Scribe Meadow turned their backs on us, and resumed hoofing out directives to the busy ponies, a single unicorn in robes identical to the rest of her ilk approached us. It only took a moment for me to recognize her freckled face.

She tip-hoofed towards us timidly as if she were afraid we might hurt her. In retrospect, given our recent treatment at the hooves of these armored barbarians and their robed cohorts, I can understand why she might have decided to err on the side of caution.

“Um, hello?” Her voice was gentle, bearing the same tones one might use to calm a wild animal. “You’re the doctor from Mareon, right?” She asked behind a light green mane that was hanging in front of her eyes. “The one that helped me get over the manticore stings?”

I scowled, my answer laconic from indignation. “Yes.” Perhaps this pony didn’t deserve the brunt of my frustrations, but being forced to do another group’s bidding had put me in a rather sour mood. And that was only being exacerbated by the arrival of a former patient that turned out to be a part of said group. Not to mention how these savages had treated my sister… My sister! Did this unicorn really expect no retaliation for that humiliating display?

I huffed, still holding Nohta’s shaking form in my forelegs as I pointedly looked towards the doors that Sandalwood had directed us to. “I’m glad to see you’re doing well.” One might have been inclined to believe I had just spent hours with my alchemical supplies, given the poison and vitriol with which those words were laced.

The manticore victim shuffled her hooves, pursing her lips and furrowing her brow in an apologetic grimace. Her eyes flitted between my sister and I as she fought to come up with the correct words. “I… I’m so sorry about all of this.”

Nohta reacted almost exactly how I would have expected her to, her answer an abrasive and curt vulgarity spoken through grit teeth. “Fuck off.”

The unicorn flinched at the words but adamantly tried again, raising a forehoof in a pleading gesture. “Please, Star-Paladin Sandalwood and Senior Scribe Meadow were only doing what they felt was necessary. I didn’t want any of this to happen, but we really do need help.”

“Perhaps you should have thought of the dire straits you were in before tormenting my sister.” My stare was icy cold, but the unicorn took the brunt of my resentment without a word. I continued a moment later. “But then, I suppose we don’t really have a choice in the matter, now do we?”

“I’m sorry!” The genuineness of her apology was written all over her face. “I tried as hard as I could to convince the Star-Paladin that you two weren’t a threat, but she has to make decisions with the mission and our safety in mind!”

My voice was rising with each word as I failed to hold my frustration in check. “And so your group decides that the appropriate action is to immediately threaten our lives and then proceed to force us into doing your dirty work? And only after it has been made abundantly clear that we are in no position to resist does one of you come to apologize?” This entire situation was ludicrous! With every passing second I was lamenting the fact that I had sought out this library more and more.

She pleaded sheepishly, rubbing a robed leg against her shoulder and visibly deflating. “You… You saved my life. You didn’t know it, but you saved a lot of Ranger’s lives that day by helping me.” Her eyes were hopeful as she added, “It’s only right that I should try to help you in return.”

Nohta pulled away from me and slammed a hoof onto the tiled floor, her purple eyes flashing brilliantly in obstinate rage as she shouted. “I said, FUCK OFF!”

I could only agree with Nohta, glaring daggers at the robed unicorn before us. “Perhaps it would be best if you simply left us alone. My sister and I have no desire to be in this position, and neither do we want any aid you might offer.”

The unicorn lowered her head, nearly whispering, “I… I can’t.”

“And why not?” My voice was low, dripping with indignant fury.

“Because I vouched for you.” Her eyes were pleading with mine again, her lips trembling as she fought to get the words out, “I owed you a debt. More than that science book was worth by far. I volunteered to help you retrieve the artifact.” She shook her head, grimacing. “It was the only way to convince Star-Paladin Sandalwood to let you go! But if we fail… I… I won’t be welcome in the Rangers anymore.”

Nohta cut her off, seething with rage. “You think that makes any of this right? You think that just because you’re sorry,” My sister’s voice dropped to a mocking tone with her last words before rising again to carry her anger, “You think that makes any of this shit better? Fuck you!”

“No!” The unicorn’s face contorted into a pained scowl at Nohta’s words. “No, I don’t! And it doesn’t! I hate that we have to do this! I hate this whole fucking thing! And I hate that we have to hurt others to get what we need!” She glanced back at the wooden doors leading further into the facility before stomping her hoof on the floor with a frustrated grunt. She continued with a bit more steel in her voice. “But this mission is just too important! You have no idea what is going on! We must do this!”

As much as I wanted nothing more than to hold on to my rage, some part of me knew that our only hope for getting out of our predicament was to go forward. I rubbed my temples in an attempt to abate my anger and asked in as civil a voice as I could muster, “Then perhaps you should explain to us exactly what we have to do.”

“Candy!” Nohta rounded on me, her voice a mixture of surprise, anger, and hurt. “Fuck these assholes! Why should we do anything to help them?”

“What else can we do, sister? We’re in no position to refuse their demands! I don’t like this anymore than you do, but we only have one option before us.” I stared into her eyes, “The sooner we acquiesce to their monumentally selfish and unjust request, the sooner we can be free of this entire debacle!”

Nohta’s eyes hardened even further as she stared back at me. That was enough for me to keep speaking before she could misunderstand my intentions, “Sister, please. I’m sorry. I didn’t want this! But we need to go along with their plans for now. We can’t stand up against all of…” My hoof waved towards the dozen or so armored ponies with extraordinarily large weapons, “...that!” I leaned in towards her, and in a quieter voice so that only she could hear, I added, “Have faith, Nohta. I’m trying to figure out how to get us out of this mess, but I need more time.”

Her eyes widened a miniscule amount in realization before her gaze fell to the ground. Pulling her hood back over her face, she nodded. “Okay, Sis. I don’t like it, but okay. We’ll do this your way.” She calmly sat on her haunches and addressed the unicorn, “Tell us what we need to do so we can get out of here already.”

“I really am sorry about all of this.” The unicorn turned from Nohta and spoke to me in a voice that was far too civil for my liking. “I’m glad you could calm her down. We need to have clear heads when we go further into the facility.”

I couldn’t help it. I wanted my sister to know that I had been genuine, and well… My own frustration was far from pacified. I glared at the unicorn, my voice dripping with venom. “Don’t you dare mistake my intent.” I stomped a hoof against the floor, “I am not taking your side over my sister!” She was struggling to respond, unable to form words or maintain eye contact. I asked her a second time, “What exactly must we do?”

Her eyes still couldn’t reach mine, but she did find her voice. “There’s… there’s a terminal. It will need to be hacked to bypass a barrier and retrieve the book.” She looked up to lock her eyes with mine, “It will be hard to reach. Judging by the directory at the service desk,” She glanced at the desk ringing the monolithic support column in the center of the room, “...we’ll probably find what we’re looking for in the director’s office. That’s on the top floor.”

My eyes narrowed as I questioned her in an only-slightly-irritated voice, “If you haven’t been there yourself, then how do you know about the terminal?” I wasn’t sure if it was my frazzled nerves or if my suspicions were correct, but something told me that she knew more than she was letting on.

“There’s always a terminal. And there’s always a magical barrier. A stasis field.” She sighed, shaking her head, “We’ve had to do this so many times… “

Nohta’s voice was flat, unreadable. I took it as a sign that she was struggling to maintain her facade of compliance. “This doesn’t sound hard to me. This sounds like a milk run. What do you need us for?”

The unicorn turned to address my sister, “There are dangerous creatures further inside this building. Creatures which pose a threat to our knights and paladins. We can’t risk the power armor, and our sentinels are likewise vulnerable to their attacks. We need non-power armor wearing fighters, and most of our scribes are more trained in technical pursuits than in combat.” Sparing a glance in Sandalwood’s direction, she continued, “Of course, the Star-Paladin would rather that none of her Rangers be at risk, but I was able to convince her to allow me to accompany you.”

She stepped closer, cautiously gauging her steps while her voice maintained its amiable levels. “Did you read the book that I gave you?”

I didn’t answer at first, opting instead to warily regard the unicorn and continue huffing in discontent. Nohta took the ensuing silence as an opportunity to get some answers, jabbing a hoof between the two of us, “Wait, you two know each other?”

I continued to glower at the red mare before us, “This is the pony that gave me the science book in exchange for treating her injuries when we first got to Mareon.”

“Hold up, she’s the one that gave you that book?” Nohta pointed a hoof at the unicorn, “Really?”

Nohta surprised me then, gently walking towards the mare and speaking in a tone far softer than I had thought she would use for our captors, “Thank you.”

The unicorn perked up, “Oh… it was the least I could do, really.”

Nohta continued, “If you hadn’t given Candy that book, we would’ve walked right into an ambush. And we never would have... figured some things out.” She whipped her tail, a sure sign of annoyance, but continued speaking earnestly, “I’m still pretty fucking pissed about all of this shit, but… well… thanks.”

Really? Was she really thanking a stranger for such a small thing? “Nohta?”

My sister turned back to me, “You being able to hack terminals saved our lives, Sis. She can ask…” Nohta placed a forceful and angry emphasis on that word while glancing quickly back at the mare, “...for a favor if she wants.”

Now I was confused. Nohta was not one to show much thought towards anypony; and coming from her, this display was tantamount to an undying declaration of love and adoration. Was she still playing along and hoping to find the fastest route of escape, or genuinely thankful towards the one pony in this group that had given us any apologies at all?

I had witnessed how something so simple as a kind word could turn her around. Pipe Sleeves, Moonglow, Caramel; each of them had won her over simply by treating her as an equal. But she was nothing if not Mother’s daughter. And mother had been an assassin. Deceitfulness was just another way to get close before a killing blow. Perhaps that was Nohta’s aim.

Or maybe… maybe this pony before us was truly genuine. Maybe her apologies were a lifeline in the treacherous waters through which we now swam. What if this pony could be a friend? An ally? She had convinced her leader to not kill us. Maybe she could guarantee our safety after this task was finished?

I sighed, relaxing my posture even as I considered my options. For now, all I could do was go forward. And that meant I’d have to wade through the injustice of my predicament and hopefully find a way out of this dreaded library.

My stern features softened, and I made my very best attempt to extend an olive branch. “Thank you. It’s true, I learned the basics of hacking terminals by reading the passages in that book.” Despite my admission, I still felt the need to remind her of the maltreatment suffered by my sister and I. “And it seems that my skill in doing so is the only thing keeping your comrades from absconding with our family heirlooms.”

The mare frowned again, “I’m sorry. Most of our order stays back in tight-knit groups, running in herds towards the next objective or staying at our fortified bunkers in secret locations. They don’t really realise how hard it is for some of the ponies… er… population out in the wastes.”

I pursed my lips in an incredulous glower, “And you do, I take it?”

She nodded, “My task for several months has been to travel the local area, assess threats to our interests, and gather intel for Star-Paladin Sandalwood and Senior Scribe Meadow regarding anything that might affect our operations. Along my travels, I’ve come across some things that… that… “ She was becoming noticeably upset now, stomping her hoof on the marble floor, “The conditions on the surface are just awful! There has to be something we can do!”

Nohta pointed a hoof at the mare, “You can start by telling us your name.”

“Oh! Of course! I… I’m Holly. Scribe Holly of the Steel Rangers, Order of the Quill, Special Operations Squad 108.” She rattled off her full title with a rote memorization more befitting an academic than a scout. Actually…

I voiced my puzzlement, “You don’t exactly strike me as the sort of pony that would be sent out into the wastes, alone, on any sort of dangerous mission, Scribe Holly.”

“Well, I wasn’t really supposed to be getting into danger. It just has a habit of finding me.” She admitted, her face turning an even brighter shade of scarlet. “But I always try to help if I can!”

Her body rose up, and her face was no longer hidden behind the green strands of her mane. “Please, let me help you. The creatures in this building are dangerous! We’ll be safer if we all stick together.”

Nohta was the one to ask the obvious question, “What sort of creatures are we talking about? What could scare off those armored ponies?”

Holly steeled herself, casting anxious glances towards my eyes and Nohta’s questioning face. “Ghouls.” She whispered plainly.

I blinked. That… was not what I had been expecting. Ghouls? The ones that Father had dubbed “Necrotic Meta-Equines?”

Nohta was as incredulous as I was. “How the hell is a zombie gonna pose a threat to one of those big armored bucks with a minigun?”

She shook her head, speaking quickly to explain herself. “No. No, you don’t understand. These ghouls are different. Mutations. Aberrations. They… They’re screamers.” She explained to our oblivious stares.

“Screamers?” I asked, curiosity withering my desire to be upset.

“Uh… Maybe you know them as something different. Screechers? Wailers? Witches? Banshees? Sire-”

“Banshees?” Now that was a name I was familiar with, though it still left me confused as to what the problem was. “The Steel Rangers are afraid of banshee ghouls?”

“Of course!” She nodded emphatically, and hurried to explain, “The sonic attacks emitted by these ghouls are capable of interfering with the internal systems of our power armor by resonating along a parallel harmonic frequency to the power reserves, effectively blocking stable transmission of magical enhancements and halting power routing to the internal systems. Complete and catastrophic disharmonization of the power arrays-”

“Oh come on! Am I the only one not getting this?” Nohta threw her hooves in the air in frustration. “What is it with you eggheads and all the tech-jargon?”

Much to my dismay, Holly and I each hid identical smiles behind our hooves, amused at my sister’s outcry. My own grin quickly faltered as I remembered exactly who was smiling with me.

A moment later, the scribe cleared her throat and continued in a much more approachable manner, “When they scream, they knock out our power armor and make it so our knights and paladins can’t move. But it’s even worse if our sentinels get caught in the attack. Their IFF systems go berserk if they’re in range. Then they start shooting at everything until we can power them down and reboot their systems. Scribe Cypher’s in charge of them, and he’s ready to pull his mane out.”

“So you brought a bunch of walking tanks into the desert against a bunch of zombies that could shout them to death?” Nohta questioned her logic, raising her voice and gesticulating her hooves wildly. “That’s about the stupidest thing I ever heard! Who goes up against an enemy they know has an edge on them?”

“Knowledge of this particular class of ghoul surrounding the objective was only ascertained when Squad 108 reached its destination several days ago.” Holly rubbed her leg with a hoof uncomfortably, “I might have been able to recon the area but, due to my unexpected sick leave, I was unable to properly gather intel or relay my recommendations to Senior Scribe Meadow.” She swallowed audibly, “My failures could end up getting good knights and paladins killed if we run out of time and Star-Paladin Sandalwood decides to charge the facility head on.”

“I must admit that the banshee ghouls have a rather weird way of incapacitating their victims.” I silently pondered if that sort of harmonic resonance could be captured in a module of some sort to be used against one’s power armored enemies. Perhaps if I had the time to tinker with my sonic deterrent?

I pushed the thought aside, raising a forehoof to urge her to explain. “But, what do you mean ‘run out of time?”

“Screamers aren’t the only type of ghoul unique to the surrounding region.” Holly explained, “There are several more types that I have yet to fully examine. Sniffers to the north, ramblers out east, bloaters down sou- well, just about everywhere, really.” She shivered as she recounted her escapades in the surrounding areas. “But… those aren’t the worst. Just the typical mutations. I’m hoping that we can get out of here before anything worse shows up.”

“Worse?” I asked, my brow wrinkled in curiosity and dread.

I could only just detect the subtle hints of fear that danced across her face before she steeled her eyes and nodded. “Let’s just try to be quick about the whole thing.”

She regarded us both for a moment, “I’m guessing that since you’re both still walking you know how to fight?”

“Damn straight.” Nohta’s hooves smashed together, sending a resounding clang throughout the chamber as Mother’s horseshoes collided with each other. Several heads turned, but nopony seemed to care after a moment.

I floated my pistol before my eyes, checking the charge and wavelength. Eleven shots left in my current cell. Two full cells at the ready. Probably seven or eight more shots after I could recycle my batteries. The weathered shotgun still sat within my packs next to a small pile of shells and our last grenade. A small and wry smile spread across my lips as I realized I hadn’t even needed my Pipbuck’s inventory sorter to remember the weapons and ammunition I now carried. “We are… rather too rapidly for my taste, becoming thoroughly acquainted with violence, yes.”

“Well, at least you’re not defenseless.” Holly looked to me, “Are you ready to go? Can I come with you?”

“I suppose that we are, but…” My eyebrows furrowed in confusion, “Honestly, why would you want to put yourself at risk like this?”

She raised a hoof to her chest, exclaiming, “You saved my life! Or at least gave me several crucial hours that I was able to use to transmit vital information!” She lowered her head, hoofing at the hard floor. “I don’t like that you’re being forced into this position, but Star-Paladin Sandalwood has a mission to complete, and isn’t always graced with the ability to take the moral high road.”

She seemed genuine, and I found myself wanting to believe her, but hearing the Star-Paladin’s name only brought Nohta’s recent treatment to the forefront of my mind. A scowl quickly overtook my face as I raised a hoof to indicate the pony in question. “If you’re so taken by our plight, then why don’t you say something to that brute you call a leader?”

She went straight from being mopey and apologetic to furious and obstinate, “Star-Paladin Sandalwood is being positively charitable in her interpretation of The Codex for you! Allowing wasters to keep their technology simply for retrieving an object when it is inconvenient for us to do so? You should be at her hooves thanking her!” She was stomping her own hooves on the ground, her mane becoming more frazzled and frayed with each shouted word.

Nohta looked from my scowling face to the suddenly passionate visage of Scribe Holly and let out a single bark of laughter, “Yeah… That’s not gonna happen.” She started pushing me up out of the bowl that housed the bookshelves and towards the door, whispering into my ear. “C’mon, Sis, let’s get this shit over with. I need to hurt something.” I was still fighting back the urge to retort to Holly’s outcry while Nohta and I passed by a hoof-full of armored ponies. Just as I was about to execute a brilliantly eloquent and loquacious verbal maneuver my sister cut me off, calling back to Holly over her shoulder in her uniquely exasperating and practiced sing-song tone. “Come on, Mrs. Know-it-all! Just don’t slow us down!”

Scribe Holly hurried after us, levitating a nearly pristine submachine gun beside her in an emerald glow, either impervious or oblivious to Nohta’s attempts at annoyance. “Oh don’t worry, I can handle myself well enough.”

The wooden double doors that led into the depths of the library opened with the creaking protests of aged and rusty hinges. Nohta dashed ahead of us to peer around cracked corners while signaling Holly and myself forward past chunks of fallen debris. The extravagant marble floors of the library had given way to a simple and matted beige carpet, muffling our steps as we cautiously delved deeper into the building’s interior.

“These first few hallways should be relatively clear,” Holly whispered to me as she nodded towards a string of bullet holes and blasted craters torn into the walls, “The paladins and knights were in the process of securing the area when they encountered the first screamer. It was just a lucky coincidence that Scribe Cypher was with them, and was able to fell the beast after it shut down everypony’s power armor. He’s one of the few scribes we have that knows how to use a spell matrix master key, so they were extra lucky that he was able to reboot their armor.”

“Did they clear the bodies?” Nohta asked without turning around, still crouching by a doorway leading into a small office.

“I… “ Holly looked all around, seemingly having just noticed that the halls were barren of corpses. A small gasp escaped her lips as the scribe spun around, her eyes widening in realization. She cursed under her breath, and raised her weapon in front of herself. “The ghouls have reanimated.”

“Uh… what?” Nohta turned around.

Holly checked her weapon’s ammo, “Do the two of you know what a Canterlot Ghoul is?”

My sister answered plainly, the motion underneath her hood indicating an ear twitching from agitation. “A ghoul… from Canterlot?”

Holly nodded. “More or less, yes. But what makes them special, and altogether horrifying, is their ability to reanimate. A Canterlot ghoul can be cut down numerous times but unless their wounds are so severe as to decapitate or dismember them, they will come back to life. The weakest among them make for hardy and determined opponents, and the strongest of their numbers… “ She paused for a moment, as if contemplating how much to tell us, “The strongest of them are truly a force to be reckoned with.”

My brow furrowed, “I’m sorry, but what does this have to do with the ghouls near Mareon?”

“Canterlot Ghouls are so resilient because of the necromantic energies from the megaspell released in the capital city. That “Pink Cloud” seeped into the buildings, into the roads, and into the ponies themselves. But a good portion of it was washed away by the waterfall below the royal palace.”

She shook her head, as her eyes pleaded with us, “I haven’t been able to track the river that flows through Mareon to its source, but initial tests have indicated residual amounts of Pink Cloud within the water. It is very diluted, but it’s there. It’s just a hypothesis, but I believe that the ghouls in this region have mutated through exposure to trace amounts of the Canterlot megaspell. That would account for the multiple types of ghouls seen throughout the region.”

I mulled this information over in my mind. Pink Cloud was an extraordinarily powerful poison, apparently capable of liquefying its victims in one of the most horrible deaths I could possibly imagine. Mother and Father had both told me that it had once been released upon the populace of Canterlot. The war-time zebras had specially crafted Pink Cloud to just one end; it was meant to kill The Goddess herself. But how was it here? We were weeks of travel from the capital of Equestria. Surely the effects would have worn off by now? Between time and distance, how could there be enough of the Pink Cloud left for it to possibly be affecting the surrounding area?

Nohta broke the moment of silence with a confused question, “So, these ghouls aren't really dead. They’re just pretending?”

Holly blinked. Twice. “Um… No? They’re quite dead. They just… somehow by means beyond comprehension… slowly come back to life if you haven’t utterly destroyed their bodies. Or at the very least, severed the brain from the spinal column.” After an awkward moment of silence, she rubbed the back of her neck and added, “At least… I think that should work.”

I pursed my lips and glared at her, “You think?”

“I haven’t really had the time to fully study these abominations!” Holly quickly explained. “But I’m almost positive that decapitation should work on most of these monsters.”

My little sister nodded quickly, causing the hood of her cloak to flutter around her face. She reached down and slid her knife from its sheath, “Ah geff iss a good fing Ah haff fiss!”

“Well, we can hope that your knife works…”

I groaned, rolling my eyes. “Are you trying to frighten or inform us, Holly? We don’t need your rendition of a foalish ghost story. Just tell us what we need to know.”

The scribe shuffled her hooves uncomfortably, biting her lip and shifting her eyes between myself and the shadowy hallways. In a timid voice, she nearly whispered, “How much do the two of you know about Bright Eyes?”

I cocked my head to the side. “Bright Eyes?” As certain as I was that I had heard the name before, the exact time and place eluded me. Turning to my sister, I asked, “Nohta, does that name sound familiar to you as well?”

Nohta’s hoof rose to scratch her chin for a moment before she gently pointed it in my direction, “The pegasus outside Mareon. She was worried about running into Bright Eyes.” Ah, that was it. The Dash-addled featherbrain had spoken the name.

Holly perked up, “Bright Eyes is…” Her gaze fell, searching the ground at our hooves before settling on me. “...bad. I’m not sure exactly what she is. But she’s bad. We need to be out of here before she shows up.”

I was about to ask her to elucidate, but Nohta’s hoof on my shoulder silenced me. “Well let’s get a fucking move on then.” She pointed her hoof at Holly, then at the both of us, “You don’t want to be here. We don’t want to be here. Let’s go already!”

It was quiet. Not too quiet, that’s just a cliche. If it’s ever too quiet, then you drop whatever it is you’re doing and run in whichever direction most pleases you. That’s simple enough to understand for both hunter and prey. If it’s ever become too quiet, then you’re already in trouble.

No, the catacombs of the library were quiet in the way one would expect a long-dead structure to be: peacefully devoid of life and sound save for we three invaders and our marauding hoofsteps. We were comfortably alone, enveloped in a welcoming and calm darkness that clung to our bodies like a blanket. The overhead lighting throughout the hallways had failed completely, forcing me to activate my Pipbuck lamp to keep from bumping into walls, overturned chairs, and potted plants. To my surprise, Holly rolled up a sleeve of her robes to reveal the brightly green glow of her own Pipbuck, and our white and green lights danced playfully off of the dilapidated walls.

Unlike Holly or myself, Nohta was as comfortable in the pitch-black corridors as ever. Her relaxed manner eventually infected Holly and myself, and soon enough we had all come down with a severe case of recklessness. I was slowly learning to trust Nohta’s eyes and my E.F.S. But the tone of the entire excursion changed from cautious to curious whenever Holly ceased skulking about as if we would be jumped at any moment.

Somewhere in here, I was sure that I might be able to find some records of the surrounding area. This town had existed before the war; before The Final Day. If there was any knowledge to be gleaned from Coltsville’s stagnant carcass, it would be found within the archives kept here. Nohta knew what to look for but her demeanor left me believing that she was more interested in finding something to relieve her frustrations of being forced into this position. She wanted to pick a fight.

She also wouldn’t leave a single desk drawer, filing cabinet, trash can, or locked door alone; quickly piling whatever random pieces of valuable scrap she found into her pockets or packs. Holly was growing agitated with my sister’s behavior, believing that she was purposely delaying our mission, but I assured her that Nohta was simply being practical and searching for worthwhile scavenge; a necessity of survival for the bedraggled “population of the wastes.” Of course, when I caught Nohta’s mischievous wink out of the corner of my eye, I knew that my excuse had only been half-true. It was harder to stifle my own giggle than I would have liked to admit.

When our little group came across a staircase, I searched the walls nearby for clues. The Stable’s stairways had sported embossed metal plates with directions to important rooms clearly etched into their surface. The library wasn’t all that dissimilar, though the framed poster hanging by the stairs was covered by cracked and dusty glass that was sticking out at odd angles. It wasn’t nearly enough of an obstruction to keep me from discerning the details of the structure’s layout, though the design was certainly modest in appearance.

The glass in the poster’s frame crunched underneath my hoof. “Down one floor, into the basement level.” The fading paper was much easier to read when the text wasn’t being distorted by the shattered and yellowed glass. “Restoration, Maintenance, Storm and Bomb Shelter, Archives, and Storage. That’s where we need to go first.”

Holly shook her head, confused. “What? No, we need to go upstairs. The director’s office is on the third floor. The book will mostly likely be held within Lexicon’s personal office.” Holly rose to her hind legs, bracing herself against the wall as she pointed to the poster with her own hoof, “See? Third floor: Director’s Office and Presentation Chamber.” She fell back to all fours and grumbled at the poster, “Must have been nice to have a floor all to yourself.”

“Oh, I don’t know. I imagine that all that space with no one to share it with would have been quite lonely.” I mused, scratching my chin.

Holly glanced at my Pipbuck before frowning, “Your stable must have been a lot nicer than mine.”

“HA!” Nohta’s bark startled us both. “Nice? The Stable? Right. Maybe like, three or four decent ponies out of a couple hundred.”

“You got dealt a bad hoof too, huh?” Holly’s voice inquired in a calm and sorrowful manner as she nearly whispered behind her mane.

Nohta snorted, looking down the hall. “Ya. Fuck that place. I was always being told what to do and where to go. I had ponies looking down their muzzles at me all the time, or just looking the other way while my classmates decided to gang up on me.” She rounded on Holly, her body tensing. “Say… seems kinda familiar, doesn’t it?”

Holly’s lip trembled, “I… I didn’t…”

“Let’s go.” Nohta trotted past the both of us and began descending the stairs noisily, her brass-shod hooves clacking against the tiled steps as she made her way to the basement.

I hurried past the confused scribe to catch up with my sister and walk beside her, brushing my shoulder against her own. When she looked up at me I smiled gratefully and thanked her.

She rolled her eyes underneath her hood. “I didn’t do anything special, Sis. No need to get all mushy on me.”

I continued smiling warmly at her, “I just wanted to thank you for agreeing to seek out the archives, Nohta. I honestly thought that you would want to find their book and be rid of this place as quickly as possible.”

Nohta glanced up the stairs, “Well… I kinda do. But if we do it this way we get to piss her off first.” My sister turned away from me, concealing her face with her cloak as I chuckled and shook my head at her behavior. “Besides… This info should help us out. If we can just figure out where we should go next, then at least we can stop wandering around the desert in the damned hot part of the day like a couple of idiots.” Her tone was uncertain, shaky even, as if she were trying to justify her actions.

I smiled at the back of her hood as our hooves met the carpeted floor of the basement level. She knew, of course, that I fully intended to use the data in the archives to find a clue as to the whereabouts of our stablemates. And I knew that she couldn’t care less about what happened to most of them. I wanted to thank her for agreeing to go forward with this plan, but didn’t want to ruin the moment. Perhaps I could try my luck with something else I had been longing to tell her?

I wrapped a hoof around her shoulder, the two of us peering down the darkened halls. “Nohta, I love y-”

“Don’t say it, Candy.” She leaned into the embrace. “This is fine, just… don’t say that.”

“It’s not as if the phrase is bad luck, dear. It’s just an admission of-”

“I know, Sis. But… Mom and Dad both… I just feel like if you say it then something bad will happen.”

We sat in silence for a moment before I spoke again. “Well, how about this? I really really really really really really really really like you?”

She snorted, shaking her head, and I felt her body convulse with gentle laughter, “You’re such a sap.”

There she was. I much preferred the snarky sibling prone to bouts of verbally attacking my character to the savagely violent sister looking for a way to disembowel everypony within eyesight.

I sighed dreamily, deciding to give my sister some ammunition. “Too many romance novels, I suppose.”

I could hear the smirk on her voice as her hoof poked at my ribs. “You should try reading something good sometime. Like ‘Zebra Infiltration Tactics,’ or at least one of the “Martial Arts of the Zebra’ books.”

I rolled my eyes, despite the bemused expression plastered on my face. “I’ll leave the sneaking and the pounding things into oblivion to you, sister.” One of my ears swiveled backwards, and the gentle tapping of hooves on tile alerted me to Holly’s approach as I whispered to Nohta. “Besides, Mother was reduced to a giggling fit at some of the inaccuracies within both of those works. The ponies who wrote them obviously didn’t do their research. Really, authors should know better.”

“Heh, or maybe Mom just found a better way.” Her head nodded gently.

Memories of Mother’s graceful ritual practice sessions within our living quarters, and of my own enthralled observations from the kitchen table, floated through my mind. “Well, I certainly can’t rule out that possibility.” With a final squeeze, I left my sister’s side to turn to our robed companion. “Holly, listen. We need-”

An emerald glow pointed her submachine gun down the halls as she warily scanned each gloomy corridor, hissing through clenched teeth. “We shouldn’t be down here. There’s probably ghouls all over! What are the two of you doing?”

I spoke calmly. Plainly. “We need to find the archives. It’s the only reason we came to the library in the first place.” Perhaps some simple honesty would help smooth over the tension from earlier?

“Archives? What for?” Her gaze never left the shadows as she spoke.

“We need information regarding the local area.”

“You…” Her confused face finally turned to mine. “You could’ve just asked me, you know. I’ve been through a good deal of this desert already.”

I raised a hoof between us, gently pointing in her direction. “You said yourself that you didn’t get to recon the entire area. We’re looking for a detailed account of local settlements.”

“Why?” One of her ears flicked as she cocked her head to the side.

I looked to my sister, who turned back to to me and nodded silently. “We’re looking for locations where ponies might have taken up residence.”

Her eyes narrowed, “What kind of ponies?”

My brow furrowed slightly in disgust. “Slavers,” I began, before Nohta’s eye caught my own, “Or raiders.”

Holly licked her lips as her eyes searched the floor. After a brief moment, she tentatively spoke up. “That…” She looked back up to me. “That might work, actually.” She came closer, her submachine gun still hovering at her side and pointing down the hallway. Whispering, she explained. “I found another abandoned town to the east, Spursburg, while I was searching for one of our secondary objectives.” Holly’s head shook while she seemed to speak to herself. “Fucking hell-hole is what it was. Raiders and ramblers everywhere. But there was an old botanical research facility close by.”

Well that had most certainly been generous of her. Why was she willing to share such information so easily? I surmised that she must have been attempting to make amends for earlier.

She continued before Nohta or I could get a word in, “If this archive has a map from before the war, it could help us both out.”

“Good. Then it’s settled. We both need information and we are in the perfect position to obtain it.” I gave her a polite smile and turned down the hall before she could change her mind, the white light of my Pipbuck leading the way.

Nohta quickly took point, dashing ahead of me to peer around dusty corners and through the keyholes of rotting doors. Holly remained at the rear, her weapon floating behind us to cover our flanks. I was slightly more relaxed, trusting my E.F.S. to alert me to any threats. So far, we hadn’t seen anything dangerous at all. When Nohta sat in front of a door marked “Maintenance,” Holly and I stopped to watch as a faint glow from the keyhole danced across Nohta’s muzzle. Holly was confused at first, but relaxed when she saw the screwdriver in my sister’s hooves.

Nohta spoke through the bobby pin in her teeth, “Jud a fec, almo god ib.” The door opened with a small *click* and the three of us hurried inside past a dangling ceiling light.

The scent of mechanical oil wafted across my nostrils as I stepped inside. Nohta made a beeline for the metal lockers to the side of the room while Holly and I stared at the glowing terminal atop the small desk. Or rather, I was staring at the terminal. Holly’s eyes were glued to the wall above it.

A timid whisper escaped her lips. “Ironshod… Firearms…” I glanced at her face; an ever-deepening shade of scarlet. “How do you like… them apples?”

“Holly, what are you…” My eyes finally fell upon the poster; a light-golden earth-stallion wearing a rugged looking vest and cowpony hat, casually leaning his back against a wooden fence outside a western saloon. His charming grin flashed brilliantly around the polished revolver in his mouth. Goddess… That smirk…

Holly licked her lips, sighing. “They just don’t make bucks like Braeburn anymore…”

I looked back to her and giggled behind a hoof, despite the sensation of warmth in my own cheeks. “Holly? Control yourself, dear. It’s unbecoming of a lady to stare.”

Her voice spoke longingly, ignoring me completely. “Too bad… I’d let him tongue my trigger anyday…”

I gasped, “Holly!”

A series of loud clangs from the lockers accompanied my sister’s guffaws as she rolled on the floor, scattering tools in every direction. Nohta’s laughter broke Holly from her reverie, leaving a slightly confused and very embarrassed unicorn trying to hide behind her light-green mane in its wake.

I shook my head and rolled my eyes. Honestly, some mares! Against the backdrop of Nohta’s weakening chuckles and Holly’s embarrassed groaning and whimpering, I sat at the uncomfortable rolling chair and began clicking and clacking my way into the system.

I eyed the green text, piecing out the puzzle bit by bit. There was only one word which fit the character allotment and patterns established by the code. I whispered the simple, five letter word as soon as I worked out the puzzle. “Truth.”

The screen popped and blinked, bringing up a series of inter-office emails and work requests. I toggled through a few simple messages. “Hmm… Nothing much of interest he- Oh! Nohta! The vending machines on the second floor are malfunctioning! They’re dispensing free Sparkle-Colas!” I turned to find my sister still lying on her back. Her fading laughter had returned in full force, her legs kicking feebly at the air as she snorted and beat a hoof upon the carpeted floor. My nose rose in the air indignantly, “Hmmph, fine, sister. Ignore useful supplies when they’re easily obtainable. It’s just more for me, after all!” Returning to the screen, a tendril of my magic selected one of the more recent emails that caught my eye.

> Sup dude, you still want into that card game this weekend? 50 bits up front, no whining when you lose, haha! Hey, did you see that stripe that walked in here with the boss? What in the whole of Tartarus is Lexicon thinking letting one of ‘them’ walk into a government facility? They walked straight up to the boss’ room in the top floor too, by what I heard. I swear, this entire place is gonna get sent straight to the moon. And ‘not' in the good way like they advertise at that casino!

Sent to the moon? What? It was not a euphemism with which I was familiar, and the only meaning I could derive from context was negative. But… Wouldn’t being sent to the moon, Luna’s heavenly orb, be seen as a blessing? As Nohta’s tittering died down, my confusion was interrupted by a fluttering buzz outside the office door. Curious, I pushed the wheeled chair backwards and leaned out into the hall to see what was going on.

A large insect, about as long as my leg, skittered into view at the intersection of the hallway a few feet from my location. A radroach: Hardly a threat, and easily dismissible were it not for the beetle’s agitated demeanor. With a scientific clarity, I took note of its behavior. It had raised its forelegs in a defensive posture, trying to make itself appear larger than it was, and was making the oddest little hissing noise as it waggled its antennae and fluttered its diaphanous wings angrily. It was very clearly feeling threatened. I soon found out why.

A grotesque mockery of a pony ran into view, pouncing on the beetle and crushing it underneath cracked and dirty hooves. An oddly satisfying crunch mingled with the radroach’s death squeal just before its attacker lowered a heavily scarred and disfigured head to the insect’s body. I stared in horror and disgust as the creature ripped the head of the radroach away in its jaws and began to chew, one of the bug’s antennae hanging languidly out of its mouth like a sick parody of a farmer’s stalk of wheat. As it was enjoying its stomach-turning meal, I had every opportunity to study the very first ghoul I had ever seen.

Ancient scars cris-crossed along its hide, which had lost nearly all of its sickly green fur. Old burn marks, bullet holes, and knife wounds decorated the decaying skin that was pulled taut around bone and muscle. The tattered remains of threadbare and filthy clothing hung lazily about its body, testament to the fact that this creature had, at least long ago, once been sane. But whatever sanity it had once clung to had surely fled this creature’s mind amidst the torment that had ravaged its body.

The few stubborn strands of light-blue mane left atop its head rolled to the side of a broken horn as the ghoul stopped masticating and raised its snout to the air, sniffing. With a terrifying and deliberate slowness it lowered its gore-ridden face and stared blankly at me, revealing a milky-white, dead eye and the exposed bone and rotting flesh left in the crater of its other ocular cavity. Luna had bestowed upon me a small kindness; this monster was blind. But it was unfortunately still hungry.

A decaying leg stepped in my direction as a broken hoof thumped against the carpeted floor. A lifeless face, showing only the signs of an insatiable hunger, stared through me. Rotted lips curled back to reveal equally rotted teeth. The all too familiar stench of dead flesh accosted my nostrils as a throaty and guttural hiss clawed its way out of a neck bearing wounds that should be oozing blood, not as dry as the exposed bones underneath of them.

I stood quietly, holding my breath behind shaking lips as my hoof-falls were muffled by the carpet. A crimson glow washed over the walls as I lifted my little pistol from its holster and backed into the office, swallowing my fear. Goddess… that was a ghoul? That creature shouldn’t have been allowed to exist!

Nohta was next to me in an instant, placing herself between me and the door while drawing her knife from its scabbard. Holly’s green aura mingled with my red as our weapons floated in front of us. She poked her head outside the doorway before quickly drawing herself back inside the office and mouthing a single word to the ceiling, “Fuck.”

The scribe gulped audibly in the near-silence, holding a hoof to her muzzle while using her magic to close and lock the door. A barely audible whisper escaped her lips as she looked back at us, “Screamer.”

We waited for what felt like an eternity, none of us daring to move. Unwilling to take my eyes away from the door, I instead counted my own heartbeats thudding within my ears to recognize the passage of time. Five… My pistol was trained on the door, waiting for the ghoul to break through the entrance and assault us. Ten… Or would it pass us by?

I heard the plodding hoofsteps make their way steadily towards the door while the blaring red marker on my E.F.S. advanced with a slow and shaky gait. Twenty… The ghoul stopped outside the door, and I heard a hoof pawing at the only-inches-wide barrier between us and the horror on the other side. Thirty five…

More sniffing. More hissing. Fifty… A deep and guttural growl followed by heavy thudding blows against the door. One hundred… Then silence.

One-twenty… Nothing. One-thirty… Did it leave? One-thirty-five… Were we safe?

An otherworldly sucking noise, as if all the air in the world were being drawn through a rubber tube, rattled the door in its frame. Holly dove to the side of the door and screamed, “Get dow-”

The door was bucked off its frame by a pair of undead hooves crashing noisily into it, splintering wood and breaking the simple lock on the door out of its place. Simple reflex forced me to blink and raise a hoof to protect my eyes as the door swung open to crash against the wall. I wasn’t able to fire my weapon in time to stop what came next.

The monster threw its head forward as its maw stretched wide in a horrendous and ear-splitting screech that reverberated off the walls of our enclosed space. Goddess it was loud! No creature should be able to make such noises! It was if a thousand forks and knives were scratching and stabbing at the metal tables in the Stable’s cafeteria, as well as being broadcast through the intercom system with all the feedback that the speakers could muster! Gunfire and explosions had nothing on this creature’s wails! And worst of all was the resonating sensations of my bones rattling within my body. This ghoul was killing us with its voice!

This was unbearable! I threw my hooves around my ears to keep from going deaf. Holly was a writhing blur in the corner of my vision, her mouth open in a bellowing scream too quiet to be heard. My sister had fallen over at my hooves, kicking and lashing blindly at the floor in front of her. My eyes shut tight from the pain. It was all I could do to force one of them open long enough to point my weapon at the banshee slowly and methodically plodding in my direction.

I panicked, and jerked the trigger of the pistol as I felt my own scream within my throat. The ghoul was only a couple of pony-lengths away, but the best I could manage to do was to land several glancing blows along its decayed sides, sending the ancient rags laid across its body up in a brief puff of fire and searing several long lines down the ghoul’s flanks.

Luckily, the creature could still recognize pain. As the beams lanced across its form the screaming stopped, leaving me a moment to gaze into that dead stare before I whipped the pistol directly in front of its face and pulled the trigger, depositing a pink laser straight into its dead eye. The ghoul fell over, twitching, as smoke curled off its body and the most awful stench of dead, burning flesh filled the air. It lay on the floor, spasming wildly as spittle and foam dripped from its mouth to soak into the carpet.

Nohta recovered first, rising up to her hooves and rushing towards the monster that lay twitching upon the floor to stomp its head into a thin paste; her every successive blow coming down more forcefully than the last. I flinched as I saw the burnt remnants of its face crunch and disfigure from her blows, the one charred eye it had left popping open grotesquely like a jelly-filled sac underneath Mother’s horseshoes. The body kept twitching even after she had spread its brains across the carpet in a fear-induced panic.

“Hah do ah kill dis fing?” She screamed through her knife, hooves pummeling every inch of the ghoul she could reach.

“It’s dead! It’s dead! Save your strength!” Holly was gathering herself up, scrambling towards the door.

“Ib dill moofing!” Nohta’s assault continued as the creature’s ragged tail flopped and spasmed against the carpet by the doorway.

Holly bolted into the hallway, eyes going wide and yelling back at us. “Leave it, we need to go!” Her submachine gun whipped in front of her, burping a staccato rhythm of gunfire down the path we had just tread. Furious screams and rasping hisses answered back.

“Fug!” Nohta leapt to Holly’s side as I followed her into the hall.

The corridor held a hoof-full of ravenous, twitching ghouls, each of their bodies as grotesque and misshapen as the first. Five of their number were galloping out of the gloom in our direction, snarling and growling like a pack of hounds baying for our blood.

My voice trembled as my eyes widened, “Luna guide my-“ The rest of my prayer was cut off as I slipped into S.A.T.S. A moment later, my pistol’s beams sliced through the darkness to collide with undead flesh. Bubbling, rippling wounds burned into their scarred hides as the concentrated points of heat and light seared through skin and bone. Two ghouls dropped from my barrage, one of them reduced to a wispy cloud of glowing pink ash that scattered to coat the rest of its kin.

Holly’s weapon bit gaping wounds into the necks and faces of the other three, blowing the back of one ghoul’s skull away from its head as brain matter exploded out the exit wound.

As four dead ghouls and one pile of ash came to a stop at our hooves, Nohta’s raucous laughter caught my attention. I turned to find her covering our rear, cloak whipping out behind her as she whirled and danced between three decayed bodies, one ghoul laying still at her hooves already. Her hoof collided with a knee, snapping the joint with an audible crack as its owner wailed in pain and rage. She ducked under a feral strike to sweep cracked and filthy hooves from the floor, sending a second ghoul tumbling to the carpet before Nohta sunk her knife into its ocular cavity.

Nohta called out between barks of laughter, backing up and deflecting blows with an unnatural grace. “These bastards are like walking bucking-bags! Margarita was right! This is way too much fun!”

Holly and I were nearly panting from pain and fear, but Nohta had finally found what she had been looking for: something to beat senseless. Judging from the mad cackle bubbling out of her throat, The Goddess herself couldn’t have kept her from seeking release through her pugilistic rampage.

She reared up, slamming her Pipbuck across a rotted muzzle as yellowed teeth scattered across the carpet. Bringing her other hoof down across the creature’s temple to crush its one working eye, she used her momentum to turn her body, landing on all fours and connecting a double-buck into the neck of her last attacker. The ghoul’s head snapped backwards, its body lifted from the floor to crash into the wall and crush a fake potted-plant as it fell back to the floor.

Her last target was now blind, sporting several broken legs, and was feebly attempting to bite her with a near-toothless mouth as it wobbled shakily in her direction. She shoved it lazily to the floor and yawned, “Ugh… Come on! I had better fights back in school!” She forced the creature on its back and held a hoof against its throat, looking up at Holly and speaking in an uncomfortably even tone. “Why aren’t they getting back up? Is this how we keep ‘em down for good?” She raised her hoof just enough for the ghoul to raise its head and snap at her, before smashing it back down against the floor to the tune of snapping vertebrae.

Holly looked around the now-silent halls, surveying the gory remnants of the attack. “No, these are just normal ghouls. We’re lucky. These are no big deal.”

A muscle in my eye twitched, “No… no big deal?” Was she insane!? I turned to her, nearly shouting. “That was absolutely terrifying! If that wasn’t a big deal, then what is?”

She stared at me, her eyes deadly serious and disturbingly calm. For just a moment, I saw somepony else in those eyes. “Wait until we run into a bloater. Or a rambler. Or a glowing one. Or… her.”

“Her? Do you mean Brigh-”

Nohta cut me off, “Hey! If the normal ones aren’t supposed to come back to life, then how come the ones on the first floor did? And how the hell can you tell the difference, anyway?”

Holly looked around us, examining the bodies. “These are all earth-pony ghouls. So far, I’ve only seen them mutate into bloaters and ramblers. Maybe the occasional glowing one, but nothing else. These poor souls will stay dead. Hopefully.”

“Hopefully?” By The Goddess, couldn’t she speak plainly? I stomped a hoof on the carpet, despising how the padding muffled the gesture. “What do you mean, ‘Hopefully?”

She pawed at the ground, her voice shaking. “Well… The truth is, I don’t really know how the ghouls here are reanimating. And honestly, I don’t want to stick around to find out. Can we get going? Please?” Tears were welling in her eyes, glistening in the light of my Pipbuck.

Tears? What? Why would…. The cogs began to turn.

She had volunteered for this out of a sense of obligation. She shivered when she had to remember the various ghoul types. She was offering up clearly sensitive information without so much as a request for secrecy. And now she had been driven to tears by a mere minutes-long encounter. It all clicked.

She may have offered to help us, but she was scared witless down here. I could certainly sympathize. I was sure that she was simply trying to put on a brave face while she traveled through her own little personal hell.

I nodded, “O- Of course, Holly. Nohta, dear, let’s be on our way.”

My sister raised an eyebrow in question, but otherwise stayed quiet. She retrieved her knife with a repulsive squelching noise from the zombie’s skull, and wiped the viscid gore that clung to the blade off on the ghoul’s scarred hide. The three of us stepped over the mercifully still bodies and continued down the dark hallways.

The gloomy corridors only showed more and more signs of deterioration the further we progressed into the bowels of the decrepit structure. The matted carpet had been ripped from the floor in some places, stained disgustingly in others. Dead light fixtures swung eerily from the ceiling on dangling cables; testament to the presence of other unseen occupants skulking through the halls. The further we warily crept towards the archive, the more certain I became that hidden eyes were watching our cautious advance and planning the most opportune moment to strike.

Gone was my relaxed demeanor from earlier, completely decimated by the attack. I was glaring at every hint of movement within the dark, swinging my Pipbuck lamp at every dim corner and gasping at every dancing shadow. Shadows that, I might add, were mostly produced by the two glowing Pipbucks possessed by our small group. I had become quite literally afraid of my own shadow.

None of my fraying nerves were helped by the rising stink that pervaded the air. The scent of blood was a familiar odor to be sure, as was the horrid reek of death provided by the ghoulish inhabitants of this building. But the pungent and musky odors of mold and sweat grew prominently the further down the halls we went. As we continued to move through the derelict corridors a heavy thumping sound accompanied by shrill shrieks and thuds echoed down the halls. If it weren’t for Nohta’s guiding advance, I’m not entirely sure if I would have had the courage to creep forward. I drew inspiration from her confidence, and sought solace in the belief that she was capable of keeping us safe within these wretched halls.

The gross funk and the heavy, erratic thumping both grew in intensity as we followed age-worn directions towards the archive. The reek had forced me to hold a hoof to my nose to keep from gagging, and the thuds were shaking loose particles of dust and drywall from the ceiling to fall listlessly to the floor in the light of our Pipbucks.

My thoughts rambled with horrifying possibility, fervently attempting to discern what could be lying in wait for us further down the corridor. The muffled crashes and shrieking growls made me believe that something immense was engaged in a monumental struggle ahead of us, but I knew that we had to press on. What monstrosity could be causing such a commotion? Or that stench!? Ugh! I found myself gritting my teeth in preparation for what lay ahead.

Nohta stopped at the intersection of two hallways, beckoning me over as she drew herself up against the wall and peered quietly down the bend. I moved beside her, peeking my head just under her own to see what was the matter as the thuds, shrieks, and growls grew to a crescendo.

Dimly glowing green lights were flickering along the walls; their source still hidden down another hallway further along the corridor. Holly’s mane brushed against my chin as her head joined our stealthy totem pole. Caught in a rather awkward position, I was forced to listen as she explained the danger before us.

Her voice was a whisper in the dark, “Glowing one. That’s the only thing that produces light like that.” The tip of her horn glowed faintly with an emerald aura, blinding due to its proximity to my retinas even when I squeezed my eyes shut. She spoke around her chewing sounds, “Hope you two brought some RadSafe. This could get ugly.”

This position was quickly becoming rather uncomfortable. “Ahem,” I cleared my throat. Holly eeped and ducked out of the way as my sister and I stretched our limbs. As Nohta checked our supplies, I voiced my confusion. “Glowing one? You mentioned that before.” As an afterthought, I added, “Wouldn’t glowing ‘pony’ be more in line with standard Equestrian?”

Holly quickly chewed and swallowed, “Glowing ones are ghouls that have absorbed so much radiation that their bodies become a conduit for the energy. They ‘glow’ with it, and the excess energy seems to attract other ghouls as well.” Looking to me, she continued, “Nine times out of ten, a glowing one is a zebra ghoul. I think their bodies must react differently to-” She caught herself, staring awkwardly at whom she was speaking.

I paid her guilty conscious no heed. My sister and I had heard the terrible, magic word. My jaw slackened as my eyes stretched wide in horror, but it was Nohta’s turn to sound frightened as she stopped flicking knobs on her Pipbuck. “R-Radiation?”

Holly nodded quickly, craning her head to peek around the corner; avoiding eye contact as she levitated her weapon. “Lots of it. They can use it as a weapon, too. They sort of breathe on you, and you soak up a lot of rads.” She shuddered before checking her magazine and ramming it back home with a loud, metallic *clack.* Nohta resumed her search with added gusto.

A tendril of magic reached my Pipbuck, providing a quick and fruitless search of my inventory. “So,” I gulped, feeling my heart thudding in my flattened ears. “What do we do if we don’t have any RadSafe?”

She leaned to the side, peeking around the hallway while whispering to us. “Normally, I’d say ‘Blow its head off from a distance with a really big gun,’ or ‘Just run.’ But with it barring access to the archive and fighting something that sounds a lot bigger than-”

A monstrous, bellowing roar silenced her. A heavy thud sent vibrations rumbling through the floor as a bloody chunk of meat splashed against our corner and rained little droplets of crimson down Holly’s terror stricken face. She didn’t bother to wipe them away, staring wide-eyed down the corridor as the droplets ran down her snout. Her lips and voice both quivered in fright, “Fucking hell-”

My Pipbuck beeped loudly, shaking to life with a determined vibration. A quick glance at the interface provided a familiar warning.

[Danger Imminent. Preparing Countermeasures.]

Goddess, the yao guai was here? Was it following us? Hunting us? What was it doing in the library?

The logical part of my mind demanded that I grab my sister and flee. But my curiosity has seldom been prone to bouts of logic. I leaned into the hallway, taking note of several dismembered limbs and crushed corpses lying upon the floor. One unfortunate ghoul was crawling away from the shattered remnants of its ribcage and hind legs, half of its spinal column trailing along behind it to coat the matted carpet in a wide swath of viscera and blood. With a final ghastly shudder the creature ceased its struggles and laid still.

Just as my Pipbuck began to shake and emit its shrill signal, I heard a loud snorting noise and looked up to see a flash of red whip behind a corner and retreat further into the darkness. My Pipbuck’s broadcast ended abruptly as a white marker on my E.F.S. winked out of view. The beast had remembered the sound and was learning to avoid it, but in its haste to flee had left its prey still wriggling upon the floor.

A shredded and mutilated body was slowly pushing itself to stand upon broken legs and decayed hooves, clawing at the matted carpet as faintly glowing fluids dribbled out of the wounds in its scarred hide. A hide that bore stripes… My eyes immediately shot to the creature’s flank, and I beheld the hard lines and elegant swirls of a glyph mark.

I had to raise a hoof to my mouth to stifle my gasp.

Twin swirls of bright green energy coalesced in its ruined eye sockets; hideous lanterns filled with vicious intent. The freshly rent wounds in its hide were slowly knitting themselves back together underneath the mangled remnants of thick, black and red armor. Instead of a normal zebra stripe pattern, strips of greenish-white light shone from its dark hide to dance along the walls in thin lines. The beams bobbed up and down our surroundings as the creature drew in ragged, heaving breaths and stumbled to its hooves noisily. One of the swirls of light winked out of existence with a quiet popping sound as a yellowed eyeball took its place and glared in our direction.

“That… That’s a…” Nohta’s eyes were glued to the ghoul’s flank. “It looks like M-”

Holly cut her off, bounding into the hall and leveling her weapon at the creature’s head. “Quick! It’s healing itself with the radiation! We need to kill it now!” Her gun’s muzzle flashed in a rapid staccato of light and sound, peppering the ghoul’s staggering form with lead.

Congealed blood and shreds of flesh tore from the ghoul’s body to fly through the air as the bullets slammed into its hide. The undead zebra howled and fell to the side, leaning against the wall as Holly emptied her weapon into its barrel and neck. Gore splattered the wall and floor near the ghoul, glowing faintly with irradiated energy.

Holly yelled back at us as she slammed a fresh magazine into place, “What are you doing? We need to focus our fire!”

I shook my head to free myself of my daze and joined Holly in the hallway, levitating my pistol before me. “Oh Goddess!” Crimson beams tore into the ghoul’s hide, burning deep wounds into the creature’s barrel as it steadied itself and screeched in pain and feral anger. I kept firing wildly after my S.A.T.S. charge had been depleted, hoping to score a lucky hit but only managing to graze its mane as I drained my weapon’s battery.

The glowing one’s chest heaved with the exertion of its breath, forcing faint wisps of greenish fog from its maw as it turned in my direction. The freshly burned holes in its flank closed, leaving warped distortions that didn’t quite heal all the way. It reared up, sucking air as the dazzling strips of light upon its hide glowed ever-brighter.

Holly slammed into my shoulder as the beast returned to all fours and threw its head forward in a great, violent exhalation. I was thrown painfully against the corner, slumping to the floor by my sister as a wave of radiant green energy erupted from the glowing one’s mouth. Nohta and I were only caught by the outer rim of the advancing cone of light, our Pipbucks clicking softly as the attack passed us by. Holly, now standing where I had been just a moment ago, took the full brunt of the attack.

She staggered backwards as the bright wave crashed into her, whipping her mane and robes wildly in its wake. Holly winced in pain as the energy washed over her body, driving the soft light of her magic from her horn and weapon. My own pistol was caught in the blast as well, and the altogether unpleasant sensation of my magic being ripped from my control assaulted my mind; feeling for all the world as if my brain were being sucked through a tube in my forehead.

“Gah!” I gasped from the unexpected agony as my weapon thudded against the matted carpet. These ghouls could nullify unicorn magic? Why hadn’t Holly mentioned that!?

The ghoul wasted no time, charging down the hall in a dead sprint for Holly’s dazed and staggering form. My pistol was too far away, and without my magic I couldn’t retrieve my shotgun in time to be useful. Oh why hadn’t I listened to Father when he told me to not rely so heavily upon spells? As I stared at the floor and focused my entire being through my horn in an attempt to rekindle my telekinesis, a squat plastic bottle rattled to the carpet at Nohta’s hooves, spilling several yellow-orange pills out of its opened top.

Nohta was a black blur in the dimly lit hall. Her cloak flowed behind her as she rammed her shoulder into the ghoul’s side, sending the two of them crashing into the wall. The ghoul snarled and hissed, reacting far more quickly than the previous zombies we had encountered and striking at my sister with a jagged hoof.

The blow caught Nohta squarely in the face, and in the dim glow provided by her opponent’s radiant stripes I saw a glistening wetness running down my sister’s cheeks. But Nohta was too focused in her terrible intent to pay any attention to her own wounds. She reared up, driving a brass-shod hoof under the zombie’s jaw and slamming its head against the peeling wallpaper with a heavy thud as the beast snarled and hissed.

“Goddess-damned radiation!” Another fast kick from Nohta produced the sharp crack of breaking bones. “Fucking die!” Nohta’s attacks were far less elegant or planned than her melee in the Stable; she was pummeling her victim with nothing but brute force.

As she reared back for a blow that surely would have reduced the ghoul’s skull to a glowing smear across the wall, the beast shoved itself free of her grasp and lunged forward to tackle her. Nohta was caught completely off guard and thrown to the floor with a grunt, squirming between whitish-green and black legs.

The undead zebra stomped its hooves viciously, attempting to crush my sister with its heavy blows as Nohta rolled and kicked at its armored chest. Its constant growling and hissing almost sounded as if it were attempting to sound out words. “Has… ira…” But the only thing produced by its incessant gibberish was a spray of glistening spittle that scattered and dripped across my sister’s face. Try as she might, Nohta was unable to escape or get to her hooves.

Holly was still out of commission, frantically scouring the floor for her submachine gun, but a twinge in my mind alerted me to the fact that I wasn’t so helpless. I felt the painful tangle that my magic had become unfurl as the crimson glow emanating from my horn popped back into existence. As Nohta continued to dodge and deflect stomping blows, I dislodged the battered shotgun from my packs.

“Nohta! Hold on!” The weapon hung heavily in the air as I looked down the barrel and aimed high, activating S.A.T.S.

The recoil of the blast nearly jolted the weapon from my grasp, but the concentrated pattern of shot tore a gory swath through the ghoul’s throat. Faintly glowing blood splattered from the wound and oozed out of an undead esophagus as the beast’s wails and hisses gurgled out of its ruined neck. The zebra staggered to the side, thrown off balance by the blast, and stared in my direction with a cold yellow glare.

My second shot followed the first, slamming into the ghoul’s enraged visage. I watched wide-eyed in macabre fascination as the distorted effect of time allowed me to take in every gruesome detail. Shot pummeled the beast’s face, ripping radiant cavities through its cheeks and muzzle. Several rotted teeth were blown free of its gaping maw, their disintegrated remains soon lost in the intensity of our combat. A nearly-black ear was completely severed by the blast and the eye that had been glaring at me was reduced to a pulpy yellow and red jelly.

As my S.A.T.S. charge expired, Nohta gathered her hooves together and bucked at the ghoul’s legs with all her strength. I heard the sharp crack of bones and joints breaking as the ghoul fell to the floor, glowing fluids pouring freely out of its head and neck. Nohta rolled quickly, clambering on top of the glowing one to smash her hooves into its devastated face over and over again. Drops of wetness fell from her face to the ghoul’s, twinkling in the eerie glow emanating from her victims stretching maw. Goddess, her savage blows sent rippling vibrations through the floor!

The undead zebra’s body twitched and spasmed as it drew another breath, glowing brightly within the hallway. Just as Nohta slammed both of her front hooves into the glowing one’s face, the wretched beast bellowed ferociously through its wounded neck. A bubble of luminous blood erupted out of its maw to suffuse my sister’s furious face in vivid scarlet, followed by a bright wave of green energy that decimated the gloom within the halls and wrenched my magic through my skull a second time. My shotgun was blown backwards into my surprised hooves as I fell onto my haunches.

Nohta continued pummeling the creature’s still form as the glow from its stripes died to a soft, cool glow in the returning darkness. Globs of gleaming brain matter and shattered bits of skull leaped away from the disgusting mess produced by her attacks; each impact of her hooves producing a meaty, wet smack or a sharp crack that grated against my nerves and made my ears twitch. It was only as she realized that the beast was now well and truly dead that she ceased pummeling the corpse and sat, shaking, upon the ghoul’s chest to stare at the remains of its destroyed head.

That had been… unpleasant. My mind still aching, I raced to my sister’s side to check on her, crushing the pile of tablets underhoof and nearly stumbling over the strewn limbs upon the floor. “Nohta dear, are you-” Wait… She wasn’t shaking from exertion…

Her breath caught in her throat as she turned away from me, sobbing, and rubbed a sleeve of her cloak against her face so that I couldn’t see. “It… It looked like…” My hoof reached her shaking shoulder as I carefully picked my steps around the gore-splattered mess at her hooves. “...looked like Mom, Sis.”

By The Goddess… I… I had no idea what to say. I rubbed my hoof against her shoulder while I searched for the words. “Shh, dear. That… thing… wasn’t Mother. It was… it was just a monster, okay?”

She wiped her hooves off on the ghoul’s ruined barding and nodded, shaking droplets of crimson from her chin. “Ya… it’s just…” She stood slowly, wobbling to her hooves as I tried my best to keep her steady. “Sis… I don’t feel so-” Nohta threw her head to the side and vomited.

I gasped, breath hitching in my throat as my eyes widened in recognition of her state. “Nohta!” Goddess, no! Not again! “Nohta, check your Pipbuck! Those attacks were radioactive!”

Nohta was staring over her Pipbuck at the puddle on the carpet, “Three… hundred… Fuck… is… is that my blood?”

A soft green glow appeared next to us; a magical aura holding two packs of liquid. “Drink.” Holly was speaking between sips of her own packet. “This is just the sort of reason why I always carry RadAway.”

I snatched the packs out of the air, wrapping a frenzied hoof around my sister and forcing the medicine to her lips. “Do as she says, sister. Drink!”

She feebly pushed them away from herself, coughing. “Candy, you got… you got hit by…”

“No, dear. No. You need these more than I do.” My Pipbuck was barely registering over a hundred rads. I wasn’t about to use up what little medicine we were being offered for something that wasn’t even bothering me.

She groaned in protest. “Sis…”

In my panic-stricken state, I was… perhaps a little more forceful than was required. “Nohta! Shut up and drink! I’m not letting you refuse! I’m your elder and I’m telling you to drink these now!”

Nohta turned to give me a sidelong glare out of one beautiful amethyst eye, her expression a mixture of equal parts fury and anxiety. Stubborn as ever, she continued to fight me. “Or what? You gonna-” Her body convulsed in a coughing fit as she struggled to answer, “...scold me? I’m too old for-” She doubled over and dry-heaved. I couldn’t convince her like this. I needed another way.

When she rose back up to stare into my eyes, my Pipbuck was all she saw. I spoke plainly, my tone even. “One hundred rads, sister. I. Am. Fine.” I lowered my leg, tears brimming within my eyes as my voice wavered due to worry and my own shortness of breath. “Please? I can’t… Not again…”

Her eyes fell to the unfortunate zebra on the floor before closing as she lowered her head. “Fine.”

Holly’s voice was curt and annoyed behind our backs. “No need to thank me…”

As Nohta finally gave in and drank, I turned to Holly. The scribe was still panting, looking cross and faintly winded but otherwise still in decent shape. Her precautions had saved her from most of the damage.

I swallowed my pride, holding Nohta in my hooves as I spoke through my own shuddering breath. “Holly, I’m so sorry! Thank you. Thank you so much!”

Luckily, she was willing to overlook my uncouth behavior. Holly shrugged and crept towards us, examining the corpse at our hooves. “I don’t think this one will be getting back up, but if it does we’ll be in bad shape.” She leaned down to inspect the thick barding, pawing at the three golden chevrons adorning the chestplate with her hoof. “Sergeant… Mlezi? Poor bastard.” Her horn flared a second time, and what appeared to be a knife-sized chainsaw was pulled from the depths of her robes. With the flick of a button, the machine came to life, its teeth rotating slowly around the blade. Holly whispered over the revving motor, “You two might want to look away for this.” I gulped as my imagination went to horrifying places, and acquiesced as quickly as I could.

I led my sister away from the meaty ripping and shredding sounds behind us as Nohta finished the first packet of RadAway and tossed the emptied bag to the floor. I was able to clumsily stuff my shotgun into my packs with my hooves, though the end was left protruding oddly out from underneath the flap. When a small *pop* between my ears left me wincing in pain, I chanced a glance behind us to find my other weapon. The horrifying sight of Holly tearing a severed spinal column away from a torso was nauseating, but was made worth it when my pistol floated back to my leg in my scarlet glow.

Nohta was complaining in a half-hearted manner as we advanced towards the next hallway. “These things taste almost as bad as Dad’s cooking, by the way. I didn’t think you could burn juice until he got ahold of some.” She opened the second packet and began to sip as quickly as she could. “Like, seriously… Fuck this taste. This is awful.” I smiled. The RadAway was already having an effect. Blunt and offensive was a good thing, in that regard.

Knowing that my sister would soon be free of radiation was providing more relief than I can adequately describe. I found my smile turning into a smirk as I teased her, “Why else would I be so adamant that you drink them both, darling?”

She snorted, taking great pains to keep from spitting the liquid, and managed to swallow before rounding on my giggling form, “Candy! If you-” Noticing my state of mirth, she sat on her haunches and resumed drinking. “Very funny.”

“I’m sorry, dear. I know I shouldn’t joke about this, but… You had me worried there. You don’t normally refuse treatment…” My tone dropped as I brushed away the powdered remnants of the pills that were clinging to my hoof. “Nohta…” How was I going to bring this up? Would she just shrug it off? Would she just say it was a necessary dose, like back in the Stable?

Holly chose that moment to canter up behind us, looking entirely far too cheerful despite being covered in splattered gore. “Okay! This night just keeps getting better and better! Ghoul samples! Technological breakthroughs! Exciting discoveries! We all good? Because I need to ask a really important question.”

I sighed, “Holly, perhaps this isn’t the best-”

She continued, undeterred. “Did your Pipbuck seriously just scare that monster off?”

“My sister and I were in the middl-” She wanted to discuss the yao guai? Really? “Er… Yes. This isn’t the first time we’ve encountered that beast, either. We crossed paths with it once before when we first came to Coltsville. I fear it might be hunting us, but as long as I have this,” I held up my Pipbuck, “I don’t believe it will be an issue.”

“You’ve gotten close to it? And you’re still alive? Wow…” She smiled and shook her head unbelievingly. “You have to be the two luckiest girls I’ve ever met.”

Nohta’s second empty packet fell to the floor with the soft slap of thick plastic as she swallowed and cleared her throat. “Ya. Maybe. I’d prefer the kind of luck where everything goes our way right off the bat instead of going to shit and just being able to survive our way out, though.” My sister leaned to the side, glancing behind the scribe to see the stomach-turning carnage left in the hall. An odd mix of emotions played across her face before she finally settled on neutral curiosity. “Huh… You yanked his spine out? Neat.”

I wanted to object. To say something about showing respect for one of Mother’s people. But then, I couldn’t very well contradict my statement only minutes prior. Not whenever our survival hinged on Nohta being able to recognize these ghouls as monsters. It was just another little sacrifice I had to make, and not even one of the important ones at that. You shouldn’t feel differently about someone simply because you’ve learned they have a name, should you? We all have names. We all have lives and loves and dreams.

We continued around the corner, picking our way past a gruesome hellscape of crushed and slashed ghouls. Slashed chunks of disembodied organs and blood clung to the walls, slowly oozing down the floor to pool upon the carpet. The carnage was so complete that I couldn’t accurately predict how many feral ghouls had been ripped to pieces. Fifteen? Twenty? Bloody bones were scattered in every direction, still covered with chunks of rotten flesh.

Holding my disgust at bay as best I could, I took the advice of Mother’s book. Several unruptured eyeballs of every muted color of the rainbow found their way into holding containers within my ingredient satchel. At Holly’s bewildered and disgusted stare, I could only shrug and offer up the simplest of explanations. “Alchemy.”

“Wait… are you planning on making those into a potion? As in… drinking it?” Queasiness does not begin to describe her expression. Her eyes bulged in their sockets while she tried desperately to subdue her gag reflex behind one of her hooves.

“Mmhmm,” I answered nonchalantly, undeterred from the ghastly process of sinking Nohta’s blade into the temple of a skull to sever the optic nerve. A little wiggle of the blade and the the eye popped right out. “I inherited a book from my mother that is simply rife with information regarding practical alchemical applications for various ingredients; ghoul eyes being just one of them.” I left it at that, being confident that she wouldn’t have understood a more in-depth explanation at all.

And besides that, she was clearly having difficulty stomaching my endeavours in the first place. Her legs continuously moved as if they couldn’t decide to go or stay and her voice was thick with her efforts to keep from vomiting.

Between minor convulsions and swallowing back her spit, she managed to piece together a query. “Doesn’t that… sort of… you know… gross you out? Or scare you?”

A scarlet bubble plucked another eyeball out of a skull like a berry from a bush. “These creatures might be the stuff of pure nightmare when they are still moving about, but like this? Puh-lease… I’ll be fine so long as none of them start moving.” I waved a hoof dismissively, “I’ve dealt with cadavers before, dear. After all, death is an unavoidable tragedy when you work in the field of medicine. I’ve learned to take a clinical approach to this sort of thing.” I paused, opening another small jar and nearly whispering an admission to myself. “Though… it’s not as if it doesn’t bother me to some degree, but I’m trying to take Mother’s advice while I have the chance.”

Nohta had begun gathering up skulls, depositing them at my hooves where they thudded against each other dully. “What advice is that, Sis?”

I turned away from the eyeless head at my hooves to answer my sister. “Making opportunities versus waiting to find them. And not passing up opportunities regardless of how… repugnant they might be.” The heft of the blade in my magic was beginning to bring back memories. Memories that I would have preferred lain dormant. With a sharp twist, I freed the knife and offered it back to her. “Nohta, darling, could you take over the ah… collection process for a bit?”

She took the knife between her teeth before deftly sinking it into a dead temple. “You know… the other day you were all ‘Oh no! We’re desecrating corpses! We can’t do that!” My sister’s smirk flashed brilliantly in the light of my Pipbuck. “Now you’re taking eyes.”

“Nohta, you were cutting off the ears of what had once been ponies. Sentient creatures! Not these mindless abominations!” My muzzle rose in the air indignantly, “And that was only for the sake of material profit! These eyes are one of the primary ingredients for one of Mother’s signature potions! A true fortune!”

A quiet and pained groan sounded behind my sister. “Oh she… She’s actually gonna…” I glanced at our scribe. Holly’s chest was convulsing as she held a hoof to her mouth. Something I had said had clearly not sat well with her.

“One of Mom’s special brews?” Nohta’s eyes were wide as she very nearly bounced with excitement. “Which one are you making? Do you think there’s gonna be enough for both of us? What’s it gonna taste like? Do you think-”

I held a hoof up, interrupting her. “Darling, I still need two crucial ingredients before I can do anything at all.” Her face fell for a moment, before she resumed wiggling the blade behind an eyeball. My hoof scratched my chin idly as I thought aloud, “Though I have absolutely no idea how we’re going to find Killing Joke in the desert. And I seriously doubt that we could handle a fully grown manticore by ourselves.”

Holly spoke slowly, trying to hold her imminent sickness at bay as she braced herself against the wall. “Manticores… in the hills… can show you… after…”

Nohta shot me a bemused grin as she nodded in Holly’s direction. A sly smirk crept across my face as I called out to our companion, “Holly, if you need to induce emesis dear, please do so elsewhere! Your stomach acid might deteriorate these ingredients!” With my smirk widening into a full-on malicious grin, I added, “And that would certainly ruin the flavor!”

Holly’s eyes bulged one last time. “Oh godde-” She threw her head around the corner, and a wet splash accompanied her retching sounds.

The gross stinks of death and sweat mingled in a terrible fashion as we entered a room full of glowing terminals and tangled networking cables. Dead overhead lighting fixtures swung loosely above our heads as Holly and I moved towards the center of the room. Nohta was crouching by the door behind us, keeping an eye out for the beast that we knew still lurked the darkened halls.

“This is the archive.” Holly crept warily through the room, stepping over cables and scattered bones while her gun levitated in front of her. “Looks like your friend lived down here.”

I examined the room with a more discerning eye, old packages of food had been sliced or ripped open, and some of the bones had clearly been chewed on. Aged blood stains spotted the floor and walls in rusty brown splotches. Long gouges had been slashed into the walls by the doorway. Several of the terminal chairs had been savagely torn apart, the stuffing of their seats gathered into a smelly and cluttered corner. In direct contrast to the ferocious carnage wrought upon the rest of the room, none of the delicate electronic equipment had been harmed beyond a few minor claw marks. Everything of significant importance was still completely functional with only the smallest of cosmetic defects. I couldn’t help but spare the briefest of moments to ruminate about how odd a coincidence that was. Luna must have been smiling upon us again, I mused.

I nodded, my thoughts returning to the task at hoof as I sat at a terminal. “Indeed. If this is its nest, then we should attain our information and leave as quickly as possible. I’d rather not anger the poor beast anymore than we already have.”

“That sounds like a good plan. Those monsters are some of the most dangerous creatures in the wastes, I’d rather not keep Squad 108 waiting on us while that thing is roaming the area.” Holly continued to search the room, poking through shelves and cabinets. “Let me know when you find the map and I’ll transfer the data to my own Pipbuck. I’m going to keep looking around.”

I focused on the terminal before me and mentally prepared myself for the coming influx of code to decipher. It only took a moment to discern that the archive terminal wasn’t protected by a password, obviating the need for hacking and granting immediate access to thousands of files. While slightly disappointed that the terminal offered no resistance, I was otherwise thrilled to finally have located our quarry. I scanned through numerous files and folders before finding what I was looking for and reading aloud. “M.o.A. plans special project for Death’s Head Mountain. S.P.P. tower number 52 will provide weather control capabilities to the majority of the San Palomino Desert, converting the arid region into fertile farmland. Planned cities and towns under the area of influence will include Coltsville, Pranceton, Fort Mane, Mareon, Spursburg, and Fancy Lick.” With a few more taps of the keys I soon had a pre-war map loaded to my Pipbuck. I couldn’t hold back the disappointment in my voice as I whispered to myself. “That was rather… anticlimactic.”

Nohta’s smug grin invaded my field of vision, causing me to jump and raise a hoof to my suddenly racing heart. “What? You wanted another fight, Sis?”

I hissed at Nohta as I slowly calmed down. “Goddess! Don’t sneak up on me like that, sister!”

“I didn’t sneak. You just get way too into this sort of thing.” She reached a brass-shod hoof forward to clink against the glass screen. “What’s the M.o.A? Or the S.P.P?”

Before I could voice my own confusion regarding the acronyms, Holly’s voice called back to us from the opposite end of the room. “Found something! An audio recording! And still in good condition, too.” A boxy device floated over to me in a green aura as the scribe offered up her discovery, “Here, move over. I’ll trade you this for a shot at the terminal. My pockets are too full, anyway.”

“I was under the impression that you only required a copy of the map?” I questioned, ignoring the tempting glimpse into the past floating towards my hooves.

“That was before I realized these terminals had potentially sensitive information regarding old tech.” Holly scooted into the seat after I stood to make room for her. “This is the sort of thing that my order is after. I’ll need to copy the entirety of the files here for safekeeping, then destroy the originals.”

Nohta’s face scrunched in confusion, “Why would you do that?”

“To keep anypony else from getting access to tech that might wind up hurting them. Aren’t you familiar with how Steel Rangers work?” Her levitation gently pushed the audio log into my chest as she hooked her own Pipbuck into the terminal. “This is how we try to keep the wasteland safe, by making sure that others don’t have access to the really terrible weapons of the pre-war days.”

Well… there was a certain sense to that, I thought. We were certainly doing a fair job of killing ourselves in droves by utilising simple weapons. What carnage would be unleashed should we regain the ability to make more devastating personal armaments… or worse?

I relented and took the recording in my own magic, hoping that it might provide even the briefest glimpse into life before The Final Day. For all the scrolls and books that had been kept in my stable’s library, I still had such sparse knowledge of the area around our old home. Holly’s hooves were a maroon blur over the terminal while I duplicated the map and shared it with my sister, then set the recording to play.

Distorted explosive noises could be heard thumping through the static of the recording in clear contrast to the sharp gasps and frightened squeals of a group of ponies. A foal’s cries, and its mother’s attempts to comfort it, played backdrop to the erratic but continuous bass rumble of immense detonations. Every so often, another frighteningly powerful explosion rumbled through my Pipbuck’s speaker, and the wails and crying would rise in strength for another pitiable second.

A lone male voice, deep and powerful and exotic, spoke through my Pipbuck. “We… we failed.” Another booming bass rumble echoed through the speaker as the voice in the recording sighed. “It is over. It is all over.” That voice… that sounded like…

A second voice, just as exotic but softer and smoother and very female, spoke as well. “Askari? These could be our final moments. Why do you speak their tongue?” These were zebras!

“Because, Shauri, they are not our enemies any longer. I want them to understand.”

“Them? Do you mean…” She questioned.

The male voice was exceedingly tired, but carried the weight of determination. “They who shall be coming after all is finished. But before the ending has come.”

“You have listened to Mganga for too long, Commander. Remember the words of the Caesar...”

“No, Shauri. There is no remembering. Listen now…” Another distant rumble vibrated through my speaker. “This is the sound of Usiku’s kingdom breaking. Burning and freezing under her hooves. Today marks the end for our people. We have bathed the ponies in balefire and hoarfrost.” The voice let out another heavy exhalation before continuing, “Now imagine what she has done to our lands…”

The male voice continued, “The Caesar is dead, Shauri. You know this. The war is ending as we speak. We have undone ourselves. Only the stars know victory this day.”

A second male voice, this one distinctly belonging to a pony, spoke with an academic confidence over the backdrop of frightened wails and sobbing. “If you truly believe that, then there is no reason to hold us prisoner any longer.”

The first voice, the one I assumed to be named Askari, answered. “Perhaps… But why should I be inclined to take counsel from the pony who has harbored Mizani? His mistake is why we are here in the first place.” Askari spoke evenly, even as his words dripped anger. “The two should never have been separated. To do so is to invite madness into one’s soul! You ponies know not what you do.”

Another distant explosion rattled the occupants of my Pipbuck as I raced to piece together what I was listening to. Zebras holding ponies prisoner. Distant explosions… Talk of bathing the world in balefire?

This was The Final Day. I was hearing a recording of the moment the world was left shattered and charred. Goddess… these poor souls must have been cowering in some basement, hoping that the hell above them would pass them by. My eyes scanned the room around me as my imagination whisked away beyond my control.

Perhaps they had been in this very spot hundreds of years prior? I could see the ponies with my mind’s eye, huddled together near the archives and in corners, praying to Luna for forgiveness and safety. I could see how the zebras would have divided themselves from the ponies, praying to the spirits of their ancestors just like Mother had occasionally done within our home. Both sides caught in the wake of a terrible tragedy brought about by their own hooves. And if any should ask whose fault this atrocity was, every hoof would point across the room in silent accusation.

I still could not fully comprehend the level of pure, unbridled hatred that would have driven Equestria and The Zebra Empire to devastate the entire world. I had only felt a fleeting glimpse of that fury, courtesy of the Pyro’s visit to my stable and my subsequent rage when it came time to take the first life I had ever wanted to take. But this… What insanity could drive someone to peer over the cliff and, seeing that the only way to lay their hated enemy low was to join them in the grave, throw themselves willingly into the abyss? What sane individual could do that? How could these ponies and zebras have fallen so low?

An icy chill ran down my spine as I sympathized with the poor souls seeking refuge from violent forces which they were impotent to stand against. It wasn’t so long ago that my sister and I had been cowering in fear of those that had sought our demise, after all. I shuddered as brief flashes of my caravan’s ambush raced through my mind. Gunfire, explosions, blood… Panicked calls for aid shouting for my Father and I by name… The world going grey and silent… I shook my head. Now was not the time go down this mental path! I needed to focus! A contemptuous grunt from the pony in my Pipbuck brought my meandering thoughts back to the audio recording and the frightened individuals that inhabited it.

The pony in my Pipbuck spoke again, “Oh, I’m not so sure about that. Star Bright seems to have a damned good grasp of what she’s doing. Need I remind you that it was one of your soldiers that lifted the barrier? My assistant never would have gotten her hooves on that blasted artifact if you hadn’t-”

The male zebra answered, his voice steadily rising to the point of shouting. “Wawindaji is dying for my error in judgement. We cannot save him now. This I know. But you should have never kept the book! You should have cast it out! Returned it to my people! That honorless traitor Mizani-”

“Was my FRIEND!” Anger lifted the academic pony’s voice above the zebra’s shouts.

Another massive detonation, this one much closer than the others, silenced the rising argument before it could escalate out of control. The sounds of various objects falling to the floor and shattering accompanied the agonized wailing of the prisoner ponies. After the frightened shrieks had died down, and silent stillness had taken hold of the recording once more, the female zebra spoke softly from my speaker. “Please, this argument serves no one. Askari… Commander… if your fears are true, and both Usiku and the Caesar have perished, then we have no orders. What shall we do?”

A long moment passed, the silence only held back by the whimpering of the terrorized survivors. After another excruciatingly heavy sigh, Askari answered his comrade. “We must reseal the book. It must be contained. Now that the two are not one, they are a danger to all.” Another lull in the conversation made me realize that the explosions had ceased. Askari’s voice had softened to a heartbreakingly tragic consolation. “This magic was not meant for your kind. I know not what will become of your assistant. We will try to make her death painless.”

The pony’s tone of voice echoed the zebra’s, “Star Bright didn’t understand what she was doing. She was just trying to save the one she loved. She doesn’t deserve… whatever is happening to her.”

Askari continued, “No… no one does. Wawindaji was a fool, and I a larger one.”

The pony’s tone was soothing, comforting. “But he cared for her. We all saw it. And a fool in love is the most dangerous kind.”

The female zebra, Shauri, spoke again. I could just detect the hint of a wan smile on her voice. “Well at least we can all agree on something.”

Askari’s words bore the force of a leader. “You should take the ponies here and evacuate. Coltsville is no longer safe, but Mareon may suit your needs if the radiation has not yet reached it.”

“You’re letting us go?” The pony gasped incredulously.

“My Caesar and your Usiku are both dead. This war between kingdom and empire is over. All that will be left are we pitiful survivors.” A brief pause, then the male zebra spoke thoughtfully, “A soldier fights for his people. For all I know, this room contains all the people left in the world. We cannot be enemies any longer.”

The pony didn’t seem so sure, “It… might be hard for some of the residents of Coltsville and Mareon to see it that way. I can try to smooth things over but… “

“After we have reclaimed the book, we will leave this land. My centuria will return home… “

“Commander?” Shauri’s voice was confused and worried.

Askari sighed one last time, his voice carrying the notes of painful resignation. “...I will not. I need to see Usiku’s corpse with my own eyes. And… my duty compels me to other ends.”

The recording stopped abruptly, allowing the silence of the room to funnel into my ears once more. I looked away from my Pipbuck to find my sister deep in thought and Holly staring, wide-eyed and mouth agape, in my direction. A flashing green-and-white “Download Complete” message was left completely ignored behind her excited face.

She rocketed from her seat, causing the rusty rollers to stick and send the whole chair toppling over behind her. “Oh my goodness! It might actually be here!” She disconnected the small cable running from her Pipbuck to the terminal and made for the doorway. “Come on! We need to hurry! We’re so close!” Without another word, Holly dug a small device out of her pockets and flung it into the middle of the room, then whipped around and galloped into the hall.

My sister and I hurried after her down the darkened halls we had just traversed. As we were galloping after her, Nohta bumped my shoulder and nodded in the scribe’s direction, “Pretty excited, isn’t she?” I nodded, but couldn’t find the breath to respond. A curious, electrical crackle sounded from the archives behind us as we followed the scribe.

It wasn’t long before we found ourselves at the stairs leading back up to the ground level. A breathless flight of stairs later, I was trudging along behind my sister and Holly as they stepped out onto the ground floor of the building and proceeded further inward. Nearly in unison, all three of our Pipbucks beeped and vibrated in the gloom. I glanced down at mine to see the simple discovery message: “Hub 76.”

“This is a hub?” Holly’s voice was confused and incredulous before her personal revelation. “Ugh… of course! They wouldn’t store the book in a simple library! It had to be a hub…”

What was she talking about? My confusion was voiced between panting breaths, “Hub? Hub for… what?”

She paused, raising a hoof to her muzzle as she sat still, and looked around at the dimly lit walls. “Well it’s definitely not Wartime Tech; I would’ve known about that. It’s not Peace, this isn’t Awesome’s style, and it most certainly isn’t Morale… I’d say this is Image. They always tried to be subtle.”

Nohta asked the obvious question for me, “What are you yapping about now?”

Holly blinked and turned to my sister. She seemed just as confused as we were. “You don’t know about the Ministries?”

“Ministries?” I had to brace myself against the wall with a hoof as I fought to catch my breath. Goddess, those stairs had been agonizing! “What do… you mean, Holly?”

“The Ministries! How could you not know about the Ministries?” She shook her head in disbelief, appearing nearly disgusted at our ignorance. “What stable did you say you were from?”

Nohta looked back to me with a questioning glance. My mind raced. Had we said too much? There might still be something left in our old home worth protecting, after all. And if we ever managed to find our stable-mates, they certainly wouldn’t appreciate our giving away important information. My mane fell around my cheeks as I lowered my face and shook my head lightly.

Nohta pulled her hood back over her mane and looked Holly straight in the eye. “What’s it matter what stable we came from?”

Holly sighed, closing her eyes and breathing slowly in exasperation. “Look, I know that this might come as a surprise to you if you’ve never been inside a different stable than your own.” Her voice took on a sympathetic quality as she continued to explain, “But only a small fraction of the stables functioned as publicly advertised. The entire Stable program was set up as a system of social experiments to ‘find a better way.’ Some of the experiments got way out of hoof, and ended up with a lot of dead ponies.”

Nohta snorted contemptuously, “So? Who gives a shit?” My sister obviously didn’t care about the fate of long-dead Equestrians. “Ponies in the past fucked up. I’m totally surprised about that one. Real shocker. What’s it matter?”

Holly pursed her lips in annoyance, “It matters because the only way you could not know about the most important organizations in the old Equestrian government is if you were in a stable that had been involved in a radical experiment!”

“No, you fucking id-” My hoof found Nohta’s shoulder, silencing my sister’s outburst. When she looked back to my pleading eyes, she calmed herself and started over. Her hooves moved before her in a conciliatory gesture. “What I mean is… This isn’t getting us any closer to that book. Let’s just get this over with, okay? Candy doesn’t look all that great and I want to get her out of this town as quick as I can.”

“I… What?” My own lack of breath betrayed my pitiful physical state.

Holly’s eyes regarded my panting form. She nodded and turned to Nohta again, “Alright. Let’s get back to it. We might get lucky and find some more RadAway in here somewhere. I’m all out.”

“Beg pardon? I’m perfectly… fine.” Oh… lightheadedness. Well maybe not perfectly fine…

Nohta rounded on me, her eyes like purple ice, and jabbed her hoof at my chest. She hissed at me through clenched teeth, “Next time we get blasted by radiation, you either drink that shit or I will force it down your throat.” She punctuated her next two words with sharp little hoof pokes that very nearly left bruises on my chest. “No. Arguing.”

And just like that, our roles reversed yet again. A corner of my mouth curled upwards as I finally caught my breath and nodded. “As you say, sister.”

Holly turned away from us, her Pipbuck lighting the darkened hallway in its green luminescence as she slowly trotted forwards. Nohta and I followed soon after, but it didn’t take my sister long to grow frustrated with Holly’s slow progress down the corridors. Nohta soon took the lead, darting into offices and noisily ripping out desk drawers and overturning furniture in her hasty scavenging.

Holly and I cautioned her against foolhardiness, but she simply waved us off and proceeded undeterred. After several minutes of this with no ghoul encounters Holly and I simply shrugged our shoulders and joined my sister in her pillaging, reasoning that the majority of the ghouls in the building had already been dealt with in the basement.

I pondered the exact nature of my surroundings as I traveled from room to room and pilfered long-forgotten desks adorned with the personal belongings of the building’s workers. This “hub” had been more than a library. I was sure of that. It simply had too many offices, cubicles, and restrooms for a library’s staff.

One of the nearby break areas had already been looted, its Sparkle-Cola vending machines having been gutted and their heavenly innards pilfered. The adjacent Ironshod Firearms Ammunition vending machine had likewise been torn apart, empty bullet casings scattered on the floor next to dirty brown stains. I couldn’t help but wonder why anypony would be foolish enough to set up such easy and unrestrained public access to deadly ammunition.

I swallowed back my confusion, pressing onward into the small lounge area, and stepped into the mare’s restroom alone. A soiled and cracked mirror greeted me with… me. I stared at my face for a long time, unbelieving. The radiation and trials of the wastes had not been kind to my visage.

I was, to put it simply, a mess. My eyes were tired, sunken, and bloodshot. My mane and tail were tangled, frayed, burnt disasters of pink and my naturally white coat was spotted in several places with the crimson splotches of bloodstains. My labcoat was likewise stained horribly, but it was at least holding together. The pink and yellow box hanging by the mirror finally caught my eye, and a single roll of non-magical bandages as well as a bottle of clean water soon found themselves within my packs. I tugged at my mane with a hoof, futilely attempting to bring some sense of control to the bedraggled mess atop my head while I lamented not even having packed a brush for my travels. Sighing deeply in resignation, I cast one last forlorn glance at my reflection before leaving the restroom. I knew that I’d never be as beautiful as Mother but… A mare can dream, can’t she?

I left the restroom and ambled into a large room full of thin and moldy dividing walls, each separating its little space from the next to form a long-forgotten hive of cubicles. Fresh confusion wracked my mind. This room could have housed dozens of workers! What did they do here? I walked through a row of workstations, their dilapidated dividers looking about as sturdy as roughed-up cardboard. Each little space had been ransacked, leaving requisition forms and shipping invoices scattered to every conceivable nook and cranny within the squat walls and littered all across the floor. The yellowed papers crinkled lightly under my hoof as I moved through the work space. Filing cabinets had been overturned on top of desks, cracking or denting the thin plastic or metal of the furniture. With an odd feeling of remembrance, I noticed one of the cabinets had been stripped of its metal doors and that large portions of its sides had been removed with the telltale melted-metal-signature of a cutting torch.

The cubicle at the end sported the same disastrous motif as its sisters but, unlike them, retained a glowing terminal. A small squeal of delight escaped my lips as I sat at the desk and gleefully tapped away at the keys. Idle fantasies about learning just a bit more about the past consumed my mind. What would this terminal hold? A news article detailing The Goddess’ stunning defeat of the invading zebra forces? The personal account of a pony trying to move her family away from the war? Perhaps an email full of gossip regarding classified wartime technology? I was so engrossed in the inevitable glimpse into the past that I was taken completely by surprise when my hacking attempt failed, locking me out of the system entirely. I caught my dumbfounded reflection in the screen, and shook my head as I wondered if Mother and Father’s thrill seeking hadn’t been passed on to more than one of their daughters.

“No more rushing when it comes to terminals,” I promised myself in a chagrinned whisper. I chuckled to myself as I added, “At least Holly or Nohta weren’t here to see that. Nohta’s teasing would have been dreadful!”

I caught myself. My eyes shooting wide open as I realized just what a grave mistake I had made. “Nohta!” How could I have left them? Goddess, I was such a fool! “Nohta?” Why wasn’t she answering?

I hurried from the cubicle, chest heaving as my imagination ran away to dark places with a terrifying alacrity. I scanned the room with my E.F.S. but found no other occupants. “Nohta!” I called out to my sister, galloping back to the offices we had been looting. I needed to find her! Where was she?

I held my pistol in the air before me, allowing the scarlet glow of my magic to light my way through the darkness as I galloped through deteriorated cubicles and past rusty filing cabinets and ancient water-coolers. I called out again, letting my voice carry through the halls in front of me. I was dreading the worst, but what actually came to greet me was almost as horrifying.

A quick staccato of gunfire lit the walls at the end of my tunnel in brilliant flashes, silhouetting the flailing limbs of equine figures against the wall. Feral hisses and guttural roars plowed through the gunfire as Nohta ran around the corner laughing.

“Ha ha! Hey Candy! We pissed somepony off! Get ready!” Her hood had been thrown back, allowing the light of my Pipbuck to glint in her wide, excited eyes.

Relief washed over me. “Nohta! Thank Luna you’re okay!”

“This little hellion you call a sister is insane!” Holly skidded into the hallway, nearly toppling over due to her momentum before she caught herself and charged in my direction. “We have to go!”

I looked behind Holly to see a veritable horde of writhing, undead ponies spilling into the hall in a deluge of undead flesh. A writhing horde of scarred coats and rotting faces tinted in a muted spectrum of every conceivable color was scrambling over itself behind Holly and hurtling towards us with a ferocious and unbridled intensity. There were at least twenty ghouls, maybe more. I didn’t wait to count, I simply turned and fled with as much haste as I could muster, just barely resisting the urge to scream in terror.

Nohta had activated her Pipbuck lamp, the blue light mingling with my red and Holly’s green magical auras. My sister led the way through the halls, occasionally sparing a moment to laugh and buck out at a hissing corpse that stepped into the hallway ahead of us. Their aged bones snapped easily under her shodden hooves, leaving them to stagger and stumble after us before being trampled by the herd at our back.

We finally found a staircase, creating a thin bottleneck through which we might funnel our assailants. Nohta bounded up the stairs with an unreal grace, not slowed in the slightest and still laughing insanely. I followed as quickly as I could manage, Holly nearly shoving me in front of her as her gun fired wildly behind her. The ghouls were so close that I could feel the back-blasted gore splatter against my mane and labcoat. The light emanating from the overhead lights of the second floor lit our way as we crawled our way out of hell.

Nohta was yelling in triumphant glee. “Hahaha! This is awesome!” Holly and I found the second floor as Nohta found her next victim. “Bring it on!”

A shambling corpse noticed her too late, and the exposed bone of its foreleg cracked as easily as a twig under Nohta’s brutal assault. The creature fell to the ground, growling and gnashing its teeth before Nohta pounced on the ghoul’s skull with all of her hooves at once, delivering a thunderous stomp that obliterated the zombies head in one swift attack. Dull-gray necrotic brain matter surged out all over the nearby wall as she happily trounced the poor creature like a pre-war filly squishing grapes for wine.

“Nohta! What did you do? There are more of them every second!” My shotgun levitated out of my packs and swung in a wide arc as I turned to face an open doorway. Three rotting corpses with lifeless eyes and broken teeth tripped over each other as they scrambled through the opening; heedless of everything save for their insatiable hunger for our flesh. A blast from the weapon in their direction resulted in a glorious fountain of crimson as an undead head was reduced to paste.

Holly stood beside me, a grimace on her face as she sent a controlled burst of lead that tore bloody little blossoms through the body of the second ghoul, “Your little sister is crazy! CRAZY!” The third zombie stumbled past its fallen companions and lunged forward, opening its maw in a hellish reek of carrion breath.

Holly stepped to the side, caught the creature’s advancing form in her hooves, and slammed it into the wall hard enough to jostle a hanging painting to the floor. The ghoul’s broken hoof slammed into her neck, puncturing the skin and drawing blood as the scribe drew her mechanical knife and sank the spinning teeth into the zombie pony’s neck. With a final spasm, the creature let out a gurgling death rattle and fell at her hooves, silent. Its lifeless head followed a second later.

I turned back to find my sister surrounded at the top of the stairway, laughing and kicking with an impossible grace for one who just bounded up a flight of stairs in the blink of an eye. Her body spun, sending her cloak whirling behind her to follow her motions like a second shadow, and she deftly dodged a feral blow to her face while Mother’s horseshoes struck a decaying jawline. The ghoul was thrown to the side as half of its jaw swung limply; its mandible bone having been ripped partly from its skull to leave its tongue dangling from the gory crater that had only moments ago been its mouth. Years of medical training may have desensitized me slightly to the sight of blood, but to witness such a gruesome and sudden display unfold before my eyes was still a relatively novel experience. And to know that my little sister was not only the cause but a joyful reveler in this chaotic and violent maelstrom sent shivers through my spine.

Nohta rose to her full height, sidestepping a charging attack and slamming her hoof squarely into the ghoul’s temple. She had put her weight behind the blow, driving the zombie’s rotted skull to her side where it crunched into the equally rotted drywall to leave a spider-web fissure at the impact point. She laughed wildly, “This is so much fun!”

“Nohta! Can you hold them off? I need to staunch Holly’s bleeding!” I jammed my hoof against the jagged gash rent from our companion’s neck and floated my jar of healing salve out of my bags.

“No sweat, Sis! This is easy!” Nohta spun in place, sweeping one of the undead herd from its hooves to the sound of snapping bones and rasping hisses.

Viscera and splintered ribs exploded out of another ghoul’s side as Nohta landed a double-buck to the creature’s barrel. She already had five, now truly dead, corpses laying at her hooves and was absolutely covered in congealed blood and scraps of necrotic scar tissue. She brought her combat knife from its scabbard and plunged it into another assailant’s throat, severing the spinal column and causing the zombie to drop to the floor before sliding down the stairs.

“Absolutely… crazy… “ Holly panted, wincing slightly as the glimmering green ointment covered the wound and began to regenerate the flesh of her neck. “Thank you, Candy.”

I nodded silently, levitating the shotgun to my side and slipping into S.A.T.S. A flash of light and burst of sound later, and another cloud of gore spattered the wall behind a would-be assailant. These ghouls were nothing if not tenacious!

A series of blasts joined my own, tearing through decayed flesh and dropping bodies to the floor. Holly’s SMG floated across my vision, a fresh magazine slamming home with a satisfying mechanical click before Holly shouted by my side, “We need to keep moving!”

Holly and I dashed through the cleared doorway. Nohta ran behind us, knocking over every chair she found in the hallway as the mindless horde tripped and stumbled in her obstructing wake. The monumental clamour of our skirmish was only serving to draw more ghouls to our location! The three of us hurried through the halls as more and more zombies filtered into our path.

Soon all I could hear was gunfire as my world devolved into a constant state of violence. The noise was deafening, hammering into my eardrums viciously. Gnashing teeth, exploding skulls, and flailing limbs dominated my vision. We weren’t fighting for an objective any longer. We were fighting for our lives.

The noise came to an abrupt halt as a ghoul’s head erupted in a fountain of gore mere inches from Holly’s gun, “FUCK! I’m jammed!” Holly’s weapon had hung up, an oozing sludge of partially congealed blood gumming the action and seeping from the barrel.

Holly’s outcry distracted me, throwing my already poor and panicked aim off by a considerable degree. My shotgun blared, shattering a zombie’s leg with my last round of ammunition as its owner tumbled to the ground and tripped up three more of its herd. For once, I was blessing my own inaccuracy. The three of us took the opportunity to duck through an office doorway, slamming the three-quarters of the door that remained behind us. What remained of the quartet of yellowed glass panes rattled in their places as Nohta braced herself against the door and shoved.

A wall of flesh collided with our barricade, causing my sister to grunt and dig into the carpet with all of her strength. Even as she strained against the door, the ghouls on the other side were winning the shoving match, slowly sliding the door inwards. Finally panting, my sister grunted, “Sis! I could use… little help here!”

Half of a unicorn’s face peered through the broken glass panes, gnashing rotted teeth and opening its mouth in an all-too-familiar pose as it sucked in air. I couldn’t let it scream! Without any other options, I jammed my shotgun’s barrel down the creature’s throat.

Nohta looked up to see the ghoul’s stunned face, hooked her forelegs around the poll of its head to grip its horn, and pulled downwards. The awful sound of crunching bones and shattering glass accompanied rasping hisses and growls, and the ghoul’s head slid back behind the door. “Haha! Eat that you stupid fucker!” At least she was still having fun…

My shotgun fell at my sister’s hooves, rendered useless due to my lack of ammunition. I scanned the room for something to brace against the door. I needed something big! I needed something heavy! I needed something now! Finding only a metal office desk with a glowing terminal atop its surface, I prayed to Luna for strength and leapt for the heavy metal furniture.

I slid behind the office desk, friction heating the undersides of my hooves as I heaved myself against the metallic monstrosity. I just barely managed to rock the desk upwards, scattering stationary and causing the terminal to slide to the edge with the grating scratch of steel-upon-steel.

Holly was busy trying to fix her gun, but looked up at the commotion I was making, “What are you-” With a quick glance at the door and another back to the desk, she bolted in my direction without another word. When she threw herself against the desk it finally toppled over and slid towards the door.

“Nohta! Move!” My sister obliged, bounding over the door and drawing her pistol as two ghouls slipped through the doorway and charged at us.

*BLAM* *BLAM*

Two shots from The Worm fired over my back as two heads exploded. I was washed first by the shockwaves from the weapon and then by the cascading showers of congealed blood and brain matter. The desk slid against the wall, slamming the door back into place as the remaining ghouls continued to beat and thrash upon the weakening wooden barricade. Even if I had bought us time, we still had a price to pay.

I drew up my inventory spell, scanning my belongings as I was overtaken by a sense of deja-vu. “Nohta! Keep them out!”

My sister grinned wickedly around her pistol, raising herself to two legs and bracing her hooves on either side of the door’s busted panels. She fired point-blank into the seething mass of undead flesh, dropping corpses to the ground and blowing massive, meaty chunks out of others. Screams of rage and frustration from rotted throats poured through the doors between the deafening reports of Nohta’s pistol. Expending her ammunition, she spat the gun on the ground and resorted to kicking one of her forelegs through the opening in the door to push back the marauding horde.

“Still got about ten of ‘em out here! I can’t reload like this!”

Levitating the grenade out of my packs and floating it mere inches in front of my eyes, I spared a moment to marvel at its beautiful construction. Such a simple thing, made for only one purpose. I wondered if it yearned only for that final, fateful moment, or enjoyed the build up before the release. I couldn’t suppress a grin as I teased the stem out.

“What are you doing? You can’t use explosives in here! This whole building will-” Holly’s outcries were silenced as I floated the explosive through the broken panes and Nohta bulldozed us both to the side, shoving my head against the floor as she covered me with her own body.

*BOOM!*

The door was blown apart and inward, flinging shattered glass, splintered wood, and the ruined remains of the desk into the room. My ears rang; overtaxed by the gunfire from earlier, and now wholly done in by the thunderous cacophony of uncontrollable sonority. The whole building shook. As did I, but not from fear.

Goddess! It was loud! And… and… There was that feeling again… It was as if a piece of a puzzle was trying to slot itself into place, only to have to fight against its own frayed ends as it stubbornly refused to fit. My mind raced to catch up with my heart. I… I liked this. Why did I like this?

The rumble of shaking walls, weakened thoroughly by age and dealt a savage blow by my own hoof, sent cascading vibrations through the floor. My ears twitched, and my hearing returned just in time for me to catch Holly’s screaming tirade, “CRAZY! Both of you! I thought you were smart enough to not use high-explosives in centuries-old ruins!”

Nohta was still on top of me, yelling at our comrade. “It got the job done! And we’re still alive! What else do you want?”

“I WANT to recover the books in this place for future study, you fucking nitwits! That means not bringing this whole building down around our ears!” Holly gathered herself up, ridding herself of the dust that blown all over the three of us with a spell.

“Pfft. You can do that research shit later. We’re too busy being awesome right now.” Nohta smugly winked at me, and I couldn’t help but bark out a single laugh before controlling myself. Perhaps it was petty, but the tiny revenge of antagonizing our companion in such a manner was still as delicious as a Sparkle-Cola. And the relief that came with the cessation of rasping hisses and howls was even better.

“If the two of you are done being blatantly obnoxious and incomprehensibly reckless, we still have a book to recover. I’m going.” Holly stepped into the blasted hall and, after a disgusted groan of frustration, made her way deeper into the facility.

“Heh, uh… We should probably go.” Nohta collected her pistol from the floor with a flourish, flipping it nonchalantly into the holster draped across her shoulder. She turned and trotted out the door, whistling merrily.

I lingered in the room for a moment longer, my thoughts taking a decidedly introspective turn. Grenades? Really? I levitated out my little laser pistol, staring at the grooves in the metal and the winking lights indicating charge and magical wavelength. “Father… “ I whispered to the still silence left in the wake of the explosion, my lips curling into a small smile as I shook my head. “You gave me the wrong weapon, Dad.”

I caught up to Nohta and Holly by following my sister’s whistling tune. It was a light and cheery weapon, honed to a finely annoying sonic point through years of irritating practice. But now that it wasn’t directed at me, it was all I could do to stifle my own schaudenfreudistic amusement.

“Let’s try to be a little more careful this time, shall we?” Holly’s face and voice were stern as she ascended the steps leading to the third floor.

“Sorry, can’t hear you! I must have some awesome stuck in my ears, hold on a second.” Nohta tapped the side of her head with a brass-shod hoof, “There we go. Be careful or you might accidentally get some on yourself.” She held her face in her hooves as she gasped mockingly, “My goodness, just think of how awful that would be! The horror! The horror!”

I had witnessed this scene play out on innumerable occasions in the Stable. It always ended the same, with blood and bruises for everyone involved and Nohta invariably getting into a little more trouble each time. And of course, more practice for my medical skills.

“I swear! Is she always this insufferable?” Holly groaned and looked to me pleadingly.

I smirked in response, “Only to those ponies whom she deems as acceptable targets.” I lost my smile, my expression being taken over with curiosity, “What happened after we split up?”

“Oh! Oh! I got this one!” Nohta perked up, spinning in place and beaming at me. I was suddenly overcome with the most severe case of dread.

She was bouncing up the stairs with far too much energy, “So, I’m poking through some drawers looking for caps and shit to pocket, right?”

“Err… right.” I nodded.

“Guess what I found!” Her grin widened maniacally.

Oh no… “Nohta… “

“Holly in trouble! Haha!” She stomped on the floor, laughing. “Who would’ve seen that one coming, right?”

Thank Luna! “Nohta! You had me worried! I thought that you might have gotten into something much worse!”

“Pfft. I got this, Sis.” She waved me off with a hoof, “I totally took some more Buck I found in one of the cabinets, so I’m pretty sure I can handle any ghoul that comes my way right now. This shit is… the shit!”

“Nohta, you took another chem?” I held a hoof to my muzzle to stifle my gasp.

“Calm down, Sis! I doubt just a couple uses is gonna get me hooked. It’s not like there’s a magic number that I have to cross and ‘Pop’ I’m addicted! Dust said that he never got hooked on Buck, even though he used it all the time. And besides, it got us out of trouble. I got this under wraps, it’s all good.” She stood proudly, bobbing her head up and down in a knowing fashion.

Holly piped up, sitting down to fold her hooves in front of her and staring sternly at Nohta. “Please, by all means, feel free to inform your sister of how you acted after your little drug experiment.”

Nohta bucked her hooves out at invisible opponents as she laughed excitedly. “Ha! I totally kicked flank is what I did!”

“She activated her lamp and ran through the halls to bang on doors and yell ‘Here zombie! Here zombie! Come out and eat us!’ I thought one of us was going to die for sure, until we found you.”

I looked to my sister as we neared the third floor, “Nohta, weren’t you the one chastising me for using Med-X when we were in that cave?”

She stopped assaulting the air and nodded sagely. “Yep, but this is different.”

I groaned in frustration, my hoof trailing down my face. “Then if you would care to elucidate, sister, please inform me of exactly how!”

“Med-X addiction is hard to get over. Dust told me that once you get hooked to it, you’re pretty much screwed.” She was still bouncing up the steps with far too much energy. “And ya, Dash is pretty bad, too. I’m only gonna take that if I really have to. But Buck is just like a little boost, no big deal. I’m not all hyper like I was on Dash, I’m just… stronger. See?” She made a point of standing still and smiling smugly at me.

“Only if you have to?” I raised a stern eyebrow.

“Oh, come on Candy… Don’t tell me you haven’t skipped ahead a little in Mom’s book. You read faster than me, anyway. Just look up what she says about Doombunny Style, it’s wild! Ha!” If Nohta had already read Mother’s passage about chem use, I knew that not even I could dissuade her. Not at that point in time, anyway. I could only hope that I’d have an opening for a very serious talk with her later. I shook my head, and Nohta resumed bounding up the steps.

We reached the top of the stairs, and moldy carpet gave way to rotted hardwood floors. Elaborate and stately portraits featuring well-dressed business ponies still hung over top of peeling wallpaper. Above us, portions of the ceiling had fallen through to expose the blanket of clouds keeping Luna’s Moon at bay. Our hooves clopped on the floor softly as we explored the ruined hall together. Nohta may have wished to go off on her own once more, but Holly and I had endured quite enough of my sister’s brand of frivolity. I stayed close to the both of them as we advanced through the lit halls of the top floor.

Holly had stopped by an opened elevator shaft, prying a small metal box upon the wall open and hoofing through a bundle of wires. She paused for a moment, staring intently at the cables mere inches from her squinting eyes, and whispered to herself inaudibly. I could only just make out the sound of her cursing under her breath.

I stood behind her, shining my Pipbuck light into the box to illuminate the wires she was working on and trying to not get too close to the gaping chasm. “Do you believe that we might be able to restore the elevator, Holly?”

“Unless something mechanical has failed… yes. Despite all odds, this building still has power.” Her voice trailed off as she spoke to herself in a near whisper. “Probably backup generators in the basement… Gotta see if we can recover the tech… Or maybe we should just…” She paused and looked back to me over her shoulder, “You know anything about electrical wiring? I could use a hoof.”

I smiled and leaned in, "Nearly everyone in my stable had some affinity for making simple repairs. I can't count the number of times I've had to switch a light bulb or fix a leaky faucet.” Memories of illustrations from Bean’s Electronics flashed through my mind. Remembering a passage on electrical wiring, I found the faulty connection and indicated it with a hoof. “It’s that one, if memory serves me correctly.”

She glanced back at me over her shoulder. “You sure? If we fry the circuits then we have to walk back down.”

The text came flooding back to me in waves as I nodded, “Yes. That’s the one. I’m sure of it.”

Her hooves were a blur as she worked on the talismans and circuitry. "I would have imagined you'd have maintenance ponies in your stable to do this kind of thing for you."

My eyes wandered the halls, taking in the once-lavish decorations. "Oh we did, but they were oftentimes more focused on the crucial issues, like making sure that refrigeration would work through the night or that the electrical generators wouldn't die in the next few hours. Their jobs were much too important to be bothered by something so simple as a faulty light switch."

“That’s… odd. Stable-Tec always built their stuff to last.” I turned back to find her frowning at my Pipbuck. “Never heard of a Stable that needed constant maintenance.” Her frown rose to meet my eyes in a sympathetic display, “You guys must have had a weird one too.”

My brow furrowed in confusion, “I was under the impression that your leader didn’t like Stable-Dwellers?” She stayed silent, opting to continue in her repairs as one of her ears gave a feeble twitch. I tried a different tack. “How was your’s any different? If you don’t mind my asking, of course.”

“108 was…” She paused, smirking at me, “Wait, you expect me to spill the beans about my own stable but won’t tell me about yours? That’s kinda hypocritical.”

My lips pursed, she had a fair point. But I still wasn’t ready to divulge that information. “Mmm, well… I suppose it hardly matters now. We won’t be returning anytime soon.”

Holly’s eyes fell to the floor before returning to the electrical wiring as she resumed her repairs, “I’m sorry.”

My eyes traveled to Nohta as my sister occupied herself by drawing mustaches on the paintings hanging from the walls. My head dipped as my thoughts drifted back to days long past. “I am too.”

Sparks flew from the box to singe Holly’s hooves and robes as the circuitry and talismans snapped to life with an electric hum. She pulled back, shaking her hoof and grinning as the elevator stirred to life and rose to our level. “Good. Let’s keep going.”

The three of us moved on to find a large waiting area with an ornate wooden desk and plush sitting benches, all in a horrible state of disrepair. Several frayed and curling copies of “Clothes Horse Magazine,” “Equestrian Army Today,” and “Today’s Locksmith” adorned the coffee tables arrayed before the benches. Burned-out lamps and fake plants rounded out the decorations. A large pair of oaken double-doors waited for us at the back of the room past the desk. The doors bore the same tri-diamond insignia that I had seen within the Stable’s library.

“I recognize that symbol…” My lips moved before I could take the words back.

“What’s that? The diamonds?” Holly glanced at me before nodding and pointing a hoof at the doors. “That’s one of Image’s logos. This has to be an Image Hub. Makes sense. They took care of most of the pre-war propaganda but tried to keep their operations quiet.”

Image… I couldn’t fathom why she kept using that word. Or why the same symbol found within my stable’s library should be found in a place tied to propaganda. The tenets of Selenism preached honesty; peering into the darkness to unveil the truth, not covering it up with lies and falsehoods! Holly had to be mistaken, there was no other explanation. I pushed the thought aside as my eyes were drawn to my sister’s hurried movements.

Nohta was immediately drawn to the coffee tables, and started stuffing the dog-eared publications into her packs. “Hey, check it out, Sis. More magazines!” She nudged the pages of “Today’s Locksmith” open with a hoof and began skimming the articles and illustrations. “Sweet.”

Holly practically threw herself at the doors in her eagerness to open them, only to be severely disappointed when they refused to budge. “Damn it! We have to get through these doors!”

Nohta’s smirking form gently shoved Holly out of the way, “Move aside and chill out. I got this shit.” Holly’s face twisted into a scowl at the casual arrogance of my sister, but she soon resigned herself to quietly watching as Nohta sat in front of the doors and got to work.

It only took a moment for Nohta’s first bobby pin to snap and break off inside the polished lock.

“Oh that’s just fucking great!” Holly was becoming increasingly irate in her desperation. “I thought you said you could do this?”

“Oh fuck off… I said I could pick this lock and I can!” Nohta dug at the keyhole with her screwdriver to evict the jammed bit of metal. “It just… might take me a while.”

My hoof found Holly’s shoulder just as her mouth opened to yell at Nohta again. Holly looked to me, confusion and outrage mixing on her face as I tried my best to calm the tension. “Holly, dear. Nohta can accomplish this task, I’m sure of it.” I turned to Nohta, my own failure with the terminal fresh in my mind, and resisted the urge to tease her. “Take your time, sister. I have faith in you.”

Nohta rubbed the back of her neck with a hoof, a clear sign to me of her embarrassment. “Heh, okay.” She readied another bobby pin and splayed the magazine in front of her on the floor before resuming her ministrations with a slow and deliberate caution.

“So…” I turned back to the scribe. Her freckled face still bore the remnants of a frustrated scowl. “This book… Why do the Steel Rangers desire it so badly?”

“For the same reason we try to do anything. To keep the Wasteland safe from those who don’t know any better. This book…” Her scowl softened as her eyes drifted to the side. “...it’s caused a lot of trouble. It needs to be contained. Kept somewhere where no one can find it.”

My head tilted ever-so-slightly to the side as I questioned her. “No… one?”

Her eyes were calculating and concerned as they returned to mine. “You’ll see.” The simplicity of her statement left me with no doubts that she was in no mood for conversation. I nodded, accepting that I had ascertained all the knowledge I could from her, and walked over to the large desk in the room while Nohta continued tinkering with the lock.

My eyes were drawn to the dead terminal atop the desk. It seemed as if fate were mocking me; the only object of any interest within the room didn’t even work! I was about to turn away from the desk when a glint of metal caught my eye from the floor.

I levitated the small nameplate up to my eyes, whispering to myself, “Star Bright… assistant to Mr. Lexicon.” I placed the nameplate on the desk next to a picture of two smiling ponies in business suits. The older pale-blue earth-stallion looked exceedingly professional in his dapper attire, but the younger unicorn-mare with the ivory coat and pink mane was positively beaming at his side. The two ponies in the picture almost looked like Father and I, save for a few minor details. Perhaps that was why I felt the sudden urge to check up on my sister’s progress.

“Almo… god… ib…” Nohta squinted in concentration as the lock finally released with the gentle mechanical jingle of falling pins and the heavy *thunk* of the hefty securing bolt sliding into place.

Holly quickly pushed the door open, revealing a sumptuously decorated personal office. A massive lavish wooden desk with a single terminal sat in the rear of the room in front of an entire wall that had been converted into a book shelf. Elaborate and comfortable-looking cushions and sofas were positioned prominently in the room upon an exquisite rug that was surely of Saddle-Arabian origin.

But all of our eyes were locked onto the marble plinth in the middle of the room, and the magenta dome that rose like a shield over its circular top. Visible within the field was the unmistakable outline of a book. We had found our objective, and the key to our freedom.

Holly strode towards the stone column, lowering her head to peer through the shield. “Kinda hard to see through the stasis field but I think this is it! You’re up, Candy. Go easy with the terminal, okay? If it’s too hard to figure out the password, let me help you. The last thing we need to do is take even more time by dragging Scribe Cypher up here to back-hack into a locked terminal.”

I stared at her, stunned at the prospect of accepting assistance with a puzzle. Oooh, I’d show her! Mental problems were my area of expertise! “Alright then. Let’s see how this goes, shall we?” I moved across the room and slid behind the desk. “Oh my! This chair is simply divine! What do you suppo-”

Holly interrupted me almost immediately. “Doctor, focus. The book.”

I smiled and waved a limp hoof at her in a dismissive gesture. “Oh, yes, yes… I’ll get to that in a moment. But honestly, this chair is so exquisitely-”

A pained expression flitted across her features as she took a deep breath and sighed, then furrowed her brow in a positively pitiful pout. “Candy… please?”

I was taken aback by the genuine desperation on her face, and subsequently lessened my juvenile resistance. “Er, of course.” My hooves moved over the keys as a small measure of pride welled within me. When it all came down to it, these Steel Rangers needed my assistance, didn’t they? Perhaps I should remind this mare of that. Just so long as I didn’t muck it up like last time…

“Ahh, yes. Let’s see here. This might take quite a while, it is a massive, ten-letter word.” I scrunched up my face and shuddered in mock horror, before returning my attention to the screen. My hooves clicked and clacked against the keys as I thought aloud. “Well, it’s certainly not ‘chokeberry.’ And ‘adaptation’ is a bust as well, though it does share…” Was that it? Yes, of course… it was the only one that matched the algorithms. “Found it. ‘Abscission.” The screen flashed before my eyes, opening up a bevy of files and command scripts.

“Ahh, there we are! Now, let’s see what fruits my toil and hardship have yielded.” I held a fetlock to my forehead, just underneath my horn, and gasped. “My goodness! Why… That was simply the most overtaxing task I have ever been given! I’m really not sure how I was able to do it.”

Nohta giggled into her hoof, glancing at our red and green companion. “I think you upset her.”

Holly sighed and looked over the dome to my raised eyebrow, speaking in a flat voice. “Yes, I get it. You’re proud of your mental faculties. I’m sorry for the unintended slight. Would you please raise the barrier, now? I’m as eager to be done with this as you are.”

I waved a hoof in the air dismissively again, relishing the position of power which had landed in my lap. “Oh, if you insist. I’ll just be over here reading these entries while you claim your prize.” A solitary hooftap lifted the barrier in a shimmering wave of disappearing magic while I perused the entries of a certain Mr. Lexicon.

>Those brutes nearly scared my friend away. I’m just glad that I was able to intervene before these imbeciles started using racial slurs. Zebras may not be trusted in most of Equestria right now, but Luna will have to take me ‘herself’ before I abandon my oldest friend.

That… was not what I was expecting. Intrigued, I continued reading as Holly leaned in close to examine her prize.

>I’ve always worried about his traveling. Equestria simply isn’t safe for a blind alchemist right now. I’ve asked him several times to allow me to find him a nice, secluded village with ‘friendly' ponies and zebras living together in the harmony we once enjoyed, but… Mizani is bound and determined to find his own place in this world. I suppose that I should just be thankful to enjoy his company for as long as he decides to stay. I’ll have to come up with a good way to repay him for bringing me more of that tea. Ponies simply cannot blend or brew like zebras, and I’ll never understand why.

>Mizani had disturbing news of his travels. Portents of troubled times. With the war having been in full swing for… how long now? It’s becoming hard to remember in my age… I’m sure that his predictions are accurate. I’ve always respectfully disagreed with his ‘bifurcated’ view of the world, but… There was something in his voice this time. Fear like that is not borne of idle speculation. It comes from complete conviction. Mizani is utterly assured that our world is ending. I recorded our last conversations, with his permission of course, for safekeeping. I can’t go through Rarity for this. That poor mare’s got too much on her mind now. Perhaps I’ll try to contact my nephew for an audience with Twilight Sparkle. She, at least, should appreciate the importance of old prophecies and predictions regarded as ‘old pony tales.’

I downloaded the audio files to my Pipbuck and was about to play one of them when I noticed Holly stomping around the room in a huff. Her magic was throwing the expensive sofa cushions in every conceivable direction in a uniquely innocuous display of her frustration.

“It’s a fake!” She screamed.

Nohta was edging away from her, dodging pillows and attempting to put a comfy-looking sofa between the agitated mare and herself. I looked to the marble plinth and the solitary tome that lay upon it. I got up from the terminal, my body moving almost of its own accord.

As I moved past the desk my eyes remained glued to the book. I saw the pure-white leather, the gilded pages still in perfect condition, and the blackened two-half-circles rune upon its face. I couldn’t take my eyes away from it. The audio logs were completely forgotten as I found a new object to tempt my curiosity. I didn’t even care what it was about; I just wanted to read that book! My voice was a soft and breathy whisper. “It looks real to me.”

Holly had expended her supply of upholstered ammunition, and so resorted to stomping her hooves as she yelled. “No. No. NO! It’s a fake! Another fucking dead-end!” She was shaking, wetness welling in her eyes, “I thought we had found it! I thought this mission was over! I thought… I thought we could go home…”

Her tears fell freely on the expensive rug. Nohta stared at the freckled mare in surprise, seeming to recoil from the sudden outburst of emotion, but I felt like I finally understood. And with understanding came sympathy. I spared the book one last glance before I moved past it to wrap a hoof around Holly’s shoulders.

“Shh… It’s okay. It’s okay.” I knelt beside her, rubbing her back as she sobbed. I scooped up the book in my magic, relishing a pleasantly warm feeling that flowed down my horn as my telekinesis made contact with the tome, and floated it over to the poor scribe. “Here, you should take this back to your leader. Maybe you missed something? Maybe it’s legitimate?”

She chuckled mirthlessly between sobs, looking away. “You don’t know what you’re talking about. It’s not even the right col-”

Nohta finally found her voice. Judging by the anger and volume, she had found all of it. “Hey! We got you your fucking book! It’s not our fault if you guys didn’t know whether it was the right one or not! Are you gonna let us go or is this gonna get ugly? Cause if this is gonna go south then I want to fucking know already!”

I pleaded with my sister, shielding the scribe from her verbal assault, “Nohta, please dear! She’s-”

Holly stood up, clutching the book to her body with a hoof. “No, no… your sister’s right. We should get back to the others. You two should be free to go after that. Star-Paladin Sandalwood won’t go back on her word.” She turned and led the way out of the room, stuffing the book into her robes as she walked. Nohta and I followed as I glared daggers at my sister.

“What?” Nohta whispered coolly.

“She didn’t deserve that.” I answered, my voice equally chilled.

“Fuck that, Sis! We haven’t deserved any of the shit that’s happened to us since we left home either! They’ve basically enslaved us here! I’m tired of this shit! I want out of this fucking town and I want out now!” She stomped a hoof on the hardwood, producing a small rattling noise as she disturbed some small knick-knack on a shelf somewhere.

“Well, maybe we can get out if you don’t act too brashly and try to be polite for once!” I hissed through clenched teeth, managing somehow to almost sound like a… wait a second.

“I… We… UGH!” Nohta vented her frustrations by turning and bucking her hind hooves into a centuries old door, splintering the wood and ripping the hinges from the frame. The door fell into a presentation room that was missing its outer wall, allowing the diffused light of The Moon to wash the space in its cool glow. A chilly breeze flowed through the opening to caress my face and brush my mane aside, bringing an unexpected and foul odor across my muzzle. Within the room, just past the rotting oval table that dominated the space, were two very surprised unicorn ghouls glancing in our direction with pale-white eyes. Their maws opened far too wide as they both sucked in air.

My eyes went wide as I forgot the argument and shrieked, “Don’t let them scre-”

The rest of my warning was drowned out by a deafeningly shrill and debilitating screech. The reek of death poured through my nostrils as the zombies bellowed for all they were worth, one walking towards us to cripple us with sonic death while the other plodded towards the non-existent wall to wail into the desert. I was still levitating my pistol out of its holster when Nohta activated her S.A.T.S and fired The Worm twice, shattering one skull and blowing a gargantuan hole through the second ghoul’s torso. The banshee fell out of the opening, shrieking all the way down, and crashed into the ground with a terrible crunching and splashing noise.

Holly was in the room before Nohta or I had even holstered our pistols, wide-eyed and gazing out at the desert. “No… no no no. Please don’t… Oh no… oh no.” Her eyes shot wide in a terror only she understood. “Fuck! We have to go! We have to go right now!”

I peered through the opening to see what had scared her so badly, but saw nothing. “What’s-”

She was nearing hysterics now, “She’s coming! We have to run!”

“She?” I looked back to the shaking mare.

“Bright Eyes! She must have heard that screamer!” She shrieked and pointed her hoof to the desert.

I looked through the opening once more, following her hoof to find a faint aura of emerald light in the wasteland. The hazy lambency was gathering strength, quickly becoming a resplendent effulgence of dazzling green that infected the ruined countryside with a diseased glow. Two pinpricks of pure-white light shone from the heart of the blaze; two portals into madness lying at the heart of the unholy sun that walked the desert.

Distant wails of banshee ghouls called out to the wastes, and were answered in kind. The undead inhabitants of the wasteland were stirring to the beckoning light show of their master. The night was alive with the sound of death, and all I could do was stare into those points of light and wonder if they were staring back.

Nohta seized hold of my coat, forcefully coaxing me towards the opened elevator at the end of the hall as Holly scrambled with hanging wires and stuck buttons. My tail was nearly caught between the shutting doors as sparks flew from the wiring and singed Holly’s fur. Flickering lights accompanied the groan of ancient gears and cables as the lift lurched and slowly descended.

Holly slammed her hooves on the buttons repeatedly. “Fuck! Go faster you piece of shit!”

Nohta was silent, reloading her pistol with her last rounds of ammunition. If Bright Eyes was really as bad as Holly believed then we were in a lot of trouble. I sighed, opening my bags.

“Nohta… “ She looked up from her pistol to see what I was holding in my hoof, “I do read faster than you. And if I’m not mistaken I believe that I absorb more of the pertinent details than you, as well,” I reminded her before my expression softened.

I swallowed, trying to force the lump out of my throat, “But you’re right about this.” I hoofed over the various chems that we had scavenged the day before, tears welling in my eyes. “I can’t lose you, sister. You’re all I have left.” I sat next to her, smoothing out the wrinkles in Mother’s cloak as I worried about the coming hours.

She stuffed the Dash and Buck into her cloak’s pockets as her brow furrowed in a questioning gaze. “You’re… really worried about me getting hooked to something, aren’t you?”

“How could I not be? You’re my sister, for Luna’s sake!” I sniffed, wiping my hoof against my eyes. “Just promise me that-”

“Only as a last resort. I promise.” Her voice wasn’t cold any longer. But her purple eyes were pure steel. I knew she’d keep her promise.

“Come on! Come on!” Holly was still smashing the buttons of the elevator under her hooves, oblivious to the conversation a mere pony’s length away from her in the small space.

I was about to suggest that mashing buttons on an elevator couldn’t possibly make the poor machine go any faster when the elevator came to an uneasy halt as its doors opened to the screech of grating metal. One red-cloaked unicorn and three armored Rangers stood guard by the lift’s entrance, turning to greet us as we exited.

“Halt!” All four of the Rangers aimed their considerable firepower at us as we froze in place. The unicorn buck barked out a curt question. “Do you have it?”

“Of course I do! But it’s another fucking fake!” Holly levitated the white tome towards the unicorn, “You can take it to the Senior Scribe if you want, I need to speak to the Star-Paladin right now!”

The scribe backed away from Holly, “Oh hell no! I’m not touching that thing! You take it to her yourself, we’re just here to escort you to her.” Judging by the massive weapons trained on us, I mused, we were going to be ‘escorted’ whether we liked it or not.

“We don’t have time for this! We need to-” Holly was cut short by a single massive bullet that slammed through the elevator’s inner walls behind our heads and impacted against the inside of the elevator shaft. I was nearly bowled over by the shockwave from the blast alone, not to mention the deafening report. A curl of smoke wisped away from the barrel of the rifle at the middle Ranger’s side as his armor automatically loaded another round into place.

“Woah! Fuck! Look, we’re not hostile, okay?” Nohta jumped back, waving her forelegs in front of herself. “We can play nice! No need for shooting your fucking cannon there, big guy!”

“Got your attention now? Good.” The middle Ranger’s voice came out distorted and tinny through his helmet. “The orders are clear, Scribe. You’re doing this our way.” He turned, and began walking at a brisk pace toward the main chamber of the library. “Let’s go.”

The four Rangers took us back to the large room that they had made into a base camp, ushering us towards the center of the room as the rest of Squad 108 kept their weapons pointed at our heads. Once again I was mesmerized by the titanic amount of literature held within this space. My eyes roamed over the shelves but, now that I knew of their presence, all I could see were the armed and armored figures spread evenly about the library.

I whispered to Holly as I warily examined the sheer amount of firepower aimed in my direction, “Um, Holly dear? I can perhaps understand why they might not trust Nohta and myself, but why in Equestria are your comrades treating you like a dangerous prisoner?”

“Because I’ve got this,” She held the ivory tome in her magic before her, pointedly looking me in the eye. “I was the only one to touch it, so I’m the only one that might be contaminated.”

My sister was confused, “Huh? But-”

Holly explained once more. “Yes, since I was the only one who’s magic gripped the tome, I’m the only one at risk.” Nohta finally took the hint, and stayed silent as Holly continued. “Of course, none of this matters since it’s a fake… and Bright Eyes is going to kill us all if I can’t convince Sandalwood to evacuate right now.” She growled her last words at the Ranger leading us to the Star-Paladin, who ignored her and maintained his slow pace down the terraced steps and into the center of the room.

“Contaminated? Whatever do you mean, Holly?” If there was a medical risk, I needed to know!

She shook her head as we followed the Rangers. “You and your sister will be fine.” She gave me a significant look, conveying a simple message with her eyes… ‘Shut up.’ She continued verbally a moment later, “I am the one holding the book. I’m the only one at risk.” I dropped the subject, despite my thoughts racing out of control. At that point, I had to trust her. I had no choice.

We finally made it to the large service desk at the center of the room. The four Rangers we had been following moved to the side as Sandalwood and Meadow stepped around the desk to meet us.

Sandalwood’s voice was still distorted by the helmet, “Alright. Let’s get this over with. Scribe Holly, step forward and relinquish the book to the Senior Scribe.”

Holly spoke as quickly as she could, “Star-Paladin, please, we have to leave right now! The most dangerous ghoul I’ve ever seen is-”

“The book, Scribe.” Senior Scribe Meadow’s voice was low, promising harsh punishment for disobeying her wishes. “Now.”

Scribe Holly pursed her lips, levitating the white book to Meadow’s hooves. “Really, ma’am, it’s a fake. But we need to go right now! Bright-”

“No ghoul is a match for a squad of Steel Rangers, Scribe. Calm yourself!” The Star-Paladin’s bark was harsh at first, causing Holly to recoil in surprise, but Sandalwood's voice gradually grew softer as she continued, “The knights and paladins will protect you, Scribe Holly. It’s our honor to do so. You’ve nothing to fear when in my presence.” Her voice was more like a mother’s than a leader’s as she added one simple word, “Okay?”

Holly’s mouth moved but no words came out. Her face slowly slid back behind her mane as she silently nodded.

Turning to the senior scribe, Sandalwood asked, “Well? What are we dealing with here?”

Meadow’s brow was furrowed in concentration as she rubbed her chin and pondered aloud, “Not the book. No. Not even the right color. Definitely not a copy or replica either, the runes are all wrong. But not a fake…” She adjusted her glasses and stared down her nose at the book, “Zebra origin. Note the runic characters and leather backing. Possibly… “ Levitating the tome to her face in a cloud of magenta, she allowed the pages to fall open before her as she continued, “No… no temptation. No… anything. I’m not feeling anything at all.”

“Ma’am,” Meadow turned to the Star-Paladin, “My professional assessment is that this book is a possible zebra artifact. But it is not our objective. My recommendation is that we continue to move west until we can go around Death’s Head Mountain and avoid the locals, then move northeast to Manehattan.” Meadow pointed in our direction, “Scribe Holly has proven herself a capable covert field agent, even if she is somewhat overly apprehensive in regards to local superstitions.”

“But as we’re all aware, ma’am, discretion is the better part of valor.” The Senior Scribe chuckled to herself, taking wry amusement from a joke I wasn’t privy to. “I would like to send her through Mareon and then north to New Appleoosa to gather information.”

“Hmm.” Sandalwood digested the information for a moment before gesturing towards Nohta and myself, “Scribe Holly, how did these two fare?”

The freckled mare at my side cleared her throat before answering, “Ma’am. Nohta, the cloaked one, is a capable melee fighter and lock picker. Candy’s hacking skills are competent, and she showed a degree of familiarity with simple electrical repairs and zebra alchemy. I already reported of her medical expertise after my stay in Mareon; she was the doctor who cared for me.” Holly looked in my eyes as she continued, “They behaved somewhat recklessly at times, but showed a knack for several skills we have use for.”

My mind raced at those words. What was Holly saying?

Sandalwood’s voice rumbled through her helmet, “And your recommendation, Scribe?”

This conversation was veering off in a direction I had never imagined. “Wait… wait a sec-”

Holly’s eyes were still locked with mine, looking far calmer than I felt. “I’d recommend we take them in as initiates-in-training. Make them a part of the Rangers.”

Huh? My hoof rose defensively, as I pleaded for an explanation. “Hold… Hold on-”

Sandalwood nodded, “Then they can travel with us until we reach Manehattan. We’ll give them a full evaluation along the way.”

I was dumbfounded, capable of only blinking and swallowing as I tried to comprehend what had just transpired. I opened my mouth, but shut it again as realization of what we were being offered washed over me.

Nohta’s response was no less confused than mine, evident by the flat expression she wore upon her face as her hooves pulled her hood back. “What.” It wasn’t a question.

“I’m sorry for fooling you! You don’t have to accept if you don’t want to!” Holly’s tone was genuine, pleading with me. “But if you want to be a part of something greater than yourself, if you’ve grown tired of watching the wasteland consume this world like a fire sweeping through grass, if you long to be part of a family instead of being alone… “ Her misty eyes were hard to look into as she uttered that word. “We have a place for… people with your skills.”

A new family? We wouldn’t be by ourselves any longer… but… What of my old family? What of my friends from the Stable? Didn’t I still have an obligation to them?

Sandalwood stepped toward Nohta and myself, “I know that this probably came as a surprise to the two of you, but unlike many of the elders of our chapters, I actually don’t have a problem with recruiting wasters into the order. New blood is fine, just as long as you realize the chain of command and follow orders. Scribe Holly vouches for you, and that’s good enough to allow you the chance to prove yourselves.”

I shook my head, attempting to bring some clarity to my muddled thoughts. “By the Goddess, this is… this is quite… ” I trailed off, unsure of how to answer.

The Star-Paladin shot a quick glance to Holly, who was still staring in my direction with only the slightest amount of confusion on her face. Sandalwood stepped close until she was mere inches from me, and removed her helmet. Her confused, cinnamon-colored eyes bore into my own even as I backed away uncomfortably. “What did you just say?”

“Er… beg pardon?” I felt myself withering under her gaze, slowly backing up as she advanced to keep an equal distance between us.

“You said ‘Goddess.” She stared at me, whispering menacingly under her breath, “Which Goddess?”

Which? There was only one! Everypony knew that! “Er… Luna, of course.”

She leaned in slowly and deliberately, coming close enough that I could see the gray seeping into her cropped mane and feel her breath brush against my muzzle. In the quietest of whispers so that only I could hear, she softly breathed her question. “Are we sisters, child?”

It was, simply put, one of the most positively foalish things I had ever heard! I finally found the strength of will to balk at such a ridiculous question, “What? Of course not! I only have one sister! And I’m no child, I’m a grown mare, thank you very much!”

She held her stare for a moment longer, then backed away and replaced her helmet. “I’ll keep my word, you’re free to go if you wish. Or you can accompany us to Manehattan if you’d like to escape this desert and possibly gain a place within our order.” She pointed to the book at Meadow’s hooves, “Grab the book Senior Scribe, we might as well keep it for study.” She shouted her next words to everyone present, “We’re heading out in ten minutes! Everypony get moving!”

The room burst into activity, which left Holly, Nohta, and myself standing alone by the desk. I looked to our companion, questions swimming through my mind. “You were… testing us?”

She swallowed back her fear and nodded, “I’m sorry I didn’t tell you. One of my duties is to scout out new talent to grow Sandalwood’s squad. When you showed up here, I had to convince everypony that you could be useful. I couldn’t think of any other way to keep them from killing you.”

“So we’ve been getting played this whole night?” Nohta’s mouth was hanging open with incredulity, her brow furrowed in bafflement. “That’s… that’s just… “ She shuddered for a moment, then stomped her hoof on the floor. “Damn it! Mom would’ve seen through that in a second!”

I patted her exposed head, rustling her mohawk, “Well, we can’t all be expert assassins, sister. Holly,” I turned back to the scribe as Nohta rolled her eyes, “I’m not saying we will accept, but what would it mean if we did?”

“A lot of things. You’d receive training, access to gathered technology, a whole group of ponies to call sister or brother… Being by yourself in the wasteland is a really easy way to get hurt, trust me. You’ll have to accept our Codex, but otherwise there aren’t many rules if you get assigned as a lone operative like I did.” She smiled warmly at me, “You should consider it, really. You two already work well together, but you’ll be safer with backup.”

This would almost certainly keep my sister and I safe, but… our stablemates were still out there somewhere. And as much as I hated to admit it, part of me was craving revenge against the raiders and griffins. Still… I couldn’t help but ponder the opportunity with which we were being presented. Would I be free to pursue my own ends if I were a part of this organization? Did I even want to associate myself with somepony who would treat others like tools to accomplish a task?

My own wandering thoughts reminded me of the treatment we had sustained at this group’s hooves. My face twisted into a scowl once more, “Wait! If this was your aim from the start, why were Sandalwood and Meadow so cruel to us? That behavior was completely unnecessary and totally unacceptable!” My hoof stomped feebly against the floor, producing a much less effective display of force than I had intended. The night’s strenuous escapades had taken their toll on my body, and I found myself with an overbearing inclination to simply find a bed and slip into a well-deserved slumber.

“It… it’s sort of a filter.” Holly looked like she wanted to hide behind her mane, rubbing one of her legs awkwardly as she continued. “Most ponies don’t really like our order. They think we’re selfish bullies. Honestly, a lot of us are…”

Her gaze trailed off towards the Senior Scribe and the Star-Paladin. “But even despite that, ponies recognize that Steel Rangers have the guns and the tech and all the safety that those provide. Lots of them try to join up as soon as they come across one of our patrols. And then they get killed by one of our knights for being an obstruction to the mission. If you had encountered almost any other squad, you’d already be dead by now.”

That steel that I had seen in her eyes before returned as her gaze bore into my own. “But Squad 108 is different! I can promise you that. We treat outsiders like that so that ponies know to stay away from Rangers! And so that we don’t have droves of wastelanders showing up to join our order or seek protection. We can’t keep the whole wasteland safe. We have to pick and choose our battles, and we can only take on the candidates that show promise. You two just did that.”

My entire outlook on these ponies was changing so rapidly that my head felt like it was spinning. This was so much to take in after what we had just been through! I opened my mouth to speak, but couldn’t decide on any definite answer to give. I shrugged noncommittally and lightly shook my head. “We… will think about it.”

“Goddess, this is so fucked…” Nohta was holding her own shodden hooves to her head and trying to piece things together. “After all the shit you put us through? You turn around and ask us to join you? What the hell…” She turned back to me, “Sis, I really don’t like this. This doesn’t make any sense!”

“I’m not entirely sure of this myself, dear. But we need to consider our options. Remember Mother’s advice.” My gut reaction was to decline the offer, but… I supposed that one way or another, something out there had scared Holly senseless. All of the heavy weapons borne by the Rangers might come in handy, I mused.

She stomped a hoof on the tile, her shoe clanging loudly on the floor. “These assholes used us! They fucking lifted me through the air like a doll! Do you have any idea what that was like? Feeling completely powerless like that?”

Her last words brought back stinging memories of pale green eyes underneath a scarlet glow, and of a failing heart monitor beeping erratically. My eyes hardened as I glared at her. “You know perfectly well that I do, Nohta.”

Her ears lilted as her eyes widened in realization. “C-Candy… I-I didn’t-”

My tail swished through the air angrily, “You didn’t stop to think about what you were saying! Par for the course, sister.”

Nohta’s face fell as her eyes roamed the floor. She finally groaned in frustration and glared at Holly, venting her emotions on the closest target she deemed acceptable. “I’m going wherever she goes!” Nohta exclaimed, poking my shoulder with a hoof and daring anypony to disagree with her. “This is a packaged deal. You understand?”

Holly was unperturbed by our little display. “Yes, I surmised as much.” Holly grinned at us before her expression turned wary, “Now… we just have to let the knights and paladins take care of Bright Eyes and the other ghouls while the scribes take care of the screamers, and we’ll be just fine.” Her eyes were a little vacant, as if she were trying more to convince herself than convince us, “Yes… Just fine. I’m going to go make sure the sentinels are good to go.” Her eyes cautioned me, “Whether you want to join us or not, you should at least get yourself patched up while you think it over.”

Holly’s eyes scanned the room before she pointed a hoof towards a white unicorn mare with a sapphire mane. “You should go see Scribe Code Blue. She’ll get you some RadAway.” She smiled warmly as she added, “I think you’ll like her.”

“So, I’m holding the catheter in my magic and holding… uh… him in my hoof,” The ivory scribe with the deeply-blue mane was giggling to herself as she recounted the tale of one of her medical escapades within the Steel Rangers. “...and he looks down at me, eyes wide, and he just says ‘Code, is this gonna hurt?”

“Oh my goodness, what did he expect?” My cheeks flushed even as I giggled at the poor buck in her story.

“I know, right? So I hold the catheter real close to him and I say, ‘Well, depending on how you feel about pain…” A mischievous grin flashed across her muzzle, “Urethra going to love or hate me!”

“You didn’t!” My giggles erupted into genuine laughter. Goddess, that pun was awful!

She held a dainty hoof to her face in an effort to cover her tittering fit. “I did! I did! Oh goodness…” Her thin glasses were lifted from her eyes in a sapphire glow as she wiped away a tear of mirth. “It’s been a long time since I’ve had the opportunity to converse with another medical expert. I really hope that you decide to join up.”

“Well…” My laughter died down as I sipped the RadAway she had given me. “...it’s a lot to consider.”

“I know, dear. I faced the same dilemma myself, not so long ago.” I felt the curious sensation of her own magical aura enveloping me. “You’re still bordering on malnutrition and a bit dehydrated, but the radiation has cleared up nicely. Get some fluids and some decent food in that belly and you’ll be doing just fine in a day or two.”

“And if it makes your decision any easier…” She winked lasciviously at me, “there are some fine looking earth-bucks underneath all of that armor. I can introduce you to a few next time we stop.”

My eyes shot wide as I felt the heat rush to my cheeks. I opted to continue drinking the medicine rather than respond. The awkward silence drug on as the ivory mare’s wicked grin widened with every passing second.

Nohta bailed me out a moment later, “You sure she’s alright? Does she need more RadAway?”

Code Blue waved a hoof in the air dismissively, “Oh, your sister will be just fine. She barely had over a hundred rads, after all. Just enough to cause some lingering discomfort, mild nausea, and a bit of exhaustion. Nothing that I’m not fully capable of handling.” Code turned back to me, her evil grin returning in full force. “And if the two of you decide to stay with us, I’ll make sure that she’s well taken care of. Knight Rain still owes me for last time.” Goddess, she was relentless!

“Oh, great. Possibly the most important decision of our lives is gonna be decided by Candy’s sex drive…” Nohta rolled her eyes and crossed her hooves in front of her chest. “That’s exactly what we need right now.”

“I-I… hold on a second! I’m not…” Goddess, the blood in my cheeks was searing-hot!

Code brushed her long mane back and adjusted her glasses. “Oh, you shouldn’t be so quick to discount the medical benefits of a good roll in the hay, darling.” Her grin was absolutely unbearable. I averted my eyes and gulped down the foul medicine as quickly as I could manage while she continued, “Released endorphins, lowered stress levels and blood pressure, a boost to your immune system.” She giggled at my discomfort, “A good bit of cardio if you’re doing it right…”

“ThankyouI’mwellawareofthebenefits! Weneedtogo!” I floated the empty packet of RadAway back to Code and spun on my hooves, cantering away from the white and blue doctor-turned-sex-fiend.

Code’s raucous laughter could be heard over the din of the other Rangers readying their weapons and checking their armor one last time. As Nohta caught up to me, I glanced back to find Code’s head tilted at an awkward angle. Oh Goddess, please tell me she was just inspecting my glyph mark!

I groaned and stomped a hoof on the tile. “I swear, surface ponies have all gone crazy! At least our stable-mates had the good sense to keep their… deviant perversions to themselves!”

Nohta nodded, “Sure they did, Sis. Just tell that to Caramel.”

Again with this insane theory of hers! I rolled my eyes, “Nohta, Caramel wasn’t-”

Her hoof found my shoulder, cutting me off with the abrupt physical contact. “Look Sis, it doesn’t matter one way or another. We need to figure out what we’re doing. You got any ideas yet?”

I stopped in my tracks, my train of thought derailed by the change in subject. “I… I’m not sure yet. I’m leaning towards staying with them for now. Or at least until Bright Eyes has been dealt with. Holly was certainly frightened of her, and I’m willing to bet it was for a good reason.”

Nohta glanced around the room, glaring at the Rangers all around us. “I don’t know. What if that was just part of her act? Get us frightened of some monster so we decide to join up with these fucks for safety? I wouldn’t put it past her.”

A sigh of frustration escaped my lips as I fought to discern the correct course of action. “It would be best to see for ourselves, dear. Let’s err on the side of caution for now. We can always change our minds later.”

Nohta leaned in, casting furtive glances over her shoulder and whispering conspiratorially. “So we use them to get past the big bad ghoulie and then make a break for it?” She nodded, “I like it. Maybe we can give them the slip during the fight and book it for Mareon?”

“Nohta… I didn’t really want to think of it as callously as that, sister.” My eyes wandered over the dozens of ponies completely ignoring us as I remembered the events of the last few hours. Being threatened, humiliated, forced to advance an agenda we had nothing to do with… then being offered a way out. Safety, comradery, a purpose… And the only thing it would cost would be the abandonment of our responsibility to a group of ponies that had for the most part never liked us in the first place.

That and freedom. We’d be shackled to whatever mission the Rangers decided to assign us. My gaze fell back to Nohta’s waiting eyes. I might be able to make that sacrifice, but she never could. The Rangers would never be able to chain her down. I wouldn’t let that happen. We had to leave.

A wan smile crept across my lips as I laid a hoof on her shoulder, “But you’re right, sister.” My smile hardened as I sought refuge in the memories of how we had been wronged. I cloaked myself in indignation, fanning a familiar flame to burn away my doubts and ease the process of making a morally questionable decision. “We’ll use them as they used us, then make our way to Mareon. Lies and deceit, Nohta, just like Mother.”

Nohta’s face was taken over by a savage grin, “I’m beginning to like it when you try new things! You should keep this up.”

“Yes, well… baby steps, Nohta. Baby steps.” My eyes returned to the armored and robed brutes to fall upon Holly. She was hoof-deep in the chassis of one of the sentinel robots. “Looks like that recording was right.” I shook my head, still utterly confused about the impending veracity of the recording’s predictions. “We’ll be burning a bridge tonight after all, won’t we?”

The brusque voice of Sandalwood soared over bookshelves and Rangers alike, “Two minutes! Suit up and move out!”

“Stay close, Nohta. I’m getting a bad feeling about where the night is leading us.” Holly had been so frightened earlier. If it was part of her act, then we’d probably be okay. If not… “It sounded like a lot of ghouls were closing in earlier. There’s no guarantee that these Rangers will be able to handle all of them.”

“As if I’d go wandering off with everything just about to get interesting.” She smirked, “Someone has to watch your flank.”

All around us, armored ponies and robed scribes were funneling towards the entrance to the library. Holly and another scribe were walking beside the two monstrous sentinels, and Nohta and I soon fell into place alongside them. Now that the robots weren’t directing their weapons in my direction, I soon appreciated just how comforted I was by having them beside me. Surely nothing could stand up against such a massive amount of firepower, I reasoned.

We were soon leaving the building and trotting down the steps behind a column of walking armor and weaponry. Sandalwood’s squad obeyed her commands with an immediate and practiced discipline, providing an extraordinarily intimidating sight as the entire squad moved as one to form a wall between the scribes and the wasteland. After the scribes had combined their magic to float the sentinels down the steps, the entire group set off through the ruined streets of Coltsville with Nohta and I directly in the center of the unit.

We continued in that fashion for all of three minutes. Just enough time to reach the first intersection of cracked streets laying amongst the dilapidated and crumbling structures. Then the first ghoul shambled and twitched its way past a rusted motorwagon to stand directly in our way.

Its body bulged in a corpulent mass of writhing flesh. Unsightly and raw pustules jiggled obscenely all over its bulky frame, threatening to burst and loose whatever putrescence was held within them at the slightest provocation. One of the blisters was raised directly over its snout, deforming the beast’s face so badly that I could only see one of its dead eyes. Every movement it made was shaky and erratic, and every ragged breath it took produced a faint wisp of pink mist from its mouth.

“It’s a bloater! Don’t let it get close!” Holly was pushing herself to the front of the throng, yelling directly at the Star-Paladin.

Sandalwood glanced in her direction before belting out a command to one of the armored ponies at her side. “Knight Lemongrass! Put a round between its eyes.”

“Yes ma’am.” A buck with an exceptionally large rifle at his side stepped forward, took aim, and fired. I had thought that The Worm was loud! This weapon put Nohta’s pistol to shame! My eyes slammed shut of their own accord as my hooves reached for my flattened ears. My eyes reopened a moment later to one of the most terrifying sights I had ever seen.

Holly explained to everyone in earshot as my eyes took in the expanding column of pink gas rising above the gently swaying traffic signs. “Bloaters have Pink Cloud in their blisters.” Goddess, she was right! The Pink Cloud was melting the motorwagons and street signs! “They explode when they die, and the cloud is released from their bodies to wreak havoc on anything caught within the blast.” The pole supporting the long-dead traffic lights above the intersection weakened and bent, swinging the lights in a wide arc to crash through a glass storefront. An entire motorwagon door drooped and oozed into a sickly glowing puddle on the softening road. “That patch of road is gonna be contaminated for a long time, or at least until the next big rainstorm. You really don’t want to get too close to it.”

“Pink Cloud? Luna…” This is what it had taken to kill The Dark Mother. This is what my mother had claimed was the pinnacle of zebra poisons. A perfect blend of alchemy and… the other zebra magic. And it was right in front of me… Waiting… Beckoning me to harvest it.

“Goddess…” Nohta was still beside me, staring wide eyed at the atrocity being squandered before our eyes. “Sis… That’s… Wow.”

Shrieks from banshees split the night in twain, jolting me from the stupor of my alchemy-laced reverie. Shivers ran through my body as the wails echoed off the ruined walls of the town, coming from all directions. We were surrounded.

Sandalwood boomed out orders, “Defensive positions! Protect the scribes!”

The hoof-full of red-cloaked unicorns huddled together, readying simple firearms in a rainbow of magical auras. My laser pistol levitated out of its holster as I peered past armored figures and down the city streets, the Pink Cloud left completely forgotten. Goddess, I only had one full battery left!

We saw her viridian aura before we saw her. It washed over the fallen structures and forgotten motorwagons, preceding her like an honor guard paving the way for royalty. She plodded forward into the street slowly with a steady and confident gait, bathed in an unnatural emerald glow that obliterated the darkness of the night. Her head was held low; her horn jutting out in front of her as if she intended to spear somepony with her appendage. Her hoofsteps left wisps of sickly green smoke curling away from melted asphalt. An obnoxiously pink and full mane and tail that seemed to dance lazily in the rising heat of an invisible flame flowed from her jade body. A body that, I soon realized, was whole and unblemished.

A single glowing one shambled along behind her, bearing a nearly-full set of zebra combat barding and a striped rifle hanging at his side on a tattered shoulder-strap. One of the pauldrons had been blasted or ripped from his barding, leaving his glowing stripes clearly exposed but still dim in comparison to the viridian sun that he followed. His eyes were blank and lifeless, a stark contrast to the show of emotion on the unicorn’s face.

From this distance I could only just make out her expression; coldly neutral with a tinge of anger. Blazing blank-white eyes shone like ethereal spotlights in our direction. Goddess, her very presence sapped my confidence and left me only with the desire to flee. This was no ghoul! Or certainly not a feral one! She was intelligent!

Scribe Holly was shaking at my side, “It’s her… It’s Bright Eyes! Ma’am, we need to go!”

“Calm yourself, Scribe Holly. It is unbecoming of a Ranger to show her fear.” Sandalwood stood fast, her armored entourage forming a wall of steel between us and the lone glowing unicorn. The long rifle at her side exchanged ammunition from a reserve compartment at her flank, “Meadow? I was under the impression that this unicorn was a ghoul. She still has all of her skin.”

Meadow’s nasal voice replied in a coolly academic tone. “The green glow is radiation, ma’am. She’s absorbed an obscene amount to glow that brightly, and only a ghoul could withstand so much. Hypothesis: the aberration known as ‘Bright Eyes’ is a relatively young ghoul, perhaps not even fifty years dead.”

Holly spoke unsteadily, her breath catching in her throat as she tried to force the words out. “No… She… She can-”

Sandalwood addressed one of the more heavily armed ponies at her side, “Paladin Piston!”

“Yes Ma’am!” The buck stepped forward as a missile pod expanded and oriented itself at his side. From behind the Ranger, I saw a small plate of metal slide up behind the pod and redirect the backblast let loose by his assault. I witnessed a streak of vapor hone in on the glowing pony before us as the missile impacted squarely with her frame, shattering windows and kicking up a massive cloud of dust as the warhead detonated in a plume of smoke and fire. The concussion of the blast caused my mane to flutter frenetically in its destructive wake as I sought cover behind the armor-clad ponies before me.

A motorwagon had been too close to the explosion. The ancient vehicle was bowled over, exposing sparking batteries and leaking fluids before it too erupted in a dazzling pillar of sickly-toxic rainbow sheen. The storefront by which the motorwagon had been parked crumpled inward, collapsing what remained of the structure into a heap of broken steel and concrete as dust scattered into the street, obscuring our view of the glowing mare.

I held my breath. I knew of only a hoof-full of creatures that could survive what had just transpired. Dragons, Hydras, Cerberi, and The Goddess herself. None of them stood before me now, so surely this local terror had succumbed to the blast. Right?

Small thuds echoed off the streets as chunks of blasted concrete and brick landed all around us. I moved forward, nearly joining the line of Steel Rangers as curiosity overtook me once again, and blinked away dust as I tried to see what remained of the fabled Bright Eyes.

For a moment, there was no sound or motion but the flickering flames left by the exploded motorwagon and the slowly dissipating dust cloud drifting away on a lazy midnight breeze. Slowly, pink and green light coalesced behind the dust cloud, diffusing into the particulate to form an eerie light show as a horrible ripping sound emanated from behind the curtain of floating debris. With a loud and otherworldly cracking noise, two spheres of purest white light pierced the obscuring cloud of dust as rasping hisses and debilitating screams rang out all around us. She wasn’t dead, she was staring at us! How could she not be dead!?

The dust and smoke cleared away slowly, clinging to her glowing body like rotting tendons on decaying bones as the night was consumed with the sound of screeching ghouls. As the particulate left her body to disappear on the wind, she glanced behind her to the still and dimming body of the glowing one that had accompanied her. His stripes faded as she turned and ambled toward him.

The entire Steel Ranger squad stared, confused, as Bright Eyes stood beside the dead glowing one, and only Holly made a noise when a single orb of green light left Bright Eyes’ horn to dive into the zebra’s chest. The glowing one’s light returned to his body, and his hooves kicked out at the ground to propel him to a standing position once more at his master’s side.

“Fuck! That’s how they’re doing it! It’s so Goddess-damned obvious now!” Holly’s frustrated revelation was met with confusion from the rest of us. “We have to kill her! We HAVE to kill her right now or we’re fucked!” She poked and prodded at her Pipbuck, and the sentinels moved forward to spin their weapons and expand their rocket pods.

Bright Eyes turned toward us and threw her mouth open in an otherworldly scream unlike anything I had ever heard before, sounding as if the night itself were rippling and deforming at her command. Any shred of courage I had left was left completely decimated by her ethereal wail. A growling, hissing, stomping and sprinting herd of ghouls erupted into the streets, gnashing their teeth and closing the distance with alarming alacrity as they poured over the broken roads and between motorwagons like water down a rocky channel.

Sandalwood’s voice was rigid underneath her helmet as she stepped forward, her multi barreled weapon spinning up to full speed, “Rangers! Fire at will!”

I thought that I had experienced loud. I believed that I knew battle. I dared to imagine that I understood violence. As I stood behind the massive sentinels and a wall of Steel Rangers loosing their full martial might upon the wave of undead flesh before them, I learned a simple truth. I knew nothing.

A dozen miniguns spun in tandem, spitting out continuous rivers of lead and phosphorus as the ghouls at the front of the pack were reduced to a splashing red and gray mist. Missiles, rockets, rifles and shotguns blared as quickly as they could fire into the advancing horde, scattering bodies, severing limbs and painting the town red with congealed blood and black with charring explosions. Motorwagons burst into blazing pillars of magical flame, flinging ghouls and lamp posts in every myriad direction. The occasional bloater ghoul popped open in a scattering cloud of pink mist, decimating the ghouls that had stood too close to the abomination and fusing several of their number into writhing conglomerations of half-liquefied corpses. A veritable river or spent casings and linkages streamed away from the sentinels and armored Rangers, spilling onto the ground in shimmering and ever-deepening mounds of shiny brass that converged around the hooves of the armored ponies. Windows cracked and shattered, walls collapsed from concussive force, and the very streets were reduced to rubble as a withering barrage of firepower beyond my comprehension was unleashed upon the advancing flood of zombies. It was as if the Goddess herself had deemed this area unfit for existence and had called in her own personal squad of demolitionists to erase it from being.

And through it all was the overbearing and overwhelming din of battle; a terrifying melody played to the uniformly blaring backdrop of the dozen multi-barreled weapons coupled with the bombastic bass rumble of detonating explosives and high-powered rifles. The anguish was nearly instant as the cacophonous sonority and pressure washed over me. My eardrums felt as if someone were relentlessly striking the sides of my head with a hammer! I threw myself backwards to the ground, my ears lying flat against my head as I covered them with my hooves and slammed my eyes shut from the pain. I screamed in agony and terror, “LUNA!” But no sound reached my ears. My world had been reduced to the erratic thumping of explosions and the small stabbing pains of broken asphalt biting into my hide.

A pair of brass-shod hooves dragged me backwards across the ground, and I felt the tingle of magic seep into my ears. Muffled but audible sound slowly returned as the pain subsided. I opened my eyes to see that the world had been tinted a cool, sparkling blue. Code Blue was staring at me with a bewildered grin.

“You should know better than to stand next to the paladins and knights when they let off a fusillade like that, darling.” Code Blue adjusted her glasses, pushing her flowing sapphire mane to the side and allowing her magic to dissipate. “It’s okay now, Senior Scribe Meadow has the barrier in place. Just stay back here with us, alright?”

“Barrier?” I turned to find a shimmering wall of magenta had been placed between the scribes and the armored Rangers. It stretched up and over our position, encapsulating us in a bubble of magic.

“Aural inhibiting barrier. Dulls the sounds of gunfire and explosives. It’s built into the helmets, but we have to cast it manually.” She explained. “Too bad it doesn’t work on the screamers, huh?”

Nohta’s hooves left my shoulders as she stared past the Rangers. “Sis, something’s wrong.”

The Rangers had ceased firing; the heated barrels of their massive guns glowing red-hot in the night like angry coals that resented being plucked from the flames. I looked past the Rangers to see a brutal wasteland of death strewn throughout the streets. Everywhere were the shredded and charred bodies of the undead horde. Husks of motorwagons lay smouldering where their magical batteries had burst, like blackened islands in a sea of gore. The dust was clearing, parting for the lone glowing figure left walking calmly through the devastation.

Bright Eyes was striding through the wreckage of the town, surveying her fallen kin with an eerie and infinitely disturbing calm.

Sandalwood balked at the sight, stepping backwards and calling out, “Holly! Report!”

Holly opened her mouth to answer, but was distracted as all eyes fell upon the glowing mare. The spotlights of her eyes glowed intensely as Bright Eyes opened her mouth in a silent scream. Tiny motes of pink and green light raced out of her maw like a chaotic swarm of fireflies, each one seeking out a fallen ghoul upon the ground. Limbs began to twitch. Dead eyes began to roll in their sockets. Only the completely devastated bodies remained still. The fallen ghouls began to rise again, each one accompanied by a bellowing roar and a terrifying ripping noise as limbs reattached themselves. My jaw fell as quickly as my hopes.

“Fire! Fire!” Sandalwood ordered her squad to fight, but the ghouls were too close. Charging corpses threw themselves willingly at the wall of gunfire, their chewed and decapitated bodies spewing viscera and bone all over the knights and paladins to gum their weapons and block their fire. The long-dead tissue sizzled and stuck to the Rangers’ overheated weapons, conjuring up a horrifically reeking stench that overpowered my nostrils and nearly turned my stomach. The sea of necrotic flesh was still crashing upon the rock of steel, but the tide was rising. We were about to be overrun.

A second lull in the cacophony of devastation gave us the time we needed. “Fall Back!” Sandalwood’s voice held no hint of fear, only the steady notes of a leader.

Behind the turning Rangers, Bright Eyes was levitating a bloody stump to her body. Bullets that had bitten into her lambent flesh oozed out of her healing skin; glowing-hot droplets of metal that splashed against the carpet of viscera, sizzling where they fell into dead tissue. Her expression showed only meager annoyance as she calmly held the limb against her shoulder. A glittering swirl of pink magic coalesced around the leg and bound it back into place seamlessly against her radiant body as her eyes lifted to the retreating squad.

The Rangers galloped past me, their heavy hoof-falls reverberating through the road as Bright Eyes stood alone in the mounds of bodies. Her eyes fell on me, bathing my form in her unholy light. With her every breath, a hoof-full of the green and pink motes escaped her open mouth to slowly resurrect more ghouls as she began to plod forward. With her second exhalation, I felt a hoof fall on my shoulder.

Nohta tugged at my coat, a wide-eyed look of terror in her eyes, “Run!”

I didn’t think. The time for that was long past us. I simply obeyed my sister and my instincts. I had seen enough; Bright Eyes couldn’t be stopped. We fled as quickly as we were able, desperately racing for the relative safety of the Steel Rangers.

Sandalwood was the closest Ranger to us. She turned and braced herself, barking out inaudible orders as a banshee’s scream sliced through the night. A blinding flash later, a wave of pressure washed past my face and the screaming stopped. I didn’t turn to see the body.

We ran through the cluttered streets as the undead herd reformed itself behind us, taking an abrupt turn to dash down an adjacent road and place ruined buildings between us and the glowing mare. I chanced a glance over my shoulder as I allowed Nohta to guide my hoofsteps. The sentinels had been abandoned behind us at the intersection to buy time, spitting out countless bullets and a constant barrage of explosive weaponry as they were slowly overtaken.

A screamer stood before them and bellowed into the sentinel furthest from us, causing the sentinel to immediately turn its explosive weaponry on its twin, resulting in a brilliant, window shattering explosion that sent rippling shockwaves through the air. My eyes went even wider than before as its chassis rotated in my direction. A rocket flew over my shoulder, missing me by mere feet, and collided with the berserk sentinel in a glorious plume of fire and scattering shrapnel as the robot was reduced to a crumpled and twisted heap of scrap metal.

The Ranger squad halted their retreat to make a stand at the entrance to a darkened alleyway as several of the scribes worked furiously to scourge the miniguns of the now baked-on viscera. Several more scribes took up positions alongside motorwagons and mailboxes in the streets and sidewalks, laying down a barrage of small-arms fire. The herd of zombies had thinned considerably, but the onslaught was relentless. Individual ghouls were being ripped apart in the streets by concentrated bursts from SMGs, assault rifles, and pistols. Tiny orbs of light danced above the battlefield, zipping this way and that before diving into slain ghouls and bringing the corpses back to life.

It was utter chaos, and I couldn’t have been happier to finally duck down that narrow passage between two stores and place the squad of Rangers between myself and the undead horde. Nohta and I scrambled through the shimmering wall of magenta at the mouth of the alley just as the Steel Rangers began to rev up their immense weaponry. In our haste, we nearly ran straight into Holly as she and two other scribes huddled over the prone form of an armored Ranger.

“Candy!” Her companions lifted their heads in my direction at the sound of her voice. “Knight Lemongrass got hit by a screamer!” As if on cue, two ghouls rounded the corner at the end of the alley, and bolted in our direction.

*FZZAAP* *FZZAAP*

Two beams of dazzling emerald energy streaked past my mane, leaving two glittering piles of ashes further down the alleyway. “Just a minute, darling!” A dainty voice called out over the clamor of battle, sounding entirely far too composed. “I heard that somepony was in need of assistance! Something about a poor buck being unable to…ah… perform?”

Code Blue trotted past me jauntily, adjusting her glasses and smirking at the scribes and helpless Ranger. “Oh, Holly dear! It appears you’ve gone and worn poor Lemongrass out! I know that it’s easy to get caught up in the heat of the moment, but you really must remember to watch out for that refractory period, darling. You’ve got to pace yourself!” The boxy energy rifle that levitated at her side was still pointed down the alley. Between her calm demeanor and the expertly placed shots into the ghoul’s skulls I was left with the distinct impression that this mare, no matter how flippant or depraved she might be, knew what she was doing.

Holly had already removed an armored plate from the Ranger’s flank, exposing a menagerie of electronics and ports for drug injection. “Code, now is not the time for jokes! The spell-matrix has crashed and we need to reboot Lemongrass’ armor!”

Code rolled her eyes theatrically and waved her horn over Knight Lemongrass, “Well pardon me for trying to lift our spirits.”

Holly ignored the white mare and turned back to me. “Candy, can you and Nohta watch our backs? Re-booting armor is a delicate pro-”

Three ghouls leapt through the store’s windows above our heads, shattering the glass panes and raining jagged shards over everyone in the narrow passage. Several of the shards slashed through my labcoat to leave painful lacerations along my back and cause me to cry out in startled pain. The snarling ghouls that had just descended upon the small group of scribes thrashed and struck at them ferociously, proving to be more than a match for the scribes’ meager melee skills.

I was levitating my pistol out of its holster when Nohta’s mouth clamped down on the collar of my labcoat and jerked me further down the alley. Simple reflex commanded me to look to her face, where I found a look of sheer terror aimed at the broken windows. My gaze followed her own to find a glowing one standing on the second floor of the shop and sucking in air, its stripes glowing intensely to illuminate the ruined faces of several more ghouls at its side.

“Candy!?” Holly’s mechanized knife chewed through the neck of her attacker, spewing blood and bits of bone across her freckled face. Code and the other scribes managed to kick one of the other ghouls away long enough for the doctor to level her weapon at its head and reduce the zombies skull to a charred disaster. Now the group was dealing with the last ghoul in the alley, oblivious to the threat above them.

Goddess… I didn’t even warn them. I could have done so… Should have done so… I just… didn’t.

Nohta’s efforts had coaxed me out of the range of the attack, but I was never the intended target to begin with. The wave of light crashed over Holly and the other scribes, knocking Code off her hooves and sending all of their weapons clattering to the ground as their magic was obliterated in an instant. I was the only unicorn in the alley with any magic left to me at all, and the armored Rangers were too busy with the advancing flood of ghouls in the streets to notice the flanking maneuver.

Holly and the other scribes were screaming for help, and if anyone within the vicinity could have aided them, it would have been Nohta and myself. It was at that point that I found myself facing the most important choice of the night. Nohta tugged at my coat, beckoning me down the alley, but my eyes were glued to Holly’s. My panting breath gushed over my lips as we stared at each other for an interval of time that seemed to drag on for hours. Only when I had seen the pained realization of our intentions splay itself across her face did I turn down the alley to abandon the mare who had done everything in her power to save us. I fled for the sake of simple survival, but I couldn’t help but feel the stinging bite of guilt as I realized Holly would only see this as betrayal.

Nohta and I galloped as quickly as our legs would carry us in the simple direction of “away.” We darted between the scattered remains of motorwagons and down dark alleyways, finding the eastern edge of Coltsville as continuing gunfire and explosions echoed off the town’s buildings. As I had hoped, the vast majority of the zombies had gone after the Steel Rangers, but a relatively small pack of five ghouls was shambling through the road. Their ruined muzzles were lifted to the air as they attempted to sniff out their prey.

“I got left!” Nohta drew her pistol, as I floated out my own. She waited until we were mere feet from the party of corpses before tonguing the trigger twice, the bullets ripping the torso of one ghoul apart in a shower of crimson.

S.A.T.S. assisted my aim as I queued as many shots as I was able into rotting heads. Only two lucky beams connected, blowing a charred hole through a skull and vaporising another in a vibrant cloud of pink ash. Nohta dove into her second target, slamming its body into a parked sky-chariot with a sickening crunch. It flailed its limbs wildly, beating upon my sister’s neck and shoulders while she pummeled its face with an animalistic ferocity fueled by fear-induced adrenaline.

The last zombie growled and charged in my direction, knocking me to the ground as my magic imploded from the impact. The wind was knocked out of me, leaving me panting and shaking on the the broken asphalt of the road as the corpse descended on me. The fetid stench of its breath was overpoweringly nauseating and nearly incapacitating in its own right. Broken, jagged hooves beat on my neck and face, knocking me senseless as my vision exploded in bright stars. All ability to think clearly dissipated, crushed underneath the ghoul’s stomping blows. I tried to call out to my sister, but no sound escaped my lips. A terrifying wetness was flowing down my lips, lending the horrific taste of copper to the experience of being beaten to death.

The ghoul’s head snapped downward, sinking its rotted teeth into my left shoulder. The pain was more than sufficient to pierce the hazy veil of my mind. “AAAAAHH! NOHTA, HELP!” I beat my hooves fruitlessly against the zombie’s neck and face, but its only response was to shake it head and viciously tear out a chunk of flesh nearly the size of my hoof. My world went fuzzy as fresh agony exploded through my mind.

I stared in horror as the ghoul masticated my flesh and swallowed. I was too weak to stop this. I was too scared to think clearly. I couldn’t do anything. The ghoul’s head snapped forward again, but stopped inches from my neck. Nohta’s face was behind it, gripping the combat knife she had just plunged into the back of its skull in her mouth.

The corpse listed to the side and fell to the ground as Nohta replaced it. Her voice came out in terrified gasps, “Sis! Hang on!”

My lips could only just barely form words, “Po… Potion… “

A moment later, an unfamiliar and vile taste filled my mouth. This was no Sweet Water, but it would do its job. My eyes opened (when had I closed them?) to find my sister dumping a bottle of healing potion down my open gullet. Bland relief and leftover adrenaline mixed in my veins. I moved to sit up, wincing as the pain in my shoulder ebbed and dulled by a marginal amount. My left foreleg didn’t want to move properly.

“M-More,” I croaked.

Nohta fished another bottle out of our supplies, draining its contents down my greedy throat.

The tingle of rejuvenating flesh had already left my face, back, and neck, but I could barely notice. The searing agony in my shoulder demanded all of my attention. “More.” I hissed the word through clenched teeth as my body involuntarily reacted to the pain.

She procured one final bottle, “This is our last one, Sis.”

I glanced at my shoulder, my stomach flipping over at the sight of my own mending body. Muscle and sinew knit themselves back into place over my scratched scapula to leave a raw and profusely bleeding wound. This would require more than a potion. “Then half, give me the bottle.”

I turned the bottle around in my magic, dreading what I was about to do, and hoping that the imminent pain would lend some sense of clarity to my mind. This had to be done, or I’d be permanently deformed. Or worse, the wound might not heal all the way, leaving me to die a slow and painful death due to the inevitable infection.

A second scarlet bubble levitated what was left of my healing salve over the wound, dumping the goop directly into the cavity with an irritating tingle. The salve sunk into the wound, quickly evaporating as its healing magic was used up almost instantly. I steeled myself with one last sharp inhale of breath and jammed the neck of the bottle into the still-mending flesh as pain’s familiar hold gripped me like a vice.

My groan burst past the barricade of my teeth, clawing its way out of my mouth as I fought not to scream. My eyes bulged in my head before the pain peaked, leaving me gasping for breath and blinking back the wetness collecting in my eyes. Direct application of healing potions is regarded as an acceptable practice only in dire emergencies. If a gaping hole in my shoulder while Nohta and I were busy fleeing for our lives from ravenous ghouls didn’t fit that bill, nothing would.

I allowed half of the bottle to drain liquid fire over my raw muscle, simultaneously cursing and blessing every new nerve ending that popped into existence, then drank the rest of the potion from the bloody bottle for good measure and concentrated on the wound as I activated my spell. A wave of nausea nearly forced me to vomit the potion from my stomach before I reeled in control of my magic through sheer force of will and concentrated only on my shoulder. As I feared, the the potions and salve hadn’t been enough.

The rigors of the previous few days had left me dangerously close to magical exhaustion, but I had no other option. My horn ached dully in protest as a layer of crimson overglow erupted above my eyes. A thin cord of ethereal pink light danced between my horn and shoulder like a rope in a lazy breeze, sweeping over the ripped flesh in the strongest regenerative spell I knew. Goddess, the wound was still healing too slowly! I was losing too much blood! I needed more…

A third layer of light blazed over my horn, obliterating the shadows cast by the moonlight and strengthening my spell. Sweat beaded across my brow as my body fought to keep pace with my magical exertions. The thin cord widened into a pulsating beam of energy, quickening the mending of flesh and growing new skin over the wound.

Nohta had never seen me go this far. Her eyes were wide with worry and awe, “Fuck, Sis…”

I was racing time; racing against my own withering reserves of magical energy. I couldn’t sustain magic of that amplitude for long. Not back then…

Just as the wound finally closed shut I felt the last flickering wisp of magical energy leave me. A fuzzy, dull ache and terrifying numbness replaced the vigorous and powerful sensation I had enjoyed just moments ago. I fell forward into my sister’s embrace, panting and blinking back tears.

She pulled away after a second, “Damn, Candy… Are you gonna be okay? We really need to keep moving.”

I nodded, still panting. “I think so. Let’s… Let’s go.”

I scanned the ground for my weapon, finding it a few feet away. I focused on my pistol, but nothing happened. “Oh Goddess… Please, not right now.” I focused harder, to no avail.

“What’s wrong?” Nohta’s eyes were still wide as she cast hasty glances all around us.

My lips quivered with the pained admission, “I… Nohta I can’t pick up my pistol.”

My sister was utterly baffled and understandably anxious, “What do you mean!? Grab it! Fast! We need to fucking move!”

I looked back to the pistol, concentrating for all I was worth only to feel the same crushing impotence I had felt so long ago. A fresh wave of tears fell down my cheeks, born of fear and guilt. There was only one possible explanation for this. “Nohta… I… I can’t.” My lips trembled, “I can’t use my magic.”

She stared at me, confusion and apprehension plastered all over her face. “You… Oh shit. Candy!”

“I’m sorry!” Goddess… without magic I was useless!

Her eyes roamed over the streets as she thought aloud. “No… no, it’s okay. You just… You gotta do things without your magic for a while.” Her eyes found mine again as she added, “And we still gotta get the fuck out of here.” Her hoof found the underside of my jaw, lifting my falling features to her own terrified face as her voice dropped low in a comforting tone. “Let’s go, okay?” My mind raced as I realized just how dire our situation must have been for her to adopt that tone.

I nodded and made to get up, but as I stood my left foreleg protested with as much ferocity as it could muster, nearly sending me to the ground as it failed to support my weight. I braced myself against the sky-chariot as my sister slid underneath of me, throwing my leg over her own shoulder to support my weight as she ignored my protests and groans of pain.

“Save it, Candy, I don’t care.” Her hooves jammed my pistol’s bit into my mouth before she continued, “We’re getting the fuck out of here! Keep your pistol ready!” I caved, allowing her to guide my awkward gait past the edges of town as we fled from the increasingly sporadic sounds of gunfire, banshee screams, and explosions.

We traveled through the moonlit night, following the road. There was no plan, we simply fled. Eventually our pace quickened as we found a simple synchronization of movement. We had worked ourselves into a canter by the time we were closing in on the river. My labcoat was soaked in sweat from my exhaustion, and I had to holster my pistol simply to breathe properly.

“We did it again.” I muttered between heaving breaths.

“Huh?” Nohta’s breathing wasn’t even taxed in the slightest. How I envied her physical fortitude!

I gulped, “We… ran away.”

She squeezed me with the hoof she had wrapped around my barrel, “Sis… don’t. Don’t do this to yourself. It’s not the same.”

“But-”

“It’s. Not. The. Same.” With each word, her voice rose just a little more, before she caught herself and explained calmly, “We ran from a bunch of mindless freaks. And we’re still alive. We didn’t lose anypony we cared about. We just ran. We’re still alive.”

I looked to her hooded face beside my own, beginning to lose my breath, “That’s… small comfort.”

Her gaze was locked ahead of us, “It’s enough for me.”

The sound of churning, roiling water filled our ears as we neared the river. I had no idea what to do next, but we had at least made it to a noticeable milestone. My eyes lifted to the source of the noise, and I found more than just the contaminated waterway. The bridge spanning the river had lights shining over it. Oh Goddess, what now!?

My sister had no idea what it was either, “Is that… “

“Moo.”

“Oh goodness! Everypony come here real quick, once! It’s dat doctor and her companion!”

A small group of five ponies and one (two?) brahmin were standing on the bridge under the illumination of magical auras and oil lamps, a large wagon and smaller cart hitched to three (four?) of their number. Cheddar Cheese ran to greet us, his shotgun floating at his side.

“Candy! Is that you? Oh shit, what’s going on!?” He turned before I could answer, “Cabernet! Get the medical supplies!”

“No… No… I’m… I’m fine. We just… “ I panted, completely winded.

Nohta answered for me, “We need to get the fuck out of here right fucking now!”

The red mare with the battle-saddle, Cabernet, arrived with a pink and yellow box in her mouth. Setting it at Cheddar’s hooves, she asked, “Why? What happened to you two?”

Nohta continued as I caught my breath, “There’s an army of zombies that just ran through Coltsville!”

Cheddar and Cabernet exchanged worried glances, before Cheddar asked us, “And the explosions?”

“Steel Ranger Squad! They were all killed by ghouls!” As the words left Nohta’s mouth, I realized that they might not actually be true. We didn’t see the ghouls kill any of the Rangers, and it was still hard to imagine that one of the zombie ponies could harm anypony inside armor like that. But whatever the case, I was too winded to correct her on a technicality.

“Steel Rangers? What were they- Wait… What’s that?” Cheddar was looking past us.

I very nearly groaned as I turned around, extricating myself from Nohta’s grasp and limping feebly. The verdant aura shone brightly, illuminating the desert with the blazing fire of an earthbound, emerald sun. Screams shattered the silence once more, as several dozen ghouls rampaged in our direction. The vibrations of well over fifty sets of hooves resonated through the earth beneath us as I turned back to Cheddar and Cabernet. “We need to go.”

My sister was the one that answered me, surprising us all. “No. Wait. We can’t run. We have to fight.”

I blinked in shock and nearly screamed at my sister. “Nohta, are you insane? You saw what Bright Eyes was able to live through! And what she did! We can’t fight that!”

Her eyes were cold and calculating despite the fearful expression she still wore. “No, I know. We just need to hold them off for a second. Remember the recording? And what we got in the safe?”

The bomb. My heart fluttered all the way down into my stomach, where it fell not into a pit of acid, but into an icy bucket of water. I wasn’t sure of whether to feel ecstatic that I’d get to use the explosive, mortified that I’d be blowing up what was very nearly the only means of travel west of Mareon, relieved that somepony had our backs out here, or infuriated that that same somepony was playing us like fiddles.

I nodded slowly, my breath a reverent whisper. “Yes. I remember.”

Nohta’s voice was calm with her returning confidence, “Set it up on the bridge. Let’s see if those fuckers can swim.”

My heart was racing. I nodded, “Okay, “ I turned to Cheddar and Cabernet, “We need to move to the eastern side of the bridge.”

“What are you doing?” Cabernet asked, a tinge of worry at our vague conversation marring her smooth voice.

Nohta pulled me alongside her, past the two traders, and blurted out a blunt response, “There’s no fucking time! Just hurry!”

Banshee screams urged us all onward as Cheddar and Cabernet rounded up their family. Nohta stayed by my side as I knelt in the center of the bridge and used my hooves to clumsily extract the bundle of explosives from my packs. I couldn’t help but stare at the explosive as my thoughts wandered down absolutely delightful passages. A small smile spread across my lips as I imagined the raw power and destruction about to be wrought by my own hoof.

I looked up at my sister as I placed the explosive bundle in a jagged crack in the concrete. “Do you think I should try to get Bright Eyes with this?”

Nohta scoffed, “I think that would take some pretty fucking crackerjack timing, Sis. Just set it up to blow and let’s get to-” Her eyes darted upwards, “Fuck! Out of time! Set it and run!”

The fastest of the ghouls had reached the bridge, scrambling over the sheets of metal and wooden planks spanning the gaps and lunging for us. Its snarling maw found Nohta’s shodden hoof as rotten teeth cracked and scattered to the river below our hooves. The second ghoul was already on the bridge when my hoof primed the explosive for one minute, noting the time on my Pipbuck as I did so. I clenched my teeth around the bit of my pistol and emptied its charge into the ghoul’s decayed chest. The smoking ruin of a long-dead pony finally skidded to a halt at my hooves as I staggered backwards.

Nohta had caught the attention of two more zombies, she ducked under the first’s feral kick to slam her hoof into its exposed ribcage, shattering bone and producing a sick squelching noise as her hoof penetrated its torso. My sister’s strength was intense, but without the drugs coursing through her system she had become sloppy. Her hoof had caught in the zombie’s chest! The other ghoul took advantage of her distraction to sink its teeth into her neck, eliciting a terrible cry of pain from my sister. I panicked; completely unable to aid her.

*Blam*

The zombie’s skull exploded next to Nohta’s surprised face, bathing her head in gore. I turned to see Cabernet, Cheddar, and Brie plodding back across the bridge. Thank the Goddess!

Nohta drug her hoof out of the ghoul’s torso and hobbled in my direction, keeping her head down as Cabernet’s rifles roared in twin blasts of lead that resulted in glorious fountains of scarlet. Cheddar’s shotgun blew a gaping hole through a scarred flank to completely sever a zombie’s leg from its body, sending the ghoul cresting the bridge’s curve tumbling through one of the gaps in the ancient structure to a sudden, watery demise. Brie ran forward, sledgehammer at the ready, and snapped a zombie’s spine with a single swing before scooping Nohta on top of her back and galloping towards us.

“Get back to the carts!” I shouted, “There’s a bomb on the bridge!”

Cheddar’s jaw dropped, his eyebrows attempting to wriggle off of his face. “Shit!”

The five of us ran for our lives, running along the river’s side towards the wagon and cart to put distance between ourselves and the bridge as Cheddar and Cabernet turned occasionally to pepper our attackers with lead. Brie rejoined the pair after depositing Nohta at my hooves by the wagon, fending off the hoof-full of zombies that reached our side of the river. I checked my Pipbuck, “Fifteen seconds!”

“Sis,” Nohta’s voice was troublingly desperate, “don’t feel so good anymore.”

“It’s okay, dear. We’re almost out of-” The terrifying scream of a banshee silenced my reassurances. I looked up to see a horrifying sight. Bright Eyes was standing on the other side of the river, casting her spotlight eye-glow directly across Nohta and myself.

I checked my Pipbuck again, “Five seconds! GET DOWN!”

Cheddar, Cabernet, and Brie skidded behind their cart with the rest of the family as an irresistible urge overtook my good sense. My gaze rose to the bridge. I needed to see…

It was as if the Goddess herself deemed that the simple structure of concrete and steel was an ugly thing, undeserving of blemishing her lands. It needed to be done away with, and she would see to its demise personally. I could feel her descend from beyond the clouds. And I could feel her brush her hoof against the world as the air itself ached at her presence. For one wonderful, terrifying moment of building anticipation, all was still and silent. Then the pressure was released, and my world changed again.

A concussive wave blasted my mane backwards as my eyes instinctively slammed shut and my ears lay flat against my head. I forced my eyes open a moment later to witness the cloud of ash, dust, and various bits of wooden or steel debris that had once been the bridge soaring through the air on a graceful midnight wind. A disastrous hole had been ripped out of the middle of the bridge, neatly separating the eastern and western sides of the structure by a several-yards-long jagged divide. The remains of the structure creaked and groaned mightily, collapsing into the river as gravity finished what explosive destruction had set in motion.

And it was all unleashed by my hoof! A giddy excitement coursed through my veins as that realization sank in. I had done that! Goddess, such power! It was wonderful!

Not a single ghoul was left standing. We had escaped.

“Nohta!” I laughed, reveling in the simple joy of survival, “We did it!”

There was no response. My laughter died in my throat.

“Nohta?” I pulled her hood back to reveal a bloody gash torn through her neck. “Oh no… No. NO!”

By reflex, I focused on her neck and tried to cast my spell, but the absence of any sensation at all jogged my memory. My hooves shook as they reached for the gash in her neck, only serving to smear the blood across her stripes and make a terrible mess. Goddess, I was so clumsy with my hooves! I couldn’t work quickly enough! I needed help!

“Hold on, Nohta!” Luna damn me! Why did I have to use the last potion on myself? I threw my packs to the ground, digging out the only restorative item we had left: a single roll of healing bandages. It was better than nothing, but only just barely.

My bloody hooves spread crimson all over the packaging for the bandages, slipping and preventing me from opening the roll. Terror and determination gripped me; I was NOT going to lose her! The taste of copper flooded my mouth as I used my teeth to rip open the package and gain access to the gauze inside. The surreal realization that my little sister’s blood was now coating the inside of my mouth was swept to the wayside as I quickly focused on staunching her bleeding.

My hooves wrapped the bandages around her neck in the best attempt at medicine I could manage without use of my magic. The bandages soaked through with crimson nearly as soon as I had applied them, but all I could do was apply pressure and mutter gasping prayers to Luna. As I was huddled over her form, a bright green aura cast faint shadows from my packs across my sister’s face. A horrible noise, like all the air in the world was being sucked through a tube, came from across the churning river. I looked up to see Bright Eyes inhaling deeply. I felt my heart plummet into my stomach as Bright Eyes exhaled a brilliant cascade of emerald light in our direction. A wave of uncomfortable warmth and nausea permeated my body, soaking into my very soul with an awful and crippling intensity as my Pipbuck clicked wildly.

Simple curiosity bade me check the interface on my hoof. “Plus… three-hundred rads?” Another wave crashed through us, sending tiny motes of jade light dancing through my blurring vision as I stumbled backwards from the blast. “Six… hundred? No…” Bright Eyes was killing us from across the span of the river! This… this wasn’t fair! We had escaped! We had already won!

Weariness borne of my own wounds, fatigue, overexertion, the creeping effects of radiation sickness, borderline dehydration, and near starvation finally claimed their prize. Another blast of magical radiation washed over my body as I feebly attempted to drag Nohta’s unconscious form away from the river. Without my magic, I had to rely on my own paltry strength to drag her in the direction of the Cheese Family’s carts.

I grunted in exertion, the hood of Nohta’s cloak gripped between my teeth as I strained to get her to safety. A terribly violent and exceedingly painful ripping sensation burst forth from my shoulder as the wound re-opened, spilling scarlet down my leg and past my Pipbuck. My leg gave out underneath me, sending my panting form toppling to the ground. Dirt and rocks scratched at my cheeks, clung to my bloody lips, and matted all over my perspiration-soaked face. Tiny puffs of dust were blown before my eyes by my rasping breaths. I lifted my hoof to my eyes, but lacked the strength to right myself. I had nothing left.

The last thing I saw was my blood-covered Pipbuck’s interface, “Nine… hundred…fifty sev... Father, I… can’t-” My world fell to darkness as I lost consciousness.

Luna’s soft embrace was every bit as welcoming as I had been led to believe.

Footnote: The Party Levels Up!
Welcome to Level 6!
New Perk!

An Apple-Grenade A Day: Well, you finally did it. You went and blew it all up! Your newfound love of explosive weaponry and burgeoning skills in repair have combined to give you all sorts of crazy ideas! Who knows what insane toys you’ll come up with? But watch out! You don’t want to blow your horn off, Doctor!

Nohta gains a Perk:

Rad Filly: Nohta may be down now, but she never stays that way for long! Nohta has taken on so much radiation that her body has permanently mutated. She gains more and more health regeneration as her rad level increases. Nohta is just too stubborn to share Nadira’s fate.

Author's Notes:

I owe Wr3nch all the thanks I can give him for his help with this chapter. Dude had some absolutely wonderful suggestions and advice for numerous scenes, and his input improved this installment of Sisters considerably. In the end, I think we pulled off a pretty good chapter, even if it did take us a while.

Thanks for all the covering fire, buddy! Now go grab some whiskey, mate, you’ve earned it!

Another big thank you to KKat, for giving all of us this amazing sandbox for our imaginations. And of course, thanks to all the folks who have worked on MLP or Fallout.