Equestria had changed drastically during my absence. The pre-war world had its fair share of nightmares. But these nightmares were locked away in secret, kept in isolated areas, like the old castle of the Alicorn sisters, or deep within the Everfree forest where Harmony couldn’t reach. For the citizens of Equestria, the nightmares were out of sight  and out of mind. Nearly everypony had enough to eat, somewhere to sleep, and above all, peace.

Raiders, slavers, and worse stalked the land, through the ruins of once great cities and towns, former bastions of peace and prosperity. Death and decay hid not in the shadows, but stalked the land openly. Every day was a fight for your life, just trying to make it by.  My sleepless first night gave me no respite from the nightmare filled day.

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I awoke to shouts and gunshots. There was no confusion this time around, no thoughts that I may still be in Twilight’s home. Just a cold splash of reality. I lay alone in the ragged tent, the warm body having long since left.  I cracked open my eyes, trying to blink the sleep away. “Sunrise?” I asked. Next to me, Sunrise struggled out of her sleeping bag, hurrying to stand up.

She hurried to the front of the tent and stood in a defensive stance, guarding the entrance. Another pony ran towards her; an earth pony whose coat was too matted with mud to be any color but dirt. Sharp spikes covered the bottom of his horseshoes.

The earth pony lowered his head and charged directly towards Sunrise. She nimbly dodged, retaliating with a buck to the side. The pony staggered back, tripping over his own hooves and cutting himself on his hooves. Sunrise gained a few precious seconds to breathe. “Stay put Zenith! I can handle myself!” I didn’t doubt it one bit.

Of course, that didn’t mean I was just going to let her fight on her own. Glancing around quickly, I caught sight of a heavy rock in the clearing beyond and tried to grab a hold of it with magic. The rock glowed red for a moment started to float in the air before falling back to the ground. Celestia damn me, my magic always failed at the least opportune times!

The other pony had recovered and advanced again on Sunrise. She tried to buck at him again, but he easily dodged it this time and threw himself at her. The spikes on his forehooves cut deep into Sunrise’s flank. The momentum of their bodies threw them into the sides of the tent, bringing it down upon us. From the outside, gunfire started to ring out against the night.

While struggling to get out, I felt a sharp pain on the side of my head and felt blood spill. Apparently, the other pony’s dagger-hooves had caught me in the struggle. Thankfully, the damage seemed to only be shallow. It took me a few seconds to find a hole where I could escape from the canvas of the tent. Now free, I caught my first good glance of the clearing. Chaos reigned, the fires were barely lit, throwing the camp into a macabre display of shadow.

The camp started to flood with fighting ponies, the defenders outnumbered. The injured were just trying to stay alive, their overturned wagon slowly becoming separated from the rest of the fighters. I quickly caught sight of Shield, keeping his distance and firing shot after shot from his gun.

One of the invaders foalishly tried to attack Shield from behind. The other pony’s knife didn’t even scratch Shield’s armor. In retaliation, Shield turned, goring the other pony with his dragon helmet, dropping him instantly. The camps’ defenders seemed to form up around him almost unconsciously, as if his armor was a rallying point. The majority of his shots struck home, even in the fading light. How he could see was beyond me. The invading ponies had started to bring their own firearms to bear, returning the shots against Shield.  Shield took cover behind the edge of a wagon and continued to rain destruction on the raiders.

Invading ponies had surrounded the campsite. Every now and then, a flash could be made out in the air where the caravan’s other pegasus fought on. Those wounded in the battle had started to limp towards the center, trying to take advantage of the cover.  As the wounded caravan ponies struggled to retreat to safety, several of them were picked off by enveloping nets of green magic and were dragged into the darkness. From the din of noise, I could make out the renewed sounds of struggle from behind me. Sunrise and the other earth pony had finally managed to clear themselves from the downed tent. Both of them bled from multiple wounds.

“Zenith!” Sunrise yelled in warning. She pointed a hoof behind me. I turned just in time to see a green glow appear in the darkness beyond the camp. I felt myself lift off the ground, enveloped in a constricting field of green magic. My own body quickly followed the others. Try as I might, my own magic couldn’t surface its way out and break the bonds.

Through the viridian shimmer of the spell net trapping me, I could see Shield desperately fighting towards the floating ponies. Sunrise caught sight of us but didn’t have a chance to react as she was pulled back into the scramble. “Celestia damn it! Zenith!” I heard Shield yell. I tried to scream back, but the magic had stolen my voice, my strength and slowly, slowly, I could feel it stealing my vision too. A green haze filled my eyes and I fell into a terrible suffocating sleep.

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I woke some time later in dim light. My head ached like someone had taken a damned rock to it and my horn felt... hollow. The invading ponies had moved us to some sort of building. Odd green lights, flickering like candles, provided the only light. The covers had long since become nearly too filthy to see through, providing only dull, orange light. Faded, floral wallpaper still clung desperately to the wall in a few places. In the rest, mildew and other rot had long since taken its prize. Most of the floor tiles were broken and dirtied.

My eyes finally adjusted enough to the dim half-light enough to make out the cages lining the walls. I also realized that the green lights came from rings of magic, stuck around the horns of unicorns. The little motes of brightness came from green rings of magic pulsating around each captured unicorns’ horn. The one who kidnapped us must have also bound our magic, which would account for this damned headache. Keeping magic couped up like this was dangerous. It felt like a painful vibration stuck in my horn.

At least they didn’t have any of those collars like the first raiders did. Other cages ringed the outside of the room, some of them filled with ponies and others still empty. I only recognized one of the other inhabitants, a unicorn from the caravan. I vaguely remembered her as one of the first ponies injured, back in Ponyville.

Throughout the building, I could barely make out the sounds of coarse, drunken laughter. Everything was too jumbled to make out any words, but it was pretty obvious that the raiders were celebrating. I stood and stretched myself out, looking for any possible way to get myself the hell out of here.

“Hey, you’re awake.” The pony from the caravan recognized me too. “If anyone comes in here, keep your damned head down,” The other mare ordered. She kept glancing around nervously. Her eyes kept falling on the door, worried that it might open at any time.

“So..umm. You know where we are?” I asked. I couldn’t help but let a little fear escape into my voice. I wanted to be home more than ever now.

“Slaver base, by the looks of it. Seein’ as we’re not dead. Celestia fuck ‘em hard. Else wise they wouldn’t have bothered keeping us alive. As for where we are, no Celestia damned idea. Can’t be too far though, that bastard couldn’t have kept us all under control for more than a few minutes. Iff’n the rest of the caravan made it through, might actually have a shot at some rescue. No way in hell that’s happenin’ though.” The other pony explained.

The concept of slavery was pretty foreign to me. I had only ever read about it in books, but it kind of made sense. Getting other ponies to do your work and all that. I settled back down into the bottom of the cage. Without my magic, I couldn’t access my storage space, nor cast anything that would unlock this cage. I hated to say it, but I was rather useless without my magic.

“So what’s your name?” I asked. Sitting in the quiet did nothing to dispel my mounting anxiety. Maybe small talk would help relax us a bit.

“Just call me Sap. Old nickname from my raider days, fore I turned caravan guard and whatever. Parents called me Dirt Smear, rotten bastards.”  The other pony spat. In the dim light, I could just make out her brown coat where her original name must have come from. I didn’t get the Sap part though, I probably didn’t want to.

“My name’s-”

“Zenith, right. Surprised the whole damn wasteland didn’t hear Shield shoutin’ it like a dumbass. I thought he hated you, based on his bitchin’ earlier about you going in that damn library. How’d you get him to take a damn likin’ to ya so quick again, eh?” Sap inquired. At the mention of the reapers, I tried to shuffle down further, hiding my necklace even more from view.

“....I guess it’s because I’m young?” I responded, doubt coloring my voice. Why had Sunrise and Shield taken an interest in me so quickly? Sap only replied with a half hearted shake of her head and settled back down into the bottom of her cage. Too bad Shield couldn’t really help me now. I settled back down to the waiting game.

I may have fallen asleep again at one point or another, but after a while the time just seemed to blend together into a meaningless blob. Nothing distinguished any other point from each other. Hoofsteps passed by the door occasionally, but nopony ever bothered to enter. The laughter and shouts continued through the building. It seemed to be pretty big, but that’s about all I could tell.

Finally, after quite who knows how long, the door opened and two ponies stepped inside. The stallion leading was an earth pony, big and muscular with many scars rippling through his coat. He looked like he had been on the wrong side of one too many knives. His mane was a bluntly cut crimson set against a lighter gray coat. The Earth pony had a permanent scowl etched on his face and his crimson eyes were filled with malice. The pony following behind him was smaller, more lithe. It wore a hooded cloak, obscuring much of the body but a horn was easily visible.

The lead earth pony had a saddle on his back. The saddle had two guns of similar calibre to Shield’s. Instead of the clean, well tuned guns Shield had, these had the barrels sawed roughly off and were covered in filth. The light reflected off the barrels, bathing them in an eerie green glow.

“Had escapes three times this month already. Least we got this batch last night, might get some good money for the unicorns, always need more magic-users.” The heavyset stallion said. He seemed to be carrying on a conversation from before he entered the room. “Your seals will hold, right Weaver?” he finished.

The unicorn in the cloak gave an almost imperceptible nod. The stallion trailed his gaze over each of the ponies in the cages. For some reason, his eyes locked onto mine, sending a shiver down my spine. I shrunk back up against the back of the cage, sitting up to get myself as far away from the Earth Pony as possible. His glare deepened, and I realized with a sinking feeling that he’d caught sight of my pendant.

The door to my cage creaked open and a familiar net of green dragged me out of the cage. He set me down with a thump in front of the lead pony. “Name?” he asked, glaring down at me.

“Zenith’s E-Eclipse” I stuttered, trying to remain calm but failing rather epicly. If I’d been standing, I would’ve fallen back down.

“Where did you get that necklace?” Dammit, Spike’s gift was getting me in trouble again. I kept my mouth shut, unable to come up with a lie on the spot. “Didn’t you hear me?” The earth pony snapped, growing angrier. “Who gave you that? A reaper? Or are you a damn reaper yourself?” I tried to shrink further away, shaking with fear.

“Dream, make her talk.” The unicorn nodded again and a green glow emanated from underneath his cloak. The next second, unbelievable pain completely took over my conscious. Overwhelming green light flooded through my mind, changing the color of my vision. It made everything that disgusting color. I couldn’t tell where I was, or who I was. Just pain. After an eternity, the pain stopped and my vision cleared. I had fallen completely limp onto my side with the earth pony and Weaver still standing above me.

“Well?” The stallion asked, raising an eyebrow at me. “Ready to talk?” Vaguely, I heard a gunshot from inside the building, followed by screams and more fire. He swore hearing the sounds. “How many damn times do I have to tell them to not shoot the damn slaves? Cuts into profit margin. Dream, get my answers, I’m going to take care of this shit.” The stallion stormed out, bucking the door closed behind him and rattling our cages with the force. Weaver’s horn began to glow again, ready to hit me with another wave of pain.

“No.. wait..” I started feebly. The pain exploded into my mind again. But this time, I was ready for it. I knew what was coming and had braced myself. Life in the back alleys of Canterlot hadn’t made me a fighter. I’d been too young to fight. Instead, it made me a survivor. I had been smart enough not to get caught, and now that I was, I had to be strong enough to fight.

When I’d first been sent to Twilight, she knew nothing about me except for what I’d been caught for. She gradually coaxed me into feeling safe by teaching me defensive spells. She had taught me the basics, like shields and how to escape magic binding curses like this one. All along the way, she prodded me gently with questions, slowly getting answers.

So even as the pain tore through me, I was able to keep myself collected enough to recognize the pain as being of the same source as the nets of last night. I couldn’t just flat out overpower it, but the spell had been poorly cast leaving plenty of holes. I started to sneak my magic through and then with one of my unpredictable bursts of power, I shattered the spell completely. The huge backflow of magic knocked Dream clean off his feet and into the wall.

Exhausted, I slumped to the floor, but I couldn’t stay here and rest. I had to run, escape. I looked around for anything useful, even checking Dream’s body. I found nothing but two knives. This would’ve been so much easier if he had had a key. I headed towards the door but hesitated. Instead of quiet, I could hear bang after bang from the stories beneath me. The screams continued, louder than ever. It sounded like a true brawl. Finally, I started to push the door open with my magic, reluctant to head out. No matter how slowly I pushed, it still let out the loudest screech I had ever heard from a door. If anyone was on lookout up here, there was no way I would go unnoticed.

“You just gonna leave us here to rot?” I heard Sap asked from behind me. I had somehow managed to forget about them during my struggle. I felt guilt clench at my mind, but I couldn’t take the time to help them now. It would take me way too long to pick the locks, if I even could.

“I-I can’t. No key...” I muttered. I tried to feel inside the lock with my magic, but couldn’t find anyway to get it open. I was used to locked doors on the inside of houses, not cages. “I need to go...” I averted my gaze away from Sap, feeling the guilt continue to rise.

Sap sighed in disappointment. “Just tell ‘em where we are, got it? Good luck.” She slumped back down to the bottom of the cage, looking hopeless. I nodded and turned back to the door.

I finally gathered up my courage and stepped through the door to... nothing. Of course. The hallway had been abandoned apparently, just a long stretch of unopened doors. On each end, a staircase led down. I figured that was probably the way out so I started to head down. I reached the first landing without any event and the screams intensified, except this time I could make out hurried orders and commands from the lead stallion’s voice. I shivered at the thought of facing him and jumped down the last few steps right into a war zone. The scene was highly reminiscent of the campsite from the night before, except this time the tables had been turned and the slavers were backed into a corner.

I caught a clear sight of the incoming herd of ponies and who else was at the vanguard but Shield? Each shot dropped another raider and each bullet fired back at him simply pinged off his armor or buried themselves halfway through. I really need to find out what in Luna’s name that was made from.

Other ponies flanked him on each side, dressed in makeshift barding and carrying old and rusted down weapons; toys compared to Shield’s perfectly honed instruments. I could recognize a few of the caravan ponies, but the rest were strangers. One pony whose appearance was conspicuously absent was Sunrise’s. But I guess she wasn’t really much of a fighter in the first place.

Unnoticed, I took a slow step to the side, trying to hide underneath the stairs... only to run flank first into two raiders ponies who had the same idea. The two slaver ponies turned and both of them had smaller firearms clamped in their mouths. Neither of them hesitated to fire. I was barely able to throw a shield up in time from cutting my escape quite short.

The bullets stopped dead in the air, the air shimmering red from my magic. Each of the bullets dropped to the ground, smashed flat. I couldn’t help but jump away, even still. The raiders stopped, confused as their bullets seemed to stop mid-air leaving me unharmed. The stand still lasted only a second before blood splattered through the air, painting the bubble around me red. I felt my stomach turn with nausea and had to look away.

From the safety of the stairs, I watched the fight. I had no idea how Shield had gottten so many ponies to help, but they were tearing through the raiders. The slavers that remained standing were a disorganized mess, getting simply outmaneuvered as Shield led the assault taking down the strongest remaining opponents himself. Gnasher was nowhere to be seen. After only a few more minutes, the last slaver dropped in a pool of blood, peppered with fire from all side. I breathed a sigh of relief and dropped my shield, stepping out from under the stairs.

“Shield!” I called out, only to have one last shot ring out and then feel a sharp pain in my foreleg. I looked down and saw blood starting to gush from a rather sizeable hole. To the right of Shield, the guilty pony stood, pistol still aimed at me. My mouth formed a small “O” and I dropped hard to the ground, knees weak from shock. I heard another scream that must’ve mirrored my own from the doorway and the missing member of the raid finally coming to sight; Sunrise. She hurried to my side as Shield started cursing the trigger-man’s name, family and more or less anything else he could think of.

“Hey Sunrise.” I said with a weak smile. Even I could tell my voice came out a little wobbly. It may not have been a life-threatening wound, but it sure as hell hurt. “Where’d ya get all these ponies from, huh?”

She smiled at me and I instantly felt some of the pain melt away. “They’re from a nearby town. Shield and a few of the other guards managed to finally beat the slavers off; of course after they took our wounded. We got to a town the next day and I talked them into coming out here and getting rid of their slaver problem once and for all. They had been plagued by them for years, so it really didn’t take much convincing.”  She explained.

“Well thanks for that I guess.” I said with a small sigh. “Hey Sunrise?”

“Yes?”

“Could you please tell Shield not to kill the pony who shot me? I think he’s about to kill him by busting his eardrums.” It was a poor attempt at humor, but it still made Sunrise giggle a little and that was good enough for me. Shield seemed to finally have had enough of handing the shooter pony’s ass to him on a platter and had made his way over to use.

“Dammit!” Shield gently lifted my leg with telekinesis, keeping pressure off it. “Small calibre, you’ll be fine. Doc shouldn’t have a problem back in town, no problem at all.” His voice was clinical, keeping emotion out, like he had seen this a thousand times. I nodded, getting to my feet. My head was all woozy, but I felt like I could walk I took a few tottering steps to the door before Shield forced me back down with magic.

“Not going to happen filly. Can’t walk on a shot leg, nice little nap and you’ll be all patched up.” Before I could protest, he managed to obtain a vial much like one of Twilight’s potions and shoved the liquid inside down my throat. I had probably taken something from the library that would’ve helped here, but my head was swimming with pain and I still had no idea what all I took.

“But... but,” I sputtered,”Sap and the other ponies, they’re still stuck upstairs.” I barely managed to get the last words out. Everything seemed to be wavering.

“Shush. We’ll get them, just rest. When you wake up, every pony will be safe.” Sunrise reassured me. But, I never heard her, as I had already fallen fast asleep.