I had only been told about the old theme park before, but never had gone there myself. Everything in the place was made of hardened plastic, and metal that had stood against the test of time. From the oddly designed shopping stalls to the mannequins, everything was still standing, though time had worn on them over the last two centuries. The paint that had long peeled off, the colors only now a stain, running down like tears. I had to agree with what other ponies had said about this place, it was one of the creepiest places on Marewaii.

The moonlight only made the unnerving feeling of this place worse. It's silver glow only giving us enough light to see, and anything that was not illuminated looked as if it was covered in a jet black sheet. Having to stick to the shadows, the contrast of the silver glow, and the deep black shadows were ever present every step of the way.

Sweet Sax and the others were holding up in a place called "Tomorrow Hotel", which was fortunately not far from where we entered. We could see the building from where we started, the hotel standing at least twenty stories high, with what glass that was still on the building reflecting the moonlight.

Our main problem was the damn Vertabuck flying around, lighting up whole areas of the park with its searchlights. It hadn’t seen us, and was currently on the other side of the park near the water, so we made our way to the hotel with haste.

On our way to the hotel, we passed through what was a foal’s zone. Everything here was made for ponies much smaller than ourselves. Each ride and little activity had a height chart with Pinkie Pie stating that “You have to be this small to ride” or “Sharing is caring, but this is for the little fillies and colts only.” The Pinkie Pie here was younger then the ministry of moral images of her, lacking the gray stripe in her mane.

As we walked, a high pitched, mechanical voice spoke loudly, backed by a light musical tune. “Cotton Candy! Ice cream! Shugary sweets! I know you can’t resist, but ask your mom or dad first if you want some.” I felt soft legs wrap around me as Harp hid behind me in fright. The voice belonged to a robot pony sitting behind a candy stall, the candy on display having long vanished. The robot pony, like everything in the park was in surprisingly good condition, but also had the same paint problem making it look like it was crying.

Nervously, we passed the robot pony by, not wanting to trigger any more dialogue, and attract anything dangerous. Now knowing that at least some of the attractions were still active, we actively avoided anything relatively pony shaped, or anything that looked like it had a speaker attached to it.

Reaching the hotel, we were greeted by the sight of a tree growing in front of the front door, blocking the entrance. It was an odd sight, the tree almost looking like it was intently blocking the doors as it spread out across the building.

A little looking around and we found a restaurant attached to the hotel, which gave us an entrance into the hotel. The restaurant had its own creepy feeling to it, like the rest of the park, with all the tables set for patrons who would never come.

Not wanting to linger, we quickly stepped inside, where I had to turn my pipleg's light back on. The inside of the hotel was in all states of disrepair, but otherwise clean. No garbage on the floor, every chair and table in their place, and the few plants that were in here were in pots.

“Okay, now I’m creeped out completely.” Merit spoke up. “Why is everything here so well preserved? I’ve seen things still work after two hundred years! I mean, my rifle is a good two hundred and eleven years old. But that’s because it's been well cared for, and fixed repeatedly.”

He had a point, it was like somepony was taking care of everything here. Robots maybe.

Harp ran a hoof along a table, and then waved the dust off. “Maybe there are ghouls here, I heard that they like to maintain all the old tech.”

Point goes to the princess, why didn’t I think of that. “Let’s go with that idea and get moving. If we come across any ghouls, let’s ask questions before shooting.” I looked down at Minerva, and activated my map function. Unlike the tunnels, I had nothing on the park, and the pipbuck could only map out where I had been. Turning it off, I turned to Merit. “So which floor are they on?”

Merit went to check his radio, but a loud bang and a crash caught our attention. We both shared a knowing look, and we were off.

Rushing to the sound with the other two right behind me, we entered what looked like a meeting hall. Rows of chairs aimed at the stage, on which laid a sleeping pegasus. In the middle of the chairs were two ponies wrestling with each other, the metal chairs being tossed aside as the two jumped around at each other. Above one pony was a small ball of light, illuminating the room as the only source of light.

It was easy to conclude that the pony with the light above her was Sweet Sax, being the only other mirage pony in the room. The other pony being a pegasus, I assumed she was Wub Wub, the pony that Merit was talking to over the radio.

The two broke off their hold on each other, jumping back, and ready to charge at each other. Merit jumped in and dove between the two. In mid charge the two skidded to a stop, nearly colliding with Merit.

“What the fuck is going on here?” Merit quietly demanded.

The pegasus mare looked relieved at the sight of Merit, and pointed at Sweet. “That bitch poisoned little sis.”

Sweet Sax dismissively waved a hoof. “I didn’t poison her, I just gave her something to chill the fuck out. If she kept on yelling like she was, she was going to get us killed.” Sweet crossed her front hooves, took a seat, and crossed her back hooves. Her posture in the chair was a bit odd, but did well to show her annoyance.

Stepping in closer, the princess close behind me, I had to facehoof at the realization of what Sweet must have done. “The chill I gave you, you used it on that pony didn’t you.”

Sweet Sax’s eyes winded a little when she saw me. Hopping out of her seat, she quickly trotted over to me, and gave me a hug. “I won’t lie, if you asked me right now, I so totally would have a threesome with you.”

“Bu, Wha…” I blurted out, caught off guard by Sweet's words.

She blinked for a moment before letting me go. “Sorry, sorry.” Sweet apologized. “It’s been a crazy few hours, but ya, I had to give queen bitch here the chill. We’ve been chased by those… pirates from the moment we left the bandit’s station. The captain there seemed to not understand the concept of shutting the fuck up, so I had to knock her out.” Sweet looked over my shoulder, and gave Harp a smile before returning her attention to me. “So that’s her, at least we got the first half of the job done.”

I nodded, though she was a bit crude about it, Sweet was being kind in her own way. In Orthrus, we were given a metro survival hoof book. Among the many tips for survival, knocking out a panicked companion took up four pages. Most of them involving blunt force trauma to the head, so that Pegasus got off lucky, and will be fine in another hour or two. “Ya, we also ran into the pirates as well… and a paradise dragon. We had to go topside to get away.” Taking a look around, it was clear that Silver and the two scrappers were not here. “I take it that you got separated from Silver as well?”

Rolling her eyes, Sweet took a deep breath and sighed. “The asshole ran off to the pipbuck tag, so it’s safe to say he’s dead now. His fault, not mine.” She backed off a scooch, and watched as Harp passed her, and to the stage. Lightly tapping her ear, Sweet’s stare followed the princess. I activated my telepathy talisman, connecting to Sweet. ‘Good riddance I say, he was probably going to backstab us. It saves us the trouble of having to kill him ourselves.’ Sweets telepathic voice sounded off key, what ever was causing the interference was strong here, which made me worry a bit.

‘I wonder.’ Responding to Sweet. ‘Was it really going to come to that? I don’t want to sound naive, but what if he was actually looking for his brother?’

Sweet Sax snorted softly. ‘Shamisen may be a capital C cunt, but she's not one to give bad information. Remember when she got you those frilly purple panties for your birthday. Even I didn’t know purple was your favorite color, or that you like cutesy undies.' She covered her mouth as she chuckled, and I felt myself blush. ‘By the way, a paradise dragon. That must have been rough. I take it that the scrappers didn’t make it.’

I shook my head. ‘Don’t know, got separated from them at the station. Oddly, the dragon may have been more good luck than bad. Two pirates found us in a safe room, and were going to blow it open. Oh, another thing, one of them was a Zebra.’ Sweet turned to look at me, before looking back at the others.

‘Fuck really, a Zebra. So that make six different kinds now.’ This time I gave Sweet a look. ‘Ya, six. Other than the normal three; Earth pony, Pegasus, and Unicorn. I also saw a Griffin and a Donkey. With the Zebra, that makes six different tribes. All of them assholes.’

We both watched as Harp got on stage and trotted to the sleeping pony. The two other Pegasus’s were still talking among each other, but were looking in the direction of the stage. ‘We probably need to stay close to the little princess, I don’t trust these enclave ponies.’ Sweet stated, and I nodded.

Harp sat next to the sleeping pony, and started to giggle to herself, as she stoked the Pegasus’s mane. Merit walked up to us with Wub Wub, both keeping an eye on the stage. “So Wild here will agree to a cease fire if we get an explanation about what your partner did to Light.” Merit stated.

Sweet rolled her eyes again, so not wanting another fight, I spoke for her. “She gave, Light was it?” Merit nodded. “Well she gave Light a narcotic called Chill. It’s both a relaxant, and a hallucinogenic. Its effects last only few hours, so she should be fine in a bit.” Looking at the stage, Harp was still lightly stroking Light’s mane. “Also, don’t worry about addiction. Unless she gets easily addicted, it only happens when used regularly.”

“That’s good to know.” Merit took his eyes of the stage, and refocused on us. “Now that we're all together, introductions are in order.” He pointed to himself, flaring his wings a little. “I’m Merit Cross, Master Sergeant and co-pilot.” He sung his hoof over to the mare next to him, she was dark gray, with a silver mane and tail. “This is Second Lieutenant Wild Winds, our pilot.” He looked over to Harp and Light. Light had a powder blue coat, and a dark blue mane and tail. “That’s Light Turbulence, Captain of this operation.” Sweet squinted at Merit, and he sighed. “Yes, she is much younger then the two of us, and no, I rather not talk about it.”

Now I had their names, but one was missing. “So if she’s not this Wub Wub, than who is?” Wild Winds smirked at my question.

“That would be my call sign.” Wild answered. “Merit here is Hoof Shiner, and Light is Little Sis. We mostly used call signs for when we are on duty, mostly as an inside joke, but it helps keeps our civilian life separate from our military life.” She waved a hoof as she talked, being more animated than Merit. Locking her eyes with mine, she poked me with her hoof. “Now your turn. Who are you ponies, and what the hell is wrong with this island?”

Sweet Sax surged. ‘You’re up, I’m not interested in talking to her first, ask questions later.’

“Right” I pointed to myself. “My name is Vibraphone Echo.” I tilted my head in the direction of Sweet, who gave a little wave with her hoof. “And this is Sweet Sax Solo. We're former members of Orthrus, working as freelance bodyguards. As for the islands, they got bombed to Tartarus and back, and never recovered as you can tell. Satisfied?”

Wild Winds huffed. “Ya, no. That’s not nearly enough information to explain what in Tartarus is going on here. First off, you three look like nopony we have ever seen. Second, what’s with the cyber legs? And three, what’s up with her?” Wild pointed at Harp. “I get she wants to fuck our captain and all, but she acts like she’s some sort of princess who just found her knight in shining armor.”

Merit put a hoof on her shoulder, and Wild calmed down. “Why don’t we get to a more secure location, and they can tell us on the way.” He winked at me, which made me glad that we were mostly still in the dark, as I felt my face heat up a little. “Why don’t you start by telling us about your people?”

I nodded. “Agreed. And now that I think about it, there’s a lot we need to discuss.” If they were from outside the islands, from a floating city like he said before, this would be big news back home. If we could contact this New Cloudsdale, it would cause an extreme paradigm shift. “So.” I took out a bottle of water, and drank the whole thing, this explanation was going to dry out my throat. “If I'm going to tell you about my people, you must first understand our history…”

The six of us sat in the lounge of the princess suite, other than a thick layer of dust, the place looked like the end of our world never happened. We had taken the elevator that we didn’t expect to be working, but after walking through some of the park, we weren’t surprised that it did. Our plan was to keep an eye on the pirate vertabuck from the top floor, not at all expecting to find the room intact.

The door to the suite was locked, but luckily it opened outwards, so we simply removed the hinges and moved the door to the side. Inside everything was covered in white sheets, of which we could only assume the sheets had some magic to them, with everything under them still in pristine condition.

The most amazing part was that the suite was sealed off from the outside, and had an air purifier talisman. The air purifier had long ran out of power, something quickly fixed with a charge from myself, and soon we were able to take our masks off. It was good to have my face free again, the purified air was cool as I breathed it in.

Sweet had quickly checked the suite's kitchen, but found that it was empty, only coming back with a menu for the ground floor restaurant. Food was something we were going to need to scavenge before we made our way back to Charon’s Stop, the restaurant looking like our best option.

When we were sure everything was safe, and there was nothing to scavenge, we had all returned to the lounge. It was the two pegasus’s turn to tell us about their people, something they spent the time checking the suite discussing with each other.

Harp yawned. “Sorry, I think I’m going to turn in for the night, I’ll take Light with me.” Getting up, Harp guided Light behind her. The effects of the Chill had lessened on the Pegasus, but the captain was still a little out of it and didn’t struggle with the princess.

Wild Winds gave a shiver as Light passed her. “Looks fun, but remind me to never take that stuff. At least with other chems you stay relatively in control.”

Merit cleared his throat, and opened a bottle of sparkle-cola he had on him. “Right, you want to know about New Cloudsdale. Here’s what we can tell you. When the war ended, all the Pegasi fled to the sky to keep themselves safe from the fallout, and sealed up the sky to protect the cloud cities from attack. The Enclave was simply a political group at the time, but had been gaining power as the war went on.” Merit took a sip of the cola. “You see, the Enclave was a Pegasus first kind of group, and when Cloudsdale was destroyed, no pony felt like opposing them. Well in time they became the Grand Pegasus Enclave, a democracy that kept all the Pegasus, and some unicorns together up above the clouds. That said, in truth it was a full on military dictatorship, not that most ponies minded at all. We were all safe from the horrors below the clouds, and we wanted it to stay that way. You could say that the Enclave had one job, and they did that job well, so no pony minded it that much when a dissenter went missing, or a controversial Politician was assassinated. What matters most was that we were safe, you understand,right.”

Pausing for a moment, Merit took another sip of his cola. I could sense a bit of bitterness in his voice, and looking over at Wild Winds. She looked a bit uncomfortable.

“Well during that time the Grand Pegasus Enclave decided to remake Cloudsdale.” Merit stretched out his wings, ruffling his feathers a little. “New Cloudsdale was to be their shining jewel, the example of their power. In the end they just made a resort city for the wealthy, protected by a larger than needed military base.” He chuckled to himself. “You could say that they accidentally made a reflection of what the Enclave really was. Rich, fat, and has a lot of guns that they like to use.”

Taking another sip of his cola, he continued “The city remained an inside joke up until ten years ago, when the Grand Pegasus Enclave decided to finally go below the clouds and help.” Finishing off the sparkle-cola, Merit threw the bottle into the trash. “That was a mistake. First being that every soldier was trained to see the world below as a place full of enemies and monsters. It was not uncommon to hear that some pony got a medal for making judgment call to shoot first before they had even seen who they were shooting at.“ I was taken aback by that statement, but Merit continued to talk, so I held it in. “So you can imagine that this help involved a lot of shooting, some accidental, a lot intentional.”

Merit looked away ever so slightly. The moment only lasted for a second, maybe two, but I thought I saw some regret there.

“Second, the wastelanders were waiting for us. Well not specifically all the wasteland, but as it turned out, they had a hero who was. It’s a bit of a long story, so I’ll just cut to the important part. The hero, Stable dweller I think they called the pony, was able to get into, and take over a weather control tower. With the help of a dragon at that. Well the pony parted the clouds, and forced us Pegasus back down onto the ground. It was, not a good time for us, to say the least.”

I took a look over at Sweet Sax, who was enthralled in the story as she sipped on a bottle of Metro-Cola. Looking back at Merit, I couldn’t help but ask. “So what you’re saying is that there’s still ponies on the mainland?”

Merit nodded. “The cities are gone, but ponies survived the war.” He paused for a moment, and took a deep breath. “Well as you can guess, this ruined the Grand Pegasus Enclave, with them unable to keep the citizens blind to the world anymore. This also meant that political heads were going to roll. All the local politicians were not going to sit back and play nice anymore. Even the military top brass, the ones who were still alive that is, were on the cutting block. So they all fled to where they knew they would be safe, New Cloudsdale.”

Sweet Sax almost spat up her cola. “So you're saying that this New Cloudsdale is full of political assholes?” Sweet glanced over at me. “Reminds me of a little republic we know.” I nodded, and she let Merit continue.

“Yes and no. Ten years is a long time, and when nopony believes the bullshit, it can be long ten years.” Merit paused as Wild Wind snickered. “They, in the end, bickered among each other. And after a few assassinations every pony had enough of it, and that’s when the executions started. In the end our new president is a Miss Pillow Features, who was a simple maid who loved gossip.”

Sweet Sax this time did spit out her cola, trying to keep herself from laughing, but failing entirely. “How the fuck did that happen?” she asked as she was choking on the cola.

Both Wild Winds and Merit shrugged. “It was a crazy time.” Was his answer. “But as things are presently, the city is starting to fall apart. Physically I mean. That’s why we’re here, we’re looking for a place to send the city, give it a home. From the last ten years, New Cloudsdale has been floating around, and sadly it was never made for that. Nopony wanted to return to equestria, so President Pillow Feathers thought it be best to send out scouts to look for a new home.”

Merit and Wild looked at each other, and back to us. Their eyes had hope in them, like a foal given their first prosthetic legs. I looked at Sweet, her eyes met mine, and we nodded in conformation.

Sweet Sax was the one to respond. “We can’t speak for our people, but I know that many ponies have been waiting for a time to leave the metro. Well leave the metro and not get eaten by monsters that is. There’s even an old skyport that the Orpheus kingdom maintains. It’s still full of toxic air, but they maintain it in the hopes of using it again one day.”

The two Pegasus blinked, and Wild opened her mouth. “Seriously, you ponies have a working skyport! Next thing you will tell us is that you’re all open for trade or something, and New Cloudsdale can move right in.”

Shrugging again, Sweet answers with a “Probably.” She finished her cola, and also placed it in the trash. “I don't know what's with all the politics going on, but a cloud city, and knowledge that the outside world does still exist. Saying that it will bring in a new age for our people would be an understatement.”

Things went quiet for a while, it was a lot to take in, but Sweet’s and my decision to stick with the Pegasus proved to be a good idea, and probably profitable if we could get them into the right hooves.

A yawn marked the end of any more of the discussion. We all had been moving nearly nonstop, and if things had gone by the plan, we should have been home by now. Not feeling like moving around, and finding the dark blue velvet couches immensely comfortable, we decided to sleep here. We as in everypony else, as I took the first watch, keeping an eye on the pirates in case they decided to come back over here.

The windows had seen better days, the inside was still in good condition, but the outside was covered in a milky translucent stain. Not all the windows were in such a state, and all I needed was one to see through. One window had a little spot that was free from the stain, so I pulled out my rifle, the scope being powerful enough to get a good look at the park.

Looking out the window through my rifle scope, I could see that the pirate’s vertabuck was still near the water, lighting up the docks. I didn’t know what they were doing, but I didn’t like it. I could also see the rest of the park in the moonlight. There was a collapsed roller-coaster near the docks, a part of the park that looked like a goofy village, and a large funhouse with the words ‘Captain Andromeda’s Space Adventure’ boldly attached to the building. Other than that, everything else was too shrouded in darkness to tell what was there.

“You’re a diligent one.” Merit spoke as he sat next to me. “I can take over, you should get some sleep.”

I glanced at him before returning my attention to the scope. “You can have the second shift then.” Shadows danced in the moonlight, making it look as though ponies were moving about down there. With our luck, it was probably a pack of stalkers on the hunt. “So get some sleep.”

I felt a little pressure on my side. Merit had scooted a little closer to me, and his shoulder had lightly bumped up onto mine. “At least let me see first.”

“Fine, but stop getting so close. It’s distracting.” I had Minerva levitate the rifle to Merit. Not waiting for the rifle to move over to him, he pushed his head next to mine to look through the scope.

I was a little surprised at how close he moved in, but held my ground. Watching as his mouth opens ever so slightly, and he licked his lips, I couldn't help but feel that the pony was being a bit too close.

“Amazing, I bet this place could be fixed up and be up and running in a year. That is if the air was not so toxic.” His mouth moved quickly as he spoke, and as I listened I could hear a slight accent to it. “That roller-coaster is scrap, but I bet whatever is in that big building is in good condition. What do you think?”

I pulled my eyes away from his mouth to see him looking at me. “I uhhh.” Ya, this was embarrassing. “I don’t like it. The plants alone should have taken over, I mean you saw that tree in the front. I doubt that only the trees were moving in, there should be a lot more plants everywhere.”

Merit had a smirk on his face, it made me feel a little bonkers. “Maybe what Harp said is true, and there are ghouls removing the plants.” It was the most logical explanation, and there were plenty of old story’s about ghouls who had been found still working in the tunnels, not knowing that they had been down there for over a hundred years. I felt something soft rub on the back of my wings, Looking to see, I found that Merit had put his wing around my shoulder. I could feel my face heat up… aw fuck, I was blushing. “Well I hope its ghouls, this place is more than a bit weird, and some sound explanation would go a long way.”

I kept my wings tight to my body, not wanting to rub up on his, and my eyes straight. “I much rather keep it a mystery for now. As soon as the day brakes, were out of here.” Looking the stallion in the eye, he was so close I could feel his breath. “Also, I bet you have a special somepony who would not like you cozying up to another mare.”

He blinked and smiled. “Had one, but things didn’t work out.” Shit, I was hoping that would distract him, but it was not effective at all. I had to think of something else rather than get distracted by a handsome stallion.

“Well, we just met, and don’t you think it’s a…” He kissed me, and damn, he was a good kisser. My small wings went limp, and I let myself loosen up. I could feel my heart thump, and it felt good. I knew it was nothing like love, that was a sucker’s game, but right now I was loving this, this attention. He let me free from his mouths succulent grip, and I let out a breath I didn’t know I was holding. “Umm… Well, if you put it that way, there is a guest room.”

So I had only known the stallion for less than a day, and we had sex, but it was worth it. It was not like It was my first time, or that I was not on birth control, so not a big deal at all. Looking over at him, Merit was fast asleep, and defenseless. It wouldn’t hurt if I took one little sniff of his mane.

Stopping myself, I was ready to kick myself for that thought. I still sniffed his mane, it felt weird to do it, but it also reminded me of what we just did. It smelt like sex, the good fun kind.

Slipping out of the bed, I quietly walked over to my barding. I may have been okay with the encounter, but I was not going to give Sweet material to tease me with. At least everypony was asleep, so covering this up was as simple as getting back to the lounge with all my stuff.

I slipped my white shirt back on, along with my panties before putting on my barding. It felt a little tight around my waist, so I had to struggle a little to get the barding to hook together. Last was my saddle bag, and guns, momma was not going to leave it with papa… the fuck did I just call myself... and Merit?

Feeling weirded out, I shook my head and open the door. Stepping through, I quietly closed the door behind me.

“Surprise!”

I nearly had a heart attack as a pink pony threw confetti at my face. The pony was an earth pony mare, pink on pink in color, and had strikingly golden eyes. She had the happiest looking smile on her face, which made me feel more uncomfortable.

Looking around, I was in a brightly lit, and very large tunnel. One end of the tunnel was bricked off, and had a big, red ‘X’ painted on it. The other end of the tunnel was covered by a big white sheet, and a pony was sitting in front of it, staring at it.

In the middle of the tunnel was a party table, like when I was a foal. Brightly colored cloth adorned the table, with party hats and plates. A big pink cake was the centerpiece, looking so delicious that I wanted to take a bite out of it.

“Congratulations Vibraphone, you have been chosen, you get to save the world!” The pink pony, who I felt looked a lot like the pictures of ministry mare Pinkie Pie, but not as old. She was still throwing confetti around, making it look like it was raining the stuff.

“What’s going on, where am I?” This was considerably confusing, and I needed answers. Also the tightness in my stomach was getting worse, I could only hope I was not sick.

“What’s going on, well you have been chosen, that’s what! You’re where you can save the world, and be a hero.” The pink pony blew on a balloon that grew into a balloon pony. The balloon pony looked a lot like me, other than being made of a balloon. Pushing it to the side, I looked her in her golden eyes.

“Tell me the truth.” I said as flatly as possible.

The pink pony tilted her head with a wide smile. “You have been chosen, mongrel, to save the world.”

“Save it from what!” I demanded.

She bopped me on the nose, and giggled. “From itself silly, you must save the world from itself.” Stepping back, the pink pony trotted over to the other pony.

Following her, I got a better look at the other pony. It was a white unicorn stallion, both in mane and coat with a big black spot on his face. He had on a green vest, with a red frilly shirt underneath, and a sword on his side.

The pink pony stopped at the stallion, still with that wide smile on her face. “He understands, he has also been chosen, a hero who will save the world.”

The stallion turned to look at me, his eyes a piercing green that felt wrong to me. “Yes, Luna has chosen me to be her champion. I'll save this rotten world, and be the father of its new ruler.” His eyes looked hungrily at me, like a predator looking at prey. What he did next made my skin crawl. He prayed. Putting his hooves together, he opened his mouth. “Thank you Luna for blessing me with this opportunity, I will do as you wish, and free you from your prison.” He opened an eye and looked at me. “And I thank you for this mare, who will be the mother of our next king and savior.”

I took a step back, my heart pounding, and my breath shallow. “WHAT THE FUCK IS GOING ON.”

The pink pony’s color seemed to fade, but her golden eyes still as vibrant as before. She laughed, but the laughter seemed to echo all around me. Lifting the me shaped balloon, she popped it, blasting red confetti everywhere. Suddenly the tightness on my belly got worse, and I felt… Oh fuck, there was something inside of me. I fell over onto my side in pain, my stomach stretched as my barding ripped along the side. I could hear a sudden splattering of water on the ground, and in looking I saw that it was blood. Looking down at myself, I saw that my belly had split open, and in the pool of blood sat a hairless foal. The foal looked at me and laughed.

I tried to scream, but my mouth would not open, I couldn’t even breath no matter how hard I tried. The pink pony came walking around, but now she was all black. Looking at me with her golden eyes, she smiled. “Congratulations, it’s a girl.”

I sat up in a bed, almost screaming, but a hoof shoved into my mouth kept me quiet. “The fuck kind of nightmare did you just have!” Looking from the hoof up to the pony it was attached to, all I could see was a green visor looking back at me. The pony struggling to keep me still as I tried to push away. “Will you settle down Vibraphone? It’s me!”

I stopped struggling, still a little wary, but the pony knew my name. Calming down, It suddenly hit me like a ton of bricks, that visor was used by Orthrus Specters. Specters being independent agents of Orthrus, often working alone to root out threats to the metro. They kept mostly to themselves, so few ponies knew one personally, but I did, my sister Rototom. Seeing that I had calmed down, the specter removed her hoof from my mouth, letting me speak. “Sis, Is that you?” I asked quietly.

The specter chuckled, and brought her hooves to her helmet. With a soft hiss of air, the helmet came off, revealing the light brown coat and fizzy green mane of my older sister. She looked a bit like the trees we had seen in the old books, and would often speculate about her having a tree cutiemark, if she didn’t have metal legs like myself. Her eyes were as green as her hair, and always felt quite soothing to me.

“Alright, there’s a few things I have to say, and a lot of questions you have to ask, but first thing's first. Who is this winged slab of meat you got there?” She wiped off a little bit of drool from her mouth, and wiggled her eyebrows at me. “You should let me know about such a specimen, as sisters we should always share.”

“First off, ewe. Second, ewe. And third, why are you here?” Getting out of the bed, I hopped onto the floor, where my hips gave out on me. A shiver ran up my spine, and I had to bite my lip to keep myself from moaning. “ahh… that can’t be normal?”

Rototom hopped right next to me, grinning all the while. “Did you forget to turn off the sensors in your back legs?” She slapped me in the flank, and I almost yelped as my nethers felt like they were vibrating. I shot her a glare as she snickered under her breath. “Thought so, Orthrus standards cybernetics are good quality and all, but not without flaws, like being a bit too close to our lovely bits.” She got in closer, still with that smile on her face, and whispered. “But it only pops up after a real good rutting.”

Embarrassed, I grabbed my shirt and barding, rushing to put them on. Rototom started snickering again. “What?” I said with loud whisper.

She dug into her bag, and threw out at me frilly purple panties. “Take 'em, they're your yours anyways.”

I sat there shocked, with the panties on my face, if my embarrassment was any higher the underwire would catch fire. “Why?”

She cocked an eyebrow. “After the tantrum you threw at your birthday party last month, you left most of your gifts behind at my place. So I’m giving them back.”

Merit turned overs, and groaned. Worried that he'd see me in such a state, I quickly put on the panties, and got my barding fastened. Strangely I stopped to check my waist, feeling relieved that everything was normal. “Fine, but you better tell me why you’re here first.”

“Right, right. Let’s just move to the lounge, don’t want to wake your coltfriend.” She trotted to the door, and I followed.

“He’s not my coltfriend” I whispered at her. She just chuckled, and left the room. I went to step out of the room as well, but all the sudden the hairs on my spine all shot up, like they were protesting. Stepping out of the room slowly, and I don’t know why, I expected something to jump out at me.

In the lounge, Wild Winds was fast asleep, but Sweet was sitting up. She did a little wave, and tapped at her ear. Telepathy it was then.

Sweets voice entered my head as I found a seat near, but not next to my sister. ‘Now I was thinking to myself; why the illustrious Shamisen Tuning would pick us, out of all the ponies she knows, to look for a lost princess.’ She looked over at my sister. ‘Then I remembered, Orthrus has a terrible retirement policy.’

I had to face hoof. ‘This is an Orthrus job. Is that who’s paying the ten thousand bits?’

Rototom nodded. ‘You remember what grandpa said about being in Orthrus right?’

‘That you never retire from Orthrus, you just get put on standby until they have a need for you.’ Grandpa was a lifelong member of Orthrus, always telling us how we were a direct descendants of the old R&D security team. He actually cried when sis had joined Orthrus, and again when I did. It was a good memory.

‘Yep’ Rototom responded. ‘Anything dealing with the Orpheus kingdom is a sensitive subject. You know, have as much plausible deniability as possible in case something goes wrong. So when the mirage pony princess passed through one of our tunnels, and I was assigned to track her, I had to have a backup plan in mind.’ I glared at her, I glared at her as hard as I could, hoping her mane would suddenly catch on fire.

My sister waved a hoof at me dismissively. ‘So when the princess arrived at Charon’s Stop I knew it meant bad news. Of course I could have stuck with them, but if it was Orthrus that saved the princess from her inevitable fate, it would have ended badly.’

‘How so?’ Sweet asked, as she cocked an eyebrow.

Rototom rotated her hoof as she looked away. ‘It was only a hunch, but I felt that I was being baited into following the princess. If they were going to just assassinate her, then they would have brought more ponies, make it all dramatic. But just one guard, it was a setup if I ever saw one. If they could pin an Orthrus specter near their lost princess, they could accuse Orthrus of assassinating her. It’s not the first time something like that had happened.’

‘But wait, what about Silver?’ I interjected.

She smiled at me. ‘I had almost missed the unicorn who was trailing them. He was much better at staying under the radar, if you call a well-dressed unicorn surrounded by mirage ponies being under the radar. That’s when I contacted Shamisen Tuning, and set up a backup plan. If the unicorn made a move, Shamisen would get him to hire you two for a job. I even convinced her to work her magic, and make him think that his plan might have failed dramatically. All subtlety of course, didn’t want him catching on.’

‘Okay, so then why are you here?’ I asked.

“DON’T YOU MOVE!” we all turned to see Light Turbulence pointing her magical energy rifle at us. “WHO ARE YOU, AND WHERE AM I.”

Rototom looked at the Pegasus, and sighed. “You might want to stop yelling, bad time for that and all.”

She pointed her rifle at my sister, and fired. My heart felt like it stopped as everything seemed to slow. The beam of pink magical energy flew from Lights rifle, and through my sister. It hit the wall, leaving a scorch mark. My sister flickered and vanished.

We all stared stunned, and Wild had shot up, awakened by the commotion. Appearing next to Light as though she was a ghost, Rototom pulled the magical energy rifle off of Lights battle saddle, and jumped on her. The Pegasus was too stunned to fight back, and Rototom quickly had her in a hold. Light flapped her wings, but was firmly pinned to the ground.

“THE FUCK ARE YOU DO… murfff, mufff!” Light attempted to protest, but her mouth was firmly held shut by Rototom.

Wild stepped off her seat, and rubbed her eyes. “Ok, I know she can be a bitch, but what’s going on, and who is she?” she pointed at Rototom.

Sweet looked at me, and I rolled my eyes. “That’s my sister, and we were about to find out before your captain tried to kill her.”

Wild cringed. “I see, maybe we should have told you that she can be a bit cranky when she wakes up.”

Both Harp and Merit had stepped out of their rooms, Merit having sloppily thrown on his uniform.

Rototom looked around the room, and back down at Light. “I’m going to let you go, but you’re going to have to be quiet. You understand don’t you?” Light looked away. “Seriously, were you trained by the most incompetent drill Sergeant? Let’s put it this way, if you keep yelling, you’re going to get everypony here killed. You understand that, right.” This time, after a long few seconds, Light nodded. “Good, I’ll explain the situation, so just stay calm.”

Rototom Jumped off of Light, who sat up and grabbed her rifle. The younger Pegasus scooted away from Rototom, taking a defensive position, not taking her eyes off her. The mare was scared of my sister, it was easy to see.

Harp trotted over to Light, giving her a hug. Light Blushed at the sudden contact, weakly pushing away. “Are you okay, did she hurt you anywhere?” Harp asked. Light attempted to talk, but only trip over her own words and looked away blushing.

Merit joined us, sitting next to me. “So, who's that?” He asked as he leaned in and pointed at Rototom.

“My sister, Rototom.” I answered. “She’s an Orthrus specter. Think Special Forces, but acting as an independent agent.”

Rototom winked at Merit, and he looked back at me nervously. ”Does she know?”

I sighed. “Yes she does, and let’s not talk about… that.”

“Talk about what, how he fucked you unconscious.” Sweet whispered into the conversation.

“It reminded me of my first time with my husband.” Wild joined in.

I buried my face into my hooves. I just knew that this was going to make its way back to my mother, and she’ll start the grandchildren talk again.

Rototom tapped on a coffee table in the middle of the lounge, gaining all of our attention. “Attention everypony, I know my little sister’s sex life is quite interesting, but I have very important information.” I don’t know how much more embarrassed I could feel. “Right now we have an invading force in the hotel, and they're making their way up here at this moment.”

Everypony had her in their full attention now. The pirates had gotten here, and if I was not fucking, I would have seen them coming here sooner. I don’t know if I could be angrier at myself.

“Don’t worry, I disabled the elevator after I got up here. So they are taking the stairs, and checking each floor on their way up. It won’t be long until they get here, but we still have time to prepare.”

Light spoke up. “How do they know we're here? And where are we?”

Shaking her head, Rototom answered. “You’re in the Future Hotel, in Future Park. They know you’re here because they’ve been listening in on your radio chatter. Guessing by your uniforms, they must have gotten the frequency from the two Pegasi that they strapped to that vertabuck”

Light took a step back. "You don’t mean… South, Warm, not them.” She looked away as tears formed in her eyes, a hoof visibly shaking.

Merit slammed his hoof on an end table, breaking it. Wild looked down at the floor, glaring at it.

Rototom looked at the Pegasus, and sighed “Ya, whoever this group is, they're the most fucked up group of bandits I have ever seen.”

“Not bandits.” Merit answered. “Their nothing but raider scum.”

“Right, raider, I’ll remember that.” Rototom commented. “But I need to know if you’re all ready to fight. I have a plan, but it’s going to involve all of us fighting through them.”

Clicking on Minerva, I brought up the map page. “What’s the plan?” I asked.

Rototom tapped at her own pipleg, and looked at me. “Other than fighting our way out of here. We need to head to the Captain Andromeda’s Space Adventure building. There's a maintenance tunnel under it, you should be able to get to a main metro tunnel from there.”

Minerva marked the direction on my map. I still didn’t have a map of the park, but at least I’ll know which direction the Andromeda building was at all times. A little notification appeared in the side of my vision, stating ‘Quest updated: Are you having fun yet.’ I never liked the quest system piplegs had, making missions, and simple tasks into some sort of big quest to be had. I could only guess that Applebloom had some sort of whimsical sense of humor to have that programed in.

“Oh, miss Echo.” Sweet had straightened up, like she was back in Orthrus. I couldn’t blame her, even if it was in a roundabout way, we were working for Orthrus again. “I’m low on ammo, do you have any to spare?”

I spoke up as well. “I’m down to six ball bearings myself.”

Nodding, Rototom tossed Sweet two canisters of the ball bearings. “I got plenty, so let me know if you need any more.” She looked over to me, and waved me over. “I got some for you to, but we need to do something first.”

Stepping up to her, I asked “What is it?”

She pulled out a cable, and a box from her saddle bag. “First I need to give you grandpas gift.” Opening the box, she pulled out a big red scarf. It was grandpa’s old scarf he wore all the time. Along the edge was a Zebra print, I didn’t read zebra well but I knew the words that appeared on the scarf: Courage, Wisdom, and Love. Attached to the scarf was an old medallion made into a pin, on it was the symbol of a shield with Celestia and Luna ruling in harmony on it.

I looked up at my sister confused. “I know what you’re thinking, why are you being given it, and not me. Well you will have to ask grandpa that.” Wrapping the scarf around my neck, it fit snugly onto me, the medallion holding it in place. “Now give me Minerva.”

I held out my pipleg, and she plugged the cable into it, and into her own pipleg. “Athena, download the specter program into Minerva.” Rototom’s pipeg beeped. “Don’t argue with me and just do it.”

“What are you do…” My HUD display in my vision suddenly turned on, and became distorted for a second. Shaking my head, I looked at Rototom.

‘This is an emergency situation, so I have the authority to do this.’ Her voice bounced into my head and she winked at me. ‘I hereby deputise you into the Specter Corp.’

My vision began to spin, no wait, it was My HUD display that made everything feel like it was spinning. I felt a bit sick, and if I had any food in my stomach, it would be on the floor by now.

Catching me before I fell over, Rototom propped me back up. “It’s okay, just let it pass.”

I pushed her away. ‘The fuck sis, why did you do that? You know I failed that test. You can’t just force me into the specters because I’m your sister.’ Glaring at her, she looked away. ‘What are you not telling me?’

She rolled her eyes. ‘You think you can take a simple test and become a specter. Play it safe and expect to just get what you want.’ her words bound around in my head. ‘You failed because you were too risk averse, too scared of messing up to be what Orthrus wanted you to be.’

‘And how was I supposed to prove myself?’ I shot back at her.

She laughed. ‘You had all the opportunity to prove yourself. But you never took it. Tunnel guard, engineer’s guard, paperwork courier for fuck's sake. You were playing things so safe, I had to force you out of Orthrus just so you would come out of your…’ she stopped, looking away suddenly.

‘It was you who wrote those reports about me.’ I was shaking, my last year in Orthrus had been hell. One report after another. All about how I was slacking off at my job, mouthing off about the managers, and threatening civilian ponies. All lies, it was all her lies. I contested every one of them, but the only pony to believe me was Sweet Sax. ‘It was all for what, to test me.’

She glared back at me. ‘Yes, and look at you now, all the way out here fighting off monsters, and raiders. It may have been a harsh test, but you passed, and now my superiors are actually interested in you.’

Something in me snapped, my face became hot, my body shaking. “I NEVER WANTED TO BE A FUCKING SPECTER DAMNIT!”

Rototom froze, like her words had been stolen from her mouth. This was good, because I had plenty to say. “Did you ever think I just wanted a simple life, you know, like mom. You’re the adventurer, the one who likes to get shot at, I’m not. But no, you can never let that be, always dragging me around to every one of your cunt waving contests, and pulling me into your fights.” I shoved my hoof into her chest in hopes to drive my anger right into her. “You know what I wanted to be before joining Orthrus, I wanted to be a teacher, like mom. Then maybe we would actually have more to talk about.”

“I, I didn’t…” Rototom stammered, but I cut her off before she could finish.

“Think? No of course not. If you did, then maybe I would still be able to talk to dad without him going on about rejoining Orthrus. But no, you didn’t think, you never did, unless it’s about dragging me into your stupid schemes!”

Looking around, everypony was looking at us.

“Wow, and here I thought your family had issues, Merit.” Wild commented.

Merit glared at her. “We don’t talk about them, ever.”

Having had said my piece, I loaded my rifle. Rototom had left me two canisters of ball bearings, giving me twenty six shots. My enforcer went back under my barding, snugly hidden from sight.

Rototom had gathered her guns, not saying a word. She had a M3 railgun, and a ten gauge double barrel shotgun. The railgun, knowns as the Zeus, was the most advanced rifle in Orthrus: quiet, powerful, and turned the cheap ball bearing into devastating armor piercing sniper rounds. Rumor was that it could kill a paradise dragon in one shot when fully charged. The shotgun on the other hoof was an oldie, but a goody. It was what most ponies used to take out monsters here on the big island, It was loud as fuck, but it tended to kill whatever was in front of it. Most ponies made their own ammo for it, often shooting steel slugs for the extra penetration power.

Everypony was ready, filtration masks on, prepared to run. It was going to be a nasty fight out of the hotel, but they had lost the element of surprise, with ushaving the first strike.

Rototom stepped in front of everypony. “Okay everypony, I’ll take point, the rest of you follow. Once we're out of the hotel, it’s just a clear run to the Space Adventure building. Vibraphone…” she paused for a moment. “You will be in charge of team Alpha, The princess and Miss Light will go with you. Sweet Sax, you’re in charge of team Beta, Merit and Wild are with you.” She looked at me and Sweet. “Get them safely to Orthrus.”

Sweet raised her hoof but Merit cut her off. “I know where to go, I’ll take point until we're there.”

I looked at Light, and nodded my head. “Trust me, they’re in good hooves.”

As it turned out, there were two stairwells down, probably in case of fire. Beta team was going down one side alone, where as my team had Rototom spearheading the decent. The pirates were well armed, had a vertabuck, and had numbers on their side. But they had never fought Orthrus. As bitter as I was about my new rank, I was going to show them how ill equipped they truly were when fighting an Orthrus agent.

The sound of a wiring engine slowly got louder from the outside, and we all froze. From the window we could make out the Vertabuck suddenly hovering outside. With a roar, bullets flew through the window, and we all ducked as the gunfire flew overhead.

The gunfire stopped, and I looked over at the vertabuck. Hanging out from the inside of the vertabuck, looking at us was a white unicorn with a big black spot on his face. He had on a green vest over a red frilly shirt. My blood ran cold as he pointed his hoof at us, no, at me. “BRING HER TO ME, ALIVE AND UNHARMED. KILL THE REST!” A Griffin and a Pegasus jumped out of the vertabuck, and into the suite, rifles at the ready.

Not wasting time, we slipped into the stairwell, knowing full well we lost our first strike advantage long before we even had it.

With a shot of her magical energy rifle, Light had sealed the door behind us, and tuned to Harp. “Don’t worry, we won’t let the raiders touch a hair on your head.”

I didn’t know why, but my gut told me that she was talking to the wrong pony.

“No time to waste, get moving!” Rototom commanded as she rushed down the stairs.

“Congratulations” slipped from my mouth, Before following.

Footnote:

Quest Progression -

- My Kingdom for a Pony – 25%

- Who Dares, Win – 25%

- Are you having fun yet? – 33%