Slowly, ever so slowly, I took several steps towards the couch.

Its striped occupant was sleeping, with a thing on her head that was connected to a device that had formerly been held in her hooves, but was now on the floor.

I silently crept up to her side, and prepared to pounce.

“No…” My mother whispered.

My face fell, and I begrudgingly started to trot away. “Awww… okay…”

Then mom whimpered, as though in pain. “Please… no…”

My ears perked, and I turned around to look at her. It took me a moment to realize that she wasn’t talking to me.

She shifted, lifting a hoof as though trying to reach out to somepony, only to have it fall again. “D… Diamond…”

“Mommy?” I asked, though I could tell she still wasn’t talking to me.

She let out a small sob. “Please… not my baby… no… n-no…”

I wondered why she kept talking about me. “Mommy? Why are you crying? Mommy?”

She was breathing heavily, as though she had been running. “Don’t… no… please… stop…”

“Mommy!” I shouted, trying to get her attention, realizing what was going on. “Mommy, wake up!”

Her eyes were streaming with tears, and she was openly sobbing, but still whispering quietly. “Don’t hurt her…”

I put my mouth up to her ear and screamed. “MOMMY!”

She gasped, and shot up into a sitting position, gasping for breath and holding a hoof over her heart, her eyes darting around until they finally rested on me. “D-Diamond?”

“Mommy, are you okay?” I asked.

Her eyes filled with tears again. Before I could do anything else, she pulled me into a deep hug, and started crying tears of relief. I hugged her back, though I was still confused.

“Mommy, why are you crying?” I asked again.

She sniffed and pulled away from the hug, giving me a smile and a sad chuckle as she did. “Sorry sweetie. I… had a very, very bad dream.”

“Were… were you dreaming about me?” I asked. “Was I being mean?”

She snorted a laugh. “No, sweetie you weren’t… I just… I…”

She sighed and hugged me again. “I dreamt that a very bad pony wanted to hurt you, and I couldn’t save you.”

I thought for a moment, then gasped and exclaimed, “Maybe Mr. Stellar could protect you from the bad pony!”

Before mom could say anything, I shot into my room, and retrieved the large, star-patterned teddy ursa from my room, and levitated it over to my mother. She looked at it for a moment, holding it in her hooves, and smiled.

“Mr. Stellar chases away the monsters, remember?” I proclaimed, remembering what she and dad had once told me. “And I’m a big filly, so I can stand up to the monsters now.”

“Thank you Diamond. You’re a very sweet little filly, but…” she said as she grinned mischievously. “There is one monster that even Mr. Stellar is afraid of…”

My eyes widened in slight fear. “What?”

She grabbed me and roared as I started laughing. “The tickle monster!”
~~~~~

I stared at Raid as he finished his suggestion. I was sure that my expression was somewhere between ‘Seriously?’ and ‘What are you, stupid?’, while Zeed simply held a hoof over her face.

“Are ye buckin’ kiddin’ me?” I asked. “That’s yer ‘nasty idea’?”

“Oh, come on,” he said, and pointed at the door closed door, from which laughing could be heard. “We’re not going to actually torture her for real, are we?”

“Raid, ye realize she won’t take us seriously nao, right? All ‘cuz ye suggested… Goddesses…”

“Now we’ll have to search for these guys the hard way.” Zeed shook her head. “You’re an idiot, Raid.”

“What do you want me to do? Cut her up? Tie her down and rip her limbs off?”

I shuddered at the last remark. “Please… don’t talk about… limbs… Ah have very unpleasant memories that Ah’d rather nae experience again.”

“Fine, but I’m not going to do anything like that.”

“When Ah said ‘torture’, that’s nae what Ah meant.” I sighed.

He deadpanned at me. “Torture means something else now?”

“Ah guess ‘torture’ is th’ wrong word tae use…” I took a deep breath and exhaled slowly, considering my next words. “Mah mother… Look, most ponies didn’t mess with us while we were in th’ Prison, and it was mostly because they knew that if they messed with us, mah mother would do… well, she’d basically beat th’ crap out ay them.”

“This is relevant, how?” He quirked an eyebrow.

“She… taught me a few tricks.” I bit my lip. “Most of them don’t involve much actual damage, and no real risk of… death. Said it’s mostly lookin’ like ye mean what ye say.”

“The word is threaten.” He smirked. “Do you seriously not know the word ‘threaten’?”

“Buck aff.” I rolled my eyes. “It probably won’t work anyway, especially after yer little comment about rope.”

He worked his jaw a few times, most likely trying to come up with a retort. Eventually he settled on, “I retract my previous comment.”

Zeed put a hoof on my shoulder. “Are you sure you’re okay with this? I know you don’t like doing it. You don’t have to if you don’t want to…”

I shook my head. “Ah’ll dae it. Just… Don’t come in.”

She nodded, and both of them left the hallway, most likely to wait outside the apartment with Stock.

I took a deep breath, and walked into the room where the slaver was tied up.

“Oh look,” she said. “The fuckin’ weirdo is here. Hello ya horny striped bitch!”

I glared at her. She simply laughed. “Awww, did I make you mad?”

I ignored her, brushing aside her comment.

Mentally, I reached into the back of my mind. I searched the dark, dusty corners of my brain until I found what I was looking for.

“Why, hello there, Knives! Fancy meeting you here!” She chirped. “I must say I’m surprised. You don’t normally visit me of your own free will. What’s the occasion?”

“Shut up. There’s somepony here who Ah figured ye might like tae…” I paused, looking for the right words. “Talk tae.”

She performed the mental equivalent of gaping at me, then started laughing hysterically.

I growled. “What’s so funny?”

“I know what you’re trying to do, Knives.” She said. “You don’t want to think of horrible things to say yourself, so you come to me. That way you don’t feel bad about it.”

I growled again as she went into another laughing fit. “So what? Ye like causin’ pain.”

“No, Knives. I like causing you pain. I like torturing you and making your life miserable. I don’t care about anyone else.”

“Yer lyin’.” I said, mentally gritting my teeth.

“Even if I was lying, I wouldn’t agree.” She said dismissively. “If I gave you ideas, then I’d be helping you, and I don’t want to help you. I want to screw you over. I want to see you do… I don’t know… things. I want you in this cage, instead of me. You’re on your own.”

“Hey!” I shouted in my mind. “Don’t you run away from me! HEY!”

It was too late. She'd already stopped listening to me. I gritted my teeth and growled in frustration.

With a roar of anger, I punched the wall, making a hole in the weak plaster.

“What the fuck is wrong with you?” Asked the slaver. “You zoned out there for a-“

“SHUT UP!” I screamed.

She sneered at me. “Don’t tell me to shut up, you stupid cunt. If we were back at the camp, we’d have you strung up by your legs and flayed alive!”

I glared at her.

“Or maybe we’d tie ropes to your forelegs and start pulling.” She grinned.

I continued glaring for a moment.

Then I flipped the chair she was tied to, making her yelp in surprise.

Slowly, I trotted around her, so I could look at her face. “Dae ye dae things like that tae all ay yer slaves?”

She grinned. “Fuck yeah. They belong to us! We can do whatever the fuck we want to them, and there ain’t shit you little fucks can do about it.”

I narrowed my eyes at her.

“Like what ya see, cunt? Untie me and maybe we can fuck while you’re in chains.” She laughed.

I continued to stare at her.

Under my stare, I noticed that her smirk shrank slightly, and her eyes kept flicking towards the right side of my face. “What the fuck are you starin’ at, freak?”

An idea popped into my head, and a mischievous grin spread across my face as I said, “Don’t go anywhere.”

I trotted briskly outside to find Raid and Zeed talking, the former with a cigarette once more between her lips.

“Zeed, dae ye have that measurin’ stick oan ye?” I asked.

With a confused look, she pointed towards her saddlebags. “Why do you need-“

“Ah got an idea. Which pocket is it?” I said as I ran over to them.

“The front one.” She replied. “Seriously, though. Why do you need my ruler? What the hell are you doing?”

Another grin found its way onto my face as I trotted into the apartment’s kitchen, grabbed several ancient rusty utensils, and returned to the makeshift interrogation room. I stopped for a moment to try and put my ‘scary face’ back on, and stepped through the door.

“What the fuck took ya so long, cunt?” said the mare on the floor, still tied to the chair. “I was getting worried ya forgot about me.”

Without a word, I put the measuring stick up to her eye, and took a close look at the number.

“What in the…” She said as she tried to squirm away. “The fuck’re ya doin’?”

“Measurin’.” I said, trying to suppress a grin.

“Whhhhyyyyyy?” She asked.

I levitated the stick to my own eye and measured that as well, which was difficult without a mirror, but still doable.

“Are ya gonna fuckin’ answer me?”

I stood the chair, and the mare along with it, back on its legs, and grinned in the mare’s face.

“Ye know, Ah kinda miss mah old eye,” I lied. “Ah lost it tae a madmare who apparently hated mah guts.”

“The fuck is wrong with you?” She deadpanned at me. “And why do I care about your fuckin’ eyeballs?”

I smiled as wide and toothy a smile as I could, trying to make myself look as crazy as possible. “’Cuz ye got mah eyeballs in yer skull.”

The Bone Eater stared at me with a blank expression. “Wat.”

“Aye…” I levitated over a several eating utensils, a spoon, a knife, and a fork, all coated in rust. “Aam goin’ tae take yer eyes. Then Aam goin’ tae put them in mah own head. Then Ah’ll be good as new.”

Her eye twitched and her voice cracked slightly. “Wat.”

“Aam takin’ yer eyes.” I repeated.

“My eyes.”

“Aye.” I nodded, my face growing tired from holding the fake psychotic smile.

“And putting them into your head.” She continued.

“Did Ah stutter?”

“No, no… It’s just that you’re fucking crazy.” She said simply.

My smile grew a bit wider.

We stayed in silence for a moment.

And another.

And another.

“Would ye like me tae use th’ spoon or th’ fork?”

She screamed.

~~~~~

Stock was rolling on the ground, laughing her flank off. While Zeed and Raid once more questioned the terrified slaver, with significantly better success.

“I can’t believe ya actually pulled that off!” She said between gasps. “Where the fuck did you get that idea?”

“Ah noticed that she was lookin’ at mah weird eye,” I said, pointing to the eye in question. “So Ah went with it.”

“Well I for one, think that’s genius.” The ghoul replied. “I kinda wish I thought a’ that.”

“Honestly, Ah didn’t actually expect it tae work.” I shrugged. “Aam just glad Ah didnae actually have tae dae anythin’ tae her.”

“With, of course,” Zeed said from behind me, making me jump. “The exception of a bit of mental trauma.”

I waved a hoof dismissively. “She’ll get over it.”

Zeed quirked an eyebrow. “Says the acrophobic mare.”

“Alright, good point, but at least it’s not as bad as it would be if we actually… did somethin’ tae her.” I replied with a shudder.

“Whatever the case, we have what we need. The Bone Eaters camp is about three days out.” She continued. “We should be able to sneak up on them, too.”

“Och, that’s wonderful. When dae we leave?”

“In a few hours, when Raid gets her in the jail.”

I blinked at her. “Bladesville has a jail?”

Both Zeed and Stock gave me a look that said something along the lines of ‘are you kidding me?’.

I frowned. “Shut up.”

With a snort, Zeed once more went through her unnecessarily complicated method of lighting a cigarette.

Then I heard shouting from inside the apartment and darted inside, leaving a confused zebra and ghoul in my wake.

Raid was on top of the mare, holding her down, while she snapped and snarled at him like a rabid animal. Well… how I would image a rabid animal would do that.

“Uh… Sorry, am Ah interruptin’ somethin’?”

He glared at me. “Help. Please.”

“Aam nae really into threesomes thanks.” I smirked.

“She’s trying to escape, here. You know, the bad slaver pony?” He snapped back. “Wants to do bad things to us?”

“I’M NOT LETTING YOU KEEP ME HERE YOU MOTHER-FUCKING PIECES OF SHIT!” The mare roared. “THAT FREAK ISN’T GOING TO SCARE ME!”

“Ye know Aam right here, don’t ye?” I said with an eyebrow raised.

Her eyes widened as she looked at me.

We stayed like that for a moment.

Then she started fighting even harder, driving every free limb into Raid’s sides, making him grunt in pain. I tried to grab her hooves in my own, but she simply kept thrashing out of my grip, screaming all the while.

“Ah can’t hold her down!”

“Just… get something to hit her with! Before she-“

He was interrupted by the mare driving both her back hooves into his crotch.

The blue buck toppled over and cried out in pain, falling off of the Bone Eater, who scrambled to her hooves and backed into a corner, staring intently at me while Raid writhed on the ground in pain.

I slammed the nearest door shut with a quick telekinetic punt, and dropped into a fighting stance, magically pulling a knife out of one of my pockets.

I narrowed my eyes at her. “Calm down. We’re nae goin’ tae dae anythin’ tae ye.”

“Like tearing out my eyeballs?” Oh… right… that. “You little shits aren’t-“

She suddenly lunged at me, slamming a hoof into my jaw, causing my magic to implode and the knife to fly off and stick into the chair she was previously tied to.

Stunned and slightly dazed, I tried to take a swing at her with a hoof, only for her to dodge out of the way, straight towards the knife.

With what little focus I could, I managed to force the knife out of the chair in such a way that it slammed into the metal wall, quivering with a twang sound. Surprisingly, the Bone Eater once more dove for it, pushing me to the ground as she did so.

By the time I finally stood up, she was holding the knife in her teeth, staring me down from across the room. We sat there, staring at each other for about a minute before I finally realized that I was blocking the exit.

I briefly wondered why we were having so much trouble dealing with a single pony. No accounting for the power of terror, I suppose.

“You fucking assholes aren’t-“ The mare was interrupted when Raid slammed into her.

As I rushed over to help, I heard the door swing open. Turning to see Zeed, I called out, “HELP!”

Then I heard Raid scream in pain. The slaver had stabbed him in the flank, and torn a large hole in his leather jacket. However, he managed to take the opportunity to slam all of his weight onto the mare’s head, dragging her to the floor and pinning her there. He effectively took her down by flopping on her head, and then rolling over onto her neck.

“Knives, could you eh…” He said once the mare had passed out, nodding towards the knife. “Could you kindly pull this thing outa my flank? It’s not really comfortable.”

Zeed stepped in before I could do anything, and shoved a healing potion into his throat, as he tried to protest, she then pulled the knife out of his flank, causing him to gasp in pain.

“Kicked in the nuts and stabbed in the ass…” He groaned. “This is gunna be a fun day.”

I wasn’t paying attention to what he said, though, as I was currently staring at his exposed flank. No, not like that… although it was a nice view… I was looking at his cutie mark, which was comprised of three multi-colored flower petals. The view lasted about three seconds before it was suddenly covered in leather. Greenish sparks sparked off his jacket as it seemed to repair itself.

Zeed and I stared at the blue stallion, dumbfounded.

He only shrugged. “It’s enchanted. Tends to give off creepy vibes, bit it’s useful.”

We continued to stare at him.

“It was a gift… sort of…” He shrugged again. “I think he died before the war. Got himself blown to bits on... I wanna saw a minefield. Obviously the jacket was fine.”

Zeed quirked an eye at him. “Why would anypony enchant a jacket?”

He shrugged yet again. “Somepony who loves their clothes. I think he was a zebra, though.”

“I know it’s kinda rude tae ask, but what exactly is yer cutie mark.” I asked nervously.

He gaped at me. Then he sighed and facehoofed. “Dammit.”

“Ooooh. What’re ya going to do, Blue?” Stock said from the doorway. “You’re not going to tell them everything are you?”

Both Zeed and I gave him a suspicious look. “Tell us what, Raid…”

“Dammit, Stock…” He sighed again. “Fine. Let’s get this over with before everypony gets paranoid. There was a group of other ponies after me, but they stopped chasing me about a long time ago. I hide my cutie mark because it’s somewhat… obvious, and I’d rather not risk anypony selling me out. Good enough?”

I frowned, surprised by how irritated he sounded, Zeed held a similar, but more suspicious expression on her own face. “There more tae it, isn’t there.”

“Of course there’s more to it, but there’s several problems with telling you…” He stood up and brushed himself off. “One; most of it involves things I don’t like thinking about. Two; they’re not chasing me anymore, so it doesn’t even matter. Three…”

He bit his lip. “Well… to be perfectly honest, I do want to tell you, but I’m just not sure if I can… trust you two with it… sorry.”

I waved my hoof dismissively. “Alright, then. When yer ready.”

Zeed gawked at me. “What? He’s keeping secrets and you’re… fine with that?”

I smirked at her. “Och, like ye dunnae have secrets ay yer own?”

To my surprise, she blushed. “N-never mind.”

“But… Aam still a bit curious… what exactly is yer cutie mark?” I pointed to Raid.

He worked his jaw for a moment. “Uh… well… I guess there’s no harm in telling, but you’re just going to laugh.”

“Why would Ah dae that?”

“It’s… not common… especially not around here…” He chuckled nervously.

“Alright then…” I turned and slowly trotted out the door.

Slowly… Slowly…

“Ugh… fine.” I turned and grinned at him. “Just swear you won’t laugh.”

Zeed and I both promised.

“Well… the mark itself is a trio of rainbow lotus petals.” He inhaled, hissing slightly. “The talent…”

He grinned awkwardly. “My special talent is… massage.”

Zeed’s gaped. I simply nodded.

“Ah imagine ye could make a few bits out here, if ye get a place set up.”

He shrugged. “I’d like to, but who’d come? Most ponies don’t really care about knotted muscles all that much. They’re generally more worried about being alive.”

Stock raised a hoof. “Quick question… How did an injured pony manage to overpower you two?”

Raid rubbed his flank and grimaced. “Either we didn’t check her as well as we thought, or she keeps a few doses of hydra where Celestia can’t see…”

Zeed snickered.

“Well… oan that… interestin’ note… How about we get goin’, aye?” I said. “We’ve got a zebra tae find.”

~~~

Green awoke with a yawn.

Looking around, she was surprised to find herself in a small, spartan, yet cozy room, the wallpaper of which was apparently strong enough to withstand nearly two hundred years of time. She was even more surprised to find that she had awoken on top of a large and very comfortable bed, and that her clothes were now sitting on a nearby chair, removed while she was asleep and thoroughly cleaned.

Tentatively, she slipped out of the bed, and put on her former master’s clothes, cutting two holes in the back for her wings, and noting how the colors were actually brighter now that they’d been washed for what was probably the first time in years. A canvas shirt and a black pocketed vest. Simple. Bark rarely wore anything else but for a tuxedo when he was trying to look impressive for a buyer.

Green shook her head to clear her thoughts, figuring that the slave-owner was the last pony she should be thinking about.

“Hello?” she called out. “Is anypony here?”

Not hearing an answer, she made her way to the door and peeked outside.

There was a long hallway, each wall dotted with more doors. Green knew the word for this place, it was on the tip of her tongue. A hotel, that’s the one.

“Hello?” she called again, and once more heard no answer.

Confused, she retreated back into the room, and sat on the bed.

She waited… and waited… and waited…

She sat there, waiting for hours, getting every so often to check and see if anypony was in the hallway, and then sitting back down on the bed, confused. She was unused to not being ordered around at nearly every waking moment. She was unsure of what to do.

“Hello Green, how are you feeling?”

Green jumped and spun around to see Wretch standing in the doorway, a duffle bag in her magical grip.

“I… Uh… Uh… Well…” She gulped, suddenly filled with panic. Her words were barely a whisper. “Better.”

Wretch smiled warmly. “That’s good. I brought some food.”

She walked into the room, and onto the single table, dumped the duffle bag, revealing a copious amount of what was essentially junk food, but food nonetheless. The sight made Green’s mouth water.

“Take as much as you like.” Wretch said as she picked up an apple snack cake.

Green’s mind was reeling. Never before in her life had she even seen this much food.

She took something, barely even looking to see what it was. She couldn’t help but repeatedly look back to Wretch, expecting her to change her mind, or slap away Green’s hoof at any moment.

Slowly, she opened the package, still sending nervous glances at her friend, who was happily munching on the same cake.

A single, delicious bite of what was probably the best thing she’d ever tasted.

And she couldn’t hold herself back any longer.

Green tore into package after package, scarfing down their contents, as though it were her last meal, barely even tasting what she was eating.

Wretch stopped and stared at the small pegasus, utterly confused by how a pony that size could eat so much.

Eventually, Green simply couldn’t eat any more, having gone through most of the pile of goods within the course of fifteen minutes.

The filly rolled onto her back, moaned, and put a hoof on her now aching and slightly distended stomach.

Wretch stared at her and raised an eyebrow.

“Huh…” She said. “Weird.”

-----

Footnote 1: Diamond Knives
EXP 50%

~~~~

Footnote 2: Zeed Kazdri
EXP 60%

~~~~

Footnote 3: Raid (???)
EXP 50%

`
Quests:
Active Quest:
O’ Father, Where Art Thou?: Infiltrate or assault the Bone Eaters’ base near Bladesville.
Other quests:
Sifting through the dust:
1)
Find information on the location of Ashes.
2)
Find information on the location of Obsidian Knives
3)
–Find information on the location of Nezan Kazdri

-----

(Author’s Notes)

I’ll get there eventually. Don’t worry.

Thanks to Kkat for Fallout Equestria, and Somber for Project Horizon. Thanks to whoever reads this, and again, critiques are very much welcome.