“C’mon, Blue, move!”

I flew down the tunnel after Stock, feeling the air whip around my flight suit. “Tr-trying! Wings hurt t-to much.”

“Just a bit further!” the ghoul called back. “Don’t worry, you’ll make it.”

I tried very hard not to glance back, to not look at the freakish monstrosity that was catching up to us at a frighteningly rapid pace. It didn’t help that I was tired from a full day of flight training, or that I wasn’t particularly fast to begin with.

The gorgon screeched in the distance. I couldn’t stop, it would catch up, latch on to me, rip me to pieces, tears blurred my vision, the wind whipped through my shattered goggles.

Stock was gradually getting smaller and smaller as I fell behind. I flapped harder and harder, but my breath was ragged, and my wings were getting weaker with every movement.

The gorgon let out another high-pitched scream. That horrible sound, like nothing a living pony could ever make, bouncing off the wall, coming in from every direction and reverberating through my skull, over and over as the thing came closer.

I flapped furiously, but fear was taking hold, my wings locked up, I pushed harder and harder, desperately willing my wings to keep working, begging them to not fail me as my face streamed with tears, my muscles burning with the effort of continued flight, yet I was still slowing down, unable to keep up, couldn’t keep going, losing height.

“Stock! Help!” I sobbed.

She turned around, and her eyes widened in horror as she saw me start to drop towards the floor. She changed direction and made a dive towards me.

My hoof caught on something, sending me straight to the ground.

I let out a muffled scream as I felt something in my face shatter from the impact.

Stock landed next to me, and tried to pull me to my hooves. I coughed up a bit of blood and a tooth.

“C’mon, let’s go!” She said, throwing me onto her back and taking off. “Just hold on!”

We shot past several ruined openings in the supply tunnels, Stock swore loudly, as each one was useless for an escape. We couldn’t stop moving, each second gave the monstrosity more ground.

“Gaaagh! Where the hell is the exit?” The ghoul screamed. “Why am I not getting a damned signal?”

The response came in the form of another shriek, too close for comfort.

“Blue, see anything?”

I frantically glanced around. No ledges to hide, no light from the outside, no floodlights inside, the tunnel just kept going. I glanced back and saw the sickly green glow from the gorgon’s tendrils. “Nothing!”

“We should never have trusted that lying little shit!” She tapped the side of her helmet with a forehoof. “Anypony hear me? We need backu-aaah!”

The gorgon caught up. It leapt into the air and grabbed onto Stock’s hind legs, though it only wanted me. I could feel it trying to wrap it’s tendrils around my own legs as it pulled Stock to the ground. The mare kicked at the creature’s face, trying to hold me out of its reach with her wings. Its eyestalks were fixated on me, the multihued irises shone in its eerie bioluminescence.

While she struggled with it, I tried to shift around and unholster my pistol.

“For the love of Celestia, get your fucking flanks down here! We have a gorgon infestation!” Stock screamed as she delivered another buck.

I tongued the trigger, but my shivering frame caused each shot to go wide.

“Goddesses damnit, stop fucking around! Get us out of here!” Stock screamed. “Nopony else is down here!”

One of the gorgon’s eyestalks exploded into a shower of green goo. The sound of a plasma weapon echoed through the tunnels. A pegasus mare in white Spectrum power armor was charging towards us.

The gorgon shrieked again and dropped us, flailing its tendrils.

“What the fuck are you doing down here, grandma?” The mare called to Stock.

“Hey don’t blame me. This was supposed to be endurance training.” The ghoul snorted. “Command sent us down this way. Probably using outdated maps. Nice to see you, by the way.”

“Same to you!” The other pegasus replied cheerfully. “Just keep going and you’ll make it out.”

She fired several more globs of green plasma at the gorgon, which kept shrieking in pain, as Stock picked me back up and shot down the tunnel.

“This is why they need to make a dedicated training ground. Fucking ridiculous.” She grumbled. “You alright, Blue?”

I nodded weakly. “I ding I broke by ndoze.”

She grimaced. “Well, it wasn’t the worst that could happen.”

~~~~

I am not, admittedly, opposed to wearing collars. I’d worn some during some of my identity crises, especially my ‘goth’ phase. However, those collars had very little risk of killing me by blowing my head to little bits, unlike the one the slavers had put around my neck. For obvious reasons, I was a bit more reluctant to wear that one. It was made worse by the fact that they’d forced me to take off the Pipbuck.

I wasn’t angry though. Mad or miffed, maybe, but not angry. After all, how could I be angry? I was smiling! I was positively shaking with not-anger.

Even as this bitch was decorating me in the gaudiest outfit I’d ever had the misfortune to lay eyes on, I was smiling. See? Not angry at all!

“Wipe that fucking smile off your face, Betsy,” screamed the mare who called herself Mildew. “Or I swear to Celestia I will break your fucking wings.”

Perfectly calm. No urges to rip her throat out. Nope, not a one.

“Now, would you like some more tea, Betsy?” She said as she held out the teapot, a vicious smirk on her face.

“Oh mah, yes, Mademoiselle Mildew. Ah would lahk that evah so much,” I replied in my best feminine Neigh Orleans drawl. It was pretty good if I say so myself.

Mildew chuckled to herself and sneered at me. She probably thought this was humiliating me or something, but I’d had far worse done to me, by far better, and come out just fine. Nevertheless, I just kept on smiling, and not being angry.

“You know, Betsy… I heard that a bunch of assholes tried to get into Raftwater today.” She grinned. “Isn’t that silly?”

“Silly as a snake with legs, Mademoiselle Mildew!” I gasped, causing the mare to guffaw at me. “They sound lahk such rude ponies.”

Not angry at all!

“Yeah. We caught ‘em, though. Don’t worry.” She chuckled. “They won’t try and come to get you in the night, Betsy.”

“Oh, well that’s mighty kind ‘a ya, Mademoiselle”

“I heard we even managed to kill one.”

…

Definitely not angry.

“I-is that s-s-so?” I asked. Perfectly calm.

“That striped unicorn, I think it was. Interesting sight, really. They’re not as common as regular halfies.” She snorted. “Heard she was cute too.”

N-not going t-t-to smash the teap-pot into her f-f-f-fucking face.

“W-well that’s mighty interestin’.” I smiled. “Would you happen to know the r-raisin that they broke in, Mademoiselle Mildew?”

Don’t attack her. Stay calm. Don’t get angry. Don’t attack her. Knives is okay. You saw how she fights, you know she won’t go down that easily.

“Aww, are you scared Betsy?” Mildew grinned evilly. “Did we kill your little marefriend? Isn’t that sad.”

Do. Not. Get. Angry.

She slammed her hoof across my jaw. “Get that smile off your fucking face, Betsy!”

With some difficulty, I forced my grin to turn into a blank expression. Not angry at all.

“Good…” She said in a satisfied way. “You fucking useless birds shouldn’t get to smile. You shouldn’t get to be alive, you know. Leaving us all to suffer under the clouds.”

She punched me in the jaw again. “WE WANT SUN BETSY!”

Non. Wütend.

“Now, why don’t we put you to good use, eh?” She turned her back to me. “Go on, put that cutie mark to use, Betsy.”

As I stepped forward, she spun back for a moment to say, “And don’t try anything. You know what’ll happen.”

Do not break the teapot against her skull. Do. Not. Do. It.

I moved behind her and began with the hoofwork. I swept my wings over her back, feeling for stiff muscles and bringing my forehooves over to massage them.

Mildew let out a moan of content.

I didn’t know what this mare did, but she had so many knots in her back and shoulders that it would take far more work than I was willing to put in in order to deal with it. Even with this being my special talent, I was very much unwilling to help slavers in any way. But I still kept calm, and not angry.

With my limbs occupied, I turned my thoughts to how I could help my companions.

‘Knives is dead, you moron,’ my subconscious said. ‘It’s all your fucking fault.’

No. She’s not dead. Mildew is just trying to get in my head. I frowned and glanced down at myself. Hence, the frilly dress.

‘Then she’s a slave because you were fucking around, instead of paying attention. It’s still your fault.’

That’s why I need to find her and get out of here. My eyes darted around the room. It looked as though somepony had tried to stuff a kitchen, a living room and a bedroom into a single space.

“I didn’t say you could-“ Mildew interrupted herself with another moan. “Could slow down…”

A grin popped back onto my face. Not angry at all.

‘Oh just admit it. You’re angry.’

Nope. Perfectly calm.

‘Calm ponies don’t vibrate.’

Who’s vibrating? I’m perfectly still! Not even a little- is that a key in her mane?

I stared at the back of the mare’s head. There was, indeed, a glint of metal between the hairs. I gently brushed the strands away with a wing, making the slaver moan again.

There was, indeed, a small key, tied around her neck with a bit of fishing wire.

‘Don’t try it,’ said my subconscious. ‘You know you’re a terrible thief.’

Truuuueeeee, But I am pretty good at talking ponies into things. Another grin spread across my face.

‘Really? Did you go on that date with Knives, then?’

…

Shut up.

“So, Mademoiselle Mildew,” I began. “What exactly do you do here, hmm?”

The mare snorted. “Trying to distract me, Betsy?”

“What, me?” Does a yao guai shit in the desert? “Now why would I ever try something like that?”

“You wouldn’t be the first slave to try it.”

I smirked. “Now, Mademoiselle Mildew… how could I lie to such a pretty face as yours?”

“Uh-huh. Sure. And the boss is a bloatsprite.” She spat.

“Oh, don’t sell yourself short, milady.” I grinned. “Yours, is a pretty face that leaves me with a certain… envie de vomir.”

‘What are you going to do if she speaks Prench?’

“Oh… uh…” Mildew giggled softly.

I stifled my own snort of laughter. She doesn’t. I doubt she knows this one either.

“You know, I once heard a phrase that describes you quite well.” She pricked up one of her ears, and I smirked. “Watashi wa anata o mita toki, watashi wa sabita supūn de jibun no me o eguri dashitai to omoimasu.”

Heh. Not the best insult, but still pretty good.

“What’s that mean?”

Oh crap… uh…

“That your beauty surpasses your loveliness,” I answered quickly. And both are in the negatives.

I saw a tinge of red appear on the slaver’s face and smirked. That was waaaaay too easy.

‘Then why can’t you seem to talk to Knives, hmm?’

Well, it’s easy to say if it’s not true…

‘So you go acting like a socially awkward teenager?’

…

I hate me.

“Well, to answer your question, Betsy…” Mildew let out another happy moan. “I run storage.”

“Oh? And what exactly do you do there?”

“Well, recently I’ve been making sure that the fucking morons I work with don’t put bomb collars on each other.” She snorted. “The last time they did that they used up about twenty of the damn things. It’s not like they grow on trees.”

Goddesses, I hoped they didn’t grow on trees.

“I also make sure that we have enough weapons and crap like that for when we go out on hunting runs.” She chuckled. “You know, you and your friend are probably the first ponies who’ve come to us. Pretty stupid if you ask me.”

My lips curled into a grin again. Not angry.

“And I told you not to stop!” She growled. “Keep going or I’ll-“

She was interrupted when a loud wailing noise sang through the air. It was one of those sirens that they used during the war to warn the citizens of incoming attacks.

Mildew stared out the window with a look of confusion. “What the fu-“

She was interrupted again when I smashed the teapot into the back of her head.

“Oh look, I JUST TRIED SOMETHING! I’M NOT FUCKING DEAD YET! HAH!” I shouted. Slowly, a feeling of calmness went through me, and I could feel tension that I hadn’t even known was there leaving my shoulders.

Then I noticed that there was blood pooling beneath her head. I looked at the teapot-I mean teapot handle that I was clutching in my fetlock, and swore under my breath.

I put a wingtip to her throat, feeling for a pulse, but come up with nothing and swore again.

‘Good going. You can’t even knock somepony out right.’

I groaned and ripped the key off the fishing line around her neck.

“So…” I thought aloud. “What is that siren for…”

I stuck my head outside. My ears swiveled around as I listened to the cries of the slavers who were running around the streets in a panic. To my surprise, almost every single one of them was begging for their lives or screaming in terror about Hearteater.

I frowned. She couldn’t have been in Raftwater. Jolly Rodger had said that she was around Loss, and that was on the opposite side of Canturbury. So, unless the expert sniper sprouted wings and/or a horn since the last time I’d met her, I was fairly certain she wouldn’t be able to get to Raftwater this quickly.

I wasn’t exactly happy that somepony was apparently trying to impersonate one of my allies.

‘Hey, doesn’t Knives have invisible magic?’

I blinked as the thought popped into my head. That blink was followed by a smirk, and that smirk turned into a wide grin and a chuckle.

“Damn, that mare is awesome.”

Knock-knock-knock.

My ears went against my head as I turned to stare at the door.

“Oh… fuck…”

“MILDEW! OPEN UP!” The slaver pounded on the door. “We’re being attacked! For the love of Celestia, open the fucking door, you stupid cunt!”

“Crap, crap, crap…” I glanced around the room, and an idea came to mind. “Oh! Hehehe.”

I burst out the door, screaming my head off. “OH GODDESSES, HEARTEATER’S INSIDE! RUN!”

This had the desired effect of causing the slavers at the door to run off shrieking, yes shrieking, in terror.

“Now to find Knives!” I said triumphantly. Then I blinked in realization, and facehooved. “Aaand, I don’t know what her mark is for… wunderbar.”

Swiftly moving as far away from Mildew’s place as I could, I listened to the screaming of the slavers and the mutterings of the slaves to see if I could find even the vaguest hint of where Knives was. I was sure that I wouldn’t have to look for Zeed or Stock, as they would be smart enough to get away and start working on a method of escape.

I knew I should have asked at some point. I know that some cultures think it rude to ask about another ponies mark, but if I had known something like this would happen, I think I could stand be a bit rude. Really, all I knew was that Knives was a fairly decent cook, but that didn’t really mean anything.

After all, my mark has nothing to do with weaponry, yet I’m a pretty good shot.

I made my way to the place where they’d brought the two of us in, in the hopes of finding some sort of records or something. The Bone Eaters would have to be stupid to not keep records of their slaves.

I didn’t want to risk flying, though. It was bad enough that my wings were causing the slaves to give me angry glares, but if I actually tried to fly anywhere, I would likely get my stupid ass shot.

My thoughts were interrupted when a growling voice began to blast forth from the public speaker system.

“Attention brothers! This is Rex speaking. It has come to my attention that the majority of you are in a panic due to a supposed sighting of the assassin known as ‘Hearteater’. This sighting is false. Every single one of you is an idiot for believing in it.”

I couldn’t help but laugh at the last comment.

"If you are found away from your posts, I will personally drag you into the pit and tear you limb from limb. I will then feed your still-living torso to my pet. And speaking of the Pit… the little half-breed fucks who caused all of this panic will be serving as tonight’s entertainment. That is all.”

“Half-breeds… Oh, SONOFABITCH!”

I bucked a nearby lamppost in frustration as I realized that meant I would have to get Knives out of a pit fight. Possibly by getting involved in it myself.

A shame really… I couldn’t fight for shit…

~~~~

I stood watching for two hours, hiding in the top floor of a former office building near the Pit, which, as the name suggested, was little more than a giant hole dug into the middle of the street.

Despite my vigil, I saw neither hide nor hair of Knives.

My wings twitched impatiently.

Even the guards in front of the building where they kept the slaves, the remains of the city’s former police station, weren’t moving. I guess Rex’s speech was enough to get some of the slavers to obey their orders.

I wondered if I might have missed her, if she had already been taken inside before I got here.

I sighed, and turned away from the window, only to be stopped when I saw a familiar-looking dark green mane, with metal bits entwined into it.

With a grin, I spun back around.

I then proceeded to watch with a look of incredible confusion as Knives apparently levitated towards the police station, followed by two other zonies.

Whilst very obviously unconscious.

This was, needless to say, very confusing for me. At least, until I smacked myself in the face for being a moron.

They have stealth bucks. Or a stealth suit, or something else that makes them invisible.

‘You can’t really fight what you can’t see, you know.’

I’m well aware. I might need to break into the armory. Get a few grenades, maybe. The problem is this damned collar. If they catch me fighting, they will kill me.

I frowned and hrrm-ed.

Maybe I could find a way to deactivate the collar first?

‘If it was that easy, don’t you think there would be a few less slaves here?’

Never said it would be easy, just that I should try it first. Wait, what are they doing with Knives?

They pulled the tag off of her ear and replaced it with a dark red one.

“So…” I mused. “They’re actually putting her in the pit.”

‘You need to get her out of there. This is your fault.’

Obviously.

The roof of the police station had a few doors in plain view. I considered just flying over to them, but I didn’t want to risk getting shot and I didn’t want to risk sneaking past the guards. Chances were that I would fail. Stealth, after all, was never my forte.

‘What if you got involved in the fights?’

I’m not exactly a brawler.

‘Oh, you suck at fighting. You’re just trying to break back out anyway.’

True, but if I can’t then I’m stuck.

‘Talk your way in?’

I tapped my chin with a wingtip. “That could work.”

Click.

‘Or you could stand there while somepony points a gun at your head.’

“Wings up, hooves on the ground.” The way the stallion was talking told me that his mouth was free, meaning he was a unicorn.

A sound somewhere between a sigh and a frustrated growl left my throat.

“Turn around slowly.”

Following orders, I was met with a familiar orange unicorn, wearing an even more familiar jacket, one that looked like a cross between a duster and a ballistic vest, and a massive bandage on his neck from where Knives stabbed him. “Oh goddesses, not you again. Chamomile shot my fucking ear off because of you. And my neck hurts ‘cuz of your fucking bitchfriend.”

“That’s my jacket you’re wearing.” I smirked

He smirked right back. “Correction: it was your jacket. It’s mine now, slave.”

“Suit yourself.” I shrugged. “It’ll come back to me eventually.”

“What the fuck does that-“ He shook his head. “You know what, stop talking. I’m not letting you distract me again. Move.”

He herded me outside of the building and, much to both my surprise and irritation, towards the police station.

“Hey guys, I got a present for ya!” My ‘friend’ called out.

Upon seeing me, the guards started chuckling to themselves. “Ooh. Looks like we’ve got a pigeon infestation.”

“Oh, wow. I thought pigeons were all extinct!”

“Apparently we got a few left!”

I could only quirk an eyebrow at the pathetic attempt at humor.

“Yeah, apparently he wants to get in on the fights.” The orange unicorn snorted. “Don’t you birdy?”

“Really? We haven’t had a bird around her for a while, now.” One of the guards sneered at me. “Tired of the sunlight, feather-face?”

“Nah. Just wanted some fresh air.” I snarked.

I received a rifle butt to the face for my trouble.

“Shut up, scab,” he snarled. “Get me the tagger.”

“Oh, no… allow me!” Said the orange idiot in my jacket. He levitated the tagger over.

I gasped in pain as he ripped the pink tag out of my ear.

“Oops.” He snickered. “My magic slipped.”

Then I yelped as he put a red tag in the other ear.

Not. Angry. At all. Not. Going. To break. His fucking. Horn.

As he walked away laughing his head off, the two guards started dragging me inside, down into the lower parts of the station, where the walls were covered in cell doors. I was unceremoniously tossed into one, and the door was slammed shut after me.

All the while, I saw no indication as to where they’d taken Knives.

‘Good going, dumbfuck. Now you’re stuck.’

…

Fuck you brain. Just… fuck you.

~~~

Green awoke to the sensation of swaying motion. Cracking her eyes open, she realized that she was being carried on Wretch’s back, her legs dangling over the pink mare’s sides, her chest resting between the unicorn’s shoulder blades. They were in the middle of the city, both with a single neon green band tied around one of their forelegs.

The green filly let out a loud yawn.

“Hello, Green. Feeling better?”

The pegasus moaned weakly.

“I’ll take that as a ‘no’, then.” Wretch sighed. “It’s sad to see you like this, you know.”

Green sniffled. “I’m a bad pony…”

“No. You’re not. You did something you felt was right in order to protect somepony else.” Wretch shook her head. “And he attacked first anyway.”

“I hurt another pony…”

“And he tried to hurt you first. For no particular reason, I might add.” Wretch wasn’t sure if the last part was true, but she chose not to mention that. “And it was sort of funny that you hit him with a whole cactus.”

Green giggled softly. “I guess he… kinda… deserved it.”

“See? It’s not that bad.” Wretch smiled. “Think you can walk?”

Green gently flapped her wings, lifting her off of the mare’s back and depositing her on the asphalt. As soon as her hooves touched the ground, Green’s stomach roared, drawing surprised stares from several passerby.

Wretch burst out laughing, while Green blushed profusely.

“Celestia’s sun, Green, how much can you possibly eat?” Wretch wiped a tear from her eye. “I swear, your gut is constantly making noise.”

Green used her wings to cover her face in embarrassment. “Sorry…”

“There’s nothing to be sorry about, it’s just that I’ve never seen anypony eat that much. Especially not when they’re your size. At the rate you keep going, you’ll gain a couple hundred pounds by the end of the week.”

Green’s blush deepened.

“You really never did get much to eat as a slave, did you…” Wretch sighed again.

“Usually Bark just gave me some water, and some yucca.” Green’s expression turned into a wistful smile. “But I really, really like yucca, so it wasn’t that bad. It’s so, so good… tasty…”

Wretch snorted a laugh. “Green, you’re drooling.”

“One time I snuck into bark’s storage shed and ate all the yucca he had. My stomach hurt so much I could barely move, and he flogged me for about an hour when he found out the next day, but it was soooo worth it…”

Wretch’s jaw dropped. “He… he what?”

Green didn’t respond, instead, she stared off into space, drooling at the thought of the plant. The ponies walking by gave her odd looks of confusion, at least, until she was distracted by another roar from her own stomach.

She spun to face Wretch with a hopeful grin on her face. “Hey, Wretch , can we get some yucca? Please? I’m really, really, really hungry, and I haven’t had any in a really long time, please?”

“Uh…” Wretch stared at her young friend in confusion. “Okay? Sure, I don’t see why not.”

“Really?” Green squealed in delight as she bounced around the older black-maned mare. “I hope we can find some of the fruit or maybe the root, because I really don’t like the flowers and they aren’t very filling anyway, but the fruit is really bitter but in a good way because I really like bitter things and the root tastes really sweet but pickled yucca fruit is the best thing I’ve ever tasted and omygosh I’m so excited I can’t wait!”

Wretch blinked a few times. “I’m guessing that you really like this stuff?”

Green nodded so vigorously that Wretch was afraid her head might pop off.

“Well, then…” Wretch chuckled. “I guess we’ll go find some. After that, we’ll go find the memory orb expert.”

--------

Footnote 1: Diamond Knives

EXP ???%

~~~

Footnote 2: Zeed Kazdri

Exp: ???%

~~~

Footnote 3: Raid (???)

EXP Level up! (12)

Speech 84

Perks:

Desert Soldier: You get a +5% bonus to critical chance when using conventional weaponry. You also get +5 to your guns skill.

`

To-Do List:

Active Quest:

Where For Art Thou?:

-Find Raid

-Find Knives

Other quests:

Layin’ Down The Rails:

Find a way to remove bomb-collars

O’ Father, Where Art Thou?:

Infiltrate or assault the Bone Eaters’ base near Bladesville.

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:

Thanks to Kkat for Fallout Equestria, and Somber for Project Horizon. Thanks to Matkingos for making sure this doesn’t suck as much as usual. Thanks to whomever reads this, and again, critiques are very much welcome.