Chapter 26 - Discovery, Part 1
“Truth is like the sun. You can shut it away for a time, but it ain’t going away. “

“... and then he just let me walk out,” I finished describing my encounter with Muddy to Gertie.

“I don’t like this, Dust,” she said warily, shaking her head. “This smells like a trap to me.”

“I agree, Gertie,” I concurred. “But, we have to save our friends. If we do nothing, they’ll be at the mercy of whoever finds them. We just have to go in and stay alert.” My mouth turned down into a frown. “Muddy seemed pretty sure we wouldn’t find them on our own, or in time.”

“How did this happen, Dust?” Gertie asked, frustration coloring her speech.

“I don’t know, Gertie,” I said, shaking my head again. “He always seems to be one fucking step ahead of me.” A deep sigh escaped my mouth. “I can never get ahead of him.”

“Well, let’s worry about that later,” she consoled me, placing a claw on my shoulder. “Now, I know which direction the skywagons went. However, there are a lot of settlements out there. Even being able to narrow it down by direction, that still leaves way too much ground to cover in the little time we probably have. Is there anything else you can remember about the videos you saw?”

I craned my head back and closed my eyes. I tried to replay the videos in my head, hoping I could remember details from the short clips I saw. “Silver... behind her wagon… small town… no large buildings…” Fragments of images flew through my mind, creating utter chaos in my thoughts. I kept going back to the struggling form of Silver.

“C’mon, Dust,” Gertie prodded me. “I know you can do it. Focus on the town behind the wagon. The wagon isn’t there… there is no Enclave… there is no Silver.”

The image in my mind distorted as the foreground faded away and background details sharpened. There were mostly dilapidated buildings. Nothing stood out. None of the buildings had signs on them. No single building drew my attention. Dammit… why was it so hard to put up a sign… or name a business… But no… all this town did was fucking walk around the fountain in the center of town. Wait, what? “A fountain! The town had a fountain in the middle!” I spurted out.

“Do you mean a trough with a spigot… or an honest-to-goodness, ornate fountain?” Gertie asked, probing for information.

“It was a multi-tiered, marble fountain, right in the middle of a bunch of dilapidated shacks,” I confirmed.

“Hmm.. that’s probably Fountainview,” Gertie said, stroking her chin. “Don’t know much about that area. The only rumor I remember is that a weird cult is operating out there. Bunch of loonies if you ask me.” Gertie paused, allowing my mind to relax for a second. “Alright, what about Flower’s video?”

I closed my eyes and tried to replay the video in my mind. Again, for a moment, I focused on the struggling form of Flower. Allowing my mind’s eye to drift, I tried to pick out details of the town behind. “Low slung concrete building with thin slits for windows… lots of wagon wreckage… open cargo containers stacked in several places…” I was getting frustrated again… nothing called out a name… I allowed my mind to drift. I looked at the skyline behind the town. It was as flat and vacant as anywhere else down here… except for that large needle like protrusion… “A spire! The town has a large, needle-like spire!”

Gertie’s reaction immediately betrayed her recognition of the town. “That sounds like the military supply depot at Trotwood,” she mused. “Hmm… slaver territory.”

“Ugh…. alright… now… Brownie…” I mumbled as I let my mind drift again. Brownie was oddly still in the back of the wagon, but he was still alive. The barely controlled rage in his eyes was obvious to me. Relaxing my mind, the picture fell out of focus. I tried to look behind him. “A wall… a very large wall… and brahmin pens...:”

“Well, that could be a few places,” Gertie responded.

“Fields of corn… but not the sickly stuff other towns can grow… this stuff is closer to the stuff the facility was growing…” I muttered blindly.

“Hmmm… that must be The Garden… only settlement that was not hit as bad with radiation as everywhere else. They grow and sell some of the best food around,” she recalled from memory.

“That doesn’t sound so dangerous?” I half asked, half stated.

“It shouldn’t be… they are the richest settlement around since everypony shops there. They have enough caps to keep their own mercenary force employed and then some,” she informed me.

“Then why the hell did Muddy bring him there?,” I pondered aloud. Gertie nodded. “Brownie seems the safest… so who’s closer? Flower or Silver?”

Gertie’s features twisted into deep thought. “Flower,” she answered, flatly.

“Alright… then let’s head to Trotwood first,” I decided. “But first, we need to take care of our Enclave friends.

Our Enclave guests were not thrilled when we went to release them from their bonds. Especially the stallion that got knocked upside the head. They demanded their weaponry back, which we, of course, denied. After some heated arguing, and a threat from Gertie to rip them to shreds, our guests finally turned tail. When they got a good distance away, I turned and smirked. “By the way, Breeze... the quartermaster is going to have some funny ideas about later,” I hollered at them.
I think I heard Breeze mutter, “Son of a bitch.”

Gertie and I took off a short time later after collecting our friends’ things. We took off towards Trotwood, which Gertie said would be about an hour in the air.

Gertie ended up breaking the awkward silence that had settled on us. “I hope you’re not blaming yourself, Dust,” she tried to comfort me. “Nopony could have predicted this.”

“No, Gertie, you’re wrong,” I sighed. “Muddy was prepared for me. He masterfully separated us before I realized what was going on and led me right where he wanted me. And this isn’t the first time, either. I need to be smarter. I should have expected that.”

“Dust…” she said, trying to console me.

“No, Gertie,” I interrupted, solemnly. “This is on me. This whole thing is on me.”

Gertie’s beak dropped open as if she was going to continue the argument, but then closed when she thought better of it. After a little while, she did break the silence again. “So, what’s the plan?” she asked.

“Well, it’s gotta be hard to hide a skywagon and still get the video they got,” I started. “I am going to assume the wagon is out in the open. Now, that’s not to say they won’t be expecting us. In fact, I wouldn’t be surprised if they’ve been warned already. I’m sure we got spotted taking off and they know the direction we are generally headed. But something tells me that Muddy has something else planned. I doubt it was an accident details were visible that would lead us to these particular settlements.”

“I agree,” Gertie responded. “Which doesn’t make me feel any better.”

After a short flight, I saw a spire appear over the horizon. Surrounding it were several small, concrete buildings. However, at this distance, I couldn’t see the gleam of the metal-skinned skywagon.

“There she is, Trotwood Military Supply Depot,” Gertie informed me. “One of the larger munitions depots during the war. Got cleaned out almost immediately once the area was safe to travel. Last I heard, it was holding its own against the slavers operating out of the north. The bunkers are pretty defensible.”

“Looks that way to me,” I concurred. “Assuming they had food and water, they could hold out there for an incredible long time. Do you see the skywagon yet?”

“Not y…. Wait,” she mumbled. “Yes, there it is. Ten o’clock.”

I strained my eyes to see what Gertie was pointing out. On the far side of the settlement was a small rise. Resting at the top of the rise was the cylindrical metal tube that was a personnel transport skywagon. The two soldiers I saw from the video before were standing right out in the open.

“I don’t like the looks of this,” I said, still squinting at the scene below. “They aren’t even reacting to us.”

“What do you wanna do?” Gertie asked.

“I’m gonna land and see what’s up,” I plotted. “Is there anywhere good for overwatch?”

Gertie scanned the area. “No, that’s the high ground,” she said, nodding. “Smart sons of bitches. I’ll have to back you up in person this time.”

I grunted my displeasure, but it wasn’t all that bad. Gertie was more than capable of handling herself. We may be outgunned, but at least we weren’t outmanned this time. I banked and began to descend to a point a few dozen yards away from the skywagon. I didn’t want to spook the guards.

“Holster your weapons,” I ordered Gertie. “I want to appear as non-threatening as possible.”

Gertie looked like she was about to object, but again, stopped. After ensuring everything was stowed, I slowly led us to the skywagon.

Once we were within earshot, I called out to the guards. “It’s me, Dust,” I yelled. The guards swiveled their heads towards me, but they didn’t react otherwise. “We are coming with our weapons holstered. We just want to talk.”

“Yeah, we know,” the guard droned. “C’mon out.”

I flashed Gertie a confused look. “They know?” I asked her.

We crested the rise and saw the guards just standing there. Their weapons were holstered. They obviously were not spoiling for a fight. “What do you mean you know?” I asked as we approached. Gertie and I paused several feet away.

“Clear Skies said you’d be coming,” the guard said, almost yawning. “Didn’t know how many of you or how soon.” He looked towards his partner. “Looks like we won the pool,” he said with a snicker.

“Where is Flower?” I demanded, glaring at the ponies.

“The mare?” the guard asked mockingly. “We left her in town. She’s probably still down there waiting for you.” With that statement, the two soldiers turned towards the wagon. One got into position to be strapped into the harness.

“What do you mean, left in town?” I asked them, aggravated at the vague answers.

“We walked her down there, what, thirty minutes ago?” the first guard said to his buddy.

“You just let her go?” I asked, clearly not believing their story.

“Those were our orders,” he replied. “Now, if you don’t mind, we want to head back to the farm. We get the rest of the shift off, thanks to you.” The two resumed flight preparation and basically ignored us from that point forward.

I turned and began walking towards the town. There was hesitation in Gertie’s steps.

“What is it, Gertie?” I asked after stopping.

“You know something is up, right?” she queried.

“Yes, I know,” I fired back. “But what are we supposed to do? Leave her there?”

“Of course not!” Gertie hissed back. She stopped and took a deep breath. “All I’m saying is that we need to be careful. There’s more to this than it appears.”

As we approached the town, I realized it really looked no different than it did from afar. Besides the spire, which appeared to be an old radio tower that had simply had its sides covered with sheet metal panels. The buildings were nothing but a series of doors that led to underground bunkers. If I didn’t know better, I would have just assumed they were a series of concrete outhouses.

There were very few ponies milling around town. A pink mare with a blue mane saw us coming and I saw the blood drain from her face. She immediately slunk back. “Are… y...y...you here for the delivery?” she stuttered.

“Delivery? No...what delivery?” I asked, my mind derailed from the unexpected reaction.

“Now, Misty, there’s no need for this,” a confident stallion’s voice rang out. An black-coated, white-maned earth pony with an attitude matching voice was trotting towards us. He was wearing an old world style suit and had two bodyguards flanking him, from the looks of the hardware they were carrying. “Now, why don’t you run off and take care of your errands.”

“Y…yes, Mayor,” the mare muttered and ran off, looking relieved.

“Howdy, there,” he boomed. “Mayor Rust, at your service.” He extended a hoof and I shook it in return. “Not often we see strangers in these parts, especially a pegasus and a griffon.” His inflection seemed odd at the mention of our races, but I got distracted by his continued speech. “What, may I ask, brings you to Trotwood?”

“We’re looking for a friend of ours,” I answered, watching the mayor’s reaction. “A yellow earth pony mare with a purple mane. Strolled into town recently with two pegasi?”

I saw something flash across the mayor’s face, but he regained his composure quickly. “Now, I can’t say I’ve seen this friend of yours, but I don’t always deal with visitors,” he explained. Pointing towards one of the bunker entrances, he added, “Why don’t you go to the inn and enjoy some food while I ask around for you.”

“Sure, I really appreciate it, Mayor,” I said, feigning a cheery attitude.

“Not a problem, my friend,” he said with a smile. “Tell Shotglass, the barkeep, that it’s on me.”

After turning towards the bunker, I started trotting towards the door. Gertie walked up beside me in short order. “You don’t trust him, do you?” she asked, her clipped tone betraying her anxiety.

“Of course not,” I said, not breaking my smile. “But if there’s one thing I’ve learned, politicians lie and barkeeps are always the best source of knowledge. Caps always talk,” I added with a laugh. Gertie chuckled back nervously.

After entering the bunker, I was not surprised what I saw. The main room of the inn was a small, cinder block room with furniture thrown in haphazardly. The tables and chairs looked a lot like the standard issue furnishings that were found all over Fort Canterbury. Where most bars had a shelf for displaying the liquor, this bar had no such aesthetics. A small shelf built into the wall housed only several liquor bottles. The room was lit by overhead lighting gems which cast a harsh light in the room. There was a smattering of ponies when we walked in.

“Hey,” the young grey stallion, I assumed to be Shotglass, said with a toothy grin. “Haven’t seen you around before.”

“Yeah, we’re new to town,” I answered. “The mayor sent us down. We’re looking for a friend.” I reached into my saddlebags and withdrew a small pile of caps and splashed them on the bar. “Maybe you can help us?”

“Before we get down to business, is there anything I can get you?” Shotglass asked us.

“Do you have any Sparkle Cola?” I responded. I didn’t want to drink any alcohol. I needed to stay alert.

“Hmm, I may need to check in the back,” he said, his voice wavering a little. He trotted towards a bulkhead door set into the wall behind the bar.

“Dust…” Gertie started.

“I know, Gertie,” I shot back. “Head’s on a swivel.”

A loud buzz sounded from several points in the room. The other ponies in the room reached into their saddlebags as I heard something hit the ground near us.

“Gas grenade!” Gertie shouted, trying to kick at the canister on the floor.

Even though she connected it with it, it hit one of the nearby tables and rebounded back near us. There was a loud ping as smoke began to pour from the top of the grenade. I galloped to the entry door we used and tried to open it. The handle refused to budge.

“It’s locked!” I shouted as I began to cough. Besides the hissing of the grenade, the only other sound was Gertie’s coughing.

My throat was beginning to burn and the room was starting to spin. I dropped to the ground and crawled my way to one of the other doors I saw in the room. It was a long and arduous crawl. Each movement got harder as my vision began to fade.

Eventually making it to the door, I looked up. The handle seemed like it was a million miles away as my vision began to blacken at the edges. Reaching for the handle, I was just barely able to wrap my hoof around it. Trying to pull, I found I didn’t have the strength and my whole body slumped to the floor. Then, the room went black.

“Dust!” a female voice called out. “Wake up, Dust!”

I opened my eyes, but saw nothing but blackness.

“I’m… I’m blind!” I blurted out in a panic.

“No, you’re not blind,” Gertie’s voice responded. “It is pitch black in here. I can’t see shit.”

“Dust? Gertie? Is that you?” Flower’s voice echoed out in the room.

“Flower?” I called back. “Yes it is us Are you OK?”

“Yeah, I’m fine,” she answered. “They took all my stuff, but I’m OK. What about you?”

“I’m OK, I think,” I answered taking stock in my situation. I now realized I felt a lot lighter than usual. Patting my body down, I realized I had nothing. “Damn it. They took all my stuff. Did they gas you too?”

“Gas? No… the Enclave bastards just handed me over an’ they threw me in here,” she said with a growl. “Are Brownie and Silver with ya?”

“No… they are somewhere else. This is another of Muddy’s games, and it looks like he’s winning… again,” I admitted. “How long have you been here?”

“If I had ta guess, ‘bout an hour or so,” she said. “Do ya know what’s going on?”

As if it was waiting for this moment, a speaker in the room squealed to life. “Sorry about the gas,” the mayor’s tinny voice filled the room. “We find it’s easiest on everypony this way. You will be our guests until the slavers come back. Please try to be as comfortable as possible until then.”

“You’re going to turn us over to slavers?” I retorted. “You do know what happens to slaves, right?”

“Yes,” he said, with little remorse in his response. “But it’s all we can do. It’s either hand over strangers or give up members of my town. The choice, I think, is clear.”

“You shouldn’t do this,” Flower growled.

“I know.. But we have no choice,” he answered. “It’s either you or some of my townsponies.”

“Fight back!” Gertie yelled. “Don’t be weak!”

“We can’t!” the speaker boomed back. “They outnumber us. There is no way for us to fight them off. We’d be dead and enslaved in a matter of minutes. As it is now, we give them a pony a week and they leave us alone otherwise. And, dare I say, two pegasi and a griffon should get us in their good graces. We’ll take the best care of you that we can… until then.”

“Wait… wait… you said two pegasi and a griffon…” I shouted back. “You dumb shit… it’s one pegaus, one earth pony and one griffon!”

“Wait? You think she’s? I think you need to rethink your last statement,” the mayor’s voice said deadly serious. The lights in the room flared to life, blinding me.

“No! Don’t!” Flower cried out.

After blinking for several seconds, the blinding white became a tolerable glare. The room around me slowly faded into focus. It was a small, cinder block room with only a single door. There was no furniture to speak of, no windows, simply a bucket in the corner. I felt my heart start to race and a cold sweat developed on my brow. I momentarily saw a stainless steel table in the middle of the room. After blinking, it disappeared from view.

Gertie looked none the worse for wear. It was odd to see her completely out of her armor like this, especially since she wasn’t stuck in a hospital bed. She was rubbing her eyes, trying to clear her vision no doubt. Flower was curled up in the corner but she was simply squinting against the onslaught of harsh lighting, not using her hooves.

“Flower? What’s wrong?” I asked.

“Don’t look!” she pleaded. “Please!”

“Why wouldn’t I want to look?” I asked, as I began to instinctively scan her body.

Along her back I saw two nasty scars. They were near the top of her back, close to her shoulders. They were slightly raised. Those scars were in the exact spot that a pegasus’ wings met the… wait, what?

“Flower?” I asked, carefully approaching her. “Are you… were you… Enclave?”

She looked up, tears streaming down her face. “Dust, please don’t…”

I reached out towards her hooves, which were covering her flank. She resisted me as I tried to grab her hooves, keeping me from moving them away from her cutie mark. At first, she refused to budge, but eventually relented and let me move her hooves. Where her cutie mark should have been, I saw the harsh, pink scars that were the result of a healed burn. The scars formed the shape of the cloud and lightning bolt cutie mark of Rainbow Dash. The mark of a Dashite.

“Flower?” I said, shocked.

She simply sobbed into her hooves. My eyes were locked on that wretched scar.

“Flower? Why… why keep it a secret?” I muttered, still in shock.

“Ah knew ah would be an outcast,” she blurted out between sobs. “Ah know how the ponies down here think. And ah can’t say ah blame them. The Enclave are a bunch of bastards. They sit high and mighty above their Luna damned cloud cover… hiding from the truth… hiding from the suffering they worsen by ignoring it.”

“Flower… does… does Brownie know?” I asked.

“Until now, only Brownie and Doctor Mender knew,” she admitted, still breathing deeply, but at least her sobbing had slowed. “Ah was going to tell you before you chased Muddy to Fort Canterbury, but you ran off before ah could. But when ya came back and outed yerself as Enclave… ah didn’t know how you’d react. And then to think that ah kept it from you for so long, especially when we yelled at ya for doing the same ta us...”

I slowly knelt down next to Flower and gently placed a hoof under her chin and lifted it up. She initially resisted, but then relented. Her amber eyes were ringed by red blood vessels and tears and snot were streaming down her face. “Maybe when I first came down here, that would have mattered to me. But you are one of my only true friends down here, hell, maybe anywhere now. You’ve stood by my side through this entire crazy ordeal, and that’s more than most ponies can say. Enclave, Dashite… that’s all in the past. What matters is what you have done and what you will do.” Flower gulped hard as I watched a drop of snot drip off her nose. “And whatever does Brownie see in you? You look like crap,” I guffawed.

Flower playfully struck me across the face. “You asshole,” she said with a laugh as well.

“I hate to break up this little love fest, but we have larger problems,” Gertie said after clearing her throat.

“You’re right,” I admitted, looking around. “Flower, we can talk about this later. Don’t have much to work with.” I trotted over to the door. It was completely barren on this side. No doorknob to try or lock to pick. “Well, that doesn’t give me much hope either. No windows… no vents… the only thing coming in and out of this room is the electrical work… ugh.”

“And the guards…” Gertie added.

“And the guards…” I repeated. “How is that going to help us?”

“The only way in or out of this room is through that door, right?” Gertie teased.

“Yeah…” I answered.

“And the guards are the only one who can actually open the door, right?” she continued.

“Yeah, so?” I grunted, starting to get aggravated.

“So we just have to find a way to get the guards in here,” she announced proudly.

“OK… so what’s your plan?” I asked her, wondering where this was all headed.

“I was kinda hoping you’d come up with one,” she admitted, sheepishly. “Plans seem to be your thing.”

“Are you kidding me?” I shrieked. “All of that and you didn’t have any ideas?”

“Well, no,” she muttered.

“This is a fine mess,” I started to complain.

A loud thud behind me drew my attention away from Gertie. Flower had fallen on the floor and was twitching. A white froth began to dribble from her mouth.

I dove onto the floor next to her. “Flower! Flower! Are you OK?” I shouted as I began to shake her gently. There was no response. “Holy shit! Guards! Guards! We need medical assistance in here!”

Gertie ran over to the door and began banging on it incessantly. “Listen here you dumb fucks!” she shouted. “Get somepony in here or else she will hurt herself or worse! And what will the slavers say when they see that you damaged the merchandise!”

The banging didn’t end and Flower was still gurgling while writhing on the floor. My mind raced as I ran through my options. I had no medical supplies and my first aid training was focused on battlefield injuries… not whatever… this… was.

A loud bang momentarily drew my attention towards the door as two guardsponies ran in with shotguns held aloft in magical fields. One held Gertie at bay as the other one approached me and Flower.

“Back up! Get against the wall!” he yelled at me.

“Help her! Help her!” I cried out in a panic.

The guard knelt down over her and began to give her a cursory examination. Almost as if it happened in slow motion, I saw Flower’s head turn towards me and she grinned. She actually grinned.

“Holy shit!” I whispered under my breath. I glanced up towards Gertie and she was already flashing me a wicked grin.

Gertie moved faster than I thought possible. She leapt and wrapped herself around the back of the pony closest to her. Her claw raked across his throat quickly, leaving thin, red lines across it. Soon, blood flowed freely from the wound and down his neck. The guard clutched his throat with a faint gurgle.

The other guard looked towards the new sounds. “What in Celestia…” he began to say, before I leapt into action.

Taking a few steps, I turned and kicked my legs out at the guard, hard. The impact jarred my body and I felt my hooves make contact with a wet crunch. The guard fell to the floor in a motionless lump as I turned to admire my handiwork.

Gertie was already patting down her victim. “Dust, see if that one has keys,” she barked out. She had already removed his weapon. I turned to the guard I took out and began to pat the pouches on his barding, looking for keys.

“Nice buck, Dust!” Flower said as she walked up next to me.

“Flower, first, how did you learn to fake a seizure so convincingly?” I asked, while still working. “And second, don’t ever do that to me again!”

“Sorry, Dust,” she apologized. “Ah saw we needed a distraction and knew we didn’t have many options. Besides, yer reaction had ta be genuine ta fool the guards.”

Feeling something small but hard in one of the pockets, I flipped it open and dug around. Besides a handful of caps, I found a small keyring.

“Got it!” I yelled out as I pulled them from the pouch and placed them in mine. I also grabbed the guard’s gun as I heard voices echoing down the hallway.

“We gotta move and find our gear!” Gertie cried out scanning the hallway outside the door. “It’s clear, let’s move!”

We all quietly crept out of our cell and into the hallway. There wasn’t much to see. Much like the rest of the building we had seen so far, it was a narrow, cinder block lined hallway illuminated by lighting gems. Much like the bunker Muddy held me in.

“Dust? You OK?” Gertie said, obviously having seen my loss of footing.

“Yeah, I’m…” I started but hung my head. “No… this brings back memories of Muddy’s bunker…”

“Don’t even go there!” she barked back. “We can talk about this later, but now you need to focus!”

My thoughts snapped back to the present concerns and I tucked away my flashbacks for later. Taking point, I walked out into the hallway and clinged to the nearest wall. “Any idea which of these rooms has our gear in it?” I asked, scanning the hallway.

“Oh, I don’t know, Dust,” Gertie answered with a snicker and pointing to the door directly behind me. “Maybe the one marked ‘Storage’?”

Craning my head to follow her talon, I saw the word “Storage” stenciled in yellow. I facehoofed myself so hard.

“Alright, smartypants,” Flower said with a laugh. “Now get us through those doors.”

Fumbling in with the keys in my hooves, I began to try each of the keys on the ring. What I wouldn’t have given for a unicorn right about now. The echoing voices gained in volume as I kept striking out on keys.

“C’mon, damn it,” I muttered after dropping the keys. I picked up the keyring. “Fuck! I don’t know which key I left off on!”

“Just pick one! We’re running out of time!” Gertie squeaked, looking down the hallway towards the voices.

Picking one key at random, I jammed it into the lock and turned. Wait! It turned!
The door opened with a soft creak and we all jumped inside quickly. Pushing the door softly, it slowly slid closed with a soft click. The room we found ourselves opened into a very long, narrow room lined with shelves extending the entire length of it. The shelves were full of nondescript green containers from floor to ceiling.

“Dust?” Gertie asked with an audible gulp. “Are we going to have to search this entire room?”

My head was still turning slowly, looking at the enormity of the task before us. “Holy shit,” I gasped. “I hope not. We’d be here all fricken day! We… we just can’t!”

Flower trotted over to the nearest container and threw the lid off. “Well, we just can’t sit here and do nothing!” she hissed. “We don’t unlimited time on our hooves!”

Muffled hoofsteps sounded from outside the door. “Shh!” I tried to quiet everypony down. “I hear something.”

The muffled hoofsteps grew louder and were eventually joined by muffled voices.

“...and then she claimed she only liked mares!” a gruff voice grumbled. A different pony laughed. The laughing ended abruptly. “The fuck is the door doing open?”

“Cuffs? Chains? Is everything OK in there?” the other, higher-pitched voice called out. The hoofsteps slowed but still advanced.

“I don’t like the looks of this,” the first voice said hesitantly. Two weapons cleared their holsters and the familiar sound of a safety being disengaged filled my ears.

“Gertie… you have point,” I whispered to her. “Once they are in the cell, I say we ambush them. We need one of them alive. Flower, since you’re unarmed, stay here.” Flower frowned, but then nodded.

Gertie responded with a tense nod.

“Cuffs? Buddy? Are you in there?” the higher voice called out, sounding like it was just outside the door.

The slow hoofsteps sounded like they moved away from the door. “Cuffs? Ch….” the first voice called out, followed by a gasp. “What the fuck is going on here?”

After turning the handle, I swung the door open and Gertie leapt out with incredible speed. As I rounded the door frame, she was already on top of the nearest stallion and was already raking her talons across his throat. The pony dropped to the floor clutching his throat, as red pooled around his head.

The second pony, a mare, reacted faster than I thought possible. She raised her shotgun and aimed it at Gertie. The muzzle of the gun flared to life and I cringed. There was no way she would miss Gertie at this range. To my surprise, Gertie twisted mid-stride, avoiding the brunt of the blast. Unfortunately, I did see several red puffs burst from her extended wing and she let out a pained shriek. But how did that guard miss that badly, even with a shotgun, in close quarters?

However, to her credit, Gertie did not stop her charge, even in pain. Leaping in the air, she kicked her rear legs out in front of her body and connected with the pony’s chest as she was attempting to re-rack the shotgun. Surprise flooded her face as Gertie landed on top of her. With a swipe of her talons, she knocked the shotgun loose and it clattered across the floor.

Gertie had a pained look on her face and grit her beak. “Where is our stuff?” she growled at the disoriented pony under her.

“In… in the mayor’s office!” the mare cried out. “P...please don’t kill me!”

I strode up behind Gertie and looked at the mare. She was barely older than a filly, wearing armor that clearly did not fit her. She did not have the weathered features of an experienced Wasteland warrior.

Looking at the other bodies we left in our wake, I saw that the other bodies all were similarly as young as she was. “What the fuck?” I muttered. “How old are you?”

“I just got my cutie mark last year,” the trapped guard answered, now between sobs. “I just don’t want to get given to the slavers.”

“Given to the… what do you mean?” I asked.

“We… the town, made a deal with the slavers,” she muttered while tears streamed down her face. “The slavers come by once a month. We give them slaves and they don’t take any of us. We usually trick more than enough ponies, like we thought we did with you.”

“What happens if you break the deal?” I asked tentatively.

“At the beginning of the month, five names are drawn at random,” she started to explain. “If there aren’t enough prisoners to hand over, then the ponies that were drawn get handed over to make up the difference.”

“The town willingly hands over their citizens?” Flower asked sharply. “What kinda asshats do something like that?”

“Y… you don’t understand,” she muttered, scared back into her shell a little by Flower’s outburst. “We’d never be able to fight them off, and there isn’t another settlement near enough to offer us help in time.”

“Where is the Mayor’s office?” I grumbled. How could ponies do this to each other?

“B… bottom floor,” she answered. “Only room on that level, but he is well guarded.” She looked nervously between the three of us. “Are you going to kill me now, like you did my friends?”

“No… you can go,” I mumbled, conflicted by the insinuation. We did kill them. We may not have known that they could barely fight, but that didn’t matter. “And we are sorry about your friends. We needed to get out of here and they were shooting at us.”

The young mare looked like she was going to say something, but then stopped. She turned and galloped down the hallway as fast as she could.

“Let’s go pay the mayor a visit and get our stuff back,” I growled.

“Dust, are you OK?” Gertie said, while placing a claw on my shoulder.

“I’m fine,” I snapped back. I wasn’t fine. I was angry. With all the shit that happens down here, the Wasteland doesn’t need any help to make life miserable. Yet, these ponies found a way to do just that. “Let’s just find the Mayor’s office, get our stuff, and get the fuck out of here to save Silver and Brownie.”

After collecting all the weaponry that was lying around, I stomped out of the cell and into the hall. Something was nagging at me. The guards were so young. In fact, so were Misty and Shotglass. And how could a whole town bring themselves to trapping and handing over other ponies to slavers. How could they lower themselves to that level?

“Anypony else notice we aren’t running across any other guards or security of any kind?” Gertie mused, scanning the hallway.

“Huh,” I grunted. “You have a point. Where is everypony?”

After several minutes of roaming the empty hallways, we found the staircase leading down to the lower floors of the bunker. Looking down the stairwell, it looked like we had three floors to traverse.

The ringing of hooves on metal echoed in the stairwell as we descended the spiraling stairs. We descended past three more floors of the bunker, still meeting no resistance of any kind. Finally, hooves met concrete as we made it to the bottom-most floor. After we all were on solid ground, we carefully and quietly walked our way to the doorway. As carefully as I could, I swung the door open. It creaked mildly, causing me to cringe.

After the door had fully opened, muffled laughter filled my ears. A small anteroom opened before us, leading to yet another metallic doorway. The laughter seemed to emanate from the other side. We all formed up on either side of the door as I strained to listen.

“Hot shit, this was a great plan you came up with, Rust,” a gruff, gravelly voice said between laughs.

“I never thought it would work,” a mare’s voice joyously responded.

“I told you ponies. Put enough fear into them, these townsponies would bend over backwards to do anything,” Rust’s voice explained. “We sit back while they do all the work and all you guys have to do is collect the slaves. And all without the risk of any of the slaves dying while we capture them!”

All three ponies were now laughing. “I still can’t believe they elected you mayor!” the mare said between laughs.

Flower responded before I could. “Holy shit!” she whispered, clapping a hoof over her mouth.

“Three of us, three of them,” Gertie stated flatly, checking over her shotgun. “Plus we have the element of surprise.”

“I know,” I nodded. “I just wish we knew how well they were armed.”

Flower racked her shotgun. “Well, we’re not gonna change that now,” she said with a nod. “If we’re gonna do this, let’s do it.”

“Alright,” I agreed, hesitantly. “I’ll open the door. You two take point since you have the shotguns.” My two friends nodded in agreement.

After turning the handle as quietly as I could, I quickly spun around and bucked the door hard. I stepped away from the door and my two friends rushed in past me.

“What the fuck?” the mayor yelled in surprise.

“Everypony drops their weapons and nopony gets hurt,” Gertie commanded, leveling her shotgun at the nearest slaver.

“Fuck you!” the stallion slaver yelled as he attempted to draw his weapon.

Flowers shotgun roared to life and brightened the room with its muzzle flash. The shot tore through the slaver, riddling his side with holes that burst blood on the chair he was sitting in and the wall behind. The other slaver started to reach for his weapon.

“Make my fucking day,” Gertie hissed, keeping her aim tightly on the slaver.

The slaver hesitated and then lowered his hoof. I walked up to him and removed a pistol and knife that were stowed on his barding. Finally being able to take a good look, I saw that this pony was one of the bodyguards that we ran into when we first met the mayor. What the fuck?

Meanwhile, Rust had regained his composure. “You three? How the? You should be in a cell?”

“Yeah, sorry ‘bout that,” Flower snickered. “Change of plans.”

Now that things were under control, I looked at the office we were in. Unlike the rest of the facility, it was a wood lined office with gold highlights. The floor was covered with a plush, red carpet. This had to be the commander’s office from before the war. Piled on shelves were weapons of all kinds, containers filled with caps, and cans upon cans of food. This mayor was living it up!

“You three,” I said, then glancing over to the newly made corpse. “Well, two… you are the lowest of the low. How can you do this to other ponies?”

“Caps,” Rust said matter-of-factly, with a shrug. “We are raking it in hoof over hoof.”

“How can you be so fucking laid back about that?” Flower shrieked. “Don’t you know what happens to slaves?”

He shrugged again. “Not my problem,” he said with a sneer. “As long as the clients pay.”

“Well, no more. We’re putting an end to this,” I stated. “Let’s go.”

“What are you going to do, kill us?” Rust scoffed.

“No… we’ll leave it up to the townsponies,” I replied, searching the mayor and the other slaver for anything useful or dangerous while Gertie covered me. Flower had already found where our gear was stashed and was wrapping it all up.

We led the two slavers up the staircase and out of the bunker. As we first cleared the bunker, we saw several ponies who were clearly confused by what they were seeing.

“Go get everypony!” I yelled at them. “We have something to talk about.”

The whole town congregated at the center of town to see what was going on. The crowd was busy discussing what they thought was happening. Something odd struck me as I scanned the crowd. All the ponies were all rather young.

“Ponies! Listen up!” I yelled into the crowd. The din died down in short order. “Your mayor is not who you think he is. He is actually a slaver, and has been using you to sell ponies into slavery. And when you can’t do the job, he just sells you instead!”

The crowd erupted into several discussions and became a general roar once again. After a couple of minutes, and lots of yelling by my friends and me, the crowd died down again.

“You have your chance now to get rid of him and not have to worry about the slavers again!” I shouted.

Rust started laughing. “Who do you think has been keeping the slavers away?” He answered, laughing. “If it weren’t for me, you would all be in chains and collars already! If you get rid of me, what is to stop that from happening! The system works! The system keeps you safe!”

I scanned the crowd and saw that there were no older ponies in the crowd. All of those present were either young adults or foals. “Wait! Is this the entire town? Where are the older ponies?”

“Our parents were taken away when they wouldn’t cooperate,” one of the fillies in the front called back.

“And what makes you think the same won’t happen to you!” I pleaded with the crowd.

“As long as we capture ponies for him, Mayor Rust protects us!” the crowd responded.

“Besides, you should see what he has in his office! Containers of caps, food, weapons of all kinds! He’s hiding it from you!” Ponies were still looking at me, dumbfounded. “Fight back! You don’t have to do this!”

“But they outnumber us!” the mob yelled back, getting more agitated.

“You see, Dust,” Rust said with a sneer. “They want me in charge. They need me in charge!”
Sentiments of support for the Mayor were being called out by the crowd. “Just go and leave us in peace!” “The Mayor protects us!” “You’re going to get us killed!”

“Dust, I think we better get out of here while the getting is good,” Gertie said, eying the advancing crowd.

“Agreed,” I said with a nod.

I drew my pistol and fired it into the air. The crowd gasped and then got quiet.

“Alright, fine,” I called out to the crowd. “We’ll leave. I just hope you can live with yourselves!”

We started to walk towards the wall of ponies. At first it looked like they were going to resist, but after eying the weapons, the crowd began to part. The ponies’ faces were a mix of fear and anger.

We cleared the edge of the crowd and continued our way back to our skywagon. A voice sounded out behind me.

“Ponies! Ponies! Calm down!” Rust called out. “We will get through this. We’ll just have to work a little harder for the rest of the month!’ His voice finally died as we increased the distance between us and the town.

“Well, that was fucked up!” Flower said with a nervous cough.

“But how could they knowingly give ponies into slavery?” I argued. “They are no better than the slavers then!”

“Dust,” Flower rebuked. “They are trying ta survive. It’s either give ta the slavers or become the slave.”

“I wish we had more time…” I started to bemoan.

“And what? Attack the slavers?” Flower chided me now. “We all would have died or been captured. Slavers are usually well organized and large organizations. Plus, we have to save Brownie and Silver.”

As we got to the skywagon, Gertie told us to stay back as she checked the area. After a quick circling of our landing zone and checking out the inside of the skywagon, she gave us the all clear.

“Where to now, boss?” Gertie asked, gesturing me towards the harness.

“Silver, next,” I decided. “She seems to be in the most trouble.”

“Let’s just hope all is as it seems,” Gertie replied uncomfortably. She grimaced faintly. I almost missed it.

“Has it ever been yet, Gertie?” I asked, sarcastically.

Level up!

Small Guns: 30

Perk Obtained!
Strategist - “Don’t mind the pony behind the curtain!” - +1 to INT and +1 to LUCK when planning a combat encounter but not actually taking a leadership role.