If there was anything that justified how useless I felt right now, it would be lying down in this bed with a stomach that wanted to fall out. My body had healed itself up over the last two days, but I still sat there quietly next to Zoey, who had been silent since she had gotten on here. Her body had also healed up, and she was awake next to me, but was complete quiet for some reason. The only thing she had actually sad was “I’m sorry” but didn’t give an context as to why. I would have gotten out of the bed I was stuck in, but Silver Gunner was waiting outside the door.

My thoughts were on Willow Wisp and the others, who had left before the destruction of the headquarters according to Silver Gunner. He was apparently assigned by Sharpshot to watch me, which I couldn’t help but realize was a rare show of kindness for the bounty hunter. Still, if he was with them I’m sure they must be safe, as I wasn’t going to judge his shot. As much of a jerk as he is you couldn’t judge something like that. Still, I wondered how Willow Wisp was doing, being so far away from me.

“I’m sorry,” Zoey whispered to me, rather unexpectedly.

“What do you keep saying sorry for?” I asked her, she seemed so sad. “You didn’t do anything wrong Zoey, in fact you saved my life back there. If somepony here should be say sorry it sho-”

“You don’t understand,” Zoey interrupted me. “I… I betrayed you and then was betrayed myself. I don’t think sorry even describes what I did.”

The look in Zoey’s eyes, or rather the one I remembered struck me. The look that she had when she tried to rip into Scythes neck, it was hidden inside her eyes now. It was a savage look, one of a raider or cannibalist, the latter of which more likely to describe. Yet it didn’t seem to be the same way it was back during the fight in the HQ, as it was now forever present in her eyes. However, behind the savageness I could see the sadness and sympathy in them. That sympathy, it put my fur and on end in a way that I never thought sympathy could. It was, frightening in a way.

“What did you do?” I asked her. She turned away from me, and the fear that her sadness gave me seemed to grow. “W-w-why are you sorry Zoey? Please tell me.”

She didn’t answer me, at least not in words. I heard her beginning to cry, and I knew immediately that something was off about the way she was crying. It was real, at least it sounded real, but behind those tears I could hear something strange. That sound grew as she continued to cry, and suddenly the fear I felt came to light. Was Zoey laughing at me? She was most definitely laughing, and the sounds of laughing and crying turned into a mixture of both. She sounded… happy.

“Oh you don’t really think I feel sorry for you, do you deary?” Her voice sounded psychotic as she spoke. “I feel sorry for you little friend, she’s probably gotten what she deserves by this point. I’m sorry about what pain she will have to feel to get it though,” She turned back to me, and my heart started beating uncontrollably as I saw the smile upon her face. “Oh I sure hope that lovely little unicorn stallion of his comforts her when this is over. He seemed so much tastier than any other unicorn I’ve seen before, she should be lucky. Cutie little Willow is going to have the time of her life so.”

I didn’t care if Silver Gunner was outside the door, the immediate thought that came to my head was to get as far away from Zoey as positive. This wasn’t the Zebra I knew before hand, the one who seemed to want Twister dead. This Zoey... was this the way she actually felt about us? Is that how she felt about Willow? No, that couldn’t be true. She seemed so nice, so compassionate, yet for some reason Zoey now seemed like murderer. I scrambled off the bed in fear, falling to the floor with a thud, and reached for Remembrance. I pointed the shotgun at her, something that only seemed to make her laugh even more.

“Let me guess, you're going to shoot me?” Zoey crossed her front hooves as she looked at me from the bed. “I know everything about you Dead Hooves, even though you never even saw me. You leaving home may have been the worst idea you ever made.”

“Shut up you… you psycho,” The words that came out of my mouth were ones I wished were lies, but that’s what Zoey seemed like. “You don’t know a damn thing about me.”

“On the contrary,” She rested her head on her hooves. “I know more about your father then you will ever know. I know that he was exiled from the Steel Rangers because of his own friends, your mother supposedly dying during your birth,” I aimed the gun at her, but within an instant of raising it she jumped at me and ripped it out of my hands. “I know about what you did to your father, and you can no longer deny it.” She pinned me to the ground with sinister smirk upon her face. She bent her head down to my ear. “You killed him, I saw it with my own to eyes.”

My heart felt like it stopped, and I looked at her with fear in my face. I heard the sound of the door open, but I was too busy staring into the zebra’s green eyes to see who entered. My thoughts went to my power armor, which had been destroyed mere days before. I couldn’t hold in the tears, not with the mention of my father and his death. Zoey simply laid next to me, that smile upon her face as she hugged me and I for some reason hugged her back. She hummed in my ear, turning to the door. I looked as well, seeing the face of Silver Gunner and Nav.

“What’s going on?” Was the only words that Nav could muster.

Zoey got up and walked over to the former Angel Hunter. She sat down and raised her hooves in front of the pony, looking away.

“Oh somepony so simple minded as you wouldn’t understand,” The zebra said gleefully. “But one must pay for their crimes and we have been very bad ponies. I know you have cuffs on the Raptor; you told me about the ship itself and it’s belong. Please, oh righteous pony, lock us up for our crimes.”

“What the hell?” Nav backed away. “Zoey, is something wrong?”

“Oh yes,” The zebra’s voice sounded like a mare flirting to a stallion, yet that sinister tone held. “Something is very wrong, somepony on this Raptor of yours blew up your precious base, killed your soldiers, and had a very delightful meal while you all ran screaming at that dimwitted alicorn,” Zoey got up, walking past Silver Bullet and then hugged Nav in a way that seemed almost seductive. “Oh deary that was no stupid pony, but me. I deserve to be in chains, like you think all us Zebra’s should. Would want my next meal to be you, would we.”

Nav shoved the zebra to the floor, and used her front hooves to pin her to the ground. “What the hell is wrong with you? Did your brain get damaged from th-”

I finally managed to pull myself off the ground, and as I did I heard Zoey chuckle. I couldn’t take my eyes off the zebra, who had before this seemed so kind and trustworthy. Instead of trying to escape, Zoey was rubbing Nav’s hoof. I looked to Nav, who was unsuccessfully trying to pull her hoof away from Zoey. My mind was having a hard time registering things, but I stepped backwards as I kept thinking about me dad.

“You pegasi are always so bony,” Zoey said as she let go of Nav’s hoof and laid out across the floor. “No meat on you ponies at all, and it’s been soooo long since I’ve had a full course,” She smiled at me, and I fell to the floor again. My mechanical legs didn’t seem to work right, and I tried my best to shuffle away, only finding the wall. “It was really hard keeping up that act, you know. Playing off as the underling of Twister for so long, making it seem like I’m a victim of his cruelty, and keeping me hunger for meat at bay. Oh Dead Hooves, your heart always seems to be in the wrong place, and with the most secretive of ponies. You have no idea how hard it was playing off as the innocent Zoey was so hard for me.”

When Nav didn’t answer, I found myself the only one able to muster words. “Zoey… who are you? What do you want from us?”

“Isn’t it obvious my dear,” She replied. “I’m not Zoey, I never was in the first place. The names Yeilta, and let’s just say I find that you all are a very tasty looking group of individuals. Oh, and I mean that in the most wonderful of ways.” She got up and turned to Nav, and proceeded to rub her front right hoof on the side of the former Angel Hunter’s face. The look of terror on Nav’s face was greater than my own “Oh, don’t worry my dears. I may be a cannibal but that in no way describes how I see you all as tasty. I know that may scare you but I could easily make any one of you mine in a matter of minutes.”

“Zoey, or Yeilta… or whoever the hell you are,” She turned back to me, not changing that strange smirk on her face. “You didn’t answer my question fully. What do you want from us? What… what do you mean by we look… tasty?”

She let a groan, most likely at my question. There was something about her that felt very off, yet at the same time rather charming. I was still having trouble getting me mechanical legs to work, something that struck me as odd. I simply sat there and watched as Yeilta, however that heck she really is, guided Nav into the room with no visible resistance. I tried to look tough on the outside, while inside I was feeling scared in a whole different way. She turned to Silver Gunner, who didn’t even seem to notice the difference in the zebra.

“Silver, would you be a dear and close the door?” She asked the robot. “Don’t worry, I have no reason to harm my dear Dead Hooves. I just want us to… have some privacy if you will. We won’t fuck, don’t worry.”

Silver nodded, and as soon as both Nav and Yeilta were in the room the door closed behind theme. I got a good look at the zebra that had replaced the strong and caring Zoey I remembered. So much about her seemed different, even though her looks really haven’t changed at all. The way she moved, talked, and how she treated others all gave me the feeling this was nothing more than a game to her. This… Yeilta character was like no other I’ve seen in my life. She laid Nav down next to me, who still had the same expression of shock as when she last spoke.

“Okay, my dear Nav,” She said to the former Angel Hunter, who seemed to be almost frozen. “Wake up.”

At the sound of those words Nav suddenly let out a gasp, like she couldn’t breath beforehand. She was alive, but her body was even more limp than mine as she fell to the floor. The pegasus looked as if she had seen a ghost, staring at Yeilta as she breathed heavily next to me. I finally found myself able to use my legs again, and with my front legs I tried to stand up, only for the all too familiar feeling of my back legs not moving. I only fell to the ground again, looking up at the psychotic zebra name Yeilta above me.

“Oh deary, you aren’t getting out of this one,” She told me as she lifted hoof cuffs into the air. “You got to be rather impressed by my acting, and considering how easy it was to befriend you I’m wouldn't be surprised. All I had to do was tell you how to get to that dumb son of a bitch called Twister and we were on our merry way. These are yours.”

“Z… Zoey?” I heard Nav’s exhausted voice behind me as she became aware of what was happening. I heard the sound of shackles and looked at myself to see that Yeilta had bound my legs with the hoof cuffs. I started panicking, trying without success to get these chains off me. “What… what is going on? Wh… Why is… Dead Hooves in… chains?”

“Oh, I’m not Zoey my darling Nav,” She said, as my continued to try and break the chains unrewarded. I kept glancing back, watching as Yeilta held Nav’s head up to hers “Your friend here, Dead Hooves, is hiding a little secret from us and she isn’t going to tell me. Oh, I don’t even have to ask her to know she’ll say no, so I figured it would be a good time for me tell you my little plan and my backstory what do you say.”

Her laughter interrupted me from my desperate attempts to escape. I knew what she wanted to know, but I was never going to tell her. No one could find out about what I did, absolutely no one. It was something I deeply regretted, something I had locked out of my mind for so long. I didn’t want to think of the horrible mistake I had made, and I would refuse to tell anyone. It seemed so simple to do in words, but as she decided to literally lay there on top of me, stroking my mane like I was her mate, it was so tempting to just straight up shout everything I had done wrong in my life.

That’s when she did something that neither me or Nav expected. She wrapped her arms around my neck, and pulled me up to her as our muzzles connected in a kiss. My entire body went completely limp as it happened and I was left staring at her, eyes closed from the kiss she was giving me. I tried desperately to move some part of my body but failed. What the hell did Yeilta do to me? It was like I had lost every bone in my body, yet I could still clearly feel them in my body. However, that wasn’t the most worrying part of the kiss I was being given.

As strange and unnerving as it was, Yeilta’s kiss actually felt rather good. While she used me against my own free will, it didn’t feel scared of her anymore. However, that didn’t stop my mind from fearing about that exact aspect. As nice as the kiss for some reason felt, as soft as her hooves felt as they rubbed my upper back, there was still a strange fear to be felt. I wasn’t exactly afraid of Yeilta or what she was doing, but rather the idea that I didn’t really care. I knew something was wrong, even though I couldn’t feel afraid, or now that I realize it even angry, against the zebra.

“I know you must be wondering why I would do something like this, especially to another mare,” The sudden sound of Yeilta in my head caught me off guard. “This is something I do feel sorry to you about, but somepony as naughty as you wouldn’t say anything otherwise. Now, you will tell Nav exactly how you killed that delicious looking father of yours, Cider Hooves. Trust me, you really have no option but to explain because… well, you’ll see. This is how I get ponies to do what I want darling, and just like I promised Nav everything will be explained when it is over.”

As soon as the kiss ended, I felt myself able to move again. What I didn’t understand was why I no longer felt the urge to run from my chains. I could move my body just as before, but I no longer struggled against the rusty feeling chains on my hooves. Yeilta, with a wacky looking grin on her face, sat down next to Nav and helped the mare sit back up. Nav was still incredibly out of breath, I could still hear it after the few minutes I had connected lips with Yeilta. The crazy zebra muffled a laugh as she stoked the former Angel Hunter’s mane, who was still quite unsure of what was going on.

“Well then,” Yeilta said she put her front left hoof around Nav. “I guess you have some explaining to do Dead Hooves deary. Don’t worry, me and Nav will be listening to every tasty bit of information you give me. After you finish explaining, I will explain my side of the story.”

“What’s… going on?” Nav managed to save through her harsh breathing. “Dead Hooves… What do... you need to... explain?”

For some odd reason, all my resistance against my dad’s death vanished, and I found myself spilling my own secret against my own will. “Five years ago,” I started. “On the day my father died, I was outside with him planting some potatoes for the first time in a few months. I always had fun doing it with him, but my involvement in actually planting was rather limited. I… I-”

I stopped for a few seconds, shaking my head wildly trying to get the thought of my father's death out of my head. Yet I couldn’t. Ever since I heard Yeilta’s voice during that kiss it was all my mind could think about. Why the hell could I not get it out of my head? No way this was just because of a voice, let alone one that I heard in my. So why was I explaining these things her and Nav? I was struggling against myself to keep from talking, but what grasp I had on it was weak as everything started spilling out. Tears started falling from my face as I unwillingly recounted the events.

“Ghouls attacked us, okay!” I yelled at Nav and Yeilta, the latter of which had a somehow wider grin. “We hadn’t taken his shotgun outside because the last few weeks had been clear of attacks. We weren’t prepared, and without my power armor I wouldn’t have been able to grab the shotgun. My dad sent me to grab the gun, I swear. I didn’t mean to kill him just… The ghouls had grabbed him and… and were already t-trying to rip him apart. I swear it didn’t want to kill him… I SWEAR!”

“Calm down sweetie,” Yeilta told me, and I immediately felt my heartbeat slow down. “Don’t worry my dear, I know you didn’t mean to kill your father, but you still did it. Now, would you please explain to Nav here how it happened.”

I looked to Nav, who was staring at me in disbelief. Part of me wanted to believe she didn’t believe what I was saying. Yet, something also told me she believed every single word I was saying. I couldn’t explain exactly why I was saying these things, but it was too late to stop. I was an absolute mess overall, but after everything I had told them there was no reason to stop. I curled up into ball on the floor as I thought about what I had done.

“Like… like I said th-they had caught my… my father by the time I returned for remembrance,” I said, my crying had made me start to hyperventilate. “H-he was a-already on the floor, b-bleeding from… from the ghouls trying to rip him apart. He was still a-alive th-though, but with what they were doing he…” I stopped and took a few deep breaths to calm myself down before continuing. “I hate to say this but, I knew that he would be dead. It was what he said though that pained me.

“‘Take the shot’ He said, ‘I’ll be fine, sweetheart, just make sure your safe first.’ I tried to aim only at the ghouls that were attacking him, but something in my head took over,” I bit my lip and held my a hoof at my heart. “I… I didn’t mean to shoot him, but the voice told me he was dead anyway. So I took the shot… And pierced my own dads heart with it,” I look to Remembrance, the very shotgun I had used to do such an action. “‘Remember the mistake I made, so you will never make it again’ that was the true reason I had etched that word into the gun. That one shot, it killed my dad and left me alone for five years. I… I didn’t ever make a grave for him, how stupid could I be to never do that.”

“Thank you deary,” Yeilta said, walking over to me. She gave a light hug, one that felt so familiar for some strange reason. “I know how hard it was for you to do that. Oh, if only I could feel remorse in the same way you do, my dear Dead Hooves. Of course, I think you’ve turned out better in many ways still. I’m so sorry I had to put these chains on your feet, but I knew otherwise you would share that information with us. Again, thank you deary”

“Why do you keep calling me and Nav that?” I asked, it felt so unnerving to here her say what should be kind words to me. Sure, Scythe had said the same thing but the way she said it was full of sarcasm.

“Well,” Yeilta said, rubbing my left cheek with her left hoof. “Some secrets are harder to explain, my lovely little unicorn,” She stopped rubbing my cheek and sat down so that she could see both me and Nav. “You may not believe it, but I’ve had a deal of contact with this funny little liquid called taint. Disgusting stuff, taste like black liquorice and I should hope both of you know what that is. That was a long time ago, about eighty year now if I’m correct.”

“Eighty years?!” I stood there shocked. Yeilta seemed like she was only eighteen years old, how the hell is that possible.

“Quiet shocking isn’t it?” She asked us rhetorically, “You know, there is more than one side to the story of the war. The only reason I’m like this is because of the Equestrian military. Just in case you didn’t know, you actually attacked us before we ever attacked you.”

“I know what you are talking about,” Nav said looking at the zebra, and I look at her rather confused. “The Equestrian military bombed a college of yours, a religious college if I remember correctly. The pegasi had many reasons for leaving the war, the loss of Cloudsdale was one, the destruction of your religion was another. Nopony really knows why we did it, but the date is at least one week before the Wonderbolts massacre”

“Yes, you ponies definitely,” Yeilta coughed forcefully in the middle of speaking. “Like desecrating the sacred grounds of the high shamans we zebras hold so dear. Of course your fathers were all really sweet ponies, real tasty to. Hate to say you but your father Dead Hooves had no love for zebra charms.” She laughed, as if what she was saying was all a big joke to her. “I’m truly sorry, for some reason the taint in my body not only gave me eternal life, but for some reason all my sympathy comes in laughter. MessEs with the mind to. You just gotta love those government experiments, of course I ate all those motherfuckers after what they did to me.”

“So the Enclave’s reasons for leaving the war was at least more justified,” Nav said. “But, considering what you told me, then the reason you are this insane is because of your own government! Why the hell would they experiment on somepony as young as you?”

“Guess this must be the consequence of ending up your princess’s first bombing raid,” Yeilta replied with a slight giggle. “Darn things almost killed me one day, and it was my first year as a college student as well. Your bombs came in, blew up the school and a good chunk of my body, and then the government came,” She lifted her front left hoof. “You see all this is actually artificial skin, with just as artificial bones and muscles under it.”

“But why would they ever do this to you?” I asked.

“Oh, I was suppose to be some sort of infiltrator for them,” She answered in a rather casual tone. “As much as I love my country and kind, they were definitely rather crazy in there approach to these things. They used taint to try and make me more powerful than others, and apparently they planned on having me use my body for information rather than brute force. Oh, they had no idea just how wonderful that disgusting liquid make blood taste. Like candy on your ponies Nightmare Night.”

I had to think about everything I was being told right now to fully understand what happened. So Yeilta was in the college that Equestria bombed before the war, and was nearly killed at the time. Then the Zebra government came in, and decided to use her as a infiltrator and infused her with taint? And that taint is what turned her into the eternal, cannibalistic, and psychotic zebra that was currently in front of me? That was a lot to honestly take in, but it seemed to be correct. Something still worried my mind about all this, however.

“What happened to your classmates?” I asked Yeilta. “And how did you manage to escape them?”

“Oh, my classmates were part of the experiments as well,” Yeilta said. “Stupid government motherfuckers wanted an entire army of us. In the end all they got was cannibalistic zebra’s who ripped them limb to limb. For such a rotten bunch of zebras, those scientist were still tasty as hell. Oh, I can still remember the taste of their blood. They were so juicy, I can remember the entire thing fresh in my head. I ripped off a hoof of the pony who had tried to trap us back in there. His muscles tasted like-”

“Can you please not describe how the inside of a pony tastes?” Nav asked “What happened to them after you left, and how did you escape.”

Yeilta giggled at this, closing her eyes and looking as if she was fantasizing something. “Oh Nav, you're so much like your father,” She said, walking up to pegasus and stroking her “My backstory isn’t nearly as interesting as my history with your family. You see, that taint also gave me the strange ability to make anypony do what I want, as long as I perform a kiss on the lips. Release is done the same exact way.”

I let out a gasp, before touching my muzzle with both my hooves, trying to see if it felt at all different. I didn’t feel or see anything, but that did help me explain why she was able to get Nav in here so easily. It also explained why she had kissed me, and what the voice in my head really was. I’ll be honest, I don’t understand any of it at all. The idea seemed like a reasonable explanation, but it didn’t sound in anyway realistic.

“That isn’t possible,” I said, unable to believe that a kiss would be the reason for me to tell the truth. “Not even this taint stuff should be able to do something like that.”

Her smile grew even more sinister as I said that, and I could hear my heart skip a beat. She turned to me so her back was facing Nav, and I could now see just how wide she was smiling now. I could tell that I had made a mistake in not believing her, but who could honestly blame me? How could a kiss control someone's mind?

“Oh that’s priceless darling,” She said, with a slight chuckle in her voice. “I would give you the usual command for not believing, but it wouldn’t be right since you're a mare,” She put her hoof to her muzzle in a thinking stance, and after a few seconds clapped her hooves. “I know. Dead Hooves, roll on your back like a canine, stick out your tongue, and wag your tail.”

I was ready to retort until something clicked in my mind. Almost instantly, rolled onto my back so my hooves were hanging in the air. My tongue flopped out the side of my mouth, in the same way dogs did and started panting. Finally, my tail started flicking back and forth, and any resistance in my mind left me as I realized just what was going on. I hadn’t meant to do this, and yet for some reason my body did exactly as she asked. This was real! What Yeilta had said was true, but looking at her I could tell from her smile she wasn’t close to done yet.

“Aww,” She said in a mocking tone of voice. “You look so cute like that, but something tells me someone still doesn’t believe,” She looked to Nav, who inched back as soon as they made eye contact. “Be still,” Nav’s body did just as directed, and all motion except for her breathing came to a halt. Yeilta put a hoof in front of Nav, “My darling, as much as the pegasi survived by abandoning Equestria, you betrayed your own country. Before I make you do anything, will you tell me who your mother is?”

“I… I,” Nav stood there, stuttering as she tried to think of her mother. “I don’t know who she is, but my father told me she died.”

“Oh sweetheart that isn’t true,” Yeilta said “Your mother is still alive, and I know exactly who she is. This kiss only gives me control over what you do, but not what you think. That being said, I can do anything I like with them under my control,” A sudden drain of emotion could be seen in Nav’s face. “You know, I’ve always wanted a daughter.”

“No,” I was barely able to hear Nav utter that word. “You're lying, you have to be. You… you didn’t.”

Yeilta kissed Nav on the lips, and as soon as she pulled away Nav shuffled her way back to the wall. I was still on my back down on the floor, but Yeilta kissed me next. I finally found my metallic legs to be working, but I didn’t run. I looked into the zebra’s eyes instead, and saw a gaze that for some reason felt familiar. I don’t ever remember seeing it, but at the same time I felt like I did. That look put fear in my eyes, as I realized it wasn’t just Nav’s father Yeilta was referring to.

“M-m” The word formed in my mouth, but it took me a few tries to get out the word that was forming. I had enough time to sit up before I finally spoke

“Mom?”

Yeilta suddenly came in for a hug, and I was to in shocked to return it. The idea seemed impossible, but at the same time I knew it was true. That look she gave me wasn’t one that showed the same crazy pony I saw a few seconds ago, but that of a mother. A mother looking at her child, one that she loved so much. My dad never really spoke much about my mom other then the fact that she loved the Wasteland. This is who my mom was? No, not just my mom, but Nav’s as well.

A sudden realization came to me as I thought about that, and I looked to Nav, who had come back into view. “Nav, does that mean that we are-”

“I think it does,” She said, “Did your father tell you that your mom died in childbirth?” I nodded my head. “Then… the two of us our… sisters!”

Author's Notes:

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