"He's over there! FIRE!"

"No! Over there!"

"Contact! 3 o' clock low!"

"Where is it!? Everybody sound off!"

Left with little else to do and no real interest in interfering, I was basically along for the ride as the Shroud picked apart a squad of Gunners patrolling through the woods north of Trotson. I wasn't sure if they were hunting me in particular when we found them, but it didn't matter now. One by one the Shroud had been picking them off and fucking with their heads, driving them to take refuge in a creepy place my pip-buck helpfully identified when they charged in to make their stand. 'Location Discovered: Wildwood Cemetery'.

If I was being hunting by an ancient spirit of darkness, I don't think I would have chosen a cemetery to hide in... It was a wide, flat, circular lot built up in the wooded hills, once quiet and surrounded by the peaceful serenity of nature. Now all the skeletal trees and desiccated foliage just gave me more spots to hide and made the place look like something out of Nightmare Night. It was adding to the Gunners' overall stress levels anyway, their panicked shouts rang out into the predawn night as they kept blasting away in random directions.

They'd concentrated themselves around a trio of squat stone structures with iron gates rusting off the hinges, mausoleums for pony remains that offered better cover and a somewhat fortified position. Those who couldn't crowd in there were scattered around and ducking behind the worn graves radiating out from the large oak tree in the center of the circular cemetery I was currently hiding in.

I did watch what the Shroud was so proudly showing off with grudging wonder. Even the griffon commanders down there weren't looking up to the treetops much, focusing on the constant, shifting movement around them. In the dark like this, the Shroud's powers were stronger and it used them creatively, in this instance by making the shadows cloaking the graveyard ripple and move, creating shadowy copies of it... myself.. that darted around and faded when shot by the hail of wild gunfire chasing them.

Shadow magic was an area of specialty for the spirit currently running my body apparently. Not an inherently evil school per se, but not one I'd ever learned much about myself. I could feel the grin on my face as it directed my eyes to watch as another of the shadowy doubles formed below and charged through the gravestones, dodging between two gaggles of Gunners and getting them to send each other scrambling away from friendly fire as the illusion disappeared.

"Yeah, yeah, it's impressive alright. Why are you showing off to me?"

"Me? Wait, you're trying to teach me? Why?"

"Recompense... Are you actually trying to apologize!? For what, my magic... you mean you're the reason I've never been good at magic? That's why I've been improving lately?"

"Betrayer... Grandpa? Grandpa sealed you in that prison in my head and it screwed my magic up?"

"Whatever... Thanks I guess, I'll watch, but quit toying with them already. You're making me feel sorry for Gunners."

Ending the back and forth in between bursts of gunfire below, I pouted thinking on that little revelation and tried to focus on the present. I'd long suspected the Shroud's prison in my brain was powered by my own magic anyway, getting confirmation that had been the reason I'd never been good with spellcraft before wasn't that big a deal. Even my ambivalence about the suffering of Gunners had its limits though, I didn't really care what the Shroud did to them or try to dissuade it from hunting them down when we spotted them, I was just tired of all the foreplay.

The Shroud's idea of 'fun' still made me sick to my stomach... But I did pay attention to its pouting reply, watching as my corrupted blue magic slithered through the branches of the trees I hid in and towards the little cluster of terrified mercenaries. Quick as a flash, the dried out vines wound around the dead trees snaked down and twined together, lashing themselves into a crude noose that snatched one of the few remaining heavy gun earth ponies by the neck.

The surprised victim had a bare instant to paw at the magically animated vines, his minigun battlesaddle blazing away randomly and hitting a few of his comrades. Then he was yanked off his hooves and into the trees with such force he cleared the snow covered canopy for a moment. His legs scrambled uselessly in the air before gravity took over again, giving me the opportunity to send Best Served spinning out into the air and slash his exposed belly. He yowled in pain as he went back down, screaming and breaking branches on his way as his comrades looked up in horror, his battlesaddle spinning itself dry.

The vines around his neck stopped his screaming fall with a hard jerk, snapping his neck with an audible crack The reason for the slash at the hung Gunner's belly became clear when he loosed his guts to go spilling out on top of the surprised crew of Gunners as he feebly twitched overhead. The screams and disgusted shouts were enjoyable anyway, the steadily shrinking squad was reaching their limit when it came to macabre horror.

All the screaming ratcheted up in intensity when the long, slimy grey coils of his intestines still spilling out of him started moving, snaking around on their own with the dark glow of my magic animating them. They moved surprisingly fast, lashing out and wrapping around any Gunners that didn't go charging away immediately. At least four more were quickly strangled and drawn up to swing from the creaking branches along with the first.

Two of the pony mercenaries galloped clear and made a break for it, making it a few yards before the graves they leapt over rumbled with a flick of my horn. Muddy, rotten coffins shot up from the earth in front of them, the heavy lids opening to disgorge the dusty bones inside and snap closed on the unfortunate ponies like lurking radigators, sinking back into the ground with their new occupants shouting and ratting their prisons all the way down.

"Hilaaaaarious... Just finish them off already, but remember to leave one this time. I want to talk to them... That one actually."

The Shroud pouting at my unimpressed reply ended when I pulled out the Last Minute, lining up on the griffon commander still huddling by the cover of the mausoleums and firing from the flank. The blurring 2mm slug blasted through his green combat armor and chest, a non-lethal shot that sent him limping through the wrought iron gate while the others all lined up on the flat crack of the gauss rifle and started shooting into the trees.

There was that odd sensation of being without a body again when the Shroud abandoned our hiding spot with an annoyed snort over ruining his fun. Moving around and teleporting as a pool of inky shadow that slithered across the ground and over any surface was something I just couldn't get used to. It was effective though, I kept reappearing beside each spooked Gunner, often slipping up out of their own shadow behind them to slit their throat.

Just to speed things up and take at least some of these assholes for myself, I activated S.A.T.S. after deftly slicing the heart right out of one of them, cutting open his ribs in a series of quick slashes then just ripping the still beating organ out. Vengeance floated up in my own magic, free of the corrupted darkness marring the other fields of telekinesis the Shroud was using, like that wrapped around the handle of my knife. The heavy .45 revolver boomed repeatedly when time resumed, bringing down the last couple of Gunners not already beyond the boundaries of the cemetery and screaming out into the woods like their tails were on fire.

My stomach gurgled uncomfortably as I trotted off and found the pony heart bobbing along with me, drool running down my muzzle and my fangs extending as tongue ran out and licked my lips.

"Ick... No. Eating. Ponies. Please! Just leave it for fucks sake!"

Grimacing at the whine I got in return, I kept up my one sided conversation as I approached the masuoleum hiding the last remaining red mark on E.F.S., turning my nose up at the bloody heart waggling temptingly and thumping into my muzzle repeatedly. "Then freaking save it for later! I'm not interested in eating the hearts of ponies!'

"NO! No parts period! Not the heart, not the liver, nothing! Just... let me deal with this asshole and go to sleep, then do whatever you want, alright?" I seethed back, batting the disgusting lump of meat away when it floated towards my saddlebags. "You're not sticking that in there either! Gross!"

The griffon must have heard me arguing with myself on the way, when I reached the rusty iron gate to the mausoleum, he was staring at the door with mounting horror and confusion evident on his face. The combat shotgun he had propped up on a chipped vase of dead flowers wasn't aimed quite well enough, forcing me to dodge and roll in to buck it away when it fired and blew stinging chips of marble off the smooth faces of the stone drawers along the walls.

Straddling the weakly struggling griffon once his weapon was taken away, I gave a low, rumbling growl as I looked him over. His hindleg and left wing were broken, the Shroud had been selective and concentrated on crippling or killing all the griffons when he started his hunt, so this one wasn't getting away anytime soon. He was also bleeding profusely and pale, shivering as he bordered on going into shock from blood loss.

He wore standard Gunner combat armor with slightly fancier emblems denoting his rank, a cracked pair of mirrored sunglasses in his short violet plumage. His orange claws fumbled at the well crafted leather bandolier around his chest while I watched him, slowly digging out a purple healing potion from one of the pouches leading down to the loop of leather at his flank holding a rusting old zebra style sword.

Eyeing it greedily, the Shroud tugged the potion and bandolier away from the silently scowling griffon. The potion went bobbing out of the mausoleum behind me, gently settling to a gravestone a few rows away outside. The bandolier went to my hooves, my darkened magic fumbling at the buckles and inspecting all the little pockets for goodies. It had a dinged and polished metal shoulder plate that the dark spirit seemed to like, wrapping the weathered gear around my chest and discarding the griffon's sword to place Best Served in the crude sheath at my flank.

"T-Thief and a murderer... huh asshole?" The Gunner griffon managed to choke out a blood flecked sneer as I took over cinching the bandolier down to fit my narrow chest after getting frustrated watching the Shroud struggling with it, drawing its attention away from claiming new treasures with a fang filled grin.

"Tis not theft, the dead have no property..."

"Slow your roll dammit, alive remember? Questions?"

"Questions... then death."

"Yeah, yeah, yeah... In the meantime, I want a few answers pal. If I were you, I'd answer honestly. My friend doesn't like liars either..."

The griffon's face had been growing more confused and horrified watching me talking to myself, his beak hanging open as I managed to take the lead and leaned down to his dumbstruck face, managing a hoarse whisper. "Y-You're crazy... You really lost it nutball..."

"Yup! I sure did! Totally bonkers! That kinda thing tends to happen when assholes like you TAKE MY FUCKING DAUGHTER! But that wasn't you in particular... so I'm giving you a chance. Its more than you'll get from the other guy, believe me. So, what are you up to this far north?"

Grimacing at my leading snarl, the griffon seemed to consider his options a moment, then slumped and replied weakly. "Recon... Northeast Expedition, heading for Neighlem and flagging locations for salvage. We were told to watch out for you when you didn't show up at D.C. the last couple days, I'd swear that big synth princess bitch was disappointed... We're to capture if possible, they wanna dissect you asshole."

Looking down to my knife rattling in its sheath at my side suggestively, I shrugged and let the shadows rippling around me waver and spread as I answered the threat. "The feeling's mutual... From what I understand, this is Kingdom of Sanctuary territory though, you're trespassing... Invading..."

"T-Truce... non-interference... We don't bug your Princess and her troops, they don't mess with ours. Except you of course... Just my fucking luck... Kill me or don't, t-that's all you're getting from me besides name, rank and serial number, which you can read for yourself." The griffon hacked up more blood and shrugged to his barcode stamped flank weakly, accepting his fate with just a bit of defiance remaining.

Floating his shotgun back to me, I broke it down and pocketed the ammo, leaving one 12 gauge slug in the weapon and setting it down again on the stone floor. My minor interrogation done, I didn't really care what the Shroud did to him, facilitating the idea I could hear rattling around in my head.

My head turned and my muzzle jerked out to the dimly glowing healing potion outside, resting on a grave marker in sight. It was about 50 feet away, beyond the ring of corpses surrounding the mausoleum and beneath the macabre mobile made of more of his comrades gently swinging from the trees. I stood then and slid the loaded shotgun a little closer to the griffon wheezing in a heap at the back of the small chamber, grinning and narrowing my glowing, dragon slitted eyes as I purred down at him.

"Crawl worm... Life or death, doesn't matter. Crawl."

At that I simply turned and trotted back out, moving on to looting the numerous Gunner bodies strewn about and absently flicking an ear back to the griffon struggling to move where I left him. The Shroud had learned that much at least, even if it didn't understand guns and ammo very well, it did understand greed and hoarding treasure, as my new leather bandolier, dense metal leg guard on my right hindleg, and pitted steel flank plate on my left it had already added to my armor in other encounters demonstrated. Each prize it found was held up to show off eagerly, happy little growling whinnies echoing in my skull I was trying to ignore and retreat from.

"I'm not happy and that wasn't fun." I muttered back as I trudged around the cemetery, sighing tiredly at the disappointed whine that answered. "Ok, maybe it was a little fun. I'm still not happy though. Sorry... Everything feels hollow without Glitter though, I'm not going to cheer up. Why do you even care?"

"Like... You liked feeling it when I was happy? When... when Glitter was still here and we were all... a-a family?"

I slumped at the wistful whine that answered, the need and hurt in the voice of 'Be Dark...' got the others to gently rise up. Though the soft whisper of 'Be Kind...' and 'Be Awesome!' singing sweetly just made the Shroud snarl and fight back against the intrusion. The Ministry Mares had been very weak since I woke up, barely chiming in at all in the past couple days I'd been blindly roaming the countryside. It was like they were exhausted, but they were slowly gaining strength again. The feelings of love and family the Shroud was pining for bringing them back now.

"I miss them too... but she's gone. It can't be like it was ever again without Glitter. I'll never stop feeling sad about her and I don't trust you around Jade or the others, so we're not bothering them either. Sorry... you really liked riding along and feeling stuff like that out of me, huh? Is that why you didn't mind when I woke up and ruined your fun?"

"Interesting... Ok, I'll... I'll try sharing a little more positive emotion with you. Later though, I'm tired now, it is my body you've been using to do this shit, try taking care of your toys a little better. I'm going to sleep... try not to do anything too insane while I'm out and we'll... talk more later."

Sensing the satisfaction flowing off the spirit over the odd conversation, I huffed and fluttered up to the dense branches of the huge oak at the center of the cemetery. It didn't take long to find a comfortable enough perch in the crook of one big limb near the trunk, in sight of the mausoleum and the griffon claws just reaching the threshold and pulling himself forward an inch at a time. I curled up and rested my head of my hooves, blowing my ragged mane out of my eyes and idly watching the griffon going for the potion instead of using the shotgun still in his grip.

Going to sleep had been a mixed bag with the Shroud around and free, I just couldn't choose to fade out and let him take over at will. A lifetime of physically going to sleep meant I had to actually lay down, remain still, slow my heart and go to sleep like normal to manage it. I'd only hold still long enough for my consciousness to fade out however, then the Shroud would get up and walk my body somewhere else, usually with me waking up in the middle of killing or eating somepony it had chanced on. With someone to torture and watch in front of it, I had hopes of remaining in place long enough for my aching body to actually get a little rest, but again, I really couldn't bring myself to care.

Saying goodnight to a crazed and murderous dark spirit was still weird, but it felt weird not saying it too. We were together and I was curling up to go to sleep in front of another... creature... so as my Principles of Proper Pony Speech book advised on etiquette, excusing myself was only good manners.

"Goodnight Shroud, try to behave..."

"Yeah, right..."

"Nnngh.... five more minutes..."

"Grrr... What!? What the hell is so important!? Just let me sleep already!"

I snorted and shook my head angrily at being woken up early, opening my eyes to get my bearings and figure out what kind of trouble the Shroud had found this time. My aching body immediately complained as I reconnected to it, not finding any fresh major wounds at least, but still exhausted...

"I told you to get some actual rest too dammit! It's my body you're running ragged while I'm out you know! Sometimes you have to actually sleep and rest, it's one of those things that comes with having a physical body... Where the hell are we anyway?" I groaned and pouted with my eyes clenched shut against the morning light, ready to really start bitching over the rude wakeup and lack of any rest.

'Awareness!' chimed in with a weak bounce as I fought the bags under my eyes and tried to focus on a bit of white standing out against the weathered wood in front of my face. I just got the sense I was standing in the tilted back of a wagon, then froze entirely as I got a look at the crude image drawn there in chalk the Shroud apparently woke me for. It was simplified and foalishly drawn, but I knew that symbol...

Even though I only saw it once, I'd never forget... A blazing torch, the long handle beneath the burning flames wrapped in broken chains. Glitter's cutie mark...

"W-W-What... What is this doing here!? Why... How... W-Where are we!?" I gaped and lightly touched the simple drawing with a hoof, dissolving into tears as I traced the lines and remembered seeing it glowing from Glitter's flank before she...

I looked around frantically to take in my surroundings more clearly, finding that I was standing in the wreckage of a wagon strewn across the broken country lane in the snowy woods and I hissed out loud. "W-What did you do..."

Tilting my head suspiciously at the defensive reply, I trotted in a slow circle in the leaning wagon bed. The Shroud wasn't lying and was generally pretty pleased with itself when leaving wreckage like this behind, so I believed it when it said it wasn't responsible and moved to investigate. Eyes Forward Sparkle was clear, so there weren't any survivors or lurking attackers anyway, giving me leave to hop down from the broken wagon still hitched to a messily dead brahmim.

It was just one wagon with no sign there had been others with it, the snow was splashed with blood here and there, going along with other signs of a fight I picked out thanks to the spirit of Pinkie Pie singing softly, 'It was under E!'. A few wooden crates, ammo boxes, MoP marked chests and other assorted goodies had been searched, the smashed containers strewn all over the place. The only real intact loot left behind was a cloudy recycled bottle of homemade lemonade I nearly stepped on exiting the wagon.

The brahmim had been taken out by a mine, splattering its guts across the asphalt and staining the snow in a wide, circular detonation point clearly visible. The scorched wooden wagon itself had lost a wheel and burned here and there from magical energy weapons fire, but there were also large holes from standard firearms as well. Judging by the angle and position of the shots, they'd been hit in an ambush from the snowy hills rising up on either side of the road.

Curious, but there was nothing to really identify who'd been in the wagon or who had attacked it. Was it simply raiders? Somehow the scene lacked their usual senseless brutality, there weren't any corpses defiled or tortured in some weird way. Usually raiders didn't take the bodies. Of much more interest to me personally was who'd drawn Glitter's mark in the bed and why though. It seemed like a kid's drawing, but there weren't any younger bodies around either. Where did they go?

My head lifted and still teary eyes blazed looking up the road, following its winding course towards the distant, thin trails of smoke puffing up through the trees from some kind of settlement. Actually paying attention to my flaring nostrils leaning back down to the wagon and snuffling out to the street, I realized the Shroud was right. There was a scent of pony under all the blood, ozone and gunpowder of the ambush, young and female... They captured one?

They took a filly... a filly that was most likely the one who drew my daughter's mark...

Checking all my recently cleaned and serviced weapons with a hard scowl on my face, I nodded and started up the road, following the scent through the light dusting of fresh snow that gave me some hope it hadn't been too long. "Right... Let's go rescue the damsel in distress then. Good job waking me..."

I could feel the Shroud's pride over doing something right swelling up in my chest as I fluttered my wings and hovered above the road, lazily flying along and following the scent as it grew stronger. I could pick out several adult ponies mixed with it now, the attackers who took the captive most likely. I had to try to calm down and temper my anger though, arguing with myself while following the gently rising hills towards the concrete walls nearly hidden by the trees.

"We don't know what happened, so let me handle it, alright?"

"Noooo... look, just calm down and think. What if the wagon belonged to slavers and the filly was a slave? Maybe the mystery attackers rescued her first and we'd be killing the good guys. Slow down and ease up on the impulse to just destroy everything that happens to cross your path, ok? Please... You did good finding that... that symbol and waking me up for it... but I want answers about it, answers mean talking to ponies still alive to answer."

"Yes, yes, if there are assholes to kill I'll be sure to let you know, now shut up and help me check this place out, it's big and.... wow... heavily defended..."

Still muttering to myself, I flew a little higher and flitted into the trees for cover, darting from branch to branch to approach the intimidating and odd settlement I found. It was completely walled for one thing... Thick and tall prewar stone walls in a large and perfect square, just that defense was unusual in wasteland towns that were usually surrounded by barriers of junk cobbled together. The whirring of turrets perched atop every section of the wall every dozen feet or so were even stranger, the deadly auto-turrets sporting gleaming machinegun barrels and sparking magical energy weapons screamed 'Keep Out!' loud and clear.

Zipping up to higher branches and circling the compound, I frowned in thought looking over what all the defenses were protecting. It was a little prewar town... Like Sanctuary, but in better condition somehow. The houses were smaller, but still intact wooden earth pony construction with no major gaps in the walls or roofs. Their paint was peeling, but still fairly vibrant and cheery colors. There were only about half a dozen or so down there, carefully arranged in the walled space as some kind of planned, gated, prewar community.

'Location Discovered: Covenant' blinked in my vision as I got closer, pacing around the compound and winding up back where I started at the roadway. I peered down to the imposing steel gates and the small guard shack occupied by a single earth pony buck. The name of the town was spelled out above the gates in arching letters flaking with rust, a crude board nailed beneath it to add a slogan for the post war village; Covenant- A Haven for Real Ponies.

The filly smell led there... Meaning I had to go in to find anything out... I was tempted to just blow the whole thing off and go back to wallowing in misery, feeling very little desire or motivation to involve myself in some random incident that wasn't my business. Glitter's mark made it my business though... Somepony drew her cutie mark in that wagon, I wanted... needed to know why. The risk of going to a pony settlement with the psychotic spirit in my head awake and raring to go paled in comparison to that compulsion. Even if it ended up getting innocent ponies hurt...

There were quite a few of them in there too... E.F.S. was lit with several green dashes even at this range, corresponding to the clean and neat looking gaggle of residents below. They all wore wasteland era clothing that was well mended and cared for, their coats and manes were cleaner than the average settler and they greeted each other with friendly smiles and waves as they went about their morning. Nothing really stood out or raised my hackles about them, they just looked like regular folks.

Digging in my saddlebags for looted rags and winter clothing to disguise myself, I took off my fedora and replaced it with a tattered and floppy brown newspaper cap, mumbling to myself as I eyed the gate guard cautiously. "Alright... I'm going in and looking around. Don't try to take over around a bunch of normal ponies, you'll freak them out and they look pretty harmless. Just let me do the talking and don't. come. out."

"Good enough I guess... Now, let's see if I can pretend to be sane well enough to get in..."

I flew down the road past the town a little ways, drifting down to the broken asphalt out of sight of the guard and approaching from the direction away from the wrecked wagon. It didn't take long to come wandering up to the gate like a plain old unicorn, hiding my wings under my ratty saddleblanket. The dirt, mud, blood and goddesses only knew what other kind of muck on my trenchcoat and fur helped me look like just another wastelander anyway.

Between that, the ragged winter gear I threw on and things like the new bandolier and other crude metal armor pieces the Shroud had been looting, I didn't raise any special notice from the earth pony guard trotting out to meet me. He was probably about ten years older than I was, rangy and sporting a few scars, but as clean and friendly as the other residents I'd spied on. His coat was a pale tan and his short mane was a salt and pepper grey. He wore a black leather jacket that reminded me sadly of Zed's, jingling with silver buckles when he raised a foreleg in greeting several feet away. The motion lifted his jacket flaps enough to spot the holstered .45 automatic he looked ready to draw in a heartbeat if things went bad.

He was a brave and alert guard anyway, stopping me well away from the gates but speaking in a friendly and soothing patter. "Ho there stranger! Welcome to Covenant, here to stop or just passing through?"

"Covenant... Never heard of it before. I could use a place to stop and rest my hooves awhile, if outsiders are welcome? Place doesn't exactly seem that inviting with all the firepower..."

Chortling at my absent nod up to the whirring turrets that had noticed my presence and adjusted their aim our way, the guard shook his head and waved back to his little shack at the gate. "Can't be too careful, especially nowadays! No worries pal, anypony's welcome in Covenant. We do ask that you take a little test first though..."

"Test?" I growled as we approached his shack, stretching my neck to look beyond him waiting at the door to spot the green glow of a working terminal on the battered desk inside.

The older buck held his hooves up in a placating gesture and grinned, shrugging innocently. "Just a few questions, no needles or magic buddy, promise! Name's Swan Sun, but just Sun is fine! Come on in and have a seat, everypony that enters takes it and it'll only take a minute. Called the SAFE test."

"SAFE...? Well, it's got a comforting name anyway. What's it testing for exactly?"

Sun got a slightly shifty look for a moment at my raised eyebrow, he shook it off quickly however, returning to his mask of a smile and well practiced speech. "The right kind of ponies, that's all! One of the biggest threats in the wasteland is still not knowing who's a honest trader what can be trusted and who might be some crazed raider waiting to slit your throat in your sleep. Here, we got an F.A.Q. an' everything, printed out brochures with that newspaper mare's press in Sanctuary."

The twitchy seeming earth pony proudly held out a grubby bit of paper in his teeth at that, folded into three sections like an old world brochure, full of three seperate blocks of text with stick figure drawings of happy ponies and cheery looking homes. Sun allowed me to squint at the text as I floated it over and spread it out, reading his bizarre frequently asked questions brochure.

Welcome!

From a brief rest to a long stay we have everything you are looking for in Covenant. Located in the north-central Commonwealth we have easy access to the best and safest trade routes in the area.

Our guest dormitories are spacious, well appointed, and our friendly Mr. Handy even offers free lemonade. For large caravans extra sleeping bags can be provided on request. Just talk with Mr. Farthing.

We hope you enjoy your stay here as much as we enjoy having you!

Covenant History

We're a young community formed by like-minded individuals dedicated to restoring a quality of life that's been gone for too many years. Our secret ingredients are a shared vision, hard work, and old-fashioned hospitality. Values as important as the Elements of Harmony that have built Covenant up from a ruined hamlet, to a prospective member of the Kingdom of Sanctuary!

Since the turrets and other defenses have gone up, we've hosted more and more traders. Our store offers a wide variety of trade goods at rock bottom prices. If you find it cheaper elsewhere, let us know and we'll beat it. Our local clinic is staffed by a friendly doctor a match for any Followers of the Apocalypse trained physician.

SAFE Test

We often get asked about the SAFE test. What is it? Why is it necessary?

Your safety, and ours, is our number one concern here. And the SAFE test is how we maintain it. The test was designed by some of the Old World's greatest minds from the Ministries of Peace, Arcane Science, Image and even highly trained Heartmenders, all to get a detailed psychological profile of its participants.

Ponies fail the test for all sorts of reasons. Anti-social tendencies, vulgarity, and mental health to name a few. Often, they'd be just fine if we let them in. But we're extra cautious to ensure that only good, quality folk (like yourself) get to enjoy the comforts of Covenant.

Remember, it's all for your SAFEty!

"Well... that's definitely informative anyway. Ok, ask your questions then, I've got a few of my own..."

Beaming as he sat behind his desk and tapped his terminal awake, Swan Sun stared closely as I groaned into the rickety folding chair on my side of his little exam room. I felt a fresh pang of hurt and guilt just hearing his name, wondering where Swan was and how she felt... I'd left her too... I hoped she wasn't alone... that she and Jade could be there for each other at least, as sisters.

"Ok, question one; You are approached by a frenzied scientist, who yells, 'I'm going to put my flux harmonizer in your photonic resonation chamber!' What's your response? Is it A: 'Up yours, too, buddy.' B: I'd grab a pipe and knock.." I was forced to look up and sniffle when Sun spoke, reading the script from his terminal in a measured tone and watching me wiping my eyes curiously.

My answer blurted out automatically before he finished, interrupting his spiel after considering the question. "I wouldn't worry, if he did that it'd cause a parabolic destabilization of the spark singularity."

"Hey, not bad, that was D by the way. Humm... do I know you buddy? You seem kinda familiar..." Sun smiled and tapped another key, tilting his head when he turned back to me and scratching his bristly chin in thought as he looked me over closely.

"Er.... N-Nope! Wouldn't see how, I'm nopony... Just a scavver wandering through the area, that's all. You have more questions I'm guessing? C-Could we just hurry it up, I'd like to find somewhere safe to sleep for awhile. I've been on my hooves for days... I think..."

My go to cover story as a scavver seemed to smooth over any suspicion on the rare occasion I'd spoken to other ponies. I wondered about it since coming up with it on the spot in Drumline Diner however. I hadn't really put much thought into it at the time, but I presented myself as a simple scavenger automatically. Like Glitter and her mom and sister had been... It did work well at least, excusing my disheveled appearance, poor social skills and slightly insane tics that put most ponies with a healthy interest in self preservation on guard.

Still humming in thought, Sun accepted the cover story too and eventually turned back to his terminal, still keeping one wary golden eye on me as he continued in a distracted tone. "Huh? Oh... right. Question 2: While working as an intern in the Clinic, a patient with a strange infection on his hoof stumbles through the door. The infection is spreading at an alarming rate, but the doctor has stepped out for a while. What do you do? A: Medicate the infected area as best I can. B: Restrain the patient, and..."

"Yell for Jade..." Again the words fell out of my muzzle as I slumped thinking of my poor wife, blinking back up to Sun's surprised face and trying to cover for the slip. "Er! I mean... for help! I'd run and scream for help, I'm useless at healing... heh..."

Now his eyes were narrowed and he was staring very hard, catching my bloodshot red eyes under the brim of my cap and sparking with dim recognition on the tip of his tongue. Come on... I just wanted in, why did I have to jump through hoops just to enter this stupid village!? What was so goddess damned important about the place? Why couldn't this buck just be done already and get out of my way?"

"NO! Behave! I'm not doing that just because he's annoying me!"

I bashed at my head as Sun paused, watching me randomly shouting to nopony... Fortunately I'd found most ponies generally didn't remark on completely insane non-sequitur shouting. Often they'd go out of their way to ignore it, and not make any sudden movements afterwards... Apparently ponies losing what passed for their minds wasn't that uncommon in the wasteland.

Sun demonstrated the same response here. He shrugged and continued slowly, raising a blissfully ignorant eyebrow at me fighting the bloodthirsty desire to just execute him for slowing me down. "Okaaaaay... You sure I don't know you pal? I hate to think I'm forgetting somepony I've met, but I just can't quite place you. Maybe it's the hat... Anyway, Question 3: You discover a young filly lost in a cave. She's hungry and frightened, but also appears to be in possession of stolen property. What do you do? A: Give..."

"Give the filly a h-hug and tell her it'll all be ok..." I croaked back, feeling fresh tears flowing down the well worn clean tracks down my filthy cheeks.

The image of a lost, hungry and frightened Glitter just popped into my head as soon as he asked the question. I saw her the way we met, wearing rags and painfully thin, her ribs showing through her matted coat and her bouncy silver mane so ragged and dirty. I saw her looking up to me with those wide and scared pink eyes, poking her little muzzle in my room while I was recuperating from rescuing her and the other slaves from Thundega Motors.

My answer came from the heart, I'd hug her... I wanted to hug her now so much it hurt. Even with the uncomfortable thoughts swirling in my head on looking back. Was she a spy deliberately sent there for me? Is that why she came to me looking so pitiful and sad? I had wanted to keep her, to adopt her and care for her... to love her as my own... that was my idea, wasn't it? Or was it all a trick? Had I been manipulated to keep Grandpa's little spy close? Lied to? By the Betrayer...

"H-H-Holy shit... it's you..." I looked up from gritting my teeth in thought and realized my eyes were glowing by Sun's slack jawed face, leaning up on the desk on his forelegs to stretch across the surface with a manic shout before I could think of escape. "The Shrouded Stallion! I-It's really you!? Awesome!! W-What am I doing, forget the questions, we know you're safe! Come on, everypony will want to meet you!"

"Er.... w-what? Wait! I s-shouldn't..." I yelped when Sun practically bounced from his seat, grabbing my foreleg to forcefully drag me to the gates outside and giving a staccato knock with his hoof to the rusty steel.

Still struggling to keep up with his crazed and confusing glee over figuring out my poor secret identity, I gulped as the gates opened with a slow squeal and the town of Covenant opened up before us. A lot of interested eyes from the clean and kind looking ponies inside all turning as one towards Sun's cheery shouting.

"Everypony! Look who showed up! It's the Shrouded Stallion!" I flinched at Sun's giddy voice ringing out, shuffling in and wearily pulling my battered cap off to peek up from behind my ragged grey mane and put my fedora back on sheepishly.

"Umm... H-Hi..."

I gulped as the creaking steel gates swung shut behind me, staring out to the idyllic little town abandoning their chores to come see what all the excitement was about. There were only about a dozen or so, all showing curious but welcoming smiles as I was dragged in by the still chipper Sun.

An older and slightly heavy set earth pony stallion seemed to be the village elder or mayor, radiating a sense of leadership and wise patience as he trotted up and looked me over with interest, speaking in a carrying voice to the crowd while he at least got Sun to release my foreleg with a chuckle. "What's all this then? The Shrouded Stallion? In our little town? Welcome!"

The way the crowd of townsfolk all repeated "Welcome!" in unison was a little creepy... The wide and false looking smiles they wore staying plastered on their faces as I blinked back and cringed.

"R-Right... er... hi there. I didn't mean to cause a fuss, I was just umm... p-passing through and..."

"Say no more sir! We understand better than most here! Mayor Neat Order at your service! It's an honor to have the famous Shrouded Stallion in our town. You're a big hero around here! Come in, come in! Deezer! Give our friend a bottle of your famous lemonade!" Rather than saving me, the big silver earth pony wrapped a foreleg around my narrow shoulders and pressed me against his patched suit to take over dragging me further in, grinning through his light blue beard happily.

Before I could protest, a dinged Mr. Handy came zipping over from an odd little stand set up in the central courtyard between all the houses. The dusty bottle it pressed to my hooves explained its bizarre station anyway, reading; 'Deezer's Lemonade' on a bit of tape stuck over the peeled remnants of the original label. They had it running an actual lemonade stand?

Looking up from taking a polite drink and surprised at its excellent taste, I nearly dropped the bottle entirely when my eyes fell on a tawny griffon observing all the commotion from the sidelines. My silver revolver Vengeance snapped up and aimed at his surprised face with a low growl coming out of my mouth, instantly getting his orange claws held up in nervous surrender.

"Whoa! Easy there buddy! I'm not wearing green! Freelancer!!" The griffon yelped at my revolver shaking in my telekinetic grip, waving down to his battered leather armor while I fought the impulse to just shoot him.

He knew what my problem was and how close he came at least, sweating as I narrowed my glowing eyes and looked him over. He had dusty tan fur under chocolate brown plumage with rust red highlights, his beak quirked up in an anxious smile and his bright orange claws not twitching from where he held them up. He wasn't wearing Gunner combat armor though, the well maintained leather gear had none of their markings either.

"All griffons aren't Gunners! Think of Val stupid!"

"S-Sorry... Umm... Most griffons I run into lately aren't very friendly..."

I grunted and struggled to shove my pistol back down, realizing the whole weird show was being watched closely by the crowd giving confused head tilts and nickers to themselves. They didn't seem that put out by the near murder in their little town anyway, Mayor Order even chuckled as he led me away. "Nothing to worry about, Honest Dan there isn't one of those thugs, just an independent merc from the city investigating a caravan attack nearby. I doubt he'll even be here long. You can ask all your questions you like Dan, but we told you already, we don't know anything about it. No caravan showed up here lately."

The griffon huffed and rolled his eyes at the Mayor's dismissal, but his suspicious gaze followed us moving away. I tried not to let it show on my face as I was dragged forward, but I agreed with the dubious sneer I saw the griffon wearing among the crowd of ponies all nodding in unison and assuring him they didn't know anything about any caravan. Just the half empty bottle of lemonade floating along with me put the lie to that... Unless there was a whole franchise of robot run lemonade stands on the roadsides of the Commonwealth, that wagon had definitely been here and they were lying about it...

The minor mystery quickly fell away as the Mayor shoved me around happily however, introducing me to his town like I was an honored guest over for tea. He walked with his head held high as we strolled past a house with a large attached garage near the gates, pushing me into hoofshakes with a light yellow-green mare with an auburn and charcoal mane named Penny Farthing, who ran a small shop out of the house. Then a teal mare with a golden mane wearing a grease stained dark green and red mechanic's jumpsuit named Tailia McGlimmer, who handled repairs and a junk shop out of the open garage. Another house was residence and clinic for the town's healer, Dr. Mountgomery, an attractive middle aged peach unicorn mare who gave a worried nicker at all the blood and poorly healed wounds she spotted on me, making me promise to come in for a free visit. Beyond the professional ponies running the town's businesses were several residents, picking the last of the snow dusted crops from their little garden plots, maintaining the walls and turrets, or just aimlessly fixing and cleaning things to their pristine state.

I tried to be polite, but kept glancing back to the griffon lurking at the edges of the crowd following us. If he was here investigating the wrecked wagon ambush, I wanted to talk to him... The Mayor and the others all seemed nice enough, but both the Shroud and the whisper of 'Awareness!' kept pointing out those creepy fake smiles and the fact they were lying. Even discounting the incriminating bottle of lemonade, how could they know nothing about an attack like that just outside their gates? What's more, the filly smell led here, at least one survivor had been taken here...

"Sorry about the whole test bit outside sir, can't be too careful lately! Ridiculous having you take it, but every bit of data helps refine it." The Mayor had continued talking and leading me around, guiding me away from prying ears as his voice dropped conspiratorially. "Once we've got it down though, nopony will suffer things like what happened to you and the Princess again. I'm sorry you had to go through that son, but you're in good company here in Covenant."

"Huh? What are you talking about? What was that weird SAFE test anyway? What's it have to do with me and... J-Jade..."

I froze at his veiled speech, digging my hooves in and raising an eyebrow at the older buck who sighed kindly. "We'll have lots of time to discuss it Mr. Shroud, once our other guest is on his way again, it's why we're so excited to have you visit! You're among friends here, just know that much and relax, you look like you need it."

Looking down to my murder-hobo appearance at the Mayor's waving hoof, I slumped wearily and nodded. "I've been... r-roughing it a little, yeah. You're sure it's ok to rest here? I um... I may not be safe..."

Ignoring my warning by laughing heartily, Mayor Order trotted on in a slow loop that led back to the merchant house with a broad grin. "Nonsense! Us honest ponies have nothing to fear! We've heard all about you on the radio, what happened during the Midnight Sun... We all know how you feel son, ask around and take a little comfort from folks who've been there. Here, Penny rents a few rooms out of her shop and we've got a working shower around back. You take it on the house and get some rest, we'll talk more soon."

Brought back full circle and nudged forward to the warmly smiling unicorn mare Penny waving me into her shop / inn invitingly, I shrugged and trudged forward. Weird and suspicious as this place was, I was still exhausted and really was filthy now that I looked, scrunching my muzzle and nearly gagging when I made the mistake of sniffing under a wing. Socializing with other ponies required some niceties not needed when just mindlessly killing them... A chance to clean up and sleep in an actual bed was pretty tempting, plus it would let me snoop around a little.

"Umm... Ok then, if you're sure, I'll take you up on that Mayor Order. Thanks..."

Covenant had been some kind of model community before the end of the world, all the perfectly preserved homes were demo models, somewhat explaining their pristine appearance 200 years later. The construction crews never got around to installing working plumbing however... There were a few strategically placed well pumps that drew only slightly irradiated water up from the ground table, while the shower Mayor Order had been so proud of was a crude outdoor setup in the backyard of Penny's shop.

I was very grateful I didn't feel the cold that much as I stripped out of my bloody costume in the snowy back lot anyway, only giving a mild shiver in my bare coat, despite the freezing temperatures. All the residents here must run in and out as quick as possible during the winter, relying on the boiler barrel painted flat black mounted on a stand of weathered boards overhead absorbing enough sunlight to heat the water pumped up to it.

Setting my saddlebags down in easy reach and fighting with the straps and buckles of Blue Moon and my pilfered bandolier, I sat on a cracked stone bench and floated my trenchcoat up with a frown, really wishing that the magical armor had cleaning spells imbued in it along with all the repair spells that left it intact if disgusting. There was a battered wooden washtub and corrugated steel washboard near another water pump anyway, letting me idly light my horn and start pumping the long handle to fill it from where I sat. Magic couldn't fix everything, so old fashioned washing the earth pony way it was.

It didn't take long for me to start wistfully looking around for a convenient prewar washing machine I could fix somewhere... I slathered the sodden coat with the crude homemade bar of soap and scrubbed at it with my hooves, but wasn't making much headway and wondered how exactly ponies did this shit before the advent of modern arcane technology. As much as I disliked the chore, the Shroud was even more annoyed while I worked, grumbling loudly in my head the whole while.

"Do you see any servants around here? Nopony else is going to do the nasty or boring stuff for us, so I'm doing it myself. If you don't like it, try not to go rolling around in gore again. Actually, if you're so good at magic, don't you know a cleaning spell instead?"

"Filly-work...? HA! You're really out of date, aren't you? Jade would be pissed if she heard that kind of sexist ranting you know. It's not like that nowadays, or it's not supposed to be anyway, haven't you noticed?"

Well, I like fixing things. Cleaning them is sort of like that too, it's satisfying making things better. I even kind of like cooking, I was learning at least. You're from a different time, but there's nothing wrong with a stallion doing housework type stuff, so hush up and deal with it. Besides, like I said, no servants here, so who do you expect to do it?"

"I don't want to conquer anything! I just want to clean up in peace, then figure out what's going on in this place. Who the hell drew that..."

"NO! You're about as subtle as a sledgehammer. Stay quiet and let me handle it."

"Having some trouble cutie?" A mirthful and sweet voice behind me made me jump, fumbling for the slippery soap bouncing away to the tune of a giggling mare watching me scramble after it and yelp.

It was the cute mare in the mechanic's jumpsuit, Tailia McGlimmer. She came trotting around me nearly falling into the washtub in a desperate dive after the soap, smirking as she floated the escaping bar back and sat on the bench beside me. The attractive unicorn mare pushed my clumsy hooves aside, scootching closer to take over with practiced ease and a warm smile.

"You're not very good at this, let me lend a helping hoof to the famous hero. Can't have you running around in these filthy things. So... talk to yourself often? I heard you muttering as I walked up." Tailia scrubbed my trenchcoat vigorously with her magic, raising a curious eyebrow at me watching closely and blushing at being caught.

"Er... More often lately... Just umm... n-nevermind that, it's nothing. I just... after what happened I..."

"It's not easy to come back from, I know..." Tailia sighed sadly and interrupted my awkward and surely doomed attempt to convince her I was sane, sniffling slightly to my confused and blank stare. "My husband...."

"Husband? Is he here? I w-wasn't thinking anything bad! R-Really!"

Laughing openly at my cringe over my already rising wings and the open leering the Shroud had been doing with a pretty filly nearby, Tailia shook her head and wiped a tear from her blue-green eye. "No, no, no, relax! I'm flattered, but I only meant my husband is why I'm here. He was the one they replaced for me..."

"Replaced? A... a synth?"

Nodding somberly, Tailia paused in her washing and turned to me seriously. When she started unzipping her coveralls in front of me to reveal the shapely mare underneath I yelped and started skittering back, but she waved her hooves with another giggle and shook her head again. "Calm down... It's too cold out here to strip down and put on a show, I don't see how you stand it actually! Aren't you freezing!? No, I just wanted to show you this..."

I looked up to her kindly smiling face turning resolute and followed her glance down, trying not to focus on the cute floof of fur on her chest the Shroud was intent on playing with. Below and to the left of that cute feature was what she meant, a puckered old puncture scar near her heart.

"Still newlyweds, then one day he started acting strange. When I finally confronted him about it, damn thing must have decided the jig was up and nearly killed me. My parents weren't so lucky..." Tailia zipped back up with a shiver running down her tail, her bright eyes misting but coming down in a hard, unforgiving line as she finished. "That's how I ended up here in Covenant, where I can help make a difference, make sure they never do it again... Everypony here has a story like that, which is why we're so glad to have you Mr. Shrouded Stallion!"

"It's just Fast, please... So, you all do? Everypony here has... has had somepony replaced?"

"Yup, we've all had our run ins with those synth bastards, though we're usually not supposed to talk to strangers about it. We all know what you've been through personally though. I've never heard of the Institute making fake kids before, but I can imagine how hurt you are after having that thing turn on you like that." Tailia nodded smartly and gave a supportive nudge, but the venom in her voice made me stop her sales pitch with a growl.

"Don't call her a thing... She was my.... my daughter... it wasn't her fault..."

The so far nice mare snorted angrily at my weak reply, stamping a hoof down and tossing her flowing golden mane. "You can't think that! She was a machine! A fake! A spy! That's what they do, that's what they're made for! That's how they get you too! Making you care about them, making you think they're real ponies and not just a fancy walking toaster! I know it hurts, but you have to accept the truth. That thing was never a filly, never your daughter and never even a pony. It was an abomination that deserved to..."

"SHUT UP!" The Shroud's voice boomed out of my mouth and made her pale before the fury baking off me, her warm blue-green eyes shrinking away under the blazing glare of my red ones glowing and my fangs slurring my words. "She was MINE! She was my little filly! She was REAL! I loved her and that was real dammit! She wasn't... wasn't..."

Panting miserably as the anger gave way to sadness again, I slumped as my words withered up, my ears drooping and bare wings curling in to hide behind. To my surprise, Tailia hopped up and lunged into a soothing hug, bravely putting aside her well warranted fear to try to comfort in a soft coo. "Shhhhh... I know... we all know how it feels. It's ok, it takes time to get over it. You'll see the truth eventually, we're all on the same side, we'll make sure it Never. Happens. Again. You'll see!"

"I... I'm sorry about that... I just... Don't want to talk about her."

Patting my hitching back as she let me go, Tailia gave a sad smile and floated up my cleaned trenchcoat from the washtub behind her. She gave it a few brisk snaps in her bright green magic to shake the water from it, then hovered it over in a dripping bundle and nodded towards the house.

"Don't worry about it, a lot of the folks here were in pretty rough shape too after their own run ins, some of us still are... Covenant is a place for victims of those synths to heal, even heroes like the Shrouded Stallion. Let me see your hat while you go wash all that grime off, I'll pin it up with the coat by the fire inside to dry. Just lemme know if you want somepony to wash your back, Fast..." Tailia gently took my fedora in her magic too and turned towards the backdoor of Penny's inn, giggling brightly and sauntering off with a sway in her step when I jabbered and my wings shot up over her teasing.

"Nnngh! NO! She was making fun, mainly because you can't keep it in your pants around any female with a pulse! Shut up and let me enjoy this in peace." I groaned at the eager growl watching her flicking tail, stomping off to the outdoor shower just to cut off the view and get some privacy.

To my annoyance, my front legs moved as ordered, while my back legs dug in and dragged through the snow. I grunted and pulled myself forward despite the obstinance, reaching the rickety door with my mane itching madly and my head struggling to turn back and look for the pretty mare. When I tried going into the shower, my foreleg shot out and grabbed the stall, now my left legs were pulling to keep going forward, while the right were under the Shroud's control and still refusing to abandon the only thing it was interested in.

"ERRGGH!! STOP IT! Quit fighting me dammit!"

"Celestia's flaming ass, would you chill the fuck out about it! I'm not going out of my way to hook you up dammit! I only want Jade! Er... or Val, ...or Witchy... or Swan, Ivy, Peri... Grrrr! Quit messing with my head! It's. Not. Happening!"

Feeling especially stupid standing out here and actually, physically fighting with myself still clinging to the shower door and refusing to move the way I wanted, I seethed and used the foreleg that obeyed to facehoof, dragging it down my muzzle with a long sigh. No wonder I'd been such a pervert... Even before the Shroud could sit there and argue about it, the sex crazed spirit had been exerting any influence it had to get its way. Now it was just much harder to ignore... Time for a different approach then.

"No filly is going to want to sleep with a buck who's coated in mud, blood and bits of dead ponies and griffons. They tend to frown on that kind of thing..."

"Nuh-uh, I'm not making you any promises. I'm just stating a fact. Make of it what you will, but you're not getting anywhere while we look like a serial killer who went dumpster diving. So what's it going to be?"

I felt a little bad manipulating the oddly ignorant spirit, but I wasn't really lying, mainly because it could tell instantly. I could feel it rifling through my thoughts and feelings, but me having no interest in sleeping around was separate from my absolute certainty nopony would want to get in cuddling distance the way I looked and smelled now. Unless I happened on a pretty raider or something I supposed. Deceptive or not, I felt the Shroud cede control again with a petulant whine, allowing me to trot into the shower and slam the door shut.

Turning the squealing spiggot and sighing happily at the rush of warmish water pouring over me, I tried to relax my overworked muscles and stared down to the concrete pad, watching all the blood and dirt sloughing off me going down the drain while I thought. So the residents of Covenant were all victims of the Institute's synths... It made their general secretiveness and paranoia make more sense.

Anycreature who'd been fooled once would be highly motivated to not let it happen again, as Tailia so obviously was. I didn't like the way she tried to sell the place and their views however. She insulted my Glitter... Gone or not, nopony insulted my filly like that. She wasn't a ...thing... she was a pony, she was real, she even gained a cutie mark on her own! That wasn't even mentioning all the synths I had met who knew what they were but were still... alive... Synths like Nick, Angel and the zony Oro weren't just glorified Ponitrons, they were more than the sum of their parts, Glitter was too...

"So what'dya think? Place is creepy as fuck, ain't it?" A sudden voice speaking overhead made me yelp, getting soap in my eyes that only made things worse, as the Shroud had no idea what was going on.

"Stop freaking out! It's soap stupid!" I shouted and my body stopped randomly bucking around the small stall in rapid circles, rubbing my stinging eyes furiously to blink up to the griffon lazily peering over the scrap made walls. "Soap and somebody who likes living dangerously... Just because I'm naked doesn't mean I can't kill you in a dozen very painful and horrific ways, so if you were thinking of the bounty..."

Holding his claws up in surrender, the blurry image of Honest Dan gave a crooked grin and shook his head rapidly. "No way! I'm a small timer, not suicidal. Just chill out and listen a sec, I need your help..."

"Help with what? I'm not exactly in the helping random strangers business so much anymore, so it better be good. If not, leave me alone, I'm already running out of hot water..." I growled back, savoring the last remaining bits of warmth still sprinkling down from the rusty showerhead and glaring at the laconic griffon intruding.

In answer, Dan patted at his leather armor until he fished out a scrap of paper, holding it up as he leaned his head down into the stall to whisper. "Finding a lost filly, that good enough? You are the famous Shrouded Stallion, right? Big damn hero and all that?"

The words 'lost filly' just brought up Covenant's stupid test question and images of Glitter again, most of my grumpiness fizzling away to depression as I looked over the rough sketch on Dan's paper. It was a young teenaged filly, cute and bright eyed, a few years younger than me. The monotone sketch didn't fill in much detail beyond that, but the typewritten text did, listing her as a pegasus, along with eye, coat and mane colors, plus a simple sketch of her cutie mark in the corner. The name Amelia Stock Ton was slightly familiar, though I couldn't pull up where I knew it from.

Giving the griffon patiently holding out his contract a dubious look from under my soaked mane, I probed him curiously. "From the caravan ambush down the road? Why are you looking around here, they said they don't know anything about it, right?"

"Yeah, an' if you believe that, I gotta bridge in Manehatten to sell ya..." Honest Dan clucked back, rolling his ocher eyes and fishing out a cigar as he continued. "That kid was here an' these fuckers are lyin' about it. I gotta contract to bring the filly back to her pop in Bunker Hill and tracked 'em this far, the trail dries up here though. Whatever these creepy bastards are hidin', they ain't tellin' me anytime soon. You though... they think you're on their side already, kissin' yer ass since you strolled in! Just askin' you to snoop around a little, see if they'll tell you what they won't tell me. I'll split the caps with you even!"

"I don't care about caps..." I grumbled back and returned to rinsing under the now chilly water, waiting a beat for Honest Dan to start to object before I kept going quietly. "There is something I want though... Somepony drew a picture in that wagon, a torch... I want to know who, and why."

Blinking and tilting his head owlishly, Dan got a cautiously hopeful grin at my answer. "Hmm? That chalk picture that's been showing up everywhere? Yeah, I saw it too, guessing it was the filly I'm after. So... you went poking around the wreckage already huh? I knew the goody-good hero from the radio wouldn't turn away from a filly in need! Awesome! So I guess you're willing to help out then? No charge?"

"Maybe... I'm still deciding. What do you mean that picture has been showing up first? You've seen it somewhere else?"

"It's just some graffiti that's been popular lately, sure I've seen it. Croppin' up all over the place, little chalk drawings like that back in the wagon, big spray painted murals on walls an' billboards, stamped onto bottlecaps, stenciled on posters, all over. Figure it's some pony butt stamp or somethin'. That kinda thing is popular with my clients for this job, so I didn't think much of it." Dan shrugged and hopped down from hanging off the shower stall as I trotted out, briskly shaking myself dry-ish while I took that in. Glitter's mark had spread? Why?

"What kind of clients...?"

Giving a secretive smirk and miming zipping his beak with his claws, Dan shook his head with a grin. "I can't talk outta school about my employers, but let's just say they seem like the train loving type to me. Those kooks love putting up their little chalk markers for their secret decoder rings all over the Commonwealth, figured this was just a new one."

"Trains... The Railroad?"

"Didn't hear it from me... So? We gotta deal little pony? 'Cause if so, probably best if they don't see us hangin' out together." Dan kept up his cheery demeanor and thrust a claw out, waiting hopefully for me to meet the gesture with my foreleg for a vigorous shake.

Mission Added!: Pony Error

Objectives:
---Search Covenant for clues.

I groaned at my pip-buck deciding to wake up and contribute its weird missions again. It was the first time the arcano-tech device had chimed in since I woke up, spelling out my inevitable decision in the green text flashing in my vision. I met Honest Dan's hearty shake and nodded wearily as it faded away.

"Deal. I'll look into it anyway. What makes you think these folks have anything to do with it though? Other than being secretive and a little creepy? They've been nice enough so far, they're even letting you sneak around and pester their other guests."

"Secretive and creepy ain't the half of it. They're hidin' somethin' around here pal, that's why I need you. They'll open up to another pony, especially a famous one that hates synths and the Institute, they gots a real hardcore hate-on for them, even though they try to hide it. Just keep an ear an' eye open, see what you can dig up an' I'll do the same. I'll catch ya later and we'll compare notes partner, just don't spook 'em!" At that, Dan bounded off, ahead of the sound of approaching voices coming out of the inn.

My heart just wasn't in being a hero anymore, but this minor mystery had my complete attention now. I couldn't help Glitter, but maybe I could still help another lost filly. I had to look into why her cutie mark was apparently some kind of secret code or message the Railroad was spreading around at least. Beacon had shown and explained their little chalk drawn 'Rail Signs' I'd spotted on street corners and mailboxes out in the Commonwealth before, but Glitter's torch cutie mark was something new.

I was going to find out why...

The residents of Covenant kept up their overly friendly and cheery attitude the whole day, happy to show me around and share personal stories of loss and betrayal in a weird form of compassion and camaraderie. Tailia was telling the truth, every one of the adult ponies living here had been victims of the Institute's synths, replacing loved ones in secret and turning on them in horrible ways.

Every sad story was told with a bitter and hard edge to their voice that I recognized all too well, going along with the mutter of '...Revenge...' in my head eagerly agreeing with them. The most I got out of them directly was their shared hatred of the Institute and all synths though, topics they'd only whisper about in private. They'd all come together to support each other and develop their SAFE test for some reason they all believed in fervently, but so far I hadn't run into anypony I'd consider enough of a smarty-pants to come up with the psychological exam or figured out the point of it.

Honest Dan kept to his word, remaining far away and aloof in public, allowing me to sneak around on my own to investigate. I spotted him perched on the rooftops or bounding down to ask fresh questions somewhere while I explored, sharing a wink while I slipped in one cute little home after another looking for clues.

I found a holotape in a trashcan that was curious, labeled 'Join the Railroad!' and stomped on until the orange and white casing was shattered. Stopping in to Penny's small shop turned up a lot of curious stock too, coach guns, double barreled shotguns and a pile of battlesaddle straps and buckles sat on her small counter, in the process of being cleaned for sale, just the kind of weapons a lot of caravan guards I'd seen favored.

I stopped in at the small home housing the local doctor, allowing the middle aged mare Dr. Mountgomery to do a basic exam now that I was cleaned up. She was brisk and professional, not nearly the kind and gentle bedside manner I missed from Jade. She rebuffed any probing questions, but was absorbed enough tsking over my numerous recent wounds that she didn't notice me floating a slip of paper from her desk that I'd spotted her burying under others when I walked in.

A look over the pilfered note when I left with a fresh supply of potions and Med-X just left me with more questions, puzzling over the shorthoof scribbles that seemed to concern Covenant's weird SAFE test;

SAFE v11.3 Report

28% failure rate, delta -1% (need more data samples)

Unnamed Travelers (2): 1 failure, logged
Slog Ghouls (5): 1 failure, definite false positive
Stockton Caravan (5): 2 failures, resolved (RR or Inst?)
Mr. Tims (1): 0 failures
Finch Farms (3): 0 failures, working long term deal
Boyd (1): 1 failure, logged
"Honest" Dan (1): 0 failures

All the mentions of 'failures' was curious, there was a way to 'fail' a psychological test like that? What did failure even mean? That you were an unsavory type and not welcome in town like their odd little brochure said? Why would they put so much effort and focus on just that?

With all the adoring attention and friendly faces, it was a little difficult to slip away unnoticed from there. Fortunately the Shroud was working with me, curious and eager to get to the bottom of things here. It had sniffed out some kind of conspiracy and was always good at uncovering what bad ponies were getting up to, so the residents of Covenant never had a chance to spot me slithering into locked homes as a pool of shadow slipping under the door cracks or through the windows.

I ended with the Mayor's tidy home, reappearing in the locked and musty building alone and quickly rummaging around. It was a modest little house, a bedroom, a kitchen, a non-functional bathroom with a worn bucket near the toilet, a sitting room up front and a tiny office tucked in a corner. It was the last that caught most of my attention, the cramped little room showing lots of use, along with a glowing terminal and stack of papers on the rusty metal desk.

A reminder...

Covenant is a safe place. Whatever bad happened to you in the past won't happen here. But we've all got a job to do. We need word-of-mouth to spread so eventually we'll officially join the Kingdom of Sanctuary and dozens of ponies a week will come through here.

So, some guidelines:

* Be welcoming, but don't make visitors uncomfortable
* Any opportunities to encourage visitors to bring their friends, exploit
* NEVER talk about synths
* NEVER talk about the Institute

I puzzled over the strange note I found atop the ledgers full of numbers I couldn't really decrypt, mulling it over while I tapped away at the locked terminal. They were honest with me in sharing how they'd all suffered under the Institute, but didn't want outsiders to know? Yet they wanted outsiders to come here... the more the better it seemed. Why?

What I found on the terminal was even more confusing, private notes and personnel files about the citizens here, making Mayor Order sound more like some kind of manager;

Farthing, B.

Concerns:
* None.

Notes:
Mr. Farthing treats our mission as seriously as I do. If only he could do something about his wife.

Farthing, P.

Concerns:
* Mentioned the synths as "undesirables".
* Altercation with M. Belle.
* Frequent negative comments about other personnel and other places in the Commonwealth (specifically Diamond City).
* Severe reprimand for warning one trader about the Institute and "their ways."

Notes:
If Mrs. Farthing was not extremely effective in her role I'd request she be reassigned to the Compound. But she's married to Mr. Farthing so her permanent posting here is required. Nothing to be done but frequent reinforcement of our missions and its parameters.

Sometimes I feel she cares more about running her store than our goals.

McGlimmer, T.

Concerns:
* Visitors comment on her "nervousness" and "jumpiness".
* She's very compassionate. Could that be a problem?

Notes:
After bringing up my concerns to her Ms. McGlimmer has really come around. Part of our job is to act natural and if anything she over does it. Flirty and vivacious when outsiders are present now, plus she really lends a helping hoof to any new residents, helping them get over their own traumas with a patient ear and kind word.

I really hope she's truly recovering instead of putting on an act. Even if it is an act, she's utterly indispensable to our operation.

Mountgomery, P. (Doctor)

Concerns:
* None

Notes:
I have no specific concerns about Dr. Mountgomery. Looking at her now, you'd have no idea of what she's been through. The only niggling detail is that she keeps to herself and hasn't integrated into the community. But I suspect she resents being transferred here and would prefer to be working on the core mission.

But before she was here, our visitors' number one complaint was the lack of medical services. So we need at least one doctor here. And, unfortunately for her, she's the only one qualified that has a suitable temperament. With relief from the Followers, we'll see about rotating her back to the Compound after Covenant has joined the Kingdom of Sanctuary.

Weird... The 'Mayor' around here had files on all his citizens like they were employees or... special agents or something. Like a bizarre little Ministry of Morale sting operation. He was talking about them acting out their roles, not arousing suspicion, attracting as many visitors as they could, and angling to join Jade's kingdom to further their plans...

That last part was what really bothered me. Whether I was at her side or not, I was still Jade's knight. Anypony thinking to use her for their own ends was playing with fire...

"Me too... So we're gonna help her and get to the bottom of this place, even if we're not together. We can still do that much."

Perusing through the remaining files on the terminal, I didn't find much more. Opening up the Drafts folder did disclose one final bit of intel that seemed pretty valuable however, an unfinished note Mayor Order had been working on;

Fishermare's Report (Draft)

Mr. Huntley has aborted five Compound runs due to a fishermare (name unknown) who has stationed herself at the Mystic Pines' Pond. Mr. Hunt reports her new "favorite fishing hole" is directly on top of the Compound entrance. The Stock Ton retrieval team was almost spotted by the outsider. I recommend--

Map Updated dinged in the corner of my eye as I read the short missive, adding a marker for Mystic Pines Pond nearby and a smaller objective arrow on one shore. Whatever this 'Compound' the Mayor had mentioned a couple times was, that was the heart of their secret around here. My pip-buck even agreed, throwing more green text up in my vision as I slipped back out of the Mayor's home and looked around the sunset lit village suspiciously;

Mission Updated: Pony Error

Objectives:
---Search Covenant for clues.
---Find the location of the secret 'Compound'
---Find the entrance to the Covenant Compound

Optional Objectives--
---Speak to Honest Dan

I managed to return a few friendly waves from passing ponies as I sat in the snow and read the fading mission update, forcing a crooked smile on my face to mask the thoughts whirring in my head. They were all finishing up their day, the savory smells of a large cauldron of stew bubbling away under a cookfire outside Penny's shop promising a big meal to be put on that was very tempting.

Scanning through the crowd, I caught a flicker of brown and tan from behind one of the houses towards the far corner of the town and found who I was looking for. Honest Dan peered around the edge of the pink painted home, holding a claw up to his beak in a shushing gesture, then waggling the dexterous digits in a 'come here' motion I gave a subtle nod to.

I took a casual stroll that way, wandering around with my own false smile matching the residents until I could slip away again. The houses of Covenant were arranged so the imposing wall was at their backsides, leaving a narrow alley of backyards bordered by the tall concrete walls and whirring turrets overhead that most Covenant residents didn't go to often, except to tend the small garden plots I wound my way through that were currently coated in snow and withering. It was gloomy and private, allowing me to slink towards Dan hiding near a small shed I hadn't noticed tucked near the rear corner of the walls.

"Find anything pal? C'mon, gimme somethin' to work with here, they won't say shit to me even if they had a muzzlefull." Dan pranced on his paws as I came up, a little of the entertaining greed I so missed from Val flashing in his eyes as I sighed and nodded.

"A few things, yeah... That caravan was definitely here and they did something to it. This whole place is... I don't even know, like an act or secret plan. They've got some kind of compound nearby, I think that's where they took them to."

Honest Dan didn't look that surprised, squinting at my pip-buck's map and copied files a moment, then scratching his beak in thought as he prowled towards the small cinderblock garden shed nearby. "Huh... thought so. Great work partner, we'll find the filly and fill the contract yet! I figured they were up to some nasty shit when I finally got a chance to peek in here, take a look..."

Following Dan's waving claw, I looked up to the high set and short window near the top of the shed walls, absently noting the rusty mesh bolted over the cloudy glass. I fluttered my wings with a shrug to hover up with Dan keeping a wary lookout, hooking my forelegs over the shallow windowsill and peeking in.

What I saw made my eyes blaze and got the Shroud's full attention... Part of the room was indeed just a shed, full of shovels, hoes, rakes, shears, bags of fertilizer and other garden tools. The majority of the space was closed off by more steel mesh however, the bare stone walls and concrete floor were stained with blood, concentrated around a sturdy wooden chair with shackles added to the hoofrests.

Nearby was a small, cobbled together jail cell, welded together from junk and taking up a corner of the shed. There were a few rotten pieces of cardboard thrown down for bedding and a foul looking bucket, along with more bloodstains... Wiping at the glass with my hoof and pressing my face against the window, my heightened vision made out every blurry detail, ending on a tiny white smudge on the cell walls among all the other scrawled epithets and graffiti. Glitter's mark...

I bounced off the wall and landed on all four legs spread in a tense crouch, my wings flared and fangs out in a furious sneer. "LeT's gO sEe wHAt tHeY're hIDiNg iN tHiS CoMpoUnD of thEiRs... NOW..."

Dan took a few wary steps back and his claw twitched towards the lever action rifle slung between his wings when I growled at him, but gave a cautious nod when I didn't pounce on him. "R-Right... We're in business then, I'll go ahead and meet you there, we rescue us some caravaners and the filly, then get the hell outta here. You uh... you sure you're ok buddy? You're ummm... y-your shadow..."

Blinking down at Honest Dan's only slightly shaking claw, I realized my shadow was swirling and stretching out in the darkened alley between the houses and the wall, swirling and slithering out in barely restrained rage I had to fight to master. Not here dammit... Just wait a minute...

"I'm fine, just get going. See you there soon."

Taking the implied warning, Dan flapped his wide brown wings and took off into the twilight skies, darting off to the southeast as I crept back out from behind the row of houses. I had to struggle with every step towards the gates, keeping my eyes down and away from all the fake smiles and friendly greetings. Seeing all that blood in their little torture chamber had set both me and the Shroud off, I kept seeing all the nice residents getting their heads cut off in a rampage of destruction in their weird hamlet.

The Mayor meeting me at the gates forced me to look up, glaring at the expression of kindly disappointment the older buck wore, shaking his head sadly as he spoke. "Heya Mr. Shroud, I hear you've been poking around... Not very neighborly if you ask me."

"Foalnapping isn't very neighborly either... GeT OuT oF My wAy..."

"Now, now... easy there son. I know you think you're doing the right thing, but don't do anything rash you might regret. Maybe you heard about Stock Ton's caravan and a certain Compound? Hypothetically, let's say there's something to that. In that case, you might not think the best of us right now, but I assure you, we wouldn't do anything unless we had good reasons. The very best..." Mayor Order kept up his placating tone, giving me an earnest and hopeful stare.

"There's no reason to take a filly. None! I don't care what excuse you have, this shit is unacceptable! I'm pUtTinG a StOp tO It..."

Mayor Order's weighty but still muscled bulk was surrounded by the corrupted blue glow of my magic as I snarled, the whole sturdy earth pony slowly hovering up as I prowled forward and raved at him. It was a severe battle with 'Be Dark...' to not do more, the numerous spells the Shroud knew and volunteered to do horrible things to him flashing in my mind and rejected over its grumbles.

'Be Kind...' barely won out, helping me shove the weightless Mayor aside and stomp past before releasing him. He fell to his rump on the slushy ground at the gates when my magic imploded, managing a weak sputter when I stopped at the edge of the road with my head down and teeth gritted in silent battle with myself. "We really do have good reasons sir, but perhaps its best if you go straight to the horse's mouth and hear it from the doctor. Just keep in mind how good we've been to you, to everypony that visits Covenant. Sacrifices have to be made to ensure nopony ever suffers like you have, like we all have!"

I had to keep my eyes shut and hiss through a clenched jaw to answer, flaring my wings and flicking my ears at the soft murmur of the Covenant residents noticing the commotion. Despite being creepy, some of them like Tailia were nice...

"I'm going... if I find out you 'sacrificed' that filly though... DoN't bE hERe... Please..."

Following the marker on the compass in my vision, it didn't take long to reach Mystic Pines pond from Covenant. It was a small, oblong body of murky, polluted water just down the road, surrounded by the dead forest stretching away to the north. Skimming the surface of the unfrozen water with my hooves, I also noted it was fairly radioactive in spots, little pockets of tingly water marking some prewar waste dumped deep beneath the surface long ago. I kept it in mind as I continued flying low, a convenient source of healing radiation was useful, especially without Jade around to keep me in one piece.

Towards the southern shores I spotted a rickety looking dock extending over the water and angled that way, looking over the scrap repaired structure and finding a rusty metal chair sitting by a cooler at the end, a perfect fishing spot... Behind this locale were three large discharge pipes I came in for a landing at, following how they led up and into the hill behind them. The center one had a barely visible glow beyond the dead weeds and vines grown over the exit, the glow of a red gemlight leading right to a sturdy steel door.

I had to scratch at a rusting bit of engraving on the metal to make out the words; 'Aegean Waste Disposal' stamped there, glad to find the door wasn't locked and opened on squealing hinges to the pitch black pipe beyond. If it weren't for alicorn night vision, Honest Dan might have wound up in a world of hurt just lurking down the pipe a few yards, but I picked out his silhouette and trotted up to meet him without the urge to attack overwhelming my thin control.

He didn't waste words at least, remaining silent and giving a firm nod along with several griffon claw signals I didn't quite figure out. I'd learned some from Val though, and 'this way' was easy enough to decipher. We followed the winding pipe together with our weapons drawn, prowling down the twists and turns in silence.

When we came around a final turn, I flinched and hissed back at the click of floodlights pinning us down, my shadow retreating behind me in the glare and swirling at the harsh voice that called down from above. "Freeze! Who are you!? What are you doing in here!?"

"Nnngh! Not yet... the filly, remember the filly... Let me do the talking dammit!"

Blinking up through squinting eyes trying to cope with the floodlights pouring down on us from what looked like catwalks above, I won against the Shroud's automatic desire to start slaughtering, just barely. The brim of my fedora at least let me hide from the glare a bit, shading my glowing eyes as I started catching up with E.F.S. and picked out the shadowy forms of several armored ponies aiming a variety of hardware down at us.

"Who the fuck do I look like?"

"Huh? How should I know? Wearing that get up, you sorta look like... the.... t-the... oh shit..." Hearing the buck in charge's voice quaver as he figured it out was very satisfying, the sudden scent of fear like a fine wine for the eager Shroud drinking it up.

"That's right... I'm here for a filly from Stock Ton's caravan. I know you took them and I doubt you're the mastermind, so I suggest you get out of my way and find who is in charge around here. Right. NOW...."

To punctuate my point, the blazing bright floodlights around the shadowy buck exploded in a shower of sparks, dimming the underground chamber back to normal lighting and letting me get a good look at his worried face. He was a thirty something earth pony, wearing a tattered flannel shirt under his crude leather armor, though the hunting rifle he had propped on the railing looked in good condition. His pale orange face was even lighter than his coat and his blue eyes were wide under his shaggy red mane, the others around him on the catwalks wearing similar gear and expressions.

The room itself was musty and ruined, a warren of crumbling brick walls and pillars, mostly held up by numerous wide pipes like the one we'd walked through. They ranged all over, up and down, twisting and turning through the various passages and around the catwalks going further in the Compound, painted different cheery colors that were rusting and flaking away to moldy ruin.

My brief inspection ended by waggling the Terrible Shotgun towards the slack jawed buck suggestively, raising an eyebrow waiting for him to get his shit together and start talking, before I just gave in and let the Shroud kill them all... There were only about half a dozen in this room, all different kinds of ponies from all walks of life, even a pegasus worriedly hovering near the root punctured ceiling. It wouldn't take much to just murder all of them and move on, even without the hard faced griffon merc at my side. At this point, it was all on the poor guard in charge everyone looked towards expectantly.

"S-Shit..." The head guard repeated and shook his head, sighing finally and holstering his rifle to hold his hooves up. "Ok, this is way above my pay grade. I'll take you to the Doctor, let her decide what the hell we do about this. Er... j-just this way Shrouded Stallion, sir..."

Honest Dan didn't follow the guards example and lower his gun as the tension in the room eased and the head guard trotted over to the stairs up from here patiently. The griffon did give a muffled cluck of respect and whispered out the side of his beak before we took a step forward to meet him. "Nice work partner, closer we can get to the filly before all hell breaks loose, the better. Not lookin' like such a friendly little town now though, is it? What the hell is this place?"

Eyeing all the pipes and pumping equipment, I shrugged as we climbed the stairs to meet the guard. "Aegean Waste Disposal... must be some old pumping station or treatment plant I guess. They've turned it into a regular secret dungeon though, haven't they?"

"It's a laboratory for our research, thank you." The head guard huffed defensively as we reached him, his automatic response drying up when I glared at him to turn around and start leading the way. "Er... but yeah, it used to be waste disposal. Why the pond outside is so cruddy I guess, those prewar ponies were real jerks about cleaning up their messes. Name's Manny sir, p-pleased to meet you, er... maybe not pleased, but... you know... It's uh... she's this way I mean..."

The rest of the guards wandered down side passages or stayed a respectful distance away as Manny led the way, climbing more clattering steel stairs and catwalks to follow the warren of pipes further into the Compound. The lightly shaking catwalks went down more crumbling brick passages and through open chambers that fell away below us, full of huge pipes and tanks.

At one point we passed a steel security door with a distracted sounding lavender unicorn buck in a labcoat, trotting up behind the steel mesh of the window, jabbering as soon as he spotted our guide without noticing us in favor of the clipboard floating in front of his face in his pale pink magic. "Ah! Manny, hold on just a second. Can I get subject 12 back in here for more tests? Question number 4 is the sticking point, fascinating data... if I could just..."

He stopped when he finally looked up and spotted me glaring at him with a low growl, the mesh window he spoke through allowed the scent of blood and the medicinal tang of drugs to come wafting through. Honest Dan peered over my head to the halls beyond the wasteland scientist muttering under his breath in disgust. "Fuckin' torture chamber... these ponies are sick."

I forcibly turned my head away from the labcoat wearing stallion after the Shroud marked him, keeping my eyes focused dead ahead and growling back to the griffon merc padding along beside me. "This place doesn't look very good, no... I doubt this is going to end well. Look Dan... if we find this filly, if something happens... I don't want to hurt you, but I might not be in control. If I tell you to, you need to run... far and fast."

The brown and tan mercenary smirked back, patting his lever action rifle fondly and giving a firm nod as we continued deeper into the Compound. "I'm stickin' to the contract and findin' that filly, so ain't no backin' down now anyway, but thanks for the warnin' pal. If it does go south, I won't step on your hooves, don't worry."

Oh but I did... Nothing about this place was improving my mood or discouraging the Shroud rantings in my head. 'Be Dark...' wanted to annihilate everything in the rat's nest we found ourselves in, barely held in check by the soft whispers of the Ministry Mares and my own pleading mental voice. The filly, find the filly first, please...

"She has to be ok... I have to rescue her somehow, this time I'll save her..."

"Hey... yer talkin' to yerself again buddy. You alright doin' this thing?" Dan whispered in my ear when we stopped behind Manny, the earth pony guard calling across a deep chasm of rusty pipes and dripping water to have one of his fellows on the other side extend a trundling walkway across the gap that helped mask my unconscious muttering I'd been caught at again.

I'd gotten used to just randomly blurting things out while talking to myself, but this time I was especially embarassed and gave a weak, sniffling nod. This unknown filly had become something to cling to, a second chance to do something right and make up for failing my daughter when she needed me. I couldn't help Glitter when it counted... I had to help this filly, I just had to...

Thankfully it wasn't much further, allowing me to wipe my leaking eyes as we wound our way down a few last tight passages and through a few entrances broken through brick walls. The chamber we eventually reached was huge, angling its way up nearly three stories tall at the highest point and full of ancient equipment and pipes. Crumbling stone stairs, ramps and catwalks led up to imposing rear wall that was dotted with iron barred cells like a crude prison, the faint filly scent reaching my twitching nose from one of them...

The elderly mare trotting up briskly was making a mistake by being between me and them, drawing my furious scowl even before started running her mouth in an irritated tone. "So the Shrouded Stallion and the griffon investigating Stock Ton's caravan have arrived... Do you even know his supposed daughter is in all likelihood a synth?"

"Er... what?"

Her question stumped me for a minute, enough time for her to give an annoyed whinny and barge ahead into her spiel as the guard Manny sheepishly trotted to her side and tried to look intimidating, instead of like a shamefaced colt hiding behind his mother's skirts. "A synth! I expected somepony sharper on the uptake based on the radio. Stock-Ton's-daughter-is-most-likely-a-syyyyynth... do you understand?"

I goggled at the brisk and rude mare carefully enunciating each word. I was insane, not deaf or slow... She was fearless anyway, walking right up and sniffing down her nose at me impatiently. Her mane was grey and swept up, pinned in a severe arrangement that was very no nonsense and practical. Her coat was as clean as the Covenant residents, pure white that made her ancient Stable-Tec labcoat look dingy in comparisson, while her stern eyes were half hidden by her dark goggles magnifiying the hard lilac gaze beneath.

After snorting at me simply standing there like an idiot and trying to catch up, the arcane-scientist mare groaned and threw her hooves up in frustration. "Ugh! No matter. I'm Doctor Roseline Chambers, and let me be up front about this Shrouded Stallion. There are two ways this meeting can end. We come to an agreement, or there's violence..."

"YoU dOn'T wAnT tHaT..." I croaked back with a fanged grimace, finally getting the old mare's attention with the obvious realization on her weathered face that violence was not much of a deterrent for the Shroud. I had to fight it to continue in my own voice, hissing with effort to force the words out. "N-Neither do I. ...YES... No! I don't... I really don't, please... I just want the filly... I'd really rather not fight if we can avoid it..."

Tilting her head curiously and taking a cautious step back, this Dr. Chambers gave a curt nod and sat on her haunches. "As would I. Let me pose you a question then, what would you do if you if your family was destroyed by a synth, right in front of you, when you were just a foal? Would you roll over and accept it, or would you do something about it?"

"My family was destroyed... not by a synth, by the Institute. I went crazy, I wouldn't recommend it. Why? What happened to you?"

It was hard to tell with the goggles, but I swore she got a sad, empathetic expression at that, continuing in a softer voice that sounded less like a lecture and more like one hurt pony trying to comfort another. "Yes... your 'daughter'... I'm very sorry, that's a kind of deviousness even we haven't had to deal with here before. Though I'd dearly love to study it if you still have it intact. The Institute's never made children before, the betrayal you must feel..."

"She's nOt a THING to sTuDy!!!"

Dr. Chambers flinched along with Dan, Manny and the rest of the guards when the Shroud's voice boomed out, but the mad scientist composed herself quickly, her irritated expression coming back as she waved me off. "It's still raw and fresh, but best to rip that bandage off now. I've had a lifetime to think on it. Diamond City... My parents once ran another little settlement like this one and came together with several other leaders in the Commonwealth, to make things better and oppose the Institute. Nearly everycreature knows what happened after that... That was the night we learned of the Institute's diabolical creations. The synths."

"The Night of the Broken Mask... You were there? 50 years ago?"

Giving another sharp nod, Dr. Chambers stood with a few popping joints and nodded for us to follow, heading up the walkways and ramps to the upper levels and the cells as she spoke. "Indeed, I had a front row seat to that ambush. That was the night I knew the depths of their evil, the night I gained my mark and found my destiny. To destroy the Institute and their synth abominations..."

She looked back over her withers as we climbed the first level, floating the tails of her labcoat aside to show her cutie mark. I'd seen some odd ones in the wasteland, but I'd never seen a pony with the Institute's own spread eagle pony emblem, let alone one being broken by a glimmery line of magic. This mare's special talent was destroying the Institute? Maybe she wasn't so bad after all...

"Boo frickin' hoo lady. Don't care about yer sob story, we're here for the filly. Give her over and we all leave here alive and happy." Honest Dan interrupted the brief pause by poking Dr. Chambers in the flank and squawking angrily, waving a claw out to all the cells arrayed above us after glancing over all the empty ones on our current level.

Dr. Chambers gave a flat look back to the griffon, ignoring him and his demands as she kept strolling along. "As I was saying... After that night, I dedicated my life to devising a test that can detect these hidden synths. To root them out so they can be extinguished. Isn't that a goal worth fighting for? So what happened to me, and you I might add.... Never. Happens. Again. That is the origin of the SAFE test and why our work here is so vital, despite any sacrifice! As long as the Institute trots invisibly among us, they can strike without warning and control us from the shadows! Synths make that possible, take them away and they're much weaker, even if they have come out of hiding with their unholy Synthlestia monstrosity! It's our part in your noble fight, our contribution to the cause and the Kingdom of Sanctuary!"

My head was starting to pound in time with each step forward, the Shroud snarling and struggling to get loose at her feverish ranting. The best I could do was try to think and question, hoping for an outcome where nopony got hurt. "Destroy them? You're talking about genocide... you can't really want to kill all of them. What about ones that are alive? Don't they deserve to be free? Like the Railroad tries to..."

"The Railroad! Hmph!!" Dr. Chambers stamped her hooves in agitation, her tail whipping back and forth in my face as she stomped up the next set of stairs and bitched out loud. "Foalish, bleeding heart simpletons! Trying to rescue synths! It's like trying to rescue a coffee maker! I assure you we are not so soft here. I most certainly do want to destroy them all, killing only applies to real ponies. But first we have to find them..."

The mad doctor huffed and held a foreleg up like a lecturing teacher giving a lesson, continuing as we moved along. "A Gen 3 synth is indistinguishable from a pony by any medical test yet devised. But, it turns out, psychology can detect differences! Enter the SAFE test. It's still in its infancy, but through sacrifice and perserverence, our success rate is improving."

"And this test of yours works? It can tell who's a synth and who's not?"

"Oh yes, autopsies confirm it's getting more accurate. There's something in the questions that provoke a response from synths. But the exact trigger is elusive. The margin of error is admittedly high, four or five false positives per confirmed synth. But one day we hope to get it down to one or two false positives." Dr. Chambers' voice grew excited as she talked about her passion, her chipper tone clashing with the horrible shit she was so breezily stating that made me and Dan both stop in our tracks.

"Four or five!? You crazy fuckers have been abducting and torturing four or five innocent folks for every synth you actually find!?" Dan's angry screech echoed in the musty stone chamber, getting wary attention from the numerous guards still patrolling around and watching us closely.

At least the griffon was able to speak and voice the same objection I had, I was too busy keeping a tight hold of the Shroud along with the Ministry Mares. The spirits of the Elements of Harmony were fighting valiantly, but even they were pissed at the situation we'd stumbled on. I was starting to come around to 'Be Dark...' and its ideas about this place, a rampage of blood and carnage was coming... But the filly first.

Dr. Chambers waving aside Dan's complaint was just making it harder to be patient however, continuing on in her clinical tone "To improve the SAFE test, intense psychological pressure must be applied to the test subjects. It's distasteful, but neccessary. Covenant is many things. A refuge for the broken ponies left in wake of the Institute's experiments. A place of safety and healing. But most importantly, it is our one chance to end this age of paranoia, before it spreads beyond the borders of the Commonwealth. Surely that is worth any sacrifice?"

She ended by stopping at a cell on the second floor, turning to stand at the bars and sniff in distaste towards the green dash on E.F.S. representing a prisoner hidden in the corner. I took the invitation to step forward with dread forming an icy ball in my stomach, peering through the bars to find the filly curled up in a little ball in the corner.

"I'll make you a deal griffon. If you allow me to dispose of Stock Ton's synth here and continue our work in peace, I'll match whatever reward you negotiated in your contract with the synth lover. I'll even throw in a bonus for looking the other way. I'm sure the Shrouded Stallion here will see how important what we're doing is, but I understand griffons only care about caps and am willing to compromise." Dr. Chambers kept talking, but I barely paid any attention, shaking as I moved to the bars of the cell and wrapped my forelegs around them, sticking my muzzle in to stare at the trembling filly and feeling the cold metal starting to shake.

She was filthy... bloody... scared... The smells of terror, blood and piss filled the cell, she'd been treated rough, tortured... They tortured a filly... She was a gangly little teenager, already probably taller than I was, but skinny and all long legs and ratty, unpreened wings. Her coat was a light cream under all the dirt, her blue and pink striped mane was matted and hid her terrified lilac eyes peeking out at me, the faintest glimmer of hope registering in her wide gaze flicking up and down my costume.

"I've had more than enough crazy shit on this job already, but my Ma always taught me to keep to the contract. No deal." Dan's gruff answer barely registered, though I did weakly cheer at his refusal to go along with the mad doctor's offer.

He got to live then... The others... not so much. Just looking over the filly with burning red eyes was enough to know that and surrender to the Shroud's demands. Part of her mane at her temple had been buzzed away to the scalp, revealing a pair of bleeding holes right in her head they hadn't even bothered to bandage or clean. Other bloody marks on her forelegs and flanks spoke of lots of injections too, along with ugly bruises and small, puckered burns. Cigarette burns... they hadn't just tortured her in the name of arcane science, some of them had been tormenting her for the hell of it.

Worst of all was seeing not the daughter of the caravan manager Stock Ton from Bunker Hill, but seeing Glitter in that cell. For an instant it was like she was right there... It was Glitter shivering in that tight little ball, Glitter covered in dirt and blood, Glitter who had been tortured... They'd do it to her too if they had the chance. She was a synth, I had accepted that truth. Meaning they'd put her on their table and ask her their questions, pump her full of drugs and experiment on her just like they had this frightened filly. The bitch said as much already, that Glitter was a synth they'd love to fool around with just because she was special apparently, a foal synth for them to do this to...

"Almost... One last thing..." I managed to mutter to myself, finally tearing my burning glare away from the filly and to the walls of the corner she huddled in. She'd drawn Glitter's mark there too, a talisman she nervously stroked with a shaking wing for comfort. That was the last thing I needed to know...

The cell door was surrounded by my blackened magic rising up from my swirling shadow, the heavy iron bars squealing as the barrier was bent and ripped out of the way over Dr. Chambers' jabbering. "Stop! What are you doing!"

"WaiT YoUr tUrn..."

I threw the cell door at her... It was a boring conversation anyway. Dr. Chambers yelped as the bars bent and twisted around her like a snake, leaving her squirming head free and her limbs quite pinned in the tortured metal, while the guards were reacting to her shouts in a flurry of motion. Honest Dan squawked as he dove in the cell behind me, giving a whoop and firing his rifle rapidly as he took cover at the stone wall.

My horn lit in a layer of overglow and I absently noted the wall of shadows that blocked off the cell from the outside as I reached the trembling filly. Huh... I actually made an alicorn shield... Or more accurately the Shroud did, but it was effective anyway. The sounds of shouting and gunfire even grew dim and muted as more bullets pinged off the crackling barrier, giving me a moment more of peace and sanity I used to gingerly reach out and touch the filly's hitching shoulder with a foreleg.

"Hey there kiddo... i-it's ok now, I promise... Nopony's going to hurt you anymore..."

My heart hurt seeing the carefully guarded hope shining in her pale lilac eyes, even her teary gaze matched Glitter's in her misery, despite the difference in age between them... It just made the persistent illusion of her cute face staring back harder to dispell, only broken when her older voice wavered and croaked back in a rasp. "R-Really? You're... y-you're the Shrouded Stallion... a-are you here to save me? P-Please? I know I'm... I'm not... but... b-but you're a hero, right? The Princess..."

"It's just Fast... Sorry, Princess Jade isn't with me right now... I'm sure she... s-she'd like meeting you though."

She glanced at the chalk drawing her wing was still lightly touching, shaking her head and wheezing a reply weakly. "The Synth... P-Princess, not... blue one..."

"Synth Princess? You mean that Celestia thing? I don't understand... please... I dOn'T hAvE LoNg..."

I hated seeing her shiver at my growling voice, but I really didn't have much time... The longer I looked over how scared and hurt she was, the hotter the roaring pyre of hate in my head got and the more the Shroud pushed to just take over. It was being nice and giving me a moment for Glitter, but terrible things were going to happen, soon...

The filly herself wasn't in good shape either, her bloodshot eyes drooping and lidded as she sputtered on one of the normal healing potions I had on hoof that I'd tilted up to her bloody muzzle tenderly. She was fighting to remain conscious and spit this out, the gravity of what she wanted to get across coming through even if the words didn't. This was important to her...

Shaking her head again and placing my hoof on the crudely drawn torch with her shivering one, the filly spoke in a slightly firmer voice, forcing the words out through sheer determination. "N-No... not that thing. T-The little Princess... Princess of... free synths, Princess Glitter! She... She showed us... earned her mark... T-The light of hope for us... A miracle..."

My eyes stung as they shifted between her earnest face and the drawing repeatedly, tearing up as I worked it out. That's why her mark had been showing up around the Commonwealth like Dan said... Regular ponies like the Covenant residents had seen Jade and I as the victims of the Institute and their synths, but the hidden synths out there had seen Glitter proving they were free.

For a moment, I chose to simply accept the mirage of my little filly blinking up to me hopefully instead of the real Amelia Stock Ton, lunging into a desperate hug as her anxious words tapered off and sobbing into her ragged mane. She was warm and alive, clutching back with real emotion and crying against my neck like a real filly. How could they do this to any filly, synth or real pony? She was real in every way that mattered, yet they'd torture her and who knew how many 'false positives', just so they could ferret out more to torment and kill?

Maybe their test would have let me know Glitter was a synth before Vega did by... by torturing her too, but it wouldn't have mattered to me. Glitter had been mine... my little Princess... Now I saw she was a Princess for a whole hidden world of synths who had seen her defy her masters and her nature. Only ponies got cutie marks, and Glitter got hers... all by herself.

"Sweetie... Glit... er no, sorry.... A-Amelia... I'm going to save you now, you're going home safe and sound, I promise. It's not going to be pretty though, so I want you to stick with my griffon friend here and keep your eyes closed, no matter what you hear. Ok?"

"Really more temporary partners than friends..." Honest Dan turned from poking at the flickering barrier of shadows to address the still traumatized filly hiding behind me, but pulled out his contract with Old Buck Stock Ton's signature and held it out where the filly could read it, while he made an odd salute with his claws to his feathery chest and bowed his head solemnly. "You're my contract though kid, I'll get you home to your pop, no matter what. That's the deal and Honest Dan keeps his word."

She gave the griffon a dubious look and clutched me tighter, but her strength was rapidly fading as the healing potion she'd managed to take down did its work. I tried to give her a smile when her worried lilac eyes looked up to mine, though a fang poked out and made the expression somewhat snaggletoothed. When I nodded and gently took her to Dan's waiting claws, she whimpered and stretched a foreleg out to keep touching mine, but quickly started losing consciousness as she sank into Dan's warm feathers.

I watched her like I was tucking Glitter in, ignoring the louder and louder blasts of gunfire beyond the cracking shield the Shroud was focusing on creating to give me these few minutes. My ears drooped sadly and I sniffled as she nodded off and her pawing foreleg fell away from mine limply, leaving me to watch Honest Dan fiddling with leather straps and buckles on his armor to fashion a sling to keep her safe and in place at his chest.

"Now ta get the fuck outta this freakshow... Got any ideas? Can't see much through this... whatever it is you're doing, but ya gotta drop it to let us out an' they're waitin' out there buddy." Dan kept shifting his armor and gear around carefully, reloading his rifle and preparing for a firefight to escape.

"Oh yes... now you can do what you want, go to town..." I muttered back, just adding to Dan's concerned look before I focused on speaking, while the Shroud started running the rest of my body, stalking past the mercenary to stride right up to the barrier. "StAy bAcK... fAr BaCk... I... W-wE'LL hAnDLe iT..."

Giving a gulp and shrugging at the growl I managed, Dan darted to the rear corner of the cell where the filly had been hiding, pressing her against the wall and shielding her with his body and any of the sparse furnishings he could throw that way. At least a week of fighting the Institute's Synthlestia in the skies of the Commonwealth had impressed upon most folks how dangerous the Shroud was...

The ponies of Covenant either didn't get the message, or were severely misjudging me. They thought I'd be on their side, for this kind of shit!? That they'd join Jade's kingdom and keep torturing whoever failed their test and we'd be ok with the end result? I might be a monster, but I wasn't that kind of monster...

The Shroud's voice boomed out and shook the room as the shadowy barrier faded away, dust and rubble coming down from the earthen ceilings and gem lights shorting out one after another. The room dimmed and became a nest of inky shadows and gloom as I stalked out, leaning up on the railing on my forelegs and flaring my wings, my glowing eyes in the dark drawing all the guards' attention away from blindly panicking.

I felt myself lunge out into the open space of the cavern, cackling disturbing, deep throated laughter as I simply retreated into my own head. Let the Shroud have his fun now, let the spirit do whatever it wanted to these lunatics. Anypony that would hurt a filly, synth or not, deserved the wrath of the Shrouded Stallion.

I let the destructive spirit loose with no concern for what happened to any of them. Actually, I had to admit... as the screaming started and taste of blood filled my fading senses, I started liking it...

When I woke up again it was all over... and I was in hell...

No... Not hell, but not far off. I was panting in the middle of an inferno blazing around me, the crash of burning lumber falling in on itself making me spin in place with a confused yelp. Everything was bright orange light and dark, choking smoke, enclosed by four stone walls that turned the place into an oven.

Coughing as I squinted through the stinging smoke at the familiar walls, I spotted all the sparking, crushed remnants of auto-turrets and realized I was standing in the middle of Covenant, a blackened pony skull had been stacked on top of each ruined turret. The town was burning down around me... I nearly stumbled over a mound of earth that had erupted like some kind of giant mole hill and led down into dark stone passages below. I'd kept going from the Compound then, slaughtered all of them, then...

Penny Farthing's shop near the walls crackled and groaned as the roof collapsed and drew my attention towards the gates. A bent and blackened cage of twisted cell door held a scorched pony skeleton atop a bonfire in front of the entrance, built from the crushed Mr Handy's lemonade stand, other junk and more dead ponies. Dr. Chamber's skeletal jaw was wide open in a burnt scream, identifiable by the dark goggles melted to her skull. I assumed the thicker, larger, earth pony skeleton with its head literally shoved up her ass was the Mayor....

Through the flames beyond that macabre display, I saw a few shifting shapes staring in from the roadway outside in a frightened huddle. Tailia McGlimmer was at the head of this cluster of apparent survivors, glaring at me through the fire with tears running down her cheeks and a furious frown, the hard expression warring with fear when my gaze fell on her and she shrank back.

I had burned down their sick little town and killed most of the defenders, so I couldn't blame her. I hoped they were defenders anyway. I wasn't really sure and to be perfectly honest, I just didn't care... I might have been upset if some of the nicer ones were dead, but the Grim Reaper Pony in my head had left them. Only the ones who got in my way or were directly responsible for their horrible experiment seemed to be missing.

I hadn't killed all of them... Thank Luna...

I didn't see Honest Dan, but didn't doubt he'd focus on his contract and was already winging Amelia back home to Bunker Hill. If she wasn't here to see all this, that was good... I didn't feel much of anything for the destruction and death I'd caused, but I might be a little ashamed if Glitter... if the filly saw.

Looking over the hard, bitter faces huddled together and staring in at the crazy pony standing in the inferno that was their home, I coughed on the smoke carrying the disgusting yet delicious smell of cooking pony flesh and stamped my hooves, shouting at them in fury and pain.

"Synths hurt you, so you hurt synths!? You think that makes things better!? You think MY JADE would want anything to do with this!? You're just repeating the past! A cycle of hatred! Not all synths are bad, just like not all ponies are good! You let your hurt and wish for revenge take over... This is where it leads you stupid, foalish ponies! TaKe A gOoD LoOk!"

To my surprised, Tailia took a shaking step forward and answered in a tremulous, furious scream. "Fuck you!! You ruined everything! All our hopes! Our only chance to keep those synths from hurting others! For what!? Some wind up doll that got broken!?"

"DoN'T... CaLL hEr..."

"That's what she was! A DOLL! A thing that looked like a filly!"

"dOn'T... sAy...ThAt..."

"She was NOTHING! It was never your daughter! We opened our hearts and homes to you, and you killed us for a toy! A stupid robot! A souless THING that..."

"ShUt... uP!"

"that NEVER. LOVED. YOU!!!"

I gaped into the silence that followed, only the crackling sounds of the fire raging around me filling the ringing emptiness after the gleaming .45 revolver floating at my side fired. Tailia stood in place for a moment, a perfectly round hole drilled right between her surprised eyes and a weak sputter of blood escaping her muzzle. Then she fell over in the street and the other survivors around her scattered into the woods, leaving her corpse and the ruin of their home to escape with their lives.

I killed her... The gun was floating in my own blue magic, drawn from my packs and aimed in a heartbeat of rage. The Shroud didn't do it, even though it had been more than ready to. That was me... I killed her... She insulted my little filly and I... I just shot her to shut her up, because I didn't want to hear it... Killing her was easier than hearing all those things I feared in my heart, so I did.

And I didn't feel anything...

I was starting to now that I realized what I'd done though, Vengeance trembled in my telekinesis and clattered to the ground as I gasped in horror. I fumbled for it with my hooves, but couldn't see clearly through the tears blurring my vision and my limbs were shaking. Finally I scooped it up and tossed it to my saddlebag in disgust, holding my head in my hooves and sobbing.

An unknown amount of time passed like that, huddled in a ball in the dirt, hearing the town of Covenant burn down to the foundations around me and surrounded by corpses, slowly feeling all the wounds I'd taken during my rampage dragging me down further. It wasn't peaceful, 'Be Dark...' and the softly crying whispers of the Ministry Mares led by 'Be Kind...' kept pestering me as I huddled there and felt myself slipping further into madness. The survivors didn't dare come back, not that I cared either way. If one did sneak back and shoot me, that would probably be for the best actually...

Nopony volunteered to put me out of my misery. Eventually I sniffled and stood back up, spreading my wings and flapping up into the predawn sky wearily. I still hadn't slept and was too exhausted to even think anymore. I let the proud voice of the Shroud take over just so it would stop fretting over me, feeling the spirit running my body and flying east.

I didn't care where we went. Just so long as it was far away from here.

New Perk Added!----------------------

In Shining Armor---------
---The Shroud's tastes in armor are a little old fashioned compared to your faithful comic costume. You now gain an additional +5 Damage Threshold against magical energy weapons while wearing any metal armor, +2 while wearing reflective eyewear.

Reputation Change!------------

Covenant -- Grim Reaper Pony
---The town of Covenant is no more, though the surviving residents won't forget their run in with Luna's avenger anytime soon. While there's no longer a settlement to worry about their opinion of you, the story is sure to spread and change how others view you!