"So much fer just strollin' right down there an' catchin' up to em boss..." Val flicked gore off her guttering Shishkebab and joined me at the pile of rubble blocking our path I was currently groaning at, her voice torn between disappointment and 'I told you so'.

Ceding her point, I stared up at the collapsed ceiling of the rough tunnel and checked my pip-buck, eyeing the image the auto-mapping spell had been putting together as we traveled down the mayoral secret entrance to the Treasures of Jamocha Plains. Despite the fairly straight path that had been added to the storm drain system under the town, I didn't really expect it to stay so easy.

Not that a horde of waterlogged zombies along with a fair number of monstrous creatures Val and S.A.T.S. identified as Radigators had been easy, but the Gunners ahead of us somewhere in this maze had already taken a significant bite out of the population we had been following the corpses of.

I could easily see how much reinforcement and work had gone into fitting this passage in the sewers beneath Jamocha Plains. The walls were still straight and square for the most part, smooth concrete broken up by the occasional crumbled gap in the wall or barred gate, leading to the rougher brickwork of the rest of the drainage system. The channel of water running down the center of the tunnel was allowed free passage through these, a fair number of which were rusted or bent out of shape, leading to the maze of passages beneath the ruins and letting the zombies in, but up till now our path had been clear and easy.

"Alright, we'll have to backtrack, take one of those broken gated passages or holes in the walls, go around I guess, they're still down here and we can't leave them alive. Getting to the treasure would be a bonus, we know those Gunner exist for sure though. Come on, let's get to looking." I sighed and turned around, walking back up the gloomy passage we had taken here through the tingly rushing water down the center, letting the mild radiation heal the bites and scratches I had taken so far.

"Umm... A-Are thou sure you should be doing that Fast? The radiation? Er.... y-your condition..." Witching Hour squeaked nervously on the stone walkway above me, making me look up even more than usual to meet her concerned amber eyes as Val took the lead, ever the faithful bodyguard.

"No... it's cheaper than healing potions or magical bandages though, save those for you guys. It's... it's only a trickle anyway Witchy, I can keep myself under control, so long as there's more stuff to kill us crawling out of the woodwork. Er... d-don't worry about me trying to... j-just smack me if I try to jump you or anything alright? I'm really sorry..."

Rather than be offended or frightened of me, Witchy blushed and smiled with a nod, waving my apologies away while one cute tufted ear flicked ahead of us and the other remained trained on me. "It's alright Fast, really. F-Flattering actually... you really would want to... ummm... F-For the reasons you said? You care? About me?"

Since we were stepping over the numerous zombies we had already dispatched on the way here, I took the opening to try talking to the thestral filly about things that had been bothering me where she was concerned, while trying not to break my neck nodding my affirmation crazily. "I do. I reeeeeally do..."

'Be Kind...' spoke up and helped keep me on track, fighting against the opposing 'Be Dark...' that only focused on her first question, yes, I would want to, with her, over and over and over.... STOP! I shook my head and smiled sheepishly up to her as I managed to continue. "S-Sorry... You've put up with a lot waiting on me and been a good friend so far, but I realized I don't know enough about you. I have noticed you've been... sad? I don't know, you don't look right, I should have been a better friend and asked earlier. Do you not want to go home now Witchy?"

She paused and gave a worried look with shimmery, slitted eyes, looking up to Val watching all quarters for any danger, the griffon quickened her pace a bit and gave us space with a roll of her eyes. "I... I don't know anymore Fast... My mission was just to get you and bring you back, but... It's on my honor not to tell, but I dishonor you and thine Princess by keeping it secret too. This is so hard! I swore an oath, but I doubt it more and more every day! I want to tell thee, I don't think you should do as they ask anymore, but I must bring you!"

"Ok, so you can't tell me certain things because you promised, that's alright Witchy, I won't ask. We'll figure it out when we get there. We're going one way or another anyway, it's nothing for you to worry about so much. How about you just tell me what you can? What's Dreadnot like?"

"It... It is a ship... The E.M.S. Dreadnought, Princess Luna's flagship in the Celestial Sea. During the war it was crewed by all kinds of ponies, but those in charge were all thestrals, so it has remained since the last day. There are many ghouls and other ponies living in the bowels of the ship and the town there, but thestrals rule it and occupy their posts above still." She whispered cautiously, navigating a minefield of things she couldn't talk about.

"That's pretty cool, big navy ship and all, I really do look forward to seeing it. So you're in charge huh? I bet you're pretty important for them to send you out after me, you did a great job after all, you actually found me when I was trying to hide. If Jade's sisters had you, they would have caught me a long time ago! So, umm... do you have a special somepony back home? Er... g-guess they'd want to buck the snot out of me for..."

I stopped at the tears welling up on her cheeks, oh come on! I was trying to be nice, what did I end up saying now? Every time I tried talking I screwed it up somehow. Witchy sniffled as she gave a reply in a sad, squeaky little voice that broke my heart. "Nopony back home likes me, don't worry, I've never had a special somepony, nopony would want to be with me. You have been so kind, you don't treat me like... H-Home is not a pleasant place for me Fast, I didn't know how much so until I came out here, met you and the others, watched you stand up to the Gunners instead of... T-That is why I do not mind your interest, thou are the first buck I've spent time with that would want to... w-with me."

It took a second to get over the panic at causing her tears, what she said made me stamp a hoof down in the shallow water and snort, holding her head in my hooves to force it down to mine and look her in those exotic amber eyes. "Then we can clear something up right now, I am focusing very, very hard right now Witchy, so I want you to believe this is me talking and not just rads or hormones ok? This is the honest, 100% truth. 'Be Strong!' I don't know why you think nopony would want to be with you, but you're wrong. Anypony would, I definitely do and I guarantee I'm not the only one. You are beautiful, tough, sweet, gorgeous, exotic... soft..."

"Boss... yer headin' off inta the weeds..." Val grumbled back ahead of us and snapped me out of it, dammit, I just said I was going to get through this as me...

"UGH! Sorry! Sorta drifted off course there for a second... I still mean it, I don't like hearing you talk like nopony would want to touch you or something. It's crazy, anypony would be lucky to be with you. Why don't you think so?"

Her high pitched voice sounded thick when she finally answered, wiping her damp eyes forcefully with her foreleg and avoiding eye contact. "B-Because that is what I have been told all my life. I... I am not a pure thestral Fast..."

She winced when she said that, like she was admitting to having a second head or a tentacle hidden under her armor. I stopped where I stood and tried to figure out the problem, letting the water rush around my hooves while I thought, nope... still wasn't making sense. "Umm... so? Does that mean something? You look like one to me, what am I missing here?"

"Y-You aren't revolted? I'm impure... u-ugly..." Her eyes widened a bit as she answered in a whisper, fluffy ears laid back like she expected a blow or some other abuse.

Val gave a loud snort of laughter that made her cringe, but was supportive instead of derisive. "Ugly?! C'mon, I ain't even in ta pony mares an' I think that's hilarious, ya ain't ugly batty. Boss ain't enough ta tell ya that's stupid?"

"He is just suffering the side effects of his transformation... O-Of course the only way a stallion would be interested was if he's n-not in his right mind..." Witchy replied sadly, getting another laugh out of Val for her admission.

"Boss ain't like that, still gotta think yer hot before he gets all worked up dummy, don't see him jumpin' ghouls or old mares do ya? 'Sides, seen plenty of them Minutemares in the castle fawnin' all over ya, ain't ya ever give any of them bucks or fillies a thrill?" Val chuckled back, staring closely at Witchy's surprised look. "Don't tell me ya didn't notice! They listen ta ya spewin' all that stuff about Luna right?"

"G-Goddess Luna always has many admirers and ponies who wish to hear of her glory. Of course everypony... wants... to hear..." Witchy's firm declaration dried up at Val and I giving her a flat stare together, a dawning look of shock slowly sinking in as we waited for it. "Y-You mean they... b-because of me?" By her wide eyes and red face, she really had no idea... she actually thought so little of herself?

I held her confused eyes with mine and tried to make her believe me. "That's silly Witchy. Val's right, even when I'm like ...this... I only get out of control around fillies I find attractive. I'm definitely not the only one that thinks so either, the ponies back at the castle are much more interested in you than goddess Luna, I er... I notice... a lot. P-Possessiveness and all... stupid I know, but jealousy does pop up. Why... how could you possibly think you're ugly?"

"M-My wings are small..." Witchy whimpered and curled the leathery appendages in tighter, molding them to her blue steel armor in an attempt to hide them.

"They're petite and exotic."

"My coat is too light..."

"It compliments your mane, and it's fluffy and soft..."

"My pupils aren't the right shape..."

"They're cute."

"The tufts of my ears are..."

"Adorable."

She was getting more flustered with my every smirking response, really I could do this all day if we weren't winding our way down some damp dungeon. The honest truth had the added benefit of turning her redder with each fault turned compliment, making her cuter as she squeaked and stamped her hooves in frustration. "Y-You just don't understand! Don't know any better! By thestral standards I'm not... I am mixed, impure, I'm half earth pony! A disgrace to Luna's Guard, c-compared to the others, everyone can see my ancestry, they have always treated me..."

"Then they're wrong Witchy. They're stupid bigots or blind, you are beautiful, outside and inside, which is more important anyway. You're right, I don't know about thestral standards and I don't care, I know what I like and I like you. You'd be a freaking poster mare for Luna's Guard back when I was a kid for Luna's sake! You are NOT ugly. When we go to Dreadnot, I want you to start pointing out everypony who ever said otherwise, I want a talk with them...."

Witchy often had a look of grateful surprise at compliments or gifts, the look of pure elation that broke out across her face now put them all to shame though. A tear dribbled down her rosy cheek and she lunged forward, engaging in a hug with strength that matched Jade, nuzzling and chirping happily. "Thank you! I was so afraid to tell you... I only dreamed you would say such, I was scared and... You really a-are not disgusted? You still feel..."

"YES! A LOT! LIKE RIGHT NOW! T-TOO CLOSE WITCHY!" I yelped in a ragged voice, biting my lip and moaning at my wings springing up, trying to stay in control and losing rapidly.

Thankfully she realized what she was doing, gasping and flapping away quickly. She stayed near the top of the small tunnel and watched me panting to myself cautiously, a soft smile on her muzzle that refused to go away despite how close she came there. She floated back down once I nodded warily, sounding delighted despite my obvious reaction, or because of it. "Sorry! Just... truly, thank you Fast. I have come to suspect they were wrong about many things back home, but the shame is still so hard to let go of. I doubted my mission, but not how I think of myself. It... it is a big deal where I am from... I was afraid you only found me attractive because you didn't know."

"No, I find you attractive period. And I didn't know. Two separate things Witchy, now that I do one still has nothing to do with the other. So why does it matter back in Dreadnot?"

She tossed her shimmery purple mane and sighed in answer. "We are Luna's elite, surviving and remaining her pure servants all this time to be faithful to her. Having a foal with a non-thestral is an affront to goddess Luna, a rejection of her favored form of ponykind. I'm tolerated, but viewed as unclean, thus I was sent out into the wasteland to find you, I am already corrupted you see. Though I am glad I was sent, the outside is much nicer than they said, s-so are the ponies living here... I think you're right and they were wrong about o-other things, many other things..."

"Alright, that's enough of that boss, chattin' up the bat while we're huntin' assholes. At least tell me how awesome I am too, makin' a gal feel left out ya know." Val grumbled and swatted me with her tail as we turned down a new passage, through the first of several heavy barred gates that had rusted away, leading to the rest of the sewers.

"You have no problems with confidence Val, you already know how great you are."

"Don't mean I don't wanna hear it anyway boss, go on, make with the sweet talk, pay me!" Val stuck her beak up and put an extra sway in her step leading the way, impatiently waiting until I resigned and did what she wanted.

"Ick... nasty fuckers... Alright, keep goin' boss, my tail?" Val skewered the last of the latest wave of zombies and waved me back to the long litany of compliments she had been prompting, totally unconcerned that the dripping feral she torched with her Shishkebab was not the normal variety, but another pink slime zombie.

I gave her a flat look as I holstered Deliverer and Best Served, trotting over to take a better look at this scorched example of undead pony that I had hoped only existed inside the MoM hub. Her wide grin and claws waving in a looping, 'come on' gesture forced me to keep going, trying to ignore the sinuous tail flicking my muzzle that I really wanted to start playing with.

"Your tail is graceful, that cute red fluff at the end is always silky and I like how it tickles..."

She puffed up at every compliment, sticking her chest out and proudly tromping down the passage, avoiding roots pushing their way down through the stone ceiling as she checked over all the corpses and left the slimy one to me. "Good, good... Now my claws boss, tell me how great my badass claws are!"

"They're dark and shiny, really dexterous and talented. C-Can't we continue this later Val? I think we're getting closer, lost their trail for awhile but we picked it back up, that noise is getting louder anyway. I'd like to know where the hell these things are coming from too..." I waved out to the twisting maze of passages ahead, the ringing of metal on stone was echoing and hard to track, but definitely louder. We had started coming across more corpses that we hadn't put down again too, the Gunners had to be nearby.

Witchy joined me and watched as I tried to wipe the pink goop away from the body where it wasn't scorched, the only way to put these things down for good. The batpony stuck her tongue out as I floated out murky water from the drainage channel and dumped it over the corpse, revealing a rotting hide, but not that rotten... a nasty looking patch of matted fur and scars around its neck.

This was a pony that died more recently, not a prewar victim of the Institute's 'Fluffer Batter', that bare patch looked an awful lot like where a slave collar would go too. That the zombies were down here in the sewers wasn't odd, Jade told me they liked dark and creepy places as a matter of course, but where were these slimy ones joining the rest?

The batpony mare seemed a lot more at ease and genuinely happy since our talk, even while wandering the dark sewers and dealing with hordes of undead. She poked at the squishy corpse and raised a fluffy eyebrow at me curiously, "Thou have seen these kinds of zombies before?"

"Yeah, yeah, whole friggin' building full of the slimy bastards. Who cares, go on boss, my fur, tell me how awesome my fur is. You like that it's brighter than most griffons right? Pay me!"

I groaned up at her eager grin, bouncing on her paws and stretching out her feline form to put all that orange on display, waiting for her praise. Between Val's demands and all the zombies down the new passages, my mind was kept occupied and in control at least. Better when fighting though, coming up with compliments meant actually thinking about what I was complimenting, which just went back down the rabbit hole of my lascivious thoughts chasing each other.

Still, it obviously made her happy, clucking in anticipation as she waved me on to keep going with a sigh. "Yes I like that it's bright and orange, umm... your fur is almost as soft as your feathers, broken up by all those scars I want to... er... i-isn't that enough Val?"

She misunderstood my reticence, a claw going back to her scarred flank protectively as she glared back. "W-What about my scars? Go on... finish that thought boss, I wanna hear it..."

I winced and hung my head, running my tongue over the nubs of my fangs trying to spring out at the thought. "...all those scars, I keep thinking about... a-about kissing them to make them better... happy!?"

Considering all the praise she had wrung out of me so far and how she had gotten back to her normal playful flirting, I was somewhat surprised at how red she got, a blazing neon color that shone through even her crimson feathers as she sputtered. "Y-You wanna... a-all of em?! Y-You been puttin' serious thought inta this boss, ain't ya? J-Jeez! Kiss my... t-though maybe that would be... gots me some in a few interestin' spots ya know! Kinda a big job! Know how I wanna be paid first now, when we get done here we..."

Witchy stretched her slender neck forward and grabbed Val's tail in her pointy teeth, eliciting a yelp of pain as she yanked the griffon back from the next bend in the tunnel we were following, not entirely avoiding the chatter of a automatic weapon punching her shoulder. The gruff yell of 'Traitor!' told me we found who we were looking for. A hail of gunfire poured down the passage around the bend, peeking past the brick let me see a trio of battered looking Gunners at the end of the next tunnel, their red marks on E.F.S. blending in with all the others surrounding us.

A griffon with a minigun streaming lead down the hall, along with pink beams of the matching M.E.W. version on his opposite flank. A unicorn with a long horn, floating a very new looking assault rifle, loaded with AP rounds by the way it drilled holes in the stone walls, and a severely musclebound earth pony, not attacking us but bashing away at the stone wall with a massive super sledge.

I checked my pip-buck map while we took cover, they had the same idea we did, trying to go around the blockage in the mayor's side entrance. We were near the long, straight passage on the map, past where it had stopped filling in, but easy enough to tell it had to be on the other side of the wall the earth pony was nearly through.

Val's grenade machinegun clicked menacingly as she winced at the pair of flesh wounds in her foreleg, that could have been so much worse if Witchy hadn't heard them in time. I had to stop her before she leapt back out around the corner to blow her former comrades to smithereens, holding her back and hissing a warning.

"Val! Tunnels! No big kabooms! We'll bring the whole place down on our heads!"

The explosive heavy weapon powered down as she growled in reply, "Fine! Still jumpin' out there boss, that's Ivan down there! Wants me a minute with that fucker if I can get it..."

She had to be referring to the griffon, a sleek grey brute, doing the majority of the covering fire as his burly earth pony cracked another large chunk out of the wall by the sound, a rumble of heavy stonework coming down with an echoed shout. Just the glimpse I got concerned me, the ponies with him looked like they were under the effects of X-Cell, already on the way to turning into mutant alicorns whether they knew it or not.

Before I could think of anything or reply, Eyes Forward Sparkle started filling with more red. The thunder of a lot of hooves and several deep roars echoed down the tunnels, converging on all the noise from the Gunner's weapons, zombies... not just a few at at a time like we had been dealing with, but a whole herd charging us and them both.

That alone would be bad enough, but a sickly yellow glow lit the dangling roots above us, the unicorn's magic bringing them to life and sending them all reaching down to ensare us. Great, their unicorn was already a better spell slinger than me, the dangerous drug he was taking was just making him stronger in the arcane arts too.

A thick black root snaked around my waist and tried to tug me up to the ceiling, several more latching on to Val and Witchy wherever they could as they ducked and dodged away. I pulled out Best Served and sent it spinning through the air, doing a little emergency pruning to free myself and them.

The Terrible Shotgun and Deliverer joined the knife settling in my mouth as I watched the trio of red dashes in my vision move, gulping at the wall of red all around us. The gunfire from the Gunners tapered off as they withdrew through their self made exit, letting me charge around the corner somewhat safely to follow.

An absolute horde of zombies was coming down the first tunnel I passed, I activated S.A.T.S. to line up as many rapid shots from my magical 10mm pistol as the spell could manage, the full extended clip and several more after thanks to the enchanted weapon's amazing speed. I accepted and let the gun get to work, trying to make a blockage in the narrow tunnel that would slow them down while the others ran past me, Val blazing away with her red M.E.W. while Witchy's silver combat rifle went to work at the next one down. At least they were keeping the Gunners busy too, chasing after them so they couldn't hang back at their exit.

1 out of 10 or so... maybe less, but there were more of those slime zombies among the horde. Worse yet, I spotted a few while S.A.T.S. had time paused that had pink splotches on their rotten hides, splotches that looked to be spreading... Were the slime zombies infecting the other ferals? Were they turning that way from whatever made the others to begin with?

They were few enough it wasn't a nightmare dealing with them like at the MoM hub, apparently it took awhile before they became amorphous blobs of death that got right back up. I fired Blue Moon from the flank repeatedly at them and hoped for a lucky shot. I had hoped the ones back in Goodneighbor were the only ones like that anywhere. The proof that wasn't the case was frightening.

"Fast! Bigger problems! Much bigger! Eeep!" Witchy's beautiful anti-materiel rifle fired with a suppressed crash as I flew towards her, tapping Val as I passed and dodging magically animated roots still trying to coil around us. On the plus side, the roots didn't discern between enemies, the zombies filling the tunnel behind me were getting tied up and further blocking their path thankfully.

I tried shouting to Witchy as a long root wrapped around her hindleg while she was distracted, it yanked her towards the ceiling as a scaly monster surged out of the tunnel she was facing. A flying tackle let me cut the root and move her out of the way of the rows of teeth snapping at her, clamping down on my leg instead and pulling me back towards the passage it came from. Then I was rolling in the shallow trench of water and getting shaken viciously, bashing my head against the moldy walls and floor in a blur.

The brief flashes I got of the thing and all its fellows were plenty for me to agree, 'big trouble' was an apt description. Radigators... we had run into a couple down here, but they must have been babies or something, these were big... crawling over each other and slithering down the tunnel, all snapping jaws and too many teeth.

The one with a good chunk of my hindleg clamped in its jaws kept twisting its long body and rolling around, taking me with it as it tried to tear my leg off for a snack. Sickening cracks and a wall of pain proved he was getting close to his goal, I was flopping around way too easily and not keeping up with my broken leg as it flung me up again, cracking my head on the corner of the channel in the middle of the floor. That got me a faceful of murky, foul tasting water I sucked in and choked on, lots of tiny, pretty fillies circling my head, along with stars in my vision.

Another had caught up, leaping forward to try tearing me in half and sharing with the first gator who was still thrashing around, 'You gotta share! You gotta care!' rang out in my battered head insanely and I tried to focus on my weapons where they fell 'Awareness!', the glow of my magic flickering around them keeping track of each somehow, but barely maintaining my grip.

The second radigator's huge jaws opened right in my face and lunged, then the top half of the thing's head was obliterated as I caught a whiff of its rancid breath. A .50 cal round right down its gullet saved me from that disgusting horror, another blasting the momentarily distracted first gator gnawing my leg off when its brains splashed all over it. Witchy's impressive weapon trailed a wisp of smoke as she dove forward, slashing with her curved sword at another gator trying to climb over the dead pair, her strong foreleg caught mine and yanked me out of the brackish water I was flopping in.

"Val! We're late for da magical tea party! Chasing the Gun.. Gun... badguys! Now! Get yer yo-yo an let's go!" I managed to slur out, hobbling towards the rubble at the base of the Gunner's exit with Witchy's help.

Every step felt like somepony packed my leg with ground glass and salt, a blinding agony of pulverized bones grinding together under the long line of puncture marks oozing blood down my leg. Focusing on the medical alerts in my vision was amazingly difficult, the little cartoon alicorn on the health system was very unhappy with me, showing a leg and my head both crippled, inexplicably tap dancing on the screen when I tried to look...

I limped to the jagged exit the Gunners had broken through the wall leaning on Witchy, moving to dive through and freezing at the metal discs on the fairly smooth floor on the other side, mines... they left mines for us to trip. Grabbing the three metal discs in my magic and tugging them free from the floor, I floated them back out the exit and waved Val and Witchy ahead of me. I really hoped the terminal entries I read were accurate and they built the Treasure's passage and vault up to Stable-Tec standards...

Val saw what I was up to and paused halfway out the hole in the wall, aiming her own explosive weaponry down the tunnel at the roaring herd of radigators, they moved amazingly fast for having such stubby little legs... and where did they find time to paint those toenails and put on lipstick anyway? I gulped and threw the mines right at the snapping maws, yelping at the painful yank of my tail by Val's claws as her grenade machinegun thumped rapidly.

Light and heat poured through the rough hole in the wall at the resounding series of explosions behind us, the sewers shook and I heard a loud 'crump!' of several tons of concrete coming down and scrambled to my three working hooves, staggering away unsteadily across the quaking stone. A lot of red on E.F.S. disappeared, but not all of it.

I barely had a moment to take in the fact we had returned to the mayor's entrance tunnel, the sudden FWOOSH! BOOM! of several missiles streaking by took my full loopy attention. There wasn't much of the long, straight passage left before it ended in a heavy security door, like the one that led to this place from the Mayor's house. Barring the door was the muscly earth pony, firing off shots from a pair of missile launcher battlesaddles with reckless abandon.

I tried to charge and promptly fell on my face, instantly covered by sweaty, sweet smelling batpony, shoving me to the corner of the passage and out of the way of another whistling missile. I appreciated Witchy tackling me and so protectively covering me, but she was also grinding my broken leg around in the process, making me scream as I struggled to make out which of the three Gunner earth ponies shooting at us was the real one.

"S-Sorry! Hold still, where are those potions of yours... aha! T-This will hurt Fast!" Witchy yelped in a frightened voice, ratcheting up in pitch to nearly inaudible levels, she dug in my saddlebags and tugged a green tinted healing potion in her teeth as Val streaked down the hall.

I would have pointed out it already hurt quite a bit and nothing she could do would really top that, but oh how I was wrong. Passing the potion to my muzzle with her mouth came dangerously close to a kiss my pain drenched brain insanely chose to focus on, then her hooves yanked my leg back into a rough approximation of the shape it should be and she tilted my head back, forcing the potion down over my renewed screams.

She let me go to thrash on the muck covered stone floor, giving me a chance to absently note we were on the other side of the rubble that had blocked us before, it looked like the same kind of tumbledown pile of stone anyway. A lot of ominous looking cracks were in the concrete ceiling, worsened by the explosive assault of the Gunner Val was tangling with. She flitted from one side of the hall to the other, bouncing off the walls and laying down a stream of red M.E.W. fire, forcing the orange earth pony back to the steel door for cover as she closed in.

The Last Minute weakly floated in front of my blurry vision, had to do something to help, don't let the fucker get away... Witchy's anti-materiel rifle attached to her armor gave a soft 'pfft' and put a big dent in the steel door by his head before I could fire, thinking the same thing I was by her scowl at the missed shot. The big bruiser looked pissed and dodged back out from the door, a stray missile misfired into the ceiling when Val gave him blazing red incentive to take cover before he could aim again.

Activating S.A.T.S. gave pretty poor odds with all those pink dragons in the way... no, head trauma in the way... come on, focus. 30% odds for a headshot, a glowing outline of his body visible even behind the door. I accepted the shot and hoped, the gauss rifle whining up to full power and firing with a flat crack.

Witchy's dent weakened the heavy steel door, the blur of the 2mm EC round hit the same spot and blew straight through it, the big buck fell away with a heavy thump and the door swung free. Just to be sure, Val reached the bastard right as he sank to the ground, her Shishkebab ignited as she drew it from her back, slicing his head free of his thick neck in one smooth motion as she landed.

The red dashes of the other two Gunners had gone out of range, they left that one to kill us and catch up. Well, somepony would be catching up, as soon as all the cracks in the walls stopped dancing... The weird pictures they were making were way to frantic to keep up with so I shut my eyes against them, waiting for my head to stop ringing like a bell... just a little nappy poo and...

A slap to the muzzle made my eyes shoot back open and stare right into the slitted amber stare of Witching Hour, worriedly squeaking inches from my face, her sweet breath blowing my grey mane back and filling my nostrils. "Fast! You can't sleep! Concussion! W-Wake up!"

Those soft lips kept mouthing scared sounding words, close and glistening... pearly little fangs peeking out on the louder syllables. If she wouldn't let me sleep she could give me something else to do... Even with everything in my head tossing like a ship at sea, my lewd urges were bolted down in place and concussion proof apparently.

"P-Pretty..." I managed to croak out, panting and wincing on the ground while my leg kept rearranging back into shape.

Val landed softly over me in a gust of musty air, snapping her claws in my face. "Hey! Hey boss! Stay up, c'mon stay awake stupid!"

I goggled up at her, waving my hooves feebly towards the bright and slightly bloody griffon watching closely with those clear violet eyes, aiming for the middle Val head. "Val... pretty too...."

She rolled her eyes and punched the blushing Witchy on the shoulder, snorting happily and sitting down with a thump against the damp wall. "Yeah, he's fine... dunk him in the water in a minute batty, then let's get goin'. Two ta go now..."

"Kickin' me outta my basement! Where am I 'posed ta keep all my cleaning supplies and tools!? All you ponies think the Town Hall stays all squeaky clean on its own!? Been doing things the old fashioned way, trying to explain the facts of life face to face, but if you town council ponies will listen if its on one of these fancy terminal thingys then I'll give it a shot.

Know all of you just loooove the new mayor and all his bright ideas, turning what was a nice little town into this hoity toity carnival, but that stallion has pretty messed up priorities that are gonna sink this town! For all the bits he's brought in with them deals with Summerville Plantation and their 'gourmet crops', he's spendin' twice as much on this foalish 'Treasures of Jamocha Plains' nonsense!

Any of you know the construction crews hauled in a load of Bitalian marble to redo the floors for example!? Boiler's leaking, air conditioner's on the fritz, rusty pipes are held together with spit and duct tape, wiring is a major fire hazard with all the juice you ponies keep drawing for more of these stupid Stable-Tec gadgets, but there's no money in the budget to do any actual important repairs is there? All for this crazy tourist scheme!

That's why I got booted out of my office down here, pitched a fit when I saw some of the crazy materials being used down here. You all insist on going along with that goofy buck and his dumb ideas, it's on you when you're freezing your tails off come winter cause the boiler kicked the bucket!"

Cracking the terminal in the dusty little janitorial office wasn't easy with everything all wobbly still, the tiny text kept dancing on the glowing green screen, but it gave me something to try to get my head straight, plus it also had a basic maintenance map of the building. A rotting old jumpsuit hung on the door in from the first hall we wound up in, the nametag 'Sloppy Mop' gave me a name for the poor maintenance pony who had worked here. I empathized with him, the hall beyond the heavy steel security door was indeed dirty but very fancy marble floors, anypony who'd pay for that with the real repair problems he listed waiting was asking for trouble later.

It did confirm we were in the basement of the ruined Town Hall above us though, I groaned and got up from the rickety old office chair, hooves clopping on the insane Bitalian marble as I staggered back out with the others. The maintenance room gave me the terminal of a fellow repair-pony, along with the assortment of junk and parts to pillage while I caught my breath, but we still had Gunners to deal with.

Following the trail of the remaining two mercenaries wasn't hard, disturbed dust and dribbles of blood led us on. Sloppy Mop had been right, the Town Hall above us was utterly demolished, while the refurbished basement was surprisingly intact, reflecting all the bits that had obviously been poured into the construction down here. It was a pain finding a way in, but now that we were, moving and tracking the Gunners was a lot easier.

Making my weaving way after Val and Witchy following the spatters of blood on the expensive marble, I poked my head in the sturdy door marked 'Community Shelter'. A lot of bones... small piles of dead ponies huddling together, but also an interesting elevator door and few medical supplies left in the yellow boxes bolted at regular intervals down the walls.

What was remaining got floated to my packs in a wobbly train, a vial of Med-X making a detour to my flank, I still had a hitch in my step and head was killing me. Having a superpowered telepathic alicorn tear things up in there, then getting a nice concussion on top of that, left my noodle feeling brittle and wrung out. Enough so it took a minute to figure out the red lights and blaring alarm were actually happening and not just in my head.

"What the hell, who touched somethin'!?" Val screeched as I held my head in my hooves at the noise, wincing and barely able to focus on the red dashes appearing on E.F.S. behind my clenched eyes.

Witchy's ears were laid back and she had a pained expression, her silver combat rifle swung up in her muzzle and blasted a nearby speaker with a chatter. Enough relief for my twitching ear to copy her tufted ones, picking up a clanking noise she was making out better than I could and more. "'Security... stupid... hurry...' They are not far, yelling at each other, one tripped security and there are..."

"HALT VISITOR! THIS AREA IS OFF LIMITS! TERMINATING TARGET! COME SEE THE TREASURES OF JAMOCHA PLAINS WHEN IT OPENS AFTER YOUR DEMISE." A clattering protectron clomped its way out of one of the rotting doors off the hallway we were following, blazing pink magical beams firing from its glass dome of a head completing Witchy's warning.

Robots, the Gunners were ahead of us and messing with something that woke them up. At least they were regarding both of our groups as equal targets, I didn't relish the thought of getting a taste of my own medicine if whoever was tickling the keyboard had the skills to turn them on us only.

More of the bulky, pony-shaped robots were tromping out ahead an behind us, all painted blue and white, a yellow star on their flanks adding to the impression of police ponies. Either their programming had gotten corrupted, or somepony had actually authorized them for lethal force to protect whatever the treasure was, lending the legend more credence.

Witchy's rifle blasted a hole through the heavy torso of the nearest Protectron, giving me a second to concentrate against the spike of pain calling up my lightning spell caused. The crackling bolt was off target, but widespread enough to catch two out of three of the next closest clump of robots as I managed to hobble up to a canter.

"Come on, not far now!" I shouted hoarsely and kept moving, relying on the Terrible Shotgun to send heavy slugs through robotic innards, aiming for vital parts of the machines as well as I could manage.

We charged through a set of wide double doors at the end of the hall together, moldy red carpet squishing under my hooves as I was forced to take cover behind a small podium with a steel box beside it, a slot in the lid for tickets just like at the movies. Rows of broken seating offered more cover for Val and Witchy to dive to, avoiding the pink beams zeroing in on us.

Several of the Protectrons were focused on the other side of the small ticket room, clumping together in the wide doorway, one or two noticing our presence behind them and turning their glass heads completely around in a creepy display to attack us. Angry shouts and a roar of a minigun behind them was chewing into the cluster of robots, offering a limited view into the next room.

An even smaller chamber than this one, with a long hall opposite the doors glowing dimly red, brighter beams of the same color formed a complex web stretching down the hall, ending at a heavy square of steel door that would look more at home in a bank vault. There was a control console to the right of the doorway in, the unicorn Gunner was tapping frantically at the controls while the griffon covered him, pouring lead from his battlesaddle and screeching at the numerous burns he had taken.

It was tempting to let the robots just keep attacking them, wear them down more and mop up what was left. That yellow unicorn with the long horn might get lucky though, I barely caught sight of a keycard slotted into the console before him, a leather lanyard dangling by his hooves. Cocoa Latte paid a lot for that key from scavengers who got lucky out in the ruins, if it granted high enough access, even the Gunner tech might turn this around on us.

The Last Minute floated up and braced against the top of the podium I sheltered behind, big chunks of faux wood getting scorched off the metal interior that was heating up at my back rapidly. I glanced to Val and Witchy, miming clicking a keyboard with my hooves and bringing one hoof up to tap my head, spreading both wide in a 'boom!' gesture and glancing at the gauss rifle over my head.

They both got it with no more than that, nodding back and leaping into action when I rose to the rifle's sights. It was a narrow shot, continually blocked by the jostling robots getting shredded by the griffon, I couldn't rely on S.A.T.S. for such a limited opportunity. Val's M.E.W. and Witchy's combat rifle tore into the pair of Protectrons turned our way, giving me breathing room to line up the shot.

The burly grey griffon spotted them when the robots fell, or spotted Val anyway, trying to direct more of his stream of fire towards her, through the wall of Protectrons in the way. "Traitor! Yer dead! All yer fucking 'friends' are dead! Killin' you here and every cap we get outta this treasure is goin' towards bullets to massacre that damn castle!"

Luckily he didn't see me crouching behind the podium, focusing on Val and Witchy to the right, blocked from seeing his partner madly tapping away by the door frame. He came away a little more at Val's shouted taunts too, making this even easier. "Thanks fer doin' the hard work gettin' here Ivan! Think I'll just take this stash off yer claws for ya! Consider it a down payment on what ya owe me! Won't need it where yer goin' fucker!"

That high pitched whine constantly issuing from the weapon by my head drilled right into my ears, making me relieved to finally release the trigger when the window opened. The Gunner griffon took down one that kept getting in my way, giving me a prime shot at his partner's head I took the second it presented itself, the flat crack of the Last Minute blew a hole out through the unicorn's head, exiting right below that long horn and splattering the console with his brains.

That put a definite crimp in the griffon's plans, the last Gunner squawked in fury as the final Protectron went down, turned to ash from a rain of pink M.E.W. fire that started melting my narrow bit of cover. "YOU! Oh you bastard! Yer both dead!!!"

Val pulled a pair of metal apple grenades and I had to wave her off again, that would be a lot easier, but the console decorated in viscera was right there, any chance of getting the treasure required it remaining intact. Not easy as the griffon dove behind it for cover, preventing me from even taking potshots at him for fear of destroying the sensitive equipment.

Witchy moved up to the doorframe silently, trusting Val's stream of insults to keep the Gunner dividing his attention between herself and me, we both had pretty high freaking bounties after all, while the batpony was an unknown. Val was giving me enough space to peek around the podium and think, the angle to shoot the bastard was poor with the console between us, the magical laser grid glowing behind him.

My brain was still awful sluggish, but focused on those criss crossing lines of magic, we found the robots listed on the Treasure's budget in the office of the ruined Town Hall above us, but no turrets yet... Narrow hall... shooting gallery. I glanced around and found a dusty old empty Sparkle Cola bottle in the corner, that would work... just have to trust I could undo the damage by reaching that console. I floated it in the glowing blue field of my magic, bobbing over the door above Witchy's head as I stared at her hopefully.

She took a big breath, making her blue steel breastplate rise as she stood on her hindlegs, plastered against the wall beside the door, her cheeks puffed out as she held it and her amber eyes darted towards the gunfire. At my nod and distracting clamber out from cover, she stuck her head around the edge just as the Gunner spotted me charging forward, making a beeline for the console with lightning propelling me forward, ignoring the 5mm rounds chewing the expensive marble floor up in a line tracing towards me.

Bluish purple rings of sound issued from Witchy's wide open mouth, sending the Gunner's claws to his head as he staggered back. Sound wouldn't destroy the console ...probably, but it gave me room to run and stopped all that fire coming my way. As Witchy ran out of breath, I hit the doorway and tugged the empty bottle with me, flinging it over the griffon's head and towards the hall.

I jumped for the cover of the bloody console, watching the glass container arc through the air down the hall. Come on... don't tell me my luck's so bad it was gonna go down the hall without breaking a single beam!? When a glowing red line lit the bottle up like a prism, I breathed a sigh of relief despite the heavy weapons turning my way as the griffon recovered. Half a dozen panels in the ceiling of the long hallway behind him slid open, sleek round turrets dropping down and spinning towards the closest target, him.

A rainbow of hot death took the griffon apart before I ducked behind the console and patched my pip-buck in rapidly, shoving the corpse of the unicorn working at it before me away with my hindlegs and curling up in the kneehole. Every one of those turrets featured a high class magical energy weapon of a different color, and they were all fast.

The distinctive sound of something solid being turned to ash made its way to my ears, along with the sound of whirring turrets seeking out the next target that had disappeared behind their own controls, an off limits target unless the programming was severely screwed.Witchy and Val helped keep them distracted, waving around the doorframe to give them targets they couldn't hit while I tried to make my eyes focus on all the tiny text.

Several beams of various colors scorched the walls and doors, but nothing else, giving me time to hack through the security the dead unicorn had been foiled by. It was tough, the stupid Gunner had locked the terminal out with his fumble-hoofed attempts, but they had stolen the Mayor's keycard for Celestia's sake! After navigating the safe mode backdoor and sweating at the difficulty, I managed to give me one more administrator level attempt and I broke through. A few proper commands shut the system down and we all breathed a sigh of relief.

Val flew past me in a rush as I climbed back out of my hidey hole, giving an extra flap over the pile of ash that used to be Ivan, before landing at the threshold of the hall leading to that vault door. She pranced in place on her paws, rubbing her claws together and beaming at me as the laser grid shut down one section a time.

"Let's go get us some treasure boss!" Val grinned and I nodded wearily, following her excited gaze to the waiting vault door.

Welcome to the Treasures of Jamocha Plain, I'm Mayor Trenderhoof, creator and curator of the Treasures. Within the walls of this time capsule museum, you, our descendants, will find the items, mementos and treasures I've collected in my travels. To you in the future, these relics may seem quaint. But that's my thing. I take the mundane, the simple, the unappreciated, and I make it relatable. I've traveled all over before settling down here in the hidden gem in Equestria's crown, being the most interesting pony around made my retirement here in Trotson a relief, but I still have a duty to share my treasures with the future. May that future be bright. On behalf of all of us, we wish you well. This is Mayor Trenderhoof, speaking for the town of Jamaica Plain.

Mission Updated: X Marks the Spot

Objectives-------
---Eliminate the Gunner treasure hunters
---Find the Treasures of Jamocha Plains
---Return to Cocoa Latte

"WHAT. THE ACTUAL. FUCK!?!"

Val's screech of fury beside me summed up how I felt pretty well too. For all the hype, all the insane security, the blood and numerous treasure hunters who had died searching for it over the years, the Treasures of Jamocha Plain was kind of a letdown...

A small, bank vault sized room waited behind the heavy steel doors, tables and display cases lining the walls around an ornate, tasseled rug under the a center display. One of several holotapes beside the glowing terminal to read them on at the center table had an inventory I perused with growing disbelief, finding the fancy rug listed as 'Saddle Arabian Carpet - Non-Flying variety found in the kitchyest little bazaar stand'.

Even with my penchant for collecting junk myself, my temper was flaring at the other 'Treasures' in here, warring with the bubbling laughter that won out, spilling from my puffed out cheeks as I rolled on the fancy carpet. "It's all junk! All this, for a room full of junk!"

"S'not funny boss! How is any of this crap treasure?!?!" Val fumed over me, picking me up off the floor by my shoulders and shaking me in fury, waving a dark claw out at all the displays.

I wiped a tear away with a chuckle and floated a ragged and scorched Equestrian flag off the flagpole by the terminal, carefully folding the image of the stylized alicorns chasing the sun and moon in a circle. "Well, this is a flag from Shattered Hoof Ridge, it's a historical artifact I'm snagging Val. Let me look around, maybe there's other good stuff."

I winced when her claws gripped the tattered flag to rub it in my face, it was old and fragile. "This! This is a rag boss! Where's the gold!? Where's the jewels!? Guns? Something!?"

A warbling honk cut off her ranting and we both turned to Witchy in surprise, the batpony filly blushing and removing the weird looking, double ended blue horn from her pursed lips. "A flugelhorn... crystal empire relic by the little sign, what's this book with it Fast?"

There was one of the slim magazines by every exhibit, issues of 'Gallop and Prance', this one showing snowy mountains on the faded cover held in Witchy's pointy teeth. The inventory confirmed what she said, listing it along with a musty but very warm looking fuzzy hat called; 'Ushanka hat from Yakyakistan, winter's hottest trend!' and a beautiful robe...thing of dark blue silk and delicate white flowers I was looking over.

The magazine accompanying the robe I was eyeing showed an exotic, tropical land of red roofed towers, the entry said 'Kimono from Neighpon, hoof crafted by an ancient master!'. I grabbed both articles of clothing from the 'Fashion Chic' display as the inventory called it, the hat did look warm and it was getting colder every night, Glitter's little ears looked frozen on our last flight together. The kim... kimo... the fancy robe would be a nice gift for Jade, we should get something out of this farce anyway.

I pointed back to the book standing up on the desk by the terminal and shrugged wearily, "Travel magazines Witchy, the pony who did this was a writer, must be what he wrote for. I think he had a pretty high opinion of himself and a really silly idea Val. Some of this stuff is interesting, er... to me anyway, but it's all old world valuables, like my comics..."

"JUNK! NNGGGHAAAAA!!! All friggin, stupid, junk! You dumbass, smarmy, no good...!" Val roared and snatched the hardcover volume up, tearing pages out of the tome titled 'Trenderhoof's Travels' and tossing them over her head in a tantrum.

Just from the inventory entries, I sorta doubted it was anything I wanted to read, but I figured I'd just keep quiet about that little loss with Jade. A book is a book after all, even as silly and pretentious as this Trenderhoof's writings seemed, it was information on a lot of parts of prewar Equestria, even I winced at the destruction.

A glance at the inventory was a relief anyway, 'Trenderhoof's Travels - Fabulous collection of my articles put together here in Trotson, digital copy on holotape included!'. That was probably one of the number of holotapes by the terminal then, it wasn't gone forever at least. I did subtly float all the digest sized magazines away from their exhibits and to my bags before she found them, if he wrote articles only, there'd be other stuff in the rest of the travel magazines.

I rushed Witchy along in her inspection of a magically amplified guitar; Authentic Street Musician Guitar from Seaddle, before Grunge was all the rage', and a dusty black record from the days before holotapes, 'Ponytones Recording, first pressing made in Manehatten. Music sounds so much richer on vinyl, holotapes just sound so digital and soulless.'.

That whole table was listed as 'Music and Literature' and I raised an eyebrow, watching the thestral stashing the items there in her own dark leather bags, shuffling shyly and smiling at Val's tantrum. "You don't mind? If they're just going to waste here..."

I had to duck as a thrown object shattered with a tinkle against the wall; 'Crystal Wine Goblets from Prance, brings out the flavor of Equestria's finest wines.' and Val snatched more to throw, pausing with a grumble at the heavy silver and ceramic mug she happened on 'Holstenierburg Beer Stein, everypony needs their own traditional stein for Oktoberfest'.

Her eyes set in an angry scowl, but she huffed and tucked it away in her coat, glaring around for something else to throw as she raged. "Fuckin' Treasures of Junk-mocha Plain more like it! Gawd tell me this fucker's a ghoul somewhere so I can kill him again!!"

"I don't mind Witchy, just get it while the getting's good. You like music stuff? Can you play any of that?"

A dingy old banjo 'McColt made original from the Smokey Mountains, gift after a wonderfully rustic hootnanny, even taught me a simple 9 note song to play!' was on its way to her Pinkie-space enchanted bags as she nodded happily and plucked a few strings. "Some of it yes! I umm... h-have time for hobbies back home, you might say I have an ear for music as well."

Her tufted ears stood up straight and started swiveling independently at her joke, getting an honest laugh out of me that looked to make her happy just spreading the laughter. For a mare that could hear a pin drop three rooms over in a thunderstorm, as well as being able to blast out sonic attacks with her voice, it wasn't much of a stretch to see her being good at musical instruments.

"Can't wait to hear what you can do then, just don't let Val smash any of it while she... ah, nevermind, she found something."

The big brown jug of 'something' was marked with a trio of X's, but listed as 'Froggy Bottom Bog Moonshine, made by a family of bootleggers agreed to be best in the bog 20 years running! Sip, don't slug.', so of course Val yanked the cork out with her claws and slugged the whole thing over her head, gasping and pounding her chest at her drink, but looking slightly less pissed off.

She was over at the 'Local Flavors' display, the various bottles she was rummaging through now didn't interest me too much, since they wouldn't really do anything to me now, though I wouldn't mind tasting some like the 'Puerto Caballo Rum, best served in a fresh coconut at an exclusive little beachside bar for locals'.

The rusting tin can and coffee mug caught my interest for other reasons. Red with a bright yellow sun logo, the can had a small, inset picture of this a pair of orange diamonds crossed with Xs. Coffee... I checked the entry in the inventory and floated the can over to look at closely, the presence of coffee growing in this area when it shouldn't be able to was still nagging at me.

'Summerset Plantation Roast - Trend's Blend, a thank you for discovering the test plots for Equestrian grown coffee and making it chic. Jamocha Plain's trendiest coffee shops sold so much, they made my own blend!'. Summerset Plantation then... test plots, that clinched it for me, if there was one thing the Institute loved, it was testing things out... The updated icon on my map for the place wasn't that far to the west, plus it was being operated by Silver Seed Agriculture from what I found out, definitely had to go snooping that way, soon.

A little digging on the 'Arts and Literature' display uncovered some actual treasures, a still gleaming crimson feather pen, a round leather tube with a vellum scroll sticking out, bits of ribbon along with a horseshoe shaped wax seal of gold and rich wood, and a matching golden inkwell, 'Canterlot Correspondance Kit, found in an antique stationary shop off the beaten path, became my favorite writing tools while I was still working.'.

I'd just take that... A good writing implement was surprisingly hard to find when you wanted one, something for Ivy may appreciate for teaching her orphans to read and write like she talked about doing. A rolled up scroll with ancient, stylized and somewhat familiar pictures of ponies in diagrams made me blush and stash it away quickly in my bags, 'First translation ancient edition of the Pony Sutra, found in Calcolta' well.... Peri should have her own copy after everything she put me through, she liked the pictures and these colorful illustrations were better than her hastily scratched notes. Of course I may just have my pip-buck sort of... scan it all in first... for posterity... it was very old after all.

It was the next object that finally made Val happy, flapping over in a rush and snatching it from my blue telekinesis field. "Finally! Treasure! Good job boss, bout ta burn this whole friggin place down!"

The small golden idol was ugly and bizarre, lower fangs jutting up over a wide ring of lips drawn in a grimace, octagonal ruby eyes, cat like ears and all four paws wrapped around an exaggerated potbelly. Make that five paws... the long tail wound around the base to grasp along with the others at the bottom. 'Golden Idol from Tenochtitlan Basin, presented by a fabulously real tribal elder after joining in their spirit ceremony' It was disturbing and alien, but it was gold and jewels which was all Val cared about.

Relieved at her dancing with glee to herself, I kept poking around in the dust and detritus from the ceiling tiles that had come down overhead. A jagged and sharp looking cylinder of yellowed bone or ivory... a shoe? 'Roaman Legatus Dragonslayer Bracer, found in a zebra bazaar, in my youth before the war made everything zebra totally out of style of course', well, anything zebra related Zed may appreciate, into the bag it went too. Calling this stuff treasure was a stretch, but at least all my friends deserved a present. I was determined this would not be a total waste...

I managed to come up with a few more jeweled or golden bits of junk, no great dragon's treasure hoard, but every scrap made Val a little happier. What I at first took for a rotting hunk of wood made me look to Witchy, still going through the music display. I eyed her gleaming crescent sword on her hip and grinned at the piece of dark wood, a deep, polished grain so dark it looked rotten and worthless where it fell in the corner, remarkable only for the hints of tarnished silver until I brushed the dust off.

"Here Witchy, everypony should get a gift out of all this mess, this belongs with you anyway. For um... putting up with all my a-advances and nonsense in general..."

I waggled the intricately carved scabbard under her widening eyes, enjoying the sight of her jaw dropping as they traced over every loving detail and I read the item description from my pip-buck; 'Ceremonial Scabbard, made by a thestral master craftspony in Hollow Shades, from the wood of their Ebonwood Trees.', batponies must stick to the same basic designs, as the scabbard matched Witchy's sword almost perfectly.

She noticed the same thing, glancing back to the weapon at her side and to me rapidly, her cute voice a squeaky whisper. "I... I can.... y-you are sure?"

Her shaking hooves reached out to accept it and I floated it just out of her grasp, raising an eyebrow at her confusion and laying down a simple condition. "So long as every time you look at how beautiful it is, you remember you are too, not ugly right?"

At least she grabbed the scabbard carefully and stowed it away before tackling me, but a teary eyed freight train of armored batpony was still incoming. The sagging display table for 'Fashion Chic' was shattered under the force of her embrace, pinning me against the wall, with some uncomfortable shards of wood trying unsuccessfully to poke through my armor as she nuzzled my cheek like mad. "R-Right! I will r-remember Fast! I promise! THANK YOU!"

Instantly the pain in my head and my leg eased a bit under the rush of affection, even better than the Med-X I was relieved to find still worked properly, stirring me up again now that there wasn't anything to kill. My wings pulled themselves free from where they were pinned against the wall to spring up as I gasped in her grip, "Ok! N-No problem Witchy! Too close! Still pretty charged up!"

Luna save me from your crazed servant, she didn't jump back but kept right on rubbing cheek to cheek, making my mane start itching while she had her nose buried in it, taking long, happy breaths as she continued thanking me for what could have easily been disregarded as junk. A prim whisper of 'Be Unwavering' fought off the growl of 'MINE', being generous meant accepting honest thanks, not getting something out of it... definitely not what 'Be Dark...' wanted.

Val finally huffed and tromped over, grabbing Witchy's shining armor by the round collar and pulling her away, the batpony blushing a light pink with easy to spot sparkles dancing in her eyes. My griffon friend rolled her eyes and looked down at me, panting raggedly and cringing against the wall. "Alright boss, go over all this crap if you want, but guessin' we need ta get outta here right? C'mon batty, stick ta sweepin' this place clear o' loot, long trip back an' we gotta find ways around the shit we blew up..."

"A-Actually... t-thank the goddesses, there's an easier way out Val, emergency escape lift from the shelter. One way thing, made to shove wreckage aside in case of a tornadoes and tidal waves, saw it on the blueprints. G-Gimme a second... go through it without destroying any more, check over the rest of the basement, let's take all of it, just sort through what we don't want. Then yeah, want to go back to Jade... now... Cocoa can wait to find out about her 'Treasures'."

Just mentioning the name of the sexy mare who sent us on this bloody errand made my wings stiffen with an ache. I was not going anywhere near that filly in this state, I wanted Jade, and Ivy... and Val.... and Witchy... and... 'Be Kind...', nnnn... focus, there was what I wanted, but I needed rest too. This had been a long, painful day, Glitter was still surely waiting for her story too, unless she was on a sugar overdose given where we were staying...

A tired glance over in the corner I was hiding in made me feel better about Val destroying that book on display, another nearly pristine copy was shoved under the back leg of the nearest display table to level it. Must not have been a big seller exactly... I tugged it free and read over the cover again, stumbling up to look over where the shredded copy came from and collecting all the holotapes there.

The author of 'Trenderhoof's Travels' had been all over Equestria, that was interesting even if he was such a narcissist, putting his own book on display in this crazy 'Treasures of Jamocha Plains' exhibit to himself, propped up right beside a framed photo of himself.

A tall brown unicorn, graying blonde mane and tight green sweater under his skinny cut jacket, goofy glasses perched on his muzzle. A matching pair sat beside the photo and terminal, a crack going down one of the lenses, but the white frames were in good shape, plus you never knew, glasses could be useful.

Jade said with no real optometrists around anymore, her Followers paid for any pairs of prescription glasses they could find and kept them in a grab bag for ponies that needed them, trying out glasses and hoping for a pair that worked. I grabbed this pair and flicked the photo away with my hoof, just because I somewhat liked some of the junk, didn't mean I wasn't pissed at the idiot too. 'Treasures of Jamocha Plains' my ass...

The emergency evacuation lift in the shelter squalled and screeched its way up, making me a little nervous crammed in the tight space with Val and Witchy, getting increasingly foggy with the two of them pressed so close. Getting stuck in an elevator would end up bad... or good... no, mostly bad... Thankfully the heavy pistons driving the lift up shoved through the wreckage on top of it with a snap of rotting timbers and the muffled sounds of lots of tumbling stone, we came out in the ruined Town Hall above, a bulge of rubble shoved aside just as the escape lift should work.

Once it was up, using it to go back down wouldn't be hard, there was just no controls for it above ground. If nothing else, Cocoa go go take a look herself if she didn't believe us about the 'Treasures of Jamocha Plains' being a joke. Frankly at this point I could care less, the Gunners poking around after it were dead, their hopes for an influx of wealth to pay for their campaign against us were doomed from the start.

The three of us winged our way back to the fortified and living part of Jamocha Plains, I was worried it would take longer to find Jade and the others than it actually did. A blue and a green alicorn in a town of normal ponies tend to stand out well enough, both of them actually galloping down the street after a streaking blur of white and pink was hard to miss.

I sped up to crash in front of the tiny pony at the head of the pursuit, barely managing to get to my hooves before the giggling streak slammed into me. In a battle of earth pony strength vs. earth pony strength, I tended to win lately, Glitter had sugar on her side though, tipping the balance and sending us both rolling across the cracked asphalt, tittering crazily and planting rather sloppy kisses on my face as we did.

We landed with her on top and still overpowering me, the reason for the sticky affection clear as her normally pale face was covered in sweet brown chocolate, spattered all over her muzzle beneath spinning pink eyes. "DADDY! Ohmigosh this place is awesome they have so many kinds of sweets I wanna live here can I have more caps how'd it go did you get treasure we have lots of money now right you have to try these I saved one for you taste!"

Her rapid chattering ended with a gooey eclair shoved whole in my muzzle, the little filly trembling with barely restrained energy watched me try to chew around the mouthful and hum my approval. Pleased she had done well in not devouring that one saved back treat, she turned to spreading chocolate all over my armor with frantic nuzzling, giving me an excuse to hug her tightly enough so she couldn't bolt off again as Jade and Ivy skidded to a halt over us.

Both were out of breath and sweaty, a tired smile curling Jade's panting lips. "Fast... thank... goddesses.... Glitter.... stop..."

"H-Hi hon, er... did I miss something? I only gave her a few caps to spend..."

Ivy snorted and narrowed her eyes at the jittery filly, "A few as far as you know, you are not very good with money to begin with Fast. You also failed to account for just how far this little robber could stretch what you did give her. That poor chocolate shop mare was relieved she didn't want her funny hat by the time she was done."

The green alicorn's matching magic surrounded Glitter and I released my tenuous hold, letting her float away and struggle with blurring hooves scrambling at thin air, if she was in contact with the ground I had to wonder if she'd be halfway to Sanctuary by now. Her sister taking care of keeping our daughter from blasting off again gave Jade a moment to catch her breath, leaning in to nuzzle affectionately and pausing at all the chocolate smeared over my face and coat.

She smiled sweetly and gave a slow lick up my cheek, smacking her lips at the act that made my mane bristle and itch instantly. "She has been a hooffull Fast, be less generous in a place like this with her. I take it things went well? You all look awful, let's have a look at the damage you've done before anything else, the mare at the Quik-Care clinic is friendly and has agreed to allow me access to her facility, such as it is... Did you find treasure for all your injuries?"

Val's angry huff and punch to a scorched phone pole was answer enough, I sighed and waggled a hoof to elaborate vaguely as I drifted dreamily after her pale tail. "Sort of... long story, we did get some gifts out of it anyway, plus the Gunners are gone."

"And were you... erm... a-are you still in the state you were when you left? Did you..." Jade asked shyly, staring back with sparkling eyes that flicked to Val and Witchy trailing us to the Helpinghoof Quik-Care.

"Still the same as when I left Jade, no slip ups. R-Ready to go to... umm... sleep, tired..." With Glitter still fighting madly to get loose and find more sugar, I couldn't precisely come out and say I wanted nothing to do with checking our injuries, and everything to do with finding our room for the night.

She got the clever subtext regardless... Her blue cheeks reddened and my princess smiled secretively, closing her eyes happily as she pranced towards the dingy old clinic in the strip mall ahead. The pale filly serving as the medical pony for Jamocha Plains looked awful young to be a doctor, a worried look crossing her face when the bent bell dinged above the door, until she saw Jade filling the doorway.

"O-Oh! Doctor Jade! umm Princess Doctor Jade? G-Glad it's you, t-thought I had a patient..." The pony in charge scratched her frazzled and frizzy yellow mane, seeming pretty grateful for having another doctor instead of a patient, though she did notice the rest of us limping in behind her and yelped. "Oh no! G-Guess I do have patients too? Umm... potions! W-Would you like potions? Bandages? Med-X maybe?"

Huh... she was a unicorn, didn't she know healing spells? She seemed nervous until Jade soothed her, smoothly taking over and trotting past the counter to the exam rooms beyond. "That's alright Butterscotch, I will handle the treatment of these three. If we could use your facilities of course, would you care to assist me? We can practice the spells I mentioned teaching you, whether you choose to join the Followers or not I would be happy to share my knowledge as I said. You will be hard pressed to find better patients to practice on, my Fast has a habit of finding ways to hurt himself and Valkyrie is not far behind. It is a bit cramped everyone, I will attend Fast first if there are no pressing wounds you are hiding from me?"

The local doctor nodded rapidly in relief as the others waved her on, wiping her sweating brow and following along. I gulped getting floated to the cold exam table first, my armor yanked away leaving me covered in mud and blood but nothing else. Not that it was unusual for Jade, but having an eager assistant watching so closely was a little embarrassing, especially with the way her eyes widened as Jade tugged my wings straight and flexed them experimentally.

"Wooooooow! Y-You really are..." she gasped with glee, cut short by Jade's gentle hoof on her muzzle.

"It is generally frowned upon for a doctor to make a big deal over unusual patients, whomever or whatever they are dear. If you could help me wash the worst of this sludge off we could take a better look, it's also polite to introduce yourself as a medical professional, set the patient's mind at ease when you are examining them so closely." Jade admonished her primly and set to work, tsking over the twinge my hindleg gave when she tugged and giving a wave to my red face.

"R-Right! Sorry! Umm... I'm Butterscotch Creme by the way... er! D-Doctor Butterscotch Creme, sorta... I was just Nurse Creme, but got a promotion... Sorry I'm no good, I'm learning though! Really glad to meet Doctor Princess Jade and hear about her Followers, I-I'm gonna ask Cocoa as soon as I'm done tonight, just like we talked about umm... Dr. Jade." The young doctor jabbered as she filled a battered old bucket with soothingly tingly water, rushing back over and sponging off dried blood from my flank, while Jade took another and worked at the chocolate all over my face.

Her sneaking a lick in here and there while her colleague was busy made me tremble and it was even more difficult to behave, but I got the point, more of her self control lessons... The silent reminder was easy enough to figure out, everything rapidly got foggy with my Jade and another pretty mare giving me an impromptu sponge bath. My brain attempted to just shut down entirely, ignoring the nagging questions over how such an inexperienced nurse wound up in charge here. My wings slowly rising up and flaring made Jade's assistant blush and I struggled to stay in control, the tingly radioactive water not helping at all.

Jade giggling and gently knocking my reaching hooves away helped a bit, but Ivy's cool voice in my head made me sit up straight and pay attention. Her telepathic help from the next room strengthened the battered and broken defenses that kept my urges back 'Be Strong!', there was a smile to her thoughts but also a stern bit of concern that got me back to what I had tried to think about initially.

That got me to straighten up and fight with my wings, wincing as Jade pulled my sore hindleg out and tsked at what her magic found there. "Broken... badly. Fast's biology makes things a bit more forgiving Butterscotch, but give the spell I taught you a try and see if you can tell how many fractures are still there. What pray tell caused this damage Fast?"

"Umm... R-Radigator... sorry, had to or you'd be treating a much worse injury on Witchy, or not treating her at all I guess..."
(Thank you Ivy, I'm trying... Just keep listening, I have a few questions for her. Er... l-look forward to having some time together too, probably have to wait awhile, Glitter will want her story first and...)

I got a brief flash of Glitter grabbing the edge of a chair in the waiting area and nearly tugging herself free of Ivy's green magic, barely pulled loose in time by Val hooting laughter and struggling weightlessly with a pout. Just the image helped calm me further, that and the unfamiliar yellow magic at my leg, Butterscotch's pale hoof poking as she counted and getting a twinge of pain at each spot, asking breathlessly in between each fracture she found. "One... Radigators? Two... You fought radigators? Three... Where? It must have been a big one to... Four..."

"Ouch! Y-Yeah, lots of Radigators where we were, plus zombies. Umm... So, Butter? that reminds me. Have you ever seen a slimy pink zombie before? There were a few we had to deal with and I was surprised, are there a lot of them around here?"

She gasped and nodded, poking a fifth spot to another yelp that got Jade to gently push her hoof back and offer a helpful pointer. "You do not need to actually poke at each break in the bone dear, very good diagnosis however. Slime zombies, like those horrid things in Goodneighbor Fast? What are they doing here?"

Nurse... Dr. Creme shivered at the thought and answered both of us. "Yeah they wander up every once in awhile, dangerous things, you have to burn them!"

"Yeah... like Jade said, we've run into them before. You know where they come from?"

The young medic shook her head and shrugged back, "Nope. They come from the marshes, that's all I know. Started showing up a few years ago, not long before old Chicory Grande umm... died. They're nasty and dangerous, but at least they're pretty rare."

Jade gave her own shiver at the memory of the MoM hub filled with the creatures, shaking it off and stretching my foreleg out to put my pip-buck on display for the smaller mare, inexpertly tapping at the buttons to get to the health status screen, showing how it worked should the new doctor run into other patients with the convenience. I could do it a lot faster for her, but given her limited interaction with technology it was good practice, plus Ivy spoke up to distract me, keeping a mental ear out as asked.

(That's ok Ivy, she seems nice and you don't like doing that right? Trespassing? It's nothing dangerous for us is it?) I replied while they kept clicking away, giving in a bit and lighting the right pip-buck control up for Jade with my magic.

(We'll keep an eye on it, interested to hear what you guys think about this place later. After umm... what kind of unprofessional thoughts?)

"Fast! A concussion!?" Jade gasped and her pale blue magic took over, teaching time done as she furrowed her brow and I felt the familiar healing spells pouring into me, my ears drooping as she continued half to Butterscotch and half to me. "You will have patients that try to keep things from you as well dear, or don't properly tell you what is hurt or how badly! This happened awhile ago, roughly treated when the leg was, I take it I have Witching Hour to thank?"

"Er... yeah, she helped as well as she could Jade. There was radiation down there too, just a trickle but enough to..."

"While radiation does heal our kind, it is not a wonder cure, especially if it is not strong enough. Brain damage can still be permanent and poorly healed broken bones can require rebreaking to let them regenerate properly. That or simply lopping the limb off and letting it regenerate entirely, as some ponies have been silly enough to consider. You should thank Miss Hour, her basic field medicine has left you in good shape Fast, much better than it could have been. You must still stay awake a few more hours to be safe." Jade fretted and offered a lesson on alicorns for her young assistant at the same time, finding nothing else significantly damaged.

"Staying up is not going to be a problem hon..." I gave a fang enhanced leer and waggled my eyebrows, getting a rosy chuckle and a roll of beautiful blue eyes.

Jade licked a remaining bit of chocolate from my nose and offered a sweet tasting kiss, making me wonder just how much chocolate was on hoof around here after Glitter's spree. Coming up with enough to pour over a mare or two surely wouldn't be that hard to find, right? Just what I got from Jade's wonderful tongue was delicious, but it would taste better licked off her instead...

She was still in control and had other patients to deal with though, breaking off the heavenly affection as I pressed forward, falling off the metal table and to the floor with a pout. Short lived however as she tilted my head up and nuzzled safely, floating my armored coat over my wings, made easier with them standing straight up. "So I can see, I look forward to... s-staying up with you and hearing of your adventures, very soon. H-Healing first however, you are done I believe. Spend time with Glitter as well, see if you can get her to calm down hmm? It shouldn't be long before she..."

Jade paused with a soft smile as she led me back out to the others, spotting the little filly drooping groggily in Ivy's magic, her head bobbing to her chest and jerking back up a little less each time. Her chocolate stained hooves reached out feebly and she groaned at the two of us in the door, "Ooooh... momma, I don't feel so good, make it better... sleepy... tummy hurts..."

The green magic surrounding the foal mingled with Jade's pale blue as she took her, floating her close as she huffed and stuck her nose up, eyeing her from the side of one lidded eye. "As I tried to tell you dear. First the sugar rush, then the crash. You will be fine, you need sleep and to not indulge so much in the future, yes? Your father can take you to bed, perhaps you can show him the way sister? S-Spend some time together until I am done? We'll be along shortly Fast."

Glitter got floated to my back and Ivy held the door open with an eager smile, waiting on my slow progress carrying a foal who groaned and gurgled at every step. At least things were winding down in the rough and tumble trading town, most of the groups camping in the park we passed were letting their fires die down to embers, heavy steel shutters closed off the brick auction house building and most of the businesses were closing up. I did notice everypony in charge of these swapping their dirty signs from open to closed were mares, younger looking mares, my age or a year or two either way, another oddity Ivy's cheating mindreading noticed me noticing.

"Strange isn't it? Not that mares in charge of things is odd, this is still Equestria after all, but they're all younger mares like Miss Creme. Most of them worked at that place in their past too from the flashes I get from their minds, you brought up quite a few memories from Creme during your exam yourself Fast." Ivy led the way towards the Casa Maredrid Apartments, waving over to the still brightly lit and raucous Starbucked shop and the lingerie clad mares in the windows drawing customers in.

I had to divert my eyes from the very effective advertising quickly, nodding nervously to Ivy swishing her blue tail ahead of me. "They did? Like Cocoa then... That is ...interesting... Where's Zed by the way? What's he think?"

"Snooping about close by, don't worry. He finds things suspicious here as well, off to investigate on his own. A zebra draws less attention here than we do, we have been rather occupied with your daughter as well, I'm glad she's not among my young charges back home, I'd never have a moment's rest! Ah, here we are." Ivy smirked back at me trying to stay focused, putting an extra swing to her flanks as she pushed open the rusty gate leading to the open courtyard of the prewar apartments.

They would have been fancy and high class living in the hip little town under Mayor Trenderhoof back before the war, a U shaped two story complex built around an empty, scum filled pool in the courtyard. Corroded wrought iron railing led up the stairs on each wing of apartments turned rental rooms and the walls were a crumbling muddy brown adobe. Ivy led me up to apartment 208, fitting a battered old key into the lock and revealing a dusty apartment inside.

She pointed the way to the roughly patched door off to the side of the combined living room / kitchenette, a small bedroom with a musty mattress in the corner and a tattered blanket. I turned back to the foal on my back, prepared for her request by floating the heavy tome of fairy tales halfway out of my packs before I realized she was completely zonked.

I surrounded the sleeping filly in my magic and gently levitated her to the bed, tucking the book away again and using a corner of the blanket to wipe away the worst of the chocolate still sticking to her. "No story tonight I guess sweetie, we'll make it up in the morning if you want."

Glitter moaned softly in her sleep as I tucked her in, blindly reaching hooves finding my muzzle with the rather itchy blanket in my teeth and grabbing for an unconscious hug that made me smile. Her stomach gurgled and she let go, curling into a little ball with a whine and falling to fitful sleep.

The door to her room was a little sticky, these apartments had plainly been cleaned and repaired as well as possible, but that still wasn't great, making the repair pony in me grumble at all the improvements that could be made. I turned to share my thoughts aloud with Ivy standing at the door on the other side of the smaller entry to the bathroom, then immediately lost my train of thought at the big green mare excitedly shrugging out of her cream colored dress. A larger bedroom and king sized mattress in the room behind her.

"Not to jump the gun on my sister while she's busy, but I am still waiting Fast. I know a lot has happened, but this is still the 'coming home' portion of my date you know. I thought you may appreciate getting a bit... warmed up? Before sister Jade returns and... eep!" I cut her off with a flying tackle, overpowering even the tall alicorn, rolling with her in the general direction of the bed.

I was glad Ivy was quiet and Glitter was so out of it, the frantic scramble that followed was rather destructive and loud. Virescent had intentionally stirred up and let loose a lot of pent up lust that had been denied an outlet too long, the concussion that rang my bell in the sewers only helped scramble my defenses that kept the very loud voice chanting 'MINE!MORE!MINE!MORE!' at bay. I caught more than one concerned glance from Ivy at that, but every time my efforts redoubled and found just the right spot, destroying her attempts to do any silly mental work.

The door creaking open after awhile got me to pause just long enough to see it was Jade, opening her mouth to say something about the storm of gymnastic efforts that had done such damage in here her widening eyes were taking in. She never got the chance, I pounced with a growl and wrapped myself around her, slamming the door shut again and flapping madly, directing her gasping stumbles back towards the bed with her sister.

One would think two big alicorns would be enough to slow down a bit, but one would be wrong, very, very wrong. Ivy still had no time to try keeping a psychic eye on the dark growl in my head, somewhat focused by the voices of the Ministry Mares being strengthened by the frenetic show of love, but not weakened by the same as it usually was. Eventually she staggered away, leaving just my Jade and I alone to keep going, the two of us alone together as I loved the most, lavishing her with personal attention and finally slowing down at the tenderness involved.

The beautiful blue mare resorted to using her bulk to keep me pinned for awhile, enjoying soft kisses and nuzzles where I could still reach and getting me to relate everything that had happened to us on our ill fated treasure hunt. Filling me in on the things she had found out, after she let me go for several more rounds that at long last had me panting raggedly beside her, unable to move and happy wrapped up in her wing where I was.

She squealed in delight at the funny silk robe I found for her when I floated it from my abandoned bags, fluttering over to mold the sheer fabric to her gorgeous body and spin in the air happily over the gift, promising to model it for me when she wasn't quite so sweaty. Tucking it away carefully, she bounded back to the bed where I was sprawled and her long horn lit up, her magic swirling around my head a moment before she pronounced it safe for me to sleep with a kiss to my horn.

Jade gave a cute yawn and snuggled against me, blinking sleepily and murmuring softly in my ear between nibbles. "You will go back to that obnoxious Cocoa pony again tomorrow? Tell her what you found?"

"Yeah... If I could right now I think it'd be safer after all that. Feeling much better now, m-may wanna hog you to myself again before I do go actually. Definitely taking Glitter with me this time too, let's see how Cocoa fares against our little business-filly. I'm sorry I get like that around any pretty mare, that's not all that's important to me you know."

A weary nod answered and she smiled, "No it is not, I know you do not think so. Though I am glad to hear you took time to convince Witching Hour she is attractive when she did not think so, I do not like what you told me of how she could think otherwise. So long as you continue not being swayed merely by the exterior."

"Mmmm'not Jade, try not to be... You should talk to her too, convince her, she's nice. Talk to Val too... she needs to, with you, important... I'll ask Ivy to help me with Cocoa, have questions anyway..."

Jade tugged the ratty blanket up for comfort and nodded over me, thumping to the mattress with a huff. "Yes, despite my distaste, we must deal with her again concerning the farms run by Silver Seed Agriculture. Many of the ponies I spoke with here had stories of the numerous farms nearby they have ground under their hoof, the poor slaves who work them... We must do what we can to help them Fast, I know we do not have much time, but we must find a way. I cannot stand the thought of slavery... those poor ponies..."

I nuzzled her to reassure my Princess and gave my own wide yawn, drifting off as I answered in a soft growl. "We'll help them, stop slavers... love you..."

After a long and fairly horrible day that ended in frustration for everything we attempted to accomplish, I finally fell asleep gratefully in the loving embrace of the mare of my dreams. Determined tomorrow would work out better, somehow.

Once upon a time, in the magical land of Equestria, there were very bad ponies...

Bad ponies who locked others up, put chains and shackles on the innocent and forced them to work. The poor ponies laboring so hard every day were beaten and mistreated, locked up in pens outside in the cold night, given slop and garbage to eat, while their tormentors profited from their works, slept in warmer beds with better food.

This displeased the Princess, a grave injustice visited on the innocent that would not stand. Thus the faithful servant of the Princess rose from the shadows of the night, racing across the land in a flicker with a rumble of thunder behind him. Those who would enslave others deserved Luna's judgement, the Shrouded Stallion flew out to deliver it and please his Princess.

At every tiny farm he visited, the same story awaited. Bad ponies profiting on the backs of the good, working them to death for a few more bits... caps? money... for money... There were so many evil ponies awaiting judgement and the night so short, a world full of the wicked that had somehow been allowed to go unpunished. But no longer...

The Shrouded Stallion went from farm to farm and brought Luna's wrath with him, leaving a trail of destruction and death in his wake, only stopped by the approaching dawn. With an angry snort at a job unfinished, the Shroud returned to his Princess in a flash of black lightning, vowing to do as bid and destroy any who would call themselves 'Slavers'...

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

Stable-Tec Whiz-----------------
----Your familiarity with Stable-Tec terminals and computers in general is legendary, you now gain an additional attempt to hack a terminal, as well as being able to get one more attempt to hack a locked out terminal. Surely done by some previous wasteland explorer without your skills of course!

Quest Perk Added!----------------

Trenderhoof's Glasses---------------
---He might have been full of himself and about as deep as a mud puddle, but Trenderhoof did have a way with words as Equestria's premiere travel writer. Taking possession of his glasses grants you a boost of +10 to the Speech skill!