“What the fuck is an Azimuth?”

Getting out of Crimson Canyon wasn’t as hard as I thought it would be. I figured that after talking with Gigi about finding Stardust, she’d keep an eye on me, if only to make sure I was safe while in her lands. Leaving through the east entrance however was quite uneventful. I saw a couple griffons flying over me, but once they saw I was just another pony heading out, they flew off leaving me alone. After a short walk I reached the other side and came to ruins of a prewar town.

The town was mostly destroyed, but not from an exploding balefire bomb or anything like it. No, time had done it’s work on the homes and shops. From the looks of it, the town hasn’t been inhabited since the war. As far as I could tell, the only sign of any inhabitants recently was a large archway over the entrance to Crimson Canyon. It read ‘The Red Talon Company, Enter at your own risk.’ That’s a weird message for a mercenary company to have at the entrance to their home. But I guess it was a good way to keep desperate ponies from trying to attack the place. With the reputation The Red Talons have, it didn’t take much to scare away fiends and raiders with a simple message like that.

I looked out toward the town then started to head toward the nearest house. As I drew close my Pip-Buck notified me that I had just discovered ‘Sandstone Ruins’. It made sense I guess, since the town was bumped right up against Crimson Canyon. The red sandstone made for a beautiful background around the little town. Deciding it didn’t matter, I walked over to the front door to a nearby house.

I pushed the door open, ignoring the loud creek it made as it swung open on rusty hinges. The sound echoed loudly inside the small house. Walking inside I took a look around. As I expected, the place looked like it was abandoned in a hurry. They must’ve fled as soon as the sirens sounded. Probably ran to a local stable. There were still pictures on the wall, it looked like a family lived here. One picture showed them all together, a mare, a stallion, and two foals. They were all smiling happily as if they didn’t have a care in the world. They probably didn’t, even with the war and everything going on. This town was more isolated than most and probably never had to worry about seeing a zebra attack, at least they shouldn’t have had to worry.

I sighed and started looking through the drawers of a small desk against the far wall. There wasn’t much, a few scraps of paper that were faded and illegible, but there were a few caps in the drawer and a snub-nosed revolver with a box of .38 caliber ammo. I slipped them into my saddle bags and continued on. Heading into the kitchen, past a small table with rotted food still there. I noticed something odd in the corner of the small space. Walking over I saw that a small safe was set into the floor, it looked like something was meant to cover it, but somepony moved it revealing the safe. Moving closer I looked it over, it seemed another pony previously tried to force it open, the lock was in bad shape almost ready to jam.

“What are you hiding I wonder?” I said to myself as I pulled out my bobby pins. The lock may have been in bad shape, but a few moments later I had it. Inside I found more ammo for the revolver, a few prewar bits, and more documents. They were marked with a symbol of a lightning bolt with open wings, marked with M.O.A. above. They must’ve been important, so I slipped them into my bags as well, intending to look them over later.

I looked around the house more, but whoever came before me, already took anything worth taking. I tried to look through the rest of the homes as well, but most of them had collapsed in on themselves. I was just finishing with one of the shops when I felt rain starting to fall. I looked up at the sky and cursed, “Fuck, you have to go and rain now!?” I lowered my head and chuckled a little “I suppose it’s only fitting considering the circumstance.”

“It always seems like the world is out to get you doesn’t it Shadow?” Morning Star said, only now her voice didn’t seem to come from within my own head.

Looking around I saw a white shape coming out of the rain, a moment later Morning Star was standing in front of me, her smug smile planted on her face. I moaned and shook my head, “Don’t tell me I passed out again.”

“No, not this time Shadow,” she said slowly walking around me.

“Then how am I seeing you?” I asked then I cursed, “I thought the talisman was keeping you trapped in my head?”

She laughed, “It is for the most part. Though it’s not a very powerful talisman, whoever made it wasn’t very skilled. True I can’t just take you over or talk to you whenever I want, but from time to time I can push past the protection spell it holds. Sooner or later I’ll get past the spell altogether and you won’t be able to stop me. I’m getting more powerful every day that goes by. As for how you can see me, well let’s just say that I’ve been learning a few new tricks while I’ve been sequestered in your head.”

I turned and walked away heading down the path leading away from the town. She followed me humming a little tune to herself. I stopped and looked back at her, “Do you mind?”

“As a matter of fact, I do. Didn’t Grim ever teach you that it’s rude to ignore somepony when they’re talking to you?” Morning Star said giving me a crooked smile.

“Fuck off, I don’t have time to deal with you,” I said doing my best to ignore her as I continued down the path.

“Where are we going?” she asked still humming the increasingly annoying tune.

“Why do you even care?”

“It gets boring inside your head, It’s all dark and echoey. I want to know what we’re doing.”

“We aren’t doing anything, I’m heading to Halo One to get Silver back from the Sins.”

“And how do you plan on doing that? Do you really think you have what it takes to bring down Pride, what about Sloth, or any of them? You got lucky with Gluttony, but you don’t stand a chance against the rest of them.”

“I’m not planning on fighting them. I’m turning myself in.”

She froze, “You’re doing what!?”

“You heard me. I’m turning myself over to The Sins. I can’t deal with this anymore, too many ponies are getting hurt because of my stubbornness.”

“You can’t do that, what about finding Grim, or your other friend? Isn’t that why you went all the way to Crimson Canyon in the first place?”

I stopped, for a second I just let the rain fall on me. Feeling it slowly wash away the grim and dirt, then I said slowly, “Go away Morning Star, you can’t do anything to stop me. I’m gonna go save the mare I love, the only way I know how. I’m not that great of a fighter, my magic is shit compared to most unicorns, and I’m not that smart. I can’t think of a way to save her and get away, but turning myself over to them will save her, I can do that at least.”

“Then let her die.”

“You can’t be serious,” I started to say, but she cut me off.

“Do you think they’ll really let her leave once you turn yourself in? The Sins aren’t known for their mercy, you know I’m right Shadow.”

I turned on her, “What do you know anyway huh!? You’re nothing but some evil spirit living inside of me, why would I do anything you say?”

She gave me a sad smile, all of her smugness and malice leaving her face, “I am many things Shadow, but I’m not evil. You may think I am, but I’m not. You don’t know anything about me or yourself for that matter. I’m only telling you the truth as I always have, you don’t have to believe me, but that doesn’t make it any less true.”

“You’re being terribly nice, I don’t like it,” I said, giving her an angry stare.

“Let’s just say that I have your best interests in mind Shadow.”

“You won’t change my mind Morning Star. I’m going to go save Silver.”

Seeming to ignore me she said, “It’s funny how you seemed to fall in love with a pony you barley know. I mean if I was in your place I would’ve fell for Stardust, you know him a lot better than you do Silver and he’s always there for you. Plus, those eyes get me all hot and bothered if you know what I mean.”

“He’s my friend, I don’t see him that way. I know Silver more than you think.”

She started to laugh, sounding more like the Morning Star I knew, “Hahaha, you keep telling yourself that Shadow, but if you want my opinion which I’m sure you don’t. You shouldn’t go into this blind, if I can’t change your mind then at least listen to what I have to say.”

“It’s not like I can just get away from you, what do you want to say? Make it quick.”

“Don’t just run right in there ready to give up. Think of a plan while you head to Halo One. I’m sure there’s more than one way to go about this. Find out where Silver is being kept, and find a way to get her out before they can do anything.” She said, I noticed that she was starting to fade.

“How can I do that though?” I asked.

She grinned at me with that crazed smile of hers, “You’ll have to figure the rest out on your own Shadow, I’m out of time. Don’t worry, we’ll see each other again soon, in the meantime don’t die…” and with a crazed laugh, she vanished.

I just stared at the place where she’d been for a long moment. I didn’t feel scared that she was able to communicate with me again, or that she was getting more powerful even with the ward. I just felt empty. Maybe she was right, was it really worth leaving everything I loved behind just to save one pony? Was Silver worth my life? “Yes she is,” I said to myself turning to head further down the path, letting the rain wash over my coat, “I don’t care what you say Morning Star, I’m not giving up on her.”

As I walked the rain started to fall faster, a storm rolling in like a herd of feral ghouls. The wind picked up and started whipping the rain into my face and eyes. Lightning flashed across the sky lighting up the landscape, giving everything a flat look with each burst of light. The thunder that followed was like small bombs going off in the distance. I hated the rain, and at the same time I loved it. Yes, it was a beautiful thing, washing away everything dirty and gross cleansing the land and body in it’s beautiful fury. At the same time, when you were alone in The Wasteland, it was scary as shit. That feeling only got worse when the already dark sky became pitch black, so much so that I couldn’t even see my hoof in front of my face. I almost thought I was going to get struck by lightning. I already had a close call at Gator’s fiend town under Stable 9.

How the hell was I supposed to find my way to Halo One when I couldn’t even see the path? It was like The Goddesses themselves were doing all they could to make sure I didn’t make it in time. As I was slowly walking deep in thought, my hoof caught on a rock that was sticking out of the path. I fell face first into the soft muddy ground. Rolling over onto my back, looking up at the downpour as it rolled over The Wasteland, I just started to laugh. I’m not sure why, but it was just too damn funny, no matter what I tried, something in The Wasteland wanted to make it ten times harder to do.

I shook my hoof up at the heavens and yelled, “Fuck you Celestia or Luna, you think a little rain and some lightning is gonna keep me from saving her. Well you’re wrong, nothing can stop me. I’m gonna save her like you should’ve saved all of us.”

Lightning cracked again and the rain fell harder. Large droplets slamming down to earth as if to show me how wrong I was. Rolling back onto my hooves I reached into my saddle bags and pulled out the mask and goggles that went with the outfit Silver made for me. I put them on and found they worked well to keep the water out of my eyes. I reached up and found a small gem imbedded along one side, when I tapped it everything around me seemed to come into focus. It looked almost like the land around me was being bathed in a gentle red light, cutting through the darkness like butter. So, Silver was right, they did help in low light situations. I still couldn’t see that far ahead of me, but a few feet is better than nothing at all.

“Haha, Shadow one, Goddesses zero,” I said as I started to work my way further down the path. I was just cresting a hill when I saw there was what looked like a small camp in the distance. There was a flag being flown from a pole in front of the camp, a two headed ursa on it, “Must be the N.L.R. I wonder what they’re doing all the way out here.”

It was just then that I noticed how cold I was getting. Not surprising with how utterly soaked my body and barding was. Shivering a little I followed the path toward the camp, it was still a good distance, but shouldn’t take more than a few minutes or so. Maybe they had a dry place that I could rest to wait out the storm.

I hadn’t gone far when something splashed a few feet in front of me, followed by a white bar on my E.F.S., a pair of yellow eyes glowing in the distance. “Who’s there? I’m in no mood to play games.” My heart almost stopped then the pony’s face came into focus, “Wind Thrasher?”

Moving close the grey batpony smiled, “About time I found you Shadow, you had me worried sick. Where do you think you’re going?”

I walked past her, “Leave me alone Wind Thrasher, I don’t have time to talk right now.”

She trotted up next to me, seemingly ignoring the downpour around us, “There’s always time to talk. Now, where are you going and why isn’t Aura or the Colt with you?”

“It doesn’t matter. Like I said, I don’t have time to talk. Just go back, you have your own stuff to deal with,” I said still walking toward the N.L.R. camp.

She walked in front of me and blocked the path, “Something’s wrong, I can tell.”

‘Hold it in Shadow, you were told not to tell anyone where you were going’ I told myself, but no. I was told not to bring Wingnut or Aura, Envy didn’t say anything about Wind Thrasher, of course because Envy walked off before Wind Thrasher had shown up, and he wasn’t there when I met her in Stable 9. She was an unknown to The Sins. A little flare of hope flickered up inside me and I felt the sorrow fading a little.

“I wasn’t lying when I said I didn’t have time Wind Thrasher. I’ll make this quick. Silver Snip, who’s my mare friend, was taken by a group called The Seven Sins of Equinity, one of them used some kind of strange magic to make himself look like her. They told me I have to go to them and leave my friends behind. If I do they’ll let her go…or so they say. My hooves are tied right now, so I’m heading to Halo One to meet with them.”

“Halo One? You mean the power plant just south of New Pegasus?”

“I think so, I was planning on asking somepony at the N.L.R. camp down there,” I said pointing in the distance toward the camp.

She gave a look of melancholy, “Is there anything I can do to help?”

“I think there is. First I need to know if you finished your business with the Red Talons.”

“I did, Gigi’s oldest Daughter Syn is going to go talk to one of the other Talon Companies and get them to drop that bounty on me. So, for right now I’m free to do whatever. What do you need me to do?”

I grinned, “How’d you like to help me get my mare friend back from the assholes that took her?”

She smiled her sharp toothed grin at me, “I do owe you my life Shadow, so sure I’d love to help you, but didn’t you just say that you had to go alone?”

“Envy told me not to bring Aura or Wingnut with me, they don’t even know who you are,” my smile grew bigger as a plan started to form, “I’ll tell you on the way.”

She looked skeptical, but she followed as I continued on, “If you say so, but what did Aura have to say about this plan of yours?”

I looked down at my hooves as we walked, “She doesn’t know, at least not yet. I left her a note telling her what I was doing. I’m sure once she finds it, she’ll be pissed at me.”

“You mean you just left without telling anypony where you were going?” She asked.

“Yes, I had to. If I didn’t, Aura wouldn’t have let me leave, or she’d try and come with me and if she did Silver would die. I couldn’t live with myself if that happened,” a thought came to mind as I spoke, “How did you find me anyway?”

She rolled her eyes like I was a stupid child, “I couldn’t find you back at Crimson Canyon, so I started asking around to see if any of the griffons had seen you. One told me you headed out, so I went looking for you since we didn’t have time to finish talking earlier. I started flying around to see if I could find you, when the rain started coming down I thought I should find shelter somewhere. I was heading toward the camp when I saw you.”

“How’d you see me in this storm anyway, it’s pitch black out. My goggles help me see better, but not much better.”

She laughed, “I’m not a normal pony remember? My eyes are different from yours Shadow, the night doesn’t shield anything from my sight. I can see as well at night, as most ponies can see in the day.”

Well that explained a lot, “Is that why you’re eyes glow?”

She shrugged, “I dunno, it’s not like my body came with instructions.”

“I guess the good doctor didn’t feel like telling you either huh.”

“He was too busy taking over the stable, and talking to himself about how much of a genius he was to bother telling me anything about my body.”

“Well that’s gotta be handy out here.”

She shrugged again, “I suppose it does have its advantages, it also has its drawbacks as well. Most ponies out here don’t seem to like ponies like me, the Griffons don’t seem to care much, and the same goes for some ponies I’ve met in the N.L.R. but I’ve had some bad run-ins with a group called The Steel Rangers.”

I looked at her shocked, “I told Elder Appleslice that you weren’t a danger, they shouldn’t be giving you any problems.”

“I’m not sure what happened, but when I started heading west I ran into a group of them just over the mountains. They attacked me without warning, I barely escaped with my life. Since then it seems I keep running into them, it’s almost like they’re following me. It wasn’t long after that when the griffons started hunting me.”

“Hmmm, that doesn’t sound like something The Steel Rangers I know would do.”

“It’s possible it was a different branch of the Steel Rangers. I know that The Wasteland Survival Guide said there were many different branches.”

“It’s possible, but there has to be a reason they wanted to go after you.”

“It’s not like it matters at the moment, right now let’s worry about you Shadow,” she said, right as we got to the N.L.R. camp.

“Are you sure they won’t mind you coming here?” I asked as we came up to a couple guards who were blocking the path, seemingly ignoring the rain.

She laughed again, “I’ve made a few friends while I’ve been out here, the N.L.R. doesn’t see me for what I am, but as an ally that can help them from time to time,” she walked up to both of the guard ponies, one of which smiled wide as we drew close.

“Well look what the Zebra dragged in, Wind Thrasher is that really you or are my old eyes playing tricks on me?” an older buck said.

“Hey Quick Draw, yes it’s me.”

“Well damn, it’s good to see you safe and sound. Were you able to figure things out with The Red Talons?” Quick Draw asked, his smile was fatherly in a way, kind and full of pride.

“Still don’t have all the information I need, but for now I shouldn’t have to worry about any griffons for a while.”

“Well that’s good to hear,” he looked over at me, and his face went from joyful to angry in the blink of an eye, “Who are you, and why are you wearing N.L.R. veteran ranger armor?”

I pulled off the goggles and responded, “I’m a Courier from Equestrian Express, this armor was made for me by a good friend of mine.”

“Quick Draw leave her be, she’s a friend of mine. She’s the pony who saved me from Stable 9,” Wind Thrasher said quickly.

“Is that so? You were the one who took out that horrible place then?” he asked, his expression not shifting in the least.

“Yes it was, the Overmare left a self-destruct program as a failsafe. I was able to use my Pip-Buck to remotely trigger it, and destroy the stable and everything inside. Why do you care so much?” I asked.

“I have a few friends that live in Stable City, you may know it as Trotston. They told me what lived in that place and what happened there when they all fled. I’m glad you took out that terrible place for good,” he said, his tone somber.

“It was the least I could do, I saw what he did to the ponies who didn’t make it out, and what he was doing to Wind Thrasher. I couldn’t let a pony like him live or allow his creations to escape.”

Wind Thrasher smiled at me, “Well you did let one escape.”

“And good thing too, Wind Thrasher has been a big help over the last week. It’s nice to have a pony who can survey things from up high and keep quiet when you need her to,” the older pony said.

I looked between Quick Draw and Wind Thrasher then asked, “So, how did you end up with the N.L.R.?”

She blushed a little, “Well I’m not officially a member of the New Lunar Republic, but after Quick Draw helped me out of a jam last week, I’ve been doing odd jobs for them when I can to help repay him for his kindness.”

“Yep, found the poor girl stuck in a nasty fight with some raiders. I was on patrol and figured if the raiders wanted to kill her, then I wanted her alive,” he said laughing, “So Wind Thrasher, what brings you back this way? I thought when you were done with the Talons you were going to head toward Stable City.”

“That was my plan, but I ran into my little friend here at Crimson Canyon and decided to help her with something,” it was close enough to the truth that I let it go.

The rain was still pouring down on us, all I wanted was to be dry and warm, “It’s nice to hear all about what Wind Thrasher has been doing since I last saw her and all, but is there a place where we can get out of this rain?”

“Shit, I didn’t even think about that,” Quick Draw said, “You can both head into my tent, it’s the second one on the left. Go ahead and rest up while this storm passes.”

I thanked him and walked past the two guards and headed for the small tent, Wind Thrasher not far behind. When we reached it, and got out of the rain I pulled my barding off and hung it over a chair that was sitting next to a small desk in one corner of the tent. Then I sighed and looked at Wind Thrasher, “It sounds like you’ve been busy since I saw you last.”

She blushed a little then went to go lay on a cot, “In a small way yes. Quick Draw has been a big help over the past week and he’s a nice old pony. Ever since I left Stable 9 I’ve been wanting to go talk to the ponies in Trotston, but I’ve been too scared, so I keep doing the odd jobs for Quick Draw and some of the N.L.R. Rangers around here.”

I looked around the small tent then asked, “So is this some kind of base for the N.L.R.?”

“It’s mostly a Trading outpost for them, but they also use it as a relay point between the rangers and the normal soldiers that work this area. It serves as a base in a small way I guess, but not officially. It’s pretty much just a camp. The main purpose of the soldiers and rangers here is to keep the Romans from making their way to New Pegasus. Since their own base of operations is on the other side of the great river, they don’t see Roman Zebras often.”

“I remember hearing Mr. New Pegasus talking about The Romans. Who are they?” I asked settling down next to the cot.

“They’re Zebra’s that are led by a pony who says he is descended from the Former Caesar. He claims that the lands here are theirs and the ponies here should die or be enslaved. The N.L.R. has been fighting them for years now, keeping them from taking land on this side of the great river. At least that’s what I’ve learned from Quick Draw.”

“There’s always somepony fighting to take away what another has, even after all the death and destruction the war wrought on this land, still nothing changes,” I said getting into a foul mood just thinking about it.

“I can’t say I know anything about that, I haven’t learned all I can about this land since I got out, all I know is that the land is sick.”

I sighed, “That it is, though I’m not sure if anypony can fix it.”

“The least we can do is try,” she said as her face grew more serious, “So, lets finish what we were talking about before. Do you have a plan to get Silver back from those Sin ponies?”

“Honestly no. I didn’t even think I could do anything until you showed up, all I know is that I have to meet them at the top of some tower at the plant and I have a day to get there.”

“Last I heard the Power Plant was held by the N.L.R. but they were having problems with Steel Rangers who were trying to get in…I’d have to ask Quick Draw about it though. I’m surprised anypony from the Enclave would want to meet with you in a place surrounded by N.L.R.”

“All I know is what I was told, if The Sins want me to meet them at Halo One then that’s what I’ll do,” I said.

She tapped a hoof under her chin as if she were thinking about something for a moment then perked up, “Hold up a second,” she got up and ran from the tent and back into the downpour. A couple minutes later she came back in with two stallions following her. One was Quick Draw, the other I didn’t know, “Shadow I’d like you to meet Major Mud.”

Doing my best to keep my face straight at the officer’s name, I extended a hoof, “Nice to meet you,” after he shook it I continued, “Why did you get Quick Draw and Major Mud?”

The Major was the one who answered with a gravelly voice, “Courier Mare, it’s nice to finally meet you. I’m here with Sergeant Quick Draw, because I overheard Wind Thrasher saying something about you needing to go to Halo One. Tell me what your business is there?”

“I don’t mean to be offensive, but why should I tell you my business?” I asked, doing my best to keep my voice neutral.

“Because as of three days ago, we lost the tower and most of the lower levels to The Enclave. They killed a lot of my ponies and blocked us from getting in any farther. Now they control Halo One or at least most of it. I want to know why you’d be going there,” Major Mud said keeping his face unreadable.

“It’s okay Shadow, you can trust Major Mud,” Wind Thrasher said, coming to stand next to me.

“Fine. The Seven Sins of Equinity took my mare friend, they are waiting for me there to turn myself over to them.”

“So, you decided to just waltz right in and give yourself over to The Enclave?”

“Originally yes, but if I can find another way to save my mare friend without turning myself in, then I will.”

He smiled, “That’s good to hear. If you help me out with this Enclave problem then I’ll help you get inside.”

“I thought you just said they blocked you from getting in.”

“Ha, they did, but you’re a small pony, and I know that Wind Thrasher can squeeze into small places that most ponies can’t. With only the two of you sneaking in, you might be able to get past most of them and clear the tower of Enclave Soldiers from within the tower itself, maybe even get your mare friend back,” he said laughing a little.

The small flicker of hope I got before when I ran into Wind Thrasher grew into a small flame of possibility. I looked up at The Major and asked, “What can you do to help me?”

“Halo One was a new idea for power back during the war, first it used to be a solar array to gather solar energy for the ponies of New Pegasus, later a new design was engineered to use an underground river that flows under the plant to produce hydroelectric energy. The project was never fully completed, but they did make tunnels that lead from the surface to the river below. From there, passageways were dug to go right up into the tower itself. It was meant to be used to run large cables, but since some weren’t finished when the megaspells went off, they now make small tunnels that can get you all the way to the top of the central tower. If you sneak in you should be able to find your mare friend, and give us access to the facility again. If you did that, we could take back the power plant,” he explained.

Quick Draw spoke up next, “Or at the very least access the main terminal and reroute the power to go to The JetBlue Skyport.”

“Yes, that’d be helpful at the very least, even more if you could make sure The Enclave couldn’t fix it afterward,” The Major said nodding his head a little.

“You mean, we could sneak in and save Silver by using this passage?” I asked.

“You could, I’m not sure how safe it’ll be, but it’s better than turning yourself in to The Enclave,” he replied.

I smiled, “You have a point, I think I like this plan.”

Wind Thrasher however turned toward the Major and Quick Draw, “I take it that you’ll only show her how to get in if she agrees to help you.”

“That is the deal yes,” The Major said.

I took a minute to think about it, honestly it wouldn’t be that hard for me to change where the power from the plant was going and keep The Enclave from fixing it after. The Mark II would be perfect for this mission, but something just didn’t seem right, “What I don’t get is how a solar plant is good for power if the sun is always blocked by the clouds?”

“Easy, we fixed some of the problems with the hydroelectric turbines a couple months back, the plant now operates to a certain extent, even with some of the cables not set up, that’s more than enough power for us,” he replied.

“I see, well then I’ll do my best to fix it, but only after I know Silver is safe.”

“All we ask is that you try. If you run across the main terminal on the upper floors of the tower, reroute the power and lock it down. If that happens before you find your mare friend then do it.”

I groaned, “No Promises, but I’ll try. That’s all I can offer, right now I’m more concerned about Silver than I am about the power plant.”

“Deal then. If that’s all, Quick Draw will show you where you can get into the underground tunnels. It also looks like the rain is starting to let up.” The Major said looking through the tent flap.

“How far are we from Halo One?” I asked.

“Not far, it’ll only take an hour to get to the tunnels and by then you should be able to see Halo One,” Quick Draw said.

Looking over at Wind Thrasher I asked, “Are you sure you still want to do this?”

She grinned, “I think it sounds like fun.”

I grinned back and looked back to Quick Draw, “Let’s get going, I don’t’ have a lot of time to do this.”

The Major was right when he said it would take about an hour to reach the tunnels. By now the rain finally stopped, but my armor was still soaked. By the time we reached the tunnels I was shivering violently. Even in a desert, the temperature was getting low, and with each gust of wind more chills ran down my body. If I didn’t warm up soon, I knew I was gonna end up getting sick. Come to think of it I don’t think I’ve ever really gotten a cold before. The only time I can recall myself being sick is when I saw myself in memory orbs. Not like it was going to matter if I didn’t make it out of this alive.

The older N.L.R. solider gave us a friendly smile as we reached a rickety door that supposedly lead down into the tunnels, “This’ll lead you to the river, you shouldn’t have much trouble down there, but from time to time we’ve run into a few feral ghouls. So, make sure you keep an eye out for them. Once you find the river down there, just follow it northeast and you’ll find where Halo One connects to it. When you do you’ll have two choices, either try and sneak you’re way up the walkways, or use the small tunnels.”

“Thank you for the help Quick Draw, you were a big help,” I said.

“Anything to help a friend of Wind Thrasher. Just make sure you get out of there safe and sound. I wish you luck in finding your mare friend, I really do.”

Wind Thrasher smiled, “We’ll be fine, I’ll see you again soon Quick Draw. Remember you still owe me a game of caravan when I get back.”

“That I do, and I’m gonna thrash you this time. No pun intended.”

She laughed, “We’ll see about that.”

We said our good byes and I looked up past the opening to the tunnel and toward the tall spire I could see beyond. It could only be Halo One Power plant, it wasn’t hard to miss. At the top of that tall spire, Silver was waiting for me to either turn myself in so she could live, or for me to rescue her. Before we headed into the tunnel I noticed another spire a little farther to the east of Halo One, it was white and lead all the way into the clouds. I’d seen them before but never thought much about them. Now seeing another out here near the place I had to go to save Silver, I wondered to myself what it was. Seeing how it lead up into the clouds I figure it has something to do with the Enclave, but I’d have to look into it to be sure. Maybe when this was all over I’d ask around about them.

With a long sigh we walked through the door and down into the dark tunnel. On the other side of the door we went down a steep slope, it slowly twisted to the left as it led us down. It didn’t take long for the sound of water to start rumbling throughout the dark space. Soon we found the river we were told about. It was running swiftly by, a loud roaring sound filling the small cavern it ran through. The river wasn’t very wide, but it looked deep and the current looked like it could sweep us away in a flash if we fell in. I’m sure it wouldn’t be a problem for Wind Thrasher since she could just jump out and fly away, but I know I didn’t want to risk myself falling in.

“That didn’t take as long as I thought it would. Which way do we need to go?” Wind Thrasher asked.

Turning my head, I followed my E.F.S.’s compass until it was pointing northeast, “We should head right. If what he said was correct, that should get us to Halo One,” I said as we turned and headed down a small pathway that ran next to the river, “Hey Wind Thrasher, I know you haven’t been in The Wasteland very long, but you seem to have picked up a few things that I haven’t. Do you know what those white spires are?”

She was flying lazily over me, she took a minute to think then said, “I was wondering that on my first day out. When I got my copy of The Wasteland Survival Gide, I looked them up. Unfortunately, not much is known about them, the author said they have something to do with the emergency broadcast system. She called them M.A.S.E.B.S., and she thinks that’s how DJ Pon3 broadcasts, same for Mr. New Pegasus, but not much else. They are scattered all over Equestria though.”

“I wonder what they really are. If they’re all over Equestria, they have to be there for something right?”

“I’m not sure Shadow, why do you care anyway?”

“I don’t know, something just feels off about them is all.”

“Does it matter right now?”

“I guess not,” I said sulking a little, “I was just thinking out loud.”

“Well try not to, you have too much to deal with right now. You shouldn’t be worrying about something that was built so long ago,” she said.

I wanted to say more, but a loud hissing growl filled the tunnel. Ahead a few ghouls were pulling themselves out from small cracks in the wall, “Oh fun, I haven’t had to deal with Ghouls in a while, taking these out will be a luxury compared to everything else” I said pulling the plasma rifle out and slipping into S.A.T.S.

I took down the closest one to me. One hit and it melted into a pile of glowing green goo. The one right behind it charged me, but I flipped the rifle around and smacked it to the side, throwing it into the river. It howled when it surfaced, but it was swept away in seconds. Wind Thrasher dove at another ghoul, using her fangs to grab it by the back of the neck and toss it into the river as well. Another jumped her, but she bucked, throwing it off. She took off again then flipped around and slammed her rear hooves down onto its head, smashing it into chunks of bone and gore.

A raging roar filled the cavern as more ghouls poured out of the cracks. I took aim and fired, flashes of green flew down the tunnel, taking down a couple, but there were too many. Wind Thrasher landed next to me saying quickly, “Cover your ears.”

I did as she said, flattening my ears and pressing my hooves to them. Wind Thrasher Opened her muzzle and screamed. The sound was so loud that it still hurt even my covered ears, the Ghouls who mostly hunted by sound were worse off. They shrieked and howled, falling over and writhing on the ground as the sound reverberated around the enclosed space. The ones closest to us were even worse off. Their ears, nose and eyes all started to leak ichor, when they fell, they didn’t get back up.

I remembered the power Wind Thrasher’s scream had from back in the stable, but it was nothing like this. If anything, that necklace she had on that emitted a magical electrical pulse, was holding her back. It only lasted a few seconds, but when she stopped the Ghouls that hadn’t died from the attack were shaking and howling on the ground. Wind Thrasher swayed, but didn’t fall, she looked back at me and said weakly, “Take the rest of them out quickly, the effects won’t last long.”

“Will do,” I said pulling out my machete and running forward. With a few quick strokes I killed a half dozen, before I could finish them all off the ones in the rear started getting back to their hooves. I brought up the plasma rifle again and fired, each one that got up I took out with a quick shot to the head. Still moving forward, I made sure to kill any ghouls that were still on the ground with the machete. A few minutes later, nothing was left apart from rotting corpses that use to be ponies.

Wind Thrasher made her way over to me swaying a little with each step. I smiled around the gore that was covering my hooves and face from the flying blood, “You doing okay?”

She shook her head like a dog then looked back at me with slightly unfocused eyes, “I’ll be fine soon, it takes a lot out of me to do that.”

“That was awesome, I’m kind of glad you didn’t do that to me back at the stable.”

“I didn’t even know I could do it until I was out here, the necklace Dr. Cell made me wear dampened some of my power. Though I could understand why with that one, using that scream in an enclosed space is very dangerous. I’m glad I didn’t hurt you as well, or make the tunnel collapse.” She said as her eyes starting to finally focus.

“Yeah, that wouldn’t have been a fun way to go out, the closest ghouls looked like they were in a lot of pain when they died.”

“I’m sure they were, that close to my powerful scream most likely turned what was left of their rotting brains to mush,” she said then she looked sad, “I hate killing things, even ghouls, but at that point there isn’t much that can be done to save them.”

I put a hoof on her shoulder, “You did the right thing, it’s only kind to put them out of their misery.”

“Yeah, but it doesn’t hurt any less.”

We started to walk down the tunnel again before I responded to what she said, “Why do you hate killing? I mean it’s not like I enjoy going around killing ponies, but sometimes that’s the only way to win or stay alive.”

“I don’t disagree with you, but personally I don’t like to take the life of another. It brings back bad memories from when I was younger, I know I wasn’t in control of my actions, but that doesn’t mean the blood of at least two hundred and fifty ponies aren’t on my hooves,” She said with a bit of sorrow in her voice, “If I can help it I won’t kill, monsters like ghouls and a few other things in the wasteland I’ll make an exception for, but I won’t kill ponies.”

I was taken aback by that, “You mean even if you’re life or the life of a friend was on the line, you still wouldn’t kill another pony?”

“I guess I can’t say I wouldn’t, I really hope I don’t ever have to be put into a situation like that,” She said keeping her voice calm and low, “I’m just scared that if I start killing again, I won’t be able to stop. My DNA was mixed with two creatures, one of which has a strong desire to feed on fruit. Dr. Cell manipulated that part of the Vampire Fruit Bat’s DNA to lust for blood instead of fruit, I was his first experiment, mix that with the Dragon DNA that also lusts for things like gems and coin, and it makes it hard to ignore when it’s part of you. Even now it takes all my will power not to think about feeding on a pony or animal I run into.”

“You mean that you want to drink the blood of ponies?” I asked a little scared and grossed out at the same time.

“Not want, but there is a small part of me that desires it. I can hold back my basic urges, it’s not like I’m a threat to you or any other pony. Though at times I’m worried that if I start killing any pony who gets in my way, that the urge to keep killing will get stronger. I don’t want to become the Monster Dr. Cell tried to turn me into.” She said, her wings drooping a little.

“I guess I can understand that, it’s a lot like me in a way.”

She gave me a quizzical look, “What do you mean?”

“Well, I guess I have something living inside my head. I don’t know who or what she is, but before I got this amulet,” I said pointing up at my horn and the talisman on it, “I had to fight every day to keep her from taking control of me. She did once, and what she was able to do in a short time was terrifying. I know it’s not the same as what you have to deal with, but it’s close enough that I can understand the struggle you’re talking about.”

She chuckled a little, “So is that why you didn’t kill me back at Stable 9? You saw a little of yourself in me?”

“No, I didn’t even know what was living inside me back then. I could feel something was off, but I didn’t know yet what it was. No, I didn’t kill you, because I saw a pony who was hurting inside and wanted to die just so she wouldn’t hurt innocent ponies ever again.”

She chuckled again, “Well next time when you want to save a monster like me, try not to shoot off her claws,” She waved a hoof in the air, a little bone left over from the claws she used to have, still poked out from just above her hoof, “It hurt like a bitch.”

I couldn’t help laughing, “I’ll try and keep it in mind.”

“I’ll admit my claws made fighting a lot easier, but what can I do about it now.”

“Who knows maybe we’ll find a unicorn later who knows how to grow bone back, I heard about magic like that from mom.”

“We’ll see about that, first we need to survive our current disaster.”

I was about to respond when voices echoed down the tunnel. Wind Thrasher noticed before I could even say anything, she pushed me into an alcove just off the path and moved in next to me, using the shadows around us to keep us hidden from whoever was down here. A moment later the voice became more distinct and I could make out that it was a mare and stallion.

“I don’t know why we’re taking orders from those fucking Dashites, who died and put them in charge anyway?” the mare said.

“You know it was that Cloak mare, she was put in charge of all the ground forces. If she says we have to do whatever the Sins say then we have to do it. I wouldn’t want to get on the wrong side of her or the counsel for that matter.” The Stallion responded.

“I know, but still she isn’t even one of us, she from the fucking Crystal Empire, that land is part of Nimbus. I don’t remember us signing up to work with those fucking odd balls, they’re barely Enclave. I mean look at us, when was the last time you can remember Pegasi going to the surface for more than a couple of days?”

“I don’t disagree with you, but the commander told us to do whatever she said, so that’s what we’ll do.”

“Fuck, I feel dirty already and I’ve only been away from home for a week. What’s so important that we have to take over an old piece of shit power station anyway. It’s not like we need it for anything.”

A sigh came from the Stallion, “We have our orders, we shouldn’t question them. That’s how Pegasi end up getting branded, I’d hate to see something like that happen to you.”

“I guess you’re right, I just don’t like taking orders from a fucking unicorn. Especially one from Nimbus, we should be taking orders from one of our own.”

“I know, just try not to think too much about it. Let’s just finish our sweep down here then we can rest up for the day. When were finished, I’ll make time for us to…relax…” he said the last word slowly, almost like he was insinuate something.

She practically purred as she responded, “How about we say we finished our sweep and get to the Relaxing part a little early.”

“I like the sound of that,” he said then I could hear hoof steps receding back down the tunnel.

Peeking around the corner I saw two pegasi in power armor making their way toward a light that was just around the bend in the tunnel. When they were gone, both of us moved back onto the path, “Damn that was a close one.”

Wind Thrasher took a minute to respond, her ears were up and she was moving them back and forth as if she was trying to pick up on something only she could hear. When she finished she looked relieved, “I almost didn’t catch that in time, I was so worried about our conversation that I forgot I needed to keep my ears open for ponies.”

So those big ears of hers weren’t just for show then, good to know. As we started moving closer to the small light I asked, “How good can you hear?”

She shrugged, “If I concentrate and nothing around me is making too much noise, then maybe half a mile. Most of the time, I can hear better than most ponies.”

We came to where the tunnel bent around, deciding it wasn’t a good idea to keep talking with ponies around who might hear us. I peered around the bend and saw a large structure, it took up most of the tunnel, a good portion of it plunged into the river. It had large pipes and smaller tubes running down into the swift moving river, collecting the water itself to push through the larger pipes, moving large gears that were placed around the pipes. Most of them didn’t look like they worked anymore if ever, but a couple were turning swiftly. With how fast the river was moving I was sure it was enough to power what the N.L.R. wanted it for. Above the pipes that ran into the river was an over look with a few pegasi walking around inside. Some were checking some of the terminals, others guarding the entrances, one looked like he was overseeing the whole endeavor.

“It doesn’t look like we’d be able to sneak our way past that.” I whispered to Wind Thrasher.

She looked over my shoulder then said, “That’s true, but we still can use those,” she pointed up at something in the cave ceiling.

Following her hoof, I saw large cables that ran through smaller pipes coming down to the structure below. A couple of pipes didn’t have any wire in them at all, they were just metal that ran through small tunnels in the ceiling, just like we were told. It was on the smaller size, but with my small frame and Wind Thrasher being so slight, we may be able to squeeze through them. Shrugging my shoulders, “It’s not like we have a better Option right now.”

Wind Thrasher took hold of me and with a quick flap of her wings, she brought both of us to one of the empty pipes, “Let’s get in there before any of those pegasi see us.”

I moved from her grip and pulled myself into the dark pipe, Wind Thrasher following me. It was even tighter than it looked from below, for once I was happy I was so small, it didn’t take much for me to push my way in. It was a little harder for Wind Thrasher to make her way in, but she was skinny so she made it after a little wiggling.

“You doing okay Wind Thrasher?” I asked, crawling a little farther into the pipe.

“Yeah, just a little tight is all. I’ll be fine.” She said coming up behind me.

We pushed our way up the pipe slowly. Most of the way up it wasn’t too bad, apart from being squeezed tightly by the pipe itself. At one point the pipe arched upward, we only made it up the sharp incline thanks to Wind Thrasher. She was able to use her wings to brace herself and slowly push us up. By the time we reached where the pipe came to a dead end, we were both hot, irritated and tired.

Panting a little, I pushed on the flat surface where we were now. Something clicked and a door swung open spilling us out into a dark room. I groaned and looked around, but I couldn’t see a thing, “I can’t make anything out in this darkness.”

I felt Wind Thrasher move up next to me saying quietly, “It looks like a small work room.”

I noticed her eyes glowing again in the darkness, “That’s a nifty trick to have.”

“Most of the time it is.” she said, I heard her move forward then a door opened slightly spilling light into the dark room.

With the small amount of light coming in, I saw we were indeed in a small work space, the Pipe was right behind me, a small door open at the end. It looked like it was meant to close off the passage below until the workers here were ready to use the pipe to install cables. I moved over to stand next to Wind Thrasher looking through the crack in the door, “Do you see anything?”

“No, and I can’t hear anything either, I think were okay for now.” She said opening the door more and walking into a long hallway.

“This seems to easy,” I said scanning the area with my E.F.S. and not seeing a single red bar around, “I thought there would be more soldiers protecting this place.”

“They might be on the lower levels, I’m sure the Sins don’t think they need any up here.” She said slowly making her way down the hall.

“You’re probably right, but we should still be careful. With the Sins you never know what you’ll run into.” I said finding the silence oddly creepy.

The hall was dank and dim, with only a small bit of light coming from the utility lights buzzing overhead. Trash and dust littered the halls and a few pony skeletons laying in random heaps. From the look of the skeletons it seems that all kinds of ponies used to work here, I saw Unicorns, Earth Ponies, and even a few Pegasi. Once we reached the end of the hall a stair case led up to the next level. I pulled my newly acquired shot gun out of my saddle bags and started to head up, Wind Thrasher on my tail.

As soon as we reached the next floor and rounded the corner two white bars showed up on my E.F.S., I put a hoof up stopping Wind Thrasher whispering quickly, “Follow me and stay quiet, there’s somepony up here.”

She nodded and did as I asked, keeping low to the ground, making sure that her hoof steps were as quiet as possible. It was a nice change of pace; my other friends didn’t know one thing about sneaking. Wingnut could do it if he kept his mind on the task, but that never happened. Aura was too straight forward to sneak anywhere, and Stardust…yeah, the word Sneak wasn’t part of his vocabulary let alone his abilities. He preferred shooting things from a long way off, “Who needs to sneak when you can kill an enemy from eight hundred meters away.” He would say whenever I brought up the subject. “Oh Stardust, you fucking idiot, getting caught like that.” I whispered cursing under my breath.

I drew closer to a room off to one side of the hall; the two bars were just inside. Voices were echoing out from under the door when I drew close, “Lieutenant are you sure it’s okay for us to be up here right now, I thought Pride said to stay out of the upper levels,” a stallion said from the other side.

A mare’s voice followed, “Who gives a fuck what he said, it’s not like The Sins are even around here anyway. I’m stressed and I need this right now.”

“I know, but why me?” he asked.

“Because you’re here and after we’re done, you won’t follow me around like a lost puppy,” she replied.

That slight bitchy voice sounded so familiar, I grinned and cracked the door open just a little. As I thought, Solstice was in the room straddling another pegasus on an old cot. Oh, this was going to be so much fun. Sliding into the room I slowly crept toward the two as they started making out on the bed, the Stallion was eager to go by the look of it. Doing my best not to blush or make any noise, I moved around to the other side of the cot. Both had their eyes were closed as they kissed each other, soft moans escaping them. I had to hold back my growing amusement, doing my best not to laugh.

When I was finally close enough I brought my shotgun up and said, “Funny running into you here Lieutenant Solstice.”

She froze, one eye opening to look over at me…and the shotgun barrel that was an inch away from her. Slowly pulling her head up and away from the equally shocked Stallion, “You have gotta be fucking kidding me.”

“I’m afraid not. Did you know that this place has some really shitty security? I thought I’d run into more patrols on my way up here, but nope nothin’. Oh, and I wouldn’t move, you should know by now that I have a bad habit of shooting first and worrying about the consequences later,” I said smirking at her.

For once she actually listened. She didn’t move an inch as she spoke, “How the hell did you get all the way up here, we’ve got the entire lower levels guarded, one of my patrols should’ve found you by now.”

“You really should do a better job guarding the river level, there are so many tiny holes that lead to interesting places down there,” Wind Thrasher said seeming to enjoy the other two pony’s predicament.

“Um…ma’am shouldn’t we call for help?” The Stallion under Solstice asked.

“Oh shut up,” she told him, “So what now Courier? Are you gonna kill me this time, or let me go again like last time? Because I really don’t feel liking having a heartwarming chat like before.”

My smile widened, “Oh, I have a better idea for you,” using my magic I pulled out a couple rolls of Duct Tape, “I don’t need to kill you Solstice and it looked like you were having a lot of fun a moment ago so I’m just gonna leave you here.”

“I’m gonna fucking murder you Courier,” she said with a hiss.

The stallion tried to move out from under Solstice, but I cocked my shotgun and pointed it at him, “I wouldn’t do that if I were you.”

“Fuck this, I don’t wanna get taped up to the lieutenant. Do you know what the others would say if they found out?” he said, almost crying.

“I don’t really care, either you stay and live, or take your chances with my shotgun and/or my friend.”

Both pegasi seemed to finally notice Wind Thrasher, she smiled at both of them, her sharp fangs gleaming in the dull light. She was kind of a terrifying presence to ponies that hadn’t ever seen her before. She started to snicker a little, “I haven’t eaten in a while, I’d love an excuse to sample pegasi blood.”

Okay, that was a little creepy, but it worked. Both their eyes went wide as they stared at her. Ten minutes and four rolls of Duct Tape later, I was snickering as I walked back out of the room. Solstice and her lover of the moment were both taped together, their wings outstretched and taped to each other as well, still in the awkward position I’d found them in. Solstice sure didn’t look very happy when I shut the door behind me still laughing as I went on my way. She’d get free sooner or later I was sure, but it was worth it.

“I take it you know that mare,” Wind Thrasher asked as we made our way up to another level.

“Yeah, she’s not that bad, she’s just full of herself. I let her go after we captured her back at Frosty Summit. I felt bad for her and I still do. I didn’t really wanna kill her, so I figured it’d work better to just humiliate her, maybe she’ll use this as a lesson not to let your guard down.”

“I’m glad you didn’t kill her, it’d seriously suck to be killed while you were in the middle of…that,” she said, blushing bright red.

“I agree, and maybe she’ll learn something because of it. Though I’m sure she’s gonna do her best to kill me next time we meet.”

“Then let’s make sure we get out of here as fast as we can. How long do you think that tape will keep them bound?” she asked.

“No idea, hopefully long enough for me to find Silver and get her out of here.”

“You DO realize that we still have to worry about The Sins too don’t you?”

“I’m hoping that we won’t run into them, they aren’t expecting me for a few more hours. If we’re lucky, they won’t be here yet or at least most of them won’t be,” I said as we came to a part in one of the halls that collapsed in on itself, “How the hell do we get past this?”

“Let’s see if we can get by it in one of the rooms,” Wind Thrasher said heading toward one of the side doors.

“Good idea,” I followed, she tried the door, but it was locked, “I can get it.”

“We could always try another room,” Wind Thrasher said turning to head toward the other door in the hall.

“First lesson when it comes to sneaking into your enemy’s base, don’t always take the easy route. Trust me, it didn’t do me any good when I did that at Stable 9,” I said pulling out my bobby pins and getting to work on the door.

“Why? It’s not like they know we’re coming. In Stable 9 Dr. Cell knew where you were and how to make you go where he wanted.”

The lock wasn’t very hard, it only took me a few seconds to push the pins into place and turn the lock, “Knowing the Sins, they’ll have a backup plan in case I don’t do what they say and try something just like this. If so I’m not gonna make it easy for them to trap us.”

“What, do you really think they blocked the hall just to force you to go a different way?”

I pushed the door open, “Envy used some kind of magic to look like my mare friend just to follow me then force me to come here. I wouldn’t put anything past them.”

We walked into the room closing the door behind us. It was an office, it looked like it used to belong to a supervisor. It was bigger than you’d expect in a place like this, with one big desk at one end. It was covered with paperwork and a terminal. The office had lots of odds and ends scattered all over, a few filing cabinets and oddly a cot set up in the other corner. There were posters on the wall, some were posters of The Ministry of Awesome and a couple of The Shadowbolts. The others were constellations, photos of rockets, and a planetary chart. On the desk there was a plaque with a name on it. ‘Professor Augustine’ was written on it and just under the name it said ‘Head Researcher’

I walked over to the desk looking at it, “Why would a power plant have a head researcher?”

“Who knows? Maybe they were using this place for more than just generating power,” Wind Thrasher said looking around the room trying to find a way past the blockade in the hall.

I moved around the desk and sat down looking at the terminal. It wasn’t even locked. While Wind Thrasher looked around I let my curiosity take over and I started to look through the notes.

Personal Log 204

Another day in this shithole. I still can’t believe I was fired from the M.A.S. Over what? Passing on some of my research to friends in Stable-Tec? It’s not like it was even anything big, Prickly Petal just wanted to know what I knew about protective barriers. They were looking into using the tech to help protect ponykind from a megaspell destination. Here I thought the whole point of the Ministries was to protect Equestria and win the war. Guess I was wrong.

Still it was nice of Prickly Petal to help me get a job here, even if the ponies here don’t seem to respect my position or my intelligence. I was one of the top researchers for Twilight Sparkle, I was even helping work on a new megaspell, but no, they didn’t care one bit. Fuck them, I’m going to show them all that they made the wrong decision by throwing me out.

Personal Log 214

I’ve had a break through! When I started working here they wanted me to find a new way to make power for Equestria, one that didn’t just use solar radiation. One of my underlings came up with the bright idea to use hydro power, and we all developed a system that would be perfect to use in the underground river. That wasn’t the break through though, while my underlings were working on this new idea, I started looking into some of the older systems here and I found that this power plant was built with high powered frequency transmitters. I have no idea why they would need something like that here, but when I started to dig deeper into it, I found that they were being built for a project that was never completed, something the M.O.A. and M.A.S. were working on together.

The more I’ve looked into it, the more I’ve learned. In the transmitter room a pony could set up a program to transmit singles to a satellite. If somepony could weaponize a megaspell and put it on a satellite, they could make the perfect weapon to use against the Zebras. With that kind of power, we could win the war easily. I’m going to talk to Petal about this and see what she thinks, she’s my only true friend and the only pony I can trust with this knowledge.

Personal Log 240

Today my life changed forever, no longer will anypony look down on me as the mare who was kicked out of the M.A.S., or as the poor mare who took a shitty job at the local power plant. No, ponies will look back on me and know that I’m the pony who saved Equestria. I talked with a representative of the M.O.A. and they’re funding my new project and putting me in charge of a whole team of ponies, not just the three idiots I have now.

Personal Log 303

Finally, I figured out what we can do to make this work. At first the problem I was running into was how you control something as powerful as a megaspell that’s too far away to have a unicorn activate. It was the same problem Twilight was having with the Celestia One Project. Well that and how to make it work even on a cloudy day, I think I know how to fix both problems. At first it seemed so simple, the megaspell could use the Sun to recharge itself, with no need to keep Unicorns around to do it. But you can’t keep a satellite in the same place in orbit and keep the sun on it all the time, I’m still working on that problem.

The other problem I didn’t even think would matter was a cloudy day or if it was night. Being dark wouldn’t matter if the Megaspell was already charged, same for a cloudy day, but we still can’t seem to get the numbers to work with how to make the Megaspell fire if it can’t see its target, even if it’s sunny it’s still a problem. What I think we need is to make something to do the targeting from down here and send the signal up to the Satellite. I’m still working on how to do this, but I know I’m on the right path.

The only other thing I’m worried about is the blast radius. If the numbers I’m seeing are right, this could be either too weak from such a high altitude to do much damage or it’ll destroy more than the intended target. I’ll have to see if there’s a way we can contain the blast.

The rest of the files were corrupted, but from what I read, it looked like they were developing some kind of massive weapon here with the help of the Ministry of Awesome. Either they never finished it, or the project didn’t work the way they thought it would, since the Zebras blew everything up. That name though, the pony this mare was friends with, Prickly Petal, she was Night Stalker’s sister. From the way it looked, he was using his sister to get this mare to help him make a super weapon, one that I’m sure he would love to have at his disposal. Putting it out of my head for now, I looked at the last thing on the terminal. It was an audio file. I downloaded all the files to my Pip-Buck then slipped my ear bloom into my ear and played the Audio file. A soft mares voice floated into my ear…

“I met with a pony from the M.O.A. today, the same one who helped me set up this whole project. He wanted to know how things were going. I’m not sure why, but the way he was questioning me I’m starting to think twice about this whole thing. I told him what I could, but left out a few things. The Satellite will go up later today and everything is ready to go, but I didn’t tell him how it really works. I’m going to send all my research to a contact I still have at the Ministry of Arcane Sciences and see if I can get Twilight herself to come here to look this over. I hope she does, I’m not sure what that pegasus wants this for, but it’s not to help us win the war. I’m leaving the passcodes for terminals upstairs in my safe and leaving this on the terminal just in case something happens to me before I can get the information to the M.A.S. This way the right ponies will find this before he gets his hooves on it. I hope I’m wrong…but I know better, I’m never wrong.”

Damn she was a smart pony, if she was able to see through Night Stalkers bravado and see the pony he really was. She did whatever she could to stop him from getting his hooves on the project. Turning around I saw the safe in the floor just behind the desk. Moving toward it I picked the lock, it was a lot harder than the door and four bobby pins later, I was in. There wasn’t much, just some research notes and three passcodes for getting into the terminals upstairs.

I put them into my saddlebags, then looked over at Wind Thrasher who was hovering near a vent on the far wall, “Did you find something?”

“It looks like this leads into the next room, we might be able to use it to get past the blockage in the hall. Are you finished looking through that terminal?”

“I think so,” I said looking back at the terminal, “I think there’s another reason The Sins are here. If this mare’s notes are true, there may be a superweapon here.”

Her eyes went wide, “Are you sure?”

“I think so, but from the look of things, the mare who was in charge of the project made sure nopony would be able to use it unless they had the passcodes.”

“We should make sure the program is shut down then as well as getting the power rerouted and saving your mare friend. Let’s head up to the control room, it should be one more level up, as long as we don’t run into The Sins there, we can kill two birds with one stone.”

“Works for me, help me up there and let’s go,” I said moving from behind the desk. Wind Thrasher lifted me and I slid into the vent and through into the smaller office. This one was set up much like the one we were just in, only with six desks in it and less paperwork.

I moved over to the door and pushed it open slowly. Checking that the coast was clear, I moved back into the hall. Sure, enough we were past the blockage, and now I was extra glad I decided we should go though the office and not the other doorway. The rubble was pressed against the office door on the other side of the hall, we would’ve been stuck or been forced to take whatever path had been set up for us to follow. Since we didn’t, we were able to move to the stairway at the end of the hall and follow it up to the next level.

As we came to the next level, a door was blocking our path, unlike the other stairways. I moved closer to the metal door looking it over. Just like a stable it had a switch on one end to open it, but the light was red, indicating that it was locked. On the wall next to it, there was a terminal. I tried logging in, as I expected it was locked. Not a problem, I hooked the Mark II into it and started the hacking software. Streams of code flew by on the screen as the Mark II did its work, then the familiar screen came up with multiple words mixed in with code.

“What are you doing?” Wind Thrasher asked looking over my shoulder at the terminal.

“Hacking into the terminal so I can unlock the door,” I said trying the first passcode and failing. I cursed and tried two more, both failed. I backed out of the program and started it up again, “I hate hard terminals like this one.”

Wind Thrasher was watching me as I tried over and over to hack into the terminal. Each time I had to back out, I wanted to put my hoof through the screen. On what had to be my eighth time going back in she pointed at one word and said, “Try that one.”

The word was Azimuth, I looked at her and asked “Is that even a real word?”

“Of course it is, just try it.”

Rolling my eyes, I did, and to my amazement it worked. Looking back at her I asked, “How’d you know that would work?”

“From what I saw in Professor Augustine’s office, she liked things that had to do with space, that was the only thing in the jumble of words that had to do with space,” she explained.

Cocking my head to one side I asked, “What the fuck is an Azimuth?”

She cleared her throat and explained, “It’s the direction of a celestial object from the observer, expressed as the angular distance from the north or south point of the horizon to the point at which a vertical circle passing through the object intersects the horizon.”

I just looked at her blankly for a long moment, trying to put together what she just said to me. Finally, I asked, “Can you explain that in a way that a not smart pony could understand?”

“Mathematical outer space stuff,” she said simply, “Though that description doesn’t really explain what an Azimuth really is. It’s rather crude.”

“I’ll take crude, what you just said…makes my head hurt. How do you know so much anyway?” I asked as I used the terminal to unlock the door.

“I didn’t have a lot to do when I was stuck in the stable, so I read everything I could when Dr. Cell was busy. Mom always said I was smart, I think that’s why she wanted me to go into Bio Science,” she said.

“I thought you were in security?” I asked.

“I got hurt when I was with security, I wanted to go into it because a friend of mine was training to be in security too. He was a few years older than I was, but we always got along well and he was one of my only friends. Mom was letting me see what it was like being in security before she put me into Bio Science. She wanted me to be happy,” she said walking over to the door and flipping the switch.

I drew my shotgun again as the door hissed open. Walking in slowly I looked around, Wind Thrasher on my tail. Nopony was here, at least it didn’t look like it. Keeping my eyes on my E.F.S. I moved further in, doing my best not to gawk at the amount of tech that seemed to fill the room. Terminals where everywhere, lights and monitors lined the walls, desks with notes piled all over, a tall pillar in the middle of the room, and one large glass layout of the night sky. The large layout showed the movement of the moon and a detailed diagram of the stars, it also showed something orbiting the planet.

“I’ll look around and make sure nopony’s here,” Wind Thrasher said flying off and looking around.

From what I could tell, the room looked like it’d been used recently. So, either nopony was here right now, or they knew we were coming and either ran or were waiting to ambush us. My E.F.S. didn’t show anything hostile or friendly apart from Wind Thrasher, but that didn’t mean no one was here. Luckily for me, Wind Thrasher was just as good if not better than having an E.F.S. she could hear and smell things better than anypony I’d ever met before, if she didn’t find anything then I’d relax.

While she flew around looking into every nook and cranny she could I made my way toward the large pillar that was standing in the middle of the room. There was a terminal set inside it mixed with lights and cables rolling up the pillar and up into the tall ceiling. I moved closer to it and tried to access the terminal, but it was locked. I was about to try hacking into it with my Pip-Buck when something crossed my mind. Reaching into my Saddle Bags I pulled out the notes I took from Professor Augustin’s office. There was a username and three different passwords for accessing the main terminal. Figuring it couldn’t hurt to try it, I used the username and the first password to log in, and it worked.

I watched as the terminal logged in and a moment later text came up on the screen…

Welcome Professor,

Warning plants power output only operating at 32%...

Solar arrays not responding… Checking hydro pump status… Pumps not fully responding, Halo One in need of repair on solar and hydro power systems. All other systems operating normally.

The text pasted by quickly then a new screen popped up.

Welcome to the Halo One Mainframe Operating System. Please choose which system you would like to work with.

Power Output

System Operations

Orders

Shipments

Energy Operation Details

Satellite Operations

“Wind Thrasher come take a look at this.”

She came down saying, “It looks like ponies where here not too long ago, but they’re gone now. I think they were using the door on the balcony to get in and out, I’m guessing it leads outside or to another staircase that goes up to another level. What did you find?”

I showed her the terminal screen, “I think this is where the power is controlled for Halo One, but the rest of this I don’t understand.”

She looked over the menus and said, “This must be where The Professor and her team where doing their work, we shouldn’t mess with anything until we can clear this place out and get the N.L.R. here to look this over.”

“You’re probably right, but we could at least see about rerouting the power like the major asked.”

“Yeah, we could at least see if we can do that from here, but don’t do it just yet. I’m gonna see what’s on the other side of that door and make sure we’re safe before we do anything else, you wait here,” she said flapping into the air again.

“No, I can help you.”

“I know you can, but it’s better for you to stay here and keep an eye on the door we came through, just in case more soldiers come up that way,” she took off and headed out the door.

“Fuck,” I said sitting down and looking at the terminal. What did she expect me to do while she went off to check things out? I sighed and tapped the pillar still staring at the screen. The last option caught my eye, looking around and not seeing anypony still, I moved my hoof over to the keys and clicked on the last option.

Satellite Operations… Please enter passcode!

I shrugged and figured it still couldn’t hurt to just look, I entered the second passcode from the Professor’s notes.

Passcode Accepted,

Welcome to the Halo One Satellite Operations system for Solar Flare Project. CAUTION: This system is to only be used by senior staff of the Ministry of Awesome, or a representative from The Ministry of Arcane Sciences. If you are not authorized to access this program, back out of the program now.

“Yeah sure, and what’re you gonna do if I’m not? Call the Ministry of Moral? Pfft… please,” I said clicking past the warning screen.

Satellite Operations still operating normally,

Not ready to fire, system has been put onto lockdown by order of Professor Augustine and Head Science lead Minuette of the Ministry of Awesome. This operation requires a project head to unlock the project. Do you want to proceed?

Okay now my curiosity was peaked, I clicked on Yes and the screen came up with yet another option.

Passcode from the Head of Research and Biometric Scan of Host pony required.

“Well why not.” I said not knowing what a Biometric Scan was or why it mattered. I entered the last passcode on from the notes and watched as the screen went blank for another moment then new text came up.

Making sure Host Pony’s Biology matches, please stand still.

“Okay maybe I don’t want to do this!” I started to say, but before I could even think of moving, a small blue gem connected to a small rod popped out from just above the terminal and a flash of blue light rolled over me, a second later it was done.

Match found, Welcome to the Solar Flare Project.

Everything is in order, Satellite is in place and ready to start charging. Range finder is ready to be activated.

Shield Spell active.

Alignment of Satellite off by only 2%...trying to adjust cores.

Mega Spell chamber holding…

Charging Chamber holding…

Connection with Range Finder Holding…

Are you ready to activate Solar Flare?

[Yes/No]

“No Fucking way am I going to activate anything that says it’s a Mega Spell.” I said moving my hoof up to press the N for no.

Before I could a voice echoed from across the chamber, making me jump and my hoof landed on another key. Text started to flow by on the screen but I ignored it pulling my shotgun out while the voice spoke, “It’s about time you found your way up here Courier. It looks like you’re more adept at getting things done than I thought.”

“Who’s there?” I asked looking around for who spoke.

The stallions voice echoed through the room again, “I’m not really in the room with you, so you can put that silly toy away.”

“Who are you? You don’t sound like one of The Sins,” I said still trying to figure out who was talking. As I did I looked back at the terminal, oddly it was back on the main screen, the option for the satellite was gone. I must’ve hit no when I jumped, because nothing came up saying something was activated. Well that was one good thing at least.

The Stallion’s voice chuckled as he spoke, “Haha, I’m not with those morons. No, look to you’re right, I’m on the terminal.”

Looking over I saw one of the terminals lit up with the face of a prim looking stallion. He had a thin mustache and a dark mane, but I couldn’t make out what color any of it was because the terminal only showed him in black or green. The face stayed frozen as the voice echoed out again, “There you go.”

“Who are you?”

“Hah hah hah, I’m known by many names courier mare, but you can call me Mr. Tops that’s what most of the ponies on The Strip call me, it’s nice to finally meet you,” the stallion said from the terminal.

Odd, Mr. Tops looked a lot like Falafel, but a little different too. Was he a descendant of the business pony? “Mr. Tops? I thought you lived in the Lucky Horseshoe and never talked to anypony?”

“I don’t, but there are times when a pony catches my interest and you Courier Mare have been doing just that for the past few days.”

“How are you talking to me anyway if you’re stuck up in The Lucky Horseshoe, and why do you look like the pony who opened the Lucky Horseshoe, Falafel?”

“Oh, you HAVE been doing your research haven’t you. Good Job, well to answer you’re first question, I can access different systems around New Pegasus if I want to talk to somepony. I can’t do much more than that, but it’s rather helpful from time to time. As for why I look the way I do well that’s a little harder to answer. Though I can tell you that I’m not Falafel, I’m just a pony who took over this casino a long time ago and found that by using the face of one of the founders I could get a lot of things done. The face you see isn’t Falafel, it’s his brother Flapjack,” Mr. Tops said.

“Okay, well what do you want? I’m not really in the mood to chat right now, I’m here to save my marefriend.”

“I won’t take up much of your time. If I stay in the system too long, The Enclave will notice and I really can’t risk that. As for what I want, well, I saw that you were able to access the mainframe at Halo One. I’m sure the N.L.R. or the Steel Rangers want you to reroute the power to them, I want you to ignore them and route the power from Halo One to The Strip,” he said.

“And why would I do that?”

“Because if you do, I’ll be able to use that extra power to expand The Strip. If I can do that, I’ll be able to make New Pegasus as grand as it once was…well maybe not as grand but close enough. Think about it, if I can open more casinos, hotels and businesses, The Strip can become a better refuge for ponies in The Wasteland and help bring society back to Equestria.”

I rolled my eyes, “And you’ll be able to collect more Caps and gain more control over the ponies who live there too.”

“Is that such a bad thing? Think about it, I’ve made a place like none other in all of Equestria. Ponies from everywhere are able to come here and not worry about if they’re a Steel Ranger, N.L.R., Enclave, or a random pony from The Wasteland. Since I took over, things have become more peaceful here. If you do this I’ll reward you beyond your wildest dreams,” Mr. Tops said.

“You can’t offer me anything that could change my mind on who I am willing to give the power here to. I don’t need your Caps and I don’t think there’s anything else you could help me with. Sorry Mr. Tops, but I don’t know you and from what I’ve heard about you, you’re nothing more than a tyrant trying to make his own empire from a hiding place in that old tower,” I said turning away from the terminal.

“Oh, you really think so Shadow Star?”

I froze then turned back to look at the screen, “How do you know my name?”

“I know everything going on in my city. I know who you are, where you came from, and who you’re looking for. If you do what I ask I can give you information that will help you find Grimoire.”

It was tempting, oh was it tempting. With one click on that terminal, I could save myself weeks, months, maybe even years of travel and information gathering all just to find mom and the information she left for me. But remembering what Auntie told me ‘If it seems too good to be true, it is.’ I smiled and shook my head, “Thanks but no thanks Mr. Tops, I’ll find her on my own. I’ll decide what to do with the power here and I’m not going to let you or any other group make that decision for me.”

For a long moment he was silent, then said, “Well, at least think about it. There is a lot of good I could do with that extra power, more than what those lazy N.L.R. ponies could even dream of, let alone the technology hoarders in The Steel Rangers. I will admit that you DO have a point though, it’s hard to trust a pony you don’t know. Just think on it before you make up your mind, and when you come back to New Pegasus, stop by the Lucky Horseshoe, I’d like to meet you face to face…so to speak. No matter what you decide.”

“We’ll see what happens. Right now, I have to worry about getting my marefriend out of here safe, after that then I can think about helping other ponies.”

“I understand, good day Courier,” he said then the terminal went dark and he was gone.

I let out the breath I was holding and turned back toward the screen of the mainframe again right as Wind Thrasher came flying back through the far door, “Shadow, we have to hide, quick!”

She zoomed down and picked me up flying me to one of the dark corners of the room, landing on top of one of the shelves. Not a moment later three ponies walked into the room from the door Wind Thrasher had just flown through. It was Greed, Pride, and Envy.

Envy was talking quickly to Pride as they entered the room, “Are you sure this is a good idea Pride?”

“I’m not sure about anything anymore Envy, now shut that hole in your face. My head hurts enough without you’re annoying voice adding to it.”

Greed chuckled as Envy made a mocking face toward Pride as he walked over to one of the far terminals. “I thought you said The Courier Mare would be here by now Envy.”

“She will be, but she has an hour or so left. Knowing that Runt, she’ll try to figure out a way to save her marefriend and not turn herself over. Not like it matters, she has to come up here to get to the top room anyway, there’s no way she’ll get past us.”

“Personally, I wish you would’ve just killed her and been done with it Envy, that was the order you were originally given,” Pride said starting to type something on the terminal.

“I already told you Pride, I was given orders by the council not to kill the squirt. Not even you can go against their orders.”

“Fuck the Council, I’m not letting her live after how much she’s humiliated us. If this keeps up, The Seven Sins of Equinity will be the laughing stalk of all The Enclave,” Pride said.

Greed chuckled, “I dunno Pride, from where I’m standing it looks like we already are. C’mon, she killed Gluttony, and was able to capture Wrath. Gluttony I can understand, but Wrath is tough. She escaped you twice, got away from Cloak…twice, was able to push back the forces at Frosty Summit, and she snuck past Sloth at that shithole stable. Maybe we should just let this one go, and let the normal soldiers deal with her.”

“I won’t let her get away with what she’s done, and you all know that my sister needs that Mark II. If we can’t get her to take it off willingly then we have to kill her.”

The door opened again and the cloaked mare walked in, she walked toward Pride saying, “That I do, but Envy and Greed have a point. We can’t go against the council’s wishes either. Also after doing some digging I found that the Courier has been trying to find a pony to unlock some security programs that are on it. If that’s true, we might risk the data on the Mark II getting erased if she’s killed. I can’t risk that, so Envy’s way might be the best course of action.”

Pride grumbled to himself then sighed, “As you wish, but I still don’t like it,” he tapped on a few more keys then stepped back as a voice echoed out of the terminal.

“Who is this?” the deep voice echoed from the terminal.

“It’s Pride, I got your message that you wanted to talk with us Councilstallion.”

“Oh Pride, it’s about time you contacted me. Are we on a secure line?”

“Of course we are. What did you want to say?”

“We need you and you’re team back in Stratus right away. You are to abandon any missions you’re working on right now and come back here,” the voice said.

“But sir, we’re so close to capturing The Courier Mare. We took a mare hostage that she cares for, she’ll be here soon.”

“I don’t care. You are to leave Halo One immediately. Failure to do so will be seen as treason and your team will be disbanded and executed. You are to forget about The Courier Mare and report back here straight away!”

“With all do respect sir, what about my Research? We need that Pip-Buck to complete it. Just give us a few more hours and we’ll be finished with the Courier and The Enclave will be rid of an enemy,” Cloak said.

The Voice Echoed louder, “This is you’re last warning. Your Team WILL report with the soldiers in Appleton and take the first sky carriage leaving from there later tonight to come back here. We need all Enclave presence away from Halo One ASAP.”

All four ponies stiffened then Greed asked, “What’s going on sir?”

“We have reports that a large faction of Steel Rangers is moving in to take Halo One tomorrow, the same for the N.L.R. We don’t have the firepower right now to keep the building, not with Neighvarro breathing down our necks. We can’t let them know what we’re doing down on the surface yet. Now report to Appleton. Forget about the Courier and her friend you captured, you got what we really needed when you captured Subject 9712, that was the bigger mission anyway. I want you out of Halo One in the next ten minutes. Am I understood?”

All of them said in unison, “Sir, yes Sir!”

“Good,” he replied then there was a hiss of static as the pony ended the transmission.

For a long moment nothing happened, then Pride screamed and spikes of shadows blew out of him in all directions. None of them hit Wind Thrasher or myself luckily or the other three, but a few terminals in the room blew and holes were poked into the floor. A moment later he relaxed as he turned toward his team, “We only have a few hours, Envy go get Wrath out of that Alicorn shithole, Greed tell the soldiers that we have to move out now.”

“Sure why not” Greed said begrudgingly, taking a quick glance up at the ceiling exactly where Wind Thrasher and I are, an odd look in his eyes almost like he knew we were here.

They both took off back out the door they came in, leaving Pride in the room with Cloak. She waited for the door to close before she said, “What do you plan to do about that mare?”

“It doesn’t matter anymore, we have our orders. Just leave her and let’s get out of here, before I do something I’ll regret.”

She moved closer and put a hoof on his, “Brother, you know we have to finish this. It’s cost us both too much for us to just turn our backs on this.”

“We will, don’t worry about what he told us. I’m sure we’ll still see that little bitch again. All we have to do now is sit back and wait, trust me, I made sure of it,” Pride said, his body melting into shadows slowly.

She sighed, “Do I even want to know what you did?”

“Trust me Sister, you don’t…Now get out of here while you still can, I’ll meet you in Stratus,” with that he was gone, the shadows of his body sliding to the door then under it.

For a long moment Cloak just stood there, then in a flash of blue light she was gone along with him. Something wasn’t adding up here. Why would they go through the trouble of capturing Silver just to lure me here, then just leave? Who was that pony they were talking to? It seemed too much like a planned-out trap to me, but what could I do at this point? If it was a trap that meant they already knew I was here, I’d just have to see where fate took me.

“Let’s get out of here and get Silver before any of them change their minds,” I said.

“Are you sure?” Wind Thrasher replied.

“No, but we can’t sit up here forever.”

She nodded then flew us back to the ground right next to the terminal in the center of the room. Before I left, I walked over to it and brought up the menu for routing power. The systems here must’ve been updated or just knew what towns and places were called just like the Pip-Bucks, because there were four options to where I could send the power. I could send it to either, The New Pegasus Strip, Jet Blue Skyport, Freedom Town, or an option to Evenly Distribute the power between all three locations. I smiled when I saw the last one, what better way to make sure nopony could get mad at me for my choice. As much as I hated to admit it, Mr. Tops was right, he could do some good with the extra power, but so could the N.L.R., and I know the Queen would do a lot of good things if she had more power she could use to help the ponies in Freedom. So, I clicked on that one. Once it was all done, I hooked my Pip-Buck to the terminal and used it to lock the terminal for good, making sure nopony could get back into the system to either reroute the power again or use that megaspell.

“Let’s get out of here,” I said heading toward the stairs that would bring me to the upper balcony and the door out.

If I was lucky enough to have The Sins leave Halo One without me having to do anything, I wasn’t gonna pass up the opportunity. The door led outside of the tower onto a walkway that circled around the tower, a ramp on one side leading up to the last room.

Wind Thrasher followed me, “When I came out here I tried to fly up there to see if you’re marefriend was okay, but I couldn’t see inside, and those ponies were just outside the door talking. I was trying to listen in when they started coming down here.”

“It’s okay Wind Thrasher, let’s get up there quickly and pray that this isn’t a trap. Just be ready in case I’m wrong,” I said switching my shotgun out for the plasma rifle.

She nodded and we slowly made our way up to the last room. The door opened for us, and nopony was inside. Well at least The Sins weren’t. The room was a mess like most of the others, papers and books scattered all over the place and a set of saddle bags sat next to the door. On the outside stitched into it was a tribal design of a lion’s head. Odd, wasn’t that the symbol for Pride? That’s what The Stranger said. Why would he leave his saddle bags here? Did he forget them because of what happened with that other pony, or was this the start of the trap?

I couldn’t think about it, Silver had to be up here somewhere. She was the only thing that mattered right now. There’s no telling what they did to her while she was being held captive…for a second time…because of me. I ran into the room yelling, “Silver are you in here? It’s me Shadow, I’m here to rescue you!”

No pony answered, Wind Thrasher followed me in, a look of horror on her face, “Shadow I don’t think you should go any farther.”

There was another room connected to this one, it looked like the small round room had been divided into two separate rooms, Silver had to be on the other side of that door, maybe she was unconscious or just sleeping. Or maybe she thought I was Envy playing a trick on her, ignoring Wind Thrasher I ran toward the door. It was locked, pulling out my bobby pins I worked on the lock as Wind Thrasher came back over, her hooves shaking.

“Don’t worry, I’m here,” I was saying as the tumblers clicked home.

“I mean it Shadow, we shouldn’t go any farther I smell bloo…”

I cut her off, “I’m not leaving until I find her,” I pushed the door open letting the dim light from outside flood into the second room, “Silver why aren’t you answering me…”

I stopped in the doorway my eyes wide. As the light from behind flooded into the room. I saw what Wind Thrasher was trying to warn me about. The room wasn’t large, just big enough to hold a pony, a bed, and a few other small things. It was almost like it was a side room that a pony could use to sleep in if they had to work late. The walls on the far end of the room were grey mixed with a reddish brown, a rotting smell filled my nostrils as the door opened, making my stomach churn.

The carpet in the room was sticky, it’s light blue mix with brown and red stains like the wall. My hooves stuck to it like honey had been dropped on the floor leaving behind a crusty sticky mess. On the floor laying against the wall, I saw a red coat matted with blood. It was Silver Snip. Her eyes were open, those soft green orbs looking at me. It was a blank stare, no light shining in those once beautiful loving eyes. She’d been stripped of her light armor, her mane was matted like her coat, one of her eyes looked like somepony had blackened it a day or two ago. Her horn was snapped off and was lying next to her hoof, cracks running down its length.

I took a step closer, not wanting to believe what my eyes were telling me must be true. The carpet crunched under my hoofsteps as I drew closer to her, the mare I sacrificed my friends to come save, the mare I was going to sacrifice myself for, just to get her home safe. When I looked closer at her, I saw dozens of small holes in her chest, legs, stomach, and even around her groin. They were too small to be from bullets and the lack black you’d expect from a gunshot told me one thing. Magic had been used to do this. Silver had been pierced with shadow magic, making it so she bled out slowly. There was only one pony I knew who could make perfect little holes like that, one who hated me so much he was willing to do anything to pay me back for killing one of his own. Pride killed Silver, not today, not last night. She’d been dead for a while, most likely since she arrived here after giving them all the information she could about me.

I went to sit next to her pulling her sticky, smelly corpse into my forehooves. Ignoring the stench, the blood, and the sight of my dead lover. I held her to my chest wanting more than anything to take back the past few days and stop this from happening. I started to cry saying quietly, “Goddess please, don’t let this be true. It should’ve been me not her. Silver was good, she didn’t deserve this, she had so much to live for. Why, why did you take her away from me?”

Wind Thrasher stood at the door looking at me as I rocked in place holding Silver’s body to my chest, rocking back and forth, “Shadow…I’m so sorry, but we have to get out of here before anypony finds us up here.”

I looked up at her, tears flowing freely as I whispered, “I can’t leave her behind.”

“Then we’ll take her with us, but we have to go. They knew you were coming, I’m sure one of The Sins was just waiting for you to get up here so they could jump you,” she tried to say moving closer and trying to get me to stand.

No, they didn’t know I was coming like this. They knew I’d come and turn myself in, Silver wasn’t needed once Envy took her place. She was just another pony that would be in their way. She was disposable, and once I turned myself in, Pride would’ve shown me this. This wasn’t a trap, it was just Pride’s payback for me killing Gluttony. Because in his twisted mind that fat slob was more important than this mare who ran a small tailor shop in a small town.

He had no idea. Silver wasn’t just a simple pony from a small town. No, she was the pony who kept Ponies in Cartwheel happy. She made new things so that others could dress better than what most ponies could ever dream of in The Wasteland. She was a mare who wanted to make dresses that were as beautiful as Rarity made. She was a friend to a lost little filly who didn’t have any friends in a large world. She was the pony who could fall in love with a broken mess like me and see the good inside. She was the pony who showed me that there was more in this world than The Wasteland. She gave ponies hope, but not now, now she was just a slab of meat left here to show me how weak I really was. Silver Snip wouldn’t be able to do anything good again, she was now in the embrace of the Goddesses in a far-off place. A place I would never be able to reach.

Looking up again, I sniffed and said, “Get her out of here Wind Thrasher, please.”

“What about you Shadow?” Wind Thrasher asked.

I looked into her bright yellow eyes, showing her the anger and pain in my own before I responded, “I’m going to kill that shadowy bastard for what he’s done, and put an end to this shit once and for all. I’m going to slaughter him like he slaughtered her.”

“Shadow, you can’t do that…”

I cut her off again, “GET HER OUT OF HERE, NOW! I’ll deal with this later. I have to kill something, and I hope it’s a gold unicorn.”

Before she could protest more, I let the rage fill me, taking hold of my magic and teleporting away. I hadn’t even tried to go so far before in my life. I don’t think I could, but with how much hatred I was feeling, I knew I could do it. A moment later I was on the ground just past the fence that protected Halo One. In the distance I saw the tops of houses, it was the direction I knew Appleton was in, and Pride.

“Are you really going after that gold pony Shadow Star?” Morning Star asked in my mind.

“I’m going to kill him, and if I have to use even you to do it I will. So, you can either help me take him down, or die with me when he wins. It’s up to you, either way I’m doing this, and I’m doing it myself.”

She just laughed, “Now this sounds like a good time, I like this Shadow Star a lot more than the one you were a few minutes ago. Fine, I’ll help you, but you know there will be a price. Magic always comes with a price.”

“I don’t care. Today, that fucker dies,” I said then I raised my voice and screamed, “DO YOU HEAR ME PRIDE!? YOU’RE DEAD!”

Hacktivist: You’ve learned the art of pushing past security systems in terminals. You can now hack harder terminals and you’ll get one extra try before being locked out of a terminal.

Next Chapter: Chapter 24: Nightmare Estimated time remaining: 73 Hours, 14 Minutes