Ponies from The Wasteland have no idea what’s in The Badlands, it’s never been a hospitable land. Most would think that almost no one lives here, but they would be wrong. The area was large, dry, and dead, but ponies and more called this harsh environment home. The main reason most ponies didn’t meet ponies from The Badlands, was because the lands between most of Equestria and The Badlands were so dangerous to cross that you’d have to be insane to even try. Well, insane, or desperate. Deep in the dry land, there’s a small mostly intact town that goes by the name of Armadillo. This town didn’t care if you were a pony, zebra, griffon, or any other creature, as long as you didn’t create problems you were allowed in Armadillo. However, in this small town recently, there’s been rumors going around about a demon who wanders the lands around Armadillo. The ponies who traveled through the town thought of the new rumors about this so-called Demon as being nothing more than just made-up stories, but the locals knew the truth. She was real, and everyone in town knew not to cross her. No one knew her name, they just called her The Silver Demon.

One Month after Leaving New Pegasus…
Somewhere Deep in The Badlands…
Shadow Star…

One month, it took one month for Solstice, Oricalcos, Vervain, and I to reach this part of The Badlands. It probably wouldn’t have taken so long if a few things hadn’t slowed us down. Oricalcos was getting a lot better, but his body was still not fully recovered from the damage it had taken. Though he started to get more energy a little over a week after we left. He said he was just finally getting his old energy back, but I think it had something to do with the Sun coming down from the heavens for the first time in two hundred years. I still remember that day, when the cloud cover over The Wasteland started to slowly peel away and was bathed in sunlight. For a while I thought it was some mistake by The Enclave or maybe my father had something to with it.

Later we ran into a small group of ponies who managed to get some news from back east. Apparently that stable pony I’d heard about a couple of times had something to do with it and The Enclave wasn’t doing so well there. Vervain and Oricalcos seemed to be quite excited by the news. I, however, really didn’t give a shit. Sunlight or clouds, I’d given up caring about anything like that ever since I’d left New Pegasus. I’d left my duster behind; it’d been blown off of me by Aquila during our fight. It was funny how quickly she was able to get the ponies of New Pegasus and Freedom to hate me. Equestrian Express was dead, it died with Box Tape, that duster was just the last shred of what he’d created. Aquila had killed The Courier and ponies cheered for her doing it.

When the news came about The Stable Dweller, I just pushed past the group and kept on walking. Solstice stayed with me and not long after Oricalcos and Vervain caught up. They tried to get me to talk about what had me in such a bad mood, but just like I’d done the whole trip, I ignored them. Solstice knew, she was the only pony I would talk to after we left. I mean Oricalcos and Vervain knew that I’d had a fight with Aura, but not the whole story. It took me three days to finally tell Solstice after she woke me up from a nightmare I was having. To this day I’m still not sure what it was about Solstice, but I found it easy to confide in her. She didn’t say anything negative toward me when I started to cry, she didn’t tell me that I should go back and talk with Aura. No, she just held me and let me cry away the pain and anger.

The other part of our trip that had slowed us down was mostly problems with Raiders and a couple of tribes we’d ran into as we traveled. One larger tribe that lived not far from the borders to The Badlands had been the biggest pain in the ass. I nearly used Solar Flare on the ponies and their shitty huts, but Solstice pointed out that if I wanted to stay hidden from Aura or the other ponies who were probably hunting me, I shouldn’t use that weapon. So instead, I met with their leader who was a nasty stallion who wanted Solstice and me for his newest wives, then I cut his head off with Misery. The look on the rest of the tribe’s faces was almost funny enough to make me crack a smile…almost. Instead, they decided to leave us alone.

But after so long and many kilometers under our hooves. We’d finally made it to The Badlands. I came to find that the small villages we found as we traveled weren’t too bad, not much different that the rest of The Wasteland. Well, there was more radiation than I was used to since The New Pegasus area had very little. My Mark II seemed to click slowly at me every few minutes. But the ponies we found in the villages were helpful to a point and I’d started asking around looking for rumors about a strange looking M.A.S.E.B.S. tower. Most ponies didn’t seem to know what I was talking about, or they would point us toward other M.A.S.E.B.S. towers. So, we kept moving deeper into this dry, deadly land, that was until we made it to a small town called Armadillo. The trail went cold here and according to my uncle there wasn’t another town close for a least another weeks-worth of walking, at least not that he knew of. I wanted to keep going, to keep searching for Tower 2, but we were all tired and it was decided that we’d stay in this town for a week or so to rest up. So, one month after I left New Pegasus, I started what would be my new life for a long time, in Armadillo.

“Well at least the ponies here don’t look too bad,” Vervain said as she followed me toward the gate that led past the wall around the town, Solstice and Oricalcos right behind us.

“Yeah, I’m sure they’re the first ponies in The Wasteland who won’t try and kill or rob us. Maybe we found the only safe place left on this rotting planet,” I said, in a mocking tone before going up to one of the guards who was blocking the way into town.

The mare looked my friends and I over before asking, “What’s your business in Armadillo?”

I was about to give a snide reply, but Solstice spoke first. “My family and I are traveling, no real destination in mind. We just need a safe place to stay for a while so we can rest up and recover from a long journey.”

She looked over Solstice then at me, followed by Oricalcos and Vervain. “Well, I’m guessing you aren’t all related, but it’s not my place to judge. Armadillo doesn’t much care what your background is, as long as you don’t cause trouble. Don’t try and rob anypony or zebra or griffon in town and be respectful to the deputies and Sheriff.”

I rolled my eyes. “So, you’ll just let any zebra, pony, or griffon into your town?”

She glared at me. “Listen here missy, Armadillo is place for anypony that’s had a rough life to get away and feel safe. If you have a problem with that or with the other races who live here, you’ll be kicked out of here faster than you can blink.”

“Whatever,” I said with a sigh, “I don’t care about what race someone is, I was just asking. You don’t hear about ponies being so nice to griffons and zebra’s often that’s all.”

“Seeing how a zebra and a griffon started Armadillo fifty or so years ago, it shouldn’t be much of a surprise. Now, if ya’ll are staying then I’d suggest ya’ll head over to Drifters Inn. The owners are decent folk, and they should have a couple of rooms, good food, and plenty of liquor,” she said with a smile, “Also if ya’ll are lookin’ for work, check-in with the Major, his name is Zalden or Sheriff Spurs. I know the Sheriff’s been looking for somepony to take on a couple of bounties that’ve stacked up and the Major’s always looking for a little help around town.”

Vervain answered this time. “Thank you for the information and we’ll behave while we’re in town.”

“Thank you Ms.?” The guard asked.

“Oh I’m…” Vervain started to say but was interrupted.

“She’s Valentine, the skinny unicorn is Cracked Horn, The Pegasus is Light Fall,” I said.

“Um…okay and what’s your name?” she asked.

“I’m nopony,” I said as I pushed past her and headed toward the Inn. I wasn’t in the mood to talk with some worthless guard.

But as I walked off I heard her say to Vervain, “She’s a feisty one,” her tone didn’t sound angry, but interested.

“You have no idea, sorry about that, and thank you again,” Vervain said before they followed me. When Vervain caught up she asked, “Why did you give us those stupid names?”

“I don’t know, I kind of liked mine,” Solstices said.

“I know we’re far from home, but with my luck something will happen while we’re here and I really don’t want to leave any clues for Aura or her fucking talon company to find us, same goes for Aquila, your brother, or anypony else who knows me,” I said.

“Shadow, sooner or later you’re going to have to deal with this,” she said.

“Oh, I’m planning on dealing with it in just a few moments,” I said pushing through the door to Drifters Inn. The place had a few ponies either eating or drinking, music was playing, and nopony really seemed to care that four strangers just walked into the joint. So, I headed right toward the bar, saying, “Barkeep, I’ll take a shot of your best Wild Pegasus.”

The mare behind the bar looked over at me in my worn-out barding and faded traveling cloak. I’d switched to the combat armor barding I’d gotten in Hoofington while we travelled, and the cloak had come off some dead trader before we entered The Badlands. The older mare lifted an eyebrow, saying, “Not sure ya have the caps for that.”

I let my red eyes fix on her dull green ones. I let my horn glow just a little and a small smile pull on my lips as I said in a darker tone, “Wild Pegasus, NOW!”

“Fifty caps a shot,” she said, her face not changing even a little apart from a crooked grin. Her own horn glowed as she pulled a bottle from under the counter and filled a shot glass, “At least you’ve got some fightin’ spirit in that small body of yours. Names Shot Glass, oh at least it is nowadays. What brings ya’ll to Armadillo?”

Vervain sighed as she came over to the bar as I picked up the small drink and threw it back before slamming it down on the bar for another, passing over more caps. Vervain looked at me, then back at the rest of our group before saying to Shot Glass, “Traveling mostly. Might settle down here for a little while to recuperate.”

“Ya’ll family?” she asked, giving a warm smile to Vervain as she filled another drink for me.

I belched, then answered, “Kinda, why do you care?”

Oricalcos sat at the bar with me, saying, “This rude unicorn is my niece, My wife here is like a second mother to her, same goes for the pegasus.”

“Well, it’s mighty fine to meet ya, I hope ya’ll find your time in Armadillo pleasant. Most folk around here have hard pasts, but they’re all good folk. Did ya’ll need a place to stay while ya get settled in?” she asked.

I just drank another shot, feeling the liquor starting to hit me. Solstice answered instead, “We’ll need a couple of rooms yes. Not sure if we’ll be settling in, might only be here for a couple of weeks.”

“I’ve got two rooms I can spare; two weeks will cost ya around a thousand caps, but if ya’ll wanna help around the Inn I’ll let ya stay in the rooms for free,” Shot Glass said, then looked over at me as I threw back a fourth drink, “Though I can’t be havin’ my employee’s drunk.”

I rolled my eyes. “Don’t feel like working for you anyway. I’m better…” I burped loudly, “Killing things than I am cleaning rooms and serving food.”

Vervain glared at me. “You don’t have to be so rude!”

I stuck my tongue out at her. “What? It’s true. If you wanna help out around here then fine, I’m not doing it. I’ll go see if this sheriff has anything for me to shoot or cut up into tiny little pieces.”

“You know what, I’ve had it up to here with your attitude as of late,” Vervain started saying as she lifted a hoof over hear head.

“Yeah, yeah, yeah, I’m such a disappointing little filly,” I commented, “Bite me Valentine, or is it MOM today or Auntie? You can all go fuck yourselves for all I care. I’m gonna go kill something,” I said, taking the bottle of Wild Pegasus from Shot Glass, tossing down a bag of caps on the bar before walking out of the Drifters Inn. As I did I heard Vervain sigh again and start talking with Shot Glass.

I took a long pull from the bottle before putting the cap back on and storing it in my saddle bags, slowly making my way toward a larger building to the west. It had a large sign over it that said, ‘Sheriff and Jail’. I took a moment for my vision to stop swimming before I pushed the door open. Inside three ponies were around a desk to one side, two stallions standing, the last a mare who was seated behind the desk.

“Deputy Zapper, I need more information on those bandits from the north. Deputy Fang, any word from the bounty hunters we sent after those gang ponies?” the mare said as she looked over paperwork on her desk.

A younger stallion who had to be Zapper said, “I’ll get right on that ma’am, should have the information on your desk by tomorrow morning,” he then headed to the back of the building, taking another door to a back room.

An older buck who I’m guessing was Deputy Fang gave out a soft sigh. “No luck, one of them made it back and said the rest of his party died trying to get into their complex, the leader of The Demons let this one live, giving him a message saying that if we keep sending ponies after him, he’ll sick his ponies on the town.”

She slammed her hoof on the desk. “I won’t let a thug like him threaten our town. I want you to find another group of ponies to take him out. This time find somepony who has some power behind them or see if one of the griffons in town will be willing to help.”

“I’ll see what I can do Sheriff Spur,” he said before heading toward the door. As he passed, he tilted his cowpony hat at me, saying, “Pardon me little miss,” then he was gone.

The Sheriff sighed and leaned back in her seat. She was a middle-aged mare with a cinnamon-colored coat, blue eyes, and a striped gold and pink main. As I walked further into the office, she glanced over at me. “Can I help you miss?”

“I’m hoping I can help you,” I said carefully, my words were a little heavy on my tongue due to the Wild Pegasus, but I managed okay I thought, “I heard you had a couple of bounties that you needed help with.”

She gave me a once-over then leaned forward. She then took another longer look at me, eyeing Dream Walker in my front holster, the plasma rifle on my back and Misery sheathed just under that. “You’re packing a lot of heat for a young mare. How’d you get your hooves on such fine weaponry? Hope you didn’t go stealing it off some poor trader.”

I just shrugged, pointing at Dream Walker first. “Found this one in a locked weapons display at an old studio, the plasma rifle is a family heirloom, the sword was in an old ruin up north. I don’t go around killing ponies for their shit unless they’re raiders and/or dickheads.”

She chuckled. “I’m Spur, Sheriff of Armadillo. So, tell me, do you think you can really take on a bounty or are you just blowing smoke up my ass?”

As she was leaning forward I saw she was also a unicorn. I found it kind of refreshing to be around more unicorns that weren’t my family. I did my best to give her a smile, which wasn’t easy. “Depends on the ponies you want brought in or killed. I can hold my own against a lot of ponies, I might be small and young, but I’ve spent a lot of time fighting to survive.”

“Know any spells or are you like most unicorns in the Wasteland who can only lift shit with their magic?” she asked.

“I know a few spells. My uncle is a master spellcaster and he’s been trying to broaden my magic and the spells I know. I’m best with teleportation, great control over telekinesis, I also have a spell I made myself that I call an expulsion spell. It’s a powerful blast of magic that I can use to either kill or immobilize a target,” I said, and what I said wasn’t a lie, not really. Uncle Ori was trying to teach me more magic, on the rare occasions when I felt like saying more than two words to him.

One of her eyes twitched. “You can teleport?”

I activated my magic and teleported to the other side of her office, then back again, “Been able to do it for years.”

She looked down at my foreleg. I was still using Dr. Stormy’s gem to disguise the Mark II to look like any old Pip-Buck, “You from a stable?”

I nodded. “I was from a Stable, grew up in one till a few years ago when the stable was destroyed. Been in the Wasteland ever since.”

She chuckled. “Well, normally I wouldn’t want to give a bounty to a young mare like yourself, but I can see in your eyes that you don’t fuck around. Tell ya what. When I get a decent bounty in I’ll send word to you. If you’re just getting into town I’m guessing you’re staying at Drifters Inn.”

I cocked an eyebrow at her. “What about that shit I heard about that gang? I think your Deputy called them The Demons?”

She sat back again, her face going serious. “That’s a job for a group of ponies, griffons, or zebras.”

“Sounds like that hasn’t been going well. How tough are these so-called Demons?” I asked, not backing down.

“Their leader used to be part of The Enclave from what I’ve heard. He always has his power armor on when he’s around other ponies. He used to live here in Armadillo until he was kicked out a year or so back for causing too many problems for the old sheriff. He started up a small group of zebras, ponies, and a griffon and started calling them his Demons. He’s got about thirty in his gang, they’re held-up in an old factory a mile outside town. They have a lot of firepower, and no pony has been able to get rid of them,” she said.

“Former Enclave huh? Is he a Dashite?” I asked.

“From what I remember yes he is. Though I have no idea how he got his hooves on Enclave Power armor,” The Sheriff said.

“Enclave power armor isn’t as strong as Steel Ranger armor, I’ve killed ponies from both factions in the past so he shouldn’t be too hard to take down,” I said.

She started to laugh. “Kid, you’d have to get past his entire gang to even get close to him.”

“So what? From what I can tell you need him, and his crew taken out. That’s what I do. What’s the worst that can happen if I go in there alone?” I asked.

“You could die,” she replied.

“And? I can die just traveling the Wasteland,” I said with a shrug.

She sighed and ran a hoof over her face. “You know what, fine, I don’t much like sending a young thing like you after that maniac, but who knows, maybe one pony can do more than a bunch of hunters. The reward if you kill him is either ten thousand caps or a small home we have available down the road from here near the edge of town. If you can get the rest of his crew to either run or find a way to kill them too, then I’ll give you both.”

I smiled. “So, no dead or alive bs? You really want this pony dead huh?”

A dark look came to her eyes as she said, “That monster kidnapped a few ponies from around here and sold them into slavery. He also killed my daughter, so no. I don’t want him brought in alive, I want him dead and if you are able to do this, make sure he suffers.”

A dark grin came to my face as I nodded. “What’s this buck look like?”

She pulled a wanted poster out and gave it to me. I looked it over and saw it had information about the buck and his crew. Toward the top was a crude drawing of a young pegasus, I couldn’t tell what his colors were, but they were described in the rest of the poster. Silver coat, yellow eyes, mane a mix of black and gold, scar over his muzzle, he had a Dashite Mark and was called Slip Shot. I put the wanted poster into my saddle bags with a smile. “I’ll see you later Sheriff, make sure you have my caps and the rest of the reward ready. I’ll be back tomorrow to collect.”

“Make sure you get me proof that he’s dead,” she said as I walked out of the office.

I made my way toward the gate that led in and out of town, nodded at the guard mare who’d talked with us on our way in and gave her a wink before heading to the location described on the wanted poster. I started to whistle a little tune to myself as I checked my weapons and started to let my magic flow around my horn. “This might be fun.”

It didn’t take me long to find the old run-down factory. It was the only building around apart from the town of Armadillo which I could just make out in the distance. I’d taken a little bit of time to use my binoculars to watch the Factory. They had two guards near the door, one was a zebra mare, the other an earth pony stallion. Their armor was utter crap, but their weapons looked well maintained. During the time I’d been watching the place, I’d seen only one other sign of life. A large male griffon in spiked armor had come out of the main doors to the factory to yell at the guards before heading back inside. I wasn’t gonna find much out about what kind of strength they had while sitting around here, so I checked my weapons again then pulled Misery out of its sheath. I took a moment to pull on my magic and teleported. In a second I was standing behind the two guards.

The zebra mare must’ve noticed the flash of my magic because she turned around, ready to yell something as she lifted her hooves. She had spiked horse shoes on her front hooves, and she was already prepared to attack. That was until Misery sliced her throat open spraying blood over my chest as she gagged and fell to the ground. The stallion was way too slow, and Misery took his head before he even had time to notice his partner fall to the ground. I flicked the blood off Misery before looking down at the dying zebra. Her dark eyes looked up into my dead ones as she tried to stop her neck from spraying blood all over the ground. I watched her for a long moment then lifted my hoof, her eyes went wide right before I stomped down on her face. She twitched and flailed, so I stomped again, and again, and again. After the fourth stomp, her body jerked as the bones in her face and part of her skull shattered, and she stopped moving.

“Two down, about twenty or so to go,” I said to myself, checking over their bodies, but not finding anything of note apart from a few caps and some useless junk. I turned toward the door and slowly opened it. There was a unicorn mare on the other side of the door. She looked at me in surprise as I said in a quiet voice, “Why hello there.”

“Who the fuck are you?” she said, using her magic to lift a rifle.

“Who…me?” I asked, pointing at my face, “I’m the reaper pony and I’m here for the harvest of souls.” Before she could do anything else, Misery flew forward and went right through her left eye. She twitched and fell to the ground in a heap. I heard another set of hooves coming from down the dim hallway. Some pony must have heard the mare or something because a moment later two large stallions came running with battle saddles.

I erected a barrier as they opened fire and started walking further into the hallway, letting them waste their ammo. As I walked I started to chuckle, the sound echoing down the hallway. I put Misery away and pulled out Dream Walker. When their bullets stopped I saw shock on their faces when they saw I was still standing, the simmering red magical bubble protecting me and a shit-ton of spent rounds on the floor. I lifted Dream Walker in my magic, took aim and entered S.A.T.S. Time slowed as it normally did, and I targeted their heads. With two shots, I took both down. Then I started slowly walking down the hall again making my way toward a set of double doors on the other end. I heard more ponies scrabbling to find out what was happening at the entrance to the factory.

I pulled on my magic and blasted my expulsion spell at the double doors. They exploded inward and caught a zebra who was just on the other side. He screamed as my power slammed into him. I kept slowly walking into the factory, my hooves going through the pooling blood under the two ponies who I’d killed with Dream Walker. I took a moment to check on my magic, but it was still doing fine. I was still a little shocked at times when I felt the massive amount of power contained in my small body. Over the past month I’d gotten a better hold on my power, though I still didn’t have the control that my uncle did over it. Oh well, unless one of these ponies was a powerful spell caster, which I doubted very much, they wouldn’t be able to do much to me. Okay maybe I’m being a little over confident, I’m not that powerful, I just have a lot of magic to use, and I really didn’t give two fucks about my own safety. Also, I fucking hated slavers.

The zebra I’d hit with my spell was moaning in pain from the other side of the door. I ignored him and checked the area. I couldn’t see anypony else yet, but I could hear them moving upstairs. They knew somepony was here, but either they wanted to wait for me to come up to them or they were getting their gang together to make an all-out assault on what I’m assuming they thought was a few bounty hunters. It was probably the former because they’re idiots.

The zebra moaned again and tried mumbling something. I just pointed Dream Walker at him saying, “Oh shut up.” And blew his brains out.

Right after I did, a voice echoed down to me from an upper catwalk from the other side of the door, “Well look at this, I guess Sheriff Spur was sick of sending professionals so now she’s resorted to sending foals. Tell me kid, did she think I’d go easy on a young piece of ass like you?”

I looked past the door, which led into the assembly lines of whatever this factory used to make, then looked up at a Pegasus in old beaten-up Enclave power armor. I smiled up at him. “Big talk coming from a cloud kisser with old shitty power armor. Where’d you steal that from? I thought most of the Enclave stopped using that model fifty years ago.”

“I see we have a mare who knows a couple things about the Enclave. Tell me sweetheart, what makes you think you can barge into my place, attack my guards, and blow holes through my doors?” He asked.

I shrugged. “I was bored mostly. Heard you had a nice price on your head. Also, I didn’t attack your guards, I killed them…easily. Can you do me a favor and just stay right there? It’ll make killing you a lot easier.” I lifted Dream Walker and switched out the mag for the one I had with AP rounds.

He smiled; his muzzle was visible just under the bug like helmet. “Nice toy you have there, what makes you think you can shoot though my armor with…”

He started to go off on some monologue, but I fired Dream Walker. The bullet slammed into his left shoulder and punched through, then exited the other side. He screamed and fell back. I started to laugh. “It is a nice toy isn’t it.”

“You bitch!” he exclaimed before flapping his wings and flying toward another door at the other end of the catwalk, “Get this tiny bitch! I want her brought to me alive!”

I let him go, I could’ve hit him with S.A.T.S., but Sheriff Spur did say she wanted him to suffer. So, I just turned down another hallway that I heard ponies starting to make their way toward me from and pulled out the plasma rifle and started shooting right as a pony rounded a corner. His head exploded and painted the walls and floor red. Another pony ran in, dodging my first three shots. I brought up my barrier, blocking his bullets before my fourth shot melted his chest. I kept on walking.

“All I want to do is torture your boss and collect his bounty. Is that too much to ask? He can’t be paying you enough to die for him,” I kept on going as a zebra fired around the corner at me. I blocked the shot and blasted the wall next to him with my magic. He yelled as hot debris blasted his face. I approached him as he writhed in agony and caved in his skull with my hind leg before continuing on.

I headed up the stairs and saw two more ponies ready to fire at me, I rolled my eyes and took them both out using S.A.T.S. Their bodies rolled past me as I went up to the second floor, “You have realized by now that there’s no winning this fight, right? I’ve killed almost all your buddies, at least I think I have. I’m sure there’s at least a couple that’ve said, ‘fuck it’ and run off.”

“DIE!” a stallion yelled as he blasted through a side door.

He slammed to the floor a second later with a melted hole in his chest. Three more ponies and two zebras followed as I slowly worked my way down the hallway, looking for where the pegasus had gotten to, “You know this would be a lot easier for both of us if you just give up. Repainting the walls with the blood and entrails of your grunts is fun and all, but I bore easily.”

By now I’d killed nearly twenty-four of the Demon gang. I’d started going room to room, killing anypony who aimed a weapon at me. As I went around the factory, I started seeing signs of what this gang had been up to. There were a few dead bodies in cages. They looked old or sick when they’d died, and their necks had marks from where bomb collars had been. I was already starting to get angry from the sight, then I got to a room that had two filly bodies in it. One was chained to a bed, and she looked like she died only an hour or so prior to my arrival. She had to be about Wingnut’s age. Blood was around her legs and on the bed, dried tears stained her young face, her dead eyes locked onto the door. She had been raped to death. The other was on the floor, her head and been caved in by something and she too showed signs of abuse. My magic flickered as rage filled my body. Slowly I closed the eyes on the one on the bed before going on to the next room. In it I found a stallion shivering on the floor wearing the same clothes as the rest of the gang.

“Please! I don’t wanna die, I’m sorry. I won’t put up a fight, bring me to jail or something, but please don’t kill me!” he begged.

I looked him over and saw a little blood on his lower half. “Where did that blood come from?”

He looked down at his crotch and shivered. “I can explain…”

He didn’t get another word out as I lifted him by his neck with my magic. “You like hurting foals? You think it’s okay to rape them to death!?” I yelled as I pulled him into the other room and made him look at the bodies, “You see that!”

“I…I….” he tried to say but I tightened the hold on his neck.

I slammed his face into the wall, “You,” I slammed his face into the wall again, “Are a sick,” [Slam], “Fucking,” [Slam], “Bastard,” I kept slamming him into the wall as blood started to stain the spot he was hitting. “Did they beg for their lives,” [SLAM], “Did you let them get a chance to leave or live!?” [SLAM], “No, you raped them and killed them. The last thing they saw before they died was your,” [SLAM], “Pitiful,” [SLAM], “Little,” [SLAM], “Cock!” [CRACK]

I released his lifeless body from my magic and his head hit the ground with a particular sound that months ago would make me dry heave, now it’s become music to my ears. It was as if I’d dropped a sealed bag of thick liquid onto the tile kitchen floors of the old world like a clumsy housewife. I pulled his lifeless body into the hall where I saw another pony looking at me from down the way. He had a weapon, but he didn’t have it raised toward me. I showed him the bloody corpse in my magic. “Let me guess, you’re okay with raping foals too.”

The buck shook his head and tried to back away. That was until I blasted the body of the dead stallion into him. The force caused his water balloon-like head to burst and splatter gore upon him like a paint can accidentally kicked over from atop scaffolding. He fell over with a scream of either pain or disgust. It didn’t last long as I emptied my plasma rifle into his body until he melted into a pile of green glowing goo. I pressed on, by now my body was covered in blood and gore from the ponies I’d been killing. A rage filled glint was in my eyes as I headed toward a new set of stairs. It only took me a moment to make it to the small hallway that led to an office. Outside it, stood the large griffon.

“Gotta say, I’m impressed,” the griffon said.

“Contract or member of this fucked up gang?” I asked, not slowing down as I pulled out Misery.

The griffon grinned. “Under Contract, nice sword by the way.”

“You have two choices, let me pass or fuck around and find out what exactly I did to the rest of the assholes who I’ve already killed on the way up here,” I said, readying Misery for a strike.

“Slow you’re roll, let’s have a conversation before you go all psycho killer,” he said, looking past me at the last two I’d just killed, “Well I guess you already started that, but hey I’m just paid to keep the boss here safe from bounty hunters, that’s all he pays me for.”

I stopped, glaring up into his eyes. “What’s the stipulation of your contract?”

His smile never left his beak. “Not often a pony cares much about the contract a griffon holds.”

“I’m not most ponies. Don’t get me wrong, I’ll kill you if I have to, but I don’t want to if you’re just working a job,” I said. I wasn’t lying either, Aura might be a bitch for what she did, but I still respected the life of a griffon. I also knew how griffons fought, magic or no magic I wasn’t sure I could take him.

“Well since you asked me so nicely,” He said, “I was hired three weeks ago. This pegasus was having trouble with bounty hunters and wanted somegrif like myself to be a deterrent against more coming after him.”

“A deterrent? So, he didn’t hire you to guard him or fight off bounty hunters?” I asked a little confused.

He laughed. “All that he stated in the contract was, ‘Deter ponies from getting close to me’. Pegasi aren’t very smart with how things work with griffons. You need to be literal. Oh, he also stated that I couldn’t attack him or try to turn him in for the bounty.”

“So, if I just walk past you without perceiving you as a threat, you’ll just do nothing?” I asked.

He shrugged. “Did my job, as far as I can tell you don’t seem very intimidated by me or deterred.”

“A little intimidated, but that wouldn’t stop me from using my sword to gut you like a fish,” I said with a growing smile.

A moment passed while he looked down at my small frame, covered in gore, a griffon blade almost as large as my body hovering in my magic, and a blood thirsty grin on my face. He lifted a talon, extending one digit, “I have one rule kid, don’t fuck with crazy, and you give off that crazy vibe. Hell, go kill the fucker for all I care, if I would’ve known how fucked up his gang was I would’ve taken him out myself if I wasn’t under contract.”

I lowered Misery. “I kinda like you, when I take this asshole in, do you want a new contract?”

“Depends on what your definition of contract is,” he replied.

“I need someone to help me learn how to fight better. I’ve had a little training from a zebra and a little from a couple griffons. I think I might take this bounty hunting thing on as a possible job opportunity. Just need someone to help me learn and maybe show me the ropes. I know griffons are good bounty hunters so might as well learn from the best,” I explained.

His beak pulled back into another smile. “Beats working for this guy, my rates run at 1500 caps a week. If you can keep the caps flowing then I’ll take your contract. Well, that and you’ll need to take care of my current contractor.”

“Get it written up, this won’t take long,” I said as I pushed by him.

He chuckled and leaned against the wall watching me pass him, “The name’s Gaston, but you can call me Gast, what’s do they call you?”

“I’ll tell you my name if you write up in your contract that you won’t tell anyone who I am,” I said as I went toward the double-doors that led to an office.

“Sure-thing boss,” he said with another chuckle and the click of a pen.

I tried to open the doors, but they were locked. I could’ve just picked the lock, it would be easy on an old shitty door like this, but where’s the fun in that? I pulled on my magic again and blasted the door apart. I was in luck, the moron was out of his power armor trying to use a weak, and nearly magically depleted healing potion to fix the wound I’d given him before. He dropped the bottle when the doors were blown into splinters.

For a long moment I stood there, looking into his eyes as the sound of thick, sticky, blood dripping from my mane filled the silence. He finally broke the calm by yelling, “Gaston! Why the fuck did you let her pass!”

The large griffon just chuckled from a few meters away. “Didn’t pay me to protect you, just to scare ponies away. She doesn’t look very scared of me, so I did my best. Good luck, she’s a crazy little psycho. If you manage to kill her though, balls to you sir, but I don’t see that happening considering what I’ve witnessed.”

I took a couple of steps into the office. “So, tell me, why did you decide to call your little gang The Demons?” I asked as I made my way toward the coward. “Is it because you think that ponies down here fear you because you’re from The Enclave? Is it because your gang strikes fear into the ponies of Armadillo?” I kept walking slowly lifting Misery. “Maybe you think that if you go around calling yourself a demon, ponies will just cower and give you their shit. Maybe you just know that you and the ponies you took on as your gang were a bunch of rapist fuckwits that feel that it’s okay to kill foals and do to them as they want?” I slashed out and Misery sliced his desk in two.

He took a few steps back, winching as he put pressure on his wounded shoulder. “Those fools know to fear me, with my power armor and my training no pony down here can challenge me, at least not all the way down here.” he started to smile, “No Steel Rangers, no Dashites, no so-called heroes trying to save ponies. My gang is strong, and we take what we want.”

I flicked my mane sending the bloody remains of his gang onto his face. “You mean the gang I killed so effortlessly? You know, I’m just a young mare and I killed all of them, every single pony and zebra you had working for you. I think you should’ve thought over your life choices a little better.”

“You’re some kind of freak…” he started to say.

My horn flashed and his muzzle was forced closed. “No, I’m talking now,” I said before continuing, “So you call yourselves Demons, but I’ve seen real demons. I know the fear a real demon can inflict on ponies. I guess if you want to call yourselves demons, then that’s your choice. It’s stupid, but if you think it makes you seem scary and tough, then fine. Though I do have a question for you, it’s a very simple one.”

I let the spell keeping him quiet go and he growled in anger as he said, “What’s that…you little skank?”

“Tell me…do you so-called Demons…bleed?” I asked and as a confused look came over his face. Misery slashed out, removing one of his legs. He screamed and blood sprayed from his removed limb. I ignored it and lifted him with my magic, “Well look at that, I guess you do bleed, and you feel pain too. Perfect, this will make things so much more fun.”

He whimpered in my magical hold, before I thew him against a wall then stabbed Misery through his other foreleg. He screamed in pain again, ignoring it I pulled Dream Walker and shot him in his left hindleg. The bullet left such a big hole in his leg that it was mostly just holding on by a few scraps of skin. He wasn’t screaming anymore; his eyes were rolling back, and his body was shaking.

“Huh, you know sometimes I forget how much damage a bullet from this gun can do at close range. Oh well, got nothing with less power at the moment,” I said even though I was sure he couldn’t hear me through the torturous pain he had to be feeling, “Well, Sheriff Spur did say that she wanted you to suffer before I killed you. You look like you’re suffering to me, maybe not quite enough though.”

I pulled Misery out of his shoulder letting his body fall to the ground. He let out a small pathetic squawk of pain and his leg fully came free of his body. Blood was everywhere and I could tell he’d be dead in a minute or less. I flipped Misery around, moved closer to him and said close to his ear, “Now you know what a real demon is, think about that in your next life Dashite scum. Misery came down and stabbed right through his buck-hood. He started to shake and if he could scream, I’m sure he would have. I twisted the large blade and looked into his eyes as the light started to fade from them. I wanted the last thing he saw before he left this world to be my red eyes. Right before he took his last breath, and the light left his eyes, I pulled Misery out of his crotch then brought it down and sliced his body open from cock to kisser. His internal organs dumped on the ground with a sickening splatter and a fresh spray of blood covered me before I took a step back. I lifted the dead pony’s head in my magic, lobbed it off with a swipe, and sheathed Misery and started to head out of the office. I stopped after a moment then went back into the office and looted it for anything I could find.

It only took me a few minutes, but I managed to find myself 2452 Caps, a few bullets, healing potions that weren’t worth taking, and a few pre-war bits. Once I was done, I walked back to Gaston, and asked, “Got that contract finished up?”

He didn’t smile when he looked at me this time. The Griffon who was probably three times my size shook a little before he nodded and gave me a scroll. I took it and used my magic to open it and read it over. It was well detailed, much like Aura’s had been. I saw that he added in the parts about keeping my identity to himself unless I told him otherwise and the rest of what I’d asked of him. He had rules I had to honor, like he wouldn’t attack kids, he wouldn’t hurt an innocent, he wouldn’t kidnap anyone, and stuff along those lines. I took a pen he had in his talon with my magic and signed it.

Once I was done, he rolled it up then took out a copy and gave it to me. I tucked it into my saddle bags and said, “I’m Shadow Star, used to be known as The Courier in New Pegasus. That’s all you need to know for now, if we’re in public just call me boss or something. I have ponies looking for me and I don’t want them finding me. Also, when we get back to my friend and family, be nice to them, they have enough to deal with when it comes to me.”

“Sure thing,” he said.

“Come on, let’s go get those two foal bodies and bring them back to town. Hopefully they can give them a proper burial,” I said as I pushed by him. I felt empty as I walked past the dead bodies of the ponies I’d killed. When I’d heard about this bounty, I honestly didn’t really care about helping the town. I just wanted to kill somepony, I needed to vent my anger before it exploded on someone I cared about. I was hoping that killing these sad excuses for ponies would make me feel…something, but I still felt empty. Mostly empty I guess; the rage and pain were still close at hoof.

Gaston was the one who picked up the two dead fillies and he was the one who gently caried them out of that old factory. He bore them on his back as we made our way back to Armadillo. He didn’t say anything the entire way back to the gate into town. The guard who’d been on duty before was still there, but her face wasn’t full of cheer and humor like before. She saw the head of the pegasus and just stepped aside.

As I passed her, I asked, “What’s your name by the way?”

She gulped, “I’m…Sherbet.”

“I just want you to know that the folks around here won’t have to worry about The Demons anymore. Also, if you know of anypony in town who lost two fillies to them,” I paused and for the first time in a while I let a little of the anger and sadness show, “Tell them we brought them home…they didn’t make it, but I couldn’t leave them in that place. If they don’t have family make sure somepony gives them a proper burial…please,” I then looked back and Gaston, “Leave them with Sherbet please.”

“Yes Boss,” Gaston said.

When he was done, my new Griffon companion and I headed off to see the sheriff. The townsfolk were silent as they watched me walking down the dusty road, the head of the Demon leader hovering in my magic. As I walked, rain had started to fall. I hadn’t known then how rare it was for rain to fall in The Badlands, but that night it down poured, washing most of the grime from my main and tail. As I passed by the lights of the shops and homes of Armadillo, my silvery mane and red eyes seemed to glow. That was the night that the citizens of Armadillo gave me my new name…Silver…Demon.

Two Months after Leaving New Pegasus…

I groaned as my body started to finally wake, my head was pounding, most likely from a hangover. It took me a little while to get my eyes to cooperate and open for me. I winched at the light coming in through my small bedroom window. When I’d turned in the head of the Demon Leader to Sheriff Spur, she’d kept her word and paid me the 10,000 Caps and gave me the small house on the edge of town. The conversation later that night with Vervain, Oricalcos, and Solstice wasn’t fun. They were pissed when they found out I’d gone out on my own and taken on a gang. Though they got over their anger quickly after they met Gaston, and he explained some things to them. I also think the small house we’d gotten helped too. It had three bedrooms in it, a small kitchenette, and an okay-sized living room. Solstice had her own room; I had my own, and to my shock at the time Uncle Ori and Vervain shared the larger one. I’d been so stuck in my own head during the time we’d been traveling that I hadn’t even picked up on the fact that my uncle was in a relationship with my old caretaker. I didn’t really mind though, my life might suck, but they seemed to make each other happy, and they both deserved that.

Oricalcos was doing much better now that we’d found a place to stay for a while. He was nearly back to his old self, well, his old self before he was a shadow creature. He’d been taking time to teach me more about magic and even though I wasn’t the best at getting to his lessons when he wanted me to. Though I did try my best, I didn’t want them to keep worrying about me all the time. So, I put on a mask, making it look like I was getting better. Vervain had taken the job at Drifter’s Inn, Solstice was helping the guards in town, and Oricalcos mostly just looked into rumors for me about M.A.S.E.B.S. towers in the area. He was a master at digging up information on things and I hoped he could find the tower I needed. Tower 2 for Falling Shadows from what I’d seen in Minuette’s memory looked a lot like a M.A.S.E.B.S. tower, but it was shorter and had a grey color, not white like the rest. So, Ori was trying to find information from traders that came through Armadillo.

Gaston mostly slept on the couch in the living area. Over the past month he’d been working with me, he’d taught me a lot about fighting and how to be a proper bounty hunter. That was the roll I’d taken up in Armadillo. The town wasn’t large in comparison to others I’d been in, but it was a main trading hub for the area and bounties were brought in all the time. I found I really liked the work. Most of them weren’t too hard to complete and they had to be taken in alive. I hadn’t had a hard case since The Demons had been taken down, but I’d found I liked the work.

The bad part about staying here was that my relationship with Vervain had suffered. I knew I was having problems; I was drinking more often than not, I was grumpy most of the time, snapped at ponies a lot, and I wasn’t really taking care of myself. On top of that I was spending most of my free time either at the bar at the Drifters Inn or in the company of one of the ponies or zebras at the local brothel called Tails Up. She wanted to help me, I knew that and deep down I wanted her to help me get over Aura, over New Pegasus, but it was easier to drown myself in drink or sex, most of the time both.

I groaned again, looking over at the mare who was still sleeping in my bed. Sherbert was passed out still, the blankets of the bed covering part of her body and hiding a little of the activities from last night. It couldn’t however hide the stench of sweat, stale booze, and sex. I wrinkled my nose and shook her. “Wake the fuck up, you stink, and I’m hungover. Bad combo.”

She mumbled something and rolled over. I rolled my tired eyes and used my magic to push her off the bed. She jerked awake looking over at me with blurry eyes. “The fuck you do that for Demon?”

“You smell like week old unwashed taint, go wash up and go home. Actually, scratch that, go home and wash up there, you have work in a few hours, and I have to check to see if there’s a new bounty for me,” I said, rolling out of bed.

“Fuck you, I don’t smell as bad as you,” she said, getting to her hooves.

I turned on her, using my magic to pull on her mane, tilting her head back hard. “What was that?”

She smiled and moaned a little. “I said you stink to Silver Demon.”

I brought my muzzle close to hers, my red eyes digging into hers. “At least I don’t smell like a cheap whore who washed up in this shitty town.”

“I’m only a whore when it comes to you,” she purred.

I pulled back on her mane more, then kissed her for a long moment before throwing her back to the ground and heading toward the wardrobe. “Don’t you forget it Sherbet, now get out of my sight. If you stink this bad when I see you next, I won’t let you back into my bed for a week.”

She used her magic to slap my ass, before saying, “Yes Demon.”

“You have two seconds to get the fuck out of my house,” I growled.

She ran off, still giggling. I ignored her and her stupid kinks. She was fun now and then, but I’ve had better at Tails Up. I took out my barding from the wardrobe then headed toward the bathroom to wash up. After I was done I came out to find my uncle waiting for me. “Shadow we need to talk.”

“No, you need to talk, I need to get some work done,” I said as I pushed passed him to head out of my room.

He sighed, then wrapped his magic around me, lifting me off the floor. “You’re not going to go running off until we have a conversation.”

I could use my own magic to overpower his, but Uncle Ori wasn’t weak, and I didn’t feel like tiring myself out before I left for the day. So, I looked back at him while I hung in the air. “Fine but make it quick. I promised Gaston I’d meet him at The Sheriff’s Office.”

He levitated me over to the bed and sat me down on it, then shut the door. “It’s been two months since we left New Pegasus, we haven’t heard from anypony from back home and you still haven’t said anything of what happened between you and Aura. Vervain and I both know something happened, but every time we try to bring it up, you clam up or you walk out. You’re drinking and sleeping around with just about any pony you can. This isn’t you and we’re worried about you.”

“I talk to Solstice,” I said.

“I know, but from what we can tell, she’s not doing much to help you. Why not sit down with Vervain or me and unload a little. You know we care about you,” he said, coming over to sit on the bed next to me.

“It’s not as easy to talk to you or Vervain. Solstice is at least close to my age and she’s one of my best friends. She listens and just lets me get things off my chest. Vervain and you are, well older and don’t get it,” I said.

He sighed and put a hoof on my head. “Shadow, I grew up in a nasty house. I had to grow up fast and look after your mother to make sure she survived that place. I was Pride for many years, and I was practically owned by a dark monster. I’ve seen some shit; I’ve been through a lot of shit too. If anypony can understand what you’re growing through, it’s me. Even if I can’t fully understand it then at the very least I can try to help. If you keep going down this path you’re going to get yourself killed.”

I looked over at him. “Yeah, I know.”

“Do you? Do you really know what you’re doing to yourself? Or is that just what you want? Do you think that if you kill yourself, you’ll somehow take Aquila down with you?” he asked, “Because if that’s what you think I can tell you that it won’t work.”

I glared at him. “And how do you know? I mean, no I don’t want to die, I’m not going out there looking to die, but how do you know that if I do die it won’t take that bitch out with me?”

“If anyone understood your mother’s brand of magic, it was me. I was there the entire time she was developing her magic and the spell she used was one she’d shown me before. She created it many years ago as a way to bind the life of two ponies together,” he replied.

“Yeah and if I die then she’ll die too,” I retorted.

“No, the original reason your mother made that spell was to save your life or mine if something bad happened. For me it was if she ever found a way to fix what I’d done to myself and getting my old body back nearly killed me, which happened as you may remember. Honestly if it wasn’t for Dr. Stormy I would’ve died. The spell however was originally made for you as a last resort if you were on death’s doorstep. She wanted to tie your life to hers or somepony else’s that she knew could help keep you alive,” he said, rubbing a hoof through his black mane, I noticed as he talked that a bit of grey had started to show, “The drawback to the spell was that if either pony hurt each other or had somepony do it for them, the spell would make sure both ponies suffered the same way. But if one pony died due to natural causes or forces that had nothing to do with the other, then nothing would happen.”

“If that’s true then how was I able to fight Aquila in New Pegasus?” I asked.

He shrugged. “She must’ve been able to modify the spell, but I can tell just by looking at you that the other part of it is still there.”

“I wish I could do something to remove it, then maybe I could kill the bitch,” I said.

“You know, the more I think about it, the more I’m starting to think that Aquila shouldn’t die,” he said.

“Oh, so you’re on her side now?” I asked.

“I’m not saying that,” he said, letting out a long breath, “I learned a lot from Grim about Star Gazer and even more from you and by looking at the notes on that Mark II when you let me look them over. I think that you might need Aquila’s power to fully stop my old master. I know you hate Aquila for what she’s done, but you have to remember that it isn’t all her fault. You told me yourself that in the memories you saw from her, she wasn’t always like this. If she’s suffered for so long with first the war and later the creation of The Wasteland, it’s no wonder she’s lost her mind so much.”

“I know deep down that she isn’t all bad, but at the same time, I can’t see myself ever working with her. I’d rather stop this stupid project before it can do anything over working with Aquila,” I said.

“I never said you had to work with her,” Oricalcos said and as I looked over at him in confusion he continued, “You need her power, not her. Maybe what you really need to do is find a way to take back her magic and let her soul stay in her body. With little to no magic, she’s nothing.”

I took a moment to think about that then sighed. “I’m not sure that’s possible, but I’ll think it over. Speaking of Falling Shadows, any luck finding anything out on Tower 2?”

He knew by my change of topic that I wasn’t going to keep talking about Aquila, so he just sighed again and said, “Not much, but from the description you gave me from that memory of Minuette’s, I think we’re in the right area. I’m going to check out a lead I got from a trader about rumors he heard about an odd looking M.A.S.E.B.S. tower southeast of here. I’ll let you know if I find something.”

“Good,” I said, getting back to my hooves, “How long are you going to be gone?”

“No longer than two days I think,” he replied.

“Who are you taking with you?” I asked.

“Star, I may not be the overpowered shadow-pony I used to be, but I’m still a powerful unicorn. I’ll be fine,” he said getting up, “And, I know you’re having a hard time, but you need to talk to Vervain. She practically raised you and she sees you like her daughter. Don’t keep pushing her away.”

I looked down at the floor. “We’ll see.”

He lifted my chin. “I mean it, she loves you dearly. She deserves a little more respect than you’re showing her. She took you in when Grim left, she cared for you, raised you, and taught you to be a good pony. Give her the respect she earned.”

“Fine,” I said, pulling my face away from his hoof and heading for my door. Before I left I looked back at him. “I know you two are trying to keep it from me because you’re worried about me and all, but I know you two are together…I’m happy for you two…I really mean that,” with that said I left.

“There she is!” I heard the booming voice of Gaston say as I walked into the Sheriff’s office. “You do know it’s almost noon right Boss?”

“Fuck off Gaston,” I said with a smile before walking up to him and bumping my hoof to his talon, “I’m guessing you were up early again making trouble for the female griffons in town?”

“What can I say? When you’re this handsome you’ve got to show off a little,” he said this he flexed a powerful foreleg. He was kind of a meathead, but for a griffon with fire red feathers and lighter red fur he wasn’t bad looking. A few of the female griffons seemed to agree because he’d taken advantage of his good looks more than once already in Armadillo.

I just rolled my eyes looking over at Sheriff Spur. “Any new bounties for us Sheriff?”

“Nothing that’s come in. Only been hearing a few rumors. I think your new reputation has been scaring some of the local shitheads to seek their fortune in other areas,” she said as she leaned back in her chair with a book held in her magic.

“Really? I’ve only been here for a month or so, how could I have drove away so much crime that quickly?” I asked.

“You’ve collected twenty-three bounties in less than a month kid. That’s a lot in any settlement, even here in The Badlands. Sure, we still have a few stupid criminals here and there, but nothing too big. My two deputies and I can take care of them easily,” she said, glancing over at me.

“What about those slavers you were talking about last night Sheriff?” Gaston asked.

She just shrugged. “Slavery isn’t allowed in Armadillo, but we also haven’t seen this so-called group of Slavers near our territory. Last we heard they’re operating to the east about fifty kilometers. That’s pretty far from here and as long as they stay away, then I got no need to be sending bounty hunters to take them down.”

I looked over to Gaston. “What do you know about them?”

“Not too much boss, one of the local traders who comes through said he ran into them a week or so back when he was heading here from Deep Trench. They didn’t give him much trouble and even bought a couple of things from him. He said for slavers they weren’t too bad when it came to manners. The part that disturbed him was the fact that they mostly just had young ponies, zebras, and a young zony. They even offered to sell him a slave for trade, but he refused,” Gaston said.

“I really hate slavers, there has to be somepony who’s put a bounty on them,” I said.

“We haven’t, but I can’t say the same for other towns, you could go to Deep Trench and see if they have had any problems with them, but I wouldn’t get my hopes up,” Spur said as she continued to read her book.

“What if I go check them out? Maybe put a stop to their slave trade?” I asked.

Spur just shrugged. “As long as it’s not in Armadillo then I don’t give two shits what you do Demon. Though if I were you I’d be careful, you don’t know which settlements might deal with this team of slavers. Take them out and you might just piss off the wrong town and they might put a bounty on your head. We may not like slavery here, but there are plenty of towns in The Badlands who buy and sell slaves all the time.”

I just shook my head. “Slavery is wrong and should be stopped whenever it can be.”

“I do agree, but if we go after them and there’s no bounty then how are we going to make any caps?” Gaston asked.

I grinned. “I’m sure ponies like them would have a lot of caps on hoof. I’d say if we go after them and stop them, then they wouldn’t be needing those caps anymore.”

Gaston laughed. “This is why I like you boss.”

“Demon, if you bring trouble back to my town I will make sure you pay for it, ya hear me?” Spur said, glaring over at me.

“Don’t worry Sheriff, I’ll make sure no pony knows I came from Armadillo,” I said as I started heading to the door, “Oh and Sheriff, make sure you have something for me to hunt down when I get back. I’m getting bored sitting around this town.”

Spur started to laugh as I headed out her door. “If what you do in your free time is boring, I’d hate to see what you think a good time is kid. Be safe out there.”

When we were outside I started heading to the small guard house near the gate. As we walked Gaston asked, “So do you have a plan this time or are we just going to go in there and start shooting up the camp?”

“Nah, this isn’t like hunting down some pony who ran off with someone’s shit or murdered a local. Hell, this isn’t even like taking on The Demons. Gangs and desperate ponies or zebras aren’t that hard and gangs that are unorganized like the Demons are easy caps. A group that sells other ponies won’t be push overs I’m sure. You need a lot of guards to keep slaves, you need discipline, you need order. This won’t be easy, and we’ll need to scout the place and see what they have for protection. They might use slave collars to control their slaves which is good and bad for us. Good because they wouldn’t need as many guards, bad because we’ll have to secure the remote or key for the collars so they can’t just kill the salves,” I said.

“So…how are we going to get this information?” he asked.

“Easy, we bring another pony with us and pretend like we’re interested in buying a slave or more for ourselves. We put on a good fake back story, flash around a few caps, maybe even buy a couple of slaves so we can free them later,” I said.

“Ah, then we might be able to get inside and see what they have for defenses,” he said.

“You got it. I’m going to start by sending you ahead with a letter I’ll write up in a few moments here. It will have a bunch of shit about how I’m a land owner in some town far enough away from the slavers and looking for more workers. You’ll deliver it to this camp of Slavers and get me an audience with their leader. We’ll go from there,” I said.

“Not a bad start to a plan, if this camp is organized enough,” he said, “So who will you take with you?”

I got to the guard shack then smiling as I said, “One of the only ponies I truly trust.” I knocked and a moment later Solstice answered the door, when she did I said in as cheery of a voice as I could, “Hey Solstice, wanna go hunt down some Slavers with Gaston and me?”

Gaston and Solstice looked at each other and both sighed as Solstice said, “This job better pay well if I have to work with that bird brain.”

Gaston smiled at that. “Ah Solstice are you still mad about what happened two weeks ago? I told you it was an accident.”

“Yeah sure it was, just like the time before that and the time before that. Every time I go on a job with you two, I end up covered in something nasty. So, if I’m going I get half of whatever the bounty is, you two can split up the other half,” she said.

I shrugged. “Fine with me though there is no bounty on this, only loot. I heard about them from Gaston who heard about it from a trader. I’m doing this because I hate slavers.”

“No, you’re doing this Because your bored and you wanna kill somepony,” she said before sighing again, “But whatever, can I bring my Power Armor at least?”

“Not a good idea, we need to act like we’re rich land owners from some town far from their camp. I want to get as much information on them as I can,” I said.

“We? What kind of story are you going to feed to these slavers?” she asked as she left the hut to follow me back toward our house.

I smiled again. “Hey this won’t be the first time we had to act like we were lovers.”

“Wait a moment,” Gaston said looking between the two of us, “You two pretended to be lovers at one point?”

“It was to keep the Enclave guards from arresting us!” Solstice said, “I told you already Shadow that I don’t swing that way.”

“And I’m not saying you do, but I need somepony I can trust. I trust you so I need you to be my mare friend or at least a business partner. We’ll figure it out when we get there,” I said.

“Fine, but you are going to owe me big time for this,” she said gritting her teeth.

“Okay, just name your price after we’re done,” I said then went into our house so I could write the letter and get ready for the mission.

It took me only a few minutes to get the letter written and to have Gaston heading off east with my message. He’d helped me figure out a town to the south west that would work perfectly as a cover. Once he was done Solstice grabbed a couple of smaller weapons and I found myself having to do the same. I normally only carried around three weapons, Misery, Dream Walker, and mom’s Plasma Rifle. I had a few other weapons as well, but they didn’t get used much. For this I was going to have to leave most of them behind. My magical saddle bags could hold a lot, but I didn’t know what to expect when I got there. So even though it hurt to do, I ended up leaving Misery and Mom’s plasma rifle with Oricalcos. He wasn’t happy that I was going to be heading out for a few days, but since Solstice was going with me, he gave in. After that I only needed one more thing, to go see Madam at Tails Up for an outfit that could be used to make me look richer than I really was. I had made a lot of caps by hunting down ponies for Armadillo, but I wasn’t even close to being rich.

“You know I always feel weird going into Tails Up,” Solstice said as we headed to the three-story tall building. The building used to be an old hotel with a western theme to it. The old name of the hotel was lost to time, but the owner of the hotel-turned-brothel had gotten a couple of ponies to make a beautiful sign that showed the back end of a mare with its tail held up high…well you couldn’t tell if it was mare or a stallion, the picture didn’t have THAT much detail to it, but Madam said it was a mare. Under the picture on the sign was the words ‘Tails Up’ written in bright welcoming colors. I had been skeptical when I first came here too, but now I loved the place. The bar was almost better than Drifters Inn, the company was always pleasant even if you weren’t there to pay for their other services, oh yeah and every pony, zebra, and griffon there was scared of me. No pony at Tails Up ever gave me any shit. I was The Silver Demon to them, and they knew what I could do. Well apart from Madam, that mare could probably kick a hellhound out of her establishment.

“I know, but Madam is always nice to you, and she doesn’t always try to get you to buy one of her mares or stallions for a night of fun,” I teased.

“No, she just hints at it every time I go in there,” Solstice said with a huff.

I just chuckled and pushed the main door open. The noise in the main room died within seconds of me walking in. Tails Up always had a lot of customers. Most of them were ponies or zebras who used Armadillo as a place to rest up as they traveled back and forth through this area of The Badlands, the rest were locals. But just about every pony here knew me and I was starting to get used to this reaction. So, I gave a friendly smile and said, “Not here for business, just getting a drink.”

That was all it took, the folks in the room went back to whatever they were doing. A moment later a mare in her later middle years came trotting toward me. Her main as always was done up in a tight bob that looked elegant and strict at the same time. Her mane was black with silvery grey streaks in it, her coat was a rich apple red, and she had beautiful purple blue eyes. She was one of the few earth ponies in Armadillo. Armadillo had mostly Unicorns, followed closely by zebras, then griffons, then earth ponies. Pegasi were the only race you didn’t see around here much. Solstice was one of three in the whole town. Madam Amour, or Madam as she preferred to be called also loved to dress up in expensive looking outfits, and she loved dressing up other mares and stallions when she could get away with it.

She smiled when she came over to me and gave me a little head bow. “Ah, if it isn’t my favorite customer, what brings you in so early Silver Demon?” She winked at me and said in a quieter voice, “Zixas has been bothering me nonstop after your last visit, if I didn’t know any better, I would think that you have stolen the heart of one of my best Zebra’s. I warn you now Demon, he’ll cost you a lot if you want to take him away from me.”

“Zixas is a kind soul for a zebra, but he’s also young and his heart doesn’t know what it wants yet,” I said thinking of the cute young zebra who has captured my attention the last three times I’d come here, “Anyway I’m not here for anything like that, I needed to know if you had anything I could borrow to make myself look like a rich landowner, same for Solstice.”

She looked us both up and down. “Should have something that may work, but alas, I do not know how dressing up will impress anyone from Armadillo.”

“I need it for a job,” I said, “Slavers to the east I want to check out and maybe put a stop too. I need to check the place out first and the best way in is to make it seem like I’m interested in buying a slave from them.”

She got an upset look to her face. “Bah, slavers are nothing but disgusting creatures, praying on weaker ponies or any creature they can get their dirty hooves on.”

Solstice rolled her eyes. “This coming from a mare who is nearly a slaver herself.”

The look Madam gave Solstice could have melted stone. “Solstice, I know you do not like the way I run my business, but none of my employees are slaves. They are contracted and paid for their work.”

“Yeah, a contract they have to buy themselves out of if they want to leave. Close enough to slavery for me,” she said.

Madam looked ready to start fighting with Solstice, so I stepped in. “Hey, no need for this right now. You two can hash it out later, we don’t have a lot of time.”

Madam stuck her nose up in the air. “Fine, but I still do not like her attitude toward what I do here.”

I gave Solstice a look and she sighed. “Fine, I’m sorry.”

Madam sniffed in displeasure. “I’m sure you are. Well follow me you two, let’s get you both something you can use.”

As she started to lead us toward one of her back rooms I heard Solstice mutter, “Stuck up old hag.”

I chuckled and just kept following Madam. It took her only half an hour to find us both something nice to wear that could make the two of us look like more respectable ponies. I was just going to borrow them, but thanks to Solstice pissing Madam off, she charged me fifteen hundred caps. That hurt a little, but in the long run, it shouldn’t matter, if the slavers did have caps I could steal once I took them all down, it would more than cover the cost. After we were done, I said my good byes to Madam and the two of us were on our way toward the gate out of town.

“So, are we flying there or walking?” Solstice asked as she checked over a couple things on her weapons.

“I’d prefer if we flew for a little bit to save some time,” I said as we passed the gate and started heading for the road that would take us east.

“I guess I could carry you for a while, but if you want us to look the part, I can’t get there and be sweaty and tired,” Solstice said as she put the last of her weapons away.

“I figured as much and that’s fine, you can fly us until we are a couple miles out, then we can rest for the night and get a fresh start in the morning,” I said.

“I guess I can live with that,” she replied as we continued on. Before I could ask her when we would take to the air she asks, “Shadow, how long are we going to stay away from home?”

I looked over at her. “This shouldn’t take us more than a few days. Why do you ask?”

She sighed. “You know what I mean Shadow.”

I glared at her. “Don’t call me that.”

She glared right back. “First of all, no ponies around, second, no pony knows who you are even if they hear me call you Shadow. The only reason you don’t want anypony here to know who we are is because you’re afraid that somehow Aura will find you.”

“I’m not scared of Aura; she can piss off for all I care. I just don’t want the ponies who want me dead finding me,” I said walking faster.

She had no problem keeping up with me. “Shadow, you can act like you don’t care about her anymore, but I know that’s a lie. I hear you on those rare nights when you don’t have somepony in your bed. Every night you call out to her in your sleep, you beg her to forgive you for goddesses know what and you want her to take you back. You love her Shadow, and she loves you. I know you told me what you overheard and yeah, I know how it sounded but I think you missed something.”

I had to work hard not to let the emotions I was feeling right then show. It was bad enough that I knew she was right. I had been dreaming about Aura a lot, I had been begging her to take me back. I also knew that deep down, no matter what, I still loved her, and I probably always would, but I knew she didn’t love me as much as she said she did. So, I replied, “I heard what I needed to, yeah, I still have feelings for Aura, but that will go away in time. Now drop it.”

She put a hoof on my shoulder and turned me around. “Shadow, all your doing is running away from your problems…again. If you keep this up you’re no better than your mom. You know the mare who left your father, left you in a stable for eight years and lied to the world and herself that she was fine. If you keep this up, you’re going to end up just like her, alone and dead at a young age.”

I pulled back and whipped Dream Walker out of its holster pointing it right at Solstices face. “Shut the fuck up about my mom, she did all of that to save me and Equus. She DIED protecting me, I’m not running away, I’m protecting the ones I LOVE from the same FATE. I know I’m going to die young; I probably won’t make it to my next birthday. If I didn’t need a little help with this part of taking down Falling Shadows I wouldn’t even have you, Vervain or Uncle Ori with me.”

She walked right up to me and let Dream Walker press right into her chest. Looking down at me she said, “You can keep hiding behind that anger if you want, you can keep pretending that you’re fated to die, you can even try and lie to yourself that you know what you’re doing. The sad truth is Shadow, you have no real plan, you’re just playing Bounty Hunter when you’re not drunk or sleeping around with anything you can. You’re only doing this because you’re drowning the pain in whatever you can that helps you forget about what happened in New Pegasus. Vervain, Oricalcos and I all know that the real reason you’re out here isn’t to find Tower 2, it’s so you can pretend that everything is okay. Though I could be wrong, maybe you are the Silver Demon you keep trying to get everypony to think you are. You want to be a heartless bounty hunter? You want to act like you don’t really need help? Fine then pull that trigger and prove me wrong.”

I felt my magic shaking as I looked up at her. Her dark sapphire blue eyes boring down into my red ones. I almost pulled the trigger, I almost shot the one friend I really had, only so I could prove more to myself than to her, that I didn’t care and that I was this new pony. Instead, I let Dream Walker fall and I slowly holstered it and said quietly, “I just wish life could go back to the way it was before I found anything about Falling Shadows, I wish I could go back to that time in The Kingdom when for once, things were good.”

She pulled me into a tight hug and said, “Life isn’t fair, and we can’t go back in time no matter how much we want to.”

“We’re here to find the Tower, once we do and it’s unlocked…maybe then we can talk about what happened. I just need time…I need to be Silver Demon for a while longer…I can’t let Shadow back in…not yet,” I said as the emotions finally got the better of me.

Solstice hugged me tighter, in the middle of the dusty road just outside Armadillo, under the light of the setting sun. “I know, but you also need to start fixing yourself too, if not, you’re going to become something you hate. I don’t want to see you do that to yourself. When we get back, you need to talk with Vervain…she might be able to help you find your way back to finding the real Shadow Star.”

I nodded my head and for the first time in two months, I let the tears fall and for that short time I cried for the life I lost. I cried for mom, for dad, for Wingnut and Byte, I cried for Stardust and Wind Thrasher but most of all, I cried because I missed Aura…

In the end it ended up taking us two days to finally reach our destination. We got close to the camp in a day yeah but resting up then getting things set up for our meeting with the leader of this group took another day. Gaston found us a mile or so away from the encampment with a reply from the leader. She was happy to meet with us and show us around her place while we discussed getting a couple of slaves. The meeting was set up and now Solstice and I, with Gaston following in the rear were approaching a massive encampment.

As we drew closer to the camp, it almost brought back memories of when I first found the Raider Encampment outside of Cartwheel. I mean, this camp was a lot cleaner, but still, there were makeshift buildings that went at least three stories tall, scaffolding around the buildings, ponies with weapons in magical fields or on battle saddles on their sides. Unlike the raiders, these ponies had low grade combat armor, and their weapons weren’t half bad. I had to take a moment to rethink my assessment of their armor and weapons though. I had been extremely lucky with my own armor and weapons ever since I entered the Wasteland. Their arms and armor might look low grade compared to my own, but to most Wastelanders, this was expensive stuff.

“You ready for this?” Solstice asked.

I nodded and made my way toward the two guards who blocked the makeshift gate. The encampment was surrounded by a large wall made from scrap metal topped with razor wire. As I approached a thick muscled mare said to me, “What brings you to Cottonville?”

‘Cottonville?’ I thought to myself but ignoring the ridiculous name I answered, “I’m Silver and this is my partner Lights Fall and my guard Gaston, I was invited to meet with somepony named Vanguard.”

“Ah so you’re the rich pony from the west looking for a couple of servants then. Yes, she said you’d be arriving soon. Give me a moment to have one of the slaves fetch her,” The massive mare said turning toward a thin looking colt who had a collar with a blinking red light on it, “Go tell Miss Vanguard her guests have arrived, do it quickly or you’ll regret it!”

The colt took off in a panic, leaving behind whatever work he had been doing laying on the ground just past the gate. I watched the poor colt go and felt a surge of anger. I had to tell myself that I couldn’t do anything for him…not yet at least. The old Shadow would have spoken up, she would have probably attacked this place without caring about a plan or anything. I wasn’t her anymore, I was here for one purpose and if I wanted to do anything to help, I had to stay quiet and act like I didn’t care one bit about the ponies here.

“You have to make sure you put the fear of the Goddesses into them, or they’ll take any advantage they can over you. Remember that Ms. Silver,” The Mare said.

“I know how to keep ponies in line, trust me on that,” I said coldly.

“Oh, a little mare like you knows how to keep bigger stronger ponies in line do you? I’d love to see that. Listen little rich mare, you can tell yourself that your tough, but you need the muscle to back it up. If you get a strong slave, they’ll do anything to free themselves or take you down if they know they’re going to die. I hope you have some ponies in your lands who can keep them in line, because I know just by looking at you that they won’t respect a tiny thing like you,” she said with obvious dislike.

I looked the larger mare in the eye with a dead stare letting her see the deep rage settled inside my red eyes. I held that look for a long moment before I slowly smiled. “Don’t worry about me, and trust me when I say that you’re not the first nor the last to underestimate me.”

For a moment she kept her eyes locked with mine until I saw it. It was only a moment, but I saw her eyes shift from uninterested to unsure. Before she could answer though another pony guard came over, saying, “Ms. Silver, Miss Vanguard is ready to meet with you. If you’d follow me, please.”

I gave one last look at the large mare then grinned and followed the stallion, Solstice and Gaston following behind. The camp itself was large, and the sight of the slaves made me sick. Mares, Stallions, Colts, Fillies, and not all were even ponies. I could see thin zebras alongside the ponies. I could feel my horn starting to spark the farther I went into the camp. I had to take a few deep breaths to keep my magic under control. Honestly, I needed a drink, something to keep my nerves from fraying.

The ponies themselves were dirty and looked pathetic, but not underfed which I found odd. The zebras on the other hoof looked like they had to fight for any scrap of food they could get. All of them wore what had to be Bomb Collars. They looked formular at least from what Wingnut had said about them. I looked around as I worked my past the other guards and over a small hill that looked down onto the…camp? As soon as I saw what I’d just walked into I knew this wasn’t an ordinary slaver camp, this was a town, a small town to be sure, but not a camp. There was a sign that had been mostly destroyed either by age or the war, but I could still just make out the words written on the old metal. ‘Cottonville’

The small hill, more of a rise in the land looked down toward buildings made of wood with tin roofs. Three were long almost like what I’d read about in my school books of military barracks, there was one that was smaller but only by a little that looked more like an old office and two more even smaller ones that were probably meant for supplies or large sheds. Down the road there was a larger structure. This building was made of concrete, part of it was two stories the rest only a single story. Attached to one side of it were four sets of smaller cages with an open top and a few more slaves sitting around inside it, guards blocking every side. on the other side of the town, I saw a few caged carriages and a few more slaves’ pens with a peltry amount of shelter within them to protect the ponies and zebras from the sun or rain. And at the end of the town hugging the western edge was a small river with a single dock, a couple of rusting boats and a chain-link fence keeping anyone from getting in or out of the camp on that side.

On each side of the town the cliffs rose high, and I could see a couple of structures on each side, probably a sniper’s nest. I gritted my teeth as I looked around and noticed even more guards or citizens that acted like extra guards, it was hard to tell, roaming the free areas or pushing collared ponies and zebras around yelling orders at them. I noticed as we walked down the main street that we were heading toward the larger concrete building, I was guessing that was where this Vanguard mare had her office or her home.

As we walked I moved closer to Gaston, whispering, “Think you can slip away when we meet with this mare and check out those sniper nests?”

He didn’t look at me, but I saw his head nod slightly. He took a moment to make sure the guard leading us wasn’t listening before he said as quietly as he could out of the side of his beak, “What do you want me to do with the guards there?”

“You know what to do, make it quick and quiet, like always please,” I said before moving away from my huge partner, putting a grin on my face, and saying loudly to the guard, “You sure do have a lot of ponies in stock here I see, even a few zebras.”

The stallion nodded, saying, “Yeah, a little more than we normally do honestly. Got lucky a few weeks back, took down a huge caravan of refugees that were heading south to skirt around the Midwest of Equestria. Quite a few were running from all the chaos that happened up by Manehattan and even a few came from Hoofington I was told. Some of the ponies we caught won’t sell well sadly.”

“Why’s that?” Solstice asked, “Are some of the stock sick? Because if they are, we don’t want to risk putting good caps into slaves that might die on us in a couple weeks.”

The stallion chuckled. “Don’t worry about that, no, the ones we’ll have a hard time getting rid of are a few uptight ponies that ran from some upscale settlement near the Hoof. No idea what made them run, but they brought a few of their serfs with them who are now out property. The uptight formally rich ponies haven’t done anything for themselves most of their lives. We’ve been trying to build up their strength a little by putting them to work, but all they do is bitch and moan about how the work is for lesser ponies, not them. If they don’t start working harder, we’ll have to dispose of them.”

“Maybe I can make a good deal with your leader, they may be no good at manual labor, but I could use a few scullery mares,” I said as we reached the two-story building. Over the door in extremely faded letters, I could just make out ‘Equestrian One Bank.’

Solstice must have seen it too because she said, “So you use an old bank for an office?”

“This is where Viola Vanguard our leader has her office. Safe place to keep everything or so she says. She’s waiting for you inside; I’ll have to ask you to leave your weapons out here with your body guard. No pony sees Miss Vanguard with loaded weapons,” he said.

I almost laughed, it’s almost like he’d forgotten I was a unicorn, I was a walking, talking weapon. Then I thought more about it and guessed not a lot of unicorns in the wasteland knew many spells. Most that I’d run into only knew levitation and weren’t very good at it. So, with a shrug I pulled normal gun out and passed it over to Gaston. “Don’t lose that, if you do you’ll regret it.”

He nodded as he took the gun then he took a revolver I’d given to Solstice for show. “No problem boss, I’ll keep them safe,” he then looked at the guard and grinned, “Tell me pal, got any good booze around this place? Been ages since I’ve had a good drink and new folk to tell my many stories to.”

The guard nodded. “Third building up the hill to your left, a few of the folk who live here should be there now and would probably love to hear some new stories.”

The two walked off leaving Solstice and myself alone in front of the door to the old bank. Solstice looked over at me, asking quietly, “Did he really just leave us here? I mean what if we were here to kill their leader?”

“Well, we kind of are at least that’s one reason I’m here. Still, he had us give our weapons to Gaston and I’m sure he thinks we’re no threat to this Viola pony. She probably has more guards inside,” I said as I walked up to the door and used my magic to turn the nob and open it.

I was greeted by a well-lit interior; the floors were made of well-preserved lacquered wood same for the walls. Long red and gold drapes hung off an open interior, rugs and old fancy couches were spread out along the floor, soft music was playing from an old radio sitting on a delicate table at the center of the open chamber. Next to it was a large fainting couch with a beautiful mare laid across it. She wore a blood red flowing dress that hugged her body showing off every curve. Her coat was a rich aqua blue her black mane was long and elegant. She had jewels in her mane and on her neck, and her eyes were a deep purple that seemed to look deep into the soul of whom ever she cast her gaze on. As the two of us slowly walked into the building she gave us both a wickedly playful smile.

“I say, when I was told two mares were coming to pay me a visit looking for a couple of servants, I was expecting a couple of old fussy mares, not two young beauties like yourself. Welcome to Cottonville I’m Viola Vanguard, the leader of this town and owner of all the slaves you saw on your way in,” as she spoke she sat up and waved a hoof at a puffy couch that faced her own, “Please do take a seat, I’m sure you’re both tired after such a long journey. I’d love to get down to business and see what little old me has in stalk for you. That is unless you’d rather relax first and conduct business later?”

It took me a full minute to speak. I wasn’t expecting this, I was expecting a hag who ran her camp like an old dictator who wanted nothing more than to show the world that she was more powerful than every pony else. This mare was, well beautiful and had an elegant way of speaking. I felt like a disgusting bug compared to her. Luckily, the sight of the slaves on my way in quickly pulled my mind away from what I’d like to do with her…to what I was going to do to her. It also didn’t help that as soon as my mind tried to go into the gutter for a split second I’d seen Aura sitting there looking at me with lustful eyes.

Solstice and I walked over to the couches as I said, “Thank you for seeing us on such short notice Miss Vanguard, I’m Silver this is my partner Lights Fall.”

“It’s a pleasure to meet you,” Solstice said as we both sat.

“Partner you say, not often I see two mares in business together. Also please call me Viola, we’re all friends here or at least about to conduct business and only my citizens and guards call me Miss Vanguard,” Viola said as she sat up more. As she did I saw a horn peeking out from her thick mane.

‘So that’s why the guards weren’t worried, she’s a unicorn too’ I thought to myself, before saying, “Viola then, and Lights Fall and I are romantic partners, and we share a large plot of land I just inherited from my father who passed away a couple months back.”

Viola winked. “I see and pardon me for asking but if you inherited land and I’m guessing a nice sum of caps along with a nice sized home, why wouldn’t you have servants or slaves that your father would have left behind when he died?”

Solstice was the one to reply, “Mr. Silt was against slavery, but Silver and I aren’t. He did have a few workers on his land but most of them were killed when bandits attacked the family home.”

I put on a fake look of sadness as I added, “Father and his wife didn’t make it, same for my siblings. I’d been staying in town with Lights Fall when the attack happened. All that’s left is a couple of ponies, my old zebra maid, and the land.”

“I’m sorry to hear about your loss. I do think I heard something about a roaming band of filthy stallions making trouble out west. Well either way, I can understand why you need more help. Though I also need to know if you’ll have the ponies who will be able to keep your slaves in line?” Viola asked.

“Lights Fall has two brothers who are strong if not the smartest stallions around. They’ll be able to keep things in line until I can hire more hooves and guards,” I said giving her a small smile.

“Very good, well then your griffon body guard I’m sure can also help keep things in line that is if you have a long contract with the brute. He said you were only looking for a couple however when he came with your first letter. It sounds to me like you might need more than that,” she said as she used her magic to lift a delicate looking glass from the table with what I guessed was wine in it bringing it to her lips.

“I thought we’d only need a couple at first, but I was informed before I left that I’d need at least eight maybe twelve if we could get a good price,” I said.

Viola looked down at her glass and sighed. Looking toward a darker corner of the large room she said, “Harmony dear, I told you to get me the Canterlot Royal, not the cheap swill. Get over here girl!”

Solstice and I watched as a timid mare slowly walked out of the shadowed recesses of the room. She wasn’t much taller than me, her coat was a light lilac in color with darker purple stripes on different parts of her body. A few were on her legs, a large, long one over her chest a few on her back legs. The end of her muzzle was dark purple as well with three small strips on the bottom of her jaw and one on each side of her head almost like they were pupping out from her mane. Her eyes were purple as well and her mane was a lighter shade of lilac with slightly darker lilac stripes. She was also a pegasus and I also noticed that she wore a bandage along her right hindleg with a purple ribbon tied at the top. Her mane and tail were both cut short, and her wings were a little longer than any other pegasus I’d ever seen. She wasn’t just a pegasus I could tell, she was like Prince Fruit Strip, she was a Zony. She also wasn’t wearing a bomb collar, but she acted timid as she approached almost as if she expected to be yelled at or attacked at any moment.

When she spoke, her voice was quiet but cute. “My apologies miss Vanguard, that was the only bottle I could get. The guard to the vault wouldn’t let me go past the entrance to look.”

Viola rolled her eyes. “Did you tell him the wine was for me?”

Harmony nodded shyly, her eyes locked on the floor. “Yes ma’am, he didn’t believe me, I can try and go back and insist, but…”

“Oh, never mind, that buffoon probably forgot again that you’re my new room slave. This will do for now, but I want you to sit here in case I need anything or my guests,” she said before looking back at the two of us, “I’m sorry, Harmony here is new here and shy as a newborn foal. I haven’t fully broken her in yet and gotten her used to how things work here.”

“Is she a former Enclave mare or something?” Solstice asked a hint of something like anger in her voice.

“Oh no she was with some rich ponies we captured a couple weeks ago. Most of the ponies we captured have been useless, but this one used to serve some old mare like a maid or something, so I decided she would be better with me than being put out with the rougher ponies,” Viola said, “She is a gem.”

I looked Harmony over again keeping my face flat with a lack of emotion showing. When I’d decided to take this job I really hadn’t cared much about the slaves themselves, it was more that I hate the practice of slavery itself. Though I was starting to feel an old twinge of sympathy for the slaves here as I’d been marched past them earlier and this mare wasn’t helping. After a moment I turned my gaze back to Viola. “How much for this one?”

Viola blinked for a moment then said, “For Harmony? I really hadn’t been planning on selling her, she’s useful and listens well, not easy to find honestly.”

“5,000 caps,” I said not breaking my eye contact with her.

I saw her eyes widen. “I’m sorry, but I’m serious, I’m not selling…”

I rolled my eyes. “10,000 Caps then, I need a pony like her at my estate,”

Viola coughed. “Are you serious?”

Keeping my expression emotionless I said, “Deadly.”

“I mean I wasn’t planning on selling her but that’s quiet the offer, but I doubt you have enough funds to cover that let alone the other slaves you came to buy,” Viola said.

I reached into my saddle bags and tossed a large pack of caps on the table. “That’s 10,000 caps right there and I have more with me and more with my partner here. I’m sure you don’t normally charge so much for just one slave. This is me showing you how serious I am in buying.”

Solstice looked over at me lifting an eyebrow, but she kept her muzzle shut. Viola took a moment to pull the bag closer and look into it before she finally said, “I’m sorry I doubted you Ms. Silver, Harmony is yours,” she then looked over at the zony, “Today’s your lucky day, your new owner is Ms. Silver here.”

Harmony looked over at me timidly then shuffled over to sit next to me, she kept her head down saying quietly, “I understand.”

I so badly wanted to tell her everything was going to be okay, but I had to keep up the ruse. I looked back at Viola, saying, “I didn’t come here to sit and drink with you Ms. Vanguard, I came to buy a few slaves for my estate and maybe set up some kind of arrangement for more later. The list of what I wanted should have been sent with my letter Gaston brought to you. Do you have what I want and are you a mare I can work with or is all of this just some kind of ruse to make me think you are more well off than you really are?”

Viola smiled. “I assure you I have what you requested and more. I apologize if I came off as a showoff, but I wanted you to know that we can make a deal work.”

Solstice spoke up this time, saying, “I’m not sure I believe her, I mean if she was really as good of a salver as she states then I think she’d have more to show for it, apart from this room the rest of her camp looks run down and some of the slaves are underfed. I’m sure this large sum of caps is the most she’s seen in years.”

Finally, I saw a twitch of anger show in Viola’s eyes as Solstice spoke. To her credit though, she kept it out of her voice as she said, “I will admit the price you paid for Harmony was higher than normal, but most of the slaves I sell go from 1,000 to 3,000 caps. I’ve been a slaver for over a decade, and it’s been very good to me and my crew.”

I smiled. “So you’re telling me you’re a well-off mare then?”

Viola started to laugh. “Dear I’m more than well off, not to brag but I’m one of the richer mares around here.”

I looked over at Solstice. “She might be telling the truth, I mean did you see how many guards she had when we came in, I’ll admit I was quite impressed.”

Solstice smiled. “I sure did I counted…oh I don’t know, maybe thirty.”

“Thirty-two, don’t forget about the two guards she has on the upper balcony just up there,” I said, pointing a hoof up at the place where I could just make out two stallions with rifles.

Solstice squinted up at them and smiled. “You’re right Silver, I hadn’t noticed them, good eye.”

Viola wasn’t smiling anymore. She looked a little annoyed. “Why does how many guards I have matter?”

I ignored her question and yelled up at the two guards. “Hey you two come on down here and join us, I already know you’re there so there’s no reason to keep skulking around like that, come have a drink on me.”

“My bodyguards won’t be joining us; they are here to keep me protected just in case something doesn’t go well when I’m conducting business,” Viola said, anger lacing her voice now.

“Nonsenses,” I said with a huge smile as my horn started to glow. A moment later I pulled both guards off the balcony and held them in my magical grip until they were both hovering just over the couch Viola was sitting on. She looked up with anger on her face right before I dropped them both onto the couch then bound them with a spell so they couldn’t move. “Much better don’t you think?”

“No, it’s not, what do you think you’re doing?” she yelled. Her guards looked scared as their bodies were held in place with my magic.

I leaned back on the couch and smiled. “Let me ask you something Viola. Does it get you off or something when you capture other ponies and force them into slavery? I’ve always wondered what it is that makes ponies like yourself go down a path like this.”

“What on Equus are you talking about? This is how things work in the world. If you don’t have the power to protect yourself, you end up being forced to do the will of ponies who are stronger than you are,” Viola said.

I looked over at Harmony who was shaking a little as she looked at me then her former owner. “Tell me Harmony, do you think it’s right for others control weaker ponies?”

“I…I have no opinion on the matter miss,” she said.

“Oh, I’m sure you do but you’re just too scared to say so, it’s okay, you’ll learn. As of this moment you’re a free mare, you shouldn’t have to be controlled just because somepony says their more powerful than you,” I said, looking back at Viola, “Like Viola Vanguard here, she says that she’s a slaver and because she has caps to pay for guards and other brutes like that, she can tell you and others what to do, but she’s wrong.”

“What the fuck is this!?” Viola yelled, starting to get to her hooves.

I slammed her down on the couch again with my magic. “I didn’t say you could get up now did I Ms. Vanguard.”

She glared at me. “Who the fuck are you?”

I grinned. “Tell me, have you heard about a pony called The Silver Demon from Armadillo?” I saw her eyes go wide, “Oh good, you have! Well, that would be me, I heard about your operation out here and it just irritated me. Slavers are filth and I really don’t like your kind. So, I thought I’d come pay you a little visit.”

“But…you’re a bounty hunter, why would you care about me? I know for a fact that no pony has a bounty out on me. I’m worthless for a mare like you,” she said.

I slowly pulled Dream Walker from a hidden holster and smiled. “You’re right about a couple of things, I am a bounty hunter, there isn’t a bounty out on you, and you are worthless.” I pointed Dream Walker at one of her guards and shot him in the head. “So are your ponies.” I shot the other guard then let their bodies fall to the ground.

Harmony squeaked then backed up a little before saying, “Why did you kill them?”

Solstice answered for me, “Because they’re nothing but garbage, all slavers are.”

“Please…please don’t kill me, I’m sorry okay,” Viola begged as she tried her best to move as far away from the two corpses.

“No, you’re not,” I said as I got to my hooves and slowly lifted Dream Walker up to point at the mare, “Even if I let you live, you’d just go back to doing the same thing as soon as I left and I’m sure you’d even put a bounty out on me too. No there’s only one way to deal with your kind.”

“I can pay you!” she screamed, “Take back the caps you paid for Harmony, and you can take another 10,000 from my stash it’s up in my room!”

I lowered the gun. “Wow that was fast, I thought she’d start with a lower number, and she even told us where to find her caps.”

“She’s not the smartest pony is she?” Solstice asked.

“No, she’s not,” I replied then looked back at Viola, “Yeah, so I really don’t care what you offer me, I was going to take everything you had anyway. It’s kind of the reason I came all the way out here and put on this little show for you in the first place. I did want to free your slaves, but I wanted the caps more and to rid this area of slavers.”

“Have a heart! Please I’ll do anything just don’t kill me! I have a SON, he needs me!” she begged.

I glared at her with my dead eyes. “A son huh? What’s his name?”

“Gold Bit!” she said quickly.

“Nice name, how creative. Is Gold Bit a colt? I mean you’re an older mare I’m guessing either you had a late pregnancy or he’s at least my age or older. Is he just like you? A pony who takes other ponies from their homes and makes them slaves?” I asked.

“He’s a teenager! Yes he’s learned the trade, but he can change, if you let me go we’ll both go far away and find a new way to make Caps you have my word!” she said, starting to cry.

I looked over at Solstice. “Stay with her.” then I looked over at Harmony. “I’m sorry for what you’ve had to see today, but things are going to get a lot worse before they get better, you have a choice, I can help you get away from here now and you can go out on your own and find your own way in this world, or you can wait here with my friend and go back to Armadillo with us and we might be able to help you get a home and work there as a free mare. The choice is yours but either way, the next hour of your life is going to be scary.”

Harmony looked at Viola then back at me and I saw deep down in her eyes that even though she was scared and not sure what to do, she had a small fire in her. She took a moment then said, “I’ll stay here.”

“Okay, but remember, no matter what happens next, you made your choice,” I said before turning and heading toward the door, “If she tries to run, shoot her in the leg.”

“Can do,” Solstice said, pulling her own hidden weapon out.

I ignored it all and walked out of the building and back to where the camp was. As I did I saw that the other part of my plan had been going over well. Most of the guards were sitting around with Gast and laughing at some story the large griffon was telling them a little way away from the building. As I walked up Gaston lifted a beer and said loudly, “Boss! Tell me did the negotiations go well?”

“Better than I could have hoped,” I said as I came up to him and a few of the guards. One of them I saw was the large mare from the gate. “So, which one of you has the key for the collars, I made a deal with Viola, and I’ll be taking all of the slaves off your hooves.”

Gaston laughed loudly. “This might one has it, was bragging to me about it just a moment ago, though she could have been lying” he was pointing a digit at the large mare.

She didn’t look happy. “If you cut a deal and even had that many caps to buy all of our stock, why isn’t Viola out here with you?”

“You know I didn’t catch your name earlier,” I said ignoring what she’d said, “You do look like a mare I could have sworn I saw on a poster a week or so ago. Gaston doesn’t she look like that Clacker mare we saw on the poster? What was her reward again?”

“A thousand caps I believe and yes she does look like that mare, wanted dead or alive for killing some pony I think,” Gaston said.

Her eyes went wide. “What are you? Some kind of wanna be bounty hunter too?”

Ignoring her again I said to Gaston, “Did you do as I asked?”

“Oh yeah, but sadly only a couple were willing to drink my wonderfully gift, I guess beer isn’t popular here. Though the ten who did take me up on my offer should start feeling it right about…” as he spoke ten guards started to choke and fell to the ground, “Well…now.”

The rest of the guards started getting up, there were only about seven left including the mare who I knew was Clacker. Gaston had told me he’d found her when he’d gotten back from delivering my letter. This wasn’t just a day to take down a slaving operation, I was going to get paid for taking down a nasty bitch of a bounty too. She was already getting to her hooves when I lifted Dream Walker and said, “I do love dead or alive bounties,” I fired, and she was dead before she’d even gotten a chance to defend herself.

Gaston was already moving and before any other pony could react to the sudden death of Clacker or the gagging guards around them, he’d already killed another guard and was moving to take down a second. I pulled on my magic and flexed my power. Four stallions screamed as I ripped them off their hooves and shot them skyward before letting them go. By then the last guard had his rifle ready and took a shot at me. I felt it slam into my flank making me wince in pain before I twisted around and put two bullets into his chest.

“Damn Silver, you okay?” Gaston asked as he broke the neck of his guard.

Cursing I used my magic to pull the bullet out then pulled a healing potion from my bag. “I’ll be fine, looks like the rest are coming, I thought I told you to start taking them out while I was dealing with the leader.”

“I was, I figured poison would be safer than just attacking them out right,” he said as he stretched the pulled his large rifle off his back. As he did the four ponies I’d tossed up into the air finally came back down. Their bodies exploding as they hit the hard packed ground, “Well shall we finish the rest of them off?”

“Yeah but see if you can find a pony named Gold Bit, he should be a teenager, I want him left alive,” I said.

“Oh, I met him before I started drinking with the dumb asses here, he’s in the trailer just over there,” he said, pointing at one a few meters away, “Want me to take care of the rest?”

I sighed. “I guess.”

“Sweet, then I’m going to ask for a bonus if I can take them all out without help,” he said.

“If you can then you can take the full bounty for Cracker there,” I said pointing at the dead large mare.

“Works for me,” he said before launching himself into the air his rifle already firing at the others who were rushing to find out what was going on.

Taking a moment to watch Gaston laughing as he killed the other slavers, I smiled before finally turning toward the trailer he’d pointed too. I wasn’t feeling too keen on the fight anymore. I hated Slavers, but they were all to weak and stupid. Maybe it wasn’t them, maybe it was me, I’d given up caring about much of anything lately including my own safety, mix that with my growing magic, it was just no longer much of a challenge taking on simple ponies like these anymore. Oh well, at least the caps I’d get from this job would be good. Madam would be quite a happy mare when I took the next two weeks staying at her brothel spending a good chunk of them.

Making it to the trailer I didn’t bother knocking, I blew the door open with my magic, Dream Walker at the ready only to find the small living space inside, empty. Confused I poked my head in right as I heard a mare scream from the back end of the trailer. “Please STOP, you do not need to do this!” more was said but it was in what could only be Zebra. The accent told me that as soon as she spoke in pony. I stepped into the trailer feeling a familiar anger deep inside myself.

“You’re property now you fucking Stripe, get used to this because this is what your life is going to be from now on!” I heard a young buck say right before I ripped the door off its hinges to find a golden stallion with a silver and black mane on top of a young zebra mare who was tied down on his bed.

He twisted his head toward me, yelling, “Who the fuck are you?”

I almost blew his head off right there, but I had another point to make so instead I used my magic to rip him off the mare and slammed his face into the floor. He started to scream in pain before I lifted him again and pulled him close to my muzzle. “You’re disgusting…not only are you a slaver piece of trash, but a rapist too.”

“You’ll…pay for this, do you know who my mother is?” he said through his bleeding muzzle.

“Yeah and I don’t give a shit,” I said before slamming him down onto the ground again then wrapping my magic around his balls, “Where’s the key to the collars?”

“Fuck you!” he yelled.

I pulled hard making him scream in pain. “No thank you, now where’s the keys?”

Tears were in his eyes as he whimpered in pain as I let up on the pressure. “Its…in the night…stand…drawer.”

Keeping him held down with my magic I checked and found a gem key. Once I found that I moved over to the crying Zebra mare doing my best to keep calm. “It’ll be okay, I’m here to help, let me get that slave collar off you.” I pressed the key to her collar, it deactivated and clicked open.

Once that was done I slowly removed it then slowly untied her hooves from the bed frame. She curled up in a ball sobbing for a few moments before saying, “Why…why would you help a zebra?”

“I don’t care if you’re a zebra, griffon or pony, no one should be treated like that. Do you think you can walk?” I asked.

“I…I think so, I am Saffron,” the zebra mare said as she slowly got to her hooves.

“Call me Silver,” I said as I took a moment to make sure she was in one piece then gave her a healing potion, “Here, you look okay, but I’m sure after the way he was treating you that you’re hurting in a few places.”

“Thank you Ms. Silver, I am hurting a lot this was his third time today,” she said with a haunted look to her.

I looked at the moaning buck on the floor, he was not much older than me but already more of a monster than most I’d met in the wasteland. “I hope this fucker didn’t get you pregnant or pass any nasty disease to you.”

“I…I don’t think so, Gold Bit said I was his first. As for pregnancy I will make sure to take something to fix that,” she said still shaking a little before she started slowly drinking the healing potion.

“I can’t stay here long; I still need to finish up with this dick head’s mother. Once my friends and I are done with this place we’ll be freeing the rest of the salves then heading back. Do you have a place to go, if not you’re free to join with us until we’re back in our own town,” I said.

“I was on my way to see my grandfather in Armadillo he is the major there and a founder of the town,” she said slowly.

“You’re related to Xilon?” I asked.

“Yes, I normally stay with him for a few weeks at a time helping him out around his house. I was on my way there when I was captured a couple weeks back by these ponies,” she said.

“I had no idea he was expecting his granddaughter to show up or that you were even missing. Well join us on the way back I’ll make sure to get you back safely,” I said before walking back to Gold Bit.

“I will do that,” she said, “What are you going to do to him?”

“She’s…going to die,” he said in a low threatening voice.

I moved over him my magic taking hold of his balls again. “Tell me something Gold Bit, have you ever heard about a mare from Armadillo, one that’s called The Silver Demon?”

“Yeah? So what?” he asked.

My grin grew as I said in a dark voice, “Nice to meet you, I’m The Silver Demon and you know what?”

His eyes had gone wide as I said this, but he still answered, “What?”

“I fucking hate ponies like you and you won’t need these anymore,” as I said this, I put as much pressure on his balls as I could until each one popped. He screamed in a high pitch tone until his eyes rolled back before passing out. Once he was out I put the slave collar around his neck. “Much better.”

Saffron looked a little ill at what I’d just done, but she didn’t comment on it, all she did was say, “I will wait here until you are ready to leave.”

“Yeah, probably a good idea. If you see a large griffon named Gaston then don’t worry he’s with me, he’ll keep you safe,” I said before using my magic to pick up Gold Bit and carrying him out of the trailer.

I started making my way back up to the building where I’d left Viola with Solstice and Harmony. I could still hear a little bit of gun fire in the distance, but I could still see Gaston swooping around in the air, so I just let him be. On my way back I made sure to grab the control gem for the slave collars. It only took a few minutes before I was standing in front of the leader of these Slavers. Viola saw her son hovering in my magic right before I slammed his body down onto the table between the two couches.

He moaned in pain his eye lids fluttering open slightly as a high squeaking groan passed his lips. Viola tried to move toward him, but I pointed Dream Walker at her. “No…you don’t get to get close to him until I say otherwise.”

I could see tears in the mare’s face as she looked down at her son. His face was swollen, and one eyes nearly closed shut from me slamming his face on the floor. Blood was flowing from his nose and his lower area was bruised and showed signs of what I’d done to him only a few moments ago. Viola turned her tear-filled eyes up to me, saying, “What…did you do to my son!?”

“Gave him a lesson on what happens when you think you can lord your power over others. Oh, I hope you weren’t hoping for grandkids, because that’s not happening anymore,” I said coldly.

Solstice looked over at me and for the first time since I’d met the snarky mare, I saw a mix of fear and disgust on her face. “Sha…Silver…what did you do to him?”

Harmony was looking at the bloody stallion. “Is…is he going to die?”

I answered Harmony first, “He may, but not from what I did to him,” I then looked at Solstice, “He was raping a young zebra mare, he got off lucky so far,” I then turned to Viola, “He won’t die from this, though he’ll wish he had. His life is now in your hooves, if you answer my questions honestly and do as I say, I’ll let him live, if not, I’ll let you watch him die the same way as the slaves who try to escape do.”

I moved the control gem close to his new collar and synced the two. In the past month Gaston had shown me how to work these gems and collars. It wasn’t the first time I’d ran into slavers in the Badlands, this was just the biggest settlement of them so far.

Viola looked at her son then back at me. “He’s just a colt…he’s only seventeen. How can you do this to anypony?”

I let my cold eyes bore into hers. “He’s a disgusting piece of shit, now are you going to do what I say or are we going to watch Gold Bit’s head go pop!?”

“What…what do you want to know?” she asked, looking down at her son again, but staying away as I’d instructed.

“Are there more of your ponies around the area?” I asked.

She nodded. “My husband runs the town just up the road, most of the time that is where we would conduct our business.”

“How many ponies in this town work with you and your husband?” I asked.

She looked up at me and I saw the fear I so badly wanted to see in her eyes. “The entire town.”

Solstice looked disgusted at Viola now. “You are a monster.”

Harmony kept quiet as I said in a low voice to the cowering mare, “How many colts and fillies are in your town and how many slaves?”

“Only a few colts and fillies and three slaves,” she said.

“Do you have a way to get in contact with your husband?” I asked.

“We have a broadcaster yes,” she said, pointing over at a side table next to the couch.

“Okay, one last question then one thing I’ll need you to do before this will all be over,” I said waiting for her to nod before I continued, “Are the parents of the colts and fillies just like you or are they just living there and surviving off what the town does for trade?”

“Two of the mares are only stay at home mares, their husbands work here, the last filly’s father lost his wife a few months ago and he watches over her, he has not worked with us in some time. My husband believes he wants to leave to find a new home and work, but we haven’t given him the option to do so,” she said.

“Good, I want you to contact your husband, tell him nothing about what’s going on here and tell him a lie that will convince him to send the fillies, colts, and their caretakers out of town with the three slaves. Have them head toward Armadillo or another town until it’s safe,” I said.

Her eyes went wide. “What…what are you going to do?”

I used Dream Walker to pistol whip her before saying, “I didn’t tell you to ask questions, now do what I say, or Gold Bit’s head goes boom!”

She sobbed a little then nodded and moved to the broadcaster. I watched her and listened in as she contacted her husband. It took her a little while to convince him of some made up story about a Talon group coming for them and a few other crap lies before he said he’d do what she’d asked. He also said he’d pull all his able ponies to get ready for an attack, but I didn’t care one bit about that. When she was done I took the broadcaster from her and slipped it into my saddle bags.

“What are we going to do now Silver?” Solstice asked.

I looked back at her, tossing her the Key Gem for the slave collars. “I want you to take Harmony here and meet up with Gaston, lead the salves back to our camp a few miles away. I’ll finish up here and meet you back at camp tonight. Take this key gem it can be used to unlock the bomb collars.”

Her eyes narrowed. “What are you going to do?”

I kept my eyes locked on hers as I answered, “Don’t make me lie to you.”

The two of us held the stare for a few moments before I saw a small tear fall from one eye. Looking away she said, “You don’t need to keep going down this path.”

“Just get out of here, I’ll see you in a few hours,” I said as I turned away from her, “And it’s already too late…I started down this path and I’ll see it to the end.”

I heard Solstice moving away from me saying quietly to Harmony, “Follow me and stay close.”

I waited for a few minutes for Solstice to leave with the young zony. When I finally heard the last of the gunshots, I finally turned back to Viola, saying, “Is there anything of value in your town?”

The once proud mare was crying softly as she looked at her son who was just starting to wake and was moaning in pain. She shook her head slowly. “We keep all the caps here, safer that way.”

“Everything’s up in your room I’m guessing?” I asked.

She nodded. “I’m guessing you’re going to take everything we have.”

I didn’t answer her, instead I nudged her with Dream Walker. “Get on your hooves, we’re going to pay a visit to your little town.”

She didn’t try to fight me she just got to her hooves and moved away from the couch and table. Once she was a few meters away, she said quietly, “What about my son?”

“He can walk,” I said looking at the stallion who looked in so much pain that walking was probably not going to be easy if even possible, “Well, I guess he should get some meds, I don’t want this to take all night.”

“We have chems in the hooflocker just behind my couch, med-x, and a few other drugs. Something there should help him get to his hooves,” she said.

Keeping one eye on her, I moved behind the couch and opened the small hooflocker. Inside I found a few syringes of Med-x, a couple of healing potions, a restoration potion, buck, dash, and a white powder I’d never seen before. Looking back at her I asked, “What’s this?”

Her eyes went wide. “That’s Moon Dust, it’s a hallucinogenic drug, very powerful and addictive. It can go for a lot of caps if sold to the right buyer.”

I’d heard of the drug before, but I’d never seen it. I lifted the small bag then put the rest of the meds and chems into my saddle bags. “Perfect this should make Gold Bit forget all about his pain.”

“You’re not going to give that to my SON!” she yelled.

I fired a bullet an inch from her hoof. “It’s this or he can walk with no help, in the shape he’s in he’d be lucky to make it out of the camp before passing out again. Now, do you want to risk him getting a nasty addiction and living? Or dying in the dirt?”

She shook, then said in a defeated voice, “What does it matter, you’re going to kill me no matter what anyway.”

A small smile came to my lips. “Viola! I give you my word that I have no intention of killing you. What would be the point of teaching you a lesson if I was just going to blow your brains out after?”

She didn’t look like she’d believed me, but she said, “I’ll give him the drugs.” after I gave them to her she moved over to her son and said quietly, “Sweetie, it’s mommy.”

“M…mommy…that…unicorn…she hurt me…bad…I can’t take it please…make it stop,” he said weakly.

“Take this and you’ll feel better okay,” she said and after a few moments of running a hoof over his mane, he finally took the Moon Dust. It didn’t take long after that for his eyes to go half lidded and for his moans of pain to stop.

“Make sure he follows us,” I said as I poked Dream Walker against her side, “We don’t have all night, now let’s get going.”

She nodded and coxed her son to stand on shaking legs and unsteadily start leading us out of the building then past another gate to the camp. Bodies littered the ground all around as we walked. Gaston had done a great job killing the slavers here. Not a single Slave was left apart from a couple that had tried to run and their collars and gone off. I ignored it all and we kept moving away from the camp and toward where this town was supposed to be.

As we walked, Gold Bit kept giggling quietly to himself and looking around muttering about stars or the moon and once I even heard him say something about The Goddess Luna. The drug had taken hold fast, but I ignored him for the most part. It only took us half an hour to reach the town which sat at the bottom of a hill down a single small dirt road. The houses were mostly all made out of scrap, but even from here I could see a least fifty or a bit more ponies gathered around near the center of town. They looked ready to attack a raid that was never going to come.

I looked down at them for a long moment, then asked, “Is that everypony in the town?”

“As far as I can tell,” Viola said.

“LUNA IS GOING TO COME FOR US ALL!” Gold Bit giggled to himself.

I pulled out the broadcaster I’d taken from Viola earlier and activated it saying into the device, “Is the leader of your town hearing this?”

In the far distance I saw a stallion pull a device out and a moment later I heard a deep voice respond, “Yeah, who’s this and how did you get this broadcast channel?”

“I’m the mare who just took all your slaves, took your wife and son hostage and is now standing at the top of the small hill overlooking your shit hole town. You can call me Silver Demon; I had your wife call earlier to make sure you got any innocent ponies out of the town before I finished what I came here to do,” I said.

It took a moment before I got a reply, “If you hurt my family…”

I interrupted him, saying, “Shut it, you’re in no position to talk. Did you do as your wife asked, yes or no?”

I heard a growling response, “I did, now what do you want?”

“Easy, I want to put an end to what you and your towns ponies have been doing. Slavery is disgusting and ponies like you who live off of selling others should be whipped off the face of Equus. I’m only one mare however so I came to make a deal with you. If you put an end to the slave trade and start living like honest and good ponies I’ll let your family go, if not…well let’s just say I’ll make your town a symbol of what happens to Slavers in my territory,” I said.

“You expect me to believe that? You’re the one who made a big mistake. If you kill my family you’ll have nothing to protect you from any of us. Here’s my counteroffer!” he started yelling into the broadcaster.

I just sighed and turned the device off. I could see in the distance that he was still yelling into his, but I just dropped the device and used my magic to force Viola down. “We’ll your husband doesn’t seem to understand the situation he’s in. Oh well, this will be a lot easier.”

She tried to look up at me as she said, “What do you think you can do against the entire town? You might have taken down my camp, but you can’t take them all on by yourself. You should just let me go and get out of here, you got my slaves and I’ve learned a lesson, I’ll find a way to stop him and the town from trading slaves, I promise! Just let my son and I go!”

“Sorry, but I can’t do that. You might think you’ve learned a lesson, but you haven’t, not really. You see I’ve learned during my travels that the only way to really learn, is to suffer a pain so great that it rips your soul into shreds,” I said as I used the Mark II to select a weapon I hadn’t even dared to use since I was in Whinnieapolis.

Solar Flare’s Range Finder slipped out of my saddle bags slowly and for a moment I looked over the toy like weapon of mass destruction. As I looked at it I saw a confused look on Viola’s face. “What is that thing?”

“The hoof of the Goddesses,” I said, but I was mostly ignoring her. The Range Finder was shaking in my magical grip. Memories I had been trying to push down for months started flowing back into me. I saw Appleton vanish along with Pride when I had no idea what this weapon did, I saw Mill City Tower go down in a flash of light. Most of all, the memory of what I did in my nightmare cage was still fresh in my mind. I knew when I’d destroyed Cartwheel in that hell world, it hadn’t been real, but even now, I still couldn’t get rid of that one nightmare. The sight of killing all of the Red Talons and Cartwheel itself, was never going to go away.

I lifted the Range Finder at the same time that I saw some of the ponies in the town start to move slowly toward the edge of the town. The stallion who I’d been talking to leading them. I pointed it right at him, but it kept on shaking and I almost dropped it. My vision was going blurry as tears started to form. I blinked them away saying to myself, “I’m not her anymore, I am The Silver Demon, I’m nothing more than a monster in the Wasteland…I’m a killer…I can do this…I…I can…I…”

“Shadow…you can’t do this,” I heard Solstice say.

I turned my head quickly and saw my friend a few inches away from me, but she wasn’t looking at me, but Solar Flare. I shook more as I said, “I’m not her anymore, I have to do this…they have to die!”

She looked at me for a moment then said softly, “I know they do, but you don’t have to do it alone.”

“I am alone!” I yelled, ignoring the yelling ponies who were now starting to get organized as they tried to head out of the town and up toward us.

I saw tears in her eyes too as she moved closer her muzzle an inch away from my own. “You have me. I’m always here for you Shadow, I always will be…let me shoulder a little of the pain, let me help you, you’re not alone.”

My heart was racing, and I wasn’t sure why. I wanted to say no and to just fire the damned weapon and say fuck it to everypony in the fucking wasteland. I couldn’t though. Solstice had shown time and time again that she was on my side. she’d come with me to the Badlands, she saved my life more than once in the past, she’d been the only one here who hadn’t judged me for how I was acting after I broke things off with Aura. She had been my enemy at once point, but over the past few months, Solstice had become something more than just a mare who followed me around, she was even more than just a friend now. Her sapphire blue eyes were beautiful and full of an emotion I couldn’t quite make out. Those eyes told me that I could trust her and share my pain and burden. I let Solar Flare fall from my magical grip.

Solstice caught it and slowly turned toward the town and its ponies who were just making it to the edge of town. The Range Finder in her muzzle she pointed it toward the lead pony and said, “To those who trade in pony flesh, remember that hell follows on the hooves of the ones you’ve wronged.”

“What do you two think you’re going to do with that?” Viola asked still looking confused.

Solstice ignored her and tongued the small trigger. The screen on the weapon came to life and words quickly flashed over it.

Checking Genetic Marking of User…

Match found, C.O.T.N. Sky 004 Descendent Found…

Megaspell Fully Charged…

Target Found…

Satellite in range…

Solar Flare engaging…

Like before the small beam flew out of the Range Finder and a symbol appeared on the chest of the lead pony who had been coming toward us in front of what had to be the entire town of Slavers. He stopped confused for a moment the towns ponies stopping as well wondering what had just been fired at their leader. That only lasted for about five seconds, then utter panic came over the towns ponies as four beams of light fell from the darkening sky. Like always, the beams stretched and encircled half a kilometer, covering most of the shitty town and slicing through buildings as it cut any form of escape off for the ponies trapped inside. I heard Viola gasp in shock as her friends and husband ran and started hammering on the barrier.

“What did you do! What the fuck is that thing? Make it stop please I’ll do anything!” she screamed. As she did her son just looked up at the sky giggling in his drug addled state.

“There’s no stopping this,” I said as I watched the last ten seconds of the trapped towns life.

I’d never seen Solar Flare fired without clouds covering the sky. Normally the spell would open up the cloud layer to make sure the mega spell had full access to bring down massive destruction, but it was still normally hard to see much else when it fired. With the cloud cover gone, I could see the barrier go all the way into space. There was a flash form something far in the distance and for a split second I could almost make out the mega spell satellite. That was before the beam crashed down to Equus right in the center of the encirclement and as always, it expanded. The spell only lasted ten seconds once that beam touched down and grew, but in that small time, you could hear the screams of terror and pain.

I could see the true horror of this weapon. If you were in the center when it went off, you’d die instantly, that was the mercy of the weapon. If you tried to run to the edge like most of the ponies now were doing. You’d cook to death before the spell fully reached you and turned you and everything in the spells range into ash. Ten seconds wasn’t a long time when you were watching, but it was an eternity to the ponies who screamed as their bodies burned, bubbled, blackened then fell. The light hit the barrier then in a flash of blinding light, it shattered, and the spell was finished. The town was nothing more than a deep crater of glass and ash.

Solstice slowly lowered the Range Finder, her eyes locked on the destruction she’d done. I knew what she was feeling, I’d felt it to when I’d first used the weapon. She had heard of the power of this mega spell, but she’d never witnessed it for herself. I watched as she put the Range Finder into her saddle bags and sat, tears in her eyes.

Viola had fallen to the ground crying in utter pain as she looked at what had been done to her town, to her friends, to her husband and livelihood. I gave both mares a moment to prosses, before walking over to Gold Bit who was still muttering to himself. I pulled out the Control Gem and said, “Do you believe in Luna?”

His dilated eyes met mine. “She can make the pain go away, she is our Goddess,” he looked up at the sky and giggled, “Luna wants us to come to her, to go to the moon and the heavens above. It’s the only way to fix the pain!”

“If you want to meet Luna and take away the pain then use this,” I said putting the Gem into his hoof, “If you want to stay with your mom and atone for what you did then that’s fine with me too.”

He looked at the gem his eyes wide. “LUNA…this can take me to Luna!”

“Only one way to find out,” I said before turning to Viola who hadn’t seen or heard a word of what had just transpired between her son and me, “Maybe this lesson will sink in deep enough for you to change Viola Vanguard.”

Her blank eyes turned toward me. “You…are a demon.”

“I am…remember that next time you want to do what you’ve been doing,” I said before heading to Solstice.

Viola got to her hooves and started to head toward her son. “You will pay one day for the evil you…”

She started to say right before Gold Bit yelled, “LUNA GODDESS OF THE NIGHT I’M COMING!” right before he activated the Gem and his head popped like a soap bubble. Brains, blood, and small chunks of bone splattered across Viola’s face; she Screamed as she watched her son take his own life. His body falling to the ground twitching in its last death throws. She kept on screaming as I took hold of Solstice.

“It’s time for us to go Solstice,” I said, she just nodded silently. I heard Viola crying and screaming in utter disperse right before I Teleported Solstice and myself away from the small hill that overlooked a valley, where a town of true monsters used to lay.

I ended up taking us back to the camp. I left Solstice just outside the building I’d first met Viola in while I went in and took everything that looked valuable. It didn’t take too long and in the end I up getting around twenty thousand caps and a few other odds and ends that I could sell back in Armadillo for a small profit. By the time I came back to where Solstice was she was looking a little better, but she was still quiet as we slowly walked away from the dead camp of slavers.

We didn’t talk the entire trip back to our camp where Gaston and a few of the slaves were waiting. He told me that he’d seen the bright light from here and asked me about what happened, but I just played it off as a mystery that I didn’t understand. He let it go and I took a little time to take to a few Slaves and promise them that I’d help them get to Armadillo where they could find a new life. I talked with Saffron for a bit longer before helping her set up a bed roll next to the fire so she could rest. Last was the zony Harmony who found me when I was heading to a small tent I’d set up for myself.

“Miss Silver…what am I going to do once I’m in Armadillo?” she asked me.

I was tired and really wanted to get some sleep, but she was so innocent looking and scared that I couldn’t just turn her away. So, with a sigh I said, “What ever you want Harmony.”

“I’ve never been able to do what I wanted before…well not since I was very young,” she said.

“I didn’t know what I wanted either before I left my home and life a few months ago. Part of life is finding what makes you happy and trying to push for that dream. Honestly I’m a shit pony to get advice on what to do with your life, because I just keep destroying my own. I’m a bounty hunter that doesn’t care much about anypony,” I said.

“You saved all the slaves,” she said sounding confused.

“No, I killed Slavers and got a nice profit by doing so,” I lied as I tried to turn to leave.

“Silver, you may be telling yourself that, but I can tell that you’re just lying to yourself. Deep down you’re trying to hide the fact that you wanted to save the slaves and put a stop to the slavers. You’re a good mare,” she said.

I stopped and turned slowly to look at her, giving her my best dark glare, “I’m not a good mare, there’s a reason I’m called The Silver Demon Harmony. I wanted profit and I got it, I don’t give a fuck about any of you, more than doing anything I can to fuck over the ass holes that tried to sell you all. If helping you all get free can do that then that’s what I’ll do, don’t try to read into it more than that. Now go to sleep, we leave at dawn.”

“If that was true you wouldn’t have paid what you did for me even if you were planning on taking it back or not. My father taught me how to see into the truth of what others try to hide. You’re in pain yes, you hate yourself yes, but deep down you do care. I hope that you can see that someday,” she said and with that she trotted away before I could yell a nasty retort at her.

I just kicked at a rock then turned to head into my tent. I pulled off my combat armor, placed my saddle bags next to me, then laid down on the bed roll. I spent the next few minutes trying to forget what Harmony said to me, but I couldn’t, and I drifted to sleep angry at the world.

I awoke two hours later in a sweat and my heart pounding as the dream I just had about Aura slowly faded. I slammed my hoof on the ground in anger as I did everything I could to try and make the memories of her die. I needed a drink, but I hadn’t brought anything with me. Like always when I went to long on a job sober the dreams started getting worse and the memories of times we spend with each other flooded back in. The more they did, the more a deep burn seemed to ignite in my chest as if something was telling me I needed to go back to her. I wasn’t going to listen to it, Aura could fuck off for all I cared. She didn’t want me, she made that clear when she was talking with Aris, she was also a liar.

I was about to try and find a way to get back to sleep when Solstice poked her head into the flap of my tent. “You still up?”

I looked at her and nodded. “Yeah, can’t sleep.”

“Same here,” she said coming in and sitting next to me, looking down at her hooves, “I had no idea that weapon was so…bad. I heard stories and saw the places you used it on but…seeing it was…a lot.”

“Yeah I know, but the memory of it does slowly fade, it won’t go away fully, but in time you’ll feel better,” I said as I fiddled with my Saddle Bags.

“I don’t know how you deal with it. I mean I’ve killed before we both know that, but, never on such a large scale. How do you do it?” she asked.

“I don’t deal with it, I keep busy and ignore what I’ve done and when that gets too hard, I drink the memory of it away,” I said with a sigh, “I know it was hard, but…thank you for doing that back there. Now that I’m not so mad, I have a feeling that if I had been the one to fire Solar Flare again, I might have completely lost my mind.”

She shrugged. “You would have done the same for me.”

“Maybe a couple months ago, but now…I’m not so sure,” I said sadly, “Solstice can I ask you something?”

She nodded. “Anything, you know that.”

“Did I make a mistake…leaving New Pegasus I mean?” I asked.

She took a moment before she responded, “I think you needed to get away from there. If you stayed, Aquila would have found a way to turn even more ponies against you and I’m sure you would have died without the spell linking you two killing her too. So, no I don’t think you made a mistake leaving for now.”

“I meant did I make a mistake leaving…the rest behind like I did…leaving…her,” I said quietly as tears fell from my eyes.

I felt her pull me into a hug. “I think, you’re a very young mare who had hear heartbroken one to many times. I can’t tell you if you made a mistake or not Shadow. I do know that you loved her deeply and I’m sure she feels the same for you, but she was the one who said what she did and lied to you about Trip Wire. I can’t say I agree with everything you’ve been doing recently or how you’ve been treating your uncle or Vervain, but leaving might be what you need to figure yourself out, without Aura, my brother, the kids, Wind Thrasher and all the crap being The Courier has brought down on you. You need to find out who Shadow Star is, maybe that will lead you back home and back to Aura and our friends, or maybe you’ll find a new life and let somepony else finish what you started. You won’t know until you figure yourself out first.”

I sniffed. “I’m glad you came with me Solstice, I couldn’t have asked for a better friend to keep me sane,” I then pulled out Scootaloo’s Mark II from my bags, “If…if you still want to help me carry some of the load of my shitty life…then I want you to take this Mark II.”

She looked down at it for a long moment, before asking, “What does this Mark II have to do with helping you?”

I sighed. “All three Mark II’s were used to lock Falling Shadows. All three will be needed to unlock it before we can destroy it. I can’t use two at once and I only trust you to take this one. When we find the tower down here…I’ll need your help to fix what The Children created…that’s if you want to.”

In response she took the mat black Pip-Buck from me and slowly put it over her left foreleg. She latched it on, and I watched as the Mark II became hers. The set-up screen did its thing and just like that, Solstice was now part of a small group of ponies who had to carry an enormous weight on her shoulders. She slowly lowered it then looked into my eyes with tears running down her own. “Thank you for putting so much trust into me Shadow.”

A memory flashed in my head again…well two…one was of Aura and me when I’d left New Pegasus the other was from my time in the nightmare world. The memory from then however wasn’t the many I’d had of the time I’d spent killing my friends to get free, no it was of Solstice on the night we spent together. I couldn’t pull my eyes away from hers and I could tell she was having the same problem. More memories tried to push into me of Aura and I at the Kingdom, again in the sky carriage before Aquila took over, of the night I watched her sing with her sisters at the Rebirth Celebration. I wanted her back and deep down I knew that to be true. But I couldn’t trust her, she didn’t want me like I wanted her so why should I keep crying over a griffon who didn’t want me, who lied to me, who couldn’t see me as her life partner. I needed to leave her in the past, if she really had loved me, she would have tried to find me by now. She could have if she wanted to, I knew that. If Aura truly cared about me, she would have tracked me down before I even made it to Armadillo in the Badlands. I knew one day I’d have to go back to New Pegasus, I had to if I wanted to stop Falling Shadows. But if I did, it wasn’t going to be for her. Fuck Aura, fuck her Shadow Talons, Fuck Freedom, Fuck Aquila, Fuck the ponies around that area. I’ll finish my mission to stop Falling Shadows, then I’d start my new life, with somepony else.

“Shadow…I…” Solstice said, “I know I told you once that I don’t like…” she started to say, but she never got finish her sentence. I reached a hoof up to her cheek and pulled her down to me. Our lips met and unlike the time in Stratus when we’d been trying to keep from being discovered by the guard, this time I kissed her with feeling. She did the same and for the first time in almost two months, and even after spending time with the brothel Zony and the guard in Armadillo, I felt better, and Aura’s presence seemed to finally…leave me alone. True I didn’t feel the same kind of thing for Solstice as I had when Aura and I first kissed, but there was something there and it was better than the pain I’d been feeling since I heard Aura say she couldn’t see me as someone to make the Life bond with. Fuck griffons too…this was right, I was going to keep telling myself that, until I made it true. I kept on kissing her until finally Solstice pulled me onto her as she laid back, our bodies begging for more.

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