The bustle of Moletown was unexpected given its relatively secluded location but it seemed just as prosperous as Blacktown or The Crater. How many other settlements like this were hidden in the Baltimare ruins? How many were there across Equestria as a whole? If the other stables did their jobs then ponykind might have a chance. As we left the Rusty Talon we spotted some more haphazard signs and followed them to the water shed. Having seen the water pipe spewing water when we arrived it was easy enough to find even without the signs. However it wasn’t as I had initially thought. The burst pipe was not the main source of water, rather it was merely a part of it. Further down the tunnel beyond the pipe was a small shack built from soggy plywood and aluminum sheets. There was one elderly unicorn stallion working hard at filling a great number of water bottles and containers of all kinds for a younger earth pony mare hooked up to a cart. As the last bottle was filled, caps changed hooves and the mare secured her water and made for the exit of Moletown. Behind the stallion, through the open door of the shack, I could see what remained of an old pumping station. Inside were what looked like three jury-rigged runoff pipes that spilled a small stream of water through a grated drain on the floor. It must have taken some time to run all of those pipes to wherever the water was coming from, a closely guarded secret no doubt that this stallion had worked his whole life for. As soon as the mare was out of sight he switched his attention to us.

“Well howdy there, name’s Whistler. Ya’ll lookin’ to buy some clean water? Only five caps per container.” He said, pointing a hoof to a poorly drawn sign tacked to the side of the shack.

“Actually…” I started, fishing through my bags for any empty containers. “That would be great.” It wasn’t something I thought about very often but I couldn’t recall the last time I had clean water, actual clean and purified water. Most sources were contaminated in some way. Even old sealed beverages from before the war bore slight amounts of balefire radiation. Sunny must have thought something similar as she too withdrew any empty containers she had.

A few filled bottles later we had thirty-five caps worth of clean water, a fact that my PipBuck confirmed as I took a sip.

“You one of them mercs lookin’ t’ strike it rich in the tunnels?” He questioned, looking at us with wary eyes.

“You could say that…I actually have a few questions for you.”

“Ain’t got no time fer questions. It takes a lot t’ keep this pump in workin’ order so if we’re done here.” He turned around to head inside the shack. He wasn’t wrong. From the shack ran even more pipes, the ones that spanned and supplied the whole of Moletown with clean, running water. How many other settlements could claim that?

“Where does this water come from?” Aurora asked, stepping out from behind me. The old stallion must have liked talking about it as he stopped in his tracks and turned to face the filly. Or maybe he had a soft spot for children like most old folks.

“Well youngin’ I don’t rightly know. Back when I was a young buck I ventured down into these here tunnels and found some pipework that somepony else had started, as well as their bones. I continued their work and kept connecting more pipes until I got the flow of water here. After that I sent some folk down t’ find the source and none came back. Eventually word got out ‘bout my water and this town sprung up around me. Since then the danger has only enticed treasure hunters and year after year ponies disappear down these tunnels. Doesn’t matter how many you send, yer fate will be the same.”

“You think the expedition will fail.” I said, looking past him and into one of the tunnels that led out of Moletown.

“Ain’t seen nothing yet to convince me otherwise.” He said with an emphatic shake of his head.

“What makes you so sure?” Sunny asked as she tried to hide a sneaky smirk behind her hoof.

“Weren’t ya’ll listening? Nopony who’s gone down there has ever come back. Not treasure hunters thirty-five years ago and not Mr. Coal’s expedition. Nopony!”

“Mr. Coal?” I asked innocently, preying on the frustration that Sunny’s question had created.

“That’s right, some bigshot ghoul with deep pockets. Moletown was his idea, though if you ask me I think he’s just as interested in the tunnels as everypony else. Though I suppose it weren’t all bad him moving in, gettin’ paid fer my water ain’t so bad.” He smiled a somewhat creepy partially toothless smile.

“So you met him? Mr. Coal I mean.” I said, hoping to squeeze just a bit more info out of the old stallion.

“Ain’t you got nothing better to do than bother an old buck?” He said, turning to retreat into his shack. However Sunny had crept behind him and blocked his way.

“We don’t mean to bother, we just have some questions.” Sunny kicked the door to Whistler’s shack closed with a metallic clang.

“Like say, where one would go to meet Mr. Coal.” I said, rolling my hoof, trying to coax him into an answer.

“Nowhere.” Whistler answered defiantly. “He’s become a bit of a recluse you understand, doesn’t come out t’ mingle with the rabble anymore. Works through mediators.”

“Alright then, where can I find them?”

“Yer already doing a fine job at that.”

“What do you mean?

“Keep asking questions and I’m sure one will find you. Now if you’ll excuse me.” This time he took the initiative and slowly pushed Sunny out of his way, she offered no resistance. Whistler retreated into his shack, leaving us with barely more than we arrived with water withstanding.

“Now what?” Aurora asked, arching an eyebrow at the encounter she’d just witnessed.

“I suppose we keep asking around. Though I think we can safely say that Mr. Coal isn’t an altruist.”

“A what?” Aurora asked, wrinkling her nose at the word.

“Somepony who looks out for the little ponies.” Sunny answered for me, she better fit that bill after all.

After we left the water shed behind we traveled about the rest of Moletown over the next few hours and every time we brought up Mr. Coal older ponies would shy away and act strange like Whistler had. Others of younger generations simply stated that he led the town and nothing more. What secrets was Moletown hiding? Just when we thought our search was going nowhere, just as Whistler said, somepony found us. A pony wearing a hood and mask that covered his face approached us from a dark alley.

“You da ones asking all da questions about Mr. Coal?” He asked in a heavy accent.

“What’s it to you?” I said harshly, trying not to sound too eager.

“Da squeaky wheel get da oil as dey say, him wishes to meet wit you.”

“Well…where do we go from here?” I asked.

“Oh no, you misunderstand me.” In a heartbeat he had thrown some kind of dust into all of our faces. I sputtered for but a second before black flooded my vision and I lost consciousness.

The room I awoke in was the very definition of nondescript. It was a long empty room with no windows, only a set of stairs going up directly opposite me. To my left and right were Sunny and Aurora, tied to their chairs just as I was. In front of us was a bare wooden table with nothing on it, a chair sat in front of it on the opposite side from us. I struggled against my bonds to no avail. Sunny and Aurora were still unconscious when I heard the sound of hoof steps approaching. Slowly cantering down the stairs were two ponies. One in a dark trench coat wearing a fedora hat and the other one was our hood wearing assailant. The one wearing the hat casually tossed it off his head and onto the table, revealing that he was a ghoul.

“Well well.” He started in the rough voice all his kind shared. “My associate here says you’ve been askin’ bout me all over town. Says you even gave ol’ Whistler a pretty good shakedown.”

“Mr. Coal I presume?” I said bitterly, scowling at him.

“In the rotting flesh.” He said with a smile. “The way my associate here tells it, you and your mares are pretty smart ponies. Youre right, I am searching for something in the Baltimare underground.”

“So is that why you have us tied up? Cuz we figured out your plan?”

“Quite the opposite really. I know from your interaction with Grizela that you didn’t come here looking for work or to benefit from the expedition. No something else brought you to my town.” He stood up from his chair and started to circle the table. “But that doesn’t matter to me. What does matter is the reason behind the expedition. I’d like to offer you a job.”

“Are you serious? You foalnapped me and now you want to hire me?”

“If nopony going with the expedition knows what I want then how can I expect them to look for it? I’ve spent too many years searching to be waylaid any longer by subtlety. You have made yourself seem the resourceful type and I’m going to take advantage of that.”

“What makes you think I’m going to consider any job you offer me?” I asked. His intentions were a mystery to me but if I played the situation right then he might spill his secrets.

“Maybe offer was too polite a word. The answer is simple my naïve friend. I’m not giving you a choice. You work for me now and you will do so until I release you.” He looked to his associate and clopped his hooves together.

The other pony nodded and removed his hood, revealing that he was in fact a zebra. He moved towards us and grabbed the chair in which Aurora sat.

“Or I will take your family from you.” Mr. Coal finished in a low, threatening tone. The zebra took Aurora’s chair in his teeth and began dragging it towards the stairs.

“Don’t you dare touch her! You hear me you stripped-” I was interrupted by a hard slap across the face.

“Don’t waste your breath. They’ll be out for at least another two hours.” He continued to circle my chair as he spoke, like a predator toying with its prey. “My associate is quite gifted in zebra alchemy. That powder he carries is rather impressive don’t you think? A small dose can render a full-grown pony unconscious for a few hours, a day or more with a large dose, any more than that though and things start to shut down. What a terrible fate it would be to suffocate while you dream.”

“I…I understand.” I said, fearing his implication.

“Good to see you’ve decided to be more agreeable. As you know I’m searching for something hidden away in the tunnels and the source of the clean water is the key! Not out of curiosity or something so trivial. No…I already know where it comes from. I just can’t find it! Its eluded me for decades, all you fucking wastelanders are too weak or stupid to get through the tunnels without dying!” He shouted at me, losing his composure for a moment. He took a step back and smoothed out his coat and what remained of his mane. “Thus the expedition was born. If I send you in with that mass then surely, regardless of the danger, I’ll find what I’m looking for.”

“Why me?”

“Do you think me a fool? I see that Stable-Tec device on your leg. You’re a stable dweller, you’re just what I need to find it.”

It took me a moment to realize what he meant, the clean water made me think of my stable, because it came from one.

“Y-you’re looking for a Stable.” I managed to spit out, my voice just above a whisper.

“Yes…one I’ve been searching almost forty years for. You’re going to find it for me”

The zebra came back into the room and repeated his process with Sunny’s chair.

“W-wait! I need her, she can help me find the Stable!” I tried to reason with him, but he would hear none of it.

“I only need one PipBuck, besides you’ll be more motivated this way. Call it extra insurance for your cooperation.”

“You…bastard.”

“We all have things we desire.” He continued, ignoring the weak insult I’d sent his way. “Some of us seek to get them using any means necessary. You should be thinking the same thing if you want to see them again.”

He had me right where he wanted me. My only choice was to do what he said and hope he kept his word. Something else began to creep into my mind. Fear. Not just the fear that I’d never see them again but the fear of being alone. I hadn’t been alone in the wasteland since the day I left Stable 63. I always had somepony by my side. Sunny, Grim, Aurora, hell even Dusty. That thought alone shook me to my core, never had I felt so helpless since that first night in Black Town.

“My associate will be accompanying you to ensure you don’t stray too far from the path. He will return you to the streets and bring you back here should you succeed.” He was already on the stairs by the time he finished. I watched the stairs for a few minutes after Mr. Coal left, waiting for his associate to return yet I never saw him. Didn’t mean he wasn’t there though. I felt somepony grab my chair and I was thrown to the floor. Standing over me was the zebra with a sadistic look of glee in his eyes. His expression was enhanced by the many beaded accessories and zebra fetishes in his long mane styled into dreadlocks. He leaned in close and smiled.

“Dey call me Mr. Sunshine…” He said in his heavily accented voice.

I wasn’t given a chance to respond as I felt another cloud of powder hit me in the face where unconsciousness took me once again.

“Do you see what this is costing you? How much will it take until you realize this is wrong?” The sound of Winter’s voice echoed through the hell that was the void in my mind. “When everypony you care about is dead then what will you do!?”

“The same thing I’m doing for you. I’ll avenge them or die trying.”

“No…vengeance only puts you and those around you at risk. You can’t do that to them for my sake.”

“You can’t understand what I’m feeling Winter. I need to do this for my sake as well as yours.”

“I understand well enough, if-”

“No Winter, you don’t understand! You don’t know the pain I feel, the feelings that keep me awake at night or haunt my every waking moment!”

“You don’t think I feel the same way? I know what you’re going through Sparks, better than you might think.”

“No you don’t. You’re dead…and…a-and I’m not.” We both took a step back away from each other, however we continued to glide further and further away. The void put so much distance between us that I could no longer see her.

“You aren’t real…” I whispered. I felt a single tear roll down my cheek and watched it disappear into the darkness below me.

I was jolted awake by a cold liquid being dumped on my head. I was on my hooves in a flash with my gun drawn. I spun in a quick circle to survey my surroundings. When I realized I wasn’t in any danger I sighed and holstered my weapon. In my heart I had hoped that I had dreamt the whole experience but the absence of Sunny and Aurora told me otherwise.

“You got a few hours before da expedition. Better ready yourself.” I heard the deep voice of Mr. Sunshine from every direction at once. I supposed it was too much to hope that he’d be accompanying me in a normal fashion. Confident the zebra that was to be my shadow would follow, I made my way back to the Rusty Talon. I hoped that I’d still be able to find a certain griffin there.

The rowdy nature of the Rusty Talon’s clientele was evident before I even got close. Just like the last time I was here. I headed up the ramp to the entrance and threw open the door, scanning the crowd for a certain blued headed griffin. According to Mr. Sunshine, Mr. Coal had kept me for at least a day so I had missed our scheduling meeting time, that is if she ever intended to show up in the first place. I slowly approached the bar where Grizela was both surprised and relieved to see me.

“Good to see you’re still alive, I’d have hated to leave you behind.”

“Yeah…I wouldn’t miss it.” I said, trying to muster some enthusiasm.

“Did you find anything on Mr. Coal?”

“Like you wouldn’t believe.” I said sarcastically. I felt something metal touch the back of my head. I had to assume Mr. Sunshine had the same kind of stealth cloak that the other zebra that attacked us had. With a gun pressed to my skull I tried to steer the conversation elsewhere.

“I uh…didn’t have enough time to look, Perhaps we can talk about this after the expedition?”

“Confident you’ll be coming back eh? Well we do have a lot of bodies.” Grizela looked around the room. I followed her gaze and saw that there weren’t just the unruly types I had seen before but a large number of rougher looking ponies, griffins and even zebras wearing all varieties of armor and carrying all kinds of weaponry. I hoped we’d be able to clear out whatever awaited us because I didn’t think I’d be finding my way to the Eclipse complex with Mr. Sunshine shadowing me.

“Hey Grizela? Have you seen Azura since I was here last?” I asked, truly hoping I could sway her to come with me.

“She was actually looking for you the other day after you left. I think she’s guarding the east metro tunnel just outside town. If you want to bring her along you’d better go collect her, I’m just about ready to get this show on the road.”

“I think I might just do that, thanks Grizela.” I promptly left the bar and trotted back the way we initially came in. I kept my speed up to try and shake Mr. Sunshine but was instead rewarded with a heavy shove. My body hit the wall and he appeared in front of me, his hoof holding me against the wall.

“What do you tink you’re doing?” He said with an accusing tone.

“I’m recruiting some help since your boss denied me my ally.” I spat back.

“I don’t tink so. You are in Mr. Coal’s employ. Only you may know da truth.”

“I have no intention of telling anypony. Just some extra eyes to cover my back. I can’t count on you for help after all. Think about it, you need my PipBuck. If I die because somepony wasn’t covering me, then what? You slink back to Mr. Coal empty hoofed or meet your fate with me in the tunnels.” He didn’t like the implication at all. He snorted angrily and hit the wall just next to my head, missing it by a hair.

“You dare to imply I am weak? Even if you fail, I will survive. If you fall den your mare will take your place. You are valuable to Mr. Coal but you are also disposable.” He pulled back both his hooves and turned his back on me. “Go find your help but don’t forget, I am watching you. If you reveal the truth…”

“Yeah I understand.” I said dejectedly. I didn’t fear what would happen to me. I feared for my family. I had no idea where they were in this hellhole so I wouldn’t do anything to put them at risk. With my actions permitted I continued on my path to the east tunnel just outside Moletown. Once the guards opened the gate for me I returned to where I had met Azura. The first thing I saw was the blue of her fringe, confirming that it was indeed her. I trotted over to her and got her attention.

“Hey Azura? Can I talk to you for a moment?”

“Hmm?” She turned around and looked at me from her guard post. “O-oh. You’re that guy that…” She seemed a little flustered by my being there. She took a moment to whisper something to the other pony up on the guard post. She unfurled her wings and glided down, landing beside me.

“Still interested in joining me for the expedition?” I asked, perhaps a tad too eagerly. I was desperate for her to come with me. The earlier fear of being alone was starting to creep back to the forefront of my mind. The fear of her rejecting the offer didn’t help the anxiety that was building inside me.

“I-I thought you changed your mind. I couldn’t find you at Grizela’s and…This is so strange, I don’t even know your name.”

“Oh m-my name is Sparks.” I started walking towards what looked like an outhouse, hoping she’d follow me to continue talking.

“Well thank you for the offer Sparks.” She said, following after me slowly. “But I just don’t know…didn’t you have a mare with you before?”

I ignored her question and shoved her into the outhouse, turning on the radio function on my PipBuck and turning up the volume as loud as I could.

“What are you-” she started before I pressed a hoof to her beak to silence her. She didn’t protest any further or try to fight back as she saw the panicked look in my eyes. I pulled my hoof away and leaned in close, practically touching my muzzle to her beak.

“Mr. Coal has my family and I really need your help, please come with me.” I whispered as fast as I could. I saw a small blush on her face from our closeness but after a rapid double take she seemed to understand what I was asking of her “Now follow my lead and I’m sorry.”

“What lead? Sorry for wha-Mmph!” She was silenced as I pressed my lips against her beak. I hated that I had to do this to her but I needed to find some way to convince Mr. Sunshine that I hadn’t told her anything. In response I felt her body tense up, threatening to break the façade. To keep the illusion I threw myself backwards and out of the door, dragging Azura along with me. When we landed she was on top of me and only then did our kiss break. She lifted her head, the blush on her face so bright that it almost gave off light. Not that I was faring any better. From somewhere behind me I heard a long whistle.

“Wooo! Way to go Azura, that’s how you bag a stallion!” The pony from the guard post, whom I now noticed to be an older mare, called out to us. “I can solo the rest of guard duty. You go on and enjoy yourself with your coltfriend.” She gave us a wink and turned back to her duties.

“T-thanks Candy.” Azura barely managed to stutter out. She stood quickly and pulled me to my hooves, shoving me back towards the entrance to Moletown.

As we headed back towards the Rusty Talon in silence, I noticed in more detail what Azura was working with. Her weapons! I meant her weapons…Anyway she seemed to be like me, preferring a pistol as her prime weapon. On her left hip was a heavy looking revolver and on her right was a medium sized curved knife. I supposed that her armament fit her size as she was a bit smaller than the average griffin. As we approached the Rusty Talon we could see the large crowd of everyone gathered just outside with Grizela perched on top of the establishment trying to get all of their attention. She settled for the classic and fired her sawed-off shotgun into the roof.

“Alright you lot listen up!” We all shut up and stood still, our focus drawn to the griffin on the roof. “You are all here to assist Moletown in expanding its borders. Once we get down into the tunnels, don’t wander off. If you do, go in teams of no less than three. If you find any creatures, kill them. If you come across any hazards, report them to the group. Our goal is to push until we reach the next metro station.”

I looked around the crowd and saw that the expedition had drawn at least twenty-six eager treasure hunters or mercenaries. I had mixed feelings rolling around in my gut. On one hoof I was relieved at the number we had. On the other…even Mr. Coal was cautious of what lurked below. I’m not going to lie, I was nervous. Too much was riding on this expedition. Sunny and Aurora, the location of Eclipse, and possibly my life.

“Stick together if possible and remember communication is key. Take these ten minutes to collect yourself and your equipment or to puss out if you don’t have the stones.” Grizela turned away from the crowd and presumably disappeared back into the Rusty Talon. I took her advice and tried to come to grips with what was happening. Could I really trust Azura? She seemed willing to help me at least. She deserved a chance especially considering the alternative. The biggest obstacle was going to be the communication barrier. Since Mr. Sunshine hadn’t intervened I assumed he didn’t hear what I said to Azura in the outhouse. Maybe he wasn’t as skilled as he wanted me to believe. Perhaps we wasn’t even going to follow me into the tunnels. He just wanted me to think that so I wouldn’t stray from the job. Regardless I couldn’t afford to cross him or Mr. Coal…not yet.

I scrolled through my PipBuck’s sorting spell to see that nothing had been taken when Mr. Sunshine captured me. I suppose an unarmed agent wasn’t a very useful one, even with the resourcefulness they claimed I possessed. Grizela threw open the doors to the Rusty Talon ready to go. She had quite the impressive bit of gear. She wore what looked like the metal shell of a salvaged suit of power armor with a mounted battle saddle. On one side was a heavy machine gun and a flamethrower on the other. In addition to her integrated weaponry, she had two holstered sub-machine guns on her hind legs. She made one hell of an impression and I could feel my confidence return a bit with her at the helm.

“You ready partner?” I heard the voice of Azura ask from beside me. I was putting a lot of faith in her even though we hardly knew each other. She didn’t refuse when I asked her for help even though she owed me nothing. With that in mind I found enough resolve to calm my nerves. I smiled and nodded.

“Ready.”

Grizela walked to the front of the expedition and took charge.

“Alright let’s move out!” We fell in line behind her and followed her to the tunnels near Whistler’s shack. When we finally came to stand in front of the tunnel that we were to delve into, we all froze. Nothing about it felt right. Even the air somehow tasted wrong. What in the hell could be down there? Without a hint of fear, Grizela ignored the frightening atmosphere and marched head first into the darkness of the tunnel. I had no choice, I couldn’t back out now and to prove that to myself I forced my hooves to carry me to be the first to follow behind her. Azura quickly followed after me. The tunnel was just wide enough to barely allow the three of us to stand side by side, up ahead the tunnel began to incline downwards. I had my E.F.S up, carefully looking around for any sign of hostiles. I took a risk at trying to explain myself to Azura, if Mr. Sunshine was still following us I had a bit of a window before he could catch up to us.

“Azur-”

“Why did you kiss me before?” She asked before I could finish my sentence.

“Well…I um needed to create a distraction.” I said a little too quickly. “Mr. Coal has graciously provided me an escort and if he thought I was trying to tell you something then…my family.”

“I understand.” She said softly.

“I’m sorry I pulled you into this…and for earlier.” I heard the sound of many bodies filing into the tunnel behind us, whoever had lights turning them on.

“Don’t worry about it, if I was afraid to help you I wouldn’t be here now.”

“I’m glad you said that. I was hoping to catch him somewhere down here and take him out. Can I trust you to have my back?”

Azura scoffed and gave me a cocky grin. “You think I’d be here otherwise?”

That was good enough for me. The air in the tunnel gradually grew thicker with moisture and strange smells of decay. After fifteen minutes of walking we saw that the tunnel itself led into a large circular room that held a number of interconnecting train tracks and rotating platforms for redirecting trains to the proper lines. It was easy to see why nopony had come back alive before once we were inside. All around us were old bodies in many states of decay. With the spectrum widening from full skeletons to a jawless skull shoved into the ribcage of somepony else. Many others had suffered wounds that had either severed through bone or smashed them to bits. Many of us were on edge now seeing the numerous bodies and aged patches of black blood. There was no sign of what had done this to them. Leaving our imaginations to theorize what lurked further in.

“Alright fan out and secure this area!” Grizela shouted. She and the other griffins that came took to the air to have a better look. The rest of us split into groups of three or two to better cover the ground. Azura thankfully opted to stay with me instead of joining the others in the air. As we came to a platform that held a track inlaid into a bridge we saw the first signs of trouble. In the darkness below the platform were three large holes that had been dug up through the concrete floor.

“Something’s dug through the floor over here! Keep an eye out for more!” I shouted to the spread out gathering. I couldn’t tell how long the holes had been there but one thing was certain, this room was a killing floor. It was getting harder and harder to use E.F.S as the number of blips on the compass were starting to overlap each other.

“What do you think made those holes?” Azura asked, pointing at a few more further down the track.

“I have no idea. I haven’t encountered any kind of creature that burrows like that.”

“We should see if any of these exits lead to-” Before she could finish her sentence the sound of gunfire rang out from the other side of the room. What followed was the pinnacle of what the wasteland had to offer. Screams of terror came after the gunshots only to be followed by the cessation of the screaming and the sound of blood hitting the floor. Absurd amounts of blood. Down where the shooting started I could see ponies that had been cut in half fly through the air, hitting the floor with wet smacks.

“Hellhounds!” Somepony yelled as huge monsters leapt out of the floor in clouds of dirt and dust. Many came up directly under somepony, lashing out with their large claws and severing skin, muscle and bone like their armor wasn’t even there. Before even thirty seconds had passed nine members of the expedition had been killed. The griffins in the air circled around raining bullets into the Hellhounds with each pass. I broke into a gallop and made for the platform control station in the center of the room. Azura followed behind me, laying down covering fire in the path behind us. One erupted from the floor in front of me, bearing down on me with its fanged maw and its lethal claws. These creatures were at least double my height, with long arms ending in long clawed hands. They must have used their claws to dig all those holes we found, these things had to be incredibly strong to do such a thing. The realization of how deadly these creatures were froze me in place, the one in front of me getting ready to rake its claws through me. Instinct took control of my body and without thinking my gun floated in front of me and began firing. The rounds from my pistol barely penetrated the Hellhounds hide, only aggravating it more and more. It roared and lunged at me, claw raised to strike. Azura came flying in from the side, using her momentum to carve a line up its face with her knife. The hellhound yelped in pain and brought its claws to its face, trying to keep the blood out of its eyes as it tried to lash out blindly at us. I jumped to the floor, sliding through its hind legs, and continued to the control station. Just as we had reached the door we heard something dreadful. Somepony had fired a rocket and it missed its target, colliding with the ceiling. The concrete roof of the station began to crack and large chunks began falling loose from their rebar frames. One piece fell and smashed the blinded Hellhound with bone crushing force. However the more chunks that fell loose the more the ceiling’s integrity weakened. Soon the whole room was shaking with the threat of a complete collapse.

“Get inside now!” I yelled to anypony who could hear me. Azura and I flung the door open and dove into the control center. To our surprise there was a metal hatch in the floor. Without any other option we unfastened the wheel on the hatch and began climbing down the ladder that was inside. Thankfully I could see a few blips join us on the ladder as we continued our descent. From above we could hear and feel the tremors of the rest of the ceiling giving way and collapsing. All at once every blip on My E.F.S, save the ones on the ladder with me, vanished. We kept on climbing until we reached the bottom. I let go of the ladder and looked around. We were in the start of a single corridor leading forward. There was the orange glow of hazard lights coming from the the roof of the corridor. After the last of the survivors gathered around the ladder I was amazed to see how many were left. Other than Grizela, Azura and I there were four others. That left seven of twenty-six. Two thirds of the expedition had been lost. Some killed by the Hellhounds and others by the collapse.

“I didn’t sign up for no fucking deathtrap!” A purple earth pony mare with orange mane yelled, seeing the corridor that waited before us.

“What the fuck did you think you signed up for then Gunny? Don’t go and lose your shit now.” A rough, grey, earth pony stallion with black mane said back to her.

“Fuck you Basalt! Did you see what was out there?!” She got in his face and pointed up the ladder. “Those were Hellhounds! We’re lucky, beyond lucky to be alive right now so don’t act so fucking casual!”

“Easy now, we can’t go at each other’s throats otherwise we’re all dead.” Grizela stepped in between the two. “No one could have expected Hellhounds. Be thankful that you’re alive and let’s move on.”

The other two, pink unicorn mares, who looked like twins said nothing. With the situation diffused for now Grizela pressed on down the corridor. Her steel spirit was admirable even in the face of what just happened. It was a strength to latch on to as I found myself following behind her almost immediately. I hoped that wherever this corridor led had an exit of some kind. Dying of thirst in an underground tomb was something I wanted to avoid. Even though it killed so many I was a little thankful for the roof caving in. There wasn’t a whole lot of maneuvering room on the ladder so the odds that Mr. Sunshine was killed or at least separated by the collapse were very good, if he even came at all. The corridor came to an end at a large service elevator and by the look of the cables it was capable of both vertical and horizontal transportation.

“Anypony good with machines?” the pony known as Basalt asked.

“Yeah, lemme take a look at it.” I said trotting forward to investigate the elevator. The first thing I noticed was a small console seated on the elevator itself. On the side of the console was a card reader and an idea bloomed in my mind.

“Everypony on the elevator, I have an idea.”

They did as I asked but still looked apprehensive.

“You sure you know what you’re doing?” the mare called Gunny asked.

“Nope.” I retrieved and swiped the card Blood Orange gave me. I stumbled as the elevator jerked to the side, sliding quickly along the track, stopping at regular intervals and shifting direction. Just what kind of underground did the ponies here build? Eventually we were brought to a similar station like the one Moletown was built into sans the stairs and walkways that led to the surface. In fact the only thing here was a single track holding a sleek black train.

“Where did you take us? Weren’t we supposed to go to back up?” One of the twins asked. Her voice betraying the fear she felt. I on the other hoof would not be swayed as I spotted the starburst symbol that was on the access card on the side of the train.

“Then I’m sure you could take it there. I found what I was looking for.” I boldly stepped towards the loading platform and off of the elevator. I stopped halfway to the train and turned around to the gathering still debating amongst each other on the elevator.

“Azura…I would still really appreciate your help.” I asked hoping that for some reason I could sway her to join me.

“Sparks…you took us here on purpose didn’t you? Is this about Mr. Coal?”

I nodded halfheartedly. “Yes and no.” A part of me hoped with all my being that the Eclipse Complex was what Mr. Coal was searching for, otherwise I was about to abandon my family to settle my own vendetta. “I could still use the help though if you’re interested.” I tried to sound as calm as possible but the impending realization that I might have to face Chestnut alone and the dissonance in my heart made my whole body shiver.

“Where does this train lead exactly?” Grizela asked, stepping off the elevator.

“Grizela are you crazy!?” The other pink twin asked. “Everypony is dead and you want to keep going?”

“Gumball, Gumdrop.” She turned, facing the twins. “If we don’t keep moving forward…then what? Do you want all those people to have died for nothing? If we retreat right now then the expedition would have been a costly failure. I won’t go back empty taloned.”

The twins shared a glance between themselves and wordlessly joined Grizela on the loading platform.

“I’m in.” Basalt said, walking off the elevator towards me.

“Basalt are you fucking kidding me right now?! I’m not going with you.” Gunny yelled from the elevator. Basalt scoffed and smiled a suave smile.

“Who’re you kidding Gunny? You wish you could quit me.” He winked at her like he knew what was going to happen. Gunny slowly walked off the elevator and stood by Basalt.

“I knew you wouldn’t leave me.” The smug air radiating from his words was almost comical.

“Fuck you.” Gunny spat back, trying to hide her face from him.

“Only if you’re a good girl.” He smiled back. Grizela needed no convincing and was already halfway across the room, taking a cursory look around the train.

“That just leaves you Azura.” I said, walking back up to the elevator, stopping just in front of it. “Whaddya say? Will you help me?” I gave her a look I haven’t given anypony since Winter died. A look of pleading.

“Not until you tell me what this is all about.” She jabbed me in the chest with an accusatory talon.

I sighed and levitated out the access card. “This train leads to a place called the Eclipse complex. A pony I've been tracking for a month is in there and I’m going to kill him. I took advantage of the expedition to get me this far.” I said, looking back at the others, feeling a little guilty. “Even took advantage of you by bringing you along.” I mumbled.

“What about your family? Doesn’t Mr. Coal have them?”

“He wouldn’t dare do anything to them. He needs me to get what he wants. I’m positive I can find what he’s looking for at the complex.” It was the greatest bluff of my life and I didn’t buy it for one second. I had no choice but to believe my own words. They were all I had to try and abate the new fears that were creeping into my being. I never was a very convincing speaker. “If you want to leave I won’t stop you but I can’t let him get away…not again.” I turned my back on the elevator and started heading towards the train to join Grizela and the others.

“What did she say about Mr. Coal? He has your family? Scars and the filly?” Grizela asked from atop the train.

“Yeah, turns out he didn’t like being asked about. Sorry I didn’t say anything before but he had his enforcer shadowing me and I couldn’t risk saying anything, not while I was still in Moletown.”

“Hmm, we can talk about that once we get out of here. Let’s go get your guy and loot this complex.”

“Sounds good to me.” From behind me I could hear the sound of the elevator moving again. I looked to see one rider ascending back up along the rails before disappearing out of sight. I couldn’t blame her for her decision. I wasn’t exactly as honest as I could have been with her. I might have left too were I in her place.

“Alright guys, load up and let’s get this train moving.” I tapped a panel on the side of the train, opening all the doors to the inside. We all filed in rather quickly, the others taking their seats as I headed for the controls. The whole of the train as well as the control panel itself were in amazing condition. I guess if you dig deep enough even the fallout from the bombs couldn’t reach. The panel glowed with life, eagerly awaiting its next destination. Set in the center of the controls was another card reader. I had more backup than I had expected initially, so why did I still feel alone? Maybe because Sunny supported me unquestionably and without her my own confidence was hard to find. I wasn’t prepared to tackle the Eclipse alone, maybe it was better that way as it was my own demons I was chasing. Even though they wanted to help me however they could, could I really ask them to take that risk solely for my benefit? It didn’t matter now. I had already put us on this path and now they weren’t here, but I was. It was time to put an end to it. I floated the card in my magic and stuck it into the card reader. All at once the train shook, life coursing through its systems in the form of electricity. Without any other directions the train started moving, as if it had made this journey many times before. As we moved along the track, the train came to a stop along regular intervals of closed doors that, after what were presumably authorization checks, opened for us. Whoever built or ran the Eclipse complex really didn’t want any unauthorized entry. Did a ministry build this place? A private company? What kind of secrets did it hold and how was Chestnut abusing them? Did he even know what he had? Questions that would soon see answers as the train pulled into the last stop, the tracks ending here. Off of the boarding platform was a single door that presumably led into the facility proper. Sleeping just in front of the door was one of Chestnut’s raiders. I doubt anypony expected trouble to come from this direction seeing that Blood Orange was the only one to possess the key card required. Everypony got off the train and carefully fanned out to have a look around. That left me staring down at the sleeping raider. I carefully crept up to him, levitating out hearts promise as I neared. Rather than let my thoughts or feelings dictate what I was doing, I simply imagined Chestnut before me and plunged the horn knife into his temple. His eyes shot open for the briefest of seconds before his body registered his death. I wrenched the knife from his head and returned it to its sheath. The door itself had no visible card reader or button to open it, rather it hissed open and retracted into the ceiling when I got close. It seemed that the ponies who built this place were just as sure nopony would get as far as I did without proper clearance but that only made my job easier. I gave a quick whistle to everypony, signaling that the door was open.

“What’s inside exactly?” Grizela asked from beside me.

“I have no idea. The mare who told me about this place didn’t give me much to go on before she died.”

“Pre-war ponies sure did love their secrets didn’t they?”

She was right about that. It seemed like every big project old Equestria was working on was secret even though they could have saved us from devastation. Or maybe nothing could have stopped it. Would revealing the tools of destruction we had really have made a difference? My time was wasted on these thoughts, no matter what I thought of in hindsight the world was already destroyed and there was nothing I could do to change it. I could only adapt to it, to try and survive the result of the mistakes of others.

“Let’s head in but be cautious, we have no idea what’s waiting for us.” I said, taking the first wary step across the threshold. My PipBuck helpfully chimed, marking the Eclipse complex on my map. The hallway the door led to almost reminded me of the inside of a stable. Everything was reasonably clean, all the lights were on and working. The only thing that stood out was the shift in color scheme. While stables were predominantly grey and blue, the hallways of Eclipse were black and red.

“Gumball, Gumdrop scout ahead for us would you?” Grizela whispered behind her. I turned just in time to see them both nod and vanish. Where were all these ponies and zebras getting this stealth technology? Perhaps from the Baltimare ruins as I had only explored the mortuary and the sacked museum of technology thus far. I wondered just how large this complex was as we rounded a corner into another hallway with many doors dotted on either side. A white sign attached to the ceiling at the start of the hallway was labeled ‘Living Quarters’. Before the realization could hit me one of the doors opened and three ponies in raider armor walked out, one stallion and two mares who looked to have just finished a drug fueled roll in the hay. They made it a few steps before they saw us and their eyes went wide. As the stallion made for his weapon, one of the twins became visible behind him and slit his throat with a knife. Blood spurted out of his neck, coating the two mares as they screamed in horror. One of them grabbed the stallion’s weapon and managed to get a shot off before the other twin appeared and bashed her over the head with the butt of her rifle. The one shot ricocheted off the wall before coming to a stop in the last mare’s leg. She fell to the floor and was silenced by one twin while the other jammed her knife through her eye, killing her. One of the twins smiled as she faced us.

“The way is clear boss.”

The victory was short lived as several doors in the hall opened. One pony in particular I recognized. A bulky dark green earth pony stallion. Slash was his name…he was there with Blood Orange that night. He helped create some of the worst days of my life.

“What the fuck is goin’ on out here?” He barked, halfway out the door. To their misfortune the door he came from just happened to be right across from the twins. His eyes went wide and lips curled back in a vicious snarl. He charged the twins, catching them both under their jaws, pushing them all the way until he had them pinned to the adjacent wall. The commotion drew more raides from their rooms and when they took notice of us the guns came out. We had no cover so I threw up a wide shield and positioned it in front of us. Gunny and Grizela clung to both sides of my shield, popping out and firing their weapons when they could. Basalt on the other hoof injected himself with two syringes and let out an almost primal growl of fury. He charged past my shield and dove into the wall of raiders that filed out into the hallway. We couldn’t do anything to save the twins, we might have hit them with stray shots. One of them had managed to wiggle enough to get a clumsy kick to his jaw causing him to drop her. However his hold on the other persisted and was empowered by adding his other hoof to her throat. I moved as fast as I could but the hail of bullets impacting my shield kept my pace slow and my focus occupied. The pinned twin started frothing at the mouth and her eyes were bulging out of her head, Slash’s grip squeezing the life out of her.

“Noooo!” The other twin cried. She stabbed Slash in the barrel over and over again but his hold did not falter. With one final burst of strength, Slash wrenched her head to the side, crushing her throat and breaking her neck with a wet crunch. The rest of us had pushed down far enough into the hallway that we could take cover in the first few rooms to the left and right. Slash was not done with the twins, using his enormous strength he delivered a heavy back hoof to her face, sending her sliding to the foot of the door he came out of. Before Slash could finish her I enveloped her in a bubble shield while simultaneously levitating her dropped knife from the floor and flinging it hard as I could at the back of his head. It failed to penetrate his thick skull but succeeded in getting his attention.

“You.” He hissed, clearly recognizing me. “You should have accepted your fate and stayed out of it.”

“I’ve already killed Blood Orange and now I’m gonna kill you, then your boss is next!” I pulled the surviving twin away from where she lied and into the room were Grizela grabbed her out my telekinesis. Basalt was still tearing through the raiders down the hall from Slash and us. But if I was going to do this, I had to do it myself.

“Grizela, Gunny, go help Basalt. Leave him to me.” I pointed at Slash, narrowing my eyes in anger. All my despair and sadness was turned into rage. Rage at my loss, rage at him, rage that my family wasn’t here and rage at the one behind it all.

“I’d love to see you try, go ahead, go help that doped up idiot. I’m going to kill you and Chestnut isn’t here to stop me this time.”

It was now or never. Just as he finished talking I fired a lightning bolt from my horn, hitting him directly in the chest. He staggered back but did not fall. He picked up the knife dropped by the twin and rushed towards me, barely sidestepping a second lightning bolt. I tried to get my pistol lined up in his path but he got up to me before I could fire. He slapped my pistol out of my magical grasp and slashed the knife across my chest, his strength cutting through my armor and hitting flesh. Searing pain radiated out from the cut all across my body. I grabbed hearts promise in my teeth, barely getting it out in time to deflect an incoming stab and retaliate with one of my own. I was rewarded with the warm splash of blood on my coat. Slash didn’t seem fazed by the wound and shoved me into the wall, knocking the horn knife from my mouth. He grabbed me on either side and prepared to do to me what he did to the twin. My lungs started to burn and my heart was beating rapidly while Slash tightened his grip around my neck. As dots began to form on the edges of my vision I reached out and grabbed hearts promise with magic, levitating it behind him. I drove it into his withers and focused a lightning spell into it. It almost backfired on me as the tightening of muscles forced his grip to tighten even further but it didn’t last long as he collapsed on the floor, struggling to try and stand. I also fell to the floor, drawing in a huge breath giving precious air to my lungs. I looked to Slash on the floor and levitated hearts promise out of his back and plunged it back in again and again. He cried out with every new stab and I didn’t stop until I felt it hit bone. It was clear to me that he wouldn’t be getting to his hooves after an assault like that. Blood flowed from the many stab wounds and his breathing was growing labored.

“Please…” He managed to croak out. “D-don’t kill me.”

“Funny, this scene seems familiar to me.” I struggled to catch my breath as I retrieved my pistol with magic. “But how did it end again?" I paused to take in several deep breaths. "Oh yeah.” I pressed the gun to the side of his head and fired three bullets into his brain. Now only Chestnut remained. I didn’t know how many ponies he had at his disposal after a month but we had this area cleared out for now. I turned my attention down the hall to see Grizela and Gunny trying to get Basalt on his hooves. By the looks of it he really got messed up by those raiders while he was rampaging through them. At least it seemed the drugs had worn off but they were taking their toll in spades. I made my way over to them to get a better look.

“Is he going to make it?” I asked. The answer was obvious given how many wounds he had sustained but if I lost hope then I might as well have stayed in the Crater.

“Unlikely unless this place has an auto-doc.”

Gunny was kneeling down next to him, tears welling up in her eyes.

“You can’t d-die on me now Basalt…who’s going to watch my back? Please don’t die!” She wept at his side. Basalt actually managed to smile and laugh which turned into a hacking cough. Yet his smile never faded.

“You…always did think that…you were the boss…of me…” He chuckled softly one last time and his eyes slowly drifted shut. His marker on my E.F.S blinked out and was gone. Despite her loss Gunny managed to keep her grief restrained to a degree as she collapsed onto his chest and cried quietly. I knew how it felt to lose a loved one. I silently nodded to her and left her to grieve, instead opting to check on the surviving twin...guess I couldn’t call her that anymore. A slow trickle of blood leaked from her mouth and nose but there was no other damage beyond that, she was just unconscious. If I had been concerned before that the ones who came along were solely motivated by self-serving interests, seeing them now put those worries to rest. I gently tried to shake her awake. After a moment her eyes fluttered open, a low moan escaping her lips. Then all at once she remembered what had transpired, snapping upright immediately.

“Gumball!” She screamed. She stood and tried to run out into the hall but she stumbled and returned to the floor. I trotted over to her, laying a hoof on her withers to try and comfort her.

“She’s gone Gumdrop, save your strength.”

She slammed a hoof against the floor and letting out a cry of despair.

“What happened to him? The one who killed her?” She asked, rage building behind her teary eyes.

“I killed him.” I said. I tried to think of something to add that might make her feel a bit better. “It wasn’t painless.” I added.

“Good…thank you.” She carefully got back up and made for the hall. “I need to go to her.”

I nodded in understanding and watched her leave. That left me alone in a room that had certainly belonged to a raider. There were empty inhalers of Dash and empty bullet casing all over the floor. In the corner on a nightstand near the bed I spotted a bottle of apple whiskey. I magically brought it over to me and took a big drink. I felt the satisfying sensation of burning slowly turn to warmth in my core. I was about to make my way back out to join the others when I spotted a twinkle from the corner of my eye. On a dresser along the left wall was a small wooden box full of memory orbs. I levitated the box into my hooves to investigate. There was a piece of tape that had been wrapped around the box with a single word written on it. Spells. I carefully levitated one out, making sure to keep the aura around it and not directed at it. It too had a piece of tape wrapped around it. Before I could read it somepony walked into the room. I couldn’t make out what they had said but it was enough to startle me and make me lose hold of the orb. As it fell to the floor I tried to catch it with magic which, in my haste, sucked me into its contents.

I was standing in a clean environment looking into a mirror. I was in the body of a well-dressed middle-aged unicorn mare. We wore a purple suit that matched well with our blonde mane and white fur. We smiled as soon as we locked eyes with our reflection.

“Hi Maple! Mommy misses you so much! I’m sure your father has already explained that I won’t be making it home for Hearth’s Warming but I’m going to keep my promise and teach you all the spells that I know. Celestia’s School for Gifted Unicorns has a steep entrance exam and if that’s what you want then I’ll help you as best I can. I know you’d rather I teach you face to face but I think that this can work. You will feel everything I feel and then it will be like you have already cast it.”

An interesting idea for sure. I wondered how many other ponies thought about using memory orbs to teach skills. In fact I found myself a little excited. If it was a spell I didn’t already know then this box could prove quite useful. After that thought I found myself a little sad. It looked like whoever’s memories I was riding never got the chance to send the box of orbs to her daughter since I found them here. The joy my host felt for helping her daughter but my knowing that she ran out of time made the scene heartbreaking.

“Alright we’ll start with something easy…let’s try amplification. Do you remember Princess Luna’s ‘Royal Canterlot Voice’? This is what let her do it. This spell can work on any sensory stimuli. A light.” We looked to the right to a desk with a lit candle sitting on it. “Can become a blinding one.” The feeling of magic pouring from our horn resonated in my mind as the flames brightness grew in intensity. As it got unbearably bright, we closed our eyes and the magic flow from our horn ceased and all was normal.

“A smell.” We returned our gaze to the now smoking wick of the candle. “Can become nauseatingly potent.” The same feeling from before radiated out from us and the slight smell of burning candle quickly became as if we were being suffocated by a hundred of them. The feeling was an interesting one. The flow of magic from this spell left a channel of magic constantly rotating from our horn through our brain, as well as a link to the source of our amplification.

“And lastly.” We looked our reflection in the eye and took a big breath, our horn glowing with an orange aura. “SOUND CAN BECOME LOUDER, UP TO DEAFINING VOLUME!” This time the feeling wasn’t as complex as before. The magic flow was directed to our vocal cords making it as if we were speaking through a megaphone. The shape of the magic even took a similar shape, causing our voice to be magically radiated into the funnel shape essentially reintroducing our voice to the air with more power. The magical aura dissipated and we returned our attention to our self.

“I’ll try to do as many of these as I can whenever I have spare time. I’ll teach you some more complex magic when I think you’ll be ready for it. I hope these help sweetie, if you need to you can view this as many times as you want.” We smiled softly and leaned in, giving our own reflection a kiss. We covered a giggle with a hoof and looked into the mirror for a final time.

“I love you Maple Butter. Please be good for your father okay?” with that I could feel my consciousness being pulled from her body as all faded away.

My eyes snapped open to the sound of gunfire as fresh pain lanced through my left hind leg. I was on the floor behind an upturned table with Grizela, Gunny and Gumdrop occasionally popping up and firing on whatever was shooting at us. I struggled to get to my hooves, holding the injured leg off the floor.

“Good you’re back!” Grizela shouted over the noise. “Sorry about the leg, your limp body made for an easy target!”

Nothing could take you out of a memory orb it seemed. What if I had died? I crouched back down and scrolled through my PipBuck, activating the built in sorting spell. Thankfully I found the box of orbs had made it into my bags. Glad whoever startled me into that memory had seen I wanted them.

“What happened!? Where are we!?” I asked, reloading my pistol and loading a round into the chamber.

“We’re in a cafeteria! There were a few in here and the gunfire kept drawing more, we’re pinned here though now we have you back, so start shooting!”

I quickly popped up to get a lay of the battlefield. Most of our attackers were behind similar table walls with several more in the doorway on other side of the exit on the other end of the room. The sign above the doors read ‘Offices’. Nopony was coming from the other two entrances so our path forward was clear, now we just had to clear it. I ducked down just in time to avoid a hail of bullets and prepared for my next attack. I leaned out from behind the table and entered SATS, queuing up as many shots and lightning bolts as I could. When time resumed my shots found homes in the bodies of others, however my lightning bolt missed and hit the center of one of the doors in the doorway, setting it ablaze. As should happen in a facility in this state of repair, sprinklers descended from the roof and began dousing the cafeteria in water. That gave me just the idea I needed.

“Everypony up on the table!” I yelled, pushing the table we were using for cover back to its proper position.

“Are you crazy!” Gunny yelled, taking a bullet to the shoulder in the process.

“Trust me!” I jumped up on the table and held out a hoof to help the others up. A bullet ricocheted off my armor and another bit into my flank. I clenched my teeth and prepared to enact my plan. Once everypony was on the table I wrapped the table in a bubble shield and closed my eyes. The water rolled off my shield in a soothing manner akin to watching a flowing river. Raiders who had been taking cover before were now slowly walking into the cafeteria.

“Great idea jackass! Your shield won’t mean anything against all these ponies!” Gunny shouted into my ear. I ignored her for now and started channeling my next spell.

“I don’t meant to rush you or anything Sparks but if you have a plan ya better do it now!” Grizela was also starting to panic about the bubble I seemingly trapped us in. All of their worries were silenced when they heard the sound of crackling electricity. My horn was wreathed in sparking magic and my shield began to crack like glass against the concentrated fire of the raiders. All at once I dropped the shield and released my magic at the floor. The lightning bolt fired from my horn with a resounding CRACK! Pushing me backwards and almost off the table if Grizela hadn’t caught me. The lightning bolt hit the floor and spread throughout the layer of water on the floor, electrocuting all the raiders in the room. A number of markers on my EFS blinked out entirely yet some others remained. The pain in my leg intensified from the exertion and I found myself out of breath. Grizela helped me down from the table and we started looking around to the dead and still twitching bodies lying in the water. Gumdrop let out an impressed whistle and gently laid a hoof on my back.

“Gotta teach me how to do that.” She half laughed. The few ponies that had survived were still stunned and incapable of movement. I limped over to one to see that her eyes were wide and darting back and forth, panicking at her body ignoring her commands. The look in her eyes was almost pleading but I had no help to offer. I floated my pistol to her forehead and fired. I repeated the process on two others before the others followed suit. Afterwards we took a moment to dig through their belongings. Gunny found magic bandages for her shoulder and I found a shot of Med-X to dull the pain in my leg. With everything taken care of for now, we continued through the exit that led to the offices. I would have thought that the base would have had an alarm system or cameras or something. Were the ponies who built the place that confident in their anonymity? More likely they couldn’t get into the security offices to set such measures up. Once we had entered the office portion of the complex we saw that from here there were two exits on either side. One to the labs and one to the storage area. The room we were in now stretched off about two hundred feet long by forty feet wide. Each half of the room held a row of cubicles and partitions to isolate each one. Each cubicle contained a functioning terminal atop a desk with a chair in front and a filing cabinet backed against each partition on the inside. Each row was also divided into separate divisions marked by a sign hanging from the roof. There were four divisions in total. Weapons, Ministry Projects, Arcane Technology and Homeland Security. I was drawn to the prospects of the Ministry Projects division. Many of the terminals were locked and not just by a password but by more card readers. Employees must have had personalized identification cards to ensure that unauthorized personnel couldn’t access another divisions terminals. I brought out the one card I had and stuck it into one of the readers. It had worked for me thus far like on the elevator so it was worth a shot. Surprisingly I was greeted with text that appeared on the screen that read ‘Administrator Access, security override engaged.’ The first thing I spotted when the terminal was open to me was a budgetary concern from a Ministry of Arcane Sciences facility. I would have ignored something so trivial and moved on if it weren’t for the facilities location, Baltimare. Hoping to find clues to its location within the city I opened the file.

This is getting out of hoof, if this project is successful it will go a long way to ending the war. So where in Celestia’s name are all my resources and staff going? If you keep moving things around like this then we won’t be able to execute our first scheduled test. I shouldn’t need to remind you that my project has Twilight Sparkle’s full authorization and yet I’m still denied the whereabouts of my promised resources! If my next scheduled shipment is any less than this month’s then I will have no choice but to report this to Ministry leadership. I hope I won’t have to write another message like this and you should too.

-Project Lead P.C

With that I think I had my answer. I remember seeing the name P.C in the place we found Paladin Sureshot and the cloud terminal. I still had no way to get passed it so that path had to remain closed for now. Though while I had the terminal in front of me I decided to learn as much as I could about the project they were running. Unfortunately there wasn’t much regarding the specifics but I was able to find a note written by the terminals old owner with the projects name in the title. Project Outlast. Project Outlast seeks to resolve Equestria’s severe reliance on coal to power its industry and development. The project was designed and submitted by a relatively young unicorn mare who has not been with the ministry for very long yet Twilight Sparkle still gave her the OK and with full funding. However we all know that Twilight herself spends little time in the actual affairs of projects that are not her own. So should funding go missing or be redirected then nopony should be none the wiser. The project bears little significance in the grand scheme seeing as the recent annexation of the badlands has reopened the flow of coal equal to if not greater than it was with the zebra empire. The war won’t be decided by our reliance of specific resources but by the strength of our military and our air superiority. I’ll be redirecting funds from Outlast and moving them to Project Cyclone. Most of the division agrees that this is the best thing to do, though some wanted funds to go to the STAR weapon platforms but the cost it would take to get them where they need to be is too great.

So even the ministries were not free of corruption. The stresses of a nation at war must have weighed heavily on many a pony. Enough for them to disrupt the proper flow of resources and direct them to where bureaucrats thought them more valuable. Also in the terminal was a list of other companies not associated with the ministries that were on the rise. One in particular had covered its tracks so well that they didn’t even know the name of the company. Only that they had purchased a Stable from Stable-Tec for their own use. Once we were done with Chestnut this place would be worth a revisiting. The information in all these terminals could be very valuable. As much as I would have liked to continue everypony else had already looked around the room and were ready to move on. We all agreed that the labs would be the first place we checked before we doubled back if we had to. I wondered just how big this complex actually was as we had left many branching paths unexplored. The corridor to the labs were unremarkably plain, décor clearly wasn’t high on the list when the place was built. As we came to the door to the labs Grizela held out a claw to stop us. She held up the other claw in a gestures for us to be silent. She carefully crept up to the door and peeked through the glass that bordered the door. Even though I wasn’t as close as her I could see pony sized shadows moving in the room beyond. Grizela crept back to us and whispered so quietly that I could barely make out her words.

“At least eight of them in there, I think we can get the drop on them if we play our cards right. Everyone ready?” The rest of us nodded in determination. We all had something to fight for so come hell or high water nopony was going to back down. Grizela threw open the door and we all charged in only to have all of our weapons ripped from our grasps by a strange looking device in the middle of the room.

“Ah here are our guests. I apologize for the interruption Crush but can we continue our discussion another time?” Chestnut sat at a table near the base of the device with a larger than average Pegasus ghoul.

“Don’t take too long Chestnut, my research requires as many subjects as I can get my hooves on.” The ghoul known as Crush quickly excused himself and flew out of the room through an exit on the opposite side. One would think that you couldn’t fly without any feathers on your wings but that didn’t appear to be the case.

Chestnut stood from the table surrounded by armed raiders and turned his attention to us. For a moment he seemed taken aback when he saw my face but then his expression switched to one of joy.

“Well look who it is…the Harbinger of Hope, hero of the wasteland.” The way he lingered on the word hero cut me as deep as it did that day when he took Winter from me.

“You mean that guy from the radio stories a few weeks ago?” Gumdrop asked, raising an eyebrow. “That’s you?” She said, giving a curious look in my direction.

Chestnut chuckled to himself, fully standing from his chair. “Well no, not anymore.”

“I’m going to kill you Chestnut. For everything you took from me.” I said in a flat, low tone.

“I’m a little disappointed Sparks, I’d have thought that you would have given up by now. Regardless it should be obvious to you that you won’t be walking out of here.” He waved a hoof to the six ponies around him who all had guns trained on us. “You couldn’t kill me when I attacked your home, what made you think you’d have a chance in mine?” He pointed to the thing that had taken our weapons from our grasp.

“You’re really him aren’t you?” Gunny asked, disbelief evident in her words.

“Yes…” I said quietly. “But don’t call me Harbinger.”

“Shame.” Chestnut said with a shake of his head. “Your tenacity would have proved valuable to me but you burned that bridge a long time ago. Kill them.” Chestnut turned his back on us and began to walk away as his guards leveled their weapons at us and prepared to fire. I closed my eyes and braced myself for what was to follow.

Forgive me Aurora, Sunny. Were my last thoughts before an explosion deafened me.

Footnote: No Level Up.

Next Chapter: Chapter Sixteen: Legacy of Hate Estimated time remaining: 21 Hours, 42 Minutes