Even if a minefield or the abyss should lie before me, I will march straight ahead without looking back. -Zhu Rongji

I woke up groggily as Honey Hearthfire rolled me over by the shoulder. At least it isn't a broomstick to my nethers, I thought bitterly. The flophouse owner stole a smile towards me and glanced her eyes towards the door. There was no fighting her, unless you want to deal with a guilt trip that could cause a Saint or a goddess feel like they had abused a hundred innocent foals. Today however was much easier to get up from, though my head was cloudy still for some reason.

Coffee would be nice. Let's get downstairs and get some coffee.

My belongings were all accounted for, with the addition of several more pounds of coffee, the kind Nyota had gotten yesterday. I hefted my packs and walked out, leaving Hearthfire to her cleaning and myself free from her weapon's grade glares. In the mess hall, all my friends were already awake and gathered around a table. I guess I would consider them friends regardless, of our differences. Even Corners and her box cuts. They were gathering together and they were waiting on me. Do I really want to take them on this quest? This adventure into a place that has proven lethal to them? I have to make sure they want to do this.

Taking the open seat between Quick Stitch and Alguacil, I stared down the coffee on the table, the steam smelled of heavenly clouds but looked like hellfire sludge. Making a face, I took out my kitchen kit and made the coffee Nyota had bought on the hot plate.

Mmm, Coffee. My mind was still foggy with sleep, but as I poured the nectar of the goddesses into my thermos I could already feel it clearing from a scent beyond the heavens. No one else wanted any so that meant I would get two cups this morning!

“So, are you all really willing to risk your life for these two mysteries?” I took a sip of coffee as the group stopped speaking among themselves and turned their full attention to me. “What these coordinates are and to find a ponynapped stranger you don't know?” I took a breath and inhaled the steam of my tart liquid as I savored its warming effect on my body; while my mind almost immediately cleared of any form of morning fuzziness. “There is no shame in not going.”

Immediately Quick Stitch leaped to his hooves in dramatic fashion, “yes, I'm pretty sure I want to go. Some pony has to make sure you all make it there and back in one piece.” The unicorn sat back down a bit embarrassed at the small scene he had made. “Also this Hot Cross Buns could need medical attention.”

My jaw dropped, our new found follower of Fluttershy was not one to back down easily. His voice was stronger now and I could pick up the cultured of a city stallion.

“Where there is ponynapping there be slavers, raiders, or law breakers,” Alguacil gave his revolver a small pat, as if assuring himself that it would be put to good use soon. “Anyway you sink your beak into it, my job is to bring them to justice.” Alguacil let the last word end in a harsh growl that truly hammered home his dedication.

I couldn't put a hoof on it, but something seemed different about my friends from other ponies I had met before the stable. Every pony in the wasteland seemed... weird... but I had a feeling that when they looked at me, it wasn't the same way they did every pony else. I got a sense of being a reminder to them of something long since gone that they wanted back.

My thoughts were derailed by the smell of smoke and the flicking of a lighter. Nyota was taking a long draw from a cigarette before speaking. “Kid, if it means not being in this town.” he paused and took a puff of the smoke, “I'm not letting you go alone either.”

Chifundo just gave a nod and patted my head. Sugarcube Corners gave a giggle, “And the Great Box God says go with you.”

Okay What the... ya know what it's better I do not ask. If there is a Box God, then I will take all the help I can get. I just wish he had helped Buddy more. I let out a sigh resigning myself to the fate of having this group with me. Then looked up with a smile, “Alright, well let's eat, check our gear, and get going before Sparrow wakes up from her hangover.” I was certain that Sparrow didn't just drink one bottle last night, that was a safe bet. The way she started before she tucked Nugget into bed, she probably had quite a few.

I guess these are real friends, make sure you don't abuse them, Sunrise. Hopefully you can pay them back one day. We talked about equipment and made sure everyone had some sort of healing items, food, ammo, and our equipment was in perfect shape as well. I made sure everyone had a helmet, hats are not shotgun proof. I had no idea when we would have a chance to come back, and none of us truly knew what was at the Las Pegasus and eventually Applewood. A sense of dread lurked at the back of my mind. I couldn’t help but have a nagging sense that I would lose something else out there, something truly irreplaceable.

We headed out of Silver Fang Shanty keeping a low profile. “Even I couldn’t help but agree that we had far too much to do, and we couldn’t let everypony of the settlement drop their troubles on our lap, which was bound to happen between Sparrow’s task and the radio broadcast... dammit Chifundo! Everyone was quick to move along our walk, not just to get away, but to warm our bodies in the brisk, early dawn light. We headed towards the rising sun that warmed our faces while retreating night cooled our flanks.

“Quick Stitch, what is your story? Where are you from?” I asked quite directly and looked over to the olive green unicorn. He was a much more sickly color here in the light, here in the light, a mixture of jet black and green that looked more like tainted obsidian. It did not match well at all with his custard yellow Ministry of Peace armor. Somehow even the bright pink normally quite cute butterflies adorning the armor just made the fashion faux pa so much worse!

Studying him now, I saw the stitching scar over his nose wasn't the only one scarring on his body. Quick’s right ear looked like someone had severed it, cut off with a clean edge like a knife. His neck was ringed with a daisy chain of smooth slashes. Lastly I noticed his rear knees, they were misshapen, battered, and knotty. He moved stiffly, his coat covered in silvery scar grown hairs. He had all the evidence of a hard life. Are you one ponies we rescued? No way you got that armor... No you are somepony else.

“Oh ya know, I've had a hard life and the wasteland is a wild bitch without mercy. But I feel like if I am kinder, better pony it might change a small piece of the wasteland.” His smile was genuine and he nudged my flank with his, “what is your story?”

I blinked a few times, ponies had asked where I had come from, who I was, but never the whole thing. Well, he's gotta learn sooner rather than later. I told him of the time before the megaspells, my dad's shop and mother's work as a veterans affairs legal adviser, after she finished her tours in the military. Even down to her raspberry cream oatmeal and financial work she did for Rainbow Rise. The mare who didn't know when she had used all her energy.

Quick Stitch was suddenly prodding and poking me, I was under a full medical examination while we were walking. “You're a remarkably well preserved ghoul! No signs of radiation burns or mutation, is that a heartbeat I detect?” My hooves slapped away the stallion to make him stop.

“I'm not a ghoul! I'm from Stable 43.” I retorted to him and the party stopped for a moment while I frustratedly flailed to get Quick Stitch off.

“Then how have you survived for so long? At filly size?” He shot back and took a few hoof steps away as the rest of the group looked ready to spring.

“Stable 43 had stasis pods and used memory orbs to keep us content. There is a missing week of our lives that appears to be dated with the encrypted files on my PipBuck!” I took a breath and started walking again to get the group moving and break the tension. “Any other questions Quick Stitch?”

The stallion put a hoof to his chin for a moment while we walked. He shook his head, “I'll talk to you about it later. I'm still gonna need to understand how you survived for so long if I'm to be your regular doctor.”

Regular doctor? Am I fully trusting this new pony blindly? Why not? Spring Bronco was just one bad apple right, he surely was a good pony.I'm not a blank flank child anymore either, I don't know what I am yet but they aren't coddling me like a child either. But I do know I shouldn't give up the ideals my parents so easily.

We had been walking and talking for nearly three hours. Maybe that is why I was so willing to throw myself into small talk with Nyota. I prodded him about the wasteland and got plain answers in return. Why the clouds were always present, what he normally traveled around for. He prodded back about life before the megaspells. What it was like, who my parents were, how the ministries really were to me.

Suddenly Quick Stitch stopped and grabbed me. “STOP! Everypony!” The whole group looked at him and drew weapons unsure if they should point them at him or some new found unseen threat. I raised an eyebrow when he pointed out with his other hoof. “What are those mounds?”

I shook my head and looked around, for nearly the entire Canterlot Grand Avenue; there were mounds in every direction from us. Pink bounced into my view against the HUD provided by the EFS. She was eating popcorn in a lawn chair, leaning in to see if I would figure it out. Mounds like that are usually, LANDMINES! I looked up at Quick Stitch, “Those are landmines, I think.” Pink was far too happy that I had figured it out so quickly and even held up a exam paper with a red A+ stamped on it. Taking a look around it quickly became obvious we were standing in a mine field, not just at the edge, somehow we had walked right in and not set anything off!

“Alguacil! This could be an ambush!” Nyota shouted and Alguacil took flight, he kept his head on a swivel and circled above us. There was no signal of danger from the griffin even after several circuits above us.

“Okay, no pony move! I need to figure out if these are pressure or proximity mines then how we can get out of here.” I stated looking from pony to pony. I knew it was going to be hard, considering how mines were designed to be not disarmed once they were in place.

“Sunrise, you have a unicorn with you,”Pink stated quite bluntly.

Maybe I should be asking you Pink. How I know all this stuff about explosives and land mines?

“Oh! You'll find out one day how you know exactly what land mines do! But in the mean time, I suggest you focus on disarming them. It should be entertaining for me as well,” Pink replied and took out a bag of popcorn from seemingly nowhere.

“Quick Stitch, I need you to lift one of the mines up, I need to know if I am dealing with motion sensors or pressure mines. Just find the metal object and levitate it.” I instructed as I took a step back and let the stallion front and center. His horn glowed and a mound of dirt nearly 40 feet away from us lifted up into the air. As the sand cleared, a skull emerged.

“A skull? Is this a graveyard? Lift another one, I wanna make sure.” I instructed. With a quick nod of his head, his horn glowed once more. The dirt quivered as he lifted out a worn and cracked brick. I walked right up and plunged my hoof into the soft upturned earth. This was completely careless and without any worry, not ever a second for safety. With a cocksure smile I grinned at the death’s mask of the pony’s skull, relief flooding through me as my guess was right. Slowly the smile faded, as I looked into those blank holes were eyes should have been, and the worn yellowed bone in my hoof.

You're holding a skull! As a snap reflex I hurled the skull as far away from me as I could.

BOOM!!

The dust and debris flew into the air at the end of my throw, the skull triggered a lethal landmine. I hit the deck, covering my head with my hooves. As the last bits of gravel and dirt plopped back to earth I looked up and growled as I rising back to my hooves, “Some pony is going to get smacked for this! They laced a minefield with skulls and bricks! Are you kidding me?!” I screamed out and threw my hooves into the air with a frustration that bordered on rage.

As I voiced my rage to the heavens Alguacil touched down with grace among us. “Look I can just fly us over the field. Well except Corners. Between her battle saddle and the box, she would have to leave the box behind till I made another trip for it.”

We all looked at Corners and could see her shaking like a leaf in the wind before releasing a squeal of distress, “I can't leave the box! The box is safety! The box is life.”

I looked around as everyone started to berate her. I had to act, I had to clear us a path. I could see where the mounds ended just over a city block length away. Sunrise you can do this. You know explosives! Your cutie mark is for them. It is just like turning off a spell matrix without the key. Just unlike a spell matrix that won't turn off; these explode if you clip the wrong wire. Mentally reassured, I took several steps forward, cautiously checking the field for any signs of mines or other hidden explosives.

I nearly jumped clean out of my own hide, tumbling over in a heap, unable to hold back a terrified scream as something slammed into the back of my head. Did I just explode? Dear Goddesses the headache. Fumbling around, my hoof felt something solid against it in the dirt, a very square shaped pony skull. I looked behind me, my head throbbing and I could taste a bit of blood in my throat, Chifundo and Nyota were both scolding Corners at the top of their lungs.

“What did you do that for? Are you trying to kill her!?” Nyota's shouting echoed into the distant wasteland.

“What you have done, is most unwise hun.” Chifundo struck the side of the box with a hoof. It wasn't apparent if the box, Corners, or Chifundo had taken more damage. “You should not distract the minesweeper, that is if you want to keep her.” There was a chilling statement under toning Chifundo's words.

Corners wouldn't want to kill any of us right?

“It slipped, I'm sorry. I was trying to hit a mound off in the distance.” Corners let out a half hearted apology.

Really Corners? I'm creeping up to sweep mines and you go off to do that? When I'm done with this I'm going to get you back in spades. That wasn't even funny in the slightest and now I have a massive headache. My hoof moved to turn around and I never heard the click, only the sudden shock wave of force that slammed me when I took my next step. There was a total disconnection from the world under me as I was sent spinning.

I was flying. I couldn't move, my ears rang, and my eyes burned. My right foreleg felt like it was hanging on by a thread from shattering into bits. Every part of my form sent signals of pain in and my right foreleg hurt most of all. The ringing got louder and louder as my sense of gravity returned with a vengeance. I was falling.

With a blow that drove the air from my lungs; my back impacted to the ground next to Chifundo. My foreleg was mangled and damaged in front of my eyes. I could feel my nose bleeding, and my eyes were straining to stay awake.

My helmet rolled against my shoulder. I was gulping down air in quick, shallow, panicked breaths, my heart beating a mile a minute. Oh I'm still alive! Slowly I rolled to my belly. Everypony's eyes were staring in horror at the little green pony that had just been blown sky high.

Lips were moving but I couldn't understand anything being said. I wasn't sure right now if my barding and helmet had saved me or if I was only going to live long enough to have my friends watch me die.

I lifted my right foreleg and found that while my barding there was intact, the screen on my PipBuck was scratched, my hoof was split and bleeding below past the ankle. The barding reinforcement was held together by scraps of leather, the metal plates hanging loose. Pieces of rocks, sand, and dust rained down around us.

Quick Stitch was on me in a flash, starting to help me up when Corners got close to us and pinned me back down. As I looked past her hooves I saw her machine guns poke out of the metal reinforced box. Oh Goddess is she really going to?

Corners pointed her machine guns past me and started to fire at something I couldn't see. Round after round screamed down range while slow staccato pops of Alguacil's revolver joined in. The roar of guns this close cut through the ringing as I curled up, hooves over my ears in agony. My body was shaking as the aches in my right hoof shot up my leg while my ears felt like they were exploding.

“CORNERS!!! BUCKING STOP!!!” I screamed out at the top of my lungs. The machine gun fire ceased a moment later, as a distant explosion echoed around us. Nyota gingerly helped me to my hooves.

“Sunny calm down, it's alright.” He hushed and used a hoof to stroke my mane softly like a concerned parent.

“Oh no Sunrise, that isn't how a parent does that.” Pink piped up. While Quick Stitch took a look at my leg. I looked in the direction of the explosion and that is when I saw it, the blasted, shot, and mangled remains of a scorpion.

By the Goddesses! That thing is massive! What in Equestria-! The scorpion was bigger than Alguacil. It was covered in chitinous carapace looked as thick as power armor. The creature was colored a dull black, it didn't even have a reflection from the cloudy daylight. Its stinger was as big as my head, the pincers could have easily cut me in half. “Celestia buck me!”

I turned around and saw five smaller brown scorpions, and by smaller I mean as big as myself or Corners, fly out of the ground less than twenty feet from us. “Oh for Luna's Sake! More of them!” I shouted and pointed my injured hoof towards them.

They were fast, far too fast.

Chifundo was the closest prey for them, their claws snapping at the Zebra’s rapidly dancing hooves. I went to draw my shotgun when my right foreleg exploded in a whole new form of pain. I looked to see an orange-yellow pincer as big as a stallion's maw locked onto me through the barely hanging on armored knew pad just above my PipBuck. The other pincer came up and slashed across my collar bone.

My body spasmed and barely kept to my hooves. I staggered and swayed, causing the pincer to dig into my leg and the tail strike to glance off my shoulder plate. Fuck! That hurt, I'm bleeding, oh Goddesses that is a lot of blood. My BLOOD!

“GET!” My left hoof slammed into the offending pincer that kept us locked together.

“OFF!” Another heavy strike crunched the stinging tail into the pincer, injecting it with its own poison.

“ME!” Another, and another, I lost count as I fanatically beat that pincer till I heard a satisfying crunch. The pincer was crushed into pieces under my hoof.

The scorpion staggered back; it's left claw completely severed and oozing sickly orange goo. “BUCK YOU!”

To my right, Corners's box lit up with muzzle flashes, all contained inside her box sanctuary. I could hear the echoing machine gun fire muffled by the metal, red pony blood and orange scorpion ooze came out from under the edge of the box in some mingled, toxic looking ribbon.

The orange armored creature in front of me raised its tail to strike again and a revolver round slammed into it's head, exploding four of its eight eyes off the body in a spray of gore.

Sunrise, shotgun NOW!

Chifundo had a stinger embedded into his throat and fell to the ground in a heap. Nyota swayed and stumbled to the ground as 10mm pistol rounds went off behind me, my ears screamed. Near me another one of the beasts raised its pincers and closed in on Chifundo's fallen form.

“GO TO HELL!” I tried to scream out only to find my vocal cords were not working. My tail tossed my shotgun into my teeth and I stepped into SATS; time slowing to a crawl. I queued up a shot at the Scorpion's head and took careful aim, consuming the entire SATS spell with one shot. I released the spell and the 12G roared, slamming back into my shoulder as I pulled the trigger. I had finally fired this newly rechambered gun in hatred and anger. DIE DIE DIE! GET OFF HIM! AND DIE! My hoof slid the pump and I immediately discharged a second round.

The beast's eyes exploded in a fountain of orange blood flying onto the pincers. Its carapace shattered under the rain of buckshot as the insectoid swayed and staggered. The creature released its grip on Chifundo's hooves but did not fall. I felt the glow of magic next to my flank and turned my attention towards it.

Quick Stitch was laying his magic over Nyota, each shimmering aura glowing brighter and brighter till an overspell formed over it, like a spark that had ignited a firestorm. Another spell surrounded the wounds on Chifundo's body. With a cry of strained anguish from Quick Stitch, Nyota and Chifundo's eyes snapped open as the wounds on their bodies healed. It was just enough that they could stand in front of their attackers. It's like a miracle.. magical healing can do truly amazing things. I just hope we haven't already burned out Quick Stitch.

Chifundo grabbed his 9mm pistol off the ground and discharged round after round from the Barehoof pistol into the blinded scorpion; it fell onto its belly motionless even with the pink stallion firing till the click of a dry magazine echoed in our ears.

I heard the slam of hooves and crunch of carapace as another revolver round echoed. Nyota was going full blown assault zebra, his hooves flying faster than my eyes could follow. His fury smashed the orange foal sized arachnid with precision that could not be matched. He dodged its pincers and with a single strike ripped them off at the elbow.

But no, we needed to be certain they were dead. I shoved the shotgun into the hole of the one that had slashed my still bleeding throat and gave it another buckshot blast. Gore sprayed out from the base of the tail as the pellets ripped apart the insides looking for an exit. The wave of munched guts back blew out of the hole around my gun barrel into my face but I honestly did not care. I had to know it was dead.

Nyota pounded onto the hoof battered scorpion in tandem with the buckshot colonoscopy. The crunch was like fried chicken. He brought down his hooves in mighty double strikes and broke the carapace apart like a cheap piece of drywall.

I collapsed onto my flanks and dropped my shotgun. Just like that, the massive scorpion ambush and their horde had been slain in seconds, and seconds before it looked like we might all die.

Quick Stitch's hooves were on my neck as he applied a bandage, then Chifundo collapsed to the ground. “I got it,” I tried to say but what came out was an intelligible whisper. I could taste blood and when I tried to talk, drops of red life hit the dirt. I gasped for air and my tail passed a healing potion up to my lips, forcing me to drink down the grape flavored mixture. Grape tastes awful can we please get these in strawberry or apple or anything else?!

Quick Stitch moved to Chifundo and applied a magical bandage to his wounds. The shaman slowly opened up his eyes and gasped for air. Just as it seemed he might bolt straight upright, his eyes rolled back and his body fell back to the earth. I heard the pained groans for air and then spasms of shock as his body quivered in and out; hovering on the edge of life.

“Chif-” My voice cut off as the burning in my throat intensified. The potion was trying to do its work and I wasn't letting it. Chifundo woke up and coughed up more poison and blood before he collapsed again. The blue-black mixture he hacked up flowed into our pools of blood and turned it black where it touched.

“Chifu-” hacking and coughing echoed around us as I felt like my throat might burst, when suddenly a soothing pressure echoed on the inside of my wind pipe. The healing potion had closed the life threatening slash over my collar bone then was working towards my damaged vocal cords.

Chifundo's eyes rolled back into his head, “CHIFUNDO!” My scream must have snapped something lose. The pink striped zebra puked up more blue-black muck which Quick Stitch slammed a healing potion into his mouth. I saw the telekinetic envelope surround the zebra in a pale light and tilt his head back. He drank, thankfully and then snapped his eyes open, coughing up a lung but he was alive.

My face was numb, I could feel the trembling throughout my form. Sunrise, breathe, this is you going into shock. Breathe. A long gasp caught my eyes and for the first time since the mine went off they were not ringing. My deep breaths reminded me I was alive as I took a step onto my PipBuck hoof; then I bit my lip, the magical healing potion hadn't work its magic everywhere. The only reason I did not face plant was the tight bandage supporting the badly damaged ankle.

What in the Goddesses' living hell was that!? Scorpions bigger than ponies? Pack hunting monsters the size of foals? I knew roaches were huge but scorpions! What's Next? Spiders? Hornets? What all in Equestria has been warped into some vicious pony murdering machine? I shuddered at the thoughts, frozen in place. The living nightmare all around me, and before my eyes the unmoving box Corners hid inside of. Red pony blood and sickly orange scorpion fluid leaked from under it in equal measure.

Nyota lifted the box as he finished chugging the healing potion hanging out of his mouth. He reached a hoof inside then dropped the box back down. The zebra approached me, pulling out a cigarette and lighting it up. “She's alive, bloody but looks like a magic healing potion and a bottle of water worked to keep her alive.” He took a long drag on the smoke, “Corners should be fine as far as I can tell, it didn't sting her. That got torn off by the box top.”

I nodded as Chifundo staggered up to his hooves. He could drop over dead at any moment if he wasn't careful. Alguacil had landed while I was recovering from shock, the griffin was hacking at the scorpions with his knife. He took their venom sacks out as well as the meat from under their carapace. Sick! You can eat that? These... these, things? The end of my shotgun barrel was covered in blood, scorpion ooze, and anthropoid guts. I pulled a strip of my stable suit off, using the rag to slowly and carefully wipe down the gun, letting the zen practice of cleaning wash away my flustered thoughts.

Alguacil looked at us, “There aren't more coming but if Corners is unconscious, I can't transport her, that battlesaddle, and her box over without getting her out from under it. That would be three trips alone.”

“Alguacil, Chifundo isn't flying anywhere. Not without possibly dying in the process. We're going to have to walk out of this minefield.”

Something snapped in me. I have to get these ponies out of here! I don't care how. They are my friends; we are in a hell of a mess. We need out of here. “Alguacil, fly cover for us!” he gave me a questioning look and started to speak. “Now! Quick Stitch, can you ignore Chifundo for a moment. I have an idea and I need your help.”

The unicorn looked at me with a frown like I had lost my mind. “Listen, I need you to use your telekinesis but this time I want you to just push the first half a hoof of sand all the way to the edge of the field. As hard as you can!”

He blinked at me a few times and then got the hint. His horn glowed to life as he stopped bandaging and tending to Chifundo. Then we felt the ground tremble as an overglow extended around it. I placed a hoof up against him and started to pray.

Goddesses, if you are there, give us a break please let this work.

Pink stood up and started chanting, “Quick Stitch, Quick Stitch! You got this! You got this together!” Over and over again that stupid pink figment of my imagination chanted as I started to chant under my breath as well.

Chifundo began speaking in Zebrecian, at least it sounded like it to me, as I remembered the muttered words of Perilith and Netherbloom. Some sort of song or language that went on and on with no ending note.

A surge of energy engulfed myself and Quick Stitch. I could feel it, the presence of some other pony. No wait, this wasn't a pony, it never had been. I didn't understand what the pink striped, barely alive companion was doing but whatever it was, the strength provided by his chanting was real. A voice echoed from within my head, “It is done. Don't kill yourself in the process.”

It seemed familiar, but alien at the same time, like something I had heard in some forgotten dream as its slow, deep, deliberate words rolled through me. Each syllable was hung upon and it was clear that Chifundo heard it too. He gave a nod of acknowledgment and spoke in a language we could understand. No, he spoke like it did; directly into our minds without needing to pass by my aching ears. “Then my friend trigger your spell, so we may all speed along well.”

The sand exploded in a blast of furious wind as Chifundo wobbled and fell onto his face. Everything from where we stood to the edge of the field was laid bare. Skulls and bricks few out of the way; but three land mines could be seen now, completely uncovered.

One had a red crystal opal on top and a set of buttons beside it. There was a circle disc with a large spiky half ball sticking up under the crystal. The other two, had clear blasting cap plates on top of them, not crystals, and a panel marked 'Arming'. I was surprised I could read it from this distance.

“Okay, Quick Stitch, tend to their injuries. Hopefully I don't get blown up.” That or I do end up as pony chunks and all of you get to go on with your lives, without me not putting them in harm's way. NO! Bad Sunrise, don't think that way. You got this!

I got down onto my belly and started to crawl towards the mines. A lump formed in my recently healed throat and sweat beads were already forming as my hoof took the first step towards the closest mine. That is a motion sensor mine and you know that. All you have to do is appear below its height and weight setting and you can disarm it without risk of it going off. One hoof at a time, take your time.

Agonizing second by agonizing second passed as I counted to five with each hoof step. One, lift half inch up. Two, inhale. Three, move hoof slowly. Four, stop hoof. Five, put hoof down and exhale steady. Each step was agonizingly barely an inch and I had four hooves to move. I was moving a total of maybe three inches a minute.

Pink was on the edge of her seat, looking at me with wide eyes. But thankfully that Pink figment of my imagination was quiet. Even if I froze when she dropped some popcorn, afraid that Corners had thrown something at me again. Just two more steps and you'll be in reach. Those last two steps were an eternity longer compared to the first fifty to get here. My hoof was within reach of the buttons on the mine. To the left was a red one with the word 'Arm' under it. To the right was a green one marked 'Disarm' upside-down and opposite from me.

My hoof inched forward. I could feel the pain in my nerves while my injured right leg supported me. The wobble started, I saw the red crystal start to flare and then click. My hoof depressed the disarm button, the flaring crystal went dark and there wasn't even time for the thing to beep a warning. One Down. No wait! Double check this.

My hoof went forward and held the mine in place but did not lift it. Slowly and carefully I removed the sand, dirt, and earth from beneath it, holding the mine right at the level it was at. Then I swept my hoof underneath, nothing. No secondary detonation system, okay good enough for me. There was a safety switch under the arm button, flipping it I pocketed the mine into my saddlebags then looked up with a happy smile back at my friends. I motioned them forward as I trotted up to the next mine.

I moved faster this time, I could see the pressure plate on it and no magic crystals that looked like the motion lens on the other one. Within the six inch trench it was easy to see that there were no mines. Planting them deeper than half a hoof would be pointless, the ground would absorb most of the blast.

The second mine was a dull, brown color, stained from the Goddesses knows how long it was buried, even after the storm blew it clean. I could see a heavy hoof shaped plate on top of mine as well as a switch that said 'Arm' in the position the black switch pointed at. There were two other settings, 'Delay' and 'Safe'. That wasn't how these worked through is it? These need to actually be disabled don't they?

Pink giggled and nodded, “Yepperooni! You have to cut the wire!”

Thanks Pink, something useful for once. I got up to the mine and began to look for an access panel. There was one, as my tail passed me a screwdriver. I shrugged, “You do it.”

My tail turned in a peculiar way, I felt like I wasn't quite in full control of it. I nudged the screwdriver with my nose and the tail moved forward. This is so weird! Careful now, ease that panel open. Its just like the movies right, cut the red wire? The panel opened with a protest, rusty hinges groaning loudly. Inside there were four wires, ALL RED.

Oh you have to be kidding me! Okay I have to figure out which one is linked to the plate and therefore will set it off. The wires were a jumbled, confusing mess, tangled over one another, and without a single label or diagram anywhere in sight. How are you suppose to disarm these? They don't even label or mark anything. My tail put away the screwdriver and pulled out a set of scissors from my sewing kit. Not precise but beggars can't be choosers. I looked at all four wires then thought about it as Pink jumped up.

“You don't know which wire to cut or even if you cut the right one at all! How are you going to disarm this?” I looked up at the pressure plate Pink was dancing on. A smile curled on my face and I reached up under the pressure plate then snipped at what connected it to the mine. Hard steel on steel broke the silence.

Come on Sunrise, think how do you disarm a mine like this? Wait! My mind went back for the briefest of moments, not enough to drop into a full blown memory but enough that I got a glimpse into a magazine from the stable. I pushed the memory out of my mind. Not Now! The glimpse was crystal clear, 'Ponitrots Cookbook' and there was information about mines on the page; '3^rd wire disarms.'

Great is that the third from the top or bottom? Does it matter it is 50/50 I disarm or blow up now. Pink which one-

Pink already had a hoof pointing at the lower of the two wires I was debating between. My tail willed forward and cut it without hesitation. I pressed my hoof against the pressure plate; no click. “Rip it like a band-aid!” I did just what Pink suggested and the mine did not explode.

Confident and proven now the third mine proved to be easy. What was

a confusing jumble before seemed so clear as I calmly snipped the wire and picked up the deactivated explosive. Underneath though was a piece of paper attached to this third one.

I opened it, a bunch of scribbles in Zebrecian. Frustrated I resolved to ask Nyota or Chifundo to read it to me later as I stuffed it into a pocket. I walked to the edge of the minefield and put all my effort to make sure that every single inch around us didn't look disturbed at all. Pink jumped up and down, “YA DID IT! I knew you could!”

Quick Stitch was helping Chifundo walk towards me through the cleared path. I hung my head low, seeing how injured Chifundo was and feeling like it was my fault for leading us this way. Before my mind could get lost in thought again, a gentle nudge hit my cheek and rolled up my head to my ears. I flinched away to see Nyota right up next to me. “Don't sweat it Sunrise. We are alive now. Because of you.” He gave me a pat on the head and stroked my dirt covered mane away from my face to reassure me physically as well as verbally.

“Yeah I got us out of the minefield after I exploded and drew those monsters on top of us.” Before I could continue a zebra hoof silenced me with a hoof to the mouth. I swear if you're going to keep doing that! At least wash your hoof more often!

“We should have been on the lookout for the ambush after all the noise. You not here, we walk into this mine field and we don't come out.” As he assured me, my tail had snaked into the pocket with the note and pulled it out, pressing it to Nyota's hoof.

“Can you read this?”

He took it into his hoof and opened it up. There was a chuckle, “It says: To whom it may concern, buck you. Sincerely, One Very Tired Zebra.”

I started to laugh, then Nyota. The sound of laughter was infectious between us as Quick Stitch and Chifundo looked at each other bewildered.

“I thought I may be insane, but they are in the membrane.” Chifundo pointed to us then the mine field then Quick Stitch. “To tell you I am disinclined, if I tried to explain how I helped our bind, you would surely lose your mind.”

After the laughter died down and we gathered up, Alguacil asked us to take a rest.

“We are barely 3 hours on our way and it may be a whole day before we get there. You can't mean to stop already?” My whining made them all look at me with a combination of disdain and concern.

“Sunrise, darling, Chifundo and Nyota dearly died. You've been blown up and haven't let Stitch here look at your wounds. Not to mention Corners I pretty sure is drop dead asleep.” The griffin pointed a talon at everyone as he referred to them then back to me, his eye looking close with concern. “We need a rest Sunrise.”

I hate that tone. That final, we're doing this tone when his gravel over a harp voice declares it. “Alright fine, we can take a couple hours for lunch once we get out of sight of this minefield alright? Just get over the next rise where we aren't so exposed?” I pleaded with the biggest wounded filly face I could muster.

Alguacil looked away and lowered his sombrero. “...alright fine, you make a good point.”

I took the note from the ground. My hoof pulled it into view when Pink made drawing motions on it. Really? Are you responsible for making me want to draw that everywhere we go?

“Nope! But you know you want to!” The glee in Pink's voice was toxic to say the least.

I hung my head, as my tail passed me the chalk box. Once it was in my mouth the drawing happened automatically. Within a few minutes, the back of the note had a sunrise in chalk on it along with the image of an angelic pony holding a shotgun. In big bold letters under it, I drew black chalk letters 'Mines'.

I took the slip and pinned it to a nearby cactus. I can't take the time nor do I wanna risk disarming this entire field but I can at least put up a warning.

As I was watering both myself and the cactus, Quick Stitch placed a hoof on my flank. He was shaking, trembling even. “Sunrise, where did you get that symbol?” His voice was quaking with the essence of fear.

“I don't know honestly.” My tail took the chalk and put it back into the saddlebag pocket. “I just have had this urge to draw it when something significant happens. Like a marker or a call to say where I've been. I know it is something I used to do when I was a little foal, but I'm not sure why I do it now.” I took a breath to look at Quick Stitch and see his honey colored eyes welling with tears, a few rolling down his cheeks. His eyes were closed before he spoke.

“I woke up two days ago, at sunrise in a grave. When I crawled out of a shallow grave, there were several others. One larger one with a cow punching hat and a rock about the size of you,” he took a breath and trembled a bit. “It had... it had that mark on it.”

He has clearly had to deal with something horrible.

“Sunrise! Quick Stitch was buried alive!”

“You, drew it? There at an abandoned, burned out farmhouse?” Quick Stitch questioned as he turned me to face him and squared our shoulders.

“Yes, that was Buddy's grave. Which means-” Immediately my lips stopped working as it dawned on me. He was lying there under the earth just a few hooves away. Alive, buried ALIVE! You didn't check, you didn't look to make sure they were all dead. You just-

“I only made one grave.” Alguacil chimed in as he turned his head around.

“Alguacil, it isn't like you to not notice something as far as I know. You buried Buddy next to three other graves. I buried all the bodies and skeletons afterward while you all slept.” I paused as my mind drifted. I did not realize how long I was struggling with it but Alguacil was snapping his talon in front of me over and over again to get my attention.

Quick Stitch looked at me with concern now, slipping into full medical doctor persona instead of friend. “Sunrise what is wrong with you?” the olive colored stallion asked as he was examining me and sniffed my breath. “We've been trying to talk to you for a while. Your eyes just kind of glazed over like you weren't here.” He continued to poke and prod when I realized I had been bandaged over the cuts and bruises that hadn't been examined yet.

“I was just remembering, making sure I didn't drag you out and bury you with the others.” I shook my head to clear to it up. “I just get lost in my memories I guess.”

Quick Stitch looked at me clearly not impressed by my efforts to play it off. Even if I was answering honestly, I couldn't help but feel he was right that something was wrong. A gap in my memory, remembering events now with crystal clear thought, not seeing anything happening around me while I remember, all of that was adding up to something I may want to have looked into when we had a proper doctor. One that wasn't Bonesaw or Quick Stitch's field kit.

I had been moved now that I took my surroundings in, apparently carried and set back onto my hooves. Nyota was cooking something and dang did it smell good. I had to learn how this zebra cooked one day.

“Quick Stitch doesn't someone else need tending to? I mean I had a healing potion and you bandaged anything major-” I hissed and lost the train of thought as my right foreleg was lifted and forced to stretch out between the stallion's hooves.

“Right, your barding and PipBuck took the brunt of the force but you have a mild fracture probably. I'll he-” I shoved my left hoof into his mouth and leaned on the pained leg for support between his hooves holding me up. I guess Nyota's bad hoof in mouth habit is rubbing off on me.

“No, I don't want anyone to worry.” My brain was going a million miles an hour now. “Just tell them I got lost in shock and the adrenaline that finally caught up to me.” That is by far the worst lie you've ever come up with and you've always been terrible at lying. “We just came a hair's breath from death. How is Chifundo doing? The poison gone?” I looked over at the rest of our group. The healing potions really did do wonders for ponies, made it look like no one was close to death a moment ago.

“Chifundo is fine, the poison seems to have been coughed out of his system. Another day or two and it will be like he was never stung.” Quick Stitch set my hoof down now and looked at me concerned.

“Corners is gonna live?” My eyes moving to settle on the box plopped down near the cooking fire.

“She will, but her ears are damaged beyond my ability or a healing potion to repair. The sound of LMGs against the inside of the box has done some real damage.” He saw my hoof reaching up to check my own ear. “Yours are fine, just a bit of shock from the explosion, nothing too bad.”

“Alright, I don't like the idea of lying or making it out that I'm tougher than I look but I think they need that right now.” I gave him a bright confident smile like I was cocksure of myself. “Also remind me to check graves from now on, make sure that whoever is inside is really dead.” I gave Quick Stitch a peck on his cheek along with those big cute foal eyes to really sell it home.

I joined them for lunch, we needed a break and a way to make sure everyone thought we had come out better than it looked. Ignoring the pain was going to be a lot harder than I ever expected.

Okay where am I... oh dear Goddesses my HEAD! I realized I was in a memory again and this time, waking up with a headache that could only be described as devastating. Where ever I oh, I remember this now. Oh Goddesses what is with all the lights! It feels like I'm staring at the sun in any direction I look.

“Good, your awake, we wondered if our agent had done permanent damage.” I couldn't see the mare speaking to me through the wall of lights pointed at me, only the figure of her sitting across a metal table from me. She was nothing but shadows and blurs with several sets of wall mounted spot lighting spraying us from her direction. I looked down at the table to avoid the bright sun wall.

I started to move and discovered my hooves were chained to the table. All four were chained to the same point and each other, what made it worse was that my rear hooves were extended and unable to move them back for comfort.

“Wandering Sunrise is it? Daughter to Rainbowrise and Shadow Window?” Her voice was mocking as she stated facts she already knew. “A blank flank still? Picked on mercilessly at school and yet, here at your father's shop; you snuck up on the operation. Do you know how much trouble you are in? Especially if you saw anything?” she drummed her hoof on the table incessantly in rhythm with her syllables.

“I don't-” My voice was unsteady and interrupted by a hoof raised to stop me.

“We would normally just Memory Extract you to find out what you saw.” The mare took a moment to let it sink in that they could just pry from my mind what they wanted. “However, due to your father's need to work for us and the fact you are a blank flank, that is against ministry policy.”

The shadowy mare pointed a hoof at me just enough I could see the black suit covering it. She slid the chair back and stood upon all fours. The mare faced away into the bright lightning. “Now how about you be a good foal and tell the truth. We promised your dad we would not hurt you but, that promise is not one we have to keep.” The amount of malice in the voice was slowly building till I could feel daggers impaling my ears with every word. I swore this mare could make your ears bleed with her words alone.

When she mentioned promise I saw two glows emerge behind me, one on each side of my head, and I recognized them immediately as unicorn horns. I felt the creeping of something in my mind, piercing me from the inside and diving deeper. I screamed out at the top of my lungs in agony. It was like an ice pick shoving its way into my mind and trying to break a piece of my mind off.

My vision got blurry and tears formed at the corners of my eyes. I struggled to fight back, gritting my teeth and shaking my head violently side to side. The bright glow of the horns grew to the point I had to close my eyes to shield myself from the light in the room. No matter what I did the pain grew, every shake of my head just seeming to drive the spike harder. The lights shielding the mare and the unicorn horn glows were like they were staring at the sun. I felt consciousness starting to edge away, my veins pumped and pulsed in my head. The hammering of the ice pick grew more painful for a brief moment and then stopped.

It stopped so suddenly that my efforts to resist just made me collapse onto the table with a dull thump. I felt the horn glows still present with a stallion spoke, “I can't get in. Even with 88's help.”

“What do you mean you can't get in 71? She is a blank flank! Surely her mind isn't that complex!” the shadowy mare demanded.

“I am unsure, I had thought this would be easy to penetrate but no,” the stallion known as 71 answered. “She is incredibly resistant and resilient. I do not believe we can access the memories without causing the same harm we do to criminals and zebra detainees.”

Criminals! Zebra detainees! You mean I'm a prisoner and being subjected to the same stuff they do to murders and traitors? Dad please what are you involved in? Why is your daughter in here? Please dad, rescue me.

“I can assure you,” the voice of the mare to my left started. “He is not coming to rescue you. He is on the other side of the interrogation mirror watching. 88 you can get her surface thoughts?”

“I can, but I can't stay in without causing her pain.” 88's expression was full of concern. “Maybe if we get her to let us in willingly and just talk to her. We can read the surface to make sure she is telling the truth.”

I don't know what was more disconcerting the idea of them being in my head or the fact the way she says her it sounds more like I am just an object.

I slammed my hooves onto the desk as hard as I could which even though I was an earth pony wasn't exactly enough to leave a mark. “Listen here! I am a pony and I won't have you treat me as anything else!” They didn't react, there was a pause in the air before the shadow lined mare gave a chuckle, that slowly burst into laughter.

“A foal with this much spunk? I swear if every soldier was that angry and resilient the zebras would be running in terror from us.” She slapped her thigh as 88 and 71 gave nervous laughter with her. Then slowly it died down before the mare returned to her seat.

“Alright Sunrise, tell me what you saw and if you don't fight the unicorn's won't hurt,” She offered while motioning a hoof to each of the unicorn's next to me.

“What's your name?” My teeth gritted through the reply and my eyes stared at her hard, I was clearly not having it today.

“You have quite the set of hooves on you there to have the mane to ask that,” the shadow pony motioned to the chains as well as two unicorns on each of my sides. “Chained. Surrounded by foes. Yet, you think you can ask the questions? Fine, I will humor you just because it will break up the monotony of these interrogations. I am 9. Now question for a question, what did you see?”

I relayed what I had seen in my father's shop. The secret door, the stairway down into the depths of a basement I didn't know we had. Lastly, the door my father and the pony in black came out of before I had been strangled unconscious. The horns glowed while I spoke and the pain tendrils, while dull and not as intense, were there with every word I spoke. When they flared up I would stop speaking and wince in pain.

A story that should have taken maybe ten minutes to finish was nearly an hour long with constant bouts of pain to deal with. Every time the unicorns would relent only when 9 lifted a hoof. I gritted my teeth through it, slammed my hooves onto the table with metal on cloven bone clangs. Anything to keep them from getting too deep into my mind.

Why am I fighting so hard? I don't have anything to hide?

I heard a hoof step back from 71, the mare shook her head. “She is creating that thought to confuse us. I'm sure there is more under the surface.” The unicorn on my right stepped forward. I could see her snout and horn were the color of sunflowers. “Permission to penetrate deeper?”

“Sunrise, tell me the whole truth, NOW!” 9 slammed her hoof onto the table. She stood up and looked past me as the ringing of the blow had a door opening interrupt it.

“9 if I may?” The voice was familiar. Not like someone I had met but certainly I had heard before, over the radio or a projector, maybe even television?

“What is Stable-Tec doing here? And why do I have the honor of Applebloom herself on an interrogation of a foal?” 9 asked as she walked past me. The unicorn light flared up so bright I had to look away unable to see 9 at all beyond the wall of blazing magic.

“I think this particular foal and her family would be a perfect set of candidates for our Stable program.” There was a pause in the speaking and the cadence was that of a farmhand mixed with a professor level scientist. No! There is a singer in that voice. I've heard it before, 'Raise this Barn'. That is certainly Applebloom! What is a famous pony like that doing here?

“And what makes you think she isn't a security risk?” 9's voice was cold. I could sense a killer in it and my body shook with fear. I knew now what I was in for and what I had been fighting. I jumped as my side was poked with a sharp pain. Beads of sweat started to form on my face and my hooves.

“I highly doubt that.” The bite of the pain went away but was still a dull throbbing, like having been given a shot or sprained a hoof an hour ago. I wanted to reach back and rub at it but the chains prevented it.

“Ther'! I just applied what is needed and as such, your ministry will respect Stable-Tec's wishes.” The accent came out thicker when Applebloom sounded authoritarian. “We are gonna need ponies like her if we ever have to activate those stables.

“Now 9, if nothin' else needs hashing out release her to her father, preferably unconscious and without any more mental violations on my test subject.”

Test subject! You mean you just injected some sort of experiment into me? Why am I being treated like a slave, I have rights!

“No you don't,” 88 whispered into my ear gently and below a level anyone else could hear.

There was an audible scoff and a stomp of an indignant hoof. “How dare you! This is our prisoner and we will not have-” number 9 cut off.

Prisoner! I'm a prisoner... well that does explain the chains, interrogation, these two unicorns who can hear my every thought. Yep I'm a prisoner. And my dad is watching? The reality of the situation was starting to sink in. Whatever my father was into, was a national secret for Equestria. A secret that ran so deep people were willing to kill over it.

The door opened again before I could get much further, “Stop hurting my daughter!” Dad oh by the Goddesses I've never been-

My world went back to black and I woke back up in the wasteland.

I woke up to discover myself playing with the encryption on the PipBuck files. The file dated for the day after the one I got the coordinates from. Everyone else was starting to clean up camp, I wasn't sure how much time had passed but enough to for ponies to finish eating and even catch a nap. Last thing I remember was sipping water and opening my PipBuck up and it reading 10:34am, the clock now read 1:03pm.

I've been in a memory for almost 3 hours and no one noticed!? What, how? There was no orb, my mind has been doing this repeatedly since we woke up in that pool? What did Stable-Tec do to me? Had I just drifted off to sleep or did this happen and I looked still awake, just glossy eyed inside an orb? So many questions and no answers.

“Time and place Sunrise,” Pink replied to my thoughts. “Right now you need to make sure to keep up with them and solve this mystery later.”

We had been moving uneventfully nearly the entire day. My EFS was broadcasting the exact spot we needed to head to. We were getting close, turning my head just to my shoulder made the point move enough to be off track in the display. We were off the road now as well, traveling through raw, untamed wasteland. Unlike the road, which was badly torn and broken; this was smooth under my hooves. It was like walking on an uncut hill between desert and the plants that tried to reclaim it. Had ponies actually been the ones who kept everything looking so lovely and well trimmed?

We were approaching a mountain when Alguacil landed nearby.

“Sunrise, I think I found what those coordinates are and you aren't going to like it,” he announced and our group sped up considerably as the mighty griffin flew over us and led the way directly at the mountain.

Between two large stones was a deep recess. It was covered in well masoned stones. All of it clearly designed to be an open air tunnel. At the end of the tunnel was a Stable-Tec door. There wasn't a number on the door, instead a symbol. The sight of this hit me like a dive bombing pegasus being chased by a dragon. The door wasn't blue-metal or shiny like the one I knew, this was brown metal. It matched the stone of the mountain along with the walls. How did Alguacil even spot this? Guess things in the air look a whole lot different.

I checked the EFS marker and looked away from the door, the marker stayed right on it. I looked the other way, it stayed on the door. Pink was no where to be found. Guess no advice from the pink monster in my head.

“Well stop just standing there, let us see what we have in here,” Chifundo stated and started to trot towards the door. I couldn't move, a dread I had been pushing back since we left, distracted by needing to look tough, the minefield, the scorpions, came rushing forward. I was numb in the face, my hooves refused to move.

I felt a hoof push my flank, right under the tail in a particularly sensitive spot. I bit back a yelp and turned my head, it was Quick Stitch urging me forward.

“Hold up, this isn't a standard stable!” I shouted to get everypony to stop, they turned to look at me a bit bewildered.

“Quick Stitch, you and I will go check the external command panel to figure out how it opens. Everypony else, stay out here and keep watch.” I eased my way into the tunnel next to Quick Stitch, keeping silent till we were out of range of the others.

“Thank you.” The words barely left my mouth before Quick Stitch's flank brushed against my own.

“No thank you, if you lot hadn't cleared out those raiders-” I didn't let him finish the sentence instead brushing my flank against his armor.

“Careful now, they will think we are giving each other looks that we certainly shouldn't,” I giggled and wiggled my eye brows at him. “I only did what everypony should do.”

We got up to the yellow access panel with a bunch of buttons, knobs, and three levers. There was also a speaker attached to it and I could see the jack for my PipBuck. I took the attach wire from behind and slid it into the slot. The dust and dirt from years of neglect were brushed into the air around us as my hoof moved across the console.

“Alert! Unauthorized User Detected! Back away from the door!” the speaker blared with a racket and warning sound that would have driven any pony to flee. Any pony except us.

I checked my PipBuck to try to access the back door maintenance protocols like you would any home mainframe. Ya know for when you forgot your password and tried to find the right one to access the computer. But my PipBuck was unable to find the maintenance mode.

I pulled the plug and the siren stopped.

“Quick Stitch, help me see if there is another access panel on this thing.” Already Quick Stitch was on the other side of the console working around till another panel fell off onto the ground from the back with a metal clatter onto the ground.

He pointed a hoof at it, “You mean like this?”

I leaned around to see the panel on the bottom. My PipBuck's connector slid right in and brought up lines of code over the screen. I rubbed at the scratch from the land mine then started to move the dials to take a guess at one of the phrases for passwords. Everything punched into the console was a full on phrase without spaces, 47 characters the shortest one. Great, super secret ultra hard passwords the first time I use this since the Stable. Congrats Stable-Tec, you officially suck!

When I guessed wrong once there was a shriek from the console again, “Unauthorized Access! Step away from the door immediately!” Red lights popped on at the entrance to the tunnel. They swiveled around with a directional cone inside like warning lights of a battleship or a bunker.

I pieced together another password that I thought might work, had Quick Stitch look at it and then agree with me. When it was wrong a grinding sound echoed in the tunnel, I tried to keep working when Quick Stitch forced my head up.

A heavy chunk of stone was slowly lowering at the entrance we had come in through. The racket in the room was almost enough to make my ears scream in pain. I looked at Stitch and my tail yanked the plug to the console. “RUN!”

It was like something out of a Derring-Do movie, bolting down a hallway towards a closing door. We can make it, it's only a forty, thirty-five, thirty-

And just like in the movies, I tripped head over hooves, my helmet clattered against the wall and dug into my flank as my face hit the stones hard enough to make me see stars. Blood was in my mouth and leaked out onto the floor when I felt two hooves scooping me up and back onto my hooves.

“Sunrise move! Now!” Quick Stitch shouted and pushed on my flanks. Alguacil fired shot after shot into the top of the stone wall. Yes, shoot the rock that will help! We heard something grind and a spark flared against what looked like a gear at the top of the door. The sliding down door stopped for a brief moment.

We ran like our lives depending upon it, Nyota leapt towards us, hooves fully extended while I slid under the door with Quick Stitch shoving across the threshold. I tumbled through the ground and life slowed down.

Nyota dove past me and slammed into the wall with a force I thought would break his leg. Instead the wall gave and a chunk flew out of it, a chunk that I followed and saw why, Quick Stitch slid though but not before his leg twisted and snapped. The bone sounded like it shattered with the echoing sound of the stone door hitting the ground. I could see a chunk of bone jutting from his knee.

The world sped back up to Quick Stitch screaming, wailing in agony so loud I though the ripples in his snout might rip open his scar. I shoved a hoof into his mouth to silence him and wince when he bit down on the still tender right foreleg. OW! Teach me to keep shoving hooves in mouths... why don't I do that?

“Nyota, thank you but see what you can do about his leg,” I whimpered out, trying to not scream as my hoof were being bit down on. “Quick Stitch, please stop biting my, OH BUCK!!!!!!” My own screams joined the muffled shouts of Stitch when Nyota set the leg as Stitch bit harder to get through the pain. I could feel him opening up my leg as I starting to bleed.

The big stallion whimpered now as Nyota began to apply bandages to him where his Ministry of Peace combat medic armor hadn't saved his leg. I removed my hoof from his mouth and took out a canteen. While Quick Stitch was bandaged, I rinsed my leg and bite wound. He hadn't cause that much damage, just re-opened the wounds from earlier. The growing red blotches on my bandages just made me tune out any emotion I felt.

Nyota had a look of purpose in his eye, like emotion had been restored to him somehow as he finished his work. I looked away, wondering how much more was hidden under the jaded veneer.

This was the second time today I'd seen my blood, especially this much of it. I felt my emotions stay off as I changed the bandage and Alguacil landed next to us. He looked scared.

“We need to go now!” As the griffin spoke, a shrieking I did not recognize rose up. The cry vibrated in my bones like a subsonic assault. It was then that I realize that it was a roar. The roar something extremely larger than a pony.

I looked down at my EFS and saw all the red blips moving towards us, in addition to a VERY large blip that looked like it was the size of a building. An idea struck me. We might have a way to deal with whatever animals we had stirred up. “Alguacil, I need meat, give me the scorpion pieces we got earlier.”

He tilted his head back like a bird would when completely confused. “Kid we don't have time for-”

“Not to eat Alguacil, give me the fresh meat from those scorpions.” I repeated as the sound of more wasteland creatures echoed around us. He didn't argue further and took out several wrapped pieces of scorpion meat. “The rest of you get moving now!” My tail pointed in a direction that my EFS didn't show any red blips. “That way is the safest bet, I'll catch up.”

I took the wrappings from the griffin's talon and my tail pulled out a pressure mine. He took flight and I saw everyone else starting to run, except Nyota. The mine's wire was easy enough to tie back in place, “Nyota, I said run. Now get going I'll-”

I swear I'm already starting to get used to the taste of Nyota's hoof in my mouth. At this rate I might start to enjoy it. “No kid, I'm making sure you get out of here. Now hurry up and-” Click! While he kept talking my hooves continued to work, having repaired the wire and turned the switch to armed and now put a pincer shaped piece of scorpion flesh onto the pressure plate. The cries of whatever those creatures got closer as I worked frantically to set the second mine.

Once set, I bolted as fast as I could go, the fresh bandage on my leg started to turn red and I could feel the pain shooting up my leg again. At this rate, it's going to get infected.

We galloped, never looking back until there was a set of explosions. I glanced over my shoulder to see a lizard, bigger than me with a mouth that could have swallowed both my front legs in one instant. But what was coming around the mountain scared me even more. Another one of these lizards, covered in golden scales head to toe.

This one was bigger than a building, if I had to guess as tall as a buck ball field is long. It smiled from disturbing ear to ear. When the mouth opened to lick those twisted, yellow eyeballs. I felt my skin crawl. I stopped looking back and instead focused on running as fast as I could. Nyota kept nudging me every time he caught up, making me go faster. “You would think that with how many stallions keep nudging your flanks, you were quite a moseying mare.” I blushed at what the Pink said, hoping no one would notice and just assume exertion.

Pink I swear I'm gonna punch you one day if you ever get a physical form do that to!

The gold lizards never ran past the sealed door where I had laid the mines, they were instead left in a feeding frenzy in the distance behind us as they cannibalized their exploded fellows. Nyota forced me to catch up to the others and we continued to run till the mountain and what Pink referred to as Geckzilla were almost out of our sight.

Alguacil took a long flight around to make sure we were safe as we setup camp near a trio of trees that had started to sprout up. This had been one very long day.

Quick Stitch's horn glowed as he worked on his leg to make sure it healed properly. He frowned at me and nodded towards my own leg. The bandages were stained with blood and dirt, needing to be changed after everything I had been through. At this rate we might go through a whole lot of bandages in just one day. I plopped down onto my flanks and hung my head between my PipBuck and my tail.

Nyota put a hoof onto my side and then pulled my head up. “You alright kid?”

I bit my lip and heard one of the trees overhead whine with Alguacil landing on it. “Oh I don't know, I've lost a friend two days ago. I have nearly cost Quick Stitch his leg in the last hour-” I would have kept ranting except that Nyota hoof flavor hit my tongue again.

“Sunrise,” Nyota voice was much more comforting than anything else I could have asked for today. “This is the Equestrian Wasteland. Our lives are at risk everyday. Magical radiation, rad scorpions, land mines, bandits, raiders, there is a very long list of things that might want to kill us.”

Chifundo just smirked and nodded in my direction, he had some color back in his face at least. “He is quite right, this place is full of plight. It takes only one error, to fall before the terror.”

I winced and unroll the Stable-Tec sleeping back from my pack. “I am never going to get used to this place.”

I lifted up my PipBuck and looked at it. Today had been oh such a colossal failure. There were still six more encrypted files all dated for the days I was missing in my memory. I picked at the second file, hitting the PipBuck's decryption program and began to piece together the second one's password. Immediately on my first guess: 'Unauthorized Access Attempt. Please Contact Administrator to Access'.

Locked out? On my first guess? Are you kidding me!?

“I HATE THE WASTELAND!”

Progress to Level 5 - 68% of the way there!

Trait Discovered - Discord's Luck - You have a 5% increase to chance to critical BUT anytime you critically fail, it is an epic level failure!

Author's Notes:

Artwork by Trees see her at:
https://lostinthetrees.deviantart.com/