Sunset didn’t have a clue how to react. Fawkes was one thing, but she had never expected to encounter a second friendly Super Mutant. Realizing that Leo was still smiling up at her, she replied in a surprisingly even tone, “I’m Sunset Shimmer.”

“It is a pleasure to meet you, Sunset Shimmer.” Leo stood and stretched, his joints creaking and popping loudly. “Is there anything I can do for you?”

“Who are you talking to?” Sunset looked around to see Rarity approach, while Applejack was dutifully standing guard at the door. Rarity stopped a little abruptly and blinked in surprise when she saw Leo, but that was the only hint of emotion that she let slip. “Oh my, what have we here?”

“Another prisoner, I guess. He says his name is Leo,” Sunset replied.

To her surprise, Rarity let out a soft gasp and stared at Leo with intense interest. “Leo? As in Uncle Leo?”

“You know this guy?” Sunset asked.

Rarity nodded. “Fawkes mentioned him. He said that Uncle Leo was the only Meta Human he knew who was a genuinely nice person.”

Uncle Leo’s expression lit up when he heard Fawkes’ name. “You have met Fawkes? I have not seen him since before I left Vault 87. My fellows treated him very unkindly, despite my best efforts. Is he well?”

“He’s doing very well these days,” Rarity replied with a smile. “He left the Vault too, and he joined the Brotherhood of Steel along with us. In fact-” she lowered her voice and gave Leo a conspiratorial grin, “-he and I recently joined a small operation that quietly helps certain oppressed people in other parts of the Wasteland.”

That was news to Sunset, but she didn’t question it. She assumed that the operation in question must be the Railroad, but if Rarity herself hadn’t mentioned it then she surely had a reason for it. Sunset pushed the miniature mystery to the back of her mind and focused on more pressing matters. “If he’s a friend then we can’t just leave him to rot in this cell. Hey, Applejack, swap with me,” she called out.

Applejack gave her a curious look as Sunset took up her post at the door, but dutifully went to see what was going on. A few seconds later the sound of tortured metal being wrenched out of place filled the air. Red let out a terrified squawk, probably shocked at Applejack’s strength or the sight of Uncle Leo lumbering out of his cell, but Sunset kept her attention on the corridor outside as Rarity explained the situation.

“This is turning into the weirdest day of my life,” Red said heavily when she was all up to speed.

“Yeah, we tend to have that effect on people the first time we meet them,” Sunset said absently.

“Hey, don’t get me wrong, I’m glad that you’re real!” Red added hastily. “It’s just, I thought that you Rainbooms were a myth or a hoax of some kind before today. Hell, I can hardly believe that just seven of you managed to take out all of those Mutants!”

Applejack snorted. “We’ve got plenty of experience in dealing with those assholes. Uh, no offense.”

“None taken,” Uncle Leo replied cheerfully.

“Maybe, but it’s still impressive,” Red continued. “That big muscle-thing that was guarding the cells was scary enough, but something about the pink one and its centaur just freaked me out.”

A shiver ran down Sunset’s spine as she looked back at Red. “What pink one?”

The police HQ absolutely reeked. Pinkie prided herself on having a strong stomach, but the stench of unwashed Super Mutants, paired with the unmistakable odor of overflowing toilets, was enough to make even her eyes water. It wasn’t quite as bad as Vault 87 had been, but that wasn’t saying much.

Despite the awful smell, Fluttershy was completely unphased. She was taking in short sharp breaths through her nose as she led the way through the corridors, somehow able to pick out the scent of a human from amongst everything else. Vampire senses were no joke.

After a short walk through the station, Fluttershy led the girls down a flight of steps to a rickety old wooden door. “The trail goes through here,” she said quietly.

“Can you hear anything on the other side?” Twilight asked.

The fact that she drew Vampire’s Edge was answer enough. “I can hear a human down there, pleading, but nothing else. I’ll need to get closer before I know exactly what we’re dealing with, so… stealth?”

“Stealth,” Rainbow confirmed with a nod at Twilight, who opened the door as quietly as possible with her magic. Fluttershy took point again as soon as it was open.

The corridor ahead was deserted. The far end of it had collapsed entirely, leaving only two doors leading off from it. Fluttershy ignored the first, following the trail her senses showed her, but Pinkie glanced inside as she passed. She regretted it instantly.

The room had obviously once been the police station’s firing range, a concept that Pinkie still found a little odd, but the Super Mutants had taken the idea and pushed it to the furthest extreme. Corpses and gore bags hung from the ceiling, blood dripping from cuts and bullet holes to congeal in a thick carpet on the floor. Pinkie quickly looked away.

Thankfully, the other room wasn’t anywhere near as bad; just a wide hall held up by broken pillars and strewn with trash. A pair of filthy locker rooms could be seen through doors opposite, while faint pleading could be heard through a third door on the left.

Pinkie didn’t trust it. If they could hear the captive, Shorty, begging for his life, then they should absolutely be able to hear the brutish Super Mutants that took him, but aside from him the basement was silent as the grave. Fluttershy looked confused and suspicious as well, suggesting that even she couldn’t detect any Mutants. Pinkie didn’t need the fact that every hair on her body was standing on end to tell her something was very, very, wrong.

Gripping her blade tightly, Fluttershy silently crept towards the obvious door. Pinkie let Twilight and Rainbow go ahead of her. Fluttershy’s senses had been fooled before, but the Pinkie Sense was a tougher nut to crack.

Through the door was yet another short corridor, beyond which was a room with a large boiler visible through the doorway. A low rumble indicated that it was currently working. Fluttershy slipped through the door first, frowned, then gestured for the others to follow.

Pinkie grimaced as she stepped into a nightmarish parody of a kitchen. There were a pair of ovens and refrigerators, both bearing bloody handprints, and at least two or three naked bodies were spread across the countertops in varying states of dismemberment while an assortment of bones littered the floor. A young man wearing tattered clothes was kneeling in the middle of the room, facing away from the girls and trembling as he begged for his life.

The girls all looked to Fluttershy, but she was covering her nose and looking away. Pinkie suppressed a shiver as she realized that she was struggling to hold back her predatory instincts in the presence of all of that blood. Seeing that their medic was out of commission for the moment, Rainbow was the one to step over to the man. “Shorty?”

The man practically leapt out of his skin and fell onto his side. Both of his hands were roughly tied together at the wrists. “Wh-who’s there?!” He looked around wildly, and his eyes almost popped out of his skull when he saw the girls. “Holy fuck, you’re the Rainbooms!”

“Most of them,” Rainbow muttered. “You’re Shorty?” She asked again. He nodded and opened his mouth, but Rainbow cut him off, “Hold out your hands.”

Just as Rainbow reached out with Flashburn a gut-wrenching feeling of dread ripped through Pinkie’s stomach. Acting on reflex, she grabbed Twilight’s shoulder and hauled her away from the door. A heartbeat later a bladed gauntlet slammed into the wall right where Pinkie’s head had been. The girls banded together and raised their weapons just as a hulking Super Mutant stepped into the room.

The new Super Mutant was covered in spiky metal armor, complete with what looked like a crude imitation of a gladiator’s helmet sporting a flamboyant pink mohawk. Several of the spikes were made out of glowing pink crystals. “Aww, I missed,” the Mutant said with a grin, revealing that its needle-sharp teeth were apparently made out of the same pink crystal.

“Too bad” a terrifyingly familiar voice called out. A previously unnoticed door next to the boiler creaked open and Diane skipped through, looking for all the world as if she was out for a pleasant wander through a park. “Don’t worry, I’m sure you’ll get another chance, Sergeant Sparkles.”

Pinkie scowled at her dark counterpart. “A little on the nose, don’t you think?” Diane just giggled and raised her hands in an exaggerated shrug.

“Pinkie, why the fuck is your wasteland version working with Super Mutants?” Rainbow asked pointedly.

“Sh-she’s the Gore Merchant!” Shorty exclaimed in terror. “She kills people and sells them as food!”

“You can just call her a heinous bitch,” Pinkie said flatly.

Surprise flickered across Rainbow’s face, but only for a second before her expression became one of resolution. “You mind if I kill these fuckers?”

“Be my guest,” Pinkie hissed. She had barely finished her sentence when a sudden blur rustled her hair.

For a moment, Pinkie thought that Rainbow had taken Diane’s head clean off, but her stomach dropped when she realized that her counterpart had somehow ducked under the attack. A split second later there came a loud crackling sound and Rainbow toppled over. Diane caught and swept her up over her shoulder in one swift movement, grinning manically. “I love mezzers. Okay, Sergeant, the rest are yours,” she said as she turned to the door.

“No you don’t!” Twilight raised her arms, but the Super Mutant dove in front of Diane and brandished its bladed gauntlets. It opened its mouth to say something, but was forced to leap aside against the wall as Twilight hurled a fridge at it. The second fridge knocked the Mutant sprawling. “Get Rainbow, we’ve got this!” Twilight ordered.

“On it!” Pinkie darted past the swearing Mutant and sprinted through the door after Diane. She felt rather than saw the frag grenade her target dropped in the pillared room and took cover behind the door frame.

The explosion had barely died down before Pinkie was on the move again. She tore through the room and burst into the corridor beyond, raising her shotgun ready. Diane was almost at the door to the first floor, but she suddenly launched herself sideways into the firing range just as Pinkie fired. Cursing her counterpart’s Bitch Sense, Pinkie sprinted after her and commando-rolled through the door.

Diane was nowhere to be seen. Pinkie advanced cautiously, sweeping her shotgun around for a target. She soon found Rainbow dumped in a booth, groaning as she stirred, and rushed over to check on her.

Just as Pinkie was about to squat next to Rainbow she felt a shiver run up her spine. Quick as a flash, she spun around and lashed out with the butt of her shotgun. Diane skipped back with a yelp as Pinkie smashed the weird box-shaped device she was holding.

“Aww, my mez-whoa!” Diane ducked as Pinkie tried to blast her head off. Before she could try again, Diane tackled her and lifted her into the air. Pinkie had a brief moment of feeling weightless before her attacker lurched forward and the two landed heavily. “Your turn!” She gasped in pain as Diane jabbed her in the ribs, then ripped her shotgun out of her hands and threw it away. “Now it’s fair!”

“You wish!” Pinkie whipped her knife out and opened up a crimson line on Diane’s abdomen, then used the moment of distraction to bring her legs up and kick her away.

The two scrambled to their feet, one glaring, the other grinning evilly. “Don’t you know that you shouldn’t play with knives?” Diane asked in a patronizing tone.

Pinkie snorted. “You’re one to talk. Mom and Pops really fucked up when raising you.”

As soon as the words left Pinkie’s mouth it felt like an electric jolt ran through every part of her body. Distracted by the sudden sensation, she didn’t even have a chance to react as Diane suddenly darted forward and slammed a fist into her cheek. The room spun as Pinkie crashed to the ground. A second later a weight settled on her stomach and strong hands wrapped around her throat. “Never talk about my parents, you weak bitch! Never!”

Almost as soon as the weight had appeared, it disappeared again. Looking up through bleary eyes, Pinkie saw Rainbow standing over her, pointing Flashburn at Diane. Diane herself was standing back, bleeding from a fresh cut across her shoulder.

“You come round quickly,” she said in a flat tone. Rainbow didn’t answer, earning a cruel smirk from Diane. “That’s fine, I don’t mind playing with both of you again.”

“Three of us.” Diane was forced to twist awkwardly out of the way as the Super Mutant’s disembodied head flew past her and splattered against the far wall. Twilight stalked into the firing range, flexing her fingers and carrying a lot of sharp kitchen implements in her magic. “You’ll need more than big muscles and cheap tricks to take us out.”

Pinkie climbed back to her feet and pulled a bottle of Nuka-Cola out of her pocket, ready for round two. Diane stared blankly at the three, then, to her surprise, just sighed and smiled. “Oh well. You win some, you lose some.” She pulled something out of her hair and, before anyone could react, pressed the detonator.

With an echoing boom and a loud phweee, a mass of confetti, streamers and balloons erupted out of the walls. The Rainbooms all ducked instinctively, but by the time their vision had cleared Diane had already disappeared.

“What the fuck was that about?” Twilight asked.

“Just evil me being an evil B,” Pinkie replied. She looked back at Rainbow and asked, “Are you okay? That mezzer thing looked like it packed a punch.”

Rainbow cocked her head, frowning slightly, then sheathed Flashburn and shrugged. “Yeah, I can’t hear a word you’re saying. Whatever that freakshow hit me with has fucked my hearing aids.”

Pinkie and Twilight both groaned. “I’ll see if I can fix them back at Regulator HQ,” Twilight said, more to herself than anyone. “Come on, let’s fetch Fluttershy and Shorty, find the others, and get the hell out of here.”

Next Chapter: Chapter 168 - Big Trouble... in Big Town? Estimated time remaining: 8 Hours, 3 Minutes