Applejack was growing to despise the Hangways. The tracks weren’t anywhere near as stable as they should have been, more than once flexing to the point that she was sure they were going to collapse, and the switches to change tracks were more slapdash and rickety than anything on the farm back home. Even the rotten old barn they had torn down last summer had been safer, and that was before you included the traps the Diggers had set up all along the place.

“I think there’s more Diggers coming,” Brux called out calmly from the walkway. She leaned over the flimsy rail and peered into the darkness below. “Yeah, there’s more.”

“Oh, fuck off!” Applejack snapped. “How many times do we have to kill those ugly bastards?!”

Rotty giggled and glanced back at her. “Just once more, I think. We’re almost out of the Hangways.”

“Thank God,” Wernher muttered.

“Don’t thank anyone until we’re out of this mess,” Adam spat just as Brux started shooting into the darkness.

A few seconds later, Applejack heard the distinctive clink of the Diggers’ claws on the walls. She risked a glance over the edge of the handcart, squinting into the dark, and grimaced as the flashes from Brux’s gun revealed the creatures coming after them.

The Diggers all wore filthy mining gear wrapped with barbed wire, gas masks, and cracked oxygen tanks that constantly leaked a foul-looking yellow gas. Makeshift claws on their hands and feet allowed them to clamber up the walls like cockroaches.

“Why are so many of these bastards attacking us?!” Wernher spat. “I didn’t even see one when I came this way last time!”

Brux shrugged as she reloaded. “They like magic, and we’re all carrying magic. Seems pretty obvious.” Werhner threw a sharp look at Applejack and Adam, but he didn’t bother saying anything as he whipped out his own gun and started picking off the climbing Diggers.

Applejack gritted her teeth as she realized that the mutated freaks were after her Geode. It didn’t help that the bizarre battle was taking place while she kept the cart moving at a snail’s pace. Going faster would risk collapsing the Hangways, and trying to shoot the Diggers with one hand while keeping the cart moving with the other was just asking for something to go wrong. All she could do was stick to her job and let the others handle the rest.

“Uh, guys? I think we’ve got a problem up ahead,” Rotty called back.

“What no- oh, fuck.” Applejack’s blood ran cold as she saw a mob of Diggers working to dismantle the tracks. There was no way the group could take them all down before they weakened the Hangways enough to stop the cart. “New plan, Brux, get your ass over here! We’re speedrunnin’ this shit!”

To her credit, Brux glanced up, saw the danger, and immediately darted across the narrow support beams to jump on the handcart. “Go!”

“Everyone hold on tight!” Tracks creaked and the lever squealed in protest as Applejack put her back into pumping, launching the handcart forwards. The noise grabbed the attention of some of the Diggers, but none of them reacted quickly enough. Blood and limbs splattered everywhere as the cart plowed through those foolish enough to be standing on the tracks themselves. “Take that you fuckers!”

A series of loud cracks made Applejack’s mood plummet instantly.

“Shit, the tracks are collapsing!” Wernher yelled. “Move, move, fucking move!”

“Ah am!” The lever mechanism made a horrible creaking sound, but Applejack gritted her teeth and tried to ignore it as she used the slightest bit of her magic to propel the cart faster than it had ever been intended to go.

Everyone else held on for grim death, the cart shuddering and rattling wildly, as support struts twisted and snapped behind them. The sound of metal clattering down the walls was enough to make Applejack’s teeth rattle, but she didn’t dare to slow down for even a moment. Thankfully, by some miracle, there weren’t any more tight corners or turns in the track, and it didn’t take long for the group to finally rocket out of the Hangways and into an ordinary tunnel.

“Hey… hey!”

The voice pierced through the cold darkness like a scream in the night, shredding the peace with a blast of sensation.

“Wake up. Come on… snap out of it.”

Luna groaned and cracked her eyes open. Bright light blinded her for a second, but her vision soon cleared and she got a glimpse of tall icy cliffs reaching high above. The wind caught faint wisps of snow off the top of the cliffs and sent them wafting down on her.

“What the heck?” Luna sat up and whipped around at the sound of Trixie’s voice. Her jaw dropped open when saw not only Trixie, but Sonata sitting on the ground nearby as well. Both were wearing fatigues and combat armor similar to that of the Rainbooms, save that they bore wintry camouflage rather than Brotherhood of Steel colors. “Are… are we in the simulation too?!” Trixie yelped.

“But we didn’t get in the egg thing,” Sonata said, masterfully stating the obvious. She stood up and brushed snow off of herself, then cocked her head with a curious expression. “Who’s that guy?”

Luna turned and felt a jolt in her stomach as she realized that a soldier was standing over her. “That was a hell of a nasty fall you took,” he said with a worried look at her, as if he had been waiting for her to notice him before speaking. “When your chute bunched up like that I thought you were a goner. I hope the other guys made it…”

“Uh, we’re fine?” Sonata told him. “Trixie, you’re fine, right?”

The soldier completely ignored the siren. “I don’t think their patrols spotted us coming in, so at least we still have the jump on ‘em. You still have your gear, so I’m gonna let you make the call. You can go in quiet or guns blazing.”

“My gear?” Luna looked down at herself and realized belatedly that she was wearing winter armor as well, along with a handgun on one hip, a knife on the other, and a strange little box attached to her belt. Somehow, even her Tide Stave was there, stuck point-first in the ground next to her.

“We’ll still meet at the rendezvous point inside as planned, then we’ll blow those artillery guns to hell,” the soldier continued blithely. “Just watch yourself. The Reds up here don’t take prisoners. Good luck!” As soon as he finished delivering his warning, the soldier hurried to the base of the cliffs and started climbing.

Luna stared at him blankly for a second before scrambling to her feet. “Wait! What rendezvous point? What guns? Where am I supposed to be going?!”

The soldier didn’t acknowledge her in the slightest as he climbed to the top of the cliff and disappeared from sight. Luna stared after him, wondering how she was supposed to know what to do from those vague instructions. It took her a few seconds to pull herself together and tear her gaze away. She needed to prioritize.

Trixie and Sonata were both standing where they had been left, looking around in confusion.

“What’s going on? How did you girls get in here?” Luna asked.

Trixie shook her head. “I don’t know. We heard strange voices coming from the egg-thing right after you got into it, then all of the lights went out and something grabbed me. The next thing I knew, I was waking up here.”

“Yeah, same here,” Sonata added. “Do you think that was the Boogeyman?”

“If it was, then why didn’t you stop it?!” Trixie snapped. “That’s literally the only reason you were asked to come along!”

“It’s not her fault,” Luna cut in quickly. “The thing was already lurking in the pod, she couldn’t have known. Besides, I heard two voices in there. I think the Boogeyman is working with someone. Or something. Whatever it was, it asked to bring ‘all three’, so I guess one of the voices must have brought the two of you into the simulation as well somehow.”

Trixie bit her lip anxiously. “Why would it do that?”

“I’m not sure,” Luna replied. She decided to keep what the voice had said about seeing what they were capable of to herself; it would only put pressure on Trixie and probably inspire Sonata to do something dumb, not that she needed much encouragement.

Still, Luna doubted that getting the two to hunker down somewhere while she completed the simulation would work out. The girls probably wouldn’t allow it, for one, but somehow it didn’t seem likely that the Boogeyman would either, and if it could bring the others into the simulation, it could probably manipulate the simulation, too. “I hate to say it, but I think we’re all going to have to go through this thing together.”

“Uh, how?” Trixie asked. “I don’t have any of my equipment, or any guns like you’ve got.”

Sonata tugged her breastplate forward to check behind it. “I’ve got my Torc, that’s all though.”

“And I’ve got my Stave.” Luna thought hard as she yanked the Tide Stave out of the ground. “It’s possible that anyone who enters the simulation is supposed to get a gun and whatever else, but you two didn’t enter the simulation the normal way, so…”

“Oh, so the Boogeyman can only bring magic stuff through instead of all of our stuff?” Sonata finished brightly.

Trixie frowned, clearly not convinced. “If that was true, then how are we wearing armor?”

Luna floundered as she tried to think of a reason that wouldn’t terrify the girl. “That’s probably just the simulation giving us all the same generic skin,” she offered. “I’m just glad you weren’t both dropped in naked.” Trixie shuddered at the thought, so Luna took the opportunity to change the subject. “Anyway, what’s important right now is figuring out where we need to go and what we’re supposed to do.”

Neither of the girls disagreed. Sonata shrugged and looked at the other two expectantly, while Trixie frowned and crossed her arms as she tried to come up with something. “Why couldn’t that soldier tell us anything useful?” She grumbled.

The same complaint had floated through Luna’s mind already, but in this case she suspected that it was actually the Outcasts’ fault. “I imagine that the people who were originally put through this program were given more detailed briefings than what we had.”

With a heavy sigh, Luna planted her hands on her hips and looked around to try and get her bearings. The trio were standing in a rocky culvert of sorts, bordered by the cliffs on one side and tall boulders on the other. “Which way, I wonder?” Luna headed back away from where the soldier had been, clambered on top of a rock that was in the way, and stopped right in her tracks. “Wow. Girls, I think we’re going the other way.”

Before her was an immense chasm stretching off into the distance. The ground disappeared in a sheer drop from the base of the rock, dropping what looked like easily a thousand feet or more to a stony bottom. What’s more, the chasm followed the line of the cliffs near-perfectly, with cloud-wreathed mountains rising up on the far side, revealing that the trio weren’t in a culvert, they were standing on what was essentially a rocky ledge on the side of a mountain. Every now and then, patches of static crackled across the bottom of the chasm or the mountains.

“The graphics in this thing are actually pretty good,” Sonata noted as she climbed up next to Luna. “Mostly, anyway.”

“I’m not sure that’s a good thing, considering what we’re here for,” Luna said grimly. She glanced back at Trixie, who had taken one look at the chasm and hopped back down off of the rock, and fought the urge to sigh again. “Alright, we know which way to go now, so I guess we should get this over with. Just stay behind me and keep quiet. We’ll try and avoid as much conflict as we possibly can.”

Sonata nodded and hopped off of the rock as well. Luna, lacking the youthful agility of her charges, opted to sit down and slide off instead. The second her boots touched the ground, a wave of static rippled across her vision and the whole simulation went dark for a split-second. “What was that?”

“A glitch?” Trixie suggested hopefully.

Luna glanced around anxiously, but she couldn’t see anything different. “Keep an eye out for anything strange just in case. Just remember to keep behind me and be as quiet as you can.”

At last, the trio set off in single file along the path. It didn’t take long for them to move out of the dip they were in and emerge onto the ledge proper, with the cliffs on their left and a sheer drop on their right. Luna made sure to keep the pace slow so no one tripped over an awkwardly placed rock and fell headlong into the chasm. Metal signs were placed at irregular intervals along the path, somewhat unnecessarily warning of treacherous conditions.

Just as Luna was wondering when they would run into trouble, she stepped around a corner, gasped, and quickly ducked back out of sight. She gestured for the others to keep back, praying that her gasp hadn’t been heard, and cautiously peeked out around the corner.

The ledge ended at a concrete platform just ahead. There was a sandbagged wall around one side along with a couple of metal barrels, but the problem was the soldier standing right at the edge. Luckily, he was looking down into the chasm, away from the trio, but it was going to be tricky to sneak past him without getting spotted.

“What is it?” Trixie whispered.

“A soldier,” Luna replied. “Just around the corner.”

Sonata grinned and tried to walk around the corner, forcing Luna to stop her. “What do you think you’re doing?”

“Uh, blast him with my voice?” Sonata replied blankly. “What? It’s not like they’re real people.”

“Don’t you think others might hear us and come looking if you do that?” Luna asked pointedly. Sonata blinked slowly, then opened her mouth in a silent ‘oh’ as if she hadn’t ever considered that. “Just wait here, both of you. I’ll deal with this.”

Luna waited for the two to nod in agreement before she turned to check on the soldier again. Thankfully, he was still standing around staring across the chasm. Either he was supposed to be a bad guard, or he just had lazy AI scripting.

Treading with exceptional care, Luna crept around the corner and on towards the platform. As she got closer, she saw the chasm, but no-one else was in sight. The guard was on his own.

The thought crossed Luna’s mind that perhaps this had been done deliberately as a relatively easy introduction to the simulation, but she still couldn’t let her guard down. She switched her stave to her left hand and drew her knife from its sheath as quietly as she could and crept slowly closer, not even daring to breathe as she got within arm’s reach of the soldier. Right at the last second, the soldier suddenly sighed and turned around.

A knife slammed into his throat before he could make a sound. Quick as a whip, Luna ripped the blade free and kicked the soldier off of the platform. The corpse turned pale blue and dissipated in a haze of static before it had even dropped over the edge.

Luna looked around quickly to make sure that there weren’t any other soldiers around. Her heart leapt into her mouth as she saw that the canyon curved around to the left, and that there were several concrete emplacements on the far side, all with full view of the platform that Luna was on. Fear froze her for several moments, but there was no outcry, no sudden sounding of alarms, no sign of any kind that she had been seen.

Just in case, Luna darted to the sandbags and hunkered down out of sight. A faint ringing sound and a red glow was coming from a large canister of some kind next to her, which was very concerning, but it had a medical symbol on it similar to what the Enclave used, so she hoped that it was benign. Risking another glance at the emplacements, Luna gestured for the girls to hurry over and join her.

“Is that where the soldier guy wants to meet us?” Sonata asked as she and Trixie crouched behind the sandbags.

“I have no idea,” Luna replied honestly. “The path ahead is in full view of those things, so let’s just hope there’s no-one keeping a lookout.” She was about to give the girls new instructions when she saw Trixie giving her a strange look. “Are you okay? What’s wrong?”

Trixie’s eyes flicked to where the soldier had been standing a moment ago. “You did that so easily…”

It didn’t take a genius to work out that she wasn’t talking about actual physical difficulty. “I wouldn’t say easy, but it’s certainly reassuring knowing that our enemies here aren’t real. I don’t know if you play video games, but it might help to look at it from that angle,” Luna explained. “Trust me, I wouldn’t be anywhere near as comfortable if I was forced to do the same thing against real people. That’s not something I would be able to shrug off easily.”

“Really? I thought it was easy,” Sonata supplied. “Is this a human thing?”

Luna didn’t know where to even begin with that comment, but Trixie at least looked mollified, so she decided to let it go. “Anyway, you girls stay here for now and keep an eye out for any trouble. I’ll go on ahead and make sure the path is safe.”

“Are you sure you don’t want us to come with you?” Trixie asked.

“I’ll be fine,” Luna replied. “I promise.”

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