A cold steel corridor greeted the Moons as they stepped through the door. It appeared to be empty save for a couple of steel drums and some Chinese propaganda posters, but Luna knew better than to let her guard down. She glanced back, making sure the others were inside, then gestured for Trixie to shut the door quietly.

Thunderous gunfire erupted the instant the door closed, scaring the trio out of their wits and making them duck instinctively. Luna fought the urge to swear loudly when she realized that the noise was just echoes coming from further inside. It was hardly reassuring, but at least it was better than getting shot at in such a tight space.

Ignoring the way her heart was attempting to pummel its way out of her chest, Luna gestured for the girls to follow and cautiously led the way forward.

As it turned out, the man-made corridors weren’t particularly long, soon transitioning to rocky tunnels instead. The gunfire grew louder with every step forward, but Luna swallowed her fear and pressed on regardless. The gunfire ended abruptly as soon as the trio reached the end of the tunnel. Unsure what she was about to see, Luna gestured for the others to wait and carefully peeked around the corner.

The tunnel opened out into a tall cave. Two more tunnels split off from it; one to the left and one to the right, while faint sunlight shone down through a hole in the ceiling high above. Unfortunately, a handful of Chinese soldiers were in the cave, gathered around a dead US soldier.

In an incredible stroke of luck, none of the soldiers were looking towards the tunnel the trio were hiding in. In fact, on a closer look, Luna saw that one of them was walking directly into a wall, his feet sliding across the floor as he walked in place like a buggy NPC in a video game. Smirking despite herself, Luna unclipped one of the grenades on her belt. Pulling the pin out took a lot more effort than she had anticipated, but as soon as it came loose in her hand she tossed the grenade into the middle of the group of soldiers and ducked back out of sight.

The soldiers all shouted the exact same warning in unison. Luna feared for a moment that one of them would throw the grenade back, but her fears were groundless as a terrific explosion tore through the air and echoed deafeningly through the cave. Unfortunately, one grenade wasn’t enough to do the trick, as Luna could still clearly hear at least one soldier yelling loudly in Chinese. Still, something sounded off. Taking a deep breath, she raised her rifle and stepped around the corner. “What the…?”

Only one soldier was still standing: the one who had been walking into the wall. He had his weapon out, and he was running instead of walking, but for whatever ridiculous reason he was still trying to charge through the same solid wall. A couple of shots in the back put the buggy soldier out of his misery.

Luna gave the cave a last look over, glancing down both of the other exits, before calling back to the others, “It’s clear.”

“That was weird,” Trixie noted, looking out from the tunnel.

“It was kinda funny when he called you a dog, though,” Sonata added as she stepped into the cave.

It took a second for Luna to properly register what the siren had said. “Wait, you can speak Chinese?!”

“A little,” Sonata replied with a shrug. “It’s, like, much easier to control people if they can understand what you’re singing.”

Such information would have been good to know a little sooner, but Luna held back from reprimanding her. “In that case, if you hear or read anything useful then let us know.” She gestured down the tunnel to the right. “Come on, there’s health and ammunition dispensers down here.”

Just as Luna had said, the right tunnel was little more than an alcove containing two dispensers, as well as another assault rifle and a collection of explosives on a table. The trio immediately went to the health dispenser to replenish their stamina first. Luna turned to the ammo dispenser, eager to keep her weapons topped up just in case, but before she could touch it a swathe of shadowy tendrils burst out of the ground and wrapped around it.

“Girls, get back!” Luna snapped instantly, backing away and snapping up her rifle. The shadows thickened and solidified, morphing into jet-black skeletal arms that grasped the dispenser tightly and slowly dragged it into the ground, stone bubbling like tar until the dispenser had disappeared entirely. “What in the name of-”

Each of the three flinched as a wave of static passed over their surroundings. Just as had happened earlier with the door earlier, the walls of the alcove were now covered in a mass of fused and oil-slicked bones.

“That thing again?” Sonata huffed. “Why did it take all of the stuff?”

Luna shook her head and looked down at her conspicuously empty hands. A quick check revealed that it wasn’t only her assault rifle that was missing. “My weapons are gone, too.” She patted the Tide Stave, tucked awkwardly through her belt. “All I’ve got left is this.”

“And I’ve still got my torc,” Sonata added after glancing down her top. “Is this still part of the simulation?”

“I doubt it, I get the feeling this is something to do with the Boogeyman, or whoever it’s working for,” Luna replied. A chill ran down her spine as she recalled the ghostly voices she had heard just before entering the simulation. “I think it wants us to rely on our magic.” She glanced at Trixie, who understandably went pale at Luna’s suggestion.

“But… I don’t have Equestrian magic!” She exclaimed. “I can’t even do my regular stage magic without the props I was carrying!”

More static suddenly rippled across the walls, and a second later the entire cave was plunged into darkness. Luna pulled out her stave, for all the good it would do, but the dark only lasted for a few seconds. Strangely, it didn’t look like anything had changed. “Girls? Do you see anything different?”

“Uh, would you say my outfit counts?” Trixie asked.

Sonata snorted loudly. “Why would you outfit cou- oh.”

As curious as she was concerned, Luna glanced back over her shoulder. She honestly wasn’t sure whether or not she should be surprised that Trixie’s US Army outfit had been replaced with her Enclave gear, complete with her usual hat and cloak. “Do you have all of your magician stuff?”

Trixie quickly checked her pockets. “Yeah… yeah I think so.”

Luna nodded slowly. That was proof that the Boogeyman really was manipulating the simulation somehow. It clearly wanted the trio to prove themselves somehow, but Luna wasn’t sure that letting it see all of their tricks was a good idea. Not that she really had any tricks in the first place. Tide Stave or no, Equestrian magic was beyond her at the moment. Luna turned to Sonata, hoping that the siren could at least give her an idea of how to get the stave’s magic working, only to freeze when she saw the bones embedded in the wall start to move.

Dozens of skeletal arms slowly reached out of the foul mass, waving about blindly before grabbing the first object or surface that they touched. More bones grew around them, like vines crawling up a macabre trellis, then when they were thick enough more arms grew from the extensions and the whole process repeated itself again.

“It looks like we’ve been given a time limit of sorts,” Luna said grimly. “Let’s get moving. I don’t know what that stuff will do if it gets a hold of us, but I doubt it’ll be pleasant.”

Neither of the girls disagreed. The trio hurried out of the alcove, only to find the same gruesome barrier spreading out of the tunnel they had first entered from. Only one path was left open to them.

The last tunnel was little more than a narrow path, broken up by shallow metal staircases that climbed up a series of small ledges. As the trio walked, Luna turned to Sonata. “Do you have any idea how I can get this stave working?”

Sonata shrugged. “I dunno. Usually with things like that you either have to pull magic from it or push magic out of it.”

“Pull or push?” Luna frowned at the stave. The concept made sense, but she didn’t have a clue how to go about doing it. “How-”

“Look out!” Luna looked up just in time to see Trixie hurl a firecracker into the face of a Chinese soldier. Sonata’s magically amplified voice blasted him off his feet a second later.

The sound reverberated through the tunnel with such force that even the echoes made Luna’s bones vibrate. She grimaced and held her stave like a bat, waiting for the inevitable horde of soldiers coming to investigate. Seconds passed, slipping by as the echoes died away, but no-one came. There was no hue and cry, no piercing sirens warning of intruders, not even the distant sound of someone asking the Chinese equivalent of ‘did you hear something?’

Trixie threw Luna a curious look. “Was that the last of them?”

“I doubt it,” Luna replied. “This is a computer simulation, so… maybe it only spawns soldiers in when we reach certain areas? In any case, excellent work, you two. Let’s keep moving.” That tiny bit of praise was enough to make Trixie stand taller and look visibly more confident, and even Sonata seemed to be pleased with herself.

Pressing on, the trio soon came to a narrow ramp leading up to a small plateau. There, tucked away in a rocky corner, they came across a steel-lined corridor, clearly the entrance to another bunker. The corridor twisted and turned before passing through a storage room filled with wooden crates and steel barrels. Luna grew more suspicious with every step she took, wondering where all the enemies were, until finally she emerged into a generator room and a body dropped from the ceiling.

Everyone tensed up immediately, only for the US soldier from the very beginning of the simulation to casually drop down from a vent. “Goddamn this place is swarming with Reds. I almost didn’t make it,” he said by way of greeting.

Luna let out the breath she had been holding and lowered her stave. She waited for the soldier to continue, but he just stared at her expectantly. “Uh, good job?”

“Yeah, I almost bought it out on the cliffs. Didn’t know the Reds were so handy with a sniper rifle,” the soldier said gruffly. “So, what’s the situation? We clear to blow the hell out of this place?”

“I… I guess so?” Luna replied.

The soldier nodded and unslung his rifle. “I got your six.”

“Six what?” Sonata asked.

“I think he means he’s going to guard our backs,” Luna told her. The soldier didn’t so much as blink or acknowledge the others in any way, so she just shrugged and headed to the door on the far side of the room. As expected, the soldier followed after her, completely ignoring Sonata and Trixie.

Icy air wafted into the room the moment Luna opened the door. Peering outside, her stomach dropped when she saw that they were very nearly at the top of the cliffs, with only a narrow ledge between the door and a precipitous drop.

“Woah, watch your step near those ledges,” the soldier warned. “That is a hell of a long fall.”

Luna nodded, unable to tear her eyes away. “You heard him, girls. Be careful.” Gathering her courage, she stepped outside and looked around.

The ledge ran along the cliffside to the left. A short way below it, another giant pipe reached across the chasm to a metal bunker built into the opposite cliffside, though there wasn’t any obvious way down. Easing her way along the ledge, Luna was relieved when it turned into a rocky passage and emerged onto a slightly wider boulder-strewn shelf. A winding metal staircase on the far side appeared to be the way down.

“Eyes on, we got company up ahead!” The soldier said suddenly.

In an instant Luna and the girls all ducked behind the nearest boulders. “Where are they?” Luna hissed.

Unfortunately, instead of actually pointing out any threats, the soldier just said again, “I’ve got your six.” No matter what he was asked or how Luna tried to cajole him, he just kept repeating the same pointless phrase every time.

“There’s at least one guy in that building over on the other side, and there’s two more on a platform just down those stairs,” Trixie half-whispered from just ahead

“Want me to blast them?” Sonata asked eagerly.

Luna shook her head. “Not yet, I want to try and get this stave working first.” She gripped the Tide Stave in both hands, staring at the pearl on top, and, in a move that had her questioning her life choices, sincerely considered Sonata’s advice.

Desperately trying to remember everything the Rainbooms had ever said about using their Geodes, Luna closed her eyes and tried to feel the energy inside the stave. Incredibly, despite her initial skepticism, she felt the magic almost instantly; a calm flow that almost felt as though it was sloshing around inside its container. Brimming with excitement, Luna immediately tried to draw the magic out.

Nothing happened. Luna concentrated and tried harder, her brow furrowing as she struggled to pull the magic out of the stave, only to give up when all she managed to achieve was a niggling headache. She supposed that was only to be expected when relying on Sonata Dusk for useful advice. Dejected, Luna gave a half-hearted attempt at pushing the magic instead of pulling, only to jump out of her skin as a bolt of dark blue magic lanced out of the pearl and into the sky. She wasn’t the only one to be surprised, as angry Chinese shouts filled the air.

“They’re saying they’re going to kill the intruders,” Sonata translated, unnecessary as it was.

“Good to know, now blast them!” Luna barked.

Sonata grinned and ran to the top of the stairs. A Chinese soldier reached the top right as she did, then got launched back down them by her devastating magic. There was a chatter of gunfire as the second soldier tried to avenge his companion, but another thunderous note ended his endeavor.

“That got the attention of the guy in the bunker!” Trixie exclaimed.

“I’d be surprised if it hadn’t,” Luna said flatly. She inched towards the edge of the ledge and risked a quick look over the rocks. A Chinese soldier emerged from the bunker and charged along the giant pipe, firing up at the group with shocking accuracy given the range and how fast he was running.

As if one lunatic with a gun wasn’t enough, the US soldier rushed to the edge and fired down at his Chinese counterpart. “I’ve got a present for ya, commie!”

Leaving him to it, Luna turned back to the girls. Both of them were watching her expectantly. “Do you think you could hit that soldier from up here?” She asked Sonata.

The siren snorted and shook her head. “Uh, no way. He’s too far away. All he’ll get from here is a nice breeze.”

“I’ve got some fireworks that’ll reach, but I don’t know if they’ve got the accuracy for it,” Trixie put in.

Luna shook her head. Sonata’s magic was one thing, but she didn’t feel comfortable letting Trixie get into a shootout with a soldier with nothing but a few fireworks. “We’ll keep that as a backup plan. For now, I’ll see what kind of range this stave has.”

Matching actions to words, Luna raised the Tide Stave and looked out over the edge. “Wait, what?” The Chinese soldier was gone. The US soldier was still firing at a spot right in the middle of the pipe, but there was no sign of an actual target anywhere in sight. “Uh, what are you shooting at?”

“I’ve got your six!” The soldier replied unhelpfully.

Luna fought the urge to swear loudly at him. “Is this because of the Boogeyman, or is the whole simulation just generally buggy as heck?”

“Both?” Trixie suggested.

“Probably.” Luna sighed and glanced back at her. “Do you see any other soldiers around?” Trixie squinted as she looked around, but eventually shook her head. “Alright, we’ll head down, but be-”

“Be careful, we get it,” Sonata finished.

Luna gave her a hard look. “I hope so, because with the Boogeyman around, there's no guarantee that the Outcasts will be able to pull us out of here until the simulation is finished.”

The reminder of their predicament was enough to get Sonata to take things seriously again.

“What about that guy?” Trixie asked.

Luna glanced back at the soldier and shrugged. “Hopefully, he’ll follow us. Just stay out of his way so he doesn’t accidentally shoot you.”

Thankfully, as the trio headed to the staircase, the soldier at least kept up with them, darting from boulder to boulder and maintaining his barrage of fire against empty air. The staircase turned out to be a series of short flights linking a couple of concrete platforms. At the bottom, on the last platform, two metal catwalks headed off in different directions. One led to the giant pipe, the other followed the curve of the cliff.

“Which way, Vice-Principal?” Trixie asked.

Luna glanced at the soldier, debating whether or not it was worth asking him for directions. Somehow, he still had ammunition left, and was still firing away at the pipe. All of a sudden, Luna spotted something falling from the sky out of the corner of her eye. She stared in disbelief as a Chinese soldier dropped out of nowhere and landed with an audible thump on the pipe. He disappeared in a blue flash a second later.

“Don’t mess with the US,” their guide said firmly as he finally stopped shooting.

Sonata looked from the pipe to the soldier and back again, clearly confused. “Uh, what just happened?”

“I have no idea,” Luna admitted. “We’ll cross the pipe. If we’re lucky, that Chinese soldier was guarding something useful.”

“We’re crossing that pipe? And here I thought I was the one with a death wish,” the US soldier offered sarcastically.

As surprising as his input was, Luna wasn’t about to get her hopes up. “Does that mean we should go the other way, or…?”

“I’ve got your six,” came the usual response.

Luna just sighed and took the lead onto the pipe. Thankfully, no more enemies appeared as the group crossed over to the bunker. The inside was even more spartan than expected, with nothing more than a health dispenser and a table with an old ham radio on top. A heavy steel door was embedded in the interior wall, but a quick check revealed that it was locked.

“Hold on.” Trixie crouched next to the keyhole. “I think I can get this open.”

“I have no doubt that you’re a talented magician, but I don’t think an amateur is going to… be able… to…” Luna trailed off as Trixie casually pulled a lockpicking set out of her pocket, carefully selected a pair of tools from the bunch, and got straight to work on a keyhole next to the door. Less than a minute later there was a faint click and the door slid open.

“That was easier than I expected,” Trixie said nonchalantly as she put her picks away. “No extra sets of tumblers, no duds, nothing. You’d think the military would have higher standards for their locks.”

Luna couldn’t help but chuckle quietly. “Maybe they just weren’t expecting the soldiers going through this simulation to be particularly good at picking locks. Where did you even learn to do that?”

Trixie shrugged, showing an unusual amount of humility. “I dabble in escapology. I can’t do the really cool flashy stuff yet, so I don’t usually bother including it in my acts, but I can open simple padlocks and stuff pretty easily.”

“Nice work. Okay, back to it.” Luna held the Tide Stave like a spear as she stepped through the door.

The room beyond was empty aside from a small desk tucked away in a corner. A terminal and a holotape were sitting on it, both letting out a faint ringing sound. The holotape was corrupted beyond use, and the terminal only had one partially degraded file on it, but the bits that were legible looked like they might actually be useful.

“It looks like this is a translated Chinese document of some kind.” Luna read it curiously, wondering if perhaps lockpicking was something that the developers had anticipated. “Huh, this says that there’s an undefended area around the eastern cliffs. I have no idea where the eastern cliffs are, but, given what kind of simulation this is, I’d be willing to bet that they’re somewhere up ahead.”

“Hey, what’s this?” Trixie pulled a metal briefcase out from underneath the desk, but the moment she held it up a loud tone echoed through the room and the case disappeared in a blue flash, just like the fallen Chinese soldiers. “Um, what? Did I break something?”

The tone hadn’t sounded particularly ominous, but Luna wasn’t interested in taking risks. “Whatever it was, there’s nothing left here now. Let’s get back to the path and try the other route.”

No-one had any objections, so the group left the bunker and crossed back over the pipe, then onto the other catwalk. This catwalk was the longest one yet, a fact that even their soldier commented on as he muttered, “If I live just one more day without seeing another catwalk, I’ll die a happy man.”

Continuing on, the catwalk was soon replaced with a rocky path. A Chinese soldier was lurking between two particularly large boulders, but Luna managed to get the drop on him and kick him off the edge of the cliff before he could raise the alarm.

A little further on a short bridge led to another rocky path. This one was wider, with large irregular boulders providing plenty of cover. Luna could see a large concrete platform a short way ahead, with a single Chinese soldier standing atop it. She wasn’t the only one, as Trixie warned, “Careful, there’s another soldier on that concrete thing over there.”

“Yeah, I see h-” Luna was interrupted as two Chinese soldiers emerged from behind separate boulders, shouting and raising their weapons. “Get down!

Luna grabbed Trixie and dragged her into cover just as all of the soldiers opened fire. The racket only lasted for a second or two before Sonata’s magic made its presence felt, blasting through rocks and making the ground itself quake as it vented its fury. The shaking stopped slowly, leaving behind nothing but distant yells, fading echoes in the chasm and a distinct ringing in Luna’s ears.

“At least my armor works,” Trixie said shakily.

“Wait, were you hit?!” Icy wrath filled Luna at the sight of a sizable dent in Trixie’s breastplate. “Oh, screw this!” She gripped the Tide Stave tightly as she stepped out from behind cover, looking around for the nearest enemy. Both of the closest Chinese soldiers were gone, obliterated by Sonata’s magic, but two more were charging across a bridge from the concrete platform, firing as they came.

The first couple of shots from the Tide Stave missed by miles. It didn’t take long for Luna to get her aim in, however, and her next shot punched one of the soldiers clean off of his feet. Bullets hissed past Luna, but she ignored them and hit the second soldier with a shot that sent him careening off of the bridge. A burst of fire from the US soldier made sure that the first trooper didn’t get back up.

As soon as she was sure that there were no more enemies around, Luna turned back to the girls. “Are you both alright?”

“I-I’m okay,” Trixie replied.

“I’m fine, they didn’t even get close to hitting me,” Sonata declared.

Luna sagged with relief. “Good. From here on, let’s try and stay quiet unless we know where our enemies are.” The girls agreed, Trixie with particular enthusiasm, then they set off across the next bridge.

The platform had another locked door set into the cliff face. Trixie got through this lock as easily as the first one but, once again, all that was inside was another corrupted holotape and another briefcase that disappeared as soon as the young performer picked it up. Luna was sure that there was some point or reason to the briefcases, but she had no idea what it was, and the US soldier was of no use whatsoever in that regard.

Moving on, the group followed a winding catwalk to yet another concrete platform, this one bearing a squat military construct that was built right into the cliffside.

“Through this structure is the entrance to the Artillery Base,” the soldier said as they approached. “I dunno what they got waiting for us, so keep a sharp watch.”

“I don’t suppose you can tell us anything else about this place?” Luna asked half-heartedly.

“The only good Commie is a dead Commie,” the soldier replied.

Luna blinked in surprise. “Well, that’s different, still not really helpful though. Or true, for that matter.”

Narrow and empty corridors were the only things the group found in the structure at first. They passed an ammunition dispenser a short way in, but now that the trio didn’t have any guns it was essentially useless. A short walk later, the group passed a nondescript side door before reaching the other side of the structure. Luna felt a shudder of fear when she saw what awaited them.

A long and narrow bridge stretched out across a wide chasm. At the far side, with a commanding view of the approach, was a huge concrete bunker with a circular pillbox on top. As if that wasn’t bad enough, another pillbox was set just off to the left of the bunker. Anyone who attempted to cross the bridge was going to face a devastating crossfire. Charging in headlong would be suicidal, even to Luna’s untrained eye.

“Side door?” Trixie asked.

“Side door,” Luna confirmed flatly. “If we’re lucky, that’ll be the undefended area mentioned on the terminal.”

The group quickly backtracked to said door. As if to spite them, a Chinese soldier was waiting right on the other side of the door. Him and Luna both reacted at the same time, each raising their weapons almost in sync.

A bolt of blue energy blasted the soldier backwards before he could fire. The unfortunate foe landed heavily, spraying bullets into the air, before another magical shot finished him off. Luna kept her stave ready as she stepped through the door and checked for more enemies.

Behind the door was a huge natural cave. A long metal staircase led up to a tunnel high above the ground, but there was no sign of any other soldiers whatsoever. Luna allowed the girls a five minute rest in the cave, while things were quiet, before heading up the stairs. At the top was a short tunnel leading to another nondescript door. Luna gently cracked it open and snuck a peek outside.

By some miracle, the group had reached a platform to the right of the main bunker, largely out of sight of the pillboxes and bypassing the bridge entirely. The terminal had been right about the undefended area.

Looking carefully, Luna realized that they might be able to sneak around to the back of the pillboxes without anyone noticing. She bit her lip as she ran through a plan in her head, then turned to discuss it with the girls. “I have an idea, but we’ll need to be very sneaky to pull it off. Can you manage that?”

“You already know that I can,” Trixie replied bluntly.

“I can be snmmphf!” Luna clamped a hand over Sonata’s mouth to stifle her indignant screech.

“The key point of being sneaky is being quiet,” Luna hissed. “Take a look out there and tell me whether or not you can sneak up to the top pillbox, the round thing on top of the bunker, without being noticed, and I need a straight, honest, yes or no answer.”

As soon as Sonata’s mouth was released she meekly stepped to the door and peered through the crack. After a moment, she nodded and said quietly, “I can do it.”

“You’re sure?” Luna pressed.

“I’m sure,” Sonata replied.

Luna hesitated, wondering whether Sonata was overestimating herself, but she decided to give the siren the benefit of the doubt. “The plan is simple. Sonata, I need you-” She put an eye to the door and froze as she saw something impossible.

A little girl, no older than five or six, was sitting on the catwalk outside, calmly swinging her legs over the edge. She was wearing a pretty but old-fashioned dress, and had ribbons tied in her pigtails, but everything about her seemed strangely monochrome. As if sensing that she was being watched, the girl glanced over her shoulder at Luna. The girl smiled and put a finger to her lips. “Don’t dawdle too long, Frau. I don’t like it when things get boring.”

With that disturbing warning, the girl dissipated like smoke in the wind.

“You want me to sneak up to the top bunker, right?” Sonata asked, snapping Luna back to her senses. Before she had a chance to reply, or even process what had just happened, there was a loud clatter from further back in the corridor. The trio looked back in horror as the mass of blackened skeletal limbs appeared from around the corner, advancing much faster than it had before.

“Change of plans, we’re all going to go for the lower bunker together, then Sonata can blast the top one with everything she’s got,” Luna told them. “And stick together, no matter what. Let’s go!”

Gripping her stave tightly, Luna opened the door and slipped out, hurrying across the catwalk as quickly and quietly as she could. The girls and the soldier all followed her lead, moving like ghosts across the catwalk and down the nearby stairs.

Crossing in front of the big bunker was a nerve-racking experience. There were a couple of awkwardly-placed windows on either side of a big red door right at the base of it, forcing the group to practically crawl under the sill to avoid being seen by anyone inside. Thankfully, their luck held, and the group made it to the back of the lower bunker without being spotted.

Pausing next to the door, Luna glanced back at the soldier to see if he was going to take the initiative, but he simply stared at her with his usual blank expression. She looked at Sonata instead, but it was Trixie who stepped forward with a determined expression. The young magician pulled something out of her pocket as she stepped past the others, and Luna caught the brief flare of a match being struck. Sparks erupted from the bundle of fireworks just before Trixie tossed them into the bunker and ducked back away.

A thunderous boom echoed from inside the bunker, accompanied by showers of multicolored sparks that blossomed from every opening. A second later there was an even bigger explosion and an eruption of flame that made the very ground shake.

“What in Harmo-” Luna snapped her mouth shut and looked up as loud yelling reminded her that there was still the upper bunker to deal with. “Sonata!” The siren just gave her a blank look, prompting her to jab a finger towards the bunker in question. “Blast them!”

“Oh, right.” Luna and Trixie both clamped their hands over their ears as Sonata, given a clear target, inhaled deeply. Her magic was as potent as ever; even with their ears covered, the raw power of it was a whole order of magnitude greater than what Trixie’s fireworks had achieved. Sonata kept the barrage up for just a few seconds before easing off and smirking to herself. “Hmph, piece of cake.”

“Don’t speak too soon,” Luna warned. Despite being hit with a blast that could have reduced the entire CHS campus to rubble, the bunker was completely unscathed. “All of this is simulated. If the developers coded the buildings to be indestructible, then there’s nothing we can do to even scratch them!”

Sonata bristled with rage. “I’m not gonna let some stupid nerds tell me what I can’t break!” Magic glowed beneath her armor as she drew more power from her torc. The air around Sonata rippled as, in a display that Luna had sincerely hoped never to see again, a magical simulacra of her true siren form surged out of her and rose into the sky.

Static rolled across the sky the instant Sonata powered up. The siren didn’t seem to notice as her enormous body swooped around to hover in front of the upper bunker, every movement leaving strange rippling after-images in her wake. Muzzle flashes appeared in the bunker’s main window, sparking off of Sonata’s scaly form, but the sounds of the gunfire were delayed and oddly crackly, as if the simulation was struggling to handle the extra load.

“Brace yourself!” Luna cried as Sonata opened her mouth.

The simulation itself seemed to protest as the siren unleashed her magic. Waves of static marred everything, the ground felt like it was made out of jello, and a deafeningly loud grinding noise blocked out all other sounds. Even their guide was twitching and staticky.

Eventually, after far longer than Luna was happy with, everything slowly started to stabilize. Looking up, she saw the massive siren-form dissolve and spiral back down into Sonata’s human body. The upper bunker was still technically in one piece, but the surface textures were now so scrambled that it looked more like a random grayish blob than a military structure.

“Okay, so I didn’t destroy it, but I’m pretty sure it’s broken,” Sonata said, sounding strangely defensive. “There’s no soldiers left in there, anyway, so you can’t say I messed this up!”

“You didn’t mess up, Sonata,” Luna assured her. “I am going to ask you not to do that again, though. I don’t think the simulation can handle you in that form, and I do not want to find out what happens if it crashes while we’re still inside it.”

“Dammit,” Everett muttered. He pulled a torch from his belt and pointed it into the darkness, illuminating a makeshift corridor made out of scaffolding, chain-link fencing, and battered panels of scrap metal. “Fuckin’ generator’s crapped out again.”

Applejack watched curiously as the foreman stepped through the door, strolled over to a portable generator just on the other side, and gave it a solid kick. The generator whined and shuddered as it came to life, and a row of lights along the roof of the corridor flared into life. A split-second later all hell broke loose as a chorus of animalistic snarls and scrabbling claws broke out somewhere outside the makeshift corridor.

“Go on, fuck off, you ugly shits!” Everett spat. The noise stopped after just a few seconds, leaving behind a faint dripping sound. “Fuckin’ trogs.” He spat on the floor and glanced back at Applejack and Adam. “The damn things have been a nightmare ever since that magic shit blew over a while back. This building is part of the abandoned area around the steelyard, but the generators have been on the fritz for a while, so we had to build this damn tunnel just to keep the trogs from breaking through whenever the lights go out.”

“What even are trogs?” Applejack asked.

Everett snorted loudly. “You’ll see for yourself when you’re in the steelyard. Come on.” Scowling at his back, Applejack fell into step behind him while Adam brought up the rear.

Unspeakable shit-smelling foulness dripped from the roof of the corridor, or tunnel as the foreman had called it, forcing the three to tread carefully so they didn’t get covered in it. Applejack wasn’t normally bothered by dirt or even manure, but this stuff was just too much. Thankfully, the corridor wasn’t too long, and the group soon came to a heavily reinforced and barred door. A large metal basket with leather shoulder straps attached sat on the floor next to it.

“One sec.” The scraping of metal on metal echoed through the tunnel as Everett heaved the bar across. “Okay, the steelyard is on the other side of this door. One of you get this basket on, and remember, you need to grab at least ten good steel ingots and get your asses back here as fast as you can. If you manage it without dying, I’ll see about maybe slipping something your way.”

Applejack dutifully slipped the heavy basket on and tightened the straps. Adam made a half-hearted attempt at a protest, but she shut him down by reminding that she was much stronger than him. After shifting the basket slightly to settle it more comfortably, or as comfortably as she could with the rusty metal pressing against her bare skin, Applejack jerked her chin towards the door. “Right, let’s get this done.”

“If you’re sure.” Adam squared his shoulders and took a deep breath before shoving the door open.

The first thing Applejack saw was a corpse. The body was brutally mauled and, disturbingly, almost half-eaten, but enough tattered scraps of cloth remained for her to guess that it had once been a slave. A splintered old baseball bat and a thoroughly mangled assault rifle lay where they’d fallen next to the body.

“Hang on, we’re allowed weapons for this?!” Adam exclaimed.

“If you can find it, fix it, or earn it, then you can use it,” Everett said flatly. “Good luck.” On that ominous note, he slammed the door behind them and sealed it shut.

Feeling strangely nervous all of a sudden, Applejack rolled her shoulders and tore her gaze away from the dead corpse.

Towering buildings rose up on all sides. Narrow alleyways slid between them, each packed with torn wire fencing, piles of debris, abandoned shipping containers, the occasional ruined vehicle and a literal carpet of trash. Thick pipes stretched between the top floors of some of the buildings, leaking multi-colored sludge and smoke that Applejack sincerely hoped was just ordinary toxic waste of some kind.

“You’ve had your tetanus shot, right?” Adam asked.

Applejack nodded. “Sure, but Ah doubt tetanus is the only thing we’d risk catchin’ off of some of this shit.” She pointed down the street directly ahead, which conveniently had the least amount of trash piled up. “We’ll head this way first. The sooner we get the hell out of here, the better.”

Together, the duo made their way cautiously down the street, keeping an eye out for threats and ingots alike. Through some stroke of luck, they found a blood-stained metal basket just a short way past the corpse, containing a couple of ingots in surprisingly good condition.

“This must have belonged to that poor bastard back there,” Adam noted as he dropped the steel into Applejack’s backpack. “I was wondering why they’d want us to gather scrap from here specifically when there’s plenty all over the place, but if there’s good quality stuff like this still lying around after two hundred years, then there’s no wonder they’re after it.”

Applejack nodded in agreement. Despite the effects of the Rainbooms’ magic, most of the settlements in and around the Capital Wasteland were still having to make do with corroded scrap metal for repairs and expansion. The rust could technically be removed and the steel recycled properly, but not every settlement had the capability to do that and, even when they did, the resulting batch was always smaller than before, making it an increasingly finite resource. The only things in the wasteland more valuable than good steel were clean water and fresh food.

As they continued on, Applejack snuck a glance at Adam’s torso. She wasn’t remotely attracted to him, he was the wrong gender for a start, but there was something different about his torso that definitely hadn’t been there before. “Hey, what’s with all that weird black shit under your skin?”

“Huh?” Adam glanced down at his chest and his eyes widened in realization. “Oh, that. That, uh, that’s always been there.”

Applejack glared at him. “Don’t try and bullshit me, dumbass, we both did hand-to-hand trainin’ with the Enclave after the battle at the air base. You whipped your darn top off more than once durin’ trainin’, and you sure as sugar didn’t look like that back then, so spill it.”

Adam scowled and shook his head. “I’ll explain later, this place is giving me the creeps.”

Picking their way carefully through the trash, the two soon came across an old rail yard full of old train cars. There were makeshift ramps and bridges made out of wood and scrap metal, so clearly someone had tried to make the place liveable in the past, but time or trogs had put a stop to that. On the far side, a stairway led up to a raised area packed with warehouses, smoke stacks, and all kinds of odd buildings.

“Why do I get the feeling this is going to be like finding needles in a giant haystack?” Adam asked.

The same thought had crossed Applejack’s mind, but she was more concerned about the pools of multicolored sludge and clouds of equally colorful mist she could see all over the place. “Ah ain’t never seen a haystack as foul as this.”

“Yeah, I’ll give you that one.” Adam heaved a sigh and started off towards the edge of the rail yard. “Come on, let’s check those dumpsters first. We can start digging through the damn maze later.”

Applejack wanted to say that that was a dumb idea but, after so long spent in the Capital Wasteland, she supposed that a dumpster was as good a place to start as any. A minute later, she was happy that she’d kept her mouth shut, as they found a few good ingots half-buried in one of them. The only downside was the fact that someone was going to have to get into the dumpster to get them.

“Ah got this. You keep watch.” Adam nodded as Applejack hauled herself up and over the side. The dumpster was almost completely full of all kinds of random crap, so she had to take extra care not to cut herself.

“Hold up, what the hell is that?” Adam said suddenly.

Applejack straightened up and turned to see what he was looking at. She immediately wished she hadn’t.

A disgusting-looking creature was waddling along the top of a rail car. It might have been human once, but it sure as hell wasn’t anymore. The creature was moving on all fours, looking almost like a toad, with thick claws on each of its oversized hands and feet. Its skin was all either mottled and leathery or pink and raw, it was incredibly scrawny except for a little round pot belly and, like many mutants Applejack had seen, it had absolutely no hair whatsoever. She tried not to look at the wrinkled ballsack and tiny floppy dick swinging between its legs with every step. .

“I guess that must be a trog,” Adam mused. “Ugly fucker.”

“Ugly is the right fuckin’ word,” Applejack agreed. “No point drawin’ attention when we don’t have any guns. We may as well hide until its-” A scrabbling sound behind her made her turn just in time to see another trog clamber into the dumpster. “Sneaky little-”

Applejack barely got her arms up in time as the creature leapt at her. She grabbed its wrists, stopping its claws before they reached her skin, but she slipped on the uneven footing and the trog’s momentum bowled her over. She cried out as she landed hard on the basket and rolled onto her side. “You little shit!” The trog snapped its teeth at her, but Applejack crushed its wrists to paste then slugged it in the skull, splattering blood and bone everywhere.

“Are you okay?!” Adam called out anxiously.

“Ah’m fine,” Applejack growled as she got painfully to her feet. With a sharp hiss, she yanked a length of rusty wire out of her shoulder and glanced over at the rail cars. “Heads up, we’ve got company.”

Adam swore when he saw that the first trog was making a beeline for them. As if that wasn’t bad enough, three more of them had emerged from somewhere and were charging across the railyard, snarling like animals. “Well that’s just fucking groovy.”

“Yep.” Applejack hopped out of the dumpster and rolled her shoulders. “Just stay behind me, Ah can handle these assholes.”

“Not a chance,” Adam shot. “You’re not the only one with a trick up your sleeve.”

Applejack wanted to ask what he had that could match her magic, but she didn’t have time as the first trog was getting close. “Alright, game on.” She picked a rock up off of the floor, gently tossed and caught it in one hand a couple of times to test the weight, then casually threw it at the trog with enough force that it smashed through the creature’s chest and out the other side in a welter of blood.

“Not bad,” Adam admitted begrudgingly. Applejack smirked and tried to repeat the feat, but the other trogs managed to dodge the projectile this time. “Looks like these fuckers can learn.”

The idea that these creatures could think, even if only a little, was more surprising than Applejack was willing to admit. She wasn’t done yet though. “Step back a second.” Just as the trogs were getting within spitting distance, she reached back and grabbed the dumpster, the metal crumpling beneath her hands, and swung it around in a wide arc. The disgusting creatures barely had time to realize that they were in danger before the dumpster turned them into nothing but greasy smears.

Applejack grinned and planted her hands on her hips. “Like Ah said, leave it t-”

“Look out!” Adam shoved her aside before she could even react. A split-second later a set of sharp claws whizzed through the space her head had just vacated. Applejack skipped back a step and raised a fist, but Adam got there first, smashing his palm into the trog’s chest. Somehow, incredibly, the blow stopped the trog in its tracks, making it hunch over and sway unsteadily on its feet.

Applejack’s fist took the creature’s head clean off an instant later. She checked for any more trogs before turning to Adam. “How in the hell did you do that? That was some kung-fu style shit.”

“I got the Enclave to give me some advanced unarmed combat training, just in case I ever found myself without a gun,” Adam replied. Applejack eagerly opened her mouth to ask, but he held a hand up to forestall her. “I’ll teach you if you want, but it’ll have to wait until we’re back in the Capital Wasteland, unless we manage to find some time alone out here without the raiders breathing down our necks.”

“Deal,” Applejack said promptly. “Right now though, Ah guess we should see if we can’t get the rest of these ingots without gettin’ ambushed by trogs.”

Neither of the pair held out much hope for that, but they steeled themselves anyway and cautiously made their way into the rail yard. Despite their concerns, the duo weren’t attacked by any more trogs, even when they wandered down the cramped spaces between individual train cars.

Applejack certainly saw plenty of trogs, but the beasts seemed happy enough to just keep their distance and observe the pair as they gathered more ingots. “Ah don’t know about you, but Ah genuinely can’t tell if we should be worried about them or not,” she muttered after a while.

“Me neither,” Adam admitted. “Hopefully, they’ve seen what we’re capable of, and they’ve decided that we’re just not worth the risk. I doubt we’re quite that lucky though.” He jerked his chin towards a pile of scrap a little way ahead. “There’s some more steel over there, how many does that bring us up to?”

Applejack quickly dug out the ingots and tossed them into the basket. “Eleven. Now let’s get the fuck out of here.”

With their objective finished, the two hurried back towards the entrance, keeping a careful eye on their surroundings just in case any trogs tried to get the drop on them again. Every step they took away from the rail yard was a blessing as far as Applejack was concerned. Trogs were easy enough to kill, but the way they had used ambushes and observation was a little too creepy for her taste.

As they neared the steelyard entrance, Adam stopped and held a hand up. “Do you hear that?”

Applejack paused and listened carefully. She could hear the faint sound of industry coming from the direction of the Pitt proper, but she doubted that that was what Adam meant. Then she heard it; a voice nearby, talking gently and earnestly as if to a scared child or animal.

The pair shared a curt nod before pressing forward more cautiously. They soon found the source of the voice as they rounded an old shipping container. An emaciated slave was standing in a small fenced-off area, pleading with something to come back with him. Applejack blanched when she stepped closer and saw that he was talking to a trog.

“Billy, it’s me, your brother John-John,” the slave said pleadingly. “You remember me, don’t you, Billy?”

An icy chill ran down Applejack’s spine at the slave’s words. She tensed up as the trog took a step towards him, but instead of attacking, it cocked its head and simply stared at him curiously. “Jh… Jho…” it attempted in a raspy voice.

The slave, John-John, choked back a sob as he sagged with relief. “That’s right, Billy, I’m your brot-” The moment was abruptly shattered as Billy lunged forward and tore his brother’s throat out with a swipe of his claws.

“No!” Applejack charged at the fence, tearing it apart with her bare hands as Billy savagely ripped into his brother’s body. A few seconds was all it took for her to make a hole big enough to fit through, but, by the time she managed it, Billy had already snatched up his meal and fled. “Get back here, damn it! He was your brother! He was your fucking brother!”

“AJ, they’re gone. Shouting is just going to attract more of them,” Adam said firmly.

Applejack rounded on him with her fists clenched. “How can you just shrug that off?! They were family for fuck’s sa-”

“I’m not shrugging it off, I’m focusing on not dying,” Adam shot. “You’ve dealt with feral ghouls before. This is the same sort of situation, trog degeneration is just faster than ghoulification, so it makes sense that they’re more likely to have living relatives around. It sucks, I know, probably better than anyone, but we have to keep our head in the game.” He glanced down the alleyway that Billy had disappeared down. “I can see some more ingots down there. Wait here, keep watch, and try to cool off while I grab them.”

Pinkie waited patiently as the Rivet City Council read through the requisition form she had put together. They had barely finished going through the reports of her last mission with Rainbow Dash, but the sooner she got started preparing for her next one, the better.

“I don’t see a problem with giving you a workshop, per se,” Harkness began, “but some of these materials you’re asking for are, well…”

“Extremely fucking dangerous,” Pia finished flatly.

“Not to mention that our resources are tight at the moment, especially when it comes to ammunition,” Harkness added.

Their response was pretty much exactly what Pinkie had expected, but she couldn’t afford to back down. “I understand, but I’m still going to need every last one on that list. It's important.”

Elder Lyons frowned as she read through the list one more time, then fixed Pinkie with a piercing stare. “Is this related to your report on what you encountered in the Capitol Building?” Pinkie just nodded curtly. “I see.” Lyons put the sheet of paper down and turned to her fellow councilors. “I say we authorize all of it. Putting the workshop in the ship’s bow should allay any safety concerns, and I’ll see if the Enclave can provide some of the materials.”

The other councilors discussed logistics amongst themselves for a minute before giving her a nod.

“That settles it then.” Lyons straightened up and turned to Pinkie. “We’ll provide you with all of the equipment, provisions and training that you need. Consider your mission authorized.”

Next Chapter: Chapter 197 - Guns of Anchorage Estimated time remaining: 1 Hour, 55 Minutes