A loud hammering on the door snapped Applejack awake. “Wake up, you mangy scabs! You’ve got five minutes to get off your asses and back to work before we feed you to the fucking trogs!”

“Charmin’.” Applejack sat up and looked around the room. It was essentially a common room, though the slaves were packed tighter than hens in a bad coop, sleeping on dirty mats under the thinnest, most threadbare excuses for blankets that Applejack had ever seen. Thankfully, something in the room below was keeping the floor warm throughout the night, so there was at least no chance of anyone catching a chill.

Most of the slaves were stirring quickly. Adam was too, his military training making him used to such rough wake-ups, but some of the others were clearly struggling. It didn’t take a doctor to see that the ones having trouble were sicker than the rest.

“How’s your arm doing?” Adam asked.

Applejack peeked under her bandage. There was some slight swelling around the wound, but overall it didn’t look bad at all. She had had splinters that looked worse than that. “It’s fine. Let’s go and find Midea.”

A handful of slavers snapped at the pair to hurry up as soon as they stepped out of the room. They were allowed a quick trip to the toilet, then were hurried out of the building to start the day’s work. A breakfast of more slop came next, despite Adam’s recommendation against Applejack eating it, before the pair headed to Midea’s quarters.

Or, at least, they tried to head to Midea’s quarters, only to be stopped on the way as someone called out to them, “Hey, hold on you two!”

Applejack glanced around to see a raider woman strutting towards them. Half of her hair was dyed bright pink, the other half of her head was shaved completely, and she was wearing the same sort of spiky metal armor that many of the Pitt raiders seemed to like. She was also grinning like a cheshire cat for some weird reason.

“You must be the new Steelers that actually filled an order without dying,” the raider said cheerfully. “Everett said you both look too rosy for a place like this. Don’t bother going to your normal workstation, we’re sending you straight back out into the Steelyard to fill another order.”

“Already?” Applejack asked, earning a sharp elbow from Adam.

The raider just laughed at her. “Yeah already, we haven’t had a scab come back from the Steelyard alive and with a full order since that freaky magic shit blew over! No sense wasting you on dumb shit when we can get you doing something useful. Come on, Everett’s waiting.”

The duo didn’t really have a choice in the matter, so they just shared an uncomfortable look and fell in behind the raider.

Perhaps because they had an escort, Applejack wasn’t certain, but she noticed that more slavers were paying attention to them than before. Even some of the slaves were sneakily watching when they thought they could get away with it. It was unsettling, to say the least. Out of habit, Applejack reached up to tug the brim of her hat down, only to remember a second later that she wasn’t wearing it.

The realization hit Applejack like a brick. She hadn’t parted with her hat for this long since she was a little kid, ever since her parents had passed. She hadn’t had a problem with leaving it behind at first; it was a big liability in a mission like this, but right at that moment Applejack felt its absence like it was a hole in her chest.

“Hey! Keep moving, scab!” Applejack flinched as she realized that she had stopped walking. Adam was watching her with concern, while the raider just looked pissed off. “I mean it, I don’t have all day!”

“R-right.” Cursing herself for a fool, Applejack shrugged off her dark feelings and threw them to the back of her mind where they belonged. The raider rolled her eyes but didn’t say a word as they set off again. As if things weren’t embarrassing enough, Adam kept throwing worried glances at Applejack as they walked, but she stubbornly ignored him right up until they reached the foreman’s office.

The raider didn’t bother knocking as she barged into the office. “Hey, Everett! I’ve brought those scabs for you!”

Everett was sitting at a desk at the back of his office. He looked up from his paperwork and turned to frown at her with blood-shot eyes. “For fuck’s sake, Squill, I told you it was too early for this bullshit.”

“Ah, quit your bitching,” Squill shot back. “Ashur wants steel, and I want to see what these new Steelers are made of, so get your thumb outta your ass and tell them about the new collection order already!”

The glare Everett gave her plainly showed that he was considering whether or not to shoot Squill and save himself the hassle. After a moment, he squeezed his eyes shut and pinched the bridge of his nose. “Fuck me.” He groaned loudly, then heaved a heavy sigh and muttered, “Fine.” Applejack unconsciously stiffened as Everett looked up at her. “The boss heard about your little success yesterday, and he wants a repeat of it. Unlucky for you, though, him and his closest ass-kissers have decided that since there’s two of you, you should be able to fill two orders instead of one.”

“You want us to find twenty ingots in one go?” Adam asked warily.

Everett nodded grimly. “Like I said, unlucky for you. If you pull it off, though, and manage to prove that you’re valuable around here, maybe that’ll give you some leverage to make your lives around here a little easier..” He grunted as he stood up and stretched. “Aside from that, you know the drill already. Come on, I'll let you through.”

Squill made herself comfortable at Everett’s desk while he was gone. She really didn’t get that weirdo. Sure, the fancy fucker got his own office and a job title, but none of that was worth having to piss about with quotas and inventories and shit day in and day out. Fuck that noise.

The sound of the door opening made Squill look up. Everett scowled when he saw her. “Get out of my chair before I put you in a fucking box.”

“Alright, alright, you miserable fucker.” Squill smirked, enjoying his irritation before she did as asked.

“I’ve got a fucking job to do, and you sure as hell ain’t making it easier dragging those fuckers here so early,” Everett grumbled. “If Ashur is so fucking desperate to get our steel production back up, then he should give me more to work with than a trickle of half-dead scabs.”

Squill snorted and leaned against the nearest wall. “Hey, I’d go out there myself if I could, God knows how fuckin’ boring things are around here, but Ashur doesn’t want to risk losing any of the crew in case the Blight Kings or the Red Flags try to make another play for the place. Besides, those two sure as hell ain’t half dead.”

“No, and they ain’t scabs either,” Everett agreed.

“Definitely not.” Squill yawned and crossed her arms. “When are you gonna tell Ashur?”

“Why would I bother telling Ashur?” Squill stared at Everett in surprise, but he just shook his head. “As long as they do the work and don’t cause problems, then I don’t give a fuck who they really are. If they’re dumb or desperate enough to come here as slaves, that’s their problem. They probably ain’t gonna survive the Steelyard anyway now that Lucy has been spotted prowling around again, and there’s a god-damned radstorm on the way..” Everett fixed her with a stern look. “But you already knew about that, didn’t you?”

Squill gave an easy grin and held her hands up in a gesture of fake innocence. “I have no idea what you’re talking about. Anyway, I’m bored. If anyone needs me, I’ll be at the first guard tower.”

“Yeah, the one with the best view of the Steelyard, you sick bitch.” Everett huffed and turned back to his paperwork. “Go on, get the fuck out of here. Thanks to you I’m gonna need to find more new Steelers, damn it.”

There was surprisingly little pain. Certainly less than Luna would have anticipated from getting stabbed in the chest. She didn’t quite think that she was dead yet though, despite the fact that her vision had gone dark again; mainly because there was something moving inside her chest.

Luna shuddered as she tried to imagine what the girl had done to her. Her mind whirled with thoughts of alien implantations, horrific ghoul-style mutations, and debilitating cancerous growths. Whatever it was, Luna could feel it expanding with every beat of her heart. It was a bizarre, though not entirely uncomfortable, sensation, like something both cool and soft spreading through her chest. If it wasn’t for how little she trusted the weird little girl, Luna might even have called the experience pleasant. She was so focused on the situation and its dark implications that she was utterly stunned when it stopped abruptly.

“All done!” The girl’s voice exclaimed happily.

“What?” Luna blinked in surprise as new surroundings suddenly appeared with a faint pop. She was back on snow-covered ground, kneeling in the shadow of a train tunnel dug into a hillside. A second tunnel entrance was dug into another hillside opposite the first, maybe a hundred yards away and connected by rail tracks.

Both tunnel entrances were filled from floor to ceiling with debris. Several disconnected freight cars were abandoned on the tracks between, obscuring the way forward, while a wall of ravaged military vehicles stacked on top of each other sealed off any potential route backwards. Just as Luna was wondering where her charges were, she heard an anxious voice calling out from behind, “Vice-Principal?”

Luna whipped around to see Trixie stepping out from behind a boulder near the tunnel entrance. She didn’t have any obvious injuries, but her cheeks were flushed and she was clutching her chest with a queasy expression. “Trixie! Are you alright?! What’s wrong?!”

“I… I don’t know.” She leaned back against the boulder and let out a deep breath. “One of those creepy tentacle things, it… it…”

“Stabbed something into your chest?” Luna finished. Trixie nodded. “Me too. Don’t worry, we’re going to figure this o-”

A loud huff interrupted the two. A moment later, the strange girl’s voice echoed out from seemingly everywhere at once. “Good grief, you don’t have to get so dramatic over a simple gift.”

Luna looked around, trying in vain to spot the girl. “A gift?” She asked skeptically.

“Of course! I told you I was going to give you one,” the girl replied as if it was the most obvious thing in the world. “I saw that you don’t have direct access to magic in the same way that Miss Dusk and your Rainboom friends do, so I embedded suitable magical conductors into each your hearts. Less inherently powerful than a Geode, perhaps, but with fewer of the associated drawbacks.”

“Into our hearts?!” Trixie screeched.

Luna was just as shocked, but she held it in check and focused on a certain other problem. “What about Sonata? Where is she?”

The girl hummed thoughtfully. “I’m not sure what to do about her. Sonata can have some extra magic too, if she wants, but maybe she would prefer to be put back together instead?”

An icy claw that had nothing to do with magical implants seized Luna’s heart. “What do you mean?”

“Exactly what I said, you silly goose! Standing right next to an exploding fuel tank can get pretty messy, especially when it’s that big.” Never before had something as sweet as a young girl’s playful giggle sounded so thoroughly sickening. “What do you think? Would she prefer magic, or having all of her bits put back together in the right places?”

“Put her back together!” Luna snarled.

“Ah, ah, ah, you didn’t say the magic word,” the girl countered.

Luna gritted her teeth, her hands tightening around the haft of her stave as she felt her temper rising. She had to play nice, for now. “Please will you bring Sonata here in one piece.”

“Oh, okay then. Since you asked so nicely.” There was a loud pop and a blood-soaked mass appeared at Luna’s feet. She barely had a chance to register the tangled mess of streaked blue hair before there was a flicker of static and Sonata sat bolt upright with a wheezing gasp.

“Starswirl’s bells!” Luna crouched and clasped her shoulder. “Are you alright? Does it hurt anywhere?”

Sonata looked up at her with an indignant scowl. “I nearly died and the first thing you mention is that beard-chewing old fart?!”

Luna sagged as relief flooded through her. “Are you injured?”

“I don’t think so?” Sonata quickly patted herself down and checked herself over. “No, I’m good.”

“Why in Tartarus would you stand next to an exploding fuel tank?!” Trixie demanded.

“Because I didn’t know it was a fuel tank, and I didn’t know it was gonna explode, duh,” Sonata replied with a roll of her eyes. She stood up and brushed herself off before looking around curiously. “Okay, that sucked, so what now?”

Luna couldn’t tell if the siren was actually as unfazed as she appeared to be, or if she was just putting on a brave face. Either way, it was impressive. “Next, if I remember correctly, we’ve got to clear out a Chinese listening post.”

“A listening post that’s probably full of zombies and more creepy killer kids.” Trixie planted her hands on her hips and turned her attention to their surroundings. “How come everything is back to being all detailed and… y’know, real-looking?”

“Oh, that’s simple,” the disembodied voice cut in. “I just deleted the sections that we didn’t need anymore to free up some memory. I’ve managed to co-opt some of the processors from my own facility to supplement the ones here, so the simulation can now handle the changes I’m making without any major compromises.”

Trixie grimaced at the reveal. “So, more zombies?”

“Don’t forget the Pint-Sized Slasher!” The girl laughed excitedly. “Have fun!” As if on cue, a cacophony of shouting and gunfire erupted from somewhere past the freight cars.

The trio were instantly on guard. Luna gripped her stave tightly, crept to the end of the nearest freight car, and peered around the corner.

Another set of tracks lay just ahead. Beyond them was a collection of bombed-out buildings on top of a small hillock, protected by several sandbag barricades. The buildings were a hive of activity as Chinese soldiers fought with zombies among the ruins. Even as Luna watched, a mob of zombies dragged a camouflaged soldier off of a metal crate and swarmed over him. Faint blue light flashed a moment later.

“At least they’re not just after us?” Sonata said hopefully, looking out as well.

“Maybe, but do we just have to clear out the soldiers, or the zombies as well?” Luna wondered aloud.

Sonata shrugged. “Does it matter? Just take them all out, just in case.”

“Easier said than done, but I suppose you’re right. We’ll just have to hope that the zombies aren’t constantly reappearing this time.” Luna glanced back at Trixie. The young student was clearly having trouble coming to terms with everything; she needed something to occupy her mind. “Trixie? Do you think you could take a look and see if there are any more of those invisible soldiers around?”

Trixie looked around with a start. “Huh? Oh, uh, okay.” She swapped places with Luna and peeked around the corner, taking her hat off so it didn’t stick out. She looked around carefully before shaking her head. “I don’t see any. There could be some out there, but…”

“That’s good enough for me,” Luna told her. “I would say we should wait and let them wipe each other out, but I doubt-” The second she even suggested it, a horrendous creaking and grinding came from behind. With a resigned sigh, Luna looked back over her shoulder. The wall of wrecked vehicles was slowly creeping forward, as if being pushed by an invisible force.

“Right. That. Stay close to me. Sonata, you focus on taking down the soldiers as soon as you see them, I’ll concentrate on zombies. Trixie, you keep an eye out for any threats. Do you both understand?” The girls nodded. “Good. Remember not to get caught out in the open.”

Luna made one last check to make sure that no soldiers were looking before slipping out from behind the freight car. She and the girls scurried between the train cars, around crates and barricades, and finally to a set of concrete stairs that led up to the buildings. The fighting was much closer now; close enough for the trio to hear the grunting of zombies and soldiers alike as they fought.

Luna found that she could hardly breathe as she crept up the stairs. Her legs felt like they were made of lead, and she was sure that the Tide Stave wasn’t this heavy five minutes ago. Worse was the way her stomach churned with every step she took.

Just as Luna reached the top of the stairs a zombie stumbled out of the nearest building. Her first reflexive shot blew a chunk out of its throat. The second put it down properly.

“Did you forget they need headshots or something?” Sonata asked.

“Focus!” Luna snapped as another zombie lurched out of the same building. She took it out and darted over to the door it had come through. Glancing inside, Luna shot the zombie waiting in the foyer and slipped in.

“Do we have to go that way?!” Trixie wailed.

Luna understood the sentiment all too well, but there was a method to the madness. “We’ve got to clear out all of the enemies, so yes, I’m afraid it makes the most sense to go this way.”

Trixie whined under her breath, but she followed anyway.

Keenly aware of the risks a zombie horde might pose in a confined area, Luna advanced cautiously and paid extra attention to keeping a clear escape route. Thankfully, the only zombies they found on the first floor were either alone or in pairs; easy enough to deal with. It wasn’t until they climbed up to the second floor that the trio ran into trouble.

Luna was leading the way up the stairs when she heard a whoosh followed by a muffled explosion. “Please tell me that was just a firework,” she said half-heartedly.

“No way, that was way too big,” Trixie replied bluntly.

Keeping her mouth shut was harder than Luna cared to admit, but she just about managed to bite back a sharp comment. Instead, she mumbled a warning to be careful and pressed on.

Gunfire echoed through the corridors as the trio advanced. They reluctantly headed towards it, keeping a careful eye out so they didn’t blunder into the path of the gunmen or whatever they were shooting at. It didn’t take long for the trio to find what they were looking for; a long wide corridor, a handful of Chinese soldiers camped in a room at the far end, and a steady stream of zombies trickling in from side doors. Unfortunately for the trio, they were right at the bottom end of the corridor, opposite the Chinese soldiers. They were going to have to fight through the zombies to reach them.

“What now?” Sonata asked under the cover of gunfire. “Want me to blast them?”

Luna shook her head. “It might come to that, but your magic isn’t all that effective at destroying the zombies. We might end up just drawing everyone’s attention and getting ourselves trapped.”

“There’s nothing back here so far,” Trixie called from where she was watching their way back. “What about our new, uh, magic? Should we try using that?”

“Wait, new magic?” Sonata prodded.

Luna just stared at Trixie, dumbstruck. She had been so distracted by what had happened to Sonata that the creepy girl’s ‘gift’ had completely slipped her mind. “I… We probably shouldn’t mess around with it just yet. We don’t even know what it does, or if it does anything at all.”

Trixie nodded solemnly, but Sonata wasn’t so easily brushed off. “So you did get new magic?! Tell me how!”

“Quiet!” Luna hissed. She risked another anxious look into the corridor, but thankfully the zombies and soldiers were still oblivious to their presence. The sound of their own battle was covering the trio’s conversation “Okay, I think our best option is for Sonata to-” Luna’s explanation was cut off by a loud bang and a multi-colored flicker on the walls from behind. She slowly turned to see Trixie standing wide-eyed, one arm outstretched, with smoke rising from her fingertips. “Seriously?!”

“I-I’m sorry! I was just-” Trixie’s stammered apology was cut off by several voices suddenly shouting in Chinese. A quick glance revealed that one of the Chinese soldiers was pointing in the Moons’ direction, while fully half of the arriving zombies were turning to advance on them instead.

Luna said a silent farewell to the element of surprise and stepped back from the door. “Sonata, blast them!”

“On it!” Sonata stepped through the door and let out an earth-shaking blast. “Ha! It worked super well on the zombies this ti-”

Luna hauled her out the doorway just as gunfire crackled; bullets whizzing lethally through the air where the siren had just been standing. “And this time the soldiers have cover,” Luna reminded her. She risked a quick look into the corridor and grimaced. Sonata’s power had indeed taken out more of the zombies in one go than last time, thanks to the confined space, and the rest had been blown down towards the Chinese soldiers, but there were still more coming from the side doors with no sign of them slowing down.

“They must be respawning again,” Luna muttered, more to herself than anyone else. If that really was the case, then she fervently hoped that it was only the soldiers that they had to clear out. The alternative didn’t bear thinking about. “Trixie, do you have any fireworks left?”

“No, I used the last of them earlier,” Trixie replied. “All I’ve got left are a couple of firecrackers and some smoke bombs.”

Luna leaned out and shot a zombie that was getting too close. “A smoke bomb will have to do,” she said as she ducked back away from any follow-up gunfire. “Sonata, you hit them again first, then Trixie will fill the corridor with smoke and… and I’ll try and use the cover to slip past the zombies to get to the soldiers.”

“That’s the craziest idea I’ve ever heard!” Trixie exclaimed. “Why don’t I just throw a smoke bomb so the soldiers can’t see what they’re shooting at and we let the zombies do the job?”

“That… that might actually work,” Luna admitted. “We’ll have to deal with the zombies that come for us, but…” She nodded curtly. “Do it.”

Trixie didn’t waste any time as she whipped a bomb out of her pocket, darted to the door, and risked a split-second peek before lobbing it down the corridor. “There’s a lot of zombies out there,” she said anxiously.

“I’ve got this,” Sonata said confidently.

“No!” Luna stopped her just as she was sucking in a breath. “You’ll blow away the smoke, let me handle this.”

Sonata shrugged and stepped aside, letting Luna take her place. Trixie hadn’t been wrong; there were a lot of zombies shuffling out of the side doors, but half of them were heading into the smoke to seek the Chinese soldiers. The soldiers themselves were still shooting, but hopefully the smoke would foul their aim enough that the zombies would break through. Taking a deep breath, Luna aimed her stave at the nearest zombie.

It was a good thing that the zombies were slow. Luna was getting headshots as quickly and efficiently as possible, but they were pouring into the corridor as fast as she could drop them. Worse, the smoke was starting to clear but the gunfire was still ongoing. Just as the smoke thinned enough to see through, the Chinese guns finally fell silent.

“I think they’re down!” Luna called out eagerly. “Sonata, see if you can clear the corridor so we can check!”

The two switched places and siren magic tore through the corridor once more. Sonata must not have been satisfied by the results, because as soon as that attack ran out of puff she sucked in a deep breath and let rip with another. “There… all done,” she said breathlessly.

Luna looked in to see that the corridor was completely clear. A couple of zombies were already shuffling in through the side doors but, for the moment, there was a clear path to the room the soldiers were in. “Let’s get past the zombies while we can, come on!”

The girls followed as Luna led the charge into the corridor. One zombie managed to stumble into her path, only to be slammed aside as she barged into it shoulder-first. She heard Sonata give it a solid kick for good measure as she ran past. Just as the trio got about halfway down the corridor, a lone Chinese soldier stepped into the far doorway. Luna’s heart leapt into her throat as he casually hefted what could only be a rocket launcher. “Look out!”

Luna threw herself sideways just as the soldier fired. The rocket streaked down the corridor, narrowly missing the Moons, and sailed straight through the opposite doorway. A tremendous explosion rocked the building a second later.

Shock and terror froze the trio where they stood. The zombies were still advancing, shambling towards their stunned prey, but even Luna couldn’t force herself to move. It was only when she heard the distinctive clatter of metal from behind that she managed to rouse herself. Heart pounding, she looked around just in time to see the soldier stuff another rocket into the launcher.

“Don’t you dare!” Luna sprinted down the corridor, desperate to stop him from firing again. She had almost reached him when he raised the rocket launcher, saw her coming, and instead swung it like a club. Luna just about managed to duck under the swing and crash headlong into him.

The two hit the ground hard. Luna pushed herself to her knees and rammed the sharp base of her stave into the soldier’s stomach. An instant later the butt of his weapon knocked her sprawling.

“Shă bi.” The soldier was awkwardly getting to his feet when Sonata’s knee smashed into his face at a full sprint.

“And stay down you creep!” Sonata raised her foot high before stomping on his head with all of her might.

The ensuing crunch echoed through the corridor, but, thankfully, the corpse disappeared in a blue flash before Luna could catch more than a glimpse of the result. Shock kept her staring at the empty air for several seconds, before she remembered the zombies with a jolt. “Girls! We need to- oh.”

The zombies were gone. All that remained in the corridor was Trixie, looking confused but relieved. “They disappeared as soon as he did.” She gestured vaguely to where the soldier had been. “I guess it is just the soldiers we need to deal with.”

“I guess so.” Luna got to her feet, dusted herself off and looked around cautiously. The room was entirely empty save for a broken window and a health dispenser. Aside from that, there was no sign whatsoever of any zombies that had broken through or the soldiers that had been guarding it. If it hadn’t been for the sound of more gunfire coming in through the window, the building would have been silent.

Sonata recklessly stepped over to the window and looked outside. “Huh, there’s a whole swarm of zombies down there. Do you think they’re after more soldiers?”

“Probably, now get away from there before you get hit by a stray bullet,” Luna told her. The siren did as asked just as Trixie joined them in the room. Both looked at Luna expectantly. “I think we should make sure that this building is empty first. Once that’s done, we’ll try and find whatever that horde is looking for.”

The girls quickly agreed. A careful search of the building turned up nothing but another briefcase for Trixie, so the three cautiously made their way back outside.

So began a nightmarish game of hide and seek. The Moons crept through the ruins as quietly as they could, doing their best to avoid the zombies while at the same time hunting down every pocket of soldiers they could find.

Some of it was surprisingly easy; mostly when Sonata managed to get the drop on a group of soldiers and wiped them out in one go, thereby deleting the particular zombie group that was hunting said soldiers. Other groups were harder to deal with, where the trio were forced to go through the zombies to get to the soldiers, just like they had in the building. Thankfully, despite tearing through several different groups of soldiers, the Moons didn’t encounter a single trooper bearing another rocket launcher.

It took almost an hour before the trio were certain that the area was clear. Their hopes that they were finished were dashed when they found a rocky ravine leading away, on the far side of the buildings. The ravine twisted and turned until, just around one last bend, the three discovered a squat concrete building. A steel staircase led up to a raised ledge, protected by rows of sandbag barricades.

“Careful, there’s soldiers guarding the stairs,” Trixie warned as she carefully looked out from behind a boulder.

“I see them,” Luna said quietly. “Sonata, you’re up.”

Sonata just nodded and rolled her shoulders before stepping around the bend. The soldiers shouted something in Chinese, but siren magic wiped them from existence before they could so much as raise a weapon.

“Nice work.” Luna gave Sonata a pat on the back as she stepped past. “This must be the listening post we’re supposed to clear out. At least, I hope it is.” She led the way up to the ledge and followed it around. The entrance door was just around a corner, tucked in a little alley between the building and the edge of the ravine. “Don’t forget to keep an eye on every doorway in here. The last thing we want is to end up surrounded by zombies.”

The inside of the listening post was dark and dingy. A grim little antechamber greeted the trio, with heavy metal doors in the two far corners. One of them turned out to be a toilet that doubled as a broom closet, but the other opened into a wide generator room.

A lone Chinese soldier was hunched over a radio next to one of the generators. Thankfully, between the rumble of the machines and the crackle of the radio, he didn’t seem to have heard the Moons enter. Luna dealt with him by stabbing the base of her stave into the back of his neck.

The next door led to a narrow corridor. Luna took the lead; Sonata’s magic was just too dangerous to be used without warning in such a confined space, while Trixie brought up the rear.

As they passed a small alcove full of steel drums, Trixie suddenly called for the others to stop. “Sorry, I just need to check something.”

“Check what?” Luna asked.

Trixie shook her head as she patted herself down. “Uh, I think I’ve forgotten… or I’ve lost… I, uh… I just-” Without warning she ripped her knife from its scabbard and stabbed it into thin air next to one of the drums. The air rippled and a camouflaged Chinese soldier shimmered into view, clutching a sniper rifle, with Occam’s Razor buried in his faceplate. A heartbeat later and he disappeared again in a flash of blue light.

“Whoa, nice save,” Luna said appreciatively, and even Sonata nodded in agreement.

“Let’s just take this slow,” Trixie said quietly as she resheathed her blade. “That was too close.”

Luna could hardly disagree. The trio moved on even more warily than before, jumping at every faint noise and glaring into every nook and cranny. After a while, they came across a tall room containing another generator and a winding metal staircase leading upwards. Luna carefully leaned in to take a look then hurriedly ducked back. “There’s soldiers at the top of the stairs. At least four of them.”

The Moons quietly debated the best way to deal with the situation. It didn’t take long to decide that Sonata should blast the soldiers with her magic, then, if any survived, Trixie would throw a smoke bomb to ruin their aim and give Luna and Sonata a chance to get in position to take them down. Dangerous, but it was the best that they could come up with.

When they were ready, Sonata sprang into the room and unleashed her power upwards. Luna and Trixie both hunkered down as the building reverberated around them, but thankfully it didn’t last for long.

“They’re down, but I don’t think I got all of them!” Sonata shouted.

“Smoke bomb, now!” Luna charged up the stairs as Trixie hurled the little bomb up. It didn’t quite reach all the way, instead exploding against the underside of the stairs, but it was enough to provide a little cover.

As she belted upstairs, Luna saw one soldier dragging himself to his feet a little way ahead. Two quick shots from the Tide Stave finished him off. Another soldier thundered through a doorway at the top, bellowing in Chinese, but a lucky shot to the throat took him out in one go. Luna waited anxiously for the smoke to clear entirely, making absolutely sure that there were no more enemies around before shouting down to the girls that it was safe.

“I found another briefcase,” Trixie said as her and Sonata joined Luna at the top. “It was tucked away under the bottom of the stairs.”

“What do those things even do?” Sonata asked curiously.

Trixie shrugged. “How should I know? Maybe it unlocks some secret door, or reward, or something.”

“As long as it doesn’t involve any more fighting, I don’t really care what they’re for,” Luna cut in. “Keep moving. This building didn’t look all that big from the outside, so there can’t be that much more to explore.”

Barely even five minutes later, Luna was bitterly regretting her words. Once they were out of the stairwell, the Moons found themselves moving through a series of winding corridors interspersed with low, dark rooms, each defended by between two and five soldiers at a time. It was a brutal slog; a never-ending gauntlet nearly identical to the one they had dealt with when on their way to destroy the artillery guns. Just when Luna felt like she couldn’t go on without a rest, she opened one last door and was practically blinded by glorious sunshine.

The Moons blinked against the light as they stepped outside. They were on the roof of the listening post, with one last bunker perched right in the middle of it.

Luna almost whimpered at the sight of it. Her arms and legs were burning, her lungs felt like they were full of glass every time she sucked in a breath, and she had a searing pain in her side that was either a bullet wound or a particularly nasty stitch, she couldn’t tell either way. A quick glance at the girls showed that they weren’t faring any better. Trixie hadn’t taken much part in the actual fighting, but even she was sweating buckets, while Sonata was stooped and sagging with every ragged breath.

“Last bit,” Luna forced out painfully. “We’ve got to have earned a break after this.”

“Stuff break, want water,” Sonata said flatly. She took a deep breath and drew herself up. “Soldiers die now.” With a vicious snarl, she clenched her fists and stalked over to the bunker’s door. She wrenched it open and looked in with her mouth wide open, only to pause with a confused frown on her face.

“What is it? What’s wrong?” Luna hurried to the door and looked in herself. The bunker was empty. Or maybe it just looked that way. “Stealth soldiers!”

The air erupted as the two scoured the inside of the bunker with sonic blasts and magical bolts. Sonata alone dumped enough power to reduce Rivet City to scrap, but no camouflaged soldiers appeared whatsoever. There wasn’t even so much as a blue flicker to show something dying.

“What the h-” Luna cried out and dropped to her knees as a heavy weight landed on her back, driving something sharp into her shoulder.

“Get away from he-whoa!” The weight disappeared from Luna’s back, and she looked around to see the murderous child from the last run chasing Trixie, swinging a bloody carving knife with wild abandon.

The Pint-sized Slasher. Luna shuddered as she remembered the strange name the other creepy child had mentioned. She tried to raise her stave, but for some reason her right arm wouldn’t work and it slipped through unfeeling fingers. It took her a second to realize that her shoulder was soaked with blood.

“Not this brat again!” Sonata spat. Just as she made to run after it, Trixie threw a smoke bomb at the floor with a loud bamf. By the time the smoke had cleared Trixie was gone, leaving a confused murder-brat behind. Sonata grinned and drew in a deep breath, but before she could release her magic the Slasher spun around and threw the knife at her. She squawked and stumbled as its handle smacked her square in the nose.

The Slasher was already moving. Its throw wasn’t even hard enough to break Sonata’s nose, but the moment of distraction was all it needed to close the distance and snatch its blade up from the floor.

Sonata growled and threw a haymaker at the tiny beast, but it ducked under and swiped at her shins. She howled as more blood marred the floor. Swift as a viper, the Slasher lunged and stabbed her right in the groin.

“No!” Luna surged to her feet and dove on the Slasher. All of the air rushed out of it in a whoosh as her body weight crushed it to the floor, its knife scraping against her armor. A quick thump in its side made the brat twitch in pain. Blinded with rage, Luna made to push herself to her knees, intending to smash its face in with her good fist.

That was a mistake.

Just as she pushed herself up, the Slasher swept its knife across her face. Luna yelled and pressed her hand to her mangled cheek. The Slasher swiped at her again, but she rolled to the side and scrambled away.

Terror flooded through Luna as the Slasher slowly got to its feet. It may have been a child, but it was utterly divorced from humanity, even more so than the mutated ghouls she had once fought. Ever so slowly, the Slasher turned to face her, the eyes of its mask as dead and soulless as the creature it covered.

“What do you want?” Luna asked it bluntly. The Slasher cocked its head at her. For a moment, she thought it might actually speak. Then it charged at her.

Panic seized Luna’s heart. Desperate, she felt for the new magic in her chest and pulled. Her whole body tingled just as the Slasher went for her throat.

The blade sailed through her neck as if it were empty air. Luna braced herself for the pain, but it never came. She tried to reach for her neck, to feel for any injuries, but neither of her arms responded. In desperation, Luna looked down at her body, only to realize with a jolt that it wasn’t there. She had been completely transformed into a nebulous blue cloud, dotted with tiny lights that sparkled like stars.

“What in Tartarus?!” Luna instinctively let go of the magic and yelped as her body reappeared a foot above the ground, landing on her backside with a sharp thud.

The Slasher cocked its head at her again. It raised its knife once more, but was distracted as a flickering orange light wafted in front of its face. The Slasher was still watching the wisp when Trixie stepped up next to it and slammed her own blade into its temple.

I feel like I do a lot of apologizing for delays these days. Having said that, the next chapter is very unlikely to be out on time, largely as it's Chapter 200 and, as with Chapter 100, I'm planning something a little special for it. I had hoped to end Act II with it, but circumstances changed that plan a little. Also, I may or may not have started Star Trek: Lower Decks, the first Star Trek show I've ever actually gone out of my way to watch, and so help me I think I may be a closet Trekkie of all things.

Anyhoo, I hope you enjoy reading and look forward to the next chapter. There'll be trogs, magic, mutations, Applejack punching stuff, and an angry Chinese man with a very special sword. Until next time!