Chapter 12: Pet

It was nearly past afternoon into evening by the time they reached the outskirts of Crystal City proper, after four hours and some change’s worth of driving through perhaps the single worst storm that all of them had ever seen before. It simply continued to rain... and rain... and rain relentlessly.

It had been roughly a hundred and fifty miles worth of nothing, according to Sparks’ map on her PipBuck and Eagle’s reckoning, but limited visibility and torrential weather forced Eagle to drive cautiously across seemingly endless stretches of road and land, stopping occasionally and peering about for hazards or drop offs hidden in the storm. He cursed to himself with each rerouting, and began to hate the weather itself as he had never had to deal with such terrible conditions before. The cross winds rocked the chariot about on its wheels making control a difficult feat indeed, and occasionally the wheels themselves would slip out of control.

Grateful to be out of the chariot, as they all were, he stared out to the deluge filtered city ahead. His eyes traced the obscured forms of buildings whose outlines were cast harshly in vivid greenish-white contrasts from occasional distant lightning that he swore seemed to be concentrated over the city.

He turned to Green as she readied herself to go on, and he yelled so she could hear him over the storm, his voice deeply resonant and gravelly. “You still sure about this!?”

“Yeah!” was all she said as she turned around, standing naked save for the saddlebags she pulled off the griffons to carry supplies with her and the double barreled shotgun slung across her chest.

Eagle shook his head as rainwater poured from his coat and hat, the storm was too intense for him, not from fear of the rain itself, but it felt almost... driven. Commanded by some superior force or something like it, and the thought sent subtle imperceptible shivers down his spine as he wondered what was actually causing this level of storm.

He had heard once that long ago the pegasi had commanded the weather, made it rain only as needed and kept the skies fairly clear and controlled for all intents and purposes. He feared silently that maybe this lightning storm was the Enclave’s doing, or some other group that would have an obscene amount of pegasi to elicit such a spectacular tempest. His fears weren’t helped at all by the radio’s garbling on Sparks’ PipBuck due to the squall; a development that even she was surprised at.

No information on where it came from or what caused such a terrible storm, and no clue what to think of it beyond absolutely terror inducing conclusions like a pegasi invasion, or ‘relief effort’ as they’d paint it, were present to ease his worries.

He looked back at Green as she started to trot off to the west, towards Good Neighbor, and he shouted again as he buried his worries. “Suit yourself! Remember, five or six days west! A hundred plus miles to the Galloping Gorge!”

“I got it! Don’t go soft on me now!” She shouted back before she all but disappeared into the wall of rainwater like a ghost. With it Eagle turned his eyes back up to the havoc in the sky with an expression of apprehension, shaking his head as he tried to bury his concerns before he turned back to Sparks who vigorously scrubbed the matted mud and muck from her barding and coat; a decent progress towards cleanliness.

Close to, rather, as the broken road offered some protection against the lakes of mud that formed around them, but not completely as pools formed in nearly every seen inch of the asphalt. Tato had already done the same and finished quite quickly. With the absolute downpour of rain it was a prime time for a shower to finish what they had started a few days ago in earnest, even though the rain was cold as ice it felt.

Eagle approached the chariot as his boots and gloves squelched noisily beneath him in the growing mud puddles and sighed before he half shouted over the storm. He was worried, and it was apparent to both Tato and Sparks who met their eyes with his. “Alright, I don’t know why this storm is going on and on like this, or why it’s covering most of the damn region, but that isn’t going to stop us! Don’t know if it’s... eh, ‘wise’, exactly to drive up to the City in an unmarked chariot! Not like creatures respond to white flags anymore, nevermind that it’d be a bitch to see one anyway in all this shit!”

He gestured a talon about the waterlogged air around him as he scowled slightly. “Crystal City, I’m willing to bet, has enough firepower to waste us before we can call them off! So we’re parking it here, try to hide it among the other wrecks! That might let us get back to it later! Might take half an hour to trot the rest of the way! Any objections?!”

Tato shook her head with a shrug, the plan was sound to her. Sparks was still scrubbing her ears with a vengeance, the infernal mud and muck seemingly impossible to wash away, when she thought it over and figured he was right.

The chariot, despite the fact they had stripped much of the twisted barbed metal wire and plates off of it to reduce weight, still looked rather wicked. She would rather believe that a city of ponies would ask who they were first, but the crash course education in Wasteland policies dictated a ‘shoot first’ mentality she despised.

She shrugged before she spoke up above the tempest, her voice cracking slightly from strain. “Well, I don’t know if we really do have much choice Eagle! If you’re sure they’d blow up random strangers!”

Eagle grimaced, and explained why they would, given the circumstances. “This is the perfect weather for an ambush, Sparks! Good visual and noise cover, the City’s probably on high alert as it is!” he shook his head as he wondered if he should speak his mind, and opted not to, simply thinking it to himself.

‘If I had to attack, now's the time’. The idea brought back his worries, and concern pressed his thoughts as to if the City would be under attack now. They wouldn’t be able to hear the fight from their position, and they wouldn’t until they were within the city limits. Then more than likely it would be too late to escape the battle; assuming there was one at all.

Eagle scratched his scarred beak with a talon as he wondered if he was just being paranoid, but he felt some growing concern in the back of his head. His instincts were trying to tell him something, and every fiber of his being warned him against... whatever he couldn’t see. He sighed again; shelving the issue and a mental resounding ‘fuck it’ graced his mind once again. ‘Deal with it as it comes’, and with that he adjusted the harness to fit more comfortably. “Alright, let’s move! The sooner we get to town the better!”

Tato started to trot up to Eagle as he turned to leave, and Sparks gave herself a vigorous but ineffectual shake of her body trying to lose at least some water from her heavy barding, and whatever progress it made was immediately replaced with the deluge. She looked up to the sky with a subtle hate, and groaned wordlessly as she began trotting up to the rear of the group as her hooves slipped and squelched in the deepening muddy pools.

*** *** ***

The view of the city as it grew in their vision in both clarity and size made Sparkssubtly marvel at its grandeur. She had seen large groups of buildings once, of course, but the strange half charred silvery towers that all but scraped the sky above as they reflected the vividly hued, greenish white lightning that tore the air around them made her eyes wander in bafflement.

It seemed almost... divine, of sorts, like a once grand city that held the best of the old world; only now reduced to a crumbling and burnt ruin that served no greater purpose than to be a headstone to all that was once pure and good in the world.

Despite it though, the massive structures held no apprehension in her thoughts, like the towering emerald grave of Hoofington’s ebony sky scrapers, which after her short briefing on the city before she left her Stable did enough to weave a certain supernatural fear of it before laying eyes on it's wicked structures. This city though, Crystal City as she knew it, was almost... serene; save for the torrential storm, of course.

Eagle led them past the outermost structures and into the semi shelter of the alleyways that acted as echo chambers for the rumbling thunder that dominated the sky as rain poured in barrels, and after a short time of walking and wading past the waterlogged ruins of the city a single great and terrible lightning bolt struck one of the tallest buildings in the urban grave. The sound was terrifying, unimaginably loud and terrible in such a degree that even Eagle recoiled from the sudden strike.

He quickly regained composure though and shook his head. “Fuckin’! ah, shit...”

Sparks looked about how he felt; her legs turned to jelly as she stood wide eyed, pupils locked on the building above that had taken the wrath of heaven itself. Pieces like small rocks and pebbles flew down in scattered debris all around them, creating great splashes in the huge pools of water above their ankles. The deep water made it difficult to pass through the ruins, but the worst of it was the constant concern that a stray bolt would fry them so fast they wouldn’t be alive long enough to realize they were dead.

The problem was, after a sudden intrusion... a presence of sorts... in all their minds the fear of lightning gave way to far more primal fears than a mere storm.

They couldn’t discern what this sudden... whisper in the backs of their minds said, if anything at all, but Eagle took the sudden intrusion with immense alarm as he darted his eyes back to Sparks and Tato, shouting above the torrential winds and rain. “Did any of you say anything!?”

Tato shook her head a mixture of fear and confusion, and Sparks matched the expression as she picked at her ears with a hoof and wondered if her hearing was playing tricks with her. She spoke warily as she half shouted over the storm. “I didn’t say anything! Did you... you heard that too?”

Eagle tensed up in such a fashion she hadn’t seen before, and Eagle's silence made her feel far more fearful without foreseeable reason. He eventually spoke though, half shouting. “We need to be careful here! It...”

“Eagle!? What’s wrong!?” Sparks said, but he turned around as his head darted around looking for a faster path to the main gate of Crystal City proper. He shook his head hard and turned back to them. Every instinct of his now flared that the City was under attack, but by what was the question.

“I don’t know! We need to move!!” Sparks looked from Eagle to Tato, and they both shared fear in their faces, but neither could voice their concerns before Eagle charged off, deeper into the city.

Through an alley he all but disappeared before Sparks or Tato could follow him. Their minds were wracked by his sudden galloping rush, and did their best to match it, albeit failing only just. Alleyway after alleyway their legs carried them from lakes to bare patches of asphalt, then back to lakes as the storm thundered above. Paranoia gripped all their minds however, and the fear of the unknown, like an ancient, primal barb of tribal origin snagged the backs of their minds.

As their mad charge brought them closer and closer to the Crystal City horse hockey stadium, the subtle whisper in the back of her mind grew and grew into a fully intelligible roar, and Eagle, Tato, and Sparks all recoiled from the complete feeling of violation. The roar was spoken like a low whisper as if inches from their ears, and it bore a wickedly malicious, and oddly sensual manner, of speech. Like a promise of ecstasy veiled in a cloak of blood and terror.

‘Come on... my little... Pooonnnieesss... We are kind and merciful...!’

‘We promise it won’t hurt...’

‘Too much for some...!’

*** *** ***

They came to a stop near the main gate of the Crystal City stadium, and the massive green and welded steel wall was still shut. It confused Eagle, not nearly as much as the invasion of his mind, but it still perplexed. If the gate was sealed, then it had to be fliers that were doing this, or at least creatures with flying machines he grimly speculated, but before he could finish his own thoughts a piercing emotion dug into his head as he shook it vigorously trying to shake the influence.

The emotion was like a dark and wicked pleasure.

A grimly feminine laughter echoed harshly in all their minds that felt like claws on a chalkboard, or a barbed nail scratching and snagging on the backs of their skulls. The sensation was incredibly uncomfortable for all of them, and the blaring words slithered through their heads like slimy snakes or worms and caused panic in Sparks and Tato.

Eagle shook his head hard trying to shake the feeling and he shouted at his companions. “Hey! Stay with me, don’t let... don’t let it get into your head!”

Tato was visibly squirming from the attempt, her body writhing and convulsing as she shook her head with the psychic pressure pushing against her. “It’s... oh fuck, I... I can’t!”

She groaned as she fought, making an effort to eject them from her thoughts, but to no avail. Sparks, however, seemed to be taking it the nowhere near as difficult as her thoughts wandered in curiosity about what these voices belonged to. They caused her duress that was visible in her jerking shakes, like the voices were whispering in her ears right beside her as they went from her left to right, then left again speaking in their outlandish voices.

‘We are the Great... and Powerful... We... are The Goddess, children...’

A single thought of Sparks’ echoed in her mind alongside their words, and she wasn’t sure if it was her own question or the voice's. A sudden feeling of delight wreathed in immense agitation washed over her, and an involuntary smile began to grow on her lips before she shook the urge. The voices spoke again in phasing shifts, as if they were moving around her within licking distance.

‘Aahh... Who...?’ The voices burst into smaller whispers, more distant and abruptly as if a hundreds of voices spoke at once. ‘Who is the- How could she- But the Goddess is- Who is this fi- We’ve never heard her voi-’

The small avalanche of murmurs ebbed away to form again the joined voice, the tones and words sounding conjoined or compounded of hundreds, if not thousands, of smaller voices into a great and terrible united one. Yet its voice seemed to be dominated by one among them, as the voices spoke to match it and oozed like poisoned honey clinging to every inch of their minds.

‘We... are The Unity... the Great... and Powerful... Goddess...’

‘The saviors of ponyki- We are your salvati- We bring life- life to this dead worl-’

‘We bring Unity... We... bring life...!’

The voices all cackled fiercely in maddened frenzy, now seemingly innumerable voices collected together to giggle like children, and they were all overshadowed by the gaudy laughter of the collective. The sickening demented glee smothered their minds, and the One, this ‘Goddess’ voice, spoke again in the disembodied tones of many as a feeling of pity or remorse washed over them.

‘You... you fear Us...? Why...? Why do so many of these... these...’ a feeling of immense hatred and disgust blossomed like a flame that twisted up inside, but it dissipated with a flash as contentment like a sickly mother's sweaty hooves as the One voice cumulated again in chorus. ‘We only offer salvation... And a life free of fear from the horrors of a bygone age...’

Eagle cursed under his breath as he shook his head again, trying to shake the haze from his mind. He turned to Sparks who seemed almost as if in a trance, and he shook her hard to break her of the haze cast over them. “Come on Sparks! Fight it!”

The voices brought an unsettling mirth to their laughter, and the jarring motion brought Sparks back to lucidity as she peered about in a miasma. She spoke lowly and weakly, but the voices recoiled nonetheless. “Get- Get out of my... my head!”

She groaned as she smacked her skull with a hoof as if they would be thrown from her, and while the speechless pain the voices exhibited wasn’t akin to the physical, it felt more like an emotional injury that resounded through their words.

‘Pitiful litt- Why do they alw- The audaci-’

A flood of anger filled her senses as she struggled against them. This... voice spoke of itself like a Goddess, but their emotions and rage and their strange, twisted feelings that emanated from their thoughts flew in the face of what she thought the Goddesses were like.

They felt... angry, tormented in flashes, but all that pain was washed away like blood in a river’s tide when the One spoke again. The emotions were replaced by subtle whispers of compassion, like a massaging gesture that reaffirmed themselves constantly. Any and all confliction was momentary, and all doubts were smothered instantly.

This is what it felt like for Eagle, Sparks, and Tato in a blizzard of feelings, but it passed in mere seconds, if even, and gave way to a subtle, manic purring in their ears as the One spoke.

‘Perhaps... perhaps they need...’

‘Demonstrations...!’

All the voices came together, wicked in intent with a vicious whisper that hung in their minds, and a sudden flash of lightning blazed through the sky as a sudden void of sound fell on them. Relief washed over the three of them as the presence fell silent, and Eagle shook his head hard and flexed within his barding. “Fuck me running, what the fuck is doing this shit!”

Sparks screwed her face up as she rubbed her temples with her hooves, and she shot Eagle an expression that she knew that already from just the strange mind-speech they wielded. “Yeah... but, what are we going to do?”

Eagle scoffed, but he shook his head again throwing the ebbing feeling out of his head. He scowled around them, his eyes wide and his practiced cautions scanning the area, as if he was put in the distressing position of the hunted. Whatever this, or these, things were his mind only knew one thing; it could not be hunted.

He could only survive it.

“Alright Sparks... Listen, and listen good. I haven’t any fucking idea what’s causing this head trip shit but whatever it is it won’t be easy to beat!” He sighed deeply, and shook his head of the lingering ache it had. “I’m... I’ve been wondering what caused this damn storm for a while now, and what I first feared obviously isn’t the case. No way the Enclave has this type of weapon, and they would be preaching with it regardless! This is something new!”

Sparks looked around them with a newfound fear of the storm. It had already felt... weird to her, but now it was one thing above all else; unnatural, just as much as the voices were.

Confusion washed over her as she wondered how... whatever they were could command the very sky like this. She had heard of the stories, from before The War of how pegasi controlled the weather, but that was for the betterment of Ponykind in this.... great cooperative cycle as pegasi, unicorn, and earth ponies working together.

This? This wasn’t for any benefit, neither solace nor compassion were behind this storm.

“How... how could anything make a storm... this bad!?” Tato had asked, and Sparks’ expression shared the curiosity as she watched high above them as the tempest seemed to almost swirl above them. She swore she saw... patterns in the ribbons of cloud, like they were designed or intended. The center of the spiral seemed to hang above the city’s center as she trailed her eyes around them.

“I don’t know, I’d guess a severe amount of magic but that’s a wild guess! Griffons know shit about magic!” Eagle answered, albeit clearly displaying concern as to that very question. He looked to Sparks and caught her attention with a talon and she snapped her wide and fearful eyes to Eagle’s. “You know anything that could do this? Any unicorn insight at all?!”

She screwed her face up and tried to think of what could cause such magical power, but came up all but empty in the sheer weight of the effect if it was indeed a spell. She thought hard and dug deep for an answer, any answer, but the only thing she could give felt weakly incompetent.

“Well... I know several unicorns can cast a spell in tandem to... well, make the spell easier to cast, even boost the effect maybe. Dual-castings aren’t too uncommon for us, but I don’t...” She shook her head and threw a hoof into the air gesturing to the torrential sky above. “I don’t know of any unicorn -alive or dead- that could ever do THAT! I might take a few dozen -if not more- to get these results!”

Eagle’s expression gained a visible scowl that made him dread stepping another talon further into the city. “I hate it, but we’re going in blind!”

He put a talon on his revolver with hesitance in his motions, and groaned as he pulled his talon away from the pistol's handle and flipped a lever on his battle saddle with a subtle click in the mechanism. He stretched again, and grumbled under his breath, a battle haze forming over his vision as he prepared to fight something he could imagine. “Let’s go, we need to cut these fucks short before they get too dug in; whatever they are!”

Tato and Sparks brought themselves to their hooves as the intense pitter patter of rain hammered on, and the sky tore itself apart repeatedly by lightning strikes. They all felt terribly under prepared for a threat like this. They only knew the fear, and the echoing presence of the voices in their heads.

*** *** ***

It took some effort, but the trio managed to find an opening large enough to slip intoCrystal City proper. Eagle silently cursed their paranoia that, in any other scenario, would be a premium for defense. Now it only served to hamper his abilities to get inside to keep the town alive.

With every step from him, Tato, and Sparks in the growing lake that sloshed and splashed, he felt eyes on his back. The entire city itself felt... held in suspense, like the ghosts from every tragedy that befell this growing grave mound from those who drowned in balefire a century prior, to the raider massacre that he himself had orchestrated in his past, and all other unfortunates who breathed their last in the enclosure of buildings watched him and all present with awe and hushed whispers.

This... supernatural sensation bothered Eagle greatly. It equaled the intrusion of voices in almost every detail save for one. There was no voice in his head, no feelings of ichor and pitch oozing through his mind, only subtle sensations that he couldn’t place just beyond the edges of his sharpened senses. It set him on edge, lending a tension to his movements that took all his self control to overcome as he prowled through the city, and now the town itself that seemed oddly bereft of ponies.

‘Were they indoors or corralled somewhere?’ he questioned silently as his sharp and piercing eyes scanned the ramshackle huts and spot welded shacks through the heavy deluge.

No living soul was in sight, and it gave him mixed feelings as to the numerous possibilities. He went through each detail in scrutiny as he thought in mechanical speed as he deduced the situation.

Too few scattered bodies, but far more than he was comfortable with. Hidden? Maybe, if whatever hunted them wasn’t capable of just knowing their location. He though that it probably wasn’t a matter of finding, more like reaching if they had barricaded themselves somewhere.

Nothing in sight alive again. Gone or prowling for the townsfolk? No... they were still here, as the signs had proven. They were either moping up, or had already finished. Now they hunted for sport, or were preoccupied.

No signs of serious battle. Little blood or broken buildings, or casings and spent microspark batteries from rifles and pistols that he could see that would suggest a vicious fight that would ensue from fending off whatever would threaten an entire town.

All signs suggested the worst. A majority of the inhabitants were either bunkered down, or were already captured or... or worse.

The final hanging thought sent shivers through his spine as the idea of psychic torture or... whatever could be inflicted by this paranormal threat. He forcibly composed himself for just such a situation as Sparks and Tato held their own counsel, and with it that same, cruelly sensual voice whispered in the back of their minds again, switching from ear to ear in their mental hearing.

‘Aaah... It’s a shame We has no place for... griffon kind... We could benefit from you... If only We were... compaaatible... ’

Eagle looked about him in a cautious, but hectic frenzy as he forced himself to not ruminate on their words. They might have been telepathic -in the most uncomfortable and terrible way imaginable - and wondered if these things could simply foresee details about a creature from such a link.

He scowled deeper, as it meant either they didn’t need to see them, or were actively watching them. He scanned about for signs of anything he could remotely see, and couldn’t see any details that jumped out at him, and he peered around the roofs and numerous places about where enemies could roost before they pounced. With no luck in that regard either he grumbled as it felt like the most dangerous game of cat and mouse he had ever played.

‘You... don’t know Us...? You shaaall... before long...’

Sparks looked up to Eagle who maintained his distant piercing gaze about the park’s massive oval shaped form, and she wondered what these voices belonged to, truly.

‘We have said... Little pooony... time and tiiiime again...’ the voices seemed to inject sadness and disappointment ‘We are the Goddess... and you shall know our quest to save before long... ’

Eagle interrupted the voice, speaking aloud and rage edging his deep and gravelly voice, and he kept his composure just barely as he lashed out. “Why don’t you come down here and show yourselves!! If you truly are here to help then why hide behind hellish storms in a deserted town of perfectly peaceable ponies!!”

‘We... neeeeed them... to saaaave them...’

“I’m willing to bet you’ve simply killed them all, didn’t you!! Where are they, what have you done!!” the voice seemed to sound... injured by Eagle’s rage filled shouts, as the imperious tones fell away to ones of pleading, of desperation for gratification.

‘Nothing yet... but sooooon... not soon enough... they will be within our care and grace... Ponykind in a... peeeerfect unity against these... Wastelands...’

“You call all this salvation!? We’ve all had nightmares more pleasant than this!!” he thrust a talon at a guard, who lay dead on the ground; craters of burnt flesh in his chest. “You surely don’t mean this helps ponies, or any creatures out of this hell!! Do you!!”

Silence graced their minds again as the voice fell quiet. Eagle had tried something against them on a whim, and their nearly physical recoil in their minds told Eagle it had worked. Powerful emotions clogged their telepathic link it seemed. Hatred and rage he had bet would be like some sort of flash bang grenade against them. It worked, if only a little, and with a wicked grin he pulled to bear the nastiest of his histories, the terrors he had witnessed and inflicted, and the presence recoiled even harder so much that it cause a subtle discomfort in their minds.

“You want to read my mind... pick out strategies and tactics with which to end me... but believe me when I say you won’t find anything but demons!!” He drew his knife with a twirling brandish as he peered around slowly, his vision becoming a red haze through the curtain of rainwater that hid his newfound quarry.

Sparks and Tato both looked at him, his form becoming... insidious, evil even by Sparks’ judgment; the wide and wicked grin that crossed his beak was a smile she had never seen before worn by anypony -or creature- she had ever met. It was unsettling to her core.

Before she could think further on it though the voice came back in full force, and its simple declaration tore at their very souls it seemed as the overpressure enveloped their senses like a raging tsunami of emotion. It was voiced by innumerable voices simultaneously as the One.

‘Veeeery well...! Let us plaaaay...!’

The firefight began shortly thereafter, as massive magic beams of sickly green missiles tore from several highly placed spots all around the stadium's radius. There were three total shots of that radiantly terrible magic that pierced their senses, but not their hides as Eagle pounced practically the moment they formed, throwing Sparks and Tato behind the cover of nearby shacks. The shots of magic plowed with a terrible crack and electric greenish sparks formed in their wake, leaving small concussive blasts in which rainwater splashed in massive displays that refracted the deathly magic they cast in dazzling lights.

Eagle pounced equally fast to his fours with a wing beat that sent him barreling on, leaving Sparks and Tato in the mud and muck, but out of sight of the surely lethal magic of the attackers. Sparks lifted herself up and, despite the aching feeling that filled her limbs and the sensation of dread and terror that the voices fostered, she shook off the mud as best she could before turning to follow him.

Tato stopped her with a filthy mud covered hoof though, and spoke in massive volumes of fear that cracked her voice as she spoke in nearly whispers below the rain and noise of beginning battle. “Wait!! No Sparks, t-they’ll kill you!!”

The look of complete fear on Tato’s mud caked features gave her momentary pause, but she girded her courage to follow Eagle. He would need all the help he could get, and while she abhorred violence and wasn’t a great fighter she had to help... somehow.

Besides, if what Eagle said had any kernel of truth, than this... ‘Goddess’ had wicked plans for this town, and as she looked around there must have been ponies by the score living here, if not a hundred or more. All of this life, and their fates seemed to hang in the balance, dependant on what would happen in the next quarter hour at most.

The thought sent shivers down her spine as she felt the weight of it, and she shook her head as she tried to convince Tato to let her leave. “If I don’t try he’ll get killed, then we’re all screwed! Stay down Tato, try to keep hidden alright!?

Tato's lips quivered as her face contorted fiercely in terror with the continued barrage of those green blasts of energy, but she nodded dully and all but buried herself in the pool of muck around her in an ineffective attempt at camouflage.

Sparks turned away and worked her way from the muddied pool and took a short breath as she tried to gird herself for this; for battle. All of what she had heard so far, and so fast left no time for contemplation. Her own thoughts made her think of these creatures as monsters and a deponized threat; it seemed to ease her concerns for violence, like squashing insects.

She felt... able to raise herself in defense of herself and her friends, not to mention the town itself, against monsters with a fraction of the hesitance in her convictions. It still felt... bad though, as she hated violence was the only answer. ‘Lesser evils’ and all... Let these things have their way, or deny them with war. The thought turned her stomach, but she felt the sensation there wasn’t a choice in the matter.

She recounted Eagle's words to her about being hidden, keeping hidden rather, as she felt it was the only method she could remotely use to survive this; staying out of sight, keeping volume down and controlling her breathing, keeping calm. The last one proved to be the hardest as she found herself quaking in her barding at the realization she was to fight, especially when she saw more of the magical bolts they flung, and were flinging around the town as resounding zaps and cracks emanated between the tempest's lighting strikes; their reports ringing in her ears.

She looked around the shacks and saw as the lightning strikes illuminated all the terrain about, and their harsh contrasts were carved in that terrible greenish white lightning with bright, deathly green magic bolts blazing in reflective surfaces through their lengths as they were hurled at targets but finding none. The gears in Sparks’ head began to turn as she remembered what Eagle had said outside of the city.

‘Perfect weather for an attack’ is what resonated in her head, and with a grim sensation coursing through her she agreed.

She shook the thought and made her sloshing and splashing way down into the buildings below, and found the small cover of one of the many shacks that gathered in ripples around the main gate; all the while tapping the button on her PipBuck for S.A.T.S.. She hoped it would register targets for her in this chaos as she felt this unfamiliar sensation, a paranoia that she knew was very real, like she was being stalked by a waking nightmare. She couldn’t fight them if she couldn’t see them, and the more she thought about it the more she felt like her own thoughts were being screened.

Once her S.A.T.S. registered a target, but it vanished as soon as it appeared showing single digits becoming zeros for hit chances, and it gave her more and more anxiety as her heart rate hammered in her ears. Her limbs shook and could barely hold her own weight, but she did her best to gird herself against the fear. Eagle needed her -the town needed her- to be strong.

The voice came back as it whispered and slithered its way through her mind like oily snakes, and presumably the rest of anypony in range of their telepathy.

‘Why fight Us... Little Pony? We only wish to... Saaaaave you... from this place...’

She shook her head hard and thought to herself, keeping her own voice firmly quiet in a sudden instinct that told her not to speak, like hostile ears were nearby.

‘Because I heard what Eagle said, you... you only hurt others!’

‘We... do not hurt anypooony, Little Pooony... We only bring aaall in our care... the salvation... everypony so desires...’ the voice chuckled grimly as the One devolved into thousands of snickering and cackling voices before it came back to the One, and it sighed with a hint of derangement it its words. ‘Besides... We do not force anypooony... to join us... We only... convince them...’

As the voice continued, a barrage of magic and gunfire burst from somewhere within the ball park, it was smothered by lightning strikes as the greenish white lightning tore away almost all sound around.

‘We... do not force anyone... to do anything... Little Pony...’ the voice silenced of a sudden, and a painful and mind wracking feeling of anger surged through the sensations in her head that brought her hoofsteps to a halt. She held her head in pain as it roared.

‘We try to save...!! We only wish... To help!! Become like Us... like We are and you shall thrive!!’ Sparks shook her head hard, and thought back at the Alicorns in a smugness bearing a question for them.

‘Then where are the townsponies, Huh? An entire town of peaceful, contented ponies, gone! You can’t tell me that they're all gone under ‘peaceful’ pretenses!’

‘How... How dare you!’ the voices anger lashed out as magical bolts of their emerald death blasted areas around her, all but missing her as she galloped away from their impacts finding deeper cover as she continuously tapped her S.A.T.S., searching intently for them but as always finding nothing. ‘Do not think the Goddess is cruel!! We saved all out sisters to the last!!’

In the voice’s anger it seemed that some creature became brave enough to reveal themself, and the form that loomed over the stadium in a shimmering, off color azure bubble around her majestically terrifying form was just so. Sparks’ continual S.A.T.S. activations registered a... winged unicorn. She reeled at the sight, and it was only the repeated button presses that allowed her to lock on its form, and all the minute details slowed to a crawl giving her more than enough time to take in the sight.

The bubble that enveloped her shimmered and illuminated her large and abyssal, ebon green form against the torrential sky, and her huge and almost wicked wings held her aloft as her burning, deep emerald eyes with slits for pupils, like a serpent’s, beamed around the terrain below her. She was crowned by a long and flowing mane and tail, nearly black as its dark and sinister green hue only seen in the reflections of her shield and magic, and her long glowing horn was wreathed in the same hue of blazing emerald.

At first, Sparks was held aghast at the being, and she had to do a double take gazing at the beautiful and terrible form as it hung in the sky with lightning surrounding it; creating awesome wreaths framing it in her mind like a cherry-on-top for her fear. The only times she ever saw any winged unicorns was in history class or posters that riddled her Stable, and those were the forms of the princesses of old; Luna and Celestia, the deified protectors of equinity in the world after fire.

She had to remember what these things were as she admired them subtly, but the feeling of despair held far more power over her as she froze in place when, even in the speed enhanced S.A.T.S., she felt the psychic pressure on her mind; the oozing ichor feeling turning to sharp and sour notes whose baritone beats formed plateaus and valleys with entire seconds between them.

The winged unicorn's eyes turned to her of a sudden, and a magical beam lashed out from her horn in slow motion, materializing in emerald wisps and sparks that trailed from her horn’s base to the tip along the spirals forming one massive bolt that lanced the very air. The fat droplets of rainwater that hung in the space around her, refracting the lights from her azureous shield and the emerald magic that spiraled her horn, all exploded in splatters at the magic’s presence, but a singular detail that Sparks saw was what she hung on most of all.

She had seen shield spells before with her work at home, with the Enclave’s technology, but what she knew was that shielding couldn’t allow projectiles to pass through it, as one would assume of how shields were obviously supposed to work. The shield she had seemed to be no different as a small port or hole opened in the wake of her magical attacks, and when it opened the zeros on her hit chance for the head, chest, and wings interfaces rose in numbers. What little they were, barely above fifteens at this range at least, still told her it was possible to at least hit them; albeit in fractions of seconds.

She didn’t have long to linger though as the blazing emerald bolt speared the air between them, and even in the affects of S.A.T.S she had barely enough time to throw herself to the side to dodge the shot. The air beside her blazed hot for what felt like half a second in the crawling time, and the heat subtly electrified her hide as her mane frazzled from the sensation. The resounding zap and crack of the report and impact lingered until S.A.T.S. wore off, and after regaining her senses in real time she galloped off deeper into the muddied pools that blanketed the alleyways between the rippling lines of shacks.

She heard the pursuit of the winged unicorn as the firefight continued as background noise smothered by thunder and her own labored breaths as she bolted this way and that through the alleyways, trying to lose pursuit. She found such a hole to dive in and found herself inside one of the shacks that looked more of a haphazardly welded and riveted factory than a home as a stained and sodden mattress and other Wastelandic furnishings bobbed on the surface of the filthy water. The violent ripples she made rocked them about in her wake as she delved deeper searching for the break she needed. When she found none she panicked as she heard a violent splash from beyond the home’s door.

Finding no other choice than to hide, as she was certain that one shot from it’s magic would be enough to end her, she gasped deeply and threw herself into the murky mud filled water reflexively. She heard her hammering heart rate below the murky water, as well as the now distant and muted storm and battle beyond that were reduced to nearly mere concussive forces, and she held her breath with all the willpower she could muster as the black and shadowed water enveloped her.

Shortly afterwards her eyes saw a sort of glow, azure in hue, as her slammed shut eyelids brightened slightly from the presence of the creature’s shield.

In the murky, near silent depths her mind felt the presence of the voice again -the One- as it spoke to her in the same oozing ichor sensation like sharpened nails scratching the inside of her skull. The voice emanated, almost echoing in the near silence, as the distant thunder and blasts of battle seemed to only be swept aside to subliminal noises as the voice took over her sense of hearing.

‘Come on now... my Little Pony... no need to hide from Us...' Sparks felt a sensation akin to a mother's laughter at a child; laughter like a demented mixture of affection and accusation of foolishness. 'We only desiiiireee... to save...’

Sparks kept her eyes shut firm, and tried her best to calm herself as panic wanted her to leap from the water and flee. She was sure though it would only end in her death... or worse she feared. She didn’t want to become like them, tearing apart towns and villages to ‘save’ them, and she slowly but surely brought herself to complete stillness below the water with only the muffled explosions and that sickly, ungoddessly voice as her companions in the murky resonance of the water.

‘We... only wish to help you...’

The voice felt ever more like a sickening plea, and slithered through her in a fashion that made her irk and twitch as it spoke. She thought to herself, albeit unintentionally as she knew it could hear her thoughts.

‘I want nothing you have to offer, neither does anypony here I’d wager!’ The same recoiling feeling snagged again, only short lived as the voice regained composure quickly and spoke again, echoing in her mind’s ears.

‘Why not...? Who are you to refuse Our gift...? Our gift...? A life... free of pain or hurt...' The voice emanated in the murky resonance, and a sensation of twisted compassion smothered Sparks’ mind as it continued.

'You cannot tell me that all... in these... ‘Wastes’... wouldn’t desire release...An existence where we could bask in magical radiation and not die... an existence where none of the land's monsters could destroy you... an existence where no matter where you are... no matter how much you hurt...’

The voice devolved again into the hundreds as they shifted between her ears, trying to comfort her and convince her of their truth as if unaware of the fact their passage was a violation of her mind.

‘We will be ther- To hold yo- To kiss your che- We will keep you saf- We will give you compan- We will support yo-’

They merged again to the One, and spoke in unison with a reverberating declaration, easy and soft but rattling her to her core like a dragon’s rumbling whispers.

‘We... and Our harmony... will keep you in Our warm embrace...’

Sparks felt a subtle smile, like that of a loving mother spread across her cheeks, and a warmth that enveloped her as emotions of compassion and pleasure heated her in the frigid water. She wasn’t entirely sure if these feelings were born of her own doing, or implanted by this voice, but it was all she could do to not take the offer.

Their words... felt genuine, if not just firmly believed by them. They did care, in some way she supposed, but she wondered for a moment if it was simply their self taught lies to excuse their heinous actions. It was then she remembered her conversation with Eagle, merely yesterday before they wiped out the raider fiends, and her question to him reverberated throughout her to the voices sudden sorrow.

‘The end... justifies the means...?’ it said, with a heavy blanket of grief washing over it and her, and the hundreds of voices that formed the One began to mutter to each other in whispers Sparks couldn’t discern or follow, only an underlying feeling of pain was recognizable amongst the sadness. It only lasted a few seconds before a surge of madness rushed forth again in the voice, and all the disembodied whispering came crashing back to the One, terrible and rumbling like the thunder above.

‘No!! We will not be tricked like this!!’ With a sudden explosion that beat the water around her; the concussive force enveloping her whole form. The water thrashed and rocked her about as it threw her from the water's protection.

As she flew through the air her eyes wrenched open as she saw for only a moment that the shack had exploded in a shower or shrapnel and flame, and with an instinctual activation of her S.A.T.S. she dropped into the microseconds of time again, watching as the rapidly forming fireballs from some explosive slowed to a crawl in dazzling bright orange and white blotched spheres with blackened ochre plumes within them.

She saw Eagle, smothered in watery blood that streaked from him as a rage blazed in his eyes. He dived gracefully through the stagnate debris, paused in their twirls as they scattered. The winged unicorn was turning to face him, her shimmering azure shield rippling as it dissipated in a few spots like it had been shaken through either immense force or surprise.

Either possibility didn’t last long in Sparks’ thoughts as it’s horn charged with that deathly green magic, aimed at Eagle as he slowly flew inside the now half destroyed shack. Sparks had to gird herself again in the S.A.T.S.’ slowed time as she hoisted her laser pistol to bear with her telekinesis, aiming the weapon at its head with a hit chance shifting between seventy and sixty eight as she turned about with menace in her eyes. The water splashed violently about them, refracting her magical aura as it illuminated her sinister features like some demonic statue of everything that could be evil in ponies ponified.

She confirmed three attacks and saw with painful clarity as the first neon red laser beam of her pistol’s spell landed squarely on the Alicorn’s temple, the abyssal green flesh being blasted off in smoking chunks as she smelt the ozone emanating across her nostrils as the second shot landed on its horn. The bright and near blinding red beam mixed with the equally vivid green aura of her horn creating a vibrant amber yellow hue that shone like a beacon, emanating from growing cracks along the impact’s center.

The strike dissipated its shield as Sparks watched the azure magic all but fizzed out of existence, trailing away to frenzied lines around her in a rough spherical shape like lightning bolts. Most importantly the emerald aura around the spirals of her horn flashed out of reality, and it left an immensely surprised and agonized expression that grew slowly across its face as Eagle's dive had borne fruit. He came down below it into the water’s crater that leisurely refilled from the detonation and her dissipated shield.

She watched as Eagle’s knife buried itself into the creature’s belly and, with a tearing pull of his talon he drew the blade with a silvery red flash across it trailing ribbons of ebon blood and scraps of flesh through the air in a violent dragging motion. The short motion brought it down to the ground into the water below, and they all but disappeared into the murky waters.

Sparks canceled the third shot on her queue, and as time reasserted itself the flames of the explosions and the shredded shrapnel of the shack gradually threw themselves against the surrounding terrain in bursts of bright orange light and peppering impacts. Sparks and the winged unicorn both where submerged in immense sensations of agonizing pain, and surprise dashed across it all. Sparks couldn’t tell if the pain was hers, or the winged unicorn’s through their telepathy, but between the seconds that passed as time came to full speed she crashed against the far wall of the shack, and a torrential wave of muddied water plowed into her, beating the air from her lungs.

She tried to fight the current to no avail, and only found shelter from it once the wave had bounced off the wall and settled back down to ground level were it sloshed and tore at itself in a frenzy of physics made chaotic further by the settling pieces and chunks of the shack that fell from the explosion. She shook the streaming water from her head and made an attempt to stand as she saw Eagle thrashing in the water with his knife, drawing back shimmering black rivulets as he stabbed furiously into the water through her waterlogged vision, but one of her legs gave out from under her and she plummeted back into the water gasping for air as she did.

The pain, she realized, was her own and she felt the deadened limb with her hoof to painfully find a jutting piece of steel that had buried itself into her foreleg above her right hoof. Her touch agonizingly tore at it in her flesh and she grimaced, then with soundless whimpering of the alien pain she forced herself back above the pool shaking the water from her head vigorously, favoring her uninjured foreleg as she brought her injured one to her hazy vision.

The piece of metal was huge, at least much larger than she felt comfortable looking at as it stretched out a good five or six inches away from her leg with small waterlogged rivulets of her blood leaking in steady droplets into the pool below her. It was then that she began to panic slightly as her fear of the winged unicorn ebbed into a full blown self realized danger. Her eyes were wide and they trembled as she traced the barbed scrap metal from injury to end, and her medical knowledge fought with the expected reaction of a patient who suffered such an injury.

Every fiber of her being wanted to rip the piece out there and then as the pain overloaded her senses, but she didn’t know the extent of the damage as she tried to calm herself enough to search for a healing potion in her saddlebag.

She didn’t have long to linger on it though as Eagle’s thrashing in the water ended as he stood up on his hind legs, his chest heaving savagely and his wings stretched out in a primal and instinctive pose of dominance as he peered around for the other threats not yet dealt with. He looked to her with recognition flashing in his eyes, and instinct leapt him to her. He ripped the metal piece out of her leg with a delicate, but fiercely jarring yank without warning that trailed small ribbons of her blood; Sparks swore felt like it just pulled out of the bone, but the shock kept her from shouting in pain.

He tore into a small bag on his side and pulled out a healing potion in precise and practiced focus as he ripped the stopper out and brought the flask to her lips; the gleaming magenta hued liquid poured into her mouth as she fought her instincts to fight it.

The potion did its work, and slowly the wound began to knit itself together with a miraculous speed that Sparks was dazzled at between her immensely jarred senses. The blood flow stopped short, the muscles and flesh grew back leaving a raw, pinkish hued coatless spot on her leg as the strangely distant pain ebbed away bit by precious bit.

Eagle looked up and locked eyes with Sparks once he saw the potion was working and spoke in succinctly hastened and shouted words in a savage, gravelly voice. “There’s still more out there!! This one’s the first I’ve managed to kill, but I’m betting at least two remain!! Keep your head down and stay alive!!”

It was all her overburdened senses could do just to nod in acknowledgement, and she brought her leg down to test it on the ground as Eagle pounced away from her with a catlike grace beyond the devastated shack around her. She heard two more of the unforgettable zaps and cracks from the winged unicorn’s attacks, and she shook the shellshock from her as her survival instincts were thrown into overdrive. It caused her to duck and gallop as fast as she could through the pools of muck to find better cover despite the pulsing pain in her hoofsteps.

After a short gallop that felt far too long for her own mental sanity she finally found decent cover further into the ball park, and she saw a flash of what looked like Eagle rushing from cover to cover avoiding the gaze and blasts of the winged unicorn. She tried to spot where the blasts were coming from but they seemed... sporadic, as if it was flying so unbelievably fast through the air or...

The realization dawned on her that she had heard of such spells before that could make such rapid place changes possible, and a groan sounded from her as she realized these things could teleport around the battlefield. With a silent cursing she kept moving through the shanty town turned lake as her S.A.T.S.’ magical charge refilled, and she felt the intrusion of the Alicorns telepathy pierce her mind again in a massive surge of anger and pain, voiced by the One in trembling rage that resounded in her mind’s ears.

‘You shall not survive Us!! We are the Great and Powerful Goddess!!’ A moment passed as the anger gave way to subtle concern, and back again to blinding fury as Sparkswondered if Eagle had thought back at them. ‘No matter how man of Us you fell, We shall be victorious!! We shall parade your corpses like trophies for every Sister you slay!!’

A strange, sick and twisted pleasure arose in Sparks’ mind as she ducked and dove around the town, keeping in motion and waiting for her S.A.T.S. to recharge. It was almost complete as that sensation gave way to the Equus shaking mind-speech.

‘Or perhaps We should watch you twist and deform as We bathe you, limb by limb into the Holy Glow!! We should watch you scream!! And beg for mercy!!’

Sparks’ overloaded senses in her head from the vehement, unleashed wrath caused her pause as she held a hoof to her head in pain. She thought to herself in an equally venomous form as her words were fueled by the Alicorn’s fury.

‘This is your ‘mercy’!? Where is the mercy in your words!?’

A recoiling sensation was felt that jarred the pain away, leaving tears in Sparks’ eyes as a void of relief was born from the release of psychic pressure. She sobbed slightly as her body hung in weakness against her leaden limbs, and shook her head hard shouting in her mind further as she ran on through the town keeping an eye on her S.A.T.S. meter; nearly charged.

‘What kind of merciful goddess does that to ponies -to creatures in general!? You are not a Goddess of mercy -or a goddess at all!! You are a monster!!’

The pain that surged through the telepathic link followed the pattern she had felt since she first experienced it, as a tremendously emotional kind; sorrow and agony over her words that cut deeply into the mind of the winged unicorn. She turned a corner as tears flowed from her eyes as they mixed with the heavy rain around her, and she spied off in the distance the winged unicorn perched above the town. She locked her eyes with their blazing green irises crowning their pupil slits, and she knew they saw her as the mental link inched a sensation that filled her with her own sorrow, drowned by her fury.

They spoke to her, a subtle voice of the One with the combined voices of thousands, but filled with accusation, injury, and heartbreak.

‘Why... why would you... say that? We... We only wish to help...’

Sparks couldn’t contain herself as the fury bubbled into a full body roar that her cute voice carried with surprising vehemence as it cracked and rent in her own wrath, and she felt the sensation of recoil in every enunciated word she howled with her own voice as it cracked. “This is not helping anypony but yourself!! You are selfish!! Monstrous!! An evil creature who wants nothing but your way!!”

The words struck hard, and she nearly felt what she could have sworn was a plea for forgiveness from innumerable voices in hushed tones before their telepathic link resurged into conviction. The winged unicorn looked back to her before its stance returned to one of strength, composed and murderous, and the One returned with vengeful accusation that dripped like melted slag from her words.

‘You do now know... what We do for this land... your ponies... My Little Pony...’ A feeling of hatred grew inside Sparks, as the vengeful wrath ebbed away to deep pity. ‘Do not judge your saviors... Little one... The end... does justify the means...’

Its horn began to shimmer and flash in emerald sparks before Sparks reactivated her S.A.T.S. and she saw with acuity their wicked form once more; the spell's affect on time nearly halting the tempest around them as the rain paused midair. Her chances were abysmally small to hit it, as low as twenty one from the distance alone. Nevermind that the azure bubble shields flashed from their horns and slowly inched their way down forming the spheres that would protect them from all manner of damage she would guess.

With no other option she queued three shots again, two at its chest and one at its legs, hoping that at least one would hit and do enough damage to stun them.

Hope beyond hope, but she had to try. The rage that grew within her boiled her eyes into a red haze that demanded it be erased; all against her pleading subconscious mind that detested such furious wrath. She paid it no mind, as it was now or never. Her fight or flight instincts were thrown into high gear, and she jumped to fighting almost reflexively as she drew her pistol to bear and sent her first shot flying; the neon red laser beaming through the air at its chest as a small piece of Sparks’ mind tore itself apart at her decision to ignore her own convictions.

The first shot struck the it midcast, and she saw with S.A.T.S. enhanced clarity that the impact caused a surge of pain from sizzling flesh through her that disrupted her horn’s magic; her shield receding. The second shot missed wide to Sparks’ aggravation as it plowed into the shield before it fizzed out of existence in a glamorous display of flashing purple sparks as the red beam mingled with the azure shield's aura. The light show refracted in the massive droplets of rain, and the horrendous smell of noxious ozone filled Sparks’ nose as she watched the colliding magic.

The third shot impacted the winged unicorn directly in one of her knees, and worse the S.A.T.S. display flashed in her interface that a critical hit was dealt. She watched as the abyssal, nearly ebon blue creature and all her malevolent form, from the bluish black mane and tail to its hooves, simply dissolved into a fine, glowing red ashen dust cloud that wisped in the tempest’s wind and rain.

The last thing Sparks saw of her... was the face of the creature’s final moments of lucidity twisted into terror and fear, its expression becoming wracked with agony, and her emotions were overwhelmed by the pain it caused and broadcast to her mind. In the crawling time a single thought echoed in her mind.

She... she swore she saw... somepony in that face, if only for a flash of a millisecond before the terrified expression was consumed by the glowing red ashes... and blown away in the slow and steady timeless wind.

S.A.T.S. wore off, and time reassumed control of itself as the rain plummeted down to Equus, lightning flashing furiously above the battlefield, and the ashes of the Alicorn were swept away in a lancing wind becoming glowing red mud in the rain as it fell. Just as quickly as she had died though, another winged unicorn appeared out of thin air and her motions were that of sudden shock. Its expression as it turned around was lost on Sparks at that distance, but the emotions that surged from the telepathic link told her all she needed.

It was grief, and it choked her rage into embers.

The Winged unicorn teleported away, and while Sparks’ every instinct told her to move and find cover again she couldn’t stop staring at the glowing red ashes that sparsely covered the shack where the winged unicorn stood; her last expression burnt into her mind like a brand that would never heal with time. She had killed an somepony, monster or not. A being... a living being that apparently felt...

Again...

In anger, she struck it down on the excuses she not even half a week ago she fought to understand in others. ‘Fight or die’, and while understanding she and Eagle had little choice, and that she had resolved herself to this course of action the moment she first drew her laser pistol against the raider fiends, this time...?

This time... a pang or morality buried itself deep in her psyche as she remembered that twisted face, a plea for mercy and release as she could swear she had seen in her eyes, her wordlessly twitching lips.

She stared down at the laser pistol in her telekinetic grasp, the cyan aura of her horn wreathing its grip, and every fiber of her being wished for her to throw it off into the lake’s waters; never to be seen again. Her eyes traced the stenciled print on its side, reading MEP-7, but any knowledge she had of the once proclaimed ‘tool’ became a weapon pure and simple in her mind. Detestation grew in her to the point where she almost threw it away, only...

She holstered the pistol, and she thought to herself as calmly as she could, trying to emanate a soothing feeling in her that, hopefully, the remaining one would feel. She felt within herself for that sensation, that presence, but found none beyond her own internal functions; the pounding heart in her ears, the rain and thunder as it boomed above, and the pitter patter of heavy rain on her body and barding. She looked around for her, and the deluge made it nearly impossible to see her if she was present.

In fact, were it not for knowing better she would say she was alone in the city. A lone soul... in a deadened world to compassion.

She galloped away and splashed and sloshed through the muck as she tried to reestablish the mental link, despite how terribly uncomfortable it was, and she fought hard with herself to figure out how one could even begin to do something like that. As she ran through the town the only sounds she heard were of her own panting and mad galloping, the storm and the rain battering the water’s surface, all the sounds her sudden desires didn’t wish to hear. She wanted to find the Alicorn, and somehow reaffirm her own beliefs, but she was nowhere to be found or seen, no sensations or intrusions felt besides her own.

At least until she heard a savage shout and blast off to the side that caught every fiber of her attention with a resounding sensation of pain that poured through her. A massive pluming fireball of bright orange and ebon ochre with a hugely concussive force nearby, perhaps a row or two over from where she was. She knew that was where Eagle and the Alicorn were, and she knew that she had to reach them before either slew the other.

So with a furious gallop she charged through the gaps she could find between the assembled shacks, heavily smashing through the muck with huge draughts of air as she hoped beyond hope. It grew in her like a blossoming flower, shining brightly against the electrified greenish white tempest that flashed above her in the conflict darkened sky with unfathomable depths of irony she wasn't privy to.

She broke free of the shack line and out into an open space or yard that pooled in the stadium’s center, and halting fast in her mad gallop she fought for her breath as she saw them. Eagle and the winged unicorn, squared off against each other, wounded and bleeding like mirrors as they both shared nearly equal injuries and circled each other like beasts in a final showdown.

The hatless Eagle’s trench coat was tattered in spots and his entire form was draining small rivulets of waterlogged blood almost from beak to tail into the murky pool below him as he favored a leg in his pace with a drooping wing. His wounds, however, were knitting themselves back together with a grievously slow pace that showed in his murderous expression; his blazing eyes locked for everything they were worth on his foe.

The winged unicorn’s own wounds were not magically healing at all, and if they wereSparks could not see them doing so. Despite them, which were numerous as it seemed all manner of terrible inflictions spotted her abyssal purple coat and ebon shaded mane to match like shrapnel and bullet wounds; all of them bled profusely like half opened spigots.

The look in her eyes matched Eagle’s to the letter, in maliciousness and wariness both with a subtle layer of pain that emanated from them, and she walked with a similar limping that seemed to be body wide in her stride as her wings hung limply against her sides.

It was now or never for Sparks to do what she thought was right. She felt as if should she not take the chance it would be burned into her for the rest of her days. So with a deep breath and shake of her head she shouted in a cracking, hoarse tone that caught both their attentions, and they looked to her in subtle bafflement. “Stop!!”

Eagle was the first to speak, and his battle haze was still very much alive as he growled his response, unaware of what she had planned. “Stay back girl!! This thing is still dangerous, even wounded...!”

His hazy eyes kept a lock on the winged unicorn who maintained eye contact with Eagle, and her slithering mind-speech returned as it dragged its barbs against her skull, pain and agony apparent in every word the One spoke.

‘You do well to fear... Even so... wounded as We may be!’

Sparks’ face twisted in anger fueled by desperation, and she repeated her demand as loudly as her voice would carry it. “Please!! I said stop!!”

Both of them jerked in her sudden shouted plea, and they traded glances from her and back to the other as they stopped in their tracks. “What the fuck are you doing girl!?”

Eagle said as he shot her a dangerous look, demanding an explanation in the shortest time she could give it, and with a heaving breath Sparks all but collapsed to her belly in the muck below her as the storm surged; a sudden confusion emanating from the telepathic link.

‘What... What indeed...?’

Sparks looked up as she gave small sobs with an expression made of pure sorrow, and after shaking her head hard throwing rainwater away from her face she looked at the Alicorn with imploring eyes. She tried to project her plea in pure emotional power. “What’s your name?”

The voice recoiled slightly from the question, and doubt grew in it until it spoke with uncertainty etched in its words.

‘We... We don’t understand what you...’

“Your name!! What do I call you!?” the confusion repeated as it... she... subtly shook its head in a physical balking gesture.

‘We... We are the Goddess of course... Haven’t you been listening Little One?’ Sparks’ sadness gave way to frustration as she threw her head up in a groaning half shout, one that sounded more like a hoarse gasp, and she locked eyes with the her. She seemed visibly shocked by her request; one that seemed impossibly simple to Sparks. All the while Eagle’s incredulous eyes darted between Sparks and the winged unicorn in front of him with immense confusion of his own worn plainly on his face.

“Ugh!! Alright then, my name is Sparks! What is your name!? You have to have had one once, any name! Other than ‘The Goddess!’”

‘We... We don’t have a... a name...’ The mind-speech emanated with a dull and hollow sensation as it echoed like a whisper in a dripping cave, and the winged unicorn’s confusion gave way to its own sorrow. She tilted her head, as if pondering that very question herself as the emotions flickered between sadness and confusion, maybe even a touch of revolt, andSparks gave a solemn smile as she slowly approached her as she picked herself up from the murky pool.

“Well... you, you kinda look like a ...” Sparks looked her up and down as she tried furiously in her mind to come up with a name that suited her, and fast; one that wasn’t bad or insulting or... or anything that could ruin this chance for her. “How... how about Lilac? How does that sound like a name for you?”

A feeling of emptiness felt like it was smothering them through the mind-speech, and she head hung low as Sparks saw small... nearly invisible tears forming in her blazing green eyes. The tears sparkled with emerald refractions as the voices spoke melancholically, missing almost all of its malicious sensations. ‘We... We all had a name once... a name that brought... shame... sickened glances... The Goddess never liked Our name... Lilac is... preferable to it...’

Sparks wanted to cry as the deeply somber feelings slithered through her mind, but she girded herself and smiled despite it. “Well then... Lilac... There has been enough bloodshed today, and I’m...”

The words hung in her throat like stones as she tried to say it right. She wanted to make absolute certain that what she said was what she meant, but the winged unicorn sensed her numerous thoughts, the unmistakable pureness of thought tearing away misunderstanding, and responded before she could speak. ‘No need to be sorry... Sparks... We are of only many... who have failed in their quests...’

Lilac brought her head up and her eyes droned about the stadium. She gave a guttering sigh as sudden feelings of nostalgia and painful memories spanning time gaveSparks reason to shed tears in the rain as a bolt of greenish white lightning tore the sky. Lilac shook her head, and with a startling and immensely powerful overglow of her horn, blazing neon green in hue, an absolutely gigantic bolt of deathly green magic shot above her as she threw her horn into the sky, a trail of pulsing rings forming and dissipating along the path as fast as they appeared.

The bolt exploded in the sky like a second sun with a massive overpressure enveloping them, and the bright emerald hues lanced out like veins across the tempest above as the rain seemed to immediately give way, ebbing to a light rain in seconds, and the Alicorn hung her head again with a sensation of shame washing over Sparks.

Her eyes dimmed, and the emerald glow disappeared. ‘We... We only wanted to help...’

“I know Lilac... I know... but...”

‘Forcing is... should not be Our way... Your Ponies are...’ the One devolved into many as the feeling of shame erupted, throwing Sparks in sudden involuntary sobs as Lilac did the same. ‘They are here- Safe and sou- Hurt but aliv- Scared and cryi- Terrified of Us-’

With a shake of her head the voices reformed the One, and with finality she locked eyes with Sparks; an unspoken plea for forgiveness was felt. ‘We shall remember you... and your kindness...’

That was the last of Lilac Sparks saw as she wisped away in a sudden flash of azure magic with sparkles that fizzed out of sight as soon as they appeared. She was gone, teleported away to some... other place, and the last feeling she felt from the mind-speech was a deep pang of pain as she had though of the name Sparks had given her.

Neither Sparks nor Eagle felt the presence in their heads, and their minds were their own again as solely their emotions flowed. Sparks gave a last sniffling sob, and she shook her head, hanging it and sitting down in the murky pool under her, collar deep in the muck.

The rain continued to dissipate, slowly but surely, and the lightning strikes stopped, leaving nothing but a dark cloud overhead that drizzled on their heads. Eagle looked at her at first with raging eyes, but as time passed his tense and savage readiness for the winged unicorn’s return proved pointless. He relaxed and it took all his remaining strength not to collapse in the water below him.

He shook his head, not believing a thing that had just happened between emotional and logical cause. He spoke low and dangerously, but the confusion what genuine. “What... The fuck was that girl?”

Sparks sighed deeply as the drizzling rain all but disappeared, leaving no more than a misty haze that fell to Equus below. She held her head up high with closed eyes, prideful of what she had managed to do, even though she had no idea how she had pulled it off as relief washed over her in buckets. She spoke softly, and with a few tears she managed to say what she wanted to Lilac aloud.

“Violence isn’t always the answer... and...” She gave a guttering sigh as her tears flowed faster in sobs that wracked her taxed heart. “And in this world... compassion is at a premium... that... that was what I wanted to say to her... to Lilac...”

“You mean to tell me you were serious about naming that... that thing!?”

Eagle’s sudden rage made Sparks’ own emotions flare as her eyes widened, the anger smothered by sorrow. “Yes I was! Because she, Lilac, was not simply a thing! No more than you are just a murderous half breed!”

Sparks was too late to catch herself, and upon realizing her words she choked on them and hung her head low, her muzzle nearly touching the water as her tears made tiny splashes in the stilling lake. Eagle locked his eyes on her, a simmering anger began to boil and he approached her, albeit with his slowing limp through the murky pool and spoke dangerously. “What did you say...?”

“I said you are a person Eagle! You aren’t just some monster! Despite what I’ve seen you can be a good person! But this place... this...” She threw her hooves abroad around her, gesturing with raging eyes at the flooded stadium around her and beyond into the wasteland as she leapt from the murky water. “This... Wasteland! Endless deserts and ponies -creatures- simply trying to survive in bombed out craters!! Lilac and her sisters actually want to help, even if their methods leave much to be desired!”

She hung her head, staring at her hooves in front of her. Her eyes tracing the muck and smeared blood on them, and she cried her words. “I can sympathize with wanting to help... but... but not being able to... Not the way I’d want to help...!”

She turned on Eagle who maintained his dangerous stare, and it didn’t deter her inner fury from venting the last week of her life and all the years she moseyed around her Stable feeling useless, even when she was given the opportunity to help it always turned sour... somehow.

“Like those raiders we butchered to the last! Yes I understand that we had little choice in the matter but it still doesn’t make it right!! Or the Enclave troopers you butchered to keep me alive! Or-or-or maybe I can talk about my fillyhood where I did nothing but wrote memorization and simply churned out weapons and armor for my Stable since I was fourteen for the Enclave! I can only guess what wicked crap they’ve done with my handiwork!”

She all but choked as her inner self exploded in grief over the hard smack of reality that came crashing down onto her. She had helped in the orchestration of violence and disparity all her life, even if only a little, and it brought a shame of her own that she couldn’t escape from choking on her words. “They... Lilac, I mean... They are the first beings out here I’ve seen that want to help... and I... I... I killed one!! I even thought I was right to do it!!”

It was then she was thrown into full bodied wrenching sobs. Eagle watched her at first with a subtle anger, but it dissipated as a distant part of him sympathized with her; a long buried nerve from a time in his youth long ago that he had already burnt and abandoned. He looked around the stadium as the malicious storm clouds above ebbed away to brighter, but still morosely hanging cloud layer that always smothered the sky.

He sighed deeply, conflicted between detachment and empathy, and he simply shook his head as he limped closer to Sparks as she tore herself apart inside. He laid a talon on her heaving shoulders and spoke lowly, unable to give more emotion than the gesture he gave. “Come on... we need to go free what’s left of the town.”

Sparks looked up to him, bloodshot eyes draining in rivulets of tears to her jaw, and she sniffled harshly between sobs and nodded her head. He wanted to be kind, caring and empathetic, wanting to say... something that could help, only the words hung in his throat as his inner bafflement resounded at her letting that thing leave alive; her refusal to grasp the ‘do or die’ reality agitated him. He scoffed darkly, and turned to find a dry spot to finish healing himself after taking his soaking wet hat from the water’s surface as it floated nearby, and shook it vigorously. “Great wind... I need a drink...”

Footnote: Red Eagle level 22 +17 skill points! Perk earned!

Mental Block: After fighting Alicorns and their telepathic abilities, you gave learned how to better concentrate when your mind is being played with. You gain a +1 Perception when your senses are being obscured intentionally, whether by supernatural or natural means.

Sparks level 4 +21 skill points! Perk earned!

Swift Learner(1): After a grueling experience, you’ve begun to slowly acclimate to your new way of life! You gain +5% XP any time you earn them!

Quest Perk achieved - Alicorn Mercy

While ponies all around may turn their heads in confusion, nopony shall deny you of the satisfaction. You gain +100 karma!

Next Chapter: Chapter 13: Science and Secrecy Estimated time remaining: 4 Hours, 44 Minutes