It wasn’t hard to find the power plant. It was separated into two sections. The dam and the Control Center Transformer. The damn looked clear from a close pass by, but the Control Center’s exterior defenses were shut down.

Shadow followed the tree line until he found the entrance. The thing was a citadel. Multiple defense matrix from all different types of turrets and even designated guard stations; mounted up high above the thick concrete walls that were crawling with live electric fence wires intermixed with razor wire.

Magic, laser, rocket, and ballistic turrets were all present. They were set up to automatically shoot anything that moved inside their zone. The nonrenewable ones had a closer search pattern. They all were shut down, not destroyed.

The spotlights and searchlights were still active and bright. They were the only defenses online. They were strong guards, glorious in the darkness.

There were two gruff stallions at the front of the gate, patrolling. Shadow used the brush that had grown up to approach undetected. He only had the essentials on him. He was ready to strike and only strike.

Shadow pounced on the first, cleanly cutting him in half. The other was kicked back into the wall and found himself with a red hot sword at his neck.

“What is going on here?” Shadow asked, adjusting the pitch in his voice an octave up. It wasn’t easy. “Speak truthfully and I will let you live.”

He gulped. “The boss said if we could take the power plan, Trottingham would give us food and tribute. We could live well here, unable to be defeated.”

“The defenses?”

The raider glanced at the sword again. He was feeling the heat from the blade. “A Unicorn, Techno, joined us a few months back. Not much of a raider, but he has a real knack for technical shit. We tested his skills elsewhere before hitting here. He will have them up and running soon. With us as friendlies.”

“Good choice,” Shadow said.

“My life?”

Shadow lower the blade from his neck but sliced off his rear legs. As the raider groaned in agony, Shadow chuckled.

“The heat cauterized the wound. You won’t bleed out. Easily anyway. I am here to cleanse the wasteland. To right the wrongs that have been done. Prepare it so that the separation can end and peace restored. You gain your life so that you will let others knows, play time is over. Nopony is safe.”

Shadow pushed open the gate and walked down the walled off security entrance. The open hallway was lined with turrets, all shut down. The hallway ended with a security building. Shadow opened it and found himself in a room with a receptionist desk and then other work stations off to the side.

“Hey! Grub, Dent, you are supposed to be guarding the front gate!”

A unicorn walked into view from the break room with a stuffed face and a plate of food hovering alongside him. Shadow blasted him with his shotgun. The noised caused two others around the corner to jump into action. Shadow put one down before he got into position.

Shadow used his acrobatic skills to advance closer. With only a side bag for ammo and a spare bag for his cloak and personals, Shadow was learn and fast. Nothing was holding him back.

Shadow vaulted over the desk and onto the other side of the raider. He bucked him into the metal desk and bucked him again when he bounded off it. The raider slumped down. Shadow pulled out the combat knife and slit his neck to make sure he was dead.

Outside was a different story. The center had all the transformers. They were sparking in place. The power was on, it just wasn’t allowed to flow to the city. The tower to Shadow's right had a raider in it. Shadow's first move had to be to neutralize their height advantage.

Shadow dashed off to the tower and began to scale the ladder that went straight up. At the top he halted for a second to draw the sword. He slipped up and over, driving the blade into the unaware raider for a quiet kill. Shadow slid down, squeezing the sides to control his descent.

The search lights gave him plenty of darkness to hide in, but not enough. Shadow ran into two wandering raiders. They were too far away to dispatch quietly. And his glowing eyes were a dead giveaway that he was not with them. Neither was he friendly.

“WHAT! WHO ARE”

Shadow opened up, taking them out with a quick burst. The whole area was alerted to his presence. Shadow moved to the cover of a set of power units to get out of sight from the enemies on his left. A tower was in view and the raider turned his rifle towards Shadow.

Shadow fired a quick burst, missing. It forced the raider to back up. He fired another and then another, finally hitting his target on the third burst. It was a stretch for the rifle to hit that long of a distance. The rounds were uncontrollable, meaning he had to rely on luck. Shadow changed magazines to be safe and headed out around the side.

He picked off a few more groups in the open who were responding to his presence. Not every tower had a raider on duty. That saved Shadow. He made his way to the control center. With them aware of his presence, there was only one option to safely breach the center.

Shadow flipped the cloak on and crawled to the door. He slowly opened it as it creaked. He did just enough to wiggle in along the ground. A guard desk was right in front of the door to block anypony from coming into the restricted area.

“SHOW YOURSELF! COWARD!”

An angry mare with a shotgun stepped around the desk. Shadow was stuffing the cloak into his bag, pressed against the desk. He jumped forward, staying tight against it. She fired as he ran her threw with the combat knife. It was wide from the shock of the blade piercing skin. Shadow slit the gut open with a flick of the wrist, ending any future resistance from her.

“Alright! Who are you!” A raider asked from behind the door frame he was peaking around.

“I am the one to fix this place,” Shadow replied. “I will bring peace. You have had your time to play, now justice shall be dealt and this land cleansed. It must be prepared so the separation will end.”

“Fuck you,” The raider spat. “Not going to happen.”

The raider fired three shots from his pistol. It blasted apart the desk. It was a magic pistol. Shadow vaulted over the desk, hoping some better option would present itself.

A coffee station had been set up ages ago. It had trays for treats to go with the coffee. One of them had a mug on it. Shadow landed on his forelegs and flipped over. His rear hoof caught the edge of the tray, sending the mug into the air. As Shadow continued his rotation, he reached with his hoof and was able to redirect it with a soft push that sent it hurling at the raider.

The raider ducked back behind the frame as the mug shattered on the door frame. He laughed as he poked his head out.

“You missed!”

“Nope!” Shadow said as he let his energy bounce him off the wall and redirect him straight to the door where he tackled the raider. Shadow recovered first and sliced off all of his legs with a red hot blade.

“Where is the Unicorn?” Shadow growled. “The one called Techno who shut this place down.”

“In the security building,” The raider spat. “But be ready. I am one mean mother fucker. He is one cold, calculating bastard. He just needs me to run the show so he can do his work.”

“So you run this gang?”

“Gunna kill me and claim my head?”

“No,” Shadow laughed. “I am going to let you live without your hooves. That way ponies will know I have arrived. I am here to cleanse the land of its impurities. To prepare it for the end of the separation. It is how it was foretold by the ancient sages. That I would come and right the wrongs. Avenge the death and misery caused by the wasteland. Stop this raging fire from burning so it can no longer consume souls.”

He laughed out loud. A real, jolly laugh from the gut. “That would require you to kill most of Equestria!”

“So?” Shadow asked coyly. “What of it.”

The raider’s laughter turned to fear as he stared into the red, unblinking eyes.

He gulped. “You can’t seriously think you can kill them all, can you?”

“I just strolled into this power plant you stole and killed most of your forces.”

Shadow backed away him and slipped Kifo Herixleta into it’s sheath. He calmly walked out. The magic pistol would fetch a handsome price. But he was here to kill. Not to take even a single cap. Not even a bullet, even if he was out of ammunition and still in the fight.

The rest had retreated to the security building. It was two stories tall. Shadow busted open the door, but didn’t enter, taking shelter further down the exterior wall. A series of explosions from traps set went off.

He was right in behind them to take out the two raiders who had thought they had cleverly blasted him backwards. His shotgun magazine was emptied on them and he made the quick switch. The bottom floor was clear and Shadow cautiously moved up the stairwell. It had a landing that cut back to get to the second floor.

The advantage was to the enemy to see him first. Shadow’s guns were ready. Nopony was there. As Shadow approached the door that wasn’t marked as the restroom, a robot, armed and ready, zipped out. It opened up with it’s flame thrower.

Shadow was faster, although expecting a bullet or magical blast, not flames. He bounded off the wall. As the robot came into alignment while Shadow executed his flip, he let his shotgun loose, ripping the outer shell to pieces. It was still intact so Shadow bucked it. It hurt meeting unyielding metal.

The robot swung an arm with a buzzsaw, but Shadow was inside it’s range and painfully blocked it. Kifo Herixleta slip out of it’s sheath at Shadow's call and he plunged it into the center of the robot while he fought to keep the saw from cutting him.

Shadow withdrew the white hot blade and sliced off the buzzsaw. He parried another arm and sliced it’s tool off. The flamethrower one was next and then the last tool. The robot didn’t know what to do without it’s weapons. Shadow emptied the shotgun into it’s center, finally causing it to crash to the floor, destroyed.

Shadow felt magic begin to restrain him.

“Well done,” Techno clapped. “I have never seen anypony be able to handle themselves with such skill. If you got here, then the rest are dead. I guess it is time for me to move on and find another crew. A regular life is so boring. There is no challenge to it. And when ponies really understood what I could do, then I became an outcast. They fear me. At least raiders try and use my skill to their advantage.”

“And that leaves us where?” Shadow asked.

“Short on time,” He replied as he stood face to face with Shadow. “Do you know if anypony else is coming here?”

“No,” Shadow replied. “Apparently this is one of the last places Trottingham will look. They believe it is impenetrable.”

“Typically it is. But I can switch them off with the simple flick of my horn. Robots and technology submit themselves to my will with ease.”

Shadow smiled to himself. He hadn’t tried to fight the restraints. But there was a good chance Techno’s skill to hold him in place was rather weak. He was a fine tuned kind of Unicorn. Focusing on the small, not the large. Kifo Herixleta was already drawn. It was time to see if his farming muscles were strong enough to win this fight.

Shadow tore himself down with all the force he could muster and then dove at Techno. The downward movement pulled the Unicorn into Shadow as he held on. As Shadow's shoulder met his chest the magic ended and Shadow swung Kifo Herixleta to slice off Techno’s right foreleg at the shoulder.

Shadow smoothly brought the blade around removed the horn at it’s base in the skull. It flew off and drove itself into the wall. Shadow stepped to the side and removed both rear legs with a beautiful ease.

“How?” Techno groaned in pain as Shadow sheathed the blade.

“I have more power than you can understand,” Shadow laughed. “For I am here to cleanse the land of its impurities. To right the wrongs suffered. To end the separation and bring in a new era. To save this land from itself. All who oppose me shall die.”

“But you,” Shadow chuckled. “You are finished. You shall await Trottingham’s arrival to restore the power. You shall be a testament to my power and to my calling.”

Shadow walked out, leaving the Unicorn in pain, struggling to cast magic of any kind. He was quickly out the front gate, running to the forest to circle back and not be missed in Trottingham. He had nopony to miss him, but Shadow was not going to take that chance. He wanted to be back in Trottingham as little past the morning light as possible.

As Shadow approached the inhabited city, he slipped his cloak on. Shadow couldn't be seen entering the city that he never left. It was a simple thing to slip by. But it was quickly clogged up as a group was forming.

They were being organized to head out to the power plant. The night before had proven useless to fixing the power shortage. Shadow knew he had to head back out with them.

It didn’t take long for Shadow to change and resupply. He kept things focused and left Kifo Herixleta home. He had left raiders alive. They couldn't see him with a sword. It would be an instant giveaway.

Shadow approached the guard running the tally for who joined.

“A bit late,” The guard said.

“Sorry,” Shadow panted.

“Guaranteed 200 caps for the trip. Don’t take anything unless directed too. This is a city venture, not personal. To take is to steal from the city and will be punished appropriately. Understood?

“Understood Sir!” Shadow saluted.

The guard rolled his eyes at the salute. “Name?”

“Mtoaji.”

“Ah, so you are the pony with the weird name. Head to D group. They are Yellow Team.”

Shadow got to Yellow Team and tired the ribbon he was given onto his arm.

“Psst!”

Shadow looked to where the sound came from. It was Red Tip and he was wearing a black band.

“I am surprised you are here,” Shadow said.

“Hey, I need to protect my shop,” Red Tip smiled. “And justify my personal collection.”

“And black is?”

“The long range shooters,” Red Tip stated. “That is why there are four of us in black. Not many can hit a target at 800 yards or more. We will be covering teams as they advance in closer.”

Shadow never had a chance to talk more as Yellow Team was called to move out. They stopped just outside the city’s defenses.

“For those that don’t know me, I am Fiery Blitz. We will be heading out to secure the Dam. If there are no raiders there, and the dam’s defenses are still running, we will hold there unless otherwise directed. It may take some time to retake the power plant if its has indeed, been captured.”

“Remember, do not take anything unless directed too. Or face an appropriate punishment for the crime. Your pay is the caps from the city, nothing else. Bonuses might be given, depending on what happens. Bonuses will be equally applied to all members, not just a group or small few.”

They followed Fiery Blitz out at a quick pace. Once outside the city, they could see Red and Blue were on the move as well. Green would be bringing up the rear. Yellow appeared to be the only ones heading to the damn. White finally caught up to them. There were four in the group, two were wearing Trottingham Guard gear. They were Yellow’s sniper team.

They slowed down and spread out in fire teams led by city guards. Fiery Blitz was Shadow’s fire team leader. Shadow was working hard to look unskilled in squad maneuvers. He was automatically flowing with their movements. Fiery Blitz held up his hoof to have them a bit back from the tree line. Shadow was on the flank and ignored it, like he hadn’t understood the signal. He slid to a tree right on the edge of the tree line.

“What do you see?” Fiery Blitz whispered to Shadow.

“Nothing,” Shadow replied. “No sign of anything. No exterior turrets. No smoke, or damage of any kind. But that doesn’t discount the fact that somepony could be inside and brought them back online.”

“You are small and hard to see,” Fiery Blitz replied. “Stay there and we will begin setting up a more spread out and defensive structure. White team should be set up shortly, and we can make our move from what their scopes can see.”

Shadow rolled his eyes to himself and peaked out. They had a decent spot looking down a bit on the dam. The only place Shadow couldn’t see enough to check for disruption was the far side of the dam. And their scopes or spotting equipment wouldn’t not reach that far.

Fiery Blitz shifted up to Shadow. “Still nothing here. But early reports from the power plant are coming in with a lot of dead raiders. The entire place is shut down. If things are what they look like, this might be the easiest 200 caps many of you ever make.”

“Who could of foreseen this?” Shadow asked. “Who could have done all that? Did they get caught in the crossfire of the turrets?”

“Not sure,” Fiery Blitz said. “But what matters is that the plant will be secured and then the defenses put back in place. We will have a presence here at all times. Which means more guards will have to be hired.”

Yellow was soon called to gather at the power plant.

“The plant is secured,” The leader of the expedition and head of Red Team declared to them all. “They all got caught in the crossfire of the turrets after back up security brought them online again. We will figure out what exactly they did to enter in the first place and make sure it never happens again.”

“It certainly wont!” A Steel Ranger declared. He was leading two dozen Steel Rangers. “I am Paladin Brandy. And we will be securing this station from here on out. I am to inform you that Trottingham will not have to pay or anything for us protecting it.”

“You don’t have backup power?” Shadow called out.

“We do citizen. But we noticed the problem and sent repair teams out. When everything was working normally, I was sent here to secure the plant. The automatic defenses will be brought online shortly. Our technical team is right behind us. Thank you for all of your concern and actions. We have it from here.”

“Team leaders,” Red Team’s Leader call. “Take control of your team and lets head out.”

Shadow followed Fiery Blitz and the rest of Yellow Team back to the city. They were paid their 200 caps at the bank. Shadow opted to not have his directly deposited in the bank. He wanted them in his pocket for a project.

Red Tip caught up with Shadow in the market place.

“How much did you hear?” Red Tip asked him quietly. “You were at he dam.”

“Not much,” Shadow said. “Really all that was at the end when we gathered.”

“Let’s go to my shop.”

Once inside the nice, cool, building, Red Tip jumped over the counter to take his usual place. He was officially open now.

“Red Team was the only team to enter,” Red Tip stated. “Blue Team and Green Team were held back in reserve. Half of Red Team were active guards. The other half was retired guards and long term residents they could trust. I was watching from my post. The raiders were not caught by active turrets. They pulled out three alive had limbs cleanly hacked off.

“They got those guys moving and back to the city before we were all brought together. They will interrogate them further in the city. Red Team was able to do some solid looting, to start. I think they got most of the raider’s weapons before the Steel Rangers barged in. I saw them coming from my perch and called it so they didn’t fully surprise us.

“Anyway, something hit those raiders and it hit them hard. I doubt we will hear anything more. Maybe a rumor or two, but that is it.”

“Nothing more?” Shadow asked.

“Nothing else solid,” Red Tip sighed. “It only makes sense. Its for our own good. You can’t let the citizens be afraid. At least the Steel Rangers won’t let the power station fall under the control of others.”

“You will never be able to take it from them,” Shadow pointed out.

“True, but we have good relations with them. Always have. They watch out for us more than we know. And they don’t bully us. Even when they get drunk, its not much of a problem.”

Shadow pushed himself off the counter. “I am going to go spend my caps on paint. Or window gardens. Probably the gardens first.”

“Window what?”

“Oh, you hang them outside your window and can plant flowers or some nice herbs or spices in them. Small stuff. Pots connected to your window.”

“Huh, interesting. How do you plan on getting that done?”

“I think Quality Hardware might be the best place to start.”

“Good luck,” Red Tip said.

Shadow headed to Quality Hardware. Sawdust was busy with another customer, so Shadow just looked around.

“Now, how can I help you,” Sawdust asked Shadow when he was finished.

“I need window gardens,” Shadow stated. “I have three windows and I want to hang little troughs on the outside that I can plant some herbs in.”

“It will have to be lightweight before the soil is put in,” Sawdust said thinking. “Show me the windows and I can work from there. But I am thinking we will avoid wood because of rot.”

Sawdust took all sorts of measurements.

“This is a new one for me. But I have some ideas. 200 caps and I will have them ready in a week. I will need to test some of the designs for stress and sustainability. Meanwhile, I suggest you purchase dirt and fertilizer from the farms to the north. Do not be alarmed when you see Steel Rangers. They are friendly enough and they watch over the farms.”

“You knew I went on the expedition, didn’t you?”

Sawdust laughed. “My son was in yellow. And I don’t have a way to give you an estimate.”

“Fair enough,” Shadow laughed.

Shadow counted out 200 and Sawdust departed. Shadow headed to the bank to grab more and then put in an order for paint and try and figure out lighting. He also sold off the armor pieces he had picked up. The helmet sold for three times what he was expecting.

Tomorrow would be his last day in town. He needed to answer the call from Cloudy Snow. Their pipbuck’s program had recorded all of the messages. It was certainly for him.

Next Chapter: Chapter 108 - Blood Harvest Estimated time remaining: 8 Hours, 36 Minutes