Shadow watched the zoo from a nearby building. It was once an oasis from the city’s hustle and bustle. But now it was ruins like the rest of it.

Using the scope on Soarin's Lightning, Shadow mapped the zoo out. It was mostly set up in and East/West orientation. The vegetation was overgrown, the trees unkempt, and the entire area was trashed. The buildings, walls, and exhibits were crumbling, and there were giant holes in the cages. But it was a nicely self contained fortress.

These raiders were the animals they painted themselves to be. The animals they wore the masks, bones, and feathers of. Shadow’s favorites were the bird ones. Those ponies even wore colorful wings. They almost looked like painted pegasi.

Once you got past the well guarded ticket gate, the central area held a seal exhibit. The exhibit still had plenty of water, but it was gross and disgusting muck. Calling it water was an insult to real water.

West of that moved into a more temperate zone. He spied plaques that identified them as monkey cages, howler and spider. Still in the cluster was a jaguar, tiger, and flamingo cages.

North was a bear exhibit, lynx confine, flying squirrel compound, badger hole, and otter sanctuary. And then a bit south was the snake, reptile, and amphibian house.

On the South of the monkeys was a bird house, carrying all sorts of exotic and normal birds, like eagles, falcons, owls, toucans, parrots, and hummingbirds. They also had an insect house and a separate butterfly house.

A bit separate from the main zoo was a petting zoo for younger fillies and colts. Rabbits, sheep, ewes, guanine pigs, llamas, alpacas, and a few other plaques shadow couldn’t spy out for various reasons.

The buildings offered shelter for their beds and a place to hold food and supplies. One of the other buildings was a restaurant. If the kitchen equipment still worked, it was a wonderful find. Between the fridge, freezer, ovens, and stoves, they could do almost anything they needed too for cooking. Then again, they were raiders. How much they cooked was only a guess.

Shadow set up his bed for the evening and continued to watch The Pack. He was going to stay for a few days, trying to pick out the important parts. It would take time and he had it.

He finally identified where there leader was. He sat under a tree in the old bear cage. He rarely moved and sat on some built up area, his own throne.

Now who sat on the throne was a mystery. If their name and animal clothing was any indicator, they probably were called something like Alpha. Whoever was their Alpha, they had it good. Each member was rather individualistic, but they were still unified. They still held watch, and they had one nasty habit.

They bred dogs. Dogs for fighting. They put captured animals into the ring with the dogs, and they pit the best dogs against each other. It was barbaric. And bloody.

But it did give Shadow a glimpse at something else. The blood had to be cleaned up, and that honor was given to ragged ponies. Slaves with dog collars on to identify them. Shadow could only guess where they were kept. Shadow figured it was in the monkey cages, which didn’t have any natural coverings over the bars.

He kept watch over them for three days, planning and waiting. He wished he had a silent rifle he could shoot with. Soarin’s Lightning was rather loud. But it would do. And from his position he couldn’t be breached. There was no way to come all the way up. Rockets would be his only real weakness.

The next morning Shadow prepared for the assault. He threw a blanket over the barrel of Soarin’s lightning. An attempt at hiding the glow it caused. Then Shadow put on Black Widow’s uniform.

He packed everything up and then got behind his gun. There was no particular order for his attack. The Pack was going to hold their territory. He would shoot who he wanted and then the real assault on the ground would come, on his terms.

Shadow had to keep Black Widow’s mask off as he worked Soarin’s lightning. It was a trigger bit, something he should figure out how to fix. The wide hat would be enough cover at the distance he was shooting. That was if they could pick out the hole Shadow was shooting from.

The wooden barricade was strong, but not strong enough as the first shot blasted it to splinters. The bullet slammed into the target, rending the unicorn in two from the raw power. The other guard hit the deck and was shattered with splinters. The splinters were the worst of his worries as Shadow drilled him with a clean shot.

The blanket was still on the barrel. It wasn’t destroyed and it kept the light to a minimum. Shadow would have to test if it would be hidden by the Zebra Cloak. It was a powerful piece of magic. And it was a good sized piece of fabric. The size was designed to be practical, but easily styled into more than a simple cloak. And because of his size, it was more than enough to cover himself and the rifle.

The Pack was scrambling to respond. But their Alpha didn’t even bother to get up. The animal fortress was stronger than a single sniper. Even if it was an anti-machine rifle. Shadow picked his targets. He wasn’t in a rush. And he didn’t want them to pinpoint him. They would know it was Black Widow soon enough.

Shadow let the night be his cover to descend. The Pack had retreated into the Zoo. With the outer defenses blasted apart, they had fallen back to secondary defenses. Those defenses were difficult for Shadow to see from his scope.

Shadow used Mwokozi’s cloak to get around. The guards that were on duty easily fell to Kifo Herixleta. It was very easy, so long as he stayed away from the dog cages. Even if they couldn’t see him, they could sense him and they barked. It was probably because he was a new smell. Shadow wasn’t going to worry about them, for now.

He found the Alpha’s throne under it’s tree. It was covered in pelts. Many of them had been sewn into cushions. Despite the materials it was made of, it looked quite comfortable.

Shadow slinked away to hide as night came to an end. He watched as they tried to find him. He had killed enough of them over the night. He was safely up on an outcropping of rocks. Even their dogs couldn’t find him.

Shadow didn’t stay up there for long. Sleep was chomping at the bit to get to him. He danced his way over to the throne before he uncloaked behind it.

Shadow casually walked around to the front. The Alpha just smiled at him. His face was painted to accentuate his eyes and his horn. An ice wolf was the look he was going for.

“Well well. Black Widow. I was wondering if that was your work. You have plenty of skill, I must admit. Gutsy to come in like you did. But you don’t have the strength to actually lead anypony. Its why I am on this throne, and you are down there.”

“And if I come up there?” Shadow asked.

“I will teach you why I am the Alpha, and you are not.”

Shadow gave a slow nod in understanding. “But, I can’t let you continue. You will block the unification of this world.”

The Alpha laughed. “This is my pack. The last time we tried to play fair it was under Cobalt. And that ended with the Disciples backstabbing us and took over the entire Fillydelphia theme park. We can play fair.”

Shadow laughed. “I didn’t mean that. The Disciples will have what is coming for them. But what I mean is the unifying of the cities. Creating a new Equestria. A strong Equestria. And there is nowhere for The Pack, or any raiders, in that.”

“No, I guess there wouldn’t be.” The Alpha grinned. “I am not sure the others can play fair though. Tenpony Tower can’t even stand the idea of Ghouls. I am not a fan myself, but I have nothing against them. Most ghouls don’t have what it takes to join my pack, but if one did, I wouldn’t feed them to the dogs. The dogs get the scraps after all. If they failed, then the dogs would get them, because all they would be is the scraps.

“So until the others decide to play fair, there is no point is depriving us of the opportunity to take care of ourselves. Survival of the fittest is the Law of Nature. Its the law that every single city and settlement is playing by.

“So if you really want it to be unified, you should look to the cities, and become a politician. Practice what you preach. Prove you can do that, and perhaps we can play fair.”

Shadow grinned under Black Widow’s mask. “That’s good and all, but I wasn’t called to be a politician. I was called to burn this place to the ground. Everywhere that a fracture in society is, I must join together. And the only material that is able to fix that is blood. There is no other way. The Sages foresaw this, and they made it so that Equestria would have the ones it needed to fix things after I come.”

Shadow was quick, but the Alpha was quicker. He met Kifo Herixleta head on with an equestrian sword. Kifo Herixleta danced and struck resistance once again. The equestrian blade was old and it hadn’t been kept in good condition over the years. It was cared for well now, but its days were limited. It couldn’t face an enchanted zebra blade for long. The bite marks were evident every time the blades parted.

The Alpha was a unicorn and he had practiced with the blade. But he wasn’t Kifo Herixleta. He wasn’t a master with the sword. And even though as a unicorn he could move his blade in a lot more ways than the band could, Shadow was the more fluid swordsmaster.

Shadow brought the blade to life as he set it glowing hot. It slashed through the equestrian blade like butter and he flipped the blade around and stabbed the Alpha, driving the blade all the way to the hilt. Their muzzles were forced together.

“I am curious,” Shadow asked. “What is your name?”

The Alpha grunted under the pain. “My parents had a good sense of humor. They didn’t even think I had potential. They named me Mason Jar. After a stupid piece of glass.”

Shadow iced the blade and cut the Alpha open more as he pulled it out. It was a good death. A better death than what he deserved. He didn’t suffer much.

“Release the hounds!” A Pack Raider yelled.

Shadow glanced back as several dogs were unleashed. He slipped the cloak on and disappeared in a hail of bullets. It was a close call again as he avoided the dogs, but they couldn’t bite what they couldn’t see.

As Shadow got out of their grasp, he heard screams. The dogs had been let loose. All of them. And unleashed they turned on the slaves. If they were not apart of the Pack, they were torn to shreds. And when there was nopony left, the dogs went after each other.

They didn’t tear each other apart for long. As the ponies tried to reel the dogs back into line, the beasts organized on their own. At least three packs were made with the alphas quickly being sorted out. The dogs knew each other relatively well from their time on a leash.

Shadow had to be smart with the dogs. It didn’t give him a lot of room to maneuver. Shadow decided to forget them and shoot the Pack raiders as they tried to leash them. They were open and easy targets. And they were not safe until the dogs were leashed. The less they had, the harder it was to control them.

The dogs knew when there were only a few raiders left. They smelled their fear and outright attacked them. Shadow looked away as they sunk their teeth into flesh. What was left was gruesome.

The dogs were filling their bellies and drinking the blood. With the dogs distracted, Shadow began to picked them off, one by one. A silent rifle kept them from scattering. They were confused when the one next to them was hit, but it was an easy enough time.

It was a long day and into the evening, but The Pack was done.

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