Silence.

Pure, sweet, blissful silence.

Is what I’d like to say. But after my previous brushes with death, my imagination refuses to leave me alone. Every sound, every movement that catches my eye, every uncomfortable feeling seems to suggest the presence of a hellhound to my rather terrified mind. Even with the amount of light seeping through the cracks in the ceiling, I can’t help but see red glowing eyes in even the smallest of shadows.

It's a small mercy then that I still have my book with me.

Granted, reading while walking in dangerous territory isn't the wisest thing anypony can do. Especially when death could be around any corner. But letting my nerves get to me is as equally dangerous as that, if not more so. Winona nearly killed me because I couldn't relax enough to not make stupid decisions. So between that and reading for a few minutes, the choice is pretty clear.

And really, it's not a suicidal decision when the surroundings is taken into consideration. All the hallways on this floor are more or less identical to each other. The room layout is the same, the doors and windows are the same, and even the occasional worn poster decorating their walls are similar. Which means that all the likely ambush spots should be the same too.

Thus, with E.F.S. active and with Rose by my side, I should be perfectly safe to read my book while I walk. The fact that Rose doesn't pester me with unwanted questions while I'm reading is an added bonus.

Although, Rose hasn’t said anything to me for quite a while now. Sure, it is nice not to have her pester me about my blood magic. But now it is starting to feel like she isn't around me anymore. I look over the top rim of my book, just to make sure she's still in front of me.

And she is not there.

Oh buck it all, she was in front of me a few minutes ago! I think. Honestly, how do I lose somepony who was right in front of me? I swear I was paying attention and-

“Hey-"

My heart skips a beat as I suddenly teleport myself a few feet back. I frantically look around to try and figure out where that voice came from. Nothing shows up on E.F.S. however.

“Calm down Treppy, it’s just me,” The voice, whom I now recognise as Rose, says.

“Yeesh Rose! Warn me next time, will you?! You nearly gave me a heart attack!” I take a couple of breaths to try and calm back down again. Ok, note to self: tweak E.F.S. spell matrix next chance I get. Because it is clearly not working if it can’t spot a hiding pony.

“Yeah, my bad,” Rose says from… somewhere. "Didn't think I would have spooked you that badly."

After taking in one last deep breath, I ask “So where were you anyway? Or rather, why are you hiding right now?”

“I thought I saw something moving around so I decided to check it out,” She says while walking out of the shadows.

“And you couldn't warn me before you vanished because…?” I ask with some irritation in my voice. This kind of behavior is clearly undermining my justification for reading in the first place.

“Because that would have risked tipping the hellhound off that we are here,” She says. Almost as if she was staying something obvious. “Look, I’ll come up with a signal to use before I do that again. Promise.”

I just shake my head and continue to walk and read again. Rose walks beside me and, after a few seconds of silence, asks “How are you doing that?"

"Doing what?" I ask while turning the page.

"That whole walking and reading thing," She says. "How do you do that without running into anything?”

“Practice," I say. Not like there's any other answer to that question.

“But isn’t it hard to look around with that book in your face?” She asks. “It’d be pretty easy for somepony to just sneak up on you and slit your throat before you turn a page.”

I can't help but roll my eyes at that and keep reading. While that is a valid point, it is not one I'm willing to accept if it means giving up on the only way to calm my nerves. Again, it's either reading or jumping at shadows and I am definitely making the right choice here! Besides, who would slits a pony's throat while they're reading a book anyway? That's absurd-

Suddenly the book I have been hovering in front of me presses itself up against my face. Taking a few steps back, I move my book out of the way to reveal the waiting hoof of Rose right behind it. “I think I’ve proven my point.”

“Look, I’m on edge as is and if I don't distract myself, I'm going to lose it,” I close my book and hold it up in front of her, “Reading this is how I can calm down without drawing unwanted attention. With that in mind, does it really matter that much whether I choose to read while walking or not?”

“It does,” She gives me an annoyed look. “What if you miss something because you were too busy reading and that gets us killed?”

“Me? Get you killed? Please,” I say with obvious irritation now. “You can hide so well, my E.F.S. can't pick you up. And setting that aside, even when I wasn't reading I still managed to walk right into the waiting claws of a hellhound! I don’t think reading is going to hinder my obviously poor observation skills.”

“Well it ain't helping you improve it either,” She pokes my chest with her hoof. “There’s a lot of traps down here and I’m not taking any responsibility if you walk right into one of them. You need to be more alert.”

“Right, right," I say dismissively. “Because telling me to be more alert will instantly make me better at it.”

“Hey, I’m trying to be nice here!” She says angrily as she jabs her hoof more forcefully into my chest. “You don’t need to be a jerk about it!”

“I… I…” I try to think of something, anything, to justify my desire to keep reading. But, in the end, I’m being selfish, aren't I? Dad wouldn’t put his desires before somepony else. I let out a sigh. “No, you are right. I am sorry.”

“Like hay, I’m right! We’re partners now, Treppy, and if you get killed under my watch then it’ll hurt my rep-” Rose stops and blinks. “Wait, did… did you just say I was right?” When I nod, she asks “And what did you say after that?”

“I said that I am sorry,” I say as sincerely as possible. “You voiced a legitimate concern and, instead of listening, I treated you with disrespect. I also acted like this earlier too. A stallion shouldn’t treat an exceptionally skilled mare like yourself as badly as I have," I bow my head. “So again, I’m sorry. I’ll take your advice and do better.”

There. Now to endure the typical ‘next time, listen to what I have to say instead of arguing with me’ or ‘I’m glad you finally see that I’m better than you’. It’s not like I don’t deserve it at this point. It’s just that it was always humiliating to hear Silverwing do it. And from what I know about Rose, it is going to be just as bad if not worse. Although, she is taking her time getting started on rubbing it in.

Slowly lifting my head up, I find myself looking at the astonished expression on Rose’s face. Almost as if she wasn’t really expecting this, given the way she starts to open her mouth only to close it again. Seeing her slowly turn around and start walking again only adds to my confusion. I carefully stow my book away and quietly follow suit.

Did I overdo it with my apology? I mean, I did mean every word of it. I was being a jerk and I deserved being called out on it. Maybe, despite my efforts, I didn’t sound sincere? Then again, words are cheap, aren’t they? Ugh, what a mess I made.

Huh, is this ash on the floor?

I start focusing more on my surroundings. And sure enough, some of the piles that I thought was made up of dust is, in fact, actually ash. Strange, but not really abnormal. Some of the hellhounds do have energy weapons. So this is the remains of the security robots they faced? That would explain why I haven’t run into any outside of that Mr. Handy.

And why I haven’t seen any corpses either.

With that pleasant thought, I turn my attention to the rest of the hallway. Nothing of interest really sticks out for me, though. Just the same broken walls and cracked ceiling as usual. With the occasional working light to remind me that this place is still getting power somehow. Maybe a backup generator? Guess this is another thing to ask Rocky about when I get back.

Another thing I’m noticing is how often Rose is glancing back at me as we walk. I check behind me but find nothing out of the ordinary. Or maybe there is something there and I’m missing it? She is testing me, isn’t she? Or, more likely, she is seeing if I am going to open my book back up again?

She suddenly stops walking. “You were actually being serious earlier, weren’t you?”

“Well, yes,” I say before rubbing the back of my neck. “I admit my apology might have been a bit too much, but I really meant every word. Is that bad?”

“No it’s just… weird,” She admits as she turns to face me. “Nopony I’ve worked with ever admitted that they were wrong before,” She considers me for a moment. “Hay, nopony has ever apologised and complimented me at the same time either,” She smiles. “I kinda like it.”

I try to not look embarrassed by her comment. Seeing that smile on her face only makes it harder.

“Now then,” She continues. “You say you suck at spotting things, right? Normally I don’t do this, but because you were nice and finally recognized my awesomeness,” She puffs out her chest and places a hoof over it. “I am going to personally train you until you can spot a black cat at night!”

I raise an eyebrow. “A black cat at night, eh? How do you plan on doing that exactly?”

“I’ll figure something out,” She waves her hoof dismissively at me before she begins to walk away. “Now come on, we’re almost there.”

Not the most reassuring answer to my question, that is for certain. Still, I can’t help but smile as I follow after her. Rose is the first pony since leaving home that is willing to teach me anything. Zigs was never willing to teach me the zebra language. And Silverwing’s art of ‘bartering’, as he called it, required more charisma than I could ever obtain.

‘And guile, a complete lack of moral fiber, a willingness to destroy others for one’s own gain,’ The little pony in my head reminds me. ‘Rose is probably using one of those arts by making you owe her a favor for the lesson. If it can be called a lesson.’

It is true that Silverwing always found a way to turn a favor into a lifetime of indebtitude… that is a word, isn’t it? Nevermind, Rose may or may not be like Silverwing, turning one favor into an opportunity to blackmail me into doing her bidding forever. But I’m wiser now that I was before. I am not going to be anypony’s little puppet ever again.

A bright light assaults my eyes and I raise my hoof to shield them. It takes a second to make out the large gaping hole in the ceiling that the light is coming from. Just in time to watch Rose fly right through it and land on the floor above. Folding her wings, she looks down at me. “You can make it up here, right?”

“Yeah, give me a moment,” I say. Although, as my eyes adjust to the light, I find myself staring at the breath-taking sight of Rose being bathed in light as she waits for me to follow her. As I take in the view, something stirs within my heart. Though it is hard to make out what that feeling actually is. Maybe Luna is trying to tell me something here. That, despite my misgivings, things will get better somehow. In a way, this could be seen as symbolic: My departure from the dark hallways of the first floor to continue my journey into lighter paths with…

With a proud mare that thought hunting hellhounds was a good idea. With whom I had to convince to give up her suicidal plan with the offer of similar pay by helping some ghouls go through with their suicidal plan. That reality puts a damper on the whole hopeful message bit, doesn’t it?

“Enjoying the view from down there?” Rose asks playfully while brushing aside some strands of hair from her face.

Rolling my eyes at the question, I quickly teleport right next to her. My sudden appearance startles her enough to jump back. That was definitely not my intention there and I give her some space as she regains her composure.

“Ah, so that’s how ponies feel when I do that to them,” She places a hoof over her heart. “Guess we’re even now.”

“Sorry,” I say while looking away in embarrassment. Even if it does make us even, I still feel bad unintentionally doing that after the heart-felt apology I gave her.

“Well,” She rubs her chin. “If you’re really sorry, you should humor me and tell me more about-”

“For the last time, I’m not telling you anything about my blood magic.” I say with some exasperation in my tone. Will she never let go of that subject?

“Oh, so that’s what it’s called,” She replies back with a mischievous grin. Nothing good ever comes from a grin like that.

I glare at her and then start walking down the hallway. “Honestly, how many times are you going to bug me about that?”

“Until I get an answer.” She says frankly as she quickly catches up to my side.

“Joy,” I say flatly. “I can see why none of your partners stick around.”

“Hey!” Rose glares at me but I decide to ignore her and keep walking instead. If there is one thing that can sour my mood, it is talking about that. Along with the sudden pain to the back of my head as a hoof smacks hard against it. I stop to rub the injury as Rose casually takes the lead, but I bite my tongue before I spit out more verbal venom at her. I completely deserve what I got for my remark. Still, would it kill her to just leave me alone about that particular subject?

“Look, it’s just not something I want to talk about,” I say as I start following her again. “Don’t you have something personal that you don’t like sharing with others?”

She stops suddenly, placing a hoof on her scarf with a tinge of pain on her face. A few seconds pass before she says softly “Yeah, I guess you have a point.”

I hesitate, not sure if I should say something to that, but end up following her in silence when she continues walking. As I begin to wonder just how many more social landmines I can step on today, Rose decides to break the silence.

"Fine. I'll leave you alone on that. Besides," She looks over her shoulder at me. "there are other things I can pester you about."

It is a relief to see that she isn’t going to be sulking the rest of the trip. But this just begs one simple question to be asked: “Why?”

She stares at me as if I just asked the stupidest question in the world. “Why? Because you’re interesting and I haven’t met a pony like you before. Now, that song you were singing. Before Princess found you. Can you sing it for me?”

Song? She’s not talking about… of course she’s talking about that song. It is the only one I was singing since I got here. Which means one thing.

“No, it’s an annoying song and I don’t want it stuck in my head again,” I say, ignoring the pouting she does once she hears my answer, before asking “How long were you following me?”

She thinks for a moment. “After you set off that grenade trap. Although, I think I caught glimpses of you while I was hunting Max down.”

That does explain a couple of things, like the sound that distracted Max and the laughter from before. Which also means she has been using me as bait to lure Princess out, doesn’t it? “And you couldn’t have let me know you were there because?”

“That would have tipped Princess off,” She says. When I frown at that answer, she adds “Hey, I saved you from getting your face ripped off. Twice.”

That is true, no doubt about that. Still doesn’t alleviate the feeling that I was being used.

“Anyway, that’s all in the past now,” She makes a dismissive gesture with her wing. “What matters is that we’re working together now. So about that song?”

“I’d rather we walk in silence, if you don’t mind,” I say. Unintentional or not, her attitude about the whole affair is ticking me off. This just feels too much like what Silverwing would say and do.

“If that’s what you want,” She shrugs. “I figured we could trade some info. You tell me about your song, I tell you a bit about being a bat pony,” She then looks forward again. “But silence works for now.”

This really feels too much like being with Silverwing again. I bite my tongue hard and keep walking in silence. It’s a trap. The moment I tell her what that song is, she’ll use it to get something else out of me. And before I know it, she’ll find something to blackmail me with. But Luna curse it, I really want to know more about bat ponies!

Ugh! This trip isn’t going to get any better, is it?

Luna must be ticked off at me today.

Wiping the sweat from my brow, I glare at the inner workings of a Sunrise Sarsaparilla vending machine. It has already been a few minutes and yet this piece of junk still refuses to hoof over my drink already. There is power to this place (the bright lights are evidence of this) but the controls refuse to respond. And the anti-theft magic field blocks my attempts to use my magic to guide a bottle to the take-out port. At least the wiring is accessible, so there might be an attempt to get it to work again. Of course, this would be easier if the door to the machine wasn’t locked. Or jammed shut. The door doesn’t have an obvious lock on it. Not that it matters, I can’t pick locks anyway.

I glance back at the bathroom Rose is currently in before going back to work. The last thing I need right now is her mocking me about this. After all, I did say that I am an expert on Pre-War Tech. She will start questioning that claim if I can’t get one simple bottle out of a broken vending machine. Or worse, she will try to use this as a way to dig into my past. There's just too much of my past that needs to stay buried and she will not be happy about that.

With that in mind, I pick up the pace, rewiring the machine and using my PipBuck to adjust its spell matrix. Eventually, the machine shakes and I hear a bottle land in the take-out port. I grin as I get up and go to retrieve my prize. That grin disappears when I see a certain bat pony holding my Sunrise Sarsaparilla in her hooves.

I let out a sigh. “Let me guess, you bucked it and the bottle fell out.”

“No, you managed to convince it to give one up on your own,” Rose passes me the bottle. “I just kicked it when it got stuck on the way down.”

“Thanks,” I take the bottle with my magic. “So where are we headed now?”

She shrugs. “Not sure yet. Right now, I’m just avoiding paths that are rigged with traps. I’ve seen how well you deal with traps.”

I roll my eyes before looking at the bottle’s label. There’s a faded cartoon picture of a smiling Fluttershy pointing to a warning box. “The Ministry of Peace would like to remind everypony that drinking too much Sunrise Sarsaparilla may cause the following symptoms,” I read out loud. “Anxiety, nausea, dizziness, severe vision loss or blindness... kidney damage... organ failure… peripheral neuropa- ok, now it’s descending into gibberish. What does half of this stuff even mean?”

“Wait, there are words you don’t understand?” Rose asks as I feel her head rest on my shoulder. “I figured you knew all of this stuff.”
Why is she getting this close to me? She can just ask to see the bottle if she can’t read- Wait, is that her soft fur pressing against my neck? Ok, don’t freak out. Don’t freak out. Don’t freak out!

“I-I’m not a doctor, I-I don’t-” I scoot away from her, if only to keep what remains of my composure intact, before clearing my throat. “I don’t know what epistaxis, polyuria, or polydipsia could possibly mean. I remember Halitosis from a book, but why bother saying your drink might cause bad breath after saying things like organ failure and blindness?”

Thankfully, Rose stays in her spot and places her hoof on her chin. “I don’t know. I think some Tower ponies would rather die than get bad breath from a drink.”

“Getting bad breath is a fate worse than death? Come on,” I attempt to pull off the bottle cap, only to find it shut tightly. “They’d rather die than get caught drinking a second rate soda,” I pull harder on the cap. “I’ll give Sunrise this. At least, *Unh*, they weren’t insane enough, *Grr*, to put radiation, *Gah*, in their drinks!”

With one last tug, the cap finally loosens its grip and flies down the hallway we are in. It bounces off the ground a couple of times before landing next to some rubble at good three feet from us. Rose whistles at the feat, even though there isn’t anything impressive about it.

I move to retrieve the cap only for her to lift a hoof to stop me. A sly smile forms on her lips. “Alright Treppy, training starts now. Tell me what you can see there.”

“I told you already, my name is Intrepid,” I say before scanning the area in front of us. “Let’s see. There’s a pile of rubble, scorch marks on the walls, some ash that may or may not be what remains of some poor ghoul. Oh, and the bottle cap over there.”

“And?” Rose asks, her eyes fixed on something ahead of us. “Come on Treppy, you’re smart. What out there doesn’t look quite right?”

That isn’t even close to helpful. And being called Treppy after making it clear I don’t like it only adds to my annoyance with her over this pointless ‘guess what is in my head’ venture. But it is clear that she is seeing something out there, so I scan the hallway again and…

“Is that a robot buried over there?” I point to the pile of rubble near the bottle cap.

“There you go! I knew you’d see it!” She says then punches my shoulder playfully. I rub it, not really sure how to feel about this, then wonder what she is doing when she scoops up a rock off the ground.

“Now watch this. And take a few steps back please,” She shoos me away whimsically. Once I take a few measured steps back, she winds up and then chucks the rock at the robot before quickly running to my side.

*Thunk*

The robot lights up as the rock pegs its metal shell. Then small electrical bolts arch out of its exposed wires before the whole thing violently explodes. Rose and I hit the ground as pieces of rubble and rebar are sent flying and dust fills the air.

“So that’s, *Cough*, what happened to all the, *Cough Cough*, security bots, *Cough*, around here.” I spit out while pushing myself off the ground. Note to self: get water to wash out my mouth later. Last thing I need is a mouth full of dust and ash in my mouth. Ick, please don’t let this ash be from a dead pony. Please.

“Yep, *Cough*, they’re all like that, *Cough*,” Rose says back. The dust settles after a few seconds and she takes a deep breath. “I was too slippery for them, so Lupa had her pack set these traps up to flush me out. I thought they had a good idea so I copied them.”

“Thank Luna that Mr. Tour Guide wasn’t rigged to explode then,” I say before helping Rose up. “That would have ended this trip rather quickly.”

Though it did its best to kill me anyway. Situational awareness really should have been a key thing in programming robots.

She gives me a confused look as she brushes herself off. “Mr. Tour Guide?”

“Don’t worry about it,” I say before realizing that I dropped my Sunrise Sarsaparilla. I frown at the puddle of soda in front of me and then pick up the bottle with my magic. Figures, as if today can’t get any worse. Although, maybe this is for the best, given the list of side effects on the drink.

Two red dots suddenly appear on E.F.S.. Looking up and down the hallway doesn’t reveal anything. But after what happened last time, it is better to hide and feel stupid than risk life and limb thinking that E.F.S. is broken again.

“We’ve got company,” I say quietly as I look over to Rose and find the spot devoid of my bat pony companion. “Buck it all!” I mutter under my breath. “Is she going to do this to me every time?! Ugh! At least Silverwing would say something stupid that’s supposed to be inspiring before leaving me behind!”

Ok, think, I need a hiding spot. Umm, there’s a storage room next to me, if the sign is to be trusted. Alright, let’s just quickly go over there and- “Mnph!”

Something immediately grabs me and pulls me into the storage room, covering my mouth as it does so. Instincts kick in at the same time and I teleport deeper into the room. It takes a second to make out Rose in the darkness. Looking rather surprised while holding on to the thin air where I probably was a few seconds prior.

“So that signal you mentioned earlier?” I whisper as she finally realizes what just happened. “It could use some work.”

“Sorry, old habits die hard,” She whispers back before going prone and looks down the sights of her rifle. “You don’t have to be rude about it.”

“Rude? You disappeared on me at the first sign of danger!” I whisper angrily while taking cover on the other side of the door.

“I said I was sorry!” Rose whispers back. “Yeesh, were you like this with Silverwing too?”

“How do you-?” I stop talking at the sound of movement outside. Slipping the empty Sunrise Sarsaparilla bottle into my bag, I pull out my gauss rifle and peek into the hallway.

Two hellhounds immediately rush into view, teeth bare and eyes darting around the place. The closest one is a light grey hellhound, wearing armor made from an assortment of metal signs and plates held together by leather straps and wonderglue. And it actually has color to it! Not the stupid shades of brown or grey that seem to dominate this rundown place, but an honest to Luna bright yellow! Or, well, at least a lighter shade of dull yellow. But still! Color!

The little pony in my head promptly clears his throat. ‘Focus.’

Right. That hellhound takes one look at what remains of the robot trap and lets out a heavy sigh. “Yep, this one got set off early too,” he says with some resignation, relaxing his posture as he slides off a knapsack full of tools off his shoulder.

“That pony rat is toying with us, Rover!” The familiar voice of Winona growls as she stands, easily towering the shorter grey hellhound. “We shouldn’t have to resort to stupid traps to flush her out!”

“You got a better idea, Princess?” Rover asks. He crouches down to pick at the pieces of the trap.

“Don’t call me that! I hate that name!” Winona snaps at him before quietly adding “It’s Winona now. That’s a much better name than... Princess.”

Ha! I told Rose that Winona was better than Princess!

“Didn’t a unicorn give you that name?” Rover asks before rummaging through his tools. “All you are doing is swapping one pony name for another.”

“Who asked you?! Now shut up and do your job,” Winona says, delivering a light tap to his head. “Why I let you talk back to me I will never know.”

Rover doesn’t answer back. He seems content to salvage what he can from the trap in silence. Along with pulling out a few broken bits of robot that are decidedly not salvageable. Winona just shakes her head and starts limping towards the vending machine. Bandages adorn her left paw and right leg, places where Rose and I hit her from our last encounter with her. I tense up when she steps into the small puddle of Sunrise Sarsaparilla. She crouches down, takes a whiff of it, and then starts smelling the air.

I ready my rifle, remembering clearly the glare Lupa gave me when she started doing the same thing, and glance down at Rose to see how she wants to play this. She, however, doesn’t move outside of keeping her rifle aimed at Winona.

A low growl snaps my attention back at Winona, who is now looking in our general direction. “Please don’t let her see us,” I quietly pray as she takes a step closer. Her claw extending outward, ready to strike, as I aim for her right let. I start to squeeze the trigger.

“So that unicorn you found. Was it a ghoul?” Rover asks, causing Winona to pause for a moment before looking back at him.

“No, it wasn’t some stupid ghoul,” Winona says, relaxing a little as she walks back to Rover’s side. “It was this annoying grey pony that kept disappearing and reappearing all over the place,” A toothy smile forms on her muzzle. “When I get my claws around his neck, I’ll really show him how to be in two places at once.”

I fight back a gulp as I keep my rifle trained on her. Guess giving somepony a name doesn’t automatically make them friendlier to you like it does in storybooks.

“I wonder if the grey ponies have something against us?” Rover asks while putting his tools away. There is a pile of scrap sitting next to him that is obviously from the trap. “Do you remember if any of our ma-” he looks up to see Winona glaring at him with such intensity that even I can feel it from over here. “-if any of the winged ponies we killed were grey?”

“Does it matter? After what they did to us, they’ll be lucky to get a quick death,” Winona looks back at the puddle on the ground. “That unicorn isn’t going to be lucky. Not after making me look like an idiot.”

Suddenly the room feels a whole lot colder than before. Was talking to me really that bad of an experience to you? Aside from the whole “Rose ambushing you with a flashbang” part.

“Think Lupa will do the same thing to Rex when he finally gets back?” He asks as he sorts the scrap pile into smaller piles of bolts, wires, and other things. “It has been a while since she sent him off to find food.”

Winona rolls her eyes. “Knowing Rex, he went back to that one building full of caged ghouls so he can get his gun back. He’s probably going to kill a few and drag their corpses back so he can ‘pretend’ he was actually doing his job.”

Wait, what? D-Did you just- No, no, y-you can’t be saying that hellhound, the one I bumped into when I first got here, was just looking for his gun?! And he was killing ghouls because-

“Bleh, I don’t want to eat ghouls. They taste rotten and there’s barely any meat on their bones,” Rover says. “And they’re boring to hunt down too. All they’re good at is yelling and dying, not like that rat we’re hunting. Hey, maybe if we start killing them again, that’ll drag her out of hiding.”

That- that’s just- Why? Why are you killing defenseless ponies in the first place?! They didn’t do anything to you! They were just minding their own business until you came along, weren’t they?

“And what happens if she escapes while we’re slaughtering them?” Winona shakes her head. “No, I’m with Lupa on this one. We keep the pressure on, keep cornering the rat, and her unicorn friend, before we catch them. Then we can make them watch as we kill all of their ghoul friends in front of them. That will make all of this worth it.”

Worth it?! Are you insane?! Would you like it if somepony forced you to watch as your pack got killed in front of your eyes?! Wouldn’t that hurt you?!

Max’s broken body flashes before my eyes, along with how little Winona and Lupa cared upon seeing one of their own like that.

‘I don’t think that would hurt them at all, Intrepid,’ The dark pony says quietly as the voices of the hellhounds fade away. ‘That’s just how the Enclave programmed them to be: Cold-blooded. All they want to do is kill. It doesn’t matter who dies as long as the blood flows. But you can stop this madness. You have the power. So stop being stubborn and-’

Suddenly, I feel something press against my right foreleg. Looking down, I realize two things: that I had taken a step forward and that Rose’s outstretched foreleg is held out in front of me. Keeping me from taking another step forward. I feel sick as I take a step back, the images of blood and the broken bodies of my former companions quickly coming to my mind.

Dear Luna, I really was about to do it again, wasn’t I?

Rover laughs, bringing me back to reality just as him says “Maybe you can use that unicorn’s horn as a toothpick after we eat them,” He picks up his knapsack, now full of scrap and tools, and moves over to the vending machine. “Like how she’s going to let me keep that rat’s wings to make into a fancy hat.”

Winona shakes her head. “I’ve got enough toothpicks. Even if it is pretty long and skinny for a unicorn horn.”

“Hey! My horn is only slightly longer than average thank you very much!” I mutter under my breath as I glare at Winona. My anger still burning from what they said about the ghouls earlier.

“Maybe you can use it as a spit then,” Rover helpfully suggests.

“My horn is not a skewer either!” I again mutter through gritted teeth, shifting my glare over to him while he pulls off the side of the vending machine.

“Not pointy enough,” Winona points out before noticing my bottle cap on the ground and picks it up. “It’s like he files it down so it’s blunt or something. And it looks like it’ll snap if you try to pierce a thick steak with it too.” She considers my bottle cap for a moment. “Eh, forget the horn. He has a pretty long tail I could cut off. You think we could turn that into a scarf or something?”

I shift my glare immediately back to Winona and try my hardest to set her on fire with my mind.

“Does it look like I would know?” Rover says as he pulls out a grenade from his knapsack. “I only do two things: Carry the explosives and rig stuff up to explode right.” He sticks the grenade into the vending machine along with some wires. “Go ask Roxie if you’re serious about this. She might know more about that.”

Winona sighs. “But I don’t want to listen to her rant about how Smarty’s a pony. Smarty isn’t a pony! She’s…. Look! Are you done yet?”

“Yeah, I’m done,” Rover says as he does some more stuff with the machine before putting the cover back on. “Maybe we’ll get lucky and see her splattered against the wall the next time she decides to get a drink.”

“Yeah,” Winona says thoughtfully, glancing back at the soda puddle. “Maybe.”

Rover slings his knapsack over his shoulder and runs off. Winona lingers for a few seconds longer before running off to join him. They leave my sight, replaced by the red dots as E.F.S. continues to track them through the wall until they disappear completely.

It feels like an eternity before I finally feel comfortable moving again. I walk over to the nearby wall and sit down against it. Rose gets up from her prone position and gives me a serious look. I let out a sigh, knowing full well where this is going as she walks over to me, and says “Alright, I know I almost-... what are you doing?”

“I’m seeing if you actually file your horn down,” Rose says while leaning in uncomfortably close to inspect my horn. “Now that Winona mentioned it, it does look a little longer than most.”

“Winona doesn’t know what she’s talking about,” I say before pushing her back with my hoof. “A unicorn’s horn is a conduit of magical power and it should be respected as such. It should not be used for something so mundane as a stupid skewer. Sure, my horn might not quite fit the proper parameters of what typical unicorn horn should be but… ok, why are you smiling?”

“Oh, no reason,” She says as she backs off and walks outside of the room. “I just didn’t think you would care this much about how you look, that’s all.”

I roll my eyes. “Please, I’m not vain. I don’t care what they or anypony else thinks about my appearance. I just prefer to look decent.”

“That’s not what I was hearing, Mr. ‘My horn is only slightly longer than average’,” Rose says as she makes her way to the vending machine. “The way you were muttering under your breath made me think you had some kind of fire spell going on there.”

“You heard that?” I ask, not really liking the idea that Rose heard me talk in such a foalish manner.

“What can I say? I have good hearing,” She says, flicking an ear for emphasis. “Personally, I don’t see why it bugs you so much,” She shrugs. “I think your horn looks fine.”

"T-Thanks," I say meekly before getting up. Noticing Rose digging into the now explosives-rigged vending machine, however, removes my desire to move away from the doorway.

"It wouldn’t be a bad idea to sharpen your horn, though,” She suggests. “Use it as a backup weapon in case you need to stab somepony-"

"No thank you," I say abruptly. Then quickly clear my throat. "I, umm, prefer to keep it blunt like this."

“Alright, alright, it was just a thought,” She says before pulling out Rover’s grenade and proudly showing it off to me. I offer back a nervous smile and wait until the explosive is safely in her saddlebag before moving away from my cover to join her.

That smile dies when Rose gives me a serious look. “Now, what were you thinking when you almost blew our cover there?”

No answer comes to mind. At least, nothing that doesn’t sound outright insane. How does one explain that a voice inside his head is trying to tempt him into using dark eldritch magic to murder everypony in sight?

“I... wasn’t,” I answer honestly. “I was letting my anger get the better of me and nearly did something stupid because of it.”

If I’m going to be reprimanded for my actions, I might as well be honest about it. I close my eyes, waiting for her to dress me down over my incredibly foalish actions. Only to feel a soft strike on the forehead. Confused, I open my eyes to see her giving me a concerned look as she says “Hey, they were ticking me off too. But do remember that if you die doing something stupid, my reputation may as well die with you. I’m taking a big risk teaming up with you and I would like it if you didn’t risk our lives like that again.”

“Yeah, you’re right,” I apologise while rubbing my forehead. “I’ll try not to do that again.”

“Ah, music to my ears,” She says with a smile.

“But can you quit it with the disappearing act?” I ask, which instantly kills her smile right there. “I don’t want to die because you disappeared without warning me first. Think of how that will ruin your reputation.”

Not that anyone would know exactly how I died if that happens, but the point still stands.

“But I didn’t mean-” She pauses for a moment and then sighs. “No, you’re right. I’ll try to stop doing that to you from now on,” she says firmly before looking down the hallway. “Now then, with that out of the way and a shiny new grenade in my collection, I think we can continue.”

I raise an eyebrow at her. “Did you actually set off that trap to get a grenade?”

“Not exactly, I just wanted to know who is on this floor right now,” She says nonchalantly. “But I’m not going to say no to free stuff.”

“That’s not how I’d like to get free stuff,” I say, then politely extend my foreleg outwards and bow my head slightly, “Mares first.”

Rose looks shocked at my gesture, making me wonder if she’ll do this every time I try to be polite. But she quickly recovers, giving me a small nod before taking the lead. As I follow her, the feeling that we are being watched creeps into my mind. A glance behind us doesn’t reveal anything, though, and E.F.S. isn’t picking up anything. And Rose is still by my side, so it must be in my head. Though I feel slightly guilty for so quickly assuming she would just disappear again without telling me. Just after she told me she wouldn’t do that.

But then, it’s not the first time I’ve been given hollow promises. There is no reason to be mean to her. But there is no reason to completely trust her either. It’s because I completely trusted Silverwing that all of those ponies died the way they did.

And I’m not making that mistake again.

“Copper Hardwire’s Office” reads the sign on the door we are walking past, piquing my curiosity enough to stop and look at it. Unlike the other signs, this one looks slightly newer. Or rather, that some effort has been put into polishing it so it gleams in the light. Wondering what’s inside, I try to open the door and find that it is locked. Because every interesting door is locked. Always.

“Find something interesting, Treppy?” Rose asks while looking over her shoulder at me. She will never stop calling me by that stupid nickname, will she?

“No, just another locked door,” I say, feeling a little disappointed that that is the case. But there isn’t really anything I can do about it, so I start walking again. Only to stop as Rose passes by me and examines the deadbolt lock on the door. Without a word, she digs through her saddlebag and pulls out a set of lock picks. That is enough for me to ask “Umm, Rose? What are you doing?”

“Unlocking this door,” she says nonchalantly as she looks over her collection of various picks and tension wrenches. “Don’t you want to see what’s inside?”

“I’m curious, yes,” I admit before giving her a serious look. “But we really don’t have time for this. We do have hellhounds hunting us down, if you haven’t forgotten.”

“I didn’t forget,” She says with a sly grin. “We’ll be in and out before they know we’re here.”

“I highly doubt that,” I say back.

“Come on, Treppy, have some faith in me. Besides,” She picks up a pick and examines the lock. “It’s more thrilling this way.”

“Thrilling?” I say rather incredulously. “More like terrifying if you ask me.”

“You can’t live life if you’re terrified all the time,” She says as she slides the pick into the lock and starts moving it around. I watch her work for a second before shoving my curiosity away and shaking my head.

“Whatever,” I start to walk away, hoping she’ll stop this and follow me before I get too far. “I’m not going to stay here and risk the hellhounds finding us.”

A soft click stops me dead in my tracks. This means nothing good for my attempts to be the voice of reason. Especially after turning around to see Rose walk through the now open door. But it is hard to keep my excitement tempered as I follow her in. And notice that she is already trying to get into a wall safe. This is the complete opposite of ‘in and out’ in my book.

I rub my temples as the mare presses one ear against the door and turns the knob. “Rose.”

“Be done in a minute,” Rose says without so much as a glance in my direction. “There’s something good in this one, I just know it.”

“A minute?” I raise my eyebrow at her. “For a safe? Right. Let’s risk our lives in the hope that Mr. Hardwire has something worth stealing in his safe. That sounds like a good idea right now.”

She rolls her eyes. “I’m not stealing from him, I’m just having a look and seeing if it’s something that I can return to him. For a small finder’s fee, of course.”

My eye twitches. “That’s called extortion, assuming he’s still alive. And that tends to get you a one way trip to the hanging noose in Tenpony.”

“Well thank Celestia that we’re not in Tenpony then,” Rose glances my way and gets a glare in return from me. “Ok, I won’t ask for a finder’s fee,” She says before turning back to the safe. “So why don’t you look around the room for stuff that we can use.”

With her shooing me away with her hoof, I let out an exasperated sigh. Yeah, Rose is definitely like Silverwing. Although she’s willing to compromise, which is something Silverwing never did. And she does have a point. If there is something to help me figure out how to fix an intercom box, then it might be here.

After all, this place looks more like a workshop rather than an office. Along the left wall, there are a few terminals in various states of repair sitting on top of a metal desk. Pinned neatly above them are schematics for various different kinds of devices. On the adjacent wall are two rather small bookshelves with a modest collection of books on them. I move closer to one of the bookshelves and pull a book off of it, hoping to find an instruction manual of some kind.

Noting how well kept this old book is, I carefully check the inside cover for the censorship stamp. Not that the Ministry of Image would care all that much about the inner workings of intercoms, but one never truly knows what was and wasn’t ok with that Ministry. I then flip through the pages before confirming that it isn’t what I am looking for. Sliding the book back into its place, I pick another one out and start the process all over again.

That second book, while an interesting looking discussion on different terminal designs, isn’t what I am looking for either. Neither is the third book I pick. Nor the fourth. As much as I want to read them all, there are still hellhounds after us and wasting a day reading books is likely to get everypony killed. Not to mention that it would be hypocritical of me to do so after getting on Rose’s case about wasting time. We may not see eye to eye on things, but I want to treat her fairly. That still doesn’t make putting the books away any easier for me.

Pulling the last book of the collection off the shelf, I take a good look at its cover. It is the familiar emblem of the Ministry of Wartime Technology emblazoned in gold.

“So, who gave you this, Silverwing?” I can hear myself say in the back of my mind.

“It’s not anypony you need to worry about,” Silverwing says.

“And the crates?” I ask, curious as always. “Did you ever find out what was in them?”

“Intrepid, you worry too much,” He answered back to me that day. “Trust me, we helped a lot of ponies out this day.”

He was so full of reassurance that I felt comfortable letting the matter go. Even past the point where things stopped adding up, I kept trusting him.

And look where that got me.

Yet, one glance at Rose and suddenly I feel guilty for the way I’ve been treating her recently. She has been nice to me. Annoying and infuriating at times, but nice nevertheless. But Silverwing and the others were nice too and that didn't stop them from using me for their own selfish ends. I don’t want that to happen again. I can’t let that happen again. Not after what happened to Trian Mill.

Placing the book back onto the shelf, I walk over to the schematics and look them over more carefully. They detail the inner workings of terminals, mainframes, control consoles, and one very detailed schematic of an intercom box. Jackpot! I unpin them one at a time, rolling them up, and placing them in my saddlebag. Unlike the books, I can justify taking all of them with me. As painful as it is to admit that. I’m never going to see those books again, am I?

On that depressing note, I walk over to the desk. “Any luck?” I ask, noting that Rose is still working on the safe.

“It’s a tough one,” She says, briefly looking over at me and then at the terminal on the desk. “Can you see if that thing will open it up?”

“Only if you promise me that we’ll leave right after it opens,” I say. Mostly because of the hellhounds, but partially because there doesn’t seem to be anything else of note in this room.

“Deal,” She says before going right back to work on the safe.

Thus, focusing on the task given to me, I crack my neck and begin the process of hacking into the terminal. There’s a sinking feeling that this will take a while when, instead of the usual display of single words or short phrases, I’m greeted with five to eight word sentences for possible passwords.

I can’t tell if I want to hug or hurt Hardwire for this rare display of competence.

Attempt one doesn’t work. Neither does attempt two. Nearly permanently locked myself out after attempt five. But attempt sixteen wins with ‘To Boldly Go Where Nopony Has Gone Before’. It is probably best not to question this choice of password (given that it did keep me out of this terminal for so long) and instead look over the list of options. It is mostly just documents and such. With the remaining few options that, sadly, have nothing to do with the safe. “Looks like we’re out of luck.”

Rose shrugs. “Worth a shot. I think I’m getting close to cracking it anyway. Two, maybe three minutes tops.”

Didn’t you say you would have this open in one minute?

Rather than say that, I decide to go through the documents. Only to get an error message from each one that they are inaccessible. Not that the terminal feels like telling me why. However, there are two entries that can be accessed: One is a simple reminder to backup all messages and such onto backup tapes in the first drawer of this desk. The other one that is labeled ‘Fw:’Aiming for something higher’. With two, maybe three more minutes to kill, I open it up and start reading.

From: Copper Hardwire
To: Rocky Shores

Hey Rocky,

Guess what I found while digging through some old tapes of mine? Luna, this brings back memories. It seems like it was yesterday when I got this message. Hay, did this thing ever spiral out of control. I even remember when Floria got this message. You’re not still mad that I left you alone with her after all these years, are you?

Anyway, I’m forwarding the message over to you so you can get a good laugh at it too.

-Hardwire

-----

From: The Ministry of Wartime Technology
To: All Lunar Institute Employees

Hello,

My name is Smooth Charmer, acting liaison for the Ministry of Wartime Technology. As you are all aware, the Ministry of Wartime Technology has recently entered into a partnership with the Lunar Institute of Rocket Research and Development for a crucial project. There are some that have expressed fear that this partnership will mark the end of your independence. So know that Minister Applejack understands and respects the massive effort everypony has put into building this company. My job is to report back on the progress of this project and advise when needed, nothing more.

That said, there are some protocols that need to go in place to make sure that our two ‘families’ work in harmony together. For those that still do not know, the ‘Equestrian Missile Defense’ project is a way to defend against a balefire missile attack before it can hit its target. Because of the sensitive nature of this project, a badge system will be implemented, in conjunction with the installation of new security robots at key locations throughout the facility. This is to protect you from zebra infiltrators that may cause irreparable harm to you and your work. The robots themselves will not interfere in your work provided you wear your badge at all times. Should you forget or lose your badge at any time, please contact security immediately. A temporary badge will be issued to you until a replacement can be made. For your own safety, do not attempt to enter the facility without your badge. The robots are armed and will consider you a threat should you ignore their warnings and try entering the facility without one.

As an extra precaution, all incoming and outgoing messages will be monitored from now on. This is to prevent security leaks and ensure the safety of everypony here and in Equestria. I will remind you that this includes discussing project details to anypony that is not directly affiliated with this project. Doing so is grounds for immediate termination and incarceration along with any other punishments deemed appropriate.

One last thing, at the request of the Ministry of Morale, your facility will be visited by one of their representatives every month for the duration of this project. This is to ensure that you are as comfortable with this new arrangement as possible. Should you have any complaints or concerns, you are encouraged to bring it up with them and they will handle the matters with the utmost care.

Minister Applejack would like to extend her personal thanks for working with us. Both her and I hope that we can make this project a success and keep Equestria safe from those that would do us harm.

Thank you for your time,
-Smooth Charmer

Funny is the last thing that comes to mind for a memo like this. Depressing is more like it. Not like this isn’t the first time this has happened to a company working with the Ministries. And none of them ever escape, although I’m sure Rocky and the others are all too aware of that fact by now. I wonder if Rocky knew that he was selling everypony’s soul with a deal like this? Or was he naive enough to think that they would leave him alone with a project like this?

What even is this project? It sounds like they were hoping it would help take down balefire missiles. But how? With other balefire missiles? Given the amount of balefire warheads there are here, that is the reasonable conclusion. Even if that does stretch what is considered reasonable. No, there’s something else going on here. There has to be. I just haven’t found that piece of information that will make all of this click. Or destroy what’s left of my faith in ponykind.

Maybe those backup tapes will have something in them. Turning my attention over to the drawer to my left, I open it and quickly sort through the random items inside. It takes a couple of seconds to find three holotapes with the label ‘File Backups. Do Not Touch.’ on them. I hesitate for a moment, wondering if taking them would be a good idea, before shaking my head and putting the holotapes into my saddlebag. Not every tape has a virus in it.

The safe behind me creaks open, with Rose exclaiming “Jackpot!” as it does so. She then quickly says “Treppy, take a look at this!”

Feeling a little curious as to what she has found, I turn to look at her and-

A clear glass orb sits in Rose’s hooves. A memory orb.

Pure terror grips my mind as I shake uncontrollably, the memory of a chipped and cracked metallic orb instantly flashes before my eyes. The pain it caused. The agony. And something much darker forcing itself into my head. Some distant part of me knows they are not the same. But it is dangerous! They are all dangerous!

Then orb moves closer. I violently knock it away and quickly pull out my gauss rifle.

“Wait! Stop!” Somepony says before the gun is wrestled out of my grasp. I frantically back away to a nearby corner, desperate to put as much distance between me and the orb.

I curl up into a ball, gripping my head with my hooves and shutting my eyes tightly. Anything to make the terror go away. Tears run down my cheek as the memories just keep coming. Joy from finding the orb. Curiosity when I touched it with my horn and channeled my magic into it. Pain and darkness where there should have been a memory waiting for me. Panic when I discovered that I couldn’t pull my mind out of the orb. As if something was trying to lock my consciousness away forever.

The disturbing realization of how close I was to being brain dead when I came to and discovered the shattered orb in front of me.

“What’s gotten into you?! You almost let everypony know where we are!” Rose practically yells at me. There’s a small pause before I hear her ask “Treppy? Hey, are you ok?”

It is hard to force myself to respond. I curl up tighter when I hear hoofsteps coming closer to me. But, this isn't good. There are hellhounds around. So get a grip already! Just take some deep breaths and calm down. They’re just memories. The orb can’t hurt me. It can’t. It simply can’t.

Then somepony touches my shoulder and I hear her say “Treppy, it’s ok. The orb’s gone now.”

It takes all of my willpower to force my eyes open. Through the tears, I see a very concerned looking Rose next to me. Slowly, I manage to sit up and look around the room. As she said, the orb is nowhere to be seen. Though that does little to alleviate the anxiety attack I’m going through.

I look at Rose and force myself to smile. “S-Sorry about that,” My voice shakes as I speak. “I-I know that was stupid of me to, well...”

She frowns. “I’d say. What would have happened if we were in the middle of a fight and this happened?”

“Y-You’re right, I’m sorry,” I say, wiping the tears from my face.

She winces at my response. “No, I didn’t mean it like that. I, just, why didn’t you tell me you had this problem?”

“It doesn’t matter now,” I say, trying to brush her off as I retrieve my discarded rifle. “Let me step outside for a second and clear my head before I do something stupid again. Ok?”

“Intrepid,” She says. It’s odd to hear her say my name normally. More so with the amount of concern in her tone.

“I’m fine, Rose,” I lie to her, fighting the urge to look back at her as I quickly make my way to the exit. The longer I stay here, the more unbearable my anxiety becomes. It will only be for a few minutes. Just long enough for the feelings to subside. Then Rose and I can keep going like nothing happened.

But that is just wishful thinking. Wishful thinking that dies when Rose manages to catch up to me and places a hoof on my shoulder. “No you’re not. Come on, tell me what’s going on. You can trust me, right?”

Some part of me wants to. Some part of me desperately wants to trust her. To have somepony to lean on in moments like this. But her tone. It’s the same firm but kind tone that Silverwing used to use on me. It definitely sounds more genuine coming from her but- no, not again! I can’t tell if she’s being sincere or if she’s just pretending to care! If she is manipulating me like he did….

“It’s nothing I want to talk about,” I brush her hoof off of my shoulder and make my way towards the door. “Just please, believe me. I really am fine. I just need to step out for a moment and catch my breath.”

Just please, stop acting like you care about me. It hurts.

The door barely swings open when I’m immediately tackled into the hallway. Suddenly my ears start ringing as an explosion rocks the ground around me. Pieces of debris hit my body as dust fills the air around me. With a fit of coughing, I sluggishly get to my feet as I try to comprehend what is happening.

Pain erupts from the back of my neck, followed by a burning sensation that nearly has me collapsing onto the ground again. The talisman around my neck glows faintly as a voice shouts out from in front of me. “Winona, you idiot! Don’t shoot the unicorn! He might have Smarty with him!”

“Idiot?! Whose fault was it for setting off the explosives early?!” Another voice shouts. A chill runs down my spine as I recognize it as Winona’s. “We were supposed to trap them in the room! Not bury them!”

The dust clears to reveal Rover standing above us with a magical energy rifle in his claws. I quickly back up and turn around, only to find Winona blocking the only other way out of the hallway. Also pointing a magical energy rifle at us. With the office door completely covered by rubble, it is safe to say that we are trapped. Thankfully, Rose doesn’t seem injured from the blast as she stands next to me. But with two hellhounds trapping us here, that will change soon.

Really, out of all the worst things that could happen, this is the worst. Possible. Thing.

Slowly, I try to pull out my gauss rifle. The ray of magical energy that nearly misses my horn is enough to convince me to stop.

“Oh no you don’t,” Winona growls, her gun powers up to shoot again.

“Stop it! You disintegrate Smarty and we all will have your head!” Rover growls back. Then he shifts his attention down to me. “Alright unicorn, let’s make a deal: You give us Smarty and the winged pony next to you and you can go.”

“I-I,” I take a couple of deep breaths and try to get a grip on myself. Though it would be easier if my anxiety isn’t forcing my heart to beat out of my chest at the moment. But if I lose it now, I might end up getting Rose killed.

“Ugh, he's obviously not going to say yes,” Winona bares her fangs. “Maybe re-arranging his spine will get him to talk?”

“Winona,” Rover warns her before focusing on me again. “We have no issue with you. Give the rat and Smarty up or die with her. Your choice.”

“You can’t be serious!” Winona practically roars out. “We should kill him now while we can!”

Rover gives Winona an irritated look. “If he’s as annoying as you keep telling me, then I don’t want to deal with him.”

“I don’t believe this! Where’s your spine?!” Winona shouts back. Their argument fades into the background as I take this moment to focus on calming down. For a few seconds, at least, until Rose pokes my shoulder.

“Intrepid, take the deal,” She whispers.

“What?” I turn to look at her. Clearly, I misheard her. No sane pony would ever say that. But she doesn’t look like she is joking. “You can’t be serious.”

She looks me straight in the eyes. “Smarty’s in your bag,” She whispers. “Just take the deal and get those ghouls out of here.”

This doesn’t make any sense. Yet, one quick glance at my PipBuck confirms it: Smarty is in my saddlebags. “W-Why are you doing this?” My voice trembles as I look back to Rose. “You know they’ll kill you, right?”

Rose simply gives me a confident grin. “Come on, I’m the best bounty hunter there is. I’ll get out of this.”

Between her grin and the defiant stances that she is now taking, she is practically yelling at fate to bring it. In her eyes, however, is a glimmer of uncertainty. She knows the odds are against her surviving this.

And yet she’s asking me to take the offer in spite of that fear? Tossing herself to the wolves to give me the opportunity to get away safely? Does she not get who I am by now?! I’m the idiot that keeps screwing things up! I’m the idiot that keeps walking into obvious traps in spite of myself! Hay, I’m the reason we’re in this mess in the first place!

No, no this isn’t who I thought you were! You’re supposed to be like Silverwing! He wouldn’t risk his life when he could get away with risking mine! He wouldn’t offer to teach me a skill that he thought I was lacking in! He wouldn’t ask me if I was fine if he thought I wasn’t! He wouldn’t do any of this!

You’re not supposed to be doing any of this, you idiot!

“Buck that idea!” I tell her. “Like I’m going to let you die for me!”

For a brief moment, she looks stunned at my answer. That quickly gets replaced with irritation. “Intrepid, don’t be stupid! You’re in no condition to fight!” She says, her voice begins to get louder as she glares at me. “Hay, you’re still shaking right now!”

“I don’t care,” I return her glare with one of my own. “I’m not going to abandon you just to save my own hide!”

Honestly, how hard is it to grasp that this is a completely suicidal idea for her? And yet, Rose seems completely keen on continuing this stupid argument as she places one hoof on her forehead. “Intrepid, I can’t believe I’m saying this, but why can’t you be more like my other partners?! They’d would have taken the offer and abandoned me by now!”

“Well excuse me for not being like those idiots then!” I shout back angry.

“WILL YOU TWO SHUT UP!” Winona roars, nearly making me jump out of my skin. After a few short breaths, she points her gun at me. “Now. Are you taking the offer or not?”

No, I’d rather shoot myself than take that offer. But since you seem eager to grant me that particular wish….

With a deep breath, I force myself to calmly look Winona in the eye. “Just one questi-”

“No,” Winona begins to squeeze the trigger on her magical energy rifle.

“But why are you following Smarty when she’s obviously a pony?!” I spit out quickly and then wince in preparation of getting shot again.

Winona blinks and lowers her rifle slightly. “Smarty isn’t a pony.”

This really shouldn’t be working. At all. But no use stopping now that I’m onto something here.

“You sure?” I look up and tilt my head at Winona. “Because she looks like a pony to me. I mean, she has a mane, a tail, a little notebook and quill to… hooves, I-I meant to say four little hooves.”

“That doesn’t make her a pony!” Winona says more insistently.

“What the hay did you think she is then? A griffon?” Rose chimes, earning her a growl from Winona.

“The ponies might be onto something here,” Rover puts a paw over his chin. “I mean, Roxie thinks so. That makes three that think Smarty is a pony.”

“Shut up, Rover!” Winona roars. “Smarty is NOT a pony! She’s… well she’s…”

As Winona looks at the ground in frustration, Rose leans over to me. “Nice way to stall for time. Now quit being stubborn and take the deal.”

“I’m not being stubborn and we’re not taking the deal!” I whisper back. “Now help me think of a better idea-”

“GRR, JUST DIE ALREADY YOU STUPID PONIES!” Winona screams, whipping her rifle back up and firing off a shot. I activate S.A.T.S. and watch as the magical beam slows to a crawl as it almost touches my chest. It isn’t really as comforting as it should be: the amulet Floria gave me only keeps me from getting disintegrated by these weapons. It will not save me should this be enough to kill me. I think that’s how it works, and this really isn’t the time to push my luck.

As much as S.A.T.S. will allow without breaking, I manage to look around Winona just enough to make out a spot behind her. It isn’t much, and there really is no guarantee that I will be able to teleport there before getting hit, but it will draw the hellhound’s attention from Rose. With luck, she’ll take the opportunity and run for it. After that, well, improvisation will be the name of the game. Just like old times. Minus somepony to come save me once my luck runs out.

With what barely qualifies as a plan in place, I queue up a teleport and execute S.A.T.S.. My chest burns as I reappear, though hearing Rover's yelp of surprise is enough to tell me that I got away in time before taking the full brunt of the beam.

That doesn’t seem to give Winona much pause, her movements showing that she’s realizing what just happened a lot faster than I had hoped. As she turns around, I pull out my gauss rifle and re-activate S.A.T.S. to cue up a few shots to the chest. With a prayer that they won’t miss, I execute the spell. Time quickly reasserts itself, the speed of which Winona brings her rifle to bear increases, and my eyes start to widen as it dawns on me.

None of the actions I had cued up are happening.

My shoulder burns intensely as Winona shoots me and I fire back blindly. Through the pain, I barely register my shot sinking into her arm and her rifle dropping to the ground. Although I definitely see Rose slashing Winona’s leg with her knife as she runs past the hellhound’s legs. The roar of pain is enough to get me to run down the hallway with Rose soon catching up with me.

She puts her knife away and looks over her shoulder. “Well, we sure ticked her off.”

“I think our arguing did that already,” I answer back while reloading my rifle. “So any ideas on how we can get them off our tail?”

She extends her wings and, with a small hop, starts flying next to me. She gracefully flips around in the air and fires off a quick shot behind us before righting herself again. “I’m only seeing Winona following us.”

“What?” I glance over my shoulder. Sure enough, Winona is the only one chasing us. And not really gaining on us, for that matter. But that doesn’t make any sense. Winona has already proven to be faster than me when we faced off last time. It’s almost as if she’s waiting for something….

Looking forward again, I scan my surroundings for red dots, silently praying that I spot Rover before he can spring whatever trap they’re trying to force us into.

“Intrepid! Turn Right!”

I skid across the ground and narrowly avoid running into a wall before practically jumping through the large hole on my right. I run for the open door on the other side and find Rose waiting for me on the other side. She tosses a mine into the room just as I get out and then starts running by my side. The mine doesn’t get to go off as Winona decides to take a shortcut through the walls instead of going the route we just did.

“This is what you’ve been dealing with for the last two weeks?!” I point my rifle behind me and fire another blind shot at Winona.

“No, I never had to do this before,” Rose answers back, rummaging through her saddlebag while keeping up with me.

“Ah, so it’s my fault then,” I reload and fire another blind shot behind me. Anything to keep Winona distracted while I try to find that stupid red dot that will tell me where Rover is.

“No, it isn’t,” Rose says before clicking her tongue. “Out of mines. Got any?”

An explosion goes off up ahead, collapsing the ceiling in and blocking our path forward. I skid to a stop while Rose manages to turn around and fire off a shot at Winona. I curse under my breath as I notice the red dot to my right.

Found him.

Claws tear down the wall and I teleport away just as Rover bursts through it. Then watch in horror as, with my sudden disappearance, he is now lunging at Rose instead of me. “ROSE!” Is all I can manage to scream she jumps to the side, claws barely grazing her cheek, before she pulls out her dagger. With a quick dash, she cuts into his leg repositions herself behind him. She gives me an annoyed look before her eyes widen in fear. It quickly becomes obvious why when I catch a hint of movement from the corner of my eye.

Instincts kick in and I teleport away again. Not fast enough, though, as pain sears through my back the moment I reappear. The blood dripping from the tips of Winona’s claws confirming that I barely escaped death by seconds. However, Winona doesn’t turn to face me. Instead she moves towards Rose as she barely dodges another swipe from Rover.

Only one thing comes to mind to rectify this situation. And it will probably go down in history as one of the stupidest things I will ever do.

“OI! I’M OVER HERE, PRINCESS!!!” I yell before firing at Winona. The shot barely grazing the side of her body but it got her undivided attention all the same. Her head almost instantly turns to glare at me. And it doesn’t take her long to turn around and lunge at me after that. Though this time, I’m ready for it. Teleporting to the far end of a hallway, I stick my tongue out at her before running as fast as my hooves can carry me.

For a brief moment, I wonder if I should have stayed still and waited for her to give chase. The seconds it takes for Winona to catch up to me confirms that that idea would have been suicidal. I teleport again to both dodge her sweeping claws and regain whatever small lead I had on her. It doesn’t last long as she closes the gap and forces me to keep teleporting in short bursts to avoid getting torn apart. Every time she catches up, her claws create a new cut on my body. It’s getting harder to focus on escaping when it is this difficult to just keep ahead of her.

Dang it, Luna! Why?! Why do I keep doing this?! I just wanted to help! I wanted to save everypony here! But no, now Rose is going to die because I couldn’t sit still for one second! Why couldn’t that Mr. Tour Guide be trapped?! At least then, none of this would be happening right now!

Wait. Trap. Trap! That’s it!

Taking Rose’s advice from earlier, I scan my surroundings for anything out of place. And get a cut on my forehead for the trouble. But soon I start coming up to the chassis of an old protectron buried under some rubble. Teleporting next to it, I abruptly turn and aim my rifle at Winona. To my surprise, Winona doesn’t come after me and instead eyes me suspiciously from a distance.

Oh come on! You were eager to kill me before!

In desperation, I say the first thing that comes to mind. “L-Look, I know some ponies did terrible things to you. They’ve messed with your head until you couldn’t think clearly and used you as mindless killing machines. I understand that and I hate that that ever happened to you in the first place. But come on, the ghouls here aren’t like those ponies! They aren’t looking to enslave you or torture you or anything like that! They just want to go to the moon, for Luna’s sake! So why can’t you leave them alone! Why are you trying to kill them all?!”

Winona considers me as sweat starts pouring down my face, probably trying to figure out what my intentions are by saying all of that. Honestly, I’m not sure myself. Maybe it says something that my first instinct is to try to appeal to a being’s better nature. And it seems like I might have gotten through as she glances at the floor.

Only to hear her laugh in a low, sinister tone.

“Why? Why?! Isn’t it obvious?” She says, giving me a menacing look that sends a chill run down my spine. “All of you are the same! You keep talking, worming your way into our heads and trying to manipulate us with kind words or metal helmets. And the only way to make you stop is by killing every single last one of you!”

Winona digs her claws into the ground, giving me only seconds to ram the butt of my rifle into the chassis and teleport out of the way of her lunging attack. Pressing a hoof against the new gash on my chest armor, I look back and watch as electricity sparks from the chassis. Winona turns around to attack again, only for the chassis to explode and knock her off her feet. Dust, debris, and pieces of rebar fills the air and I end up covering my mouth to avoid choking on the air.

It takes a few seconds for the dust to settle, revealing a bleeding Winona with two short pieces of rebar sticking out of her back. It is hard to believe that anything could survive an explosion like that. Ponies couldn’t survive something like that, so it should be able to kill one hellhound, right?

That dark feeling, that siren’s song I felt when Max was dying, is now tugging at my mind, pulling me towards Winona as her bleeding body starts to move.

Panic quickly takes control as I teleport to the first cover I see. Which happens to be behind the remains of a wall nearest Winona that survived the chassis explosion. As the little pony in my head screams at me about picking the worst hiding spot possible, I hold my breath and try to ignore the insistent pulling on my mind and my body shaking in fear. Carefully, I peek over the edge and nearly regret it as Winona gets up and starts to look in my direction. I duck behind cover again as she lets out a blood-curling roar. From all of the new cuts and bruises on her body, she has every right to roar. That really doesn’t change the situation.

At this point, shooting isn’t going to work. Hay it barely worked before. What do I do? What do I do?

‘Isn’t it obvious?’ The dark pony whispers in my head. ‘You kill her. And you have exactly what you need all inside that little bottle in your saddlebag.’

Ignoring the obviously stupid idea proposed to me, I quickly scan my surroundings. There is a piece of rebar, a pile of ash, and not much else. That doesn’t help me at all.

‘Why are you wasting your time here?’ The dark pony asks. ‘The longer you waste here, the more likely it is that Rose will die.’

I shake my head. Rose has been hunting hellhounds longer than I have. Hay, I’ve seen her kill a hellhound before. She’ll be fine against Rover.

‘Are you sure about that?’ The dark pony counters. ‘Normally she just sets up traps and snipes them from the shadows. That is what she said, right? That they never could get her to fight in the open? It’s your fault that she’s doing that now. Are you fine with letting her die because of you?’

‘Or maybe you want her to die? Maybe you think that, despite her proving to be different, she’ll still backstab you. Just like a particular griffon you loathe. I guess letting her die would solve that little problem now, wouldn’t it?’

I shut my eyes tightly as the dark pony continues. ‘No, you are not that heartless. So go ahead, kill Winona. Make her pay for every pony she’s killed and save your friend. That is the right thing to do, isn’t it?’

With that thought lingering in the back of my mind, I sling my rifle over my shoulder and hover the rebar over to me. Using magic to pull out some blood from one of my wounds, I wrap it around the end to make a disturbingly sharp tip. Sensing that Winona is moving closer to me, I grab a chunk of ash with my telekinesis and slowly peek over the edge.

And see her staring right back at me.

Falling backwards, I throw the chunk of ash into her face. And, as Winona reels back and try to wipe the ash from her eyes, I plunge my blood-tipped rebar into her leg. It’s unnerving how easily it pierces through the lower part of her knee and into the concrete below. I wince as she cries out in pain, a chill running down my spine even as that dark feeling grows stronger. It pulls me towards her, almost compelling me to hurt her more. But I shove these feelings to the back of my mind and run for dear life.

“I’m sorry,” I mutter under my breath. “But it’s better than the alternative.”

One hallway after another, I keep running, desperate to put distance between Winona and me and to find Rose again before something bad happens to her. But everything just looks the same to me and I can’t remember which hallways I went down before. My haphazard search comes to an abrupt stop when I clip an open door and crash into the ground hard.

Slamming my hoof into the ground, I lift myself up; an attempt made difficult by how badly my body is shaking now. No red or green dots show up on E.F.S., no landmarks I can recognise, no sounds of battle to follow. I pull up my PipBuck’s map of the place, only to give up seconds later when I can’t make sense of the layout of this floor. With a mix of anger and frustration, I slam the stupid thing into the wall before leaning against it.

Come on, Intrepid, THINK! I need to get to her before it’s too late! There has to be a way to figure out where she is in this stupid maze!

As if things can’t get any worse, that familiar dark feeling starts to claw at my mind ever so faintly. Looking around doesn’t reveal Winona, though, and she doesn’t appear after a few seconds of waiting. Which doesn’t really make sense. Then again, nothing about this Blood Magic makes any sense to me. A consequence of my utter refusal to rely on it. Lately, that feeling has been kicking in whenever I am near somepony that’s heavily injured, like Max or , just barely, Winona. Neither of whom are here for obvious reasons. Which means… Rose is about to die, isn’t she?

Taking a deep breath, I shut my eyes tightly and focus in on that faint feeling, trying to figure out in what direction it is pulling me towards. It is difficult, I almost lose it a couple of times, but I do figure it out. Using that as my guide, I pull out my rifle and start galloping in the direction it is pointing me to. Hallway after hallway, corner after corner, the feeling growing stronger the closer I get to the source. And I find myself praying that I’m not too late.

I turn another corner to see Rose jump to the side as Rover demolishes the wall behind her. Thank Luna! With a quick flap of her wings, she lands on the hellhound’s back long enough to quickly stick her head into his knapsack and kick herself off of him. She’s barely in the air for a few seconds before Rover backclaws her into the ground.

Watching her get the air knocked out of her as he prepares to drive his claws right into her, my instincts kick in. In one swift movement, I teleport to her, hug her body tightly, and shut my eyes tightly as I prepare to teleport us away.

Luna, please let this work!

The sound of claws shredding the concrete greet my ears as we reappear. Opening my eyes, I’m happy to see that I’m not some horrible combination of unicorn and bat pony. Just me hugging a surprised looking Rose while laying on the other side of the wall.

It worked! Ha! Finally! Something finally worked as intended for once! And… umm, I-I should probably stop hugging her like this.

I let go and barely manage to stand up when Rose coughs to the side, spitting out a metal pin in the process. It takes a second of staring at the pin to realise where she got that from. Rover glares at us and prepares to lunge at us when he too notices the pin on the ground.

His eyes widen as I immediately shield Rose with my body.

The ground violently shakes as a bag full of grenades goes off. The explosion kicks up debris that hit my already wounded back, though, strangely, I feel an intense chill run down my spine that negates the pain that should be coming. Then, the dark feeling in my mind fades away as the hallway goes quiet. I wait to see if it is finally over before getting off of Rose. She seems rather calm about a stallion hugging her for this long as she sits up and brushes herself off.

“Now that is how you deal with hellhounds,” She says, giving me a sly smile. “I thought you said you couldn’t teleport two ponies? Something about us fusing into stuff if you tried.”

“It was either that or watch you die,” I shrug. “So I decided to risk it.”

I then turn to look at Rover. Or rather what remains of him. Whatever combination of explosives he had in his knapsack vaporized most of his body with the rest resembling shredded meat. Like the other dead hellhounds, there are wires and metal sticking out of him, though it could have been just the contents of his bag embedding themselves into him. Regardless, considering the expression of shock and pain on his face, he did not go peacefully. It isn’t how I’d wish anyone to die, even if it is to save somepony.

“Well I’m glad you did,” Rose says. “But just so we’re clear, I had everything under...”

I look back to see her staring at my back in shock. Right, it probably looks like a mess right now. And with a quick glance, yeah, I got cut up pretty badly. I wince as I pick out pieces of debris inside the gashes across my back before using my blood magic to harden the blood coming out of them. It isn’t the prettiest thing in the world, but the hardened scabs should keep the wounds from getting infected. At least, until we can find some place to recover properly.

Rose, however, just continues to stare at my back. I give her a reassuring smile and say “I’m fine.”

She doesn’t react, though, and I decide to ignore the other wounds on my body to make sure she’s ok. Thankfully, she really only has shallow cuts across her body. There’s really only one painful exception: A particularly nasty cut on the side of her body, just a few inches below her left wing. Had it been any higher… though, I have to remind myself that I did make it in time to save her. No use cursing myself for not arriving earlier.

Again, I use my magic to clean up her wounds and harden her blood into scabs. A small part of me feels hopeful that there won’t be any scars left over once the wounds heal. Rose blinks and looks over herself as I walk over to Rover’s body and carefully shut his eyes.

“Is Winona dead?” She asks, sounding a little shaken.

I shake my head. “No, but I’ve made sure she won’t be following us for a while.” With that, she nods and starts walking down the hallway. With one last look over Rover’s broken body, I turn around and start following Rose. As much as I don’t like how he died, Winona made it absolutely clear that it was either us or them.

And I’ve already made my decision a long time ago on whom I prefer.

Congratulations! You have leveled up and gained a new perk.

New Perk: Intense Training

Through a rather… “unique” training course, you’ve managed to increase your Perception by one point.

Current Quest Objective:

Repair A Broken Intercom In Order To Contact Rocky Shores.Escort Winter Rose Back To Safety.Scavenge For Medical Supplies.Don’t Die.