Mirrors. Some considered the reflective surfaces as portals to another dimension. A doorway of sorts for entities to pass through should the conditions be right - or wrong. But despite the legends, the stallion standing before one of the reflective surfaces saw something else.

He didn’t see a gateway into another world. He didn’t see any demons pouring out and charging straight for him. What the stallion saw might not have been anything supernatural, but that didn’t make it any less daunting.

Storm didn’t like looking at his own reflection. It wasn’t something he did often with the sole exception of once a month to cut his mane and beard. He wasn’t ugly by any means - in fact, Ivory Cross couldn’t go a full cycle of the sun and moon without flirting with him - but Storm wasn’t usually concerned about his appearance.

He was afraid of what he saw.

The stallion that stared back at him wasn’t him, but at the same time it was. He could have been compared to a painting misplaced in a yard with an automatic sprinkler system. He was once complete. He was once whole. Now the torrent of water from the sprinklers assaulted the pure masterpiece as it washed away what made him… well him.

But this time was different. For once, Storm Surge was concerned about his appearance, or rather what was tainting it. He had frozen up after seeing the gash underneath his right eye as it glowed an all too familiar blue hue. A hoof carefully and slowly ran across the gash, but he wasn’t sure if it was his hoof.

No, Storm’s focus had switched from the shocking discovery to his own eyes. The once bright electric purple pupils now held more of a piercing gaze rather than a soft and hopeful shine. He swore that his pupils dilated for a split second as an intense throbbing began to pelt his head.

“Shhh…” The soft voice of a mare came from his left. “It’s ok. Mommys here.”

Turning to face the mare who called herself “mommy,” the colt was met with the comforting but concerned face of a beige earth pony mare. Her purple eyes held undying love and matched her voice perfectly. Her mane was a bright yellow and was done up in a perfect bun with a small red string holding it in place.

Burning tears continued to roll from the colt’s purple eyes and down his face, right onto his light gray coat. The stream of tears began to falter into a small trail as the mare scooped the colt up into her hooves. The mare could feel how badly he was shaking. She gently wiped at his bruised purple cheek where a small cut had formed - cleaning away the dirt from the lightly stained wound - as the colt sniffled and buried his face into his mother's chest.
To his surprise, his mother began to softly weep as well. The two sat there holding each other surrounded by shards of glass and the lower half of a bottle that read “Applejack Daniels” on the label.

A larger grey hoof lay on the ground idly, not making even the smallest hint of a movement. Surrounding the still hoof was a crimson splatter that became thicker and less scattered the closer to the owner of the hoof he-

The colt’s head was softly turned away from the scene and back into his mother's chest. Neither pony paid any attention to the discarded pistol that lay within reach of the mare.

“It’s ok, Stormy.” The mare said as she attempted to compose herself. “He can’t hurt you anymore.”

The two continued to sit embraced, even when the distant sirens began to sound off. It wasn’t until the sirens had reached right outside and a bright yellow beam of light was shining in the colt’s direction that he snapped out of it.

“Hello?” A mare’s voice called into his ear. “Equestria to Stormy, are you-”

“Don’t call me that.” He hadn’t meant for his voice to sound that hostile, it just came out before he could control it.

“Uh, ok?” The mare, which turned out to be Ivory, half answered half questioned. “Seriously, are you ok? You’ve been staring at your reflection for the past five minutes.”

“No I’m not-” Storm stopped mid sentence as he glanced over the cut under his cheek again.

The blue glow was gone.

“Did anypony else see that?” He asked.

“See what?” Maverick asked as he entered the living room of the cabin.

Storm turned to the violet pegasus and pointed a hoof at his cheek.

“This.” He replied. “It was fucking glowing!”

Maverick and Ivory shared a look before returning their gazes to their mortified friend.

“You need some time off, man.” Maverick said without even the slightest hint of playfulness in his tone. “You’ve been spending way too much time out there.”

“Yeah, what was today - like the twelfth day you’ve gone out there all day?” Ivory joined.

“I’m fine.” Came Storm’s deadpan response.

BANG!

Ivory was about to protest further, but an ear splitting gunshot from high above broke the relative silence of the night. The gunshot was soon followed by the crying of a foal.

“Celestia dammit!” Maverick cursed as his head shot up.

“Was that Talos?” Storm asked as his gaze followed his friend’s.

“Is any other creature here stupid enough to do that?” Came Maverick’s unique answer.

Both stallions and the mare rushed out of the living room into a small hallway. The hallway led into a massive spiraling staircase. Another shot rang out followed by a masculine holler of pleasure that was more audible this time.

“Shit. You’ve got to be kidding.” Storm swore under his breath as the trio sprinted up the stairs.

Once they arrived at the top of the gallery, the three ponies discovered that Storm’s inference was correct. Standing where he was poised against the railing - with a long ranged rifle in his claws - was a dark orange griffon with a well built frame.

“That’s three motherfuckers!” He yelled into the night as he presumably took out a third target probably of Damned descent. “Woo! Let’s go for four!”

The griffon was clearly intoxicated as his cries were slurred and his attempts to steady the rifle were shaky at best.

“What the hell are you doing, man?!” Maverick vocalized his anger at the griffon’s idiocy. “Are you trying to bring the whole fucking horde down on us?!”

The griffon nearly dropped the rifle at the pegasus’ question. Turning away from the railing, the griffon lowered the rifle to where it was propped up against the gallery’s railing before taking a swig of a nearly empty bottle in his other claw.

“I got tired of waitin’ around, so I decided to take the fight to them!” The griffon known as Talos chirped with drunken pride.

The cries of the foal below were joined by another foal’s cries. The gun shots had stopped but now the wailing had taken its place.

“You woke up Raine and Snow, dumbass!” Maverick accused. “They only had one escape from this hellhole and you just ruined it! It’s bad enough that Storm has to risk his neck every day just to undo all the shit you’ve-”

The raging stallion was cut off as the drunken griffon barrelled into him. The two grappled on the ground with Talos having a clear advantage of being the attacker despite his intoxicated state as he unleashed a barrage of punches at Maverick’s chest and face.

The griffon couldn’t even get a fourth hit on the violet stallion before a suited gray hoof socked him straight in his jaw and sent him backwards, off of the downed Maverick, and into the railing back first. Talos’ head bashed right through the railing and hit the concrete gallery with an audible crack.

Talos got the wind knocked out of him, whether it was in the strike or being slammed through the railing was unclear, but his lungs fought for air as he struggled to get up only to feel a hoof wrap around his throat and clench down like a starving animal’s jaw.

The griffon’s eyes widened with fear as he felt his lifeforce slowly, but surely beginning to leave his body. He looked down and into the piercing eyes of Storm who he swore was going to kill him then and there with how hard he was pressing.

Storm got dangerously close to the frightened Talos’ face as he chose his next words with calculated precision.

“Listen closely cause I’ll only say this once, asshole...” He began through clenched teeth. “I’ve spent as long as I can remember protecting those two from those damned things and nothing - not you or your bullshit - is going to cause them any harm. You want to ring the dinner bell for those fucking things?! Do it when you don’t have a pregnant mare with two colts and another foal on the way!”

Talos nodded rapidly and Storm’s grip lessened as he stood up and turned away from the griffon. Ivory, who just watched the whole thing unfold in seconds, sat there with her jaw dropped. It almost looked like it would come off.

Maverick was unconscious from the blows he suffered, but was still breathing as Identified by Storm who checked his pulse.

“Let’s get him downstairs.” He said to Ivory as if nothing had happened.

“Uh, y-yeah. Right.” She stammered as she moved to assist in carrying the unconscious stallion down the spiraling staircase.

Luckily for them, he was lightly built.

The group returned to the living quarters where Maverick was placed on his cot and Talos had retreated to the bathroom where retching sounds could be heard. Ivory huffed and glanced over Maverick’s body.

“He’ll probably need a few stitches. I’ll handle this, so that leaves you on bad news duty.” She said to Storm.

“Yeah…” He sighed as he made his way to a closed door where the crying was coming from.

Softly knocking on the door, Storm was greeted by a mare’s voice that said “Come in.”

Opening the door to the ransacked bedroom revealed that the room was in its usual disarray. The bed was worn down and sheets hadn’t been washed in forever, but it was still nicer than the cots scattered in the living area.

Propped up against the backboard of the queen-sized bed was a dark grey earth pony mare with a messy jet black mane. She had enough bags under her blue eyes to rival Storm’s own, if not more. Cradled in both of her forehooves were two foals, one of which was a unicorn colt that couldn’t have been more than two years old. His coat was a dark blue and his mane was iridescent with splotches of aqua in it. The other colt was younger by about a year and had a stained white coat with a gray mane littered with violet stripes.

Both colts were crying, rudely woken up by the rapid gunshots from a few minutes ago. The mare holding them gave Storm a tired smile that he attempted to return. Smiling just felt… odd to him now. Like it was unnatural. Something he had to force.

“I couldn’t find it.” He said meeting her worn out gaze.

“We’ll manage.” She replied trying to comfort the defeated stallion. “You’ve already been a big help as it is.”

A moment of silence passed before Storm spoke up.

“I’m going back out tomorrow. I’ll try again.” He said as his gaze shifted to a large bulge where he belly lay underneath the covers.

“You need a break, hon.” The mare said with concern lining her voice. “Killing yourself isn’t going to get the pain meds or formula.”

Storm sighed, “Yeah, Yeah. I know.”

He glanced at the two colts that refused to relent on their wailing.

“Want me to take one?” He asked.

She smiled and handed him the white colt known as Violet Snow. The colt was fussy at first, but eventually snuggled into the crook of Storm’s neck. Snow’s cries started to calm down into hushed whimpers as did Raines.

“What happened?” The mare asked.

“Talos.” Storm replied. “That’s what happened.”

“Why did you let that featherhead into the group again?” She asked.

Raine let out a soft sound in agreeance, causing the mare to smile slightly.

“Well, it’s not like we had a lot of choices.” Storm continued with a scoff. “He’s an extra gun. Lucky for us, it's not usually pointed at one of our own.”

“But, what actually happened up there?”

“He got drunk and started taking his anger out on anything he could shoot at. Maverick tried to shut him up and that started a fight.”

“I take it he won?”

Storm paused before continuing.

“No, I nearly threw Talos off of the gallery.”

“Oh…”

An uncomfortable silence was birthed, broken only by the two colts mumbling in their sleep. Silence was one thing Storm hated. It was always followed by something negative. Whether that be something jumping out to devour him, a stray gunshot, or even worse - nothing.

It was so much worse when nothing came out of the silence. That gave him time to think. It gave him time to remember what little he could. He wasn’t sure if being a happy fool was better than being unhappy but informed. No, being informed was definitely better.

He’d be dead if he wasn’t.

Storm found himself mentally playing the time he had found her in his mind. At that time, she had been gone by the name of Onyx Pearl at her “master’s” request. Storm had been on a supply run with Maverick and Talos in one of the only safe zones remaining that was called Salvus.

The trio had been traveling from safe zone to safe zone, stocking up on food, water, and munitions for their lighthouse base that was still a work in progress at that time. Ivory was defending the place with Talos while the two stallions headed out to deal with the surviving half of the world.

The tainted half.

No creature was still around for being civil, kind, or helpful anymore. Anyone and anything that was alive had to do terrible things to keep themselves that way. Storm had never been the kind of stallion to take advantage of another pony, he didn’t keep or accept the idea of slaves, and he only killed another living creature when it was absolutely necessary.

Without the laws of society in the equation, the tainted remainders were free to their own devices of uncivilized debauchery. One of the biggest relatively new hits on the market was the use of slaves. Stallions were used as workers and grunts that did all of the dangerous work for their owners. Mares were treated much worse.

Where a stallion slave could work his way up to becoming a somewhat respectable member of his owner’s group, mares were always treated as property. They were beaten, raped, even impregnated, but that wasn’t even the worst part.

What they did with the foals was.

The owner of said mare - or mares - would make sure the foal was delivered in relatively good health before carting it off to whatever market was closest. Newborn foals that were likely to survive meant one thing…

Future slaves.

With no knowledge other than what their “masters” instil in them, the foals would grow up in captivity and only live to serve their owner. It made obedience easier and the owner happier.

A majority of slavers preferred a female foal over a male any day because they could be turned into foal factories themselves when they grew older. The mere thought of endless profit was enough to turn most slave owners away from young colts all together. There was even a fucked up system in play with most owners.

If a mare gave birth to three colts in a row, then she would be made into meat for selling at the market.

Storm had been in the market square when a horn had sounded off, flooding the entire market space with an awful scratchy tune. Turning his head towards a poorly constructed wooden stage where two microphones were taped on their own respective wooden poles.
A thin and shaved yellow unicorn stallion wearing a fedora walked on stage before he grabbed the microphone in his magic. Clearing his throat, he began to address the steadily growing audience.

“Fillies and gentlecolts,” He said cheerfully with a voice that didn’t know the meaning of too many cigarettes. “Today we gather for a very special event that has been looonnnggg overdue!” He scanned the entire audience as he drew out the last part of the sentence.

Some of the bystanders were seemingly on edge with his way of speaking. The stallion kept them entertained that was for sure. He would have made a great radio show host.

“Today we will be saying goodbye to one of our failures of a broodmare.” He continued.

Storm already knew how this was going to end and he didn’t like it. He turned away and began to make his way towards the exit when Maverick’s voice stopped him.

“Storm…” He said in a tone that was uncharacteristic of himself.

The mentioned stallion turned around to see that his friend hadn’t even left his spot and was rooted at the edge of the crowd as he stared at the stage. On the stage was another pony who had joined the charismatic stallion while Storm was turned away.

Standing for all to see was a grey and black mare barely out of her thirties. She was visibly trembling and had her hooves shackled together to prevent her escape. An armed unicorn stallion stood at the very edge of the stage, his eyes never leaving the frightened mare. Storm had seen these kinds of gatherings before.

When an owner deemed an enslaved mare unfit for breeding - or if she had three colts in a row - then the mare was either killed and turned into meat or the main attraction in an event called a “snuffing.”

A snuffing was a gathering of all the present and willing ponies in an area to gangrape a mare - or even stallion - slave before they would be brutally killed at the end. They were decently common and Storm had witnessed a few in progress, but couldn’t do anything about it without putting himself at harm or putting a target on his and his group’s back.

But this was no ordinary snuffing. In most cases, the mare had delivered her three “failed” foals or was infertile and served no further purpose besides entertainment. This mare was different however.

She was pregnant.

The baby bump on her stomach wasn’t that big, signalling that she had just been impregnated a couple months ago, but it was definitely noticeable.

“What do we do?” Maverick asked.

Storm didn’t respond as he scanned the number of guards around the stage. One by the stage entrance, one at the other end, and two on the outskirts of the crowd. Four total.

“We fight.” He finally replied, switching his ear-mounted device on and unholstering his weapon slowly and methodically.

Maverick followed his companion’s actions as he too readied his rifle.

What happened after that was still fuzzy in Storm’s memory. All he knew was that Nourish and her colts were with them now and it was going to stay that way.

They never treated her like a slave or a piece of property. The group even gave the whole bedroom to the mare and her colts. They didn’t fault her for not helping scavenge or work on the walls, but she pulled her weight where she could, such as cooking for them or sewing new compartments on the suit despite her ending pregnancy.

Storm had made it his personal mission to find her any antibiotics for when she went into labor - which could be any day now - for the chance of her surviving was slim. He feared that if she didn’t make it what would become of her foals.

Who would take care of three foals in this shitstorm? Ivory was definitely qualified as she used to be a nurse and - in addition - had a few younger brothers before. The only problem was that everyone knew a young mare with children was an easy target for both Damned and the living alike.

Maverick barely took anything seriously and had no parenting experience whatsoever. He had been an only child and left his home to join the guard right before everything had collapsed. So he was out of the question.

Talos? The foals were better off being handed to the jaws of the Damned or the shackles of a slaver right away.

Himself? He had been alone for as long as he could remember. Sure he shared a home with a few others, but they were hardly anything more than acquaintances. The only one he knew since his own childhood was Maverick.

It was better to act than think in Storm’s opinion. Anyone who spent all their time thinking ended up dead before they could finish their thought. He had decided to find anything to help the delivery of the foal.

Even if it cost him his life.

Beep! Beep! Beep!

The familiar but aggravating alarm woke Storm Surge up. Rolling off of his cot, he was met with his discarded suit, the purple chest ring of which was displaying the time and pestering his ears all at once.

The clock read 6:00 A.M. as it did every morning the alarm went off.

Reaching a hoof to the off button on the holographic screen, the stallion retracted his hoof and rubbed the cobwebs of sleep from his eyes as he let out a groan. Everything hurt.

He always found it strange how his wounds never fully affected him until the day after. Being slammed into the ground by those Hunters twice did hurt initially but he didn’t feel it for the rest of the day. Well, until now.

Looking around, he noticed that everypony else was still asleep. Maverick was snoring peacefully and now sported the stitches that Ivory had promised. Ivory was also fast asleep on her own cot. The door to Nourish’s room was closed and the lack of wailing foals signaled that they were still fast asleep. Talos was loudly snoring propped up against the wall next to the bathroom with another bottle in his claw.

Storm grabbed his suit and slid it on like a onesie before tightening it accordingly. He activated the helmet before placing a small device on his right ear that glowed the same purple as his suit’s visor and chest piece.

The device flashed once as it synced with the slab-barreled weapon sitting next to where the suit had previously been sitting. A small appendage with digits gripped the weapons handle as it was hoisted onto the stallion’s back where it snapped into place magnetically.

Now properly geared up, Storm quickly exited the lighthouse so as to not let any radiation into the building. The familiar sound of his breathing returned and was only accompanied by the howl of the wind.

He had fixed the mechanical gate the night prior, so the lever to open it worked to his expectations. As soon as the gate slammed shut behind him, Storm surveyed his surroundings to find that everything had gone quiet again. Maybe today wouldn’t be so-

A blinding flash of purple filled the center of the city in the distance, breaking the stallion out of his thoughts.

Of course. Never a dull moment out here. He thought before tethering his weapon off of his back and in front of his body.

Then he loaded his weapon with an audible click and began advancing towards the glow.

Author's Notes:

I've been on a spree of inspired writing the past two days and managed to pump out both chapter 2 and 3 a whole lot faster than usual. Like I said before, I'll try to update this more on a 2 - 3 week basis, but sometimes creativity hits you like that.

Anyway, the next chapter (and possibly a few after) will shift to the timeline from the actual show. It will follow Rainbow Dash's perspective as she tries to figure out what has Twilight so bothered. Pretty soon her friends problems will become hers and their problems will become the worlds...