Pearly Gate teleported us outside of the school to a place where one of her conspirators was waiting, who in turn took teleported us again from the School to another one of their allies, leaving Pearly behind. This process was repeated twice more, until we finally found ourselves in a dimly-lit wine cellar, just as Pearly Gate had told us. I almost complained about the way Pearly had been left behind, but the Winkstepper who had teleported us here reassured us that she would be safe, and the fewer ponies they brought with them, the less they had to stretch their magic. From the way the multiple teleportations had left us all slightly burned, I realized they definitely had a point.

The Winkstepper who teleported us here was a blue stallion with a strange round scribble for a cutie mark. The ellipses came up on my EFS again as I began to ponder just what that mark could have possibly meant.

"Well, now that we're here..." said the Winkstepper, "I suppose the first thing I should say is just how sorry I am that you guys all got tied up in this. I know that you've lost at least a couple friends here and earlier some of my people were forced to attack you. I can't blame you for any of them who died in the process, but please know that they acted out of fear and desperation. Only the Black Scorpions would have attacked you willingly."

I shuddered, suddenly feeling worse than ever. I hadn't had time to think about it with all the chaos, but I realized that in the fight earlier I had killed innocent ponies. I tried to hide it, but a couple more tears escaped my eyes. I knew from my mother's death that someday I would be able to look back on mine and Stellar's friendship happily and forget the pain of losing her, but to have taken an innocent life was a stain that wouldn't wash out that easily. The fact that I had only killed them while ignorant of their plight was no consolation.

"Anyway," continued the Winkstepper, "My name is Secret Door, and this wine cellar is one of our safehouses. My special talent is concealing entrances, and hiding the door to this place was one of my best jobs, so just as long as nopony tries to leave and exposes the door, you guys will be completely safe. As soon as we get a safe opportunity, we will gladly teleport you to a safe distance away from here. It may be a while, perhaps days, though, since they will certainly be searching for you right now.

"However, and I know that this is a lot to ask, we may need your help. We've seen you all fight, and I've even heard an estimation that you defeated twenty-five of your attackers, and most of those were Black Scorpions who were seasoned fighters not held back by their consciences. I don't know what it is, but something about your group seems to be special somehow. I understand if you say no, but, if you'd be willing to help us overthrow Canis Atrox, we shall be eternally grateful."

That got my attention. Venom may have been the one who killed her, but as far as I was concerned, every raider in Baltimare bore the guilt of Stellar's death, especially the Legionnaires.

"I'll let you all think it over for a bit," Secret Door finished. "Either way, we still have to wait at least several hours before you can go, if not days. If you need anything, just ask and we can get it for you, and we have healing potions if any of you need them, but again, please don't try to leave this cellar."

"Of course. Thank you so much for saving us," said Chess. "For now, I think we need some time to clear our heads."

He was exactly right, at least in my case. I helped myself to a healing potion and wandered off at the first opportunity. The wine cellar was pretty big, having four large sections, each with several shelves of wine. This arrangement allowed for a little bit of privacy, so I had room to be somewhat alone with my thoughts. I went to the most secluded area I could find and just laid down in a corner. There were still small rivulets of tears, but they had definitely slowed. I'd already decided that I would help the Winksteppers get rid of the raiders, that much was set in stone. Even though Stellar told me to survive, I wasn't going to be a coward and let the Legion and Black Scorpions get away with their crimes either. I was positive that Calamity would help too, and I knew that Chess still needed the statue back, so it was likely that he'd also be in. Knight would probably join in just for fun of fighting. The only one I was uncertain about was Bishop. He was nice, certainly, but I didn't really know enough about him to say for sure whether he would stay and fight, or run to safety.

Wait... It just occurred to me that I really didn't know Bishop well enough to predict that. I thought back to my past few days with him and the others: I'd chatted a bit with him and Calamity, but most of my time was spent reading my books, and when I did talk, Steller got most of it.

I heard somepony walking by, and looked up to see Bishop himself peeking around the corner. Speak of the devil... or, think of the devil... or, really, Bishop isn't really that devilish, so...

Whatever, point is, it's a coincidence.

"Hey, Click? Are you OK?" he asked.

"Yeah... Well, no. Stellar's gone."

"I heard. I'm sorry. You two seemed close," he gingerly took a few steps toward me, and laid down at my side.

"We were. I have no idea what to do now knowing that I'll never see her again."

He put a hoof on my shoulder. "I'm sorry, Click. I liked her too. If there's anything you wanna talk about, I'm here for you."

A dark thought entered my mind. "But how long are you going to be here for me? What happened to Stellar, that could have been any of us. I realized too late that I had a crush on her, but I didn't spend enough time with her to let that develop. I guess what I'm trying to say is that I could lose anyone at any time, and I wanna make sure my relationship with them was meaningful. I wanna make sure that I really get to know all my friends, in case the worst ends up happening, so... um..." I racked my brain for something to say to him. "What's your favorite color?"

Did I just say that? What the fudge, was that supposed to be conversation? I'm not the most outgoing guy out there, but even I know that sucked!

Bishop chuckled a bit. "Yellow. It seems kinda warm and happy. Yours?"

"Blue," I said with a blush. "And yes, it is for the reason you're thinking."

Bishop laughed heartily. "It's fine. When I was younger, mine was green, cause of my mane. What about your past? What was it like for you growing up?" I got the feeling that he knew a little better than me about banter.

"Well, I don't know much about the first couple years of my life, except that I was born in a hotel with the help of some traveling doctor, and that my family moved around a lot, since my parents were traveling merchants specializing in repair. When I was about four, after my sister Pulse was born, we settled in a place called Macomtois. It had a library, and I ended up learning that I really enjoyed reading."

"Oh. Well, that explains why you were so into those books you found. Is that your special talent or something? I mean, your cutie mark kinda looks like a stapler, but..."

I chuckled as I looked back at the little picture adorning my rump. "Actually, my special talent is communication. I'm good with both communication technology and communication based spells. As for my cutie mark, it's a telegraph device. It has nothing to do with reading, but I did end up reading about it. It's a piece of pre-apocalypse tech that let ponies talk to each other from all the way across Equestria. The telephone came soon after and made it pretty much obsolete, but only after building on what the telegraph already did. Just imagine, talking to anyone, anywhere. But since the apocalypse, only ponies who are really rich or really lucky have them. I had this grandiose idea that maybe someday I could get a telegraph or telephone system up again... That was just silly, of course, raiders would sabotage it in a second, but it's what got me interested in communication technology. I spent most of my time in New Appleloosa fixing radios, so everypony there could hear DJ Pon3, since that's the next best thing to telephones. It kinda got repetitive after a while though, so when I heard Chess offering a job as a guard... Well, you were there for the rest."

"I see. How'd you get to New Appleloosa anyway? What happened to Macomtois?"

"Well, a few years later, shortly after my second sister, Spark, was born, we... well... Our family would occasionally travel to nearby settlements to sell things and do repairs there. One day, Mom and Dad decided to take me with them, leaving Spark and Pulse with a babysitter. Everything went just fine, until our way back, we were attacked by raiders, and my Mom got killed."

"Oh... I'm so sorry."

"Yeah. Some guards from Macomtois ended up seeing it happen through binoculars and came to help, but it was already too late for her." I had thought my tears were already dried up, but it turned out I still had some left, which passed down my face without comment. "After a couple months, we realized that it just hurt too much to stay there. There wasn't a place we could go in town without seeing her face and remembering that she was gone. Not only that, but the town itself was slowly dying too from lack of trade, so one day we decided that we needed a change of scenery. We lived nomadically again for about half a year before finding New Appleloosa, and deciding that the place was nice enough to stay in permanently.

"Hmm... Y'know, I know, back to talking about your special talent, one of the first things Chess did when he was building the Checkmate Company was get his hooves on some walkie-talkies and transmitters. I'd say we have one of the best communication networks in Equestria. If you ever want to have a look at that, I'm sure Chess would appreciate it."

My eyes lit up. That was definitely something to talk to Chess about once this was all over and done with. Regardless,
that was something for later, Bishop was in the here and now.

"What about your past? And where'd you get those stars?" I asked.

"That's actually a pretty cool story. One day, my family met this traveling magician. The things he did, they were the most amazing things I'd ever seen. He didn't just do the 'pull a rabbit out of a hat' and 'saw a pony in half' bits, he did stuff that was really amazing. He summoned a storm cloud and tied its lightning in a knot, he made a pile of rocks take the shape of a pony and start dancing, I could go on for hours about it. But towards the end of his act, he claimed that he knew a trick that would allow him to cast a spell using another unicorn's horn as a conduit for his magic. This way, he could make even a child appear to cast complex spells like the one he did. Of course, he needed a foal volunteer, and it just so happened that I was the only one in the audience. He called me up onstage, sent a charge of magical energy at my horn and, well... Have you ever heard of what's called a 'magical epiphany?'"

"Yeah, that's when a unicorn foal with a special talent for spellcasting unleashes a ton of magic for the first time."

"Well, as it turned out, I had magic as my special talent, and having all that magician's magic flow through my horn accidentally triggered my epiphany. Whatever spell the magician was trying to cast through me was lost among all the spells I unleashed at once. The magician's cape came to life, a nearby bloatsprite turned into a pure, clean parasprite, a lot of well armed ponies became very wealthy when their lead bullets turned into gold, and I myself ended up covered in little green stars."

I whistled at what I could see was a very impressive feat.

"Yup. The magician was pretty happy, seeing as I'd given his act one heck of a finale, and when he explained what had happened, my parents couldn't have been more proud. Anyway, afterwards the magician was using his own magic to get all the stars off my fur, when he realized that there were a few left on my flank that he just couldn't get rid of..." He wiggled his rear proudly.

"That's one amazing cutie mark story. I just read about telegraphs, and when I put the book down it was there."

"Yeah, mine does make for a funny story... but, like you, I had a bit of a tragedy with my family..."

"Oh... I'm sorry to hear that..."

"Yeah, unfortunately a bit of sadness in life isn't exactly uncommon for a Wastelander. You wouldn't believe me if I told you what happened though."

"Maybe the mole ponies would be more credulous," I said, hoping my joke wouldn't be perceived as insensitivity. Honestly, after them I would have believed anything he told me.

Bishop snorted a bit and gave a melancholy smile. "OK, I guess by comparison it's pretty believable." He sighed. "The magician and my family decided to travel together after that. He needed assistants for his act, and I needed someone to help me hone my magical skills. For the next two years I was the magician's apprentice, and it was the happiest time of my life. Then one day, all at once it was ruined, for what seems like no reason at all."

"What happened?"

He looked at me and shrugged. "We were attacked by a monster. Just out of the blue, this twisted abomination of nature just ran up and attacked us during an act. It was terrible..." Bishop began to shake. "I don't quite know how to describe it. At least part of it was cybernetic, I think, and it somehow was able to make fire. It was bigger than a hellhound, and it just kept roaring and screaming, and killing everyone in sight. I-I saw it kill my dad... The monster pointed his arm at him and he... he just burst into flames..."

I moved closer and hugged him. I knew what it was like watch a parent get killed, but at least when I saw my mom die I was helping her fight, and was armed myself. Bishop had to have felt helpless.

Bishop hugged my back and cried a little into my shoulder. "My mentor teleported me away with a spell, so I escaped, but I still saw the pillar of smoke from our stage in the distance and I ran back. When I got there, all I found was wreckage and skeletons... Everyone and everything was burned..."

Once again my eyes proved to have quite a deep store of tears as I started to cry for him too. Against what happened to him, I was actually lucky by comparison. "That's just... terrible... How did you survive afterwards?"

He sniffed. "Well, one family of spectators actually got away from the monster and when it was gone they came back to loot the scene. They meant no disrespect, of course, but they were poor and it would have been stupid to waste any resources they could scavenge. When they found me, they took me in and raised me until I was old enough to live on my own. They were earth ponies, unfortunately, so that meant they couldn't teach me any more magic, but some of my mentor's spellbooks survived the fire, and I learned what I could from those."

"Well, I'm glad they were there for you, at least."

He broke the hug and brushed away his tears with a foreleg. "Yeah, I really dodged a bullet with them. They were part of a kind of gang, not the violent type of course, although there were a few pickpockets among them, and we all kinda lived together as one big family. They taught me how to live off the land and keep out of sight of raiders and whatnot. Anyway, I lived with them until I was nineteen, and a couple years back I met Chess and he told me about how he had this scheme to built a huge moneymaking wasteland conglomerate, and I decided I'd join in and hopefully make some money. So far it's paid off." He blushed a bit, "Anyway, sorry about that... I meant to come cheer you up, and here I am emptying my emotional baggage on you too."

"No, don't worry about that. This world is hard on us, so we gotta be there for each other." I gave him another big, tight hug, and he gleefully returned it.

Just then Knight came around the corner and completely ruined the moment. "Hey homos! Enough with the snugglefest and come out here, Chess wants you!

We let go and blushed, even thought we knew it was just a man hug, a platonic gesture of bromance. Nothing gay about it. We followed Knight out to meet Chess, all the while thinking about guns and hoofball and mares. Especially mares. You know, manly, heterosexual guy stuff!

When we got out there, everypony else was already gathered around Chess. He looked between us all, his face somber. “Team, to say that our plans have gone wrong would be a gross understatement. Two of our number have been killed, one kidnapped, and now it seems that we’re being asked to risk our lives again in order to rescue the Winksteppers. I think now would be a good time to discuss our options. I think we should tell the Winksteppers to simply teleport us out of Baltimare, rather than put ourselves at further risk.”

"What? No!" I yelled. "Those raiders murdered Stellar, and we have to make sure they never harm another pony again!"

“Yeah, Chess! Are you sayin’ we should jus’ leave Pearly Gate and the others hangin’? After they rescued us?” Calamity said indignantly.

“No, no, let me finish,” Chess said firmly. “If we convinced them to let us go, we could go out and get help from some other ponies and then come back with greater numbers, such as bounty hunters and other members of the Checkmate Company, which would maximize our chances for success."

Oh, well, that actually was a pretty good reason to leave.

"Besides, I’d never consider leaving this place under raider control, since it’s one of the few routes between the north and south of Equestria," Chess explained. "The Checkmate Company does business on both sides, so losing control of it would be a major blow to us, not to mention Equestria at large. Besides, we still need to steal our statue back, and restoring the Winksteppers to power will give the Checkmate Company some great publicity.”

“Yeah, but starting a full on war here might not be the best idea,” said Knight, grabbing an old wine bottle and taking a huge swig of it. “The Winksteppers made Baltimare so other ponies would have a hard time getting in, right? Even if we brought in a shit-ton of well armed ponies, that wall would still keep all of our ground based fighters out of the battle until we broke it down. Even if there's a hole somewhere that the Black Scorpions used, we'd still probably be bottlenecked as we tried to enter. Besides, the rebels’ plan is to take down Canis so that the other Winksteppers would be more willing to fight back, so we already kinda have an army here. Sure, if the Winksteppers see an outside force attacking they’ll probably rebel even if Canis is still alive, but if I was Canis, I’d be pretty pissed off at the Winksteppers right now for helping us escape. He treats 'em like shit, and after Pearly Gate’s stunt it’ll be even worse. By the time we leave and then get back, it’s not likely that there’ll be enough ponies in here who could still fight, either from being killed or having the urge to rebel beaten out of them.”

Wow... Where the fudge did that come from? That could not be the same Knight who was stupid enough sleep through a gladiatorial fight to the death! I guess Bishop was telling the truth when he said she was good at combat. Cripes, but that was a big leap from her normal self though.

When she was done, Bishop added his own two bits. “Well, I’m not as good at combat strategy as Knight is, but the alternative to attacking from the outside would be just the five of us and a few Winksteppers attacking Canis. He will probably have bodyguards now that he knows there’s a rebellion, even when he’s at his most vulnerable. Besides, Canis isn’t just your average raider. If what the Winksteppers told us about him is true, he’ll easily be a match for us, even if we catch him off guard. If you think going straight for Canis will be a good idea, then I'm all for it. Really, I could go either way, but this is a very delicate situation, and I think we should consider every possible option."

I decided it was my turn to step in again. “What about the Winksteppers? If Knight is right, Canis might kill a lot of them once we leave. I don’t feel right leaving them with that sicko while we try to gather reinforcements. Together, we were supposed to have taken down twenty ponies. Pearly Gate said Canis did thirty, but I think if we have Winkstepper support, take him by surprise, and also bring Bishop’s magic into play, we might have a chance.”

“Ah’m with Click, the sooner Canis goes down the better,” Calamity seconded.

After thinking about it for a minute or two, Chess spoke up. “The best situation is whichever one leaves the Winksteppers powerful and in control of Baltimare again. If we wait and Canis starts whittling them down with his tyranny, or even worse, starts slaughtering them as punishment for our escape, then even after Canis is deposed, more raiders can just come in and take over again. Since Baltimare is such an important trade route, I cannot allow that to happen. As soon as the Winksteppers give us an opportunity, we take Canis down and then help them drive out every last Black Scorpion from Baltimare.”

Calamity and I looked at each other and smiled. Granted, it was disturbing that Chess seemed more focused on protecting Baltimare than he was on protecting its inhabitants, but if that’s what it took to convince him, then that was fine by us.

Chess nodded. "Alright. Let's just get a little bit of information about the situation then, before we commit completely. Secret Door!" he called.

The Winkstepper flashed to our side in a second. "Yes, sir?"

"If we're going to help you, we need to know exactly what we're dealing with, and what we can expect from your people as allies."

"Oh, of course. Well, the Black Scorpions are just run of the mill raiders really. The main issue is their leaders, the Legion. Carrion probably won't be much of an issue, even if she is worse than a normal raider. We know she somehow wormed her way into the Black Scorpions and took over as their leader months ago, but under her they were never a threat. I doubt Carrion herself could turn the tide of battle. Canis is the real kingpin of their army. He's a telekinetic genius, and, as you've probably seen, incredibly lethal with his hellhound claws. He apparently disabled thirty of our warriors, so he's definitely nothing to sneeze at. There is one other thing though... a few of the raiders, not sure who or how many, can..." he looked rather nervous, "teleport."

"What!?" Chess asked, aghast. Raiders were bad enough without the ability to jump around like Winksteppers.

"Only a few, and not very well," he clarified. "You see, the raiders have our children... They got a few of the parents and said that they had to teach them teleportation or..."

Bishop looked at him sympathetically, "They did what they had to, and as a unicorn, I know that there's no way a very big number of them learned it right. Even I can't pull off teleportation."

"I know. But that brings me to the Winksteppers, and how we can help you. Nearly all our unicorns can teleport, and everyone who goes with you will be able to. Normally we don't even let our earth ponies fight except as snipers, because our signature fighting style revolves around teleporting. The only reason you had some in the group you fought was because Canis has been forcing everyone to be part of his army. He believes that if you can't survive a fight, you don't deserve to live anyway."

I literally felt my emotions boil and bubble inside me. Obviously none of this was his fault, but I honestly wished he would just stop talking until I had a raider to hit. Right now he was just reminding me of all this anger and not giving me anyone to throw it at.

"Our main advantage is that we can be on Canis in an instant and he'll have no way to expect it," Secret Door continued, "the very second we see an opening, we'll come and get you. We've been saving our best teleporters for this, guys who can combine their spells together and teleport a dozen ponies from here to anywhere in Baltimare. Once he's dead, however, we'll try to get you back out as soon as possible. You guys do need to be prepared to fight your way out though, in case things go bad. No matter what precautions we take, this will be very risky."

"We understand," Chess insisted with a nod. "Knight, Bishop, and I have downed more than our share of raiders with just the three of us. Once Canis is gone, we can do it easily with your help, I'm sure."

We spent the rest of the day waiting and getting ready for our assault. We had no idea when it would happen, only that it was inevitable. The Winksteppers tended to our every need; bringing food and water, explaining details on the raiders' equipment, even bringing in a washtub for us to bathe in. Normally a couple days or even weeks without bathing was nothing unusual, but I was covered in blood from the School... mostly Stellar's.

No matter what else we did that day, her fresh loss was always somewhere in my mind. When we weren't getting ready or preparing battle plans, I was talking with the others, mainly Bishop and Calamity. It was a dark thought, but I didn't want to waste any time with them in case anyone died. Now that I knew I would never see her again, she seemed almost enigmatic. Before, I thought I had all the time in the world to get to know her. Now I hated myself for following such a notion.

The team that was going to be helping us in the fight spent a lot of time in the wine cellar with us, occasionally teleporting outside to make an appearance around town so they weren't suspiciously absent, as well as to report on what the other Winksteppers were enduring. Knight had been right about Canis's reaction to our escape. He wasn't wantonly killing them, but at one point one of the Winksteppers came back to us with four deep cuts across his face, and apparently there had been at least a couple deaths. Apparently, there were only three Winksteppers skilled enough to use the combined spell, which was referred to as "Matrix Casting." I was rather nervous about that, as that meant if even one of them was killed, we'd lose our escape.

On the plus side, they made sure we were well armed. They'd managed to collect one healing potion and suit of armor for each of us, and an abundance of weapons. I still had my machetes, which I'd grown rather attached to, and everypony else decided to let me have theirs as well so I could combine them all into two excellent ones. Other than that, I ended up going with a pair of 10 mm pistols and some leather armor. Unfortunately, it wasn't nearly as good as my Dad's homemade armor, which was ironic because my Dad's used much less material. While that did speak wonders of my Dad's ability, it didn't help much when his armor was probably being worn by a raider right about now. Even worse was the step down in firepower, as the Black Scorpions had taken all the good weapons for themselves, leaving us with nothing but small caliber pistols, varmint rifles, and mere kitchen knives. There was one area where we excelled, however: the rebels had gotten their hands on a truckload of dynamite. They were able to give us each plenty of dynamite and lighters, which, I have to say, I was kinda looking forward to using.

At night, the Winksteppers brought in a pair of air mattresses and blankets, which was all the bedding they could safely sneak in. Bishop and I ended up sharing a mattress, as did Chess and Calamity, with Knight left on the floor rolled up in some blankets.

"Why do I have to sleep on the floor?" she'd complained.

"Because ideally we want as many ponies on the beds as possible, and nopony wants to share a bed with you because it also means sharing one with whatever those things are that we can see crawling around in your fur," Chess replied bluntly.

She grunted in annoyance, but decided to take her frustration out on a bug, stamping it the second it crawled out of her coat and onto the floor.

The next day went by much the same as the first, mostly just waiting, talking, and mental preparation for the attack. We went to sleep early, as the Winksteppers guessed that Canis would probably be most vulnerable when he was asleep.

Surprisingly, our chance to attack came on that very night. At a little after midnight, A bright light flashed throughout the room, courtesy of Secret Door. It was a rude awakening, but the shock of it ensured that we were wide awake. Secret Door quickly explained that Canis was in his private dwelling space (a pre-apocalypse hotel that the Winksteppers had been using as a sort of City Hall due to its large meeting room), and was probably asleep, albeit with bodyguards. One of the Winksteppers had had to secretly spy on him to get this info, as Canis had wisely begun to surround himself only with Black Scorpions.

We got up and got dressed and armed as soon as our eyes opened. As serious as the situation was, we didn't want to waste a second.

“Alright, guys, are you ready for this?” Secret Door asked, looking to each of us. Chess, Knight, Bishop, Calamity, me, and eight Winksteppers were the most that the matrix casters could do. Lucky thirteen.

“Dang right I am!” I said, acting more confident than I was. I knew that this needed to be done, and we definitely had a chance, but I still said a silent prayer for my safety. I knew very well that I was the one with the least experience here, and Stellar had died even though she probably had police training.

Just before the matrix caters tried to take us away, Bishop held up his hoof to stop them and pulled me aside.

"What is it?" I asked.

“Well, I just wanted to tell you that you don't have to go through with this," he said, nervously. "I mean, you said this was your first week out here, and even though I've got a good couple years of experience on you, I'm still scared. You can totally sit this one out. Nopony will think any less of you."

I smiled and nodded. He wasn't trying to discourage me, he was sincerely afraid for me. “I know it's dangerous. But if it means putting down Canis Atrox, I would rather fight and die than not do my part.”

He smiled and gave me a quick hug. "Well, it's a good thing we're going to win this then."

"Yeah," added Knight. "And it's a good thing you're going, 'cuz I don't care what Bishop says, I would have thought way less of you if you pussed out."

Chess glared at her and bonked her on the head. (Wow, her head really did sound hollow!)

Seeing that we were all prepared, the three matrix casters united their spell, and we vanished.

In a flash of light, we appeared in Canis’ bedroom. Just as it had with us, the light woke Canis instantly. In the second it took for us to get him in our sights, he had leapt out of bed (he had been sleeping in his metal armor!) and was swinging his claws at us. One set of talons impaled a Winkstepper through the chest while another one cleaved one of their heads clean off and clipped Secret Door's left cheek. We were able to score a few grazing shots on him, but before we did anything substantial, Canis vanished in a flash of light, and a would-be kill shot from Calamity embedded itself in the wall behind where he had stood.

We failed. It was such a simple plan, so few things to go wrong, but almost the very instant we started, we failed. Canis learning teleportation hadn't been in the plan.

The worst part though, was when I saw the severed head of one of the slain Winksteppers: It was Sliding Glass, one of the matrix casters who we needed in order to get back out.

Before we could even grasp the fact that we were trapped, the door behind us opened and a pair of Black Scorpions burst in, guns blazing. They managed to wound two Winksteppers before Bishop put up his shield.

I looked toward the open door through the shield’s green veil, and saw Canis Atrox, smiling haughtily despite his wounds. I noticed, however, that his teleportation spell wasn't done properly: the tips of his fur and mane were singed black.

"So, was that really how you expected to depose me? I suppose I'll have to be a little bit firmer in disciplining the Winksteppers from now on. Perhaps through starvation? Decimation? I suppose I'll figure it out once I'm rid of you..."

His horn glowed, and his claws, which he had left in the room, began attacking us from behind the shield, each slashing through a different Winkstepper. Before they could do any more damage, I entered SATS. I set up a pistol shot at each of the claws. It was a difficult shot, but at about 40% each, but it was better than nothing. Both attacks, thank the goddesses, knocking them out of Canis’s magic grip. I grabbed them myself and turned to see Canis absolutely stunned. I couldn’t help but smile.

His horn glowed again, and suddenly I was hit from behind with a lamp that had been sitting on a table on the far side of the room. My entire party, in fact, was suddenly attacked by tons of various junk controlled by Canis! Calamity got hit with the lid of an old metal box, Chess got bombarded with a couple of strange, bipedal shaped dolls, similar to the ones I saw in Glitterdust's room, and Secret Door staggered as a glass cup shattered against his head. An old ruined book smacked Bishop in the face and his shield imploded, leaving us open. My heart seemed to stop as I saw the Black Scorpions (a crowd of them was developing by the door) all aiming at us, but Bishop regained his presence of mind quick enough that he was able to cast a disorientation spell over the entire enemy group. We had them right where we wanted them! We began mowing them down with gunshots, but what really hit them hard was when Secret Door lobbed a stick of dynamite at them, shouting at Bishop to start the shield again. Most of the Scorpions regained their faculties just in time to be blown apart. It was almost funny the way some of the ones in front were thrown against Bishop’s shield, flattening cartoonishly before sliding down.

Bishop then dropped the shield so we could assess the damage we did, only to see Canis, crippled, dazed, and bruised, but alive on the other side of the hall. Only his armor had saved him. Calamity would have finished him off, but at the last second the fiend teleported away again.

“He burned himself just traveling a few feet! He can’t have gone far! Search for him!” Chess shouted.

Another voice from down the hall called out mockingly, “The only thing you ponies should be searching for is some seasonings to roll in. Might as well get ready for me!” We turned toward the voice to see Carrion and a large group of Black Scorpions all aiming their guns at us. The only one without a gun was Carrion, who was wearing a set of power hooves. In one of her forelegs, she held what looked like somepony’s yellow foreleg that she had been chewing on.

I suddenly realized why we hadn't seen Pearly Gate since the school.

“What did you do to Pearly Gate?” I yelled at her.

“Oh, her? Don’t worry, she’s alive, it’s just that…” she took a bite of the leg, “we asked her to give us a helping hoof in finding the rest of you rebels. When she wouldn’t, I decided to take one anyway.”

"You sick freak!"

Bishop put up another shield, but when Carrion’s troops began charging us and attacking it, I could see it begin to waver. Eventually, they would break through, and I noticed that Bishop was looking exhausted. All those spells one after another must have been seriously draining him.

I decided to take a page from Canis’ book and have some telekinetic fun with them. As Carrion was casually chewing on a bite of Pearly Gate’s leg, I grasped Pearly’s hoof and manipulated it to smack Carrion right in the side of her head, making her bite her tongue in surprise (not a fun thing with those sharp metal teeth!)

Spitting out a chunk of leg meat and the tip of her own bloody tongue, Carrion began to freak out, screaming something about a ‘zombie leg.’ Then I grabbed Carrion herself. She was fat and covered in metal, so she was at about the top of my weight limit, but to me that just made me think of her as a big wrecking ball. I swung her around, sending the Scorpions into chaos! Soon the Scorpions were more worried about the flying Legionnaire flailing her power hooves around than they were about keeping their weapons on us, which was just what I wanted. Bishop saw it too and dropped the shield again just long enough for the Winksteppers to toss in several more sticks of dynamite. Before Carrion could say "Oh shit!" (literally, she was cut off halfway through saying it) the whole hallway turned into a screaming field of blood and lost limbs. Only a few raiders survived the attack, including Carrion, who ran off around a corner while we finished the others off with our guns.

“Damn, Click. And all this time I thought I was the killing machine,” Knight said, almost sounding a little jealous.

I noticed that down the hallway that Carrion and her gang came from, there was a trail of dripping blood. Undoubtedly it came from Pearly’s leg. “Come on guys, she said Pearly Gate was still alive, we have to rescue her!” I said.

"Alright, but Ah'm gonna take out that Legion mare 'fore she gets away," Calamity insisted.

"We can split up," said Chess, "Take these three Winksteppers and Knight with you, in case Pearly's guarded. But hurry back and find us once you know she's safe."

"Thanks. Save some raiders for me," I said before taking off.

The blood trail led to a another hotel room, and I bucked the door open the second I got there. Lying in the middle of the room, lying motionless on a blood-soaked bed, was Pearly Gate, an ugly, bloody tumor where her right foreleg used to be.

“Pearly!” I shouted once I got inside and saw what had happened to her. The Winksteppers were the next ones in and they were even more concerned than me.

Pearly was barely conscious. “G-guys?” she groaned, sitting up. I could barely look at her face it was so hideously swollen and bruised. I hated myself for thinking that, but it was really that bad.

“What happened to your leg?” asked one of the Winksteppers, rushing up to give her a healing potion.

She wiggled the bloated stump that used to be her leg. “It’s what happens when you use hydra on a missing limb. The stuff already carries the risk of causing tumors, but like this it’s a certainty. It stops you from bleeding out at least; kind of a double edged sword. Cruel mercy is a virtue in the Legion, right up there with murder and rape.”

“They didn’t…”

“No. Carrion wanted all the fun, and she gets her kicks out of cannibalism, not that it makes things much better…” she looked at what used to be her leg, tears falling down her bloodied cheeks. Changing the subject, she said “I heard explosions, what’s going on out there?”

“Carrion and Canis are wounded and on the run,” I explained. “Chess and some of the others are finishing off Carrion. We're going to go out and find Canis as soon as we make sure you're safe.

“That's good...” Pearly couldn’t stay conscious any longer, and I had to catch her telekinetically to stop her from falling back. The one that had given her the potion teleported her away, presumably back to the wine cellar.

Once we left the room, I noticed a window just a little down the hall and had an idea. Running up to the window, I cast a voice augmentation spell to make myself as loud as I ever had before and yelled “Canis Atrox and Carrion are dead! The Black Scorpions are nothing now!” I reiterated the message a few times, making sure everypony in Baltimare heard it.

Once everyone’s ears stopped ringing, Knight came to me and asked, “What was that for? They're still alive.”

“But they don’t know that…” Secret Door realized. “Besides, Canis is severely wounded anyway, so there’s not much he can do to stop them if the Winksteppers revolt now, and this way, the Black Scorpions' forces are divided, half defending Canis, and half fighting the Winksteppers. Not a bad trick, Click, not bad at all.” Sure enough, off in the distance we started to hear gunshots, which very rapidly began to increase in frequency. At this rate, the Black Scorpions would be gone before morning.

Then, from inside the building, we heard something much less comforting than gunshots and rebellion...

Wait, that came out weird.

Carrion's voice burst from the PA system. It wasn't loud enough to reach outside the hotel of course, but "What! Fuck-dammit! I'm alive! Now go and make it so that blue asshole can't say the same! I think he's on the fourth floor! Everypony on floors three and four, get him! Floors two and one, I'm going to the basement, so get the Hell down there and back me up!"

After her order, it wasn't long before a few Black Scorpions found us and began shooting. They didn’t get any mortal wounds on us before we filled them with holes, but it was a vivid reminder that there was still a war on, and we still had to find Canis Atrox.

We ran back toward where Chess' group had gone, only to be cut off by a flood of more Scorpions. I Entered SATS. and shot one several times in the chest, then wedged one of my machetes in another one's neck when he got too close. Again and again they fell, but they wore down on us. One of them got a lucky shot and blasted a Winkstepper's leg clean off at the knee, killing him. Just when we thought we couldn't handle it for any longer, the flow of Scorpions finally stopped.

I knew this was neither the time, nor the place, but I let myself collapse and lay down. I just needed a minute. I pulled out my healing potion and drank it. My adrenaline was beginning to wear off and the holes in my flesh began to burn. I'd never felt such pain. Only the thought of more Black Scorpions hearing us and coming to attack stopped me from screaming. Even with the healing potion, I had to clench my teeth in agony. Other than the dead Winkstepper, I got the worst of the damage, but Knight and Secret Door were still bad off enough to warrant drinking their potions too.

Secret Door went to the other fallen Winkstepper. "Hatch... I'm sorry..." He closed his ally's eyes, then took his healing potion. "Here Click, I think you still need this."

I took the potion eagerly, and drank it down. In practically an instant my body is healed almost completely. "Thank you. But I'm sorry about Hatch..."

Secret Door nodded, teary eyed. "We all knew the risks. Come on, we need to get moving. We waited too long as it is.

We all got up to go, right as we started moving, a spray from an assault rifle came at us. Most of the bullets misses, thankfully, but one of them tore into Secret Door's right eye, sending him falling to the ground, screaming.

"Secret!" I yelled.

We turned and looked down the hallway and saw a Black Scorpion mare, a unicorn. I drew a pistol and entered SATS, but it ran out of ammo just a little too soon, and even then most of the bullets were absorbed by her rather familiar looking armor.

“Hey! That’s my gear!” Knight yelled accusingly.

The Scorpion couldn’t care less. Instead, she simply cast a spell, and suddenly we were elsewhere.

Click's team went down the hallway, a trail of his Pearly Gate's blood leading their way. I wished I could have gone with him instead, but we had no time to argue it.

While Click had Pearly's blood to lead him, Carrion made our pursuit just as easy with her loud, clanky power hooves announcing her presence like trumpets. It wasn't long before we caught up to her and saw her jump through a door. There was the earsplitting sound of metal scraping against metal, then the sound of power hooves detonating coupled with a meaty burst.

We hurried to the door and saw that it led to an old elevator shaft, but the elevator itself had been replaced with a simple metal ladder. We looked down and saw the red splatter left by somepony who had been unfortunate enough to be climbing up the ladder while Carrion descended and had wound up right under the power hooves on her hind legs.

"Er, sorry!" She said to another pair of horrified, blood-soaked raiders standing nearby. "They're coming! Kill them!"

"But... but he owed me ten caps..." Sniffed one of the raiders, pointing to a bloody chunk of her fallen ally.

"I'll pay you double if you kill those ponies!" Carrion yelled before taking off.

The two raiders looked up and saw us starting to climb down, Calamity hovering beside and covering us. They each pulled out a couple of guns and tried shooting us, but Calamity shot them both dead before they could get a shot, allowing us to get to the ground floor unimpeded.

Calamity was naturally down first, and he immediately had his hooves full fending off no less than ten raiders. Once I was down, I put up a shield until the others reached as well, probably the last one for a while if I didn't wanna burn myself out. There was a hallway running to either side of us, but fortunately there were only raiders coming from one direction, and were clustering around the shield at perfect dynamiting distance. "Guys, I'm gonna drop the shield, you know what to do." The second it went down, five sticks of dynamite flew out over half of the Black Scorpions apart. The rest were no match for our guns.

We began running the way that the Scorpions were guarding, when suddenly an unbelievably loud voice came out of nowhere and nearly blasted our eardrums out. “Canis atrox and Carrion are dead! The Black Scorpions are nothing now!”

Wait, was that Click?

Carrion's voice blasted over the hotel intercom. "What! Fuck-dammit! I'm alive! Now go and make it so that that blue asshole can't say the same! I think he's on the fourth floor. So everypony on floors three and four, get him! Floors two and one, I'm going to the basement, so get the Hell down there and back me up!"

"Heh. She just gave herself away," said Chess.

"The basement is on the other side of the hotel from here, come on!" One of the Winksteppers said, leading the way.

We galloped after him, frequently meeting Black Scorpions. I may not have had enough magic left for a shield, but a knife through the neck or a gunshot? I was more than capable of that much. Between the six of us, we got through easily with minimal damage. As we went through, we heard gunshots, but most of them sounded like they were from outside. From the looks of it, most of the raiders had ignored Carrion in favor of fighting the Winksteppers outside.

We soon came to a door marked "Employees Only," which led to a staircase dotted with mines. One of the Winksteppers with an explosion for a cutie mark told us to stand back, and he levitated them all off the ground and behind us, making a simple barrier against any raiders following us. With the mines out of the way, we cautiously trotted downstairs, knowing that Carrion was probably lying in wait for us.

The basement consisted of a single large, dark room, filled with a maze of miscellaneous garbage. We took a few cautious steps in, the unicorns using light spells and Chess lighting up his Pipbuck. We couldn't see anyone in here though, even when we looked throughout all the junk. The entire room was empty.

"What the-? She said she was coming down here..." one of the Winksteppers said.

"We gotta get outta here, it's probably a trap," Calamity said, turning for the stairway.

He took two steps and was somehow thrown across the room. The only clue was the sound of power hooves that seemed to come from nowhere.

"Calamity!" I shouted.

I heard Carrion's mocking laughter echo throughout the room. Calamity was on his hooves again in a second and quickly hovered above the reach of any power hooves, but we still couldn't see where she'd come from.

Utterly confused, I couldn't help but ask “Why can’t we see you?”

“Heh heh. It’s a Zebra Stealth Cloak," she gloated. I'd heard of those before. Not the kind of thing I wanted in the hands of raiders.

One of the Winksteppers began frantically trotting in place. “This is terrible!”

“What? You aren’t scared are you?” She mocked. “I could be over here…” The Winkstepper was suddenly knocked to the side as the power hooves went off again, “Or over here!" There was another power hoof clang from his opposite side and the Winkstepper's neck bent at an angle that could never support life.

Chess growled furiously, “Can anyone see her!?”

“No…" Carrion answered for us. Then I heard her whisper directly into my ear. "Do you fear me?”

“What?” I asked reflexively.

“Do you fear me?” I couldn't see her, but I could easily imagine her bloody mouth, her metal teeth, her slit cheeks, all smiling in anticipation of killing me right then and there... but the deathblow never came. Instead, a boombox that was sitting amongst the piles of stuff turned on, activated by an invisible hoof.

Well, I guess if she's gonna gloat about killing us, she might as well do it in song.

{{I'll Eat You All, set to the tune of A Whole New World, from Aladdin}}

"I will eat you alive!

Blood and muscle and entrails.

Tell me, morsels, now how can

You fight what you cannot see?

"I will rip you apart!

Tear you muscle from sinew.

I am ripping right through you,

I’m committing equicide!"

At this point she punched another Winkstepper to the ground, and we watched in horror as her bite mark appeared as if by magic on his belly. She ripped him open, trailing intestines, swallowed loudly, and started gleefully singing again.

"I’ll eat you all!

You all are trapped in here with me,

And though you may try to hide,

Like your insides,

I’ll put you out in the open"

Until now we had been too shocked to move, but now, as she grabbed a piece of her victim's entrails and slurped them like 200 year old ramen with blood broth, I snapped out of my stupor and aimed my pistol at the spot where the gore was vanishing into her invisible mouth and fired. As she yelped in pain, I called her out on her evil, but... well, have you ever heard a song that was so catchy, you couldn't help but unintentionally sing your next words to it's tune?

"Your reign will fall!

And there is nothing you can do

‘Cause eating your own kind

Is out of line,

And somepony has to stand up to you!"

"I think that I’ve heard enough of you!" she shouted, charging me. Fortunately, I was able to dodge and continued my tirade, all the while slashing at where I thought she was with my knife.

"Well look who’s talking now.

You’re the one who was singing,

Even after everything!

It’s time to pay for your crimes!

"Your reign will fall!"

"I will buck off your head!"

"I will not let you get to me!"

"Little prick! Just stop moving!"

"Baltimare will be free!

And its ponies

Will be safe at last from your tyranny."

She kicked at me with her forehooves, knocking me back, but I recovered quickly and countered where I guessed she was with my knife, and got lucky. I felt the knife wedge into her fetlock, and she screamed. I rammed into her with my horn, but she headbutted me back, causing my horn to get wedged under her helmet. We both tried pulling away, but got stuck, caught into a struggle that somehow vaguely resembled a ballroom dance.

"I’ll eat you all!"

"Keep telling yourself that."

"Shut up when I’m talking to you!"

"I might care ‘cept you’re evil"

At this point, due to some freak coincidence, we began singing the exact same thing at the same time. "Time for this fight to end,

And I won’t bend,

So I’m sorry, I have to kill you!"

"I’ll eat you all!"

"Your reign will fall!"

"This ends right here!"

"This ends right here!"

"I just said that!"

"Well you are fat!"

And for our last line, we voiced our mutual distaste of each other, again simultaneously. "Just kiss my rear."

I heard the explosive sound of a Calamity's rifle, and Carrion staggered, blood pooling around her hooves. Our little dance had made her a rather easy target once my allies realized she was right in front of me.

"Wha-" She uttered before more gunshots bombarded her. I pulled out my pistol too and fired at where I thought her head was, and was rewarded with a burst of brains splattering the wall behind her.

I reached down and pulled off her Stealth Cloak, its magic deactivating once it left her body. It was a little torn up and bloodstained, but there was no way I was leaving something like this behind!

"Alright, now that that unpleasantness is over," said Chess, "We'd better move on to Canis. come on, Click and Knight might still be upstairs."

We were teleported to a dimly lit corridor with the Scorpion aiming Knight’s battle saddle straight at us. This one had a better grasp of teleportation than Canis had, and we had made the trip unscathed.

Suddenly all of our own weapons were enveloped in a magical glow and ripped away from us, even the lighters that we used for dynamite. We turned to see Canis himself standing at the far end of the hallway, looking like he had had several healing potions since he had left running scared.

“You little ponies have been quite aggravating this past day…” he said, pointing all three of our guns at us, (my two pistols, plus Knight got one of the few rifles). “You even ruined the paint job on my keychain. I spent a lot of time on that…” he said with sarcastic pettiness as he gestured to the little mare statue that hung from his armor, which was covered in blood and soot, but otherwise strangely undamaged. “However, I am a reasonable stallion. You may have ruined everything I set out to do and tried to kill me, but to be fair, I did the same to you. So I’ll extend my offer again. Join me. Join the Legion.”

“Why do you want us with you so bad?” I asked, glaring at him.

“Why? Just look at you! You’ve managed to annihilate nearly my whole gang! I’m especially surprised at you, unicorn, with how you managed to handle my guards the way you did, not to mention your performance in the School, you defeating my claws, and what I was told you did when you first came.” I realized that it probably wasn’t entire out of the question that the hotel had cameras too. “All that, and you’re still so young. How long have you been fighting like this?”

“Well… this is my first week in the wasteland, actually,” I said, not seeing the harm in answering. I just wanted to keep him talking until he didn't have guns on us.

“Oh yes! Now I definitely want you. A natural talent for fighting! You could have fooled me with that cutie mark, although since this is your first time in combat, I wouldn’t be too surprised if you just found another special talent first.”

I was taken aback by that comment. I remembered Bishop's theory about alternate talents and alternate cutie marks, but a cutie mark for deadly combat? Cripes, that was unsettling...

“But none of that is the issue right now,” Canis continued. “Both of you have immense power and talent, but what are you using it for? Guarding caravans? That’s nothing! Just think of what you could accomplish if you used that power to get what you wanted. That is what the Legion is about: enforcing the power of the strong. Think of the so-called 'wild' animals out there in the wasteland, no, in all places throughout history. Their wealth and influence is limited only by their own strength. Ponies, on the other hand… are an anomaly… Somewhere along the line, they adopted this strange idea about protecting the weak. And worse, they developed morality and laws to reinforce that... perversion. They would tell you that limits must be imposed on one’s power, that the strong’s dominion of the weak should be reined in. Where else in nature does this occur? Nowhere. Law is an aberration, an abomination against the natural order.” He spoke forcefully, straight from his soul. “In ancient times, the princesses, the most powerful of all beings, would, for some foolish reason, try to uphold and defend those ridiculous, unnatural notions. But now they are gone, civilization wiped clean… Many ponies think of the raiders as degenerates, incarnate demons of the vilest sort, but they’re wrong. It is the raiders who truly recognize the way of nature, that the strong have a right to take whatever they have the power to keep, and it is the Legion that are the strongest among them all. Ponies with strength like yours... It pains me to see it go to waste. That is why you belong with us. Besides, the only alternative is death. So do you accept?”

I scowled at the pony in front of me. He honestly felt that the raider’s way of life, a life of taking whatever you wanted at the expense of the innocent, was some righteous, pure, path. Our philosophies were intrinsically opposed; There was no way we could ever see eye to eye.

Knight shrugged. "Well, I only got like half of what you said, and I already got a good thing going with Chess, but if I say no, you'll shoot me. Tell you what, if Chess dies, I'm with you; if you die, I'm with Chess.

Canis seemed satisfied with the answer. I, on the other hoof, stared horrified at her, unable to even think of any words dirty enough for what I thought of her right then. Fine. She could be that way. My mind, on the other hoof, was made up eleven years ago. I replied by spitting in Canis' face.

He brushed the spit off with a foreleg. He didn't look as angry as I'd expected: more disappointed. "My, my... What a waste. I pity you for your moral indoctrination."

I stared him down hatefully. "You killed Tricky and Stellar. Ponies who thought like you killed my mother. I hate you! I hate you and everyone like you! So if you want to kill me, then kill me! I'd welcome it rather than living in the world you want!"

He simply smirked. "Oh really? Fine then. But not with a simple gunshot. I want you to see for yourself the potential that you have, but will never fulfill."

He pulled all of the guns away and threw them far behind him. He kept only my machetes, and levitated one to me. He looked to the mare with Knight's gear and said, "Keep the green one out of the fight, but otherwise, don't interfere." Then he removed his barding, revealing a cutie mark of a disembodied handlike claw on his left flank and a brand on his right, identical to the symbol on the front of his barding. Turning to me, he said "Remove your armor. We will fight with only machetes and our own natural strength: equal equipment, as is fitting for true warriors."

I didn't object. I'd accepted my death already if he was as powerful as they said he was, but a chance to at least cut him up a bit as I went down was the best final gift I could ask for. I'd have rather kept my armor, but his had looked sturdier than mine, and it was better that we were both unprotected than both of us armored with his being better. Plus I had no choice with the raider threatening to shoot me if I didn't comply. At least melee weapons were better for venting out my anger.

When the fight started, I swung at his neck, but he stepped backward and counterattacked, his weapon just grazing my chest. Nothing serious. I took another swing, at his legs this time, but again, he calmly stepped away and gave me a slash across the face, though again it was hardly lethal. He was good at dodging, but I didn't see the big deal about him, especially since I managed to block all three of his next few attacks. The next time I swung, I even managed to cut across his chest, giving him a vigorously bleeding gash.

"Is this really all you got?" I asked boldly. Honestly, I was pretty much forgetting all my thoughts of dying, if this is how he fought.

"I was about to ask the same thing..." Canis said.

I didn't even know what happened next. All I knew was that when it was over I was on the ground, an X slashed across my ribs.

"You are strong, sure," he said. "But do you honestly think I'd have challenged you to an even fight if I wasn't confident I could win anyway? I have been at this for years. You are but a puppy to me." He then held his own machete under his one hoof, grabbed the handle with his magic, and snapped it off.

He telekinetically lifted me to my hooves, then used his telekinesis again to swing the handle.

I felt my jaw crack.

He swung again from the other side.

My cheekbone broke.

He threw me into the air and hit me three times as I fell. Each shot shattered a rib.

"I can do this all day if I want to. I can kill you with just this broken handle..." he said. He'd been toying with me earlier, and still was. Earlier, he just let me think I was winning... But it wasn't over yet.

"If you can fight all day..." I coughed blood, "then fight me all day!"

I telekinetically lifted up my machete, but that wasn't all I did.

I've learned a lot of tricks during my life. One of my favorites was whispering something to Spark using a ventriloquism spell directly in her ear. I'd gotten to the point where I didn't even need to move my lips. It had been really useful when I had to be an accessory to one of her pranks. I slowly stood up, hoping Canis was willing to toy with me a bit more. Under the guise of telekinetically going for my machete, I cast the spell I had mastered years ago for mischief, but was now using to save my own skin.

"Knight, don't say anything, but listen to me..." I whispered, my spell carrying my voice right to her, imperceptible to anypony else. I saw her eyes widen, but she thankfully didn't cry out in surprise. "In a few seconds, you're going to have a shot at taking out that raider next to you. I need you to take it, then help me bring down Canis. Trust me, Chess told me this plan earlier." The last part was a lie, but with Knight's willingness to switch sides, I knew I needed to exploit her stupidity and trust in Chess to keep her with me.

Canis hit me again, this one breaking more ribs and throwing me back several yards. I sucked in as much air as I could with my shattered chest and grabbed at my machete again to disguise my next spell.

This one was ventriloquism again, but this time with an added twist. Another one of my formerly-mundane-now-lifesaving skills was the ability to change my voice just a little. It wouldn't be perfect, but I think I could imitate Carrion well enough.

"Hey, you, over here!" I yelled from down the hallway in Carrion's voice. The Black Scorpion instantly turned to look, at which point I whispered to Knight again, "NOW!"

Knight leapt at the Black Scorpion, pinning her. The raider tried to teleport away, but just as it happened, Knight stomped her horn with insane force, smashing it right off. The end result was a halfway completed teleportation, which teleported half of her body's particles. She didn't leave a corpse, she left a mound of ruined equipment and bloody hamburger.

Meanwhile, Canis had been distracted by the shout as well. It was only for a moment, but it was enough for me to get one quick slash, right across the windpipe.

He staggered back, choking. I wasn't sure how survivable that wound was, but I wasn't going to take any risks. Before Canis could retaliate, I cast my mini shield spell, creating a small shield bubble right inside his throat, blocking his airway completely. I stretched it as much as I could, making it force the hole in his throat open even more.

Realizing that he couldn't continue with an injury like that, especially now that it was two on one, Canis teleported again, this time just to the end of the hallway. I gave chase as he rounded the corner, with Knight following behind me. I telekinetically picked up our weapons along the way.

"Dammit! Chess' stupid plan wrecked my gear! When we get back up, he owes me big time!" Knight complained. I ignored her, not really caring about her worries after the things she said.

I rounded the corner and saw Canis about halfway down the hall, galloping toward a spiral staircase leading upward. I dropped all but the dynamite and a lighter. I lit one of the explosives and launched it after him. I was either too cautious or too infuriated to just use one, so I repeated the process with four more before the first even detonated, and was about to go for a sixth before I realized that there was none left.

The first one sailed past Canis and hit the stairwell, going off just as he got within range. The next one landed behind him, throwing him into the stairwell. By then, the dust was so thick that I couldn’t see where the other three landed, but the satisfying explosions were more than enough to know what happened. As if the dynamite itself wasn’t enough, whatever building we were in just wasn’t built to withstand all those explosions, and the entire stairwell, a huge chunk of the building’s wall, and a bunch of rubble collapsed onto him. Fortunately, the rest of the building seemed to stay up, although the stairwell was completely sealed. All we could see of Canis was a blood soaked hoof sticking out from under the mess.

Knight leapt in celebration. “YEAH! Take that, bitch-ass! ... Uh... Now how do we get out?"

As it turns out, that was the only way out. After a few short days, Knight and I both died of thirst.

No, I’m just kidding, we lived. The stairwell really was the only way out (we had apparently been in a library basement,) but thankfully a collapsing portion of a building is rather hard to miss, and I was able to use my volume raising spell to call for help, so it didn’t take us long to get noticed. By that time though, the war was already over. All of the Black Scorpions were either killed or had retreated, not foolish enough to even stay in their original territory to be hunted down by vengeful Winksteppers later.

As soon as we were out of the tunnel, I was bombarded with questions about what had happened, and even more questions when I told them that I had just killed Canis Atrox. Once I explained that me shouting that Canis was dead from the hotel was a lie to prompt the revolt and that I had just finished him off for real, they instantly forgave me for the lie and began praising me for my victory.

The Winksteppers gladly returned all of our things that were stolen, all of which was thankfully found on dead raiders or in storage places. One of Chess’ brahmin, which had been killed and eaten by some of the Black Scorpions, and of course Knight's armor and battle saddle were destroyed, but the Winksteppers were eager to compensate for them.

There were some things though, that could never be replaced.

They'd found Tricky and Stellar's bodies in a butcher shop meat locker, along with countless Winksteppers and a couple of other unfortunate ponies who had come before us. Carrion had been saving them for later. Fortunately, she hadn't gotten to Stellar and Tricky yet, and they didn't have a mark on their bodies other than the ones they got when they were killed. Their bodies, and all the ones who fell in battle, were lined up in Baltimare's cemetery in preparation for a mass burial, with grave diggers already digging a massive trench. The Black Scorpion corpses, on the other hand, were piled up haphazardly outside the city walls, where they would simply be burned. Nopony could blame the Winksteppers for that. Anything above leaving them to rot was generous.

“That’s nearly a fifth of our adults, pretty much,” somepony said as I sat and looked at them all. I turned around and saw Porter, the Winkstepper that had initially taken us inside Baltimare.

“I’m so sorry for what we did to you. I know that you lost friends here,” he said, his eyes filled with tears.

Part of me wanted to buck him in the face, but I didn’t entertain that thought. He’d done what he did out of fear, he’d had no choice.

“I lost friends and family too…” he said. I couldn’t hold anything against him after that, especially after what he said next.

“My brother… his name was Sand Blast, the mine-maker… He… he was the one you shot first.”

I felt sick. Why did he have to tell me that?

“I just want you to know…” he said, “I don’t hold it against you…” his face was soaked with tears by now. Before I could say anything to him, he teleported and was gone.

I looked on at the corpses again, and the realization of what I’d done weighed heavy on me. In retrospect, I can’t think of anything that I could have done that would have turned out better, but what I’d done to Porter’s brother was going to stick with me for the rest of my life. Sand Blast. That was the name of the very first pony I killed, and he was an innocent... I knew what kind of effect death could have on a pony. I’d known since I was just ten. But now, I could appreciate what it was like to cause death, against those like the Black Scorpions who deserved it, and those like Sand Blast who didn’t.

I stayed in the cemetery for a good few hours, just thinking and watching the grave diggers. I offered to help once or twice, but they insisted that their savior get some rest from the fighting. Occasionally another body would be found and brought in, but by midday, the grave was finished and all the bodies were found, laid gently inside, and buried. From where I was sitting, I could see her face as they started filling the grave with dirt. They moved much faster than they had digging, and it wasn't long before they reached her. I had just been looking until now, staring at her unmoving face, but as the soil covered her, I started crying again, just a little bit.

By four o'clock, almost everypony was gathered around for the funeral, save for those too wounded to come and their caretakers. Even Knight came, but I could tell that that was only because Chess had made her.

The service wasn't too long, and to be honest, I didn't pay very much attention. The eulogist had to give a generic speech, one that tried to cover everyone at once. It didn't do anyone much justice, at least in my opinion.

Dozens of Winksteppers were lost during the raider occupation. There wouldn't be one family here left intact. I shuddered in horror when I realized how many children here would grow up with only one parent like me, or even orphaned like Bishop. The worst losses would be the ones who died in the uprising. Brave ponies like that? The wasteland needed them. Any settlement requires protectors just as much as food and shelter.

Tricky... I can't say we got along, but he made things interesting. He wasn't a bad guy, not by any stretch. Honestly, since he died, I'd been missing his fibs and tall tales. My day somehow didn't feel complete without being lied to.

But Stellar? I loved her. In just a few days she became my best friend, only to die while I watched helplessly. I know it's a bit cliché to say that it should have been me who died. The Wasteland needed her. What was I? Just some soda addict who's good with a screwdriver and maybe a gun. She could make somepony's life better with her mere presence, and I was completely interchangeable with any other wasteland loser.

No, she wouldn't want me to think that way. And what's more, it wasn't right. Even if it was right, I owed it to her to be more than that. She wanted me to live, and she wanted that for a reason. She saw a goodness inside of me that she wanted to bring out. So why couldn't I bring it out myself? I knew I could never match her, but I had to try.

I still needed a virtue. They say that wastelanders needed one, or else they'd lose hope, lose who they are. Stellar's had been Justice. I decided that it was mine too. I would carry on her virtue, her influence, everything, to the best of my ability, and keep her memory alive.

The Winksteppers gave us all a free stay at their Inn that night. I slept better than I had in years, so I was wide awake when I was woken by Chisel yelling in the hallway outside. He'd been found chained up in a room after the war, and hadn't given Chess a moment of peace since, except for at the funeral. I decided to see what the deal was this time.

"No, no, NO! I'm not taking one more step north! You take me back to Tenpony this instant!" Chisel said tearfully, his complaining actually justified for once. While I had been beaten up pretty badly, others were quick to heal me, and given a little time I'd be no worse than when I started. Chisel, on the other hoof, was scarred for life: A sun-brand just like Canis' was burned forever over his left cutie mark, and if he felt the same way about Tricky that I did for Sand Blast, his mark wasn't even a fraction of his suffering. According to something that Carrion had told him in passing, a brand on the right cutie mark was the sign of Legion membership, and a brand on the left meant that its bearer was a witness to the Legion's strength, a walking sign of their evil.

"Of course, I would never dream of asking anything more of you after everything you've been through," Chess said, for once appearing flustered. He hadn't been afraid of being surrounded by bandits, but the thought of Chisel spreading a bad review of his business was apparently terrifying. "Here, I'll pay you double for everything that's happened. As for the return trip, I can contact one of my associates right now. He's a griffon, and he can have you home within two days."

"He'd better be able to!" Chisel said furiously.

We were ready to leave that afternoon. In order to replace the lost brahmin, Chess had decided to make due by hooking a pony up to the cart instead. After I told him about what Knight had said about potentially switching to the Legion, Chess decided that that pony should be her.

"Is that really enough of a punishment?" I asked Chess when we got a moment alone. "I mean, she considered joining the Legion! That's just... evil!" I wasn't sure what a good enough punishment actually would be for her; the milder part of me felt that Chess knew what he was doing, the wrathful part of me wanted her to be fired, if not straight up shot, and the part of me that enjoyed comedic callback said that Chess should spank her and make her do all my chores for a month.

"Well, Click, it sounds to me like she was just trying to keep herself alive, and honestly, it sounds like you two were in a pretty bad situation. Your integrity down there really speaks for your character, but Knight would never die for her principles, especially since she doesn't have any. The truth is, back when I first found her, she was just a drunk who got food by mooching off stallions she slept with, and she had no qualms about killing or stealing when she needed to. The only reason she wasn't a raider back then is, believe it or not, she was too stupid even for that. Even other raiders found her intolerable and she had no idea how to live off the land or scavenge. I only discovered her and her skill by accident, and recruited her as soon as possible on the condition that she keep her behavior under control. As far as I'm concerned, she's fine as long as she has me holding her leash."

"Hmph. If you say so..." I muttered. I trusted his judgment, but that didn't mean I liked it.

"Chess!" said Chisel, "I cast one last indestructibility spell on that statue for you, now when is your friend getting here? I'm sick of this place!"

"Any second now... Wait, there, that should be him," said Chess pointing upward.

Chess's griffon friend flew gracefully toward us, trailing a small skywagon. At first he appeared as a muscular black silhouette against the dim light of the sky, but as he approached, he seemed somehow to get even blacker. I had always thought of griffons as half eagle and half lion, but this one looked more like half crow and half panther. The first part of him that I saw that wasn't black was the feathers around his eyes: bright red which tapered off to darker shades the further from the eye they got, sort of like a drying pool of blood.

I couldn't tell whether he was genuinely awesome or an overcompensating emo. I could really see it either way.

"Hello, Rook," said Chess, leading Chisel to him. "This is Chisel, and he needs you to take him back to Tenpony Tower."

"Ah..." Rook said, "I suppose the horrors of the wasteland were too much for him? It is understandable; what place does the blissfully untainted have in this realm of misery? It is better that he returns to the motherly cloister of his home, rather than share in our damnation, where the only escape is the merciful knife of an early and bloody death..."

Ok, emo I guess.

"Um, yeah..." said Chess. "Just go easy on the... that. He's been through a lot and doesn't need any depressing reminders. He's also getting this ride free, I'll send you your payment myself. Just give him whatever he needs and make sure he gets there quickly and safely."

"It shall be as you said. I am enslaved to his smallest whim, as a dust mote to a hurricane, and all who would attempt to harm him during our journey shall fall in twain beneath my blades, their life's blood pooling in the void that should normally house my soul," Rook said, flamboyantly drawing a pair of ornate obsidian knives which were decorated with red trim on the hilt and blade.

On second thought, maybe he was emo AND really awesome, that wasn't impossible.

"Good. But again, quit with the dark stuff."

With Chess's reassurance, Chisel got into Rook's skywagon, and the two ascended off into the sky. As they flew out of the city, a small smile crept onto Chess' face, and I heard him mutter to himself, "Finally I can stop pandering to that little twerp."

Just then I noticed Pearly Gate approaching us, a makeshift prosthetic keeping her upright. Secret Door stood at her side, a black patch covering up his destroyed eye.

"Hey, Pearly! Secret!" I said, happy to see them recovering so quickly.

"Hi guys," Pearly said. She sounding a little tired, but not as gloomy as she could be, considering the carnage. "I'm glad I caught you before you left. I just wanted to thank you again for everything you've done, and apologize for getting you so involved."

"It's alright," I said. "I'm just glad it's all over."

"As am I," said Chess. "Incidentally, what are you all going to do now? Without the Black Scorpions, there's nothing to stop travelers from just traveling around Baltimare."

She shrugged. "That is going to be a problem, but from the looks of things, I think we're going to just do away with the toll road, focus more on getting income from our merchants and the like. There's been talk about doing that for months already, but the last Mayor was too afraid of the transition. Of course, the first thing Canis did when he came here was slice her in half, so that's not as much of an issue anymore."

"Yeah," said Secret Door. "As for our next Mayor, I've been listening around town and it looks like Pearly here is a favorite for being next in line."

"Heh, yeah," Pearly said bittersweetly as she wiggled her prosthetic leg a bit. "Freedom fighter mastermind plus martyrdom is pretty good on a resume.

Chess got a thoughtful, hopeful look on his face. "Hey, since you're going to be more open to trade, maybe you would consider letting me try to set up a Checkmate Company Hub here? I find that my business tends to give significant economic boosts to settlements where they appear."

They discussed it a bit and agreed that Pearly would be more than open to the idea if she ended up winning the election, so in a couple of weeks Chess could send an associate of his to set up shop. We bid her farewell one last time, and set out.

As we marched away, I passively took out two keepsakes that I had hung onto. The first one was Stellar's gun, a shiny 10 mm that was colored blue and bore the name "Starstruck." It was heavily modified with an extended magazine, a laser sight, and a silencer. Personally I preferred Dad's shotgun, but Starstruck and my machete both made absolutely wonderful additions to my arsenal. Her barding and headband were in my pack as well. I don't know why I thought I needed them, but I didn't want to leave anything of hers behind. They were hers, and that made them precious to me. I'm sure I'd find a use for them.

The second souvenir was Canis’ keychain, which I'd picked off of his armor after blowing him up. Upon further examination of it, I saw that it wasn’t even a keychain at all, but a statuette of the Ministry Mare, Applejack. The string that attached it to his barding was a piece of twine that had been tied in a noose and wrapped around her neck, and the altered colors and injuries had been Canis' personal touch. As crass as his alterations were, I had to admire Canis’ craftsmanship. Still, I took great pleasure in cleaning his paint off, just like I would take pleasure in scouring away any more raiders, especially Legionnaires, that ever crossed my path. I didn't understand how the original orange paint stayed on, but I wasn't complaining. As I read the inscription on the base, 'Be Strong,' I could feel a second meaning in the trinket, besides a keepsake. Canis had been right about one thing: I had done outstandingly well in that war, so maybe I was gifted with more power and strength than the average pony. What Canis got wrong though, was how I would use that power. I didn't plan on becoming a raider hunter or anything, but if I ever came across one... well, they'd made themselves a pretty powerful enemy.

I didn't notice it at the time, but as I set out with my friends once more, a pair of small, round robots were watching us from Baltimare. One stayed behind, making a beeline for Pearly and Secret. The other one followed after me and the Checkmate Company, watching us from just out of sight.

Footnote: Level up! Level three.

Skills Note: Melee has now reached 50.

Perk Added: Educated- After your ordeal in Baltimare, you've decided to put your highly intelligent brain to good use and make yourself a better adventurer. You now gain two more skill points each level.
Ministry Mare Statuette Found! Applejack: +1 Strength

Next time on Fallout Equestria: Wild Wasteland, with Baltimare raider free, it's a downhill ride to Whinnyapolis. After a job well done, Click receives his caps plus the opportunity for a permanent job with Chess. But after all the dangers he's faced up until now, not to mention the tragic loss of Stellar, will he be willing to continue? Maybe he can make up his mind after sleeping on it a bit... and by 'sleeping on it,' I mean getting forced into one more quest, courtesy of the Cult of Discord.

Author's Notes:

Finally! Sorry to keep you guys waiting on this one. First order of business, we have two more prereaders on board, Twilitlightning and Chris the Herb. So with Tutis, Trivial, Beep Beep, Delta, and now the new guys, I think it's safe to say I have enough. I'll still gladly take critiques from anypony else who has their own two cents to toss in, but these guys are the only ones seeing unpublished chapters.

It has occurred to me that these past two chapters are uncharacteristically dark and serious for something with Wild Wasteland in the title, and I do apologize if they caught anypony off guard. Rest assured, however, that the next chapter is going to be the wackiest one yet, and then after that we have chapter 6, which is about 3/4ths through the rough draft and looking to be one of my favorites.

Also, I have posted a new story for the Fallout Equestria group's 300 member contest, if any of you want to check it out. It's a little side story about Knight which takes place later on in this story. It doesn't name any names, but it does drop a little hint that Click's party will be replenishing it's numbers pretty soon.

So anyway, thanks to all my readers, my prereaders, and the contributors to this fic's source material. Til next time!

**Prereader's note: Since Clack murdered my previous waifu (Carrion), Knight is my new waifu. You can't have her. '3' -- Delta

**Other Prereader's note: Fuck dat, Knight is mine, has been since Stellar died. --Beep Beep

**Delta again: You wanna fight about it?

**Beep Beep: Yeah I do!

**Click Clack: Wait, lemmie get my camera.