My name is Arimaa. I am a twenty-four year old Zebra mare descended from the now dispersed Kharagosa tribe. I grew up with my parents, who filled my head with every last bit of knowledge they remembered about the Kharagosa. Now my parents are dead, killed by Raiders while I was out scavenging, leaving me with some decent Zebra survival tricks, but mostly an ungodly amount of useless trivia about a dead culture that no one else will ever care about.

Since then the Checkmate Company took me in, giving me the tools and resources to turn my scavenging skills from a method of survival to a formula for flourishing in the Wasteland. Basically, the Checkmate Company was my sponsor, giving me better equipment, training, and networking opportunities in exchange for giving them the stuff I found in my travels.

Of course, I wasn't limited to being a scavenger though. The Checkmate Company catered to any need that ponies in the wasteland brought to it, and recently a couple of ponies came to the Checkmate Company with a rescue mission: find and bring back Zephyr Given, a teenage mare who had run away from home and was believed to have joined a cult called 'The Embrace.' I had nothing better to do, and I was in the area where the Embrace was supposed to be located, so I volunteered for the job. After about a day's walk and spending a night at a Checkmate Hub in the town of Marefu, I found the place.

The Temple of the Embrace was a large, pyramidal structure made mostly of scrap metal and built around an old train station. The place was easy enough to find, now all that was left was to figure out which one of the ponies inside was Zephyr Given.

As I entered the unguarded building, I listened intently to the radio that they had playing over the intercoms. As I expected, it was channel 37.8 (or as it was otherwise unimaginatively called, "The Embrace"). I'd been listening to it since I took the job, trying to gather useful information. Once it got to the end of one of those creepy chant-y pseudo prayers they liked to play (which I happened to recognize as being in a rare Zebra dialect), it played a recorded message from an enigmatic mare named Chalice, the latest in an apparently long line of the Embrace's leaders.

"Hello again my children, and welcome. To those of you hearing my voice for the first time, I ask you to open wide your minds and hearts, and let me show you the truth. There is much suffering in this world, no doubt you have all seen. The cruelty of raiders, the bindings of slavery, the slow death of poverty, the time bomb zombies called 'ghouls.' At times it seems there is no escape. In desperation, many have turned down dead-end paths, all false hopes. There is the blind servitude of Unity, for one, an attempt of the so called 'Goddess' to enslave the mind just as her false prophet Red Eye enslaves the body. Others have thrown all hope away, and rationality with it, choosing to become part of the problem as raiders. Others, such as the sect calling themselves the New Caneighnites have gone to the opposite extreme, murdering their own freedom with strict moral codes, dooming themselves to destruction by refusing to make the compromises that survival itself requires. Even places that many consider havens, such as Tenpony Tower, are built upon weak foundation, for what will their wealth do for them when the wasteland inevitably breaches their walls and rips them apart? They are so used to safety that a mere splinter to them is agony, and not one of them can live without aid.

"'But what can be done then?' you may ask. 'What else is there?' There is the Embrace, my children. Generations ago, my predecessors created a temple, a fortress against the horrors of the wastes. It is a place where zebras, griffons, hybrids, and all pony races, even pegasi, can live in harmony without judgment. A place where freedom and safety are balanced without sacrificing the gifts of each. I, High Priestess Chalice, will take care of you with the unique magic that has been handed down from generation to generation of our leaders.

"Ponies, throw off the Princesses that abandoned you! Their sun and moon have been gone for centuries, and what of Celestia or Luna themselves have you seen? Zebras, forget your oppressive fear of the powerless stars that can no longer even look at you and forget the long dead earth! Victims of racism, if the cruel wasteland will not accept you, why accept it? All of you, leave your old lives behind, every last iota. Come and join me, and my magic shall be all that you need. Come and enter our sacred Embrace..."

I rolled my eyes. Complete safety and acceptance with no cost other than hiding away from the rest of the world: yeah, that sounds completely reasonable. I bet she'll even throw in some free kool-aid to sweeten the deal, that would certainly help explain the rumors about ponies going in there and never coming out. I just hoped that I could find Zephyr soon though, because I seriously doubted that her parents would pay me as much if she was full of poison.

I decided to start by just asking around, the main chamber I was in had only twenty or so ponies and zebras in it, and it was as good a place to start as ever. "Hey there," I said, approaching a random zebra in a cloak, which I understood signified a high rank in the Embrace. "I'm looking for a friend of mine. Unicorn, blue coat, dark gray mane, umbrella mark on her butt; sound familiar?"

She looked back toward me... first with one eye, then the other, her irises glowing a sickly green.

OK, red flags!

"A lot of ponies come through here. I do not recall seeing that one," the cultist said with a fake-happy face and a fake-happy, monotone voice. "Do not worry though. I am certain she will turn up. For now, simply bask in the joy of the Embrace." She then just stared, not staring at me, so much as in my direction. Even when I left, her eyes didn't move an inch.

I tried asking someone else in a cloak, this time an earth pony mare, and got the same response. Like, literally, word for word, the exact same response. Now completely turned off from the cloaked freaks, I asked one of the uncloaked ponies. From the looks of her, she was probably only half brainwashed.

"I think I saw somepony like that. A unicorn, right?" she asked.

I could have leapt for joy. "Yes! Her name's Zephyr Given. You've seen her?"

"Yeah, I think that was her name. Some of the priests took her into the lower chambers. Apparently High Priest Ecnav thinks she'll make a good successor for Chalice."

"Successor?"

"Yeah, from what I heard, every few months Ecnav picks ten female candidates, then he and Chalice will pick the best one in a ritual."

"What? But Zephyr Given's been in this cult for less than a week!"

She glanced from side to side, then leaned in close to me, "Yeah, well between you and me, I think he's just going for the hotties because the High Priest and the High Priestess get to... you know. Anyway, experience doesn't mean much. Weird thing is, apparently every High Priestess for as long as anyone else can remember has always been just as competent as the last one, regardless of their experience. I guess the ritual is supposed to transfer the High Priestess's aptitude or something while her soul ascends to the next world."

Of course. Cult leader gets to bang his choice of the mares, and the old one gets bumped off when he'd done with her. Classic evil cult, totally called it. "What happens to the others?"

"They become priestesses of course, but they're always different afterward. Much more focused. You saw them earlier."

Wonderful. Just wonderful. If I don't save her she's either gonna get mind fucked or real fucked, neither of which were good. "Where are the candidates being kept?"

"Down there," she said, pointing to a dark hallway.

"Thanks. Now if you'll excuse me, I gotta get down there," I said, turning and making my way there.

"Hey, watch it! If Chalice or Ecnav find out you're snooping, you'll never be seen again!"

I ignored her. I'd just go in and get her really quick, smash-and-grab style. I ran in as fast as I could without making noise, which was still pretty fast, and soon enough found the way down. As I descended the first flight of stairs, I heard someone coming up, and worse, someone else coming down. In a desperation move, I hopped up and climbed the walls, pressing my forehooves against one wall and my hind ones against the other. The hall was an old maintenance tunnel, just narrow enough for my trick to work. I only barely had enough room to climb to the ceiling, but fortunately the priestesses guarding the place were too empty-headed to look up. On a scale of one to ten, I'd rank their perception at about a one, if that. Once they were gone, I dropped back down and kept going.

It wasn't long before I found the potential new High Priestesses in a room made from a partially collapsed tunnel. There were nine of them, caged like animals in one of the dozen or so kennels made from shopping carts strewn throughout the room. They barely had enough room to lay down and from the looks of things, most of them hadn't been fed in days, the only needs attended to being given water and possibly being let out to use the bathroom, though I detected the scent of piss, so maybe it wasn't often enough. Fortunately, there was only one guard down here walking an incredibly predictable path, and she appeared to be as dumb as her sisters from the staircase. I drew my weapon, a police baton, crouched down behind the cage of a sleeping captive, and waited for her come around again. I didn't like the idea of killing a brainwashing victim, but at the same time I didn't want the guard getting in my way either. I compromised by beating her unconscious, and whether she woke up later or not was her problem, not mine. After that, finding Zephyr Given was easy, although after what I had seen, I wasn't leaving with just her.

"Hey, you're Zephyr Given, right?" I asked, addressing the pony that matched her description.

"Yeah. Did my parents send you?" she asked, hopefully.

"No, I just have a thing for infiltrating cults and ruining their brainwashing-slash-rape schemes and my special talent is name guessing," I said before taking a bobby pin and screw driver to the cage's lock. She smiled, probably more from the chance at freedom than my joke. I'm saving her life, I figure that gives me license to be a little sarcastic. Once she was free, I moved onto the next cage too, taking great pleasure in hearing each tumbler click into place; when your special talent is breaking into stuff, you just have to appreciate the rare moments when you get to use it for good. These ones in particular were surprisingly easy to pick for locks used to keep captives, almost like they wanted to be opened.

Once they were all out, I turned and said, "Alright, there's no chance we can all sneak back out of here like I did on the way in, but I didn't see anyone with a gun either. All we have to do is stick together and run out. If they try to stop you, just buck 'em in the teeth."

"What!? That's your escape plan!?" yelled one of the girls.

"Have you ever tried a stealth mission with ten inexperienced partners? It just doesn't work. It'll be much easier to just outrun everyone. Besides, none of the guards were armed. It'll be easy."

"Nah, it's cool, I don't need to be armed," replied a voice from behind me. Crap.

The girls screamed, while I turned to see two figures standing in the doorway: an earth pony mare in an ornate cloak and a young looking zebra stallion with pink eyes.

I gulped, but tried to put on a brave face. "Chalice and Ecnav, I presume?"

"Yes, that's us. Now tell me, what is your name?" asked the mare. Honestly she wasn't what I expected. Based on her accent from the radio I expected a zebra, but she was a daisy colored earth pony! She did, however, seem to have some kind of zebra-inspired facial tattoos as well, so maybe Ecnav's brainwashing involved making her look and act more zebra like or something.

"My name is Arimaa. And if you don't mind, me and these other mares will be leaving now," I said, as boldly as I could.

"Yeah, I wish you could, buuuuuut... that ain't gonna happen," said Ecnav, shrugging. It was weird, I expected some middle aged slob, but he was actually very young. In fact, he was fairly cute, definitely not the type of guy who would need to start a cult to get laid. Even his voice didn't match the cult leader archetype: without any background, I'd have pegged him as a stoned slacker. Maybe he inherited the cult from his father? Regardless, his actions completely overshadowed his harmless appearance, and his bloodwing shaped glyph just added an extra layer to that. He stepped up closer to me, and looked me over before turning to Chalice. "Hey, we still needed at least one more mare to choose from, right? Why not use this chick here? She's young, hot, and a zebra. Besides, you said they fit better, don't they?"

"Oh yes!" said Chalice enthusiastically. "Perhaps it is a good thing that this one came here. We did need just one more candidate."

"Alright, that's it, we're out of here!" I said, shoving Ecnav aside and making my way to the door. I had no idea why Chalice was so interested in who would replace her as Ecnav's sex-puppet, but there was no way in hell I was even going to dignify this sick crap by staying here. "Get out of the way, freak. If you two try to follow us, you die, got it?" I said, drawing my weapon. Nervously, the captive mares began to follow after me.

"Ha ha ha ha ha..." Chalice laughed, her eyes starting to glow much brighter than any of the priestesses, "You really think it'll be that simple? You really think you can just walk out? It'd like Ecnav said..." her eyes began glowing, "We don't need guns."

When I saw what she did next, all I could do was scream.

Ah, this was the life. A fulfilling job, great new friends, really, everything was going my way. As it turned out, joining the Checkmate Company had been a good move on my part, and being a member of Chess' personal entourage made it that much better. It had been barely over a week since we delivered the statue, and the "weird stuff" had been happening more than ever since I got Discord's blessing, but it hadn't been too obtrusive in the big scheme of things. I was even starting to enjoy it's quirkiness on occasion. I had no idea why, for example, I needed to be notified that a blue jay and a raccoon were playing on an old ruined couch by the side of the road, but sometimes it was worth a chuckle.

What I'd seen so far of the Checkmate Company before I joined was less than half of the whole thing. I knew that it catered to all sorts of needs, but I hadn't had a clue just how diverse its services were until I first saw a Checkmate Company Hub. It was part inn, part store, and part post office, plus a few other things thrown in. There was also a place where ponies could pay a small price to post ads for jobs they wanted done which Checkmate employees would then carry out. Really, if
there was a need, the Checkmate Company would fill it.

As for me, I was basically Chess' bodyguard-slash-repairpony, which, while not as safe as staying in New Appleloosa, was nowhere near as dangerous as the journey to Whinnyapolis. Since Chess insisted on traveling around with his brahmin lugging a cart full of deliveries or things to sell, having ample protection was a necessity. It involved a lot of travel, but fortunately we got to stop and rest at the end of every day, sometimes taking an extra day off when we stopped at a Checkmate Hub. In my spare time I picked up some extra caps doing repair work, reading, chilling out with Bishop, and even building up my fighting skills, with an added emphasis on explosives. I preferred guns and melee, but I still kept a few grenades and some Uberclocks on hand, just in case. Dynamite had worked pretty well on Canis, imagine what grenades would do to the average-joe raider!

It was two weeks after Whinnyaplolis, at the hub in a heavily Zebra populated town called Marefu, when I stupidly walked into my next big fiasco.

The day started the way my adventure did; early in the morning with me sitting at a bar drinking soda (the best way to start any day if you ask me) with Chess and the others sitting nearby. I noticed my PipBuck picking up a new radio station: "Checkmate Company Distress Signal."

"Um... Chess? I just picked up something called 'Checkmate Company Distress Signal,'" I said nervously, not knowing what to do.

"I got it too. Those of us with radio equipment use it for emergencies," he said, grimly. He turned to Queen, a cyan zony mare who was the bartender and supervisor of the Marefu Hub. "Queen, turn the radio to the emergency station."

She complied immediately. A fearful, whispering voice sounded over the Hub's intercom. "This is Arimaa of the Checkmate Company... Please, I'm trapped in the Embrace Temple near Maresti. I don't know exactly what they're going to do to me, but whatever it is, I've seen the end results of it, and I'd rather die. There are others here with me, and at least one of them has parents who will pay a lot of money if she's rescued. I have to warn you though: The cult leaders, Ecnav and Chalice, aren't normal. I can't explain it, they're just monsters or something! Bring all the firepower you can, but please hurry, we don't have much time! Please..." Arimaa's voice grew more and more terrified as the recording went on, until right at the end she was clearly starting to cry. Then the message began to repeat, abruptly cutting off her sobs.

All around the room, the broadcast struck a chord with everyone and brought forth fearful responses ranging from "Someone's gotta help her!" to "Better her than me."

"Who was that?" I asked, horrified.

"That was Arimaa," said Queen. "She's not from around here I think, but she spent the night here yesterday and asked me if I knew where the Temple of the Embrace was. I guess she wasn't as prepared as she thought."

Chess furrowed his brow. "This isn't good. What kind of strength does the Embrace have? Do you know anything else about them besides what Arimaa said?"

Queen just shrugged. "I've only heard rumors. The only thing concrete is that they've been around since forever and they go through High Priestesses like toilet paper. Other than that, it seemed to just be a run of the mill cult: anti-ghoul, highly secretive, nobody ever leaves, that sort of thing. As far as strength goes, I dunno, but apparently they just started to get a lot more members since they started playing their creepy meditation chants on Channel 37.8."

Chess grunted in frustration, then resolutely climbed up onto a table, drawing everyone's attention. "Ponies, griffins, and zebras of the Checkmate Company: Our compatriot, Arimaa, is being held captive by the Embrace. This act against one of our own cannot be left unresolved. We are bound by both the rules of the Checkmate Company and our honor to rescue her. Maresti is nearby and I know there are plenty among you who are more than strong enough to hold your own in case they are as bad as Arimaa says they are. I have an idea to solve this bloodlessly if possible, but I may require backup. Naturally, you will be compensated. Any takers?"

"Hell yes! Let's nuke those fuckers!"shouted Knight.

"Yeah!" said a mercenary looking griffin, "How tough could they be?"

The griffon and five ponies (all coincidentally wearing red shirts and somehow triggering the ellipsis icon) ended up joining before Chess decided he had enough. I had contemplated joining in too, but red shirted ponies looked strong enough. Besides, during my tenure under Chess, I'd learned that his 'compensation' tended to be about 40% money, 60% fast talking you into thinking it was enough money. Still, that Arimaa mare sounded like she really needed help...

Chess turned to me and Bishop and asked, "You two are free to stay here if you don't want to come, as this is outside your normal duties, but I'd like at least one or two more ponies who can use stealth, if you're interested."

"Stealth? Sorry, I really would, but I've never had to sneak around before, I probably wouldn't be too good at it," I said, although operating under the enemy's radar and out of the actual conflict actually sounded quite promising...

Chess pulled something out of his saddlebags, a tiny electronic device with the inscription 'StealthBuck,' and gave it to me. "With this little thing, you could be."

And that's how I walked into horrible disaster number five...

Like Chess said, Maresti wasn't very far away. We'd barely been walking for fifteen minutes before I could see a large sign that said "Welcome to Maresti! (lol, see what we did there? MARE-esti? It's a pun! Just like everywhere else!)" A little ways away was a large pyramidal structure, which I figured was the temple. Maresti itself was a small settlement, if it could even be called a 'settlement' at all; Four shacks was sort of stretching the definition, and they all looked empty. As we walked past, I noticed that carved on one of the buildings walls was the inscription "Do not enter. Do NOT sleep. They will come for you." I guessed that explained a little.

"This looks like a good enough place for you and the others to wait, Knight," said Chess. "Listen for us on your radio, if we call for you, or if we're not back by nightfall, come rescue us."

"Why can't I come too? I wanna kill stuff!" she whined.

"Ideally, I want to do this without raising any alarms. Killing stuff is exactly the kind of thing that raises alarms. There might be a lot of innocent ponies in the Embrace, so Bishop, Click, and I are just going to go in there, and rescue Arimaa. Depending on how things turn out, we might kill their leaders, but only if we get a safe opportunity. You guys are Plan B, and even it does come to you doing that, please show discretion and don't attack anypony that doesn't attack you first. I want zero noncombatant casualties this time, got it?"

"Are you still griping about that?"

"You shot up the dermatology ward of a children's hospital!"

"Once! I thought they were midget ghouls, like in Stable 66!"

"What are the odds of that happening twice?"

"Uh... wait, I think I got this one... It happened once for real, and one time it was just sick kids, so... Oh! It's one to one! Right?"

"That's right. Here, let me give you a prize." He reached into his saddlebag and brought out... his empty hoof, which he bonked her on the head with. "Just shut up and wait."

With our backup in place and a newfound fear of letting Knight near children imbedded into my mind, we set off toward the temple.

Just before we got to the temple, Chess and I turned on our StealthBucks and Bishop put on his cloak and we walked in. There were no guards or anything, just a pair of wide open doors: all inclusive, like a church should be. Once we got inside though, things took a turn for the creepy. It seemed to be an old metro station lit by torches added to the walls. Even weirder were the creepy runes written in seemingly made up languages along the walls and in circles on the floor. In the middle of said circles were strange drains, and I had to wonder what purpose they could possibly serve.

There were a few dozen cultists inside, the less brainwashed looking ones still wearing wasteland gear, the older members seemed to have traded their normal clothes for rags or nothing, and a few important looking ones were wearing robes. It all seemed very unorganized, some gathered around rune circles meditating or praying, while others seemed lost in thought, and the robed ones were just standing around, looking blankly into space. The creepiest part of all was when I got my answer to what the drains were for: one of the cultists, a stallion wearing rags, walked into one of the circles and stripped naked. Then he took a small knife and made light cuts along his legs, face, and torso, letting his blood leak into the drain. I cringed at the sight of it, it practically screamed 'unholy.' That's when I noticed a familiar tune playing over the intercom radio:

"Koyaanisqatsi...

Koyaanisqatsi..."

I shivered. I knew from what Queen said that I had already heard them the day I joined Chess, but this just really drove home the fact that this creepy, brainwashing, self mutilation cult had a voice all the way in New Appleloosa...

"Any idea where they're keeping Arimaa?" I whispered to Chess.

"No idea. We just have to start looking around."

"It's too bad we can't just ask where she is," sighed Bishop.

Just then a zebra in an explorer's outfit and a sophisticated accent walked past us. "Excuse me, where is the girl you're holding captive here?" He gestured to the pistol and scabbard he kept at his side. "This doesn't have to get messy."

The robed ponies all glared at him and stepped forward, drawing daggers from under their sleeves. One of them shouted to the unrobed cultists, "Non-priestesses, return to your quarters. We shall deal with this one." The other cultists all fearfully obeyed.

"Oh, it looks like this guy might just handle things for us," whispered Chess.

The zebra drew his sword and spoke (in a surprisingly clear voice considering his mouth had a sword in it). "So, that's how we're playing this, are we? Well, I'm sorry, but you've picked a horrible opponent if you want to see tomorrow.

"We shall see about that, fool," said one of the priestesses, though she hadn't quite mastered the 'talking with a weapon' trick.

"Very well, I shall fight you if I must, but let me issue you one last warning..."

{{Post-Apocalyptic Hero's Song, to the tune of Modern Major-General's Song from The Pirates of Penzance by Gilbert and Sullivan}}

"I'm the most perfect post-apocalyptic hero you will see

Whether raiders or hellhounds nothing out there is a threat to me.

I've mastered every skill from Barter all the way down to Unarmed

And I've so much HP that even bombs leave me mostly unharmed.

I've ventured into stables and irradiated lairs of ghouls

and all manner of places which would make you think I was a fool

Yet all my work there pays off well with piles and piles of loot and caps

Er... What rhymes with caps... Laps... Slaps... AH!

Enough to more than justify the villains, monsters, and deathtraps."

And then someone, I doubt I'll ever know who, began backup singing for him.

"Enough to more than justify the villains, monsters, and deathtraps

Enough to more than justify the villains, monsters, and deathtraps.

Enough to more than justify the villains, monsters, and those deadly traps!"

"Huh? Who the heck is backup singing for me? AUGH!" No sooner did the zebra acknowledge the invisible singers than one of the priestesses simply trotted up and stabbed him in the face, causing him to drop his sword and collapse. "Hey! You can't interrupt me during a song! Ow, I hope this doesn't scar..."

"It won't," reassured the priestess, who began stabbing him some more, with her allies following suit.

"Aw... and his patter singing was great too..." muttered Chess.

As the hero's blood flowed into the drains, a couple of the priestesses picked his corpse up and began to walk towards a dark hallway.

"Well, come on, they might be going to where Arimaa is," said Chess. "Bishop, you go follow those other cultists from before and try to gather a bit of intel, just in case. Click, you and me are going to follow those priestesses.

Pursuing the priestesses was incredibly easy. Not only were we invisible, but the priestesses were so single minded that I was fairly certain that I'd have to run up and physically touch one to get them to notice me, even without the Stealthbuck.

Eventually we came to an area with twelve ponies and zebras standing inside. Ten of them, all mares, were backed against the wall, while two more, a mare in a cloak and a Zebra stallion, looked the poor captives over, speaking about them as if they were shopping for clothes. The priestesses stopped and waited to be addressed, blocking me and Chess from getting into the room.

"Come on, Ecnav, just look at its face, it's so cute!" said Chalice, running her hoof across a terrified mare's chin and addressing Ecnav.

"Yeah, but she's a unicorn. I miss you as a zebra, and just look how hot Arimaa here is!" he said, pulling the frightened and disgusted young zebra up close to him.

"It's always about looks with you isn't it? Don't forget, more ponies come in when it's a pony talking to them. Besides, I'll be the one wearing it, so it's mostly my choice.

"But I'll be the one lookin' atcha! Come on, just as a treat for me?" Ecnav looked at Chalice with big puppy dog eyes.

She chuckled. "Fine. They do feel much more natural, I guess. But not that one. I prefer looking a little more mature, like this one. Zadara, I think its name was?" she said, turning over to another zebra a couple years older than Arimaa.

"What? No! I won't! Just let me go!" the Zadara screamed, darting toward an exit on the side of the room opposite me and the priestesses.

"You're only going in further! You have no escape!" Chalice laughed.

Zadara's hoofsteps echoed from the hallway, but then stopped abruptly, giving way to a scream.

"I guess she saw the ritual chamber," Chalice said, a dark shadow of amusement in her voice. "Anyway, what do you want?" she said, turning to the priestesses.

"This intruder came in to rescue the captives. We stabbed him in the face."

Ecnav shrugged. "Dude musta heard Arimaa's message before I found that transmitter she had. But you know, he's probably not gonna be the last one. Maybe we should start brainwashing dudes as security guards, in case the priestesses ain't enough."

Chalice nodded. "We'll consider it later." She turned to the priestesses. "Ecnav just ate. Dispose of the dead one in the usual way."

Ecnav and Chalice scared the captive mares back into their cages with a mere glance and started them in. Meanwhile, the priestesses took the hero's corpse down the same hallway Zadara just ran through. Once the captives were all secure, Chalice and Ecnave followed as well.

The second the coast was clear, Chess and I took off our StealthBucks.

"Chess!" Arimaa yelled when she saw us. "Thank the gods! Hurry, break us out!"

"Right away," said Chess, taking a pair of bolt cutters to Arimaa's lock. The heavy shears bit down hard on the rusty metal, and after a bit of work... Chess was left with a pair of broken bolt cutters.

"What the- What is this lock made of!?" Chess said, stomping in frustration. He took out another set (talk about preparedness!) and went for the shopping carts instead, with similar results. "What the hell?"

"It's their black magic," said one of the mares, a unicorn. "It's some kind of indestructibility spell. Only Ecnav and Chalice have the keys. They always seem to have them on them somehow, but I don't know where they keep them.

"Then we'll just have to kill them and take them," I said, eager for some justice.

"It's not that easy," said Arimaa, "The things they can do... It's the kind of stuff I didn't think was possible outside of nightmares.

"Well whatever magic they have needs to be cast before it can be a threat, and I'd like to see them try casting with a machete in their necks."

I heard Zadara screaming from downstairs and realized that if I wanted to save her I'd have to stop talking and start shooting. I immediately plugged in a fresh StealthBuck and took off. Chess started to say something, but decided against it and ended up following right at my tail.

The stairway went down in a wide spiral for a few dozen yards before opening up to the ritual chamber. It was a dark, torch-lit room with a metal sacrifice table, a giant scary-as-heck statue, a strange device, and a- SWEET MOTHER OF FUCK! THEY HAD A SWIMMING POOL FULL OF BLOOD!

OK, I think I need to elaborate. First off was the device: It was situated on the left side of the room looked almost like a giant juicer... and when I saw the priestesses climbing up a ramp to the opening on top, I realized that 'giant juicer' wasn't too far off the mark. They tossed the hero's remains in, and with a sickening grinding sound blood poured out an outlet on the bottom into the pool. After that, all the priestesses filed out, leaving us and the cult leaders alone.

On the far side of the room was a statue: it looked like a pony... vaguely. It had a pony body, sure, but also claws like a lion, a tail like a scorpion, and while the face was still definitely equine, it had a snakelike quality to it as well. It had two horns, each spiraled like a unicorn's but much longer and sharper, with noticeable upward curves. In addition to the horns, it had two leathery demon wings, spread wide as if to show its power. Its mane and tail weren't actually carved from stone, but it had some kind of setup inside of it that blew constant streams of fire from its head and hindquarters. It seemed to be wearing armor, the breastplate of which held some kind of strange glowing orb filled with multicolored motes of light. At its base was a small pedestal with an evil looking book set upon it. Its pages were red and its spine was made to resemble a literal spine. Even the front cover looked like a face contorted in agony.

Right in front of the statue was the table, which was relatively simple, just a metal slab with four hoof restraints on it which were firmly locked around Zadara's legs. Chalice was standing at her left forehoof, while Ecnav was at her right. We couldn't see what they were doing, exactly, but we knew we weren't about to just watch it happen.

We ran around the pool, going on the same side that the giant device had been on. As we passed it, I noticed a glowing green screen on it. Since, as we all know, reading over all of a computer's files takes literally no time at all, I decided to have a look. Maybe it had more information on the cult, even some detail about Chalice and Ecnav's magic if we were lucky.

To my surprise, however, instead of anything at all relating to the cult, I saw a familiar symbol: A half-brain-half-Stable-71 logo. Stein Laboratories? Again? Below the logo were two files: "Greetings," and "Advanced System Settings (DO NOT TOUCH!!!)" I clicked "Greetings."

Dear Grand Pegasus Enclave,

I am Professor Stein, creator, overseer, head scientist, and diplomatic representative of Stein Laboratories. We are currently in the process of constructing a prototype of my new invention, the Stein Laboratories Solar Powered Tanning Bed. However we have met with difficulties when attempting to test the 'Solar Powered' part, due to interference on your part via the 'cloud cover.' We understand that you probably have some primitive reason why you think covering all of Equestria is important, but for the sake of science we request that you remove all clouds from above the Stein Laboratories facility. The rest of the cloud cover does not significantly interfere with any other experiments by Stein Laboratories and may remain as is.

However, in case you do not grasp the importance of our science, we have sent this Stein Laboratories Industry Scale Juicer for the purpose of bartering. It was originally designed to synthesize rainbows by recycling detritus such as food waste, ruined clothing, and corpses, but due to the aforementioned interference of the cloud cover, Stein Laboratories is not in possession of any rainbow spectra to use as a reference point, we cannot properly figure out how to synthesize it.

Be warned, the Stein Laboratories Industry Scale Juicer uses a modified Balefire Egg power source. Do not attempt to change Advanced System Settings without the requisite Science skill, as it could become unstable.

The Stein Laboratories Industry Scale Juicer was delivered via our Stein Laboratories Omega Class Giant Rock-It Launcher. Stein Laboratories assumes no responsibility for property damage, injury, or death caused by this delivery method, as proper aiming was made impossible, once again due to the cloud cover.

Scientifically yours,

Professor Stein

Well that was an odd letter. Regardless, the juicer obviously never reached its destination for one reason or another. Personally I wouldn't trust any deliveries to something called a 'Rock-It Launcher.' I ignored the Advanced System Settings and logged out, getting back into the action right where I'd left off.

Chess and I rounded the corner and saw Chalice draw a strange red knife seemingly from out of nowhere and slit Zadara's wrist. I didn't know where they were going with that, but neither me nor Chess was going to stand for it. I went for Ecnav, while I noticed the vague shimmer that was Chess going at Chalice.

Ecnav didn't even see me coming. No sooner did I reach him than my machete was dug halfway into his neck. Likewise, in my peripheral vision I saw half of Chalice's face burst from a point blank shot from Chess. I tried my best to look away from it and not think of my mother.

"You alright?" I asked Zadara, pulling my weapon out of Ecnav and turning off my StealthBuck.

"Yes, I think so, I just need something for my wrist..." she said, smiling from ear to ear. I started to reach for one of the healing potions I'd brought, but before I so much as touched my saddlebags, I heard a voice that I was certain I'd never hear again.

"Yeah... You aren't that hurt at all, not compared to what I'm gonna do to these meddlers." Chalice glared as she stood back up, hate burning in her remaining eye.

Chess yelped, shooting again and again at Chalice's face. Her head eventually came all the way off, but other than that she didn't react at all. Her blood stayed in the same spot, even as the flesh was torn away, remaining in the shape it would have taken if it was still in a circulatory system. Oddly, it seemed to mold itself into the form of a zebra's head, rather than a pony's, and a pair of glowing orbs appeared where her eyes should have been. "Yeah, just keep shooting. It'll work eventually," she said in a strange, unnatural voice.

"Hey!" Came the voice of Ecnav, who stood up, his neck wound stitching itself closed before my eyes. "Leave my mare alone, ya dicks!" his shoulders began to swell until his blood vessels burst out through his skin. Blood gushed out of them, much more than you would expect for there to be in a single body, and then somehow molded itself into giant tendrils. "Now get out of here and let us finish our damn ritual!" The gore tentacles grabbed me and Chess, then slammed us against the ground repeatedly before throwing us against the far wall across the blood pool.

I fell to the ground, the wind knocked out of me. I looked back up in time to see Ecnav biting down on Zadara's uncut wrist, sucking her blood out as she screamed in terror. Meanwhile, blood seemed almost to float out of Chalice in streams, entering Zadara's body through her slit wrist. I staggered to my feet, Chess unfortunately unconscious behind me, and pulled out Starstruck. I entered SATS and set up as many shots as it would let me at Ecnav. The bullets burrowed into his chest ineffectually, his own blood seeming to push them back out and then coagulating to plug his wounds.

Chalice, now empty of blood, lay dead on the ground, the stripes that had adorned her body now completely gone. Zadara, on the other hand, had stopped screaming and now bore a sinister grin, and her stripes seemed to have moved. A bit of blood oozed out of her wounds, forming itself into a key on a long, prehensile tendril. I realized suddenly where her knife had come from, and probably the keys to the other locks too. She unlocked the bolts on herself, then the key liquefied again and returned back into her body.

She rolled back onto her hooves and looked at me, her eyes glowing bright green. She walked toward me, a bridge coagulating across the blood pool for her. "Feisty little bastard, aren't you?" she quipped.

"You... You're not Zadara... You're Chalice..." I said, the implications of my revelation dawning on me.

"Yes. And, as I'm sure you realize, Chalice wasn't my first name either. Before Chalice, I was Sweet Tooth, before her I was Green Daze, before her Fire Tongue, then Terra, Ganzuri, Simple Blue, a griffin named Holly, Sprinkle Blitz, Yimma, Pine Needle, Dorima, all the way back two hundred years to a zebra named V'kii..."

"But how? What are you?"

"My soul and blood are tightly bound together, more tightly than any normal soul is to its corresponding body. By infusing myself into another body, I can overshadow them, effectively killing who they once were to keep myself looking youthful."

"Not to mention nice and sexy for your special vampire boy," Ecnav said, trotting up and giving her new face a kiss. His wounds already looked healed.

"I have to say, you're the first one in quite a while to get the jump on us like that," said V'kii. "It probably wasn't particularly hard, we've had our guards lowered in complacency for decades." She then turned to Ecnav, "So I think this proves that you're right, Ecnav. We do need to increase our security. Besides, this one deserves to live on as guard for us, a living memorial to its own near success. We'll brainwash it tomorrow, along with the other ones. For now, I'll give it another gift, something to knock it out for a bit while we search it and its friend for transmitters. We don't want a repeat of that last one.

Her eyes glowed green and some strange energy burst forth from them, forcing itself into the tip of my horn. I felt her evil magic envelop my brain, and I blacked out.

<-=======ooO Ooo=======->

I almost instantly regained consciousness, but s I was elsewhere; the temple's dungeon replaced by what seemed to be the interior of a magnificent castle. V'kii, Ecnav, and Chess were nowhere to be seen, but there were several oddly dressed zebras walking about. It was at about that time that I realized that I was walking too. The only explanation was that this was a memory orb, or at least some kind of variation. With all the other things V'kii was doing, transferring a memory without an orb didn't seem that odd. Ahead, I saw a pair of grand, golden doors flanked by guards, and as I felt myself slowing down I knew that I had reached my destination, whatever it was.

As I got closer, one of the zebras approached me, one who I recognized immediately.

"Hey, babe! Where you off to?" Ecnav said, beaming at me.

"Caesar requests my presence," replied my host, who seemed to be V'kii.

"Wow! Caesar? That's some heavy stuff. Well you better get to it, babe," he leaned forward and kissed me (Ugh! Gotta keep reminding myself that this is V'kii!) and trotted past, giving V'kii an affectionate swat on the rump with his tail. (Ew! No, it didn't work! No matter who I think of myself as, I'm still feeling all of it!)

As he left, I/V'kii continued on past the guards and through the massive doors, revealing what appeared to be a massive war room, and sitting behind a desk was... him. He was dressed in magnificent red and gold, with a feathered crown, a leopard skin sash, and a jeweled necklace. At his side he wore a blade, even while he had the security of his guards.

Caesar. The zebra who destroyed the world. The single most hated being I could name, and I was in the same room as him. I had never really thought about Caesar before. To me, he was always another dead guy from the war, even if he was the villain of it all. Now that I was actually looking at him though, I felt a surge of hate. If it hadn't been for this one Zebra, the world would still be the paradise I'd seen in Screwball's memory orb. Instead, his actions made the whole world into a barely livable hell. No matter what horrible things I'd ever see out here, it all came back to Caesar.

At his right was another zebra, a female in a black robe with red sleeves and a black headdress with a single feather right in the middle.

"Sit, Assassin V'kii," said Caesar. V'kii rushed to comply. "You have been chosen for a very crucial assignment."

"I am at your service, my lord," V'kii said, bowing reverently.

"Your mission will be twofold, first you shall assassinate the Pony leader known as Fluttershy."

What!? They wanted to kill Fluttershy? She was too cute to assassinate! I tried to recall what I had heard about the Great War and whether or not she had been killed before it ended.

Apparently V'kii was just as shocked as I was. "But my lord! Am I really worthy of such a task?"

"Do you question the judgment of the mighty Caesar?" the female zebra said, stomping her hoof in indignation.

"Peace, Damuangaze," said Caesar. Turning back to V'kii, he said "I am more than confidant in your abilities, assassin. Once you have slain Fluttershy, you are to deliver special information to one of our double agents in Equestria's military." He passed V'kii a folder. "That contains all of the information you need to get to Fluttershy's location, as well as the delivery for our contact. Also, for this mission you will be using one of our new Stealth Suits. Not as much extra fabric as the cloaks, so there's no chance it will catch on anything."

"We've found a way to get around that? I thought flowing fabrics were integral for proper invisibility charms." V'kii asked.

"They were integral," said Caesar, smirking. "Like you said, we worked around it. Now go. You know your mission, carry it out. Farewell."

The memory began to fade and swirl. The last thing I saw was Caesar's wicked grin.

My first instinct said that I had returned to my own body, but my surroundings immediately revealed that this wasn't so. Rather, V'kii's memory seemed to have gone through a time skip of some kind. A nice effect, skipping to the important bits: much better than letting me spend Luna knows how long trapped in days worth of inconsequential memories.

I was in some kind of building, with ponies trotting about. I, to my surprise, was suspended upside down. V'kii must have stuck something to her hooves that allowed her to walk on the ceiling. Furthermore, she was wearing some kind of skin-tight outfit, probably the Stealth Suit Caesar had mentioned.

Below, V'kii's eyes were quickly drawn to her target: Fluttershy. She was every bit as adorable as I had imagined, and every tiny motion of hers had a sweet serenity that made me just want to stare at her all day. I think even V'kii was fascinated by her! I earnestly hoped I wouldn't have to watch her die from a murderer's eye view, but I realized that Fluttershy was visibly younger than she'd been in a lot of the MoP posters I'd seen, so there was no way V'kii could have succeeded. Score one for the good guys!

Fluttershy made her way into an elevator along with two important looking ponies. V'kii leapt down off the ceiling, landing perfectly on her hooves, and slipped into the elavator with them just before the doors closed, and silently crawled onto the ceiling again. Fluttershy and the other two ponies kept on talking, something about the Ministry of Peace, and I was able to pick up a little bit of info suggesting that this was a MoP building which had personal living quarters including an office for Fluttershy up on the top floor. Being a Ministry Mare had its perks, it seemed.

On the top floor, Fluttershy trotted out, leaving the other two behind, and V'kii slinked out behind her. As the elevator left, Fluttershy trotted over to the door to her living space, V'kii close behind. V'kii smiled evilly, her hoof going to the dagger at her hip. The room was rather homey, painted yellow with pink trim, with a shag carpet and sparse but charming decor, including a couch and a little coffee table with a vase of flowers on it. But what really seemed to make V'kii grin was that it was completely devoid of life, not even one of Fluttershy's trademark animal friends was in it. No witnesses, no likelihood of anyone finding the body for some time, possibly for the rest of the night, and no chance of failure. It would be the perfect crime. I knew that Fluttershy would survive this, but I really had to question how.

Fluttershy turned on her radio to a beautiful song by Sapphire Shores (one that I hadn't even heard from DJ Pon-3, how lucky was I!) and laid down on her couch, looking very relaxed after a long day of Ministry work. V'kii leaned back against the wall by the door, overconfidently smirking. I figured she must have been waiting until Fluttershy fell asleep, just to ensure she didn't scream.

Just as it looked like Fluttershy was about to doze off and V'kii took her first step toward her, the door swung right open, flattening the assassin against the wall. I mentally winced as I felt her nose break, but it was nothing compared to breaking my ribs in Baltimare. V'kii slouched against the wall in a daze, watching as the door swung back away, a clear bloodstain marring its pink paintjob.

Speaking of pink, the pony responsible for her wound bounced happily past, unable to see the injured invisible infiltrator. It was yet another of the Ministry Mares: Pinkie Pie. It almost felt weird seeing her looking away from me for once, but at least it made me feel less paranoid. In person, she seemed to give off an aura of joy that made all the negative 'Watching you forever' vibes wash away, and I felt bad for all the times I scorned her taste in the music I'd heard from Red Eye's radio station. She seemed like the type who just wanted everypony to be happy.

"Hey, Fluttershy! I was hoping I'd find you here! Especially since this was where they said you were supposed to be, so if you weren't here, that would mean you went missing, and if you were missing, we'd have to get someone else to run the Ministry of Peace, and if someone else ran the Ministry, they might not get along with the rest of us, and then we wouldn't work together well, and then we'd run Equestria into the ground, and then the Zebras would take over, and the Zebras hate parties, so they'd never let me throw you a 'Welcome Home' party when we found you again! ... Wait, do Zebras really hate parties, or did Rarity make that up?"

"Stupid pony..." V'kii muttered under her breath. "Of course we hate parties. Damn balloons and streamers and everything... Freaking intolerable."

"OH! Pinkie, I wasn't expecting you..." Fluttershy said, surprised, but not visibly annoyed by the rude awakening.

"Anyway, I have got to show you this new thing I found!" Pinkie said, pulling out a tin of what looked like little candies, but what I knew to be a very dangerous chem: Party Time Mint-Als. "They're absolutely great! Luna says we shouldn't have them 'cuz they're 'Zebra influence' or something, but just pop one in your mouth and see!"

Before Fluttershy could object, Pinkie took one of the Mint-Als and shoved it in her mouth. Instantly Fluttershy's eyes went wide, and she staggered back.

"Wow... I... I feel so alert!" Futtershy admitted. My heart twinged at the sight of such a beautiful, pure pony being corrupted by drugs. Dang it, Pinkie, this is why we can't have nice things!

"Yeah! And just imagine what these things are like in a party! The lights, the sounds, it makes your head wanna explode it's so awesome!"

"Pinkie..." Fluttershy said, seeming to grow the tiniest bit of backbone. "I know this seems good right now, but I think you should be careful of these. A lot of things that change your mind or body have really bad side effects. Like this one drug that came out recently, Med-X. It was meant as a pain killer, but I read that a lot of ponies are addicted to it, and it's really, really hurting them."

"Well, this isn't a drug, silly! This is more like some kind of super candy! I haven't felt any downsides to it at all! In fact, it's even making my Pinkie Sense better!"

"Your Pinkie Sense?"

"Yeah! I'm getting a whole bunch of new senses that I've never sensed before! Like when my ankle shivers, it means that someone is about to bring good news! Or when my lower eyelid twitches, it means I forgot something important! And when blood starts coming out of my filly parts, it means my birth control's been working!"

"Wait, Pinkie, are you telling me that until you started taking those, you never had a period?"

"And now whenever I get a new sense or combo, I know exactly what it means! No more wondering what any doozies are, no-siree! OH! Like right now! I just got an ear tingle! That means I'm getting a new combo! Let's see... Sore Hoof, Twitchy Tail, Sour Stomach... Oh! That means there's a Zebra assassin in the room!" She smiled, happy to be able to show off her new PTM powers. It took almost two seconds for the weight of what her 'Pinkie Sense' just told her to sink in, and then she completely flipped out. "Wait... THERE'S A ZEBRA ASSASSIN IN THE ROOM!"

I felt V'kii's heart skip a beat. Fluttershy, apparently taking Pinkie's warning very seriously, ran to a red emergency phone nearby. V'kii immediately darted toward her, somehow standing on her hind legs as she ran, gaining a crazy boost to her speed.

Just as I was sure she was about to deal a killing strike, V'kii was knocked off her hooves by something striking her head, then Pinkie Pie ran over and kicked her in the face and pinned her.

V'kii weakly looked around, seeing the vase from the table shattered nearby after it had struck her head. "Damn... How did you know where I was?" But as she looked around the room a bit more, she saw the telltale blood on the door and ground, plus her clear hoofprints on the carpet. All it would have taken was a little bit of perception, something that right now Pinkie had in spades. Just then, I felt an electric tingling all over V'kii's skin, and her invisibility suit somehow turned off.

Pinkie held V'kii down, furiously chattering about her being a 'bad zebra' and stuff. A few moments later, security ponies ran in, and Pinkie stepped aside to let them beat the living snot out of V'kii with nightsticks... and by extension, beat the living snot out of me with nightsticks. Understandably, I was very grateful when the memory began to fade into another time skip.

The memory continued in what looked like an interrogation room. V'kii was sore all over, and hoofcuffed to a chair. An angry looking pony across from her said something about having her wait there until a memory specialist arrived, then left; it seemed as if the memory had picked up right at the end of an attempted interrogation, although I figured that V'kii would probably have been able to keep her secrets. As V'kii glanced mournfully toward the two-way mirror, she looked as if it hadn't been too long after her beating, with her nose still steadily dripping blood. The ponies had taken her Stealth Suit away, and, I realized, probably the info for the contact.

Wow, V'kii just couldn't win today. Normally I'd be happy about that, but considering I was feeling every ounce of physical pain she did, it was a mixed victory.

She looked back toward the door, muttering something tragic in Zebra. For a short while it seemed like V'kii was just waiting for something to happen, as was I.

And just when I thought it would be a memory of her just sitting there, something happened.

And holy snap, did it happen.

The entire room seemed to change. I can't explain it; when it changed, everything looked the same, but it felt different. Somehow it felt... evil.

I saw a weird shimmer in front of the door, like V'kii was looking through steam. Most of the 'evil' feelings in the room seemed to be focused right there. Slowly, it began to twist and contort, and the shimmer gained a more solid shape. Looking at it hurt, not in my eyes or like a headache, but my heart. Something about this thing was actually hurting my feelings with its mere appearance! Soon enough, it took defined form. I recognized it immediately: The statue in the ritual chamber.

It was even scarier in person. Its scales and fur were a shiny black with some kind of red iridescence. The armor, wings, and eyes were bright red, like they were painted with fresh blood. What really stood out though was the mane and tail: like the statue, they were made of fire, albeit much more flowy than the statue, and it seemed to have strange, tiny lights in it. On the monster's thigh was the freakiest cutie mark I'd ever seen: A drop of blood with a horrified, agonized face and a pair of demon wings, all superimposed over a circled pentagram.

V'kii shot up and ran as far away from the monster as the room would allow, dragging the chair with her. "S-Star Demon..." she said, too horrified to say anything more than a squeaky whisper. “I knew the ponies were serving you..."

The demon simply sat there and chuckled. "'Serving me?' What a cute notion. No, they have no idea about me. To the ponies watching through that window, I am completely imperceptible, and in fact, I plan on sowing destruction among them. I am a nonpartisan in their petty war. As for you specifically, you have no need to be afraid, V'kii," uttered the star demon, her voice smooth and slightly echoing with magic, "I only wish to help you..."

"Liar! I know what you are! Your kind can only bring pain!"

The monster faked disappointment. "So you would reject me, who wishes good for you, for the sake of Caesar, who betrayed you?"

"Shut up! Caesar did no such thing!"

"Do you know what kind of information you were delivering? And why your Stealth Suit failed you?"

"As if you do!"

"As a matter of fact..." The beast's horns glowed bright red, and a ring of light appeared, which began to show what appeared to be a recording on it, like a movie screen or something, depicting none other than Caesar in his war room from earlier, conversing with the mare he called Damuangaze.

"Are you sure you wish to do this, mighty lord Caesar?" Damuangaze asked. "I know it was my idea, but at this cost it obviously requires great consideration."

Caesar nodded. "Yes, I am sure. V'kii is enthusiastic, but she is our weakest assassin, our most expendable; this is the best way to use her. Whether or not she succeeds in killing Fluttershy, her Stealth Suit's modified talisman will self-destruct before she reaches the contact. She will be captured and the false information she is carrying will be intercepted, causing the Ponies to fortify Oakshadow Valley, wasting resources and leaving Puddinghead's Pass a weak spot."

"And you're sure you are willing to subject V'kii to what the ponies will do when she is captured?"

Caesar sighed, "It is for the good of all Zebrakind. She knows the risk, the only difference is that now it will be a certainty. She will suffer for a worthy cause."

Damuangaze nodded, and after a few moments of tense silence, V'kii entered the room.

"Sit, Assassin V'kii," said Caesar. "You have been chosen for a very crucial mission."

"I am at your service, my lord."

The image disappeared, leaving V'kii stunned and the demon looking at her, a pitying expression on her face.

"They... That can't be real... He wouldn't..." stammered V'kii.

"I am sorry, my little friend," said the demon. "But the fact is your Caesar used you. Now you have been captured, as per his plan, and you will be subjected to torturous memory probing by your Pony foes. Even if your mind survives, you will most likely be executed or imprisoned."

"But..." V'kii's eyes began to tear up. "What about my family... Ecnav..."

"I'm sure Caesar will send them his condolences... Not that he'll tell them he took you away from them on purpose..."

"It... It's a trick... That wasn't real..." V'kii repeated to herself. She couldn't look the demon in the face.

"Even if I did lie, what do you have to gain by rejecting me? Caesar will not attempt to rescue you, you are but one mare, already too far gone for him. I am your lifeline. Your last chance at survival."

"That... Oh dammit, that's true... Damn! A demon is my best option!? By Caesar, what have I done to deserve this!? And what you said... It makes so much sense... It's true, isn't it? And I trusted everything to him!" She stood up and stomped her hooves, starting to cry in sadness and fury.

"It's so tragic when the ones you trust betray you..."

Just then, three ponies walked into the room, a unicorn flanked by two guards. "Alright," said the unicorn, a bookish looking guy with a sinister, sadistic grin, clearly the type who enjoyed this part of his job too much. "Let's see what this little bitch knows..."

V'kii looked at the unicorn, then at the demon, and back. It was as if she was wondering which one to be more afraid of. Admittedly, the unicorn almost seemed scarier; at least the demon was acting like a good guy.

As the unicorn took another step forward, the demon's horns glowed again, and all three ponies were enveloped in a bright red light. More ponies then rushed in, but they too were affected by the demon's magic. None of them moved, although they certainly looked like they were trying.

"I wonder what their faces will look like when they see me..." the demon mused, and then, though I couldn't see any change, she must have made herself visible, as the ponies all started screaming in horror, their eyes either locked on her, or closed so that they at least could avoid seeing whatever she was about to do to them.

"I think this one will do quite nicely," the demon said, looking at the unicorn.

He screamed, his body beginning to contort unnaturally. His skin tore open in numerous places, his whole body twisting like a whirlpool, but even as he looked to be completely torn to shreds, he still screamed, Hellish magic keeping him alive throughout the whole ordeal. Then a few of his pieces began putting themselves back together: Muscle fibers flattening themselves out into sheets, bones splintering and rearranging themselves likewise into two boards. The skin wrapped around the bones' new shapes, the facial bits noticeably staying together in a permanent scream. I realized as some of the body's connective tissues attached the sheets and boards to a segment of intact spine that the demon had just turned him into the book from the ritual chamber. Only after the transformation was complete did his screams stop, and I prayed that meant he was dead. The rest of the ponies were bound to the wall with another spell, their mouths strapped shut.

The demon set the book in front of V'kii. "This is a very special book, a book of great and terrible magic. There are a few others like it, each of a different origin, but the spells are the same. This one is my gift to you, and you may do with it as you wish. My only desire is to see just what you do with it..." With that, she cast a quick spell that destroyed V'kii's restraints, then casually walked to the corner of the room, as if to demonstrate that she would only be an observer. "But, if you want a suggestion, you look like you'd make a good hematomancer." Her horn glowed, opening the book to a page about blood spells.

V'kii glanced hesitantly at the book, the entire page dedicated to basic blood control. There were instructions for any race to use it, from zebras to unicorns, even nonmagical creatures like donkeys. I wanted to avert my eyes from it, but somehow just a glance forced the words into my mind. I didn't intend to ever use it, but I prayed that someday soon I could forget how.

V'kii seemed to think it over for a minute or two. She was sweating like crazy, weighing her options. She could either take the advice of a demon who just demonstrated that she was probably the most demented thing on the planet, or she could spurn her and probably die at the hands of ponies. "Demon..." she said. “You've saved me, disabled my enemies... You really don't want to hurt me, do you?"

"I want to see how my helping you affects the world. There's a lot of power in that book, and as I said, I'm just here to watch. If you wanted to, you could end the war and bring the world into a golden era with it. At the same time, you could use it to take whatever you wanted and rule the word. You could even just use it to escape from here and live a silent life, never to use the book again. Just let me see it."

"So I have nothing to lose. I still think you're evil, but... But I want to live. And if that means evil, then so be it." She stomped a hoof in determination, finally convincing herself.

She looked back into the book and reread the spell. She looked at the blood and gore that was left of the unicorn, and focused on it. Within seconds, it began to take the shape of three swords, which began to float into the air, levitating to V'kii's will. She looked from the swords to one of the ponies and grinned, ideas filling her head. The pony stared back pleadingly, but would find no mercy. V'kii willed the swords to fly at him, one entering each lung, and then the third in his stomach. With a sadistic laugh, she wrenched each one out of him, gutting him entirely, a quick but messy death. Other ponies who were watching all struggled against their restraints, trying to scream despite the demon's spell.

There was nothing I could do but watch as V'kii kept experimenting with the book, ripping the ponies limb from limb. I felt sick watching it all. I knew I was capable of similar brutality on raiders, but they at least deserved it. These poor ponies were just doing their jobs. Any sympathy V'kii could have gotten for her terrible situation was thrown away as she became practically playful with the demonic magic. For some she used more blood weapons, others she killed by purging the blood from their bodies, leaving nothing but husks. It wasn't long before V'kii and the demon were the last living beings in the room.

"Having fun?" asked the demon.

"Actually... Yes. It feels right. I think I really was meant to be a... hematomancer, you called it?"

"It seems so." A portal opened up behind the demon. "You'd better leave this place before more ponies come. Despite your potential you are still but a neophyte in the dark arts. Come with me, I'll take you back home."

V'kii nodded. "I suppose so. But before we leave, what should I call you? 'Star Demon' simply doesn't seem right anymore."

"My true name cannot be properly pronounced by your equine tongue. However, if I must be named, you may call me Bloodshine Nebula."

I was fully prepared for more V'kii backstory, but when the last memory disappeared, I quickly realized that I was back in the Temple and in my own body, the taste of vomit in my mouth. Chess was in the cage next to me, now conscious and clutching his side. They'd taken all of mine and Chess's gear and thrown us in cages with the mares.

After all that I'd seen, I was utterly shocked. What Screwball showed me was amazing enough, but even then I had always thought of Discord and the goddesses as more like watchers than taking an active role in things. Now I saw that there were supernatural forces at work in the world, far beyond what I could have imagined, and I'd just seen the worst kind of them.

"Did you like my little history lesson, hero?" V'kii snarked, Ecnav and a couple of priestesses at her side. "After Mistress Bloodshine gave me my spellbook, I returned home and reunited with my sweet little Ecnav. Then I used the magic of the spellbook to make my own blood into what's called a 'soul jar' so I could live forever. Naturally I wanted to make my loved ones immortal too, but only Ecnav accepted... the rest could not see beyond their superstition. Ecnav didn't want a soul jar though, he was too attached to his mortal form, but fortunately I was able to find another solution in the book: a ritual that turned him into a vampire, granting him eternal youth at the mere cost of having to regularly drink blood."

Ecnav added "At first I was like, kinda freaked out at all the crazy demonic stuff, but then when V'kii told me that as a vampire I wouldn't need to listen to Caesar anymore, I was all over it. Now I can live forever, and Caesar's goons aren't around to confiscate my weed!"

"We abandoned the Zebra cause immediately after we found out what Caesar did to me. We were hardly surprised when that selfish fool destroyed the world, of course, but we were able to survive it. Bloodshine returned to us shortly after and suggested that we migrate to Equestria, as the population was higher and Ecnav's choice of immortality magic required us to live where there were more survivors for him to prey on. Once we got here, we started up our cult and instructed all of our followers that I could protect them with my magic, but only if they practiced ritual bloodletting. All that blood flows through drains down to the pool, and in case that's not enough, we also use our grinder to get blood out of heretics and snoopers, plus we built Maresti so Ecnav could feed on travelers who tried to sleep there."

I scowled at them. "With all that power, you could have overthrown Caesar easily if you hated him so much! Even if you sided with him you could have ended the war, you could have saved the whole world! Did any of that even occur to you? Either side would have hailed you as heroes and probably donated blood willingly to repay you!"

"Saving the world?" V'kii said incredulously. "Bloodshine took us beyond all that. Who cares if a couple of ant armies are squabbling at our feet?"

"Besides, post-apocalyptic settings are like way cooler than anything we had back then. I tell ya, a lot of gamers would have killed for your life," said Ecnav.

I ground my teeth. "You two are sick."

"Well, you're the one in a cage and about to become our eternal slave, so I guess we still win," Ecnav said, then stuck his tongue out at me and pulled down one of his eyelids.

"Tomorrow night, we'll take you all back into the ritual chamber and cast another little trick I learned from the book, which will remove your souls and make your bodies into our loyal slaves," said V'kii.

"We were gonna do it tonight, but it's a bit easier when the victims have been starved or exhausted for a day or two," said Ecnav, "And the spell's, like, really complex, so it's easier to cast it on all of you at once." He turned to V'kii, "In the meantime, why don't we head downstairs and break in that new tail end of yours, eh, babe?"

"Eager, aren't we?" she chuckled. She turned to her priestesses and commanded "I want two guards with the prisoners at all times to make sure they stay exhausted for tomorrow. If any of them so much as closes its eyes for longer than it takes to blink, shake its cage. None of them are allowed to sleep."

As I watched them leave, I sighed in frustration. I looked around the room, Chess was sighing and mulling over everything he had heard V'kii say. Arimaa and the captive mares were all despondent, some crying or praying. Fortunately, Bishop hadn't been captured, and Knight was still waiting outside, so we weren't over the edge just yet. Still, our outlook was pretty grim.

Well... It was 'pretty grim' for about eight minutes, then I heard a grunt of pain, and as I turned to look toward it, I saw one of the priestesses fall to the ground, her throat slit. Before the other priestess noticed anything was wrong, a bolt of green lightening struck her, making her convulse until the electricity fried her into nothing but dust.

"Bishop! I knew you'd come get us!" I said excitedly as my friend took the hood off his cloak. Privately, I was horrified that he had just killed two mares unaware that they were brainwashed, but I decided I wouldn't tell him until later. There was no use in piling emotional baggage on him mid-mission.

"Yeah. The laypony cultists didn't know anything important, so I came and found you guys. I took out the few guards that I met on my way down here, so we should have a clear path out. Worst case, if we meet any resistance I can zap 'em."

Arimaa smiled and shrugged. "Not much different than my plan really, but at least the crazy supermagic freaks are distracted this time, and they're the real problem. You know how to pick a lock?"

He pulled out a magazine titled 'Locksmith's Reader,' and opened to a page with a diagram of a lock on it. "Well, this magazine knows." He took out a lockpicking tool and managed to pop open Arimaa's lock, allowing her to help him get the rest of us. While she was doing that, Bishop freed Chess and cast a healing spell on him, repeating the process for all the other ponies who needed it.

As soon as we were all, out, I was hurriedly waiting by the exit. "Great, now come on, before they get back."

Chess nodded. "You don't have to tell me twice. I wish we could shut this place down, but let's face it, those two are out of our league. Besides, once people hear from us what this cult really is, we can save a lot of ponies from falling for their tricks again. That'll at least set their operation back a bit. Now let's get going before Knight alerts the Cult Leaders again by coming in here and shooting up the place."

Naturally, we hadn't taken ten steps before we started hearing the sounds of gunshots and explosions from upstairs, prompting a unanimous "Oh snap" from all of us. Bishop, who had taken the lead to keep an eye out for more priestesses, immediately said "Damn it! Knight jumped the gun! Come on, hurry!"

We rushed as fast as we could without tripping over each other, encountering nothing but a dead priestess along the way, one of Bishop's victims. When we got to the main room, we were greeted to the sight of Knight stomping a priestess's head in and lobbing a grenade at another. The other Checkmate ponies were basically just cleaning up after her.

"'Did ya see that, Chess? I totally killed those guys 'til they were dead! Aren't I awesome?" asked Knight.

Chess ignored her, simply saying "Shut up! We have to run now!"

Suddenly blood started gushing up from the drains, spraying like broken pipes and coating the floors and walls.

"No!" Chess shouted, darting for the exit.

Before any of us could reach it, the blood formed a wall of in front of the entrance. V'kii's glowing eyes and a mouth appeared on it, grinning condescendingly. "Did you really think you could leave here so easily?"

Only being paralyzed from fear kept me from collapsing out of hopelessness.

One of the red shirted ponies from Knight's group threw a grenade at the blood wall, opening a small hole in the barrier which closed in a mere second. V'kii countered instantly by making a tendril of blood shoot out of the wall, stabbing him through the eye and out the back of his head. When it came back out, it brought all his blood with it. Two more red shirts immediately began shooting, only for another pair of tendrils to come out and whip them with such force that it actually sliced the top half of their bodies from the bottom, creating a huge, bloody mess which the tendrils then absorbed into themselves, lapping up the blood like a pair of anteater tongues. Knight and the remaining members of her crew were fortunately able to catch on though and held their fire.

For the captive mares, things descended into pandemonium. Some just fell to the ground and sobbed, two of them made a desperate attempt to charge the blood wall and break through, only for dozens of blood spikes to impale them and then twist around, shredding them into nothing but bones and scraps of meat. A couple, including Arimaa, ran down toward the hallway that led to the other cultist's quarters.

"Oh no, they must be trying to warn the other cultists," V'kii said flatly. "I guess this just means I'll have to exterminate them all. Good, I've been wanting to try that for a while, but without a reason it would have been just wasteful."

Chess exhaled, and shook his head, psyching himself up for a standoff. "Miss, if I could have a word with you?"

"A word? You're actually going to try to talk your way out of death?" she laughed. "Go on. Convince me. Talk me down. Appeal to me."

Despite it all, Chess held the same composure as he had with the Winksteppers. "We have allies, several, who know where we are, and will know that your cult is responsible if we do not return. They are very powerful and very connected, and word of what the Embrace really is will spread rapidly. You will never have another pony join you again, which means no more blood, which means Ecnav will die. However, if we are allowed to leave, we will tell everypony that your cult is benign, make something up about the dead, and nopony will be the wiser. You will be able to continue as you always have. So, do we have a deal?"

V'kii scoffed. "A deal? You think that I care about this one little temple? We need no Cult to survive! This Temple was an exercise in laziness! It only stood to make our prey come to us, but we are more than capable of living on as hunters! But, if you truly wish to live, I shall offer one opportunity for you..."

Chess swallowed, but listened. "I'll take what I can get."

"It's very simple. You see, I haven't had the chance to participate in a good massacre in decades. I miss the screams... the thrill of the chase... So maybe you can evade me or hide from me somewhere before I pick you off. It is not likely, but perhaps worth an attempt. Now... Run!"

All of us fled as more blood tendrils whipped out of the wall, impaling one of the red shirts and pumping blood into him until he literally exploded. I took the chance to telekinetically grab one of the dropped guns, an assault rifle, and take it with me just in case, not that I figured I could do much with it.

As I ran, I ended up taking the route back toward the cages and the ritual chamber. V'kii and Ecnav's room was down there, and that's probably where they took my stuff. That meant that's where they had the StealthBucks, my only method of escape. When I glanced back, I noticed that the rest of the Checkmate Company ponies were following me as well.

When we got back to the cages, we found Ecnav there, already waiting for us, our equipment held in blood tendrils from his back. "I knew you dicks were gonna show up. Coming for this? Think it's gonna help you?" He threw it to us. "Go for it! I haven't had a real fight in years! Just try it! Give me at least something close to a challenge!" The blood tendrils from his spine turned into wings and he took to the air, "Now come at me, bros!"

The two remaining red shirts and Knight opened fire while Chess and I scrambled into our armor. Ecnav merely laughed as the bullets were magically pushed back out of his body. He became bloodstained and damaged, but he regenerated almost instantly.

"Great, now it's my turn!" he said. He pointed a hoof at the last pony red shirt, who began glowing green until he began vomiting pure blood, which kept coming until he was left as a dry husk. Then all of that blood shaped itself into a giant sword which Ecnav turned on the griffon, chopping off each limb one by one before finally cutting off his head. "You're making this too easy!" Ecnav shouted before creating a thick blood tendril and smacking Knight upside the head with it, sending her flying across the room, stunned, but not out yet. Ecnav just laughed maniacally. "Do I need to start holding ba- Augh!" He began convulsing as Bishop hit him with a bolt of magical lightning.

Chess and I were already done getting our gear on, even plugging in Stealthbucks. I pulled out the assault rifle and used S.A.T.S. to give Ecnav everything it had in it, all headshots. It was hard to focus on the way it mutilated his face, but I powered through it. A little nausea was worth winning.

Chess, meanwhile, plucked out one of his grenades and lobbed it at him with a S.A.T.S. aimed throw. The blast sent Ecnav flying across the room and I heard something land to the left of me. A quick glance revealed that it was Ecnav's leg. I flipped on S.A.T.S. to double check if he was alive, and sure enough, he still had most of his 'health bar' left, but the grenade had still taken a good chunk of it, much more than the bullets. I only just now remembered my own grenades, and realized that they were probably my best bet. I started lobbing them at him as fast as I could, soon knocking off another limb.

Once I was sure he was almost dead, however, all the blood in the room, plus the legs, began flowing toward Ecnav, coating him protectively in a thick bubble. Chess threw another grenade at him, but couldn't get through. Regardless of his protection and healing powers though, healing what we did to him would take much longer than healing a bullet wound. He'd be out for a while.

"Well, he's not gonna get up from that at least. If we can't kill him, then we need to find a way out," said Chess.

"Hey, Chess," I said, getting an idea. "How big is the explosion of a Balefire Egg? Big enough to take down that blood wall up at the entrance?"

"A balefire egg? Forget the blood, that could blow a hole in the stone wall. But where would we get one?"

"Downstairs, I read the terminal on that big blood grinder thing, and it uses one as its power source. If I can remove it somehow, do you think we can set it off?"

"Did somepony say nuking a Balefire Egg?" Knight asked, woozily staggering to us. "Yeah, I've done that a couple times." She pulled out a small electrical device and a detonator. "This is a fusion pulse charge, just plug it into the Egg, hit the detonator and BAM! Best fireworks in all of Equestria."

"Alright," said Chess, picking the items up. "Click, Bishop, you're with me, we need invisibility. Knight, get as many of the lay cultists and captives as you can and prepare to run. Don't try to fight, except as a last resort." She nodded and went back upstairs. Meanwhile, the rest of us turned and proceeded down to the Ritual Chamber.

When we arrived, we found that the entire floor was covered in blood and the pool half drained, the blood displaced throughout the temple. V'kii was in the middle of the pool, floating on its surface in meditation. We snuck past her to the Juicer, where I took out a screwdriver and began looking over it for a panel or something to get at the Egg.

"I can see you, you know," V'kii said.

We froze.

"Well, not see you, per se," she elaborated. "But you're standing in blood, blood which is an extension of my body. Even if you're invisible, I can easily feel you."

Pretty freaked out by now, I couldn't think of anything else to do but search harder for that panel. Dang it, why was it so dark! I finally found a screw and jammed my screwdriver into it, trying frantically to open it up.

An instant later my world became red. I had never seen the ocean or a wave before, but I knew that the titanic force of blood washing over me could only be a tsunami.

We struggled to our feet, soaked to the skin with the lifeblood of countless unfortunate ponies. I was hit so hard that my StealthBuck was actually knocked out.

"You were interested in my machine, I take it?" V'kii asked, standing above me. "Why didn't you just say so? Here, take a closer look!" A blood tendril shot out from her hoof and wrapped around me. I was jerked into the air, and heard Bishop scream my name as I was thrown toward the Juicer and certain death. By sheer luck, I landed on the Juicer's rim: if my hooves hadn't just barely caught on the edge, it would have instantly killed me-'instantly' if I was lucky. Even then, I wasn't strong enough to lift myself out and began sliding in. I looked down into the machine, seeing countless spinning, shredding teeth, easily able to obliterate anything that touched them.

There was one upside though, just a small one, but it could buy me some time. The opening for the machine was designed to take in dead ponies head or tail first. If somepony braced themselves with their legs, especially long legs like mine, they could hold themselves on the sloped walls, at least for a little bit. I kicked off with my forelegs and landed face up just a foot or two over teeth. Just for a moment I breathed a sigh of relief.

Then I felt a yank on my tail.

It didn't catch any flesh, but my tail hairs got caught and began sucking me in.

I yelped as some of the hairs were torn out. There was no freeing my tail. My only hope was my legs wouldn't give, and getting my tail hair ripped out wouldn't hurt too badly. Come on Click, be strong!

Be Strong!

I screamed as I felt half of my hair yanked out, taking most of the skin with it. Otherwise I was fine though, and survival through pain gave me an idea for how to get out of here. I didn't like it one bit, but it was worth a shot.

I telekinetically took out one of my last few grenades out of my saddlebags, flicked out the pin, and dropped it below.

The things I do for life.

The blast launched me up and over the side of the machine, and I landed roughly on the ground. I downed a healing potion and ran out to see if Bishop and Chess were okay.

Both were alive, though battered and their invisibility methods torn away in combat. They were putting up a valiant effort against V'kii, not that that amounted to much against an immortal. Her shell of a body was getting visibly mutilated, but she didn't even seem to care. She wasn't even too focused on the fight, just toying with them. She even looked directly at me and seemed more pleasantly surprised at having another punching bag than anything. However, after Canis, something about her overconfidence made me rather, well, confident.

"Bishop, Chess," I said, calling them with my ranged whisper spell, "Get her in that machine somehow, I have an idea!"

I ran to assist them, lobbing a grenade at her as a distraction, blowing away one of her hind legs and stunning her. That's when Bishop took his opportunity to wrap her up in a shield and force her into the Juicer.

"Now, when she's in, plug the exit spout!" I yelled. As Bishop did so, I rushed to the terminal and opened Advanced System Settings.

"You let me out!" She roared, more in annoyance than real anger. Zadara's body was obliterated instantly by the machine, but her blood form remained. With Bishop plugging the escape and the machine sucking her back in whenever she tried the entrance, she was trapped. All throughout the room, blood began sloshing about in massive waves, trying to smash us. Bishop on the other hoof was aided by a nice rush of adrenaline, and even when a lucky shot hit him and broke his concentration, he was able to start it up again before she escaped

From the terminal, I began messing with everything I could about the machine. I had no idea what I was doing, but I figured every single option and setting wasn't meant to be at maximum. The second I backed out, the whole device began to shake. We all got as far as we could from the device while Bishop could maintain the shield.

"No!" screamed V'kii, realizing what was happening. "What did you do?"

The Juicer exploded, sending chunks of warped metal everywhere and making my PipBuck tick. We were just out of range of lethal radiation, but only sheer luck saved us from the shrapnel. The second the explosion happened, all the turbulent blood calmed down, running back in to the pool.

I fell to my side. My PipBuck said I was an inch from death, but after sipping a couple healing potions, I knew that I still had a chance.

"Click, there's no time, to rest!" barked Chess. "If she was controlling the blood wall, it's probably down by now. Come on, we have to run before Ecnav wakes up!"

Just before we could turn to go back up though, we heard Ecnav's voice as he descended the stairs. "V'kii! Are you down here? What happened?" He came into view, only mostly healed after the fight, and saw the three of us standing in the room full of lifeless blood and radioactive metal. We tried to run, but he made more tentacles of blood wrap around our feet, immobilizing us. "Where is she?" he growled.

"Dead," I said, trying to hide my fear. I was out of grenades and our one Balefire Egg was gone, so I wasn't sure how we were gonna face him now.

"No, she can't die," he insisted. "Her blood was a soul jar, it was indestructible!"

"Well I don't know much about soul jars, but I do know a bit about balefire explosions, and that's that nothing survives being at ground zero, even for a small one like that."

He left us stuck there, frantically calling V'kii's name for several minutes and searching the blast zone. Finally he realized we were telling the truth. "No... V'kii! Come back to me! You can't just leave me here, babe! What will I do without you? Please..." He fell to his knees and bawled.

The blood tendrils brought us straight to Ecnav. He focused his anger on me, the one who'd delivered the news, and wrapped his hooves around my throat. "You killed her! She was everything to me and you killed her!"

"The two of you murdered countless ponies! You can't justify that, even with love!" I countered, furious that he'd even try making me the bad guy. After what he'd done, sympathy was the last thing he'd find.

"But she did it for me," he sobbed. "Taking Bloodshine's magic, making me immortal, even replacing her body just to stay sexy for me. She didn't deserve this... she didn't..."

"If you love her so much, go join her. I'm sure they have room in Hell," I spat.

He glared at me, looking ready to kill me. Then, just when I thought he couldn't get any more furious... he smiled. He actually smiled, and it chilled me to the core. He turned away and casually trotted over to the Bloodshine statue to retrieve the spellbook. "You know, you act like she was just so horrible. But there was one thing she refused to do to anypony, one thing that even she said was too cruel. Back when she first made her soul jar, she had to split her soul in half. She described it as being beyond the greatest pain imaginable. She eventually gave up sleeping because otherwise she would have nightmares about it every single night. Even though we removed ponies' souls to make our priestesses, she swore never to cut one up again. But then... she never felt this kind of loss..." He began laughing, giggling with sinister, sadistic ideas. "If she got that much pain from splitting her soul in two, what would happen if I split yours into a thousand!" He looked me in the eyes. "LET'S FIND OUT!"

He began chanting in an ancient tongue, his eyes glowing green. I suddenly felt myself jerked into the air. I looked downward and saw the blood on the ground replaced by a whirling mass of what could only be described as pure evil. At either side of me, Bishop and Chess were lifted up as well. The evil magic wrapped tightly around us and seemed to drain the warmth from our bodies. A few moments later, the pain started.

Pain... what an understatement.

I can't put into words what it was like. Nothing earthly could ever be used as a reference point. I looked to Ecnav and tried to speak, but realized I was already screaming. With great difficulty I forced myself to stop and begged, my confidence and rage destroyed. "Please, stop it! I- I'm sorry, okay? Is that what you want from me? I'm sorry! Just kill us and let it be over!"

"Over?" He laughed. "Fucker, this is step one!"

Right when I thought it couldn't get any worse, I felt the magic take a bite of my soul. The pain from before was pleasure compared to this. I must have been screaming, but the pain was so great I couldn't even hear myself. My other senses were literally drowned in agony. All I had was my sight, allowing me to witness a tiny speck of dark blue light emerge from my chest, and grey and green ones coming out of Chess and Bishop as well. The three little stars floated to the Bloodshine statue, joining the other lights in the orb on her breastplate.

The second soul piece he took felt even worse...

But it was nothing compared to the third. Or the fourth. Or the fifth.

He would keep going for as long as we had souls to steal. Even one more second of this and I knew I would go insane. I began running on pure instinct, my only thought becoming 'escape.' That's how I was able to justify what I did next.

A lucky jolt of adrenaline gave me just a few seconds of insight. The spellbook: I had seen it! I'd seen some of the magic within! I remembered the hematomancy, how the spell was just so easy to do! I might not have Ecnav and V'kii's skill with it, but I knew I could do just a little, and it would be enough!

My horn glowed, the magic within it cold and black, though not so much as what Ecnav was doing to us. Normally the pain would have stopped me from doing it, but this magic wanted to be cast. Who knows, perhaps being surrounded by Ecnav's black magic enhanced my own. I focused all that I had into the spell, screaming even louder as I forced it on Ecnav.

In an instant me and my friends were released from the spell and collapsed to the ground.

In front of us, Ecnav stood frozen, just as I'd hoped: I'd coagulated all of the blood in his body. I didn't know whether that killed him or just stalled him a bit, but I wasn't going to wait to find out.

Resisting the overwhelming urge to just fall unconscious, as Chess and Bishop had instantly given in to, I pulled out Starstruck and put every shot in its magazine into Ecnav. The bullets pockmarked his body, sending off flecks of brown, dry blood. One of the shots accidentally hit the spellbook, obliterating it. When Starstruck ran out, I used my shotgun. The first shot tore away all the skin on his front, but the second ended it for sure. I don't know whether it was something magical, or I'd hit him in just the right way or what, but he just exploded. Chunks of meat and guts and blood flakes flew all over the room, not one body part staying together. I didn't question it, all that mattered was he was dead.

As an afterthought, I turned toward the Bloodshine statue, put in another shell, and shot the orb with the souls in it. It shattered, allowing each one to float away. The parts of mine and Bishop's and Chess' all returned to us. I felt my spirit sewing itself back together, helping my pain just a little bit. Others flew outward, returning to their originals homes in the priestesses. Most of them though, floated upward and faded away, their bodies long since dead. I couldn't be too sure, but I thought I heard a chorus of a thousand 'thank yous.'

"Hey, are you guys okay in here?" I heard a familiar voice call to us. I didn't really care who it was though. As I exhaustedly flopped to the ground, I just hoped that whoever it was would let me sleep...

I woke up back in the room I had been staying in at the Marefu Hub. According to my Pipbuck, it was about noon the day after we went to the temple. I was heavily bandaged, and after a quick inspection I noticed a scarred spot on my tail that would probably be bald for the rest of my life. Better than being dead or worse though, and it didn't matter how mutilated I was, just so long as what Ecnav had done to my soul was over and done with. Ecnav had said splitting her soul haunted V'kii for the rest of her life, but I think my soul just being complete again was soothing the pain quite a lot. Even now I felt a sweet warmth within, my spirit celebrating over regaining what it had lost. It wasn't a complete fix, but it was enough for me. Maybe in a day or so, it'd all be just a memory.

My equipment was sitting in the corner, cleaned as best as anypony could, but I still noticed a bit of blood in the hard to reach places on it. I'd have to take all the guns apart apart and clean every piece individually, but that was no big deal, really. I could do that much in my sleep. My heart ached when I saw my Dad's armor though: It was completely ruined. The blood staining it several shades darker than normal was bad enough, but my own grenade trick had utterly destroyed the back. I might have been able to repair it if I had some spare leather scraps, but I'd end up with more new material than original.

I looked through my saddlebags, and found Stellar's gear. It looked unisex, and about my size, so I tried it on. It fit well enough, although when I looked in the bathroom mirror I could see that it wasn't exactly my color. It felt odd just wearing Stellar's clothes too; part of my mind was telling me 'she would have wanted you to have these,' while another part was telling me 'Oh, Click, you're wearing clothes that touched Stellar's naked fur, you naughty boy!' …I much preferred the former notion. On a whim, I looked at my PipBuck to see if this outfit to see if it had anything to say about this outfit's 'stats'. The DT was about the same as my old barding, just one point higher, but this one had the added effects +5 Firearms and +5% Critical Chance.

... I really needed to learn what exactly all that meant.

I took off the barding to avoid messing with my bandages too much and walked out to see if everypony else was okay. The second I walked out I saw Bishop coming from his own room, injured as well, but not nearly as much as me. "Hey, Click," he waved, wincing as he saw my bandages. "Sheesh, and I thought I looked bad."

"Thanks, that makes me feel so much better. Well, at least we lived, right?"

"Looks like it, although I almost doubted it when I woke up. The only thing that made me think I might be alive was that I was too sore for it to be in Heaven, but if I was in Hell then clearly their standards for torture were pretty low. It'd be more like... well, more like whatever that zebra did." He shuddered at the memory. "How did we survive anyway?"

"I... used a spell," I said, not knowing what to say about that magic.

"A spell? Why why'd you wait ‘til the last second to use it?" He sounded like he would have been mad if he wasn't so confused.

"It wasn't exactly a normal spell. Come on, I'll tell you in my room, it's a bit hard to explain."

He followed me in, now genuinely baffled. When I was sure no one else was there to overhear, I locked the door and told him everything from the memory orb. Some of the information about Caesar and Fluttershy was probably superfluous, but I felt that I needed to start from the beginning. When I got to the actual meat of it, with Bloodshine and the spellbook, the look on Bishop's face was of pure shock.

"So you used a spell from the book?" Bishop inferred once I finished.

"I felt like I had no other choice, I was desperate..." I said, defending myself even though Bishop's tone wasn't accusing at all.

"No, don't worry about it, it's just a spell," he said. "It doesn't matter where it came from, you used it for the right thing." He put a foreleg on my shoulder, sensing my guilt.

"I know, but... no, it's not 'just a spell.' You don't know what that spell is like. It felt wrong, I felt evil just for casting it."

"But you're not evil, Click! If you hadn't used that spell, I'd be dead, no, worse than dead! We'd all be!"

I didn't know how to respond to that. I just shrugged and sighed. "I know... and I'm glad I did it because of that, but... I never want to use that magic again."

"Alright. But you do know that it could make fighting a whole lot easier, right? I mean it worked great on Ecnav."

"No! V'kii started with saving herself from the ponies, but look what she turned into! That spell came from a demon, Bishop, and regardless of what she said, she didn't teach it to V'kii just to see what would happen."

He nodded. "I understand. You're right, that's the same tactic chem pushers use on people. You start small, then... well, then you're making your blood into a soul jar and getting a vampire boyfriend."

I couldn't repress a chuckle. "Glad you understand."

"It's all good. But still, don't beat yourself up about using it that one time. It wasn't fun getting my soul torn up..." he swallowed. "B-but never mind that. Let's go see how the others are doing."

"You sure you aren't gonna need to talk something out?" I asked. I felt a lot better with my soul already healing, and assumed he probably felt the same way, but the subject seemed to hit him a bit harder.

"No, I'm feeling better by the minute. It's just fresh in my mind is all. I should be fine after doing something non-dark-magicky. Come on, let's go get some breakfast," he said, looking like he really didn't want to talk about it. I shrugged and nodded. No use in forcing it, I suppose.

We reached the main room and found that most everyone else in the Hub was already awake. I noticed some scavengers coming into the Hub carrying boxes of broadcasting equipment, all taken from the Temple, with Chess overseeing them. I supposed that the Checkmate Company would probably be taking V'kii's place on the radio pretty soon, which would be great for business. Meanwhile, the Hub had been converted into an improvised shelter for the cultists, who all looked lost and confused. Arimaa, I noticed, was nearby, giving one cultist some impromptu counseling.

"But where will I go now?" he moaned.

Arimaa shrugged, "Dunno. Though if you take up religion again, try to avoid the ones that are obviously evil next time."

Well, I said she was giving counseling, not that she was good at it.

"If you try the Cult of Discord in Whinnyapolis, tell Screwball that Click says 'hi,'" I added in passing.

"Hey, wait!" Arimaa shouted to me before I got too far.

"Yeah?"

"Hey, uh, you two are Click Click and Bishop, right? I'm Arimaa, from the distress signal. I just wanted to say thanks for saving us and everything. Chess said it was mostly you that killed the cult leaders, Click."

"I guess I was. Ya think I can get him to pay me more for that?"

"Ha! Maybe an extra cap per day. Worth a shot though. He definitely owes you something."

Just then I noticed something familiar about her voice. "Back in the temple, I heard someone calling us after the fight, was that you?"

"Oh yeah. When all the crazy blood stuff stopped I had a hunch you guys pulled something off. So I ran in to see what happened. Might not have been the safest choice, but it paid off."

"Well, thank you for that. It probably saved us from bleeding out or something."

"Definitely!" added Bishop.

"It was nothing," she said. "Thank you two for going out of your way to rescue me," she gave us each a hug, one after the other. "Anyway, I still feel like I need to pay you back. How ‘bout I buy you breakfast?"

"That sounds great," I replied.

She turned and led us to the bar. I couldn't help but make the observation that compared to ponies, zebra mares tended to have nice big plots... J-just an observation! Not staring! Not staring at all!

As the three of us ate and talked, the radio was playing a techno remix of, oddly enough, one of V'kii's chants. As it finally ended, DJ Fizzypop's voice came on. "Heya, Wastelanders! That was my new song, Koyaanisqatsi v.2! Did it sound familiar? It should if you used to be a fan of The Embrace. However, if that's the case I got some bad news for ya. Yesterday, somepony named Arimaa was actually kidnapped by the cult who ran the station! No joke! Apparently, all of the rumors about disappearances connected with The Embrace were one hundred percent true. Right now we're getting a lot of conflicting stories about the specifics, but there are a few recurring elements: namely brainwashing, vampirism, and lots and lots of bleeding. Fortunately, Arimaa had some friends in high places, namely the Checkmate Company, who, according to new information, was involved in the liberation of Baltimare. In fact, a certain Blue Guy and Green Chick were part of the rescue party! Needless to say, a bunch of clerics, even evil ones, didn't stand much of a chance against the ones who downed Canis Atrox. A couple hours later, the group came back out, Arimaa and several other rescued ponies in tow. In addition, the Checkmate Company has taken the spoils of victory, namely all of their radio equipment, which, personally, I'm happy about. Those spritebots were made to help people get a little bit of joy out in the Wasteland, not to trick people into getting their blood sucked out or whatever was going on in there! So welcome to the radio, Checkmate Company! Best of luck to you! Maybe you can pay the Lightbringer a visit too, while you're at it. Seriously, I'm cool with heavy metal, but not with giving out torture tips and burning ponies alive on the air. Seriously, what the fudge! And I've seen those vandalized soda machines, you monsters! For shame, Legion, for shame. Speaking of which, I remixed one of their songs too! Let's have a listen: I call it Indestructible, Dubstep Edition!"

Footnote: Level Up! Level six.
Perk Added: Bloody Mess- Your brush with dark magic has had a bizarre effect on you. For reasons you can't quite explain, you are much better at causing pain, giving you a 5% bonus to all damage you do. In addition, any death you cause tends to make an inexplicably huge and often explosive mess. Hope you like cleaning gore goo off your clothes!
SPECIAL ANNOUNCEMENT! Congratulations to us! With a record 1,549 gallons and one period joke, this is officially the bloodiest Fallout Equestria chapter EVER!
Next time on Fallout Equestria: Wild Wasteland, Click Click has an encounter with someone he thought he'd never see again, who leads the group on a treasure hunt for Stable 16, where the locals are friendly, the resources are plentiful, and all sorts of other things which are too good to be true. Meanwhile, the Legion is back and more gimmicky than ever, and that's only number one on the list of impending fiascoes.

Author's Notes:

I am so sorry that this one took so long ;_; All sorts of things happened to get in the way, but thankfully, we're working on getting back on track. However, we have updated the Side Stories again, so you can check that out if you want. Sadly, our plan to go on tumblr has flopped as a result of the artist vanishing without a trace. In addition, Trivial had to back out as an editor due to time constraints.

On a completely unrelated note, I am taking up a side project to work on so I don't stagnate even when I get writer's block. It's a crossover between MLP (duh) and a rising star in the anime world, Dangan Ronpa. For those of you who haven't heard of it, I would describe it as a character driven black comedy high school murder mystery story. It has a group on this site called Hope's Peak Academy. Beware of spoilers in the forums there.

Thanks to all my readers, prereaders, and people who I ripped off intellectual property from!