Fallout Equestria: Redemption
Author: Cooperdawg
Chapter Nine: Old Lessons
“Sometimes you need to look back in order to move forward.”

“Fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck!” I swore loudly as I ripped Hammer from its holster and started dancing around in circles, trying to keep all of the red bars of my E.F.S. in sight at once, “We need a goddamn miracle! Steel Curtain, get in the air and keep an eye out! We’ve got a fuck-ton of manticores looking for an easy meal!”

The armored Pegasus nodded smartly, then shot into the air, twisting about so that he could do a wide sweep of our immediate surroundings. I kept my eye on him for just long enough to be sure that he was looking in the right direction before tearing myself away to face the rest of my friends.

“Crosswire and Autumn Mist, get your guns ready, we’re going to need them. Crosswire, I want you to watch for the fuckers that are getting too close for comfort, along with me. I’m going to assume that once Steel Curtain finds a group, he’ll be making sure to keep his fire a good distance from us. Autumn, I want you to pick off anything that looks like it’s trying to flank us. Keep your head on a fucking swivel, all right?” I ordered quickly. Just as I finished speaking, another roar tore through the wasteland, this one much closer than the previous had been.

Both ponies nodded quickly at my orders and pulled out their weapons, making themselves ready to fight for our lives, and this was going to be a close one. “What do you want me to do?” Suture asked, nervously shifting from side to side as her eyes darted about our surroundings, her pupils fully dilated in sheer terror.

“Stay alive. That 9mm of yours isn’t going to do shit against these guys,” Crosswire ordered, “Their hide is far too thick. If you can, find a good nook or cranny to hide in, and try to not draw their attention. We should be making more than enough noise.”

The maroon medic shot the tech a terrified glance, then looked to me. “Evergreen, are you sure there isn’t anything I can do to help?”

I paused for just a moment in my preparations, which at this point mostly consisted of tearing through my inventory on my Pipbuck, searching for anything that could help us in this fight. So far, the only two useful things I had managed to find were a pair of frag grenades, which wasn’t much for this fight. “Well, Crosswire was right, Suture. A 9mm isn’t going to do a whole lot against a manticore except piss it off. Your best bet would be to do as he suggests and try to stay out of sight. We’ll take care of them.”

“Evergreen, in case you forgot, I have a Pipbuck as well, and I can see how many there are! If they are as dangerous as you suggest, you aren’t going to be able to fight them off!” Suture exclaimed, a panicked tone creeping into her voice.

I swore quietly to myself, mostly because I had forgotten that the medic had a Pipbuck. Since she didn’t use it as Autumn Mist and I did, it was an easy detail to overlook. “Fine, you’re right, Suture, we aren’t going to win, not if we try to drive them off with a show of force,” I answered, and then was interrupted by a howl that seemed to be right on top of us. Instead of finishing my thought, I turned towards the source of the sound and came almost face-to-snout of one of the largest manticores I had ever seen.

I pulled the trigger out of pure reflex, sending a round slamming into the Manticore, but since I hadn’t aimed properly, all it did was clip the beast’s side, rather than taking it out with a clean headshot. All the same, the monster reared back, roaring in pain, giving me time to turn around and start sprinting in the opposite direction.

“RUN!” I shouted at the top of my lungs, leading, or so I hoped, my friends back the way we had come, looking desperately for some sort of formation we’d be able to use to take away the manticores’ advantage in numbers.

We charged along the mountain path, multiple roars and howls now following after us, along with the sound of clawed paws scrabbling against the rock as the monsters chased after us. Just as the last red bar disappeared from my sight, leading me to believe that we had slipped the noose, something slammed into me from behind, sending me tumbling to the ground with a shout of surprise.

When I finally came to a stop, I was lying flat on my back, staring up into the face of the manticore I had shot. The monster showed absolutely no hint of being hurt, instead, it looked pissed. Over its shoulder I could see its tail slowly drifting back and forth, the scorpion stinger on its end always pointed right at me.

I growled from deep in the back of my throat and tried to shift my body to get my revolver up and against its head. Just as I got the barrel jammed against its throat and was about to pull the trigger, the distinctive rattle of Steel Curtain’s miniguns echoed throughout the wasteland and the manticore shuddered violently as it soaked up the bullets, then collapsed to the side, dead.

I wasted no time in getting back up on my hooves and charging away from the body, especially since I got the chance to see what was coming after me. At least a dozen manticores were chasing after us, forcing themselves to fit on the narrow mountain trail where they could get the most speed. Luckily for us, it also fed them into a bottleneck.

“Evergreen, over here!” I heard Crosswire shout at me from somewhere off to my left. Without even thinking about it, I veered off in that direction, trusting the buck to be leading me somewhere safe.

Very shortly, I found him perched atop a small outcrop of rock, with Autumn half-sitting next to him, peering through the scope of her rifle. “This is your brilliant defensive position?” I called out as I struggled up to side of the rock, being dragged up the last foot by both Crosswire and Suture.

“Can you find anything better on short notice?” he shot back, releasing me as soon as I was up and floating his SMG back to a usable position.

Before I could come up with a response, I was nearly deafened when Autumn Mist fired her rifle, barely a foot away from the side of my head. I turned to yell at the mare to watch out for ponies next to her, but thought better of it when I saw the mass of manticores that were nearly on top of us.

I slipped into S.A.T.S. and took a moment to simply take a look at everything approaching us. I could see ten manticores directly in front of me, with a few others that seemed to be trying to circle around to come up at us from the sides, not an ideal situation to be in. Taking a brief moment to catch my breath, I lined up three shots to the manticore closest to me, setting two rounds to hit it in the chest, and the last in the head. Hopefully I would learn that I wouldn’t need that many shots to take down just one of the creatures.

Time snapped back to reality as the rounds fired. To my horror, I discovered that the three rounds weren’t even close to enough, as the round meant to strike the monster in the head flew wide and it barreled down towards us, making a line straight for me.

Before it could reach me, a staccato of gunfire from Crosswire intercepted it, sending it tumbling to the side in its haste to get away from the stream of gunfire. I could tell by watching it, however, that it was simply wounded, and was by no means out of the fight.

Autumn Mist fired her rifle again, taking down another manticore with a perfectly placed headshot. “Are you two going to help me, or what?” she growled as she took careful aim at one of the monsters trying to flank us, then fired again, sending the manticore tumbling to the ground where it skidded for at least five feet before finally coming to a stop in an expanding pool of its own blood.

“We’re trying! These things can soak up a fuck-ton of damage!” Crosswire growled as he reloaded his SMG, only to empty it again into the body of a charging monster.

I fired the last three rounds of Hammer into the same manticore that Crosswire was targeting, which finally succeeded in putting the thing down, then reloaded the revolver as quickly as I could, scanning around us the entire time, which was when I noticed something that truly terrified me.

The manticores were no longer charging straight at us. Instead, they were running loops around our small outcrop of rock, moving fast enough to make Autumn Mist miss every other shot that she fired, and surrounding us so completely that I knew there was no way in hell we were going to be getting out in one piece without some sort of miracle.

They knew that we were trapped, and all it would be was a matter of time until we made a mistake. Now, it was no longer a hunt for them, but just a matter of time. They would bait us, make us think we had a clear path out, but the moment we tried to take it, the noose would tighten, and we would all be nothing more than another meal.

I cast about desperately, searching for something that would give us a clear path out. As I was searching, my eyes settled on the small box canyon that we had been walking through when the manticores had appeared, and an idea came to me. I tossed my head about, staring at the sky while searching for a familiar black form. I finally spotted the Pegasus and gestured wildly for him to come down to us.

Within moments, Steel Curtain was hovering just beside us, the barrels of his weapons spinning fast enough that it seemed like one solid piece. “Things aren’t looking good, Evergreen, and there’s only so much I can do!” he shouted down at me.

“I know!” I shouted back, “but here’s what I need from you! I need you to clear a path back to the canyon, and keep them off of us long enough so we can get through! I have a plan to get us out of this mess!”

The Pegasus looked from the canyon and back to me. “Are you sure about that?” he asked, the look on his face telling me that he thought I was completely out of my mind.

I nodded vigorously, slamming Hammer’s cylinder closed again. “It’s that or we die here,” I stated simply, “Now GO!”

Steel Curtain hesitated for a split second, an odd expression on his face. Then, his expression hardened, he nodded curtly, and took off into the sky, flying out beyond the ring of manticores surrounding us and towards the box canyon before arcing around to sweep the monsters between us and the trail.

“This had better work,” Crosswire growled as he chambered a round into his freshly loaded SMG.

“You’re telling me,” I answered, just as Steel Curtain made his pass, strafing a half dozen manticores with the stream of lead from his weapons, and providing us with an opening that would hopefully be enough to get us where we needed to be.

We took off from our position, running at a dead sprint and firing at the manticores that were nipping at our hooves. Autumn Mist was even managing to fire with some degree of accuracy with her rifle, despite the speed we were running at. Steel Curtain made another pass, buying us a few feet of space from the predators as they recoiled from his weapons, and then another, which opened up almost a dozen feet between us and them.

It was then that we started through the box canyon, which was narrow enough that the manticores would have to follow one at a time, and that was hoping that they wouldn’t simply go around.

As we neared the far end, I slowed my pace so that I was the last in our line, needing to be there for my plan to work. Just as Crosswire and Autumn Mist cleared the far end of the canyon, I skidded to a stop, reaching into my saddlebags.

“Evergreen, what the fuck are you doing!” Crosswire shouted, sounding almost panicked, “Get your ass out of there!”

“Saving our hides,” I muttered under my breath as I pulled out the pair of grenades I had, yanked out the stems, and tossed them into the canyon, where they landed almost exactly at the feet of a charging manticore, barely five feet away from me.

Once the grenades were free, I turned and started to run, hoping my friends would have my back, but I didn’t make it far before the grenades exploded, sending shrapnel pinging off of my armor and biting into my exposed rear legs. I tumbled to the ground to land at Suture’s hooves, panting in pain and struggling to stand again.

I heard Autumn’s rifle fire repeatedly over the deafening explosion, hopefully eliminating the few manticores that had managed to make it through the blast. “We need to get the fuck out of here! They’re still coming!” Crosswire shouted, coming up to my side and dragging me back to my hooves.

“But she’s injured!” Suture argued, “We need to get that shrapnel out, or it could become infected!”

“Not in the middle of a fight! Evergreen bought us the time we need to get out of here, now we need to move!” the tech shouted back, then turned so he was staring me in the face, an angry look in his eye, “Can you still run, brilliant leader?”

I nodded weakly, still panting. “If it means I get to live, then yeah, I can run.”

His expression of anger didn’t change at all at my answer. His only indication that he had heard me at all was a barely perceptible nod. He let me go and turned to run down the trail, pushing Autumn Mist to let the young mare know that the time for shooting was long since passed.

The four of us thundered down the trail, with Steel Curtain occasionally coming into sight ahead of us as he circled around, strafing the manticores from time to time to maintain the lead that my stupid stunt had bought us.

“I think you missed that chance for a hug!” Crosswire shouted at me as we ran, a classic example of his poor attempt at humor, which only ever seemed to surface during life-or-death situations.

“You know what, Crosswire. I think I’m okay with that! Now would you shut up and save your breath for running!” I shouted back, lowering my head in an attempt to get more speed.

We ran for what seemed like hours, charging down the sparse mountain trail, the manticores never very far behind us, occasionally gaining enough that we would need to stop and fight for a few moments, just to ensure that they weren’t gaining too much ground. If it weren’t for Steel Curtain, our escape would have been ended almost before it began. It was his ability to sweep through the advancing manticores and drive them to cover with the power of his miniguns that kept us ahead, but there was still only so much the one Pegasus could manage. The brief moments he took to reload his weapons were the most terrifying. It was then that we usually had to turn and fight them off. Without the support of Steel Curtain’s guns, we wouldn’t have stood a chance.

Our only hope was that the Mt. Hoof settlement was closer than we thought, and that the ponies there would be willing to help a group in need. At least we were running in the right direction…

Our fatigue was beginning to tell on us, as I had expected it would. I noticed it first when we started having to fight with more frequency, which told me one thing: we were starting to slow down. Every time we had to resume running, it seemed harder, and my body was beginning to protest to being driven as hard as it was, especially with the shrapnel still embedded in my hindquarters. I had pushed the pain out of my mind as best as I could, but the repeated motion of running was beginning to bring that pain back to the forefront of my mind.

I knew that there was no way that we would have been able to keep up our pace for as long as we needed to get away from these monsters, but I had hoped that we would be able to keep it up for long enough. Instead, it seemed as though our mission was doomed to die an early death, all the way out here at the claws of some manticores simply looking for a meal.

It was just as I was sure that my legs were going to give out that I heard a clap of thunder tear through the wasteland, followed by what sounded like an entire army opening fire at the same time. I couldn’t help but to stop dead in my tracks and turn my head around, searching for the source of the noise, or, failing that, find whatever it was that was being shot at.

I found the latter first, which happened to be the dozen manticores that were still following us, except, instead of charging after us, they were faltering, many of them turning and breaking back down the path we had come, but not very many made it that far. Instead, they were being gunned down by weapons of almost unbelievable power, a combination of heavy weapons and beam weapons that simply shredded the monsters, leaving behind a field of total destruction.

By the time the shooting finally ceased, my ears were ringing loud enough that I couldn’t even hear my own voice, and I was sitting on the cold, hard ground, too exhausted to even get up again. I turned my gaze to search out whoever it had been that had saved us, and my eyes fell on a sight I had not expected to see: a group of five ponies, all dressed in some of the most impressive armor I had ever seen. These ponies were no mere wastelanders; they had to be members of the Steel Rangers. There simply was no other way they could get their hooves on that kind of armor and firepower.

“You… you saved us. Thank you,” I panted, “We would never have made it without your help.”

“We didn’t do it to help you,” the pony in the center of the formation grunted, presumably the leader of this patrol. His armor was equipped with a pair of massive barrels, probably grenade launchers, or very high caliber weapons. “We stepped in because your idiocy lured an entire pack of manticores to our doorstep. And since secrecy is our only defense here, we can’t allow you to leave.” He turned to look at the four ponies beside him, “Take them back to the Outpost, separate them, and lock them up. The Elder will decide what to do with them, especially that one.” He nodded his head pointedly in Crosswire’s direction.

At that moment, Steel Curtain landed in front of us, facing down the full patrol of armed and armored Steel Rangers, miniguns already spun up. “I’m not going to let you simply take my companions captive,” he growled, lowering himself into a fighting stance.

The leader of the patrol stared the Dashite down, or at least that’s what I assumed he was doing behind his helmet, then laughed raucously. “Do you really think you can take all five of us, Enclave?”

“Yes,” Steel Curtain answered bluntly.

“Huh. Feather-brained idiot,” The leader stated as he kicked some control on his armor, which cause a lot of other noise from inside his armor. Then his weapons fired, engulfing Steel Curtain in bolts of streaking, blue lightning and rendering him completely immobile as it overloaded the power supply of his armor. “Spark rounds. You idiots have your heads so far in the clouds that you forget they exist. Get him back with the others, but strip his armor as well.”

“Wait, you can’t just…” I started, but was quickly cut off as the lead buck approached me and silenced me with a kick to the head that made my vision break out in stars.

“You are the one that led manticores to us. For all we know, you meant to do so. Even worse, you travel with an exile. You have no position to make demands of us,” he growled at me, his voice filled with anger. I could easily envision his eyes boring into mine, broiling with rage, “Now I suggest that you don’t resist. Accidents are known to happen to ponies that do.”

He quickly and efficiently bound my hooves with a length of cord and hoisted me onto his back, then did the same to Suture. To carry both of us this easily, this buck must have been enormously strong. The other four ponies did the same thing with the others, though it took two of them to lift and carry the immobilized Steel Curtain.

I tried to keep my gaze focused on where we were headed, but the bulk of the buck’s armor, as well as the sheer featurelessness of the mountains and my exhaustion, made it a near impossible task. Despite my efforts, I was soon passing out from sheer fatigue.

When I finally came to, I was alone. I pushed myself up into a sitting position and cast about, looking for anything that would identify where I was. I quickly learned that I was in a small, dark room, outfitted with only a simple bed, where I was lying, and some basic toilet facilities. The door that led out into wherever was large and made entirely of metal. I stood up from the bed to go inspect it, and found out, to no surprise, that it was completely sealed.

I sighed and returned to the bed to take stock of my situation. My barding was gone, along with my weapons and saddle-bags, which included the Messaging Crystal that I was supposed to be bringing to the Mt. Hoof settlement, which I now knew this was. I was being held prisoner by these ponies for presumably leading a pack of manticores to their home, and for traveling with Crosswire, who was an exile, and Steel Curtain, since the Enclave was one of their sworn enemies from the sound of things. On the plus side, it seemed that my injuries had been tended to.

Unfortunately, a short search of my cell turned up nothing useful that I could use, and I was left only with the hope that my friends weren’t being mistreated, and that one of them had a better opportunity to act than I did. All I could do now was sit, wait, and hope that somepony would come soon to talk to me and let me explain the situation. Of course, that was assuming that they were willing to listen to anything I had to say.

With none of my possessions on me, I was left with nothing but my thoughts to occupy my time, and they quickly turned to all of the recent events I had faced alongside my friends. The most obvious thought was that Crosswire had once been a member of the Steel Rangers, which I guess explained his technical prowess with anything that happened to have moving parts.

The more I thought about it, the more it seemed to make sense, even became obvious. He had always said that his home had extremely strict rules, and the Steel Raners certainly fit that description, enough so that I could believe that they would exile somepony for a simple theft.

Of course, thinking of Crosswire led my thoughts down the path that I had firmly shunted off to the side a few days ago, when I had been thinking about the potential that ponies had, and how that potential changed when they were forced into a certain life, rather than being able to choose their own. I had thought about how many ponies might have become great, or at least had a chance at being somepony better, had they either simply been allowed to live or get out from under the hoof of their masters, but now, after having fought the raiders under Crackshot, I started thinking about the other half of that train of thought. How many ponies would become much worse, especially in our world, if given half a shot at being able to do so. I had met hundreds of deranged and crazed ponies that reveled in bloodshed, and they had never struck me as the sort that would take the opportunity to become better. In fact, it was quite the opposite.

Many of those ponies were the kind that I always kept a special eye on, because I knew that they would take advantage of the smallest opportunity to create as much chaos as they could, so long as they could sate their own sadistic bloodlust. To combat that, I would usually give them the worst jobs, like guarding the camp while others went out on raids, just to try to keep their violence in check.

All of this put together meant that maybe ponies wouldn’t change at all if given different opportunities. All I had to do to find an example was to look at myself. Sure, I had become a raider for several years, but I had never been happy doing it. It took a pony forcing me to reassess my entire life by giving me a view of the life my parents had wanted to make me realize that that was where I belonged, and now I was finally beginning to find some happiness again.

It was a very disheartening thought, to be sure, but that didn’t mean that I could simply forget about it. I had to hold on to the hope that there were other ponies out there that wanted a different life than the one they had been dealt, just like I did. Sure, there would be ponies that have given up all hope at a better tomorrow, and it would be up to me to prove to them that it could still happen.

All I had to do was overcome the countless obstacles in my path. Obstacles like Greymane and the other mercenaries working for Seahawk, like the ones we had fought outside of Buckview. Then there was that other mercenary that Starshine had mentioned: that Griffin, Mareina, and the Griffin mercenary group that she led, the Razor Wings. Then there was Seahawk himself, as well as the underlings that were leaving orders for Greymane and Mareina, like whatever pony had left the dead drop for Greymane in the Ironshod factory. I could tentatively add the ponies here at Mt. Hoof as well, considering the way we were being treated. Finally, there were the countless raiders and gangers that called the wasteland home.

It was a tall order, against enemies that were much better equipped, and prepared, than I was. The only real challenge I had needed to face so far was the fight against Greymane, and he had rather easily beaten us, mostly thanks to that technology he had that protected him from our attacks. Knowing that Mareina had a similar standing in Seahawk’s hierarchy didn’t do much to reassure me, especially given the warning Starshine had given us about her. What little I had heard about Griffins already led me to believe that they were ferocious fighters. That one had distinguished herself as being better than most did not bode well for me.

I was in the position of just living from day to day, tackling my problems as they came, with only a general idea of what I wanted to accomplish, but I had no real plan of how to do it. I was simply hoping that something would come along with all the answers, some sort of kill-switch that would solve all of my problems and make the wasteland into what I envisioned, but I was starting to realize that I was sorely underestimating what it would take. Problems were not fixed with the single push of a button.

I didn’t have a clue what kind of resources Seahawk had at his disposal, beyond a rough estimate of what kind of forces he had at his disposal, but that said nothing about weapons, supplies, or locations. I literally knew almost nothing about what he, or she, was capable of. Hell, I didn’t even know what fucking gender the bastard was.

I was going to have to start planning ahead, and make sure that I was actually working towards what I wanted to accomplish. Luckily, I had a small start with Millberry and Metro. Then, if Starshine held true to his promise, we would have the aid of him and his Dashites. Finally, there were the ghouls that were heading west from Stable 60, who, even if they couldn’t provide much in the way of militant help, could at least help us with whatever machinery and technology we needed.

I was definitely off to a good start, but my only goal so far had been to finish the jobs I had been given. Now, I needed to make sure that these places were actually willing to help against Seahawk. Going and talking to Shooting Star was definitely the best way to start on that. He could easily spread the news around the wasteland about Seahawk. All I needed to do to that end was get out of here.

And that was where my problem was. I was trapped, held prisoner by a group that had attacked one of my friends, exiled another, and was blaming me for simply trying to survive. With that kind of a track record, I would need a miracle to get out of this mess alive. At least I still had my Pipbuck…

The door slid open with the sound of escaping steam and I snapped my head to the opening to see who was coming to speak to me. A pony walked into the room, and I knew from the barrels attached to the armor that it was the pony that had been in charge of the patrol that had saved our lives, except now he had his helmet off. He was a dark red in color, contrasting sharply with his stark white mane. His expression was severe, making me fear what was going to come next.

Once he was inside the room, the door slid closed again and sealed with an audible thud, letting me know in no uncertain terms that I was not leaving unless they wanted me to. The armored buck stood in stony silence for several moments, simply watching me. I could feel his gaze sizing me up, taking in every little detail he could, but I knew he was looking for threats or tells, not admiring my flank.

“So, I’m guessing you were thinking that we wouldn’t know who you are, Ever? Leader of the raider gang to our north?” he stated harshly, his voice giving absolutely no quarter.

Oh, fuck, this wasn’t good. Now I was well and truly buried if I had to convince them that I wasn’t a raider, on top of everything else. “Well, for starters, I wasn’t expecting you lot to be this close to that camp,” I said, “But I’m also not connected to that place anymore. Made sure of that yesterday.”

“Is that so?” the buck asked sarcastically, “Because this is what I saw: A dirty pony in scarred and bloodstained barding, charging at our bunker, leading a pack of ravenous manticores right to our doorstep. You were accompanied by none other than Crosswire, an exile tossed out for theft and assault, as well as one of the most unmanageable young mares I have ever laid eyes on. Throw in an insanely reckless, probably disgraced, Enclave soldier, and everything points to you being a raider, Ever. The only reason you’re alive at all is because the Elder wants answers out of you.”

“Where does Suture fit in to you neat little theory, then?” I demanded, my anger getting the better of me, “She doesn’t fit the raider stereotype in any fucking way! And don’t you dare say that we were forcing her to be there. Any idiot with eyes could see that she wanted to be with us.”

“I’m guessing that you are referring to the maroon mare with the blue mane?” The buck asked with a raised eyebrow, “The answer is rather simple. She was cast out from whatever town she came from, and somehow found her way to you. A raider would never let a skilled medic go.”

I shook my head slowly, unable to believe how dense this idiot of a buck could be. “You’ve got to be fucking kidding me,” I growled, “I mean, seriously? Who the fuck would toss Suture out on her tail? Have you even talked to her? There is no pony more devoted to her home than she is! She’s the fucking doctor from Metro! She’s traveling with me because I’m working for them, as a mercenary!”

“Likely story. I bet all of your so-called ‘friends’ are going to tell the same one?” the buck asked, his lips curling up in a victorious smile.

“No shit they’re going to say the same thing. It’s the fucking truth!” I yelled, “What the fuck do I have to do to prove that? Did you even look through my bags?”

At that question, the buck’s grin vanished and his severe frown returned. “We did, and everything we found points to you being a raider. An absolutely ridiculous amount of caps, obviously taken from a caravan, not to mention an incredible amount of scrap junk, electronics, and components, no doubt Crosswire’s that he stripped from anything that came within reach. And finally, something that belongs to us.”

“Something that I was being paid to deliver,” I shot back, “If you don’t believe me, send a fucking messenger to Metro to talk to Mallet. He’ll confirm everything, guaranteed.”

“You know as well as I do that that isn’t going to happen. We survive because nopony knows where we are, and we intend for it to stay that way. Besides, that particular object was meant to be in our possession over a week ago. Why would Metro’s mayor delay?”

I sighed heavily, finally managing to cool some of my anger off. “Because when the first caravan was headed this way, I was still a raider. One of my raiding parties hit that caravan and brought me the Crystal. Since then, I have left the gang behind, went to Metro, and gave them the Crystal back. After doing some work for them, Mallet decided to give me the job of bringing it down here. There is no more honest answer than that one,” I said, hoping that the buck would actually listen to me.

“So you admit to attacking a caravan carrying materials meant for us?” the buck asked harshly.

“What? Yes, I ordered a raid, but how the fuck was I supposed to know where it was going? That was before I figured a bunch of shit out! I’m a completely different pony now!” I snapped, getting to my hooves and standing defiantly before the armored Pegasus. I was angry enough that I didn’t care that he could easily paint the walls with me without even breaking a sweat.

“Do you want me to tell you how many times I’ve heard a pony say that, Ever?” he growled, lowering himself slightly, as though he expected me to charge him.

“My name is Evergreen!” I shouted, then did exactly as he expected. I didn’t give a shit that it would simply make my situation worse. I was standing here arguing with a buck that refused to listen to a single word that came out of my mouth. I was just hoping that some cranial trauma would finally get my point across.

In the split second before I reached the buck, I saw a hint of surprise in the buck’s eyes. He obviously hadn’t expected to hear what I had just said. Unfortunately, the surprise wasn’t nearly enough to buy me the advantage I needed.

The buck twisted his body, letting me slam into one of the barrels hanging off his armor, rather than hitting his head as I had intended, then spun around to fling me into the wall. I hit hard, the air being driven from my lungs as I collapsed on the ground. I struggled to my hooves and turned to face the buck, who was bearing slowly down on me, a conflicted look on his face.

As he approached, the conflicted look disappeared and was replaced by one of determination. I was finally back on my hooves and prepared to do whatever I could to defend myself, but I was sorely unprepared for the power contained in his buck as he twisted around on reaching me and kicked.

The first blow sent me back into the wall, once again driving out what little air I had managed to breathe back in. Before I could stand, he rested a hoof on my side, much as I had done to Crackshot the day everything had begun, except the strength behind his stance was many times greater than anything I could manage. “What did you say?” he growled at me, his face twisted in anger, but with hints of confusion.

“My name… is Evergreen,” I panted, wincing under the pressure of his hoof, “Not Ever. I’m not… a fucking raider.”

“I need to tell the Elders about this development. You had better re-think how to treat your hosts,” the buck snapped, then kicked me in the head, hard enough for the dark of unconsciousness claim me.

My head was pounding terribly when I finally came to. A quick check of my Pipbuck told me that I had been unconscious for almost two hours. I slowly rose to my hooves, holding my pounding head with one, and made my way to the bed, where I lay down. It was a gross understatement to say that things were not going well for me. At least it seemed like I had managed to surprise the bastard into needing to actually speak with his superiors before killing me.

I lay down on the bed, hoping that I would get a chance to recover before having to defend myself again. Unfortunately, that chance was not going to come as the door opened once again. I rolled over onto my side so that I could get a glimpse of who was walking in, and was surprised to see an aging Earth Pony mare, rather than the armored red buck from before. She had a light orange hide with a dark green mane liberally streaked with grey. Her cutie mark was covered underneath a mass of flowing blue robes.

“I apologize for your treatment at the hooves of Star Paladin Apple Crisp. He can be rather… severe with strangers,” the mare stated, walking far enough into the room so the door could close behind her, “I am Elder Bitter Orange, the leader of this Outpost.”

“Do you train all of your Paladins to completely ignore anything anypony else has to say?” I growled, albeit weakly considering my headache, “And the kick seemed like overkill too…”

“As I said, I apologize for your treatment. He has many preconceived notions of others that make it very difficult to convince him of anything. On the one hoof, it makes him an excellent interrogator. On the other, well, you experienced it,” the Elder explained calmly, “However, something you said threw him completely off track. Something about your name, I believe it was?”

I nodded, immediately regretting the motion as it set off a whole new level of pain in my head. “Yeah,” I muttered, “He said that you all knew of that raider gang to the north of here, and that I used to be in charge of it. Well, he kept referring to me as Ever, which is how the ponies in that gang knew me. When I left, I started going by my full name again, which is Evergreen.”

“I see,” the Elder trailed off, pulling a clipboard out of her robes and noting something down on it. After several moments of her simply reading whatever was on the clipboard, she looked up again and fixed me in a piercing gaze, “So you are going to stick to this tale of yours that you are a mercenary in service to Metro, and that the mayor there sent you to us to deliver the Messaging Crystal?”

“Of course I’m going to stick to that story! It’s the fucking truth!” I growled, “I told that Paladin that you could send a messenger to talk to Mallet. He’ll confirm the whole thing.”

“So you said. Unfortunately, we have no way to do that. I am sure Apple Crisp informed you that our location is kept secret because we do not range very far. Our strength in this region is not nearly enough to become involved, or known, to the masses,” the Elder said, almost an exact repetition of what the damned Paladin had said.

“Then I don’t know what else to say!” I snapped, “Since you refuse my one attempt at verifying that I am telling the truth. I don’t have anything else except my word and the word of my friends, most of whom you lot hate!”

“If you mean Crosswire and the Enclave soldier, then I will agree that you have made a very poor choice of companions,” the Elder agreed, “the others, however, are complete strangers to us, though the one mare certainly acts like she would be a raider if given half the chance.”

I couldn’t help but to laugh at the statement, despite the pain. That these ponies thought that Autumn Mist could ever become a raider was simply unbelievable.

“Is something funny about this? You have caused a major breach in security, not to mention a lot of uneasiness among our younger members,” the Elder stated angrily.

“I’m sorry, I just can’t believe that you lot think Autumn Mist could be a raider. Her biggest motivation for traveling with me is that she’s promised to kill me if I ever even start to revert to that lifestyle. She despises raiders with every single bone in her body. I fully believe that she would rather put a bullet in her own head before letting herself become one.”

“You claim that, and yet she has resisted every attempt to speak with her so far, even going so far as to attack the Knights and Paladins sent to speak with her,” the Elder explained, “All of which are actions that point to her being a pony that is not accepted in… ahem… ‘civilized’ settlements. We have since had to keep her isolated simply for the safety of our personnel.”

“Probably because you lot took us captive and she hasn’t got a clue what’s happening to anypony else in our group. We are fairly close knit, especially after all the shit we’ve been through in the last week and a half,” I answered, “And Autumn is the kind of pony that takes the protection of her friends very seriously, especially since she’s a sniper.”

“I see… And what of the other mare? The maroon one. Tell me about her,” the Elder asked, suddenly changing the subject.

“Did you even talk to that Paladin?” I demanded, rising to my hooves, despite the pounding it caused in my head, “Because I told him all of this!”

“I am merely seeing if your answers are changing or not, Evergreen. Now please, tell me about her.”

I snorted angrily before speaking, “Suture is a medic, from Metro. She started traveling with us at first to make sure that we didn’t go back on our word with the mayor and actually did complete the job he gave us. Since then, she’s stayed with me because everything we are doing is to ensure the future of both Metro as well as the entire fucking wasteland. For a wasteland pony, she is innocent and naïve, but her skills are invaluable to us. Is there anything else specific you want, or should I start listing off her sexual preferences?”

“No, I think this is fine. What I really want to know is why you led a pack of manticores to our door if you were trying to make a delivery,” the Elder demanded, making another note on her clipboard.

I shook my head slowly, completely baffled at this mare’s ability to jump from topic to topic, as though she didn’t even care about my answers. “I didn’t mean to lead them straight to you. They surrounded us a few miles back on the trail, right outside a small box canyon. There were far too many for us to fight off, so we ran, hoping they would give up. It was just dumb luck that your patrol found us before the manticores caught us. They saved our lives.”

“Hmmm… that fits the behavioral patterns of the manticores in this region, so I am inclined to believe you. However, this does not excuse your bringing two sworn enemies of this Outpost to us,” the Elder claimed, “What do you have to say in their defense?”

“What the fuck do you want me to say? Crosswire is probably the best friend I have, and is by far the most reliable pony I know. You lot lost a real asset when you kicked him out.” The Elder glared at me disbelievingly at those words, but allowed me to continue. “As for Steel Curtain, he isn’t actually an Enclave soldier anymore. He deserted and became a Dashite, and simply managed to do it before they could strip him of his armor, weapons, and cutie mark.”

“Is that what he told you?” the Elder asked pointedly, making another note on her clipboard.

“Yes, it’s what he told me, and I believe him! Unlike some, I am willing to take ponies at their word if they haven’t given me a reason to doubt them! Everything Steel Curtain has done since he joined us has been proof that he is what he claims to be! Hell, he’s saved my life more times than I care to admit!” I snapped, “Why can’t you lot seem to see anything more than what is simply right in front of your noses? Ponies are more than what they appear to be!”

“We are being cautious, Evergreen. As I already told you, secrecy is our best defense. As much as I wish I could believe you about this Enclave soldier, your word is simply not good enough to prove that he is not everything he appears to be. He even speaks like an officer, though I imagine you didn’t notice that,” the Elder claimed, “He is an enemy and a threat that cannot be underestimated. To that end, we will need to act accordingly. Thank you for speaking with me, I will be sure to take this all into account before judging you and your companions.”

With that, the mare turned and started to walk towards the door which slid open smoothly at her approach. She was halfway through the door when the implications of her words struck me.

“Wait! What are you going to do to him!” I shouted, lunging for the door to try to keep her from leaving. Much to my surprise, I barely made it six feet before two armored ponies appeared in the portal and shot me with some sort of stun weapon that tore my body from my control and left me to fall helplessly to the ground, where I lay, muscles quivering.

All the same, my words had the desired effect and the mare stopped and turned to stare at me haughtily. “Why, he will be executed, of course. An enemy of his stature is simply too great a threat.”

I struggled weakly to get myself into a more comfortable lying position and tried to speak, but all I could force out was a pained groan. I redoubled my efforts, throwing every ounce of will I had into my effort to speak. “You. Can’t. Kill him,” I forced out, every word sending lances of fire through my chest as I fought through the effects of the stun guns.

“And why not? The Enclave and Steel Rangers are our sworn enemies. They have control of the entire sky, while we are down here, fighting for the very survival of our order. Our existence is a personal insult to them. Even if he is not highly ranked, his speech and accent denote him as someone born to one of their upper class. His loss will cause many repercussions that will only aid us,” the Elder explained.

“He isn’t… one of… them,” I panted, “I need him. He’s… my friend.” I fought against the pain in my limbs as the stun rounds started to wear off and finally managed to make it to a sitting position where I stayed, sweat dripping down my face and forcing my mane flat against my head.

“A friend? Enclave operative don’t have friends. They use ponies for their own means. He is trying to use you, Evergreen. Even if everything else you told me is the truth, I can guarantee you that everything you told me about him is a lie,” the Elder stated, taking a step back into the room.

“I don’t believe that. I can’t. You haven’t seen him, listened to him,” I persisted, strength finally beginning to flow back into my limbs, “He is not your enemy.”

The Elder shook her head slowly, her expression shifting to one of pity. “I am sorry that he managed to fool you this completely, Evergreen, but the proof is staring you in the face: the Enclave would never allow one of their soldiers to leave with full possession of their armor and weapons. They know that we exist, and the risk of one of their sets of powered armor falling into our hooves is too great. They would only trust one of their best operatives to come down here with those things.”

“YOU DON’T KNOW HIM!” I shouted with all my strength, loud enough to shock the mare into taking a step back and for the two armored ponies to step into the room, weapons carefully trained on me. “He fears for his family, worried sick at how they are probably being treated since he is labeled as a traitor and deserter. He doesn’t know if his younger brother is going to be exiled as a result of his actions, and the worry is tearing him apart! And all you fucking assholes can do is pretend that it’s all a ruse, or a ploy for ponies like me to lower their guard!”

The Elder struggled to regain her composure, resettling her robes about her before fixing me in an angry glare, “I knew that he had you in his pocket, though I guess I didn’t realize just how well. Let me get one thing straight, Evergreen. He is not what you think he is. Ponies like him excel at manipulating others to their own ends. You are just another victim.”

“’Enclave soldiers aren’t mindless automatons. They have hopes and dreams, just like everypony else’,” I quoted, staring the mare down, “That’s what Steel Curtain told me, not three days ago, outside of Metro. Would somepony who said something like that really be as ruthless as you claim? Would somepony like who you claim he is wander around the wasteland with me, going out of his way to save a bunch of slaves, whether or not I agreed to help him? Tell me what you have seen that proves he is some sort of super-secret agent?”

“His armor. His weapons. His behavior. All of these are evidence of what he his. You are putting too much stock in his words and actions, all of which are more than likely carefully engineered to make you believe everything he wants you to believe,” the Elder explained, as though it was all the most obvious thing in the world.

“Are you listening to yourself?” I snapped, rising up to my hooves and forcing the guard to take another step forward. I was fully expecting to get shot again, but I was also past the point of caring. “’I’m putting too much stock in his actions and words’? What the fuck else am I supposed to use to judge him? I can’t read fucking minds, so actions and words are all I have! Isn’t it what we choose to do that defines who we are? You’re the ones that don’t believe enough in words and actions. Instead, you listen only to what you already think is true, rather than opening yourselves up to different possibilities.”

The Elder once again shook her head at me and when she looked at me, it was with an expression of sadness. “I am truly sorry that he has confused you so completely. The simple fact that you believe so strongly in his lies has convinced me that all of your other claims are indeed the truth. To that end, this is my offer: tell me everything you know about this Steel Curtain, including everything you have seen him do or heard him say since you met. In return, you and the rest of your friends go free and I allow you to complete your mission. I’ll even pardon Crosswire. This information could make a great difference.”

“Let me get this straight. You expect me to sell out one of my closest, hell, one of my only friends, simply to let myself and my other friends to go free, even though we are being wrongly held in the first place? Why the fuck would I do that?” I growled angrily, beginning to pace in an attempt to keep my rage in check, “We shouldn’t even be prisoners! You said yourself that you believe me!”

“True, but Apple Crisp also told you that we cannot let you go free. I take this to mean that you will not accept the offer?” the Elder asked pointedly.

I stopped my pacing and sat silently for a moment, trying to calm myself enough to relax my expression, though I was still seething on the inside. “No, I won’t accept your offer. But I do have one of my own to make,” I said before the Elder could get a word in, “Give me any task that you need, or want, done that I can accomplish, and all of us go free. Steel Curtain included.”

Bitter Orange stared at me in blatant disbelief, her jaw hanging slightly open. I found a certain sick satisfaction in the fact that I had thrown her so completely off guard. “You’re willing to risk your life for this buck? Even after everything I’ve told you?”

“I would die if I knew it would guarantee the lives of my friends,” I responded bluntly, “Besides, all you’ve told me is what you’re assuming about him. I have no reason to believe any of it. So tell me what you want done, and I’ll get it done.”

“I… I need to think about this,” the Elder stammered, obviously completely at a loss for what to say, “If you are telling the truth about everything, this Pegasus included, well, I don’t know what to think. I still believe that there is more to him than meets the eye, but you don’t strike me as somepony that would allow themselves to be easily led astray, yet you are defending him with your very life.”

“Because that is what friends do,” I stated adamantly, “So either give me an answer now, or go take your good old time to think about it. But either way, make up your fucking mind.”

“I… I don’t know. I’ll be back soon,” the Elder stated haltingly as she made her way out of the room, “I promise that I will withhold any action until I come to a decision. I can’t do anything more than that.”

Just before the door closed behind her, I managed to get one last shot in. “At least it’s a fucking start.”

With the Elder gone, my anger quickly deflated, since it no longer had a target. All the same, I started breathing deeply, trying to exercise my mind to allow me greater control over my rage. Even though my anger had been completely justified, losing my shit like that to a pony of her stature would not always turn out this well. I had gotten lucky.

Once I had finally calmed myself, I returned to the bed and started to fiddle with my Pipbuck, trying to see if I could access the radio from my prison. To my surprise, the radio was still functioning, and I was able to get a clear signal.

The song that had been playing, some pseudo-rock ballad whose lyrics I couldn’t understand, came to an end, and there was a pregnant silence before the voice of the DJ, Shooting Star, rang out into the cell. “HELLO, SEADDLE! Guess what time it is? That’s right, it’s time for the news! I’ve got a few good tidbits for all of you, as well as a few things that may be hard to hear. As I always do, I’ll start with the good news.

A group of slaves being led to the Mill by none other than Chainlink himself were set free when none other than your Heroine of Seaddle stepped in and cleaned up shop, and rather efficiently from the reports I’ve received. The survivors, however, did report saying that the Heroine seemed very reluctant to accept their thanks, claiming that she didn’t deserve it. I can’t decide if I should applaud her modesty or start digging to find out why.

In other good news, the cities of Metro and Millberry have officially signed a treaty of alliance, and have begun to share supplies, as well as provide limited protection to the roadway between the two towns. It still isn’t entirely safe, but they are making a difference.

Now, the bad news. The town of Buckview is, indeed, gone. The entire town has been burned to the ground, with only one survivor: a lone filly by the name of Sunflower who was saved by none other than the Heroine of Seaddle. Unfortunately, the Heroine had already departed before I could get word of who was responsible for the attack. So my warning to all of you is to steer clear of Buckview until we know for sure what’s out there.

Well, that’s all I have for you all tonight. This is DJ Shooting Star, signing off.”

I sat in dumbfounded silence for quite a while after that sign-off, simply trying to comprehend everything that had been said. It seemed that this DJ never had anything to say that wasn’t about me or something that I had gotten involved in, and that simply seemed unbelievable to me. There was so much in this region that there had to be something else he could report on, or somepony else trying to make a difference.

Another part of me was surprised at how quickly news of my reluctance to accept praise for my actions had reached him. Even more surprising was his reaction. That he took my reluctance to mean that I was modest was insane, though at least he was open to the idea that there was more to the story. The wasteland being what it is, almost nothing was ever as it seemed.

I put the reports out of my mind, since mulling over them would do absolutely nothing to get me out of this situation, but it also seemed like nopony would be coming back to my cell any time soon. That being the case, I might as well try to relax, maybe sleep a bit if I could, since good rest was so hard to come by in the wasteland, and the last good night’s sleep we’d had had been in Metro three days ago.

I lay down on the bed and closed my eyes, trying to force myself to relax enough to drift off, but sleep wasn’t coming easy. Part of my mind was lingering on the theory the Elder had put forth about Steel Curtain, trying to make me recognize the potential that it was true. I didn’t want to accept it, especially since he had been such an integral part of our group for the last several days, and we would most certainly have been killed on several occasions had it not been for his influence.

I sighed heavily and rolled over, my body restless and itching for action. Steel Curtain was nothing if not earnest and determined. He had gone out of his way to help us, and offered up a lot about his past when it was brought up, almost as though he was trying to prove himself to us. In the fucked up world we all lived in, that meant a lot. It was a willingness to trust that most ponies didn’t have. I know I sure as hell didn’t.

But that niggling doubt remained in the back of my mind, insisting that the Elder could have been right, even if the possibility was extremely low. I felt guilty simply thinking about it, but I couldn’t deny the potential. Unfortunately, the only thing I could do about it now was promise myself to speak to the Pegasus later.

Finally, those thoughts dealt with, I started to doze off, my mind going blank and giving me over to the depths of sleep.

“So, isn’t it nice knowing that you can’t even trust the word of your ‘friends’ anymore, my dear Evergreen?” a voice, the voice asked, silky smooth and holding the promise of the greatest pleasure I could ever ask for.

I lifted my head from the pillow and looked for the source of the voice, steeling myself for what I might see, already aware that this room held no shadows to hide it. To my surprise, it was wearing the guise of a pony I had never seen before, though that didn’t make it any less grotesque than some of its chosen forms from the past.

It was taller than most ponies, just enough to be noticeable, but was also thin to the point of emaciation. Its coat was as black as a moonless midnight, almost seeming to absorb the light around it. Its mane bore the same color, flowing down its neck like liquid darkness, shimmering in the bright white light of the cell. Steeling myself even further, I shot a glance at its cutie mark. Even thinking I was prepared to see it I flinched at the sight of the embracing skulls, seeing once again the deaths of my parents in my mind’s eye. One of them even had a bullet hole in it, like the one that had killed my mother.

“If there is anything I can trust in this world, it’s their word,” I shot back, “Steel Curtain has been nothing but honest with us, offering up anything about his past that we asked. If that isn’t a sign of trust and friendship, I don’t know what is.”

“Trust, yes, but is it really a sign of friendship? All he wants is to be sure that you won’t shoot him in the back. You were the same, once. Making up stories so that the raiders wouldn’t shoot you on sight, claiming to have taken the lives of dozens of ponies that never even existed, all to make yourself seem a desirable asset,” the voice replied, undaunted by my opposition. It acted exactly the way it always did: unhurried and excessively patient, almost like it believed it had all the time in the world to twist me to its designs.

“Would a pony like the one Bitter Orange described throw himself, alone, at a gang of slavers for a bunch of ponies he had never even met, much less should care about if he were a secret operative?” I growled.

“If the trust he had to gain was important enough, yes. But he is ultimately of no concern, as you well know,” the pony stated, stepping across the room so smoothly it seemed like it was gliding to stand by my bed, “The only pony of any concern is you.”

I slid off the bed so that it stood between me and the pony, not wanting it any closer to me than necessary. “I no longer believe that. What could be more important than working to help better the lives of others? It took me a long time to come to that conclusion, but it was obvious enough when it came. Working only for myself, I was never happy. Sure, I had a comfortable position with a lot of power, but I couldn’t trust anypony around me. They were all too busy scheming to get rid of me. Once I started trying to help others, the real value of life became obvious. They started coming to me for help, offering me thanks when I did, and actually treating me with a degree of respect.”

The pony shook its head slowly, a toothy grin spreading over its grim features. I was taken aback when I noticed its teeth were filed to sharp points. “Oh how little you know. You think you have respect and hold the gratitude of others, but as soon as the chance at something better comes along, you will be tossed to the wayside, forgotten. And when that happens, who will be by your side, ready to pick you up? The pretty medic? She is loyal to her home first and foremost. It will always come first in her mind. The angry young sniper would still rather kill you and put her family to rest than live the rest of her life knowing she could have had vengeance. The Pegasus is a self-admitted traitor and deserter. How long will it be before he turns on you? And the tech, so loyal and endearing, straining always for the simple attention of a mare who never looks at him twice. When will he simply give it up for lost and go his own way, seeking his own fortune?”

With every word spoken, my rage grew. This time, it was easy to find. Whatever had stolen it away the last time me and this… thing… had spoken wasn’t affecting me anymore. By the time it was speaking about Crosswire, I was practically shaking.

“All you have ever been able to show me is the bad in others! You overlook their good sides, and everything that makes them a good pony. Would you say the same about Just Law? Would you say that he will shoot me on sight the next time I show my face, even though he and I have come to an agreement?” I snapped, glaring into the deep red eyes of the pony.

“Of course not, my dear Evergreen. Just Law means nothing to you, so speaking of him accomplishes nothing. It is your so called friends you need to watch out for. They have always been what you needed to watch out for,” It answered silkily, unfazed by my anger.

“Never,” I growled deeply, watching in satisfaction as the pony’s expression shifted from one of patience to one of annoyance, “I trust them with every fiber of my being. You say that Steel Curtain is a liar and a traitor, well he deserted because he could not stand to be a part of what the Enclave was doing any longer. You claim that Suture will abandon me should her home ever become in danger? She has already left that town behind to join me of her own accord, after she no longer needed to. She understands what the real threat is, and knows that I’m the only fucking pony in the entire wasteland trying to do something about it! Autumn Mist is my real conscience, the pony I look to when I need to make a difficult decision. All you want is for me to give in to those dark emotions, the ones I have made sure to bury as deep as I can! Autumn can’t forgive me, and I don’t blame her, but she has accepted the fact that I regret my past. And nopony is as reliable or loyal as Crosswire.”

“You are so naïve, despite your years in the wastes,” the pony growled as it changed before my eyes, legs lengthening and body growing until it towered over me, its eyes coming to life so that they glimmered like a pair of red-hot coals, “Nopony cares about you, Evergreen, and nopony ever will. The only solace you will ever find in this life is with me. I am the only one who knows anything about how to find satisfaction! It is with me that you will find the happiness you so desperately seek.”

Despite my anger, I found myself backing away in fear until I was up against the wall, with nowhere else to go. “I tried that once, and it got me into this mess!” I yelled, using volume to hide my fear, “I was lost, unhappy, and didn’t even realize it! How could that possibly be better than this? At least I know there are ponies that I can trust.”

“But you were safe!” it thundered, “You had power and influence! Ponies feared you!”

“I don’t want that anymore!” I shouted right back, “I want peace. I want to be able to wake up in the morning and not hate myself. I want to be able to walk into a town and not be immediately under suspicion, simply for being who I am. If I have to give up some power to achieve that, then I’m fine with it.”

“But I am not!” the pony screamed and lunged at me, forehooves reaching for me.

I tried to dodge to the side to escape its reaching grasp, but wasn’t fast enough. It slammed into me, knocking me into the wall and sending me crashing into the ground. It held me there, pinned and helpless and glared into my eyes. My flesh crawled where it was touching me, making me want to recoil in disgust, but it held me too tightly so all I could do was squirm.

“I am all you will ever need,” it growled as it lowered its face to mine. I tried to scream as its lips touched mine, but all that came out was a muffled groan.

I woke with a start, panting heavily, still feeling the rough texture of that thing’s lips against mine, and shuddered at the memory. To my surprise, I was still lying in the bed, though it was completely soaked with my sweat. I slowly got to my hooves, shaking my head to try to chase away my memories of the nightmare, but they lingered, like a bad taste in the back of my throat.

I glanced at my Pipbuck, surprised to see that almost the entire night had passed. The nightmare had seemed so short. I shook my head violently, chasing the cobwebs out of my mind, and turned my thoughts to what I would soon need to be facing.

With luck, the Elder would be coming back soon, and with some sort of task for me. If everything went well, my friends and I would be free, and we could clear the air. They all had a lot of explaining to do, and I was eager to hear what they had to say for themselves, especially the traitor, Steel Curtain. I would do everything the Elder asked of me, just to make sure that I was the only one that had anything to do with them. I didn’t want any other interruptions.

Before long, true to my predictions, the door slid open with that now-familiar pneumatic hiss, and the Elder entered, flanked by the self-righteous Paladin, Apple Crisp, as well as two other fully armed and armored Steel Ranger ponies.

“I’m guessing you finally came to a fucking decision?” I asked, my voice harsh and angry. I was sick of waiting on other ponies to make decisions that affected my life so intrinsically.

“I have,” the Elder answered, somewhat taken aback, “Star Paladin Apple Crisp has brought a particular difficulty to my attention that we could use some aid in. If you manage to resolve the issue in a way that we deem satisfactory, you and your friends will be free to complete your business here, and go on your way.”

“Good,” I snapped, “What’s the job?”

“Follow me, and we’ll show you,” Apple Crisp ground out between clenched teeth. He was very obviously holding himself back from doing something about my behavior.

“Lead the way then. Am I getting my gear back for this job?” I demanded, falling into step behind the large, armored pony, “And am I going to be on my own? I could use the help of a couple of my friends.”

“That wasn’t the agreement,” the Elder interjected, “The agreement was that you would solve a problem for us, so your companions will stay right where they are. As for your gear, you will be given your weapons, ammo, and a small supply of healing chems. We will hold on to everything else.”

“What about my barding?” I demanded.

“You will be given that back as well,” Apple Crisp snapped, “Now shut your mouth and show some respect to the Elder.”

I did as the Paladin asked, simply because I didn’t want to get kicked again. That powered armor really packed a punch.

They led me through the bunker, which seemed like it was constructed to be a labyrinth, until we finally emerged on the surface after climbing several different sets of stairs. Somehow, we didn’t pass a single pony during the entire march. It seemed like the entire place was deserted, except for the itch on the back of my neck, making me realize that every single step I took was being watched.

Outside, the mountains rose up to almost touch the very bottom of the clouds. The rain was coming down gently, just enough to be noticed, but not bad enough to affect my accuracy. We continued walking for several minutes, making our way down a narrow defile that opened into a small hollow that was maybe a dozen feet on a side. The most distinguishing feature was a massive gear-shaped door set into the mountainside that had the number 76 painted on it in bold yellow block print.

“A fucking Stable. You’ve got to be kidding me,” I growled, turning to shoot the Elder a poisonous glare, “The last of these fucking things I was in, we almost ended up dead ten times over. It was full to the fucking brim with feral ghouls.”

“You said any task we wanted. This is it,” The Elder responded calmly, an aloof expression on her face.

I snorted at the comment. “I was expecting something possible. These things are fucking deathtraps.”

“If you don’t want to do it, then we shall simply proceed with what our plans were before, Evergreen. It is your decision,” the Elder stated, “I leave you in the capable hooves of Star Paladin Apple Crisp.” With that, the Elder turned and started back towards the bunker under the escort of the other two armored ponies.

Which left me alone with the Star Paladin, who was glaring at me rather angrily. “So, exactly what is it you lot want me to kill myself for?” I asked with a sidelong glance at the Paladin while I approached the massive door.

“We have it on good authority that there is an experimental power source buried in this Stable. We want it so we can convert it for use on the Outpost. We managed to unseal the Stable some years ago, but never made it farther inside than the main atrium. Everything else was sealed off,” the large red pony answered curtly, depositing a set of saddlebags on the ground, “Here’s your gear.”

I turned away from the Stable door and approached the saddlebags, finding my barding and weapons stored within. I started to pull the armor on, watching the Paladin for any sort of hint at what I might find down there. “You expect me to be able to get through those areas?”

“We don’t expect anything from you. You made an offer, and this is the task Elder Bitter Orange decided to give you. I honestly expect that you’ll be crawling out of their with your tail between your legs before the day is out, and then we can finally forget about this farce and deal with that Enclave soldier and our own exile accordingly,” the Paladin shot back, “So, I’m going to open this door, you’re going to walk in, then I’m going to close it again, so I can actually get some real work done.”

“You’re not sealing me in there!” I protested, turning on the buck, my armor finally settled across my back, “The last one I got stuck in I only survived because the door was open! You are not closing it with me in there!”

“I honestly don’t care what you think, Evergreen. You can play this by our rules, or you can scurry back to your cell to rot. No hair out of my mane for what you decide,” Apple Crisp stated, unfazed.

I watched the buck angrily for several moments, but he stared straight back, obviously not about to back down. “Fine,” I finally spat, “We’ll do it your way. How am I going to let you know to let me the fuck out of there?”

“I’ll come back and open the door at sundown. If you aren’t there within ten minutes of that, I’m sealing it back up and will come back in the morning. If you aren’t back by then, well, we’ll just figure you for dead at that point,” he answered as calmly as though discussing the rain.

“Just make sure you hold to that,” I snapped, sliding Hammer into its holster and sliding my knife into its sheath, “Now get that fucking door open.”

While the Paladin activated the controls, I slid the saddlebags onto my back and checked my Pipbuck for what was actually in them. The Steel Rangers had been rather more generous than I had expected them to be when it came to my healing supplies. I had a full five healing potions to work with. I snorted in disgust and turned my gaze to the Stable door, which was now grinding loudly against its frame as it was dragged back into the depths of the ancient bunker. It was amazing what difference a Stable door being in the open could have on the volume of its opening. The last one had nearly deafened me, yet this one was no more grating than somepony’s hoof being dragged across a chalkboard.

“There. It’s open. Now get the fuck in there so I can get back to doing my job,” Apple Crisp snorted, tossing his head in the direction of the open door.

“Thanks,” I snapped sarcastically as I stepped through the door and into the dim interior of the entrance way. As soon as I was clear of the door, I heard the warning claxon start to sound as the door slid closed behind me, making me wince at the echoes it sent around the small metal box that was the main entrance.

Within moments, I was locked into the Stable, completely alone, and not knowing what to expect. I took a deep breath, trying to calm my jangled nerves, and started forward. The only way I was going to get out of this mess was by going forward, so that was exactly what I was going to do, no matter what dangers this place held.

I followed the only available path through the decaying metal hallways, pressing deeper into the mountainside, and whatever horrors this tomb of the old Equestria held. Before long, I had made it as far as the Steel Rangers had, and stood in the center of the vast, two-story atrium. I quickly realized why they had made it no farther, as every single door leading out of the atrium was sealed tight, far too secure for me to get through. Had Crosswire been here, then it might have been possible to get inside some of them, but I also didn’t know what to expect from the buck anymore. With our freedom restored, he could easily choose to remain, back with the ponies that had raised him. Why wouldn’t he, since they were all just as two-faced as he had managed to be, hiding his real personality from me for all those years.

I pushed all thoughts of my companions out of my mind, focusing on the here and now. As in Stable 60, the Overmare’s office must contain something about what had been going on in here. The Stable had obviously failed as well, since the interior was very visibly decaying, and there was no sign of anypony having lived here in a very long time.

I trudged around the atrium slowly, taking advantage of the calm to examine each sealed door carefully, trying to spot a potential weakness. It took a long while, but finally, I found something. It was a wall panel that wasn’t quite placed correctly on the wall. At first glance, it had simply seemed to be a result of the overall state of decay of the Stable, but as my gaze passed over it a second time, something simply seemed… off.

I approached it cautiously, not knowing what to expect. When I finally reached it, I reached out a hoof and slid the wall panel to the side, surprised at how easily it gave. The panel finally out of the way, I lit up the flashlight in my Pipbuck and shone it into the exposed hollow, shocked at what was inside. A skeleton sat huddled against the far wall of the empty space behind the wall, the bones still wrapped in the remains of a Stable jumpsuit.

I reached in and pulled the remains out, checking through the pockets of the jumpsuit with minute detail, searching for anything of value. All I managed to turn up was a small plastic card that my Pipbuck identified as a Stable 76 ID card. I examined it a little closer, learning that it had once belonged to a cream earth pony buck by the name of Stargazer. He was smiling in the picture, almost handsome if not for the intense anger that hid in his eyes. Unfortunately, the card revealed little more than his name, as every other symbol printed on it was simply some form of number or another, with abbreviated letters denoting what they meant, but without any inkling at what the abbreviations stood for, the numbers were useless to me.

I pocketed the card, hoping it might come in handy later, then turned back to face the main floor of the atrium, wondering what my next step should be. I was already one step farther than the Steel Rangers had ever achieved, I just needed to figure out what came next. Too bad that small space hadn’t been anything more than that.

I started pacing across the floor, scouring my brain for any ideas. It was just at a time like this that Autumn Mist would declare some fool notion that would invariably turn out to be the right idea, but I didn’t have the foggiest idea what that suggestion might have been. For all I know, it would be ‘Let’s shoot my rifle right next to Evergreen’s head again!’ That would be just like the spiteful bitch, always a single hair away from turning those weapons of hers against me. How the fuck was it my fault that she couldn’t understand my regret, and accept my apology! Didn’t she realize that how much it had cost me to make that admission?

In my anger, I nearly missed a soft female voice announce from somewhere to my left, “Classroom access granted,” and the harsh pneumatic hiss of a door long sealed grinding open.

I turned at the sudden intrusion of my thoughts and was shocked to see a door standing wide open, inviting me inside. I made my way to the threshold, but hesitated before entering. What the fuck had I done for it to slide open like that? I hadn’t done anything that I hadn’t tried on my first pass… but I was carrying something new.

The identification card must have acted as some sort of key, allowing me entry into an area this buck had had access to. For it to unseal the lockdown, at least of this area, must have meant that he was relatively important, maybe even the Overstallion himself. Confident that my theory was correct, I stepped across the threshold and into the classroom.

“Please state your name,” the soft female voice announced as I entered, then fell silent, with a near-silent, rhythmic clicking sound in the background, as if something was counting out time.

“Uh, Evergreen,” I announced into the empty room, unsure what the voice was looking for.

“Identification incorrect. Security breach detected. Countermeasures deploying. Lockdown initiated,” the voice announced calmly, and two panels on the ceiling slid to allow a pair of turrets to drop into the room, which instantly fixated on me. The door also slammed loudly shut behind me, sealing me inside with no solid cover to speak of.

As soon as I saw the barrels turn to face me, I was moving, jumping to the side and ripping Hammer from its sheath and dropping into S.A.T.S. to line up a pair of shots at the machines. I lined up two shots to the turret furthest from me, and a single shot to the closer one.

Time snapped back into normality and the rounds fired. The first turret exploded in a shower of sparks and shrapnel that bounced harmlessly off of my armor, but the second survived my shot with little more than scratched plating and opened fire at me, scoring my hindquarters with a red-hot lance of laser fire as I tried to leap behind a desk for cover.

“Fucking bastard son of a three-legged raider!” I swore, popping out from behind the desk to fire another pair of rounds at the offending turret, reducing it to nothing more than scrap.

“Countermeasures disabled. Lockdown lifting,” the voice announced, and the door slid open once again.

“Yeah, fuck you too,” I snapped at the room, twisting around to inspect my newest injury. The laser turrets had carved a nice line across my hindquarters that hurt fiercely. The flesh around the wound was already red and swollen, making any extra movement hurt just that much more. I pulled out a healing potion and drank it to calm the blazing pain, and thankfully lower the swelling as well. The potion gone, and the pain reduced to bearable levels, I started investigating the room, searching for anything of value.

All of the desks were completely empty, as though the students had cleared them out, so there were no leads there. I made my way to the front of the room, and the teacher’s desk, where a computer sat, humming to itself, almost as if it were waiting for me. Sitting on the desk were a few odd papers, some looking like nothing more than a colt or filly’s assignments waiting to be graded, but one or two appearing rather formal or official.

One of them bore the Stable-Tec logo, except with the number 76 inscribed in the central circle. I reloaded Hammer and slid the revolver into its holster before picking up the piece of heavy paper and lifting it closer to the light. On close examination, it appeared to be some sort of contract, with the undersigned, as the Head of Education for the Stable, agreeing to have sole private access to the classroom, and that any violation of that agreement, including lending their identification card to somepony else to simply fetch something, would result in ‘severe repercussions’, whatever that meant. Probably the turrets. Signed at the bottom of the page, in very controlled mouthwriting, was the name Stargazer.

So the poor bastard hadn’t been the Overstallion. He was simply the bastard put in charge of the classroom, which explained why it had opened for me when I had gotten close. The door had been looking or some sort of signal coming from the card, which was probably acting as a key. Which probably also meant that the computer, or security system, or whatever the fuck it was had probably been looking for his name. At least now I knew what to say the next time this happened, if there was a next time.

I placed the form back on the desk and turned my attention to the computer. To my surprise, all I had to do was step up to the monitor, and the screen shifted from the log-in screen to a welcoming message to Stargazer. It must also have recognized the identification card.

The first highlighted option looked to be nothing more than a list of lesson plans, so I backed out of that and selected the second option, which appeared to be a private log, that only had two entries. I hit the first entry, and was disappointed when it was a simple text entry, rather than the voice entry that we had found in the Stable 60 Overmare’s office.

I sat down in front of the screen, settling myself into a comfortable position to read the entry.

‘It’s been fifty long fucking years since that damn door locked my parents and all those others down here, and it seems that’s all it’s taken for the entire fucking Stable to lose its Princesses-damned mind. Midnight Blaze is going to run the fucking thing into the ground with all these new fucking regulations she’s trying to push through. But hooray for good planning, Stable-Tec: there’s not a fucking thing any of us can do to stop her. So now I have to make sure to carry this fucking ‘Identification Card’ everywhere I go. Fucking nuts if you ask me.”

I shook my head in exasperation. This buck thought that he had things bad. He should have considered himself lucky that he didn’t need to compete with whatever the fuck was on the surface at that point. He probably wouldn’t have lasted a day. I scrolled down and hit the second, and last, entry.

‘This is the last fucking straw. First Midnight Blaze makes the goddamn executive decision to make sure nopony can get anywhere without the ponies in charge of those places already being present, but then Arclight has the fucking gall to seal the entire engineering area off from the rest of the damn Stable, claiming that nopony has any reason to go down there. I swear to Celestia, those two are conspiring to tear the whole Stable apart from the inside. First chance I get, I’m making a break for it. Surface can’t be worse than what we’re suffering down here.’

It seemed that there had been more going in in this Stable than I had thought, which really wasn’t a surprising revelation. Judging by the tone of the logs, whoever this Midnight Blaze was had probably been the Overmare, or Overstallion for all I knew, and they were making some fairly unpopular decisions, at least to this buck.

I backed out of his logs and perused what else was available on the main menu. The third option appeared to be a general announcement from the ‘Stable 76 Executive Offices’, whatever that was supposed to mean. Curious, I hit the option, and the screen shifted to show a fairly large amount of text, all of which was dense political language. I muddled my way through the announcement, discovering that it was the regulation that Stargazer had mentioned in his second log. Apparently, the Stable 76 Executive was worried about security, and had made it mandatory for everypony in charge of some function to remain in, or at least near, their offices as much as possible, so that it was guaranteed that somepony who was supposed to be in those areas would be at all times.

I couldn’t for the life of me figure out what would have freaked these ponies out so much, especially since they were living inside one of the best-built bunkers known to ponykind. There shouldn’t have been a reason for their fear, and yet even the tone of the announcement was very obviously one of anxiety. The Executive, who I could only assume was their equivalent of an Overmare, sounded absolutely terrified of something.

I backed away from the computer, knowing I wasn’t going to find anything else useful on it, and started to look around the room again. I had a single pony’s identification card, which meant that I only had access to this room and maybe the dormitories, but that wasn’t a bet I was going to go for yet.

Instead, I began going over the classroom with a fine-toothed comb, searching for anything that might be of value. It took me almost no time to find something. It started as a flash of color from the corner of my eye while I was looking at the corner behind Stargazer’s desk, but manifested to be another corpse when I turned to look.

As with Stargazer, the corpse was little more than old bones draped in a Stable jumpsuit. I approached the body and searched it, expecting to find another identification card. I wasn’t disappointed as the small plastic rectangle slid out of a pocket to land at my hooves. Laying the body to the side, I lifted the small card to my eyes, wondering who this particular pony was.

The card showed a rather young Earth Pony mare, probably about the same age as Autumn Mist, with a bright yellow mane and a light blue hide. The name on the card was Holly Berry, so unfortunately not one of the ponies that appeared to be in charge from Stargazer’s logs.

I placed the card in my saddlebags and stepped out of the classroom, trusting that I wasn’t going to find anything else of interest in there, and back out into the atrium. I paused once I reached the center of the large room, wondering which door Holly Berry’s card was going to open for me. Without any better idea, I simply started walking from door to door, pausing at each one, hoping that one of them would slide open at my approach.

It took me almost fifteen minutes, and I was walking by the last few doors on the second floor, when one of them finally opened. As with the classroom, the eerie female voice called out “Refectory access granted,” and the door slid open with a hiss, giving me access to the room, which appeared to be almost twice the size as the classroom, with most of the floor space being taken up by booths and tables, unsurprising, given what the room was.

Gathering myself together, confident that I knew what I needed to say when the computer would undoubtedly challenge me, I stepped across the threshold. “Please state your name,” the voice announced almost immediately.

“Holly Berry,” I answered, quickly and confidently. I was smiling at my own cleverness, thinking that the entire system was so easy to beat.

To my horror, the voice announced, “Name confirmed. Please provide passcode.”

I didn’t have a fucking clue what it was looking for. I stood in shocked silence for several moments as the quiet ticking in the otherwise silent background wound down. In the same moment that it stopped completely, the voice made another announcement, “Time expired. Security breach detected. Deploying countermeasures. Lockdown initiated.”

In an almost exact imitation of what had happened in the classroom, the door slammed shut behind me and four turrets dropped from the ceiling, all of them turning to track me. Unlike in the classroom, I was already moving, with Hammer in my mouth, as soon as the voice had announced ‘Security breach’. Thanks to my quick reaction, the first two turrets were reduced to scrap before they could even begin firing, but that luck didn’t hold for the other two.

They opened fire, peppering my armor with low-caliber rounds, most of which bounced off harmlessly. A few bit into the armor, lodging into it, but not quite making it through to me, a fact for which I was grateful. Unfortunately, my armor only covered so much of my body, and several bullets bit into my legs, most of them simply getting grazing hits, but one bullet bit deeply into the meat of my left hindleg, sending me toppling to the ground.

I managed to get myself behind a booth and out of the direct line of fire, except I was stuck unless I could take out those last two turrets. I pulled another healing potion out of my saddlebags and chugged it, groaning in relief as the wounds in my legs and hindquarters sealed up and the pain faded to nothing more than a distant memory. I took the few moments of quiet to replace the rounds I had fired out of Hammer, then steeled myself for the next few seconds of insanity.

I rolled out from behind the booth, rising to my hooves in the same motion, and slipped into S.A.T.S., lining up a pair of shots at the closest turret. The rounds fired and the turret exploded in a shower of sparking metal. That one taken care of, I dashed to the side, trying to stay just ahead of the last turret’s targeting matrix, wanting to buy some time to get closer.

I zigzagged across the room, going from cover to cover and finally getting close enough to the turret that a quick pair of shots were all that were needed to reduce it to sparking scrap. As soon as the last turret was destroyed, the female voice came back. “Countermeasures disabled. Lockdown lifting.”

I snorted angrily, reloading Hammer while the door slid open again. It would be just my damn luck to think I figured something out, just to have it blow up in my face, almost literally. At least now with the turrets in this room taken care of, I would have all the time I could use to look through around. Hell, if I was lucky, I would find something to eat as well.

Following that train of thought, I started my search in the back area of the cafeteria, where the food was stored. Not only did I find some old, preserved food, but I also stumbled on a computer that had most likely belonged to Holly Berry.

I popped an old, musty snack into my mouth and started to chew, my mind automatically blocking out the aftertaste that was the result of sitting around in a musty Stable for two-hundred years, while I approached the computer. Just as it had in the classroom, this one lit up at my approach, recognizing the young mare’s ID card on me, and gave me full access to her files. I ignored all of the random announcements and inter-Stable correspondence that had also been on Stargazer’s computer, and started with her personal entries. There were only three of them, with the first being separated from the other two by almost a full year. I accessed the first and sat back to read, interested to see what shadows the Earth Pony’s thoughts would cast light on.

‘Wow! I can’t believe that Midnight Blaze gave me, of all ponies, the position as Head of the cooking staff! Mom would be so proud of me, if she were still here. At least I know that I can honor her memory doing what we both loved to do. I’m just so happy that Midnight Blaze recognized it! I swear I will not let her, or anypony in the Stable, down!’

I re-read the entry several times, trying to figure out what about it was relevant to my current conundrum, but couldn’t think of anything. It struck me then that all these were simply the young mare’s private thoughts, and that this one had taken place almost a year before the other two, and the same year in which Stargazer had been complaining about whatever new regulations were being enforced. With that in mind, I accessed the second entry, expecting something just as gushy as the first.

‘Well, I really don’t know what to say, but I feel like I should write something down. Our esteemed Executive Officer is saying that something is threatening the security of the Stable, but… it doesn’t seem like anything is any different than it was last month, or the month before that. All the same, she’s starting to make some new changes to our security. Most of them aren’t too bad, just some extra hardware being installed in all of the private and limited access areas, as well as an upgrade to the Stable’s security software. But some ponies aren’t too happy with the changes, especially Stargazer and his friends. Blueberry has been telling me that he has gotten a lot stricter and much harsher in his punishments these last few weeks. If that buck does something to hurt my little sister, I’m going to have to go to the Executive Officer about this. We simply cannot risk hurting the children. As Midnight Blaze always tells us: ‘The children are the future.’ I just hope that it doesn’t come to that.’

I was shocked at the change in tone of the mare’s writing. Even without being able to hear her voice, I could tell that she was under a lot more stress, and that the Executive Officer, who I was beginning to suspect was Midnight Blaze, was no longer held in as high of regard as she had been before. In fact, Holly Berry sounded actually afraid of the pony.

Almost afraid of what I was going to read next, I opened the accessed the next entry. I had no idea what to expect, but if the scene of the abandoned Stable around me was anything to go by, it wasn’t going to be good.

‘Oh, this is terrible! Stargazer has really fucked up this time. Why couldn’t he have just waited, or tried to talk to the Executive Officer, or even the Head of Security? Why did he think that anypony would think that his taking action was okay? I was in the atrium, chatting with Silver Bow, and Stargazer marched right by us, heading for the Executive Officer’s office. He disappeared inside, then came back a few minutes later with the angriest expression on his face that I have ever seen! The Executive appeared immediately after, just as angry, shouting that he had destroyed us all. I rushed straight here. I’m just so… so scared. I simply don’t know what’s going to happen. I think… I think I’m going to try to talk him down. Somepony needs to, and I don’t think Midnight Blaze is going to do it.’

I stepped back, thinking I knew what had happened to the poor mare. She must have gone to the classroom to confront to the buck, only to somehow end up dead. I didn’t know exactly how she had been killed, but it fit.

Since she had been speaking to another pony right before that last entry, I decided to check the cafeteria itself more closely. It was possible that Silver Bow had followed her in after the argument between Stargazer and Midnight Blaze.

True to my belief, I found a corpse lodged in a booth, in a clear line of sight to where one of the turrets had popped down. Its jumpsuit was also riddled with holes, leading me to believe that whoever it was had been targeted by the security system.

I searched the pony’s corpse, finally finding another ID card. As I had expected, this one was of an off-white unicorn mare named Silver Bow. As her name suggested, she had a silver bow tied into her bright red mane and was smiling broadly. It was the kind of smile that managed to light up her eyes, even if it was only a picture.

This time, instead of immediately pocketing the card, I examined it a bit closer, trying to see if there was anything on it that could possibly give me a hint at what information the security system wanted from me when I walked into a room. The only bit of information that seemed to be at all promising was the number that followed the abbreviation ‘P.C.’. My hope was that those letters stood for ‘Pass Code’. I committed the number to memory, then stuck the card into my saddlebags and went off in search of whatever door this one would open.

I had already found the Head of Education and Head of the cooking staff, so this unicorn, Silver Bow, must have been the Head of something as well. That seemed to be the way this Stable had been designed: extremely structured, with everypony having a specific job. I didn’t have a clue what I would do, however, if I came across a corpse that didn’t belong to somepony in charge of something, since they seemed to be the only ones with access to anything.

Once back in the atrium, took a moment to sit down and gather my thoughts. My current strategy wasn’t working too well, especially since I had already used two of the five potions Apple Crisp had given me, and had only managed to clear two rooms. At that rate, I would be full of holes before I managed to get into the engineering areas. I was going to need a new approach, yet it seemed like this place was designed for ponies to always be where they were supposed to be, which was bad news for me.

My biggest chance at survival at this point was to figure out what pass code the security system was looking for when I entered a room. If I had that, getting through this Stable was going to be easy. Unfortunately for me, that was one hell of a hurdle.

Well, I had my next attempt already planned out, and sitting around wasn’t going to get me anywhere. I rose back up to my hooves and started marching around the atrium again, searching for whatever door was going to open up this time. Unlike the last one, I found this door quickly. In its usual fashion, the door announced that I had gained access to the Laboratories, a fact that made me more nervous than I cared to admit. I had already learned that the Stables were experiments in and of themselves, so getting into an area that was meant for experiments inside one of these damn things just didn’t seem to bode well.

As I stepped into the room, my fears were entirely confirmed as a grisly scene met my eyes. Almost every single horizontal surface was covered in thick layers of rust and grime and the floor was absolutely littered with bodies, many of which were easily small enough to be the corpses of children. Luckily, my years of dealing out death had hardened my stomach, so the only feeling I felt was a skipped heartbeat as my mind registered the massacre I had stumbled upon.

I was so shocked that I almost missed the security system’s challenge. “Silver Bow,” I announced distantly, waiting for the inevitable counter-challenge.

“Name confirmed. Please state passcode,” the system predictably announced.

“Seven-Five-Two-Nine-Nine-Six-Four,” I announced, trying to force a bit of confidence into my voice. In the silence that followed, I found myself holding my breath, poised to spring into action the second it should become required.

“Passcode confirmed. Welcome, Silver Bow,” the system announced before falling silent and leaving me alone with only a few dozen corpses as company.

I let my breath out in a loud gasp, relief flowing through my body as I let my head hang down. “Thank the Princesses for that,” I muttered as I stepped farther into the room, doing my best to step around the bodies in my way.

It didn’t take me long to find Silver Bow’s small side office, and the computer that sat there, humming to itself, simply waiting for my approach. It would have been a lie to say that I wasn’t curious about what had happened in this Stable, and I stepped eagerly up to the computer, almost excited to learn more about what had killed everypony in here.

Silver Bow only had a single log entry on her computer that was dated for the same day that Holly Berry had announced she was going to talk to Stargazer. After reading the first few lines of the other half-dozen logs and realizing that they had nothing to do with anything that appeared to have happened down here, I was starting to think that that was the day everything had gone to shit. Almost apprehensive about what I was going to learn, I accessed the one file that seemed to be relevant.

‘I need to write this quickly, since I’m supposed to be meeting Holly Berry in the atrium today, for our usual weekly chat, but I simply must keep this record. It is a scientist’s duty to make sure no facts are lost, though I can’t guarantee that I will be writing without any bias. Holly is my friend, after all. The simple facts are the Midnight Blaze, our ever so esteemed Executive Officer, has been making many poor decisions recently, believing herself to be warding off some sort of danger to us. If she sincerely believed that something could possibly happen to us after fifty years of nothing, then I must believe that she is no longer fit to lead this Stable. Unfortunately, all possibility for a reasonable presentation of this thought is completely gone, since that idiot Stargazer decided to start shouting her down with that same demand on an almost daily basis for the last week. It doesn’t help matters much that she’s been working so closely with Arclight these last weeks on the new hardware installations. Those two bucks have never gotten along. I just hope that Security Chief Hot Lead manages to keep the peace. Thank the Princesses I managed to schedule a meeting with him today for just after my chat with Holly. Hopefully, between the two of us we’ll be able to figure out a solution.’

Despite the fact that I knew that Silver Bow had never made it to her meeting with the Security Chief, the log lifted my spirits significantly, since it implied that the Chief had come to the laboratory at some point that day, maybe shortly before Silver Bow had been killed. It made sense, because I couldn’t imagine that the mare had planned on going into the cafeteria with Holly Berry that day.

Feeling confident that this trail of bodies was finally coming close to a conclusion, I wandered back out into the main area of the lab. I was somewhat put off when I realized I would have to search each and every body to find one that belonged to the Security Chief. Doubtlessly several other ponies in this mess had to be Heads of their own departments, and would have information shedding light on why they had all gathered in here, but my only concern was why it had all happened in the first place. Leave it to the Steel Rangers to discover that answer, if they wanted. My concern was still, first and foremost, getting into the Engineering section and finding this Stable’s power source.

I reluctantly began the grisly work of searching the bodies. At least knowing that I was searching for a grown pony let me disregard the smaller bodies of the colts and fillies, but that didn’t make the job any easier. It took me almost a full hour of shifting bones and jumpsuits around to finally find the one I was searching for.

The Chief’s ID card identified him to be a severe-looking Earth Pony with a dark blue hide and white mane. Where every other picture had been of a smiling pony, Hot Lead showed no such inclination. As I had done with Silver Bow’s card, I memorized the Pass Code on it, and set out to track down the Security office. If the structure of Stable 60 was anything to go off of, I was expecting to find it somewhere down the same hallway as the one that the Overmare’s office would be in, or the Executive Officer’s, in this case.

As I expected, the door leading towards the Executive Office slid open at my approach, and there was what appeared to be a lengthy hallway behind it. What I wasn’t expecting was the challenge as soon as I stepped into the hallway.

“This is a restricted area. Please state your name,” the voice announced, making me stop dead in my tracks.

“Hot Lead,” I immediately answered. I couldn’t figure out why the system was already challenging me. Technically, I was still in a public area, so I shouldn’t need any sort of clearance to walk back here.

“Voice recognition failed. Security breach detected. Deploying countermeasures. Lockdown initiated,” the voice answered, shocking me so much I didn’t even think to grab Hammer before turrets were dropping out of the ceiling, with one every dozen feet or so, leaving me with four of the damned things to contend with.

The hallway was too narrow for me to do anything but run and shoot, so that was exactly what I did. I ripped Hammer from its holster and slid into S.A.T.S., lining two shots up against the first turret, and utterly destroying it when they fired a heartbeat later. Even as the sparks from that turret were hitting the ground, I was charging under it, firing at the second and third turrets, trying to knock them out of commission before they could do any real damage.

As luck would have it, I managed to reduce the next two to scrap before they managed to do any more than scratch my armor with the low-caliber rounds they were firing, but the last turret had more time to get shots on target. As I ran down the hall towards it, rounds started sparking off my chest, deflected by the steel plates of my armor, but just as I was taking aim, the turret shifted its aim, and sent a round straight through my right foreleg, making me tumble to the ground in a tangle of limbs.

I came to rest almost directly underneath the turret, thankfully out of its arc of fire, groaning in pain. Taking care of the immediate problem, I painfully twisted about so I could bring Hammer to bear and fired a pair of rounds into the turret, reducing it to scrap and showering myself in fragments of hot metal.

In the oppressive silence that followed, I took several moments just trying to push back the waves of fire coming from my leg, but I knew I would have to endure much worse if I wanted to get back to my hooves. Steeling myself for what I knew was coming, I contorted my body so I could get the wounded foreleg out in front of me, finally bringing the damage into sight as well as enabling myself to reach my saddlebags.

The intensity of the pain caused by the movement almost made me black out, but I managed to stay just this side of consciousness. Panting at the effort it took, I started to examine the wound, finding a neat hole punched straight through my right foreleg, just below the joint of my knee. I dug through my saddlebags and pulled out the third of my precious healing potions. I knew that this one wasn’t going to be enough to completely heal the wound, but it should at least enable me to move without blacking out, and would hopefully let me leg support my weight.

I quickly drained the potion and gasped in relief as the waves of pain from my leg abated, letting me finally breathe normally. As I had suspected, the potion didn’t fully heal the wound, and a small-ish hole was left that was still weeping blood. Luckily, I had learned enough to know how to tie a simple bandage, and Apple Crisp had been kind enough to give me some. Within minutes, my right foreleg was swaddled in a bandage, ranging from just under my armor until a few inches above my hoof.

That done, I shakily rose to my hooves, being careful to keep my injured leg off the ground. I wanted to make sure I was stable before trusting my weight to that leg. When I was absolutely sure that I was steady, I gingerly set my hoof down, slowly testing my weight. To my surprise, it managed to hold my weight rather well, thought it did hurt a bit. I would be able to manage a bit of pain if it meant I could at least walk normally.

The injury taken care of, at least to the best extent of my abilities, I continued forward, looking for the Security Office. Chances were that it would require the passcode again, and also the voice recognition, and since I wasn’t male, and had no clue what Hot Lead had once sounded like, there was no way in hell I was going to succeed at that. My one hope was to be faster than whatever turrets popped out of the ceiling when I inevitably failed.

Before long, I found the office, and watched with trepidation as the door slid open, giving me the illusion of easy access. I knew that I would be shooting something once I walked in, and I wasn’t looking forward to it. Unfortunately, simply standing here wasn’t going to accomplish anything, and I still had a lot to do if I wanted to get out of here and finally learn the truth behind my so-called ‘friends’ motivations.

I snorted briefly in anger and annoyance, then stepped through the door, Hammer already out and ready. I was not going to be caught unprepared again.

‘Please state your name,” the security system predictably demanded.

“Hot Lead,” I snapped around Hammer’s grip, fully expecting the attempt to be ignored.

“Voice recognition failed. Security breach detected. Deploying countermeasures. Lockdown initiated,” the computer intoned, just as I had expected it would, but I was already moving, taking cover behind a large metal cabinet and keeping my ears angled towards the center of the room, listening for where the turrets might drop down.

My eyes were glued to my E.F.S., watching for any bars to appear. Only one did. I remained where I was, body primed and ready to spring, not sure what to make of that. So far every room I had been in, except the laboratory, had been protected by at least two turrets, so it made no sense that this room, the center of security, would be protected by only one, unless of course, it was extremely powerful, like the two laser turrets that had been in the classroom.

I swallowed loudly, preparing myself for the fight, and leaned around the corner of the cabinet, looking towards the ceiling for a target. As a result, I was caught completely by surprise when a plasma burst struck me in the chest, fusing the front plates together and burning my chest, but otherwise I was luckily unscathed.

“Celestia fucking a one-legged mule!” I swore, snapping my head down and bringing Hammer to bear on whatever it was that had shot me. I was shocked when I came practically nose-to-visor with a robo-brain. Something about seeing somepony’s brain suspended in the clear glass dome that made up this thing’s head just seemed plain wrong, and I had to fight the automatic gag reflex that threatened to make me lose my weapon.

I recoiled in shock and disgust, firing Hammer instinctively. Three rounds smashed into the glass dome, cracking it, but the thing was made of sterner shit that most glass in the wasteland, and it didn’t break. Unfortunately, I didn’t have time to correct the mistake as the robot opened fire with its plasma caster, forcing me to bound away from the cabinet. I managed to stay just ahead of the robot’s aim, buying myself time to try to line up a shot.

In my haste to get away from the robot’s stream of fire, however, I forgot to look at where I was placing my hooves and went tumbling head over hooves as I tripped over something on the ground. Thankfully, the fall took me behind the Security Chief’s desk, which absorbed a plasma round that would otherwise have burned through my head.

I sprang back up to my hooves, wincing slightly as I landed heavily on my injured leg and slid into S.A.T.S., lining up two shots on the robo-brain’s dome. An instant later and the dome shattered, flinging preservative liquid and bits of liquefied brain all over the room, splattering me with some.

In the sudden silence of the aftermath, I simply stood in place, panting heavily and eyes locked on my E.F.S., watching for any other targets. It was only after a full two minutes of silence that I finally reloaded Hammer and spat it back into its holster. My next action was to pull out my canteen and wash out the taste of preserved brain from my mouth. After two mouthfuls of water thoroughly swished around every corner of my mouth, I doubted I would ever get the terrible, bitter taste out of my mouth.

It was only when I gave up on the water that I looked down to see what had tripped me. I was shocked when I realized that it was the body of a pony. Almost fearfully, I knelt down over the body and went through its pockets, searching for its ID card. It didn’t take me long to find.

Holding it up to the light, I was surprised to see the face of a rather young mare with a bright orange hide and dark, almost scarlet, red mane. If it weren’t for the dark circles under her eyes, I would have thought that she was actually happy living in this fucked up community. What really got me, however, was the name: Midnight Blaze. Somehow, the Executive Officer had gotten killed inside of Hot Lead’s office. Even more disturbing was the fact that her jumpsuit had a burn in it about the same size as the area of fused plates on my chest, meaning that she had probably been shot by the robo-brain.

I shook my head slowly, unable to comprehend how the most powerful figure in the Stable, meaning that she had to have had full access to every single area of the Stable, could have been killed by one of the security measures she had installed. I tore my gaze from her body and looked to the desk, where Hot Lead’s computer sat, silently awaiting my attention.

I wandered over to it and accessed his logs, where I found two waiting, both dated for the day of Stargazer’s confrontation with the Executive Officer, and the day everything had fallen apart. With a lump in my throat, I accessed the first log.

‘Head researcher Silver Bow has taken an important step in coming to me with her concerns. So many ponies down here are content to simply sit back and complain, or protest, or do whatever it is they think they can do to enforce their individuality that none of them think that I can be talked to. All of these problems could be avoided if they were simply smart enough to do so. Thankfully, Silver Bow is intelligent, as well as well-respected by the general populace. If I can convince her of what the Executive Officer is doing with Arclight, then maybe we can head off the inevitable. If only Stargazer wasn’t so damned aggressive, then none of this would have happened. I just have to hope that this meeting will solve all of these problems before something happens that even I won’t be able to fix, especially given the new upgrades that Arclight installed to the security system.’

Without even pausing, I accessed the next log. Doubtless it would put all of the pieces together for me, and hopefully give an explanation why all of the ponies had been gathered in the laboratory.

‘Damn Stargazer! I was just about to leave for my meeting with Silver Bow when he marched down here, proud as can be, and demanded to see the Executive Officer, claiming that she was no longer fit for duty, due to her showing too much favoritism to Arclight. Doesn’t the fucking idiot realize that she needs to be working with Engineering to finish these upgrades? If only the bastard could realize why we’re doing what we’re doing. Midnight Blaze managed to get him to leave, but not before things got really heated. I’m afraid of what might happen if we let this go for too long. So, just in case, I’m ordering everypony to gather in the laboratory, so that my meeting with Silver Bow will be public, and everypony will know that she requested it. Hopefully that way I can give them some answers before they lose their minds. I just need to hope that Stargazer doesn’t do something stupid. Until we get the next install completed, the security system is unstable, and the smallest hiccup in normal operation will cause a total lockdown, and with all the department Heads gathered in one place, the rest of the Stable will become a deathtrap. Fuck, if Silver Bow isn’t in the laboratory and something goes wrong, we’ll all be dead. Well, here goes nothing. Let’s just hope I’m not too late.’

I sat back on my haunches, shocked speechless at what I had read. Stargazer must have done something insane only minutes after Hot Lead had left his office, just long enough for him to get to the labs, and just long enough for Holly Berry to have made it to the classroom to confront him. Princesses above, that single pony’s actions had caused the deaths of hundreds of defenseless, innocent ponies, all because he couldn’t get what he wanted and didn’t want to listen to the explanations.

I shakily got to my hooves, still trying to put everything together in my mind. I now knew what had happened down here, and the revelation was terrifying. These ponies had put so much stake in a simple security system, and as a result, the system meant to protect them had been what killed them. It was simply mind-boggling.

Well, now I knew what had happened, but what I truly wanted to learn was why. It was obvious enough from Hot Lead’s log that Stargazer’s issues with Midnight Blaze and Arclight stemmed from some sort of twisted jealousy of the engineer, despite the tone of his own logs. But none of that explained why he would react as violently as he did. There must have been some sort of reason, something to spark the risks he took. It simply didn’t make sense.

Luckily for me, I had exactly what I needed to get where the answers were most likely being held. In Stable 60, the Overmare had had access to everything. Every single file in that Stable had been routed through her computer. Here, it seemed that Midnight Blaze held even more power, so I fully expected the same to be true. If anywhere in this fucked up place would have the answers I wanted, it would be her office. That also meant that it would probably be the best defended as well.

I wasted no time in heading out of the Security Office and down the hallway towards the Executive Office. As I expected it would be, it was at the very end of the hallway, yet to my surprise, it was already standing wide open. Wary of any sudden movement, I stepped across the threshold and into the circular office.

Nothing challenged me. The room was silent, as was the entire Stable. It seemed odd, creepy even, that everything had been defended by some sort of security system up to this point, yet the office of the most powerful pony in the entire Stable was completely unprotected.

I stepped around the desk so I could approach Midnight Blaze’s computer, and found a corpse lying at the floor on the floor in front of the screen. I approached the body, fairly sure that I already knew whose body it was. All the card would be was confirmation. It only took me a few seconds to find, and then my prediction was confirmed. Looking up at me from the surface of the card was a handsome, brown unicorn buck with the name Arclight. No wonder Stargazer had lost his shit when he came here to yell at the Executive Officer.

Moving the body aside so I could get at the computer, I was shocked to see what was already there. The screen had a translucent black stain across it, bad enough that I could tell it was the remnant stain of a splatter of blood, but the words on the screen were still legible. I could also see what appeared to be streak stains through the blood, so whoever’s blood it had been must have tried to wipe it away so they could continue working.

The text behind the blood was even more telling. The top line read ‘Executive Office Security disabled.’ The bottom, however, was what caught my attention. It read ‘Disable Stable Security? Y/N’.

I reached out a shaking hoof and tapped the ‘Y’ button. Almost immediately, the computer came to life, with lines of text scrolling by on the display faster than I could read them. Everything then came to a sudden stop and a small box appeared, asking for a confirmation code. Hoping for a miracle, I pulled out Midnight Blaze’s ID card and typed in her Passcode. The computer started working as soon as I hit enter, and for a minute I thought that nothing was going to happen. Then, against all prediction, another box popped up proclaiming that the code was accepted and the security system had been shut down!

It seemed unbelievable that I had managed to completely nullify the defenses of this Stable. And yet, if what was on the computer was true, that was exactly what I had just done. What disturbed me was that it seemed far too simple. Just enter a single passcode, and everything is fixed? That didn’t seem like the way these Stables were supposed to work.

Putting my concerns aside for the moment, I accessed the logs, looking for whatever records Midnight Blaze had kept. She had three separate logs on her computer, with the first being dated almost twelve years before the other two, which were both dated for the day everything had gone bad. Wanting to keep everything in order, I accessed the first log, and was shocked when it was a voice recording.

“Well, today is the day I get to take over as the Executive Officer of Stable 76. Now that mom is dead, the mantle passes to me. She taught me everything she could to make sure I was ready, but I don’t think anything is ever enough. Besides, I wasn’t supposed to take over for at least another five years. That damn freak illness that took her away from us caught us all off guard. Well, I suppose there is no sense in wasting time. I need to read the orders that were left for us from Stable-Tec. Ahem, ‘Congratulations, Executive Officer of Stable 76. You have been chosen to lead one of the most ambitious programs in the history of ponykind. You Stable has been selected to test the new EQ-WIN Personnel Security System. Unfortunately, we at Stable-Tec did not have time to fully install the system before we needed to move you all in, so it falls to you to have the system installed. You can find the process later in these orders. Good luck!’ Wow, they really didn’t give us much to work with… Well, no time like the present to get back to work. I’ll need to speak to Arclight down in Engineering about seeing how far we’ve gotten with the testing. With how smoothly everything has been running so far, I’ve no doubt everything is running perfectly.”

The mare’s voice had been light and kind, the kind of voice that belonged to a pony I knew was a good pony. What could have happened to make everything go so wrong so quickly? The only place I was going to get those answers was the logs, so I accessed the next one.

“Fuck, I’m such a fool,” the voice started. It was still the same voice as the first log had had, but I could tell that it was under much more strain, and there was also a much harsher undertone to it that hadn’t existed before. “Twelve fucking years and it took me this long to check that one Goddesses-damned folder. Had I done that when I first started then everything would have been avoided. I should have realized it that first day when I went to talk to Arclight. I should have realized it when he told me that he knew nothing about any sort of security system installation. My mom had seen through Stable-Tec, the bastards. She understood that following their orders was a fucking death sentence, so she ignored them. For thirty fucking years, she ignored them. If only I had thought about that, then we wouldn’t be here! If Hot Lead can’t stop this, then I will be responsible for all of our deaths.”

I was shocked into near inaction at that revelation. I had been sure that every single pony in the Stables had thought that Stable-Tec had built them to protect them, and that the betrayals hadn’t been until much later. But apparently, this mare, Midnight Blaze’s mother, was smarter than most and had figured it out. Too bad Midnight Blaze hadn’t been just as intuitive. I reached out and accessed the last log. For better or for worse, this was the last I was going to learn. Once I was in the Engineering section, I didn’t really care about finding Arclight’s office. All I cared about was finding that fucking power generator and getting out of here.

“Dammit, everything is going to hell. I just found out from a private message from Arclight that Stargazer is on the warpath, and is on his way up here to confront me. If only we had more time! Hot Lead said he had a meeting with Silver Bow, the Head researcher, today, and that he should be able to calm almost everypony’s fears with that meeting. I’ve told him to tell her everything, my mistakes included. If I’m lucky, they will unders…”

“Midnight, thank the Princesses I made it up here before Stargazer did,” a voice cut in. It had a clear note of worry in it and was undoubtedly masculine.

“Arclight, what the fuck are you doing here? If Stargazer sees you, we’ll have no hope of talking him down! You know he already suspects us of being less than professional!” Midnight Blaze protested.

“Let the idiot believe what he wants. That message you sent to Hot Lead made it to me as well. If both of us give him the same explanation that Hot Lead is going to give Silver Bow, then he might listen to us. Coming from just one of us it will sound like a poor excuse. But if he hears it from us and Silver Bow, he’ll have no choice but to accept it,” Arclight answered.

“Ugh, fine. I guess it’s too late to do any…” Midnight Blaze started, but was cut off again as a third voice entered the fray.

“I finally found you, you sneaky bitch! And with him here no less!” the third voice snapped, sounding almost hysterical. The pitch and tone reminded me pointedly of a raider in a blood frenzy.

“Stargazer, please calm down and listen to us. We’re going to explain everything,” Midnight Blaze tried to protest, but the buck quickly interrupted again before she could continue.

“Oh, sure. Now you want to explain. Five fucking years after you start making our lives hell you want to explain. Too little, too late, Midnight. I’m here to make sure that you step down!” the teacher shouted, any semblance of sanity gone from his voice.

“Stargazer, we’re going to shut the whole system down! That’s why Arclight is here!” Midnight Blaze shouted back, just as angry as the buck, if not quite as crazy.

“Oh, sure it is! That’s why you’re the one at the computer and he’s standing over you, right? Come clean with me, Midnight. Tell me that it’s him over me!” Stargazer snapped.

“Wha… You’ve got to be kidding me!” Midnight Blaze shouted, “All of this because you think I’m in love with Arclight and not you! I don’t love anypony! I’ve been too busy trying to keep this Stable running to look for a fucking coltfriend! This has to be the most immature, childish, and idiotic complaint I have ever been faced with!” There was the sound of the mare getting to her hooves, still shouting at the other buck, calling him all sorts of names and calling his birth into question, before she finally shouted, “Arclight, start shutting the system down, I’ll be back in a minute. This fucker needs to understand something about professional respect! And shut off the log!”

I sat stunned, scarcely able to believe my ears. My suspicions had been true then. The entire Stable had been killed because one buck wasn’t able to take no as an answer. If that wasn’t sad, I didn’t know what was. Well, at least I knew the truth now. What had seemed to be such an intense mystery had turned out to be nothing more than romantic drama, if this could even be called that.

I slowly shook my head, climbing woodenly to my hooves and making my way to the door. I wandered down the hallway, picking my way around the scrap of the turrets I had destroyed and emerging back out in the atrium. Every single door was now standing open, a silent testament to my efforts, including the one to the Engineering area.

Not quite knowing what to expect, I stepped through the door and started down the stairs that would bring me to the lower levels of the Stable, where all of the machinery that kept it running was held. As I descended, the rumble of machinery came into hearing, somehow still running after a century and a half of being forgotten. Lucky for me, the main power plant was easy to find, though it didn’t look like anything special to me.

It was simply a large, black machine that took up most of a single room and had tubes running the full length of its height, disappearing into the floor and ceiling. It was humming loudly, and enough heat was radiating off of it to make the air surrounding it shimmer. I wasn’t able to get closer than two feet without becoming distinctly uncomfortable in the heat.

My job done, I simply turned around and started to make my way back out, but paused at the bottom of the stairs. This was a Stable that still had functioning machinery, which meant that it might still have a working water purifier, and I still needed one to complete my deal with Millberry.

I turned around on the spot and headed back into the Engineering area, investigating every single room for what I wanted. I finally found it on the deepest level of the bunker, sitting quietly in a back corner room, seemingly far away from the main thoroughfare of the area, but all of the signs and labels around it pointed at the fact that it had to be a purifier. I remained just long enough to ensure that it was still in working condition before turning and walking out of the room. It was far too large for me to disconnect and carry with me. Besides, there was no way in hell the Steel Rangers would just let me walk out of the Stable with it. I would need to strike a deal with them to get my hooves on it. Hmmm, maybe I could give them Steel Curtain, if he didn’t give me a good enough reason not to expect him to betray me, just as he had his home.

I made my way straight up to the entrance, pausing only once to check the bandage around my wounded leg, since the pain was starting to flare up again. I found that the bandage was starting to stain red as the wound continued to bleed, but as long as it held my weight, I would be able to manage. Before long, I was sitting and waiting at the door, with only a half hour left until Apple Crisp was supposed to open it for the evening.

The half hour passed quickly, partially thanks to the light doze I had managed to fall into. The emergency claxon of the door opening, coupled with the deafening grinding of the door on its frame, however, was more than enough to fully wake me and give me time to make myself appear somewhat presentable.

I sat directly across from the open door, chest thrust out in victory, waiting to see the look of shock that would inevitably be on the Star Paladin’s face. When the door finally rolled to the side and out of the way, I was not disappointed.

The red buck’s jaw dropped open, and his eyes were full to the brim with confusion. Every line of his body shouted his shock at seeing me, alive and victorious. It took him several moments to collect himself, and when he did, his usual stoic expression took over, hiding any semblance of emotion he might have had.

“Evergreen. This is a surprise,” he intoned, stepping forward until he was just on the other side of the door, “I’m guessing you managed to accomplish the task that Elder Bitter Orange gave you?”

“The generator is about a hundred feet beneath your hooves, Apple Crisp,” I answered smugly, “And the path there is entirely open. Your welcome.” I stood and sidled past him, stepping back out into the clear mountain evening, where the light rain washed over me. Once past the buck, I sat down and tipped my head towards the sky, letting the water run over my face and wash away the grime of the Stable.

“Hmph. Impressive. If you would give me your weapons, then, we can return to the bunker. You will be held until a team is sent down to ensure that you are telling the truth, and not taking advantage of our trust. You can keep your armor and ammunition,” the buck stated without any sort of inflection.

“That wasn’t the deal,” I snapped, turning my head to fix the armored stallion in a piercing glare, “I upheld my part of the bargain, now I want to see my friends. I need to make sure they aren’t being mistreated.”

“We aren’t going back on anything. We simply don’t trust you and want to make sure that you’re telling the truth. As soon as it is confirmed, you’ll get your weapons back, and will be brought to your friends,” Apple Crisp growled, letting some of his annoyance at me show.

We stood facing each other, staring each other down and both trying to intimidate the other into backing down. Unfortunately for me, the Paladin must have been made of the same steel that was used to build his armor, and I had better things to be doing than get into a staring match with a stubborn buck.

“Fine, we’ll do things your way,” I said, shrugging. I pulled Hammer and my knife out of their respective places and tossed them on the ground at the Paladin’s feet, then started walking towards the bunker.

From behind me I heard the sounds of the Paladin rushing to pocket my weapons and catch up to me, where he took the lead and slowed our pace to a stately march. I obediently fell into step behind him, grinning to myself. He would feel like such an idiot when they discovered that I had been telling the truth.

He left me in my cell and turned to leave, letting the door close shut behind him and leaving me alone. The pneumatic hiss of the door closing made me jump nervously, half expecting some turrets to drop from the ceiling and open fire. I took a deep breath, reminding myself that this was the Steel Ranger Outpost, and not the Stable. Besides, I had shut down the security.

I finally calmed myself down and wandered over to the bed, where I dropped my saddlebags to the ground, and lay down. Fatigue was quickly overtaking me, and knowing the Steel Rangers, and how they had been operating so far, it would be several hours before they sent a team down to see that I had kept my word. I might as well get some sleep while I could.

I woke up on my own, in the morning as I determined when I checked my Pipbuck. Growling in annoyance to myself I crawled off of the bed and started pacing the room. I wouldn’t be able to get anything done until somepony came down to let me go, and I was definitely annoyed that it had been this long and nopony had come and talked to me yet.

Thankfully, I didn’t need to wait long before the door slid open, leading me to believe that they had some way of monitoring me. Bitter Orange stepped through the open door, flanked by Apple Crisp and another armored pony.

“So, Evergreen, it seems that you managed to complete the task I gave you. That was unexpected,” the Elder announced, her voice very controlled. It was easy to tell that she was trying to keep herself from showing any emotion, but she wasn’t as good as she thought. She was shocked, enough so that she didn’t know what to do.

“I did, as I said I would. So me and my friends are free to go about our business then, as per our agreement?” I asked pointedly, glaring at the older mare.

“Evergreen, you must understand that situation we are in. You and your friends are a risk that I don’t think we can take,” the Elder started, but I didn’t let her continue.

“So you’re going to break your word, and become nothing more than a more advanced gang?” I snapped angrily, “I should have guessed. I’m surprised you haven’t exiled yourself, for being just as duplicitous and deceptive as Crosswire.”

The Elder and Apple Crisp both shot me a surprised look, as though they hadn’t expected me to say something like that. “I… I’m sorry,” the Elder stated, starting to turn to walk away, but I leapt forward and almost made it to her, would have had Apple Crisp not gotten in my way.

“You lying cunt!” I shouted, “It would be just like you lot to break a promise! There isn’t an ounce of honor among you, despite your claims! I did what you wanted, was almost killed doing it, and this is my reward? A fucking cell?”

Apple Crisp pushed me roughly away, making me stumble and limp over my wounded leg, but I managed to stay on my hooves and recovered to shoot a poisonous glare at the Elder, who was now watching my with unbridled rage.

“What did you just say about us?” she demanded, no longer even attempting to hide her emotions.

“The truth,” I growled in return, “That none of you have any honor. You made a promise, Elder Bitter Orange. Honor it, and I will take back everything I said. You are the pony in charge here. Your decisions and your actions reflect on everypony here, reflect on the entire Steel Ranger order. If you carry this choice out, how long will it be before every single one of you isn’t trusted with anything, simply because you couldn’t keep a single fucking promise. How long before none of the ponies that are supposedly loyal to you begin to question the honesty of your orders?”

The Elder faltered in her anger, trying to find a response, but she started to crumble under the withering glares of both me as well as Apple Crisp and the other armored pony.

“While I hate to agree with somepony that isn’t one of us, I must say that Evergreen is right,” Apple Crisp stated, “And while I think that she needs to watch how she reacts to news she doesn’t like, I can understand her reaction in this case. She did precisely what you asked her to do. I saw the inside of the Stable with my own eyes. We couldn’t have asked for anything better.”

I was shocked nearly speechless at the buck’s admission. I had expected him to be firmly against me in everything, this included. I couldn’t even imagine what it must have taken for him to speak out against his own Elder.

“Star Paladin Apple Crisp, how could you claim these things? You should understand the dangers they pose to our safety more than anypony!” the Elder sputtered.

“I do. I also understand the meaning behind a promise held and the consequences of a promise broken. If you break this one, Elder, we will never be able to expect any aid or cooperation from anypony. If you let her go, then news of our honesty will spread. We may be able to gain some influence again at long last,” Apple Crisp answered severely, his voice carefully controlled. He was obviously treading on very thin ice, siding with me.

“I… Hmmm. If you are disagreeing with my decision, then I suppose I must try to see it from your perspective. I understand her anger as well, but…” the Elder muttered, visible shifting from side to side with her thoughts, “No, you’re right, Apple Crisp. We must uphold our promises. Return her weapons. I will lead her to her friends myself.”

“Alone, Elder? With the outsider?” the other pony, a mare by the sound of her voice, asked, a worried not creeping into her voice.

“Yes, alone,” Bitter Orange confirmed, “It’s the least I can do to make up for my insult.” She looked at me, her gaze actually apologetic. I had severely underestimated the influence that Apple Crisp had on this mare. I had thought him the thoughtless follower, instead it seemed that he filled the role of advisor instead. I wouldn’t make that mistake again.

Within moments, I had my weapons back, as well as the rest of my possessions, including the Messaging Crystal. “Why are you giving this back to me as well?” I asked cautiously.

“You were given the job to deliver it, Evergreen, so we shall allow you to complete that delivery, once you’ve met with your friends. Now, shall we get moving?” the Elder asked, nodding her head towards the door.

I watched the old mare for a few moments, then shifted my gaze down to the Crystal in my one hoof. The light, that damned mysterious light, was still flitting around inside. I let out a large sigh, pocketing the Crystal, and lifted my gaze back to Bitter Orange. “Lead the way.” It was finally time to get this confrontation out of the way.

The Elder led me through the bunker, but instead of heading up and out as we had before, she led me deeper inside, towards a different holding area, I guessed. Many ponies stopped to watch us as we walked, some armored, and some not. The ones whose faces were in the open had expressions ranging from surprise to outright hostility. It seemed that solving a problem they hadn’t been able to didn’t do much for my reputation here. I doubted that even Apple Crisp would speak for me on anything more than the deal I had agreed to.

While we walked, I could tell that something was weighing heavily on the Elder’s mind. She finally stopped midstride and turned to face me. “Evergreen, I find myself needing to apologize for my behavior. Apple Crisp, and you, were right. I was willing to throw away our honor for a little additional safety, and I would have been wrong. Your behavior has done nothing but confirm everything that you have claimed, and if the radio is to be believed, the wasteland has actually improved with you around. While this is not a confession of support for what you are doing, I can understand that you are doing what you, as well as many others, believe to be good work.”

I watched the mare carefully, looking for any hint of deception from her, but she seemed to be sincere. “I accept your apology, Elder, on one condition. Promise me that you will uphold your word with every pony you come across from here on out.”

“I… I promise,” the Elder stated with a curt nod, then she lowered her head, her ears dropping as what appeared to be sadness overcame here. “It’s odd. I’ve spent so much of my life leading these ponies, and this is the first time in all of those years that I have found myself regretting any decision I have ever made. I don’t know whether to thank you or to hate you for it.”

“Thank me,” I growled, “Every leader has to learn regret. How else are they supposed to know what to avoid?”

“Hmmm, I suppose there’s some truth there,” the Elder said, nodding, “Then thank you, Evergreen. Now, let’s continue. No doubt there is much you wish to do today.”

“Don’t mention it,” I muttered, falling into step behind the Elder.

Within minutes, we were in the other holding area, which was little more than another hallway with closed doors on both sides. Bitter Orange made her way to a console and typed in a few commands. Immediately, the doors slid open and the sound of hooves could be heard approaching the hallway.

The first pony out was Crosswire, wearing an expression of surprise, and, on seeing me, a mixture of shock and joy. The two-faced bastard would be split on what to think. The next pony to walk out was Autumn, who was angry, as I fully expected. What other emotion did the bitch possess? It irked me even more when her angry glare deepened on looking in my direction. Did she have no clue that I had risked my life to save hers? Next, Suture crept into the open, her mane a tangled mess and deep, dark circles under her eyes. Doubtless she was crying over the fact the she doubted she would ever make it home again.

The last pony to come into the open again was Steel Curtain. Without his armor on, he was no more impressive than Crosswire. In fact, he appeared to be even slimmer than the unicorn. Surprising, given the amount of condition it reportedly took to operate power armor. I couldn’t deny that he was in perfect shape however, as my eyes were drawn to the curve of his chest and the strength in his legs, as well as the gloss of the feathers in his wings. Despite my will, my eyes were drawn to his flank, where I laid eyes on his cutie mark for the first time. As his name suggested, his cutie mark depicted a large bullet, both intricately stylized and bluntly simple at the same time.

I lifted my gaze back to his face, which bore an expression of surprise, but also of fear. Why would he be afraid if he was a Dashite? The Steel Rangers would have no interest in somepony that knew nothing about the current state of affairs of the Enclave, and he had been a Dashite long enough that any intelligence he had would be long obsolete. Unless, of course, he was receiving information in some way from them…

“So,” I stated bluntly, facing my ‘friends’, “I finally get the chance at some honest answers. Elder, I think we need to have our little reunion in private, if you don’t mind.”

“Of course, Evergreen,” the Elder answered, bowing slightly to me and backing away, leaving me alone with the four ponies.

“Evergreen, are you all right?” Suture asked, her eyes darting from the bloody bandage around my leg to the furious expression on my face.

“Never been better,” I ground out, “Not that you really care, Suture. I just bet you can’t wait for us to finally be done with this damned mission so you can return to your comfortable life in Metro, huh?”

“Evergreen, what the hell has gotten into you?” Crosswire growled, stepping forward and drawing my glare towards himself, “Suture didn’t deserve that! She’s probably been sitting in there, crying for worry over you, not to mention the rest of us!”

“What the fuck would you know about it, Crosswire?” I demanded, rounding on the buck, “I barely know who you are! The buck I thought I had known for five years has completely changed in the last week and a half, and now I’m learning that there’s even more than you told us! Exactly when is the whole truth about who Crosswire is really going to come out?”

The unicorn stood stock still, glaring at me, not even making an attempt to hide his rage. “What the fuck happened to you, Evergreen?” he snapped, “The mare I know would never say things like this, especially not after the ordeal we’ve all been through!”

“I opened my eyes, Crosswire! That’s what happened. I realized that none of you have any reason to really be traveling with me, unless it’s for your own, selfish purposes! I figure all you want is to get inside me, like any other two-faced raider bastard, and the rest of you are just as transparent. Autumn Mist wants nothing more than to put a bullet in my head and end my life, as repayment for the family I killed. Suture cares only about Metro, her home, so as long as we are working to protect that, she’ll claim to be on our side. As for Steel Curtain, there is a lot more to him than meets the eye. Of that, I am absolutely certain!”

Deep inside, I felt that what I was saying was wrong. I felt an intense regret at the pain I must be causing my friends, but a powerful force quickly stamped out those thoughts and feelings, leaving me with nothing but my feelings of rage and betrayal. Within seconds, even the memory of that regret was gone.

“Evergreen, what did those ponies tell you about me?” Steel Curtain asked, his tone almost pleading, “I swear to you, on my honor as a Pegasus, that anything they told you was a lie!”

“Oh, is that what you expect me to believe. Your ‘honor as a Pegasus’?” I said, vocalizing the apostrophes, “I bet it’s just as true as every other lie you’ve told me so far, isn’t it, Steel Curtain?”

“Evergreen, I haven’t lied to you, about anything!” the supposed Dashite claimed, sadness making his eyes glisten.

“Oh sure. Tell me, then, who were your parents?” I demanded, taking a step towards the Pegasus.

“My… parents?” Steel Curtain asked nervously, taking a step back. I nodded at him, a grim expression on my face. “My… my father is, well probably was, now, a councilor in the government of Stormfront. My mother was an official from Cirrus. Small time, compared to dad, but important enough in her own right, I guess. Why does any of this matter?”

“Your parents are high-ranking officials from their respective homes, and their son is a soldier in the Grand Pegasus Enclave. That doesn’t sound odd to you? Doesn’t seem like a prime background for a pony who could do, oh, I don’t know, special jobs?” I said, stepping closer to the Pegasus until he was backed up against a wall.

“Evergreen, it isn’t his fault that he came from the high and mighty!” Autumn protested, grabbing me by the shoulder and swinging me around to face her, “I heard him as clearly as you did when he explained it! He’s a Dashite. What the hell has made you think otherwise!”

“Gah, you wouldn’t understand, Autumn!” I snapped, turning away from the young mare, but she stopped me, grabbing onto my mane with her magic and tearing me back around.

“Why wouldn’t I, Evergreen? Because I haven’t seen the things you’ve seen? Because these Steel Ranger fucks haven’t filled my head with their propaganda bullshit?” she spat, losing control over her temper.

“It wasn’t propaganda. It was well thought out arguments. Our winged friend is hiding something, and I intend to find out,” I growled, tearing myself away from her magical grip, losing a few strands of my mane with the effort.

As I turned back to face the Pegasus, I saw Suture from the corner of my eye, tears streaming down her face as she cried, with Crosswire at her side, trying to comfort her. When I stepped towards the Pegasus, his head lifted, and he stepped towards me. On my E.F.S., his bar shifted from blue to red.

“I’m sorry about this, Evergreen,” he said sadly, then jumped.

My injured leg got in the way of being able to effectively block the ragged unicorn’s attack, and he managed to knock me onto me side and land atop me, keeping me pinned to the ground.

I bucked wildly, trying to throw him off balance, but he held himself steady, grappling with my flailing hooves until he had all but one pinned. I was just about to knock him hard in the head when I noticed his horn glowing. I had forgotten completely about his magic. In the next instant, something hard smashed against me head and everything went dark.

Level Up!
Perk gained: Concentrated Fire – Repeated shots at a previously hit target are much more likely to hit.

{Another chapter done, and let me tell you all that this one was probably the most fun I have written in a while! I’m really excited to see what you all think about it. As always, thanks to Kkat for the original Fallout: Equestria, and thanks to my editors, Cody and MUCKSTER. If you so wish, you can check out the story from the hub page here. Also, my apologies for the large delay! Cody recently got a new job, and hasn’t had much time for editing these last couple weeks. As always, the hub page can be found here.}

Author's Notes:

EDIT: Recently discovered that I screwed canon with the name of the Steel Rangers. This has now been fixed. Sorry for any confusion.