Chapter 17: Waves
"When you feel the hunger mounting, sometimes you can’t help but listen to it.”

"Trigger!" I shouted again at the stallion, yet received no response from Mister Mumble. He kept staring at the cuff of his jacket and mumbling to himself. So I flipped the rifle around in magic and swung it, cleanly connecting the stock to his cheek in a loud slap.

As I put the weapon across my back, Trigger slowly looked at me in shock, his eyes wide as he brought a forehoof to his face where a red mark was starting to form. "You slapped me," he whispered as his eyes began to narrow. "You slapped me with a gun?!"

"You were cryin' like a whiny colt who had his bottle taken away!" I hissed inside his mind. Then nodded at the burning town and continued. "If we are going to go in there, you need to take your jacket off."

"I was not crying like a foal," he muttered to himself. After a moment or two of eerie silence, he sighed and shook his head. "I can't take the jacket off." He picked up the dropped small rifle, which Topper had used to shoot him with, and looked at me. "We go around."

I rolled my eye. "You're out of ammunition for that. It's why they switched to this," I nodded at the massive single shot pipe rifle on my back. "I say we go through town and hire a boat to Deadwood Cove."

"What?! You... You're... That's stupid!" Trigger shouted, stomping his hoof down in the cliff side with a glare. Part of me wished to see it break and fall. "What makes you think they have an intact boat? Look at the town!"

"Yes," I replied in his mind with a nod. "I see that it is burning, but there might be an intact boat down there. It is a marina after all and marinas have a great many boats."

Trigger sat down and folded his hooves across his chest. He gave me a glare that had no effect on me. "We're going around."

"Through."

"Around!"

"What? You don't want to take your precious jacket off?" I tilted my head. "I'm sweating badly and am in need of a serious grooming, so you must be sweating just as bad, if not worse with your armor."

"I'm fine." he growled.

I sighed and facehoofed. "What are you a mare or something and want to hide it?"

"What?! No!" Trigger rapidly shook his head. "What gave you that idea?!"

Without responding to his asinine question, I gripped his hind legs in magic and quickly yanked the earth pony into the air. He squirmed and dangled in my grip as I checked between them with my hoof, finding out that he was indeed a stallion.

"What are you doing?! Put me down!" he shouted. So, I obliged his wish and let go of his hind legs, causing the stallion to fall face first into the ground. He slowly pushed himself up and gave me a glare that still did not affect me. "You want to find out that badly?" I nodded. "Fine! I'll show you."

He began grumbling incoherently to himself as he tossed his jacket at me and showed me his back. A back that had two holes in in the armor. Holes, that had tiny scabbed over nubs where wings should be.

"Oh..." my ears slowly folded back as I bit my lower lip and slowly brought a hoof to cover my mouth in case it dropped. "I'm... I don't... I..." I shut my eye and sighed deeply. "Sorry."

"Happy?"

"No," I shook my head. "I'm not... But I have an idea."

"Do tell," he replied, if a bit snidely.

I slowly unsheathed the knife as I opened my eyes and looked down at his jacket. "Bandages."

"Huh?"

"Bandages."

"Wut?" he tilted his head, causing me to roll my eyes.

“Bandages!” I shouted as I tossed the blade at the jacket.

*** ***

The two of us slowly wended our way down the treacherous and rocky cliff side; each slow step was met with the fear that one could fall and turn into a pony pancake. At least, that was Trigger's fear. My wings would prevent me from becoming some raider's breakfast if that were to happen.

Trigger now wore only his bare fur, a rare thing for him he admitted, and a set of dark green 'bandages' around his barrel to cover up the wing nubs on his back. I had a long strip of cloth wrapped around my head like a bandana to keep the sweat from dripping into my eyes and stinging my only good one. The odd dewinged pegasus walked not far behind me as I made my way down past rocks, slippery dirt and almost pitch black darkness. Light from the town fires and my horn partially illuminated our path, casting odd and curious shadows about.

As I neared the bottom, I wondered to myself about what could happen inside the town. My mind ran through every scenario starting with them shooting at us to the two of us simply walking in and stealing a boat. The final scenario of boat theft caused me to pause briefly and wonder, why didn't I think of that before?! It's brilliant! We just sneak in while invisible and steal a steam boat!

I quickly spun around to face Trigger and grinned, my face most likely a freakish mask of shadows. "Trigger!"

He stopped, sighing deeply as he looked up at me. "Shock?"

"Dog." I corrected him, then quickly shook my head and added, "but that doesn't matter. What matters-"

"Is your name," he said, the two odd lights cast strange shadows across his face but I saw the bright fire in his eyes. "A name is who you are. Your name could strike fear into hearts or inspire a pony. So which is it? Shell Shock, The Great and Powerful Shell Shock, or Dog? The one who fetches an item for its master?"

"Just..." my eye twitched as I ground my teeth together. "Just shut up! A name is a title given at birth, a thing to change if you feel like it."

"So what is your name then?" Trigger asked, causing me to facehoof and groan.

As I was about to berate him for asking stupid questions and breaking my concentration, my ears picked up a faint flutter on the wind underneath the waves and my own breathing. I quickly dropped the light spell as I looked up and pulled Trigger into the shadows as best I could. Flying above us towards the town was a group of ponies, but not just any ponies. The sheer numbers, six, could only have come from the Enclave as I did not think they had that many traitors running around. That and the fact that I saw one with an Officer's Cap fly across the moon.

A faint smile crept across my face as I watched them fly towards the town, but I could feel Trigger shaking in my grip as he said, "s-scouts." Four broke formation in pairs of two and went to opposite ends of town while the center two landed near the center. "What are forward scouts doing here?"

"I want to find out," I said, my smile growing larger as I thought up an idea, a simple one.

They owed me armor.

"I don't," Trigger McGrumpy Face said, causing me to glare at him and try to burn through his skull with my eye. "No, I seriously don't. They'll probably brand me a Dashite and I don't want that!"

I pointed a hoof at the 'bandages' around his chest. "You're an earth pony with a broken rib, remember? And the Enclave here doesn't care. All of them were supposedly called that because they couldn’t get back to help the rest."

"I'm not going," he stomped his hoof down and returned my glare.

"Yes," I stomped mine down and glared even harder, "you are! I rescued your scrawny ass because you can't even swim, so it is the least you could do for me in return!"

His ears folded back some as he bit his lower lip.

*** ***

Charred wood and the repugnant smell of burnt flesh filtered from the town the closer we got. The closer we got, the more chances of being spotted we had. However, as a part of my master plan, I was invisible and moving as slowly as I did on the Rum Runner boat.

That did not stop my hooves from picking up ash, dirt, and grass. With the bottom of my hooves covered in stuff that could give me away if it was daytime or a pony was attentive enough, I sighed and dropped my invisibility spell. Trigger was not amused, but he did not protest because we were inside the town.

A town which was mostly burned flat with craters every so often from the ship’s guns. I took a glance at the smoldering ruins nearest to me and frowned because it was a hotel. The metal sign stood proud outside of the ruins indicating it was the Marlin Inn.

As a cool wind blew in off the ocean, I heard garbled voices of ponies in conversation most certainly about what had transpired. Trigger Mc Grumpy Face climbed off my back and crept over to the shadow of a rubble pile. I, however, elected to creep forward towards the talking as quietly as I could.

Which was pretty damn quiet thanks to the wind blowing inland, and a few nearby roaring fires. As I made my way down the rubble strewn street, I looked right towards what used to be a building and wondered if ponies had time to escape, but… a quick breath from me and I was looking away from them towards my left where only the skeletal wall of a building remained. I stopped, tapping the wood with my hoof.

It creaked for a second, and then a loud snapping sound caused me to jump back as the whole wall fell in on itself into a heap of charred wood. I gulped, taking a few steps back and bumped into something soft. Wheeling around to see what it was, I tilted my head the same direction as the uniformed pony’s own head tilt. She stood as average as a normal pony with a short cropped mane that stuck out from behind her officer’s cap with a gold bar on it, causing me to slowly smile and bow my head some.

“Lieutenant,” I said with my mouth as I raised my head back to normal.

The clearly Enclave pegasus adjusted her hat with a hoof. “Well, well, well. If it ain’t Shell Shock,” she said with a slight drawl that caused me to frown. “We lost a few pegasi to rescue ya. And ya just up an' vanish without so much as a thanks!”

I audibly gulped and tried to smile some, but it was obviously forced and failed to form. The mare looked down the street towards Trigger and then at me. “Well,” I began with a quick breath. “You have me at a loss as you know my name, but I do not know yours.”

“Swift Wings,” she said, taking her hat off and bowing some. In the light of the fires and moon, I noticed that her uniform was neatly pressed and appeared to be immaculate.

I gave a nod as she placed her hat back onto her head. "Lieutenant Swift Wings, I was in the company of a pegasus known as Axe. She is maroon, gold eyes, a midnight blue mane and has a twin sister named Wraith."

"Axe went missin' on the mission," Swift Wings said. "But she done showed up less than a week later with a truly fanciful tale as to why she disappeared."

"I can assure you, it is not a lie."

"I know," she adjusted her hat some. "Axe has a hard time lyin' an' I have my ways of confirmin' the truth." Swift Wings smirked.

"May I call you Swifty?" I asked with a tilt of my head. "Swift Wings or Swift does not sit as well as Swifty."

"That's a nickname Wraith must have told you," she muttered quietly. Then shook her head. "Fine, just not around the others."

I smiled and nodded. "I will use my telepathy and they won't know."

"Riiight," the pegasus adjusted her hat again. "What are ya doin' here anyway? Wait, lemmie guess. They annoyed you!"

I rolled my eyes. "No, I was-"

"Hey!" a pony shouted from my left, drawing my attention over to a pale looking stallion. The moonlight made it hard to figure out his coloring. "Where'd you get that rifle!?"

"Some impure ponies shot at me with it," I shouted with my mouth. Then turned and unfolded my glorious wings. "What's it to you?"

He trotted over and stuck his pale hide in my face as I folded my wings. "That rifle belongs to the Blue Water Marina Defense Force, not you. If they shot at you, then you messed up big time."

I glanced over at Swifty. The pegasus shrugged and looked down the rubble strewn road again. "I dunno why y'all are lookin' fer my help. I'm just a neutral third party who came to see if she could help those in need. We don’t interfere with yer local problems."

With an internal growl, I looked at the obtrusive stallion again. "They shot at my friend and I for no reason! We were walking in the jungle and the next thing I know, he took a hit to the side."

“Describe your ‘friend’,” the stallion said as a near intelligible shouting could be heard coming from behind us. I looked back to see Trigger being pulled from the rubble by a pair of ponies. A third unicorn had a rifle or shotgun floating and aimed at him. “Looks like we already found them,” the stallion next to me said, drawing my attention back to him.

“I can explain,” I said with a sheepish smile. “You see, he and I… we, uh... fuck it.” I turned and bolted towards Trigger.

"Hey! Get back here!" the pony shouted, no doubt hot on Our hooves. We galloped faster, using Our glorious clipped wings to propel Us faster like a missile towards Trigger. The ponies looked over at Us, slowly bringing their glowing weapon to bear.

As We stared down the approaching gun barrel, We gripped it with magic and struggled for a split second. Managing to throw his aim off at the same time he fired, the blast echoed around the area as We slammed into the unicorn like a freight train. Both of us went sprawling down to the ground in a heap, sliding to a stop in a small dust cloud.

"HALT!" We telepathically boomed inside his mind, causing the unicorn's magic field to disappear in a flash as he cringed. "THE GREAT AND POWERFUL-" Something slammed into the back of Our head, causing Us to collapse on top of the unicorn. As We groaned and tried to push Ourself up, the item smashed into Our head again, causing Us to black out.

***===***===***

I sat in a partially destroyed building, leaning against a wall with my IF-12 just in front of me and also leaning against said wall. My magic was levitating a combat knife and a sharpening stone. My four tan hooves were covered in grime and blood that I did not care to clean off. Around me lay rubble, Arrow the blue crystal pony, and a zebra across from me.

"This is a nice knife, isn't it?" I asked quietly, slowly running the sharpening stone across it. The zebra legionnaire across from me nodded in response.

Arrow looked over at us and slowly shook his head. "Lilly, he's not going to say anything," he quietly said.

The zebra looked over at him and glared, causing Arrow to roll his eyes. I smirked at Arrow, slowly running the stone across the blade one more time. As Arrow went back to looking out another window, I put the knife into its sheath and picked up the zebra's blade.

Slowly, the zebra looked at me and tilted his head as I placed it flat against his side, cleaning the blood and dirt off it with a slow pull.

"My blade is nice," I said. "But..." I pulled the sword over and looked at my reflection through the green magic field that surrounded it. "There's something about zebra swords that I like. Perfect for cutting fleshy things and perfectly balanced." The zebra tilted his head as I placed the blade on a hoof and removed the magic field, smiling as it stayed balanced. "Don't you agree?"

The zebra nodded, if a little bit too slow for my liking, and shut his eyes as if he were thinking.

A slight noise outside like concrete falling drew my station to the window, causing me to let all of my magic go. Slowly, as if I were a tortoise, I rose up along the window frame and peered out.

A tracked heavy tank sat in the rubble strewn street, smoke billowed out of the engine compartment as flames licked at the zebra body partly hanging off the turret. The turret was angled to fire at something down a fork in street and the track facing me had broken from the explosion which caused its incapacitation, and subsequent fire. They had not expected a rocket to the side from my disposable rocket launcher. That empty tube sat between Arrow and I. Neither did they expect a hail of gunfire when they had opened the hatches.

But what had caused the sound which drew my attention was a small dog. It scurried among the rubble looking for its next meal. I thought of tilting my head, but decided to just observe it. He, or she, moved from out behind a rubble pile and stopped at the body of a pony. As it started digging in for a feast, I glanced over at Arrow with my eyes and whispered, "it's just a dog."

"And?" he shrugged.

I rolled my eyes, tapping the side of my head with the flat of the zebra sword. "He's a smart pooch, getting food where he can."

"That's fucking disgusting," Arrow looked down at his shotgun and used his hoof to wipe some dirt off.

Slowly, I sat down again and looked over at the zebra legionnaire nearby. "What do you think? It's a nice idea, right? How else would the dog survive?" My magic reached out, making the long dead corpse smile and nod in agreement. He had a few bullet holes in his chest and a stab wound to the neck. Food for the dogs it seemed he was.

"No," another pony nearby whispered and shook his head. "Just... no. That thought makes me sick."

"A dog's gotta eat somehow," I shrugged.

"How about we call her... Dog?" a third stallion asked, receiving nods from the other four and a roll of my eyes.

Near unintelligible metallic chatter nearby drew my attention over to a pony in an Equestrian Army uniform with a radio box on her back. She was holding a hoof to her ear and listening to what was going on. While we waited for the new orders, I set about sharpening my new sword.

After almost a minute, she nodded and looked over at the four of us, "Lieutenant Sparks wants us to head back and link with the rest of the platoon. Wait..." she held her hoof to her ear for a few more seconds. "Scratch that. He wants us to knock out a tank two blocks down that's got 'em pinned."

Arrow looked over at me and then down at my empty rocket launcher. "How can we do that? Lilly's out of rockets."

I rolled my eyes. The radiopony nodded and said with a hoof to her neck, "negative, we cannot-"

"Wait," I tapped the sword against the empty tube, causing the radio pony to look at me. "I might not have these, but a grenade or two down the hatch will do the trick just the same."

She nodded and started to reply.

***===***===***

The black abyss of unconsciousness slowly left me, leaving behind an odd hunger and a feeling. One I had tried to block out long ago, one I hoped to never surface again, and one that made me feel... different. Not like a normal pony or even an intelligent alicorn, but like an animal. An almost feral feeling. Because, a mare has to eat somehow. If you don't eat, you die. You don't drink, you die. It's as simple as that. There are no other rules.

I have to survive, I thought to myself as I slowly opened my eyes, only to be met by darkness on one side of my vision and the other side was a perfectly clear view of wet mud. They would do the same to me.

Ice cold pinpricks assaulted my back and exposed skin as a banshee howl of a wind attacked my ears. With a pained groan about a throbbing headache, I pushed myself up to a sitting position and took stock of my surroundings.

A thick mist surrounded me as rain poured down in a furious torrent, obstructing my view of anything beyond thirty yards. A collapsed building lay not far away and looked very familiar. After a quick check of my gear, I came to the conclusion that I had everything but the large pipe rifle and ammo for it. Another conclusion was that they had left me exactly where I was knocked out.

A teeth rattling boom echoed all around me as thunder rumbled overhead, causing me to uselessly clutch my ears for a few moments. When it was over I stood up and slowly trotted through the mud towards the area I had remembered the last standing building to be. As I trotted along, I tried to ignore the wind and the ice cold threatening to dig its way into my spine. Despite the coldness of the rain, the temperature of the island was still almost unbearably hot.

I could not see much beyond the misty rain that blanketed the area, so I stayed near the rubble piles to keep my bearings partly correct. Or so I had hoped.

"Hello?" I called out just before thunder roared overhead, causing me to stop and clutch my ears. The howl of the wind whistled and wailed past my ears as I set my hooves down and resumed walking. Our IF-12 floated out of Our bags and We checked the internal magazine, spying that it was unloaded. With a roll of Our perfect eyes, We floated out five rounds and loaded them.

Then stood up again and trotted on.

As We wandered near aimlessly around the piles of rubble, We began to wonder if We were dead, because We only saw destruction and rain. The buildings were flattened, drenched, and the ground was no longer dirt but hoof deep mud, causing Us to growl at the brown muck that covered Our pristine hide. Even the icy rain did not do well to clean the muck off. It seemed to only make it worse.

"Trigger?" We called out again to the howling wind and rain as We walked along, and looked around. "Swift Wings? Anypony?!"

Only roaring thunder replied to my calls. Thunder so loud I thought it would split the very earth beneath my hooves. I quickly brought the IF-12 close and looked up at the sky, shielding my face from the rain with a hoof. A loud snarl followed by a rumble like a freight train caused my ears to press against my head in an attempt to block it out. Tiny ice droplets began to slowly fall around me and pelted my hoof like a hail of spikes, causing me to realize I was most likely under the center of a very severe storm. As I put the IF-12 into my bags, thunder roared overhead at the same time the wind began to increase.

Right then, I wished for the ability to create only partial shields so I could make an umbrella. I trotted on as best I could through the muck and wind threatening to push me on my side. My progress was slow and I hadn't made it more than a few yards when the hail increased to a ferocious level and the wind threatened to knock me over.

Eventually, I spotted what looked like a standing structure and made my way towards it. The windows were boarded up and, for a second, the door was locked. A quick buck from my hind hoof caused the lock to be smashed and the door was flung open.

"Hello?" I called out as I stepped inside the dark hallway and shut the door behind me. But received no response beyond the hail pelting the roof like thousands of tiny hammers and the thunder that roared like a freight train.

Oddly enough, light illuminated the hallway. Revealing somewhat maintained wood hallways and a starting to get soaked carpet. At the far end of the hallway was a closed door with the words 'Pit of Despair' written above it in green letters. They looked old, cracked, and faded, but still got the message across.

To my left was a set of stairs leading to a collapsed second floor. To the right was nothing. It seemed that the only way to go was forward, and so I trotted towards the door. As I passed the stairs, I saw another door that was hidden from the front door by the stairs.

"Hello?" I quietly called out to anypony as I placed my hoof on the door and slowly opened it. "We are friendly."

After a few seconds of nothing, I opened the door all the way and stepped inside. It was like stepping into a small shop from before the war ended. Four free standing shelves ran down the center of the clean room and appeared empty. I slowly trotted along the shelves, keeping an eye on the boarded up window across from me. There was nothing in the shelves. Kind of like they had purposely cleared it out, which they most likely did.

I sat down at the end of a shelf and ran a hoof through my short wet mane, staring intently at the cash register. With nothing else to do, I trotted around the checkout desk and stopped, a faint smile slowly grew on my face at the sight of an unopened floor safe.

A quick check of the safe revealed the obvious. So I telekinetically dug through my bag for anything useful to pry with and only found Trigger's long knife. I sat there contemplating on shooting the lock or trying to smash it, but figured I'd need an explosive to get inside. Without any further thought, I stabbed the gap between the cash register and the bit holder, and started to wiggle the knife around as thunder roared loud enough to shake the building.

The box finally popped open, revealing at least forty caps and a gold bit. I telekinetically placed them into my bag and ripped the box out of the register, tossing it haphazardly to the side. Underneath the small box was a rusty key, causing a smile to form on my face. There was a layer of dust around and on said rusty key indicating no pony had used it in many, many, years.

I glanced around one more time before inserting the key into the safe and turning it. A faint, almost imperceptible, snap was heard as the key broke and thunder roared overhead.

"Nooooo!" I shouted as the thunder died down to a faint rumble, then facehoofed when I remembered I used magic and not my hooves. With the key already snapped off in the lock, I did not need to fiddle with anything as I tried to magically turn the lock. It clicked noisily and the floor safe was open, my smile instantly faded when I saw the contents.

Papers and letters lined the inside of the safe.

I tore the letters out with magic and tossed them away along with the papers. Then lowered my head with my light spell going to see the inside of the safe. The inside held nothing. No extra shelves, no weapons, no hidden panels of any kind. It was just... papers. Useless papers.

Useless fucking papers!

*** ***

The thunder and hail pelting the roof of the building had let up to less deafening levels, and I was pacing back and forth in front of the door marked 'Pit of Despair'.

What is it? I wondered to myself as I paced back and forth. Is it a trap? A slaver den? Some horrible basement where a group of cannibals keep their meat?

The last thought caused my stomach to growl. I stopped pacing at the growl and slowly looked at the offending organ as my eyes slowly widened. "Why did you do that?" I asked myself with my mouth.

Obviously, my stomach did not respond, but something else did. "Feed," a voice whispered in the back of my mind. "So hungry. There must be something!"

I shut my eyes and looked away from my stomach at something else, wondering why my stomach did that. It was crystal clear to me that I did not need to eat thanks to the process that had turned me into an alicorn. So why then, did my stomach grumble like I was hungry? It made no sense to me and felt like something that would never get solved.

Oh how wrong I was.

As I stood there in front of the door to the Pit of Despair, my nose picked up a faint and familiar smell. Sweet and slightly charred. It was the sweet smell of somepony cooking meat, which caused me to shut my eyes again and sniff at the air. As I blindly followed the smell, I ran into something hard and opened my eyes to see the door right there blocking my path.

With a frown, I opened the offending door and tilted my head at the stairs in a brightly lit stairwell with odd sounds coming from below. There was nothing else for me to do on the top floor, so I slowly followed the stairs down into the pit.

At the bottom was a rusty hatch-like door with water covering the floor. As I hopped off the last step, the ice cold water splashed my chest and sent a chill through my spine. I slowly and carefully walked over to the hatch-door and pressed my ear against it, hearing the faint sounds of a rhythmic drum beat, or steam engine.

With a frown, I stepped back and slowly opened the door, causing said noise to get louder. What lay beyond the door caused me to tilt my head. It was a lighted rock tunnel like what one would find in a cave with a floor covered in water. I glanced back towards the stairs one last time before trotting my way towards the end of the cave. The rocky floor beneath my hooves steadily grew deeper and deeper until I was forced to stop when it reached my chest. I looked back at the door again and then forward.

Below me was a very faint light at the bottom of an underwater cavern. Oddly, or not so, it seemed as if the sounds were coming from the underwater cave.

I took a deep breath and jumped into the water, swimming as far down as I could. When I reached the bottom of the cavern, I floated there for a moment and looked at the tunnel in an attempt to gauge its length, but I could not do so well as it appeared to stretch into infinity. However, I decided to paddle forward toward the end because I saw a pinprick of light.

As I swam through the lighted tunnel, I glanced back and noticed a heavily rusted ladder going up to the surface. It told me that the tunnel wasn't always under water.

The more I swam, the further the tunnel seemed to stretch and the more my mind worked out the many ways the idea could go wrong. But I swam as fast as I could until my lungs began burning and protesting to the fact that I had yet to breathe in a while, so air bubbles started leaving my mouth in some vain attempt to stave off the inevitable. It only caused the burning feeling to increase until my lungs felt like they were on fire.

I spotted an opening above and exhaled all of my air reserve as I swam upward. My brain screamed for air that my lungs could not receive and I involuntarily took a breath, instantly regretting it because fire shot through my lungs. I began choking on the water as I thrashed about trying to find the surface or anywhere that had air. My vision in my only working eye started to go dark as I tried breathing again to the same result.

Something grabbed at my thrashing wings and yanked me up. As my head broke the surface of the water, I began to cough violently and didn't notice I was on land until rolled over and vomited water. Lots of water that had been in my lungs.

I had nearly died swimming in that tunnel and had felt the icy skeletal grip of death approach me for a few seconds, but something or somepony had decided it was not my time to die.

"Don't you know that tunnel is a death trap at high tide?" A pony asked to my right, causing me to shake my head and stare down at the now wet rock as water dropped off my face "Hmph. Figures an alicorn wouldn't know that. I don't think I've ever seen one down this way. What brings you to the Pit of Despair?"

I looked over at the pony and opened my mouth to respond, but my jaw nearly hit the floor. Sitting across from me was the strangest pony I had ever laid eyes on. About halfway down his body, his dark green hide turned to scales and then into a fin. All I could do was stare at the pony's fin in complete shock as he flicked it a little bit.

"Hello?" the fishpony asked and flicked his fin some more, causing water to hit me in the face. "Can you talk?"

My head sat there spinning in complete confusion, leaving me unable to reply to the fishpony. He did not seem to mind as he just sat there and patiently waited. I coughed a couple more times, finally breaking my daze and shook my head. "I can talk just fine," I said with my mind and a fake smile. "You are such... an odd... creature. I was so stunned by the sight that I could not speak!"

"Right," the fishpony nodded some. "Mind telling me what the hell you were doing in that tunnel?"

I sat up and undid my bags with magic, set them aside, then dumped them out so the water could drain. I frowned when I remembered my ammo was filled with blackpowder and it might have been ruined by the tunnel, but I pushed such thoughts aside and started to field strip the IF-12.

"I was knocked out last night, and it was clear," I said with my mind as I started setting various parts down. "When I awoke, it was thundering and pouring so hard I could barely see my hoof in front of my face. I sought shelter that proved to be pointless and found the tunnel."

I stared down the barrel and wished I had swiped Zakiya's weapon cleaning kit because there might come a time when I need it. As it was, I saw a bit of muck inside the barrel from when it had been fired, but nothing major. So I started putting it back together.

"When high tide comes in, the tunnel fills. And when the tide goes out, it drains." the fishpony said.

"Why?"

"Because it does," he said as I finished putting the weapon together and tested it with an empty casing, smiling when it clicked. "What are you doing?"

"Cleaning and making sure my stuff works. Now why does the tunnel fill with water again?"

"Because of the tides..."

"But we are not near the water? We are underground," I pointed out, causing the fishpony to facehoof.

*** ***

Fish ponies, or sea ponies as they are known as, sat all around an odd looking room ahead of me. It was as if a pony had found a cavern with lots of puddles and built a catwalk running around and over the ponds. In the center of the room sat what appeared to be a floating bar with a highly active pony mixing drinks. DJ Buccaneer's music set played out from hidden speakers and all kinds of ponies danced to it. Lights from the ceiling provided the room with multi-colored light.

I just sat there staring in complete shock at the scene because I had never heard of a place like it on the island before. Neither had Sister or she would have most certainly told me!

The fish pony that had rescued me from certain death scrambled forward towards a pool like he was crawling on his front legs and slipped into a pond. That was the last I saw of him. The other fish ponies, and regular ponies, all ignored me as I started walking around to see what the Pit of Despair was like.

It appeared as if it was a dance club… for fish ponies, which was an odd thing to me.

As I slowly walked over a pond, I looked down at the water and noticed they were deep pits most likely connected to tunnels. The nearest sea ponies stopped their odd dancing and stared at me. I glanced at them, but kept walking towards the bar for a drink.

When I reached the bar, I noticed then that most of the ponies were observing me. But I ignored them and leaned down to speak with the fish pony. "Excuse me!" I shouted with my mouth over the electronic music. "Where am I?"

"The Pit of Despair!" The fish mare shouted back and held up a bottle of glowing gold liquid which was most certainly Celestia’s Ray. "A watering hole deep underground away from the ravages of topside."

I frowned at the fish pony and shouted, "I need to get to Deadwood Cove!"

"What for?"

"Because I fucking want to!" I glared at the fish pony. "I need a boat to get there."

The fish pony laughed at me, causing my glare to turn into a scowl as I attempted to kill her with my eye. After a few moments of not dying she said, "boats are on the surface. And the surface was just hit with a nasty storm. Why don't you just fly there when the storm is over?"

I opened and closed my mouth for a few moments as I tried to come up with a retort, but failed horribly to do so. So I just shut my eyes and sighed deeply, trying to calm down. After I did so, I nodded. "I would love to do that, but..." I unfolded my clearly clipped wings. "I cannot. My wings are clipped and I need radiation to heal then back to their original glory."

The fish pony frowned and hugged her large fin as if it were a blanket. "That's a good reason to not fly. Look, you do a job for me and I'll tell you where some radiation is. Deal?"

"It's not underwater is it?" I asked with a tilt of my head. "I nearly drowned swimming through a death trap tunnel and do not wish to do so again."

The fish pony nodded as her ears folded back. "Yes, it's underwater." I frowned and glared. "B-but I swear you can easily get to it!" My head tilted the other way. "I'll give you some underwater breathing equipment. Good enough for thirty minutes underwater. Which will get you to a wreck and back to the surface easily."

With a deep sigh I shut my eye and nodded. "What must I do?"

"Got a weapon or destructive spells?"

"Of course," I nodded as I floated out my IF-12 and looked at it. The stock was partly beat up, its barrel was dark, and the cloth wrap I had put around it was a bit damp much to my annoyance. "This is my rifle, there are a great many of it, but this is mine."

"Alright, good. You'll need it to kill some crabs."

"Crabs?" I cocked an eyebrow and stared down at the fish pony. "Why crabs?"

"When the tide goes out and most of the tunnels drain, a large group of crabs show up and have killed a couple ponies. You do this for me and I'll get you some radiation."

With a bow of my head, I put the rifle away and said, "thank you. If you ever see an icy blue earth pony named Trigger, tell him Shock says hello."

"I shall. Look, you're going to have to wait for early morning before you can do my job. You can make yourself at home while you wait."

*** ***

I laid there in the corner of the Pit of Despair for what felt like days while I watched the ponies go about their business. They would dance for a bit, talk, dance, drink, and dance some more.

Eventually, I spotted a pony that kept staring at me every so often. I mostly ignored him until I noticed that the silver colored unicorn was making his way over to me. This fact caused me to tilt my head and wonder why he was doing so. For a few moments I thought I might have a shot at a nice chat until I spotted the Steel Ranger scribe robes he was wearing, and rolled my eye before looking at something else.

"Miss Shock I presume?" he said in a pompous tone reminiscent of posh Canterlot unicorns. I said nothing. "Look, you can deny it all you want but it's not hard to track you. You leave a trail of bodies and unexplained situations. Not to mention you’re the only green alicorn here."

"Come to arrest me, have you?" I hissed in his mind. "Should you try, you will fail."

"No," he shook his head. "I have a proposition for you."

I shut my eye and sighed deeply. "I am not dunk enough for a romp in the hay with a bug pony thing pretending to be a Steel Ranger. In fact I have not touched any alcohol today."

"Wut?" He replied in clear confusion, causing me to smirk on the inside. "That's... not what I meant... You know of Star Paladin Eclipse, right?"

"Correct," I nodded and looked over at the unicorn. "Let me guess, she wants you to kill me?"

"No," he facehoofed. "I'm from the Baltimare Steel Rangers and we know the alicorns are no longer under the control of the Goddess."

"And?"

"And we normally send reinforcements to the island once a month. A few months ago we lost one of the few working transports we have. No rime or reason why. It just vanished."

"So?" I shrugged. "Maybe the rusty piece of junk sank in the storm like DJ Buccaneer said?"

The unicorn shook his head. "I was talking with the sea ponies here about it when you arrived. One claims to have found the wreckage of the ship far out to sea."

"You're boring me with this drivel. Get to the point already." I flexed my wings a bit and folded them to show my growing impatience.

"It was full of holes, shelled by naval artillery of some form."

Slowly, I looked over and tilted my head. "You're saying this Paladin Eclipse sank your own boat?"

The Steel Ranger scribe sat down and shrugged. "I don't know. She doesn't know I'm here and-"

"Wait..." My brows knitted together in thought as I slowly thought over his words and came up with an idea. "I met a pony that has recently been far out to sea. She claimed to have encountered a glowing ghoul at some battleship wreck that was sinking."

"Battleship?"

I nodded. "Huge hulk of floating steel with very large guns capable of firing over the horizon."

"Where is the pony you spoke to?"

"On an Enclave raptor probably," I shrugged, causing the unicorn the frown. "But what does a missing ship have to do with Eclipse?"

"What would you do if you were in charge of a group of ponies and one of your ships sank?"

"Send out a search party?"

"Exactly," the unicorn nodded. "She failed to even mention the missing ship in any reports sent back with the shipments. In fact she never even mentioned that there was a change in leadership on the island."

I rolled my eyes again and sighed. "Maybe she's just bad with reports? Paperwork is boring and shooting things is much more fun."

"Star paladins do not just overthrow an Elder on a whim and neglect to inform others. In fact, from what I hear, they're doing worse under her leadership because she's so fixated on killing alicorns."

I rubbed my head with a hoof, sighing deeply again as I shut my eyes. "Mister whatever your name is, I do not care about your politics. In fact, I have half a mind to stop your heart right here, but for the fish ponies' sake, I am holding back."

The unicorn's horn glowed as he pulled an item out of his bags and dropped it on the ground, causing me to tilt my head. It was a small single edged machete that had a chainsaw blades instead of a normal blade. On the flat of the blade was a scratched in name that looked horribly drawn on; Hyde.

"What is this... pathetic blade you have shown me?"

"It's a ripper known as Hyde. I got it from somepony who claimed to have gotten it from another pony that stole it from a green alicorn, you."

"No," I shook my head. "Hyde is a single edged broadsword with hellhound teeth. Not this pathetic excuse for a sword!" My magic pulled Trigger's old machete out and set it down next to the fake Hyde. They were a perfect match for size. "See? That is not Hyde! He is a massive weapon capable of cutting open anything!"

The unicorn rolled his eyes and kicked fake Hyde towards me. "Stop lying. This is your blade because there are no other green alicorns on the island."

Slowly, my magic lifted the puny chainsaw weapon to my eye level and I stared at it while wondering if he was telling the truth. "I want it."

"I'll trade you for it," he said. "But I will not just give it to you."

"What do you want?" I asked as I inspected the cutting blades and found they were still as sharp as when I first picked the weapon up.

"How about... your rifle you flaunted about earlier?"

My ears folded back as I bit my lower lip and continued to stare at the weapon. I began to wonder to myself about things. Could I hit anything? If I could not land on Zakiya's boat and I misjudged the tunnel length... then perhaps my far sight is bad and me attempting to shoot a far target would fail?

I floated out the rifle and ammo with a nod. "I... accept your trade."

He took the items from me and I realized something right then and there. "You still have not told me why you are here. If it's just to give me Hyde, then you are stupid."

"I want to hire you actually," he said with a nod, causing me to facehoof.

Then I stood up and started swinging an inactive Hyde around like I was practicing; spinning it in a circle to test how it acted against the force of the spin followed by a downward chop, and then an angled upward arc, finally ending with the tip pointed at the unicorn. He just stood there and pushed it aside with his magic much to my annoyance.

"As I was saying. I want to hire you for a job. I do not know the island chain and am looking for a guide that can handle some danger."

"We do my job first," I told him as I brought Hyde close to my body and looked for a holder. Finding none caused me to frown. “And you will pay me in caps or favors.”

“What?”

“You heard me. Caps or favors.”

The unicorn frowned some, then nodded. "I have six hundred caps, is this sufficient?” he asked as he turned his head and levitated a bag of caps from his saddlebags.

I sat there scratching my chin in thought for a few long moments before nodding myself. “Yes, that sounds adequate.” He tossed the caps over, I caught them and dumped them out.

“What are you doing?”

“Counting,” I replied as I began to count each and every cap.

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Shell Shock: 25% to next level.