Chapter 19: Dreams
“Some mares call them paradise, but I call it hell.”

The Steel Rangers had set up a small tent city outside their ship base. Un-armored ponies scurried about their business almost like in pre-war times, but instead of fighting zebras. They were desperately trying to dig the massive ship out of the beach where it had run into. Scaffolding covered most of the bow and I could see sparks from where welders were busy making their hasty repairs. Whether or not the thing would be able to sail again was another matter entirely because almost all of the bow was crushed inward quite a bit.

The more I watched them work from my invisible perch, the more anxious I became to sneak in and kill Eclipse. It was a suicidal mission that had two logical outcomes that I was willing to accept; I die before I get to her, or I kill her and die in the escape attempt. Dead Hoof was adamant about the first one while I was leaning towards the second with a very slim chance of survival. We could go invisible and disappear from the sensors after all. It was a nice and easy trick to escape, but the plan called for the both of us to go in and out the narrow corridors.

I had refused to give in to the other alicorn's attempts to pry into my past. She wanted to know who I promised to return home to and what the world was like. All I would tell her was that it was a nice place and much better than now. She would get no more from me because she does not need to know.

Only one alicorn deserved to know, and she is now dead. Something I regret heavily, but cannot dwell on or risk losing focus, which would be incredibly bad with how close I was to the Steel Rangers.

Thinking of the Tin Cans caused the gears in my head to slowly spin around as my mind worked over a plan. I wished for a missile launcher, flamethrower or artillery gun to lob my message into the camp, but I would get no such luxuries. The only tools I had were the 10mm pistol 'Shock', the chainsaw ripper 'Hyde', my various spells including the shield, and a small bundle of grenades. Not the best, but workable.

As I thought of the grenades, my gaze wandered from the camp over to a Vertibuck sitting on the beach near a whole stack of fuel drums. The Tin Cans were using the Vertibuck to fly around the island chain and back again. I knew they had quite a few of the things, including weapons for them. As I stared at the thing, a plan slowly formed in my head.

And it caused me to grin.

*** ***

I finished crawling back through the forest and dropped my invisibility spell as I approached a cave mouth. "Sister?" I called out telepathically. "I have finished my recon of the ship and..." My voice trailed off when I saw the inside of the cave.

Dead Hoof laid on her back on the cold stone floor, her wings unfolded and her eyes wide open, but unblinking. All of our stuff was scattered around and a few red shell casings were laying next to her body.

My ears folded back as I slowly approached her and laid down, resting my wing over her body. "I'm sorry," I whispered with my mouth and looked down at my hooves. "I'm sorry I dragged you into this. I..." I shut my eyes as tight as I could. "I'm an idiot!" I shouted. "You warned me not to come here, but.." I slowly shook my head as my ears drooped to the side of my face. "I didn't listen because I'm an idiot. I thought we could-"

"Shock?" Dead Hoof's voice resonated in my ears as it echoed off the cave walls, causing me to stop talking. "What are you talking about?"

"You're dead..." I whispered.

"Dead?"

"Yes," I slowly nodded. "Killed by scouts who came while I was away..."

"Wut?"

"It's true." I opened my eyes and looked at her face. Strangely the dead alicorn had a confused, shocked and horrified expression on her face all at once. It didn't take a genius to figure out why.

"I'm not dead," she said and slowly sat up, giving her wings a test flap. "I was asleep."

"Asleep?" I asked, tilting my head some.

"Yeah," she nodded. "I sometimes sleep with my eyes open. Helps to-"

I interrupted her by hugging the blue alicorn as tight as I could and burying my face in her neck. "You're alive!"

"Sh-I... Can't..." She gasped for air in my grip and her wings flapped uselessly. As soon as I loosened it, she immediately took in a huge breath of air and sat there breathing deeply. I pulled back and smiled. After a while, she said, "you thought I was dead?"

I nodded slowly and waved a hoof at the state of our belongings. "When I saw this, and you on the floor with a sightless gaze. I... I may have overreacted."

Something touched my wing, causing me to look down at Dead Hoof's dark blue wing. Her dirty feathers were twisted about and it looked as if she hadn't preened in weeks, causing me to frown. "I should have let you know about my sleeping habit ahead of time," she said. "But I was looking for that journal of yours and made a mess."

"My journal?" I asked, still staring at her messy wing. Even mine was messy. More so because it had been clipped and healed multiple times in the last few months. Even I never have the time to do a proper preening to clean them. The fact made me frown even more.

"I wanted to look at it but couldn't find it."

"Because I didn't want you to find it," I replied. "When was the last time you preened?"

"Huh, you di-what? Preen?" she asked, clear confusion in her voice. "What the hell is preen?"

"How old of an alicorn are you?" I gently reached out with my telekinesis and unfolded her wing all the way.

"I'm..." Dead Hoof tilted her head. "What are you doing?"

"Your wings need preening, and I will give them that since you obviously do not know how." I moved closer to her and gently gripped the bottom of the feather's shaft where it met the wing with my mouth, lightly moving it to see if it'd fall out. When it didn't slowly moved down the feather, straightening and cleaning it as I went. When I finished with the feather, I looked at Dead Hoof. "You do that."

"For how many?" She asked, holding the wing up to her mouth and nibbled on one of her feathers, causing a couple blue feathers to stick to her nose when she pulled back.

"All of them," I replied as I removed the feathers from her nose with magic.

"All..? That could take all day and..." Her voice nearly trembled in fear. "They could find us."

"It'd be faster if I preened my wings while you preened yours."

She looked down at her wing again and, after a couple seconds, frowned. "To answer your question, I was converted about six or seven months ago."

"Why'd you do it?" I asked with my mind as I started to preen Dead Hoof's out stretched wing.

"I was captured by slavers and sold to Red Eye. Like I had a choice in the matter."

I finished with the second feather and spit the old one out before starting on the third. "All alicorns are created from willing unicorns. They should have asked if you wanted to be converted or not."

"They did," she replied as I started on a couple smaller and ragged looking feathers. They were plucked with magic because I had seen the new ones already growing in. "But they basically said 'convert or die'."

I stopped preening, slowly looking at Dead Hoof as my eyes widened. "What...? No! They would have said something like 'you can go freely if you do not want to convert'."

"Like I'm supposed to believe that!" she shouted and waved a hoof around. "armed guards and powerful fucking alicorns around me? Like they would have let me go, just like that!"

I slowly nodded. "I have seen it first hoof. Many, many, years ago I brought in one unicorn. She seemed so sure of it up until we arrived at Maripony. There she got skittish, unsure and wanted to nothing to do with us. So we escorted her out of the area and left her alone."

"Okay, fine!" Dead Hoof folded her forelegs across her chest. "Maybe the alicorns would have let me go, but Red Eye's cronies sure as hell weren't going to. Can we not talk about this? I don't like being a mare and don't like to be reminded of it."

I gave a faint nod. Then looked down at Dead Hoof's wing. "Do you want me to continue preening your wings while I tell you my plan and what I saw earlier today?"

"Sure."

*** ***

As quietly as I could, I darted out from behind a tree and zipped through the air, landing on top of a rocky outcropping overlooking the Steel Ranger camp and ship from the other side of the bay. I laid down as my invisibility spell dropped and watched the ponies far, far away from Dead hoof and I. The surf slamming against the rocks drowned out the other alicorn's hooves as she landed next to me.

I glanced at her. The cold ocean spray from a wave covered us both, just before another wave slammed into the rock. "It's brilliant, right?" I asked with a smile.

"They're not going to let you steal a Vertibuck and get away," Dead Hoof said with a frown. "Think it through."

"I have. It's simple; We knock out Eclipse, tie her up, transport her while invisible, and board the chopper."

"How do you propose we get aboard that Vertibuck carrier?"

I nodded my horn at the side of the ship where the top deck met the stern. A large gap could be seen in the ship as if the deck was extended further than the hull. "Do you see that point where the two halves meet? The ship has doors everywhere. Getting aboard is not hard. Navigating it is a different matter altogether."

"Huh?" Dead Hoof laid down next to me and looked at the ship. "It's gotta be easy to navigate since that thing is like a larger ship than what I had, right?"

I shook my head. "If the Steel Rangers kept the interior as it was in pre-war times, you are going to find acronyms and numbers, not words, telling you what was what."

"I don't get it."

I facehoofed and groaned. "How hard is this to understand?! Sometimes you'll have to go up two decks and down again just to keep going on the same level. It is a maze of tunnels and doors."

Dead Hoof rolled her eyes. "Why not just say that? So how are we going to navigate it and find Eclipse?"

Slowly, I looked out over the bay and frowned. In truth, I had no idea how to navigate it. The Crescent Moon had been redone by its inhabitants to be easier to navigate on top of it being a passenger ship. The Celestia's Delight had been an auxiliary cruiser built from a cargo ship. I knew, in the deepest recesses of my mind, that the Hoofington would be three times as confusing. I had only been on a ship like it once before we were deployed and I was only allowed in specific areas; the bunks, the galley, and the unloading platform.

Something kept nagging at me though. It was Dead Hoof's reluctance to work with the Enclave. She wouldn't tell me why, but I assumed it had something to do with the fact that Equestria was covered in clouds because of those flying shitheads. But I could overlook that and work with them if they showed they had something to offer.

I looked at the blue. "Dead Hoof, why won't you let the Enclave help? They promised me they would!"

She looked over at me and frowned, causing me to frown in response. Her eyebrows knitted together in clear thought for a few long moments while we stared into each other's eyes. Then she said, "because."

That was it? Just because?! What is her problem with the Enclave? Did they do something to her? But that is silly. Unless...

"You've had dealings with them in the past," We said flatly. She didn't reply, only looking out at the ship beyond us. "You can tell Us what happened."

"It's nothing," she shook her head. "Just this one pegasus I knew."

"Who?"

"I'm not sure. She came into my camp one night, injured. I took her in, healed her and gave her what food I had."

"Then what?" I tilted my head some as I moved a little closer.

"They came in the morning. Armor as black as night, eyes that'd give even you the creeps, and tails with sharp swords. They came in and took her back by force." Dead Hoof looked down with a deep frown on her face. "Never saw her again."

"Sorry," We said, a frown forming on Our face as well. "We did not... mean to bring up bad memories. We know how bad memories can effect a pony."

"Shock."

"Hm?" We looked up into Dead Hoof's eyes.

"Stop it. Stop calling yourself 'We'. You're not in Unity anymore."

I nodded slowly and looked at the ship in the distance. "I didn't realize I was. Shall we, you and I, get moving?"

She went invisible in response, so I cast the spell and took flight. We swooped low over the waves like We had done on our approach to the island and gave Our wings a few quick flaps, propelling Us faster than a gallop with ease.

Dead hoof and I flew unseen along the wave tops while my mind worked over her story. I wondered why she had given it up so easily, but passed it off as her just wanting to get it off her chest. Or it could be a false story. Now that I knew, I knew not to ask her about it again.

As the two of us approached the ship, I could see its patchwork repairs all along the bull that would be a better fit for a scrapyard. Its paint job was mostly rust overlaid with a dosing of whatever paint they had at the time, giving the appearance of a rather hideous looking ship up close. However, its number and name were proudly painted on in white.

My path took me past rusted doors, large caliber weapons, and other things I did not care for. However, We passed by a large gap in the side and suddenly stopped in the air, Dead Hoof's weight slammed into me, causing the both of us to tumble a bit before I righted myself. I glanced back at where she might be and did not see her outline, but heard the faint flap of her wings over the wings.

"Dead Hoof," I said quietly with my mouth. "Where are you?"

"Here," she whispered back, the distance of her voice said she was less than a leg's length of distance away. "Why did you stop?"

I pointed my hoof in a useless gesture at the large opening in the side of the ship. Inside, I could see multiple Vertibucks in various states of repairs and ponies in orange jump suits diligently working on them. A loud whirring noise filtered out from the workshop as a pony unbolted something with an ancient air gun.

"This is our way in," I whispered.

"What? But... There's ponies! They'll see the door open up."

"Not if they are busy working." I said before flying inside the shop and landing some distance from the nearest Vertibuck behind some boxes. A quiet clop of hooves near me told me that Dead Hoof had followed regardless of her feelings on the matter. I glanced over at the door to the ship's interior and began watching it. No pony was near it and neither was any pony near us, so I dropped my invisibility spell with a deep sigh. "We should take a break."

I sat down and glanced at Dead Hoof, who had also dropped her spell. She was frowning at me, but not saying anything. I stared at her, she stared back, and the seconds began passing. After a while, she took a deep breath and said, "Shock, this is dumb."

"How so?" I asked, tilting my head some.

"You and I are probably kill-on-sight and we're surrounded by Steel Rangers while visible." She floated out her shotgun and stared at the side of the barrel with a frown. "I don't want to kill them, but I'll do it if they leave me no choice."

She put the weapon away as I slowly peered out from behind cover and looked at the door. Again, no pony was near it. And why should they post guards inside the hangar? They'd want to keep the crew out, not in! I went back to my hiding spot next to Dead Hoof and was about to suggest a plan when a yellow glow surrounded a box at the same time a pony shouted very close by, “yeah, yeah. I’ll get that turbocharger! It’s just behind…”

My eyes went wide as the box was lifted up and pulled away from us. My horn glowed its soft color as I drew my 10mm pistol, Shock, with the attached suppressor and pointed it at the box, slowly taking a couple steps back.

“...here…” the pony muttered as his grumpy face turned to a look of shock, his eyes slowly went wide as his jaw slowly dropped.

“Shock, don’t...” Dead Hoof said.

Shock moved into my vision as I lined up a shot on the pony’s head and made a silencing motion with my hoof. The silver unicorn glanced at the floating box, me, the box, Dead Hoof, me, the box and tossed it towards me, shouting, “alicorns!”

“Wait!” Dead Hoof shouted as the box slammed into my floating pistol, causing it to get knocked sideways at the same time the trigger was squeezed. The sound was akin to a pony stomping their hoof on a metal can, but still loud enough to echo in the room as the bullet ricocheted off the ground and lodged itself into a wall. I was sent reeling back when the box shoved the pistol into my snout, causing me to see stars at the same time my magic field imploded and the pistol dropped to the ground. “Shock, wait!”

I collapsed from the very heavy box slamming against my face and felt as if my nose was on fire. The wooden box was shoved away as I grabbed the pistol in my magic and leaped towards the boxes. They exploded outwards as my body slammed into them. By then I had the attention of the mechanically inclined unicorn and other ponies in the room. I quickly stood up on my hind legs, spread my wings out and held a hoof towards the sky to give an imposing sight as I telekinetically shouted, “THE GREAT AND POWERFUL GODDESS IS DISPLEASED!”

Everything went quiet, deathly quiet.

A big burly earth pony stallion with something in his mouth walked out from behind the closest Vertibuck. I could see that he wore grimy coveralls filled to the brim with tools, and his mane was stained with grease. If I had to name him, I’d call him Greaser. Greaser turned his head to the side, but kept his gaze on me and spit up some rather icky looking brown stuff. “Like I give a shit if yer some ‘goddess’. Ya jus’ damaged some ancient parts, an’ I ain’t to happy about that.”

“AND WHAT ART THOU GOING TO DO ABOUT IT, WHELP?” We continued to glare at the insolent pony.

He glanced at the others nearby for a few seconds before looking at Us. “I challenge ya to a duel; no magic, no guns, an’ no wings. You win, ya get somethin’. Ya lose, you get outta my shop.”

Our eyes narrowed at the pony as We slowly untied Our saddlebags and floated everything, including the pistol, towards Dead Hoof. “We accept thy challenge!” We shouted with Our mouth.

Dead Hoof most likely facehoofed because We heard the distinct slap of a hoof hitting a pony’s face from her direction. “Shock, we could have bribed them…” she muttered.

We ignored her remark and slowly held one fore hoof out as We turned sideways and readied for the attack. The earth pony pulled a large wrench over and held it close, smirking at Us. “Ready?”

We nodded. “Yes. Are you?”

His smirk grew even larger and he pointed at the Vertibuck to Our right. “Take the starboard engine off that one, tear it apart, an’ rebuild it 'fore we can do the same to the other side,”

“What...?” We tilted Our head and blinked in confusion. “You are not going to fight Us?”

“One, two, three, go!” He shouted and dashed over to the Vertibuck and began to work on it.

I stood there blinking in complete shock for a few long moments. A heavy shove knocked me back to reality as Dead Hoof shouted, “Shock, wake up and start working!”

*** ***

I clamored around the roof of the Vertibuck, wrench firmly clenched in my teeth as my greasy hooves worked to get a good angle on the flying machine's engine. However, any and all attempts to work were constantly thwarted by the fact that we did not how to pull the thing apart. Neither did we not know how to put it back together! Dead Hoof was sitting on the ground with a bunch of parts in her lap and a confused expression on her face.

"Did this part go here? Or..." She set the odd part down and frowned. "No, that's not it..."

"Time's up!" A pony yelled from behind us, drawing my attention to the other side of the Vertibuck. The aforementioned loud mouth was sitting next to the completed engine with a pompous smirk on his face. I felt like slapping it off with a flying kick of doom.

Then my gaze went to my flank, which was up in the air with my short tail not doing a good job of covering myself. A low growl built up in my throat as I thought about what the pony could have been staring at. Quickly, I spun around and mentally shouted, "WHAT DID YOU SEE?!"

He chuckled, turning his head to spit some icky brown-black stuff out, then looked at me again. "A grease covered loser. You lost."

"This challenge was absurd!" I shouted and stomped my hoof into the metal vehicle's roof, causing it to ring out. "A duel is honorable combat between two parties! Not this... This travesty! It is an abomination and-"

"I woulda lost had I fought ya," the pony said. "Yer an alicorn, who is obviously experienced in fightin', an' I'm a mechanic who can barely hit anythin' with a pistol. I would've lost an' it was in my favor to pick what I had the advantage in, just as you would've done."

My teeth ground together as I thought over his words. He was right, I was an okay shot and okay with hoof-to-hoof, having picked up the zebra's Fallen Caesar fighting style long ago. The pony was at a severe disadvantage against me and not all duels are decided by sword, hoof, or bullets. The battle of wits is a real battle none the less.

With a deep sigh, I hung my head low and nodded. "You are correct. We have lost the duel and will leave your shop at once."

The pony pointed his grease stained hoof at the door to the ship's interior, causing me to tilt me head. "There's the door, now git!"

I looked over at the pony, then down at Dead Hoof and finally the door, a small smile formed on my face.

*** ***

"I don't believe you," Dead Hoof grumbled as she walked along beside me through the rusty passageways. She wasn't invisible and neither was I. All her weapons were being carried by the pony behind us. All of mine, except for the 10mm pistol, was also being carried by the pony. Shock was expertly hidden inside Dead Hoof's long mane so it couldn't be easily seen.

We had been 'captured' as part of a brilliant plan. Since it would be advantageous to have a local pony escort us around, I had decided to make a deal with the mechanics. It was a brilliant and simple plan.

As the path split, the pony nudged us towards the right and the three of us continued walking. The presence of two alicorns drew looks from some ponies inside the rooms, but when they saw that we were 'captured' they left us alone.

I glanced over at Dead Hoof as we passed by a room marked 'Motel Spinner Hub'. "It is brilliant," my voice whispered into her mind. "This way we can memorize the layout."

She merely rolled her eyes in response.

I nodded a bit and looked at the path ahead. The interior of the ship was much like the outside, rusty and ugly. Metal piping ran overhead, carrying who knows what, and bulkheads spaced every so often showed where the water tight doors were. When shut, those doors were perfectly sealed to keep water out, but I had a feeling that Hyde could cut through them.

I began humming to myself as we walked, but quickly stopped. "Dead hoof," I whispered in her mind. She glanced over at me with a frown. "Don't worry about the engine. The mechanics know how to properly put it back together."

"I get the feeling that it'll blow up as soon as they turn it on," she muttered under her breath.

I nodded slowly at her worry and did not reply. Instead, I picked up my pace and began to almost canter along the hallways in anticipation of finally killing Eclipse. The rusty floors and walls were ignored in favor of memorizing the layout; a left here, the third right there, head up the stairs to C Deck, cross over to the other side of the ship and climb to B Deck.

There, on B Deck, the interior changed. It was no longer rusty, but well kept like the Delight had been. The metal interior had been painted over an ugly grey time and time again, providing a nice relief to the previous halls. Still, the three of us pressed onward towards our destination, the Captain's Quarters.

However, at the end of the first hallway was a pair of power armored tin cans standing guard at the door. "Halt!" one shouted through his armor's speaker like some brainwashed guard.

Dead Hoof and I instantly complied. An audible gulp could be heard from the blue's throat. "Ole' Cookie captured these two tryin' to sneak aboard," the pony behind us said. "I'm takin' 'em to see Elder Eclipse."

The guards looked at each other for a few long moments, then at us. "You'll take them to the brig instead."

"Shock," Dead hoof whispered through her teeth.

With a deep breath, I stared at the two tin cans and tried to figure out who was newer. It didn't take long with the Steel Rangers being sticklers for old world practices. The one on the right was new and had less maintained equipment, so I glanced at the one on the left and whispered in his mind, "the alicorns don't need to go to the brig. Alicorns are too important for the brig and must be seen right away."

The guard looked at the other one and a silent conversation could be seen as their heads bobbed around. One even stomped his hoof down. After standing there for an eternity, the guards finally opened the door. The one on the left looked at us and said, "add their weapons and gear to the ship's armory. We'll escort them from here."

We glanced back at the pony behind Us. He nodded, gave a salute and galloped off. This caused Us to hiss a bit because he had Hyde and the special 105mm shell.

*** ***

We walked in silence. One Tin Can ahead with one behind Us. Dead Hoof flanked Us and no pony said a word, out loud. "Sister, we can still get out of this," We said in Dead Hoof's mind.

"How? Tell me, is this how Mudpie died? She followed you until you killed her with your stupidity?"

We looked away from her, but was shoved back in line by the Tin Can behind Us. "Eyes front," he said and We wordlessly complied by staring at the flank of the power armored guard ahead.

"We are not stupid," We whispered in Dead Hoof's mind."We would not have survived so long if We were."

"Unless the Princesses took pity on you."

I winced and her words stung. Dead Hoof had no right to call me stupid because she did not know the circumstances surrounding anything. She would be the same if she had to go through what I did. There was no right answer to pick at the time because the wasteland is not black and white. Only shades of grey.

The Tin Cans led us through the grey hallways that We paid no real mind to, but glanced up every once in a while to see the numbers and letters. They did not look back at us and every pony we came across quickly hid in their rooms again.

Eventually, we approached a door and the Tin Cans began slowing down. He stopped and knocked loudly, the metal ringing out caused Our ears to press against Our head in an effort to block out the sound. We stood there waiting for what felt like an eternity before the door was opened.

"What is it?" an old raspy voice asked from behind the door.

"Ma'am, we have captured two alicorns," the head Tin Can said, "and the green one even tried to mind trick us into bringing her to Eclipse."

A sound like rocks rattling around in a can could be heard from the door as the pony laughed. "Did she now? And yet you still listened to her order." The Tin Can shifted around on his weight as if he was unsure or surprised by her remark. "Let them in and leave us."

"Ma'am?" He tilted his head. "But they-"

"I can handle two alicorns just fine," she replied. "Now let them in and fuck off."

The Tin Can stepped aside and looked at Us. “Get in there,” he said with a nod towards the door.

We glanced at Dead Hoof before wordlessly complying not out of choice. Dead Hoof followed Us inside the small and spartan room. Off on one side was the bed with a dirt filled flower box. Literally, there were small flowers growing inside the box. A glance to Our right made Us stop as Our eyes widened in surprise. Standing next to the, now closed, door was a shriveled purple ghoul inside Enclave power armor. The suit looked dinged, scratched and missing its wing armor. Instead she had a set of brown saddlebags over where the wing holes would be. Her helmet was off, revealing her shriveled face, her bright life filled orange eyes and what was left of her once full yellow mane.

Dead Hoof took a few steps back when the mare smirked at us. “Expecting some other pony?”

We opened Our mouth and closed it a few times in an attempt to form a reply, but came up short. Dead Hoof stomped her hoof down, causing Us to flinch and look at her. “Who are you?” she asked for Us, but her tone was quite annoyed.

The mare looked over at Dead Hoof as well. "Who am I?" she asked as she placed a power armored hoof to her chest and tilted her head. Dead Hoof nodded. "I'm no pony you'll know. No pony you'll ever heard of, because I'm smart."

Her reply caused me to frown. I stared at her old armor and wondered how she got it and, as she turned towards the window, I noticed that she didn't even have wing stubs. She was just a normal earth pony ghoul. Her bladed tail flicked left and right while she stared out at the nearby island.

"You see." she glanced back at us. "Alicorns learn from their mistakes. When one dies, you all know about it, correct?"

I nodded slowly. It was a painful feature of Unity in my eyes, but it let us all know how to adapt from threats we had yet to encounter. "What's your point?" Dead Hoof growled, then yawned into her hoof. I found myself yawning due to the sheer contagiousness of a yawn.

"My point is that I work in the shadows."

Her crypticness caused me to roll my eyes. "Where is Eclipse?"

"I'm getting to that." She defiantly replied before looking out the window again. "Long, long, ago. There was an earth pony in love with a unicorn. The unicorn was silently followed by a blue. Alicorn." My head tilted some as my ears swiveled towards her to listen to every word. "This alicorn promised the earth pony that she would help the unicorn. Then, one day." She looked back at us and glared. "A sniper blew the unicorn's brains out in front of the earth pony!"

Dead Hoof facehoofed. "This is ridiculous. Ponies die all the-"

"Silence!" I hissed at Dead hoof, causing her to go quiet. Then, I slowly looked at the purple mare in Enclave armor. "Let Us guess. You decided to track down the alicorn?"

She nodded, a grin slowly formed on her face. "How did it feel? Because the look on your face when her head was smashed in was priceless."

My face paled as all blood suddenly left it and I stood there, my legs trembling as my wings slowly flexed in and out in anger, anxiousness, worry? The purple mare's grin grew ever more, causing me to scowl as blood began to rapidly pump through my body.

"Your reaction is all that I needed," she said. Then frowned deeply. "But Eclipse fucked my plan up. She was supposed to kill you, not that blue."

"Why?" I hissed through my teeth while slowly grinding them together. "Why do you want me dead?"

"To let that blue know the heartbreak I felt. To let her live in eternal fuckin' agony knowing her cunt love died in front of her and she was helpless to stop it." She turned her nose up a bit and waved her hoof at the door. "Piss off, you're not needed anymore."

"WHERE IS ECLIPSE?!" We shouted as loud as We could with both Our mind and voice.

The ghoul tossed her head back, placed a power armored hoof against her forehead and collapsed. "Oh no, help! I've made an alicorn angry! Whatever shall I do? Woe is meeee!" I rolled my eyes at her antics and looked over at Dead Hoof.

The blue alicorn was looking towards the door to see if the guards were coming, but the door didn't open. I saw that her wing was bulged out a bit, indicating that she was hiding the 10mm pistol inside of it. Slowly, I looked over at the ghoul, who had started laughing much to my annoyance.

But then, something strange happened. A tan unicorn slowly walked into my view. Her presence caused my eyes to widen in complete surprise because her hide was marred by scars and her cybernetic hoof was nearly frozen from rust. Floating in her, well my, magical grip was a bloody knife that looked sharp enough to split hairs. Lilium wore a wicked grin on her face as she closed the gap and stopped next to the laughing ghoul. Slowly, Lilium looked up at me.

"I know what you're thinking" Lilium said. "You wanna slice this ghoul's skin off, but she won't care because she's been living without it for some time. Know what I say?"

"What?" I asked myself.

"See this knife?" she twirled it around in her magic and grinned. I nodded. "Shove it up her ass and rip her in half! Take her armor as your prize. You've earned it."

"But you're not real..." My ears slowly folded back as the purple earth pony slowly stood up. "And neither is the knife."

"Then use your horn," Lilium whispered as she disappeared in a cloud that slowly vanished.

"What the fuck are you still doing here?" the ghoul shouted. "I said leave!"

I glanced at Dead Hoof, then at the purple ghoul and stood up as tall as I could. "No." I glared at her.

"No?"

"Are you deaf or stupid? I said no!" I stomped my hoof down and glared. "Not until you tell us where Eclipse is."

"Fine." She rolled her orange eyes with a sigh and a wave of her hoof. "She's in Baltimare. Now fuck off and don't come back."

"No." I shook my head and slowly spread out my glorious and majestic wings. "I challenge you to a duel!"

The ghoul blinked in shock a couple of times before tilting her head with a confused expression. "Huh?"

"A duel is honorable combat between two ponies. It is what Eclipse challenged Sister to, so I challenge you to a duel! Since you are the one responsible for Sister's death."

"I know what a duel is," she mumbled. Then shuffled a bit on her hooves and glanced at me, the door, Dead Hoof, then back to me. "Just you and me?"

I nodded slowly and placed my hoof against my chest. "I give you my word as a pony who fought zebras in the war that ravaged this land. Just you and I will-"

Something tiny zipped past my ear with a crack, interrupting me. The ghoul's head was tossed back again, but instead of laughter, most of her brains splattered the wall behind her and covered half the window. I jumped in complete surprise as the room was filled with the muffled sound of the silenced 10mm pistol 'Shock'. The ghoul's lifeless body collapsed into a twitching mess on the floor, causing my eye to twitch a bit.

Quickly, I spun around to face Dead Hoof, flared out my wings and glared at her.The smoking pistol floated in her magic just under her eyes. "HOW DARE THEE!" I shouted at her with my mind. "YOU... You..."

"Yell at me later!" Dead Hoof shouted as she turned and ran for the door, quickly going invisible. "Grab what you can from her and let's run before the guards come."

I stood there for a second before I realized she was right. The guards would have been told to come back at a set time, but a nearby pony might have heard the shot. However... Dead Hoof's punishment will have to wait.

I quickly dashed over to the earth pony and pulled her saddlebags onto my back. Then set about dismantling her power armor as best I could. "Shock! We don't have time for that!"

"No!" I shook my head as I pulled off a foreleg piece and cringed when her skin underneath was mostly gone. Ghouls were always hideous to me. "I need her armor!"

"It's useless. Fucking leave it!" I shook my head again as I put the other foreleg piece into my new bag. "Shock," Dead Hoof said in a cold tone as a metal object was stuck to the back of my head. The chest plate's clasp was let go as I let my magic slowly fade, because I knew there could only be one thing that was pressed against my skull, the suppressor to my own pistol. "Leave the armor. And let's. Go. Or your brains are painting the floor."

With an audible gulp, I gave a very faint nod. "You make a very valid point. We will go."

"Good girl."

*** ***

We walked through the rusty halls of the ship as silent as we could be. My mind churned over the ghoul. I had no idea who she was and suspected neither would have Mudpie as it was highly unlikely that she could track down a specific alicorn, considering how many there wereover the years. I suspected that the ghoul wanted to end all alicorns and would have returned to manipulating ponies in a short while. Her mannerisms were odd as well. She wasn't even concerned about having two powerful spell casters in the room!

"Why was an earth pony wearing pegasus power armor?" I whispered with my mouth.

"Doesn't matter, she's dead." Dead Hoof replied just as quietly from behind me.

"You will not do that again," We growled at the blue and stopped.

"Do what?" she asked almost innocently, causing Our teeth to grind together.

We spun around to face the blue alicorn, Our hooves grabbing her soft invisible flesh as We tossed her against the wall and pinned her there. "YOU KNOW WHAT YOU DID!" We shouted with Our mind at the same time she cried out in pain from hitting the wall. We cared little as Our invisibility spell dropped. "Do not presume that because We are old and grey, that We are also stupid." As Dead Hoof became visible, Our hoof pressed down on her throat, slowly choking her. "We challenged the earth pony to fair combat. You had no right to intervene! It... It... It goes against-"

"Fuck fair play," Dead Hoof nearly spat at Us. "Shock. Do you honestly think that there are good ponies in the wasteland? Do you think there's a stallion in shining armor coming to sweep you off your hooves? Wake the fuck up! You're not in some storybook where you're a damsel in distress. You're a monster that other ponies fear, a villain. If anything I should be the one to kill you. Right here and now."

We were about to retort when We felt cold steel press against the bottom of Our jaw. "Do it," We glared at her. "Kill Us and you'll forever be a mare."

"It's a risk I'm willing to take." she glared back as a metallic click told Us the hammer was drawn back. "I honestly don't know how Mudpie put up with you."

"She loved Us, We loved her as a sister, and Sister accepted Us for who We were."

"And look where it got her!"

Our ears folded back at her remark. We looked away and shut Our eyes, causing the pistol to slowly lower away from Our skull. "Do you not think We regret the choices We made that led to her death? We will find a way to fix it."

"Then let's get our stuff and leave this stupid ship."

"Where are we heading?" I asked, partially wondering because I wanted to go to Baltimare and kill Eclipse while another half of me wanted to go to Canterlot.

"Baltimare. There's bound to be some friendly alicorns there and we can get help for you."

Slowly, I nodded and looked into Dead Hoof's eyes. "Okay, but I want to go to Canterlot as well."

Her eyebrow arched up in confusion. "Why Canterlot?"

"Because. There may be a way to bring Sister back. We heard rumors that they kept the best spells in Canterlot, and hope there is a time travel spell there."

"Shock," her ears slowly folded back . "Shock... That's... That doesn't seem right to do."

"But it is." I slowly let Dead Hoof go and she dropped to all four hooves. “Sister will live again and my mistake will be fixed!”

Her ears drooped to the side of her face in response, but quickly perked up. My ears twitched and swiveled as a metallic groan ran throughout the passageway, causing me to glance up at the ceiling as pipes shuddered and wobbled in place.

Suddenly, the deck beneath us lurched, tossing me into the cold wall as Dead Hoof went the other way. My wings popped out to balance me as I braced myself with my hooves. The deck lurched again, but this time we were not thrown around, and the hallway bucked one last time before settling out.

"Attention everypony," a metallic stallion's voice shouted from everywhere and nowhere. "We have officially freed the Hoofington from the island! Kick back, relax, and have a few Sparkle-Colas because we're shipping out at oh-four-thirty tomorrow."

I looked back at Dead Hoof and tilt my head. "They freed the ship."

"And?" She pushed me onward, so I obliged and began walking again. "We knew they were digging it out. Just keep walking and maybe we can get out of here in one piece."

I nodded some and kept walking along the rusty path. It wended its way this way and that as the two of us delved ever deeper into the bowels of the ship.

*** ***

My eyes snap open and quickly focus as I slowly push myself upright. The dim light of a lantern casts a pale glow across the journal below me, highlighting the last page of it. Slowly, my jade green magic picks up the pen and slowly floats it half-way down the page where I had fallen asleep while writing about my time on the Hoofington, but the pen begins trembling in my magic before it's even placed on the page.

"I..." I bite my lower lip and toss the pen at the tent flap and clutch my head with my hooves, shutting my eyes. "I can't do this," I whisper softly. "I thought I can, but I just... can't! I see her face. The memories it dredges up. Why must they haunt me? Goddess, what makes me different than other wastelanders who don't have these problems?"

Of course I do not receive a reply from the long dead Great and Powerful Goddess.

Groaning out of frustration, I set my hooves down and stumble towards my cot before flopping into it. The fluffy cloud pillow entices me towards the blissful embrace of sleep. I let my wings unfold and lay flat as I mumble, "no more looking into the past. Nothing good comes from it, only pain and sorrow. I'm sorry, Mudpie. Dead Hoof is right. There are no good ponies in the wasteland, I can't save them, and I couldn't save you. I'm a failure."

----------------

Shell Shock: Level up!
New Perk - Ghost of the Jungle.(Rank II) You can now sneak around slightly better as long as no pony hears your hoofsteps, or sees you moving quickly. +10 to stealth when your coat color matches the shrubbery. Just don’t do magic, the glow still gives you away.

Dead Hoof: Level up!
New Perk - Quick Draw. You can un-holster a weapon 10% faster than other ponies.

Quest perk - Dream Crusher. You crushed her chance at revenge, asshole. +25% resistance to critical hits and you're 5% more likely to have Shock listen to your ideas.