Walking in the Dark

“It matters not how strait the gate, how charged with punishments the scroll. I am the master of my fate: I am the captain of my soul”

“How much control of the facility do you have?” I asked as I squeezed myself through a small maintenance tunnel. A regular sized pony would have fit easily, but well, you know me. Still, it was the only way out of the area currently patrolled by Watcher henchponies and crazy invisible robots.

“I have access to all security features: camera, robots, some doors, and the speaker system.” A voice over a nearby speaker said. We were friends.

Well, perhaps that was stretching it a bit far; she did cram me like a sardine down this hallway that was so tight it was scraping against my sides and I had to keep my head ducked. Still, I was happy to be out of that… server room. Whatever it was. The essence of Baptisia was still so strong there, just thinking about it made me dizzy.

“Can you tell me what’s going on? Is there still fighting?” I pushed my way further and further through the tight corridor, following its twisty turns. Apparently the whole facility was filled with these maintenance tunnels, twisting through the facility like blood vessels, and according to Bap (we’re on nickname basis now) no less vital to keep the facility running. I wouldn’t know much about it, I just followed the blinking lights Bap sent to guide me the right way.

“Yes.” Helpful!

I found myself climbing awkwardly past a long dead skeleton, a poor little blood cell who died when the facility did. “Steel Rangers? The uh, ones in the armour.”

“Yes.” I waited a second and the voice continued. “They appear to be fighting each other, though I could not say why.”

My leg got caught on the poor dead pony’s leg bones and I had to shake it off. I had no issues dealing with corpses or skeletons, but it was still a bit awkward. “Who is winning?”

“The ones who are painted appear to be retreating deeper into the facility.”

“Wha-Fuck!” I lifted my head in surprise only to hit the low ceiling. “What do you mean?”

“What I said, I have been long torn asunder, my memories are far from static, I know not what each side is. However, the painted side is retreating.”

How could that have happened? It wasn’t possible. When I left, the Applejack Rangers were winning. It was all a bit bogged down, but we were winning. What could have gone wrong? Whatever it was, I blamed Curly Fries.

“Did I upset you?” The truth didn’t upset me, it… worried me. What upset me more were the blinking lights Bap set right beside a long ladder going straight up. I craned my neck to peer up the long shaft, but it was so long and dark even my cyber eye couldn’t see the top of it. With the pain in my leg from the stab wound I knew I wouldn’t make it on my own power, unless…. I dug through my bags and took out one of my few remaining Med-X, found a vein, and let the calm warmth flow over me. That’d make it easier.

Although, digging through the bag made me more than a bit nervous. I only had a single magazine of ammo left (all fire bullets I had been reluctant to use), one more Med-X, no healing potions, and some loose ammo for a pistol I should probably have cleaned up. It had been so long since I’d been able to stock up. With a groan, I looked back up and started to climb.

It was around then I remembered I’d been asked a question. “No… I’m just. Worried.” The battle meant little to me if I was being honest. I hated the Steel Rangers, especially after how Blackwater had corrupted them, but the Applejack Rangers were nothing to me. I would be lying if I said I hadn’t considered recruiting them for my grand coalition, but it was far from necessary. Still, I wanted them to win for the most part, if only because they were holding my… friends… “Can you see outside the facility?”

“No.” That was… not good. If something happened out there how would I even know. Maybe I should have taken Serenity with me, being apart from her was just making me paranoid. And with Tight Lips, her former foalnapper, hanging around…

I stopped to shake my head and look up into the yawning void. I wasn’t any closer to the top. I wondered just how far this tunnel went; it seemed like forever. Of course, it wasn’t as if there were only a top and a bottom, there were various side tunnels as I climbed up that I could have stopped at, but the lights were pointing me up and so up I kept climbing, even though the pain in my leg was throbbing, it was not as bad as it could have been.

“What about my friends, uh.” I stopped to decide how to describe them. “Two pegasi I was with. One male. One female. The female was… passed out.” I had tried to draw the Steel Rangers off them, and I felt like I’d succeeded, but Moondancer was still in trouble.

“I’ll find out, hold on.” For a good few minutes the only sounds were the subtle clanks of my metal legs as I pulled myself up and up until finally she responded. “They are safe, currently, with a larger group of ponies. The mare appears to still be asleep, or perhaps affected by Simple Heart’s magic. I suspect the second. There are days I very am glad his magic cannot touch me.”

“Fuck,” I swore as I reached the top of the ladder and pulled myself into the tight hallway on the other side. There was nothing I could do though, not until I got that idiot on my side, but that was more difficult than I wanted to admit.

“I understand you are here to give a piece of Simple Heart back to him. But how do you expect him to react?” the voice said over the speakers as I crawled my way through, ignoring the scraping of metal on my back. Someone really needed to widen these back passages.

“I don’t know,” I admitted. “Be grateful, maybe? Or saner. I’d be happy with not mind-fucking everyone he can.”

“And if he isn’t?” she asked, her robotic voice not betraying a hint of emotion.

“I have no backup plan,” I admitted, “so this one will have to work. But don’t worry. I will survive and keep my promise to you. I don’t break a contract.” Usually. Though I had on occasion. It was usually for very pressing reasons. Like quitting the Hizai so I could save Serenity.

“He is dangerous and unpredictable, though that is mostly my fault. I still worry you are underestimating him. He had an immensely powerful megaspell implanted into him; even with some of that power siphoned off…”

“So do I,” I said casually. I tried not to think about, as it was easier that way, but I could feel the fire in my veins. Unlike him, my megaspell was kept more separate from my… soul, I guess, or perhaps not being a Unicorn made it so I didn’t get all those super powers. Like I said, I tried not to think about it.

“You… you do?” This time the voice sounded distraught. “I had hoped that—” She stopped mid-sentence and reorganized her thoughts. “It was perhaps wishful thinking, but I had thought that the technology I developed, to turn ponies into megaspell housings had died with me. Just one more thing to atone for.”

“I’m not sure how the Watchers got it,” I admitted, “but they did. It’s not your fault, though. They chose to use it.”

“Without me there would not be an option.” There was a long pause before she continued, “But I cannot dwell. Well, I can and will dwell as I have all eternity to, but I won’t now. If you continue down this path it’ll lead to a secret door in a wall that is before the chamber to Simple Heart. I will continue monitoring the situation to— huh.”

“Huh?” I asked as I continued to squeeze my way down the hall.

“There is a princess in the hall, perhaps my monitor is malfunctioning but—.”

“Haze!” I panicked and started to run down the hall. Well, less running more cramped limping faster, but it was as quick as I could go.

A thousand different possibilities ran through my head. If she was here, something bad must have happened. If she was in the facility then something must have happened in the base camp. I knew that the battle inside the facility went bad for the Applejack Rangers. Perhaps they were betrayed? Maybe Serenity got hurt in the battle? Maybe she was dead! Baptisia was saying things to me, but I ignored them; I had to keep going, had to see what was wrong.

I burst through the door at the end of the hall and into the hallway on the other side. I had forgotten how blindly white the facility was and I had to cover my eye briefly as I looked towards the entrance of Simple Heart’s room. It looked the same as it had last time, but Haze was not there…

“Oh. Oh my,” a voice said from behind me. I spun around quickly to see… an alicorn.

She was as tall as Haze, perhaps a little bit taller, with a dark green coat, and a short cropped mane that still flowed mystically in streaks of yellow orange and toxic green. She was smiling brightly at me even as I was looking at her in confusion.

“I’m Thistle!” she explained happily. “I’m a Watcher.” As cheerful as she was I felt my stomach sinking.

“What?” I measured her up carefully as I took a few steps back. She was tall, but didn’t look particularly strong, on top of that she had no armour or weaponry. But I’d be a fool to think that if it came to a fight I’d win easily. I had seen Haze fight when she had to; she’d forced a mob to surrender without firing a shot, sent a ghoul flying with telekinesis, and protected us from dragon fire and a building with her a shield, all without causing harm to any sentient creature. If this mare was even half as powerful with vicious intent I was in trouble.

“A Watcher. Mr. Cutt says we are the eyes and ears of Celestia sent to pave the road to a new future: a vision of the past. Oh, doesn’t it sound just marvelous?” That’s not how I’d describe it.

“Right.” This mare was clearly a few bullets short of a mag. “What are you doing here?”

“Oh, Mr. Cutt sent me here to see the megaspell-pony; it was too dangerous to come here himself.”

I licked my lips and checked my weapons nervously out of the corner of my eye. “Why are you with the Watchers? Why did he send you here?” I had a few more questions, but I figured I’d start slow just in case I asked the wrong question and she attacked.

“I was with my sister up north when the Destroyer blew up mother!” Not the sort of thing one usually says cheerfully. “Lots’a the others joined with The Destroyer’s friend, but I thought they were all mean so I left down here with a few others, and gosh Mr. Cutt was so nice we decided to help him. And he sent me here ‘cause he wanted to talk with the pony, oh, I should ask him what he wants to do with you.” I could answer that, but I didn’t.

“Boss?” she said literally to thin air. Maybe she really was just crazy.

At least, I thought that until her mouth started moving and a different voice came out. “Yes?” said a voice that was unmistakably Clean Cutt’s but coming from Thistle’s mouth.

“Some mare came out of the walls, what should I do with her, can you see her?” Thistle’s voice spoke this time.

“I can.” For a split second it looked like Thistle’s eyes changed colour as Clean Cutt’s voice came through again. “I will speak to her briefly, keep up the connection.”

“What the fuck,” I said, the words finally finding my mouth.

“Alicorns are amazing creatures, as you are well aware.” The alicorn spoke with his voice still; it was eerie. “We meet once again Hired, though I cannot say I am surprised, you always turn up in the most interesting places.”

“And you keep hiding,” I spat out. “Behind an intercom. Behind a mare. Come and talk to me one on one. I have so much to say.”

“Is that so?” He didn’t seem amused. “Why must we always be at odds? We have similar goals after all, a better world, a peaceful world, a world where ponies like your daughter can live unmolested by the horrors of the wasteland. Soon I will achieve my goals with or without you, so your consistent defiance is doing nothing but wasting all of our time.”

My metal hoof stamped down, cracking the pale white floor in my fury. “Oh, you want to protect my daughter, do you? The one you fucking foalnapped.”

The body did not seem at all disturbed by my outburst, perhaps because he did not need to be when his true form was so far away. “If you had not been a thorn in our side I would not have needed to. But you make a point that I cannot dispute, the actions we have taken are horrible, and through them we have become horrible. But then what are we to do? Give up and reveal in the horribleness, become a raider or worse? Or do we understand that sometimes horrible actions are necessary for the good of all.”

“Don’t preach to me.” You’d think he’d learn. He and Dragonslayer were cut from the same cloth. Snide and smooth talking, but utterly remorseless underneath.

“I’m not; I…” For a second he actually sounded conflicted. “I’m in a difficult position, Hired, you… you don’t have to understand, but you have the capacity to. You have been in similar situations before, I am sure. Sometimes we don’t have a good option; sometimes the choices aren’t between good and evil.”

“And yet somehow you always choose evil.”

“You keep judging. Perhaps if you listened...” The mare sighed, or he did, it was a bit confusing actually. “Things aren’t neat, you know this. The world is a mess, and perhaps it has always been a mess but with a prettier coat of paint. All of us have to choose, but the choice is not binary; it’s not good or evil. When I was being taught medicine I was taught to do the least amount of harm. Triage, we call it. You assess a situation, see how many ponies are injured, and choose which ones to save, but in choosing some still die.

“This is the choice we have, and I take no pleasure in making it. I came to Dise and appraised the situation, and I saw what anypony could plainly see. The city was dying, and it was only a matter of time before the whole thing collapsed. So I had to control the collapse, so it wouldn’t spread, and so there was room to build up. Yes, my actions resulted in dead ponies, and their names will be forever etched upon my heart, but I saw no other choice. No better choice.

“The water purifiers we have can be reverse engineered, but only now that the Mustangs are no longer guarding them. Work has already begun, did you know? The megaspell power generator that Mr. House has guarded so furiously belongs to us too, and with my experience in megaspells we have a prototype working. When these technologies spread…”

“You’ll have your own little empire,” I said with a dark grin. “This isn’t about the wasteland or helping ponies. It’s about control. You want to control ponies. You want everypony in the world to be your pawns. Like me.”

“Is this how this is going to go, Hired? You will refuse to listen to reason simply because you can’t see—”

“Fuck. Off.” The body he was inhabiting or controlling or whatever visibly recoiled from my words. “You turned me into a fucking bomb. You kidnapped my daughter. You’ve hurt my friends. My family. I’m done listening to evil fucking shits lecture me. This will end one of two ways. At your grave. Or mine.”

“So be it. I will leave you with this last thought. The choice you have now is between my way, or the destruction of Dise and all of its secrets and knowledge. Don’t compare me to the divine, my dear, compare me to the alternative.” The Mare bowed regally. “Thistle, show this mare to her grave so we may end this.”

“Okie dokie!” The mare’s true voice came out again and her horn started to glow bright green.

“Wha-ugh.” There was a sudden pain in my chest, sharp and piercing; it dropped me to one knee. It felt like I had been shot, only worse, somehow. I couldn’t think. The pain laced through my chest and into my limbs with such force all I could do was lay sprawling on the ground. In pain I shut my eyes, and when I opened them again I saw the alicorn standing over me, grinning giddily. She had a shield around her. There was nothing I could do.

“Die quickly, I have things to do!” she said cheerfully, though the sounds were dull in my ears.

She did this. How? Her horn was glowing. This was the power of an alicorn, unshackled from the chains of a moral code. And she was going to kill me.

I had to move.

Though the pain throbbed through my body, I managed to crawl to my hooves and turn away from her. At the end of the hall was Simple Heart. He could… he could do something. I moved my limbs, but they hurt so much it was hard to force myself down the hall. The pain in my chest spiked and tears stung in my eyes.

“You can’t run,” Thistle chanted as I crawled away.

My cyber limbs were doing most of the work. The pain didn’t slow them. Not like the rest of me. When I cried out in pain and fear, as I crawled up the small steps that led to Simple Heart’s door, they didn’t shake or collapse like my real limbs did. They kept me up, but my head was spinning making it impossible to think, impossible to do much of anything. I tried to speak, to curse my attacker, but when I opened my mouth I just screamed. Until I could no longer do that.

Somehow I found my way to Simple Heart’s door. Or rather, sprawling in front of it. I had blacked out for a second I think. It was hard to remember. All I could feel was the fire in my chest. Everything else faded to so much white noise. All I could feel was pain. And the desire to escape it. Pitifully I reached up towards the handle of the door. To freedom. To escape. But it was so far away.

And then my world became black.

---

My eyes opened.

There was still blackness all around me, only this time it was peppered by spots of bright lights way off in the distance. Stars? But that would have meant I was in space, or… I don’t know, but wherever I was I did not want to think too hard about it.

An earth pony has something that belongs to this one.

The voice reverberated through the endless void, shaking it, or perhaps I was shaking. I tried to say something back but words didn’t come out. Before I had the chance to try again something grabbed me and I felt myself get hurled through the empty void. Spinning head over hooves I thought I was going to be sick until I slammed into something.

Shaking my head to try and get my vision to right again I looked behind me to see… well it was a screen of some sort that had stopped me. Or it looked like one, with images on it I didn’t recognize, and it was floating in midair. This was getting weird.

It got weirder when I looked around and saw there were more of those floating screens. Dozens of them, all playing images of ponies’ lives, and all floating in the empty void I inhabited.

Return it to me!

The world spun and spun and spun until I felt like puking, and I had to close my eyes.

When I opened them again I was somewhere else. A room of some sort, it looked vaguely familiar but I didn’t remember it exactly. If I had to guess it was an old hotel room, and certainly not in use, as the mattress was rotted to the floor and the walls were covered with mold. It smelled like someone died in here, and come to think of it someone probably had.

There was still a window though, and it looked to be intact so I walked up to it to try and get a sense of where I was. I regretted looking as my stomach roiled from the height. I had to be at least ten stories up looking down at… Dise.

At that point it wasn’t difficult to figure out where I was. There were only four buildings still standing in Dise that were this high (For those keeping track: The BS, Clips and Clops, The Ale house, and the Enclave’s apartment) but this was not one of them. I had been up and down Dise long enough to know that the specific view of the streets I could only have been in The Moon.

Which of course made no sense. The moon had been destroyed. More than that, it had fallen, on me, not the sort of thing I was likely to forget, yet I had to be there. It was the only place to get this specific view overlooking the northern half of the city, and parts of Parasite Mound.

Looking down I could see an office building about five stories below with a large hole in the side. It was a place I remembered well.

Before I had a chance to take a close look the ground around me shook with a massive explosion. I stumbled and nearly fell but caught myself on that disgusting mattress. “Fuck.” I muttered wiping my hoof off as far below me I heard a cacophony of noise and sound. There was a battle going on below, on a side door to the Moon.

Which, I have to emphasise, made no sense as The Moon was fucking rubble.

But I think I understood where I was, though perhaps I should specify when. I flipped up the scoop to Subtlety and peered down far below me to see… me. Standing in the hole of the officer building, subtlety on her back, was Hired Gun, staring down at the carnage I couldn’t see with a neutral expression. How long ago had this night been? Days or weeks or months, time had been running together but it looked like forever.

The me who was below, she looked so calm, so confident and strong. This moment was a stroke of genius, I remembered, and it looked like I knew it. Had there really been a time where I looked so clean and strong? Below I was pacing back and forth without limping, with my head held high instead of hammered down by circumstances outside my control. I looked so in-control, not like now. Now I was burdened, by what had happened to me, by the sins I had committed, by the knowledge that the world was tearing itself apart and I had elected myself “person responsible for fixing this shit” and that burden was tearing me apart. Somehow between then and now I had collected more enemies, scars and wounds than I cared to remember.

Part of me wanted to shout down at her, to yell at her that not everything was going to be alright, to tell her what choices to make, and how to avoid calamity. It was so easy in retrospect. Don’t shoot Post Haste at Karkhoof, don’t trust High Stakes, when you’re acting as a guard in the train station don’t go to the catwalks go to the basement, and for fuck’s sake kill Tight Lips and Clean Cutt as soon as you see them.

But I couldn’t; she was too far away. The confident me was down there gleefully repressing the past and dreaming about the caps she was going to make. She didn’t know that in the months to follow, everything she thought she knew would be stripped away under the bludgeoning of chance. But maybe it didn’t matter. After all, despite everything, I was still standing. Sure I was bloodied, even as I was lost in thought my leg throbbed in pain from a stab wound I had no was of stopping, but despite being bloodied I was still standing.

Perhaps I was sent here to be frightened, if it were on purpose at all. To see where I had been, to see the mare I was and despair at what had happened. It was true that I was sporting more scars and fewer limbs, but I was a different person too. More honest, with myself, with others, stronger in spirit if not body. At least, that’s what I was telling myself to believe. Everything I had been through must have meant something, so if I convinced myself it was then it’d be easier to accept.

The air shook with a bang louder than all the rest, and when I looked back down at… myself… my gun was smoking. A few seconds later a body fell past my window, Roy Mustang I knew, but it went by so fast I never got a chance to look at him again.

And then I was back in the blackness, with only stars to keep me company.

An Earth pony is refusing the commands of this one.

The world was spinning more and more only to stop and shudder.

Does an earth pony not understand the situation they are in?

Before me were the white screens again playing clips of life. I saw a weird snake lion hybrid thing get turned to stone by a rainbow on one screen, on another a pink pony crying only to be drowned out in a flash of green, and a third showed a small green pony beaten and whipped and chained. The screens spun around me until I could only see glimpses, whispers of events past, future and present.

You have angered one who is far your superior?

Was he? From one living megaspell to another we were alike, only he had some limited control of the power flowing like fire through his veins, whereas I was shackled to the whims of someone else. Perhaps he was my greater, but I was not so sure.

Return it to me.

It. Is. Mine.

I felt myself being flung with such force the pictures faded all at once and the stars became blurry streaks in my eyes. I flew and flew spinning an erratic circle through the night until I suddenly stopped.

I opened my eyes.

I breathed and to my shock the air tasted… clean. The night was dark and cloudy, but I could see that I was standing in some weird leafy green stuff on the ground. Grass… I had seen grass before, but it was so much, it covered a small field, not stuck in small clumps clinging to the side of a cliff or anything, and it smelled so good! I leaned down and took a bite of it, savouring the taste as I chewed and swallowed. How could anything taste so good?

Was I in some sort of heaven? I breathed deeply in the fresh air and laughed to myself. Surely I wouldn’t go to heaven if I were killed, and even if I did that starry place was closer. So where was I? I had to focus, so I took the time to look at my surroundings.

Some of the buildings looked like they had been newly made, but it seemed that a vast majority of them were created from old train parts, but even in the dark I could see they were newly painted. I slowly made my way through the community, with nary a sound to be heard. People were sleeping, this much was clear, but I was shocked to find there was no guards roaming around to keep the peace. Even in the most peaceful town people were careful to ensure it stayed that way.

Maybe the town was actually abandoned? I didn’t see anyone nearby, and what houses there were seemed to have no lights, and I could hear no movement. Perhaps the fresh grass under my hooves was some sort of bioweapon that forced the residents to move after… after… I couldn’t think of a plausible bioweapon theory. I had thought that after it was revealed I was actually a pony-megaspell I could come up with whatever fanciful bullshit I wanted, but I wasn’t so creative.

Instead I made my way down the street as quietly as I could. If it weren’t for my body being about thirty percent metal, I actually would have been good at sneaking about. For now, I was just okay, so it was lucky that not much sneaking was required as I limped my way trying to ignore my numerous injuries.

I had never truly had time to recover from the experiences I had. Since perhaps the megaspell explosion over Dise, maybe earlier, I had only maybe a day or two to rest but even with healing potions it was never enough. There was the explosion, the dragon fight, the second explosion with the building falling on me, the frantic fight through the raptor, then everything that happened at the facility in the matter of maybe a week if I were being generous. Or was it more than a week? Honestly everything was flowing together I wasn’t sure anymore.

The main point being is that I was sore. Not just the throbbing in my leg that was impaled, but just a general all over soreness from a thousand wounds across the wastes. There were cuts and scabs and scars all across the body, so many I couldn’t even remember where they all came from. There was a long scar across my back that throbbed when I stretched wrong and I couldn’t remember if I got it fighting Dragonslayer or falling out of the sky after escaping the raptor.

It was all adding up. Injury after injury until I was just in a constant state of pain, so much that it was hard to remember what being healthy felt like. Didn’t half my head always throb? How long had I been limping for? I swear it was longer than my most recent stab wound. The area around my eye itched constantly, and I just had to ignore it because scratching only made it worse. Pain like waves crashing against a seaside cliff, but over time the water wears down even the toughest of rocks.

I took a deep breath, letting the smell of life consume me.

There was no time to sit and count wounds. There was work to be done regardless of anything else. There was something about this place that made that hard to think about. It was so calm, so serene, like a painting designed to remind someone of their childhood home. It felt perfectly innocent, and I was not perfectly innocent. Perhaps that is why my pains came to mind as I walked this quaint little town: the unshakable sensation that I did not belong here.

I was a creature of blood and war. A tool, quite literally, of mayhem and pain. I made myself a catalyst for destruction, and when I die others had assured that destruction would be what was wrought. And looking around this place didn’t look like it would even know what a bullet was if a gun was held to its metaphorical head. How could a place like this even exist? It was so perfect it was starting to make me feel ill.

“Fucking stupid place.” I muttered under my breath. “I hate it.” It wasn’t the truth, but it was enough of one to count.

Before I had the chance to swear more at the dumb city I looked up and saw two figures silhouetted by moonlight starting to head down the street towards me. I will admit it; I panicked. The town had appeared to me to be so haunted that the suddenly figures at night freaked me out, so I dashed into the closest house as quickly as I could being glad it was unlocked so I could hide myself inside without breaking down the door.

I waited for way too long inside the darkened home with my good ear pressed against the door to make sure I was not seen. Eventually I allowed myself to calm down enough to take my ear from the door and actually take a look around.

It was a house alright. My cybernetic eye was whirring in my head as my night vision fired into overdrive for the blackened house. “Pretty.” I muttered to myself walking past a small coat room into a living room of sorts. It certainly looked like a lot of living had been done here.

The entire living room was covered with toys of various shapes and sizes, scattered across the floor haphazardly. There was a larger pile of such toys near a toy box in the corner, but most seemed to have missed actually going into the toy box. I couldn’t help but chuckle at the state of the room as I looked over the toys to see if there was anything there that Serenity might like, but most of the toys seemed to be made for kids who were a bit younger than her. Though, my eyes fell on a bookcase near a rocking chair that didn’t seem nearly as scattershot or juvenile so I walked over there.

Unfortunately, more of the books were not the sort Serenity would like. They weren’t all childish like the ones Wildfire used to help me learn to read way back when, but none of them were technical manuals for cybernetic designs, so I doubted Serenity would have much interest. I was about to turn away from the bookcase completely until I saw it. Bound in black with simple white lettering, and clearly newer than anything else on the shelf.

The Book of Littlepip.

Without a second though I tore the book from the shelf and tore through the pages. That mare was my hero, I used to listen to DJ Pon-3 talk about her everyday when I was in Marefort where I could still get the signal. I knew she was doing great work, but I never expected she’d have a book. As I flipped through the pages I skimmed and saw stories I heard about over the radio, only more real. More details.

I read quickly about the train crash outside of Appleloosa, about the dragon fight (even skimming it I could see her dragon fight went a lot more smoothly than mine own), how she escaped the clutches of Red Eye. It was all here in black and white, every detail, every thought, every mistake and every moment of glory. I barely had a chance to see but I could tell it was all in stark gritty detail, the type I’d never expected.

It made her real in my mind. Before she was something of a mythic figure, a story I heard from far away who did all these great deeds but it was different to see how she felt about them. I skipped to the end where she performed her greatest deed of all, bringing back the sun, only to find her physically exhausted and racked with conflict. There was something about those emotions that brought her down to my level, that took her from the mantle of hero. I thought briefly of taking the book and showing it to Platinum Haze to see if maybe it made Littlepip a bit less of a villain in her mind, but I decided against that.

I was so engrossed with the book I didn’t notice another pony enter the room until they flicked the lights on.

“Ah!” I gasped and dropped the book on the ground.

“Eeeek!” The elderly mare shrieked as well, seemingly startled by my own gasp.

“Oh.” She caught herself when she noticed my bloody bandaged leg. “You’re hurt… oh my…” The mare was a short yellow mare with a mane that was somewhere between grey and pink and reached the floor.

“Uh. Sorry. For breaking in,” I said with a half smile. “I uh… I’m not from…”

“Who did this to you?” The mare seemed shocked at my wound, but I couldn’t figure out why. She rushed right over to get a closer look and shake her head. “What ruffians… oh dear… you need to uh, come with me. This way. I’ll fix you up.”

She trotted her way out of the living room and just sort of expected me to follow. Which I did because she was being really nice and it was refreshing to have someone who didn’t want to kill me, or expect something from me. She was just nice, with no string attached.

I found the kitchen area to be a lot less chaotic, with only a few dishes that still needed to be washed, and no toys to be found anywhere. She gently pointed at a cushion by the table and dutifully I sat as I took in my surroundings. On the counters, and on the walls were pictures. Some were of her with some friends, others were with her and gaggles of children. One was oddly with her and a statue of a tiny rabbit. There was a story here, I was sure of it.

“What happened to you?” She asked as she inspected the wound more closely. “Oh dear… did… it did.” She said looking at both sides of my leg. “How are you still walking?”

“I’m good at walking. One of the few things. You know. I’m good at.” I winced as she prodded at the bloody bandages. “And it was… a long story.”

She looked me straight in the eyes. “What happened? You can tell me.” I felt almost compelled to answer her for some reason before she looked away with a blush. “If you want…”

“I did something stupid.” That was not a lie, in fact it was possibly the most truthful thing I had ever said. “Very stupid,” I clarified.

Slowly the mare unwrapped my bandages with careful precision that I didn’t expect from a… oh, she was a Pegasus. I hadn’t noticed that before on account of every other Pegasus I know flying constantly. “It’s fine. We all do stupid things,” she said absentmindedly. “You can tell me.”

“I’d rather not think about it.”

“You have to,” she fully unwrapped my hoof and took out a washing kit and started to clean my wounds. It stung, but I didn’t let it show. “it’s the only way to… uh, heal.”

I looked away from the mare and didn’t say anything. I had enough things to think about, I didn’t need to think about not thinking about them. I was tired of getting chastised, even by these really nice ponies.

“I know it hurts,” she said, her cloth finishing its work as she took out a little suturing kit, starting on her work sewing the ends shut. That stung even worse than the cleaning, but I just gritted my teeth and powered through. “But you can’t hide from the stuff that happened. It follows you, doesn’t matter how far or how long you run eventually it…” Her voice cracked and she took a deep breath. “if you ignore it, it gets worse. You need to confront what happened, accept it, accept that it hurts. It’s the only way to… move on. It’ll still hurt, but not as much. Time heals, if you let it.”

“It hurts…” I said slowly. The passion from which the mare spoke was almost heartbreaking. I could tell she was talking from experience. “I lost family. Friends… my daughter…”

“I’m sorry,” she said as she started closing the wound on the back of my leg, this time I did gasp in pain and wince. “It hurts… I understand. I lost… my best friend… I’m still sad when I think about her. She saved my life… but I had to move on. I had to live. For her memory. So I stopped running, I confronted the feelings, and that let me heal. It never feels good thinking about what happened, but I can smile thinking about her now. The good memories we had. The pain doesn’t go away, but it becomes… acceptable. The hole doesn’t fill, it becomes a scar, and scars fade even if they never really go away.”

I looked up at her, with tears in my eyes until I wiped them away. “I don’t know how… I’m scared. To think about her. Them. My mistakes.”

“I am too,” she said with a sigh, pulling a healing potion from her shelf. “There’s no easy answer. But you need to accept it… I… I don’t know if it’ll help you. But I held a funeral for her, years after she died. It helped me move on. And my mistakes… they haunt me, and everyone really.” I didn’t understand what that could mean. “Nothing will make them okay, but I vowed to do better. I can’t forgive myself, but I can do good with what life I have left. It won’t make up for the mistakes, but it’s a reason to keep trying.”

It made sense in a way, perhaps she had the right of it. I had been running from my past for so long, I had been lying to myself, denying myself, all to forget the people I let down, and what did it get me? I just let down more and more people, I just made more mistakes. I needed to stop, to accept. Maybe when this was all over I would have a funeral for Wildfire and Foundation. Finally give them a rest they deserved. It hurt to think about it, but I think they needed it, and I needed it. Then I could make amends for my mistakes for Karkhoof and…

“Oh… oh dear. I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to make you cry.”

“I’m not.” I wiped my eyes. “It’s just… thank you.” Maybe I just needed someone to tell me how to move on. I always heard people say you had to, but I never understood what it meant until now.

“Oh, okay.” She gave a smile as she started to pour the healing potion onto my wounded leg. “I’m glad I could… oh my.” Her eyes with wide at the way the healing potion glowed when it touched my wound. Then for reason I still couldn’t comprehend she started to hum something under her breath until the healing potion was gone.

I looked down at where my wound once was and found… nothing. The barest hint of a scar, but the wound itself was far gone. Confused I stood to my hooves and felt. Fine. Perfect. For the first time in a long long time I didn’t feel sore or tired. There was no pain in my back, my head wasn’t throbbing. I felt. Perfect.

“Hah... pfft.” I started laughing uncontrollably as I stretched out and found my body didn’t have kinks or cramps. I jumped up and down in place to find the impact didn’t rattle anything in my skull. There was nothing, just… “How! How did you!”

“Oh. I’m very good with healing potions,” she said, but even she seemed a bit unsure. Though her cutie-mark was glowing, so maybe it was some sort of weird magic thing. Her cutie-mark which was… three pink butterflies? How was that possible? I knew that symbol, every pony in equestrian knew that symbol, it was the symbol for the medical boxes pretty much everywhere. “I helped invent them.”

“What.”

“You don’t know me?” She looked genuinely confused, but I really did not. “I… you must be from far away. I thought you had… I’m sorry, that sounds so arrogant of me…”

“No, I don’t how did you make me feel so…” The room suddenly started to spin. “So.”

Spinning faster and faster and faster until it suddenly stopped in place. It was still there, the elderly mare, the kitchen everything but it was fuzzy. Out of focus. I could see the mare’s mouth moving, and I could hear something, but it was so muffled, so indistinct that I couldn’t make out the words. Like she was screaming from inside a house a mile away. I knew it was important, something I should have paid attention to, but I couldn’t. Then it all turned to black, and the world was gone.

---

I opened my eyes to see sharp white walls in an archaic pattern rising around me, and the sharp smell of dust and mold and decay all around me. It was a far cry from the smell of grass and trees and cleanliness that I had in my dream, but it was something and I was alive. The mare. Thistle. I had thought she killed me, that it was all a dying dream, but somehow I found myself alive, and in Simple Heart’s room.

I slowly stood to my hooves and… and. And felt nothing. I looked down at my leg that was stabbed and found it to be healed, as completely as possible. And I wasn’t sore. The pain that had surrounded me for so long was gone. I felt… good. Stronger than I had since… since before I could even remember. The dream was real. It was… how…

Now my head was hurting. Throbbing just thinking about the implications of what this mean. Everything that happened. Had it truly happened? It must have. Because when I passed out I was suffering from so many wounds, on top of my heart near exploding, and now I was fine. “Magic.” I almost laughed as I looked around the room I was in. Simple Heart’s chamber. I remembered the spell that was implanted in him and corrected myself. “Megaspells.”

Then I realized what I was even here to do and started to dig through my bags in a panic, only to realize it wasn’t there. The orb from the tunnels. It wasn’t in my bag it was... there. I saw it on the floor, free from the shield haze had built for it, in the centre of the room where Simple Heart was. Only. Simple Heart wasn’t there.

To be fair he was invisible most of the time, but I knew here wasn’t there for a certainty. When he was there before my shoulder burned like it never had before, but now there was nothing, not even a whisper. Whatever I did, I had unleashed him. Or perhaps, he was just sleeping. It didn’t matter, I had to let him know I completely my end of the bargain on purpose so I took a piece of paper out of my bag, and wrote on it with one of Serenity’s crayons. I could read fine, but my writing still left something to be desired:

‘I KETP THE DEEL. YOU O ME.

SLIVER SORTM”

Eh, close enough.

I left my expertly crafted letter in the middle of the room and… assessed my options going forward. The biggest problem was that I didn’t know how long I’d been out, and there was nothing I could do until I had that information. I wondered briefly why my friend wasn’t speaking to me over the intercom, but I remembered quickly that it was simply not possible in this room. So I had to go outside the room.

Where the Alicorn might be waiting.

That… thing was beyond terrifying. Without so much as a sweat she was able to nearly kill me, and there was little I could do about it. If I ever had to see Thistle again I could only pray that it was through the scope of Subtlety.

Still, I couldn’t wait in that bloody megaspell chamber for the rest of my life, so I moved to the exit and opened the door, just a crack. I peered outside with my cybernetic eye, knowing full well that if she was there at all the warnings and indicators my eye had would be flashing off the charts. But there was nothing there, silence and stillness, and the never ending sense of uneasiness. Deciding that victory belonged to the bold I flung the door wide and jumped through, my mouth on Subtlety’s bit, just in case.

Silence, for a good minute before a voice spoke over the intercom. ”You have returned! We were worried you were dead.”

“I’m hard to kill,” I grunted, my eyes scanning the hallway in front of me for anything moving. “How long was I out?”

“Six hours.” I winced and let out a groan. “Things appear to have not gone well for your friends, would you like an update?”

“Yes.” I started down the hallway, my hoof falls echoing around me. “I have people to kill. Point me at the best one.”

---

The situation was worse than I could have imagined. The AJ Rangers were betrayed by members who pretended to defect, and their assault was cut short when stragglers from town hit them from the rear. They were forced to retreat further into the facility. They were currently barricading themselves in a large room, but according to the voice it did not look like it was going to hold much longer. However, I had a much worse problem on my hooves.

Serenity was in the facility. When the AJ Rangers were being betrayed, Serenity, Haze and Flare’s brother snuck into the facility, most likely to warn me, but got caught up in events. They had managed to meet up with the AJ Rangers, but were currently surrounded by Steel Rangers who were trying to break into where the AJ Rangers were hiding. Flare and my brother did not fare much better; they had been captured by the Watchers and were being held in a giant prison cell somewhere near the bottom of the facility.

All this I managed to pry out of the voice as I crawled through the back tunnels of the Facility, and formulated my plan. I came up with Seven steps to escape.

Step one.

I slid out of a wall near the large chamber where my friends were being held. For whatever reason there were only two ways into that room, the front door and an elevator shaft with only one other exit for some reason, and that exit was much further down and I simply did not have the time to take that detour. So I had to go through the front door. Which was currently being besieged by Steel Rangers.

This is all leading to step one, don’t worry.

I knew the Steel Ranger disposition, they had ten Rangers trying to break through the wall into the chamber where the remaining AJ Rangers were waiting, while the rest went in teams looking for alternate routes in, or were resting. Now, I couldn’t fight ten at once, and I wouldn’t have to. I just had to be right.

Around the corner I could hear the Rangers talking. “Where is Blackwater anyway?”

“Looking for Hired Gun,” a second voice replied. “Alone. I think she’s obsessed.” It was good to know I was driving some ponies insane, especially if it was Blackwater herself.

“Better her than me,” the first one said, “Did you hear what happened to Bean Burrito in the elevator?” It was time to disappoint the poor pony.

I turned the corner to face hallway the Rangers were in. On the far end, up a set of three steps was a large set of metal double doors that were painted pink and green in strange patterns. Parts of the doors and walls showed signs of smoke and damage from explosions, yet the wall did not break which was… creepy to say the least. I could study the door later, I had to finish step one.

“Who is that?” One of the metal assholes turned to see me standing there. “What the hell?”

More turned to look at me as I stood completely still just smiling at them.

“It’s fucking Hired Gun!” one yelled in surprise. It was good to know I had fans. “Get her!”

I turned and ran as the bullets started flying. They were quicker on the draw than I expected and had I not had that timey-wimey healing potion I most likely would have added a few more holes. What it did mean, however, was that I was unable to get a good count of how many of the idiots I was able to attract.

I heard the thunder of their metal suits giving chase so I had to hope I had drawn enough away. I tried to look back but another bullet whizzing past my ear convinced me to look straight ahead and turn as many corners as possible. I knew where I had to go, it was just a matter of getting there.

My eyes spotted the sign as I turned a corner in my frantic run, and I made a sharp turn. The room I had entered was a meeting room of sorts once, dusty chairs and tables were scattered around collecting spider webs faces a broken down projector screen. It was almost sad if it wasn’t perfect. I gave my followers a second to follow me into the room before I turned to face them, my eyes glancing at the three different exits to the room not including the one they followed me in.

“Blackwater wants her alive,” someone in the chaos was saying as they stormed into the room, but a few bullets started flying so nobody listened to that voice of reason. Not that it mattered.

Step Two.

I unleashed a gout of flame across the room. The walls and ceiling were not flammable, but the tables chairs and everything inside took to the fire like so much kindling. Fire wouldn’t stop the Rangers, but it’d work as I bolted out the nearest door letting the room behind my fill with smoke and soot. I don’t even think they saw me leave by the way they were shouting at each other.

“Where’d she go?”

“This way!”

“Find her!”

Perfect. At that point it was easy as cake to slide back into one of the side tunnels and go on my way, leaving the Rangers behind me confused and off center. I still had to move quickly, however; my feint wouldn’t last long, and it was certainly possible that they were already heading back or had called more people to try and find me, as I knew for a fact most their forces weren’t there. But it didn’t really matter, as when I started moving quickly through side tunnels, my path illuminated by lights, a voice said:

“It appears to be working.”

Well that was good, because it was time for Step Three.

I burst through a wall right beside the two remaining Steel Rangers guarding the door. They barely had the chance to register before I rushed past the nearest one to stab my leg-sword into the second ranger’s knee with as much force as I could muster. It must have gotten through the armour because the pony lets out a muffled scream.

The second pony moved in to attack me from behind but I shut them up with a quick buck from my hind leg, followed by a shotgun blast from the same leg. Their head jerked back as they fell to the ground blood, leaking through cracks on their mask. They were twitching, so I think they were still alive, for now.

“Fuck!” the Ranger I had stabbed screamed, way too loud. “B-Blackwater. Is looking for you, she’s going to—”

I pulled my sword leg out of the first rangers leg and quickly back hoofed them with my metallic leg with a thick clunk of metal on metal as their head snapped around.

“Shut up,” I growled.

They dropped to one knee as I reared up and brought both hooves down on their head.

“And stay down,” I spat out on the chance they were still alive. To be honest that whole attack could have gone a lot worse if there was more than two Steel Rangers, or I hadn’t had the chance to heal, or if I didn’t have the element of surprise. I mean, I still would have won without all that in my favour.

Probably.

Either way I walked over and calmly knocked on the strangely impenetrable doors. “Hello? It’s me. Hired Gun. Open the door. Please.” It was the most polite I had been since… well ever. So I was grateful when a voice responded.

“Prove it’s you!” The voice was nasal and annoying, so I knew it had to be the one and only Curly Fries.

“Open the door. Or I’ll break you in half,” I growled, all my politeness washing away. “Serenity is in there. Let me talk to her.”

“Uhhh…” a voice on the other side hesitated so I barked.

“GO GET HER!” I said in my nicest yell as I looked behind me to see if the rest of the Rangers had caught up. Two Rangers I could take, but that lot? No chance, so they had to hurry.

There were a few seconds of pause until I heard a voice, “Uh, Momma, is that you?”

“Hi, sweetie—”

“IT IS YOU! We were so worried! Half the rangers fought the other half and we tried’a find you and the good rangers, but we got stuck and we thought you were hurt or captured or something, what happened to ya!”

“Long story.” One that apparently took years, chronologically, but I didn’t want to think too deep into that. “I need you to open the door, sweetie. I lured most of the rangers away, but they’ll be back soon. I have a plan, but you need to hurry.”

“Okay!” There was some loud talking on the other side of the door before slowly it began to open just a crack, enough for me to squeeze inside.

Inside I saw a gaggle of remaining Applejack Rangers, perhaps fifteen, though I didn’t count. I was too distracted by everything inside being so… so green. It wasn’t as if the walls were painted green, they were sterile white as anything, but green vines crawled along them nearly covered the wall completely in sections heading all the way up to the sloping ceiling. The floor curved gently into a bowl and was covered completely in grass and, in the centre of the room, flowers of all colours. Rising up from the flowers was a small white bed with pink and white flowers growing through the stained mattress.

“A megaspell chamber?” This would have been the third one I had seen, but there could be no mistake about it. The first one I saw I had just come from and burned into my memory, while the second in the bowels of Dise where The Watchers turned unwitting ponies into megaspells I destroyed, but this one was different. It felt, calming, almost. “A megaspell for growth?” I guessed, though why it existed at all I couldn’t say for sure.

“We are unsure.” I hadn’t even seen Platinum Haze walk up to me, though I knew she was in there. As soon as I heard her voice I threw my forelegs around her and kissed her. Perhaps it was a bit sappy, but whatever. “Oh... oh my.” She blushed when I let her go. “We are glad to see you as well, you are looking… well.”

“Feel it too!” I bragged standing up tall, “Some good healing potions is all it took it.” She looked a bit incredulous but smiled nonetheless.

“We are glad you are well. We have been having some… difficulty here. We—”

“Where is my daughter!” Flash, Flare’s brother stormed over looking a bit upset. “I never should have let her go! Where is she!”

“I—” I started to say, but he kept going.

“I can’t lose another one, this damnable war is ruining everything I can’t—”

“Momma will save her.” Serenity said with a grin hopping onto my back. “She saves everyone.”

I ignored the images of everyone who I didn’t save that flashed through my memory and said. “I will. I have a plan.”

“We hope so.” Lemon Cake, who was also there, walked over, her face caked in blood and sweat. “I hope so.” The leader of the AJ Rangers sounded annoyed. “We need to retreat, this is unwinnable, but now we are pushed into a corner.”

“Of course, just let me explain—”

“I am not sure we should put our faith in her,” Curly Fries was saying, interrupting me actually explaining my plan.

“We have to, my daughter is out there and my son is still injured.” Sure enough Rain Dance was there standing beside him, covered in scars and looking unwell. When he saw I noticed him I gave him a little wave and a smile which seemed to brighten his spirits.

“Some random enclave mechanic does not get to dictate our battle strategies,” Lemon Cake explained, “But I agree—”

“With all due respect,” Curly Fries cut in disrespectfully, “she got us into this mess.” I am not sure how he figured that out. I was tired of so many ponies talking over each other so I walked away. I was not a social pony, and this number of ponies was getting on my nerves. And I still had step four of my plan to get through, which wasn’t going to get done if they kept talking.

“Momma, where are we going?” Serenity was still on my back. I had almost forgotten because I was so used to her being there.

“Out.” I reached the other side of the room next to a vine covered section of wall, then turned and bucked it with a loud crunch. The second buck was enough to get the arguing ponies to look my way. By the third buck the wall had collapsed in on itself. revealing a door, and an elevator. Just like the secret elevator in Simple Heart’s chamber.

I coughed into my hoof before speaking up.

“You all are free to argue. If you want,” I growled. “Or. Follow me.” I took a few steps into the elevator and simply waited.

Lemon Cakes was the first to follow, though I did actually have to stop her. “That was just dramatics,” I had to admit. “This elevator can’t hold all your rangers. Not with their armour. Go in groups. At the bottom is a large tunnel. It should have a trolley. It goes to the back of the mountain. But just wait for me there. And once you have everyone down. Destroy the elevator. In case you are followed.”

“And where are you going, that I should trust you?” Lemon Cake asked me, sounding more tired than annoyed.

“Out. I know the way. Just wait for me. I shouldn’t be too long.” I looked over at Serenity and Platinum Haze. “I need you two.”

“My daughter,” Flash said as Haze and Serenity joined me on the elevator. “You never should ha—”

“Probably not,” I said, cutting him off. “She has to be allowed to make mistakes though. She’ll be safe though. Trust me.”

“I don’t,” Flash said as I pushed on the button causing the elevator’s doors to start closing. Nearby, I could see Curly Fries nod his head in agreement, while Lemon Cake looked mostly unsure.

“I’m sorry.” With a creak and a groan, the elevator started going descending. “You don’t have a choice.”

---

“You have a plan, we are assuming,” Haze said as the elevator slowly moved down and I did my best not to imagine the grizzly death that would await me if the elevator broke.

“It has seven steps.” I wasn’t sure if Platinum Haze was impressed or confused by my proclamation so I decided to change the subject before she could say anything. “Do you know a pony named Thistle?”

“We… uh, no?” This time she was confused.

“I met an alicorn by that name.” I watched Haze to try and gauge her reaction, but her face was a mask. “She was working for The Watchers. And tried to kill me.”

Haze gave the barest hint of a frown before turning away from me to stare intently at a wall. “We see.” There was a long pause before she spoke again. “Many of our sisters were lost after mother died. Had Diamond Sky and Sea Breeze not found me, perhaps we too would be would be lost. Without purpose. It was such a change, to lose all sense of direction. Some stayed with Red Eye to complete his… plan and create a new goddess.” Wait, what? “Others wandered. We are unsurprised some were tempted by the Watchers, for their faults they all believe strongly in their cause, and that sense of purpose is… enticing for one who came from Unity we can only imagine.”

“Right.” I think I understood what she was saying. Maybe.

“We would not want to see her injured, we pray that if we run into her again there is time for us to speak with her. Perhaps we can attempt to set her on a better path.”

“Well. She near stopped my heart with magic. So talking might be difficult.”

Haze nodded slightly at this. “A spell all alicorns know well.”

This was around the time Serenity pitched in from her spot on my back (Her leg was still broken, so I didn’t want her walking by herself). “You can do that! That’s cool!” I would disagree on it being cool. “Is it just like. Bwooooah.” I think that was suppose to be the sound of magic. “Urk, ack!” She flopped onto her back with a forehoof over her heart. “Dead.”

“Uh… well, yes, but we do not partake in such spells, as you well know.” Before Serenity could open her mouth Haze continued, “And we will not be teaching you or anyone. We doubt you would have the aptitude, and we are sure you do not have the heart to use it.”

“You don’t know, I might’a, you know for emergenc—Ack!” The elevator we were on jolted to a stop when I hit the emergency brake button. It was a bit more recoil than I expected, and I nearly lost my balance too. “Wassat all about?”

“This is our stop,” I said, prompting Serenity to look befuddled at the closed door in front of me, then back to me. “Trust me,” I said releasing my sword from my leg and stabbing it into the crack of the door and prying it open revealing… well, a wall.

“Dear, we are worried this place is taking its toll on you again.” First of all, that was impossible because I had lived up to my end of my promise to Simple Heart, and besides I hadn’t felt anything like that since I… woke up from my dream thing. And secondly, a light on top of the panel told me.

“Hired Gun is correct,” a voice said over the intercom. “This is the stop we pre-arranged with her I—”

“Momma, why is the crazy voice talking to us?”

The voice over the intercom seemed a little insulted. “We… what? We understand we may have appeared that way but I am perfectly… sane. Mostly.” As sane as a soul attached to a computer could be. “I have come to an agreement with Hired Gun. For now, we are partners.”

Haze and Serenity were staring at me so I waved off their concerns with an “I’ll explain it later.” Before turning around and giving the wall a good buck. It took a few but the wall opened up and light shown through revealing a hallway on the other side. “Besides, it is time for step five,” I continued.

“Can we trust it?” Haze asked as I squeezed myself through the hole in the wall that I made. On the other side, I used the larger space available to work, making the hole large enough for Haze to fit through too. “As we understood it when last you were here it took great pleasure in taunting you.

“I would not say pleasure,” the intercom protested as I finished working on the hole. Just in time too, because just after Haze made her way through the elevator started to head up.

“War makes strange bedfellows,” I tried to explain.

“And we are at war?” Haze didn’t seem so sure.

“What else do you call it?” Sure it wasn’t a conventional war, it didn’t have trenches or tanks, or clearly defined sides, but it was still a war no less deadly than the one the NCA was waging against the minotaurs. And if it wasn’t considered a war yet, it would be soon.

“We see. We wonder if it must be.” No doubt Haze did not want to participate in a war, which made sense to me. As opposed to killing as she was, and considering the violence she escaped up north. Still, I couldn’t control the facts.

“This way.” I started down the hall before doubt or indecision from Haze’s words could sink in. There wasn’t time to second guess goals, motives, or actions. It was time for decisive action, and those things could be sorted out after the fact.

The halls we were in were once used to school the children of workers in the Facility, that much was easy to determine given the children’s drawings on the walls, and formerly bright colours. Now it was the home base of a large portion of the Watchers currently inhabiting the Facility, by Baptisia’s count no less than twenty, but possibly more. It was more than I could reasonably take out on my own, so it was a good thing that it wasn’t part of my plan.

“Serenity, Haze. Do the thing.” Haze looked confused for a second until Serenity placed her sound-proof magic over me, which prompted Haze to turn us invisible. The burning in my shoulders from the two spells was enough to make me breathe heavily through my teeth, but it didn’t slow me.

A few right turns later and we saw some of them. The Watchers were not expecting anything from the way they acted. Beds had been drawn into the hallway for ponies to relax on (none were sleeping I noticed) and there were a few coolers filled with Sparkle Cola the Watchers drank liberally from. They chatted noisily to each other; even the guards were paying more attention to their conversation than watching the hallway we were coming from.

Not that I suspected any less. The Watchers were not a military organization, ostensibly they were something of a charity, and I wondered if those loyal to it knew how deep their corruption ran. I could justify hurting Steel Rangers, they had a choice, one with clear defined sides, and their decision involved burning a town to ash.

These Watchers though were blameless. Unlike Dragonslayer, they had no idea about the true machinations of the path they followed. If they were in my way I would have to move them, but I am not sure if I could ever justify it to myself. They truly though they were bringing order to a chaotic world with no clue their actions helped cause the chaos. Perhaps that was the greatest evil The Watchers committed: convincing innocents to do evil on their behalf.

I turned left down a hallway past a group of idling Watchers who were discussing the rain we’ve been getting lately. The back hall I was in was just as colourful as the others, but more empty. Baptisia had informed me the main hall and the classrooms on either side were used, but other parts of the school area were completely empty at least. For the most part.

Another right later and there was a single bored looking pony who seemed to be fighting off sleep. Not asleep though, which was a problem. I felt bad for what I had to do.

With a swift kick to the throat, so he couldn’t scream, I sent the poor stallion to the floor with a gasp for air. He clutched his throat for a second before I pinned him with both hooves and took out pieces of cloth from my bag. With a smaller piece I created a bridle wrapping the cloth around and inside his muzzled, then behind to shut him up. The second longer pieces of cloth I used to tie his legs up. I used Serenity’s help with the knots, but it took less than a minute for him to be complete incapacitated.

The door behind him wasn’t even locked, and I whispered a soundless sorry before stepping over him and closing the door behind me. Once inside I tapped on Serenity’s and Haze’s shoulder to signal they could turn their magic off for a second, I didn’t want to overwork them.

“We see you did not kill him. We are wondering why this is,” Haze said once the magic fell. I ignored her for a second to take stock of the room. It was a fairly safe office, seemingly timeless. A large desk with a terminal took up very little of the space, as most of the room was covered in bookshelves and, well, books. It must have been a teacher’s officer, or the overmare of the schools I reasoned given its size and shape, though I did wonder why an office like that needed a large gun case in one corner, but who was I to judge.

“Should I have?” I said, sizing the gun locker up with a glare. It had a sturdy looking lock on it, but was it sturdy enough?

“We are at war, are we not?”

With a heavy clang the lock shattered under my hoof as I turned at Haze pointing my offending hoof accusingly, “What are you trying to prove?” I asked harsher than I had intended. “I didn’t start the fight. I didn’t kidnap myself and put a bomb in me. I didn’t kill innocents. Kidnap foals. Practice necromancy. I didn’t start this. I am reacting to it. I am putting an end to it.”

“We understand.” Haze didn’t betray a hint of emotion. “Yet you speak of war as the inevitable conclusion to these actions. We notice you have been gathering allies. This worries us, and we worry about what it is you are planning.”

“What do you think?”

“We think you mean to combat The Watchers in a battle. We suspect you plan to use the resources here, as well as your allies, to launch an assault on Dise, uprooting all who disagree with you before you intend to rebuild.”

“Of course,” I spat back.

“Then what makes you different than the Watchers you so loathe?”

“What.” There was venom in my voice. I took a long deep breath to try and do something about the fire burning in my skull from that accusation.

“You protest the collateral damage The Watchers have caused, and we do not dispute this. However, your counter-plan is to cause even more suffering of innocents. In war, innocents always get hurt. We cannot stand idly by and not question an action that will cause such harm to others.”

“Don’t you compare them to me again.” I couldn’t even look at her. I had to turn away, back to the gun case. “After everything they did to me.” I could feel the fire in my veins, the flames they put there and everything it represented. “After what they did to Serenity. After everything you dare compare them to me? I am trying to save the city!”

“So are they. Violence is not—”

“Violence is the answer!” I said too loudly once more. “Against Clean Cutt. Against everyone who knows what he did. I don’t want to hurt anyone else. But I can’t let him win.”

“Is this about peace, or you winning? Is this about safety or victory? If it is a peaceful city, a safe city, that is the end result you want, then there might be other ways to achieve it. However, if your end result is death and destruction to those who have wronged you, then we cannot stand idly by and warn you that this path is not wise, and we—”

“It’s what has to happen.” I was still seething on the inside, and it was all I could do not to shout. How could she compare me to those monsters? “You don’t want to hurt anyone. Fine. Be a pacifist and let nothing change. I won’t watch The Watchers win. Never.”

With a sigh Haze kept going. “Hired, I am just trying t—”

“I don’t care.” I wasn’t going to let her compare me to them. No matter her motives.

“You guys don’t gotta fight,” Serenity said from my back. I had almost forgot she was there.

“We are not fighting,” Haze said trying to calm her down.

I was less helpful. “Yes we are,” I growled, opening up the gun locker I had kicked earlier. There were at least a dozen different weapons inside, with ammo to spare. I grabbed what I could and threw them into my back before heading to leave. “Let’s just do this. We can… talk later.”

“Momma…” Serenity did not seem as sure as I was.

“Just do it.” Without another word from either of them two different magic fields enveloped me and I continued on my way with Haze following me. At least I assumed, considering I was invisible. There was too much work to do to get bogged down arguing. I had to move forward.

There were a few more back hallways until I was close to the entrance to a locker room. The trick here was that the Crimson Hoof was being kept in the back part of the school’s gymnasium, and so there were multiple entrances into it, and not all were going to be heavily guarded. The Watchers weren’t military, after all, and they had no idea we were anywhere nearby, so they had no reason to be on guard.

Sure enough there was only one pony guarding the locker room door. Lacking any more cloth to tie the pony up, I did the next best thing. While invisible I grabbed their head and slammed them back into the wall behind them smashing their skull and leaving them lying motionless on the floor. They weren’t dead, probably. With a spiteful kick I went on my way through the door, well aware of platinum Haze’s glare.

I stormed through the locker room, barely giving it a second thought until I reached the other side of a room full of showers. I stopped at the door at the other end, ignoring someone tapping on my shoulder to get my attention. I didn’t have time to stop and chat though. I had a plan to finish; one step at a time I would get to my goal.

I opened the door slightly, peeking through the crack. The lights were off inside for the most part, save for a few candles in the far corner. It seemed nobody was guarding the prisoners directly, which they probably should have. I wondered how often it was The Watchers even took prisoners, at least officially.

Opening the door fully I slipped into the darkened gymnasium and made my way to the light. It was illuminating the side of a set of pull out bleachers, and from what I could see there was something leaning up against the opening. As I got closer, my suspicion was confirmed, a metal fence had been dragged from somewhere and attached to the side of the bleacher, and inside the bleachers were the ponies I sought.

Flare was pacing with pack and forth, and I got the feeling if here were there for just a few more hours he would have worn a groove into the floor. Moon Dancer was thankfully no longer passed out and was instead lying on the floor watching Flare pace. A little more than a half dozen other ponies were also there, all that remained of the Crimson Hoof in the facility. Not a good sight by any means, though my brother seemed more annoyed than downtrodden.

He seemed even more annoyed when Platinum Haze dropped her magic from around me. “Silver!” His voice echoed in the cavernous hall. “What are yo—”

“Quiet,” I admonished him, pacing up and down the length of cage to judge how it was attached. From the looks of it metal rivets were drilled into the side of the bleachers, and into the ground on base plates. “How did you get captured?” I asked, leaning against the side of the wire cage, feeling it bend against my weight. It was unlikely that anypony could break through these wires without tools, and it’d take even me a while to tear the wall off with sheer strength.

“Oh, the usual way,” Flare said with a sly smile. “We got surrounded. All part of the plan though, eh?”

“Step six, in fact,” I replied releasing my sword from my leg and jamming it into a hole in the mesh.

“What are you doing?” my brother asked, trying to mask his annoyance as those who followed him looked on.

“Rescuing you.” I pressed all my weight into the blade, and with all my muscle and mass my blade shattered through the mesh all the way down to the ground. “Rescuing them,” I said, pulling my blade out of the floor and retreating it back into my leg.

“She means us,” Flare said.

“I’m happy she’s saving us,” Moon Dancer said with a smile. “I had just the worst dream,” she said, more cheerful than perhaps she should.

“Yeah.” I pulled part of the fence back giving those inside enough room to squeeze through. “Are you okay?” I asked her, remembering the dream we had shared before I ripped out of it not hours before. Someone so young should never have to go through something like that, but nobody stayed young forever.

“Fine,” she said, ducking her head and squeezing through the gate. I think she was lying, but with her it was hard to tell.

“Did you make the deal?” Flare asked as he passed by me, but before I could answer he stopped to muss up Serenity’s mane with a hoof. “Keeping your momma out of trouble?”

“Tryin’a,” Serenity giggled, “but you know her.”

“Oh, I do.” Flare trotted by, waving his wing at Haze who gave a meek reply. The look on his face told me he knew something was wrong there, but he was kind enough not to ask about it.

“We have a deal,” I explained to Flare before motioning to Serenity. “Could you carry her? Step seven of my plan is dangerous.”

Flare lifted her up with his wing and ignored her whining. Someone had to carry her, though; her leg was still broken and in a cast, so she could walk, but running might be required soon.

“Seven parts,” Summer Silk said to me as he and his remaining forces squeezed out of their cage. “I am surprised you can count that high.” At least he took time in our years apart to grow up.

“You know,” Flare said with a smile, “me and your brother have a lot in common; we both love teasing you.”

“Uncle Silk is okay. He said he was sorry about shooting you.” With a magic bullet. From space. “He just didn’t know how to say it.”

“What, I—” Silk stuttered, looking awkwardly at his posse, who were smirking at each other in the dim candle light. “Ahem. We will discuss this later, Silver.” No, we won’t. I had nothing more to say to him.

“Worry about it later.” Without waiting for any more witty comments I opened up my bags and took out the treasure trove of guns I had stolen earlier, giving one to each of the Crimson Hoof and to Flare. “I have a plan.”

“Momma’s plans are the best!” Well at least someone believed in me.

I walked towards a far wall. “Someone bring the candle.” My group of rescued ponies (who were a lot more agreeable than the last bunch) followed me. One even brought the candle like I asked. “On the other side of this wall is a tunnel. It leads to a long ladder. Down three floors. Then we are going to follow some lights. It’ll lead to an elevator. Then to a tunnel. Then a trolley. We’re meeting some friends. Any questions?”

“Why are you telling us all this?” one of the Crimson Hoof asked.

The real answer was because the last group was so ornery and unwilling to listen, but before I had the chance to say that more diplomatically one of the other members of the Crimson Hoof spoke up. “Why didn’t you come in through the hole-wall-tunnel?” a younger looking mare asked.

“It’d be loud.” This one I actually did think about. “If you’re going to make noise, do it during the escape,” I explained as I detached the gas canisters off my flamethrower and placed them on the ground next to the wall. The wall itself wasn’t that tough, I probably could have broken it with my hooves. But that’d be loud too, and take longer, so I was taking the easier way. “Everyone back up.”

“Momma, is this a good idea?” Serenity asked from Flare’s back.

I took aim at the canisters with Subtlety from half court. “When do I ever have bad ideas, sweetie?” Before anyone had the chance to be annoyingly truthful, the lights in the gym suddenly snapped on with a thunk and blinding glare.

Then I heard that voice.

“Helllloooo!” Thistle said in a cheerful voice behind me. “Gosh, I knew it was going to be you—”

BANG. BOOM!

The explosion tore a hole in the wall and spread fire across the wooden floor with such force I had to brace myself for the impact. It was a bigger explosion than I expected, but it tore a hole through the wall that was large enough.

Without missing a beat my brother and his cronies turned around and started opening fire with the guns I gave them. I turned my head around to see Thistle’s green shield surrounding her, the bullets impacting and creating ripples off it as she pretended to yawn. Before the Crimson Hoof even had a chance to reload, their weapons were wrapped in a green glow and thrown from their grasp, the same way I had seen Haze do it so long ago. My brother took a step back, his eyes wide in panic. “I hate this place,” I could hear him mumble.

“Run!” I shouted. Turning to train Subtlety on the Alicorn. “RUN!” My voice was hoarse, and I could already feel my chest tightening, but it may have been from panic rather than the spell. Either way, death was going to come.

My brother and his forces started first, Flare and Haze took a few steps but stopped to look at me. “I’ll hold them back,” I said, firing off a shot of Subtlety. The bullet slammed into her shield with enough impact I could see her grunt from the pressure of keeping her shield up.

“Hired, what are you doing? “ Flare said, but I didn’t have time to respond, firing off another shot at Thistle. I had to kill her before she could get her spell off, it was the only option.

“Momma!” Serenity said, “Don’t leave me again, I…” I looked her straight in the eyes, never wavering. It took only a second for her to slam down and nod. “Momma will be back. Let’s go!” There was no more arguments from any of them, and Flare galloped off through the flames with Haze close behind. There were times to argue, this was not one.

I got them into this mess. It was my idea to go to this damnable facility. And I would be damned if they never got to leave on my account. With a defiant roar I started to bite down on my bit to give her another taste of Subtlety.

I only got halfway before I was covered in a sickly green glow, floating half a meter off the ground. I squirmed in panic as the Green Alicorn grinned sadistically at me from across the court. “They can run,” she declared. “Boss only wants you dead, so be a nice girl and die for good this time, okie?”

Before I had the chance to respond I felt myself get propelled. I spun head over hoof so fast I felt myself about to get sick, but mercifully the spinning was stopped by my body careening into the hoofball net with a sickening crack. Before I even knew what was going on I was on the ground again, covered in debris, with fire raging on all around me, and gasping for breath. My whole body throbbed, and I was sure something was broken.

“Fuck,” I said spitting out blood. “Fuck…” I groaned getting to my hooves trying to aim Subtlety. How could I fight against this sort of magic? Not that I had a choice.

“Mr. Cutt said you might try and help your friends, but gosh I didn’t think you’d attack the nice ponies here.” Just as I got the perfect shot my head jerked back and I gasped for pain. My hoof grouped at my chest in vain as my chest filled with fire. Her horn was glowing. She was doing it again. And Simple Heart wasn’t here to save me this time.

“Sister!” Luckily someone else was.

I was enveloped with a purple field of magic, and sure enough the pain in my chest died down leaving only the regular pain. From the fiery hole in the wall came Platinum Haze, her horn glowing and her face a mask of fury like I had never seen before.

“Not now, sister,” Thistle said cheerfully sending a bolt of pure energy at Haze. To my eternal surprise Haze managed to dodge it by juking left without tripping over her own legs.

“We needn’t fight!” Haze said standing a good yard in front of me protectively. “We must needs speak with you, we believe that we can find common ground. Mother would be most distraught if she saw us now, so please sister!”

“Mother…” Thistle giggled another blast of magic firing from her horn. Platinum Haze dodged this one too, but did stumble to a knee. “Mother never did like weakness, so let’s see who’s weak, okay?” Before Haze could right herself another bolt was heading towards her. Haze got her shield up just in time, but it slowed her and soon enough Thistle was pouring a stream of pure energy into the shield.

“Sis-sister!” Platinum Haze was enveloped in a blinding light from the force of the magic slamming into the shield. I had seen Haze take dragon fire without struggling so much, so to see her knees buckle from the force gave me pause. How much power did alicorns really have? “We do not wish to hurt you!”

“And I don’t feel like giving you a choice.”

But I did want Haze to have a choice. I grabbed a chunk of the hoofball net and threw it with all of my might across the gym. The net slammed into Thistle’s head with a satisfying crack and her magic dissipated in a flash as she let out a shocked scream.

Haze took the distraction and dropped her shield, and in a flash her magic was enveloping the entire room. With a grunt, and multiple layers of magic on her horn she pulled at the walls, and at the ceiling. It took a second, but a second was all she needed. The ceiling started to fall in chunks, pieces of lighting fixtures first, then a whole chunk of the wall started to fall.

“Don’t think I am going to let you—eep!” Thistle had started to cast a spell but was forced to back off when a chunk of ceiling nearly fell on her. “Don’t run!” Thistle pleaded as Haze turned for the tunnel. “I said—ack!—” She backed up to the door, her voice frantic, “Fight me!”

We didn’t. Haze and I fled through the burning hole I created into the veins of the facility as the roof collapsed in on itself in a shower of dust and rubble as we escaped.

We made it a hundred meters maybe before Haze buckled and collapsed onto the ground sweating profusely. “That. Was difficult. We are tired.” She groaned in pain. “I do not like fighting.”

“Yeah,” I said, helping myself under her wing to support her as we continued on. I didn’t want to wait in case Thistle was still following us.

“We need to talk. About… about all this.” Haze said as we stumbled our way half blind through the tunnel.

“Yeah.” I repeated myself. “But not now.”

---

We made our way through the facility, following the path I had laid out before in complete silence. We had to get out of the Facility, and as far as I knew this was the only way. There were a few times as we stumbled in the dark that haze started to say something, but she always cut herself off. She knew it wasn’t the time now, and I didn’t look like I was in the mood. Thistle could still be following us, and if she was, Haze didn’t have the energy to drop a building on her again.

How I hated this Facility and everything it represented. It was a product of the vain and paranoid thinking of the great ‘minds’ of pre-war Caledonia, bred and built on bloodshed and suffering to fight a war they weren’t even sure was coming. It trapped so many people over the years, promising them their wildest dreams before closing the noose around their necks. And here I was once again, chasing the dream.

And who could blame those who entered looking for riches? It had riches. It had enough building supplies to fix broken Dise and make it whole once more. It had weapon manufacturing to fill the needs of any army. It had the technology to create megaspells, and I could personally attest to how that knowledge was despoiled. Like everything Wallkirk touched, it turned to poison in the end, so perhaps it was a good thing I was set to kill him.

I had come here once more to unlock its secrets, but it was all turning wrong. Even my foolproof seven-point plan had turned to ash when Thistle showed up. It was all I could do to keep my head above water, but I was getting closer to getting out. If nothing else, I had kept my promise with Simple Heart, and while it wasn’t the immediate victory I wanted, it was a promise in the future, a small victory I could hold onto.

Eventually we entered the cavernous track at the bottom of the Facility. It was the same as before, I remembered it all well, how we escaped last time on the trolley. There was no trolley here this time, but the dirt floor had enough hoof prints to let me know the others had been here and left. Good. It would be a long walk to the other end of the tunnel, but it would be worth it in the end. Though I had to admit the ticking from my pipbuck that indicated radiation made me more than a little nervous.

“Perhaps we should talk now,” Haze was saying as I helped her along. She had regained some strength after her magical blow out, but she still seemed to be struggling. “It is as good a time as any.”

“What is left to say?” I asked coolly as we limped in the darkness.

“We fear you misunderstood our motives, and we did not want to give you the wrong impression.” Haze sighed. “We were perhaps too forceful. All this… fighting… action, whatever one wishes to call it. It has been hard to deal with, I fear I am not cut out for this sort of thing. So we are trying to explain our intent, putting aside the troubling circumstances.”

“Whatever.” Just being reminded of that conversation infuriated me in ways I couldn’t even express.

“Hired, please don’t do this, we simply want to t—”

BANG

“—alk. Urgh.” In a spray of blood from her chest Haze collapsed onto the ground.

“What! Haze!” Who was shooting? Why? What was going on? I barely had time to think. I remembered the ticking of my pipbuck so I could only pray it would be enough that the first shot wasn’t deadly to Haze, but I couldn’t let them make a second.

In the corner of my eye I saw a glint of metal and I went to pounce but halfway through my charge something fell onto the ground in front of me. There was a spark then a blast of static. I cried out in pain as my eye buzzed in my head. The overlay I had become so used to seeing was buzzing up errors before turning off leaving me in half darkness.

I tried to grab at my eye with my cybernetic hoof, but my leg refused to move. It was holding me up, but it wasn’t responding to my commands. Fuck. Fuck. Fuck.

A spark pulse grenade.

“Don’t worry Hired,” a familiar voice called, walking out of the shadows towards me. The smirking face of Blackwater greeted me while the rest of her was covered in their thick bulky armour. “She might live. Maybe. I’ve been waiting for you. I heard of your friends’ escape and I knew you’d go this way, same as you did last time.” She sauntered over to me tapping at my pipbuck and ignoring my growls. “And, I can still follow this. Or did you forget?”

“I’ll kill you!” I tried to aim Subtlety at her, but without full movement it was near impossible, not that I had much of a chance, as she quickly pressed the mag release on it.

“How?” She was so amused. “You’re a dog with no teeth, all bark and no bite without your cybernetics. Poor wasteland fool who can’t properly use the technology she never should have been allowed to have. It is my duty to protect the Wasteland from the likes of you, seeking to abuse technology you don’t understand.”

“Is that what you tell yourself? In the mirror? So you can sleep at night.”

“I sleep fine.” She shrugged. “You? I wonder. That’s why I had to come and find you personally. You have been such a fucking pain in my ass. You rally these AJ Rangers against me, you kill my ponies, free my prisoners. Why can’t you stay out of my business!”

“Because,” I growled, the memories of the torched town of timber flashing through my skull, “I’m going to kill you.” Her hoof slammed against my face causing me to recoil. “You’re a disgrace,” I grunted, ignoring the pain. “Your ponies hate you. They follow out of fear. You’re a despot. Delusional. I bet you killed the Elder.” I met their Elder once. He seemed a nice sort.

“Shut up!” she yelled, rearing up to slam too hooves into my chest. I barely budged, though it did sting a little. “That old coot died of old age. Someone had to take his place.”

“A shame it was you.” She slammed another hoof into my face.

“You are such a pain.” She was getting annoyed. Good. I needed her mad. She kicked me again, and again I barely budged. “I am a Paladin of the Steel Rangers, I have led them to glory, troves of technology like we never dreamed, I gave them a future. What are you?”

“I’m better than you.”

She kicked me again, this time I bit my tongue from the impact so it actually hurt, but it meant I got to spit a gob of blood into her face and see her fume. “Do you know why?” I grimaced from the pain of a kick to the chest. “Why people like you always go after me. Why you focus on me. Try to kill me. With dragons.” A kick to the knee almost made me buckle, but I had to stand and bare it. “Alicorns.” Another kick to the face hurt, she was getting angrier. “And megaspells?” She huffed and stopped kicking for a second, letting me taunt her some more. “Why I am the focus of your anger. Your effort. Let’s all kill Hired Gun. Do you know why?”

“Why!” she eventually screamed rearing up a long left hook.

I caught her leg with my good leg, and with what body parts I still had working, used her momentum and my strength to lift her into the air. I spun her above me and slammed her with all the force I could muster onto her back with a bone shattering crack. I stood above her, looking at the shock in her eye as I reared up. Only two good legs, but it didn’t matter; she was about to pay the price for underestimating me.

“Because I am that damn dangerous.”

My hoof came down like lighting. She started to scream out something but it was too late as the sound of her skull being crushed against the dirt. It took two more kicks to make her stop twitching, and by the time I was done I was covered in blood. Her blood.

It should have felt good finally killing that bitch, after everything she did. And it did. I would have done it a dozen times over again if I could, just to see the look in that bitch’s eyes when I was about to kill her. She never even saw it coming.

With a groan I leaned down and rooted through her personal effects, picking up two healing potions before limping my way over to Haze, who was still groaning in pain.

“Are you okay?” I asked leaning down to apply the potions to her gaping wounds.

“No,” she admittedly weakly, her wing fluttering in pain. “I want… I want…” She gasped as I poured the healing potion into her wound. “We want… to go home… to see the foals… the good foals…” There were tears in her eyes. “We don’t want to fight.”

I did. I wanted to go kicking and screaming against all those who wronged me. Against the Steel Rangers, the Enclave, The Watchers. I wanted to see my enemies die. I looked back gleefully at the memory of Roy Mustang falling from that tower. Even in the dramatic death of The Laughing Stallion I felt joy. In the melancholy end of Dragonslayer I smiled even as his ‘son’ cried at his corpse. The blood on my hooves from Blackwater made me giddy. I loved it, and the fact I loved it made me feel ill.

“Me either,” I lied.

Level Up!

Skill Note: Speech: 100!

New Perk: Rooted!: You're part tree! While standing still, you gain +50 Damage Resistance and your melee and unarmed attacks deal 50% more damage.

((A/N: Welp, been a long wait huh? We can chat more about that later, but first the thanks yous. As always there’s the thank you for Kkat as she actually created the world and allowed others to play in it. As well as my editors, TheBSDude, Nyerguds, and MintJulep, without whom you’d be very mad at me for my terrible writing.

Okay, so updates. Not going to excuse the wait, clearly it was too long, but life, man. However, there is good news. I have long said Heroes will stop at chapter 40, and this has not changed, and the astute amongst you will notice that’s only three chapters away [four if you include the mandatory epilogue that is required by an ancient treaty], but fret not as there are only TWO more updates until completion. Chapter 38 will release by itself, but chapter 39, 40 and the epilogue will be bundled together in a single update. So fret not, Heroes will finish.

Also I have this tumblr thing here that I haven’t been using. So if you ever wanted me to do an AMA, well it’s there for your questions and heck I might even answer some. Until next time [approximately 2027] have a happy new year, ~No One~))