Chapter Twenty Four: Consequences

“Is this what everything’s been leading up to?”

“Slavers!”

Forgetting my request for my gun, I collapsed onto the deck of the motorwagon and clamped my steel hooves over my ears. It didn’t do anything, but it was the best I could think of to try and block out the deafening shriek that overpowered every thought within my head. Rebar’s yelling inside my mind worried me, but I couldn’t remember whether it meant she was doing well or was completely gone from being unable to contact her Goddess.

“Why do you ally yourselves with those who have stolen Our- daughters?” she demanded, quieter, but still with such force I thought my head would explode. The cold gaze of the alicorn trailed from Rose to me, then to the rest of the motorwagon and the other ponies on it with me. Her horn crackled, readying the lightning spell she’d used to liquify the clone mare a second time. The slits of her pupils shifted again, looking back at me.

The presence in my mind grew worse, and I swore I could feel my ears bleeding. Clenching my eyes closed and grinding my teeth, I huddled down, trying to hide behind the armored railing of the deck. “Rose...” I rasped out, barely able to force the words. I couldn’t be the only one she was doing this too...

The muffled sound of hooves filled my ears, growing closer, followed by the blackness of my closed eyes becoming a bright red. I yelped and blindly jumped away, not wanting to get hit by the enraged alicorn’s blast. Landing hard on the pavement, I covered my head with my hooves and curled up. The lightning of the alicorn arced past me, sending my coat on edge.

Somewhere in the back of my mind, I’d expected to hear my name being cursed in my friends’ death throes. It brought back terrible memories, through the sound of the lightning striking above me, as if I could hear the same pained anguish as when Rose was burnt alive.

Instead, an explosion rocked past me, and the sounds of several ponies panicking filled my ears as chunks of metal rained down on my back.

Forcing myself up, I turned away from the blue pseudo-goddess of a pony and cracked my eyes open to look at what had happened. The motorwagon was in ruins, the armor plating singed and the engine block... what was left of it... smoking.

Forgetting for only a moment that the alicorn could be readying another attack, I screamed, “Lost!” Little green markers in the corner of my vision flickered amongst one another. Did that mean that... Tears already welling up in the corners of my eyes, I ignored the static anguish that suddenly returned to my legs and ran for the far side of the ruined motorwagon.

Lost had been on the opposite side, nestled between the engine housing and the outer panels that’d been build on as armor. Though Rebar wouldn’t have known she was there, that just meant Lost couldn’t jump away like I did. Please, Luna... Celestia... Let her not have been electrocuted by the shock from the alicorn. Please.

“Lost!” I screamed again.

A heavy thud shook the ground, sending rubble and pieces of pavement up from the broken road around us. The whirr of teeth- no, Lamington’s minigun, sounded as the Star Paladin hit the street ready to fight. At the far side of the motorwagon, Tim Tam followed suit hesitantly. He looked pained, as if feeling the same overpowering screaming within his head. Gritting his teeth, he forced himself forward to follow the larger Steel Ranger. His own less extensive armor had a gun attached too, smaller than the Star Paladin’s, and more similar to Persistence than anything else. It was out, his mouth around the trigger for it, and ready to fire.

I passed by Lamington, running as hard as my aching hooves would let me, to scramble around the far side of the motorwagon to see the others. I had to make sure Lost hadn’t been hit, Rose and Fine Tune, too... Looking at Lamington from the corner of my eye, I just...

“She has a shield!” I snapped, giving him warning of what he should expect. The response I got was a nod. I didn’t have time to wait around, to see if he’d use that warning, I had to get to the far side of the motorwagon. Hooves scrambling for purchase on the broken remains of the road, I ran around the back wheels and skidded to a stop.

Rose stood wide-eyed, staring at a frantically chirping Fine Tune. Between them was my sister, a hoof held to her head and her eyes shut. She heaved, breathing in short gasps.

Letting out a sigh of relief, I slumped down to the ground. All of the E.F.S.’s markers were accounted for.

The distant whirring of Lamington’s minigun disappeared, replaced by the sounds of a barrage of bullets fired toward the alicorn. His static-laced voice shouted something, but through the repeated peppering of minigun firing and the occasional loud popping shots of Tim Tam’s rifle, whatever he said was lost to the chaos.

“The-” Rose screamed, but the sound of gunfire overhead drowned it out. “Wagon!”

“What!” I yelled back, between the peppering gunshots that filled the air.

Rose scrunched her nose up, glaring at me and pointed from the motorwagon to me, rage in her aquamarine eyes. Practically growling, she yelled, “Flip the fu-” A spat of minigun fire cut her off. Mid-sentence she shut her mouth, looked straight up, and screamed as loud as she could. The gunfire stopped, and all I hear was the mare screaming at the top of her lungs, “Fuck!” Then, taking advantage of the brief silence, she hopped up onto her haunches and places her forehooves on the deck of the motorwagon. “Motorwagon! Flip! Now!”

After all the work we’d done to restore it and get it back onto it’s wheels, all the pain... I looked down at my legs. Gritting my teeth, I put my hooves on the deck. If we put it on it’s side, we’d have something to hide behind but... “What if she flies over?” I yelled.

Rose clenched her eyes shut and hit the armored railing with her hooves so hard it left a dent. “Fuck, fine! Go under!” she yelled. Dropping down, her horn lit up and an aquamarine haze wrapped around my sister. With Fine Tune helping her, she dragged Lost underneath and then scrambled down to huddle next to an axle.

I looked over the deck of the motorwagon, standing on the tips of my hooves. Lamington stood, legs spread and minigun spinning. Over the whirring of the gun, I could hear his static-laced voice, but with the presence in my mind, I couldn’t focus enough to listen to it. Was he... trying to talk to her? Seeing bullets weren’t making a dent, he must have decided that the other option was the only one.

Rebar didn’t seem to pay any attention to him. Instead, her eyes trailed back and forth, as if she was looking for something. She stopped looking around, and stared directly at me.

“You! Mare with the X!” howled the alicorn’s voice between my ears. “Our- daughters are hidden by the pink one!”

I faltered, collapsing onto the ground. Digging my hooves against the broken road, I dragged myself underneath the motorwagon and curled up against one of the wheels. Covering my ears, I pressed my face as close to the ground as I could. Through the spokes of the wheel, I watched her, and the red marker the E.F.S. showed for her. All I could do was pray she wouldn’t assault my brain again.

Beyond the Steel Rangers, the alicorn stood with her shield up. Her long flowing tail snapped side to side every so often, and even though I’d hidden myself behind the wheel of the motorwagon, she stared directly at me. Lamington and Tim Tam shared a look, turning their attention away from the giant mare. The freckled stallion looked distressed, breathing heavily and with one of his eyes clenched tightly shut. He said something I couldn’t hear, and Lamington nodded. A moment later, Tim Tam started to back up, slowly moving his hooves and not turning away from the alicorn.

Wings spread and eyes barely slits, she looked bigger than before. Her mane and tail flowed in the gentle wind that blew down the roadway. Her eyes widened, and her voice shouted inside my head, “Tell Us- where!”

“We... We don’t know!” I shouted back. I tried my best to think it as loudly as I said it, hoping she could hear me.

“We don’t know what!” demanded Rose. “Who the fuck is that anyway?” She wasn’t there with us when we dealt with Rebar in Skirt, and in all our talks... I’d never thought to mention the alicorn. Goddesses, it was obvious we’d run into her again...

“Hidden,” Lost muttered weakly, still half-curled underneath a protective-looking Fine Tune. She stared up at me, giving a look halfway between accusation and apology.

“She wants the mares,” I translated. “Can you not hear her?”

“All I hear is screaming,” answered Lost. Her horn glowed and something above us shifted, dragging around the deck of the motorwagon. “Not words... I recognize her voice though.”

Huddling down between the wheels, the four of us looked at one another. Green fire erupted from around Fine Tune, and with a swirling mass of flames, he transformed into the green pegasus mare once more.

Rose’s eyelid twitched. “You know how I kept telling you that we needed to fucking hurry?” demanded the clone mare, her eyes practically popping out of her head. “This was fucking why!”

“Because you just knew an alicorn would be waiting for us here?” asked Lost, snapping at her. At the very least, if she was already well enough to be snippy, then she must not have been hurt too bad by Rebar’s lightning spell.

“No, but I knew if we took our sweet time-” Rose raged. Her eyelid twitched again. “Some bullshit or another would fuck everything up. And now I’ve got thi-”

Fine Tune put a hoof on Rose’s shoulder. In a soft, feminine voice she said, “Calm down, or I’m going to have to knock you out.” She smiled. “None of us knew she’d come here. We’re all in enough trouble without blame.”

Rose quieted, staring at the changeling’s eyes and letting her eyelids lower some. She nodded, then looked back at my sister and I.

“We need the mares...” I repeated. She wanted them, not us. “We, don’t have them.” I said, more to myself. I couldn’t just think words, I had to say them out loud and pray that they’d get across my brain to Rebar.

“Well, none of us know where they are...” Lost said, her horn glowing. “Unless Rose knows?” She closed her eyes and her horn glowed brighter. Under her breath, she muttered, “Just need to get our guns from up top without her realizing it...”

“I was against you in that fight, I don’t know where the other group took the mares,” Rose answered. “I told you, our little group-think only goes toward the original. I don’t get--” She clenched her teeth and groaned. “Okay.” She forced the words out. “I can hear her screaming in my head now.”

“They‘re not going to do us any good. You know we can’t fight Rebar...” I reminded her. Last time we’d tried, even Loyalty hadn’t managed to pierce her shield.

“Where are Our- daughters!” screamed the voice in my head again, sounding far more impatient than before. To punctuate the question, a crackling arc of lightning crossed over the motorwagon’s deck and slammed into a building at the far side of the street.

The windows of the building shattered, and somepony inside shrieked in fear. The quiet echo of hooves running filled the air, coming from the broken wall and now-missing windows. A half-second later a door at the far side of the building slammed open, the sound splitting the suddenly quiet street. Only a second later, a mare ran by, crossing the street while screaming. She disappeared down another alleyway.

“I don’t know!” I screamed back, ignoring the fleeing mare.

“Where did you take the mares?” Lost demanded of our changeling friend. She pointed at him, but didn’t sound angry. Her ears pinned back. “We need to trace them to get this screaming to stop!”

She just shook her head. “Rose’s... They took them,” she answered. Swallowing repeatedly, nervously, she pointed at our clone pony. “Not her, others. None had the grenade rifle. They separated us, brought me to you all, when they realized I wasn’t a part of the group.”

“Told. You,” Rose said, placing a hoof on her head. She clenched her eyes shut and sucked in air through her gritted teeth. “We need to get back to the original, that’s the only way to find out where they are.” She shut one eye tight and took a deep breath, pinning her ears back. “Unless they already evacuated...”

Lost and I shared a look with each other, then the other two with us. Fine Tune was the only one not strained, and even she looked more jittery than usual.

“Fuck,” we all said in unison.

Words filled my mind, jilted and paced... She was choosing them wisely. “You... You told Us-, slavers. Took,” she said, so loud I couldn’t even think. There was a pause, and the little marker in the corner of my vision flickered back and forth from red to green a few times. “Our- Daughters! Ponies. Here, they told Us- Feared Us-!” It settled on red.

Armored steel hooves clanged against the pavement, slowly getting louder as the Star Paladin got closer. I could barely hear it over the forced words filling my brain. I looked at Lost, then curled against her.

She wrapped a hoof around me and pulled my closer. Leaning down over me, she whispered into my ear. “I won’t let her hurt you,” she said, calmly.

“The screaming hurts,” I answered, unable to put anything more into words. I could only imagine this is what our mother went through, dealing with two screaming fillies always wanting something.

“They told Us-. Told Us- that Our- Our- daughters! They were brought here, to be used,” the voice seethed, drawing the word out so I’d know exactly what she meant. I knew what she did, I’d seen it with my own eyes. We’d freed them from that...

Lamington’s massive armor-covered legs appeared around the back of the wheels, slowly walking past the back of the motorwagon. He backed slowly past the deck until he reached the far side from Rebar. Leaning down, his helmet blocked out everything past the wheels. “Miss Fortune? Miss Art?” asked the Star Paladin. “What is that pony? She refuses to listen to reason, but lacks continuing outward hostility.” There was hesitation in his voice, as if his own armor’s indicators were giving mixed signals, too.

“Alicorn,” I muttered through my teeth. “Something about unity, and a Goddess, and ponies she calls her daughters.”

“What do we do about her?” he asked. “And her screaming inside my head.” Either he was putting on a strong front for us, or it just didn’t affect him like it did me and the others.

“Just don’t let her get closer,” Lost ordered.

“She’s made no advances,” announced Laming.

Lost just stared flatly at him before continuing, “We talked through to her once. Hidden can do it again.” She smiled and brushed a hoof over my cheek. “Keep talking to her.”

“I’m sorry,” I whispered. This was my fault... If, if we’d just shot her in the head and let her die before... “We saved them!” I yelled.

“Then where are they!” demanded the voice in my brain.

“Safe!” I shouted back, clenching my eyes shut and trying to somehow talk back through my brain to her.

The answer I got wasn’t what I expected. No words came back to me, either through my ears or my mind. The only thing to return was fury. The sound of hooves on pavement echoed through the hiding place we’d founded under the remains of our motorwagon. The electric crackle of magic, both lightning and shield singed the air, making the itch of healing flesh all across, but without the soothing feeling that had always accompanied it before.

Instead, the massive mare charged us, her magic acting as her spear.

Lightning arcs struck the motorwagon above us, boring holes in more places that I could count through the wood. Pockets of flame erupted, and we panicked, suddenly trapped underneath a burning wagon. Hooves scrambled to get free as arcs blasted between the newly formed holes. The wheels lifted, creaking and spinning as a dark glow of telekinesis wrapped around the entirety of the burning vehicle.

Even as the four of us shunned away from it, even as Lamington leapt away to stay clear of it and Tim Tam ducked to keep from losing his head, the alicorn lifted it away from us. She flung it with her magic, sending the motorwagon flying through the air and crashing into the collapsing frame of another run down building far down the street.

Her slitted pupils shown only rage, the dark blue of her eyes glowing in a terrifyingly unnatural way. The glow of her shielding spell was no longer invisible, hiding her immunities to all attacks from those who might wish to harm her. Instead, from sheer power alone, it glowed white, bright enough that it hurt my eyes.

When her thundering hooves reached us, she didn’t impale my sister, my friends, or myself. Instead, the painful tingling of her shield struck us and forced our haunches across the broken road. The front of her white glowing shield split in the middle like a crosshair and peel away into four section. Each quarter snaked out towards us, the white glow darkening to match the deep blue of Rebar's eyes, and enveloped us as a haze of telekinesis. She lifted my friends and I in front of her, while the remainder of the shield still protected her, and slammed the four of us against a far building.

Both Steel Rangers opened fire on her as her magic held us in place. She seemed unfazed, paying no attention to either of them. With a casual glance to the side, her horn brightened and the same glow that held me enveloped Lamington and Tim Tam. The alicorn gritted her teeth and flung her head to the side, tossing both Steel Rangers down the street.

Tim Tam toppled end over end, groaning quietly until he came to a stop. He didn’t move to get up.

Lamington suffered a similar fate, crashing and rolling until he slammed into a wall. The sudden force of him hitting it cracked the ancient building and in only a split second...

It collapsed, burying the Star Paladin underneath.

Pinned in place, I couldn’t help but yell, both in fear and pain, my sight suddenly overwhelmed with flashing warnings.. In unison, Fine Tune, Lost, and even Rose, let out similar cries of surprise, agony, and terror. I struggled as best I could, trying in vain to break free of her telekinetic grasp. The fact that she’d so effortlessly dismantled our entire group, including, the extra firepower we’d brought without even blinking...

This mare was terrifying.

Holding us weightless in the air, and without anypony left to oppose her, her shield disappeared. Both Lamington and Tim Tam were either knocked out or dead, leaving her with nothing to fear from behind. The four of us, we weren’t in any position to fight back... She lifted us higher into the air, over her head. Over her long tapered horn...

Without words, the screaming of her mind seemed to molest every one of my thoughts, and I could only imagine the feeling was shared between my friends and sister. The others, I could hear them screaming and cursing at her, begging and arguing to be let go, but their words... I couldn’t make anything out over Rebar’s rage filling my brain. I couldn’t even beg for mercy, the words simply wouldn’t come. Finally, after what felt like an eternity of agony, the reasoning for the alicorn’s attack was shared with us.

“My daughters, are only safe with me!” she screamed, her lips quivering as she yelled verbally, no longer assaulting my mind with her thoughts.

I could only nod, crying from pain and terror at what she might do if I argued with her.

“Please...” Lost whispered. Her glasses fell to the ground with a clatter, dropped from her muzzle as she curled in the air to shy away from the monster of a pony. It was the second time she’d been trapped in her telekinetic grasp.

It was the second time I was afraid, helpless, and completely at a loss at how to protect her.

Fine Tune shuddered, transforming with eruptions of swirling green fire over and over, as if to scorch her and force the alicorn to free him.

Rose, who seemed to feel the mare in her brain the least, only seemed pissed. Teeth bared, she looked like she was planning something more than writhing in pain. Maybe her being connected to other ponies naturally protected her from the attack on her brain.

“Where. Are. My. Daughters!” Rebar demanded. She shook the same as my sister and I, whether from rage or fear. Was she only so worried about them, that her only option was to lash out at ponies she knew hadn’t wronged her?

Though we were the ones who’d passed the poor mares to Rose, it hadn’t been intentional. The entire time we’d been away, we’d been trying to save them. I wanted to tell the mare with the steel rod through her head, but words failed me. I found them trapped in my throat, as I uselessly opened and closed my mouth like a filly told to keep quiet but still wanting to ask for something.

As I kicked at the air and squirmed, trying to find some way to argue back, to make her drop me... Her eyes started to glow green. The tiniest of glows, pale and reminding me of something horrific, seemed to wrap around her head. The alicorn hadn’t noticed, as it snaked from her eyes, down her neck, until it wrapped softly around her chest.

Like before, it looked as if she were carefully choosing her words. In the time it took her to look at the four of us, she’d decided what she wanted. Her lips twisted, frowning worse than even Rose could. “My daughters... Are only safe. With me. Unity will protect them,” she said, her voice strained. “You, will tell me where... Tell me where I can find my daughters. I need them, so I can take them to Unity. To safety.” Practically growling, she squeezed with her magic.

It tightened around my neck, making me kick harder. I dug at my throat with my forehooves, uselessly hitting myself with the blunted steel edges. It was like when Wirepony had... I closed my eyes and prayed to the Goddesses, crying.

“Or I will-” she started, pausing. “I will...”

“Krrii!” Fine Tune chirped, his high pitched squeal cutting through my ears and the screaming inside my head. The knitting, tingling feeling of magic all around me got worse, and Rebar faltered her threat.

Forcing my eyes open, and watching through the tears, I caught what he’d done just in time. The eerie green glow around Rebar was him. His magic. Was he... feeding off her?

The alicorn didn’t seem to mind. Her horn still glowed, pulsing brightly every so often as she held and choked us.

Lost, on the other hoof, picked up on it. Her own horn sparked and glowed, adding to the growing light. It seemed to cut through Rebar’s darker magic aura, like a beacon of hope. Rather than attack the alicorn directly, my sister grabbed onto the steel rod run through her skull. It twisted sharply, and the magic around us faltered.

Rose fell to the ground, hard. She groaned in pain, having falling sharply onto the rubble of the ruined building below. It didn’t take her long to realize what my sister was doing. With her own aquamarine glow, her telekinesis wrapped around the back part of the steel rod. Together, she helped my sister to twist it to the side.

Rebar finally noticed. With her head twisted sharply to the side, she fought against it. Squinting at us, she bared her teeth and did whatever unicorns and alicorns did to make their magic stronger. It tugged at my legs and spread them apart, but it was obvious she was fighting a losing battle. Stronger than the two of them, even she couldn’t withstand the force of two unicorns and a changeling working together.

Slowly being drained of whatever powered her, her head was slowly turned away from us. The glow of all three of my companions increased, one at a time, as they struggled through clenched eyes and gritted teeth. Fine Tune’s wings fluttered so fast I couldn’t even see them, while my sister and the cloned mare’s horns both seemed to gain a second glow around them.

The alicorn struggled, eyes wide and full of hatred as she did her best to force her head back to face us. Flickers of pained screaming ripped through my mind as the four of them worked in a horrible tug of war with the mare’s neck. It was as if she could only fight back against them by screaming louder and louder inside our minds with frustration.

With sudden finality, Rebar’s head snapped to the side completely and the magic holding us in the air broke.

Without cheater magic to help, I fell to the ground unceremoniously, and all the more uselessly. The pain of hitting the broken pavement made me wince, and the PipBuck warnings flashed again, as if trying to add to the screaming overloading my senses.

When Lost slammed down on top of me, she gasped and moaned in pain.

“Why do you fight!” demanded the alicorn, swinging her head back and forth with more strength. Though her horn had stopped glowing, the sharp edge was still enough to do damage, and Fine Tune fluttered away as soon as she got close. His carapace seemed to shine, as if he were reflecting all the emotions he’d taken.

Green fire engulfed him, and he tackled the mare. Just like he had the dragon, he crashed like a meteor into the mare’s neck. The two tumbled to the ground, aided by the combination of two ponies’ magic holding her to the side.

Rebar didn’t go down easily. She kicked and struggled, screaming both inside our heads and out.

It only took a second, but it seemed to stretch on forever. Fine Tune with his hole-filled hooves wrapped around her neck, bit at her mane and ear. The magic around her held the steel rod to the ground, leaving her face dug harshly into the broken road.

“Stop fighting us and we’ll help you find your daughters!” I screamed. I couldn’t help with cheater magic, but with the rest of them focusing everything they had on their magic and keeping her down, I did the only thing I could. “Promise! We’ll help!”

“We submit,” said Rebar, quietly. She stopped struggling, and went still. The red marker in the corner of my vision disappeared, and suddenly only green ones remained. “Just call back your insect attack beast!” Eyes-wide, she stared at the changeling in the closest thing I could imagine to terror. Then again, having a giant bug of a pony latch onto me would have me just as terrified, if I didn’t know already that Fine Tune was mostly harmless.

Together, we all breathed a sigh of relief.

“We just need to find them,” she said, much calmer than before. “We need to protect them.”

“If we knew where the fuck they were we’d have just said it earlier, didn’t you fucking think about that? Instead of screaming into our minds and demanding it,” shouted my sister “We’ve gone across the mountains and back to help them.” Lost groaned, nearly growling. “First you sell ponies to slavers and now you just kill them on sight! If you want to call yourself their mother, try acting like one! Because what you’re doing right now is nothing like how a mother should act!” She stomped her hoof and hastily picked her glasses up with her telekinesis. Resting them back on her nose, she looked at me. “Go make sure Lamington and Tim Tam aren’t dead!” she ordered.

I looked back at the wreckage where Lamington had been thrown.

“Oh Goddesses, please be okay...”

* * *

I stared at the pile of debris, the remains of the building Rebar had so easily thrown Lamington into. A half-dozen little green markers shifted around the E.F.S. in the corner of my sight. One of them had to belong to the Star Paladin, because there was no way he... He was tougher than the building. Sucking air through my teeth in worry, I looked over at the changeling next to me.

He buzzed back and forth, lazily flitting from one side of me to the other on wings moving too fast to see. Whatever he’d sucked out of Rebar to weaken her, it was still very much in his system. Eyes bright and little chirps practically erupting from his fanged mouth every so often, he seemed all too eager to put that excess energy to work.

“You start at the top, and I’ll start at the bottom?” I asked, already leaning down and wrapping my forehooves around the closest chunk of wall.

He just lifted higher in the air and darted over to the top of the pile of building. Wrapping his own hooves around one piece, he hooked it into the holes in his forelegs. With both legs and his magic, he started to swiftly toss chunks away.

Lamington was a big pony, and he had been wearing his power armor. He was... probably okay. Still, time was a thing we didn’t have much of, and I wanted to make sure he was alright as soon as possible. “Lamington?” I yelled, pressing a hoof to the side of my mouth. “Can you hear me!”

Static answered, but no words. That was... I hoped it was a good sign. These were old buildings, and it wasn’t like they were made of concrete and rebar like some- I looked back at the alicorn as I grabbed a large chunk of wallpaper-covered wreckage from the interior of the building.

Lost had Rebar’s ear in her magic and the two of them were both arguing. My sister seemed quite pissed, and while Rebar still had that somewhat majestic air about her that seemed to come with being a giant alicorn, she did look apologetic. Whatever they were talking about, I couldn’t hear it, but the conversation was, hopefully, helping the situation. With Rebar, there wasn’t a way anypony could tell. She might just snap back into that psychotic rage if she didn’t get what she wanted.

I made a note to keep a closer eye on the indicators, just in case. Even the tiniest of warnings could save us from more trouble.

Moving closer, I started pulling out more pieces of the building. Part of me tried to guess what it might have been at one point. Sadly, being smashed in with a massive armor-covered pony did a great job at destroying anything I could identify it with. All that was left was the broken pieces of wallpaper-covered inner wall and the sturdier outside that had very much not survived the test of time.

Maybe after I dug him out I could go inside and dig around for some-

“Focus,” I told myself.

Fine Tune looked at me. “Krii?” he chirped, cocking his head to the side.

“Thinking out loud,” I answered, biting down on the wall piece and dragging it away. I spit it out once it was far enough away, hating that I didn’t have cheater magic to make this easier. Scraping my tongue with my teeth, I looked back at where the junk had been. The barest glimmers of metal shown from underneath. “The faster we go, the better. We’re finally making progress.” I trotted closer. “Lamington! Are you okay in there?”

“No,” he answered sternly. Good, that meant one of those green markers was his, and that he wasn’t dead.

The metal shifted and so did the pile of junk covering him.

“We’ll get you out!” I yelled. “Where are you exactly?” Hopping up onto the pile, I turned a few times on shaky legs, looking underneath me to find out what part of his armor I could see.

“Miss Fortune?” he asked, the edge still in his voice.

“Y-yes?” I asked hesitantly...

“Stop standing on me.”

“Eep!” I yelped, jumping into the air and scrambling to move. “I’m sorry! I’m sorry! I didn’t... Let me dig you out.” I pointed at where I’d been standing. “Right here Fine Tune! Help me!”

When the changeling zipped over, we both grabbed onto a large chunk of pressed wood that once made up the interior wall and lifted it up. A support beam shifted and slid to the side, taking chunks of old wires and some... strange pink wall fluff with it. We pulled it free, exposing much of the steel armor to the dull, cloud-hidden light again. Lamington’s foreleg and head were visible, but most of him remained buried.

“Are you okay?” I asked again.

“I was not trained on being thrown through a building,” he answered, somewhat deadpan. “Where is Tim Tam? Is he safe?”

“Rose is looking him over,” I answered as Fine Tune and I hefted the wall away. The large panel teetered in the air as we pushed it over, before finally hitting a tipping point and flopping down to land with a thud. Hitting the street, it kicked up a cloud of dirt. “He-” I couldn’t help but cough. “He got thrown down the road and took a tumble, but...” I looked over at the clone mare and the dark orange stallion.

She had him sitting on the side of the street, holding perfectly still. Her horn glowed slightly, as she bobbed her head back and forth, examining him the same way she had me just a few hours before.

“He’s up, and it looks like he’s still alive.”

Past them, other ponies had decided to come looking. That explained the sudden surge in green markers... They kept their distance, but stared out from alleyways and huddled with heads poked out from behind buildings. One seemed braver than the others. She was ‘hidden’ behind a lamppost, neck craned forward to stare at Rose in awe. Every so often, she would lick her lips, staring intently at the clone mare and shaking slightly.

Well, Rose was a pretty mare, but that’s a little too- Oh, of course, Rose was their drug supplier... Somepony must be itching for a-

A shadow blocked out the light behind me.

“We wish to assist you,” boomed Rebar’s voice. The dark blue glow of her magic wrapped around the remainder of the building’s pieces. In unison, using a similar trick that I’d seen other unicorns do, she lifted all of it into the air at once. Fucking cheater magic. Held in the hazy glow of her telekinesis, she balled the pieces together and tossed them effortlessly with a flick of her head to the side. They crashed loudly into the main room of the house, kicking up more dust.

I couldn’t help but cough. Stupid Wasteland.

Lamington’s visor lit up and he shifted. “Help me up?” he requested. After a moment, he added, “Please?”

As I reached down to grab onto him, the alicorn encased him in her magic. It only took a second, but she lifted him up into the air, spun him until his hooves were straight down, then dropped him onto the pavement. The force of his heavy armor hitting pavement made me jump into the air, all while the alicorn effortlessly flapped her wings to keep her away from the ground.

Lamington took a few steps forward, his movements jerky and slow due to the damage his armor must have gotten when he was thrown through a wall. He pressed the face of his armor against the alicorn’s nose. “Thank you,” he practically spat, sounding more annoyed than anything else. After a moment, he backed away. “I presume, given your assistance and the lack of visible hostility from my power armor’s E.F.S., that we’re no longer at odds, and therefore there’s no reason for me to pursue our fight.” The minigun on his back began to spin, whirring loudly. “I recommend we keep it that way, lest I find myself forced to discover a way to deal with you.”

“What did Lost say?” I asked, taking a few steps back away from the standoff.

“Many harsh words,” Rebar answered coldly, very much ignoring Lamington’s threat. “We apologize for not seeking to talk first. We were... overcome with worry. Our daughters are very important to Us.”

“Family is the most important thing there is, but that does not give you the right to outright attack others,” lectured the Star Paladin. He looked to me. “Excuse me, I must see to Tim Tam. To make sure he isn’t too wounded to continue.” With what had to be a glare at Rebar, he walked away.

Past him, where Tim Tam was being seen to, Lost had joined Rose in tending to him. As the Star Paladin walked over toward the three of them, I looked to Fine Tune.

I sighed. “If only you had any idea where Rose’s ponies took-” I muttered, stopping and looking at the alicorn. Could, could I just call her Rebar? Was that a name we used behind her back and never to her face or...

Fine Tune just fluttered about, eventually settling on the back of the alicorn. When he landed on her, she flinched and went rigid, but didn’t move to fling him away. He smiled, closing his eyes and resting his head across her neck. For a moment, his lack of draining seemed to confuse Rebar, but after seeing him lay down and close his eyes, she seemed to relax. She... must have been a good meal?

“You do know there’s a steel rod stuck in your head, right?” I asked awkwardly. Forcing a stupid smile, I rubbed a hoof across the back of my mane. It sent a shock of pain from hoof to shoulder, but I ignored it.

“What?” she asked, an eyebrow raising.

“I mean, you have this, umm... piece of rebar...” I muttered, tapping at my forehead. “Right here.... Going through your brain.” Oh Goddesses, I was a fucking idiot. Why’d I have to say anything? “Everypony in Skirt, umm, they were using it as a name for you. Since, I guess, nopony knew your name?”

“We have what?” she demanded, suddenly sounding furious. Crossing her eyes, she looked at her horn, then at the piece of metal jutting out from her head just past it. “How long has that been in Our head?”

Gulping, I answered, “Well, it was there when we met you, and-”

“Obviously it’s not doing any real damage,” interrupted Rose. She walked up and stopped next to me. “Otherwise, you’d be dead. Best to leave it there, unless you have a death wish.”

“How’s Tim Tam?” I asked.

“Yes, how is the one We tossed?” echoed Rebar. Her voice was flat and indifferent, but the small smirk gave away that she must have been proud of her throw.

“I’m fairly certain he has a concussion, but it could be a lot worse,” answered the clone mare. “Let’s go get this bitch’s ‘daughters’ so we can be done with this fiasco.” She glared at Rebar, her horn sparking to light and her magic wrapping around the metal stuck through the alicorn’s head. She pulled it close, eliciting a pained groan that seemed completely out of place coming from the pony that reminded me so much of a Goddess. The clone mare tugged on it until the much much taller mare was eye-level with the pink mare. “And don’t you ever, ever, fuck with me or my kind again. Or I will rip this-” She twisted the steel rod to the side, pulling the alicorn’s head with it. “-out of your skull and beat what’s left of you to death with it.”

“We wish to see you attempt it,” spat Rebar.

The magical haze around the steel rod disappeared, and Rose walked past her. “If I know the old sack of lard, she’s kept them close. Follow me.”

Heavy hooffalls fell behind me, shaking the ground below. Lamington, supporting Tim Tam, walked up behind me. My sister followed the two of them, her own blue magical glow knitting up a cut that Rose had missed on the stallion’s leg. He looked... terrible. His eye was swollen and a bruise was forming on the side of his head. When he saw me looking, he forced a smile.

“I’ve had worse,” he muttered. “I didn’t get to grow up in a Stable like Lamington here.” He sighed. “Never been thrown down a road before though... Get to add that to the list, I guess.”

It was good to know I wasn’t the only pony keeping lists. Actually, it was probably a good idea to add ‘getting thrown through a building’ to the List of Things to Never Do Again.

There was only one question left...

“Where are the daughters you left Skirt with, umm, Rebar?”

I winced, waiting to be struck. Instead, Lost just shot me a glare. The alicorn didn’t respond, at all.

I poked at her. “Rebar?” I asked, hoping to get her attention. “Where are the daughters you left Skirt with?”

“We have asked them to stay safely outside town,” she answered, not correcting me with the new ‘name.’ “We wish to keep them safe, and thought it better to not bring them to Our fight. We shall return to them with Our other daughters in tow, once they are safely with Us.” She didn’t make mention of the name I’d called her.

“Let’s just get them and be done with it,” said Lost, her voice a mix of exasperation and exhaustion. “I’m so sick of today, already...”

* * *

The walk back was... eerie.

Nopony said anything, not even Rose or my sister. Fine Tune was still draped over Rebar’s back, and while she kept her eye on him warily, she hadn’t acted out to throw him off. Her wings, however, were half-raised, as if she was going to take off at any second. We walked down the road toward where Rose stayed, not that I could tell, since we weren’t taking the same path I’d chased her down during the fight. I wasn’t on an adrenaline high anymore... I had a chance to look around and realize that, even if we were going the same way, given the destruction Rebar had caused before we arrived, I wouldn’t know because, well... it all looked the same to me. Nothing stood out as a landmark to know where I was.

I lagged behind the others, quietly watching. A nagging little claw dug at the back of my mind, but I couldn’t quite place why. It wouldn’t have been because of the alicorn, since the little marker for her was staying green. It might have been that, despite the fact that more townsponies were wandering around and gawking at a distance, there were far less markers overall. It might have been the little jolts of pain that occasionally shot up and down my legs. Or maybe I was just afraid we were too late, and the original fat lard-sack Rose had fled and taken the mares with her.

A large part of me feared what Rebar would do if that was the case...

Still, it might have been worry about Tim Tam. Despite the fact that he had spoken clearly and without any problems earlier, he walked on wobbly legs and kept staring around. Every so often he’d start looking at the other side of the road and slow down, as if blankly caught in focus of something. But, every time, before somepony other than me would notice, he’d start back up and wobble his way to stand next to Lamington.

The Star Paladin himself walked with a slightly off-kilter gait, due in large part to the series of dents and dings covering the intricately carved designs on his power armor. I didn’t know how he could lift it, given how much it must weigh, but if there was something inside the suit that assisted him, it was probably damaged.

But the voice wasn’t screaming inside my head anymore, and that seemed to be true for everypony. It was, thank the Goddesses, a small blessing.

After several blocks, a few twists and turns to get to a different part of the ruined city, Rose stopped. She turned on a hoof and looked at the rest of us. “Let me go in first. I need to find out if she’s still here,” she announced, giving a look at the alicorn.

At least she wasn’t glaring at me, for once.

“We are not privy to your orders,” answered the massive mare. Squinting at the clone pony, she spread her wings wider.

“Rebar,” Lost muttered, using the same name without hesitation. “Don’t make me sic my insect attack beast on you.”

Fine Tune grinned, cooing out a little, “Criiiiiiki...”

“We shall behave,” relented the alicorn, sulking slightly. She pinned her wings to her side and hung her head. “We wish Our daughters back. Their safety is first amongst Our desires.” Turning her head, she looked at each member of our little group one at a time. “We wish you only safety, as well. Unity would do well to gain the teamwork shown betwixt you all.” From the corner of her eye, she looked at the ‘insect attack beast’ resting on her happily. “This one would not be welcome.”

Fine Tune just stuck his tongue out at her, his transformative green fire erupting around him in a massive swirl of flame.

Rebar practically shrieked. Rearing up, she kicked her forelegs in the air several times, throwing the swirling ball of fire away, and took to the air. Wings flapping, she hovered away from him, fear in her deep blue eyes.

The unicorn stallion with the f-marks cutie mark remained, landing delicately on his hooves from where he was thrown into the air. “I have my own hive,” he said angrily. “I don’t need yours.” Raising his snout, he snorted and turned away from her. “I’m happier here as it is, than being stuck in whatever this unity you mentioned is.”

“And we’re glad to have you here, Fine Tune,” Lost said, walking over and resting a hoof on his shoulder.

“My Queen,” he whispered, bowing.

“Are we done?” Rose demanded, deadpan.

“I was a few minutes ago,” Tim Tam answered for us. “Can I sit down and rest?”

“No!” snapped the pink mare. Scrunching her eyes closed, she mouthed counting slowly. “I hate all of you.”

“Perhaps,” Lamington interrupted calmly. “We should await your findings, relating to where...”

“Yes,” Rose interrupted him. “I’ll go check on my progenitor. You all wait here.”

I remembered that word. She meant the original.

As the clone mare disappeared into the building where at one time we’d been ambushed, the rest of us gathered closer together. Lamington rested a hoof against Tim Tam, holding him steady as he gently swayed back and forth. Fine Tune sat down and smiled, closing his eyes like a Manticore that had just fed and wanted to relax. Lost sighed, slouching a bit like she had on the motorwagon. The alicorn, however, stayed airborne.

The silence was... awkward.

I wanted to say something, but I wasn’t sure what I could say.

Luckily, none of us had to wait long to find out about the original Rose. Our Rose, the one we’d been traveling with, slammed open a set of wooden shutters keeping the upstairs windows closed. She looked down at us. “She’s gone,” she announced.

“Our daughters?” demanded the alicorn, flapping her massive wings and flying over to the window. She pushed Rose out of the way and stuck her head clean in through the open window. A second later, she pulled it free. “What stench is this!”

“The stink of a pony who’s not moved in over a hundred years,” I answered sarcastically. Thank the Goddesses Rose hadn’t demanded we all go up with her. She really took one for the team. Still, I looked at the E.F.S. in the corner of my vision, tilting my head slightly to center...

No markers. At all.

What the fuck was wrong with this thing?

“What do you mean a pony who’s not moved in over a hundred years?” asked Lamington. “There are no ponies who can live that long, Celestia and Luna aside.” Static peppered his words, but... it made sense. Nopony must have filled him in on how many stupid seemingly ‘immortal’ things we dealt with.

A Wartime mare peddling drugs. A dragon hatched by zebras during the War. A ageless, mechanical monster inside a suit of power armor...

That was a pattern if I’d ever seen one.

“Lost, do you-”

“Where. Are. Our. Daughters,” demanded Rebar again. She sounded far more urgent.

“Well, one of two places,” answered Rose calmly. “Either she’s decided to take them as pony shields, in hopes that you wouldn’t attack them.... Which assumed she knows you were after them. And I can’t say if she does or not. Or, she’s got them holed up somewhere nearby.”

“Which is more likely?” asked my sister. She scraped a forehoof against the ground. “Should we spread out and look for them?” Before Rose could answer, her horn lit up and the blue glow of her magic wrapped around the PipBuck attached to my foreleg. “Mind if I use this if we have to look? I don’t have that little edge in finding things.”

“Huh?” I muttered blankly. I looked down at the PipBuck, then at the corner of my vision... Green markers filled the E.F.S. “Yeah, sure.” The magical overlay in my vision disappeared as the internal mechanisms Lost had built into the device were released, and it lifted off my foreleg.

“I believe we should,” Lamington answered, in place of the clone mare. “If we are to assume she took these mares with her, then we’re opening the possibility of leaving them here unguarded and potentially without sustenance. A cursory check of likely areas is the best course of action. Once we’ve ruled out any local holding areas, we can then pursue the mare.”

“He’s right,” agreed Rose, shouting past the alicorn’s head. “She doesn’t move fast. We’ll catch up to her, even if we spend time searching here.” She disappeared from the window entirely, and after only a few seconds, reappeared from the front door. “If only we still had a motorwagon, it’d be even faster.”

“The faster We find Our daughters, the better,” Rebar said, the barest of voices raising in the back of my mind. “We graciously accept your assistance in finding them. Now.” Yeah, the tone she used made it very obvious it wasn’t a request... and given how it’d taken the teamwork of three of us to subdue her in the first place...

We all shared a look and nodded in unison. Except Tim Tam, he was busy staring off at a group of ponies gawking from the far intersection. He waved at them absently.

Lost and I were supposed to be the team, not Lost and Rose, or Lost and Fine Tune, or...

“Let’s start looking. The faster the better,” I said, hanging my head. At least I was good at finding what we needed when we needed it. Hopefully that worked for ponies, too.

Rebar landed and did a pass over the rest of us. “We shall seek Our daughters on Our own terms,” she announced before turning away from our group. “We shall return...” Casually, she glanced at Rose’s home and squinted, Walking over slowly, she lowered her head and dragged her horn across the rotting front of it. Carving a deep gouge into the wood, she lifted her head and dragged a second across it, making a massive X across the house. “... here, if We do not find Our daughters.” With a little snort of disgust, she spread her wings and took to the air. Without regard for us, she disappeared past the roof.

“Well, that’s ominous,” I muttered. We really should have just shot her the second we had the chance. A single bullet in the head without any radiation around and this whole problem would have been solved. We could have saved the poor mares, and...

What could we have done with them, then? Send them to Stables Twelve and Twenty One? Would there be enough food for them all there? I looked over at Lamington, trying my best to keep it from being obvious. Would they have allowed more and more ponies to show up? It... was an imperfect solution.

And if word got out that there was a ‘safe haven’ they might have been overrun by ponies demanding things, or have liars sneak in to try and steal from them, or be overwhelmed by attacks by ponies who wanted to take what they had, or-

I shook my head. My mind was racing down horrible possibilities that would likely never happen with the speed of an overly excited Praline. Taking a deep breath, I sat down.

“So, how shall we split up to cover more ground?” I asked, scooting myself closer to Lost.

“I’ll go with the Steel Rangers,” Rose answered. “This one.” She pointed at Tim Tam. “He needs somepony to watch over him, and as much as the big stallion seems to have his head on straight, I doubt he’s trained as a medic.”

“Actually, as part of training for all soldiers, we are given, at the barest levels, a rudimentary training in field first aid,” he answered, static cutting through his voice. He sounded very proud of himself. “I consider myself proficient for basics.”

Smugly impressed, Rose only smiled. “Good to see Fluttershy’s initiatives gained some traction, at least,” she said.

“Familiar with the Ministry Mare of the Ministry of Peace?” asked the Star Paladin.

“I worked under her, a lifetime ago,” the clone mare answered.

“Hundred year old pony, indeed.”

“We’re wasting time, aren’t we?” asked Lost. “Rose, go with them. Hidden and I will go together.” She turned to the Changeling. “Fine Tune, can you stay here, relay back and forth with us if Rebar shows back up?”

Fine Tune drew his hooves together, stood straight, and saluted. “Of course, my Queen,” he answered.

“But I’m supposed to be the guard pony,” corrected Tim Tam. Blinking slowly, he looked at the ground, then back up at the blue unicorn stallion. “Right?”

“Come with me, soldier,” answered Lamington. “New orders.” With a nod of his head, he beckoned Rose to follow him and walked down the street. “Where shall we check first?”

“Check the buildings nearby. The fat Rose took over most of these houses and shops for her own gains in the few years after the world ended and nopony was around. Basements, attics. Make sure to check everywhere in them. The whole block,” Rose instructed. “We’ll start at separate corners and meet in the middle. Go clockwise around the edge of this block.” She pointed, motioning with her hoof. “When you get to the second corner, start working inward.”

“Sounds good,” I answered. “Meet you back here.”

Rose half-heartedly waved, then turned and followed after Lamington and Tim Tam.

At least this would give me some time to talk to my sister... We headed the opposite direction, for the corner of the city block.

* * *

We’d searched three of the homes so far with no luck. Finding mares was a lot different than finding... our usual treasure. Mares moved around and talked and they weren’t tiny and stuffed into cabinets or drawers out of sight if somepony wasn’t digging for them. Still. We hadn’t found them.

From the kitchen, I looked through the doorway into the living room where Lost was poking around. She hadn’t said much since we started, nothing more than whatever was absolutely necessary. Usually, when we were searching for things together, there would be small talk to pass the time, but this time...

I tossed down the fork I had in my fetlock. The stabby bits were bent anyway, and it wasn’t what I was here for. Trotting out into the main room, I stopped behind my sister. She wasn’t moping anymore, and I felt like it’d been long enough for me to give her the space Lamington suggested. We could talk, privately, here... Hopefully keep her from falling back into that same funk again the instant we weren’t either fighting for our lives or trying to find a group of ponies before the nigh-unkillable alicorn monster got impatient with us...

“Did you check upstairs yet?” I asked, forcing myself to stay casual.

“Yeah, I didn’t see anything,” she answered, without turning around.

“Lost...”

“What?” she asked.

“When are you going to start talking to me?” I asked, shifting my weight and moving closer to the door.

“We’re talking right now, Hidden,” she countered, finally turning around to face me. “Let’s move on to the next house.” Sidestepping me, she walked past and pulled the door open with the blue haze of her magic. Disappearing outside, the sound of her hooffalls casually echoed through the door as she got further away.

I sighed and followed her. Another rotting house down, so many more to go. Before passing the doorway, I took one last look inside, and twisted my ear around to listen. Just in case.

Nothing. Not even a creak of the building settling.

I raced after my sister as fast as my legs would carry me until I caught up with her, just as she entered the next building. Rather than head in after her to look around, I stepped right inside the doorway and hooked a rear hoof around the door to slam it closed. The shackle around my leg caught on the wood and shifted, dragging the spikes inside against my bones and sending a jolt up my leg. After all the other aches shooting through them, I barely registered it. I slammed the door shut so we could have some privacy.

Maybe I hadn’t given her enough time? Regardless, we needed to push past the problem, and the best way to do it was to talk it out. That’s how family worked, we banded together to find a solution, be it in a fight or dealing with... relationship problems. If only I knew anything about them. “Lost! This is serious. We need to talk, and you know what I mean,” I practically shouted.

“What happened between Crème Brûlée and I is my business, not yours,” she argued, walking off into the kitchen of this new house.

I stormed after her. “It is. Because I need you to not be too busy sulking when things like, oh I don’t know, an alicorn decides to attack,” I snapped. That was the main reason, but more to the point I just wanted my sister back. It wasn’t the same when she was curled up, uselessly refusing to help. “So yes, what happened between you and Crème Brûlée is exactly my business.” I stopped in the doorway and spread my legs as wide as I could to block her in. We needed to have this talk. “If you hadn’t snapped out of it back there, what could have happened?”

She looked over the rims of her glasses at me, shaking her head. “I snapped out of it because I needed to,” she clarified. “Something more important came up, and I’m not going to talk about it.” Twisting on her hoof, she walked out another doorway from the kitchen and into the back part of the house.

With a frown, I pulled myself back and looked around to find a way to head her off. The place was in shambles, but it looked like somepony had been through recently. Then again, we were in a town and not some remote part of the Wasteland that nopony went. The druggies nearby had probably cleared the place out of anything worthwhile long ago. No trash just meant nothing to dig for. I trotted past a staircase that led to the second floor, but heard nothing up there. No voices, no hooves. Underneath it, around the back of the stairs, was a door. As I trotted by, I hooked the latch awkwardly with my steel forehoof and pulled it open.

It was pitch black inside, and silently still. No mares...

“Sis look, I’m not trying to force you to talk about it, but...” I muttered, pausing... “We’ve shared damn near everything. I’ve known you my entire life. Can’t you trust me?”

She just snorted from the other room. “There’s a big difference between trusting you and telling you about my fucking sex life!” After a pregnant pause, she sighed and walked over around the doorway. Standing face to face with me, she furrowed her brows. She looked... pathetic. “It’s complicated Hidden.”

“I know, but I just want to help you through it,” I said in my most reassuring voice. Taking a few steps closer, I wrapped my steel hooves around her and squeezed. “Lovers will come and go, but I’ll always be here. Right?”

“I know, but it’s... I don’t want to talk about it,” she said, hugging me back. After a weak squeeze, she released and walked past me. “Finding those mares is more important right now.”

“We can do both. C’mon. Talk.”

Stomping a hoof, she pursed her lips and stared at me over her shoulder. After what felt like an eternity of her staring and occasionally scrunching up her face as she thought, she just turned away.

I twisted an ear and looked up, both in frustration and because she was right about finding the mares. “Seriously. Seriously? It’s just the two of us so the others don’t have to be involved in our personal business and we’re inside so...” I compromised, trailing off as I noticed she’d already left. “Goddesses dammit...”

Moving to the next house, I pushed open the door and stepped in. No sign of my sister. “Lost!” I snapped. This place was the same as the last. Picked clean with just the barest of strewn around trash littering the floor. Old food cans, empty ones, were piled around an absolutely filthy mattress in the corner. Either we were getting closer, or it was a coincidence.

Probably a coincidence.

“Fine!” she groaned, as she stormed up the house’s stairs. “Sex is weird. Good weird. I’ve never...” She raised to her hind legs on the stairs and raised her hooves up in frustration. “I don’t have something to equate all of this to.” She went silent, and disappeared down the hallway. “Now do you see why I don’t want to talk about it?”

“Look, I know if the situations were flipped I wouldn’t want to have to spill everything about my potential sex life with you,” I admitted. “It’s... personal, and probably embarrassing.”

“Y’think?” she asked, reappearing at the top of the stairs. “And there’s no fucking mares up here right now!”

“But it’s affecting how we worked together, and you sulking to the point where you could have been killed in that fight?” I continued, stopping to take a deep breath.

“Look, I- I’m scared. Okay?” she stammered.

“Of what?” I goaded.

“Commitment!” she yelled, exasperated. Trotting down the stairs, she stopped in front of me. One of her forehooves raised and she pointed at the mess in the corner where somepony had been living. “That pony is probably dead, because this is the fucking Wasteland. I can’t... commit to a relationship.” She looked nearly ready to cry. “What happens if that’s Crème Brûlée tomorrow? What if she gets shot the next day? I just want to take what little time I can to feel good when I can. Is it wrong to do that? To get a little pleasure wherever I can?”

My ears drooped and I shrunk back.

“It could happen, we both know it, at any time,” Lost continued, sounding dour. “We came really really close to dying, okay? Back under Amble. And I’m not going to let what little happiness I can get just... disappear when I can grab it and hold onto it,” she continued. “We’re survivors, Hidden, but I want to experience life, not just survive it. And I can’t accept that you don’t understand that.”

I nodded. I understood all too well. So many times I’d thought it was good to go running ahead without thinking. Goddesses above, it was all I did. I locked myself into a fantasy world...

“So now I’ve got this new way to feel good for the first time without commitment, and...” She stopped, stamping a hoof in frustration. “I can’t do that because of somepony who might not be alive next time I see her!”

“But...” I started, now feeling a bit confused. “You broke up with Crème. Why can't you pursue other mares without commitment?” I may not have felt the same way about sex as Lost, I wasn’t even sure how I felt about it, but she seemed set that this was how she wanted to live.

“Because... I didn't break up with her, okay? It wasn’t that easy,” she said in a frustrated tone, walking around me and out the door. “Check the basement, I’m moving to the next house.”

Before I could react to what she said, she disappeared.

Half-assed, I pulled open the door and trotted down a few steps. “Hello?” I yelled. “Anypony there?”

Nopony answered.

Not wanting to get caught down there by some crazy drugged pony, in case there was somepony still living there, I backed up the stairs and trotted from the house. When I got to the next one, Lost was nowhere to be seen. Dammit. Running inside, I looked around the main floor, in a big circle from foyer to kitchen to the other two rooms and back to foyer. Then I checked up stairs. Going up them hurt, and that little static-scream inside my legs returned... but disappeared again once I reached the top. Inside was nopony, not Lost, nor another mare.

Except the skeletons...

Somepony had died in bed, and was never disturbed. Everything around them was torn up, but the bed itself looked completely untouched, as if they’d just laid down for a nap and then when the world ended, nopony came to get them.

I backed out of the room and down the hallway. By the time I made it to the stairs, I saw my sister halfway out the door.

“Nopony downstairs!” she yelled as the purple wisp of her tail disappeared out of sight.

“Fuck!” I snapped. Running awkwardly on aching legs down the stairs, and ignoring the jolts and static pains, I bolted out the door. The house looked just like the rest. Trash, ruined walls, rotting furniture; no point checking around anymore.

Once outside, I rounded the corner. We’d hit the edge of the block and on the far side of the corner was a store, instead of a home. Past the broken window and missing sign, Lost stood inside looking around. Somepony had gone to a lot of work to topple over both the racks that once held goods, turning the aisles into one poorly floored mess. The register in the back lay upside down, with the box-part where bits were kept ripped out and bent. Of course, it was empty.

If this had been any other day, I’d have been scrounging around for the one shiny thing I could find...

“What do you mean you didn't break up with Crème Brûlée” I asked incredulously, jumping through the broken glass door and inside. “After all you just said about wanting to experience life and not wanting to be tied down to somepony that may be dead the next day?”

“I feel bad that I fucked around on Crème Brûlée,” she admitted. “There, I said it. Okay? I feel shit that I put me first and hurt somepony I care about.” It looked like she was suddenly on the verge of crying again. “Despite all the reasons I had to end it, I just couldn't bring myself to hurt her more, and... I realized it would hurt if I lost her. In the end I told her about the zebra, and we wound up arguing about the same things as last time.”

Instead of continuing, she gave the building one last glance. “We need to find the mares,” she said, completely off topic. When she walked off, I followed, and we made our way to the next building.

It was non-descript, with wooden walls and a sign so faded I couldn’t read it. It didn’t matter. Inside was a bit better, since the elements hadn’t gotten through the broken front like the last shop. A jacket, much like my own, hung in a little alcove. It was in rough shape, with holes all through it, but there was enough leather to patch up the holes mine was full of! Forgetting for a moment the heart to heart I was having with my sister, I bolted inside and grabbed it.

“Hey Lost, look,” I said, holding up my prize. “Now we can fix my jacket.” It was nice to break up the heavy conversation, if only for a moment.

“Now we can fix your jacket,” she agreed, as I stuffed it into my saddlebags.

“You were saying?” I encouraged once the clothing piece was away.

“I’m not sure what I should do next. I'm stuck in an impossible situation. Living the life of meeting up with ponies I meet at each town, burn bridges when I disappear, all at the cost of hurting those I care about. Or force myself to give up chasing my own happiness all for the possibly brief time I may have with Crème?”

I raised my hoof to say something, but stopped. My ear flicked. Forgetting my sister for a second, I looked around. The walls had little alcove-boxes scattered around, with the remains of what had to have been mirrors at one point. Aside from a little door to the back behind the counter, the room was filled with little stands that might have once been pony mannequins? But I thought I heard something...

“Do you hear that?”

She stood up straight and swiveled her ears back and forth.

“Back room?” We both asked in unison.

Together the two of us walked past the counter and she pushed the door open. Past it was a small storage area, full of boxes overflowing with ancient clothes. Were it not for the fact we had a reason to be here, I’d have found quite the treasure trove. Against the far wall was a small staircase, with a sign above it that read ‘extra storage downstairs.’

The voices were louder, echoing up the stairs quietly.

“... this isn’t as bad as before, we can all agree on that right?” said the voice of Battu.

Finally.

* * *

The blue haze of Lost’s magic wrapped around the knob for the door. Slowly, it twitched as she twisted it.

“Lost, wait...” I whispered, resting a hoof onto her shoulder. Waiting until the aura of her telekinesis disappeared, I slowly walked over to the door, letting my hooves fall as quietly as I could to keep the metal from clanking against the hard stone floor of the storage basement. Once I’d reached it, I pressed my head against the door and twisted my ear to listen.

My sister took my lead and walked over to stand opposite me. She leaned in close and pressed her ear to the door as well, making her glasses shift and nearly fall off her nose. She held a hoof to her lips and shushed me.

As if I needed to be told how to eavesdrop.

“I don’t think so,” answered a voice I wasn’t familiar with. It must have been one of the unicorn mares that weren’t in the same pen as I was when we were dragged off with Amble. Maybe it was the mare Lost had called Arabesque when she was healing them before? “At least we knew where we stood there. Here? I don’t know shit.”

“Mother will come for us though, if we just wait,” said Fouetté, the lime green mare who’d been so eager to keep the group held together back when we were in that pen. “I have faith in that.” It seemed she hadn’t given up.

“But what if she was lying to us, too?” asked Battu’s voice. The sound of hooves on the floor echoes, as the mares moved around while they talked. “What if the Unity she talked about wasn’t really a thing, and she just wanted to collect us? If that fucking slaver had her wrapped around her hoof, maybe this was always the plan. A bait and switch?”

“Then we’d just better hope those mares Rose keeps using as a carrot on a stick will actually come through for us,” snarled Fouetté. A hoof stomped on the ground. “Then we can all go our separate ways, can’t we! Nopony will force you to join Unity with me.”

It went silent, for long enough that I looked at my sister.

“Should we go in now?” I asked in a whisper.

She shook her head. “Not yet...” she answered hesitantly.

“...don’t think we should jump to conclusions!” said Arabesque. “We’re better off together. We know we can trust one another at least, right?”

“Only because we’re all in the same predicament,” snapped Battu. “But, yes. I’d rather make sure we’re all safe than just run off.” There was another pause. “Unity and mother or not, I’m not going to just abandon you. You’re my friends.”

“I’ll... agree on that one, at least,” answered Fouetté, the slightest of warm inflections in her voice. “Shared experiences. I just want mother to come get us. I want to be free of this stupid basement.”

“Do you really think she’s coming?” asked Battu, her voice level and calm.

“Yes,” Fouetté answered.

“No,” answered Arabesque. “Not... after what happened. I don’t think even Unity can remove that memory from my mind.”

She must have been the mare that was with the stallion when I... sorta killed a bunch of Rose clones. It was a hazy memory, all that happened. All I knew was there was a lot of adrenaline, and a lot of anger at being run ragged around the entirety of Idle by her. I felt bad about it, after learning what Rose was really like and... Goddesses, I wondered if they’d all had that same fear in them of dying, of becoming nothing when their world ended.

I really was a monster.

“A murderer,” whispered that voice.

I shook my head and took a deep breath. I just had to ignore it. Instead, I focused on the conversation behind the door, adjusting my ear to hear better.

“...can’t help but think it was all a part of her plan though,” said Battu.

“You’ve said that twenty seven times since we’ve been put down here,” answered Arabesque. “The only way we’re going to find out is if she comes back. When she comes back. She’ll tell us, and set everything right.”

“I’m glad to see at least one of you is still with me,” said Fouetté smugly. “Today should be the day, if what Rose said was true.”

“Assuming you believe anything she says, either,” snapped Battu. “She could be in on the whole thing. You saw yourself how she basically runs this place.” She said the last bit with an obnoxious voice, as if trying to rub it in.

“Well, considering how she complains, I think there’s a bigger picture going on here,” answered Fouetté. “These things can’t just be isolated, can they? What kind of a pony tries to keep an entire town drugged? A few...” She cleared her throat. “A few pleasure ponies, sure. That made sense, but imagine how many drugs she needs to keep every pony here under her hoof. It’s... there’s just not enough drugs around.”

“And how do you know that?” asked Arabesque.

“I don’t want to talk about it,” answered the mare, sheepishly.

“Oh...” said both Arabesque and Battu at the same time.

“Can we stop talking about all this?” asked a fourth voice quietly. “We’re at least safe here, let’s just sleep it off until Rose lets us out.”

“Life isn’t just eating and sleeping,” said Fouetté. “We need to be free, to live.”

“I think that’s our cue,” I said to my sister.

“I think so, too,” she answered, smiling softly. It was a nice little parallel to the conversation we’d had earlier. About the difference between survival and living, and trying to find happiness and all the complications that came with it.

Shame we hadn’t finished that talk. There’d be time later.

I moved away from the door just as lost grabbed onto the knob with her magic. When she pulled on it, nothing happened. The door just jostled on its hinges.

Of course it was locked. Otherwise the mares could have just wandered out. Knowing Rose, she’d kept them locked in there and was only opening the door to give them food and water so they could stay alive as collateral. But if Rose and her clones had already made their escape, what had happened to the key?

Did they go with? Did they leave them? Who would even know where the keys were? Our Rose couldn’t, since she was with us and she told us repeatedly that the group didn’t have some sort of hivemind and she couldn’t have learned without being here personally. Rebar would have killed any that knew and hadn’t evacuated with her so...

I reared up on my hind legs and smashed my forehooves into the door as hard as I could. It hurt. Goddesses did it hurt. My legs, what parts of them were left, screamed in protest. So did the mares inside, given their surprised yelps. But the door needed to come down, and I was going to make it come down. I reared my hooves back again and put as much force as I could muster into smashing at it. I aimed just above the latch, trying to smash through that or at least weaken it to where we could push it open.

Through gritted teeth, I held back a cry of pain each time I hit it. I wished there was a better way, but I couldn’t go shooting a high powered rifle through a door and not hit the ponies inside. We needed them alive, after all. After several painful bashes against the wooden door with my steel forehooves, I finally made enough of a crack in it that my sister and I could manage to push it open.

Behind the door was a small store room, with boxes filling up the corners and lining the walls. A few of them were toppled onto the floor and had obviously been used as seats for the mares. A single light hanging from the ceiling illuminated the room, and the four mares inside. Battu, Arabesque, Fouetté, and... It took me a minute to place it, but the mare was Allegro, who’d been broken down and crying when I’d first seen her in U Cig.

Each of them had a look of terror on their faces, no doubt from the fact that I literally destroyed my way inside. I couldn’t blame them. Arabesque’s horn glowed, the dark green haze of her magic sparking softly. Whatever she was doing with her horn, I didn’t want to find out.

She stared at me for a moment, then look at my sister. The moment she locked eyes with Lost, the aura around her horn disappeared and she sighed in relief. “Thank goodness,” she whispered. “Did you really have to bash the door in?”

“Well, we could have gotten our changeling to pick the lock, but we’re on a time limit,” Lost answered “I see you’re all much healthier than the last time I was here. We’re back, and we’ve brought somepony you might be interested in seeing.”

“Mother?” asked Fouetté and Allegro at the same time.

“She found us, but yes,” I answered.

The two of them wasted no time in getting up, and running for the door. Pushing past my sister and me, they bolted up the stairs.

“Hey, wait!” I yelled, but they were already gone.

“Is she really here?” asked Battu, her voice very hesitant.

“She is, flying around somewhere,” Lost answered.

The pinkish-grey mare smiled, looking at Arabesque. They could have been sisters, so close in color. One a pale pink, and the other purple. In another world, they could have mirrored my sister and I, given only one of them had fucking cheater magic. “I knew she’d come back for us,” she said.

Arabesque just rolled her eyes. “Of course you did,” she muttered. “Let’s go to her.”

Oh, they were definitely sisters.

“We’ll show you where she’s going to meet us,” Lost said as the four of us turned to walk back up the stairs.

I hung back and followed, not really paying attention to the quiet mutterings between the two unity mares and whatever they were saying to my sister. Instead, I could only really focus on the ambient background agony going on in my legs. It felt like somepony had given my body to a hellhound and they’d used my legs as a chew toy.

This had all been easy, and in a town like this there wasn’t any reason to keep myself on guard. Not anymore. Instead, I focused on my breathing and tried my hardest to block out the pain. It wasn’t too difficult. I’d survived getting a hoof bitten completely off. I could deal with pulled muscles, even if it was all of them.

The walk back to the meeting spot wasn’t difficult or even time consuming. By the time we got back Rose and the others were already there. Now that we had all the unity mares in tow, the only pony that we were missing was Rebar.

“So, where were they?” asked Rose as we walked up.

“Basement storage room of a clothing store,” answered Lost, matter-of-factly.

“Hmm, that seems like the kind of place she’d keep them,” Rose answered. “Out of the way, but close. Somewhere other ponies wouldn’t be snooping around.” She looked at me and squinted. “You hurt yourself again, didn’t you?”

Was it that obvious?

“No, I’m fine,” I lied, straightening up and standing as tall as my hooves would let me. Still, I was a bit shorter than Rose. Dammit...

“Has Rebar come back yet?” asked Lost.

Fine Tune shook his head. “Haven’t seen her,” he answered. “Want me to go find her, my Queen?”

“Please, the sooner we get this over with, the better.”

Before Lost could finish her sentence, the changeling was already transforming. The swirl of green fire that wrapped around him didn’t faze Lost, Rose, or the Steel Rangers, but the mares certainly freaked out. Each of them had a different, but altogether bad, reaction.

Allegro collapsed down and curled up, covering herself with her hooves. Battu jumped over her to protect her, her ears pinning back. The other two just bolted behind a nearby building and peeked their heads out to watch.

When the fires faded, a green pegasus mare remained. She jumped into the air and lazily buzzed off past the nearby houses.

I cleared my throat after the changeling disappeared, and waved for the two mares to return. “Don’t worry, Fine Tune wouldn’t hurt a fly,” I reassured them. With a quiet laugh, I couldn’t help but add, “They might be his family, after all.”

“To my knowledge, changelings aren’t related to insects,” announced Lamington, finally breaking from pretending to be a statue. Static crackled as his mic was kept on, but he said nothing. After an awkward silence, his armor shifted. “Oh, you were making a joke. Apologies for ruining your jest.” He sounded embarrassed.

“That’s okay,” I said, chewing on my bottom lip slightly. Silly stallion. I was no doubt blushing, but that was probably the cutest thing I’d seen him do yet.

Before we could say anything else, the massive frame of the alicorn appeared in the air and landed directly between us. She kicked up dust as she slammed into the cracked pavement, her wings quickly furling up and pinning to her side. She didn’t look quite as imposing anymore, and didn’t even look as big as she had when we first saw her materialize from thin air when we got back to Idle. Did alicorns shrink?

Ignoring our group, she dropped down onto her haunches and raised her forehooves to her ‘daughters.’ In the happiest voice I’d ever heard her use, she called to them, “Daughters! Your Mother has returned! Come to Us!”

They didn’t need any more coaxing. The four of them, even the two hiding behind the building, ran to her. They collected between her forelegs, forming a large group hug in the protective embrace of their ‘mother.’

“We have missed you all,” she said, both verbally and inside my head. It wasn’t the same shrieking rage as before, instead it felt... nice. Like when our mother had been alive and gently whispering into our ears that she was going to keep Lost and I safe no matter what.

It felt like I was being stabbed through.

I missed her...

Rubbing one of the hard steel forehooves across my muzzle to make sure I wasn’t crying; not that I could feel it, I took a step back. This was their moment, and not one we should interfere with.

Rose, on the other hoof, thought the exact opposite. “There,” she snapped. “Now that you’ve got your daughters, or whatever, are you going to go and not fuck with my town anymore?”

“We have collected what is Ours,” Rebar answered, her happiness gone and her voice cold. She stared at Rose with her slitted pupils and snorted, turning her nose up. “Tell Us, how did Our daughters come to this place? These are not all of Our daughters, where are the others.”

“Slavers probably still have them,” Lost answered. “Just like we told you before. Go to U Cig, that’s where Amble has been. She’ll probably have the rest.” She looked down, raising the PipBuck up and flicking over the controls with her magic. After a moment’s pause, she turned to the alicorn. “Head that way.” She pointed a hoof. “U Cig is there, and so are the rest of your daughters.”

“And that’s where the mare who’s been selling them off is,” I added. “She keeps good records, too. I bet she can tell you where each and every one of them are.” I smirked. If Rebar was as furious as I hoped she was, we could just kill two balefire phoenixes with one stone on this. Rebar would wreck the shit out of Amble, and if the slaver managed to survive, she’d be effectively weakened enough that either my sister and I, or somepony else with a chip on their shoulder against slavers, could just wander in and either take over or kill them all.

And if they did take over, they’d have to pick up where Amble left off, and in that moment of hopeful weakness, we’d get word of it and be able to go in there to finish the job.

My mistake of letting a monstrous, brain-damaged alicorn loose on the Wasteland might work out. She could be used just like a gun. All we had to do was point her in the right direction.

“Come,” Rebar said to the mares. “We shall go see our former partner. We shall save Our daughters.” She smiled, her lips curling back and baring her teeth wickedly. “All of them. And this time, We shall be prepared.”

“Prepared how, mother?” asked Battu, her previous disbelief and lack of faith in the alicorn gone from her voice.

The alicorn said nothing, as if trying to figure the answer to that out herself. She’d seemed so confident, but had nothing to back it up.

Fine Tune returned, huffing and puffing, still in the form of the green pegasus mare. “I...” she gasped. “Couldn’t...” She saw Rebar and facehoofed, her hoof off to the side to accommodate for the invisible horn. “Nevermind.” Dropping down onto her hooves, she transformed with a flash of green fire. When it disappeared, the insect-like changeling remained. He just smirked at Rebar, as she herself recoiled some.

Coldly, the alicorn looked around at us. “Our- methods are not to be discussed here. Come, We- shall leave from these cretins to collect Our- remaining daughters.” Wrapping a wing around the mares, she encouraged them all to stand, then rose on her own hooves to her full height.

“You’re welcome?” said Lost, sarcastically. She pointed again. “Go that way, wreak havoc.”

“Do not tell Us- what to do,” snapped the alicorn. Extending a wing behind her ‘daughters,’ she walked past my sister and ushered them by me. “We- thank you for your assistance, but you are no longer of any use to Us-. Be grateful that We- do not do worse. For those unworthy of Unity have no right to be alive.”

She looked over her shoulder at our group just before she disappeared around the corner at the end of the block.

“Thank you for helping Me find My daughters.”

* * *

For some reason, it all felt hollow. We’d literally crossed mountains to get everything set up for Rose and this little town. Sure, it was against our will, but we’d poured our blood, sweat, and tears into it. Lost had talked down a dragon, for Goddesses’ sakes. So much went into the adventure, so many things had been put off to the side, and so many little changes to my group of friends had happened.

In the end it was... all for nothing.

The original Rose was gone, and with her, the entire network of clones we needed to ship drugs back and forth. In fact, the whole need for those drugs was now gone. The ponies here would have to do without, unless they managed to scrounge up their own source. And what would happen to them then? Rose’s ponies practically ran the town, from what it seemed, under the nose of the mayor pony.

Given that she was constantly drunk, that was probably a good thing. Who knew if she was even in on it, letting the clones have the run of Idle just to keep her from having to do much.

I was making assumptions. Looking up at the house where Rose had once lived, I couldn’t help but wonder...

“What now?” I thought out loud.

“We go home?” offered Lost, somewhat dejectedly. She took a seat next to me, but she looked fidgety.

It was an idea, sure. Something she’d always sort of half-fought for. This wasn’t really our place in the world, we were just treasure hunters. We were supposed to be neck deep in wreckage, trying to pull out a scrap of food or two to get us through another day. We weren’t supposed to be accidentally liberating towns from drug-pushing overlords.

I laughed a little, under my breath. Would Rebar have decided to show up even if we hadn’t? We could have stayed at home and rested, and the same thing would have happened in the end. What a waste of a few days, well except for helping to reunite Xeno’s tribe... I sighed. It was all for a little revenge on the bitch of a mare who dug her way into my brain.

Luckily, nopony was whispering in my ear about how I was just a murderer.

It felt nice, calm... It was quiet. In fact, the whole Wasteland was. The normal background noise of gunfire and screaming far in the distance was gone, and everything seemed like it could have been the old world, before the world ended.

Pushing the worries we had from my mind, I closed my eyes and just enjoyed it. Maybe I could be in a little town, on a vacation from whatever job I worked, window shopping to see what the locals had to bring back to my family. I’d even get to wear a cute dre-

“I’m going inside to get whatever supplies I can for wherever we head next,” Rose said, interrupting my thoughts and making me cringe. It had been such a happy little fantasy for that half-second I had to dream it.

“You’re coming with us?” asked my sister, giving the clone mare a quizzical look. “All that complaining about foalsitting us and now you’re just going to follow us through the Wasteland?”

“Yes,” Rose answered, dryly. “I’ve spent a century doing pretty much whatever I want, just because the original’s in a new location doesn’t mean I have to stop.” She looked our little group over. “Going by the past few days... I’m sure if I stick around you long enough, we’ll find her anyway. So figure it out, and I’ll tell you whether we’re going there or not when I get back.”

It seemed like we didn’t have a choice in the matter.

I leaned against my sister, slowly opening my eyes. “We can go back to looking for information on...” I said, trailing off and tapping the PipBuck around her foreleg. The steel of my hoof clanked against the steel of the casing.

“We have no idea where to look though,” Lost answered. “Let’s just go home.” She pushed back against me, leaning her head against my shoulder and jabbing the edges of her glasses into my neck. The bags under her eyes were back, and she looked just as tired as she sounded.

“If I may offer a suggestion to the cause,” interjected Lamington, his voice still peppered with static. “I recommend we travel toward the Ministry hubs in the center of the city. Assuming the Ministry of Wartime Technology building is still intact, my family could reappropriate the location into a forward base. It would offer us a more central location to assist as many ponies as necessary. Otherwise, as the current situation with the ‘army’ I was asked to assist in defending against is null, I would need to return to the Stables to continue my leadership duties there.”

The Cinch... It was a good idea. Several times it’d been brought up, in conversations with Rose and others. The Ministry presence in Blackhoof... There’d be information there about the ponies from before the end of the world, and every time we passed by it seemed like it was incredibly fortified, which meant we could call it a new home; a safe home, if nopony else was still there.

With Steel Rangers and Rose, who knew the place already, at our side... there were lots of possibilities open to us. We could get in, take over, and I’d have access to learning about the world I wished I’d been born in instead of this one. Plus, there would be a Ministry of Peace building and they might have stuff I could use to get my legs fixed.

Rose would probably show up any second and demand we go there anyway.

“I agree with Lamington,” I announced.

“Of course you do,” teased Lost, the barest of smirks appearing on her muzzle.

“No, I mean it. It’s the perfect place for treasure hunting,” I muttered, rubbing my hooves together greedily. “We can find out a bunch of information about the Ministries, because I know it’s been brought up enough that I want to know more. And they’ll probably have plenty of good, most likely safely secured treasure. We can see if Rough Night ever made it back.” I nudged Lost with my elbow. “Remember him? He mentioned his queen, or whatever, being there?”

Fine Tune perked up, his eyes going wide. In an instant, the sickly green fires enveloped him and he transformed into the blue coated stallion form he normally used. “Queen?” he asked enthusiastically. “What kind of Queen? Like the bad one at U Cig? A changeling Queen?” He dove forward, sliding on his belly, and grabbed onto Lost’s forelegs. “Can we go? Please? Please!” he begged. “If it’s another changeling hive, maybe we can save my hive from the slavers and join both together?” He looked so hopeful, staring up at Lost with his eyes so big and blue.

“I’m fairly certain he wasn’t a changeling,” answered Lost, looking down at him and wrenching her hooves away. She patted the stallion on the head a few times, smiling weakly. “Maybe. But I wouldn’t get your hopes up. He was just a very... Rough pony.” She cleared her throat.

“Still, Rose said she wanted to take me there anyway,” I continued. Sitting back on my haunches, I lifted my forelegs. They weren’t aching, but that didn’t mean they wouldn’t start again the minute we needed them to work right. “She wants to examine my legs there.”

“What happened to your legs?” asked the Star Paladin.

“Nothing, they’re fine,” I snapped, a little ruder than I should have been. Dropping my forelegs down, I leaned over them, as if I could hide them with just my body.

For a long moment, Lamington stared at me. Whatever he was thinking, it was well hidden behind his expressionless armor. Finally, the armor tilted slightly. “Understood,” he said curtly. “A proper examination of Tim Tam would be appreciated as well.” He hooked an armored forehoof around the freckled stallion and pulled him close.

The stallion looked better, but still seemed a little dazed and confused by everything. Rather than join in the conversation, he just sat next to Lamington and breathed deeply. Ever so often he’d look around, still seemingly out of focus, as if he were watching something on the empty horizon behind us.

“Alright, fine,” Lost relented finally. “It’ll take care of a lot of what we need done.” She frowned and leaned away from me. Standing, she muttered something under her breath that sounded a lot like ‘away from the Stables’ as she dusted herself off with a forehoof and her tail. “We’ll spend the time to clear our heads of the mess that this whole situation became, and afterward... we go back home and pretend none of this happened. Deal?”

I didn’t want to agree, because we didn’t know what would happen. I just looked back and forth between her and Fine Tune, and Lamington and Tim Tam. If we went back home, would we be isolating ourselves from everypony again?

I didn’t want to leave my friends, even the annoying ones. And then how would we tell Praline so she could tell Xeno when she came back? That bridge would be there, we could cross it in the future. Given how often things didn’t go the way we intended so far, the chances of us not being able to go home whenever we finished our business with The Cinch were high.

“Deal.”

“Deal what?” asked Rose, as she emerged from the doorway with a brand new set of saddlebags that bulged with supplies she’d collected inside the house. “You know I’m going to veto something if it’s a stupid idea.”

“You don’t really have to go anywhere with us anymore, you know,” answered Lost. “Don’t you need to find your progenitor?”

“What? No. Fuck her,” Rose answered, scoffing. “As long as the fat bitch is alive, and she is because I’m still here, then who the fuck cares. I already told you; I’ll end up finding her with you all eventually anyway.” She scrunched up her face, as if offended, but then looked at me. “You’re the only friends I have right now. Everypony else is either dead, a friend from a previous life that knew the original Rose and not me, or... let’s just say having a working life where you expect to just poof out of existence at any time? It doesn’t lend to making friends.”

“For shame,” chided Lamington. “Friendship is one of the truest values we have as ponies. It is the cornerstone of what our society was in it’s golden period. You should always make time for friends, even if you see none available.”

“You’re so smart,” muttered Tim Tam absently.

“When you live to be over a hundred, you stop getting close to ponies because you’re just going to outlive them,” said Rose, with only the barest hints of remorse in her voice. “It doesn’t help that most ponies have trouble telling me from my alternate versions.” She looked down at Fine Tune, who was still lying on his belly with his hooves out and giving the saddest eyes I’d ever seen at my sister. “What’s his problem?”

“He wants to go to The Cinch,” I answered. “And so do I, and so does Lamington. And if memory serves, so do you?”

“Yes. I want to go get my field armor from my locker in the M.O.P. building,” Rose answered. “Plus, we need to examine you. That’s not something you’re going to get out of.”

I took a step back, offended. “Hey! I was the one who wanted to go there in the first place,” I explained. Placing a steel hoof over my heart, I mock-pouted. “I’m hurt that you would think I’d try and duck out of proper medical care.”

Lost rolled her eyes.

“You- you’re not going to cut me open though, are you?” I asked, shrinking back and dropping my hoof to the shattered asphalt.

“Not unless I absolutely have to,” she answered, deadpan. “Fuck it, let’s go see if we can salvage the motorwagon or not. You any good with repairs?” She stared up at Lamington.

“Negative,” he answered. “My training lies in advanced tactics and deployment, with a specialty in heavy weapons.” He leaned down, to our level. “I’m the only one strong enough to carry them all, even in power armor.” Raising his head back to full height, he shifted his hooves together, clanging the steel of all four. “Additional training in conflict resolution and troop management was given. If you’re looking for repair, modification, or adornment of anything electronic or mechanical, I recommend you look to my second eldest sister, Knight Praline.”

“Did you really have to say all that when a simple ‘no, but Praline would know’ would have worked instead?” I asked, my infatuation with him dampened slightly by the chest-puffing nature of his explanation. Sighing, I turned on a hoof and started back the way we came. Or at least, the way I thought we came. Partially it was done to hide my smile, I just wanted to tease the big stallion.

“Right...” Rose muttered. “Anypony have any business to attend to before we leave?”

“I should see Nip Chaser before we go,” answered Lost.

Fine Tune hopped up onto his hooves, as if lifted by invisible wings. He landed and smiled, answering, “I’d like to-”

“I’d like a nap,” interrupted Tim Tam drowsily.

“No!” shouted Rose, staring at the orange-maned earth pony. “You need to stay awake, just in case. Getting thrown down a road is a sure way to hurt yourself, and you’ve been showing clear signs of a concussion since we started. No. Sleeping.”

“Medical books disproved the link between concussions and comas before the War destroyed the world,” said Lamington, his voice flat and level, but with just enough of an edge to it that hopefully Rose would pick up that he meant for her to calm down.

“Oh, bullshit. I worked with Fluttershy in the M.O.P. for the entirety of the War,” Rose snapped. “If anypony knew-”

Lamington raised a hoof, silencing her without having to say a word. “Though she was a fine mare indeed, and her Ministry’s work is worthy of much praise,” he said calmly, “Her focus was on reintegration of military veterans and the magic of healing life-threatening wounds earned on the battlefield.”

“Look, I was there, I know what-”

“Regardless,” Lamington interrupted, shaking his head. “He is wounded, and you shouldn’t be snapping at him.”

“He’s right,” Lost agreed. “You can say the same thing without getting mad.”

That seemed to cow Rose somewhat. She hung her head and closed her eyes. “Of course,” she muttered. “Kindness is the most important thing. I’m sorry, I’ve just got a lot on my mind and all the frustration.... I forgot that.”

Trotting over to Rose, I wrapped my forehooves around her and squeezed. “We’re all a little on edge,” I said as I hugged her. “Kindness was the first thing you told me about, we all know you’re a kind pony when you’re not so flustered.”

“Thank you,” she whispered.

“What are friends for?”

She pushed me away and walked past, that little air of importance back. “Go see the bartender mare, and meet us at the motorwagon. We’ll salvage what we can,” she said to my sister as she walked off.

I shared a look at the others. Rose was a... strange mare.

Still, we all followed after her, our strange little group all together. If only we had one strange zebra to finish off our ranks.

* * *

“Unfortunately,” muttered Lamington hesitantly, “My skills in diagnosing and repairing mechanical malfunctions is nowhere near as practiced as my sister’s.” He pushed against the wheel of the motorwagon, still lodged into the wall of the house Rebar had thrown it into, and sent it spinning. “Still, I believe even my observational skills are astute enough to say, beyond the shadow of a doubt, that this motorwagon will not be taking us to the Ministry buildings.”

He was right. It didn’t take a mechanical genius to see that the motorwagon was beyond repair. Even after what we- they’d done to fix it to get us back across the mountain, this was just too much. One of the wheels was cracked completely in half, with the spokes shattered and the actual ‘wheel’ part missing about a third of its... wheel. The deck was snapped in several places, and probably wouldn’t support our entire party’s weight anymore, let alone just Lamington’s.

Worst though, was the engine. Some sort of dark gooey liquid leaked at a steady pace from the bottom of the housing. The outside casing was riddled with cracks, to the point where I could see inside. Somehow, it felt like looking inside the steel hoof when Praline was working on it the last time... All dented parts and mangled metal. Like...

I shuddered.

Like that dream I’d had, right after Zorana had claimed I’d be a monster of steel and flesh. Those twisted metal parts... But these? These looked beyond repair, as if somepony had taken a hammer and smashed gears together to merge them into one. They’d probably never work again, unless somepony l