• Published 12th Jul 2012
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Fallout Equestria - The Code of Honor - FireStorm2247



After losing her stable, a surface-born pegasus, Nova, fights alongside her fellow survivors to make a new life in the Equestrian southeast.

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Chapter 9: Blue Fire's Torch

Author's Notes: PLEASE read the comment I have posted in the comments box for this chapter before reading chapter 9. It will give important information about the chapter.

Chapter 9: Blue Fire’s Torch

“Carry it proudly.”

The breeze rustled my mane, gently brushing my coat as it passed over me from my room’s open window. Even without opening my eyes, I could tell that the southern wind was blowing stronger outside, and the cool air that resulted from the increased wind speed further eased my body as I slowly allowed myself to stir from my slumber. Sleep hadn’t been hard to acquire after yesterday’s battle for Hopeville, and both myself and my brother had found ourselves falling into our dreams even before the blanket of night had covered the town. As if by some ironic happenstance, my sleep was rewarded with the company of a pleasant memory that had made my only dream that night. It was a brief recollection of my early Stable years, back when I was still a young filly and before Blake was even born. I had dreamt of, and felt as if I had practically relived, a time when my parents had brought me to the Stable’s apple orchard. Of course, they had taken me there several times, mostly to let me fly laps around the chamber and run between the verdant apple trees. But this time was a bit different than the others, as my dream had encompassed a day when mother had been several months pregnant with Blake. In my dream, I had been running through one of the trails in the orchard, laughing and giggling and screaming like the little filly I was as my father chased after me, assuming the role of the ever-so-frightening tickle-monster; oh how weak I was when facing down that sinister being. Not surprisingly, dad caught me rather quickly and gave me a thorough tickle-torture, and my mother had only watched with a loving smile as I laughed uncontrollably, occasionally trying to call her for help. The pleasant dream had ended all too soon when my father, in his mercy, had finally allowed me to catch my breath, instead giving me an affectionate embrace to tell me how much he loved me. Even if the whole thing was just a brief memory, it was something that I had no problem sleeping to, especially after the great victory that Hopeville had won the day before.

Feeling rather well rested, despite the nostalgia in my heart left behind from my dream, I gave a yawn and took in the sight of my room. It was a completely empty space, having gone through the same cleaning process as every other room in every other building in Hopeville; every ounce of old world junk had been thrown out for scrap to make way for future developments. The only items now taking space inside were my battle rifle which Hallion had returned to me during the evening, my battle saddle and saddlebags that I had gratefully removed after the fight, and Blake’s gear which had been emptied of its spare food and water. My baby brother was asleep under my right wing, gliding through his own dreams as he gave a slight twitch every few seconds. It was hard not to admire the young colt, bearing a light smile as he dreamt good dreams, sleeping in peace; the wasteland couldn’t touch him in those dreams. He always looked like this when he slept, and despite the countless times he had protested against going to bed on time to mother and father, his face always made it seem like sleep was his favorite thing to do. Maybe it was because he knew that he’d be able to play in the orchard again once he woke up. Oh yes, it had been a repeating cycle for him in the Stable: wake up, eat breakfast, play, go to school for two hours, eat lunch, play some more, browse through the Hall of Records or do homework with mom and dad, eat dinner, play just a little more, go to sleep, start over. That was the perfect lifestyle for growing colts and fillies in Stable 181, and Goddesses did I miss those days sometimes. Of course, growing up meant leaving some of that behind. There was still school, there was still the Hall of Records, there was still food, but the playtime had less and less room in the schedule. It was all part of the joys of growing into an adult, and though I didn’t mind it after a couple of father-and-mother-to-daughter family talks, my old childhood self had fought back with a passion.

“What do you want to be when you grow up?” mother had asked with that same loving smile.

“I don’t want to grow up!” the younger me had protested. Yeah, I actually said that, but who hadn’t said that when they were kids?

I couldn’t help but giggle at the memory, but I quickly hushed myself as Blake shifted under my wing, a reminder that a certain growing young colt was still sleeping; alright, enough reminiscing for now. I smiled again as he resumed his slumber, and I leaned over to give him a gentle kiss on the cheek before carefully rising and stepping away to stretch. Stretching, of course, was the best way to remember my aching muscles and tired wings, all of which were still recovering from Proudspire and yesterday’s battle. However, my tense muscles weren’t enough to hold back my eagerness for a certain part of the day to come. This afternoon was going to be a time free of work for me. This was a promise I had made myself the previous night (and had also received permission for from Captain Saber), wanting only to spend quality family time with Blake. At my pledge, my baby brother had brightened tremendously, and before we had fallen to sleep, he had discussed in depth what he had wanted to do during the afternoon. His top priority was to give Melody the ball we had purchased in Proudspire, and he wanted me to be there when he presented it; he had warned of the consequences of my absence… something about the world exploding twice if I wasn’t there to watch him. After he presented his gift, he declared that he would let Melody pick a game to play, whether it be tag, kickball, hide and seek, or simply just drawing in the dirt. It was his hope that another game, or several games, of kickball with Melody and their other foalhood friends would be part of the day’s activities; it was something that he missed terribly after our first game in Hopeville’s courtyard, and I couldn’t blame him. And finally, he wanted to have a family dinner, just me and him. After our past seven days in the Equestrian wasteland, a couple hours of family time was the least that I could do for him.

With a light sigh, I turned and left the room, leaving Blake to his rest. I quietly passed through the hallway of the building’s second floor, careful not to wake up the others who were sleeping in the other rooms, and descending a short flight of stairs to the first floor of the house, I passed through the entrance and emerged into Hopeville’s eastern street. The pale and gentle light that illuminated the town through the thick cloud cover showed that it was still very early in the morning, the concealed rising sun not yet high enough in the sky to bring the full light of another day in the wasteland. Outside, without walls to block it, the slightly stronger breeze felt very refreshing and cool to the touch against my body. Unfortunately, the rather peaceful morning was tainted by the bodies of the slain raiders which littered the northern street and the courtyard, a rather demoralizing scene of absolute carnage. Even though it was the bodies of our enemies that were left outside to rot, the sight was still rather disheartening to behold. There were at least one hundred corpses outside, all of which were filled with bullet holes, blasted apart, and laying atop their own spatters of dark and dried red which mixed with the blackened dirt and the cracked concrete streets. Because of our own casualties, no effort had been made to clean the town the previous day, as those who had emerged unharmed from the battle were required to focus all of their strength on helping the many wounded allies that now rested within the City Hall. I had not stayed outside long enough to see just how many of our own had been incapacitated, but I had watched Gracie and her assistants as they were given full command of the City Hall. The entire structure was one big clinic now, and it had been because of Gracie’s orders that Blake and I had relocated to the third building along the eastern street to sleep. Now, the work that had been put off yesterday would have to be done today, and I wasn’t looking forward to scavenging for ammo and supplies from the corpses at sunrise; that was my next assignment from the captain. Aside from this, however, there was the burying of the dead to take into account. While I didn’t know exactly how many of our own had died during that fight, I knew that there were plenty of casualties, and I knew that nopony was going to be looking forward to saying their final goodbyes to their fallen loved ones. It was bitterly unfortunate that this was what came before my family time, and I knew that the mark left on Hopeville from yesterday wouldn’t go away so quickly. But at the very least, despite this confliction, this was a day in which I could still make up for lost time with my brother, uphold my promise to Melody, and relax myself a little, all at the same time; honor the dead, help those who’ve suffered, move on as best as possible.

I looked away from the sight of the battle’s leftovers, keeping myself from getting too downcast. Despite the grizzly mess, the occasional guard was making his or her patrol run around the town perimeter, walking slowly along the streets and outside of the buildings. As my eyes passed over the City Hall, I could also see a pair of earth pony mares outside the building’s entrance, talking together to enjoy the morning as best as they could. Farther beyond the City Hall, a trio of ponies were walking out beyond Hopeville’s west side, likewise taking in the morning air. But as I began to walk to try and take my mind off of certain things, I caught a glimpse of something out near the entrance of the town - a single unicorn sitting alone near Hopeville’s old stone welcome sign. At this distance I couldn’t tell who the pony was, but as I continued walking, my curiosity getting the better of me, I saw with surprise that it was Gunny. He had completely stripped himself of armor and weapons, not even wearing his Stable barding which he had normally worn when off duty, and as I approached, I noticed that his ears were flattened, his head lowered slightly so that his eyes met the ground. This was a rather troubling change from his usually strong and confident image, and his dejected body language was enough of an indicator to tell me that he was upset; something was on his mind.

“Gunny?” I asked, stopping in mid-stride as I looked at him concernedly.

The stallion’s ears perked up at his name, and he cast a quick glance at me before facing forward again. “Morning, Nova.” he greeted calmly, shifting his forehooves.

“Hey.” I replied back, trotting up beside him but still looking at him, waiting for eye contact. “Are you alright?” I asked. “You looked a little… troubled… when I saw you.”

He looked back at me before a smile slowly formed on his face; it looked forced. “No I’m… just tired is all.”

“Are you sure?” I asked doubtfully, and at his nod, I tapped his foreleg with a hoof; I wasn’t convinced at all, and Gunny definitely wasn’t a good liar. “I think there’s something that you’re not telling me.”

Gunny’s smile instantly dropped as he turned away again, looking out at the eastern sky. “I’ve just been… thinking.”

“About what?” I inquired sensitively.

“About our time here.”

The brevity of his replies only continued to heighten my suspicion, and I gave a small frown. “Gunny, is there something upsetting you? If there is, you can tell me if you want to.”

There was a moment of silence as Gunny looked down at me again, uncertainty tugging at his features as he considered his next words. “It’s nothing that’s worth your time.” Gunny finally stated, shaking his head and looking away again. “I’ll be fine… I just need to stay in the fresh air for awhile.”

“Gunny, we’ve been friends since we were foals, and I know you well enough to know that you’re hardly ever like this.” I said gently. “It’s not hard to see that whatever you’re thinking about is bothering you. If you talk, I’ll listen.”

“I’d rather not drag you into my own affairs.” he insisted.

“You know that I wouldn’t see it like that.” I quickly countered. “Come on Gunny, I’m worried. Drop the tough stallion routine and tell me what’s going on. I want to know.”

A mix of hesitation and annoyance showed in his eyes as he looked at me. He definitely wasn’t in the mood for explaining, and I knew that feeling all too well, but that just made me all the more worried that something bad had happened that I was unaware of; with a deep sigh and a final nod, he gave in to my persistence. “I was thinking about yesterday.” he began after a breath, and I sat down on my haunches beside him to listen. “That fight was the biggest battle I’d ever been in… and I killed a lot of raiders while it all went down.” Briefly, he turned to me, as if expecting me to instantly reply. But at my silence, he continued, saying, “I don’t hold any regrets towards the lives I’ve taken. I’m a guard and I’m supposed to deal with any and all threats that might endanger the continuity of this town. It’s not part of my duty to hold doubts about my actions, and I know that the killing I’ve done was all based out of necessity. The past week’s been nothing but an effort to survive. Everypony here has worked hard and suffered greatly, doing their part to ensure our community’s survival. Like most of the others, I’ve had to do the killing part, but Hopeville needs both kinds of ponies. Ponies who work without guns, and ponies who are willing to use guns as their tools and do the downright dirty work. I know that if I hadn’t done what I’d done, if I hadn’t followed Saber’s orders and fought with the rest of my team when they needed me, even more of our friends could’ve been killed.”

After a long pause, I gave a nod. “I’ve killed… well, I refrained from counting a few days ago… but I’ve killed a lot of raiders as well, and I was, and still am, a little uncertain of myself.” I replied sympathetically. “I know that I have my reasons for it… it’s necessary in order to keep my baby brother safe and to help the captain. Plus, the raiders are the ones that were responsible for Stable one eighty-one. But despite this, killing still leaves its own little stain that never really goes away. It takes away innocence and makes a pony a slightly harder being. It’s all part of the Wasteland’s design, and I know how that feels… but that still doesn’t really clarify why you seem so downcast. If you don’t regret killing the raiders you killed, do you regret something else?” I asked carefully, trying to understand as I took in his words.

After a pause, he shook his head. “No.” he answered. “There’s nothing that’s happened over the past few days that I regret. The traveling, the fighting, the killing… no regret. But after we won against the Black Blood yesterday and all that fighting was over… I started doubting myself.”

“Doubting yourself? Why in Equestria would you doubt yourself?” I asked, raising an eye in bafflement; silence was his only reply as he shifted again. “Gunny, you’re incredibly brave and dedicated. Ever since we left the Stable, you’ve followed your duty with unshakable conviction and loyalty. You’re always ready to carry out your orders, never afraid to fight and kill for the things you love the most… I’ve see that through your actions, especially when you’ve traveled with me. You’ve fought well, you’ve stayed strong, and you’ve done so much for Hopeville through your own fortitude and strength of heart. You’ve even protected Blake before, and hell, you’ve saved my life before, and you’ve always looked out for all your friends. And to top it off, you’re still alive after a week in the wasteland. All of that has to count for something doesn’t it?”

Gunny gave a short chuckle, a sound entirely without mirth. “Maybe it does count for something,” he said bitterly. “but I don’t see the value that you see. You might think of me as somepony who’s done well as a guard… but what kind of a guard am I when I didn’t even help my own father in the Stable? What’s the value behind a victory I’ve helped to achieve if the stallion who raised me from foalhood isn’t here to share any part of it with me?”

“Y-you’re father?” I stammered, my eyes going wide. “Gunny what happened??”

My friend gave a sigh, his composure fading entirely as his ears drooped again. “He’s gone Nova…” he said sadly. “He died after we left the Stable.”

“After the… b-but I thought… how??” I asked, fumbling over my words in both shock and confusion. If Gunny’s father had died so long ago, why hadn’t I heard about it??

“He stayed in the Stable and helped to hold back the raiders while we evacuated the residents. I went out with the second group, so I didn’t stay to fight with him. That was my order… lead my assigned group out of the Stable and help establish a camp outside. While I had been doing that, he had been fighting, and he got shot up pretty bad. Another guard had to carry him to our camp when he came out with the sixth group.” he explained, shaking slightly as he recalled the memories. “I didn’t find out he had even been wounded until the camp had been fully secured… I was too caught up in my duties to ask. And I didn’t even notice him being brought back in because… after more ponies were coming in, I wanted to get back to the Stable to help the captain in the fighting…… I probably passed my dad without even recognizing him… Goddesses… what if he called my name but I never heard?…” He swallowed hard and shook his head, letting out another sigh before he found the courage to continue. “So I went back up to the Stable right when the last couple of groups were coming out. Then I saw you and heard about what had happened to your own father. At that point, between you and Saber, I wasn’t thinking about the possibility that my own father might’ve been shot… I just wanted to help you and help the captain. But then when I got back to the camp and started to help in setting things up… I saw my father laying there as he clung to life… and even though he’d been given three potions, his internal damage was still too much. I could only watch as he slowly died from punctured lungs and internal bleeding… He died about an hour after your mother did, and I buried him in the morning before we left into the wasteland…” Here he stopped, unable to continue as he shut his eyes tight, steeling himself against shedding a tear.

As I sat there, stunned in disbelief, I recalled a moment of that morning when we had been preparing for our venture into the Equestrian wasteland:

“Go find Captain Saber and get anything else you’ll need. Then pay your respects to the dead. After that, we’re moving.” Gunny had said to me.

“How many more died overnight?” I had dared to ask in response.

“Three more. Two guards, one resident. Died from their wounds, blood loss, things like that. I’m going to get back to my other duties. See you on the trail.”He had briefly explained before leaving.

The words echoed in my mind.

I hadn’t known during that time that he had been talking about his own father, and the fact that I hadn’t known about this up until now put me into a new state of misery. I felt like I should’ve known… and yet, I found myself wondering why Gunny had kept it a secret for so long. Why wouldn’t he have spoken about it before?… Why had it seemed like nopony else knew about it either? It seemed like everypony had known about the deaths of my parents… so why was this different?

I shook myself out of my thoughts to look back up at Gunny who was still struggling to recompose himself. "Why didn't you tell me sooner?" I demanded brokenheartedly, my ears gradually flattening back against my head; this made two of my friends who had lost both of their parents…

Gunny let out a breath. “Because I haven’t been letting anything get in the way of doing my job. It was my father’s last request.” he explained. “He told me that I had to put my grief aside and stay focused on my mission, which was to help Captain Saber move the survivors away from the Stable and keep them safe… so that’s what I did. When Saber gave an order, I executed it. It didn’t matter if it was just patrolling the streets or cleaning up the buildings or traveling with you. Whenever he gave me an assignment, I did it with no questions asked.” He paused again, stamping a hoof into the ground as he hovered on the verge of tears; he wasn’t winning his fight to keep himself from crying. “Everything I’ve been doing… every order, from Hopeville to Proudspire and back… I’ve been doing it in honor of my father and everything that he died for. But now that we’ve won Hopeville and secured a future for our survivors… I guess my grieving has finally caught up to me from being bottled up and held back for so long.”

“Gunny… I’m so sorry.”

“There’s no need for you to be sorry.” he insisted despondently. “You’ve already been through this twice. You don’t need to share my grief too.” I shook my head in refusal; there was no way I was going to leave my friend like this.

Rising back up, I stepped around in front of him to face him directly. When he looked me in the eyes again, I caught sight of a single tear as it trailed down Gunny’s face, and without further hesitation I slung my forelegs around his neck in a caring hug. Almost immediately after, I heard a catch in his throat, a final measure of resistance against the tears that were inevitably coming. “That’s not a reason for me to just walk away Gunny.” I whispered softly as I hugged him close to me, feeling my own pair of tears form in my eyes. “I’m your friend, and I’ll always have your back no matter what. If nothing else in life is assured, then this promise can be the one thing that is.” I finished, reciting our old foalhood pledge.

With one final sob, Gunny finally surrendered to his grief, and I only embraced him tighter as he wept. As I held the big stallion, gently running a hoof up and down along his neck, I silently cursed the wasteland for reminding us of its presence. The Black Blood, a scourge upon the land, had been responsible for the death of Gunny’s father, and this very moment served as a painful reminder that even after we had achieved a great victory, the wasteland and its evils were still out there. We still had a lot of work to do, and the wasteland was still all around us to challenge our progress and our faith. No matter what we would do, the wasteland would still have its own means to test us. It didn’t matter if we had been in one of the fabled heartland metropolises or in some desolate desert… the wasteland always had a way to assault our faith, and it wouldn’t let up until we broke…

“It was my fault.” My thoughts were interrupted when I heard the strained sentence coming from my mourning friend.

I hugged him even tighter, pressing my muzzle into his ash-colored mane; I felt it was only due to his size and build that I wasn’t making it a struggle for him to breath. “No Gunny. It wasn’t your fault.”

“I should’ve been there with him…” he said against his sobs.

“You were just doing your job.” I asserted gently.

“But I wasn’t fighting with him… and he died when I wasn’t there to help…” Gunny argued wretchedly, his tears gradually being replaced with only a heavy state of misery. “And after that… over fifty ponies died in the wasteland for this town we live in, and some of them still had families that were evacuated from the Stable… Why the hell did they have to die? Why couldn’t I have died in their place?… These other guards that still live… some of them still have families to look after. Some of them have foals to be with… They should’ve lived… Me? I’m just an expendable asset and have been ever since we walked into the wasteland… I shouldn’t be alive.”

“Don’t say that Gunny.” I chided, rather alarmed at his last statement; I still had all my friends, and I dreaded to think about a change in that fact. “You deserve to be alive just as much as everypony else because you’ve stayed committed to Hopeville, to the captain and to the mission, and to your friends. You’ve been nothing but honorable in your duty, and I respect you too much to let you get away with saying things like that. You’re just as important to Hopeville as all of the others.” I paused in my argument to let my words sink in, but I wouldn’t give Gunny the chance to argue back with me. “None of this is your fault.” I continued quickly, catching him before he could protest. “The guards, your father… the Black Blood are responsible for what happened to them, not you. You’re still a guard, and everypony in Hopeville needs you and your skills. I can easily testify to this because of the time we’ve spent traveling together. You’ve always been there to help me, and knowing that one of my best friends is nearby to keep an eye on me and protect me and my baby brother gives me a lot of comfort. Without you, I wouldn’t be alive right now. Your bravery and your strength of heart is what I like so much about you Gunny, and I don’t want to lose that too.”

Though I couldn’t see for certain (since I still hadn’t let him go), I was sure that Gunny wanted to argue. But gradually, the stallion begun to ease in my embrace, and after a final minute of somber silence, I heard with relief as my friend cleared his throat. Finally breaking my embrace and returning to all fours, I stepped back to look him in the eyes, a contact which he no longer hesitated to return. For a long moment we stared at one another, and at my silent staring inquiry to his wellbeing, a faint half-smile tugged at a corner of his mouth. “Thanks, Nova.”

“Anytime.” I gave a comforting smile as I sat down on my haunches beside him. Through the proceeding moments of silence, I could feel as the atmosphere begun to alleviate back into peacefulness around us. The cloud cover was slowly growing brighter as the new day approached, and as we sat together, I couldn’t help but look back at my friend. He had returned to his more calm and focused stature, looking out east as he collected his thoughts. Gunny was a brave stallion with a noble will and a strong heart, and while I knew that what he was going through wouldn’t just go away, I also had every faith in him that he would soon return to his normal self, and I would be there to help him through it. But before I could look away again, he turned and spotted me, raising a questioning eye at my still-concerned gaze. I flashed another smile, one which he partially returned, before tentatively leaning over and bumping the side of his face with my muzzle. Though perhaps I would’ve normally felt awkward for such an action, this moment was one in which I felt the gesture was necessary, just another way to show that I was there for him. Only a moment later, Gunny draped a foreleg over me and gently pulled me in against him, and as I felt his head lay over my neck, I closed my eyes to rest my head against his chest, gratefully accepting his brotherly embrace as we took in the morning together.

*** *** ***

Five rows of ten.

On a plot of land roughly a half-mile west of Hopeville, fifty graves had been dug in the earth and then refilled, each one holding the body of a fallen comrade. The graves had been dug throughout the morning by security and volunteering residents, most of whom had lost a friend or family member in yesterday’s battle. At the same time, the bodies in the streets of Hopeville had been moved away and all salvageable equipment from the corpses had been scavenged and stored within the armory. The loot had been plentiful enough to replenish roughly half of Hopeville’s ammunition supply, additionally providing the town with a whole new stockpile of weaponry. By midday, Hopeville had been fully cleared, the only traces of the battle being the three blast craters left by the balefire eggs and the trail of smoke that rose into the air from the north, where a pile of raider corpses was burning. By early afternoon, Hopeville had returned to its normally peaceful outward appearance, and at the end of the task, those who worked had pooled together in an attempt to create an accurate account of the losses of both sides. The numbers had tallied to fifty deaths on our side, and one hundred and forty on the other side; for every loss of our own, we had nearly killed three raiders. This was a grim but encouraging statistic, and with this knowledge, most of the security team had high hopes that the Black Blood wouldn’t attack again soon. According to the captain, our own casualties had remained low solely because of Gracie’s swift and expert medical care. But even then, fifty resembled one-fourth of our population, and over seventy ponies still lay incapacitated in the City Hall, unable to do anything but rest and recover; this would leave Hopeville dangerously vulnerable until they returned to better health.

I was sitting on my haunches in front of the Hopeville Graveyard, the name my pipbuck had given it on the map display; how the hay did it do that? With me, nestled up between my forelegs, was Blake who was solemnly watching the graveyard under my rather protective embrace. Seeing this burial ground, and the fifty graves that shaped it, had bucked my thoughts into motion. The previous week, and specifically the battle for Hopeville, had allowed me to realize just how fortunate I was to still have Blake with me. There were those around me who had lost friends and family both in the Stable and outside in our second home, and there were others still who had lost everypony that they had held dear. Those ponies were easily distinguished among Hopeville’s remaining residents, and their masks of calmness were nowhere near enough to hide the impacts that the tragedies had left behind; I felt terrible for them… and very slightly guilty. They were the ones who had truly lost everything, and they were the ones who had suffered even greater loss than myself. It made me wonder if they would even find Hopeville worth fighting for without their loved ones to share it with. Though I dreaded to think it, I knew that if I had lost Blake… I would’ve found it very hard not to just vanish into the wasteland and never return… or take my own life with a pull of the trigger… I promptly shivered to clear away that thought, instead lowering my head down to give my baby brother an affectionate nudge. At my gentle touch, he craned his head around to look up at me, his face shifting to a sad smile. Judging by the look in his eyes, he must’ve been thinking the same thing as me, and that only made me hug him closer.

We were a part of a line of thirty ponies consisting mostly of the remaining guards, a collection of uninjured residents, and a persistent few injured ponies who had left the minor comforts of the City Hall to see the burial site. Shore stood to my right, standing beside both his mother and his father who had also fought during the battle; I was very happy to know that their family had been left untouched by death. With them also was Gracie, having allowed herself to depart the City Hall long enough to attend this brief ceremony. However, the medical mare was leaning against Shore for support in standing, and she was watching with half-lidded eyes, looking utterly exhausted. Her usually light-red coat was darkened in places with flecks and spatters of the blood of her patients, and her pink and white mane was slightly disheveled. It wasn’t hard to tell that she had stayed up all night tending to the wounded, and she had also undoubtedly been working nonstop throughout the day.

Beyond the two of them, farther down the line, I could also see Rocky and Flare, both of the Proudspire ponies having emerged uninjured from the battle; farther away, Lucky Hallion and Marian sat together, attending from a distance. Hallion in particular had been thanked over and over again for his highly explosive intervention during the battle. I was certain that most everypony knew that ultimately, it was Hallion’s balefire egg launcher that had saved our home. Without it, the raiders would’ve undoubtedly driven us into the City Hall where the proverbial final stand would’ve taken place, costing us many more lives if not Hopeville itself. However, even though I hadn’t said my own thanks to the merchant pony yet, his generally hesitant attitude towards receiving the gratitude of others throughout the morning showed me that he didn’t take the praise too well; I had a feeling I knew why.

In front of us, placing the last of the grave markers into the dirt, was Gunny. Working together with Captain Saber and a couple others, he had crafted the grave markers out of scrap and rubble found within the old housing foundations. While they weren’t exactly beautiful and ornate, the wooden and metal crosses served their purpose, the names of the dead magically inscribed on the material so that they would never fade. I watched as my friend thrust the last cross into place, and giving a nod, he stepped away from the graveyard to join the line. As he stepped up to my left side, turning to face the graveyard with the rest of us, Captain Saber took his place, walking along the front row of graves and looking them over. Like the rest of the guards in attendance, Saber was fully outfitted with security armor and weapons, wearing all of his respective gear as a way to honor his fallen subordinates.

With a sigh, the captain came to a halt and turned to face us, bowing his head respectfully for a moment before looking among each of us. "Friends, brothers and sisters, comrades in arms." he began. “Today, we gather together to honor the names and the deeds of our fallen friends… Eight days ago, one eighty-one was lost to us, taken away through nothing more than an act of simple psychotic rage. We suffered greatly, lost everything that we had all grown up with, lost good friends and family. And yet even after their passing and the mourning that followed, we found the courage and the strength to march on into the wasteland. Why?” he asked, pausing to look all of us over once again. “Because we all had that same drive, that same instinct to stick together and help each other survive.” In front of us all, the captain stood tall, nearly at attention, and he spoke slowly and with strength. If there was any grief that he carried, which I was certain there was, it was controlled and well hidden as his voice projected with profound confidence. “We began our journey with just over two hundred ponies, all of whom wanted to find that one place in the wasteland that we could call home. We needed a home as a place to rebuild ourselves, a place that would give us the chance to survive, a place for our foals to play and learn and grow up. We needed a home to keep the teachings of our Stable alive… and that’s what we found.” Saber reared up onto his hind legs, looking over us, and several ponies, including myself, followed his gaze to the cluster of buildings that made our home. “That place, Hopeville, is what we found.” Saber continued, a thin smile forming on his face as he lowering himself down again. “It was a town that had been wiped clean twice… once during the Great War, and twice because of the invaders. Finding Hopeville was a challenge, and inhabiting it was another challenge all on its own. For four days we worked to bring that ancient town back to life, to replace its tragic history with a history of our own. Then the raiders found us again to try and finish what they started in the Stable, wanting nothing more than to take away everything that we had worked for, and that our friends had died for. And then we fought…… We fought a battle that lasted no more than thirty minutes… but in that time, that fight had become the largest battle we had ever been a part of. In that battle, we lost these fifty brave souls, now gone to the everafter… Yesterday is a day that will never be forgotten… because remember, my friends, that with this costly sacrifice came a tremendous victory, a victory that was a significant step in securing a hoofhold in the southeast. As we gather to pay our respects, let us also never forget those very souls who had paid the ultimate price for the rest of us. Their decisions required courage beyond measure, unbreakable loyalty, and undying love and respect for their home and for the ponies they lived beside all their lives.” A very quiet murmur of agreement traversed the line of those who listened to our leader’s words, and I gave a slight nod as my eyes passed over the graveyard once again. “Now,” Saber said. “as we continue to rebuild ourselves, this graveyard will remain as a memorial to our fallen comrades. It will serve as a reminder to us all of that greatest of virtues that they one and all possessed…… sacrifice. These mares and stallions lived and died for us so that we could survive, and now… we can honor them by continuing to build up what they’ve died to protect. So long as we all remain strong and true for each other, and cherish the memories of our friends, we can restore Hopeville and shape our second chance at life, just like they wanted.” At the captain’s pause, another soft round of agreeing murmurs traversed the line before the breeze gradually picked up, becoming the only sound that broke the subsequent silence.

“Before we leave here,” Saber continued after a moment. “there is something that I want to recite. It’s a poem from the Old World, one of the many documents that was saved by the Golden Fire family that built our Stable. Some of you might remember it from the Stable’s classes, or perhaps some of you may have found it on your own when going through the Hall of Records. Either way, there’s a lot of meaning behind it… and I think it’s something that we should all take heed to.” Briefly, Saber closed his eyes, taking in a breath and letting it out as we waited for him. Then with a nod, he said,

“When I come to the end of the road,
And the sun has set for me,
I want no rites in gloom-filled rooms,
Why cry for a soul set free?

Miss me a little -- but not too long,
And not with your head bowed low;
Remember the love that we once shared.
Miss me -- but let me go.

For this is a journey that we all must take,
And each must go alone.
It’s all part of the Goddesses’ plan,
A step on the road to home.

When you are lonely and sick at heart,
Go to the friends we know,
And busy your sorrows in doing good deeds.
Miss me -- but let me go.”

With a soft exhale, the captain finished and gave a dip of his head as that pre-war poem set in among us. Even though my parents had already passed, and the losses here did not as strongly affect me as it affected others, there was no holding back a pair of tears at those words. I was not the only one, and I could hear the occasional sniffle and sob from down the line of assembled ponies. There was power behind those words, power that aimed to comfort while speaking a gentle request - a request to carry on in honor of the loved ones that were lost.

As I returned my eyes forward, I saw as the captain turned to face the graves, looking them all over once again before he raised a forehoof to his head in a salute. Just after, I saw out of the corner of my eye as Gunny copied the captain’s gesture, and one by one, all the assembled guards gave their formal salute to the graves as a closing tribute to their fallen friends… our fallen friends.

The gathering ended as the guards lowered their hooves away a few seconds later, and without words, some of the crowd begun to disperse to return to Hopeville and rest, others remaining behind to pay their own more personal respects. After a moment, I rose to all fours again, Blake rising with me as the two of us joined the line of ponies. When I cast a glance back, I saw Gunny among those remaining behind at the graveyard as we departed, and I knew without asking that he needed some time alone with his thoughts. He had promised earlier in the day that he wouldn’t take long to return to his normal self (with the intent of remaining focused in his station), and that reminded me of how I had dealt with the death of my parents. I had wept, and then I had focused on my own duty to honor my mother’s final request; I had a feeling that Gunny would be handling the next few days in a very similar fashion.

“No Grace.” I turned my attention forward as I walked, and I saw Shore and Captain Saber just slightly ahead of my brother and I as they spoke to a very exhausted Gracie.

“You are much too tired at the moment.” Shore added to her, backing the captain’s opposition to whatever Gracie had said.

“But I’ve… got more work to do…” Grace spoke through a mighty yawn.

“No.” Saber restated firmly as they walked, Shore watching the exhausted medical mare closely to make sure she didn’t fall flat on her face. “I want you to go and get some rest, at least six hours. You’ve been up all night and all of today, and dozens owe you their lives. Take a break and let your assistants monitor the City Hall. Their the ones who actually went and got some sleep last night. When you wake up again, you can get back to work.”

“But…” Gracie began weakly.

“It wont do the wounded any good if you kill yourself on the job, Gracie.” I interrupted, Blake and I catching up to them.

“Don’t be absurd. Why would I do such a ridiculous thing like that?” Gracie asked, looking back at me and blinking in surprise.

“That’s not what I meant.” I huffed with a roll of my eyes and a thin smile; she was definitely tired. “My point is that I agree with Shore and Saber. You need sleep more than anything right now.”

“There’s still just so much to do…” Gracie replied, shaking her head in another effort to keep herself awake enough to walk.

“And you’ll be back at it again before you know it.” Saber insisted encouragingly. “Get some rest and then something to eat. Then get back to helping the ponies in City Hall. Those are your next orders, Gracie, and I expect you to follow them. Understood?”

After another yawn, the medical mare gave a sleepy nod. “Yes captain… see you in the morning.”

With Shore’s help, Gracie veered away from the line as we entered back into Hopeville, and the two walked down the street before disappearing into one of the buildings to rest. As the other ponies begun to disperse, most of them returning to the City Hall, Saber turned to me with a half-smile “How are you two doing?”

“We’re doing well enough.” I answered, rustling Blake’s mane with a hoof.

“We’ve honored the dead.” Blake said with a confident smile up at the captain. “I’ll never forget them and what they gave to help us, and now that we’ve paid our respects, it’s time to go see Melody. Nova and I have a present for her!” I smiled at his cheerful spirit. It seemed that even in the darkest of times, my baby brother was hardly ever discouraged; the deaths of our parents was the first time that Blake had actually cried out of sadness. Throughout his early foalhood, my baby brother was always cheerful, happy, and even dutiful as he learned and grew in the Stable. Back then underground, and now out in the wasteland, he was still growing into an honorable young stallion, just like the Stable and our parents had taught him to do.

Saber chuckled. “Indeed.” Turning to me again, he added, “Well, as promised Nova, you get the rest of the afternoon off. You two go spend some time together and enjoy the day as best you can. This evening however, I do need to see you again. I’m planning a meeting with a few others about our next steps, and I want you to be there to listen in. You know our situation, and I’ll be needing your help again. I’ll discuss the details later, so for now, you’re dismissed. Thank you for your help.” Even before the beginning of the day, I was fully aware of Hopeville’s new situation. Though we had achieved a great victory, Hopeville needed outside help now more than ever, and despite the tension that this fact implanted in my gut, I was ready for my next assignment… after I spent time with Blake; nopony could take me away from that.

I dipped my head to Saber. “Thank you captain.” With a final farewell, Saber left down the road, and when he disappeared around the corner of the City Hall, I looked down at Blake who was smiling back at me. “Shall we go get our present for Melody?” I asked, and with a happy shout, he galloped off towards our sleeping quarters across the courtyard. With a giggle, I took off after him.

Even if taking this time off was in honor of the dead, I knew that it was what the fallen would’ve wanted… what my parents would’ve wanted. Saber was right about what he had said. Those who had died had done so to give us this opportunity to continue to live life with the virtues of the pre-war years beside us, to continue to carry the teachings of Stable 181 in our hearts. I was definitely going to enjoy my time off.

And busy your sorrows in doing good deeds. Miss me -- but let me go.

*** *** ***

With the blue ball held under my hoof, I waited in the hallway outside of Melody’s room. Though I hadn’t seen Melody or her parents yet, I had been informed by one of Gracie’s assistants that while Melody’s mother and father were alive, they had both taken wounds in yesterday’s battle and were now incapacitated. Fortunately, that same assistant had assured me that both of the unicorns were fine and showing signs of a speedy recovery; it was only because of Gracie’s orders to rest that they had remained in the City Hall. Melody, of course, was unharmed, and as I listened in to her conversation with Blake, she sounded very happy, healthy, and energetic. “It’s good to see you again Blake!” she chirped joyfully from within the room.

“It’s good to see you too.” Blake replied with equal energy. “Nova’s done with her work outside, and now that the ceremony’s done, we can go outside and play. Do you want to come with us?”

“Well, I’d really like to, but… mom and dad are still in here and resting. I want to stay with them while they’re not allowed to go back outside.” Melody explained, sounding very glum.

“Melody dear,” a mare’s voice spoke. “you’re father and I are doing just fine. You should go outside and play with your friends. Enjoy the day.”

“But what about you and daddy?” Melody protested. “You’re always outside with me when I go and draw or play kickball.”

“I know dear,” her mother replied gently. “but we have to stay in here. It’s the only way we’ll feel better so that we can go back outside with you sooner.”

“We’ll be out of the clinic soon enough.” a stallion spoke up. “Once we’re better, we’ll be going outside with you everyday. For now, you should go on outside and play. Being cooped up in this little room isn’t good for a young filly. When you’re done, you can come back up here and be with us again, alright?”

After a moment of silence, Melody spoke up again. “Alright Blake, let’s go!” she said more contentedly, apparently having agreed with her parents.

“Great!” Blake replied. “But before we go, I have something I want to give you. One day, when I was with my big sister and we traveled, we found something really cool in another town. I want you to have it.” That was my cue.

With a gentle toss, the blue ball went bouncing into the room and I trotted in after it before Blake caught it and rolled it over to Melody, who followed the toy with wide eyes as it stopped at her hooves. “Blake told me about how you wanted a ball of your own, Melody.” I said to the amazed filly, smiling; I considered speechlessness to be the desired reaction. “When we were away we found this one and Blake decided that he wanted to get it for you.”

“Well, I didn’t buy it myself…” he said tentatively, scuffing a hoof across the floor and looking rather embarrassed. “I just thought that since you said you wanted one that it would be a good present. I hope you like it.”

“Remember that it was your idea to keep an eye out for one, Blake.” I reminded, not wanting his modesty to keep him from taking credit. “Gunny knew that too and he bought it so that you could fulfill your promise to your friend. And now you have.”

“Yes. It’s the thought that counts dear, and that was very sweet of you to remember.” Melody’s mother commented from her resting place, a pleased smile on her face. “Melody, what do you say to Blake?”

“Thank you so much Blake!” Melody exclaimed, recovering herself in a split second to leap over and give my baby brother a big hug. “After those two days of walking outside and not seeing anything besides our town, I didn’t think that there would be another ball out there!”

Blake’s gave a nervous cough, a slight blush forming on his cheeks as he returned the embrace. “I-I didn’t either. I call it luck that we found one.” he said with a small laugh. “But I’m glad we found it.”

“Luck or not, thanks for getting me one. I’ll always keep it close. Pinkie promise!” Melody said confidently as she released him. “Wanna go play a game of kickball now?”

“I’m ready for a game!” Blake answered with an energetic hop before looking back at me. “Ready big sister?”

“I am.” I replied with a smile. “But how about you go see if some of your other friends want to join in. The more ponies we can get into the game the better.”

“Good idea.” Melody agreed, turning to Blake before a grin quickly replaced the smile on her face. “Race you Blake. Onetwothreego!!”

Before Blake could react, Melody bolted out of the room and turned the corner, laughing at the advantage her head-start presented as she ran down the hall. “Hey! No fair, I wasn’t ready!” Blake shouted, galloping off after his mischievous friend.

I giggled and listened a moment at their diminishing hoofsteps before I heard my name. Turning, I saw Melody’s parents smiling at me, a gesture which I tentatively returned before the father said, “Thanks for coming to take Melody to play. It’ll be good for her to get out of this room and back outside. I hear that the town’s been cleaned up again.”

“Yes it has.” I answered affirmatively. “We worked all through the morning and into the afternoon to see it done. You can hardly tell the battle happened when you just look outside… but the scars that some of our ponies endure … well, that’s another story entirely.”

“Yes.” Melody’s mother agreed solemnly. “With all the ponies we lost yesterday, it will be a very difficult couple of days before Hopeville can return to normal… or as normal as possible anyway. I hope that those who suffered loss because of that fight will still be willing to help in the town’s restoration despite the aftermath… That kind of loss isn’t damage that will be repaired so easily.”

“We were both lucky that we survived that battle yesterday ourselves.” the father put in lowly. “Melody was worried sick about us when we were brought into the clinic. Between me eating a twelve-gauge magnum round at close range and my wife taking shrapnel, we were in pretty rough shape… Goddesses… I don’t want to see Melody cry like that again.”

The two parents exchanged a solemn nod. “Now we’re just hoping that we can somehow live a quieter life out here.” Melody’s mother explained. “It would ensure that we don’t have to put Melody through the fear of possibly loosing her parents again and… um… oh dear… I’m sorry, Nova.” At first I wondered why her words were finished off with an apology… wait… that’s a tear on my cheek… where’d that come from?… Not happening now.

I quickly raised a foreleg to wipe the tear away, shaking my head and giving my best smile to Melody’s parents to discourage any awkwardness. “No, no need for an apology. I understand.” I assured, gently clearing my throat. I suppose it was entirely understandable that anypony would be hesitant to bring up the topic of family in front of me or my baby brother, especially a family such as this couple I was speaking with. Their family was fully alive and intact, and Melody would be able to grow up with her parents by her side. My family… well… yeah. “I’m glad that you two are recovering quickly. Celestia knows that the foals we have left need their families with them.”

“From what we’ve heard from the ponies in the City Hall, a lot of those foals were able to reunite with mother and father alike.” the father stated with a nod. “Now we just need some outside help, just like the captain wanted before the invaders came again. That Lucky Hallion character was a hell of a helping hoof all on his own… but we still need a lot more to get Hopeville fully revived.”

“Saber’s getting ready to put some new plans in motion.” I said. “Help from the outside might come sooner than you think.”

“That’s good to hear.” Melody’s mother replied. “But I’ll feel much safer once the captain stops thinking so much.” The three of us shared a light round of laughter at that remark. It wasn’t like Captain Saber to quit thinking, especially when it was his comrades and their friends and families that needed his leadership in place of the Overmare, and over the past seven days, I felt certain that several ponies in Hopeville had come to associate a thoughtful Captain Saber to a dire situation of some unknown magnitude. To see him actually relaxing would mean that Hopeville was completely restored, safe, and fully established as a settlement of some kind in the Equestrian wastes.

“So my guess is that you’ll be heading back out into the wasteland soon?” the father asked me after a moment of silence.

“More than likely.” I answered. “If I had to take a wild guess, I’d say that I’ll be scouting around to see about finding another settlement that can lend us some kind of additional support.”

“Well, whatever you end up doing, you keep on your guard and keep being yourself.” the father said, raising a foreleg to point a hoof at me. “You’ve done a lot of good for your fellow Stable dwellers all on your own my friend. You’ve got passion and dedication, and you being you is something that this town needs to keep moving along during its recovery.”

“And don’t forget to share that dedication with any other settlement you might come across when you head out.” the mother added with a smile. “I got a chance to talk to one of those wastelander ponies from Proudspire… Rocky… I believe that was what his name was. He told me that it was because of you and your friends that he chose to come and help us after his own home had freed itself from the claws of the invaders. That’s proof enough to show that the Stable taught you well, and I feel that other settlements could benefit from a mare like you, Nova.”

There’s a special kind of beauty in you my dear, and it’s right here.

My mother’s voice quickly echoed through my memory, and I couldn’t help but raise a foreleg and place a hoof on my chest, the place she had touched when she had told me where my own ‘special kind of beauty’ resided. I smiled at those words, but I shook my head at the compliments of the two parents. “We’ve all been doing our own parts to survive in Hopeville, and I think the Stable taught all of us well. I’m not special or different.” I observed sincerely, lowering my hoof back to the floor. “When we left the Stable behind, we all knew what we had to do despite the suffering and the despair. Me… I promised that I’d help our survivors across the wastes to find a home, and I promised to keep my baby brother safe. Then Hopeville came along, and I wanted to do everything I could to get our survivors onto their hooves again. All I did was make an effort to carry out my promises, and it was a long road trying to make that happen. Between finding Hopeville and helping Proudspire, it was a hard task trying to get my faith back after the Stable. But when we won that fight, I finally fulfilled my promise… and I feel much better about our odds out here. From now on, my dedication and my allegiance will always lie with our survivors and with Hopeville. Like my friends, like every other survivor here with us, I’m going to do whatever it takes to keep Hopeville alive.”

“Perhaps you helped that other settlement to more quickly achieve your own goal of helping Hopeville, but sometimes you should offer the help freely, out of the goodness that the Stable put into you. You’re a good and honorable mare Nova, and I have a feeling that that’s not something you find often in the wasteland.” Melody’s father said with a dip of his head. “Don’t ever change.”

It wasn’t entirely false. Helping Proudspire was a way of helping Hopeville, support for support. But back then, I also had a new debt to repay to Redfield, Cross, and Proudspire itself for saving Blake and I back at that Black Blood Forward Post; my reasons for helping Proudspire were mixed between a want and a need. However, as my thought process zipped through the past couple of days, I couldn’t help but smirk at the last bit the father had said. “Haven’t you already told me not to change before?” I asked him.

“So what if I did?” he challenged playfully, his own smirk forming on his face; I couldn’t hold back a giggle.

“Thanks. I try.” I said, smiling before my ears perked up.

The sounds of multiple chattering and laughing voices coupled with several hoofsteps quickly approached us from down the hallway, and all at once, six young ponies barged into the room. Melody and Blake led their small herd, and among the four others I recognized Lucan. The little colt who I had first found as a freed prisoner from a Black Blood Raider camp was now looking much happier and healthier; he also looked to have made some friends. The other three young ponies were all ponies whom I had foalsat before. There was a yellow earth pony colt with a pitch black mane, the smallest among the six companions; his name was Flash. The other two young ponies were fillies. One of them, Juniper, was a light green unicorn with a white mane, and she was the oldest of the six. The other, Candice, was a steel-grey earth pony with a scarlet mane.

“Hi Nova!” Blake said, along with five other voices.

“Hello there my little friends.” I replied warmly. “Ready to go?”

Though I expected an energetic affirmative answer, I raised an eye as one of the little fillies stepped forward to look up at me with sad eyes. “We’re ready. We would’ve brought Chase with us but…” Candice’s high-pitched voice drifted away as she cut herself off.

“Chase’s dad didn’t come back from the fighting outside yesterday.” Flash piped up solemnly. “When we went to go find him, he wanted to stay with his mom. We left him alone.”

“He’s going to be okay, right Nova?” Juniper asked, concern written clearly in her words.

Oh dear… reassuring concerned children was definitely a delicate endeavor, and it was rather discouraging to understand that ‘a lot’ didn’t mean ‘all’ when it came to the number of foals who still had both parents left after yesterday. I took in a breath before exhaling slowly and looking among the six children. “The Stable taught us all many things.” I began. “And while it had given us the means of understanding the Elements of Harmony and how to be good ponies, it could never really prepare anypony for the wasteland. It’s a big and scary place, and yet, we all still did our best and stayed positive when we left our first home behind. We all stayed strong for each other despite the losses and the pain, and even if it was only in the smallest amount, we still had faith. That strength and that faith was what brought us to this point, carried us through seven days in Equestria. We need to hold on to that strength and that faith now more than ever, and we need to be strong and supportive for those who’ve lost friends and family. Do you all remember what the Stable taught you about things like this?”

“Be there for your friends when they need you!” Flash answered after a moment, a smile returning to his face.

“Never lose hope.” Juniper put in with a nod.

“Show that you care.” Candice answered enthusiastically.

“Believe in everypony you live with!” Melody piped up.

“Draw strength from each other.” Blake finished with a smile of his own; I was so proud.

“That’s right.” I said with a proud smile; this was definitely something that the wasteland wasn’t going to take away so easily. “Eventually, Chase will need his friends to be there with him, and when you all are there, he’ll get better in time. Right now, it’s best to stay positive and remember what those pre-war books in the Hall of Records taught you. And it’s even more important to be yourselves, to be the friends to one another that you are.” At the children’s collective nodding, I cast a glance back at Melody’s parents, both of whom were smiling at me, and at Melody’s mother’s nod, I turned back to the group of colts and fillies. “Now, who’s ready for some kickball?”

*** *** ***

“I think we’re done here.” I called out to the six little ponies around me, rising up to my hooves to gaze over the massive canvas of earthen artistry before me. Nearly an hour of scribbling and carving into the dirt with bits of wood and even our own hooves had led to the absolute beautifying of Hopeville’s south side, thereby accomplishing the goal the children had set for themselves. All along the ground, from between Hopeville’s stone welcome sign to the end of the south street, was a whole template of drawings ranging from simple stick-pony figures to more intricate drawings that included clouds, the sun and the moon, and even a couple of rather detailed drawings of various fruits and plants from the Stable’s apple orchard. Also among the canvas were other rather notable works including a very accurate drawing of Stable 181’s great gear-shaped door that took up a good chunk of dirt all on its own, several drawn out predictions of the cutie marks that each colt and filly hoped to attain when they found their special talent, and even a drawing of a line of connected squares and rectangles that formed a compacted representation of Hopeville as viewed from a far off distance. I was particularly proud of my own contributions, which included a pair of eighth-notes, an open book with a quill, a treble clef, and an attempted replica of the engraving on my mother’s pistol. While drawing roses wasn’t exactly my forte, the same goal was accomplished when it was surrounded by the outline of fire that matched my own cutie mark; I considered it a job well done.

“This is awesome!” Melody piped up happily as she bounced over to me, the rest of the children gathering around with her.

“I can’t believe I actually remembered some of those pictures from the books.” Candice commented with a laugh.

“That’s because you’re an egghead.” Flash replied playfully, to which Candice stuck out her tongue.

“Can we play one more game of kickball?” Juniper asked, poking my foreleg with a hoof. “Drawing’s fun, but it still gets a little boring after awhile.” This, as well as a soft snicker from Flash, won a frown from Melody.

Right now, it was mid-evening, and I could safely assume that we had been outside for at least four hours. While the past hour or so had been devoted entirely to decorating our cozy little town, the time between our first activity and then had consisted of several games of kickball, supplemented with six rounds of hide and seek and a lunch break. While all of this had been highly enjoyable for me and the little ones, I still found myself absolutely baffled as to where these colts and fillies found all this energy. Even little Lucan, who had first arrived to Hopeville as a total stranger, was blending in perfectly with the other children and wasn’t tiring at all. If we had still been in the Stable, I was certain that they would’ve literally been bouncing off of the walls! Me? I was beginning to run out of steam, and between the constant running, periodic flying, and occasional tripping, diving, and falling, I was absolutely covered with a fresh coat of dirt and dust. Now, I really just wanted a sho… oh no, do NOT think s-h-o-w-e-r!…… Goddesses, it’s been seven days since a nice Stable showe… NOPE, not thinking about it!

Blinking, I smiled back down at the green unicorn filly and gave a nod. “Sure Juniper.” I replied. “I don’t think Saber will be coming to fetch me for a bit yet, so we could manage another game if the rest of your friends agree.” A quick round of affirmatives went around the group of colts and fillies, and I couldn’t help but give a light laugh. “Just make sure you go easy on me. I’m really old and I’m starting to get tired.” I added, playfully sagging.

“You’re not old!” Blake protested with a grin. “Are you saying you can’t handle another game big sis?”

“M-maybe…” I whimpered, pouting and giving an exaggerated sniffle that won a collective chuckle from the group.

“Then maybe we should play something else.” Blake stated, raising a hoof to hide his mouth from me as he turned to whisper to Melody. The rather conspicuous whispering was quickly passed around to the rest of the children, accompanied by an occasional giggle before Blake faced me again. Why were they all grinning at me?

At my raised eye, Blake said, “If you don’t want to play kickball, then I know something that your oldness would fit in with.” And before I could even respond, he reached out with a hoof and jabbed me in the chest. “You’re it!!” With a collection of excited laughter and screaming, the six little ponies bolted back off into Hopeville as a group, leaving me only momentarily surprised before a smirk of my own formed over my face; oh, it was on!

I wheeled around and gave chase, spotting the group of children just before they passed by City Hall. They were heading towards the courtyard, slowly splitting up to run in different directions of ‘away from the foalsitter’. (Thankfully, the courtyard was no longer irradiated, nor was it marked with the remains of yesterday’s battle; it had also been refilled during the morning to hide the balefire egg crater there.) As I raced on into the courtyard after the children, I quickly surveyed around me to pick my target to tag, and seeing that Melody was the closest to me, I turned left and pursued. At seeing me, the giggling filly let out a cry and urged herself forward with greater speed. But even the efforts of the quick and artistic Melody were not enough to prevent the inevitable, and with a quick move of my hoof, I tapped her on the side. “You’re it, Melody!” I declared as we both skidded to a halt. Now it was my turn to run, and with a laugh, I pivoted on my rear hooves and darted away, the energetic unicorn filly hot on my tail.

With my attention having been diverted to Melody, the other five children had taken up positions at the opposite end of the courtyard, watching and waiting before eventually scattering as Melody and I approached. Because of my intentionally reduced speed, Melody was only a pony length behind me as we continued across the courtyard, but I had a plan to get her away. Nearby was Flash as he lingered just enough to get another look at Melody and I and figure out a new direction to take. But as I got close enough, Melody quickly bolted right, turning her attention to him and setting me free. I came to a stop on the eastern road, laughing as I caught my breath and watching as Melody successfully closed the distance with Flash and tagged him. After a brief halt, the two split up as Melody ran away, Flash instead turning his attention to Candice where she stood with Lucan and giving chase.

As I tracked the movement of the pony who was it, I heard little hooves trotting up to me, and I turned to see Blake approaching from down the road. “Is your oldness getting in the way of tag?” Blake asked playfully.

“Mmm… nope.” I replied with a smile, roughing up his mane with a hoof.

After a short laugh, Blake gave a smile of his own as he looked back up at me. “Thanks for doing this with me today big sis.” he said. “I was really looking forward to this.”

“Of course Blake…” I began, at first genuinely glad that I had been able to spend this time with him. However, my words cut off as he waved a hoof at me as if waving goodbye, and he took off and away back into the courtyard…… oh no…

On reflex, I looked right, and sure enough, Juniper was coming right at me with Candice in hot pursuit, and before I could get running, Juniper veered away into the courtyard as Candice continued straight for me, and her hoof bumped against my flank. “You’re it!!” the steel-grey filly cried, dashing away as I stumbled.

Blake, you little trickster!

I quickly scanned the courtyard, intent on getting my revenge, and spotted the cunning younger sibling laughing hysterically at my being tagged again. With a smirk of my own, I charged towards him, and his laughter quickly faded as he bolted away from me. He ran along the edge of the courtyard, trying to put as much space between us as possible, but I turned with him and drove forward on an intercept course. Blake quickly spotted my attempted maneuver, and he skidded to a halt before turning around and running back the way he came. However, I had no difficulty in following his effort to evade, and I continued to close the distance. Seeing that he was nearly caught, Blake once again tried to come to a complete halt and wheel around. However, his hooves didn’t find purchase on the ground, and I couldn’t help but give a light gasp as his attempt to stop sent him back and falling onto his side in the dirt. I quickly approached him, stopping by him as he got to his hooves. “Are you okay Blake?” I asked as he gave a light pair of coughs.

“I’m okay… just tripped.” he said, swiping a hoof along his chest to knock off a bit of dirt.

“Oh good.” I replied smugly, and jabbed him in the side. “Poke…… that means you’re it.”

“No it doesn’t!” Blake protested, making me stop in mid pivot.

I raised an eye, lowering myself back onto my hooves to look back down at my frowning baby brother. “What do you mean it doesn’t mean that you’re it?” I asked, genuinely confused as I poked him again.

“It means something else.” Blake stated, rather matter-of-factly… okay, what do you have planned this time?

“Then what does it mean?” I asked, still rather baffled.

“It means… PONY-PILE!!” Blake cried in response, suddenly springing up and leaping upon my back. I was completely caught off guard, the weight behind his leap forcing me to stumble, and with a cry of surprise, I toppled down to the ground with Blake falling down over my left side. And the onslaught didn’t stop there.

Just as I regained my senses, making to grab Blake and give him a thorough tickling for his latest trick, I heard the voices of the others as they rapidly approached. “GET HER!” I could only turn just in time to see Blake’s comrades stampeding towards me, and then they were all leaping upon me as they took up Blake’s cry.

“AH! Hey, that’s not fair! Pick on somepony your own size!” I shouted in protest, trying to speak solidly through my own laughter as much as theirs as they surrounded me, wrestling to keep me down on the ground as I struggled to free myself. But six of them, all fighting against my limbs and my wings, against one of me was as disadvantageous as it got, and despite my gentle shoves and my batting away their hooves I quickly found myself being overwhelmed by the children’s pony-pile; it was time for the emergency plan!

Freeing a foreleg from the grip of Candice, I reached up and thrust it over my chest. “Oh! I am defeated!!” I cried, coughing dramatically as the children’s laughter rose with their inevitable victory at hoof. “Attacking children…… my one weakness!…… I should have foreseen this!…… I don’t think… I can… go on…” My fading voice sealed their success, and to finish the act, I let out a long gasp, eyes going wide as my head fell back onto the dirt. And then, with a final exhale, I closed my eyes and went still.

Silence followed my demise, the colts and fillies seeming to not know what to do with their glorious triumph over their foalsitter. It was all I could do not to smirk before Juniper broke the silence. “Nova?” she asked, pushing against my belly from where she stood off to my right.

“Is she dead?” I heard Melody pipe up, likewise carefully jabbing me.

“Big sis…” I heard Blake speak up, nearly right over my face as his forehooves pushed against my chest. “You’re not dead!” he insisted confidently, catching on to my own little scheme; now was the time to act.

In one move, my eyes came open and I snapped my head up off the ground, staring Blake right in the eyes as I answered, “No!” All of the children jumped back with cries of shock, Blake giving the best reaction of all as he jolted back and fell on his rump before I took up my own laugh. Despite having exacted my revenge, the six young ponies joined in my laughing, bringing our latest adventure to a close.

“I guess one would consider that a draw.” a voice observed from nearby, and I leaned my head back against the ground to see an upside-down Captain Saber, garbed in simple Stable barding and wearing a smirk as he observed our shenanigans.

“Hey captain.” I greeted after a giggle.

“I say we still won!” Flash declared boldly, puffing out his chest to the captain.

“Yeah!” Melody wholeheartedly agreed. “We pulled off a perfect pony-pile!”

“And she never saw it coming.” Candice added proudly.

“Just remember whose idea it was.” Blake replied, grinning back at me.

“Yeah, yeah, brag it up.” I snorted with a playful roll of my eyes.

The captain chuckled at the younglings’ enthusiasm. “Did you all have a good time then?” he asked as the children finally let me up to my hooves.

“You bet!” Juniper answered for her friends. “Nova’s the best foalsitter!”

“Aww, you’re making me blush.” I said, honestly feeling a slight rising of warmth in my face.

“I’m glad to hear that Nova still has her touch.” Saber replied with a thin smile before looking back at me, giving a slight nod.

“Is it about that time?” I asked as I rustled my wings to remove a layer of dust.

“Yes.” Saber answered. “I’ve already collected up the other ponies I need to see for that meeting. They’re waiting in the armory whenever you’re ready. Sorry I’ve got to drag you away from the younglings…”

“It’s alright captain.” I reassured with a smile, turning to look back down at the six young ponies. “Alright my little friends. Go on back into the City Hall and get cleaned up. I’m sure your parents will be wanting to hear all about your adventures today.”

“Thanks for playing with us Nova.” Melody said, trotting up to give my foreleg a hug. “It was a lot of fun!”

“You’re certainly welcome. I had a lot of fun too.” I happily replied, patting her back before she released me, and after a quick embrace from Juniper, Candice, and Flash, the four of them trotted off together back towards the City Hall, leaving me with Blake and Lucan.

“Um… Nova… what should I do?” I heard little Lucan ask next to me, and I looked back down to see a pair of uncertain eyes staring up at me.

“Oh…” I began, mentally cursing myself for forgetting that Lucan was, despite how he had been befriended by Hopeville’s colts and fillies, a newcomer who was still getting acquainted with life in Hopeville. I couldn’t take him with me to the coming assembly of Hopeville’s leaders… but I couldn’t leave him alone either… oh, there’s an idea! “Would you like to stay with Blake while I’m gone?” I offered gently.

“Yeah.” Blake piped up enthusiastically, turning to the light brown colt. “I saw Melody’s ball at the other end of the courtyard. We can get it and bring it back to her while Nova’s at her meeting.” Lucan gave a smile and a nod at the offer, looking quite grateful for the company.

“This meeting shouldn’t take too long.” I assured the two colts. “When I’m done, we can get something for dinner from the City Hall storage. Sound good?”

“Sounds awesome.” Blake replied with a smile, and giving me a parting nuzzle, he turned and left down the courtyard with Lucan following after him.

After watching the two colts approach Melody’s ball, I turned back to the captain and gave a nod. “Alright, I’m ready.”

“Follow me.” Together, we trotted back across the courtyard towards the armory, and as I fell in beside him, I heard a chuckle from the officer. “It’s a shame you don’t like foals.” Saber said.

“Ugh… don’t get me started.” I replied with mock disgust. “I don’t even know how I put up with them all that time as the Stable foalsitter.”

“Ha ha.” the captain retorted, rolling his eyes at my sarcasm. “But really,” he added, turning to smile at me. “thanks for doing that today. I could tell that it meant a lot to them.”

“Of course captain.” I responded cheerily. “It was good for them to relive some of their Stable activities as a group, and I was grateful for the opportunity to enjoy myself a bit. It’s a shame about Chase though.” I finished softly.

“His father died yesterday out in the foxholes. He killed four of the bad guys and took a couple of hits before he died from a headshot…” Saber explained lowly. “He was a good guard… good friend. The past two days hit his wife and son pretty hard.”

“I know what it’s like.” I replied sympathetically. “I hope for the best for Chase and his mother, and while I know there’s not a lot of comfort that can be found from kind words and thoughts, they still have each other and their friends. It’s all just so difficult…”

“The past two days have been the most difficult of our time out here in Equestria. They’ve been hard on everypony we have left… but it’s my hope that we’ll be turning our fortunes around soon.” Saber explained, facing forward again as we approached the stone steps leading into the armory. “I’m going to do my damned best to give these ponies the lives they deserve, and not this constant pain and loss. Hopefully, these next steps will lead to the achieving of that goal.” With a nod, Saber stood aside and let me inside first, and when I stepped into the armory, I saw an assembly of eleven ponies sitting in a ring around the main room of the building. Among them was Gunny, wearing a suit of Stable-issued barding and looking down at the floor as he waited for the meeting to begin. Sitting at his right was Shore, likewise silent as he adjusted his reading glasses with a hoof. Sitting beside Shore was Gracie, looking slightly more awake than she had been during the early afternoon. Also among the collection of ponies was Lucky Hallion and Marian, sitting together and whispering back and forth in conversation. Rocky and Flare were both present as well, wearing all of their equipment and likewise sitting together. The other four ponies in the ring included Saber’s four remaining security sergeants, three stallions and one mare, all in their security armor and wearing their Pipbucks.

Upon the captain’s arrival, his subordinates rose to all fours, and the captain nodding a greeting before saying, “Alright. Now that everypony’s here, we can get this meeting underway. There’s a lot to discuss, and I want to be able to put the next assignments into action as soon as tomorrow morning. Please sit.” At the captain’s nod, I trotted into the ring and took a seat between Gunny and Marian, exchanging a silent greeting with them. In front of me, the captain sat between his sergeants, and after a moment of silence, the captain looked among us. “My friends, I’m sure you’re all aware of our situation. To put it in one word, Hopeville is vulnerable. Despite how many invaders we killed off yesterday, they left their marks. It’s to the point now where everypony aside from the foals is going to have to carry a weapon in order to maintain the same level of security as before the fight. As a result, we’ll be training everypony in the use of firearms starting tomorrow. Aside from this, we’re not fairing well in terms of supply. This situation is where my first plans come into play.” Pausing, Saber swung his gaze over to Grace. “Before I explain what I want to do, I’d like Gracie to bring you all up to speed on her own state of affairs.”

Gently clearing her throat, Gracie gave a nod. “Yesterday’s battle left approximately seventy-seven ponies with wounds, most of them severe.” she explained, focusing through her own fatigue. “Over last night and throughout the day today, my assistants and I have managed to get most of them fully healed and on the road to recovery. As a result, however, I’m almost completely out of all of my medical supplies that I managed to save from the Stable. I’ve only got a small remainder of healing potions, antibiotics, pain-killers, healing bandages, etcetera. Even with yesterday’s victory, there’s always the chance for another attack, and if what happened yesterday happens again within the next couple of days, it will be much harder for me to properly care for other wounded ponies who return to the clinic.”

“And you need pretty much everything, correct?” the mare sergeant asked.

“Yes. Still, my priority aside from healing potions would be Rad-Away and Rad-X. Back in the Stable, we didn’t have much of that, and I didn’t have enough time to save the supply from my clinic due to more immediate needs. Out here, we need to have a large supply of it. After another month or so, the radiation that everypony is taking in because of our food supply under City Hall is going to add up. I don’t know if there’s the chance of getting fresh food out here, and if not, then we’ll need to have a ready supply available at all times. The last thing any of us need is a case of radiation poisoning.”

Saber nodded at her explanation. “This situation is my top priority to remedy, and it needs to be done quick.” he said before turning to Lucky Hallion. “Hallion, I believe you’ve come up with a possible solution for this. You’ve already shared it with me, but would you please debrief the others on it?”

“Of course.” Hallion responded, looking among the rest of us. “Tomorrow morning, I’m planning on leaving Hopeville and heading back to my safe-house in the region to prepare for a caravan run. I’ve recently finished putting together a weapons and ammo shipment that I’m going to take to the settlement of Challenger. I know that Nova’s already shown to you all that Challenger exists, but I’ll explain a bit more about it so you’ll know what your dealing with… if you have the time.” At Saber’s affirmative nod, Hallion continued, saying, “Challenger, in its own right, is a modern city. It started out as a small settlement made entirely by ponies who came down from the Equestrian heartland cities and another region of Equestria known as the Hoof. Old World metropolises like Hoofington, Manehattan, and Fillydelphia have hundreds, if not thousands, of ponies living within. So understandably, it was hardly a surprise when a few of them chose to set out and settle a new area between twenty and fifty years ago. Challenger was one such settlement that resulted from these expeditions, and as its name became more widely known, more and more ponies came from the northwest to live within its walls. As the population rose, so did the size of the settlement. Larger buildings were constructed from scavenged sheet metal, steel, and newly shaped concrete. Supplies that were once harder to carry back over a long distance were more easily cultivated and secured. And to top it off, Challenger quickly became the largest settlement in the southeast. It continued to grow and prosper for many years, and after a time, it begun to search for other villages and tribes. Scouting parties were sent out to find any other community that might’ve been built in the hopes that a network of communication and trade could be established over the region. Over the course of a year or so, the settlements of the present-day southeast were founded. Challenger’s ponies discovered Plainwell first, an old pre-war town that was settled by a different group of heartland dwellers. Afterwards, they found Proudspire and Hopeville, likewise settled by ponies who originated from the northwest. And finally, Challenger occupied a third pre-war town, Ashton, for themselves. When these locations were all marked out on modern maps, Challenger begun to give aid to the smaller settlements. It begun sending caravans up to the heartland and the Hoof to trade and to scavenge, and through Challenger’s connections in the northwest, they always gathered enough supplies and equipment to stock other settlements with the essentials to live, including food, medicine, water, guns and ammo. They’ve been doing this for years now, and they’ve never had trouble in getting other settlements what they need to survive. That, of course, was up until the Black Blood showed up. Even now, they don’t know where they came from, how they’re so organized, or even how they’re so large in numbers. But Challenger and Ashton have been at war with them for just over a month now. They’ve had to divert their focus from supplying settlements to this rising conflict, and though they still try, they’re job isn’t being made easy with the raiders always on their doorstep.”

“That’s an interesting history that Challenger has.” Shore commented.

“Indeed.” Hallion replied with a thin smile. “It’s amazing that so much of it is peaceful. Back in the heartland, there was always the chance of meeting up with raiders or gangs or mutated creatures. And don’t get me started on Hoofington. That place was and still is a mess-and-a-half. But when Challenger was first getting set up, there were only a hoof-full of fights with raiders and junkies harassing caravans… other than that, it was a pretty quiet lifestyle that was set up here… Anyways, what I’m saying about your supply situation is that Challenger is your best bet. Challenger today is very large, very strong, and very secure. It’s inhabited by about four thousand ponies now, and it’s also the closest resemblance to a pre-war government that you’ll find… probably anywhere.. One pony leads the city, a unicorn mare named Radiant Gem who’s the president of the settlement. She didn’t want to use the title ’Princess’ for a reason. Her second in command is the General, an earth pony mare by the name of Silverlight. She may be a smaller mare, but she’s tough as nails and loyal to Challenger and the southeast. If she’s not out in the battlefield, then she’ll be the one that you’ll want to talk to. I know that once you explain your situation to either her or the president, they’ll try and resupply you as best as they can.”

“Thank you, Hallion.” Saber said, his eyes coming in contact with mine as he continued with his explanations. “Challenger is the only option we have for the time being. While other methods of resupply exist, we don’t have the resources or the personnel to send a caravan up to the northwest. With that in mind, what I want to do is send Gunny, Shore, and Nova with Hallion and Marian when they leave tomorrow morning.” Looking among the three of us, he explained, “They’ve already welcomed the extra hooves, so you three will assist in escorting their supply caravan to Challenger. It’s my hope that in doing so, you three will be able to get an audience with the authorities there and tell them that Hopeville needs supplies.”

“The last time my brother and I visited was about two weeks ago. They may not even have been aware of the attack on Hopeville before you all showed up to repopulate it.” Marian pointed out.

“Will this be a problem?” Saber asked.

“No, it shouldn’t be.” Marian answered assuredly. “They may ask a couple of questions when they see three ponies with Stable gear telling them that their Stable lives in Hopeville, but we can explain the situation easy enough once we get there.”

“What about Gracie?” I inquired, looking back at my tired friend. “Isn’t she going to come with us like the other two times we’ve been outside of Hopeville?”

“Nova, I’m needed here.” Grace answered gently. “With or without medical supplies, there are still others who need to be looked out for as they recover.”

I suppose it was quite foalish on my part to be thinking like that, and not thinking about the others that were still incapacitated within the City Hall. In the previous times that I had worked alone, or at least out of the company of one or all of my friends, I felt slightly less efficient. The presence of all three of them, and knowing that they were there to watch my back, was a great comfort when I was outside in the wasteland. “Sorry, Grace.” I said, lowering my eyes. “I guess I was just so used to us all traveling together that I never thought about splitting up like this. At least during Proudspire we were all in the same general area. Now, we’ll be in two different settlements that are days apart… it’s different.” Gracie nodded back at me, and I caught a glimpse of Shore, and even Gunny, giving slight nods of their own.

“I hate to do it, I really do.” Saber added sincerely. “I know you four work better together as a group, and I’ve seen that before. But this needs to be done so that we can get adequate support.”

“It’s alright sir.” Gunny insisted. “It’s different, yes, but it’s not a problem. We can still do this.”

“Of course.” Shore agreed; I nodded with him.

“Thank you.” Saber said, dipping his head before looking among his security sergeants. “This is the first order of business, but at the same time, there is something else that needs to be done. I’ve been talking with Rocky and Flare throughout the day, and both have expressed their own interests of getting back to their own home in Proudspire. However, they also brought to my attention that when Hopeville was inhabited before we fled the Stable, the two towns had maintained a line of communications via couriers.” Pointing a hoof at one of his sergeants, he said, “I want you to take Joker and Daisy and set out with Rocky and Flare around midday tomorrow and establish some good relations with their own leaders. The more allies we have, the easier our lives will be.”

“Yes sir.” the stallion replied.

“This will give Kayla and Ironhoof all the proof they need to understand that Hopeville is alive again.” Rocky commented. “Though Kayla and the rest of Proudspire trusted Gunny’s words when he first told us of Hopeville’s new populace, it will be a great relief to us to see others who can vouch for him in person.”

“While we hadn’t seen couriers from Hopeville on a daily basis, we did do some amount of barter and trade with them before they were wiped out.” added Flare. “Shipments from Challenger always have a certain amount of everything, but they’re always random in terms of what specific items they have. So after we sort through everything, there’s always something left over that we put up for trade or sale. It was a big help to us when Hopeville shared its spare stock with us, and I know that Abigail will be very glad for the opportunity to restock the general store. With enough supplies being circulated between Hopeville and Proudspire, we might actually get visitors from other regions who will want to trade with us again.”

“And it’s high time that we put Hopeville back into that trade.” Saber responded, rising up to all fours. “These are the first steps we’ll be taking, and hopefully the next week will bring about Hopeville’s full restoration. With supplies, and perhaps some additional ponies for extra security, we can start putting our old lives back together… and this is where the third assignment I’m planning out comes into play…”

Silence followed his last words as his eyes lowered, the captain taking on a very slight downcast appearance… why did he look like that? “Captain, are you okay?” I asked cautiously. As the captain let out a soft sigh, I saw that his sudden stillness had won rather concerned stares from everypony else as well.

“You all have to promise me, here and now,” Saber said, looking back up at us with a firm stare, nearly a glare… “that what I divulge to you now remains a secret to everypony else in Hopeville. We’re not going to be doing this third task for awhile, but I don’t know what the reactions of the others would be like if they found out. Promise me to keep this to yourselves…”

“I promise sir.” Gunny spoke up first, uncertainty written clearly in his words.

“As do I…” Shore added with a raised eye.

“I promise.” Gracie said, slowly nodding.

“I promise as well… now what’s going on?” I asked gently. “This isn’t like you, captain.”

After receiving the promises of the others not to spread what he was about to say to the others in Hopeville, the captain eased and shook his head. “I’m sorry for acting like that, but it’s important that what I say stays within this room.” he explained again before sighing. “…I plan to send a team back to Stable one eighty-one to retrieve anything that might still be intact.”

Oh…

A strange silence filled the room, everypony’s eyes either on the captain or on the floor. At the mention of this task, I couldn’t help but sag. The thought of going back to our first home after two hundred of our own ponies were slaughtered within, and also after the invaders had undoubtedly looted and destroyed every room and every chamber…… it was difficult to decide. A part of me automatically wanted to go back to the Stable, just for the opportunity to see my birthplace again, and perhaps just live there again… somehow… someway. If there was any way that we could go back to our former lives… no… the odds of this were slim to none, and another part of me quickly countered my base need with memories - memories of the battle and the evacuation… of my first kills… of seeing the Overmare die in the middle of the entrance. Her corpse would probably still be there, along with the raiders and the guards that had died during the evacuation effort… and my father… shot in the shoulder before falling behind the sandbags…… surrounded and…… oh Goddesses… “I… I don’t think I could do that.” I muttered, shuddering as I looked down at the floor. I could feel eyes upon me, and shortly after, I felt a hoof on my back. I shivered again, barely suppressing a sob as the memories of that day stabbed my mind. “I couldn’t… the Overmare… my father… they died in the entrance. I don’t want to see the… the bodies…” I choked, looking up at Gunny’s sympathetic eyes as he gently rubbed his hoof along my back. “And Gunny… those graves outside…”

“I know.” Gunny interrupted with a whisper; bringing the Stable into the discussion had undeniably reminded Gunny of his own father’s death during the evacuation.

“Are you sure this would be a good thing to do captain?” Gracie asked uncertainly, and I looked in her direction to see that she was concernedly staring at me as she spoke. “I’m not sure how many ponies would want to go back there after what happened.”

“And who knows how many might just go running back as well.” Shore pointed out. “There is a chance that that could happen too.”

“I know how delicate the subject is, and I understand that it isn’t easy for any of you. It isn’t easy for me either.” Saber said gently, looking among his sergeants and back to me and my three friends; all seven of them wore equally hesitant looks, and even the others not a part of our Stable looked concerned. “Like I said,” Saber continued. “I don’t plan to do this for some time. But I do hope that something was left untouched in there so that we could try and bring back a bit of our old life and keep some of the written records of the pre-war era alive. I want to be able to start a school in Hopeville someday, and I want to rebuild the Hall of Records… somehow…… again, I’m still trying to work all of this out, but I wanted to let all of you know ahead of time… just so you know.”

“How long would it be before this assignment was actually executed sir?” Gunny asked lowly, taking his hoof off of my back.

“It’s not a priority right now.” Saber repeated. “I’d say at least a couple of weeks, or whenever Hopeville is fully restored.”

“I’m glad you’re not sending us there right now.” Shore carefully remarked.

“I know that you’ll all need time to think about it… some of you more than others. So please understand that I am not expecting an answer right away. But if you can, keep it in the back of your minds over the next couple of weeks. That’s all I ask of it for now.”

I swallowed hard before giving a nod. “Yes captain.” I said, taking in a breath and exhaling slowly to recompose myself. “But for now, we have something else that needs to be taken care of, right?”

The atmosphere of the room instantly eased as I diverted the subject; even Saber looked less tense. “Yes. As Hallion said, he plans to get on the road early tomorrow.” the captain said. “You and Gunny and Shore are dismissed for the rest of the day. Get something to eat and get some rest so that you’ll all be ready to travel by morning.”

“It’ll be a two day trip, and we’ll be walking for a good twelve hours per day.” Hallion explained firmly. “We’ll be following the old pre-war road southeast before we stop by my shack to get the shipment ready to travel. After that, we’ll be cutting across the wasteland towards Challenger-”

“HEY!”

I jumped at the sudden voice, announcing its presence with enough volume to make everypony in the room jolt, and when I turned to look for the culprit, I saw Blake scurrying into the armory; he was carrying a very determined glare. “Blake?? What are you doing here?” I demanded gently. “You’re supposed to be outside with Lucan…”

The young colt, however, completely ignored my question as he trotted up and firmly sat down between Gunny and I. “Nova’s not going anywhere without me.” he declared boldly, looking up at Saber with an expression that dared him to say otherwise.

“Blake…”

“You promised!” my little brother interrupted me, immediately looking away from Saber and locking his unwavering eyes with mine.

I gave a light sigh. “I know Blake, but you don’t have to come with me. You could stay here with your friends if you wanted to. I know that they’d love having you with them.”

“I’ve already talked to them all about it.” Blake replied confidently. “They all agreed with what I wanted to do, and they all said that they’d do the same for their families too.”

“Yes… but…” I began, trying to find some manner of persuasion; it didn’t work at all. “I know…” I finished lamely, looking back apologetically at the captain.

However, Saber’s look was nothing short of amused at Blake’s intrusion upon the meeting. “I suppose I’m quite the idiot for thinking I could separate you two with an exclusive meeting.” he remarked with a chuckle.

“We’re family, and a family is a team.” Blake proudly stated as he hugged my right foreleg. “Dad taught me that, and I believe in it. Even if it’s just to carry stuff, Nova needs my help.” Instinct continued to tell me to fight against Blake’s persistence, just like mother had always done. But mother had the advantage of being… well, mother, and she knew how to play along with Blake until he finally agreed to yield his determination until the following day. Back then, that had strictly dealt with getting sleep and doing homework… now was different. Even though Blake and I had talked about his helping me again the previous day, there was always that part of me that wanted to just keep him here where it was safe. It was a part of me that would probably never go away no matter how much Blake and I talked about when and how he could help me in my duties. Of course, I probably could make him stay after a very long argument and a roll of duct tape… but I wouldn’t have the courage to use duct tape; I wasn’t a mean big sister… most of the time. Right now, all I could do was smile and shrug innocently at the captain; with everything that was going on, it was becoming quite useless to say no to Blake when he wanted to help me in my travels.

“Well,” Saber began, his smile unfading. “I wont force you to stay here Blake. Ultimately, it’s Nova’s call, but it looks like she’s already made her choice.”

“Yes.” I agreed, lowering my head down to nuzzle Blake’s neck. “Maybe one day I’ll be able to stand up against your perseverance like mom did.”

“Nope.” Blake said with a vigorous shake of his head. “So you’re going to let me come with you, right?”

“Yes, you can come with me.” I answered. “But you still shouldn’t have barged into the meeting like that.” I stated with playful strictness; Blake answered with a goofy yet triumphant smile.

“Anyway, that’s all we need to cover this evening.” Saber announced, sitting back down with his sergeants. “But before we split off, I’d like to thank our wasteland friends again. All four of you have been a tremendous help, and I hope that someday Hopeville will be able to repay you in full.”

“Proudspire was glad to assist after what your friends had done for us.” Rocky replied with a thin smile.

“If anything, I’d say debts between Hopeville and Proudspire are even… for the time being.” Flare added, smirking.

“I was just glad to see Hopeville as a town again, and not some abandoned pre-war ruin.” Lucky Hallion put in. “I hope that my next visit will allow for some good old-fashioned, friendly trading instead of a big battle.”

“I hope the same. I hope that for all of us.” Saber replied, dipping his head to the merchant before turning to his sergeants. “I’d like the four of you to stay behind for a few more words. The rest of you are dismissed, and if I don’t see you before your departure in the morning… good luck, and stay safe out there.”

After a collective farewell from the assembly, the room cleared out aside from the commanding officers. As I stepped outside, the first out with my baby brother trotting proudly beside me, I looked down at the happy young pony and asked, “Are you ready for some dinner Blake? We should eat early and get to sleep soon so that we can be well rested for tomorrow morning.”

“Yeah!” Blake answered energetically.

“Alright.” I replied with a giggle, reaching down to nudge him along. “Go ahead and get some food from the City Hall storage. It looks like Grace and Shore are heading back there as well, so you can ask them for help if you need it.”

“What about you?” Blake asked, raising an eye. “Don’t you want to pick what you want to eat for yourself?”

“Go ahead and surprise me Blake.” I answered, casting a reassuring smile. “I just need to talk to somepony real quick. Then I’ll wait for you here.”

With a nod, Blake rushed off to catch up to the others returning to the City Hall. The only ponies who weren’t heading in that direction were Lucky Hallion and Marian, both of them instead making their way across the courtyard to the west side of town to prepare for the next day. But just as I was about to trot after them, I felt a tap against my right hind leg, and I stopped to see Lucan looking up at me with inquiring eyes. “Oh, hi Lucan.” I greeted with a warm smile. “Do you need something?”

“Is it true, Nova?” he asked softly, his voice timid.

“What do you mean?” I asked the young pony curiously.

“Is it true that you’re going to Challenger?” he clarified with a hopeful voice. “Can you take me with you?”

“Why… wait, were you listening in on the meeting too?” I asked Lucan, unsurprised when he tentatively nodded his head. “Okay… but why do you want to come with us to Challenger? It would be safer for you here in Hopeville. Plus you’ve made some new friends around here that would be more than glad to have you as a member of our group.”

“I know.” Lucan replied, looking at the ground. “They were really nice to me, and I was glad that we got to play, but… Challenger is my home.”

My eyes involuntarily widened at those last words. Goddesses, why did I suddenly feel like an idiot?… Oh, because I hadn’t even asked him about his home! Sure, there was the whole ‘wanting to return to Hopeville damn quick’ thing. And before that, Cross’s passing had weighed on me for a time. The battle in Hopeville also hadn’t helped, but there had been plenty of time to ask between meeting Lucan outside Proudspire and now…… dang it… “You live in Challenger?” I asked the light-brown colt, lowering myself down to look him in the eyes at his height.

“Yeah.” Lucan answered with a thin smile. “My mom and dad live there too, but I wasn’t with them when the bad ponies found me… I miss my parents.” he finished lowly; I suppose talking with Hallion about his stay in Hopeville was going to have to wait, because this was definitely something I wanted to know more about.

“Alright Lucan,” I replied, placing a reassuring hoof on his back. “you can come with us, and we’ll get you back home.”

The little colt beamed upon hearing that response, and suddenly lunged forward to throw his forelegs around my neck in a grateful hug. “Thank you so much!” he cried happily as I willingly returned the embrace. “I can’t wait to leave and get back to my own house and… um…” Lucan released me and took a step back, looking slightly apologetic as I rose to my full height. “I mean, not that Hopeville is bad or anything…” he added, shifting uneasily.

“I understand Lucan.” I quickly reassured, roughing up his mane with a hoof as he smiled again. “How would you like to join Blake and I for dinner? Are you hungry at all?”

“A little.” Lucan agreed, raising a hoof to his belly which, as if on cue, begun to grumble. “Or maybe more than a little.”

“Indeed.” I replied with a giggle. “Blake should be back any moment now… ah there he is.” As I looked around the entrance of the City Hall, I saw Blake trot out with a bag hanging from his mouth in front of him. “Hey little brother,” I called as he approached. “I know you wanted dinner tonight to just be you and me, but would you mind if Lucan joined us as well? I’m sure he’d appreciate the company.”

“And the food.” Lucan piped up beside me, exchanging another smile with me.

“Fhur, ah on mon…” Blake mumbled through the straps of the satchel, briefly (and comically) crossing his eyes before spitting the bag onto the dirt. “I mean, sure, I don’t mind at all.” he restated with a smile at his newest companion. “There’s beans, fruit salad, mac and cheese, and some of those pre-war apple cakes too. There’s plenty for all three of us!”

“Great! Let’s eat.” I declared, and as Blake picked up the bag of goodies, Lucan falling in beside me, I smirked. “Dibs on the mac and cheese.”

*** *** ***

“You’re good to go.” Gunny said, giving my battle saddle’s main clamp a final tug with his magic before releasing me.

“Thanks Gunny.” I replied, trying to stifle a yawn without success.

“You’d better get the sleep out of you before we move.” Gunny chuckled. “I don’t want to have to carry you along with all of my gear unless its absolutely necessary.”

“But you’d like to carry me wouldn’t you?” I asked with a tired smile. “That way I could go back to sleep for awhile.”

“I never said that.” Gunny answered back with a smirk, trotting away to his own pile of gear before I could respond; not nice.

With a light sigh, I sat down and rubbed my eyes before looking out at the dark horizon of the south. Early morning had come all too soon for me, and I already missed yesterday afternoon as I waited with my friends outside the Hopeville armory. Dinner with Blake and Lucan had been very enjoyable, save for the bitter recounting of how Lucan had been captured by the Black Blood. According to the colt, he had been helping his father work outside of Challenger’s walls, the work consisting of the building of one of several farmhouses that surrounded the settlement. His father had explained to him that Challenger was hoping to set up farms to grow crops for food. However, they were missing a vital component to their plan; they needed water talismans to nourish the land and the seeds. This was all Lucan had known about the project, but as he was helping his father in building one of the farmhouses, providing him with tools when they were needed, he had wandered off when his help wasn’t needed. Lucan admitted to having a great liking for walking around outside of Challenger’s walls, and while many of its citizens did so, he had wandered out too far. His attention had been focused on what he had described to be a small cluster of tall, rocky hills, and when he had wandered out far enough, he was caught by a Black Blood scouting patrol and taken prisoner. This had all happened three days ago, and during those three days, he had received multiple beatings which had ended with a sprained foreleg just before Proudspire’s intervention at the raiders’ war camp. Though it hadn’t been particularly easy for the little colt to retell, the rest of the dinner that followed was filled only with lighthearted recollections of Lucan’s life in Challenger. During a particular discussion encompassing his favorite places to visit with his parents and friends, he had described both a large playground as well as an interesting pair of respectable diners, one for breakfast and one for lunch and dinner, named The Breakfast Club and Wings Eatery respectively. Already, it seemed that Challenger had a lot to offer its citizens, and these recollections, coupled with his story, had given me useful information on Challenger as well as a heightened curiosity to see just what Challenger looked like. More importantly, however, his words had given me even more determination to get him back home and into the hooves of his parents.

Sleep had followed after the dinner, and all three of us had been rewarded with a full eight hours of rest. To top it off, however, another enjoyable memory of the Stable had taken shape in my dreams. The memory was a recollection of one of my many visits to the Stable’s Hall of Records; this visit was one of the first. I had been very young then, only old enough to have just learned how to briefly hover off of the floor with my wings, and during this visit, my mother was helping me look for a book for one of my very first classes. The book in question was a copy of a valuable pre-war text called Elements of Harmony - A Reference Guide. Though the book was terribly large, and probably weighed as much as I did when I was a foal, the book was required by the teacher; carrying that thing around as a filly was more than sufficient exercise. Anyways, the memory had progressed up to the point where mother had found the required text, one copy out of several that had been saved before the bombs fell. But just after she had taken it off the shelf for the two of us to look it over, another foal had entered the Hall of Records, searching for exactly the same book. She was Rosemary Grace, and that meeting, coupled with the subsequent classes we took together afterwards, led to the forming of my first friendship within Stable 181. The memory, and thus the dream, had ended when we exchanged our first greetings, instantly delving into a conversation about how eager we had been for our first class. Now it was morning of the ninth day, and it was time to face the wasteland again; I was certain that it was waiting eagerly for us.

Returning to the present, I blinked lingering sleep from my eyes as I checked over my gear. Both my markspony carbine and Fire Rose were cleaned and ready for use. After being detached from its autoloader, my pistol had been reloaded fresh, and the autoloader itself had been given three spare clips, giving me twenty-eight shots in total. My carbine had undergone similar treatment, and I now had one hundred and sixty-eight 5.56mm rounds to use for it. Aside from this, I had also been given forty spare .308 rifle rounds which would later be used for Cross’s rifle… when I would finally get to use it the way I wanted to use it; for now, the rifle was strapped to Shore’s security armor, firing bit still in place.

My scientific friend was likewise checking over his equipment, sliding his laser pistol into its holster on his right foreleg before staring studiously at his modified laser rifle and his multiplas rifle as Gracie secured them to his battle saddle; though she was staying in Hopeville, she had woken up with us to see us off. Gunny was next to them as he wrapped up all of his weapons in a telekinetic glow in front of him to check them over. The All-Equestrian went onto his security armor first, as well as its three large clips. At the same time, his .44 magnum revolver slid into its holster around his right hind leg. His riot shotgun, looking cleaner but still slightly worn with use, locked into place beside his LMG, and lastly, three metal apples slid into fabric loops along his right side; he looked like quite the guard now.

“Are you all set Blake?” I asked, looking to my right. Blake was situating his saddlebags, filled again with enough preserved food and slightly irradiated water to last three days. An eager-to-be-moving Lucan was with him and was also carrying a pair of his own saddlebags, lightly packed with all the spare medical supplies that Gracie could give which included only three healing potions, half a role of healing bandages, a pair of clean tweezers, a small bottle of sterilizing alcohol, and two syringes of Med-X. Though it wasn’t much, and Grace had been rather ashamed of her inability to provide additional supplies, she had accepted the assurances that this was enough to get by for a couple of days. With luck, we wouldn’t run into any baddies on the way to Challenger.

“Yeah, I’m ready to go.” Blake answered with a grunt as he finally set his saddlebags into a comfortable position over his back. “But who else are we waiting for?”

“Just Hallion and Marian.” I replied, looking left and right to search. “Where are they anyway?”

“Probably still on the west side of town.” Gunny answered, sitting down as his gear lightly clattered around him.

“Well, then I’ll have enough time to do this before we go.” I said resolutely, turning to find Grace as she backed away from Shore for one final equipment check. “Gracie, could you come here a moment?”

“Yes, Nova?” she asked, trotting up beside me.

“Could you do me a favor and reach into my right-side saddlebag?” I asked with a friendly smile. “There’s something in there that I want you to have.”

“Um… sure. What exactly am I look for?” she inquired curiously.

“You’ll know it when you see it.”

“Way to be all mysterious about it.” Grace remarked, giving a playful roll of her eyes before her horn lit up with magic. After a brief light-red glow consumed the bag, the flap opened up before she peered inside and lifted out the preserved cover page of the Hopeville Press newspaper, my first wasteland souvenir. Dangling it in front of me, she raised an eye and frowned when I shook my head. “There’s nothing else in this saddlebag…” she said as she set the cover page inside, stifling a giggle as Gunny and Shore joined us.

“Oh… whoops…” I muttered sheepishly, quickly gesturing to my other saddlebag. “Try the other one.”

Obliging, Gracie trotted around to my other saddlebag and opened it before levitating out the item I had wanted her to find; her eyes went wide with surprise. “Our group photograph??” she asked hesitantly.

“Yes.” I answered with a firm stare. “That photograph was taken a week after we passed our final class. We passed that class together, all four of us, and this picture holds a valuable memory. While we’re separated, I want you to have that while you work in the clinic. That way we’ll still be close to you.”

“I remember that picture.” Shore commented with a big smile. “Wasn’t it after that picture was taken that Gunny got his hooves on his first bottle of Wild Pegasus?”

“Never drinking that shit again. I nearly got my ass kicked off of the guard for that little escapade…… good times, regardless.” Gunny answered, wearing a smug grin that I couldn’t help but laugh at before I admired the framed portrait. Even after eight days in the wasteland, through my several encounters with raiders, it had survived unscathed. Even the frame had remained unharmed, and despite having been dirtied during my travels, it was still in prime condition. While I had left behind the framed portrait of my family, a memorial gift to my mother’s grave, this photograph was one that I had no intention of parting with. If it moved anywhere, it would move to the hooves of one of the ponies who stood in the photograph.

“Nova, are you sure you don’t want to keep it?” Gracie asked, levitating the frame over my saddlebag as if preparing to return it to its former place. “I mean, we all decided to give you the portrait so you could put it into your room back in the Stable. You’re technically… like… its keeper.”

“Nonsense.” I retorted with a snort. “I’m absolutely positive. Besides, Hopeville is our home, and it belongs at home.”

“Alright Nova.” Gracie said, giving a pleasant smile as she gingerly set the frame photograph-up onto the ground. I already knew what was coming next, and I turned to face her just as Gracie stepped forward and pulled me into a great big hug. “Goddesses, I’m going to miss you three while you’re gone.”

“We’ll miss you too.” I replied, returning the gesture wholeheartedly.

“Well, you all know what the Stable taught us about this kind of thing.” Gunny added, and he stepped up to us before pulling both Grace and I against him.

“When true friendships are made, there is no physical distance that is too great to break them.” Shore explained, joining in on group hug.

“One of hundreds of lessons, all so true.” Gracie agreed, and as the group hug slowly dissolved, I saw as she wiped away a tear before looking out into Hopeville. “Here comes Lucky Hallion and Marian.”

Together, we turned to follow her gaze, and saw as the merchant and his sister approached us, a burdened Betsy lumbering behind them. Judging by the amount of hooflockers, duffle bags, and gun cases strapped down to the pack brahmin, it was safe to assume that Captain Saber had returned most, if not all, of the weapons that had been donated to Hopeville’s defense back to their original owner. The owner himself looked quite awake and very happy to be setting off for the road again, and his sister was in equally high spirits as they stepped up to us. “Good morning everypony.” Hallion said with a smile, dipping his head to us.

“Good morning, Hallion, Marian.” I replied, returning the bow. “I see that Betsy is all loaded up.”

“Saber had his guards return all the weapons Marian and I had dished out.” Hallion replied with a chuckle. “We had offered that he keep them, but he insisted otherwise.”

“So, after some cleaning, they’ll be put back into the trading circuit. Ah, the circle of life.” Marian remarked, suddenly raising an eye and smirked as her gaze passed over me. “Uh oh, I think we have somepony who wants to keep his new toy.” Curiosity drove me to follow her gaze, and I couldn’t help but smirk with her as I locked onto Gunny where he stood, his gaze averted as he tried to hold back a grin without much success.

“We can discuss that later.” Hallion assured after a laugh. “For now, I wouldn’t mind keeping that light machinegun out for protection on the road.”

“I have no complaints about keeping it handy. Really, I don’t.” Gunny remarked, turning to look over the pristine LMG on his back before his ears perked up, his grin fading away as he faced west and gave a salute. “Captain, sir.”

“I guess I’m not too late for the sendoff after all. I didn’t think I’d wake up in time.” Captain Saber remarked with a chuckle, returning Gunny’s gesture as he stepped up to us. “I hope the supplies and ammunition you have are enough for awhile. It’s all I can spare until we get a resupply.”

“It’s fine, captain.” I replied, though concerned at his words. “But, is it really that bad though?”

“More or less.” Saber answered with a sigh. “We still have a good amount of food and water in the storage under City Hall, and we scavenged a lot of ammunition from the enemy, but I still want to keep Hopeville as stocked up as possible… just incase.”

“I hope it doesn’t come to that.” Shore stated lowly.

“And if it does, I want to be here to fight and not two days away doing Celestia knows what.” Gunny added with a frown.

“And I’d want to be here with my friends too.” Blake piped up. I couldn’t help but nod my agreement to that, despite mentally sighing at how he still wanted to come with me instead.

“Don’t worry, you four.” Saber said, raising a confident smile. “We’re still ready, and we’ll fight just as hard as before if they push again. Right now, you all need to focus on the road ahead so that you get the job done and come back home in one piece. I know you all understand.” At our collective agreement, the captain gave an approving nod. “Alright then my friends, look out for one another, and stay safe out there. And Hallion,” the captain added, turning to the yellow stallion. “thanks again, both of you, for your help. You two have been one hell of a stroke of good luck, and I pray that you two will come back to Hopeville again soon.”

“It was a pleasure.” Hallion replied, an unspoken ‘not really’ lingering in the air; I really wanted to talk to him about that battle. “To tell you the truth, I’ll probably come back again within the next few days. I’m going to be running a shipment out to Trottingham in a couple weeks, but that’s some time away yet. So, we may yet meet again.”

If Saber had noticed the hidden tone in Hallion’s first remark, he ignored it, instead cordially stating, “You’re welcome back at any time.”

After bowing his head to the captain’s declaration, Hallion turned to face us, looking over his new traveling companions. “Is everypony packed up and ready to go?”

“We’re ready when you are Hallion.” I replied, my brother and I falling in with Gunny and Shore.

“Then let’s get moving.” Hallion said, starting forward to take the lead, Betsy stepping up beside him with Marian. “It’s early, and we’ve got a long road ahead of us. If we keep moving without trouble, we’ll be able to get to my safe house, assemble the shipment, and cover some distance into the heart of the southeast before nightfall.”

“Good luck everypony.” Gracie called, and I looked back and smiled a best-friend smile as she joined the captain, the framed photograph hovering beside her as the two watched our departure. “I look forward to your return.”

“We’ll be back before you know it, Gracie.” Gunny assured with a confident smile, giving a quick wave before trotting up behind me to take up my walking pace. And as we passed by the City Hall and stepped onto the road facing east, our caravan took shape as Hallion begun whistling a lively traveler’s tune.

Me? I looked over at the two little colts on my right side, both looking quite excited for the trip as they kept up with me. But while I wished I could’ve shared their enthusiasm, I knew that I couldn’t. Why? Because this was the third time we’d be leaving our home, and I had no doubt that the wasteland was ready to make up for the carefree afternoon that I had taken yesterday; it was that time again.

*** *** ***

Early afternoon saw us taking our path away from the old pre-war road as it gradually bent southeast. Now, we were moving northeast as we traded cracked concrete for the dust, dirt, and yellowed grass patches of the countryside. Despite having been on the road for the past eight hours, the journey thus far had been entirely uneventful. Other than the occasional echoing gunshot coming from farther southeast, there were no sounds, no disturbances, and no fighting, no zombie ponies or Black Blood making a surprise appearance as I had first suspected upon leaving Hopeville again. Still, I remembered traveling along that road before and seeing absolutely nothing. That didn’t change at all the second time, and there were no buildings or landmarks that would have otherwise remedied my slight doubt about finding something… anything.

The caravan was silent, all of us simply following Hallion as he lead us on. Behind him was Betsy, following along effortlessly with all of her cargo secured on her back. Marian was trotting along beside the brahmin, and I followed at a slight distance, the better to avoid Betsy’s occasional landmines (as Hallion had called it). Both Lucan and Blake were staying close to me, the former having just woken from a nap atop my back, and the latter looking very bored; that trait ran in the family I guess. Shore was following behind us, and Gunny had taken up the rear upon Hallion’s request. It had been this way through most of the day thus far, and now everypony aside from Lucky Hallion and Marian was looking forward to a break.

“Are we there yet?” I heard a murmur beside me, and I looked down to see Blake staring up at me with curious and slightly impatient eyes.

“I’m sure we’re not much farther away.” I replied encouragingly… although I was beginning to get rather curious about the same thing. “I was actually about to go up and have a word with Hallion. You can come up to the front with me if you like.”

“Okay.”

With a nod I picked up my pace, Blake and Lucan keeping up behind me, and trotted past Betsy to draw alongside the merchant; he was still wearing a smile on his face as he walked. “I love traveling.” he commented, chuckling before swinging his head around to look at me. “Sometimes I feel like it’s the road that keeps me alive.”

“Why do you say that?” I asked curiously.

“Because it’s what I love to do.” Hallion replied with cheerful focus. “And aside from that, it’s a tradition that’s been passed down for at least two generations of my family. Marian and I took up our parents’ places after the walking got to be too difficult for their old bones, and we’ve been doing it ever since.” He paused as he gave a happy little sigh and faced forward again. “But, I’m guessing that you didn’t come up here to hear my family story. Do you have something on your mind?”

“Oh… well, I don’t want to be rude.” I insisted, giving a nervous smile. “I’d love to know more about you, especially since we’re going to be traveling together for awhile.”

Hallion chuckled again, joined by Marian as she trotted up to his other side. “Alright, but I’ll tell it after you say what you’ve got to say.” Hallion replied, raising a patient eye as he waited for a response.

“Well, I was just wondering how much farther we had to walk before we found your safe house.” I explained, looking forward again.

“The first leg of the journey is nearly done, believe it or not.” Hallion answered.

“Is your safe house really cool?” Blake inquired with an eager smile.

“I guess you could say that.” Marian remarked, returning his smile with one of her own.

The coolest… and the safest outside of the southeastern settlements.” Hallion explained proudly, nodding forward. “You should be able to see some hills just up ahead. I have a shack that’s hidden by a ring of them, and then my equipment storage is under them. So technically, we have two safe houses.”

Wait… under?? “Did you say under the hills?” I asked, rather quizzical at the idea of an underground safe house… or did that mean… “The only places I can think of being underground is a mine and a Sta…” my words trailed off as the thought hit me.

“You’re spot on Nova.” Marian said, wearing a thin smile.

“Stable Two-o-three.” Hallion explained. “One of the four Stables in the southeast. The thing about Stable Two-o-three was that it was never finished. My guess is that they were in the middle of building it when the bombs fell, and after that, they probably holed-up inside for a time before wandering off. There was no sense in living in an incomplete Stable without supplies.”

I had read through a folder of salvaged documents about Stable-Tec back in Stable 181, and there were several detailed accounts of stable construction and purpose. I remembered reading about how several of them had been built along each major region of Equestria. From the heartland to Hoofington and Trottingham, all the way to Baltimare and Stalliongrad. Most major cities had at least one Stable within their perimeters and others surrounding them. Aside from these however, it was highly plausible that others still were built farther away from highly populated pre-war areas, just like 181. “I guess I shouldn’t be too surprised.” I replied, and Hallion nodded back at me. “Is that all you know about two-o-three though?”

“There was nothing there when our parents found it.” Marian answered. “It was just one big door and one big room behind it. There’s openings where they started marking the first hallways, but those weren’t very long.”

“I never read anything about other Stables back home.” Blake said with a frown.

“That was something you read about after finishing the classes dealing with the Elements of Harmony.” I explained gently.

“Oh.”

“Another Stable?” Gunny asked from behind us; he and Shore had joined us, making Betsy the temporary caboose of the caravan gone cluster.

“I hope none of you mind.” Hallion said, glancing concernedly over myself, my baby brother, and my friends. “If you want to, you can just go to the shack or wait outside. I wont make you come in while I get my shipment ready.”

“No, it should be fine.” Gunny assured.

“I’ll be honest, I find myself curious about seeing another Stable.” Shore added, a faint smile tugging at his lips. “Even if it wasn’t finished before the Last Day.”

“What about you, Blake?” I asked, looking down at him; he didn’t appear to be even slightly uncomfortable at the mention of another Stable.

“I’m not scared.” Blake insisted, chest puffing out. “I’ll go in… unless you want to stay outside.”

“I’ll go in with you.” I replied, giving him a nudge.

“Well, I’m glad that that bit of potential awkwardness was averted.” Hallion chuckled. “And to think, you’re probably the first wastelanders to go inside. Anypony else that tries doesn’t get the chance to.”

“Doesn’t get the chance?” I asked hesitantly.

“I’m a repair pony for a reason.” Marian smugly answered. “I built automated turrets to protect the shack and the entrance to the Stable. It keeps raiders from looting out our supply.”

“You built turrets out of scrap?” Gunny asked, sounding quite impressed.

“For the most part. It didn’t take much.” Marian replied modestly. “It just took me a few trips to Ironshod Firearm facilities in the heartland and the Hoof to find the housings and the electronics for them. After I got a big stash of all the components, I put it all together and fit in an assortment of heavy weapons for them. I’ve gotten seven of them up right now. Might build another one after the request for weapons shipments stop coming in.”

“Seven? Damn.” Gunny remarked. “That takes a lot of skill. Maybe I should hook up with you to take some lessons. I know how to tinker with guns for the best parts, and I know how to fix up armor, but having skills like that could be useful.”

“Aw shucks Gunny…” I looked back at the green mare, seeing as her cheeks flared up with bright red.

“Just over this first hill is where the shack is.” Hallion announced, trotting slightly faster as he begun to ascend a gentle rise in the earth. “When you all get to the top of the hill, you’ll need to wait for Marian and I to alter the turret system’s targeting data. Right now, they’re set to shoot anything other than myself, Marian, and Betsy.”

Well… that was nice to know.

As Marian trotted off after her brother, Betsy lumbering up after her as a solid mass of shifting and noisy gear, I looked back as the others came up to the base of the hill with me. Together, we ascended the hill and as we approached the peak, my pipbuck chirped under me. When I raised the computer to look, I saw my world map displayed on the screen, a new marker labeled Lucky Hallion’s Shack appearing far to the right of the Hopeville map marker; we had traveled a long ways so far.

I lowered my pipbuck leg to look out over the hill. The opposite end of the hill dropped at a steeper incline, creating an earthen bowl with the other hills that spread out to the northeast. And there, sitting at the very center of the of the depression was a large shack of scrap metal and wood. Even at first glance, the shack looked to have been built with extreme care. The wall that faced us looked even and sturdy, and the roof had no holes in. Though the metal was reddened with age, the entire structure looked as solid as could be for a scrap metal shack.

From my vantage point on the hilltop, I could see as Hallion made his way to the shack’s front door, Marian splitting off to the right. On either side of the entrance, two turrets slowly swiveled from side to side, searching for hostile targets. Similarly, two other turrets were positioned around the shack, both occupying the space beside the rear corners of the building. The two turrets guarding the front door were both long-barreled machineguns, and both of the turrets positioned at the rear of the shack were armed with what I recognized to be missile launchers; the shack wasn’t lacking for security. Nothing else occupied the ground around the shack aside from Betsy, slowly walking along the house before finding a patch of yellow grass to munch down on. But beyond, on the far side of the bowl, I saw as Marian approached what appeared to be some kind of entrance… a wooden door with wire mesh that was built into the hill.

“Goddesses… that almost looks like the one that led to our Stable.” I said, a whisper as I took in the sight. The door itself was much larger, perhaps built that way so that Hallion could have Betsy fit through the tunnel opening.

“Yeah it does.” Gunny replied, equally low as he stepped up beside me, the others following.

“It almost makes you think that we’re going home again.” Shore remarked with a light sigh.

“But it isn’t home.” Blake said, ears drooping.

I lowered my head down to give him a gentle nuzzling. “Hopeville’s our home. And it’ll only continue to be so as we keep rebuilding it.”

“But do you think it’ll really be like the Stable one day?” Blake asked, looking up at me with discouraged eyes.

“I think so.” I answered with a smile that he slowly returned. “One day, we’ll bring back everything that we had in our Stable lives, and it’ll all survive out here because of the strength of our hearts.”

“And you’ll be the one to see it through.” Blake piped up with a full smile.

“Well,” I replied with a giggle. “we all will baby brother.”

“It’s safe to come down now!”

I looked back down to the shack as Hallion’s voice called out to us, and I saw the merchant as he poked his head out of the open door of the shack. At receiving a signal of understanding from Gunny, he disappeared inside the shack and we made our way down the slope. Upon descending the hill, I could see inside the shack, the room illuminated by a hanging lantern which also showed the compact turret mounted on the ceiling, its barrel facing the entrance. But just as I stepped up to the doorframe, I heard a whistle of approval from behind me, and I turned to see Gunny inspecting one of the automated turrets. “This is quite the piece of machinery.” he remarked approvingly, looking back and forth along the long-barreled machinegun.

“Of course you’d look at that first.” I remarked with a playful roll of my eyes.

“That’s something I’d expect to hear from Gracie.” Gunny replied smugly, not taking his eyes off the beast of a turret.

“If I had the time, I’d gladly show you the works of it.” Hallion called from inside the shack. “But seeing as I’ve got to get this shipment ready, I’m afraid I’m a bit occupied.”

“No problem.” Gunny replied, parting his gaze from the weapon and joining us by the entrance. “Do you want some help?”

“Yeah, actually.” Hallion answered from within the shack. “I’m just looking over some things here before I head to the Stable to pack up. Marian should be coming back once she reprograms the turrets inside the Stable entrance, and she could use an extra hoof or two with packing our own supplies for the road.” After a moment’s pause, Hallion emerged from the shack, leaving the door open. “If one or two of you wants to come with me to the Stable, you’re welcome to. But like I said, you don’t have to.”

“I’ll come with you.” I volunteered. “And Blake and Lucan as well.”

“Shore and I will stay here then, I suppose.” Gunny added, looking back at Shore who nodded slowly. I could tell that the two wanted to see the Stable, but whether it was homesickness or simple curiosity that drove them… I didn’t know; I didn’t know what drove me either.

“Alright then.” Hallion looked back at me and gave a nod before trotting off for the Stable entrance. But just as I made to follow him, he stopped and turned around, his horn aglow with magic. “Don’t forget your rifle Nova. You still want it on a saddle don’t you?”

“What… oh!” I turned back around to see as Cross’s rifle was enveloped in a yellow aura, undoing itself from Shore’s armor before drifting lazily over to Hallion. “Yes please, thank you.” I muttered sheepishly. “Oh, and the ammo is in my left saddlebag as well.” Hallion gave a nod and removed the five clips for the rifle from my bag, bringing them to his side as well.

With the battle rifle and ammo now in tow, we trotted off to the Stable, the two colts and I following Hallion in silence as we closed the distance to the wooden door leading underground. Yes… it definitely looked like the one that lead to 181, and nostalgia came rushing back as the door opened, Marian emerging from within the tunnel. “The turrets inside are reprogrammed.” she explained. “It’s safe to go in.”

“Good. Gunny and Shore are going to help you pack up our supplies for the road. They’re waiting for you by the shack.” Lucky Hallion replied, and with a nod, Marian trotted away as her brother stepped past the rickety door.

Lucan was the first to trot in after him, Blake following after… I was glued to the ground. Did I really want to go in there?… Did I want to remember what happened in my own Stable right now?… I was certain that if I did go in there, the memories would come back. It had been over a week ago, and we had a duty to Hopeville and to our survival on the surface… but still… “Nova, are you okay?” I shook my head to snap myself out of those thoughts, looking ahead to see Blake waiting outside of the door. “Are you sure you want to come in? I can go in by myself, you know.”

I smiled a thin smile. “Look at you being all bold and fearless.” I remarked, Blake swiftly striking up a heroic pose. “No, I can go in.” One step after another… it’s easy… then I stopped after my first step as my pipbuck chirped once again, and I raised the device to see a second new marker placed on my world map display, the marker resting just next to the shack marker and labeled as Stable 203.

With a sigh, I trotted up beside Blake and let him enter first, and as I stepped past the door, I saw it immediately. The wide and tall tunnel was simply a short, straight path carved into the earth that angled slightly downward along its length before it stopped… right at the great gear-shaped door of Hallion’s Stable. It looked exactly like Stable 181’s, minus the large and slightly faded number 203 resting on the center of the door, painted in yellow against the blackened steel. Two turrets sat on either end of the entrance, weapons that I recognized as miniguns mounted on the turrets’ housings; I had only seen miniguns in action once… and that was in Stable 181... where two attached to a battle saddle killed fifteen survivors attempting to flee from the invaders.

Lucan and Hallion were already waiting at the door, Lucan gazing upon the steel hulk with awe as the merchant stood by the very familiar-looking door control console, waiting patiently as Blake and I approached. And then with an exchange of nods, Hallion turned and pushed down the switch with his magic. The red light on the dashboard swapped to a bright green, and I froze as I heard a buzzing siren blare, muffled from behind the door. A hiss of air sounded from within, accompanied by a familiar creak of steel gears as machinery came to life. I recognized the device giving that sound, the big hinge-arm that opened the door from within the entrance chamber. Another creak of steel followed shortly afterwards as I watched, breath held as the hinge-arm connected to the door, the siren falling silent. And then, the great door was pulled back with a tremendous screech of steel against steel before the arm released and the door rolled back behind the wall revealing the Overmare’s corpse surrounded by the dead raiders and security…

I shook my head, involuntarily grunting as I quickly repressed the memory. But it wasn’t quick enough to avoid being noticed by Blake, who trotted back up to me with concerned eyes. “Nova…” he said, nudging my foreleg with his muzzle; I was so glad that he had left the Stable before the fighting happened.

“Don’t worry Blake, I’m fine.” I assured with as much confidence as I could muster, returning his nudge with one of my own. Despite the attempted reassurance, being here still made my mane itch.

“If you say so.” Blake replied, uncertain as we started forward together. The entrance chamber was one completely level room with no stairs or rails. It was only four steel walls, a floor, and a ceiling, and as I drew cautiously closer, I beheld the sight of several massive steel crates stashed and stacked within. Above them, a whole arsenal of weaponry sat on hooks fastened into the steel; I had no doubt that any weapon built in Equestria that used bullets could be found right here. At least four dozen rifles of varying sizes and calibers occupied the entire right side of the Stable entrance. Anything and everything from shotguns and bolt and lever-action rifles to assault rifles and carbines to sniper rifles and light machineguns were fully assembled and carefully cleaned and tended to, now simply waiting for their time to emerge into the wasteland as part of Hallion’s trade. The left wall of the entrance had a vast assortment of more compact weapons, including a great collection of pistols and sub-machineguns. The far wall held everything big, every heavy weapon that I could think of having been hung up there, including a pair of miniguns, a half-dozen heavy machineguns complete with tripods and large ammo containers, three missile launchers, two even larger weapons that were identical but unknown to me in function, and an even larger weapon still that looked like some kind of huge cannon. On the floor, amidst the steel containers, were several work benches which were surrounded by smaller metal boxes packed with ammunition, each box labeled with the respective caliber bullet that was contained within. Other boxes still were stacked along the wall next to the rolled back Stable door, and I saw a whole mass of grenades, missiles, and other explosive ordnance. The one thing that wasn’t a weapon in the entire room was a large four-wheeled wagon. It was an open-bed wagon, no roof, and there were four wooden sides reinforced with iron plates; the rear side of the wagon hung open, representing a tailgate. The entire thing sat on four rubber wheels, and there were two long metal rods that jutted from the front, outfitted with some kind of leather harness.

“That’s a lot of stuff.” Lucan remarked, his eyes still wide as he took in the sight of the massive armory that was Stable 203.

“It’s the biggest reason why your home likes me so much, little one.” Hallion replied, looking back at the colt to give a smile before turning his attention to one of the work benches. “Nova, this conversion wont take too long.” he explained as he set Cross’s rifle on the workbench and focused on the weapon. “But while you’re waiting, could you start gathering up some of the weapons for the shipment?”

“Sure… but which ones do I grab?” I asked back, looking among the walls at the dozens of death-dealers.

“I’ve got a clipboard on the table next to mine with numbers on it. Each weapon has a number label so you’ll know which ones to take.” Hallion explained, briefly looking at the neighboring table as his horn lit up again. And suddenly, said clipboard was flung at my face, and before I could duck, bounced off of my snout and fell to the floor in front of my hooves. “First page.” Hallion added with an apologetic smile. “Sorry. Marian always caught those.”

“Gee… thanks…” I muttered with a snort, looking down at the first page of the clipboard before suddenly feeling a tingling in my nose; this resulted in an obnoxiously powerful sneeze. “Ack…” Rubbing my nose with a foreleg, and ignoring the chuckling coming from Hallion and Blake, I took in the first numbers of the list and hovered up to the pistols and SMGs. One by one, I gathered up the first set of weapons with the appropriate labels and set them next to the clipboard. After running through the first section, there was a mass of ten pistols and half as many sub-machineguns, and I made my way over to the rifle wall to repeat the process. Thankfully, after gathering ten different weapons from the wall, Hallion announced that he was done with the modification. It saved me from having to try and heft up one of the massive miniguns that had been put onto the list; I probably would’ve ended up breaking something.

I trotted up beside the merchant, eager to see my newest weapon in its new form. The firing bit had been carefully removed and set aside, and a new autoloader replaced it, built along the left side and set over the receiver and the rear sight. A metal plate had been fastened to the right side, similar to the plate that attached my other weapons to my battle saddle. “Here you go.” Hallion said with an approving nod at his handiwork. “She’s ready for a battle saddle. I’ll change out your pistol for it and load it up… and I guess your pistol will also need a new firing bit… and a holster.” he added as he looked over my pistol resting against my left side.

“Would you mind?” I asked, a little sheepishly.

“No… I guess not.” Hallion answered after a little sigh. But he smiled as he looked me in the eyes. “But no more free giveaways after that. Understand?” he asked with playful sternness.

“Yes sir.” I replied with a giggle, and he got to work on the saddle. As he begun to disassemble Fire Rose’s autoloader, I looked around the Stable entrance again. I could see Blake and Lucan outside as they curiously looked over one of the minigun turrets outside the entrance. I was sure Blake knew better, but I still called, “Hey Blake, don’t touch anything, okay?”

“I know.” Blake answered back, only briefly taking his eyes off the turret to give me a smile before going back to his studies.

I turned back to look at Hallion as he worked. He had removed Fire Rose’s autoloader and unloaded it of its three clips. Now, he removed the pistol from the saddle, looking over the steel plate and working it loose. Though I had put it off for the day, I still remembered wanting to talk to him about his time in Hopeville. I hadn’t forgotten how he had only half-heartedly accepted the plentiful and genuine gratitude of my fellow Stable dwellers, and while I suppose it wasn’t meant to be a big issue, it had been nagging at my curiosity bump since the start. “Hey Lucky Hallion. Can I ask you something?”

“Sure, what’s up?”

“Back in Hopeville, after the fighting, you didn’t really seem to be looking so well.” I explained, awkwardly trying to find the best words. “What I mean to say, is that when Hopeville’s survivors were thanking you, you didn’t really seem to take it all too well. Normally, ponies are appreciative of thankfulness… but you didn’t really look like that at all. So I’ve been wondering why that was the case.”

Hallion briefly stopped working, diverting his attention from the pistol in his magic grip to look me in the eyes. “Noticed that did you?” he asked, giving a wan smile when I nodded. “I guess I shouldn’t be surprised.” He set Fire Rose on the floor and trotted away to look over a collection of boxes behind the work benches. “I’ve been traveling all my life.” he explained as he searched. “And unfortunately, even the southeast isn’t safe from common dangers of the wasteland. Even before the Black Blood, there were raiders and junkies, ponies looking for a fight just for the thrill of spilling blood and plundering goods. Had a bunch of encounters with them while I was growing up, and they were a lot thicker in presence back then. When I got around to inheriting the family business, I started traveling… and slowly but surely, I discovered all the other terrible things that this wasteland holds.” His horn flared to life again and he fished out a new firing bit. Trotting back up to me with the needed tool, he sat down beside me and set to work again. “The first region I ever traveled to was the Equestrian heartland. It was recommended by my parents as a good place for a first venture. I spent a month up in that region, looking to scavenge and trade and otherwise socialize. I explored most of the sites up there. Found Ponyville and Old Appleoosa, found some settlements and camps, explored the big cities. But with all those, I found raiders that were even worse than the junkies down here. You could tell where raiders camped because of their decorating… Ponyville was the worst…” He paused as he fastened the firing bit to Fire Rose and checked it over. “I heard that that old town used to be the home of the fabled Ministry Mares. The raiders turned the place into a damned slaughterhouse… a hunting ground. I made a mistake going in there when I did, and I nearly kicked the bucket because of it. But I fought them back when they started shooting, and wiped out the entire town… with this shotgun too.” I looked over to his lever-action shotgun, holstered and slung across his back. “That was about two dozen ponies I killed, and they were my first kills.” he continued. “There were other fights I got into before coming home, especially in the Manehattan ruins. Raiders made plenty of nests up there, and I had to wipe out a couple when I was engaged. Between them and the local wildlife, that was a lot of shooting. So, after a brief return trip home where I dispensed all of my loot, I headed north up to Canterlot and took Route 52. Followed that road for a few days to get a layout of the region, found places like Salt Cube City and Sun City, ran into some of the local tribes. Got a lot of scavenging done up there, found good pre-war weapons and tech… hell, they even had some fresh crops out that way for food trade. But of course, some of the tribes were hostile… no need to explain how I got back from the Route alive.” He paused as he took Cross’s rifle in his telekinesis to attach it to my saddle. “Then, after a couple of other regions… came Hoofington.” he explained, and I caught sight of a shudder. “Like I said yesterday, that place… it’s a mess, and don’t let anypony tell you otherwise. It only took three days for me to decide that going there was the worst idea of my early caravanning career. Sure the place is ripe with old tech and guns and pre-war treasures, but none of it’s worth it when you learn about the dangers the city holds. Aside from radiation and local wildlife, the whole place has some unique radiation field around it that just weakens and kills ponies who step through it. Plus, the downtown area still has active wartime defenses that kill anypony who crosses the downtown perimeter. The biggest thing right now, however, is that the entire place is a battleground for tribes and gangs, and there’s plenty of them. Most of them’ll just attack without a word, and there’s only a couple settlements that aren’t involved with the fighting. In just three days, I encountered more enemies than I had in my life… I killed up to about ninety before I hightailed it out of there. Barely made it out too.”

I couldn’t hold back a light gasp at that. Celestia above… NINETY ponies?? In just three days?? “Ninety?” I asked faintly.

“Yeah.” Hallion muttered with a solemn nod, securing Cross’s rifle to my battle saddle before returning to the work bench to search for another part. “While it took a lot of consolation from my sister and some of the friends I’d made to keep me on track, I came to accept killing as a part of the job. So, over the years between then and now, I kept going back to all those places, even Hoofington, and I still go all around the wasteland. While I have accepted my past and have accepted it that killing in defense is necessary to survive, I still don’t like it. And I especially don’t like it when I’m thanked for it.”

I slowly nodded as I took in his words. Just yesterday, Gunny and I had been talking about how we felt when we had killed for the first time. But that was nothing compared to Hallion; he’d been doing it for years. Now, Hopeville clicked together. “I see.” I said sympathetically. “I’m sorry about what you had to go through back in Hopeville then.”

Hallion gave a sigh as he looked towards the heavy weapons on the wall. “Those two balefire egg launchers up there,” he said; so that’s what those were. “are some of the most sinister weapons made outside of weaponized megaspells. I hate them… but I still keep them with me. Do you know why?” As he trotted back up to me, a black, leather pistol holster and a similar looking belt with ammo pockets levitating beside him, I shook my head; I had no idea. “Because despite everything, the killing I do sometimes, just sometimes, saves the lives of those who are just trying to survive out there and not kill everypony they meet. Just like you and your Stable survivors. In the end, balefire egg launchers and rifles and every other weapon ever made… they’re all just tools and they can be used to protect just as much as they can be used to destroy. What I did back in Hopeville was something that needed to be done… it was all that could be done to secure your victory, and while I wiped out a whole swath of raiders in the process, I don’t regret it.”

I nodded as he checked the pistol over, unloading it and reloading it before placing it in its holster and securing it around my left foreleg. “But you’re still uncomfortable with it, especially because you used that launcher.” I said gently.

“It’s one of those last resort things, something you use only when the greatest of needs arise. You know that you could kill a lot of ponies with it, but in turn, you know that you could save a whole lot more.” Hallion explained, a thin smile forming at those last seven words. “That’s become my view of killing in general. It’s a necessary part of wasteland life, and so long as I kill for the right reasons, I can bear through it.”

“That’s actually… exactly how I’ve come to view it.” I remarked with a cautious smile.

“Then it took you a lot less time to figure out than me.” Hallion replied, chuckling as he secured the ammo belt just below Fire Rose’s holster and slid the pistol’s three spare clips into the pockets. “One of the many reasons why I know that you and your friends are good ponies out here in the wasteland… and now, you’re good to go.”

I craned my head around to look at Cross’s rifle, now fully secured to my saddle and ready to use. I liked the way it looked, especially paired up with my markspony carbine. But now, my mother’s pistol would serve an excellent sidearm, and it had been secured around my foreleg so that all I had to do was reach down, grab it by the firing bit, and pull it out of the holster. If I ran out of ammo, Fire Rose would be a lifesaver. “Thank you for this Hallion.” I said, gratefully dipping my head to the merchant. “Now I can honor my promise to Cross.”

“You’re welcome.” Hallion replied, smiling as he trotted back over to the clipboard that remained on the floor. Looking over the paper, he gave a grunt and focused on one of the two massive miniguns, enveloping the weapon in magic and carefully lowering it down to the floor. “And what did you promise your friend, if you don’t mind me asking?”

“I promised that I’d use his rifle to kill the bad guys.” I replied, smiling a little as I remembered his voice. And it wasn’t the pained voice that preceded his final moments. It was the voice he used when we had nearly kissed. “If he was here right now, he probably would’ve fallen in love with this place. Although, his rifle was still his most cherished weapon.”

Hallion chuckled as he lifted up one of the missile launchers from the wall and set it on the floor. “Sounds like we would’ve been good friends.” he replied encouragingly.

“I think you would-”

“HI NOVA!!”

I jumped with a gasp as the voice struck across my ears, and I placed a hoof to my chest as my breath camp in rapid pants from my mouth. “Blake!… Goddesses…” I managed to say through my pounding chest, turning to look at my baby brother as he looked up with a happy smile. “The others are on their way in.” Blake explained, his volume now much more reasonable. “Marian said she was done packing, so they’re bringing Betsy into the Stable.”

“Ah good, right on time.” Hallion remarked, waving out to the entrance tunnel of the Stable, and as I stepped into the open to see for myself, I saw as Gunny and Shore walked in side by side, carrying equally apprehensive looks as they approached the open Stable door. Behind them, Marian was guiding Betsy past the open door and into the tunnel, the brahmin now only carry a pair of large duffle bags. Lucan was trotting along with Betsy, curiously observing the beast as she lumbered down the tunnel, following after Marian.

“Hey you two.” I greeted Shore and Gunny, diverting their attention from the open Stable door.

“Hey Nova.” Gunny responded, giving a thin smile as he looked me over. “All suited up I see.”

“You bet.” I replied cheerfully, looking over myself again and ruffling out my wings.

“You’re looking more like a Stable guard now.” Shore stated with a chuckle.

“Yeah, well unlike you two, I wouldn’t be able to wear that heavy security armor.” I pointed out.

“I’ve just got a few more things to find for the shipment.” Hallion’s voice called within the Stable entrance as Marian walked past us. “After that, we just need to fill the wagon, strap Betsy in, and then we’ll be off.”

“Sound’s good big brother.” Marian replied, giving the three of us a smile before trotting into the entrance.

“Let’s go see what we can help with.” Gunny said, trotting past me to follow Marian into the entrance chamber.

“Yes… I’ve already had my fill of seeing a Stable for a bit.” Shore muttered, just barely audible to me, and I concernedly trotted after my friend to help finish packing up the shipment. I’ll be honest… I didn’t feel inclined to disagree with Shore. Though I had pushed aside the bad memories, and though I had greatly appreciated Hallion’s work on converting Cross’s rifle for use on my saddle, I still looked forward to getting back onto the road. Being in another Stable, besides our own home, felt… strange…

*** *** ***

Night.

Another seven hours of walking brought us to nightfall as the last colors of the evening faintly lingered in the west. The temperature had dropped to a very comfortable level over the early evening, making the long walk much more bearable and enjoyable. The stronger breeze which had begun yesterday morning still carried over to tonight, and it brushed against my face as we pressed on towards the southeast. According to my pipbuck and the dotted line that pointed towards the location of Challenger, we were following a straight path to our destination, cutting right across the countryside.

Looking ahead, I lowered my pipbuck leg and ran the short distance to catch up to the moving caravan. Hallion had instructed Gunny and Shore to remain behind the wagon as caravan guards while Marian trotted along beside Betsy; Hallion lead the way slightly ahead of them. The supply wagon itself was loaded down with Hallion’s weapon shipment, large trunks packed full of weapons were arranged neatly as the bottom layer of the cargo. Above that, taking up the rest of the space of the front half of the wagon, were the heavy weapons, barely visible over the top of the wagon’s sides, and sitting on top of the trunks in the rear of the wagon was an entire layer of ammo boxes, packed with ammo and ordnance for Challenger. Blake and Lucan had made the ammo boxes a napping place for the road, and the two were resting atop the boxes as the wagon rolled along; despite the combined weight of the two sleeping colts and the amount of cargo on the wagon, Betsy had absolutely no difficulty in hauling the wagon forward.

After looking back at Blake, smiling at seeing him still asleep despite the slightly bumpy ride, I trotted ahead of the wagon and up to Hallion as he led the caravan on. “So how much farther are you planning on going today?” I asked as I mimicked his pace to walk alongside him.

“Not too much farther.” Hallion replied, looked left and right as he scanned the terrain. “Though I often travel into midnight before setting up camp, we made some good progress today, and I’ll be honest, my own hooves could use a break too.”

“Do you set up camp outside?” I asked.

“Most of the time.” Hallion answered. “Though if I’m close enough to a secure pre-war building or shelter, I’ll hole-up there for the night. If I remember correctly, there should actually be one such building nearby. I’m thinking we could just go ahead and rest there before moving on tomorrow morning.”

“What kind of building is it?” I inquired curiously.

“It’s an old pre-war news station. It was a radio building that supplied the southeast region with information on the war and the progress of the Ministries.” Hallion explained. “I don’t know much else about it. When I first found it a few months back, the whole building was shot to hell. A shootout happened in there, but it was a really long time ago, judging by all the rusted and mangled bullet casings I found. My guess is that it happened during the war, or just before the bombs fell.”

“That’s interesting…” I said nervously, my mane prickling slightly. “Is it safe to go in there?”

“It should be just fine.” Hallion assured with a smile. “The whole thing was picked clean a long time ago, that and the other thing near it.”

“What other thing?” I asked.

“I really don’t know.” Hallion shrugged. “I’ve never seen anything like it before. I know that it’s some kind of wreckage, maybe a flying vehicle of some kind. It’s hard to tell because of how mangled the wreckage is, but I did mange to pick up some gem-enhanced tech from it. Sold it for a good price.” he chuckled at the memory. “Either way, I believe that it’s definitely something from the Great War. But like I said, I don’t know exactly what.”

“I’m kind of curious to see that.” I commented, looking out ahead to see if there was a chance of spotting said wreckage. While the Golden Fire family had brought many pre-war texts to Stable 181, there weren’t as many on wartime technology, let alone vehicles. The only vehicles I had remembered reading about were the warships of the Pegasi, the great Raptor and Thunderhead vessels that had brought Equestria a rather large advantage during the war. It hadn’t been known when they had been made, but it had been known that they were built by unicorns and operated by Pegasus ponies.

“I think we’re pretty close.” Hallion said, staring ahead with studious eyes. “You’ll get to see it soon enough if I remember my geography right.”

“Sounds good to me.” I replied, unable to suppress a smirk; yeah, my curiosity bump was getting big. “So what else do you know about the southeast?” I asked. “Do you know anything about the region’s history?”

“Sure do.” Hallion replied with a nod. “Back before and during the war, the southeast was mostly uninhabited meadowland. There were traces of forests and some occasional isolated mountains along with it, and the parts of the region that were inhabited were plots of farmland. There were towns built in the region too, and even a city that was almost as big as the ones in the heartland. You know about Hopeville of course, but the two other towns in the region are Plainwell and Ashton. And aside from these, the city of Marefax was built within the northernmost part of the region, rose up to a city after a few years of it being a large farming town. After that, there were buildings that gradually began to pockmark the land once the war fired up. There’s the old power plant to the west, the news radio station…” Hallion looked up at the sky with a thoughtful frown as he recollected his knowledge of the land. “the Roseluck greenhouses to the south, and the Wheaton Armory beyond that… and of course there’s Buckley Air Force Base. Other than these places, that’s it. The rest of the region was just farmland and meadows. It definitely wasn’t like the Hoof or the heartland. It was the exact opposite of those industrialized areas.”

“It was probably rather beautiful here before the Last Day.” I commented with a wistful sigh.

“I agree.” Hallion replied with a sigh of his own. “When the bombs fell, the grass and the crops died because of what happened to Marefax. The city was targeted with a balefire missile on the Last Day. It blew up the entire city and killed off its population. The fallout that followed killed everything else afterwards.”

I bowed my head with a frown. “Marefax was a big city with lots of ponies living in it?”

“Yeah.” Hallion replied lowly. “I’m not sure if it had too much to do with the Ministries or not. I know that it wasn’t some sort of war-based city where ponies worked to continue to build new technology for the war effort. Sure, it provided help by distributing food from the farmland that it was practically surrounded by, but I don’t think it was much onto the whole technology thing like Hoofington or Fillydelphia. Now, Marefax is just another ruin. It’s the main source of the feral ghouls in the region, surviving because of the radiation coming off of the blast crater in the city center, and raiders that aren’t part of the Black Blood hide out in the outskirts. It’s been run through a few times by scavengers and prospectors, but I still make a trip there occasionally to search for extra supplies. I find stuff sometimes, but it’s getting to the point where it’s been picked through almost completely.”

I gave a nod at the explanation, putting the demise of the city in the back of my mind. “Well,” I replied with a forced smile. “I guess I’ll have a lot to tell Saber when I get back to Hopeville.”

“I guess so-” Hallion began, before a loud clang sounded behind us.

I whirled around with a jolt, immediately spotting an indent where the iron plate on the cargo wagon’s right side had been struck; that was definitely a bullet mark. Then the dirt kicked up around Gunny’s hooves, and he stumbled back behind the wagon, drawing the All-Equestrian as he spotted something to the west. “CONTACTS!”

Then chaos erupted around us.

The dirt around the wagon kicked up as bullets struck just in front of me, and I stumbled back with a cry of alarm. The gunshots from the west immediately frightened Betsy, and the brahmin let out a bellow as it came to a sudden halt. “Get to cover, damn it!!” Hallion cried over the noise, and I saw as he and Marian ran back behind the left side of the wagon, their horns alight with magic as they swiftly undid Betsy’s harness. Even before it was fully off, Betsy ran forward, dragging the wagon a short distance (and nearly toppling it) before finally being freed; she fled the battlefield, leaving the wagon for us as cover.

As I regained my thoughts, my eyes immediately darted to the top of the wagon. Both Lucan and Blake were wide awake now, panicked and frantically looking every which way as the gunfire sounded, but not moving for cover with the others. “BLAKE! GET DOWN!!” I cried desperately, springing into the air and promptly scooping him up to put him down behind the wagon. As I turned back to retrieve the frightened Lucan, the wagon sparked as more bullets struck off of it, and he stumbled back over the edge of the ammo boxes he stood upon. I caught him just before he fell, and lowered him the rest of the way down beside my baby brother as I joined the others behind cover; I immediately went to Blake. “Blake are you okay?!” I demanded, looking worriedly over him to check for any injury he might’ve sustained. The trembling colt only nodded, and I hugged him close as I checked my pipbuck; out to the west, there were a half-dozen red markers on the E.F.S. compass.

With the wagon now established as solid cover from the enemy fire, and everypony hiding successfully behind it, Hallion turned to look at us. “I think that’s a Black Blood scouting patrol out there!” he called as he levitated out his lever-action shotgun. “We need to return fire and get them off our backs!”

“We’re ready when you are!” Gunny replied, readying his LMG in front of him.

“Here! Take these!” Marian shouted, using her magic to toss over two grenade-like objects to Gunny and Shore. “Flashbangs!” she quickly explained. “Toss them over the wagon and close your eyes!”

With a collective nod of confirmation, Shore and Gunny pulled the pins on the canisters and hurled them over the wagon before facing away and shutting their eyes. Following their example, I reaching out and pulled the two colts against me, shielding their eyes and shutting my own tightly just before I saw a dim white flash through my eyelids. “Hit em back!!” Hallion shouted, and I opened my eyes just in time to see Hallion stepping out from behind the wagon to fire a shell from his shotgun. Marian quickly bolted out with him, a 10mm SMG levitating beside her as she opened up. Gunfire erupted from my other side as well, Gunny and Shore likewise engaging our attackers.

I had to get into the fight.

Standing up, I made eye contact with Blake, my baby brother looking scared out of his mind. “Stay right here!” I ordered firmly. “Both of you, for Goddesses’ sake, just stay right here!!” I didn’t have time to make sure they acknowledged my order. I could only hope that they did as I snapped open my wings and launched myself skyward. I ascended for five strong wing beats before leveling out and diving forward. Even in the darkness, it wasn’t hard for me to spot where the enemy fire was coming from. A line of six ponies, all clad in the red and black armor of the Black Blood Raiders, were firing over the cover of a small hill only a few meters away, four of them ducking back as the return fire peppered the ground in front of them.

Wasting no time, I flipped the safety of my battle saddle off, and took hold of the firing bit before diving into S.A.T.S.; time to put Cross’s rifle to use. I targeted two shots for the head of the far left raider, a unicorn stallion levitating a standard assault rifle. Engaging the spell, time returned to me as I fired the two pairs of shots, both pairs slamming home and turning the raider’s head to pulpy mush. With my element of surprise thus spent, I blazed over the enemy line and banked hard to the right as return fire lashed up at me.

I quickly righted myself and turned back to face the enemy line once again. By the wagon, I could see Hallion and Marian hanging back, keeping up concentrated fire and remaining with the cargo as Gunny and Shore pressed towards the hill. Gunny was keeping the raiders pinned with steady fire from the thundering All-Equestrian, and even as I dove back down for another strafing run, one of the five remaining raiders glowed alight with red before dissolving into a pile of ash that shifted in the breeze. Four left. With S.A.T.S. still recharging, I angled in and lined up with my next target, heading straight for a unicorn stallion… where did that missile launcher come from?!! “CHEW ON THIS, MEAT SACK!” the raider shouted up to me, and with a cry of fright, I veered right as a missile sailed past me, missing by inches as it flew into the night sky. I wheeled away again, forsaking my attack to right myself in the air and put distance between myself and the heavy weapon. There was no time for recovery though, as I saw the unicorn stallion loading another missile into the launcher… Goddesses, if he fired at the wagon…

I jerked in the air, snapping my wings out wide to halt in the air before racing back towards the enemy line. The adrenaline was rushing now, as the safety of my brother became my top priority. He was using that wagon for cover, and one solid hit with a missile would destroy the entire thing, leaving Blake exposed if not outright injuring him… or…. I focused ahead with a fiery glare, S.A.T.S. now partially recharged as I lined up for another shot. But just as I targeted the raider’s torso with a shot, executing the attack, his second missile launched forward just as the pair of bullets struck him square in the back. “NO!!” The missile roared down from the hill, on a straight course for the wagon as I raced futilely after it, but when I thought the missile would reach its mark, it suddenly detonated in midair, and I stopped in the air just in time to see Gunny facing where the missile had exploded; he had shot it out of the air.

Goddesses, if we weren’t fighting, I would’ve run up and kissed him, but focus returned to me as bullets whizzed past me where I hovered. I beat upwards to gain elevation before arcing back down in a nosedive. I lined up a shot at the remaining raiders’ position, but targeting instead the missile launcher that another raider, a smaller unicorn mare, was slowly picking up to reuse; I wasn’t going to give her the chance.

As she raised it up to load a missile, I executed the shot, and though one bullet missed, striking the dirt behind the mare, the other punched through the frame, causing the mare to drop it with a cry of alarm. With the launcher now disabled, I pulled back up from my dive and flew past the enemy position before arcing left for another pass. As I focused in and prepared for another attack, I could see Gunny and Shore as they closed in on the three remaining raiders, moving in at two different angles. Scooping up the air with my wings, I drove forward for my next run. The unicorn mare was in hiding, recovering from the shock of having her weapon shot out of her grasp. Her two companions, two earth pony stallions, were engaging Gunny together with assault rifle battle saddles, forcing him to retreat closer to the wagon because of the lack of cover.

Zeroing in on one of the two firing stallions, I lined up a shot without S.A.T.S. and fired. The bullets missed, sending a puff of dirt into the stallion’s face and halting his attack as I angled up and away. But that distraction was all that was needed.

Winging back around, I saw a figure moving in on the raiders’ left side, and I recognized the stallion as Shore, his black coat almost fully concealing him as he reached the peak of the hill. Then, he opened fire, red and green energy striking out, and one after the other, the two stallions fell apart, one turning into a pile of ash as the other melted into green goop which spread across the ground in an oozing puddle. Then, as the noises of the energy reactions faded, the hill became utterly silent; this skirmish was over.

Instinctively, I searched all around for additional hostiles. My E.F.S., however, was clear, and nothing else disturbed the stillness of the night. Taking a deep breath, I let it out slowly before looking back down at Shore. The black pony was staring down at one of the bodies, his laser pistol held in his mouth. “Is it all clear, Shore?” I called down, gliding towards him to land beside him. I could see his glare as he shook his head in reply, unable to speak through the weapon clenched in his teeth, but when he pointed a hoof down at the body… no… not a body. The unicorn mare that had attempted to use the missile launcher had not been hit during the rest of the brief fight, and now she was hiding her face behind her forelegs, cowering and now whimpering as she begun to shake.

“Are they all dead?” I heard from my left. Gunny was ascending the hill, his riot shotgun levitating beside him at the ready position.

“One of them is still alive.” I explained lowly, unable to suppress a glare as I looked down at the raider. “I shot at her when I saw her lift up that missile launcher and point it at the wagon.”

“I didn’t have-” the raider mare suddenly spoke, lowering her forelegs away before Gunny swiftly pressed the barrel of his riot shotgun to the back of her head; her words faded to another whimper.

“Shut up, invader!” Gunny ordered harshly. “You say another word and I’ll paint the dirt with your brains!”

The mare sniffled her response and let out a squeak, something I suppose should’ve been a sob. But as I looked her over, my glare lightened ever so slightly. This mare… she didn’t look like she belonged in the foul armor she wore. She looked… young… Goddesses, she looked younger than me. And what little of her voice I had heard heightened my believe that this pony was, in fact, rather young. But… the faction she followed had destroyed my home… taken my parents from me… hurt my friends…… so why was I hesitant to just let Gunny or Shore finish the job? “What should we do?” I asked, not taking my eyes away from the nearly panicking unicorn mare.

“What we should do is just finish her off here.” Gunny replied quickly and with anger; it was anger that I hardly ever saw in him… anger that I was sometimes afraid to see.

“Please…” the mare whimpered.

“I said quiet!!” Gunny roared, and I jumped (the raider mare screaming at the same time) as his shotgun fired into the sky before returning to its place against the mare’s head.

I couldn’t help but look concernedly at Gunny who looked back at me with that fiery glare. “Nova…” he began as his glare quickly softened to a look of rising disbelief. “you’re not thinking about letting this raider walk away are you?”

“Gunny…” I began uneasily. “she’s… I just don’t think she… she’s young Gunny!” I gestured back at the trembling mare. “Look at her! Does she look like a raider to you?”

“She’s wearing the armor.” Gunny fired back darkly. “That’s all I need to see.”

“She’s young, Gunny.” I repeated sternly. “And she’s also frightened. She’s not throwing out swear words and insults, and she’s not laughing at that shotgun against her skull. I feel like raiders don’t usually cower in fear-”

“Unless they’re begging for their own pathetic hides.” Gunny interrupted callously.

“There has to be some sort of explanation.” I insisted with a frown.

“Explanation for what?” Gunny asked with a sigh.

I turned to the raider mare, her large eyes looking back at me in search of answers as to her fate. “She has to have a story. She just doesn’t look like she belongs among the ranks of the Black Blood…” I took a slow step forward and let my eyes soften. “I want to know what that story is.”

“I’ll be honest Gunny,” I heard Shore beside me, his laser pistol now holstered. “Nova has a point. Maybe we should hear this mare before jumping to a conclusion.”

Gunny looked between us, almost looking disappointed that we were against pulling the trigger. Still, Gunny was no cold-blooded killer, and his own fierce glare disappeared as he sighed, nodded, and pulled the shotgun away. “Fine.” he said lowly. “But if she tries anything…”

“I know Gunny.” I interrupted gently, giving him a comforting smile. “But I don’t think that’ll be a problem.” Turning back to the mare, who looked only slightly comforted by our not having killed her already, I let my smile fade as I said, “I’m giving you a chance to explain yourself. While I still hold my opinions about you, I hope that you won’t lie to me. I really hope that you wont lie to me. Now, what’s your name?”

“I-Ivy.” the mare replied, casting a nervous glance at Gunny as he focused on watching her for suspicious movement.

“Ivy?” I asked, giving a nod as I took in the name. “Alright Ivy. Would you be willing to tell me your story? I’d like to know what exactly drove you to join these raiders. When did you join them? Why did you think this was a good idea?”

Ivy let out a shaky sigh as she worked to regain her composure, and after another two deep breaths, she said, “I was born in the Equestrian heartland, and I was raised there too. The settlement I lived in wasn’t really a settlement… it was more like a moving camp. We only had about forty ponies in it, and that hardly changed as I grew up. When I became a young mare… a band of slavers attacked it, killed the stallions and the elderly and took the mares and foals.”

“Goddesses… really?” Shore asked, ears drooped. “As in, captured them as slaves??”

Ivy nodded solemnly.

“That’s… that’s terrible…” I said, shuddering at the mere thought of the use of slaves. “Who could do such a thing?”

“They could.” Ivy replied lowly. “I lived for a year among that band of slavers. My job… well, I’m sure you wouldn’t want to know… Anyway, after a year in that place, a force of the Black Blood Raiders swarmed down into the slavers’ settlement and killed all of the slavers until only the leader of the settlement was left. I was always that stallion’s favorite pet…”

Ivy shivered, and I looked back at her sympathetically. “I’m sorry.”

The young mare shook her head. “He undid the chains holding me to his bed when the raiders were on his doorstep.” she explained darkly, a glare forming on her face. “He offered me to them in order to spare his own hide… but his mistake was that he freed me. When they were negotiating for who would get to screw me next, I took the slave master’s combat knife. One of the raiders must’ve seen me take it… but none of them said a damn thing because I took that knife… and I drove it into the slave master’s black heart… again and again and again…” Silence lingered as she let out a shaky sigh, nearly sobbing again as she fought to compose herself; I wanted to comfort her… I couldn’t even begin to imagine going through what she was explaining to me. “After that, the leader of that Black Blood force stepped up to me.” she continued as she collected herself. “He said that he liked what I did. He said that he saw potential and he said that the slave master deserved what I did to him… that’s when he offered for me to join their ranks.” she paused again as she looked over the armor she wore. “I should’ve thought about it… should’ve seen that there was something wrong when they took all the pent-up slaves with them. But I didn’t think. I agreed because it was better than living as some… sex slave to a settlement of slavers…” her words finished in a whisper, and she raised a foreleg to wipe tears from her eyes.

“I’m so sorry…” I muttered sadly. In one moment, Ivy had been the enemy of myself, my friends, and my home. But now, in my eyes, she was a frightened and lonely mare who needed a home and needed friends.

Ivy let out a mirthless chuckle. “And now here I am… on the verge of summary execution by three pissed off ponies.” she said, not looking at any of us. “I suppose I deserve it for thinking it a good idea to be a part of a bunch of raiders.”

“Ivy…” I began, lowering my head down to try and make eye contact with the unicorn mare. “You owe the Black Blood nothing… absolutely nothing.”

“They’ve only been our enemies for nine days, and we already know that they don’t deserve any kind of gratitude.” Gunny added firmly.

“They’ve killed dozens of ponies.” Shore pointed out. “And that’s only an educated guess towards the number of dead that we’ve found, killed by their hooves.”

“And do you know what they did to us?” I asked gently, Ivy raising her head to look at me with watery eyes.

“What did they do?”

“They destroyed our home.” I answered. “We lived in a Stable nine days ago. They burrowed their way into it and killed over two hundred ponies… I lost my parents. My friend did too, and others still lost friends and family in their attack. We lost loved ones and a home, and we just barely stopped them from taking our second home.”

“That’s the kind of stuff that they do?” Ivy asked, her voice faint as another tear snaked down her face.

“That’s the kind of stuff that they do.” Gunny answered with a nod.

“I was never put into any raids.” Ivy said as she sniffed again. “I was trained on how to use weapons once they returned to the southeast from the north. This scouting mission was my first assignment… Goddesses I don’t want to do this anymore…”

“And you don’t have to anymore.” I answered, a smile tugging at my face as an idea quickly formed in my head.

“You’re not going to kill me are you?” Ivy asked, looking nervously back at Gunny; my friend lowered the shotgun to the ground, the red magic glow around it fading as he shook his head.

“No.” I answered, rising up. “If you don’t have your own plans, I’d like to invite you to Hopeville.”

“Hopeville?” Ivy asked, her own smile beginning to appear. “That’s a nice name for a town… hope…”

“I agree entirely.” Shore replied encouragingly.

“That’s where we live now.” I explained. “And if you want to go there, I’m certain that they would welcome you openly.”

Ivy rose to her hooves, and as she looked down at the armor she wore, her horn glowed a dark green, enveloping her gear and swiftly removing it to cast it down the hill. Ivy was a grey unicorn mare, her coat color matching mine nearly perfectly. Her mane and tail were a forest green, matching her deep emerald eyes, and on her flanks was a cutie mark of a thin paintbrush and easel. “You’d do this for me?” she asked, very hesitant.

“Yes.” I said as I smiled even wider. “And I know a young filly in Hopeville that would absolutely love to have you as a drawing buddy.”

Ivy blushed, smiling fully with me. “Wow… you hardly know me, and you’re all giving me this chance… I don’t know what to say…”

“You’ve said enough.” Gunny replied, stepping up beside her. “As far as I’m concerned, I never saw you wearing that armor.”

“Thank you… thank you so much…” Ivy said, sobbing and laughing at the same time. “Thank you…”

“Would you like an escort back to Hopeville?” Shore asked willingly.

“No thanks…” Ivy said, smiling his way. “All of you have given me enough. Though… I could use some directions.”

“Oh, yeah those might help.” I muttered sheepishly, trotting up beside her and pointing out towards the northwest. “If you go straight that way, you’ll eventually come across an old pre-war road. When you find that, follow it westward. Hopeville is at the very end of that road.”

Ivy gave a polite chuckle. “How symbolic… hope at the end of the road…”

I giggled with her. “Indeed. When you get there, go to the first pony you find and tell them that Nova sent you. They’ll lead you to Captain Saber. He’s a wise leader and an honorable stallion, and when you tell him what you told me, I’m certain that he’ll gladly welcome you to our home.”

“I’ll do that.” Ivy replied with a nod. “Again… thank you for this… maybe some day I’ll find a way to repay you three.”

“Don’t worry about it.” Shore assured with a dip of his head. “You deserve this chance.”

“And they won’t mind if I show up early in the morning?” Ivy asked with a small smirk.

“There’s a night guard shift.” Gunny replied, grinning with her. “I’m sure that Saber can handle the wake up call. Hell, he’ll probably be awake by the time you get there. Although,” he added, looking back at the equipment laying on the ground. “you probably should take a weapon with you… or two if you want.”

Ivy nodded, trotting back to the gear and looking to easily ignore the bodies of her former comrades. Out of the pile, she secured a pistol with its holster around her right foreleg and also took one of the battle saddles, armed with two assault rifles, and secured that around her torso. Now fully equipped, Ivy looked us all over with a smile. “Will you three be coming back to Hopeville soon?” she asked.

“We have some things to take care of.” Gunny explained. “But we’ll be coming back in the next few days. I’m sure we’ll end up seeing you there.”

“I hope so… thank you again… thank you.” With that, Ivy gave a wave before trotting down the hill and towards the northwest. As I watched her go, I gave a happy little sigh. Even after that skirmish, helping that young mare like that… that put me in a great mood… and I swear that I felt my parents smiling down at me.

“Nova!”

I snapped my head to look down the hill, the voice calling my name welcomingly familiar, and I saw as Blake ran up the hill towards me. I turned and bolted for him, quickly closing the distance between us before scooping him up in a big hug. “Oh Blake, I’m so glad you’re safe!” I briefly pushed him back to look him over from head to tail. “You’re not hurt are you? You’re alright?”

“No I’m not hurt.” Blake answered, smiling up at me before he pressed his head against my chest. “Lucan and the others weren’t hurt either.”

“Good, good.” I replied, pulling him against me and kissing him on the forehead. “I was worried about you.”

“I was worried about you too.”

“I know baby brother. But we’re safe now.” I assured, nuzzling him before the sound of wheels caught my attention. Hallion and Marian were coming up to us now, and Betsy had returned to be resecured to the wagon. Little Lucan was riding atop the ammo crates again, peering over at us with a smile.

“Are you all okay?” Hallion called to us.

“We’re good here. No injuries.” Gunny replied as he and Shore descended the hill. “My armor took a bunch of rounds, but none of them got through thankfully.”

“Marian, could you go up to the hill and bring back any salvageable weapons?” Hallion asked, and with a nod, his sister trotted ahead to loot. “What happened up there, Nova? I heard voices, and there was a gunshot but there was no fighting.”

“One of the ponies on the hill surrendered.” I explained as he trotted up in front of me. “We let her go.”

“You let a raider go??” Hallion asked, raising an alarmed eye.

“It’s a long story.” I replied with what I hoped was an assuring smile. “Let’s just say that she had a rather convincing story that confirmed my suspicions about her not belonging among the raiders’ ranks.”

Hallion’s eye didn’t lower at first, and he stared at me for a long moment before his eyes eased up. “Coming from anypony else, I would’ve called bullshit on it… but that look in your eyes… I believe you.” he said with a smile.

“Thanks Hallion.”

“Well, while you all were up there, Betsy came back and we got ourselves all prepped and ready to move again.” Hallion explained.

“She must be really smart.” I said with a light laugh, releasing Blake from my embrace. “She wasn’t hurt either?”

“No. Thankfully, we just ran into a small scouting party, and not a full group.” Hallion explained, and as Marian returned with a half dozen raider weapons in tow, he added, “The Black Blood sometimes send out squads to go and raid and scout the roads. Those have about a dozen ponies… and I’d rather not fight that many with cargo in tow.”

“Are we about ready to move, brother?” Marian asked, packing in the raider weapons aboard the wagon as Betsy let out a ‘moo’.

“Yep. The radio station is just up ahead. We can hold out there for the night and move out again in the morning.”

“Let’s get over there before another patrol comes our way.” Gunny said as he joined us by the wagon.

With a nod, Hallion trotted in front of Betsy and took the lead, the brahmin faithfully following as the rest of us fell in line. Even as we adjusted our course due southeast again, I could already see an outline in the near distance. The nearing dark shape was a long rectangle on the ground, and jutting up from the top of it were three short towers. But to the right of it, closer to us as we moved forward, was a shape that broke the flat surface of the ground. At first, it only appeared as a short mound, something that held no shape of its own. But more and more, I could identify what could only be called pieces and the greater whole that they belonged to. I stared to my right as we passed the debris, and I could make out what looked to be a vehicular body made of metal that was long rusted out. The body of the… whatever it was… tilted slightly to the right, making what looked like some sort of short wing jut up into the air from the left side. As I looked closer, I could see a very similar sheet of metal lying a slight ways away from the main body of the wreck. Also, attached to the back of the body were two strips of metal, bent and warped, that extended from the body before attaching together and making some sort of double tail. At the very front of the wreckage was an open hole, shards of glass ringing it, that looked large enough for a pony to fit into. The wreck itself looked to have skidded along the ground a fair distance, a long and shallow trench carved into the ground for several meters to stop where the wreckage lay.

“Do you have any idea what that thing is?” Gunny asked, likewise looking over the wreckage as we walked.

“I’ve never even read about something that looked like this.” Shore answered, his eyes narrowing in a bookish stare. “Then again, all of that rust and twisted metal doesn’t help in trying to identify it.”

“It’s definitely a crash site… I’m kind of curious to poke around and see if I can find anything recognizable.” Gunny remarked, facing forward again. “But maybe I’ll do that tomorrow after some rest.”

“That would probably be best.” Hallion put in ahead of us. “I’ve looked over that wreck myself a few times anyway, but you’re welcome to look around yourselves. For now though, we’re coming up on the news station. I want to clear it out and make sure it’s safe before we move in.”

“I’ll give you a hoof.” Gunny offered, trotting past me to join Lucky Hallion as we drew up towards the building. Now that we were nearly in front of it, I could distinguish other features of the pre-war structure. Despite being a news radio station, the building itself was not very large. It was made primarily of stone, steel reinforcements lining its corners and edges. At the top of the building, aside from the three radio towers, was a small dish of some kind that had fallen off of its housing and now lay near the edge of the building’s roof. There was also a fourth radio tower which had fallen from the roof, the base resting against the top of the station while the top had sunk into the ground; I was certain that it could be used to get to the roof.

As we approached the corner of the building, Hallion leading us to the now visible metal double doors of the entrance, my pipbuck chirped again, and I stopped to see my world map displayed on the screen. A new icon had appeared at my location, reading Southeast Regional News Radio Station; this was the eighth location on my map. “Hey Nova.” Shore called, drawing my attention to the door of the station. “Do you see anything on your E.F.S.?”

I raised my leg back up to check over the compass. Facing the building, there were no indicated hostiles or non-hostiles within. “I don’t see anything on my compass.” I answered. “It should be safe.”

“We’ll still check each room. There’s six of them, so if three of us split up, we should be in and out quick.” Hallion explained to Gunny who gave a nod as he checked his LMG. “Marian, go ahead and park the wagon next to the entrance and let Betsy free.” Turning to me, he asked, “Who else wants to come?”

“I can go if you want to stay out here Shore.” I offered, looking back behind me at where he stood.

“I can help Marian.” he said with a nod.

“I want to go into the building!” Blake declared bravely, taking a step forward before I snapped out my foreleg in front of him to stop him.

“Blake, I think you should stay out here until we know the station is safe.” I said, resolutely staring as I lowered my foreleg.

“Come on Nova. You’re pipbuck said that there was nothing inside. It can’t be that bad.” he insisted, looking back up at me. “I’ll stay right behind you and be really quiet. I promise!”

I let out a light sigh. “Why couldn’t you have just said ‘okay’?” I asked with a smirk, Blake returning the gesture. “You promise to stay close and to move quietly?”

“Pinkie promise!” Blake answered energetically, hopping a little on the word ‘pinkie’.

I put a hoof to my mouth to stifle a giggle. “Alright, come on then.”

With that, I trotted up behind Gunny (who was looking just as amused as me), Blake holding to his word and staying behind me as we stacked up along the wall. “Ready?” Hallion asked, removing his lever-action shotgun from its holster with his horn.

“Let’s do it.” Gunny answered, and with a nod, Hallion stepped up to the doors before wheeling around and delivering a strong buck to the metal. The doors swung open and banged against the walls behind them as Gunny and Hallion stepped in together, weapons at the ready.

Flipping the safety off on my saddle, I followed after them, checking left and right as I stepped inside. This first room was very nearly empty. At the far end of the room, against the left wall, was a large desk that was fixed into the dirty wooden floor. It was about chest high to a pony and adorned with two signs that simply read the name of the station. Laying strewn along the floor in front of the desk was a pile of old recording equipment, looking to have been salvaged, stomped on, and then picked over again; I couldn’t recognize any of the devices from the pile of scrap. However, what drew my attention was the scattering of bullet marks and scorch streaks along the wall. They were everywhere, and on the floor, concentrated more thickly near the blown apart door leading further into the station, was a collection of bullet casings, all of which were worn down by age into useless metal pieces.

“Guess you were right Hallion.” I heard Gunny remark as he trotted to a closed door on the right side of the news room. “Whoever was here got into a hell of a fight.” With his magic, he opened the door and looked inside before giving the all clear.

“Yeah, and you can tell that it wasn’t recent because of the state of these cases.” Hallion replied, picking one of the rusted cases with his magic and studying it. “If they had been recently used, I would’ve taken them all with me when I first laid eyes on them. Some of these were three-o-eight rounds, and others still were five fifty-six and ten millimeter. I didn’t see much other than those.” He tossed the case away and trotted ahead to the next door, shotgun floating in front of him.

As Gunny, Blake, and I joined up with him, he stepped into the next room and gave the all clear. This room had even more evidence of the battle than the first. More worn rifle casings lay strewn along the wood floor, and all of the station’s equipment that occupied the room had been shoved into the far corner. More explosives residue marked the walls, and chunks of the floor were missing, showing where other detonations had occurred. The largest point of damage in this room, however, was where the majority of the wall that had divided this room from the room straight ahead now lay in a line of rubble; the old door also lay amidst the ruins. “The first time I found this place, there were skeletons in this room. You can still see where they were by finding the stains on the floor.” Hallion explained as he advanced past the fallen wall. “I cleared them out when I needed this place to sleep in, but… yeah, there were at least a half dozen.”

“That’s… a little grotesque.” I replied with a grimace, looking behind me at Blake who likewise made a face.

“Sorry… but the thing about them was that the skeletons weren’t carrying pony-made weaponry or armor.”

“What do you mean by that?” Gunny inquired, looking at the pile of junk in the corner of the room.

“I mean that the skeletons were zebra soldiers. They’re equipment was made in their homeland.”

I looked back at Hallion with wide eyes. “Zebras… as in the enemy of Equestria during the war??… In the southeast??”

“Yes, but don’t ask me how.” Hallion remarked with a shake of his head. “All I know is that the weapons they carried were manufactured by zebra hooves, and the armor was crafted with enchantments. Some of the gear even had black and white stripes to prove their origin.”

“It kind of makes me wonder if there was a battle in the southeast, a battle like Shattered Hoof, or the battles outside Hoofington during the Great War.” Gunny stated as he approached the doorway leading into the next room.

“Maybe, maybe not. All I know is that zebras had some sort of presence in this region during the war.” Hallion said as he stopped by the next door. “I’ll check the electrical room down here, and you three can clear out the last two rooms on the right. I’ll meet you outside when I’m done.”

With a nod Gunny stepped through the next door, this one intact, and I quickly followed after him with Blake on my tail. This room was likewise a battle-torn mess, just as demolished as the previous room if not more so. This room had chunks of the ceiling missing aside from the similar blast marks and scattered rifle casings, and all of the station’s equipment that had sat in this room lay strewn about in pieces. The floor underneath the holes in the ceiling showed heavy decay, and I could see the occasional streak or splotch of long-dried blood on the floor. “That’s definitely an interesting thought.” Gunny remarked as the three of us checked the room. “Zebras in the southeast, I mean.”

“I know.” I replied with a nod. “I never read about an enemy presence in the southeast though. I only remember Hoofington from the Stable’s texts.”

Gunny nodded as he quickly swept the rest of the room. Then, we were upon the last door. The entry was already opened, but next to it, still sitting on the wall on the door’s right side, was a small black sign that read ‘control room’. As we stepped inside, I could see three large terminals set along the far wall, sitting in front of an open and empty tool cabinet. Against the right wall was a fourth terminal, a familiar green monochrome radiating from the screen built into a large steel frame that was secured to the floor. This was the only terminal out of the four that was operational; I would have to wait for Shore to see if it could be used for anything.

However, I noticed that these terminals were all fully intact. Unlike the others, this room had remained mostly untouched from whatever battle had taken place in the station. There were no marks on the walls, and there were only a small collection of gun cases that rested around the open doorway. Other than this, the room was rather well preserved, aside from the natural wear and dust which had accumulated over one hundred and seventy-five years. “Looks like we’re all clear.” Gunny remarked, securing the All-Equestrian to his armor again.

“Good, I’m kind of getting sleepy.” I said, switching the safety of my saddle on.

“We all are, I think.” Gunny replied with a thin smile. “I’ll go get Hallion and let him know that it’s safe to move everypony in. See you in a bit.”

As Gunny departed, I turned back to look at my little brother, who was wearing a big smile on his face. “Did I do good?”

“Yes, Blake. You did good.” I answered, smiling as I gave him an loving nuzzle. “Thank you for doing what I told you, at least after I said you could help.”

Blake puffed out his chest, basking in his victory. “Yes!”

“I’m thinking that pretty soon, I’ll have to teach you how to use a firearm.” I added after a giggle. “Out here, the sooner you learn how to protect yourself, the better. And since you’re already very dedicated, and you’ve shown that you can follow instructions, I see no reason not to introduce you to firearms.”

“I’ve always wanted to learn how to use one ever since dad first brought it up.” Blake stated happily. “That’d be awesome!”

“Just remember that weapons aren’t toys.” I stated firmly. “If you don’t use them properly, they can really hurt you… but this is stuff that I’ll explain when I start teaching you.”

“Aw… you mean you’re not going to teach me now?” Blake asked with a pout.

“Blake, let your big sister get some sleep first.” I said with an amused smile.

“Fine…” With a little laugh at his own remark, Blake trotted over to the lone terminal on the right side of the control room. “What do you think these thingies were used for?” he asked as I stepped up beside him to look over the console.

“I really don’t know.” I replied, running a hoof along the front of the console, wiping away a line of dust which I swiped along the floor. “Shore could probably tell us.”

As his curiosity continued to drive him, Blake trotted around to the side of the console and looked into the space between the back of the terminal and the wall. At the same time, Shore and Gunny stepped through the door, the former’s eyes lighting up upon seeing the glowing terminal. “Oh, how marvelous!” Shore exclaimed, prancing up to the terminal and adjusting his glasses. “I didn’t expect to find a working terminal in this building.”

“You’re just right at home aren’t you?” Gunny asked with a smirk.

“Oh yes, especially since this terminal is locked.” Shore replied, oblivious to Gunny’s sarcasm. “I’ll need a minute to unlock it.”

Unable to suppress my own curiosity, despite it being directed towards a subject I had no understanding of, I trotted up beside Shore as he reared up and began typing away at the keyboard below the glowing screen. “Is this the same thing that you did back in Hopeville a few days back?” I asked, having to blink away from the bright green monitor; how did Shore look directly into that thing for so long… at least blink, my friend!

“Yes.” Shore answered with a smile. “This terminal is protected by a similar security system, and I do believe that this terminal is the same model as the one in the Hopeville Press.” He paused as his smile switched immediately to a frown. “This has a longer password… eleven letters.”

“Can you get past it?” I asked, tilting my head as I looked back at the screen. “That looks complicated.”

“It is.” Shore stated matter-of-factly. “At least it’s a challenge.”

With an amused sigh, I left him to his work and trotted back over to Gunny who was looking over the other terminals. “Looking for something?” I asked.

“Just seeing if there’s something that the scavengers missed.” Gunny replied with a grunt. “I doubt it… but it passes the time until the egghead gets his work done. He’ll probably end up finding the location of the Sapphire Stone once he’s past the security.”

“Daring Do…” I muttered with a shake of my head, sharing a short laugh with my friend. “Where are the others?” I asked.

“They’re already setting up in the news room.” Gunny explained. “They want to get some sleep, and I’m heading in that direction myself. Hallion said that we can take the control room for the night, and he, Shore, and I will alternate watches.”

“Where’s Lucan?”

“He’s with them.” Gunny answered. “Little guy’s been helping Marian around the wagon.”

Aw. “I hope we’ll find his parents when we get to Challenger.” I said after a pause.

“I don’t see why we wouldn’t.” Gunny replied. “After everything Hallion’s said about the place being secure, it seems like there shouldn’t be any trouble with finding Lucan’s folks.”

“I know… but still, I kind of worry a bit. After all, Challenger’s at war according to Hallion.” I remarked lowly.

“You ‘kind of worry’ too much.” I felt Gunny’s hoof poke me in the side, making me wobble just slightly, and I looked up to see him smirking; still poking fun at me and making me feel short at the same time…

“Heh… I guess you’re ri-”

“Ah ha!” I looked back at the terminal, stopping in mid-sentence at Shore’s victorious shout. “Thought you could best me did you?”

With a laugh, I trotted back over to Shore, Blake joining me by his side as Shore typed away at the keyboard. “I take it you unlocked the terminal?” I asked with an expectant grin.

“Of course.” Shore replied as he watched the screen. “There’s no terminal I can’t get through… and let’s see what this one holds.” As I watched the list of computer code scroll away, I saw as a list of new options appeared. However, each and every one of them said the exact same word. “Corrupt?” Shore asked aloud, peeking in closer to the screen. “Seems like this terminal had crashed or… wait, there’s something here…… unlock door?”

“Unlock door?” I repeated, leaning in next to Shore to look at the screen with him. Indeed, sitting amongst the dozen or so corrupt files was a single system operation option to unlock a door.

“But there’s no doors here besides those destroyed ones.” Blake said, scratching his chin with a hoof.

“Yes… it’s quite odd.” Shore replied with a slow nod. “I suppose there’s only one thing to do though, and that’s to see what happens when I select it.”

Without delay, Shore selected the option and pressed the key, and there was only a moment’s silence before I heard a click to my left. I stepped back and looked towards the direction of the sound. But there were only walls… “Hey, the floor’s moving!” Blake exclaimed suddenly, stepping up beside me and pointing just ahead. I followed his hoof to find where he was pointing to, and to my great surprise, a section of the floor to the right of the three terminals had split open, revealing a tiny crack of light. And then I could hear the turning of gears as the two parts of the floor, now recognizable as steel doors, slid back and away to reveal a short hallway… the floor of which was caked with a trail of dark red… more dried blood.

“Well I’ll be damned… what happened here?” Gunny asked, stepping up to us as the four of us looked into the hallway.

“It must be some kind of underground storage… or a shelter of some kind perhaps.” Shore examined, adjusting his reading glasses with a hoof. “But I don’t know how this happened.”

“Right now, I want to check it out and make sure nothing’s hiding inside that might’ve made that blood trail.” Gunny said, his horn glowing as he drew his riot shotgun. “Do you have anything on your E.F.S. Nova?”

I shook my head. “The compass is clean.” I replied before turning back to Blake. “Blake, stay here while we check this place out… no arguing this time.” Though he gave a little frown, he stepped back and instead occupied himself with removing his saddlebags, and I gave him a grateful smile before turning back to the hallway.

With an exchange of nods, Gunny took the lead and descended the short set of metal stairs and stepped into the hallway. As I followed after him, Shore taking the rear, I kept my eyes on the trail of blood. The dark red had spattered the stairs before making the trail, a curvy line of dark red streaks that led into a well-lit room at the end of the hall. “Hello?” Gunny ventured as he approached the room, and he stepped inside as he searched with his shotgun.

“Anything?” Shore asked from behind me.

“No… it’s clear.” Gunny answered, giving a nod before returning his riot shotgun to its place on his armor. “The room’s empty too… there’s a skeleton here though.”

I followed in after him, tracing the trail of blood across the floor as it snaked into the room itself. The room was, in fact, very empty. In the far corner of the small shelter was a large wooden crate, one side already opened and devoid of any supplies. Likewise, the wooden shelves that were built into the walls were all empty, and the table set into the opposite corner of the storage crate also had nothing set upon it. However, in the center of the room, lying on its side underneath the single ceiling light, was the fully intact skeleton of a unicorn. Draped in tatters around the bones was what remained of some kind of barding, the fabric now colorless with age. “I think this was the pony responsible for the blood trail.” Shore commented grimly, stepping up beside Gunny as he lifted a piece of the ruined barding with his magic.

“With the dried blood around this thing, I think you’re right.” Gunny remarked as he let the piece of barding fall back onto the skeleton. “This pony wasn’t wearing combat armor. This is just like Stable barding.”

“Do you think that this pony was part of the fight upstairs?” I asked as I joined the two.

“It’s entirely possible.” Gunny replied with a shrug. “It could’ve been somepony who died at a different time… maybe a wastelander.”

“I think you might be right.” Shore said as he trotted over to the supply crate to look inside. “I wonder if there’s anything left in this room. It seems unlikely that a shelter like this would be entirely empty, especially if it hasn’t been discovered by scavengers.”

Beside me, Gunny gave a grunt, and I turned to see him studying over the skeleton again. “No weapons either.” he said as he looked through the exposed ribcage. “Hm… take a look this Nova.”

I leaned over to see where he was looking, unable to suppress a grimace as I looked into the skeletal ribcage. “What is it?”

“Look at the metal bits under the bones.” Gunny said, nodding to the ribcage. As I looked closer, I could see just what Gunny was talking about. On the floor under the skeleton, partially concealed by the old frame, were several metal pieces. “Those are bullets.” Gunny explained, and I looked back up at him as he gave a nod. “Might be hollow points with all those fragments… maybe ten millimeter rounds.”

“Are you sure?” I asked curiously.

“Hollow points make a damned bloody mess out of unarmored targets.” Gunny explained. “Aside from the trail in the hallway, this skeleton’s lying in a dried pool of red, and there’s some by the supply crate as well. Whoever this pony was, he or she was shot to hell and bled out. Must not have been packing any healing potions… poor bastard.”

“Gunny, Nova, I found something over here.” Shore called, and I looked up to see as Shore backed up from the crate, chomping down on a metal handle and dragging a long metal case out from behind the supply crate. As he set it back onto the floor, he looked back at us and motioned towards the crate. “There’s also a pair of old saddlebags back here.”

“I know that case… it’s a gun case.” Gunny said as he trotted up to the metal box and looked it over. “It’s locked too.” Behind Gunny, Shore dragged out the pair of saddlebags and set them beside the gun case as Gunny took out his screwdriver and a bobby pin. “If you two want to look through those saddlebags, I’ll get to work on this case. I’m kind of curious to see what’s inside myself.”

With a nod, Shore picked up the saddlebags and brought them over to me, setting them down at my hooves. “They aren’t very heavy.” he explained as he nudged open one of the two flaps. “There must not be a whole lot in here.”

“I bet they belonged to that pony.” I said, nodding towards the skeleton.

“Indeed. Let’s see what’s inside.”

As Shore reached into the first saddlebag, I pulled back the flap on the second and opened it with a hoof. Inside the bag, I first saw a pair of empty water bottles, and upon pulling them out, I saw an small empty box, the label of which read Dandy Colt Apples. Setting the three items aside, I reached deeper into the bag and suddenly felt the touch of metal and plastic against my hoof. “What’s this?”

“What did you find?” Shore asked, looking up from his own search (which had only turned up two empty food boxes).

“I don’t know… I think it’s…” I scooped out the object from the bag with my foreleg and it slid onto the floor. “It’s a magazine… three-o-eight rounds.”

“Hm… there’s another one in here as well.” Shore added, and after a pause, I saw as another magazine slipped out onto the floor.

I heard a click from where Gunny was working on the case.

“I bet they go with whatever weapon’s in that case.” I observed as I looked back down at the magazine. The box clip held six .308 rifle rounds, and the only weapon I knew that was chambered for that round was Cross’s battle rifle. Curious to see if there was more ammo I could use later, I reached back into the saddlebag as Shore trotted over to Gunny to watch him work. After a moment of feeling around, my hoof landed on another item. Upon pulling it out of the bag, I found myself looking over a small, well-preserved book. Attached to the small leather spine was what remained of a quill, only small strings of the feather remaining on the quill itself.

“No way…… Nova…” I heard Gunny say.

I looked up with a raised eye, looking back between my two friends as they both stared at me with wide eyes. “What?” I asked, utterly baffled as to why they looked so shocked.

“Your cutie mark…” Gunny stated, looking back down at the now open gun case.

“What about it?” I asked slowly.

“You need to see this.” Shore replied, nodding to the case.

Setting aside the book, which I had been on the verge of opening, I trotted up beside Gunny and looked inside the open gun case. Sitting atop a fully intact layer of protective padding was a beautifully preserved sniper rifle devoid of any signs of wear. The rifle looked very sturdy with its metal body and parts, and it was very finely made. The barrel was a long one with what I recognized as a muzzle brake on the end. Attached to the back of the barrel, resting under it, was a short pair of metal rods - a bipod attachment. The scope was outfitted with a rubber eyepiece, and a six-round magazine, like the ones I had found in the skeleton's saddlebags, was fitted into the weapon. The sniper rifle, like Gunny’s LMG, was painted in camouflage. But instead of army green, this rifle was painted with splotches of bright sapphire, solid black, and dark grey. The paint job covered the entire weapon from barrel to scope to stock-

I gasped.

Painted on the stock, clearly visible through the blue camouflage paintjob, was a blue flame… just like my cutie mark… exactly like my cutie mark. I snapped my head around to look at my right flank, seeing the blue flame on my grey coat and seeing the exact same thing again on the stock of the sniper rifle; no matter how many times I looked back and forth between the two… they stayed exactly the same. “What in the world…” I stared back down at the rifle, looking it over from barrel to stock again and again.

“I don’t understand either… it’s the same exact thing.” Gunny replied, enveloping the rifle with his telekinesis to carefully turn it over. “There’s another blue flame painted on the other side of the stock too.”

“It must have belonged to whoever that skeleton was.” Shore stated, looking back over at the skeleton in the center of the room.

“Maybe trying to keep the weapon hidden…” Gunny replied as he carefully set the rifle back into its case.

I didn’t speak as they tried to piece together the rifle’s presence in this room. Instead, I reached out and placed a hoof on the stock, running it along the base of the blue flame painted onto it. It was a perfect replica… a perfect copy of my cutie mark! How the hell was that even possible?? The same thing had been said about me when I had gotten my cutie mark. It was the same cutie mark as my father's, and while it had left all of Stable 181 with questions, I had come to accept it as something more than just ‘fate giving me a duplicate cutie mark because it couldn’t figure out what to do with me.’ This - this just didn’t seem possible… but here it was, my own cutie mark painted onto a weapon that I never owned, staring me right in the face.

My pipbuck suddenly chirped on my right leg, and I tore my gaze away from the rifle to look down at my computer. My inventory screen was displayed on the monitor showing a list of eight items. One item was the battle saddle, three were the ammunition types that I carried, and another three were my three weapons that I carried with me… but the other was a name that left my shocked mind with an absolute cloud of questions. My pipbuck had registered the sniper rifle as part of my collection of gear when I had touched its stock, and on the bottom of the list of items, it had given the rifle a name:

Blue Fire’s Torch.



Footnote: Level Up!!

New Perk: Commando - You’ve grown accustomed to using rifle-class weaponry. When using a lever or bolt action rifle, semi-automatic rifle or carbine, assault rifle, or sniper rifle on a battle saddle, your accuracy in S.A.T.S. is increased by 25%.

Skill Notes:

Small Guns: (50)
Speech: (50)
Sneak: (50)