> Fallout Equestria: Above and Below
>  by Cloverwing
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> Ch 1: First Meeting
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Chapter 1


War, war never changes... The Equestria Wasteland... colorless, dirty, cruel, and chaotic... This was the world 200 years in the future. And war is still ongoing despite the apocalypse happening, the great war, like that of Red Eye, The Enclave, and the Brotherhood of Steel rage against each other. As well as the smaller ones, raiders attacking other raiders and other wastelanders for supplies... These are the tales of such wars...

Underneath an old, broken bridge was a peculiar pony. A yellow stallion, pegasus to be exact, far from his homeland up in the sky... He had been an enclave scout, assigned to float down to the barren surface and report if things were still too dangerous for the rest of the world above to join those below. War was brought upon this pegasus' squad, raiders shooting at them from below, and making him separate from the rest of his team. Unable to return to the skies without proper clearance, he is stranded down here and now makes due.

This pony is Silver Lining, who had traded in his Enclave uniform for something more casual, wanting to blend in to society down here. It had been three months since his separation, and is living comfortably with the career of a bounty hunter... At least, as comfortable as one CAN be in the Wasteland... He is currently holding fort in his makeshift home under this broken bridge, having one of his last MREs for supper.

The Wasteland was certainly deserving of its name. As far as a pony could see, there was nothing but death and desolation. Buildings that once stood proud and tall now sagged and creaked weakly. The world, it seemed, was blanketed in a dreary cloak of cloud cover. Years ago, the pegasus race decided the rest of Equestria was undeserving of the sun's love, and tucked it away behind their artificial clouds. With no sun, the grass, trees, and flowers all withered to match the decrepit cityscapes around them. Years passed, and the plants adapted to live off of the radioactive rainwater, but grew in dreary shades of gray and dull green.

Not unlike the plants, ponies have learned to survive in this sullen landscape. Most have retired to safe havens around Equestria, where they can live and die comfortably. Others refuse to trust that there is such thing as sanctuary in the Wasteland, and endlessly wander, scavenging for supplies to make ends meet.

The latter would most accurately describe the two mares trotting side by side towards a sagging city bridge, laden with supplies dangling from their rucksacks. 

The larger one, carrying most of the weight, is a unicorn, lean and muscular from her life in the Wasteland, constantly having to carry weeks' worth of supplies. Her light grey coat, where not covered in ragged wanderer armor, glistens with sweat in the glow of the evening sun, the last of two appearances from the star each day. In a glowing purple field next to her, a .50 bolt action sniper rifle aims where her violet eyes scan, checking building tops and alleyways. As she walks, she blows a lock of her dirty brown mane out of her face. It had been done up in a ponytail, but a short squall with a couple of Raiders had put her hair into disarray. She steals a quick glance to make sure her smaller companion is still at her side. 

The white-coated mare, nearly a head shorter than her companion, and nowhere near a match to her build, takes quiet, long steps in order to keep up with the other mare. Her icy, gray-blue eyes constantly flicker up and over to her companion, nervously anticipating gunshots to begin ringing again. Her flanks are sore, struggling to keep moving under the weight she carries. Along with the bag on her back filled with scavenged supplies, she carries two yellow containers on either flank, adorned with small pink butterflies. She is the more armored of the two, wearing black combat armor that looks as though it had to have been sized down in order to fit her.

The tense silence finally breaks as the two near the bridge. 

"Essie..?" the smaller one whispers, pointing towards the light of a campfire.

"Ah see it, Star." the mare with the rifle replies. "Hide." she says quietly, swinging the rifle around, towards the fire. The mare shakes her blue mane out of her eyes and quietly scurries off to cover, behind a pile of rubble and bricks.

The mare very slowly steps towards the fire and chambers her rifle.

"Talon Company. Yer surrounded. Give up quietly, an' ya live." she bluffs, easing her pistol out of her saddlebag for reassurance.

The silhouette of a pony on the bridge's underside casted by the fire showed the figure flinching before rolling backwards in an unseen part of the camp, blocked by a row of scavenged shelves. The sound of a rifle loaded was followed shortly after, along with the reply of a clear voice of a stallion. "I'm registered back in Appleloosa's Hunter licenses; Talons should have no quarrel with me. Either y'all are new or yer raiders..!" 

Essie spit on the ground at the mention of Raiders, scowling in the direction of the stallion's voice. "Cawl me a Raider, an' see how quick Ah split yer skull open! Come out if y'all ain't got no quarrel." Against her better judgment, she lowered her rifle and took a tentative step towards the stallion's encampment. "Muh gun's down, an' Ah expect yers t' be too!" she called out, stealing a quick glance back at Star, who was still quivering behind cover.

After a pause, a reply was given back. I'm comin' out!" The sound of trotting could be heard as the pony slowly turned around the corner, a battle saddle on his back with a lone rifle perched under his wing. The stallion was wearing a peculiar set of goggles that were connected via wire to the saddle. "What's your business here, trying to attempt a surge with...?” The stallion blinked for a moment, having an odd expression. "...Only two of you..? Wait, where's your Talon armor??" His gun swiveled on its own towards them.

The mare smirked, leveling her rifle again, aiming at the buck. Though her tense muscles betrayed her calm expression, she spoke unnervingly evenly. "Easy now, buck... So Ah ain't a Talon, but Ah ain't no Raider neither. Jus' stand down, an' ever'pony gets t' save some ammo." she said, bringing the tip of her gun to point at the buck's hooves. "C'mon, Ah don't want t' bring any unwanted attention over here. We're lookin' fer a spot t' settle fer the night. Tha's all."

The stallion just narrowed his gaze at her. "So you decide to try and run me out of my own camp first by 'pretending' to be Talons, and when that fails you try to ask nicely with me at gunpoint in my own home? You ain't helpin' your case at all, gal. You've got 5 seconds to either stand down or leave, or I start getting twitchy with the trigger here."

"Awright, awright...” the mare's grin faded, and she levitated the rifle onto her back. The pistol still floated though, hidden behind a small pile of bricks. "Look, we ain't lookin' t' run you out. That routine's just t' make sure we ain't stumbled on a Raider camp, an' y'all don't look like much of a Raider t' me. Jus' point that gun someplace else, an' we can come t' an agreement, awright?"

The corner of his mouth twisted slightly in thought, looking back and forth between the first mare and the one currently hiding behind a rock too small to cover her properly, sighing and shaking his head before lifting his goggles up to his forehead. When he did that, the rifle on his side lowered down. "Very well.... Step on in, why don't ya? Was attempting to make supper earlier..." He back trotted into the cover of the dresser wall he had set up.

The mare nodded and turned around, whistling a mock bird song. A second later, the smaller pony came trotting to Essie's side. After sharing a brief hug, the mares trotted into the stallion's camp. Essie found a seat near the fire, while Star stayed near the spot they'd come in from. Both mares were relieved to shrug off their rucksacks, and Star wasted no time beginning to nurse her aching legs.

"Ah'm Essie. Short fer Sureshot Everheart... Ah figger tha's too much a mouthful, so Ah made it shorter. This here's Starsong. An' before ya ask, no, She ain't muh filly." Starsong perked her ears at the mention of her name, but her focus never wavered from her legs. "Anyhow, Ah suppose that's our innerductions, how about yerself?"

The stallion raised an eyebrow when Essie was quick to comment about her not being her daughter, shrugging before passing them his last MRE, much to his disappointment as he grabbed a case of Sugar Bombs for himself. "Silver Lining, buuut just Silver is preferable... So what are you two then? Friends..? Lovers..? Disgruntled partners in crime?"
"Friends, o' course... Lovers, only when th' absolutely insatiable need arises." Essie explained, chuckling as Starsong's face grew a shade of crimson. "But more th'n anythin' else, scavengers... Survivors... We do what we need t', an' hope we stay on the Goddesses' good sides." She levitated the MRE to Star, and smiled weakly at her. "Ah ain't hungry dear. Besides, you need t' eat more 'n Ah do."

The smaller pony took the meal and nodded, then slowly began to levitate bits of the food up to her muzzle. As she went on, she rapidly gained speed, hungrily eating up every last crumb.

"Thank ya, Silver." Essie said quietly, glancing at Star as she pulled out a bottle of water from their bags. "Y'all didn't have t' do that."

Silver’s eyebrows rose when he heard her explain their relation to another, scratching the back of his mane. "Huh....Well, it's a free world I suppose, not like anypony is around to stop anything anymore.  And don't worry about the food; I was planning on scouting out this old market I found South of our location tomorrow. Perhaps you can repay me for the food and shelter by helping me search it?"

Essie leaned back, ears perked as she considered his offer. She glanced at Starsong for a bit more clarity, but the smaller mare was massaging her legs once again, facing away. The sniper finally smirked, and offered her hoof to the stallion... "Awright, Ah'm in. Hell, jus' the thought of it sounds fun!" she chuckled, which prompted a worrisome interjection from the smaller mare. 

"Essie...” she said pleadingly, shooting nervous glances at the pegasus stallion. Star's voice was quiet, but the sniper latched to every word in spite of her giddiness to go scavenging. 

"We've never been around here... We know what the Raiders are like, back near Ponyville... Not here." she said, taking a seat near the fire, but nearer to Essie. 

"Don' worry, Star.’s jus' a quick scavengin' trip t' thank the nice buck here fer not shootin' us. Ain't that right, uh...? Silver, ya said it was?"

Silver leaned forward towards the sniper pony to shake her hoof, shrugging slightly. "Well, nothin's ever that easy. I only saw the place from a distance through a scope.... It looks 'mostly' untouched. I dunno if anypony has noticed that either, but let's just hope we get there first. Heh, don't know why you're gettin' so excited over it though."

"Ah love awl the shit folks left jus' layin' round when the bombs started droppin'...” Essie replied, leaning back in her seat. She glanced at Starsong, who was facehoofing. "Reminds me that shit used to actually be nice, y'know? Folks used t' be able t' go swimmin' and not have t' take RadAway, or pass other folks on th' street and not shoot 'em." The mare sighed, shaking her head and smiling. "Goddesses know... Ah'd love t' see that someday... But, so long as Raiders an' the like roam around, that ain't gonna be easy. So a scavengin' trip, hell yeah. If the Goddesses smile on us... We'll be able t' erase a few a' the scum too."

Starsong stood up about halfway through Essie's little reverie, and made her way back to the bags. Despite her protest, her mind had been made up for her. She opened the smaller bag and fished out an oversized watch, carrying it in her teeth to Essie's hooves. "Read the weight limit, Essie...” Starsong said, tapping the device. "Four more pounds and you're liable to snap your spine. You need to get rid of a few of those broken guns...”

The stallion raised an eyebrow as he looked to the strange device Starsong had pulled out curiously. "Well, we'll see what we can find when we get there... What is that thing? Haven't seen anything like it before... And what are you doing walking around with broken guns?"

Both the mares looked a little strangely at the buck when he didn't immediately recognize the device. Starsong lifted it up and showed it to Silver, tilting her head a little. "It's... A PipBuck... You've never seen one of these before?" she asked, offering it to the buck. Rather than offer a better explanation, Essie shook her head and chuckled.

"Leave it t' a featherbrain t' not know what a PipBuck is." she chided. "An' Ah keep the guns fer parts. Jus' never got 'round t' takin' 'em apart t' get the good shit out. We won't be leavin' t' go t' that market 'till tomorrow, right?"

Silver scratched the back of his mane curiously, still looking at the PipBuck as he picked it up. "A PipBuck..? Ain't this something those stable technicians use for their work? Used to see those unicorns use 'em all the time... Course they were slimmer than this thing... And yeah, we're not going till tomorrow morning, it's late already."

Starsong sighed a little, looking a little miffed as she trotted away from the buck. "Fuck the Stables." she said angrily, sitting near Essie again. "I'd have smashed that thing a long time ago, if it weren't so goddess-damned useful...”

Essie stood, patting Star's back as she sat, trotting over to her bag and opening it up. Letting Starsong chat with the buck, the sniper busied herself with removing all the guns from her bag and beginning to strip them down.
He winced a bit hearing the smaller of the two curse for once, compared to the foul-mouthed sniper. "I take it that you once came from a Stable and that it wasn't pleasant?"

Starsong's ears fell flat as she realized what she'd said. "Oh no... I'm sorry. I didn't mean to...” she apologized, covering her mouth. "It's just... The Stables make me so angry...”

"Yes, I was born in a Stable. Stable 44, near New Pegasus... To make a long story short, the Overmare wasn't anything like what she made herself out to be, and Stable-Tec, if any of those ponies are still alive, are nothing but cruel, heartless monsters...”
"I'm sorry to hear that. I've never been in a Stable myself, just heard rumors about them from everypony else... "Some are supposed to be fairly okay, like this Stable Dweller they keep talking about on the radio, along with another named Security." He continued to look at the PipBuck. "How do you put one of these on? The fastenings look a bit weird for any tool I know of."
"We had the tool, and then it broke. Before that, I used it to monitor internal injuries, which requires the pony to wear the PipBuck." Starsong said, stepping close and tapping the device. "One day, I unhooked it from myself, heard a small pop, and didn’t pay it any mind. Then I checked Essie, unhooked it, and the stupid thing snaps in half." The mare sighed, then shook her head and glanced at Essie. "We need to find a Stable to pick supplies up from." she said firmly, to which the sniper chuckled. 

"Didn't ya jus' say somethin' about not knowin' what shit was like 'round here?" Essie asked, grinning.

"Well... This is different." The small voice faltered.

Essie shrugged and returned to her work, disassembling the weapons. "Whatever ya say, kiddo... Long as Ah get t' shoot somethin'!"

The stallion tapped a hoof to his chin. "Hmm... Lemme check the map I've got for the closest known Stable..." Silver got up from the spot near the campfire and went towards one of his bookshelves. As he approached a set of folders, he picked one out and unfolded it to reveal a mouth-written map of the Wasteland. But before returning to the fire, he tapped another bookshelf that had plastic containers. 

"These are filled with spare parts for weapons if ya need some Essie. I've got a surplus of junk I collected over time. Just basic tools though, nothing from a Stable..." After taking care of that, he went back to the campfire and laid the map out, studying it. ".......Well, from what I can tell, the closest Stable would be number 24, back in New Appleloosa. It's a day and a half's journey from our location". 

"So when we scavenge that market tomorrow morning, make sure you try and grab a balance of food and tradable items. I'm registered at New Appleloosa, so they know who I am; we won't have to expect any surprises.

Essie's ear perked and she stood to investigate the bins of parts. As she did, various excited noises floated from her direction, and the sounds of metal being rifled through constantly pervaded the area. Starsong couldn't help but chuckle and shake her head. "Typical Essie...” She said, stepping close to the stallion with the map. "I want to talk about this, and she gets distracted by some crazy gun obsession... As long as it can blow somebody's head off, it's more important."

Silver smirked as he watched the gun nut go... nuts over the guns. "Guess I'm glad I didn't have to get into a shootout with her earlier... So what's your thoughts on this?"

Starsong's ears fell, and she shook her head as she stared in Essie's direction. She hesitated a moment, then looked at Silver.

"If both the market and the Stable are empty of things that want to shoot at us, I think it's all a very good idea...” the mare said, sighing.”Of course, things just aren't ever that simple, are they?"

Silver smirked as he rolled up the map, putting it into a pocket of his security barding. "Wouldn't be exciting if it was... Anyway, we should probably get some rest if we want to get there early enough to beat whatever crowd shows up."
The mare bent down and picked up the PipBuck, then nodded to the stallion as she stepped towards the entrance to the camp. "You go ahead, I'm just gonna tune into DJ Pon3's broadcast for a bit and keep an eye on Essie. Who knows, he might have some news about... Wherever we're at..."

Silver raised an eyebrow curiously. "That thing has a radio built into it? Mind if you let me listen in too?"
With a shrug, Starsong nodded and took a seat near the door. She clopped the ground next to her and started fiddling with the device. "The signal's a bit choppy up here in the north recently... He's asked for some help with restoring it, but nopony can find what's messing it up. Should be strong enough to make out what he's saying though." she rambled, then as if on cue, a stallion's voice, veiled by static and signal wash, burst from the speaker. 

"..llo Wasteland! ....ur very own DJ Pon3, bringing you some news! Now, first.....Brahmin going missing, and disrupting sales for these kind.....keep an eye out for Raiders hauling cattle and the occasional merchant...."

Silver listened in, curious about the news on the radio. "Hm, Wouldn't hurt to see if we run into those raiders as well as the Brahmin. They might be wanted, which could rack us in some caps. And you said that the signal's not that strong? I suppose it wouldn't hurt if we found old radio towers along the way to the Stable after the market... Two days travel is plenty of distance to run into any of those."

While the DJ rambled on amidst the veil of static, Starsong's attention shifted to Silver and his proposal. She thought for a moment, rubbing her forehead, and then chuckled. Shaking her head, she shrugged and turned the volume of the broadcast down. "If you can get Essie on board with it, I'm all in." she said.

"Well I'm sure that we won't have to tell her right away, just a quick mention of something that we'll look out for during our travels, and that a reward would be given for those that take care of this business."

Starsong nodded, and then with another chuckle, she raised the volume of the radio again. "I'm sure a promise of caps will have her happily on our side." She said, before the DJ's staticky voice floated in.

".. and that's all the news I've got for ya this evenin'! Everypony keep safe out there, and now... Some music..." He closed, and a centuries-old big band struck up a joyful tune, starkly contrasting the bleak Wasteland.
Hearing that the music was beginning to play, he simply nodded his head to Star and then got up to join the other mare in the group, seeing what she was up to at the moment. When he reached Essie, he sat down and watched her repair work. "So what's going on over here?"

Starsong leaned back, nodding her head to the beat of the jazzy song and closing her eyes. She chuckled a little, once Silver was by Essie, and turned the volume of the PipBuck up a few notches.

Essie glanced up at the stallion as he approached, smiling as he sat and observed. She was busy replacing the bolt of her rifle, with several other parts lying to the side, waiting their turn to become a part of Essie's 'Frankengun'. It was a blacked out .50 sniper, modified by the mare for both mid and long range combat, as it sported a high power scope on the rail, and iron sights to the side. Tilting the weapon to the side provided an much easier way to pick out targets that were too close for the scope. On the metallic, scratched butt of the weapon, carved into the metal were two things. One was the word 'Sureshot', the other a rather imposing griffon's claw.

"Y'all got some nice parts; Sureshot here sure needed a good fixin' up... Thanks fer lettin' me use yer spares." She said, wearing a smile as she busily replaced the broken bits inside the weapon.

The stallion's eyes widened as he took in the different components that made up her unique weapon, letting out a whistle. "Yeah, definitely glad I didn't get in a shootout with you today... This thing looks like it could easily shoot through a wall, let alone my little bookcase guards. And I'm just glad that those things are finally put to use really."

The mare giggled, sounding almost too feminine for a second, before giving the stallion's arm a playful punch. "Shit... If Sureshot had fired atcha... Ah think about seven'y five percent a' that bookcase’d be missin'... She packs a punch." The mare gloated her weapon, shooting a wink at Silver. "Ah've taken out Raiders behind six er eight inches a' walls before."
Silver smiled nervously back to her, rubbing his arm slightly. "Good thing I'm on your good side then... But try not to blast every raider you see. In my profession, most of them are worth more alive than an unrecognizable corpse."

Essie smirked and went back to working on the gun, her tail swaying idly behind her. She huffed, glancing back at the stallion as he mentioned his profession. "Yer perfession..? An' jus' what might that be?" She asked while screwing in one of the last parts to be replaced. "Raiders 'r scum, simple’s that. Not worth a cap, if ya ask me."

Silver smirked. "Not unless they're bad enough scum for somepony to want to take them to justice personally, or see to it that it happens. In other words, these guys have a bounty on their heads. And that's where my profession comes in, as a Hunter: I try and find the raiders with bounties on their heads and capture them, bringing them to the ponies that want them either arrested or dead. So the next time you spot a raider in your sights, you could be staring at your next meal ticket, and worth plenty of extra caps as well."

"Bounty hunt'r, huh..?" Essie leaned back, eyeing the stallion very intently. She put the gun next to her, leaning it against the bookcase. "Well, if tha's so... Ah'm sure you've seen Starsong's face 'round a few places." The mare raised an eyebrow expectantly at Silver, and leaned against the bookcase. "Her parents put a reward out fer her safe return... Jus' about three years ago."
Silver blinked in surprise, looking over to the petite mare now sleeping with ear buds on, listening to the radio. "...Wait, what? You're kidding? ....How big of a bounty we talking about, and who are her parents?"

Essie shrugged, following the stallion's gaze to Starsong. With a heavy sigh, she shook her head and looked back at Silver. "No clue. When Ah first found 'er, she was starvin' t' death in a Slaver camp. Muhself an' a bunch 'a other Talons liberated th' camp, an' Ah took her, since Ah'd seen her pitcher around New Pegasus. She tol' me this big story 'bout how her Stable'd opened up, an' she got snatched up when she was explorin'. Ah decided t' take 'er home, since Ah'd heard 'a th' Stable openin', Ah figgered Ah'd make a good image 'a the Talons for 'em. We got there, an' the whole place had been sacked. Overmare made a deal with some shady fuckers, who turned out t' be runnin' a Slaver train. Guess it goes without sayin', the deal fell through." The mare took a breath leaned back, stealing another sad look at Starsong. "Never found her mother. Her dad took a bullet. Ah asked 'round town, an' they told me that the day before the sack, her dad had been takin' the posters down. Ah ain't sure what t' think about it."
Silver grit his teeth as he heard the story, narrowing his eyebrows. "...Damn, so she just happened to be born in the wrong Stable then? And if I can piece things together.... The bounty placed on her by her parents is what made the deal fall through. Slavers didn't like the idea of Mom and Dad looking for what they believe is their property and went in to tear it down. In the end, her parents' concern is what got 'em killed...?"

Essie leaned back against the cabinet and shook her head. "Ah don't think so. Ah think the deal, whatever it was, wasn't ever supposed t' go through. Slavers just needed a way in, while keepin' most 'a the ponies alive." She said, narrowing her eyebrows in thought. After a second, she looked Silver in the eye and tilted her head warningly. "She don't know her dad's dead. She's believin' real hard that she's gonna find Mom and Dad one 'a these days, an' that's what drives her."

Silver blinked in surprise, and then took a look of concern as he glanced back to Star. "...You kept the truth from her? She's got no idea what happened? ....You won't be able to hide that forever you know, if she's that persistent...”

The mare nodded, looking at the ground around her hooves. Her expression plummeted, and the sniper rubbed her eyes. "She thinks both her parents were kidnapped, an' we're lookin' for 'em. That's what keeps her strong. Ah know its wrong t' lie t' her, but... Am Ah wrong for not wantin' t' hurt her..?"

Silver bit his lip nervously as he noticed her mood dropping. "Well... This isn't exactly my business to meddle in... But just remember, the longer that it takes for her to find the truth, the more upset she would be with you for not revealing it. I'll leave that up to your discretion, but I'll keep quiet for now."

Essie looked at the ground for a moment more, then took a breath and steeled herself against the contrasting emotions tugging at her. With a little mist in her eyes, she shook her head and chuckled. "If ya hadn't been so kind t' us earlier, Ah prob'ly woulda shot ya fer makin' me think about all that...” she said, rubbing the bridge of her nose.”It's tough, keepin' her from wantin' t' go t' New Pegasus... Maybe things would be easier if she knew. She's stronger than she looks, after all."

Silver noticed her eyes and nodded his head. "Well, how bout this? Since that's what's driving her to keep pressing on, just try and find her something else to strive for when she does learn the truth, and make sure it involves you too, otherwise she might run off on ya if she learns from means other than yourself." He then scratched the back of his mane nervously. "And it's a good thing I'm on your good side then, I can sleep without new holes in me, eh heh... Speaking of sleep, we ought to get started on that, we got a lot of travelin' ahead."

With a short nod, Essie shouldered her rifle and stood up. "Thanks fer listenin', Silver... G'night." she said simply, and then quietly trotted to where Starsong lay sprawled out on the ground. She didn't bother to turn off the radio, since the gentle music was so soothing. The mare lied down next to the smaller pony, curling her hooves around her to warm her. Once she was comfortable, she nestled her muzzle into the crook of Starsong's neck. On the radio played a gentle, lulling tune, a down tempo version of a pre-war favorite. Essie kissed Starsong's cheek and quietly sang along to it, matching the voice on the radio surprisingly well, for a gun-toting wastelander. 

"I want to calm the storm, but the war is in your eyes... How can I shield you from the horror and the lies?"
Silver raised an eyebrow as he listened to Essie singing rather well for somepony that talked so crass-like. Regardless, He stretched out his limbs, wings and all, and started to pack away the armor and weapon that he had next to a small makeshift bed. He trotted over to one of the bookshelf barricades where a small bobblehead clock was sitting, setting an alarm for the morning. Silver then turned back to the bed and pulled out blankets that he had stored underneath the mattress. Getting a thought, he took some of the spare blankets and gently laid them over the two 'guests', then took the second for himself back to the bed before getting shut-eye.

> Ch 2: Breakfast with Grenades
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------


Chapter 2


Hazy sunlight, drowned by a sea of clouds, drifted hopelessly onto Starsong's resting eyelids. Morning was the only time that the sun's rays could be seen, filtered by dust and clouds. Still, the sight was a majesty to Stable-born ponies. Lazily, Starsong's eyes opened, and she took in the sight of the fledgling sun. After a moment, a yawn escaped her muzzle, and she decided to rouse herself awake. She slid out from underneath the blanket and the arm of Essie, which caused the larger mare to stir, but only for a short moment. She stretched for a moment, then walked over to their bags and dug out a dingy-looking bottle of water.

Silver was still asleep in his own corner, dependent on the alarm clock he had set for the group, which had about 5 more minutes on its timer. Not even the sound of the other mares waking had caused him to stir yet. His dirty wings were curled around him slightly while he slept, having a peaceful complexion in contrast to the tired yet alert look he had all night last night. Starsong glanced over at their 'host', noticing that he was still fast asleep. Using her magic, she unscrewed the lid to her water bottle and took a deep drink, cringing as her insides protested the irradiated drink. She was careful to keep quiet as she put the lid back and set the bottle in the bags again.  The sound of creaking wheels perked the mare's ears. Nearly silently, she took cover behind one of the pillars and glanced in the direction of the noise. Across the river, about two hundred yards away, a cart pulled by a Brahmin trudged along a heavily trodden path... Leading the Brahmin was a stallion dressed in what looked like reinforced barding, and flanking the cart on either side were two oversized metal ponies, with ludicrously large guns at their sides. Starsong's head tilted to the side as she watched the robotic ponies keep pace with the cart.

Silver was still oblivious to it all though, rolling onto his back as the covers fell off of his body, draped slightly around his hindsection. He lightly scratched at his side with a hoof before yawning quietly and continued to snooze.... IF there was one thing to say about Silver, it was that he was a heavy sleeper. Starsong watched the caravan making its way along the path, idly resting her head on the pillar. It seemed to be an average journey, although the robotic ponies were a bit odd, but seemingly normal enough. The mare was almost ready to turn away and start with breakfast when the cart stopped dead in its tracks. The two metal ponies turned toward the hill to their right, opposite the river, and dug their hooves into the dirt. Meanwhile, the driver of the cart dove behind the wagon and pulled a hunting rifle from the gun rack. Starsong's ears perked, trying to hear anything, but the distance was too great. Feeling that things could go wrong any second, Starsong bolted to Essie's side and shook her. 

"Essie! Essie, please! Something's wrong!" she muttered, but the larger mare simply grumbled and rolled over. 
Several distant cracks of gunfire perked Star's ears, and she sprinted to Silver's bed.

"Silver Lining, Silver!" she whispered, shaking the stallion's shoulders. "I think they're shooting!"

Silver’s ear twitched as he heard his name slightly in his sleep, groaning slightly with a yawn as he peeked an eye open right when another gunshot popped off, causing him to widen both of his eyes immediately and sit up frantically, looking around him and Starsong as he slipped off and ducked low to the ground, scampering over to where his rifle was. "What the flank is going on??" He harshly whispered back to Star. Starsong faltered, stammering for a moment, and then laid on the floor. She glanced between Silver and where the noise was coming from, and shook her head.

"I-I don't know... Uh... Cart, three ponies... Two of them are big and metal...” she said, visibly pressing her mind for more information. "Hnn... They were just walking, and then they stopped... That's when I woke you up! Essie's asleep...” He peeked out from around the wall of bookshelves, slowly slipping on a battle saddle to be ready as he surveyed what was happening. Silver saw the cart and the travelers towing it, blinking upon the sudden realization. "...These are caravan traders, and those metal ponies look like members of the Brotherhood of Steel... I think they were guarding the caravan and they've been ambushed by raiders." He said in hushed tones. He bit his lip nervously, before looking back to Starsong and seeing the fearful look she was giving, causing him to slacken his own complexion. 

"...Uh, as far as I remember, caravans are neural parties, so they wouldn't be hostile to us. Plus it looks like nopony spotted us yet either, so we're in the clear for now... Let's just wake up Essie and figure out what to- I WANNA RUN ON ALL FOURS JUST LIKE EVERYONE AROUND MEEE!"

Silver winced as his bobblehead alarm clock decided to finally go off, the reverb of the concrete bridge that acted as his ceiling amplifying the song it played. As Starsong cringed at the noise the alarm was making, Essie's eyes groggily opened. The waking mare swatted at the source of the noise, nearly falling back asleep, when another volley of gunfire was heard across the river. 

"What the...” she started to mumble, when... CRACK!

An empty bottle burst, and Essie scrambled to her hooves, over to where Starsong and Silver were standing. "What the hell did y'all two do?!" she hissed, pulling her rifle off of her back.

"Nothing..!" Starsong said, glancing at Silver, and then quickly back to Essie as the larger mare eyed the caravan through her scope.

"Silver, what's th' quickest way outta here?" she asked, reaching up and chambering the rifle. "Ah'm gonna make 'em take cover, an' we need t' get out, pronto." Silver's eyes widened and he quickly flailed his hooves in a waving motion while shaking his head. "Whooaaa-no nononono... We are HEAVILY outgunned here. Those Steel Rangers alone could take us on, and I've got no spark grenades. The last thing we wanna do is make it obvious that we're here AND retaliating. I like my house not-blown-up, thank you."  He peeked around, seeing one Steel Ranger and the caravan leader popping rounds off in the group's direction while the other Ranger was holding off the raiders. He then ducked back behind the bookshelves. "We gotta wait it out until those raiders get their attention more than us. Afterwards, we can flank them all, and probably take out the raiders too to show we're on friendly terms."

Essie continued to aim at the caravan, brows furrowed. Finally, she scowled and took cover behind a damaged pillar, then looked in Silver's direction. "Fine... We'll do it yer way. But as soon as one a' them stompers shoots a rocket over here, Ah'm puttin' a round in his head." the mare warned.  A moment later, a deep *thud* rattled the ground beneath them. Essie poked her head out, and a second later, leaned back, whistling. "The stomper facin' the hill looks pretty beat up, so he took the fuckin' ground right from underneath th' raiders. Cart's wheels 'r all shot up, they ain't goin' nowhere now." Silver looked up to Essie. "You mean the raiders have their attention now? Great, now we can sneak around them... Let you use that weapon of yours on some real trouble...This way." Silver headed towards the other end of the bridge where it would meet the ground, using the concrete as cover. Essie nodded, signaling to Starsong for her to follow closely. Shouldering her rifle, the mares followed Silver closely, avoiding open spots as best as they could. The volleys had mostly stopped, due to the dust and smoke hanging in the air after the rocket had detonated. "D'ya think we c'n wait 'till one 'a them gets killed? Ah've always wanted some a' that armor...” Essie murmured, chuckling.

Silver gave her a flat look for a moment, making a 'tsk' sound with his tongue, and then flew up into the air, using the dust as cover. After a while, when it looked like the raiders were about to advance on the caravan, Silver could be seen swooping down from above, flying a pass over the line of raiders as his guns blared. Six loud shots blared out as three raiders went down, leaving 4 more, who now aimed their guns for him as he performed aerial maneuvers to dodge the bullets. As Silver took to the sky, Essie lined her rifle up, took aim, and... Watched her mark get taken from above... "Gee, thanks...” she muttered, and found another raider... Rather than stealthily take them down from the back to the front, she decided to make an example of the foremost raider. A ragged looking mare, looking like she hadn't bathed in months, was the first mark. As the raider aimed her weapon towards the sky to fire at Silver, a deafening CRACK made her go rigid. The stallion closest to her seemed shocked for a moment as she fell limp, but as he pointed his hunting rifle towards the sniper, Essie could tell he hadn't been fazed too terribly.  Starsong covered her ears as she heard the rechambering of the rifle, and soon after, CRACK!

The raider stallion collapsed, his essence leaking from the back of his head. Essie stole a glance towards the injured Steel Ranger, who was arming his battle saddle and facing the raiders. The caravan driver and the other Steel Ranger were both shooting furtive glances in the direction of the sniper, but kept their guns pointed towards the raiders. The two raiders left realized that they were badly outnumbered at this point and decided to try to make a run for it. One mare pulled out a bouquet of grenades and tossed them up in the air towards Silver, who saw exactly what it was and quickly backpedaled in the air to get away from the blast. Explosion after explosion followed once the first grenade went off, scattering the others as they popped off in their random locations.

The shockwave from one grenade had caused Silver to lose altitude as it knocked the wind out of him, the shrapnel thankfully missing as he started to fall towards the ground. He flared his wings open quickly afterward to slow his fall before sliding roughly on his hooves, kneeling down to catch his breath after getting the wind knocked out of him. 

A couple of grenades could be seen bouncing towards Essie and Starsong before popping off early, kicking dirt and earth up in front of them. The Steel Rangers had their armor and used that to their advantage, taking the brunt of the explosive force for their trailer and leader. As for the two remaining raiders, this wasn't their best idea as two grenades were flown in their direction and blew up, causing red mist to splatter.


When the dust cleared around the mares, it revealed Essie on top of Starsong, wrapped around her defensively. The smaller mare clambered out of Essie's grasp, and the larger mare stood up, wincing at a sharp pain in her side. Once they'd brushed the dirt and dust off of themselves, the mares waved their arms in Silver's direction. 
"How do we cross th' river?" Essie called over to him.

Silver coughed a bit before regaining his breath, standing back up and looking over to the mares. "Hang on, I'll come 'round with some rope for you to hang and I'll fly ya both over here!" As he got up to head back to his base, the sound of weapons cocking could be heard, and Silver quickly turned around to find the Rangers pointing their weapons at him, with the leader between them. "...What the hell you doin' out here flyer? Don't ya know us Surfacers ain't gonna take shit from y'all featherheads?"  Silver bit his lip and got up on his hind legs to hold his hooves up before speaking calmly. "Relax; I'm not here to stir up trouble. If anything, I helped you folks out of some. I just want to collect my things and friends, and then move on." The group didn't budge, nor lower their weapons. "How do I know you lot ain't gonna turn the moment we let ya?’Sides, I've seen what you Enclave bastards are capable of.... Yeah, that's right colt, your little civvie getup don't get past me. The way you fly just screams Enclave."

The injured Steel Ranger took a step forward - a feat of its own, given the appearance of his armor - and lowered his battle saddle's barrel. From his rebreather, a masculine, but tinny stallion's voice emanated. "Knight Captain Ironhoof." He said, stomping his hoof into the dirt. The Ranger's head turned towards the other metal pony, and it lowered its weapons as well. "This is Knight Tinker."   The second Ranger bowed its head, but it was fairly obvious that the pony inside the armor hadn't taken his eyes off of Silver. The caravan driver took a step forward, however, still aiming his hunting rifle. "Idiots..! The both of ya! This cloudfucker's gonna kill the lot of us! Him and his little sniper bitch over there. I'm willin' to bet they're the ones been taking all he Brahmin from the caravans out here! I say we kill 'e-" 

Before he could finish, Ironhoof had stomped in his direction. "I understand your worry, trader, but if you would kindly leave your protection to your protectors, we'd like to do our job." He said flatly, and then turned towards Silver. "Unfortunately though, he has a point. Your wings, and your skill with them, don’t make me feel very inclined to let you go free. Enclave aren't looked upon too kindly on the Surface. What's your business? Scouting..?" Silver kept his hooves up for the most part, not wanting to give the driver a reason to fire upon him. "I’m simply a licensed Hunter from the New Appleloosa region; I have my papers and everything... I'm going to reach into my vest pocket, please do not fire." With one hoof, Silver unzipped a pocket on his vest and reached into it to pull out a small card.  "This is my license, check it if you want. As for why I'm here is simply bad luck on my behalf: I'm camped not too far from this location, and I happened to hear upon the small skirmish you just had. It was unfortunate that we were on the wrong side of the field when you started to return fire."

While the Knight kept the caravan driver in check, Ironhoof inspected Silver's papers. Surely enough, he matched up with the Steel Rangers' mainframes... Finding nothing worth investigating further, Ironhoof nodded to Silver.  "Well then, Silver. Looks like your cutie mark's working out for you..." He said, chuckling and handing the papers back to the stallion. "Thank you and your friends for your assistance, but I'd suggest you all clear out of here as soon as you can. I'm sure more raiders are on their way, and when the rest of my squadron arrives, they'll be much less picky about who to shoot."

He nodded and smiled to Ironhoof. "Thanks for not blowing my head off either... Me and my group are gonna check the intact raider bodies and see which ones are wanted or not, as well as some scavenging, if that's alright with you." After a moment's thought, Ironhoof's head nodded. "I see nothing wrong with you doing your job, as long as you do it quickly. Knight Tinker, keep an eye on them, make sure they don't get any uninvited company."  The Knight nodded, and raised his battle saddle's cannons, towards where the first group of raiders had come from. 

A few moments later, the group was joined by the mares, their legs wet from crossing the river. Essie slung some of the water out of her coat and scowled at Silver. "Y'all jus' have a lunch date, why don't ya? We c'n cross th' river jus' fine on our own..!" She said sarcastically, making sure to sling some water onto the pegasus.  Starsong hopped off of Essie's back, bone dry, and immediately began to stare at the Rangers. Ironhoof stared right back; Tinker was preoccupied. Silver blinked in surprise at Essie's mood, extending a wing towards the caravan. "For your information, I was THIS close to having that guy paint the ground pink with my brains, so I'm TERRIBLY sorry if that caused some delay in me escorting y'all over the river...Anyway, they gave us the go ahead to scrap the raiders for supplies and possible bounties, so long as we're quick about it." Essie rolled her eyes, a smirk coming to her muzzle. "Ah'll help ya out." She offered, and then turned to Starsong. "Do ya mind stayin' put here? Ah don't think ya wanna scavenge off a' bodies." At the mention of the gruesome task, Starsong cringed, then planted her rump in the dirt, and took another glance at the Steel Ranger to her side, who had been staring at her the entire time. After a moment, his tinny voice piped up.

"...Starsong?"


Silver went with Essie to check on the raiders, pulling out a parchment from his saddlebags that held a list of wanted ponies with descriptions of the subjects or photos if applicable. "Also try and see if any of them match this roster. Normally they're worth more alive, but we didn't exactly have the luxury of taking our time with this.... And don't bother checking those last two, they're practically unrecognizable now thanks to the grenades."  He spotted the first body nearby him and started to loot his pockets, pulling out some spare ammo and small useless tools. Essie took a glance at the two victims of their own grenades, chuckling and shaking her head before taking a good look at the parchment. Once she committed the images to memory, she started to loot the intact raiders, stuffing the most useful items into her saddlebag, and then checking their faces.

Meanwhile, Ironhoof continued to watch Starsong, who cast a short, uncomfortable glance in the metal pony's direction.
"Silver, bring me that parchment!" Essie called, turning one of the raiders' bloody faces to and fro. "Ah think Ah got one, but he's a damn mess." Silver’s ears perked up as he checked the last raider beside him, not matching up any on the roster he had before flapping his wings and reaching Essie. "If he's convincing enough to match the list, then we could turn him in... but at 60% due to him being dead."

Essie huffed as she inspected the raider stallion's features, contrasting them with the ponies on the parchment. Finally, she put the raider's head back down, shaking her head. "Never mind, he jus' ain't gonna cut it." she said, standing up. She glanced at Starsong and Ironhoof. She narrowed her eyes at the Ranger, and nudged Silver's shoulder, leaning over towards him. "Keep an eye on that stomper, will ya? Ah don't like the way he's lookin' at her." Silver drooped his ears in disappointment upon realizing none of the raiders were useful, but turned his head to look back behind them. that's when he noticed that one Steel Ranger constantly staring at Starsong, blinking in surprise before leaning closer to Essie. "...How recent was that bounty on her placed? And is it still pretty active?" He whispered. Essie visibly racked her brain for an answer for a few moments, and shook her head. "Three, four years ago... When she got snatched up by the slavers... Ah never figured it was much too active though." she replied quietly. Lots a' bounties over near Los Pegasus, more expensive ones, too..."

"Hm...and with her parents, well.... That bounty should have been disabled long time ago." After collecting the last items from the raider, Silver stood up and trotted back to the caravan. "Well thank you for your hospitality by not shooting us after the fighting's over; I think we're squared away. I'll be sure to let the folks of New Appleloosa know you guys are out here and help guard the route a little more due to all the attacks. Anyway, we'll get out of your furs and move along now." Essie attempted to say something, but Silver had already approached the caravan again. While the Knight held his guns toward the hill, the caravan driver worked to repair the broken parts of the cart. Ironhoof finally turned his gaze to Silver. "Where is your next destination, Hunter?" he asked pointedly, though his tone read more like 'Tell me where you're going."

Essie had quickly trotted to Starsong's side and led her away from the Ranger, to which the smaller mare appeared very thankful. Ironhoof's intense stare now focused on Silver. "The filly isn't safe." Silver bit his lip, keeping a stoic expression and trying to remain as neutral as possible. "I'm not sure what you mean by that, she's been in my supervision for a good while now and I can assure you that she hasn't been any threat to me or anypony else... As for where we are going, I'm afraid all I can tell you is that its personal matters, but we’ll 'eventually' travel into New Appleloosa at a given point in time, considering I might have bounties in the future to cash in." The Ranger stood still, silently. After a long moment, he shook his head. "Fine, Hunter. Let the filly be killed." he said coldly, then turned towards his Knight. "Knight Tinker, allow them passage." he said, then cast a final glance at Silver. "They have five minutes to clear out, or they will be regarded as raiders."

Essie scowled, her telekinesis enveloping her rifle. After a second thought though, she glanced at Silver, her magic dying down. "Right now, Ah really wish Ah had a magic energy grenade...” she growled. The mares turned immediately, and followed. As they trotted away, Essie cast a glance back at Ironhoof, who had begun to stare after them. They closed the distance between themselves and Silver, until the three were walking side by side, with Starsong in between them. Essie wore a scowl as they walked. "Damn stompers... If it wasn't fer that stupid armor 'a theirs, Ah'd put 'em in their place." Essie said, shaking her head. "We still headin' fer the market?"

Silver looked over his shoulder, nodding to Essie. "Yeah, that's still the plan... I just wanted those Rangers to think we would have a direct path to Appleloosa, in case they felt like following us to collect Starsong." He looked to the mare in question after speaking. "Essie told me about your bounty, and it don't bother me none at all, so don't ya worry 'bout me wanting to turn you in or something." He then turned to direct the group back towards the direction of the marketplace they previously planned on. "Well, despite the unexpected showdown this morning, we're still on time, so that's something, don't ya think?" Starsong blinked at Silver confusedly, and then shot Essie a look that obviously didn't approve of the shared information. When Essie ignored the look, the smaller mare sighed and shook her head. "Is that what that Ironhoof guy was staring at me for?" She asked, "He recognized me?" Essie shrugged. "Ah dunno, Star. Jus' gotta keep goin' though." she said, trying to sound reassuring. "Don't dwell on it, Star." She looked at Silver. "Thank ya fer the help, Silver. Fer a stranger, You're a good pony."

Silver gave a light smirk at what Essie said. "Well, glad to hear that....Ya know, before all of this, that remark would've been a rather black and white idea. Nowadays it's all muddled up.  By that, I can be a good pony by your standards, but a bad pony by somepony else's standard. Funny, ain't it?"

"But thanks anyway, I try my best. No need to bring harm to folks that don't bring harm to the defenseless or innocent, I try to live like that." He finished before continuing to trot onward to the market. Essie glanced at Silver, chucking and shaking her head. "Ah suppose Ah can't argue with ya. A lot of things changed after the war." she said, then looked forward again. "Ah wonder what it was like, not gettin' shot at every time ya went out...”

Star normally would have struggled to keep pace, but now that she was lacking the heavy bags of supplies, she was much lighter on her hooves. Even though Star had no trouble keeping up, Essie still made a point to turn around periodically and make sure she was alright.

> Ch 3: Let's Go Shopping
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------


Chapter 3


It took the group about 2 hours to reach the market store. Out front was an empty broken lot with bits of garbage scattered about, all the windows dusty and cracked, devoid of life. The doors were open however, which would make it easy to trot in and out.  Silver looked around the area, making sure the coast was clear. "Alright, the plan is we'll each check an aisle on our own for supplies, skipping two so that we don't overlap. If it looks like it's in good condition, grab it no matter what it is. We'll sort out whatever's useless once we're done. Also stay quiet, we don't know if anypony else is in there yet." As the group approached the store, Essie readied her rifle. She kept it aimed at the entrance, but her head swiveled and checked their flanks every moment or so. It would be shameful to get all the way here just to be killed by a raider because they didn't look left or right! Even Starsong was aware of the danger; She had levitated a rather spec-ops-grade pistol from an unseen holster. She aimed around almost clumsily, whereas Essie, the mare with the training, kept dead steady.

"Silver, ya got any idea whose turf we're on? Stomper, Talons, slavers..? Red Eye?" the sniper asked, "Or is it just raiders in these parts?" Silver looked back to the mares with a curious expression. "....We're only just between Manehatten and New Appleloosa, this is all still neutral ground as far as I remember, unless something's changed in the past month? And like I mentioned before, I've seen this place before and had planned to come back, so if I was sure enough to come alone, then we're totally okay with all 3 of us goin' in." And with that, Silver flapped his wings to get right at the entrance of the store, peering into the dark while grabbing a flashlight from his saddlebags and sweeping his light through the place. Essie nodded to Silver, and then glanced backwards, motioning for Starsong to stay close. Taking the side of the door opposite Silver, Essie checked the area that Silver would have had to poke his head in to see. Seeing nothing, she nodded. "Clear on my side." she said quietly.  Starsong glanced at Essie's right side. Hidden underneath her wanderer barding, a bandage that had once been white, was now drenched in red.

Silver looked up in thought for a moment, and then inhaled sharply before going. "OI, YOU IN THERE..!" Inside the store....... And nothing happened. All was still and quiet. He smiled, and then turned to look to Essie. "Looks like we're all good..." He said, before his eyes wandered to the red spot on her armor, then frowned. "...Whoa hang on, when were you hurt?" Essie pointed her rifle's barrel at the ground and glanced at her side. Letting out a long groan, she scowled and started inside the store. "It ain't nothin'." she said, shaking her head. "Ah'm gonna get it fixed once we find Star some better med supplies."

Starsong trotted in after Essie, keeping her weapon drawn as well. "The grenades, remember?" she said quietly, looking at Silver. "A couple pieces got stuck in her side..." Silver winced slightly, remembering the trick that the raiders from before had tried to pull. "And you didn't bother asking me if I had anything to help out with? Come on, surely you'd have figured out that with me being on my lonesome, I would need to know how to stitch myself up." Essie turned around, rolling her eyes. "Fine... Ya can give it a shot when we get outta here. We're finishin' here first." she said, then turned around and raised her rifle. "Ah'm fine." He bit his lip, knowing that what she was saying was true. "Very well, as I said before, we'll all go down the aisles, skipping over two to the left so that we don't overlap each other." He pointed to the first aisle on the right. "Star, you go first.... Essie, down this way..." He continued to move his hoof down until he reached the third aisle. "And I'll go down this way... Ready? Go..." He trotted towards his designated aisle, getting started in the scavenging.

The mares nodded and each went to their designated aisles. Even though there was no response to Silver's shout, the mares kept their weapons out and ready for anything. None of the items Essie found were in any salvageable condition, whereas Starsong very quickly found a small pile of bottlecaps, a magazine giving a basic outline of how to repair firearms, and a small assortment of pre-war foodstuffs. Silver had the best luck of them all, his cutie mark coming into play: There were some assortments of packaged snacks in his aisle, ranging from dehydrated fruits, Sugar Bombs cereal, Fancy Buck cakes, and a couple bags of hay chips. It was time to switch aisles, all party members going down the lanes... They could knock out this entire store in four sweeps if they included the freezer lockers on the walls. Once they were all ready, the three of them shifted aisles. Essie had better luck, finding a hoof full of .50 rounds for her rifle and a box of Fancy Buck cakes. Starsong's aisle was empty, except for dried blood leaking from under the shelf. Some of it even looked fresh... "Essie, Silver?" The mare called out, raising her pistol. There's a bunch of blood over here."

Silver quickly passed over his aisle, coming back to Star's. His hooves were busy stuffing medical supplies down his bags from the next aisle, he apparently got lucky again and found a lot of magic bandages, healing potions and disinfectant to make proper first aid kits. "What's the problem, Star?" He called out as he trotted up to the younger mare. Essie glanced over, noticing that Silver had gone to help. She continued on her aisle, stuffing the items she could salvage into her bag. Once Silver was with her, Starsong pointed towards the drying pool of blood coming from under the shelf. "That... I think it's coming from the next aisle." she said, looking up at him. Silver looked down to see the blood without any real change in his expression. Blood and gore was rather commonplace in the wasteland, so it never came as a big surprise if one was to come across a corpse now and then. Still, ever so curious, Silver moved around to the other side of the aisle to investigate the source of where this was coming from.

Around the corner was a grisly sight, even for the Wasteland. Several corpses, mangled and destroyed by what were obviously booby traps, lay in the center of the aisle, focalizing around a pedestal. On the pedestal was a small pile of bottlecaps, and atop the caps, rested a pristine Plasma Rifle. Finally, as if to add to the already tempting score, 4 mini nukes lay on the pedestal, giving the rigged aisle quite a hefty price tag... A couple of the traps had already been sprung, obviously with the corpses as proof. One had most of his head blown away by a rigged shotgun; another had been filleted by a blast of knives. The source of the fresh blood was a mare, dangling by a bear trap attached to a chain, mounted to a bar suspended above the aisle. 

Starsong came around the corner and gasped, covering her mouth and shaking her head. "This isn't right!" she exclaimed, lowering her pistol. "Who does something like this?!" Silver just blinked and stared at the sight, eyebrows raised high in surprise...He was also eyeing the 'bounty' a little too much for his own good. "Err....Somepony that is really, really bored, and somewhat of a deviant for wanting to 'troll' ponies to death for a laugh." He looked up to the most recent victim, grimacing slightly upon seeing a rather nice looking mare eviscerated in that manner. "....Any of y'all alive?" He called out curiously. After a second of silence, Silver was answered. A throaty, gargling noise, accompanied by a weak twitch, came from the mare suspended by the bear trap. Starsong immediately went pale, and her pistol clattered to the floor. "No..." she whispered, shivering. "Please, no...”
Silver flinched, not really expecting to be answered back as he grimly replied. "....Okay, this got real." As he reared up and flapped his wings, hovering over to where the mare was... He approached carefully, not wanting to set off other traps.

"Essie, we got a survivor here!" He called out as he reached up and cradled the mare in a way to let her lie comfortably in his hooves and made sure the weight of the bear trap was supported. "Okay, look at me," He said to her, keeping a calm, but commanding tone. "Can you speak? If it's too difficult then nod or shake your head." As the stallion jostled the mare, she gained consciousness. Her body was nearly limp in his arms, and her eyes simply couldn't focus on the stallion. She opened her mouth to reply, but more gargling only sounded. 

As Silver continued to jostle her, the bear trap, clamped on her midsection from above, only tightened its vice-like grip. As the pain mounted, the mare's slow breathing rapidly sped up, tears streaming from her eyes. She tried to scream, but she could only choke on her blood. Essie rounded the corner after a few moments, hesitating at the end of the aisle. "What the fuck?" She said, eyeing the bait and traps. "Aw, shit...” she groaned as she spotted the mare.”Silver, that thing's gonna crush her t' death, we gotta get it off fast!" Silver inhaled sharply, looking nervous as he noticed the trap getting tighter, her blood starting to stain his coat and clothes. "I know that." He hissed back to Essie, looking around quickly, trying to think of something...anything.

He looked up to where the chain of the trap was connected to, seeing it attached to the bar. "Can either of you two unicorns use your magic to unhook this? At least get her lying down properly instead of hanging like a slab in a raider camp." Essie nodded quickly, slinging her rifle onto her back and climbing on top of the aisle. She bolted to where the bar was; either forgetting or not caring that there were live traps below, and quickly looked for a point to unhook the chain from. After a frantic moment of searching, she looked at Silver, shaking her head. "It's bent, Ah'm gonna need tools t' get it off!" she groaned. Suddenly, she gasped as an idea struck her. "Hold on, get ready t' set her down!" She said, reaching down. From between her thighs, she drew a .44 magnum and put the barrel on the chain. "Cover yer ears!" She called, and pulled the trigger. Immediately, the chain snapped!

Silver had watched her climb up, flying steady in the air for their victim. He had wondered why she was doing so in the first place. "....I said use magic, didn't I?" Still, he waited patiently for her to work on the chain, stroking the mare's mane as some form of comfort for her.

After Essie stated that the chain was stuck, his ears flattened from distraught, but then perked up when she said she had an idea.....And that was when Silver noticed Essie pulling a gun out...from between her thighs. It had caught him off guard, his eyes widening and jaw dropping as a blush appeared on his face. "...Where were you KEEPING tha-*BANG!*" 

The chain had snapped, and Silver flinched from the gunshot, quickly getting away from the pillar of goodies in case the chain was to set off any more traps. The chain dropped, Essie dove away from where she was standing. Surely enough, the chain snagged a tripwire and a hidden shotgun blasted the shelf she had been standing on. The mare glanced back at what could've easily been the end of her, shook her head, and faced Silver and the injured mare. The weight of the chain could only add to the already unbearable pain that the mare felt. Not only were her broken ribs being compressed by the trap, but the teeth had dug into her skin. More blood began to ooze from her wounds, and due to her already horrifying amount of blood loss, she couldn't even lift her hooves to fight, if these ponies were playing some twisted game.

"Silver, set her down gently... Goddesses know she's hurtin' enough." Essie said, reholstering her revolver. "Star, bring yer supplies over here." Both Silver and the mare in trouble were on the ground, with her lying on her side to keep from having to lie on top of the trap that was enclosed around her.  As he waited for Star to get closer, Silver was trying his best to keep the mare awake, tapping the side of the cheek and talking to her. "Can ya hear me? You need to stay conscious, we're gonna help out. Our medic's coming-" 

Then a nasty sounding screech filled the air from outside. "....Over." Silver finished his sentence as he peered over his shoulders frightfully. The two shots that had rang from the store echoed to outside, catching the attention of whatever was nearby....And unfortunately, what was close by was a herd of ghouls, running down from a distance straight for the market. Silver's eyes went wide with distress, calling out to the others. "You guys better make haste, we got company!"

Essie quickly waved Starsong over, kneeling next to the mare. "Star, you need t' use that healin' spell of yours." she said, looking the filly in the eyes.  Starsong ran to Essie's side, and cringed at the suggestion. "But...” she started, when Essie cut her off.”Ah know what it'll do t' ya. Ya jus' gotta trust me right now, Star." the mare assured her smaller companion. After a short second, Star nodded. "Okay... But we need to get that trap off of her first; otherwise her ribs will be all messed up." Silver heard her words and looked to the mare. "You hear that? This first part is going to hurt, so...brace yourself." Silver rolled the mare over so that she was laying on her back now, the pressure of the trap increasing slightly on her, causing her to cringe and whimper. He stood up and placed one of his hind legs on the bottom jaw of the bear trap, hooking his forearms around the upper jaw."Okay, pull her out the moment I get this open...One, two..." Then Silver grunted loudly as he strained himself in prying it open; it had budged and the trap loosened on the mare, more blood pouring from her open wounds now that the metal was not holding her together. Meanwhile, the ghouls were closing in on the store, now galloping across the parking lot at the front.

As soon as the mare was free from the teeth of the trap, Essie pulled her away from its grip. The mare whimpered, crying as more of her essence drained onto the floor, and certain that this was her death. Immediately, Starsong was behind her, her MoP cases open. She rifled through them for wound-sealing pastes, and went to work applying them to the holes in the mare's back and sides. Once she was sure the mare could bleed out no longer, she took a deep breath and looked at Essie. "I'll see you soon, okay..?" she assured.

"We'll keep ya fine, darlin'." Essie replied, pulling her rifle off of her back again. "Do yer thing." With a short nod, Starsong lowered her horn to the nape of the mare's neck, and clenched her teeth. Light built up from the tip of her horn, rapidly intensifying until it reached a climax. At the height of the brightness, the mare's body was enveloped in light, then instantly, the light evaporated. As the ponies around gained their vision again, they would see the filly slumped over on the ground, slowly breathing as if asleep. Next to her was the unnamed mare, breathing normally as well. Her broken ribs, once caved in, now were healed and reshaped.  Essie glanced back at the unconscious ponies, then to Silver. "Not sure how long the mare'll be out, but Star usually comes back after a few minutes. We gotta hold out till then."

Silver had watched Star with keen interest, wondering just what she was about to do when the light from her horn made him cover his eyes momentarily, blinking as he regained his vision. Upon looking down, he saw Starsong unconscious and the mare....healed! He looked dumfounded, thinking that the most she could do was set up splints and bandages to make the mare at the very least stable. He wasn't expecting an almost full recovery. He looked to Essie with an expression that seemed to say 'How?', until the sound of glass breaking could be heard near the entrance. The feral ghouls were right at the windows now, trying to break them down in a desperate rush after the healthy ponies inside. It wouldn't take them long to realize the door was open though. "Ah crap; if they all come after us at once, I doubt that two ponies with semi-auto rifles can hold them off. We need more firepower here." He looked around, seeing if anything inside the shop could help them. That plasma rifle on the booby-trap infested pillar would have definitely evened the odds if he could only get to it...Unless.

"Essie, I've got an idea! You pick up Star, I'll get the mare. We put that pillar between us and the ghouls. They run over it and set off as many traps are left!" Essie listened to the stallion's plan, and a grin crossed her muzzle. She shouldered her rifle, chuckling, and grabbed Starsong, laying her across her back. "Hell yeah!" she exclaimed, "Save us some work, and get t' take some goodies afterwards!" As she heard the frantic ghouls' shrieks growing closer, Essie clambered onto the shelf opposite the ghouls and rigged pedestal, slightly struggling under the added weight of the scavenged supplies and Starsong's limp body. Once she was on top, she magicked her rifle back in front of her and made sure there was a round in the chamber. It was going to be an interesting trip after all! Silver picked up their mysterious mare, having her front hooves around his neck as he used his wings to propel him onto the higher shelves just like Essie did with Starsong. Unfortunately, due to the position of the mare, he couldn't get his rifle to swing forward to help with shooting....But if things went well, it wouldn't matter. The ghouls starting pouring in, from both the broken windows and the door now, locked onto the healthy ponies' scents now as they clambered over themselves to rush down the aisle...The same aisle where the treasure trap was awaiting... They were 10 yards away....7 yards....5....2....

Silver and Essie had to cover their ears from both the shrieks of the ghouls and the numerous explosives, rigged shotguns, and various other bladed traps that sprung and ripped them apart. The goodies on top of the pillar got knocked onto the ground due to their struggle, but that made it easier to reach them. What were once ten feral ghouls were now only two, one for each conscious pony. Essie watched as the traps triggered, making short work of the sprinting ghouls. The last two were maimed, but still 'alive'. To think that these creatures were ponies once... It invoked sadness deep in the mare's heart. She put her rifle on her back. These creatures, as deformed and monstrous as they were... Essie's bloodlust stood aside for respect, and she drew her magnum from her thigh. Since her first shot had already alerted the ghouls around the market, she decided she need not worry about attracting more. She ignored Silver, in case he was still astonished at the intimate placement of her pistol, and aimed at the injured ghouls.  "Ah'm sorry." she muttered, and pulled the trigger. The first ghoul slumped to the floor. She aimed at the second one, took a breath, and pulled the trigger again. The second ghoul fell.

Silver had been excited to see that they were able to get out their situation unscathed, letting out a breath of relief with a smile as he celebrated internally upon seeing only two more ghouls left, easy to take out... Until he heard Essie's apology under her breath as she pulled the trigger for them both. Essie hesitated a long moment before reholstering her pistol, and sat down next to Starsong. She looked over, and noticed the unnamed mare stirring. The gunshots had brought her to consciousness!
"Rise 'n shine, sleepy..." Essie said, chuckling. "How does everything feel..?"

It had made him hesitate slightly as some humility washed over him, which was quickly distracted from the feeling of the mare wrapping her hooves around his neck, taking him by surprise as she hugged him. 

"Gah..! Whoa there...” Her sudden movement had them falling off the shelves. It was lucky that Silver was a pegasus so that they could hover to the ground safely as he turned to pat the mare's back. "Heh, good to see you're doin' fine now...What had happened?" Essie trotted over and sat on the edge of the shelf, looking down at the pegasus and the mare on his back. "Yeah," she said, as soon as he asked, "What happened t' ya?" The mare sighed, and shook her head. "I own a general store in Los Pegasus. I figured I'd head down here and see what there was to scavenge, since nopony's really ever gone through here. I saw the rifle, the caps, and the nukes on the table, and I was fairly certain those others had hit all the traps there were... Apparently not, since a bear trap dropped down and snagged me. The loot would've had me set for quite a while, it would've been stupid of me not to try and get it!" Silver looked to her in surprise. "You came here all the way from Los Pegasus??" He then narrowed his eyes in thought. "...That's a bit strange, considering how far away Los Pegasus is this far inland, especially for a rundown market like this. How did you hear about it?"  The mare chuckled weakly. "Hey, when you live in a place like Los Pegasus, you hear lots of things." she said, then prodded the back of the stallion's head. "You mind setting me down?"

"Right, sure thing..." Silver replied, finishing her answer good enough as he stooped down to let her off his back. He looked back to Essie and Starsong, noticing she was still unconscious. "You need help down from there?" The mare's knees wobbled, and she appeared short of breath for a second, but she slowly gained her sense of balance, and soon was standing on her own. As Silver spoke to Essie, she perked her ears. She had knelt next to Starsong and was attempting to bring her back to consciousness, to no avail. "Ah wouldn't mind it." she said, standing up. "Ah got muhself, if ya c'n get her." Essie clambered down from the shelf and glanced at her side. The bandage had begun to soak even through her clothes now, and she was slowly becoming aware of how much the shrapnel hurt in her side. She steeled herself, and looked at Silver. "Appaloosa’s got a good doctor, right?" Silver watched the mare get onto her hooves, happy to see that she was doing very well now. He turned to address Essie. "I think she's doing oka-...." He then frowned, noticing the wound. "...Oh man, I almost forgot. Essie, come on over here. I may not have Star's fancy spell, but I can at least do something about that." He sat down and dug into his saddlebags for the medical supplies he had found earlier in the store. Essie grumbled as she stepped close to the stallion and sat down. "Fine... At least make it quit bleedin'. Ah ain't in any shape fer surgery though, and quite simply, Ah ain't keen t' believe yer a surgeon. What kinda supplies did ya pick up?" Despite her request, Silver leaned down with his muzzle, pulled the bandage off of her, and dug his teeth into her side, gripping the shrapnel and tugging it right out of her body quickly.

Essie hadn't expected the stallion to roughly tear the shards from her body, let alone with his mouth. At the same time as jolting pain shot through her, she jerked away and slapped the stallion across his face, shrieking. The second she regained some semblance of thought, she turned on Silver.  "What the fuck was that, Silver?!" She shouted, cradling her side. "Ah said make it quit bleedin', not rip the goddess-damned thing out!" From behind them, the mare spoke up. "..well, actually.. What he did was kinda, in a way, better than just letting it sit!" she offered, to which Essie scowled. "I mean.. You're lucky you haven't already fallen out and bled to death.. Plus you may have contracted an infection.. Better to solve the problem and seal it up, you know..?" Silver rubbed his cheek, glaring at Essie. "I ain't done yet either, now lie down, I got some work to do." Essie groaned, and did as the stallion said. The nameless mare trotted around to Silver's side, cautiously observing. "Oh my.. Now Silver, just think before you make a mistake.. She might want to get even if you do something to her!"

"Too bad, I still gotta do what needs to be done...Now then." He dug into his pack to pull out a cloth and disinfectant, pouring some of the liquid onto the cloth. He began to dab it around Essie's wound, cleaning up the blood. It had stung a little, would have caused Essie to wince slightly. After the area was clean, Silver placed the disinfectant down, pulling out magical bandages and one healing potion.....Then he reached for the new plasma rifle. "Since I can't use sutures like a unicorn can.." He mumbled to himself as he placed the tip of the barrel of the rifle to a metal rod that had fallen from the ceiling and fired a round...The rifle fired off, heating up the rod to an almost white hot color. He picked up the cooler end and picked up some bits of a rubber toy that used to be on the shelf, holding it in front of Essie's mouth. "bite down..."

As the stallion's plan unfurled, Essie groaned again. She looked at the toy in front of her muzzle, then to the white-hot rod, and shook her head. "Fuck me with a live grenade.." she cursed, then scowled at the stallion. "Ah get t' punch ya after this." she said, then bit down hard on the rubber.  Upon seeing her bite down, Silver nods his head and lowers the hot rod. "On the count of three....One-" He then pressed the rod against her flesh, steam rising up as it burned and melded her wound closed. It felt like she was getting shot with a bullet that was on fire.

At the burning touch of the rod, Essie's whole body cringed. Her limbs went rigid, then pulled back, poised to strike the stallion, but the mare kept in mind that in the grand scheme of things, he was helping. Still, it didn't change the fact that it hurt like hell.. He didn't hold it against her long, quickly throwing the rod away after he could see the flesh around the wound charred and sealing it. He quickly got Essie to sit upright, pulling the toy out of her muzzle before hoofing her the healing potion. "Theeeere we go, almost done now. Drink this quickly. " He said softly, in a rather calming tone. After putting the bottle in her hoof, Silver quickly pulled out the magical bandages and made her lift her hooves up slightly, so that he could wrap them around her torso. Already the magic properties of the bandages was causing a cooling sensation to her cauterized injury, the pain deadening.

The cooling bandages were a much-welcomed relief, and sipping on the healing potion added to the refreshing sensation quickly beginning to course through her veins. Though she was sure that she would quickly recover, she was certain that it wouldn't be for a while. Now with new bandages around her torso, and healing potions repairing the stallion's impromptu 'surgery', the mare caught her breath and chuckled. "Shit.. Maybe yer a doctor after all." she said, shaking her head. "Ah owe ya. Right after Ah get t' punch ya."

Silver finished wrapping Essie up, fastening the bandages on her torso. "Well, I had to learn how to patch myself up somehow, and I bet this feels a lot better without pieces of metal...But yes, I suppose I owe you a punch since you asked for it." He backed up and looked to the plasma rifle he had recently used, twisting the corner of his mouth. He picked it up and held it to his side... At once, the battle saddle on his back had activated, a spare joint reaching out and locking onto the rifle before swiveling it into a idle position on his back, a few lights lit up, pointing to a couple of empty slots near the rifle. Silver then picked up the proper ammo and started to load it into said slots, the saddle chiming once it was full. Needless to say, it wasn't what most battle saddles could do, which was rather interesting to watch. "I think I'm gonna at least keep this, I earned it after saving your life, don't ya think?" He looked to the mare. "...What's your name anyhow?"

The two conscious mares watched the stallion add the plasma rifle to his battle saddle. While Essie would've loved to have sold it for profit, the mare seemed pleased with the trade.

"Eh... Small price to pay, to say I survived a trap like that!" the mare said, grinning at the stallion. For one so close to death only a short while ago, the mare was almost aggravatingly chipper. "And my name's Strobe! I guess I forgot to introduce myself." Essie nodded to Strobe as she slowly stood back up. The new bandages were actually rather nice! "Nice t' meet ya, Strobe." she said, dusting off her other side. "Ah suppose you'll be needin' t' get back t' Los Pegasus soon, right?" The mare nodded enthusiastically, causing some dust to puff out of her dirty, neon-colored mane. "Uh huh..! I've been gone for a couple of weeks now, I think it's about time to go back and see what damage my assistant's done to the business!" Silver nodded his head to Strobe. "Well, seems like you got someplace to be, and glad to see you're doing much better." He smiled, looking to the sleeping Starsong beside Essie. "We'll let her know that you were most grateful for what she did." After finishing that statement, he looked back to the pillar where the rest of the prize was, namely the bag of caps and the four mini-nukes.

"...Hm, since you had a bigger risk than us trying to get that stuff, considering you had no way of saving yourself... How's this? We'll split it down the middle. You take two nukes and half the caps, we'll take the other half. That way you at least go back to your shop with some profit. I'm keeping the gun of course, I could use something more than a single shot rifle. Sound fair to everypony?" He looked to both Strobe and Essie, wondering if either had any objections. 

Strobe grinned as she trotted over to the pedestal. On the ground near where she had been suspended in the bear trap, a saddlebag lay on the ground. She picked it up and strapped it to her back, then trotted to the pedestal, where she filled the bag with the remaining items. She closed her bags and turned around, and started towards the door, giving both of the ponies hugs as she passed them. "Again, thank you so much for saving my life! If you come to Los Pegasus, swing by my store! You can't miss it, and you'll be very happy to find that sales pop up whenever you guys walk in the door!" she said with a wink, then trotted away. "Bye!" Essie returned the hug with an uncomfortable smile, and waved Strobe goodbye when she left. Once the mare was out of earshot, she rubbed the bridge of her nose, sighing. "Ah think there's only so much a' that pony Ah can take in one sittin'." Silver snickered at Essie's annoyance. "Hey, it's a nice change compared to what we dealt with before. I'd rather have ponies like her thanking us, unlike that caravan trader who wanted to shoot first and ask questions later."

He looked around them to take in the view of the market, a pile of feral ghouls to add to the already deceased that came from the trap. The shelves had been scrapped clean, and he felt as though there was nothing more to do here. Silver pulled out his pocket watch and checked the time. "Hm....We're about 20 minutes slower than I had hoped, but that's fine. Appaloosa is two days away anyhow. We got some goods for trade and plenty of food. I think we just need to check the coolers for water and we're good to go."

Essie chuckled and shook her head. "Ah suppose ponies like that 'r a blessin'. Remind folks that not everything's bad." she said, glancing up at Starsong, who had begun to wake. "Hm...’specially that one..." Star lifted herself up slowly, rubbing her eyes. "Did it work..?" she asked, looking around for the pony she'd saved. With no such luck, she looked at the two ponies in the aisle. "Is she..?" she started, when Essie cut her off. "Naw, she's gone back t' where she come from." she said. "Yer spell worked, Star. Like always..." The smaller mare looked relieved to hear the good news, although a little taken aback that she hadn't even gotten to see her for herself. "C'mon down here Star, we're about t' see if there's any water lyin' around." she said, and then turned to Silver. "Then straight t' Appaloosa, if it's gonna take two days."

Silver smiled, nodding to his two companions. "Eeyup, and the trip should have nothing to slow us down either, so let's have a quick look and mosey on our way." He turned to trot to the edges of the market with both of them, ready to find the last of their supplies for the trip ahead...

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

Not long after, all three headed down the road for New Appaloosa. They managed to find at least 11 purified waters sitting around with three Nuka-Colas as a nice bonus. Silver opted to take 3 and let the other two take 4 waters. When they were a good distance away from the market though, Silver gave a light cough. ".......So uhm.....Where exactly ARE you keeping that pistol I saw?"

The mares had been perfectly content to walk in silence, at least until Silver had broken it. As they continued trotting, Starsong glanced at Essie, who chuckled and shook her head.

The sniper gazed forward, grinning. She glanced over at the stallion with a look that bordered flirtation, and quickly shifted her attention to the front again. "Heh.. 's on the inside 'a my thigh." she said quietly, looking at him again for a reaction. "Stallions with bad intentions think Ah'm playin' with muhself, when Ah'm about t' blow their fuckin' heads off. 'a course, Ah've only had t' use it like that one time."

Starsong grimaced at the explanation, and rolled her eyes. "Sheesh.. Way to give me that image.."

The blush Silver had before in the market returned as his wings ruffled up slightly, biting his lip as he locked his eyes forward once more. "O...kay then. I'll be sure to use caution then if I uh...ever see your hoof between your legs." He had such a flustered look on his face, failing to keep a stoic demeanor.

> Ch 4: Are They Twins?
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------


Chapter 4


It had been about two days since the incident in the market for Silver, Essie and Starsong. As he predicted, there wasn't much interruption for the group from there to New Appaloosa, save for the occasional restroom or food break, as well as shut eye during the night. Essie's previous wound was healing nicely now, being nothing more than just a minor pain in her side at this point. Silver's new plasma rifle was in the holstered position along his back. He had given it to Essie one night to work her repair magic over it, fixing any kinks in the targeting and firing systems. Silver was drinking his own bottle of Sparkle-Cola as he chatted with the mares...

"...So I learned the hard way that one does not ever try to deny a kiss from a drunk griffon, they get seriously mad and will use those talons of theirs. And that's what got me figuring out first-aid, by trying to patch the gashes in my chest."

The journey, thankfully, had been easy on the group. Trekking across the Equestrian Wasteland was no easy task, but as they sat in their camp, just a couple hours away from New Appaloosa, they were in high spirits. Essie and Starsong both had followed Silver's lead, cracking open their bottles of Sparkle-Cola and giggling as the stallion entertained them with a story. 
"Griffin talons ain't nothin' t' play with, Silver!" Essie mock-scolded him, chuckling... "Did ya end up kissin' her t' make her relax?" Silver Lining snickered and shook his head. "I think I was too busy trying to hold my shredded chest together to help HIM relax...Thankfully, his own crew came to collect him before a bigger scene was made." 

As the group sat in their campsite a small group of Pegasi silently hovered down behind the area they were camping in. They looked between one another and watched the campsite to figure out a plan of action. When they saw the group casually enjoying their drinks they moved in.

“Silver Lining!” one pony shouted as he landed in the center of them, this pony was a stallion wearing a mix of barding and power armor and had a face mask obscuring everything under his eyes. As he appeared a mare dressed similarly showed up as well as another Pegasi fully dressed up in power armor… The power armored one aimed one weapon at Starsong and one at Essie “Don’t try anything.” He warned as the stallion and mare stood in front of Silver “We’ve been looking for you, it’s been awhile hasn’t it?” the mare said with a chuckle as the two of them pulled their face masks down to reveal two ponies Silver would undoubtedly recognize.

Meanwhile the armored pony kept the weapons aimed at the two unicorns, making sure neither made any foolish moves. The other two ponies didn’t make any aggressive moves towards Silver though. Silver had jumped back a bit as the pegasi group landed down, about to swing his plasma rifle into action as he noticed all the guns they had, pointing at him, Essie and Starsong. He grits his teeth as a bead of sweat dropped from his brow, knowing full well that these were all Enclave. "Wha..? What do you guys want??" He asked the two that approached him, but once they pulled down their facemasks, Essie and Star saw an expression on Silver that they had never seen before: Absolute horror.

"....No....It can't be."

Three sets of power armor dropping in from above were frightening enough, but to have just one of those cannons aimed towards them at point blank was an unearthly terror. Essie quickly jerked up, forcing a rigid and babbling Starsong behind her. She glared at the pony aiming at her, standing wide and protectively over the smaller mare cowering behind her. Looking for some kind of reassurance, she glanced at Silver. The look on his face was not what she'd hoped to see. Worse, all of her weapons were lying on the ground, near where she'd slept. She had no opportunity to levitate her guns over, and no other way to fight, than with her hooves. 

"Silver, you better get talkin' cause Ah'm gettin' real pissed off with this fuckin' stomper pointin' at me!" Essie spat, glowering in Silver's direction. The two ponies in front of Silver chuckled a bit, but it wasn't one of malice, just a casual one. "Quick to anger, I see." the stallion observed "Well, go ahead and do as she says." he advised as he glanced over at the armored companion.
The mare watched Silver closely as well as the two unicorns cowering from the guns aimed at them "Don't try for those weapons, it would be a very bad idea." she pointed out as slowly trotted towards the weapons to gather them all up near her while keeping an eye on both of them. Silver simply sat there, biting his tongue for a while. It was clear that he knew these two very well, and that they were Enclave. The shocked look on his face eventually transitioned into nervous stress as he watched the mare gather up his companions' weapons. "...If you guys are who I think you are, then you all must think I've done something against the Enclave. Whatever the case is, it wasn't my fault, I swear." He pleaded to the stallion. 

Essie looked between the pony confiscating her weapons, to the ponies facing Silver, then to Silver himself. After a moment, her brows furrowed, and she stamped her hoof at the ground. "What the hell… Silver, are you Enclave?!" she growled, lurching forward. She was tempted to hit the stallion, but remembered that the pony with the cannon on her wasn't too fond of sudden movement. "Ah trusted you! WE trusted you!" The stallion in front of Silver chuckled a bit "Ouch; that probably wasn't something you should of kept hidden." he said with a disapproving look "Funny you should mention that though, we know you didn't directly do anything against the Enclave. However, you did come below the cloud cover without permission." he pointed out and paced back and forth in front of him.

"It’s fortunate though, because we've come here to offer you a chance at coming home with no consequence. You're free to choose to accept or decline the offer. But if you decline it you will be officially labeled as a enemy of the state and we will not be able to help bring you back." he started off and glanced over at the armored stallion near the unicorns "You'll be under his jurisdiction and let’s say he isn't quite as nice as us when it comes to dealing with AWOL soldiers." he added and then stopped in front of Silver again to let him process that. Silver Lining's face paled at the choices given to him. "Th...That’s not fair! There are no official papers on me coming under the clouds because it was supposed to be like that! I was on a low-profile scouting mission; we weren't supposed to bring it to the citizens' attention!" That sentence alone had proved Silver was indeed Enclave to Essie and Star now, and yet he continued to speak.

"But we got scattered by Raiders during the mission and I got stranded! I couldn't go back without the proper clearance I clearly was not having! That's why I never returned and now..." He gulped as he looked between the two blue ponies before him. "You guys are the Inquisitors... Even if I go back quietly, you'll find ways to find me guilty and label me a traitor...."

Essie glowered at the pegasi around her, gritting her teeth to keep from blurting anything out. Further aggravating her was the pony still aiming the cannon at her, and the cowering mare behind her. Essie finally turned on the armored pegasus, "For fuck's sake! We're unarmed, an' this one's hardly more 'n a filly!" she shouted at the Enclave pony. She pleadingly turned to the ponies that were showing their faces. "Are y'all jus' monsters? Huh? Ya gonna shoot 'n unarmed mare an' a filly?" 

The stallion who was focusing on Silver looked towards her "Well we won't." he replied gesturing between himself and the mare before turning towards the armored one. "Ease up, just make sure they stay away from the weapons." he added and the reply he got wasn't exactly what he wanted. "Don't try telling me what to do...." he said in annoyance as he kept the weapons trained on them. The stallion sighed heavily and shook his head in disapproval before turning back to Silver "To cut to the chase, we're offering you a chance to return without a problem. All you have to do is help her out with a mission of her own. Do that and you'll be given clearance to return." he explained, his voice sounding very genuine in the words and his lack of any smirks or similar looks reinforced his words. "If you choose not to, well you will be labeled a traitor and he'll..." he said gesturing to the armored pony "...will be in charge of bringing you to justice. Your choice..."

The armored pony chuckled "Oh and of course this little deal is going to allow me to test out a recent creation of mine. Just to ensure none of you get the idea of turning on her." he said gesturing towards the mare. He rose up a hoof and a syringe slid out of a slit on his armored hoof, filled with a strange metallic like liquid. He glared at the two mares; despite not being able to see it they could almost feel his malicious glee at this fact. As Silver turned to see what the armored pony was talking about, his eyes widened as he saw the syringe with the liquid metal. Being from the Enclave, he had a clear idea of what could have been in that syringe. He looked to Star's scared face, knowing that whatever he did, she would probably have to endure whatever that stallion was hoping to do....And with that thought, his worried face became a mad determination as he acted.

Without warning, Silver pulled his goggles over his eyes as his battle saddle activated, the whir of both the semi-auto and the plasma rifle locking into place at his sides, aimed for the armored pony. "OVERLOAD..!" Silver shouted as both barrels of the guns blasted out with the intent of emptying their respective magazines. The semi-auto wasn't equipped to do any real damage to the stallion's armor, but it would certainly knock him off his hooves, with the plasma rifle's heat, making the steel trap of his very uncomfortable. "ESSIE, STAR, RUN!" He exclaimed as he spread his wings and dove for the other two in front of him. The mares stood in stunned silence at Silver's sudden turning. When he shouted at them to run, they didn't hesitate to start moving their hooves. Starsong was the faster of the two, and she was away from the campsite a second later. Essie sprinted over to the pile of weapons and quickly strapped her pistol to her thigh, then levitated her rifle into her grasp. She looked over, spotting the pony who had been aiming his cannons at her and Starsong, recovering from the assault. Taking an opportunity for revenge, she stepped close to him, pressed the end of the barrel against the jaw of his armor, and let loose two rounds from the .50 cal.

The events that unfolded caught the two off guard as Silver pounced on the stallion after firing at the armored pony. The mare immediately saw this and jumped at Silver to knock him off before the two of them leapt back and the crystals on their hoof guards glowed. Only Silver would know what that meant.

They saw the death of the other pegasi and instead of looking unnerved at that they looked...relieved. "Good....I was getting really tired of him." The mare said before realizing what she said and closed her mouth. The stallion then looked at them. "I'm not sure if you three are brave or really stupid." He pointed out, but not in a condescending way. “You just took out an Inquisitor....not sure we can help you now Silver. Although, know that what he was about to do with that syringe was not something we wanted. He's.....always enjoyed torturing ponies. Whether he needed to or not." The stallion explained as they watched the three of them from behind the protection of their personal force fields. "We're not here to fight, never were." The mare added, and like with the stallion's offer there was no sign of trickery in her voice.

Silver gave a grunt as he got quickly pushed back by the mare, scrambling to his hooves as the battle saddle worked to replace the empty magazines in his guns. He didn't try anything else though, seeing the crystals on their hoof guards activated. Instead he backed away slowly, keeping his guard up as he looked to Essie, keeping track of where she was too. The honesty in the other two's voices were throwing him off, but he didn't want that to disarm him as he stood confident.

"Whether you wanted to fight or not is not relevant. I can't go back to the Enclave knowing that I'll be guilty on the spot in a 'fair' trial. And us shooting that other fella practically sealed the deal, so go tell that to whoever sent you after me." Essie watched the armored pony collapse on the ground before raising her rifle to find... Some kind of force field around the other pegasi... She cast quick glances at Silver while watching and aiming her rifle at the ponies in the protective field. 

"Ah really ain't in the mood fer bullshit, y'hear?" Essie called up to the blue ponies. "Y'all say ya weren't lookin' t' fight, but ya drop in on us like that, an' take us hostage? An' you!" She said, looking at Silver. "Ya mind tellin' me precisely what the fuck's goin' on here?" The stallion sighed a bit "Simply precautions, what he..." he pointed to the dead armored pony "was about to do, that was all him. That wasn't something we wanted to happen." he replied then turned to Silver "No one sent us, we came looking for you of our own volition." he explained "Why, because I've given her a mission and since you had a track record for being a good recon pony prior to being stranded we figured we'd search you out. Offer you a chance to come back if you helped us." he explained "Put the weapons down, we aren't going to attack you." he added 

The mare continued "Honestly, I don't know how his group will react to finding out he'd be killed by what he loves to call 'wasteland trash'. It’s likely you'll have to deal with his little gang, and they'll be out for blood." she explained and looked between them "It’s clear he doesn't want to help us, so we'll just leave." she added with a shrug. To prove the point of no desire to attack neither of them made any moves and just kept their shields up as a safety precaution.

They both looked to Silver; having worked with him in the past he knew enough about them to know when they meant ill and when they were being peaceful. Silver grits his teeth, looking back and forth between the two Enclave members with their backs turned, and to Essie, who was glaring at him all the while. With a little hesitation, he started to call back to them. "....Wait...Just a moment...." He gulped as he looked to Essie. "...Hey, I need you to trust me more than ever and lower your weapon... I promise I'll give you the full story when this is over, okay?" 

Essie stayed still, keeping her rifle aimed at the pegasi in the shield. After a moment, she growled and lowered her rifle, looking at Silver. "You'd better be more than certain 'bout this." she warned, eyeing the pegasi. The two of them watched this and smiled warmly "Thank you." the stallion replied and the two force fields lowered as well "Now, what are you gonna do about that?" he asked and gestured towards the armored corpse "It’s only a matter of time until they start looking for him." he pointed out "As far as they're concerned, you...." He gestured towards Essie, "Are an enemy of the state now. Depending on who comes down to deal with you. Your friend that ran off may also be killed or captured." He pointed out and glanced over at Silver, knowing that he was also well aware of what he was explaining.

The mare simply watched and sighed. "We may not even be safe, Auron...." She said with some worry in her voice as she looked at him. "They killed an Inquisitor, one of our brothers....and we're not going to do anything about it? Things could get real bad." She said with a sigh as she sat down a short distance away from Essie, just in case she had to defend herself at a moment's notice.

The stallion, who was revealed as being named Auron, went over to her and put a hoof on her shoulder. "Don't worry, we'll figure out something to cover it up." he pointed out. "You still good for your mission, seems you'll have to go at it alone now though." he pointed out and she looked at him in concern. "Why?" she asked. "Because I doubt they want to be anywhere near you." she said gesturing towards the others. "and I'll have to head back to deal with this...." he said gesturing once again to the dead corpse. Silver bit his lip as he listened in to the two's conversation, then spoke up, pointing to Essie. "She's nopony...That's what killed your companion. It's not uncommon for raiders to pop off shots at fliers and everypony knows it. Not to mention that nopony is invincible either." Silver then pointed to the dead Inquisitor.

"He just happened to be unfortunate enough to be caught in the very small weak point of the armor by sniper fire, after being gunned down by numerous other raiders, as .50 caliber rounds would prove it was sniper fire. The other mare is nopony as well, she was well off in New Appaloosa by the time any skirmish happened....That will be your end of the deal I'm about to make." Silver finished before lowering his weapons too.

"...My end of the bargain will be to help you with your mission that you wanted me to help with before. And once it's over, I will be 'killed in action', and you return home saying the traitor's dead." Essie raised her brow as the stallion explained what 'really' happened, slowly nodding as he made his deal. She looked at the blue ponies expectantly, seeing how they liked Silver's offer. The stallion thought it over and looked towards the mare. "This is your mission, your call." he said and briefly glanced between the other ponies in the area.

The mare spoke afterwards. "Only one issue with that offer, if my mission succeeds....I won't be going back." she said with a strangely confident tone in her voice. "I can't explain why, not yet." she added "but if it succeeds...I won't go back." she repeated and glanced towards the stallion again.

"Silver, right now I have to deal with this mess. Either help her or not, but I'd advise you all watch out. Aura being with you may, but isn't guaranteed to keep you out of trouble." he explained. "Aura if you're going to stay down here and travel with them for your mission, you better get it out." he advised as she dropped the small saddlebag from her side and fished through it before pulling out a strange box like device that opened up into some sort of single eye wear. Silver Lining had a stern expression on his face as he thought over what might happen, taking a glance to Essie before speaking up again. "As long as my companions do not get involved, then we have a deal. I'll accompany Aura on her mission now....What are the details of this?" 

"I can't guarantee that, if she is with you and is able to come up with a cover story that you all play along with you may be safe." the stallion responded. "But the Inquisition doesn't follow a traditional chain of command. We can only request you three are left alone, can't order it. Even if we are senior over most of the others." he added and explained.

The mare added "Plus, there are more radical members of the Inquisition and they don't take kindly to their brothers or sisters being killed." Silver shook his head. "I understand that. What I also understand is that they were only expecting me, not them. So if any problems do arise, all blame should be put on me then. Now I ask again, what is this mission you wanted me for?" The mare looked at him. "Recon, something you're used to doing. I'll explain more later... I want to know what things are like down here and I want to help if I can." she briefly explained. "And as I said, no one was expecting you. You're not some renegade who stole Enclave property or some high ranking officer that went AWOL and has classified knowledge." she added.

The stallion continued, "But now that she killed a member of the Inquisition you could become a pony the Enclave wants dead just by associating with her. You know as well as I do that most things the Enclave do make little sense." he sighed a bit. "Much to my dismay...”

Essie huffed. "Y'all already forgot the terms?" she chimed in, scowling again. "Accordin' t' Silver, Ah didn't kill nopony. Raiders did, didn't they?" she suggested, more than asked.  

Silver's brows furrowed as well. He wasn't happy with what the two were getting at. "If nopony was expecting me, then how come you and that other Inquisitor fly all the way down here just for little 'ol me? What you're saying don't make a lick of sense at all, the only reason you EVER track down ponies is to bring them back to the Enclave to hold a trial to see if they're a traitor or not. So please explain to me why that ISN'T the case here??"

Aura sighed. "Ok, I'll reiterate it." she said and took a deep breath. "We came down here because we knew you were around the area. We wanted to offer you a chance to return if you helped me with my mission. There wasn't any kind of bounty on you. As for why he came down with us, well one of the higher up Inquisitors wanted to test something out and realized that my mission presented the best opportunity to do so. Whatever was in that injection was likely that test." she explained.

The stallion continued "I have nothing against your story; I won't say anything...as long as she stays safe while on her mission. However, I can't stop others from investigating. They aren't likely to just accept my story and drop it." he pointed out. "True, that’s what Inquisitors are meant to do, but when you have the freedom offered to us....you can stretch it a bit." he said with a smirk that the mare shared.

Silver bit his lip as he thought over their terms, inhaling deeply. "...Very well, I shall help, but like I said: she and Star are nopony. If anypony up there starts getting wiser, then the blame gets put on me...NOT her, nor Star, just me. Is that understood?"
"She stays safe and I'll do what I can." the stallion replied and looked at the mare and smiled at her. He then looked at Essie. "Off the record, thanks for taking him out. One less radical to deal with." he said with a light chuckle as he nodded towards Aura and she put the strange object over her eye and Auron helped connect a few wires from it to the armor and device on her foreleg.

Essie took a look at the armored corpse on the ground, and furrowed her brows. "He threatened me an' Star." she said firmly, turning back to face the pegasus. She started to go on, but from behind her, a quiet voice piped up. "What's that on your arm?" Starsong asked, tentatively stepping forward and stopping at Essie's side. "Is it a PipBuck?"

"Some of the more radical inquisitors are like that, merciless willing to threaten and maybe kill unarmed ponies." the stallion responded with a sigh. "Things have gotten far too hectic in the organization as of late." he added.

The mare heard the voice and looked at her foreleg "No its not, it's...I guess what you can say a utility weapon." she replied. "It’s our preferred weapon and is pretty unique." she added and then turned to the stallion. "I still don't want you to go back, who says they won't blame you or I for his death? He came down here with us and was killed, and we just so happen to not get along with him." she pointed out.

Silver let his rifles fold back into the holstered position on his back after pulling his goggles down, looking towards the direction of where he, Essie and Star were supposed to be heading. "So now that we're all clear on what's going to happen, it's best to get moving now; I'll help Aura with whatever it is you guys want done down here and play fair...And then after that, I'll deal with the consequences of having curious Inquisitors coming after me later for those that don't believe the cover story....You WILL give them what I asked you to say, right?" He looked to Auron.

Auron nodded "I will, and as long as she stays safe they'll never hear what actually happened from me." he replied.
Silver nodded his head. "Very well....First, we'll escort these two to the outskirts of New Appaloosa, but not actually enter town with them. The citizens will shoot you on sight in that armor." He looked to Aura's armor, which screamed Enclave. "Once these two reach the destination, then I'll fly off with you to complete whatever it is you want done, and afterwards I  come back to my friends."
Aura looked over to Silver and shook her head. "My mission is going to be going for awhile. I'm going to travel around down here and gather intel on things." she re-explained. "If you only want to go that far with me then fine, but it’s not the end of my mission." she added. "as for my armor, it shouldn't cause as much of a problem as you think, considering its not typical Enclave or typical anything armor. I have a back-up plan anyways."

Auron stepped forward and looked at everyone present. "You should all get going soon. I'll have to report this incident in and they'll come down to collect his body. You don't want to be around when they arrive." he explained.

Essie slowly strapped her rifle to her back as she listened to the conversation. "Me 'n Star will wait in Appaloosa. Ah think it's best we split up fer a bit after this whole 'Enclave' thing. Ah need t' get muh head straight." she said. Silver Lining turned to look to Essie, the expression on his face seeming to say 'I'm really sorry.' "Okay, seems like everypony is on the same track here. Let's get moving so that these two can reach Appaloosa already." Aura shrugged. "Alright then, best get going." she said and looked between both of them and then back to Auron, she hugged him quickly. "You'd better be damn careful." she said to him and he nodded. "Same to you, now get going." he repeated as she let go of him and he stepped away and towards the body "Going to have to report this in, don't worry I'll tell them what you said, now get moving." he instructed.

The sniper met Silver's eye and turned away, frowning. Instead, she looked at Starsong, who was still transfixed on the strange cuffs on the ponies' forearms. The smaller mare stepped forward and made another attempt, this time directed at the mare. "What do they do?" she asked, eyeing the crystals embedded in it. "Did they make that force field?" Aura glanced over and nodded. "Yes, they act as conduits you can say. They power the device." she briefly explained as she glanced down at it and then back at Starsong. Silver drooped his ears as he saw Essie looking away, but then quickly shook the look off his face as he led the trot to New Appaloosa. As they walked away they could hear the stallion reporting the incident as promised and then seemingly vanishing. Aura stopped and looked back at him for a bit before catching up and trotting at the back of the group.

> Ch 5: New Appleloosa
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------


Chapter 5


The mares trotted with the group, though Essie made a point to put some lateral distance between her and the pegasi. As for Starsong, she was interested in the blue pegasus' technology. She kept close to Aura, occasionally asking questions about the components of her armor, or the crystal apparatus on her forearm. As Aura trotted along she messed with both the device on her foreleg and over her eye to make sure they were working properly. She didn't mind Starsong being so close and even answered a few questions, albeit with simple responses. Silver listened to the two talk, trying to trot closer towards Essie during the trek. Once she was within a whisper's distance, Silver spoke to her. "I know you've got every right to be mad at me for not telling you. And frankly, I didn't want anypony to find out, considering I was completely on my own; I had to blend in to prevent anypony from shooting my head off at first sight, so I discarded my uniform and took these clothes off of a corpse...Not my proudest moment, but it's the reason I'm still alive today."

"Regardless, it looks like I got you and Star caught up in my own mess, and I assure you I will make damn sure I get you out of it This is my problem after all, especially with Inquisitors coming after me." Essie didn't look at the stallion, but nodded her head to acknowledge she was listening. "Us surface folk ain't exactly on the best 'a terms with y'all Enclave." she said, her brows furrowing as she stared straight forward. "Y'all took away our sun, our moon... Y'all won't help the wasteland get back on its hooves; y'all just keep everything fer yerselves. That's where muh anger's comin' from. Ya didn't defect, yer not a Dashite. Ya came down fer fuckin' recon and couldn't get back." she said coldly, then shook her head and sighed. 

"Ah'm just afraid, Silver. Meet somepony ya think ya can call a friend, and then find out they're a part of somethin' that's made yer life fuckin' miserable." she added quietly, finally looking at him. "Ah just don't know what t' think." 

Silver drooped his ears once more, sighing quietly. "If it helps any, my recon was supposed to check the surface to see if things were getting better. It was an off-the-books mission too; we were the ones working with part of the Enclave that wanted to send down care packages by trying to find safe locations. I wanted to get back in so I could send my report to my superiors and let them know where the safe zones were... But halfway through it all, we got jumped, and I was the last of my recon team alive down here."

Silver looked up to the sky, in the general direction of where his home was probably located. "Without the radio contact from my squad leader, we were to be assumed KIA, so I knew help wasn't coming. That's why I blended in..." Then he looked over his shoulder to Aura. "...But it seems like I've been found out, and they sent 'them' to come get me... Inquisitors are the Enclave that try and snuff out traitors, finding them guilty and labeling them Dashites."

The mare sighed, still walking alongside the stallion. If what he said was true, he was surely a traitor to the Enclave, worthy of the surface now.. Right? She still felt conflicted, and it showed on her face. 

After a long moment of silence, she looked up at the pegasus. "The Wasteland needs a whole lot more pegasi that think like Rainbow Dash did.." she said, shaking her head.

Silver listened to her words, thinking of a good response to what she had said, before finally replying. "...Look back to when you met me, and go over all that we've been through. Can you name one moment where you felt like I would betray you and Starsong? Any moment at all that I stopped looking out for you two?"

After a quiet moment's thought, Essie looked at Silver. Her expression had softened, and she had the beginnings of a smile creeping onto her face. "Remember when Ah told ya that you were a good pony?" she asked, leaning in close to bump shoulders with him. "Thank ya. Takes a lot t' trust somepony ya just met the way ya trust me 'n Star. An' vice-versa, of course."

The mare's ear flicked at the lack of noise behind her, so she stopped and turned around, spotting both the ponies behind them stopped. The one in the bug-like armor seemed to be searching for something in the sky, while the smaller mare beside her glanced around, trying to figure out what the pegasus was looking for. Essie raised her ears. "Any reason y'all stopped?" she asked, fighting the urge to start glancing around as well.

Silver smiled, glad that Essie was no longer mad at him, but then frowned as he heard what Aura said and noticing her looking up as well. "Huh? What'll make things easier?" He asked out loud as he looked up, starting to look nervous. His eyes were fixed on the clouds; He had a thought that something was about to come down...And he prayed to Celestia it wasn't bad news.

Not too long after a lone pegasi was seen approaching and quickly came up to Aura "Inquisitor Aura, got a delivery for you. Should make your mission easier." the pegasi spoke, he was barely armed and wearing basic level armor on top of that, showing that he wasn't a threat to the group.

Aura smiled as the pegasi dropped what looked like a medium sized saddlebag off in front of her and stepped back, cautiously eying the others, but not in aggressive way. Aura quickly rummaged through the saddlebag and pulled out a outfit that could be identified as the style most wanderers wear. She turned towards the others "Here, some ammo and such in there, take what you want." she said as she unfolded the new armor

Silver gave Aura a curious look as he approached the saddlebags the Courier delivered, trying to avoid eye contact with him and being recognized; He did feel like he was being hunted after all. "You had somepony come down and deliver you a costume and supplies? ....Well, it's better than taking the clothes off a dead pony, I reckon. At least we don't have to worry about you drawing too much attention either."

He nudged Essie's shoulder briefly before looking into the saddlebags to see what else was brought down.

Aura nodded "Yeah, just needed to give the ok to have it brought down." she replied and started to get out of her armor and put on the replacement, once she had it on she looked like any other wasteland pony, they were modified a bit so that her wings, when folded to her sides, blended into the outfit and weren't initially noticeable

Essie glanced into the bag, noticing nothing that really matched any of her weapons. Starsong hesitantly reached in and pulled out a few rolls of magical bandages, along with a couple of doctors' bags. She stuffed what she could into her MoP cases on her sides, and smiled as she felt the weight added to them. "Ready for any accidents!" she said, chuckling. Essie rolled her eyes at her and nudged Silver. 

"Find anything, flyboy?" she asked, glancing into the bag. "Anything ya might wanna give t' that mare we rescued?"

As they talked, Aura finished fastening her new armor. She then ruffled her mane and put a bit of dirt in it to complete her new look. If the others hadn't known better they'd think she just another wasteland wanderer, her foreleg mounted weapon blended into her new armor as well. All that really stood out was the device over her eye.

The other Pegasi, who had remained quiet, started gathering up and packing Aura's discarded gear, into a second empty saddlebag he was carrying.

Silver had found some microfusion charges to go with his plasma rifle, picking them up and adding it to his ABS. His ears flicked as he heard Essie's question and looked to her curiously. "Huh? What's that supposed to mean?"

Essie chuckled and shook her head. "Oh, nothin'." she said dismissively, trotting over to Starsong. She eyed Aura's new outfit, and shrugged. "Ah wouldn't shoot ya if Ah saw ya around. Guess that's as good as ya can get."

Aura looked over at Essie and smiled "Well thanks, it'll have to do then." she replied and helped pack her other outfit and stuff up in the saddlebag. The pegasi tied it up and fastened it to his side "Thanks, this will help a lot." she said and the pony smiled warmly and nodded "No problem, oh and a word of warning....." he started and then looked between them all and back to Aura "...the Enclave is nearing full mobilization, be careful.....the Inquisitors are pretty much free to do whatever they damn well want." he said with a bit of worry.

Aura smiled "Well that means my mission can continue easily....." then her smile faded "Shit...." she then replied and the pony instantly caught her worry "Yeah..."

Silver looked to Aura after her brief conversation with the courier pony, giving her a concerned look. "What's going on now? Inquisitors are coming down for us already?" He sighed. "Looks like your pal wasn't able to sell the pitch I bargained with to him...Damn, it hasn't even been an hour."

Essie stepped forward, raising one ear. "Mobilization?" she asked, eyeing the pegasi. "That sounds like.. Troops." She looked at Aura questioningly, her horn faintly beginning to glow. "Y'all goin' someplace? Big ol' family vacation?"

Aura looked over to Silver as he asked "Nah, they probably believed him or don't care. That’s not the problem though, the problem pretty much boils down to a petty rivalry." she replied with a sigh and turned to Essie "I wouldn't know, it could mean anything really." she added.

The courier pony stepped back and made sure his cargo was secured "Well I'm off, stars protect you Inquisitor." he said and hovered up, waving down to her. Aura looked at him and smiled "Same to you, let me know if anything comes up that I need to be aware of." she added, he saluted, and then flew off. Aura again looked to the others "Well, now that we're supplied shall we get going?"

Silver looked uneasy still, hearing the courier's news, but he looked over the rest of the crew Starsong with fresh medical supplies, Essie who was trusting him once more, and Aura, who now could blend in perfectly. He shook his head and sighed. "Well, guess you can follow us in town after all... The rest of us were going to head in there for some trade and food. Star was going to check out the local Stable for specialized equipment she wanted to acquire, and I can check in with the Hunter registry for any new bounties, or see if any had been collected and expired too."

The field around Essie's horn slowly dimmed into nothingness as she leveled back again. Hearing Silver, she groaned at the idea of skipping a day of rest for raiding a Stable. Starsong shot a glare at her, and huffed. "Essie, as soon as we can get this PipBuck working properly, we don't have to worry about counting caps, or taking inventory!" she explained, pointing out the damaged device crudely hooked to her satchels. "I just need the tools."

Aura heard the brief exchange "Probably a good idea to get it fixed, things like that are very helpful and....unusually intelligent for old world tech." she pointed out with a shrug "We'll be fine for now though, this..." she said and tapped on the device over her eye "...has similar functions to that of a pip-buck." she added with a smile

"I’m guessing that's special Inquisitor tech? I don't think I recognize that equipment before," Silver spoke, looking to Aura's eye patch.

Aura nodded "Sort of, a model of it is also given to recon operatives. Surprising you don't know of them. How long have you been down here?" she wondered in curiosity

Silver scratched the back of his mane. "About....three and a half months now. Gosh, and I know how fast things move up there too, there's probably so much I've missed by now."

"Really? That long..." she replied in surprise "They were introduced to recon soldiers about.....two months ago I believe." she added "still not widespread since power armor comes with some functions built into the helmet." she pointed out

Silver looked up in thought. "Hm...Maybe when we reach town you should take that off. It'll definitely stick out like a shiny bottlecap in the middle of the road. New Tech like that will catch a pony's eye... Anyway, let's continue moving, now that you're situated with your....costume." He finished before turning and trotting back on the path.

She merely chuckled "True, but I can just say I scavenged it couldn't I?" she replied with a shrug

Essie shook her head at the mare as she started onto the path behind Silver. "Better get workin' on a convincin' story as to why they ain't seen nothin' like it before.." she said, allowing Star to sidle up to her before starting to trot. "Also might wanna jus' tuck them wings in yer outfit if yer comin' in the gates. Might see 'em if someone comes up close."

"I can just take it off, it'll be easier." she replied and tapped part of it with her hoof and shortly after the screen retracted and the device fell off of her ear and was caught by her wing "Done." she added before putting it back on "As for the wings, well I can do that if need be. There are wasteland Pegasi though, wouldn't seem that suspicious would it?"

Silver looked over his shoulder to Aura. "I'm alright to pass because they already know I'm a flier...I told them I was born on the surface near Manehatten and raised in some shoddy small town orphanage... It worked for them, and that's what I've been using since....However, your outfit there is purposefully hiding your wings, so you might do better to pretend to be an Earth pony for the time being, unless you rip off those flaps of cloth on your wings..?"

Aura sighed "Geez, having to come up with stories for everything...and I thought the Enclave was bad." she replied with a light chuckle "I'll hide them, but not say so. If they're discovered then that’s that." she added and tucked her wings into her armor and they blended perfectly

Silver "Hope you don't have to stretch in public..." He mused to himself as they all carried on...

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

After an hour's worth of trotting, the group finally reached the gates of New Appaloosa. The usual pile of train carts line the outskirts of the makeshift town, doubling as protection and homes for the ponies residing there. As they all approached, two mercenary guards were waiting for them, weapons at their sides lazily as they glanced over the group. One trotted up and scanned his eyes over each individual, obviously looking to Silver curiously for having his wings obviously on display. "Alright then, state your names and your business, don't want any issues comin' up."

Silver trotted up first to demonstrate to the others, presenting his Hunter's license. "I’m a regular, came to do some trading and check the bounty roster for updates. I also escorted some new friends along the way." He motioned with a wing to the others to present their own cases.

Essie trotted forward with Starsong at her side, eyeing both the guards. As they asked for names, she grumbled. "Shit.. No papers." she muttered, then faced the questioning guard. "Lieutenant Sureshot Everheart, Talon Company. Born outta Griffon nations, ain't got any papers. Ah got friends inside that can vouch fer me." she explained, hoping for as little trouble as possible.

The guard then gave her a hard stare, starting to make Essie his primary suspect. Silver bit his lip as he gave Essie a hard nervous glance before looking back to the guard. "She's contracted to the filly as her personal bodyguard, and she's Starsong." Silver then pointed to her PipBuck. "She heard Stable  was the closest Stable around and wanted to see if she can pick up some tools from there." 

The guard listened to what Silver had to say, then shrugged. "Alright, should've said that in the first place. Don't give me reasons to distrust ya next time." He said, directing that statement to Essie.

Essie growled. The guard had struck a nerve. "Distrust me? Why? Cause Ah'm Talon?"

Aura stood off to the side listening to this, merely observing the exchange

The guard then raised his weapon. "It cause you had no papers, bitch! Now shut the fuck up before I make you!"

Silver hissed to Essie. "Goddess, settle down, will ya!?"

Essie glanced at the weapon, but otherwise wasn't fazed. She bit back a retort and looked at Silver with a sigh. "Y'all are lucky Ah can't risk gettin' us kicked outta here." she said, shaking her head.

The guard spat at the ground before lowering the weapon momentarily and looking to Aura now, now in a somewhat bad mood. "So what's YOUR story?"

She shrugged and looked back at him "Just a wanderer, not much else to it." she replied calmly

The guard started to grip his weapon once more, not looking satisfied with her answer. "Where did you come from? Depending on your answer, it might tell me what you've been up to recently; news travels fast 'round here. Furthermore, what business brings you to New Appaloosa?"

She smiled "I don't really remember now, I've been wandering around for quite some time, with all that one sees out here sometimes you do forget things long past." she replied with a casual shrug "As for what brings me, nothing....just traveling with these ponies."

The guard was not smiling, looking to Silver since he was the regular of the group. "...I don't like the cut of her jib, she's on my radar...If any funny business happens in there and it involves ANY of your party here, YOU'RE held responsible, capiche?"

Silver nervously scratched the back of his head as he nodded politely. "Yeah, of course, I know the rules here. They're all just cranky 'cause we got jumped by Enclave recently, scouts that mistook us for Raiders and didn't want to listen."

The guard shook his head. "Fair enough, but still, one peep and you're all out of here." He then stood aside as his fellow guardsman, a unicorn, moved to the gate made of train carts and levitated it out of the way. "Alright you four, pass on through."

Aura listened and internally chuckled to herself before nodding, smiling in thanks, and following Silver in. At least she wasn't the only one causing trouble

Once all four were inside and the train cart closed behind him, Silver let out a violent shiver as he exhaled loudly. "Celestia be damned, girls. What the hell was that back there??" He looked to Essie first. "You are a terrible liar, you know that? That BS Talon story of yours is going to get you killed one of these days, it's never worked....why DO you use them as a cover story? You confessed you weren't a part of them before."

While Starsong went on, towards the 'Absolutely Everything' store, Essie turned around and faced Silver. "Silver.. Ah am Talon." she said, straight-faced. "We'd first met when Ah said that Ah wasn't. Didn't think we'd be together more than an afternoon, so Ah told ya Ah wasn't, just in case ya didn't like Talons."

Silver blinked in surprise, his hard expression softening up a bit. "...Oh. Well...Why don't you have the armor, or any of your credentials with you? That's standard for every Talon we know that comes through here. It's why that guard and I had our suspicions when you claimed you were Talon."

Without saying anything, she pointed to the black armor that Star wore. "Ah always figured Ah'd find somethin' t' replace it. Ended up keepin' this wanderer garb." she explained, then looked back to the stallion. "As fer muh credentials.. Ain't seen 'em in quite a while."
Silver looked to it and sighed. "very well, I'll believe that...And no, there's no issue of you being a Talon in this town. But saying you had no papers put us in a bad spot, you could've said less and still be believable."

Afterwards, he turned to Aura, now putting her on the spot. "And while Essie's problem was saying too much, you said too little, which is just as suspicious... You really need to work on coming up with a cover story that isn't vague and leaves a bunch of holes. You'd think an Inquisitor would know how to do that.....Just how much field work have you had previously?"

Aura chuckled a bit as his questioning, clearly unfazed by it "First off I didn't expect to need one, second Inquisitors don't come up with cover stories, they devalue and expose them as false. As for how much field work...I won't say." she responded

Silver groaned and shook his head. "Oh great, another vague answer. I'm gonna go on a limb here and guess this is your first time truly having to come down here and mingle with the populace... Listen, I know this town, and this place has a reputation of being rather neutral and friendly. So when somepony acts all hush-hush like you did with the guard, ponies are going to wonder what you have to hide." He looked around to see Starsong to talk to her next, but didn't see her nearby. "...Hey, where'd she go?"

"It's not my first time down here, but its true I haven't had to interact directly." she replied with a shrug "So it'll take time to get used to, going to have to accept that." she added and glanced around for Starsong as well "I'll do what I can." she said in a tone that said she was genuine about that desire

Essie wasn't listening much, as she was busily looking around for Starsong. "Huh.." she said, taking one last glance down the street. "One minute that filly's by muh side.. Next, she's run off. She's bound t' turn up someplace." With that, she looked at Silver and shrugged. "Ah dunno what t' do fer the afternoon. Ah'll be at the saloon, if y'all need me."

Silver watched Essie head off to the bar, tilting his head. "Huh? Hang on, I thought you wanted to keep track of Star?" Despite his protest, Essie was already trotting off. He sighed and shook his head. "Ah sheesh... Well, she'll be fine here, it's a nice enough town anyhow. Anyway, looks like you're stuck with me for the time being." He looked to Aura.

Silver opened one of his saddlebags, checking the loot he had. "Hm, we've got no use for these mini-nukes, but I reckon they go for a great price at the armory, we can trade for some caps and other weaponry...Actually, if Inquisitors are gonna be following us in the future, Sparkle grenades might help power down their armor." He thought out loud before blinking and realizing who he was talking to.

"Oh uh....Well, ya know, just to keep 'em from tryin' to kill me and Essie is all." He smiled nervously to Aura.

Aura watched Essie trot off and then looked to Silver as he talked about his bartering plans, upon the mention of Inquisitors she chuckled a bit "Not all of them wear power armor just so you know, somewhere enhanced barding, some a mix of barding and power armor, and then the few that wear full blown power armor." she replied and explained before glancing around again and back to Silver "Guess I'll look around for awhile, unless you need me for something that is?" she added

Silver scratched the back of his mane, then shook his head. "Not really, just please, try to not act so suspicious; that guard might still have his eye on you, so don't do anything that'll give him a reason to kick us out of town."

She chuckled a bit more "I'll try my best, not promising anything though." she replied and just as she turned to walk away she turned around to face him again "Silver, what do you think about the stars?" she asked in a sort of hushed tone as to not attract attention  to their conversation and expose them.

He blinked in surprise, not expecting her question. "Huh? ...what about them?" He looked up to the sky; There was still cloud cover, so he wouldn't really be able to see either the stars or the sun anyhow. "Well, I know that long ago Luna had control over them, adding them to the sky to accompany the moon as some sort of celestial canvas for ponies to appreciate...what kind of question is that?"

She listened to his answer and nodded "I see, what do they mean to you?" she then asked without heading his question as she made sure their conversation wasn't attracting unnecessary attention, fortunately it wasn't for the time being.

"I uh...Haven't put any thought to that before? He replied as he scratched the back of his mane awkwardly. "I mean, they're just leftover of what Luna used to create those hundred years ago..?"

"I see...." she replied "Alright then, well thanks for answering that." she replied with a smile and turning to trot away "Guess I'll catch up with the rest of you later on." she said and started towards some of the shops to browse.

Silver scratched the back of his mane curiously as he watched Aura trot off. "Wonder what the heck that was about?" He mused to himself before setting off for the closest shop the Absolutely Everything.

Inside the box car marked as the 'Absolutely Everything' store, was a rather cozy-seeming business. Trinkets, ammunition, and supplies lined the walls on shelves, and a worktable sat in the corner, for tinkerers. Near the counter, a familiar, small mare clad in black combat armor busily haggled with a grey, blonde-maned (or what was left of her mane!) ghoul. Starsong was the only one talking though. The ghoul was mute, and had to scribble her responses to the mare on a small chalkboard. Star seemed fairly confident as Silver walked in, though she didn't notice him. "...and I'm telling you, Derpy.. Energy cells shouldn't be this cheap.. You might as well give them away at this price!"

The storekeeper quickly scribbled a rebuttal, but Star shook her head. "It doesn't matter if you can make them, you could still be making more caps!"

Silver trotted in and noticed Star trying to get Derpy to raise her prices, smirking a little while watching things transpire. After Star's last sentence, Silver chipped in, talking behind her. "Ah, but don't ya see? She's already making plenty of caps as is." He said while looking to the ghoul shop owner with a smile. "Heya pal, how've ya been? Saw you got a new cart out there, heh. 'Bout time too, the wheels on the old one were rusting up, good on ya."

He then turned to look to Star. "Everypony knows about Derpy's prices, and they sometimes takes a longer trip to reach New Appaloosa just to come to her shop for wares; This town is on a very busy trade route after all, so all sorts of things get in here. She really doesn't need to worry about having to sell Energy Cells... However, because of her reduced prices, she gets waaay more customers than anypony else, which make up for the low price. It's genius actually, ain't that right, Derps?"

Shortly after Silver had left for the store Aura doubled back and approached the store from a different angle, she caught parts of the conversation and attempted to listen in without seeming suspicious, something that was proving a bit tough to do seeing as how a pony standing outside of a store would appear odd.

The ghoul grinned a.. Cringe worthy grin to Silver, then nodded. She looked down and scribbled onto her board "Make more caps than anypony in town!", showing it to Silver before turning back to Star. She pushed a small box of energy cells toward the mare, and wiped off the board, writing down "You're not taking advantage, promise!" and smiling again. Even though the decaying mare wasn't quite what most though of when the word 'comforting' came to mind, something about the genuineness of her smile, as ragged and gummy as it was, warmly invoked the feeling. 

Starsong returned the mare's smile, pulling ten of the cells out and placing the caps she owed on the counter. Derpy nodded and scooped the caps into her register, satisfied with the sale, and placed the box back on the shelf where it belonged. Star stuffed the cells into a couple of the many pockets in her armor, and looked around Silver for a second before looking at him. "I still feel sorta bad.. I've bought cells from her before, but this time the prices are just too low.." she said, letting out a sigh. "Essie go to the saloon?"

Silver smiled back to Derpy, not minding the rather scary-looking grin she gave. "Don't worry about it, it's not like you're robbing her. The way she handles her wares is whatever she chooses...Speaking of which." Silver started to dig into his saddlebags, pulling out the mini-nuke they had found in the market, along with some packets of food.


"Got some wares for ya, we found a market somewhere south of the main road." As he set them down on the counter for her to observe, Silver turned to Star. "Yeah, Essie went to the bar. So long as she doesn't let her temper get to her she'll be fine.....Also uh, just found out she's really Talon." He scratched the back of his mane. "Kinda peculiar, seeing a lone Talon merc going out of her way for you and being on her own. Makes me wonder how you two met?"

Starsong nodded at the mention of Essie being Talon. "She always says that since she's an officer, she can do 'whatever the hell ah want!'" she imitated the snipers drawl, then shook her head. "I really don't know why we stay together.. But both of us know we can't live without the other at this point, it'd be suicide to part ways. As for how we met.. She saved my life. She rescued me from a Slaver camp, then took me in when we got back to Los Pegasus and found out that my Stable had been attacked. My parents were kidnapped, so we've been sorta looking for them.. I don't know though, it's been three, four years.. Would they have even survived this long, the way Slavers treat ponies..?"

Silver bit his lip as he heard Star talk about looking for her parents, remembering what Essie had told him that first night back in his home; She still didn't know the truth that Essie uncovered. While Derpy was busy counting all the items' prices for caps to trade, he mused over what best to tell her.

"Hm...Well, if they have or have not, just look back at all what you've done since your separation with them. It's been three to four years after all. That's a lot of time to change and adapt on your own and away from them. And you're right, captive ponies statistically don't last very long; I know the ponies at the castle in the Everfree with that...err, Red Eye fellow last at most  months I hear, and they're the best treated out of all captive ponies. "

"But the point I'm trying to make is that you've done well it seems with just you and Essie all this time. Whether you find them dead or alive would probably not change much about you by now. I mean...yeah, it'd be great to find them alive and all. But if not...." He shrugged with his wings. "As I said, you're fine as is too."

The mare's ears fell, and she sighed as she looked away from Silver. "I know it's probably not going to happen.. Looking for them just gives me a goal though, you know?" she said, looking back to Silver. "If I find them, that's the end of my 'quest'. We can go someplace that's home, where we don't have to worry about any of the things that make the world so terrible.. I won't have to just get by anymore."

She hesitated, then sighed again. "But.. If it does turn out that they're dead.. You're right." she smiled, "I am fine. Essie and I have made the best of the cards we've been dealt. I'd love to have my parents back, of course.. But, if it came it me choosing between them and her.. I think I'd choose her."

Silver smiled hearing her answer, nodding his head. "Good to hear. Ya hope for the best, but the worst case scenario ain't that bad either. In the end you'll be with somepony secure." He finished before looking to Derpy for his payment of the trade, finding  caps in a bag waiting for him. He swiped them up and placed them in his own bit bag, smiling to the ghoul. "Thank ya kindly, pleasure doin' business with my favorite mare."

Derpy gave back that disturbing grin, bouncing in place on her hooves as a way of saying thanks, and then Silver turned around, leading Star along with him. "So, you wanna see if we can find that Stable first, or pick up Essie from the bar?"

Starsong thought for a moment, then shrugged. "Well.. If there's anything in there, we'll need an extra gun.. I'd rather not bother her if she's drinking though." She looked at the ground for a moment, when her ears perked up. "What about Aura? The other.. You know.. In our little group! She could come with us!"

Silver looked up in thought. "Hm, she does seem tech-savvy, or at least know how to handle it...I dunno where she went though, she trotted off someplace else after you and Essie went to take care of your different businesses." He bit his lip and scratched the back of his mane. "Furthermore, didn't you need tools for that PipBuck of yours, and get it fixed n' stuff?"

The mare nodded, using her magic to detach the PipBuck from her armor. "I have the [Science!] know-how.. Just not the tools. That's the reason I need to go into a Stable. What I need is either in a Stable, or at Stable-Tec headquarters. Since I know none of us want to get snatched by Slavers into Fillydelphia.. I figured we'd try the Stables first."

"Welp, what are we waiting for? Let's get to steppin'. I think I know where it is too." He replied, turning to walk out of Derpy's shop with Star behind him.
While Silver and Starsong were chatting Aura had been wondering around the town gathering whatever information she could, including a couple interesting tidbits. Silver and Star would notice her as they were heading out of town

Silver jostled his bit bag in thought, thinking about the extra  they had now. "...You know normally I would make it to New Appleloosa from my camp in less than a day, but you gals had to be grounded...and the closest Stable is still normally half a day away. If you two are gonna be walking everywhere, it's gonna take quite the toll on our supplies since I usually pack for a flight trip..." 

He looked about the two of them, his eyes landing on the town's caravan rest stop, raising an eyebrow. "Hm, wonder if they've got any carts they're willin' to part with I can use?"

Aura wandered over towards them as they made their way towards the rest stop "Finish up your business yet?" she wondered in curiosity "You seem happy about something." she pointed out with a light chuckle

Starsong looked at Silver curiously at the mention of the carts, but Aura approached before she could ask Silver what he'd implied. "He's probably glowing, now that he's got a big bag of caps." Star chuckled, nodding towards the stallion. "We just left Absolutely Everything, now we've got a Stable to find! How are you liking New Appaloosa?"

Silver blinked and turned as he heard Aura addressing them. Giving a nod, he pointed with a wing over to where the caravans were parked. "Well, I think I've got plenty of caps to spare investing in one of those, which should come in handy during looting and traveling....since these 'walkers' are a bunch of slowpokes." He snickered and stuck his tongue out at Starsong. "Oh, if only I could do that in front of Essie, but you'll do nicely."

Aura chuckled a bit at his comment "Could work, but then again there is nothing wrong with walking....stay on the down low." she pointed out and then looked to Starsong "To answer your question, its...different that’s for sure. Managed to find out a couple interesting things while hanging around as well." she replied with a light smirk "I'll probably hang around some more, never been in a stable and don't really have any desire to start going into them now, too much confinement." she added

Star quickly directed her attention to Silver. "You mean.. Flying? In one of those?" she asked skeptically, examining the stallion's wings. "No offense, but.. I don't think you've got the wings to lift that thing and Essie. Just one of her legs weighs as much as my whole body."

She turned to Aura, and nodded her head. Two conversations at once wasn't fun. "I'm sure it'll grow on you." she said with a grin, "And we're going to the Stable to search for a certain set of tools, not find any place to stay."

Silver pouted and crossed his hooves. "What, you doubt my prowess and talent?" He said challengingly before smirking. "I'm just messing around...Yes, that is an issue. However, all it takes it to get a unicorn to charm it to make the cart have weight countermeasures, and there are a few in town that can pull it off. I just gotta call in a favor and then take care of that for me."
Aura glanced around "Well you go ahead and do that, I'll have to pass on going into the stable though." she responded "I think I'll go and talk to Essie, Its obvious she has hostility towards me and if we're going to travel together its best to get that taken care of as soon as possible." she added and explained "If it doesn't work, well at least I tried." she then turned towards Silver "So where is the bar...or whatever at?"

Silver's smile disappeared as his eyes widened, audibly gulping. "...You sure you want to face her alone? I mean...the two of you ARE already under close watch of the town's guard, and Essie is more than happy to get 'shooty' with Enclave. Just....Please keep fighting down to a minimum of not-at-all if you can manage it...It's over that way, the double-stacked cabooses." He pointed with a hoof towards the end of the 'street'.

Aura thought about this "Well its either I go talk to her or we worry about more hostility." she replied with a shrug "If you don't think it’s a good idea....well you know her better then I. I'll just hang around and do my own thing if you think it’s best to not talk with her."

"Well then go talk to her while we're out, I'm just giving you fair warning is all."

"I can handle myself, I've got a sixth sense when it comes to talking to others, for better or worse." she replied with a shrug "Though I'll probably wait until she is away from others as I don't want anything to get out of hoof." she added and headed off towards the bar

Starsong watched the mare walk away, biting at her lip. She turned to Silver and shook her head, "Let's hope for the best, I suppose." she said, glancing towards the entrance opposite the one they'd come into town through. "Guess it's just you and I on this one, eh?"

Silver scratched the back of his mane nervously as well. "Ditto. Anyway, lemme buy one of these carts and get it charmed for us, and we'll be off for the Stable in no time... This is uh..." He reached into his saddlebags for his map to inspect it. ".....stable number , if that means anything to ya."

Star thought for a moment, then slowly shook her head. "I've heard it mentioned before, but I can't remember what was said about it." she shrugged, "I'm ready to go whenever you have the cart ready."

Silver nods. "Alright, I haven't been there myself. The New Appleloosans mentioned that they had to leave it due to some issue that they had, but it got contained after some traveling pony went down to handle it... I'm sure we'll be fine if the issue's contained." He replied with a shrug and turned to attempt some bartering with the caravan traders for a spare cart.

Aura stopped herself and quickly trotted back over to Silver and Star "Something to keep in mind..." she said before leaning close to Silver "the Enclave is probably monitoring the area around here....be careful about flying too high or you might attract attention." she said in a warned tone "With that, best of luck you two." she added before heading back off toward the bar for real this time. Mentally she tried to figure out the best way to talk to Essie, realizing that waiting until later on might be best

Silver’s eyebrows rose as he briefly looked up to the sky, narrowing his gaze, before looking back to Aura and nodding. I'll keep that in mind for sure." He stated before she left again. After heading back to the caravans, Silver sighed. "So even the skies that I soar in can't be trusted now...”
	
> Ch 6: Get Wet
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------


Chapter 6


An hour and a half later, Silver was in flight.....with Starsong in tow, riding in the back of the wagon he had collected. He managed to buy one for  caps, leaving him with an extra  to use to pay a unicorn to charm the wagon with gravity countermeasures, allowing him to tow the whole thing, feeling only star's weight. He was flying about  above the ground, high enough to make sure they didn't hit anything, but low enough to stay away from the clouds. "How are ya doin' back there!?" Silver called out to Star.

Starsong perked her ears at the stallion's voice. "I'm still back here, if that means anything!" she called back, squinting around for any signs of Enclave swooping in on them. Of course, with no real skill in Perception, Starsong wouldn't be able to spot a pegasus coming at them until they were close enough to fire. She still kept her pistol in her magical grip, ready in case an attack was sprung.

“Just relax back there, the ride's the same as being on the ground, except, well....it isn't. But you get what I'm saying!" He called back, attempting to make the ride as smooth as possible. It was indeed a smooth ride, having no ground to hit any potholes or bumps or hills. And the wind was decent, so there was no turbulence. He spotted the river that marked the entrance of Stable . "Alrighty, we're touching down! It's just right ahead!"


He began his descent, slowing down a bit so that the landing wasn't rough. In a matter of moments, they landed down and Silver trotted a bit so as to not overrun his own hooves before slowing to a stop.

Starsong clung to one of the seats as they landed. Sure, it wasn't rough, but flying wasn't a sensation that the mare was very well versed in. As her nerves settled, she slowly stood up and opened the door of the cart. "S-Silver?" she called, glancing to either side. "They built a Stable this close to a river..?"

Silver unhitched the wagon from himself and parked it near the river behind a rock so that it was less noticeable while they explored. He looked to the river, which looked a bit low, but he figured that was because it barely rains out here to begin with. "Yeah, that's what the map shows." He stated looking over to Star and noticed her tone.


"...Something wrong with that? ......Wait, are you..? Star, can you not swim or something?"

Star shook her head, still looking at the water. She understood that all Stables should be different in some way, but, as her confused staring showed, this was simply mind-boggling to her. "It's not just that.. The location of this place is just asking for disaster.. It's like they didn't care that the river might flood the ponies inside!"


--Back in Town--

Aura was waiting by the bar and listening to various conversations between the townsfolk, she was still waiting for Essie to come out of the bar so they could have a chance to talk. She glanced up towards the cloud cover and tried to get a bead on the sun's position to figure out the time of day "She's been in there awhile, hope she comes out soon and hopefully this won't go poorly."

An afternoon of drinking and enjoyment in the saloon was a good change of pace for Essie. As the sun started to dip towards the horizon, the mare figured she'd head out and find the others so they could get rooming settled for the evening.

She trotted out with a few bottles of beer in her telekinetic grasp, slipping all but one into her bags. She took a swig from the bottle, and she noticed Aura standing near the door. "Uh.. Aura, right? What're ya doin' here?" she asked, stepping close. She'd forgotten to be suspicious of the mare. "Y'all come t' grab a drink too?"

Aura was waiting outside of the bar when the mare emerged, she was a bit surprised by the unusually friendly tone but decided not to dwell on it "Oh, nah I'm not much for drinks." she replied "I was actually looking for you, wanted to tell you that Silver and Star ran off to tackle the task in that stable." she explained and shrugged "I stuck around here mainly because I wanted to inform you of that and continue to watch how things go on down here." she added with a light smile

If the mare's trust for Silver wasn't evident before, it surely was now. She blinked at the mention of them going solo to the Stable, but didn't seem worrisome at all. "Ah'm sure they ought t' be back soon then, Stables 'r fairly small. Ain't nothin' t' navigate." She said, before taking another drink of her beer. "Y'all be careful 'round here on yer own, ya hear? Some shady stallions just itchin' fer a mare t' seem like she don't know where she's goin'." She warned solemnly, lowering her head. "Ain't no decent mare that needs that sort 'a treatment."

Aura smiled a bit at the warning "I appreciate the advisory. I can handle any stallions that try anything funny. Well at least one on one." She added with a shrug. She thought for a bit and smiled again "You want to chill somewhere and chat about stuff. Clear things up between us before we start traveling together. I like to at least know my companions." She suggested.

Essie nodded. "Sure thing. Let's go an' get all 'a us some rooms rented, seein' as we ain't leavin' tonight." she said, then levitated out one of the beers, offering it to Aura. "Want one?"

Aura shrugged and then shook her head "No, but thanks for asking." she said with a slight smile

Giving Aura a shrug in return, she levitated the bottle back into her bag. "Fair enough." she said, then stepped out onto the 'road'. "C'mon, Ah'd like t' have the rooms settled 'fore they come back."

"Sounds like a good idea, I don't know when they'll be back though." she replied and followed the mare out onto the road "Got a place in mind, you'll have better knowledge of what to look for me then I would." she added

She looked back at Aura, scratching her head. "Um.. Ya might want t' start someplace that has the word 'Inn' on it." she said, letting out a little chuckle. "Y'all featherheads 'r funny, ya know that?"

"Right...." she replied with a chuckle and then her ears perked up at hearing that "Oh, well we could say the same about ponies down here." she replied with a light smirk as she followed Essie towards an inn.

Essie shot a smirk of her own back to Aura, recognizing the stalemate. "Fair 'nough fer me." she said, nodding. "But while yer' down here, ya gotta at least pretend like ya know how shit works."





The sun was starting to set for the evening, judging by the light from the clouds dimming, and red hues becoming prominent in the gray cloud blanket. It wasn't long until the pair were stepping up and into a set of  stacked train cars, marked with a sign that said 'Inn'. The pony behind the desk was a graying earth pony stallion, resting his head on a propped hoof and chewing on a small piece of rubber impatiently. He looked at the mares as they entered. "Y'all folks lookin' for a room for the night?" he asked, looking at their bags. When the sniper nodded, he reached under his desk and pulled out a small satchel, which clinked with bottlecaps inside. " caps for each pony, per night." he said stiffly. Essie cringed, but pulled out her own bag of caps. Without Starsong, Essie wouldn't be attempting haggling.

After a short spell of counting and recounting,  caps were spread on the desk, and the stallion scooped them into his satchel. He pointed to a staircase behind the desk, then rested his head on his hoof again and started to chew on the piece of rubber again. "Rooms  an' , third floor. They're conjoined." he said, sighing. "When will yer friends be comin' in?" he asked.


Essie shrugged as she levitated her bag of caps into her saddlebags. "Soon. Let 'em in if they ask fer Essie."


Aura nodded at the suggestion and simply followed the mare in silence, still glancing around at how others were going about their business to further her investigation and ability to blend in better. While Essie was busy arranging for the room she merely stayed quiet and listened, following Essie as she departed from the check in counter and they headed towards their rooms. Once she was out of ear shot from the innkeeper she couldn't help but chuckle "Train cars as inn room? Well that’s something for sure." she pointed out in a humorous way and not really a condescending way "things sure are pretty bad down here compared to above the clouds, makes me wonder just why the Enclave doesn't want to help. It’s like the Pegasi lost all sympathy for their brothers and sisters on the ground." she pointed out with a sigh and shake of her head.






Back at the Stable...


Star shook her head, still looking at the water. She understood that all Stables should be different in some way, but, as her confused staring showed, this was simply mind-boggling to her. "It's not just that.. The location of this place is just asking for disaster.. It's like they didn't care that the river might flood the ponies inside!"

Silver scratched the back of his mane as he considered what Star was saying. "Well....Rivets did say that the Stable only got flooded after they left, so perhaps the river was more of a means to prevent outsiders from wanting to venture too close to the entrance without getting wet?"

The mare's ears fell flat at the mention of the Stable being flooded. "Just great." she groaned, turning back to Silver. "I can't swim. I'm the only one of us that knows exactly what we're looking for, and there's no way I can get back up if I sink down there." She sat down, sighing, and stamped at the dirt. After a moment, she closed her eyes and rubbed her temples. "We'd have to go in, to see just how bad it is." she thought out loud, "There's got to be drainage valves, assuming the maneframe is still working in there. Silver, do you know anything about Stables?" she asked pleadingly, turning around to look at him.

Silver looked up in thought, digging into his head for any useful information that he knew about Stables from Enclave reports on them......After a long pause, he turned to look to Star and gave her a nervous smile. "WELL....I got nothing on Stables...BUT, I do know how to swim, so that's something! And you're small enough to ride on my back comfortably, so perhaps you can navigate us both through the place until we find what ya need?

After another second of deliberation, the mare nodded. "That's about as good a plan as we're going to be able to come up with." she said, sighing. "I'll ride on your back until we find the stairs to the maintenance sector. From there.. I hope you can see underwater."

He nodded before stooping down on his knees and extending his wings out for her to climb on. "Alrighty then, let's get started...We only have to worry about finding your tools right? There's no need to muss about with anything else; the New Appleloosans didn't want to return to this place in the near future."

As she carefully clambered onto the stallion's back, she thought. "Well.. There shouldn't be anything to fight with, and we've got plenty of supplies, so.. Yeah. Just the tools." Once she was balanced on his back, she wrapped her hooves round his neck and held tight. "Alright.. Remember, I'm not much of a flyer.."

Silver stood back up, tucking his wings so that he held Star's legs secure to his body. "Well, we're gonna be underground, so I don't think there's gonna be much flying." He chuckled before trotting along the riverbank, heading towards the Stable entrance. "Have we got much further of a trot?"

The mare smirked. "Never know.. You could go stir-crazy just walking in there! Pegasi need wide open spaces, right?" she asked, nudging his neck. "And it depends on the layout of the Stable. Could be just next to the door, could be deep inside the place. Just have to see.."

Silver shrugged a little bit during the trot, soon nearing what looked like some cavern that the river led into. "You'd be surprised, I'm a strange pegasus; I find I can actually do quite well in closed off areas. Do I prefer open spaces? Damn right I would. Makes fighting and searching and traveling that much easier. Will I lose my shit not having that option? Nope, not at all. I just roll with it and own the situation....Speaking of... which..."


His conversation trailed off as they turned into the entrance of the cavern, finding the giant Stable cog-door....almost entirely submerged with only   th of the door above the water. "........Ah......Yeahhhh, we're gonna have to get wet for this one."

Star groaned loudly at the sight of the door. "Okay.. The Stable entrances are always pretty big, so ponies wouldn't feel cramped when they all packed in for processing.." she said, racking her memory for more. "There's stairs just across though, I guess  feet from the cog. It won't be much better, about  feet.. You'll be able to walk, though." she determined as she looked across the water, towards a partially-lit hallway across the way. "Looks like the halls will be full up to your chest, if I'm seeing things right."

Silver looked into the Stable as Star explained it over his shoulder, nodding his head. "Right, okay...Hop off me for a sec? I gotta unhook my plasma rifle." He sighed inwardly as he tiled his flanks back so that star slid backwards off his back slowly so that she could get to her hooves easily. Trotting up to the side of the cavern, Silver pulled out a rail spike with a hammer, banging it into the cavern rock as a makeshift clothes hook. His ABS swung forward the plasma rifle before ejecting from its rack, and Silver hung it onto the rail spike, along with one of his two saddlebags, keeping the lesser weighted one.



"It's a damn shame energy weapons and water don't mix well, otherwise I'd be fine with bringing it along....hm, I ought to give this thing a name....Maybe...Prize, since we kinda won it from that trap pedestal back in the market."

Star smirked at the stallion as she made to climb onto his back. "Naming your guns? You and Essie aren't that different after all." she said as she settled back where she was before, "She really trusts you. You know that, right?" she asked, gently holding the stallion's mane for balance. "She's always had a thing against Enclave.. Not the pegasi, just the military." she trailed off for a moment, then nudged his neck. "Who was Rainbow Dash? Like.. Who was she to the pegasi, other than just the Mare of the Ministry of Awesome?"

After Silver finished up with hanging his equipment to the side, letting Star back onto his withers, he looked up in deep thought for a good answer to her question. "Huh....Well, depending on who you ask, the answer differs among the pegasi. For starters, if my history is right, she was one of the Bearers of the Elements of Harmony, some sort of magical defense system that had worked for...thousands of years? So she was already somepony important before the war started."

"Now during the war, that's when things differ among pegasi. When the bombs fell, she was one of the very few pegasi that didn't want to abandon the surface when the rest decided to close up the sky to separate us from the rest of the chaos. She was being true to her element, which was Loyalty. She went down with a hoof full of followers to her cause, and they were never heard of again. It's believed that she died during her attempt to help.

Some will call her a hero for her actions, but those in control call her a traitor to all pegasi, and discourage others from following her hoofsteps. Hell, they actually call traitors Dashites, followers of Rainbow Dash; They even brand them with her cutie mark, right over their own  to make an example out of them. Depending on your view of Dash, some will take the name with pride, others will find it shameful."

Star nodded once the stallion finished his elaboration. "Well.." she started, rubbing her chin. "That makes what Essie said a whole lot less fuzzy.." She hesitated a moment, then prodded his neck. "What's your view of her?"

Silver was about to trot closer to the water to get things started, only to have Star poke him again, followed by another question. "Huh? Who, Essie or Rainbow dash? ...And what did Essie say?"

"Rainbow Dash." she replied, ignoring the other question. "You said that the Enclave discouraged people from following her, so I'm wondering which side you picked."

Silver looked up in thought once more. "Hm....I believe she had the right idea about trying to help out the surface, but coming down here almost on her own, sans the few followers that went with her, was not the brightest idea. She could have used her power as a Ministry Mare to get a LOT more pegasi to want to help and those more capable to do it as well, but she was never a patient mare, so....What I think of her is that she was a good pony, but not a good leader. I agree with her views, but not her methods, if that makes sense."

The mare nods, then tightens her grip on his neck.

"Alright, that's all I needed to hear!" she announces with a smirk, looking towards the water. "Let's do this quickly, I've got a few questions for Essie when we get back."

He raised an eyebrow curiously, just wondering what was up with all the strange questions, but then shrugged it off and waded into the first bit of water to meet them. "Alright, Stable , here we come..." He lowered further into the water until he had to tread with Star on his back, getting acquainted with the water before swimming forward, entering through the Stable door. They had to duck under momentarily before resurfacing on the other side, their heads just three feet away from the roof of the room.

"I've got RadAway, for when we start to feel ill." she noted as her hoof tingled in the water. Dunking under caused a very uncomfortable sensation, which didn't fade quickly when they resurfaced. "Shouldn't be much further till you can walk.."

Silver breathed deeply and slowly, slowly moving forward so that they could at least touch the floor. "Good to hear, I imagine this water isn't exactly clean." He continued to tread water, moving forward until they reached the corridor, finally reaching the floor...


....It's a shame that the water was still really high; now their heads were only two feet away from the roof of the Stable corridor. "...Uhh, Star? This Stable is more full of water than we thought.."

Star groaned as they discovered that the hallway was fuller than she'd estimated. She levitated her pistol from side to side as she scanned, though not paying much attention as she apologized. "I'm so sorry, Silver.. If it's too much, we can leave. I'm sure the tools can be found somewhere else.."

Silver continued to tread forward though, moving both of them further into the Stable. "Star, we traveled two and a half days to get here. We had to deal with a ghoul infested market, a skirmish between raiders and Steel Rangers, and we have the whole Enclave fiasco going on....We can manage a water-logged Stable I believe." 


"Also, make sure you keep that pistol of yours dry; it won't be useful if the parts are wet. Now, according to the layout of this place, where would you guess the PipBuck-thingamajig-repair room would be?"


There wasn't much wiggle room, but they soon reached a room with a higher ceiling, being the Atrium.

"Right." The mare said with a single nod, reassured in the mission again. "What's a little radiation, right?"

The layout of the Stable was different than back in New Los Pegasus, but familiar enough for Star to spot a hallway marked with a symbol of a hammer and wrench crossing each other. She pointed in the direction of the hallway with her pistol. "If it's accessible, it's through there!"

He looked around to the room Song was pointing out, smiling as he noticed it was on the upper level of the Atrium, allowing them to at least stand with the water up to his ankles. "Ah, well that ain't so bad. We're already here!"


Silver swam forward to reach a railing before climbing over it, setting Star onto the floor, the water up to her knees. "Well, go nuts, get what you want."

With a nod, the mare sloshes her way into the technician's chamber. She levitates her pistol onto a counter, safely away from the water, and starts to rummage through tool bags.

Silver trotted around near the doorway of the room, getting a look around the Stable; this was his first time to ever be in one, and even though it was flooded, he tried to imagine what it must have been like to have to live and die in such a place for generations. It didn't seem like a very lively place to reside, even with the artificial sunlight 'windows' installed near the ceilings....Just a moment, was something moving?


Silver squinted his eyes as he noticed a strange shape near one of the vents in the ceiling, hard to determine what it was having no lighting in that area. "Hey Star, you good on your own for a moment? I need to check something out real quick." He called over his shoulder.

As she continued to look, she called back to the stallion. "Yeah, I'm just trying to find the Technician's bag.." she said, magically rifling through a few old tool bags. "Don't go too far!"

"Yeah yeah, I'm just in the Atrium, hang on!" He called over his shoulder, flapping his wings to get up closer to the vent. He looked in, but couldn't see much due to there being no lighting at all. Silver mumbled to himself shortly before digging into his one saddlebag for a light, finding his flashlight. And as he turned it on and aimed it into the vent.....He found something furry....and scaly....with insect like legs.....and cat-like eyes....


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



As Star was still searching, she could hear Silver replying to her momentarily, followed by silence. IT was him probably just checking out what was going on in the room. Eventually, underneath a workbench in a cupboard, she found the Technician's Bag that she was looking for...Followed by the sound of Silver screaming back in the Atrium and a large splash. There was a strange hissing she had never heard before when Silver screamed.

The sound of the hiss and the stallion's scream sent chills down the mare's spine. She quickly spun around, pointing her pistol as the joy of finishing her task was replaced by fear for her life. "S-Silver..?" she cried, barely more than a whisper.

At first she couldn't see anything, just a figure in the water, with bubbles rising up.....Silver was nowhere to be seen.

Star slowly stepped out into the Atrium, shakily aiming her pistol around. There were no raiders in sight, none of the armored ponies, nothing but water and.. Bubbles!

Her pistol pointed at the source, and the mare peered in. The water was murky, but.. A glimpse of pale yellow under the surface sent Star into action. "Silver!" she cried, holstering her weapon and focusing on her horn. It was a struggle, since she couldn't clearly see him, but she wrapped him in a cloak of telekinesis, and pulled with all her willpower!

As she pulled him out, she could find that Silver was actually thrashing about, with some....weird...THING, attached to his face, trying to bite him. Silver coughed and sputtered as he spat out water, looking frantically to Star. "St*cough cough* Star! Ki....Kill it! Shoot this *Gah* Shoot this thing quick!"

It was a chimera, a scientific abomination that was made by the Stable residents. This was the reason they had to leave their home and flood it. And it seemed to definitely hate the water as it latched onto Silver's muzzle with all  of its legs.

Star screeched at the sight of the creature, dropping the stallion onto the walkway and fumbling her pistol out. As the abomination clawed and gnashed at Silver, Star aimed and hoped for an opening to shoot the creature. "S-Silver, I can't! I'll hit you too!"

Silver grunted as his back his the catwalk, making him lose his grip on the chimera. The thing immediately latched onto his neck and bit down, making Silver scream out in agony. "GAAAH JUST SHOOT FOR FUCKS SAKE!"

The mare watched the creature bite into Silver's neck, and it was enough to push her to action. Her aim steadied for a split second, and she pulled the trigger.

The chimera screamed out a nasty sounding wail as the bullet bit into its back, making it jump off Silver and flip over, writhing and thrashing against the catwalk. Silver kicked it away from himself as he held onto his neck wound, making the thing fall into the water. That only made it thrash about more violently, being unable to swim as it sank to the bottom of the Stable floor level.....Eventually bubbles stopped rising up as the thing drowned.


Silver was in no better shape though, as he was still rolling around on the catwalk, holding onto his neck while groaning. "Ohhh Celestia...It fucking burns.....Augh!"

Star rushed to Silver's side and knelt next to him, pushed his hooves away from his neck, using her hooves to apply pressure to the wound. "Burn..? On the bite, or spreading?" she asked quickly, magicking open her medic case and floating gauze over to stop the bleeding.

"Both, both!" He quickly gasped out, his rear hooves kicking slightly as he writhed where he lied. "It just *gasp* Bit down and...*hiss* felt like fire's running, geh...Through my neck." He strained to answer.

The mare nodded quickly, looking up and from side to side, searching for any place to work. The Technician's workroom! "Silver, come with me. I'm going to repair the PipBuck and get help, but I need to keep an eye on you, okay?"

Silver groaned as he rolled onto his hooves, wobbling a bit once he stood up. He kept one foreleg pressed to his neck wound, hobbling forward on three legs, following Star into the Tech room.

Star did what she could to help him along, but with her smaller frame, most of her support was through encouragement. Once they were in the Technician's room, Star pushed all the things off of one of the workbenches and helped Silver onto it, then put her medical case and the Technician's bag onto another table. 

First, she rifled through the case for more gauze and bandages, then a syringe of Med-X. She didn't have an antidote for the strange creature's venom, but the Med-X would certainly help Silver with the pain until she could get help. Laying the materials on the bench, she looked at the stallion. "Okay.. Everything's okay. I'm going to call Essie, and she'll come help. She'll bring something for you." she encouraged as she gingerly prepped the needle. "Med-X. It won't help much, but it'll hopefully stop it from hurting so much.."

Silver had crawled onto the table with one hoof, his other too busy holding his wound together, for fear that should he let it open more, he'll bleed out first before the poison would kill him. His breath was ragged as he flopped onto his back, gritting his teeth in pain. Were it not for him having to swim before, he would be sweating and his fur would be matted.


He scarcely heard her talking to him, disorientation already settling in as he groggily looked over to Star, seeing the Med-X in her grip. Not too keen on the idea, but not seeing any other options yet either, He reached over with his spare hoof and took the syringe of painkillers from her, injecting it into his neck. He winced as the needle pierced his skin, and he didn't waste time in deploying the medicine and pulling it out. Eventually it did its work and his breathing was a bit steadier.

Star took the syringe once Silver had injected the painkillers, and set it on the counter, near her MoP case. Cleaning could wait until after the PipBuck was operating, and hailing assistance for Silver. 

She shrugged off the Technician's bag and opened it, nearly tearing up at all the tools and parts inside. Success! She felt a strange sensation inside, as if the experience had actually added up in her. Her ears twitched, was there.. Music?

Knowing Silver probably hadn't heard the sound, she went ahead with the PipBuck, placing it comfortably on her wrist and using her magic to manipulate the tools. Within moments, the device was attached to her wrist. A spark from her horn [Science!] caused the screen to spring to life. There was a small prick in her arm as the PipBuck mounted to her, connecting to her body for the most accurate readings. In one of the corners, the device warned her that she was dangerously close to contracting light radiation sickness. "Silver, I've got it working!" she announced jubilantly, "Now, let's call for help.." 

It took a few tries of sending signals with the PipBuck, for Star to realize she needed a broadcaster to get it more than a Stable's distance from herself. She thought for a moment, then.. Light bulb! She dug into the technician's bag, praying to the Goddesses for what she needed, and.. Aha! Cable! She yanked out the cable and attached it to a slot in the PipBuck, then attached the other end to the Stable Technician's maneframe. A quick bout of hacking put her right in place to begin broadcasting to New Appaloosa. The mare cleared her throat, unsure of who she was going to be speaking to. "Hailing New Appleloosan secure frequencies, we are trapped in Stable . Friendly injured by an unidentified creature, unable to leave. Requesting medical assistance for fast-acting venom. I repeat, we are trapped in Stable twenty-four and need medical assistance."

Silver was lying there on the table still, looking as though he was getting paler by the minute. He was too busy focusing on breathing to really respond to Star, but he did notice the clicking of her PipBuck's Geiger counter. If she was getting high levels of radiation, chances were Silver was feeling the effects of it too.

.....There was a lot of static during the time Star had sent her broadcast out, repeating the message on different channels. Eventually, after switching to channel , after her message came the reply of a familiar voice. "Kzzzct.....Stable , we can hear you. This is Rivets....Are you that young filly that what came in with Silver and the other folks? What the hell are you doing way out in that place? We sealed it up fer a good reason."

"Rivets, you are coming through clearly. I am Starsong, one of the ponies he came in with." she replied, a little agitated at the 'filly' bit. "We were after some Stable-exclusive tools, and Silver was bitten by a.. Lizard-cat.. Thing. Any idea what it was, or how I can fix it? I've given him Med-X, but he's looking like he needs a whole lot more than that."

“...A lizard cat? Hm.....Oh....Oh no." There was a sigh on the other end. "Silver ran into a chimera, eh? Celestia be damned....Look kid, I hate to tell you this....You're gonna have to abandon your pal. Those chimeras are nasty bastards, and their bites are very lethal. It can kill a pony his size in about, oh say.... hour?.Now, we happen to have the antidote here, thanks to another Stable Dweller that passed though not long ago, but....There's nopony here that'll get to you fellas in time."

"You'd have to be a pegasus to reach the Stable fast enough, and the only pegasus in town is Derpy.....But, it just so happened that she's gone tonight; took her store cart and went off for the next town over for some trade......I'm really sorry, kiddo, it ain't an easy thing to do, leaving your pals behind."

Star had become immensely quiet, tense, once Rivets had mentioned how quickly the pale stallion on the table would be killed. As he explained on, though, a glimmer of hope appeared. A pegasus.. Aura! 

"I-.." she started, then remembered Aura's cover. She was supposed to be an earth pony while she was in New Appaloosa, she couldn't blow her cover. On the other hand, one of their group lay dying in a Stable. The decision was made before she could even think of the consequences. "There's another pegasus in New Appaloosa."

“...Hm, what do you mean another pegasus? You've seen me at the gate, I keep tabs on all who enter Appleloosa. How would you know that there's another pegasus in my town when I wouldn't?"

"She was with us. In disguise, so we wouldn't get turned away." she admitted, not looking at Silver. She knew what she was saying was damning, but she didn't need to hear any protest. "Do what you will, just please send antidote. Please, Rivets."

There was silence on the other end of the radio. It seemed like he was weighing the options on his end. After half a minute of silence, his voice replied on the radio. ".....We're gonna have words about this after the little issue is taken care of....I'll go find your friend and let her know what's going on."

With Rivets' agreement, Star sighed with relief. "Thank you, Rivets." she replied, "I need to tend to Silver, hail this frequency if you need me." With that, she cut her broadcast and turned to Silver. "I'm sorry." she said softly, "I know I may have just gotten you kicked out of New Appaloosa, but I'd rather you stay alive, okay?"

Silver was not looking any better. His eyes looked like they were fighting to stay open, drooping heavily, his breathing wheezing like...He started to hold a hoof to his muzzle as if he was about to throw up; either from the chimera poisoning or radiation, it didn't matter. Thankfully he staved off the feeling. His ear was tuned to the Geiger counter on Star's PipBuck, looking up to her. "....Star....just....just go, you're....you're gonna get ill too...."

Star followed the stallion's eyes to the PipBuck, and she became aware of the Geiger’s ticking away on her wrist. Her horn illuminated, and from her open MoP case, floated a bag of orange liquid. She levitated it to the stallion and unstopped the end of the tube, offering it to him. "Rad Away. Should clear at least half of those symptoms..."


> Buck up, Soldier
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Meanwhile, back in New Appleloosa, Rivets was making his way to where Essie and Aura were staying, in their hotel room. A curt knock was heard before he spoke up. "Ey, you Silver's friends? There's a situation goin' on." A knock at the door perked Essie's ears. In the time that had passed, they had made the room somewhat comfortable, and the sniper was ready for a good night's rest. Of course, the mention of 'Silver' and 'a situation' quickly dissipated the hope of sleeping. She glanced at Aura cautiously, then headed to the door. "Uh.. Exactly what kin' uh situation?" she asked through the door, dreading the response.

"Your pal Silver had a tussle with a Chimera down in the Stables with that other filly, Starsong, or whatever her name is. She's fine, but he got bit and the poison's gonna kill him if he don't get the antidote in time.....However, the only to get to him fast enough is to fly, and I heard that one of you can do that..." Rivets' voice sounded stern as he spoke the last sentence.

"Will you open up the door and let me in? I have the antidote with me."

Essie cast a glance at Aura, then after a hesitant moment, opened the door. Her build was muscular and large, a visual cue for the stallion to overlook her as the pegasus. "How fast does he need it, exactly?" she asked, raising an eyebrow. Rivets gave Essie a quick glance over before his gaze fell onto Aura, eyeing her suspiciously. "....He'll be dead by the end of the day if somepony don't get over to Stable  fast enough...And I was told that there was a pegasus among this little group....Funny, I only checked in one flier when you lot trotted in. Any confessions needing to be made?"  Aura merely looked back at the stallion. "None that need to be made, but might as well be." she replied as she undid the flaps over her wings that held them down and as inconspicuous as possible. She opened one of her wings. "There you go, I'm a pegasus." she added neutrally before pulling her wing back to her side. Rivets seemed to only narrow his eyes further after seeing her display. "...You seem rather calm considering I just dropped the news that your friend will die by tonight. Or is he really not that big of a concern to you?"

"...Or perhaps you're just annoyed your secret got exposed, huh...Enclave?"

"Easy, partner." Essie butted in, "Now ain't the time. Like ya said, our friend's in a heap 'a trouble, and she's gotta go deliver that antidote. Right, Aura?"  Her question lacked.. Well.. The question part. Essie had already decided who this task belonged to. "There ain't no way y'all c'n carry me out there with ya. Ah'm trustin' you on this. You have to save them."  Aura chuckled slightly at Rivet's second question. "No not really, I wasn't making a big effort to hide it. In fact it was Silver who suggested I pose as an Earth Pony so talk to him about that. In any case we've got a more pressing matter to attend to, if you want to throw me out after this go ahead." she added before looking to Essie. 

"Well then, I guess I'd better be off, can't say I'm a fan of confined spaces but I'm not going to let someone die if I can save them." she said with a light smirk. "So if you'd give me that antidote I'll be off."

Rivets was rather unnerved, seeing Aura chuckle so casually considering the situation that was going on, and the compromising position she was now under. He even gave Essie an incredulous look before shaking his head and hoofing the antidote over. "You're not right in the head, are you? Anypony else would at least show SOME sort of concern or any emotion....Stable  is East of here, look for a river that slopes down into a ditch...In that ditch is the Stable entrance."

"Who says I'm not concerned?" Aura responded as she took and pocketed the antidote. "I'm pretty confident I can get there in time, so there is no need to worry too much. I'll bring him back." she added as she thought about where to leave from before deciding the window would be the best option to avoid revealing that she was a Pegasi to more ponies then necessary. "Well I'll be back as quick as I can." she said before opening the window, pulling her face mask up, activating her earpiece, and with a final nod she leapt out the window and started flying East as indicated. Rivets watched Aura fly off, still holding a sour expression before muttering to himself once she was out of sight, "I won't hold my breath if you don't come back..." After Aura was good and gone, he turned his attention to Essie. "So, you mind explaining to me just why exactly your crew was hiding this fact? I remember you having a short temper at the gate, so for your sake, cooperate with me and this can be civilized."


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


Back in the Stable, Silver was already on his last legs. There was a stream of bile beside the table from where he threw up, the contents of his stomach plus a mixture of dark blood floating atop the water level on the floor. His coat was already pale before, but now he was close to looking grey. Pupils were dilated, the fur around his neck soaked with more darkened blood. Were it not for the barely noticeable movement of his chest rising and falling, the subtle hint he was still breathing, he would easily be mistaken for dead. Star lay halfway in the irradiated water, half on the other small workbench, panting quietly as she sipped on one of her last Rad-Away pouches. It had been hours since the transmission to New Appaloosa, and hope was fading quickly. "Silver, I'm sorry." she groaned, looking weakly at the injured stallion. "I shouldn't have panicked." Silver didn't turn his head or looked to her, but he still heard what she said and replied. "It's....okay...would've been...long dead now...if you weren’t...here......shouldn't have...messed with that...air duct...." He meekly lifted up a hoof to wipe some sweat out of his eyes before letting it rest on his forehead, looking up to the ceiling.

"......Looks like I'm....Not far behind....Gusty...Abby..."

Meanwhile Aura had been making her way towards the designated location and landed outside. She glanced at the screen protruding from her visor and noticed that it had no access to some sort of local map. "That's just great....ugh." she sighed and looked into the stable entrance as she unholstered one of her laser pistols and gripped it with her wing as she slowly made her way into the stable to find Star and Silver as soon as possible. After what seemed like forever the visor lit up and designated two slowly draining life forces not far from her and she quickly pushed forward until she found the room they were in. "Hope I'm not too late...." she said and approached Star before pulling the antidote out and tossing it over to her. "I hate stables...." she muttered under hear breath. The sloshing of approaching hooves was a much-welcomed sound as the ponies lay in what would've been their graves. Star caught the antidote in her magical grip, and stumbled her way over to Silver, where she lined up the shot with the center of the bite on his neck. "Easy, Silver.. You're gonna be okay now.." she cooed as she injected the antivenom into him. Once it was done, she pulled the needle out and tossed it away, slumping down next to the table Silver lay on, disregarding the blood and vomit. A bath would come later, but for now; a moment to let the relief wash over. Her friend would survive!

Obviously the antivenom wouldn't immediately cure him, but eventually Silver would get better. He was indeed safe from the poison...The only worry left was the radiation poisoning instead, reminding Starsong through the steady tick of her PipBuck’s Geiger counter. Silver was not aware of any of this, nor was he aware of Aura having shown up as he was currently passed out on the table. As Star let her nerves settle, something else came to her attention The Geiger counter on her freshly repaired PipBuck was busily ticking away. It had been a while since Silver had had any RadAway, and she was nearly on the verge of radiation poisoning. The mare quickly stood up and rifled through her MoP case, pulling her last pouch of RadAway out. "Aura, do you have anything for rads?" she asked quickly as she opened the pouch and started forcing the orange-y liquid down the stallion's throat. "We need to get out of here.. We've been soaking in radiation for a few hours, and now running really low on supplies.. Can you carry him?"  She smiled a little bit. "Well I found a few partially used packs as I made my way here...." she said and pulled them out. "Not sure if they'll be any use though." she said with a bit of a sigh before frowning at the other question. "As for carrying him, no I can't do that. I can't carry that much, let alone a full grown stallion."

Star groaned as another obstacle presented itself to them. She couldn't swim, and the only options left were to either wait for Silver to come to, or attempt to levitate him out of the Stable. The former would undoubtedly be fatal for possibly all three of them, the latter would certainly leave two members of their group incapacitated, and the third on dregs of energy. As she force-fed Silver the protective Rad-X, and took one herself for good measure, she sparked her horn. She hadn't used much magic since reviving the mare in the market.. "Aura, obviously you can swim. I need you to carry me, while I carry Silver." she said as she hurriedly closed her MoP case and strapped it to her flanks. Next to come on was the Technician's bag. "Outside, there's a cart. It'll negate most of the weight, but it won't be easy after getting out of here. You have to be the one to fly us back."  Aura frowned at this proposition. "I barely got in here myself, I don't know if I can swim along with you...." she said in concern. "There has to be another way...." she added and glanced around for some sort of alternative option.

A cough came from the table, with a sharp inhale of breath...Silver was regaining consciousness, squinting his eyes open and looking very worn out. "....Wha....What happened? .....Star, somepony else here? .....I’m still alive..." Star frowned at Aura, but quickly turned and rushed to Silver's side as he started to wake up. Gently, she held his torso down and hushed him. "Shh.. I know you're alive, don't fret. How do you feel?" she asked, knowing his answer would be anything but 'peachy'. If she could manage just a little out of him, maybe they'd make it out of the Stable without having to call another rescue party.

"I'm going to ask a whole lot of you, and you're definitely not going to like the means.." she said meekly as she pulled out a small pill bottle marked, 'BUCK'.

Aura noticed this as she glanced over at the stallion as he came too. "I don't know if I like the means and I'm not even the one taking it." she pointed out as she moved closer. "If I recall correctly that is one of the most addictive chems out there, Silver is already weak from the poison and that one dose will most certainly help us get out of here but it may also lead to him getting addicted due to his weakened state when taking it." she explained with a concerned tone before sighing. "Unfortunately I don't think we have another option....." Silver looked over at Aura, now noticing that she had come out here, blinking slowly in surprise. ".....You actually came out here with an antidote for me? That's uh....really out of your way and, surprisingly considerate for an Inquisitor. Normally, from what I heard about rumors, you guys don't hesitate in leaving behind a comrade if they slow you down...Well, that's what rumor was at least." He then looked back to Star and the bottle of Buck in her hoof, biting his lip. "....Yeah, in a situation like this, an adrenaline shot would be more preferable, but the medkit I salvaged before was missing it, probably some junkie wanting to use the syringe...Long as I think of it as a temporary prescription, I can uh... Hopefully will myself to not get addicted." He groaned as he leaned upwards to get in a sitting position on the table, reaching over for the bottle. With an apologetic look, she opened the top of the bottle and floated a single capsule of the drug to his hoof. 

"One." she said firmly, her magic holding tightly to the pill. "I've seen raiders strung out on this. Essie says sometimes it takes two or three shots to the head to put someone down who's addicted. Believe in yourself, okay? Just one." And with that, her magic relinquished.

Aura looked at Silver after he finished telling her about the rumor. "It's partially true, there are some who will, but....well I'm not going to abandon a pony I've worked with in the past. If I can help it that is." she explained and then looked like she quickly remembered something related to her statement. "Oh that's right....never mind forget I said anything." After she saw Star put the pill in Silver's hoof she sighed and frowned lightly, but realized there wasn't really any other option.

Silver looked to the pill, hoping for the best as he popped it in his mouth, then swallowed hard, grimacing due to the size of it. He wiped the sweat off his brow, taking a deep breath as he let the drug take effect. He felt himself getting stronger, th weakness he felt from lying on the table before fading away. He took a deep breath as his eyes widened. "Whoa...I feel better already." Silver let himself slide off the table, getting to his legs. He was still a little wobbly, but it looked like he was good to go.

Star looked at the stallion for a moment as he stood, surveying him. The drug had definitely kicked in, and now was the time to start getting out of the Stable. "Okay, um.. I'm going to hop on your back, and you're gonna swim us out. Aura, you can handle swimming out, right?"

Aura nodded. "That I can do, so let's get going. I'd rather we get out of here as quick as we can." she said and looked between them and glanced worryingly at Silver.

He still looked pale, but he was standing upright and attentive as he nodded to Star and kneeling down for her to climb on. "Yeah, we got what we needed here and I'm SO DONE with Stables after this encounter, heheh." He gave an awkward smile to that; seems like that Buck was certainly making him feel good to be joking so soon after nearly dying. Star was a little put off by his sudden charisma, but regardless, clambered onto his back and held tightly around his neck, being careful to avoid the bite wound. "Okay.. Keep focused, alright? We've got to get out quickly. The rads are really starting to get to me, and we're out of RadAway.."  Aura hovered quickly over to them. "Alright, you two go first and I'll follow." she said. "I'm starting to feel really cramped...." she said and it was clear she was already starting to feel a bit tense from the confinement. "Oh how I hate feeling trapped."

Silver nodded as he got back up on his hooves with Star on his back. "Alright gals, just one more quick dip in the water and we're smooth skies from there...Hell, I think I can manage pulling the wagon too once we get topside." Silver began to trot for the atrium, treading water as he and Star floated and made their way for the submerged hallway leading to the Stable entrance. "Don't get ahead of yourself, Silver." Starsong said cautiously, holding tight as her escort stood up. As she rode, she noted that she would have to watch the stallion, and possibly destroy her collection of Buck, if he developed any signs of addiction. "Yeah, don't want to take any unnecessary risks, you may be feeling alright for now but once the drug wears off any extra strain you put on your body will catch up with you." Aura advised as she followed close behind the stallion and his passenger. "Seriously I can't imagine what living in one of these stables was like, I've been in here a short while and I already feel really cramped." the mare continued and shuddered a bit as she picked up her pace in the hopes of getting out of here as soon as she could.