Life goes on, even when your friends aren't with you.
The wasteland is a harsh and unforgiving landscape, illuminated by the damned and dying sun. At the dawn of an interim in a long cycle of decay, wanderers learn to prosper.
For one intrepid group, they carve a valley of gold from their scorched earth.
“Cheers!” There was a heap of approval to the gesture as the seven friends raised their glasses simultaneously.
Tempered Steel waved Aurelia over with a hand, grinning broadly as the beverage in his left hand frothed over the rim.
“Come on Aurelia, even Flotsam’s got a drink!”
“It’s watered down!” Flotsam cried from her stool beside the minotaur. She peeked around the lumbering mass of muscle. “Don’t fall for it!”
The teenage dragon rolled her eyes and walked over.
“Ah’ reckon Aurelia’s old enough for just a lil' bit of hard cider,” Powder Keg stated with a grin, pouring a small glass for the drake as she settled down into the seat besides Steel.
As the small filly pouted over the drake’s success in earning an alcoholic beverage, Xencarn chuckled, patting Flotsam on the shoulder consolingly. “Maybe next year,” he teased.
Firelight’s ears perked up at the zebra's comment. “Next year?”
Xencarn shrugged. “I dunno, this seems like a kinda cool thing to do every year.”
Tibbs frowned at that. “Doubt I could make it, mate; I’ve got some business to attend to. I’ve been leaving it to the runts, and they aren’t the best at maximizing sales.”
“Aw, come Tibbs! Please?”
“No.”
“Please?
“I said no.”
“Please?”
Tibbs sighed, rubbing the spot just below his horn in slow circles. “Will it get ya off of me if I agree?”
“Heck yeah!”
“Then I guess...”
“Yay!” Xencarn began clapping his hooves together happily, much to the amusement of Tempered Steel and Flotsam.
“Javolt!” Powder Keg was swift in his response to the cybernetic donkey’s tampering with the liquor cabinet near the seated friends. “Don’t ya even think about it!”
“What?” The donkey shrugged the hoof off his metal claw and eyed the angered unicorn passively. “I just noticed that the door could use some improvements.” His hoof was smacked away by Powder Keg during its second foray towards the cabinet.
“Ah’ don’t know if you remember, but the last time ya touched the liquor cabinet, ya made a mess.”
“But I don’t recall making any sort of mess!”
“I do.” Tibbs leaned forward in his stool. “So just be a good little donkey and uh, get away from the cabinet, will ya?” He drank from his glass. “I’d hate for a good drink to go to waste.”
Much to nobody’s surprise, the donkey continued to reach for the cabinet.
“Alright Javolt, I think you’ve had a little too much to drink,” Firelight spoke up from behind the scientist, pulling him right off the stool by the scruff of his neck.
“But I haven’t even finished my glass!”
“And I don’t think you should,” Firelight grinned as he dragged Javolt towards the shop’s exit.
“Honestly, Flotsam would be more trustworthy with alcohol than you, Javolt,” Tempered Steel chuckled.
“Oh, oh! I’ll take Javolt’s drink then!” The filly leaped over Xencarn, reaching for the glass, only for the zebra to yank the glass away, downing it in one gulp.
“Oh that’s good.” He rolled the taste around his mouth, much to the filly’s dismay.
“Xencarn!” Flotsam scowled at Xencarn as her traitorous friends shared a laugh at her expense.
“Like I said,” Xencarn repeated, taking a sip of his bourbon while the filly returned to her seat. “Maybe next year.”
“Speaking of next year...” Powder Keg gave an embarrassed grin from behind the counter as he watched a disheveled Firelight and grinning Javolt return. The minotaur, the filly, the necromancer, the drug dealer, the scientist, and the doctor all looked up at their previous explosives expert. Powder Keg gave a light pull on the tie hanging around his neck, nervously stepping in place. “Blinkie and I are going to be uh, heading on a new, adventure, of our own.”
“Aw!” Flotsam piped up, squishing her cheeks in delight. “Are you finally going on that stamp collecting expedition?” Powder Keg looked a little sheepish as he spoke.
“Er, not quite... “ He thought for a moment. “Though I think that might be something to look forward to a while from now.” Powder Keg shook his head. “No uh, me and Blinkie, we uh…” A blush suddenly began to grow on the orange stallion’s cheeks.
“Powder Keg…” Xencarn began, smiling devilishly while he leant forward.
“We’re expecting a colt!” The poor stallion blurted out.
“Oh my gosh, Powder!” Flotsam flew over the counter, wrapping her hooves tightly around the expectant father’s neck. “That is so awesome!”
Xencarn let his smile fall to something a little more cool. “Congratulations, buddy.”
“That’s great!” Firelight grinned.
Tempered Steel had been in the middle of drinking, and was now in the middle of coughing as he swallowed what was left of the drink. He offered a thumbs-up as he recovered.
Aurelia nodded slowly with an ever growing grin.
Tibbs shrugged, a smile tugging at his lips. “Good luck,” he chuckled.
“And I will be there to make sure that he is healthy!” Javolt finished.
“No!” came the collective shout.
Javolt blinked. “Why not?” Confusion furrowed into his brows as his metal claw swept across the counter. “And where did my drink go?”
“Ignoring Javolt, that’s really great to hear, Powder Keg.” Tempered Steel offered a fist to Powder Keg, who bumped it without hesitation. There was broad grin on the unicorn’s face as he looked over the group of friends. His group of friends, he realized.
“Thanks ya’ll. Ah... ah really do appreciate it.” He chuckled as Flotsam finally let go of his neck, ruffling her mane as she returned to her seat. He looked back to the now whole group.
“If it weren’t for us meeting up by chance in that inn, ah’d still be out there killing raiders, wanderin’ without purpose. Ya’ll got me ta finally look elsewhere from mah grenades, and even helped me find Blinkie.” Powder Keg momentarily turned to face the back of the shop, staring wistfully in the direction of his mare. “Sometimes, I don’t think ah rightfully deserve that mare.” He looked back at the friends, tears threatening to escape his eyes. “Ah don’t think I could thank ya’ll properly…” Powder Keg ran a hoof over his eyes, grinning happily.
“To hay with it,” he spread his hooves wide. “C’mere, ya’ll.”
Flotsam was the first into the pony pile, and the others followed.
Blinkie and Powder Keg’s Skyfall Emporium was eerily silent, a first for the establishment in over a year. Prospectors had long stopped coming to the Dragon’s Maw, but the outcasts and travellers looking to gear up had never ceased to find their way to the shop. However, ‘tonight is special,’ was the phrase yelled by Powder Keg as he quite literally threw out any customers moseying around the store in the late afternoon.
“He’s beautiful,” Flotsam cooed, brushing a hoof over the little colt’s whitish mane. She looked up at Blinkie, who sat there holding her colt. “What’s his name?”
“Ignited Whisper,” Powder Keg spoke softly as he came up from behind Blinkie; he laid a hoof on her withers and peered down at the sleeping flame.
“He looks just like ya.”
"Tibbs'!" Tempered Steel yelled; the minotaur was swiftly suppressed by Flotsam's hoof.
The unicorn wore a broad smirk as he approached the assembled Dragon Mawlers. “Hope ya don’t mind that I let myself in.”
Zipping over, Xencarn slung a hoof around Tibbs' neck. “Glad you could make it.”
Tibbs nodded. Once.
“Where’d you get the name from?” Tempered Steel asked, his powerful voice dimmed by the new underwhelmingly soft tone Flotsam had assigned him.
“Igneous is from my great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great grandfather.” Almost everypony stopped to stare at the mare as she concluded her monotonous statement.
Firelight had committed to counting on his hooves as he sat on the floor. He looked up from the wooden boards after a few moments of thought.
“Pre-war?”
Blinkie nodded slowly, much to Firelight’s astonishment.
He went once more over the calculations mentally. “She’s not wrong…” he muttered in fascination.
“And Whisper comes from…” Powder Keg hesitated. He squeezed his eyes shut and took in a slow, deep breath. He opened his eyes again, a smile plastered across his mouth. “Whisper comes from mah brother.” Tempered Steel patted gently on Powder Keg’s back, smiling at the unicorn.
“Can I…” Aurelia pushed through the edge of the circle and crouched down in front of Blinkie, right beside Flotsam. “Can I hold him?”
The mother blinked, then carefully brought her forelegs out in front of her.
Aurelia pulled the three-month-old newborn, equally as careful, from her mother’s grip and settled down onto the floor, sitting cross-legged. She stared in amazement at the sleeping foal’s orange face. Deep down inside of her came a mature thought, one unfit for someone of her age, but fitting for a dragon. 'I want this.'
Firelight tapped Xencarn on the shoulder, pulling the necromancer out of his reverie. He motioned subtly for Xencarn to follow him, and the two went off a little ways from the others in the dimly lit room. Xencarn was curious of what Firelight was dragging him away for, and immediately made this known once the two had settled down into opposing seats at a small table.
“What’s up?” Xencarn asked. Firelight held up a hoof.
“Keep it down, it’s one thing that Ignited’s sleeping.”
“Alright.” Xencarn cleared his throat, and repeated in a much softer volume, “What’s up?”
Firelight’s features turned serious. “It’s about Tibbs.”
Xencarn glanced over at the pale green unicorn, who sat smiling just a little outside the circle. Xencarn glanced back at Firelight.
“I need you to track him. I know you do that with some of the ponies in the Death Clan, so that’s why I’m asking you.”
Xencarn nodded, understanding where the doctor was coming from. “Why, though?”
“He’s been going somewhere. I’ve tried accompanying him each time he went to leave, but he kept telling me that it was a, and I quote, ‘job that only I can take care of.’”
“Don’t you have a little faith in him?” Xencarn looked back at Tibbs. “I mean, he was working against us for a bit, but he’s cool now.”
“It’s not that I think he’s working against us,” Firelight began, looking at Tibbs alongside Xencarn. “I think he’s doing something for us. I just don’t know what.”
“Maybe it’s a giant surprise party,” Xencarn joked, returning eye contact with Firelight. “With a giant cake.” He leant back a little in his chair, licking his lips. “Mm, cake.” Firelight smacked Xencarn on the hoof, hard enough to cause a sting of pain. Xencarn bolted upwards in his seat and pulled the offended hoof away. “Ow?”
“This isn’t a joke, Xencarn.” The zebra was suddenly compelled to stare into Firelight’s eyes as he was glared down. “He’s been coming back from each trip looking paler and paler each time.” He gestured with a point of his head at Tibbs. “And he’s started doing these coughing fits just recently.”
“Maybe he’s just sick?” Xencarn immediately regretted his statement.
“He’s not just sick; he’s been getting paler for months.” Firelight sighed, diverting his attention to the table’s clean surface. “Look, I'm sorry about the way I’m acting, but I’m worried, you know?”
Xencarn sighed as well, nodding slowly. “I know where you’re coming from.”
“So you’ll do it?”
“I…” Xencarn chewed the inside of his cheek, looking back at Tibbs as he began another quiet coughing fit. “I think it’s worth the risk of breaking my trust with him if it's for his health.” Firelight smiled lightly, placing a comforting hoof on Xencarn’s withers.
“Hey.” Xencarn looked back. “You would’ve been a great doctor. You know that, Xencarn. Think of it like the Death Clan; you care for their learning, their health, their safety. Just do it for Tibbs.”
“I got it.”
“It’s a boy!” Javolt shouted as he burst in through the doorway. “Am I late?”
Two things happened immediately; Ignited Whisper awoke from his nap and began crying, much to the dismay of everyone within hearing range, and Powder Keg was suddenly in Javolt’s face.
Xencarn shook his head slowly as he watched the cybernetic-donkey get dragged by his metal claw out of the shop for the third time. As Xencarn stood to grab the liquor and properly begin the Dragon Mawlers’ annual get together, one thought coursed through his mind.
“I could’ve stopped him.” A crack sounded throughout the near empty room as Xencarn’s hoof slammed down onto the counter. The zebra stared at his glass of bourbon, unmoving.
“Xencarn…”
“No, don’t even try and tell me it’s alright,” Xencarn growled, eyes flicking to the worried unicorn by his side. “I could have stopped him.” Xencarn returned to his drink, hotly throwing a shot down his throat. Firelight didn’t stop the zebra as his friend went about pouring another shot.
“Look, Tibbs…” Firelight hesitated, looking at Tempered Steel behind him, the minotaur staring forward at a photo of Powder Keg’s family near the drink shelf. Firelight looked back at Xencarn, the zebra’s back still turned to him. “Tibbs wasn’t the best pony.”
That garnered a glare from Xencarn.
“Don’t, talk about the dead like that.”
Firelight felt that he was pressing far into the necromancer’s nerves, but he continued prodding the topic. “Tibbs had a plan, Xencarn. I keep trying to tell you that he was trying to make up for the bad things he’d done.”
“Then keep trying,” Xencarn muttered bitterly. This time when the zebra went for the bottle of bourbon, Firelight yanked it away with his telekinesis. The zebra brought his forelegs to the countertop, and slammed his head down audibly.
“Tibbs was a drug dealer,” Tempered Steel began, voice deep, yet gentle. “But for the past five years, we’ve all known that he was doing that medical research.”
“Steel,” Xencarn whispered, wrapping his forelegs around his head.
“We all knew that he was trying to find a way to lower the effects of the highly-irradiated, trying to boost the lifetimes of this world, and we let him. We all agreed, remember?”
“Steel... don’t…”
“Xencarn.” Steel stood from his stool and stomped over to where Xencarn sat. He placed a hand on Xencarn’s back. “We knew what he was doing he doing to himself. He knew what he was doing to himself.”
Xencarn let loose an uncharacteristic whimper. “Don’t...”
“There was no stopping him,” Firelight cut in. “He was a doctor, and though his ways were unorthodox, he was still helping ponies. It was his nature.”
“He is a doctor!” Xencarn shouted, throwing Steel’s hand away. He glared at Firelight through watery eyes. “I can bring him back! I can make him live f-forever! I… I…”
“Xencarn!” Steel yelled at the height of his volume, causing the zebra to pull back immediately. Steel placed both hands on Xencarn’s withers. Xencarn’s eyes fell to the floor, his tears splashing hard against the wood. “Listen to yourself,” Steel said, bringing his volume back down. “Listen to yourself.”
“I can bring him back…” the zebra sniffled. He looked back up, suddenly brave. “If… if Tibbs wanted to do good, then… then he still has unfinished business here.”
“You read the note, Xencarn,” Firelight spoke quietly. “You’re the only one who has. It was just for you… if he wanted to be alive again, then he would’ve told you. You were his best friend, Xencarn.” Firelight took a breath. “He would’ve told you.”
“He died at peace in that campsite,” Tempered Steel began. “He had a smile on his face, Xencarn. Tibbs would only smile when he was around us. He knew that he was going to die soon, that’s why he went out on that one last trip without you.”
“But why?” Xencarn squeezed out.
“He wanted you to be happy.” All heads turned to face the young mare as she came into the store. Flotsam smiled sadly at Xencarn as she approached. “Tibbs cared a lot for you, Xencarn.”
“F-Flotsam?” Xencarn muttered, wiping away his tears. “W-what are you doing here?” Tempered Steel moved out of the way for Flotsam.
“It’s the anniversary,” Flotsam replied as she settled down onto the floor in front of Xencarn. She was quiet for a moment. “It’s not like you to cry, Xencarn.”
Xencarn faked a laugh in reply to that, morose and bitter. “Wh-who said I’m crying?”
“Xencarn.”
He stiffened at that.
“Tibbs would hate to see you like this.”
Xencarn laughed again, this time a dark chuckle. “He’d laugh.” The smile fell as he averted Flotsam’s gentle gaze.
“He wouldn’t laugh at your expense.” Flotsam placed a hoof on Xencarn’s shoulder. “Tibbs changed, and it was for the better. You helped him do that; he got the influence from your own research in extending lives.”
“Then I could’ve stopped him,” Xencarn mumbled.
“So why didn’t you?”
Xencarn froze, suddenly at a loss for words. Flotsam pulled her hoof away and kept going. “You two are closer than you think.” She rubbed the hoof against her chin. “When it comes to being a doctor and being a necromancer, you each follow opposing ideas, but in the end, you both have to do with the extension of life.” She paused, letting the statement sink in. “You wanted to make ponies live longer through your lich research, and Tibbs wanted to do the same, so you helped influence him to take on some more ideas. It’s not your fault that Tibbs pursued his own way of extending life.” Xencarn opened his mouth to speak but Flotsam cut him off. “He would have found that path on his own, but doing it with you made him happy!”
“Tibbs… Tibbs was happy?”
“Of course he was!” Flotsam giggled. “Don’t you remember last year when he busted through that door—” she pointed to the shop’s entrance. “—and began apologising to you, despite all of us having waited for him?” She shook her head, smiling broadly. “Don’t you see that he cared a lot for you?” Xencarn felt a twinge of guilt in his chest.
“I… I do.”
Flotsam seemed to smile wider.
“But… but I didn’t care for him.”
“Yes you did!” Flotsam was up on all her hooves suddenly. “You were the best possible friend you could have been! You supported him on every endeavor out into the wastes for his research! Just being there made you care for him!” Flotsam wrapped her hooves around Xencarn, and after a moment’s hesitation, the necromancer returned it. “Be happy for the time you spent together.”
Xencarn felt tears dripping down his back.
“I… I don’t want you to cry, Xencarn.”
“We’re here for you, Xencarn.” Firelight smiled at Xencarn. “You didn’t do anything wrong. Like Flotsam said; you were the best friend you could have possibly been.”
“And being a necromancer, even you should know that Tibbs is still here.” Tempered Steel thumped his chest in emphasis.
Xencarn smiled, tears threatening to spill from his eyes again. He was so wrapped up in feeling joy for the first time in the months since Fractured Tibia’s death to even correct the minotaur on where Tibbs’ soul was.
Xencarn and Tibbs were one, and not even death would separate them.
“No one.” Xencarn looked up. “You weren’t there at the funeral. None of you were.”
“I—”
The zebra raised a hoof. “I don’t want to hear it.” The cloak slid down his neck at his touch. “We’re living now, aren’t we? Living out our lives while each of us go down, one-by-one, always alone. You wonder why I’m a necromancer? Here you have it.” He turned back to his drink. “Death is around, and for all it’s worth, I try my best to stop it.”
“Xencarn,” Firelight began again with a grimace. “I just wanted to let you know that the deal went through.”
“What deal?”
“Beyond the Maw. We’re going beyond. That medicine is getting out there, and we’re going to need you to help us.”
“Pah, what good is an old zebra gonna do for you?”
“Xencarn! You started this, and you’re darn well going to finish with us!”
That voice.
He knew that voice.
“F-Flotsam? You came w—?”
“Did I—Did I come with?! To Tartarus and back, of course I came with!” The peppy orange-maned pegasus was on the alcoholic in moments. “Xencarn, we come here every year now.”
“What about last year, or the year before?”
“You… you know we were having trouble at the farm—!”
“What about Javolt, then?” Xencarn glared down at the cautious donkey. “What about you, buddy? Where were you?”
“... Working.”
“... Javolt?”
“Yes, yes?” His cybernetic eyes were back at his hooves before Xencarn could speak again. “Working. The work never ends, you know?”
“And I was busy out clearing out a new hoard,” Aurelia popped in. The yellow-finned dragon had grown much further since the Dragon Mawlers’ last meeting; she now had to hunch over to enter the Skyfall Emporium. She’d also filled out in all the right places, and Xencarn couldn’t help but continue to trace her body, unaware that she was still talking. “... and—Xencarn, are you listening?”
“No.”
“Well, gee thanks.” She huffed a puff of grey smoke from her nostrils and turned to leave. “Listen, I’ll be back here tonight, but I’ve got some business to do with Chase. Something to do with a missing munitions cache.”
Everyone but Xencarn gave the parting drake hushed well-wishes. The zebra sat there, silently staring at where she’d once stood.
“Listen,” Firelight reeled in the attention of the room. “Chica’s hive has been doing exceptionally well, and she’s kindly allowed a few changelings to come with the caravan for distribution. Xencarn, listen to me man, you’re going to love this. You’re going to be able to form a few connections for the Death Clan, and you’re going to be able to help a lot of ponies. Trust me when I say you’re not going to want to miss this.”
“Everypony’s going to be going!” Flotsam slipped into Firelight’s bag to retrieve a large faded manilla folder. “These are the cargo manifests, and the roster, and—just, oh my gosh Xencarn you have to come with us!”
“STEEL!”
The shop’s walls shook at the reverberating shout.
“TEMPERED STEEL IS DEAD! I DON’T HAVE TIME TO PLAY THESE GAMES, I NEED TO GET OUT THERE AND… AND…”
“Xencarn… if I may.”
Heaving, he allowed it.
“As the group’s leading scientist… I will say that you need a break.”
“The hay do you mean... a break?”
“I mean what I mean,” the donkey said quite matter-of-factly. “I’ve been working with Igor to optimize her bunker, and I know for a fact that my little rob—friend will be able to handle it on her own. Dear Flotsam is right! Everypony is going, including me. Do be a friend and… join us, won’t you?”
Heavy breath. “I…” Each gulp with pain. “I can’t…”
“You can’t what, Xencarn?”
He licked his lips and spoke. “I can’t go. It wouldn’t be right. Tempered has unfinished business here, and as a good friend, I need to see it through to the end.”
“Can’t it wait?” Powder Keg pried.
“No. I’ve done enough waiting to last lifetimes. I’m staying here, for Tempered.”
“Xencarn.” He felt Firelight’s hoof press firmly into his shoulder. “A zebra once said, ‘he knew what he was doing to himself.’ Do you—?”
“I said that.”
“Yes, Xencarn. You said that. Now ask yourself, what would Tempered have said?”
“... I don’t know, I’d have to ask him.”
“Xencarn!” Flotsam flittered over to the necromancer’s other side. “You can’t just bring ponies back to talk to them anymore! It’s not right!”
“To you, no. To me, it better darn well be right; it’s natural.”
“Flotsam’s right, Xencarn. You’ve been doing that an awful lot lately, especially with your—”
“Firelight, don’t—I repeat, don’t—tell me how to work with my clan.”
“Xencarn, with all due respect.” The stallion stood back. “You haven’t been yourself, buddy.”
“Of course not, Tempered died! Do you even know how much work that is?”
“You know the answer. You know I know.”
Xencarn was silent.
“Xencarn, I love you as much as anypony else here; as family. I won’t have you discounting the time I spent working with you and ponies on their deathbeds, learning who you were and how my magic could be applied to them. We’re in this together, bud.” Firelight sucked in a breath of his own as he continued. “That’s why we need you to come with us. Not because it’s necessary, but because it’s right. You have morals, Xencarn. I know deep down that a grim necromancer leading the Death Clan has more sympathy with life than any other pony. You taught me that. Do the right thing, Xencarn; Steel’s past will always be here and apart of us, but we need to pave new roads through the wasteland.”
Flotsam beamed broadly. “And we’re not doing it without you.”
The zebra looked once to the mare by his side, her energy perfectly preserved as she had grown. He looked to the doctor, a true follower and good pony at heart, ceaseless in his efforts to better a forsaken world. He looked to the scientist, devoted to his craft and the perfection of the Old World’s finest. He looked to the father, who had sacrificed it all, and almost himself, before he had awoken from his senses and finally fulfilled a promise made to a lost brother. These ponies had done the world right, and sought to continue.
