> Fallout Equestria: On Rust Red Shores
>  by Dice Warwick
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

> Chapter 1 - Drifters part 1
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------






The sun, it was something we had never truly known until recently, always hidden behind a veil of clouds. Now it shined down on us, oppressively heating everything with its naked glory. Nothing seemed safe from the heat, not even under shade. Our hooves could feel the burning of the dry cracked ground as dust plumed under each step.

“So, where is everypony?” Little Star Charter spoke up, walking under the shadow of our wing. “I thought Equestria was supposed to be full of ponies.” She was a young earth pony, having only recently gotten her cutie mark, a sextant over two crossed cutlasses. She had spent all her life among cutthroat sea raiders, so it was no surprise her cutie mark would reflect that lifestyle. We could only be glad its look lean more toward being adventurous than about killing like most ponies of her upbringing get.

Our eyes drifted from one end of the horizon to the next, looking for anything that could be dangerous. But nothing seemed to be alive here, not even the corpses, fortunately. We had only recently arrived in the Municipality of Reka, and from what we were told, it was supposed to be a bustling settlement that made its caps on trade. Unfortunately, the glowing ghoul had not told us that the settlement was now dead, though it looked like it had only died a few days ago, as many of the towns ponies still sat strewn about rotting under the blistering sun.

Kicking a discarded bottle, the ping of the glass on the rey dirt was the loudest thing we could hear, other than our hoofsteps as we made our way to the center of town. The town was surprisingly well built. Well, the parts that had not been burned down over the years were, at least. Many of the buildings had been built from wood, with some of them having been reinforced with various bits of scrap. Most of the surviving buildings even still had a coat of paint on it. In truth, it hardly looked like a wasteland settlement at all, though, it was still a far cry from an old world town. Most striking was the market place, with solid structures with enough space in between them for four of five temporary shops. One area was a large stage, with a wooden sign still hanging above it that stated the rules of the auction’s it must have held at one point. ‘Ten cap raise minimum. Must have proper licence to attend’. The sign also showed a pony holding a cap over their head as a pony on either side raised their hooves.

“Hay Prism, try this on!” Star picked up what looked like an ornate bracelet from the ground. “I bet it would look good on you.”

We lifted it up and gave it a look. The thing was a bit too big for our leg, but too small for our neck. “Sorry bet we don’t think we can use this.”

“We? It’s I, not we.” She said with a huff. “You have to stop talking like that, normal ponies don’t call themselves we.”

The filly was correct, but we were too use to speaking as a group, not as an individual. It had been a very long time since we had considered ourselves more than just a group. “Sorry, we are just use to talking like this.”

“Fine.” she huffed again. “Can’t say it doesn't have it’s own charm. But it’s still weird, sounds like you're talking on my behalf somethings.”

“Sorry about that.”

She rollder her eyes. “And don’t apologize, makes you sound week, like easy prey.”

It was strange dealing with Star, so young, yet so hardened to the world. Sometimes we feared that she may never find peace, that her nature will always lead her to violence and chaos.

Dropping the not large enough braclet, we saw that works of art were scattered about, both on the buildings, and laying around the town. Murals on the side of the building depicted ponies holding umbrellas, sheltering themselves from the rain above. Nothing all that colorful, but impressive in its size to say the least. Scattered around were jewelry made from polished rocks, shells, and even some made of bits of broken glass. Some were as simple as a stone held in wire, but a few others were made to look like stained glass windows, depicting a pony or other things. The ones depicting a pony seemed to have themes to it. Some ponies held weapons, others had a crown over their heads, and a few held tools in their hooves. Strangest yet were what looked like collars, many of which were decorated like it was jewelry, and some were even intricately engraved.

Star took a step towards one of the dead, but we reached out and stopped her with our wing. “No, leave the dead be for now. We should check the building for supply’s first, as you need clean water and food.”

“Fine” Star said with an annoyed tone. The growling in her stomach and the hunger in her eyes told us all we needed to know. She needed to eat soon, or she was going to grow more impulsive, more uncontrollable. We had run out of food, and as the day had grown long, so had her hunger. The poor filly was cursed by dark, evil magic. We had only felt it once from her before, but we knew it was still there. Whatever the cures was, it ate away at her slowly, much like a ghoul slowly going feral. We could tell from the look in her eyes, sometimes she was far away, only to be brought back by the growling of her stomach. We had come to call it the hunger, as that was all we truly knew of it. It forced her to eat far more often than a normal pony, and she seemed to have a favorability for meat, which was disturbing on its own.

We extended our wing, and pointed at larger building that had a large sign that stated “Town Hall”. It was still mostly intact, and was not charred black by fires long died out. “Let’s check that building, we might find some food in there.”

Star’s face lightened up, and she ran off ahead of us, no fear in her at all. With a sigh, we trotted after her. The building made of salvaged brick and scrap metal, not the best thing we had seen, but better than most.

*Tat* *Tat* *Tat*

Our heart pounded in our chest with hearing the sound of gunfire, and we rushed into the building. We saw Star Charter standing in front of a dead mole rat. “What happened?”  We asked her hastily.

She smiled innocently. “Can we eat it?”

The mole rat looked like it was only skin and bones. But even if we hated to feed her hunger this way, there would be enough meat on the mole rat to sate her, even if only temporarily. “Yes, but we would have to cook it first.” We responded, causing Star to beam at us in delight. “But first, let’s search the building for anything useful.”

She saluted. “Aye, aye captain.” Again, with no fear at all, she ran off. It made us worry if we were to be honest. She was still too small to take on most of the dangers of the wasteland, and we were still too weak to protect her from any dangers if she were to stumble onto them in such haste. Shaking off the thought, we began to search through the building, opening desks, checking closets, but only finding nothing.

Alone, we went looking through every container we could find, everything always came up the same, completely and utterly empty. This town felt more than just dead, like this was just the stripped, empty shell of something bigger, and far more active. The emptiness just felt wrong here, like something was telling us in the back of our head that we should not be here. Walking to the back, a foul smell hit my nose. It was coming from the last place to look in this room, a door at the back. The closer we got the worse the smell became. The door opened without any resistance, and the light from behind us illuminated the dark room.

We feared to find more of the death that had met this town, but what we saw inside made us gag in revulsion. Dead ponies, many of them shot in the head, were all lined up in a neat row. This room was used for an execution. Not just that, a few ponies had been laid flat on their bellies, their flanks red raw, and a putrid yellow stained the floor beneath them. Every one of the ones posed that way had a bullet in their head. Some had been tortured before they died, and the idea of it all made our chest hurt, made me want to break something, some ponies.

“Prism!” Star called out from the second story above us.

Nervously, we slammed the door, hoping that if we could no longer see the horrors of that room, then it no longer existed. “What is it Star?” We shouted back.

“Come up here, you’ve got to see this!” She shouted in return. Knowing that the filly was a stubborn one, we quickly trotted around to figure out how to get where she was. Finding our self at some stairs, we looked around to find her above us at the top. “Come on, this way.”

Trotting up the stairs, we followed her to a room at the far end of a long hallway. The door to the room had a sign on it that stated ‘Winterberry, Stay Out!’. The room inside was quite lovely looking, with red velvet drapes hanging along the top of the walls, and a bed decorated in the same red velvet that looked far too good to belong in the wasteland. Star herself jumped up onto the bed and bounced a bit, enjoying herself.

“Can we stay here; this can be my room?” She flopped down on the bed and hugged a pillow tightly. “Please.”

We shook our head. “Sorry, but we think it’s safer if we leave. Soon, at that.”

She huffed. “Fine, but I’m taking the pillow. It’s nice and fluffy.”

We rolled our eyes. “Did you find anything of use up here?”

She shook her head. “Nothing, other than a dead fat pony. I think who ever raided this place really hated him.” With the pillow sticking halfway out of her saddle bag, the filly trotted out of the room.

Looking around our self, we had to admit that this was probably the nicest room we had ever seen. Other than the bed, it had fancy cabinet, a carpet with only one hole in it, and a… blue alicorn.

Looking at us was a tall, thin, sickly looking alicorn mare. Her mane was a mess, forming what looked like long dreadlocks. Her face was thin, with sunken in eyes that seemed to stare into our soul. Her body had dug in scars around her hooves,neck and chest, looking like she had been brutally tied down to the point that it had rubbed her fur off and carved into her skin. Even her wings and feathers were a mess, with one of the wings was missing missing a patch of feathers like they had been all ripped out. “Is…” We stepped forward as we spoke, and so did the mare. We tilted our head, and so did she. We projected our thoughts, and found ourselves alone. “Is this... me?” The mirror reflected what I had become, the face I knew from long ago was gone. No freckles on a creamy gray fur. No red, orange, yellow mane. No cutie mark depicting a rainbow.

How dare it. How dare it! How dare it show me what I’ve become. I wrenched the mirror with my magic, holding it up off the floor, and flung it effortlessly across the room with my magic. It shattering it into thousands of pieces. I didn’t need to see me… we didn’t need to be reminded of the past, of how much of a failure we were.

Stepping out of the room, the next closest room had a plaque on it that read ‘Mayor Elderberry’, and the door sat ajar with only a crack sitting open. Slowly, we opened it, only to find a pony hang by their neck from a ceiling fan. Sadly, it looked like whoever hung the mayor didn’t want to use any rope, and opted to hang the poor pony by their own intestines. If we had any food in us, we would have puked right there. Taking a step back, we properly shut the door, not even wanting to search the room.

“Star, lets go. We think that we're done here.” Stepping down the stairs, we picked up the emaciated dead mole rat with our magic, and walked out the door.

Star followed shortly after us. “So soon, Prism?” She looked around, and pointed at another, mostly intact building. “How about that one?”

We shook our head. “We don’t think anything’s left here. We should leave before the raider’s return.” The filly frowned, looking disappointed. “Don’t worry, if you can gather some wood, we can cook this mole rat for you.”

“I hope it tastes good.” She ran off, and began collecting broken pieces of wood that were scattered about. We ourselves trotted up to a collapsed building and pulled out a few exposed planks of wood. It was old and dried wood, so it should burn well enough.

We left the Municipality of Reka behind us, trotting down the broken remains of a street. We found a safe place to stop for now in what was left of a convenience store. Still hanging a large sign for sparkle-cola in it’s shattered window, we were hopeful the inside might contain something of use. However, like with the town, the interior was completely empty. Luckily, this meant there was room to make a fire and cook the mole rat.

Placing all the wood planks in a pile, we pulled out Star’s sword we had in our saddle bag.  Carefully, we began cutting into the oversized rat. As we thought, the beast was little more the skin and bones. it must have only gotten into the town not long before we had, it not having enough time to fatten itself off of the dead left their. Salvaging what we could off of it, and placing its meager meat on top of it’s own bones to keep it off the floor. Using our magic, we were able to get a fire going, placing a plank of wood into it once the fire was good and healthy.

“Prism?”  Star’s voice spoke up over the crackling fire. We looked behind us to see her with a wide grin on her face.

“What is it, dear?” We could only hope she was not going to ask to do something reckless.

“When I was gathering wood, I did find something.” She pulled out a rusty old pair of scissors. “Well, I was thinking that you might want your mane cut. You’ve been dragging it on the floor ever since we got to the mainland. Is it okay if I cut your mane?”

We sat there, feeling a little confused. Our mane... cut? “We can’t remember the last time we had our mane cut.” We looked at the fill as she gave us a pleading look. I sighed, unable to find the will to disappoint her. “Fine, but do not cut it too short. We do have some pride in our mane.” 

She giggled, and jumped onto our back. Steeling our self, we proceeded to hold the mole rat meat over the fire as Star began to trim our wild and messy mane.

Time passed, and the filly had all that we had prepared off of the mole rat. It was not much, but Star ate it all, even cracking one of the bones to get at the marrow. We couldn’t help but feel a little disturbed by the sight of the carnivorous filly, but we were not going to fail her. We had already failed our own foal, but this time, she will live.

Picking up a piece of broken glass, we attempted to see what my new mane looked like. It was still a little wild, but now it only went as far as our shoulders, and or tail was cut to half the length as well. We don’t know why, but it made us feel a little like a normal pony again. Picking up the scissors, we proceeded to cut our bangs, having them now rest just above our eyes. A bit of the magical wave returned to our mane, returning some dignity back to us.

Placing the glass and scissors down, we trotted over to the window. The sun was now long gone from the sky, and the moon had risen above the horizon. It was faint, but we could hear gunfire somewhere in the night. It was far off, but still close enough to make us worried. Stretching out our wings, some of their strength had returned, the background radiation feeding us. “Mother, are we doing this right? Were we even worthy of the second chance you gave us? We worry that we will fail, we worry we will be alone again. Mother, why did you leave us, leave me.”


______________________________________


Footnote:

Quest Start – On rust red shores
> Chapter 2 - Drifters part 2
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------







The wind blowing through our now much shorter mane felt good, and though we were still feeling weak, we had regained enough strength to fly. Looking down at the ruins of where an old world city use to be, not much of it looked to still be standing.

Many of the structures around the Municipality of Reka were simply missing or never existed, creating a long, barren clearing around the now dead settlement. The settlement itself had been mostly burned to the ground from the inside, leaving long black scars of soot inside of its fortified walls.

What was left still standing, was the more commercial buildings, and probably because they were made mostly out of concrete, and not wood. However, from here, that was something we could only guess. But the rest of the surrounding area was either wasteland, or various piles of rubble.

Catching our eye was a small line of smoke reaching up to the sky from a good distance away from the city. Fluttering out wings, we turned towards the line of smoke, and glided towards it. I hoped for the best, but it was a good idea to expect the worst. “Star, keep your gun ready for if there’s trouble. I’ll use the sword.”

“Can do, Prism.” She smiled as she fiddled with her mouth grip. “Just so you know, I got like seven shots left, so I might want the sword back later.”

“Let’s just hope that there’s no trouble at all.” Looking down, we were flying over what looked like the ruins of a residential area. Mostly it was just rubble, but quite a few of the rickety houses still stood. Though, the buildings that looked most intact looked to be the old shops, like the one we spent the night in, but bigger perhaps. The broken roads here helped to form a picture of what this city used to look like. Nothing as grand as manehattan used to be, but still a city full of life. Further down, I could see open water past more ruined shopping centers, and more homes that were nothing more than scattered rubble that lead out toward to the water. The smoke came from a small inland island, though hard to see from so far up, I could make out a small settlement sitting near the smoke trail.

Upon a closer inspection, it looked like the island settlement came in two parts. One half was a walled off section, filled with numerous small buildings made of scrap, along with two tall watch towers. The other half had been built on and around an old cargo ship that had run aground, with many smaller boats and the like hanging off of it. The cargo ship was nowhere as big as either one of the ships that Blackwater had been built out of, but it still towered over the rest of the settlement. Not far from the settlement itself, was another building, looking to have quite a few ponies busily running around it. More precisely, it was also where the smoke was coming from.

We didn’t have any other plans, and already running low on water and food, so we descended. Concentrating on our magic to make ourselves invisible, we only managed to make us feel light in the head, not resolving the spell at all. Already descending, we could not muster the strength to change course, so we readied to land. Hitting the ground harder than normal, it felt like daggers were being jammed into us. But we managed to keep ourselves from falling over, and performed what we would consider a ‘mostly’ graceful landing.

The ponies we’d landed among were all unicorns. The majority of them were covered in more scars than we cared to count, and many stared at us with yellowed and bloodshot eyes. They wore leather armor reinforced with metal plates, and decorated bone cloaks that draped over themselves. Most of them wore helmets that had a skull adorning their top, and some had skulls large enough to cover their entire heads.

Flaring out our wings, I hoped that we could muster the majesty of our mother so to stun them in awe. “Fear not, we are only here to trade. We have little in supply’s, but are willing to work to make up the difference.” 

They all just stood there, staring at us, judging us for our sins before one pony shouted, “LUNA HAS RETURNED, ALL PRAISE THE MOON!” Throwing their primitive weapon to the ground, he pressing his face into the dirt, front legs stretched out in front of him.

The rest of the ponies around us however, just ignored him, and circled around us. The unicorn raiders raised their weapons, crude looking axes and spears, with handles made from bones, wrapped in leather. With them closer, we could see that many of them had the skulls of small critters woven into their mane and tails. The few with guns seem to have a bit more gear on them: goggles under their skull helmets, magical powered lanterns on their side, and on their back were large steel hoof traps that look like they could hurt a bear.

With a loud bang, the door to the nearby building opened up, and an old peach colored Unicorn stallion trotted out. He looked all sorts of mean, with a long scraggly gray beard, Leather armor reinforced with spiked metal plates, and a helmet decorated with the skull of some unidentifiable large beast that I could only guess was once a hellhound. 

“If you fucking lot are wasting supplies, I will skin you and…” He stopped mid sentence, looking at us from bottom to top wearing a look on his face that showed no emotion other than pure irritation. “Touché.” He said as he trotted up to us and looked us directly in the eyes. “What are you?”

“We, we are… we were the avatar of the goddess.” We felt a sharp pain in our chest as we said that. “We mean no harm, we simply wish to trade. We just need some food and water for the little one in our charge, then we will be off.”

“Food and water?” The old stallion scratched his chin, still looking irritated. “A shame, really. If you’d arrived only a week ago, you could have done so over at Reka.” The rest of the ponies around us started laughing quietly, which only gave us a bad feeling. An exceptionally bad feeling at that. “As things are now, we have not the supplies to spare.”

“Truly a shame that is.” We responded. Gathering my strength, we had a feeling that we had chosen poorly to come down here, and that these were ponies not to be trusted. “Then we shall take our leave. We are sure we could find another small settlement willing to trade elsewhere.”

“I doubt that.” He pointed behind us at the fortified settlement we’d seen from the air. “As things are right now, Bold Harbor is the only settlement still standing, the next one is a few days travel from here. So if you leave now, don’t expect to find anything out there but feral ghouls, and mad tribes.”

We put on our more serious expression across our face, which mostly meant we were now squinting at the old stallion. “And what would happen if we were to stay?” More laughter came from the crowd of ponies surrounding us. If we weren't sure before, we were sure now. We had stupidly landed in the middle of a large group of tribal raiders.

The old stallion lifted a hoof, looking at himself in the polished metal of his spiked armor. “One of a few things, freak. But for now, you’re going to quietly trot over to a cage we have, and play nice with the others in there.” The crowd parted a little revealing a large cage, it filled with unicorns, earth ponies, and even pegasi.

“HEY!” Snapping our attention, we saw that Star had jumped off our back, and was now trotting straight up toward the raider leader. “Don’t be mean to Prism, or I’ll show ye how we do it on the Blackwater.”

Our body seemed to be frozen in shock perhaps as we watched the filly stare down the raider leader. The older raider just looked down at the bold filly, not showing any change in emotion. Raising up his hoof higher, he sneered. “And why does a little filly think that she can tell me what to do?” His hoof came down, stopping only inches from Star with our magic being the only thing holding the stallion's hoof in place.

“You will not harm her.” With a push of our magic, we shoved his hoof away from her and onto the ground. “Now come here, Star. We should go, as it’s clear that we are not wanted here.”

Star Charter nodded, and trotted over toward me, only to be cut off by another raider. “Pretty little thing like you shouldn’t leave just yet.” The crowd of raiders laughed again at that. “There’s so much we can show you. Like, have you ever tasted another pony before?”

“Have you?” Star Charter asked back.

The raiders laughed again as though she had said something funny. “Me personally, no. But others have tasted my meat a few times and liked it. Would you like to give it a try, little filly?”

Our muscles tensed up, and our blood boiled. No shame, no shame at all among these ponies. This pony before us, no, this ‘thing’ should be snapped in half without mercy.

“Salty and metallic.” Star spoke up, and the raider in front of her froze in confusion. The laughter from the others also died down to a murmur, likely waiting to see what happens next. “Mostly that’s just the blood, but that covers everything anyway.” The raider took a step back from her words, his legs quivering slightly. “What they say about the heart? It’s a lie. You want to go for the liver, that’s the best part.”

The raider stopped when he backed up into our chest, his gaze locked with Stars. Her left eye had become bloodshot, and was bleeding. We could feel the dark magic within her seeping out through that cursed eye, and it scared us. Breaking our self out of shocked induced paralyzation, we lifted the raider over our head, our magic gripping firmly around its neck. The rest of the raiders hadn’t been idle at this, and now slowly closed in. There were too many of them to take on by ourselves, but maybe we could force an opening and run.

“Stop you fucking morons!” All the raiders froze as their leader shouted into the air. “Did I say that you can interfere? Any of you?” The crowd of raiders backed up, giving us more space. The old raider trotted up to us, giving Star a brief glance. “Looks like we got off on the wrong hoof here. If you wouldn’t mind disposing of that piece of trash held in your magic, you could then follow me into my office. There’s a business proposition I would like to ask of you.” The old raider said before he simply turned around and troted back to the building he’d come from. As for the rest of the raiders, they broke off from the crowd, going back to what they were doing before we came down between them all.

With a loud crack, we easily broke the raiders neck with our magic, and dropped him to the ground with a thump. “Let’s go.” We spoke, ushering little Star to follow me as we trotted over to the raider leader’s building. Some of the raiders gave us dagger like glances, but none cared to get in our way.

The inside of the old building was filled with boxes that had been stacked on top of other boxes. A few busy looking unicorns trotted about across the rickety floorboards with clipboards in their magic, scribbling numerous notes down on them. Further in was what we could guess was the boss stallions room, which looked like an old office, but had been decorated with a large black flag depicting a pony skull hanging from a hook and rope.

“So you listen, that’s a good start.” The old raider sat back in a chair, which squeaked under his weight as we entered his room. “Name’s Grease Fire, leader of this bad of fuckwits. You can call us the Skull Hunters, it’s the name we have earned through sweat and blood. Now once again, who the fuck are you.”

“Prism Paint, and the little one is Star Charter.” We were unsure what he wanted from us, but we were still in need of food and water. We could survive without it, but Star might not. “What is this business proposal that you offer?”

The stallion placed a cigarette in his mouth, and as he did, a unicorn mare levitated a lighter over to him, lighting up the cigarette. He then offered a cigarette to us. It had been a long time since we had smoked, from before we meet mother, and something we’d wanted to leave in our past. But right now was not the time to tell a raider no, so we took it. It... it tasted different from what we remembered as the unicorn mare lit our’s up as well. It was a good taste, but still different.

“Right. You wanted food and water, enough to get you both to another settlement.” He grinned, breathing in the cigarette smoke, and exhaling a large cloud of it. “Depending on what you’re into, we have plenty of meat. Lots to hunt around here as well if you're strong enough for it. Water on the other hoof is the problem, as everything around here is still tainted with radiation. Both Reka and Bold have their own boilers for purifying water. But as you might know, Reka’s boiler is currently out of commission.”

“And Bold Harbor?” We asked.

“Taken over by the residents of Reka, somehow...” He scowled, and sucked in the cigarette until he had just ash on his lip. Exhaling, he popped in another cigarette and continued smoking. “We had the residents properly routed and falling in our trap. But for some fucking reason, all my trappers from inside Bold never came out to flank around and capture them. So when we finally got here, they had closed the gates, and taken up residence inside our home.”

“So, you want us to get them out?” We didn’t like the sound of this. Working for raiders, that was bad. But helping them hunt ponies? That was even worse.

He nodded. “Unless the dumb fucks take up fishing, they’re going to run out of food any day now. I’d much rather have them all surrender, and come out quietly, rather than having them start committing suicide.” He opened up a drawer and pulled out a bunch of papers. “I know outsiders like you tend to have a streak of the heroics in them, but here’s the deal. I got a slaver caravan coming up here soon, and if those in Bold don’t surrender or come out by the time the caravan passes through, then we might as well just kill them all and take back our home by force. So think of this not as assisting us slavers, but as you saving their lives. Yes, they’ll still be going into slavery, but for some of them, that’s nothing new anyway.”

Looking at the paper, indeed it looked to be describing a slaver caravan scheduled to come into town, and in it, a deal for the selling of numerous slaves to them. “So the Municipality of Reka was in the slave trade.”  We spoke slowly.  What caught our eye as peculiar about the paper however, was the name of the pony signing the document. Elderberry. 

Greece Fire took back the documents. “Not much in the way of trade here, other than pelts from the monsters that live around here. Raiding has been getting less productive, but the slave trade was strong in Reka. So we decided to get in on the business ourselves, and wipe out our competition at the same time. Something we still aim to finish.”

With a sigh, we now understood the situation. Nopony was good here. “So you just need us to convince them to surrender. How would we do that?”

The stallion grinned. “You’re an outsider, they would be willing to talk with you.  Hell, maybe they’ll even try to buy you off. But to get them to surrender, you would just need to demoralize them, which as it is now, is a simple thing. Find out who is leading them, kill them, and return here. Without a leader, they are likely to give up to save the rest of their sorry selves.”

Kill a pony, enslave the rest. It all did not sit well with us. But this was a fight between slavers and raiders, so at least it didn’t feel like we were attacking innocent ponies. “Sounds fair enough. Just have our supplies ready for when it’s done.”


______________________________________

Footnote:

New Faction:
- Skull Hunters – This raider band hails from the settlement of Bold Harbor, making their living hunting both monster and pony alike.
> Chapter 3 - Drifters part 3
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------






The cold water felt nice on our hooves, the salt stung in all the little cut’s on our exposed skin. It was strange to associate this little pain with feeling good, but we brushed it off to the radiation we were soaking up. The unstable magic slowly flowed into us, once again filling us with its strength. As the sun slowly crept up high into the sky, we couldn’t help but feel that it was both a curse, and a blessing that the sun had returned. It bathed us in its warmth, but that warmth would soon become an oppressive heat.

“You ready, Prism?” Star stood at the edge of the shore, understanding that it was dangerous to jump into the water. Luckily for us, she was a quick learner, and took our warnings about the radiation to heart. Though it was sad to see the waterborne earth pony unable to show off the swimming skills she would commonly boast about to us.

Concentrating, the magic flowed through us, and we felt ourselves vanish from sight. Trotting over to Star Charter, she watched our hoof steps, as we got closer. Releasing the spell, we looked down at the filly. “We should be able to stay hidden long enough to finish this job. Let’s go.” Lowering our wing, Star climbed onto our back. We had our reservations about taking her with us, but we didn’t trust the skull hunters. Especially after Grease Fire promised to look after her personally.

“Aye, aye.” Star saluted. “Take out their captain, and force the crew to surrender. Just like in the stories of Captain Pickled Beard.” She remarked as she got herself comfortably seated on our back, anchoring herself on our saddlebags.

“No making a scene, we are not here for a fight.” Flaring out our wings, we cast our invisibility spell over the two of us, and lifted ourselves to the air. With taking in as much of the magical radiation we did, we felt much more confident in flying now, our wings no longer hurting as much after a little bit of healing. It also helped that we only had a small distance to fly.

Bold Harbor had fairly intimidating walls surrounding it. It was mostly brick and scrap like the walls of Reka, but it has a secondary outer wall made from broken road vehicles, boats, and several sky carts. The ground around the outer wall was also covered in spikes; pointed wooden poles poking out of shallow trenches, and giant metal caltrops with rusty shape edges scattered around. Most of it was It all gave Bold Harbor an intimidating front, answering why the raiders lived there, and had not moved in to take the ponies inside themselves. We found it amusing that now their own defenses, meant to keep other ponies out, were now used against them.

Flying over the walls, the settlement still revealed little about itself. Tall poles holding up long, surprisingly intact cloth mesh over the top of the settlement blocked most of our view from the air. What we could see, were the two guard towers, which held three ponies each who seemed to be hiding within them. From what we could see, the ponies within the guard towers were armed with varmint rifles, and would only ever peek over the edge now and again, their rifles ready to shoot at the first sign of trouble. They looked healthy enough, not quite starving as we’d been told. One of the guards was even sipping on a bottle of water.

Descending, we had to squeeze through the cloth mesh and down into the raider settlement, but managed to do so without much effort. Under the cover, this settlement was warm and humid, but not quite hot. We could actually say that it felt pleasant, if not for the smell of rot that permeated this place. Surprisingly, the raider settlement reminded us of the pirate city Blackwater.  It was made up of quite a few collections of close knit, large groups of shipping containers stacked three high, each with balconies supported by them. Decorating many of the small homes were clusters of skulls hung up by rope. The decorations were all over, making it impossible to look in any direction and not see skulls dangling from a rope. Many were made up of the skulls of different small animals, and only a scattered few of them had pony skulls.

It didn’t take long to find the rest of the ponies in here, though surprisingly, they were mostly earth ponies. Many of them were thin, and most of them had collars around their neck. Some of the collars were simple and make of black iron, but others had polished steel ones with a few gems inset into them. Another pony looked like they had a studded leather color on. They were all slowly shuffling around the compound, gathering up random junk they could find and placing it into their saddlebags. Most of them looked like they had been working nonstop, with dirt caked hooves and dark bags under their eyes. But strangely enough, even though they worked like they were, they didn’t seem like they were being forced to collect things. We didn’t see any of them being punished, nopony supervising them, and rarely did they even have any scars on them that you’d typically find on a slave.

We did find one pony all by himself, away from the sight of the others wandering around. Dirty and miserable looking, he didn’t have a collar on, so we assumed that this was a free pony.  Heading toward the outsider, we weren’t sure of where our target was, and feeling like we had no other choice, we had to ask for directions.

Revealing ourselves, we pointed our wing at him. “You, pony. Take us to your leader.”

“Mu… mu…” The pony got up on all fours, looking horrified. “MONSTER!” Galloping away, the pony ran straight into the side of a building, falling down into the mud and twitching in pain.

Star snorted. “You’re not good at this at all, are you Prism?” We frowned at her in response, and she gave us a big toothy grin. “I got this.” Before we could protest, the filly jumped off out back, and splashed mud all around as she dropped onto the ground. Star then trotted off around some of the containers, and we went invisible to follower her. She stopped just around the corner, standing in front of two slave ponies carrying some junk. “Yo!” She announced herself loudly to the mare and stallion.

The two ponies froze on the spot, only to look down and relax. The Stallion was first to respond. “Don’t be so loud, you know that every pony is on edge right now.”

“Oh, I forgot.” Star responded. “I need to talk with the boss, can you remind me where she is.”

The mare sighed and looked annoyed. “How can you forget? Winterberry took over the big building south from here.” She pointed past us before looking back down to Star again. “Wait… I don’t recognize you.” But before she could say any more, Star had already spun around and run off around another corner. We did our best to follow her without revealing ourselves, placing our hooves on the random pieces of concrete and scrap that littered the muddy ground.

Further into the heart of the raider settlement, more ponies could be seen moving junk around. It was a strange sight to see, as some had collars on, a clear sign that they were slaves, but they were walking side by side non collared ponies, taking with them peacefully. Though not all looked as content to do so, and there were a few ponies chained to a pillar, their yellow eyes glared at ponies passing by, some snapping at them with sharpened teeth, or yelling profanities at the other ponies. The chained up ponies were cut up and scarred, but in a way that gave them a bit of a scaley look to them, like it was intentional. We could only assume that they were raiders, possibly skull hunters, so we made a mental knot to keep Star away from them.

Speaking of the filly, she had found what looked like the biggest building in the settlement, or we hoped, as it looked more like a wall made of shipping containers, that went all the way up to the top of the settlement. Painted along the wall was profanity, drawings of dicks, and a dead pony who looked like it had been there for weeks. Up above it looked like crudely cut out windows were made were we could see a few ponies inside.

Closer, two ponies stood guard with collars around their neck, and seeming to be blocking a small line formed outside the building. The ponies in the line had no collar on them, most looked to be quite thin, and more than a few seemed a little bit upset.

“Let us in you two blithering fools!” A stallion in the line shouted at the guards. “Winterberry can’t just hoard all the supplies to herself, we barely even have enough to survive another day out here!”

One of the guards snickered. “If you wanted me to do anything you asked, then you should never have sold my contract to her.”

“That bitch would only accept my slave contract for the supplies,” The stallion fumed, and stomped the ground. “I had nothing else to give!”

With a sigh, the slave stallion pushed his former owner away. “Sorry, but unless you have something to trade, mistress Winterberry will not have an audience with you.”

The stallion stomped the ground in anger a little more before giving up and trotting off. Another non-collared stallion stepped up, along with with a very young foal wrapped up in his saddle bag. “I... I found a stash of chems and bullets. I don’t need anything for myself, just for my son. Is this enough?” The slave guard looked at him, and nodded. With his approval, the stallion and child trotted past them and inside.

Seeing enough, we needed to get inside. The two guard slaves were in the way, though far enough apart to let a normal pony through, we were larger than that. So we opted for a distraction, picking up some random can reaby, we threw it against the wall nearby, making a loud clang.

One of the guards turn his head to the noise. “Hey! Just because you're stressed does not mean that you can make it worse for every pony else.” The pony trotted over to the can, picking it up. “Also this is useful scrap, if you have time to find and throw this, you have time to find more and sell it.”

We used this opportunity to slip passed the two guards without brushing up against them. Though our hoof steps did leave a small muddy trail, they were easily lost among the other hoofsteps of other ponies.

We walked into what appeared to be an arena, with a raised stage in the middle, and a dry clearing sounding it. Along the walls were long balconies sticking out of the shipping containers used as walls, the containers housing the stairs, and even seats. For raiders, the skull hunters had made an impressive structure out of shipping containers, and could possible hold well over a hundred ponies. 

Looking among the ponies in the room, it was not hard to find who was likely their leader. Sitting in a large balcony, in a throne-like chair, was a finely dressed earth pony mare.  She sat with two collared stallions at her side, one a unicorn, and the other a pegasus. The Pegasus fanned her with his wings, and the Unicorn held a bottle of wine in his magical grip, pouring a little for the mare every time she took a sip. Winterberry, as we guessed this was, had an icy blue coat and a pale green mane.  Over her healthy looking body, she wore a fancy sequin covered red dress. Her drowsy looking eyes were the same color as her mane, giving her an overall striking, but faded look.

The stallion with the foal from outside slowly trotted up onto the stage and looked at0 Winterberry, his foal still snug in his saddle bag. “Miss Winterberry, I’m just a lowly merchant, only ever struggled to get by. I have found some bullets and cems to trade.” he pulled out a box, and placed it in the ground. Another pony walked up on the stage and opened the box, showing Winterberry what looked like two small boxes of ammo, and six canisters of dash.

Winterberry looked over and yawned, motioning at the pony showing the goods. The pony threw one of the boxes of ammo to the mare, and her Unicorn cought it in his magic. She looked it over, opening it and nodded. “Two full boxes of .38, that gives us an extra hundred rounds for our sharp shooters. Yeas that’s worthy of a day's worth of rations per box. As for the dash, the cems may become necessary if the worst would happen, we can spare another days rations if you like, of would you like some caps for them?”

The stallion shook his head. “Thank you, we will take the rations, but I also want you to take my son in exchange for the dash. I can survive on my own as I always have, but I don’t think I can help him. You on the other hoof, you have the resources to keep him healthy, and my family are known for being honest hard workers, so I know he will be able to work his way out of his contract easily when he’s grown up in a few years.”

Winterberry sighed. “Another one? Fine, my nurse-maid can take on one more foal. But be sure of this. Because after my father returns with the cavalry to bust us out of here, it will cost you triple the amount to buy your son back.”

The stallion nodded. “I know, but I’d rather buy him back in the future, then buy him a grave stone.” 

A cleaner looking mare than most here slowly trotted over to the stallion, taking the young foal carefully out of the stallion’s bags. The foal began to cry loudly, but the mare was quick to comfort him. The stallion on the other hoof turned from his child, and trotted away with tears in his eyes.

“Hay, miss!” Star Charter foolishly announced herself.  “We got ta talk with you!”

Winterberry looked over at Star, the mare raising an eyebrow at the filly. “Now I know I don’t recognize you as one of mine. Are you with one of the caravans that’s been stranded with us?”

“Nope, just passing through.” Star Charter announced happily. “Are you the boss here?”

She looked down at the filly, with a concerned gaze. “Why yes, yes I am.” Winterberry announced proudly. “Well until my father returns, and dispersed these dreadful raiders. But what do you mean by passing through?”

“Good.” Little Star Charter smiled. “Cuss we got to off you no… HAY!” before she could do anything, Star Charter was lifted into the air by her tail. The Unicorn slave mare next to Winterberry wrapped her up in her magic.

With a quick swipe of her hoof, Winterberry took the pillow Star had hanging out of her saddlebag. “Where did you get this?” Looking it over carefully, the mare scowled in disbelief.

“It’s mine, I found it!”  She whined and flailed at the magic holding her.
“You ‘found’ this.” Winterberry glared at the filly before looking over the pillow again. “You could only have found this from my room, meaning you stole it.” Fluffing the pillow, she put it behind her on the throne-like chair. “Now tell me, and tell me quickly. Who are you, where did you came from, how did you got in, and more importantly, if my father sent you?” She waved at her Pegasus slave, and he produced an iron collar. “Now if you can’t answer my questions, I have other ways to extract what I want to know from your head. Funny enough, it’s the same method used to break a savage pony into an obedient slave.” She smiled from ear to ear. “And I’m good at it, you could say it’s my hobby, but don’t worry, I’ll be real gentle breaking the savage out of you.”

With a sigh and a telekinetic push, we both knocked the collar from her hooves and wrenched Star Charter from the unicorn’s grasp. Star cried for a moment, and while we didn’t like to hear her in pain, if we were gentle, she would not learn from her mistakes. The sudden rush of action left us feeling a bit drained, and so we dropped our invisibility as we placed star charter on our back.

“We are sorry for the interruption, the filly is still learning her manners.”  We spoke as we stood tall in front of the shocked looking ponies around us.

The mare’s mouth hung open for a few seconds, only for her to physically close it with her hoof and regain her composure. “I… I see. Sorry for my… unintentional indiscretion.” Winterberry straightened herself up. “You’re much earlier than expected. I trust that you’re here because father sent you?”

“Your father is the one named Elderberry, right?” We had a feeling that the elder pony in the mayor's office might be Elderberry, though we never checked.

Winterberry smiled. “Oh yes, so what did daddy say. Is he coming to rescue us soon?”

We shook our head. “Sorry, but we believe we have bad news. Your father, we don’t think he did not survive the raider attack. We fould an older pony dead in his office, though we didn’t check”

Her face went from that of a smooth talking, happy mare, to the wrinkly scowl of a pony who’s fury knows no bounds. “You lie!”  She screamed at us.

“We don’t think any pony survived, other than your group.” Looking around the room, the other ponies here had closed in, most looking on in bewilderment. “Grease Fire does not seem to think so. When we talked with him, he seemed confident that no help was coming, and that they could easily do business with the slaver caravan coming in.”

The wine glass flew from her hoof as she threw it down, smashing into the ground in a splash of glass bits and wasted red wine. “Grease Fire! GREASE FIRE!? Father had him killed years ago! There’s no way that fucker is still alive.” Winterberry began to shake, holding herself. “He’s dead, he has to be.”

“A pony by that name is alive, and he wants us to kill you to force every pony else to surrender.” Though some of the ponies looked ready to fight at that, unlike the armed and armored raiders outside the walls, we felt we could properly defend ourselves.

A long sigh came from Winterberry, then a laugh. It was not like a funny laugh, but a more mocking laugh. “You think that we would fold, even if I were to die? Fat chance. I’m the only thing keeping them from running out there and fighting the skull hunters themselves. If we were going to die, we’d go out taking them with us. That’s how it’s always been, how it will always be.”

We were taken aback, her words filled with stinging malice. Still, we had to ask.  “How so, and why? Wouldn’t it be better to survive, then to die here.”

She chuckled, a hint of madness in her tone. “If it were some other group of ponies, yes. But those savages? Never. We will never give them a victory. We would rather all die and take them with us when we did.” She gripped the bottle of wine from her slave’s telekinetic grip, brought it to her muzzle, and drank straight from the bottle. Gasping, she wiped the dribbles of wine from her deranged smile.  “No pony here is willing to be taken alive, trust me on that.”

We had to take a step back, surprised by the fire in her eyes. “Then is there a way to resolve this peacefully?”

“Nope.” She said simply. “But if you can get us into the big ship there, we can set up a trap for the raiders. That way we can thin their numbers in safety before we spring on them all at once and wipe them out for good.”

“We, as in... we?” We shook our head in confusion. “You want us to help you? Why?”

She smiled. “You’re not one of them, right?  So why help raiders when you can help us more civilized ponies? We can offer so much more than they ever could. Let me guess, they’ll pay you a hundred caps, right? Well, we can offer a thousand. Sounds a whole lot better, doesn’t it?”

We felt a little ashamed, but not enough to care what raiders though of us. “We require food and water. Some caps would be nice, but we just need enough to get to the next town. If you can promise that, we will consider your offer.”

Winterberry seemed to salivate at the mouth. “Good. We just need access to the interior of the beached cargo ship and the area surrounding it. Their we will be in a more easily defended position, and have access to the boats, which will give us the option to flee on the water if thing go badly. The problem is that some ponies have taken over the ship, and refuse to let us even get close. I don’t care how you do it, but we need them gone.”

“And who are these ponies?” It seemed strange that some other ponies had taken it over first. We just hoped it was some peaceful group that just misunderstood the situation, or had sought refuge when the siege here started.”

“Who are they?”  She laughed and swung her hoof in a dramatic motion toward the pegasus slave next to her. “The fucking Enclave, that’s who.”


______________________________________

Footnote:

New Faction:

Merchants of Reka – These savvy merchants deal in anything that they can make a cap off of. From shiny rocks to slaves, quality is their guarantee, so it is rare that they will sell you anything faulty, including even you yourself.
> Chapter 4 - Drifters part 4
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------






Once more we had to take time to soak in the radiation, but this time we’d found a small bit of waste to sit near. From what the Reka ponies had told me, the Skull hunters were using the waste as crude, glowing paint for their skulls. A frightening sight on its own, but likely downright terrifying when seen attached to a charging raider. The magical radiation here was not much, but it was enough to return some strength to ourself.

Under the invisibility spell, we trotted over to where the land based settlement met the part of the settlement that was on the water. A large drawbridge was held up by a crane, easily blocking any unwanted attempt to cross. We were told of another another drawbridge a little further away, built much in the same way, but it seemed to had been destroyed before the Reka Merchants got here.

“So, who are these Enclave ponies?” Star whispered from our back.

“We know very little about them, but we do know that it was they who blocked the sky.” Looking up, the sun beamed down at us, the cloth covering blocking some of the oppressive rays. “Well, they use too.”

The filly held onto out saddlebag, preparing for flight. “So they’re pegasi, go figure. I knew a few on the Blackwater, them and the griffins like to look down on everyone from the clouds. The cowards would often sit out storms above the clouds.”

“Well, let’s not purposefully go ruffling any feathers. We can hold our own in magic, but not in flying.” We had only ever used our wings when going over obstacles, or when needing to cover distances without slowing down. Our hooves on the ground felt more natural, they felt right. “And no running off on your own.”

“Right!” Star said loudly, and a bit obnoxiously. We needed to get her to proper civilization. As she was, we feared she would only get herself killed out here.

Flaring our wings, we flew up and over the raised drawbridge, landing on the other side. The wood creaked under our hooves, the old planks moldy and worn from age, but still sturdy enough to take our weight. Trotting further towards the settlement, we could see the boats, many of them tied together, with wooden planks forming a path on them. A few of the boats looked like they were still able to properly sail, held in place by two lines of rope tieing the boats to the makeshift pier.

Like with other half of the settlement, skulls decorated the pier. Many of them sat atop of crudely built wooden spikes, with smaller skulls dangling off the bigger ones like a mane made of bones. Not only that, but the sides of the pier even had spikes poking out of it and into the water. The parts of the pier without spikes had barbed wire along the side. We would have wondered why, but the prevalence of Mirelurks shells that decorated some of the boats was a sufficient answer for us. We had to assume that the raiders here commonly fought the aquatic monsters of this land.

Looking up at the large cargo ship that the pier led up to, it didn’t look beached. Though that was likely because the water out here was deep, just not quite deep enough for the ship. Along the side, metal loops were welded into the large ship, accommodating the many ropes that connected down to the pear, holding everything together. It looked like this way of construction continued along the larger boat, making a path to the back of the ship. Along the pear were many boats tethered along the side, not many of them looked seaworthy, but others looked well maintained.

“Hold on Star, we’re going to board the ship.”  We spoke as we readied our wings. The filly held on tightly, pulling at our saddle bag for extra grip. With a graceful wave of our wings, we slowly ascended off the ground, and began flying upward.

Flying along the side of the ship, we got a better view of what we were walking on. Other than the pear along the side of the ship, there was a large hole at the back that both the pear and water went into, making it likely the entrance to the ship. Flying higher, we found some shipping containers blocking our way, and the gap between them a bit too small for us to fly between, so we went over. Landing in the mid section of the beached ship, we found it looked much like the rest of bold harbor, but much cleaner and organized. Instead of the maze of containers in the part of the town below, the shipping containers on the boat were lined up neatly along the side of the ship, making a nice wide space between them. The same cloth covering that reached over the open sections of the harbor was also here too, but only as long strips connected by poles.  They were for some reason strung across in lines that ran from one side of the ship to the other.  An odd choice of decoration, but not the weirdest we’d seen in the wasteland.

Two other things that were different, were the shipping container homes. Each one here looked like they were made from four containers, stacked two by two and welded together. The other difference was that there was an even bigger home at the front of the ship than the one Winterberry made her throne in. Made from three shipping containers, it sported an entire second floor built out of scrap metal. It gave us the feeling that this was the ‘rich’ pony area, but considering that it was lived in by raiders, this was clearly Grease Fire’s home.

Looking around, we didn’t see anypony, which made us give a sigh of relief. Though we were under our invisibility spell, we still feared bumping into ponies and getting shot by them. Shaking off the thought, we decided our best bet was to check the big house, and hope that there were only a few of them to scare away. Surprising, as we walked, the skull decorations that were so prevalent before, were strangely absent from here.

“I understand your frustration, but there’s nothing we can do. Going out and antagonizing the savages will only make things worse.” The deep, smooth voice that met our ears, was that of a stallion. “We need to lay low until this passes. If we stretch our provisions even further, I’m sure we can last that long.”

“I doubt we can last a week, and that’s with using the dried meat these savages had here.” Another pony, also a stallion, spoke up. This one sounded older and rougher than the first. “We have water, but unless we can reconnect with the Enclave, all of us are going to starve.”

Curious, we stepped into the sprawling abode, having to duck a little so not to bang our head on the doorway. Inside, were the two pegasus stallions who we’d heard. One of them wore a clean, gray three piece suit, and the other wore some sort of military uniform. The pony in the suit was a bit chubby, and a dull orange in color, with a styled back gray mane. The military pony was a dark green, and had a slightly greying light green mane shortened to a buzzed cut style.

The chubby pony picked up a glass of brown liquid and sipped at it before speaking. “I just wish your scout would return with help soon. It was bad before, but well, my assistant hung himself last night.”

The military pony sighed. “He was the one that lost his wife, right? That makes twenty just last night, two suicides, three runaways, and the rest from the damn pox.” He picked up the bottle of whisky the two were sharing, and poured it into the suit pony’s glass. He then took a swig straight from the bottle itself before setting it back down. “So what were you doing before the evacuation?”

“Community organizer.” He took another sip from his glass. “Two months.  I was mayor for a measly two months, and then this happens. Does the world hate me, or all of us for that matter? What did we do to deserve this?”

The military pony tipped his bottle at the chubby pony. “I know I did a few things for the Enclave and all that might explain it.”

We at least knew we had found the leaders, but what they were saying had us concerned. “Excuse me.” We called out to them, still maintaining our invisibility.

The two stallions almost jumped out of their seats in surprise, and quickly looking around the room. “Who’s there?”  The chubby suited pony spoke up.

With a sigh, we revealed ourselves. And as expected, the two stallion’s eyes went wide. The military pony pulled out a boxy looking thing with a mouth bit, something we recognized as a beam gun. He fumbled with the gun, giving us the opportunity to take it from him with our magic.  He could do nothing but watch as we levitated it just above his head.

“We mean you no harm, so please stay calm.”  We tried to reinforce our intentions, but we feared from their initial reaction that it might not be so easy.

“No harm?” The military pony spoke with a growl. “Monsters like you only know how to harm.”

“Calm down now, captain.” The chubby pony had gotten up off his seat and taken a step toward us. He looked nervous, and even a little scared, but seem to manage to keep an air of calm about himself. “I… I’m Mayor Cloud Bouncer. And you are?”

“Our name is Prism Paint.” We replied promptly, happy to see this pony open to having a polite discussion.  “The small one on our back is Star Charter.”  We appreciated her not acting out so far and staying quiet.

Cloud Bouncer relaxed a little, and pointed back behind him at the military pony. “He’s Captain Air Burst. Would you like a some whisky?” Air Burst growled and grasped the bottle tightly in his forehoof. “Or not… I’m sorry, I’d be more hospitable, but… well, things are quite bad for us right now.”

With a sigh, we gave Air Burst back his gun. “That’s fine, this area seems to be in overall bad shape, and that’s why we’re here. Is there any way you could leave here? The ponies below are under threat by the raiders who originally owned this place. They want to use the ship as a safe haven and would like you to vacate it.”

Air Burst snorted. “You mean the slavers? Fuck that, I say let the raiders get them. It’s not in our interest to give into the demands of savages.”

“That aside,” Cloud Bouncer interjected. “even if we wanted too, we can’t leave.”

We raised an eyebrow at the mayor. “How can you not? You have wings, why not fly away from here?”

He shook his head. “We have over a hundred sick ponies just below deck who are too weak to fly. A severe case of pony pox I’m afraid. It flared up a few days before the cloud layer vanished right out from under us. If it weren’t for Air Burst and his crew, many of them would have fallen.  Even if they’d managed to land, they’d have been lying out in the open, easy prey for whatever’s out here on the ground.”

It felt like our stomach was suddenly heavy, like we had eaten metal scraps and was now being weighted down by it. “But why here, you do know this is a raiders settlement?”  We inquired.  Surely they must have known by the look of it.

Air Burst laughed. “This was the first place we cleared out as part of Operation Cauterize. Though, I had already planned to do so long before the orders came down from on high to attack the ground. Luckily, most of the raiders were away at the time, so all we had to do was clear out the guards and lock ourselves in. And when everything fell apart, we knew that this place was safe enough to harbor the civilians until they recover.” The grizzled military pony took a swig from his bottle. “We still lost a lot of ponies just getting them here, and many of my soldiers contracted the pox during the civilian exodus. So much for the fucking quarantine. I say we send out a few who won’t make it anyway, maybe spread the pox to the savages below. But then again, savages like them might actually like that.”

Cloud Bouncer nodded. “As you can see, we can’t go anywhere, even if we wanted to. Potentially spreading the pony pox to other communities is a real possibility, and as the elective representative, I must stay here with my people.”

We took a deep breath, and a long sigh. “We see.” We wracked our brain over the situation, and only came to the conclusion that this was among the worst possible outcomes. The enclave here was unlikely to move so long as any of their own were forcibly stuck here by illness, or at least these ponies were unlikely to leave their kin. “We might as well ask, as the other two groups have already offered, but we only stopped by here for supplies. We only need food and water for the foal, enough to get us to a more peaceful and safe settlement. We are offering our services for such supplies, if not, we will… we… we don’t know what what we will do.”

Captain Air Burst scowled, but was cut off by mayor Cloud Bouncer before he could say anything. “There is perhaps one thing you could do for us. We were given rations, enough for the whole town before it fell from the sky. My assistant, rest his soul, had the supply’s properly stored in some containers when the quarantine happened. I know the area where they’ve most likely fallen. If you can Locate the position of the crates, and bring one back with you, we would be in your debt. One crate should be enough to help keep the sick alive long enough for the pox to pass. There will be enough food in that crate for us to spare with you, and once enough of us have recovered, receiving the rest of the crates should be a simple task”

We nodded, content with this idea. The lack of killing the other factions sat right with us, it felt more civilized than what the other two groups have planned on doing. But still we had a bad feeling about this for some reason.

“There is another thing you can do.” Captain Air Burst spoke up, and that bad feeling came back in full force. “You can turn invisible, right?” He got up, and trotted over to a wooden box nearby, the yellow box had written on it “My Explosive stash, hooves off.” along with the image of a pony skull with it’s eyes crossed out on it. Opening the box Air Burst pulled out a can that had a few cables poking out of it, and a button on top. He then pulled out another item, what we recognized as a frag mine, it having the same kind of button on top. Another item was pulled out, this time it was a stable teac lunch box, with wires and a button on the side. The messages came across loud and clear, he had a box full of mines, and wanted me to use them. “Now, my soldiers and I are good at what we do, and if it were not for the pony pox, we would have had cleared out all this riffraff long ago. Sadly, we don’t have the pony power to commit to an assault, but you, you can be much more useful.” He tossed us the frag mine, and we caught it with our magic. “You're able to turn invisible, which is how I’ll assume you got passed my spotters and snipers. Well, we have a small stockpile of these mines at our disposal. A gift from the savages. If you were to deliver them to the savages, both the ones inside the outer walls, and the ones outside, we might be able to spare more than just some food and water. At the very least, if you can mine the bridge you’d do a great deal in keeping them out, and I’ll be more agreeable to part with any of our much needed supplies. That is, as long as you leave as soon as your restocked, and agree to never come back.”

We had to say, we liked Cloud Bouncer’s proposal far better than all the other ponies we had talked too. Unlike the others outside the boat and Air Burst, Cloud was more concerned about those in here than he was with killing each of the other factions. Nodding back at the military pony, we smiled. “Your offer is nice, but we like Cloud’s offer better.”  We turned to the portly stallion as we spoke. “We will help get you your supplies,” We paused and glanced at Air Burst, “and maybe we shall help you with the raiders. But we see no reason to hurt the Reka survivors.”

“Thank you.” Cloud Bouncer bowed. “Salvage what you can, and we will let you keep what you need.” Air Burst scould as us, but the mayor just rolled his eyes at him. “Just so we know, how much supplies do you need?”

We smiled. “None for us, as we can survive on magic alone. But the foal… she will require more than the normal amount of food.”

The two pegasi looked at each other, and then back at me with a confused look across their muzzles. “What foal?” Cloud Bouncer asked.

We looked to see nothing on our back other than the straps of our barding and saddlebag. “Damnit Star, we told you not to run off.” We muttered before turned back to the two pegasi, feeling annoyed now. “We can talk later, but we need to find a filly who is in desperate need of a smacked bottom.”

Trotting out of the makeshift house, Cloud Bouncer joined us outside. “This filly, is she your… foal?  Is she like you.”

We shook our head. “No, we cannot produce offspring. We found her in a dangerous situation, and took her away from a bad place. We’d hoped to give her a better life, to be raised among good ponies.”

Cloud sighed. “A noble goal, though I can’t agree with taking a foal away from their home and parents. It does not always end well. What kind of home was it?”

“Sea raiders.” We spoke in a dull tone. “They live out there on the water, in a settlement of two large ships welded together to make a floating raider city.”

The stallion paused for a moment, and then quickly caught up to us. “That’s fascinating. Horrifying, but fascinating none the less.”

We looked at Cloud Bouncer, and shook our head. “No, there was nothing fascinating about it. It was a nightmarish place that smelled of blood and bile, and the ponies there looked to have lost any sense of decency.”

“Mayor Cloud Bouncer?” A skinny pegasus mare came trotting over, only to stop dead in her tracks when she saw us, her eyes predictably wide open and focused on our face. Her creamy yellow coat contrasted with the bright red mane on her that was tied into two braided tails.

“Miss Feather Flight, what’s the matter?” Cloud looked over at us, and then back at the mare. “Right, don’t worry. She is just a wanderer and means us no harm.”

Her gaze bounced between us before she calmed down. “If you say so, mayor. Well, we discovered another foal wandering around. I had her placed with the others, but, well she seemed different from the others.”

“Go on.” Cloud said calmly.

“Well, first off she was an earth pony, not a unicorn.” The mare spoke nervously. “And she also talked with a strange accent. Claimed she had a friend that would come and get her, one that can turn invisible.”

Cloud Bouncer looked at us, and we face hoofed. “That would be her.” We answered. “Could we go and see her? We need to have a serious talk with that filly.”

There was a pause, mostly because Feather Flight just stared at us, looking worried that we might do something. It was Cloud that broke the silence, laughing out loud. “Well that solves that issue! Why don’t we go see the little filly?”

We followed Feather Flight down below deck, and we were immediately hit with a musty smell. It was a combination of rot, bile, mold, and if rust had a smell, it was mixed in there too. We also started to see the many pegasi that Cloud Bouncer had been talking about. As we trotted through the hallway, each side room had a few ponies covered from head to hoof in discolored spots as they lay on dirty blankets. There were a few ponies standing about, their faces covered in cloth while they helped the sick simply eat and drink. Each room had ponies of different states of the illness, some who were sitting up and able to drink water themselves, others who look like they could do nothing more than moan on the floor.

We turned a corner, and the sound of the sick faded, and the rooms now had a few ponies who looked worn out, and dirty. They were mostly just sitting around, some sleeping on the floor, and a few drinking what we could guess was alcohol. Some of them saw us, and either their mouth drooped open, or they simply looked away, not acknowledging us.

“Here we are.” Feather Flight said as she pointed at a rusty door. “This is where we put the filly in with the others.”

“The others?” we asked, feeling concerned about the usage of that last word.

The door opened “You cut, bitch, pickle sitter! I’ll rip your throat out for that!” It was the voice of a colt, somewhat squeaky, and a bit strained.

“Ha! Like a scurvy ridden fish fucker could ever get me!” That was Star, no doubt about it. Stepping into what was a large room, we found it to be full of unicorn foals. Most of them where in the back, but a few were up closer to the door. However, most of them were on the ground bleeding. Star was in the middle of staring down a colt not much bigger than herself, his nose trickling a line of blood down it. 

“Though, I can’t blame you,” She continued, “you're all so ugly. No wonder you want a piece of me!” Star turned around and waved her flank at the colt. Though she only looked like she was taunting the colt, we could see that she was getting ready to buck as soon as the colt made a move. Even though she was small, we had no doubt she could still do great harm to the colt if she kicked him like that.

The Colt predictably charged, and before Star could greet him with her back hooves, we hoisted her out of the way and into the air by her tail. “Did we not tell you not to go wandering off! And what was the next thing that you go and do?”

Star froze for a moment, and smiled. “Go, beat him up!” She pointed her hoof at the colt, who was now standing in shock along with the rest of the foals in the room.

A sudden squeal burst from one of the foals in the back, and many of them seemed to panic. We felt a hoof hit our leg, nothing all that strong, but hit to our shin was enough for us to lose focus and drop Star. She fell on top of the colt, who had been trying to attack us, his eyes looking at us with rage.

“Give them back! Give me back my papa and my mama, give them back!” His hooves returned to attacking us, though too weak to really hurt all that much.

It was not of the raiders outside of the ship he spoke of, it was onto us which he directed his hatred.  We… we knew then what he meant.  Maybe it was because something was familiar about him, maybe from a long faded memory. Even if we once knew the colt, we would not be sure that the memory we felt was our own, or from unity. With a sigh, we used our magic to put Star back on her hooves, and pushed the colt back a little. 

“Sorry, but if you are fortunate, then they made it to unity, and will come back for you, in time.” The colt spat at me, but we ignore it, albeit with a heavy heart before we returned our attention to Star. “And you, what has gotten into you? You can’t just keep rushing off like this, Star.  You’re just a foal, and you’re going to get yourself killed.”

She smiled back at me. “But you will always come to save me, right?”

We felt... we felt like we were being used by her, like we’d become the only safety net for a half mad filly. Anger, disgust, and fear. If she keeps on doing this, it’s not a maybe, she will indeed get herself killed. Shaking our head, we felt that something had to be done. A message must be sent.

“No, we can try, but one day we will fail.” We stomped out hoof down. “We can’t be around all the time. You must learn on your own to stay out of danger.” Lifting her up in our magic, the smile on her face faded quickly. “So you’re going to stay here. You’re going to play nice with the others, and if we find out that you're still causing trouble, you will stay here until you learn to stop.”

“You… you can’t mean that!” Star almost squealed as she struggled in our magical hold. “I want to go with you!”

Once more, we shook our head. “No, not this time.” Pushing her away we placed her in the middle of the room, and slowly walked backwards. The other two pegasi who’d come in quickly followed at our sides, as did Star. But we blocked her and kept her back with a telekinetic hold as Feather Flight closed the door and sealed her inside with the others. We could hear her pound on the metal, making little thuds that quickly died down.

Feather Flight looked at us, now more concerned than in fear. “Are you sure about this, miss…?”

“Prism Paint. and no, no I’m not.” Looking up, our horn scraped across the ceiling, making us cringe. “We’re unsure about everything, even about ourselves. But if you can, can you please keep an eye on her? She’s a good girl, we have seen it. She just needs to be shown a better life she can live.” We took a deep breath, and slowly exhaled. “Also, if things are starting to look violent in there, then please pull her out and put her on her own somewhere.”

Feather nodded. “For her safety, I’ll keep an eye on her.”

We shook our head. “No, it’s for the safety of the others that she would need to be removed.” Turning our attention to Cloud Bouncer, we let out a sigh. “So, if you would tell us the location to where your supplies fell, we are sure that we can locate it without drawing attention to ourselves and it.”


______________________________________

Footnote:

New Faction:
Enclave Remnants - What was once the most powerful faction in Equestria, is now a scattered group of unprepared survivors. They still stick to the ideals of democracy and the rule of law, even when those ideas had been built on a lie in the now defunct Enclave government. Because they have become scattered and desperate, they’ve become even more fiercely loyal to each other, and highly suspicious of any outsiders.
> Chapter 5 - Uncertain Future part 1
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------






It was high noon now, the sun seemingly glaring down on us, and not a cloud in the sky to shade us. Our destination took us to the other side of the ruins, passing by the dead town of Reka, and over a section of a mostly dead forest. Our wings were aching from the flying, but still we felt much better than we had in a long time.

The land was eerily quiet, like it was over the water, but here we expected something. The wasteland was not known to be a lively place, though it still had its share of noise makers that let you know something was out there. The howl of hounds, crickets at times, even the cawing of crows. But here, it felt like the land was hushed.

Our destination came into sight, the enclave supply crates of food having had fallen into the ruins of some kind of store, though any evidence of what it was once was call had long vanished. Landing on what little remained of the roof, it looking like a fair amount had been this way for a long time, and some of the damage was fresh. The supply crate was not hard to find, it being almost right in the center of the decaying building.

Gliding down, we felt a warm chill up our spine, and energy flowed through us. Not a lot, but enough to know this area was irradiated enough to kill a normal pony slowly, a week at best. Trotting over to one of the supply crates, it didn’t look all that different from the cargo containers back at Bold Harbor, just smoother, and possibly a lot lighter. On its side was the Logo for the enclave, a big “E” surrounded by two wings and stars, the same symbol we had seen on the military pony’s jackets. So we knew we had found the right case, but now the big problem, getting it back to Bold Harbor.

Cloud Bouncer had suggested we find a sky chariot to deliver the supplies, telling us that a few of them would have fallen around the area. Sadly, the Pegasus mayor could not point out where to look, only that one or two should be relatively nearby. But before we go off looking for chariots, first we needed to move the large crate out of the ruined store.

Reaching out with our magic, we nudged the large crate, but it proved to be considerably heavier than expected. We were never the best with our magic, our invisibility spell being a gift from mother, so it came naturally to us. But fortune did smile on us, and with this store irradiated in the way it was, it provided a small, but noticeable boost to our magical strength. Though we could not properly lift the large crate up, we were able to lighten and tilt it enough that we could drag it along the rubble.

It screeched loudly as the metal crate dug into the concrete floor, the noise making the fur along our spin quiver. But we managed to move the crate over and out of the entrance in little time at all, as the doors and front wall of the store had fallen over long ago. This gave us little to no obstacles in dragging the crate all the way outside. Stopping just past where the front door would have been, we felt like this was good enough. We just needed to find a working sky chariot and attach the crate to it.

The feeling of something on our flank suddenly pressed into us, causing us to freeze in place. A gravelly voice spoke up from behind.

“Such a smooth coat, I could just nibble on it.” The presser on or flank then moved down out leg. Regaining some movement, we looked back to see a ghoul. Much of his face was missing, leaving what was mostly just a skull with some muscles, two eyes, and a tongue that drooped out of it’s jaw a little. “Oh my, and what a cute face you have.”

We took a step away from the ghoul before turning around to properly face him. “Uh… Sir, that was highly inappropriate. We request that you apologize right this moment!” we stomped on the ground to punctuate our point.

The ghoul laughed wheezily, his face unable to show any emotion. “Not going to apologize to a thief. Now put my crate back.” He pointed to the supply crate. “Unless you have the caps to pay for it?”

We were taken aback by the disgusting looking ghoul. “We think not. This is the property of the enclave, and we have been asked to recover it. You cannot simply clame ownership of another’s property.”

The ghoul tilted his head. “When another’s property brakes my own property, then yes, yes I can.” He looked more like a chattering skull as he talked, making this conversation unnerving. “So, Smooth flank, cough up the caps. Or am I going to have to sell you myself?”

“What!?”  We gasped. Though the ghoul’s eyes were a milky white, we could see the hint of madness in them. In Unity we spent very little time around ghouls, but we did have the memories of the others who had joined. Memories of thoughts who had dealt with many ghouls over the years. Though vague, we remember some of the signs of a ghoul going feral. Among them, were wild eyes and needless aggression. This ghoul seemed half feral, and probably would lose all his sanity if he ever sees his own face. “We would ask you to rethink what you're suggesting, you are out of your league here, or should we get you a mirror”

The ghoul laughed again. “If that’s how it’s going to be.” From his ragged clothes, He pulled out a little black box with a big red button, and an antenna on it. Holding it with one hoof, he pressed down on it with the other, somehow we could imagine him with a big grin on his face. From further in the shop, the sound of heavy thumps could be heard. “Well, then I’ll have to show you what happens to thieves.”

Tapping could be heard from the back of the shop, slowly getting louder and closer. Emerging from the shadows were three hairless dogs, along with five feral ghouls. All of them were is fairly poor shape, and all wore thick metal collars around their necks. The first to charge at us were the dogs, but the rubble on the ground slowed them down long enough for us to collect ourselves from the surprise. Pulling out Star’s rust gun, we aimed it at the closest of the dogs.

*Tat* *Tat* *Tat* *Tat* *Click*

Only one bullet connected, hitting the dog in the front right leg, blasting it off. It sent the dog rolling on the ground screaming in pain as blood was being thrown everywhere by it. The next two dogs came jumping in at us, but with a flap of our wings, we were able to jump out of the way. Airborne, we were safely out of reach of the feral monsters. With a sigh, we had to put away the gun, with the last of the ammunition spent, picking them off from the air was not a possibility, but if we were to get the supply crate out of here, we would need to clear the area of the ghouls first.

WIthout warning, something wrapped around one of our wings and forced us to the ground. Looking at what had done this was a rope with a rock tied to either end. The crude weapon was now too tightly wrapped around our wing to quickly get it off, and the two dogs were right on us, giving us little time to ponder how to act. Pulling out the Blackwater Cutlass, we swung it as hard as we could. The blade cut cleanly through one of the dog’s head, spilling brain and blood when it fell to the floor. The other dog latched onto our back leg, it’s jaw like a vice grip. 

The pain was intense as the dog jerked back and forth, grinding into us. Mustering as much willpower as we could, we plunged the sword into the hound, ending its life, but not the pain in our now bloodied leg. It was like the dog had set out leg on fire with its teeth, having shredded it enough that lines of blood pulsed down onto the dirt under us. But that was the least of our concern, as the five feral ghouls clambered over the rubble towards us. Their blank stares zeroed in on us, their murky unfocused eyes filled with mindless rage. We tried to turn invisible, but the pain in our leg made it hard to concentrate, and the spell flickered and failed at each attempt.

We could hear the deranged ghoul merchant laugh as the feral ghoul closed in on us, making us wish we had just killed him right after he touched our flank. Trying to not put pressure on our hurt leg, we instead readied ourselves for the first ghoul. The memory’s we had of fighting were not our own, and faded at best, but we were able to remember a bit about controlling group attacks.

As the first ghoul came at us, we used the cutlass to push the ghoul away, sending the jumping ghoul flying behind us and into the supply crate with a thud. The next two ghouls were right on us, so we pushed them as well, but with more force as we stepped to the side. The two ghouls tumbled over each other and onto the floor with a hissing snarl from each. We turned our attention to the final two, and this time we went on the attack.

With a thrust, the Blackwater cutlass plunged deeply into the ferals skull. Only a second later we realized the mistake we had just made in overextending ourselves, as the fifth ghoul jumped at us, and bit into our neck. Panicked, we extended our magic over the cutlass to also grab the whole ghoul we had just killed, and smashed it into the ghoul that was at our throat. We then proceeded to repeatedly smash the dead ghoul into the undead ghoul until we broke its grasp on us, and its face. 

Looking back, the other three ghouls had now gotten back up, but we now didn’t feel like being careful, and used our magic to throw the deceased bitey feral at them. The force of the dead ghoul knocked them over, and managed to rip off a leg of the ghoul we were swinging. Swinging the dead ghoul we’d originally killed up and back, it dislodged from the sword, and fell behind us. With a downwards swing, the sharpened steel blade cut open one of the other ghoul’s skull. Finally, before they could recover, we cut down the other two who’d been pinned under the one we’d thrown, using the cutlass to crack their skulls as well.

The only one left was the skull face ghoul merchant. Who was now running off to the back to the store with tail between his legs. We contemplated with letting him go, but as he was going feral, would not be a smart choice to make.  So we settled with putting him out of his misery, so that he may know peace, and so that he could not hurt anypony else in his madness.

Untangling our wing, we were startled by a scream. Taking the pressure off of our leg, we quickly took flight, and hovered above the ground before investigating. In the dark back end of the store, we found the ghoul merchant sprawled on the ground, with another ghoul standing over him. 

The new ghoul held a wrench in his mouth, and bits of rotten blood and bone stuck to the rusty old tool. The ghoul was an earth pony stallion, with a light gray coat, and dull green mane. Behind the ghoul stallion was a earth pony ghoul mare, her coat a silver light pink, and deep redish brown mane. On the mare's back was a non-ghoul Pegasus mare, who was slumped, and not moving. The Pegasus was a light blue, with a silver mane, and wearing a torn up yellow dress.

The stallion looked up as us, and spat the wrench out. “Who the fuck are you?” His voice was not as gravely as the half-feral skull ghoul dead and twitching on the floor below him.

“Don’t be rude, Axle Wrench! ” The mare spoke up, her voice also showing only a small bit of strain to it. “She must be the one who freed us.”

The stallion sighed. “Fine, but we can’t stay to chit chat. If we don’t get this Pegasus to Reka soon, she’s going to die of radiation poisoning. Or worse, become like us.”

“If you’re talking about the Municipality of Reka, I’m sorry to tell you, but the town's dead. The Skull Hunters cleared it out.”

The stallion froze for a moment before he spat on the ground. “You better not be lying to us. My wife’s heart barely made it through this whole ordeal. I can’t have you scaring her to death over a joke.”

We shook our head. “No joke. We passed through the town just yesterday, and no pony alive could be found, only the dead bodies of some who lived there. But we do know where the survivors are, having taken shelter in Bold Harbor.” The mare gasped at the mention of the raider camp. “Oh no, they’re safely locked inside. The raiders there got locked out when the enclave came down, so now the survivors are stuck inside the settlement.”

“Let me guess, by stuck, you mean the Skull hunters are outside Bold Harbor.” We nodded at Axle Wrench. “We that does us no good, the skull hunters would kill us as soon as they see us.”

“And without treatment soon, this mare is going to die.” The ghoul mare said with a despairing tone to her scratchy voice.

We looked at the two ghouls, and smiled. “We are returning to Bold Harbor with supplies for the enclave, we just need to find a working sky chariot, and then we will be on our way. You are welcome to join us.”

“Really?” The mare trotted up to us, and though she was a ghoul, she remarkably still looked mostly intact. “Thank you so much. My names Crescent Wrench, and mister grumpy over there is my husband, Axle Wrench. The pony on my back, well, I don’t know her name, but we are sure as tartarus going to make sure she lives to tell us her name.”

The four of us left the store far enough to where we could no longer feel the radiation.  That happened to be in a nearby building that would be safe enough to put the pegasus down for the moment. With the winged pony now off Crescent’s back, we now saw that the ghoul mare was... well at least looked to be pregnant.

“Excuse us, Crescent, but are you, well…” A lump formed in our throat, and we could not find the will to finish the question.

The ghoul mare looked up at us, her eyes filled with doubt and worry. “You’re going to ask if I’m pregnant, are you?” We could only nod. “Yes I was, or I am. We don’t know. I only found out about it before we got captured by that damn Reka ghoul. Was going to surprise Axle with it, but in the end he figured it out on his own after a few months. Now he’s got it in his mind that our foal is still alive, even after we turned.” She shook her head. “But that’s not possible to what I know.  At least, I’ve never heard of such a thing before.”

We wrapped the mare in our wing. “I… we understand; we know the feeling of that loss all too well.”

We only stuck around for a few more minutes before leaving, knowing that the sooner we find a working sky chariot, the better chance the Pegasus had to live. Our neck and leg still hurt, but the former ambient radiation insured that the bleeding had long stopped, and the pain was dull enough to stand on it now. That was the advantage of fighting in an irritated area, we heal almost as fast as we can fight.



______________________________________



Footnote:

Level up:  Lv2

New perk:
Designated Hitter – As a foal, catching and throwing balls was not your thing, but hitting them with a big stick? You can do that like it’s second nature to you! + 5% damage with melee weapons, and +5% to critical his chance with melee weapons.
> Chapter 6 - Uncertain Future part 2
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------






Locating a sky chariot turned out to be the easy, finding one that had not broken in the fall was the hard part. We’d found two sky chariots, both next to each other, and both unusable. A third was found shortly after, but most of it had been burned to ash, along with the charred, dead Pegasus still attached to it. But the concentration of fallen sky carts in this area did fill us with hope.

It was not just sky chariots that had fallen here, but junk of all sorts. Plenty of bent pots and pans, having taken the fall from the sky poorly. Also chairs, tables, couches, and picture frames, all of which had shattered to bits. Strangest yet were the lumps of cloud that still hung off the buildings, and rolled along the ground. It was clear as day that we had entered were the cloud town had fallen, and it felt wrong, like we had walked into the carcuse of some dead beast.

Trotting along the road at a brisk speed, we found another sky chariot, also damaged beyond use. It had hit a wall, splitting it into two. Still we held out hope, and continued trotting along the wall. Turning the corner, we saw something we didn’t expect. Two Pegasus foals were meandering around and chatting among themselves. Casting our invisibility spell, we crept up on them as to not scare them away.

The two looked like they were a few years older than Star was, so teenagers, and both had the same colors, but in reverse. Both were filly’s, one of which had a caramel coat and strawberry mane, while the other had a strawberry coat and a caramel colored mane.

“Are you sure we can do this, what if the monster gets us?” the filly with the strawberry mane spoke.

“We have too; we can’t let them keep aunty Lemon Drop and Spearmint!” replied the Caramel maned filly.

We got a little closer to the two teenaged mares, and both of them looked like they had been crawling in the muck, and rolling around in the dirt. It made me want to give them a bath and scrub them down until they were clean. The caramel maned filly also held a laser pistol in her hooves, similar to the one Air Burst had on him, but more fittingly worn for it’s time in the wasteland. We took a deep breath and prepared to reveal ourself, but before we could speak, a shell of green surrounded the two fillies. They panicked, and the one holding the laser pistol fired it, the beam of pink energy bounced off the magical shield and around inside, nearly hitting them before dissipating with a fizzle.

‘So brave you two are’ the familiar feeling of Unity bounced into our head. But the sound of the voice was off, too weak to be mother, and lacking any kind of love that we came to know. ‘Foolish too, but it does save us the trouble of hunting you down.’ We could feel a deep malice in the voice, a cruel mockery of mother seeping into our head.

Two Alicorns appeared from the other side of the broken wall, a purple and a green, who have been hidden by the ruins of one of the old world buildings. Quietly trotting around the captured fillies, we could see another alicorn in a trance, another green who was casting the spell that trapped the fillies. The purple alicorn wore makeshift armor, it looking like it was welded together with scrap metal and road signs. She also had a weapon that looked like a spear made from rod iron coiled together and sharpened at the point. 

‘Take the two to the cells before our sister loses focus.’ The purple’s voice resonated in our mind.

The Green concentrated her magic on the bubble they were in, and began to push it along. ‘Stay quiet, or we will get… rough with you.’ The green commanded to the captive fillies.

It was clear that they didn’t know we were here, so we trotted along, making sure we didn’t also reach out with our mind, so not to alert them to our presence. The two fillies looking ready to cry, one not even attempting to trot, simply being dragged along within the bubble. The other, who still had the energy gun on her, looked around intently, clearly determined to do something about their situation when she had the chance.

Dragged further passed the walls, and inside the compound, the fillies helplessly held onto each other. They were taken into a building that looked ready to fall over, it’s doors having long fallen off. Inside it had wide halls that had lockers covering them, and decorations long drained of color. Every so often we would pass a room that had desks packed in it, all facing chalkboards that hung on the old walls. Our mind drifted to what this place might have been, it being similar to a military bunker we had heard of, but yet many of the things here seem to be a bit too small for a full grown pony. We poked our head into one room to see a mostly burnt out mural, enough of it had survived for us to see the image of foals playing. The surviving image on the mural was that a of a unicorn colt playing with a earth pony filly. We don’t know why, but our heart hurt, just looking at the image made me hurt. We wrenched ourselves away from the mural, and returned to the were the two fillies were being dragged.

The green alicorn finally came to a stop at the room at the far end of the hallway, this one full of cages. The small pile of dead raiders in the corner told us all we needed to know about who used to own this place. Dropping the magical shield, the green alicorn quickly wrenched the energy gun from the filly, and motioned for them to trot into the open cage. We carefully moved to the room, lightly stepping around the scattered junk on the floor in here so not to alert the other alicorns.

With a loud slam, the green closed and locked the cage, placing the keys on a nearby hook. The strawberry maned filly started to cry, but became startled when the green alicorn kicked the cage.

‘Shut it! The is why we hate brats, always crying.’ Stomping loudly, the green alicorn left the room, slamming the door behind her.

The Caramel mane filly patted her sister on the back, and pointed over at another cage. “Look, it’s Spearmint! He’s okay.”

We looked over at another cage, it holding a small green pegasus colt with a light green mane. He looked very young, and was curled up in a tight ball. There were a few other cages with ponies in them, most pegasi, but one of them held a Zebra Mare who seemed to be looking right at us.

Taking the keys from the wall, we unlocked the fillies cage first, the two young mares looking confused, and weary. “Who are you?” Caramel filly asked.

We finally realized how odd this must seem to them. “Oh Sorry.” Dissipating our invisibility spell, we revealed ourselves. “We are Prism Paint; we mean no harm.” The strawberry filly took a sudden and deep breath, but before she did anything rash, her sister stuck her hoof in strawberry’s mouth. We held the keys up, dangling them in place. “We will help you all go free, we know a safe place you can go.”

One by one we opened the cages, six in all counting the one the two fillies were in. Three of the captives, all adult pegasi, quickly fled, leaving us with the three foals and the zebra. The two older fillies quickly comforted the young colt before the three of them began quietly crying. The zebra on the other hoof just stared at us, looking serious. We had never met a zebra before, our memories from unity too faded to pull any useful information about their kind.

After a short moment, the zebra spoke. “This safe place, it is not the Municipality of Reka is it?”

We shook our head. “That town was destroyed a few days ago, but Bold Harbor has become a safe...  safe-ish place.”

There was another short pause before the zebra spoke again. “I assume that the skull hunters were cast out of their home then.” We nodded. “I don’t know how to feel about this, but then we don’t have time to dally. We must leave this place at once.”

We were glad that the Zebra understood the situation, it was hard to understand much of the faded memories that were not our own, but a lot of it felt like we didn’t like Zebras. “Right, we can take you to a safe place before heading to Bold Harbor. Two friendly ghouls are there waiting for us, and once we find a working sky chariot, we can leave here.”

“NO!” Caramel maned filly spoke up a bit too loudly. “We have to find Lemon Drops first.”

We were taken aback by the sudden outburst. “Lemon Drops?”

“She means the Colt’s Mother.” The Zebra clarified. “She was taken by the alicorns last night, and like the others, has not returned.”

The caramel maned filly trotted up to us. “If you really want to help, please help me find aunty Lemon Drop. She might be the most boring pony ever, but she’s always nice to us, and… and...” Tears started forming in her eyes. We were at a loss for words, unable to think of what to do.

“Wait!” The zebra spoke up. “We do remember something that might interest you. When the alicorns first arrived, my contacts told me that they had a large sky chariot with them. If you need a sky chariot, you could take theirs as you look for Lemon Drop.”

Finally, we were given a break. “Yes, we can do that. The other alicorns don’t know we are here; we can look around without them knowing about us.” Looking back down at the caramel maned filly, we patted her on the head, “We will look for your aunty, and help her if we can.”

With that, we gave directions to the zebra on where to find the two ghouls, and she took the three foals with her, quietly leaving through a window that had long lost the glass. Trotting out of the room, we didn’t know how long we had until the alicorns find out about their missing prisoners, so we decided it was worth the risk of moving quickly.

The next building was unoccupied, having long ago caved in on itself, so we decided to check the building past it, this one being much larger than the others. The closer we came to it, the more a putrid smell was in the air, and though we could not put our hooves on it, it was a familiar scent. Scouting around, we were overjoyed to see what we were looking for, an intact sky chariot. This one was larger than the broken one we had found before, and far more rusted too. It looked more like a wagon then a sky chariot, I just needed the white covering on top, and it would fit right in with a merchant caravan. Inside the sky chariot were a few old barrels, each one with the symbol of toxic on them, and we instantly knew what this was. Taint. Though it was not labeled as taint, rather it had been named ‘Flux’, it clearly was taint. We vaguely remember something about this, bits and pieces at best, something about mother needing to have her stock of taint replenished every few years.

‘Sisters, in these dark times, we must remember what made us strong.’ The voice bounced into our head, it feeling the same as that of the purple alicorn. Having had found the sky chariot, we now needed to locate Lemon Drop. ‘It was the goddess that gave us our strength, gave us Unity, and gave us a greater purpose. But now Mother is gone.’

Our heart sunk, we felt the same, having lost our purpose when mother died. Maybe we could talk with our sisters, help them, and maybe have them help Bold Harbor. All the ponies who joined Unity were like us, finding a new purpose in life through mother, so we had to try.

‘Fear not, for all hope is not yet lost, we can still continue the goddesses mission. Bring order to the wasteland, make it greater, make it into the goddess’s image!’ Poking our head inside… we were glad that we didn’t eat, glad because we finally remembered what that smell was. The smell of ponies melting in taint, though here it was much worse than it was with mother. Mother had control of it, so the amount of damage to a pony was minimal, but still the smell had built up over two hundred years. Here, a sick brown covered the floor, and soggy bones were thrown into a pile almost as tall as us.  The purple alicorn stood on a podium, talking to the two others. ‘We can start again, we have the materials needed, and in time, we will have new sisters to join us, we only need to be patient. Even now, our other sisters are looking for a new home, a place where we can grow our numbers in safety.’

One of the two greens raised her hoof. ‘But without the goddess, we cannot make more of us. We have already tried so many times, all failures.’

The purple nodded. ‘True, we have yet to find success, but with every test, we have gotten closer.’ She pointed down at a cage along the wall. Inside was what looked like a ghoul mare, but she had both wings and a horn. In the cages next to her were others, though we could not call them ponies. Mostly a mass of flesh and tentacles, one reached for the mare, but could only tap at her cage, the mare staying in the corner. ‘After her exposure she did not melt, she did not become a horror, but she did grow a horn and wings. We are one step closer to making more sisters.’

‘We only had her breathe in the taint.’ One of the greens commented. ‘the others, they were dunked, fed, or injected with taint.’ The green nodded. ‘I can see it, yes, your right.’

The purple alicorn stomped her hoof on the ground, making a loud thud. ‘I am always right!’

Their attention returned to each other, as the purple went on about how they are the future. Seeing what they had done, we were no longer interested in having anything to do with them. Their murdering sickened us. We only needed to find Lemon Drop and get out of here, so we trotted up to the one pony that might know where they keep the other ponies.

“Excuse us” we whispered to the ghoul in the cage. “can we ask you a question?”

The ghoul looked around, confused at first. “Get me out of here, and I’ll sing like a bird.” She whispered back, then looked at her molten wings, and back at where she thought we were. “Just don’t ask me to fly like one, I don’t think I can even use them, even if I did know how to fly.”

We still had the key from before, so it was worth a shot. *Click* The cage door unlocked crisply. The ghoul got low to the ground, and began crawling towards us, each step silent, but her wings dragged along the floor. We casted our invisibility spell on her, and made our way out of the very large room. “This way” we nudged at the mare, leading her to the sky chariot.

Safely around the corner, we disengaged the invisibility spell, and the ghoul mare took a step back. “Well fuck me like a Hurricane, another one of you.”

We nodded. “Yes, but we don’t know who they are. Without Unity, were are not… Unified.”

The mare sighed. “I think I heard something about that. Well then what is it, what do you need to know?”

We took a deep breath “Where are they keeping the other prisoners, we had already freed one group, so we just need to know where the others are.”

“Dead.” The mare said calmly. “Saw it myself, the alicorns have only one batch of prisoners, the ones taken away are given flux, and then they die.” She then shivered “Or become an abomination.”

We sighed. “We feared as much.” Looking over at the sky chariot, we reached out with our magic, and pulled one of the barrels off, placing it on the ground softly. “Then if you wish, we can take you to safety, we just need to empty this out first.”

The ghoul mare nodded. And jumped onto the sky chariot, making sure not to make too much noise. In the sunlight, we saw that the mares dirty outfit had a shine of blue. Around her left hoof was some kind of large shackle, and though it had no way to hook onto anything, it did have buttons and a glass screen much like the terminals from the great war.

‘FIND HER!’ the voice of the purple alicorn reverberated in our head. Casting the invisibility spell on the two of us, we looked around the corner. We saw the two green alicorns burst out of the building and take to the sky. Soon after, the purple alicorn stomped out, her face scrunched up in a rage fueled glare ‘You think you can run, you think you can hide. When I find you, I will throw you in the same cage as a horror and see what happens.’ She spared out her wings, and took flight, each flap with more force than necessary.

Once she had gotten far away, the ghoul started to snicker to herself. “Well I say that was almost worth it. Almost. But if we do see Razor Storm again, let’s put a bullet in the cunts head.”

We took a step back, “Razor Storm?”

The Ghoul shrugged. “She probably renamed herself that, I bet her real name is something unthreatening, like pancake batter, or sweet syrup. Though she acts a lot like a raider, so it’s probably something like fat cunt.” We gave the mare a concerned look, and she snickered to herself again. “Sorry, forgot my manners. The names Micro Fusion.” She raised her hoof up for a shake.

We replied as we shook hooves. “We are Prism Paint.”

“You know, even though it’d be nice having a hot body like you mares, I rather not lose my stallion bits.” We were taken aback at first, but remembered that all us alicorns were female, which was a big problem mother wanted to solve for us.  “Well let’s get going.” The taint exposure must have given him a mare's face.

We turned our attention back to the sky chariot, it would only take a short time to get this ready to go, but the big problem was getting it to the others without attracting the alicorns to our position. No, that was going to be the easy part, our Invisibility magic would work, but it was going to drain us fast to keep such a large object invisible. But with no other choice, we would have to deal with the consequences later.



______________________________________



Footnote:

Minor Faction: 

Raidercorns – what happens when you give raiders the power of an artificial alicorn, same thing when you give raiders any kind of power, they use it to make the world a less safe place. Though small in numbers, these alicorns are easily the most dangerous monsters you can find in the wasteland, and worse yet, they’re organized.
> Chapter 7 - Uncertain Future part 3
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------


	 



We landed in front of the ruined store, the enclave cargo crate of food was still there, ready to be loaded. Micro Fusion helped unhook us from the sky chariot’s harness, his hooves looking like they were just batting at the straps, but strangely able to quickly get us free. It was strange how earth ponies could do that. Rather, it was strange how earth ponies could do most things without magic.

Micro Fusion explained that he was born in stable 100, which was a long way south from here. The stable had been one that was very strict about genetic health and viability. He boasted about how the gene lab there was so advanced, that they could start cloning ponies if they so desired. And that he was out exploring to look for new residents for the stable, and his main stop was the Municipality of Reka. We asked why a stable would need new residents, and he simply explained that the stable had formed a small settlement above it, but due to how strict the stable was about who can enter, or stay in the stable itself, they are always in need of new ponies with good genes not mutated by the wastland. The fastest way to do this turned out simply to be buying slaves and testing them. The ones with good genes were let in, the ones who didn’t have them were set free.

After helping us free from the harness, Micro Fusion trotted around to lock the straps to the frame, muttering something about not wanting some Pegasus to steal the sky chariot. As he worked, his withered and deformed wings dragged on the ground. One was slightly larger than the other, and neither had nearly enough feathers to fly. Oddly deformed as well, the horn on his head had grown with a slight curve to the left. Though the mutation had not turned him into an abomination, he clearly wouldn’t ever turn into a proper alicorn.

“Question.” we spoke up at the mutated earth pony stallion, who we suspected looked more like a mare as well due to the partial transformation. “With what happened to you, would you be able to go home?”

The stallion looked at one of his wings and kicked it. The limp wing just flopped, nothing more. “Well clearly I wouldn’t be able to get back into the stable, but I’m sure my family wouldn’t simply abandon me. Also I’m sure the eggheads would love to get a look at my mutation, see what changed and all that.” He seemed to still have a skip in his step, despite his circumstances. “But even if they did reject me for this ordeal, it might be a good thing for me.”

“How so?” we asked, curious as to hear his thoughts.

“Well, being part of the stable, we are restricted from having relations with the ponies outside. You know, to keep disease and unwanted mutation from being brought into the stable. If you know what I mean.” He waggled his eyebrows at us.

We nodded. “Yes, before being taken in by mother, we had contracted a few diseases. It was something we did not know to avoid back then.”

Micro Fusion paused for a moment before continuing. “Right. Well in the settlement, I have a few friends, and this mare I really like. The mare always said she was attracted to a more lady like figure, so if I get the wings and horn removed, I might have a shot with her now. Maybe.” Trotting back over to us, he gave a shrug. “Not like my wife’s going to care, we were only together because we were a good genetic pairing. While the sex with her was awesome, she had a major case of masochism. Loves to be tied up and all that. But outside of the bedroom, our relationship was practically nonexistent. It made me feel like I was little more than a sex toy to her.”

“That’s… sad to hear.” We turned to lead Micro Fusion to the house the others were hiding in. “So did you have any foals with her?”

He nodded. “Three wonderful little brats. I’ll miss them, but I know they’re in good hooves. And it’s not like I can’t see them, but seeing their dad look like this might freak them out a bit.”

We entered the house, it’s broken door squeaked on the one hinge that it still had, still just barely keeping the door up. “Hello? We have returned, and with a sky chariot.”

Two fillies poked their heads out from around a rotting corner, their faces a little cleaner than before, but not by much. The Caramel maned filly trotted out, looking concerned. “Did you find aunty Lemon Drop?”

We shook our head. “Sorry, she’s gone, there was nothing we could do.” Both fillies drooped their ears and look down. “But we can take you somewhere safer, lots of pegasi there.” The fillies just slowly trotted away, into another room. Trotting over to where they had come from, we found the two ghouls, and the Zebra. Crescent Wrench was resting on an old dirty mattress as the zebra seemed to be giving her an exam. Axle Wrench was sitting in the corner, looking like he was asleep. “Is everything alright?”

The Zebra pulled away from Crescent and nodded. “I am no medicine mare, but I do have enough medical knowledge to know that these two are very lucky. Despite becoming Ghouls, they are both very much alive, unlike most ghouls you see these days.”

We raised an eyebrow. “How is that possible?”

The Zebra sighed. “I do not know the details, but from what I do know, most die as they become ghouls. Organ failure, dehydration, blood loss, and the most common, being blasted with a radiation bomb, or fire.” She then rubbed Crescents belly. “It also explains why this little one still grows. Though the chances the foal being born normal is unlikely. If I were to guess to why their ghoulification is so light, it might be a family trait they have.”

Crescent nodded, not moving from her position on the bed. “That does sound about right. Both Axle and I both have ghouls in our family, a hazard of traveling the wasteland. It’s actually how our family’s had survived for so long, I mean, having my great grand pappy still around and sharing all he knows is more valuable than all the caps in the world.” She flopped her head back on the bed, looking a bit exhausted.

We looked at the two ghouls, and despite their decayed state, parts of them did still look alive. It was little things like the eyes, and were their skin hadn't begun to peel, their fur still looked soft. “If that’s true, can it be reversed, or controlled?”

The Zebra shrugged. “Well I am not a doctor, so I cannot honestly know what can be done.” She trotted over to us and raised a hoof. “I never properly introduced myself, did I. I’m Mhambi, A simple traveler, and member of Celestia's Angels.” 

“Celestia's Angels? Is that some sort of religious group?” To be honest, we didn’t know zebras very well.  Though we’d always heard they were a very religious sort, but it sounded odd that they would worship and old world goddess like Celestia.

Mhambi chucked. “Not at all, it is an anti-slavery group, but I do admit it does sound like something a cult would name itself. They are not real popular around here, but with what has been happening, I do not think it’s going to matter.”

We cocked an eyebrow at Mhambi. “Why tell us this?”

She sighed. “Because if what you say is true, then there is an opportunity to do some really good. The fact that everyone here owes you their lives, mine included, tells me that you are good pony. So, if it is not too much to ask, I want you to help me finish off the slave trade here.”

“But the Municipality of Reka is already gone, is that not enough?” We pointed out.

Mhambi gave a little nod. “I like to say yes, but the slave trade is stubborn market. If not properly stamped out now, it will only rebuild itself later. What is worse is that there is a big slaver caravan coming in a few days, that alone has the potential of rebuilding the slave trade here. But if Bold Harbor can be turned into an anti-slavery settlement, then any slavers that wish to set up shop will move elsewhere.”

We sighed. “We don’t think there is much we can do, but once we're back at Bold Harbor, we can look into it.”

“Thank you” Mhambi said with a sigh. “Even a little bit of help means a lot.”

We decided to check on the other ponies before getting the sky chariot ready. The sickly pegasus mare Crescent and Axel had cared for, was still asleep, making us worried that she may be in a coma. The three foals were fine as well, but really quiet.  They couldn’t be blamed, as the loss of a loved one would have hit them hard. And Micro Fusion was busy tying his limp wings together with some scavenged twine to keep them from dragging on the ground.

Once outside, we managed to get the food container into the sky chariot.  It was a tight squeeze, being just being wide enough to fit the container. But simply lifting the heavy container had us drained, forcing us to stand in the radiation pockets of the ruins for a few minutes to get some of our magic back. Looking at the sky chariot, it was going to be difficult to get everypony aboard. It had a front sitting section, so at least three ponies could squeeze in there without too much of a problem, but the rest may have to ride on top of the cargo container, and maybe even one on our back.

Feeling a little better, we trotted back to the sky chariot, and made sure that the container was safely secured into it. Though the sky chariot looked like a big rusty piece of scrap, it was surprisingly sturdy. The sky chariot had a large piece of netting that easily went over the container, though it would do nothing to keep it in the chariot if we were to flip it upside down, it would help the others stay on board. It also had a strong locking mechanism in the back, were we just had to turn a wheel to lock the rear. The mechanism itself consisted of two metal bars that pushed out from within the back hatch, and into a hole on either side of the sky chariot.  Simple, but effective. It looked like we were good to go, so we just had to get the others onboard.

‘Hello sister.’ We looked up to see the purple alicorn hovering above us. ‘You seem to be in possession of something that belongs to me. Might you also be in possession of something else that does not belong to you?” Razor Storm’s glare was filled with malice, like she was trying to burn a hole into our head with her eyes alone.

“We…” We needed to think fast, find a way to drive her away, as a fight with her would spell our doom. She was bigger, stronger, more powerful, we could feel it. And her spear, crud as it was, could kill us easily. “We didn’t know it was yours… Sorry.”

There was a pause as Razor Storm landed on the sky chariot, looking down at us with a sense of confusion. “you didn’t know?” her face scrunched up, and her nostrils flared as she huffed out air. ‘So you simply found this sky chariot, and took it, without ever knowing it belonged to us?’ We nodded. ‘Then we will have to take it back, no hard feelings, right, sister?’ her head tilted at the last word, she almost hissed in our head.

We shook our head, fully knowing that this was going to turn ugly. The sword in our saddle bag was at the ready, we need only tug at it with our magic to strike at her, when she got close enough.

‘That’s…’ the word felt empty, void of all emotion, like she was holding back. In a pop she was gone, teleported outside of our range of vision. ‘…Good’ the emptiness was filled with a sense of… joy? No, something more twisted than that…

*Crack* Pain hit our back right leg, intense pain, so much so that we stumbled to the ground. Looking behind us, Razor Storm stood over us, our leg impaled by her spear, right through the bone.

‘Funny thing, you’re not the first. Found one poor fool who talked of making friends, and not hurting the young.’ A wide toothy grin formed on her face. ‘We made sure she watched as we dunked each of the foals she protected into the taint. Unfortunately, all died, but it was fun. After that, I bashed her head into paste. The most fun I had in over fifty years.’ She cackled in our head, it was vicious and cruel. ‘Fucking goddess, striped me of everything I was, but now she’s dead, and I’m back. And so much more powerful.’

She pulled the spear out from our leg, and we took the opportunity to jump away. The pain felt nearly overwhelming, but we managed to get some distance from her, and cast a spell of invisibility. Quickly, we changed our position, and readied ourselves to counter attack. With the sword at the ready, we crept closer, and…

Razor Storm swung her spear, hitting us in the side. ‘Amateur, you do know your bleeding right?’ She cackled again. ‘Most of you are so powerful, but still pansies on the inside. It makes seeing you quiver in fear so much more wonderful.’

Refocusing, we had lost our invisibility, and was once more on the ground. Her spear put us at a disadvantage, with her reach being far longer than us. If we tried to attack, she would simply bat us away. She had won this fight as soon as it started, and we never stood a chance.

‘Now tell me were the damn experiment is!’ she snarled at us. ‘That mongrel is the first step on my making an unstoppable army. If you tell me, I’ll let you join me’ We could feel it in her words, she was going to kill us, no matter if we gave her what she wanted or not.

*Foosh!* 

Flames. Flames engulfed Razor Storm from horntip to tail. From the air we saw another object fly, a bottle of sparkle-cola flying right at Razor Storm. The a flaming rag poking out from it’s top caught the liquid inside on fire as it smashed against the alicorn’s side. *Foosh!* More flames consumed the mad Alicorn as she looked around confused and in pain.

Taking the opportunity, we lunged forward into the flames, pulling out the Blackwater cutlass in a wide swing, only nicking her neck. Pulling back a step, pain traveled up our leg, and along our spine, but we focused,  having only one shot. With a lunge, we struck at her head. She looked us in the eyes as we pushed the sword at her. Contact! Razor managed to tilt her head to avoid the killing blow, but the sword pierced her left eye, and cut into the skull. Not close enough to pierce the inside, but enough to get her to back off.

Razor storm screamed, and stumbled back out of the fire, blood dripping from her face in a deep crimson. “You bitch, I will get you for this!” parts of her fur was still on fire, and her eye oozed a deep crimson. “I will find you, and make your death slow and painful.” Another flaming bottle of sparkle-cola flew at her, but before it hit the ground at her hooves, she vanished in a pop, teleporting to someplace unknown to us.

Collapsing, we embraced the hot ground like a friend we had not seen in years. “Miss Prism! Are you okay.” Mhambi called out as she ran to us, Micro Fusion and Axle Wrench behind her.

We nodded. “Give us some time to recover, and we will be fine.”

“I believe that is unwise.” Mhambi spoke with concern in her voice. “There are still two of them out there, plus many other predators that roam this land. We should leave now, before another fight befalls us.”

Axle Wrench stuffed a bottle in our mouth, and we started to feel better, the pain in our leg quickly dulling to something more manageable. “That fight went sideways faster than a rattlesnake fighting a hellhound.” The ghoul pulled out another bottle, the healing potion did it’s work spectacularly.  “Also, we only have one Molotov left, and I doubt that they will be caught off-guard a second time.”

Micro Fusion helped us up on our hooves. “Sorry, but I have to agree with them. They know where we are, so we need to go now. Worse, if the two greens get here before were gone, they can just hold us here until Razor bitch comes back to fuck us over.”

We nodded. “Sorry, we were only thinking of ourselves, and had forgotten about the other two alicorns. Let’s go.” We took a step towards the sky chariot, and a sharp twinge of pain shot up our back right leg. It was not enough to cripple us, but it did feel like something was still wrong with it.

Micro Fusion helped us get attached to the sky chariot, as the other two helped get the less able ponies into the passenger compartment. Sitting behind us was Crescent Wrench, the unconscious Pegasus mare, and the three foals. All of them had to tightly squeeze in, but they managed. The other three took a place on top of the sky chariot, tying themselves to the net mesh on top. Spreading our wings out, and pushing forward, the sky chariot was at first difficult to move. But slowly, and surely it became lighter, and easier to move, it’s spark battery humming as we took flight. We stayed low at first, but once we got up to a faster speed, we took to the sky, and our destination, Bold Harbor.


______________________________________

 
Footnote:

Level up:  Lv3
-Melee skill up
-Speech skill up
> Chapter 8 - Uncertain Future part 4
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------


	 




The flight back to Bold Harbor was fortunately uneventful, not even having anypony take pot shots at us. Though mostly everyone was quiet, the normally chatterbox foals sat further back in the cart, and seemed to be more concentrated on holding onto the sky chariot than talking. But, we did manage to have a short chat with one of the two fillies, though only briefly.

The caramel maned filly was named was Toffee, and her sister was Gumdrop. The two fillies are from Navarro, but were staying with their aunt and uncle due to their parents working with the Enclave. They got caught up in the pony pox outbreak, but had been vaccinated early in the year, so they didn’t get sick like the others. Their uncle however had gotten sick, and was in the hospital when the clouds came apart. We held out a bit of hope that their uncle was one of those at Bold Harbor, as it be too tragic for them to have lost both their relatives.

We arrived at Bold Harbor in little time at all, and were immediately met by four armed Pegasus in uniforms similar to Air Burst. Landing in front of them, the four ponies had their boxy guns aimed at us, so we did well to not make any sudden moments. 

“We have two ponies in need of medical attention,” We stated promptly. “Three foals, and three other ponies who mean no harm.”

Two of the Pegasus looked at each other, seemingly unsure what to do. That’s when Cloud Bouncer trotted out from the main building at the end of the ship, and rushed over to us. “That’s all and well good, but are those the supplies we need?” We nodded to his question, and the mayor pointed at two of the armed pones, ordering them to check. Our passengers slowly got out of the sky chariot as the cargo container was checked. When the two soldiers gave the mayor a friendly nod, he let out a long sigh. “That’s good, we can finally relax for now. Did you find the other containers as well, miss Prism?”

“Yes, we can mark it on a map if you have one.” Cloud quickly pulled out an old tattered map, and a pen. Circling the area, we landed, we also added a skull and crossbones near it, on what looked like the place the other alicorns were set up. “You will need to bring weapons with you, some of our sisters are in that area, and they seemed to have lost their minds. If you see them, you will have to kill them. We barely made it out ourselves.”

Putting the map away, Cloud Bouncer had a concerned look on his face. “That terrible to hear. But once more of my citizens recover, I’m sure Air Burst can get a team together and recover the rest of the supplies.” Looking past us, the chubby pony glanced over at the ponies we had taken with us. “I am most grateful that you recover some of my lost citizens, but who are the others?”

We gave a brief explanation on who the non pegasus we had recovered were, the two ghouls, the mutant stable pony, and the zebra. Each one seemingly giving him a bit of a shock. 

Even with our admittedly limited explanation, He seemed to be having a hard time understanding just how and why ghouls existed. What perplexed him even more was how my sisters and I could be formed out of Taint. We tried our best to explain to him that only mother could do it correctly, but to this he only seemed more confused. One fact that was relatively easy to answer, was that the Zebra race did indeed survive the end of the world.

It took a bit more explanation that the two ghouls were not radioactive, and that ponies could not get mutated from second hoof exposure from a taint mutant. Well, at least we hoped not. But it seemed that the one the pegasus were most concerned with was with Mhambi. “What’s the matter, she is but only a zebra?” we tried to point out.

Cloud Bouncer stepped forward and shooed away one of the pegasus guards who had been aiming their gun a Mhambi the whole time. “Sorry about that. Even after two hundred years, some ponies still think we’re at war.” He gave Mhambi a bow. “The name’s Cloud Bouncer. If you’re willing to forgive us, all we know about Zebras is what we were all taught in school, and how they destroyed Cloudsdale. I mean, it’s a bit strange to see that your eyes don’t actually glow red like the books made you out to have.”

Mhambi Chuckled. “No offence taken. The scars of the war run deep, and I have seen worse reactions than this. I have actually came across a settlement that thought Zebras drank blood, and could turn ponies into zebras by doing so.”

Mayor Cloud Bouncer weakly chuckled. “That sounds foolish. So, then does that mean Roam still exists?”

“I do not know.” Mhambi said with a shrug. “My family has lived in Equestria for generations, and as far as I know, we have lived here long before the war ever started.” She looked back at the others, giving them a nod. “But enough about me, there are ponies that need help. Do you have a doctor here?”

Cloud Bouncer snapped to attention. “Oh yes, of course, I’ll have someone take them to her immediately. What’s wrong with them if I might ask?”

We stepped in this time. “We have one mare suffering from advanced radiation poisoning, the ghoul mare is pregnant, and needs to know if the unborn foal is fine. There are also three foals that will probably need to be checked out.”

Looking up at us, the mayor nodded, and motioned to two of the guards. “We have a waiting room set up away from the sick. The doctor may be busy right now, but as soon as she gets word, I’m sure she will go see them.”

The rest of the ponies were escorted away, leaving us with the Mayor, Mhambi, and Micro Fusion. The latter of which had somehow found a bottle of sparkle-cola and was avidly drinking it as we stood around.

The door to the larger house swung open, slamming onto the side of the metal wall. “What is going on here!?” Stomping out was Air Burst, trying to straighten out his uniform which looked more disheveled than it was when we left.

Sighing, Cloud bouncer trotted up to the enclave captain. “Oh calm down. We’ve got some of our supply’s back, and things are going to be okay.”

The captain snarled. “Okay? You call that okay!?” He pointed at us. “I was okay with sending that freak out to get our lost supply’s, but she comes back with two more freaks? Next thing you know, she will be giving a speech about letting those walnut brain dirt trotters inside the walls!”

“About that.” Mhambi spoke up as she trotted over to the two pegasus leaders. “I’m a member of a group out to better the wasteland, and feel that you two are in position of doing something great.”

We felt a nudge on our side, looking over, it was Micro Fusion. Leaning close, he whispered to us while still sipping on his drink.  “How much you want to bet that the enclave pony will be calling for a firing squad for us?”

“They can’t be that bad, can they?” We asked back.

He shrugged. “Who knows, but a few generations back, my stable took in a dashite. She was some sort of journalist if I remember right. You know, a pony who gathers information, writes about it, and shares it with others. Well it seemed that she dug up the wrong dirt on somepony important, and got branded a dashite. A slave caravan ended up picking her up, and a little later my stable took her in. Having a healthy and diverse gene pool only get’s better when adding something like a pegasus to it! Well, after adapting, she ended up being our record keeper, and told us what she knew of the Enclave in the skies above. It was nothing all that unexpected really, nepotism, bribery, that kind of shit. The difference was that the enclave folk were willing to kill to keep it all quiet. That mare was so afraid of them; she never took a step out of the stable till the day she died.”

“So, you think they will turn on us?” We asked quietly

Micro Fusion scratched his head, “I don’t rightly know. I mean you are helping them, so they can’t be all gung-ho about being ass hats. I say they will just throw us out, and lock the door.” He eyed us for a moment and fround. “Though for you, they might train a few guns on you, with the fact you can turn invisible and fly. Makes walls a bit useless.”

We nodded. “Being told to leave will be fine as long as we get our supplies, as it was the deal we had made with them.”

A loud huff came from Air Burst, and the stallion stomped off back to the larger house on the ship. The other two walked back to us, looking a bit dejected.

“Sorry about that.” Cloud Bouncer spoke with a bit of guilt in his voice. “It’s just how old military ponies are. Even though the times have changed, I doubt he will start bending the rules he’s lived by anytime soon.”

Mhambi shook her head. “It is to be expected. In times of strife, we all look for something to give our lives some order.” The Zebra looked over at us. Her face held a stoic expression, but her eyes looked like they were pleading at us. “Miss Prism, I know you were only here to gain supplies, and that I threw the idea on you on so suddenly. But, will you be willing to do go down and talk with the Reka Merchants?”

We had to think about it, unsure how to respond. “If we said yes, what would we talk with them about?”

“Not much.” Mhambi explained. “If these ponies are in fact merchants at their core, then we may be able to make a deal with them. Simply put, if they trade their supplies and relinquish the slaves, then they can be brought aboard the ship, saving them from the raid that will happen soon.”

It sounded reasonable. Well, reasonable from where we were standing. But one problem did creep into our mind. “What about the pony poxs? Would the disease not just spread to them?”

Mayor Cloud Bouncer nodded. “yes, I asked the same thing, but haven’t gotten an answer yet.”

Mhambi sighed. “Yes, it is a risk, but one they will have to agree to take.”

“Um, can I chime in on this?” Micro Fusion had raised his hoof, and we all turned to the mutated pony. “If it’s the pony poxs you’re worried about, then it’s fine.” He took a deep breath and smiled. “Most of the merchants of Reka are either resistant to the virus, or have been given a vaccine for it, along with a few others diseases.”

“Excuse me if I sound a bit disrespectful.” Cloud bouncer spoke up. “But how would some dirt totting ponies have access to such advanced medicine?”

Micro Fusion rolled his eyes. “It’s how my stable conducts trade with Reka. They pay us for our medical treatments and supplies. In return, we get the raw materials needed to make more, and some more slaves to take in for gene testing. It’s one of the big factors that made them the only trading outpost for miles and miles. As the other outposts would succumb to plagues or progressive genetic defects, Reka was able to become dominant them do to not being as affected by the illness.” He then scratched his mare-like face. “It wouldn’t surprise me if they have some of the medicine with them, as it is considered to be of high value.”

Suddenly Cloud Bouncer gave Micro Fusion a hug. “Oh you wonderful, weirdly beautiful mare! I’d court you now if it was appropriate, and well, if you were a stallion. But that’s beside the point! If we can get those medical supplies, then we can save the lives of many of my citizens.”

The mutated stallion looked over at us, and wiggled his eyebrows, and we face hoofed and spoke up. “Just so you know, Micro Fusion is a stallion.” The comedy of the situation quickly passed as we felt a heavy burden seemingly fall upon us. Their eyes trained on us, though we were not looking, we knew they were. “Alright, we will do it. We will talk with Winterberry, though, we doubt she will be pleased to know that you are not going to leave.”

Cloud Bouncer let go of the stallion, and stepped over to us. “I’ll go with you, I’m sure if I can talk with this Winterberry, we can come to an agreement.”

“I will too.” Mhambi spoke up. “I have some valuable information that may be of use if the negotiations fail to work.”

We all looked over at Micro Fusion, who gave a confused look back at us. “What?” he sighed. “Fine, I’ll go too. But I’ll warn you, if it’s Winterberry were dealing with, prepare for some self-entitled whining.”



______________________________________



	Footnote:

Faction Status Change:

- Enclave Remnants – Neutral < Accepted
> Chapter 9 - Problematic Negotiations part 1
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------






With Mhambi and Micro Fusion not able to fly, we had to go down with them into the lower part of Bold Harbor on hoof. Fortunately, the ship already had an elevator system set up to take us down to the pier. One of the enclave soldiers lowered the drawbridge for us, and once down, we were on our way.

“Gross, what is this stuff?” Cloud Bouncer spoke up, waving some mud off his hoof.

Mhambi shook her head. “It is called mud, and it is simply wet dirt.”

After giving his leg a few shakes, it seemed that the mayor finally gave up trying to get rid of the rest of the sticky mud from his hoof. “Don’t know how anypony could live with walking around in such filth. Once everything settles down, the first thing I’ll do is have some proper roads built.” he stopped for a moment scratching his chin. “I don’t think clouds will cut it.”

“It’s not that bad.” Micro Fusion chimed in. “But if that’s something you’re interested in doing, there’s a group called the Street Sign Gang up north. Reka had a deal with them, paid them in caps and trained slaves. In return, the gang would maintain the road to the north, as well as supply them with fresh slaves.”

Cloud Bouncer shook his head. “Slavery? That’s just... savage!”

Micro Fusion shrugged. “It’s not that bad. Free food and water, and the opportunity to work yourself to freedom? Funny enough, many of the merchants in Reka were slaves. Overall, not a bad deal.”

“That is until a tyrant takes over.” Mhambi spoke up. “Then the happy indentured labor turns into death marches, and the prospect of hard labor until you die from exhaustion.” The mutated stable pony rolled his feminine eyes as Mhambi glared at him. “You think not? I have seen this happen. All the way in the east, where a city that was built on the backs of dying slaves. And why? All in the name of ‘progress’.” The zebra huffed. “All it takes is one pony to consolidate enough power, and then get the idea in their head that they are the next Luna. Then, any atrocity is justifiable for the sake of their own idea of ‘progress’.”

Cloud Bouncer cleared his throat. “Well, as an elected official, the whole idea of slavery is abhorrent to me, no matter what kind it is. And as sure as the sun will rise tomorrow, I’m certain that my citizens would agree with me on that.”

Micro Fusion just shrugged, and Mhambi nodded her head. We just kept our focus on what was ahead of us, as the four of us were entering an area where the Merchants of Reka had gathered. The Earth ponies looked as downtrodden as they had before, but were still on the move. Gathering the junk into piles as other ponies sorted them.

The sorted junk had been placed in boxes of different sizes. One box held a bunch of degraded and rust coated guns made from splintering wood and rusty pipes. Another box next to it held magazines and bullets that more than likely went to the rusty guns. Other boxes held nails, screws, various scraps, old tools, and one even had toys in it. One of the ponies sorting the junk looked up at us, her mouth agape.

“Oh sorry, we didn’t mean to stare.” We spoke to her and tried to be as polite as possible, not wanting to make a scene.

Micro Fusion stepped in with a smile on his face. “I think it’s more about what you are, and not about what you were doing.” He turned to the mare and clasped her hooves with his. “Don’t worry darling, she’s here to help. As am I. If things go well, we should soon be aboard that big ship safely. If that happens, maybe you and I can meet up later, get to know each other.” Despite the mare he was speaking to having a blue coat, the mare’s face turned bright red with embarrassment.

Looking around, the mare had not been the only pony staring at us. However, it seemed that Micro Fusion’s flirting had convinced the other ponies to get back to doing what they had been doing before. The mare herself seemed to hold onto her flush state, and simply bumbled around with the junk as we got back to the task at hoof.

Moving on, we made our way to where Winterberry was. “Was that necessary? And how old was that mare, because to me, she looked fourteen or so.” Mhambi snapped at Micro Fusion. “You do not plan on sleeping with somepony so young, do you?”

“Up to her.” Micro Fusion replied with a shrug.

“That is deplorable.” The zebra responded.

“That’s life.” Micro Fusion countered. “And what are you going to do? Take her place.”

“I would not sink so low.” Mhambi huffed. “But, I would counsel the mare in picking better stallions to court.”

A chuckle came from behind them, Cloud Bouncer catching their attention. “You two should just kiss already, break that tension.” The two gave him a look of disgust, and proceeded to trot faster. The mayor looked over at us, and smiled. “That’s how I met my ex-husband. We were fighting one day, then suddenly, we were locked in a passionate embrace.” He gave a deep sigh. “I miss that fool sometimes. How about you, Miss Prism?  Anypony you’ve got a place for in your heart?”

We just shook our head. “We... we didn’t have a special somepony. A few lovers, but none that stayed.”

“Sorry to hear that.” Cloud Bouncer said softly. “But a pretty mare like yourself, I don’t doubt you’ll find somepony for you. Just give it time.”

“We don’t…” It was a charming thought, but we just didn’t feel like entertaining it. “Thanks for the thought.”

The four of us were stopped by the two slave guards we had snuck around when we were here before. They looked a bit baffled at us before one of them pointed to us in particular. “You, alicorn. Mistress Winterberry has been waiting for you.” We nodded, and walked forward. But then they closed in as we passed, blocking the other three. “Just you.”

“They come with us, or we have nothing to say.” The two guards didn’t move, and we didn’t feel like playing nice. “Be that way.” Lifting one up with our magic, the earth pony flailed his legs as the other backed off. “Let it be known that you two are nothing more than decoration, and have no power to stop us.” The other three with us just trotted under the suspended guard, paying him no mind as they went inside. With them passed, we placed the guard back where he stood, the ground beneath him a little wetter then when we arrived.

Inside, we met the glare of Winterberry. One of her personal slaves filed at her hoof, and the other fanned her from the other side of her throne. “Somehow, I’m guessing that you didn’t get the feather brains to leave the ship?” We nodded as we walked onto the stage in the center of the room. It was relatively clean now. Free from the dirt and blood that had coated it before, though the still dirty nearby cage still gave away what it was used for.

“We found the task to be far more difficult than expected, so we chose a different option.” We looked over at Cloud Bouncer, and he nodded back. “We have brought the mayor of the Pegasus group, mister cloud bouncer. We hope to negotiate a deal, something that could benefit both groups.”

Winterberry shifted from her position, lifting the other hoof to be taken care of. “I see. The deal is simple, promise three fourths of your population into my services, and you might have my cooperation.”

“Wh… what!?” Cloud Bouncer stammered. “I’m sorry, but I don’t have the authority to draft my citizens into service. I could have it put to a vote, but that would take time and probably wouldn’t go over well with them.”

She covered her mouth with a hoof as she giggled. “Vote? Oh no, no. They are your ponies right? ‘Citizens’ you call them. Oh the lies ponies will tell themselves. Simply bring me their contracts, and sign their ownership over to me. Then we can begin negotiations.”

“Contracts?”  Cloud Bouncer had a look of confusion on his face. “Wha… what are you saying?”

Winterberry’s face turned to one of annoyance. “You’re that dense, or…?” See rolled her eyes. “Daddy warned me about this. As soon as the skies cleared and the Enclave were on the warpath, he warned me alright.” Lightly pushing the unicorn slave away from her, she sat up and looked at us.  Up and down, between all of us, meticulously sizing us up. “I think I know what’s going on. None of you do look the part.” She then pointed at Micro Fusion. “Except for you, dopey halfacorn. Can’t be from stable one hundred, looked too misshapen for their like.”

Micro Fusion sighed. “A recent facelift that I didn’t ask for. Not sure you know me, but I’m Micro Fusion. I delivered the shipment of medical supplies some days ago.”

She tapped her chin and nodded. “Yes, I do remember you. The old flirty one, right? You look remarkably younger, and more feminine than you used to.”

He shrugged. “Good genes.”

“Excuse me?” Cloud bouncer stepped forward. “But what was that part you mentioned about the Enclave? How do they factor into this?”

“Right, about that.” Winterberry motion for her Pegasus slave to come closer, and pulled his head onto her lap. She cooed as she softly stroked his mane. “This fine specimen? His grandfather was an Enclave lieutenant, first class if I do remember correctly. Don’t know why he was kicked out and branded, but they shot off his wings for good measure, and then sold him into my father’s care. I think they just wanted to see him suffer as a slave. The stallion bore a few foals, none of which were pegasi. Then one of those little bastards had this prized stud here.” She continued to stroke his mane like he was some sort of pet. “But he was not the only one. Every now and then we would get a visitor in the night, and we’d get a box of some of our finest trade goods out on the roof. In the morning a Pegasus or two would be left in its place, bound and gagged.”

“Impossible.” Cloud Bouncer grinded his hoof on the ground. “The enclave would never do such a deplorable thing! They would never lie to their…”

Winterberry’s face contorted into a wicked grin. “Never lie…? Like how they told you all that the surface was unlivable?” She pushed the pegasus slave off of her lap, and he quickly returned to fanning her. “I know that lie, every dashite that is sent to us speaks about it. I even remember that dapper enclave soldier joking about it. A bit old, but definitely my type. Probably because of my earth pony heritage, but the green on green is one of the more attractive colors a pony can have.” She eyed Cloud Bouncer as he got progressively more upset, his hoof now slowly grinding a hole. “I think his favorite joke to tell was… oh what was it? Oh, I remember now. It was simply: the mayor.”

Cloud bouncer stormed onto the ground, and turned around. But before he could leave we grabbed him with our magic. “Calm, we can talk to Air Burst about this later. But first you have more important things to do, like make a deal that protects both parties.” He shot us a dirty look, but quickly calmed down and sat back with us.

Clearing our thoughts, we spoke up. “History aside, we still have a deal to make. Basically, if you hoof over any of the pony pox medicine you have, the ship will be open to you.”

“But first.” Mhambi spoke up loudly “You must abandon the slave trade, and free all slaves from their contracts.” The room became an echo of murmurs, as the slave ponies shuffled about.

Winterberry giggled softly to herself. “I’ll have to say nay. If I free these ponies, then they are no longer my responsibility. If they’re not my responsibility, then I don’t have to feed, or shelter them. Without food or shelter, they’re as good as dead out in the wasteland. How like a zebra to want to see us ponies wither and die out in the wasteland that your ancestors created. I’d be a fool to not suspect you of working with the Skull Hunters, your kind has always been treacherous and deceiving like that.” The crowd’s murmuring became louder, and we could see many of them nodding her heads.

Mhambi was now grinding her teeth. “Fine. If you’re so bent on not listening to reason, and wiping up everypony with bigotry, then I’ll leave you with this. Red Eye is dead! That’s right, your big buyer, who sent a caravan your way for the slave labor? He died, meaning that the normal caravans you serve have likely changed their plans. They will likely see you as nothing more than a stepping stone when they come back to take over.  Hell, maybe it’ll be you in the shackles when they do, so get ready to choke on tons of griffin dick when they come. I heard they just love breaking down the proudest and most stubborn among them.”

Both Mhambi, and Cloud Bouncer stormed out of the building, leaving us and Micro fusion standing there. Winterberry simply laughed on her throne, leaning back to the position she was in before. This time the unicorn slave pulled out a fancy brush, and began to brush her fur. The unicorn taking great care, as he slowly brushed along her leg.

“Miss Winterberry, was that truly necessary?” Micro Fusion spoke up. “They were offering what you wanted, right?”

She yawned “Yes, that is true. But to have some drifter zebra and a puppet politician try to talk to me like we're on the same level? Dear Micro, I have my pride to think about, and my role as a leader to uphold. I can’t have the others think of me as lesser like they are, there would be chaos in the streets.” She mimicked a pony in panic. “Frankly, the only ponies worth anything are the ones in position to actually do something.” She smiled. “Like dear Prism here actually bringing the puppet mayor down here to speak to me. Not what I asked for, but it does open up a new opportunity.”

“What do you mean?” We were feeling a bit upset over what she had done, but we had already resolved ourselves to seeing this situation through.

The mare stretched out, and her unicorn slave proceeded to brush her from her belly down, he was leaning over her in an almost erotic way. “Still open for requests? Good. From how that Pegasus reacted, it should be safe to assume Air Burst is still alive. If we could have a private talk with him, I’m sure we could work out a solution to our dilemma.

“As long as we can resolve this peacefully, then I’ll consider it.” With that, we turned around and left with Micro Fusion at our side.

Once we were outside, Micro Fusion gave out a long sigh. “And I thought Baneberry was a queen bitch. Well, at least Winterberry is using those contraceptives my stable sells to her. Can’t imagine how bad things would be if there were more ponies like her running about in there.”

“Baneberry?” we asked.

“Winterberry’s older sister.” Was his answer. “Demanding and violent, She ran off and became the main squeeze to the Street Sign Gangs leader. Somehow made them more violent than they were before. Glad my stable is a ways south of here; it’d be a shit show dealing with them every day.”

Our curiosity was now itching at us. “The Road Sign Gang, you mentioned them before. Who are they?”

He scratched his chin. “Can’t go into details, as I’ve only seen them in Reka, but they are an ex-raider band. It’s rare, but some raider bands do go civil. I think it happens when the band becomes so large, and their territory is so big, that the only spots left to raid have big walls and plenty of guns. They still raid and all that, but within their territory they are forced to trade with the larger settlements to survive. Well Reka and a few other settlements up north figured that if they just paid the raiders protection when traveling the roads, things would just go smoother. After a few years, they became the Street Sign Gang, even started using construction equipment to repair the roads. Of which they used as an excuse to charge the merchants a higher tax to use said roads. Still a mean bunch to run into, but if you pay up, they’ll make sure you don’t get messed with.”

We eventually caught up with Cloud Bouncer, and Mhambi. Both looking less than pleased. “Winterberry said that she would like to talk with Air Burst, then she would consider making a deal.”

“Not before I have a few words with him.”  Cloud Bouncer said as he stomped on the ground in frustration and splashed mud about.

Micro Fusion gave us a concerned look, and we nodded back. “Then back to the ship it is.”



______________________________________



Footnote:


New Quest: A Pony Chooses, A Slave Obeys.
> Chapter 10 - Problematic Negotiations part 2
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------







The short trot back was quiet, the ponies in the area stayed out of our way, more concentrated on shifting through the garbage, looking for bullets. Mhambi was visibly angry, but how she would stop to take a breather every now and then seem to reflect more of an anger over the loss of control, then over some pony. Cloud Bouncer on the other hoof looked more calm, but little actions like subtle little stops seem to telegraph his anger towards some pony.

The elevator to the top part of the ship was still waiting for us when we returned, the two guards standing in their same positions. “You know; she could have been lying.” We attempted to calm Cloud Bouncer. “trying to rattle you and all.”

The Pegasus wiped his hooves on the dirty wooded pier, getting most of the sticky mud off his hooves. “My dear, I’ve been in politics much of my life. Organizing ponies, rallying them to gather, and telling soft lies to keep them calm. Lying in part of the job, and if a pony does not know how to see a lie when it’s being told, they have no business in politics.” Shaking a hoof, Cloud Bouncer seemed to give up on trying to get them completely clean.

“So, she wasn’t lying?” We had to ask.

“Irrelevant.” He blurted out. “She knew enough about what she needed to say in order to derail the deal. At best, she has far more information then she should have about us. Worse, direct communication with the Enclave before the town fell. Either way, I need to ask Air Burst.”

“So now you need to talk with Air Burst to…” We had to pause for a moment to think, “compare information?”

Could Bouncer sighed. “No, I need to reorganize my strategy with Air Burst. It’s clear that I should have brought a few soldiers with me. I came on a bit too nice, too civil for who we’re dealing with.” Flaring his wings, slowly he took flight, rising above the rest of us. “I’ll go on ahead, the rest of you wait at the elevator for me.”

With a deep sigh, we followed, our wings catching the air better than his, but not being much faster overall. “Were coming too, we still have a deal to complete.” And Star was still in their care.

Up and over the two of us landed onto the deck. There were a few more enclave soldiers then there were before. Six of them had lined up in front of Air Burst, and two more next to the captain himself. Seeing us, one of the soldiers next to their captain, got his attention, and pointed to us. Air Burst, seeing us, evidently trotted over with the most displeased look on his face.

“I’ve ignored this foolishness so far because the trouble came to us. But actually going down there, meeting with those... savages? You are going beyond your authority, Mayor Could Bouncer.”

Could Bouncer huff. “Yes, yes, I know what you’re going to say. I’ve read that rule book front and back five times now.” When Air Burst got close to the mayor, Cloud reach out and jabbed him in the chest with his hoof. “But when I went down to negotiate for medicine for our kin, I get blindsided with the new that you have been down there to sell my citizens to those savages.” Placing his own hoof back on his chest, and taking a deep breath, Cloud Bouncer continued. “But that can be discussed later. First off, we need to secure the medicine, and distribute it to the sick.”

The look on Air Bursts face did not change much, he looking at the mayor with a look of disdain. “So you want to send my soldiers, our only defence, down there to secure what? A pony pox cure? Right, we can do that. And once the rest of my soldiers are good and heathy, were going up north. We’ve already received word that other Enclave remnants are regrouping up there.”

Could Bouncer sighed, looking a bit relieved at that. “That’s good to hear, once every pony is cleared for moving, were going to need to secure the rest of the food and water supplies. I don’t want to leave any of them behind. Sorry for relying on you so much.”

Air Burst chuckled. “I’m afraid you misunderstood me.  I’m only talking about my troops, not your worthless degenerates.”

“What!?” Cloud Bouncer took a step back, nearly turning white.

The captain rolled his eyes. “Artists, confectioners cooks, experimental musicians, even Goddess forbid the comedians. You ever wondered why your whole town was filled with them?” Air Burst Face hoofed. “Good in bed, but dumb as a cloud brick. Your town is where we send our unwanted. Let them all be fools together so they can stay out of the way of our true society. The quarantine was there just as much to make sure they didn’t spread the pox, as much as to make sure none of them left. By Luna, even some of the soldiers sent to assist the quarantine were the losers that were going to get kicked out. Command didn’t even give them a vaccine for the pox in hops they’d get sick and die. Luckily, I can say that almost half of them already have, and good riddance to that.”

Cloud Bouncer took a step forward, now with a look of disgust on his face. “How, how dare…” He seemed to have trouble finding his words.

“Why even follow such directions?” We interjected.

Air Burst’s head tilted to us, as though he had forgotten we were there. “Because orders are orders.” The then pulled out a nearly empty bottle of Wild Pegasus Whisky “And I get a bonus for keeping the job quiet, and away from prying eyes.”

Mayor Could Bouncer slapped the bottle out of Air Busts hold. “This ends now, we are getting that medicine, and…”

*ZAP*

Could Bouncer looked down, his chest was glowing, a glow that spread to the rest of his body, and then ash. Mayor Could Bouncer had become a pile of ash.

We took a step back, unsure what to do, think, or even say, other than “Why.”

The solder that had done it, saluted to Air Burst. “Traitor disposed of Sr.”

“Good Job, at ease.” Air Burst answered back. Looking up from the ash pile to me, he sighed. “Shame, he had a nice tight ass. But he should never had gone down and talked with the savages. Then we could have kept playing this little game we had and maybe he would have lived.  In servitute to some other pony, sure, but it matters not now.” We could feel our blood boil as the captain eyed us. “Now I wouldn’t do anything rash. Even if you can turn invisible, my soldiers are well trained, and will drop you in seconds. So do us all a favor and stay put for now.”

One of the Pegasus flew over, and attached a ring onto our horn. “Why did you do it?” We were confused, and angry. “He was one of you.”

Air Burst simply chuckled to himself. “No, he was a career politician, and among the few that never served the enclave. Spineless cowards, all of them.” Pushing some of the ash aside, he pulled out a pendent from it, and pocketed it. “But enough talking, not like I have much to say to an assassin. Your trial, it will begin at sunset, your sentence, it will be death. What does command call the maneuver, oh yes, the Roseland Trot.” He waved at us, and four of the pegasus pointed their guns at us. “Take her to the other prisoners, they can all have a group hug before they all die together.”

We… alone, we were taken below deck, past the sick, past there room were Star was kept, and down into where the ship was the darkest. The door to the room opened with a loud, jarring screech that could wake the dead. And yet, we trotted inside, knowing that if we resisted, we would die. With the same screech, the door closed behind us, followed by the heavy clunk of what must have been the door’s lock. The room was pitch black, and we could not see anything, not even our own hoof in front of our face.

“Oh good.” A gravelly voice spoke up from the darkness. It had to be a stallions due to how deep it was, but we knew not where it came from other than the dark. “Just once, here I thought they were going to send another group. Though it’s not like we can feed ya, not unless you’re willing to eat the first one to kick it.”

“Damnit Rust Bucket, don’t go talking about shit like that. You’re making me sick and hungry all over again.” This voice was more raspy than the first one, but most definitely a mare. “Now get a light on them, we need to know who we’re stuck with.”

A small glow appeared, illuminating the face of a unicorn. As it became brighter, two unicorns became visible in it, the both of them looking a lot like some of the skull hunters we had seen before. They had leather armor on, reinforced with metal plates, and the skull of a brahman on their heads. The two were also quite dirty, and had a few scars on them, but other than that, they didn’t look all that threatening. Though, that was possibly due to them not having weapons on them.

The male, whom I assume was Rust Bucket spoke up. “Now this is odd. It’s a lovely mare, tall, with a horn and wings.” He scratched his chin, “Want to fuck? Ain’t got much else to do down here.”

The mare beside him slapped him on the back of his head. “Already!? And here I thought you said you love me...”

The stallion glared at the mare. “I said I loved fucking you, and only because we got locked down here. You definitely would not make it as a whore.”

Another pony stepped out into the light. “Prism, is that you? Oh thank goodness.” It was Axle Wrench. “It’s good to see a friendly face. These Enclave have been almost as inhospitable as that crazy ghoul from before. At least they stuck us with the doctor.”

“Wait, the doctor is here?” we asked.

Another pony trotted in, another stallion. And from what I could tell, was all white.  His coat, mane, and tail, were all a very pale white, with the only stand out color on him being his striking red eyes. He was very handsome in his white doctor’s coat, even the few blood stains on it. 


“Never liked the enclave, or the sun for that matter.” The doctor spoke, his voice deep and soothing. “but I wish they would have let me keep my tools. Ghoul alone is fascinating, but a pregnant one? it’s a crime that I cannot properly record this.”

““Sorry, but we’re at a bit of a disadvantage. Can we get some names?” We sighed. “I’m Prism Paint.”

The raider mare steeped forwarded. “The doc, I think his name is Winter Frost.” The doctor nodded, and the raider continued. “The lug nut with me is Rust Bucket, and I’m Tetanus. The two of us are the prison guards, and this is the guards room. Fucking pegasi didn’t know the difference between a prison, and the guards room, so we ended up locked in here.”

“Sorry to hear that.” We responded. “So if this is the guards room, what about the prison?”

Tetanus chuckled. “We had one of the merchants there. He was a fun ride, dick bigger then this asshole,” She said, pointing to Rust Bucket who rolled his eyes, “though he cried too much. So we let him go to see what the feather fucks would do. Moron got vaped, so we locked down here. Well they thought that this the actual prison, and locked us in here.”

Rust bucket stomped on the ground. “Up until today, we had been having a good old time in here. Never got fucked so much before they left the two of us alone. Then they had to go and throw the ghouls in here.” The raider mare face hoofed, and then slapped him upside the head again.  

“Miss Tetanus.” Winter Frost called. “Might I advise a pregnancy test after this all blows over?” To that suggestion, Tetanus face hoofed with an audible slap.

The Door screeched again, and Rust Bucket killed the light. We took a few steps forward and watched for who it was. From what we could see, it was Mhambi and Micro Fusion stepped in.  When the doors closed right behind them, it Mhambi in the flank, making her squeak in surprise.

Rust Bucket cast his light spell once more, and the we stood there looking at our two worried friends. “We are so glad your okay.” We spoke up.

“Miss Prism, do you know what is going on?” Mhambi asked. “Is Cloud Bouncer with you?”

We shook our head “Cloud Bouncer... is gone.”

Mhambi’s jaw dropped.  After a moment, she took a deep breath, regaining her composer. “Why do the good stallions always die first?” Shaking her head, she huffed and looked us in the eyes. “It’s clear that working things out peacefully is not going to happen. I’m no fighter, but you have some strength, maybe you can help do what needs to be done?”

We sighed. “Yes, we are an alicorn, but we are no fighter.  When mother left us, we lost the will to fight. I’m sorry, but we're not the pony you need.”

The hopeful zebra looked around the room, getting head shakes from everyone we could see. Letting her hooves spread out from under her, she flopped to the ground. “Then that’s it then. The wasteland wins again, and the innocent must suffer.”

*Clang*

The sound of metal hitting metal echoed loudly within the room, and Rust Bucket shined his light over to where the sound came from. A vent covering had fallen from the upper section of the wall, and out from it, the rump of a small sea blue foal began to stick out. Falling from the vent and hitting the ground with a roll, Star Charter quickly stood up. Her long curly sea green mane was a complete mess, but we could not have been happier to see her. The small filly sat up as tall as she could, brushing her mane out of her face. 


“I can fight!” She had the biggest smile, like killing ponies was something she should be proud of. Still, the others upon hearing this seemed to gleen some hope from her zelos words. “Not like I haven’t killed a pony or three before. So what are we waiting for?”



______________________________________



Footnote:


New Quest - The lies that bind us.
> Chapter 11 - Problematic Negotiations part 3
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	 




We face hoofed, trying to comprehend the situation, and keep our composure. Star Charter stood before us, a big smile on her face, completely willing to fight the enclave. We stomped our hoof on the ground. “NO, you get back in there, and return to your room with the others.”

Star gave me a look of annoyance. “Why yes, let’s all stayed locked up, and wait for our execution.” She kicked the metal grate next to her. “I’ve seen this game, never ends well. Oh, they say they are here to protect us foals, but one by one they will disappear into the night, never seen again. Well I don’t plan on being a dolled up whore for some feather brained fools!”

We, we didn’t know how to respond to that, we could only stand there, feeling like somepony had stabbed us in the gut. Something about that last part of her words felt too familiar.

“I like this kid!” Tetanus spoke up.  “She’s got spunk.”

“We don’t care. She’s too young to be in this mess, so she should listen to us and return to safety.” We were going to put out hood down on this. We didn't take her away from Blackwater just to involve her in another fucking fight! Pointing our hoof at Star, we glared at her. “Now go, before they know you're missing.”

Star stared at us for a moment, and shrugged. “Can’t do, Lard ass can’t go backwards”

“Who?” We blurted out. Looking up at the vent, the head of another foal popped out, and pushed themselves out of the vent, managing to flip themselves onto their hooves. It was the Colt from before, the one that futilely kicked at out hooves before.

The colt looked around, and immediately pointed at Rust Bucket and Tetanus as soon as he saw them. “See, I told you they’d be here. Dipshit, and whore face. I knew I heard them fucking the other day.”

The colt was quickly hoisted into the air, and slammed against the wall, held by Tetanus’s magic. “Mind repeating that you little shit?” She growled at the foal.

Another foal flopped out of the vent, this one fluttering her wings, making her descent to the ground a gentle floating down. Toffee looked as brash as always, and her eyes lit up as soon as she saw us. “Thank goodness, Is the doctor here? He needs to help uncle Cool Mint, I heard he was here.”

Winter Frost stepped over to the filly looking down at her with genital eyes. “Cool Mint was it? I remember that name. Suffers from a heart condition that prevents him from being too active, am I right?”

The filly nodded. “Yes, he needs his heart medication, but no pony will help us!” Toffy rushed over to Winter, and hugged his leg. “You can help him right?”

He patted the filly on the head. “There should still be a few more pills left, once he recovers from the pony pox, all he’ll need to do is not exert himself and he will be fine.”

We stepped over, feeling a little defeated. “But he needs the medicine first, right?” The doctor nodded, and we sighed. “Which means we need to get out of here first, and fight off the Enclave.”

Star Trotted over. “The first part is easy. Some of the others are already off to open the door” Looking down at her, she still had a big smile on her face. “Stupid Feather brains never understood that the unicorn foals had been sneaking out there holding cell from day one. They even snuck some food in… well, after I threaten to snap Carvers neck.” She looked back at the colt who was talking with Tetanus. “Luckily they had a bunch of meat stockpiled, the Pegasus had not even touched it.”

This was a small relief to us, for as long as Star was properly fed, her curse would be kept in check. “Fine, I’ll let you help us, but you must stay out of danger.” We looked deep in her eyes, and a cold chill ran down our spine. “Do you promise?”

The pirate filly blinked, and rolled her eyes. “Fine, fine. But if you’re in trouble, I’ll be there to get you out of it, like I am now.”

Hoof steps came up around me, Mhambi stepping next to us. “Excuse me, but I may have a plan.”

Star Charter grumbled. “A Zebra with a plan, what’s new?” She pointed her hoof at Mhambi, and chuckled. “I bet you plan is to get high, and charge whoever comes through the door. Typical Zebra.”

Mhambi raised an eyebrow. “How is this typical of my kind?”

She giggled to herself “Because it is. Chesil came straight from Roma, knew how to make some strange potions, and got herself thrown overboard when trying to rob pony thrice her age. Same thing happened to another Zebra. Thought they were hot shit, got stabbed to death. Same to some Zebra Stallion that wanted me to be his concubine, whatever that is. Victory sent him away with one less leg.”

Our Zebra friend took a step back. “Roma still exists?”

Star Shrugged. “Don’t know. But I heard that Zebras still live where it was.”

Taking a deep breath, Mhambi recomposed herself. “Let us talk about such things later, we must first plan how we are to beat the enclave. Can you foals obtain some weapons for us?”

Star scratched her chin, and looked over at the colt that followed her. “Hey Carver, how many guns did you say you can get?”

The colt was being held down by Tetanus, her hoof on his back. “Five pipe pistols, and a shit ton of bullets.” Tetanus took her hoof off Carver, and he sat up. “It’s not much, but it’s enough for anypony to know not to mess with a crusader. We even have ammunition for guns we hope to get out hooves on.”

“Any in 5.56?” Star asked.

Carver sighed. “Like I said, yes, we got a case of the shit, just no guns to use it.”

Star looked up at us, big grin on her face. “Hear that, ammo for my rust gun.”

Mhambi cleared her voice. “So then we have guns and bullets, we just need to obtain them, and then we can fight our way out of here.” She looked over to us. “Miss Prism, I hate to ask so much of you, but could you scout out and see if there’s anything you can do to help us defeat Air Burst?”

“We’re no fighter. What would we do?” we asked back, feeling nervous about the whole thing.

She closed her eyes, and looked like she was deep in thought. “Finding weapons would be one thing, but maybe something that would turn the other Pegasi against him.  That, or an act of sabotage that would throw his soldiers into disorder.” Mhambi sighed, and shook her head. “Anything will help, so just keep an eye out.”

A clunk from the door caught out attention, and we all returned to the shadows as Rust Bucket snuffed out his own light. The door slowly opened, but nopony stepped out to greet us. 


“It’s clear!” the voice of a foal called out softly from the hallway.

“Good, then we can get started” The Colt Carver, stepped out into the light made coming from the door. “Anypony want to run for it?”

Tetanus was the first to step forward, but was soon stopped by Mhambi. “Get out of the way, bitch!”  She snarled.

Mhambi shook her head. “Not yet, we have somepony who can guide the way, unseen. I suggest we let Prism scout out for us. She is the only one of us who can.”

Tetanus looked over at us, and stuck up her nose. “Fine, but she better not take too long or I’m making a break for it.”

We took a step closer to the light, seeing a unicorn filly looking back at us in fear. “We will not be long.” We said back to the others. “Weapons, ammo, and a quick way out of here. That’s the most we can promise.” Casting our invisibility spell, we trotted out into the hallway, the door closing behind us as two foals spun the door latch.

Leaving the prison behind us, the first room we came across caught our attention, it mostly being empty other than my saddle bag being in the middle of the room. Grabbing the bag, we confirmed that all our gear was there, all of it being Stars weapons and tools. This includes the rust gun Star was fond of. It would be a good weapon if things turned ugly. The sword, and her navigation equipment were also there, undamaged. Placing the saddlebag onto our back, we continued down the hall, looking for anything to help the others.

It was all very quiet, though the noise of ponies could be heard in the distance. Coming to a fork in the hallway, to our left was the sound of laughter, and some music. To the right, the faint sound of hoof steps, and nothing more. Wanting to avoid running into ponies, we chose right, hoping this will stay calm.

The sound of glass shattering hit our ears. “Please stay still Mr. Mist! You’re going to hurt yourself” The pleading voice of a mare piped up from a room nearby. Inside was a room full of sick pegasi, and one Pegasus mare with a white cap on her head, caring for them. One of the ponies was thrashing around as the mare desperately tried to hold him down. “Please stop!”

“Let me go short tail strumpet, I need to see them, they need me!” The stallion shouted with a great intensity to his voice.

We watched for a moment, and felt something twist in our gut. Like mother taking control, we stepped forward, and pressed our magic down onto the thrashing stallion, holding him in place. This caused our invisibility to fade, but the mare ignored us as she injected the stallion, which made him relax. Letting the stallion go, we only just then realized the mistake we had made.

“Thank you.” The mare squeaked. “Mr. Mist has been hard to keep calm ever since his foals got sick. I keep telling him that he needs to conserve his energy for her, but the stubborn fool will not listen.”

We sighed. “We know how he feels.” Looking around the room, there were other ponies lying in cots, or simply on the floor. A few had sheets over their head. The mare herself had a dirty white outfit, speckled with dry blood. The mare seemed to be quite young, had to be barely out of her teens, yet she sported a black eye, was thin as a pony going into starvation, and held a stare that ponies only get after seeing a lot of death. Under all the dirt and grime, we could see she was a light pink mare, both in coat and mane. Though, her mane seemed to have a single, cherry red streak through it. “Why are you alone? There should there be others here to help with you.”

Her green eyes watered up. “They’re all sick. And the doctor...” The tears began to fall from her face. “The doctor is missing, and nopony will tell me why.” She tied to wipe the tears away, but only smudged grime on her face. “I’m only an intern, I’m not certified to do any of this.”

Stepping up to the mare, we wrapped her in our wing. “There, there, it’s going to get better, you just need to stay strong.” She buried herself into our chest, crying. “We know where there should be medicine for the pony pox, and where Winter Frost is.”

She pushed back from us, and looked us in the eyes. “You do?” We nodded, and the look on her face beamed. “Tell me, we need the doctor, and any medicine badly.”

Pushing the mare back with our wing, we sighed. “The doctor is currently imprisoned further back, at the end of the hall, after the first left. The medicine for Pony Pox is in the possession of the earth ponies outside of the ship.

Her ears drooped. “Doctor Frost is imprisoned, why? Mayor Bouncer would never allow this.”

“Cloud Bouncer is dead, Air Bust had him killed.” We shook our head. “He was trying to negotiate for the medicine to be sent to the ship, it all ended badly.”

The mare went limp, and we had to hold he up to keep her from hitting the floor. “Tell me you're lying. You have to be lying.” We shook our head. “That’s a lie, you’re telling lies!”

She attempted to pull away from us, but she did not have the strength to do so. The sound of a chuckle caught out attention. It was coming from a mare laying on the floor, she was charcoal black with an orange and yellow mane, and a large burn like scar on her left side that ended with a chewed up ear. “I believe it!” the mare spoke up, as she sat up. “Fucking Air Burst had sketch written all over his face from day one.”

The medical mare found her strength and, trotted over to the other mare with a worried look on her face. “Miss Powder keg, you need to lie down or you’re going to open up your wounds.”

She raspberried back at the medical mare. “Lick my cunt, Healing Breeze. Air Burst is an alpha asshole, and he doesn’t give two shits about anypony here.”

Healing Breeze pushed Powder Keg back to the floor, standing on her. “At this point, I’d do more than lick you, just as long as you shut up and let yourself rest up.”

Powder Keg’s eyes darted around the room. “Uh, ya, I can do that, but you better not get flakey on me.” She then looked over at me, and waved her hoof. “Whatever you are, you should go spy on Air Burst. From what I heard, he likes to hear his own voice, and I mean a lot. If he is plotting anything, he will likely talk about it when he thinks nopony can hear him.” Healing breeze got up and turned to me, and Powder Keg slapped her flank, making the medical mares face go red. “There should be a holotape recorder three rooms down, we use them to record orders needing to be curried over long distances. If Captain Air Burst says anything stupid, I want to hear it.”

We watched as Healing breeze cheeks went red as she sat on Powder Keg, making the enclave mare gasp for a few seconds before Breeze got off of her. We found it cute, but we would not say it out loud. 


Stepping out of the room, we followed Powder Kegs instructions. Finding not one, but three holotape records, we looked them over. Two of them had tapes inside, but only one of them seemed to be working. We didn’t know all that much about old world technology, but we did remember seeing them in use before. Testing it out first, mostly to find out which one was the record button, we placed the recorder in our bag.

Satisfied, we left to go pay Air Burst a visit. Luckily nopony was walking through the hallways, so reaching the deck of the ship was uneventful. With makeshift homes on either side of us, we trotted over the bigger one at the end determined to find something to use against Air Burst.

“My dear citizens.” Air burst was standing alone on the second floor of the home, looking into a mirror as he spoke. We pressed record, ready to capture everything he said. “It is with great sorrow that I announce the death of a great stallion. Cloud Bouncer did his best to help everypony he could, and his life was cut short by some abomination of a drifter.” He coughed, and cleared his throat. “Maybe drifting abomination… this is why I hate giving speeches, If I could I’d just have a chip put in their heads, just give them all orders, and they do it.”

The older stallion patted some dirt off his uniform, and flapped his wings a few times. “Fucking idiot, he had to go talk with the savages. He should have just stayed here and done as I said. Then he would not have had to die. Whoever let him into politics should be shot too. This is why only those in the enclave military are meant to be in charge. As soon as some populist idiot gets in power, we have to assassinate them. Now I have to clean up his mess.” The stallion picked up a brush with his wing, and brushed back his mane. “Maybe I should just take the supplies, and head north, let the fools starve.”

Putting the comb down, he returned to looking at the mirror. “With great sorrow, yada, yada. This mare here, this abomination, this assassin. The one known as Prism Paint will face her execution. Justice will be served by firing squad.” He chuckled to himself. “Quick, efficient, and with no last words. That should get the citizens on my side.”

We stopped the recording, satisfied with what we had obtained. Truthfully, we wanted to snap his neck right here, end this all. But something else boiled up in us, the want to see him humiliated, shown for the corrupt monster he is. If he wanted justice, we will give it to him, wasteland style.

Turning away from where we were, and trotting to the door to take us below deck, we could not help but chuckle to ourselves. We were not the kind to enjoy violence, but deep down, we were going to enjoy this.



______________________________________



	Footnote:

Quest perk - Friends you have yet to meet - Prism may be an imposing mutant, feared by the ponies of the wasteland, but her calm and friendly demeanor throws all that off. When meeting new ponies Prism gains +10 to charisma when talking to them, and if she helps them, she gets an instant success on one charisma check.
	
> Chapter 12 - Problematic Negotiations part 4
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------







The door closed behind us with an annoyingly loud creek. Though the enclave had no guards nearby, it still worried us that it may give away that we were not actually locked up. Dropping our saddle bag on the ground lightly, we had picked up a few other confiscated items from the room our bag was being held. Nothing all that useful, just pieces of armor, some cloths, and a combat knife.

“That’s all you found?” Star Charter said disappointedly.

We shook our head, and brought out the holotape recorder. “We believe this might be useful.” Star Cocked her head, looking unsure. So instead of explaining it, we simply pressed play as the others gathered around.

Everyone remained silent as they listened to the recording.  After hearing it, all in the room seemed deep in thought. Mhambi was the first to respond, nodding her head before speaking. “We can use this, but we will need to be quick about it.”

“Bahh, just stab the fucker and run.” Rust Bucket blurted out before Tetanus slapped him on the side of the head. “What? It’s worked for me in the past.”

“They can fly, ya moron.” Tetanus chastise. “So unless you can breathe under water, or burro through the ground, we go no place to run too.”

“Agreed” Doctor Winter Frost spoke up. “And if what the ghouls have told me is true, outside these walls are a few crazed alicorns whom are up to no good. And that’s only if the raiders waiting outside don’t get to us first.”

Rust Bucket chuckled. “Oh ya, some of ya mentioned they’re still out there. Which means we two got a place to run too.”

Mhambi cleared her throat loudly, getting their attention. “Now I don’t care if you run back to your raider friends, but I doubt you would make it with a team of angry laser welding Pegasus after you.” Rust Buckets ears drooped. “So then, we need a proper plan, and thanks to Prism, we have all we need to make it work.”

Micro Fusion trotted over with an ammo crate in his mouth. Dropping it, the crate flopped open, revealing the ammo needed for the rust gun. “Right. So I’m no expert, but I’m guessing this involves miss Prism going all super invisible ninja for us.”

Shaking her head, Mhambi took the recording. “Actually were doing the exact opposite. Miss Prism here will be attending her execution.”

“What!?” We blurted out. “We do not like the idea of being turned to ash.”

“No, no.” Mhambi said in a friendly tone. “You will be there, but we will not let you be executed.” She passed the recording over to Winter Frost. “We will get the pegasus themselves to turn on the good captain. But it will need to come from some pony they trust, like the only doctor here, or they will doubt its authenticity. Trust me on this, I’ve seen a few ponies trot to their death, all because the warning they got came from a stranger.”

Winter Frost nodded. “So do I just play this message to every pony I see?”

She shook her head. “Sounds like he will be doing a public execution, so take it to the ponies that would be there, but not the ones who will side with Air Burst.”

“I know.” We spoke up. “Air Burst mentioned that some of the enclave troops were the kind that the enclave wanted to get rid of, and half of them had gotten sick with the pox. So there has to be others right?”

The doctor chuckled to himself. “Yes, I think I know who you’re talking about. One of them got caught trying to steal some Med-X from our supply’s. The pony was sent to guard the lower deck of this ship, basically to be kept out of the way. A few others were sent down there, or volunteered for the work just to stay away from the sick. Last I heard, they were cooking a Mire-lurk down there and playing a game of poker.”

“I like them already.” Star Chimed in.

We sighed, and Mhambi spoke up. “Then get the recording to them, the sooner, the better. Even if we can arm ourselves, Air Burst still has us outgunned. So having some of the enclave solders fighting on our side will be a must.”

“Simple enough.” Winter Frost nodded. “Well, probably not. But I can at least try.”

“You go with him,” We looked down at Star Charter, who had just finished loading her rust gun and the spare magazines. “make sure he is safe.” She scowled at us, but we cut her off before she could back talk. “Just do as we say, we will have the rest covered.”

She huffed, and crossed her hooves. “Fine, but if you get yourself killed, I’ll be really crossed.”

We chuckled, and shooed her away. The door opened, and the Winter and Star quickly left, along with another foal, who we guessed was their guide.

Turning back to the other, we sighed. “So, how do we attend the execution without being executed.”

Mhambi smiled. “Let’s just say that you are going to make Air Burst sweat a few bullets thanks to you being such a big pony.” She pulled Stares Cutlass from her bag, and propped it up next to our wing. “This might work; you will just need to be vary patent”




____________________________________________________________




Time passed, an hour and a half from what Micro fusion told us.  It was lucky that his pipbuck was still accurately able to tell the time, even with his mutation. Regardless, that’s when Air Burst came for us. The others were left alone, as the soldiers showing no interest in anything other than taking the one of us. We were the one who witnessed the murder, and from what Mhambi suggested, we would make the best execution subject, while the rest can be killed quietly and out of the way.

The hallway had grown more quiet. Though still had sick ponies coughing and moaning, but the sounds of ponies rushing around to help them had stopped. It felt like they had been abandoned, left to slowly die on their own. We could only shake our head at the thought, so many Pegasus with no place to go, and lacking the strength to help themselves.

Despite the threats from the soldiers to disintegrate us if we did anything strange, we arrived at the top of the deck with no problems. It was sunset, the sun now hanging low and red in the sky.  It actually gave everything quite a foreboding feeling. A crowed of pegasi had formed in a neat bunch, in front of what looked like a stage. Many of them had brightly colored coat that contrasted with their dark muddy stains. It was like a rainbow that somepony had splashed mud onto. Most of them looked confused, and a few angry. But of course, they all went hushed when they saw us. All we could do was keep our head held high. Though mother had died, we were still representative of her, which meant we still had her pride.

The walk through the crowd felt slowed. Their eyes were on us with every step, like they were waiting for us to run away.The stage was a raised platform made of wood, and supported by bricks. Our hooves stepped onto it, and it felt strong enough to support us, but still bowed a little under our weight. Turning around, we could see all the ponies in the crowd looking back up at us.

“This is the face of the wasteland. a mockery of what was once a rich and good land, but now a fake and cruel mockery.” Air Burst descended, landing on a wooden box next to us, putting him at equal height with us, if a bit taller. A few more soldiers joined the ones who escorted us, their energy guns ready to kill at a moment’s notice. Air Burst for a moment glared daggers at us, before returning his attention to the crowed, and I knew what was coming next. “My Dear Citizens. It is with great sorrow that I announce to you the death of a great stallion. Mayor Cloud Bouncer did his best to help every pony he could, but his life was tragically cut short by this drifter, this... abomination.” He slammed his hoof down onto the box to emphasizes the last word.

A hushed whispering fell over the crowd. They looked worried and shocked, and one pony even fainted from the news. 


“It happened all too fast.” Air Burst continued, catching the crowd's undivided attention. This witch papered from thin air, killing the mayor after failing to seduce him into selling us out to the savages below. He had come to warn us of this betrayal, and died soon after.” The good captain ground his hateful hooves into the box, faking anger. “It happen all too fast, and all my soldiers could do was capture her. It was too late for the mayor. I was forced to watch the life drain from his eyes as I held him in my hooves.” An image of a blue mare formed in our head, giving the captain a five out of ten for his performance. But despite how much of an amateur actor the captain was, the crowed was easily swayed, and their glares seemingly burned into our soul.  

We opened our mouth to speak, but the barrel of an energy rifle jabbed into our leg. The message was clear. Speak up, and die.

Air Burst got off of the box, and as he looked away from the crowed, I could see a wicked grin form on the side of his face. “I wanted to kill her then and there, sate my feelings of vengeance. But no, justice must be served. So she is here for you to share in that justice with me.” Opening the box, he pulled out a smooth round rock. Four of his soldiers trotted over and picked up a few of the rocks, and began disrupting them among the crowed. “Justice can only be done through the will of the citizens. So I ask you this: Will you pass judgment upon this assassin, whom took an important pony from us, who threatened to sell us into slavery? Let your heart speak true.”

We stood there as the crowd fell silent, and each of them was given a rock. A few murmurs could be heard as some of them talked silently between each other, but others looked us in the eyes, as we could see hatred form on their face.

*Clunk* One rock fell next to us, hitting the wood. The guards that were keeping a close eye on us backed off.

“KILL THE ABOMINATION!” Another rock flew through the air, hitting us on the side. The pain jolted through our wing, and up to our side. We had to clench our teeth just so to keep ourselves from defending ourselves.  

“JUSTICE!” another stone flew, this time at our head. We flinched, and moved our head to avoided the worst of it. The rock hit our cheek, and I knew I heard something crack. The pain itself was like a kick to the face, starting as a sharp stab, and ending like somepony had burned us.

More rocks began to fly. “Murderer!” Most of the stones hit out center body, it hurt, but it was not as bad as our face. “Savage!” Some of the rocks missed us, falling around our legs. “Monster!” Some ponies attempted to hit our face, but none made direct contact, only grazing our face.

The cowed suddenly fell silent once more. *Cluck* a stone fell to our left, much too far away to have been thrown at us. Looking, we saw that Air Burst had fallen over, his face now bloody, and a stone rolled away from him slowly. “Ten points, Fuck YA!” it had come from the crowd, a voice of a young mare. Scanning we saw who it was, Star Charter, standing on the head of a larger stallion.

“Fucking savage.” Air burst got back up on all fours, spitting out a tooth. “Kill her, kill the goddess damned savage.” He bellowed as he pointed a hoof at Star.

Star Laughed. “Come get me ye goddess-less heathen.” She jumped off the stallion, and into the crowd.

The Enclave soldiers flew up, and began to circle the crowd, their energy rifles aimed down at the confused ponies. The crowed itself didn’t know what to do, and the murmuring became much louder. Two of the soldiers dove in and began to push the crowd aside, looking for the devious filly.

Air Burst trotted over to us, with a look of hate on his face. “That damned runt. Should have thrown her in the boiler along with all the other savage foals.” Spitting some more blood on the floor, he gave a wide, toothy grin. “But I will be satisfied with you seeing her broken body on the floor, dead as can be.”

*Clank* from our wing dropped the cutlass, no longer able to hold ourself back from dealing with him.

The old captain looked down at the sword, and then back up at us. His look of smug hatred turned to shock in an instant. He pulled out his energy pistol in a second, but not fast enough for us to knock it out of his hooves with the Blackwater cutlass. With him now unarmed, we put the point of the sword under his chin and took a step towards him. Shifting the blade, we moved him so that we were holding him between our wing and the sword. We now had him hostage, and it was time to turn the tides on his soldiers.

“Every Pony STOP!” The amplified voice of Mhambi echoed loudly. The old ship’s PA system was now on, and somehow Mhambi had gained access to it. Her voice caused everyone to pause, with many of the pegasus quieting down at the request, and refocusing on Air Burst and us. “I know most of you are confused and angry. Losing one’s home is tough, but it’s the tragic reality of the wasteland. However, you must not let yourself be fooled by those who seek to use you, or be led astray by ponies with ill intentions. The one thing that matters most in the wasteland, is the truth. Without it, justice is nothing more than a hollow idea that can be twisted by those who would seek to abuse it.”

Now the soldiers were aiming their guns back onto us, so we held the sword closer to Air Burst neck, to show that we were serous.  From the way that they stood, it felt to us that they’d gotten the message loud and clear.

Mhambi continued “I know you are scared, hurting, and want a solution to this more than anything, but that’s not going to happen. To be honest, your good times in the world above? They're gone, scattered along with the clouds you once called home. But I can offer you something that most wasteland ponies never have. Truth and direction. A way to not be swallowed up by the wasteland, and become just another group of survivors destined to become raiders. So please listen, and give yourselves a chance to understand what’s truly going on. The mare who stands before you? She means to help you all. But the stallion, Air Burst, is nothing more than a lying murderer.”

White noise filled the air as a soft clicking started over the PA System. We stood there with a smile across our muzzle as the recording of Air Burst began to play for all to hear.


“My dear citizens. It is with great sorrow that I announce the death of a great stallion. Cloud Bouncer did his best to help every pony he could, and his life was cut short by some abomination of a drifter. Maybe drifting abomination… this is why I hate giving speeches, If I could I’d just have a chip put in their heads, just give them all orders, and they do it… Fucking idiot, he had to go talk with the savages. He should have just stayed here and done as I said. Then he would not have had to die. Whoever let him into politics should be shot too. This is why only those in the enclave military are meant to be in charge. As soon as some populist idiot gets in power, we have to assassinate them. Now I have to clean up his mess. Maybe I should just take the supplies, and head north, let the fools starve.”

“With great sorrow, yada, yada. This mare here, this abomination, this assassin. The one known as Prism Paint will face her execution. Justice will be served by firing squad. Quick, efficient, and with no last words. That should get the citizens on my side.”

Another hush fell over the crowd as their eyes seemed to go from us, the now less than honorable captain.

“Hello.” The recording from the PA system continued. “This is Doctor Winter Frost, Son of Doctor Spring Showers. Early today I was detained by Air Burst soldiers over the crime of offering my assistance to a few new ponies that were in need of help. It was a short imprisonment, but it gave me all I needed to know about the good captain’s intentions. I had also learned that the Mayor had gone down to see the ponies below to retrieve medication for the pox, but only learned that our own people had arranged to be sold into slavery by Air Burst himself. Personally, I’m not one to simply believe the words of an outsider, but then again, they’re not the ones who threw me in a cell with two raiders and locked the door. So do I believe that he is up to no good? Yes, yes I do.”

The crowd became much louder now, there voices angry and confused. Star Charter popped out from under them, and climbed onto the stage. “Oy! Ya still not cut off the bloke’s head yet!” She said with a smile. She now had her Rust gun on and pointed right at Air Burst. “Funny thing is, I actually respect ya. Taking control of a group of ninnies, killing off your competition, and using the outsider ponies as a scapegoat? Now if you could just find the goddesses in your heart, you make a right good pirate.”

Captain Air Burst spat blood in the filly’s face. “This is not over, not by a long shot.” We felt something collide with us, it was one of his soldiers, and our hold onto Air Burst loosened. The old stallion slid from us, and immediately jumped into the air. Joined by his soldiers, he glared back at us. “This is fine, not like the group of fools can fight back.” Pointing a hoof at us he smirked. “Kill them, and round up the civilians! That fool Elderberry is going to owe us big for this.”

A line of pink nearly missed Airburst, only singing her ear. It was the stallion that Star had used as a platform to throw the rock from before. Clad in a messy enclave uniform, he was aiming his energy rifle directly at Air Bust. Two other dirty enclave soldiers popped out of hiding and fired at Air Burst soldiers. As the fight started, the flying soldiers fired back. It was a panic as the cowd burst in every direction across the deck, looking for a place to hid. In the confusion, we cast our the invisibility spell, and scooped up Star under our wing as we jumped for cover. As we did, a pink beam nearly hit us, landing at where we had just been standing.

Under cover, we had to cancel out spell to conserve our energy. This was followed by a short gasp, as our hiding spot was also being used by a few Pegasus. “D…don’t kill us, p-please?” Asked a mare.

We shook our head. “We will not. If you can just stay low for a short while, we will help you to safety.  Can you do that?” We asked, as the mare seemed unsure of what to make of our offer. The mare hesitated for a moment, and then nodded. “Good, We don’t have much energy left, but we will do our best.” 

Things had become worse then Mhambi said they would, but we trusted her judgment on this. We needed to focused on helping ponies, and leave the fighting to others. The hard part was going to keep Star Charter from joining the fight. Even without looking, we knew that the blood lust in her eyes was getting harder to ignore. Something about her seemed to crave the violence, and here we were in the middle of a fire fight.



____________________________________________________________




Footnote:

Faction Status Change:

- Enclave Remnants –Accepted < Mischievous Outsider
> Chapter 13 - Problematic Negotiations part 5
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------



	 



A few more lines of pink light shot over all of us. The pegasi with us cowered behind the supply crate we had brought in early, desperately hiding from the fight. With how the soldiers were darting through the air, we would need to get below deck to get to safety fairly quickly.

“Surrender now, Captain Air Burst!” Mhambi’s voice boomed from the intercom. “We will guarantee that you are given a fair trial, and that your subordinates will be pardoned. There is no need to continue thi…” 


There was a fizzle and crack from the intercom before it went silent. We could only hope that nothing bad had happen to her, and that the intercom was simply faulty. Looking down at the panicked pegasi, we knew that we needed to get them to safety. Cloud Bouncer would have wanted more than anything that they survive. 


“We will be casting an invisibility spell, it should last for a few seconds. It should be a long enough time to get safely inside the ship.” A mare looked up at us, confused by our words. She was a creamy gray in color with a bright white mane, and blue dress that was in a serious need of a wash. “So when we say to, gallop to the door below deck.” She nodded. Concentrating, we cast the spell onto the mare. “Now, go!” We heard the clunk of her hooves on the metal floor, but nothing after that. This concerned us, and three seconds later she appeared in the sky, flying up. A beam of pink light hit the mare, and she came crashing down.

The sound she made was a wet crack, hitting the deck of the ship face first. If she did not die from getting shot, she was surely dead now. Dark crimson pooled around her, her white mane now soaking up the blood, losing its previous vibrance.

We looked back at the others, five more ponies, all eyes wide as can be. Pointing at the next closest, a stallion, he flinched. “Don’t do what she did!” I instructed.  Of course, he nodded vigorously, and I prayed that he did truly understand.

All five pegasus did as we had instructed. They managed to run to safety, as our spell succeeded in keeping them from getting targeted. Next, was to get Star Charter out of… and she was gone. Not under us, on us, or near us, she was simply gone. “Dammit all.”  I muttered as I looked around for the illusive filly.

“Freeze, Abomination!” one of Air Burst soldiers landed to our side. His energy rifle was at the ready, but his legs were shaking. “Move an inch, and y-your ash.”

We eyed the pegasus, our energy too weak to do much of anything that could save ourselves. “We will not move.”

He narrowed his glare at us. “Good. Once we suppress this little rebellion, the Captain will want to deal with you personally.”

*Clunck* 


A rock fell onto the deck behind the pegasus, and began rolling towards the solder. As though by reflex, the pegasis took flight into the air.  We were not sure if he’d mistaken it for a weapon, but it had a predictable effect.

*Tat* *Tat* *Tat* *Tat* *Tat* *Tat* *Tat*

Before the pegasus could respond, bullets ripped his uniform and spraying blood into the air. With a thud, the solder hit the deck again, gasping for air. Star Charter trotted up to the downed pegusus with a smile on her face. 


“Carving Doll was right, most pegasus get dumb when thinking their dodging a grenade. They forget that they need to keep moving.” She kicked the solder lightly, and chuckled. “I’d put you out of your misery, but some pony has me sword.” Looking up, she glanced at us. We simply glared back at her. She backed away from the dyeing pony, and trotted over to us, putting on a less than confident grin.

“It’s my sword,” We said as disapproving as possible.  “not me sword.”

She rolled her eyes at us, “Says the over grown mare who talks as though she is a group.”

We sighed. “Hush now, we need to get below deck before this gets worse.” Levitating Star onto our back, we cast the invisibility spell one more time. It always feet more natural cast on our self then it did when we cast it onto others. Trotting with haste, we were confident that no pony could hear us over the fighting, and quickly reached the door to the deck below. Looking back, the sun was at the back of the ponies attacking Air Burst, forcing him, and his soldiers to take refuge in the larger building at the end of the ship.

With a sigh, we turned back downstairs, so to leave the battle behind. Our hooves clopped on the rusted metal, and we had to keep our head down as to not hit our horn on the ceiling.


“You stop right there!” A mare commanded. She was a blue pegasus in the same enclave uniform as the rest of Air Burst solders. “I may not be able to see you freak, but I know your there.” She tapped on her magical lazier rife and smirked. The rifle had a longer barrel with five smaller gems at the front instead of the one, and were a big boxy body would have been, was three thinner ones. “This baby here shoots a scatter shot of magic at twenty beams a second. There’s no way I can miss, so you better show yourself.”

“I can take her.” Star whispered into our ear. “It will be easy.”

The mares rifle hummed to life, and the three narrow bars spun within the gun. We must speak up.  “We surrender.” Dispelling the invisibility spell, we turned Star around, where she then gave an irritated groan. Star may have taken her, but we had no doubt that the mare would have fired as well, possibly killing us.

“Good.” The solder spat.  She was a lot more confident than the stallion from outside. “Now, back away slowly and drop any weapon you have.” The odd laser rifle stopped humming and spinning. But she kept the weapon trained on us, along with a cocky smirk on her face.

We complied, placing the sword and Star on the stairs. We were not going to just yank the rust gun off of her, as it would only have aggravated the filly even more.  More than likely it would have convinced her to run off again.

Star crossed her forehooves and pouted. “Back on the Blackwater, this cunt would have been dead already.”

The rifle hummed back to life. “What was that your dirt runt?” The soldier growled.

“D. E. A. D. Dead.” Star Charter said slowly. “Or do ya got wax in your ears, heathen.”

The mare took one step forward, and suddenly became very stiff. Her eyes locked with Stars. The stayed locked with each other for a few seconds, then ten, then twenty. The absurd staring contest was broken up by Doctor Winter Frost, who plunged a syringe into the mare’s neck. The mare slowly began to wobble, and then promptly fell over. The good Doctor quickly disarmed the mare, placing the rifle off to the side.

“Thanks for the save, Doctor.” We spoke appreciatively as we picked up or things.

“Glad to help.” Winter pulled out a sheet, laying it on the floor before she proceeded to drag the mare onto it. “But the sooner this fight is over, the better. I have a few patients who have gotten worse due to lack of care. We need that medicine, and soon.”

Trotting over, we lifted the strange laser rifle, and a thought crossed our mind. “It be easy for us to end this now; Air Burst would not see us until it was too late.” And with this weapon, it would be all the easier.

Winter Frost paused for a moment, and then shook his head. “That would be a bad idea. It would work, but I don’t think the others would be able to trust you if you did. If anything, we need to take care of our own, not have some outsider do it for us.”

We sighed. “Then what do we do, how do we stop this?”

He scratched his chin for a moment. “Air Burst, as long as I’ve known him, has been a cunning fool. Too smart for his own good, and overly Prideful too. I bet he is only acting this way because nothing is going the way he wanted it too. As much as the Enclave think they can make good politicians, the truth of the matter, they don’t. They only had all the power because they held all the keys to power. Whatever he wanted, he just had to ask Enclave command for it. Same for every pony here, but he would always get what he wanted or needed, first. That gave him some power others didn’t have. But now, that power is gone, and every pony turned to Cloud Bouncer for leadership.”

“And now Cloud Bouncer is dead.” We added.

“Sadly, yes.” Winter said with a sigh. “Before the clouds parted, most of us understood how little power our elected officials had. I wouldn’t be surprised if their real job was to keep us all pacified, and not thinking about how much control the enclave had over us all. Well, after the clouds broke apart, and our town fell to the ground, Cloud Bouncer was the one who organized the migration to this place. I think that’s what got so many ponies on his side, even the ones that use to turn to Air Burst.”

We placed the laser rifle in our bag, making sure it was off, so that we would not accidentally hurt ourselves. “So how does this help us?”

“Right, sorry, I was getting to that.” The doctor gave us a soft grin. “You need to convince him to leave, return to what’s left of the enclave. He only has power through the enclave, and if he stays here, either some pony will kill him, or he will end up killing every pony here. I doubt he has crossed the line of mass murder, so convincing him of this point should be enough to get him to leave here.” Winter then pointed at the unconscious pony on the ground. “You might want to take her with you. Air Burst may be a scoundrel, but he does seem to care for his subordinates.”

We levitated the mare onto out back and turned around. “Oh, Doctor Winter, there’s a badly injured pony upstairs, don’t know if he is still alive, but…”

“Say no more.” He cut us off. “Take me to him, I got a few healing potions on me.”

When we resurfaced, the fighting above had died down, with the two sides now taking pot shots at each other from their defensive positions. Luckily, the supply container blocked the injured soldier from the view of the rest of his friends, so all we needed to do was take a shot invisible trot over to him.

Once across with us, Doctor Winter Frost got to work quickly. The badly wounded soldier was still alive, but had lost lots of blood. It was amazing how fast Winter was, removing bullets with a dexterity and precision nearly on par with a unicorn, before pouring a little bit of healing potion into the wounds. In a short few minutes, the Pegasus was patched up, though he still looked weak. 


“Are there any others?”  Winter asked.

We shook our head. “All the ones I saw get hurt died soon after.”

“A shame.” Winter Frost packed up his things, looking depressed. “Right, take these two over to Air Burst. It should at least get him to listen to you. I’ll take little Star Charter here back down below deck.”

“Hey, I’m staying with Prism!” She protested with a growl.

“A pony as troublesome as you are going to get her killed.” He calmly countered. She turned to us with a grunt, and we simply picked her up by the tail. We casted the invisibility spell on them, and put Star onto his back. And then they were gone, and hopefully off to safety.

Steeling ourselves, we took a deep breath, and a slow exhale. Two ponies on our back. If the worst comes and they attack, we can use them as a pony shield. Going invisible one more time, we felt small twinge of pain at the base of our horn, a clear sign we were near the end of what we can do magically. When this was all over, we were going to need to take a long radiation bath to get our energy back to normal.

Trotting over to the house Air Burst and his soldiers were holding up in was easy enough. The other Enclave ponies were keeping watch over the building, with the setting sun at their back. Their uniforms were clearly dirtier, a few with little decorations on them, a clear contrast to the clean and neat uniforms of Air Bursts soldiers.

At the door, we did the first thing that came to mind, and knocked. There was some shuffling, and whispering coming from the other side. “Who’s there!?”

“The mare you tried to execute.” We responded flatly. “We’ve got two of yours here, you want them back?”

More whispering, and the sound of something glass being knocked over. “How do we know you’re not here to kill us?”

We rolled our eyes. “We would not have knocked if we were going to kill you. We want to talk.” The ponies on the other side whispered and shuffled around, but a deeper voice spoke up before the door creaked open.

The pegasi inside looked cramped inside. A few of them were pushed right up next to each other, all with their rifles at the ready, some at us, others out the window. Air Burst sat comfortably on a sofa, holding a bottle of wild Pegasus whiskey. Of course, the contents of the bottle long had vanished. As soon as the door closed, we canceled our spell, and passed the two unconcise ponies to the two closest ponies.

“So, you want to talk.” Air Burst said, sounding annoyed.  “Then talk.”

“Right, let’s get to the point of the matter.” We took another deep breath, and slow down. “You need to leave.  So just take want you can, and go away.”

Air Burst groaned. “So you want us to abandon every pony here, do you? And what, sell them out to the slavers? Let them be taken by the horrors of this putrid land?”

Irritated, we stomped out hoof on the ground. “Don’t go putting words in our mouth. You’re the ones who killed Cloud Bouncer and then placed the blame on us. And here’s the best part, it’s not a secret. If any pony does not know about that fact, they soon will.” We lowered our gaze at Air Burst, glaring at him. “You lost the trust of those here. Even if you do retake control, how many ponies will you have to kill to keep it? Who knows, it might be easier to count the ponies you’re not going to kill. But we warn you, there’s an army of raiders down there, and some insane alicorns further passed them.  After you're finished killing your own, how much ammunition do you think you will have left to deal with them?”

The soldier began to whisper among themselves, sharing worried glances. Air Burst simply slumped back into his seat, glaring back at us. “Is that what you think? And what will happen if we leave? I doubt the rejects and the civies will be able to properly defend themselves. My soldiers here, they’re highly trained, well equipped, and capable of dealing with any situation. Without them, what do you have.”

“The earth ponies down below.” We responded. “The ones Cloud Bouncer was trying to make a deal with, that was befor you killed him for it. They’ve been getting ready to defend themselves from the raiders, gathering guns and ammo. If combined with the ponies here, they should be able to properly fend off the raiders. Also with access to the boats, they would be able to make a supply lines, get in contact with traders. Also, one of the ponies we brought with us, they were taken out by a filly.”

Air Burst cocked an eyebrow at us, showing signs of deep thought as he scratched his chin slowly. “The slavers? You want to let the slavers in here to mingle with the civilians?” He gave out a quiet, but mocking chuckle. “Don’t play me as a fool. Like fuck would Elderberry even agree to such a thing and not have a catch.”

“Elderberry’s dead. The raiders strung him up by his own intestines.” We added. The captain paused as the stoic look on his face cracked a little. “Currently, Winter Berry is in charge down there. Also, she wants to see you, something about you being her type. I bet she would love to talk about how you have meetings with her father, all we would have to do is offer sanctuary here in exchange.”

The room was silent, and our eyes locked with Air Burst’s. The moment felt longer than it was, and was finally broken by Air Burst as he smashed the empty bottle on the table. 


“You know what, you’re right. We need to go.”  Air Burst reluctantly grumbled. The soldiers began mutter among themselves, but stopped when their captain raised his hoof up. “But be warned, we will return and reclaim this settlement for the Enclave. And when that happens, heads will roll.” Air Burst got out of his seat and stretched his wings. “Grab what you can, we have a long flight ahead of us.”

We watched as the pegasi packed up what they could, and one by one, left from what looked like a makeshift balcony that overlooked the town below. They climbed down a bit so to avoid being seen by the others, sticking to the shadows. Two of them holding their injured companions. Most of them gave us dirty looks as they left, and we were half expecting that they were going to shoot at us. But we stood firm and watched them go. Quickly, they shrank in the distant sky, soon becoming nothing more than dots on the horizon.

Satisfied, we trotted back down the stairs, the cramped house leaving little room for us to ever fit comfortably when standing.

“You know, I was hoping she’d kill the asshole.” The scratchy voice of a mare spoke up, and the smell of Tobacco filled our nose. “It’d have been justice; I’ll tell you what.” Lowering our head, we could see Mhambi and three enclave soldiers sitting at a small table in the room. One of the soldiers, a mare, was about halfway through smoking a cigar. The other two, both stallions had their rifles at the ready, but were more relaxed than Air Bursts soldiers were.

“Probably, but I am glad this did not end with more death.” Mhambi said softly. “On that note, we need to make our next move.” She looked over at us. “Sorry to keep relying on you like this, but we need to pay Winter Berry another visit.”

At this point, we were not surprised, not in the least.



______________________________________



Footnote:


Finished Quest - The lies that bind us.


Faction Status Change:	
- Enclave Remnants – Mischievous Outsider < Friend
> Chapter 14 - Problematic Negotiations part 6
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------



	 



The meeting went quickly enough, the general theme being that we didn’t have time to bicker. Mhambi had taken charge, and though the remaining Enclave didn’t seem to like it, they were flexible enough to defer to some pony who knew what was going on passed the ship. Though it was quite clear that they were only playing along so that they can get the medicine to their friends and family, something that Mhambi was willing to trust them on.

The Enclave mare in charge, Staff Sergeant Optical Spectrum, was an off white pony. Her uniform was a bit unkempt, and crudely patched up in a few spots. Her mane was short and spiky, with red, blue, and yellow colors adorning separate spikes. Of course, her tail matched the same colors, but was a bit longer then what we’ve seen most ponies have. Overall she had a more rugged look to her.  She felt like the kid of pony that didn’t like to be controlled, and liked to show it. We had little doubt that she was more than likely one of the ponies Air Burst had wanted to get sick and die.

Wasting no time, we descended down to the pier, and made our way over the bridge. The firefight had attracted a small crowd of earth ponies to the side of the ship, who now were slowly backing up, a small bit of fear in their eyes. We couldn't tell if they were mere merchants, part of the slave trade, or just simple ponies. At this point the ponies of Reka might as well be all three, and none at all, having lost everything just to survive.

“Right, so we need to isolate the bitch, and force her to give us the medicine.” Optical croaked, her voice sounding a bit burnt and not unlike some ghouls we’ve seen. We could only guess it was from the cigars she kept smoking.  Even now we could see one poking out of her uniform’s breast pocket. “You sure we can’t just kill her and take the goods?”

Mhambi shook her head, and sighed. “We’re dealing with merchants. Having you kill Winterberry would have the same effect on them as if I or Prism here had killed Air Burst in front of the other Enclave. The ponies of Reka would only turn on us, not at first, but over time they would. If we can, we must convince Winterberry to trade the medicine for our services. Doing it that way will make it easier to get the merchants to trust us, and keep any dissenters from trying to grab power.”

Optical rolled her eyes. “Right, this is why I hate politics. Too much worrying about other ponies feelings and such.” She stepped forward, pulling out a megaphone from her saddlebag. Turning on the old device, for a second it blasted an ear piercing screech. “Alright every pony, big fucking opportunity for you.” Her voice was amplified by the device. It was almost like how our sisters would announce ourselves in the name of the goddess, and it sent a shiver down our spine. “We’re forming a militia up on the ship. Don’t care who you are, as long as you’re willing to kill these raiders when they finally attack. As payment, were willing to take your family onboard, and under our protection. It’s a limited opportunity, so if you’re not on board by the time the raiders get passed that wall, well it’s your own damn problem to deal with.”

The small group began to mutter among themselves, then one jumped out. He was a young stallion, with a little filly hiding shyly behind him. “No lie? You’ll let us up there if we agree to fight off the raiders?” Optical gave an irritated look, and then nodded. The stallion smiled, and looked down at the filly. “See sis, we don’t need to give ourselves to Winter Berry like pa said. Better opportunities are all around! We just needed to be patient.” The filly frowned, but followed her brother over to us.  The stallion looked up to Optical and smiled.  “Please, Miss, just tell me what I need to do.”

Optical pointed over to two of her soldiers standing on the bridge. “Talk to them, they will direct you to where to go. I got better things to do right now.” The young stallion nodded, and skedaddled over to the two solders. Looking back to Mhabi, Optical shrugged. “That’s one.”

“One is a good start.” Mhabi said with confidence. “ First of many, once the word gets out to the rest, we should be seeing a lot more clamoring to join. From what I have seen of Winter Frosts’ operation, she has left most of the ponies out here to fend for themselves, so convincing them to fight for you should be easy enough. Once most of the ponies down here are on your side, it should give you enough leverage to make her rethink her plans. At the very least, it should wipe that smug look off her face.”

A Pegasus flew down from above, landing in front of us. Though his uniform was far less disheveled, he was still covered in grime like the others. Standing up straight, he saluted as he spoke up. “Sarge, permission to speak?”

“Speak.” Optical said flatly.

“All able body enclave civilians who are willing to fight have been gathered for militia training, and two soldiers have been sent to meet you at the earth pony base.” The stallion relaxed his hoof, but looked around nervously. “Sarge, permission to speak freely?”

She sighed. “Yes, what is it?”

“Are you sure this is a good idea?” He glanced over at one of the earth ponies. “I mean, letting these others in.”

“My honest opinion.” Optical sounded annoyed. “At best they would make good cannon fodder. But even I’m not so stupid to think we can do things just like we use to. The Enclave is dead, and we need to rethink how we’re going to survive. If that means taking in this group of earth ponies to help in that goal, then so be it. But don’t think I’m going to let them walk all over us, or let them keep to their simple, backwards ways. This will be a Pegasi town, even if we’re not in the clouds anymore.”

“Yes Ma’am.” The stallion saluted once more before he jumped into the air, flying off back onto the ship.

We could not help but feel a bit confused about what she had said. “What do you mean by Pegasi town? What’s the difference to any other kind?”

“Plenty.” Optical said flatly. “First off, once order is reestablished, we will need to elect a new mayor. From there, this whole shit hole will need to be cleaned up. Both figuratively and literally.  Civilized living is coming back to the wastes, and we’re going to cram it down their throats forcefully if we have to.”

“Not how I would put it, but I agree.” Mhabi chimed in. “Basically, the deal is that with the help from the Sergeant here, Bold Harbor will have Enclave Law, Order, and Governance. Not all of it, and definitely not the laws that put ponies like Air Burst in charge. But most of the ones the normal Pegasus citizens are used too.  A few dashes explained it to me a while back, and I have to say, their society was pretty fair. Outside the oppressive and expansive government, that is.”

“Right, we will need to be educated on the matter later.” We agreed, but were pleasantly alright with the thought of learning about it.

We continued down the path once again, the sun now behind the ship itself. It cast a long shadow over the town, and crated dark pockets in the few alleys and nooks. The news must have traveled quickly, as the earth ponies we had seen before were now packing up the materials they had gathered, some already trotting to the ship. In the dictance we could see one of the enclave ponies talking with a group of earth ponies. Smiles and nods coming from the pegasus, as the earth ponies tilted their head inquisitively. On earth pony slowly backed away, and grabbed their saddlebag, quickly running off in the direction of the ship. The other earth ponies paused for a moment, then clambered for their bags, before heading the same direction. The enclave pony brushed themselves off, but only managed to spread more mud on their uniform, with a defeated look and sigh, they flew off down an alley way, out of sight.

Outside the arena, two enclave ponies seemed to be staring down the two guards at the door.  Both of whom looked to be unsure what to do about them. As we trotted over, the guards straightened up at the sight of us. 

“Excuse us, we are going to speak with Winterberry once more.” We informed them. “So if you could kindly move aside and let us through.” The two guards looked at each other, and shrugged, backing to let us through. At this point we felt that their presence was nothing more than a formality. 

The two pegusi soldiers joined us as we entered, flanking us on either side. The arena was the same as it was before, with Winterberry still on her large throne, being catered to by two slaves. Behind her was all the saves, murmuring at first when we arrived, but quickly becoming silent. The slave were mainly made up of younger ponies, though mostly only the older ones had collars on, the rest seem to clamer in a large group, eyeing us with a curious feer, or was it hope?

At the center of the ring was three ponies, all of them dressed up like for a special event, and two were playing instruments. One was playing a flute, another a guitar, and the third was rhythmically dancing to the music. The performers stopped as soon as we got on stage, and they quickly hurried off. Winterberry herself sat up a little, her nose tilted upwards a little so she could still look down it at us.

“So, where is Air Burst?” was all she said.  From how flatly she said it, we could only presume that she had some idea what had happened to him.

“Not coming.” Mhabi responded. “Let’s just get down to business, we know you have medicine for the pony pox, and we currently hold access to the boats. Hoof over the medicine, and we will allow you to take one of the boats out of here.”

Winterberry cover her mouth with a hoof as she gave out a mocking laugh. “Still, you think you have proper leverage for a deal? No, no, no stripy. If you want that medicine, it must mean that ponies lives are at stake, which makes it far more valuable than just a single boat. No, let me dictate to you what a proper deal is. I give you the medicine, and in return, the featherbrains make sure this hobble is secure until the raiders go away, and business returns to normal.” She clapped her hooves together as she put on an excitable little grin. “Better yet, along with the protection, every pony healed by the medicine owes me time served, as it is my medicine that saves their lives. Nothing too drastic, if anything I am benevolent, so... a years’ time or so per pony.”

Mhabi began grinding her teeth. “You expect the pegusi to accept slavery? Just like that!? You literally have barbarians at the gate, raiders who would love to take and use you, as well as share you among each other as their rape slave. Yet, you’re playing this game from what you consider to be a throne of power. How can you be such a narcissist?”

“Narcissist you say?” Winterberrys voice was flat and annoyed. “My family has been making deals like this for generations, surrounded by raiders no less. With raiders, in spite of raiders, it makes no difference. When this land dealt with long rad storms, and thick rad fog, my family made sure Reka survived, were Bold Harbor fell into degeneracy. My family tamed the street sign gang, and got them to properly connect us with the north.” Shifting to sit up a bit more in her seat, she looked more bored than ever reciting her appauling history. “My father established our deal with Red Eye, which is due to bring even more prosperity to my family. So you may call it narcissism, but I call it right by survival. Right by intelligence. Right by superiority.” Now she was sitting up in her throne, legs dangling off the side. “So Zebra, by what authority do you have to dictate what deal I can or can’t make?”

*Zap*

Optical had shot a laser pistol into the air, bringing all eyes onto her. “My Authority.” She announced through her bite around the bit before she holstered her pistol back inside her uniform. “Staff Sargent Optical Spectrum. I’ve taken up the role of overseeing the safety of the large ship, but don’t start thinking that I’m going to care about your feelings, or the feelings of any other mud pony here. My only concern is restoring the health of those back on the ship. So that idea of splitting my forces to protect your overly groomed flank is a no go.”

Winterberry narrowed her gaze at Optical. “Oh, so you’re the muscle for her. And here I was thinking that the stripe brought yet another pushover.” She looked at us only momentarily before turning her gaze back to Optical, her eyes now holding a predatory feeling on them. “Why in this brown wasteland would a fine mare like yourself work with a Zebra? Here, I can offer you a better deal. Allow me control over bold harbor, no zebra, no chubby officials, and I’ll let you and your ponies have the run of the place. My business is allowed to run unobstructed, and you can do… whatever it is that you all do.” We looked over at Optical, who was now yawning, which seemed to annoy Winterberry. 

“I see, then how about I sweeten the pot.” Winterberry continued as she pointed a hoof at her two stallion slaves. “If you’re interested, I can offer you the contract and services of these two. Both are very well trained, and will be quite good at making you feel like a real mare. If you’re interested in it as well, we can both take part.”

Optical cracked a smile. “That sounds like it be a lot of fun. But three big problems with that. One, I like my mares on the meek side. Not to say you’re not a fine flank, but you don’t tickle my fancy. Two, my husband is not into a threesome with another stallion, or another mare for that matter. His boring featherbrain has eyes for only one mare only, and that’s how I like it. And three, if I don’t get that medication, and my son dies, I’m going to find the largest glass bottle I can find, and do things with it to you that will make you wish you were a passed around as a raider sex slave.”

“That’s… a shame.” Winterberry relaxed. “Fine then, I’ll give you the medication, but in return I need guns and ammo for the ponies here. They’ve managed to scavenge some, but I know there’s more on that ship of yours.”

“No deal.” The small smile on Optical’s face became a grin. “You will give us the medication as a gesture of goodwill and be happy that we even considered offering you our protection at all.”

The well-groomed mare cocked an eyebrow. “Say again?”  Winterberry’s eye twitched in rage as she shifted in her throne again.

Mhambi stepped up. “What she is saying, is that if you give us the medication, then we will ignore that you’re a narcissistic bitch slaver, and allow you and your associates onto the ship. But you all only stay as long as you follow enclave laws.”

“No, no. “ Winterberry waved her hoof dismissively at Mhambi. “I’m not talking to the savage anymore.”

Optical and Mhambi looked at each other, and shook their heads. A short quiet moment passed, interrupted by an earth pony stallion trotting in. I our surprise, it was the stallion from before who had given their foal over to Winterberry.

“What is it!?” Winterberry shouted at the stallion. “Is it not obvious that I am in the middle of something?”

He cowered a bit, but then steeled himself. “I would like to take my son back and cancel his contract. It has been less than a day, and you promised that we could change our minds if it had been less than a day.”

“Fine, fine.” Winterberry’s face went from annoyance, to shock. “Can you pay the penalty?”

The stallion nodded, pulling up his saddlebag and emptying its contents out in front of her. A bundle of food, six bottles of water, a tire iron with an axe head crudely attached to it, and some other assortment of junk. “It’s everything I have. It should be enough, right?”

A pony trotted over, and gather up the items, but only shrugged at Winterberry. The mare herself rubbed the temple of her head with her hoof. “Fine, whatever, take your brat and go.” She waved her hoof at another pony in the stands, and they directed a confused colt down to his father. The stallion quickly picked up his son and hurried out of the arena.

Winterberry growled, looking obviously annoyed. “Now that the distraction is over with…” Another pony rushed in. “Do the guards even try to stop anypony?  What do I even pay the fools for?”

“Miss Winterberry, ma’am?” The mare was a short earth pony, with a freckled face and a long mane done up in two ponytails. Strapped behind her was a makeshift wooden cart with a lot of junk in it. Winterberry just grunted at her, now looking very annoyed. “Ya’ll remember the deal we had? Well I want to cancel it. Don’t worry, I got enough parts and scrap to pay the penalty. I… I just need my little sisters back.” The young mare unhooked the cart as Winterberry chewed the air. With a slow nod, two fillies rushed down the young mare, almost knocking her over before the two left.

“One is an event.” Winterberry narrowed her gaze suspiciously at Mhambi. “Two is coincidence.” Two more ponies barged in, and Winterberry raised her hoof before they can speak. “You want your foal, or relative back?” the two ponies nodded. “Fine, drop what you have, and take them.” They did so, and a young stallion trotted down from the stands. The three of them rushed out of the arena quickly. Winterberry’s eyes returned to Mhambi. “Three is purposeful, what did you do?”

Mhambi gave a coy little smile. “Me? But I’m nothing more than a savage stripe. It’s not like I would know anything about group psychology, or how if given any choice in the matter, ponies are willing to work together to protect the friends and family.”

“What did you do?” Winterberry gutturally growled her words at Mhambi.

“Simple, really.” Mhambi said, as she relaxed. “We offered any able body pony the opportunity to form a militia up on the ship. In return for helping to fight off the raiders, the pegasi are fully willing to give shelter to any pony with them who is unable to fight. This includes the injured, the young, and the old.”

The crowd of ponies up in the stands began to talk among themselves, many of them sounded worried. There were even a few that began to move about, making the mass of earth ponies start to ebb and flow.

Mhambi scanned the crowed. “I wonder; how many ponies you have here who can fend off a raider band. Alone, and isolated. I wonder how many of your own guards have already defected to the ship.”  Glancing back at Winterberry with the corner of her eye, she gave a sly smirk. “I also wonder how willing a parent is to get their own foal to safety. If they can’t pay you, or you refuse them, then what? I know that Optical here would not care if you end up dead miss Winterberry. Isn’t that right, Sargent?”

Optical rotated her hoof. “Not entirely. By our laws, the pony in question would need to be convicted of a crime. But if she is holding their foal from them and breaks the binding terms of her own making to hold them against their will, I can see it as a justified murder. If I were to hoof out a sentence right now to whoever killed her though, maybe they’d get community service. Probably have them clean this shithole up for a year or two.” Optical glanced over at Winterberry. “But that is of course, only if any pony can identify the killer. If no witnesses come forth, then there’s not much can do.”

There was a long pause between us and Winterberry as she ground her teeth and looked down at us. More ponies trotted in, but this time they didn’t dare interrupt the obviously fuming mare. The two slaves at Winterberry’s side did their best to keep her calm, one fanning her, while the other was hastily pouring her a glass of wine. Sharply, Winterberry got up out of her seat. Slowly she trotted down to us, and onto the stage where she poked into Mhambi’s chest with her hoof.

“I’ll get you for this, you hear me? I’ll get you. Lower your guard even a little, and I’ll take you for every cap you own to see you begging for scraps, dirty and poor.” Turning around, Winterberry took a deep breath. “Get them the pox medication. All of it. Then pack everything up, we’re moving out of here.” She then glanced over at Optical. “You better keep an eye on the husband of yours, you never know who might steal him from you.”

“Good luck with that.” Optical rolled her eyes. “Last mare that tried lost a leg.” With that, she and Mhambi turned around. The two enclave soldiers that had escorted us in pick up the medication as it was brought out to us. We followed behind Mhambi and Optical as they left, feeling a bit stunned at what we had just seen unfold.

Outside there was a crowed of earth ponies, all sharing scrap and other trade items with each other. Those with lots of stuff were giving some of it to ponies with very little, seemingly helping them pay the fine that the other ponies had. We also spotted a few unicorns in the crowed, as well as a donkey. It reminded us that Reka use to be a trading outpost, so it made sense that other tribes and races were going to be here as well.

“So, is that it?” We spoke up.

Mhambi nodded. “This should break Winterberry’s control over the ponies here, and add her supplies to that of the enclaves. Also, this should cripple the slave trade, at least for this area, but we will need to keep a close eye on Winterberry.  She’s a stubborn mare, and we’ll need to make sure she does not try anything in the future.”

“That should be easy enough.” Optical added “If the ponies of Reka try an armed takeover, she’s the first we’ll seek out and kill. So it will be in her best interest that, that it doesn’t happen.”

“This feels… underhanded.” We responded. “But we are glad no pony has to die”

Looking up the light from the sun was quickly fading, and a dark of night was coming. No moon was coming out, and the long shadows that stretched over everything were becoming one dark mass. We were glad that this was all resolved so quickly, and looked forward to tomorrow. Maybe there will be rain showers in the morning, and we would see rainbows.  How greatly we have missed such things of beauty among the horrible ugliness of the wastes.

“That’s a shame.” A familiar voice resonated in our head. “And here I was hoping that you could still be brought back into the sisterhood.” Stepping out from the shadows, and into what little light there was, was a tall purple alicorn. Razor Storm. She still had her armor on, but now supported a metal eyepatch over her left eye, and bandages all over her body. “I’m merciful like that, and I still am. Simply kill these two you stand beside and I’ll accept you back into our Unity.”

We pulled the Blackwater cutlass from out saddlebag, and pointed it at her. “No deal, monster.”

She rolled her eye. “Predictable.” She pulled her spear out from behind her, but it was different now. At the end of the long poll, was two rippers that had been secured back to back. The rippers roared to life, and she screamed as she pointed the weapon at us. “I’ll be coming for you, all of you, soon enough. There will be no place you can hide; no place you can run!”

With a flash, and a pop, she was gone. Razor Storm had teleported away. In her place was a skull, painted black, with words written in red on it. We lifted it up to take a closer look at it, and it read, “You should not have broken our deal, whore. Sincerely, Grease Fire.”

We looked back at the others, they looking concerned themselves. “We need that militia ready as soon as possible.”



______________________________________



Footnote:

Finished Quest: A Pony Chooses, A Slave Obeys.


Faction Status Change:

Merchants of Reka - Neutral < Dangerous Business Partner


Faction Status Change:

- Skull Hunters - Neutral < Target of Scorn
	
> Chapter 15 - Sunset 
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------



	 



The sun dipped below the horizon, and darkness blanketed over Bold Harbor as the shadows fused together into one mass of darkness. Optical had informed us that there was going to be no moon tonight. Only the stars were out, which didn’t provide enough light to see. A few spark battery powered lights dotted the ship, but they were too few to be of any real use.

Optical sat on a rickety chair as she looked over some papers in the dim flickering of a lightbulb barely hanging onto life. “You sure this is a good idea, miss Mhambi? I barely trust those Reka ponies to not shoot themselves.”

“Know thy enemy.” Mhambi informed. “Razor Storm is going to be our biggest problem no matter what, so we need to be able to counter the Skull Hunters so that we can focus on killing that monstrous alicorn.” She looked over at us. “No offence.”

“Non taken.” we answered. “We don’t know why she is dose this; she must have strayed. Something must have happened to our supervisor in this area. They are who kept us on the right path, those of the same mind as mother.”

“Like an extension of the hive mind, or whatever you had?” Mhambi asked.

We shook our head “No, we were in Unity, always connected to mother, but our connection was weak this far out. They were part of unity, independent yet fiercely loyal. They were trusted to keep us from straying. Most were blue, like us… me. We remember one that was assigned to us as being, well, enthralling, and more beautiful than the most of us. She called herself an ‘actress’, and was one of mother’s favorites. We don’t miss the oversight, but we know that she and the others would not have approved of what Razor Storm is doing now.”

“So the Alicorns are in the same spot as the Enclave.” Optical added. “The chain of command breaks down, and the corrupt assholes see it as their opportunity to take charge.” She passed the peace of paper over to Mhambi. “Speaking of Air Burst, his plan to mine the town below may be solid, but I have a feeling that he was forgetting that this is their town. They may work around them, but still I sent a few of my ponies to drop the mines because we need every advantage we can get. It should at kill a few at the start, and slow the rest of them down.”

Mhambi sighed. “I fear that you’re right, about this being their town. They must have a few hidden entrances, and have just been biding their time, waiting for the local population to starve a little.” She gave back the paperwork to Optical. “This Grease Fire is, if anything, a shrewd tactician. Even with Winterberry’s stockpile added to what you have, it’s only another day’s rations at best. She didn’t even know that half of the food had been tampered with, and already started to rot.”

“If we weren’t relying on that food, I’d be more impressed.” Optical passed over a piece of paper to us, it showing the insignia of the Skull Hunters. “If this problem is not dealt with soon, once the sick recover, were all just leaving this place. Make a stop at the stable that freak is from.”

Mhambi rolled her eyes. “His name is Micro Fusion, and don’t go planning on running away just yet.” A light suddenly came up from below deck, brightening up the doorway to below. “That should be them now.”

In a short few seconds, Tetanus and Rust Bucket came into view, using their horns to light their way. They both had saddle bags on that held two wooden boxes on either side.

“You do know the dark time is for sleeping, right?” Tetanus spat out. “Now you got the idiot thinking he’s popular enough to be invited to an orgy.” She caught our less than amused glance and grumbled. “Right I get it, not the time for jokes or sex. So what mischief are you three up too? Not like this is the time for a tea party after all.”

“Seriously?” Optical gave Mhambi a less than happy look. She looked back at the two raiders. “So what’s in the box? Explosives I’d hope.”

Rust bucket laughed through his teeth, and Tetanus pulled out one of the boxes, and opened it. Inside were rows of candles. “I wish, but no. What we got here are some high quality candles, for all you not spell casting suckers.” The candles gave a less than pleasant odor, and we could see that the wick had a loop on the top. “These are miner’s candles, from an old empty coal mining site turned tourist trap. The place survived the war, along with a little candle making hut where our ancestors decided to move the setup to right here in bold harbor and what not.”

“Fine, fine. Enough with the history lesson, we don’t care.” Optical said as she held her nose. “Why do they stink?”

Tetanus smiled. “Oh, well after we ran out of wax, our ancestors found that fat makes a good replacement.” We could see Optical’s face almost turn another color. “Anywho, we got a very large stockpile of these candles. They’re made to burn bright, and to not go out in the wind. So they should be perfect for any pony that wants to stay up past the sunset.”

Rust bucket place an old dirty glass on a nearby table, and place a candle. Sparking a little flame with his magic, the candles with caught fire, and produced a small but strong light. “We didn’t use the candles all that much, due to every pony knowing how to do a light spell. But having a stockpile is better than not having one.” Oddly enough, the light from the candle was a bit better than the lightbulb, with it not flickering as intensely.

Mhambi looked at us all and relaxed. “Right, now that you’re here, we can get to business. We need to know how the Skull Hunters fight, what to expect.”

“Figured ya drop this shit on us.” Tetanus rolled her eyes, and sighed. “So, other than promisin’ ta not turning our skulls into a lantern, what ya got as coopin’tation, cop’ten’tashion… compensation?”

“We could give you caps.” Mhambi stated. “But I think we can do one better. If you aid us in this, we can put you in place of your own business. That is if you two know how to run one.”

The two looked at each other with eyebrows cocked. “We know how to do things, yes, but how does that beat out free caps?”

Mhambi tossed the raider a cap. “Give a pony some feed, and they eat for a day. Give them a farm, and they eat for a season. Give them a farm and teach them how to run it, they feed the town for years. Basically, if you have your own business, and can run it successfully, you’re set for life.”

Rust Bucket place another candle in a dirty glass on the table, lighting it up. “I get it. If what we give you is real useful, you let us stick around and help to keep this place running.” He levitated another candle, and poked Tetanus’s cheek with it. “Like making candles for every pony, or the smithy. Shit like that.”

Tetanus pushed the candle out of her face. “Ya, ya, that dose does sound like a sweet deal. But one problem.” She levitated a candle as well, poking Rust Bucket with it. “We are shit at work. That’s why we’re jailers, all we had to do is sit around and pretend to be capetent, cooptent,” scrunching up her muzzle, she grunted.  “Competent.”

“I do remember you being an okay whore.” Rust Bucket commented.

“I remember your asshole being looser than mine” she retorted.

“Well I at least still have a gag reflex.” He countered.

Tetanus laughed “Says the stallion who got stuck on a dick piercing.”

He stuck his tongue out at her, revealing it to actually be forked. “Didn’t hear you complain about my tongue the other night.”

“That was only because I pitied you.” Tetanus growled. “Same as how I pity that you don’t even last a minute before finishing, or how you can’t even keep going after like a good lay.”

We pushed the two apart before the two could start fighting, or kissing. They looked like they were going to do both. “Now from what I know, most stallions don’t last much more than ten seconds after foreplay, and commonly have only one go in them. Unless they prefer rape, then it can go on longer and more times than you would li…” we stopped ourselves, feeling bad memory’s welling up. “Sorry.” We backed up. “Sorry.”

The two raiders now looked awkwardly shy now. “You know.” Tetanus spoke up, holding a candle in front of her. “The workshop that makes these candles also makes a bunch of other useful stuff. Simple things like paper, or belts, the kind of stuff that was always in demand. The fat bitch that ran the place acted like it was her personal kingdom, always paranoid that some pony would take it from her.” She put the candle back in the box. “Give me that place, and you have a deal.” Rust Bucket again poked her cheek with a candle, and she grumbled. “Give us that place, and we have a deal.”

Mhambi and Optical looked less than certain about what had just happened, and both of them gave us a worried glance. But the moment quickly passed, and Mhambi nodded. “Sounds fair enough. The candles alone will provide a useful commodity if we’re to keep this place.” She moves one of the candles just a little, framing her face as she looked into the two raiders eyes. “So, tell us everything you can. If you can give us the edge we need to win, you will have a little kingdom of your own here soon enough.”



______________________________________



The information Tetanus and Rust Bucket gave us was enough to change the plans that Optical had made, and revealed were the skull hunters could have snuck in from. As it turned out, an old sewer pipe ran under most of Bold Harbor, allowing them to sneak in from outside the walls. So we quickly put a lid on that problem, and then heaping pile of junk on that lid. Also, the two informed us about the base the other Skull Hunters were staying at. It had been the first hunting base for them when they arrived, and was still where they keep a lot of their tools locked up. It also happened to be where they stored most of their TNT, meaning that we are to expect an explosive entrance when the raiders attack.

They shared other information with us, both useful and… not.  Tactics, hunting parties, how many of them probably have an STD. If Mhambi didn’t stop them, we were sure they would have gone into the local gossip, telling us about who was sleeping with who. Truthfully, we did feel a little disappointed that we didn’t get to hear even a little bit of the gossip. So in the end, Mhambi had them help with the militia, something about teaching the pegusi citizens about what a raider is in the first place.

“What’cha thinkin about?” Star hopped onto the dirty couch in the room. We had taken up residence in the large house up on the ship. The others kept telling us that we should rest and get our energy back, so here we sat.

“The day.” Was our simple, but adequate response.

*Pop* 

Star had opened up a bottle of Sparkle-cola. “Ya know, I’d have stuck with the raiders, would not have to do all dis extra shit.”

“Language.” We said firmly.

The filly growled a little before she took a sip of the cola. Her demeanor changed from a little grumpy, to surprised and happy. “By Luna this is good!” She lifted it up at me us. “What is this?”

“It’s sparkle-cola.  Have you never had any?” now that we think about it, she did spend her whole life on the ocean. “Wait, where did you get that?”

“Fought Carver for it.” We squinted our eyes at her, and she smiled. “T’s his fault. Told me If I wanted it, I’d have to fight him for it. Didn’t think it be any good, just wanted to take it from him. Pirates are so much better than raiders” She stuck her tongue out and raspberried before glugging the cola down.

“Well, next time don’t fight. Taking other ponies things is wrong.” We contemplated on taking away the cola, but felt that it might undermine our message, so our warning would have to be enough. “We will let this go, for now. But if it happens again, you will have to give it back and apologize. Even if I have to make you, understand?”

Star rolled her eyes. “Yeeessss.” She pulled out another bottle, and we grabbed it with our magic. “Hay, dat’s mine you harlot!”

“You’re going to be up all night if you drink anymore.” We placed it on a shelf, away from her flailing hooves. “You can have it in the morning.”

She huffed, but thankfully didn’t fight us on it. “Fine, I’ll just have this.” She pulled out a wine bottle from her bag. That too we took away from her. “Oh come on!”

“By the goddess we are not letting you have alcohol! You’re what, eleven years old!?” We put the bottle down next to us, not wanting to simply put it where a determined filly could get at it later.

“Baaa.” she almost spat at us. “Not like it’s nothing new for me anyhow. Got me citrus grog every day when I could get it. Any pony that didn’t would get the scurvy.”

This felt concerning to us. “So you had alcohol every day?”

“Not everyday, but when I could.” She said cheerfully. “Tasted like puke at times, but the first mate would never shut up about it. Always shouting and reminding us to drink our grog, and that any pony who came down with scurvy badly would be cured by being tossed overboard.”

“Why Tossed overboard?”  We did not understand such methods for healing ponies.

“Only cure for retards is ta send em to the depths!” She didn’t miss a beat. “So gimmy!”

She reached out for the bottle, but we levitated it out of her reach. “No, we’re no longer on the Blackwater.” Unhappy with our decision, she crossed her hooves and huffed, breaking eye contact with us. This felt like it was going to be a long problem we were going to have to deal with so long as the filly was under our protection, but deal with it we will.

A chill went up out spine as we held the bottle. Somehow we could feel it’s temperature, though we were not physically touching it. “Strange?” We lowered the bottle, looking closer at it, the bottle being of normal green glass with no label on it. With our magic, we popped the cork, and a familiar putrid smell hit our nose. Grabbing a glass, we poured a very small amount into it. The contents that poured out was probably not wine, and was literally rainbow in color, glowed, and smelled like mother. 

There was only one thing left to do, we drank it from the glass. “Ow!” We exclaimed as it shocked us, literally.  It had sparked a small shock at our tongue that left us a bit numb. Recovering from the… shock… we rolled the liquid around on our tongue, and it tasted oddly good. It had a strong apple taste to it, but with a slight aftertaste of taint. We also felt a little better after swallowing.

“Grate, you’re going to drink my find, typical adult.” Star grumbled.

We corked the wine bottle, and placed it in our saddlebag near us. “Where did you find this?”

She rolled her eyes. “There was a stash of it on the lower deck. Ta feather brains didn’t want it, so I thought I’d take it. Only had room for one.”

“So, no pony drank any of this?” she shook her head. “That’s good, because this is both radioactive, and has taint in it.”

Stars eyes went wide for a moment before she smiled. “We could give it as a peace offering to the raiders, see what happens.”

We shook our head. “No, but if we drink this, if… I drink this, it should heal us. It could give us the energy to fight Razor Storm.”

“I like the sound of that.” Star said cheerfully. “Let’s celebrate, you can have the wine, I can have the cola.”

We levitated the bottle of sparkle-cola off the shelf, and into our saddlebag. “No, you will go to sleep, and I will go talk with the others. She groaned, but our word was final. If all went well, then she will not have to fight. We could only hope she would stay safe in the battle to come.



______________________________________



Footnote:

New Item obtained: Radical Zap Apple Hard Sider – Who ever thought brewing 200-year-old Zap apples into a wine was a genius. Sadly he or she was also completely insane, and added just a pinch of taint to the mix. +1 to all special, heals limbs, +100 to radiation, ingestion may also cause mutation and or horrific death. The stuff is awesomely bad for you, unless you’re an alicorn, then have at it.
	
> Chapter 16 - Battle of the Bold Part 1
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	 


The sun rose from the east. Under clear skies, the light glistening on the frost that covered Bold Harbor. The night had been colder than we had ever felt before, like all the warmth had been sucked out of the air, replacing it with a still, harsh cold that gave the feeling that death itself had passed by. As though summoned to meet up with the rising sun, wind began to blow from the west, salty and bitter cold.

Stepping out onto the deck, Optical had already gathered the militia. Earth ponies and pegasi standing side by side in five long rows. There was no strict uniformity among them, and many held worried looks on their faces. Optical’s soldiers were flying around and inspecting the militia, now and then descending on one of them to adjust or wake up a pony that was dosing off.

Optical saw us and waved us over. “Good you’re up. I hope you got enough sleep, because things are probably going to get hectic soon.”

We shook our head. “We don’t sleep, but we did spend all night recovering.” Pulling out one of the four bottles of the radioactive zap apple hard cider, it was almost empty. “And preparing.” We pulled out a bunch of tin cans connected to strings, and the laser rifle that we had taken last night. Passing Optical the rifle, we kept the cans. “Star showed us how to make cluster grenades. We got two bunches of them, so even if they’re not very strong, they should still help to clear an area.”

She took the rifle, and nodded. “I like it. If those raiders bunch up, that should mess them up.” Placing the rifle on her back, Optical looked back at the militia. “Were going to need every edge we can get, most of these ponies only have a few hours of training. The best we can do is have them take defensive positions and let my ponies do the heavy hitting.”

“If only we had more time.” We commented. “can’t we just lock them out?”

Optical sighed. “One of my scouts reported that they had made crude bridges and ladders. Meaning that they’re planning to take back their ship by all means, so just blocking them will not help. Still, we’re going to have a barricade down below, automatic guns, and explosives. Once the defensive line is about to fall, the ponies below are to fall back to the lower deck entrance and blocked it off. After that, the fight will likely move up here onto the ship.” She looked back at us. “If you can save those grenades for any ponies holding ladders, send them to Tartarus for us.”

“Got it.” We nodded. “We will do what we can to help.”

“Thanks.” Optical said, sounding a bit exhausted. “Oh, and do try to stay out of the line of fire if you can. Turning invisible may help keeping them from shooting at you, but it also means we don’t know where you are.”

An explosion echoed from far away, and we shared a look of concern, the skull Hunters were on their way. Optical turned her attention the militia, barking orders on where they need to be. We on the other hoof, trotted back the large house we had spent the night in. Star Charter had already exited the front door, her mane a mess of curly green, and the smile on her face seemed just a bit too wide. 

“Is it starting?” she said, again sounding a bit too cheery.

We took out the bottle of sparkle-cola we had in our saddle bag, and gave it to her. “Yes, and you’re going inside the ship with the other foals.” We could tell she was giving a displeased look at us through her frizzy mane. “No arguing, now get going.” 

She groaned, but obeyed, running off with her bottle of cola. Taking a step inside the house, the cutlass and rust gun sat on the table, along with four fresh extra magazines for the gun. Taking them in our magic, we stepped back outside. 

Spreading our wings, they felt better than they had in a long time. Along with our legs too, actually. The Zap wine did the trick, pumping our body with both radiation and taint, giving us the energy to properly heal. Much of the pain from our journey was gone, and our fur was already starting to grow over the scars. We were sure the scars were going to remain on our legs, as the chains had dug deep down to the bone. But even so, we were glad that fur around them was starting to look smooth again.

Flying up, we looked down on the ship, seeing all the ponies scramble about. Passing by the tower, we saw Mhambi sitting in what looked like a captain’s chair and looking over a map. Micro Fission was there too, looking like he was repairing a large radio.

Hovering in place, we looked through an opening where a window would have once have been, some attempt to block the wind had long been given up on. Mhambi gave us a knowing glance, the open space only a few footsteps away from her. “They’re on their way. Optical wants us to hunt the raiders that have long ladders in order to keep them from boarding the ship for as long as possible.”

Mhambi looked up from that map, her eyes looking strained and a bit red. “Yes, I heard about those ladders. It’s likely that they’re made of rope or chain, so keep an eye out for them bundled up if you don’t immediately spot them.” We nodded and turned around. “Oh, one more thing. Good luck out there. I don’t want to lose another friend so soon after making one.”

A smile crept on our face as we spread our wings and flew up again. Going invisible, we glided over Bold Harbor, keen on helping spot the raiders. The militia was already taking position, with ponies holding long rifles stationed along the edges of the ship’s deck. Down below at the entrance to the boat, ponies pushed together a blockade, and took defensive positions behind it. Pegasi flew back and forth, delivering boxes, and dropping mines in front of the barricade, working quickly to help lock things down as much as possible.

The atmosphere had grown tense enough that we felt that we could taste it. It tasted like iron, and salt. Another explosion could be heard further into the town, closer than the last time. Our ears twitched, locating the direction it came from, and with a push of our wings, we quickly headed in that direction.

The cloth cover the town had, obstructed our vision. Something that I hoped would be removed once this whole mess was resolved. Pulling out the cutlass, we cut ourselves an opening big enough for us to slip through. Descending as slowly as possible, we landed on one of the buildings. Looking down, we could see the raiders ahead were slowly advancing.

At their front were earth ponies with collars on, simply trotting forwards, their eyes masked. It took us a moment to process what we were seeing, a moment too late as one of the ponies stepped on a mine. Her leg blasted to bits, and the rest of her was ripped apart by the blast. She fell to the ground, dead in a bloody heap. The raiders were using slaves to clear a path through the mines as they sat back and followed in safety.

We could see the Skull hunters advancing slowly, some of them drinking bottles of what looked like water. Even from here we could smell the alcohol, the putrid moonshine was potent enough to sting our nose from here. The raiders stopped as they reached the freshly dead slave mare. A brown stallion among them pushed out another slave. With a poke in the behind from a spear, the slave stallion burst out running, faster than the mare before. By the time the first mine he triggered went off, he’d already triggered two more. The hit from the first blast sent him tumbling, the other two finished him off. A severed leg flew a bit further, triggering a fourth mine.  As the ringing from the blast wore off, I could hear as the display had sent the raiders into a roar of laughter.

We couldn’t watch anymore of this. We pulled out one of our grenades bundles, arming the explosives.  With a soft throw, we tossed one down onto the raiders. There was a clattering sound of tin on metal and dirt, and the raiders were at first confused at what just fell around them.

“Grenades!” One shouted right before the small explosive went off. 

It was not as loud as the mines were, but the tin grenades had a satisfying pop to them. As the haze cleared, we could see that the explosives had done their job. A few of the advanced raiders were left dead, a lot were injured.  Unfortunately, a small lucky hoof full were unharmed as well. The walls around them were peppered with little holes from the blast, and the ground had scorch marks. This made us wonder how much damaged the tin grenades could do if they had more powder in them, or another type of explosive was used. Something to consider for another day we supposed.

A raider looked around for a moment before they arced back and threw their javelin. To their credit it actually nearly hit us, and forced us to duck down. 

“The blue whore is here, keep an ear out, she may ghost walk, but she can’t mask her steps!” The pony, mare or stallion we could not tell, had a black robe on, with a radigator skeleton draped over it.  A noose dangled around the pony’s neck, connecting the lower jaw of the skeleton with the skull. The pony was armed with five more javelins from what I could count, and already held another one in position to throw. “Whoever kills her, claims her bones. But, you capture her alive, then you earn the first turn with her. Just remember to not break her before we all get to fuck her!” The others laughed at her barbaric remark. “Sharing is caring of course.”

A cold shiver ran down our spine as the raiders cheered, seeming unpassed by our attack. Not only that, more raiders had joined this group.  Quickly, another slave was sent running ahead of them. It was not long until we heard the sound of another mine going off. Swords, spears, clubs. The weapons the raiders were using were primitive, but there were a lot more raiders then we remembered. Too many. 

Flying further into the town, we found that the raiders numbers far outnumbered that of the militia. More surprisingly, not all of them decorated themselves with skulls. Some of the banners hoisted with them were not of the Skull Hunters.

A black flag with a skull and noose was the most common, but there were others. A red flag with a teddy bear impaled on a spike. A pink flag depicting a heart stabbed by a knife, a blue flag with a jar full of eyes, and a flag made from a whole pony hide with a big smile painted on it. That last flag nearly made us puke, as it looked like the pony had simply been flattened, and turned into a banner.  Their fur, mane, tail, and even the cutiemark of some sort of bird was all still there.

From on top of another building, we scanned the crowd of raiders and spotted what we were looking for. A raider hauling a coil of rope. We didn’t waste time and flew over them, dropping a couple of grenades before flying back onto another, further away building. We were not going to nearly get hit again by another skeleton skull hunter. 

The explosives when off, sending a haze of smoke into the air. We watched through the blast to see our success as the raiders scrambled about. Our hopes dropped as the haze dissipated, revealing a glowing green barrier around the pony. With them, stood a green alicorn. The alicorn raider scanned the rooftops. Her eyes stopped the moment they gazed in our direction before she pointed at us with her hoof.

We jumped off the building, spreading our wings to glide over the crowed. Behind us we heard a pop, followed by the sound of revving engines and metal grinding on metal. Looking back, we saw Razor Storm, her spear shoved right were we had been standing. Finding a new position, we ducked down low, no longer confident that our invisibility could protect us. Razor Storm spat at where we had been, and teleported away. Her being a purple was going to be a major problem, but at least we were sure she could not go invisable.

Looking down below, the second green alicorn had appeared as well.  She was parting the crowd with Grease Fire in toe close to her. Grease Fire jumped onto their back, grinning wildly as he used them like a podium.  He began looking around and scanning not only the crowd, but also the roof tops. 

“My compadres, my amigos, my friends.” He held onto the ‘s’ almost like he was hissing like a snake. “We have reached the end of our prosperous journey. And though the plan had been nearly ruined by the interference of the enclave, we endured, and now we are at the jaws of victory!”

The crowd cheered, and as they died down, we could hear another explosion further back, prompting the crowd to cheer yet again. 

“Now, now, save that energy for the fight ahead, or you won’t have the energy to entertain your new wives.” There was a groan from the mares in the crowed. “Oh, don’t be that way, you can claim your own toys too. But we must still focus on increasing our numbers. It’s up to you if you want to stay back and pop us out as few foals, or fight up front with the rest of us.” Snickering and laughter could be heard from the crowed, followed by swift snaps, cracks, and thuds.

“Good, now that you're all at attention, you must be wondering who these two lovely green fake goddesses are. And the answer to that, is that they are our victory.” The two alicorns looked a bit embarrassed as the crowd cheered at them, a few shouting lewd words at them. “But that’s not all, oh no it’s not. For fortune favors us, and what was once lost, has returned to us!” His voice grew louder, and more excited as he spoke, making the crowed of raiders go tense, enthralled by him. “Yes, the rumors are true, she has returned to us, the Death Huntress herself, my grandmother, Razor Storm!” With a flash and a pop, Razor Storm appeared in front of the crowed, sending them into a frenzy of cheering.

“SILENCE!” Her voice boomed. The raiders quickly came to attention, and even we were impressed at that. “How pathetic. Our once great gang, now broken up into weak and petty raider bands.” She stopped and scraped the ground with her hoof, her face twisted into a snarl. “If it weren’t for the fact that you managed to clear out Reka, I’d have culled the whole heard of you right here and now. Even now I remember how the merchants of Reka betrayed us, how they cowardly poisoned us, captured us, sold us to slavery. All for what, caps? The cold steel of caps that they grew weak, fat, and lazy on. That winter, they proved themselves unfit to survive, but we were made to pay the price for their weakness.” She stomped the ground even harder. “But our thirst for revenge will finally be sated. Through a baptism of blood, we will once more be unified, and what remains of Reka will be nothing more than food for the mirelurks or slaves to bear our young.” The crowd roared in excitement as Razor flared her wings, making her look even bigger and more intimidating then she had before. “And to those who aid our prey, they shall be given no quarter! Cut them down, fill them with our hate, and if they yet live, drag them to the deepest darkest place you know, where they shall never again see the light of day.”

Her eye scanned the roof, stopping on us. She smiled and winked at us, before teleporting away. Scrambling, we jumped from our position, but Razor Storm didn’t appear, leaving us hovering over the crowd of excited raiders.

Grease Fire spoke up, his voice barely carrying as far as Razors had. “You all know what to do! Rip and tear, turn the water red with blood. But Winterberry is mine. Capture her, beat her down if you must, but she is mine to brake. I want to see how many foals I can pop out of her before she withers and dies.”

That was it, we have heard enough. Turning ourselves around, we flew up, cutting another hole for us to escape from. More explosions could be heard as we flew back to the ship. They were close now, and the battle was about to begin. The fortified bridge came into view, and we could see ponies poised and ready for when the raiders attacked. Landing behind them, we started them enough that they turned their guns at us.

We pulled out Stars rust gun, and loaded the chamber. “Don’t look from our enemy, they will be here soon.” The ponies relaxed, and returned to their firing position. “No matter what, we must not let them win, or all will suffer.” Crouching behind one of the barriers, we pointed our gun down the docks, ready for them to appear. But what our attention was most on, was when Razor Storm will appear and seek to kill us. “Just remember what you must protect, and don’t fail them.”



______________________________________



Footnote:

Level up – lv 4
- Melee skill up
- Gun skill up

- New perk - Dual Wield – Resolved to fight, Prism now understands that she will have to bring all she can to not only survive, but to protect. She can now use two weapons at once, be it melee or gun. -10 to accuracy when wielding two weapons.
	
> Chapter 17 - Battle of the Bold Part 2
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------


	 



Another explosion, closer now, followed by distant cackling of many ponies.

It was like some pony was pounding a drum in our chest, making us fear that any time they would grab it, and attempt to escape with it, ending our life here and now. A little whisper of a thought wish it would happen, just so that we would not see what we knew was coming. The ponies with us looked just as worried, guns shaking in their hooved, teeth chattering next to their triggers. They didn’t know what was coming, but that seemed to scare them more than the truth scared us.

“Shouldn’t we just fortify the ship? Why fight out here?” A pegasus chattered. “This is just stupid. I agreed to help, not to throw my life away!” 

The pegasus was a dark blue stallion, almost the same shade as us, but with a bright silvery blond mane. In his hooves was a 10mm SMG, and he wore some raider barding on over his normal clothes. The suit he wore underneath the armor betrayed who he really was, a pony new to fighting in the wasteland. He reminded us more of the busy body merchants arguing over caps as the world outside burned. Now he was the first line of defense agents a small raider army, forced to fight for his life.

“Shut up, feather brain.” Spat an earth pony mare. “We just need to kill as many of them as we can, and then fall back. It’s no different them when the geckos start swarming. You got to hit them as hard as you can, as fast as you can. If not, they will be emboldened by your cowardice and see you as easy targets.” 

She was a dusty light brown mare, with a darker muddy Mane. Somewhat common colors among many earth ponies I had seen, though I never understood why that always seemed to be. She was armed with an old modified hunting rifle, and by the looks of the magazine, it used some sort of smaller caliber ammunition. Overall, she had the look of a hunter about her, the kind of pony that would pass through town to sell what they got, but never having the caps to afford a mare for the night. That is unless they were drunks who spent all they had as soon as they got their hooves on it.

“Oh, of course the dirt kicker thinks this is a good idea.” The peruses stuck up his nose as he spoke.  “I wonder if you can even read.”

The mare rolled her eyes. “I read just fine, enough to know words like danger, or when some idiotic jackass is behind the quill.” She returned her attention to looking down the rifle barrel. “Why do eggheads make such big words?”

The Pegasus returned to looking down the barrel as well. “Whatever, I still think this is stupid.”

“Fine then.” The mare huffed. “How about this, if you stay and fight until we are called to fall back. Then I’ll give you a quickie when it’s over. Goddess knows I’ll need one.”

“Quickie?” the stallion said inquisitively.

The mare gowned. “Please don’t tell my you’re a virgin.”

“Wait, what does that have to….” The stallion’s wings flared up.

“Can I join in!?” Another stallion called out.

“Why not?” The mare huffed. “If there's time, quickies for everyone. And if we survive this whole thing, we can make it a fucking party.”

A peruses mare raised her hoof. “I’m not at all comfortable with this.”

“With what? The sex, or with me?” the earth pony mare spat. “I’m not into mares myself, but I knew one old nag that rocked my world better than any stallion.”

The Pegasus mare seemed to retreat a little. “It’s just that I want to wait until I’m married.”

There was a low grown from a few ponies. The earth pony mare just chuckled. “That’s fine by me. Just survive this first, worry about your morals later.” She looked over at the pegasus stallion. “How about you, featherbrain?”

He was now intensely focused on his gun. “I’m not dying a virgin.” Was all he said.

The whole group of ponies seemed to become far more focused, and less jittery. The group of twelve ponies almost seemed to harmonize, all ready to take on what was coming. Not out of bloodlust, or any sense of duty, but out of wanting to simply survive what was to come. We on the other hoof felt unfazed, our hopes and fear, feeling above what they wanted, more focused, and with the knowledge of what the first wave was going to be.

“Now that ever pony is ready to fight, we must not let them pass.” We pointed the rust gun at one of the alleyways. “No matter what you see or hear, you must not budge until we get the signal to fall back. No matter how afraid you are, or how much you want to help them.”

“Help who?” a pony asked.

The sounds of hooves galloping through the mud hit our ears. “Them.” Is all we said, pointing out gun in the direction of the sound.

A stallion came into view, no cloths, and a bomb collar around his neck. He didn’t make it far before getting ripped to shreds by a mine. The defending ponies gasped, there focus lost as panic slowly began to set in.

“Don’t turn away!” We yelled. “This is what they will do to every pony you love if you let them pass.”  We took a deep breath, exhaling into a long sigh. “There’s nothing we can do but fight, so focus on what you can, protect those who you can. Don’t fail them.”

The group’s composure returned to mostly normal. They didn’t seem as strong as before, but we didn’t feel like they were going to fall apart the moment the fight began. We would like to save as many ponies as we could, but we had a feeling that every slave sent at us was not going to make it. The raiders would undoubtedly make sure of that.

Another pony came galloping into the minefield, she triggering three mines before dying. Though ripped to shreds, we could still see the wounds inflicted by the raiders. The mare had at one time been a Pegasus, but her wings nowhere to be seen even before she died.

A third pony came into view, and to our horror, he had explosives strapped to his sides. 

“Shit!” We pointed at the stallion.  The raiders gave him a sharp poke in the flank, and he was soon charging right at us. “Don’t let him near or we’re all dead! Bring him down!” 

Every pony tensed up, but the earth pony mare was quick at the trigger. The poor stallion was quickly taken out, only having made it halfway to us. The side of his head had been hit by the shot and had nearly been taken clean off.

“Damnit, that was Dusty Road.” The earth pony mare croaked, her voice betraying how upset she was. “He may have been as dumb as a bag of bricks at times, but he didn’t deserve this.”

We didn’t have time to mourn, as the body of Dusty exploded. The blast was powerful enough to set off the other mines that had been scattered about, leaving a direct path to us now open. The dust and smoke quickly cleared, and gore was scattered all over, thou now too small and burnt to be recognized as once being a pony.

We kept our eyes ahead.  “If you run now, I’m sure that Optical will have you severely punished, just focus on killing raiders, wait for a sign to fall back.” There was the sound of sniffling from one, maybe two ponies, and rapid light tapping from a shaking leg.

Now, we waited.

We knew they were out there, but they were holding back. It didn’t sit right with us, as we knew about raiders. Raiders rush in as soon as they have an opening, and that explosion was a good opening.

We waited.

“Fucking Bullshit!” one of the ponies in line yelled. “Come at us already” We could tell, the anticipation was eating at the group, and the smell of death in the air was not helping.

Then the situation changed. The sun above suddenly glared down at us with full force. The mesh that hung over us had been pulled back, bathing us in the sun’s warm and currently unwanted light. The light was followed by yips and howls, along with quick, heavy hoof steps pounding into the mud.

The raiders appeared. One at first, covered in the skeleton of another pony.  It wore a helmet with a pony skull mounted on a metal spike, decorated with tattered red and black cloth. Bullets quickly laid the raider low, but he was followed by two, then three more. One of them howling like a mad pony, and had two long spikes jutting out of his side that were decorated with flaming skulls. Two of the raiders went down quickly, but the flaming raider got in close enough that when he went down, his body managed to flip over the barrier and flopped down at our side. One of the spikes had pushed into one of the ponies, but her leather armor took most of the damage. We quickly used our magic and threw the raider into the water.

The cackling of the raiders roared up, and more raiders came into view, this time pushing their own barriers. They looked like layers of sheets of metal tied together, and as they got closer, we could see the raiders peek up from behind. A few shots from above came down on them, but still they pushed forward. Entering the clearing, guns poked out from the raiders barrier, peppering our position. The defending ponies ducking down to protect themselves, we on the other hoof could barely do that, and a stray bullet grazed out flank.

The gunfire stopped, and we peeked out to return fire, but we came face to face with a unicorn. Her teeth were all yellow, the ones she had left, were sharpened to a point. The raiders eyes were pinpricks, and shaking, looking into our own. 

“Hi, my name is Daisy, let’s be friends.” Her breath was fowl, almost making us gag. We grabbed hold of the cutlass at our side, and quickly brought it down on the raiders head, cutting it clean off. Her head hit the ground, and rolled back, looking at us. To our disbelief, the raider blinked twice, and smiled before finally dying.

“Fuck!” cried a pony in our line. Looking to our side, one of the raiders had broken through. The raider was armed with crude looking machete. Next to her was one of ours, dead by a spear through the neck. Another pony, the Pegasus mare from before was flat on her back, one of her hooves missing, the stump seeping blood. The gun in her mouth likely prevented her from screaming, but the tears streaming down her face was enough to read that she was in extreme pain.

Everypony seemed to stand frozen, maybe in shock of how fast this had happened. The unicorn raider didn’t waste time, raising her machete over the Pegasus, grinning wickedly. We didn’t waste time either, pointing the rust gun at her, and firing. The first bullet was lucky, and hit the mare in the neck, staggering her.  While most of the rest of our shots missed, a few ripped into her head, finishing her off. This seemed to snap everypony out, and one of them rushed to the Pegasus mares aid as the rest returned to firing at the raiders.

There was another raider barrier now, also firing from its cover, but this time we didn’t hide away, returning fire at them so that no other raider can just rush us. Despite all our effort to keep them pinned, the raiders barriers closed in, uninfected by our attack.

Like a messenger sent by Celestia, one of the enclave ponies flew overhead, dropping grenades onto the raiders. The preceding explosions toppled over the raiders barriers, killing those behind them. The pegasi flew up and around, waving at us with a smile.

*Bang*

The pegasus dropped out of the sky, blood trailing behind them. We looked to see where the shot had come from, but could not see anything.

*Bang*

A pony next to us fell, his gray matter splattering over the ground. “Sniper!” Another pony yelled, just before a bullet ripped through her neck.

It was coming from the roofs, but when we looked up, the sun glared into our eyes. We had been tricked. It was obvious now, but we were too dumb to think of it as a possiblity. The raiders on the ground was just a distraction for the sniper on the roof.

A bell rang from above us, the sign to retreat. But we could not move, not with the sniper.

*Bang*

A bullet ripped through our wing, in the same spot as the pirates first had. On purpose or not, we were gaining a new sense of hatred for snipers. But that didn’t matter right now, we needed to fall back, and do it now. Putting our weapons away, we reached out with our magic, and grabbed the barriers, lifting them up and pulling them together as one large shield.

“Let’s go!” We shouted to reach above the chaotic noise in the air.

I didn’t need to tell the others twice, as the stuck close to us, as we trotted backwards to the bridge.

*Bang*

One pony fell over, the gunshot hitting them in the leg.

*Bang*

As another pony jumped in to help the hurt pony, the shot ripped through their neck. The pony collapsed over the one they were trying to help. The stallion cried louder than I ever had heard a pony had, as his would be rescuer bled out on him. We stopped, extended the barriers over to him.

*Bang*

The bullet ripped into the dead pony, and the hurt stallion gurgled as blood started flowing through his mouth. With a final long wheeze, the stallion relaxed as his head fell to the side and the life in his eyes faded to nothing. We simply pulled the barriers back over to cover all of us.

Once over the bridge, we could hear it being pulled up. We dare not drop the barriers, keeping them up all the way back to the ship.  At the last possible moment, we cast them away, leaving them outside at the entrance.

Taking a head count, there were only five ponies with us, less than half that were at the defensive line, and we barely dented the number of raiders out there. The ponies that had been waiting inside quickly got to work barricading the entrance with whatever they could. The Pegasus mare who now was missing a hoof, was already receiving medical attention from the nurse we had met before. One of the stallions that helped her back, let her bite on his hoof as her stump was worked on.

An enclave pony zipped in from above us, landing with a slid. “We need any able bodied pony up on deck, right now.”

We nodded. “We will be right there.” The enclave pony saluted, and flew off. Looking back, we saw that two of the five ponies were missing. “For the love of.” Our ears picked up the sound of a grunt coming from behind a large container. Trotting around to look, we found the two missing ponies. The pegasus stallion from before was on his back, and the earth pony mare from before was sitting on him… riding him. “Of all the times.”

The stallion bushed, but the mare did not stop. She just laughed quietly. “Just give us a minute, I want one last good ride before the raiders kill or take me.”

We just sighed. “Fine, just be quick about it, and we’re going to win this, so don’t go dying on us.” Trotting away from sudden and absyrd sex session, we returned to the others. “Right, we need to go…” the mare with the missing hoof was kissing one of the stallions. “We get those two, but you’re injured. Too badly injured to continue.”

The nurse looked confused, holding a used syringe of med-x in her wing tips, and an empty bottle of healing potion in the other. She trotted over to us, putting the spent medicine away in a small saddlebag. “I’ve never seen a pony react like this before, but then again I’m use to working with the elderly.”

We could only face hoof. “Probably because one pony put a dirty thought in the mind of others, and they all might not make it out of this alive.” The odd stallion out looked between us, and the injured pegasus mare. “Healing Breeze, is it safe for her to be getting physical?”

Healing Breeze sighed. “I did what I could to close the wound and gave her a heavy dose of painkiller.  She needs better treatment for her hoof, but she’s not at risk of dying from it. Even though I would not advise it, she should be fine in the short term as long as she does not strain herself too much.”

“Thanks.” We turned our attention to the odd stallion out. “She’s got two holes, so be quick about it”

The stallion’s eyes widen, “b… but I’m not all that into mares.”

The other stallion, broke from his kiss with the mare. “Whatever, I’m fine with that.”

With a sigh, we looked down at Healing Breeze. “Let’s get going.” Scanning the room, all the other ponies looked on in different states of shock, one looking very amused by all this. “Unless you’re too injured or you’ve been told to stay, then get moving up onto the top deck!”

This was an absolute disaster so far, and all that ran through our mind was that we must not let them get near the foals. We… I must not let them hurt Star Charter.



______________________________________



	Footnote:

- Experience gained

- Fist line of defense -Failed-
> Chapter 18 -Battle of the Bold Part 3
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------


 



The sound of gunfire hit our ears long before we got to the top deck, the look of fear was on every pony we saw. Ponies rushed back and forth across the top deck, carrying supplies to where it was needed.

Optical met us almost as soon as we stepped out into the sunlight. “Prism, thanks for helping out the first line. Sorry we didn’t spot the snipers.”

“How did that happen when you had eyes from above?” We inquired as calmly as we could.

“Glare from the sun, camouflage, and them simply knowing this damned town far better than us.” She stopped to growl, gritting her teeth as she did. “Were trained for air to air combat, not spotting targets in siege warfare. Goes to show the brilliant Enclave strategy of hiding away from everything. Operation cauterize was always going to be a long term disaster, even without the cloud layer falling apart.”

We stomped our hoof on the ground as hard as we could, making the sergeant jump a little. “Then simply change strategies.” We took a deep breath, trying not to get ourself even more stressed out. “So what’s going wrong now?”

Optical took a moment to collect herself. “Shields, they have magical shields.” We can’t even hurt them, but they keep sticking their guns through it, and shooting back at us. At first I figured the shields would break after a few good shots, and when that didn’t happen, we figured that few explosives would fix the problem. But then those two green Alicorns showed up. Now we can’t even make a crack in it.”

“Shit” We should have known this would happen. “We could go down and try to take them out.”

She shook her head. “No, if anything, I bet they're expecting you to try that. Twice now they have countered our moves. You're more useful here, use your magic to throw any raider overboard.”

“Anything else?” We asked.  Surely there must be more we could do to help.

“I have something you can do.” Mhambi trotted out onto the deck. “ Luckily the ship's radio was still in good condition, and I was able to get in contact with other members of Celestia Angels.

“Did they have anything useful to say, or something that can help us?” Optical said. “Perhaps some reinforcements?”

“I told them our situation and asked about dealing with an Alicorn threat. It seems that if anypony has a memory orb, it’s a good way to get them to drop their guard. Other than that, keep hitting them with high explosives, I guess?” We and Optical looked at each other, and shook our heads. “Thought so, this part of Equestria was not known for major conflict like the bigger cities were, so our options are limited. However, I have some good news. We put out a distress call, and an enclave squad out west of here responded. They main concern was that there were enclave’s civilians and soldiers in need of help, and they seemed almost too excited about helping us. I don’t know how long it will take them to get here, but there are coming by vertibuck.”

“The energy cannon on a Vertibuck should be enough to break the bitch’s shields, so long as they get here in time that is.” Optical gave out a deep sigh of relief. “Anything else?”

Mhambi nodded. “I got a message to the Road Sign Gang, but it will take them at least a half a day’s travel to get here, and a whole day’s travel to bring enough ponies and weapons to do any real damage. The stable down south answered my calls as well, but they just went about thanking us for the warning, and that they were going into lockdown.”

“So just the one vertibuck then.” Optical sighed.

“Not every pony has the advantage of flight.” Mhambi added.

“And none of us can teleport, but one of them does.” We spoke up. “Worst of all, Razorstorm was one of their old leaders.”

“Great, an Alicorn raider warlord.” Mhambi groaned. “As if the normal ones weren’t bad enough.”

“Nothing we can do about that now.” Optical said sternly. “Mhambi, you need to get back up there, and keep in contact with the other groups. If we can actually hold out for a day, then any help we can get will be invaluable. I’ll send a few ponies up there to protect the radio, as well as a sharpshooter.” Mhambi nodded, and made her way back to the tower. Optical then looked over at us. “Your telekinesis is what we need right now. The houses up here aren’t welded down, so we figured that we can push them to more advantageous position. Can you help with that?”

“Yes.” We nodded. “We have the energy to do something like that.”

“Good, start on the north side. And... thanks.” The sergeant trotted off, her attention now going to barking orders at some of the ponies standing around unsure of what to do in the fight.

We trotted over to a group of ponies trying to move one of the houses, while only making minimal progress. 

“We are here to help.” We announced. One of the ponies fell over their own hooves when they saw us approach. Reaching out with our magic, the cargo container house was considerably heavy, and looked ready to fall apart as we gripped around it. “I’ll lift it, you all push forward.” With a long screech, the house moved in our magic as they pushed, making far more progress in moments than it had before we arrived.

We had to open another bottle of the tainted cider, drinking half of it before we were done. In the end, the houses from both sides were moved, and now the only places the raiders could climb up from, were the narrow spots on either side of the center building at the front of the ship. Optical had also managed to make a few firing lines for the militia to stay behind. Among the barricades was the container we had dropped in before, now empty of its contents.

There were still ponies shooting down at the raiders, but now most of them had repositioned themselves behind the defensive lines. It looked like we have chosen where we were going to fight, and we're going to let the raiders run right into it.

We had taken position behind the food container, as it was big enough to cover us even when standing. A few ponies had taken position inside, using the thick swinging doors to peek out without exposing themselves too much.

*Boom!*

An explosion. Looking out from behind the container, we saw smoke coming off on one of the cargo container homes. One of the few enclave soldiers still at the edge of the ship flew over to us, and a bit further back. He looked singed at the edges, and left a trail of smoke. The pony was lucky to not be dead, though how he held one of his eyes, and how one of his legs just dangled below him, he was likely hurt very badly.

It didn’t take long for it to start. First it was the sound of the raider cackling. Next was them climbing onto the deck. The first few went down easily, but then the alicorn empowered shields came up. It was all too surreal, raiders standing behind a wall of green light, waiting to rush in. As the alicorns stepped forward, keeping a bubble of green light around them, a few raiders joined them, the unicorns among them adding their own magical power to the shield.  We knew what they were planning. Not the smartest tactic, but with the numbers, they could do it. We all braced for the raiders to rush.

*Clang* 

A canister was thrown out between us from the raiders. 

*Fwoosh* 

Smoke bellowed from it, creating a haze on the soon to be battlefield. A few more canisters were thrown out, each one immediately bellowing smoke.

“TAKE THEIR SKULLS” The battle cry was followed with the sounds of elated howls and hooves hitting metal.

Gunshots soon rang out after, but with the thick haze, we could not tell if any of the raiders had been shot. A yelp and a scream from our side was us all we needed to know. We put away the rust gun, and drew the cutlass from our bags. Scanning through the smoke and haze, a faint light could be seen getting closer. The light quickly became that from a flame with how it shifted and flickered. Bracing our self, we hefted the sword up, ready to swing. The torch pony came into view like some specter, the haze making him look like she was almost on fire himself.

The bone covered unicorn raider was armed with a spear that had already coated in blood. Hanging off its sides were two more canisters, both billowing thick smoke from their tops. A crude metal helmet was home to a long spike that had a flaming skull impaled on it. Overall, it gave the raider an unnerving feel to it, like some monster from an enchant book. Our eyes locked, and with a gut wrenching scream, the raider charged.

Using the sword to deflect the spear, we managed to avoided being jabbed in the neck. But in return, our downward strike was knocked to the side with a clang. The raider giving us a grin full of sharpened teeth. We met his grin with another swing of the sword, but the raider jumped back out of its range. Out from the haze, three more raiders appeared. They however held no weapons, and were covered in dozens of smaller spikes. A clear compromise to the fact that they had no weapons on them. They charged at us without hesitation, and full of murderous intent.

*Tat tat tat tat tat tat tat tat tat*

The three raiders fell as the ponies from inside the container rattled them with bullets. The one raider with the spear stepped backwards and vanished into the haze, throwing her flaming skull at us. But even if we could no longer see her, we could feel her hateful gaze upon us still.

*Thwomp*

We turned to the sound and found one of the ponies from the container with the raider’s spear in her neck. The pony mouthed the word ‘help’ right before she was then dragged off. We didn’t have time to think about how smart or stupid our action was when we galloped after the mare.

We attempted to turn invisible, but we quickly realized that the haze surrounding us made it impossible. At least the haze worked on both ends, or so we hoped. As we galloped, we trampled over another raider right as we found the spear wielding raider. The poor mare had already had her head decapitated, and placed upon the raiders helmet.

“I will enjoy wearing your bones.” The raider smiled with his sharpened teeth on display. “It’s going to get me all the bitches. So many that I might not even have to chain down a few whores to satisfy me.” he jabbed with the spear, and we used the cutlass to parry it to the side.

Jabbing at our face again, we quickly knocked it away for a second time. As we did, pain erupted from our leg.  We looked down to find that the raider had thrown a dagger into it.  In the moment we’d looked, the raider was already running around us to our side. Quickly, we removed the dagger as we did our best to heft the cutlass and keep the raider from attacking again. Our efforts proved futile as the raider jabbed again with the spear.  We moved to parry again, but the raider had anticipated that.  They slid in close on their hooves when we attempted to swipe it away, and two more daggers sliced at our belly as he slid under us.

“This is too easy.” The raider jeered as he spat on the ground, waiting for us to turn and face him again. “And here I this was going to be a challenge.”

We locked eyes with him. “We are more than a challenge.”

The raider laughed. “You’re nothing more than a whelp with power. Maybe once I’m finished bleaching your skull, I use your bones to train that filly of yours cause my dick is a bit big for her.”

“Oh,” Our heart stopped pounding, and our breath became calm. “Is that so?” Something within us just stopped. It might have been fear, or worry, but it stopped with his words. He also looked much smaller than before, making his threat seem comical due to how pathetic it was. “Because to me, you’re looking quite small.”

The raider sneered, and charged. His moved his spear to jab at our chest again, but we didn’t care now. Dropping the sword, we grabbed at the raider with our magic, opting to take the hit from the spear. It was painful as the heavy piece of metal pushed inside is.  But it slowly slide out of us as it’s surprised master lost his focus and grasp on it. Pulling the raider up into the air, we locked eyes with it, seeing the raider for what it was.  Nothing more than a drug addicted piece of trash.

It was almost so pathetic that I had to laugh. “You know, when I was just another wasteland pony, I let ponies like you fuck me for a few caps. Sometimes even for chems.” The raider opened his mouth, but I squeezed him so hard that only a whimpering breath came out. “I wanted to be a painter, to make the world a brighter place. But all I became thanks to ponies like you was a two cap whore.” Something within me burned, like hot liquid bubbling out from my chest. “I even told myself I would do better after having a foal, and make sure he could be proud of his momma.”

The raider struggled in my grasp, but I was not going to let him go. The look in his eyes, the bloodshot look, it was the same as that other stallion, that raider, the one that took the only good thing I ever had. 

“But I couldn’t change, I still wanted the chems, and I didn’t know how to make caps other than selling myself.”  The raider’s horn glowed, pulling up two knives, but we squeezed even harder, feeling his organs starting to burst under the pressure. His focus died as the pain hit him, and the knives dropped to the ground. “In the end I got him killed, my precious little colt. I though my love was strong enough to be better, to protect him. But no.” Blood formed from the raiders mouth, and he’d begun to slump, having given up struggling to get away. “The one stallion may have stomped him to death, but I fucked that stallion first, and why?” The raider only gurgled at our words, his eyes rolling back into his head. “For fucking Dash, I fucked a raider for dash, and he killed my son!” Like the bubbling heat within me, blood burst from the raiders mouth like a fountain, and rained down upon me and him as what was left of his life slipped away into nothingness.

Looking to the side, we spotted a raider just looking at me, mouth hanging open. Perfect. With a smile, we raised the spear raider up high as the other raider slowly started to back away. But it was not fast enough. With a sickening crunch, we slammed the spear raider down onto the new raider, making a wet snapping sound as the other raider cried out in pain. The other raider tried to crawl out from the first raider. We grabbed the spear in our magic, and with a quick downward thrust, pinned the two raiders together onto the metal deck.

Two more spike covered raiders joined in, charging at me through the smoke.  They both made the mistake of leaping at me, one which they would regret. I simply grabbed both of them in mid jump, and slammed them into the other. I noticed one was noticeably heavier in my magic, and proceeded to kill the smaller raider with their heavier friend. Again and again I slammed her into the other.  Even when the lighter one was nothing, I kept slamming until they were both nothing but well tenderized dead meat.

Another raider came into view, this time armed with an SMG. As they opened fire, I used the two pulverized raider mares as a shield, and got up close the SMG raider. Grabbing the raider by the tail, I began to swing him around in my magic, twirling the fucker until they puked. When another raider came charging at me, we knew what to do. We twirled and swung our improvised raider-flail at the charging raider. Our flail made a satisfying crack as the charging raider did cartwheels out of view.

I had to admit it, this was fun.

Letting the weaponized raider go, I could see now that much of his head was now missing, and his guts were hanging out of what was left of his throat. This power we felt coursing through us, it was better than Dash. Better than Mint-als, or buck. I could kill them all. I wanted to kill them all. 

Wrenching the SMG from the dead raider, we found some more ammo on what was left of their body, and loaded it into the gun. Along with the rust gun we pulled back out of our bags, we were going to have some fun.

Trotting forward, we eventually found one of the shield bubbles the raiders were protecting themselves with. It was as simple as sticking the guns into it. It resisted me at first, but it was mostly projected with alicorn magic, so it didn’t take me long. I pushed the guns through, and as their horrified cries inside met my ears, I unloaded on. I couldn’t see them, but I knew I had hit what I wanted as seen as the shields faded.  

“Now for the next…” Something hit me like a wall and I went down hard. Collecting myself, I found that I was on the ground, next to the smashed body of a raider. Getting to my hooves, I quickly finished off the bottle of taint wine I had drank before. “Who did that!?”

The Haze began to clear as the pegasi from above created a gust of wind to push it away. A Green Alicorn stood before us, the bodies of raiders and militia scattered all-around. She looked behind me, and cocked an eyebrow. “You sure you were not a raider before joining mother?” She shook her head and sighed. “I am Blood Ink, Slaver of Philadelphia, from before Red Eye. Stop this nonsense and join us.  With your help, we could bring about a new future!”

I found the sword we had dropped before, and well as the rust gun laying on the deck near me. Picking them up in my magic, I sneered at Blood Ink. “Come make me!”



______________________________________



Footnote:

-New Quest: Line in the sand. 
> Chapter 19 - Battle of the Bold Part 4
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	 	 





The green Alicorn that stood before us wore crude armor, made from what looked like random scraps that were held together by several belts. Hanging off her right side was a rusty looking shotgun, and on the other side was a bundled up chain with a brutish hook attached at the end.  The look in her eyes was all we needed to know, we had seen it plenty of times before. ‘Do as I say, or be left blooded in the streets.’ Frankly, we didn’t like that look.

“Going to try and fight? That’s fine, I actually want to break that pretty face of yours.” Blood Ink said, jeering under her breath. “Braking ponies was always the best part of my old job. Well, that and the free snack cakes. Lemon custard is the best.”

*Tat tat tat tat*

We sent bullets at Blood Ink from the rust gun, but they only slammed into her green wall of magical energy. She responded by lifting her chain with her magic, spinning the hook around as she brought up and aimed the shotgun.

*Blam Blam*

The rusty shotgun let out two blasts. We managed to block most of it with the corpse of the raider we’d smashed before. A few pellets did manage to graze us, but it wasn’t that bad of a hit. Throwing the dead raider, their body smashed against Ink’s shield before crumpling down onto the ground.

“Why don’t you just go away?” We crocked. “Find somewhere else to live far from this place.”

Ink chuckled. “Sheltered, stupid, or just plain ignorant.” She shook her head. “We live in a world of only predators and prey. No matter where you go, there will be a fight, there will always be some pony out there looking to take what you have. So you have two options in this life. Wait for someone to take it all, or take everything from them first.”

“Life does not need to be that way?” The hook came flying at us as we spoke. Though we managed to move out of the way, it still grazed our neck and cut a little into our skin. Shortly, the chain pulled back under her magic, returning to its master and almost hitting us once more. 

“Not here for a debate, so submit or die!”  She snarled.

We pointed the rust gun at her again, but her shield came back up. “I don’t accept either of those options.” Placing the gun back into our saddle bag, we charged with the cutlass. With a wide swing, we hoped to end it quickly. Blood Ink oddly just stood still and smiled.

Something connected with our leg, and we were pulled down to the ground. Pushing ourselves up, we looked to see the other green alicorn, with another chain hook.

“I did good, right?” The alicorn said with an almost too cheery voice. “Just like you said, right?”

“Yes, now just hold her there and let me do what I do best.” Ink smirked as she came close. Taking the opportunity to strike, we swung our sword at her. But she simply beat it away with her chain. She used her magic to wrap the chain around the sword and bind it as she smiled. “Oh no, no, no. That is not how it goes.” With a tug, she wrenched the sword from our hold, throwing it to the side. With her chain free of the sword, she proceeded to raise the hook up high. The glint in her eyes, and toothy smile. She was going to enjoy this.

Almost like a deliverance from mother a voice cried out “Hey, look up!” It was familiar and stern in tone, demanding our attention.

Blood Ink stopped for a moment, and looked to the sky. An off white blur collided with Ink, leaving a trail of primary colors that slowly faded. We used this opportunity to shake off the hook on our leg, it making a clang on the floor.

Looking around, we saw Blood Ink smashed up against one of the large food containers. Sergeant Optical was pinned on the alicorn mare, hitting her repeatedly in the face. With a blast of magic from Ink’s horn, Optical went flying. We reached out and managed to catch in our magic her before she hit anything.

“Thanks for the save.” We told her.

“I like apple pie. I’ve only had it in snack cake form, so getting the real deal would be nice.” She pulled out the automatic Scatter beam rifle I had given her earlier. The rife revved up as both alicorns put out their shields.  Instead of staying for the fight, instead the two took to the sky. 

“Fucking cheaters.” Optical sighed, lowering her rifle for a moment.

“Should we go after them?” We asked.

“Yes.” She responded, but lowered her gun down at were the raiders had been coming from. “But the other raiders still need to be delt with.  I need to push em back first, so if you can keep those two from rejoining the battle, we might have a chance to hold this hoard back. At least long enough until that vertibuck gets here anyway.”

Nodding, we flared out or wings and took to the sky, rising above the smoke shrouded battlefield. Spotting her in the air, we watched as Blood Ink pointed her shotgun at us and fired. We shifted our flight to dodge the shot, flying off to the side. Without the haze surrounding us, we cast our invisibility and dew the rust gun. Both Alicorns covered themselves in a green bubble, knowing that outside of the smoke they could not track us. Every now and then, they cast a glance near where we were, but we remembered one important thing from our time with mother. In the rare open sky of the wasteland, blue alicorns were nearly undetectable. We smirked as now we held the advantage.

Down below, the militia were finally beginning to retake control of the top deck. Though the raiders had already taken some ground, they no longer were pushing forward.  They just had to hold out as long as possible, we could not let them in.

Circling around the two greens, our stalemate felt certain to never end until some pony made a move. This, we were not going to wait for, so we flew up. High, higher, higher still. Cold air filled our lungs, and our breath made a small cloud as we exhaled. Looking down, Blood Ink looked far smaller now. We pulled out another bottle of hard cider from our bags, one of the three left, and drank the whole bottle as fast as we could. It reinvigorated us, dulled the pain from the wounds we’d received, and made what we were about to do feel slightly less insane than it actually was.

Throwing the bottle away, we closed our wings and let ourselves drop. The fridgid air quickly rushed by as we gained speed, descending down that them at a quick clip. Opening our wings, we used them to push ourselves faster, and adjusting our aim at our target. We descended onto Blood Ink like some bird of prey, and for making the metaphor earlier, she didn’t see us combing.

With a thunderous crash we hit her bubble, and it shattered under our weight. Our invisibility spell was dispersed by the impact, and pain shot up through our legs, and into our body. It was so much pain, but so worth it. Pain didn’t matter to us as we collided with Ink, her only able to give us a flash of shock before being driven down with us.  She slammed into the ground with us on top of her, and we felt a fair few snaps from her body as we came to a stop.


“Do you yield?” Pushing ourselves up off of her and taking a few steps back, we spat on the former slaver turd alicorn. 

Blood Ink groaned. “Got to hoof it to you, I didn’t see that coming.” She struggled to get up, but one of her legs was bent in a painful direction, and some of the bloody bone was sticking out. She was finished. “But you’re too late. You’re already finished.”

“What, your leg is broken?” We took a step forward, and pain shot up through our legs. “Shit.”

“Ha! Thought so.” Ink spat out. “Though so. You can’t pull off a slam like that without hurting yourself. But that’s not what I meant. She should be here soon, and then you’ll see.”

“Who?”

The other alicon suddenly landed over Ink, sending her protective green bubble over them both.

“Who do you think? Razor Strom’s got a big surprise for you and you alone. And let me tell you, it’s a doozy.” The other green alicorn picked up Ink, placing Ink up on her back. Still sealed in the bubble, the green alicorn trotted off over to the edge of the ship. Even with Ink across her back, the alicorn flared her wings and jumped off, disappearing into the smoky haze.

Having them get away was annoying, but it was still a victory. Looking around, there were a few raiders looking as us, awestruck.

“How Disappointing.” A stallion from the within the haze called out.

We whipped around to come to see Grease Fire approach us. There were four raiders standing around him, all four of them were decked out in bones and skulls, with each one pointing a spear at us. 

“But that’s what happens when you send outsiders to do the job of clans ponies.” Grease Fire shook his head. “They lack the vertebrae to do the job right, or at least, to die trying.”

“We didn’t see the need to kill innocent ponies.” We responded.

Grease Fire chuckled “I’m not going to proselytize on who is or is not innocent. That’s a merry-go-round that is about as fun to ride as a rusty one I found as a foal. No, no. You speak of innocence, but that’s simply an excuse one gives themselves to break a deal, or to stab another in the flank. But don’t worry, I understand, the lure of the hero is intoxicating indeed. I should know, I answered the calling myself.”

“You, a hero?” We found the notion humorous.

Levitating a rag from his pocket, he cleaned some blood from his hoof. “Quite so.” Looking at his guards, he waved his hoof at them.  Hesitantly, they all lowered their spears. “Depending on how you tell it, it can be a long story, but I’ll give you just the notes. If it’s not too much of an interruption?”

We shook our head, the raiders spears trained on us was enough to temper any rage we had to fight for the moment. 


“Good” Grease Fires replied. “Long ago, a little foal and his kin of hunters found themselves betrayed by their neighbors and sold into slavery. The young colt was clever, and managed to slip away, later finding himself in the company of other wayward foals looking for a place in this cruel world.”

“What’s the point of…” Grease Fire raised his hoof and cut me off.

“Well, that colt grew up into a stallion who was both strong and smart. He made caps from odd jobs, until one day, he saw his kin in chains,  withered to the less than the proud hunters they once were. So the stallion tried to plead for the freedom of his kin, but the owner ignored him. He tried to buy the ponies freedom, but the owner mocked him for his lack of caps. So he rallied the town to his cause, having generated good will from many of them. But the law stated that this slaver’s right to ownership was true, and nothing could change that. So even with all he did, he could do nothing to free his imprisoned kin.”

Grease Fire sneered, but that sneer quickly grew into a smile.

“So, being the hero, I snuck into the owner’s home and chopped off his worthless head. Now, even for all I’d done for them, after they found the headless corps and all the slaves gone, the town did not like this outcome at all. The cowardly bastards put a bounty on my head, labeled me a criminal.” He levitated out a cigarette, and a lighter.  Even with all the chaos going on around here, he tipped the open pack toward us. 

“You want one?” He asked with a remarkable calmness to him. Looking around, the other raiders glared at us, so we shrugged and nodded. The lit cigarette hit our lips, and we breathed in the smoke, our body unsure if we should be enjoying this or not. Grease Fire pulled out another cigarette and proceeded to smoke. “So I burnt down the town, and hunted down the survivors. Which solved the bounty problem, as there was no longer any ponies to pay it.”

“From there I got my former kin back into shape as we went out and looked for the others.” Taking a long drag, Grease Fire let out a rather large cloud of smoke. “At first we’d higher raiders to help, but later found it much more cost effective if we just took them over and forced them. One group at a time at first, but soon I had many raider bans under my flag. After a while, I even rebuilt my old clan. Last on the list was to gain vengeance on those who betrayed us. After that, the plan was a return to better times.”

“Better times?” We asked.

“Yes,” He nodded, taking a quick drag of his cigarette. “when we lived without relying on others. Hunted our own food, made our own cloths. But sadly our home is currently being occupied rats we wish to see gone.”

“And why tell us this?”

“Simple really.” He too out a cap, and tossed it to us. “You agreed to hear us out at the start of this. And though you didn’t keep your end of our bargain, you also didn’t conspire against us.” The metal bottle cap making a ting sound on the floor. “I’m giving you a chance to go because you aren’t like these rats. Leave us, and take your filly with you. We left some supplies for you back at our base camp, so nothing is tying you here any longer. But if you do wish to stay, you can join my side, be my mare. No pony will come after you or your filly, as long as you agree to be mine.”

Stretching ourselves out, and standing as tall as we could, we responded. “And if I chose to fight instead?”

“Simple.”  He smirked as the four guards lifted their spears at us. “Then you die. Slowly, as I ravage your cunt.” Grease Fire fiddled with a knife in his magic, grinning wildly “To tell the truth, option three is my favorite. I once kept a mare alive long enough to birth me a foal. I fed the tike her flesh and blood after the milk ran out. Maybe I’ll do the same with that filly of yours?”

Our stomach churned at that. “Barbaric.”

“But effective.” He said with a cocky tone. “If they’re still alive when this is over, about a fourth of the foals on the ship are already my children, as well as some of the troops fighting by my side. So you can say that not only am I trying to get my home back, but also my children.” Looking over, he eyed at the raider next to him. “Isn’t that right, Bone Knife? You want your brothers and sisters back, don’t you?” The raider guard grunted with a nod. “So what is it, run, stay, or die?”

We sighed. “We chose nothing.” Casting invisibility, the raiders spears came at us. We managed to grab two with our magic, and use them to perry the remaining two. Spitting our cigarette, we wrenched the spears from the guards, and thrust them at the old raider. But something prevented us from delivering the killing blow. Grease Fire who had not budge an inch, looked at us with what we guessed was pity.

“Oh, my little Greasy. How many times have I told you not to toy with your prey like this?” Slowly, we looked behind us. It was Razor Storm, but she seemed bigger, and the air around her felt heavy. No, not the air, but her magic. We could feel it, the magic around her was thick and heavy, similar to that of mother, but... wrong. 

Razor stepped over to us, wrapping her wing around us. “I have to admit that I’m impressed on how you took out blood Ink, almost enough to spare you. Almost.”

We suddenly jolted to the side, crashing s into the container we had delivered the day befor. Our body leaving a sizable dent into it.

“But you have obstructed me long enough, and I will make you pay for it.” Looking at Razor Storm, she was definitely bigger than before, like an alicorn who had absorbed more than her share of radiation, but still different. She looked more red then purple, her body thicker, more strong than elegant. From her mouth she drooled a rainbow liquid that reeked of the foul stench of the place we were made. Taint, she reeked of taint.

With a chuckle Razor tilted her head up. “I see you have noticed my change. Good, good.” Her voice had a sick satisfaction to it. “I thought to myself, if mother lived in the taint, what would happen if I drank it, and by it, a whole barrel I mean. And to tell you what, I’ve never felt so powerful before!”

Her magic grabbed us by the throat like a vice grip and dragged me over to her. “You’re going to be the first example of my power, in the bloodiest way possible.” She looked us up and down with a self satisfying smile. “Yes, that will be just perfect. A good message of what I plan to do to your pegasus friends. I’ll start by ripping your wings off.”




__________________________________________________________________________________________________



Foot Notes:

Quest Progress:  Line in the sand %50
> Chapter 20 - Battle of the Bold Part 5
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	 





The pressure, foreign yet familiar. Like the hoof of a pony stronger than us, pushing their weight down on us, chest and head, with malice and cruelty.  Under Razors hold I could feel myself slipping, my hatful memories forcing their way back. The all too familiar feeling digging up what we wish forgotten. 



_____________________________________________________________________________



“Rainbows? How pathetic is that!?” Road Spike spat at me as she pushed herself down onto of me. Her hooves were dirty and chipped, like every pony who’s living in our town of Squalor. “You know rainbows only exist in those lying books!” The unicorns sneered as she push me deeper into the mud.

A deep bellowing chuckle came from Dumbbells, Road Spike’s loyal and dumb muscle. “Only the dumb chase what’s not real.” He laughed again, but choked on his own saliva.

“Shut it Dum-Dum,” Road Spike chastised the overgrown earth pony. Taking her hoof off my head and chest, she let me sit up from the mud. “Now Prism, I know you like your… hobbies, but how is that going to earn the caps you need to pay me? Protection cost a lot lately, and without it, I don’t think I can keep the raiders from simply carting you away.”

I gulped. “But RP, you wouldn’t! We’ve known each other since we were foals!”

“So true,” She slowly trotted over to me, placing her hooves on our cheeks like she was the friend I remembered her once being. “you know me, and I know you. You like your… colors. And I have my business.” She took her hooves off my cheeks and her looks soured. “You need me, but sadly, I don’t need you. Not with the paultry caps you make.”

“But, Squalor is so brown! I’m sure there are many ponies who would like a fresh coat of paint to make things a little livelier.” I sat myself up, brushing off the mud, or at least what I could. “Not everything needs to look run down.”

Road Spike just smirked. “And what business have you gotten?” We couldn't look her in the eye and answer her. “That’s right, none.” She places a hoof under my chin. “Luckily I have a solution, a little side business for you to do. You can even keep your painting business open, see if it goes anywhere. Not that it will.” We looked away, but she wrenched out head to look her eye to eye. “So you will do it, and pay me what I’m owed. Got it?” We nodded. “Good, I’ll send the first client to you tonight. Make sure to do everything they say, and I mean everything.”



______________________________________________________________________________________



The pull of Razor’s magic threw us like we were nothing but a ragdoll, helpless to her power. Everything about her dwarfed us. Her size was bigger, her magic was far more oppressive. She emulated every little thing that made us fear mother, and none that made us feel loved. Befor

she was a real monster, one we could do nothing to resist.

Our limp body was lifted off the ground, like we were some trophy for Razor Storm to show off. “Amazing is it not? Were before you could barely resist, now all you can do is remain limp until I’m fished with you. If you were a stallion I was bedding, it be disappointing.” We were thrust a little higher into the air, and our legs simply swayed limply in the wind.

“Listen to me, you pathetic prey!” Razors voice boomed. “I have taken you little trump card from you, and will now show you what awaits all who keeps resisting.” We were slammed onto the ground, the pain shooting through our bones, and penetrating the rest of our body. “Now I had to put some thought into this, but I quickly came to the perfect conclusion. The pegasus here need to know true fear. And what do you feathery bastards fear the most?”

A few shots cracked down on Razor, but only bounced off her purple barrier. Looking up, we could see the militia, guns at the ready. We could see Razor’s smile, ear to ear, as she bent down to whisper at us. “Watch as none of them even have the spine to help you.”

A magical grip wrapped around us, and forced out wings to spread open. Razors voice boomed once more. “Behold the fate of all those who resist. Maybe when this is all over, I’ll have enough to make myself quite the dandy cloak.” The sound of a motor made us flinch, a familiar and terrifying sound. 

She had pulled out a ripper.



_________________________________________________________________________________________



Messy, forceful, and lacking in any tack. Dumbbell released me from his kiss, though it was more like he was trying to eat my face then to be romantic.  From his brutish and aggressive display, I was sure he was also trying to learn how to dislocate his jaw just so he can skip chewing and ram food down his throat.

Gasping for air, we did our best to not show our distress over his ‘kiss’. Over the years, Dumbbell and Road Spike had only gotten crueler to me.  They acted more like the slavers they did business with than the ‘friends’ they supposedly were. 

“You’re getting sloppier Prism. That’s why you’re not making as many caps as you were before.” Dumbbell spoke with a slosh, his drool seeping out of his mouth whenever it opend. “I’ll be back tomorrow to check your performance, so put on a nice dress, and lose some damned weight. Celestia, you’re getting fat.” The slobbering asshole left the room, slamming the door behind him.

Trying to get up, our week legs buckled under my swollen belly. We had the strength to move around, but my legs just hurt too much. With a sigh, I reached out with my magic and pulled out a bottle of water from one of my little hiding spots. It was warm, but at least it was enough to get the slobber out of my mouth. Rubbing my stomach, I was at least smarter than dumbbell, and knew that I had not in fact gotten fat.  I was instead, pregnant. How far along was I, I didn’t know, but the poor foal had to be due any day now. All I could do for the little one was make a hiding spot for it, as it was all I had to give.



_________________________________________________________________________________________



The pain was unbearable, and it didn’t stop once the wing came off. Our shredded flesh stung in the cold salty air, as our warm blood oozed from the wound. We wanted to scream, but our mouth was held tightly shut by Razors magical grasp, she only letting us talk when she wanted us too. We wanted to thrash, kick, run free, but Razors oppressive magic was too strong to resist against. So we returned to being limp, accepting this fate.

“Oh how I wish she had more wings.” Razors voice boomed. “Because I could do this all day!” Her magic tightly wrapped around us, and applied pressure to the other wing. “Well I’m sure there's plenty of you feather brains out there who will resist, so I’ll just enjoy this one for now.” The ripper revved up again, blaring into our ears as we clench our teeth and waited for what came next.



_________________________________________________________________________



“What do you mean you’re increasing the rent!? I own this place!” Road Spike voice boomed, announcing her anger. “We had a deal, and you better fucking keep it!”

We looked over to the window, doing our best not to wake out son. Road Spike had become quite thin over the last few years, and her mane havd had lost the vibrant colors it once held. The Raider next to her was as dull looking as he could be, including the generic skull cutiemark like so many of them had.

“That was with the old boss. The new boss says that our protection costs more.” The raider smirked. “We’re part of a more important group now, so we cost more.”

“Brahmin Shit.” Road stomped her hooves. “You're still the dumbass group I hired to take over this place, you can’t demand mo…”

*Bang*

Road Spike’s body slumped over into the dird.  She… was dead, just like that. The raider pushed her body to the side, looking a little annoyed. “Hay!” he called out. “have you taken care of that tub of lard?”

“Yeah, yeah. The fuckers dead.” Another raider stepped out of the shadows, above the first raider from some railings, and looking less then happy. “I was hoping for a fight, but the idiot ate everything in front of him. I don’t think he knew that he drank a whole jug of bleach until it was in his stomach. Hate to be the one to clean up all his bloody guts, because he puked them up everywhere.”

The male raider sighed. “Right. Well this place is ours, not their much left of it. Let’s gather the whores, as they’ll need to know their new boss. Not like it changes anything.”

The female raider chuckled. “Well at least they’ll know who will beat the shit out of them if they don’t pay up.”

The male raider just shrugged. “Don’t know why the boss wants to keep this place open. We should just take the mares for ourselves. I know I’d like to have a little slave-wife waiting for me back at camp.”

The female raider just shook her head. “And that’s how you go soft. If you want a mare to stick with you, she needs to be strong. Not some common weak whore like these bitches.”

“How about I take you then?” The male raider probed.

“Only if you can force yourself on me.” The female responded. “But be warned, I bite.”

“I know, I’ve seen your brothers face.” The male raider sighed. “Still don’t know why he wants to fuck you again so badly.”

She shrugged. “Not like I’m excited over the idea. I guess after the first time we went at it, all other mares didn’t stand up. But enough about my bro’s small dick, lets get this job done.”

“Right.” The male raider responded. “After this is over, lets meet up at the ring.” The female Raider smiled at his offer, and moved onto knocking on the doors.

I pulled back from the curtain, and looked at my little colt. He a bit too tired to know what was going on. “I’m sorry, honey, I need to put you back in your hiding space.

“But Mom...”  He whined softly.

I placed my hoof on his mouth.  “No buts.  Dangerous ponies are on their way here, and I need you to be quiet until their leave.” I hugged him tightly, no way I was going to let anypony take him from me.  “Can you do that for me?”


__________________________________________________________________________________



We heard our other wing hit the ground with a sickening plop. The pain, like with the other wing, was all that existed in our mind.  We wanted it to stop, but Razor held us down firmly. We wanted to faint, but somehow the mutated alicorn willed us to stay awake. Her magic, we could truly feel it now, pressing under our skin, snaking it’s way to our very mind.

She forced us to stand, her oppressive magic moving us like some puppet. 

“See here? This is the fate that awaits you. Bloodied, weak, and broken.” Our head was lifted up, throat exposed. “Some of you may live, defiant as you are. But unless you submit, you will be nothing more than food for the mirelurks.” Her ripper was pressed up on our neck, slowly and softly moved back and forth by her magic. “So how much is your life worth?”  She asked me.  “Submit to me, and so will many others. You would be saving many lives if you do.”

We looked her in the eye. Her madness, her bloodlust, the evil. We knew the look, and we hated it to our core.



_______________________________________________________________________



“Whore! Next time do everything I say or I’ll make you hurt more.” The raider slammed the door behind him, not paying me anything.

Picking up a nearby rag, I cleaned the blood from my face. The raiders were a mixed bag. Some were violent and drug addled, but some others simply wanted to be pampered, or surprisingly wanted to have a lap to cry into. But the violent ones? They were in charge, and they were the ones to frequent the brothel most often.

Spitting some blood into the rag, I found part of a tooth among the blood. Shaking my head, I knew this was going to only make my health worse. Pulling a nearby box, I took out some med-X, quickly using it to dull the pain. The drug worked as fast as ever, but it wasn’t as effective as it was when I started using the stuff. Reaching out for another med-x, I disappointingly found the box empty. 

“Shit, I can’t have used them all up so soon.”  I muttered through my bloody muzzle.

“Mama!” My little colt came out of his hidey hole. I had made a hidden door for him so that he could hid in between the walls. “Are you okay?”

Sighing, I nodded my head. “I’m fine, just a little low on my medicine.”

“No you’re not fine, mama.” He frowned. “We should leave this place, and go away from the bad ponies!” He looked at me with starry eyes. “I heard there’s safe places east. We should just go!”

“Soon. But first mama just needs to raise a few more caps. Then we can pay someone to take us east.” It was easier said than done, unfortunately.  Between food and water, I also needed the chems to help keep my head on straight and the pain down. With the way things were going, these raiders were leaving few caps to save up with. Placing the rag away, I found my leg shaking. I tried to hold it down, but it wouldn’t stop. Worse, the shaking started to spread until my whole body was shaking.

“Mama!” my little colt held onto me tightly. Looking down at him, I could see that he was crying. All I could do was do my best to hug him tightly until the shaking stopped. All I could do was hope that things would turn out for the better.  All I could do, was hope...



________________________________________________________________________



“I won’t submit, not to you!”  We laughed. With as much strength I could muster, I spoke up as loudly as I could. “So kill me, skin me, do whatever you want to my corpse. No matter what you threaten, we will not submit to you!”

Razor glared at me. “A shame. Here I was hoping to parade you around town before sticking a ripper up your ass. I guess I’ll just have to be satisfied with using your head as a decoration.” She giggled to herself. “Maybe I should do what Nightseer ended up doing with our fair princess Luna.” Razor then laughed loudly. “Yes, that is perfect. Your bones will decorate my armor, along with the skulls of all those who follow you.”

The ripper came to life right under our neck, and there was no way out. We were to weak to fight Razor, So we just closed our eyes and accepted this death. Soon I’ll get to see my son again.

“DON’T YOU HURT PRISM ANY MORE!”



_____________________________________________________________



The raider scoffed. “So the whore has a little shitling. I would be impressed if it was not all too typical.” The large raider waved his hoof dismissively. “Why don’t you go run off and get eaten by a gecko like a good little foal?”

“I’m not gunna run away!” My colt stood there, holding a rusty knife in his magic. “Now stop hurting mama and get out of here!”

The raider laughed. “And what, what will you…” The rusty knife was jabbed into the raiders eye, making the brut howl in pain. “You fucking piece of shit, I’ll kill you!”

“Not if I kill you first!” He opened a box, and pulled out a few more knives. With his magic, he threw the knives.  Each and every one of them stuck firmly into the raider. I knew my son was strong with magic, but this was as surprising to me as the raider.

A few of the knives had stuck firmly in the raider’s leg that he’d used to protect his face. “If you were mine, I’d be proud of ya. Such an intent to kill, and some power to back it up.” He grabbed one of the knives in his leg with his mouth, spitting the rusty blade onto the ground. “But you’re not, and we used our last healing potion yesterday, meaning I’m now blinded in one eye thanks to you.” He smiled with yellow rotten teeth. “Eye for an eye, but I’m greedy, so I’ll take it all.”

My colt threw a few more knives, but the raider didn’t flinch, tackling him, sending both of them threw the wall. With one motion the raider had my son pinned, his large hoof almost covering my sons body.

“Stop!” I called out. “He’s too young to understand what he was doing. If you’re going to hurt anypony, hurt me!”

The raider grinned. “You should have thought about that first before letting your runt run wild. Maye your next one will be kept on a short leash.” The raider lifted his hoof, and slammed it down on my son, and repeated this until my son stopped moving, and then did it one more time. Kicking my colt’s body over to me, I could see that he was dead, and beyond all help. Looking at him, I couldn’t bring myself to cry, scream, or feel anything. “If you want, I could father your next one.” He dropped a few canisters of Dash, his payment for fucking me.

Numbness was all I felt… 

No, I could feel, and it burned. Clutching my son, I glared at the raider “You.”

“Ya, I’ll even raise the whelp. You know, to help make them strong.” He laughed at his own sick joke.

“Die!”

The Raider didn’t even have time to react as I kicked the knife still stuck in his head deeper in his eyesocket. All the way, making it poke out the back of his skull. The raider fell to the floor, dead, without even a scream or whimper.

Looking at him, my anger subsided, only too late realizing that if I could do that, I could have saved my son. I should have protected him. We should have left when he’d suggested it. Looking around, the rest of the brothel had come out to see the commotion.  They all wore a mix of shock and horror. I didn’t want to be here, or anywhere anymore. I just wanted my son back.



__________________________________________________________________________________



“You little insect!” Star skimmed across the floor, having been kicked by Razo. “You think you can stand up to me, a mere foal!” Razor now sported a deep cut along her side. The blackwater cutlass sitting next to her, covered in rainbow blood.

“I did cut you, so that’s a start.” Star Charter said contently as she got back up on all fours. “Here, I’ll give you an option, leave here, and I won’t kill you.”

Razor growled. “I will not be mocked by a mere foal” she stomped onto the ground, and with her magic grabbed every piece of junk around us. “Now die!” the junk then accelerated at Star. She rolled to the side, taking cover behind a broken barrier. The junk flew and destroyed the barrier, but Star was not there anymore, already having scampered away. Razor franticly looked around levitating more junk ready to be thrown. “Come out little filly, let me crush you to death!”

We had to help Star, but we were in too much pain to move properly. Pulling our saddle back up with our magic, our one hope was there. The bag, it was soaked with rainbow fluid, and reeked of tainted cider, making our heart sink for a moment. But fortune shined on us, and one last bottle inside was still unbroken. Popping the cork, we drank as much of it as we could, pouring it down into my stomach. Its effects were not instant, but we could feel the concentrated magic flowing from the liquid, and into us.

*BOOM*

An explosion went off next to razor, making her flinch. “You fucking rat, if you keep playing this game, then I’ll just have to smoke you out!” The floating junk then started to spin, and expand out. More and more junk joined the other pieces, spinning around Razor.  She cackled madly. “Amazing, this power is amazing!”

With a squeal, Star was picked up by Razors magic. With the filly in her grasp, Razor dropped the rest of the junk, and pulled Star toward her. “I can’t say that I’m not impressed. So much fight for such a young filly. But I will be crushing you now.”

“Don’t you dare hurt my foal!” We cried out, getting to our hooves. Everything hurt. The rainbow liquid, while it did restore a bit of our strength, had not dulled our pain in the least. “She’s only a foal, let her go. It’s me you want.”

“True.” Razor smirked. “But she pissed me off, and you seem to care about her.” She laughed before looking at me. “Oh, that’s too perfect!  That quiet acceptance was pissing me off, but now? Now I can see despair in your eyes.” She dangled Star in front of her, letting her swing by her neck. “I’m going to have you watch her die slowly. And then when you feel despair, true despair, then and only then will I kill you.”

Star began to struggle and Razors magic wrapped around her neck like sick tendrils. We were in pain, week from the fight, and struggled to stand. We didn’t want to see this again.  We couldn’t see this happen again. What could we do? Was their anything at all we even could do? There had to be something...

‘Fate is cruel’ We looked to our side to see a unicorn mare stand next to us.  She looked at us as if she were gazing into a mirror. ‘We had the power to protect the ones we loved, but were too scared to do anything.’ The mare had creamy gray fur, a freckled face, and a mane that was of red, yellow, and orange. Her cutie mark was of a stretched canvas with a rainbow painted on it. ‘Well I’m tired of being scared, aren’t you?’

Looking up at Star, it was like time had frozen. Nothing was moving at all. 

‘Scared’ I looked back at the mare, with only my thoughts doing the talking. ‘But I don’t want to lose anymore.’

‘We are going to lose everything if we don’t do something.’ The mare said back at me, keeping her calm demeanor.

‘But... what do we do?’ What could we do against somepony like Razor?  We stood no chance.

‘Get angry, get reckless.’ She smirked. ‘Do what we should have done so long ago.’

We felt confused, but somehow knew what she meant. ‘Do... what?’

‘Take a stand, get violent.’ Tilting her head slightly, she looked at me in the eyes. ‘Fight and kill to protect what you care about.’

‘Make them regret.’ I said in agreement.

The old Prim Paint nodded, the old ‘me’, vanished as though she was never there. It was madness to talk with yourself, but maybe that’s what needed to happen. The wasteland had always been a mad place, but I guess that was all I truly needed to keep from suffering the same fate twice, was a bit of true madness.

I lifted the empty bottle in my magic, and looked at Razor. “Drop her now, and I’ll make your death quick!”

“Oh, is that a threat?” Star choked as Razor’s tendrils squeezed her tighter.

My horn flared with magic as I sneered. “I said drop her NOW!”  Before I could even blink, Razor was knocked over. Something had slammed into her legs from the side hard enough to send her to the ground.  The hit broke her concentration, and forced her to let go of Star. The filly immediately dropped to the ground and began running over to me.

“Wh… What!?” Getting herself up, Razor looked round for what had hit her. In front of everyone’s eyes, my invisibility magic having wore off and revealed a long steel pipe appeared. Her head snapped over at me, her face contorted into an enraged sneer. “You. How?”

“This is your final warning” I was still in pain, more than I had ever known in my life. But it didn’t matter, because I had something to protect, and a bitch to kill. “Turn back now, or I will kill you. That, I can promise you.”



____________________________________________________________________________________



Footnote:

Quest Progress:  Line in the sand %75
> Chapter 21 - Battle of the Bold Part 6
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	 





Razor laughed. It was internal at first, like she was trying to hold it in. But it quickly became a loud, mad cackle. 

“Kill me? That’s too rich!” More laughter belted from her muzzle until she began losing her breath.  She rose her forehoof to her chest, trying to force herself to stop just to breath. “One lucky hit does not a champion make.”

“I don’t care.” I responded flatly. “Even if it kills me in the end, I will kill you.”

She lowered her eyes to me, lowering her tone as well. “Broken bird, you really want a test of power?”

Something about her words amused me. “Broken?” She must be talking about my lost wings. “You think I care about that?” I didn’t originally have wings, and they were simply a gift from mother. But that’s not who I originally was. “Those wings never belonged to me in the first place.”

“Then I should take more of you then.” Razor said with a smile. “That horn of yours, for example.  I’ll grind it to dust.”

“Come get it.” Her threats had long stop digging into me, and were more like a buzzard cawing at me from afar.  Irritating, but pointless. Tilting my head up, I smiled back at her. “I’ll take yours in return.”

“FINE!” She shouted, her two rippers roared back to life, singing in the air around her. “I’ll carve you, bloody you, make you regret ever being born!”

“Doubtful.” I responded, readying myself to fight.

Razor Storm howled, lifting every piece of junk around her at once.  It began to swirl around her body, moving about like a storm of razor sharp rusted metal. “You all will die!”

The pain in my body still engulfed me, but somehow I pushed it back. It didn’t matter to me because more important things were ahead of me. The most important of all, was protecting Star, who now clung tightly to my back. The next, was insuring the raiders didn’t win, by either sending them back to the wasteland, or their graves. That started with me beating Razor Storm.

The storm of junk both acted as her shield and her weapon. Attacking like I had tried to before would only end in everyone’s death, but if I could get past it and deal another blow on her horn, then the opportunity for victory would open.  The question was how?

Teleportation? No, even if I could, Razor would know how to counter it. Using my own shield against her metal storm would end with me losing out. I’d be out classed instantly.  I needed another strategy entirely.

‘Be reckless’

What if I just charged her? There’s no way she would expect that from me.  But I need her focus elsewhere first.

‘Be cunning’

First, a blast of magic then. That would open up a small window for me.

‘Be vicious’

If she wants my horn, then I’ll give it to her.  If I do this, I have to commit fully to it. No turning back.

“It’s your move.”  Razor cackled again, twirling her rippers as she licked her lips.  “Come on already!”

“Star, I’m going to need you to stay back,” I glanced back to the small filly on me.  “you’ve done enough as it is.”

The filly frowned. “No dice, Prism.” She pulled her Rust gun from her back, loading a fresh magazine in. “We go together, or not at all.”

“I’m not playing around.” I snapped back at her.  Really, this was not the time to ignore my wishes.

“Neither am I.” She grinned. “She’s too strong to fight alone.”

“I don’t want you to get hurt.” I tried to plead with her, but I had the feeling that I would not change her mind.

“It’s too late for that.” Star Charter shook her head. “I was hurt plenty on the Blackwater, long before you met me.” The whites of her cursed eye turned red, and a trickle of blood dripped from it, rolling down and off her cheek. “So it’s no use worrying about me, let’s just kill this bitch already.”

The storm of junk grew closer. “Fine, but stay behind me.”  I answered her with a stern tone. Razor was growing impatient, leaving me with little time to think. “Only make yourself known when needed.”

She saluted. “Eye-eye, captain!” 

My magic enveloped her and turned her invisible. We could only hope that was enough to protect the rambunctious little filly.  It’ll be a miracle if we get out of this alive at all.

“RAZOR!” Taking a step forward, I raised my voice as loud as possible. “Prepare yourself.”  Our very voice felt like it carried the weight mother once gave it, and it brought joy to Razor’s eyes.

“For victory,” She smirked as she spoke. “Most certainly, I will.”

All my pain, my uncertainty, my fear, and my self-loathing. It all felt like it melted away, as though at this moment it bowed before a greater me.  I would not going to let this moment pass me by, not this time. 

My horn burned with magic. One over-glow, two over-glow, and still I concentrated. My horn shined with raw magical power. It hurt, feeling like my whole horn wanted to pop out of my skull. But I would not let it yet. I needed more power, I needed a bigger burst. Three over-glow, four-overglow, still I pushed it. I knew I could do more.  I could make it bigger, stronger! Five over-glow, six over-glow. I was not more a mere unicorn anymore, scared of the world and weak to others power over me. Seven over-glow, eight over-glow. Those I wish to protect, I will die before letting them be hurt by others. Nine over-glow, ten over-glow. Even if I must wipe away all that is in front of me, I’ll do it, to protect all those around me.

I let the magic loose. A clear sphere bust from my horn, and my body went numb. The sphere slowly traveled to Razor, entering her storm of junk. At first it did nothing, like the junk and the sphere were on different planes of existence entirely. 

But then, it burst.  Everything went white, and my ears only heard a sharp ringing.

‘Opportunity’

Using what strengthen had left in my body, I charged. Blind and deaf I charged straight at where I knew Razor was standing. I could feel nothing. My legs were still numb, my everything was numb. I only knew that I’d hit something when I could no longer move forward.

“You...” Razors less than pleased face came into focus as the shine from my magic faded. “Bitch!” My horn was firmly lodged into her neck. I smiled as she lifted a hoof, and pushed myself off of her, her rainbow blood spouting from her neck, and staining my face. “I’ll crush you!” The junk she controlled rose up into the air, forming intimidating sphere. “I’ve run out of patience, So die!”

Casting invisibility, I pushed myself to the side. The junk slammed into the ground where I had just been.  It gave of a chorus of squeals as it dented the deck of the ship. The impact sent some of the junk flying all about, with a few pieces hitting me. The blows weren’t enough to hurt, but it broke my focus.  My invisibility spell broke, revealing my position.

“You’ll be squashed like a radroach” Razor sneered, as she raised the junk from the ground again. “And just like a radroach, you just don’t know when to die!” The junk flew at me like a wall, but pulling back, I cast my invisibility again and found the supply crate to take shelter behind. More random bits of Razor’s scrap metal weapon lodged in deep to it. “Enough hiding! Show yourself and die already!”

“I’ve got this!” Star said as she Jumped off of me and scampered across the deck of the ship. Before we could react, she’d already pulled Razor’s attention.  “Hay, Scurvy butt! Try and hit me!”

“I’ll do more than that, welp!” Bits and pieces of pipe, scrap metal, and rusted boxes began flying at Star Charter. Her small sized worked as an advantage, and her reflexes were too great for Razor’s assault.  Star smirked as she dodged the flying metal, using bits of the ships broken defencive barricades to protect herself.

Watching this, I knew what to do. Wrapping the empty supply container in my magic, I made it invisible.  With as much effort as I could, I used my magic and lifted it above my head. “Razor!” She looked in my direction, my own invisibility failing as I chose to focus my attention solely on the container. With all my strength, I propelled the container at her.  I locked eyes with her as she stood blissfully unaware of my attack.

With a slam, the container lost its invisibility as it hit her. The sheer weight of it meant that both her and it were flung across the deck.  The container and her didn’t stop until it hit one of the houses and collapsed it down ontop of her. Even for an overpowered alicorn, that was going to do some damage. 

Star Charter quickly joined me, smiling. “Got her.”

*Poof*

Razor appeared right before me in a flash of magic. Her one eye open eye glared into my own with a hatred unmatched by all but mother. Her face was blooded, looking slightly crushed. 

“I’d be impressed if I was not about to eviscerate you from smile to gut.” She growled. “I’ll decorate this deck with your intestines, use your stomach to make a water sack. Let me count the ways I can use your parts to better life for me.”

“Hay, Bitch flanks!” Star charter called out.

Razor smiled, “And the little one. I’ll boil her into a stew, and force the slaves to eat…” Razor paused, looking over at the little filly. Her pause became a hesitant step backwards.  Razor’s quivering eye was fixated on Star as the oversized alicorn became completely paralyzed in fear.

“Razor?”  We asked.

She didn’t respond, and we feared what was going on as we had seen this before. The dark magic implanted within Star had this effect on others. I had no time to think about the repercussions this would have for Star after this ordeal was over.  She was buying me time, so I had to act. Lowering my head, I placed my horn under Razors eye, careful not to block her view of Star. 

I thrust forwarded as hard as I could.

Razor gave a howling Scream. Her once good eye now crushed, oozing rainbow blood down onto my horn before she tore away from me. It was a brutal, opportunistic attack on her, but I had to do it.

“You fucking bitch!” Junk levitated off the ground and began to swirl around us once again. “I’ll Kill you all, I’ll rip you to shreds!” She slowly backed up, tendrils of magic lashing out as she propelled her junk through the air recklessly. “You miserable bugs, I’ll kill you!”

““No, we will not die.” Pulling Stars Rust gun from her back with my magic, I aimed it at Razor. “but you?” I smiled. “You can return to the ground and see what’s beyond death.”

*Tat* *Tat* *Tat* *Tat* *Tat* *Tat* *Tat* *Tat* *Tat* *Tat* *Tat* *Tat*

The barrage of bullets slammed into Razor Storm’s chest. Each one finding their mark right into her heart, I made absolutely sure of it. Everything stopped abruptly. The flying Junk, the magical Tendrils, all of it.  Her junk hit the ground, falling down onto the deck like a rain of metal. Razor stood there, still alive somehow.  Wearily, she looked in my direction with her bloodied half of her face.

“Good hunting then.” With a weak smirk, she collapsed.  Rainbow blood seeped out of her various wounds, dribbling and pooling out on the deck.  Then there was only silence.

Slowly I trotted over to her, my body flaring in pain more and more with each step. Levitating the gun, I pointed it at her head. 

“The hunt is over.”  I muttered before I pulled the trigger.

*Tat* *Tat* *Tat*

The gun torqued in my magic, and the bullets sparked off the metal decking. The rust gun was shoved out of line by another’s magical grasp. Denying me this kill was the other green alicorn. 

“The hunt is over.” She spoke, letting go of the rust gun. “We go now. You’ve won.” Lifting the large, mutated Razor onto her back, the green alicron trotted away.

I lifted the rust gun up at her, aiming down the sights. The gun shook in my magic. Kill her. Come on, do it! 

I need to kill Razor to make sure this was over. Only one bullet is needed. Right to the head, quick and easy, to end it all. The rust gun shook harder in my magic as Razors head dangled just ahead of me. One shot, one bullet. Then I knew this would be over. One life, that’s all it needed to end this. What was one life to the many? The life of a murderous monster at that? I’ve done this before, Mother helped me. Crush, snap, kill. It’s. Just. One. Life.

*Tat* *Tat* *Tat* *Tat* *Tat* *Tat*

My magic swung the gun as I pulled the trigger.  The rounds flew high into the air, skywards to parts unknown. I was done with death. It was all just too draining to me. This battle was over.  The fights to come for this place was for others to fight. But for me, I just wanted to sleep. 

My eyes, they were heavy, so very heavy. Everything about my body hurt so much that I couldn’t be sure what part of me still was alright. If I were to sleep and never to wake up, that would be fine with me, because I was too tired to keep this up. 

“I won” With a numb crash, I hit the floor. “It’s alright, it’s all over now.” With heavy eyes, I let myself drift off, let everything fade away.



______________________________________



“Mama!” I opened my eyes, and a little colt stood before me. “I’m sorry mama.”

Getting up, my eyes welled and I hugged my little foal. “What Why would you say that?  You didn’t do anything wrong.”

“Yes I did!” He said. “I didn’t listen to you. I didn’t hide, and... I made you hurt.”

“No!” Something burned within me. ““No, not at all.” Holding him tightly the tears came. “I’m at fault, I always was. I should never have stayed in that place. I should never have let that stallion hurt you.”

“Mama.” he began to cry. “I couldn’t stand to see the bad ponies hurt you.”

“I know.” Holding him tightly, I stroked his mane. “You were a good colt, Rainbow Pallet. The best thing to ever come into my life. The only good to have come from my time in that cruddy place.”

“Mama.” He squirmed from my hold. “I have to go now.”

“Yes, I’m coming with you.”  I sniffled.  I was ready to go.

She shook his head. “No mama, not yet.”

“What, why?”  No… that couldn’t be.

“You still have things to do mama,” Rainbow began to fade as his body slowly turned translucent. “but I’ll be waiting for you.”

“Don’t go!” I reached out for him, but my hooves only passed through his body. “We only just reunited.  I want to be with you!”

“I know mama.” He smiled, tears in his eyes. “And I know you have always thought of me, but it’s not your time yet.”

“I DON’T CARE!” I slammed my hooves down. “It’s not fair! Why did you have to die? Why do I have to be so weak? Why can’t we be together!?”

“I know mama, I know.” He faded until he was nothing but specks of light. “Goodbye mama. I’ll be waiting for you. So please, go and live. There are others who care about you, and you need to be alright with caring about them.”

“But, all I wanted was you...” Everything turned to white around me. “You are all I wanted to be with….” Then, as Rainbow had, even the light faded. Fading away until all around me was once again dark and silent.



______________________________________



Footnote:

Quest Complete:  Line in the sand
> Chapter 22 - On Rust Red Shores
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------






Everything hurt. Not in a painful I’m going to die kind of way, but in that tingling pain I get when a leg had fallen asleep. Except that this time it was all over my body. It was strange, I was sure I was in the middle of a fight, but everything was quieter than I’d thought it should be. Still, it was clear enough that I could hear a pony’s hoof steps. The pony was coming closer, his hooves trotting on metal.

“Alright, I think it’s time to change that IV.” The voice, it sounded familiar.

Opening my eyes, I found it hard to see.  The light that sat above was too bright, hurting my eyes a little. 

“Uhh.”  I muttered weakly.

“Miss Prism, you’re finally awake!”  The pony who spoke, I could see him, if only barely with how blurry everything seemed to be. “Now don’t strain yourself, you’ve been out for some time now, so let yourself adjust first.”

My eyes slowly stop hurting, and the pony came into focus. “Doctor… Winter Frost?” I asked, making the stallion smile at me. “What happened?”

“You almost died, that’s what happened.” He gave me a stern look. “If you were a normal pony, I’d say you would have. As your current caregiver, I’d advise you never do something like that again.”

“I see.” I attempted to move, but pain shot through my body. “Ya, it feels like I danced with death.”

Winter Frost sighed. “I can give you some Med-X to dull the pain. Is that okay with you?”

I shook my head, that hurt too. “No, I don’t want any chems. They helped ruin my life once already. I don’t want to give ‘em a second shot at me.”

“Former addict.” He nodded. “I’ll respect your wishes, but if you ever change your mind, let me know.” Winter then took a clear empty bag off a hook, and replaced it with another one full of clear liquid. He attached a few tubes to it, tubes that I now could see were attached to me. “Oh don’t worry miss Prism, this is just to keep you healthy and hydrated. No chems in it, just vitamins mixed with water, though I’ll still need you to eat something soon.”

Looking at the tubes for only a moment, I turned my gaze back to the Doctor.  “Is everyone okay?” I suddenly felt tired again. 

He sighed. “Not every pony got out of the fight as lucky as you did, but without your help, it could have been far worse. Do you want me to go get your friends?” I nodded, my eyelids feeling heavy. “I’ll send a nurse for them. Now, let yourself rest. Celestial knows, you still need it.”

Everything went dark once again.


_________________________________________________



The almost too tight collar around my neck was taken off, allowing me to breath properly in a long time. The red cloaked slavers looked down on me, not that I cared. I would look down on me too if I were them.

“Get moving, bitch!” The slaver prodded me with a spear. I weekly trotted down the hallway, doing as was asked. The dark and rusted metal felt oppressive to me, as though at any moment claws would come out to grab me. My unease grew to fear, and I ran, right into another pony. She didn’t budge from the impact, but I fell over. 

“Sorry” I squeaked.

‘No need for apologies.’ Her voice... it was lovely. And in a way I couldn’t explain, it sounded like it had come from inside my own head. ‘You are here to join us, so do not be afraid.’ Looking up, I found who I had hit standing tall over me.  She was beautiful. Her vibrant green coat, radiant wavy hair, and proud stature were something she wore like the goddesses of old. ‘Now follow me, Unity awaits.’

I obeyed, following her to an old sky cart that was attached to another alicorn. Inside the rusty interior, I saw three more ponies.  Each one wore sores around their neck from collers recently removed, signs that they had been other slaves like myself. 

“Um, miss…” I spoke up meekly.  “What’s unity?”

She smiled. ‘It shall be your new life, while your old life will be washed away. You will be free from all your pain, sorrow, and regrets. Mother will make it so.’

“Everything?” my voice quivered.

‘Everything’ She responded resolutely.

“That… that sounds… nice.” I stepped onto the sky cart, forcing back the thoughts of my little colt into the recesses of my mind. “Too good for me.”

‘Do not worry, mother accepts all.’ The door to the sky cart closed as the Alicorn’s voice filled my mind. ‘Her love is unconditional.’ The sky cart began to move, lifting up into the air. ‘No matter who you were, she will wipe your slate clean, and you can begin life anew.’



__________________________________________________



Once more I found myself still on the medical bed as before, now looking up at a rusted ceiling. Moving my right foreleg, it, like the rest of me, still hurt. Still, I worked through the pain and struck myself in the cheek. 

“Coward, I’m a stupid coward.” I muttered, wincing from the fresh pain.

“That’s not how I saw it.” The raspy voice of a mare chuckled. “More the exact opposite, I’d say.” Optical sat on a less than comfortable looking seat with a wide grin on her face. “Good to see that you’re feeling better. I was hoping that I didn’t rescue a dead mare.”

I looked at her for a moment. Her mane was mostly gone, only an inch left with the tips burnt black. She was also wrapped all over in bandages, some spotted black and red, while her tail had also been cut down to half its length.

“What happened?”  I asked, not quite remembering how the fight went.

Optical’s smile faded, and she sighed. “War, that’s what.” She pulled out a metal tin and opened it, revealing cigarettes. “You want one?” I thought about it for a moment, and nodded. But before she could pass me one, Doctor Winter cleared his throat. “Shit, forgot.” She closed the tin, and hid it in her jacket pocket. “Maybe later. But yeah, after you had that fight with razor, everything devolved to chaos. Half the fight was practically a bloody tug of war match over your body. Grease Fire seemed to be obsessed in taking you for himself, while me? Well, I was not just going to let some savages take our best ally without a fight.”

“And Star, is she alright?” I had to know.  None of this would have been for anything if something had happened to her.

“Strangely enough, I think she’s the only one who came out of this fight just fine.” She cocked an eyebrow at me. “Seriously, where did you find that filly?  Where did she get those abilities? No pony at that age should be able to rip another pony’s throat out and act like she was just playing some game.” She then looked over at the doctor, and he nodded. “Don’t worry. Only the doc, me, and the zebra know about her… odd condition.”

I sighed. “I was hoping not to aggravate it. It’s something she picked up at her home, she got it not long after I met her.” Sitting up, my body hurt all over still. “Her home, it’s a pirate village out in the middle of the ocean, Blackwater as it’s called. I came across it by accident, and soon after that, I found her.  She’d been stabbed and thrown into the water by the village captain. After patching her up, she returned to her kin, and came back like... that. Soon after, fighting started, her kin against the captain. Her group, the Corps Brigade, they used that curse she has as their edge and won the fight. Blood everywhere, guts strewn about.  That ship was a living nightmare.”

“So you took her away from that?” Optical said softly.  “I can see why you would want to spare her from that life.”

I shook my head. “No, she chose me to take her away. I still don’t know why, but I did.”

“Winter Frost wants to keep her for a few days, make sure her… ‘curse’ is not contagious.” The burnt enclave mare nodded, her face neutral. “We can’t have other ponies take on her appetite or were all going to starve out here.”

“As long she stays here with me, it’s fine to keep her here.” I said with a nod. “How about the others?”

“Heavy losses.” She frowned. “Not as bad as it could’ve been, but we were ill prepared for this fight. A few of my own soldiers fell, but the worst casualties were from the defending militia. The raiders were just too prepared for this fight, countering every maneuver we tried. Taking you back like we did involved rushing through flamethrowers and more mines. A victory that costs us more than a few good ponies. If the Gull had not shown up, we all would have been dead or worse.”

“Gull?”  I asked, trying to ignore the regret I felt in having been considered such a necessary prize that it cost so many their lives.

“It’s a navel vertibuck.” She shrugged, brushing it off as common knowledge. “Lighter, faster, and can land on the water. I heard a lot was made near the end of the war for the navy, but the enclave only has a hoof full of them left. Unlike most Vertibucks, they were made to support small squads in firefights, and use mounted Gatling lasers on either side of the crew compartment. So when it showed up, it began raining lasers down onto the raiders. Without a way to fight back, the raiders retreated into the cover that Bold Harbor provided.  After two days of strafing and pot shots from us, thy left Bold Harbor altogether. We almost managed to capture Greases Fire in the final raid, but he got away. Unfortunately, I had to settle with breaking his jaw, rather than killing the fucking bastard.”

I smiled. “Good to know that the worst did not come to you all.”

Optical nodded back. “Agreed. With the Gull and its crew on standby here, the raiders are unable to mass outside the wall, so threat of another assault is unlikely. The ponies here are now able to relax for the time being.”

Doc. Frost trotted over to us. “Now that you’re all caught up, I’m going to let the others in. If you’re feeling up to that, of course.” I nodded, and her trotted over to the door. Optical sighed, and got out of her seat, following the good doctor. He spoke as he opened the door. “Alright every pony, she is ready for visitors. Just remember to give her some space, she is still recovering.”

Ponies began trotting in, with Star Charter leading the group. The Sea Blue filly’s cloths looked patched up, and a red bow bounced around tied behind her head. Micro Fusion looked a lot cleaner, the mutated horn and wings were now gone, and the scars he had were covered up by a blue dress and large floppy hat. 

Mhambi on the other hoof, had on a three piece suit. It barely hid the bandages near her neck, and her mane had been combed back and held in place by a few bobby pins. The Wrenches behind her were looking a lot less ghoulish than before, and their fur starting to grow back. It was good to see them heather, especially Crescent, who looked positively plumply pregnant.

Next, was a thin looking Pegues Stallion. I took me a moment to understand why he was here, but the answer was clear when the three foals under him cast their gaze up to me. Toffee, Gumdrop, and Spearmint looked much healthier than the last time I had seen them, with Spearmint clinging closely to the stallion’s leg.  It wasn’t hard to guess, but I figured that this stallion was his father.

Outside the room I could see a few more ponies looking in, such as the nurses I’d helped after cloud bouncer was murdered. There were also a few of the ponies from the first line of defense, and oddly, the tough as nails earth pony mare where a fair amount of markup, and a nice looking dress.

Star rushed me, hopping onto the bed. “Prism!” She gasped as she gave me a tight hug. Which, in my condition, hurt more than a little. “I thought you wouldn’t wake up! And then the raiders tried to drag you away, and…”  Still, we could forgive her for the pain.

“It’s okay now, I’m here.”  I patted her on the head.

“Ya, but not all of you made it back.” The filly wiped a tear from her eye. “Your wings, the raiders ran off with them.”

“Not only that, but I thought it was prudent to remove the bones from your back.” Winter Frost spoke up. “The way they had been shredded, it would have caused further medical problems if I had left them in.  I’m sorry that it had to be done, but you will adjust with time.”

“I was originally a unicorn, so they will not be missed much.” My body was wrapped in bandages, but it was clear that the wings were gone. I sighed, not really feeling any true loss over the missing wings. “But now maybe I can just pass myself off as really tall unicorn.”

Mhambi chuckled. “That is definitely good for us to hear. Your mind, torn was what we had feared.” She took a deep breath and shook her head before exhaling. “Sorry, the medicine I’m on has me a bit rimy.”

I couldn’t help but laugh. “I don’t know why, but a riming zebra just sounds too familiar. Like an old friend you haven’t seen in a long time.” I had to for myself to stop laughing because it hurt. “Must be from unity, I still have some it floating around in my head.  Strange dreams of my time in it keep cropping up.”

Micro Fusion chuckled as well. “is that tied to the hole ‘we’ and ‘our’ thing you did all the time?”

“Ya! I noticed that too.” Star nodded. “You’re talking all properly now, what gives?”

“I guess, before I didn’t want to be, well, me.  The me I used to be at least.” I had to think about it for a moment, but the answer was clear. “It was much easier to just be part of unity, to have no sense of self. But, Razor made me remember everything I hated about myself, and now, I understand I was running away from the truth.” I looked around the room, eyes of concern, worry, relief, and joy were looking back at me. “I am me, and I always will be. All I can do is push forward and learn from my mistakes.”

A little hoof boop’ed me on the nose. “There will always be storms. It’s up to you to power through them, or let them throw you around.” Star smiled. “Well, I think that’s how the Blackwater saying goes.”

I had to suppress my laughter again to stop the pain. “Thanks, now that I know all of you are fine, I know that I’ll be just fine.”

“Good to hear.” Mhambi clapped her hooves. “But I sadly can’t stay too long, I have a lot of paperwork to deal with.” She looked over at everyone. “And I know everyone has a job to get back too as well. So let’s make these visits quick, and then let her get back to her rest while we get back to rebuilding!”

Everyone groaned, but complied. Each pony had their time to talk, and drop off a gift or two. Soon, it was just Star and I in the room. The doctor had other recovering ponies to check up on who needed help more than I did now. 
“Hay Prism?” Star mumbled tiredly as she cuddled up next to me on the bed.

“Yes?”  I asked.  Fighting through the pain, I reached up and hoofed at her mane softly.

“Can we stay here, is only for a while?”  She smiled, pressing herself warmly up against me.

“Ya, I think that would be a good idea.” Without my wings, getting to somewhere else was going to be difficult. But now that i was thinking about it, I didn’t have any idea where to go next or  how to get there safely. I did know that Bold Harbor was going to be the safest place around, at least for the time being, and the ponies here were welcoming to us.  So, stay we shall. “Now sleep, little one. We can figure things out in due time, but now, I think we should both get some rest.”



_______________________________________________



Two Weeks Later


Stepping out onto the front of the deck, the sun peeked out over the horizon. The raider houses that once stood here had been torn down for parts.  The old shacks had been replaced with barracks for the new town guard, and included a landing pad for the ‘Gull’ Vertibuck. The town of Bold Harbor itself looked much cleaner as well. The town had even also gone so far as to build proper walkways between the buildings so that mud and dirt was not tracked everywhere.  With all the grime, the bone decorations were removed, and some of the buildings were given a much needed fresh coat of paint.  That of course, was thanks to a little bit of work from me.  It wasn’t my best work, but it at least made this town a lot more welcoming than it had been when we first arrived.

Optical was currently running a few ponies through some drills on the deck. The ponies were likely new residents, scavengers who’d decided it was safe enough now to live here. One of the new laws in Bold Harbor was that all residents of adult age must be trained for the militia. It made sense given recent events, as if the town ever came under attack, it would need every available mare and stallion to help protect it. Though the town of course now had an active and dedicated guard, made up of the ex-enclave, with Optical as the Sharif. But with memories of Grease Fire and Razor Storm still fresh, everypony was still a little on edge, wondering if they would likely return in the near future.

Though the atmosphere is still a little tense, it was much worse before the election. Winterberry had been throwing out all the stops so that she could get into a position of power. However, her opposition was Tetanus oddly enough, with Mhambi moderating the whole thing. In the end, nopony wanted either of them as mayor, and in a stunning turn of events, elected Mhambi to the role. She had been doing the job unofficially since the raider attack ended, and she was already very apt for the role, as she was able to act as a third party whenever arguments flared up between the ex-enclave pegasi and the original towns ponies.

Winterberry took over a small warehouse with the two former slave stallions still by her side. She might have been a colossal bitch, but she still had a sharp mind for business. She set up a storage and supply depot for all the other shops that popped up and charged them to run and store their shipments. This put her in a relatively strong position among all the other merchants, and meant that Mhambi had to keep an eye on her or risk Winterberry trying to take over.

Tetanus on the other hoof, returned to the shop we’d promised her. The confirmed pregnant now ex-raider seemed to accept her new life, helping supply the town with small but useful materials while working alongside Rust Bucket. Most of the town kept an eye on them for a time, waiting for them to fall back into old habits, but after a short while, accepted them as townsponies all the same.

Micro Fusion predictably became Mhambi’s aid, as he’d been among the few ponies who could tolerate vast amounts of paperwork. He had taken a liking to wearing dresses, having them retailored to be more form fitting, and only just barely hiding the fact that he was indeed still a stallion. Not only that, but there was a rumor going around town that he had started a privat fetish club or something.  Honestly, that was something that I didn’t feel like investigating in my free time.

The Wrenches settled down in the town, with Axle lending his expertise to anypony who needed it. Crescent was now in no shape to be working, as her engorged belly had made it too hard for her move around a lot. The two regularly checked in with Doter Frost as he studied their ‘unique’ condition. For the most part, you couldn’t tell they were ghouls, mostly because they had not truly ‘died’ as most ghouls did, but the doctor did warn them to keep away from radiation, as it could push them into the undead state if they absorb too much of it.

Most of the pegasi had a hard time settling in at first, though they seemed willing to give it a go after their friends and family members recovered from the pony pox. The biggest push to cleaning the town came from the pegasus, who seemed very averse to getting muddy. Were ever a pegasus chose to live, the area around it soon became much less filthy, and after a short time, the town was nearly the cleanest we’d ever seen in the wasteland.

The Merchants of Reka had a much easier time adjusting as Bold Harbor got up and running. Quickly they’d picked up from where their homes had been, and set up shops inside the new town. At first, most of the shops had little to sell, but after a week or two, like magic, their shelves started to fill up. Mostly with junk of course, but some useful items could easily be found in stock.

In time, Bold Harbor was contacted by the Street Sign Gang. Half of their reason was for Baneberry to laugh at her younger sister, the other half of the meeting was about establishing protected trade routes that fell under their watch. The gang was not happy about Mhambi denying the slave trade running anywhere through Bold Harbor, but they were not going to start a fight with the home of their only merchant clients in the area. In the end, a deal was struck for the gang to fix up the route to Bold Harbor, in exchange for discounts and a small tax for protection and maintenance of the road. Everyone felt that the deal could have gone better, but they also understood things could have been far worse. At least now the gang would help protect the caravans from the raiders, which should in the long run help the town grow even more.

Star Charter however, adapted to her new life quickly, taking one of the old boats in the harbor as her new home with me. Though things didn’t always go so smooth in our new home. She did resist going to the town’s newly opened school at first, something I had to force her to do. Despite her initial resistance to schooling, her knowledge of maritime navigation did shine through. Half because she bragged about it all the time, but it also meant that she was inherently good at math, beating out all the other foal in a placement test. Again, that turned out to be something she also bragged about quite a bit. While I’d become immensely proud of her, the biggest worry I had was her curse. It only flared up once in a schoolyard scuffle she had, and even then it only got so bad that her eyes began bleeding during the fight. She was not bothered by all the other foals fearing her, instead reveling in it. It was going to take time, but I do hope one day to free her from that curse, and by extension, her old life.

Speaking of foals, half of the raider foals had vanished during the big battle. Nopony was quite sure where they’d gone, but the rest who’d stayed were all too young to understand what was going on at the time. There was a long debate as to what to do with them, but in the end, a few ponies decided to take them in.  Mostly, those pegasi who had lost their own to the pony pox, or had never been approved to have a foal in the clouds above. With them being much younger than Star, I had a good feeling that they weren’t going to remember what a nightmare that fight had been, and would grow up to be alright.

Interrupting my silent reflections of the past weeks, I heard a pony approaching me.

“Miss Prism, I thought you would be here.” Healing Breeze stepped up next to me. Her nurse's cap had been pinned down to her mane so that it didn’t blow away in today’s breezy conditions. “Looks like we’re going to need your help in the ER. We got a message that somepony was attacked by a radscorpion out on the road, and they should be here in a few ten to fifteen minutes.”

“I’ll be right there ma’am.” I nodded to her and pulled out my own nurses cap. I had decided to assist Doctor Winter Frost as a nurse, partly because I owed so much to him for the care he’d given. Though I was only an apprentice, Healing Breeze was an amazing mentor, and I was learning quickly.

“Oh, and Prism?” She gave me a sly little smile. “Next time you feel painting the clinic’s halls rainbow, at least let us know first.”

“Yes ma’am.” Some pony had found a few extra intact paint cans when I was repainting the town, and I couldn’t help myself. “Oh, miss Breeze, how was your date with Powder Keg?”

Her eyes shifted. “The idiot thought it was a good idea to take me to some weird club.”

“But did you enjoy yourself?”  I asked as we turned to follow her back to the clinic.

“Let’s just say,” She smiled. “that I found something new to enjoy. Now let’s get going.”

“Yes Ma’am.” I followed her down into the ship. 

My new life was not easy, but I couldn’t help but feel satisfied with it. It felt like I had earned my place here, and that I now had an opportunity to do some good and finally move on from my old life. I was no longer the weak, indecisive mare I’d been before. And though those scars still remained, both mental and physical, I was not going to let them hold me back anymore.



_______________________________________________



Footnote

Quest finished: On Rust Red Shores.