> Fallout Equestria: Loose Change
>  by RoseluckyCinor
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

> That Old Dusty Road
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Prologue
New Pegasus wasn’t much more than a pile of rubble and some raiders before the first Ten arrived. They brought themselves, their families, and enough guns to fit an army. It took ten months for them to clear out the raiders and rubble enough that Las Pegasus looked something halfway decent. They’d wanted a home, but when they found the casinos mostly intact they hatched a plan. Why live when you can live well?
Around 150 years after the first bomb dropped New Pegasus was open. For the first time in who knew how long the San Palomino had lights, music, and flowing caps. Nine of the families took a casino each on the main strip, the tenth had one a little away, and eventually even the nine forgot about him.
At first New Pegasus was little more than a strip with a wall of old caravans surrounding it. But ponies came by the hundreds, some looking for their fates, some a job, and some just wanted to escape the harsh wasteland for a few hours. As more and more ponies showed up, and even more lost all the caps they’d ever had, a ghetto started to erect itself around the wall of New Pegasus, enfolding itself around the Tenth casino, finally bringing it into the city. The poor, downtrodden ponies named the place they called home The Gutters. That’s where all the drunks and chem-addicts found themselves.
As New Pegasus flourished, outside eyes began to watch the caps with great interest. A paramilitary force called the N.E.R (New Equestrian Republic) came to town and offered their services. The casinos tried to tell them no, but when the NER brought their guns in, the casino owners realized they weren’t in a position to fight with all their customers around. It was bad business.
A strong black market formed in the older sewers and tunnels of New Pegasus, and in the ministry district, which no pony really trusted anymore. The market was run by a mysterious pony named The Kid, and he knew everything in New Pegasus. He ferreted guns, chems, mares, stallions, anything a pony with caps could ask for.
Now while many came for jobs, some ponies came because of their job. Such is the story of Short Change. Short was a tan stallion, black hair, and a stature not that impressive to many. Not quick with a gun but the fastest talker this side of Canterlot. He was offered a fine sum of caps to run a Brahmin up to New Pegasus, and this is his story.


Chapter I: That Old Dusty Road


It was raining hard, for the first time this month, at least that’s what I’d heard Great pools of water were forming on the cracked, dry earth. I looked back at my caravan merc, Rimfire. She could be a real peach when you get to know her and luckily I’d had over a week to get to know her. Rimfire caught me looking at her and shot me a glare of some sort. My brahmin joined her in the venture. It looked like it was time to get into some sort of cover, the New Pegasus wasteland could flood in an instant with rain like this, not that it wasn’t already flooding. There was an outcropping of rocks to our west. It didn’t take a genius to know that there’d be a cave or two.
“I think we should head for those, get some ground and some cover,” I said to Rimfire. She nodded and we turned off the road and took off towards the rocks.. 
We’d been following the railroads most of the way to New Pegasus, but even they couldn’t make it the whole way. Nearly two days after we’d left New Appleloosa we’d had to ditch the tracks and walk four days to get where we were now. And we still had another day or so to go. I’d started this caravan in New Appleloosa, a nice town if I must say so. Not too many raiders there, most of the Slavers stayed in Old Appleloosa and didn’t bother us much. I had met Rimfire as I was leaving town and I asked her if she’d accompany me to New Pegasus. She asked me if I had 200 caps. Of course I used a little of my sauve skills to get her to come with me on the hopes that I’d have 200 caps by the end of the journey. The rest is history.
I’d never expected to meet a pony like Rimfire in Appleloosa. She had been hardened by the wasteland like anyone else, but on the inside I could tell that she was genuinely good. She had lightest blue hair I’d seen in all my travels. I hadn’t been able to see the color of her coat, she’d never taken off her armor, but she had nice eyes that matched her hair.
The rocks weren’t all that steady under our hooves due to the incredible rain making them slick. After a couple minutes of fumbling in the approaching darkness we found a small cave in one of the walls. The rain didn’t get in, so we did. I used a little bit of magic to pull some wood from the brahmin’s pack. It was only a little damp so I got it lit pretty fast when added some of the dry grass that had been growing in the corners..
Rimfire leaned up against one of the walls and began to clean her battle rifle. I was pretty sure she’d said something about it being an assault rifle one of her great, great relatives used in the wars before the megaspells hit. But I was pretty sure she had gotten it in Appleloosa. As the fire’s glow began to reveal the entire cavern I noticed a lump of cloth near the back.
“There’s something over there,” I said to Rimfire, indicating the pile of cloth.
“You can take care of this one. I’ve got you covered from her,” She said, not looking up from the gun. She was driving a cloth through the detached barrel.
“Some guard,” I called back as I approached the mysterious lump. Carefully I grabbed the .32 revolver I used for self defence in a telekinetic grip from my pack and floated it over. I gently tapped the cloth with the end of the barrel. It didn’t move. The gun tapped it again. Nothing.
“Well that’s a bust. Let’s see what it is.” I trotted over to the rags and kicked them away. The rattle of bones echoed through the cavern. A few ragged ends came scattering from the bundle. “Oh dear.” I had never been particularly skilled in the medical or science fields, but I knew a skeleton when I saw one. This skull had a bullet hole in it.
“That’s a damn shame,” I said..
“Why?” asked Rimfire. She put away her rifle. “It’s not something I have to waste good ammo on. Besides, it probably wasn’t a painful way to go. Fast, you know.” I gave her a look of disgust.
“It’s a shame, you see, that a pony had to die like this.”
“It’s a harsh part of life, Short, ponies die, and in the wastes, they’re gonna die fast,” Rimfire said.
I opened and closed my mouth a few times at her. “Call me Change, or Short Change, just not Short, please. I’m not all that short, actually.”
Rimfire rolled her eyes. “You’re near the shortest stallion I ever met.”
I chose to ignore her for the time being. Scattered through the bone fragments were a few objects of note. A couple of low caliber rounds, I could put them with the rest of my ammo. A healing potion that looked relatively fresh I put in my bag as well, but what got me the most curious was a small leather bound journal. I picked it up and leafed through. There were perhaps two hundred pages filled with written logs. I carried it with me back to the fire.
“I found this on the body,” I told Rimfire. “You want to read through it with me?” Rimfire had gotten her bedroll out and was laying on it by the time I asked her. She turned over away from the fire and me. “Then I’ll read it myself.”


Journal of Crescent
If found, please return to me,
the author


Already this seemed like a stunning read, but I hadn’t gotten where was did by judging books by their covers.

Page 1
Found this marvelous beauty in a caravan trader’s wares and simply couldn’t say no. Regardless! The hunt goes on for something fresher to eat than giant mole rats. I think an apple would be great. Bad news todays as well, I’ve lost another friend. One of my better trade fellows, He had gone a few miles up the Galloping Stretch. We’re not sure what happened next, but a few hours later, when a few gamblers were heading down to New Pegasus, they found him, well half of him at least. The other half was about 100 yards to the east. What a way to go, Cork. No one’s sure what did it. Hellhounds never travelled this far west. Is there something new in the desert?

I looked up from the journal slowly. “Rimfire?” I asked. I wasn’t new on the wastes, but my geography wasn’t strong, and neither was my hopes of fighting whatever killed that pony. She grumbled. I called out louder. 
Finally she rolled over and gave me an angry glare. “This better be pretty damn important, Short,” she mumbled.
“Are we on the Galloping Stretch?” I asked.
She raised an eyebrow in near disbelief. She took a deep breath before she answered. “Is that joke? Are you fucking with me? Didn’t I tell you already?”
“This is serious, Rimfire.”
“Oh help me, Celestia. No, we are not on the Galloping Stretch. That’s north of New Pegasus, we are East of the the city.” She rolled over to face the wall.
“Good night,” I said.
“Fuck.”
I gave a little, crooked smile and turned back to the journal. That was the end of the first page. The next page began...

Put Cork in the ground today. His little filly was there, name was...Sunlight, or something. I wish I’d gotten to know her a little more, but that’s the way things are. I told a local NER rep about Cork. She said she’d take care of it. Bullshit. Only things the NER did were take money and put medals on each other saying ‘job well done’. No other caravan will take the Galloping Stretch now. I’ve offered triple pay for whomever does it. I’ll see if that brings up the courage, otherwise, I’ll bring liquor.
One of those goons from the Kid’s gang showed up today, said The Kid had had something special in Cork’s package, and that they needed to know where it was. I told them the truth, that I didn’t know. That didn’t sit well with them. They said they’d be back and I’d better know where it was by then.
I shut the journal and stuffed it in my saddlebag. With a minor flick of magic I unfurled my sleeping bag and crawled in. Rimfire never used one, but I swore by it. How else could someone sleep if not comfortable? I gave the dying fire one last glance before I shut my eyes to the world.



“Looks like he’s got some good stuff ‘ere,” A gruff voice said. It sounded particularly rougher and more male than Rimfire. I opened my eyes. Two dirty ponies stood in my cave. One a unicorn, the other an earth pony. The unicorn lazily floated a gun pointing in my direction. The two were picking through the bags my pack animal had. I looked around the cave, my stalwart companion was nowhere to be seen.
‘Looks like I’m on my own,’ I thought to myself. Carefully I felt around for my .32 with my magic.
The earth pony turned to me. “Sleeping beauty’s awake,” he said.
The unicorn stopped routing through my bags and turned to me as well. “Well what ‘ave we got ‘ere in our cave?”
“Just a drifter, heading into New Pegasus. Who’re you?”
The unicorn jerked it’s gun. “We’re the ones asking questions, and if you don’t show a little respect, and a lot of caps, we're going to blow your ‘ead off!”
“Fair, fair,” I conceded. I felt the grip of my revolver with my magic. It was my luck that they didn’t notice that horn was glowing soI twisted the barrel slowly to the unicorn. Thankfully they couldn’t see that either, and I was pretty sure my aim was right. The earth pony didn’t look to be armed, perhaps she had a knife hidden. I pulled back the hammer with a little telekinesis. “Alright, kids, I’m just going to ask you to put back all the stuff you may have stolen and you can just walk away.”
“Do you think that’s goin’ to ‘appen?” the unicorn asked. He gave a little chuckle. “It’s not likely, really.” He turned to his companion. “What do you think of-” He was cut off by a loud, quick bang. My shot tore tore through his throat, spreading blood across the back of the cave. His friend was slow to react. I wrenched my .32 from the bag and held it in the air and pointed it at the mare. Her eyes watched his body slump to the floor.
“I’m giving you this, just go,” I told her. She eyed the gun on the floor. I caught her glance. “Don’t be a fool!”
“You killed him,” she whispered. Her gaze didn’t leave the unattended gun.
“He was going to shoot me!”
The raider mare leapt at the gun. I put a round through her shoulder and she fell back near the cave entrance. Her blood was pooling beneath her.
“You-you...didn’t...” she muttered. She looked at the gun again. I jabbed my revolver in the air for effect.
“Don’t,” I said. I picked up the gun off the floor and pulled out the cylinder. It was empty. “What?” I asked myself.
“We didn’t think you’d fight back,” she said slowly. Blood was still pouring from her wounds. I could see even from where I was that she hadn’t been well off before I shot her. Hey body looked like it had scars and festering wounds covering most of it.
“But why risk it? You didn’t even have ammo!” 
“No other way to eat out here,” she said, her voice growing weaker.
“No, wait, let me get you a healing potion or something,” I said quickly. I ran to my bag and started to rustle through it.
“I don’t want it,” she mumbled. Her eyes were lazy and unfocused. I wondered how bad she truly had been to be this bad off. “I won’t live without... him.”
“No, you don’t have to die for him!” I yelled.
Her response was a little over a quiet, bloody whisper. “He was my brother.” The mare on the floor let out a final, wet, cough. The sound of hooves clopping against the rocks in front of the cave. Rimfire ran in with her gun held high in a magical aura.
“I heard gunshots! You didn’t die did you?” she asked. Her eyes glanced over the dead bodies. “Oh, well that’s something.” With the utmost air of casual she began to rifle through the deceased ponies pockets. I gave a casual glance at their gun.
“I don’t’ think you’ll find anything on them. They tried to hold me up with an unloaded gun,” I told her. She gave me a smirk.
“You then realized what a terrible attempt it was and shot them, right? That’s what I’d have done. Them or us.” I wasn’t a huge fan of Rimfire’s motto, but it did have a certain appeal when ponies were trying to kill you.
“What? No. I thought they were going to shoot me so I shot first. It was only when she died that I checked the gun.”
Rimfire backed away from the bodies and slung her gun around her back. “Well that’s that then. I guess we should move on. We’ve got a good day’s walk to New Pegasus.”
I couldn’t agree with her more. It was high past time to head out this cave. We spent the next few minutes packing up everything; rolling the bed rolls, jamming the odds and ends back into packs and satchels. In the end, I was left kneeling in front of the skeleton of Crescent.
“Should we do something?” I asked.
Rim huffed, “We can’t do everything for every pony we come across.”
I stood up. “I suppose you’re right,” I told her. I hadn’t even thought of doing anything for the ponies I’d just killed. The brahmin followed me as we left the little cave. The sun was low in the sky. It was going to be a scorcher. We hadn’t been in the San Palomino for more than a day or two, it started halfway down this long highway we were walking on. Already the heat was getting to me. It couldn’t have been anything less than 94ºF since we’d started walking on this stretch to New Pegasus. The all too familiar sounds of hooves hitting concrete met us as we got back to the road.
“How many more miles do you reckon we got?” I asked Rimfire.
“Shouldn’t you know? I’m going to assume you’ve been here before.” She groaned as I shook my head. “What even brings you here? What made you want to come? Come to think of it, I don’t know anything about you. You certainly didn’t seem like the caravan type when I first met you, hell, you still don’t.”
“Yeah, the caravan thing was really last minute. I came to Appleloosa to make a quick cap. Most of my days were spent drifting from settlement to settlement, hoping to not get killed. I’d heard from a fellow on my travels that certain goods can be sold elsewhere for a lot of caps, and he was looking for a smooth talker to lead on to New Pegasus. So when I got to Appleloosa, I picked up the brahmin he supplied me and headed out of town, that’s where I met you.”
Rimfire rolled her eyes. “Where do you even come from? No one I’ve ever met acts like you do.”
“Excellent question,” I told her. “You see, I was raised in Stable 9. Now, before you go asking where my PipBuck is, relax, the stable was abandoned when my parents moved into it and all the cool toys were gone. Though I did have access to an entire stable’s library growing up. I read all the great classics. Those books taught me one important thing, act upon others as you’d have them act upon you.” She seemed incredibly interested in my tale, well, a little bit.
I look at her. “I’ve told you my story, now let’s hear about Rimfire.”
“Short, you don’t want to hear about my life. Not all of us grew up in a cushy stable.”
I chuckled. “I know that, but I want to know more about you.”
Rimfire closed her eyes briefly and thought for a second. “I’m just a merc looking for some quick caps. My childhood was shitty, I’ve got no idea where my parents are, and most ponies are assholes. That’s really all you need to know.”
“Well, you came from around here right? Aren’t there some ponies you want to see again?”
Rimfire failed at hiding a laugh, “Celestia, no! Too many ponies here want my head.”
My eyes opened wide and I stopped in my tracks. “What?!” 
She took a few more steps and stopped. She looked back at me. “What?” she asked.
I trotted next to her. “Ponies want you dead? And you came back!”
She began to walk onwards, “yes, some ponies want me dead. Anyways, I needed the caps.”
I began to walk as well. “Who could want you dead? Rival mercs?”
This time she only gave a little smirk. “No, Short, I’m not really big enough to gain any ill from the gangs or casinos. The NER chased me out of town once, that was fun.”
I stopped walking. “Rimfire, what is the NER?”
She looked back at me. “For real you don’t know? The NER is the New Equestrian Republic. They work, uh, with the casinos to keep the peace around New Pegasus. You see, when ponies began coming back to the city, it was chaos. Rival gangs were killing and stealing from everyone. Then the NER rolled in and shot most of them up. Only the gangs that decided to play nice got to live. They opened a few casinos and everyone was happy. NER gets a cut of the revenue, and the casinos, well, they don’t really get much out of it. All of this is speculation on my end, of course. Never really got told the full story, but then again I never asked.”
“Shouldn’t you have done some research, Short? Seems a little bull-headed.” She was right, but I’d had my reasons at the time for leaving Appleloosa.
I thought more about what she’d said and looked around. We’d been able to cover a great amount of distance since the morning. The road ran through a small gorge; rough-hewn rocks on either side as if there’d been some kind of a mining operation at some point. The walls looked as though someone had tried to blast them away with dynamite. A hundred or so yards ahead of us was a small wooden shack. Rimfire was giving the shack the same look I was. We were definitely going to investigate.
As we got closer, I made the brahmin stay back. It gave a note of displeasure which I promptly ignored. Rimfire held her rifle up as we got closer to the shack. Empty crates marked with ‘EXPL’ littered the area. I kept my revolver in its holster and I strode up to the door. Nervously I tapped a hoof on the door. There was a call from indoor.
“I told y’all NER I’m not payin’!” yelled the voice from indoors. Rimfire flicked her safety off.
“We’re not with the NER,” I called back, hoping not to get blown up. 
The door flew open. An old stallion stood there. He was a dirty brown and had a thick white beard and wore shabby clothes. “I’m Rusty, and finally there’s somepony who can give me a hoof,” the old stallion said said. Rimfire had hastily lowered her rifle, but she still looked wary.
“What do you need help with?” I asked tentatively. He chuckled a little and fell into a fit of coughing.
As the cough subsided he spoke up, “I need y’all to get the NER off my back. I just want to live in peace but not a week goes by without them asking for some caps because of ‘taxes’ as they call it, more like robbery. I never did nothing to them neither.”
I gave a quick glance to Rimfire, she was shaking her head. I didn’t think it sounded that bad. “Where can we find them?” I asked Rusty.
“That’s the spirit! You can find them just down the road at the end of the gorge. Thank you kindly, stranger.” Rusty slammed the door shut. I took a few steps back to Rimfire.
“Why,” she said more than asked.
“Why not? This should be piece of cake,” I told her. 
“Nothing with the Republic is ever easy,” she groaned. I waved her off and grabbed the brahmin. 
The three of us continued along the road until finally it seemed to rise out of the gorge. At the top of the brief climb were a few sky carriages in a circle. Uniformed ponies stood about, most of them armed modestly. As we got even closer, 3 of them trotted up to us. All of them wore a tan colored barding with a thicker chest piece. The earth ponies had battle saddles while the unicorns floated assault rifles. The soldier in front had three bars shaped into an arrow head on his shoulder, the other two had nothing.
“Halt,” commanded the one in front as he got near to us, “this is NER territory. State your business.”
“We’re on our way to New Pegasus,” Rimfire spoke up.
“We also have a message from the old stallion down the road,” I added.
Flanking the stallion was two ponies, and earth pony and a unicorn, the unicorn readied his gun warily.
The pony in front looked me in the eye. “Oh,” he asked, “what sort of message?”
I swallowed quickly. “He said he’s not going to pay your taxes no matter what,” I told him.
He squinted his eyes and frowned. “Is that so?”  His right foreleg scuffed against the sandy gravel. I noticed that there was holster with a small pistol inside of it. It had some sort of mechanism attached to both he and the gun itself. Around me the entire outpost has taken an interest in us. All eyes were on Rimfire and I.
“Yes,” I told him firmly.
His face held for a moment, then he grinned and chuckled. “Boy, you don’t know anything about that old Codger, do you? We’ve been trying to take his dynamite away from him for weeks, he’s damn near taken down the whole gorge.” He took a step closer and held out a hoof. I tapped it lightly. Rimfire did the same. “I’m sergeant Piston, and this is outpost Delta. What brings you here? I’m assuming it was just for that old coot.” The ponies behind him lowered their guns. The rest of the outpost seemed to resume duty.
“I’m Short Change,” I told him, “and this is my companion Rimfire.”
“I’m actually his mercenary,” she said.
“Quite,” I agreed. “We’re just on our way to New Pegasus. See I’m leading a small caravan to the place.”
“Huh,” he said, “we don’t usually get caravaners down these parts, not anymore at least.” Piston waved the two soldiers away. He walked back towards a closed carriage and motioned for us to follow.
While we were walking I asked, “Why is this outpost even here?”
“Good question, this is a ‘crucial’ point to hold from bandits. So we got placed here to keep an eye out and fight the bandits or raiders should they ever decide to attack New Pegasus. Doubtful they ever would though.” We reached the carriage and he opened the back door. He lead us inside. The interior was mostly cleared out. A small generator powered a terminal and lamp overhead. There were two chairs flanking the desk which sat under the terminal. Piston sat behind the desk. I offered Rimfire the chair. She glared at me, but took it anyways. I leaned on the chair’s back. It creaked a little under my added weight.
“Do bandits frequently attack New Pegasus?” I asked him. Both he and Rimfire smirked.
“Of course not. Most of the ponies in their are soldiers, the rest are casino workers, and you’d be hard pressed to find one without a decent weapon supporting them. That and the Kid would know in a second.”
“The Kid?” I asked. I remembered the name from the journal.
“The Kid runs a gang on the underground. The last gang, they say. I’m not supposed to say it’s real but we all know it is. They run the black market under New Pegasus.”
“If you know there’s a black market, why can’t you shut it down?” I asked.
“Because sometimes it’s lucrative for the NER to have it there,” Rimfire answered.
“Exactly, Miss Rimfire,” Piston said. “The market brings some ponies in, and the casinos keep them there. The NER gets a cut of the profits the casinos make.”
The conversation lulled at that point. My thoughts drifted. “When was the last time a stallion came through here?” I asked. “He was probably on his own.”
Piston looked up from his terminal, “I’m afraid we don’t really keep logs of who passes through here, except if they look particularly dangerous.”
“Oh,” I said dejected. “Well I guess that’s all we need thanks for the information.” Rimfire got up to go.
“Wait,” Piston said abruptly. Rimfire sat back down. “I didn’t bring you into my office for an afternoon chat. I need your help.”
“You’ve got at least 10 soldiers here, can’t one of them do it?” I asked.
“No, they can’t. Orders state that we need to be a full force at all times. If I sent just two out I’d be subject to a court martial,” Piston responded. He reached below his desk and pulled out a scroll of paper. He unrolled it on the desk. It was a map of the immediate area. There were two roughly drawn circles. One at the end of a gorge, where we were, and one some distance to the north among a range of hills. The outpost appeared to be on a crossroads. Piston continued, “There seems to be a large activity of fire ants in this ‘valley’. Likely it was the old coot’s damn dynamite that riled them up. I need you to go in there and clear ‘em out.”
“What’s in it for us?” Rimfire and I asked in unison. We looked at each other briefly.
Piston made quick use of his terminal. “I can get you access into New Pegasus, no tolls, no taxes.” I had forgotten about the taxes. The stallion who gave me the brahmin had been a little scarce with details. He only told me where to bring it.
Rimfire squinted an eye. “How can you promise that?” she asked.
“There’s a patrol coming from another outpost. They will rest up here and proceed to our main base in New Pegasus, right on the Strip. Of course, as it’s coming tomorrow, we can give you food, water, and a place to sleep.”
“What do you think?” I asked, turning to Rimfire.
“You’re the boss,” she said.
“Yes but I appreciate your input.”
She rolled her eyes. “Free food, free travel, safe place to sleep. Sounds like a real good time to me.”
I didn’t have to think long at all after that. “We’ll do it.”

Quest Accepted: Could You Find It In Your Heart?

End of chapter 1: Level Up!
Guns: 25/ Speech: 50
Perk Earned: Ladykiller. Gain unique dialogue option with members of the opposite sex and do 10% more damage to them in combat.
> Things That Go Boom
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Chapter II: Things That Go Boom
It hadn’t taken us more than two hours to reach the ant den. We layed overlooking the warrens. A couple of ants migrated around. Somehow we had managed to get up without being sensed by them. Piston had been able to give us a few sticks of dynamite that the NER had taken from the old stallion. Rimfire toyed with one.
The warren was mostly barren. A few skeletons stood out on the sandy floor amongst the rocks. There were holes the ants had dug out on the walls. We were perhaps fifteen feet above the ants. It had been awhile since I’d seen them up close like this. Their large, red exoskeleton always meant danger, I remembered that. The sounds of their clicking mandibles got on my nerves quickly, I didn’t know how Rimfire felt about all this. I started to slide away from the edge and motioned for Rimfire to follow. She did.
“Okay, so we got the plan, right?” I asked her.
She stared blankly. “Yes,” she said, “I have the plan. I’m going to throw the dynamite down there and hope it all goes well. I notice that I’m the one throwing because you’d probably blow yourself up and I’d never get my caps.”
“Exactly,” I told her. I pulled out a matchbook as she tied the few sticks of dynamite we had together. After she had them in a suitable bundle, she picked up a match with her magic and lit it against the matchbook. “Okay, try to aim for one of the ant holes.”
“Are you really calling them ‘ant holes’?” she asked.
“Yes, I am.”
“The dynamite goes where it falls damn it,” she told me. Rimfire stepped up to the edge. The match was burning low as she held it to the fuse. The fuse let out a faint sizzling as it lit. Disregarding the match she dropped it to the floor and it sputtered out. Pulling back the dynamite bundle slightly, she tossed it forwards into the warren. Rimfire took a few steps back towards me.
“I think I got it in a hole,” she said.
“Excellent,” I said. “How long do you think until they notice?” A shrill scream erupted from the warren as the ground began to rumble. “We should go.” The two of us turned tail and ran, but we didn’t get far before the ground erupted behind us. The ground beneath us trembled as the dynamite went off. Great chunks of earth flew into the air along with a few of the Fire Ants. They burned as they went flying into the air.. Ants and earth fell around us as we ran. A chunk of rock struck Rimfire’s head and she tripped over her own legs. She went spiraling into the ground.
I stopped and grabbed her with my magic. She was too heavy to get far. The flaming ants hadn’t given us the good grace to die yet and they were angry. At least I was pretty sure that’s what the high-pitched hissing meant. There was nowhere to get cover from them, we were in a lane surrounded by ants and rocks. An ant crawled towards us with it’s remaining legs. I dropped Rimfire and drew my revolver. Before it got close enough for its flames I’d pulled back the hammer and shot. The bullet went through it’s head.
Two more ants were already coming from both sides. I turned to the left and fired off another shot. It ricocheted off the ground. Behind me an ant had reached Rimfire. I gave it a powerful kick with my hind legs. It’s natural armor deflected most of the kick, but it backed up. I turned my attention to the ant in front. Another shot, this time it hit it’s middle. A small bout of flame accompanied its death. I twisted around quickly to deal with the ant behind me. It was advancing with two of its friends.
“Rimfire, I don’t have time for this,” I said to her hopefully. Her body stirred. I took a shot at the ant on the left. The bullet hit its antennae and it’s chattering altered. It turned to its friend and headbutted the one in the middle. The two other ants retaliated.
I wrapped Rimfire up with my magic and started to drag her away from the burning ants and warren. I could feel her shifting as we moved. A couple of ants began to chase us. I pointed my gun behind us and fired randomly. All three shots when wild. I couldn’t reload with Rimfire in my hold, all I could do was keep running. The ant in the lead let loose a burst of fire which reached up to Rimfire’s hooves. She flailed as well as she could under my spell.
“Wha- hot!” she yelled. Her eyes went wild at the pursuing ants.
“Shoot them!” I yelled. Rimfire hastily levitated her rifle off her back and readied it. She fired in bursts at the ants. 				Almost every shot hit home and soon the pursuit was over. I stopped running and dropped her and my gun. Rimfire stood up 	as I panted heavily. She slid a full magazine into her rifle. I emptied my revolver’s cylinder and jammed a few rounds in. The empty casings falling lightly onto the dusty floor. A heavy thump and a quick cry came out from behind me. I turned around quickly. Rimfire was being held down by a giant ant. Its mandibles were drawing closer and closer to her head.
I brought my revolver a around and hit the ant over the head. It jumped off Rimfire and dove at me. The ant’s weight knocked the breath from my lungs. I threw my forelegs up over my face. I felt the tear of the mandibles as they grabbed onto me. I couldn’t see where my pistol had landed and I used my magic to reach the nearest thing, a rock. Blood dripped onto my face, stinging my eyes and choking my throat as I smashed the rock into the ant’s head. It fell off me into a heap. I took a quick look at my forelegs. The wounds had nearly been cauterized from the heat of it’s breath. Rimfire ran over and looked at the wounds.
“That’s not good, you need a stimpak,” she said.
I nodded. Most of what was happening I ignored. The searing pain in my forelegs kept my attention firmly set on not screaming. Rimfire appeared back at my side, a familiar looking metal object floated in the air next to her, a grey  syringe with a gauge or two. My vision was fading in and out as she stuck it into my side. I could almost feel it working as I passed out.
I woke up in a cold sweat at night. Looking around me revealed that I was sitting around a campfire back at the NER outpost. Rimfire was sitting near me looking away from the fire. My brahmin was resting a few feet away. Its bags had not been removed.
“Did you drag me back here?” I asked her.
She looked back at me. “Obviously. You did save me so why not return the favor?” Rimfire turned back away. I laid back down, she had placed me in my bedroll. My bag was near me. I reached a hoof inside and felt for Crescent’s journal. I found it and pulled it out. I flipped to where I left off, but for the next few pages the ink had smudged. At last I found a legible entry....
It’s been a week since Cork died. I can’t keep on missing him as I do. I’ve taken a few drugs to calm me down and they seem to be helping.  One of the NER captains came to my place last night. He had some goons with him. They wanted to know about Cork.I told them I didn’t know anything and they tried to beat the truth out of me. I made up a nice long lie to tell them about it. They left me battered and bruised.
They must really want what Cork had. Did they know? How could they? Not even Cork knew.
I shut the book. Crescent seemed crazier after every page. I looked around and saw that most of the outpost’s soldiers were either sleeping or playing cards. I wrestled myself out of my bedroll and trotted over to a small group. Three soldiers sat around a small table with a dimly glowing lamp illuminating cards and caps. There were two mares and a stallion.
“Hello, friends,” I greeted them.
One of the mares looked up at me. “You in?” she asked. I nodded. She pointed at a chair and I sat down.
“Well my name’s Short Change, but you can call me Change,” I told them.
The same mare that gave me the chair began to deal cards. “My name’s Sunset,” she grunted. Sunset pointed at the stallion, “that’s Bull.”
The last mare spoke up, “I’m Gerry. Bull can’t speak.” Bull nodded.
Sunset cleared her throat. “Ante up,” she said, “5 caps.”
I nodded and pulled the caps from my saddlebag and stacked them up in front of me. One by one each pony threw 5 caps into the pool. Quickly, Sunset dealt two cards to everyone and placed the deck to the side of the table. I peeked at my cards, 2 and a 5 of spades. Gerry went first and raised 2 caps. The rest of us met that and Sunset placed three cards in the center of the table.
She revealed an Ace of clubs, a 2 of hearts, and a 10 of diamonds. It didn't look too good for me, I thought. Gerry checked, and then it was my turn to raise. I threw three more caps into the pool. Bull threw in his and so did Sunset. Gerry just looked at me closely.
“You think you got something there, Short?” she asked.
I chuckled. “Well of course I do,” I told her. She scowled and added three caps to the pool. Sunset put the next card on the table, 2 of clubs. Bull dropped his hand on the table and grunted.
“Relax, Bull,” Sunset said with a smirk, “You can’t win ‘em all.” He glared at her silently. Gerry cleared her throat and put ten caps on the table. I did the same, slowly. Bull tossed his hand to Sunset who put it aside. She put ten and one more cap on the table. Both Gerry and I met her raise.
Sunset put the last card on the table, 5 of diamonds.
“Check,” Gerry called.
“Raise 5,” I said and pushed 5 more caps into the center. Sunset looked at me deadpan.
“Fuck it,” she said and tossed her hand onto Bull’s. Gerry scratched the table top with her hoof a little.
“Hmph,” she snorted.
“Well?” I asked her.
“I raise 3 caps,” she said as she put 8 caps onto the growing pool.
“I’ll meet that,” I said and added 3 of my own.
“Looks like it’s time to reveal,” Gerry said as she overturned her cards. She had three of a kind with 5’s. I smiled and turned over my cards.
“Full house,” I said as I began to reach for the caps. The two mares groaned as I loaded the caps into my bag. Bull gave me a pat on the back and a smirk as I got up from the table. I turned from the soldiers and made my way back to Rimfire. It was going to be a long day tomorrow.
End of Chapter Two: Level up!
Barter: 30/ Guns: 30
Perk gained: Scoundrel Rank 1: +5 speech and barter!
> Bright Lights and Shining Stars
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Chapter III: Bright Lights and Shining Stars
I awoke to a light kick to my back. I rolled over to see Rimfire standing over me. She had her saddlebag and rifle slung over her back. It must be time to go. She helped me pack up my things and we went to see Piston.
Piston was outside the walls of the outpost. He was standing next to some heavily armed ponies.  They seemed to be talking casually. When he saw us he waved us over.
“Tin, these are two ponies that are accompanying you to New Pegasus. Please drop them off where they need to go, they did me a solid yesterday and I don’t want them dying too quick,” Piston said to the the other pony in charge.
The mare he was talking to stepped up and eyed us both. “Hmm, they don’t look that bad for being new to the Palomino.” She stepped up to me. “Why New Pegasus?” Tin asked. “Why not anywhere else? This city will chew you up and spit you out, and it won’t even be done yet. Greater ponies than you came to make it big. The Pegasus hates losing, and won’t think twice to make you gone.”
I scoffed. “I’ve done well enough in the east.”
“This isn’t the east. You think you know but you don’t, that’s a fact. I’ll take you to New Pegasus, you, her, and a brahmin. I’ll even drop you off where you need to go, but after that the two of you are on your own.” She backed away to the rest of her troop. There were twelve of them, all of them in more military gear than anypony I’d ever seen before. “We are leaving in 5. Get your stuff.”
I left Rimfire with Tin and her squad as I went to get the brahmin. I was almost glad to finally get rid of this thing. The goal was as simple as it was ever going to be now, bring the brahmin to The Three of Diamonds and ask for Crystal, he’ll give you the caps. Strange that it was going to one of the fancier casinos, but I wasn’t complaining.
From what I remembered of New Pegasus, it was made of 7 families who ran the casinos. Almost all of them resided on the Strip, the main street of New Pegasus. Two of them didn’t. Not many ponies went to those as far as I know. I brought the brahmin back to the group. One of the soldiers stood up to it and placed a pack on it’s back.
“Hey!” I shouted, “What are you doing?”
He looked back at me, “We’re looking after you, you can at least carry some of our stuff.” He and the rest of the squad began to move on.
Tin spoke up as we trotted off towards New Pegasus. “This march is going to take a few hours, there won’t be a break.” Rimfire and I kept in line with the rest of them. Tin and her eleven soldiers stood ahead of us. I was next to the brahmin. The NER pack looked very tempting. It was a simple bag, a single buckle held it shut. It’s strap was loosely thrown over the rest of my bags.
With my magic I carefully undid the clasp. No one seemed to notice. Rimfire had caught my glance and was looking at me nervously.  I gave her a reassuring wink. She looked on ahead. I started to veer off towards the pack. My brahmin didn’t appreciate the closeness, but it kept quiet. I raised my head and took a quick peek inside.
It was a pile of Pipbucks. The NER were transporting five or so pipbucks. I looked back at the soldiers, none of them had noticed me yet. Rimfire was looking back at me. She mouthed “What?”
“Pipbucks” I mouthed back. Her eyes opened wide. There was no way I was letting this opportunity slide. I carefully slid one of the pipbucks out with my magic and stuffed it into my saddlebag. Carefully I closed the NER’s bag and sidled off towards Rimfire. She gave a nervous glance to my bag. I smirked.

There are a few things you notice about New Pegasus when you first see it. One thing is that it’s big. It must have been a mile in any direction. Another thing was that it’s tall too; casinos built like skyscrapers tapered into the sky. One in particular was built like a Roulette board, with a massive tower in the center. All this and more we could see shining ahead of us. We stood in front of the Gutters, the slums that surrounded New Pegasus’ Strip. The Gutters consisted of everything that had been outside the Strip before the war. A thick wall of concrete and carriages had been erected between the two. There was even a wall around the Gutters. The group of us stood outside on of the Gutters entrances. Tin turned to me.
“Looks like this is the end of the line. We received word that we need to return to base ASAP. I think you two can handle yourselves, right?” Tin asked. We nodded reluctantly. “Good...” One of the soldier took the NER bag from my brahmin. She and her squad turned and walked towards the south.
“Looks like we’re on our own,” I said to Rimfire.
As soon as Tin was out of sight Rimfire reached into my saddlebags. “What are you doing?” I practically shouted. she pulled out the Pipbuck.
“Are you crazy?” she asked. “They probably would have killed us if they saw you.” Rimfire looked the device over. It’s strap was undone and waiting for a new bearer.
“Don’t you think I should wear it?” I asked. “After all, I did take it.”
She looked at me with a frown and handed the pipbuck over. I grabbed it with my magic and held out my right foreleg. I slid on the pipbuck and closed it around my leg.
Systems normal heard in the back of my head. Faint etchings began to appear in my vision around the corners of my my sight. A small bar in the the center of my sight appeared, it looked like a compass of sorts.
“Oh wow,” I said. It was making me nauseous. I swayed a little on my hooves. Rimfire stood next to me and I leaned on her. Sorting Spell Activated. Eyes Forward Sparkle Activated. Little green marks began to appear on the compass. The pipbuck stopped saying things and I stood on my own hooves.
“That was weird,” I said aloud.
Rimfire nodded. “I want one of those.” 
I took a quick look at the screen. It showed all the things on my person in an easy to read list. It also showed the quality of such things. My .32 seemed to be in a low state. I’d need to get that repaired soon. I looked back at the gate to the Gutters. A dirty mare was looking at me strangely. As my gaze met hers she turned and walked away.
I led Rimfire and the brahmin through the Gutters using the best guesses I had. Rimfire mentioned something of a map feature on the pipbuck. I navigated through the menus until I found it. For some reason the Three of Diamonds was highlighted on the map. It was strange, but I wasn’t about to complain.
There were ponies everywhere in the Gutters, behind boarded windows, on the streets, in the actual gutters. It was a madhouse. There were vendors selling their wares, anything from cooked meats to energy weaponry. I had to drag Rimfire from a particularly dangerous display of military surplus.
Soon enough we stood in front of the gates to the south side of the Strip, the side closest to the Three of Diamonds. I could see the gleaming, white casino from here. A few NER guards stood outside the gate. One of the was manning a machine gun turret. We approached confidently.
The guard in lead approached us. “Halt,” he said. We stopped. “Cards please.”
“Cards?” I asked.
The guard scowled at me. “I.D. cards. We can’t let any riff raff into the Strip.”
Inspiration struck me. “Well I think we left our cards inside. Maybe a few caps could get us in?” I asked in a low voice. The guard gave a look to the others.
“100 caps each,” he said, “including the pack beast.”
“50 each sounds fair,” I said.
“100,” he said firmly. I bitterly handed over the caps. He slipped them into his bag and waved to his fellows. Two on either side of the gate nodded and began to push it open. 
There’s a startling change between the Gutters and the Strip. Rimfire and I looked in awe as we walked through the gate. All the ponies were wearing fancy clothes and an air of sophistication. Old newspapers and other debris didn’t tumble through the air. No one carried guns on them from the looks of it. The Strip looked to be one long, continuous stretch of road that was lined on either side by gleaming buildings. The first one to our right was the Three of Diamonds, to our left was a casino that was dark in design. Flames erupted at different intervals all over it. Above the door in great big letters was ‘Tartarus’. There were plenty of mares in skimpy outfits outside there.
We turned to the Three of Diamonds, no prostitutes danced outside the worn stone steps. The casinos was shaped like a horseshoe with the doors on either end of the shoe. An elegant reflection pool sat in the middle. Rimfire and I walked up the mostly deserted steps to the main entrance on the left side.
As we got closer a mare in a finely tailored suit stepped out of the building and trotted up in front of us.
“Hey-y,” she said to us with a smile. “You cool cats can’t bring that in this way.” She pointed at my brahmin. I had noticed that it had been getting looks from the ponies on the Strip, and even a few from the Gutters.
“We’re to meet Crystal,” I told her.
Her smile flickered, but it came right back. “Right entrance, five minutes.” The mare hurried back inside the casino.
“Bitch,” Rimfire muttered as we turned to the other entrance and began to walk towards it.
“I don’t think she was a bitch. She was just doing her job,” I told her.
“You might know ponies back west, but they’re different here.” She stopped talking as we neared the right entrance. This entrance was incredibly less magnificent than the other one. It was a white painted metal door with a slit at eye level. I approached it.
“You got the packages?” a voice asked from behind the door.
“Are you Crystal?” I asked.
“I’m the one asking questions. Do you have the packages?”
“Yes,” I said. The slot slammed shut and the door opened and three armed stallions stood behind it. Behind the door was a dimly lit room. The three of us entered cautiously. The room was bare except for a door on the other side and a desk in the corner. As soon as the last hoof was through the threshold they shut and locked the door. The stallion with a grey mane spoke up. 
“I’m Crystal. This the brahmin?” he asked.
“Yes,” I told him. He nodded to the others and they began to pick around the bags on the animal. After a couple of minutes that began to take out small boxes. Boxes of mint-als.
“Hey, I didn’t know we had mint-als,” Rimfire said.
Crystal glared at her. “Don’t talk about the goods. The NER would have no trouble shooting us on sight if they saw these mint-als, and with the amount they’re taking out, they’d probably get a promotion for doing it.” I looked at the small pyramid of boxes the stallions had amassed from the brahmin.  There must have been twenty boxes at least. “mint-als are big on the market these days. You might have just netted us millions of caps,” Crystal said. He ordered his friends to take the boxes elsewhere, then he turned to us. “Now for payment.  I can’t believe you came here yourself to deliver the drugs, kid. When they said you were the best I had no idea how right they were.”
“What? Bring them myself?” I asked.
“Yeah. I’d have just gotten some flunkie to do the hard part. Now about payment.” Crystal went into a drawer of the desk. He pulled out a clipboard and set it on the desk. “It says here you’re getting ten thousand caps for the ‘tats.”
“Don’t you think ten is a little low?” I asked. He looked up from the clipboard.
“It certainly seems fair to me and my associates. It also seemed fair to you when we discussed this,” Crystal said.
I took a step closer. “Well it just seems that it was little more dangerous than I first thought, what with the rampant NER control around here. I just think that maybe fifteen thousand caps would help heal my nerves.”
“Fifteen... thousand,” Crystal said through clenched teeth.
I nodded. “I got them here and all, and on reasonable time too. You wouldn’t even believe how close the NER got to seeing those boxes. We were lucky I could distract them long enough for them to lose interest.”
Crystal glared at me for what felt like forever. He picked up a pencil and made a mark on the clipboard. “Eleven sounds fair,” he said “I’ll have to get more caps, excuse me.” The stallion left the desk and exited further into the casino.
“Why didn’t you tell me you were carrying mint-als into New Pegasus?” Rimfire asked me.
“I didn’t know!” I told her.
“Well I sure hope I’m getting more than 200 caps out of this now,” she said. 
There was a knock at the door and Crystal opened it. In his mouth he wa carrying a sack bearing the Three of Diamonds symbol. A blue diamond with a 3 overlaid on top. He dropped it in front of us.
“Eleven thousand caps,” he said. I quickly stuff the bag into one of my own. A small ding came from my pipbuck as I closed my saddlebag. I look at the screen. A small window had opened saying ‘11k caps added’. I looked back at Crystal.
“Anything else you need?” I asked.
“We’ll let you know. Good day.” He ushered Rimfire and I out of the room.
As he pushed us out the door I asked, “What about the brahmin?”
“Oh there’s a few boxes inside that we need to get out. I hope you didn’t get too attached.” He retreated back behind the door and shut it. It was evening in New Pegasus.

Quest Completed: Hold Onto This For Me

End of Chapter III
Level up!
Perk Gained: Confirmed Bachelor. Gain unique dialogue option with members of the same sex and do 10% more damage to them in combat.
> Bring Me My Shotgun
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Chapter IV: Bring My Shotgun
The Strip seemed twice as alive as it did before. There were high class ponies everywhere, all of them having a good time it seemed. Intermingled with them were several NER guards carrying what looked like riot gear. Rimfire and I stood still on the Three of Diamonds steps.
“What now?” I asked.
“I think we need to find a place to sleep and eat,” Rimfire said. “Not necessarily in that order through.”
I raised an eyebrow at her. “We? You want to come with me still?”
“Yes,  I do. For one thing, I don’t think you could handle yourself out in the wastes or the Palomino alone. Two, caps seem to rain down from the sky and into your bags and I don’t think I want to give that up yet.” She sauntered up next to me. “Frankly I’m not doing much either.”
“I always knew you were a charmer,” I said grinning. I went to give her a little friend hug. She pushed me back.
“But first the caps,” she said.
“If we’re travelling together, I think it’d be better to have one pony with the money. Don’t you agree? It’s just safer.”
“Whatever,” she groaned.
“Now let’s get something to eat!”I told her happily. Rimfire and I descended the steps to the Strip and soon we were immersed in the crowd. I had been with her enough that I could tell her particular light blue mane anywhere. This time however, she followed me as we walked back out into the Gutters. The guards happily opened the gates to let us out.
“I hope you got your ID’s because you aren’t getting back in without them,” one of the guards told us.
It was much quieter in the Gutters now. The long street we were on was practically deserted. A couple fillies were busy playing in the street with a mutated rat. On the street itself was a few ruined wagons that were missing their magical batteries. Probably scavenged long before New Pegasus had been set up. There were three side streets not covered in rubble down at the far end of the street, where the exit to the wastes was. Ruined buildings lined the street. Actually, they were more like concrete husks nowadays. Though most windows were boarded up the open ones showed the flickering of campfires beyond them. There looked to be a few stores on the street as well.
“So do you see anywhere the sells food?” I asked Rimfire.
Her ears perked up as she looked down to our left. “No, but I see something better.” She started a run towards a storefront with barred windows and a steel door. I followed suit. Rimfire quickly pushed me into the store. It was dark, but my eyes adjusted to it soon enough. On the walls were racks on racks of guns and ammo. In the back was a counter and a smiling old stallion sat behind it. Rimfire ran behind the counter and hugged the old fellow.
“Brass!” she yelled.
“Oh my, is that Sunshine I see?” the stallion, Brass, asked. Rimfire pulled back.
“I told you not to call me that. I know your memory’s good enough to last at least that long.”
Brass laughed. “Well it has been a few years.” His eyes fell on me. “And who’s this? A boyfriend?” 
Rimfire walked over to me and tapped me on the back only a little painfully. “No way, Brass. I’m this guy’s mercenary. He’s a caravaneer, or at least he was,” she explained.
“It’s a pleasure to meet you, Brass. I’m Short Change. Ex-caravaneer.”
“Well met, Short,” he said. “Now,” he said to both of us, “what can I do for you?” 
Rimfire used her magic and pulled my revolver from it’s holster.
“Hey,” I protested.
She hushed me and placed it on the counter. “Short’s got a bad gun. He needs something a little better.”
Brass picked up my .32 in his hooves and carefully examined it. “I see what you mean,” he said, “I wouldn’t bet that this would last another fight.”
“I could repair it,” I said defensively.
“No,” Rimfire corrected me, “you couldn’t. I’ve heard the way you talk about guns. You probably don’t even know which way the magazine goes in a gun.”
“I agree with the lady,” Brass spoke up. He had put down the gun. “This revolver is old and beat to hell. There’s rust on the trigger and the cylinder here.” He pointed to both on the gun. I could see the brown starting to marr the silver. “I doubt you could even find anything decent enough to repair these. They’re generally the first to go, you know.”
“Yeah,” Rimfire chimed in, “that’s what I’m talking about. Brass, do you have anything for this guy?”
Brass turned to me, “do you know what type of boomstick you’d like?”
“A big one, probably,” I told him. He looked at Rimfire, she shook her head. “Hey,” I told her, “I can handle it.”
“Fine, whatever, don’t take the gun experts advice. Show him the big guns, Brass,” she told Brass.
Brass reached below the counter and pulled up what looked like a normal shotgun with a rather worn wooden stock. “This here is your standard shotgun. It uses 12 gauge shells. If you pull the trigger and the raider’s close enough, one’s all you’ll ever need.” He reached below again and pulled up a short, dark weapon, looked like a handgun. “This is .45 calibre, semi automatic pistol. It’s a magazine based weapon that holds 9 rounds per mag. If you need more than 9 in a fight, get back to the shooting range.”
“Do you have anything more like Rimfire has?” I asked. He looked at her gun quickly.
“Yeah, I got stuff like that.” Brass got out behind the counter and went to a few of the racks and slung a few of the guns behind his back. After five or so he laid them on the counter and resumed sitting. He picked up a long black rifle. “This is your typical assault carbine, it’s an assault rifle like little Sunshine here’s got. You see this black portion here?” He indicated a portion of the barrel which was thicker than the rest. “This was to make it easier to pick up if your fellow soldier died and you needed an extra gun. For the earth ponies like me of course.” He put that down and picked up a stubby silver gun. “This is your standard 10mm submachine gun. 30 round magazine, nothing to say here.” 
I cut him off. “I’ll take them.” He and Rimfire looked at me strangely.
“What?” Brass asked.
“You’re an idiot, Short. You can’t take them all,” Rimfire said flatly.
“Why not?” I asked.
“Son, these guns are big and get heavy, especially when you get all the ammo you’ll need. Frankly you look pretty scrawny too,” Brass told me.
“Well I don’t want to be useless in fights and it seems that I should just have a lot of guns,” I told them. 
“Alright Short, let me just help you out here,” Brass said. He cleared off all the guns except for the shotgun and then he reached below the counter one more time. This time he pulled up a brightly gleaming revolver with a pearl grip. There was a dark cloud and a light blue moon on the handle as well. “This,” he said, “is a .44 magnum. One of the strongest handguns you’ll find out here. I found it myself while scavenging one of the abandoned factories, it damn near saved my life. I think it was being made as a gift for the Princess before the war, I’m almost glad she didn’t get it. I call it the Luna Protegit, that’s fancy talk, not quite sure what it means.”
The gun was beautiful, I couldn’t take my eyes off it. “I’ll take it,” I told him.
He placed the Luna on the counter in front of the shotgun. “Normally I’d never sell this, but you’re Sunshine’s friend, and I like your chops, kid,” he said,
“How much?” I asked warily. No matter what he said, it’d be worth it.
“500 for the shotgun, it’s pretty beat up but reliable. I’ll throw in plenty of ammo for 100 more. For the revolver, 4000.” That news hit me like a ton of bricks. It was a pretty penny, but for a very pretty gun.
“Sounds fair,” I said. Rimfire’s eye twitched as I handed over a large lump of caps. I carefully picked up Luna with my magic and placed it in my holster. It was a tight fit, but it’d do. I hung the shotgun over my back. Brass passed a few boxes of ammo to me; I accepted them gratefully.
“Now I don’t mean to take all your caps, but I notice that your barding is a little, well, awful,” Brass admitted. I looked at my pitiful armor. I’d known for a long time that it was well worn, but I’d gotten it for a good deal and hadn’t spent any caps on it in a long time. It was just some raider’s old dirty leather barding. There were still some bullet holes from when it had lost it’s previous owner.
“It’s fine, Brass,” Rimfire said, “and stop calling me Sunshine, you know I hate it. We’ll just get him something when the time comes for it. I mean, he lasted around New Appaloosa for who knows how long with it. I think it’s best we got going too, there’s a lot left to get done.”
I nodded. “Thank you so much, Brass. I’ll take good care of Luna, but I have one question, you said you found it in a factory?”
Brass nodded. “Yes indeed. The Palomino is lousy with secret facilities hidden all over the damn place. I’d reckon that not even half of them are found.”
“Why are there secret facilities?” I asked.
“During the war, Los Pegasus wasn’t much on the military’s eye. We had a base or two, but that was it. A few of the families in power decided that to be safer against possible Zebra incursion they should boost some of the defenses. Thus they built weapons factories here. They saw what had happened to Hoofington, and I don’t think I can blame them for wanting a little protection.”
“Didn’t the ministries have anything to say about that?” I wondered.
Brass chuckled. “Surprisingly no. All the paperwork was filed and I guess it got cleared. I think Pinkie had a little of her influence in Los Pegasus at all. The rest of the mares didn’t give a damn what happened in the city of sin. I think only the Ministry of Morale had an office here. You can find it on the other side of the Gutters, it’s still locked up good though.” Brass settled himself in his chair. “I think that’s enough history for today.” He turned to Rimfire and bowed his head, “Always a pleasure, Sunshine.”
She frowned a little, “Bye, Brass.”
I said my goodbyes and Rimfire and I walked out of the gun store. I looked at the sign as we walked away, ‘Brass Bombs,’ it read. I thought it was catchy. The sun was low in the sky as we walked the streets of the Gutters.
“So where do you think looks like a good place to eat or sleep?” I asked Rimfire. “....Sunshine,” I added before she could answer.
She responded first with a kick to my hind leg. I let out a grunt of pain. “Don’t call me Sunshine, Short. Brass was like a father to me growing up. He gets privileges.”
“Alright, fine. I won’t pry anymore. But you have to know where there’s a room we can rent.”
Rimfire stopped walking. “Why don’t you check your pipbuck?” she asked.
“Oh yeah, it can do something like that can’t it.” I pulled up my left hoof and looked at the pipbuck’s display. I fiddled with the controls until a map appeared on the screen. “We are in business!” I said excitedly.
“You found a place?” Rimfire asked.
“Not yet, hold on.” I scrolled the map a little. It was hard to tell when buildings and roads stopped intermingling. A few spots had markers and names. I found one that was promising. “Here we go. It’s called the... Wrastler?”
Rimfire shrugged. The Wrastler looked to be down a block and two more blocks to the right. As we took the right, the road became much more dark and decrepit. It looked like somepony had gone to town on the roads with a little bit of explosives. We were the only ponies walking on the street. If there was anyone else, they clung to the shadows. 
From a block away I could see the lights of the Wrastler illuminating the relative darkness that was everywhere else. It hit me just then, most if not all of New Pegasus was powered. There had been streetlights on the main road, but it’d been too light for them to matter much at all. Even Brass’ store had had a working light.
“New Pegasus has power?” I asked Rimfire.
“Uh, duh. You really are dumb as shit sometimes. New Pegasus wouldn’t even exist if it didn’t have any power,” Rimfire explained slowly. She gave me a queer look. “Don’t you know anything about New Pegasus before you set out?”
“No,” I admitted.
“Well there’s a lot you are going to learn.” Rimfire lead the way to the Wrastler. As we got nearer we could hear the music coming from within. A group of ponies were stumbling out of the bar drunk. It looked like they had NER outfits. We carried on and went inside. 
It was a large building and affected by the years like any other. The ponies inside didn’t seem to mind however. Tables had been set up and there were dozens sitting around drinking, talking, laughing, and crying. The sole bar sat on the right sight of the building. Behind it were stairs leading to a second floor. There was only one bartender and he was polishing glasses. The two of us made our ways to the bar. The bartender put down the glass when he saw us and pulled up two from underneath the counter.
“What can I do ya’ for?” he asked over the music. “I’m Rusty.” He indicated his rust colored coat.
“Can we get two rooms and what have you got for food?” I asked him. 
Rusty walked from the bar to a small refrigerator he had. From it he pulled two skewers of meat. He came back and put them on the counter. “Six caps for the meat,” he said. “The room’s going to be a bit more as we are filling up fast.” 
I passed him six caps and Rimfire and I each took a skewer with our magic.
“Forty caps for two rooms,” Rusty said.
“One room,” Rimfire corrected.
Rusty looked at Rimfire with his jaw askew. “Okay, miss, forty caps for one room.” He placed a key on the counter. “Have yourselves a nice stay at the Wrastler.”
I laid the caps on the counter and picked up the key. Rimfire and I nibbled the skewers and we ascended the stairs. It wasn’t hard to find the right room as both the door and the key had a bold, black ‘3’ on them.
It was dingy room, wallpaper peeling off the walls and part of the ceiling was missing. There was a bathroom with a shower. In the back was a bed that sat beneath a window. The blankets looked comfortable.
“Being a gentlecolt that I am, I offer the bed to you,” I told Rimfire. She gave a blank stare as she continued to eat the ‘meat’. “Yes?”
She took her time to answer, long enough to finish the skewer and throw it away. “Why can’t we just fucking share it?”
“Uh” I mumbled.
“Exactly. Goodnight.” Rimfire took off her gun and armor for the first time since I saw her. I took a quick look at her cutie mark. It was two spent casings. Beneath the dirt and armor I saw that her coat was a rich emerald. With an almost air of excitement she hopped into the bed. I approached the bed slowly. On the way I took off my barding and guns and laid them aside. My saddlebag I kept next to the bed with my revolver. As I got under the covers I reached out for Crescent’s journal and brought it to me. I flipped to where I left off.
I can’t even find my files about Cork. It’s like he just disappeared. I went to where they buried him, and the grave’s still there. Even though everyone here seemed to forget him I won’t so easily. I think I got him killed. What he carried it...
It wasn’t found on his body. I checked that. The NER’s looking for it, that’s for sure. Why wouldn’t they want it? It’s the key to New Pegasus. It must be. Well, the key to something. I think Cork was murdered.
He’s telling me that if he doesn’t get it in three days, I’ll be next. I’m going out to the Galloping Stretch, and if nothing turns up. I’ll just go east. For now I’ve put Palmer in charge. He’ll take good care of it when I’m gone. With all the caps Redlight brought for doing the Kid’s job, everyone should be set for a long time. I whatever I’d gotten to Cork’s family. His wife appreciated it greatly.
I closed the book and put in on top of my saddlebags and laid back down. I could feel the warmth from Rimfire. It was a pretty good time to be in the wastes right now.


I awoke next morning to knocking at the door. I threw myself out of bed and landed not to gracefully. The sun came in rays through the boarded up window above the bed.
“Don’t hurt yourself,” Rimfire muttered.
I ignored her. “Who is it?” I called out while striding towards the door. The only answer was more knocks. I got to the threshold and unlocked the door. I waited for a lull between the knocks to open it. Outside was an unhappy mare with NER gear on. It was Tin. She was wearing a battle saddle with what looked like a pretty powerful assault rifle on it. She narrowed her eyes when she saw me.
“End of the line you son of a bitch,” she growled at me.
“Can we talk about this?” I asked. She pushed me back into the room and walked in, her gun continuously trained on me.
“What you have on your leg is NER property. Stealing it was probably enough of a reason for me to kill you.” She stepped closer. “Anything to say in your defense.”
“Hey,” Rimfire spoke up. We both glanced at her, she was stretching next to the bed. “Don’t kill Short. He’s cool.”
“Now, Tin. I know we haven’t known each other long, that’s a problem. I get that, but maybe I know something that can help everyone out.”
“I’m not in the mood for your bullshit, Short,” Tin declared.
“This isn’t bullshit,” I told her. It was bullshit, but I hoped it worked. “I know the NER’s looking for something in the Galloping Stretch.”
Tin stayed still for a good minute. Her eyes didn't stop glaring at me. Eventually she spoke. “What do you know?” she asked coldly.
“I know where it’s hidden,” I lied.
“Do you?” she asked.
“I’ll have you know Crescent told me himself. Right before he got killed and all.”
She took a step back. “We’ll contact you. Don’t try to run, you won’t be able to.” Tin turned and walked towards the door. “Don’t think I’ve forgotten the pipbuck,” she called back as she left. When the door shut again I started to breathe. I went back to the bed and started to put on my gear and saddlebags.
“That was rough,” Rimfire said. I gave her a tired look. She just shrugged.
“Yeah, it was. I was really hoping they’d never notice.”
“What was all that about a thing the NER wants?” Rimfire asked.
I finished pulling my barding on before I answered. “Remember that skeleton and book I found? Well it was Crescent’s journal and I’ve been reading it every night.”
Rimfire stepped around the bed. “So what is this ‘thing’?”
“I’m not sure,” I admitted. I began to trot towards the door.
“Hah, oh wow. They are so going to kill you when they find that out.”
I chuckled, “yeah. Hopefully that won’t happen though. We should get out of here, New Pegasus I mean.” I opened the door to the hallway. It was empty. As I stepped out, Rimfire followed me. “Maybe we can find that thing, or an underground factory like Brass talked about.”
“Are you sure about that?” Rimfire asked. I laughed at her while we descended the stairs, gave the key back to the bartender, and left the Wrastler. “Okay I get it.”
The closest exit out of the Gutters was a brisk 3 minute trot, and even the wasteland air is fresher when you’ve spent time in the Gutters. I took a quick look at my pipbuck to see if I could tell where we were. As far as I could make out we were on a road to the north west. It met up with the highway two miles out. 
“Well I guess we just keep walking,” I said to Rimfire.
“Uhuh.”
“Like good old times!” As we began to walk the dusty road I pulled journal out of pack and began to read. Rimfire was never much for conversation on the road.
Got to where Cork died. Some of the sand was still colored with blood. I must have dug for a good twenty minutes all around the site, it wasn’t there. It must have been taken by whatever killed him, but there’s no tracks. Why would there be? It’s been too long. I’m losing it. I’ve got to find it or get out of New Pegasus. I swear the NER’s on my tail. I should have never taken this job. Everyone’s going to die because of me.
The pages went on in gibbering scrawl that I sort of skimmed over. As I closed the journal with a slight sigh of disappointment I noticed the sounds of hooves behind us. I stopped and turned. Rimfire saw me from the corner of her eye and turned as well. Behind us was a medium group of ponies. Ten or so dirty and grumpy mares and stallions, there was one happy mare in the lead.
“Ahoy there, travellers,” the mare greeted us. 
I stared at her blankly for a second. “What?” I asked her.
The mare and her posse stopped. “I’m sure you’re confused,” she said. The dark brown mare had not blinked. “I’m Slipper, and who might you be?”
I wrinkled my brow and spoke. “I’m Short Change, and this is my companion, Rimfire.”
“A pleasure to meet you both,” Slipper said. Hey eyes glanced over our weapons. “Say, you two look like strapping young adventurers. Would you join my party for a little while?”
“I’m not sure about that,” Rimfire spoke up. “I’ve seen this shit before. You take us a little ways off the road and then you and your friends kill us.”
“No!” Slipper gasped, “nothing like that! We are merely on our way to an underground facility and we think we are woefully under armed.”
Even I could tell where this was going. “Look, Slipper. We aren’t going to do something so risky for a stranger...” I told her.
“You would be rewarded,” she offered.
I could feel the gears in my head shifting. “How rewarded?” I asked.
“Well,” she began. Slipper scratched her chin while she talked. “I think about a hundred caps would do nicely. What we’re looking for isn’t that far in at all.”
“How far is the facility?” I asked.
“Well, do you see that stretch of hills?” she asked and pointed to the north.
I turned and looked. The terrain around the road was mostly flat, a few shrubs and cacti littered the plains. The road continued to the north and started to snake through a range of hills stretching off in either direction.
“Well, in there is a particular mine,” Slipper continued, “at the end of that is a locked door which leads into a robotics manufacturer. We need something in there.”
“Lead the way,” I told her.
We followed the road into the hills, but as soon as it started to snake away, we left it. Instead we took to a roughly hewn path that had been well traversed for years. Up and down the range we followed it. Steep ascents and narrows paths made for a slow journey. Eventually we made it to an unassuming door made of rotted planks that closed shut a hole in the side of one of the hills.  On it was a sign, ‘Keep Out!’.
“Okay, Short and Rimfire come with me,” Slipper said. “The rest of my crew will stand guard out here.” Slipper’s posse collectively nodded and dispersed around the opening. A few of them gathered in a small circled and took out decks of cards from the bags. The rest merely watched the surrounding area. Slipper strode to the mine door and opened it. The hinges squealed and she pushed through the buildup of rust. She motioned for us to enter, we did.
The mine was dark and for whatever reason, damp. Slipper has a flashlight which she used to navigate the twisting paths. Twice she had to turn back and find another path. The probability of there being a secret facility down here at all was looking next to zero when at last there was a light at the end of the tunnel. Slipper beamed as she ran towards it. Rimfire and I broke into a sprint to keep up with her.
As we caught up we saw that she was standing in front of a large, metallic door. She was busy interacting with a panel that had been installed next to the door. As she pressed various buttons it was beeping back at her. She seemed to be getting annoyed.
“Forgot the password?” Rimfire asked sarcastically.
Slipper ignored her and continued to press keys rapidly.
“You can open this right?” I asked her.
“Yes, I can,” she explained. “I was told the password before I set out, but I think I’ve forgotten in.”
“Clearly,” I said. 
Slipper laid her head on the panel and groaned. “Oh,” she said after a minute, “I remember it now.” She lifted her head and tapped a few keys expertly. There was a clanking noise behind the door and it slid backwards revealing a polished metal, grey room. It was just like any receptionist lobby I’d ever seen before. Chairs on either wall, a desk with a terminal, magazines on the tables. You could almost hear the flipping of pages. As we entered Slipper coughed.
“Okay, guys, here’s your mission,” she began.
I cut her off. “You’re not coming?”
She shook her head. “Too dangerous,” Slipper said. “That’s why I have you two. Now here is what you are looking for. In the main lab there should be a main terminal that can access all the logs and files and the like. One of those files is sprite-bot schematics. Get me those and you have your reward.”
“That’s it?” asked Rimfire.
“Yes. Feel free to keep anything else you find.” With that she shooed us onwards to the door opposite the room. It sat next to the receptionist’s desk. It was a simple wooden door with a brass knob. On it was a sign that read “Employees only” in faded black writing. I approached the door slowly. My hooves disturbing a fine layer of dust that had settled over many decades. Rimfire cradled her rifle with her magic as I reached out to turn the handle. It turned easily and I was able to open the door with the lightest of pushes.
The hallway beyond was much different than the room we were in now. Instead of a peeling green wallpaper, the walls were bright white and well lit. Everything was pristine, something I’d never seen in all my years in the wastes. The hallway ended in a t-junction ten feet down. I used magic to lift my shotgun off my back and loaded a shell into the chamber. The two of us left Slipper in the waiting room. The hall echoed out hooves as we walked.
“Know anything about this stuff?” I asked Rimfire. On a whim we took the left path at the junction. We were now in a long hallway with an open door at the opposite end.
“What Brass said to you was mostly true, he’s old you know. These weren’t built by just the casinos, the ministries were involved as well. Yes, Morale was the only ministry that had a proper office, but I think they all had a little something here. Why else build these factories?”
“So you think they had a part in it?” I asked her.
“Frankly, I don’t know,” She said. “History was never something I learned when I was a filly.” She stopped talking as we passed through the door into a much wider room. The walls were a subdued white now, with regular concrete floors. Workbenches with metal pieces and wires dotted the room intermittently. A few skeletons lay at the seats of the benches. Only the rotted tatters of work uniforms covered the dusty bones. On one of the near tables was a radio that played the static of a station long since silent. 
Rimfire walked to it and began to change the dial. As she busied herself I looked around the room. I stopped at a few of the tables to see if any of it looked useful. None of it did. I spied a closed door near the back of the room. Rimfire saw me staring and dropped the radio on the table and made her way over. While I walked over, I noticed something different. I could see red dots around the bottom of the vision, near the compass the pipbuck had given me. I told Rimfire about them.
“Sounds like a personal problem,” she said. This door was more in line with the rest of the facility; a white metal door with a keypad next to it. This door however, had an inscription on it. It was emblazoned with a set of gears and sparks, a sword ran through the middle.
“The ministry of technology, eh?” I muttered.
Rimfire nodded. “You don’t see these much around here, at least where I’ve been.”
I took a quick look at the console next to the door. It looked similar to the one I’d had in the stable when I grew up. I tried the normal open command, it worked.
The view of the next room was obscured as laser fire began to blast through the threshold. Rimfire dove behind one of the tables. I fell to the side of the door.
“Prepare to die, Zebra scum!” came a robotic yet patriotic voice. Rimfire laid her rifle on the tabletop and began to fire blindly into the other room. We were met with another volley of lasers.
“I can’t get a clear shot at them,” Rimfire yelled over the blasts.
“Don’t worry about it,” I yelled back, “I’ve got it!” 
Rimfire looked worried as I stood up with shotgun ready. I waited for a lull in the shooting to rush forward into the next room. This room was much larger than the last. Huge conveyor belts and machines dominated the floor space. I could see Mr. Gutsy’s and turrets intermittently between them.
“Zebra spotted!” screeched the closest one as it turned to me. It extended it’s flamer apparatus. I pointed my 12 gauge at it and shot once. The pellets bounced of it’s plated skin.
“Fuck!” I yelled. I lunged under the conveyor to my left and the Gusty spat fire at me. I rolled to the other side and stood up. The Gutsy turned to me again. Quickly I pumped another shell and shot it at the robot.
I must have done something right as it’s ‘eye’ cracked.
“Zebra treachery!” it shouted as it began to fire it’s plasma cannon all around. Other Mr. Gutsy’s began to converge on me. I crawled onto the conveyor belt as a laser came flying at me. My tail got singed. I pointed my shotgun at the closest Gutsy and shot shell after shell at it. My gun was empty as the Gutsy began to spark and smoke.
“Free...dom..” it spluttered and lurched to the floor. The Gutsy next to it was engulfed as well and was thrown into one of the machines.
“Get back here!” yelled Rimfire. I ignored her and ran down the conveyor dodging robotic limbs and scraps. I couldn’t focus enough to reload so I slung it over my back. I needed a place to think. 
I looked around as I ran. There was a set of stairs that led to catwalks above the factory floor. ‘Perfect,’ I thought. The stairs started three conveyors to my right and forward ten yards. I stopped and jumped on the open line to my right. A Mr. Gutsy behind me took a shot with its plasma cannon. The green globule singed a hole in my barding. My sides got uncomfortably warm.
I whipped my revolver out and fire blindly. To be sure the Luna was much more powerful than my old .32. I nearly lost my grip on it in shock. The bullet when wild and punched into machinery.
I lept to the next two conveyor belts and up the last one towards the stairs. A robot on treads was descending it precariously. I used my magic to tip it over and send it tumbling down to the floor. I jumped over it’s prone, mechanical body and hurried up the stairs. There didn’t seem to be any robots on the catwalks, but that didn’t stop the ones on the factory floor from taking potshots at me.
Lasers and plasma bolts bombarded the catwalk beneath me. I peeked over at the doorway below me. Rimfire leapt through the threshold gun blazing.
“Eat lead, you tin cans!” she yelled. A few of her shots hit the robots and they exploded in a shower of sparks and shrapnel. There were only a few left, and their energy weapons were enough to make her take cover. “Do something, Short!” she yelled.
“I’m trying!” My shotgun probably wouldn’t do much at this range, and they were getting closer and closer to Rimfire. I pulled out my revolver and pulled back the hammer. Carefully I lined up the sights at the one closest to her. Trying to control my breath, I took the shot at it’s core. 
Like the last robot, this one had a hole punched through it as it slumped to the floor. I looked back at Rimfire, she was pulling a new magazine from her bag. There were just three more gutsy’s in the room. I leveled the next shot and fired again. The bullet scraped the side of it and the robot twisted slightly. 
“Zebra scum will not be tolerated!” came the tinny voice of one of the robots. I was getting awfully tired of these things. The next shot didn’t miss and now only two remained. As I aimed for a third, a laser clipped my front leg, searing my skin. I let out a cry.
Rimfire stood up from her cover and let forth another volley of bullets, slaying the last two bots. I rolled over to my back and dropped my gun beside me. “At least I’m not losing blood,” I thought. Rimfire made her way to me and stood at my side.
“You’re a fucking idiot!” she told me sweetly. She gave a quick glance at my injury. “You need something for that or can you walk?”
I rolled over and tried to stand. The pain wasn’t that bad at all. “I can walk,” I told her. She looked at my cut and frowned. 
I took a good look around the catwalks. They mostly stayed near the edges of the room, only crossing through the middle to go near particular pieces of machinery that tall enough.There were two doors behind us.
I winced a little as I strode towards the door on the left.
“Hey,” Rimfire spoke up, “put more shells in your gun, Short. Don’t want to get caught unaware.” I pulled the gun off my back and began to slide fresh shells into the receiver. Rimfire kept a careful eye on me as a I did so. “Good,” she remarked.
I slung the gun and continued to the left. The sort of compass in my sight showed a little arrow pointing this way. The door was like any other we’d seen in this place. Sleek, grey, and made of metal. It opened as we got closer. The next room was full of filing cabinets and tables. The tables all had workstations on them. As we walked in, I noticed that the arrows hovered pointedly at one of the stations.  I walked to it quickly and booted it up. It sprung to life as if it was brand new. The main menu consisted of a few selections.
>Memos
>Mail
>Plans [Confidential]
I accessed the plans menu first. The terminal whirred on the inside as it loaded the next directory.
>Drone [Offline]
>Weapon X [Missing]
>The Iron Giant
Without hesitation I selected The Iron Giant option. The screen changed to say ‘Downloading’ and there was a small beep from my PipBuck. The terminal went back to its home screen.
“Is that it?” ask Rimfire.
I nodded to her and began to tap into the terminal’s mail directory.
“So... are we going to leave?” she asked.
I looked away from the screen. “Why would we leave?”
“Well maybe I’d like to get paid for once,” Rimfire chided me. I waved her off and kept looking at the emails. There weren’t that many, even fewer that weren’t corrupted from age. Most of the one’s still available were just business reports and testing data.
One message in particular caught my attention. Its header read ‘RE: Ministry Interference’.
Keep the projects on the down low. I know we’ve been over this, but we’re getting funding from them for a reason. Don’t fuck it up, tell them what they want to hear. 
“The more time I spend around New Pegasus, the more I feel like an idiot,” I said aloud.
Rimfire looked up from digging around the drawers of a desk. “What do you mean? You’ve always been kind of an idiot if you ask me.”
I flashed her a quick grimace and turned away from the terminal. “Well, it just feels like no one knows what really happened in Las Pegasus. Brass said there was limited Ministry activity here, you said there was more, but it seems like they were very interested in what these places were producing.”
“It was a tough time back then, Short. Nopony really knew what was happening. It’s not like anyone’s really trying to unearth the past around here either.” Rimfire moved towards me. “Why don’t we get out of here anyway? We got what we came for.”
I took a few steps back towards the door. “No, not yet. I want to see what’s a little deeper in here.”
Rimfire let out a quick cry. “Fuck! Why? You nearly died getting in this room,” she said.
I trotted to the door and opened it. The catwalks were just as we left them. Smoke was rising from the lower floor and pooling around grates in the ceiling. Rimfire followed me begrudgingly as I went to the other door. This one was different from the other, but it too had a placard on it. Two stripes of black and yellow ran up the sides of the door, almost giving off a vibe of warning. The placard read, ‘Only Authorized personnel. All others enter at risk.’ The door rose smoothly, revealing a hallway beyond.
The following corridors were strictly different in appearance. Cool, grey tiles lined the floors and the walls were a barren, white paint. The ceiling was a common concrete. The only things on the walls were either signs or security cameras that glowed a deep, menacing red. 
A voice spoke as we entered the hallway, it sounded mechanical. “Identify,” it said.
“Short Change and Rimfire,” I responded. There were a few loud beeps and squawks before the voice returned.
“Not recognized,” it said. “Leave immediately. This is your only warning.” 
Rimfire and I ignored the voice and began to walk down the hall. The long hallways echoed the sounds of our hooves hitting the tiles. If this place had ever been lively, there wasn’t a sign of it.The lights in the ceiling kept a natural light in the room. Rimfire stopped in the middle of the hallway. She looked around briefly, her ears twitching.
“You hear that?” she asked.
“No, what did you hear?”
“I guess nothing,” she admitted. She began to walk a bit faster towards the end of the hallway. \
The hallway ended in a T-junction that split to the left and right. There was a sign on the wall with two arrows to either side. To the left was ‘Specific Hardware’, to the right was ‘Robotics Testing’.
The path to the left looked just the same as the last hall did. Cool grey and white surrounded us. Ten paces down the hall and we hit the door. A big warning sign adorned the doorway, and sigh on the wall stated that safety goggles and hard hats were to be worn at all times. I disregarded the warnings and opened the doors.
The room was filled with lanes as though it had been a bowling alley. Instead of bowlers there were rusted relics of a bygone era. Husks of old machines lined the room and even a few piles of bones were scattered about. There must have been twenty lanes with targets at the end of them, like a shooting range. A few of the machines still seemed to have life in them. 
“They died in here?” I asked looking at some of the bones.
“I guess so,” Rimfire said as she began to walk towards the machines that were still powered. I joined her at one of them. This one was large and spider-like. It’s chassis was matte-black and its eyes glowed a sinister green. Where it’s mandible would be were what appeared to be laser rifles. It’s eight legs were chained to the floor. The robot’s abdomen was made of overlaid sheets of metal, giving it the look of scales. As we looked at it it jostled softly and silently. 
“What’s this?” Rimfire asked and gave the bot a quick poke with her hoof.
Her touch caused the spider-bot to try and pull out of it’s restraints, its body straining against confinement. 
“Why’d you touch it!” I yelled.The robot settled down and stood still again.
“Declare orders,” beeped the robot.
“What?” asked Short Change.
“Declare orders,” it said again.
“Fire!” Rimfire declared. The spider-bot raised its head and the tips of its ‘mandibles’ glowed red hot. Three piercing volleys came from its mouth as it shot the target at the end of the range.
Steam rose from the barrels as it stopped firing. A red light at the end of the lane turned on and a ‘bzzzzt’ accompanied it. The target at the end of the lane levitated itself to us and hung next to the spider-bot. Pictured on it was a malicious looking zebra. There were 2 burn marks on its face, three direct hits. The room was silent as we looked at the zebra, until the robot spoke again.
“Free... me...,” the spider-bot said slowly. Rimfire backed up a good distance.
“Get away from that thing, Short!” Rimfire yelled at me. I didn’t get away, I started to walk around it. Its eyes began following me.
“Free... me...”
“What are you?” I asked.
“Cy... borg...” it said. Rimfire had drawn her weapon and was aiming at the spider.
“Don’t talk to it, Short...” she said weakly.
“How did you get here?” I asked it.
“Made... chained... tested... waited...” it responded.
“So you’ve been here 200 years haven’t you?”
“Yes...” it said. Rimfire lowered her gun.
“What’s your name?”
“I am... project 1343.”
I began to look at the chains that bound it to the ground. “Okay, Thirteen, let’s see if we can’t get you free.” The chains looked stronger than any I’d seen before. I turned to Rimfire. “See if you can’t find anything to cut these,” I told her. She rolled her eyes and began to walk about the room.
I used my magic to float out my revolver and held it against one of the links in the chain. I pulled back the hammer and fired.I pulled the smoking barrel away from the chain and looked at the damage done. There was now a sizeable hole in the chain link, and with a little bit of work I was able to separate the links.
Behind me, Rimfire coughed. I looked at her and she was carrying a welding kit.
“Going to cut that bad boy out,” she said as she pushed me out of the way and put down the fuel. Grabbing the welder with her magic she held it close to the rest of the chains. After she lit it, she made quick work of freeing Thirteen.
As we pulled the last of the chains away from him he began to walk around the room. His pointed legs making distinct ‘tnks’ against the floor.
“Free... at last!” Thirteen said.
“Yes,” I agreed, “but do you think you could tell us a little more about yourself?” Thirteen stopped moving and looked almost hesitant.
“Hard to... remember,” it began. “Remember pain... then tests.... All of it so... long ago. They used to... hurt me.” I looked at Rimfire with a pleading look. She grimaced at me and let out a quick sigh.
“Thirteen, we are going to go a bit deeper in this place, do you want to come with us?” I asked it.
Thirteen stopped moving and looked at me, its cold eyes locked onto mine. “You saved me. I will go with you.” I gave the spider-bot a brief smile. Its maw did not move. 
“Where do we go from here?” Rimfire asked me.
Thirteen spoke up. “Across from here... is hardware. There you will find... Boss’ room.”
As Rimfire and Thirteen turned back to the door, I looked at the rest of the machines in the room. “Are they sentient?” 
Thirteen stopped. “No,” it said plainly.
The three of us hurried back into the hallway and made our way to Specific Hardware. Thirteen was barely able to fit inside the hallway, being easily the width of three ponies and twice as long.
Specific Hardware stood behind a door just like Robotics Testing, with a sign demanding safety precautions be taken. The room was smaller than I imagined it. The first room we saw with work benches in it had been bigger than this. One side of the room was lined with shelves holding a menagerie of spare and pristine looking electronics. The rest of the room was filled intermittently with plain white workstations with welding kits and soldering irons. On the far side of the room was a door surrounded by skeletons, each of them as though they were trying to get in. Around the door were scorch marks, and even a few of the bones had them. As we entered the room, the door slammed shut and locked itself.
“What the fuck!” Rimfire shouted and grabbed her rifle. 
“What’s going on, Thirteen?” I asked. I looked around, all the security cameras were pointed at us.
A voice came then, from the loudspeakers. It definitely wasn’t friendly. “Intruders detected. Purging process activated.” Tiles in the ceiling were pulled up and pushed to the side. Shiny, grey turrets slowly descended and began to swivel towards us. Rimfire was the first to react. She pushed me behind a table and laid her rifle on top of it. There were only four turrets, one for each corner of the room. They began to fire at us, their red-hot lasers melting the workstation we hid under.
“I’m getting real tired of robots!” Rimfire yelled over the din of laser fire.
I kept my focus on Thirteen, he was unfazed by the turrets, and they didn’t fire at him at all. An idea formed. 
“Thirteen!” I yelled. “Take out the turrets!”
Without giving any indication he heard me, Thirteen turned his head to one of the turrets and let loose a quick barrage of lasers. They melted the turret with ease, and as easily as he dispatched the first, he had taken care of the rest.
Rimfire and I ducked out from under the workstation. “Thanks, buddy!” I said to Thirteen.
He stood still for a moment. “You’re welcome... buddy.”
I led Rimfire and Thirteen to the door at the end of the room. I tried my best to keep away from the bones but my hooves knocked into a rib or two. Thirteen made no effort to avoid having his armored legs crush the bones. The dry snapping of the bones echoed through the room. I shuddered as the point of one of his legs pierced the skull of a long dead pony.
The door was as intimidating as any other in the facility. Stark metal with riveted edges, in the middle a sign that merely said “Boss”. I tried unsuccessfully to open the door.
“Let me try,” Thirteen said in his typical monotone. He stepped up in front of the door and raised himself so he stood solely on his back two legs. His front six legs he placed firmly on the door. It groaned slightly under his weight. The servos in him began to whine as he pushed into the door. The grating noise of metal on metal began to fill the air as hidden mechanisms began to grind together. With thick snaps that sounded almost deafening compared to the relative silence, the door slid open slowly. Thirteen dropped onto his eight legs. “Opened.”
“Guess we’re not going to need anymore lockpicks,” I joked to Rimfire. She frowned at me. I wiped the smile from my face and turned back to Thirteen. “Stay out here, we won’t take long.”
“I awaited freedom for so long, I can wait more.” Thirteen took a few steps back to let us through. Rimfire followed me into the opened office.
It wasn’t as extravagant as I thought it’d be. The floor was covered with a nearly worn-through, green carpet. The walls had wood paneling up about three feet, the rest would a diamond pattern wallpaper that was just starting to peel. As with most of the rooms, it had file cabinets in one corner, and a desk in the center. On the desk were a few knick-knacks and a terminal. Behind the desk, in a chair, lay a skeleton curled into a ball. 
Rimfire began to root through the file cabinets as I gingerly pushed the chair aside and turned to the terminal. It booted up rather quickly and went to writing in progress.
Fucking shit. I can’t stand it anymore. They want to be let in, they want to know what to do! I don’t fucking know. The bombs dropped today and the fucking doors locked. We can’t get out. Everyone came to my door for my fucking guidance.
Fuck fuck fuck.... I can’t stand them crying anymore. I’m turning on the security bot, no safeties, that will shut them up.
I looked up from the terminal and stared blankly out the door. “We have to get out of here,” I said to Rimfire.
She shut one of the cabinets and looked at me. “Why?” she asked, “You need nap-time?”
I let out a slow breath, “I think we should have paid attention to the security here.” The floor rumbled softly as I finished telling Rimfire. Thirteen let out a shrill note. Rimfire and I ducked out of the boss’ room and stood looking at the end of the room.
It was a tall sight, that robot. It stood on two thick legs and had a body like a tree trunk. The two arms ended in impressive weaponry, one a minigun, the other some sort of flamethrower. Its head resembled that of a Steel Ranger, but more primitive. The chrome body had all but rusted away.
“Protocol dictates that I take you outside instead of kill you. Unfortunately, my protocol was abandoned with a direct order,” it spoke.
“Are all the goddamn robots here alive?” Rimfire asked aloud.
The robot levelled its minigun at us. “Sadly,” it said as the gun began to spin up. Rimfire and I both dove for cover behind desks as bullets began to tear through the air splintering the wood they met. Thirteen stood still as bullets slammed into his armor.
“Get a move on, Thirteen,” I told the unmoving spider-bot.
Something within him came to as he began to shoot lasers at the security drone. Rimfire had been moving down the lines of workbenches and had reached the end of the room. She laid her rifle on the tabletop and began shooting in quick bursts at the security drone. I grabbed my shotgun off my back and let off a quick shot at the enemy robot. The pellets spread and lost force, only a few penetrated into the rusted carapace. 
“Don’t use the fucking shotgun, Short,” Rimfire yelled over. She was cut short as the security robot turned its fire to her. The desk and walls around her exploded into dust and flying debris as the hail of bullets hit home. The robot took steady steps towards her and lit his flamethrower, the fire was an intense blue.
I let go of my shotgun immediately, leaving it to fall on the desktop. I used my magic to grip my revolver and whipped it at the robot. My sights aimed right at the rusted head but my shot went wild, hitting the wall and throwing dust into the air.
“Fuck!” Rimfire yelled. The robot stopped moving a mere ten feet away from Rimfire. Without warning, great flames leapt out from its flamethrower. The powerful fires licked the walls and workstations. Wood and paint burned and peeled as the unrelenting heat got to them. Rimfire started screaming like I’d never heard before.
The table she was hiding behind was holding, but it wouldn’t for long. That's when it finally hit me, we weren't going to make it out of this hole alive. In an instant, memories of our time spent trekking through the wastes came flooding into my thoughts. Everything we had done had always seemed so certain, so destined for success. Sure, we may have had some close calls, but there was never any doubt that we'd pull through. This whole time I had thought of her as this constant, her being there was just as sure as Celestia's sun would shine each morning. But this was different. We'd taken too big of a risk, bitten off more than we could chew.
Rimfire was going to die. Thirteen’s lasers weren’t doing anything to the robot’s armor, and if I couldn’t do something fast, none of us were going to make it out alive.
But then something clicked, and time just seemed to slow down. I could see everything in such detail. Thirteen’s laser blasts arcing through the air, The flamethrower igniting napalm to incinerate the room, its conflagrations burning the walls and  tables as everything in front of it charred. And I could see tears stream down Rimfire’s face.
I knew what to do though, it was all in place. My aim went on autopilot as I took a shot at the head of the robot. I saw everything, the end of the barrel erupt fire and a bullet fly off straight. It’s slow rotation as it impacted the robot, catching on something and tearing open a large hole into it’s head. Servos, wires, and flashing lights were revealed underneath the metal helm as the large chunk of the front panel was torn off. Time seemed to speed up as the action caught up to me.
“Thirteen!” I yelled to the spider-bot, “shoot the head!” He heard me and he shot into the security robot’s exposed circuitry.
It stood still for a moment before the flames from its flamethrower began to dwindle and its machine gun wound down. The hole in its head was spewing smoke and sparks. The robot’s body began to shake as it fell backwards, crashing onto desks which splintered under the enormous weight.
The smoking body lay still on the wooden fragments and torn metal, its head lay with its remaining eye staring at me. I turned from the robot and rushed over to Rimfire. She looked mostly fine.
“How are you holding up?” I asked her. She looked away from me, sniffling.
“I’m fine,” she said tersely. 
I felt a sharp tap on my flank. I looked back to see Thirteen behind me. 
“It’s not dead,” he said. I pushed past the robot and walked towards the fallen security drone. Its glowing eyes had dimmed but stayed constant as I walked towards it.
“You’ve got AI, don’t you?” I asked it.
“Y-es,” it sputtered, “he and I are not different.” Every word it spoke was clear and constant, a half second pause between each.
“You mean you and Thirteen?” I asked.
“Yes,” it said, “we were both made into this.”
Thirteen stepped up next to me. “We are nothing alike. You are simply a weapon.”
The robot gave a synthetic, wheezing laugh. “So are you. Don’t you remember when they made us? They probably wiped your memory, after they saw what it did to me.”
“What are you talking about?” I asked.
“We were ponies once,” it said. “Workers here.... They killed our bodies and put our minds into machines, but I’ll be free soon. I thank you.”
“Wait, why would they do that?” I asked hurriedly.
The robot replied slower and quieter than before. “During the war... individual lives became secondary to winning.”
“I’m not like you,” Thirteen spoke up. “I’m not a slave anymore.”
“Easy for you to say, forgetting your orders does not make them go away.” The security robot’s voice was barely audible to us anymore, his eyes nearly completely black. “One day, you will remember the pain the came with your body.”
“Why didn’t anypony stop them?” I asked, though I felt I already knew the answer.
“Because nopony cared,” the robot said slowly. “If you’ll excuse me... I’m dying.” No one said anything as the humming of the robot became dimmer and dimmer, and as the light of his eyes faded to complete black.
I trotted back to Rimfire, leaving the robot’s husk behind me. She seemed to have composed herself and was stretching her hind legs lightly.
“You ready to get out of here?” I asked her.
“I thought you’d never ask,” she said tiredly.



END OF CHAPTER 4
Level up!
Guns 25
Perk Gained: PipBuck Prowess! You may have not been using it for a long time, but you sure got good at it!(Gain 40 AP for use in S.A.T.S.)
> A Town Called Goodsprings
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

CHAPTER 5: A Town Called Goodsprings
Slipper was lounging casually on the desk as we walked back into the facility’s lobby. She stared intently at a pre-war book laid out in front of her. She addressed us without looking up from the pages. Her tone was incredibly casual.
“Welcome back,” she said and flipped a page in the book.
“We got the schematic,” I told her, “And a little thing for ourselves.” Slipper looked up from her book as the sound of Thirteen’s legs scraping against the tiled floors entered the room.
“Huh...” she gaped, open mouthed at the robot.
“Yeah, this is Thirteen. We found him deep inside,” I told her. Slipper managed to shut her mouth after that. A few seconds passed and she shook her head a little. Seeming to come to her senses she reached into one of the saddlebags that laid next to the desk. From it she produced a small box with a couple of wires sticking out.
“Well isn’t that, er, interesting.” Slipper motioned for me to come closer. As I did she dropped down from the desk and pulled at the PipBuck. Before I could protest she had the small box plugged in and was messing around with the controls. 
“Hey,” I blurted out. 
She hushed me and said, “I’m getting the schematics off, relax.” I let her do her work and a minute later she had taken off the box the backed away. She turned away from us briefly and stowed the box safely in her bag. After she closed her bag, she looked back and placed a small pouch in front of us. “Here’s your one hundred caps. Thanks for your trouble.”
“Okay,” I said as I picked up the pouch of caps. “I’ve got a question about those schematics. Iron Giant doesn’t really sound like a sprite-bot.”
“Well, be that as it may, it really isn’t any of your business.”
“Hey, we almost died for that thing,” I told her, raising my voice.
“Yeah, we did,” Rimfire spoke up, her voice uneasy.
“Regardless, it really is none of your business. Now to conclude our business, I’ll lead you out.” Slipper put her bag over her back and began to walk out the door through the mine.
“Wait,” I called out to her.
She turned slowly, her smile having faded from her mouth. “What?” she asked.
“Who do you work for?”
“I work for the Kid and his gang,” Slipper said nonchalantly. She hurried to get us out of the mine. As soon as we got outside, Slipper’s posse assembled together and they left us, Slipper waving goodbye as they walked off. The mine door clattered with the wind against the frame as we stood there in the valleys, looking at the red, dusty hills.
“What do we do now?” Thirteen asked.
“Let’s work on heading up the Galloping Stretch,” I told him.
Rimfire and I began to pick our way out of the hills and back onto the road. Thirteen’s steps began tentative and slow, but eventually he was able to keep up with us.
As the hills started to thin and the Galloping Stretch came into view, Thirteen spoke up.
“Why do we go up the road?” He asked.
I turned my head back to him and cocked a slight smile. “Oh yeah, I suppose I should tell you. Rimfire and I are on our way to find a misplaced package that seems to be causing quite a stir in New Pegasus.”
“Why do you want to be a part of that?” He asked.
The concrete of the highway began a small ways ahead as I spoke back to Thirteen, the hills having finally given way to the plains of the wastes. “Well it seems like a good way to make a few caps, my friend.”
Thirteen could hardly contain a scoff. “It also sounds like a good way to die.” Thirteen stopped and stared at the wastes ahead of us as he crested the last hill, his head downcast. “So this... is what it looks like.”
“What?” Rimfire asked.
“This is my first time being outside, Rimfire, in almost 200 years.”
“What was it like?” I asked Thirteen. “Knowing what was happening outside?”
Thirteen was slow to reply to me. “At first it was terrible, after the scientists all died I was the only one left. I thought I was the only one left in the world. Eventually my mind turned inside and I forgot the outside world. Only when you came in did I wake once more.”
“That’s terrible,” I said bluntly.
“It was terrible, but I’ve had my time to mourn. Now it’s time for me to live.” The dusty highway stretched on an on towards the horizon as Rimfire, Thirteen, and I took our final steps towards the grey, concrete top. “As my memory returns, I remember how this place used to look.”
“Thirteen,” I began to speak, “what do you plan to do now?”
He didn’t speak for a while. “If I had to do something,” he said, “I’d see how the world changed. There really isn’t much out there for a robot spider.”
“What about your family? Don’t you want to know what happened to them?”
“I know what happened,” he said solemnly. “They died, and 200 years later, I’m still alive. Now I must move on.”
“But-” I started to say, Thirteen cut me off.
“What do you want to do, Rimfire? You haven’t spoken much.”
“Me?” she asked. Thirteen managed a small nod. “Well let’s see.” Rimfire’s voice was full of venom. “Short never really asked me what I wanted to do, so I’ve got to think on it. Ah, yes, I know. I’d like to just survive. Not being killed by some mangy robot or big ants or even by another pony would be peachy.”
“What the hell, Rimfire?” I asked incredulously. “You getting scared or something? You going soft on me?”
“Fuck off, Short,” she muttered.
“What’s your deal, Rimfire? Everyone’s going just fine! There’s nothing we can’t handle in these wastes!” 
Rimfire jammed a hoof into the dirt. “You stupid cunt! What the fuck is wrong with you? That security robot almost killed me!”
“There is no almost! It did or it didn’t, Rimfire.”
“You’re an ass,” she muttered barely above a whisper. RImfire put her head down and picked up a slower trot.
“I take it you two aren’t love-birds,” Thirteen commented.
I sighed. “Not so much, Thirteen.” I paced a little to catch up to him. “Why don’t you tell us what you want to do?”
“I want to see what changed,” he said flatly.
“What changed?” I asked.
“Already the land is so different from what I used to know. What happened to my home? My friends? I lived in the San Palomino my entire life. This is where I belong.”
“What was it like?” I asked. “Before the war, I mean.”
“It was pleasant. I was raised in a modest house in the Las Pegasus suburbs. You knew every pony in your neighbourhood so there was never a dull summer’s night. My parents in particular always threw excellent potlucks that everyone wanted to attend. It was one of those that I met my future wife.”
“Your wife? What was she like?”
“She was beautiful. No mare I ever met had a coat like hers. The softest, cream-colored coat unseen anywhere in Equestria. I remember the smell of her styled mane even now. Red with the tiniest hint of pink running through. It always smelled like fresh-cut flowers. Her name was Rose and I can still remember the very first time we met, at that potluck.”
“Oh yeah?” I asked.
“Yes. I was trying to get a little bit of Fortuna’s mashed potatoes and something slammed into me from behind sending me and bowl flying. After I cleaned the potatoes out of my eyes, I saw Rose standing in front of me. She yelled at me for ruining the potatoes.” Thirteen made a mechanical grating sound, almost like a chuckle.
“How about where you worked,” I asked. I was hoping to hear a bit about the ministries of old.
“You mean the factory?” He asked. “Well, Rosie and I got married near the end of high school, and college was a rush for me, but then the... Zebra incident happened. Now I can’t really say for sure who shot first, but I remember what happened after. I remember that a few months before our college graduation that the damn stripes burned down Hoofington.” One of his legs stabbed violently into the concrete, sending chips flying. “The ministries began offering huge funding and scientists to anyone who could start making weapons and the like immediately. The only ponies around here with that kind of cash was the casinos, so they began to build facilities under the desert. I think they were afraid the Zebras might attack here, and since there wasn’t a big Army base around they had to build the guns to protect themselves.”
“I heard a little about Hoofington, but never about Las Pegasus being big on development,” I told him. 
“Yes, it was kept as tight a secret as possible. All of my friends and I applied to work in the facilities. It was good money, and damn were we mad at the Zebra. Due to me getting a degree in Engineering I was hired at the Robotics Factory you rescued me from.”
“What were you working on?” I asked. I hoped he didn’t think I was prying.
“Personally I worked on making robots more mobile. All robots either used treads or some sort of jet propulsion, but those were not good when the going got rough or steep. You see these spider legs? My design.”
I went for broke. “What’s the Iron Giant?”
Thirteen stopped in his tracks. “That was never my department. I don’t know anything.” His reply had a frantic quality to it. After a few seconds of stillness he began to walk again. “I’m sorry, but I don’t know anything about that.”
“That’s fine, Thirteen,” I consoled him. “Just one more question. How did you become a robot?”
Thirteens’ head drooped as he thought the question over. “Yes, I do remember that day clearly. I had just come in and grabbed a cup of coffee when my supervisors and a few ministry agents came in. One from Morale and I think one from Wartime Tech. They asked me if I was ready to serve my country. What could I say but yes?” Thirteens voice began to pick up a rasping, wavering quality. “And then they took me along to a room with a tub of some strange liquid and told me to get in, and not to ask questions. I asked what would happen if I backed down and they said that wasn’t an option anymore. So I had no choice but to get in the strange tub and then they began to hook me up with wires tubes. After that is kind of a blur, just pain and darkness, and then nothing. I woke up sometime later and was forced to obey, to become a weapon.”
“I’m sorry to hear that,” I told him truthfully.
The sun was fading into the horizon as we walked north along the Galloping Stretch. The sky in to our side picked up a hue of reds and oranges and the sun set. It had been hours since we’d left the hills and the facility behind. Rimfire had been unusually silent and sulking.
“It’s getting late, we should find somewhere to rest,” I said to the others.
“But where?” Thirteen asked. I rubbed my chin a little and tried to remember any maps of the area I might have seen.
None coming to mind, I shrugged and turned to our robot companion, "Don't you remember any towns from before the war?" Thirteen strode to the side of the road and stuck one of his claws into the dirt. He carefully drew what looked like a crude map into the dirt. Over a pair of inverted V’s he pointed.
“Here’s where we started, the Colt Mines, and up here,” he pointed towards a few squares he’d drawn, “was a small town. It was called Goodsprings. I took my family there once.”
“Is it far?” I asked. “We don’t want to be out here so late.”
“Should be... another mile? My memory of geography isn’t what it used to be.” I nodded and looked at Rimfire. Her gaze was off and distant. I gave her a quick little nudge. Her eyes widened and she shook her head a little.
“What do you want?” She barked.
“We’re going to Goodsprings,” I told her.
“Fine,” she said.
It didn’t take long at all to start seeing the buildings of Goodsprings off in the distance, they stood in defiance to the flat plains of the San Palomino. Fires had been lit around the small town, and a few ponies could be seen walking between the buildings.
As we got closer, we could see time had not been kind to the town. Buildings that hadn't already been reduced to rubble were riddled with bullet holes. The ponies that walked around were lightly armed, if at all. Two ponies were waiting for us around the ring of bonfires. We stopped ten paces away from them. One of them was an older stallion, his face hidden behind long white hair and a thick beard that nearly touched the ground below him. The other was a middle-aged, earth pony mare who had a hunting rifle in a battle saddle. She waved a few strands of hair from her once vibrant mane from her face. Both of them eyed Thirteen warily. 
“What’s your business in Goodsprings, strangers?” The older stallion asked.
“Looking for a place for the night,” I told him. “Got anywhere we can stay?”
He and the mare looked at each other quickly. His gaze slowly returned to us. “I’m afraid you won’t want to be here long, stranger. We’ve got bad news coming our way.”
I cocked my head. “What do you mean?”
“Oh, nothing,” the mare said, shooting the stallion a warning glance. “And yes, we’ve got room for travellers like you, food too.” 
“Yes,” the stallion amended. “Please, follow us.” The stallion and mare led us into the ruined town. Ponies gave us a moderate berth as we walked by, not even looking in our direction. Soon enough we found ourselves around a campfire and the stallion was giving us cans of pre-war food.
“I never got your names,” I mentioned as I peeled open the can of beans.
“Oh, I’m Peach Fuzz, and this is my daughter, Apricot.” The mare dipped her head lightly.
“Pleasure to meet you both,” I said. “I’m Short Change, that’s Rimfire, and the robot is Thirteen.” 
Rimfire was eating with her head down and she was turned away from the fire. Peach leaned close and whispered to me.
“Something wrong with your friend?” He asked. I shook my head.
“She’s just tired, I think,” I told him in a whisper as well. He leaned back and resumed eating. “You fellows don’t seem to have much arms around here,” I said aloud.
“You’re right, and it’s no end of problem,” Peach said with a sigh.
“Dad!” Apricot admonished him.
“You have problems here?” Thirteen asked. He was standing between Rimfire and I, a can of food sat in front of him. He was looking at it with what looked almost like longing.
“Oh, we have fair share, same as anyone ‘round these parts,” Peach said.
“What kind of problems?” I asked.
“Raider trouble,” Apricot said. “They just won’t leave us alone.”
“We could help you with that,” I offered up. Rimfire got to her hooves and began to trot away. I got up to follow her, leaving the others by the fire. As I followed her she ran faster and faster the closer I got.
“Rimfire, what are you doing?” I yelled after her. She stopped in her tracks, and I was able to trot up to her. “What’s wrong with you?” We had reached the ring of bonfires that surrounded the small town.
Rimfire turned to me, her face full of disgust. “What’s wrong with me?” she asked. “What’s wrong with me? Well shit, Short, maybe I just don’t want to die for some strangers.”
“What?” I asked dumbfounded.
She stared at me, mouth agape for a few seconds before she spoke. “Are you that dense? Whenever something like this happens you nearly get us killed! You volunteer us for the dangerous shit.”
“What? Danger is a part of life in the wastes, Rimfire.”
“Don’t you fucking tell me that, Short,” she snapped. “Don’t you fucking dare.” She had advanced to me and had her hoof at my throat. “I was born and raised here, I know danger! You lived in a cushy fucking stable, you bitch. Do you even think about anyone but yourself?”
“Of course I do! I want to help ponies when I can,” I explained.
“Oh come on!” 
“Are you that selfish you wouldn’t help others?” I asked her. I turned to walk back into the town. A sudden weight crashed into my back sending my tumbling forward. The same force rolled me onto my back. Rimfire was glaring at me, death in her eyes.
“You think this is a game, Short? Is that right?” She was yelling at me, flecks of spit fell on my face. I could feel my chest tighten reflexively. “You think the good guy always wins? The day is saved?” She whipped one of her forelegs across my face. “You’re a real dumb piece of shit, Short.”
Her horn began to glow and I felt cold metal on the side of my head.
“Don’t do it, Rimfire. Knock it off.” I heard the hammer of my gun cock back. Rimfire’s body was trembling.
“There’s no reason in the entire world why I shouldn’t put a bullet in your head,” she said softly. “Not a single one.”
“Do you really want to kill me?” I asked.
“I want to live,” she said flatly.
For a minute she stood over me, holding my revolver against my head. Both of us staring into each other’s eyes. Without warning the dropped the gun to the ground beside me and walked off me.
“I’m not going with you, Short. Give me my caps. I don’t want to deal with this shit anymore,” she said finally. Using my magic I reached into my saddlebag and grabbed the half of the caps and tossed them in front of her. Then I picked up my gun and put it in its holster. Rimfire had grabbed the caps and was placing it in her bags.
“I hope you’re happy,” I told her.
“Not likely,” she said finally and turned. I turned back and walked back to Thirteen.
Only Thirteen was left around the fire when I got back. He had opened his tin of beans and had spilled the contents on the dirt in front of him. I laid my things down across from him.
“Rimfire not coming back?” he asked. I shook my head. Using my magic I unrolled my sleeping bag and began to crawl inside of it. I wanted nothing more than to go to sleep and forget Rimfire.
“Don’t think so,” I said gruffly.
“Peach and Apricot will be back in the morning to tell you the whole story,” he said. “They said to have a good night.” 
I laid out by the dying fire and stared up the stars. It felt like the entire world was resting on my shoulders. I closed my eyes not expecting sleep to come, but it crashed around me and I fell into a deep slumber.

My first experience in the morning was a hoof shaking my shoulder. I opened my eyes to see Apricot’s frowning face staring into mine. The sunlight behind her was burning my eyes and I shut them quickly. Apricot gave me another shake.
“Get up,” she said. “They’ll be here soon!” I slowly opened my eyes again to see that Apricot had backed off a little and was standing next to Thirteen. He was still standing next to the toppled can of beans. I rolled myself on to my hooves and stood up, stretching my legs and back.
“Who’ll be here soon?” I asked her.
“The slavers,” she said with a worried tone.
“Yes, Short. The slavers.” Peach trotted up from behind me. “You offered to... help us.”
“I sure did and I intend to stick by that,” I told the stallion. “Tell me a little about them.”
“They’re some gang of rough ponies that started coming around last week,” Peach said. “They said if we didn’t give them what they wanted, they enslave or kill us all. We couldn’t even come close to pleasing them. Today’s the day that they’re coming to finish it off. Their leader goes by the name Blood. They’ll be here any minute.” Peach pointed back towards the Highway and we could see a rising cloud of dust not too far away.
“I’ll meet them at the outskirts of town. I’m going to take care of this. Thirteen, stay back to cover me if things turn sour, okay?” I asked. Thirteen gave a curt nod. I slung my shotgun over my back and hung my revolver around my waist. Peach and Apricot gave me tear-stricken looks as I walked out of town. As I passed the ponies who lived in the small town, each of them had desperate looks in their eyes, holding whatever guns they had close.
By the time I had reached the extinguished ring of fire, the slavers were only seconds away. They slowed as they saw me, and I held my ground. All of them stood in a ‘v’ behind the burly mare with a muddy brown mane and blood-shot eyes.
“The fuck is this?” she asked. Her voice was dry and cracking.
“You can’t hurt this town,” I told her.
“Yer’ a damn loony,” she said with a small laugh. Her laugh sent her chest into convulsions.
“You must be Blood.”
“Damn right I am, and I’m going to take this town one way or the other.”
“Why?” I asked.
“Because that’s the way things work, shithead.” The ponies behind her looked a little uneasy as Blood continued to talk to me.
“But it doesn’t have to be like that, we could be better,” I told her.
Blood gave a quick grumble. “Could we?” she asked.
I gave her a little smile. “Yeah, we could.”
“You know, I’ve never really thought about that,” she said. She motioned for one of the stallions behind her to come up closer. I tensed my muscles ready for an attack, but it didn’t come. When the stallion got near she put a foreleg around his neck. “Did you hear that, Barley? We don’t have to be bad ponies anymore. We can be nice. What do you think about that?”
“I think it sounds... interesting,” he said quickly, unsure of what to think.
“Yeah, it’s interesting all right.” She took herself off him. “However, that’s not quite what we do. We aren’t good ponies.”
“You could try,” I suggested.
“You could try this,” she said. “Barley, take him out.” Barley used his mouth to grip a bat he had tied across his back and brought it forward. Before I could even reach for my gun he was swinging it against my skull. The bat connected with a solid thwump that sent me tumbling head over hooves. 
I couldn’t move my body an inch as pain flared through every nerve in me.
“Holy shit, Barley. I think you killed ‘im,” I heard Blood say, her voice was quiet to the sound of blood rushing to my ears. “Well, time to kill.” I felt the world go dark.

The sun was setting when I regained consciousness. I sat up and noticed that there was no weight on my back. They’d take my shotgun. Luckily enough they hadn’t seen my revolver or gone through my bags with any real effort as I still had most of my things and caps. I looked back to the town, it was silent.
I stood up shaking, nothing felt quite right yet. Careful to avoid tripping, I started towards the small town. As I passed through the houses and rubble, there were no ponies left alive. Dead bodies were strewn about. Heads, legs, and horns lay in separate piles from their bodies. No place in town was safe from carnage, no pony either. Not even the foals. A few of the ponies had been burned at the stake, the charred bodies still hanging on wooden posts. 
I saw Peach’s and Apricot’s bodies in an embrace, bullet holes in both of their heads. But that wasn’t the end. As I reached further into the town, I saw a familiar friend laying on the ground, his body destroyed. 
Thirteen had seen some fighting from the slavers. Two of his legs had been broken off. His pinecone like abdomen had seemed to explode and the edges had curled over itself like a ruptured gun barrel. As I got closer, his remaining legs began to slightly sway, as if clawing at the sky.
“Thirteen?” I asked.
“S-short,” he sputtered.
“I’m so sorry,” I said.
“I’m scared, Short,” he said right back to me.”I don’t want to die... not y-yet.” And that’s when it hit me, I’d killed Thirteen, and all the ponies here. It was all me. And I would have killed Rimfire too if I hadn’t pushed her away.
“No, I can get help,” I said, my eyes starting to let tears run down my cheeks. “You’re going to be fine.”
“No... I’m d-dying here... now.” His voice was barely above a whisper. “I...”
“Thirteen, you just have to hold on, okay?” I was kneeling right next to him, my hooves on his chest. “Thirteen?” His metallic legs no longer clawed the air, his eyes had gone dim.
I’d caused the last thing that cared for me to die.



END OF CHAPTER 5
No level gained

> A Fistful of Caps
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Chapter 6: A Fistful of Caps
How can I live, I thought to myself. In one day I’d gotten rid of the only two ponies I’d been able to call friends. Though I’d only met one of them recently, it felt like I’d known him my whole life. I had buried Thirteen’s body as best as I could, covering him with rubble that formed a small tomb and I said a few words after I was done.
The sun set and rose above me. How many times it did so I didn’t count. I didn’t care. I deserved to die here like everyone else. A few times I’d felt the barrel of a gun on my temple, as if Rimfire was there once more. I always wondered if she’d pull the trigger this time or the next. Yet she never was, and the hammer never dropped.
My throat cracked and burned with every breath and jostle of my body. I hadn’t had a sip of water for a long time, or a bite to eat. My entire being was wracked with pain.I didn’t even have the strength to get off my back anymore.The sun had left my skin burned and it was a struggle to even make myself move. 
“Why even bother?” I asked the world. I could feel the warm blood in the back of my throat as I spoke, the flesh having finally broken. “I’m not worth it.”
I had closed my eyes waiting for death to take me when I heard a small beeping from my side. I opened my eyes and looked at my forehooves. My PipBuck was lit up and emitting beeps every couple of seconds. Slowly I raised it and hit it back into the ground trying to silence it.
“That’s not going to work, you pile of shit,” I heard from somewhere to my side. I turned my head to see a dozen NER rangers and Tin at the lead. She looked mad and had the fires of tartarus in her eyes. Tin strode up and loomed over me. “Are you going to get up, or do we have to shoot you a few times?”
“Shoot me,” I told her. “Though I’m probably not worth the bullets.”
Tin scoffed. “Oh Celestia. Did the wasteland finally get to you? Did you try to have your way with that mare and get your dick kicked?” Tin took her eyes off me and looked around the town and frowned. Turning back to me she said, “Alright, princess. Nap times over. Get the fuck up.”
“I don’t even think I could if I wanted to,” I said. I coughed a little, blood started to drip from my mouth for emphasis.
“Get a medic over here,” she called back the rangers. One of the rangers with a red cross on her uniform bounded up and saluted Tin. “Patch the prisoner up,” Tin demanded. The medic saluted again and began to pick through her bags. Tin walked back to the rest of the rangers and began to talk to them. Frequently her eyes darted back to me, as if daring me to try to escape.
The medic had pulled a good sized pile of supplies out of her bag before she began to examine me. I got a good look at her as she prodded my chest, stomach and face. She had pale blue eyes that matched her coat. Her mane was a darker blue.
“Open,” she said, pointing at my mouth. I opened my mouth and she put her face close to mine as she examined my throat. She reeled back as soon as she was done, picked up a healing potion and started to pour it down my throat. I coughed and sputtered as the sweet taste of the potion mixed with the iron taste of the blood.
Somehow I managed to swallow the terrible mixture. “Don’t you have a stimpak?” I asked the medic.
“Not for prisoners,” she scoffed. She grabbed another healing potion and tipped it into my mouth. The last one had healed the wounds of my throat enough that the taste of iron was mostly gone from this one. It was almost pleasant to taste. I felt something pierce my hide. I looked to see the medic holding some kind of bag connected to an IV. The IV had been stuck through right near my cutie mark.
She saw my look of confusion and said, “IV for saline. You’re nearly dead of dehydration.”
I laid my head back on the ground and let her do her thing. I was beginning to feel about as well as I could in light of the situation. 
“Why weren’t you there for him?” I asked the medic. 
“What?” she asked.
“Thirteen. He needed you more than me.”
“Boy, I don’t what you’re on about,” she said. She went back to monitoring the IV. For what reason I don’t know. After a couple of minutes of silence, the medic handed me what looked like a candy bar. I was too weak to use magic so I cradled it in on a hoof. “It’s a nutrition bar. Eat it.”
I tore off the tip of the wrapper with my teeth and began to eat the bar. It had a gritty texture but didn’t taste bad at all. Soon I found that I had devoured the whole thing and was looking for more. The medic shook her head at me.
“How’s he looking?” Tin asked from behind me. She must have crept up without me noticing. Not that I was in a state to do such a thing.
“He’s doing fine, should be up within the hour,” she said.
“Good. You’re dismissed, Mint.” The medic, Mint, saluted and walked back to the rest of rangers.
“Listen up, maggot,” Tin said, turning to face me. Again she loomed over me. Her expression was still of distaste, but not quite as angry as before. “I know you don’t like me, and I don’t like you at all.”
“How did you find me?” I asked.
“I don’t recall saying you could ask questions,” she snapped. “Now, seeing as you know about the key I’m going to keep this brief. You bring us to the key, we don’t kill you. Simple as that.”
“Sorry to say I don’t know anything about a key, much less how to find it,” I told her. She did not look pleased.
“I did not march myself across this damn desert to have you lie to my fucking face you worthless scum.” She picked me up by the front of my armor. “You will tell me where the key is or I will spread you across this town.” 
“I’d help you if I could,” I explained, “But I can’t. I’m sorry.”  Tin threw me back down and jammed her forehooves onto my chest. I let out a small cry of pain.
“Listen,” she said, pulling her head in close to mine. “If you don’t tell us where the key is, so help me Celestia I will cram a megaspell up your ass.”
I tried to push her off. “I swear, I don’t know!” I yelled at her. As my hoof went close to her body, she moved faster than I could react to. She pinned my leg down and began pushing harder with every second.
“You don’t know?” she asked. “That’s real fucking funny, Short. Really goddamn hilarious if you ask me.” She pressed harder into my leg. “I’m asking you, no, I’m telling you. You will tell me where the key is, or I will kill you and every shitty little pony you ever met.”
“I can’t-” I began to say, but I never finished that sentence. Tin had an expression of devilish glee as she began to press harder and harder into my leg. I began to scream as I could feel the bone beginning to give way.
“You need to find us that key, Short!” Tin yelled, a terrible smile on her face. As soon as she finished, my PipBuck let out a shrill beep. The small compass came to my eye, a hashmark located in the Northeast.
“I’ll take you to it!” I shouted through the pain. Tin flashed a small frown.
“Excellent,” she said, but it sounded like she wanted to crush my bones some more. “Stand up,” she said.
I winced as I rolled off my back and my weight shifted to my legs. My right foreleg, the one she’d been hurting, trembled as I lifted myself off the ground. I winced involuntarily as she gave a quick jab to my wounded leg.
“We move out in 10 minutes,” she said. “Welcome to the NER, recruit.” She turned and started to head back to the rest of the soldiers. I hobbled after her.
“Wait!” I said. “What does that mean?”
Without turning around she said, “I was given certain liberties when I took off from base. Namely using any means to get you to help us. I also just enlisted you into the fold.”
I stopped running after her. She went on to mingle with the soldiers and give out orders. I felt cold and hot at the same time. ‘How could she force me to join the army?’ I thought, ‘I could be killed!’ But another thought struck me. This was the same thing I’d done to Rimfire and Thirteen.
“Karma’s a bitch,” I muttered. Then again, it wasn’t a bitch, being that I deserved what I’d gotten.
“Form up!” Tin yelled. Her twelve soldiers formed a small four by three group of ponies. She glared at me. “Recruit, are we having a problem?”
“No, I,” began but she cut me off.
“The last things out of your mouth will be ma’am until further notice!” she screamed.
“Yes, ma’am!” I quipped.
She gave a small, sneering smile. “Good. Now get in line, recruit.” I hobbled over to the block of soldiers. Most of them were a good six inches taller than me, even the mares. There were seven mares and five stallions; only 4 of the ponies were unicorns. The unicorns had both assault rifles and a pistol. The earth ponies had their rifles on battle saddles and no pistols.Tin had two assault rifles on each side of her in a battle saddle. Both had silencers and red lasers on them.
“Okay, ladies,” Tin commanded. “We’re going to move out North along the highway. Our current target is, as of yet, unknown. Short, Ballast, and I will take front. Everyone else decide on the road. Move out!” 
The rest of the soldiers gave a loud call and began to move forward. Tin appeared at the front of the pack and beckoned me forward. I trotted as fast as I could towards her. My leg was doing better but it still wasn’t great. It gave me a jolt to set too much weight on it. As I got nearer to the front I saw Tin walking next to a muscular, yet slight, stallion. He was levitating his rifle lazily to the side. On his back he carried a what looked like quite an arsenal of heavy weapons.
“Short,” Tin said coolly, “This is Ballast, second in command. In the event that I cannot give orders this fine stallion will be your go-to commander. You got that?”
I nodded.
“What?” she asked, her voice rising.
“Yes ma’am,” I said.
She narrowed her eyes and glared at me. “Good.” She turned back to the road. “Which way now, recruit?” She asked, but it sounded like more of a demand.
I turned my head, looking carefully at the compass in my eyes. “Northeast from here, Ma’am,” I told her.
“We’ll travel on the highway until the key is to our east,” she said.
The pace was arduous and soon had me panting a little in the heat. For the first few miles no one talked or did anything besides keep up the fast trot. Tin kept throwing terrible glances with small smirks at me. Around the time the marker on the compass began to twist a little more to the east, she turned her head back to me.
“You know what the NER does to traitors, Short?” she asked with a snotty voice. I kept silent and that made her sneer a little. “They might torture you for a bit, make sure you didn’t tell anyone anything important. Of course, some ponies think that even where we keep the coffee cups is important. So that step can take a long time.” I didn’t reply to her.
“What’s the deal, Sarge?” asked Ballast. His voice was like two slabs of granite rubbing together.
“Short is our prisoner,” she said succinctly. 
“Huh,” Ballast muttered.
“That’s right Ballast. Short here is an important prisoner.” She knocked into my shoulder. “How’s it looking now?”
I looked at the compass. The marker was now all the way to the right. “Now we go to the East,” I said. Tin shouted to the rest of the group and we began to march East, away from the road. As we had travelled further north, the terrain had become less of a desert. Grass began to grow in tiny, thin patches and the air had become cooler. The sky that had been clear was now starting to fill with clouds. Only a few miles in either direction until the entire sky was filled with clouds. Off in the distance was a range of tall mountains, all of them tipped with white. Many of the towering peaks rose above the clouds.
I’d never been particularly good at geography, but the few books I’d grown up around had given me a fair enough knowledge of how things used to look. Most of the maps that I had been able to find covered only the area around Ponyville and Canterlot. Luckily there’d yet to be a time where I’d been lost for any longer than a day or two.
Tin and Ballast stopped short, I halted and looked forward. In front of us lay an ever expanding canyon, a forty foot drop to the closest ground. A stones throw away from the edge began a thick swath of trees that filled almost the entirety of the canyon. Tin turned back to the rest of the group.
“Need rope!” she yelled.
“Why?” I asked.
Tin could do all but contain her mockery. “Because we’re going down there.” As she said that, two ponies, a stallion and mare, trotted up to her. Both of them dropped coils of rope on the ground. From one of their many pockets they produced long, metal rods which they jammed into the earth. Next they tied one end of the ropes to the protruding pieces of metal and threw the rest of the coils over the side of the canyon.
“Move soldiers! Get down there!” Tin ordered. In groups of two, every pony went down to the canyon floor. After a few moments, only Ballast, Tin, and I were left on the ledge. Tin pushed me towards the ropes and I walked the short distance to the edge. I placed my rump on the edge and used my magic to pull the rope to me. Holding it between my hooves with all my strength I slid forward.
The rope burned the exposed fur and skin of my inner thighs and forearms, but the ground rose quickly to meet my tensed legs. Pain jolted up my back legs and into my hips. I let go of the rope and flopped down onto my back. Some of the dry, dusty sand flew around me in a small cloud. My eyes winced as the sand stung them. It didn’t take more than ten seconds for a pair of hooves to knock into my side. I looked up, squinting my eyes against the sun. Ballast was offering his hoof out to help me up. Out of the corner of my eye I saw Tin glaring at him. He didn’t seem to mind. I took his hoof and stood up.
A few of the soldiers has their guns out or were pointing their battle saddles at the tree line. My compass only showed one or two red lines near the arrow . The arrow was directly ahead of us.
“How much further?” Tin asked me.
“It’s not too far,” I told her. She grunted and turned to the forest.
“Let’s move!” she bellowed. Tin, Ballast, and I took the lead again as we moved into the forest.
Never in my life had I seen so much greenery around me. Tall, brown trees with thick trunks. Huge, branching limbs covered most of the sky and leaves choked the air. Vines dangled down from branches. Across the forest floor were large roots that protruded from the ground and fallen leaves littered in between.
As we walked, a few red dots appeared and disappeared on the compass. I used my magic and tightened a telekinetic grip on my revolver. Just feeling it’s now familiar weight comforted me. Throughout the forest a peculiar fact struck me. It was mostly silent. The only real sounds were the rustling of the leaves in the wind and noises that we made.
“This seems like a ton of shit,” Tin growled, her eyes glaring at me.
“I’m not so sure,” Ballast said. “I think Short’s telling the truth.”
“Oh,” she snapped. “Are you his boyfriend now?”
“No, I just think he doesn’t have a real good reason for lying.”
Tin turned and spit off to the side. “Whatever,” she said. Ballast looked at me discreetly, his eyes seemingly downcast. I looked ahead, the arrow pointed dead ahead. On a whim I looked down at my PipBuck and scrolled through the menus. Eventually I found the map. The arrow wasn’t even an inch ahead.
“We’re almost there,” I said.
Thee loud shots rang out behind me. I looked back to see a single mare pointed towards the forest off to our side. She was braced for combat with her battle saddle trigger held firmly in her mouth. Her barrel was still smoking as she scanned the brush.
“Hold your fire!” Tin yelled.
“What’s the meaning of this, Private?” Ballast shouted to the mare.
“I-I saw something, sir!” she quickly responded.
“What did you see?” Tin demanded. The rest of the soldiers were looking through the trees. Ballast was looking upwards.
“The trees aren’t moving,” he said.
“What?” Tin asked incredulously.
“The wind’s not moving the trees anymore.”
I used my magic to feel the butt of my gun. I shifted my gaze along the bushes, trying to see anything that might have been moving. Something did catch my eye though. We were surrounded in a sea of red points on the compass. Every pony had their eyes and guns scanning around us.
“Let’s mo-” Tin barked, but she was cut short.Two shots came from behind us. I turned to see the same mare from before staring shakingly into the trees. Without explaining she began shooting her entire magazine into the forest. Joining in on her panic the two ponies on her sides began shooting into the trees as well. Soon the entire squad save Tin and Ballast has emptied their guns. Tin was seething.
“If that’s enough!” she screamed. 
One of the stallions let out a shrill scream as he was thrown up into the air. A vine was tangled around his leg and carrying him higher and higher into the trees. Ponies were scrambling to reload their guns. One of the bushes unrooted itself from the ground and latched onto one of the mares. It’s tendrils digging into her hide. Blood was already seeping down onto the dirt. Roots of other plants were spreading to the small pools.
“Move!” Ballast yelled to me and he and Tin started to shoot at whatever plants began to attack. I moved at a run to the arrow on my compass. As I ran through the trees, vines lashed at my legs but were never quite able to latch on. I heard automatic gunfire behind me and the screams of ponies, but I didn’t look back. 
The trees started to get thicker and thicker until the world rose around me. My hooves scrambled for a place to grip on the walls. The roots and dirt gave way to my grabbings. I landed on my back amongst on some hard surface. I looked up to see that the hole I fell through must have been twenty feet up. My back was killing me as I surveyed my current situation. I was in the familiar setting of Stable-Tec decor. My fall had been broken by a large mound of dirt and leaves that had accumulated on the floor. I got onto my legs and the my back sent waves of pain all over my body, blinding me momentarily. I used my magic to to rustle through my saddlebags for something to dull the pain. Pulling out the first thing that felt right I saw that I’d grabbed a dose of med-x. I took off the cap and stuck it into my thigh. Almost instantly I could feel the pain fade away. 
The were two small yelps above me and then a crunch behind me. I looked behind to see Tin and Ballast lying on the same dirt pile behind me. Tin had gashes along her coat and legs. Ballast was worse off. His left hind leg had one of its bones sticking through his skin. 
“Fuck me,” Ballast cursed. Tin leapt off his body and began to search through her bags for something. Ballast continued to curse at his leg.
“Where’s everyone else?” I asked.
“There is no one else,” Tin grunted as she took a healing potion and gave it to Ballast. “Drink when I say.” Tin put a hoof on Ballasts bone and leg. “Now,” she said as she pushed the two together. Ballast let out a gargling grunt as he poured the red potion down his throat. Tin stepped back from him as he dropped the bottle to the side, the glass shattered on the ground.
“No one else?” I asked. Tin was watching as Ballast got to his feet.
“Nope,” she said. Tin reloaded her guns and Ballast checked his battle saddles. He appeared to have lost his rifle above ground.
“What made that hole?” I asked.
Tin looked up at the hole. “It must have been cut,” she noted. “Probably with a plasma cutter or something.”
“You got a weapon?” Ballast asked, eyeing me warily. I levitated my revolver out and checked that it was loaded. It was.
“Where to, Short?” Tin asked.
“Not sure,” I said truthfully. My PipBuck compass had been acting on the fritz since I’d landed. “Let’s just find our way out of here.”
“First you tell us where the hell we are,” Tin demanded.
“I’m pretty sure this is a Stable,” I said, “Looks like all the Stables I’ve ever seen.”
“Well how about that,” she said. “Now why don’t you tell us what the fuck happened up there?”
“I don’t know,” I told her.
“Bullshit!” she yelled. “You put that thing here, you must have known about that 
plants.”
“They- those things weren't there before.” 
Tin turned her guns towards me. “You stole from the NER, hid precious cargo from the NER, and then you lead my soldiers to their graves. Do you really expect think I’m that retarded?”
“I didn’t know those things were there!” I stammered back to her.
“Tin, killing him won’t bring anyone back,” Ballast spoke up, coming to my defense.
“I know,” she said, “But it’d make me feel a lot better.”
“Just let him be, for now. I don’t know about you, but I don’t want to be stuck down here forever. I figure you can kill him when we get out,” Ballast told her. “If you still want to,” he added.
I began to search the room. It looked like this was some sort of bedroom in 
the dormitory section of a Stable. It was a ten by ten room with two beds, two 
desks, and two cabinets. A small table was in the center of the room next to the
dirt pile. The only light came from the hole in the roof. On the other side of the table was a door. I trotted over to it and tried it. It slid open with ease. Beyond the door frame was a dirty looking hallway with vines that grew on the walls and ceilings. The floor was uneven and water dripped every so often forming small puddles. There appeared to be no working lights as the hallway was pitch black not too far from the doorway. Ballast hobbled to where I stood and glanced down the hall. He reached into his bag and pulled out a small flashlight and some tape.
“Use this on your gun,” he said. I nodded and took both objects. I laid the flashlight along the barrel of my revolver and wrapped them both in tape. I flicked the switch and bright light flared forth from the tip. I waved the gun down the hall. The left side of the hall continued down normally for approximately twenty feet before meeting in a four way intersection. The right side ended in a dead end. I started out the door when Tin pulled me back.
“I’ll take the front,” she hissed at me. Tin strode out into the hall with her guns aimed high. “Shoot anything that moves.”
It didn’t take long to reach the intersection, and after that we were at a loss. I told them that straight seemed to be the likely way to find the key. Neither of them had any argument to that decision and we went straight. We passed doors on each side, only a few would open. The ones that did led into bedrooms like the one we’d fallen into. Soon enough we did reach a stairwell that lead downwards. The stairs were made of a solid-grey concrete with black, metal safety rails. The walls were made of the same metal plating as the rest of the place. I saw a light switch on the wall next to the door and flicked it with a glimmer of hope. Above us the light illuminated the stairs for just a moment before shattering, sending fragments of glass raining onto us. Something below us let out a low grumble.
“That doesn’t sound too good,” Ballast said.
“Got any spare mags, Ballast?” Tin asked. “I used most of mine topside.”
“Sorry, Ma’am. I’ve only got two for my rifle and hopefully just enough for the rest of my guns.” With a sigh, Tin turned on me.
“Do you have any 5.56 rounds?” she asked.
“Let me check,” I said. I took off my saddlebags and began to look through them.
“What the fuck are you doing?” she asked. “Why aren’t you using the PipBuck?”
“What?” I asked.
She scoffed at me. “You stole it and you don’t even know how to use it. Hell, when we were taking them out of the stable, some ponies were trying to stop us, of course we couldn’t allow that, so we killed them. But while they were dying, they told us just what these things are capable of.”
“Like what?” I asked. Surely this thing wasn’t much more than a bauble. Although it might explain what had happened back when we had fought that security robot. I did my best to quickly bury that memory, the thoughts of Thirteen and Rimfire still hurt. But why shouldn’t they? 
“They have this thing called ‘Eyes Forward Sparkle’. It makes some sort of compass that tracks friendlies and enemies. They also said it had ‘S.A.T.S.’, which helps you shoot straighter. It also manages your inventory so you can see what you have in your bags.”
I let my bags fall on the floor and raised my PipBuck. So far I’d only really used the status and map menus and had yet to explore much further. As I quickly found the inventory I felt like quite the fool. Under the ammo header, I saw that only had 10 5.56 rounds. I opened the flap of one of my bags and I saw the ten rounds arranged in a neat little pile on top.
“How about that,” I muttered softly. I enveloped the rounds in a small magical field and levitated them towards Tin. She was holding a nearly empty magazine in one hoof and was shepherding the rounds inside. Tin grimaced as she slide the magazine into one of the pockets on her armor. 
“Let’s get moving. We’ll find the key and get out asap,” Tin said. “Ballast first this time, I want you to keep an eye out and be ready to hit it with whatever you’ve got.” Ballast nodded and started down the stairs. Tin turned to me as Ballast descended. “Thanks, Short.”
I followed Ballast and TIn took the rear. Our hooves caused echoes that never seemed to die down. When we reached the next level, a sign on the wall showed a ‘7’ in bold type. Across the small landing was a door that had been jammed open by roots.
“Seven?” Ballast asked. 
“Yup, so what do you say? Out or down?” I asked.	
“Short, I think I figured out your game,” Tin said.
“What?” I asked.
“You don’t really know where the key is, do you?”
I looked at the floor between my hooves. “Not really,” I admitted.
“Can’t say I’m surprised,” she said.
“And you don’t seem to hostile towards Short anymore,” Ballast said.
“I think I’ve seen too many good ponies die today to waste energy on being cruel.”
“I’m sorry,” I started to say, but Tin stopped me.
“Don’t,” was all she said. She took a deep breath before talking again. “The roots get thicker as we descend. I can only assume something hellish is down there. I just want to find the key, get back to base, and give my report. From what I know, whatever took the key was vicious, brutal... terrible. We go down.”
Ballast and I nodded and once again we set out down the stairs. We passed six floors before we reached the bottom. The floor was solid with roots and puddles. Bones poked through the leaves and vines intermittently. There was an additional sign in addition to the floor marker on this level. It read ‘Botanical Research’. Ballast went first with Tin and I taking up the rear as we went forward through the only door. Plants were growing on every surface this far down. Without much warning, an arrow appeared once more on my compass. 
“It’s right ahead,” I said. Tin and Ballast nodded as we walked forward. The hallway we were in wasn’t as long as most, but it ended seemingly abruptly and exited into a large dome. The floor looked to made entirely of dirt and was strangely devoid of plants. There were doors every couple of feet around the entire room. The room must have been over a hundred feet across and I couldn’t even guess how tall it was.
“It should be in the center,” I said after I checked my PipBuck. The map put the arrow in the dead center of the room. Ballast spit on the ground and took a step forward.
“Well I guess we could dig,” he said. He had only taken a few steps into the room before the ground began to shake. From the center of the room, vines began to erupt from the ground and twist and writhe together. Dirt, rocks, and bones were thrown to the side as the earth was pushed by the massive volume of plant matter.
In the center of the room was a large, green, thing. It was half as tall as the room as I could see it and had six tentacles made of long vines each barbed with glowing purple spikes. Its head consisted of several pony skulls entangled with roots. It let out a horrible growl from somewhere which shook the room. A strange glint caught my eye and I saw something. In one of the eye sockets of a skull that made up its head was a golden disk. 
“They key’s in its eye!” I screamed. I wasn’t sure if they heard me as Ballast let loose a barrage of fire on the thing. Bullets tore into the biomatter sending a red liquid splattering onto the floor. The beast howled with pain and lashed out at Ballast. One of its tentacles slammed into his side and sent him flying into the wall. 
Tin screamed out and began to fire with both or her rifles at the beast. I started a run towards the right, hoping that having a distance between us would hinder the creature. After a good spacing I stopped and drew my revolver. I looked up just in time to see a tentacle rushing for me. Unfortunately I didn’t have enough time to dodge fully and I was slashed across one of my hind legs. Ballast was back up and began to fire again at the creature, drawing its attention from me.
As I stood up I noticed that my wound was oozing a purple pus. Wincing with a burning pain, I tried to take aim with my revolver at the skull. I fired a single shot and it went wide, striking the creature near its chest. Red spilled from the bullet hole.
“Shoot its head!” I screamed. Tin heard me this time and shouted something over the gunfire. She turned her assault rifles upwards and began to shoot at the creatures head, but with her battle saddles she wasn’t able to get the right angle and her bullets hit only the chest, adding wounds to where I’d shot before.
I lined up another shot and fire once more. This time the bullet hit the skull, but only chipped it. The creature writhed in agony and slammed a tentacle down on Tin, sending her into the air. With a second it grabbed ahold of her and lifted her up.
“No!” Ballast and I screamed in unison. I started to fire all four remaining shots at its head, only breaking one skull ,and not the one I needed. The creature brought Tin closer to its body and a cavernous maw opened in its chest. Huge teeth dripping with saliva gnashed as Tin was brought closer.
Ballast tore at his battle saddle removing a long cylinder from it and leveled at the creatures head. A plume of smoke and an explosion followed as Ballast shot a rocket at the creature. Its head was engulfed in smoke and fire and the explosive connected. As I saw a glint flying down to the ground, two tentacles grabbed at Ballast, each pulling at a different half of his torso. 
I ran to where the key landed, but looked back at Tin and Ballast. The Creature had Tin in it’s mouth and was closing its teeth around her. I could see the long daggers piercing into her hide as she screamed to her death. Ballast was yelling as blood poured from his mouth.
“Run!” he yelled.
I grabbed the key with my magic and pulled it towards me. Out of the corner of my eye I saw a single tentacle whipping right towards me.




END OF CHAPTER 6
Level up!
Perk Gained: Questions Later: You’ve given talking a chance, but you’d be better off going in blazin’. 
Charisma -1, Guns + 5, Energy Weapons +5, Speech -5% to succeed.


> And the Grass Won't Pay No Mind
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Chapter 7: And The Grass Won’t Pay No Mind
The first thing I realize is that someone was jamming a rod into my leg. The next thing that came to mind was that I was rather comfortable for laying in vine strewn dirt, and warm at that. I heard some sort of vague words coming from my surrounding and I figured it was time to open my eyes.
Bright, natural light flooded my eyes, blinding me for just a moment before I adjusted. I found that I was in somewhat of a familiar location. It almost looked like the cave where I’d found Crescent’s body. I turned my head to face two particularly scraggly looking ponies, a mare and a stallion. The stallion was holding a small revolver aloft with a faint magical aura.
“This is impossible,” I said, awestruck.
“Not really,” the mare laughed a little. She had a smile which showed quite a few missing teeth. “Everyone gets robbed by us.”
“No, I killed you,” I said.
“You shut up, you fucker!” the stallion yelled as he jammed the nose of his gun into my thigh. I winced at the pain. Even if this was a dream, you couldn’t argue that the pain felt real. “Now you just sit tight while my bitch gets your valuables.” The mare trotted over to my saddlebags while giving a conceited cackle.  Luckily I was in my sleeping bag and neither ponies had thought to shake me down for a gun. I could feel the Luna’s holster heavy on my side. Now if only I could aim it at the stallion so the first shot would count. 
“You’ll never get away with this,” I said, wriggling slowly as I spoke.
“We prefer not to kill, but we’ll do it happily if you don’t shut up,” he said.
“Oh yeah? You don’t look like killers to me.”
He eyed me suspiciously. “Is that so?”
I was ready. “Yeah.” A loud bang accompanied with a small jerk as the bullet tore through both my bag and the stallion’s shoulder. As he fell another shot rang out, this time from his revolver. The bullet ricocheted around the small cave before exiting harmlessly. With my magic I quickly turned on the mare, cocked my gun, and fired. I got her right in the chest. As she lay on the rock twitching, I heard hoofsteps behind me. I twisted around and covered the entrance. Another familiar sight struck me. Rimfire.
“Rimfire?” I asked. When she saw the dead bodies she let out a shrill yelp.
“Short, honey, are you okay?” she asked as she ran full tilt at me, knocking me off my hoofs onto my back.
“What?” 
“Oh thank Celestia you’re all right!” she exclaimed into my chest. She stuck to me tighter than wonderglue.
“Rimfire, what the fuck is going on? Where are Tin and Ballast?” I demanded. Rimfire pulled back a little.
“What do you mean, honey?” Her eyes showed a little uncertainty. “Who are those ponies?”
“Don’t play dumb!” I screamed at her. I pushed her off me and she tripped over the dead stallion’s body. Blood splattered over her coat and mane. “What the fuck is going on here?”
Rimfire started to whimper. “W-we were taking a vacation,” she said, stumbling over every word. A few tears slid down her cheek and she wiped them away. “You were working too hard and I thought it would be best to go away for awhile.”
“Working too hard?” I asked. No, I stopped myself, that was offtopic. “What about the key? What about the Stable?”
“What do you mean?” She got up on her hooves again. “We haven’t seen a stable in so long, Short. What key are you talking about? I was getting some herbs when I heard gunshots, I came rushing in and I find two dead ponies and you rambling on about nonsense! Was it that book?”
“Book?” I asked.
Rimfire looked 
Rimfire pointed to my discarded saddle bags. I looked at them and saw a small, brown notebook.  I grabbed a hold of it with my magic and pulled it close to me. The cover was blank, but on the inside it read ‘Crescent’s Journal’.
“You were reading that all last night,” Rimfire said, sniffling. “And now you’re acting so strangely, Short.”
I ignored her and flipped the pages of the journal. None of the passages I saw made any sense. At least they didn’t until I got to the final section.
	I killed them all. I didn’t want to, but they left me no choice. Really it was their own damn faults. They knew the risks, they came onto their own deaths willingly. I got what I came for, and now I just need to get out.
“Don’t you remember?” Rimfire asked. “It happened- Looks like we’ve got a live one over here.”
“What?” I asked.
“Short, why can’t you just tell me what’s going on!” Tears began to flow down her dusty coat. “What should we do with him, sir?”
“Who are you talking to?” I asked.
It felt like the butt of a rifle collided with my face, sending me flying onto my side. I wrenched my eyes shut as the floor rose up to meet me. From behind me, I heard the sounds of a battle saddle jostling. Something thudded to the ground. I opened my eyes. The cave was gone, I was back in the Stable Dome.
“What...?” I asked dumbstruck.
“Behind you, genius,” said a gruff, male voice. I grunted and sat up, turning to face the source of the voice.The stallion before me was completely encased in armor. Not typical barding, but thick steel plating that covered every inch of his body. Floodlights straddled his head, right around the eyes, while tubes snaked around his face, burying themselves into his body at various points. Powerful hydraulics seemed to run down his legs, ending at hooves that looked like they could crush a pony's skull as easily as an eggshell.
“Steel Ranger,” I said in awe.
“Damn straight,” he said. “Now what in hell are you doing down here? And don’t give me any shit because it’s been a long day.” He jostled a little, his guns calibrated to shoot wherever he looked, which currently seemed to be my revolver. “Don’t even think about it.”
“I’m here for a thing,” I told him.
He nodded his head. “Keep talking.”
“I came here looking for a thing, I’m not sure what it was but it was wanted badly. It’s a key, I don’t know where to but it’s important.”
“Did you get it?” he asked. I looked down to the golden disk that had fallen next to my leg. “Ah.” He reached for the key with a forehood. “Let me take a peek at that.”
I reached my magic out towards my revolver. “I can’t let you do that,” I said. 
His guns pointed towards my face. The black barrels staring into my soul. “Is that so?”
“No, I’m not letting anyone else die for it,” I said.
“Even if it’s you?”
“Hopefully.”
“You got guts, kid,” He said. “Why don’t you get up and we get acquainted.” I stood up and picked up my revolver slowly and holstered it. The male ranger strode back to the mare and stood next to her.
“What the hell are you doing, Starburst?” she asked.
“We’ve got ourselves an asset with valuable technology, Heartfire. I’d think it’d be a great idea if we’re friendly to him.” Starburst turned to me. “Now, my friend, who are you?”
“I’m Short,” I said. “There’s not much else to know.”
“Marvelous,” he said. “I’ll suppose you know who we are.”
“How am I alive? I should have died from that creature...”
“Probably,” he said. “But maybe you’ve got some luck on your side.”
“Where did the creature go? Did you kill it?”
Starburst laughed. “No, we didn’t kill it. It only rests here, we think. Sometimes it brings in good things from its ‘hunts’.”
“So what happens now?” I asked.
“We’re taking you back to base,” he said. Heartfire shifted uncomfortably.
“How?” I asked
“We’ll let you figure it out,” Heartfire said. She dropped a small rag on the ground. “Wrap this around your head.”
“Why?” 
“Our base is a secret, Short,” Starburst said. “Can’t let every Tom, Dick, and Harry know where we are.”
“But how will I know where to go?”
“Trust us or get shot,” Heartfire said solemnly. I grimaced, but I tied the rag around my eyes. “Good, let’s move out.” Without my sight I forced to rely only on my ears and nose to know where I was. I felt something tug on my saddlebags and pull me forwards.
“What the hell?” I asked.
“I’ve put a rope through your bag,” Starburst said. “That way it’s easier for you to follow.”
I harrumphed. The rope gave two quick jerks and I started to move forward with the two Steel Rangers. It didn’t seem like they were going back to the stairs that Tin, Ballast, and I had taken not so long ago.
“This wasn’t the way in,” I said.
“If you don’t keep quiet,” Heartfire threatened. Starburst hushed her.
“The rest of my patrol is this way,” he said. The dirt ground gave way to a stone floor underneath my hooves. “You see, we’ve been investigating this... place for a while now.” Metal creaked and groaned overhead as we walked. Hissing filled the air, although it seemed distant. “I must have been down in this place, hell, dozens of times. Careful, the floor’s a bit uneven here.” I felt my hooves hit various cracks and holes on the ground, once I even knocked into something which went rattling off to the side. I didn’t really want to think about what it was.
“Should we really be telling him all this?” Heartfire asked.
“Frankly I don’t see why not. Not like he can get away at this point.” Starburst stopped ahead of me and I felt myself was into the metallic rear of a pony, probably Heartfire. I heard three loud clangs of metal on metal. “It’s me, I have a guest.” Metal squealed on metal as something moved in front of us, just another old door.
“Sir,” a new female voice said ahead.
“Use comms,” Starburst said and then went silent for a few moments. The rope started to tug again and I was led forward through the door. It slammed shut behind us. Starburst spoke up again, his tone slightly tense. “Alright Short, we’re about an hour from base. You can take the blindfold off then.”
I didn’t have much to do except for try to count or estimate the passing time. I listened to the ambience, ponies breathing, the world moving, and hooves on the ground. Even when it felt like and hour has passed we just kept walking. Up and over steep inclines, nearly sliding down declines. Sharp turns and long stretches all folded together to make an untraceable path. Without warning we came to a stop.
“You can take off the blindfold now,” Starburst said. I undid the knot at the back of my head and the dirty cloth fell to the floor. No one made a move to retrieve it. I looked around to see that we had been joined by the rest of Starburst’s patrol, nine more steel rangers. All of them were similarly geared in the traditional, grey power armor. It looked as though we were in a bunker that had never even seen the war. The walls were pristine, practically shining: the floor tiles looked as though they had been placed yesterday. Everything gleamed except for us. The walls and ceiling looked like they were made of a dark, strong metal. The room was a twenty by thirty foot rectangle, the ceiling wasn’t all that much above our heads. It was perhaps just two feet above my head. In front of me was a tall and foreboding door. In general it was a light gray color, but in the center of it was a circle that had spokes of light intersecting in the center. The door looked like it could fit two armored ponies side by side through its threshold. The way behind us wasn’t nearly as glamorous, just a hole in the wall that looked rough-hewn. Besides us, the only things occupying the room was a surplus of boxes that had accumulated fine layers of dust.
“Well this seems like a nice place,” I said.
“It gets the job done,” Starburst said. He turned to Heartfire. “Let them know we’re back.” Heartfire nodded and trotted to the door and pressed a small box that was attached to the wall next to it. Starburst turned back to me. “There are a couple things we say to guests here. First, we never have guests. So that means you’re going to be the odd one out. It would be a wise decision not to piss off any paladins, scribes, or the like. Also, don’t unholster your weapon.” A great hissing noise erupted into the room in front of us. The great door slowly slid up revealing two more Steel Rangers beyond. One of them wore armor that was even ornate than any of the others. The normally armored pony, a mare I guessed, stepped to the side and let Starburst’s patrol in. She stuck her hoof out as I was about to enter.
“Whoa there,” she said. The mare turned to Starburst. “What’s the meaning of this outsider?”
“I’m taking him to see Elder Soap,” Starburst told the mare. He pushed her hoof down. “Come on, Short.” He lead me into the next room. The architecture of the space changed dramatically. Instead of being a stark, wartime bunker, it was as though I was in some sort of ship. The walls were ridged with support beams every ten feet. The floors were a thin, metal grate that clanged with every step. The walls were a much darker grey than the area before. Bright yellow bulbs illuminated the room we were in. Not so much a room as a spacer within a hallway. It was a ten by ten square with a door at each corner. Opposite on two sides was a single hallway. A sign on the wall pointed right and mentioned both an armory and a library. To the left was dining and dormitories. 
“Where am I?” I asked, my mouth hanging open. This hall looked nicer than any place I’d seen all my life.
“This is our bunker, Short,” Starburst said. “I’ll take you to the Elder immediately.” Starburst turned to the right hallway and started off. I trotted to the side of the mare. The ornate stallion stood to the side and just watched us walk away.
“What was with the stallion?” I asked.
“Blaze? He’s... special.”
I thought about that for a minute while we walked. After passing a few more expansions like the one we’d left, we emerged into a much wider hallway. A few unarmored ponies wearing a thick barding were walking about the halls. From my perspective I could see turret emplacements. Starburst took another left and started walking again. 
“Why is he special?” I asked Starburst. “Did you mean, well, mentally?”
Starburst let out a small cough. “No, Short. He’s seen a lot. Doesn’t talk much.”
“Oh, I’m sorry,” I told him.
“We all are.” As we moved further we passed more and more menacing turrets. Their targeting talismans glowing, searching for someone to make a wrong move. Starburst turned right down a hall which ended abruptly with another bunker door. Starburst opened the door and led me through. The room was circular and built in similar style to everything else I’d seen in here. In the center of the room was a crescent desk, behind which an older mare was poring over books and maps. She didn’t wear power armor or barding like the other ponies. Instead she wore an impressive button-up jacket. Around the room and posted on the walls were additional maps with pins sticking through at various places with scrawls and scribbles all over. She looked up as Starburst and I walked in.
“Good to see you, Paladin Starburst,” she said. “And I heard you brought a guest.” Elder Soap looked at me with a small frown. “Yes, I see.”
“Elder Soap, I know it’s against the code to bring in an outsider but he’s got something of interest,” Starburst told the mare.
“Is that so?” she asked me. 
I nodded. “But it’s not for you. It isn’t for anyone.”
“Is that so?” 
I nodded at Soap.
Starburst tapped my shoulder. “Short, think about what you’re doing,” he warned.
“It’s too dangerous. I don’t know what it’s for, and I can’t risk it falling into the wrong hooves.”
Soap cleared her throat and put her forehooves together. “Short, I’m going to be honest here. I’d have no qualms with having you shot right now and merely taking whatever it is from you. However, I don’t want to do that. I’d like it if you could walk from this room with a smile on your face. Now I’m not really sure what you’d like.”
“I’d like if nobody had to die because of me,” I said honestly. In that moment her eyes softened and a smile traced itself on her lips.
“I’d like that too, truly I would,” she said. “As the elder of this group of Steel Rangers, that’s what I want for New Pegasus too, but with The Kid, the NER, and the Casinos all vying for power, it’s hard to make sure no pony gets killed.” I nodded.
“I’ve seen that,” I said.
Soap nodded too. “Even Starburst here has lost to that struggle for power. Just last year his son, a neophyte at the time, was killed by the NER on patrol.” Starburst turned his head down, looking away from both of us. “Do you think the NER asked them to come quietly? No. I heard what the survivors said. It was a slaughter.”
“I know what you’re getting at,” I said. “And I’m sure you’ve got a great speech planned. It’s just...” I stopped.
“Listen, Short, was it?” Her tone less kind than before. “Well you might be right, and I understand where you’re coming from. Just hear me out, no bullshit. You let me look at that key, just let me look at it for a little bit, and we’ll go on from there. Okay?”
I hesitated. I figured letting her look at it wouldn’t hurt anyone so I folded. I used my magic to levitate the small, golden disk out of my bag and placed it in front of her. She smiled.
“Thank you, Short,” she said. Soap picked up the disk and began to inspect it. Her eyes narrowed and she pursed her lips. It took only a little while for her brows to furrow. She put down the disk and began to flip open one of the books. Pausing about halfway through, she let out a small exclamation. “Oh my,” she muttered. She put down the disk and looked at me. “This is the vault key,” she said.
“What vault?” I asked.
“The vault, Short. Before the bombs fell, there was a top secret project, bigger than anything else near Las Pegasus. Every ministry that involved killing the other side had a hoof in it. The strangest thing is even the Ministry of Awesome did, which really makes the contents of interest.”
“I see,” I said. “So this disk will open it?”
“Most likely,” she said. “This key has been lost for nearly 200 years, Short. A lot of ponies thought it was destroyed.” She went silent and looked at the key intently. “This could change everything,” she said barely above a whisper.
“Why are you telling me this?” I asked, my voice rising a little.
She didn’t say anything for couple seconds. “You think you’re the only one who’s tired of ponies dying?”
I stamped a hoof into the ground. Soap didn’t flinch . “No!” I said, raising my voice in indignation. “You aren’t.” I struggled to keep myself calm. “I’m sure you don’t want to see any pony die either.But I just don’t know if I can just give that key to you.” I enveloped the disk in magic and floated it towards me. She didn’t move to stop me. I placed it in my bag and breathed a small sigh of relief.
“I’m not asking you to make a decision now, Short. But you should know that disk has the chance of changing everything in New Pegasus. I want you to think about that disk and what it could mean. Starburst will show you out. Feel free to come back if you’d like.” Elder Soap turned back to the papers on her desk and Starburst lead me out into the main hallway.
“Hell’s bells,” he muttered after the door shut behind us.
“She’s just letting me go?” I asked.
“Seems to be the shape of it, Short,” he said. Starburst began to pick his way through the Steel Rangers in the hall. Many more of them had populated the hall since we’d left. A few of the ponies gave me glancing looks but quickly turned elsewhere.
“Why?” 
He looked at me and gave a little shrug underneath his armor. “Couldn’t quite tell. I wish you hadn’t heard about... you know.”
I nodded. “I’m sorry to hear that.”
“It’s old news,” he said. I could hear the slight sound of old heartbreak in his voice. We turned into a larger main hall. At the end was a door that had four heavily armed Steel Rangers guarding it. Starburst walked to it. He nodded to one of the guards and the door opened. Surprisingly he stepped through with me. It looked like we were some sort of a mine. Light flickered through a wooden door not twenty feet away. The rough hewn walls were thick with cobweb; bones, and spent casing littered the stone floor.
I turned to Starburst. “Thanks for saving me,” I told him.
He didn’t say anything to me, but he reached up with his hooves and grappled with his helmet for a moment before taking it off. Underneath he had a light brown coat with hazel eyes and a blonde mane. A long scar went from his bottom lip to the top of his right eye. “It was the least I could do, Short.”
I smiled. “Well I guess this is goodbye.”
“It doesn’t have to be,” he said. “I could go with you. It’s dangerous to go alone, especially these days.”
“What?” I asked. I wasn’t sure if he was joking. “You can’t just leave the Steel Rangers behind can you?” He dropped his helmet to the side. The thump of the metal on rock echoed through the shaft.
“No, but the Elder knows I need this.”
“Are you sure you even want to be around me? I’ve gotten ponies killed, Starburst.” I tried to explain that it was a bad idea.
“Do you think I’ve never been out of the bunker? The day I can’t protect myself or my squad is the day I should die.”
“I don’t know if i can let another pony die because of my failures,” I said. My voice wavered, almost on the verge of breaking down.
“Then I won’t let you fail,” he said. Starburst’s old eyes softened and he strode closer to me. “I can help you.”
“Okay,” I said. “You can come with me.” Starburst smirked.
“Excellent,” he said. “Now where to?”
“Great question, Star. I’m not really sure what to do right now.”
Starburst grunted. “Well then, why don’t we walk on it?” I nodded for lack of a better idea and we set off up the shaft. As I pushed on the door to the outside the hinges had had enough and snapped in two. The door fell flat onto the dirt. It seemed like an apt start with my new partner.
I took a deep breath of the hot, dry desert air. It was almost intoxicating after having been stuck underground for so long. I let it out with a content sigh. Our surroundings were much different than the forest. This time we were at the base of a large cliff that towered over a hundred feet into the air. I had no idea where I was right now. In front of us the desert stretched out until the sky met the horizon. In the far distance I could make out some hazy shapes. I looked to Starburst.
“Is that a town over there?” I asked as I turned. He hadn’t put his helmet back on and I didn’t see it around him. “No helmet? How will your guns work?”
“Yeah it’s a town, and my guns don’t need my helmet to work. Trust me. Also, it was getting pretty stuffy in that thing.” I nodded and turned back to the town.
“What’s it like?” I asked.
“The town or the helmet?”
“The town.”
Starburst put on a thoughtful expression. “Let’s see. I don’t really know, we didn’t go into towns much. Although, I have heard it’s a haven for gamblers, ones that are too poor to get into the New Pegasus casinos, or too dangerous.”
“Maybe there will be something to do there,” I said. He nodded.
Starburst and I started out way to the gambling town as the sun sat at high noon. By my estimation, I thought it would take at least an hour to get to the town. Starburst stayed silent as we walked, so I left to my thoughts. Letting him come with me left a pit in my stomach. Although he had a lot more combat experience than me, probably even more than Rimfire.
I pushed the idea of Rimfire to the side once again and tried to focus my mind. Why had Elder Soap let me go so easily? Maybe she wasn’t as bad as I thought. She’d been the only pony to let me go easily. Perhaps she was up to something, but she’d been nicer in my brief meeting than most of the NER. The guard post after the canyon had been decent, but Tin had skewed my view of them twice. Once when she took me prisoner, again when she seemed to care for me.
I blinked twice, focusing on the world in front of me. The town was coming into clear focus now. It wasn’t like any town I’d seen before. Instead of being made of old building or scraps, it seemed to have been made of lumber and bricks that had been made recently, stuff that hadn’t sat in decrepit state since the bombs fell. That didn’t mean it was free from the grime and dust that accumulated out here. The town was essentially one long street with buildings on both sides. As far as I could tell it looked to be mostly saloons and a few small hotels. From a hundred yards away we could see the name of the town on a large and foreboding sign. 
Balefire Point.
The town looked empty on the street, but we could hear raucous ponies inside every building. Ahead of us and to the right was a saloon called the Loose Mare. It didn’t stand out from any of the others except that as we passed in front of it, a stallion came flying out of the double doors and fell into the dirt in front of us. A strangely familiar voice yelled out, “And stay the fuck out!” I took the lead and led Starburst into the Loose Mare.
The inside was a typical saloon. On one wall was a large selection of whiskeys and liquors, while a majority of the room was taken up with poker tables. Dozens of ponies sat around the tables drinking, smoking, and gambling. Around the room were several well armed mares keeping careful eyes on the patrons. One of them was a little too familiar for me.
“Rimfire?” I asked, my voice carrying over the din. She was leaning next to the bar, taking a shot from the bartender when she whipped her head around towards me. I saw her mutter something under her breath but it was too loud to make it out. Starburst and I strode to the bar where she was leaning. Rimfire drank the shot quickly as we approached.
“Would you just look who it is?” she asked rhetorically. “I thought you’d be dead by now. And where’s our little friend Thirteen?” I looked away from her and stayed silent. “I thought so.”
“What’s your deal?” Starburst asked. “Short, how do you know this mare?”
Rimfire answered before I could. “Short and I came to New Pegasus together, but he was a bit too dangerous to be around so I went on my own. I found Balefire Point and got a job.”
“She’s right,” I admitted. “I was dangerous, reckless too. But I’m better now, at least I’m trying to be.”
She let out a chiding laugh. “Don’t even. A leopard can’t change his spots. What could you even do to help anyone?”
“I don’t know, but I am.”
She scoffed. Rimfire pushed her shot glass further on the bar. A mare wearing next to nothing came by and quickly filled up the glass. Rimfire picked up the glass with magic and took the shot.
“Where’d you meet him?” Rimfire questioned me again. 
“Underground stable mixed with a factory I think. He kind of saved my life.”
“Why are you even here?” she asked.
“I’m not sure yet,” I told her. “I guess I’m just here to think about what happens next.”
She narrowed her eyes. “What do you mean?” I walked over and leaned on the bar, sighing. The barmare came over with a beer, smiled, and trotted off. I picked up the beer with my magic and took a sip. It wasn’t bad.
“I’m just at crossroads right now, Rimfire. I’ve got what Crescent was looking for.” Her eyes widened at my statement. I nursed the beer as we continued to talk. It was pretty refreshing after not having any sort of drink for a few hours.
After she decided she didn’t want to care for the disk, she spoke up. 
“So?” she asked.
“So there’s a lot of ponies who’d like it, and it’s pretty much up to me to give it to someone,” I said.
“Do you think you can make the right choice?” Starburst asked. I was slightly taken aback at the question.
“I hope so,” I told him. “I really do Starburst. There’s a lot riding on me right now, and I could make or break this place. I’ve never had this much responsibility. I can’t fuck it up... not this time.”
“I’m sure you’ll do fine, Short,” Rimfire said to me. She had a worried expression on her face. I felt a hoof on my back and turned around to see a stallion standing behind me. He was wearing a suit that hadn’t taken the years well, but still looked like work had been put into it. His black mane was greased back and between his lips he was cradling at lit cigarette. He took a long drag before he spoke.
“Did I hear correctly that you’re Short? Short Change, if I may?” he asked, smoke spilling out of his mouth with every word.
“Yeah, why?” I saw the corner of his mouth turn into something halfway between a smirk and a smile.
“Church sends his regards,” the pony said slowly, emphasizing each syllable carefully. I barely had time to register the name before I noticed the glint in his breast pocket. He must have done something because as soon as I saw the barrel a small shot rang out and I felt a sting on my breast. Before even Rimfire could react I’d drawn and cocked my revolver and had it aimed at the stallion. He hit me again with another shot, this time in the leg, and I let him have it. The bullet entered through his skull and sprayed the bar in gore. 
The mares working security all began to pick up their weapons and bark orders to the patrons. Ponies at the poker tables scrambled for chips and caps during the clamor. I saw a few ponies in the crowd who were acting a little too calm. One of them reached for a nearly hidden pistol and I knew that stallion hadn’t been alone. 
The closest pony was a mare. I was pretty sure she’d be eyeing every pony that walked in. I twisted my gun towards her in what felt like slow motion. She had barely cleared her holster when my shot took her in the gut. She fell back, slumping to the floor. I turned my gaze out to the crowd. Time seemed to slow down even more. Was this S.A.T.S again?
I saw the muzzle flash of pistol in the crowd. The pistol was held by a stallion who eyes looked full of hatred. The bullet embedded itself in the wood to my side, spraying us with splinters. I took aim as quickly as I could and fired my third shot. He shot again while my bullet hit him in one of his back knees. I felt the bite of his bullet at is tore a hole through my right ear. Time went back to normal when one of the mares in security let out a volley of fire into the ceiling and every pony went silent. I saw the eyes of the stallion I shot, they were glazing over and he seemed to be breathing heavy. A few ponies rushed to the sides of fallen shooters. I slumped against the bar, my blood pooling beneath me, my revolver dropped as I let the magic field go. I felt hooves pushing into my saddlebags. I caught Rimfire from the corner of my eye. She was frantically rummaging for something. My breath was getting harder and harder to catch as the wound finally started to get to me. Pain was racing through my body and my nerves were on fire. Rimfire suddenly took up my field of vision. She tilted my head back with her hooves and tipped a healing potion into my mouth. The sweet taste filled my mouth and made my body chill.
“Short, what the fuck?” she screamed at me. I didn’t say anything. Instead I focused on the acute sensation of bullets being pushed out of my flesh through healing tissue. My breathing turned into hollow gasping. Rimfire went back into the bags and pulled out another potion. Again she poured the red contents into my mouth and I felt the familiar effect of pain fading yet not totally disappearing.
Starburst had put himself in some sort of stance and was scanning the room. Two wet splashes accompanied the bullets being pushed out of my body and falling into the stagnating blood. As the potions worked their magic my breathe returned to me. I felt almost as good as new.
“Short...” Rimfire muttered. I pushed off the wall and steadied myself on my legs. I wobbled slightly but I didn’t fall.
“I’m alright,” I said, coughing up dried blood as I spoke.
“You may be an annoying asshole at times, but damn you’re one surprising motherfucker,” she said. She turned away and got another shot. I looked around the bar. Only the last stallion I shot wasn’t covered in a sheet, and he wasn’t in good shape at that.  I noticed Rimfire was looking too. “Where’d you learn to shoot like that? Last time I saw you, you barely knew where the bullet came out of.”
“Well, I figured that talk’s cheap sometimes,” I said coolly. In truth I didn’t know how I’d gotten so much better at shooting. Maybe it was just something New Pegasus did to you. “Sometimes everything you need to say can be said with a bang.”
“Hmm.” Something flickered on her face, it might have been worry. I couldn’t say that I wasn’t worried myself. I looked at the where the two bodies lay on the floor. I’d killed them as soon as look at them. A different voice shouted across the saloon.
“Rimfire,” a mare’s voice yelled, “get those troublemakers the fuck out of here!” Rimfire rolled her eyes. 
“Fine, but I’m out too!” The three of us left the Loose Mare and found ourselves standing in the middle of Balefire Point.
“You didn’t need to do that,” I said to Rimfire after a small silence.
“I didn’t do it for you,” she told me adamantly. 
“Then why?” I asked.
“She obviously cares for you a lot,” Starburst added. Rimfire looked disgusted and shuddered a little.
“Ew, what? No.”
“Relax Rimfire,” I said. “We can still be friends can’t we?”
“Friends... companions... I don’t know.”
“So you going to come with us?” I asked.
“Might as well. Can’t really do anything here.” Rimfire spit on the dirt. “To be honest it was getting a little boring too.”
“I think we’re forgetting something here,” Starburst said. “Who was Church, and why did he want you dead, Short?” I’d forgotten that he wouldn’t know, and even Rimfire would have had fuzzy details.
“Church, well Churchane, is the reason I came to New Pegasus. I thought I was doing a normal trade for him, but as it turns out I was smuggling drugs. Long story short, I took the money he was supposed to get and I never went back to him. He probably sent ponies to get that money back.” Starburst looked mortified.
“You smuggled drugs into New Pegasus?” He looked shocked.
“Yeah, well sort of,” I said, not sure if he’d understood the whole story.
“Do you think you could do it for the Rangers? We’ve been needing to get a transmitting device in and we didn’t have anyone able to do it.”
“I’m not sure, Starburst. It was under really strange circumstances.” He was disappointed.
“That’s unfortunate. If you change your mind, go see the Elder again. I’m sure she’d appreciate the help.”
I nodded along. “I’m sure she would, but I don’t think I should go back just yet. She’ll want the disk.” Starburst frowned but didn’t push the issue. Anyways we needed provisions now that we were in town. There was no telling when we’d be able to get supplies.
“Rimfire, Where can we get guns and ammo?” I asked.
“We don’t have any gun stores,” she said.
“Really?” Starburst asked. “I’d assumed this outlaw town would be nearly full of gun stores.”
“Ah yes, well there are no gun stores themselves, but you can find guns and ammo. You just need to know where to look.” Rimfire trotted ahead. Starburst and I had no choice but to follow her. She ignored all the storefronts and chose instead to lead us down a narrow and shadow ridden alley. At the end she opened a door on the end. I hadn’t even noticed the door before she started pulling it; it blended in with the building nearly perfectly.
The inside looked completely opposite of any gun store I’ve ever been in before. Instead of having the wares displayed for consumer perusal, there was only an old mare sitting on a small, wooden stool next to a safe. The mare looked up at us as we entered, her cloudy eyes looked as big as wagonwheels when seen through her glasses.
“Oh hello dears,” she said, “what can I do for you?”
I raised an eyebrow in confusion. “No guns?”
The old mare didn’t try to hide a sly smile. “Oh no, dearies, no guns here. Just some magazines.” Slowly, bones creaking with age, she turned to the safe and opened it. Inside was a a small stack of magazines, a few caps, and a bottle of Sparkle Cola. She passed the magazines to Rimfire and I. Starburst didn’t ask for one. I assumed he didn’t need the ammo anyways. I flipped open the magazine and looked at it’s contents. It was full of crudely drawn guns and ammo. Every picture had a price next to it.
“Ah,” I said. “Well, I’ll take, uhm, 200 rounds of the .45?” She nodded.
Rimfire spoke up next. “I’ll take 500 5mm’s.” The mare nodded again. Something in the magazine caught my eyes.
“And can I get the Tec 9?” I asked.
Rimfire looked at me bewildered. “Really?” she asked. “I’d never imagine you’d want a gun like that.”
“Guns have grown on me, what can I say?”
The mare coughed. “Will that be all?” she asked.
“I’ll just add that I’d like 500 rounds for the Tec,” I added.
“Okay dearies. Come back in, oh, ten minutes. It will be... let’s see, 2500 caps sounds fair.” The mare took the magazines and placed them back in the safe. Rimfire, Starburst, and I walked out into the alley and headed back to the street.
“Well now what?” I asked the two ponies.
“Let’s get a drink,” Starburst suggested. I’d never have imagined that idea would come from him, but maybe he had a good reason. I could see that Rimfire wasn’t about to disagree with him so we walked into the closest bar. This one went by the name Balefire Crater. It was empty except for a bartender that stood behind the bar cleaning glasses. The room was simple. Tables and chairs took up most of the room. In the far back of the room was the bar. The three of us walked over to the bar and sat down.
“What’ll ya’ have?” The bartender asked. His voice was dry and raspy.
“Bourbon on the rocks,” Starburst ordered. Rimfire got the same. The bartender poured the bourbon into two glasses and put them on the bar. Both of them began to drink as the bartender turned to me. 
“How about you?” he asked.
I’d never really been one to drink, and I couldn’t remember anything that I’d really right to drink now.
“What’s your best?” I asked.
“I make a mean mixed drink. I call it the Balefire Bomb.”
“Sure, I’ll take it.” I looked over to see Rimfire still sipping the bourbon. Starburst had finished his almost immediately and was waiting for another glass. “Shouldn’t we not be trying to get drunk?” I asked him.
He nodded. “It’ll take more than two to get me drunk, Short. But you’re right, one and done.” The bartender had finished my drink at this point. I hadn’t paid any attention to what was in it, but I wasn’t sure that it was drinkable. As the drink was placed in front of me I couldn’t help but turn a little shade of green. Fortunately I would have been in good company. The Balefire Bomb was a putrid shade of green with floating globules of red all floating over a sea of grey.
“Here you go, sir,” he said. “It will be 20 caps.” Rimfire put the caps on the bar and I picked up my drink and inspected it further. It had no discernible smell to it, yet that didn’t really make me feel better.
“You sure ponies drink this?” I asked the stallion behind the counter. He nodded. I moved the glass closer to my mouth let out a sigh. I felt the awful drink slide down my throat. “Fuck me,” I gasped. The drink left a burning, acrid taste in my mouth. I could already tell that I’d made a terrible decision.
A hoof creeped across my back. I turned to see Rimfire leaning onto me.
“You alright?” She asked.
“Yeah,” I said, noting the look of sympathy in her eyes. “I’ll be fine. It was just a really shit drink, I think.” The bartender looked offended but I didn’t really mind about that. If he served those drink regularly, he ought to have a thick skin.
“We should probably go pick up what we ordered,” Starburst said.
“Sure thing,” I said. The three of us headed back to the ‘gun store’ and walked in through the hidden door. The old mare was still there, but this time she had two well armed mares next to her, in the middle of the floor was the ammo and my gun.
“The caps, dear?” the old mare asked. Using my pipbuck I selected 2500 caps and opened my saddlebag to find them right on top. I floated them over to her. She caught them in a bag and put them straight into the safe. Rimfire and I began to pick through the ammo and put it into our bags. We’d sort them into magazines later.
I looked fondly at my new gun. It looked almost exactly like the crude drawing I’d seen in the magazine. It looked like it was a pistol, but instead of the magazine sliding into the grip, it had a forward port. The barrel was elongated and had holes in it. Probably to keep the noise down, I thought to myself. I looked down to see something strange in the pile of pullets. While most of them were a mixture of coppery colors, one of them had a silver base with a purple tip. I levitated it to take a closer look.
“What’s this?” I asked. I felt the unfortunate attention of assault rifles being pointed at me.
“Our mistake,” The old mare told me. “That’s a special bullet. It must have fallen in by accident.” 
“Oh, it’s fine. I’ll pay for it, it’s really making me curious though. What is it?” I pulled it closer still. The only markings on the round read ‘37/200’.
“You really don’t want it, sonny,” she said, sounding more persistent as we spoke. “It’s a very special bullet. I don’t think your guns could handle it.”
“I don’t think you understand,” I said. “I would really like this bullet, and maybe even 5 more.”
The old mare looked shocked. “You can’t have them,” she said, her voice having lost all sweetness. 
There came a knock on the door. Everyone froze. A few seconds passed before another knock started, this time it was much louder. A voice came in from the outside.
“Open up!” it said. “This is the NER. We are seizing all illegal merchandise and profit.” I saw the two security mares flicking the safety on their guns off; Rimfire did the same with her rifle.
“What now?” I asked in a whisper.
“Fight or die,” one of mares in security said. Tingling with anticipation I drew my revolver. The thought struck me that I hadn’t reloaded since The Loose Mare. I popped out the cylinder and pull the three spent casings out. I put in two of the new .45’s and the strange, purple-tipped round. No one called me out on it so I shut the cylinder and gave it a spin.
The knocking on the door continued. “This is your last warning!” The voice screamed through the wall. “Come out now or die!” Everyone worked in unison as we turned out guns to face the wall. Even the old mare had revealed a compact smg from somewhere. One of the mares began mouthing a countdown. 
Three. I pulled the hammer on my revolver back.
Two. I steadied myself and made sure my telekinetic grip was tight and strong on the gun’s grip.
One. 
I wasn’t quite sure which one of us shot first, but it didn’t really matter. It wasn’t some ordinary blast that came out of the muzzle of my gun. It was something else. A great thundering crack accompanied a shot that punched a hole the size of an eye into the wall.. Even my strongest grip couldn’t hold onto the revolver as it flew back behind me.
Unsure of where my revolver was, I grabbed my Tec9 and leapt to the side. I hoped it was loaded and ready to fire. I hit the ground and pulled the trigger, shots fired randomly, hitting the ceiling, the opposite building, and once or twice, a soldier. The spurting bullets left the gun with a recoil that was hard to control. 
One of the soldiers fired a round which buried itself into the floor in front of me and sprayed my face with splinters and wooden fragments. The sound of gunfire was deafening, making it hard to focus on the task at hand. I slipped the magazine out of the Tec and rammed a new one in its place. I pulled back the bolt and started to shoot through the wall blindly again. I shut my eyes tight. It didn’t really matter if I was looking or not, mostly I was just hoping I wouldn’t get shot. Rimfire. That thought ripped itself into the forefront of my mind. There was no way I was going to let her die here.
But it didn’t seem like I was going to get a choice in the matter, because as suddenly as it happened, the gunfire stopped. The air was thick with dust as I peered about the room. It looked like no one had been seriously injured. One of the mares was putting pressure on her flank; she must have been grazed.
“I’ll check,” Starburst said. The armored stallion cautiously creeped to the door and put a hoof against it. He took a deep breathe before he pushed it open. Starburst stuck his head out and took a look at the alley. He pulled back and said, “All clear.” There was a palpable wave of relief that washed over the room.
I turned around and searched the floor. I saw a glint of light behind the safe and a smile found its way onto my face. I used my magic to draw it to me and placed it in it’s holster. The familiar weight felt better every day. I turned back to the rest of the group, the old mare was staring at me.
“You used that bullet,” she said. I nodded. “That was reckless, we’re not even sure what most of them do.”
“What?” Rimfire asked. “What kind of bullet do you have that you don’t know what they’ll do?” The mare didn’t even bother hiding a little flicker of shame.
“They were a special order for a client. He told us how to make them, not what they did. I’m sorry.”
“Can you make me a few?” I asked.
“We sure can,” she said. “They’ll take a few days, but,” she looked at my PipBuck, “we can send a message to that when they’re ready.” 
“If you can do that, that’d be great,” I said. She motioned for me to come closer and I did. She then grabbed my leg with the PipBuck and pulled it towards her, she fiddled with the menus and she let me go. “Done. When they’re ready, we’ll let you know.”
I thanked the mare and the three of us left the shop at least. The alleyway outside was in much rougher shape than the store. The walls were riddled with bullet holes and splashes of blood. On the floor were the bodies of five NER soldiers. Rimfire and I were about to walk away when Starburst stopped us. He had bent low over the bodies and was searching through the pockets.
“What are you doing?” I asked him.
“What, you never looted a body, Short?” he asked incredulously.
“Of course I have, but I never would have guessed that you’d do it too.”
He chuckled. “NER soldiers sometimes have nice stuff, and we could always use more security codes.” Starburst sighed heavily. “Yes I know, it’s bad to do this but we have to.” I saw him take five ID cards from the bodies and that was all. “I just hope I’m forgiven.”
“Forgiven by who? Celestia? Luna? I’d never taken you for such a believer, Starburst,” I chided him.
“Not them, Short. I hope I can forgive myself. I don’t want to loot bodies, I want to kill even less. Yet you and I know that we have to do it to survive.” He turned to Rimfire. “Tell me you understand.”
Rimfire wrinkled her muzzle. “Yeah I agree, Starburst. I don’t know any sensible pony who wants to kill.”
“You think I want to kill?” I asked them.
Rimfire looked at me sideways. “I used to think that you didn’t, now I’m not so sure. In the first couple of minutes we met again you had killed two ponies and nearly a third.”
“Of course I did, they were trying to kill me!”
She rolled her eyes. “Ponies tried to kill you before and you tried to talk them out of it, but this time you just shot them.”
I grunted in agreement. She’d had a point but I didn’t really want to think about what it meant for me. Without a doubt I could see that she was right. I’d lost something. I wasn’t sure what I’d lost, but maybe it wasn’t a bad thing. Whatever it was, it kept me alive in that bar and in the shop, and it had helped protect Rimfire and Starburst.
“Forget about that for now. It’s nearly nighttime and we have nowhere to go and nowhere to stay. So let’s do something,” I said.
We all came to an agreement that staying the night in Balefire Point was reckless, but there wasn’t another option unless we wanted to trek back to the Steel Rangers’ bunker. Picking the cheapest inn put us at the Radroach Motel. The room wasn’t pretty but it would get the job done. Unlike last time, this room had two beds allowing Rimfire to sleep by herself while Starburst and I bunked together. I thought that it would be best to sleep before discussing what we would do tomorrow.
Waking up in the Radroach was about as delightful as sleeping on the beds that seemed to be stuffed with rocks. Instead of an alarm clock, I was awakened by the feel of skittering legs on my face. I opened my eye to see a cockroach looking back at me from the bridge of my nose. I swiped the bug off my face and heard a splatter as it hit the wall. It wasn’t much longer until everyone was up and in their barding and armor. As I was putting mine on I began to notice just how many holes, cuts, and burns had accumulated on it.
“So Short,” Rimfire started, “You don’t have any glaringly important things to do right now?” I shook my head. There were a few things, but not much I could do about them now. “Well why don’t we go back to New Pegasus?”
“Why?” Starburst asked.
“Why not? We’re not doing anything here. The ponies at the ‘Mare never had anything pleasant to say about the northern passages anyway.”
“No one ever had,” Starburst added.
“What’s north?” I asked.
“Nearly certain death,” Starburst said firmly. He continued after he most likely sensed my curiosity. “Merchants, caravans, and sometimes NER patrols go north sometimes, our scouts see them. They rarely come back. If they do, they’re changed. Nothing good ever came from the North, Short.”
“What are we talking about here? Is something just killing them?” I asked them both. Rimfire shrugged and once again Starburst answered me.
“We don’t know. Those who come back don’t talk about it, they just... don’t.”
“Then it’d be a journey for another perhaps. For now, though. I think that we might as well go to New Pegasus,” I said. “But how do we get there?”
“Well, Balefire Point is pretty much east of Goodsprings, we’d have to go over a small mountain range if we went there. If we went south, we could meet up with the road we took into New Pegasus,” Rimfire explained.
“Can we split the difference and go straight there?” I asked. “It’d be the shortest by a day or two at least.”
“A day or two?” Rimfire asked astounded. “I don’t think that’s accurate, Short.”
“It’s just that since we have nothing to hurry to, we didn’t have to make such a ragged pace. We can take our time.”
“That’s an admirable thought,” Starburst said, “But I don’t know if we should be just taking it slow in the desert.”
I frowned a little. “Yeah, you’re right.”
“Rimfire, what’s between us and New Pegasus if we go straight there?” Starburst asked.
“Ghouls,” she said. “Word has it that a town was overrun with them. It’s called Neyope.”
“Stable, Vault?” I asked. 
She shook her head. “Everyone says they’re natural.”
“Well we’ve got guns and ammo, but...” I stopped mid sentence. I looked at the two ponies in front of me. Could I bring them into something like this. “We should be careful. Do you two think we can make it?” I didn’t imagine that either would be up for fighting ghouls..
“Sure,” Rimfire said. “They’re just ghouls. I’d have been a lot more hesitant with the old you, but now you can handle yourself.”
“Then it’s settled,” I said, “and why don’t I just use my PipBuck to set up a path?” I looked at the confusing legband and navigated to the map menu. Using the dials on the side I could move about the map of the San Palomino. Most of it was empty I saw, I wondered how much of had secrets hidden. After much scrolling I had the cursor over New Pegasus and I hit enter. The small compass in front of my eyes shuddered and an arrow pointed towards the southwest.
“Looks good,” I said. I turned to the rest of the gang. “Are we good to go?” We were.


***---***
By the time we hit Neyope, dusk was setting. On top of that, the wind had picked up and a dust storm was forming. Visibility couldn’t have been more than twenty feet ahead. The only sources of light we had were lights on Starburst’s power armor and the flashlight still attached to my revolver. The whipping sand and howling wind made it nearly impossible to hear each other. I turned to my side and saw Rimfire looking at me concerned. She had been walking only using three legs, the fourth she held in front of her face. In that moment I understood what she meant, we needed a place to get out of the storm, and that meant staying in Neyope.
The only guidance we had was the compass my PipBuck provided. I could see the hollow arrow that pointed towards New Pegasus, and the smaller one that I learned pointed towards towns and such. We hadn’t run into any ghouls yet, and I hoped we wouldn’t see any unless they were long behind us. With any good luck, the town wasn’t much further.
It wasn’t. We hadn’t walked any more than 100 feet when I saw a dark outline, and then more as we got closer. It was Neyope. The first building we came across looked like an average house. All the windows and doors were boarded up. We circled the building, testing every opening to see if there was an easy way in. The easiest way was a window, and I used my magic to ply off the boards. They came loose with a solid crack.
Starburst went in first to check the room out. I helped Rimfire through and then it was time for me to go. I jumped up to the window and hooked my forelegs over the side. My back legs scrambled for purchase on the wooden exterior of the house. Eventually I got it and kicked myself through the window frame. As I landed, Rimfire used her magic to place the board back over the window. Inside the house we could finally hear each other talk.
“Is it clear?” I asked. Starburst nodded. “Good.” I unhooked my saddlebags and let them fall to the floor. The room we were in appeared to be an old kitchen. Oven, refrigerator, tables, chairs, all the usual aspects. There was a door to another room opposite the window. I saw Rimfire trot through it while I laid back on the cool tile floor.
“This isn’t so bad,” Starburst said. “No ghouls.”
“Yeah,” I agreed. “Maybe they can’t hunt during the storm or something.”
“Maybe, maybe not.”
I picked my head and back off the floor and leaned against the wall. “What’s that mean?”
“I’m just saying I don’t know, Short. Ghouls can be tricky. There’s a huge difference between ferals and the rest.”
I let out a small chuckle. “You think there are non-ferals here? I’m sure there’s a better place for them than here.”
“You don’t know that, Short. Some choose the company of ferals, some don’t.”
Rimfire walked back into the kitchen. “There’s a hole in the living room,” she said.
“In the wall?” I asked.
“No, in the floor.”
“Was it deep?” Starburst asked. She nodded.
“I could see the bottom with my flashlight but I’m pretty sure it turned away towards town.”
“Who would make a hole in the floor?” I asked. They both shrugged. “Well what are we going to do about it?”
“Three options that I came up,” Rimfire began. “We can cover it, explore it, or ignore it.”
“I don’t think ignoring it is a good option,” Starburst said.
“I didn’t say they were good options.”
“Regardless, it’s up to you guys, cover or explore,” I told them.
“It’s your choice too,” Starburst said. “What do you want?”
I felt a small stir in the pit of my stomach. “I kind of want to explore it,” I said.
“Well that’s fine. Personally, last time I went in a hole with Short there was a bit of trouble, no offense. So I think I’d rather just cover it up.”
“Sorry, Short, but I think it’d be better just to cover it up as well,” Starburst said. I was disappointed, but I understood how they felt. Why take needless risk?
“No guys, it’s fine.”
There wasn’t much to do besides cover the hole now. Rimfire and I used our magic to drag the nearly ruined couch over the hole. After that we gathered in the kitchen to eat a fair meal. I hadn't’ eaten well in days. I imagined that Starburst and the rest of the Steel Rangers had quite the meals ready in the base, and Rimfire had been working in a bar that wasn’t too shabby. Luckily I’d had the idea to pick up some decent food at Balefire Point. I started a fire and put bread and beans on.
“Wow, Short. I didn’t think you’d have anything more than canned food,” Rimfire said to me. “This must have been expensive.”
“Not really,” I said as I stirred the beans and added some odds and ends. “I may be better with a gun, but I can still talk circles around most shopkeepers.” 
Starburst was looking at the ceiling. “Should we have a fire indoors?” he asked.
“I’m not sure,” I admitted. It looked like most of the smoke was creeping out of the window, but a bit too much was clinging to the ceiling and travelling through the house. In either case, the smell of the food was getting tantalizing and Starburst stopped complaining. It didn’t make much time for everyone to start eating. There was no doubt in my mind that this was the first cooked meal I’d had in a long time. Starburst and Rimfire took their time, but I ate ravenously. The flavor wasn’t the best, and the bread had been a little burned, but I didn’t really care at that point. The food was warm and filling.
After eating we rolled out our beds and curled up. Starburst didn’t even take off his armor before he fell onto the ground. His weight cracked the tiles a little bit and he looked a little perturbed. I laid my head back onto the moderately comfy bedroll. The fire was still going, keeping the cold, desert air away.
I thought I heard something drift along with the wind. I jerked to attention and grabbed for my revolver. I’d reloaded it before we left so I was sure that it was ready. Another noise sounded from outside, a low, hollow growl.
“Ghouls,” I said softly. Rimfire and Starburst got up. We buckled our gear and bags on. More and more growls were heard, and then things began to scratch at the walls of the house.
“They’ve surrounded us,” Starburst said. I looked around. All the red dots on my compass showed that he was correct, there must have been a sea of ghouls around us.
“Can we fight our way out?” Rimfire asked.
“Not likely,” I said solemnly.
“We have to try for the tunnel,” Starburst said. I agreed with him, how could we fight through so many ghouls? We ran for the tunnel. Starburst ran full speed at the couch, pushing it off the hole in one quick motion. Rimfire was the first down into the tunnel, followed by Starburst and then myself. After I leapt down, I grabbed at the couch with my magic and dragged it over the opening. Hopefully it would stop the ghouls from following us, but I wasn’t going to put my money on it. Starburst turned on his lights and I flicked my flashlight on.
The tunnel was well dug, like a mine. Wooden support beams jutted out of the ground every couple of feet on either side. Our lights didn’t illuminate the end of the tunnel, which was shrouded in darkness. I saw Rimfire pull out her rifle and ready it. It looked a lot newer than the one she’d had before. 
She must have seen me looking because she said, “it is.” If the upstairs air had been cool, down here was freezing. Each of us could see our breathes come out as fog. I shivered as we walked down the dark passage.
“Where do you think this goes?” I asked.
“Center of town,” Starburst guessed.
“Any idea why?” I asked again.
“Hell,” Rimfire began, “why does anyone do anything out here? Maybe somebody just fucking said, ‘maybe I’ll dig a big hole today’ and he did.” I couldn’t fault her logic for the life of me, which probably wasn’t a bad thing.
“We need a plan,” Starburst said.
“Get out of town,” I said.
He scoffed. “Well isn’t that a great plan.”
“Do you have a better plan?” Rimfire asked.
“Sadly, no.” I didn’t have much else to say to them. What was starting to worry me was that the tunnel was sloping downwards. We were descending a foot vertically for every ten steps.
“Is turning back an option?” Rimfire asked. A drifting howling from behind us answered her. There was only one way, and it lay in front of us. We quickened our pace, running full speed through the tunnel, until finally a light illuminated the end and showed an exit. We didn’t slow down until we burst into the light and saw the room around us.
It was large, and instead of merely being dug from the ground around it, it was surrounded with cinder blocks giving it dull, grey walls. In the closest corner looked to be a full scale laboratory, in the other, a operating tables. In the farthest two corner were cages filled with skeletons. There were tunnels out of the room on each side of it. In the center of the room there was a pony clad in a white lab coat that was circling a pony that had been chained to the ground. He hadn’t seemed to notice us when we entered. I turned the flashlight off on my revolver, brought it forward and I crept forward towards the two.
As I got closer, I saw the ragged and burned flesh of the chained pony, it was a ghoul. It couldn’t howl or scream, only mumble; its mouth had been sewn up. The other pony had stopped circling it, his back to me, and was repeatedly jabbing the ghoul with some apparatus he had connect to his left forehoof. It looked a different version of a PipBuck. The contraption was fitted with needles, gauges, and a few blades. I couldn’t tell which tool he was using on the ghoul, but I knew it wasn’t for any good reason. No more than twenty feet away he stopped jabbing the ghoul and looked downwards.
“Who sent you?” he asked. His voice was dry and raspy.
“No one sent us,” I said.
“Then no one will miss you,” he said. He turned me and I saw his figure up close. Half of his face was just skull that had strange carvings. The socket still had the eye in it, but it didn’t look anywhere the regular one did. His body wasn’t much better at that.  His coat was patchy at best and frequently his flesh was cracked open and dry. He raised his medical apparatus at me and I got a shot off but it buried itself in the ground right below him. A small dart flew from his hoof with a rush of air and pricked me right in the foreleg. I could feel that something wasn’t right nearly immediately. Concentrating my magic I took another shot at the stallion. This one grazed his side; it looked like it didn’t even hurt him.
“Is that the best you can do?” he asked. I heard the reports of Rimfire’s gun as she shot at the crazed doctor. He leapt to the side to avoid her spray of bullets, but one caught him on the hoof. The hoof was torn off with a sickening squelch and landed in a pile of black blood and green pus. His wound oozed onto the floor as he inspected it. “Interesting,” he said nonchalantly.
Whatever the doctor had put on the dart was working, my vision was fading in and out of color, focus to unfocused. I was swimming on a cloud of consciousness. I felt the cold edge of Starburst’s armor next to me, holding me from swaying. He had some sort of canister in his hoof but I couldn’t read it clearly at all. Starburst opened the tin and poured about half its contents into my mouth and I swallowed hard on the chalky tablets.
I’d felt the effects of Mint-als a few times in my life, and I knew that they could be incredibly addictive. My mind quickly burnt through the stupor I’d been in. Starburst gave me mint-als, what’s he doing now? He was removing a syringe from his suit and stuck it into my foreleg. I couldn’t move due to whatever effects I was under, but the mint-als had allowed me to think inside my own head.
Starburst was moving his lips, saying something I couldn’t quite hear or understand. He depressed the plunger on the syringe sending a vile green liquid into me. He pulled it out and strafed away from me.
I wasn’t any sort of chem genius, and I hadn’t taken any of them aside from mint-als. This was like a blazing inferno to the icy effects of the mint-als. There wasn’t a point in my life where I felt this mad at anything. My breathing was ragged and I was shaking from pure fury. I couldn’t even say what exactly I was mad at. I turned to the crazed doctor. He had busied himself with Rimfire and had evaded her from long range. Now he was toe to toe with her and he had her dodging his knives as he slashed at her. She looked to have been agile enough to get out of his way, but her barding had nicks and cuts on it, she was on the ropes. Starburst had his guns aimed that the two, but he wasn’t shooting. He was probably too afraid that Rimfire would get shot. I knew I wouldn’t hit her.
I picked up my revolver from where it lay and took aim at the doctor’s head and pulled the trigger. The bullet went true and I saw a splatter of blood erupt from his head. It was strangely satisfying, yet there was a little voice inside my head telling me that it’d be better to use my hooves. I chalked it up to the chems Starburst had given me. The doctor stopped swinging at Rimfire and turned to me.
“Feeling better, I see,” he said. “Let’s see if we can fix that.” He leapt at me like no pony I’d ever seen before.  We weren’t even within thirty feet of each other and I could already tell he was going to make it. Starburst had had his guns locked on the stallion and was firing off shots left and right. A few connected and shot right through his body, but he wasn’t stopping. I readjusted my revolver and squeezed off another round. One of drugs must be affecting my accuracy or something, because once again I hit his skull. This time I hit the eye on the skeletal side of his face. The eye burst in a splash of gore. Before I could shoot again, his body collided with mine, throwing me off my balance and onto my back. His fore-stump was leaning on my chest as he held his knife array up high.
“It’s been real fun, kid,” he taunted. I knew my revolver wasn’t going to do anything, he didn’t seem to feel anything at all. As he brought down his armed foreleg to my face I grabbed my Tec9 and readied it. My preoccupation made it so I barely was able to move myself out of the way. I push the barrel to his forehead. “This again?”
I pulled the trigger. Twenty rounds screamed their way through his skull and to the side. Blood and visceral splashed over my body. The trigger clicked onto nothing and the doctor scoffed. He turned his head, cracking his neck, and I could see the light of the room through the new hole in his head. My mind was screaming at me to jam my hoof through it, that would make him hurt, but I knew it wouldn’t.
“Do something!” I yelled, fear creeping into my drugged rage. Instead of being answered by my companions the howling of ghouls filled the room. The doctor twisted his head to the tunnel we’d come through and he screamed.
“Filth! No!” he screamed, “Unworthy! Unclean!” The ghouls came piling into the room surrounded the doctor. None of them moved as they stared hungrily. The ghoul who had been chained up stopped struggling and looked forward calmly. One of the ghouls in the circle hurried to him and used a fallen knife to cut his mouth open.
“Hello, Doctor,” the ghoul said.
“Filth! You cannot speak! You aren’t worthy!” he screamed.
The chained ghoul ignored the doctor and looked at me. “Free the smoothcoat,” he said. Two of the ghouls came forward and bit into the doctor’s shoulder, dragging him off of me. He had stopped yelling and merely muttered “Filth” over and over. “Take him away,” he ordered. The ghouls surrounded the doctor and dragged him down one of the tunnels. Now it was just us and the ghoul.
“Will you free me?” he asked. I nodded. Snapping out of a stupor I stood up and walked in front of him. Rimfire and Starburst took up positions behind me.
“Yeah, where’s the key?” I asked.
“Check his lab tables.” Rimfire bounded off to the tables and searched frantically. She returned with a bronze key covered with dried blood. The ghoul was quickly freed. I could see a visible wave of relief wash over him as he walked away from the shackles. I saw the ghoul talking again, but I couldn’t hear him or even read his lips. He must have seen that I was in a spot because he looked at me with a trace of worry in his eyes. I felt Starburst next to me. Carefully, he lowered me to the ground and laid me on my side. The steady film of rage and clarity receded and I felt just as hollow and sluggish as I was before. Starburst gently twisted my head to face him.
“The drugs are fading, Short,” he said, “I gave you mint-als and stampede.” I wanted to both yell at him and thank him, but I just couldn’t move my mouth like that, all I could do was just grunt and mumble.  Starburst turned to the ghoul and started talking again. This time I couldn’t understand him, or what the ghoul said back to him. The ghoul walked forward and examined me. He and Starburst exchanged some more information. Soon enough all three of them were discussing with words I couldn’t hear.
Rimfire and the ghoul trotted off towards the lab tables. I tried to stand up, but I couldn’t even move my hooves a little. Starburst put his hooves on my shoulders and held me tight. 
“You’re going to be fine,” he said, "Rimfire and the Ghoul are going to grab the cure.” I wanted to say anything to him, but I couldn’t. “Don’t worry.” His face was swimming in front of me. He looked away and then back to me. “They’re coming now.” I felt slimy flesh on the side of my muzzle and my vision turned to see the ghoul’s face. On his hoof he had a syringe applicator like the doctor had had, but less complicated.  He jabbed it into my neck and I felt flames and my blood felt like it was boiling, but I felt alive.


END OF CHAPTER 7
Level up!
Guns 40
Perk Gained: Gunslinger. You’ve decided that guns are the way of the future, and the key to surviving.(+5 to guns and repair.)
	
> Red River
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Chapter 8 Red River


As I lay there, getting better slowly, Rimfire, the ghoul, and Starburst stood in front of me. This was the first time I really got a good look at the ghoul. He was in the middle, height wise; he was taller than Rimfire, and just a hair shorter than Starburst. His skin was mostly gone, exposing the grey and green muscle mass beneath. I could see where the doctor had mades cuts and injections on the ghoul. Some of his body was hanging down in flaps, some of it was bloated with a dark coloring under the skin. All of his mane and tail were gone.
“Feeling better?” he asked me. I tried to sit up, but my legs just wouldn’t support me, even though I felt back to normal. I settled to just nod. “That’s excellent. He hit you with some sort of ghoul toxin he was trying to make. An elixir to turn perfectly healthy ponies into ghouls.”
Starburst looked amused. “Some doctor, huh? Doesn’t he know that only very few ponies can become ghouls?”
“Who knows,” the ghoul said, “maybe he was onto something.”
“What’s your name?” I asked him.
“Call me... Ghoul,” Ghoul said.
“Just Ghoul?” Rimfire asked. He nodded.
“I lost my name long ago, it doesn’t matter now.”
“What happened here?” I asked Ghoul.
“I don’t know. I came here because I heard of the ghouls and I was hoping there would be some who were intelligent. Just ferals, but they were different, savage. Not just aggressive like normal, but these seemed to love killing.” He turned his eyes downwards. “Eventually I was able to communicate with the ghouls and they saw me as some sort of a leader. They still do. I found the tunnels and then the Doctor. He chained me up about... two days ago and experimented on me.”
“That’s awful,” Starburst murmured.
“At least I kept my sanity,” Ghoul said. “What brought you three here?”
“We’re going to New Pegasus,” I said.
Ghoul’s ears perked. “Oh? Why?”
“No reason really,” I told him. “Just kind of going with the flow.”
“Flow, huh? Well... you got room for one more?” For the second time, Ghoul surprised me. I could tell from their expressions that Rimfire and Starburst were surprised as well. 
“Why would you want to come with us?” Rimfire asked.
Ghoul shrugged. “Not much to do here, not much to do anywhere actually.”
“What about the Doctor?” I asked. “Don’t you have him to take care of?”
A smile crept onto Ghoul’s face. “The feral’s will make short work of him. Maybe bullets didn’t work, but tearing him apart probably will.” The mental of image of the ghouls and the doctor make me a little queasy.
“Can you take care of yourself in a fight?” Starburst asked.
“Sure I can, I just need to find me a new knife.”
“Where’d the old one go?”
“I stuck it where the sun don’t shine on the Doctor before he chained me up,” Ghoul said, “Damn it was worth it.” He seemed like quite the pony, and we couldn’t just leave him here on his own. And I owed him for my life.
“Yeah, there’s room for one more,” I told him.
“That’s great news. Now... I should probably get all your names,” he said.
“Oh, right,” I said flustered. “I’m Short. This is Rimfire and this is Starburst.” I gestured to the ponies on my sides.
“It’s a real pleasure to meet ya’,” Ghoul said.
“Now is there any way to get out of here?” I asked him.
“Yeah, any of the tunnels should take us to the surface in one way or another,” he explained. “But I wouldn’t take the tunnel the ferals went down. Might be a bit messy.”
“We just need a place to sleep,” Rimfire said, “We were interrupted by ghouls before and were corralled down here.”
“I’ll take you to a surface house,” Ghoul offered. He turned to face down a tunnel opposite the one we entered with. “And the ferals won’t attack while I’m with you.”
Ghoul led us down one of the tunnels. The toll of what we’d been doing in here started to take effect, at least it did to me. Our path was slightly curvier than the one we’d taken in, and it was also a great deal steeper. That meant we found the hole out much quicker. This house was in much rougher shape than the one we’d broken into. I was the last one to pile out of the hole and I collapsed onto the floor. A look around before I shut my eyes told me that Rimfire and Starburst were falling quickly asleep too.
I awoke to rays of sunlight striking my eyelids through the slates in the windows. I groaned and sat up. Starburst and Rimfire were both still snoring softly. I saw Ghoul had taken to lying on a chair that had been in the room. The pain in my back was telling me that the chair would have been a million times better. He was watching me wake up.
“Good morning,” he said softly, trying not to wake up the other two.
“Good morning,” I responded in kind.
“Hungry?” he asked. I shook my head, dinner last night had been plenty and I probably wouldn’t be hungry until we hit New Pegasus. “Then I bet you’re keen to ask me how I came to be here then.”
“You told us last night. You came looking for other smart ghouls.”
“Yeah, that’s the upshot of it,” he said. “But I lived a life before that I’ll have you know.”
“Since before the war happened?”
Ghoul looked thoughtful for a moment. “I was born a few years before the war started. I was just getting into a university when the threat of balefire bombs became real.” He chuckled a little. “Mom was always trying to get us to move into the countryside. ‘We’d be less of a target if we did that,’ she said.”
“Did you do it?” I asked.
“Hah.” He shook his head and grinned. “Naw, we didn’t do that.  New Pegasus didn’t even get hit with a big balefire anyways. I’m not sure the exact missiles we got hit with, but they were small. The bigwigs in charge of the main strip had a shield set up, like Canterlot, and that stopped most of the damage, to the Strip at least. You saw what was around it.”
“Where were you when it happened?”
“We were ‘evacuated’,” he couldn’t hold his sarcasm in. “That basically left us in the sewers. Safest part of the city if you didn’t have the money to get into the shield. The bombs were mostly for a big bang, but they had a little radiation, but it was enough to ghoulify a good amount of us down there.”
“That’s awful,” I said. Rimfire and Starburst were getting up now, each of them stretching the kinks from their bones.
“Mornin’,” we said in near unison. Rimfire only grumbled in response. Since I’d known her she hadn’t been a morning pony. 
“How’s it looking?” Starburst asked.
“Weather’s... nice,” Ghoul said. I looked out the window. The sun was shining as always, clouds never really filled the desert sky here. I saw one cloud in the sky, it was dark grey and appeared to be over the east side of New Pegasus. A single cloud wasn’t something to raise an eyebrow at, but it looked like rain cloud, and that was something new. “It’s a clear path to New Pegasus from here.  We can take route 5 and hit the Gutters in a couple hours.”
“Then what?” Rimfire asked between bites of a nutrient bar she’d take from her pack. “Do we want to go to the casinos or are we just going to fuck around?”
“We could see Brass,” I offered.
“Brass?” Starburst asked.
“He’s my good friend,” Rimfire said, “he sells guns and ammo.” I saw Starburst eyeing my armor.
“Where can Short get some new armor?” Starburst asked.
“Brass can find some,” she said. “He did offer it last time,” he reminded me.
“I know, I know. It wasn’t as bad last time,” I rebutted. She waved it off.
Ghoul spoke up. “I’d suggest we get a move on. The ferals will have finished with the dear Doctor by now.” The three of us gather our packs.
“So?” Rimfire asked. “Will they attack us now?”
“Probably not,” Ghoul said, “but there might be a small gas explosion soon.” The three of us had our bags on and guns packed.
“What?” Starburst demanded.
“I’m pretty sure there will be a poisonous gas leak now that the Doctor is dead.”
“Why the fuck did you let us sleep here then?” Rimfire asked.
“For one thing, he wouldn’t be dead until right around now. The ferals would have wanted to take it slowly. Second, the Doctor would have something like that. He talked a lot of himself while he tortured me.” We didn’t stand still enough to talk more after that. Our hooves hit the road and we beat it out of Neyope.Sure enough, not ten minutes after we got onto route 5 there was a small rumble under our hooves. We didn’t hear any explosion or see any flames, but we knew we’d made the right decision to leave.
“Let’s see what that radio stallion has to say about that,” Ghoul chuckled.
“Who? Pon3?” I asked.
“Who else? That stallion knows everything that happens in Equestria these days. You can get the station on your PipBuck,” Ghoul said, he was looking at me. I used my PipBuck, I was getting quite good at it now, and navigated to the radio menus. Sure enough Galaxy News was listed. I’d never really set much stock to Pon3, but I’d listened to it whenever it was on if I didn’t have anywhere to be. As soon as I hit play sweet music began to play through the surprisingly high quality speakers. It was just our luck that the song ended soon after and we could hear Pon3’s voice.
“Greetings, Equestrian wastelanders! It’s me, Pon3! It looks like I’ve got a bit of news out of New Pegasus. Seems that the ghoul-town of Neyope has been, well, cleaned. Sources can’t say who did it, but the ghouls have been quiet. Now it only happened last night, but I’m told that everything’s settling down. But now, some music.” Pon3’s voice faded and a soft piano music started playing. I turned off the radio.
Ghoul laughed. “Isn’t that something?”
“What?” Rimfire asked.
“He always knows... always. There’s been no one here but us, guys. He had to have been here!” 
“Eh,” I said warily, “I don’t think he was.”
“What? How else could he have known?”
“I think it’s what he didn’t know,” Starburst said. “He didn’t mention the explosion, if that’s what it was. He obviously wasn’t close enough to feel it.”
“Watching the clouds?”
“You’re saying he’s a pegasus now?” I asked.
“I’m just saying it’s suspicious.” We dropped the topic and got back to walking.
We were two hours out of Neyope when we heard a cry for help. Off the road among some small desert shrubs was a mare’s upper half, the rest of her was obscured. She had a golden brown coat with some blue mane. Her left leg was wrapped in white linen and stained red. She saw us turn towards her and started screaming again. I started to run towards her but Starburst stopped me.
“I’ll cover you three,” he said. I nodded and the three of us headed down to see the mare. She had stopped screaming as we got closer. I could see now that she was an earth pony, and she wasn’t well off. No noticeable armor or weapon made guessing how she got the way she was easy to guess. We stopped about ten paces away, just before the shrubs started popping up. From the corner of my eye I could see Starburst getting a good line of fire on us.
“What’s the problem?” I asked her. I tried to mask my wariness, but I wasn’t the bullshitter I used to be.
“I was attacked by raiders,” she said hurriedly, “I-I can’t move my legs. Please, you have to help me!” I took a step closer.
“Raiders?” I asked. She looked like something raiders would have their way with, but why the wrapped foreleg? She nodded. On my E.F.S she was green, which meant good. “Alright.” I turned to the others. “Keep an eye out,” I told them, “in case they come back.” I walked the rest of the way to the mare. I stopped right before her when I felt the unfamiliar pinch of metal under my hoof.
“Th-they made me do it,” she squeaked. I ignored the mare and looked down. Around my hoof I could make out circular disk of a landmine. There was rustling in the shrubs ahead of us. Legs. heads, and weapons started to pop out from them. There must have been at least ten raiders, but judging from the barding they wore, they looked like slavers. I could see a few hanging horns and cut-off sections of skin bearing cutie marks. I’d seen slavers do such things before.
The lead slaver had a smile filled with yellowed, broken teeth. “Drop yer guns,” he said. I took in the lot of them. Only two of them had guns. One held a small pistol in his mouth, the other had an assault rifle on a jerry-rigged battle saddle; it looked like an AK, but I wasn’t sure. It was pretty beat up. The rest of them had a varying array of melee weapons held in their mouths. The lead slaver didn’t have anything like that, instead he had a switchblade strapped to each of his forehooves. “You gonna make me ask twice?” I saw Starburst again and tried to stop him from shooting, I wanted to see if I could get the mare away, but I couldn’t do anything. He didn’t use his machine guns, instead a plume of smoke erupted from his back as a black cylinder shot towards us. The missile exploded in the midst of the slavers. I saw five of them obliterated in the blast and shrapnel. Smoke and debris blew past the rest of us. I’d have dodge in the moment of confusion, but the landmine would have killed me in a second.
I’d heard of other unicorns using their magic to cheat around with explosives. I hadn’t used my magic for much more than a pair of hands. I took a deep breath and quickly formed a small telekinetic disk under my hoof. In front of me, the lead slaver had dealt with the debris and was staring at me lividly. He struck out with a hoof and the switchblade extended, threatening to slit my throat. I ducked back and tried to backflip away.
I landed on my back three feet from the landmine, far, maybe far enough. The slaver with the blades was stalking towards me. I removed the magic disk and the landmine exploded into his gut. He stood for a moment before blood and a black liquid poured from his mouth and he dropped. I looked around, Rimfire and Ghoul had managed to deal with the rest of the slavers. The mare was still lying behind the bush; she was cowering in the fetal position. I got off my back and trotted over to her. Stepping around the bush I got a look at her back legs. They’d have spikes driven through them at the joint.
“Holy shit,” I murmured. The scared mare unfurled and looked at me, tears in her eyes.
“Help me,” she begged quietly.
“I don’t know if I can,” I said honestly. She wasn’t well off, her back legs were caked with blood and grime. If the blood loss didn’t kill her, a disease surely would. There was no way for us to carry her. I felt Rimfire and Ghoul at my side, and I could hear that Starburst wasn’t far off.
“Hydra... potion... something... please,” she begged again. I could tell she was trying to talk louder, but her voice was shaky and scared.
“They wouldn’t work,” Starburst said, he was standing next to the mare. He knelt beside her. She stared at him, her eyes beginning to tear up. She must have not been here long, she was dying. “It’s too far along now. The rods look like they’re in the middle of an artery, you’d bleed out if we removed them.” Starburst put an arm over her as she started shivering.
“B-but,” she started to say, but he stopped her.
“The pain will go away,” he said. Starburst took a syringe out of one of the small pouches he had. He took off the cap and administered it to the mare. I knew it was Med-X, but would it matter? “Do you understand what’s happening?” he asked. She nodded slowly. “I’m sorry.” Starburst embraced the mare and held her tight. She laid her head on his shoulder, and I could droplets run down his armor.
A minute later, she was gone, and we buried her under the loose gravel and sand. Starburst looked like he wanted to say something, but he didn’t. No one did. Ghoul grabbed the switchblades from the leader and strapped them on. He looked at the three of us.
“To New Pegasus, eh?” he asked.
“Yeah, New Pegasus,” Rimfire agreed. Her voice didn’t waiver, she was stronger that I was.
“Let’s go,” Starburst said. His voice was also back to normal, it was like he hadn’t felt the mare die in front of us. Maybe I was just different.
“I think,” I began, pausing, “that I need to go back to the bunker.” 
Starburst turned to me. “The key?” he asked. I nodded. “Why the sudden decision?”
I looked away from the three of them. “I don’t know,” I said. “I don’t want this weight on my shoulders right now. The Rangers, the NER, and that gang. All of them want the key, and so many ponies are going to die like this mare. If I can do something that will stop even one of them dying, I’m going to do it.”
“Why the Rangers?” he asked. I could tell that he was genuinely curious.
“The NER want a weapon, I don’t think Soap does.” I looked right at Starburst. “And if she’s anything like you, she’s the right choice.”
“Just be sure,” he said. Rimfire turned to him.
“What’s that supposed to mean? Don’t you trust your leader?” she asked.
“Hell, of course I trust her. It’s everyone out east that I don’t. The Steel Ranger modus operandi is to acquire technology. It’s only by sheer force of intelligence that Soap isn’t like that.”
“She’s a good change?” I asked.
He rolled his eyes. “The best goddamn elder in twenty years. Well, we had two others in that time. Rigged and Daylight, both of them had no problem with killing wastelanders for any shiny laser they might have.”
“And Soap wouldn’t?” Rimfire asked.
Starburst shook his head. “Never, at most she’d ask for them politely. If there was a dangerous thing somewhere, we’d do our best to make sure any regular pony doesn’t hurt himself. Under her our morale increased and normal ponies didn’t shoot us on sight. It’s been a good two years.”
“Then I’ve made my choice,” I said. All of them understood, except for Ghoul.
“So we’re not going to New Pegasus?” he asked. I shook my head. “Then I guess I’ll catch you on the flipside.”
“You’re not coming with us now?” Rimfire asked.
“Nope, I’m not a ghoul for the bigger picture, at least not anymore. Sorry, kid.” Ghoul spat on the ground, turned, and walked off. Over his shoulder he yelled, “Maybe we’ll see each other again!”
“One day,” I said, and I meant it.
We walked all day and into the night. It took longer than expected due to the wide berth we gave Neyope. After Balefire Point, Starburst took the lead. I didn’t have the geographic sense to find the bunker in the early hours. With Starburst leading, the guards didn’t give us any trouble and let us right in. Blaze was standing with the door guards, his expression nearly unchanged from when I’d last seen him. His eyes stuck on me, stagnant yet depthless. Starburst led Rimfire and I towards the Elder’s room once again. 
Once we were inside he said, “she wouldn’t appreciate us barging into her room, I’m sure she’ll have been told you’re back though.” He was right. Not more than five minutes later she walked in. She looked as though she hadn’t been sleeping; her mane was well-kept, her coat smooth, and dress perfect.
“Welcome back,” she said with a sly smile.
“I had something to give you,” I said. She nodded. I placed the key on her desk.
“Are you sure?” she asked. Had it been any other pony, I’d have been sure it wasn’t sincere, but she was. 
“Mostly,” I told her truthfully. “Starburst said a lot of kind words about you. It helped my decision.”
Her smile widened. “Thank you both. Now I invite you all to spend the night here. Refresh and reload before you head out again. If you decide to...” She placed the key in one of the drawers. “Starburst, I take it you can show them some quarters?”
“I sure can,” he answered. “Follow me.” Our room had the nicest beds I’d ever slept in, and one for each of us. I didn’t wake up until noon, at least that’s what my PipBuck said. There weren’t any windows or clocks in the bunker as far as I’d seen. Starburst wasn’t in the room, and Rimfire was sitting on her bed, cleaning her gun.
“Where’s Starburst?” I asked.
Rimfire didn’t look up, she was busy inspecting the barrel of her rifle. “He said something about getting food for us. He left a couple minutes ago.” I rolled onto my stomach and stretched a little. It would probably do me a lot of good to think about our next move. It felt like a huge load had been taken off my back once I’d put my trust in Elder Soap and her Rangers. There were so many other things to deal with. The bullets, Churchane, and the NER probably wouldn’t be too happy if they saw me. There sure wasn’t a hell of a lot I could do about the NER right now, not unless Soap gave me all her paladins, and that didn’t seem likely. I checked my PipBuck for messages, I hadn’t gotten one about the bullets either, so that was out. That just left dealing with Church. I knew there was no way I could get the caps to pay him back; we’d spent most of them on guns and ammo.
Rimfire must have seen me looking troubled. “We’re not going to New Pegasus at all are we?” It barely sounded like a question.
“I’m not,” I said, “I don’t know what you or Starburst want to do.”
“You think we’d leave you hanging this far along? Well, I sure wouldn’t, I don’t know about Starburst but I think he’d stick with us.” I nodded along, of course he would, if he was allowed. 
“For sure,” I said, pausing.
“Where are you thinking of going?” she asked.
“Manehattan,” I told her. When she raised an eyebrow I continued, “Churchane. He’ll keep trying to kill you or me until we deal with him first.”
“I see,” she said. “You know it’s on the other side of Equestria right?”
“Yeah, but there’s a few stops on the way, shouldn’t be all that terrible.” She didn’t look convinced. “If we go to New Appleloosa, follow the rail to Baltimare, and then it’s just north along the coast to Manehattan.” I was lucky I’d had the PipBuck’s map to give me a quick guide. Just then the door swung open and Starburst walked in. On his back he was balancing a tray with a few assorted muffins.
“I got breakfast,” he said. He placed the tray on one of the beds and we each took a few muffins. Rimfire filled him in on the plan as we ate. “Hmph,” was all he said.
“You don’t like it?” I asked. He looked at me.
“I never said I didn’t like it,” he said quickly.
“You’re coming right?” Rimfire asked.
“I wouldn’t leave you now,” he said. “Besides, I couldn’t let you two got out there alone, it’s dangerous.”
“When can we leave?” I asked.
“After we get your armor repaired,” Starburst said, and I knew it wasn’t a suggestion. I sighed lightly and took off the armor, I held it aloft with my magic. “Let’s go to the armory, the mare will do it for free.” Starburst led the two of us to the bunker armory, it wasn’t that far away from the room. It was a long, grey room that was seperated into two sections. The first section, which was smaller, was what we stood in. The other section was cut off from us by a u-shaped wall. Beyond the opening a mare sat tinkering with a small plasma pistol. 
“Hey Starburst,” she said without looking up. “I knew you’d be back.” Starburst smiled.
“Well I did say I would, so here I am.” He gestured to me. I placed my battered armored onto the table in front of the mare. She looked at it with slight disgust.
“What’d you do to this poor armor?” she asked. “You are all monsters.” She faked a sniffle.
“Can you make it better?” he asked.
The mare laughed. “As if you even needed to ask! I’ll have it mended in five minutes, I can give it a strong backing in ten more.”
“Then please,” I said, speaking up, “fix my armor.” She looked up me.
“Sure thing.” She took the armor with her as she took it behind the wall. I heard something turn on and a loud, reverberating thrumming filled the room. Starburst took us out into the entryway.
“Hey,” he said, “I’m going to get my chems filled up. Do you know how to get back outside?” I nodded. “Then I’ll see you outside, don’t leave without me.” He took off down the hall.
Rimfire and I waited until the Armory Mare called us in. She looked surprised when Starburst wasn’t with us. The armor was folded nicely on the counter. I reached to get some caps and she stopped me.
“No charge for you, I owed something to Starburst. A long time debt finally paid, I suppose.” I took the armor and started to pull it on. It was a much tighter fit, I had to suck my gut in to get it on fully; and I could feel whatever strengthening she had done to it. When I had gotten it on, I felt a lot safer already.
“Thanks,” I said. She gave a small curtsy and turned back to the plasma pistol. Rimfire and I exited to the main hallway, it was mostly empty at this point.
“You’re probably not used to the extra weight,” Rimfire said. I could tell she was talking about the new barding. “You won’t be able to dodge as well with that on.” She paused, and added quietly, “not that you could do all that much before.” I gave her a fake laugh, but didn’t respond after that. The two of us walked to the entrance of the bunker. We weren’t both one hundred percent sure how to get, but a few of the initiates were willing to give us a quick point to the right direction. Eventually we found ourselves in front of the door that would lead outside. The usual two guards were there, and so was Blaze. I wondered if he ever left the spot. We were about to leave through the door when Blaze appeared in front of me, I don’t think I even saw him move.
“You need to be careful,” he said. His voice was surprisingly soft and sweet for his appearance. I hadn’t looked at him closely before, but around his neck were hints of burns that extended down into his armor.
“We always are,” I told him. He shook his head violently.
“No, be more careful, or you’ll die.”
“Is that a threat?” Rimfire asked. She had moved up beside me. He shook his head again.
“I... see things,” Blaze said. “And there aren’t a lot of ponies who believe me, but I know they’re true.” He was practically begging us to trust him now.
“Alright, what did you see?” I asked.
His eyes dropped a little as he responded. “I saw a terrible, green fire, burning you and everyone around you,” he said.
“Rimfire and Starburst?” I asked, my voice choking a little as I spoke.
“No, you and some other pony. I don’t see any other ponies with you two.”
“What does the other pony look like?” Rimfire asked.
“His mane was purple, and I think his coat was ashen, it didn’t look natural.” I knew in a heartbeat who that was.
“It’s Church,” I said slowly. “Did we both die?” I asked.
“I didn’t see you dying,” he said, “I only-” He was cut off by Starburst walking into the room. He had a smile on his face and walked with a sense of pride. It looked like he’d also had his armor touched up, it was a lot cleaner than it had been before.
“Are we ready?” he asked. We were. We left the bunker just a little while after noon. The three of us headed directly south, taking a trail that lead between Balefire Point and Goodsprings. By dusk the highway that lead east out of New Pegasus was nearing the horizon. We broke for the night in the cave I found Crescent’s journal and started this whole crazy adventure. The body wasn’t there anymore, but that wasn’t cause for much alarm; not in the wasteland, anyway.
The next day we left the cave at dawn, hoping to be halfway to Old Appleloosa by nightfall. I’d never had a problem with the slave trade, so long as they never looked at me like they looked at the slaves. I didn’t like it, but what could one pony do? There wasn’t a way to free every pony that was ever captured, not unless you had an army of thousands.
The road wasn’t terrible, that’s why we took it to New Pegasus in the first place. In a hundred miles it took a turn to the north, which would take us to Canterlot, but that would be a death sentence. If we took the direction that the road would take us, we’d find a broken, end-of-the-line train station. That railroad would take us through Old Appleloosa in four days, five if we were going slow for some reason. 
We made the station in good time; it had only taken two days to get there, we arrived the night of the second day. The station was an old, decrepit wooden building. It was two stories tall with boarded up windows every ten feet. Whoever had first decided to occupy the building must have been no good with a lockpick because instead of using the front door he’d blasted a hole in the side. It wasn’t the largest station I’d seen in my travels, not that I’d seen many, but it was decent. Currently, the place was a trading post of sorts; ponies used it was a watering hole on the way to New Pegasus if they came this way. When we walked in, the owner looked relieved to see Rimfire and I. She was a black-coated unicorn with a caramel mane. She had inherited the place from her mother, who had opened both it and the hole in the wall. 
“Thank Celestia you’re here,” she said.
“What’s the matter, River?” I asked. She leaned on the counter. The placed was set up like an old general store. You told River what you wanted and she got it from the back room.
“Jade went missing last night,” River said. Jade was River’s earth pony assistant, and the pony she sent to get any supplies she needed from Ditzy in Appleloosa, at least when Ditzy had been around.
“What happened?” Rimfire asked, her voice concerned.. During the night we’d stayed here, Rimfire and Jade had become surprisingly good friends.
“The other night I went to bed after closing, Jade said he saw a caravan headed to Old Appleloosa and he was going to see if they needed a trade really quick. I thought nothing of it, but when I woke up, he hadn’t returned.”
“You think that is was a caravan or...,” I didn’t say anything else.
She shut her eyes and sighed heavily. “That’s an idea I didn’t want to have, Short.”
“Any idea what could have happened?” Rimfire asked.
“It’s been so long, I’m afraid they may have taken him to Appleloosa, I heard that there was a ruckus there.” I could tell River was close to tears. “I just don’t know, Rimfire.”
“Tell you what,” I said, “we’re on our way to Appleloosa as it is. If we see Jade, we’ll send him along this way. Okay?”
“That’d be great, Short.” We spent the night there. 
As we left I couldn’t help the feeling that River wasn’t too happy with Starburst having been there. Though, with the state of the Steel Rangers around here, that wasn’t much of a shocker. Before the New Pegasus branch of Rangers, I hadn’t met one I’d liked. We still had a long way to go to Appleloosa, another two days at the least.
I had forgotten how much more temperate this region was. I wasn’t much on meteorology but if I had to guess, it would be the increase of hills and mountains that brought down the temperature. The fact that the skies were permanetly filled with clouds couldn’t hurt either. Starburst seemed the most disconcerted by that fact. I’d never met a pony who thought that much on the clouds. We didn’t bother him about it, although it was slightly tempting.
Noon of the second day Old Appleloosa. I’d been here once or twice, but only ever in passing, and it had never looked like it did now. I didn’t recall a sturdy chainlink fence encompassing nearly the entire town, nor had there been guard patrols, each withfour well armed ponies comprising the groups. Bonfires had been lit all through the town. It looked close to daylight in the town itself. As we got closer, two of the patrols noticed us and converged to meet us. The lead pony that trotted up to meet us looked like he’d seen troubles. Half of his face was missing its coat and was riddled with deep scars. On that same side his ear was missing, only a small hole remained. His cutie-mark looked like a pair of manacles.
“You pals with that bitch?” he asked.
“Who?” I asked. He narrowed his eyes.
“If you don’t know the bitch, and you’re not a slaver, then you don’t have any business here,” he declared.
“Who’s the bitch?” I asked again.
“Little fuckin’ mare that came into town and fucked our shit and let the slaves go, but we got a plane to get her back.”
“Oh,” I said, trying to be nonchalant. “Plan?”
His eyes narrowed and he growled. “None of your damn business.”
“That’s great,” Rimfire spoke up, “but we’re looking for a pony.”
“Haven’t seen any,” the slaver said.
“Maybe you just forgot,” I said, “I heard caps are good for memory.”
His mouth turned into a greasy, sneering smile. “Now that’s something I can remember.” I used my magic to pass him forty caps. A few of the ponies looked nervous when they saw the butt of my revolver. I knew they wouldn’t directly attack, not right now. Nobody wants to start a fight with a pony who’s friends with a Steel Ranger.
“Have you seen a stallion with a deep green coat? He should have been near the railroad station about two days east of here,” Rimfire explained.
“I might have seen a slave like that,” he said. “But I don’t really-”
I cut him off. “If you say you don’t remember, I’ll blow a hole in your head.” He looked taken off guard. The ponies behind him decided to ready their guns regardless of the Steel Ranger present. 
“That’s a lot of lip,” he said. “And to think, only a few more feet and you’d be my slave.”
“Is he here, or is he not?” I asked. He and I knew what would happen if he chose not to answer.
“He was,” he admitted. “But he got sent off to Manehattan.”
“When?” Rimfire asked.
“Fuck you,” he said. I took a look at the ponies behind him. Most of them had assault rifles of varying types, one had a small automatic pistol. I didn’t even have to look too hard into town to see that fighting now wouldn’t be anywhere close to a smart idea. One the roofs of several of the buildings I could glints of light, probably scopes of rifles. We weren’t going to get anything more from talking, and even less from a fight, so we had no choice but to move on. New Appleloosa wasn’t more than two hours away with a good pace, but we made it in three. 
It was a ghost town. As we entered through the back with the train tracks, the only pony I could see that I instantly recognized was Crane, and he didn’t look like he was all that happy to be here. The three of us trotted up to him. He perked up as we approached.
“Crane, where is everyone?” I asked.
“They left, and for good reason,” he said.
“Why?” Rimfire asked.
“LilPip happened, but that’s old news now.”
“LilPip?” Starburst asked. The name was new to me as well.
“Stable dwelling unicorn,” Crane said. “She ran through Old Appleloosa and rolled a few heads. Now there’s just no business coming through. Everypony left because there aren’t any caps coming now. Frankly, I’m getting ready to go east.” Suddenly the increased security at Old Appleloosa made sense, and I knew who the ‘bitch’ was.
“I’m sorry to hear that, Crane,” I told him, and I was. “But when was the last slave train to come through here?”
He looked at me like I had three heads. “There hasn’t been a good slave train for about a week, Short.”
“What? But they...,” I stopped. If there was one thing I hated, it was being run-around. “Those motherfuckers,” I muttered. “Thanks for the help,” I said to Crane. The three of us walked off a bit from Crane and we huddled for a quick chat.
“Well, they got the best of us,” Starburst said.
“They sure did, Short,” Rimfire said, emphasizing my name.
“I don’t like that,” I told them.
“Duh,” Rimfire said, rolling her eyes. “The thing is, what are we going to do about it? There’s five times as many of them as us, and that’s just those patrolling it, not to mention anybody in it.” She had a point, which I hated to admit, but we weren’t going to be able to get in there in a fight.
“Any ideas?” I asked. Neither pony spoke up. “Then... we leave him?”
“I wouldn’t feel right just leaving him,” Starburst said.
“Then we definetly need a plan,” I said. The two nodded at that.
“A diversion,” Starburst said suddenly. “I can use a few of my rockets to make them chase and shoot at me. You two can use that oppurtunity to get in, get Jade, and get out.”
“You know, Starburst,” I said, “that’s almost like you plan to take on a whole town of slavers by yourself.”
“I’m pretty glad that what it sounds like,” Starburst retorted, “because that’s what it is.”
“Whoa,” Rimfire exclaimed. “Did you really think we’d let you do that?”
Starburst looked away from us. He started to rustle through his bags. “I wasn’t sure we had another plan.” From his bags he pulled out his helmet and put it on. “Unless either of you came up with one.” Neither of us had.
“Let’s just give ourselves a little but before we do that,” I said. Luckily neither of them could argue with giving it a little thinking time. On a brief walk through town, I recognized Ditzy’s shop, and it was open. I told Rimfire and Starburst I’d be right back and headed into the store. The store was just as I remembered, and it couldn’t have felt any better seeing Ditzy again. Only the fact that hugging her would consist of me wrapping myself around dead flesh stopped me. She gave a small smile when she saw me.
“Hey Ditzy,” I said as I walked through the door. “How’s things?”
She picked up her chalkboard and scribbled a little note. ‘Could be better’.
“Yeah, I heard from Crane. It’s real shitty that everybody’s leaving.” She shrugged. 
‘Slavers are bad’, she wrote.
“I can agree with that,” I said.
Ditzy wrote more. ‘How’s the caravan?’
“It was a success,” I said truthfully. She didn’t have to know about the assassins and the illegal drug trafficking. Ditzy smiled, or at least did what was close to a smile for a ghoul. “Hey, did you know a ghoul who went by Ghoul?” She stopped smiling.
‘Yes.’ When she didn’t write anything else I tried to egg her on. She changed it to just ‘No.’ I dropped the topic entirely.
“Well I got a new piece,” I said, putting my revolver on the counter in front of her. From her eyes alone I could tell she thought it was nice. Raising what remained of her eyebrows, she wrote a quick message.
‘You like revolvers don’t you?’ she asked. I grinned, she should have known. I practically begged her to let me buy my first .32 from her. She went below the counter and pulled up a large revolver. It wasn’t much longer than a snub nose, but it was wider and taller. I picked it up with my magic and inspected it. Pulling out the cylinder revealed that is used some sort of shotgun shell instead of bullets. I put it back down.
“How much?” I asked. It looked like a great piece. I’d be proud to place it along my Luna.
She scribbled, ‘On the house for succ. caravan.’ I could feel my cheeks flush.
“You don’t have to do that,” I said. Although it looked like she wasn’t going to take no for an answer, but I was too proud to take something for free, especially from Ditzy. I reached into my bag, and pulled the last of the caps I had. Even as I pulled it out I could tell it probably didn’t have enough caps to pay any price for the gun. Ditzy ignored the caps and pushed the gun closer to me with her hoof. “No way I’m just going to pay for this then?”
‘Nope,’ she wrote.
“Then how about a holster and some ammo?” I asked. Finally she conceded and put a leg holster on the counter with some shells. I’d always been partial to the side holster, but the leg holsters did fascinate me. It was essentially a band of leather with a buckle that secured itself above the hoof. The holster for the gun lay on the inside of the step, and around the rest of the strap were loops for ammo. I could tell that the revolver was made for this because the loops had been enlarged for shells. I took the holster, put it on my leg and then slid the revolver and shells in. It was a little strange having a couple pounds resting on my leg, but it wasn’t terrible, and I’d get used to it. When I looked back on the counter, the caps were gone. “What do you call this thing?”
She wrote, ‘Cloudsdale.’ 
“Why? Remembrance?”  Ditzy nodded. As much as I loved chatting with her, I knew it couldn’t. I had business to attend to. Rimfire and Starburst were waiting for me outside. “Are we ready?” I asked.
“For lack of a better plan, yeah,” Rimfire said, I could hear total disappointment in her voice. I was worried about it too. She looked at my new holster and gun. “Eh?” she asked, gesturing towards it.
“It’s the Cloudsdale, a new revolver. I got it from Ditzy.”
“Ahem,” Starburst grunted, “but the sun’s going to set soon. We should get a move on.” He had been right, and when we got within a hundred yards of Old Appaloosa dusk had arrived. Starburst kept walking when we stopped. Neither Rimfire nor I liked this plan, but it was all we had. He turned back to us quickly, I wish I could see his eyes now more than ever, but he’d put his helmet on. “Relax, this armor’s good.”
When he was only fifty yards from the fence, patrols were converging on him, and I could see, with the help of the bonfires, the scopes of the snipers aiming towards him. One of the slavers approached him cautiously. I tried to make out if it was the same one as before, but I wasn’t able to. Starburst didn’t wait to be talked to, he let loose with both of his machine guns. A few of the slaver who had held back were able to dodge or jump out of the way, but a majority of them were quickly riddled with bullets. The slaver who had approached him was the most unfortunate. A fine red mist was gushing from his as Starburst shot, splattering his friends with splashes of blood. The stunned snipers started to fire, but their shots weren’t strong enough to pierce through the power armor. Starburst shot two missiles, one at a cluster of snipers on the roofs, and another at the gate in fence. The roof exploded sending bodies flying. The gate was blown open. Starburst took off to the side, shooting randomly into the town. Ponies were streaming out of the buildings and taking chase. 
Rimfire and I started to creep up towards the hole in fence. Nobody paid us any mind as we passed through. There was screaming and explosions creating a din where I knew trying to talk to Rimfire would be useless. Around us were small, wooden and metal buildings. In the middle of the town we could see a larger building. I tapped Rimfire on the back and pointed towards the building. She nodded and took off towards it in a run. 
When we got closer I could make out more of the details. It looked like it had been a large saloon, maybe three stories tall. It was mostly wood, but some of it had been patch with scrap metal. The front of the building had four sets of double doors. On either side were two guards. They looked incredibly uncomfortable to be there. We scouted the all around but there were only the four doors. Rimfire drew her assault rifle, I took out the Cloudsdale. It only had five shells, but I could easily swap for the Luna if I didn’t have time to reload. The Cloudsdale was a good pound heavier than my other revolver, so I couldn’t be as agile with it. But then again, if I shot first I wouldn’t need to dodge. Rimfire and I were standing around the corner from the two guards.  They were on a small patio that extended from the front of the saloon. I leapt onto the steps, gun raised. The guard closest to me saw me first. They were both mares.
The first guard swung the barrel of her shotgun at me, but I was ready for her. My first blast caught her in the chest, throwing her back a few inches and taking her off her legs. The second guard had taken notice and was pulling around with the pistol gripped tightly in her mouth. I took a shot at her but it glanced the side of her face, taking some ear with it. She fired a burst of three shots at me, two getting me on the side of my chest, knocking the wind right out of me, the third missed. I shot again at her, this time she fell back and didn’t get up. I looked down, the two bullets were embedded on the metal inserts of my new armor. Rimfire stepped onto the patio after me. She pushed one of the doors open and it swung in easily.
The room looked like it’s seen happier days. Broken tables and chairs occupied the sides of the rooms. In the center there were large, metal spikes which had been jammed into the ground and ponies were chained to the spikes. In the back of the room, on a stage, were a pile of explosives the likes of which I’d never seen before. I looked at the dirty and chained ponies. 
“Do you see Jade?” I asked Rimfire, it was quiet enough on the inside to hear each other. In fact, it had become awfully quiet even during the quick shootout. 
She must have noticed it too. “Starburst must be in danger!”
“Look for Jade first,” I said quickly. The two of us took to the slaves. Most of them shied away from our glances, some just laid there.
“Here he is!” Rimfire exclaimed. I hurried around to her and looked at the stallion she’d found. There we was, plain as day. His coat was dirty, nearly unrecognizable from a distance. Rimfire was fiddling with the lock to the chain around his neck. “I can’t get it off,” she said. Neither of us were particularly good at picking locks.
“Can we blow off the chain?” I asked her. She shook her head. 
“There’s not enough chain. We’d likely blow his head off.” I cursed sourly. There wasn’t anything to cut it with, and as Rimfire said, using a bomb was right out. Our meddling must have roused him from his stupor. He started to freak out even as Rimfire tried to help.
“What the fuck! What the fuck!” he yelled. The other ponies started to move around as well.
“Shut it!” I yelled, firing the Cloudsdale upwards towards the ceiling. “Where’s the key?” I asked. Nobody spoke up. I rubbed my temple, wishing we’d picked up a laser pistol or something. “Fucking A,” I cursed again. I heard a clattering and a manacle fell to the ground. Rimfire had succeeded at the lock.
“I didn’t think I could do that,” she said happily. Jade got up, his breathing heavy, nearly a wheeze.
“Rimfire?” he asked, looking at her frantically. She nodded.
“I’m really glad to see you,” he said. 
I butted in. “We need to get out of here.” 
“But what about the rest of them?” Jade asked. “They deserve life too!” 
“We don’t have time, Jade! If we don’t go now,” I said angrily.
“You’ll die the same,” A voice came from the stage. I looked up to see a gaunt, white-coated mare standing on top of the pile of explosives. “Hmm, you’re not that horrible, nasty mare.”
“Who are you?” I asked. Rimfire and Jade were backing up towards the entrance. The mare eyed them cautiously.
“I’m no one, a slaver. A slave. Who are you? You are not her.” I’d had just about enough of her mystic nonsense. I drew my revolver and took aim, but she spoke up. “Kill me and we all die. For we are all linked.”
“Well you seem to be standing between us and going home,” I said cooly. The mare smiled.
“I don’t care who you are, you are not her. The slave isn’t her either. Go.” The three of us turned tail and ran. 
New Appleloosa was in chaos. Slavers were screaming, running to and fro, putting out fires, trying to set up fire lines. We ran out of the town. Our only cover was hoping that no one would bother with us. Luckily they didn’t.
We sent Jade off on his way halfway to Appleloosa. We hadn’t met up with Starburst yet, but we’d prepared for that. Rimfire and I would stay in town until noon of tomorrow waiting for him. If he hadn’t returned by then, well, he’d know the risks, and so had we.
Ditzy was happy to let us stay the night. She put us up in her guest room. There was a small mare in the room when we walked in. She ran out of the room when she saw us. I wondered if Ditzy knew she had a squatter. I shrugged it off, she was probably looking at it for someone. Rimfire and I shared the sole bed as we went to sleep.


We were awoken by knocking at the door. I stumbled out of bed and opened it. Starburst stood on the other side of the threshold. It looked like he’d seen better days. His armor looked chewed up, and some dents still had fragments of bullets in them. Even the visor on his helmet was cracked, the impact set right between where his eyes would be.
“Morning, Short,” he said to me. “I take it you slept well. Is he okay?”
“Howdy, Starburst. Jade is fine, we sent him on his way. He’ll probably think twice about chasing ‘caravans’.” I let Starburst into the room and he made a beeline for the bed. On arrival he hefted himself onto it and laid back. The metal frame creaked under the massive weight, but didn’t break. He took off his helmet and let it fall to the side. A few shards of glass came loose when it hit the floor.
“Did you figure out what they were doing?” he asked us. Both Rimfire and I said no. Rimfire said it with more a grunt, she was still trying to hold onto sleep. “They were setting a trap for some mare. Apparently she made a huge mess over there.”
“Why would they bother so much for one mare?” I asked. He shrugged.
“Couldn’t tell you, Short. All I know is I wouldn’t want to be her if she came back.”
“Where di’ you hear tha’?” Rimfire asked groggily. She had taken her head out from under the pillows.
“While I was hiding for the night, I heard a little. They thought I was with her or her. It wasn’t really clear.” 
“We should see if we can hitch a train out of here. Otherwise it’s a long walk to Baltimare,” I said. 
“You two get that set up,” Starburst said. “I need to get some metal for my armor.” I nodded and proceeded to rouse Rimfire. After only a few moments of her holding her hoof to my face she got up. The two of us saddled up and walked downstairs to see Ditzy trying to communicate with the little mare. Again when she saw us she bolted.
“What’s up with that?” I asked Ditzy. 
‘Adopted,’ she scribbled.
“Congratulations,” I said to her. Rimfire was nonchalant. “We’re going to see if we can’t take a train to Baltimare. Thank you so much for letting us stay.” She just smiled. “Oh, and Starburst is upstairs, he’s a big Steel Ranger. If you wouldn’t mind could you just rustle up some scrap metal so he can fix his armor?”
‘Of course,’ she wrote.
“Thanks Ditzy.” Rimfire and I exited the building and walked into the bright day.
“She adopted?” Rimfire asked as we walked towards the train tracks.
“I guess so. Don’t know where she found an earth pony kid though.” I had never heard much about adopting in the wastes, but then again, Ditzy was pretty special. When he came into view, Crane was busy loading cargo into a train cart.
“Hey,” he called over to us.
“How much to Baltimare?” Rimfire asked before I could.
“Baltimare? Eh, for you, hundred caps a head.”
“That’s a lot,” I said.
He shrugged. “You could walk.” It was a couple days to Baltimare and then to Manehattan.
“We’ll pay,” I assured him. “But how much to Manehattan after that?”
Crane laughed. “No price, Short. That you will have to walk. I’m in a big enough risk just letting you to Baltimare.” Starburst joined us at this point. His armor wasn’t quite slick or shining, but it was repaired at least. It was settled. That fastest way to Baltimare was the train, and that’d just under four hours. 
“We’re in,” I said.


The train wasn’t fancy, and it sure wasn’t comfortable. The three of us had been loaded in with the cargo, which seemed to be all the train was loaded with. There were seven of the train carts, and we were in the second last. The ride wasn’t smooth and there wasn’t anything to hold on to except for the crates of ‘merchandise’. Crane had been very specific in telling us not to open them.
“Are we almost there yet?” Rimfire asked.
“Soon,” Starburst told her. He was laying against a couple of burlap sacks. Black powder was leaking out of the poorly secured tops. None of us could make out what it was.
“How soon?” she asked insistently.
I looked out the side of the train cart. It had window-like slits every couple of feet. The difference in scenery was startling. Instead of long, rolling hills and expanses of sand and dirt there was a city.
“We might be there,” I said. I was right, I could feel the breaks engaging and the massive train coming to a slow.
I’d never been to Baltimare, and there wasn’t much I knew about it besides stories and tales I’d heard from other travellers. Word had it that before the Balefire bombs dropped Baltimare was a center of peace protests, ponies trying to stop the war. All that’s really known now is that didn’t stop the explosions. The city was built in a large circle. The tallest buildings in the center, all of which grew shorter and shorter the further you got out. Nearly a quarter of the city ended at the coast and the docks here were used to mass produce navy ships. 
The bombs had left it an entirely different city. Ponies from all around tell the dangers of Baltimare. The underground was filled to the brim with ghouls. There hadn’t been nearly enough Stable space in or around the city, so the subways had been the only chance of safety.  The first bomb had detonated in the center of the city. Whole buildings had crumbled, creating a domino effect that left many streets closed. Trying to take paths through buildings would lead to potential cave-ins. There was only one stable settlement in Baltimare, Avacyn. Avacyn was full of ponies who just wanted to keep everyone safe. The group based themselves in one of the hotels that had stood through the war. At night, the lights from Avacyn could be seen throughout the city. Every pony was welcome within the walls, as long as you didn’t make trouble.
The train station we arrived at was halfway between the center and the suburbs of Baltimare. The air itself whipped through the city, as if it there was always a storm brewing. The door on the cargo hold was opened and we were greeted by a dark, blonde mare. One of her eyes was covered by a band of leather that wrapped around her head. She motioned with a hoof for us to get moving. 
As we left I said, “Thanks for the ride.” The mare only grunted at us. The platform we stood on was made of cracked brick and rotted wood. The ponies that worked for Crane, I assumed, were too busy unloading the carriage to deal with us. It looked like we were on our own now.
I took a good look of the surroundings. Behind us the train tracks disappeared down into some tunnels. The platform was on the side of a long road that I guess stretched through the city itself. It went towards the center of the city for two blocks before the road was block from a collapsed skyscraper. Only the top of the building had fallen, the rest of it was leaning precariously though. It wouldn’t last more than a couple years. Every other street that could have branched off was blocked by a menagerie of debris.
“Well Short, now what?” Rimfire asked.
“We need to go north,” I said.
“Any plan on how to do that?” Starburst asked.
“Not really, the tracks from here on out look to be broken.”
“We could try and just forge ahead,” Rimfire suggested. 
“We’ll have to be careful,” Starburst said. “This place looks like it will fall over if the wind gets any stronger.” He wasn’t wrong. The sound of creaking metal and falling bricks dominated the environment. 
The three of us took the only open street. It only lasted two blocks in one direction before we had to take a right down ‘10th avenue’. This road lasted only a single block before it ended. There weren’t anymore paths available.
“What the hell?” Rimfire asked. “Where do we go?” She groaned before Starburst or I could tell her. We were going into the sewers. The closest grate lay next to a fire hydrant in front of an old saddle store. The three of us walked over and I inspected the grate. Nothing looked out of the ordinary so I used my magic to try it up. As I placed it to the side the metal on concrete sent echoes of scraping through the immediate area. The now clear hole in the ground was covered on every side with metal plating. Occupying a fraction of the tunnel were metal rungs that appeared to go all the way down. Starburst went first. He took a few of the rungs and glanced down, then he jumped. A splash accompanied the sound of his armored hooves hitting the floor. Rimfire climbed down next, she took every rung one at a time. Then it was time for me to go. I eased up to the side of the ladder and put my back legs securely onto rungs. Next I carefully hooked my free hoof onto the top rung, my PipBuck made it nearly impossible to slide between the metals. My descension wasn’t quick but it did the trick, and I soon felt the water around my legs. The water wasn’t high, only two inches at the most. 
We were in the sewer system, and 200 years with no maintenance hadn’t left it a pretty sight. The water looked fetid and stagnant and stalactites were beginning to form on the ceilings. My E.F.S was showing red dots, but I guessed they were just radroaches. The tunnel stretched on for who knows how long, we couldn’t even see that far. The only available lights were those on Starburst’s armor, the one I’d dutifully kept on Luna and a small flashlight Rimfire had picked up. Even then we couldn’t see more than 100 feet ahead of us. What we could was that every block on the upper level coincided with a split in the sewer system.
“We’re not staying down here are we?” Rimfire asked.
“I don’t see a better way,” I said.
“I doubt the entire subsystem down here is intact, you two,” Starburst said. “We’ll probably find collapses down here; you know, blocked passages, and open ways to the tunnels below and street above.”
“Yeah?” I asked.
He nodded. “I can only assume they’d have put the sewers and subways near each other.” He was probably right.
“Have you been here before?” I asked them both, even though I was pretty sure Rimfire hadn’t.
“I’d never even been halfway to Appleloosa from New Pegasus until I met you, Short,” Starburst said.
“What about you, Short?” Rimfire asked. “How did you even meet Church unless you’d been to Manehattan?”
“I never actually meet Church, just one of his lackeys looking for somebody.”
“Then how the hell are we supposed to find him?” she asked, her voice rising with anger.
“We’ll figure it out when we get there,” I said adamantly.
“Holy shit, Short! You just took us all the way across Equestria and we’re just ‘going with it’?” I shrugged. “Fuck,” she muttered.
Starburst didn’t have anything to add so we started down the tunnel. While we walked down through the tunnel, our only really guide was my E.F.S which we used to find north. Red marks passed around us, but we never saw anything that looked particularly nasty.
“You two ever fought a hellhound?” Starburst asked after several minutes of walking. 
“Not really,” I said, Rimfire was silent.
Starburst carefully avoided a skeletal rib cage that protruded from the water before responding. “They live on this coast. Terrible things.” Rimfire and I exchanged glances.
“Yeah,” she said. “Any reason in particular?”
“Of course there’s a reason. One’s been following us since we came down here.” I froze and grabbed for both my guns, Rimfire grabbed her rifle. Starburst didn’t seem to mind.
“Why didn’t you mention something?” I asked, tension in my voice barely contained. I drew both revolvers. I didn’t know many unicorns who could handle two guns, and I wasn’t sure I could do it either. But if there was a Hellhound around, I’d need them both. I swept around looking at every dot on my compass.
“Didn’t seem that important,” he said noncommittally.
“Are you out of your mind?” Rimfire asked, practically screaming at the stallion. Her voice echoed through the tunnels.
“Nope, it didn’t attack when we entered, and it still hasn’t.”
“So?” I asked. He scoffed at me. “Maybe it’s waiting for help.”
“Even a single Hellhound could have taken us out and would be well on his way by now, and he wouldn't think twice.” Starburst stopped in the middle of a junction. “He probably doesn’t want a fight.” something rumbled under our hooves, sending ripples through the water. Between Rimfire and I, a crack opened and water began to drain incredibly slowly. I looked at the crack. My compass showed a red dot in that direction. I suppose that was the problem with E.F.S, it only said a direction, not how close, not whether it’s above or below you.
“What do you think it wants?” I asked. There was another rumble around us, the crack lengthened and more water began to drain.
“Couldn’t tell you,” Starburst said. The ground rumbled once more and the crack began to expand as if a lightning strike, growing to the length of the block above us. Tiny fractures started to blossom from the main line, spreading to the sides and up the walls. Before the ground even gave way I leapt at the wall hoping for purchase, but when my back legs found nothing below them I tumbled down. My armor blunted most of the damage from falling on the crumbled rock.
I got off my back and looked around. Water from above was gushing into the new hole, causing a downpour on my head. I ducked to the side and looked for the other two. Rimfire was already rousing and getting onto her hoof. Starburst was a bit further ahead, from his head down he looked fine, until I got to his midsection- everything past that was covered in rock.
“Starburst!” I yelled and bounded over. I used my magic and grabbed a hold of any chunk of rock that I could, trying my best to get them off the Steel Ranger. I felt a large paw on my shoulder, and could see the wicked tips of claws out of the corner of my eye.
“Let me get him,” a gruff voice said. I stepped back breathing lightly and quick. A lumbering Hellhound strode past and started to dig into the rock. I was worried his claws would decimate Starburst, but the stallion was soon free and unscathed. When the Hellhound stepped away, I heard a burst come from Rimfire’s gun. Before even I could react, the hound had one of it’s long arms in front of its head, blocking the bullets which seemed to reflect harmlessly off its coat.
“Rimfire stop!” Starburst admonished the mare. She lowered her gun but I could see her trembling in a mixture of fear and rage. The Hellhound lowered his forearm. Its back so bent that its arms dragged on the ground. I’d never seen another Hellhound, at least up close, so I wasn’t sure it this was common. I spotted a small shine in the rubble and investigated. My two revolvers had fallen side by side. I picked up and holstered them both.
“What are you doing?” I asked the beast. He snarled but didn’t move to attack.
“I was watching,” he said. 
“Why did you bring us down here?” Rimfire asked.
“These tunnels are better.”
“What?” I asked. I took my eyes off the Hellhound and looked around. We were in the subway system. There were two sets of tracks, each on the flat ground. The ceiling was constructed like a half-pipe. Along the apex of the arch, thick pylons of cables ran down the tunnel. The hole the Hellhound had made for us was just off the cable strip.
“Upper tunnels blocked. Lower tunnels not blocked,” was all the Hellhound said. I looked forward from us, the tunnel went north for a few dozen yards, but veered to the east soon after that. Off in the distance the low moan of ghouls could be heard.
“Do you even know where we’re going?” I asked without turning to the hound. He didn’t say anything so I turned to him. He was gone, in his place was a deep, dark hole. “Well then,” I muttered.
“That was reckless, Starburst,” Rimfire said.
“I know, but we’re not dead, so I figure it was an okay assumption.”
“Still pretty dangerous, Starburst,” Rimfire told him. He turned to her, his eyes narrowed in anger.
“Yeah it was dangerous, so is fighting the damn thing! You think we were in any shape to fight that thing? We were underground in it’s fucking territory Rimfire!” I’d never heard Starburst so angry. “It would have killed us in a moment, even before we came down the sewers, but it didn’t. And if we tried to fight back? There wasn’t any room for us to get a line of sight or a line of fire. My rockets would have killed us before they killed him!”
“Starburst, relax!” I said, raising my voice.
It didn’t stop him. “Did you even think what the pressure wave of rockets exploding would have done to us let alone it?” Rimfire turned away from him and closed her eyes. I walked up to Starburst and tried to knock him off. His armor felt like it was made of lead and he didn’t budge. “Damn it!” He screamed. “Do either of you think that maybe it’s best not to just shoot things? Is that all you wastelanders do?”
“Hellhounds kill, Starburst,” Rimfire said barely audibly. “We didn’t want to die.”
“I’m sure as hell that it wouldn’t want to die either, in fact, I couldn’t tell you the name of anypony that I met that wanted to die,” he said.
“Everyone shut up!” I screamed. My words echoed deep through the tunnels, over the sound of the rushing waters from above. “We didn’t come here to fight. Now I’m not sure that keeping the fact that there was a hellhound silent was the best idea, but it worked. Now lay the fuck off Rimfire.”
Starburst looked at me darkly, but his eyes softened after I finished speaking. He let out a heavy breath. “I’m... sorry,” he said. I could tell he meant. He stood still for another moment, his only movement were his eyes. After only a couple seconds he let out a completely relieved sigh. “I think I’m having a bit of a chem problem.”
“But you just got them filled up,” Rimfire said slowly.
“Yes, I did. And I’m already half out of Mint-als. I think I’m addicted.” No one said anything, we’d all heard the dangers of addiction and withdrawal. Anger, hallucinations, and in the end, death.
“How long can you go on what you have?” I asked.
“Won’t be able to get out of Baltimare at this rate. We need to get Fixer, now.” A pit opened in the bottom of my stomach. Fixer had been rare enough before the war, and getting it now would take hundreds of caps. Even then it wouldn’t do the same as a doctor could.
“How did it happen?” Rimfire asked.
“During the fight at Old Appleloosa something must have hit my chem manager, or maybe some magic. I didn’t see. Whatever happened it just went haywire and started giving me doses of Mint-al. I thought it was normal, at first. But when morning came, it had kept though the night. I tried to turn it off, I did, and I made it for a few hours. But I could barely walk Short. When I made it back to the room, I felt like I was dying. I turned back on the pump and here we are.”
“I’m sorry, Starburst. We’ll find some fixer,” I told him. There was only problem, I had no idea where to find fixer. Avacyn could possibly have some, but  I doubted they’d just give it out to strangers. There wasn’t any other option. I dove into the map on my PipBuck and started to search. 
“What are you doing, Short?” Rimfire asked.
“Looking for Avacyn,” I told her.
“I wouldn’t be on there,” Starburst said. His voice had become normal again. “That map’s pre-war. Avacyn came long after that.” I exited out of the map and put my hoof down. He had a good point.
“Then how do we find it?” I asked. It was too late to ask the Hellhound, as if he’d even know.
“Shouldn’t it be nearer to the center of the city?” Rimfire asked. “We just need to head that way. There might be signs.” That was our plan. Rimfire shouldered her gun and we started to walk down the tracks that bent towards the east; walking towards the heart of Baltimare.
The sub tunnels were mostly intact, more so than the sewers had been from what we’d seen. It was a uniform design. Long, stretching tunnels in the darkness, two sets of tracks at all times. Long strands of cables ran along the ceiling at the apex. At some points there were lights, a few of them flickered with life, but most of them were black. It was pitch black for the most part. Luckily we each had some form of flashlight with us, so it wasn’t all that bad. Every so often we’d be deterred from walking between the tracks by the wreckages or broken husk of old subway cars. I made a point to look into a few of them, who knows what might be in them.
It was only a certain one that caught my eye. In one car, no real distinguishing features, I saw a small glowing sphere near the hooves of a skeletal pony. 
“Guys,” I said, “there’s a memory orb in there.” Only Starburst seemed interested in the orb, Rimfire didn’t react much. I lifted myself through the window of the car. The glass had long since broken and it posed little risk to me, still, I was careful not to get cut if I could manage it. 
The car itself had no other connections, it was all alone of the track. It was thirty feet long with benches on both sides. Skeletons lay on the seats and on the flooring. The covers of the seats looked like they’d been burned away a long time ago. The skeleton with the orb lay on the ground next to a smaller set of bones, probably a foal. I rolled the orb with my hoof and it moved a little ways away, coming to a rest on the ribcage of the larger pony. I took a deep breath and reached for the orb with my magic. It felt like I’d thrown myself into a tub of ice-cold water.

***
I knew what a memory orb did, but I’d never been in on. I was in the subway car, but it still wasn’t moving. Around me, ponies were screaming and cry. I was laying on the ground looking intently at a small male foal. He had his head buried into my chest.
“It’s okay, Radiant,” I said to the foal. My voice was soft and feminine, yet I could detect wavering. Above us I could hear the thumping of explosions and the subway car rattled with the shockwaves.
“What’s going to happen, mom?” he asked, his voice timid and muffled through my coat.
“We’re just going to sit down here for a little while, and then we're going back up to go home.” He took his head out of my fur and looked at me. His eyes were the deepest blue I’d ever seen.
“What are you doing, mom? You’re horn is glowing.”
I could feel myself smile. “I’m taking a little memory for Daddy when we see him, Radiant. Won’t he be happy to see you?” I asked. Radiant smiled.
A mare in the front of the car started to scream, and it began to be echoed by every pony down the cart. In the distance a great glowing fireball was racing towards us. The mare I was in pulled her kid close to her.
“Don’t look, baby,” was all I could manage before the tickle of heat reached me.
***
I opened my eyes to see myself staring into the empty sockets of the mother’s skull. I almost sobbed at the memory I’d just shared. Rimfire was looking at me, concern on her face. Starburst was lying next to me, his cool armor felt really good now. I got to my legs, Starburst followed suit.
“What was it?” he asked me. I had to get my thoughts straight before I answered him. My head was spinning, I wasn’t even sure I was myself.
“It was, uh, a mare and her child, huddling in this car from something,” I said finally.
“Rough,” was all he said. I crawled back out of the carriage’s window and fell to my feet on the stone and rock floor of the cave. The sounds of my hooves hitting and pushing rock against each other echoed through the car. There was a low growl in response somewhere deep in front of us.
We didn’t have a real map of the place, but my PipBuck told us what we could expect, if only a short distance away. The closest thing to us looked to be some sort of room off to the side of the tracks. The map feature only gave general shapes, and nothing had labels of any sort. We left the carriage and moved on.
There was nothing of note until we reached the room that PipBuck had shown. Instead of some storage or electronic room it was a station. The platform wasn’t large, it could have fit maybe fifty ponies if they were all acting friendly. The stairs up to the back left were barricaded with metal benches and trash cans.  It looked like they had all melted together from a large blast of heat. There were skeletons of a couple ponies next to the barricade. 
The three of us bounded into the elevated platform and had a look around. There were a couple bodies here and there, each of their bones were charred and surrounded by thin layers of dust or ash. Anything that looked to be of value was burnt or rusted beyond belief. There was a hole in the barricade big enough for a pony to crawl through if he sucked his gut in. Rimfire and I would have next to no problem getting by, but Starburst would have to strip or stay back.
“Want to try for it? See where we’re at?” Rimfire asked. She was mostly looking at me.
“Just me? You two down here?” I asked. She nodded.
“You have the PipBuck, just get up there and see if you can see Avacyn. It  was built into a large hotel.”
“Did it keep the same name?” Starburst asked. His voice sounded a little weak, like he was getting a cold or something. Rimfire and I shrugged. I gritted my teeth, the plan was set. I tightened my belt, took off my saddlebags, and started to pull myself into the crevice. Outcroppings of metal clawed at my armor and I could feel the spikes digging into my fur and flesh.
I dropped to the ground on the other side of the barrier mostly unscathed. My armor had a few superficial tears but otherwise I was completely fine. My armor inspection was cut short by the sound of laughter above me. I twisted my head forward. I was still underground technically. I was on the staircase that lead below the surface. Above me was the clouded sky of the wastes. I took the stairs two at a time. My E.F.S showed nothing red so I was a little reckless.
Around me was an open park. Smiling ponies and brown trees thick with leaves. Laughter carried on the wind from all around. There were sky carriages in the air being pulled by pegasi. No rubble, no skeletons, no decay anywhere in sight. I saw foals playing the jungle gyms. Mothers and fathers were giving their children ice cream, balloons, whatever they wanted to their hearts content. There wasn’t a single sad face in the crown. I felt myself catching a cry for my friends to come on up.
I cleared my eyes, blinking furiously and taking my foreleg to wipe them. When I opened my eyes it was gone, all of it. It was a bleak, black, burnt opening. There weren’t any skeletons here, just ash and debris of things long since gone. Shriveled stalks of trees dotted the brown landscape. I took a few cautious steps off the sidewalk onto the ground. It felt a lot better than the sand, dirt, or rough grass that grew in the wastes. 
The buildings had grown several stories taller in general since we’d gone underground. We must be getting closer to the center of Baltimare. I scanned the horizons, looking for any sort of sign. My PipBuck hadn’t said anything of a hotel called Avacyn or something of the like. A shining light caught my eye. In the distance towards the east, where the buildings were taller still, a searchlight scanned the clouds. It travelled the sky in a lazy circle, sometimes revealing and holding onto a dark patch in the sky before continuing its circuit. I looked at the building, trying to find any discernable features. I thought I saw a little of the letter ‘A’ on it, but I wasn’t sure. I turned back to get down into the subway but a large, dark pony stood in front of me.
It stood twice as tall as me with a dark blue coat. The first thing that caught my eye was the long horn, twice as long as its head and ending in a sharp point. Its deep black eyes locked on to me. Something rustled along its side, wings, I saw. A terrible though rushed through my head, alicorn.
I’d heard rumors of alicorns appearing in the wastes before, but I’d never seen one. What I knew was that they were dangerous and not afraid to kill. In fact, they were pretty good at killing. Some ponies said they could teleport, others say they could turn invisible. Some even said they had shields powerful enough to stop Balefire. All those rumors told me I was in a world of trouble.
The mare, it looked like a mare at least, didn’t say anything was it looked at me. It was standing directly between me and the way to my friends. I knew I only had one chance, and I needed to make it count.
I grabbed for the Cloudsdale, it was closest to hand, and rolled to my left. The mare kept its gaze on me as I brought the gun forward and pulled the hammer back. Nothing. It didn’t move and neither did I. “Why wasn’t it doing anything?” I thought quickly, but I knew it was no time to delay if I wanted to live. After all, there was a reason these things were only rumored about. I took a shot and rolled to my left again before I saw what the shot did. When I found my ground I stood up and jerked back to the alicorn. It was gone.
I lowered my gun, E.F.S had nothing in front of me. That, of course, didn’t stop a rather large rock hitting me on my midsection and throwing me to the ground. As best I could, I wheeled around to look for an attacker. None could be seen. “Must be invisible,” I thought. I only looked up with just enough to be able to dodge another rock, this one coming straight down in my head. The tip of my ear got caught under and I could feel the tearing flesh as I moved my head. I got off my back and strafed the park at a run. No matter where I turned E.F.S said nothing to me.
More projectiles were thrown at me as I ran. I dodged most, but I got bludgeoned a few time, never seriously. A hit on my hind leg told me I couldn’t keep this up, I had to do something. I thought back, anything I could do to make this thing visible. I wasn’t sure I had anything like that, but I did have dynamite! 
I nearly kicked myself when I remembered it was back in my pack in the station. I had to have something on me, anything. I ran and gave myself a telekinetic pat-down. Strapped under my gun belt along my back I felt a small case. I pulled it out and looked at it. It was a nearly empty case of mint-als. I wasn’t sure how it had gotten there but I wasn’t about to ask. I popped a few of the chalky tabs in my mouth and swallowed hard.
A calm, soothing feeling hit my mind like a tidal wave. This alicorn wasn’t a death sentence, instead it was a chance to learn. Invisibility didn’t stop it from making sounds or impressions. Since it had disappeared the only sounds had come from me and the sound of rocks hitting me and around me, so it wasn’t flying. I scanned the brittle grass for indents. I saw four a little ways in front of me. Luckily I’d been strafing around the alicorn in the first place. I readied my Cloudsdale for when I got closer.
A piece of steel from some rubble was coming right for me, but I wasn’t about to let that hit me now, I had plenty of time to dodge, and I did. I turned my attention to the alicorn, she was probably trying to find something to hit me with, but she’d be too late. I got within ten paces and let loose with three shells. The first one seemed to stop in mid air and send a ripple through the surrounding area. Slowly, the body of the alicorn appeared around the pellets. Then the other two shells connected in the same area. Twice I’d hit her in the chest and once in the upper leg. A thick, black fluid dripped to the floor. 
The alicorn didn’t make any reaction, but her horn began to glow again. Instead of her finding another object to hit me with I felt my hooves leave the ground. This wasn’t good, I knew, but I also knew that this was a piece of cake. Chems are a crazy thing.
I took another shot with the Cloudsdale and this time the pellets sparked against her horn, but didn’t stop the magic. I dropped the revolver and grabbed the Luna. This gun, being a double action, meant I could just go crazy on the alicorn. And I did.
Six .44 rounds I put to her head. Two of them only grazed, but that had been close enough for me. I felt her telekinesis on me falter and I fell back onto the ground with a thud. I leapt off the ground as soon as I knew my legs would support me. But the alicorn was gone, and I had a feeling she’d stay gone this time.



End of Chapter 8!
Level up!
Guns 60 Explosives 25
Perk Gained: Twice the Fun!(You can now wield two handguns using magic. Accuracy slightly reduced when doing so.)
	
> Baltimare Stomp
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Chapter 9: Baltimare Stomp
I put my guns back and crawled back through the small hole and into the subway station. Rimfire and Starburst were looking at me with expressions of worry. They must have heard the gunshots.
“Alicorn,” I said before they could ask, the mint-als still rushing through my blood gave me a good idea that they’d want to know. Rimfire only looked confused, Starburst face turned to worry.
“What?” he asked. 
“It was a blue alicorn, kind of looked like Luna in those pictures of her.”
“I’m glad you’re alright,” Rimfire said. She looked uneasy, I doubt she’d seen an alicorn, but she’d probably heard of them.
“Me too,” I told her. “I think I saw the Avacyn hotel, just a little east of here, actually.”
“Can we make it over land?” Starburst asked. I shook my head. “Damn, I did some looking around while you were topside. There’s a good amount of ghouls between us and an eastern passage.”
“Did you see how many?” This time he shook his head.
“Afraid not, but I’m sure it’s no less than twenty.”
“Why haven’t they attacked us?” I asked.
“We discussed that,” Rimfire spoke up. “They might have not noticed us, or something’s keeping them there.”
“I’ve never known a ghoul, well, a feral, to pass up a meal,” I said.
Starburst shrugged, “Who knows. I figure we can take them. We’ve got enough firepower to get ferals.”
He was right, of course. If ghouls were the only things in our way, we’d have to go through them. The three of us stepped off the platform and started following the tracks again. It didn’t take me long at all to see that Starburst was right. The cries and moans of ghouls grew louder and louder with each passing second. I let a sigh of frustration as a normal cloud came over my mind, the mint-als had run out.
The few times I’d taken chems left me shaking near the end. Hoping against all hope that I’d not become addicted. Most of the old ponies, who’d gotten there by being cautious, knew that addictions could kill. And there wasn’t anything saying that it had to be you, a junkie might kill you if he thought you had his fix. But I felt the same way I always did, so I figured I was safe, this time at least.
The ghouls hadn’t made any attempt at being stealthy when they came for us. A tidal wave of rotted, glowing flesh poured around a bend. I could see each head full of rotted, gnashing teeth. Their dead eyes reflected our lights with an eerie glow. I could see each pupil, tiny and focused.
I drew both revolvers and started in on them. Rimfire did the same with her rifle, Starburst with his machine guns. The ghouls didn’t stand a chance against us. Both guns kicking in my magic grip felt strange at first, yet I couldn’t help but feel like a dangerous pony.
“Nice,” I heard Rimfire say after the shooting subsided. I turned to see her looking at me. “I’d have never taken you for a shooter like that, Short.” I felt a little hot under my coat when she said that. She was right anyway.
“Yeah, I figured it was better than just using one.”
“Careful with that though,” Starburst said. “Don’t want you going Rambo on us.”
I chuckled. “I don’t think that’ll happen, guys.” Oddly enough that assured them and we moved on, picking our way through the fallen ghouls.
Another station wasn’t more than ten minutes walking from here. This one had another barrier erected on the stairway up. This time, however, there wasn’t a hole through which any of us could climb through. We had a trick up our sleeves for this. Between the three of us we had two sticks of dynamite.
I stuck the sticks relatively close together in the wall and tied the fuses into one. I used a lighter I found in my pack and set light to the fuse. I ran back, leapt off the platform, and joined Starburst and Rimfire behind an abandoned carriage. The sound of the fuse burning was barely audible back here.
“Why do you think this one was sealed so well?” I asked. “Think something’s out there?”
“No way,” Rimfire said. “They put these up to stop the blasts from getting through.”
“Not that it worked,” she added.
It didn’t matter much after that. A reverberating thump filled the air as the dynamite exploded in a golden-red plume that encapsulated the entire platform. I could feel the heat even from where we stood, but wasn’t that bad. The sound of rending metal was almost deafening. We waited a few seconds before poking our heads around the carriage.
The stairs and the barricade had suffered severe damage. Debris, some of it still flaming, littered the platform. Smoke was quickly filling the roof of the area, billowing to the outside as well. Some of it even flitted down into the tunnels. The stairway was dark leading up into wherever it lead. The hole was large enough for three ponies side by side to fit through, so Starburst was going to be fine.
The stairway led to an escalator, not running, which brought us up to some sort of atrium. The building had windows on three sides, most of them had been broken but a few stood. Along one side, occupying most of the wall, was a row of ticket counters. Each of them had their shutters down. There was no natural door to the streets, only a skybridge which lead to another building, this one looked like a skyscraper. It met the other building on the second floor. I looked up to see a great, glowing, red ‘A’ on the side of the building. Avacyn.
The three of us took down the bridge at a gallop, but stopped nearly three fourths of the way there when I heard a slight beep ahead of us. On the ground, under cracked tiles, I could see the familiar brown disk of a landmine. We backed away and the beeping stopped. The door in front of us opened and a pony in black riot gear stepped through. Strapped to its side was a riot shotgun with what looked to be a drum full of shells.
“Halt,” she said. I couldn’t tell the gender from with the armor on, but it sounded like a mare. “What do you want from Avacyn?”
“We just need some fixer, and maybe a doctor,” I told her. Her shotgun worried me in a place like this. There was only one way to run, and she’d have us if she wanted. She stood still for a moment.
“Alright,” she said. “Keep in mind that all violence in Avacyn will be met with severe punishment.”  She turned to walk back through the door.
“Wait,” I said, “the mines?”
“They’re duds.”
As we walked past the dud-landmines, I stopped and picked one up. If it had fooled us, it could fool a raider. The door the mare had taken opened up into a large hallway that looked like it surrounded the building. Around the door, sandbags had been piled up to make a quick barricade. Other ponies in riot gear stood behind the barricade. A question popped into my head.
“If this is only reached by the subway, why is it so well guarded? The subway stairs were blocked up pretty well.”
“They were?” asked the mare. I heard genuine shock in her voice.
“Yeah,” I said. “Didn’t you check?”
She scuffed the ground sheepishly. “I don’t think so. We don’t really look for trouble.”
“Yeah, we can understand that,” Rimfire said.
“This is Avacyn, right?” Starburst asked. The mare nodded. “Can we see the doctor now? Pretty please?” I could hear agitation in his voice, carefully masked of course, so the mare probably didn’t notice his intent.
“Yes, of course. I’ll take you to him.” The mare turned to another pony, “take the watch in case anyone else shows up.” The other pony nodded and we followed the mare again. She took us to around a bend and into a smaller hallway, leading into the center of the building. “So how did you three get up if the stairs were blocked?”
“We blew up the barrier with dynamite,” Rimfire said.
The mare pulled up her face plate. She couldn’t have been more than 10. “Wow really? Dynamite is banned here! The Elder said so.”
“You’re awfully young,” I pointed out.
“The Elder says we have to be vigilant, even at a young age.” She stopped talking and lead us on. From the hallway we were brought into a large room with a fountain full of stagnant water in the center. Near the back were two defunct escalators. “This is the main room,” she said proudly. Proud of what I couldn’t say. “Between the escalators are where the Elder stays. He gets nice rooms.” I looked to where she indicated and I could see a fine wooden door, barely touched by age. A thick-set stallion stood to the side of it, clad with double shotguns on a battle-saddle.
“Upstairs is where you can find the trader and the doctor. The doctor is a nice mare who always has a lollipop for the good fillies,” the mare smiled.
“Hey, kid,” I asked, “what’s your name?”
“Oh, we don’t really have names, but I’ve been talking with the other backdoor guards, we got names for each other though.They call me Sugar, because I’m sweet, like sugar bombs.”
“You sure are something, aren’t you?” Rimfire asked. Sugar smiled. Her head perked up and she started to whimper a little.
“I gotta get back to my post!” she said quickly. “The Elder... isn’t nice to ponies who don’t watch for enemies. The doctor is up to the left, the trader to the right. They’re both really nice mares.” Sugar turned around and belted back towards the sky bridge.
“I don’t think Avacyn is all it’s cracked up to be,” I said to Rimfire and Starburst. They agreed.
“I’m sure it will be fine, however,” Starburst said, “if we can get some fixer, or even my addiction cured. Because this fuckin’ sucks.” If Starburst was swearing, I knew it was bad. I lead the other two up the escalator and to the left, like Sugar had said. The doctor’s office looked to have been made in the remains of two old room whose dividing wall had been cut out. Three beds had been put in with all the usual medial furnishings. On the wall were two medical kits, with various odds and ends lying around. The doctor, a mare, was busy wrapping a bandage around the bleeding foreleg of a filly. The filly was wincing as the doctor tightened the wrapping. She turned to us when we walked in, and I could see her jaw drop, but she collected herself nearly immediately. That didn’t stop her from stammering.
“W-what? Uh, what do you want?” she asked.
“I was wondering if we could get some fixer for our friend,” I said. I could hear Starburst laboring to breathe, and I knew it would be best for me to negotiate, as usual.
“Uhm, I’m not sure,” the mare said. She finished up with the bandage and sent the filly on her way. She was an earth pony with purple and dark-blue, curly hair. Her coat was tan, like some mare I’d seen in a picture before. Her cutie-mark was a red cross, not surprising.
“Is there a problem?” Rimfire asked.
“Kinda,” the doctor said. “Can’t remember the last time a stallion got let in here.”
“What?” I asked. The doctor walked past us and closed the door, locking it.
“I shouldn’t even be talking to you right now,” she said. She paced the room, muttering, “this isn’t good...” over and over.
“Okay,” I said slowly, trying to calm her. “I’m Short, this is Rimfire, and that’s Starburst. If you can just give us a little help, we’ll be on our way.”
She looked at me incredulously. “I’ll get killed if that happens.”
“What?” I asked, it was once again my turn to be surprised.
“Elder barely allows the stallions we have to live here. We’re told to shoot the ones that try to come in.” I decided to keep Sugar a little secret, hopefully she wouldn’t get in trouble because of us.
“I’d heard that this was a good place,” I told the doctor. “A place that was trying to save Baltimare.”
“Not anymore,” she said nervously. “Now we just look out after our own.”
“Do you think that’s right?” Rimfire asked.
“Fuck no,” the doctor said, her voice full of conviction. “I think we should help.”
“Then can’t you help Starburst?”
The doctor swallowed hard. “I can do better than fixer, but it’s going to take time.”
Starburst walked to the table and hoisted himself onto it. “How long?” he asked.
“Day or two,” she said.
“Will he be safe here?” I asked. She shook her head.
“Hell no,” she said. “But he might not be discovered if I put up the separators on one of the beds, tell anyone who asks he’s a filly with the measles.” She shooed him off the bed he’s sat on and off to one of the corner beds. He lay down and she started to bring the separator curtain around. We turned to leave. “By the way,” she said, “call me Stim.” We left Stims office and entered the hallway.
I decided it’d probably be best for Rimfire to do the trading, seeing as she was the mare here, and for me to go into hiding. I told her to check the trader for anything we might need, ammo, chems, or meds. I gave her the rest of the caps and we went our separate ways.
I made my way upstairs two flights of stairs. The lights of the building seemed to be in mostly fine condition. Whatever this place had for an emergency generator, it had been well worth the cost. The hallways were dark however, only every other light was on. I was on one of the sleeping floors, there were tons of rooms in a maze-like configuration. I figured that the rooms must extend over the hallway where the skybridge connected to on the hotel. I tried each door I came across, all of them were still locked.
Finally I decided enough was enough and put the Cloudsdale against one of locks and fired. Most of the blast was muffled, but I knew it’d be a dumb idea to assumed no one had heard it. The lock had a sizeable hole in it and I pushed the door open. The room wasn’t terrible for having been sitting for a very long time.
I shut the door behind me when I walked in and propped a chair against the knob, better safe than sorry. The suite wasn’t all that special. A small hallway with an door to a bathroom led into the single room with two twin beds. Opposite the beds was a long dresser with a radio on it. Behind the beds was a mirror the length of the wall. At the end of the room, next to the dresser was a door which looked like it connected to the next room over.
I freshened up in the bathroom before fiddling with the radio. DJ-Pon3 was on, but she didn’t have anything special to say. Apparently there wasn’t much for her to say at all now. There was only a brief mention of some trouble on Appleloosa. It sounded like that mare they’d been looking for. I turned the volume down as he switched to music, hopefully no one’d notice me here for a night or two. 
A thought brought me to the sink in the bathroom. I turned the faucets and clean looking water came out. My PipBuck didn’t start ticking at radiation, so I assumed it was safe. I grabbed a cup that was only pretty dusty and got some water to drink. I sat back on the bed and thought.
“Why would this place be called so helpful if they don’t even let stallions in?” I asked aloud. I thought back to the Elder’s room. New management? That was possible, I thought. But why no Stallions? That didn’t add up. There were a few in Avacyn already. One of the guards at the skybridge and the one outside the Elder’s room. Come of thing of it, he hadn’t tried to stop us when Sugar had lead us in. 
I heard a voice in the hallway. “I think it came from over here.” I lunged over and turned off the radio. I ducked back behind the bed, keeping out of sight from the door. There was a rattling at the door. “The locks been blown!” Someone pushed at the door, but the chair was holding it shut. The knocking stopped. A calm voice spoke up.
“I don’t think I have to tell you the trouble you’re in right now.” The voice was calm and collected. “You’re mare and your friend have been found and I will deal with them like I’m about to deal with you.” I poked my head around the corner and saw the barrel of a shotgun being forced through the hole. It was no riot gun, only looked like a single shot, but it'd hurt to get shot. I pulled myself back around the corner when the first shell exploded. Pellets bit into the walls and tips of the beds with a load roar. I heard the gun click as it was reloaded. I needed to do something quick. I scanned my PipBuck’s inventory for something, anything, and I struck gold. I pulled my Tec9 from my bag as another shell got shot. I checked the magazine of the gun, it was full.
When I heard the shotgun being reloaded I spun the gun around the corner and started spraying wildly. I didn’t know if the bullets would even go through the door or wall but I had hope. When it was dry I pulled it back and waited. No one made any sounds. I turned my head and checked the E.F.S. Three red lines stood about where the hallway would be. I peeked the corner and saw that a few of my shots had passed the door. Another shot blasted forth, this time a pellet grazed my ear. I went for broke and jolted over to the door at the back of the room.
The dresser provided enough cover from the shotgun should the shoot again. 
“You idiots!” It wasn’t the same voice as last time, this one was angry. “Break the door down!” The barrel was removed from the door and I heard what sounded like someone battering the door with the butt of the gun. There wasn’t time to pick the lock, but I did need an element of surprise. The Cloudsdale seemed to be an apt lockpick in its own regard so I drew that with the Tec9. I played the barrel of the revolver on the lock and the Tec9 pointed towards the door. I pulled the trigger on the Tec9 first, filling the air with gunfire, then I used the Cloudsdale on the lock and ran through the now opened door. I shut the door as quietly as I could, but I wasn’t too quiet. 
This room was the mirror opposite of the previous one. I ran to the front door and put my ear to it. The ponies outside had resumed battering the door. It’d give soon. I put the Tec9 back in my pack and took the Luna from its holster. I heard the other door give way before I put my hoof on the handle of my door.
“There’s no one here!” I heard one, a mare, yell before I opened the door. It swung open at me. I saw a stunned mare in riot gear standing in front of me. She didn’t even turn to me before I put two shots from Luna at her head, and from this range, I didn’t miss. To my left was a stallion, probably the one in charge. He’d turned to me and shot with his 9mm pistol. I took on in the leg, most of the force was stopped with my armor, but it bit into my flesh just a little. His gun looked old and not well cared for.
I shot him once with the Cloudsdale. He hadn’t been wearing much more than ‘walking-around’ clothes. Nothing that provided resistance to my pellets. The mare rushed out of the room, shotgun pointed at me. I closed my eyes, waiting for the shot, but all there was was a click. She hadn’t reloaded. I put one between her eyes with the Luna, the faceplate of her helmet not even coming close to stopping the bullet. I didn’t know what kind of riots that Baltimare had had, but they must have not used many guns.
I took the time to reload all my guns, even the Tec9. I was low on shells for the Cloudsdale, but I had about a box left for the Luna. Even the Tec9 had plenty for a few magazines. Sugar had said there was a trader in near Stim’s office, I could resupply there. And if the Elder of this place had taken Rimfire and Starburst, I had a feeling that paying would cost little more than a couple of my bullets. Before I left, I took a quick look at the 9mm the stallion had. It wasn’t as bad as I’d first thought, salvageable to even a novice. Rimfire would be able to fix it in minutes. I took it from his mouth and put it in my bag.
“Sorry, man,” I said to the corpse, “but this is bigger than the two of us.”
The mare at the trading post was all too happy to give me a few bullets for Luna, and even some meds. Now I had plenty of healing potions, a few sticks of med-x, and some buck. I said thanks before I left, and even threw in a sorry. She didn’t seem to buy it, but neither did I.
Standing on top of the escalator, I could see the guard with the double-shotguns surveying all of the lobby, but he wasn’t looking up. There was a ten foot drop to his head, and I took it. My body collided with his. Both of us went sprawling to the floor. I dropped my gun to the side and reached for his throat with my magic. He was an earth pony, and from his position, he couldn’t do anything besides try to buck me off. But the fall had taken too much out of him and he couldn’t even buck hard enough to move. 
He spluttered with a wet cough once, twice, and then nothing. I got off the stallion’s body and looked at the door and tried the handle. It swung open to a large pool area. The water had been drained and in the middle was a sadomasochists dream. Chains, whips, and even more beyond the imagination. In the middle, bound and gagged, lay Rimfire. Around the gag in her mouth, no small amount of foam was bubbling from the corners of her mouth. Her eyes were tired and half shut. There was no other pony in sight. I grabbed my gun and ran to her side. she didn’t react to my presence at all. 
“Rimfire? Rimfire!” I yelled right into her ear. She didn’t react at all. I heard the sound of hoofbeats behind me.
“A problem with the mare?” A smug male voice asked. It was the same that had been outside my room just a few minutes ago.
“Yeah,” I said without turning around, “and I assumed it’s your fault.” 
“Why don’t you see who I’ve got here?” he asked. I turned to look. He was a unicorn, and gripped in a levitation field was a combat shotgun. Next to him, each disarmed and unarmored were Stim and Sugar. Both of them were borderline crying.
“What did you do to her?” I asked.
“Oh, it wasn’t me,” he said. It sounded like he was trying to contain a laugh. His voice grated against my ears like sandpaper. “The dear doctor here gave her a little truth serum she concocted herself. Isn’t that right doctor?” Stim said nothing. The stallion pushed the barrel of his gun under Sugar’s chin. “Isn’t it?”
“Y-yes,” Stim stammered.
“See?” He said. “None of us are clean.”
“Can you make her better?” I asked the doctor, ignoring the stallion. He’d get his in time. She nodded frantically. “Good.”
“Don’t forget my little girl here, boy,” the stallion said loudly. “You wouldn’t want her getting hurt would we?”
“You won’t even get the chance,” I said coldly. I’d played with my PipBuck and activating S.A.T.S wasn’t much more than a thought process. I used it and time slowed to a crawl. Each breath, each heartbeat, a lifetime to act. And I’d need all of it. My Luna was close to hand and I drew it. I saw his eyes start to widen, his pulse probably quickened. I took aim at his head.
He tried to pull the trigger on his shotgun, but he wasn’t fat enough, and it never would be. The bullet left my gun and he took it on the chin. Time came back to let his shotgun fly wildly to the side, a shot ringing off and going randomly.  His head had followed the shotgun in its arc, and when he looked back at me, I gave it right to him.
When he fell I ran straight to Stim. “Get Rimfire!” I barked. She nodded and ran towards Rimfire. I changed my attention to Sugar, she was backing away from me.
“T-this is why he did it,” she said.
“Did what?” I asked.
“Got rid of the stallions. They’re violent.” She backed off from me, and when she realized I wasn’t following, she ran.

Stim had put Rimfire on a bed. Rimfire had several IV’s poking in her leg. The doctor was working nervously, organizing medical equipment around the room.
“Is she going to be okay?” I asked.
“Um, yes, she’s going to be fine.”
“Why’d you do it?” I asked. Stim looked up from the supplies. She didn’t look healthy.
“He told me to do it,” she said quickly.
“That means nothing. You didn’t have to.”
“And get thrown out? Or killed? I’m a doctor, Short.”
“Another question, how’d he know who Rimfire and Starburst were?” She swallowed hard on something. “That’s what I thought.”
“Look, Short. You don’t understand!”
“Maybe I do, maybe I don’t.” I felt angry, like I’d just been given a dose of Buck. I figured it was going to turn out bad for someone here.
“Please,” she pleaded.
“How’s Starburst?” I changed the topic.
“He’ll be better by tonight. He’s just resting now.”
“You going to stay?” I asked her. She raised an eyebrow at me. “Here, in Avacyn.”
“Where else could I go?” she responded in kind. “We’ve got over one hundred ponies here, all of them need my help.”
“I’ll be back,” I told her. I turned and left the doctor’s office and went downstairs into the atrium. Following that I walked back to where Sugar had been stationed. She didn’t meet my gaze when I walked up to the side of her. “Kid, you don’t understand,” I said.
“You killed him,” she said softly. The other guards made themselves scarce. No doubt she’d told them what had happened.
“Yes, I did. He wasn’t a good pony to my friends. I had to make it right,” I told her.
“Killing is right to you?” she asked, more accusing than anything else.
“Only when justified.” Did I just say that? I asked myself. I’m not a cold-blooded killer. But I had killed those ponies, and I hadn’t thought twice about it. Seemingly like I dream I’d done those things. I winced. “No... no...” She looked at me with confusion. “Killing’s not right, kid. But sometimes we have to do what’s wrong.”
“Why?” She was so young, so innocent.
“I don’t know.” But that wasn’t true, I did know, I just didn’t want to tell Sugar. Because it was them or us, and I wasn’t going to let it be us, that was my justification. “Sugar, where are your parents?”
“I’m not sure. I don’t think I’ve ever met them.” She was starting to look at me now. I was trying my best to let her know I wasn’t about to go crazy. Even though I wasn’t sure I wasn’t about to go crazy.
“The three of us... we’re travellers. If you want y-” She cut me off.
“I can’t.” She sensed my confusion. For being young she wasn’t that oblivious. “It’s too dangerous out there.”
“Did anyone leave here yet? Families or just ponies?” I asked her. She nodded. “Then they’re going to tell everyone for miles about how some stranger ponies came in and started killing everyone. That will bring the looters, and they’re dangerous.”
“I just want to protect you,” I said.
“Why would you want to do that?” she asked.
“Because when I look at you, I see a mare who could become something someday, and maybe a strong mare like Rimfire would be good for you.”
“This hotel is all I’ve ever know,” Sugar said mournfully. “It’s my home.”
“We all feel that way when we first leave home.”
“When did you leave home?” she asked. I hadn’t thought about home for a long time. I could barely remember where it had been, but why I’d left was still clear in my head.
“My family and I stayed in an abandoned stable, we had it all to ourselves and thought it was safe. But one day when, I was 15 or something, some raiders came in. We tried to be civil, and by that I mean my dad. We invited them to dinner, and Dad started talking to them. When he talked, even the sky and the earth started to listen. I knew that I had to get out of there, I didn’t trust those ponies. So I ran while they listened to my dad talk.”
“What happened to your family.”
“Don’t know,” I admitted. I hadn’t been back there since, and I didn’t have any plan to either. I doubted I could even find my way back in. The stable was in a maze of caves I probably couldn’t navigate with a full box of mint-als.
“Do you wonder what happened to them?” She asked. I could feel myself going hollow on the inside. All of me was focusing on recollection of my family.
“Yeah, I wonder... I really do.” I let my hind legs fold and I sat on my rump. “If dad had any say the raiders probably handed over all their caps.” I chuckled a little.
“Is there any safe place out there?” That question was loaded with innocence. I had to think hard to get even one place.
“There’s a Steel Ranger bunker I know, but it’s a fortnight away on foot, kid.”
“Will you take me there?”
“Yeah, I’ll take you there.” I  got up and turned to walk back to Stim.
“Why me?” she piped up from behind me. “I know you think I’m like your marefriend Rimfire. But why not everyone?” That I rightly couldn’t answer. Something about that kid was different. So I just kept on walking.
Rimfire was still knocked out on one of the beds. Starburst was stirring in his. I walked over to his side.  He looked at me, his eyes were bloodshot and he looked like he’s been through a meat grinder, or at least he looked like he felt that way.
“Never stop chasing the purple dragon, Short. It’s worse when you stop.”
I gave a small smile. “I need you two to do a favor.”
“Yeah?” he asked.
“I need you to take a kid to the Steel Ranger bunker you’ve got.”
His eyes narrowed a few times before he answered. “Are you high now?” he asked finally.
I shook my head. “Afraid not. In a way I owe it to this kid, I gave her a rough day.”
“What in the hell happened while I was out?” he asked bewildered.
“Nothing much. Just... please.”
“Alright,” he conceded. “After Churchane we just swing back by here and pick her up?” This is where I knew I’d run into a little trouble. I put a hoof on his shoulder.
“I was hoping... you two could head out back to New Pegasus from here.”
“What!” he yelled. I was afraid Rimfire would be woken up, but she didn’t stir at all.
“Come on, Starburst. It’d take too long for us to get there and come back. I don’t think this place will stay safe for much more than a day. Look, I can get to Manehattan on hoof in three days.”
Starburst leaned up. “I’m pretty sure this is nonnegotiable, Short. We work as a team.” I stepped back from him.
“You’re right,” I said. “I was being rash. We’ll talk about it tomorrow.” He lay back. 
“Thanks.” Starburst let out a sigh and rubbed his forehead. “I’m sorry I dragged you two here. I didn’t think this place would be so... difficult.”
“None of us did.”
“Stim told me what you did, what happened in there.”
“Did she?” I asked carefully.
“Yeah. I won’t say what you did was wrong but... I didn’t see it coming.”
“You two were in danger, I couldn’t let that happen.”
Starburst’s mouth curled into a slight smile. “Nothing wrong with protecting friends I guess. It just seems like you’re getting better at running and gunning everyday.”
“That’s for sure,” I said. The guns had been feeling better and better when I held them. “Don’t know if that a good thing though.”
“Oh?”
“Maybe I’ve lost my game. I used to be able to talk my way around fights. I guess it just got easier to shoot through them instead.”
“As long as you know when to shoot and when to talk, you’re good. That’s what I’ll say about it.” Starburst closed his eyes.
“It’s getting late,” I said. “We’ll talk more in the morning.” He gave a slight nod and I walked out of the Doctor’s office.


I woke up to the sun in my eyes. From the corner of my eye I could see Starburst and Rimfire milling about the room. Sugar was laying contentedly on the other bed. I had slept with my bags next to me, hoping to make an early escape.
“Going somewhere?” Rimfire asked lazily.
“Nope,” I lied.
She smiled, catching my lie. It didn’t happen usually, but I was tired and my lying was rusty. “Okay.”
“Do you not trust us?” Starburst asked. His voice was calm and normal. He must be over mint-als completely.
“I don’t know what you mean,” I said lying again. I wasn’t sure how they’d known, but they did.
“You were going to leave town without us,” Rimfire said coldly. I felt myself go cold with shame. In my mind the idea had seemed like a good one. Now it was just selfish.
I said nothing. Even Sugar was looking concerned now.
“What gives, Short?” Starburst asked.
“I don’t know. I just... couldn’t take it.”
“Take what!” Starburst asked.
“Seeing you two hurt!” I yelled angrily.
“Like we’ve never been hurt before,” Rimfire scoffed. She was careful not to put too much venom in her words, but it still hurt like it’d been a jab at me.
“I feel like it’s always on me. I made you come here, you both could have died because of me, again.”
“Do you think I followed you out of New Pegasus thinking ‘I’m sure it will be a walk in the park’?” Starburst asked. “No, I don’t think anyone would have been so naive.”
“Yeah, Short. Danger is a part of life,” Rimfire said. She glanced at Sugar quickly.
“You couldn’t have known,” Sugar spoke up. “Don’t beat yourself up.” For some reason even her words carried weight. Maybe she had grown up an awful lot in such a little while. Even she was able to drop the guilt.
“Short, you can always talk to us if you need it,” Rimfire said.
“I don’t need to talk,” I said. “I just need to do better.”
Rimfire laughed, a hearty belly laugh. “Oh that’s rich, Short. If I compared you to that shrimp I walked into New Pegasus I’d never know you were the same pony, except for the thick skull.” That got me to let out a small chuckle. Sometimes I was afraid I’d lost the real Rimfire somewhere in the desert, but sometimes the rugged mare I promised 200 caps shone through.
“I know it was shitty of me, guys. I’m sorry,” I said.
“Apology accepted,” Starburst said. Rimfire just smirked. Sugar beamed.
“So now what?” I asked.
“I figure we do what we started,” Starburst said. “Go to Manehattan, deal with Church in whatever manner necessary. Then head back to New Pegasus we go, skipping all the way.” The last few words she said with a grandiose voice.
“Sounds good,” I said. I turned to Sugar. “What do you think?”
“We’re not going to the bunker?” she asked.
“Not yet at least, kiddo,” Rimfire said.
Sugar showed determination in her eyes. “Then I’ll just have to come with you.”
“It’ll be dangerous,” I told her.
She waved me off. “You said it’d be dangerous here too. Danger seems to be everywhere if I asked you.” She hopped onto her hooves and stood tall. “Why not be with the ponies who can see danger’s coming?”
“You got spunk, kid. Maybe Short was right about you,” Starburst said. Sugar smiled at him. I doubt she’d had very many ponies compliment her in her life.
“One thing bothers me,” Rimfire said. “Is your name, Sugar. It’s just a little, blah”
“Hey,” Sugar muttered.
“You got anything better?” I asked Rimfire.
Rimfire gave a sly smile. “Yeah,I got something in mind.” She took a little while to let suspense build. “How about... Bolt?”
Starburst suppressed a chortle. “Bolt?” he asked. “Where’d you get that from?” Even Sugar looked a little confused. 
“No, see,” Rimfire began to defend herself, “She’s small and fast. She can bolt around!” When she saw we weren’t buying it, she continued, “Maybe if I knew what we cutie mark was.”
“Yeah,” I said to Sugar, “What is your cutie mark?”
“I don’t have one,” Sugar muttered. 
“Not yet!” she added quickly.
“Well I don’t see why Bolt doesn’t fit this fine filly,” Rimfire said.
“Well it’s her choice,” I said. I looked at Sugar. She took a deep breath and let it out slowly.
“I guess...” she said. “We could try Bolt...” All four of us smiled in some manner, as if we’d forgotten what we’d been talking about. I got off the bed and put on my pack.“How do we get to Manehattan from here?” I asked.
“The train tracks should lead us right there,” Rimfire said. “I figure that’s what Crane would have used if he could for his trains. The tracks should, and I mean should, bring us straight to the bridge that connects Manehattan to the Mainland.”
“That’s great,” I said, “But how do we get to the right tracks?”
“If we take the tracks north of the city,” She said, “I bet we can find our way from there. Worst case scenario we just walk the coast up. It’s not like Manehattan isn’t just straight north of us.” She had a few good points.
“Bolt, do you know how to get north of here the quickest?” I asked the filly. She rubbed her chin a little.
“Well, I haven’t left Avacyn in a long time,” she said. “I really don’t know,” she said finally.
“We could continue in the subways,” said Starburst. “If we wait until we hit a larger intersection there might be a map that’s intact.” That was the plan, as much of one as it was. The four of us left the hotel through the skybridge and descended into the subsystem. Bolt’s eyes widened as she saw the dank, dark underground. She stood close to Rimfire as if looking for protection. I could see that Rimfire was a little annoyed, but she didn’t push Bolt away.
The tunnels were the same as they had been. Charred husks of old carriages lined the tunnels. More and more appeared as we went further east, towards the center of the city. We’d been going for nigh on an hour before we stopped. We’d passed a few stations, none of which branched off in any other direction. One had a map that was mostly burned off. It looked like there was a big junction coming up, but it wasn’t clear. Most of the map was ashes in the air, but we held out hope.
“Any ponies come into Avacyn talking about the outside, Bolt?” Starburst asked the filly.
“Umh,” she said, thinking quickly. “They didn’t really say a lot. Usually they just looked dusty and unhappy. No one ever came by our entrance though, so I just heard about it from the others if they came by or something.”
“Were there a lot of kids like you?” I asked. She looked at me confused. “With no, uhm, parents?” Her ears flattened and she looked down.
“One or two,” she said slowly.
“Bolt, I’m sorry I asked,” I said, flustered quite a bit.
“It’s fine, Short,” she told me. “I’ve had quite a few years to get over it.” I felt a small wave of relief wash over me. I wasn’t sure I’d ever get to know Bolt. Sometimes she was just a foal, but sometimes she seemed wizened. Maybe that’s just what the Wasteland did. It made you grow up quick.

We’d been walking for nigh on five hours before we saw anything worthwhile that wasn’t a ghoul, small station, or the burnt wreckage of another train car. What hit us first was the overpowering scent of junk whiskey, the kind you could only find in some bars when there wasn’t any other option left. I was in front of the group, with Starburst trailing behind me with Bolt and Rimfire sticking together behind him, so I Was the first to see broad daylight in front of us, or at least what passes for it with the clouded skies.
It looked like it had been an old, long station, but it had been transformed into a town. Buildings that might as well have been called new lined the platforms, each of them with a style I knew only from books. It seemed to be a recreation of an old western town. The kind that had been written about back West, but probably never existed. Starburst and the rest stopped in their tracks with me, each of us looking at the one street town ahead of us. There were a few ponies on the boardwalk that lined the ‘street’ in front of all the buildings. When they saw us standing they rushed into the houses and closed the shutters. A creaky, wooden double door was left swinging in the hurry.
We walked cautiously up the street. A pony in a trailing brown coat and black, wide-brimmed hat seemed to step out of nowhere. Beneath his coat I could see the bulge of guns, but I couldn’t for the life of me make out what kind of guns. He had a deep-red mane and blackish-gray coat. His right eye had a deep scar on the cheek.  He looked at us with barred eyes. I noticed he was smoking a cigarette almost to the nub.
“You lookin’ to fight?” He asked. His voice was like scraping gravel. “Ye’ came ta’ the right place.”
“We’re just looking for directions,” I said calmly. I couldn’t tell whether I wanted to shoot him or not, but it’d probably be best not to kill in cold blood in front of Bolt. I also didn’t see whether or not this stallion was a unicorn or not, his hat would have been hiding the horn if he had one.
“Is that so?” he asked. I could tell he wasn’t looking for an answer, not this time. I did my best to recall what those Western books I’d read about said, but it’d been at least ten years since I’d put it down thinking it was too fantastic sounding, and not in a good way. But here this town stood. They did say anything could happen out here. “We’ve had a lot of raiders out here, quite a few ponies hung and buried out on Boot Hill.”
The part of his coat near his hip rose with a slight glow, and I knew he was a unicorn. That part didn’t bother me, not yet at least. What was troubling me was what was underneath his coat. Tied around his waist were the makings of 3 gun belts, each with a holstered revolver, and every loop on the belt filled with a bullet. I knew this stallion meant business.
“Come on,” Starburst said. “This is madness!”
“Camel hasn’t taken kindly to strangers, at least not the ones we’ve seen,” The stallion spoke.
“We’re not like the others,” I told him. The stallion stared at me for a long time. Frankly he had me worried for my life and the others. I had never met a pony like this before. He was dangerous.
Finally he made a move, and his coat dropped back over his guns. He stood normally, getting out of his shooting stance and trotted up to us. A few of the ponies in the buildings began to open windows and peer out cracks in the doors. I saw at least three pairs of eyes poking out of what looked to be the saloon. The stallion spit out his cigarette and stamped it into the ground.
“You got a lot of guts, kid,” he said to me. “Most ponies drew when they saw my guns, but they weren’t fast enough for me, not by a mile.”
“Were they all bandits?” Rimfire asked. I heard a little venom in her voice. If the stallion noticed he didn’t seem to mind.
“Don’t quite matter,” he said. “They drew, I shot.”
“They probably only drew their guns because you threatened them!” she cried. I’d never known Rimfire to get so hot over social injustices, but maybe she was putting on a show for Bolt.
“We don’t much cater to folks who draw their guns too quick ‘round these parts,” The stallion said. “By the ways, m’ name’s Holiday.” If I’d had a drink, I’d have spit it out. These ponies were nuts, or drinking too much of that junk whiskey.
“Oh please!” I shouted. “Are you all making a western attraction here? Because I got to tell you guys, it’s a bit late.” Holiday grimaced.
“Those cowboys knew how t’ live, kid,” Holiday said. “I reckon we’re the safest town of ‘em all.”
Before Rimfire could retort he said, “We’re just lookin’ after us ‘n our own. Now if you want directions, fine. There’s good ponies all over who’d tell ya what ya need t’ know. But don’t tell us how t’ live our lives.”
I turned to the rest of my group.
“You all need to find us a way north to Manehattan. I want to talk to Holiday a bit more.” The three of them nodded and split up. This time Bolt walked along with Starburst. I thought I caught the hint of a frown on Rimfire when she saw Bolt walk away, but she didn’t say anything about it. I followed Holiday. He walked me towards a small, wooden shanty with a half open window. The window frame looked like it had been salvaged, no glass, just a wooden pane.
The inside of the tiny building wasn’t much better. In the back was a cell barely big enough to hold a pony in. Inside looked like two raiders who’d been there for a long time. They weren’t moving. Opposite the cell was an older wooden desk that looked like someone had spent a long time trying to make nice. The air had a stench of wood polish still hanging in it. Opposite the desk, nearer to the door, was a locked gun cabinet that held plenty of six-shooters, a few lever-guns, and a carbine. Boxes of bullets littered the floor inside the cabinet. It looked like quite the collection. Holiday sat himself behind the desk and put his forehooves together while staring at me.
“Yeah?” He asked after a short while.
“How did all this… happen?” I asked. I didn’t feel like bringing up anything from on the street. It felt like it would have been a sore topic.
“You know Stables, boy?” he asked. I nodded.
“Grew up in one,” I said. He took a small packet out from the desk and started to fiddle with it without talking back to me. I craned my neck to get a better view.
He saw me looking and said, “Tobacco. Gotta be careful with this stuff nowadays, damn hard to grow with all this balefire shit around.”
“Where can you grow around here?” I asked without thinking. I mentally kicked myself; we’d gone off topic already.
“Up north,” he said. I felt my heart skip a beat. They obviously knew a path if they grew up there. “Creek country.”
“How do we get the-“ I started to ask but he cut me off.
“I wasn’t quite sure what Stable we was, but all I know is we had a lot of books. More books than a hundred ponies can read, I reckon.” It struck me that his accent slipped here and there. I chuckled. He ignored it. “Well there wasn’t no PipBucks or nuthin’ so we just read all day. Turns out there’d been a shipping accident, and all we’d gotten was Westerns.”
“If you thought there was a western craze before, you don’t know nothin’ from what happened in that Stable. Didn’t take more than twenty years to rename the Overseer to Sheriff, I hear tell. After that it’s just histry’.”
“But how did you make this town?” I asked him. He’d finished with the tobacco and had rolled it into a small, crumpled cigarette. He popped one end into his mouth and went scrounging for what I assumed would be a match. He didn’t say anything until he found it. Holiday took a long drag before he started talking again.
“Well maybe… I can’t hardly remember, but some years ago we got out of the stable, and we were scared, kid.” His eyes unfocused off me, remembering. “There was bandits, mutie-animals, and a whole mess of trouble. We didn’t know anything that wasn’t from those books, you see.”
He tapped the growing pillar of ash into a dirty ashtray. “So we did th’ only thing we’s could think of. We found some guns, and made a town.”
“The only thing you knew was to make a town?” I asked incredulously. He nodded.
“Kid, you got no idea. It was dark times. First thing that went up was the saloon, then th’ hotel.”
“You built a hotel?” He was taken aback. “There’s one a couple miles away, lights and everything still working!”
He raised his eyebrows. “Is there?” I nodded. “Well shit. Our Stable door ain’t more than 500 yards from here.” My ears perked and he let out a small laugh. “Sorry, kid, nothing left but the bolts on the walls.” He stood up from the chair and walked around the table, just looking me up and down. Smoke billowed from his nostril intermittently.
“I didn’t catch ye’r names,” he said slowly. This time his voice was filled with a bit of anger and he was all serious.
“I didn’t give them.” He just narrowed his eyes and kept staring. There was nothing between us but the air. I saw his eyes flicker to my Cloudsdale briefly before continuing its slow circuit.
“You ever dueled, kid? I reckon they don’t do it out there, but we do it here.” This again, I thought.
“I can’t say that I have.” He smirked.
Holiday moved so fast it was like he’d been using S.A.T.S. I saw his coat move and I reached for the Luna, I had an idea he wouldn’t know it was there. I’d only gotten it halfway out of the leather when I saw a gun barrel floating lazily, pointing at me.
“Not fast enough,” he said. Holiday smiled and put his gun back with a great, big laugh. “Man you got a lot to work on.” He might have expected me to be afraid, but I wasn’t. I was in awe.
“Can you teach me to do that?” I asked suddenly. His smile froze a second, almost dropping the cigarette.
“You want something? You got ta’ trade fer’ it,” he said. “And I don’t even know yer’ name.”
“My name’s Short Change, but you can call me Short, everyone else does.”
“Short, eh? Not bad, I like it.” His cigarette was down to the nub and he snuffed it in the ashtray. He licked his mouth mournfully. “Alright. I’ll teach ya some tricks.”
“But I do need a favor,” he added.
“Anything.”
He lowered one brow. “Anything eh? Well I figure I just need ya’ll to get me something quick. You see we ain’t been able to hit the farm down near the creek recently. We’re running low on food, more importantly, tobacco. That’s where you come in.”
“You need us to make a run to the north to get you some of your food, got it.”
“I figure one of my deputies can take you to the storm tunnel, that’s where all the sewers end, and you can figure it out from there.”
“When do we go?” I asked. He chuckled again.
“Tomorrow, you got some tricks to learn,” he said. And then he showed me.

I never thought that I’d be worth something with a gun, but when I took a hotel room with my friends that night, I actually felt like a cowboy. I wasn’t nearly as good as Holiday, but I’d done better than I had before. And a few times when I had the drop on him, I drew a mite faster, but it was rare.
There’d never been a time in my travels where I’d truly compared myself to what I had been, or what I ever thought I could be, but I did that night. I was sure that no one I knew would have ever seen me come out this way, turning into some sort of gunslinger. Not that there was anything wrong with being such a thing, but I’d been raised to talk problems out, not just go guns blazing. I knew my dad would have been embarrassed to hear about me now to some extent, and the shame burned.
Rimfire and Starburst pulled me out of my thinking. They’d found a way north, I said I had too.
“What?” Rimfire asked. “Holiday told you, then.” I nodded.
“It was for a small price,” I said, not telling about the little training I’d done. “We just have to get them some things from the little farm they have outside the tunnels.”
“Is that all?” Bold asked.
“Probably not,” Starburst said. “But what choice do we have now?” No one brought up the fact we could have cut and run, but no one needed to say it. We wouldn’t have done it anyway. The way I figured was that if we helped ponies, they’d be more predispositioned to help other ponies should the time come. There wasn’t time to just look after our own anymore.  We went to sleep pretty quickly after that, there wasn’t much to say.
I laid back in a bed I was sharing with Starburst and shut my eyes. Even though there wasn’t a lot to say, there was a lot to think about. Strangely, I found myself drifting off to sleep with dreams of my father and mother.
First thing I noticed in the morning was a large weight on my gut and chest, I slept on my back most nights. I cracked my eyes open to see Bolt curled up on me. Rimfire was gone from her bed, armor and all. Starburst was stirring as I carefully pushed Bolt onto him. She didn’t like it either and it woke her up quickly.
I got out of bed and got suited up. I knew those two would take a fair bit of time, at least Starburst would. Power armor wasn’t easy to put on quickly and Bolt would try to help, adding another five minutes at the least. So I decided to go downstairs.
Holiday had given us a room at the ‘first saloon we put up’. The owner looked happy to have business that wasn’t completely dirty and offered us breakfast in the morning. Downstairs of the saloon was built simply. A bar that had been worked at until it was nearly smooth occupied most of one of the walls. The rest of the area was dedicated to a mish-mash of tables and chairs scavenged from all over. The bartender and owner, a mare, was busy talking to Rimfire when I came down the rickety stairs. Both of them looked to be discussing the finer points of alcohol. The owner had a light, cream coat with a murky brown mane. She was wearing a little white and salmon dress which hid her cutie mark from view.
She looked up at me as my hoof hit the last step down and she smiled. She went beneath the bar quickly but pulled out two boxes of sugar bombs and pushed them towards us with her nose. I walked to the bar and sat down. She was still smiling when I looked back to her. It didn’t feel or look like a malicious smile, but I was never comfortable with mares just smiling at me. If I had talked to them first, sure, smiling was alright. Rimfire and I picked our boxes and started to eat. I didn’t normally take to Sugar Bombs. The texture of which I found to be usually sugar-coated mush. The taste wasn’t to die for either, unless you were just a foal. But I wasn’t going to be one to complain about free food. I saw that Rimfire was enjoying hers, which was nice at least.
“So how was the stay, mister?” the barkeeper asked.
“It was just fine,” I told her between mouthfuls. She kept beaming at me. I hoped Rimfire was getting as awkward as I was, but she had never been one for noticing social cues.
“Good ta’ hear.” She must have found something else to do because she walked out a door behind the bar. Rimfire and I exchanged glances. I turned away from her only when the heard the heavy knocks on the roof above us. Starburst must be coming down with Bolt, I thought.
When they had come down and were seated at the bar the mare came back into the saloon proper. She had a medium-length wooden box held tightly in her mouth. She placed it on the bar in front of us, me especially. Bolt had sat next to me with Starburst on the side of Rimfire. All of us were eating Sugar Bombs from the two boxes the mare had given us. The barkeeper kept on grinning as she undid the clasps on the box with little difficulty and opened it. Inside, which looked like a fine velvet, was two of the nicest knives I’d ever seen, and they were surely fighting knifes. The blades on both knives were seven inches with three inch hilts. The blades were a dark-grey color with black leather hilts. I saw her face looking at our expressions off to the side of the lid.
“You like them?” she asked.
“They’re great,” I said. “How did you get them?”
She put on a smug expression. “It just so happens my mom was the last Tinker in the Stable.” When she saw our confusion she continued. “We called whoever was good at making things a Tinker, and he was one of the best. He made this knives.”
“You’re trading them to us?” Rimfire asked shrewdly.
The mare shook her head. “Naw, but I’ll give them to you guys.”
“Why?” Starburst asked. “Is it because we’re helping Holiday?” She nodded.
“There can be a lot of bad ponies in the northern tunnels, and it’s easier to sneak by if you use a knife and not a gun.” She had a point. I couldn’t count all the times I may have been a little overzealous with a gun.
“These knives look priceless,” I told her. Rimfire agreed. “We can’t just take them.”
“Then you can have just one, Short. For being such a cutie.” I turned away from the others as I felt my face get flushed. I knew turning back to the barkeep would just make it worse.
“That’s uhm, very kind of you,” I said honestly. Seeing such acts in the wasteland made me think that sometimes it would get better in the long run. I never liked thinking such things though, it made the present a little more dreary.
“Maybe you could repay the kindness next time you're in town,” she said, her voice becoming a little more sensuous. The shock stopped my blushing and I looked back up at her.
“Sure,” I assured her. “I’d love to do something like that.” I wasn’t sure why I’d said that. I had an idea what she’d meant, and I wasn’t sure I was ready for that quite yet. I’d been with a mare or two, but mostly I liked to just flirt with them when I could. I had no problem with this mare either, aside from the fact I didn’t exactly know her name. She was pretty, probably smart, a good talker as far as I knew, the whole package. But there wasn’t a chance in hell I was going to lock myself down to this town. Even so she looked happier when I said that. I took the blade closest to me out of the case and slipped it through an empty loop in the gunbelt around my waist. I’d never be able to draw it fast with my mouth should I need to, it’d have to be around my foreleg for that to happen. I didn’t trust magic all the time, it was easy to see when a unicorn was using magic do to the glow. I turned to face Rimfire and Starburst, Bolt was to the other side.
“Let’s get going,” I told the two in front of me. “We’ve got an hour to go before we see the farm and whatever’s there.” And we set off, saying goodbye to the mare who owned the saloon. She wished us the best of luck, but I had a feeling she was mostly directing it at me. Holiday met us in the middle of the town.
“Just take that tunnel out of Camel,” he said, pointing towards the tunnel opposite the one we’d taken in. I was about to ask what Camel was when it hit me that it was probably the town’s name. Man, I need to get more names, I thought. I must be losing my touch with other ponies. There wasn’t a doubt in my mind that if I’d talked to Holiday a week ago, I’d have the town eating out of my hoof. But I guessed that the wasteland took something out of you. I knew what I’d lost, but I’d gained some things, namely other skills and most importantly friends.
Holiday continued telling us the path towards the way out of the city. A few lefts, a couple rights, but mostly straights, would lead us out and bring us right in front of the farm. The train tracks would be in sight from there. All in all, if everything turned out well, we’d be on our way by noon.
“If the farm’s so close,” Bolt asked, “why couldn’t you just send a few guys yourself?”
Holiday grunted. “Because, well, it wasn’t that much of a trouble to tell you the truth. Sometimes the crops aren’t growing fast enough so they come late, it happens. I was figuring in heading out there when you all walked into town actually.” He grinned. “I didn’t go in case I had to take care of some troublesome newcomers, as I often do.”
“Anything we should be on the lookout for?” I asked him.
He rubbed his chin and thought for a second. “Well we haven’t curried much favor with the ponies around us, not that there are much until you pass Blood Gorge. We pretty much cleared up t’ there.” Seemingly finished, we passed him to walk down the tunnels. He turned to us as we walked. “Try to not step into the creeks. The poison will kill ya’.”

The land in front of us stretched on forever, only on the horizon did great cliffs that stretched into the air appear. Most of them didn’t even come close to reaching the clouds, but I could see a few with a hint of snow still at the top. The lands before the mountains and hills were rotten with creeks and grass grew, just slightly, near the river beds. The rest of the ground looked like it was made up of decent soil, not the gritty, sandy stuff that was all over the West. We’d stayed in the tunnel. Extending for five feet on either side of the entrance, small walls had been constructed out of sandbags, giving just a bit of cover if there was a fight. The four of us walked as far as the sandbags before Rimfire and Starburst decided to see if they could see anything in ambush.
“See anything?” I asked, trying to keep my voice down in case there were ponies out there. Starburst shook his head, he was on the right side, towards the coast. Rimfire nodded.
“I see some sort of watch tower a hundred yards out,” she said, looking through some binoculars. She turned to me, her mouth open to say something. I heard a loud crack and I ducked instinctively. I looked up to see Rimfire fall down, a bullet cracked the ground behind her, but I was sure she’d been hit. Starburst ducked behind his barrier and I pulled Bolt close. She wriggled in my grasp. Another crack, this one hit the sandbags behind Rimfire.
I looked up to see how she was doing. She was face down on one of the tracks. A long furrow had been cut into her scalp from ear to eye. She would have been dead if she hadn’t turned. I said a quick word of thanks to Celestia. Not that I Was sure she’d helped in some way, but it was a spur of the moment thing. There didn’t seem to be anymore shots, but Rimfire still wasn’t moving. I looked towards Starburst, he was looking right back at me.
“We need to move,” I mouthed towards him. No telling where the shooter had been, or if there were more than one. He nodded and motioned with a hoof towards me. “Be careful.” He didn’t even acknowledge me when he charged away from those sandbags. A shot rang out when he ran, but it didn’t even touch him. I looked at Rimfire and she was starting to stir. I put my magic around her and started to tug. A fourth blast came and the bullet took her right in a hind leg. She let out a yelp and gritted her teeth. I pulled her next to me and Bolt wrapped herself around Rimfire’s torso. I pulled a healing potion out of my bag and put it next to Rimfire’s head, then I looked at her leg.
I was always uncertain when it came to bullets and healing potions. Surely it would be terrible not to give it to her, but the bullet might be healed in the wound, and it would fester. I pulled at the wound with my hooves, trying to get sight on the bullet or fragment that was in there. Her breathing became ragged but she just kept her teeth barred and eyes shut tight. I finally saw what looked like a piece of blackened metal laying next to her bone. I knew it wasn’t going to be pretty but I just grabbed it with my magic and pulled it.
Rimfire was one of the strongest mares I knew and even she screamed as I pulled the remnant out. I threw it to the side and poured the potion into her mouth. She swallowed and I ducked behind the sandbags on the left. A bullet ripped into the sandbags and I knew getting to the tower would be impossible, if the shooter was even there. I’d gotten over the possibility of there being more than one. Hopefully I checked my E.F.S, but nothing came up. It had been useless before, so I figured it would be again. I needed something that would cover my approach. 
I didn’t have to look further than Bolt. One of her saddlebags said RIOT on it in big, yellow letters. I called her over, making sure she’s stay against the wall, where the shooter couldn’t see her. She came right by and I opened her bag and rooted through it. Just as I’d hoped there were two smoke grenades in it, and another one, labelled tear gas, I left in the bag. 
I gripped one of the canisters with my magic, leaving the other next to me. Bolt crawled back to Rimfire as I pulled the pin and tossed the can behind me. There was a small crack and a hiss as the white cloud of gas escaped. I pulled the second pin and threw the can further than before. As soon as I heard the hiss I leapt over the barrier and charged towards the tower. The shooter took two shots into the smoke. One went wild, the other nicked my armor but only superficial damage from the looks of it.
I emerged from the clouds, smoke still clinging gently to my body. The tower was ten yards away. It was made of roughly cut wood and stripped metal bound together with ropes. The top of the tower was ten feet up and only accessible with a ladder, but a not too small hill next to it looked tall enough that if a pony had a good run, he could jump onto the platform on top of the tower. The sniper had been ready for me, and he fired. But I hadn’t run in a straight line, so I was five feet away from where he’d expected me. He whipped his gun to me and fired with no delay.
That’s where his mistake lay. He hadn’t taken the time to really get a sight on me, so when he fired, he was low and to the right. I ducked out of the way and made it below the platform where he couldn’t see me without exposing his head. He didn’t. I took Luna from the holster and aimed it up at the platform. I’d had the idea to go up there and deal with him, but I also knew it wasn’t necessary. It made sense to me that he wouldn’t try to move that much, the smoke was clearing and he would be able to see into the tunnel soon.
I fired two shots into the platform above, hoping that the rounds would go through the floor, and then I waited. The smoke between the tunnel and me cleared and I could see Starburst watching from where the shooter may not have been able to get him. A few drops of blood fell onto the ground. Still I waited.
The sun was high in the sky before I made a move. I inched out from below the platform, gun raised, looking for the shooter. I saw her almost instantly. Hey eyes were glossed over, dead. The rifle had fallen so that it looked like it was steadied, but I had no idea how long she’d been dead. Using my magic I grabbed the rifle she’d been using and I pulled it closer to get a better look at it. It was a high caliber rifle with a large scope. I couldn’t make head or tail of the model but I figured Rimfire or Starburst would know more. The gun was a matte-green plastic with a black, metal barrel and trigger assembly. The magazine was zebra-striped. It had a strap so I slipped it over my back, but first I folded the stand it came with. I waved to Starburst and he came running over.
“How’s Rimfire?” I asked when he came closer.
“She’s alright. How’s it look over here?” I shrugged. In the rush of the sniper I hadn’t give the place a proper look. I walked to the top of the hill and looked at the landscape. Closer to the northwest the mountains died down and became flat plains with small hills jutting here and there. In front of me I could see tilled ground with a wall made of cinder blocks, bricks, and wood along two sides of the field, the north and west. The tower had been on the southeast side overlooking all approaches. In the corner of the wall I saw two wooden crates that looked like they were sealed. There were no bodies around, and no blood as far as I could tell.
“They were taken,” I said to Starburst. He nodded in agreement. We walked towards the crates, careful in case someone had left explosives.
“But why? Normal slavers?”
“Could be,” I said. I wondered if slavers would be interested in a town like this and not the food they’d stored in the crates. We reached the crates and I picked them up in a magical glow. They strained me, but I’d be able to get them back to town with no trouble. We passed the hill, the tower. A loud bang came crashing from the subway tunnel and we started to run. There we saw Rimfire, Bolt, with a smoking barrel of her shotgun, and a bloody mess against the wall.
“What happened?” I asked. I had a good idea what had happened even without an explanation.
“That pony came in while you two were out having fun with that sniper,” Rimfire said, walking closer to Bolt. “Bolt shot him.”
“Good on you,” I said to Bolt. She looked a little nervous. I had a feeling she’d never shot anyone before. “Hey,” I told her, “he was dangerous. You did great.”
Rimfire agreed with me. “You were very brave, Bolt,” she said. Bolt looked a little more receptive after that but she didn’t look at any of us straight. 
“You alright?” Starburst asked her. She didn’t shake her head, but he knew what she was hiding. “You didn’t do a bad thing. Sometimes this is what you have to do if you want to protect your friends.”
“Okay,” she said meekly. I wasn’t sure the foal had gotten the message, but she might have. She was pretty bright as far as I could tell.

“I was only trying to protect us,” she said, although defensively. We dropped the topic and walked back to Camel. Holiday was there to meet us on the outskirts of town. He eyed the boxes appreciatively.
“Thank ya’ kindly, kid.” I felt his magic reach for the crates, and I dropped them on the ground. One of them cracked opened. A brown, lumpy potato, still with eyes, popped out and rolled on the ground. Holiday scowled but he picked up the two crates anyways.
“They were taken,” I said.
“Who?” he asked.
“Your workers.”
“Might as well have been buffalo,” he said nonchalantly.
“You don’t care?” Bolt asked.
“I care. If’n you’re mistaking my calm for someone who doesn’t care, that’s ye’r own fault. I’m mad as a dog right now. But the way I see’s it I can’t rightly do much, can I?” He took a deep breath and slowly exhaled. “If you’ll excuse me, I need to put this stuff to good use. Many thanks.” Holiday turned around and walked the crates towards a nondescript building. The four of us circled up.
“Well now what?” Starburst asked. “I’m going to get the feeling we aren’t welcome right now.”
I thought back to the barmare. “We could stay another night.” The others other caught my train of thought before it even left the station.
“No,” Bolt said.
“You’re too young to understand,” I said jokingly.
“I’m not that young!” she yelled out. A few townsfolk looked up at us but quickly went back to their own business.
“We’re not going to delay ourselves because you’re in love, Short,” Rimfire said. “Maybe we can stop on the way back.” I shook my head.
“Probably won’t need to,” I said. “We just need to worry about getting to New Pegasus after.”
“Do we need to stock up?” Starburst asked. “I don’t know if you guys do or not, but I can’t think of a single town between us and Manehattan. That and we’ll need bullets, plenty of bullets for when we get there.” 
“Oh,” I said, thinking about the gun I’d found. I pulled it off my back and placed it between us. “Anyone good at using one of these?” Rimfire picked it up with her magic and inspected it, taking off a few of the parts and putting them back on, checking the bolt and magazine.
“I’ve used one... once,” she said. She studied the magazine again. “I don’t think these are normal bullets, Short. They look a little homemade. Were there any other bullets?”
“Didn’t check,” I told her truthfully. “The body was too high up for me to see clearly.” Rimfire wasn’t impressed.
“Well, there are only 3 shots left in the magazine so unless there were others, it’s pretty much useless.” She leaned the gun against the tunnel wall.
“So we won’t even sell it?” I asked. She shook her head.
“Would you give me caps for a gun that barely had any bullets left?”
“Oh,” I said dismissively. I turned to walk down the tunnel we had just came through when Starburst stopped me. He had a small magazine in his outstretched hoof.
“Here,” he said. I took the magazine and looked at it. The cover read ‘Guns and Ammo: Wild West Edition’. “I figured since you seemed to like guns so much... I saw it in one of the stores here and I bought it for you.” I flipped through the pages. Most of it seemed to be basic gun handling, but there were a few interesting articles I wanted to check out from the looks of it.
“Nothing for me?” Rimfire asked jokingly.
“Sorry, Rimfire. They didn’t have anything like that. This is a wholesome town.” She blushed a little.
“What did he mean?” Bolt asked, seeing Rimfire’s face heat up.
“Nothing Bolt,” I told her. That just made her more curious.
“Come on, Short. I’m part of the team,” she said. Her voice got more high pitched and squeaked when she became upset.
“Yes, you are,” Starburst said. “We were just talking about books on... bigger guns?”
“Yeah, Rimfire likes it when they are bigger,” I said abruptly.
“Well that just throws you out then, Short,” she said dryly. My feelings were hurt, but not that much.
“I thought I saw that barmare eying my gun,” I said.
“I saw it too!” Bolt piped up.
“Did you?” I asked. Bolt nodded.
“I thought she was just going to reach for the holster myself!” Starburst covered his face with his hoof, trying not to laugh at the foal. Bolt noticed.
“Hey,” she grumbled. It was all we could do not to start laughing at her. Trying to get myself straight I turned down the tunnel again and started to walk. Sensing relief, Starburst and Rimfire followed suit. Bolt came running along, asking what was so funny.
While we walked I perused the book, trying to get everything I could out of it. It had makes and models of nearly every revolver or lever-gun made or just thought of. I noted that the estimated production date of quite a few guns were after the war.  How hopeful they’d been. One article in particular interested me. Its title, ‘Western guns biased against non-unicorns’  made me curious. Through my travels I’d noticed that there seemed to be a lot more unicorns than earth ponies. The article stated that non-unicorns couldn’t work the actions of guns nearly as well as a unicorn, and that they shouldn’t even attempt to use a lever-gun. That, in my mind, was reasonable.
Holiday had told me one thing, he’d never lost a fair duel to an earth pony. That they just couldn’t draw fast enough. And to get their mouth that far down they had to look away from the other pony, which was a deadly mistake.
By the time we reached the sandbag walls the sun was starting to set. We took our chances and didn’t camp at the tunnel. Instead we went right out of the tunnel and looked for the tracks. Most likely we would have been fine just going north from Camel but it was risky going up into the mountains with no path. 
After an hour spent scrambling under the shadows of Baltimare we found the tracks. They looked fine, except for without any maintenance workers left the salty sea air had begun to rust the tracks. In a few places the wooden trusses had been taken out or broken off. The four of us took off along those tracks hoping to see Manehattan before night-fell. The only thing we managed to see though were raiders.
We lay inside a narrow ditch atop the crest of a small crater that had been made by a bomb a long time ago. We’d only known the raiders were ahead because they had fires and the black smoke was highlighted across the dim, grey sky. So we’d snuck up and made a plan. It would have been an awful plan to rest anywhere with raiders like these around, so we had to dispatch them. The only question was how.
The raider camp had three campfires in a triangle around a center tent. The tent was a dusty, military green with foilage camo on top. There were four ponies sitting around the fires with who knows how many in the tent. I was worried about just shooting into the camp. There was no telling how far the echoes of gunshots could spread. Rimfire had no such qualms, she just set her rifle up to fire down at them. Only she and I could shoot without revealing ourselves, and only when we laid our weapons down. Bolt and Starburst had to use saddle mounted guns, which meant they’d have to stand up out of the gulch. Rimfire and I exchanged glances. She was ready to go. I hoped my eyes told her that I wasn’t sure but she just rolled her eyes at me. Gritting myself I drew Luna and placed her butt down on the ground. I set my sights for the closest raider.
It was a stallion, whatever color his mane had been was gone from the dried blood and mud that caked it. His coat was no better off. I saw his head scanning the horizon. His gaze sweeping, and soon he’d see the firelight barely glinting off of the polished silver. Well I saw his eyes catch it, and I fired. Rimfire heard the blast and followed up. Her gun belched fire and lead down into the tent. The three other guards got up and began to draw with magic or not. Only one was an earth pony so I shot him twice in the chest so fast it only sounded like I fired once. The two unicorns dropped their guns, turned tail and ran. I just let them go. Rimfire had emptied her magazine and was getting another one when the tent burst into flames. 
Two ponies ran out screaming and crying, their bodies engulfed it hot, clinging fire. I turned to the side and moved myself in front of Bolt so she couldn’t see. No pony should have to witness that. Rimfire and Starburst overtook the hill and rand sideways down into the crater. They checked the two bodies for life and maybe bullets. The burning ponies had fallen where they’d stood and were silent. Rimfire began to kick dirt over them, hoping to extinguish the inferno. I only let Bolt up when the bodies were out. Her eyes dilated at the sight of the tent on fire, and I couldn’t blame her. The fire was big enough that even though it was inside the crater the flames flew high into the air.
“We have to move!” I called to Starburst and Rimfire. 
“Which way?” she called back. Starburst was silent, or just too quiet over the roar of the blaze.
“Keep on the tracks!” I cried again. I led Bolt around the pit, hoping Starburst and Rimfire would keep up. On the other side of the pit, where the tracks met up, I saw the two of them coughing and we rushed to their side. I offered Starburst my canteen, Bolt did the same for Rimfire. They both drank heartily. 
“What was that?” I asked.
“Napalm,” Starburst said. “They must have taken it from an arms dump or something.” He wheezed and I offered the canteen again. He waved it off and focused on breathing.
“Then we should get out of here. If they just had napalm lying about they could have any sort of weapon about.” No one could deny that fact. There were many things worse than napalm used during the war, and we didn’t want anything to do with them.
So we walked the night, all except Bolt that is. She tried for a couple hours but she was just too young to have enough energy. We took turns carrying her on our backs. Starburst had the easier job so he did most of the lifting. Just as dawn was peaking through any small gap in the clouds, we could make out Manehattan. 
We were exhausted beyond belief. The mountainous area we found ourselves in didn’t do anything for our aching hooves. The train tracks were surrounded by steep climbs into slight forests. I veered off to the left, where it was only a small climb to a particularly thick set of trees. I wasn’t sure if the others followed but it mattered little in my sleep-deprived brain. I forced myself through the thicket, into the trees, and slept.
I awoke a long time later to see a particularly fierce-looking Bolt standing guard. Rimfire and Starburst were both dozing off to my side. I sat up and pulled some of the sugar bombs I’d kept from Camel out of my bag. I pulled half of them out with magic and passed the box to Bolt, she looked famished. Her eyes warmed and she took the box happily. We sat there eating before we spoke.
“How long were we out?” I asked. 
She shrugged. “Not sure. You were all asleep when I woke up so I just started watching, making sure no one got hurt.”
“That’s really great, Bolt,” I said. She was happy, both for the compliment and the cereal. No wonder she’d had her old name, she ate those things like no one’s business. I’d wished for some meat or something, even some vegetables. But beggars can’t be choosers.
“Are they going to wake up soon?” she asked, gesturing to the others.
“Probably. It was a long ways, Bolt. It takes a lot out of you when all you’ve eaten is this cereal.” I finished my sugar bombs and lay back against one of the trees. I heard a small buzzing, and a vibration on my hoof. I looked at my PipBuck, it was vibrating like it never had before. I pulled it up and looked at the screen. On it had a small pop-up with ‘radio trans.’ I hit the accept key and I saw the face of Elder Soap looking back at me. I could make out her voice among the static.
“Hello, Short. Is Starburst around?” she asked. I had a few questions myself, and I let her know. “I need to talk with Starburst,” she insisted. I rolled my eyes and walked over to the sleeping Steel Ranger. He wasn’t pleased to be woken up, but when he heard Soap’s voice he was up quick as a whip. He sat up next to me so we could both see the screen. Bolt was watching up nervously.
“Yes, Elder Soap?” he asked.
“Paladin Starburst, the Event has occurred. Please standby for orders.” The transmission was cut and the screen went back to telling me my health, malnourished.
“What was that about?” I asked.
“Ranger business,” he said calmly.
“Don’t give me that,” I said. “There would have been no reason to call me on my PipBuck unless she couldn’t get you on your comm system.” He looked away.
“The Event is bad, okay? That’s all I can say.”
“Did something happen to your base?” Bolt asked. She had siddled up to him without us seeing.
Starburst grunted. “Yes, Bolt. Something bad happened.”
“What?” I asked, worried for Bolt more than the Rangers.
“Enclave,” was all he said.
“What?” I blurted out loudly. “Enclave in New Pegasus? That can’t be!”
“Keep your voice down,” Rimfire said. She was sitting up now. Starburst paid her no mind.
“I won’t know anything else until she calls back. Until then, there’s nothing we can do but continue on, and double time it back to New Pegasus afterwards.”
Grumbling, I packed up whatever had fallen out of my packs and stood. Rimfire was the last to get up, stretching her muscles and more. I had a good feeling that we’d get to Manehattan proper in three, maybe four hours. One thing I was truly worried about was getting across the water. There were only a few good bridges left into the city. There were a few train tunnels, but I hada feeling a lot of them would be flooded.

Everything I’d heard about the bridges was correct. They were hundreds of yards long, the metal that made them was rusted nearly clean through. The carriages that had been left during the bombing sat where their drivers had died. In some places, where the weight had been too high, carriages had fallen through the bridge making gaping holes. I couldn’t see any poines though, which was a welcome relief.
I walked first, with Rimfire and Bolt side by side behind me. Starburst was in back by a decent margin. His armor was heavy and there wasn’t anything any of us could do about that. Step by step we traversed the bridge. A few times there was a tiny amount of hesitance when the bridge settled under some weight. Where the weight came from we had no idea. When the end of the bridge came in sight, I saw something that wasn’t nice. A wall had been erected of crushed and crumpled carriages. They took up the entire width of the bridge, only a five foot space was left clear. On the tops of the wall on either side were ponies with heavy machine guns. They didn't look friendly. Starburst and I walked up to the wall, Rimfire and Bolt staying back a little.
“Stop,” one of the ponies ordered. “Pay the toll.”
“What’s the toll?” I asked.
“2000 caps each,” the same pony said.
“We don’t have that,” I said, “but we figure to come on in otherwise.” The ponies on the wall grinned. I doubt they thought I was anything to worry about. Tow of them had their guns aimed lazily on Starburst, they weren’t even holding the guns right. They were leaning of them at best. I had a good feeling that the bullets wouldn’t do anything to his armor. And if they did, they wouldn’t be shooting for long if we had our way.
The pony started to speak again when I drew iron. His eyes widened as he kept on the task of talking. Starburst must have been watching me closely, because he started shooting as soon as I did. My first shot took the pony next to the talker. The fore of the bullet threw him back behind the wall. The talker was still stunned when I turned on him. He’d probably never had a pony turn guns on him like this. He threw his hooves up so I just turned to see how Starburst was doing. He’s gotten both of his. He gave me a knowing glance, ‘you think you’re the only one who can shoot?’
“H-hey I didn’t mean any harm,” the last pony standing said. I turned my gun back to him.
“I’m pretty sure you did. But I’m not one to just kill a pony who gave up. I figure if you can swim back to mainland we won’t kill you.” He looked at me terrified.
“Are you serious?” he said, practically screaming.
“Fuck no,” I said. “Get out of here and I swear if I see you again-” He was gone before I Even finished the sentence. Bolt and Rimfire joined up with us and we strode between the gap in the walls. On the other side, the pony who I’d shot off was clutching his gun and hollering loudly. He glanced at me, sorrow in his eyes. 
“N-no,” he blubbered. Many ponies in a position of power don’t think it’s going to be them that gets shot, but everyone gets their ticket punched sooner or later. Bolt rushed up to him with a healing potion held tightly in her mouth. She put it on the pony’s chest and ran back behind us. 
Where’d she get that potion, I wondered. The pony took the potion cautiously and downed it. He laid back as it took effect.
“Where’s the caps?” I asked. He said nothing so I shucked my gun again and pointed it menacingly. I had no intention of shooting him, but I figured he didn’t know that. He pointed behind me and I saw a large lockbox had been tied to a bench. I walked over to it and it popped open easily. A miniscule pile of caps greeted me. When I took them all my PipBuck said I’d only gotten 135 caps. “Where’s the rest?”
“That’s all there is,” his voice was full of fear and tiredness.
“You’re charging 2000 caps a pony and that’s all you have?” Starburst asked. He’d seen the pile too.
“No one ever paid 2000. Most of them just gave ten or whatever they had.” His voice was wavering and weak. He eyed the empty potion greedily. I must have hurt him more that I’d thought. It’d been a long time since I’d seen something take more than one potion. Either that or I just didn’t remember seeing it, which was likely. A small trickle of blood ran down his cheek, following the curve of his neck and dripping down onto the concrete.
“Where can we find Church?” Starburst asked. His mind was in the right place.
“Who?” the fallen pony asked.
“Churchane,” I explained, “he’s a drug maker and dealer. He’s supposed to be situated in Manehattan.”
“I’ve only heard of one pony even kind of like that, but good luck getting there,” he said.
“Why?” Rimfire asked. He thought carefully about his next answer.
“They don’t let earth ponies in, or mares,” he said, looking at everyone but me.
“Why not?” Bolt asked.
“Don’t know,” he said. “Never heard of one getting let into the Church.”
“The Church?” I asked.
“That’s what the Church is, I figured that’s where your Churchane would be.”
“How do we get there?”	
“You’ll find it that way, across the city on the harbor side. It’s right next to the water, overlooking it. I doubt you’ll miss it.” He pointed directly east of us.
“Anything else we should know?” Rimfire asked.
“That you’ve practically killed me,” he said flatly.
“What do you mean?” she asked angrily. “We gave you a potion, that does its work and you’re fine.”
“Maybe... maybe not. All I know is I can’t move my hind legs.” I felt a chill down my spine. I’d crippled this pony, and he was right. He would die one way or the other. There wasn’t a doctor I knew that could heal a broken spine, and no one would want a pony like this with them. I closed my eyes in regret.
“You seem too calm for this situation,” Starburst said.
“Yeah, I know. It’s probably shock.” He looked up right in the eye. “Don’t you want to finish me off?”
“What?” I sputtered. His expression didn’t change from a solid coolness.
“You seemed to gung-ho to kill us when we had guns on you, and even when you walked around the wall you looked hungry for blood. I saw it in your eyes.”
“I’m not a cold-blooded killer,” I said, trying to defend myself. “I didn’t see any other way.”
“Some ponies are talkers, I guess not you.”
“You don’t know who I am!” I yelled. The others looked taken aback, Rimfire especially. The pony on the ground wasn’t.
“I think I’m seeing it more and more. You’re like the rest of them, killers.” I’d had enough of him, and I meant to show him. I felt around for my revolver, which I’d put away. Yet Rimfire’s glance caught my eye, she was upset, worried, or something in between. I felt the cold grip of Luna and waited. 
No one was moving or talking at all, and it was all on me to make the next move. I was pretty sure that it was an unspoken consensus. My breathing, I noticed for the first time, had become heavy. I slowed it down, calming myself. ’It would almost be mercy to put him down,’ I thought. He’d never make it far, and the things he’s said made me almost happy to oblige his desire. 
Something about him though, made me stop and think. I was pretty sure he didn’t have anything to hide or any reason to deceive us aside from the fact that I’d shot him. But even so, something about the 135 caps seemed a little off, but nothing added up to anything that was worthwhile. Getting from 2000 to just letting anyone in with ten caps or so was bizarre. I needed to bluff now more than ever, he wasn’t letting up.
“You’re a liar,” I said. He looked up at me, his face had fallen into a glazed stupor.
“Am I?” he asked.
“Yup. Now tell the truth so we can go,” I said.
“Why should I?” I’d prepared for that question.
“You think I’d shoot you, just to end your suffering? Maybe I’m not so kind, like you said. Maybe I’m a cold-blooded killer. I’ve heard that drowning is peaceful, with that river down there you could see for yourself.” He looked a little green around the gills. “There’s nothing quicker than hanging, a friend a ways back told me that. Except for the time it takes to tie the rope and all that around the ponies neck. I figure that would make it seem like a long time.”
“If you tell me what I wanted to know in the first place, I think we can come to an understanding,” I finished.
“Look man,” he said, a tinge of nervousness to him, “you came to us, you shot at us. We didn’t do anything to you.”
“But you wanted to,” I said. I started to draw my gun, slowly, for show. His eye caught the glow the movement and he leapt up like his tail was on fire. I swung my gun around, quicker, and my heart dropped. He’d grabbed Bolt and had himself around her neck. Bolt was choking, and going blue fast. “Let her go,” I said. He shook his head.
“You’re a killer, that’s all you’ll ever be,” he said solemnly. Bolt let out small squeaks of air.
I nodded. “Then that makes you a liar.” My gun belched fire and clicked onto an empty cylinder. The first tore through his jaw, between the teeth, and out the back. He gargled blood for a couple seconds before falling flat, his grip on Bolt loosened and she sprang to Rimfire’s side. 
I popped the cylinders out and started to reload, taking care to do the job right. I hadn’t remembered leaving an empty round in, and inspection showed that the cylinder hadn’t been used. I said the same to Rimfire.
“Short,” she said, and stopped. I looked at her. She was looking at me like I was crazy.
“What?” I asked.
“I’ve got mixed emotions here, Short,” she said. “One, how did you know he was lying? Two, what the fuck was all that?”
“It was a guess that he was lying,” I said truthfully. “I didn’t even think that he would have lied about the back legs though.” I had to think about the next part. It wouldn’t be lying to say that I had surprised myself, with both the shooting and the talking. “I think I’m changing,” I said.
“There’s nothing wrong with a little change,” Starburst said. “But you were threatening a pony who we thought couldn’t walk... on a guess. That’s not us.”
“Is that not who we are?” I asked, growing angry. “I thought we were ponies who were trying to survive.”
“I thought you did more than survive,” Rimfire said. “You tried to help ponies. I remember when you tried to help, at the risk of your own life.”
“Isn’t that what I’m doing now?” I was mad now, and they could tell. I was hoping they’d just stay silent, and accept what I’d said. It didn’t look like they were about to so I continued. “We’re going to deal with Churchane to help all the ponies who he’s trapped in the drug world.”
“Do we even know that he does that?” Rimfire pointed out. “All we know is that he tricked you into smuggling something into New Pegasus and that he’s smart.”
“He tried to have us killed, Rimfire,” I said. Was I the only one who understood the danger? The true goals?
“You took thousands of caps from him, Short. If he knew that from New Pegasus in a day or two, no doubt he knows we’re coming, or that we’re already here.” She had a point, and that just made it worse. I hit myself mentally for not thinking of it before. I had to think before I spoke again.
“I’m just trying to keep you all safe,” I said finally.
“Why?” Starburst asked.
“Because I couldn’t do it before and almost got Rimfire killed. If I have to become a bad pony just to get everyone safe, then I’ll do it.”
“Do you think we can’t protect ourselves?” Rimfire asked.
“You didn’t have to come with me,” I said gravely. “I made you come.”
“You didn’t make us do anything,” Rimfire said. She walked to stand close next to me. “I chose to come with you out of Balefire Point.” 
“I came with you out of the bunker,” Starburst said.
“I know it doesn’t mean much,” Bolt spoke up. “But I came out of Avacyn too.”
“Well all made a choice, Short, that comes hell or highwater we’d go with you because, frankly, the other options weren’t that palatable.” 
“Why do you feel it’s your responsibility for our safety?” Bolt asked.
“When Rimfire and I were travelling alone, I took her into somewhere I didn’t have to go, and she nearly died. The next day I got another friend killed. I’m a walking disaster.” Rimfire looked hurt, almost as though she were about to cry.
“Are you still beating yourself up over that?” I nodded. “Listen, Short. I know I was a bit harsh when I said that, not that it wasn’t true. But you were a lot different then. And frankly, I felt like I was responsible for you.” That didn’t make me feel much better.
“I’m sorry to say this, but Short, you need to move on,” Starburst said. And when he said that, I knew he was right, but there wasn’t a snowball’s chance in hell it would be easy.

End of Chapter 9
Level up!
Guns 80, Medicine 40
Perk Gained: Center of Mass(You don't fool around with fancy trick shots. Straight to the midsection and down they go. You do an additional 15% damage with attacks targeting the torso.)
	
> Walk Like A Stallion
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Chapter 10: Walk like a Stallion
Manehattan nights aren’t as cold as I’d been used to. Out west near Appleloosa you needed a blanket to sleep, and most nights you kept a fire going, even during the summer. Tonight was warm, and it felt good to lie down without the blazing fire and to just lay on the bedroll. I’d taken off my gunbelt for the Luna and the Cloudsdale I’d taken off my foreleg. We’d left the bridge a mile back and just went down a random street that looked the least hostile. None of us had ever been in Manehattan so we didn’t know what to expect. Bolt and Rimfire were both nestled close by me. Starburst was off doing his business. Soap had never called my PipBuck again. I was sure he was worried.
After we’d left the bridge the sun had started to set fast. We decided it’d be best to get somewhere safe for the night. The buildings near the waters were mostly just office buildings, and not tall ones at that. It seemed the buildings got taller near the center and north ends of Manehattan. That was fine by me, I didn’t like buildings towering over me. The building we’d found that worked best was for an old paper supplier from the looks of it. The lobby had led into rooms with long rows of printers and stacks of rotted paper. We stationed ourselves on the overseer’s room for the night. 
The room was a ten by ten square. The back wall was lined with filing cabinets, we’d searched them and gotten only a few caps. We’d pushed a desk that was in the center of the room to the side so we could all see each other better. A cracked, wooden door lead out onto a catwalk that surveyed the printing floor. Starburst had left through that door not more than ten minutes ago. He’d left most of his armor in the room we were in. He’d said he’d needed to clear his head and we didn’t fault him. It’d been a rough day for all of us. When Starburst tried to walk out the door without his armor I nearly offered to go with him but I knew he could handle himself. My ear perked up at the sound of hooves on the metal grating of the catwalk. I was about to call out for Starburst, when I heard strange voices.
“You sure you saw them go in, Clipper?” a voice asked, sounded like a stallion. His voice was raspy and dry.
“Yep,” a mare answered. Her voice was a lot like Bolt’s, young at least. I reached out for the Luna with my magic and gripped it tightly in a magical field. I looked quickly over at Bolt and Rimfire. Both of them were sound asleep. I checked the chambers of the revolver. All of them were loaded with fresh rounds. The chambers slid back into place with a barely audible click. The voices began whispering again, this time they were closer. 
I got off my bedroll and walked towards the door. I placed the barrel against the door. There was a knock and I fired. 
The bullet bit through the old door with ease. I wasn’t sure if it even hit anything, but I wasn’t about to lose a second. I kicked the door from the from with a well-placed kick. I got a good look at the two ponies beyond the door. Both of them were wearing leather cloaks, each fastened by a silver badge on the front. A big ‘R’ emblazoned on the front. The stallion was holding a hoof on his side gingerly. The mare had a shotgun in a battle-saddle and she fired right at me.
The pellets spread too wide, and only a couple grazed me. I felt one tear through my right ear. I turned the revolver on her and shot twice, quick as lightning. The first shot took her in the chest, the next one hit higher up. I turned to the stallion. He had a laser pistol in his mouth, when he’d grabbed it I had no idea. He shot once. I felt the red beam burn through my leg at the chest. The energy frying muscle and nerves as it seared. I shot again and he didn’t get up again. I saw Starburst running from somewhere on the bottom floor. I didn’t wait for him to come up.
Turning, I reached into my bag for a healing potion. Bolt and Rimfire had woken up from the gunshots and they didn’t look happy at all. With aching slowness I retrieved the potion and uncorked it. It tasted bitter this time.
“Short, what happened?” Rimfire asked.
“I don’t know. I heard two ponies outside,” was all I said. As I spoke I felt the magic working through my body. None of the wounds were bad, just a few nicks and cuts. It didn’t take long for the patch in my ear to be filled with new, hairless, skin. Rimfire was looking at me shrewdly. Any question she had was interrupted by Starburst bursting through the open door frame.
“Is everyone alright?” he asked worriedly, clearly out of breath.
“Yeah,” I said. Rimfire looked like she was biting back a question, but she just lay back on her bedroll not looking for an argument. Starburst lay down next to his discarded armor to catch his breath. I put down my revolver and grabbed the door in my magic and lifted it back to the frame. It wasn’t sturdy, but it’d do for the night. Finally, Bolt and I each retreated to where we’d sleep. I closed my eyes, but I was still stricken with energy.
It felt like hours passed. I expected the sun to come up and second, but it never did. The only thing I heard was Bolt start to whisper very gently to Rimfire.
“I don’t think they wanted to kill us,” was what I heard her say. Rimfire didn’t respond, she just lay close to the filly. Ignoring them, I picked up my PipBuck and started to look at the map. I looked for the Church that the pony on the bridge had mentioned. I found it without much issue. It took up the better part of two blocks from the map’s standpoint. Going on from what else he’d said, only I could go in.
I made sure to attribute the route there to memory. Go north along Hoof Avenue, take a right onto 50th and just head straight to the water from there. That would put me right in front of the Church, where I’d find Churchane and teach him a lesson he’d never forget. I was still going over the path in my head when darkness finally overtook me.
I woke up solemnly. Everyone else was already dressed and eating some remnants of whatever food we had. I forwent eating, my stomach felt somewhat in knots, but I didn’t care. Today was going to be a good day. I shoved my limbs into the reinforced armor I’d gotten at the Steel Ranger’s base. It fit snug and somehow settled my stomach, but I still wasn’t hungry. After putting on my guns I got up, the first of anyone and knocked the door back down. It landed with a thud on the bodies of the two ponies from last night. A few flies buzzed around the area but paid us little mind.
Outside the office building was mostly quiet. The faint sound of gunfire drifted on the wind. The smell of the sea air mixed with the acrid stench of balefire and rotting garbage which lined the street. Above the skyline the grey clouds shimmered with the bright sun above them. One thing I missed about the West was the sun, its warmth was sometimes overbearing but you got used to its embrace. I made sure everyone was caught up on the plan, the route at least. I had a plan and I knew it wasn’t good. But as we were walking down the street Starburst asked me about it.
“I plan to go on in,” I said confidently.
“The fuck you are!” Rimfire said. “That’s the dumbest idea I’ve ever heard.”
“Look,” I explained, “No one else can get in. Just me.”
“I’m sure there’s a better way, Short,” Starburst spoke up.
“I don’t think so.”
“We haven’t even seen the place yet,” Rimfire said. She was right, but my plan was the only thing I could hold on to. We took the right onto 50th and I knew I was in for a fight already. The street wasn’t more than twenty blocks and I could see the hulking metal structure that must be The Church already. I didn’t look around the street at all; my eyes were fixed to the building in front of me.
As we got closer, I could see more of the structure. From the front all we could see was a large crescent of dark stone. In the center was a large, ornate door that must had been two stories high. Above it was a balcony with a closed door that lead inside somewhere. Flanking that balcony were two roosts for machine gunners. Both of them were occupied with unicorns that looked like they had a bad streak a mile wide. Behind those I could see the building extend to the waterline, I didn’t know how long from here. Elsewhere around the inside of the crescent were ponies behind sandbag barriers. The three of us stopped between the ends of the crescent. 
“Now what do we do?” Starburst asked me. I took a step forward. A bullet from somewhere cut the dirt in front of me. I stepped back.
“I need to see Churchane!” I declared loudly to anybody that would listen. A burly unicorn, flanked by two others, jumped over a sandbag barrier and started towards us. Reflexively I undid the clasp holding my Luna in. He stopped a couple yards away. 
“Only the purest and most rare may enter the Church,” he said.
“Only I’m going in,” I said. Rimfire shot me another dirty glance, but I ignored the other three. This was my time to shine. I took a step confidently. Not shot hit the ground in front of me.
“What’s your business?” he asked.
“I’ve got some money I owe Churchane.” He thought for a moment.
“Follow me,” he said solemnly. He lead me straight to the door. Rimfire tried to follow, but the two other unicorns held their guns menacingly. She stood still.
Inside the Church was completely different that the outside. Foals ran around playing, mares and stallions walked around the huge stone complex. All of them were unicorns. I didn’t take long to look around, I kept right behind my guide. Time slowed down for me. I kept thinking about the freedom Church’s death would bring us. We wouldn’t have to worry much anymore. We’d be free. Finally, he stopped next to a set of tall metallic doors.
“Is this it?” I asked. He nodded. 

The giant metal doors swung open with barely any noise at all. The room beyond was filled to the brim with long rows of tables covered in chemistry sets. Elements were burning, boiling, bubbling, and smoking. Air inside the room was thick and smoggy. I saw only one pony, he stood halfway across the room in front of me. I knew it was Churchane before he even said anything.
He was dressed in a thick woolen coat bristling with pockets and pouches. He stood two heads taller than me. On his face he wore a respirator with a fogged up viewer. Even from here I could hear his ragged breathing. I took a few steps forward and his horn began to glow. 
All at once every burner was turned off. The chemicals stopped and lay still. The air was immediately cleansed of all irritants. He took off his mask. His eyes were a dark grey, no pupil. Just white and grey. His face was gaunt and pale, with no coat at all, just fleshy, pinkish skin.
“So,” he said as he took a stride towards me, “You’ve come to me.” I stopped ten paces away, and he stood still too.
“Yeah,” I said. “You tried to kill my friends and I.”
“I don’t know who you are or who your friends are,” he said. His voice was calm and collected. Unlike mine, which I could feel myself just holding back from screaming at him, this monster.
“Bullshit,” I said, venom leaking into my voice. “You sent your goons to kill us at Balefire Point.” His crooked mouth bent into a grin.
“I’ve never ordered any of my ‘goons’, not for a long time. I don’t have time for that anymore. Such things are below me now.”
“I’m putting a stop to you,” I said flatly. His facial expression never changed. Why wasn’t he afraid? He clearly didn’t know who I was, that was for sure. 
“Is that so?” he asked. There was a hint of joy in his voice. I nodded, and started to draw my revolver. There wasn’t a chance in hell he’d seen it coming, and I was the fastest draw I knew, second only to Holiday. But I’d barely cleared leather when what felt like a missile pounded me in the chest. My armor absorbed most of it, but I felt my lungs empty, my gun fell from the magic and clattered to the floor.
I cursed myself and leapt under the table to my right. He must’ve been surprised because his shot missed, biting into the concrete where I’d been. Looking back I gave a quick, magical kick to my gun sending it spiraling into the air. I got onto my legs and bucked into the table above me. The glassware and metal all went streaming down around me. Church took a few rapid steps back and kept his eyes on the racing acid burning its way across the floor. I smirked and grabbed my gun out of the air, cocked it, and aimed. 
But Church was gone. I covered wide angles on both sides of where he’d been, but I didn’t see him at all. On the second sweep a heard a loud bang and something pierced my side, and I felt the inside of my armor getting wet.I rolled into the next row and tried to locate him.
I saw him just before he was able to shoot again. On a table to my left I saw him getting a bead on me. Without thinking I twisted my gun around and shot twice like lightning and just as fierce. My mind was racing as I waited for those bullets to leave the barrel, it felt like I was watching everything through a slow haze of anger.
I’d had enough of Church and I’d barely just met him. I blamed him for Thirteen’s death, for Tin and Ballast. If he hadn’t made me come to New Pegasus they’d be alive. But he hadn’t made me come to New Pegasus, I thought again, any chump could have been offered the caps I’d been offered. I squashed those thoughts, No way I could going to let myself think well of him, not while I planned on killing him. 
Finally the shots seemed to hit, twice in the chest. He took two steps back, one of his hind legs floundered, missing the tabletop. Pulling the hammer back on Luna I jumped onto another table, but Church was ready for it already. He pumped another shot from somewhere and I felt it smash into my hooves as they hit the table top. With nothing to stop me, my momentum carried me off the table with it toppling after me. The fallen table gave me shelter from Church’s bullets, but not from what was on the table.The lead had smashed beakers and glasses that sent chemicals streaming over my body and face.
The burning was excruciating. I dropped my gun in agony. I knew I didn’t have time to waste and every second was the difference between life and death. I’d thought ahead and cleared my bags of the useless items and organized the rest beforehand. Without a moment’s hesitation I had the potion in my mouth with the stopper out, feeling the warmth flow through my body. It eased the pain but I saw the red and bubbling skin wasn’t healing at all. I’d deal with that later. My mind had to be in the moment, and I focused it now. I knew if I stuck my head around, Church would either shoot me, or not be there at all. Either option would be useless to me as it left him alive longer. It was second nature when I drew the Cloudsdale alongside the Luna and pulled back the action. That wasn’t necessary, it was double action, but it felt nice doing it. I’d have to get close for it to mean anything at all. That wasn’t a problem to me, I’d love to get close to Churchane.
I leapt forward from the table at instinct more than anything. Not more than a moment later the table was engulfed in a crimson fire. Instead of jumping to the next row I took a sharp turn to where I thought he’d be, and he was. I saw him pulling another glass bottle out of his coat, one of the many pockets he had. My guns were out and ready for business. With both sights on him he had nowhere to run. I pulled both triggers simultaneously and his chest exploded in a cloud of leather scraps and flying lead. He dropped the glass and it shattered across the floor spreading a flaming liquid down and around his body. Church let out an agonizing scream, like one that came from banshees in a foal’s nightmare. And as though he were a flaming spirit he rushed at me.
“You think this is the end?” he screamed with an almighty furor. His blow knocked me onto my back and we went sprawling across the floor. Eventually he was able to stabilize and I found myself sandwiched between the floor and a burning pony. The intense heat seared my flesh and I felt the old skin burn again. He brought his head close to mine. “You won’t ever be the same.”
“Neither will you,” I said. I still had Luna in my grip and I placed the blazing barrel against the side of his head. The hammer clicked on a full barrel, and he screamed in agony as the bullet tore through his skull. For the first time,  I think he meant it.
It felt good hearing it. I’d won the battle against my only opponent left, and if I could beat Churchane, I could rule New Pegasus. A wave of relief hit me like a box of Mint-als and felt just as good. I might as well be king of Canterlot.


End of Chapter 10
Level Up!
Perk Gained: The Burned Pony  Your skin is cracked and scarred, ponies don’t take to talking to you. You gain a chance to scare opponents.
		
	
	
> Carried on False Wings
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Chapter 11: Carried on False Wings 
“He’s been in there awhile, Starburst,” Rimfire said to me. I blinked myself out of my concentration and glanced at Rimfire. She had her rifle held across her body and her eyes were sweeping the building’s front.
“He sure has,” I said. I kept my eyes on the two machine gunners next to the balcony. They’d watched us for a little while after Short had been escorted in but they quickly lost interest. I squinted my eyes, trying to get a better view at the few windows on the front of the building. I glanced at the small clock in my field of vision. Short had always wondered why I rarely wore my helmet and I hadn’t ever told him. A few years back the scientists in my base had created a certain spell that overlayed what would have been in my helmet's HUD directly onto our eyes. Of course it was still practice to wear the helmet for missions and patrols. With the HUD I could see available ammo counts, armor stability, and a few other odds and ends thrown in there. Currently there wasn’t any piece of information shown to me that made me worry.
Except for the clock, and that information worried me. Short had been gone for over three hours.
“Why would they just let him in?” I asked Rimfire.
“He was probably expecting Short, you know he wasn’t quiet about coming here.” She was speaking sense.
“You think someone overheard him and ran here to warn Church?” I asked again. She nodded silently.  “I just hope he’s okay,” I muttered quietly. Bolt stood behind Rimfire, always making sure to watch whatever Rimfire was.
I looked at Bolt with a wave of sadness. It hurt me to see her out here so young. What she really needed was a home and a family, something that very few ponies got out here anyways. I could see the way she acted now was becoming even more wastelander by the hour. She couldn’t sleep unless someone was on guard and she took to that duty like no one’s business, she could scavenge like no one’s business, and she had eyes like a hawk. It was obvious how much she looked up to Rimfire, but why I just couldn’t figure it out. Maybe there just hadn’t been a really strong mare in Avacyn, maybe it was just right for Bolt to be out here.
Originally I’d been cross at Short for bringing her out here. Even when she’d kill that stallion at the outskirts of Camel I wasn’t sure. I’m still not sure, but I had hopes for her. Short had given her the Guns and Ammo magazine immediately after he’d finished it and she began reading it. She tried to hide the fact that she had to mouth the words to read although we’d all caught that fact. At least I had. There wasn’t a chance in hell that Rimfire didn’t know either. What Short thought was anyone’s guess, he’d become reclusive lately.
Exponentially by the day he had become reluctant to talk, eager only to march forward to Church forever. And now we were here. Rimfire had talked only once behind Short’s back and that was all the way back before we’d even gotten to Avacyn and in the midst of my addictions. Before I’d approached Rimfire I’d taken half a tab of Mint-als just to clear my head, give me enough clarity to think straight and not get angry. We stood off the platform and talked about Short, and not all our words were good or encouraging. We had doubted him, but for some reason we’d still followed him all the way to Manehattan. Together, Rimfire and I ignored the changes we saw in him, his violent tendencies, his pinpointed focus at revenge. Maybe he’d be better after this.
A shadow in behind the door of the balcony snapped my attention back to reality. The thoughts of just a second ago clearing the way like smoke in the breeze. The door opened and a strange pony walked out, he looked to be dragging something behind him but I couldn’t make it out. He glance at the gunners to the left and right of him. they hadn’t paid him any mind yet and he waited until they saw him. When at last they turned, he drew quickly and shot them both with revolvers.
“Short?” I croaked. It didn’t look like Short at all. Instead of a familiar coat he had pink, fleshy skin covered in red welts and lines. It was nauseating to look at. He cast a sidelong glance at us before he picked up something behind him in magic and leapt down from the balcony. The ponies who had been guarding the door from up quickly turned their guns around and started shooting at Short. Rimfire started to pick off the guards she’d sighted before and I launched a salvo of rockets into the sandbags.
The air was thick as dirt and sand as Short trotted up to us. I could see the package behind him, it was the burned body of a stallion I’d never seen before. The body had been ravaged. Eyes cut out, limbs mangled, ears torn, it made me look twice at Short.
“I took care of it,” Short said, his voice raspy and dry, like he hadn’t had a drop of water in ten days. One of his eyes looked red with fire behind it.
“What happened?” Rimfire asked, horrified at the appearance of her old friend. If he cared at all what she thought, he didn’t seem to show it.
“I took... care of it. That’s what happened,” he said slowly.
“But Sh-” she started again only for him to cut her off.
“What? I said what happened, Rimfire.”
“Don’t talk to her like that,” I said to him. I glanced at Bolt, she was holding strong but not looking at him directly. I didn’t blame her at all. He turned his attention towards me.
“Why not?”
“Because we’re all friends,” I reminded him. He narrowed his eyes, nodding slightly and slowly. 
“Oh yeah, friends. I guess I got a little mixed up in the head in there,” he said with a smirk. It was good that he still had something inside him that remembered us. Rimfire had a temper, we all knew, and a few more remarks by Short would have had her blow up like a megaspell.
“What’s the plan now?” I asked them both, and Bolt of course, not that I thought she’d answer. She was still hiding behind Rimfire, looking like she was wondering whether or not she should shoot Short. I hoped she would make the right choice in the end.
“We’re going back to New Pegasus,” Short said firmly. His eyes watched each of us, looking for something. I kept eye contact with him the longest. I looked back at the Church, I knew it wouldn’t take long for us to wear out a welcome now.
“Let’s discuss this while walking at least,”  I said. They agreed silently. We turned and started down the back towards the West side. The street seemed more hostile that it had been. I felt glaring eyes piercing me from every window. “We should spend the night or a few here in Manehattan,” I offered as we walked. Short was in front; Bolt, Rimfire, and I stayed next to each other behind him. Instead of walking to the end of the street he took a turn to the right and started us walking North. “North?” I asked.
“Trust me?” Short offered. I didn’t take it.
“Where are we going?” Rimfire asked, I could hear a bit of tension. Short just looked as calm as he had been since he’d come out. Despite his burns he hadn’t tried to take any potions or chems. Had he accepted that fate already? It didn’t add up to me, and I was worried.
“We need a place for the night, right? There’s a place called Tenpony up a ways.”
“Where’d you learn about that?” I asked him shrewdly. His mouth dropped open a little, his jaw wavered a bit.
“A mare was only o-too-willing to tell me about Manehattan.”
“Why?” Bolt asked. She whimpered as she spoke. Short slowly glanced at her. When his gaze lay fully on her she shrunk back. Short took a step forward and lowered himself to her level.
“I just asked really nice and she told me,” he said cautiously. He gave me a sideways look again, his mouth curved into a smug grin, as if to think he’d fooled us all with his meaning. I turned my head from him, trying to get him out of my sight, but my eyes caught onto his revolver, I was sure he’d called it the Luna at some point or Rimfire had. Mostly I saw the embossed, wooden butt of the gun. Yet the picture wasn’t of Luna, all I could see for the life of me was Nightmare Moon, the terrible and evil pony from the history books. It made me wonder if he knew. He probably did, they way he fondled that thing.
Short turned around from Bolt and started to walk down the road again. Not much further from us was an onramp to a highway of sorts and we took it. The pavement cracked underneath our hooves. Beneath the concrete I could hear the strain of metal. It didn’t sound like Manehattan would be here in another 100 years. My chest felt tight when I thought about what would happen in the future. Year by year you could hear ponies talking about new deaths and more gruesome sights. It felt like next to nopony was trying to help out. You heard a few good stories if you listened hard enough, but it would never be enough. And once time had taken its toll on the landscape it’d be like none of us had ever existed.
“Where is Tenpony, Short?” I asked. He used a forehoof and pointed straight ahead of us. I could see the building clearly. Instead of being mostly rubble it stood proud amongst the old carnage. It was thick, tall tower that stood a mile down the road. 
“Beautiful isn’t it?” he asked.
“I guess,” I said plainly. It wasn’t pretty, but it did look a sight better than the Church had looked.
“Short,” Rimfire spoke softly, her voice cracking a little, “Shouldn’t you cover up those scars?” He gave a disgusted glance at her, had he always been this cruel?
“I don’t know, Rimfire. Should I?”
“I think so,” Bolt said timidly. She had been scared, but when she heard him being unkind to Rimfire she showed how much she could bite.
“Well what do you suggest I do? I don’t quite have the power armor that Starburst does. You think I should be bound and gagged? I thought we appreciated the freedom in ponies...”
“Freedom in ponies?” I asked astounded. “We’ve never said anything about that, Short. You need to relax.”
“Perhaps,” he said nonchalantly, “We’ll see in the end.” Rimfire was digging through her pack. After a minute she pulled up a long, length of leather. Looked to be some sort of coat.
“We can make this into some sort of hood or something, Short. I don’t mean to be a cunt but you look like shit.”
“My appearance could be useful one day,” he said as he took the leather in his magic and started to wrap it around his head once and trailed the rest down his side which the armor had cracked open and opened his skin to whatever had boiled the rest.
“Maybe,” I admitted. I didn’t know about Rimfire or Bolt, but I’d seen the effects of intimidation on other ponies. That was part of the reason Steel Rangers existed. Short stood stock still as he inspected his work. He looked strange to put it lightly. All you could see from his head were vague reflections from his eyes and a little of his snout. The small bump his horn put on the leather was there too. Other than that he was a mixture of brown leathers and whatever was left of his coat. Of course his tail still hung loose behind him.
“How do I look?” he asked, and it struck me. He sounded just like a ghoul when you couldn’t see the rest of him.
“You’re great,” I said as truthfully as I could. Maybe Tenpony would have an auto-doc that could help him. A thought poked its way into my head, ‘maybe Pon3 would know.’ I wanted to stop thinking that, but it was persuasive. Pon3 could tell us anything we needed to know. He might even know what happened to Elder Soap.
My heart ached for news about my home. About anything that would tell me my friends and family were okay, that the Enclave hadn’t attacked, not yet. When Short had given us the key, we knew we’d be a target. The NER would never let something like that go, and we had it on good word that they were working with the Enclave to some extent. The hair on my neck tingled. If the Enclave had taken one step into the base I’d kill them all. That thought I had to put elsewhere. I couldn’t let vengeance cloud my head.
I couldn’t become what Short had.
I got out of my head and looked forward, that’s all I could do anyways. Something ahead struck me when I saw it. The ‘highway’ we were on didn’t go to Tenpony at all. What I saw on its sides had been railroads for subways.


Eventually we made it to the front entrance of the tower. A few guards with heavy weapons stood outside the doors as we made our approach. They didn’t even take the time to aim at us.
“Hold up,” one of them said, a stallion, as we approached. I could barely make out any physical traits of him behind his old, black armor and coat. His voice was soft, considering where he was. Not many ponies with soft voices lived long lives. “Put your ammo in the bin, you’ll get it when you come out.” He was speaking to Bolt, Rimfire, and I. Then he turned to Short. “No ghouls.” I could feel the tension mount as he said it.
“I’m not a ghoul,” Short said with a hint of irritation. The guard in charge swallowed hard on something, probably a couple remarks.
“Prove it,” he said slowly. Nopony moved. “Show me you’re not a ghoul,” he said again.
“You see I’ve suffered quite a bad burn and this helps me keep comfortable. Won’t you let an old pony be?” Short asked. The guard shook his head slowly. I saw the other guards grip their guns tighter, one even checked his magazine.
“Rules are rules,” the guard asserted. I thought Short was about to reach for his gun, but he just shrugged. 
“Fair enough,” he said. Short took one end of the leather that wrapped him and uncoiled it. The guards couldn’t hide their disgust from his gruesome looks.
“Oh Celestia,” I heard one mutter under his breath. Short was just smiling at them. 
“Is this pony enough for you?” he asked. The guard started stammering an answer. Short stepped closer and closer. “Come on, aren’t I a pretty pony?” he asked as he walked. When he was face to face with the guard, the guard spoke.
“Just drop your ammo and you can go,” he stammered out finally. With a creeping smile Short began to drop all the ammo from his guns, belts, and bags into a reasonably sized tray. Rimfire and Bolt followed suit. I removed what ammo I could, if only to appease them. After two minutes of ammo grabbing they let us into Tenpony Towers, the finest place I’d ever seen.
We walked into a large atrium with a few ponies walking around, all of them in rather regal dress and attire. I could see a few signs saying where things were, but it looked like it had been made from an old building, a similar design I hadn’t seen for a long time. It made a pony think. 
“We’ll find a place to sleep and something to eat,” Rimfire offered. I knew she was referring to Bolt to go with her.
“You do that,” Short said. “I’m going to take a look around.”
“Don’t make any trouble,” I said seriously. It looked like he didn’t heed me at all.
“What are you going to do, Starburst?” Bolt asked.
“I’m going to see if I can’t see Pon3.”
It turned out that getting to see Pon3 was a lot more complicated than I’d first imagined. No matter who I went up to none of them knew where to find him. The best anypony could offer was that he had an assistant, what he looked like no one knew, at least they didn’t say if they did know. I must have spent several hours asking up and down the halls of that damn building trying to get a straight answer out of anypony who would listen to me. Eventually due to sheer tiredness I had to take a break.
I stopped at a cheese shop with decent prices, decent for Tenpony that is. There wasn’t anything cheap in that tower. The owner looked gruff, like he’d just been outside. It struck me that he seemed to have been the only pony who even knew that there was an outside world. In the end I only had enough caps for a couple slices of cheese and a loaf of bread. Not that I was complaining, it was the freshest I’d eaten in days or a week or two. The time slipped by these days and it was hard to keep track. I took my meal to a corner of the building and started to eat. Out of the corner of my eye I caught a pony looking at me. Mostly I saw her because of her electric blue hair that clashed with her grey coat. I tried to look like I hadn’t noticed her yet. 
Halfway through eating I noticed she was gone.  In three quick bites I finished off the rest, got on my legs, and trailed her. I turned the corner where she’d been and saw the quick retreating blue tail turn down further along the hall. I hurried down and turned to see the mare staring right at me, poised to attack.
“You looking for Pon3?” she asked.
“Yes,” I said trying to act cool. She nodded slightly.
“I’m his assistant, Homage. What do you want?”
“I need help.” She narrowed her eyes a little, but she loosened her poise and stood normally.
“A lot of ponies need help,” she said. “What do you need for starters?”
“Can Pon3 tell me about the Steel Ranger base around New Pegasus? I received a distress call from my Elder and then nothing more. I’m afraid it was Enclave.”
“You’re from New Pegasus?” she asked bluntly. I could hear the interest in her voice.
“Yeah,” I said. “Why?”
“Not a lot of news get out of New Pegasus. There used to be a ghoul who’d send information in once in awhile.” I thought back to the Ghoul we’d left as he walked back to New Pegasus.
“I think we met him once,” I said trying to be of interest to her so she wouldn’t leave.
She smirked. “Come with me.” She turned and I followed her down a few more corridors. Eventually I found myself following her into some sort of a recording booth, yet I couldn’t quite remember how I’d gotten there. “So why don’t you tell me a little about New Pegasus. You know, what’s going on, who’s coming to power?”
“Why do you have to ask me? Why can’t you two just find it out with magic?” She slid a hoof under her chin and smiled a little. 
“Humor me?” she asked. So I did. I told her about the NER and I even divulged a little on what I knew about the underground facilities. She listened with rapt attention, and when I stopped she seemed disappointed. “Wow,” she said. 
“It’s a bad time there now,” I said bitterly with a sigh. I looked into her eyes. “Can Pon3 tell me anything about the base?” It was Homage’s turn to frown, it didn’t do her face justice.
“I’ll have to ask him,” she said, it sounded like the truth. I got up to stand when she motioned for me to sit down, so I did. “Who was that pony that came in with you?” I know who she was talking about.
“Short Change,” I said. “Do you watch every pony that comes in?”
She shrugged. “Just the noteworthy ones.”
“Does that include me?” I asked.
“Yes it does.”
“Why? No one ever seemed to take an interest in me before.” Homage looked thoughtful for a moment. She must be remembering something pleasant, I thought.
“You keep with an interesting gang, Starburst,” she said. I blinked when she said my name, I hadn’t remembered saying it outright, but she must have heard it when I was looking to find her.
“That’s for sure,” I said. I looked at the clock on the wall, it was way past midnight. “Late already?”
“Do you want to sleep?” she asked.
“No,” I said, shaking my head. “I don’t even know where Rimfire or Bolt ended up.”
“Coffee then?” I looked at her incredulously.
“Is that even a question?”
“I’ll get some then,” she said. She got up and sashayed out of the room. I waited in the chair and thought to myself. So Homage couldn’t help me, until she asked Pon3 tonight or tomorrow, probably after I left. A couple of minutes later I heard a few hoofsteps approaching the door.
“Homage?” I asked hopefully. That coffee would have been sent from heaven. A deeply masculine voice responded. I knew it at a heartbeat even though it’d been a long time since I’d heard it.
“‘Fraid not, Starburst,” Pon3 said from the hallway. I got up to meet him but he continued. “Stay there, my man. I’ve got a little news just for you.”
“What?” I asked desperately. 
“It seems that your base was hit by Enclave, that’s major bad news.”
“Did anyone survive?” I asked hopelessly, as if I knew the answer.
“I don’t know,” he said grimly.
“I need help getting back there. You have to help me!”
“I’ll do what I can. Give me until noon, but for now, DJ’s gotta get his beauty sleep.” I heard his hoofsteps disappear into the distance. About ten seconds later I heard another set approaching. Homage walked into the room with two white cups held in her magic. She placed one on the table in front of me. As she sat she sipped the other.
“I need you to do me a favor,” she said. I took a long gulp of the coffee. It was hot as Tartarus and black as sin, but it was good.
“Okay,” I said. She looked a little surprised at my statement.
“Why are all the ponies I meet so eager to help?” she wondered aloud. I shrugged and took another swig of coffee.
“I guess you’re just lucky,” I said. I wanted to be happy for her, but all I felt was a shiver, like a cold, winter breeze that had wrapped me in a perpetual gale. Could I live if all the ponies I had ever known were dead? She looked happy at least, that was nice enough for me for now.
“I need you to go into the Ministry of Arcane Science in New Pegasus,” she said, continuing.
“Holy hell, lady. Didn’t you hear a word I said about New Pegasus? The Arcane Science building might be a death trap for all I know,” I said, and it was true. There weren’t many Steel Rangers who went into New Pegasus unless we used a spy. I could count the number of times a spy had come back from the Ministry section using no hooves. “If it’s even there at all,” I added. Her face lost a little bit of the upswing but she kept at it.
“What if I told you that at least these two Ministry buildings are connected with a high-speed rail system?” My ears perked up. I drank a bit more coffee before responding, had to act like I wasn’t dying on the inside to board that train right now.
“Sounds a bit outrageous,” I said finally. She shrugged.
“I guess you’re right, that would be ridiculous. You’ll just have to walk all the way back to base.” Those words were a dagger to me, in addition to what Pon3 had told me.
“You’re telling me it’s real? And I don’t want any bulltshit, lady.” I could hear the wavering of my voice under the anger.
“Checked it was there last week,” she said and it sounded like the clearest truth I’d ever heard. I leaned back in my chair after pushing the empty cup of coffee forward. She widened one eye. “You drank that awfully fast.” Her words struck me as an odd thing to say. It hadn’t been that strong, only in taste.
Then it hit me why she’d say something like that.
“You drugged me?” I asked, but I didn’t have to know what she said, I could feel it in my extremities already. “Why?” Homage had a grimace on her face.
“I thought this might have played out differently, Starburst!,” she pleaded, “You don’t see many nice Steel Rangers around here.” The dizziness was working its way up my body. 
“So it’s nothing personal?” I asked.
“Not really,” she said while looking pitiful. Instead of letting the drug work its magic I decided to do my own thing. Steel Ranger armor works with a mental magic that not many ponies knew about. It was a great thing because none of us were unicorns and it gave us a lot of control. Basic chem lessons taught me that certain chems like to counteract each other, and just like when I’d saved Short back in that Ghoul’s lab, I could do it for me. So I just willed my onboard magical computer to administer a dose of Mint-als. It was wonder Steel Rangers died at all. The dizziness seemed to vanish instantaneously, it probably wasn’t the strongest stuff, and was only working fast due to the speed in which I’d drank it.
“Well don’t do that again,” I said.
“You’re not affected?” she asked. I straightened out in my chair.
“I’ve got a few tricks up my sleeves.”
“Can we put that on the news?” she asked playfully.
“I’d rather you didn’t, but whatever,” I said in kind. It was fun talking to Homage. She was a great-looking mare, and I had a feeling she was into me. Only time would tell if I’d get to act on that however. Now wasn’t the time for games. “Tell me more about that rail system.”
“I don’t know much myself, and what you told me really gave me all the information I know about that place. Even Pon3 doesn’t have eyes everywhere.”
“So that ghoul was his informant?” I asked. She nodded.
“He told us about that ghoul Doctor’s death. Gruesome with details though. Can’t say that Pon3 was incredibly sorry to stop hearing from him, but he needs eyes there. If what you say is true, morale is at an all time low.”
“The NER and the casinos are like a poison to the ponies.”
“Then help us change the Wasteland to make it something better,” she said. Her words and promises sounded like so many I’d heard before. But this was Pon3 and Homage... had they ever been wrong before?
“Homage, I’ll try. All you two did for me was well worth it, even though it wasn’t the greatest news.” She beamed.
“I’ll have the parts ready for you tomorrow. Do you want me to tell you what you need to do tonight?” I nodded. “Very well. The MAS buildings are all connected via a magical transceiver, but the one in New Pegasus in broken and Pon3 hasn’t been able to contact it in a long time. If you can fix it, we can start broadcasting news about New Pegasus, and maybe the NER will back down from being bullies.”
“That would lead to a massive crime wave,” I said. “They’re pretty much the only thing holding back the gangs and such.”
“Then we’ll have to discredit the gangs too. Let ponies know they have a chance at freedom.”
“Freedom?” I asked, astonished. “They aren’t slaves.”
“Aren’t they? They come to New Pegasus to make caps, but when they lose, why don’t they leave?” She had a point, not all slavery was physical. She saw my understanding and continued. “Don’t you think there’s a chance?”
“There sure is,” I said. “How do I fix the machine?” Homage pursed her lips.
“I’m not even sure what’s wrong with it, Starburst. You’ll have to play it by ear once you get there.”
“We can’t keep in communication?” I asked. She rubbed her chin, thinking with a loud hum.
“Do you have a radio in that thing?” She indicated my armor.
“A small one, but it works.” She scratched her chin again. “I’ll ask Pon3 what he thinks, and I’ll let you know tomorrow. Okay?” I nodded. The small energy gain off the Mint-als was wearing out and I could feel the tiredness pulling all my muscles down.
“Think we can finish talking tomorrow?” I asked. She nodded with a smile.
“Do you know where you’re sleeping?” she asked.
“In this chair probably,” and I passed out.
Sleep found me delirious after all the worries of the day. Instead of a calm nothingness I found my way into a dark abyss of thought and turmoil. I was sitting next to Short and Rimfire back in one of the long, narrow hallways of Tenpony. Short was showing Rimfire all the scars that ran down his face and side while she controlled the urge to break into tears. He said he’s evolving into something new. The old Short is dead, he said. He’s the pony destined to take justice to everypony. The NER’s time is over. The NER is a mold that must be burned to be cleansed, and it’s not like it just happened either, the NER had always been a parasite digging into the lives of those it infected. He said that’s the way it’s always been with ponies. There’d always been a parasite in pony society, and the last time it had grown too large and caused an apocalyptic war. Short lifted a hoof and held it close to Rimfire’s eyes. I could see it from where I sat. Black pus was dripping from his scars and falling onto Rimfire. Where it touched she began to turn black and it spread up her body.
I jumped up when Short turned to me. It’s time for us all to stop it, he said. I turned down the hallway and broke into a run, but the end never seemed to get closer. But the more I ran the more the hallway behind me turned to darkness and the hall in front of me me turned to light. With a sort of knowledge that typically doesn’t happen in dreams, I felt that the floor beneath me had turned to train tracks, and the light ahead is a train screaming down the tracks, blowing its horn at me to move, to get out of the way. I tried to turn and run, but my legs were glued to the spot. Just as the train was about to hit, I’m was somewhere else. A room shaped like a bowl with a lid. In the center of the ceiling was a hole with a grate on top. Short stood on the grate, laughing at me. He said I could go one way or the other and black pus began to flood the room, with nowhere for me to run. As the liquid started to pool around my legs I woke up with a jolt. I was still in the chair in Pon3’s recording room. Homage was nowhere to be seen.
I did my best to calm my heart and wipe the sweat from my brow. It’d been a long time I’d woken up like that to a nightmare. Although when I put it with the night I’d had, I didn’t put it out of the question. A glance at the clock told me it was nearly eight in the morning; I couldn’t spend all day in here. I had to find Rimfire and Homage. I shivered when I thought about finding Short too. Regardless, I had no idea how to get out of here. If only my modest computer had the maps that PipBucks did, but there wasn’t a point in faulting it now. I’d lived a long time without one, I could go longer. I stepped out of the recording booth into a long hallway that stretched off in either direction. I could see a few doorways leading off on either side.
‘I should probably find Homage or Pon3,’ I thought to myself. That was easier said than done I soon found out. I spent nearly half an hour going from room to room. I found a kitchen, three bedrooms, several rooms of just technology, and one massive library. I stayed in the library when I found it, I figured she’d find me soon enough.
In the center of the library was a huge statue of Twilight Sparkle, the ministry mare of Arcane Sciences. I’d heard many ponies who’d use her name as a curse. Most of them blamed the bombs on her, but I didn’t know why. Anypony whom I knew blamed her said it had to do with memory orbs or surviving books they’d read. I never knew enough to make my own opinion so I just went along with them if they asked. I said nothing if they didn’t.
I’d read books, but not often. They were a hard commodity to get a hold of in the wasteland. Few books survived the war and the years. I walked up to a shelf at random and pulled the first book I saw. It had a deep crimson cover and binding. The title was ‘The Zebra and Pony Compendium’. Moving the book had displaced dust which found itself in my snout, causing me to sneeze loudly. The sound echoed through the hallways.
“Starburst?” I heard a voice from another room ask. I stuffed the book back into the shelf and turned to see Homage walking into the library. “There you are,” she said, “I was looking all over for you.”
“I didn’t go that far,” I said, “I fell asleep in the chair.”
“Did you sleep well?”
“Slept fine,” I lied.
“Well that’s good. I found your friends. They’re going to meet us downstairs.”
“Short too?” She nodded. The memories of the night still haunted me. “Want to tell me the plan?”
“Wouldn’t it be best to tell everypony at once?”
“Yeah,” I conceded. I really just wanted to hear the plan. Getting back to the base wa nearly all I could think about. Homage stopped in a corridor and turned to me.
“You wanted to know about communications?” she asked.
“Yeah, what did Pon3 say?” She looked slyly to the left and right.
“He said there’s a spell I can use to make your radio work all the way back here, but you have the fix the MAS in New Pegasus to get it to reach us here.”
“Can you do it now?” I asked. She cocked a grin and her horn started glowing around the breastplate of my armor. After just a moment she was done and looked at me expectantly. “That’s it?”
“Yes,” she said. “Now let’s meet your friends.” She started leading me down the hallways again and we went further and further down the dark and mysterious building. Eventually we met Rimfire, Bolt, and Short in front of a large metal door that had withstood the years with ease. There wasn’t a hint of age on it. Short was pushing his body against it, trying to open it.
“That won’t work,” Homage told him. He pushed off the door and glared at her.
“Why not?” he asked.
“Magic,” she said matter of factly. Short grunted at her as she passed by. A single touch of her hoof opened the door. 
Beyond the door looked like an old, one-sided subway platform. On the rails in front of the platform was a train carriage shaped like a bullet. It was matte-gray with no discernable features except the very thing outline of a door. The back of it looked like an array of rockets.
“This thing looks like suicide!” Short exclaimed and I practically agreed with him.
“Is it safe, Homage?” I asked.
“No one’s ever taken it,” she said. “The parts to fix the MAS array are in there at the back. There are three seats so the foal will have to take a lap.”
“How long will this take to get us there?” Rimfire asked.
“I’d estimate five hours,” Homage said.
“Hell,” I muttered aloud.
“It’s this or a week of walking or more,” Homage said. Her horn glowed for a moment and the door of the train opened up. Rimfire and Bolt got in first, but took the backseat. The three seats were arranged in a line. Each of them looked like old bus seats I’d seen with interlacing straps to keep a pony in. 
“I swear if this doesn’t work, I’ll be back,” Short threatened. Homage paid him no mind. He got in the train and took the first chair, which left the middle for me.
“I’ll talk to you after I’ve fixed it, Homage. Do you think Pon3 will be available?” I asked.
“I don’t know, Starburst. I’ll do my best to get him for you.” I thanked her and got into the last chair, strapped in, and shut the door. It locked into place automatically. Inside the cabin with the closed door was lit only by red emergency lighting. There weren’t any windows or screens to look at. With all the straps on I couldn’t even turn to see Rimfire or Bolt. I could just barely see the top of Short’s hood above his chair back. How did they expect ponies to sit in this things anyway, I wondered.
“How do we start it?” Rimfire asked.
“There’s a button up here,” Short said, “I’ll press it.” That was the last coherent thing I heard besides a few shrieks of terror. The last thing I felt was my organs hitting the back of my spine. My last thoughts filled my head with panic and drowned out all my other senses.
The next thing that surprised me was a loud squeal which seemed to echo into my very core, shattering every thought process as it started to happen. My body jostled against the restraints, seemingly aching to be let loose. I heard Bolt scream, a tiny pin drop against the pervasiveness of the squealing brakes. But as quickly as it had started it stopped. I gasped for breath like it’d been a thousand years since I’d tasted fresh air. The door to my side slid open to a platform not unlike the one we’d seemingly just left. I unstrapped myself from the seat and limped my way to the stone floor of the platform. It felt cool against my flushed face. Bolt walked crookedly out next. She flopped to the floor next to me. I could almost feel her labored breathing through the armor. The platform was thick with dust and smelled like it too. It had an old, sterile smell to it, almost pleasant. I wondered if it’d really been five hours.
I got to my legs and hobbled back to the train. Short was stirring in his seat, Rimfire had unbuckled herself and had fallen to the floor. Panicking, I dragged her out to the floor and lay her next to Bolt, who didn’t seem to mind at all. I took another deep breath, trying to calm my still irrationally beating heart and walked back into the train. I located the box of supplies behind Rimfire’s seat and started to drag them out of the train by its strap.
“I’m fine by the way,” Short grumbled as he finally removed the last of his restraints.
“I knew you woul’ be,” I said, my mouth full of old leather. Short rubbed his forehead, the hoof making audible cracks against his hard skin.
“Yeah, alright,” he mumbled and stepped out of the carriage. I followed suit with the box and dropped it, panting. Rimfire was coming to.
“That heavy?” Bolt asked. I shook my head.
“I just can’t breathe for some reason.” I looked at the rest of them. They were all breathing normally, now at least.
“Are you getting sick on us?” Short asked, the most compassionate thing he’d done in a day or two. At least that was progressing, maybe the force had knocked some sense into him. I tried again to steady my breathing to some success. We couldn’t lag here forever. We had to fix the broadcaster. I spotted the door out. It had the same design at the last door had, except this one had the letters ‘LP’ emblazoned in faded, black paint. It opened to the touch of a hoof as I got close enough. The lights in the hallway beyond were off or broken, I couldn’t tell. Reaching into my bag I popped out my helmet and placed it on the head. The soft psssht of the pressure system was reassuring even at the worst of times.
The visor showed the world with a much more defined Heads-up Display than I’d been used to in recent days, and it startled me. I thought for a moment my stalled breathing would send me into a coughing fit, but for the time being I was fine. With a simple flick the lantern at the top of my helmet flickered into life and sent illumination streaming down the hallway. 
It was silent as a night in the desert and had the stale smell of disuse. The hallway went on straight for ten feet or so at which point it ended in a staircase leading upwards. I figured we were just as underground as we had been in Manehattan, and judging from how long we’d descended in that tower, we were deep down.
The stairway lead us up into a long hallway, beset on both sides by doors that looked like relatively well-used. None of these looked like they’d been used more than a day ago. My eyes were caught by a poster on the wall. It had a picture of a strong-looking mare, behind her were rows and rows of unidentifiable ponies. All of them just black shapes surrounded by white lines and white dots for eyes. Above them all the phrase ‘We Trust In The Overpony’ was written in a large type.
I swallowed a knot in my throat. Why would this be posted in a ministry building, and why did it look so good? The implications made me feel queasy.
“What does it mean?” Bolt asked.
“Stable,” Short said, “There used to be some where I grew up. Not as nice as this one though.” I thought back to when I’d first met Short, back in that biological research facility, I’d seen similar posters. A few of the facilities had them, a stable built in to the place. Next to none of them had been approved by Stable-tec and had failed within a few months after the bombs. One or two had been decent quality, but only one that I knew of was still locked. Had Stable-tec actually made Stables in New Pegasus after all?
Without another word we moved along the hallway, ignoring the doors on either side of us. The dimly lit hallway ended with a turn to another, brighter hallway. My ears twitched with the sound of the talking of ponies. I could hear laughing, joking, talking, and singing. All the doors along the hallway had small, darkened windows, except for one. One door in particular stood out. The window was bright and vibrant with lightly shifting light bursting out of it. On the tarnished silver door were taped notes and streamers. We didn’t even speak, we just got ready. Short pulled up both his revolvers and checked the chambers. Rimfire drew her rifle and turned off the safety. Bolt just furrowed her brow and looked serious. I checked to make sure my machine gun would fire, using explosives down here would probably kill us all. Oxygen was too high a purity, even tiny fires could sometimes clean out a Stable if the oxygen talisman was on the fritz. We got into position outside the door. Short and I in front, side to side, Bolt and Rimfire behind and on either side. I was afraid of what I’d see beyond the door.
Nopony likes to be afraid. Fear is the enemy of love and faith and robs us of all serenity. It steals our sleep and our sunrise and makes us evil, cruel, and dishonorable. It fills our bodies with poisons and takes aways any bit of ponykind in us. It destroys our self-respect. If you've ever been truly afraid, afraid in a way that makes your coat slick with sweat, turns your skin gray and fouls your mood, and you can’t even pray for good luck, lest your prayer be a concession to the conviction that you now hold saying that you are about to die, you know the fear I’m talking about. There is no cure for this fear but motion, no matter what kind. Any pony who’s experienced war or catastrophe or calamity knows this. The surge of adrenaline is so great you could pick up a carriage with just hooves, plunge through a glass window in flaming buildings, or attack enemies whose weapons and numbers outrank yours. No fear of self-injury is as great as the fear that turns your insides into gelatin and shrivels your soul to the size of a marble.
I was afraid of what lay beyond that door. You couldn’t put anything past New Pegasus or the San Palomino. In the deepest pit of my heart I knew the Enclave were behind that door, laughing at the carnage they’d wreaked on my base, and I was afraid they were there too. Life hands us lemons at the worst of times. The door slid open without any of us moving. I saw the legs of a pony as the door climbed up its track. Short was the first to react, he always was. His bullet tore through the chest of an unarmored pony as his chest was revealed, but something was wrong, my eyes scanned the newly revealed room.
Balloons, streamers, bottles of sparkle-cola, party hats, and a foal screaming at the door where a stallion clutched his bleeding chest and ponies turning to stare at us.

End of Chapter 11
No Level Gained
> I Have but One Desire
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Chapter 12: I Have But One Desire
There’s something about Stables that make you feel safe and calm. The lights all a low, sun-like glow, the smooth walls, bedrooms and apartments designed to keep families close together. Everything designed by some of the brightest minds of the war-era. All of it was designed to make you think one thing, or at least to make you forget. They wanted you to forget that everything you knew, everything you loved, and everything you thought you understood was gone and burning in the balefire we brought upon ourselves. Maybe they’d forgotten, like we all had, that we used to be different. We’d forgotten ponies used to nice, they’d forgotten ponies became killers. When these Stable ponies saw us, they remembered something alright.
Luna’s barrel was still smoking when the yelling started. A small colt was screaming at the pony I’d shot. He hadn’t been anyone at all as far as I could see now. His hooves clutched at the bullet wound in his chest, his dark purple coat become matted and clotted with blood. The colt tried to run towards him, but a similarly coated mare grabbed him in a strong embrace, turning him away. Starburst stood there, stunned I’m sure. He wasn’t a killer. That was my job now.
“Drop your weapons!” A mare’s voice screamed from the room in front of us. I looked to see two ponies I hadn’t seen before, each of them holding 10mm pistols in their magical grips. Each of them had the armor of security officers. Emblazoned on their haunch was the number 21, Stable 21. My eyes caught theirs, but they didn’t know me at all. I figured I should show them something, teach them a lesson. In a moment I knew them inside and out. The stallion to the mare’s right, he was taller and tan colored, coat and mane, his gun wavered, he was weak. The mare, short and stocky, blue coat, white tipped mane, she didn’t waver at all. She’d be trouble if she could aim. Or had morals about not killing, even though we’d already acted first. The rest of the ponies weren’t moving at all, the only emotion their faces betrayed was anger.
Starburst looked like he was trying to speak. His mouth opening and closing, wagging his tongue like it mattered anymore. I used to think talking worked magic, but some magic only gets cast in a metal casing with gunpowder. Hell, that’s probably the magic working. I heard the tap of the muzzle of Rimfire’s gun against the metal floor the hallway. I don’t blame her, not now at least. 
“Put down your guns,” the mare demanded. She was looking only at me. It didn’t take much to assume that Bolt wasn’t in any shape to do shooting right now.
“No,” I said.
“Now!” she screamed.
“Don’t yell at me,” I said calmly, at least what I thought was calmly.
“Don’t start this, Short,” Starburst said, finally finding his balls, “You can worry about your feelings later.”
“I’m not going to ask again, kid,” the mare said again. I knew she’d keep asking so I cocked back the hammer of the Luna, I’d leave the Cloudsdale for now. I aimed the gun at the stallion. His eyes widened in fright.
“I’m not a kid,” I said.
“Put down the gun, we don’t need to spill any blood,” she said, stammering a few of the words. “You need to make the right choice.”
“It’s been a long time since I made a bad one,” I said smoothly. I flicked the gun. “Why don’t you drop yours?”
“That’s not how this goes down,” she said. Her eyes narrowed at me, she was getting to the end of her rope.
“We could both drop our guns,” I suggested.
“I like half that offer.” My mouth curled into a frown.
“Do you like your deputy?” 
“He’s my best friend,” she said defensively.
“I’ll shoot him if you don’t put down your gun,” I said finally.
“You’ll kill us all,” she said.
“No we won’t,” Starburst said. “We’re not like that.”
“You shot him,” the stallion said, he’d found his words too. Calmly, without trying to agitate the mare more, I slowly put the Cloudsdale in its hoof-holster. With the spare magic I reached back, into my bag, and pulled out my last healing potion. I uncorked it and started to pour the red contents down the stricken stallion’s throat. He coughed a little, but he stopped writhing in agony. Ten seconds later he stood up and backed away to his colt.
“Are we so bad now?” I asked.
“You might shoot him again,” the mare said. I sneered.
“Now you’re just looking for reasons to shoot me or get shot. Can we be amicable or not?” The mare’s gun hovered in front of her for what felt like eternity. Finally, with a grunt, she put the gun back in her side holster. The stallion and I followed suit. “Now, let’s introduce ourselves.”
“What the fuck are you doing here?” The stallion who’d been healed asked, his jumpsuit was caked with dried blood. Behind him I could see is colt still trying to get close to him, but a mare, probably his mother, was keeping him back.
“Official Ministry business,” I said sarcastically.
“Tell us,” the stallion said.
“What’s it to you?” I asked.
“Because,” he said angrily, “You're strangers... in a Stable. That’s reason enough to ask you what in hell you’re doing here. Add on the fact that you shot me,” he emphasized the fact that I’d shot him, “I think it’s really fair.”
“We’re going to fix the broadcasting system,” Rimfire spoke up. “Do you know where it is?”
“Haven’t seen anything like that in the Stable,” a mare sitting at a table said. The stallion shot her a dirty glance. “It’s true,” she muttered bitterly.
“There’s no reason not to help us,” Starburst said.
“There’s plenty of reasons,” the security mare said.
“Any good ones?” I asked. “Look, we’ll be out of your manes if you’ll just tell us how to get to the broadcast system.”
“Who even are you?” the stallion asked. We introduced ourselves. The security mare's name was Minty, the stallion was Butch. The stallion I’d shot was the Overstallion, his name was Central, and it was his son’s birthday.
“I know this is a bad time for you,” Starburst said to Central. Central had taken us and his two security officers outside in the hallway.
“Bad time is one way to describe it,” he said.
“How has this Stable stayed locked?” Rimfire asked. “Enclave and NER frequently come through this side of New Pegasus.”
“New Pegasus?” Minty asked.
“Don’t you know what’s going on outside?” Starburst asked. He should have known the answer, I thought, it’s obvious they don’t.
“No,” she said, shaking her head. 
“What’s it like?” Butch asked. I looked at him dumbfounded.
“Tell us about the broadcaster,” I said, “Then we might talk more.”
“Why are you interested in that old thing?” Central asked. He sounded angry, but curious.
“That’s hard to explain,” Starburst said. “200 years is a long time.”
“Damnit! What is wrong with you four?” Central exclaimed.
“Fine,” Starburst said. “The San Palomino Steel Ranger base was attacked while the four of us went to go kill a drug-lord in the ruins of Manehattan. To see if I could know anything about the attack I went to see DJ-Pon3, the last DJ in Equestria, he’s lived since the war. His assistant let us ride in a fast train here, but to use it we had to promise to fix the broadcaster. Does that help?” Central looked away from Starburst’s gaze.
“I guess,” he said.
“What you think happens out there is wrong. Now can we get some information?” He caught Starbursts gaze again.
“Sure,” Central said. “The broadcaster is at the top floor of the building. I don’t know if it got destroyed or not during the bombing.”
“Have you checked the building at all in the last few years?” Starburst asked.
“Nope,” Minty answered for him.
“Why not?” I asked.
“We’re locked in,” Central said.
“What!” I screamed. I was sure the ponies inside the room heard, but I didn’t care. “You mean we’re stuck in here?”
“Show us the door,” Starburst demanded.
“Ponies, please,” Central said, trying to calm us.
“Now,” Rimfire said, finishing Starburst’s sentence. Central glowered sadly. He lead us through the Stable. We saw a few ponies walking around and when they saw us in our strange armor and gear they tended to find some other place to be. Eventually we made it to the Stable door. A great gear embedded into the wall.
“When’s the last time you tried to open it?” I asked.
“A couple of years ago,” he said, “Before I became the Overstallion. The Overmare at the time wanted to see if we could leave the Stable yet but she couldn’t get the door to open.”
“Maybe you did it wrong,” I said. I walked to the door console and started to work on it.
“She knew what she was doing,” Central said abruptly.
“Could be,” I said. Everything on the console looked good so I enter the code to open the door. A small arm extended from the ceiling, ending in a long screw. The screw met up with and entered into the Stable door, but it didn’t secure itself or move the door. I pressed the final button again to no help. “What the...,” I said. 
“I told you,” Central said, “Why didn’t you believe me?” Maybe I hadn’t wanted to believe him, I still didn’t. I entered the code on the console again, twice, three times. Every time it fizzled into nothing.
“Can we do it with magic?” I asked.
“You don’t think we tried?” 
“I’m sure you tried,” I conceded, “But maybe you did it wrong!”            	
“You think we don’t know what we’re doing? Do you even know what we do here?” Central exploded.
“No, enlighten us, oh brilliant Overstallion,” I said sarcastically.
“We create megaspells,” he said calmly. My skin tightened and I could feel my pulse quicken. Megaspells? We were a thought away from annihilation. I waited for him to retract his statement, to tell us he was joking, but he stood still, looking at me, judging me. Even his security officers looked uncomfortable at the mention of megaspells. Starburst was the one to speak first.
“Rimfire,” he said to the mare, “Take a look at the door mechanism; see if you can work on it. Keep Bolt with you.” He turned to the Overstallion. “Take me and Short to your facilities.”
I turned to him, astounded. “They could blow us up to Cloudsdale!” I reminded him a little louder than I should have. He turned sharply towards me.
“Are you stupid?” he asked accusingly. “Do you honestly think they’d blow us up just because we want to talk? Do you think they’d blow up everyone they know and love?” I didn’t have an answer.
“Why do you want to see it?” Central asked. Starburst stood proudly in his Steel Ranger armor.
“I’m a Steel Ranger, sir. One of the Ministry of Wartime Technologies finest creations, it is our duty to find and protect all technological knowledge,” Starburst said. “Even if it’s what got us here in the first place.” Central nodded.
“Come this way,” he said.
There weren’t many ponies who didn’t shudder at the idea of megaspells. The memory could still hurt, even if you didn’t have any real reason to be afraid. Regardless, fear clenched at my belly like it hadn’t for a long time. I kicked myself in the head for letting myself at this way, but even though I still didn’t stop myself.
The megaspell facility was huge, and as far as I could tell, in the direct center of the facility. It was circular with many different levels, each connected with stairs around the central column, which was open. Twenty or so unicorns of different colors were working throughout the building.  Starburst, Central, and I stood on the top ring. There were three other floors.
“What is it?” Starburst asked.
“It was an experimental megaspell ring.”
“Was?” I asked.
“It works now,” he explained.
“What does it do?” Starburst asked.
“We can use it to cast megaspells all over Equestria and further,” Central said. I stepped towards on the walls. It was filled with complex magical inscription. Every couple of feet was a console outputting lengthy data. It made my head swirl. “Don’t try reading those,” he said to me, “it takes years to read it as it outputs.”
“What kind of megaspells?” Starburst asked. “And why this? Here?” Central looked nonplussed and shrugged.
“All kinds of megaspells. We have one which outputs massive healing waves, we’ve got a balefire strike, too. Other than that we have a Singularity and a Wet-one. The megaspell ring allows for multiple megaspells to be stored in one place. Here? Where else do you think we could put this? And why ask me? I didn’t make it.” I stepped toward the inner circle and glanced up. It must have gone straight up for one hundred feet, and then stopped in a shut metal gate. The ceiling above us seemed to open up, as if this entire room could move up it.
“Can you open that?” I asked Central.
“It only opens during firing procedures,” he said calmly.
“Start it,” I said.
“Short, are you out of your mind?” Starburst asked, his voice rising.
“No, this thing’s an elevator, if we start launching one, it should bring us up to the roof of the building maybe,” I said.
“That’s the dumbest thing I’ve ever heard,” Central scoffed. I got in close to him.
“You couldn’t even open the damn door,” I reminded him. “Get Rimfire and Bolt,” I said to Starburst.
“You’re out of your mind,” he said to me. “What the fuck’s gotten in to you?” I stopped briefly, Starburst rarely cursed, but I couldn’t let him stop me. Not now, not when I could save us.
“You need to trust me,” I begged him. He started shaking his head slowly. “Fine, go see how she’s doing on the door. Tell me it’s fixed, tell me she knows what she’s doing. Then bring her back here when you realize this is the only way.” He turned and sighed heavily.
“What happened to you,” he mumbled, walking out the door. I turned my attention back to Central.
“You need to activate this thing,” I said to him.
“Are you telling me to just launch a megaspell? Do you have any idea what that could mean?”
“You haven’t been out there! You don’t know anything! And you’re trying to lecture me? I can’t count ten places off the top of my head that could use a good balefire bomb. What I’m doing is the difference between Equestria surviving and Equestria thriving!”
“You’re insane!” he screamed.
“Listen to me!” I yelled back.
“You’d kill us all,” he spat in my face. Instinctively I pulled out my revolver and whipped it across his face.
“You’re right,” I admitted, “I would kill every. Single. One of you if it meant I could save the lives of my friends. A stallion sent a hit squad after me that hurt my good mare-friend and I walked a week just to shoot him in the head.” It looked like he wasn’t getting the message. “Everything you thought you knew about the outside is wrong. Only the strong survive, only I survive.”  He looked at me, true fear in his eyes, like a pony staring down a rabid Ursa.
“W-why?” he stammered.
“Because I damn well can, so I think I will,” I said. I heard the sliding door open and I holstered my gun. Starburst walked in with a frown, followed by an equally unhappy Rimfire and Bolt. “Well?” I asked.
“It didn’t work,” Rimfire said. “Some part of the mechanism is gone, I can’t fix it.” I turned back to Central.
“Would you like to hear some good targets?” I asked gleefully.
“I think there’s a sickness in your brain,” he muttered so only I could hear.
“Didn’t quite here that,” I lied. Central walked past me toward the edge of the ring, in the middle.
“Start launch procedure!” He yelled. “This is not a drill!” He took the stairs three at a time to the lower level, still shouting as he descended.
“How the hell did you convince him? Starburst asked. “What the hell are you doing?”
“Why can’t you trust me?” I asked him. He shut his eyes tight.
“No,” he said, “This isn’t just a normal thing, Short” He opened his eyes. When he talked the words of Central could barely be heard, he must have been on the bottom ring by now.
“I wouldn’t lead you astray,” I said.
“What are you talking about? Megaspells?” Bolt asked. Starburst filled him in. Central bounded up the stairs, arriving on our landing gasping for air.
“What’s the target?” he asked.
“What did he do to put you up to this?” Starburst asked Central, but Central ignored him.
“Target?” Central asked Short again.
~~~~

“You can’t fire that thing!” I yelled at the two stallions in front of me. Short didn’t acknowledge me.
“What spell are you casting?” he asked Central.
“It depends on the target. In all likelihood we’ll use the healing spell.” Short contemplated his options.
“Balefire Point,” Short said.
“Stop this, Central,” I demanded the Overstallion.
“I can’t,” he said bitterly. To Short he asked, “Where’s Balefire Point?” Short smiled devilishly.
“I’ll show you on a map,” he answered plainly, as if he wasn’t about to reveal the terrible powers here in New Pegasus. Central took Short down to a different level of the Ring. I turned to Rimfire and Bolt.
“He’s gone mad,” I said. Rimfire was stunned, Bolt looked like she didn’t know what to make of the situation. “What can we do?”
“Nothing,” Rimfire said grimly. She had a thousand-yard stare in her eyes, as if she wasn’t even seeing the room we stood in. A room that held all the deadly capabilities Equestria had held in it’s hooves not so long ago. “How could we stop him?” I lay my head on the metal railing. I heard some ponies down below us begin to chant while the sound of rushing hooves could be heard coming up. Five ponies in white coats leapt up the stairway and positioned themselves around the topmost ring we were on. Short poked his head up on the level.
“Come with me,” he said.
“Fuck off, Short,” Rimfire said. “You’ve done some shit before, but this-” She was cut short as the lights in the roomed blackened, only for the grating of metal on metal to the fill the room. Above us I could see the top of the silo opening, revealing a blue sky above. The Rings jolted and started to rise through the cylinder.
“We’re going to be fine,” Short promised, his grin was almost intoxicating, like I wanted to grin along with him. But not this time, rage built in my belly. He’d said healing megaspell too. Why could I be so mad at him for? In one short moment he was going to reveal to the world that New Pegasus still had megaspells. The Enclave would know in moments, doubtless that they watched this city relentlessly especially now the base was destroyed. Short had ruined so much, given the enemy so much.
“No, you’re not,” I said. He shot me a look of disbelief. 
“I’m the finest I’ve ever been.” The elevator was nearing the top of the cylinder. I could almost see the clouds that formed out past the desert. “Maybe I can show you how to be happy, Starburst.” He reached for his gun casually, and I know that’s what saved me. I kicked off with my hind legs, a powerful shoulder blow hitting Short and knocking him to the railing. His gun, the Luna, slipped and fell down the center of the rings. The elevator stopped in it’s tracks, shuddering and jolting to a stop.
“You’ll pay for that,” he sneered into my ear. I almost didn’t hear it over the now reverent chanting of the ponies from the Stable who began casting the megaspell. A large green orb began to float lazily above the center of the rings. The orb glowed with a sickly shine. Short used my distraction to push me off him. He wasn’t as strong as me and couldn’t move me much with the weight of the power armor. I charged back into him as he drew the pistol tied to his foreleg. He’d reared up on his hind legs and I caught him in the belly. He went toppling over the edge, but he caught one of the railings in support, both his fore legs wrapped around it for dear life.
“Is this what we’ve become?” he asked. “Animals?” He was frantic, sweat pouring down his face. “You used to be sensible.”
“You used to be sensible too,” I responded in kind. Before I could bring my hooves down on his, the megaspell launched. The orb arced in the sky towards the North, towards Balefire Point. I watched it leave a trail of green ichor through the pale blue. A mile above the ground of Balefire Point the orb erupted. I heard somepony shout, it could have been Central.
“We cast the wrong spell,” the pony screamed, his voice cracking at the top of his lungs. I looked back at the blast zone, but nothing could be seen beyond a flash of light brighter than anything I’d ever seen before. I knelt down, looking away, and covered my eyes. It was quick thinking that I managed to stuff my head into my helmet before the shockwave hit, tossing me unconscious.

I opened my eyes some time later. The screen of my helmet was cracked, I couldn’t see any of the display, just what was in front of me. I was back in the cylinder where the elevator had been before it was raised. I rolled over to my back. The Rings had come off the tracks on one side and was jammed into the silo, locking it near the top. I strained my ears to hear something, anything, but I couldn't. The floor around me was covered with rubble and dead bodies. I spotted the box of repair parts for the broadcast, but it had cracked open during the fall, maybe it had cushioned me and that’s why I was alive right now. Grimly I reflected on that, I wouldn’t be alive for long, nopony survived this many RADs. At least the Ring was destroyed, but I had to do one more thing.
Getting to my legs was an ordeal. My bones felt like jelly and I felt like puking, but I couldn’t take my helmet off, it might be the only thing keeping me alive right now. I couldn’t be sure but I hoped I was getting doses of Rad-X and Radaway they would give me enough time. The power armor I wore gave me the strength to stand. I found a maintenance hatch and crawled through, crawling down passage after passage.
I don’t know how long I crawled or how far, but I saw room after room of the Stable and the building itself. It looked like the Stable hadn’t been secure after all, if only Short had waited. I wished I’d seen his body, just to know that bastard was dead. I bit back the tears, now wasn’t the time. Eventually out of sheer exhaustion I exited the ducts into a large, circular room, topped with a dome. The room was filled with hardware, and I knew it had to be the broadcaster, it just had to be. 
Summoning all the will I had left I got to my hooves and trudged to the center console. Every step felt like the culmination of every step I’d taken in my life. I looked the console over and checked it twice, no button stood out except for a red switch off to the side. I flicked it with a hoof, sapping me of a surprising amount of energy. The machine hummed to life. 
Laughing, I fell on my side. A coughing fit accompanied the laughter and I felt wetness coat my mouth inside the helmet.
“Pon3,” I said deliriously, not sure if anypony could or would ever hear me. “I fixed it. There wasn’t power. Don’t tell about... New Pegasus.... not safe anymore... sickness... death.” My visions faded in and out, images swirled through my vision. Soap, Rimfire, Short, Homage, all of them danced through my sight, begging me to dance with them. A pony thinks about a lot when he’s sure he’s bought the ticket, kicked the bucket, said his last. The what-ifs, the could-haves, the might-bes. All of them torture the mind and clench the belly in fear.
“Starburst?” I heard a thick, masculine pony voice come through my speakers with static interference. I could barely make out what he was saying.
“Dan...ger,” I said slowly. “Can’t talk... long.”
“What happened?” He asked, “What’s wrong?”
“I think.... I liked Ho... mage,” I made out. He didn’t say anything for what felt like a long time, but to the dying, anything is a long time.
“She liked you too,” P0n3 said flatly. I smiled a little, it was nice to know.
END OF CHAPTER
> Push The Sky Away
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Chapter 13: Push the Sky Away
        The ticking must never stop, I imagined. Pon3 had closed the audio as soon as I’d stopped talking, the only sound was the old building settling in a fresh hell and the ticking of my suits rad-meter. Is this death? My eyes were shut, and I was laying on my side. It felt like hours, felt like days, felt like years were crawling by and leaving me for nothing at all. At last I opened them, strangely aware that I hadn’t yet died.
        I almost wished I had. My innards felt like hot lava had been poured inside of me, brain like it was filled with fuzz instead of anything else. Everything breath snet knives through my lungs. I’d long ago run out of Radaway and Rad-X, at least my suit told me so. I was out of luck in that regard. My head shook as I rose, steadily stumbling onto my hooves, thankful that my suit was still working, even in this.
        The room’s lights were flickering on and off, more on than off, which was nice. My attention was diverted to something opening the main doors. I slumped back into a ready stance. The dark shape from the threshold stayed still for a moment before advancing on me. As it got nearer, I recognized it, beneath the tattered hood was Short Change. Bloodlust filled my head, my jaw wrenched open in a battlecry. This would be a death, I realized, a death worth having. I took two flying steps towards him before leaping into the air, closing the distance in moments. I had to get him before he used magic. 
        His gaze turned up to meet mine a split second before I came crashing onto him, weight of me and my armor sending him flying back under me. The two of us rolled back, slamming into the now closed door. I raised up a hoof and brought it down on Short’s head. He ducked his head, barely avoiding the blow that dented the door. Kicking with his hindlegs he got his shoulder under my gut and lifter me off him. I fell back onto my side. I rolled to the side, careful not to stay still for too long.
        When I got onto my hooves, Short hadn’t moved from the doorway, but he was holding his ground. The fight was sending blood pumping through my body.Why wasn’t I dying? That thought coursed through my head. I ground one of my hooves into the ground, thinking. The power from my movement cracked the old tiles beneath me. Small splotches of blood, I noticed, had started to appear under Short. 
        “First Rimfire, now you? Why?” he asked. And it sounded like hadn’t known me, at least, not in the way he used to. A sense of familiarity lost. I narrowed my eyes. 
        “You’re a murderer,” I said coldly. Short’s gaze flickered across the room. “Do you think it would be okay? That you could just launch a megaspell?” I started to charge at him again. He ducked to the side but our shoulder clipped, sending us both into the doorway. I raised a hoof to bring down on his head, wondering why he wasn’t fighting as hard.
----
        My head felt like it was splitting at the seams. I put one hoof to my forehead, but that wasn’t any help. I sat up straight and looked around. This wasn’t the megaspell ring. Somepony must have carried me away, but who? I rifled through my bag, torn open but thankfully not empty, searching for a healing potion. There was on’y one, and half empty due to a nick in the bottle. I drank it anyways, greedy for the nectar. I checked my weapon, rifle was okay.
        A little way down the hallway I saw a small shape, possibly a pony, still moving a slight amount. I got onto my hooves and trotted over. Even through the blood I knew the filly immediately. Bolt lay on the ground, blood gushing from her mouth as she coughed silently, eyes darkened and grey. I scooped her up, wishing I’d saved the potion, knowing with a terrible confidence she wouldn’t have one. Already she felt colder than a pony should feel. I swallowed a lump in my throat. Behind me I heard hoofsteps. The hallways stretched on further, but I hadn’t taken the time to take it all in. I’d woken up in a pile of rubble that took up most of the floor, and just ten feet away Bolt had fallen. She’d dragged me to her death. My heart plummeted at the steps came nearer. I turned to ask if they could help, but the words caught in my throat.
        In a heartbeat I knew it was Short Change. He’d always been reckless, and a little stupid. When I’d met him he hadn’t been malicious, if anything he’d been nice. But to launch a megaspell? To kill those ponies who’d surrendered? He wasn’t walking right, he must have been injured in the fall or explosion impact. 
        I shook my head, it wasn’t right to forgive a pony, even one that had been a friend. How could I not have known he’d become so insane? When he’d nearly gotten me killed in the Lab should have been the only clue I’d needed. They always said that you couldn’t trust a pony in the Wastes unless you had their balls in a vice, and expect a slow death once you let them go.
        Something inside me was breaking with the stree. Why should I even defend the sorry pony in front of me? Bolt had become something like a daughter to me, one I’d likely never find again. Even as a looked, her breathing stopped, chest stagnant, eyes glossed over, so clean I could almost see myself for how I felt. I felt like breaking down and crying. All the evidence for Short’s death sat in front of me, lying in a pool of her own blood as she tried to save me. I grit my teeth and stared hard at the scarred stallion in front of me.
        “Rimfire?” he asked, voice strangely different. “Where are we?” With my magic I whipped my gun around, aiming straight for his chest. “What are you doing?” Emotions were running wild in my mind, something that hadn’t happened in a long time. Short took a short step back when he felt the presence of the gun on him. “Why?”
        “You forgot already?” I asked, incredulous. “You’re an asshole.” I realized I should probably shoot him. It was ponies like him that start wars, or end them. I would be doing the Wasteland a favor by shooting him in the chest, or once between the eyes, just to make sure. Maybe it would even feel good. Hell, it would definitely feel great.
        “Forgot what?” He saw the filly dying next to me, forgotten momentarily in the action. “Who is that?” A sliver of ice appeared in my heart.
        “You forgot Bolt?” I muttered, stunned. “You piece of shit.” My mouth and head were on autopilot as I took steps forward. “You fuckwit, no-brained... cock-sucking son of a bitch.” My gun was jabbing at this armor now. “You said she’d be safe... you promised her.”
        “I don’t know what you’re talking about,” he said, shaking his head. “I’ve never seen her before in my life.” Feeling nothing at all, I stepped back and cocked my gun. “Rimfire?”
“There’s nothing to say anymore,” I muttered. Short took to me in a run. Before I could get a round off his shoulder checked mine and I had to readjust, but he’d already turned down one of the hallways. I sat on the ground next to Bolt, holding her still warm body close to my chest.
---
Words, memories, ideas, all of them swirled around me. All I could hear or think about were snippets, like photographs with no explanation or story. Strange voices that in one moment sounded like an old friend, the next a stranger, then an enemy, or all at once. Sometimes I could swear my own voice came through, cracked and confident with a dark judgement. It was either a dream, life, or death. What it could be I wasn’t sure anymore. I couldn’t tell my own body from the  ones from my mind in any sense. 
                I think he’s coming around.
I opened my eyes, expecting somepony to be there. There was nopony around, instead I was alone. Above me was a hanging metal structure, a ring of metal and rust, wires and all, hanging bodies of ponies. There was a hole in the center through which I see the sky, pale and blue. I wanted to reach a hoof up, to see if I could touch it, but my body was trapped under rubble, only my head free and barely at that.
Using my magic to free myself was an old trick, but feeling the freedom of the open air felt strangely refreshing.
                What’s wrong with his face?
My head jerked to the side, words hitting it like a slap to the face. Where was I? I felt around my body, looking for clues. A gun and holster tied to the my fetlock I had no recollection of. The only gun I knew, the Luna, was gone, chest holster empty of its familiar weight. Just touching the leather with my hoof sent shivers down my spine. I got off the ground tenderly, searching for the fallen revolver.
Under a rock, further to the door, I spotted a glint of steel. I rushed to it, it was halfway between me and the door. I kicked over the rock, only to see that the barrel had cracked, Luna’s head split in two. I grimaced in pain, headache flaring as I looked at it. It wasn’t Luna, it was some other pony. Just as tall but a crooked horn and holes where flesh and bone would be. I kicked the gun to the side in anger.
        You’ll be safe with us. I promise we’ll keep the bad ponies away
        Who had said that? I got on my hooves and started walking, stumbling to the door. My hooves didn’t want to cooperate with me anymore. I relented against them, pushing forward until I passed the threshold, and wouldn’t stop.
                 You can’t do that, it’s madness.
                Is it safe here?
                Kill them all, who gives a shit?
        The voices wouldn’t stop assailing my aching head. I was swaying to and fro as I passed through rooms. My memory seemed to be coming back. An underground ghoul, Steel Rangers, Thirteen. Sometimes I had to blink back the tears that welled up behind my eyes. A door opened and I found myself staring at another unicorn in a hallway. She was bent over something, I was wasn’t sure what, a trail of blood leading up to her.
        It was Rimfire! The words came without my own conscious thought, she was talking about bolts, Bolt? It didn’t make any sense at all, but I wasn’t sure who was wrong anymore. When she raised her gun at me I booked it. Running my shoulder into her and ducking into another hallway.
        I was wracking my brain trying to figure out why she was almost killed me. What was Bolt and why did it matter?
                You don’t like Sugar?
        What had that been? Sugar? I saw myself, but not as I was, sitting around a fire with Rimfire, a Steel Ranger, and  a filly. She had been looking up at me, sitting closely to Rimfire. She didn’t like Sugar, her name? Could have been. I put my hooves to my eyes, taking a deep breath. What did it even matter? Another image passed through my mind, a stallion, head bursting with a rain of gore plastering itself to the face of a frozen mare. My body quaked in disgust. The image of skull imploding as a blast of pellets struck it, cracking through the bone before splattering the brain and pulling matter with it as they exit through the back, splitting the head like an egg.
        I shut my eyes, remembering Bolt in all her wonder just for a moment. Baltimare had been hell. Whatever had been going on Avacyn was nothing that anypony should have been a part of. I keep walking through the ruined halls of the Stable, eyes quickly losing focus and just letting my legs take me where I needed to go.
        When I came up to a door and opened it, I saw a strange figure in front of me. He stood in power armor, strong and he seemed surprised to see me. Before anything was said he came at me, charging like a bull. I didn’t dodge at first, taking the full brunt of the hit. I kicked him off, wondering. 
        “First Rimfire, now you?” I asked. Who was this pony. Looking at him made my brain hurt, seeing him in half a fog and half in life, like a dream you think is so clear in your head but remembering it is like grasping at sand. He tackled me, and I didn’t react at all, stunned at the violence in this stallion.
        You’re a good pony, Short. You just can’t stop helping.
        Starburst?
---
         The servos in my armor didn’t even whine as they pushed past the tender flesh of Short Change’s throat. His horn didn’t glow magically as my hoof crushed his windpipe, a sickening, wet gurgle was all that escaped his throat. There was almost a look of understanding, a glimmer of understanding as he struggled to take a last breath, his lungs screaming for air and freedom from the blood. 
        I kept my hoof to his neck, watching him twitch and try to push me away. I watched as his movements became slower, weaker... until he stopped moving. A small drop of blood fell from his lips, hitting and sliding down my armored hoof. I took my hoof off of him, letting his body slump to the floor, motionless. He looked so strangely weak, a husk of what he had become. I walked through the door, away from him, the monster of Equestria.
        In the end, I wish we could have died like Short. It’s a strange thing to say, wishing to be dead like a pony I used to know and cared about, probably still do in some small corner of my mind. In the end, it made sense to me that he knew what he was dying for. He was paying back for all the ponies he’d killed in cold blood, the ponies who’d wanted to give up and walk away. The flash in his eyes will stay with me until the end, a note of his own forgiveness for the act.
        I wish Rimfire could have gone as gracefully or with any sort of meaning. The two of us had decided to pal around, finish what had been started so long ago. She took Short’s PipBuck, and we set out for the Iron Giant. I knew the place where it was supposed to be located, but had never been there myself.
        On our third day traveling I heard a twang by my ear, following by the sound of a rubberband being snapped. I dropped to the ground, ducking for some cover. Rimfire, for once in her life, was a moment too slow. As she loped forward, a second shot took her in the head, entering behind her ear and erupting out of her eye socket, gore and blood spraying out in a thick mist.
        I sat with my back on the ground, as close to the ground as I could. When I dropped I slipped my helmet on, cursing that I could have been so foolish.
        I could have saved her, I bet. If I could have just gotten off my back and onto my legs, hid her body with mine, drag her away and pump her body full of chems. I could have done something for her. All I did was wait until nightfall, take her PipBuck, and move on. I didn’t feel much those days.
        I saw them a lot in my dreams back then. First it was just Short. I’d see him, before he was scarred, back when he was innocent. I was still crushing him, and he had just the strength to stop the final push of my hoof. He asked my why I was killing him and why I was doing this to him. He would cry, and I would keep pushing, I couldn’t stop pushing his life away. When I woke up, it was in a sweat, my eyes glancing side to side, afraid I’d see him watching me, scarred or not.
        Rimfire came to me in dreams too, or more me to her. I’d find her body on an empty stretch of highway. She’d lie there until I passed by, then she call for me. She’d beg for my help, moan at her own pains. She asked why I hadn’t helped her. It was easier to walk past her than to ignore Short, but not by much.
        On the fifth day I found the door which had to be the right one. It was deeply set into a rocky crevice, metal the same color as the rock. If it hadn’t opened as I passed, I would never have found it. It must have sensed that I had the keycode with me. I went in without fear. It was funny to me that I only had heard of the Iron Giant in passing, and now the two who sought it originally were dead, killed by me. Most of my breathing was done slowly, air burning against my lungs. I coughed blood frequently, and when I took off my helmet I could see the dried splotches throughout.
        Inside the complex reminded me heavily of an old hangar I’d seen once in a book. It was long, dimly lit, and filled with strange machines. It was perhaps fifty feet high and a thousand feet long. In the faraway distance, I spotted a still standing object, slightly swaying. I started towards, door open behind me, dust and sand blowing in through the gentle breeze.
        The closer I got, the more of it I could see. It nearly touched the ceiling. It was a large object, taking up a good quarter of the hangar. There wasn’t any way it wasn't’ the Iron Giant. The object had been swaying because the entire surface was covered in tarps and cloths. More bodies were spread around it, old, forgotten corpses and skeletons. Here and there I saw Memory orbs, useless trinkets to me.
        The Giant dwarfed me, making me feel like an ant. I tugged against the tarps, they tore rather than pulled off, but it didn’t matter. They came undone and I could see the behemoth underneath. The creation hidden away for nigh 200 years.
        If this was indeed the Iron Giant, it earned it’s name. It was a massive machine of metal and ingenuity. It looked to be mostly centered around a long pill-shaped body, with two sets of what looks to be wings. Each wing had several sets of smaller tubes on them. It rested on twenty sets of thick wheels. What could this thing have been made for?
        I want to say that the Iron Giant got used for good. I wish I could say that nopony ever had to die because I made a mistake. Sometimes even the best ponies fall astray of the line. When I was younger, I asked my father why ponies had to die. He told me I should be asking why they should get to live.
        I left the bunker, tried to pile as much of the derelict junk as I could in front of the door, and I locked it up tight. The key I placed somewhere that I’m sure nopony will ever find it, not for a million years if the rads stay high enough. 
        I know I’m dying now. Hiding the key was too much for my body, radiation finally sinking in. It won’t be temporary like last time either. At nights, when I lay on my cot, bleeding from tears inside of me, I listened to the DJ and I hoped to hear Homage. I didn’t think she ever came on before, but I had hope.
        When I was ten, and my father died in combat, I asked the captain what happened after death. He said not to worry about it, good soldiers never died. Well it felt to me like something I should have worried about before it got too late.



        There’s a difference between Heroes and Villains, and you’ll find that it’s often a very thin line.