"Everyday Ah worked those fields, an' Ah ain't never complained. After this is all over, Ah'm gonna go back ta that small town, and work those same fields. It's ma callin', what Ah'm good at."

"Let's go! Move yer ass, or do you want to feel ma whip again!"

I frowned as I kept low behind a large piece of debris, a little ways away from the caravan. I had been tailing them for the past few hours, and with good reason. This particular caravan was a slaver transport caravan.

It was a good thing this old ruined house was right here, I'd hate to waste a StealthBuck just to get close enough to hear what was being said, and get a clear picture of what was going on.

This was as close as I could get without being spotted by the guardbuck on top of one of the wagons (he was most likely a mercenary, if his armor was anything to go by). From what I could see, one wagon was filled with scavenged food and supplies, while the other was a cage type wagon with a wooden top, holding the much younger or injured captives.

For the time being, however, the caravan was halted because a pony at the front of the slave line refused to move, or just plain couldn't.

The red coated unicorn slaver hissed at the young jade green mare again. "I said walk, damn it!"

The mare whimpered. "I can't, my leg hurts, something's wrong with it," she tried to explain through sobs. Her left fore-hoof was bent slightly upwards, obviously from whatever pain she was in.

The unicorn didn't seem to care one bit. "Listen, girl, you either walk, or," with a glow of his horn, the slaver took a long, leather handled whip from out of his saddlebag. "You get this, and we both know ya don't want that."

"B-but, my leg-."

"What th' fuck, Cast Away," another slaver spoke from further ahead. "Get 'er ass moving, we're already runnin' late as is!"

"I know that, Browning!" The red coated slaver replied, keeping his attention on the mare. "Fuck it, move!" He raised his whip, and brought it down on the mare's back, leaving a bloody line an inch above her flank. The mare let out a wail in pain. "Move now!"

The mare sniffled. "Okay! O-okay."

But, she could only go a few feet before she had to stop again, which resulted in another lash from the whip. "I don't feel like doing this all day," the unicorn slaver muttered in annoyance. "You stop again, that's five lashes for ya, understand."

"I-I'm trying."

"Well, then try hard, we ain't got all day!"

My frown deepened; no more watching, it was time to act. They were stopped in the middle of no where with no back up for miles, it was as good a time to attack as any. Still keeping my attention on the scene in front of me, I took off my travel sack and began rummaging through it.

I dug past the food, pouch of caps, ammo and healing potions, and pulled out a pony altered zebra weapon: a Mist Talisman. It was a lavender and purple oval shaped device, first used by zebras later on in the war to cover a whole twenty-five meter area in a thick blanket of mist, much like a pink cloud bomb.

Unlike the pink cloud, however, it was non-toxic.

The bad thing was that it was a one time deal, and the cover only lasted for about five minutes tops. So I had to be fast, in a cloud that left me with close to zero visibility. That just made for another reason why I was happy about my prototype eye prosthetic, even if the way I lost my real eye hurt like a bitch(it's hard to forget that type of pain).

I pressed down on the black button on the talisman, and tossed it with all I had towards the caravan. It hit one of the bars on the cage wagon, catching the attention of the guardbuck and the slaves that were sitting inside it.

"What the-?" There was a series of loud beeps, then the talisman let out a hiss as the mist cloud began to escape from it, slowly covering the area from the ground up. A foul yelped, and the captives in the cage tried to back away from the white cloud, in fear that it might be harmful.

"Where th' hell is all this mist coming from?" One of the slavers shouted. "Are we under attack? I don't see anypony."

"The mist is coming from some weird thing that just got thrown over here," the guardbuck announced. The cloud rose up from the ground, covering the area below the cage wagon roof in white cloud.

The voice of the one known as Cast Away joined in, yelling. "Stay on guard, it might be raiders near by."

Oh, how wrong he was.

I unstrapped my assault carbon, and using S.A.T.S I locked on to my first target, the guardbuck on top of the cage wagon. "Sorry," I uttered. "But you chose the wrong ponies to work with." My left eye tinted red as I zeroed in on his head. I took a breath, and pulled the trigger as I exhaled.

Bang!

The guardbuck's head snapped back, exploding in a mist of crimson, then he went toppling into the mist screen below. A part of me felt bad for killing someone so young, but he was a merc, he knew what his job entitled when working for the slavers. So to me, he was no different then them.

"Shit! BlackBerry!" One of the slavers shouted, just before the mist shrouded the rest of them.

"One down," I uttered. The captives were outlined in yellow, while the other slavers(and any other hostile threat) were outlined in red; there were more then six red pony outlines. I activated one of the StealthBucks, making it impossible to even see my invisible form in the cloud cover.

I slung the assault carbon back over my shoulder, and pulled out my Saber-Blade; my favorite sword based energy weapon. I began sneaking further into the cloud, the only thing telling I was even there was the soft hum of the purple energy blade.

By the time anypony heard it, though, it was already too late.

"So, how does your leg feel?" I asked as I finished bandaging up the mares wounds. I found out when I started treating her that her name was Morning Glow, an odd name but hey, I wasn't going to judge.

Morning smiled. "It feels much better, now. Thank you for saving us."

"It was no trouble at all," I replied. I pulled a healing potion out of my travel sack and handed it to her. "Drink this, it'll help make sure that the wounds on your back don't leave any scars." She nodded, and took it into her hooves. I gave her one last pat on the head, before I stood up.

If there was one thing I hated about the Equestrian Wasteland, it was that it turned some ponies into horrid creatures, even more so then the mutated animals that lived among the wastes. At least with them, you know that it was for food or because somepony was stupid enough to walk into their territory.

Raiders were another thing entirely, they found sick enjoyment in tormenting others, and didn't have a moral bone in their body; rape, murder, and all of the above was just everyday life for them, in short, there was close to nothing a raider wouldn't do, they came close to second on my hate list. But the one thing I hated most of all, were slavers.

Back in my previous world, growing up being taught about how my ancestors had been enslaved against their will and the terrible things that had happened to them, and the pain they had suffered and endured to achieve freedom.

Naturally, this gave me an extreme dislike for slavers or all kinds, pony or human, it made no difference. If you were were a slaver, you got no sympathy from me. That was a rule I'd gone by all these years, and would until the day I died (which, considering how the wasteland is, would most likely be in a storm of lead and plasma).

With that in mind, I didn't have to think much about rushing to the aid of slaves in a slaver caravan on a march through the wasteland to where ever they exported slaves. Considering where I was on the map, it was most likely that they were being taken to old Appaloosa; Braeburn would be turning in his gave if he could had see what's become of the old town he once protected.

I wasn't stupid. I knew there was no way I would be able to enter Appaloosa and free every last pony that had been captured, only an idiot would try that and not think things through.

As for a slaver caravan, however, though it would be a challenge, it wasn't impossible since the number of slavers they had weren't many, around a half dozen or so I'd say. A StealthBuck didn't hurt to use either, sure I had only one left at the moment, but to me it was worth it for what I had accomplished.

That had been earlier today.

At the moment, I was sitting around the campfire I had made, watching the flames cackle and pop as I carefully added another log of dry wood. The wasteland was full of dead trees, and as sad as it was from how green Equestria used to be, even dead trees had there uses.

Most of the group of slaves had crowded around the fire to stay warm in the cold night air; we had used the three transport carriages to make a circle around us, with three of the much healthier looking ponies of the group keep watch for whatever might come our way, holding weapons that they had taken off of the dead slavers.

As I sat there, hands held out in front of me to feel the heat, I felt a nudge on my shin. I turned my head and saw that it was a small colt with a black and white striped coat and snow white hair, I would have thought he was a zebra, if not for the horn.

"What do you want, kid?" I asked, tiredly.

The colt just continued to stare at me, then shook his head. "Uh ...nothing, I was just wondering what you were, that's all." He said, shyly.

I smiled a bit. "Well, I guess I could tell you," I said. "I'm what you call, a human."

"A human? I'll never heard of a human, before," the colt said in wonder.

"Really, never? Not even in books?"

"I can't read very well. What is a human? Are you related to dragons," The colt asked.

I sighed, and answered. "Not in the slightest, believe me I wish I was related to a dragon," I replied. "Thing is, I'm the first and only human in the entire world."

"Oh ...it must be lonely, huh."

"Yeah, it is a bit lonely, but I've managed this long, plus I have a few friends here and there. True friends are hard to find in the wasteland, kid, when you find em', keep em' close and don't let go, got it?" The colt smiled and gave a nod. I smiled back, before nudging him towards the small cots that had been laid out. Dirty, yes, but better then sleeping on the hard ground. "Now go get some sleep, I'm sure it's past your bedtime."

"Aw, do I have to?" The colt whined.

I nodded. "Yep ...look, tell ya what. Go to sleep, and tomorrow, I'll tell you a story about one of my many adventures through the wasteland."

"Oh, wow, really," he asked, excitedly. I nodded again. "Okay, g'night mister." He grinned and trotted over to the makeshift cots. The other ponies had left me alone, either too tired to talk or, like the fillies and colts, already asleep. I took this time to check my PipBuck to see what in my inventory needed repairs. Everything was in pretty good shape, the only thing that needed some patching up was my Saber-Blade, but I could handle that at a later date.

An elderly earth pony mare sat down near the campfire next to me, with a small grin on her muzzle. I didn't get her name, but I did know that she was a medic, she had used some of the healing potions and other meds the slavers had left behind to help heal the wounded. She wasn't the best healer I've come across; out here, though, you take what you can get.

The mare spoke when I lowered my arm. It felt nice to know that there were still some polite ponies out there. She just sat on her hunches and waited until I was done. "That was quite the show you put on earlier. Never thought I'd see slavers getting picked off like a bunch of radhogs to the slaughter. Not that I could see much. All the same, though, thank you fer saving us."

"Think nothing of it, ma'am," I said, pulling out a pink balloon designed tin can from out of my pants pocket. I took a gumball out for myself and held out one for the mare. She politely shook her head, and I shrugged, putting the extra one back.

Smiley Bombs was truly extraordinary gum, there were even words under the label ("It's like a megaspell explosion, in your mouth~!"). Two-hundred years old, and didn't taste a day over thirty. Pinkie Pie had really outdone herself when she had made it, claiming that it would be 'the gum to top all gums', kids would chew it for days and it wouldn't loss any taste, though I'd admit it was oddly addictive.

The world ended two days after it came out in stores, a true shame for something doing so well to end so suddenly. I tore the paper casing off and popped a gumball into my mouth; I missed Pinkie Pie, having her in this dark and gloomy world would cheer up so many.

"You know, I prayed fer this." The elderly mare said, "I prayed to the goddesses fer a miracle, that someone would come and save us from those fiends, then you showed up and broke us free of our chains."

"I was just doing what I thought was right," I muttered. I wasn't a hero, that was the last thing I wanted to be seen as. I turned to her. She must have been a decadent of the Apple family, I could see the features in her quite well. Blonde coat, graying brown mane, and her cutie mark was of a caramel covered apple. "If you don't mind me asking, though, how did you all get caught by slavers? You seem like you all know each other."

"That's because we all come from the same town. Well, what used t' be our town, it's not there anymore," the elder mare said, frowning.

"What happened?"

"Raiders, that's what happened. A tribe of them invaded our small town and killed the stallions protecting us, then to make things worse they burned it to the ground. Every last house. Those of us who got away found each other and we began scouring the wasteland for a new home. That was when we were ambushed by the slavers. We tried to fight back, but we aren't exactly strong, or many in number."

"I see. I'm sorry to hear that, no one should have to loss their home, especially not like that," I said, sadly. I turned to her. "What are you going to down now, miss?"

The elder mare shrugged. "There's not much we can do. We had no place to go before the slavers captured us, and we still have no place to go now."

"Well, if you need a place to stay, there's a settlement someways away from here." I lifted my arm again, and looked into how far the settlement was in my PipBuck, as well as how long it would take to reach on foot. "It's about a weeks trot from here, near the Baltimare Ruins, they don't have a problem taking in new ponies like yourselves."

Her face lighted up a bit. "Really?" I nodded. "But even if that is the case, we don't have any food or water for the trip. And some of the little ones are injured."

"As far as food and meds go, I have a small shack in that direction, it'll only take a few hours to reach. It had enough food and water for the trip, as for the injured, we'll just take the wagons. Not like the slavers have anymore use for em'," I said, smiling at her. "I'll go with you so that the tribes who guard the route to Baltimare will let you pass, they know me, so they should let us through."

The elderly mare gave me a wide smile, and took my hands in her fore-hooves. "You truly are a blessing from th' goddesses, young one, may Celestia shine brightly on you." I chuckled a bit at being called young, I may not look ancient, but I'm positive I was way older then the mare in front of me.

"Thank you for the kind words, ma'am, but I'm no blessing. I saw you needed help, so I helped, it's as simple as that."

"Even so," the mare said. "We can't thank you enough for saving us, and even now, you offer to guard us on our journey through the wasteland. I would be a fool not to see you as a blessing after praying so long for this."

I could see that me talking wasn't going to change her image of me. I was no hero, and I wasn't a villain in the slightest, I was just a man living his life day after day hoping for, what most would call, a warrior's death. But if she wanted to see me as some sorta savior, hell, I wasn't going to try and change stop her.

"Well, ma'am, I guess I can see where you're coming from," I replied. "If you don't mind me asking, I'd really like to get your name, if that's alright with you."

The elderly mare, let go of my hand. "Of course not, it would be rude of me not to," she said, holding her hoof out for a shake. "The name's Apple Stick."

"So, you're Apple family then?"

"You betcha, youngin'!" Knew it, if there was one thing most Apple's had in common, no matter how far down the family tree they went, it was the freckles and apple affiliated cutie mark.

I grinned and shook her hoof. "Nice to know. Name's Steven, I'm human if you wanted to know."

Apple Stick gave a small nod. "Well, Steven The Human, please take care of us."

"You can count on me, ma'am."

"Alright, listen up everypony. I know you've all had a rough time, being taken by slavers and all. I just wanted to warn you that even though route fifty-six is one of the safer roads, it doesn't mean that we can't be attacked. Keep your eyes sharp and your weapons ready at all time, got it." I was met with nods from the ponies in front of me. "Good, then lets get going, we should reach a place to restock on food in a day or so, after that it's on to Baltimare."

The sun had risen a few hours ago, with daylight poring through the gray clouds cover. I began to lead our little group in the opposite direction of Appaloosa; from my Pipbuck's calculations, it seemed that the slaver town was a few days away. Which meant that by the time someone decided to come looking for their friends, we'd be long gone by then. Of course, I made sure to cover up whatever tracks we left on the road just encase.

The wagons were pulled in single file, with me walking next to the first wagon.

"Um, mister Steven." I turned my head to the little colt I had talked to late night, he had a bored expression on his face as he sat behind the bars of the slave wagon. "Do you think, you could, um, tell me that story now?"

I cracked a grin. "What, feeling bored already?"

He nodded. "Sorta ...yeah."

"Alright, I guess I could tell a few stories to pass the time," I said. The black and white colt smiled. Putting a hand to my chin, I thought on what story I should tell. "Let's see, how about the time I had to fight off a pride of manticores?"

"Whoa! You fought a manticore? Are they, like, really big like everypony says?" He asked in excitement.

I smiled. "Yes, and yes. I was lucky to get out of that situation with my head still on my shoulders. I'll tell you right now, kid, getting swatted by a manticore hurts like hell. I was feeling sore for days after that. How it happened was-." I went on to tell the young colt some story, as promised. While also giving him some wasteland survival tips that would come in handy when he got older, things I had to learn through blood, sweat and a lot of pain.

Watching the excitement on the colt's face, it reminded me so much of my little girl, back when she was that age. Oh, how I missed her.

I hadn't seen her in some time; right about now going back to the Baltimare Ruins didn't seem like such a bad idea.