“Cross my heart, hope to fly, stick a cupcake in my eye.”
“Remind me to cripple my legs so we don’t have to walk places anymore, because every place we go in the Wasteland always ends up trying to kill us,” I said sarcastically.
“No way, then one of us would have to carry you and I don’t feel like doing that,” Stardust said as we walked along the edge of the desert. In the distance, we could see the tops of mountains skimming the skyline, silhouetted peaks glowing in the setting sun that sits over the cloud cover.
Aura flew overhead with her energy spear held tight in her talons, her eagle eyes searching for potential threats. As we slowly worked our way closer toward the peaks she said, “If you two are done complaining down there, I think I see a place we can hold up for the night.”
“As much as I hate to say it, I think we should keep moving. My hooves hurt, but I’d rather get to New Pegasus sooner rather than later,” I said, looking up at the black griffon.
“I hate to agree with Aura, but she’s right, we shouldn’t be out here when night falls. If that sign back there was correct about the Cazadores, we’ll want to make sure we’re in a safe place for the night,” Stardust said with a sigh.
“We passed that sign hours ago, do you really think we’re still in danger?” I asked, giving the pegasus an annoyed look, furrowing my brow a little.
“I do, those damned bugs can travel a long way, and if there’s a swarm, their territory can range for miles,” he explained with a wave of a forehoof.
“Either way we still need rest. I know you wanna keep going, but we can’t just keep traveling all night. I’m tired, my wings are getting sore, and both of those are making me cranky,” Aura said, landing next to me and putting her energy spear on her back.
“Aren’t you always cranky?” Stardust asked with a snicker.
“Don’t push me pegasus. I cut off a stallion’s dick once, and I’ll do it again,” she said, pointing a talon in his face.
Not wanting to listen to more of their bickering I stepped between them, saying, “Okay you two, fine we can rest, just please stop fighting. I’ve had enough of you two bickering.”
Rolling her eyes Aura walked away heading toward a small shack. Stardust and I followed, the pegasus still chuckling a little. The shack didn’t look like much, but at least it would be a roof over our heads for the night. Aura pushed the door open, took a quick look around before heading inside. Walking in, I saw what I expected, nothing. There was a cot in one corner of the shack, a couple broken book shelves, and a dirty sleeping bag on the floor.
“I call the cot!” Stardust shouted, flying over and landing on it. He set his rifle against the wall and lied down, a smug look on his face.
“Yeah, you’re a real gentlecolt,” I scoffed, looking at the sleeping bag in disdain.
“Where I grew up, we have a saying. You snooze, you lose,” he said, closing his eyes and rolling over.
“I’ll take first watch, you two get some shut-eye for now,” Aura said, walking back to the door.
“I thought you needed sleep?” I asked, deciding to lay on the floor next to one of the book shelves.
“I said I need rest, not sleep. I’ll wake you in a couple hours,” Aura said as she walked out the door, closing it behind her. With a sigh, I closed my eyes and tried to sleep.
***
Not very much time passed and I still couldn’t sleep. Every time I came close, memories of what happened during the fight with the griffons kept creeping up on me. I was afraid that if I let myself sleep, then that thing, Morning Star, would take over again. I was tired though, and was doing my best to ignore my fear and get some sleep, when I heard somepony talking softly outside the door.
Grabbing Ol’ Festus with my magic, I got up slowly and made my way to the door. I was about to pull the door open when I heard the voice again…it was Aura. Putting my ear to the door I listened closely.
Her voice cracked a little as she said, “It’s hard on nights like this, not having you around. I can’t believe it’s been six months, still seems like yesterday when everything in my life went to shit. At least I found some friends to keep me company. Yeah, I know what you’d say too. ‘Since when have you been good at making friends Aura?’ Back then you would’ve been right to. Since I lost you, I’ve been… well… different. I don’t know if it’s that little unicorn or just what you told me on the night you gave me this spear. They’re good ponies, even that stupid pegasus and even if I’d never say so to them, I enjoy their company. It sure beats being alone, that’s for sure. Still… on nights like this, when I start to think about you, I miss you so much Trip.”
Peeking through one of the cracks in the boards, I saw that Aura was talking to nopony, just herself. She was looking down at her Spear, her back to the shack, and her head hung down low with tears dripping to the ground. I backed away from the door. I hadn’t ever seen this kind of emotion out of Aura before. I mean yeah, I hadn’t been traveling with her very long, but she’d always put on this tough griffon act. I guess I just assumed she was hard as a rock, but she wasn’t. From what I could tell, she’d lost someone and it still cuts deep down, she just didn’t want anypony to see it, so she hid it behind that mask.
Slowly I opened the door to the shack and walked up to her, placing a hoof on her shoulder. “Why don’t you get some sleep, I can take a turn on watch.”
Unmoving the griffon sniffed, then asked softly, “You didn’t hear anything, did you?”
“A little, I’m sorry, I wasn’t trying to eavesdrop or anything, I just happened to wake up and heard somepony talking,” I answered honestly.
She looked over at me, her normally cool demeanor was gone. It was replaced by something that looked fragile and broken. “I really didn’t want you to hear that.”
“I’m sorry,” I responded, not sure what to do or say.
“It’s fine, not like it was done on purpose,” she said with a light sniff.
“If I may ask, who was Trip? They sounded kind of important to you,” I asked, trying not to pry too much.
The griffon looked away again and back down at her Spear. A few seconds went by, neither of us saying a word. Finally, Aura let out a long sigh and said, “She was a dear friend to me. She was a first generation born in The Wasteland. Both her parents were from a stable that failed years ago. She used to run a traveling caravan and hired the Talons as bodyguards when she had to go on long trips. I was always requested to go on those trips, over time we became friends.”
“Is she the one who made you the spear?” I asked.
Another tear fell as she answered, “She was. On one of her trips to Manehattan she found an old schematic for making them. She had a real talent for that kind of thing, she gave it to me as a gift.”
“What happened to her?” I asked again.
She looked over at me again, then she stood, took a deep breath and picked up her spear. “Shadow, that’s not something I’m ready to talk about yet okay.”
I looked at her with a little concern. “Auntie always told me growing up, that it’s always better to talk to somepony about what’s bothering you. If you don’t, it’ll slowly eat you up inside.”
“Maybe one day I’ll be okay with doing that, but right now it just hurts too much. Don’t worry about me in the meantime. Worry about yourself, you have a lot more shit to deal with than I do,” she said.
She had a point there, I got a lot of shit going on at the moment. I let out a sigh. “I do worry about you though Aura. There’s so much I don’t know about you and I want to. I mean so far, all I know is you wanted to join The Red Talons, then I found out you used to be one, and you have a dislike for Stardust. I don’t know much more than that about you.”
She rounded on me, her eyes no longer sad. Now she looked pissed. “Why would you want to know more about me? It’s not like we’re friends or anything, I owe you a life debt and that’s all. You don’t need to know more about my past. All you need to know is that I made my contract with you and I’ll see it through. Nothing more, nothing less.”
Not turning away from her sudden fury, I replied calmly, “I think of you as my friend Aura, and right now I see my friend is hurting. I want to help in any way that I can. If that means for now I have to stay back and let things be, I will, but I’ll be here for you when you’re ready to talk.”
She looked taken aback, at least the anger left her eyes. She shook her head calming down a little. “I’ll never understand you ponies, either it’s you all have this kill or be killed attitude, or its trying to make friends with everything.”
“I wouldn’t agree with you on that, honestly I wasn’t that good at making friends in the stable. I only had two of them, and even then, I still felt like an outcast at times. I’d like to have friends, but honestly, I suck at it, but I still keep trying,” I said with a small smile.
She smiled a little too. “Well, at least we have that in common. We both suck at making friends. Tripwire was the one who tried hard to befriend me, in the end it worked,” as she spoke a shadow seamed to fall over her, “Then I lost her and you know what I learned about friendship?”
“What?” I asked, not sure I wanted to know the answer.
“I learned that the closer you get to someone, the more it hurts when the Wasteland takes them from you.” She turned to walk into the shack. “If you wanna take over on watch, be my guest. I’ll see you in the morning.”
I watched as the door closed and sighed. Yep, that could’ve gone a little bit better Shadow. Maybe I should’ve just let her be. All I did was piss her off, and I was no closer to finding out more about her than I was when she first met me. I sat down, keeping Ol’ Festus held in my magic as I scanned the dark landscape. I hadn’t been on watch for more than a few minutes when I heard music in the distance. When I started to look around to see where it was coming from, it suddenly cut out. “That’s weird, why would somepony be listening to music way out here?”
“It’s a nice night. Isn’t it Shadow?” a metallic voice said next to me.
I jumped to my hooves and almost started blasting my rifle wildly, then I saw one of those sprite bots. It felt like my heart leapt into my throat. I took a moment to breathe. “Goddesses are you trying to give me a heart attack? Wait, are you that same guy who talked to me before? If you are I should shoot you right now for scaring me like that.”
“I’m sorry Shadow, I didn’t mean to, and yes it’s me,” he said.
“Yeah well, thanks for the apology. What are you doing here anyway? I haven’t seen you since those raiders were hunting me down,” I asked.
The robotic bug bounced up and down slowly as it spoke. “Oh, well I’ve been busy, I have a feeling you won’t be the first stable pony I run into. Though you are the first one in quite a few years.”
“Yeah, and what does that have to do with me or why you’re here?” I asked again.
“I was getting to that,” he said, sounding annoyed. “I didn’t have time to talk to you more about things before I lost the connection to that sprite bot. Though it seems like you did listen to what I told you about finding some friends.”
“More like they kinda just started following me around. The griffon says she owes me for letting her live after she attacked me the other day, and Stardust…well I really don’t know why he started following me, he said it was because he promised Box Tape, but I’m not really sure,” I responded.
“Friendships can sometimes start off weird,” he said as if he could relate.
“You know I never got your name when we last spoke. What do I call you?” I asked.
“Oh yeah, I forgot before, I didn’t have time to properly introduce myself. You can call me Watcher,” he replied.
“How original, a stalker who hacks into robots to watch ponies and calls himself Watcher. Why didn’t I guess that from the start?” I said, sarcastically.
The bot shook itself from side to side as if it was shaking its head. “Well it’s not my real name of course, it’s just what ponies started calling me over the years. Anyway Shadow, I’m still glad you found others to travel with.”
I slumped a little. “Yeah, it’s nice to have companions to travel with, I just wish I knew more about them.”
“I’m sure over time you will. The Wasteland is a hard place to keep secrets in. Eventually the truth comes out, it always does.” It was hard to tell through the metallic voice, but he sounded sad.
“Even your own?” I asked, giving him a sly smile.
“What makes you think I have secrets Shadow Star?” he asked, I’m pretty sure if a robot could show emotions physically it would’ve grimaced.
“You go around using robots to talk to other ponies and watch The Wasteland. A pony like that’s gotta have a few secrets of their own.” I bet they’re weird ones too, he seems kinda like a weird guy.
“Well you’ve got a point there,” he said, dodging my question. “The other thing I wanted to talk to you about is probably the most important thing in The Wasteland.”
“And what’s that?” I asked.
“Everypony has a virtue, it’s the one thing a pony needs to find and hold onto if they want to survive,” he said, sounding more serious than before.
“What do you mean by virtue?” I asked, puzzled at what he said.
A sigh came out of the robot before he spoke, “What do you know about The Ministry Mares?”
I was taken aback by the question. “I know what I read in my classes. Twilight Sparkle was the one who lead the Ministry of Arcane Science, Pinkie Pie with the Ministry of Morale, Applejack lead the Ministry of Wartime Technology, Fluttershy the Ministry of Peace, Rarity had the Ministry of Image, and Rainbow Dash ran the Ministry of Awesome. Though the last two I don’t know much about. Apart from that, I don’t know much about the ponies themselves. Why do you ask?”
“The Ministry mares used to all be the best of friends before the war. They saved Equestria a few times using the Elements of Harmony, each Element was a representation of the virtues that each of the Ministry Mares embodied. Generosity, Honesty, Laughter, Kindness, Loyalty, and Magic. Without those, they would’ve never worked so well as friends and been able to use the Elements to save Equestria. Some ponies don’t know what their virtue is. Some do, but try to ignore it, others embrace it and try to live their lives based off that key virtue. My advice to you is to try to find yours and embrace it with all you can,” he said, genuinely.
I thought that over for a moment, then said, “Find my virtue huh? I’m not sure if I’ll ever know what mine is or if I even have one, but I’ll try.”
The bot nodded. “Everypony has one, they aren’t always good, but everypony does have one, even you Shadow Star.”
“Thanks Watcher, it’s nice to hear that,” I said with a smile on my face.
“I should get going, I don’t have much time left in this sprite bot. Before I go, would you mind if I look at that Pip-Buck?” he asked.
I was a little skeptical at first, but Watcher helped me in the past and never shown any hostility toward me, so I held up my Pip-Buck. “Why do you wanna see it?”
He hovered over it for a moment. “It’s not often you see a Mk. II in the Wasteland, I find it strange that you have one. Did your Stable issue them?”
“No, it was my mother’s. I found it in the stable before I left. Honestly, I don’t know anything about it, apart from that my mother left it for me, and my Overmare wants to get her greedy hooves on it,” I replied.
“Would you mind hooking it up to this sprite bot for me?” he asked turning to the side and showing a connection port.
Figuring it couldn’t hurt, I did as he asked. Once the connection was made numbers started flashing in my vision and data soon followed. A moment later the robot started to shake then something popped and it fell to the ground. I looked down at it and frantically asked, “Watcher, are you okay?”
The metallic voice floated out of it, but it sounded distant, “I’m still here Shadow. There’s a protection of some kind on it, I saw some things that were locked and figured I’d try and unlock them for you, I got a couple, but then a program attacked. If I hadn’t ended the connection it would’ve destroyed this robot, and might’ve even messed with my own hacking software. Whoever set that up didn’t want anypony to get the files on there.”
I looked down at my Pip-Buck a little confused. “When I looked into a memory orb of my mother’s, she said something about hidden files. Do you think anypony could get to them?”
“If I had that Pip-Buck here I’m sure I could figure it out, given a few months, but I really don’t wanna risk that. I did unlock a couple things, but if you want to get more, you’ll have to either find the pony who set up the program or find a terminal specialist or a really talented Pip-Buck Technician. Those are hard to find now days, but I remember a pony in New Pegasus who was good with that kind of thing. If you’re heading that way, then you could look him up,” Watcher said, his voice starting to fade away.
“What’s his name?” I asked quickly, afraid he’d vanish on me like before.
“Nexus…” Watcher said, then with a pop and a crackle, the robot powered down.
“Well at least this time I got something out of him before he went away,” I said, turning and bucking the robot away. It landed a little ways away making a loud metallic ding as it hit a rock.
As I turned to go sit back next to the shack and go over what I talked about with Watcher, a loud humming started filling the air. Ignoring the sound, I sat down and looked at my Pip-Buck, a few notifications popped up.
Three Notes added...
Radio Range Increased...
Broadcaster Communication Range Increased…
I looked at the screen wondering what that all meant. I went to the Notes Screen and looked at the three new files. Two were written out, one titled Stable Locations, The other said Personal Notes. The last was a recording that was titled. 'For my Little Star.'
I looked at the last one trying to hold back tears, Little Star was the nickname mom called me by. I was about to click on it when the humming in the air grew louder. Looking up I saw a couple dozen red bars on my E.F.S. Getting to my hooves I lifted Ol’ Festus, I started to kick the door behind me trying to wake Aura and Stardust. Then, I saw them, large disgusting looking bugs. They were black with orange wings and stingers. In a way, they kinda looked like a mutated bloatsprite, but at the same time not. They were more like a mix of a regular bee and a bloatsprite, that’s about the best way I can describe it.
“Wake up you two, we have company!” I yelled. Activating S.A.T.S., I fired off three shots hitting the two that were closest. A moment later Aura and Stardust came flying out the door, weapons ready. Aura spun her spear in one talon and attacked as two more came flying toward us.
Stardust took to the air firing at the bugs as they flew toward us. Between the loud cracks of Stardust and me firing and the high screech of Aura as she attacked, I missed what Stardust was trying to say to me. Looking up at him I yelled, “What!?”
He fired off one more round taking out two of the bugs with one shot, then he landed and said quickly trying to catch his breath while fighting rushing adrenaline. “I said there’s more coming, a whole swarm of them. We can’t stay here. We have to move. Now!”
Aura landed a second later, green goo and bug parts stuck to her spear’s tip. She gave me an excited grin. “So are we hanging around here and killing as many of them as we can or running away like little bitches.”
“I vote for running,” Stardust said, firing again as another bug came flying toward us.
“I’m with him,” I agreed.
Aura just rolled her eyes. “Fine, you two are no fun at all.” She opened her wings and took hold of me jumping into the sky with Stardust not far behind.
They both started flying off when I suddenly heard a high-pitched scream fill the air. It sounded to me like a filly’s scream or something close to it. “What was that?”
Aura stopped and turned, down below I could see the swarm of Cazadores. There had to be at least six dozen of them buzzing in a large group. A few had broken away to come toward us, but they didn’t seem to be able to fly as high as we were. Aura was scanning the ground, flapping slowly to keep herself aloft. After a moment, she pointed toward a small building near the swarm, with a partially collapsed roof. “It looks like there’s two foals in that building.”
“Get me down there,” I said as I reloaded Ol’ Festus with my magic.
“Are you nuts!? There’s no way we can get through that swarm,” Stardust said.
“I’ll find a way, I’m not leaving two foals to get killed by those nasty bugs,” I said squirming in her talons.
“My job is to keep you safe, that’s the deal I made with you and letting you go down there isn’t keeping you safe,” she said, her talons digging into my forelegs.
I flipped my rear hooves up trying to buck her so she’d let me go. “Let me go Aura! Right now!”
“Ow, stop that, dammit Shadow, fine!” she said, diving toward the ground still keeping me held tight in her talons. “But if you have to be stupid, let’s at least try and not get you killed in the process.”
Stardust followed her dive, yelling down toward us, “What the fuck are you doing!?”
“There are foals trapped down there, so shrimpy wants to, yet again, find a new way to get us killed. Follow me, once we reach the ground do something to distract those bugs. I’m gonna fly in with Shadow, get hold of those foals and hopefully fly them out of there before we get stung,” Aura said, banking hard to the left and aiming for the swarm that surrounded the small ruin. She flew close to the ground speeding toward them. "I’m going to toss you through the window then take off again, get the foals and teleport them away so I can grab them.”
“I’m not sure I can teleport more than one or two ponies. I’ve never tried that before!” I yelled as the building came at us faster and faster.
“First time for everything, now go.” She pulled up at the last second, letting me go in the process. My body went flying past a few Cazadores and through one of the windows, sending my body skidding across the floor. I came to a quick stop, when I slammed ass first into the far wall.
A little dazed I got to my hooves and pulled out Ol’ Festus, two of the large bugs pressed their way through the window and buzzed toward me. Killing them both I started looking around the room. It looked like it used to be some kind of living room before the war. Most of the walls had fallen away leaving the room with a crumbled open concept. The only other thing still standing was the stairs. I couldn’t see anypony in there so I figured they had to be upstairs. I ran toward them wondering to myself how Aura could see two small ponies from how high we were and in a building. Must be a griffon thing.
Another scream filled the air followed by a voice, “Quiet down Honeysuckle, you’re gonna make more show up.”
I moved up the stairs and peeked around the banister. Sitting in one corner of the semi-collapsed room was a filly and a colt. The colt had a straw yellow mane with a light blue coat. The filly had a light pink coat and a golden mane. The filly was sobbing next to the colt, a revolver next to them, and two dead Cazadores a couple meters away. As I looked at them the colt saw me and jumped to his hooves saying in the most serious tone he could muster, “Don’t come any closer or I’ll…I’ll.” he started to stutter, tears welling up in his eyes.
“It’s okay, I’m not here to hurt you,” I said, in a soft tone, walking the rest of the way up the steps. “I’m here to help you. There’s a swarm of those bugs out there.”
“We don’t need help, we can take care of ourselves!” the colt exclaimed, picking up the revolver and pointing it at me.
Was I this annoying when I was young? Doing my best to stay quiet and not scare them, I slowly put one of my hooves up. “I can see that, but there are a few dozen Cazadores out there and you two don’t look like you have enough ammo to get through them. My friends are out there and we saw you were in trouble. So how about you come with me and we can get you to safety.”
The filly looked up at my raised left hoof and gave a little gasp. “Look Wingnut, she has one of those hoof terminal things.”
He looked over at my Pip-Buck. “How’d you get a Pip-Buck, are you from a stable?”
Really, he’s going to play twenty questions now? “I was yes, but now I’m a courier and I help ponies now and again. We really don’t have much time, I’m sure those bugs will figure out we’re all up here soon.”
“I think she’s that pony Mr. New Pegasus was talking about, the one who took out the town of fiends,” the filly said to her friend.
Wondering who Mr. New Pegasus was and how he knew as much as DJ-Pon3 did about what happened a few days ago, I replied, “Yes, that’s me. Still we need to get out of here before…” I heard a buzz from behind me, turning I saw three cazadores were flying up the stairway. I drew Ol’ Festus and fired, I got one, but the other two came around the fallen bug and attacked.
Jumping to one side I used my magic to pull out my machete and sliced a wing off one of them then flipping the blade around I buried it into the bugs head. It twitched before going still. A scream broke out and I turned seeing the one I missed going for the filly and colt. Slipping into S.A.T.S. I targeted its body and fired. The bug was knocked to the side, but it didn’t go down. Instead it turned on me and attacked. I tried to fire again, the rifle clicked, I was out of ammo. I tried to get it with the machete, but I was too slow. The Cazador slammed into me, and a hot pain ran through my lower belly. Instantly my head was full of fog, and my body was going slightly numb. I jammed the machete into the bug then pushed its lifeless body off me. The two foals looked at me with fear in their eyes. I could hear more buzzing from downstairs, and shots in the distance from Stardust’s rifle.
“Listen, more are coming. We have to get you two out of here,” I said, running over to them.
“Listen lady, I told you we can take care of ourselves. We didn’t ask for your help,” the colt said, glaring at me.
“Wingnut, I’m scared,” the filly started crying again, covering her head with her forehooves.
“Fine,” he said with a sigh “You can help, at least for Honeysuckle’s sake.”
“Works for me.” I tried to use my teleportation spell. When I tried to cast the spell my vision started to blur. I stumbled a bit and tried casting the spell again with no success, it felt even harder this time.
“Hey, what gives? Aren’t you gonna get us out of here?” Wingnut asked anxiously.
'What the hell’s going on?' I thought to myself as I tried casting the spell again, but nothing. My head started to spin and I felt nauseous. Then I noticed my magical hold around Ol’ Festus was weakening. This wasn’t good, something was wrong with me and I have no idea what. I had to get these two foals out of here before more bugs came up here.
Looking up I could see my friends flying overhead. Suddenly an idea came to mind. Dropping Ol’ Festus and using every ounce of my strength, I wrapped the two foals in my magic looked up and yelled, “Aura Catch!” And with a blast of my remaining strength I threw the two into the air. After I released them from my magic grip Aura caught them in one fell swoop, like a hawk picking a mouse out of a field. I have to admit, at the time I thought it was pretty freakin’ cool.
The buzzing from downstairs grew louder. Turning back around I saw more coming at me. I tried to lift Ol’ Festus with my magic, but I didn’t have the strength anymore, so I grabbed it with my muzzle and activated S.A.T.S. I was able to take two out, but more were swarming up the stairs. The buzzing from their wings was making my head hurt, my body was getting even more numb as each second passed. Finally, I just dropped my rifle. “Fuck it, bring it on you nasty fucks.”
Before they could get any closer my legs gave out and I hit the floor hard. One flew right up to me, its stinger coming down toward me. Then its body exploded, in a blast of green goo spraying over my face. A second later Stardust landed next to me. Picking up my rifle he turned quickly and grabbed me. “Why do I always have to fly in and save your ass?”
“Because deep down you know that if I was dead, no one would stop you and Aura from bitching at each other. Just sayin’,” I said weakly as we flew into the air.
“Dammit! You got stung, didn’t you?” he asked angrily.
“Probably. I can’t remember,” I said in a daze as my vision began to blur once again, and for some reason all I could hear were muffles like there were cotton balls in my ears. The muffling in my ears turned to a loud ring as I lost consciousness.
***
“Oh Shadow! Time to get up for school!” Mom said joyfully, as she walked into my room.
“Ugh I don’t wanna go to school. I’m tired and sleep is more entertaining,” I moaned, putting my pillow over my face blocking the evil light disrupting my slumber.
“School might be boring, but it’s good for you, like vegetables,” she said.
“Mom. You know that’s all we eat, right?” I retorted.
She smiled. “Of course, I do. That doesn’t make it any less true, does it? Anyway, you may not like it, but you have to get up.”
“Uuuggghhh. Fine, I’ll get up,” I said, pulling off my covers.
“Good. I’ll be in the kitchen waiting. Also, breakfast is ready, I made pancakes,” she said, before walking out of my bedroom, closing the door behind her.
I climbed out of bed and stretched before pulling open the shades on my window to reveal a bright sunny day. I quickly made my bed before leaving my room. I walked into the kitchenette and sat down at the table as breakfast was put in front of me. The buttery stack of pancakes greeted me with the sweet smell of maple syrup as I dug into it.
“Shadow I know you’re up half the night doing whatever, but you still have to wake up.” For some reason those last two words seemed to make my head hurt. “Remember that you still have to do things even when you really don’t want to,” Mom said, as she sat down with her own breakfast.
“Looks like it’s gonna be a nice day,” I responded.
“Well actually the weather pony on the radio said we’re supposed to see some balefire bombs later this morning, but that’s okay,” Mom said nonchalantly.
“Oh… wait, what?” I replied, realizing what I’d just heard.
“I said. The weather pony on the radio said we’re supposed to see some showers later this morning. It’s alright though, it hasn’t rained in a while,” she said again.
Why did I think she said balefire bombs? What is a balefire bomb? Why does it sound so familiar? “Yeah I guess you’re right. It’s been sunny for a while, the rain should have a turn in the sky for once.”
After I finished breakfast I took a shower and did a bunch of other morning stuff. As I stood in front of the mirror braiding my black mane I looked at my white face and didn’t recognize myself for some reason. “Are you okay Shadow?” Mom asked as she stood in the doorway.
“Yeah, I’m fine. Just got lost in thought for a sec,” I replied.
(Ding…dong) “Oh. Sounds like your friends are here to walk to school with you,” Mom said cheerfully.
I sighed. “Alright, I’ll get my stuff. I’ll just put on my makeup in the bathroom at school before class.”
“Really? Makeup? I keep telling you that you don’t need to wear makeup Shadow. You’re as pretty as they come. Believe me I’m your mother, I know these things,” Mom said judgtngly.
“Then how am I supposed to get noticed by ponies I like?” I asked accusingly.
“Just be yourself and they’ll notice you eventually. The colts that go after the uber pretty fillies are just after one thing,” she replied sincerely.
“What’s that?” I asked, pretending I didn’t know what she was talking about.
“Shut up. I know, you know what I mean. Anyway, have a good day at school,” Mom replied.
I waved my hoof backwards in the air. “Yep see ya later Mom.”
I walked out the front door to greet my friend Stardust and our new friend Aura who just moved here from Griffonstone. Stardust is a little annoying, but he has a good heart. I mean he did save me from some bullies who were making fun of me for being a blank flank when we were little. Aura’s a little different, she’s a little shy because she’s new here, but she’s starting to open up a little.
“You know that we wake up earlier so we can walk with you instead of fly, right? Why do you always take so long to get ready? I could’ve flown to the school five and a half times already,” Stardust said, arrogantly.
“Don’t be so daft, you’d feel guilty if you didn’t walk to school with me. Plus, you wouldn’t give up the chance to bring up your popularity with mares by not walking with me,” I retorted.
“You guys do this every morning. Is this normal?” Aura asked.
“Yeah totally normal. The best kind of normal. The kind of normal that will last forever, even when we’re adults and end up working at the same place and have to ride to work together in a passenger wagon with boring ponies who have nothing to talk about but the news like ponies in their late twenties,” Stardust replied.
“Like you’d get a job anywhere I do. I’m more white collar material and you’re more blue collar material. I could be a CEO or a lawyer, and you could be a mechanic or a uh… something,” I snickered at him.
“Uh… Yeah some lawyer you’d be,” Stardust snarked.
“You guys are weird. You say you’re friends, but most of the time you do this,” Aura commented.
“It builds confidence in one another,” I said rationalizing the situation.
“Yeah okay sure shrimpy,” Aura said, in the same snarky tone Stardust used.
I huffed and said, “I’m fun size. Nice try though. Like I said confidence builder.”
We arrived at the school and Aura went inside ahead of Stardust and I so she could do something before class. The rain clouds were starting to be moved into the sky by the weather patrol and I could feel tiny raindrops start to make tiny splashes on my coat.
“Damn. I’m a pegasus and I didn’t even know it was gonna rain today. You should get inside before the rain makes your mascara run,” Stardust said as he looked up at the sky.
“Fuck a duck! I forgot I was going to put on makeup when I got here. Now Milkshake will never notice me,” I said, freaking out a little.
“Sorry Shadow, but I’m pretty sure she notices Balefire more than she notices you. Course he notices you more than her. He’s a nice guy and you guys used to be best friends. Why not just get with him? Milkshake might get upset, but she’ll get over it,” Stardust said, curiously.
“Ok sure. You try dating your best friend. Imagine the weirdness there. Plus, I don’t even like him like that. He’s too pushy about it. Sometimes I wish I could tell him that I might like him if he wasn’t all over me like jam on toast,” I remarked.
“Whatever. I need to get to class. Just try to have a good day,” Stardust said.
I smiled a little. “Thanks, hopefully it’ll be better than yesterday.”
“It will be, all you need to do is wake up,” Stardust said, somehow his words started giving me a headache.
“Ugh. You got anything that could help a headache? I’ve had one on and off since this morning,” I asked.
“No. You know that if anyone gets caught with any type of drugs at school they’ll be suspended or expelled. I gotta get going, Blaze is supposed to meet me before class to talk about which one of us is going to be the game master later when we play Ogres and Oubliettes. See ya later,” Stardust said, getting excited about playing his nerdy buck game later.
“Alright, well it was worth a try. See ya,” I said.
I went inside and put on some makeup in the bathroom as quick as I could without it looking sloppy. If I would’ve taken any longer I would’ve been late for class. Homeroom was boring as usual, Geography and Language Arts felt like a waste of my time, especially since they’re merged classes and I’m stuck in the same room for two straight hours. Math was alright, I didn’t need to pay too much attention because all we did was review what we did yesterday as a test prep. History was interesting as usual, although I think my teacher Mr. Gold was stoned again.
At lunch, I got my tray of random food that looks and feels like food, but tastes nothing like it for some reason. Not to mention the weird googly eyed look I’m getting from Balefire from across the lunchroom because he thinks I haven’t noticed him looking yet. Both Stardust and Aura were sitting with me talking about random stuff, I don’t know what because to be honest… I really wasn’t listening. I was too busy doing what Balefire was doing and looking at Milkshake.
“Hey Shadow, why don’t you take a picture? Sure, it might reveal to Milkshake that you’re staring at her and cause a lot of attention because of the flash, but I’m sure it’ll last longer,” Stardust said, noticing that I had no interest in his conversation with Aura.
“Ass,” I replied quickly in order to not make myself look stupid by not knowing what to say.
“Hey I’m just calling it how I see it. I’m just wondering when you’re gonna wake up and realize it’s probably never gonna happen,” he replied, somehow making my head hurt again.
“Hey it could happen. It’s just a matter of her opinion of me and if she’s into that sort of thing,” I retorted.
“Yeah I’m not one to judge, but I don’t think she’s into filly flinging,” Stardust said, trying to get me off of the subject.
“Filly flinging?” I asked, cocking my head.
“You know… mare on mare action. At least that’s the only thing I’ve heard it be called other than mare on mare,” he said defensively.
“No offense, but filly flinging sounds stupid,” I said with a snicker.
“Yeah whatever. I still don’t think she’s into mares,” he said, crossing his forelegs and turning his head with a little huff.
“Who knows, maybe she just hides it well. It’s fair to say that I hide it well,” I said.
“Tss, no you don’t. Also, you’re bisexual, so it’s not like you only like fillies. I know for a fact that you like colts too,” Stardust said accusingly.
“Yeah, when we were hanging out the other day you said that you thought that Icon Stallionhalder was the hottest pony in existence,” Aura said, agreeing with Stardust’s point that I’m bisexual.
I looked away from them. “So what? He’s hot and if given the chance I’d totally…”
“Stop! Just stop. I don’t want to know about your particular sexual interests,” Stardust interrupted, before I could explain in epic detail what I’d do with Icon Stallionhalder.
“Duuussst… I was curious,” Aura whined, poking fun at Stardust’s disgust.
“No. It’s gross, and I’m eating. Have girl talk later,” he said quickly before wolfing down the rest of his food.
“Eeww. You thought what I was gonna say was gross? Haven’t you ever heard the term that actions speak louder than words?” I said wrinkling my nose at the sight.
The bell rang and it was back to class for me and the others. (Yay, more useless bits of information being planted into my head)
My next class was Arcane Science which sucked balls because even though it sounds cool, it’s basically just magic class instead of getting to screw around with weird chemicals. I hate Arcane Science the most because my mom is pretty much a master of magic and my teacher thinks I take after my mother. Obviously, I don’t because I suck at magic.
Gym class was next. I like this class, I get to send balls careening towards other ponies and not get in trouble for it. It really helps me work out my anger and frustration at the world.
And last but not least, study hall. The time when I can do all the homework that’s piled up throughout the day.
After Study hall, it was time to go home. I went to my locker to gather my things and headed to the exit to meet Stardust and Aura to go hang out.
“So how was the rest of your day Stardust?” I asked, curious at why he looked so pissed off.
“It sucked as usual," he replied. "Some other guys were making fun of my eyes again before class and ended up sitting behind me when class started. Then they decided to screw with me some more by trying to shoot spitballs in my ears. When I finally turned, and told them to stop Mr. Whooves told me to sit outside the room for the rest of class because I was disrupting others. I hate school.”
“You don’t hate school. You’re just pissed because you got thrown out at the best part of the lesson. Shadow and I both know you like learning random and interesting stuff,” Aura responded, trying to make a point.
“What do you know beaky? You’ve only been here for a little over a month. How would you know what I like?” Stardust retorted.
“Beaky? Is that he best you can come up with? I’ve been called worse by my sisters,” Aura said, getting a little worked up.
“Well… here we go. The grudge match continues,” I said with a sigh of annoyance.
“Shut up,” they said in unison.
“Okay fine,” I replied rising my hooves defensively.
“Hey Shadow wait up,” a familiar voice said from behind us, turning I saw Balefire trotting over with a big grin on his face.
“Hey Balefire, what’s up?” I said.
“Are you heading home already?” he asked, walking up to us.
I shook my head. “Not yet, we were going to head into town and do some shopping, try and enjoy the day while we can.”
“YOU two are going to shop. I’m just stuck with you while you do,” Stardust said with a sigh.
“I thought you were coming with to carry our bags,” Aura said, with a grin.
He scoffed. “As if! I’m only going with you because I have nothing else to do.”
Aura and I snickered then I looked back toward my other friend. “You can come with if you want, I’m sure Stardust would like it so he won’t be the only guy who’s stuck with us.”
“I would, but I have to study for tomorrow’s math test, I was gonna see if you’d be willing to help me since it’s one of your better subjects,” Balefire responded.
“I would, but like I said, we’re heading into town for a while. I could help you later if you want,” I said, trying not to act like I was avoiding hanging out with him.
He blushed and nodded, “Yeah, that’d be fine I guess.”
“I thought you were good at math too Balefire, why do you need her help with it?” Stardust asked, looking over at my other friend.
“I-I am most of the time, I just want to make sure I’m understanding this new common core stuff we’re learning. To be honest I think it’s really confusing,” he replied.
“Or you’re wanting some alone time with Shadow,” Aura said, with a grin.
“N-no it has nothing to do with that,” he said, blushing.
“Yeah sure,” Aura teased. “If that’s the case why don’t you ask Milkshake? She’s just as good as Shadow.”
He shrugged. “Because I don’t want her to get her hopes up thinking I’m into her when I’m not. You know she has a crush on me, right?”
I just rolled my eyes and tried not to sigh. “Fine I’ll help you, come over in a couple hours, I should be home by then.”
“Okay, I’ll see you then,” he said running off, looking back with a smile.
“If you don’t tell him that you don’t like him he’s only going to get worse y’know,” Aura said, making a valid point.
“I know, but I don’t wanna hurt his feelings either. I’ve been trying to find a way of letting him down gently,” I responded.
“The longer you take, the worse it’ll be. You know that,” she said, making another valid point.
She was right of course and I know I have to do something about him. I’d hate to lose my friendship with Balefire over this whole thing. Looking back at Aura I smiled. “I’ll talk to him tonight when he comes over.”
“Just make sure you wake up before you do,” Stardust said, walking past me and toward the road that lead into town.
“Wait what?” I asked. “That made no sense.”
“What didn’t make sense?” Aura asked, looking at me.
“Why did you tell me I’ll have to wake up first Stardust?” I asked.
He gave me a puzzled look. “I didn’t say anything.”
“Yeah you did, just a second ago,” I argued.
Aura and Stardust looked at one another then back at me. “You sure you’re feeling okay?” Stardust asked with concern.
“I…wait what? Are you two messing with me or something?” I asked, starting to get even more confused.
“Maybe you should head home and rest. I think you’re starting to hear things,” Aura said, walking over to me and putting a talon on my head, “You’re a little warm.”
As she touched me a vison flashed before my eyes. One moment Aura was just standing there feeling my forehead, the next she was flying down at me with some kind of spear in her talons, a silent scream coming from her beak, then the vison faded. What the hell was that?
I shook my head a little. “Maybe you’re right, I’ve been feeling off all day.”
“Want us to go with you?” Stardust asked.
“No, I’ll be okay, you two go do whatever, I think I’ll take a nap,” I replied.
Stardust walked up to me, and everything went black apart from him. He looked strange, his mane was dirty, green stuff was splattered on his face, and he looked worried. “Shadow, don’t go back to sleep! Dammit, stay with us Shadow! Don’t give in, you need to wake up. Fuck, Aura there has to be something you can do she’s getting worse.”
What the hell? What’s he talking about, what’s going on?…
I jerked awake looking around my room. Mom was standing by my door giving me an odd look. “Oh, good you’re awake. I thought you’d be asleep forever.”
“Mom? What’s going on, how did I get home?” I asked, rubbing my forehead.
“What are you talking about? You came home a couple hours ago, said something about not feeling well and you were going to take a nap,” she said, giving me a quizzical look.
“I…I don’t remember that. Last thing I remember was talking to Stardust and Aura after school, then I woke up here,” I explained.
She walked over to me and put a hoof to my forehead much like Aura had. “You’re running a fever, maybe you should rest more, we can’t have you getting sick. By the way who are Stardust and Aura?”
“What’re you talking about Mom? They’re my friends from school, they walked with me this morning,” I said, my head was starting to hurt again.
“You mean you made new friends and didn’t even tell me about them?” she asked, sounding teasingly offended.
“What do you mean? You met them already,” I said, getting confused again.
“Only friends of yours I know of is Strawberry Milkshake, and that older colt Balefire. Maybe you were just having a bad dream,” she said sitting next to my bed.
“No I wasn’t, they’re real. We were gonna go shopping in town, then I started to feel weird,” I explained.
She looked really concerned now. “Shadow, what do you mean by going into town? There aren’t any towns in the stable you know that, maybe you should go back to sleep. I’ll make an appointment with the doctor to have him look you over.”
I started to rub my head. “Okay, if you say so Mom.”
She gave me a kiss on the head then walked out of the room. I looked around the small room and it seemed like it was so familiar, yet I don’t remember anything about this place. Before I could think about it more, there was a knock at my door. Getting up I walked over and opened it, standing there was Stardust. He walked in quickly and started to speak, “There you are. We’ve been looking all over for you.”
“Wait a second. How did you get here?” I asked.
“What do you mean? I walked over from my place, Aura’s really worried about you,” he said, sitting next to my bed.
I started to panic inside. “Mom said she didn’t know who you were, and this morning I wasn’t in this place. I’m getting really freaked out Stardust, what’s going on?”
A look of sadness fell onto his face, then he spoke in a different voice, “I was hoping I could get you to wake up on your own.”
I took a step back toward the door. “Who are you and what’s going on?”
He looked himself over, then smiled. “What, don’t you recognize me? I’m your friend, and I’m here to help you Shadow.”
As he spoke I heard a voice in the distance say, “Wake up Shadow, please, you need to wake up.”
“You’re not Stardust, who are you?” I asked.
He sighed, then shook his head. “That doesn’t really matter, all you need to know is that I’m trying to help you Shadow.”
“What are you talking about, what’s going on?” I was starting to get really scared now.
I noticed that the voice was feminine coming out of my friend’s muzzle, “I figured if I showed you a world you didn’t know, I could get your mind to calm down and help your body heal, but you’re stronger than I thought, or something inside you is. Haven’t you noticed how different this world is, well both of them? One is a world where the sun is still shining and the war never happened, the other has you still in the stable only with your mother still around.”
My head was starting to hurt again as he…she spoke, “All I can remember is the other world, but this one seemed so familiar, but both also feel fake in a way, like I shouldn’t be there.”
“Both worlds are a kind of fantasy I helped your mind make up as it healed. I took your mind away to another place hoping to keep you from succumbing to the poison. I thought if I showed you a happier life you’d relax, but you haven’t. Your mind keeps fighting my spell,” the strange presence explained.
“I don’t understand,” I said.
“Think back, what’s the last thing you remember, something that felt real and not fake?” the presence asked.
“I’m not sure, maybe when I was in class with my friends,” I replied.
“That’s not it Shadow, think about this morning when you first woke up, what seemed off?” the presence asked again.
I took a moment then remembered. “I thought something was wrong with how I looked.”
The presence nodded. “Yes, now before that. What else do you remember?”
Then it all came back to me. The bugs, the foals I was trying to save, my friends coming in to save us, getting stung by one of the Cazadores. I remembered how my head hurt and my body wanted to go numb. I looked back at the thing that was pretending to be my friend only now there was just a shadow standing there. “I remember. What happened though, why are you here and what are you?”
The shadow seemed to smile and a twinkle flashed where its eyes should be. “I’m only here to help you. You matter to me and my kind Shadow. We can’t have you dying on us.”
As it spoke everything around it faded away leaving us in nothing but blackness. “What do you mean I matter to you? I don’t even know you.”
“No, you don’t, but your mother knew of us and was studying us. You don’t need to worry about any of that, all you need to do is wake up. If you do you’ll live…but if you sleep one more time, you’ll never wake again,” the shadow said.
“Wait, you know about my mother, do you know where she is?” I asked.
“I personally don’t, but my friends do, they’ve been watching her for years now,” the shadow explained.
“Can you find out from them where she is?” I asked, knowing the answer was probably no.
“I could, but I won’t. Even if I did, it wouldn’t matter,” the shadow answered.
Anger growing, I yelled, “Why not?! I’ve been looking for days now, and I’m still no closer to finding her than I was when I left my stable. If you know where she is or your friends do, then why hide it from me?”
“Because that isn’t something I care to tell you, not yet at least. And once you wake, you won’t remember any of this, at least not for a long time,” it said, with a small chuckle.
“Shadow wake up, please wake up. You’re stronger than this,” came Stardust’s voice from seemingly nowhere.
“That isn’t fair, I have to know!” I demanded.
“Life isn’t fair Shadow Star, now go back to your friends. You don’t have long and they’re worried about you. Don’t think too much about this meeting, in time you’ll find her. Just keep searching,” the shadow responded.
“I don’t know if I can…” I started to say.
“You can, now go and wake up!” the shadow said, and with a flash of bright light everything was gone, and I felt myself floating, leaving the memory behind somewhere deep in my subconscious.
***
In the darkness, I floated adrift in a sea of dark nothingness. I blinked and the world started to come into view as I saw Stardust’s face above mine. I could feel his hooves on my shoulders. “Please, don’t go back to sleep! You need to stay conscious!”
“Are you real?” I moaned in confusion.
“Yeah, I’m real, and you’ve been stung by a cazador. Aura is making an anti-venom with a cazador poison gland and some other stuff. Try to stay awake. If you don’t you’ll probably die. I can’t let another friend die. Not on my watch,” Stardust said.
“Ok, I’ll try. Also, you might wanna move,” I said groggily.
“Good. Why would I want to move?” Stardust asked, giving me a funny look.
“If I ever get the strength to move, you’ll be in the line of fire if you know what I mean,” I groaned, as a disgusted look fell on his face.
“Eeww gross. Yeah, I know what you mean. Thanks for the warning,” he said as he got up and went over to Aura.
My hearing was still a little muffled, but I could hear both of them actually working together. “Is it almost done? In her condition, I don’t even know how she’s able to stay conscious,” Stardust asked.
“Yeah, just give me a little longer. It’s been a while since I’ve done this and I just wanna make sure I did everything right,” Aura responded quickly. She sounded like she was in a bit of a nervous panic. I could see why she would be. I mean I am pretty much on my deathbe… wait… did they put me on the fuckin' ground? Stardust could’ve at least searched for a dirty blanket or a ripped-up curtain.
“Hey pipsqueak, the anti-venom is ready. It’ll taste super gross and if you spit it out, I’ll kill you before the poison does,” Aura said as she stood next to me looking down. How did she get over here without me noticing? Am I really that delirious right now?
“Stop staring into space and do what she said. You’re starting to make me think you’re brain dead or something,” Stardust said, from behind Aura in somewhat of a forceful tone.
“Okay, okay. Just gimme a sec,” I groaned as I lifted my sore forelegs and grasped the container of liquid.
I brought it to my muzzle and I started to drink the warm and thick gooey liquid. It tasted like somepony who had a cold, snotted in a cup and boiled it. My gag reflex kicked in immediately and I fought through the urge to barf on Aura’s talons and risk imminent death by griffon. With each gulp, I could feel my stomach turn as the liquid disappeared.
Once I drained every last drop, I could feel the numbness starting to fade and my head grew a little clearer. My stomach was doing loops, but I’m sure I can keep the stuff down…for now at least. I took a moment to breathe slowly then finally I looked back up into Aura’s worried eyes and gave the Griffon a smile.
“Well, how are you feeling?” she asked, after a moment passed.
“A little better already. How’d you learn to make something like this?” I asked, looking down at the wooden bowl.
“Like I said before, I had some medical training. You’d be surprised how often The Talons run into creatures like cazadores and manticores. We have to learn things like this to make sure we don’t die if we run into similar situations,” she said, as she pressed a talon up to my head.
“Well I’m glad I have you with us now. You really saved my ass back there, both of you,” I said.
“Well sure we did, you’re our friend Shadow, we couldn’t just let you die out here from a damned bug,” Stardust said, sounding a little offended that I thought they’d leave me behind.
I moved to get up ignoring my body’s protests of pain. Aura gave me a look and moved to push me back down. Pushing her talon away I got to my hooves and looked around. “I’ll be fine, now where are we and where are the foals?”
Aura pointed to two small lumps laying a few feet away. “They passed out a little while ago, they haven’t said much since we got them out of there. You were lucky that I was flying over you when you pulled that stupid stunt.”
“At least it worked,” I said, slowly walking over to them. “Were they hurt at all?”
Stardust walked up beside me yawning a little as he replied, “Couple bruises and the filly seems to be scared of anything that moves, but apart from that they’ll be okay. You did a good thing back there Shadow, stupid and reckless, but good.”
“It was the right thing to do.” It was, who else would just leave two foals to get killed by those nasty bugs?
“It may be the right thing to do, but most ponies wouldn’t have done much to help them,” Stardust said, with a shake of his head.
“Or they would’ve only helped them to sell as slaves later,” Aura interjected.
Looking back at the two sleeping foals I felt a quick serge of anger at the thought of anypony enslaving any colt or filly. “That’s just sick. How could anypony do that to children?”
“Happens all the time in The Wastes, fillies and colts either lose their parents and end up as slaves, some band together and try to make it on their own, others end up alone like these two and either die or get captured,” Aura said. with melancholy as she looked at them.
“Isn’t there a place for kids to go if they lose their parents?” I asked solemnly.
“Some towns will take them in, but most of the time they don’t trust the town’s folk and they leave. I heard once about a settlement made up of only fillies and colts. They live there until their grown up then they travel out into the world, though nopony I’ve ever met has ever seen it before,” Stardust said, with a wave of his hoof as if in thought.
“There’s also the crusaders, but they run into a lot of trouble and normally don’t stay in places long, tough kids though,” Aura added as an afterthought.
“And here I thought life was hard in my stable because I was the only unicorn. I had it easy compared to them,” I said solemnly.
“Weren’t you born in The Wasteland though?” Stardust asked.
“I thought she was from a stable, isn’t that how she got the Pip-Buck?” Aura asked.
“I’m from a stable, but I wasn’t born there. My mother took me there when I was really young. I don’t know where I was born though, mom never talked about life before the stable, and I don’t remember anything myself,” I said laying down again, my body was starting to feel weak and I didn’t really feel like falling on my face.
“Come on. You have to remember something Shadow. I mean most ponies don’t remember much about their early years, but you should still know something about your life before the stable, you weren’t that young when you went there,” Stardust said with a laugh.
Looking back at him with a frown I said, “I don’t, everything I know about myself starts from the day I woke up in medical. My mother said it was trauma from something that happened to me outside.” As I spoke the Elders words came back to me, how I couldn’t be Grimoire’s daughter. It was another reason I needed to find my mother, I had to know what happened to me when I was younger.
“That’s kinda messed up, I don’t know what I’d do if I forgot the first few years of my life,” Aura said.
“I’d like to forget mine,” Stardust muttered under his breath. I chose not to ask him about it, the look on his face grew dark, and I figured it wasn’t a good topic to bring up.
“Well I figured we’ve been talking enough,” Aura said, stretching her wings out and back as she stood. “Think you can handle a little travel Shadow? I’d like to get out of this area before more of those bugs show up.”
My body was telling me no, but Aura was right. We had to move. From the look of things, they flew about as far as they could to get away before treating me for the sting. I really didn’t feel like going through another fight with those things, so I stood on shaky legs and nodded. “Yeah, I can handle a little more, that anti-venom you made helped a lot. Even though it tasted horrible.”
She smiled at me in acknowledgement. “If you say so, just take it easy for now. We don’t have to go much further, there’s a town not far off and we can stay there and rest up for a while before we keep going.”
“You talking about Appleton?” Stardust asked.
“Yeah. Why?” Aura replied.
“Yeah, we should stay away from that place, it’s full of nothing but thieves and mercenaries,” Stardust said nonchalantly.
“Yeah, what’s wrong with that? You’ve gotta remember you have me with you, the town’s folk won’t bother anyone traveling with a griffon, and some of them are good ponies, just ruff around the edges,” Aura said, trying to actually encourage him for once.
He stomped a hoof. “Yeah, it still isn’t a good place to bring foals to.”
“It’s not like we’re just going to dump them there!” Aura yelled back at him. This was starting to look like the beginning to another Stardust, Aura blow out.
I was about to interject when the colt got up and yelled at both of them, “Could you keep it down? Honey needs her rest and your yelling isn’t helping.”
They both looked at the colt for a long moment then at the same time they both said, “Sorry.”
“Good,” he replied, then looking over at me he continued, “You three don’t have to take us to Appleton, we have a home we can go back to. It’s not far from Appleton, you can drop us off there if you want, and since you did save our asses back there, I’ll see if the mayor will let you stay for a while.”
“Wait… Mayor? There aren’t any towns between here and Appleton,” Aura said in disbelief.
“There is…but if I bring you three there you have to promise to keep its location a secret,” he said, giving all three of us a serious look.
I looked back at my companions then back at the small colt, “We promise.”
“You don’t get it, do you? You have to Pinkie Pie Promise,” he said, pointing his forehoof at me.
All three of us looked confused. Finally, I asked, “Um…what’s a Pinkie Pie Promise?”
The colt gave me a sardonic look. “Stable ponies don’t know nothin’, it goes like this,” he started doing a little hoof motion over his chest saying, “Cross my heart, hope to fly, stick a cupcake in my eye.” Once he said 'eye' he pretty much poked himself in the eye with his hoof.
Seeing that, Aura broke into hysterical laughter, rolling onto her back, “That has to be the stupidest thing I’ve ever seen.”
“It’s not stupid, a Pinkie Pie Promise is very serious. It can’t be broken,” the colt protested angrily.
“Says who?” Aura replied, still giggling on her back.
“It’s a well-known fact, if you break a Pinkie Pie Promise, the old Ministry of Moral Mare will find you and get you,” the colt explained.
Walking over to Aura as she still giggled uncontrollably, I put a hoof on her trying to calm her down. “Listen. Why don’t we just do it? If it will get him to show us where he lives, then we can handle doing some stupid promise.”
“I’ll do anything as long as we don’t have to go to Appleton,” Stardust said, still looking grim.
It took a moment for Aura to finally stop her giggling. She stood back up and said, “Fine, but I still think it’s stupid. And if you tell anyone that Aura Bloodtalon did that stupid promise thing, I’ll spread rumors around your town that you still wet the bed.”
So, the three of us stood in a line and copied what the colt showed us as we all said in unison, “Cross my heart, hope to fly, stick a cupcake in my eye.”
“Good, now you three have to keep the secret of our home. It’s not far from here,” he said, walking up to the filly and shaking her lightly. “Hey wake up Honey, it’s time to leave.”
The filly opened her eyes and yawned then looked up at the colt. “Where are we going Wingnut?”
“We’re going home, or at least you are,” he said, pulling her to her hooves.
“But, I don’t wanna go without you,” she said, tears welling up in her eyes.
He put a hoof under her chin and lifted it so she was looking into his eyes. “I know, but you have to. I’ll be okay, trust me.”
She started to cry again. Damn that filly cried a lot. Walking up to them I asked, “What’s she sad about Wingnut?”
“Don’t worry about it, we should get going,” he said walking off with the filly right behind him.
Not sure what else to do, my friends and I followed.
***
An hour or so later, we left the creepy forest and the dead land around it far behind. My E.F.S. was clear of red bars for a while so I decided to relax. Aura was walking next to me, Stardust was flying over us, keeping an eye out for any danger that could be in our path.
She’s been quiet the entire trip so far, a grim look on her face as we walked further west. I was starting to get sick of the silence so I broke it. “What’s on your mind Aura?”
She looked over at me then back ahead watching the road. “Nothing Shadow, I’m just walking.”
“There has to be something on your mind, you’ve been quiet the whole time,” I said, trying to strike SOME sort of conversation.
Sighing she pinched the end of her beak closing her eyes for a moment like her heard hurt, then looked back at me. “I’m trying to think of what I should do next.”
“What do you mean? Aren’t you going to keep traveling with us?” I asked.
“Do you remember what you said to me when you finally woke up, when I gave you the anti-venom?” she asked in a light tone.
“Something about you saving my life, what about it?” I asked again.
A pained looked overcame her. “That means my debt is paid and I no longer have any reason to travel with you or Dickface anymore.”
It took a moment for the reality of what she was telling me to set in. When it did I frowned as well, I hadn’t thought too much about what would happen once Aura saved my life and paid her debt. At first I really didn’t want the griffon following me around, but over the past couple days I’d grown used to her being around as much as Stardust. I almost considered her a friend of sorts, one that was secretive and coy about anything that revolved around her personal life, but she was fun and somewhere deep down she had a kind side too.
I sighed. “I guess it does. I thought you’d be happy when you paid off that debt.”
She looked back at me doing her best to hide the sadness that showed around her icy blue eyes. “I thought so too, but then I realized that I’d be all alone again. I don’t wanna go back to that. As much as I hate to admit it, I enjoy this, it’s nice to be needed instead of being alone with nothing to do, but hope someone will need a Talon freelancer to hire.”
“Then why don’t you just stay with us? It’s not like I’m going to just tell you to leave. As far as I’m concerned your part of the team,” I said.
She sighed again shaking her head. Were all griffons like this, always sulking and never making any sense? After a moment, she looked back at me. “I can’t do that. Even though I’m no longer a member of The Red Talons, a griffon’s life is decided by the contract. It’s something griffons don’t take lightly, once a debt is paid or a contract fulfilled, we don’t stay around. I’ll have to fly off as soon as I know you’re safe and start looking for more work.”
An idea came to me as she spoke, “Tell me more about this contract, how does it work?”
She gave me a funny look. “Well when the war broke out two centuries ago, both ponies and zebras started using other creatures to help during the fighting. Both races weren’t well versed in combat at the beginning and liked to use dragons and griffons to help them during battle. Griffons back then mostly kept to themselves and would do odd jobs for Equestrians. When Equestria came looking for help we struck a deal with them keeping us neutral during their war, but they could contract able bodied griffons to help during the fighting, or to teach the ponies how to fight. The only thing was that each griffon would have their own contract and ponies had to keep to it no matter what. For example, if a client told a griffon to do certain things that the griffon saw as despicable, they couldn’t make them do it. If they tried, then the contract was broken and that pony wouldn’t get a refund for his or her payment. If that client tried to kill the griffon, they were handed over to us for trial and execution. This system worked very well, and became a big part of the griffon culture. When the war ended and we no longer had anyone to pay us for our help, we banded together and for the first time in a millennia, griffons lived together in peace with each other. When ponies started showing back up and needed help, we kept our old ways of contracts and that’s how it’s been ever since.”
I took a moment when she finished to maul over what she told me. “Does your contract have a set price on how long you’ll stay with anypony?”
She looked back at me again, a knowing little grin on her beak. “No, I set my prices depending on who I’m working for and how long I’ll work with them.”
I smiled back at her. “How much would it cost for me to hire you?”
She laughed. “If you’re sure you can deal with me, hmmm,” she said and put a talon to her beak and scratched for a moment like she was deep in thought, finally saying, “Well seeing how I’ll have to deal with the pegasus and your whining, that’ll cost a little extra. Also, you don’t know how long this quest of yours will be. Normally that would cost a couple thousand caps. I’m sure you wouldn’t have enough to cover all that, so I’ll give you the pity party discount. We’ll make it a hundred caps.”
I blinked in surprise. “Wait, only a hundred caps?” She had to be messing with me, this was just some kind of griffon mind trick or joke. Who would only charge a hundred caps for something so big?
“Hey Short-stack, I can charge you more if you really want,” she said, glaring at me.
I shook my head. “No that would be fine, but are you sure about this?”
“Yeah, I’m sure. I don’t do this for profit like a lot of my comrades do. For me it’s more about what feels right and what I want to do. Plus, once you read my whole contract you’ll see why I don’t worry too much,” she said, pulling a small scroll out of her saddle bags.
Taking it in my magic, which was doing a lot better since Aura gave me the anti-venom, I started to read it over. It wasn’t very long, it mainly went over the things she would do for her contractor and what she wouldn’t. There were a few stipulations in the contract as well, one of which was that if a bounty or other forms of caps were to be made in any venture she was a part of, she’d get an equal share no matter what. Other things were that she refused to hurt foals or hatchlings, she wouldn’t kill just because she was told too without a good reason, life debts were null in void while under contract. She was a bodyguard that was part of her job. It was all straight forward from what I could tell.
I rolled up the scroll and placed it in my saddle bags, pulling out a small bag of caps. I counted out a hundred caps and gave them to Aura. She took them, tucking them away in her saddle bags with a smile. “Thanks Boss.”
“Oh, please don’t start calling me that,” I said with a sigh.
“Why not? It’s fitting in a way,” she asked.
I cocked my head, “How so? I’m not really the boss type.”
In response, she just shook her head and laughed. “If you say so Shrimp.”
We kept on for a while longer, the quiet giving me time to think. For once that wasn’t such a bad thing. I felt like I was finally getting somewhere with the quest to find my mother. I was getting used to having my companions with me, and life felt like it had a purpose now. Only thing that could make things better is if we didn’t have to worry about being attacked all the time.
Surprisingly we made it quite a way without encountering anypony on the small road. When we finally did, there were three of them, traveling with some kind of animal with two heads. Two pulled out assault carbines, but kept them down showing that they weren’t looking for a fight, only to be ready in case of an attack.
When they drew closer to us the stallion who wasn’t armed smiled at us and said, “Howdy folks, what brings you out around these parts?”
Keeping Ol’ Festus on my back I walked up to him. “My friends and I are heading west toward New Pegasus.”
“So just traveling?” he asked.
“Yeah for the most part and I’m on a job as well, I’m a courier for Equestrian Express out of Cartwheel. What brings you out this way?” I responded.
With a chuckle the stallion looked at both his companions, nodded at both of them, and they both put away their rifles. He looked back at me and gave a little bow. “I’m Stirrup and this is my caravan, were just heading back from New Pegasus ourselves.”
I brightened up at that and asked, “How much further are we?”
“Not far, you got a few miles between here and the city. You got a couple settlements between here and there, Appleton is the closest. If I were you I’d stay clear of that place.”
“I’m fine with skipping past Appleton,” Stardust said, as he landed next to me.
Aura walked up closer. “What’s going on in Appleton that we should stay clear of? I know the town has its shady characters, but it isn’t a bad place.”
Stirrup looked over at Aura. “I take it you haven’t been there in a while. Enclave’s been in town for a month now, started out just trading with the locals, bringing down food and supplies. Recently though they’ve been patrolling Appleton and checking everything and everypony coming into town. They even kicked out the local Talon Company. Like I said before, if I was you I’d keep clear.”
“We’ll be sure to do that. By chance do you know what they’re looking for or what they want?” I asked, noticing Stardust slowly walking behind Aura.
“Not sure really, seems like they're looking for somepony or expecting somepony to arrive. All I know is they aren’t ponies you wanna be messing around with, especially with your Dashite friend over there,” Stirrup said.
“Stardust isn’t…” I started, but Stardust interrupted me…
“We understand and we’ll keep clear. Right Shadow?” Stardust said.
“Um, yeah sure,” I said, a little confused. Why was he acting so weird right now?
“Well unless you all need some supplies, we should really be on our way. It was good meeting you folks,” he said, and started to walk away.
“Same here, have a safe trip,” I said, as they started to walk past us.
He turned and gave me a smile. “Thanks to that Courier, I’m sure we will.”
I blushed as he turned and kept going slowly making their way down the road. Once they were gone Wingnut looked back at us. “Now that they’re gone let’s get going. With those Enclave ponies in Appleton I don’t want to be out here much longer.”
“How much longer till were there?” I asked making sure not to sound whiny.
Honeysuckle perked up. “We’re really close now.”
“Yeah, I didn’t want that caravan pony to follow us,” he said, walking off the road and toward a few trees next to a cliff.
We followed the foals and once we reached the cliff-side Wingnut turned back to us. “Remember your promise, not a word to anypony.”
“We remember kid, now hurry it up,” Aura snapped.
Deciding to ignore my friend’s annoyance I followed them as they disappeared around what looked like a solid wall of rock. When I got closer I saw that two parts of the cliff overlapped each other hiding an opening to a cave. A little confused I pressed my way in followed by my friends. Aura had to push a little to get through, but she made it.
The cave was dark and eerily quiet. I was about to ask what we were doing in a dark cave when we were supposed to be bringing the foals home. Then a few bright lights came on lighting up the chamber and blinding us all. Holding a foreleg over my face and trying to see, a young voice echoed through the chamber.
I heard the cocking of a shotgun and the voice of a colt saying, “Don’t move. You outsiders better have a good reason for wandering in here.”
[FOOTNOTE: LEVEL UP!]
NEW PERK ADDED!
Iron Stomach: You’ve eaten and drank some pretty disgusting things in order to survive, no matter how irradiated or poisonous it is. You now gain a 5% health bonus from food and take in less radiation from it.