“Just help me feel normal even for just a night, that’s all I want.”
“That fucking hurts,” I yelled as Aura helped me back to my hooves, the place where I was shot by that stallion still sore even after the healing potion.
“Of course it hurts dumbass, you just got shot,” Aura said, moving her head down to look over the wound, “It’s healing fine, but you’ll still have a bruise from where it hit, lucky for you this armor took away a lot of the damage you would’ve gotten if you weren’t wearing it.”
“As long as it’s not gonna kill me, then let’s get going, we’ve already wasted enough time as it is,” I said.
“I don’t think it’s a good idea for you to be moving just yet Shadow, you’ve just been shot,” Wind Thrasher said coming back over to look at the wound too.
“I’m fine, I just got shot, I get shot a lot it’s no big deal,” I said pushing past her.
Wingnut followed me saying, “What was that stallion talking about? What ponies did you wrong, and what mare was he talking about?”
“Who knows? Personally, I think if you wanna tell somepony to stay away from something you should tell them who they mean. The mare he’s talking about could be my mom or another pony she knew. The ponies I wronged, fuck that could be anypony too, from Appleton to the Enclave. I don’t really care though, whoever he is, he can threaten me all he wants it won’t stop me,” I said still continuing onward.
“You do realize that if somepony goes after you, they’ll come after us too right?” Wingnut continued.
I stopped then looked back at him, “Yes I do Wingnut, and I’m not worried about that either. You can all take care of yourself, I trust that even if something happened to me, you’ll be fine. Plus, you have Aura with you, and I don’t think anything in The Wasteland could take her down.”
Aura laughed as she caught up to us, “There’s plenty of things out here that can take me down Shadow. To you I may seem invincible, but I’m not. I’m just highly trained and better at fighting than most. You also gotta realize that you’ve been around New Pegasus ever since you got out of your Stable. There isn’t as much things to deal with around here unlike the rest of Equestria. Hell, go to Hoofington sometime and you’ll understand what I mean.”
I chuckled a little, then winced as a bit of pain ran through my chest, “I’ve heard plenty of things so far about Hoofington. From what I know, I definitely don’t want to go there.”
“Is it really that bad? I was told that it was a great place to find big scores, if you’re a treasure hunter,” Wind Thrasher said.
Aura laughed, “That’s the bull shit that pulls ponies to the place, the truth is, it’s hell.”
“I know my mom went there for a while, but I’m not sure why apart from trying to find a Dashite,” I said.
Aura shuddered, “I’ve only been there once, and I don’t ever want to go back. The Raiders alone are enough to keep you away.”
“Why would Raiders be a problem?” I asked, “Sure they can be a pain in the ass, but they aren’t heard to kill.”
“The Raiders in Hoofington aren’t anything like what you’ve seen Shadow. Hoofington Raiders take cannibalism to a whole new level, there’s something wrong with them. They’re crazier than anything I’ve ran into here, they don’t seem to even feel pain. They kill just to eat almost like a zombie only worse,” Aura said.
I shuddered, “Fuck, I don’t think I wanna run into ponies like that.”
Wingnut looked thoughtful for a moment, “At least the east doesn’t see as much activity from The Enclave unlike here.”
“That’s true,” Aura said looking at him, “I don’t think I even saw a pegasus while I was back east, Stratus seems to be a lot different than the rest of The Enclave.”
“Can we please change the subject, I’m not really in the mood to talk about The Enclave right now. I’d like nothing more than to just forget all about them.”
My three friends looked over at me then together they nodded, Wingnut saying, “Sorry Shadow, we’ve been talking a lot about them while you were out, and we forgot about the problems you’ve been having with them.”
“It’s fine, it’s just that every time I think about them, I think about Stardust. I want to get him back, and I feel helpless not knowing how I can help him.”
“Don’t worry Shadow, we’ll find him and get him back,” Wingnut said giving me a smile.
I ruffled his mane, “You know what, you’re right kiddo.”
“Well Duh, I’m always right,” he said.
“Not always, so don’t push your luck. Let’s get going, I’d like to reach Trotston before it gets dark,” I said, without another word, we all started moving.
***
The road leading to Trotston reminded me a lot of the road that lead me to Cartwheel. Not many ponies traveled down the cracked road, every now and then a heavily guarded caravan would pass by, but no pony by themselves. As we drew closer to where Trotston was supposed to be on the map, I started to notice something silver appearing on the horizon. The closer we got the bigger whatever it was grew.
“What is that?” I asked, pointing at the silvery image on the horizon.
“That’s the walls of Trotston,” Aura answered.
I stopped, “How tall are those walls if we can see them from this far away?”
“Around twenty-five feet, I’m not sure to be honest it’s not like I’ve ever gotten close enough to measure it,” she replied.
Before I could ask more, we came to a small hill, I thought we were farther away than we were, but as we crested the small hill I saw Trotston in full view, I saw that I was wrong. Trotston was less than a mile away, and even from here I could see the tall walls that surrounded the town. It was bumped up against a hill with a small cave half way up. The walls from the town seemed to go up the hill as well, protecting it from all sides. The road lead right up to a massive gate that had two guard ponies standing next to it.
“Holy shit, I understand being careful in The Wasteland, but this is a little much don’t you think?” I asked.
“Not really, Trotston is known for making and finding some very rare high-tech stuff. The ponies who live there have had a lot of run-ins with The Steel Rangers and Scavengers over the years. They decided years ago that instead of dealing with them all the time, they made it almost impossible to get into their town. The Red Talons have been trying for a long time to set up a contract for protection with them, but they won’t do it. That town doesn’t trust anypony from the outside.”
“I heard they used to trade with some ponies from the Caballeron Caravan Company, but one day they just stopped. Now they only trade with some ponies in New Pegasus and not that often,” Wingnut said.
“I don’t know boss, all I know is that we’re gonna have a hard time getting in there,” Aura said.
“With me alone I think it’s gonna be even harder,” Wind Thrasher added.
“Isn’t there a way to sneak in?” I asked.
Aura started to laugh, “Are you kidding me Shadow, sneak into that!? Trotston has some of the best defenses in The Wasteland, their wall doesn’t have any gaps in it, the ponies who guard it are highly trained, and you can’t just fly in either because from what I’ve heard, there’s some kind of barrier or force field that stops flyers.”
“Then how do we get in?” I asked.
Aura pinched her beak in annoyance, “I don’t know, we need to think of something. Maybe we can just ask the guards to see the leader or something, I’m not sure.”
Wingnut spoke up, “Why don’t we get something to eat so we can sit down and think about it.”
My stomach rumbled at the mention of food, “That does sound like a good idea, but where would we do that? If you haven’t noticed we’re in the middle of nowhere.”
“Over there,” he said pointing down the road at an old looking building. It had a small sign hanging on it that said, ‘Kegger’s Saloon’.
“Isn’t Saloon another word for bar?” I asked.
“Sure is, good eye boss,” Aura said heading toward the building, Wingnut closely following behind Aura.
Wind Thrasher came up next to me as the other two walked off, “What’s a bar?”
I laughed, “It’s a place where you can get food and alcohol.”
“And why is that a good place to go?” she asked as I started to follow my two friends.
“Oh, Wind Thrasher, you may be book smart, but you have no idea what you’re missing when it comes to fun times with my good old friend Wild Pegasus,” I said catching up to Aura and Wingnut just as they opened the door.
The first impression I got when I walked into the saloon was, this place is way different from the bar at The Applewood. It was dark, dank and smelled like mold. The bar looked ready to fall over, the tables were cracked and old, and I’m not sure I wanted to know why the glasses were that color. A few ponies were sitting around drinking and talking in hushed voices. As we walked in the door most of the ponies looked up at us, giving us a look like we had just walked into their home.
“Are you sure this is a good idea?” I asked not liking the way some of the ponies were eyeing me.
Aura ignored them and walked toward the bar, “Ignore them, if they wanted to do anything they would have already,” she walked up to the bartender and pulled out a few caps, “My friends and I need something to eat.”
The dirty pony took the caps and said in a ruff voice, “I’ve got some stored apples in the back, they haven’t gone bad yet.”
“Do you have any Sugar Apple Bombs?” I asked when I came up to stand next to Aura.
“Might have a box lying around,” he replied, “Y’all need anything to drink?”
My eyes lit up, “I’ll take a bottle of Wild Pegasus.”
“Shadow, we don’t need you getting drunk, we’re here to plan and eat, not to drink,” Aura said.
“Bottle will cost 50 Caps,” The bartender said pulling down a bottle.
I passed him the caps taking the bottle they saying to Aura, “I won’t get drunk, but I’d like a bottle for later. You don’t need to watch over me MOM!”
She looked ready to punch me, but I just smiled took the box of Sugar Apple Bombs the Bartender pulled out and walked off toward a vacant table. She just shook her head and took the old looking apples the bartender had, “Whatever Shadow, but don’t blame me if you get fucked up because of that bottle.”
I sat down at the table followed soon by my three friends, I sat back and started to eat the cereal, “So who has ideas on how to get into Trotston?” I asked munching on the cereal.
Aura took a bite of her apple wincing a little as she did then said, “Yuck this thing is almost too old to eat,” she shivered then ate the rest, “Oh well. Well the only thing I can think of is to tell the guards you have the Mark II and you want to speak to the leader.”
“Or we could just show up with Wind Thrasher and hope they don’t shoot us,” Wingnut said.
Wind Thrasher seemed to sink into the chair as she said, “I don’t like that plan, bullets hurt.”
“I didn’t say it was a good plan,” he said eating his apple too, “You’re right Aura, this thing is nasty.”
I moved the box of Sugar Apple Bombs toward him, “Have some of this, it’s really good.”
He took some as Aura spoke, “We could just tell them that The Courier Mare wanted to meet with the leaders of Trotston, your name does carry some sway now.”
“Maybe with most ponies, but I’m not sure Trotston cares about the things I’ve done, especially if they know I took out Appleton.”
“Well we won’t know unless we try,” she said reaching over and taking some of my cereal.
As we sat there planning, the door to the Saloon flew open and a short earth pony mare walked in and toward the bar. She looked cleaner than any of the other ponies who were here. I looked over watching her, she looked older than Wingnut, but she was really young. What was she doing in a place like this? The filly was cute too, she had a pure white coat, with a bright blue mane that she pulled up into twin pony tails on each side of her head, and her eyes were a striking dark blue. I also noticed that she had on what looked like reinforced Stable barding, a number 9 stitched on the back.
She ignored the others in the room and went right up to the Bartender, jumped onto a barstool and said, “Hey Tapper, have any idea where I can find Needles?”
The Bartender’s lazy eyes widened a little when the Filly spoke, “Byte I told you not to come in here anymore, if Rusty catches you it’ll be my ass.”
“Did I ask for your opinion? I don’t think I did. What I asked was have you seen Needles?” she had a commanding voice, and as she spoke the Bartender backed away as if he was scared of the filly.
“Why are you looking for him?”
“He owes me caps, why else would I be looking for that bum?” The filly said, her voice getting louder.
My friends stopped their conversation and looked over toward her as the bartender responded, “Last time I saw him, he was heading back toward Appleton.”
“Bullshit Tapper, I know for a fact he was in here earlier, there’s no way he would be heading toward a dead town. Now tell me where he is before I get pissed off more than I already am!” she shouted at him.
“Byte, there’s no need for that, I’m just telling you what he told me when I saw him.”
She waited a minute to respond, but when she did she spoke slowly, “You really want me to believe that he came in here and told you that he was heading toward Appleton, a city that was destroyed? Come on, do I really look that stupid to you?”
Another pony came out from the back room. I thought the other ponies in here looked dirty, this pony made the rest of them look clean. As he walked up to the bar he stared down the filly, “I wouldn’t say you’re stupid Byte, but you ARE an idiot.”
She smiled up at the tall pony, “There you are Needles, where’s my caps?”
“What caps? Last time I checked I was paid up.”
“Learn to count dipshit, you still owe me 2,500 caps plus interest.”
“You may think you have the rest of the Ponies around here scared of you, but you need to realize something. You’re just a kid and I’m not scared of a little shit like you, no matter who your caretaker is,” the Dirty pony said getting right in the filly’s face, then he smiled and spat on her.
I was about to get up to say something, but the filly just started to laugh, she wiped the spit away saying, “You know what, it’s funny that you think that ponies around here are scared of me because of Rusty,” she pulled an odd-looking gun from a holster setting it on the bar.
“The fuck is that?” the Bartender asked.
“Oh, this little thing, just something new I’ve been working on,” she looked back at the dirty pony, “You see, I did a service for you and we agreed on a price. I did the work and now you owe me caps. If you don’t pay up, I’m going to test this out on you.”
Shit this kid was all kinds of fucked up, the dirty pony didn’t seem to care, he just laughed again, “I ain’t scared of anything you made Byte, and I don’t owe you shit. The shit you made for me didn’t even work so why should I pay you for shit that don’t work?”
“It’s not my fault you can’t figure out how it works, everything I make works, it’s my special talent. Now pay up!” she said lifting the odd-looking gun.
The dirty pony pulled out a revolver, “Here’s my counter offer, how about I just shoot you and be done with it. It’s either that or go back to your fucked-up town and cry over the graves of your dead parents.”
As he spoke I saw an over powering rage fill her eyes. Without saying a word, she pulled the trigger. A blast of something blew out of the end, blowing the dirty pony and the bartender off their hooves, throwing both of them back into the shelves of bottles behind them, then through the wall. She holstered the weapon, “Don’t say I didn’t try to warn you.”
She jumped off the stool, walked around the bar, went over to the two ponies who were either dead or knocked out, and dug through the dirty pony’s saddle bags and pulled out a bag of caps. As she did I noticed the other ponies in the bar getting up and walking toward the filly. I pulled out Dream Walker, jumping up to try and help.
She turned around and saw the ponies walking toward her, “Really? You think all of you can take me on? Did you see what I just did to those two?”
“Where sick of you coming here and acting like you own the place,” One of them said, pulling out a knife.
I reached the filly and pointed Dream Walker at the ponies, “Hey there’s no need to attack her, she’s just a kid.”
To my shock the filly laughed, “And who are you, and who are you calling kid? You don’t look much older than me, step aside, I can handle these morons.”
“Yeah stay out of this cunt!” the same stallion yelled.
I wanted to say something but the filly beat me to it, “Hey, this is between us not her, now say you’re sorry.”
“Fuck you Byte,” he yelled jumping at her, his dagger going for her face.
She pulled out her gun again pointed it at the pony and pulled the trigger. Again, it went off and the pony was lifted off his hooves, blasted up high and through the roof. Instead of deterring the rest, they all charged us. Byte lifted the gun again, and the ponies stopped as soon as it was pointed at them. She smiled, “Sorry but the bar is now closed, we’re all out of booze and I’ll have to ask you all to leave in an orderly fashion…fuck that, shooting you all seems WAY more fun.”
She pulled the trigger again, but instead of sending them flying back like before, it made a fizzling sound then popped and nothing happened. One of the other ponies laughed pulling out a shitty looking shotgun, “Looks like your fancy gun is broken Byte.”
“Don’t worry I’ll keep you safe,” I said pointing Dream Walker at the pony, “Go away before you find out the special things my own gun can do.”
“I told you outsider, I don’t need your help,” she said tossing her gun away. In a flash she jumped past me tackling the pony holding the shotgun yelling, “Pony Pile!”
Before I knew it, the filly had already disarmed the stallion, ripping away his shotgun then threw it at the face of one of the other stallions, he went down in a spray of blood and broken teeth. She jumped up then slammed her rear hooves down on the pony she tackled, smashing his nose in with a nasty crunch. Another pony tried to stab her, but she ducked under it twisted around and kicked him in the groin. He dropped the dagger from his muzzle before falling and holding his stallionhood.
I wanted to do something, but I wasn’t sure what, the filly seemed to be able to take care of herself. I was stunned as I watch what happened, Aura walked over to me also watching the action, she grinned and nudged my side with her elbow as she said, “Now that’s a girl who knows how to fight, I wonder where she learned all that.”
“I have no idea, but I’d like to find out,” I said lowering Dream Walker as she twisted around, back flipped over another stallion then slammed his face into the ground.
There were only three ponies left now, all of them big brutes. She turned toward them a big smile on her face, “Have you guys had enough, or are you thirsty for more?”
The three of them were slowly backing away from the crazy filly, as they did something moved from behind the bar. The dirty pony had pulled himself out of the rubble, an old revolver in his muzzle. He jumped the bar and pointed it at the back of the filly’s head, “Someone’s a little cranky, how bout a dirt nap?”
Wingnut ran over jumped on my back, pulled out his revolver and Fired. The dirty pony went down, a chunk of his skull blowing away from Wingnut’s single shot. The filly turned around looking at the dead body behind her, then her glare fell on Wingnut, “I had this under control.”
“He was about to blow your brains out,” Wingnut said jumping off my back and walking over to her, holstering his revolver, “A thank you would be nice.”
“I didn’t ask for help now did I? I’d thank you if I needed you’re help, I’m not a defenseless little filly who needs the help of any stallion who comes along who’s trying to save a mare in destress. Do you think you’re going to get a reward now or something you stupid bug?” she retorted.
“No, I was just trying to help, I don’t care if you wanted it or not,” he said rolling his eyes and walking back toward Aura, and me, “Let’s get out of here, we can find a better place to plan.” Wingnut looked back at Wind Thrasher “You ready Wind Thrasher?”
Wind Thrasher nodded and got up from the table we all sat at stepping over the piles of ponies on the ground
I on the other hoof ignored him and walked over to the filly, “Can I ask you something?”
“Sure, I guess,” she said as she moved to pick up her gun, “But make it quick I need to get back home before somepony notices I’m gone.”
“Are you from Trotston?” I asked.
She gave me a funny look, “Yeah, why?”
“We’ve been trying to figure out a way to get into the city, I need to meet with the stallion who runs the town.”
She shrugged, “We don’t just let any ponies into town, unless they have something that interests Rusty,” she looked me over like I wasn’t a pony that would have something like that, “I don’t think you would.”
“Do you know what a Pip-Buck Mark II is kid?”
“I told you not to call me kid? You can’t be much older than I am, or are you just short for an adult?”
“Just answer my question please.” I said rolling my eyes.
“Fine, but what would you know about a Mark II?”
I lifted my foreleg showing her my Pip-Buck, “More than you think.”
Her eyes went wide and she took a step back, “Where the fuck did you get that? Rusty told me it was lost a long time ago.”
“It’s a long story and I’d prefer to tell your leader, I have a few questions about it,” I replied.
“Coming to town with that would definitely get his attention, though I’m not sure if it’d be good or bad. That Mark II was ours to begin with from what I understand, he might want it back,” she said looking it over, “It’s a different color than the one Rusty has, but it does have a similar design.”
“Well, I can’t give it back, and even if I could I wouldn’t,” I said pulling my foreleg away.
“But it belongs to us. Are you telling me you’re a thief?”
“No, it was given to me, now can you get me into Trotston or not?”
“I can try, but Rusty is the only one who can let you in,” her eyes finally looked over my group and her ears fell back, “I’m not sure how he’ll feel about your friends though.”
Aura bristled, “What, you got a problem with Griffons?”
The Filly looked at her like she was crazy, “No, we have a problem with outsiders, and I don’t like the look of that weird looking pegasus with you, she looks like she has bat wings.”
Wind Thrasher shrank back farther into the darkness of the bar, I watched her then said, “She does, but don’t worry about her, she’s very nice.”
“If you say so. My name’s Byte by the way, in case you didn’t hear.”
“I’m Shadow, the colt is Wingnut, the Griffon is Aura, and Wind Thrasher is the one trying to hide behind Aura,” I said pointing out my friends.
“Nice to meet you all. Well might as well follow me to the gate, I’ll see if Rusty has time to see you,” she said stepping over one of the stallions and out the door.
“Wow, she’s a weird filly,” Wingnut said, “Did you see what she did? Also did you hear her call me a bug? What kind of pony calls another pony a bug?”
“Sure she’s weird, but I’m starting to think everypony is weird out here,” I said following Byte.
She led us down the road toward Trotston’s main gate, as we drew closer to the town and it’s walls, I was even more impressed with how tall the walls were. Not just how tall it is, but also the armaments I could see at the top. It looked like turrets were set up every few feet along the walls with guard ponies walking around between them holding huge sniper rifles. As we drew closer I moved closer to Byte asking, “So why were you outside the city looking for that stallion?”
She shrugged, “Thought it was obvious, he owed me caps and didn’t want to pay me back, so I went to collect.”
“Sounds fair,” Aura said nonchalantly, “Never let anyone get away with not paying up.”
“I got what I wanted, though Wingnut didn’t NEED TO KILL HIM. Stupid bug!” she said looking back at the colt.
Wingnut frowned, “Hey I saved your life, get over yourself, and stop calling me that.”
She stuck her tongue out at him, “Never,” then she looked back at me, “Why were you all in that nasty place anyway? It’s not really a place for ponies like you.”
“We were trying to figure a way to get into town, figured it was a good place to rest and plan.”
“Well that’s a stupid idea, if you want into Trotston you have to go to the gate and ask to see Rusty, that’s the only way in,” Byte said.
“What about from the air?” Aura asked.
“The wall has a force field around it at the top, it keeps out flyers of all kinds,” she replied.
Now we were coming up to the gate and one of the guard ponies walked over to us, “Byte, what are you doing outside the gate…how’d you even get out? Do you know what Rusty would do if he caught you outside again?”
“Shut up and let me in,” she said walking past him.
“Who are the outsiders?” he asked looking back at us.
“They want to talk with Rusty, the short one has something he’ll be interested in,” she said still walking toward the gate.
Right then the guard noticed Wind Thrasher and he pulled out his rifle, “Oh shit, it can’t be.”
The other guard who was younger looked confused but he pulled his rifle out too, “What’s going on?”
The first guard pointed his rifle at Wind Thrasher saying around the bit, “Don’t move, I don’t know how you got free, but we aren’t letting you anywhere near our town.”
I stepped between the guard and Wind Thrasher who was doing her best to look as small as possible, “She’s with me, please put that thing down before you get yourself hurt.”
“Who do you think you are to tell me what to do? You have no idea who that pony is.”
“I’m the one who let her out of Stable 9. So yes, I do know who she is. I also know what really happened to her and I won’t let anypony hurt her. She’s my friend and she took a big risk coming here with me.”
Byte was looking at us differently now, she actually looked scared, “Wait, that bat pony is the one Rusty told me about from the old stable?”
I nodded, “Yes she is, but she’s not bad, I’ll explain everything when I can talk to Rusty.”
The gate opened right then, only a little, and a light purple stallion with a dull red mane walked out. He was wearing Stable 9 security barding with a twin laser battle saddle. He had a nasty scar over his right eye which was missing, his remaining eye was a deep jade color. As he walked out he spoke in a light yet commanding voice, “What’s going on out here?”
Both the security ponies lowered their weapons and the first one said, “Sir we have a problem.”
His eye fell on Wind Thrasher and his hard face darkened, “I can see that, how in Celestia’s name did you get free Wind Thrasher?”
She stood taller but her eyes didn’t meet the other stallion’s as she spoke, “Shadow broke into Stable 9, she killed Dr. Cell and released me from his control.”
His hard gaze fell on me, “I assume you’re Shadow then.”
I didn’t back down, “I am.”
“I heard that The Courier blew up our old Stable, was that a lie or are you her?”
“I am The Courier, yes I blew up the stable to kill the bloodwings that were infesting the place. I’m sure you know all about them,” I replied.
He smiled a little, “I owe you thanks for that, my town has been scared for twenty years that somehow that homicidal maniac would figure a way out of his prison, though I’ll have to ask how you were able to get into the Stable.”
“It would be better if we could talk privately,” I said looking over at his two guards, “I can explain more that way.”
He looked back at Wind Thrasher then said, “I can do that, but I would suggest that Wind Thrasher stay out here, there are still a lot of ponies who remember that horrible day back at the Stable.”
Aura shook her head, “Where we go, Wind Thrasher goes. She’s not going to hurt anyone in the town.”
Wind Thrasher nodded adding, “I came here to try and earn your forgiveness for what I did.”
He sighed, “I’m still not sure it’s a good idea, there’s no real reason why I should even let any of you come into town, even if I do want to hear this story.”
I sighed then lifted my foreleg up a little so he could see the Mark II, “Trust me, you’ll want to let us in.”
His eyes widened, “How’d you…never mind, you’re right…,” he took a second to think then said, “Fine, Wind Thrasher and your friends can come in, but you have to stay with me while you’re here until I say otherwise, and Wind Thrasher, if anypony says anything to you, stay quiet.”
She nodded, “I can do that Rusty.”
“Good, follow me,” he said turning to head back in, when he passed by Byte he stopped and said, “You’re coming too Cookie.”
For the first time since we met her, she acted like a kid, “Don’t call me Cookie, I hate it! Call me Byte.”
“Cookie Byte is your name and I’m the pony who’s in charge of you. No matter how smart you are, I’ll call you what I want. Now come along, you have some explaining to do as well.”
Byte hung her head and followed him, same for the rest of us. We all walked past the gate into Trotston. As we walked past the gate my eyes widened at what I saw. By now I have gotten used to what to expect when I walked into a town. The Wasteland was an unforgiving place, ponies had to deal with the monsters and crazy ponies on a daily basis, the land didn’t make it easy to grow anything, so food was hard to come by too. The towns were small with some exceptions like Freedom and The Strip, but they weren’t safe and looked crude. Trotston didn’t look anything like that.
I should’ve guessed that just by the large wall around the city, but still I wouldn’t have ever expected this. The buildings here were all set up the same, they weren’t big, but they were built with care and by ponies who seemed to know what they were doing. They weren’t built out of whatever could be found in The Wasteland, no the walls were expertly crafted wood and metal, not a single building had a broken window or a missing door. In the distance I could see even taller buildings that looked like they were pure steel. The ponies here weren’t dirty and haggard, they looked healthy and clean. They were happy, I could see ponies walking in small groups chatting and laughing. They weren’t armed like I would expect either. It was almost like stepping into the past, apart from the fact that most of them wore Stable 9 barding.
“Is everypony here from Stable 9?” I asked as we walked down the main road that led right down the center of town. While we walked I saw a couple of Mr. Handys floating around a mare helping her with something.
“Most of us are yes, but over the years we’ve let different ponies in to help keep the population from becoming inbred. The Stable was set up to keep that from happening, but with the loss of so many, we had to do something. We don’t just let anypony move in however, they have to be able to bring something good to the town to help us expand and grow, as I’m sure you can see,” Rusty replied.
As we walked deeper into town the ponies around us stopped what they were doing to watch the new comers. The ones wearing Stable barding I noticed looked at Wind Thrasher with fear in their eyes. One Stallion looked angry and he started to make his way toward us, but Rusty gave him such a dangerous look that he turned around and ran off. When the Stallion was gone Rusty turned and kept going.
Aura moved closer to me, “I don’t like the way some of the ponies are looking at us.”
“Me either, but we can’t do anything right now. I’m sure they’re just scared of us, we don’t look like your normal group of ponies…or griffons I guess,” I said trying not to let the staring get to me.
Rusty stopped in front of a tall home that was set on a hill looking down at the rest of Trotston, “No, the reason they’re looking at you all the way they are is because of Wind Thrasher, like I said most of the ponies here haven’t forgotten what happened. Now let’s head inside before something happens.”
He opened the door and lead us all inside. To my surprise, the home was quite modest for a pony who lead such a magnificent town. There were two rooms off to one side, a small living room, and a set of stairs, he led us to a larger office with a big desk at one end…an Overmare’s desk. He moved around the desk and sat down looking at us.
“So, where should we begin?” he asked.
Wind Thrasher moved closer to the desk, “I think we need to clear the air Rusty Shackles.”
“I was thinking the same thing Wind Thrasher. I remember what happened back then, but you aren’t acting like the same mare who attacked the population of our old home. Tell me everything that happened to you, because the last thing I remember was you getting taken to medical after you got electrocuted by the generators,” he said.
“Mom talked to Dr. Cell about what happened and begged him to do anything to save me,” she started to say.
Rusty Interrupted, “Is that what she told you or what Dr. Cell told you?”
“I heard something on a recording of hers, and Dr. Cell told me as much too.”
“Well I can tell you that he lied to you, it is true that your mother wanted him to help, but you were supposed to stay in medical. The Overmare had intel that he’d been working on something dangerous, we were about to take him down with some of the intel we had on him, that was until you got hurt. Dr. Cell took you and hid away in his lab for hours. Your mother didn’t even know until it was too late.”
Wind Thrasher seemed to shrink a little, it looked like memories from back then were coming back to her, “I don’t remember much, but when I woke I was like this, with a collar around my neck. I could move around and stuff, but when Dr. Cell gave me a command, I couldn’t say no, I had to do it. He showed me to mom and then he stabbed her, after that he ordered me to kill as many ponies as I could until they learned who the new boss was. I wanted to stop, but I had no choice.”
“I figured as much, what you don’t know is that before the Overmare died, she knew something was going to happen. She called me into her office and gave me her Pip-Buck, she told me to lock down the stable with it after ponies got away. She wouldn’t tell me why, but she said to evacuate the stable right away. I did what she asked, but I wasn’t fast enough. I saw your attack and when I knew no other ponies would make it out before you came after us, I sealed the doors using her Pip-Buck. Funny thing though, before I left your mother told me something.”
“What was that?”
“She said that one day you’d find a way to get free and she hoped you did. She said that if you found me I should forgive you for your sins. I don’t know how, but she knew what was going to happen.”
Wind Thrasher teared up as she said, “That was like mom, she always had a gift of foresight, especially when bad things were going on, it made her an amazing Overmare.”
Rusty smiled, “That it did. Wind Thrasher you were very young when this all happened so I’m not sure if you knew, but I had feelings for your mother and when she died, it was very hard on me. Even more so when I lost you, because I hoped you would be my daughter one day. I want you to know that I don’t hold any grudges against you for what happened. Though I can’t say the same for the rest of Trotston, I’ll have to talk to them and try to get them to understand.”
She hung her head, “I wasn’t expecting much when I got here, what I really wanted was to be able to say I was sorry for what I did. I may have been under his control, but I still did what I did.”
He let out a long sigh, “I hate to say it but a sorry won’t fix what happened Wind Thrasher. Ponies around here won’t come around easily. If it wasn’t for me, they would’ve attacked you as soon as you walked into town. I think after today you shouldn’t even try and come back here, it’ll be safer for you.”
Wingnut spoke up, “Aren’t you the leader of this town? Why can’t you just tell them to leave her be?”
Byte spoke up next, “It doesn’t work like that here bug, Rusty runs the town, but he doesn’t go around telling ponies what to do. There’s a whole chain of command and laws to follow.”
“She’s right, after the Stable, we didn’t want everything to go through one pony like an Overmare. With that said, the only way Wind Thrasher would be able to win over the ponies from the old Stable is if she showed them she’s not the monster they think she is. Problem is no pony will give her the chance, it’d be better if she left once we’re done here,” Rusty continued.
“That’s bullshit…” I started to say but Wind Thrasher cut me off.
“It’s fine, I understand. I got to say my peace to Rusty and I don’t want to make things hard for the ponies here. I’m just happy I was able to see that my Stable is still alive and well. I never planned on staying here as it is.”
Aura smiled at this, “I don’t blame you Wind Thrasher, I feel the same with my home, it’s nice to see old faces, but there’s so much more in the world to explore.”
“Well I’m glad we have that settled,” Rusty said looking over at me, “Now Shadow, would you mind telling me how you found the Overmare’s Pip-Buck?”
“I found it in the bowels of my stable,” I said not wanting to tell him everything just yet.
“Odd that it was in a stable, seeing how it was stolen from here twelve years ago. What Stable are you from anyway?”
“Stable 28.”
“Do you know who left it there?”
I sighed and gave up, “My mother left it for me, she hid it down there before she ran away from our Stable eight years ago.”
He smiled and leaned back, “That’s what I thought, so that mare was your mother.”
“Yeah, but I don’t know anything about how she got it. All I know is that she got it off a pony from here and used it to hide files on.”
He looked thoughtful for a moment, “Yes that makes sense, she originally came here looking for information on The Children of the Night, I let her in because she was an extremely gifted unicorn and I figured she could help us with a few things while she was looking at some of our memory orbs.”
“So, she didn’t come looking for the Mark II, she was looking into information about Night Stalker and his group?” I asked.
At the mention of Night Stalker, Rusty’s face looked like he had just bitten into a lemon, “How do you know who Night Stalker is?”
I shrugged, but Aura answered, “She has a bad habit of losing herself in memory orbs, she’s overly curious, kind of like a house cat.”
“I do not! Well I mean I find them interesting, and I have found a few that he keeps showing up in. Why is that such a big deal? Every time I find ponies that know who he is, they always have the same reaction. I understand he wasn’t a good pony, but what did he do that was so bad apart from starting The Enclave.”
Byte was the one who answered since Rusty seemed to still be in shock, “The old Stable had a lot of memory orbs and files about Night Stalker in it from what Rusty told me, Trotston knows a lot about him. He wasn’t just known for starting The Enclave or helping put up the cloud layer. His team was believed to be the reason Equestria lost the war.”
“Wait how could one pony do that?” I asked.
“It wasn’t just him,” Rusty said finally snapping out of it, “He was very close to Princess Luna and knew everything that was going on in the war. His team, AKA The Children of the Night had their hooves in every Ministry, but they only answered to The Ministry of Awesome. They went around everything even the OIA to get what they wanted done. From what we’ve learned they were the ones who came up with the design for The Lucky Horseshoe, but for what I’m not sure. We know that right before the war ended, Luna had most of his memories copied into Memory Orbs, that’s why we had some in our stable.”
“There was even a story that he was cursed or something. After a raid on a home that belonged to a high-ranking pony in the military, Night Stalkers team started to die or get hurt badly in battle. It turned him into a hard and distrustful pony,” Byte continued.
“What I don’t understand is, why were some of his memory orbs put into you’re stable?” I asked getting more confused by the second, “I mean what’s the point in leaving them in a stable in the first place?”
“I guess you should know, seeing as how you have a Mark II,” Rusty said simply, “It’s because we had to know as much as we could about him just incase him or ponies that took over after his death came looking for the Mark II.”
“What do they have to do with him or his team?” Aura asked.
“The Mark II wasn’t put into our Stable to test anything or to make life easier for the three heads of the Stable. No, Stable-Tec was hiding them from him. From what we were told, one of the three ponies who ran Stable-Tec used one of the Mark II’s to lock something down that Night Stalker was using, they hid them in the stable so he could never activate that program again. Since only another Mark II can undo what another locked, they had to hide all three.”
“If they were so worried about it then why not destroy them?” Wingnut asked.
Rusty chuckled, “From what I’ve learned about Applebloom, I’m not sure she could’ve ever destroyed something she put so much time into creating. Also, they were worried that by destroying them, the system would unlock. With the broadcaster installed it was possible, so they did the next best thing.”
I looked down at my Pip-Buck, “You mean one of them was used to lock down a program Night Stalker wanted? Is that why so many ponies are after it?”
He nodded, “If anypony knows what they can do then I’d guess that’s why they want it, or they want the files that are on it. I couldn’t say for sure, but I do know that your mother wanted one once she learned about them from my sister who had the Pip-Buck you have now. I don’t know why because once she had her hooves on it she took off.”
“How did she get it away from your sister? I thought you could only remove them by doing something special, at least that’s what Nexus told me.”
“There is a trick to get them off,” he said showing off his own Pip-Buck, it was also a Mark II like my own, it was gold with pink lines running down it like my own, “My sister knew how to remove them. From the story I was told, she lost a bet with Grimoire and she had to show her how to remove it. After she did, your mother stole it and ran off. My sister was very upset about that and she hired The Red Talons to hunt her down.”
Aura interjected, “Since I never heard about Shadow’s mom getting captured by The Talons and Shadow has the Pip-Buck, I take it your sister dropped the contract.”
A sad look came to Rusty’s face, “She was killed a couple weeks later by a pony from the Sins, his name was Pride.”
Aura’s expression changed, she looked sad now, “With her dead the contract was dropped then.”
“That it was, I would’ve paid to have it continue, but I was afraid that pony would come back here. Our walls and protection didn’t matter, he got in without any problems. He came looking for only my sister, and once he found her, he cut her head off, we never even found out why The Sins wanted her dead.”
I hung my head as I thought about Pride, he really was a monster, “I’m sorry that happened to your sister.”
“It’s not your fault Shadow. It’s possible that my sister did something that pissed off The Enclave. She wasn’t one to just stay in town, she was a warrior and loved going out into The Wasteland. She was known for causing problems and life just caught up with her in the end. Luckily her daughter wasn’t harmed,” Rusty said looking over at Byte.
She huffed, “That asshole killed my mom and left her head on our doorstep, I’m glad somepony killed him.”
At least one good thing came out of Prides death. I smiled a little then asked, “What else do you know about the Mark II’s?”
“Quite a lot, since we settled here we used what we knew from our Stable and put that knowledge we had into researching all kinds of pre-war tech including the Mark II. In the larger building next to the hill we have our research center and my best scientists went over every detail of my own Mark II. We found a lot of things in it that aren’t in the normal Pip-Buck 3000 as I’m sure you realize.”
I nodded, “Nexus told me the things he knew about them,” I took a moment and explained everything I learned from the Ghoul.
He sat back and nodded as he listened, finally saying, “This Nexus sure knows what he’s talking about. That’s most of what we’ve learned about them as well, but one thing it seems he missed is the fact that they’re linked.”
“Wait what do you mean they’re linked?” I asked.
“The Mark II’s are linked just as I said. The founding members of Stable-Tec used them to keep files about new project’s and stables between themselves. The problem with that is they were all busy mares. Applebloom was always busy with some new project and running Stable-Tec. Scootaloo was the President of Red Racer and the Vice President of Stable-Tec. Then there was Sweetie Belle, she was a famous singer and the Face of Stable-Tec. All three didn’t have much time to meet up and go over their plans and on top of that The Ministries were always giving them trouble and it was believed that The M.O.M. was spying on them all the time. So when Applebloom made the Mark II, she made sure they’d be linked at all times, this way the three of them could always stay in contact with each other without any problems with The Ministries.”
Wingnut spoke up, “So what does that mean? They can find each other or something?”
“Not really, they couldn’t just find one of the other Mark II’s anytime they wanted, but if one of the Ponies who have one wanted to they could give off a signal letting the others know where they are. Being Linked though they could send files between each other no matter where they were in Equestria. They seem to highjack the signal from the M.A.S.E.B.S. Towers. They could also be used for direct communications.”
“How does that help me?” I asked.
He shrugged, “I couldn’t say, but you said you wanted to know what I knew about them and that’s it, this Nexus told you the rest of what I know.”
I sighed, “I don’t even know why I bothered coming here. I was hoping I could learn more about mom and why this thing mattered so much, but it doesn’t help at all.”
“No Shadow you did learn a little more about how your mother got her hooves on the Pip-Buck,” Wingnut said giving me a smile.
“That’s true. Thanks kiddo,” I said smiling back at him, “Well Rusty, thank you for letting me into your town and speaking with me.”
“It was the least I could do, you did a good thing taking care of Stable 9 and making sure the threat of Dr. Cell didn’t escape it,” he looked toward Wind Thrasher, “And even though you may not believe me, thank you for helping Wind Thrasher too. I hope that she’ll have a better life now.”
“Isn’t there any way you could help the other ponies understand she’s not a threat?” I asked.
“It’s okay Shadow,” Wind Thrasher said.
“No it’s not, I know what it’s like not to be accepted because of who you are. Ponies need to understand that you weren’t responsible for what happened back in your stable.”
“I understand where you’re coming from Shadow, but I can’t just magically change the minds of hundreds of ponies,” Rusty said.
Wind Thrasher got to her hooves, “You don’t need to Rusty, I don’t plan on staying anyway. I don’t even see myself coming back here,” she looked back over at me, “Are we finished here Shadow?”
I nodded, “We shouldn’t stay too long, it’s getting late and I still need to head toward Spitfire’s Flight Academy.”
Rusty’s face darkened, “You’re going where?”
“Spitfire’s Flight Academy, Why?”
“Do you have some kind of death wish or something? The ponies from there are nuts and trigger happy as hell. Ever since we started Trotston we’ve had problems with them. If it wasn’t for our numbers and our defenses they would’ve taken us out a long time ago,” Rusty replied.
“Why do those nut jobs have a problem with Trotston?” Aura asked.
Byte rolled her eyes, “Because the stable inside the hill was where The Annihilators came from. Even though they don’t live in the stable anymore, they still see it as theirs.”
“So they want you dead so they can get their stable back?” Wingnut asked, “That’s so fucking stupid.”
“I don’t know, to a stable pony no matter what, the stable is still home. I’ve been away from my stable for a while now and I do hate the place, but to me it’s still home,” I said.
“And we understand that, but when we found Stable 34 it was abandoned and still livable. They don’t need it and we do, but yes that’s why they want us gone,” Rusty said.
“Be that as it may, I still need to go there, and before you say something about getting close to them, don’t worry, I have that covered.”
“I’d ask how, but honestly I don’t want to know. I’d be happy with them leaving us alone,” Rusty said.
I got up as well, “We should head out,”
Rusty stood, “Why don’t you all stay the night here? It’s getting late anyways, and I’d hate for something to happen to you in the dark.”
“We’re good, there aren’t many things out there that we’re scared of,” Aura said.
Wingnut yawned, “I don’t know Aura, I’m still beat and a good night sleep in a safe place like this would be nice.”
Aura sighed and laughed, “You’re so hopeless sometimes boss. I suppose we can stay.”
“Not that I don’t mind the hospitality, but didn’t you say it wasn’t a good idea for Wind Thrasher to stay here?” I asked Rusty.
“It isn’t, but I’m not gonna just kick you all out either. Nothing bad will happen while you’re under my roof. I have a couple extra rooms upstairs,”
Byte looked pissed, “Hey one of those rooms are mine Rusty!”
“Yes, I know, and you can share it for a night with the girls, we’ll let Wingnut use the other room,” Rusty said glaring at her, “You’re lucky I haven’t taken away your lab time for leaving town like you did!”
“There’s no need for that we can all sleep in one room,” I said
“No I Insist, plus the other room is small and can’t fit more than one or two ponies.”
“But…I don’t want to sleep by myself,” Wingnut said quietly.
“What are you scared or something, don’t be a cry baby,” Byte said.
“Shut up!” Wingnut said glaring over at her.
“I’ll stay with you Wingnut, I should stay close anyway,” Aura said, sounding as if she was going to punch the little bitch if she said anything else.
Rusty chuckled, “I don’t think you’ll fit well in there sadly.”
Wind Thrasher walked over to him, “I’ll stay with you Wingnut, I don’t take up much space.”
“What’s the big deal about sleeping alone?” Byte asked, “It’s not like anything can get you in the dark, if you want to survive in The Wasteland you have to grow up.”
The look Wingnut had on his face surprised me, I was expecting him to get mad, but he didn’t. Tears came to his eyes and he looked away whispering quietly, “That’s how my parents died.”
Before we could say anything, he ran up the stairs. Aura was about to go after him but I stopped her, “No, let me talk to him Aura,” I glared over at Byte, “Next time watch your tongue.”
Not waiting for her snarky response, I made my way up the stairs and found Wingnut sitting in the hall sniffing and trying to hide tears that were flowing down his face. When he saw me he turned away, “Go away Shadow, I wanna be left alone.”
Ignoring him, I walked over and sat next to him, “What about that whole ‘I don’t wanna be alone at night’ thing you just had a fit over?” I smiled wittily and got a chuckle out of him “Besides, you know you can’t get rid of me that easily Wingnut. Tell me what’s wrong.”
“Nothing I’m fine.”
“Surrreeee… that’s why you left like you did. You’re smart but you’re not a good liar kid, maybe talking about it will make you feel better.”
He wiped away some of the tears, “You know how I told you that I’m afraid of the dark because monsters live there?”
“Yeah, what about it?”
“I’m not scared of the dark because I’m an ignorant kid or anything stupid like that. You see my parents were traders, they ran their own caravan and everything. They taught me a lot about fighting and staying safe in The Wasteland. One day we were staying just outside of Appleton not far from Halo One. We found a small cave for shelter. I’m not sure why but my parents didn’t want to go into town. I was still very young, but I remember it like it was yesterday. Something came out of the darkness and attacked us. Mom told me to run as Dad tried to fight it. I just made it outside of the cave when I heard my mom scream. Whatever it was, it killed them both. Ever since that night I’ve always been scared that it would come back and kill me,” he said, sounding like he was trying to hold back a little.
I hugged him, “That would scare anypony Wingnut, I can’t blame you for being scared of something like that.”
“I know, and I also know what you’re thinking and no, it wasn’t Pride. It was some kind of monster, I saw enough of it to know that, and the sounds it made weren’t pony noises.”
“Are you sure about that?” I asked
He nodded, “My parents didn’t work with anypony from The Enclave so the Sins wouldn’t have any reason to go after them, whatever it was it wanted something, but I never found out what. I haven’t gone back there since the night it happened. I saw how Pride fought and it was nothing like this thing, it was a wild animal of some kind, though nothing I’ve ever heard of before.”
“So that’s why you worry about darkness so much, I understand. Well if you’re really that scared, then one of us will stay with you. If you don’t want Wind Thrasher to, I wouldn’t mind.”
“No, I’ll be fine with Wind Thrasher, she’s nice. I also think it’d be a good idea if you stayed with Aura.”
That caught me by surprise, “Why?”
“She seems to sleep better when you’re around, she couldn’t sleep at all when you were missing, and while you were still being worked on by Dr. Cottage. She didn’t get a good night’s sleep until you were out of the woods. She won’t say it, but she worries about you a lot.”
“She’s my friend and I’m one of the only ponies she trusts, so yeah I could understand that. Well if you’re okay with that then so am I. Also try and remember that you can always talk to me about what’s bothering you.”
He smiled, “I know, I’ll try to remember that next time, but you have to do the same with us okay?”
“I will.”
Wind Thrasher came up the stairs a moment later, “Is everything okay?”
“Yeah, we figured it out,” I replied, “Are you sure you’ll be okay staying here tonight, we really don’t know what to expect here.”
“Yeah, I might’ve been scared to see Rusty again, but he’s always been an honest pony. Out of anypony from my old Stable I can trust, it’s him. I’m also tired, I was up all day talking with The Queen, then coming here it’s been a stressful day, I could use a good night’s sleep.”
Rusty’s voice came up from downstairs, “If everything’s fine up there why don’t you all head off to bed. I have things to take care of and you all should get up early to head out while most of the town is still asleep.”
“That sounds like a plan,” I said looking down at him from the top of the stairs.
Byte and Aura came up the stairs and after pointing out which door was the room for Wingnut and Wind Thrasher she led us to her room. Before following her in I gave a smile to Wingnut, “Sleep well kiddo.”
“You too Shadow, and thanks again.”
When I walked into the other room I was kind of shocked, “Is this a room or a research center?” I asked, the room looked like Nexus set up shop in here. Terminals, wires, and half completed projects filled every desk and most of the floor in the large room. Though it was cleaner than Nexus’ room was. There was still plenty of room for the three of us, there was even a large bed on one side, and the floor didn’t look so bad to sleep on.
“Rusty doesn’t like me going off to the labs all the time, he says I get in the way of the staff there. I just think they’re scared of me,” she said walking over toward one of the terminals, “You two can sleep wherever I don’t normally sleep much at night and I don’t need the bed. I’ll most likely pass out in my chair.”
“I won’t argue with that,” Aura said walking over and laying on the bed. She set her spear and bags down on the floor next to her, rolled over and put her back toward us.
“I should be used to sleeping on the floor by now,” I said walking over to lay on a few blankets that were piled up at the end of the bed. Once I was settled in I looked over toward Byte, she’d pulled out that pistol again. She was pulling something off it and mumbling to herself, “What is that thing anyway?”
“It’s a gravity gun, it’s a gun that manipulates the pull of gravity and repels enemies with great force. It’s a non-lethal way to bring down an enemy.”
“So, it’s a gun that blows ponies away without killing them?”
“If you want to put it simply, yes.”
“It seemed to work fine during that fight, why are you taking it apart?”
She rolled her eyes and set down the screw driver she was holding in her muzzle, “Because it’s still using too much energy for each blast, I can only fire it once or twice before I have to reload another energy cell. It’s also still giving off too much power with each blast. I need to tweak a few more things before it’s perfect.”
“Hmmm, well that’s kind of a cool gun I guess, though I can’t see how it’d be of much use in The Wasteland.”
“It’s not for The Wasteland, it’s for Trotston. Now and then we have problems with some of the ponies around here and having something like this will help keep down casualties,” she said pulling off one of the wires, looking it over then tossing it into a pile behind her, “You should get to sleep, I need to concentrate on this and talking to you isn’t helping.”
I shrugged and closed my eyes, she had a point and even though I’d been out of it for a week, I was still tired and honestly my body still hurt. It didn’t take long for sleep to come, cuddled up in soft commutable blankets helped a lot. I almost felt as if I was back in my room in Stable 28.
***
I was in the middle of a nice pleasant dream, something to do with Milkshake. I’m not sure if it was a memory or something I just wish happened back in the stable, but I was enjoying myself when somepony woke me up. I opened my eyes looking around for the voice that pulled me out of a nice dream, which was rare (Damn It). I blinked slowly and peered into the darkness looking toward where I’d last seen Byte. She was sleeping in her chair her head laying on the table, a screwdriver sitting next to her muzzle. It wasn’t her then, so who woke me?
“No…please don’t make me do this,” Aura said from the bed.
Looking over I saw that she was still laying on her side. She was kicking at something as her talons shook. Her eyes were still closed, but she looked scared and were those tears I saw? Is she dreaming?
“What are you doing Trip? What did you do!?” she said in her sleep, her voice getting louder.
I got up and moved next to the bed, “Aura wake up you’re having a nightmare.”
“STOP!” she screamed.
I jumped and looked back at Byte, but she was still sleeping like nothing was going on. Looking back at my friend I started to shake her, “Aura wake up, come on.”
“I…I don’t want to do this…please stop Trip,” she said quieter this time, “I’m sorry…I’m so sorry.”
I could see Aura was tearing up more, so much so that it started to stream along her beak, I tried shaking her again to wake her up “Aura it’s okay please just wake up, it’s just a dream.”
For a moment, she stopped moving and I thought she was finally going to be okay, then she started to twitch again this time she started saying something different, “What did I do wrong? I said I’d protect her and she left me…I thought I could protect her. I’m sorry…I’m so sorry, I should’ve told you more before…now you’re gone too, just like her. Why does everyone leave me, I just want one friend.”
She was still dreaming I could tell, but who was she talking about now? I moved my hoof to her chest and shook her again, “Please wake up Aura.”
Her talon came up and took hold of my foreleg, not hard or threatening, it was more like she was reaching for someone, for some kind of comfort. Her head turned a little and she kept talking, her voice going quiet, so quiet that I had to lean in to catch what she said next, “Shadow, please come back, I’ll do better at being your friend. Just come back, I can’t be alone again.”
I felt my heart skip a beat, what was she saying? Did me leaving hurt her so much? I didn’t even know what to do, she seemed trapped in her own special kind of nightmare, so I leaned closer to her and said, “I’m still here Aura, I’m right here with you like you’ve always been for me. I won’t leave you again, you’re my friend.”
I noticed as I talked that her body was starting to relax, I tried to pull my hoof away from her, but as I did she started to shake again. With a sigh I crawled up next to her and laid my head on the soft feathers of her chest. I wrapped my other hoof around her and just let my presence comfort her. As I did she relaxed more and her breathing slowed as she drifted back into a more peaceful sleep. Her tears looked like they were drying up.
“I wish I knew what was going in that head of yours sometimes Aura,” I said as I slowly closed my eyes.
“Shadow? What’s going on?” I heard Aura say.
I looked up at her and into her confused icy blue eyes a little red from crying, and blushed, “You had a bad dream, I couldn’t get you to wake up and this seemed to help calm you down. I’m sorry I didn’t know what else would work, I’ll go back to my blankets.”
I started to pull away, but Aura’s grip tightened. Her voice stayed quiet as she said, “No…it’s okay, I don’t mind, I was just surprised that’s all.”
I moved closer and rested my head back on her chest, oddly finding myself feeling better as I did. We both laid there for a few minutes, just listening to the sounds of the house. Finally, I asked, “What were you dreaming about? You seemed really scared, and sad I’ve never seen you like that before?”
I felt her tense up, then she said, “Trip Wire’s death, at least I think I was.”
“You kept saying please don’t make you do something, what did you mean?”
“Not tonight Shadow…I can’t talk about that right now. I hurts too much, and after that dream, I don’t even want to think about that night. Can we just lay here, please?” her voice was so soft and fragile.
“Sure thing,” I said closing my eyes again, “Aura…I’m sorry that I left like I did.”
“Thank you, I know why you had to do it and all, but thank you for saying that. I don’t like being alone Shadow and it hurt a lot when I found that note. I thought I did something wrong, I hated that feeling.”
“I know, I wish I could’ve done something more to tell you what happened. Even with that said, I still feel bad for everything that happened.”
I felt her turn a little and she shifted to a better position. Her other talon came around and she pulled me closer, hugging me close to her chest. As she did my heart started to pound in my chest and I felt myself blush, but why? This is Aura, the cranky griffon bodyguard, she was hard, and mean with a little soft side now and then, but who was this? Was this the Aura that Trip Wire knew?
“I’m sorry about Silver Snip, I know how much that hurts. You may think that you’re okay right now, but you’re not, trust me I know. Sooner or later out of nowhere it will hit you again, you’ll have to deal with that pain and loss and it’ll feel like your heart is breaking all over again. When that happens, you can come talk to me, no matter if you need to yell and rant, or to cry. I’ll be there for you Shadow, because I know that pain.”
As she spoke flashes of Silver’s face started to flood into my mind, Aura was right and the more she spoke, the more the hurt building inside me grew worse. The anger was still there, the pain at not being able to stop what happened, the hole I felt in my heart from the loss that was almost normal in my life. I had no family, no real home, no memories of who I really was, and I had lost the pony who cared about me more than herself. I pressed my face into Aura’s chest and took deep steady breaths then said, “It wasn’t fair.”
“Yeah…I know.”
“Why does everyone leave me Aura?”
She chuckled a little, it wasn’t a happy laugh, it was more hurt and understanding, “Wish I could answer that for you Shadow. At least you have me and Wingnut, and don’t forget Wind Thrasher or Stardust. We’ll always be here for you no matter what.”
“Yeah, I know that now. I just wish I could stop bad things from happening to the ponies I love.”
“Everybody dies Shadow, you can’t fix that. When your time is up you can’t stop it. It hurts, but that is the way life goes. That’s why you have to cherish the time you get with anyone.”
I didn’t want to talk about this anymore, what I wanted was to fall asleep and forget everything that happened at least for a little while. I wanted to just forget about finding Silver’s body, forget the sight of Stardust being taken, forget the memory of waking up that day when Auntie told me mom was gone. At this moment all I really wanted was for this to last forever. If time was to just stop right now, I wouldn’t have to be so scared of the next day. The next horror The Wasteland was going to throw at me, I wouldn’t have to think about what was happening to Stardust.
Aura spoke up again, “Thank you Shadow, I know I don’t show my emotions much, but I needed this.”
“Aura what is this anyway…” she stopped me before I could keep going, by pressing one claw against my lips.
“Shhh, don’t talk anymore okay. It’s nothing more than two friends giving each other comfort. Tomorrow is a new day, and everything else is in the past. Right now, let’s just pretend that for just a moment that nothing bad happened and everything is going to be okay. When tomorrow comes, this never happened. Just help me feel normal even for just a night, that’s all I want.”
She was right, she was just helping me get through what happened with Silver, and I was just a pony who cared about her that could make her remember better days. I smiled and let my eyes close again, I felt my body relax against the griffon’s and sleep wasn’t far away. Aura’s free talon moved up to slowly run down my mane, letting the long braid flow through her digits as she started to pass out herself.
As I was just about to give in to sleep’s embrace I caught a small whisper from Aura, “Why can’t I tell her? Why am I such a coward?”
***
I woke up again finding myself on the bed still, I looked around for Aura, but she wasn’t there. Did I just dream what happened last night? I pushed myself into a sitting position and looked around. Byte was gone as well and I couldn’t see Aura either. Maybe it was just a dream and I wandered onto the bed in the middle of the night. As I reached up to stretch a couple of black feathers fell from my head. Reaching up I felt a couple more stuck on my horn. My hoof moved down my mane and I felt that my braid was messed up. It must have been from Aura running her sharp claws through it last night. I didn’t even know what to think about what I remembered, I hadn’t even seen my friend in such a delicate state before. I guess we all have our limits and Aura had finally reached hers and she couldn’t help breaking down.
I remembered our conversation when she’d finally woken up and smiled a little. I was surprised how much better I felt after talking to her. I hadn’t been able to do that since I left the stable. Back then when I was feeling low I’d go over to Milkshake’s and let out my frustrations and feelings. She would always listen to me and tell me whatever she could to make me feel better as well. For a moment there I thought Aura was trying to tell me something or show me something more about herself, but that could have just been my imagination. She was my friend nothing more and I had to remember that.
“Are you finally up?” I heard Aura’s voice say from the doorway.
Looking over at her I saw that she looked ready to go. I stretched and said, “Yeah, why did you let me sleep in?”
“C’mon Shadow, when have you ever been a morning pony? Waking you up is like trying to change the weather, it ain’t gonna happen.”
I got up and pulled my barding back on. I noticed that it was starting to look more warn from the few holes and dings it had from my past few fights. I’d have to find somewhere that could fix it soon, before it became as useless as my old duster. It was the last gift Silver left for me apart from her message and I wouldn’t let it get ruined.
“Sorry I slept in so late, are the others ready to go?” I said picking up my saddle bags and walking toward the door.
“For the most part yes, but Rusty isn’t letting us go just yet. Something to do with ponies making a fuss outside.”
“Did something happen?”
“No idea, but from the sounds of it, it’s just a couple ponies who saw Wind Thrasher yesterday and aren’t too happy right now. The sooner we can get out of Trotston, the better,” she said turning to head toward the stairs.
“Aura can we talk about what happened last night?” I said before she could have a chance to run down the stairs.
She looked back at me and frowned, “I dunno what you’re talkin’ about Shrimp.”
“Don’t do that Aura, don’t shut down on me now.”
She sighed, “I was in a bad place last night and so were you. I haven’t slept much the past few days and the stress got to me. It’s in the past now and we both promised not to dwell on things that happened in the past, remember? Today’s a new day and we have things we need to do.”
I saw something in her eyes, they weren’t the hard look she normally had. It was almost like she was trying to say something else to me with that desperate look. She looks like she wants me to let it go for now, not to push her too much, because she wasn’t ready to talk about last night. She was right too, there was too much to do, and as much as I wanted to understand. I had to drop it, because her eyes also told me that if I asked her again she’d tell me what was bothering her, what she was really thinking, but it wouldn’t be right. She’d talk when she was ready, at least I hope she does.
So I smiled, “You’re right, sorry I brought it up,” I walked past her stopping for only a moment to say, “If something’s bothering you and you need to get it off you’re chest you can tell me, you might be surprised by what could happen when you tell the truth. No matter what, I’m here and I’m not going anywhere.”
“Shadow…”
“Let’s get going, I want to get this next part over with as soon as possible, and I don’t want to keep the others waiting,” I said continuing on and going downstairs.
As I did she said, “Thank you.”
I didn’t let her see my small smile as I reached the bottom of the stairs and saw Wingnut and Wind Thrasher waiting by the door. Byte was sitting in a corner still fiddling with her gravity gun. I looked around and asked, “Where’s Rusty?”
“Outside talking to some of the ponies from the Stable, I guess they know I’m here and they sound pissed,” Wind Thrasher said, one of her ears standing straight up and cocked toward the door.
I moved closer to the door and heard voices shouting from outside. I took a moment to check Dream Walker then I opened the door and walked out. There was more than a couple ponies standing outside of Rusty’s home. All of them had on modified versions of Stable 9 barding each one holding some kind of weapon. Most of them were crude or not well taken care of, but a couple looked new and well maintained.
I stepped up next to Rusty while one of the Stallions was yelling at him, only a few inches away, “I don’t give two shits what you have to say about this Rusty, we saw her going into your home. Give her to us so she can pay for what she did before we make you!”
“What’s going on out here?” I asked.
The pony who was yelling at Rusty looked over at me, “Who the fuck are you?”
“I’m the Courier from the radio, now please answer my question.”
“Piss off, this doesn’t concern you. This is Trotston business I don’t care who you are or why you’re here, we don’t need outsider input,” he said looking back at Rusty, the ponies behind him yelling in agreement.
Rusty sighed and said as calmly as he could, “I never said she wasn’t here, all I said was that she only came here to apologize for what happened back at the stable. She wasn’t in her right mind back then and she was still a child, she can’t be held responsible for her actions.”
“If this is about Wind Thrasher, then it does concern me. She’s my friend and traveling companion. Whatever your problem is with her, then it’s with me as well. I suggest you back off and let us pass before I make you,” I said pulling Dream Walker out with my magic, chambering a round.
This was the wrong thing to do, as soon as my gun was out most of the ponies who were close to me lifted theirs. The one who seemed to be leading the small mob shouted back at me, “Don’t you dare threaten us runt, this is our town and we don’t answer to ponies like you,” as he yelled his eyes fell down to my foreleg, “Where the fuck did you get that?”
“None of your business,” I said using my magic to slide the sleeve of my barding down to cover some of the Mark II, “I’m not here to fight with anypony and the same goes for Wind Thrasher. Whatever your problem is with her, it was twenty years ago and she wasn’t the same pony, drop it and get on with your life.”
His rifle came up and he struck me across the face, Rusty stepped in front of him blocking him from getting closer to me, “Back off, there’s no need for that. You need to stop this before you do something you’ll regret.”
He screamed in Rusty’s face, “Don’t you dare tell me what I need to do Rusty, you more than anypony should remember what happened back then. You watched that monster kill our friends and family. How can you stand there and defend her or this bitch who’s with her!?”
“Because I know more than you think. You need to remember who the leader in this town is. I decide who’s allowed in, I allowed her to come in and I let her tell me her story. As for this mare you should know by now that she’s the pony who destroyed Stable 9 and killed Dr. Cell.”
“I don’t give a shit what she did. She let that…thing out, now she’s free to do whatever she wants. How is that fair? She needs to pay for what she did, I don’t believe that bullshit about her being under the control of that nut job.”
I got back to my hooves and was about to say something, but the door behind me blasted open and Wind Thrasher walked out. Now every weapon was up pointing at the bat pony. She ignored it all and got right in the face of the pony, “You think I didn’t pay for what I did? You think I enjoyed killing everypony I knew, the pony’s I called my friends? Do you think it was fun for me when I couldn’t control my actions? Because it wasn’t, I hated every moment of my life for the PAST TWENTY YEARS!”
“Get away from me you freak!” he said pointing his rifle right at her head.
She didn’t even flinch, “Go ahead and do it, but just so you know as soon as you pull that trigger I won’t be able to keep my friends from ripping you apart.”
It looked like the rest of the ponies were waiting to see what would happen. The Stallion took a moment then said around the bit, “You killed my daughter, I can’t let that go.”
“I killed a lot of ponies, I’m sure everypony here lost a loved one that day. But you should know that I lost somepony I loved too, my mom, your Overmare died too all because of Dr. Cell. He did all of that just to take over the Stable. None of that was me, if I could’ve stopped myself I would’ve. I’m sorry that you lost your daughter, but killing me won’t bring her back,” Wind Thrasher said still not backing down.
I could see he was about to pull down on the trigger, before he could I used the trick that Cloak had used on me. My magic pushed on the release for the mag, then I pulled back on the slide letting the chambered round pop out. It was just in time. As the bullet flew from the rifle, his tongue pulled down on the trigger and the gun clicked. A moment later Rusty moved in, struck the Stallion in the face then ripped the rifle away tossing it behind him.
“You don’t get to decide who lives or dies in Trotston,” he said holding the other Stallion down.
Wind Thrasher looked shocked for a moment, then she looked over at me, “Thank you Shadow.”
“I wasn’t gonna let him do that to you…” I started to say, then a gun shot rang out from the rear of the crowd.
Rusty flew back as a bullet ripped through his left shoulder and all hell broke loose. As Rusty fell, another one of the ponies lifted his rifle and fired at Wind Thrasher. Lucky for her it slammed into her chest, the thick scales she had deflected the bullet with no problem, but that second shot started a wave of gun fire. Aura ran out and took hold of Wind Thrasher pulling her back into the house as I used my magic to pick up Rusty, low caliber gun fire pelting my barding, but nothing making it through. We just made it inside and shut the door behind us when the mob slammed into the house.
Byte ran over to Rusty looking him over, “Rusty what the hell happened?”
He groaned looking up at the filly, “Dumbass shot me, not sure who though. Get me a Healing Potion will ya Cookie.”
She ran off toward a medical box that was on the far wall. I took a moment to look out one of the windows. The gunfire stopped but dozens of ponies were slamming their hooves against the wall and door, “I don’t think we’re getting out of here as easily as we hoped.”
“Yeah no shit,” Aura said pulling her Spear off her back, “What should we do now?”
“I don’t know? I really don’t feel like shooting our way out of here, they aren’t bad ponies just pissed off,” I replied.
Byte ran back with the healing potion for Rusty, he drank it down then said, “They seem to be all in the front of the house. If you head out the back and loop around the houses, you should be able to get away.”
“What about the guards at the gate?” Wingnut asked.
“They only keep ponies out, they won’t do anything,” Rusty replied.
“Yeah, because things always go that well for us,” Aura said.
He looked worried for a moment then said, “Cookie Byte, go with them, if the guards give you trouble, you know what to do.”
“No problem, but what about you?” she asked.
“I’ll be fine, now move,” he said getting back to his hooves, wincing a little. “I’ll try and calm them down while you get away.”
“Good idea, let’s get going,” I said and followed the filly as she led us to a back door.
“Also Shadow,” Rusty said before we walked out, “I think it’s a good idea if you all stay away from Trotston, I can’t let something like this happen in my town again. I know this isn’t your fault but consider yourselves exiled from Trotston, at least for now.”
I nodded honestly not caring at this point. There wasn’t anything else I could learn from the ponies here, and I wasn’t willing to risk more guns being pointed at me. I followed my friends out the door, the sounds from the ponies grew louder as we came around the house. Byte checked quick then waved for us to move on.
It didn’t take long for the sounds of the ponies to recede as we worked our way down the alleyway and closer to the gate. I kept close to Byte as she leads us on, wondering who shot at Rusty. I knew the ponies were upset but why fire at Rusty? If anything, they should’ve taken a shot at Wind Thrasher. Something wasn’t adding up.
I wanted to ask Byte about it, but as we came around the last home that lead to the main road leading outside of town, somepony hit Wind Thrasher in the side. The Stallion from before jumped on top of her yelling, “You think you can get away that easily FREAK!?”
Dream Walker was out again and pointing right at his head as I yelled, “Get off her!”
He looked over at my friends and me, lifting a bat high, “Never!”
The bat came down and a shot rang out and the Stallion dropped, the hoofball bat falling harmlessly next to Wind Thrasher. His body fell to the ground, a hole in his neck. He wasn’t dead yet, but he was gagging pitifully as blood poured into his throat from the wound. Wind Thrasher moved away from him, her face looked like she was in a little bit of pain, her wing was hanging a little but it didn’t look broken.
Wingnut moved forward his revolver smoking, he holstered it and said, “We don’t have time, we need to leave now!”
I looked up the road and saw more ponies running toward us, some were the ponies from Rusty’s, and others just reacting to seeing one of their own going down. We ran toward the gate but the other ponies weren’t far behind. Byte moved to one side and hit one of the buttons next to the gate. An alarm started to go off as the gate started to slowly open.
“We aren’t going to make it out in time!” I yelled turning to face the oncoming ponies.
A couple unicorns lifted their weapons and started to fire at us, all of them seeming to go mad. I didn’t want to hurt them, but at this point, I’ll protect my friends. I switched to the plasma rifle and took aim ready to engage S.A.T.S. when Wind Thrasher stepped in front of me, “No, I won’t let you kill them Shadow, I’ll stop them, just be ready to run.”
Before I could say anything, she took in a deep breath, her eyes started to glow and she screamed. Everypony stopped and covered their ears as the high-pitched sound echoed off the buildings and road. Dirt flew up from the ground and formed a small dust storm as Wind Thrasher’s voice continued to echo down the street. The ponies started to scream as well, but they couldn’t be heard over the sound of the bat ponies voice. The closest ones started to bleed from the ears and their bodies started to shake violently.
When the ponies in the back stopped to cover their ears, Wind Thrasher stopped her scream. She stood on wobbly hooves for a moment then with a shake of her head she turned and ran toward the now halfway open gate. As she passed me she said, “Don’t worry they aren’t dead, but they won’t be able to come after us for a while.”
I just nodded, put away my rifle and followed her out. Sadly we didn’t get far past the gate. The two guards on the other side had their weapons aimed at us, “Hold up, none of you are going anywhere. What just happened back there?”
Byte moved closer to them and raised her voice, “There’s a riot going on, Rusty’s hurt we don’t have time to explain, we need all hooves on deck.”
They looked at each other then back at her, “I’m sorry Byte but we don’t take orders from you…”
“I got my orders from Rusty, and he’s your boss. Now move!” she ordered.
They both ran into town, I looked over at Byte’s smug face, “Why are so many ponies scared of you?”
“Because I’m a bitch. Get going before they come back.”
“Okay, make sure you take care of Rusty,” I said turning to run.
As we set out Byte yelled one more thing, “Hey Wingnut.”
He stopped and turned to look back at her, “What?”
“Don’t go getting yourself hurt out there, if you do I’ll kill you myself,” she yelled, then with a blush she ran back into town shutting the gate behind her.
We put as much distance between Trotston and ourselves as we could before we slowed down to a steady trot. Breathing hard from the run I looked over to Wingnut, “I think Byte likes you.”
He blushed even more than he had when he walked into the bathroom, “She does not! Did you see how nuts she was? Plus, she kept calling me a bug.”
All three of us laughed and Aura said, “Do you know how girls act when they like someone?”
He shook his head, “How would I know?”
“When girls are young they get embarrassed when they start to realize they like somepony so at times they’ll react with mean words or actions,” I said remembering my own youth, I had a couple other crushes before Milkshake.
“That’s just stupid,” he said wrinkling his nose, “Girls are so weird, but I still don’t think she likes me and even if she did, I don’t like her. She’s too angry.”
We all laughed again. We headed off north, making sure to stay clear of the walls of Trotston. As we moved I said, “I hope Rusty will be okay.”
Wind Thrasher nodded, “Me too, I was surprised he was so forgiving. By the way thanks for saving me back there Wingnut.”
He just shrugged, “I wasn’t gonna let him hurt you just because of what happened twenty years ago. It’s too bad he had to die because of it, but I’m sure he wouldn’t have just let you go after you came to Trotston.”
“That’s what he gets, ponies like him should think twice when they want revenge. It’s not like he was a fighter or anything,” Aura said stretching her wings a little, “Wind Thrasher, you took a bad hit to that wing, are you doing okay?”
She lifted the wing gingerly, “It hurts pretty bad, but it’s not broken, I’m sure I’ll be fine. It’s probably just a contusion.”
“Good, because I think we’re running low on Healing Potions,” Aura said.
“We should try and stock up soon, maybe we can see about getting some from the ponies at Spitfire’s Flight Academy,” I said pulling up my Pip-Buck and checking my inventory. I only had three left in my saddle bags and with how things were turning out, I was sure they’d run out before the day was over. As I looked I remembered the broadcast from my Stable. I brought it up and sighed, it was only 62% complete, how much encryption was on this file? Oh well, can’t do anything about it until it was finished. So, I checked one last thing, trying to see how close we were to The Flight Academy, from how it looked on my Pip-Buck map, we were already about halfway there. Then my eyes fell on the marker that was placed on my map for the location of mom’s Pip-Buck tag. I stopped as I looked at the marker.
Aura looked back at me asking, “Everything okay Shadow?”
The tag wasn’t far away, I looked up a small hill and saw a black dead tree standing alone at the top, “I have to check something out really quick.”
“I’ll come with you,” Aura looked back at the other two and continued, “You two stay here.”
“No problem, I should take a moment to rest anyway,” Wind Thrasher said sitting down and slowly stretching her injured wing.
I moved up the small hill with Aura following, “What’s wrong Shadow?”
“Mom’s Pip-Buck Tag, the last location where it gave off a signal was right around here,” I said as we reached the dead tree.
“Are you sure you wanna find it? What if she’s dead Shadow? Do you really think you can handle that right now?”
“I have to know Aura. Mr. Tops said a body wasn’t found when he sent a securipony to find out what happened when her signal went down, but he didn’t know where to look. I would rather know the truth now, rather than wait,” I said as I started to look around the base of the tree. According to my Mark II it should be right here.
Aura pointed up toward the base of one of the branches, “What’s that?”
I followed her talon and saw something sitting there. Using my magic, I lifted it away from the trunk and floated it down toward us. It was a well weathered Stable 28 issued Pip-Buck. I set it down on the ground in front of myself and looked down at it. The screen had gone dark, but I couldn’t say why. I felt a small bit of relief and sadness at seeing it. As Mr. Tops said, there wasn’t a body around so Mom should still be alive, but why would she just leave her Pip-Buck behind like this and in such a strange location?
“Why?” I asked nopony in particular.
“I couldn’t say, but we’re talking about your mother Shadow, you know the pony who loves to leave clues and mysteries in her wake.”
I picked it up and looked it over, but everything seemed normal, that was until I noticed that the light from the new day wasn’t shining through the hole meant for a foreleg. I looked inside and saw a recording stuffed into the small area. I pulled it out and looked it over, “Is this another clue left for me by her, or something else?”
“We’ll worry about it later, are you sure it’s hers?”
“Yeah, I remember it from back in the stable and who else from Stable 28 would be out this far and leave a Pip-Buck in the same location?”
“At least you know she’s still okay.”
“Yeah, let’s head back,” I said slipping the recording and Pip-Buck into my saddle bags.
As we started back down the hill Aura said, “Shadow about earlier, did you really mean what you said?”
I smiled, “I always mean what I say to you Aura. I told you that I was here for you and that won’t change. Why, what’s bothering you?”
“I wanted to say something to you last night, but I was too scared to tell you. Now I realize that it was stupid of me to be scared of being truthful with you and after everything that’s happened I think it’s only fair that you know something,” she said, her voice getting low.
I could feel my heart starting to race as I said, “Aura, no matter what it is, it won’t change the way I see you.”
“That’s the thing, I’m afraid it will.”
“Stop beating around the bush and tell me already,” I said, I had a feeling I knew what she was thinking. I wasn’t sure if I wanted to hear the words or not, I didn’t even know how I felt about what was on my mind. I wasn’t in a good place yet, but also, I knew that knowing what she was going to tell me mattered to both of us.
“Shadow for a while now I’ve had…” she started, but Wingnut yelled up at us.
“Shadow, Aura, you two need to come see this!”
I looked back down at the little shit and yelled, “Can it wait Wingnut!?”
“No, it can’t!” I noticed that he sounded excited and scared.
“We should see what’s going on, we can talk later okay,” Aura said walking past me quickly.
Great saved by the little shit again, fuck when was Aura going to finally tell me what she was thinking? I wanted to trot down the hill and smack the little shit. I was just about to when I noticed what he was looking at, his eyes wide as saucers. There was a pony standing down the small dirt road that lead toward Spitfire’s Flight Academy.
Aura came up next to me looking down the road also, both of our eye’s locked on the pony who couldn’t possibly be standing there. From behind us I heard what sounded like wings, Aura looked back and her body tensed up as she said, “Is that Syn? What the hell is she doing here?”
I ignored her as I took a step toward the tall grey pegasus, my eyes not able to believe what they saw. His sapphire blue mane was waving in the light breeze, his pink eyes locked onto my red ones. I opened my muzzle and said, “Stardust? Is that really you?”
Something wasn’t right, did he escape The Enclave and come looking for us? I wouldn’t put that past him, he was a strong pony and smart. I’m sure he could think of some way to escape. That wasn’t what bothered me, he lacked his signature Stardust goofy grin, his eyes were hard as he glared down at me, and to top it off he was wearing dual plated combat armor, with black under-plating and blue over-plating. On his flanks barely visible at this distance a tribal symbol was painted in pink. It was a lion.
He opened his muzzle and said in a cold hard tone, “We finally found you Shadow Star.”
“Stardust, are you okay, and what in Celestia’s name are you wearing?”
Ignoring me completely he looked behind himself and asked, “What do you want me to do with her?”
To my horror, Cloak walked up next to him and said, “I’m not taking any more chances with this one. You know what needs to be done.”
“Understood,” he said, then turned back to face me.
“Stardust what are you doing with her?” I asked taking a step closer to him, “What’s wrong with you, it’s me, your friend Shadow.”
I heard Aura’s older sister Syn yelling from somewhere above me, “Get away from him Shadow!”
It was too late, Stardust pulled a new looking rifle off his back, aimed it right at my head. He took a long deep breath, his muzzle biting down on the trigger. I couldn’t move, I couldn’t run, there was no way Stardust would be doing something like this, it had to be Envy. He was making himself look just like Stardust to mess with my head or something.
“SHADOW MOVE!” Aura screamed…but it was too late.
Stardust finished pulling down on the trigger, there was a flash followed by a loud ‘BOOM’ something blocked my vison before I was hit by something. Blood flew, and a loud scream filled the air followed by another loud ‘BOOM’…
[FOOTNOTE: LEVEL UP!]
NEW PERK ADDED!
Foal at Heart: You truly are a Foal at heart, Colt’s and Fillies find you more trustworthy than your average adult, do to your playful and kind nature. Now whenever you talk to a Colt or Filly, you will have an easier time convincing them to assist you. Just be careful because as everypony knows children say the darnedest things!