Chapter Three: How The Wasteland Works
“The Wasteland is not black and white, everything is just shades of gray. Killing doesn’t just magically make it better.”

“...and just think about it,” I said, looking at the leaning house in front of me. “If we lived here, we’d know all these other ponies here.” I pointed over at the other houses in the neighborhood, imaging if they weren’t ruined and mostly falling apart. “We might even have friends!”

“Hidden, you know we couldn’t be friends with anypony,” Lost answered, scowling. “They’d just get us in trouble, or worse.” She snapped her tail in the air and walked off toward the leaning mailbox at the far end of the front yard.

“Girls. Be quiet. There could be bad ponies around,” mom said, shooting us a glare. “So shhh, I’ll have this open in a minute.” She was crouched down, digging at the lock on the house’s door. We were at the far end of the little neighborhood, trying to get into the house mom figured had the best stuff. Most of the houses were still... mostly together, but this one was in better condition than the rest combined.

“Sorry, mom,” I said right after, sulking. Looking up and down the slanted house again, I sighed and put the fantasy of living in pre-War Equestria away. It would have been nice to have friends, ponies I knew and could spend time with living right beside me. I turned toward Lost. “Find anything?”

Lost blinked and hit the mailbox a few times with a hoof. “It’s full of so much junk I can’t tell what’s what,” she answered, grabbing onto it and shaking. When nothing fell out, she slammed the front closed and walked back.

“Oh well,” I said, standing and walking over to mom. “What do you think’ll be inside?” I asked, pushing myself against her so I could see what she was doing.

The bobby pin in the lock snapped, and she glared down at me. “Hidden...” she groaned.

“Sorry, mom...” I whimpered and scooted myself away. My ears drooped and I pulled my tail up underneath myself.

“It’s alright, I just need to focus,” she answered, smiling. She pulled another bobby pin out and got back to work.

“Alright,” Lost said. “How about Hidden and I go look around back. Maybe there’s another door?” She waved a hoof at me and trotted off the side of the house.

“Just stay close! Run back if you see anything!” mom shouted as we turned around the corner.

“Of course, mom,” I yelled back. I followed my sister through the gap between houses, looking around for anything the stood out. The walls of both houses were warped, but there wasn’t a door to either in the little alleyway. Around back, the ponies who lived here had put up a small fence, but it was in pieces, with several warped planks of wood lying in the dirt.

I turned and looked the house up and down. Aside from a broken window that ran the length of the top floor, there wasn’t any way in. “Why’d they build a fence if there wasn’t a way to get in from back here?” I asked Lost.

“No idea,” she answered, shrugging. “There’s nothing back here though.” She was right, aside from more dirt and rotten wood, we couldn’t see much. There wasn’t even anything dangerous around. It was just empty. In the distance gunfire rattled off briefly, but it was far away. “Let’s check the other side, mom probably has the door open by now anyway.”

I nodded and followed her back to the front, going around the opposite side. As we walked around, mom looked over at us and beckoned us to come closer.

I ran toward the door, only to run into mom’s outstretched foreleg. My nose hit her PipBuck and I fell back onto my haunches.

“Me first, just in case,” she chided, wiping the PipBuck screen clean. With a look around to make sure nopony dangerous was around and watching us, she stepped inside. Several seconds passed and she poked her head out. “It’s safe, come on in.” She closed the door once Lost and I were both inside with her rust colored tail. I never learned how she did that, such an interesting trick. “Alright, same as usual. Lost, you take Hidden and check the kitchen. I’m going upstairs. If something happens I want you to call for me as loud as you can and run toward the front door. Understand?” When we both saluted, she nodded. “Good. Meet back in five. Don’t be late.”

“Yes, mom,” I said, dropping my hoof back to the floor. The whole room was slanted slightly around us, but it wasn’t the important one we needed to check. I ignored the rotting furniture or the books on the shelf in the corner and trotted toward the kitchen. “Bet I find more than you,” I said to my sister, smirking.

Lost trotted after me, rolling her eyes. “You usually do,” she answered. Once we got to the kitchen, she went to the left and I went to the right. We dug through the cabinets and drawers in silence, slowly moving to meet in the middle. The ponies who lived here had plenty, and since nopony had broken in yet, it was all for us. We gathered a good supply of food and even a few unopened drinks. Whoever they were, they must have been prepar-

I looked over at my sister and she looked at me. Both of us dropped whatever we were holding and bolted toward the door as we’d been instructed.

“Girls, upstairs,” she yelled down, guiding us. Her voice didn’t sound scared, but we raced up frantically.

I looked over and saw a worried look on Lost Art’s face, and was fairly certain I had an identical one on mine. Running up the slanted stairs, I skipped steps, trying to hurry up as fast as I could. Whatever mom needed us for, I wasn’t going to make her wait. I jumped to the top step and looked down the hallway.

“Are you ok?” I asked, walking down the hall and looking into the next doorway.

“Don’t worry, I’m fine,” she answered, stepping out from the farthest doorway at the end of the hall. She smiled, her green eyes twinkling slightly. “I wanted to show you something, come in here.” She backed into the room again.

The room was in shambles, papers strewn about the floor, a chair toppled over. The windows on the far wall were the blown out ones I’d seen around back, and it was obvious rain had gotten in. Across from us was a plant, sitting in the center of a desk against the wall. The beautiful blue flower rested in the remains of its pot, which it had overgrown and shattered. Vines snaked along the desk and wrapped around the chair, with several working their way up the walls and even out the windows into the light that broke through the clouds. Somehow it had survived all these years inside the room. Tough plant...

“It smells like rot in here,” Lost said with a snort. The papers on the floor shuffled slightly in the breeze from the window.

“I know honey. This is important though, so listen,” mom explained. “This is called poison joke. It’s pretty harmless if you don’t tou- Hidden! Stay back ok?” She moved her hoof in front of me and pushed me back a few steps.

“Shh, this plant can be very dangerous,” she said, her voice shifting from annoyed to protective. “I want to teach you now where it’s relatively safe, okay?”

Everything turned to a blur. The floor moved again. Papers flew everywhere. Blood splattered against against the walls. Screams cut through the air.

~ ~ ~

I woke with a start, covered in a cold sweat. Scrambling to my hooves, I pushed myself up against the wall behind me. Wall? What? I looked around, and through my sleep-filled eyes, found myself in a shack. Right, a place we crashed in last night. I gulped, still trying to catch my breath.

“What! What’s wrong?” Lost Art yelled. She stared wide eyed at me, lit only by the dim green glow of the PipBuck’s screen.

“Nothing... Just,” I muttered, still panting. “A... Nightmare. I think? I don’t... remember. Something red, a flash of blue? I...” I shook my head, trying to clear the cobwebs away. “What time is it?”

“It was just a dream, sis, and the PipBuck you’re wearing has a clock,” L.A. reminded me as she turned back to the door. “Anyway, it’s either very late, or very early. It’s still dark out, so it depends on how you look at it. Might as well get up though, we have to go soon.” She pressed her nose against the door and stared out a crack between it and the frame. “I don’t want to still be here if somepony gets curious and comes over.”

Sitting up, I lifted my hooves and stretched as far as I could to wake myself the rest of the way up. “So, wanna just go to the town now?” I asked.

“Not yet, I don’t think,” she said, shaking her head. “It’s still too early for anypony to be up.”

“So, we go wait in the woods, away from the town and this shack?” I asked, raising an eyebrow.

“I don’t think so,” she answered, turning to look out through the crack at the doorway again. “The Ashen ponies might still be around, and it’s too dark to wander.” After a moment, she turned back to me.

“Alright... What do we do then?” I asked, staring at her. She wasn’t usually this indecisive. I checked the PipBuck again and looked over the map on it.

“I don’t know,” Lost finally admitted. “I can’t think right now. This wasn’t supposed to happen, we were supposed to get what we could and go back, safely.” She pressed a hoof to her throat and swallowed, staring right at me. “I’m tired...” She certainly sounded it, and the dark rings under her eyes were more pronounced than usual.

“Have you been sleeping at all?” I asked, standing up from the dirty mattress. I walked over and sat next to her.

“No, but somepony has to watch out for us. With mom gone,” she answered, turning away from me.

The dream flashed through my mind again. What was it that I was dreaming of... Whatever it was had been terrifying.

“...and furthermore, we’re still in the woods and have no idea what might be around us,” she finished.

“Well, I’m awake now, I’ll take watch,” I offered. I pointed to the mattress. “You just said you’re tired, and I know how you never sleep. You the need rest now.” I stomped on the wood of the floor and gave her a look to show I wasn’t going to argue. “Go.”

“Fine,” she huffed, but went to lay down anyway. “But only until daybreak, okay?”

“Okay. Just relax, I’ve got an eye for finding things and you know it, even if that means finding a pony coming toward us,” I said in my most reassuring voice. I looked out the crack that she had been using, but it was still pitch black outside...

I twisted an ear back, not hearing grumbling anymore. Checking, I saw Lost had managed to fall asleep. I breathed a sigh of relief, glad she’d finally let herself get some rest. Turning back, I laid down in front of the door and kept looking. It was still too dark to see anything, with the clouds hiding the stars and moon. Keeping watch was boring, nothing happened aside from the occasional sound of an animal off in the distance.

* * *

“... then I said, that’s why we cut it off,” said a voice. Other voices laughed, making my ears skew forward. They sounded close, rousing me from my place on the floor.

I opened one eye and snorted, wondering where I was. Blinking a few times, I stretched out my back legs and- Wait, what were those voices?

“Well, all in all it was a good night,” said one of the laughing voices. “Let’s get some-”

The door I laid at shifted and slammed into my muzzle. My eyes shot wide open, and I fought back a squeak of surprise. Somepony was outside, I’d fallen asleep. Lost was going to kill me. I put my hoof against the door and pushed back as hard as I could. This was bad, very bad.

“Huh?... It’s stuck!” yelled the voice outside. He pushed again, and the door slammed into my nose again.

“Lost! Pssst. Lost Art!” I whispered as loud as I could, digging my hooves against the floor and pushing as hard as I could. I really hoped she would wake up. We needed to leave, now. All alone, I couldn’t fight off... I didn’t even know how many ponies were out there. I tried to look through the little crack just as the door pushed back on me again. I dug my hooves in as hard as I could, looking back and forth between my sister and the door. “Lost!” I hissed again, praying to the Goddesses. She needed to wake up so we could get away. Now.

“Fucker won’t open! Somepony’s in our shack,” said the voice again. The door shook again, rattling on the hinges.

Okay so, at least three ponies, and they sound pissed off. Might be raiders. In the corner of my vision I could see three little red markers on the PipBuck’s E.F.S. This was very bad. I looked back at my rifle. If I could just get to... Oh right, no ammo. Okay, maybe... I lifted my right forehoof and looked at the PipBuck. Frantically, I started pushing buttons with my nose. Ok, items and then... I was not a thinky pony and I didn’t have a plan for this. I looked at Lost again. “Lost, please,” I begged.

Plan. I needed a plan, and something to fight with. I pushed against the jostling door as hard as I could. This was the worst possible time for L.A. to actually be asleep. I hooked some of the trash with a fetlock and kicked it over at her. “Pssst!” I whispered at her. “Lost, please!” I kicked a bottle at her.

I scrambled away as soon as I heard the cocking of a weapon. Right after, the pony outside fired. The door erupted into thousands of wooden splinters. The pony fired again, and the remainder exploded toward me. I covered my face with my hooves. It did little to shield me from the shrapnel. Dozens of shards dug into my legs, face and chest, sticking painfully.

“Lookie what we ‘ave ‘ere boys...” said the owner of the third voice, a mangy yellow earth pony in... oh no, raider barding. Lifting a hoof, he pushed a pair of goggles from over his eyes and stared at me, before looking over at my sister. He dropped his hoof and grinned.

“What the fuck’re you two bitches doing in our shit?” demanded the owner of the first voice, another raider barding-wearing stallion, who stepped forward to block the doorway. The older-looking unicorn’s horn lit up, and a length of pipe slid from his saddlebags.

“Can I shoot them?” asked the last pony, a grinning green earth pony with a battle saddle on. The shotgun jury rigged onto it was still smoking from when he blew the door open. Like the other two, he wore raider barding, with what looked like a pony skull on his left shoulder. He stared at me, his disturbingly bright blue eyes wide and leering.

The side of my head began to throb as I slowly realized that the unicorn had smashed me across the face with his pipe. Shaking my head and wincing, my hooves scrambled to keep me from toppling over.

“Don- -re. More poni- -ave fun with and sell,” the stallion said, but I couldn’t hear half of what he said over the ringing in my ears. He pushed past me and walked past toward Lost.

I watched hazily as the unicorn lifted the pipe into the air with his magic. Focusing as best I could, I shifted my weight and bucked with both rear hooves as hard as possible. I caught the stallion in his haunch and knocked him off to the side. The magic haze around the pipe disappeared and it clattered to the floor, clear of my sister. I glared at the other two in the doorway, as both stared in surprise that I was actually fighting back.

The pony with the shotgun shook his head and, regaining his focus, fired. His aim was terrible, most of the buckshot missed, but more than enough hit me. I cried out as the searing hot metal dug into my shoulder and side.

Gritting my teeth, I charged and dove headfirst into the green pony’s chest as hard as I could. I got an ‘oomph’ as a reward as the stallion dropped back off his hooves. Recoiling in pain, my wounded leg gave out under me. Really, after taking a pipe to my face, that wasn’t my best plan. The ringing in my ears gave me a reminder that I’d have to cut back on the head trauma. I dropped next to him, scattering the trash on the floor into the corners of the shack.

Behind me, Lost Art joined the fight I’d started. She stood up from the bed and began stomping at the unicorn I’d bucked onto the floor. Floored and struggling to keep conscious, all I could hear was a repeated, muffled thud as she bludgeoned the pony’s body with her hooves. The stallion fought and yelled, but went silent after only a few stomps.

The earth pony with the goggles reared up on his hind legs and slammed both forehooves into my side. I coughed, feeling the air forced from my lungs. I fell to the floor, right onto my bleeding leg, and yelped in pain. Looking up, I caught the yellow bastard rearing up to hit me again.

Before he could lunge forward, the metal pipe slammed into the side of his head, engulfed in a blue glow. As he fell to the side, it swung a second time. A sickening crack sounded from his skull, and he dropped to the trash-covered floor with a meaty thud. L.A. stood on the mattress, both of her forehooves covered in blood, panting and staring wide-eyed at the stallion’s body.

Lost flinched, her eyes shifting to look up at the doorway. “Hidden!” she yelled.

I looked back, catching the green stallion reload his shotgun with a kick. He twisted around and aimed the gun at Lost. He was shaking slightly, looking back and forth between the two of us. When Lost took a step forward and swung the pipe at him, he backed away from the doorway.

A loud clang echoed off his gun as the pipe hit it, and the stallion flinched away as he fired. It missed, and his buckshot dug into the floor right in front of Lost’s hooves.

Lost yelped and reared up, moving her hooves away from the now smoking floor. When the stallion turned to run, she charged after him. Panting, eyes wide, she swung the pipe wildly again, cracking it against the raider’s rear leg. Just outside the door, the two tumbled down to the ground, as Lost tripped herself over his grounded body.

“Fuck! Lemme go!” he screamed, sounding far different than the confident pony who had blown apart the door only a minute ago. The two scrambled around in the dirt outside, the pony struggling underneath Lost while she tried to keep away from his flailing and kicking hooves.

Pushing myself up onto my three good hooves, I limped over toward the door and watched the two roll around in the dirt. I knew I should jump in to help my sister, but... I looked down at my leg. That might make things a lot worse and just give him another target. She was my sister though. I ran over, gritting my teeth against the pain.

A flailing hoof caught me on the side of my muzzle, pushing my against my weak leg. Wincing in pain, I went down and they both rolled away from me, still struggling against one another. I wasn’t sure if it was my sister of the stallion who hit me, but it hurt.

Lost swung the pipe down on him, and his hooves jerked in the air, before falling to the ground. She pulled away, tearing herself from his grip and swung against him again. Her face twisted in fear and rage. She struck him again and again, until his legs went completely limp and he stopped struggling.

I forced myself up and grabbed the pipe in my fetlock. Pulling against her magic, I managed to force her to stop. I could feel the metal tugging, and she even wrapped the blue haze of her telekinesis around my hoof. Though she struggled to pull it, to hit him again, I held tight. “He’s dead,” I said.

Finally, the pipe stopped moving, and she slumped to the ground on her haunches. The haze around my hoof and the metal dimmed, and it fell to the ground. For an uncomfortable moment she was quiet, trembling and gazing vacantly at the dead pony.

I sat down beside my sister and leaned against her, favoring my leg. “Lost, are-”

“I was nearly murdered yesterday!” she yelled, cutting me off. Turning to face me, she stared wide-eyed, her lower lip quivering and tears rolling down her cheeks. “Do you have any idea what it-” She hiccuped, cutting herself off. Tenderly, she placed her hoof against the scar on her neck.

“Yeah, I do,” I said, motioning to the holes in my shoulder, and the blood running down my leg. They hurt, but I’d had a lot worse... I absently pressed the bloody hoof against the scar on my belly. “It’s just been a long time...” Not that I was going to let her see me in pain anyway, after what she’d been through today. I could handle a little buckshot, easy. Wrapping my good forehoof around her, I pulled tight, and turned away from the dead pony. “Come on, let’s... just get our things and go. The sooner the better.”

She gave a weak nod and I helped her up from the ground. She took a deep breath and shook her head a few times. “Alright, alright... I’m fine,” she said, sounding much calmer. “We should.” She shivered. “We should get whatever we can from these three first. I’ll go check the ones inside. I can’t look at...” She stared down at the mess that used to be a pony. “I can’t look at that anymore.”

“I’ll take care of all three, you just go get our things,” I said, knowing full well I’d find more anyway. Letting her go, I dug through the remains of the stallion. His barding was worthless, especially if we wanted to get into town and not get shot at first sight. I grabbed the pipe again, since it wouldn’t need ammo and could be used in a pinch. It was a mess, with chunks of... Goddesses. I wiped it off against the stallion’s only unbroken leg until it was mostly clean, then tucked it away. I even took the time to rip the shotgun from the earth pony’s battle saddle. He had a few shells left, but I wouldn’t be able to use it myself unless I made some adjustments, and I couldn’t do that here in the woods. Into my saddlebag the shells went, along with the gun, opposite my rifle. Walking inside, I passed the pipe to Lost. When she took it, I forced a smile and said, “Here, since you seem to be good with it.”

“Not funny, Hidden,” she said, glaring at me. Looking it up and down a few times, she put it into her saddlebags anyway. “Waste not, want not...”

I dug through the other two stallion’s as quick as I could, while Lost watched and shifted on her hooves. All they had were some broken guns, ammo, and caps, which found their way into my saddlebags to worry about later. Just in case we ran into anypony else on the way to town, I pulled my battle saddle on. I might not have any ammo in my gun, but they wouldn’t know that.

With the pony’s things, and a whole lot of emotional trauma, we left the shack and headed back
into the woods.

* * *

I checked the compass and sidestepped another tree, barely missing clipping it with my wounded shoulder. Giving the rotting wood I glare, I turned back to the town up at the edge of the woods. We still had a short walk, and the sun was high enough over the horizon that it was starting to disappear behind the cloud cover again.

“Really wish we could see the sun for more than a few minutes in the morning,” I muttered to myself, squinting an eye. Dull light all day under the clouds, and blinding orange every morning and evening wasn’t the right way to live. Then again, neither was the way we’d spent the morning, if the bloody hoofprints we were both leaving said anything...

I had high hopes for the new day, though. My heart was pounding, and I couldn’t tell if it was from excitement or if I was scared. New ponies weren’t something I had, well, any experience with. It felt weird to walk toward an actual town, and not just flag down a single pony after tailing them for an hour to make sure they were safe to trade with. I did have the PipBuck now though, and I hadn’t seen anypony showing up that wanted to attack us, so this might just be something fun. My stomach felt off, but not bad, like when I found a new treasure hunting spot but then it looked like other ponies had been there. I was practically shaking. It was so long since I’d been to a... wait, had I ever been to a real settlement with normal ponies?

I stopped and looked up at the sky, squinting one eye and cocking my head to the side. There was... no, that didn’t count I don’t think. It was just two traders that were already doing business. That didn’t count as a group. Did it? I shrugged. “Hey, Lost? A group only counts if its more than two, right?” I asked, walking forward again.

For that matter, would these be normal ponies, or just a town of bad ponies? Mom always taught us that groups were bad because they tended to care more about their own than any new ponies. That’s exactly what Lost and I did though. We looked out for one another, and let everypony else fight the Wasteland for themselves. We survived the same way everypony did, according to mom. We looked out for the ones most important to us. Lost looked out for ... “Lost?”

She hadn’t ever answered me. I spun around as quick as I could, already bracing to find myself alone.

Lost stood a short distance behind me, staring forward blankly. She muttered something to herself, lifting a hoof. She set it back down right where it had been, then did the same with her other hoof. While I watched, she did the same thing a few more times, just raising one hoof and setting it down, then again on the other side.

“Lost, what... what are you doing?” I asked, mimicking her by lifting my shot hoof and setting it gingerly back down. A lance of pain shot up my leg as it touched the dirt. Wincing, I gritted my teeth and focused on my sister.

Blinking several times, she turned to me and stared as if I’d grown another head. Taking a deep breath, she set her hoof down again and walked over to me. “I’m trying to do this for you,” she said. “We can’t though. We can’t do this.”

“We can’t do what?” I asked. “Can’t go into the town? Lost, we have to...”

“No. We don’t. We don’t have to at all,” she shot back, her voice sharpening. “We’re under exactly no obligation to do anything for anypony. We were minding our own business and the Wasteland just happened.” Turning away from me, she looked back into the woods. “All we have to do is turn around and go home.”

“Circle around this way,” she interrupted, finishing for me and pointing her hoof out in the opposite direction of the shack we’d come from. “Where we didn’t see any psychopath fire-ponies,” she added, grumbling about her mane. “Then we go straight home.”

“You don’t need to do anything, Hidden!” she said, her voice raising. She turned back and pressed her muzzle against mine. “There is no obligation here. This is the Wasteland. Ponies die every. Single. Day. We’ve been lucky it wasn’t us, since every pony we’ve met around here has wanted us dead. What if that town is where the psychos came from? We go home, and forget this whole business of towns and ponies. We stay out of sight, like mom taught us. You remember, right?”

I saw another flash, screaming and blood. A thud when a body hit the ground. Shivering, I suddenly remembered. I wish I hadn’t... It was that dream. Again.

“I... I remember,” I said sheepishly, backing away and swaying slightly. To keep from losing my balance, I plopped myself down on my haunches and stared at the dirt. “I just figured, y’know, we could sell our stuff and get a quick answer. Then we’d be able to head home. This doesn’t have to be a lifetime commitment.”

“When is anything not?” she asked, sitting across from me. Hesitantly, she looked around, leaning to look past me, and then twisting to look behind her. There wasn’t anything showing on the E.F.S., but she couldn’t know that. When she was satisfied we weren’t in any danger sitting, she continued. “What if we go in there and it becomes a lifetime commitment, because they get mad and end our lifetime?”

“Do you really think a pony is just going to murder somepony in the middle of a town?” I asked, trying my hardest to give non-raiders the benefit of the doubt.

Lost deadpanned and stomped a forehoof in frustration. “Yes!” she shouted. “Don’t you remember?” Her voice wavered.

“Remember what?” I asked. I didn’t remember much of anything, if it didn’t involve treasure hunting. My memory wasn’t the best as it was, and I always tried to live in the present. The past was painful.

“You were too young at the time, so you don’t remember. That’s... it’s good, but, I’ve watched ponies kill in front of their own,” she said, baring her teeth. “In front of their little clique.” Sniffling, she wiped away the beginnings of a tear. “They do not care who sees, they’ll justify it, claim they just did what everypony was thinking. They’ll say ‘She was an outsider. She threatened our safety. She wasn’t one of us anyway. One pony for all of us to be safe, it’s a fine price to pay.’ and the others will agree. It’s just how ponies work.”

I shifted my weight and looked down at my hooves. Goddesses I was still covered in blood...

“Please give up on this,” she whispered, scooting closer and leaning her neck against mine. Resting against my shoulder, she sighed. “I just don’t want to lose you, too.” She reached up a hoof and grabbed onto me, then squeezed tight. “Are you okay?”

Joining her in sighing, I leaned back against her and closed my eyes. Snorting, I blew part of her mane from my face and nuzzled. “You won’t lose me, Lost,” I promised. “I am, I don’t want to give up on this. It’ll be a quick trip, in a shop and out again, and then we can leave right away.” I could ask there, and if we got no answer, I’d agree to leave.

“That’s not what I meant,” she said, releasing her grip and looking at me. “You’re ice cold and shaking.”

“I’m fine,” I shot back, my ears drooping. I was so close, and all she did was try and change the subject.

“We need to go home, where you can rest. Where we can both recover,” she said in a protective tone. “Come on. Home is the safest place we can go right now. Especially with how bad you’re looking, the last thing we need is new ponies thinking the worst.” Waving a hoof, she stood up and turned away.

Longingly, I looked at the town behind me. There went that... Lost made the rules, and she’d put her hoof down. When she got like that, I knew there wasn’t any arguing with it. I forced myself up onto my hooves. Wobbling, I had to take several steps to keep from falling over. My head felt light, almost like it had popped off and was floating away. I looked down to try and get my bearings, only to see a massive pool of blood below me. “Lost... I think... I need a docto...”

“What?” Lost asked calmly, still walking away. Her ear twitched when I hit the ground, and she spun around. “Oh Goddesses, Hidden!” Running back to me, she grimaced and looked at the wound on my leg. “That’s why you’re shaking...” Her horn lit up and she grabbed me. “I hate you for this, but yes, we’re getting you to a doctor. Right now.” She lifted me up, pushing me over to lay across her back.

* * *

“Lost,” I muttered, staring lazily at the empty street that ran through the town. Though it’d only been a few minutes I was off my hooves, I was already feeling plenty better. I didn’t even have the sun in my eyes anymore. “Let me walk, please?” I didn’t want to look helpless for the first time meeting new ponies.

“You really shouldn’t,” she answered, stopping and looking back at me. “We just...” She turned back and forth, then sighed. “We need to find a doctor, but I don’t see anything that stands out.”

There were only three real buildings in the entire town, one with the word ‘General Store’ painted on the front, and another had ‘Inn’ hastily scrawled across it. The third sat near a waterfall right against the mountainside, but didn’t look like a place anypony could live. Half looked normal, but the other half’s walls were gone, leaving only the supports holding up the roof. A massive saw stuck into the air from the floor, which really couldn’t have been safe for anypony. A faded sign reading ‘Split Log’s Sawmill’ hung off one hinge above the saw, with a picture of a log being sawed in half underneath the name.

It was immediately obvious why three dangerous ponies were able to set up shop not even trotting distance away. The only defense set up was an empty balcony with a gun mount facing the woods, built on the back of the Inn. It didn’t even qualify as a guard tower.

“We just need to ask somepony...” I suggested, wriggling off my sister’s back. Groaning, I landed on my hooves and faltered. My head still felt a little empty, but I was tough enough to walk on my own, as long as I didn’t move too fast.

L.A. glared at me, but rolled her eyes when I waved my hoof dismissively. “Best to check the store then, I think. Worst case, they won’t have a doctor here, but we might be able to buy a healing potion or some bandages or something,” she said hesitantly. “And maybe a new gun. I don’t like being without some protection.”

“Good point. Plus I can ask about this,” I said, motioning my bloody hoof to the PipBuck. “And, y’know, the stallion I killed,” I said, trying to take my mind off the bleeding and the light headedness.

Lost Art simply sighed and walked off, heading toward the store with an anxious gait. I followed, and when we opened the door a blue unicorn with a teal mane greeted us from behind the counter.

“Hello, welcome to...” he said in a droll voice, slowly looking up at us as he spoke. “Oh... Haven’t seen either of you in town before. Welcome to Pommel Falls.” He grinned at us. “ New ponies, hmm... Have you come for the amazing deals? I sell everything, guns, ammo, information, armor, tools! You name it, I can get it for you.”

“Umm... Well,” Lost Art said, walking up to the counter. “We were looking for a doctor, actually. Or if you don’t have one here in town, maybe some medical supplies. We have some stuff to sell after I get my sister tended to.”

“That’s really not important right now,” she said, earning a confused look from the stallion behind the counter. When I didn’t stop motioning, she slumped. “Fine. Do you have anything I can use to make a latch for that?” She pointed to the little hoof-mounted device.

"Doctor, yes. Trading? Sure,” the salespony said. “As for a latch?” He propped his chin up on his hoof and stared at the ceiling for a moment. “Yeah... I got nothin’.”

Before she could finish her chiding, the door to the shop opened and a unicorn mare waltzed in.

“Broker, I was looking to get- Oh, I didn’t know you were already helping customers. I can...” the purple pony said, trailing off as she looked over the two of us. She looked Lost up and down, then glanced at me, before idly looking down at the blood and PipBuck on my forelegs. With a smile she stepped over and offered a hoof to my sister. “Nice to meet you both, allow me to introduce myself; my name is Hydro. I’m in charge of the town here.”

“Pfft, so you think,” muttered Broker. “Don’t forget about Waterwheel and Rainfall. What’ll they think if you go ‘round telling everypony that you’re in charge, all while interrupting my sales...” He ducked behind the counter and rummaged through his supplies. “Now, my good mares, don’t you worry. I’ll find something to make a latch for you.”

“Getting to the doctor is more important to me than the latch right now,” Lost Art said, hesitantly shaking hooves with the mare. “Are you aware there were raiders just outside your town?”

“Well, there are raiders everywhere,” she answered, pulling her hoof back and wiping the blood smear off a rag from one of the shelves. “We do our best, but this is a small town and we can’t be everywhere at once.” Once again she looked at the blood covering me and my sister. “That said, if they were outside, I take it you two took care of them?”

“Yeah...” I answered, looking over at Lost and frowning. Waving my wounded hoof and splattering blood on the floor, I changed the subject. “About that doctor? I’m starting to shake again.” I could feel my legs wobbling, and it was starting to get to me.

“Of course, I’ll take you to Grinder,” she said, smiling. “He’s our resident doctor, and should be able to take care of whatever you need.”

“I keep telling you to put a pony up there at all hours, Hydro,” said the merchant pony from behind the counter. In the pink haze of his magic, he floated a few strips of metal and several screws up and set them where we could see them. “I do not want to have to worry about raiders or bandits showing up to steal my things. All I’ve got is here and I won’t let carelessness take that from me.”

“The town is safe, you know that,” Hydro shot back, her tone harsh. Turning back to my sister and me, she waved a hoof. “Please, come with me? We’ll get you patched up before any of the townsponies see the blood. Can’t have a panic, after all.” She tossed her blonde mane to the side, and started toward the door.

“Hey now, don’t go stealing my customers after I’ve just found what they wanted,” Broker said, finally popping back up from behind the counter. He dropped another few pieces of scrap metal, and what looked like a hinge, into the pile. “I found something you might be able to use. It’ll be 50 caps though.”

“Broker, that won’t be necessary,” Hydro said dismissively. “They are our guests, and I won’t have you overcharging ponies who took care of raiders so close to home. Put it on my tab. I’ll return later for the usual.” The purple unicorn pulled the door open with her magic and motioned for us to follow her.

Lost Art grabbed the metal bits in the haze of her telekinesis and together we followed the local mare out.

“No,” Lost whispered back anxiously. “It’s taking everything I’ve got not to just grab you and run, but you need a doctor... Just be on guard.”

* * *

“Now then, follow me and I’ll show you to our oldest resident. He’s been here since before the town started up,” Hydro explained as we walked from Broker’s general store to the mill at the rear of the town. “Watch your step,” she said as she hopped up onto the floor of the mill.

It was a lot larger up close. Several doors lined the wall that faced the saw, each with signs too faded to read. Wet mist and spray filled the air from the waterfall beyond the building, making the floor slick and matting down my coat as we walked through. Through the open section, I saw a massive lake behind the building, feeding into a river that disappeared into the woods behind Broker’s store.

“Just watch out for the waterwheel,” Hydro said, staring at the two of us like mom would when we’d touched something we shouldn’t have as fillies. “So far every pony that’s touched it other than...” She rolled her eyes. “Other than Waterwheel himself has gotten either a hoof broken or broke our electricity.”

“The pony who runs the waterwheel, is named Waterwheel?” Lost asked, one eyebrow raised.

“That’s what he said his name was when I met him, and I haven’t questioned it. It’s better than ‘Hey You!’ afterall,” Hydro answered, her tone softening. “Anyway. It’s this door right here.” She pointed to one of the doors. “I’ll be heading back to my office. Grinder’s a good doctor, but he doesn’t like onlookers for some reason.” She knocked at the doctor’s door, then trotted off.

As Lost and I exchanged looks, the door between us swung open and slammed into the wall with an echoing thud. Both of us let out loud squeaks of surprise. In the doorway stood a frazzled looking grey earth pony, staring at us.

“Who’s first,” he demanded, eyeing my sister, then me. His eyes trailed up and down the two of us, since we were both covered in blood. “Who’s blood is it?”

“You first then,” he announced, reaching out and hooking a forehoof around my neck. With surprising strength for such an old stallion, he dragged me off my hooves and into his office. In one smooth motion, he spun around and slammed the door shut with a rear hoof.

I dug myself against the floor and pushed, trying to fight against his grip so I could get out. “Stop!” I shouted, rasping at the pain in my leg. “Let my sister in! What are you doing to me?”

The door slammed behind me, jumping on its hinges but not opening. Lost yelled, “Hidden! Dammit...” The door shook a few times. “Fucking. Let me in!”

“One patient at a time, that’s the rules,” argued the doctor, rolling his eyes.

“Please let her in,” I begged. The last thing I wanted was to be locked in a room alone with a stallion I didn’t know. Ponies were bad, mom was right.

The doctor pony sighed. “I have standards and even if this is a Goddesses-forsaken wasteland, I was taught to do it this way and we’re doing it this way.” He lowered his brows and flicked his head to the side, motioning me further into the room. Yelling, he looked at the door. “You're both septic risks to each other and I'm not going to waste my time letting you contaminate each other any more than you already have!”

The door slammed on its hinges again and finally went still. “Fine! Hidden, if he’s a good doctor, it’ll be okay... Just, just,” she said, pausing. The door squeaked on its hinges. “I’m right here on the other side of the door, okay? I promise. If he does anything to you, he’ll answer to me.”

“Just relax,” Grinder said calmly. He rolled his eyes at Lost’s threat. “I’m not going to bite. Look around, get comfortable, and we’ll get to work.”

The room hadn’t been a doctor’s office originally. It looked more like the maintenance room in the Stable, with filing cabinets and a desk in the corner. A faded, curling graph hung from the wall, with scribblings all across it. In the corner, somepony had drawn an outline of a pony, much like the one on the PipBuck, and started coloring in the legs. In the far corner was something as tall as I was, covered by a massive tarp that hung almost to the floor.

Grinder pushed me toward a pair of wooden tables shoved together. “Lay here on the examination table, and stick your leg out,” he ordered. “And take off the gun and the bags, they’ll just get in the way.”

I did as he said, taking the battle saddle off and setting it with my saddlebags against the wall. Afterward, I hopped up onto the table like he asked, which wasn’t as easy as I’d hoped. I yelped in pain when my hoof caught the edge of the table, and the stallion had to help push me up all the way. Once comfortable, I held up my foreleg for him to look at.

“So, what happened to you two?” he asked, grabbing onto my foreleg with his fetlock and pulling it up to his eyes.

“Well.... Ghouls. Then gangers. Then I got shot dealing with some raiders outside the town,” I explained, closing one eye and grinding my teeth. I could deal with pain, but the way he kept poking and prodding with his hooves had me fighting off yelping again.

“Oh dear, oh no,” he said, making little ‘tsktsk’ sounds. “This is bad. The buckshot...” He shook his head, gray mane swaying as he did. He took a step toward the tarp in the corner. “We’re going to have to use thish,” He pulled it away on the far wall with his mouth, revealing a gigantic sawblade. “To amputate!” He smiled wide.

“What!” I squeaked, feeling what little blood I had left drain from my face. I swore my heart stopped. “But I need this leg!” I grabbed it with my other hoof and pulled it close, scooting away from that horrible thing.

The doctor blinked a few times, staring at me in disbelief. “I... It’s a joke, silly filly. I’m a doctor not a butcher,” he said, chuckling. “It’s an old doctor’s trick. Show the patient the worst possibility, then the rest isn’t so bad.” He leaned in close. “Don’t tell the other mare out there, okay?”

“I’m going to tell my sister,” I warned him, slowly releasing my death grip on my aching hoof. We’d had far too many close calls lately, and the last thing she needed was another pointless scare.

The stallion just rolled his eyes, muttering something about ponies not having a sense of humor. He dragged the tarp back up over the saw. “Regardless, let’s get those pellets out. We’ll go from there, and I’ll see what’s best to patch everything up. Hold your hoof back out.” After he explained, he grabbed a bag emblazoned with a set of crossed potion bottles that matched his cutie mark from atop the desk and trotted over to me.

Dropping the bag onto the table in front of me, he pulled out a set of tools I couldn’t identify, but quickly got to know as both cold and annoyingly not-quite-painful. He didn’t speak as he examined me, since his mouth was full the entire time, but checked over my ears, eyes, and even looked at the PipBuck’s screen to see what it could tell him. Once he’d finished examining my head and the machine, he pulled out a massive pair of tweezers and hooked them into the corner of his mouth.

“I’m sorry, but this part is going to hurt,” he warned me. “Unfortunately, I don’t have anything in stock to cut out the pain, but I trust you can get through it.” He hit me gently in my good shoulder. “Yer an earth pony, I know how tough we can be.” Chuckling to himself, he twisted the tweezers to the center of his mouth and pulled my foreleg toward him.

He dug straight into pulling the little lead pellets out of my leg. I knew from experience that earth ponies had a lot of skill at putting things where they needed to go the first time, but apparently that didn’t count when said earth pony was digging around under my skin. Especially since he had to go by feel.

“Can’t you- Ow! Knock me out for this?” I begged, biting my tongue so hard I could taste blood. My shoulder spasmed and twitched as he dug the tweezers into one of the holes with his teeth.

The doctor released the tweezers, leaving them balancing inside me and looked up at me. “I can’t, don’t have the supplies,” he answered. “But feel free to pass out whenever you get too uncomfortable.” He bit down on the tweezers again and twisted them, jamming the tips deeper.

“Good- Ahhh! Idea...” I muttered. I closed my eyes and focused, trying to will myself asleep, despite the pain. I groaned. Oh, right, I’d just take a little nap while he dug around- Something in my leg twisted in a bad way. Oh. That’ll do-

* * *

I clenched my eyes closed. "Nuh uh," I grumbled back at her as I rolled off the edge of whatever I was laying on and fell flat on my face.

“Ow...” I groaned, shaking my head. Wobbling, I stood up and blinked a few times to get adjusted to the light. In front of me was Lost, staring with a slightly annoyed look on her face. Behind her was the doctor, his jaw open and an eyelid twitching.

“I just fixed you,” he grumbled, facehoofing. Grumbling something about stupid fillies, he pointed to the door. “Out. Out of my office, now. Go wait by the saw for Hydro, or leave town. I don’t care.”

“Come on,” Lost said, motioning for me to follow her. She looked a lot better than when I’d last seen her. The blood that coated her was all gone, and the scar on her neck had nearly vanished. What used to be a nasty looking brown mark was replaced by a faded grey spot barely visible under her coat. Were it not for the small bald patch, I’d have thought she wasn’t ever shot.

I looked similarly better, actually. All the blood I’d lost was gone, washed or magicked away while I was sleeping. My coat still had a red tinge to it, but it looked none the worse for wear. My entire leg was covered in a thick, splotchy bandage. It wrapped from my fetlock up, around my shoulder and made walking difficult from how tight it was. I grabbed my things from against the wall, threw them over my back, and followed my sister.

She led me back out into the main section of the mill, and sat down across from the doctor’s door on a stack of cut logs wedged against the far support beam. “Here, we’ve got a minute,” she said, patting the logs next to her. “Let me see the PipBuck so I can figure out how to make a latch for it.”

“Sure,” I agreed, looking at the little device on my hoof. Stiffly walking over, I sat down next to her. Taking a moment to get comfy on my stomach, I offered the terminal-like device. “So... What happened while I was out?”

“Not much,” she answered, her horn lighting up. The little screwdriver I’d snagged from the Stable slid from her saddlebags. “You were only asleep for, I don’t know, thirty minutes maybe? He called me in once he finished with you, and ranted something about you might wake up and he didn’t like onlookers. Then he pulled out a giant sawblade.” She laughed. “The idiot said he wanted to ‘amputate my neck.’ How fucking absurd.” She rolled her eyes and grabbed my hoof in hers. Twisting it so the PipBuck’s screen was at the bottom, she hooked the screwdriver up under the casing.

“He pulled that trick on me, too,” I said, rolling to the side to follow my twisting forehoof. “I didn’t want to lose my leg...”

“If he tried something like that, I’d have fed him the leg. Then made him reattach it,” Lost said with a scowl. That was a gross suggestion. She twisted the screwdriver around, then pulled it out and started on the other side. “You know, mom always acted like these things were designed to never come off, but I don’t think that’s the case.” She squinted. “Probably just what they told everypony so they could abuse their customers...”

“So how do you know how to get it off then?” I asked, watching the screwdriver twist around. While she worked on the PipBuck, I rearranged my own things. Taking off my saddlebags, I put on my battle saddle. Once it was in place, I tossed my bags back where they belonged.

“Same reason I can work my magic on terminals,” she said, plucking the screwdriver away. “It’s all the same basic thing, really.” She nodded toward her cutie mark. “My special talent isn’t just knowing how I can make this type of thing work for me. I also know how it works on its own.” She cracked the casing open and pulled the PipBuck from my fetlock. “I just never get a chance to show off what I’m good at because, y’know, the whole world is an irradiated shithole.”

“Good point,” I muttered, rolling my hoof around. It’d only been a day, but I’d gotten so used to it I didn’t like not seeing it there. I’d promised to share though, but... losing the E.F.S. was scary. I’d already gotten so used to the little markers and things in the corner of my vision that not having them felt wrong.

“I don’t know how I know, really,” she added with a shrug. “I just see how it all works together. I could take this whole thing apart and put it back together better if there was a way to. And if we had the time.” True to her word, she popped the screwdriver back in and twisted something. When she pulled the screwdriver back out, the padding inside dropped out and onto the logs between us. As it fell, her horn pulsed brighter and all the little spare parts she’d gotten from the salespony floated up from her saddlebags and into the air next to her. “Okay, time to focus.”

I watched while she worked, as the pieces floated back and forth into the casing and up against the panels. With her cheater magic, she managed to pull apart the entire inside and lay it out on the logs in exactly the same spots it went back in. Dozens of little pieces came out, all while she worked diligently, nothing except her eyes moving to follow the movements of her tool the parts.

The soft clopping of hooves on the wet floor sounded to our side. Hydro walked up and stared down at the parts. “Well, that’s going to put a damper on things,” she said.

“I actually had a proposition for you both, because of the PipBuck,” she answered. Rubbing the back of her mane with a hoof, she sucked air past her teeth. “But if it's broken, then maybe not.”

“It’s not broken, it’s just apart,” Lost said as she worked one of the spare parts up under the casing. “I know where every piece goes and I’ll be able to fix whatever might be damaged.” She never once looked at the other mare. Another piece clicked into place and she smirked. “It’ll be better than ever once I finish.”

“Oh, in that case, I might have a job for the two of you?” she said, sounding hesitant. “We’ve having issues with the quality of the water coming from the lake atop the mountain.” She pointed over to the waterfall. “One of our stallions is going up to look for the problem and well... six eyes are better than two.”

“No,” Lost said. “We’re not staying around. We’re here for trading and healing, not jobs or initiations or whatever you ponies do.” She lifted another set of pieces and popped them up inside the casing. The PipBuck spun around in the air, and once righted, she stuck her muzzle in for a better look.

“Look, we’re offering you free medical services, and I’ll make sure you get a good deal with Broker,” Hydro shot back, no longer sounding so easygoing. “There shouldn’t be any issues, it’s just going to be a quick up and down. I’m not the kind of pony to send a mare fresh from the doctor’s into a firefight, after all.”

Lost sighed and lowered the PipBuck and its pieces to the logs. “Well... If its so easy then why send outside ponies like us?”

“The PipBuck comes with a radiation detector that I was hoping we could put to use,” Hydro answered matter-of-factly.

“Wait, how do you know that?” Lost asked, looking up from the device for the first time. “You don’t have one on...” She looked down at the PipBuck and snapped another piece into the inside of the casing with her magic. “And now it has a radiation detector.” She grinned. “I’d had it disconnected.”

“Well, there was a stallion a while back who came through with one,” she answered, her purple coat shifting slightly redder as she blushed. She stared away at the waterfall. “It looked a lot like that. He and I-”

“The short version is that he showed her how things work,” said a stallion’s voice. A large brown earth pony with a spiky green mane walked up and gave a snort. “Offering propositions out here in the damp?” He smirked.

“What was his name...” I asked hesitantly, already trying to put the pieces together. It was a bit of a leap, but if... And then... Oh Goddesses.

“He never said, I didn’t ask... It was only one night,” she answered. Her purple coat actually managed to turn the perfect shade of crimson to match the guilty look on her face.

I could barely hold back a facehoof. Okay, not mentioning to her what had happened, just in case. I shrunk back a bit. “You don’t think...” I whispered to Lost.

She just nodded curtly and snapped another chunk of the PipBuck back together. “I’m nearly done with this and then we can talk somewhere dryer,” she said. The remaining pieces of the PipBuck all lifted into the air, each wrapped in their own little blue glow. In quick succession, each piece slotted into its rightful spot. When she’d gotten everything back together, she floating the padding up inside, and twisted something in the casing. The padding pulled tight against the inside of the device. “Watch this, Hidden,” she said, holding the PipBuck out. With her telekinesis, she flipped the latch a few times. A little mechanism flicked out from one side of the casing and then disappeared again. “Easy, and only I know the trick to make to work.” Lowering the device onto her fetlock, she latched it tight and powered it on.

The back of the PipBuck glowed for a moment, and a little click echoed from inside. The second it did, the screen lit up brightly, and her eyes sparkled for a moment with green. She blinked once, and her eyes went wide. “That’s going to take some getting used to,” she muttered, before sliding off the logs and onto the slippery floor. “Alright, now we can talk business.”

I followed suit and dropped to standing, though I still felt a bit stiff where the bandages held my leg tightly. At the prompting of the two townsponies, we followed them into the last doorway at the edge of the mill’s main building.

Once inside, the stallion shut the door behind him and joined us in the center of the room. Hydro sat at one of the three large desks in the center of the room and smiled awkwardly. The place was a cluttered mess, with old rolls of paper pushed into a corner and more graphs and maps pinned to the walls. Several filing cabinets lined one side, as well as a strange looking clock with several slips of wilted paper hanging from the wall next to it. Near the back of the room, sitting atop the largest desk, was a wooden nameplate in perfect condition, reading “Mr. Split Log” with the same split tree cutie mark symbol right after it. This must have been his office when the sawmill actually worked as a sawmill. It might have been nice, if it weren’t so ancient.

“I don’t know if I’ve been introduced yet,” said the stallion. “You might have guessed from the cutie mark.” He lifted a hind leg and nodded toward the wooden-looking wheel on his haunch. “But I’m the one in charge of the waterwheel that powers this whole place.” He sighed. “And yes, it’s my name too.”

With a snort of annoyance, he continued and motioned for us to walk over. “I’m sorry for such short notice,” he said, “but this is massively important to us.” On his desk was a map, with a hastily scribbled marking for where the town was. He pointed a hoof at it as he kept talking. “The lake here is only half of a larger set. Up here, at the top of a hoof path, there’s another much larger lake that feeds the waterfall. It's fed by a natural spring that was never hit with any balefire, so it gives us much safer water than the rest of the Wasteland gets.”

“Uh... huh,” I said dumbly, trying to follow along. I was still trying to figure out what all the little circle-y lines were on the map. Lost was the thinky pony, she should be able to figure it all out.

“Okay, again,” Lost said. “If this is all just a walk up and look around thing, why not just go yourselves?”

“Several reasons,” countered Hydro. “First of which is that there’s only the three of us who know how to do any of the necessary functions to survive here. The water we get provides power for us.” She tapped one of the lights sitting on the desk. I hadn’t even noticed it was on and glowing brightly. “It’s fresh water for the entire region, from the mountains here all the way down to the old Academy. And if any of the three of us get hurt, or something worse, the whole Wasteland suffers.”

“Again,” Lost seethed, obviously getting frustrated. “If this is supposed to be so Goddesses-damned easy, what’s the risk in going yourself?”

“I’m scared of heights!” shouted the mare. She sighed and slammed her head onto the desk. “And he has a bad leg and can’t climb. We have reasons, we’re not just asking because we’re lazy!” She raised her head from the desk and glared at my sister. “I scratched your back, can you please scratch mine?”

Waterwheel looked at her and just shook his head. “Three ponies on the ground will help it all go faster. On top of that, your PipBuck allows you to search for anything out of place much easier than anything we have on our own. The map function and the radiation meter will make the search that much faster.” He held up a hoof to stop any questions. “Before you ask how I know all that, I’ll remind you that I’m far older than you and I’ve been around a lot.”

“Ponies might die without the water here, and you’ve got something none of the rest of us have,” he said, ignoring the laughter. “Rainfall will go up with you, and I’m sure Broker will be... convinced, to give you something to help in case of emergencies. Whatever you need from him, just ask.”

“And it’s not an initiation,” added Hydro. “We’re not a cult. The minute you come back down, you can walk out and let us handle whatever the problem is.”

“We need a minute,” Lost said. She grabbed me with a hoof and trotted me over to the corner of the room. “We should refuse and leave.”

“Why?” I asked. Looking down at my leg, and the blood-stained bandages covering, I couldn’t help feeling a bit obligated. “They helped us, for free. We can get ammo and a new gun for you and then just leave the minute we get back. All we’ve got right now is hooves and that pipe...”

“Yeah, I guess...” Lost agreed, hesitantly. “I just don’t think it’s smart to get caught up in these ponies’ lives. It’s their business. We need to get home.”

“Lost... I killed that mare’s... stallion? Lover? I don’t know,” I whispered, leaning in close. “The least we could do is make sure their water isn’t going bad. It would be nice to get some clean water for ourselves, too.” Sighing, I shifted my weight. “I think we should. I owe them.”

Lost turned around and faced the two townsponies. “Easy search, then straight back down. Right?” she asked firmly.

* * *

We were told our guide would meet us back at Broker's store, but when we walked in, there was nopony aside from the shopkeeper. Lost rolled her eyes in annoyance, before walking to look at the wares hung from the walls.

“Back so soon?” asked Broker casually. “Have a look around for anything you want, and... you mentioned you had things to trade?”

“Yeah, yeah,” Lost said dismissively, not bothering to turn to the stallion. She looked over everything on the shelves or hung from the wall. “What do you have in the way of guns?”

“Far side, but the selection is small. Most of what I get goes straight toward town defense,” he answered, grumbling something that sounded suspiciously like a complaint about losing profits.

Without a word, Lost and I walked over to that side of the store and started browsing. He was right, with little in the way of guns, but plenty of ammunition. I picked through each and every round, digging out what I knew fit my rifle. Aside from a few specialty bullets that didn’t go to any gun I recognized, all the 'common' bullets were mixed together in a box on the floor. I rummaged through the assortment, pulling out bullets we could use and passed them to Lost to hold in her telekinetic haze.

“I need a new gun,” she said, leaning down to look at the few pistols he had on display. With a sly smile, she pulled a little 9mm from the shelf. “Might as well get it now while it’s cheap.” The outside of the barrel was rusted, but otherwise the gun looked good.

“Mmphm,” I muffled, agreeing through a mouth full of bullets. Really, having cheater magic would have made it a lot easier to dig through a box of rounds. I couldn’t do much with my hooves. Offering the remaining bullets to my sister, I shoved the box back against the shelf.

Working the taste of metal from my mouth, I sat up and looked at Lost. “Okay, what ne-”

The door opened and the head of a tan coated mare poked in followed by her choppy pink mane.

“Nope, I’m looking for...” said the pony in a deep voice, looking around, “these two.” Okay, maybe not a mare after all, but it was a honest mistake with a face like that. The stallion walked all the way into the store and trotted over. Flashing a smile, he looked us each up and down. “Two mares, one bandaged and the other with a bandana. You must be the two Waterwheel told me to look for?” he asked, fluttering his wings to the side.

I’d never seen one in the flesh before. Could he really fly with those? I wanted to reach out and touch his wings, to see if they were really real. A pony flying up above the clouds, maybe they could even see the sky and the sun? That was really amazing. Not something a pony like I could ever do... I didn’t even have cheater magic like my sister. I was just a boring ol-

“Huh?” I muttered. Ignoring my absolutely perfect first impression, I waved to the stallion. “I mean, hi.”

“Nice to meet you both,” he said. “Are you ready to go? We can start whenever you’re ready.”

“Hydro said it was just a quick up and down,” Lost replied, floating the bullets around in her magic in a little circle. She pointed to the bullets. “We’re just grabbing some things we’ll need for when we leave. While you’re here, is there anything we should grab for her request?”

At the mention of the mare’s name, the stallion grit his teeth and looked away, glaring sadly at the wall. “Yeah, it’ll be pretty easy. Up and down, then you can head off,” he said. Sighing, he shook his head. “What is it with mares and commitment around here?”

The stallion stared for a moment, the color draining for his face. “Nothing,” he said, turning away. He cleared his throat and walked toward Broker at the counter. “Let me know when you finish.”

“That was weird,” I said, looking at my sister. When she shrugged in response, I shrugged back. “What else do we need?”

Lost shrugged. “Nothing,” she answered. “If this is just up and back... We could get food, but we can find plenty out in the Wasteland, and I don’t want to end up in debt to these ponies.” She floated the pistol between us. “Let’s just get these for emergencies, and head up. Then leave, as soon as we can.”

When we approached the counter and Lost set what we’d picked out on the counter, Broker looked up. “That all?” he asked. “It’ll be-”

“Broker,” Rainfall said, giving the merchant a look. “You’re not going to overcharge these nice mares, are you?” He smiled and leaned over toward Lost and I. “Don’t let him get the best of you, he’s a pushover,” he whispered.

Broker shot the pegasus a scowl. “Fine,” he said. Grabbing the gun in his magic, he held it up and spun it in the air once. “Thirty five, plus ten for the ammo.”

I knew I didn’t have that many caps in my bags, but... Well, I did have the bits from the Stable. Groaning, I dug into my saddlebags and pulled out a single bit. I passed it to Lost.

“One more, Hidden,” she said, holding the little gold piece in the haze of her telekinesis.

Frowning, I pulled out one more and hesitantly gave it to her. I didn’t like the idea of giving up my bits. I needed them, for things and stuff. The fewer I had, the harder it would be to make a bed out of them. I clenched my eyes shut and turned away, not daring to see her give them up.

“All finished then?” asked Rainfall. “Alright, c’mon, I’ll show you the way up. It won’t take long.” Turning on a hoof, he trotted away.

As the stallion turned I caught a glimpse of- Oh Goddesses. Definitely not a mare. Quickly looking away I noticed his cutie mark, a trio of little clouds. Why three? Did his special talent involve triples of things?

Lost passed me the few bullets for my rifle I’d found and the shotgun shells too. She collected the bullets for her new pistol in her magic. As we followed the pegasus out, she loaded them into the gun and slid it away.

“Around,” Lost said curtly, cutting off any chance at small talk. “Here, Hidden, lets get your guns reloaded before we have to start climbing.”

I trotted up beside her and kept pace, ignoring the fact that she could reload my gun for me with her magic, when I had trouble doing anything so delicate with my hooves.

Rainfall sighed. “Alright, don’t make small talk. It’s this way, won’t take long,” he said, speeding up and heading into the woods.

* * *

The walk through the woods was mostly uneventful. We’d gone a different way out of town and managed to avoid the shack where we’d spent the night entirely. Honestly, I was grateful for that, because I never wanted to see that mess of a pony again. We followed along the rocky edge of the mountainside, with Rainfall in the lead. He tried to make small talk several times, but whenever he’d ask a question or start to tell a story, Lost found a way to shut him up.

So far, I wasn’t entirely convinced these were bad ponies that wanted to sell us out or get us killed. I had a weird feeling in the back of my mind about following a stallion into the woods all alone, but if push came to shove, there were two of us and I had ammo for my big gun again. I just hoped we’d find where we were going soon, because all the walking was really starting to hurt my bandaged leg. I was pretty sure I shouldn’t be walking on it so soon after the doctor looked at it.

“Okay, I’m sure it’s around here somewhere,” Rainfall said, more to himself than to either of us. He stopped and looked up at the wall of rocks that made up the base of the mountain. “Normally I just fly up.” He smirked and rubbed the back of his choppy mane with a hoof. “Can’t really do that this time though, can I?”

I wouldn’t mind him flying, it’d be great just to see him in the air. The thought of a pony flying was fascinating, and to see it in action? I’d never expected to get the chance to see that. Pegasuses, pegasi? Pega.... Pegasus ponies were so rare in the Wasteland, not like how mom told us about before the world ended, when they were common. Thinking out loud I said, “Well, you could...”

“Hidden,” chided Lost, nudging me in the side roughly. “We need to split up to look for the path.” She sighed and leaned in close. “Can you please stop ogling the stallion?” she asked in a softer voice.

“I’m not,” I argued, before changing the subject. “Just tell me which way to go look,” I didn’t want to admit what I’d actually been thinking about. It wasn’t fair, unicorns and pegasi? It was probably pegasi. It wasn’t fair that they got all the interesting, useful, or fun things. Why couldn’t I have cheater magic or cheater wings?

“Well,” Lost answered, lifting her hoof and clicking one of the buttons on the PipBuck with her magic. “We have a map.” She offered her hoof toward the stallion. “Will that help you find it?”

Rainfall walked over, laughing softly, and pushed his way in on the other side of my sister. When she shied away, he moved back. “Sorry...” Moving to stand across from us, we all stared at the map.

For several minutes, Lost and Rainfall poked at the screen, tapping on different parts of the map. They switched between a wide map and a zoomed in one, using functions I hadn’t even known about. Most of what we were looking at went over my head, as it melted into a swirl of odd-shaped lines and a grid that kept changing sizes.

“So... What are we looking for?” I asked. “I mean, it’s gotta be hard to miss a lake.”

“The path up,” explained Rainfall. “Trust me, it’s a big lake.” He smiled at me and winked. “It’s hard to miss.”

“The lake should be this one here,” Lost said, pointing at one of the blob-shaped lines. “I think?” She didn’t sound very confident.

“You’re right,” said Rainfall. He tapped a hoof on the screen. “Which means the path is...” He turned around a few times and then pointed a hoof. “Right over there.”

With the path spotted, Rainfall led us from the edge of the dead forest to another one of the dozens of rocky outcroppings from the mountainside. Really, if we’d been able to just walk up a gentle hill it would make everything easier. He pointed toward a flat area that looked relatively safe. “So, this wasn’t really meant to be used to get up here, but its the only way to go on hoof,” he explained, before walking up and kicking rocks out of the way to make the path clear for us.

L.A. and I followed in silence, listening to the stallion hum as he walked. Every so often he’d flutter his wings and look around, before turning and heading up another dangerous-looking direction. The rock wall was steep, making us hug against it to keep from falling off. When we reached the turns he made, we’d follow suit.

The walk was slow, but going slow was better than falling off and landing on the rocks below. The unforgiving path wasn’t doing any good for my recently-fixed leg, either. While Doc Grinder did a good job patching it up, that didn’t mean it stayed patched up when I started mountain climbing. I grit my teeth and tried my best to ignore it.

Every other turn led to a longer path than the last one, working us slowly back toward the waterfall. The ground got more and more slick and slippery the closer we got, and once again I found myself with a wet, matted coat from the spray of water. By the time we’d gotten halfway up, we’d gotten so close I couldn’t hear my own thoughts over the roar of the water falling over the edge. Thankfully, before we went behind the water, we turned and headed up the other direction.

As we moved toward the waterfall again, near the top, Rainfall stopped. With a displeased ‘hmm,’ he hopped into the air and flapped his wings a few times and turned around to face us. Water sprayed toward us from the flapping of his wings, but he didn’t seem to notice. “Okay, problem,” he shouted over the noise of the waterfall. “It should cross here, but well... the waterfall seems to have other plans.” He pointed a hoof at the path, worn smooth and definitely not crossable by the water pounding on it. “Let me go look around...” Flapping his wings harder, he flew up and out of sight.

“Cheap stuff?” I yelled back, shrugging. I looked away, pinning my ears back to keep the water out. Below were the woods.... I wondered just how close we were to the tree I’d buried the stallion’s head under. “And because I felt we needed-”

“Hey!” yelled Rainfall. He flew back into sight, smiling wide. “Guess what?”

He laughed. “If only! I’m not used to taking this way, but for you two,” he explained, pointing a hoof in the direction opposite the waterfall. “There’s a path just up-”

A bullet tore through Rainfall’s side. It ripped a massive hole open on his belly, and a spray of blood filled the air. His eyes went wide and he let out a quiet whine. He hung in the air for only a second, his wings going limp.

As he fell, a massive BANG cut through the air, and the rock next to Lost’s head exploded. Another BANG drowned out her shriek of fear. She grabbed onto me and pulled, dragging me against the wall and hopefully out of sight of whoever was attacking us.

Helplessly, I watched as Rainfall fell from the sky and down to the water below. I tried to scream something at him, but no words came out. Struggling against Lost, I fought to look over the edge, just... Just to see if he was okay.

Lost held me tight, her hooves digging into my wounded leg. “Hidden!” she screamed in my ear. Breathing heavily, she clung to me. “Don’t... He’s...”

“But...” I whispered, knowing it was too late. Forcing myself from her grip, I pushed myself against the wall next to her. Something pinched in my leg and I swore I heard a little ‘pop,’ followed by a slight stinging sensation. Ow. I grabbed onto the bit of my battle saddle.

“Where’d it come from?” Lost demanded, looking around in a panic. Her horn was already glowing, and she held the 9mm in the air next to her head.

“Ah donk knoe!” I yelled around the battle saddle’s bit. Swiveling my ears around, I strained to hear any sound of our attackers, just a hint as to where they were, but the din of the waterfall drowned everything else out. Maybe if I could see for just a second...

I tried to twist so I could aim up and peek over the edge of the rocks, just to see who was shooting at us, but my wounded leg wasn’t giving me an easy time doing it. I really wished there were some painkillers or healing potions to use, because whatever Grinder did wasn’t cutting it anymore.

Another BANG shattered the air when I looked up and I felt a sharp sting on my back. I yelped and collapsed onto the pathway. It surprised me far more than it hurt, and didn’t feel like anything like the other times I’d been shot.

Scooting back next to Lost, I looked back, trying to find out what just happened. All I could see was blood, lots of it. The moment I saw it, pain erupted through my back like fire spreading. There was a huge hole, pouring blood down my side, and I’m pretty sure I could see some bone. I felt pretty lucky that it hadn’t gone all the way through.

“Oh Celestia, oh Luna,” Lost cried. She pressed down on the hole to stop the bleeding, just like I’d done on her throat. “This is a lot of blood. What are we going to do?” She was breathing heavily, eyes wide and ears twitching furiously. Honestly, it hurt more than it helped. Just like I’d done...

“I think I got shot again,” I muttered, feeling woozy. “We’re easy targets, sis... They’re above us.” I gulped, feeling the world begin to spin. “I need something... before I pass out.” I shook my head, trying to stay focused and keep everything from spinning. I couldn’t be falling asleep at a time like this. “Is it healthy to bleed this much?”

“Hold on, hold on,” L.A. said, already digging through my saddlebags with her magic. “We might have something useful? Anything... Wait!” She pulled out a little bottle with ‘Buck’ written on the label.

I’d completely forgotten we had that. Hopefully, it would be enough. What was Buck again?

Lost looked at the bottle, but since all it said on it was ‘BUCK’ in big letters with no instructions for use, she gave up. Popping it open with her telekinesis, she tossed the thin lid out from the outcropping while she rummaged into the bottle.

A shot blew a hole clear through it, and it disappeared off the mountainside. Lost stared in wide-eyed horror, while I watched the lid flip away. How could somepony shoot that well... And how in Celestia and Luna’s name had they not taken my head off?

“Don’t think about it, don’t think about it,” Lost muttered as she pulled out a single pill from inside the bottle. Floating it over to me, she forced a smile. “Hopefully this’ll help...”

I popped it into my mouth and bit down. It tasted foul and chalky, but I forced it down anyway. At first, I didn’t feel anything. I stared at Lost Art, sharing her expectant look.

Something kicked in. My heart rate sped up, I could feel the throbbing in my wounds, and felt it almost behind my eyes. Suddenly, the pain in my shoulder and the blood running down my back didn’t matter. Yeah... It still hurt, but it was like it was hurting somepony else... “Which way again?” I asked.

“Back down,” Lost answered. “This isn’t a quick up and back anymore. You’re hurt, he’s dead... We’re done with it.” She looked the way we’d come up, then upward at where the shots were coming. “If we make a run for it, we can get out and just leave. Come on.” She galloped out from our little safe spot and back down the path.

The ground in front of her hooves erupted as a BANG cut through the air. Yelping, she reared up and flailed her forehooves. “Fuck!” she yelled, jumping back. Backpedaling next to me, she pressed herself against the wall and shook.

Whatever this was, I liked it. I felt tougher than I had before, like I didn’t even need the guns I was carrying. Whoever shot me, whoever was trying to hurt my sister? I was going to crush their skull. Getting shot didn’t scare me anymore, didn’t hurt anymore. It wasn’t my problem anymore, it was some other pony’s. The only problem I had was that I wasn’t already killing them. I had somepony to crush.

I barreled up the pathway until it snaked back on itself. As I ran, shots peppered the ground, sending chunks of the mountainside into the air all around me. I ignored the distractions, and jumped at a rocky outcropping at the turn. I pushed off it to spin around and head up the other direction.

I twisted around another turn and found myself on a flat ledge on the mountain. Without a path to follow, I looked around, trying to find whoever was trying to kill my sister and me. I snorted, needing somepony to break.

A line of pain shot across my cheek, but it wasn’t my problem to deal with. I twisted my ear, hearing the deafening BANG, but not where it came from. Stomping both forehooves, I shook my head to fling the blood away.

I looked side to side, searching for a skull to break open. Rocks, rocks, and more rocks. A few dead trees grew out of the rocks dotting the ledge. My eyelid twitched, and I could feel my legs trying to move on their own. I needed somepony to hurt. I was near the top now, where they should be. I couldn’t hear anypony over the blood roaring through my ears like- no, the roaring was outside my head; that was the waterfall. At least I was in the right place.

I’d give them what they were waiting for. I charged forward again, mouth on the bit of my battle saddle, ready to kill anything that moved. The Goddesses answered my prayers. A rifle appeared behind one of the rocks. I turned mid-charge toward it and flicked the trigger on the bit in my mouth.

A massive chunk of the rock exploded into the air. The kick from the rifle didn’t even slow me down.

Behind the rock stood a wide-eyed pony like I’d never seen before. His mane spiked straight up, and his coat was two-toned. He looked almost alien, with white with black stripes criss-crossing his face. He fired a shot with the long barrelled rifle as I ran toward him. It tore through my mane, taking another chunk of it away, but I didn’t care. By the time he reloaded, I was already on him.

Somewhere in my brain, I realized it was a zebra, but at that moment it didn’t matter.

I leapt over what was left of the rock and landed next to my striped assailant. Another shot dug into me, but not from the zebra I was next to. It pierced bone, right below my cutie mark, but that was somepony else’s problem right now.

Goddesses, there was more than one shooter. That explained why some shots were better placed than others.

Before the zebra next to me could aim, I kicked at his rifle with a hoof and knocked it away. Following through with the kick, I spun on my good hoof and bucked both hind legs at his face. Rather than hit his head, he blocked with his forehooves and pushed me to the side. I wasn’t expecting- there went my balance.

I toppled down onto my bad leg and caught sight of another zebra, probably the one who had taken the potshot at my cutie mark. He looked just like the first, except his eyes were blue instead of green. I grinned around the bit of my battle saddle, glad I’d fallen facing him, and fired. There was a loud BOOM and one of the zebra’s rear legs was blown completely off. Close enough. Blood splattered against the rock ledge and the stallion screamed in pain before he collapsed and dropped his rifle.

“Hidden!” yelled Lost from the edge of the path. “Behind you!” As I turned to catch the zebra raising his forehooves to stomp me into the ground, two bullets from Lost’s pistol tore into his leg. She fired several more times, but the zebra ducked, grabbed his rifle, then turned and fled.

I wasn’t going to let that happen. Letting somepony else deal with the ache in my leg, I pushed up and chased after him. My battle saddle wasn’t great for this close range combat, and with only one shot left I wasn’t going to just waste it. I twisted my neck around and grabbed the shotgun from the top of my saddlebag. I charged after the zebra in front of me, my now-bleeding leg throbbing with each heartbeat. He was faster, but I wasn’t about to let that stop me from catching him. Clenching my eyes and gritting my teeth around the trigger of the shotgun, I let that other poor pony deal with the pain and pushed as hard as I could.

Panting around the gun, I dared open an eye. I’d caught up to him. I was close enough to shoot. Smiling, I bit down hard on the trigger. The shotgun’s barrel erupted and the buckshot made a mess of his head. A mass of red and grey gore flew through the air with the little pellets, and the headless zebra faltered, his legs going out from underneath.

I jumped, leaping over his tumbling body to keep from getting tangled up in it. Landing on aching hooves, I skidded to a stop and slid down onto my haunches. I dropped the gun and stared at what used to be a stallion. The pounding behind my eyes and in my ears was weakening, I could think again.

I put the shotgun away and weakly stood up. The little pony in pain in my head seemed to be pushing it all back, but I just ignored it. I’d taken out... whoever he was. Slowly, I walked back to the corpse. This was a zebra, huh? He wasn’t so tough, definitely not what I pictured destroying the whole of Equestria. Black and white, hooves just like mine. He even had a cutie mark, though it looked like no cutie mark I’d ever seen. It was all strange lines and weird symbols.

And I’d killed him. Snapping my head up, I looked at the other one, the one missing a leg.

Lost walked over to me, her pistol pointed at the remaining zebra. “Good job,” she said, sneering slightly. She levitated the gun up to look down the sights at the zebra with the missing hoof, as he reached for his rifle. Lost fired three times. The first shot tore a hole through his throat, stopping him dead. The other two hit directly between the eyes, splattering pink and red gore all over the ground and his back.

“How did you do that?” I asked in amazement. “You’ve never been a good shot before...” I knew my sister could hit a target, but three in a row like that? The smashy invincible feeling fell away and terror crept up the back of my mind as she put the gun away without so much as a blink. When had my sister become... This. I looked at the zebra I’d just murdered... It might have been self-defense but... When did I become like this?

We were acting like the raiders from this morning. Slumping down, I took a few deep breaths. My heartbeat was finally slowing, and I could feel something other than the need to crush somepony’s skull. I swallowed and tried not to think about what just happened. I just needed to stay focused on the moment, and, if...

“There’s an amber one up here too,” she answered coldly, walking over and looking at my back. She grimaced, then looked down, where the marker would be in her vision. “You’re in no condition to walk down a mountainside... Hopefully, whoever that is, they’re not another zebra. And hopefully they can help get you back down to the doctor.” She started off toward whatever marker she was seeing. “And I used S.A.T.S. Come on.”

“What do you mean, amber? And what is S.A.T.S.?” I asked, raising an eyebrow. The PipBuck displayed in green not amber, well unless it was showing in red. But never amber. Before I could worry about it, the pain of getting shot hit me, hard. I groaned and collapsed, fighting the urge to scream and give away that we’d survived the fight.

“I’ll explain later,” she said as she marched toward the lake, pulling the gun out again to float beside her at the ready. “If whoever’s over there can’t help...” She had the same worry in her voice that she always did, but there was a harsh edge to it.

I forced myself up and fell in behind her, feeling terrible. I was suddenly exhausted and could barely stand. Every part of my body ached, even some parts I didn’t know I had. I prayed this was just the Buck wearing off. The hooves that had so easily chased down a zebra and run me up a mountain were now heavy and hard to move. I felt almost as if I were walking against a strong current. The hole in my back burned and I found myself forcing each breath.

She was right. If I was having this much trouble just walking after her slowly, there was no way I was going to make it down the mountainside along that winding path.

Without a word though, I followed Lost Art, limping and forcing each step by sheer stubbornness. Eventually we reached the lake above the falls. It was beautiful and pristine, a rarity in the Wasteland. Water poured over the edge of the cliff we’d just run up, draining into the same lake Rainfall had plunged into.

Sitting at the shore of the mountain lake was a female zebra. She was facing away from us, but even from behind, she looked different from the other two. Her coat was almost completely black, with a few small grey stripes crossing her back and wrapping around her legs. Her mane was stuck in the same mohawk as the other two, but lacked the stark contrasting stripes as we’d seen before, leaving it almost completely white. She turned and looked at the two of us with the same dark blue eyes as one of the zebras we’d killed before, and flashed a sorrowful smile.

Lost Art aimed the pistol with her magic again, but I raised a hoof to stop her. “Wait... You said yourself she’s not red,” I whispered, earning myself a sharp glare. Luckily, it worked and she relented.

The zebra watched for a moment, before turning back to stare over the lake. “Did my brothers cause you any trouble?” she asked in a soft voice, lacking any sorrow. “They are often a bit of a hoof-full. I presume by the gunfire that you killed them?” She slumped and looked down at the water. “That would be my luck.” Straightening up, she looked back at us again. “Why have you come?”

“The town below asked us to come with the pegasus to check the water,” L.A. answered her as matter of fact as she could. “They think there’s something wrong with it. We were just supposed to look around.” She threw the pistol back into her saddlebags with as much force as her she could. “Before your brothers shot our guide."

“Yes, my older brother is quite brash, he acts without thinking,” the zebra said, turning away from us again. “I do not know what you have come to seek, but we have done nothing but drink of the waters. This place is safe from the horrors below, we thought that since it was a difficult climb for the less nimble, that this would become a sanctuary for the three of us for a time.”

“Right now I have bigger worries,” Lost said to the zebra, looking toward me “Your brothers wounded my sister, do you have a healing potion or anything so we can safely get back down the mountain?”

“For her?” the zebra asked, standing. She turned toward the two of us and leaned over to look at my still-bleeding side. “I may?” She didn't sound confident at all.

As she turned, I saw a spiral on her haunch, one that wrapped around small triangular symbols. The mark was nearly hypnotic, seeming to spin with every step she took. She stopped before us, and bowed her head. “I apologize for your guide,” she said softly. “I will do what I can to help. I only ask... Please do not kill me as well. I understand your fight to survive, but I wish you no harm. I will leave, if it makes the ponies in this town below feel safer. They would send more for me after you leave, were I to stay, and I do not wish to perish as they did.” Her voice trembled whenever she muttered about death, and she visibly shivered when asking us to not kill her.

“Ah... About your... brothers?” I asked, my brain having stopped there. I stared at my sister, if she was feeling the same as me. We’d both come close to losing the only family we had left, and to force that pain on somepony else... We had just taken from her the only thing we ourselves had left.

A sudden ache took over my body, from my hooves to my head. I collapsed before I could say any more.

* * *

I opened my eyes to a dark blur. Blinking several times, I flailed a hoof and tried to figure out where I was, and how long I’d been out for. Realizing I could just rub my eyes, I brought my hooves up and cleared them. Groaning, I rolled to sit up and looked around. Apparently, I’d been moved to a dirty bed in a dark wooden room while I was asleep.

The dull light coming through the window barely lit up the room. “It’s evening already?” I muttered to myself, rubbing my head. Pulling my rear hooves under myself, I pushed up to stand. Wobbling a few times, I made it up and stepped off the bed. I could still feel the ache whenever I walked, and the burning in my chest. Hopefully the pain would go away soon.

“Sleep well?” Lost asked from the corner of the room. She sat behind a desk at a terminal, tapping away at it with her magic and her hooves, while the zebra looked on from beside her. Every few seconds Lost would look at the striped mare and lean away from her.

One important question shot through my mind. “Why am I not dead yet?” I blurted out. No wait, I had another thought. “Where are we?”

“My luck does not let those around me die when they wish to,” the zebra said.

“Basically, what she said,” Lost agreed, rolling her eyes and leaning away from the other mare again. “You really shouldn’t be asleep with the wounds, or the blood loss. Or well... anything that’s wrong with you right now.” She sighed and got up, then walked around the desk toward me. “At least you stopped bleeding. How do you feel?” She checked over me, holding a hoof to my back and looking at the gaping wound over my ribs.

“Better?” I muttered. Everything hurt, which surprisingly made the gunshot wound hurt a lot less by comparison.

“Good,” Lost said, dropping her hoof. “Then we’re heading right back down to get you to that crazy doctor pony. Right now.”

“So, I’m still alive because... zebra luck? Okay, good enough. Did we at least figure out what was going on with the water?” I asked, wincing as I tried to walk. Blinking and shaking my head, I slumped back down to sit on the dirty bed. “And...” I coughed. “What did I miss while I was out?” The pressure on my lungs really wasn’t helping.

“Little, your unicorn has been reading much of the time,” the zebra answered before L.A. could. “We spoke little, as she did not trust enough to speak with me and I am not one to munch words.” She talked like she was talking to a foal, or perhaps a wall, slowly and with large pauses between words. “If you have more trust for others, you may call me Xeno.” She raised a hoof and gave a short wave, but stared blankly at me. “We are in a shack my brothers and I found here, near the lake.”

That was my fault for asking such an open-ended question. “No, I mean. Okay...” I muttered, trying to piece together everything she said. “So?” I shook my head a little, trying to wake up and get the ache to go away.

Lost looked over the rim of her glasses at me and frowned. “According to the zebra here,” she said, motioning with a hoof at Xeno. “They’ve been here for several weeks, but this was the first time they saw Rainfall, or any ponies for that matter. Her brother panicked and shot him down, fearing that it was an attack.”

“Okay, and what about the water?” I asked, shaking my head again and finally waking up some.

“Well, according to the terminal over here, there’s been an ongoing problem, just like Waterwheel said,” Lost answered, walking back over to the desk. She sat behind it and tapped on the input a few times. “There’s plenty of logs on here, ranging from water and contamination notes to love letters from Rainfall to Hydro. Every so of-”

“Yeah, but that’s not the important part,” Lost answered. She waved me over to the terminal, but I shook my head. Nodding, she continued, “So every few months the water goes bad. Rainfall hadn’t been able to figure out exactly what was causing it, or where it was coming from, which... I guess that’s why they wanted us to come up and help.” She raised the PipBuck and tapped it with her other hoof a few times. “Anyway, every time he thought he had a lead, it disappeared and things went back to normal.”

Xeno leaned over against Lost and looked at the terminal screen. “Your pony language is written very strange,” she said blankly.

“Can you get to the point?” I demanded, rubbing my temples with my forehooves. All the talking was starting to hurt my brain.

“I don’t think there is one,” Lost said. She powered down the terminal. “He had no idea what was going on, and nothing he tried seemed to fix it. It just... came and went every now and then.” Walking around the desk again, she offered a hoof to help me up. “I’ve read enough of his love letters to Hydro, let’s get you back down the mountain. I don’t want that getting infected.”

“So... he died for nothing,” I whispered, sulking slightly. With a sigh, I grabbed my sister’s hoof and pulled myself back up.

“I am sorry, but I think that I must leave now,” Xeno interrupted, fidgeting as she spoke. “I fear what my brothers have done will not be well regarded by your kind. I have much I still inspire to do with my time here in the Wasteland. It would be... a waste... to die here. I cannot risk revengeance. ” Her gaze never broke as she stared off into the distance at nothing. “I do not blame you for my brothers, it would have happened eventually... They were impulsive. I cannot grudge you for surviving, but if the flying pony’s death brings others to attack me...” After a pause, she added, “I must go.”

It took me a moment to figure out exactly what she said. I really hoped she was more fluent in her language than in mine.

She stared me in the eyes, and my gaze faltered. I turned and began to limp away. She was right, if I understood her correctly. We weren’t here of our own volition, we were here trying to do a favor that had been asked of us. Why did that have to mean ponies... zebras, needed to die? Xeno turned and walked toward the door.

“Where will you go?” I asked. “I know some ponies don’t like zebras because of stupid shit two centuries ago, but if you want to stay... we could explain what happened.” Of course, that meant nothing if the leaders of the town wouldn’t listen to our side. She was a lone zebra atop a mountain, whose family had just killed one of the townsponies. If what mom had said was true, that was enough reason to demonize and kill her.

“Where the Wasteland takes me,” the zebra answered. “That is the only place I have to go.” She pushed open the door and walked through. We had just killed her family, and now she was just going to wander around the Wasteland alone...

I looked at my sister helplessly, then back at the open door. “I’m sorry,” I called out as she walked off.

“Why?” she asked, not turning back to face us. “It is the way of the Wasteland.” She waved a hoof, before disappearing out of sight.

“Are you feeling up to walking yet?” Lost Art asked. “We need to get back down there, get to a doctor and... deal with Rainfall.”

I stared at the door another moment before turning to hear. “Yeah, I think so,” I said, nodding slowly. “Can you carry my stuff though?” The last thing I needed was to put more pressure on the hole in my back. What was I thinking, running up wounded like this? Lost was right, we never should have come to this town.

After L.A. grabbed my things, we left the little shack. I couldn’t help but look at the lake, and when I did, it just pissed me off. We’d run up a mountain. I’d gotten shot, again. A pony and two zebras died. I walked over to the water’s edge and stared down at my reflection. “And for what?” I asked nopony but myself.

“Hidden, it’s this way,” Lost said. She trotted over to me. “Are you sure you’re okay?”

Both of us looked down at the PipBuck. It clicked again. “Uhh,” I uttered, looking up and finding my sister looking right back at me.

Distracted from the pain and unable to remember what I’d been thinking before, we tried to find whatever was causing the clicking. After a quick check to make sure it wasn’t the water itself that was off, we started searching. I let experience take over, and while Lost moved the PipBuck around to see if it would click faster or slower, I’d dig through rocks, rubble, and two hundred year old leftovers from whoever lived here before the world ended.

“Try over there,” Lost said, pointing her hoof toward a pile of rocks from the higher parts of the mountain near the shack. The PipBuck clicked repeatedly when she raised her hoof in that direction.

“Sure,” I said, walking over. Looking around, I found nothing in the pile. “Nothing.” I turned around and caught my hoof on something just under the surface of the water. “Or... Something?”

Lost walked over, her horn lighting up with a blue haze. A blue glow lit up under the water, matching her magic, and she lifted up a rusted, crumbling ammo case. Shaking it free of water, she set it on the shore. A hole in the corner drained a little stream from inside back to the lake. “What’s this doing up here?” she asked. The PipBuck clicked faster the closer she got to it, and when she pulled the lid open, we found ourselves staring at a little round green-thing.

The colors on it seemed to shift and spin. I couldn’t look away, the little green ball just pulled me in whenever I tried to lean back.

Lost slammed the lid shut and grabbed me around the leg with her magic. “We’re leaving, now,” she said. “I’ll tell them what’s up here and somepony else can come get it. And- Hidden!” She pulled me away from the case, stopping me from opening it to see the little swirling green ball. “Do. Not. Touch. That.”

I did as I was told. When she released her magical grip, we walked away as fast as my wounds would let me. I kept looking back, wanting to go back and look at the hypnotizing colors move again.

* * *

I limped back into Pommel Falls and made straight for Doc Grinder’s room. The trip down the mountain wasn’t easy, and everything hurt. I forced myself on sheer stubbornness to get there and marched my way up to the sawmill.

I kicked open Grinder’s door with my good foreleg. “Doc?” I asked, trying to sound polite.

The grey pony was sleeping on the examination table I’d been on earlier in the day. He lazily opened one eye and looked at me. With a grunt, he looked me up and down, then sat straight up on the table. “What happened?” he demanded.

“We found out what happened with the water,” I muttered, collapsing in. “I’m pretty sure I should be dead.” Ugh, the floor was damp. Damn waterfall got everything wet.

“Fine, go,” Grinder said dismissively as he scrambled off the table and over to me. Settling at my side, he started poking around at the hole in my back. “You do realize that I’m only an earth pony,” he said, noticeably annoyed. He prodded the hole with a hoof, hard enough to make my flinch. “I might be good at patching and digging, but you really need some proper unicorn magic to heal these wounds. On the table, now.”

I crawled up onto the examination table and shifted carefully to lay so my exposed rib was showing. Looking over at it, I felt the blood drain from my face. Had the shot gone a hair to either direction, it would have torn all the way through and... maybe she was right about zebra luck.

“Tell me what happened, or I’ll get the saw again,” the doctor said sternly. He backed away toward the cabinet where he kept his tools.

“Well, there was the getting shot part, and running up a mountain,” I said, waving my wounded leg. “I think I tore this up again. The Buck help-”

“What?” he said, staring at me wide eyed. “You abused Buck while you were up there?” He raised his hooves as if he wanted to hit me, glaring as if I were a foal who’d just broken something expensive. “I cannot even begin to express how unhealthy that is. Using that improperly could kill you. The broken rib pressing against your lung is bad enough without you adding to it!” He collected several terrifying looking tools in his mouth and stormed over.

The feeling of Grinder dragging bone against bone locked my brain. Pain lanced through my body, along my spine, through my jaw, and behind my eyes. It was the most excruciating thing I’d ever felt, far worse than getting shot. As he tugged at my ribs, I howled until my lungs burned. It hurt to breathe, and I had to force every shallow breath.

“We only had, ughh!” I groaned, grabbing the edges of the table with my hooves as he dug into my side and pulled at the rib. “I only had one.” Tears streamed down my face and my jaw ached from gritting my teeth. I had no idea what he was doing other than it felt like he was ripping out bits and pieces of my insides. “What are you doing in there?”

The doctor spit whatever tool he was using from his mouth and glared at me. “Good,” he said, “Buck’ll ruin you in ways I can’t fix. And I’m trying to reset the bone. I don’t have any healing potions after all the work I had to do on you and your sister earlier, so I have to do it the old fashion way. If this heals wrong, pressing against your lung like it is, you could have trouble breathing for the rest of your life.” He twisted his forelegs and a sharp crack echoed through the room.

The sound, and the pain that came with it, was too much. Everything tensed and I threw up over the edge of the table. Each retch causing my chest to explode in pain.

When I finally finished coughing up the last of my stomach onto the floor, I actually found I could breathe easier. While I worked on regaining my composure, the doctor bandaged up my side and leg. He wasted no time digging out the bullet in my flank, but after what I’d just experienced, I barely felt that. I laid my head down on the table and closed my eyes while he worked.

He said something about healing properly and aftercare, but I wasn’t listening.

I couldn’t help but think about how today was a glaring example of how incapable we were of handling ourselves in the Wasteland. All we knew was avoidance, hiding with only the most basic skill in fighting to survive. All the past two days had been was one fuck-up after another. The only reason we’d managed to survive was luck and me being stubborn enough to not die when I got shot. I didn’t know how to handle myself in a firefight. I really wasn’t prepared, and I knew that Lost Art was even worse off than I was. Mom had taught her how to handle technology and the basics of patching up the rough cut or scratch, but that wasn’t enough to get us through anything like today. It almost felt like we were trying to get killed, running headlong in without supplies or a plan.

I just needed to learn from the mistakes. So far, what I’d had drilled into my head was that I needed to stop rushing so fast into everything... and maybe take a moment to reflect. And I definitely needed a gun I could find a reasonable amount of ammo for... Then we could get some armored barding and not just whatever we could find. Of course we would-- I noticed the doctor was staring at me.

“Have you been listening at all?” he demanded, sounding extremely cross. Muttering something under his breath, he grabbed his tools in his teeth and tossed them back to where they belonged. He walked over to the desk against the wall and hooked a book from a small pile in the corner in his fetlock. “This is the last thing I will do for free for you and the unicorn. And I am only doing it as a favor because you helped Hydro and the others.” He walked back over and slammed the book down on the table. “Hopefully she will learn from this, so I’ll never have to see you while I’m trying to sleep.” Once I’d grabbed the book, Doc Grinder shooed me out, saying, “Don’t come back unless the sun is up.”

I stood outside the office and spit the book into my fetlock. Swallowing a few times, I tried to get rid of the horrific taste of vomiting. Two hundred year old food tasted far worse the second time around. Sliding the book into my saddlebags, I started off toward the office where we’d met Hydro and Waterwheel earlier. Lost had been right, this whole thing was a terrible idea. I’d been shot in the leg, and the back, and had bones broken, and... I looked down at my legs and the bandages that were already falling off. Shaking them free and kicking them to a corner, I looked over the damage. The little pellet holes were starting to close up, but were scabbing over badly. Great.

My ear flicked. I heard voices through the doorway at the end of the sawmill, where we’d met with Hydro and Waterwheel before we left. I walked over slowly, wincing slightly at the lingering pains of the fight and the trip back. I couldn’t make out what was being said, but somepony sounded very very pissed off.

“...just can’t believe this. You just let him die? Just let him drop into the lake?” shouted Hydro as I opened the door. She glared at Lost from behind Split Log’s desk, lying over Rainfall’s body, her clothes damp and her mane plastered to her face. Tears rolled down her cheeks as she sat there, looking back and forth from his corpse to my sister. She pointed a hoof accusingly, then bared her teeth and turned to Waterwheel, who stood wide-eyed staring at her. “I told you this was a bad idea, but no. You had to say it was okay. And look what happened!” She burst into tears and collapsed over the dead stallion.

I walked in, looked back and forth between the crying mare and my sister. “Oh Goddesses this is bad,” I muttered under my breath.

“We sent you up to look around,” Hydro said quietly. “N-not to get my Rainfall killed!” Gently, the mare shifted her hoof to lift Rainfall’s head to face her. “It... wasn’t supposed to be like this,” she whispered.

“It wasn’t easy for us either,” I said defensively. “You weren’t up there. It happened so fast, and he was just gone. It would have been us too if-”

Hydro didn’t look up, she just stared at Rainfall’s hollow eyes. She ran a hoof through his mane, tears falling onto his coat. “You think I-”

“Hydro, I’m sorry,” said Waterwheel calmly as he walked over to the mourning mare. He sighed rested a forehoof on her shoulder. “What happened to Rainfall was terrible, and... I don’t think there’s words for it...” For a moment he was silent, but he cleared his throat and looked at my sister and me. “Let’s focus on what happened. There’s... There’s nothing we can do for him now.”

“You okay?” Lost asked, leaning in close and gently hugging me. “What’d the doctor say?”

I’d forgotten exactly. “I’ll be fine, just need to be more careful,” I said dismissively, hugging back weakly with my wounded leg. I left out the warnings about the Buck. With how it made me feel... If I needed it again, I’d use it even if it was dangerous.

Waterwheel looked at the two of us desperately. “What exactly happened up there?” he asked. “Please tell me you learned something...”

“Learned something?” snapped Hydro. “My... Rainfall is dead and you care about what they learned?” She looked at him as if he’d just put a bullet through her heart.

“Hydro...” the stallion whispered, his voice soft and apologetic. “I’m sorry, but if the water’s still bad, then we might all end up...”

“It’s complicated,” Lost said. “He was leading us up. We got attacked.” She shrugged and looked away. “Rainfall got shot out of the air, and... We just had to keep going up. They shot when we tried to run back for help.”

“Shot out of the air?” Hydro asked, her eyes wide. “We sent you all up there together for a reason! Why would you let him fly out alone where you couldn’t help him?” Her tears had dried, and she stared daggers at the two of us. She shook, sniffling, and held a hoof over the dead stallion’s eyes.

“He was guiding us!” I shot back. “How were we supposed to stop him? We tried to help, but you told us this was just an easy little search! They shot at us from the mountainside, we couldn’t even see them. If we hadn’t fought back, they’d have killed us.” I felt bad about what happened, but this was the Wasteland, and there wasn’t any way we could have gotten out of that without doing what we did. “If it makes you feel any better, we killed them,” I said in my softest voice, trying to comfort her. “So he’s been avenge-”

“Avenged? Avenged!” she screamed, pointing a hoof from me to L.A. “The Wasteland is not black and white, everything is just shades of gray. Killing doesn’t just magically make it better. You didn’t bring him back to life. You didn’t fix the hole they shot through him! Not to mention, now we have nopony who can go up there and fix the problem. Do you have any idea how bad this is? We are, were, the only source of water that was even close to drinkable on this side of the mountain range!”

Waterwheel walked over to her, standing between her and us. He started, “Calm down Hydro, they were only tr-”

The mare shot him a glare that could kill, and he quieted. She turned to me. “You two need to learn a lesson,” she said. “I know damn well that killing is necessary in the Wasteland. Before we founded this town, I spent a decade dealing with slavers and the decade before that running from raiders. I know what the Wasteland is like, far better than the two of you from the looks of it.” She stomped a hoof down, glaring furiously at me. I stared back, letting her vent. “There’s a difference between surviving a firefight, and murdering somepony because they looked at you wrong. But just because you did what you thought you had to doesn’t mean it’ll fix the shit you dug yourself into.”

Waterwheel stared in the other direction, refusing to make eye contact with anypony in the room. Hydro had begun pacing as she lectured, shooting accusing looks back and forth between Lost Art and me.

“What you did up there, that wasn’t for Rainfall or me. That was to survive,” the mare spat, finally ceasing her pacing. “Don’t you dare pretend you did anything for me.” She slumped slightly and looked back at Rainfall’s body. “All this means is that we’re still in trouble... and I got to have my heart broken twice.”

Lost stared back at me, but then shook her head and turned back to the stallion. “Anyway.... There’s ammo boxes buried in and around the water up there. We found at least one that sent the PipBuck’s radiation counter crazy. But if there’s one... there might be more...” she said, pausing to tap a hoof against her chin. “There’s two Stables nearby that are still working.” She stepped up beside me and held out the PipBuck to Waterwheel. “They were made to keep ponies living after the world ended, so they’ll have something for clean water. It’s not a perfect solution, but it might be able to help?” She clicked over to the map on the PipBuck and showed the stallion. “They’re not far from here.”

L.A. shrugged. “Hopefully they’ll have found they can’t get inside and gone home,” she said. “I can’t think of any other options around here. If you go in, you need to be careful though, somepony collapsed a roof inside.” She glared at me for being needlessly destructive. “There were feral ghouls inside, too, but hopefully we took care of all of them. The place really isn’t safe for anypony anymore, especially if that psychopath with the flamer hasn’t left.”

“Dangerous or not, we need the water,” Waterwheel said. “And anything that can help will benefit the entirety of the Wasteland, not just the ponies that live here in the town.” Leaning in close, he looked at the PipBuck screen, then walked over to one of the desks in the room. “As for Hydro? Well, she and I can figure this out once she has time to mend her heart. She and Rainfall were very close, until that stallion showed. I had a feeling something bad would happen, but never did I think it would be this bad.” He grabbed a pencil in his mouth and made a few marks on one of the maps pinned to the wall.

Until that stallion showed up... Is that why he was in the Stable? Looking for the same thing we were suggesting? Maybe he was a good pony... “Well, I guess... Problem solved?” I asked awkwardly. I wasn’t sure this was a ‘win.’ I needed some time to think. “Sis, can I have the PipBuck, if you’re done with that? I have something I need to do.”

“If you need to leave, I’ll work out with your sister what we need to do, both for us and as compensation for your help,” Waterwheel said, holding the pencil in the corner of his mouth. That must be his way of saying ‘thank you.’

“Sure...” Lost said hesitantly. Her horn lit up and she used her magic to flip the latch on the back of the Pipbuck open. Floating it over to me, she hooked it onto my foreleg and latched it tight.“Are you going to be alright?”

Ignoring her question, I pulled the book Grinder had given me from my saddlebags. I passed it to her, then hugged her tightly. “Here, I was told to give that to you,” I said. “I’ll meet you at the Inn afterward.”

* * *

She had turned the PipBuck amber. It took me a good ten minutes to figure out how to change it back. The amber was just... Too distracting. The green overlay on my vision was fine. It felt natural because that’s how I found the PipBuck, but amber? What was she thinking?

Once I’d figured out how to change the color back, I headed out toward my custom marker. I walked through the woods slowly, keeping far away from any place we’d already been and the memories with them. Luckily for me, the forest was dead, and I never saw or heard anything like Seethe or his ponies. I kept an eye out on the E.F.S. just in case, so nopony could sneak up on me.

I stared at the loose soil. “Uh... So,” I muttered, not really sure what to say. “H-how was your day?” I finally asked. After a pause, I nodded. “Yeah, mine too. I got shot a few times.” It hurt, a lot. I wondered, when I shot him did... “Hey? It didn’t hurt did it? Was it over fast?”

The soil didn’t respond. Of course the soil didn’t respond, there was a severed head underneath. A severed head I was talking to. Something was seriously wrong with me.

“I hope it was,” I continued anyway. “I met a mare named Hydro today. She talked about a stallion she’d met. Was that you? How come you never told her your name?” I sighed, feeling quite awkward to be asking about his personal life. “I don’t know if I should tell her what happened in the Stable. She lost a pony that was very special to her today and I think if I told her, it’d crush her.” I wasn’t really sad, but I caught myself crying anyway.

“So, was this supposed to be your story?” I asked, holding up the PipBuck. “I’m sorry I took it, I didn’t mean to mess with your... whatever it was you were doing here, or your relationship with that mare. But hey, if you really were out there trying to help those ponies, you deserve a salute. It’s the least I could do after...”

I grabbed my rifle as I spoke, and pulled it off the battle saddle. The process took a while, so I continued our ‘conversation.’

“No don’t worry, I’m not that bad off right now,” I continued, trying to sound reassuring. To a severed head under the ground. Goddesses I was crazy. “Just a little hurt, and unsure if this is really the life for me. We’ve spent all our time hiding out. I’m just... ill-equipped for what you were doing, good or bad. I didn’t... don’t even have proper barding! I’m lucky to be alive.” I let out a nervous laugh at that one.

“... Though I guess armor doesn’t always help,” I muttered with a twinge of regret. Changing the subject... “But in seriousness. I want to make it up to you, y’know for killing you. We helped the town, I think. In a roundabout way, but I think we succeeded. Hydro will get better in time, and the Wasteland will be better off in the end, right?”

“I’m not coming back after this. You won’t be lonely will you?” I asked with a sigh, leaning against the tree. “I have to stop rushing into things without thinking. That’s what got us into this mess with you, that’s what killed...” Looking back down at the still-unsettled dirt, I sighed again and raised the gun awkwardly to my shoulder. This was what ended his story, and started mine.

With a massive, echoing BOOM, the barrel exploded. It kicked back into my shoulder, knocking me to the side and against the tree. I shrieked in fear and surprise, dropping it and pushing away. “The fuck!” I shouted to the woods. At least nopony saw that. Panting, I looked down at the split barrel and frowned. Really, Wasteland, really? Can’t even let me do a proper send off? Zero bullets left though, at least I’d gotten to use them all...

“Well... Goodbye, Wastelander,” I muttered. “I think I’ll keep trying to help ponies. Either I’ll follow in your hoofsteps or I’ll right whatever wrongs you did, but I’m a treasure hunter first and foremost.” That was probably the most awkward thing I’d ever said. To a severed head. “Here, you can keep the gun.” I set the ruined rifle against the tree and started back. It felt good to say goodbye, even if he couldn’t hear me. This whole thing was a fiasco, but... Who was I kidding? I had no idea what I was going to do.

I clicked the radio on as I walked. Hearing nothing, I remembered I needed that damn earbloom. I fished it out and hooked it around my ear.

Clicking up the volume, the voice of the DJ burst from the earbloom, “-very pony! DJ Pon3 here with some unfortunate late night news from the area around the unicorn mountains.”

“It seems one of the few ponies actually out there trying to do some good and help has been taken out. Seem a certain group of someponies didn’t take too kindly to his selflessness. It ain’t much of a mystery who those ‘someponies’ are either, given a gang known as ‘The Ashen’ were seen parading his headless body around.”

“Real classy fellas...” said the stallion, giving a ‘tsk tsk’ after. “I want to remind everypony again to stay safe. The most dangerous thing you could find out there might just be another pony. So, for everything you tried to do, here’s a song for ya, Gunbuck. May Celestia and Luna reward you...”

I practically felt my heart stop. I... I didn’t just kill a good pony, I killed a hero?!”
_________________________________________________________________________________________
Footnote: Level Up!

Hidden Fortune:
New Perk: – Gunsmart, Bulletshy: Being shot repeatedly seems to have knocked some sense into you, and you’ve decided to slow down, actually think, and consider your actions and the consequences they might have. You gain +2 skill points per level.

Lost Art:
New Perk: Combat Coordinator – Perception and quick thinking in combat give you the edge. You are more likely to get off the first shot before an enemy can, and can direct allies in combat for faster, more efficient firefights.
Quest Perk: Unicorn Healing – You’ve finally learned the art of healing with magic. You can now cast a basic healing spell in addition to your current spells.

“So is getting shot a new hobby of yours?”
“Of course not, it really hurts!”
“Whatever happened to an ‘emergency healing potion’?”
“Well I-----------------[CONTINUITY ERROR]”
“The fuck was that?”
“I have no idea.”
“Did everything just taste purple for a second?”
“Hidden... What did you break?!”

Fallout Equestria: Treasure Hunting

by Hnetu

Chapter 3: How The Wasteland Works