Chapter 4: Reframed
“So now what? Keep a stalemate until somepony gets suspicious?”
“Yes. That’s exactly it.”
“Great. What if Four gets antsy? We are right next to him.”
“Come on. It’s Four.”
“True. And what should I do about the port? The Steel Rangers are in a mess right now, something about missing guards.”
“You can thank your little pegasus friend for that.”
“Five? What’s he doing in Pipsqueak Port?”
“Not him, dumbass, the other one. Outcast or whatever.”
“You said he wouldn’t be a problem!”
“He won’t. Everything he’s done has been either by accident or by one of his friends.”
“How do you know? What if he’s trying to undermine my efforts?”
“He doesn’t even know what you’re doing! But if it makes you feel better, keep the kill on sight plan you have. It’s been working pretty well.”
“How do you know so much about his actions?”
“I don’t, only what other ponies have told me. From what I’ve heard, all he’s done is save one of your forts from an attack by Five and open up a way to take back Pipsqueak Port. He may be on your side, you know.”
“Or he has a master plan to-”
“Shut up, you’re almost as paranoid as Two.”
“I’d just be more comfortable if he was dead is all I’m saying.”
“Then by all means kill him. Just leave me out of it.”
***************
“Ow!” Blueprints yelped. I rolled my eyes and stifled a smile as Symptom sat on Blueprints’ fallen body. “What was that?!”
“It’s called using your opponent’s weaknesses against him,” Symptom retorted. “Can’t be afraid to fight back when the enemy slips up. When are you going to leave cover and shoot at somepony, while they’re shooting back or when they’re reloading?” She had a point.
“Since when am I your opponent? I was literally just sitting here and you tackled me!” Also a fair point.
“Never let your guard down, either. You never know when a raider party will show up,” Symptom pointed out. I nodded and glanced over at Monarch with a grin on my face. He was slowly shaking his head, hiding a small smile with a cigarette floating in the air near him.
“We were sitting on this high bluff, only approachable from one side, overlooking the gorge where Mayflower’s mum is held, planning the best way to attack it without hurting the prisoners! If a raider party were to show up, we’d know long before they attacked!” Another point for Blueprints!
“I also wanted to sit on you. Your body makes a nice chair.” I have to give this one to Symptom, her logic is undeniable.
Still.. “Symptom, get off him. We have work to do,” I said as I stood up. Symptom gave me a blank look then got off of Blueprints. “Alright, so, from my quick flyover of the camp, it’s lightly guarded, and the guards who are on duty don’t seem to be that aware.”
“Of course it’s lightly guarded, Ace,” Monarch pointed out. “This camp is the opposite direction of Wrath from Mesa City. Pride’s not expecting an attack or anything over here.” That made sense.
“So how are we going to do this, Ace?” Blueprints asked. “Charge in, guns blazing? That worked well at Fort Periwinkle.”
I smiled. “No, we’re gonna try something a bit less murdery. I’m going to fly one of you guys with me down to the back of the camp. We’re going to find the captain and force him to release the prisoners. Meanwhile, the other two of you will figure out a contingency plan, specifically one that involves us getting out alive,” I explained.
Monarch nodded in approval. Symptom shrugged. “Okay, so how are we going to find the captain?” Blueprints asked me.
“Whoa whoa, hold on,” I said. “I’m not taking you. I’ve seen you try to sneak around, you could set off an alarm in a padded room.”
Blueprints looked at me, hurt. “So who are you taking?”
“Me,” Symptom answered. “We already know he can’t lift the big oaf over there, and I’m sure as fuck not staying here with you, dumbass.” I nodded in agreement.
“So how are we supposed to come up with a plan?” Blueprints asked.
“Yeah, it’s always you two that think of them,” Monarch added with a frown.
I put my hoof on Blueprints’ shoulder. “You’re a clever pony. You can think of something. Use the environment. And remember, only if you see we’re in trouble. So, Monarch,” I said, turning to him, “keep an eye on us.” I turned back to Symptom. “Let’s go. Luna knows how bad the prisoners might have it down there.”
Symptom scoffed. “You didn’t see how bad off the prisoners were? Some rescue. What if they’re having the time of their lives?” I stopped. What if they were? “And if you’re actually taking me seriously, you really are as stupid as I thought you were. Let’s go already.”
I rolled my eyes and thrust out my wings. Seconds later, I was flying Symptom down the bluff and we landed in the back corner of the camp, out of sight of the guards. We crept into the nearest tent, thankfully empty, and waited for a chance to move. A pitter-patter of rain began on the roof of the tent and I sighed.
“So why did you want me alone?” Symptom asked.
I looked at her sharply. “How did you know?”
“It’s obvious. Blueprints could easily have come instead of me, the guards here wouldn’t give a shit if they found him,” she replied. I couldn’t help but smile.
“You really are a lot smarter than them,” I said. “But I needed to talk to you alone.”
“Clearly,” Symptom rolled her eyes. “Fine, whatever, just hurry up. We don’t need the jackasses up there to get worried and do something rash.”
“You’ve stopped insulting me,” I pointed out. “And you’ve started insulting Monarch. I want to know why.”
Symptom scoffed. “Started? I’ve always made fun of that oaf. He’s just not as reactive as you and Blueprints. As for you, well...” she trailed off. “I don’t know, I just feel like I shouldn’t.”
“Why not?” I demanded. “Why not me, but you’ll continue with Blueprints?”
“Because I trust you, but I don’t trust him! Frankly, I don’t think you should either,” Symptom said tersely.
I shut my mouth. She trusted me? I haven’t done shit! Nothing more than anypony else anyway. “What’s wrong with Blueprints?” I finally asked.
“He’s too... loyal. And not just to you. He’s worked for the pony we’re working to kill all his life, I have no doubts he’s thinking of a way to stop us.”
I shook my head. “That’s crazy talk. I told him if he didn’t like it, he could leave.”
“If he left, he wouldn’t be able to stop us.” I couldn’t respond to that. I looked outside the tent and saw the nearby guards trot away. “Anything else you want to air out?”
“The coast is clear,” I said, ignoring her. “Let’s go.” We slowly worked our way to the large central tent in the back of the camp. The sound of the rain coupled with the pleas coming from the prisoners covered the sounds we made in the mud and slop surrounding the tents. When we reached the main tent, I glanced inside. Empty. “Damn it, I don’t want to have to tear apart the camp looking for him.”
“So let’s just wait in here,” Symptom said, pushing past me into the tent. She walked around a table with a map on it and sat down in a chair behind it. “He’ll turn up.”
“Symptom, the goal is to catch him by surprise-”
“And he’ll be surprised when he sees us in his tent,” she cut me off. “Relax, Ace, this stuff is second nature to me.”
I sighed and walked over to the table too. “What’s this map of?” I asked.
“I dunno, some army shit or something,” she said with interest.
I took a close look and saw several places marked in Violet and others in red. “We’re over here in the west. See, here’s Pipsqueak Port. And up here is Cormount. Colgate Bay’s not on here though...” I trailed off.
“Yeah, like Pride gives any shits about that town of muties,” Symptom replied. She got up and started examining the bookshelf in the back. “Of course there’s just a bunch of war books back here. So predictable.”
“Can you stop saying ‘shit’ please? Celestia almighty, it’s like you have some kind of obsession with excrement!” I said.
“Only if you stop talking about those dead princesses like they were goddesses,” Symptom countered.
“Never mind,” I gave up. “Looks to me like Wrath has an advantage here... His territories are kind of in a pincer around Pride.”
“So he’s divided. That’s never a good plan,” Symptom answered. I looked up at her, confused. “If his forces are divided, they won’t have the numbers to attack any of Pride’s territories, dumbass” she explained. And she’s back to calling me a dumbass. Back to normal.
“So Pride’s got the advantage,” I said.
“Not really. He’s surrounded. He has no way of retreating if Wrath attacks,” Symptom looked at me like I was five. “Are you sure you’re smart? I’ve been seeing a lot of evidence to counter that.” Hey! That wasn’t nice.
“So neither army has the advantage? Then what’s the point of the war?” I asked.
Symptom just shrugged. “Pride and Wrath aren’t actually going to fight, just murder their own troops. Something tells me that there is an ulterior motive to this and, if I really cared, I might want to figure out what that is,” she said as she turned back to the bookcase.
“If you want to stay with me, you better learn to care then,” I warned. “Because killing Pride is going to throw us right in the middle of this war.”
I felt a gun barrel pushed against the back of my head. “Killing Pride, you say? Typically assassins don’t announce intentions to murder someone in the middle of a said pony’s camp.” I cursed. Symptom turned back around and I watched the coolness fade from her face and get replaced by an emotion I’d never seen on her: fear. “Get over there by your ghoul friend and take out all of your weapons. One false move and that bookcase gets a nice red coat.” I complied, tossing away both my shotgun and my assault rifle. I turned around and saw a green unicorn floating a pistol aimed at my temple. “Claws too, now, come on.” I glared at him and flung off my claws.
He lowered the pistol. “Such good captives. Now if I remember my orders correctly, if I find a blue pegasus and an earth pony with blue hooves, I’m to execute them on sight.” He looked from me to Symptom. “Your hooves are orange. Where’s your other friend, pegasus? Hiding up on a bluff, perhaps?”
I glanced over at Symptom. Her fear was gone and replaced with the coldness I was familiar with. “What do you think we are, idiots? Why would we leave somepony behind while we infiltrate a hostile camp with no way to communicate with him? He’s here too, freeing the prisoners as we speak. In a few seconds, he’s going to come in here and put a bullet through your head without even a warning. So I’m telling you now, all this can be avoided. Just let us and the prisoners go, and your camp will be spared.” I nodded, hoping the captain would take the bluff.
The captain opened his mouth to speak, but was interrupted by a soldier dashing in the door. “Sir! Major problem! We’ve got a boar stampede coming in! The guard is going crazy and I can’t control them!”
The captain looked at the soldier and looked back at us, then back to the soldier.. “Keep an eye on these two, I’ll go control the guard,” he spat, tossing the soldier his gun. He looked back at us. “No funny business or you’ll see what pain really is.” And with that he sprinted out of the tent.
Symptom immediately let out a breath and walked back to the map on the table. “Well, I thought we were screwed there for a second, Ace.”
I watched the soldier tremble as he aimed his gun at Symptom’s head. “Uh, Symptom, there is still a soldier here...”
She glared at me. “I really hope you have a very, very, very, very! loose interpretation of soldier, because this fucktard is not one.” Uh, what?
“He’s aimed at your head!” I exclaimed. “I know you had a rough life in Mesa City, but a bullet to the head will probably still kill you.”
She turned to the soldier, and, from the way his pistol was shaking, she was still glaring. “You better hope that the first bullet kills me, or I’m going to take that pistol and use it to violate holes you didn’t even know you had, you snivelling excuse for a pony. What the fuck are you even doing here? I don’t see a fucking horn, so, from what I’ve experienced, you’re worthless. Pathetic. Useless. Cannon fodder. Whatever excuse you have for being here is nothing compared to the anger I’m holding back at having one of my own kind aim a gun at my head for the ponies that ruined any chance of me having, well, any kind of normality in my life.”
My jaw dropped. Where did that come from? That was more hate than she’d had for Blueprints! The soldier dropped his pistol, still shaking, and muttered something I couldn’t hear.
Apparently Symptom could. “Your mom. You’re here fighting for the horned ponies because they have your mom.” She took a step towards the soldier and started whispering. “Well at least you have a mom. And you are the biggest disappointment in her miserable life. While you’re here fighting to keep her safe, she’s been raped, beaten, mutilated, probably all three at once. In fact, she’s probably being raped right now, all the while thinking ‘oh, thank Celestia that my son is keeping me safe. If it weren’t for him, instead of having three cocks in my ass, I’d be in the pleasant coolness of death. I’m so fucking happy that instead of releasing the pain, I’m having my hooves chopped up and force fed to me, only for me to shit it out and eat it again.’ And don’t say that I’m wrong and she’s perfectly safe. I know what happens in the capital building of Mesa City. It’s not pretty, and I can promise you, every earth pony in that place welcomes death.” What. The. Fuck.
The soldier stopped shaking and stared at Symptom. I opened my mouth to speak, closed it, than actually said something. “Uh, Symptom, did that happen to you?”
She whirled around and glared at me again. “I wish I was that lucky,” she said shortly. While she had her back turned, the soldier’s eyes darted around the room and lit up. I followed his eyeline to what it led to.
My shotgun.
“Hey, hold on there, mister soldier guy, no need to be so drastic,” I heard myself say. Symptom glanced at the shotgun and smiled. “I’m sure she was just exaggerating for effect, just let us out and pretend-”
“Shut it, Ace,” Symptom snapped. She turned back to the soldier, halfway to the gun. “Do it. Blow your miniscule brains out. Let your mother free. Hell, let us free too while you’re at it.” The soldier picked up the gun and cocked it. “End it all, fucker.” Okay brain, close the eyes now, I don’t want to see this. Unfortunately, my brain was just a little bit too interested. The soldier slid the barrel into his mouth and clicked the trigger.
What happened next was a bit of a blur. All I remember is blood. Everywhere. And an eyeball landing right on Mesa City on the map. I’m pretty sure some of it got in my eyes. I told them to close, but alas, no such luck. I remember Symptom kicking the shotgun away from the body and muttering about the mess. “Why would he do that, Symptom? Why would YOU do that?”
“I did it to get us out of here, moron. Fucker deserved it too, little traitor.” I couldn’t avert my eyes from the eyeball. It just stared at me, unblinking, and I felt something start to come up. “ Come on. We’ve got to get out of here,” Symptom ran around the room, picking up the guns and claws.
I glanced up at her as she reached the soldier’s body, but shifted my attention back to the eye. “Leave the shotgun,” I said weakly. Symptom complied, ran over and grabbed my mane. She dragged me out of the tent and back to the edge of the bluff. “The eye just kept looking at me, Symptom,” I whimpered.
“Yeah yeah, you crazy winger, just get ready to fly us out of here. We may have to abort the mission,” Symptom said before looking at me with another unfamiliar emotion. I couldn’t put my hoof on this one, though. I shook my head as fast as I dared, which admittedly was still slower than a pegasus whose wing was caught under a rock. “Sorry, Ace, but if we go rescue them, we’ll all just get slaughtered by the boars anyway.”
“Please, Symptom, for me,” I whispered. She looked away. “I need something, anything, to salvage this mission for me.”
Symptom looked down at me. “Alright. But you are in no shape to fight. Just get up on the bluff and I’ll go save the prisoners.” She grabbed my assault rifle and trotted off. As I watched her go, an eye floated in the air above her and I clamped my eyes shut. I grasped the pistol in my mouth and tried to stand up. My knees had other ideas and crumpled. When my mouth hit the ground, the pistol went flying out and landed several feet away. I opened my eyes and sighed again.
“Celestia, please, give me the strength to help Symptom. I need to do this,” I murmured. I tried standing up again with no luck. An explosion roared in the front of the camp and I saw smoke start rising in the distance. “Let’s try this again.” I slowly pulled myself up and my knees stayed just solid enough to stand. “Okay, small victory. Now let’s see if we can do this, wings.” I strained but my wings stayed welded to my sides. “Oh well, guess I’m walking.” I took a step and immediately crumpled again. “Motherfucker. Guess I’m crawling.”
I pulled myself to the nearest tent and glanced inside. A guard rushed out towards the rumbling, but stopped when he saw me. “Don’t tell me there’s a prison break too!” he yelled. He walked over to me and kicked me in the face. “Just stay here, and if I see you anywhere else, I’m shooting.” With that, he galloped off to the stampede. I wiped my bloody nose with my hoof and felt something harden in my stomach. I pulled myself up and grabbed my pistol again.
“Don’t worry, Symptom,” I said. “I’m not down yet.”
I stumbled my way past the captain’s tent. I resisted looking inside and continued to the prisoners’ hold tent thingy. And by that, I mean I stumbled around the camp, desperately looking for where they keep the prisoners. I finally found a promising tent, but upon inspection, it was the barracks. I walked back out and felt a rumbling in the ground. I turned to where I suspected it was coming from and saw a mob of red haired, large tusked things that dwarfed the porkers we had in Cormount. And riding on top of the lead one was Blueprints.
I rubbed my eyes. Blueprints? Riding on top of the lead boar that was stampeding through the camp? I saw him whisper something in the boar’s ear and point in my direction. The boar shifted towards me and I watched as it came up to me. “Hey, Ace, we found a contingency plan!”
“You... sure did,” I said. Then I collapsed.
**************
“I’m going to kill that motherfucker!”
“Calm down, Symptom, he needs to rest.”
“No he fucking doesn’t! He nearly killed himself and more importantly me!”
“I agree with Monarch, just let him sleep. He’s been through a lot.”
“And I haven’t? I told him that the mission was a no-go after that suicide but nooooo, I have to go do it for him, and then he has to try and help.”
“So he got kicked in the face. It happens to the best of us.”
“Except the best of us don’t throw our helpless bodies in the middle of an enemy camp for their friends to rescue.”
I slowly opened my eyes. I was in a tent that somepony had set up, and from the silhouettes outside, there was a fire up. I pulled myself up from the cot I was lying in and forced my legs to walk me outside. Symptom had her back to me and was yelling at Blueprints and Monarch.
“Okay, but he’s a little bit more sheltered than you,” Monarch said. “He’s not used to watching ponies kill themselves.”
“Um, guys,” a voice asked from behind Blueprints.
“Shut up, Dent,” Symptom snapped. “I swear, that motherfucker is going to get his ass killed when the rest of us aren’t there to bail him out of it. Probably BY one of us.”
“Symptom...” Blueprints said looking at me.
“Shut your fucking yap and let me finish, Fucktard!” Symptom screamed. “That fucker just layed there and told me to go do the rest of the work while he napped!”
“Symptom!” Monarch barked. “Ace is awake!”
Symptom whirled around and glared at me. “I’m going to kill you.”
“I heard,” I said weakly. “How long have I been out?”
“A while. Your name came up on the radio,” Blueprints pointed out.
I sighed. “Great. What’s Pon3 saying about me now?”
“Not that station, dipshit,” Symptom said, rolling her eyes. “It was on Pride network. Let’s just say that now you are Public Enemy Number One here in the Pridelands. Or Penop. It works really well with you.” Just what I wanted to hear.
“To be fair,” Monarch explained, “anypony traveling with you is also shoot on sight.” Even more good news! It’s like my birthday or something.
“So the question is what to do now,” Blueprints said. “We can’t go back to the port, they already know what you look like.”
“Get out of the Pridelands?” I suggested. “I don’t want to get attacked over and over again, all I have is this pistol.” I pulled out the gun. “Damn thing’s got like, no ammo.”
“Which you stole from that dead soldier, Penop. The one who killed himself,” Symptom pointed out. I looked at my gun in horror and dropped it. “You may need a psychologist.”
Yeah, because those are so easy to find in the Wasteland. “You can always talk to me, Ace,” said Blueprints. “It’s my specialty, you know.” Oh yeah. First pony that spoke a complete sentence to me. How could I forget?
“What about me?” Dent asked. I looked over at her, seeing her for the first time. She was a steely grey mare with a short yellow mane and a wheel cutie mark. “You let the other prisoners just go, but asked me to stay. Why?”
“We were going to escort you back to Pipsqueak Port, but apparently, we can’t go back there,” Monarch explained.
“Why Pipsqueak Port? I live in Turn.”
“Because that’s where your daughter is trying to recruit ponies to rescue you,” Monarch continued.
“Mayflower?” Dent asked, standing up. “She’s alive?”
“Last we checked, yes. And we told her to stay out of trouble until we get back.”
Dent broke into a smile. “You have no idea how happy I am to hear that!” she exclaimed. She started jumping in joy and celebration. I felt a smile grow on my face. This was reward enough for what we’d done. This I could live with.
“Yet you still can’t look Symptom in the eye.”
I turned and Dusty was lying on her back, watching the clouds go by. “What are you doing here?” I whispered.
“They can’t see me, if that’s what you're wondering,” she chuckled. “I’ll make this brief, so you don’t look like a lunatic.”
“Make what brief?” I hissed. “Get out of here, we’re trying to plan.”
“Ace?” Dusty vanished. “Who are you talking to?” Monarch asked curiously.
“Just myself,” I answered, staring at the flattened grass. Wait, how was it flattened if she was...?
“Talking to yourself already? That’s the fastest I’ve ever seen somepony accelerate through insanity,” said Blueprints.
“Shut up,” I said, turning back to them. “So from what I saw on the map, Wrath has Pride in a pincer grip, keeping both armies at a permanent stalemate. What I want to know is why.” Monarch and Blueprints gave me blank looks. “And to do that, we’ll need to find somepony who can explain why.” Still more blankness. “Obviously, if Pride has us on a peanut, or whatever it is-”
“Penop!” Symptom interjected happily.
“Yeah that. We need to go somewhere safe,” I concluded. Blueprints and Monarch glanced at each other. “Okay, so I just summed up what we’ve already discussed. Any ideas where we can go?”
“Aren’t you escorting me back to my daughter?” Dent asked. Fuck, forgot about her.
“We can’t unfortunately,” Monarch explained. “But we’ll give you this zebra stealth cloak! It’ll keep you out of sight, so you won’t have problems on your way back.”
“To Hell she’s getting this!” Symptom growled. “I need it to stay out of sight in towns!”
“Then we won’t go into any towns, Symptom,” Blueprints said mockingly. “It’s not brain surgery!”
“Just give her the cloak,” I sighed. Symptom grumbled unintelligibly, but tossed Dent the cloak. “Dent, you might want to get a head start, otherwise, you may hear some words you’d never thought existed.”
“I can’t thank you guys enough, you’re really the best group of ponies I’ve met!” she said emphatically. “Really, thank you!”
I smiled as she disappeared. “Fuck, if this is what’s going to keep happening, us saving somepony then losing some of our stuff, I’m resigning,” Symptom scoffed. “I’m going to sleep, tell me in the morning what you’ve decided.” She walked into the tent and collapsed on the cot.
“Do we really need to keep her, Ace?” Blueprints asked. “I’m beginning to doubt her usefulness. All she does is complain and whine-”
“I could say the same for you,” Monarch said sharply. “I’m the one who recruited those boars to trample the camp!”
“You wouldn’t have if I hadn’t pointed them out to you!”
“You wouldn’t have had to if you had let me use the binoculars!”
“You were bird watching! I needed them to keep an eye on Ace in case he got caught, which he did!”
“Can it, you two!” I shouted over them. “First the suicide, then the phantom unicorn, now your endless bickering, no wonder I’m going insane!”
“Phantom... unicorn?” Blueprints asked hesitantly. Oh fuck me, Celestia. “What do you mean?”
“It’s nothing, forget it,” I said. I desperately thought of a subject change. “Any idea where to go?”
“Okay...” Monarch said slowly. He pulled out a map. “I found this in one of the tents. Not as detailed as the one in the Captain’s tent, but that was all covered in blood and it had an eye on it, so I didn’t want to touch it.” Bad memories seeping in, fuck it. I winced noticeably. Monarch glanced up, and quickly looked back down at the map. “Yeah, from what I can tell, the best thing to do is head west. Away from here as fast as possible.”
Blueprints frowned. “Wouldn’t that lead us directly into Wrath’s territory?” I looked at the map and confirmed it. “How in hell is that best?”
“Wrath can’t be mad at us, we’ve already attacked one of Pride’s camps,” I pointed out.
“Yeah, but we’ve also eliminated several of Wrath’s patrol groups,” Blueprints countered. “Let’s curve north a bit, into Lust’s territory. She’s neutral, and I heard Lynchway Lake is kinda fun.”
“Because heading north in winter-time is always the best choice,” Monarch said sarcastically. “Ace, what do you think?”
I took another look at the map and couldn’t avoid thinking of the eye spiked to the map. I could feel my stomach start to twist and, despite my best efforts, failed to choke down what was coming up. “Well, let’s not head the direction I just puked on.”
“Ace...” Blueprints said slowly, “that’s fucking disgusting.” Thanks for telling me. I had no fucking idea.
“I don’t want to walk into the land of another pony who wants me dead, so let’s go with Lust,” I decided.
Monarch shrugged. “Fair enough. Make sure you bundle up though. It’s going to get cold.”
“Monarch, he lived in Cormount. I think he knows it gets cold up north,” Blueprints said.
Monarch rolled his eyes. “Ever heard of a rain shadow? Cormount’s at the foot of a mountain, it’s not as cold as the rest of the northern areas. But before you try to counter with some stupid remark,” he said as Blueprints opened his mouth, “I want to ask Ace something. What happened in the tent? Symptom refused to tell us and, judging by that puke stain, something pretty upsetting happened.”
I took a breath. “Symptom basically drove the pony guarding us to suicide. You don’t want to know the details.”
Blueprints and Monarch glanced at each other. “That explains the blood and the shotgun,” said Monarch. “Wow, I really did not think she’d do it again.” Wait again?
Blueprints had the same reaction. “She’s done this before? Why are we traveling with a psychopath?”
Monarch sighed. “It’s a long story, and I really don’t feel like sharing. Yes, but I trust her. Fair enough?” I opened my mouth to ask more, but he walked into the tent before I could say anything.
I turned back to Blueprints. “Well, this has been an eventful day.”
He nodded. “It has. But you’re still taking first watch,” he said as he walked into the tent after Monarch.
I sighed. Looked like everypony had secrets here. Time for speculation. What all could have happened to Symptom in Mesa City that ruined her life? Why is Monarch so quiet about it, and why can’t he trust me enough to tell me? And what Symptom said earlier about Blueprints was bothering me. What if he was still loyal to Pride? How could I know that he wouldn’t sell the three of us back for his own safety? “It’s gonna be a long night,” I grumbled.
“Need somepony to talk to?” asked Dusty. I glanced over at her sitting in the pressed down grassy area. “Not like I’ve got anything else to do.”
“Yeah, I guess. I feel like I haven’t done much of anything since leaving Cormount. Like, I always dreamt of leaving that Hellhole of hatred, but never really thought about what I’d do afterwards. I mean look! It’s been less than a week since I left and already I’m on one of the most powerful ponies’ hit list!” I ranted.
“What was so bad about Cormount?” Dusty asked.
I thought for a moment. “I guess it was the ponies that really got to me. None of them even remotely liked me. Why they even let me live is a mystery.”
Dusty whistled. “So you probably never got close to anypony right? No relationships, no friends?”
I nodded slowly. “Sounds about right. Even had a few ponies actually try to kill me.”
“So when you met Blueprints, he had to work to earn your trust?”
I stared at some grass that was rustling in the distance. He really didn’t, did he? “No... I just kinda, you know, went along with him. He caught me off guard I guess.” I glanced back over at Dusty. “Weird, isn’t it? I live a whole life being hated by everypony I see and one pony easily gets to me by being nice.”
Dusty smiled. “And I remember meeting Monarch and Symptom. He shot you through the leg, and you decided to let him travel with you. Why is that?” I stared at her, stunned. “You’re a very trusting pony, almost naively so, regardless of what happens in your life. So why are you here with them anyway?”
I racked my brains for a second, but I already knew the answer. “They’re my friends. Friends stick together.”
“How would you know that? You’ve never had friends until this week.”
“I’ve read about it. All the storybooks when I was a colt. Friends are nice to each other. They don’t argue. They trust one another.”
Dusty laughed. “That sounds almost too good to be true. And it really is. Are these three your friends, Ace? Is Symptom nice to you? Do Blueprints and Monarch never argue? Has Monarch opened up anything to you since you met him?”
I sat there, mouth agape. Were they really my friends? Were any of us really friends? “I know Prints is my friend. And some friendships require sacrifice. And compromise.”
“Sounds like you’ve learned some things since you left Cormount,” Dusty said with a smile. “Now the real question is, are you happy?”
Again, I already knew the answer to that. “Not really. Ever since I left, I’ve been shot at, nearly eaten, yelled at, shot at some more, and watched a pony commit suicide. Symptom has me doubting Blueprints’ loyalty, Blueprints has me doubting hers, Monarch refuses to say anything, and the four of us never stop arguing!”
Dusty’s smile faded. “That’s not the answer I was expecting. If you’re not happy, why not leave them? You said it yourself, you really aren’t friends with Monarch and Symptom. And you haven’t known Blueprints long enough to feel guilty about leaving him. What’s keeping you here?”
I surveyed the nearby hills, watching a few shadows cross over them, away from us. “I don’t know. But I could ask the same of the other three and none of them would have an answer either. None of them know why we’re here and what to do next. They look to me for direction and leaving them would probably just kill them.”
Dusty nodded slowly. “And I know what keeps each of them here. You said Symptom’s worried about Blueprints selling you out to Pride? He won’t do that to you. Just like he’s your first real friend, you’re probably his first real friend too. And the reason Symptom hates him is just plain jealousy. He had a relatively normal life in Mesa City whereas she, well, something bad must’ve happened to her. As for Monarch, he’s here to watch you crash and burn as a reason to go home and return to mommy. He doesn’t think he has what it takes, so as long as you survive, he’s with you.”
I took in all that she said and slowly processed it. For just a minute. Or two. Or ten. I continued watching the shadows in the silence. A few paused and looked toward our fire, but continued on their way. I sighed again as the rest of the shadows dispersed. And then something landed on the tip of my nose.
A snowflake.
I was no stranger to snow. In Cormount, every year, it snowed, blizzarded, even hailed a few times. Yet every time I saw it, the inner colt in me came out. A smile beamed on my face as I looked up to the sky at the falling flakes. “Dusty, look! Snow!” I shouted in glee.
I flew up in the air and followed a few flakes down. On the third trip, I saw Dusty waving a hoof at me to return. “Ace, as much as I love having this body, albeit only half here, I can’t stay for much longer.”
I grinned. “Whatever you say, crazy pony in my head. Whatever you say.” I watched her fade away before flying back up in the air to watch more snowflakes. Honestly, who doesn’t love snow?
********************
“I fucking hate snow!” Of course she does.
Symptom glared at the falling snow as Blueprints and Monarch packed up the tent. Well, Monarch magically packed it up in five seconds while Blueprints stared in awe. “Damn. I really wish I was a unicorn sometimes.”
Symptom turned her attention from the snow to Blueprints. “Oh yeah, totally. Get to use magic to easily carry items, you can easily hold weapons, and plus, you get to torture earth ponies for fun disguised as science.”
I decided to butt in, against my better judgement. “What about Monarch? He doesn’t torture Blueprints. In fact, you seem to be the one doing most of the torturing.”
Symptom glared at me for a second, then resumed her staring contest with the snow. Monarch continued packing up the camp completely unfazed. Blueprints shook his head and started covering up the remains of our fire. Kinda pointless considering the snow. But I was too preoccupied with the lack of warmth in the group to point it out to Blueprints. How were we supposed to take down a 200 year old ruler when none of us can get past petty differences? I sighed, eliciting another glare from Symptom.
Eventually Monarch broke the silence. “Camp’s packed. Let’s go.” Though it wasn’t much, Blueprints still jumped in the broken silence. I heard Symptom snicker but I wisely decided not to press this issue.
We walked down the bluff, and started heading north again, still in complete silence. I don’t know if I emphasized it enough earlier, but I hate silence. Unfortunately, when I tried to turn on the radio, I had a metal pan thrown at my head. So I decided to get lost in my thoughts.
The only thing I don’t like about snow is the ice that forms on my wings. I don’t know if it affects other pegasi, me being the only one I know, but it does severely limit my flying ability to none. I had to deal with the problem every year in Cormount and eventually found a way to keep it from forming. When I was by myself and not too worried about being yelled at, flapping my wings without getting airborne helped tremendously. However being with ponies I consider my friends...
“I swear to Celestia, if you don’t stop that constant flapping noise I will not be held responsible for what might happen.”
“Penop, if you keep doing that, I’m going to cut your wings off and shove them so far up your ass, you’ll be coughing up feathers.”
“Ace, stop.”
Such wonderful company. I admit, it may be noisy and visually distracting, but it’s better than being unable to fly if needed. But damn it, I needed some reason to still be here. With my wings, I could have been long gone before the snow snuffed out the fire last night. So I decided to grin and bear it, pulling my wings back into my body.
So we continued in silence. Agonizing silence. Boring silence. Silent, silent silence. It was really starting to get to me. How the fuck could they just keep walking without uttering a single noise? I stopped and watched them keep walking without me. It took them almost a minute to realize I wasn’t with them anymore. The three of them turned back around and stared at me. I stared back. Eventually Blueprints trudged back to me.
“Ace, it’s your head they want, not ours. So let’s keep moving.”
I shook my head. “No. Not with that deadening silence. I can’t take it anymore.”
Blueprints rolled his eyes. “That’s your problem, Ace. Look, if you can’t stand it, by all means, just stay here and freeze. We’ll keep going, and if we come across any patrols, we’ll tell them you’re back here, okay? Okay.”
“What makes you think that Monarch and Symptom are going to stay with you? Neither one of them really likes you. Hell, I know Symptom hates you,” I said.
Blueprints eyes narrowed. “What makes you so important? You think you’re special? That you’re better than me? I don’t need your pity, Ace.” He turned and started back to the group.
I went after him. “I don’t think I’m better than you, Prints...”
He cut me off. “Yes you do. Don’t even try to deny it. Ever since we left Cormount you’ve been acting the leader, even though you don’t have a fucking clue what you’re doing. I’ve tried to go along happily with what you said, but it’s already fucking impossible. You’re not going to be some big storybook hero. None of us are. It’s kill or be killed out in the Wasteland, Ace. It’s a miracle that any of us are still alive.”
I felt myself starting to get a little angry. “If it’s kill or be killed, why do you put up so much of a fuss when I kill somepony?”
“It’s not that you killed somepony, it’s the fact that you do it so heartlessly! And that’s not my point! It’s plainly obvious to me that you think of yourself as the good guy, and I’m just a sidekick that gets in trouble. I can take care of myself, Ace. I’ve been at this longer than you.”
I realized why Blueprints was angry at me. “You don’t want me telling off Symptom when she bullies you.” I said softly.
Blueprints stopped. “That’s part of it. But...” He turned back to me, tears welling in his eyes, “you never thanked me for saving your life in that camp last night!”
Was that really the problem? “I... Thank you? I would have died if you hadn’t been there?”
Blueprints face contorted a few times, then he burst into laughter. “Two things, Ace. One, I’m not that petty. Two, Monarch can suck it. I told him I was the one who rescued you!”
I was confused. “You’re not mad?”
He waved his hoof dismissively. “Of course not. Though I am getting annoyed that you think I’m some wimp who needs defending from the bully trying to steal my lunch money. I can handle my own battles, okay?”
I started feeling a little embarrassed. “Okay. But why were you giving me the silent treatment earlier?”
Now Blueprints was confused. “Silent treatment? I was happy that Symptom wasn’t yelling at me and enjoying the peace and quiet.”
And now I was confused again. “And why isn’t Monarch talking to me?”
He shrugged. “No clue. Ask him. Now, are you going to stay here and freeze to death or are you coming with us? Because I was serious when I said we’ll leave you behind.”
I glanced over at Monarch and Symptom. Monarch had sat down and was floating a book in front of him while Symptom, from the looks of it, was fighting the falling snow. “Prints, if we were to go our separate ways, all four of us, where would you go?” I asked him.
Blueprints frowned. “I don’t know. And it’s not like it matters anyway. That’s a hypothetical we won’t have to deal with.”
I pressed on. “What if the three of us die and you’re left alive. What would you do?” I figured that would get an answer.
He thought about it for a minute. “I hope that doesn’t happen, but I guess I’d probably go south. I’ve got just as much of a bounty as you do so staying here isn’t an option. And I’m not going to change anything by myself.” Blueprints looked at me with a hint of fear in his eyes. “You’re not actually leaving, are you?”
I smiled and shook my head. “No, of course not. I couldn’t leave you behind. Friends stick together, don’t they? Alright, let’s go catch up with the oth-”
I was cut off by an explosion in the snow bank behind me. I quickly jumped around next to Blueprints and pulled out my pistol. “Explosive gel, huh? I’ll give you an explosion!” came out of the smoke where I saw two large silhouettes. Monarch and Symptom were already running towards us, weapons drawn. Damn, but this group had fast reflexes. “Blueprints, situation!” Monarch yelled.
“Two Steel Rangers! Looks like the ones from the port! And they’re not happy!” Blueprints shouted back.
“If they’re from the port, they’ll be really angry, and not thinking clearly,” Monarch said as he reached us. “Their fighting style is sure to have holes in it. Blueprints, engage them from the front while Symptom, you try to get behind them. Ace, fly above them and act like a nuisance. I’ll try and shut off their armour from a distance. Move!” Blueprints and Symptom both nodded and ran towards the rangers. I didn’t have enough brainpower to process all of what Monarch had just said, but I heard my job and immediately tried to launch in the air.
Key word here being “tried.”
“Damn ice!” I yelled. “Monarch, I need about a minute to warm up first!”
“That’s fine, just hurry it up,” he muttered, peering through his scope. “Think you could do something about all the smoke?” I saluted and started furiously flapping my wings. As a way to launch in the air, it was doing fuck-all, but the smoke quickly started to clear. I continued flapping long after the smoke had gone, and I could tell that Monarch was starting to get annoyed. Oh well, fucktard, I told you I needed to keep my wings warm. “Ace, do you have an idea of when you can fly?” Monarch asked.
“Give me another minute, I can only flap so fast,” I replied. I watched Blueprints firing into the body of the Ranger, only to have the shots bounce off, while doing a weird tap-dance to avoid the grenades being fired. Wait a minute. Grenades? I have some of those. I dug in my bag and pulled one out. “Dusty,” I murmured softly so Monarch wouldn’t hear, “where do I put this to do the most damage?”
Dusty answered immediately. “The one on the left, see how every time he fires, his front hoof comes up? Time it to land it under the hoof.” Celestia almighty, Dusty’s smart. I activated SATS and aimed for right under the hoof. “Throw it... now!” Dusty ordered. I chunked the grenade and watched as it landed right as he put his hoof down.
Monarch glanced at me, and I beamed at the thought of praise. “Ace, you’re in the air, go do your job.” My smile vanished. Oh yeah, I was in the air. I felt the free sensation of not touching the ground just as he finished talking.
“Alright, motherfucker, let’s do this,” I pulled out my pistol and flew right over the other Steel Ranger. Lucky me, he was firing grenades, which, surprisingly enough, don’t do much to ponies who are flying. I turned on SATS again and aimed for the visor, firing three shots into it. Two bounced off, but one stuck in the glass. Unfortunately, the only thing that accomplished was to make him angry. I landed behind him and watched him writhe in anger.
“Oh you fucker! I’m going to kill you!” Really? No shit, I thought you were going to take me to lunch. “Where did you go? Come out so I can shove a few grenades in your holes!”
I felt a tap on my shoulder, and somepony whispered, “Get him to look this way.” I took a deep breath and shot a quick prayer to Celestia. “You know, that doesn’t sound all that pleasant!” I yelled at him. He spun around and through the glass I could see rage I’d only seen in the eyes of one other pony...
One other pony who jumped off my back and slammed her shotgun into the faceplate. “How’s this for an explosion?” Symptom yelled, and she started firing the shotgun into his face. And again. And again. I heard the empty sounding click and she yanked the shotgun out, covered in blood. “Fucker.”
I turned back to the other Ranger. He was collapsed on the ground, one leg lying a few feet away from him. He actually looked almost pitiful. I took a few steps closer, but stopped when I heard a weird sound coming from inside his suit. I went into a launching position, thinking it was some kind of suit repair system, but it dawned on me that I had heard this sound before. Just a few minutes earlier, actually.
“He’s... crying?” Blueprints asked tentatively. I nodded slowly and slid my pistol back into my bag. “Not very disciplined for a Steel Ranger, is he?”
Symptom walked right next to him and kicked the faceplate. “You’re lucky that I’m out of ammo, or you’d be wishing you’d never been born. And I wouldn’t be firing in the front end, if you get my meaning.” She looked at me and Blueprints. “One of you kill him.”
I reached for my pistol, but Blueprints stopped me. “We’re not going to kill somepony who’s lying here helpless. If anything, we’re going to help them. Right, Ace?”
I looked between the two of them. Symptom’s glare versus Blueprints’ pleading eyes. I left my pistol where it was and walked over to the injured Ranger. “Is there anything we can do for you?” I asked him.
The sobbing continued, and I frowned. There was something odd about the sound to me. Monarch walked over the hill to us. “What are you doing, Ace? He’s tried to kill us at least three times now.”
“Shush it,” I said. I heard Monarch’s mouth shut. The sobbing continued and I tried to put my hoof on why it was so odd to me. It’s similar to what Blueprints was doing earlier and...
And he was faking it.
I closed my eyes and pulled my pistol back out. I didn’t need SATS for this shot. Following Symptom’s lead, I used the butt to smash the visor then unloaded a few bullets into the Ranger’s face. I stood back up, reloaded the pistol and put it into its holster. Symptom looked... not angry, Monarch stared at the body, and Blueprints had his horrified look again.
“Good job, Ace,” Symptom said. “I didn’t think you had it in you.”
“Good job?!” Blueprints exclaimed. “Ace, why’d you do that? He was injured! He needed help!”
I kept my focus from turning to either one of them. “He wasn’t crying. It was fake. He was trying to get aid that he didn’t deserve.” I glanced over at Symptom. “Make a sign. Use their blood. Make sure nopony messes with the Outcast.” A genuine smile appeared on her face and she mimed a salute.
Blueprints looked at me in disgust and walked to the body Symptom wasn’t writing on. “May you find peace in the afterlife.” He said.
“Oh not this again,” said Symptom. “They’re dead. Gone forever. Into an eternal nothingness.”
Monarch glanced up from his staring contest with the dead body. “Well that’s not entirely true, Symptom. I mean, you-” he shut up. I didn’t even need to turn to see the glare on Symptom’s face. “Anyway, let’s hurry this up and go. We’ve got a lot of ground to cover.”
Blueprints gave another quick prayer for the other Ranger, one that Symptom decided to ignore. Written on the armour of shotgun face Ranger was “The Outcast was here.” On legless Ranger was “Don’t mess with the Outcast.” I smiled at Symptom’s handiwork and the four of us departed once more for the North.
This trip wasn’t nearly as quiet, allowing me to keep my wings circulated. Blueprints grumbled about not getting to bury the bodies while Symptom grumbled about the snow. Monarch was being silent though, and I intended to fix that.
“So, what did you do during that battle, Monarch?”
“I monitored the situation in case we needed a change in plans,” he replied. “Luckily that first plan went swimmingly.”
“Which reminds me,” I said, “where did you learn all that battle speak and planning stuff?”
A faint smile appeared on his face. “Schooling in Mesa City. My parents wanted me to become an officer in Pride’s army. They signed me up for a bunch of military classes, and I only remembered some of it last night. I’ve kind of repressed my memories of Mesa City.”
“So you took a bunch of military classes and you can’t even hold a gun right?” I joked.
Monarch rolled his eyes. “My mom didn’t want a soldier son, she wanted an officer son. I didn’t get any combat training, and was told to avoid any personal fighting in the class. That really stuck.”
I frowned. “So your parents picked your career for you? That doesn’t sound fair.”
“Yeah, well, don’t mention fairness to Symptom. She got the raw end of the deal.”
“What deal?”
“Every deal. I was born a unicorn in Mesa City, which alone would have given me a prosperous life. I lived sheltered, though, and I never even knew about earth ponies, let alone pegasi. That’s part of the reason I’d shot at you. It scared me seeing a pony with wings. But I digress, what I was going for was my parents kept me from learning about the outside world and everything. Now, I resent them for it.”
I watched a snowflake land on my nose and melt. I realized that I looked disinterested and tried to put on a face that showed interest. And from the heat coming from my Pipbuck, I could tell Dusty was listening too. “Why’d you resent them? I lived my life without knowing about the rest of Equestria except in history books. I never felt the need to explore it or anything, at least, not until my town was ransacked.”
Monarch kept silent for a few minutes and I picked up on a few grumblings coming from the others. “...would have only taken a few minutes, we could easily have dug a grave” “Fucking snow, I hope it gets radiation poisoning and dies, that would show it.”
Finally, Monarch answered. “It’s not that I got wanderlust or anything, and at the time, I thought my parents were perfect. They told me about the glorious princesses and how they died during the war to protect the other ponies. That they have a paradise for all ponies who live their lives in their name. All mumbo-jumbo after I left though. They said the princesses were unicorns. I’m sorry, that’s not important, what I meant to say is, I eventually met an earth pony. When I asked my mom about why he didn’t have a horn, she said that it was because she was born into a slave position. And naturally I believed her.”
I nodded in agreement. “But something must have opened your eyes, right? Otherwise you’d still be there?”
Monarch nodded absentmindedly. “One day I was walking back from school and I see a bloody orange pile in an alley. I walk over to it and discover that it’s one of the slave ponies. So naturally, I try to wake it up, saying stuff like ‘your masters are probably worried’ and ‘where do you live, I can take you back.’”
I glanced back at the orange ghoul behind us glaring at the falling snow. “So was that Symptom?”
Monarch nodded again. “She opened her eyes and told me to help her out of the city. I was confused, because at the time, I didn’t think there was anything outside the city. I was told Equestria had pretty much been destroyed. But I was young and hadn’t been taught that all earth ponies are pure evil. So I dragged her out of the city. That was a little over five years ago.”
I processed all of what he had said. And in my head, Dusty was doing the same thing. “So what about your parents? Did you tell them you’d be leaving?”
Monarch stared stoically ahead. “No. They think I’m dead. And I want to keep it that way.”
I nodded in agreement again. “My parents are still alive, I think. Flint said they were taken captive by Sloth.”
Monarch looked at me. “Are we going to save them?”
I thought that over for a minute. Did I want to save them? Yes they’re my parents, but they left me in Cormount by myself, forced to endure a lifetime of hatred. But still... “I think I have to. What does that say about me? I don’t know if I want to save my parents’ lives?”
Blueprints piped up behind us. “It means you’re a cold unloving bastard child who is probably going to be a sociopathic murderer.” Thanks Blueprints. That helps a lot.
“Oh please,” said Symptom. “Everypony hates their parents. Well, I don’t, but I hate everypony else instead.”
I fell back to listen to the argument and let Monarch walk ahead. “So you just indiscriminately hate everypony you come across?” Blueprints asked.
“Not indiscriminately. I find reasons. For starters, I hate you because you are one of those lucky earth ponies that lived in the Stable. I hate Monarch because he’s useless in a fight, never stops eating, and gets all huffy if you explain that to him. And you,” she said turning to me, “I hate you because you’re a flying little asshole that doesn’t give two shits about the rest of us.”
Blueprints and I glanced at each other. “She’s got you spot on,” Blueprints said. I rolled my eyes and chose not to respond. Turning back to the front I noticed Monarch had pulled ahead significantly.
Monarch stopped at the next hill. “No!” he yelled. I glanced at Symptom and Blueprints and we hurried up to hill beside him. And I saw why he was angry.
There was a long stretch of plain ahead of us, and the snow around it was red. Red from the blood of hundreds of dead boars. And walking through the bodies towards us were two mares I did not want to see again.
“Oh look, Fang, it’s that pegasus again. What did the radio say about him?”
“I don’t remember, Claw. Something about having a large bounty on his head.”
“Him? He was almost killed by a mole, and now Pride is afraid of him? Isn’t that charming?”
“I agree. And I think our pockets have been a little empty as of late, don’t you think?”
“And look, it’s the cute blue-hoofed one. I liked him. He has a bounty too, right?”
“That’s right. We could kill these two and be set for life!”
“Who are the others, though? Do they have a bounty?”
“Who cares? They look delicious. I’m sure Gluttony would love to have the fine specimen of unicorn.”
“Indeed. So,” both mares pulled out some fairly large weapons that made me nearly piss my armour, “let’s have some fun.”
Note* three quarters level up
Sorry for the huge delay in the chapter, and for the inevitable delay in the next chapter. I hope to get this on a schedule very soon