//------------------------------// // Chapter 14 // Story: Fallout Equestria - No More Tears // by Darkstarr48 //------------------------------// I kicked my hooves up onto the arm rest of the couch, much like I would do back at home after a busy day of maintenance work. It felt exactly like a stable sofa, which was eerie, but at the same time comforting. I had doubted that all the stables made it, I knew some were bound to fail, and so it was possible that I was sitting on a genuine Stable-Tec sofa. I opened my eyes and looked around the building. I was in the living room, up some stairs, a catwalk overlooked the living room. From where I was sitting, a short hallway led deeper into the house. At the end, I assumed there was a bathroom, and the two doors must lead to bedrooms. The living room was fairly large, so It doubled as a kitchen. Inspecting the other furnishings closer, I could tell the blinking lights of old servers and pointlessly oversized tape recorders/players. It was all Stable-Tec, from the vent slats attached to the walls to the cushions underneath me. It was all in startlingly good condition too, and the attention to detail was amazing. The yellow stripes on the top and bottoms of the walls were exactly where they should be. The walls themselves had been evened out with a thin layer of drywall. The knob doors had been painted like the sliding Stable doors. All the details blew my mind, but then again, I was semi-blind. The Sable furnishings were comforting, and for obvious reasons it reminded me of home. I'm sure that the Appleoosans were proud of this work of art, but it was also very creepy that all of these things were once used. A metallic, smoggy smell wafted through the air. I was starting to feel homesick, and for a second, I was back in the Stable, back when things were simple. There was some degree of peace. Dad stood by Mom, who was cooking on the range that I had brought back to working condition. Wendy sat in the corner grumpily reading a 200 year old magazine. Dad kissed mom on the cheek, Mom, being herself, mutely giggled, knowing what he was really pestering her for, and plucked a carrot from the strainer at her side and stuffed it into his mouth and went back to cooking. He smiled and munched it down where only the stem was left protruding from his lips. We were so happy back then. I sighed as my vision blurred back to reality, I miss them so much. It was hard knowing that I was never going to see them again, that they were cold and half decayed underground together as they always were. I thought I was done moping about their deaths, but all these memories came flooding back to me. I turned over on the couch and buried my face in it to ensure that no one else saw me crying. I just couldn't seem to let this go. I remembered my mission, and what my overall goal was. I had gotten so caught up in all the things that have passed since our exile, but now, a new kind of blood lust began to plague my mind. I wanted her so dead, but I shouldn't let the thirst for vengeance be the only thing to lead me back home. I was gonna go home and live again, try to salvage my life. I doubted that Lilly or Boomer would follow us in and live in the Stable, so my sense of urgency was conflicted. I wanted to get my revenge, but I also wanted to stay with my new friends, and my marefriend. This is another one of those damn unsolvable paradox equations that left me to emotion, but here, two different emotions pull me in two different directions. I would miss everyone here in Appleoosa except for the guys who shot me. But here I was getting ahead of myself, I still had a long way to go before I got home, I would have plenty of time to sort all this out in my head. I felt a weight on the edge of the couch, but I didn't look up. I could tell by the amount of weight (or lack of) it was Lilly. And logic told me that if anyone else did it it would be weird. "Like the furnishings? I put in some ideas with the sheriff." She asked in a happy tone. I nodded and let out a shaky breath, "You did this?" I asked in surprise. "I love them... Its just.." I let out a little whimper. "Homesick?" She asked reaching out to stroke my mane. Damn, only knows me for a week and can read me like a book. "Violently so." I say sitting up and wiping my eyes. I gave her a little smile. Which she returned. "It only strengthens my hate. For the Overmare, but I love the furnishings." I saw my brother nod from his place on a stool. I took a look around the room. Rusty had disappeared, along with Boomer, both I assumed had left to check out the rest of the house, or go catch a nap in the beds. "So. How are you two?" Wendy asked, looking back at us. "I mean..." "Coupled." Lilly says with a little smile. I smiled too and leaned against her. "Oh.. Cute." Was all he remarked sincerely. I hoped he found someone soon. I saw the way he looked at Rusty, but.. I think he's gonna be in for a hell of a surprise when he finally makes a move on him. I snickered to myself at the image of Wendy pinning Rusty down and trying to kiss him, and then Rusty returning the favor with a hearty sucker punch to the chin. I began to laugh harder, clutching my stomach and keeling over slightly. "Oh what's so funny?" He asked, raising an eye curiously. I was laughing too hard to answer. "She just had a think, I'm sure." Lilly said starting to snicker. We already thought too much alike, I'm sure she was imagining the same thing. Wendy began to nervously laugh, unaware of what happened between Rusty and myself. I yawned, the energy of amusement beginning to fade away, and realize that even though I did nothing but but eat, sleep, and get shot, I was still tired, and only slightly hungry. I stood up and trotted over to the locker style cabinets, which what at home, I used to store food. Not to my surprise, the locker was empty, after all, it was somewhat difficult to come across food that was worth eating. In the Stable, the food was recycled. As nasty as it sounds, it was actually not bad. It got bland after a while, and the first time I ate a box of sugar bombs from out here, it was well worth the small cost of being irradiated. Regardless, I still missed the grey protein mush. Vegetables were endlessly grown however, and were among my favorite snacks. So, since we now have cabinets, I decided, 'Why not use the locker for something practical?' Gun storage seemed perfect, given that the locker was fairly large. Standing upright, you cold probably fit Boomer and myself into it, so it was big enough to hold most of our weapons. Guns, from what I heard were fairly rare, so they should be kept safe. It made sense, cause the only guns I had seen were on important figures around town. Strike the raiders of course, which probably attained the guns by killing others with guns, and then suing it to do unspeakable things to their corpse. Now that we had unlocked Ironshod, everyone in town had a weapon. I even noticed blurry little foals carrying around pocket pistols. One thing that I worried about was if anyone bad got into the factory, those weapons would be openly available to the wasteland. But I guess that was inevitable, wasn't it? I trotted around, looking for the huge dufflebag crammed to bursting with weapons that I had never known existed. I heard steps exiting the room, and assumed it was Wendy leaving to go find something to do, or perhaps him heading to bed to rest up. My vision had improved drastically, so I could make out the shapes of the guns as I attempted to sort through our loot. I eventually came to Lilly's enormous AM rifle that she used. I brought my hooves around it and tried to lift it, I struggled until I finally brought it a whole foot off of the ground before dropping it with a heavy thud. Lilly, who was still laying on the couch, giggled at my attempt and stood up, heading over. "You're so weak." She said sticking her tongue out and with a swing, brought the gun upright, where she leaned against it, herself also standing up. "How do you even fire that thing? Without magic I mean?" I asked, looking baffled at the strength she applied to the towering rifle. "Oh, that's fairly simple." She leaned in grinning and whispered, "I have gun training." She used one of her hind hooves to kick the gun up as she stood upright in a wide stance, catching the rifle in her hooves, aiming it at a wall. "Now, an important thing about firing this one is that it kicks like a mule. And when it does, it takes practiced timing." She imitated the kick of the rifle, slamming it hard against her shoulder, and using the force to spin all the way around, facing the original wall. And here I was thinking I was good with a gun, she astounded me. I really was glad that I was on her side. Not only because of her skill, but she also seems pretty proud of herself. I liked that. "I don't even know what to say about that." I say staring at her strange stance. "How do you pull the trigger?" She rolled her eyes and tilted the gun down, displaying the trigger guard to me, which had been widened to fit a hoof into it, or a tip of one anyhow. "So, care to teach me about these things?" She shrugged and leaned her rifle on the couch and sat on the floor next to the pile of weapons. I joined her, and she picked the gun out of the pile that looked almost exactly like mine. "Do you know what kind of gun this is?" she asked holding it out for me to inspect. I shook my head and dumbly said, "One that kills things?" She laughed and shook her head. "How do you know so much about weapons? Obviously you ar-- were Enclave, but do you all know about these guns?" "Only a few of us know about conventional weapons like this." "Conventional?" "Yeah, most of the Had started using energy weapons. I didn't like them too much, they felt too artificial, I'm a classic sort of girl." Uh huh, this is getting interesting and potentially deadlier by the minute, but I guess it cant hurt to know. "Energy weapons? Like laser guns?" "Ehh, kind of. Laser, plasma, Gauss, pulse. That sort of thing." I was going to act like I knew about them because I didn't feel like a lecture about every single one of those if I wouldn't be using them in the immediate future. "Now want to get back to the lesson?" I nodded and so began an hour long lecture about lever action rifles, their history, who invented them, when, and why. This branched into a longer spiel about the .556 round and all of its useful applications, then different bullet types such as hollow point, explosive, armor piercing, and incendiary, which led into their applications, then to all the different guns we had here. For once in my life, I spent hours trying to keep up with a teacher. She taught me all that the time allowed, and until I was half asleep when the sky darkened. But at least I came out of it much more aware than I was before. I swayed and leaned into her, who had just finished a lecture about Boomer's grenade launcher. She let out her own yawn and sat the weapon down. The look on her face suggested that she hadn't intended to get so carried away, and that losing track of the time was not intentional. We both stood up and stretched out, stiff from hours of sitting on the floor. "Ready for bed?" she asked, to which I nodded, but held out my hoof motioning for her to wait a minute. I numbly shuffled over to Boomer's bags and began rooting through them, I returned to Lilly carrying a box of sugar bombs. He wouldn't miss them. "Yeah, now I'm ready." She smiled and chuckled and we headed down the hall and went into the bedroom with the open door. I climbed up into the bed, which had been fluffed up beyond Stable-Tec standards so it didn't feel like a rock. Lilly followed me up and we both sat with our backs to the headboard, sharing a box of stale sugary cereal. The warmth of each others bodies lulled us both to sleep as I slept dreamlessly, letting the box of cereal half eaten. That was one of the best evenings of my life. * * * I woke up, and had somehow shifted sideways on the bed. Cereal was everywhere, in the sheets, all over the floor, stuck to us, and it was going to be a living hell to clean up. But we've got more things to worry about doing, like barricading the town for the impending attack. There's plenty of time to clean up massive cereal spills when you're dead. I decided not to rouse the still sleeping Lilly because she was lightly twitching, and the smile across her face suggested she was having a very nice dream, so I left her to it as I worked my way quietly out of bed and slipped out into the living room. Being the only one up, I decided to start the morning off by appeasing what was left of my OCD. I cringed at the pile of bags that was left behind to be dealt with later, but knowing my friends, later would never come. I sat on the couch, levitating the items out of the bags to see that they were all there, but didn't touch Boomer's bags. I feared for what may be inside it. Honestly, I've never been so scared of a colt in my life, not even in my childhood. I got to my bags and began sorting my items about. My old knives, batons, sticks. All the things that have helped me survive all that had passed. I started rooting through my clothes I brought and found a nice clean Stable jumpsuit that I slipped on. I found the old ragged, burnt, torn and bloody suit and examined it. I found a large bulge in one of the pockets, and since I couldn't find the flap, I just tore through the pocket. The perfectly round, hoof sized clear ball fell out and bounced across the couch before settling in the crease between the cushions. I stared at it, pondering what I should do with this, and what it does. I levitated it over and sat it atop a dented area on the locker so it wouldn't roll off and shatter on the concrete floor. Then again, it went through hell with me, so I doubted it would break that easily. I continued rummaging through my bags when I felt a set of hooves wrap around my shoulders. "Watcha up to?" Lilly asked, looking over my shoulder at the mess of trashed items all around me. "Stuff." I said shrugging and smiling, not looking up at her. "What kinda stuff?" She asked playfully, reaching out and picking up the bit of pipe that kept me alive on the trains. "Stuffy stuff." I said turning to face her. She let go of me and hopped over the back of the couch, taking a place next to me. "Hey, a cereal bomb went off in our room." She said, raising a hoof and motioning back to the rooms. I chuckled and nodded, "Yeah, I noticed. I didn't wake you up. So.. What were you dreaming about?" "Oh. Well, if I told you.. I'm not sure how you would react." She said smiling awkwardly. "My parents are dead and my home stabbed me in the back, I doubt this could be much worse." "Yeah, well. I had a dream that I was dating your brother. It was... a strange dream." I just cocked an eye. "You and him are a lot alike. I sorta liked him, but I know I didn't have a chance cause.. ya know." She blushed sheepishly. "I don't even know what to say about that." I say chuckling, "We are nothing alike, in fact, we're polar opposites." She gave an embarrassed little shrug. "Well, I do like you a lot. You're cute." She said giving me a little tap on the nose with her hoof. "And you're smart, I like that." I smiled and layed into her, nuzzling into her neck and smiling. She gave me a kiss on the cheek. As much as I wanted to curl up with her and get some more sleep, we had work to do. I looked up at her and said, "Should we go? I think we should go on and help with the town." She nodded in agreement and we both stood up. I levitated a pistol from the still unsorted pile of weapons and placed it in my pouch pocket on my back leg. We both stepped outside into the wasteland, looking around at the land, turned blue grey by the early morning light filtering through the Enclave's cloud layer. Mares and stallions milled about the town carrying boards to their destinations to fortify various buildings. The bell tower and the pub roof were two of the completed areas of reinforcement with battlements sturdily attached around the roofline. Most of the other buildings were in some stage of improvement and strong wooden barricades lined the streets in rows leading up to the tracks. Clearly someone here was a strategist, because the order looked like a defensive position I read about in one of my books. As I surveyed the town, I was unaware of the white pony sneaking up on us, and before I realized it, he was between Me and Lilly with arms around both of us laughing heartily. "Howdy ladies! Come out to help us fix up the town like a rock?" We smiled as the eyepatched sheriff motioned around. "And as ya'll can see, I think we're doin' a fine job." "Need any help?" I asked him, to which he nodded. "All the help we can get, Ditzy says they'll be here by tomorrow, give er take a few hours." Shit, we need to move, now. Lilly and I got out of his bear hug and turned to him. "Where do you need us?" She asked. "Whelp, I assume that ya'll are gonna want some place near the front lines, C'ept you, I seen that rifle of yours, you're gonna want the bell tower. So you two can go work on that building." He motioned to a building near the edge of town, which was also near the tracks. "Okay then." Lilly said turning to me. "Ready to do this?" I nodded and we set off for the cart filled with lumber. * * * About three hours later, it was daylight and the wastes were beginning to get hot very quickly. Lilly and I worked on either side of a board, her hovering on the outside nailing it up as I held it up. The heat was making me sweat heavily in combination with all the work. I'd never had to do this much manual labor at once. We were on our third building, my muscles ached from holding up the boards, and my horn still ached from my head trauma. But all this would pay off in two ways. All this would make me stronger, and it will protect the town, so I pushed past my pain and continued to work. My mane was dripping with sweat, but Lilly had tied hers back with a rag, she was more used to work, seeing as though she was stronger. She wiped her forehead after hammering in the last nail. "Ahh, that's number three, ready for a break?." I shook my head hard, spattering out the sweat and wiping my eyes. "Yeah, I'm beat, what did you have in mind?" "Go to the bar?" She asked pointing to the pub which was still in service despite the continuous renovations. "Of course, let's go." I doubted a drink would really be good for my head injuries, but I didn't care, it had been forever since I had a drink, and I'd like to see how well they dealt with the bar fight from what seemed like ages ago. We both walked into the pub through the swinging doors, we received a dirty glance from a group in the corner, and a fearful one from the bartender, hoping that nothing would happen this time. Lilly and I took a seat at the bar. We both decided we would share a scotch, and try something new, so the bartender set out two glasses for us along with a bottle of scotch. I reached into my pocket to get the caps to pay, but the bartender smiled, realizing we weren't wanting any trouble. "On the house friends. you've done a lot for this town, and your guns've helped us run most of the scoundrels out of town." He dropped his voice and said, "Most." Shooting a quick glance to the group in the corner. "Yeah, sorry about breaking your bottles last time, was an accident." He laughed and smiled, "Naw, its alright, totally worth it to see that asshole get his just desserts. And no offense, but I didn't expect a stable pony to do something like that." Lilly began pouring us our drinks and I picked up my cup. "Well, I don't guess I'm an average stable pony." "I'd say, Most newcomers done even make it to Ironshod alive." That was unsettling, i gave him a smile though, because I really didn't want the details. "Thanks. So, just out of curiosity, how many slavers are going to show up?" I needed to know what I was up against, after all, we had only seen two of them, they were mean ad brutal, but went down like any other one unfortunate enough to piss rusty off. Which reminds me, I hope he can control his temper during this fight, I don't wan't him charging out there and getting himself killed. "Bout a hundred of em. We outnumber em five to one, but they're trained to kill. I don't like them odds too much c'nsiderin that a fifth of our population is under the age of fifteen. But I'll be damned if we don't start fighting back. Them slavers took my wife, my boy and burned down my house." The odds weren't too good, but I understood his loss. "How long ago we're they taken?" "Train that left just before you arrived, I'd say that if you freed all their slaves, they aren't going to execute em, rough em' up a bit maybe, but I'm sure they can handle themselves." "Well, I hope they're alright, but I know how you feel." He nodded in agreement and poured another glass of scotch. "This ain't a normal drink for cheers, but what the hell." He raised his glass up. "To victory." Lilly and I did the same and met his glasses over the bar in a piercing clink, we downed the contents of our glasses and sat our glasses down. "I want ya'll to have something for later, you know, when the occasion calls for celebration." He reached under the counter and produced a bottle of what I believed was red wine. "Now I know t'ain't much, but I hear you're a good fighter when you're liquored up. And besides, you saved my bar from the gang, I owe ya one." Lilly looked over at me and smiled. "Ohh, fancy." I nodded and smiled back. "I'll be sure to drink this later, thanks... er..." "Names Buck." He extended a hoof, which I met and shook. "Nice to meetcha." Lilly and I both laughed. And introduced ourselves. He laughed as well, "Funny, you're heroes round here, but none save Ditzy and Silver know your names. We just been callin ya one, two, three and four." "The one that has the slicked back mane and the medical boxes is Rusty, and my brother's name is Wind-Fire, but we all just call him Wendy. The little blue colt's name is Boomer, and it may be best to avoid him for a little while. He's a... semi-former raider." "Alright, thanks ya'll, and good luck out there whenever the battle comes." Well, this bartender was one of the nicest ponies I'd met. Aside from Ditzy of course. He just seemed to glow with sincerity, I'm glad to have another friend out here. "Likewise friend." I said to him. He nodded and returned to cleaning mugs behind the counter. I know I said it before but I'll say it again. Its good to know there are decent ponies out here, but this is New Appleoosa after all, where everypony is friendly except the ones that aren't. Lilly and I sat in the bar for a little while discussing battle plans and strategies and running out scenarios. I understand why she is so good at this, her father was an Enclave general. We kept on for about an hour, before we headed back outside. Nopony was working, because the town had been finished, and rifle wielding ponies stood up along the battlements, waiting on attack. Lilly and I shrugged and we headed home, where everyone sat in the living room, working their guns out, testing, and maintaining them. My brother was fiddling with something that looked like a saddle, only a lot more... I don't even know how to explain. "What's that?" I asked sitting down beside him. "Battle saddle." He replied flatly, very absorbed in his work. "What's it do?" "Helps non-unicorn ponies fire guns more effectively." I looked over at Rusty, who had his in what looked like working condition, with an assault carbine on one side and a shotgun on the other. "Where'd you get them?" I asked. "Bought them." "From who?" "Ditzy." "How much?" "Fifty caps each." Little pricey, but Its not my money to spend. "Hoes it work?" He looked up at me scowling, he didn't seem happy that my constant pestering had finally broken his concentration. "Your marefriend's a pegasus, I'm sure shes seen one before, how about you ask her?" I began to laugh, Lilly nodded but I finally got my laughing down to a chuckle, "I can see how it works bub, I know about mechanics." He seemed frustrated. "Fine, If you can work it, why don't you fix it for me?" He handed me the entire saddle and slid his two weapons of choice over to me. Since I had never worked one of these before, I was running on guesses, so I took one of the rifles and popped it into the saddle holster, brought the reloading bit into place below the receiver. I found the mouth bit and the cable running to the firing mechanism, which I slipped into the trigger and locked into place, I tapped the mouth bit and the rifle clicked, ensuring I had done it properly. I repeated the process with the other side and levitated the saddle back over to him. It made my head ache a little, but it was worth it. His scowl turned to a smile as he stared at it and chuckled. "Damn your ingenuity, what's next, getting the stable door open all by yourself?" "I wish." I said, laughing again. In total time, it had taken me about ten minutes to fix the saddle, and we spent the rest of the day picking, cleaning, and adjusting our weapons of choice. My two were a small pistol with an attached silencer, and an assault carbine like Rusty's. As we packed our weapons away into the locker, the sun had began to set. After a short series of tactical planning, we all retreated to our rooms, but Boomer slept on the couch. "Don't want a bed?" I asked him as I passed the couch. "Nah, don't wanna share one with a faggot." He snarked. I stopped and turned back at him. "Ouch, watch what you say, that wasn't very nice." "Oh what, you gonna cry? Pfft. Baby." He said rubbing his hooves over his eyes in mock crying. I stepped towards him, looking over the edge of the couch, remembering how young he was. "Take it back." "Why should I?" "Where I come from, you know what we do to naughty colts?" I narrow my eyes menacingly. He lost his snarky grin, my face must have been terrifying. "What?" He asked coolly. I grinned. "Well.. we TICKLE THEM!" I reached down and began to tickle his exposed belly. He began to laugh and protest as he jerked around to avoid me, but I was quick. I plucked a loose feather from Lilly's wing and magically tickled him with that. "AAHHH HAAA! AHH HAA! STOP THAT YOU BITCH! AHHH HAAAA!" He rolled around laughing uncontrollably, He was totally at my mercy. He flailed his hooves around to no avail as I continued relentlessly tickling him. "OKAY! OKAY! I'M SORRY ALRIGHT?? JUST STOP!" He managed to breathlessly choke out between laughs. "Not enough! Say uncle!" I said, not letting up on my assault. "WHAT? NEVER!" "Saaay iiittt." I said, laughing myself, it was fun, and probably unlike any torture he'd had before. "NO! WHY! I CAN'T BREATHE!" "I'll stop if you say it!" He tried to keep his dignity, but couldn't, because he eventually cried, "UNCLE! UNCLE!" And I broke away laughing, dropping the feather on him as he continued trying to work all the laughs out of his system. I smiled and trotted back to my room, he may have gone through a ton of shit in his childhood, But I could still do things to help make it better. Lilly followed me in, shutting the door behind her. "I can't believe you did that!" she was laughing to herself. "That was great, I never thought you'd get him to say it." "I have my ways. I said emptying my pockets and stripping off my jumpsuit. "That took guts, I wouldn't have done that, I'm afraid he's gonna find some way to retaliate." "We'll cross that bridge when we get to it." "So, want to drink that wine?" Lilly asked reaching down into her bags. "Why now?" "We don't know If we'll be around tomorrow to enjoy it. Why not?" "Can't argue with that." I said opening a drawer and setting out two empty coffee cups. She smiled and poured us each the cup up half full. We sat down on the bed like we did last night against the backboard and each drank a cup and had another poured before either of us spoke. "So, you really think you can change him?" Lilly asked looking at the wall, where on the other side, a sleeping little colt was probably dreaming of tickling one of his victims to death. "I don't know, maybe. I hope so, I want him to have a better life than what he's had." "You seem almost like you want to be his mother or something." Lilly said taking a drink from her wine. I shrugged. "Bit young to have my own, ya know?" I took a drink myself. "Besides, I doubt I would want one until I got back into the stable anyway. Too dangerous out here." "Yeah, I understand that. I guess Boomer's a good place to start then." She drank the rest of her wine. I had never considered mothering Boomer to try and straighten him out, but I had considered just being like a big sister, which is what popped into my head during the tickle armageddon. "Yeah, I guess so." I downed the rest of my wine as well and I scooted down to where I was laying on the bed with my head on the rocky pillow. "Don't guess you have to worry about being a parent out here." Lilly said with a cocky grin. I smiled back, "You would think so, but the slavers say otherwise." She chuckled and there was another silence. Lilly scooted down beside me. "I'll keep you safe from any slaver's rape pregnancy." I smiled, "Thanks." "Hey, wanna do something fun?" Lilly asked pushing her mane out of her face, her eyes were wide with excitement. This would be good. "Uh, sure, what'd you have in mind?" "Ehh, nothing much." She sat up and hopped over top of me, pinning me down with a deep kiss, much like Rusty did a couple days ago. This was a bit early, but I didn't protest like I did with Rusty, in fact, I kissed back. I went with her philosophy of 'we may not be around tomorrow to enjoy it' Lilly was right, I could tell, tonight was going to be fun. ================================================================================ Footnote: Level Up Perk Added: Strategist - You know the land well, and when in a scenario of defense, you get +10 to Guns, Medicine, Melee, Repair, and +1 to Strength. Bonus: Lover's Respite - +1 to all S.P.E.C.I.A.L. attributes for 12 hours. ================================================================ I'd like to thank KKat for writing the original Fo:E for writing an unbelievably great story, and Somber, for writing Project Horizons, the story that pushed me over the edge and forced me to try my hand in writing.