Fallout Equestria: Wanderers

by Mach Speed

Chapter 13

A soft, melodious tune flowed through the air around me. The peaceful music was soothing by itself, but as it went on, a soft humming joined it. The voice of a young mare graced my ears along with the music. No lyrics, no words at all, just soft music and sweet humming. (Am I dead? Is this the afterlife?) No, of course not… as if I’d get a welcome like this. But even still, the music helped me, enticed me to open my eyes. Slowly I peeled back my eyelids and was met by the blinding light of day. The darkness that had once filled my vision was now gone and I almost wanted it back. As I still couldn’t see anything, I raised a hoof to my eyes and groaned.

“Oh! You’re awake!” The voice from before, the one that had been humming, stopped and called out. I could tell the mare was approaching, but even as she did, I let out another groan.

“Close… curtain…” even through my mumbled words, she understood.

“Oh, right, one second.” I heard the mare change course and move to the foot of my bed and stop just before the sound of a set of curtains gliding along a bar filled the air. Once the gliding sound stopped, the room was darkened enough to where I could remove my hoof from my eyes. My vision was blurry but it soon came into focus and a familiar peach-coloured earth pony stood at the foot of my bed. “How are you feeling, Clear?” Minty asked with a sweet smile.

“I feel like I fell off a cliff and hit every boulder on the way down.” I groaned out. My body felt bruised and sore, but for some reason it didn’t feel completely broken.

“You weren’t that badly beaten up.” Minty giggled lightly. “But it’s good to see you’re actually awake properly this time.”

“This time?...” I asked curiously.

“Oh, you don’t remember? You woke up yesterday long enough to have a little food… You immediately threw it up afterwards and passed out again…” Minty replied, a little embarrassed at the last part.

“Oh… I think I’ll be okay now… how long was I out exactly?”

“Well… not counting yesterday’s little wake up, you’ve been out for a full day…”

“Well at least it’s not as bad as when I was shot in the head… I was out for three days straight…”

“You were shot in the head?”

“Long story. Where’re the others?”

“Starry is keeping a look out, Bolts has been busy repairing our weapons and Soulful is about to start making lunch for everypony. Would you like me to go tell them you’re awake?”

“If you wouldn’t mind, please.” With that, Minty nodded and quietly moved out of the room, giving me a chance to look about. Whatever room I was in was definitely not used as a medical area before now. I was lying in a clean, albeit slightly dusty, bed that was pushed against the wall of the small room. A desk stood a little bit away on the other side of me, half way between my bed and the other wall. On top of the desk sat a radio to which the soft music from before was flowing out of. Next to the radio was an opened box of medical supplies. (Geez… how much stuff did we go through already?) Further away and against the other wall stood an old wardrobe, one of its doors missing and giving me the sight of my duster hung up inside, while my rifle leant against its inner walls. It was hard to believe that this was once the hideout of a band of slavers and raiders, the room looked so clean and peaceful. I continued to look around the room for a short time before the door quietly opened and Minty walked in, quickly followed by two other ponies.

“Hey, Clear, how are you feeling?” Starry asked, walking up to my bed.

“I’ve been better. Thanks for the save the other night.”

“Ha ha, it was no trouble. I’m just happy I got there on time.”

“Hey what about me? I was the one constantly keeping an eye on you.” Bolts added, walking up beside the mare.

“Heh, you did. I’m guessing you sent Starry down when you saw them bring me out.”

“Sent me? I’m surprised that the bastards didn’t hear when he was yelling and barking orders to go get you out of there.”

“Hey, it worked didn’t it? Besides something like “Shit, they’re about to kill Clear! Go save his ass!” gets ponies moving faster than “Go down there and save Clear.””

“Yeah, but it got a bit much.” Starry giggled. It was strange how I’d never heard her giggle before.

“In any case, thank you for watching over me.” I smiled at the two. “By the way, where’s Soulful?”

“He’s still making lunch for everypony.” Minty answered as she started putting her medical supplies away. “But he’s happy to hear you are finally awake.

“Now, before you ask.” Bolts interrupted. “Yes, we have gone through this place and got everything of value.”

“There’re enough weapons here to sell and trade when we get to Sydneigh, but most of them are in pretty shit condition, so don’t expect much.” Starry added.

“You can’t expect raiders to keep their weapons up to scratch.” Bolts continued. “And on top of that, I already bypassed the security on the terminal in the main room. There’s some stuff on there that I think you’ll want to see…”

“Speaking of seeing things…” Starry went quiet and looked away from me, sending up a red flag.

“See what? What’s wrong? What did you two see?” I asked and then noticed even Minty was looking away.

“Clear… we… we went down to the basement…” Bolts said quietly. I already knew what he was talking about. The corpse of Crimson Spark. “What happened down there, Clear? What did you do to her?” It was now my turn to look away. I was embarrassed, having lost myself a little when I killed the vile mare.

“I… well… I killed her…”

“You went a little overboard if you ask me…” Starry added

“You stabbed her seventeen times before putting the knife in her heart…”

“We had to cover her body so the others wouldn’t see what you had done to her… Are you okay Clear, I mean… are you all there?”

“You didn’t see what she was like…” I mumbled. “She was bathing in the blood of young mares because she thought it would make her more beautiful… then she became completely crazy when I cut her a little… I was angry okay? I was angry and I wanted to make sure she was dead… so she couldn’t hurt any more young mares.” The room fell into silence for a moment, where the only sound was the music that softly flowed from the radio in the background.

“Well, you definitely made sure of that…” Starry said softly.

“Clear… are you sure you’re all there? I mean mentally…” Bolts asked

“I’m fine. It was just… the heat of the moment.”

“Well hopefully the moment doesn’t appear again… I don’t really want to see what you become when you get like that… That’s not the Clear I met back at Dusty Docks.” Bolts looked at me with a solemn look but I just smiled back softly.

“Don’t worry, I’m still a stallion with a purpose in life. I’m not going to change because of something like that. I won’t lose who I am after coming so far.”

“Good, I’m glad. Now, how do you feel up to walking? Because like I said, there’s some stuff on that terminal that I think you’d want to see.”

“I can try at least…” I groaned as I moved my lower legs out from under the dirty covers. Once they made it out into the open air I finally noticed the amount of bandaging I had on my body. A few were wrapped around my legs while most held my ribcage in place. Then it hit me that there was even quite a few around my head. I must have had an odd look on my face because Starry spoke up.

“Finally noticing your wounds?” She asked.

“Not so much the wounds, but the bandages. More than I’m used to.” I said as I slowly slipping off the bed and got into a standing position. Everything hurt, but it felt more like all my muscles and bones were just tired and bruised.

“Take it easy, Clear, we don’t want you to fall and hurt yourself.” Bolts said as I wobbled in place.

“I’ll be fine, but you two are going undercover next time” I smirked at my companions, no, my friends.

We moved off slowly through the building, the others held back to keep pace with me since I had a slight limp in my step. I hated being injured, even when I was young and growing up, but it wasn’t because of the pain. What I hated about being injured was that others gave me special treatment. There was always someone who would offer me a hoof even though I hated depending on others. I felt weak. I was fully aware and understood that they were doing it because they all cared for me, but it was just something I never liked.

“What did they do to you, Clear?” Starry asked quietly, bringing me back to reality.

“Well… apart from getting hit in the head with a rifle when I was brought in… By the way, how much was I worth?”

“Two hundred.” They said in unison.

“Two hundred!? Come on, I’m at least worth four-fifty…” I said as a joke which even brought small smiles to their faces. “Jokes aside… it wasn’t fun here… I woke up to the sound of a mare being raped in the cage beside me, the stallion on my other side was so cut up and so much dried blood on his coat I could barely tell what his natural colour was. Another stallion had a badly chipped and scratched horn and I even noticed a few others were shaven… though I’m guessing you’ve already met them.”

“Yeah, Minty did a good job of patching them up after she was finished with you.” Minty smiled at Starry’s kind words

“It was nothing really, I just did what anypony would have done in the situation. I did the best I could with the supplies we had and could find.”

“That’s the thing though, Minty.” I said softly. “Not everypony would have helped like you did. After all, it was slavers and raiders that did that to them in the first place.” Minty went silent as I continued to speak. “This isn’t Equestria from the old times before the war. You have to pick your friends carefully.”

“Well, did you?” Bolts’ question caused me to stop.

“What?”

“Did you choose your friends carefully?” He asked again. I looked carefully at the three of them. One was a stallion who had already helped me take down a number of slavers and saved me in Stable 50, one was a mare that risked her own life to save mine the other night and then there was a mare who patched me up and healed me without a second thought. After my pause, I smiled at the three ponies.

“I don’t think I could have chosen a better group to travel with.” The three of them smiled back happily, knowing that the friendship was mutual. After we shared a moment of happiness, we returned to our walk.

“So what else happened?” Starry asked immediately, eager to hear.

“Well that crazy mare, Crimson Spark appeared and gunned down one of her raiders because he stumbled while holding her parasol. She then had the young mare from before taken down to the basement and cut her up before bathing in her blood. We fought with knives, she went mad and changed to biting and hitting then tried to finish it off by shooting me with a broken horn and well… I think you can guess what happened afterwards.” I said quietly, trailing off at the end, still not feeling right about how overboard I went.

“Yeah… we… we can guess.” Bolts mumbled as we entered the main room. I remembered the room when I was trying to find the basement. It was somewhat of an office or study, a few bookshelves lined one of the walls, nothing but burnt and ruined books on the shelves. Across the room was an old desk and on top was the terminal that Bolts had mentioned beforehand. Curious to see what was so important, I limped over and sat on the chair. Upon accessing the terminal I was greeted by a few folders. One folder was named “supplies”, one was named “merchandise” and the final one was marked “memos”, it seemed that Crimson had made sure to archive everything and kept the terminal tidy. I wasn’t sure if I should have been impressed by how tidy a slaver kept their records or laugh that they took their ’legitimate business’ so seriously.

“The supplies folder is just as it sounds, a list of food, weapons, medical stuff and everything else useful they had stored here.” Bolts said beside me, filling me in on what was in each folder. “I was able to get most of it and we can sell what we don’t need when we get to the next major town. Though there wasn’t exactly a lot of stuff, looks like they were waiting for some more supplies to come in.” He sounded so pleased with his find. “Merchandise means the slaves, where they came from, where they went, what they were worth, name, age, etcetera. What’s really interesting is in the memos folder. Most of it is I’m guessing that crazy mare you were talking about. It’s mostly her just bitching about the ponies around her, but the last two memos you’ll find really interesting.” Accessing the folder brought me to a long, long list of memos.

“Geez, did you go through all of these?” I asked, curious and concerned about his reasoning.

“Every file. Though I skipped a lot of the ‘merchandise’ folder. Didn’t really want to know how many ponies were sold from here.” Amazed by how much he read, I moved down to the very bottom of the memo section and accessed the second last one. The first thing I noticed was that it was dated only about a week ago and that the next one was a couple of days after that, what I read next only intrigued me further.

Looks like today is just full of surprises: not only did we get the green light for the next set of trades to happen at Safeway, but I had a little visitor. White, that pathetic excuse for a businessman showed up at the gates today. It appears that I won’t be able to be rid of him even if I went to the furthest corner of Equestria. On top of being the little sleazeball that the stallion already is, he came bringing some rather troubling news. The buffoon almost got himself killed and ended up losing his camp. He was given, nay, gifted with the easiest job out of the four of us and yet he still managed to go and lose it to a single colt. The only thing that I could get out of him about what happened was that a light brown colt with silver eyes ended up “rescuing” the merchandise from White, injuring his bodyguards and destroying the mine that his camp was in, along with all his help.

Apparently, White got in contact with The Boss and he was assigned here until further notice. Out of all the places he could have been sent, The Boss sent him to me! Granted, White wouldn’t even be able to get close to Tempest’s camp and he and Sabre never saw eye to eye… But I can’t help be feel like I angered The Boss in some way for him to have sent White to me. Well… maybe I might be able to find some use for the dull-witted buffoon.

Speaking of Tempest and Sabre, it has been too long… I really must get in touch with them again. Then there is that new mare that was assigned to watch White and learn a few tricks of the trade before meeting with the rest of us. What was her name again? It doesn’t matter, but she disappeared when White had to flee. I will have to sleep on what jobs I can get White to do until I’m rid of him.

Lady Crimson Spark

I pulled away from the terminal as I finished the note and began to really take the information in. I remembered that Crimson Spark had mentioned she knew White but never elaborated on their relationship. The note was troubling me, not only was White here but now gone, but Spark mentioned two more ponies and even a boss above them.

“I knew you’d want to see those notes.” Bolts announced proudly, having seen the ‘deep thought’ look on my face.

“I’ve only read the second last one so far… I don’t like it… We know White was here, but now he isn’t.”

“Uhh, no offense, but do you guys want to clue us in on who this White guy is?” Starry asked, looking over my shoulder at the note.

“Another slaver who apparently knows, or rather knew, the one that was here. Bolts and I had a run in with him before we met you two. Difference between him and Spark is that White got away.”

“Yeah, I saw that. Who are Tempest and Sabre?”

“We don’t know.” Bolts answered for me.

“Yeah, and that’s what worries me.” I added. “By the sound of it, there are four of them on the same level: White, Spark, Sabre and Tempest. Then there’s another above them running it all. It’s like they’re a gang or they run a business. There’s one pony in charge who gives the orders to the four lackeys under him, who then go out and order the slaver grunts around.”

“Sounds a bit like the Enclave…”

“And the Steel Rangers.”

“That’s not even the end of it. The note mentions a sixth pony who was supposed to have been close to White when we saw him, getting training to be on their level, but she escaped the cave-in… Bolts, did you see anypony running away?”

“I wouldn’t have a clue, Clear. It was dark, there was dust in my eyes, we were the last ones out of the cave and I was busy making sure the townsponies were safe… She either got out before White and we didn’t notice, or she just slipped out in all the commotion.”

“Damn… We’ll have to watch our backs.”

“Right. In the meantime, read the last memo, it’s got some good news in it.” Now curious about what Bolts considered good news, I turned my eyes back to the terminal and opened the final note, it had been dated the day before we arrived.

I finally found a use for that freeloader of a stallion. I’ve managed to get some use out of White by sending him to Safeway with the next shipment of merchandise. I told him the minimum for each pony and what supplies he’s supposed to bring back with him, seeing as we’re running out, I even wrote it all down for him. Surely even he can’t screw it up now, right?

Supposedly, he’s meeting up with his young protégé while he’s there. Maybe when they get back I will take her under my metaphorical wing and teach her properly. In the meantime I’ve sent a message to The Boss asking to be rid of White. Hopefully he’s in a good mood and will grant my request.

For now, I have to prepare. My coat has faded quite a lot and I can’t put it off for too much longer. Before long I will start to turn pink of all things, and I cannot have that. Luckily, I kept a mare back from this shipment. She’s so young and pretty, she is simply perfect to help me feel beautiful again~.

Lady Crimson Spark

I moved back from the terminal again, and looked straight at Bolts.

“You know what this means right?”

“That the next stop is New Sydneigh?”

“It was always going to be the next stop, now we have another reason to get there and soon. We need to leave immediately.”

“Okay, I’m still confused here.” Starry blurted out “Is it Safeway or New Sydneigh?”

“It’s both.” I answered. “Its real name is New Sydneigh as it is named after the city that was destroyed in the war and then rebuilt. Its nickname is Safeway because it’s neutral ground. Everypony has the right to buy, trade, sell, and work within the walls of the city, so long as they remain peaceful. White won’t have any trouble selling ponies there… We need to move, now.”

“You’re not going anywhere just yet.” Minty said, moving close to me, she sounded serious. “You’re still not fully healed and neither are the ponies that were being kept here. You still need rest.”

“Minty, please understand… We need to go to Sydneigh. I need to find White again and get some answers. Sure we could wait here and spring a trap on him, but that would result in a fight and he might not make it through it. If I can get to him at Sydneigh I might be able to corner him and get the information from him without having to resort to violence. But to do that, we need to leave now.” I paused, remembering the other reason I wanted to come to Brismane. “Shit… We still have to help Soulful get that guitar from the stable…” I trailed off, thinking about just how much time we’d be wasting looking for the damned instrument and if it was really worth potentially giving up on catching White.

“No need.” Bolts called and derailed my train of thought and caused me to look at him. “What? You didn’t think I spent all day yesterday just sitting at this terminal did you?”

“Bolts and Soulful went on a little trip to the stable yesterday.” Starry added.

“That place was MASSIVE, Clear. Like, ten times as big as the stables were already saw. It was a metropolis sized stable… and it was already cleaned out…”

“Are you sure it wasn’t there?”

“Positive. There was nothing left of value and even the terminal was busted, but we did find out where it went.”

“Don’t tell me, it was here wasn’t it?”

“Yes, it was.” Bolts smirked. “That stable had been cleaned out by the slavers and the guitar was sitting in that crazy mare’s room. An intact musical instrument must be valuable.”

“Not as much as you’d think. An intact instrument is good, the skill to play it is even better, without that, the instrument is nothing but a trinket.”

“I see, well the good news is that we have the guitar…”

“I take it that there is also bad news?”

“Yeah. It’s in a special pressurised case. Shockproof, waterproof, I wouldn’t be surprised if it was even a little bulletproof as well. The problem is it has a really tough lock on it. It looks like none of the slavers could get it open so they tried taking it off by force and that didn’t work either. Now the lock is completely mangled, it’ll take a really good locksmith to get it off.”

“Well at least we have the damn thing now. Maybe we’ll find a locksmith in New Sydneigh.” I smiled at him. “Come on, I think we’re pretty much done here. We need to pack up and get out of here. The longer we wait, the more likely it’ll be that we miss White.

“Well, we can’t go yet.” Bolts spoke up. “Soulful’s in the middle of making lunch for everypony, including the former slaves, and I haven’t finished going over our weapons.”

“Okay, fine. But while you are getting that done, I’m going to be packing.” I stood up and we all moved away from the terminal, heading to our own areas of the camp for our final jobs.

I spent roughly the next half an hour or so limping back to the room I had been in before to grab my belongings. Minty had followed me every step of the way and continued to protest as I slipped my armour, duster, saddlebags and rifle onto my back, stating that I’d just hurt myself again. I wasn’t planning to make more trips to the room though and piled the items onto my back and moved out. I could hear Minty quickly putting her medical supplies into her own bag before chasing after me. The two of us moved out of the building and into the open air where the sun shone brightly. The area around the camp was rather quiet, though the distinct sound of ponies chattering was still in the air as the former slaves were walking about. It wasn’t long before one stopped and smiled at me before walking over. The pony was covered in even more bandages than I was and that was saying something. It was hard to tell just who the pony was, but when he started to speak, I realised just who I was speaking to.

“Hey mate, I can’t tell you just how sorry I am for doubting you and so happy to know I was wrong about you.” It was the stallion who had been in the cage next to mine, the one that had the massive number of cuts on his body.

“Hey, it’s no problem, like I said, I told you I’d get you all out.”

“Get us out? You did so much more than just get us out. You killed that red bitch! Now you’re taking us away from here. Oh, I almost forgot.” The stallion held out his hoof. “The name’s Gumdrop.” I grabbed his hoof and slowly shook it.

“It’s good to know your actual name but what do you mean take you away?”

“Well, you are going to take us all with you… right?” I looked around at the number of ponies that were now out of their cages. Most were unfit to walk and badly injured, there was no way they’d be able to survive here. I had to make an important decision. Slowly I looked back to Gumdrop.

“We’ll have to ration our food and we won’t be able to take you all everywhere… we’re heading to Sydneigh, we can take you there… but that will be all I can do…” I saw the smile appear and then fade from his face and it hurt to see it vanish for a moment. Though after a second, a small smile returned.

“That’s fine. I couldn’t ask you to take us everywhere you went, after all, you can’t worry about our safety when you’re saving another group.” The stallion really started to smile now, but as he did, I only felt more weight on my shoulders. Yet another pony was counting on me to take down the slaver camps around Hoofstralia. “Sydneigh will probably be the best place for us at any rate, few places are safer than Safeway.” We smiled at each other and I gave a gentle nod as we moved out into the more open part of the camp, towards the fire pit where I could see Soulful cooking. As we moved closer and closer, more and more of the former slaves came over to thank me. It still felt odd to be thanked, after all, I was just doing what I knew was right, yet that didn’t stop the ponies one bit.

Once I got close enough to the fire pit, Soulful turned around and saw me. He smiled brightly and waved me over. “Hey Clear, I can’t thank you enough for what you did here. Because of you, I was able to get my ancestor’s guitar.” He said, nodding to the old case that sat close by. “Though it’s going to be a pain to get open…”

“We might be able to find someone in New Sydneigh. Speaking of which, don’t take too long with lunch. Once we’ve had our fill we’re setting out.”

“So soon? Barely any of these ponies are fit for travel, yourself included.”

“We either leave today, or we potentially miss a pony of great importance.”

“What do you mean?”

“Another slaver by the name of White recently left for Sydneigh. I met him once before but he got away. If I can catch him in Sydneigh, I might be able to get some information from him.”

“I see… okay, I’ll cook as fast as I can. I guess that also means the faster we get out of here, the sooner we can get to Sydneigh and find a pony to open that guitar case.” He smiled and returned to cooking what appeared to be radroo meat on a hot metal sheet over the fire, a makeshift hotplate. I looked around the area again and soon spotted Starry and Bolts talking to each other as Bolts worked on our weapons. It was then I was reminded of the revolver I got from Barley and how it wasn’t with the rest of me gear. Curious about my revolver, I moved closer to the two and could finally hear what they were saying.

“I don’t see why I need a second rifle if it’s not going to do anything.” Starry said as Bolts fixed a second assault rifle to her battle saddle.

“But it will do something.” Bolts replied as he levitated the battle saddle up. “You know how scary it is to face a pony with one of these, imagine how slavers will feel when they’re staring down two barrels instead of one. There, I made it so it’s just attached to your battle saddle, it won’t fire, but it’ll still look menacing none the less.” Bolts smiled as he levitated the weapon over to Starry who put it on her back.

“Okay, I guess you have a point there.”

“Besides, when the time comes, you’ll have a proper second rifle on there instead.”

“Hey, Bolts, Starry, you two just about ready to go?” I called as I approached the two.

“Yeah Clear, I was just finishing up repairs on our stuff. There’s a few guns left over that we can sell, just don’t expect much for them.”

“That’s fine. Hey, have you seen my revolver anywhere? It wasn’t with my gear.”

“Yeah I have it here.” Bolts levitated up the leather holster and I saw the revolver sticking out. Smiling I brought it closer but as I did, I noticed something was off. There seemed to be a strange marking on the grip. Curiously, I pulled it out to get a better look, but when I did, my eyes went wide. It wasn’t just the grip that had markings, it was the entire revolver and it wasn’t mine. I was holding the gilded revolver that Crimson had used.

“Bolts… What is this? Why did you give me this revolver?” I asked slowly.

“Hmm? Oh, I found that in the basement when we went down.” He said nonchalantly. “It’s in far better condition than your old revolver. I could just take the parts and transfer them over to your revolver, but it wouldn’t be the same. This way is faster and easier. Besides, it holds the same type of ammunition so it shouldn’t be a problem.”

“This was the revolver that Crimson Spark used…”

“So? Clear, a gun is a gun. Focus on using it, not who it belonged to.” I looked down at the gilded revolver and remembered how it was used to kill a raider who stepped out of line, but also how its use was what saved me in the basement. It was a powerful gun and good for close range. Slowly I put it back in the holster and put the holster back around my leg.

“Okay, I’ll use it. What did you do with my other one?” Without a word and without skipping a beat, Bolts levitated over my old revolver. Compared to my new one, its age and condition was obvious, but it could still be used. I turned around and looked to Minty before passing her the revolver.

“What? No! No, I’m not going to use a gun!” Minty yelled and protested at me.

“Minty, please, have it for you own protection…”

“I don’t want to shoot anypony!”

“Minty… please…” Starry stepped over to her. “We can’t always be there to protect you… I’d feel a lot better if you at least had the gun with you…” Minty looked upset and didn’t want to look at her friend.

“I don’t expect you to fight and use it.” I spoke up and pushed the gun towards her again. “All I ask is that you keep it for your own protection.” Slowly, Minty looked away then turned back and shakily grabbed the revolver.

“Okay… I’ll take it… but please… don’t ever ask me to use it…”

“We never planned to.”

It didn’t take long for us to eat and get everything packed for the trip. Bolts had found a couple of carts around the side of the camp, most likely for transporting caged slaves to be sold. Now they would help us take former slaves away from here. I put my weapons in the back of one of the carts and moved up to the front, intending to help pull the others along, but I was instead stopped by Minty as I started hitching myself up.

“Oh no you don’t! I may be allowing you to walk, but pulling a cart full of ponies and supplies? Nope. You are going to hop in the back with the rest of the injured ponies.”

“If I go into the back, who’s going to do the pulling?”

“We will.” Minty spoke up and then I noticed Soulful, Bolts and Starry getting into position. “I may look timid but I can still help with this…” She gently pushed on me to move me out of the way and hitch herself in my place. “You hop in the back, we’ll be fine.” With a heavy sigh I lowered my head.

“Okay.” Turning away from her, I noticed that instead of hitching herself next to Minty on my cart, Starry stood next to Bolts with the other cart. “Aren’t you going with Minty, Starry?” The mare looked over to me and shook her head.

“No, we figured that if we loaded the ponies into our cart and put you and the supplies into Minty’s cart, it would be easier for her and Soulful than trying to distribute the weight equally and giving her more than she can handle.”

“Okay, fair enough. Just don’t start arguing. I doubt the others want or even need to hear it.” without waiting, I climbed into the back of Minty and Soulful’s cart and looked to the others. “Okay, we’re all set. We’re going straight to Sydneigh, no detours. Bolts, you have the location on your pipbuck so you take the lead. Let’s go.” I called and started to take charge again. As I did, I noticed Bolts smile up at me and nod just before stepping off with Starry and leading us out of the camp. As we left, I looked back at the now eerily silent slaver camp, no more would it be home to evil ponies and hopefully it could be the start of the new colonisation of Brismane. For now, I put the thought from my mind and laid back in the wooden cart and stared up at the sky as the endless sea of clouds floated overhead, calm and careless, not worrying about what was happening on the world below.

Footnote: No new level gained.