Fallout Equestria: Wanderers

by Mach Speed

Chapter 15

Walking, walking and more walking. It seemed like we had been walking for days since we left Patches and the other ghouls, when in reality we had only been walking for one day: one long, arduous, tiring day. It didn’t help that Celestia’s sun decided that it wanted to be overly hot today, casting its light through the breaks in the clouds. It was the beginning of the afternoon and we had been traveling since dawn with no stops. Bolts, Soulful, Minty, Starry, and I were all tired and even out of water. They say that too much time in the wasteland, in the heat with no water, causes your mind to play tricks on you. It was definitely working on us. Since about lunchtime, we had seen a few mirages. The first was of an oasis of clean water, but it wasn’t there. Then I swore I had seen White, but as I raced up to him, weapon drawn, he just disappeared into thin air. Annoyed by the mirages, I had swapped places with Starry. With my body now mostly healed, I decided to pull the cart for her while she flew above to scout things out. Sadly, with her fatigue, now she only just hovered above the ground, slowly flapping her tired wings.

“I’m tired…” I heard Minty softly whine.

“We’re almost there…” I tried to reassure her, only to sound tired myself.

“Yeah, see, we’re almost there!” Starry shouted in an excited tone as we came close to a road sign with the word Sydneigh, written in big, bold letters.

“Don’t get your hopes up.” I said to Starry. “It’s probably just a mirage like the last one…”

“Yeah… you’re probably right…” Starry sighed and continued to slowly flap along beside us, not changing course. However, when she thought she’d pass through the sign as if it weren’t there, instead she bumped into it. “Ow… what the…” Starry paused for a second before calling to us. “Umm… Hey guys… This one is real…” Her words made me stop and quickly look at her.

“What?... What did you just say?...” Starry quickly tapped the sign with her hoof, making it give off a small hum. The sign was real and that meant… “Starry, quick, fly up and tell us what you see!” I exclaimed at her, almost like and order. However, she didn’t need me to tell her. Filled with a new desire to find the city, she took off high above us and looked into the distance. Even from down on the ground, I could easily make out the large smile forming on her face.

“It’s just ahead!” she called happily as she flew back down to the cheering and excitable ponies below her.

“It was definitely the city?” I asked, smiling as she flew down in front of me.

“It’s as you said, tall but half destroyed skyscrapers, and I think I even saw the ocean!” she said excitedly.

“Great! Okay, everypony.” I said, turning to the others, still attached to my cart. “We’re almost there, but that doesn’t mean we should take it easy. Hell, this just makes me want to get there faster.” I must have had the biggest, brightest smile on my face, but just couldn’t see it. Finally, something was going right. “Come on, we’re almost there.” I smiled and started off again. Now filled with a new sense of hope and excitement, it felt like we had some more of our strength back, so much so that we started to move faster towards the city and as we crested a hill, it finally came into view.

It didn’t take us long to finally reach the outskirts of the city and it was quieter than I thought it would be. I had originally pictured many ponies coming and going from the city even nowadays, but sadly that wasn’t the case. The outskirts of the city were nothing but ruins of old, abandoned, decaying, and destroyed homes from around the time of the war. Now, they were just faint reminders of the past. As we moved closer to the city we could see that a large wall had been built around it, keeping any unwanted intruders out. The wall was made from everything from old carts and wagons to bricks, concrete and wood that had originally been a part of the surrounding buildings. A short distance away from the city was the ocean, and the soft, salty air from it filled our noses as the faint sound of waves drifted towards us before softly dying off. We moved gingerly towards the entrance to the city, a rather large gate that was surrounded by a number of guards. As we moved closer we could start to hear the sounds of the city starting to fill the air. It was clear as to why Sydneigh had a reputation for being a ‘safe’ city. With the amount of guards around it, no one would want to start a fight, as they’d be gunned down in seconds. As we approached, the guards all turned to us, their weapons all ready to aimed at us, it was actually really intimidating as we started to pass by them, only to have one of the last ones step in front of me, making me and my cart stop.

“Permit.” He said in a stern voice and held out hoof expecting something.

“Permit? What permit?” I asked, curious, looking from his hoof to his face.

“Your permit to sell these slaves within the walls. You are forbidden to sell them without the proper papers.”

“Sell them!?” I shouted, shocked. “I’m not selling them!”

“Sure you aren’t kid.” The veteran pony said, rolling his eyes.

“KID?!” I raised my voice more, actually starting to get pissed off.

“Settle it down there bozo. This is just procedure. Your boss should have given you some paper to give to us.”

“Clear, calm down a little.” Bolts said, rubbing his ear from my yell. With a sigh, I looked to the stallion in front of me.

“If I was selling them, don’t you think they’d be in chains or in a cage or something?” I said, pointing to the ponies behind me, making the stallion raise an eyebrow at me. “I saved them FROM a slaver, I was hoping the bringing them here would be a good idea.”

“Saved them?” The stallion looked even more sceptical. He kept looking over us, trying to figure out if I was telling the truth, when another stallion that was also guarding the gate called over to him.

“Hey Boom, don’t you think he looks kind of… familiar?”

“Familiar? I ain’t never seen him in my life.”

“I don’t mean like that you knucklehead. Look closer. He looks like that colt that Pricey has been mentioning on the radio. You know, the one that Gyp said he bumped into out in the sticks.

“Wait, Gyp?” I spoke up. “That salespony merchant guy?”

“The one with the fancy cart?” Starry added.

“Yeah we met him. Is he here?”

“Yeah he… just got back yesterday… holy shit… you are him ain’t ya?” The stallion Boom gave a small smile and chuckled. “You know I always pictured you being taller and… older and… well… a lot less scrawny.” He chuckled more, just getting a deadpan expression from me. “Very well, you have permission to enter New Sydneigh.” Without turning, the stallion raised one of his back hooves and slammed it into the gate. It took a moment but we were soon able to hear the sounds of a number of locks and chains being moved on the other side before a couple of guards on the other side of the gate slowly moved the door open and revealed the city inside. There were dozens of ponies as far as the eye could see lining the streets. It was clear I wasn’t in Sunny Springs anymore. Before I could step inside, Boom put a hoof in front of me. “The streets are too crowded for those carts, leave them out here. Also, don’t even think about touching your weapons, the last thing you want to do is break the law. Trust me.”
“Thank you.” I said as I turned to the others and directed them to move the carts to the side of the entrance before we all moved inside.

There were so many ponies lining the streets of Sydneigh and they all wore different outfits. It was obvious that a large number of them were raiders or slavers, but they were equally matched in numbers by other ponies from residents to mercenaries who guarded roaming traders. There weren’t just ponies there either, every so often we’d pass by a zebras who would be selling different and strange items. There were gryphons walking about too, members of the Talon mercenaries. It was all too much to take in for a first impression, so much so I had to stop and look around. Towards the centre of the city was a large tower that must have been the broadcasting station for the area’s radio program. As I stopped to look around, I felt a hoof gently being placed on my shoulder, slowly I turned to see Bolts giving me a smile.

“Told ya I’d get us here!” he said over the noise of the crowded streets.

“Yeah, you did. Sorry I kept snapping at you.” I smiled back, it was true that he kept to his word and gotten us here. Now we just needed to find the bastard slaver, but we couldn’t do that with a group of former slaves following us. Removing Bolts’ hoof from my shoulder, I turned around to the group behind me and specifically the slaves and Gumdrop. “I’m afraid this is where we have to part ways.” I said as I walked up to him. I could see that a number of the slaves looked a little upset, but Gumdrop just smiled at me.

“I understand. I knew you wouldn’t be able to take us all with you, this will do just fine. I’m sure we can make this a new home for a while before some of us find our ways back to our original homes.” The scarred stallion held out a hoof for me to shake and shake it I did. We shared a smile for a moment before he spoke up again. “Take care, Clear Shot, I hope you can save others just like us.”

“Heh, I hope so too…” I chuckled quietly before releasing his hoof. “Take care, you lot, and stay out of trouble.” I smiled to the group of slaves and started moving away with Bolts, Starry, Minty and Soulful, allowing the slaves to disperse and be on their way.

As we started walking around, we started to get a better idea of the ponies around us. While those who were behind counters of market stands or walking around seemed to be normal, for the most part, there were a few times we’d walk passed an alleyway, catching a glimpse of glowing green eyes before they mysteriously vanished. The main streets housed normal ponies and gryphons, but the slums and alleys housed those who wished to stay hidden, ghouls and possibly something else. We walked through town for a moment before Soulful stopped us.

“Hey guys, not that I don’t mind taking in the sights, but I really want to find a locksmith for this guitar case… hope you don’t mind…”

“Huh? Of course we don’t mind.” I smiled at him. “We passed a pub a few minutes ago, why don’t you meet us there later?”

“Sure! Who knows, you might hear me on the radio before then.” Grinning the stallion ran off into the crowd, allowing us to continue on. However, it wasn’t long after that that we started to hear a familiar voice.

“Step right up ladies and gentlecolts, yous will not believe the bargains I have for yous this fine afternoon~.” The sound of the sleazy stallion was forever burned into my ears and I could hear it from a mile off. Gritting my teeth I turned to Bolts.

“It’s him…”

“Clear… Clear… we just got here, don’t do anything-“ before he could finish, I took off in the direction of the sound. It wasn’t long before I stood before a stage and a crowd of ponies and a few gryphons. They all wore armour from different factions of the wasteland but they all seemed to be huddled together, raising bag of caps to the stage. On the stage stood the very familiar looking white stallion in his pinstripe suit, his two muscle-bound lackeys on either side of the stage and in the middle of said stage, was a sad and defeated looking mare, wearing nothing but a collar with a chain on it.

“Look at this fine specimen here folks~” Mr White called out. “Pretty as a picture, silky smooth mane, one trait thats hard to comes by in our beautiful wasteland, and the best part~.” Without a care in the world, he smacked the mare on her flank, making her yelp. “Turn around and shows them the goods.” He said to the mare who slowly nodded and turned around and lifted her rear into the air and slowly raised her tail. “Look at that ass folks~ hours of pleasure, obedient and she can cook too! Shall we start the bidding at two hundred caps?~” the stallions in the crowd started yelling out numbers, raising the price of the mare on stage. I was fuming, grinding my teeth in anger, I had to kill him. Slowly I began to grip my revolver with my magic, but as it started to slide out of my holster, I felt a hoof on my shoulder. Glaring, I turned to see Bolts and the others had caught up to me.

“Let him go, Clear.” Bolts said quietly.

“Are you fucking insane?” I said in a slightly hushed tone. “He’s right there, I can kill him now, end it.”

“And then what? Get kicked out by security? Or worse?”

“I’ll cross that bridge when I come to it.”

“What about the others?”

“Others?”

“Sabre and Tempest. You have no clue where they are, but he does. Plus, there’s that boss of theirs. You’re not going to get any information from him if he’s dead.” I growled and huffed. For what it was worth, Bolts was right, though I was still overcome by rage.

“Fine.” I huffed. “What do you propose?”

“He’ll have to leave the city at some point, once he’s outside the walls, he’s fair game. Or hell, go to the head of security, maybe they can help.” I glared at the ground for a moment, realising I was still powerless to kill White, for the time being anyway.

“Ffffine.” I said with a grumble and released the magic on my revolver. “Let’s go sell those weapons from Brismane. Hell, we can sell those carts too, we have no use for them.” I grumbled more before looking back up to the stage. I couldn’t believe it, White was looking at me, no, he was grinning at me. He knew the predicament I was in and he was loving it. I just glared back at him for a moment before Bolts started pushing me. Not wanting to stand there any longer, I looked towards White, pointed a hoof at him and them moved it slowly across my throat. The threat did nothing but make him chuckle lightly and wink at me, grinning and showing off a new golden tooth he had in his upper jaw. Once we started moving off, he resumed his auction.

“Sold for 550 caps to the horny stallion with the red coat!~”

As we moved along, slowly, I could feel White still at the back of my mind, even if I had been able to cool down a little. As we pushed one, I felt Bolts tap my shoulder.

“He can’t run forever and just like us, he can’t fight us here.”

“Yeah, yeah, I know… I think tomorrow I’m just going to-“ I was about to continue my train of thought before another familiar voice called out to me.

“Clear Shot! Haha! I knew that was you!” I looked up to see a smiling and waving Gyp leaning out of a fancy looking store front booth. Something about seeing a friendly face made me smile too and I waved back as we approached.

“Hey Gyp, good to see you got back here in one piece.”

“Heh, you’re telling me. I was sure you all were going to go missing with the way you were traveling.” It was weird. When we had met Gyp previously, he spoke at a very rapid pace, like a skilled auctioneer. Now however, he was speaking at a more calm and leisurely pace.

“Heh, these knuckleheads would have gotten themselves killed if it weren’t for me.” Starry spoke up proudly. “Especially this one~” she said, giving me a light kick. Rolling my eyes Starry I turned back to Gyp.

“We got into… little bits of trouble here and there… but as you can see we came out fine.”

“Fine? My boy, you have easily twice as many scars on you since the last time we met. But hey, I’m not here to judge, I’m here to sell you fine ponies top of the line merchandise. Welcome to the New Sydneigh Gun Runners~.” He said as he spread his hooves out. And just like that, as if a switch in his brain was flipped, Gyp returned back to his old, fast paced speech. I looked passed the red stallion to see the many weapons that lined the wall behind him. “So what can I do for you folks? Here at the Gun Runners we make and supply ammunition, weapons and weapon modifications for almost any weapon in the wide, wide wasteland. We also accept most things you have to sell, so long as we can make use of it.” Gyp looked between us at Minty. “How about you little missy? Still a pacifist after experiencing more of the hatred the wasteland has to offer?” he seemed hell bent on trying to sell weapons to Minty. The mare didn’t speak but softly nodded her answer to Gyp. “Very well then. So tell me my boy, what can I do for you?”

“Well we do have a few weapons to sell to you.” I said as I started taking the weapons from my group and putting them on the counter. They were just weapons from Brismane, ones that Bolts had fixed to the best of his ability, taking parts from other guns. As I started placing them on the counter, Gyp took them one by one to inspect. He studied each one as they were placed in front of him.

“Hmmm, these weapons have been fixed recently, and the pony who fixed them did a decent job at it too. I take it that it was one of you who did this?”

“Yeah, it was me.” Bolts said stepping forward.

“You’ve got some skill here kid. How would you feel about staying here and working with me?” Gyp started to grin, but my heart started to sink. If Bolts stayed here, I’d be down a member of group and I couldn’t have that. I opened my mouth to protest, but Bolts beat me to it.

“Tempting, but I already have a few commitments that I can’t go back on.” Bolts’ words brought a smile to my face but I quickly tried to mask it.

“Suit yourself, but if you change your mind, you’ll be welcomed back. Now, is this all that you had to sell me?”

“We also have a couple of carts we don’t have any use for right now.”

“What sort of condition are they in kid?”

“Actually pretty good. They’re sturdy enough to carry a number of ponies and supplies in each, I’m sure you can make use of the two of them.” I looked to Gyp as he pondered my proposal.

“Hmmm, we could use a couple more for spare parts at the very least. Okay, I’ll give you two hundred for the two of them. Will that be all?”

“Yeah that’s it.” I nodded then stopped to think. “Hey Bolts, throw that pistol of yours up there.”

“Are you nuts!? I’m not selling that!”

“Bolts, it’s almost busted, we can get you something new, something better.” Bolts started to grumble but then slowly lifted his arcane pistol up and put it on the counter for Gyp to inspect.

“Hmmm, boy you weren’t kidding, this thing has seen better days. I’ll give you three seventy-five for the lot.”

“That’s fine.” I said as I started to reach out my hoof to shake his and close the deal. However, just as I was about to shake his hoof, Starry stepped in.

“Seven fifty, double or nothing.” She started to haggle and Gyp quickly took his hoof back.

“Seven fifty?! You must be mad. Those guns and carts are NOT worth double.”

“But we’ve been helping out the wasteland, I think we deserve a little more.”

“And here I thought doing good was supposed to be its own reward.” Gyp was just as strong willed as Starry on the matter.

“Do you know where we got these guns?”

“Don’t know, don’t care.”

“Brismane.”

“PFFT! Yeah, Sure, you all survived Brismane, nice try missy.”

“Umm, Gyp, we actually did.” I spoke up. “That’s where I got most of these scars from. There was another slaver camp in it. We shut it down but it… was a little tougher than the last one we were in…” Gyp looked at me and raised an eyebrow. Slowly, his expression started to change.

“Holy shit… you’re actually telling the truth…”

“Yeah we are.” Starry spoke up again in a sarcastic tone.

“Hmmm, even still, double is too high, I can do four twenty-five.”

“Four seventy-five.” Starry blurted out, still not done haggling.

“Four fifty!” I could tell Gyp was starting to get annoyed. “That’s my final offer, take it or leave it.” Before Starry could blert out another number, I shook Gyp’s hoof.

“Deal!” I sigh, having avoided what could have become a messy conflict.

“Very good. Now.” Gyp took a quick moment to compose himself. “Now is that all? Or could I interest you lovely ponies in any of my fine merchandise? What about you sport?” he said turning to Bolts. “You’re going to need a new weapon now that your old one is with me. Bolt’s eyes started moving around, looking at the many weapons that were placed on the wall behind Gyp until he spotted one that he wanted. A smile crept across Bolt’s face as he turned back to Gyp.

“I think I need an upgrade~ I’ll take that arcane rifle behind you.” He said, pointing a hoof to the arcane laser rifle on the wall which Gyp took down. To me it basically looked like a bigger version of Bolt’s pistol.

“Quite the eye you’ve got there. This beautiful piece of hardware can turn even the toughest of creatures to ash in a matter of seconds, the only question is, do you have the money? Last time I met you four, you wanted this bad boy, a rifle your friend’s battle saddle here, but I see that’s been fi-“

“It’s busted.” Starry butted in.

“Oh… and you wanted a heap of ammunition and you couldn’t pay for it.”

“We’ve… come into some caps recently.” I said with a sly grin.

“Oh? Is that so~” Gyp answered back.

“Yep… uhhh… do you take pre-war bits?”

“They won’t get you much, but yes, I do take them.” I had remembered the small amount of bits we had gathered from the stables on our journey, plus the caps we had taken from Brismane when we were leaving the camp. While I hated using it, blood money was still money. We were fine for supplies and our ammo count was in the green, so without thinking I placed everything we had on the counter and waited as Gyp counted away.

“Clear, you think that’s wise?” Minty spoke up.

“We should be fine.” I replied to the petite mare.

“And fine you are~” Gyp smiled but made me a little uncomfortable. “Uhhh… that came out wrong. I mean you have enough caps here for that arcane rifle and some left over, though not enough for a rifle for your friend’s battle saddle.”

“It’s Starry.” She spoke up again, annoyed with Gyp not saying her name.

“My apologies. In any case you have enough here for that arcane rifle and one modification for any of your weapons.” He smiled at us.

“That rifle will be fine. Thank you.”

“Clear, why don’t you get a mod for your rifle?” Bolts said, taking his new weapon from the counter.

“Yeah, you’ve been in more scrapes then us, treat yourself for once.” Starry added. I could not believe they actually wanted me to spend more of our caps.

“Well… I guess it won’t hurt if I take a look…” Without me needing to say another word, Gyp picked up a few items from behind the counter.

“The best I can do for you right now, with the amount of caps you have left over are a suppressor, two extended magazines or a bipod.” He said, pointing to the items as he spoke.

“Umm… how are extended magazines a weapon modification.” Bolts asked, raising an eyebrow.

“Don’t question it kid, just roll with it, they don’t fit anywhere else in the store.” I had to make a decision. I wanted all three, but I could only pick one. The extended magazines would be nice, but I was fine with what I had and at range I wouldn’t have any use for a suppresser. I stared intently at the bipod and levitated it up.

“I think I’ll take the bipod.”

“Ahh, good choice.” Gyp said with a smile, happy to make his sale. In a flash he moved the others behind the counter and put a small bag, a very small bag, of caps in front of me. “Pleasure doing business with you four~ what do you plan to do now?”

“Well first off.” I started saying and turned to Bolts. “Think you can attach this to my rifle.”

“Are you kidding? Of course I can.” Placing his new toy on his back and grabbing my rifle, Bolts moved to the work bench beside the store front and went to work, allowing me to turn back to Gyp.

“Well, I want to spend a couple of days here at least but not for too long.”

“Well there’s plenty of accommodation. I’d suggest taking the time to go talk to the owner of the radio station too. But after that, I say, just enjoy your time here.” Gyp smiled as Bolts handed me back my new and improved rifle.

“We will, thanks Gyp.” Levitating the bag of caps into the air I started walking off. “Come on guys, the beers are on me.” I said, moving towards the pub we noticed before”

“Hey! Some of those are MY caps!” Starry called, chasing after me.

The four of us made our way back to the pub and after reserving a room, we sat down with a couple of drinks each. The pub was almost full of ponies, gryphons and other members of the wasteland, cheerful music played in the background as everyone seemed to be talking. My spirits had been lifted, I had a smile on my face, a beer in front of me, and ponies I had come to call my friends sat around a table with me enjoying their respective drinks.

“So what’s the plan for tomorrow, Clear?” Starry asked from across the table.

“Rest? Relaxation, maybe take in the sights.” I said, smiling. “I think we earned a day of rest.” Just as I finished speaking, a guitar case was pushed onto the table in front of me as a solemn looking Soulful appeared. “Hey Soulful, pull up a chair. What’s wrong? You look like you just lost a hundred cap bet.”

“Heh, I almost wish it was that.” He replied, grabbing a chair from another table to sit down with us. “I looked through most of the city and there’s no sign of a locksmith. I’m never going to get this damn case open.”

“Damn, well, we could try again tomorrow.” I said, still cheerful.

“Hey… uhhh… Clear? You feeling alight there? I’ve never seen you… well… happy?” Bolts asked beside me, genuinely sounding concerned.

“Well I guess that’s because for the last few weeks I haven’t really had a reason to be. But hey, I’m sitting down in a pub, having a couple of beers with ponies I like, I haven’t been able to have this feeling for a while. Plus, we’re good on supplies and we just splurged on shopping. You got a new weapon and I got a bipod for my rifle. It’s been a good day. Hell, I can’t even remember why I was pissed earlier.” I chortled and started to take a swig of my beer, but as I did, the reason for my hatred spoke up.

“Well, well, well, look at what we gots here.” The voice of the greasy stallion pierced my ears and caused me to choke on my drink. Coughing and spluttering, I started to feel my anger take over again, causing my magic to waver until my beer bottle cracked from the pressure. As I coughed, I heard the stallion chuckle behind me. “Hehehe, what’s the matter kid? Bad gag reflex? OH! Is gets it now, yous don’t swallow, yous spit! HAHAHA!” He laughed loudly over the music and the talking in the pub, so much so that some of the patrons started to silence themselves to see what was going on. I was angry, I was pissed and I just couldn’t control myself as I stood up with enough force to make my chair fall backwards onto the floor, making the patrons come to complete silence, making the only noises in the room come from the stallion’s laughter or the music. I quickly recovered from my coughing fit and spun around to face him and there he was. It was surreal, White, the stallion that caused me so much hatred, was standing in front of me, laughing his arse off. Behind him were his two guards, Knuckles and Bullwhip, both flanking him on both sides. I was angry, but still conscious enough to know I needed him alive for answers. I quickly lunged forward and grabbed the front of his pinstriped suit, twisting my hooves into it to keep him where he was. It didn’t take him long to stop laughing as his bodyguards moved closer.

“Do you want us to deal with this pipsqueak, boss?” The large stallion, Knuckles asked but White just put a hoof up, not looking the least bit concerned.

“Nah, yous can stand down.” White addressed Knuckles before looking at me. “Hey, uhh, kid. Yous want to let goes of my suit? It costs more than your life and it’s hard to get a suit cleaned out heres.” His calm demeanour just made me that much more pissed.

“You have a lot of nerve fucking talking to me after the shit you put me and the town of Merry Burrows through.” I said through gritted teeth.

“Clear, calm down.” Bolts said quietly behind me, but I just ignored him.

“Oh I has the nerve? Well ‘cuse me kid fors doin’ my job. And I’m not going to ask yous again, let go of my suit. Oh, and you might not wants to grind your teeths, yous could chip thems easily like that.” Something in me snapped and I quickly flared my magic and pulled my revolver from its holster. It wasn’t very bright in the dimly lit pub so White wouldn’t have been able to see the markings on it as I pressed it against the underside of his jaw.

“Give me one fucking good reason why I shouldn’t pull this trigger and kill you now!” I shouted in his face, but the stallion was calm. Slowly he wiped the spit from his face and pointed to the other side of the room where a number of other stallions had started to stand, guns raised. They all wore the same armour with a purple star on them. Confused I looked back to White.

“That wouldn’ be such a smarts idea. You see, this city here is big on its security. You couldn’t takes a piss without someones known’. If you killed me, then they’lls just kill you in turn.” He smirked, knowing I couldn’t do anything. “Now be a good boy and puts me down.” I could feel myself wanting the squeeze the trigger of my revolver, to put him down in a more fitting way, but instead I released the trigger and let go of his suit, allowing him to drop into and standing position. The stallion quickly fixed his suit into place and smirk at me. “See, was thats so hard?~” I couldn’t find it in me to holster my revolver. I did however lower it as the stallion began to chuckle. “You sees kid. Yous. Can’t. Touch. Me.” He let his words sink in before addressing his guards. “Knuckles, Bullwhip, we’re leavin’.” The stallion said, but as he turned around, he slapped me in the face with his tail. As the stallion walked away, I felt myself raise the revolver again, but before I could even attempt to shoot, I felt Bolts’ magic grab hold of the revolver and bring it down and take it from me.

“Now isn’t the time, Clear. You’ll be able to kill him, but just not here.” Bolts said in a hushed voice, taking my revolver. I was shaking with anger, I wanted my weapon back so I could put a hole through White’s smug face, but Bolts was right. It wouldn’t end well if I killed him inside the walls of the city. I just had to wait for him to leave.

“Oh, by the ways, kid.” White called to me from the door, making me glare towards him. He didn’t immediately speak but reached into his pocket and pulled out a sack of caps, it was small but hefty. “A little somthin’ extra from sellin’ my fine wares~.” He smirked “Just thought yous would like to know that I sold every last one.” He started laughing loudly again as he walked out the door. It was strange, he walked out laughing, but once he was outside, he turned to face someone, stopped laughing and gave a huff to the figure out of sight before walking off. Still shaking, I spoke to Bolts.

“I can’t kill him, but what do you think the policy is on breaking legs?”

“I would say it wouldn’t end well…” Grinding my teeth, I stepped off.

“I’ll take my chances.” I started to move quickly to the door, the others giving chase to me. I pushed through the doorway and looked in the direction White walked in, but before I could follow and track him, I felt a pair of lips touch my cheek on the other side of my face. It was weird feeling the sensation, but it got my attention none the less, as well as the voice that followed it.

“Hiya handsome.” The voice was familiar, very familiar. Taking my attention of White for once, I turned around to see a golden yellow mare standing before me. It appeared that Golden Shield was also in Sydneigh.

“Golden?!” I exclaimed, surprised.

“Wait, Golden Shield is here?” Bolts asked coming up behind me until he could see her passed the door.

“Hey boys.” The mare smiled at us. “Fancy meeting you two here.”

“I’ll say. What are you doing here? Where have you been?” With the new addition of Golden Shield, White was free to slip from both the area and my mind, for a brief moment anyway.

“By the looks of it, the same reason you’re here. I’ve been tracking and following White for a while now. It took me until just a couple of days ago to bump into him here.”

“Why were you tracking him?” I asked, curiously.

“Are you a bounty hunter or something?... is there even a bounty out on this guy?”

“Hehehe, no nothing like that, I’ve been tracking him for personal reasons. Though, not much we can do inside the walls of this city.”

“Tell me about it…” I mumbled in response.

“Ahem, you two gonna introduce us or what?” Starry said, behind Bolts and myself, looking over our shoulder at Golden Shield.

“Oh, umm, right.” I stepped to the side and allowed Starry and Minty to step forward into full view. “Golden, this is Starry Skies and Minty, guy’s this is Golden Shield. She helped us when we first met White.”

“It’s nice to meet you both.” Golden spoke up.

“Same to you, but it’s just Starry thanks.” Starry replied.

“Umm, hello.” Minty was still a little timid towards Golden, who smiled sweetly back.

“Well as much as I like standing around here, I could really use a drink. You guys want to head back inside and we can talk?” with a nod we all moved back inside, but then I noticed Soulful who hadn’t moved at all from the table, his head resting against it.

“Hey Soulful, you alright?”

“No… not really…” he mumbled into the table.

“Who’s this guy?” Golden asked as she moved up beside me, it felt comforting having her there.

“His name is Soulful Song, he’s a little bummed because the lock is busted on his… Hey Golden, you’re good with locks, do you think you can get that case open?”

“Umm, sure, I can give it a go.” Golden said looking at the case. Soulful hadn’t looked up, defeated that he started to think it was impossible to get the case open. I noticed Golden focusing her magic on the lock and really start to concentrate, the lock really was a wreck. After a short moment of concentration, there was a decently loud click which, even with the music and the returned noise of pub patrons chatting in the background, we could all hear clearly. With the sound, Soulful’s ears shot up and the rest of his head soon followed. The lock on the case was up and he couldn’t believe his eyes. Slowly a smile moved across his face as he jumped up and opened the case, revealing the instrument. The guitar looked brand new. No dust, no chips, no scratches and nothing broken. Soulful was speechless as he turned to Golden and jumped at her, giving her a tight hug and giving her a surprise kiss on the lips.

“Thank you!” he exclaimed, finally finding his voice. But that’s all Golden got out of him because before she could say anything after recovering from the surprise displays of affection, Soulful had grabbed the guitar and raced upstairs to the room we reserved to practice.

“He seems… nice…” Golden said, shades of red appearing on her face. While she was embarrassed, the rest of us just started laughing.

“I think you made his week by doing that.”

“I’m happy for him but he didn’t have to kiss me. He’s not my type.” It could have been my imagination, but for a second it looked like Golden smiled at me as she said it. Pushing it from my mind, I start down at the table to quickly finish my cracked and leaking beer. “So where are you two from?” Golden asked Starry and Minty. “Well, I think it’s obvious that you’re from above the clouds, Starry.”

“Yeah, I’m surprised you’re not acting weird… most of the time when someone sees my wings they start acting like I’m something special.”

“Well you don’t come by a pegasus too often nowadays. Especially one who still has their cutie mark.”

“I wasn’t about to let them brand me. I’d sooner die than lose my mark…”

“I can understand…” Golden turned to Minty. “What about you Minty?”

“I’m… Well… I’m from The Hoof…” Golden blinked for a moment but then started laughing.

“You? From The Hoof?! Hahaha! That’s a good one.”

“She’s telling the truth.” Starry said in a stern voice, not liking her friend being put down as Minty herself turned away. It took a moment before Golden stopped laughing and started to realise they were telling the truth.

“Wait… you’re serious? But… you’re so… dainty…” She looked as confused as could be as she was talking to Minty.

“Some… Some ponies have to keep their sanity… May as well be me…” She replied softly.

After some damage control and a few more drinks we all started to loosen up and enjoy ourselves again. It was nice, sitting down and having a few drinks with everyone. After many hours had passed and we all had dinner, everyone started to move upstairs to our rented room, yet Golden moved to the door.

“I’ll be up in a moment, guys.” I said the Bolts, Starry and Minty as they moved towards the stairs.

“Don’t be long, lover boy~.” Starry teased me but just chuckled as she moved upstairs. Blushing I moved to the door to try and find Golden. Just as I walked out I felt her lips on my cheek again.

“Offering to walk me back to my hotel?” She teased as well.

“N-no… I…” I was blushing and stammering. Wanting to calm myself, I took a deep breath and focused. “I just wanted to tell you to be safe. White knows us, who knows what he could do.”

“Clear, it’s fine. You don’t have to worry about me. I’m keeping a close eye on White. I managed to get the room next to his in the same hotel. Cost me a fortune in caps, but I did it. Look, we both want him to die, but nothing can happen right now while we’re in Sydneigh. He’ll be moving out in the next couple of days, that’s when we’ll get him. The moment he leaves and gets far enough away from the city, we’ll kill him. But right now, we can’t do anything. Okay?”

“I know it’s just… frustrating…”

“I know it is, but you just have to trust me on this. The moment I know he’s leaving, I’ll come find you. Okay?” I was silent for a moment, thinking. The Wasteland was a hard place, it was kill or be killed and to really survive, you had to have ponies close to you that you could trust. Bolts, Starry, Minty, Soulful and Golden. I had come to trust these ponies with my life. If I couldn’t trust them, who could I trust?

“Okay… I do trust you… please, come find me when he’s leaving…”

“I will, I promise.” She smiled and leaned in close and gave my cheek another kiss. Smiling, I hugged her.

“Also, when this is over I want you to travel with us. You’d be great to have on the team.”

“I’m… not sure about that, Clear.” She was blushing, she was actually blushing. “I’ll think about it, okay? Ask me again when White is dead.” She smiled, turned away and started to move off towards the inner part of the city. “Oh, by the way.” She turned her head to look at me. “There’s always a cure for frustration~.” She winked at me and immediately I started to blush which just made her giggle as she walked off. “Night~.” She gave one last call as she walked away.

“Yeah… goodnight…” I said softly as I tried to compose myself again.

After a few minutes I made my way upstairs to the room we had rented. I opened the door to find everyone in their own little spots. Soulful had fallen asleep on one of the only two beds, he was cuddled up with his new guitar, a book of sheet music opened in front of him. On the other bed lay Minty, she was still awake, but she had gotten comfortable. Bolts and Starry however were sitting against opposite walls. The three awake ponies turned to me as I walked in.

“And here I thought we’d be spending the night without you~.” Starry teased me again.

“I just wanted to make sure she was safe…” I said, still blushing.

“Yeah, sure~.”

“It’s true. I also asked her to travel with us once this is over.”

“You think that’s wise.” Bolts asked.

“Why wouldn’t it be? She’s nice, trustworthy and she helped us out in the past. She’s been keeping a watchful eye on White.”

“That’s all well and good but if we start moving in bigger groups it’ll be harder for us to make surprise attacks in the future.”

“It’ll also be harder to ration supplies.” Starry added to the conversation.

“One more won’t kill us. Plus with the way Soulful had been talking, I think he wants to live here. So we may be down to the four of us soon. A group of five won’t be bad.”

“Okay. If you say so.” Bolts sighed, knowing I was right. “So, what now?”

“Now we rest. But I still think we should take watch in shifts again.”

“Aww man, we finally got a decent bed…” Starry groaned.

“What do you mean ‘we’.” Bolts spoke up. “There’s only two beds in the room.”

“If we wanted to keep some caps for later, this was the best we could do. The floor isn’t that bad.” I told them. “You three can get some rest. I’ll take the first watch. Bolts, You can go second and Starry will be third.” The two nodded and laid back against their respective walls.

“See you in a few hours, Clear.” Bolts said before nodding off.

“Yeah, see ya.” I said quietly as I took a seat by the window looking out over the city. In the darkness I could see dozens of lights of homes and some businesses. Lanterns burning brightly in the night, showing that in the vast wasteland, there were still places of life in Equestria.

Footnote: No new level.